Scott Galloway
Appearances
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
But it is out. It is. It literally.
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Well, I'll put forward, I haven't read, I've read a lot about it. I'll put forward a thesis and you validate it or nullify it. Okay. Because You're just going to forget more about this topic than I'm going to know. And you know, these people I don't.
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I mean, let's be honest. Season three is OK. I carry the season. I've heard that. It's true.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
And that is, I don't know Sheryl Sandberg. I know a lot about her just following her career. But her making advances on female employees or Joel Kaplan, who I do not know, but I followed his career closely, him engaging in a pattern of sexual harassment, a lot of this just didn't ring true. And it felt like... Quite frankly, I just read a lot of this.
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I love readings about whistleblowers and meta. Frances Haugen, everything she said just felt true. And she was measured and she was happy to say that's not true, that's hyperbole, whatever. This, quite frankly, your bullshit sensors just go on high alert when you read about this stuff. It just, for me, didn't ring true. What are your thoughts?
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But this monologue from Sam Rockwell is a close second.
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That's for sure. But didn't it feel very sensationalist to you?
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She depicts it as a sexual overture.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
Your point, which I thought was a powerful one, is that when you're making accusations of someone being a sexual harasser or a bigot or being responsible for the coursing of our discourse and enraging the... population. I mean, I really don't think people have any sense of just how much damage Meta has done to the U.S. and the world, pitting people against one another.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
I absolutely 100% believe that Sheryl Sandberg likely saw research saying, oh, one in 18 girls in the United Kingdom cite Instagram as a reason for the depression and then her trying to wallpaper over it. I absolutely believe
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that Sheryl Sandberg saw research saying and approved saying, we have this great new system of selling cosmetics and beauty products by identifying girls when they're feeling especially depressed and have especially low self-esteem at that moment and then targeting them with beauty ads. All of that really rings true for me that Sheryl Sandberg while
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weaponizing the important discussion around gender balance in the workplace, decided to continue to deploy a business model that absolutely attacked the self-esteem of girls, resulting in a dramatic increase in self-harm. All of that rings 100% true to me. Some of this stuff, I just can't imagine Sheryl Sandberg ever taking the risks Some of this, it just didn't ring true.
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It felt very gossipy, very sensationalist, meant to feel more sinister and just sell more books, quite frankly. And I actually think this book does harm because there's a lot of really credible information. People who have reported on what is going on inside of Facebook. And I think this helps medic as in go. We have critics that are just full of shit.
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So I think what it does is it diminishes the it diminishes the credible calls. And accusations and findings that this company continues to levy tremendous damage on our society.
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When I was in junior high school, I saw my first R-rated movie. Me and my best friend, Adam Markman, we would get bored after school and we would go into Westwood where they had all these amazing movie theaters and still do. And we'd sneak into a movie theater. We'd find a way. We'd try and sneak in through the back door, the front door. And we'd get kicked out. Yeah, side door, whatever it was.
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I had a really nice weekend. It was great. I had a nice weekend. Our friends, Alenca and Nacho, our Argentinian friends are visiting. It's nice because our boys all are close friends and they just love to drink. As long as there's wine, they won't leave. And their accents get thicker and thicker. And I don't know what they're saying, but he laughs so wonderfully. It makes me laugh. That's nice.
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Wait till the movie was letting out. The back door into the alley, sneak in. And we snuck in. We snuck in accidentally into The Exorcist. And for about the next six years, I had to like sit in the corner to put my socks on. I mean, I was so fucking freaked out. That movie traumatized me for years.
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I was 14. And for about two weeks, my mom would wake up in the middle of the night and look over and I'd be sleeping next to her bed. I just could not sleep around. And there's a there's a scene in it where the I think it's the priest says the devil will mix in truth with lies to really confuse you. And here's the tough part about RFK Jr.
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is that I think he's actually really good on some issues and really articulate. He's very forceful about the industrial food complex and how it's optimized for profits and not for health and it's gone too far. kids' health. I think he's really, I think he's really good on some issues.
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And then he goes on to say, as the person who's supposed to be measured in citing research, that this shit causes cancer. There's no, like you said, there's absolutely no, no evidence of that whatsoever. He ruins it. And loses a ton of credibility.
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The guy with the hockey mask, he won't stop coming back.
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No, that's Friday the 13th. I'm sorry.
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And I took him for a roast at Laura the Land, which is this pub.
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Yeah, Sunday roast. Owned by Guy Ritchie. It's a total British pub. So yeah, I had a nice weekend. And then on Friday night, I took my... youngest to see Team England play Albania. And literally half of Albania came to see this game. I mean, these fans are so out of control. Wow. It's a nation of two million people, and I'm not exaggerating. It felt like half of them were at this game.
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Well, I mean, if you think about the very founding of our nation, one of the pillars that our constitution rests on is that people were trying to escape religious persecution and they were visionary and said, all right, we're going to try and set up a separation between church and state. And that has now been breached.
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And you could argue that a lot of like the political orthodoxy of the right is just white Christian nationalism. It's no longer even conservative ideals of small government, strong defense. It's white Christian nationalism. So that kind of wall has been breached. The other thing that people don't talk about enough is the separation between business and state.
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And that is they create an operating system for competition, for full body contact violence and competition. They don't pick winners and losers such that we produce the best companies in the world that are more prosperous, that hopefully pay taxes to pay for schools, roads, and everything. And health benefits for veterans, amongst other things. We've now breached that.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
I mean, that thing has just been overrun. And essentially, the White House has decided, OK, the guy who gave us the most money and probably put me in this chair, we're going to become the marketing department for Tesla. We're going to do a used car lot bad infomercial, late night TV commercial. on Tesla. In addition, Musk comes out and says that the FAA is on the brink of near collapse.
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That causes panic. You don't need to make people who don't like to fly even more nervous, claiming that the Verizon system is outdated. Then he has to come back and correct himself and go, oh, The current system is not from Verizon, but Verizon was picked to implement the new system. I mean, this is just, you're not supposed to have be the outsource marketing department.
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Meta Tell-All, Elon's Daughter Speaks Out, Cybertruck Recall
Now, on a couple other levels here, there's a lot of stuff here. I think Doge's critical mistake or one of their strategic errors, if they had started instead of with USAID, instead of starting with SNAP or Veterans, if they'd started with the Pentagon, I think that actually for them would have been tactically very smart.
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Because I do think that I do think there should be tighter integration between kind of that Silicon Valley ethos of innovation and our military industrial complex. I do think that some of the innovators in Silicon Valley are. and the ability to build better weapons, I like that. I think that's a good idea. And I think there's probably a lot of waste you could find.
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I won't call it fraud, but a lot of waste you could find. There are ships being built that the Navy does not want. But because they bring billions of dollars to certain congressional districts, they refuse to pull the plug. And You know, the commanders in the Navy, the admirals are saying, we can't use these things. They're a liability.
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So if they'd started with the Defense Department, it would have been better. And then this, just to go tactically again, he's either stupid or using it as a weapon of mass distraction with the fact that we're surrendering to Putin and massively running up our deficits. And that is the following, this notion of a golden dome, right? Okay, and they cite Israel. Israel has the Iron Dome.
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But just a few facts. The Iron Dome is very expensive, and it only covers, purposefully and logistically, certain key population centers. The Iron Dome can't cover all of Israel. And by the way, Israel is the size of New Jersey. They have ground defense systems, missile systems in place. To do that for America... is feasibly right now impossible.
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The Reagan one that was genius. The Reagan one, the Reagan one, the defense shield or the missile or the space shield, whatever it was. But do you remember they showed, they released a video of an invisible laser taking out a rocket on the launch pad? Do you remember this? It showed them disintegrating a rocket on the launch pad. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
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I don't think of Puerto Rico as having great food, but that's just a brand perception.
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I don't go to the Caribbean unless it's St. Bart's.
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By the way, if you fly through Puerto Rico, because it's a U.S. territory, you don't have to clear customs. Also, the only story I have about Puerto Rico is I know two hedge fund managers that moved there because you can qualify for 2% taxation. It's a total tax avoidance move.
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Except you have to stay there. You have to be there 183 days a year. And in both instances, they both moved back because they decided they like Puerto Rico, but they don't like it that much.
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It is the talk of the town here in London because of this thing called non-dom, where basically Keir Starmer and his government have decided no more tax advantage or avoidance for people who've been here for longer than five years. I have two friends. One has moved to Milan, and he's left his family here, and he can only be here 90 nights. And then I have another who's moving.
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Look, I generally think you cut a pretty wide berth in the people's kids and the relationship with their kids is sort of off limits. But when you deadname your kid on a podcast and say that she is dead to you, you're opening yourself up for scrutiny. And in my view, you know, when you talk about masculinity, when you talk about what it is to be a man, it can distill down to three basic points.
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You're a protector, you're a provider, and you're a procreator. Okay, ground zero for being a provider as a man is you stand by your kids, full stop. I mean, you see all these parents in the courtroom when their kids have done horrible things, and you understand and empathize that they are going to side with their children. They're going to protect their children.
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If you want to talk about electoral justice, come over and we'll smoke cigarettes and have ice cream and talk about all our bad boyfriends.
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He thinks he's going to move to Madrid. Yet this, Cara, in the last year, over 10,000 millionaires have left the UK.
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So I had when I was at South by Southwest, I had lunch with a friend and he was talking about how his daughter said that they wanted to now identify as a man. And it was very traumatic for the parents, not because they, you know, they're struggling with. All right. A person should be comfortable in their own skin.
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They're trying to put aside, they're trying to say, okay, one of the wonderful things about being a human and being in America is having the right to present you as you are most comfortable. At the same time, they're also worried that teenagers make bad decisions. And, you know, you could just understand they're really like worried and upset about it.
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But the idea that this guy would ever be critical of this kid, they were just, you could just tell how much just how much pain he was feeling because not because he didn't want to have a trans son, but because he wanted his kid to make the right decision and was concerned about his kid. And that's the right. That's what I think it means to be a mother or a father. You default to protection.
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And this guy does not default to protection. He is making his daughter's life harder. And that is exactly what it means to not be a man. I mean, this guy is such a terrible role model.
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He is saying to other men, because of his incredible achievements, they look up to him and they are going to model him that if your child makes certain decisions you don't agree with, you're going to publicly shame them and make their lives harder. So this is, I mean, this is just so wrong on so many dimensions. And he's just, again, I go back to the same thing.
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This guy's the worst fucking thing to happen to young men since porn, since old men deciding to protect their own land, decided to send young men off to war. I mean, there are very few worse influences right now on young men. Then Elon Musk. That's my TED talk.
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I met her at TED. She seemed lovely, smart.
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I met Ma's first wife at TED. I think that's the whitest thing I've ever said.
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Wait, can I comment on your wins?
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Go ahead. So, you know, I'm an enormous fan of Ben Stiller, and he gives awkward Jewish guys hope that they can marry a hot, interesting woman. I got to know his wife a little bit. She's very interesting. Also very good looking. Not that that's important.
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What, like interesting and hot wasn't enough? Okay, smart would be good. Go ahead. Just on the Hooters story, I read that. I thought it was really sweet. I actually know someone who was a waiter at Hooters and was in a car accident and lost her leg, and now she works at IHOP.
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I couldn't think about anything else when you were reading that win. Also, I wanted, just as a joke, I went down and applied for a job at Hooters and they gave me a bra and they said, okay, fill this out.
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I got more stories here. One is true. And also, the reason they're writing about it is because Hooters is declared bankruptcy. But I have an idea how to save the franchise. They should do home delivery of meals. They could call it boober eats. No. All right, now the true part of the story.
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This is true. Somebody very close to me was a Hooters girl. You want to take any guesses? No. Worked at Hooters through college.
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And occasionally she still has the outfit and occasionally puts it on.
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No, she wasn't lovely. She was fucking hot.
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I'm not sure she was sitting down gay kids and telling them it's okay.
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It is a sweet story. I'll give you that.
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If the audit If this is an audit of the federal government, then the federal government comes out with a clean bill of health. They have struggled despite all of their lies, hyperbole, and the fact that this is the largest business in the world and the fact that there is a lot of largesse. There's a lot less waste and fraud than even Democrats, I thought, might be there.
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I think it defines the term, the difference between being right and being effective. And that is in the 90s or 2000s, I should say, Tony Blair passed a series of private property laws and said, I don't care how you made your money. If you bring it to London and invest in businesses or buy a home here, no one can come for it and take it from you.
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This is like going into the doctor's office and they do a full body cavity search of everything and they give you a colonoscopy and they take your blood, your urine, and it's like, okay, you're actually pretty good. So I think, if anything, Doge has found that there's not nearly as much fraud and waste as people had feared. Anyways, my fail is the Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab.
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which has been tracking the missing children. Russia has allegedly been kidnapping children from Ukraine and then bringing them back to Russia. And the humanitarian research lab from Yale University had been tracking this.
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And the Humanitarian Research Lab, which, by the way, you can still make donations, says that more than 19,000 children have been deported to Russia, and only about 1,236 have been returned. And according to the lab's research, the children have often experienced abuse, inadequate food, and have been cut off from their families as they are indoctrinated by Russia and often given military training.
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And a bipartisan group of lawmakers said it has reason to believe that the data from the depository has been permanently deleted. And what do you know? The Trump administration has cut off all funding here. And this could have devastating consequences. Like these kids have literally been disappeared. And it's the same sort of thing.
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that's going on right now where you have due process for tech companies, but a kid- More than due process. Tim Miller did a great job on this. By the way, Tim Miller for the Bulwark podcast, I decided he's my future ex-husband. I'm in love with that guy. Smart, too. Passionate.
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But he's brought attention to this kid, this kid, I think his name's Andre, who's basically fled communist Venezuela and was rounded up and has been sent to this hellscape prison in El Salvador. And Tim went on his Instagram. I mean, the kid is clearly gay and clearly not a member of a deadly Venezuelan gang. I mean, and it goes to the same thing. I mean, for God's sakes.
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And this guy's not a member of a killer Venezuelan gang. All right. And it's the same thing when I've been saying for a long time that we're one economic shock away from rounding up people. And this is a form of that. And that is, all right, you're a Japanese dentist. You've been a great American citizen, but we're under threat and we're going to start putting you in internment camps.
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This is a form of that. Without due process, they are finding people. And of course, it's people who are poor and don't have Tim fighting for them, which he can for every person. They're just going to maybe disappear and never be heard from again.
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And so London kind of became the most popular place in Europe and the Gulf to bring money. And quite frankly, it was really good for the UK economy because these are people who invest. They spend a lot of money. They create a lot of usage and VAT tax revenue. They endorse or they patronize the local businesses.
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But that along the lines of cutting funding from this fantastic organization of people at Yale trying to track down kids who've basically been kidnapped. Americans don't realize the price we're going to pay from going from the good guys to the bad guys. When you're big and strong and a good person, people want to be your friend. People want to be your ally. People respect you.
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People want to help you. When you're weak and small and when you're weak and kind, people might be nice to you and feel sorry for you, but it doesn't have the same implication. When you're big and strong and mean, people start plotting against you behind your back because you're seen as a threat.
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People start thinking, you know, I'm going to ignore those funds being funneled to terrorist cell groups in the U.S., I am not going to be as kind. I'm not going to help or protect American tourists when I see them under threat. I'm not inclined to do business with American companies. When you go from big and strong and trying to do the right thing to big and strong and just mean,
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People start plotting again. People are going to decide, you know what, I'm going to ignore that uranium enriched uranium shipment to Iran. I'm just going to ignore it. I used to like those guys. I'd probably contact the U.S. embassy and say, hey, FYI, confidentially, there's something going on here. People have no concept, I believe, of just how...
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much damage over the medium and long term are done when you go from the good guys to the bad guys. And this is happening everywhere. And my loss is the East National Security Advisor, Waltz, was on Face the Nation and refused to answer questions because the reality is he has no answers about why we're cutting funding to a database.
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And they're not only cutting funding, they're trying to delete the data. So these Ukrainian parents can't even find their kids. So in just a matter, it feels like, of shock and awe speed, we're going from being the good guys to the bad guys. And regardless of your morals, your ethics, that's just stupid.
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We've gotten so spoiled to people giving us the benefit of the doubt, to people being nice to us abroad, to people wanting to work with American companies, to people informing our security apparatus when very bad people are trying to do bad things to us. So my fail is just an unnecessary transition from being the good guys to the bad guys in record time.
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My win is I do love these town halls that a lot of Republicans or people are showing up in what I feel is a civil manner exercising their First Amendment rights. There's a lot of jeers and shouts, but there aren't expletives. There have been no reports of violence. I think they're powerful. I think the representatives hear them.
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And also, it's got to give it to Senator Sanders and Representative Ocasio-Cortez for their fighting oligarchy tour, which is drawing record crowds. It feels really good to have what I feel is like a coordinated, effective response.
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And it's powerful and it's very satisfying and they're doing a great job. And they're kind of touching on what I would argue are some of the key points here.
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And it theoretically just makes sense in principle to say, OK, you should pay the same tax rates is people here because you're using our infrastructure. But the problem is it's not effective because rich people are very mobile. So it's a tough one because while I understand the logic behind it, the reality is they're going to have less tax revenue for the NHS and for social programs.
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I think they're doing a great job and the rallies are fun. They have sort of that, quite frankly, that early Trump feel with a group of really impassioned people. So anyways, my win is these people showing up to express their viewpoint in a civil but robust but engaged manner at these town halls. And Senator Sanders and Representative Ocasio-Cortez and their fighting oligarchy tour.
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Today's show was produced by Lara Naiman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie Intertide entered into this episode. Julian Villard edited this video. Thanks also to Drew Gross, Miss Viverio, and Dan Shulon. Misha Kurwaz, Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media.
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You can subscribe to the magazine at nrmag.com slash pod. We'll be back later this week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Kara, have a great rest of your vacation.
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So, Cara, one night I took home some girl who turned out to be a ladyboy, which I'd done before. But this time, Cara, instead of fucking the ladyboy, the ladyboy fucked me.
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Yeah, that's easily our biggest issue right now.
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Your vote does count, but you're not Puerto Rican. What are you talking about?
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Oh, yeah, I don't understand that. That's right.
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Well, okay. If we're going to go down the street, should California that has the population of 30 million have two senators? And Wyoming has one too? I mean, there's a... Wyoming and Montana do well here. If you want to talk about electoral injustice, come over and we'll smoke cigarettes and have ice cream and talk about all our bad boyfriends.
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I think Senator Gradom is a really ineffective senator, in addition to having absolutely no moral compass or ability for his constituents to discern. He has less consistency or ability to figure out where he is or what he stands for than Secretary Rubio. And this is just stupid because the reality is Section 230, if you removed it totally, would gut some of our best companies.
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These are great companies, all right? I don't like them. You have issues with them. But without some form of protection around their content, they go out of business the next day. So and in addition, this isn't serious because they're saying until January 2027. So they're basically thinking this would prod them into negotiations.
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And it was kind of magical. And I got in my head what I really wanted was to be one of these Asian girls getting fucked by me. And to feel that. Oh, that's my dramatic reading of The White Lotus.
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And what I really don't like about this is that we seem to value and understand the importance. And there is some value to kind of shock and awe and shoving stuff through. So they shock and awe around canceling all USAID. They shock and awe around rounding up innocents and deporting them to these hellscape prisons in El Salvador.
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But around going after those nice white people and shareholders, let's be thoughtful and measure and give them till January 2027 to deploy their lobbyists and weaponize and buy off government. They gave $62 million in lobbying next year. First off... Somebody should have done shock and awe. Somebody like Senator Murphy or Senators Klobuchar should have gotten the support.
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And they probably could have because this is a bipartisan issue and said algorithmically elevated content is no longer protected by 230 because that's a decision they make to elevate content. And they still would have had protection around stuff. They still would have had the whole free speech argument. And The biggest argument here against it is around, well, you should have free speech. Fine.
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If you want to say mRNA vaccines alter your DNA, fine. But you shouldn't elevate it beyond its organic reach because it enrages people. So when you do that, and also bots... don't have, in my opinion, don't have rights to free speech. So they could have come up with a thought-filled bill and gone shock and awe and just passed it.
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Instead, they come up with something stupid and give a warning, the same warning, the same due process that poor people aren't getting in our nation right now, that poor people abroad are absolutely not getting right now. But they've said, okay, let's put out something stupid that will never happen and give them the due process that they're not affording to people who aren't white,
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who aren't shareholders, who aren't corporations. This is total fucking bullshit and a waste of time and attention.
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Shock and awe across. Rounding up people, shock and awe, cutting off aid for malaria victims. But when it comes to corporations in Silicon Valley, we're proposing something stupid that'll take effect in two years? I mean.
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Executive order. No one under the age of 16 is allowed on social media.
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He was the deputy in Three Billboards and something. He's a very good actor. He's actually an outstanding actor. Anyways, I don't want to spoil it.
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She is really, really funny. If you want to talk about what's ailing our country right now, it's that young people under the age of 30 aren't doing as well as their parents were at 30 for the first time in our nation's history. And within that is a subset of people who are doing especially poorly, and it's young men.
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And the single point of failure for a young man coming off the tracks, becoming more prone to extremist content, becoming more polarized, becoming more likely to harm himself, and some more likely to become a really shitty citizen, it can all be reverse engineered to one thing. And that is the thing that our dear leader, President Musk, is engaging in. And the one point of failure for young men is
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is when they lose a male role model. This is more fundamental than technology. It is more fundamental than cutting costs. It is more fundamental than government services. At some point, character does matter. And the ground central or the ground zero in my view for character for a man, the very basic, the A, Bs and Cs are, are you going to be involved in your offspring?
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And we're over here talking about Doge. Anyways, I found that to be the most offensive thing of the week.
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The most basic job of a man and a person is to look after your young. That's where it all starts.
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And again, the strongest signal of what is your job? Your job is to produce loving, patriotic offspring, in my view. And the single point of failure, the strongest signal isn't whether these kids are going to have money or not. The strongest signal is involvement of their parents. And if it's a boy, involvement of dad. And already he's being sued by two different people.
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Yeah, but actually there's research around this and it's the following. Of all the single parent households in the US, four in five are headed by women. Girls in those homes have the similar outcomes in terms of college attendance, rates of self-harm and rates of depression.
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What you find with boys, though, is that the moment there's no longer a male involved in their lives, the likelihood they'll be incarcerated, addicted to opiates, or engaged in self-harm dramatically increases. What it ends up is that while boys are physically stronger, they are mentally and emotionally much weaker than girls.
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I'm not sure that's going to shock anybody, Kara.
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So it is a bigger deal when the dad is not involved in the boy's life.
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Well, I would argue there hasn't been as much research, but I think what they find is that the key is having two parents and also, and this will get me shit, typically in gay relationships, one person brings more masculine energy than the other. That's true.
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She's so easygoing. And we know who we're not talking about.
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Do you think perhaps two parents, though?
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One of the quickest paths, I think, to a better country would be a recognition that the moment a boy loses access to a male role model, that the community and family need to move in and make sure there's men involved in that boy's life. And what's really unfortunate is that men aren't stepping up to the plate. And I say this all the time, if we want better men, we need to be better men.
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But to produce offspring, in my opinion, and not be involved in their lives, it is such an ugly feature of a person
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You're bringing into the world a child that has a tremendous disadvantage relative to other kids who are brought into loving households with either one or two women who decide to ensure that there are men involved in this kid's life. And it creates a host of issues as someone who has been asking themselves for a long time, why did my dad not decide to be involved in my life?
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And what it ends up is that it is harder and more damaging for boys to deal with this than girls.
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I find as you get older, when you're younger, you want to acquire shit. And then as you get older, you want to dispose of it. You want to get rid of stuff.
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We're taking Vox Media Podcasts on the road and heading back to Austin for the South by Southwest Festival, March 8th through the 10th. What a thrill. Chicken fajitas, queso, strawberry margarita, extra shot of tequila. There you'll be able to see special live episodes of hit shows, including our show, Pivot. Where should we begin with Esther Perel? A Touch More with Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe.
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Not Just Football with Cam Hayward. And more presented by Smartsheet. The Vox Media Podcast stage at South by Southwest is open to all South by Southwest badge holders. We hope to see you at the Austin Convention Center soon. I'm not joking. I love South by Southwest. The people are a ton of fun. It's a great time. If you do come up and say hi, visit voxmedia.com slash SXSW to learn more.
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That's voxmedia.com slash SXSW.
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Well, just being a Warren Buffett, he has a metric which people look to, which has been a fairly reliable indicator of when the markets might be due for a correction. That is, he looks at the market cap relative to the GDP. And usually the average is around 100%. And when post, like 2009, it went down to 75%, indicating that stocks were cheap. And right now it's, I think, upwards around 190%.
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It looks like things are really frothy. The hard part is... And the question is what to do. And my sense is, and what I tell people is, it is very hard to time the market. It is very hard to time the markets because just when you think you're convinced markets are way too expensive, oftentimes they go up another 10 or 30%. And what I would say is it is very difficult to time the markets.
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Just make sure you're diversified. And if you think, well, maybe I want to put a little bit of cash on the sidelines to take advantage of opportunities, that's one thing, but don't make the mistake I made When Trump was elected in 2016, I thought, this guy's an idiot. He's going to crash the economy. And I sold everything. And so I incurred a tax hit.
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I paid an enormous amount of taxes, taking 22.8% of any gains out. And then six months later, I realized that I'd acted out of emotion. The markets had screamed up, and I had to buy back in with 78% of my capital at higher prices.
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So the lesson in terms of what to do is, okay, you may want to take some gains off the table and move a little bit more into cash, but be clear, nobody can time the market. You just want to be diversified and stand for as long as possible.
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I do it all the time. I love it. I love purging.
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Oh, Kara, I wouldn't give up a goiter to serve in the Trump administration.
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I don't know, that's my favorite word.
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I love having a small number of things. My happy place, if you will, is my place in Soho. I have license to decorate as I want. It's an angry, depressed Northern European person who doesn't like stuff. And anything that comes in, anything that comes in, something has to go out. If anything comes in, something has to leave. Oh, even guests? Yeah, I just don't want stuff.
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Yeah, or a goiter on your anus. Yeah. Yeah, no, I wouldn't. No, I would not. Would you?
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At this point, I just want someone who's competent and can, like, do math. Is he any of those? No, he's got a lot of...
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Yeah, this is like FDR saying, well, what were those ships doing in Pearl Harbor?
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He didn't, he's... They poured over the border and they started shelling maternity wards and sending, I mean, Russia invaded Ukraine. It's weird that we can't even have simple truths anymore.
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And it's interesting that all these things we took for granted, if you think about the post-World War II alliance or the operating system that's created more prosperity, more rights, more democracy, life expectancy, plummets in infant mortality, all of these things can be reverse engineered, I would argue, to this alliance between democracies that we largely had each other's backs, not only on this victory of moral clarity,
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but also this visionary investment in our former enemies, specifically Japan and Germany. And the result has arguably been more prosperity in the last 80 years and more righteous rights or progress or humanity than the previous 800. And this didn't happen by accident. And so basically to move to, well, I have an idea.
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Let's have two spheres of influence between two kind of a true autocrat and a wannabe autocrat, and we'll carve up the world. And Europe's sort of sitting there. I mean, I'm trying to think what could go right. And what I think could go right, and I think it's going to happen, is I think people do underestimate Europe.
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France and Britain are still very strong military and nuclear powers with fantastic educational institutions. Germany is arguably one of the two or three strongest manufacturing, has one of the strongest manufacturing industrial basis. And also a positive of this is they are, I believe, Europe is going to be a union again and is going to rise up and state more explicitly that we have your back.
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When I say your, I mean Ukraine. So I think the silver lining here might be that I'm hoping Europe fills the void for the next three years and 11 months.
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And I'm hoping we come out, I mean, I'm trying to move to what could go right, as opposed to everything around the sky is falling. And I think that Europe deciding to increase its military spending, decide that they need to be more unified, speak with a stronger singular, put all their bullshit squabbling aside, maybe engage and backs it.
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I think the UK absolutely needs to show more leadership and reintegrate back into the EU. And show that, okay, if we can't count on America, that's fine. We're still arguably the largest economy in the world, as large as the U.S. is. And we have Ukraine's back. That things don't end well for Europe when we surrender to a murderous autocrat.
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I think it feels really peaceful and nice when there's an absence of things.
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But look at, what I don't get is, my senior senator, now secretary of state, Senator Marco Rubio, it's like, who are you? And when I say, I don't mean it like, who are you to do these things? But he kind of made his foreign policy chops being this cold warrior. And now he's saying he's complying and defending this ridiculous falsehood that Ukraine started the war.
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It's like, literally, who are you? Do you have any value whatsoever? Are there any values that are a red line for you whatsoever?
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I like to stay somewhere where I can call and scream, where am I? Where's my room service?
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I'd either go with Tom Hardy or Taylor Kitsch.
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He'd be very good. He's getting a little old, though. They need a younger Bond.
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He's a little too American, but actually Tom Hardy would be fantastic. I think he's really good.
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They will probably pick an unknown who's in their 30s because what they want is they want someone who like Daniel Craig can go for five or six films.
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Daniel Craig's a better actor and brought more physicality to the role, I thought.
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Well, Claire would bring you breakfast, I suppose. Yeah, that sounds nice. I don't stay at friends. Even when I'm at families, I stay in a hotel.
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I know Roger Moore's pretty dreamy.
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What's your favorite Bond movie?
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What I don't get is why do they put themselves up for public perception? I understand that over time, the personification of a company is really important. But if I were Mark Zuckerberg, I would be like, okay, I just don't have the skills. I'm not likable. That's okay. And a lot of people realize that and say, I'm not a likable person. Most CEOs are like, well, that's actually not true.
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Most CEOs are likable. But I don't understand why he keeps trying. It feels like all this stuff around videos of him doing jujitsu and hunting, that it feels very like, I desperately want to be liked.
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I want to be able to stay up till four in the morning and watch cable.
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And if he just was in the background as this brilliant, he's arguably one of the most brilliant businessmen of the last 50 years, I think it would be better than if he was out there saying, okay, I need pictures of me hunting or fighting.
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Well, I think Tim Cook's done a really good job managing his brand.
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Yeah, but when he's public, he's very manicured and he's very thoughtful about his statements. He has a very strong brand. He's very likable. Most of these guys do a very good job of, most of them, you know, trying to come across as, you know, Satya Nadella is very likable. And they, whenever you meet them- Don't say too much. The only time I've ever met these guys is at your conference.
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And they're all surrounded by PR people parsing every word and saying, okay, here's your 10 minutes with this person and- And they're all very nice and friendly. And at the moment, if you ask them a question or it gets awkward, someone like, you know, couriers them off. I think they think a lot about their public image and their perception.
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No one needs to see me walking around at three in the morning.
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I think Brian Chesky is very good at managing his brand and coming across as likable. But the reality is in a constant media cycle with social now, their public perception is pretty important.
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Well, he needs another Sheryl Sandberg. He needs another heat shield to be more likable. He had Sheryl, then he had Nick. The guy who's really done a great job of storytelling, although his book is this weird techno-libertarian.
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And going on Bill Maher, his kind of real time or videos of his earnings calls, his full embrace, wrapping himself in the flag. I think he's managed his brand really well. He's been aggressive. He's taken risks and they paid off. And the result is the company trades at like 90 times revenues. It's insanely overvalued, although it's dropped about 20% in the last few trading days.
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You moved her into like the Four Seasons retirement home, right?
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That's right. We met at DLD. That's the first time. Roberta Flack. Yeah. Wow. Good one. Long life. Yeah. You know what really hurt the far right party in Germany was Vance and Musk's endorsement.
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What does that say about you when you make Nazis less likable?
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Oh, that's right. But they still got about 22%, right? 22%.
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I have nothing to say. Yeah, I think it's great that she's going to be with you. And, you know, I hope she's happy. I hope you're happy.
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So look, my win is Canada defeated USA Thursday to win the first ever four nations face off hockey tournament. which capped what had become a heated and politically charged event, but it was just such an incredible spectacle of sports. And hockey, I went to hockey games with my son and my dad. And when you get on the ice, you just see these players. There's just no phoning it in.
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It really is an incredible spectator sport. And an overtime goal from Connor McDavid, who's arguably the best player in the league, sealed the 3-2 win for Canada. at the TD Garden in Boston, where ticket prices had just soared. And obviously, this meant more than just a hockey tournament. And it's very strange to be rooting for another nation
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but I think there were a lot of Americans rooting for Team Canada here. And I think a lot of us take for granted what has been just arguably one of the great alliances in history or the great friendships. Do you realize the US-Canadian border is the largest undefended border in the world? I mean, what does that say about our relationship with them? In World War II,
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Canada entered the war two years before the US and trained over 130,000 allied airmen. During the Iran hostage crisis, Canadian diplomats sheltered six American embassy staff and helped orchestrate their escape. If they had been caught doing this, they would have been hanged from cranes.
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After 9-11, Canada launched Operation Yellow Ribbon, accepting 224 diverted flights when US airspace closed, sheltering 33,000 stranded passengers. Canada has fought alongside the US in World War I, World War II, Korea, the Persian Gulf, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and against. ISIS. I mean, there's just so many. Canada is America's largest trading partner. They supply more energy to the U.S.
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than any other country. The countries share critical supply chains in manufacturing, especially automotive. They consistently support U.S. diplomatic initiatives internationally. They coordinate on Arctic policy. They worked with the U.S.
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They support US positions on international organizations, including NATO and the UN. Deep people-to-people connections with extensive family ties across borders. My parents first came to Toronto where I was conceived and then came to San Diego where I was born.
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They have shared values around democracy, human rights, and free markets, cooperation on environmental protection of shared waterways and natural resources. And also, just in case you needed any reminder, they are the best in the world at hockey.
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She might not know for a while. My building, I don't know if you noticed, no one's ever there.
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This game, Connor McDavid, arguably the best player in the league, took this thing in sudden death overtime, and you could hear a roar across Canada as the 11th province, the United States, basically lost in overtime.
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And it's a strange feeling, but Canada, it is insane that we would be, you don't treat, when your neighbor is this good to you and just defaults to being your neighbor and being a wonderful ally, you don't treat them this way. And this game was, I'll tell you, sport occasionally gets it right. This was an outstanding, Team USA played exceptional.
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They were outstanding on the ice and actually American hockey is now almost rivaling Canadian hockey, but this was an incredible event. I mean, it was one of those moments in sporting history where it was about the game, but it wasn't about the game. And it was just an outstanding game. Anyways, my win is Team Canada in the Four Nations face-off hockey tournament. My fail is this, what I'll call a
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the surrender domino of big tech, and that is it's easy to rationalize why Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos show up and agree to sit side by side such that the president can pony them around and say, see the most powerful, wealthiest tech executives in the world like me, and then bully them into giving them a million dollars. But here's the problem.
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I won't even go up in the elevator if someone's getting in the elevator. I don't wanna make eye contact. I don't wanna know my neighbors. Interesting. I don't want them to see the prostitutes I'm bringing in. I don't want any of that. I don't.
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Okay, so you're protecting shareholder value, but when the three of them and Sam Altman do this, it makes it easier for someone like Linda Iaccarino to start threatening government retribution against IPG and Omnicom. She basically threatened to block the merger unless they advertise on the platform.
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It leads to Amazon paying Melania Trump an irrational number for her biography, thinking that we are now full kleptocrat. And the lack of separation of business and state is really not as important, but right up there with the importance of separation of church and state. Because in the 30s, Hitler basically said to corporations, if you support me and give me money, I'll bust the unions.
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And they became sort of intertwined until they lost any difference. It is a key step to fascism. is when corporations are bullying into supporting one group. And then unfortunately, because the other group decides to engage in fair play, the incentives are to support the autocrat.
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I'm just like, don't make eye contact.
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I understand the rationalization that, okay, this sucks, but you're aw shucks, I hate to be here, but I gotta be here. It's still cowardice. It might be lowercase cowardice. You might be able to justify it by saying I'm a fiduciary for shareholders. But for the last 20 years, you have been claiming that you're a fiduciary for stakeholders.
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And American rule of law and decency and democracy is what got you so fucking rich in the first place. And if business leaders who control two thirds of the economy don't step up and say enough at the expense of their own pocketbooks and quite frankly, their shareholders, we are going to be rolled over on this march to fascism.
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And at some point, I'd like to think there's a business leader out there. I don't know if it's Jamie Dimon. I don't know if it's one of these tech leaders who stands up and says, no, we are going to do what's right. We are not going to be bullied into supporting any political candidate. And if it hurts our shareholder value, so be it. But what is the point, Tim Cook,
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of being a multi-billionaire and claiming to that privacy is a basic human right. Well, okay, how do you feel about democracy? Okay, Sam Altman, in your hushed tones, worried about the safety of the world and concerned about AI. Well, are you concerned about America? Because you are being used as a little fucking bitch and you are enabling it. At some point,
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Give the doorman a thousand bucks a year for hush money. They know what's going on. A little Michael Cohen payment.
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On his deathbed, Jeff Bezos is gonna go, I had all the yachts, I had all the thongs, was I an American? Is that thought perhaps gonna haunt you on your deathbed? Did I stand up? Did I answer the call? Okay, maybe I would have been worth 90 billion instead of 120 billion, and maybe my shareholders would have been angry.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
But I think that's going to be a really good look when you get towards the end, that you were the guy or one of the guys. And we're still looking for this guy, because let's be clear, they're all men. We're still waiting for one of them to stand up and say, I'm not going to be a brick in the fascist wall. And my guess is that is going to play really well.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
History is going to look on you and say, good for you. Yeah, it cost you 10 or 20 billion of your 100 billion in wealth. I think that's a really good trade right now. But the corruption... of the domino of cowardice here is in full speed and in full light of day in corporate America, especially among big tech, who is going to step up here and say, no, that's my speech.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
A little. What happens on the second floor stays between the lobby and the third floor.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
Well, we better go to four times a week. Your expenses are about to go up.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
Well, thanks. That's nice. He's a very thoughtful guy.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
Higher propensity of depression also.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
I'm having the big handsome. Actually, I'm trying to get the big handsome guy on. He has a book out called Lucky Loser. What big handsome guy? Oh, he's like a big handsome guy. He also wears Tommy Bahama. He's dreamy.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
Speaking of which, have you watched Reacher on Amazon?
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
But I'm so fascinated by... What it says about America, it used to be that the heroes were especially skilled or amazing fighters or super smart. Now it's just, I'm just so fucking big I can solve every problem.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
Just with size. Do you know what's out now? You know what comes out? Episode two came out today or last night. What? I'll give you two hints, White and Lotus.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
Today's show was produced by Lauren Amon, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie and her dad engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Mia Saverio, and Dan Shulon. Nishat Kirwa is Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to Pivot from your magazine, Vox Media.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back later this week for another breakdown of all things tech and business care. Have a great rest of the week.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
Oh, is that right? Okay. I'll tell you. Send me the dates.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
I'm not exaggerating. When I walk in there, the first thing I do is I go, hello? Because there's a good chance someone's going to go, oh, hey, Scott. Yeah, we got in last Thursday.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
We brought our St. Bernard and my cousins. Is that okay?
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
Well, a couple of things. One, and this goes to messaging, and I was speaking to someone over the weekend about this. I don't think the Democrats, I don't think we get anywhere focusing on the injustice of all this.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
Well, just, I think you focus on the incompetence. There are a lot of people in America who have gotten an email or have been fired abruptly. And it's not, yeah, it's terrible. It happens often. moderates right now and a lot of people in the US like it because they think that government's gotten too big. They think it's gotten out of control and if they break a few eggs, fine, so be it.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
Oh, Cara, I wouldn't give up a goiter to serve in the Trump administration.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
And these TikToks of someone in the National Forestry Service saying, I just lost my job unceremoniously. It's like, well, okay, that happened to my cousin, maybe it happened to me. And I don't think that's how they should be messaging.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
I think they should be messaging about the corruption, that, okay, it just so happens that everyone in charge of overseeing the National Highway Safety Board, specifically around autonomous vehicles, or a large number of them have been fired, and those are the people directly overseeing. Musk's attempt to perhaps put unsafe autonomous cars on the road.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
And the fact that this is really just a misdirect from the following. They're talking about a $50 billion savings from Doge, but look over here, because what we don't want you to see is that we're talking about a $900 billion a year increase in the deficit which is nothing but a tax on our children or our grandchildren, such that Scott Galloway can have a tax cut.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
I put into AI my W-2 and then the latest proposed Trump tax cut. I'm going to save $950,000 a year if this thing goes through. Meanwhile, they want to cut over $800 billion from Medicaid that children depend on. So yeah, Doge, again, it's a fucking misdirect. Okay, it's a tragedy. I'm sorry. Fine.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
But all it is is a misdirect from what they're planning to do, and that is give a bunch of money to really rich people.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
I think it's it's it's a far right echo chamber of people who think who mistake leadership for coarseness and cruelty and just general weirdness.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
So let me just give you a couple of pro tips on moving.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
Well, that's different. The rallies, I think we should all, anyone with a platform has a responsibility. Let me back up. What to do? A common tactic across in the GRU propaganda machine is blitzkrieg of information where so many things are coming at you, you don't know how to parse them, you feel helpless, you don't know where to start.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
However, you need to calm down and there's a few basic defense mechanisms or a few means of counterpunching. One, recognize you don't need to respond to every outrageous thing. You don't need to be emotional. Two, when you do respond, respond with experts and data. Try not to be overly emotional. And also, and this is the hard part, decide which punches you're going to pick.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
And that is pick one or two or maybe three issues and focus on those and highlight them. So for example, I'm not focusing on this bullshit around DEI or DOGE or transgender, some people I think are passionate about it should focus on it. I believe the two most important things are the following. We have decided to surrender to Putin and we have decided to essentially
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
And the second is you give your partner, whoever's actually charged with moving, limitless funds and just say, please just accidentally let me know when it's all done. And then I will find reason why my business trips ends. But no, you should not be involved in moving areas.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
reconfigure the world order that has created more prosperity and peace and rights than any other 80-year period in history. And that is a very dangerous, stupid thing to do. And two, while everyone is focused on the $60 billion going to Ukraine or the $50 billion savings from Doge, that is not where they should be looking.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
They should be looking at the $900 billion a year annual increase in the deficit. Surrender and deficit are the two things I'm going to focus on. Be unemotional, You don't need to respond right away. Bring experts, bring facts, and focus on the one or two issues that you want to be a domain expert on. Otherwise, you just come across as what they want.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
If you can be offended, you can be manipulated, and you look weak. Don't be offended.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
We need to move from what I call being right to effective and figuring out a plan for counterpunch and then start talking about tactics. I think the Democrats right now, instead of talking about how outrageous they are, should be saying, oh, by the way, we are shutting down the government.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
If you've decided that the government is so incompetent, if you don't want to deal with the government, if you don't want to deal with elected representatives, fine. We're going to go upstream of Elon Musk and we are going to shut down the government. It's coming. All right. And let's see what happens to the 10-year bond and the wealth of the 0.1%. We are not going to raise the debt limit.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
That is the message they should be sending right now.
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Elon's Ultimatum, Trump's Military Purge, and Amazon's 007 Deal
What the fuck is with that? Are they claiming it's a Roman salute?
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Okay, there's the markets and there's messaging. And the markets, to be fair, if you try to stay, have fidelity to the data, the markets have lost about six months of gains, but they're still up for 12 months. They're still up dramatically. And they're still, quite frankly, very expensive.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
So he could be doing everything that all economists agree with, and the markets just might be letting off some steam from what are, what I would call, historic overvalued highs.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Something we've been talking about a long time, and I'm patting myself on the back here, but I said in November of 2024, we were going to see a 15-year reversal in the flows of capital out of the US into Europe and non-US markets. That reversal of the largest river of the world, and that is capital flowing into U.S. growth stocks, that has happened.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
We are seeing a reversal in capital flows out of the U.S., and this might have been the catalyst for it. But the reality is the stock markets haven't crashed. They've corrected. They have not crashed, or they've not even corrected. They've had a bad few months. Unemployment is still pretty low. Inflation is being stubborn, but we haven't seen these dramatic upticks in inflation.
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People are worried about it. It could still happen. But the talking points here are such a missed opportunity. One, we're going to continue to fund for $60 billion or 8% of our military budget. a pushback on a murderous autocracy that is good for democracy.
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We're going to continue to support democratic values, and the majority of that revenue will return to America, including the majority of which will go to red states. We are going to control the deficit. We are going to look at... Not only... not only not have a tax cut, we're going to have an alternative minimum tax for the wealthy and corporations.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
So I went out and got fucked up, went into the URL and the guy next to me says, wow, he's uncircumcised. I'm like, nope, that's just the wear and tear.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Your tax rates are not going up, but we're going to make sure everybody just pays what they're supposed to pay and we're going to get responsible about the deficit. We need a massive leveling up of young people and of the middle class who should, if both people work, should have a reasonable lifestyle, we are going to raise minimum wage to $25 an hour.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
We are going to build 7 million homes, manufactured homes, which cost 30 to 50% less than a home built on site. And we are going to bring down the cost of people's housing. We have so many opportunities to say, we're the party that of getting shit done. We're the party and at the same time push back on the notion, no, we're not going to give it to a murderous autocrat.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
We're going to maintain 80-year alliances, economic alliances that bring down the cost of everything from tomatoes to lumber to cars. And we're proposing these things and let them go down in Congress. Let them be voted against. Let America say, does it make sense to have fantastic trading relationships that will bring down the cost of our products? Does it make sense
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to have corporations and the wealthy at least pay 30% of their profits, which they are not doing right now. It doesn't make sense to not have an explosion in the deficit. Instead, we're just running around responding to everything that we think is outrageous, waiting for the rest of the public to get outraged when they're busy just trying to get by with their second and third jobs.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
So the messaging here has been terrible. The Democratic Party has shown no leadership other than their shock, their outrage, and people are not more outraged. Again, and this is my call sign here, we need to be the party of ideas, not indignance.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
So I got back last night from Mexico.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
But again, this was him sticking his chin out, but there's no fist of stone from the fucking Democratic Party.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
I went to a wonderful wedding.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
He said he said America is not about cheaper things. That was an opportunity to go for a Democrat to say, let's be honest, America is an operating system that has created more prosperity than any country. any nation in history. And prosperity means you get to work hard and you get to live really well, which quite frankly, Mr. Bissett, that is the reason you are here.
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And once you're a billionaire, fine, it's easy for you to say you're going to pay more for a flat screen TV. But there's a lot of Americans that do that do expect to be able to send their kids to college, do expect to be able to take a nice vacation, do expect to be able to buy their kids a new pair of Nikes that makes them feel good about themselves and about America.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
It was lovely. It was a mix of really meaningful. They're both really lovely people and lovely friends. Everyone was very happy. And of course, fabulous. It was like a beautiful setting, beautiful people. We had a really nice time.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
So, yeah, it is about prosperity. What it's also about is an operating system to ensure that that the least fortunate among us have a certain level of dignity because they know they are protected in terms of right to choose.
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They know they are protected to ensure that a bus, even if it's funded by the government, will pick them up and take them to a decent school, see above the Department of Education. This was a huge opportunity to weigh in and say, boss, Regarding prosperity, shut the fuck up.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Yeah, easy for you to say from St. Bart's as you're shoving up diamond glass dildos up your ass. I mean, for God's sakes.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
I would have tried. I would have tried. I know you would have. I was there. I was ready.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
I was like... Literally, the best thing we could do is to have the CIA plant her and Chamath as Russian asset managers, and we would bankrupt the country.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
It's the power of branding. She talks about things like hash rates with her big chunky glasses and says... Send me a billion dollars and I will turn it into 220 million. But look how cool my big, chunky glasses are. And CNBC keeps bringing me on because I have a price target of $10,000 on Tesla.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
And that will enable them to sell more opioid-induced constipation ads, despite the fact I have very few people. It is literally the lesson. I'm going to have a class on branding, how branding can supersede actual performance on Cathie Wood.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Support for Pivot comes from the NPR podcast Up First. Your time is too valuable to spend doom scrolling all day long. Reading terrible anxiety-inducing news all day just isn't productive. Imagine how much time you could save if you limited your news consumption to just 15 minutes a day.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Well, come on. Scott Galloway and I'm doing things embarrassing. That's redundant. I think that's part of the reason people invite me though. Yeah. You know what the best gift is? I'm being very serious. The best gift you can give anyone for their wedding, in my view, is to get a little too fucked up and have an amazing time. And I do both those things.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Up First is a daily show that covers the three most important stories of the day in just 15 minutes, so you can learn what you need to know and then move on with your day. Every episode gives you what you need to be informed about without compromising your sanity.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Episodes touch on the essential stories you need to know and cover topics including international conflict, the new administration, and so much more. I listened to a recent episode about Ukraine and I found it actually quite even-handed. If you're looking for more news and less noise, you can listen to the Up First podcast from NPR today. Support for PIVX comes from a select quote.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
I mean, what is really, really staggering is there was an analysis done of how many deaths are going to happen this year, unnecessary deaths from things like malaria, hunger from this cut of $75 billion of USAID. And they're estimating just this year alone, there's gonna be 3 million deaths.
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And people say, okay, there's some powerful memes online saying, what other nation taxes their people and sends money to us? And the answer is, okay. One of the basic tenants of a post-World War II America, starting with what is arguably the most visionary act in economic political history, is we said, okay, Germany and Japan treated us really poorly. They were our enemy.
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But this is what we're gonna do. We're going to, in an act of extraordinary vision and generosity, we're going to pay for the reconstruction of their societies. And overnight, not overnight, over a decade, we turned to formidable, unbelievable cultures that were incredibly formidable enemies into incredible allies.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
I don't know if this says anything, but on my wedding invitation, it said seat filler. Everybody knows I'll get fucked up and be on the dance floor, and they know I'll bring someone hot.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
And it has really held the post-World War II peace and prosperity is that these two, the kind of the number two and number three economies around the world until China were our allies. And they realized through this act of generosity, and we recognize that soft power is the hardest power in the world because you don't even know what wars don't break out.
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You don't even know what individual in an African country with a strong anti-American contingent refuses to work with them and cooperate because they think, you know what? They're actually good people. Maybe we don't agree with them.
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Maybe they make bad decisions, but at the end of the day, they try to do the right things. They're trying to stop AIDS in our country. They're trying to stop hunger. They're willing to send aircraft. They're willing to send people in, put their boots on the ground when they sense there's actual genocide. That soft power for about 1% of our deficit creates margin power and goodwill
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
that affects millions of decisions made every week around whether to help, work with, want to send your best and brightest to this nation. This is like, these are investments in, for lack of a better term, brand building, where people think, I want to go to the US. I want to work with US companies.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
I don't want to take an American tourist hostage or kill them because they're nice people and their memory is long and their reach is far. Let's not fuck with them. let's work with them. This withdrawal of soft power, when you look at the actual return we have gotten on this soft power is extraordinary and something like the voice of America.
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I want to be clear, I believe as an educator, the Department of Education should probably be smaller than it is. Universal testing nationally was a good idea. It hasn't worked. The 500 people of the 4,000 that work for the Department of Education should probably lose their job. I'm not against reducing the size of government.
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But when you just start cutting everything, including things that are working really well and making people feel good about America and creating prosperity and margin power, And it's going to take decades to rebuild once we realize it was a bad idea to do away with it. So it's fun. Carrie Lake is a fucking distraction. That's a distraction.
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The question is, should we be spending a little bit of money to have our viewpoints transmitted in a thoughtful, well-produced way around the world?
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And we're good at it. We're good at media.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Kerry Lake is a physical embodiment of AI right now, and that is she put herself out of business. I love that she said on a campaign trail as if it was a feature, not a bug, that I'm going to be the media's worst nightmare. Well, okay, she got herself fired. She's right. She's the worst thing that happened to media, including the Voice of America, and now she's out of work.
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You know who's playing the long game right now? It's the Gulf. Al Jazeera? Or funding, you know, quote-unquote Middle Eastern studies departments slowly but surely across universities across America?
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Do you think these, what a lot of people believe, including myself, these anti-Semitic protests on campus just happened overnight? No, they took a lot of thoughtful long-term investing. Do you think that... Empathy towards whatever you want, different viewpoints out of the Gulf just happened overnight.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Al Jazeera, do you think that when my son on the way to sushi asked me, he says, dad, when did we take their land away? Do you think that opened overnight? No, the Chinese are playing, the Chinese in the Gulf are playing the long game. And we used to think about this. We used to think about, okay, how can soft power slowly but surely Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
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I'm going to take you there, Scott, because everyone's like, no, no, I mean, you're going to take me there at about 20 years.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Let me just give everyone a quick fly on the wall excerpt from my weekend versus your weekend. Well, what the fuck? We're in Tulum. Sure, I'll do X. That was me. And an excerpt from your week. You've always been a disappointment to me.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
I'm glad it went well. That's nice.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
I can break down almost every airline, good and bad. Worst airline in Europe, KLM, by the way. There's just such a range of good to bad. By the way, the best new first class is Lufthansa's first class and also the apartment from Singapore Airlines. But anyways, I think a lot about flying.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Just a quick shout out to all the single ladies out there. I am the Southwest Airlines of Men. Baggage is free. My baggage is free. Oh, no. A lot of baggage.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
Daddy's bringing erectile dysfunction. Daddy is bringing self-hate. Daddy is bringing a little bit of alcohol abuse.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
I heard the original title, Where Are My Testicles, that they changed.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
We share the same fail. There's always a good excuse for failure. And the Democratic Party has a total lack of leadership. I would like to see
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
I think he's been fantastic. I think, you know, I wish, I'm a huge fan of, obviously, Senators Bennett and Warner. I think AOC, I appreciate, I think, Representative Crockett, is that? Mm-hmm, Crockett, Jasmine Crockett. Mm-hmm. I mean, at least they're getting out there and they're saying shit. My favorites are, I really like Representative Torres.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
I just love that he comes out with moderate policies and the far left just does not have to deal with the intersectionality of a black Latino gay man saying these moderate things. I just love that he's driving everyone crazy. Governor Wes Moore, who in a State of the Union address said his administration was going to focus on the struggles of young men.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
I thought that was a very brave thing to do in a blue state.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
So what I would say is anyone who's willing to come out right now and say the Democratic Party lacks leadership and take an aggressive stand, against this slide into autocracy. And I will give money to you right now for your campaign. We are desperate for someone to go a little bit gangster and have a strong voice here. I think this is, we are literally the party of eunuchs right now.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
That's my favorite character in Game of Thrones is the eunuch. Is that my favorite character? That's a tough one. I like the Prince of Dorne. A bisexual who drinks a lot and kills people. That guy's so fucking hot. By the way, just so you know, people kept asking me why I was dancing around on stage with my shirt off at South by Southwest.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
And what they don't realize is that we had to bargain for our South by Southwest spot. And they said, okay, but if we come to you and ask you for a favor, you have to accept. And I said, yes. And before us, I don't know if you know this, this is a true story, was the Last of Us cast. And Pedro Pascal went on stage and all the women were literally going fucking crazy.
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Democrats Divided, Market Roller Coaster, and Southwest Airlines
And they said, okay, Scott, we need you to go out there and cool down the women.
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Who doesn't love that guy? Who doesn't love that guy? Anyways, where the fuck were we?
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Well, you know it's 30 feet long and smells like piss. What? The line dance at a senior's home.
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We have got to find our footing here. The bad news is our leadership brightens up a room by leaving it. They are literally, they're just so ineffective. They've just acquiesced. They've basically given now the Republicans carte blanche to do whatever they want. And it's just so incredibly discouraging. The good news is we have a fantastic bench. And what I would say to this bench is,
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is command the space you occupy. Get out there, be fearless, push back on this. What's going on here? There's an enormous void for the new generation of democratic leadership to step into. So my fail is, Senator Schumer, I think it is time for you to move on. I think you are just not up to the job, quite frankly. My win is, I think Europe is a union again. It's a $19 trillion economy.
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They are figuring out that with the resolve in the Capitol, the latter of which they have in spades, the former of which we have to decide in 1939 or 1940, my mother was sleeping and her family were sleeping in tube stations and passing out gas masks in the shape of Disney characters. The real fulcrum here is that to be fair, Russia has shown tremendous resolve.
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Russia is willing to send 600 young men to their death by, quite frankly, offering money to these families in small villages in Russia. But you got to acknowledge the core competence of Russia is resolve and the willingness to sacrifice. The EU nations are a $20 trillion or $19 trillion economy. Russia is an economy that's $2 trillion that's smaller than Canada. They have the capital.
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They have better weapons. They have better IP. Their AI and drone technology will be far superior. The question is, do they have the resolve? If they do, then let Trump bluster about pretending he gets to decide the terms of this surrender. He doesn't. If Europe wants to decide to come up and fill the void of leadership and capital and resolve that the U.S.
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has abdicated from, they can absolutely, as they did in 1939, push back against a murderous autocrat. And I think we're beginning to see signs of it. I think these two meetings, one in England, one in Brussels, are showing that Starmer, Holtz, and Macron are filling that void. So I'm hopeful. My win is that the European Union is going to begin to push back and fill the void of American leadership.
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We come into and leave this world in diapers. It's true. It's true.
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I also believe, and I've said this before, it could inspire a dramatic upward spiral in the economy through the technology spillover and the stimulus of increased military spending and greater coordination and cutting the red tape. And we're already seeing that in the stock market.
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Well, of course I spent too much time in these private members clubs in New York and I went to Casa Cipriani and I went with some friends and we had some drinks and some carpaccio. It was lovely little pasta dinner, like nice in the corner. And the bill was 740 bucks. And I know the general manager and I came over and I said, I said, who is here? It's all young people.
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And I said, who are these young kids who can afford to spend 700 bucks on drinks and a light dinner? And he said, no one here. is paying, and that is the young women here, someone else is paying for them. If you think that's sex, it's fine. It's also true. And the men, the young men, it's their parents' credit card. They're all trust fund kids. And this is an interesting thing.
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They said they're trust fund kids from New Jersey. I know a lot of trust fund kids. And to a certain extent, Europe has been a little bit of the negative externalities of being a trust fund kid, and that it is dependent upon the military and to a lesser extent, the economic umbrella of the US. And quite frankly, they have become indulgent and spoiled. And that is a harsh statement, and it is true.
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And what Europe realizes now is that they're smart, they can work hard, they have incredible skills, IP, artisanship. They literally are the home of the Renaissance. They are the home of great philosophers. If they get their shit together, they cut the regulation, and they show some of the resolve, some of the grit, and some of the innovation that America and China has filled the void.
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If you look at the rise of China, it hasn't come at the expense of the US. The US still has The same GDP growth, the US still has the same number of big companies of unicorns. Who it's come at the expense of is Europe. I think a lot of this is that Europe needs to finally say, okay, we're going to become a union.
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I believe this in some ways might be backs it and might take England back into the European Union. And they need to coordinate, lower the bureaucracy, lower the lack of, or what I would say, the administrative state. They need to really increase their substantial spending. And they need to say, if need be, we're going to put boots on the ground. And yeah, fine.
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Trump, wave your arms, be an ass clown, fine. We're the ones that are going to decide. We're going to back Ukraine. We have seen what happens when you let a murderous autocrat run unchecked. We're not down for this anymore. We'd love your help. If it's there, great. If it's not, we're going to count on it.
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Keep in mind that the Europeans substantially pushed back, pushed back viciously and victoriously on a murderous autocrat for two years before the Americans weighed into the war in 1930. There were two long years of one of the greatest industrial war machines ever the Third Reich, was invading a Europe that had stopped spending and stopped preparing and stopped coordinating.
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That's where we are now. Europe can absolutely push back on Russia.
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Do you think Ezra Klein has spoken of the 92nd wine?
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Today's show was produced by Larry Naiman, Taylor Griffin, Corinne Ruff, and Kate Gallagher. Who are all these new people and who's paying for them? Ernie Andertide engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Amir Saverio, and Dan Shulan, Nishat Kurwas, Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back later this week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Who's going to decide not to surrender to a murderous autocrat? Two words, first E, second U.
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There's always a good excuse for failure. How did the Democratic leadership put us in a position of bad choices between bad choices and shutting down the government? I mean, Senate Leader Schumer or Minority Leader Schumer always has a good excuse for failure.
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And, you know, shutting down the government. Yeah. What does that mean? Shutting down what is now an operating system for bypassing the courts and bypassing Congress? At some point, we have to be the party of not fucking around, not the reasonable party that's thoughtful and always is on the wrong end of every strategic move. We absolutely, in my view, should have said fine.
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Republican states, Republicans need to see that if the government is now an operating system for your march towards autocracy, we're not down and we're shutting down the government. I don't believe Democrats would have got the blame here. I think if 58 days post whatever it is, inauguration, the government is shut down, I think the majority of it would have stuck to Trump.
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I think that a lot of Republicans who voted for Trump would have been hurt and seen that, okay, this is what you voted for. And there's also, it's not binary. There was a mid-step. If they had been more coordinated, they could have probably run an effective filibuster and at least gotten some of the things they wanted. Instead, they have...
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pass the spending deal, which essentially gives Doge and Trump carte blanche to continue to do what they're doing.
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So this is – I believe that AOC is going to be the junior senator from New York in 2028. I think Senator Schumer has consistently been played by the other side. I think he is a weak leader, and I think he embodies – the absolute definition of what it means to be a Democrat or the Democratic Party right now. And that is they have not discerned the difference between being right and being effective.
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But Obamacare was popular. People wanted Obamacare. People don't want this.
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Yeah, but they're, okay, they're in control.
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I don't think they would, I don't think that the way this is going, they're essentially trying to shut down the government slowly and pick which parts of government they want to shut down. So I think you could absolutely say, I'm sorry, who's shutting down government? They're the ones firing everyone without any sort of congressional oversight.
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They're the ones who have decided, okay, they're not going to make... This isn't about efficiency or an audit. This is about political decisions with no constitutional oversight and... Most frightening, I know we're going to talk about this, they've now decided that the other branch of government that all of us were hoping would be the backstop, the courts, they're basically ignoring court orders.
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So, okay, if the government is now an operating system and a purse for a move towards autocracy, sorry, we're just going to shut it down.
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I think that Americans will vote for policies they don't agree on as long as they sense strength and resolve. And right now, the Democratic Party appears to lack all of those.
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Senate Minority Leader Schumer perfectly embodies the Democratic Party. Weak, feckless, and believing that right is more important than effective. He's a terrible leader, and he embodies everything that's bad about the Democratic Party. Yeah, they got to go. A series of mealy-mouthed, weak... This is why I'm doing this. And meanwhile, oh, and I listened to that New York Times interview.
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Jesus Christ, you want to talk about a weak leader? Listen to the constant excuses. I agree. And just the incredible denial. We're winning.
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Our message is getting out there and it's resonating with people. And it's like, are you drunk, stupid, or both? Correct. The sad part about it is this is like watching Steve Young sit on the bench If Joe Montana had been, I don't know, I can't name a bad quarterback, we have a fantastic men's chair. We have Richie Torres. I don't agree with her politics, but I think AOC is.
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And then why doesn't he? And I know we all want to like Hakeem, but quite frankly, for him to sit in the back and just act sullen, that doesn't do us any fucking good.
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In every war, there is a nonviolence movement. We should practice nonviolence. And it's like, well, okay, good luck with that. I understand it in theory, but good luck with that.
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I just can't wait till I'm single again and I dress up for Halloween. I'm going to dress up as Southwest Airlines and fuck a bunch of people.
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Anyone under the age of 40 in here at some point is either going to have to pay that back or the forward-leaning investments we've been able to make in the past in technology and space and education are going to get crowded out by the interest on this debt, which is now greater than our military.
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So we need to reframe this discussion and say America is about to incur the greatest tax increase in history on young people that's deferred called the deficit. Don't look at that. Look at that. They just fired three people, the National Forestry Service. Who the fuck cares? I know it's sad.
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By the way, 9 a.m. on Sunday of Daylight Savior, what the fuck are you thinking?
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I think there's a large percentage of moderates that feel like breaking some eggs and laying off people in the public sector. First off, if this were an audit, the net results of the audit so far is there is dramatically less inefficiency, fraud, and waste than we thought in government.
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It's like a dog whistle for Mormons or people with no life. Yes, it's true. Literally, this is a negative forward-looking indicator of your social option.
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They're just, if you look at their quote unquote wall of receipts, they don't be, they haven't been able, it appears, to actually find any fraud or waste. Right, that's exactly right, right. We saved $8 billion. Oh no, it's actually 8 million and the money's already been spent. And then numbers two, three, and four that they supposedly saved money on weren't real.
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If this is an audit, the government is getting an outstanding clean bill of health around fraud and waste. But having said that, I do think moderates kind of like the idea. And every administration has done some form of this. It's just not so weird.
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But these departments are – Secretary Rubio isn't going to agree to cuts. If he's actually in charge now, he's got a tough job. He's not going to say, yeah, you snort – do a few rails of ketamine and then come in here and tell me what ambassadors or what people we should lay off.
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If he has to report into him now, it means Doge is over, in my view.
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Now, Delaware is traditionally seen as very corporate-friendly, especially then they're efficient around their Chancery Court and the way they decide stuff. I don't think you can be for competition and ask big tech to break up and not support competition among states. I think the thing that's gonna incent
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California to get its shit together is a lot of people are leaving for Texas because they do the three greatest arbitrages available, I think, in economic history are one, the arbitrage from fossil fuels to things that build everything from this to the tennis shoes you have probably a petroleum in them. Second is to find young, ambitious people who will work.
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Is like Doge in charge of this shit? What is going on? Oh, but they have you and Senator Warren at the prime time at 4 p.m. Billionaires should not exist. Up next, Mark Cuban. Sorry, go ahead. Sorry. Yeah.
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as hard or harder because then I have dogs and kids and will be 80 or 90% as good as the person who's been with your company 20 years. But because they're naive and can live in a 300 square foot apartment, you'll have to pay them 30 or 40% as much. The most successful companies in the world participate in the arbitrage of young people who don't know any better, right?
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Those are your most valuable employees is the overeducated, really hardworking 25 year old that you pay 80 grand instead of 250 grand to the 40 year old who has kids. The other big arbitrage right now economically in the United States is state arbitrage. And that is people who basically say, okay, and I did this in 2010.
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My son was denied, he's doing great now because he was speech delayed when he was four, from seven out of seven schools that wanted to charge us $58,000 a year for him to play with blocks. We moved to Florida and the school there, a lovely little school, was 12,000.
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So the geographic arbitrage that's taking place across America where people are moving to lower cost, higher quality of living states like Texas and Florida is a great thing. So companies coming here, I think, is a good thing. I think it's important. What's weird is Meta, Chevron and KFC. So carbon, teen depression and diabetes.
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Yeah, it's a good quality of life, though. It's a really nice quality of life.
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I can see living here. Don't you think you could live there? This seems pretty nice. No. No? No. Austin?
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I don't walk in your shoes, so I take your word for it.
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Tax the rich. Somehow I became worth $11 million serving in Congress.
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So again, I don't have your lived experience. Right.
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I can hire extra security. As a Florida resident, I think a lot of Florida citizens are horrified by some of the laws that have been passed around restricting a woman's rights. There's no doubt about it. That's rattling. But just on the ground, I live in Delray Beach. It feels like a pretty progressive community that's very open and welcoming.
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Oh, there'll definitely be companies that incorporate here and move here.
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I think that's a great thing. I think competition, intrastate competition is really important.
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I think it's good for the economy.
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I love it here. Do you? I like the food. I like the people. What does a Texan German car enthusiast say?
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Audi. Audi. It's Sunday morning. It's Sunday morning.
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Such a pro, right? What an elegant segue. How did she pull it off? Oh, my God. What are you doing here on a Sunday morning?
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I'm sorry, Kara, what did you say? Yeah, I'm the pretty one. Do you think we'll ever have sex? That's what I get.
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I'm down as long as I don't have to be there.
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Oh, God, you don't know what it takes to get me going now, Cara. It's a Pam Grier film, eight ball of cocaine and a cattle prod up my ass, and then it's go time. It's go time for a good 90 seconds.
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And then when I climax, I scream out, surrender, Dorothy! Or my favorite from Wicked, I'm melting. How did we get here? Get us out of this.
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Yeah, which is why you brought it up.
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I come down here because my urologist is down here.
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So this is essentially just pure pay for play. And Republicans would argue that, okay, we're just more transparent about it. But the crypto community gave $285 million to the Trump campaign. And what do you know, he's decided to have a quote unquote strategic Bitcoin reserve. It makes absolutely no sense.
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And you get to my age, you get a drip. It takes a good, I don't know, three weeks to pee now. And so I go into my urologist and he's like, did you have sex recently? And I said, yeah, about five days ago. And he said, does she live near here? And I said, yeah. And he's like, well, you may want to get back. I think you're coming. Good morning. Good morning.
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Elon's Empire Struggles, Trump's Crypto Summit, and IPO Slump
You have a strategic petroleum reserve, and it is strategic because if there's a war or our supply chain of fossil fuels gets cut off, we don't want our economy to come to a halt if we need to build tanks or just keep the economy open. So we have a strategic reserve. What's going to happen if we run out of Bitcoin? How is that a defense threat? So there's nothing strategic about it.
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What it is, is the following. You give me $285 million. So I'm going to increase the deficit. I mean, when we seize assets, when the FBI seizes assets, they immediately sell them because they don't want to be in the business of owning boats or Bitcoin or whatever. That's not their job. They're not hedge fund managers.
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If you have a nation that's creating more revenue than you're spending, then you have a sovereign fund that tries to find alpha.
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We don't need a sovereign. We need higher taxes and lower spending. We don't have any additional money because then you're saying the government is better at allocating investment capital than the investment community. And by the way, all this is, again, another increase in a deficit.
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to transfer wealth to his 0.1 percenters such that you can own a little bit of Bitcoin, here's a crazy idea, go buy your own fucking Bitcoin. I mean, it just, this makes no sense whatsoever. This is pure, you gave me $285 million, so I'm gonna come up with a bunch of jazz hands around why we should have a strategic reserve. And by the way, there's a negative implication. Bitcoin is terrible
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for the United States strategically, because the biggest, baddest carrier strike force in our arsenal is an invisible one called the US dollar. And when we put sanctions on a country, it has teeth, because we can stop them from trading in dollars, which makes it very hard for them to do business globally.
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So if you're going to create another global reserve currency, all you are doing is attacking our aircraft carrier squadron called the dollar. So this is not only kleptocracy and pay for play and make no sense. It's actually damaging to the underlying strength of America because it's diminishing the dollar.
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It's a legit, Bitcoin is established, first off, I don't think you can talk about Bitcoin in the same breath as the other ones. Bitcoin has established itself as a credible store of value, because the genius of Bitcoin is they've created this algorithm or this methodology where you have to constantly throw numbers to unlock or mine Bitcoin.
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And people now believe, the market now believes that they're gonna stop minting at 21 million. So Bitcoin is increasing less fast than gold reserves, than we're printing US dollars. So the market says this is a legitimate store of value. That is an asset class. What's to stop anyone at Doja or Ripple or ETH from massively increasing the supply? It's supposed to be one of three things.
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It's supposed to be a payment mechanism, No one's using this shit for payments. It's supposed to have utility. You could argue ETH and some of them, maybe they make payments, maybe other stable coins go on their technology. But for the most part, there's no real utility here, folks. It's not like Dennis used Bitcoin to fill your cavities. There's just... There's no real utility.
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What it could be is a store of value. And one of them, in my view, has created a store of value. And that is a legitimate store of value. And that's Bitcoin. Other than that, it's pure speculation, which is fun. But the notion that we're going to get involved, you're about to see. In 36 months, you're going to see a raft of stories about crypto scans that happen between now and the next 36 months.
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And yes, they do serve Bloody Marys at 7.30 at the proper hotel.
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Because you could make an argument that it was being over-regulated or there was a lack of regulation, which created insecurity. I think Brian Armstrong will fairly say, just tell us what the rules are and we'll comply. But they couldn't get any clarity. So you could argue there was an under-regulation, but there was opaque regulation. Mm-hmm. But now it's the Wild West.
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You're going to see so many stands.
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I'm a no-coiner. I was on the board of a company called Ledger, which was a crypto hardware wallet because I wanted to learn more. But I generally don't invest in things I don't understand. And I'll go down and I'll have lunch with Michael Saylor whenever I'm in Miami. And within about 10 minutes of hearing him, he's brilliant, I start thinking, put everything into Bitcoin.
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Put every this guy's just so much fucking smarter than me. Put everything into Bitcoin. And then by the time I leave lunch, I'm like, I have no fucking idea what Bitcoin is. I don't I don't I don't understand it. I just don't get it. So I'm a no coiner. Do you own any?
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You can't find it. Yeah. That's right.
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Are you interviewing Peter Attia, Dr. Peter Attia?
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I've been using that to our advantage. That story's out there that Kara has like $50 million in Bitcoin in like a drawer somewhere.
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It's probably at Lucky's house. But whenever I'm with Bankoff, we're in the midst of negotiating.
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We're in the midst of negotiating a new four-year deal with Vox. And I'm just malicious and Machiavellian. And last night I'm like, oh, hey, Jim. He's like, what are you doing? I'm going to the Spotify party. They want to talk to us. And also I heard Kara found her crypto. Yeah.
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Well, Peter Attia and Andrew Huberman were like the poster children for... Yeah, I'm aware of them. You know, big, handsome guys who work all the time.
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They've declared war on alcohol.
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That's why she makes the big bucks.
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Young people need to drink more. That is... What is the bigger issue? The alcohol your liver can absolutely handle when you're between the ages of 18 and 40, or the fact that none of you are having sex and making connections? Drink more, for God's sakes.
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It's kind of the walking dead. In 2021, there were a thousand IPOs that raised $280 billion. Last year, there were 150 IPOs that raised 30 billion. I mean, the IPO market is just literally dead. It hasn't been this bad for this long. in a long time and we keep hoping something is going to set the starting gun for it again. And I thought it was going to, I got this wrong.
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I thought Reddit was going to ignite the market and it hasn't. The IPO market is still really dormant. It's just very cold, terrible.
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You would think, but I mean, is this a cyclical thing or is it structural? Because it used to be you couldn't get these types of valuations unless you tapped into deep institutional capital. But now that institutional capital is moving into the private markets.
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And when open AI can raise money to $300 billion market cap, which creates a greater value than 90% of public companies, and you have opportunities or access to liquidity, secondary markets- Is that right?
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But the point is, do we need the public markets? The problem is, is that yet again, we are sequestering the majority of the upside of our prosperity to the private markets that consist mostly of 0.1 percenters and institutional investors. The people who got to invest in Google, retail investors, have done exceptionally well, same as Apple.
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The problem is institutional money figured out, why are we giving away these gains to the retail market? We can capture them privately and offer employees liquidity and have less regulation. So unfortunately, right now, the retail markets have become the last stop when you can't find private investors to take your valuation up. And most of the margin, most of the juice is This gets squeezed out.
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So yet again, the IPO market is another indication of the fact that we're cramming all the prosperity into a small number of institutions.
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That is an excellent point. If you look at some of the fallen angels and 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 going to see, I did my prediction stack yesterday, I think we're going to see the biggest take private in history this year.
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And it'll be, in my opinion, my three favorite targets are Intel, which is arguably the worst managed company in tech over the last 20 years. I mean, it's one thing when your stock goes into the shitter when your company's in structural decline, right? Warner Brothers Discovery, they can claim we're facing headwinds. Intel has literally been in the best business in the world for the last 30 years.
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Well, I wouldn't know about that. What do you mean by weed care?
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And they have been one of the worst performing stocks.
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someone might step up i think it's got a 70 or 80 billion someone might step up and go there the two others i like are boeing and the third is target big big outstanding brands decent management great businesses and the opportunity to get them you know they're fallen angels they're on sale right now and there's so much money i think there could be a club deal to take one of those companies private those are the three would you be part of that one of those
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Yeah, they're doing drugs. But the thing I don't like about those drugs is I don't think they're as social.
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Taylor is from Texas. Where are you from, Taylor?
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Right. You drink alcohol and you just become more attractive to you, which gives you the confidence to go up to someone who likely does not find you attractive. And maybe over time, and I'm being somewhat serious here, gives you a chance to demonstrate excellence. Do you want to know the scariest stat I have seen? We're totally going off script here.
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There we go. There it is again. Thanks for that.
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You've got to introduce yourself, though.
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Yeah, I do think, and we've talked about, I think we talk about politics too much. And I think a lot of people came in expecting us to talk about tech and business. And oftentimes, sometimes justifiably, but we are both passionate about politics and we both feel very invested and we get triggered by some of this stuff.
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But if we were purely about what I'd call purity of editorial and trying to be as appealing to as large a group as possible, which oftentimes involves not alienating 49% of the U.S., we would talk probably less about politics. But I don't think we can resist.
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Half the nation is right or center right. I'm center left. She's crazy fucking left.
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She came in from Australia. I did. Anyways, more than half, 51%, 51% of 18 to 24 year old males have never asked a woman out in person. Think about just how tragic that is, that these young men are not developing the skills to much less potentially meet a romantic partner, have kids, which I think is the whole shooting match.
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We don't have an apprentice culture. And if you look at, there's so many factors that have led to young men struggling, falling further faster than any other cohort in America. And part of it is like, what happened to auto wood and metal shop? Two thirds of males just aren't cut out for a liberal arts education. They don't have the discipline. They don't have the demeanor to get through college.
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That's just not what they want. And unfortunately, a lot of those jobs are passed to the middle class, have been outsourced or no longer existed. I didn't like Biden's bailout plan of student loans.
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I just thought that was creating more moral hazard and people were going to borrow more money from a nice lady in a pantsuit with an NYU logo always saying, your education investments in yourself lowest payoff. And then they get out with a philosophy major and they have $130,000 in debt. So, I didn't like the bailout. What they could have done and should do is the following.
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If they were to take $100 billion and take the 100 biggest of our public universities, which are the best in the world, and said, I will give you $1 billion over the next 10 years if you do three things. One. You have to expand your enrollments greater than population growth.
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Two, you have to cut your tuition 2% a year, which would result in 10 years of doubling the number of freshman seats at half the cost. Take it back to the 80s when I applied to UCLA and the admissions rate was 76%. And the cost for all seven years of undergrad and grad for me at UCLA and Berkeley was $7,000. I am here. because of the generosity of the California taxpayers.
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And the third thing they need to do is at least 20% of their certificates need to be non-traditional, non-four-year degrees, nursing, specialty construction, installation of HVAC. These jobs, we need these people. And there's this obnoxious self-aggrandizement.
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I have given a lot of my money to UCLA and Berkeley for what's called continuing education because they couldn't call it vocational programs because me and my colleagues are such fucking snobs. We need, think about how little the college degree has not innovated. There's amazing, I was on a plane with this woman who's the IV whisperer. She works at a hospital and she can find any vein.
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That's her whole thing. When they can't find a vein on somebody, they call her. And she makes $180,000 working three a year, working three 12-hour shifts. That's a fucking amazing job. And she needed two years of training.
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Universities need to innovate and they need to recognize we're not there to make ourselves feel important to this bullshit rejectionist culture, but to train people to have the economic security for them and their families. One, you have to grow your population, your freshman class faster than population growth. You have to cut cost 2% a year, which inflation in 10 years would cut it in half.
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and at least 20% of your certificates have to be some sort of vocational programming. That's how we take our universities to the next level and create more- It's also a good message for Democrats, for example, to talk about- Big ideas, and also reignite, give younger people, quite frankly, mostly men, More past on-ramps in the middle class.
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I'm not saying you wouldn't see women, but the program I'm involved in, 70% of the people who show up who aren't cut out for college are men. So many avenues have been shut off, traditional means to economic security for men who are not quite, frankly, they're just not cut out as well for college. They're less mature. They're less disciplined. There's now more women in college.
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Not that you can't be happy without that, but I think everyone should have the option. And then they're not developing social skills. And we don't like to talk about this, but your ability to open and establish contact and connection with someone.
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It's 60-40 globally now. And by the way, we should do nothing to get in the way of that. What I'm suggesting is let's not forget the people who are never going to go to college. They're just not cut out. Remember that guy in high school? They were everywhere. They were just not going to go to college. But they could fix a fucking car. They were really good with their hands.
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And instead, we got rid of those classes and put in computer science and got rid of civics, and we end up with fucking Mark Zuckerberg. Bring back Metal Shop.
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Most beautiful cathedral and the best beer in all Europe.
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I'm not as worried about foreign nations as I am about the US. I don't think we want to come to grips with the fact that democracy and rights are now purely a function of wealth. The R is almost one. It's almost perfectly correlated. And if shit gets real and there's some sort of economic shock and they start rounding up people, which we have done, by the way, in the past, Right?
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Japanese families who were good citizens who had kids fighting in the European theater were rounded up in this country. So we like to believe we're above that. We are not. But the thing is, I have the money to shove a bunch of Bitcoin up my ass and peace out to Dubai. You're going to have to stick around and deal with this bullshit. I don't know where I'm going with this.
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Here's the bottom line. We talk a big game, but somewhere between 70% and 80% of women.
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Anyways. All right, quickly. Oh, I know where I am. All right. Musk, the wealthiest man in the world, basically, in my view, probably swung the election. It's always like 48-48 in the 2% or 4%. And then it's a small number of counties and a small number of states. $285 million. Very smart. Weaponized a platform. And what do you know?
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I'm more worried about the US because the thing about Germany and the UK is they're like, money and politics? Let corporations and individuals spend as much as, are you fucking crazy? They're like, we're not going to do that. The whole point of democracy is the demo. And democracy, we want checks and balances of a populist voting, not a small number of very wealthy people.
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So in the UK, they start to finish elections in six months. And it's much more difficult, I think,
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to weaponize an election with just sheer brute force of money i'm i'm more hopeful i think european nations and other nations have decided that money can't pervert their politics to the same extent in the u.s i think he's given a new playbook to beyond you know other rich people who've done it in the past but i think he's given a new playbook to a lot more people and that is where he's been innovative and unfortunately all right quickly let's try to get through as many as we can
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Between 70% and 80% of women still say they want the man to initiate contact. So they still expect, I mean, think about young men, quite frankly, are getting a lot of mixed messages in my view. And it's making them asocial.
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Three quarters of Americans see Canada as an ally. Only one third of Canada see America as an ally now. You want to talk about the most immoral and stupid decision, turning an unbelievable ally and friend into an enemy. The largest undefended border in the world is the US-Canadian border. What does that tell you about us? They don't even know why we're trying to fuck with their economy.
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They're like, why are you doing this to this? We know it's going to raise costs for all of us, reduce our prosperity, shrink the economy. Why are you doing this? And the answer is fentanyl. The amount of fentanyl that's come over the U.S.-Canadian border could be stuck in a backpack. They think it's less than 1%. They don't even know why we're doing this shit. And here's the thing about Canada.
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Followed us into World War I. We're ahead of us in World War II. Went over to Year of the European Theater and started training pilots into Kosovo. Helped us fight the Taliban. I love the question, and I said this yesterday. about a woman that is friends with Warren Buffett. I thought it was very powerful.
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Holocaust survivor, she said, my definition of friend is I would ask myself, would this person hide me? And then you really think about that. It's a very intense, puncturing question about what it means to be a real friend. You know who's a real friend to America? Canada, in the Iran hostage crisis, the embassy there hid six Americans and at immense personal risk, got them out of Iran.
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And then we have the most talented companies in the world who sponsor this conference trying to convince them they can have a reasonable facsimile of life on a screen with an algorithm. Here, trust me on this. Trust me. Go out, drink more, make a series of bad decisions that might pay off.
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And then they stuck around. If they had been caught, they could have been hanged from cranes. Canada hid us. Thank you.
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People my age are 72% wealthier than they were 40 years ago. People under the age of 40 in this room are 24% less wealthy. Every major economic policy, whether it's capital gains deduction or mortgage interest rate deduction, is nothing but a transfer of wealth from the young to the old. Who owns homes and stocks? People our age. Who rents and makes their money through current income salary?
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Young people. Until we have a series of class traders, older rich people who say, enough is enough, if we don't reinvest in youth, what's the point of any of this? For the first time in the nation's history, and I think all of our problems can reverse engineer to one data point. For the first time in our history, A 30-year-old isn't doing as well as his or her parents was at 30.
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And that's even worse than a 50-year-old not doing well because when your kid's not doing well, when your daughter's not doing well, it brings down the whole house. You just feel bad about America. So let me now list corporations and corporate leaders. There's a lot of amazing leaders.
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Let me now list every guy my age in corporate America who is really taking a stand for America and the values that made them rich.
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Yeah, but your sons are handsome.
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So Brexit, probably the greatest self-inflicted unforced errors are are entering the Southeast Asia, going into Iraq, and in Europe, Brexit. I live in London. It's like, how can we figure out a way to make everything more expensive and reduce our salaries? And they managed to do it elegantly with Brexit. This is worse than Brexit because it's essentially...
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It's not only morally corrupt and taking away rights for the first time in a history of a democracy, but it's essentially tearing up amazing 80-year-long alliances with the world's biggest economies such that we can blow a murderous autocrat. This is economically stupid. It's morally corrupt. So what can we do?
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The rest of us have to take our shot. The rest of us have to do something like this.
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One, try and not have the indignance I have, the emotional reaction, because I think it just tickles the sensors of the right. Show up with facts, focus, pick your punches on the one or two things. I'm focused on Ukraine and the deficit. And quite frankly, we just need to get very activated and send a strong signal in the midterms in 26 and start working on 28.
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So I don't know what else to do other than to say, let's be focused, let's not be emotional, let's bring data, and let's focus on the midterms in 28. Yeah.
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And he's picked them. He's handpicked them. They've made so much money.
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And also, just to be fair to him, he's clearly got a talent in finding good people. So I don't think it's, I don't think he's been focused on Tesla for a while. He doesn't, we have a bias against Elon Musk. I don't know if you've noticed, but he's clearly good at attracting and retaining very talented people because these are, I would argue these are well-run companies.
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But his board is not a board of directors. It's not, they're not representing, they're representing Elon. And quite frankly, he's been right. He's created a ton of shareholder value. So if you've made 150 million bucks, are you really gonna like dress him down for tweeting or calling someone a pedophile? You're like, no, I got 150 million reasons to ignore this.
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I had a Tesla. I had a great car. He started calling me names on Twitter. So I sold it. And, you know, right before I sold it, I took a giant dump in the passenger seat. Back to you, Kara.
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Should I be insulted when they call you and say, we want you in White Lotus? And they go, but just your voice.
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I am so Sidney Sweeney. Seriously. Seriously.
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The guy that showed his nutsack?
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Today's show was produced by Lara Naiman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie and her Todd engineered this episode. Thanks also to Mia Saverio, Dan Shulone, and Drew Burrows. Nishat Karwa is Vox Media's executive producer of podcasting. If you'd like to subscribe to the magazine, go to nymag.com. We very much appreciate you waking up on a Sunday morning during Daylight Savings.
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It's great to be here in the great state of Texas. It's great to be here by South Byte. And we really do appreciate you coming up and being supportive and just generally just so lovely. Thank you so much for making time for us today.
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By the way, by the way, for men, for men, 50 is the new 30, and for women, 40 is the new 90. Okay. Oh, my God. I'm not. Oh, my God. I don't. I should have slept in and watched church chat.
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Someone, it's like that propaganda.
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We'll put sugary shit on top of it and a lime and pretend like you're sophisticated.
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Literally, this is me at the Stowe House last night. The loveliest people come up to me and they're like, thank you for your work on Stowe House. Just get me a fucking Makers and Ginger. I don't want to talk about anything.
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Well, I think it's a tale of two two cities here, and that is Tesla is is crashing in the sense. I mean, you've heard so I'm Doing breakfast with the Nike people tomorrow. Nike went political with their embrace of Colin Kaepernick. But they did the math. And that is two-thirds of Nike sales are outside of the U.S. And no one outside of the U.S. thinks the U.S. has got race relations right.
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Two-thirds of their revenue and probably 70% or 80% of their profits come from people under the age of 30. They also have a huge customer base in non-whites. So essentially the people who burned their Nikes after they endorsed Nike, that was probably their first pair of Nikes. And that is they knew that their core audience would probably feel very good about that move.
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As smart as that was, Musk's political forays or adventures are that stupid because 75% of Republicans say they would never buy EV. He's gone very red pill. In California, his biggest market, EV sales for Tesla are down dramatically. And even after this crash in sales in Europe, if you look at the company, it's lost about a third of its value in February.
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It's lost all of its kind of trump bump gains. If you look at it from a valuation perspective, Apple only grew 2% last year, but it trades at a 38 times earnings multiple. Amazon grew 10%, 38 times PE. NVIDIA grew 10%. about 114%, and it has a P multiple of 40. Tesla grew 1%. Tesla's flat, and it has a price earnings multiple of 144.
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So Tesla is still, even after shedding a third of its value, is the most overvalued company in tech, maybe the exception of Palantir, and the sales are just not, it's crashing. His political calculus as it relates to Tesla was just irrational. Now, To be fair, SpaceX and the value proposition of SpaceX is that rockets blow up. And that is they can take risks that NASA and the government can't.
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And 99% of their launches are successful. They're responsible for about 78% of the launches right now. The Falcon Heavy rocket can get shit into the air, into orbit for $1,500 a kilogram. The next... best is a Russian company called Angara that can do it at three times the cost.
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So their ability to take those sorts of risks and put shit into space for a third of the price of the second best per kilogram launch vehicle, I think SpaceX is going to be worth more than Tesla in 2025.
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I think more than trying to increase revenues, it's trying to clear out obstacles. So there are 11 federal agencies that have 32 investigations currently underway for different Musk companies. And a lot of those inspectors and people seem to be getting the ax. So I don't think his foray into government is about trying to increase revenues.
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I think it's about trying to clear out the inspectors and potential regulation. But it doesn't look like the calculus is very smart here. Like David Sachs getting involved in crypto and then getting Trump to have dinner with the guy from Ripple who probably promised him money. And then all of a sudden deciding to include Ripple in the strategic Bitcoin reserve.
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By the way, there's nothing strategic about that. And then all of a sudden Ripple rips. That's smart political kleptocracy corruption. But at least that's smart. His political forays so far, I don't think are paying off for him.
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Yeah, but you said Waymo's just light years ahead of them. And if Tesla starts trading like a regular automobile company in terms of price to earnings, it would be at $14 a share. It's just impossible to to rationalize evaluation. I still think it's a really good car I think you know it I can't help it. I got a Tesla my uber app I cancel or I let him wait outside.
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I'm down as long as I don't have to be there.
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I know that's wrong But it is a good car. It's a great company It should trade at a multiple of 50 to 100 percent more than the other car companies meaning It's a 25 or 30 dollar stock.
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That's the correct question. I don't know. Fame, narcissism, go red pill, clear out inspectors. To me, the calculus is not smart here. Tesla has basically become a brand that has some very negative brand associations. Yeah.
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If so, 92 percent of Trump's advisers were fired. So there's a 90 percent. It's like being second lieutenant in Vietnam. You're just you're you're probably not going to last very long. That was ugly. Yeah. But 92 percent of those advisers in the first administration were fired more than all the advisers that were fired in the previous three administrations.
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He's very good at creating human heat shields. if in fact he has told his cabinet they're now in charge and he's an advisor, it means he's done. He does not have the complexion to go to Senator Rubio, excuse me, Secretary Rubio. And also these individuals have no incentives to trim their departments. They have very difficult jobs and their departments All of this is a giant fucking distraction.
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So far, according to the Wall Street Journal, Doge has saved $2.6 billion. If you wanted a 6X Doge, just cut off all subsidies to Tesla, which have been $15 billion. This is a giant misdirect.
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This is a giant misdirect to get you and mostly young people to look away. Oh, Doge. Oh, he's crazy. He's firing people. All these sad stories about federal employees being let go.
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I get it. And people in the private sector are fired every day. But they want you to look over here such that you don't look at the tax plan that it's going to add $800 billion to the deficit. So this is the conspiracy that is elegant and that people aren't looking at. Talk about DEI being a helicopter crash. Talk about Doge.
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Talk about inflame people by saying that stupid laws like male versus female, that's how they're spending their time? Because look over here, not at the fact that the point... They're making the tax cuts they want, yeah. Not at the fact that the 0.1% who...
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I love it here. Oh, you want to say, hi, I'm Scott Galloway. Go ahead. I'm Scott Galloway.
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will say under the breath, yeah, I don't want to go to his inauguration, but my accountant tells me I'm going to get another $11 million this year. This is a conspiracy between the 0.1% and an administration that wants you to look over here and ignore the fact that we're about to levy the greatest increase in taxes in history called a deficit.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
100%. I'm an ageist, and so is biology. We age-gate the Senate. You have to be 30. We age-gate Congress at 25. We age-gate CEOs of companies in the UK. They say at 65. In India, I think you have to retire at 65. In the UK, the mandatory retirement age for UK Supreme Court justices is 75. Your prefrontal cortex, when you're a male, does not catch up to a woman's until the age of 25.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
And guess what? From the age of 40 on, your prefrontal cortex begins to shrink. And Senator Feinstein did not know where the fuck she was the last year she was in the Senate. And you lose the ability and the judgment, and people around you want to give you some dignity, and it ends up really hurting America. We absolutely need age limits.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
You know what? I like, personally, I'd go younger than most people. I'd probably go 70. Not 65, not 65, because we'd have to retire. No, people are in much better shape now. But I also, in a weird way, I think it's the right thing to do for people because it takes that anxiety away. It's like, all right, it's time for you to go enjoy your life.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
Go have a nice life. You don't need to leave this place, feed first. Also, the thing I don't like, and this is one of the things I don't like about academia, is that nobody fucking leaves. And so there isn't room for young stars to advance at the rate they should, because we have some dude who was the bomb in gap one accounting in 1978, who won't fucking leave.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
And because he has tenure, we can't fire the guy. And then he not only becomes unproductive, but is a means of trying to maintain some sort of relevance. He becomes obstructionist and general pain in the ass at faculty meetings.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
Take to YouTube. He doesn't need to be a Supreme Court justice.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
Bring in neurologists who say, look, this is where... This is the thing about age decline is it's not linear. It really drops fast. And at what age are people most likely to start really seeing a serious cognitive decline and have an age gap? But it is insane that we would have lower age limits, but we don't have upper age limits.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
By the way, a couple of the 14-year-old girls my son had over for a Halloween party would have done a better job and had a better... command and grasp of the issues facing the Senate than Senator Feinstein. I mean, there are these stories all over the place. So absolutely, for them, for us, for our Constitution, yeah, we need age limits, 100%.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
I just can't even go there, Cara. I'm so fucking triggered. Between surrendering to Putin and measles, I can't even think about what might happen then. You take this one.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
I don't see any evidence of that. I haven't seen any evidence he's declining.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
And I'm Scott Galloway.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
Well, you know, Cara, I hate to talk about me, but, God, can you imagine how much ass I would get if I was president, post-president? I couldn't do it as president, but post-president. Look, I'll be very transparent. I've been approached twice in the last two years by people who said, actually a firm and a person who said, if you put in 10 million, we'll put in 10 million.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
Not for president, but run for Senate or governor. And let's be honest, I have all the attributes to do this. I'm a narcissist, and I have outdoor plumbing, and I'm white, which are the three primary considerations for running for office. And also, I have money. Clever.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
I appreciate that. I appreciate you saying that. Here's the bottom line. I'm not qualified. I don't have the domain expertise. I'm not especially good with people. I think you have to be really good with people. And also, and Kara knows this, this isn't an act, but this is a side of me that is not in many ways, the real me, and that is I'm an introvert.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
When I'm not on a podcast or on television, I don't enjoy people, I don't get energy from them. I want to be around a small group of people and on my own, and that does not make for a good politician. In addition, and I've learned a lot about this from Cara, and Cara has been very generous and helped me develop the platform and the skills to actually make a change.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
I think Cara and I can actually have more impact from outside of the tent. And I think right now, if we are thoughtful and fearless and appreciate our blessings as Americans and decide to pipe up and be strong and thoughtful inside experts and be disciplined and show talent, I think we can affect more change in many ways than almost any congressperson and most senators right now.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
I think Mark should run.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
He's the good billionaire. He's the billionaire we need right now.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
Just selfishly, look at our lives. I can't imagine having a nice life. Can you imagine running for office and all the shit you have to go through?
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
But here's what I'm going to do is I'm going to take what is for me a decent amount of money, which for almost anyone is a lot of money, and I'm going to support moderate candidates and causes. And I'm moving back to the US in 18 months because I want to be in the fight. I think that this is an existential crisis, especially I think rich people need to get aggressive.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
I think it's easy for us to just sort of fold our arms and sit back because the reality is we're going to benefit from the Trump administration. And I think we need to go a little bit more, be a little bit more aggressive.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
Actually, Cara, you travel as much as I do. I travel as much. Do you have any thoughts?
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
You really only sleep four or five hours a night?
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
So first off, it is a real issue. I have been, as I joke, molesting the earth for 30 years. I travel a lot. And there is no, I found there's no silver bullet. There's a few tricks. The first is, quite frankly, is just a message of privilege, and that is I no longer do red eyes, or I try not to. I will take, when I come back from New York to London, I'll fly in the morning.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
And I'll do a little bit of work and a little bit of nap, you know, take a nap. And I also don't fly into places just for the night any longer. I'll go somewhere and I'll stay one or two days to adjust. But I have some general go-tos that they say are what you're supposed to do. The first is I try not to drink alcohol, especially on the plane. I try to drink a ton of water and hydrate.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
As soon as I get to the place where I'm going, I try to work out. Even if it's just doing, I try and do 100 burpees in less than 12 or 14 minutes when I get into my hotel room if the gym's not open, but I try and immediately exercise. I find sweating really helps. And then if at all possible, even if it's just taking a walk, just going outside and putting my face in the sun for 10 to 12 months.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
And some exercise slash sweating, hydration, and getting your face, getting in the sun, if there's sun wherever you are, But it's something I struggle with. And also, and it just helps to have money finally. I used to literally fly to Paris for a night, fly back if I had a meeting at LVMH or wherever. Now I don't do that. I will spend a couple of days. I enjoy myself. I sleep in.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
Also, I use sleep aids. I either take, if it's a nation that allows CBD or marijuana, I take half five milligrams edible before I go to sleep to help me sleep. If it's not, I'll sometimes take a half of Lunesta, but I find you got to get some sleep, even if it means using a sleep aid.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
Yeah, so first is, and I'm not a humble person, I have an aptitude for numbers and I like data, but more than anything, greatness is in the agency of others. And I have people think that it's us producing this content. We obviously have our producers here. My small media company has 18 people and I have three people who do nothing but try and find interesting data.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
We should be the 11th province.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
Well, you know what it means when you're only attracted to Canadians?
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
It means you're asexual.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
Well, Canada first welcomed my mom and dad independently when they immigrated from Glasgow and London. And I had a terrible time when I visited Canada, said no one ever. I would suggest to anybody, if you want to go to a beautiful place with friendly people and great food, Montreal is the most European city in North America. Toronto is essentially like a clean, friendly New York.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
And also my trick is when I find an interesting piece of data myself, I text it to my data team and I ask them to incorporate it in my presentations. And then I will write it down on my Apple Notes to try and cement it in my memory. So for example, yesterday I saw a piece of data that just blew me away and I wrote it down and it'll show up in my next deck when I do a speaking engagement.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
Vancouver is arguably one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
But yeah, every year I went to Formula One in Montreal. I always take the excuse whenever I get invited to speak in Toronto. I just absolutely distinct of the Alliance. It's just a great place to visit, a great place to vacation. And also, you know, whether it's Michael J. Fox or Alan Thicke or Bryan Adams, there's just so many, we've just benefited from so many talented Canadians.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
But I have, Cara and I are really appreciative of that. We clearly struck a nerve. I've had several people come up to me on the street and say that they were very appreciative of those comments. And also just on behalf of almost every sane American, distinct to what you're hearing, the majority of Americans deep down really do feel very positive about Canada and Canadians.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
Brazil, because I'm about to go back. Brazil and Canada. If Bannon finally convinces the Trump administration to come after me, I'm either moving to Florianopolis or Montreal. I don't know.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
You got married in Canada?
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
My parents got married in Niagara Falls.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
I think that's a wonderful story. I also have a story about Niagara. I actually crossed the Niagara Falls on a tightrope, and it reminded me of getting a blowjob from a 90-year-old. And that is, you did not want to look down, Kara. You did not want to look down. What?
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
And that piece of data was the following. Over 50% of 18 to 24 year old males have never asked a woman out in person. And I thought that was so illuminating and horrifying that I wrote it down and you can bet you're going to hear it again across all my different media channels. So
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
Hold on, I got a worse one. Niagara, the ED drug for women. Keeps them wet for three days. Oh my God, stop, stop. Stop. That's bad.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
Today's show was produced by Larry Naiman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie Notat engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows and Mia Severio. Nishat Kirwa is Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back later this week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. How do you get 100 drunk Canadian fraternity bros out of your pool? Guys, would you please get out of the pool? Never gets old.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
Greatness is in the agency of others, but also when you find an interesting piece of data, it's not like I'm some Svengali that can just recall shit. I write it down and I use it over and over such that it becomes a static part of my web matter.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
98% of lesbians end up divorced.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
Humans will do almost anything to avoid pain, and a subset of pain is the unknown, not knowing what's gonna happen. And so I get a lot of calls like this when companies are in play, being acquired, not doing well, should I leave? Is it gonna be shut down? So this is that type of question.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
And my general advice is the following, is that change and disruption, you need to ask yourself what could go right. And that is, one, you don't know what's gonna happen, but also, If a lot of people get, say, it gets closed down and a lot of people get laid off, but the U.S.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
operation becomes the headquarters for North America sans the U.S., and a lot of people leave, that creates a lot of opportunity for promotions. So my general advice in situations where there's a lot of change and disruption is to ignore the psychological damage to the extent you can or the insecurity of the unknown. Because disruption brings a lot of opportunity.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
And you might find yourself in six months, in 12 months, after a big event or non-event in a much better place than you'd anticipated. So especially with a company like TikTok that's got so much consumer power, you stick around and play it out. See what the next card when they turn it over, see what it is.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
Your time is too valuable to spend doom scrolling all day long. Reading terrible anxiety-inducing news all day just isn't productive. Imagine how much time you could save if you limited your news consumption to just 15 minutes a day.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
You'd suddenly have the freedom to call a friend or learn to play the harmonica or just take a breath and be able to appreciate that you're not frying your nerves with more awful news. If you'd like to reclaim your attention without falling out of the loop, you might want to listen to the NPR podcast Up First.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
Up First is a daily show that covers the three most important stories of the day in just 15 minutes so you can learn what you need to know and then move on with your day. Every episode gives you what you need to be informed about without compromising your sanity.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
Episodes touch on the essential stories you need to know and cover topics including international conflict, the new administration, and so much more. I listened to a recent episode about Ukraine, and I found it actually quite even-handed. If you're looking for more news and less noise, you can listen to the Up First podcast from NPR today.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
Yeah, I think I have a little bit of a different take. And I think the underlying assumption is there's a lot of unemployment. And the reality is unemployment is still at pretty much historical lows, hovering around 4, 4.1%. Jobless claims are up a bit. There's a lot of headline news. I think the media loves, the media is like a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
It likes movement and violence and any indication of Things bad in the jobless market or unemployment gets a lot of noise, but the reality is employment in the US is still very, very strong. And distinct to that, there's a lot of change, tumult, insecurity, catastrophizing around AI.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
And then a lot of people argue that that unemployment number is a bit illusory because you're considered a discouraged worker or if you're no longer seeking employment after two years. But having say that, in general, it would be really difficult to make the argument that unemployment is bad right now. It just isn't. And I would argue that it's not about unemployment.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
It's about wages and it's about the percentage of workers' wages relative to GDP, relative to the stock market's percentage and corporate profits. Essentially, labor as a percentage or wages as a percentage of GDP are at a near all-time low or near 40-year low, whereas profits and shareholder value as a percentage of GDP is staggering.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
In sum, it's easy to get a job, it's just not easy to get a job where you can make a good living. I think that's the focus.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
And they should. That's their job. And the people who figure out how to be part of that efficiency are going to make more money. So that's just capitalism. But unemployment is actually at historic lows right now. So I think there's a lot of insecurity. I think there's more job changes. Let me move to what is actionable. A lot of people call me and say, I hate my job. What do I do? And I'm like,
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
I think every three to five years, you should quit your job, even if you don't quit. And what I mean by that, well, you're different. You actually could. What I mean by that is I have been at NYU for 23 years, but I quit every three to five years. What do I mean by that? I go get an offer from a Columbia or Wharton or somewhere else.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
And then I walk up to the dean's office and I say, this is the offer I have. And I'm totally transparent. I don't want to leave. I want to stay. But I need you to match the offer because this is market. And they hum and they ha and they make a bunch of excuses and then they match it. So the way, no one's going to manage your career for you. What you need to do is constantly quit.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
As a matter of fact, the surveys show the people who make the most money are job switchers. Not every year, but every three to five years. But here's what you do if you don't want to leave your job. You quit without quitting. You do a market check. You don't be an asshole. You go into your boss and you say, I got approached. This is what they're offering me. I'd like to stay. Be transparent.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
The truth has a nice ring to it and get a higher salary. But unemployment, no, unemployment isn't bad right now.
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Trump Term Limits, TikTok Status Check, and Scott's Presidential Prospects
And the way you do that is with a market check. And you might find out that you're being overpaid. That's correct. And you should shut the fuck up. Don't tell anybody.
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Trump's Tariffs, Elon's Government Takeover, and OpenAI's New Funding
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Trump's Tariffs, Elon's Government Takeover, and OpenAI's New Funding
If you're an American car maker, sometimes certain car parts or components literally go up and down Canada and cross Mexican borders six, eight, ten times. There's tariffs going to be everywhere in American automobile companies, except Tesla. The majority of their parts are manufactured vertically here in the US. The majority of the automobiles
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Trump's Tariffs, Elon's Government Takeover, and OpenAI's New Funding
they sell in China, which would be subject to the reciprocal tariffs that China is going to impose on American products. The majority of Teslas sold in China are actually manufactured in China. Now, and Tesla is suing Europe for their 7.5% tariff they put on Teslas sold, manufactured in China. So actually these tariffs, in my view,
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Trump's Tariffs, Elon's Government Takeover, and OpenAI's New Funding
And I also occasionally, if I have both a gummy and a couple Makers and Ginger, I put in my AirPods and I danced 80s music without my shirt on.
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Trump's Tariffs, Elon's Government Takeover, and OpenAI's New Funding
were massaged and written and negotiated to a certain extent by Elon Musk. Because what this amounts to in the automobile industry is it's gonna seriously impair U.S. auto companies, but it's not gonna impair Tesla. But this is, what people don't realize, he'll try and get to some sort of political win, flex his muscle, America's back. But the amount of goodwill that we are eroding long-term
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Trump's Tariffs, Elon's Government Takeover, and OpenAI's New Funding
This isn't how you operate a business. This isn't how you operate a country.
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Trump's Tariffs, Elon's Government Takeover, and OpenAI's New Funding
And long-term, they're just not going to be as inclined to coordinate, cooperate with our central intelligence agency when there's a terrorist threat cell in their country. The reason the U.S. is the most powerful nation in the world is for a variety of reasons, our geography, our natural resources, our IP, but also the incredible amount of admiration and goodwill our allies have for us.
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Trump's Tariffs, Elon's Government Takeover, and OpenAI's New Funding
Well, a senator that both of us know heard our comments and our disappointment in the Democratic Party around messaging and hitting back and called me and said, well, what would you do? And I'm like, don't play the indignance card. Don't talk about all these federal employees being laid off. Don't be outraged.
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Trump's Tariffs, Elon's Government Takeover, and OpenAI's New Funding
Have five or six different items, whether it's eggs, whether it's lumber, whether it's a toy, I don't know what, you know, a car, a new Chevrolet, and have it on the DNC website. and just every day announce what the prices are. Inflation is number one on people's minds. That's what they promised to bring prices down.
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Trump's Tariffs, Elon's Government Takeover, and OpenAI's New Funding
And I don't see any way around how interest rates or prices don't immediately or near immediately tick up. And that's what impacts people every day. And that's what he promised to immediately bring down as we were going to bring prices down immediately. This is, I don't get the end game here. I don't.
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Trump's Tariffs, Elon's Government Takeover, and OpenAI's New Funding
Well, in all of these stories that would have made huge news and had real scrutiny, one, there's fewer journalists to cover them and you flood the zone with all of this stuff. By the way, these tax cuts they're talking about, just so you know, Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway are getting a tax cut. Anyone else on this show that makes less than $300,000 a year is getting a tax hike.
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Trump's Tariffs, Elon's Government Takeover, and OpenAI's New Funding
So these tax cuts, again, done under the cover of flooding the zone, are going to cut taxes on people making over, the people making over $300,000 will get a small tax cut, people making over $800,000 or a million bucks a year, about to get a pretty nice tax cut. Is that what you voted for? More wealth for the 1%? But no one's even talking about it because everything seems even more outrageous.
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Trump's Tariffs, Elon's Government Takeover, and OpenAI's New Funding
Yeah. There's so many things here that we can't, the media, and I don't think consumers can absorb it. And that was their strategy. In some ways, it's sort of mendaciously brilliant. Just, oh, slip in a tax cut for the rich because they're going to be focused on all this stuff over here, all our accusations of DEI and the things we're doing at the CDC. Distraction.
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Trump's Tariffs, Elon's Government Takeover, and OpenAI's New Funding
There's just so much here, and one thing feels more strange, weird, reckless, economically stupid than the next. They won't notice all this other stuff. Project 2025 is being implemented.
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Trump's Tariffs, Elon's Government Takeover, and OpenAI's New Funding
Are you? Why are you back in San Francisco?
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Trump's Tariffs, Elon's Government Takeover, and OpenAI's New Funding
Can we talk about the sites?
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Well, I've always maintained. For example, there was an HIV transmission calculator. And I've maintained that actually, I don't think Trump is homophobic. I'm not even sure it's fair to say that their policies are misogynistic. What I think their policies are, I don't know what the right term is here. I don't think this is a war on women. I don't think it's a war on gay people.
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I think it's a war on poor people. And if you have, the CDC had an HIV transmission calculator. And if you're a young man discovering your sexuality, and you live with a single mother, you don't have a lot of money, maybe you've dropped out of high school, it's important that these kids have this information about PrEP and PEP and what certain types of sex result in transmission of HIV.
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It's important that if you have an STD and you find out that you're pregnant, what that means and what treatment are available. And all those sites have been taken down. Now, who does that impact? Would it impact my son? No, it impacts poor kids. It impacts poor women. And it's the definition of censorship and purposely regressing and taking us back.
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It feels like it's not, I don't think it's a war on women or LGBTQ. It's a war on poor women.
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I think it's a bigger issue, taking the word diversity out of preschool or whatever.
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Well, let me finish. I think in terms of actual damage on the ground,
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not having information around vaccines for new mothers who may not have access to formal education, not having access to information around STDs, not having access to information around HIV transmission, not having access to who you can contact if you think your landlord is unfairly abusing you and won't give you your deposit back. I generally believe America, even under Trump,
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that rich people continue to have more rights at the expense of poor people. And I think that's the basic fulcrum and the injustice in our society right now. I think the majority of the people who are in special interest groups, as long as you have money, I think you're fine. This to me is just a war on poor people. And I agree with you, it's ideologically driven,
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Good. I'm about to get on a plane for Orlando.
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But what they've said is in order to execute it, we're going to give rich people a pass on all these things. They will still have access to medical abortions. They will still have access to lawyers to ensure they have civil rights. They will still have access to marriage if they want it. They're fine. It's poor people who are going to bear the brunt of all this ideological weirdness.
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Yeah. I have a speaking gig at Walt Disney World.
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Yeah. Don't ask. I don't know. I don't know. I just go where they send me.
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They do a lot of conventions there, I guess. I don't know. Foreigners? I don't know. I don't know what's going on there. I just know I'm going. And then I spend a day there, and then I go to New York for three or four days, and I'm back.
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The market is a sober arbiter and has done the math really quickly. Everybody loses over the medium and long term with tariffs.
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Yeah, like they continue to do, I mean, all of them, it just went from sort of better, you know, good, better, best. I don't think you've seen any chill around earnings. The thing I find most interesting is that all of them have essentially said we're going big at AI, except for Apple in terms of CapEx. And no one is thinking that Apple is the dumb one right now.
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Apple said, we're going to take sort of a wait and see approach and we're going to leverage other people's technology and investments. And Apple just continues to, you know, sort of overperform. And then the other one is Meta using their kind of AI ad technology. They continue to serve more ads, more targeted, more effective ads.
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It's almost like what Tim Cook did to Meta was similar to what we did to China around AI. And that is we forced or Tim Cook with their opt-in kind of trying to kneecap Meta actually inspired them to figure out a workaround where now their ad stack is much more robust and much more AI driven.
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And just as we held kind of sophisticated chip technology from China, which forced them to come up with a workaround that might, in fact, disrupt American AI, Apple sort of is, no one is criticizing Apple now for not making these enormous announcements about just these staggering investments.
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This is my thesis right now. There's three layers to AI, loosely speaking, buckets. There's the infrastructure layer, the NVIDIA guys. There's the LLMs, the anthropics, the open AIs, perplexity in there. Then there's the application layer, an Expedia or an Airbnb or whoever comes up with AI to do more sophisticated things and make their services better. They're the customer layer.
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I wonder if this is gonna end up being like the airline industry and the PC industry, where there's a massive increase in economic value and productivity, but no one company is able to capture the majority of revenues, similar to the way people are banking that Microsoft, OpenAI and NVIDIA are gonna be able to capture it.
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Yeah, I don't know. I don't, you spend, it's interesting, as close as we are professionally and personally, we are never in the same place. You spend most of your time in DC and San Francisco and I am never in DC or San Francisco.
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Now, Intel captured a ton of revenue and shareholder value because they were the brains inside of PCs. I was on the board of Gateway Computer. Do you remember them?
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We, okay, get this. PCs changed the world.
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I was on the board of Gateway Computer. I know. Talk about the weakest flex in the world.
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Sorry, did I say that wrong? Anyways, so we were the second largest manufacturer of computers. Think about it. If someone had said 100 years ago, PCs, or 50 years, PCs, these supercomputers that cost the government billions of dollars, we're going to be able to put one on every desk. What would the market cap of that company be? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
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It's funny you say that. So just to bring this back to me, I have a really nice relationship with my sister. She's my dad's daughter by his third marriage. I'm the son by his second marriage. And I'm convinced one of the reasons that we're so close now is that we didn't live in the same household.
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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
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Trump's Tariffs, Elon's Government Takeover, and OpenAI's New Funding
I've always been shocked by how many siblings are not that close, even though they're both really good people. And I'm convinced it's because something traumatic happens that creates a fissure when they're living together as children. And when you're a sibling, you feel that familial bond, but the fact that you never lived together, I don't know. She looks like a different species.
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She's attractive. She's blonde. She kind of looks, I always joke, she looks like Aryan youth. She has big, beautiful blue eyes and platinum blonde hair.
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Yeah, she likes that. She likes that.
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Well, when you have the world's richest man who can deny people there's, you know, get in the way of their Medicare, Social Security, veterans benefits unilaterally based on his crew that shows up. I mean, it's the ultimate. We complain about regulatory capture and private capture. Richest man in the world is now
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have access to who gets money from the federal government without the approval or the oversight of our elected representatives. Again, there's just so much crazy shit going on that we never thought we would see. It's triage right now. There's so many incoming projectiles at everybody that they don't know how to respond and absorb this.
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But he is now the puppet master and the notion that he can go into a website and turn off payments for social services or government services or shut off foreign aid at his sole discretion.
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Well, that's fair because he's appointed by the president, the president can remove him. But my impression is based on the tariffs, the market's reaction to taking a stock up, that basically, okay, you have one guy who the president has entrusted to make these decisions real-time.
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And one of the downsides or the upsides of a bureaucracy, and what people would argue correctly sometimes in an efficient government, is that we don't let any... Power corrupts, and absolute power absolutely corrupts. And what we have here is absolute power, and what do you know? It's the world's wealthiest man. And it goes back to the same thing. There has to be a check on...
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this American experience where we just have decided that money translates to not only power, but to rights. And we are transferring more and more wealth, which subsequently means more and more power and probably most subsiding more and more rights at the expense of poor people. And what's going to happen to every company that isn't owned by Musk.
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And I look at these tariffs and I'm like, this is brilliant. He's figured out a way to create a tariff that pretty much exempts Tesla. Everyone was like, well, Tesla sells a lot of cars into China. No, all the cars being sold in China are manufactured in China. They're not subject to tariffs. Anyways, I find it very distressing and very un-American.
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I think almost every life lesson can be extracted from one of the seasons of Game of Thrones. I feel like Elon Musk right now is the high sparrow.
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Toman is President Trump. It feels to me like Trump is just massaging and coordinating everything here and shows up with these really impressive, probably very hardworking, intensely smart group of people. who show total fealty to Musk like a god, and I bet Trump admires that now, and Trump says to him, show that same loyalty to him. And Trump says, this guy's smart.
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He fired 80% of Twitter staff. This is exactly what we need in the government. And they just go at it. And I don't think at this point Trump has the regulatory checks to even slow him down unless he were to decide to fire him. So I think he's just going after it so fast and so furious.
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Yeah, it just, it feels, I mean, there's a component of it that I understand. There's a kernel of like value, you know, it's.
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You can see the importance of shock value. And occasionally you do need to kind of go in with a hammer, not a scalpel. It strikes me that this is just so reckless that it's going to take, it's going to erode decades. What do you think the morale is like?
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Yeah, look, it's impossible not, that's an impossible, I don't call it accusation, but it's an impossible comment to not land. Because if you knew somebody on one of those flights, you're devastated, right? They're losing a loved one unexpectedly in such a harsh spectacle. I can't imagine any of those people, including their families, are ever going to be the same again.
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It strikes me that you need a better strategy than showing up at churches and schools and workplaces for these immigration raids. I just find it so ironic that the agencies charged with locating people. Okay, starting with people who've been detained for a crime, I get it.
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But it just strikes me as so ironic that they have determined the place to find these undocumented workers is at work, church, or school. Doesn't that make them the most American of us?
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But it appears that we've decided that if we want to find undocumented workers, we should go to a workplace, or they're sending their kids to school, or they're going to worship. I find it so telling that maybe
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maybe i mean i i i'm not about i'm not against deporting people but i find it illuminating that okay we didn't wake up one day and just find out that 17 of people on construction work sites were undocumented workers and what i don't think we've come to grips with in terms of an honest conversation around this is one i do believe i don't think you can have open borders but two
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The reason why we have let this go so far is that if the secret sauce of America is immigration, the most profitable part of that secret sauce has been illegal immigration. We don't want to have an honest conversation about it because they come in, They take care of grandma, they pick our crops, they build our houses, and then when the work dries up, they leave without taking social security.
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They pay social security taxes, but they never stick around for social security. They actually don't lean on our social services because they're worried about being deported. And have you seen what's happened at construction sites across America? They're empty. People aren't showing up. So I wonder if this strategy is just of trying to shock and awe and intimidate
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is very shortsighted and not good for the economy and not going to accomplish what we need to accomplish in terms of having a sane immigration strategy. That's my, you know, anyways, call it two fails in a row here. The other real fail, again, under the auspices of flooding the zone with mendacious shit, you know, a foreign aid freeze, I think we spent about $70 billion or about $200 per citizen.
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And this is some of the things we do. You know, in Sudan, we support 634 soup kitchens that feed almost a million people. In Thailand and Myanmar, refugee hospitals funded by the U.S. are closing their doors. Patients with tuberculosis and life-threatening conditions are being carried away on makeshift stretchers. In Africa,
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I mean, the Democratic Republic of Congo, where USAID supported four and a half million displaced people, we were on the verge of eradicating diseases like malaria and malnutrition because of private and public coordination. In Cambodia, where the US was close to eliminating malaria, officials now fear the disease is making a comeback.
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I think the majority of Republicans... When if you sat them down and you said for 200 bucks a year, this is the good we're going to do around the world. And this is the goodwill it's going to create. And these are the diseases we're going to eradicate. And this is how we're going to find refugees who are displaced in wars a shot at surviving.
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I think the majority of people go, here's $200 right on. Yep.
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Trump's Tariffs, Elon's Government Takeover, and OpenAI's New Funding
But let's put the morality aside. So you decide, look, I want that $200 to go to American kids. Full stop. Okay, I understand the argument. I don't agree with it, but I understand it. That $200, That void we're leaving, Russia and China are gonna step into that void. They're going to find people willing to be allies and who will fund groups.
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my view is taking a step back. It was like when the wildfires came, I think at least the point I was trying to make, I won't put words in your mouth, is that rather than I would argue empathy for the people who lost their homes or the people who lost their lives, the left says it's climate change, the right says it's DEI. In this instance, the left was mostly quiet. The right was, this is DEI.
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We have this sense of security, this cold comfort, that there are people out there who would come for us, kill us, and take our shit away. And one of the reasons they don't is because they can't, because generally speaking, the vast majority of nations and the vast majority of people around the world might find us obnoxious, they might find us gluttonous, they might find us arrogant.
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Trump's Tariffs, Elon's Government Takeover, and OpenAI's New Funding
But they think at the end of the day, we're trying to do the right thing. That we're the people who are funding that hospital. That when there's refugees, when there are homeless people and there are maternity wards being shelled in Ukraine, that American charities show up. I mean, we're seen as the good guys. And that pays enormous...
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that pays enormous dividends that we don't recognize because the homeland hasn't been attacked since September 11th. So even if you think, even if you don't make the moral argument or you don't accept the moral argument, just from a security standpoint, from a geopolitical power standpoint, this is the best 200 bucks
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I'm glad you're lighting up. You know what?
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He did vote against Hegseth, which is kind of... He did, finally. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I feel like that's Hannibal Lecter deciding he's a vegan on his deathbed. I know. It doesn't do us a lot of good now, right?
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Trump's Tariffs, Elon's Government Takeover, and OpenAI's New Funding
And it's just a shame that a lot of that empathy gets some bullshit nods from people, thoughts and prayers, and they immediately go to, how can I politicize this? And our point was, or not our point, my point is the following. The FAA is arguably one of the most successful government agencies in history. And as someone who's invested in aviation, the error rate you have to
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I have a quick question for you.
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Is Edward Snowden a traitor?
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Because, well, I thought that was the most interesting moment, but you now as well, no longer, in my opinion, are qualified to run our National Intelligence Service. I think that's a layup of a question. I'm not suggesting what was found out might not ultimately be good for America, but he's full stop, 100% a traitor.
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You lost my vote. I'll vote for you. Secretary of Defense, I'm in for you.
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I hang out with my dogs. Sometimes I take a gummy. I like to write. The evening is my alone peace time. I also occasionally, if I have both a gummy and a couple of Makers and Ginger, I put in my AirPods and I danced 80s music. Without my shirt on, a dance in the mirror, like a 15, what I imagine like a gay 15 year old teenager would do. Is that wrong?
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It would literally, it would probably decrease the amount of sex people have that night by like, everyone would just be so freaked out and so unattracted to everybody.
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DJs and Tom Petty, little bit of edible CBD and sativa with the makers and ginger. Daddy's got the moves. Dancing. Hello, ladies.
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Do you believe in love at first sight or should I walk by again?
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Today's show is produced by Lara Naiman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie Underside, engineer of this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Ms. Severio, and Dan Shalon. Nishat Kirwa is Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media.
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Trump's Tariffs, Elon's Government Takeover, and OpenAI's New Funding
You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back later this week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Cara, have a great rest of the week.
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test to is 10 to the negative eighth with, to get a civil aviation aircraft certified to fly passengers. I mean, in the ability at any moment, there's something like 7,000 planes in the air, in our airspace. And the fact that they're able to minimize or keep the number of these horrific tragedies It is more dangerous to walk up your stairs to get on a plane.
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And just let me finish here. I am not a fan of DEI. I've said in the university setting, I think that apparatus should be disassembled. I think in the corporate setting, there is absolutely still a role for DEI. And people don't realize that DEI The removal of DEI will impact veterans' ability to get jobs.
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But in the instance of, if you were to say that the DEI has infected the FAA, then all you could say is, based on the performance of the FAA, then DEI should be incorporated into every organization. Because whatever the FAA has been doing the last 30 or 40 years has resulted in outstanding metrics. But I just want to circle back. I feel whoever wrote that, I trust and hope that-
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Yeah, I apologize sincerely if in any way our comments come across as coarse. That was not our intention.
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Well, just on a human level, for the first time in my life, and this is an odd feeling and it's a mix of shame and surprise, I'm rooting for Canada, not the U.S. So let's start with the tariffs and let's do a strong man or steel man.
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His argument is that the America has been too soft and that America should command the space it occupies and charge more and create a revenue source for access to what is the largest economy in the world. and that our trade agreements have been asymmetric, and that is we have been taken advantage of.
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First, my personal experience having literally done business in almost every Western nation and even negotiated agreements between private companies and world leaders, America flexes its power every fucking day. I mean, the notion that somehow we're always on the wrong end of deals, when you show up, almost every trade agreement. We have 700 military bases in 80 countries.
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China has one in Djibouti. And you think we just asked for those? You think we just said, hey, wouldn't it be great idea to have a military base? We flex our power. every day. So first, the base notion that somehow we've been getting taken advantage of is literally comical. Now, let's talk about the tariffs themselves.
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You could make the argument, all right, with China, the argument would be, and I'm trying to call balls and strikes here, a lot of the tariffs initially imposed in the first Trump administration were actually kept in place by Biden. This takes it to such a deeper, weirder level because For example, with Canada, 25%, this will just immediately raise prices for both nations.
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The definition of stupid is you hurt yourself and you hurt others. In addition, you don't think China might get a military base at Colombia at some point? You don't think Canada? Canada, the Canadian embassy in Tehran, those people risked their lives to try and covertly get American hostages out of Iran.
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They risked their lives because Canada sees themselves as friends, brothers, siblings of America. They followed us into Afghanistan. They followed us into Iraq. We have Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association teams in Canada. It's more than an ally. They are with us. And Canada right now can't even answer the question, what do you want from us? What's the end game here?
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Why didn't you call us your good friend and say, this is our concern and this is what we're trying to achieve? I don't even think they know. They can't even answer the question, what is his end game here in this bullshit that, well, we've got to reduce the level of fentanyl. You can sort of make that argument against China and Mexico. You can't make it against Canada. Yeah.
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Okay. You've managed to raise prices to diminish the quality of life of a friend, to diminish goodwill that has been built up over 150 years. And it's just going to raise consumer prices. It's not only reckless. It is literally the definition of stupid is doing something that hurts others and hurts yourself, especially the one against Canada.
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I can sort of see the argument, at least theoretically, about the drug trade and fentanyl coming through Mexico. Fine. The immigrants, the 250,000 people coming over the border, maybe China. I can sort of make an argument. I still don't think it's smart. But the tariffs against Canada?
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If you were to game theory this out, the most likely outcome is that immediately you're going to see a spike in prices, or near immediately. A lot of companies have been stockpiling. I was on the board of a retailer and I was speaking to the CEO the other day and he said, yeah, the tariffs in China, we knew they were coming, so we've been stockpiling things.
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and trying to get them in until this gets solved. So I actually don't think you're going to see price increases as quickly as people think. Maybe we will, but we will see price increases. And then he will come up with some sort of, he'll declare victory and say he got something and most likely rolled them back somewhat or all. That's the most likely scenario.
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What we're not thinking about is that people have memories, people have egos. And we're no longer a trusted ally. We no longer can be counted on. You're going to see that the Canadians are going to be more likely to import BYD electric vehicles.
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And what's interesting about this, and it gets more Machiavellian and mendacious as you look at it, it's clear Musk's fingerprints are all over this. Because if you look at Tesla, they actually have, to their credit, the greatest manufacturing depth. What do I mean by that?
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The person, either the defense secretary, someone needs to say, I take responsibility. Then the third thing is, and this is the hard part, you need to overcorrect. When Tylenol, when it was found out that some crazy person had put cyanide in Tylenol, capsules, Johnson & Johnson cleared all of the shelves of all Tylenol nationally at huge cost to them to restore trust.
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And Cara, if you're texting and you see the emoji of a Makers and Ginger, a guy dancing and a limp dick, I am in the chat. That means I am in the chat.
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They're doing none of these things because President Trump comes from the Roy Cohn zeitgeist of never, never acknowledge that you're wrong and just continue to lie. And if you lie long enough, you in fact will, you know, people will start to believe you. But the real damage here is that if you think about Within the greatest organization in history, the U.S.
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government is arguably the most successful organization in history or the most impressive, and that is the U.S. military. It has turned back fascism. It has turned repelled armies out of Gulf nations in days because of our ability to deliver violence anywhere in the world really effectively, efficiently, and because people are willing to put their lives on the line.
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When you can't trust the people at the highest levels that they are taking, when you're flying an aircraft, you're trusting some guy from Omaha or some gal from Nebraska that she is obsessing over every fucking part on that plane before you have to skirt along the atmosphere at two times the speed of sound, avoiding surface-to-air missiles, and then trust that the agent's on the ground risking their lives.
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would never have anyone not follow protocols and might unmask them. So what does this do to the effectiveness, the morale, the willingness to join these security forces? And also this stuff around the phone and the app, it's a misdirect. I've had some interaction with our security apparatus. When you go into a building, of the NSA or the CIA, you can't even bring a phone in.
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You know, I'm not talking about high-level classified information.
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And then this conversation was why skiffs were invented.
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Because the idea is you have a secure room that no one – how are our allies going to share their sensitive information with this clown car? So the damage here, we don't know. The damage here is like an iceberg. The majority of it is below the surface. We will never know about it until there are military operations that fail. They will blame it on somebody else. But this is an enormous –
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Whiskey Leaks. Just before we get into the serious stuff, I think people want to hear more about me.
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But you don't need to be a national security advisor to know what happened here. And that is, When I establish an ongoing relationship with a male prostitute, I change the name and the number, or I change the name.
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It throws the people in my life off the scent. So it's clear. It's so obvious what is happening here. Walls is fucking Jeffrey Goldberg. It's obvious what's going on here. And he had the wrong name purposely on the wrong number to throw the folks in his life off. Oh.
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I'm a little slow today. All right. So I think, as you know, for the first time in my life, I had something resembling a non-outstanding physical where he said, you're borderline hypertensive. I didn't tell you this.
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A little geopolitical humor to lighten the mood.
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And Tulsi Gabbard refusing to acknowledge it was her. And Senator Warren's like, so TG isn't you? And she's like, well, it's under review. And he's like, what does that have to do with anything? And then she says, there was no classified information. And he's like, well, then share it if it wasn't classified. She looks like, I think.
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My man, who I supported for president in 2020.
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I love watching these hearings. If you want to know what you look like, you look at these people. If you want to know what you look like when you were 17 and you got caught masturbating.
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That is literally the facial expression of these people.
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Oh, there's, I actually do. One of them's going to go down.
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I think it's, oh my gosh. I think, look, I don't think Trump cares about national security.
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That he's putting warriors in harm's way. I really don't think he cares. What I do think he cares about is I think this is very embarrassing for him. It makes him look incompetent. There's going to be a blood offering. It's a toss up between. I think it's got to be walls. Well, I don't know. It could be walls. He could also decide, heck, Seth, this DUI hire just makes us look bad.
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Heck, Seth, getting off that plane and being so indignant. No, no attack plans were shared. I see attack plans every day. And then you see these text messages and they have the equipment. The cadence, the sequencing, the targets, the time. I'm like, what do you want? Color-coded tabs? I mean, he came across, he's handled himself so poorly. I think, so Gabbard, I don't know. Someone's got to go.
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Yeah, 140 over 80. And I'm like, what? Take it again. I made him take it like eight times. I'm like, sorry, we're not doing a ninth time. And so immediately had my urine, my blood drawn, my fecal matter, like everything uploaded to ChatGPT. And they all come back with the same fucking thing, drink less. And when they started asking me questions. So anyways, I have- What's happening?
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A really easy prediction. This is my prediction. A really easy prediction. At a very big D.C. event in the next 30 to 90 days, Jeffrey Goldberg and his wife are going to walk in somewhere. There's going to be a pause and he is going to get a standing ovation. Yeah. If there's a winner here, it's journalism and it's Jeffrey Goldberg.
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But this guy just did the right thing. He just he he resisted the temptation to just continue listening in because he understands, you know, defense and security protocols. He didn't release it till after the attack. He's been he has handled this perfectly well.
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Yeah, I like it, but I think it runs deeper than that. I think these guys, look, we like to think that you can put people, I mean, for God's sakes, we've got a Fox host, his defense secretary, and we're surprised that there's amateur errors?
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So it's not, okay, you can have protocols and fine, put them in jail. That's not the problem. The problem is an environment where you have an autocrat who values loyalty and fealty over competence.
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Dry out clinics as a sober person. By the way, just a quick side note. I think this anti-alcohol movement is the second worst thing behind remote work to happen to young people. Your 25-year-old liver, the damage or inability to process or ability to process alcohol at 25 is dwarfed by the risk of social isolation and anxiety.
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When the attacks of October 7th happen and Hamas is hoping to inspire a multi-front war on Israel, Biden sends these amazing things called U.S. carrier strike forces that literally take A city to run and massive, massive capital expenditure and skills and 5000 sailors who are just so highly trained, so committed, so willing to put themselves.
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And he parks them off the coast of the Mediterranean and says to Iran, sit the fuck down. And we don't have a multi-front war. And we don't have a nuclear power backed into a corner, Israel. America doesn't realize, it doesn't miss what it doesn't have. And that is a level of, it has so much prosperity, so many freedoms that they don't recognize are a function of a military that trusts each other.
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That trusts that the people back in Langley, Virginia will not accidentally share who I am and I will be tortured and then murdered. That if I am flying With a package of armaments and a cash to deliver that I have the right coordinates and the and the air defense systems haven't gotten.
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Well, I had a few thoughts listening to the speech. That's the first time that I have, in my view, or that I've really noticed cognitive decline. That's the first time I thought, oh, wow, it's getting old. And you've been saying it for a while. That's the first time I really saw evidence of it. He just sounds not flight of foot, so to speak.
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Look, and also his speech writer clearly is mimicking what Nigel Farage said about Brexit, claimed that it was, this is our independence day. And it's like, well, folks, you realize that people declare independence from Britain, not Britain doesn't declare independence, like declaring independence from who? But we've just said this all along.
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My 50-year-old liver can't process the same way. Anyway, so I took my blood pressure over the weekend. I hadn't taken it in a while. I was becoming obsessed with it. It's 127 over 72. It's dropped dramatically. And I'm like, oh, it's mistaken.
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If you were looking for the most elegant, clear, blue line path... to increasing prices and reducing the competitiveness of our products overseas as reciprocal tariffs are implemented, there's no more elegant a way to reduce prosperity in economic history probably than tariffs. And it comes down to – so I teach strategy.
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And if you try to distill strategy down to a few basic tenets, two of them would be the following. In strategy, you're trying to answer one question. What can we do that's really hard? Either with spending $18 billion a year on content is really hard, but we have access to cheap capital. Okay, we're Netflix.
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Building the most robust supply chain in the world because of access to cheap capital is really hard. Hi, we're Amazon. What can we do that is really hard? And then the second thing is the biggest mistake people make in strategy organizations is believing that they're boxing against a speed bag or that they're in that twilight zone where when they move, they stop time and no one else responds.
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And this is the strategic here is so basic and that is he's under the impression the U.S. is so powerful and superior that we can just levy tariffs errantly without any rationale. and that they won't respond and levy reciprocal tariffs. As a matter of fact, you want to talk about people who are doing it strategically.
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Canada and Europe have said, not only are we going to implement reciprocal tariffs, we're going to be especially hard on the tariffs affecting red states. We're going after your heart and lungs, President Trump. I mean, they're being quite strategic about it. And it's this basic error. I see companies make this all the time. We're going to do this one, this one, and this one.
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Okay, you realize that Adidas and Ahn will do the same thing. I mean, they will respond. And that is the biggest strategic error is assuming that you are operating in a vacuum of strength. and that your competitors aren't going to respond. And every nation has levied reciprocal tariffs. No one has said President Trump, you're so big and bad and America is so amazing.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
I think there's an argument that you could say we have unfairly subsidized a military umbrella for the second and third largest economies in the world, specifically Japan and Germany and maybe most of Europe. I think that's a real, I think that's a valid argument. But the notion that we don't get the better end or as good a deal Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
Yeah. I think that means you're a vampire. I'm a corpse.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
So I'm trying to figure out what's going on. And I figured out that I'm drinking dramatically less because Chiltern Firehouse burned down. I was going there once or twice a week.
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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
Geopolitical disasters are going to have to hold on for a minute. So I go there, I'm never able to get in there. It's total face control, the coolest people in London, the coolest room, greatest bartenders, greatest vibe. The door woman ends up, she has a podcast called, I forget what it's called. Oh shit, I'll find out. A really talented young creative woman.
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And she came up to me and said, hi, I love your podcast. Would you be willing to have lunch someday? I said, sure, we have lunch. End of the lunch, she goes. Here's my WhatsApp number if you ever want to come by. Here it is. This is like Charlie getting the golden ticket in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
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And whenever I got with my friends, everyone's like, wouldn't it be great to go to Chiltern? And everyone's like, do you know anybody? And I'm like, yeah, no problem. I'll just text my friend. Anyways, this is I'm there twice a week. And the world clearly decided that the universe was out of order with me having access to this level of hot, cool people just regularly. The place fucking burned down.
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have created one million. And sometimes it's people go, oh, Republicans are acknowledging inflation. They're speaking more, they're business people. Trump's a businessman. So it goes back and forth. So they're the swing voter.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
In addition, you're seeing a flood of advertising into this young male demographic, because by the way, those people are the great white rhino of advertisers because they're stupid. They spend money on things like shoes, and watches and coffee and their decision makers and their companies around technology.
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They buy high margin products and you can't reach them because they're watching Netflix and Spotify. So where do you reach a 34 year old male? You reach him on podcasts. Reaching a young male wealthy audience is an advertiser's dream and you can't reach them anywhere else. In addition, 50% of people have said they listen to at least one podcast a month. The medium is growing faster
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than Alphabet or Meta right now in terms of ad revenue. In addition, there's a built-in moat, and that moat is the following. Because we started seven years ago, we have a huge subscriber base on Apple, on Spotify, on YouTube, and anything we drop gets downloaded when you subscribe. And advertisers base their advertising and CPMs based on your built-in installed base.
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So if you have been in the podcasting game for a while, you almost have a natural mode around you because advertisers will only advertise on pods who have a certain amount of scale. So the little guys, the 699,000 podcasts that aren't in the top 1,000, It is difficult for them to make it out of the crib.
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So you have a plethora, you have a tectonic shift in the flows of rivers of advertising capital into this new medium. And you actually, strangely enough, despite the fact there's low barriers of entry and 700,000 podcasts put out something every week, there's really only five or 600 of them that have the scale that advertisers want.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
Meaning like almost every other medium where digitization comes in, it's become a winner take most, if not all environment. What's interesting about podcasting is the two newer platforms are YouTube. More people listen to podcasts on YouTube now than on Spotify or Apple. 20% of my listens at Prof G, because the Prof G market is very visual, is on TVs.
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No one was hurt. No one was hurt. But it's out of commission for three years. Oh, my God.
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It's on YouTube that people airplay to their TV. You're seeing our revenues here at Pivot are comping up for the last seven years, probably 28 or 30% a year. So this is attracting a ton of talent, a ton of capital, big growth up a small base. And Megan, and oh, and by the way, I forgot, you know who's just decided they're getting into the podcasting game? Netflix.
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So if they put Steve Bartlett or Pivot or On With Kara Swisher on their front page for a hot minute in front of 300 million people, that podcast is going to go into the top 10. They're getting into the game. So you're going to see advertisers switch to the small number of companies that have scale. You're going to see a dramatic increase in advertising spend.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
You're going to see some multi, some nine-figure-plus businesses deals in podcasting. You're going to see some really, really big deals. This is the medium of 2026. Let me ask you a question.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
OK, in the short term, yes, it hurts everybody because people go on to a standstill and we've seen this and they say, just just, you know, cool your jets, stand down until we figure out what's going on. However, if you look at the shifts in mediums, everyone knew people were shifting money and ad spend from traditional media into search based media or social based media. We all knew that.
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But what happens is whenever there's an economic shock, and media planners and big agencies are forced to rethink their budgets, they typically take everyone down, but then they come back in the new mediums. Exogenous shocks give a company pause to rethink their entire media strategy, and that almost benefits the new guys. So actually in recessions and in economic shocks,
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
It does feel... It's a total Andre Balazs special. It's a shitty hotel with decent service and hot people and amazing cool vibes so you can charge $1,100 a night for a $400 room. Anyways, more power to you, Andre. By the way, met the mother of my children at a Raleigh hotel controlled by Andre Balazs.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
In the short term, it hurts everybody, but in the medium term, it massively expedites the transition that was sort of already happening at a low speed. It expedites it in Google and Meta. When they take their advertising budgets back, it gives them a chance to think, should we be spending this much on newspapers or broadcast television? Maybe not.
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We know we're going back into TikTok and Meta and Alphabet. So while we will absolutely, with these tariffs, see a reduction in our growth,
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When the economy comes back, it's going to expedite the disruption.
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Oh, look, the Chinese see this void. We had spent decades and $70 to $80 billion a year on USAID helping fund a hospital in Cambodia. Tremendous goodwill in Cambodia. Set up this infrastructure. It was working well. Money was being put to good use. We just cut it off. You know who showed up literally the next week? And this is a true story, the Chinese.
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And they are taking advantage of all the good work that's been done to usurp soft power. And I believe this goes back to the notion that we have a monopoly on our ability to deliver violence. We have, I think, 700 bases in 70 or 80 nations. I think China has two or three.
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You're going to see a dramatic increase in the number of Chinese military bases on foreign soil because they are filling our shoes and getting massive benefit from the organizations, the relationships in the NGO sector that we were funding. And they'll just slip into those shoes and say, no, no, no, you don't need to close the hospital. The good guys are here. And nothing's for free.
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The next time they show up in a year, two years, three years and say, look, we'd like to have a naval base here. We'd like to be able to refuel our planes here and we'll pay for the revenue. And by the way, how's the hospital coming? Is it still working? Great. So we're going to see for the first time a dramatic increase in Chinese military bases overseas, which to date the U.S.
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really has had a monopoly on. This soft power translates to hard power. And people don't realize, again, these people don't think long term. They're morons. Well, the whole basis of an elected official at the end of the day, it goes back to strategy. What are you supposed to do that's really hard? What are you supposed to do that's really hard?
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You're supposed to prevent a tragedy of the commons over the medium and the long term.
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My son's middle name is now Raleigh. Anyways...
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
What I'm doing with my health is the children firehouses burned down. And I figured out that I think somewhere between I'm drinking somewhere between six and eight fewer drinks a week because children burn down. Anyway, so I need to find a new place. So last night. There's a bunch of new contenders. Last night, and I'm checking them all out.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
But the people or the entities that will fill the void abroad are foreign nations, some of which do not have our best interests at heart. I don't think of China as an enemy, I think of them as a competitor, maybe even an adversary. The organizations that will fill the void in the US, are for-profit organizations that over the medium and the long term will probably demand margin.
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So what happens when the government vacates from these services, and this is what they want. They want private enterprise running all prisons. They want to privatize Social Security because then corporations will insert themselves in the middle. In some ways, they're more innovative. In some ways, they're more productive.
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They'll get monopoly power on the jails and whatever, this part of the county or this part of the state. They will slowly raise the rates and we will end up paying more for less. There are certain things that should be delivered at scale. The electricity in a city needs a monopoly. And in order to have monopolies, you have to have regulators such that they don't enact monopoly pricing power.
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So this is abroad. Our adversaries will fill the void domestically with these businesses that they're cutting. You'll see private enterprise move in. And over the medium and the long term, the consumer will lose.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
Yeah, I'm convinced if my co-host on Property Markets was German, we just wouldn't be successful. Yeah, let's talk about AI in the markets. It just doesn't have the same ring as when a British guy is talking about it.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
But the thing he was talking about, I don't think you got fully across, the German word for debt translates to guilt in English. Isn't that interesting? And they're about to kind of unchain their fiscal strength for infrastructure spending and military spending, which I think is going to be a big deal. But anyways.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
What was my stock pick? What was my stock pick for 2025, Cara?
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
Last night, I went to this new place called Soho Muse, which is a Soho house. But Soho house has figured out they let in too many people. So now they have a one that you can't get into. There's always another room. There's always another level.
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Today's show was produced by Lara Naiman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie Intertide engineered this episode. Ronnie Paladaro edited this video. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Mia Severo, and Dan Shalon. Nishat Kerouaz, Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you're subscribed to the show wherever you listen to podcasts.
Pivot
Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. That's right. A whiskey, emoji, dancing, and a limp dig. The dog is in the chat. I'm sorry.
Pivot
Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
So I found somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody. Went there last night. Pretty good. Not sure. Daddy went deep in the paint. And tonight, I'm going to Kensington Gardens.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
As Winston Churchill said, I've gotten more out of alcohol than it's gotten out of me. I would not have kids and I'd likely still be a virgin and I'd have very few good friends if it wasn't for alcohol.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
Well, these are some of our most senior and most impactful and most important people in government. And I think you have to take them at their word. So let's just look at a few of their past quotes. Any security professional, military, government, or otherwise would be fired on the spot for this type of conduct and criminally prosecuted for being so reckless with this kind of information.
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That's Secretary Hegseth referring to Hillary Clinton's emails being on a server. More from Secretary Hegseth, how damaging is it to your ability to recruit or build allies with others when they are worried that our leaders may be exposing them because of their gross negligence or their recklessness in handling information?
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Again, that was Secretary Hegseth when they found emails on a server that he decided were classified. Let's keep going. The fact that she wouldn't be held accountable for this I think blows the mind of anyone who's held our nation's secrets dear, Hegseth added back. And who's had top secret clearance like I have and others who know that even one hiccup causes a problem. What about Secretary Rubio?
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Nobody is above the law, not even Hillary Clinton, Rubio said at Fox, even though she thinks she is. Mishandling classified information is still a violation of the Espionage Act. That's a criminal charge so serious that it can bring the death penalty. Close quote.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
When you have the Clinton emails on top of the fact that the sitting president of the United States admitted he had documents in his garage, Director Walz or National Security Advisor Walz told CNN, but they didn't prosecute. They didn't go after these folks. Exasperated.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
Any unauthorized release of classified information is a violation of the law and will be treated as such, said Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. And my favorite quote on the actual— You know what my name for her is?
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
And my favorite quote is actually from the text message chain. We are currently clean on OPSEC from Secretary Hagsath, meaning we are clear. You can trust that the security protocols are in place. And this reflects a couple of things. One.
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This administration, as led by Donald Trump, President Trump, believe that the government of the United States, which is the most impressive organization in history, ask yourself, for all the shitposting all of us do about the U.S. government, who's provided more rights and more prosperity at a lower cost, at taxes this low? Best product for lowest price brought to you by the U.S. government.
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Most impressive organization in the world. And these folks have decided that any protocols, no matter how established or how important, they're bigger than. That they just, they don't need to pay attention to this stupid shit that people before them were doing. It's the ultimate Dunning-Kruger effect.
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Signalgate, Auto Tariffs, and Trump's Crypto Empire
And then the last thing I'll say before I get your comments is when someone is pulled over and convicted for a DUI, on average, on average, They have driven drunk 80 times previous to that. So the question isn't what happened here, because fortunately, Jeff Goldberg understands security protocols. He didn't release the information until after the attacks had happened.
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When he realized he was privy errantly to classified information, he voluntarily exited the chat. He understands security protocols. I mean, make him fucking defense secretary.
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The scariest question is, we found out they got a DUI here. What are the other 79 times that secure information has been leaked to bad actors who aren't going to follow security protocols? Maybe work for the CCP or the GRU. When you put peewee little leaguer incompetent ass clowns In positions of this importance, there are going to be unforced errors.
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If you want to know what you looked like when you were 17 and you got caught masturbating, that is literally the facial expression of these people.
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This is a crisis, and there's only three things you have to remember in crisis management. I don't care if it's Martha Stewart, Exxon, or what's happened here. One, you have to acknowledge the problem. This was a fuck up. There's just no getting around it. This is unacceptable. That should have been their three words. This is unacceptable. Two. the top guy or gal needs to take responsibility.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
When did Jeff Bezos become Marc Andreessen? That's what I want to know.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
Really? I always thought he was a pretty, like, even-handed guy.
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Yeah, but the bottom line is it's because most journalists just aren't that hot, Cara.
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Well, the good news is that probably won't happen. The next move, you won't even be aware it's happening.
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You'll have, no, no, no, no, no. You're not that old. You'll have some Filipino nurse saying, it's okay, Ms. Swisher, just follow me. And you'll be like, where's grandpa? You'll just, we'll be so out of it, you won't even notice.
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Yeah, well, speaking of the Wall Street Journal, they did some great analysis a couple days ago saying that they think so far Doge has saved a whopping $2.6 billion. Yeah, a whopping.
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And by the way, Musk has received subsidies, depending on how you count them, somewhere between 15 and 50 billion. So if you want to 6x the Doge savings, just cut off all subsidies to Tesla.
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And it's just, again, it's look over here. And also, I'm trying to do the analysis. I believe... that these tax cuts will cost taxpayers more in terms of the treasury, just the benefits that Elon Musk will accrue than the savings he is garnering at Doge.
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So if you wanted to double the savings of Doge, you would just say, okay, thank you for your service, but you are no longer entitled to the tax cuts. I mean, this is it's just the math ain't math. And for lack of a better term, I don't think I don't think they should focus on the injustice.
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I don't quite frankly, I don't think it's outrageous to get an email from somebody saying, tell us what you did last week.
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Agreed. Agreed. But it's that's not where our focus should be. Our focus should be, OK, you recognize that the Department of Energy has been Department of Energy and I forget what the that exact term, has been tasked with cutting 800 billion, there's no way they can avoid Medicare and Medicaid. And by the way, when you privatize, okay, so a kid is still gonna need his medication.
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Unless we decide to just let them die, they're gonna get their medication, but this is, hold on. That's what we're doing. Go ahead. Give me some running room. I don't think that's gonna happen. What's gonna happen is it's gonna be privatized, and either the employer or the individual or the county or the state is going to have to go into the private market and buy it.
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And then the insurance company and the pharmaceutical and the medical industrial complex will insert themselves, make it less efficient, less cost-effective such that shareholder value goes up in the industrial medical complex. The privatization, essentially what these autocrats or these oligarchs want is they want the privatization of everything.
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You'll literally, it'll be like watching a senator stroll around the halls.
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That way they can insert themselves in the middle for shareholder value. There are cities that have privatized everything, the utilities, the water, services, they've privatized everything. And what happens traditionally or typically is that there are some things that should be privatized.
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But when you privatize the post as they did here in London, what you end up with is a more expensive service where shareholders and companies get to skim or scoop up that incremental margin. And that is what they want here, is they want to get government out so they can insert, one, private enterprise and make money, and two, emasculate any regulation or oversight of their near grifty businesses.
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But the basis of DEI or the arguments against DEI is that it made sense, I think, if you were to steel man this, it made sense at some point to have DEI, but many of these problems won't have been solved. I won't say have been solved, but have been addressed in terms of a workforce that somewhat resembles the population.
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The problem is, is the basis of the arguments for doing away with DEI is that you risk economic growth and even safety if in fact you're not hiring based on competence.
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Now, that is a real argument, but that argument holds no water when you are hiring fucking idiots to go into your cabinet, when you're hiring Fox News hosts to be the secretary of defense and you're claiming we need to get rid of DEI so we have more competence, that this becomes a meritocratic. I mean, it's just so cynical to talk about skills and domain expertise and who wins.
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earned and deserves the job and who would execute or prosecute the job with the most competence when you are bringing in, seriously, a fucking village, a circle of village idiots?
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We're taking Vox Media Podcasts on the road and heading back to Austin for the South by Southwest Festival, March 8th through the 10th. What a thrill. Chicken fajitas, queso, strawberry margarita, extra shot of tequila. There you'll be able to see special live episodes of hit shows, including our show, Pivot. Where Should We Begin with Esther Perel. A Touch More with Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe.
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Not just football with Cam Hayward and more presented by Smartsheet. The Vox Media Podcast stage at South by Southwest is open to all South by Southwest badge holders. We hope to see you at the Austin Convention Center soon. I'm not joking. I love South by Southwest. The people are a ton of fun. It's a great time. If you do come, come up and say hi. Visit voxmedia.com slash SXSW to learn more.
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This is a dark side of me. I hate to admit this. I'd kind of welcome a measles outbreak in D.C. right now. I just think that this surrender clown and his cabinet of the best friends measles ever had. I mean, at what point, and of course it hits a small community in Lubbock, I mean, at what point do these literally head up your ass, cruel, weird decisions come back to DC?
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That's voxmedia.com slash SXSW. Support for Pivot comes from Atio. Atio is an AI-native CRM built specifically for the next era of companies. It's extremely powerful, adapts to your unique data structures and scales with any business model.
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Yeah, I don't. But I'm more interested in they're using her as a prop such that somebody, I think someone, I think my guess is Musk's lawyer said, nothing good can come from you having any sort of official affiliation here.
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Yeah, that's exactly right. even despite the fact no one can even find her or get any sort of statement from her. Oh, she's in charge. That way, when these myriad of lawsuits actually get to a quote unquote judge who looks at the law, we need to figure, it's almost like they've created, she's effectively the equivalent of a human LLC, where you create a corporate shield between her and Musk.
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I just can't, I'm trying to figure out the legalities.
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Can I ask you a question? Sure. I'm veering from the script, which will drive our producers crazy because we won't get to sell as many fucking ZipRecruiter ads.
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I saw this statement, I think it was from Cory Doctorow, and it just perfectly summarized, I really have a difficult time encapsulating what I think is going on or the kind of gestalt of this elite class of tech bros and their representatives in Washington, the vice president and the president. And he summarized it perfectly. He said that they believe there's an in and an out crowd.
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That's right. Link it in.
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Z-Biotics, let's party tonight and let's not feel it in the morning. Hello, dog.
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Oh, my God. E.D. Chewable Viagra. Hello. Have you met me?
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What did you think of James Carville's opinion piece that would the Democrats to just sit back and and and let, you know, kind of let them have at it and let Americans kind of see what happens?
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I'm torn. Actually, I think I have a little bit more reverence for James. I think he's brilliant. I do too.
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I enjoy how courageous he is. I thought his clip on Fox was just amazing.
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And I'm thinking of him as sort of a role model. I just like how he's eased into, you know, his eighth decade wearing LSU sweatshirts and just being fearless.
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Oh, I'm sure. You know that guy. He's like, I'll have a mint julep every five minutes.
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They're a pair. I worry that if we don't, I think there's a way to respond. I like what you said, become obstructionist and get in the way of stuff. I'm up for actually shutting down government. I think we should just say, fine, how about it? No, let's shut it down. But I worry that if we don't respond pretty aggressively, that we de facto normalize what's going on.
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And I struggle with it because I can see his point. It's a really interesting tactical suggestion. Well, just to just sit there and say, this is all Republicans now. Let's let them have at it. See what happens, folks. Hey, U.S. citizens, you broke it. You bought it. This is you.
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And not even not give them the satisfaction of being hysterical or responding or swinging back or counterpunching wildly. But I think where I land is, I think you need to be smart about how you respond, but you need to just say consistently with facts and experts, we cannot normalize this. This is not, measles should not be a thing.
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You know who I think we need more of? I think we need more kind of what I'll call dark people I don't want to call it Dark MAGA, but Dark Woke. One of my favorite comedians, Bill Burr,
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And if you read Alex Karp's new book, it's basically engineers and innovators are the in crowd. And everybody else is the out crowd. And that essentially the theory is, and I think it's a philosopher, I forget his theory, is that with the in crowd, they are protected by the law, but not bound by it. And the out crowd is bound by it, but not protected by it.
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It's basically saying this billionaire fuck Musk, just because he didn't get laid in high school, we have to put up with his hair plugs and his total lack of empathy. It's like, how much more money do you guys need? He just, you know, when people can't, people, there's so much money in this country and people can't, people have to get a second and a third job and can't be with their kids.
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And he, I think we need more of that energy, just empathy.
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Well, I mean, first off, all these things require context, and that is, in the past year, the stock, even with its drawdown, is up 50%. It still trades at just an exceptional valuation. It's trading at PE today of 145. I think Ford trades at a PE of like six or seven. So I think the market, when a company becomes this overvalued, is looking for reasons to take it down.
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But there's just no getting around it. The sales are down in Germany and across Europe and also in California. Sales are off between 10 and 40 percent. So this is really having an impact on sales. And he still gets, I think, about a third of his net worth from his stake in Tesla. I think it's just getting started. I mean, I think you remember my prediction three weeks ago. It was.
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My broken clock was that at some point, this is going to hurt the brand so much. I mean, I got to think at some point, people don't want... to drive into a parking lot and have people flip them off, which is everyone's, not everyone, a lot of people's inclination now when you see someone in a Tesla is to- I don't like them. Is like, oh, what an asshole, or flip them off.
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I sold my Tesla three years ago and people said I was overreacting. Look, you should stay out of politics as a general rule for brands. It is finally starting. I think it got them some loyalty. I think it sort of is a reference and a little bit like, kind of innovation, politically incorrect.
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Actually, I think that probably got him some additional customers for a while, but this feels like a lot of people, even people who probably support him think, I just don't need the hassle of someone judging me by the car I roll up in, in terms of my politics. Now, I want to be judged when I roll up in a Range Rover. It means that I'm in the midst of a midlife crisis and I can afford it.
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And would you like to jump on, speaking of erectile dysfunction?
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And I thought that perfectly summarized what is going on here. And that is these guys love COVID bailouts. They love the protections of free speech. They love the law. They expect the Justice Department to weigh in.
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The interesting thing will be, so the stock's overvalued. The market's looking for reasons to take it down. The product lineup feels stale. The interesting thing will be is if his kind of off-camera activities here or his extracurricular activities begin to infect Starlink. Because Starlink really is an amazing product, and they are signing up new customers like crazy.
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What I'm interested in or waiting for is the first company that says, we're reconsidering our deal with Starlink. Because so far it's just impacted Tesla. If it starts to infect SpaceX slash Starlink, then Houston has a real problem. And I think you probably are going to see that in the next 30 days.
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A big carrier or a government or someone's going to say, we're rethinking our relationship with Starlink.
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It's funny you say that because last night I was watching Game of, I'm watching Game of Thrones with my 14-year-old.
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And the easiest way to buy it was on, it never gets old, Cara.
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And so, but last night, the easiest way to buy it was on Amazon Prime. And for the first time I thought, is there another place I can buy it?
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But they themselves are not subject to it, right? No, no. I mean, whether it's paternity court, they would have a field day with- Andrew Tate getting out in Romania, sex trafficking. The role model for male abandonment, you know, Doge King. I mean, literally the notion that these folks
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Some would say 10, but the Magnum is at seven.
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Yeah. What's interesting about the market right now is with respect to Nvidia or some of these other companies, their expectation or the expectations are that they'll beat expectations because what happened yesterday was Again, NVIDIA beat expectations. It came in at $39.3 billion versus a projection of $38.3. Its earnings were $0.89 versus a projected $0.84, and the stock is down 1% today.
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People have gotten so used to, or the market has gotten so used to these companies just blowing away expectations that when they only slightly beat expectations, they kind of, if you will, actually don't meet the expectations. So this company has gotten just so... The unusual thing about this company, and people like to compare it to Cisco, is that Cisco's price earnings multiple went crazy.
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And the price earnings multiple has expanded here, but it hasn't expanded nearly as much because their earnings growth has also been exponential. So it does appear to have, I don't want to even say flat line, because the gains here have been so extraordinary, but the stock is down 5% year to date. It's just flat for the last six months after what is like a 100x increase over the last decade.
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don't weaponize or don't use the laws and means of transferring wealth and rights from the poor to them, but at the same time, don't feel bound to it. If you want to see, I'm really ranting now, if you want to see a massive amount of corruption, just wait until about three years from now when we find out what happened between now and then in the crypto markets. You are going to see so many scams.
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It really has been the stock of the last decade, but the expectations around these companies now are that you're going to beat expectations.
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I'm of the mind that there's a non-zero probability, maybe a one in three chance where AI ends up being more like the PC industry and the airline industries where consumers capture the majority of value because they're not able to create sustainable moats. And I think DeepSeq was the first sort of signal of that.
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And that is arguably jet transportation and PCs should be the most valuable companies in the world, they're not. And I wonder, I mean, a lot of these LLMs are beginning to feel pretty similar. Although I can't stand anthropic. It's so fucking PG-13. I can't make recommendations around this.
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And also I think it's just going to be, this could be, in fact, one of those industries where, and this is a good thing, the winners might be us, the winners might be all industry.
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Industry has garnered enormous and citizens shareholder value from jet transportation and the PC, but very few companies were able to create modes such that they could capture a lot of the value for specific shareholders. And I think if there's evidence of that this year or there's a slowdown, I think you're absolutely going to see a real correction.
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And all I can say is what I'm doing, because I don't think anybody knows, I am rotating. of U.S. stocks into foreign stocks, because if you look at U.S. growth stocks, which have really carried the day for the last 15 years, relative to their historical averages, they are in the 98th percentile right now.
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So there's only 2% of the time in history, like basically sometime in 1999 or 2007, have they been more expensive. At the same time, Large cap value companies in Europe, Latin America, and China are at their 2%, meaning that they've been higher 98% of their historical, or in history, they've been higher 98% of the time. So I am rotating out.
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You're investing globally. And by the way, if in fact you're dumb enough to listen to any of us, absolutely listen to Aswath.
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But when you have Apple trading at a PE of 39 and it traditionally trades at 18, I mean, it's just not a bad, it's not a terrible idea to think about taking some chips off the table.
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That's right. Rich people can go not only shopping for clothes or experiences, they can go shopping for rights. So if they're, back to the statement of these people are protected by the law but not bound by it, if you're a wealthy person, in fact, you are... the law has kind of gotten fed up with you, you can go somewhere else.
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Or if you're worried about persecution, but you're right, this is nothing new. The EU has taken in approximately $23 billion selling visas across Greece, Malta, Portugal, Spain. The UK used to have a golden visa and then the populace got pissed off by it. What's unusual about this is the price point at 5 million I would think that that probably just appeals. So I'm on a visa here in the UK.
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I'm on what's called a tech talent visa, where I had to say I bring specialized differentiated skills around technology. So give me and my family a five-year visa. And they agreed. The notion that you can buy in is not new. What's weird is the price point. Because what I think this says is you don't have any other options. And maybe you're a little bit on the run.
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Or the tax authorities are closing in on you. Because if you look at one of the reasons the British economy or London specifically has done really well, or I would argue has done well over the last 30 or 40 years. I mean, London is the most, Paris is the most beautiful city in the world. London is the most handsome.
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And when you came here in the 80s, I've been coming here since I was a kid because my parents are from here. It was a shitty city, bad food, ugly rundown. It was just infrastructure was collapsing. It was really a mess.
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And Tony Blair basically did something similar in that he passed a series of incredibly airtight private property laws that said you can be an African warlord or a Russian oligarch, but if you bring in a million, 10 million or a billion dollars into the UK and you buy property here and you invest your money with British banks, no one can come for it. It's here.
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No one can come take it away from you. And as a result, London basically became, even more so than New York, I would say, every wealthy person's second or first home.
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And it has catered. It has become a butler economy.
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Well, I'm not sure that's fair.
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I just think this appeals to- That's a great point because here's the difference between London and America. People go to America to make their billion, people come to London to spend their billion and protect it. That is my biggest criticism or observation of the London economy, and this is the question I spoke at the Royal Academy of Arts last night.
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I needed an excuse to drop that, so I'm doing it right now.
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I sat next to this lovely woman named Dame Rothschild last night, who's actually a quite successful author. She gave me the whole Rothschild story.
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Dame Rothschild, yeah. Okay, all right. Anyways, by the way, that is an incredible venue. I think that was probably the highlight of my London experience so far. But anyways, people always ask me, how would you distinguish London from the U.S.? And one of the things I say is that this entire economy in the UK is serving wealth created elsewhere.
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And that is the wealthiest people I know here are people in money management. They own great hotels, great restaurants. They're servicing wealth that was built and created or inherited somewhere else. Well, I think that's a little unfair. I think the majority of these people, well, the majority of the people I know here made a lot of money somewhere else. Okay.
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Anyways, whereas in the U.S., people go to the U.S. to make their money. And there's so much risk-taking and so much aggression. Again, my collective distillation or summary, having molested the earth for the last 30 years, is America is still the best place to make money and Europe is the best place to spend it.
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It's like being knighted. You're knighted except you have indoor plumbing.
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It'll be really interesting to see how many people do it and who it collects. If you need to spend $5 million to get into the U.S.,
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That's not a great forward looking indicator of why you need to do that.
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It will be real. Someone will do some investigative reporting and find out the first.
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The first hundred people that are willing to pay five million bucks to hang out or hide in the U.S. or avoid local tax authorities. All right. It's going to be very interesting.
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I think Doge is going to be over and done by the end of the year. I think the reason that Musk invented it and came up with it is for money. People talk about patriotism. Sure, it looks like it. Every time we dig further into these things, we find out that these individuals are doing everything to try and get richer.
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And I think he thought, I can get in there and under the auspices of some sort of fucked up, perverted means of patriotism or getting out my Anger or whatever it is, or getting more news about me. I'll also get a twofer because I'll basically fire everybody who's getting in the way of my autonomous car.
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Yeah, I'll get in the way. I'll defenestrate anyone around trying to get in the way of space launches. I think it's all about money. And I think he saw an opportunity to clear out the regulatory hurdles that's between him and a trillion dollars. Having said that, I think over the last 30 days, he's found out there's a tax to this. And that is, I felt a noticeable pivot there.
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In the last 48 hours of the narrative around all this shit. Tell me. Well, you tell me because I'm in a bubble and I don't understand the American people anymore and I realize how out of touch I am. But I felt like, okay, people want to give Trump the benefit of the doubt. He should get to pick his cabinet. A lot of people voted for this.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
Right. People think, OK, government is too fat. I kind of like it kind of tickles some of my sensors that they're feeling some of the pain of the private sector. It feels as if the narrative has turned just in the last 48 hours where all of a sudden Trump and Doge are on their heels and people, including Republicans that voted for Trump, are pissed off. They're like, we wanted more efficiency.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
We wanted leadership. We did not want this type of kind of heartless recklessness. This does not appear to make any sense. And I think with Musk, I think the straw that's going to break the camel's back here is when people start canceling contracts at Starlink. And he says, wow, I'm actually losing money doing this. And I think that is about to happen.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
I think he is a brilliant guy, but it's all about money. The math... is gonna show that he is better off pulling a Vivek Ramaswamy. And it's like, remember Vivek? Vivek was the co-head of Doge, remember him?
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
And so this is what's gonna happen. It's gonna be like what happens to old actors. They don't die, they just fade away. Doge and Elon Musk are gonna fade away, because you can be sure he's doing the math,
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
And he's like, even if I can get rid of all those pesky regulators, I'm still losing money here because my sales are plummeting because the general public across the U.S., much less Europe, when they see these idiots surrendering to Putin and when they see the type of recklessness and they see that they're not saving any money, all they're doing is making our government less competent.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
You're going to see Tesla sales continue to plummet, Tesla stock continue to go down. And again, the pivotal moment here is when it starts to infect Starlink. And I think he's going to fade back to the corporate sector.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
Well, Clinton Gore did it. Almost every president's done it.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
That's a long way, someone your age.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
He's a tall drink of lemonade.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
So I got to add some color here. He called me and said, would you consider doing a cameo? I'm like, yes, how much will it cost me? I mean, I'm so excited about it. Yeah.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
Yeah. And basically, I read my lines. And I thought, oh, it's like kind of own a room. You're a lawyer giving some very bad news to someone. It's just, of course, face radio. It's just my voice. And I thought, oh, my God, I nailed it. And I sent it. And they wrote back, well, we love it, but we think it can be even better. And I later found out that they were thinking about cutting it out.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
And Jason took me into the studio and it was such a learning experience for me because he would do stuff like, I'd do a line and he'd go, no, he's like, you're scared of this dude, but you're also angry. Have you ever been scared and angry? And he's like, think about it. And I talked about it. He's like, okay, now hit it. And he's like, no, no, no, no.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
And then on another line, he'd be like, this dude is banging your wife and you are now really pissed off and you just found out and you're going to tell him this, hit it. And we did this back and forth where he was trying to bring out emotions in me and he'd be like, no, no, no, you're reading to an eight-year-old a comic book, be more animated, hit it.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
We did this back and forth for an hour and I was practically sweating. I was so exhausted by the end of the hour. And it made me walk away with such an incredible appreciation for just how fucking hard acting and directing is. And this guy literally turned my chicken shit into what I'm hoping is chicken salad. And it was so generous of him. He's not a director.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
He didn't get paid to do this, but he wanted the scene to be great.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
And he was the guy. He's the he's the lead in the show. By the way, Parker Posey is hilarious.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
She's fantastic. I think Jason owns the screen whenever he's on it, but obviously I'm a little bit biased. But he was so, it just gave me an appreciation. You think acting is like they're really good looking and just act like themselves. That is horrible. That was one of the hardest hours I have ever spent.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
These guys, I can't tell you how profoundly disappointed I am in this. These whores trying to protect themselves or excuse their behavior, texting you or other people. I hate myself. Well, we fucking hate you more.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
No, no, no. I wish them the breast of luck. I mean, I wish them... Okay, all right. If there's an explosion in the capsule, we got to be quick to judge.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
Godspeed. I'm a fan of fake breasts, and I have found so far that they taste real.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
That's why the people come here, Kira.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
Today's show is produced by Lara Naiman, Zoe Marcus, Taylor Griffin, and Corinne Ruff. Ernie Ertod entered in this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Ms. Saverio, and Dan Shilan. Nishat Kurwa is Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
If there's anybody who has the money and the resources to stand up to this bullshit. Tim Cook. It is Tim Cook, Satya Nadella, Cinder Pichai, Sam Altman, and his hushed tones and concerns about AI. Fuck you. You are literally...
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
The very principles, rule of law, separation between business and state, systemic laws, not individual laws where you give a million dollars to a campaign for favorable treatment. These ridiculous fake announcements, okay, put out a press release claiming that we're spending a quarter of a trillion dollars because of President Trump, even though it's all fucking jazz hands, it's all bullshit.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
Somebody I'd like to think in the business community is gonna reach down and feel these circular things in between their legs and go, you know, no.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
No, there you go. Or a vagina and say, okay. Let's be honest though, they're all men. And say, okay, no, we're not doing this. And you're right, shareholders brace.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
At Apple, they've said, we want the EI.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
That's right. All this stuff is so good. His pronouns are now he and Himmler.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
There you go. Played a key backup role. Character actor in the whole drama.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
Go ahead. But I don't even really understand what that means. We're only going to talk about- It doesn't mean anything. I don't. So do you not have an opinion? Isn't the whole idea of opinion is that you're going to be provocative and perhaps upset some people and catalyze a dialogue that perhaps helps craft better solutions? What's the point?
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
Fair point. So why wouldn't the Washington Post? I just don't get any of this. I'm having trouble even making an argument for or against it. I don't know what it means other than him saying, I don't like the way it's being run now.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
I mean, the reality is with these newspapers now— There used to be 20, about 60 or 80 million subscriptions in the U.S. It's gone down to 20 million. Some have made the jump to digital, such as the New York Times. But the problem is it's a zero-sum game. And so when they sign up, when they thought, okay, the Washington Post is doing good work, it usually comes at the cost of someone else.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
They are now, as someone who's, I think, got some distance from the Washington Post. I like it. I have affection for it. But the reality is, it just feels like it's circling the drain right now. Yeah, absolutely. It doesn't feel like it has a growth strategy.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
And the people who like the Post are quite frankly, I hate to use this word, but kind of the cultural elite.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
Well, my view is they're pretty prickly. And when a billionaire weighs in with his views without really understanding journalism, it turns off their readers and their employees, and it's probably very damaging for the culture.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
There's all kinds of great content out there.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
The two winners here are, if he had said, I do think there's an opportunity. If you look at the amount of media coverage that sports gets, if you look at the amount of media coverage that politics gets, I think relative to its importance in the economy and the consumer's obsession with it, I would argue the opportunity in media And in podcasts, and I'm thinking a lot about this, is business.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
So if he were to say, if he were to say, we're going to focus, we're going to try and really beef up our coverage of the economy and business issues relating to the markets and everyday pricing and how it affects people's lives.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
Because we all are kind of obsessed with Amazon and taxes and innovation and how AI affects us or doesn't in terms of our jobs. I think there's real opportunity here. The biggest winner of this move, hands down, are the heads of HR and recruiting at the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
Because every talented, my sense is at every organization, there's between 10 and 20% of the employees that add 120% of the value and the rest are negative 20. And what I mean by that is you have to have B players to scale. I know that sounds disparaging, but at every organization, they're generally a group of superstars that just drive a disproportionate amount of value.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
Those 10 or 20 people at The Washington Post have their pictures and their names like an FBI mob board at The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. And guess what? They've already grabbed them.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
They'll all return your calls now. They have never, you're going to see, they are literally, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and some media players are going to come for the heart and the lungs of The Washington Post.
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Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp
And I'm Scott Galloway.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Yeah, you have. Essentially, what people or what Democrats have failed to do is connect antitrust with lower inflation. And that is, it's no accident that Google announced they were going to acquire, I think it was called Wiz, a company last year. And the FTC and DOJ said, we have some concerns, and they called it off. And the whiz filed to go public.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Now, had Biden been reelected or, excuse me, Harris been elected, it's likely that whiz would have gone public and Google would have had a competitor, which would have meant that enterprises that use these products would have had more options, which results in competition, which results in lower prices.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
And I heard you're going on vacation.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
But because Trump was elected, the FTC and the DOJ have effectively have an entirely different complexion now in terms of the bar or how high the bar needs to be to file an action to block a merger and acquisition. And what do you know, Google came back and said, let's acquire this company.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
So under the Biden administration, you know, last year was a record low for M&A, but you're going to see a lot, you're going to see a further consolidation of power. And one of the biggest issues facing our economy is really boring. You know, it's the boring stuff that moves the needle.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
And it's the fact that across everything from home renovations to chicken to things like fertilizer, much less digital media, there are a small handful of companies that They control the entire market, and the result is in concentrated industries, they can charge higher rents on corporations and on consumers.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
I don't think I've ever known you to go on a vacation.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
So if you want – I mean, it sounds really boring, but if you want inflation to come down over the medium and the long term, you want a really robust FTC and DOJ, and they're no longer that. They're basically there to say, okay – Jonathan Cantor, who I had on the podcast – was more optimistic.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
He said that a lot of people still at the FTC and the DOJ are not exactly, they're not just going to roll over. Yeah, especially the DOJ. We still haven't been able to effectively on the left communicate that M&A, while it feels like capitalism and it's more macho and get out of the way of companies, We have seven companies basically driving the stock market right now.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
I think it's the biggest acquisition ever.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Well, when companies... Okay, it's their biggest acquisition ever. It's only a 1.5% dilution to their stock price. They have a $2 trillion market cap. They can make a $30 billion acquisition. I mean, these companies...
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
These companies are just so enormous and have so much capital that they can, I mean, quite frankly, they could afford to buy this, and they're not going to do it here, but they could afford to buy this and do an acqua kill and just kill it if they were bothering them. Because a 1.5% dilution of the stock price, it's just not, quite frankly, $32 billion is a lot of money.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
A dilution of 1.5% of your outstanding stock is not. And these big companies have such an advantage because the reality is if they see any sort of strategic reason whatsoever to acquire a company, no one else can compete. There's a small handful of companies that have multi-trillion dollar market caps that
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
You just can't, it's like when the kingdom decides they're bidding on the World Cup, no other bidder even shows up because every other country was like, why bother? Why even go through the hassle of finding the former governor of the province of Brazil or whatever, putting together a team, putting together a group of people, putting our best foot forward?
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Why even bother when we know the kingdom is showing up? And if one of these players shows up for an acquisition, it's over, it's done. It's over.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Well, you may be too old for this to really have any impact on you, but my wife claims that she just loves to fuck on vacation, which was kind of a weird postcard to get. That's good. Oh, my God.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Well, it's more just sort of the White House is turning into a giant infomercial for its political allies. But in addition, I think it's stupid of SpaceX and Starlink. Starlink, I absolutely love Starlink. I think it's an amazing product. It's a superior product. And its competitors all of a sudden have seen their stock prices surge and have access to capital potentially at some point.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
That's good. It's called the internet. What is the internet for other than watching videos?
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
I think Jeff Bezos, I think everyone is eyeing this space going, these guys have created an opening because of Musk's kind of overt political activity. I'm now thinking, how do I get rid of, or how do I not use Starlink? And I just think this is a dumb move for them. He is alienating 52% of the population overnight with his products. And I just want to give a shout out to me.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
I sold my Tesla before it was cool three years ago. And I don't know if you saw, Senator Kelly just made a big deal of him selling his Tesla. This is next. Starlink, they basically decided to politicize this product. And I think just on an economic level, shareholders, SpaceX is one of the most actively traded and most valuable private companies on the secondary market.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
It's also responsible now for the majority of It's the largest source of wealth now for Musk because he owns so much of it. And it's an incredible product, but it looks like it's going to go the same way of Tesla. And that is it's attracting a ton of competition.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Tracking the slow descent into fascism and funny jokes. That's it.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
People will catch up and then people given sort of a coin flip or a tiebreaker will opt for the company that's not run by someone whose politics they don't agree with. So I think it's a stupid move.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
I am so pissed off. I believe I'm that dad. I send at least... two dozen ridiculously hilarious memes to my sons every day. And I will see, I will wake, I will get up at two in the morning and find out that they still have not seen them, much less responded. They don't even open or look at my memes anymore.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
This is, I mean, again, it's difficult to know where to focus because the hits keep on coming. But as you referenced, number one source of death for children in the United States, past accidents, cancer, drowning, drug poisonings, is now firearms. And as someone who left the U.S. two and a half years ago,
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Just telling you, a free gift with purchase living in the UK is you don't have these horror fantasies involving gun deaths or mass shooters. Yeah, you talk about that. 54% of U.S. adults report that either they or a family member have experienced a firearm-related incident. One in five have a family member who was killed by a firearm, including suicide.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
And then going back to, I always like to ground everything in a personal parable. When I sold my first company, Profit, there was like a 20-year anniversary of the company. I started the company when I was 26, and me and the other co-founder were not invited. The CEO wanted it to be all about him. Fine, okay, have at it.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
And we used to joke that we were living in a fascist state and we were Trotsky being erased from photos. And even we heard about them showing up to clients and referring to themselves as the founders. Like we were literally erased from the scrolls of history from this company, despite the fact that we had hired everybody that was now claiming they were the founders.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
And to go back in history and say to the 2.5 million African Americans that registered for the draft, the 1 million African Americans that fought in World War II, the 33,000 Japanese Americans who fought, mostly in the European theater, despite the fact that maybe their parents had been sent to confinement camps, 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry,
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
And then to not at least nod that many of them served in World War II. There was 20,000 Chinese Americans. There were 44,000 Native Americans. Somewhere between 5% and 10% of the entire indigenous population fought in World War II. A quarter of a million Filipino Americans, 400,000 Hispanic Americans.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
And to not acknowledge that is to not acknowledge one of the great victories, one of the great civil rights advancements. in American history that makes our military so... The US military, I believe, is the most impressive organization in history.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
And across many of its achievements and many of its victories, it was also a tremendous means of progress in civil rights, because there's something about wearing the same uniform and being dependent upon the guy or the gal next to you that has a tendency to make you look at each other for your character and your skills and nothing else.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
And the armed services have been an outstanding means of progress for special interest groups. And to remove their commitment and their sacrifice, it's just so un-American.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
How can you not read a text?
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Well, we hope they'll pay the price. I think they will pay the price. So far they haven't. We keep hoping and waiting. But just back to the erasing people from photos of history, and a really positive part of our history, you're going to Puerto Rico, 53,000 Puerto Ricans fought in World War II.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
400,000 Hispanic Americans, including 350,000 Mexican Americans. These are people who came here, felt really fortunate to be a part of this great experiment called America, and decided to put themselves, you know, and risk bodily harm to serve in a uniform to fight for the rights of all Americans. And we're erasing them from history. It's It's very strange and self-defeating.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
I haven't thought about it. Probably call. Anyways, are you staying? What's the, is it the Four Seasons or the Rich Carlton?
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
And how likely are people going to be to raise their hand and say, I will fight for my country, thinking that at some point my contribution might be starched from history? It's very disappointing, to say the least.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Thank you. Thank you.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Oh, you've needed it for a few years.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
I'm pretty much on an extended vacation. I'm not exaggerating. I think I vacation arguably like 15 to 20 weeks a year, and I'm planning to increase it.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Where are we going to next that you have absolutely no chance of getting in?
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Harvard. Oh, my God. By the way, can we just talk for a moment about Harvard?
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Okay, Harvard puts out this ridiculously, this virtue signaling of all virtually, Wokistan meets total virtue signaling bullshit.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
, , , , , ,, P. P. P. P. P. P,實 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , a a And if you don't realize what tariffs are going to do, about 99% of our clothes... No, I'm sorry, 97% of our clothes... are made abroad.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Okay, they announced that anyone, any family that makes less than $200,000 has free tuition. Well, aren't they just fucking amazing? But here's the thing, I think I did the math. Okay, so you have about 1,500 students. I bet maybe a third come from families that make less than $200,000, and of those, they would have gotten some financial aid.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Oh, there's no low-cost maker.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
H&M's not US. Yeah, no, they're not US. The iconic US fashion specialty retailers are, in my opinion, Urban Outfitters. Urban and Free People are two of the hottest brands. But the majority, if not all, of their manufacturing is abroad. I remember, and I always love an opportunity to have a professional flex, one of the first consulting clients I had
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
One of my mentors was a guy named Warren Hellman of Hellman and Friedman, and he said, I have a great assignment for you. I was like 27, and I'd started a quote-unquote strategy firm. He said, I wanted you to come to Levi Strauss & Company board meetings. I don't want you to talk to anybody. I want you to listen to the entire board meeting, and then I want you to stand up and give your view.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
And it was me and a guy named Lee Clow from Chiat Day got to do this for four board meetings. And one of the first things I said was they had, back in the 90s, Levi Strauss & Company still had domestic manufacturing. And the Haas family, who are very paternal, and really civic-minded, we're very committed to keeping domestic manufacturing. And the CFO got up there and I can do math.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
I said, what is the cost per unit producing domestically? And it was like, I think it was 11 bucks a pair. And the cost to bring in the same quality from just across the border in Mexico, or I forget where we were, Honduras, was $3.80. And
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
And so I'm like, okay, but just to be clear, what you have decided is that you're giving people naturally artificially high wages that once they're laid off, there's going to be nowhere else to go. And eventually, of course, they outsourced all of their production. We are meant to go to the lowest cost provider for more prosperity. We need to maintain a certain level of domestic production.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
For example, the shoe industry has these ridiculous tariffs claiming that if we go to war, we need domestic manufacture of boots, which is just stupid, right? We could spin up a factory to build boots pretty quickly. But the clothing industry is an example of an increase in prosperity because we've globalized it and we don't have massive tariffs.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
So, I mean, it's striking how Timu and Sheehan, like one out of five things purchased over the holidays were from those two companies. But Forever 21, you know, it just like you said, it just didn't it just couldn't compete, nor should it. I like it when nations compete for our dollar.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
So call it, I don't know, 500 kids are going to get a $50,000 benefit, and that's being really, really generous. I think it comes out to about $20 or $25 million.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
I would like to see a tax holiday on anyone making under a certain amount or people under the age of 40, similar to what Portugal's done. The problem is, will this come at the cost of Social Security? We need to hear more. I hope it's not populist bullshit. I need to do more research. do more analysis. I think it makes a lot more sense than this ridiculous no tax on tips.
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The waiter gets a tax cut, but not the dishwasher. And the reality is the majority of people in the services industry don't pay any taxes anyways because they don't make enough money. But I just need to understand more about this. We'll see.
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We're paying the lowest amount of GDP as represented by the taxes since 1939. People, it's worth noting that Americans in this income range who make less than $150,000, they pay more in payroll taxes than in income taxes.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Look, I'm going to go off script here and I'm going to, I don't have a prediction, but I'm especially slow today because I was up till 4 a.m. binge watching all four episodes of what I think is so far the media property, other than the White Lotus, of course, the media property of 2025 or the media achievement. Have you seen Adolescence, Kara? Yeah.
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It is really powerful. So I'm not going to give anything away here. It's a British crime drama miniseries from Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham and directed by Philip Berentini. It's about a 13-year-old schoolboy who's arrested for the murder of a female classmate. And the interesting thing from a creative standpoint is each scene is shot in one take. And it is so powerful.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
So they have a $53 billion endowment. If it's matching the market, it's doing about $4 billion a year. So they've decided to step up and give a whopping, what is that, a whopping half a percent and put out a press release rather than taking some of that $52 billion and stop acting like rejectionist, exclusionary, self-important jerks and expand the number. And here's what it is.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
It brings up social media. It's, you know... Obviously, violence, crime, father-son relationships, families, the impact of social media, the anxiety and depression that young people are dealing with. It's like if you wanted to explain to someone the stress that young people or adolescents are under and facing and what it means and how it ripples out in so many negative ways,
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it would be really hard to do it more efficiently than watching this four-part series.
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I'm moving it up. I'm turning in my manuscript early. I'm hoping that it'll come out in November. It was supposed to be streamed next year, but I feel like the moment is going to pass if I don't get it out soon.
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Josh Hawley's writing a book on masculinity.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Well, it's easy, Kara. I've leaned into my anger and my depression. I mean, I'm not the person to talk to about maintaining a positive outlook. I struggle with this shit. And one of the things you referenced, which is a social norm, which is kind of interesting, is that in boom times or positive times, tragedies and dramas are more popular.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
And then in depressing times, romantic comedies are much more popular. People want to get out of the mood they're in. Or like White Lotus, something that's like- That's just pure entertainment with some subculture. By the way, Sam Rockwell's monologue from last week is incredible. I heard. I heard. I haven't seen it yet.
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But this is, I mean, it talks a lot about school bullying via social media centered on incel subculture, and people don't realize how powerful that is. This week's post I'm writing about porn, which I think is playing an unfortunately increasingly not important large role in young men's lives.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
But this, if you read about this stuff but don't understand it and wonder, want to see how it's really impacting people on a ground level in an exceptionally compelling and gripping way. But you asked me how I deal with it. To be honest, Cara, I'm having trouble dealing with it. For the first time in my life, I was thinking about this the other day.
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I've always been able to disassociate from the news. Since this last election, I'm having trouble disassociating. I'm I'm, I'm just a, I'm that guy who's that fucking downer at a dinner party that turns everything into, well, yeah.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
But yeah, I not, so the answer is how do I, how do I handle this shit? The answer is not well, but this is such a powerful piece of media that it is, it's so satisfying because you feel as if you've learned and you can't I turned the thing on at midnight and I was up till four in the morning. I just couldn't turn away from it.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
It makes things even worse because this is what's happening in America. Yeah. If you're the son of somebody who's rich or the daughter of someone who's rich or freakishly fucking remarkable, you not only get into an amazing university, you get to go for free. But the rest, the other 99.9% of America gets arbed down to a mediocre school that doesn't have a $53 billion endowment.
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Ernie and her Todd engineer this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Miss Severio, and Dan Shalon. Nishat Kerouaz, Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine at nmymag.com slash pod.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Adolescence on Netflix.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
This is nothing but making everything possible. worse in terms of income inequality, and yet they have the fucking nads to put out a thing acting as if they're doing the world a service. Here's what you do, folks. You take some of that $52 billion endowment, and you make your freshman class bigger than what a good Starbucks serves.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Pricing at elite universities is the following. There's the sticker price, which is for foreign students and rich people so they can charge them a ridiculous amount of money, and almost everybody else does not pay the sticker price. And the problem with these elite universities that hoard this amazing drug called higher education is that they have so much money.
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that it means absolutely nothing for the... If you get into Princeton or Harvard, it doesn't matter how much money. If you have enough money, then don't worry about it. If you don't, you will absolutely get financial aid. It's the other 99% of our youth that has to go to a university that doesn't have these enormous endowments.
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Under siege. Under siege. Yeah.
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You guys have a little bit of a crush on her.
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Yeah, yeah. No, you guys seem to like each other.
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Well, we could fit all those people in a closet.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
The line is long, lovers of the dog.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Almost all of them still have their teeth. Yeah.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Well, this is, I think, probably one of the most significant historical events happened, kind of, it got some coverage, but I don't think people realize how important it was. And that is, the White House essentially defied a court order and let those planes carrying Carrying the people they wanted deported, some of whom had done nothing but had the wrong tattoo.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
And then they created what I think is basically a Republican snuff film. Did you see the video of them being dragged off planes?
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
I mean, El Salvador is a really interesting situation, what's happened there. But that's another talk show. But... Effectively, if the White House is going to ignore court orders, the question is, well, okay, what power does the judiciary or the court have if they start violating court orders?
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And what the power they have is they could say, all right, if you carry out these, if you actively are the individuals defying these court orders, we can put you in jail or fine you. But the problem is the president can then pardon them. So if you have, we're in uncharted territories. Look, we have a criminal as president.
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And this is a convicted felon, someone who appears to have absolutely no regard for the law, who's set or seems comfortable carving up the world with another mob boss, another autocrat, who has now defined court orders. And if he has the power of the pardon, and can threaten judges and it appears to be comfortable to find court orders, then folks, you know, it might feel good, right?
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A decent number of Democrats and Republicans have both said in polls they'd be comfortable with an autocrat as long as he or she agreed with their views. All right.
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Just wait until that knock on the door comes for you and your nephew or your outspoken friend on politics is kind of disappeared, is shipped off, is put on a plane to somewhere where they aren't protected by the law, is incarcerated without due process, has their livelihood taken away and has no recourse. I mean, they're It's really interesting. They are doing exactly what they said they would do.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
When he said, I will concede the election if I win, that was a blatant, I'm going to be an autocrat. And everyone is like, oh, isn't that funny? Isn't that cute? He doesn't really mean it. He's pretty much done everything he said he was going to do. But if the courts are neutered by the power of the pardon or president or administration supported by one party that controls Congress entirely,
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
It says it's okay to violate court orders. We're essentially done.
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
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Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink
Look what's going on in Hungary. I mean, Viktor Orban, who's sort of the role model or the idol here for how Trump is executing his presidential powers, there's enormous protests. Protests. In Hungary, which is actually really hopeful. I do, too.
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But the question then becomes, does that mean anything when you lose, if they just start ignoring those court decisions? Correct.
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Really smart. Hey, look, first off, it's super important that we mix. It's super important that people from the right and the left—I'd love to see a giant—I'm going to go back. As always, I like to root everything in a personal parable that's kind of relevant, adjacent— I was president of the Interfraternity Council, which is like king of the jarheads back at UCLA.
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I was, quote unquote, the head of the governing body that oversaw the Greek system. And my big idea, it was a time when there was a lot of tension between the fraternities, which were mostly, most obviously all male, mostly white.
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And we used to have these stupid theme parties that were racist and it would inflame special interest groups who saw us and the administration that saw us as an easy target. And the paper was always talking about what awful people we were. Some of it deserved.
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And my big idea was like, let's take the Black Students Alliance and METCHA, which was the Latino group, and let's all get together and have beers or get together and play sports together, but let's mix. And of course, they're like, we want nothing to do with you fucking weirdos. But I think it's really important that people from different political views get together.
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I think it creates empathy with one another. Now, what you're saying is to let just say Biden did not win the 2020, that requires a more honest, hard pushback that says, okay, what evidence actually do you have of that? And you're saying you didn't do that. But in terms of just strategically for Governor Newsom, It's super smart. He's leveraging a new medium. He's going after new voters.
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He's meeting voters and people where they are on podcasts. And also, the tension and the conflict, that's part of the reason this show is successful. We're not politically aligned on a lot of things. And the fact that he can talk about stuff, he one, shows it's smart. Two, he appeals to moderates. Three, he's very good going kind of, I don't want to say behind enemy lines.
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Donny Osmond. That is literally, literally, just when I thought your flexes couldn't get any weaker, you're bragging about that?
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I think if he wants to be president, which I believe he does, America is going to want someone that they think at the end of the day can sit down with people from pretty far differing perspectives and have a reasonable conversation. And he's showing that.
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Yeah. I mean, I hear that, and I'm like, let's clutch our pearls a little harder.
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Oh, yeah, it is. For God's sakes, we can have- No, these three are- Steve Bannon was a senior advisor to the president. Yeah, and a liar. Okay, let me be clear. I don't like the man. He said publicly that Trump's administration should sue me. I do not want Steve Bannon to be successful. He had a very senior role in the previous administration. He is very smart.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
And he says some batshit crazy things. The problem here was was that Governor Newsom should have been able and been more prepared to really push back and say, what you said here makes no sense. Can you please tell us what your thinking is? But we absolutely need more. OK, the platform argument, you don't give Alex Jones. a platform. You don't give the Tate brothers a platform.
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I said to Pierce Morgan when I was on the show, I'm like, why do you bring this guy on? You're just adding legitimacy, having him sit next to you on TV. Guys like Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon, look, Democrats, get over it. And by the way, I would like to see a lot of these crazy, you know, a lot of the more right podcasters bring on AOC. And the thing, you're a great interviewer,
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Governor Newsom is not. And what you are able to do is the following. And you guys have to thread a very fine needle. And that is people aren't going to come on and be made a fool of and get into a shouting match. So you have to show a little bit of respect. And at the end of the day, if they keep lying, you have to say, OK, I don't believe that's true.
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Oh, on AC? I like AC, and I like CNN, and they do a good job. He's a real pro. I love kind of seeing how the sausage gets made.
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But you move on and you try to be hospitable and a good host and present people in their best light. And I think he erred on the side of not pushing back where he probably should have because But I think this is a really healthy thing. I think we need more of this, not less of it.
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It was how he handled the interview, not whether he should have done it or not.
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But even that, I've been asked, so one of the shows we go on a lot, sometimes the panelists, I think like, I just can't keep up with the stream of falsehoods. I'm not gonna be able to respond without fact checking real time. But even what you said, I think, is valuable to say, look, so much of what you're saying does not sound right.
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We have. We've been hanging. We've been rolling. Yeah.
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And we can't and there's so much of it that we can't keep up with fact checking. I think even that's a fair statement to say you're just flooding the zone. It feels like you're flooding the zone with non-truths.
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But really good, really good interviews are able to say, well, actually, I think of when this, you know, fairly famous venture capitalist who moved from San Francisco to Miami and started shitposting California long enough such that he could get
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a reduction in capital gains when he sold a stock, went on CNBC and started basically lying about the earnings of Opendoor, basically saying it was profitable when it wasn't. And Deidre Bolsa fact-checked him real-time. She's like, no, you can't say this company is profitable. It's not. She was so prepared, or there was a producer in her ear going, that's not true. Push back on that.
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No. I mean, I was tired of you years ago, but no more tired of you, I should say. That's what I felt.
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She essentially real-time said, I don't want you to lie to our viewers over and over. We're talking about people's wealth and stock trades. And two or three times, she would stop him and say, that's just not true. With politics, it's harder because some of it is subjective, right? I mean, but if you're going to say, like you said, the election, I mean, that to me is just a softball.
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Like, please show me the evidence. It contradicts the 62 court cases where the judges, including Republican-appointed judges and Trump-appointed judges, said there was no evidence of election fraud.
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No, it's nice to see you. I always enjoy seeing you. Last night, literally, we went to dinner and George and I just like leaned back and let you and Jess go at it.
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Speaking of the apprentice, I asked my master if I shave my ass, does that mean I'm gay? And he says he who is cleaning his house is expecting visitors. Oh, that's wrong. That's really, that's awful.
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That's my way of saying we need to segue out of this story.
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You got the last word. This is called our relationship. You got the last word.
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Yes, I know. Get AOC on and Bernie.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
Plus, can you imagine the two of them together? Oh, my God. Don't you just hope they both get naked and go at it?
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I'd pay cash money to see Governor Newsom and Representative Ocasio-Cortez.
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Oh, God. And you know what I want? I would want them to have 40 or 50 kids. They'd become my army and we'd take over Australia. And I would be the general consulate of Australia.
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Oh, really? Yeah. I think she played basketball in high school.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
First off, I think Jeffrey Sonnenfeld is a gift and he wrote a fantastic opinion piece about how some of these corporate leaders who claim to be leaders and claim to care about America need to speak up. And there haven't been that many. And congratulations to Jamie for kind of stepping into the void and saying what's on everybody's mind. I think you're going to see more of it.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
Tariffs are the following. They're not universally bad. If China is charging a tariff on our cars, we get to charge a tariff on their cars until we both decide to lower tariffs. Free trade creates prosperity. You can also probably need a tariff to support certain strategic industries.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
We probably should have some level of domestic production of steel in case those supply chains are shut down and we need to build tanks or what have you. But when, for example, these aluminum and steel tariffs, we tried that in the last Trump administration.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
And what they found is the following, that, okay, let's assume that the additional revenue created by the tariffs, let's assume that the additional revenue captured by Cleveland Cliffs and U.S. Steel are two largest remaining steel manufacturers. Their market, their products become more competitive because foreign steel is more expensive.
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So they get more share, more money, more tax revenue, more jobs. All right, theoretically, it all works. Here's the problem. One, consumers, prices get increased.
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Consumers have to pay up to six, eight, $12,000 more for a truck with these tariffs, which takes down the demand, which takes down the gross profits of the domestic supplier because their products are more expensive relative to other people's products because we have to increase our input costs. There is a reciprocal tariff almost always, meaning that our products become more expensive overseas.
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That was comedy gold. My favorite thing was you just finally, the audience really responded when you said, sit down.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
And what you found with the aluminum steel industry tariffs is that the increase in the cost of steel made that so many products across America had to increase their prices because steel and aluminum were big inputs, that the increase in prices reduced demand much more than the incremental income gains from the companies that benefit from their products being more competitive.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
In some, in almost every case, tariffs don't work. And if you look at what companies do thousands of times a year across the market, they are perfectly trying to calibrate. Nike is perfectly trying to calibrate volume times gross margin and figure out the exact peanut butter and chocolate combination for shareholders.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
All right, if we lowered our prices and took our margins down from 30 points to 10 points, we'd double our volume, but we'd end up with less profit. So they perfectly attempt or attempt to perfectly calibrate across every market What is the optimal price relative to volume, relative to margin? And when the government comes with tariffs, what they're saying is, hey, company, you're stupid.
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Tariff Turmoil, Trump’s Tesla Ad, and Newsom’s Bannon Interview
We could take prices up and it wouldn't hurt demand. And it never works out that way. It usually suppresses demand and revenues in a much greater volume or amount than the increase in revenues. It makes us less competitive. It makes us less productive and it increases costs. If you're looking for an elegant way
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to increase consumer costs while reducing productivity and demand across our products in foreign markets? Congratulations. This is supersizing Brexit. This is the most elegant, efficient way to reduce American prosperity. It makes absolutely no sense. Sorry, here's a period.
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Even worse than this, even worse than the tariffs, if he said, all right, I'm putting a 10% tariff on everything from China, American companies could go, okay, this is stupid, whatever, but he gets to make this decision, but they could plan. They could say, okay, the cost of our shoes and our cars is about to go up 12 or 15%.
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We estimate that demand will fall by this and we can adjust and plan for this. But here's what's even worse than these ridiculously stupid tariffs is the uncertainty means that foreign and domestic suppliers can't plan their goddamn business. When we were at South by Southwest, a lot of the digital media companies who were off to a great start of the year, right?
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Yeah, just giving the ladies a little bit of daddy, a little bit of dessert, a little bit of dessert with their South by South, with their chicken fajitas with queso, a little dog, a little topping of the dog. Chicken fajitas with queso. Give the people what they want, Kara.
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The lack of uncertainty because, okay, we know Trump's in office. We sort of know, we think we sort of know what to expect. Let's get back to business and start spending money. The 2025 started great. for digital media companies dependent upon consumer advertising.
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And now their quarter has been blown because some of the biggest advertisers in America, including automobile companies, have all said the following. We have no fucking idea what's going on, so we're doing nothing. They have told their media planners Until there's more clarity, stop spending money.
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And the lack of certainty, the lack of consistency as a trading partner means every large organization and company in the world is trying to reconfigure their supply chain to be less dependent upon America, which means less money for America. The tariffs are bad. The uncertainty is even worse.
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Now come by my office hours and I'll help you on the hard parts.
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Here's what makes you funnier or more comfortable with being unfunny. Just the recognition we're all going to be dead soon.
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The most important thing in American history. So our decision to, at huge costs, risk to our young men, risk to our economy, turning washing machine factories into tank factories overnight, we decided for the second time to Enter into World War II and push back on fascism. Oh, we decided that this incredible prosperity and rights should be extended to not civil rights.
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Oh, I'm sorry, but these fucking tariffs are the most important thing America has ever done.
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I mean, you just lose so much credibility when you say that. And this is so chaotic. I don't even know the status of the tariffs right now. And I follow this shit.
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You know who's the big winner here? It's China. You know what China—China has literally deployed— dozens if not hundreds of their diplomats to the biggest European and Latin American companies, and they've said the following, you may not love us, but you can count on us. We like trade, we like commerce, and we do what we say, and you know what you're dealing with with us.
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You've been buying all this produce or products or finished products or whatever it might be from the US. You have no idea how to plan and what to expect from these folks. You can count on us. This is the deal. We are open for business. We love commerce. We are a dependable, consistent partner. Or even not China, Canada is going to do more business with me. This is literally a gift.
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to every major economic power that had to compete against America. What they're saying is America is not competitive because you can't believe what they say. And the greatest level of damage here isn't even going to show up in the short run. Goldman Sachs already took their GDP prediction from 25 down from 2.4 to 1.7.
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It'll be the long-term impacts of when people reconfigure their supply chain and their relationships. They're going to be somewhat like remissed to re-engage again. This is going to be a structural step down in our credibility across our largest trading partners. And trade, no doubt, if you don't If you don't think about who gets really hurt, you can end up with a really difficult situation.
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Interesting. Yeah, well, comfortable being unfunny, trying to be funny, like taking risks, right? Right.
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And that's where America, America's been really good on trade, where we're bad is helping out and showing empathy for the people who get, quite frankly, who are on the wrong end of that. But on the whole, prosperity just grows. We just continue to see that economically over time.
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And people, when they stop buying our products, not because they might, they might be the most competitive in a year, but they're like, we don't know what's going to happen in the next year or two years.
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A lot of times, as anyone who listens to this show will know, a lot of my jokes don't land. And here's the thing, anyone not laughing, you're going to be dead soon, and so am I. Oh, okay.
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Right. Economists, I don't consider myself like an economist, but quote-unquote academics have predicted nine of the last three recessions. It's very hard to tell because you could have AI finally get real traction in the economy and massively increase productivity, which results in economic growth that overcompensates for these ridiculous tariffs. And we have a tendency to
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sometimes overestimate the power of the president and his policies on this unbelievable engine called the American economy that usually over the medium and long term sort of figures out a way. So I think it's dangerous to predict a recession. What was your second question, Cara?
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Oh, the market? Look, the only thing I would consider is the following. And that is, this stat just blew my mind. If you add in corporate debt, so people have heard that the market capitalization of US stocks now represents 50% of total equity value globally, which is extraordinary.
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But if you add in corporate debt, because the enterprise value of a company is its market cap, say 100 million, plus if it has 50 million in debt, the market is saying that this company is worth $150 million because we're giving it $100 million in equity value despite the fact it also owes 50 million. We're saying it's worth 150 million.
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That's definitely some therapy for my voice.
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If you add in all corporate debt and the world is worth $100, America costs $70 right now, and the rest of the world, sans the U.S., costs $30. So if someone said to you, Kara Swisher, you can either buy America for $70 or the rest of the world for $30, you'd buy the rest of the world. And so what I'm doing is the following. First off, I think you're always invested in the markets.
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Don't try and time them. You are not Warren Buffett. And When people predict a recession, oftentimes the market goes up 20 or 30%. And also you have to take into account whether you're going to trigger a taxable gain on your, a taxable event on your income gains. What I would suggest, and this is not financial advice, but what I am doing, 70 versus 30, I am pulling money out of the U.S.
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and I'm putting into low-cost, diversified index funds, in non-US markets. Because while index funds will diversify you, if you're just in an S&P or a NASDAQ index fund, you're actually not that diversified because typically when the markets get this expensive in America, for the next five or 10 years, you have 0% returns. European stocks haven't been this cheap in a long time.
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American stocks haven't been this expensive in a long time. So what I would say is one, I don't think you should go to cash. I just don't think you can time the markets. But what I would suggest is thinking about diversifying across geographies, not just asset classes.
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Yeah. Well, you had obviously a health scare and you lost a parent very young. I'm a raging atheist. I think a very real sense of the finite nature of life is an absolute blessing.
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It's that math I did this morning.
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Look, we have a bias, but this to me just seemed fucking ridiculous that the President of the United States would decide to do an infomercial for one brand and not all other American brands. It's one thing if he and the Commerce Secretary were to stand in front of a bunch of American-made EVs, including Tesla. I think Biden screwed up not including Tesla in the EV summit.
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That was punitive the other way. That was playing favorites the other way. But when you basically do one of these bad local, you know, I'm crazy, Bob, come down to Bob's Ford and Lincoln Mercury for a crazy deal.
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Yeah, I was joking that that you can lease to own America for two hundred and eighty five million dollars. It's just this is stupid and goes back to the notion that this kind of shit should not be allowed. It reflects poorly on America, reflects poorly on Trump.
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About denying your daughter under oath to avoid child support payments?
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And the thing I don't get about Musk, who obviously has such an unbelievable feel for business, is that 75% of Republicans say they would never buy an EV. If he was just purely, quote unquote, economically driven, which I think he is, I think he would have gone blue pill.
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Because the marketplace, I always use the example, we talked about this, when Nike went political, it was a smart move because they tickled the sensors of the core market. He's pissing off his core market. I just don't, I don't understand his end game here as Gavin Newsom.
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Let's pretend he's Jesus Christ because he invented a fucking phone.
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You're part of the acolytes. By the way, I just want to call it out. I disliked Elon well before you.
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It really is. It's so passe, but money in politics and just what feels like a straight pay-for-play and all the incentives are, I mean, I've said this for a long time. The thing that's always horrified me about our representatives and our Congress is not that they're whores, not that if you give them money, you get audience with them. I've known that for a long time.
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It's what incredibly cheap whores they are. And that is, if you give 10 to 25 grand to every senator, I bet more than half would meet with you when you swung by Washington. And influence is a function of proximity and intimacy. You have audience with people who get to levy or are the arbiters of the largest person in history.
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So the incentives are, Jeff Bezos or Mark Zuckerberg, look at these investments and go, this is the best investment in history. A million bucks for his inauguration campaign and he stops threatening to put me in jail or he's going to not try and break me up or he's going to tell the FTC or the DOJ to hands off Amazon or whoever. This is the best money spent unless you have systemic
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laws and regulation that says, no, we pass laws that affect all companies. We're not allowed to play favorites. It's just a race to the bottom where everyone's like, all right, let's give him a giant medal and award and build a gold statue of him and give $10 million to his electoral campaign. And the problem is that favors the incumbents because they're the ones that have all the power.
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And anybody who says, No, I'm standing up for American values. I'm not going to take this money. They're at a huge disadvantage. And we end up with a majority of our elected officials are willing to engage in this grift, in this trade. So... As far as you can see.
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Just one example, you know who's doing this right? University of California. I owe California taxpayers a lot. I've given some money to UCLA and to Berkeley, and both the chancellors of UCLA and Berkeley called me and said, one, thank you, and two, I just need you to know this, your kid is less likely to get in now that you have given money.
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They are not only so worried about conflicts of interest and abusing the public purse, that if you give over a certain amount of money to the University of California, the chancellor will call you and say, just FYI, your kid is now less likely to get in because we have to be so careful about conflicts and not abusing the public trust. And quite frankly, I respect it. Yeah.
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Trust me, I'll call you. That's right. You went to a private school where you can still just you can do pay for play. Yeah, that's true. But this that is how government that is how you are supposed to respect the power of money you're given. This is when he when he favors industries, he's spending your money. He's abusing your tax dollars.
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I think this was bad for the brand. I really do.
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Well, that is my prediction. And that is there's not going to be a breakup. I think that essentially people keep asking us, as Anderson did last night, when does the relationship end? I don't think the relationship ends with a bang. I think he just sorts – I think Musk just fades to black. One –
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If the president is really serious about the cabinet secretaries now get to make the final decision and Musk is just an advisor to them, that means nothing is going to happen because these cabinet secretaries have a very difficult job. They need all of their staff. The savings are minimal in comparison to Trump. For example, the increase in the deficits from the planned tax cuts.
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If Elon Musk comes back, he's not going to come back with a thoughtful, you could probably cut 1,000 of the 4,500 people from the Department of Education who have overseen national mandatory testing, which most people think has not worked. Right intentions has not worked. If he came back with thoughtful recommendations, the Department of Education might say, okay, that might make sense.
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But he's not there to look at fraud and waste, which, by the way, we've got a clean bill of health on so far because I can't find as much as everyone had anticipated. But also, these are not – this isn't about an audit. This isn't about efficiency. These are – these are political actions.
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When you cut off all USAID, it's a political action, and political actions are supposed to be left to our elected representatives representing the people. So if it was, in fact, about efficiency, fine. But what he said is, if he, in fact, is honest about now he's just an advisor, he's going to have no power, nothing's going to happen. And in addition...
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He is now probably doing the math and going, I miscalculated. There are not only his Tesla sales being hammered, but what he's really scared of has happened. And that is the virus here has jumped the lab to Starlink. And that is a lot of big customers are now rethinking their Starlink relationship. So what initially was very accretive to his personal wealth has returned.
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He's lost all that money and the momentum is downward. So I think he's basically saying, going to pull a Vivek and just slowly fade away out of, and I think Doge is going to die a quiet death because he has, it looks as if his power has been emasculated and two, he's just losing so much money right now because of the negative brand halo. Well,
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So, Cara, you know what stock is up? The Starlink competitor in Europe, Utelstat, has quadrupled in the last 30 days as these small inferior product competitors are now viable again because they have an enormous increase in interest from nations and companies that don't want to work with Starlink. That stock is gone from a month ago it was trading at $1.20. Buy Europe.
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Today it opened at 682. Yeah. So you're about to see a massive amount of capital. I mean, this is so bad for Starlink. You're about to see a massive amount of capital going to other satellite and communications providers that quite frankly, weren't as competitive. They weren't as good.
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Anyways, there won't be a press announcement, but watch. In 30 or 60 days, Doja is going to be surprisingly not in the news. Okay.
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I'm going away for the weekend and then I go back to London on Sunday. How about you?
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The new tariffs on champagne, I feel bad. I'm going to spend more time in St. Barts just to be a good citizen.
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Today's show was produced by Lara Naiman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie and her Todd engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Mia Severio, and Dan Shulon. Nishat Kerouaz, Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media.
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You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Kara, have a great time moving lucky.
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I think comedians doing really well is really important on both sides of the aisle. And so good for him, good for, is it Netflix that's bringing him on?
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Yeah. The thing that's more troubling is the following. There's nothing wrong with if Amazon decides in terms of programming to bring on whatever shows they want from the past that help cement their value proposition. The problem is that, okay, we have... We have what appears to be Amazon overpaying for the Melania Trump documentary.
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We have Jeff Bezos giving a million dollars in the inaugural campaign and under what feels like duress. We have also a kind of strange, ironic timing where the owner, the same guy of The Washington Post, has decided they don't need to have an opinion section. which feels very, quite frankly, like he's acquiescing to pressure from Trump.
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So the problem is that if we end up in a situation where every person in power starts to take, if you will, kind of soft bribes in exchange for possibly exonerating that company from certain regulation or tariffs, You just, you have, you end up with, one of the reasons India has not, quite frankly, kept pace with China.
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20 years ago, most analysts would have said, half of analysts 20, 30 years ago would have said, the next enormous growth economy, half would have said China, half would have said India. India's a democracy, English speakers, huge emphasis on education, strong with tech. It wasn't immediately obvious that China was going to absolutely crush India in terms of growth.
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But here's one of the big problems with India. It is wildly fucking corrupt. And local officials and politicians extract a lot of unfair rents from businesses, which makes everyone less competitive and creates incentives for more and more corruption. China, on a regular basis, finds corrupt officials and business people and executes them.
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Probably not the right way to go, but they are very serious about corruption, and that creates more robust, competitive competition. We are headed more towards India right now than we have been in the past.
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Don't forget, this is the guy that essentially opened a Swiss bank account that any foreign entity could deposit money into, and only Donald Trump gets the receipts and knows what is going into that bank account. And it's called the Trump coin. He basically set up the ultimate vessel for quiet, off-record bribes. And where do we go?
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A lot of Republicans will claim, and I think there's a real argument here, Scott, we're just less opaque about it than Democrats. We cut out the middlemen of lobbyists and and of special interest groups and of people giving speeches.
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What are you talking about? But theoretically, it's a fair argument. And this is where I just want to bust the solutions. I think the right solution here is Singapore. And that is, I believe every congressperson and every senator should be paid a million to $3 million a year. I think the president should be paid $10 million a year. But in exchange for that, there is absolutely zero, zero
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Corruption, no speeches, no payments, can't work for a lobbyist for five years after you get out of office, no trading of stocks, just fucking nothing. Because the incentives here are, unfortunately, I'm a very powerful person and I don't make enough money to have a home back in Newport Beach and in D.C. And the incentives are, quite frankly, just to kind of. File with the ethics committee.
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Maybe they say, oh, you're not supposed to trade stocks. The penalties are really low. We have to have a zero tolerance for this and dramatically increase their compensation.
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I never watched The Apprentice. I never saw it.
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It's basically, the running joke was that the guy was supposed to be gay. I mean, that was incredibly homophobic, pretty sexist. And yet you still really like John Ritter.
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You know what show disappointed me the most when I went back? My favorite show, speaking of an obsession with death, my absolute favorite show, no joke, was Six Feet Under. Did you ever watch that on HBO? Of course they did. Yeah. I remember thinking this is such incredible creative. I thought almost every show, it made you really feel something.
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And then it came back on, I think AMC or something, with commercial breaks, and it just absolutely ruined it. And you recognize, it was the first time I thought, people don't realize that streaming's real advantage is no commercials.
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That storytelling is so much easier when every nine to 11, but that's what's so amazing about Modern Family is they imagine, they're able to keep the thread, even though they have to interrupt it every 11 minutes with medication telling you you have restless legs.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
And I'm Scott Galloway.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
I'm doing okay. I just hauled up five flights of stairs, my 14-year-old's beverage refrigerator, because what is a 14-year-old without his own beverage refrigerator? I like a beverage.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Behind every great business is an even greater story. And each week on Masters of Scale, you get just that. Hear stories from the founders and leaders of the most iconic brands with lessons that earned them the greatest triumphs and helped them overcome the toughest challenges. Check it out today. You can find Masters of Scale on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Yeah, you and my son. Do you know that? Yeah, but you deserve one.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
I'm a big fan of bringing Elon to work days. I think it's... I was praying that the little kid would start goose-stepping. I think that would have been fitting. Yeah. Papa, tomorrow belongs to me.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
You mean the same? Oh, hold on. I think it's the same kid he put on his shoulders as he walked through the gates that said, work will set you free at Auschwitz.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
He used his kid as a prop at Auschwitz. Anyways, I think it's great when people bring their kids to work, but when you use your kids, it feels like the kid is a bit of a prop right now. He is.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
And look, I don't, it all again is like the gulf of distraction. And that is the inspector general who was looking into Musk's payments and business activities has been summarily fired. Right. And I'm putting out a post tomorrow. Basically, what people don't realize is it's just so incredibly cynical because arguably one of the biggest welfare queens in history is Elon Musk.
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If you look at where a lot of these payments have gone. So a lot of this large S. So I find. Like, it's pretty obvious I have a bias against the guy, but I didn't... I thought it was smart for Trump visually to be sitting. Like, I'm more important than to have him there standing. I thought Elon looked good.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
I'm trying to be... I thought he had... I thought that fashion was kind of cool, the black hat and the, you know, the jacket. But I thought... And I actually thought he handled the questions relatively well. So... You know, probably a win for them, but I have a difficult time just absorbing and processing any of this.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Oh, really? Yeah. I'm in favor of retro blue fridge. I'm actually very much an evangelist for beverages. Yeah, me too. But also... Yeah. Was it one of those like cool, what do they call it? Smeg?
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
See, I think actually Trump, given the fact that he is that old, I think Trump is remarkably robust and good looking for people.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
I think it was sort of a power move. But a couple of things come up. One. The kid was totally distracting for me. I do the same thing. I put out pictures on social of my dogs, one, because I think they're great and they are beautiful dogs, and two, I think it makes me more likable. I do the same thing. I understand what he's trying to do.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
The thing that propped up in my mind is I have good friends, and I got this practice from them. Every five years, they sit each other down and they say, logistics and money aside, which is a position of privilege, What could we do that would make you really happy? And my friend said, I think it was about five years ago, I'd like to sail around the world with the family.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
So they spent two years planning how to homeschool their kids on a boat, how to build a boat that could circumnavigate the globe. And they did it. They circumnavigated the globe. And there were some exceptionally scary moments. be involving pirates, rough seas, when you got like a seven-year-old on the boat. If the seven-year-old goes over, there's no getting them back.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
And what they said to me was, I said, would you do it again? I tried to talk them out of it. These are good friends. I'm like, I just don't think this is a good idea. I wouldn't do it. And there's certain bodies of water. I would just take a plane. You don't need bragging rights. You're both incredibly impressive people. And I said, would you do it again?
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
And they said, not until our kids could give consent. Because they said there were just some moments that were very scary. And I feel the same way about this. If you're the president and you have children, it's one thing to have those moments. But I don't know. Do you really take your kid to a concentration camp?
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
I thought the whole thing was so fucking weird. Yeah.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Yeah, I think Sam has shown a great deal of discipline around his comms and his brand. I think he screwed up here. I think that whether it's true or not, it might have felt good to say, I feel for the guy and yes, he's insecure. I think he just sort of said, the offer isn't a serious offer and I have no idea what's going on with Elon Musk. I don't want to...
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Sam has taken so far the high road around this and he should continue to take the high road. He shouldn't take the bait and say, because that's basically saying he's insecure and it must have felt good. And I get why he would do it. He's probably so sick of this guy. I think so. That wants to deploy law for instead of actually competing against him.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
And it's like this poltergeist who will not go away.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
That's absolutely fair. But Sam's brand is he's Sam comes across as the adult in the room and he's very restrained and he errs on the side of taking blows. And I don't think you should go there and say, you know, I mean, that was a that was that was a passive aggressive minus the passive part.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Yeah, but I think the bright answer would have been, of course, we had our lawyers look at it. We don't think there's any merit on it. We're focused on building great products. So I'm not here to psychoanalyze it.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Yeah, but the only thing is, if you're a public company and someone makes a bid for a certain class of shares is the way I would describe this, then you have a duty share obligation to put together a special committee and look at, and I don't know if they have debt, if that changes anything.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
But when you're basically a private company and everyone's making so much money, I just – unless there's someone on the board of the nonprofit that also hates Altman, which might be the case, and wants to create trouble.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
And they can pretty much do whatever they want. They don't – a public company has an obligation. The board has an obligation to get the highest offer and look at everything. A private company is basically a private company, and they can kind of do – you know, the shareholders, the shareholders as represented by the board can kind of do whatever the fuck they want.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
And I can't imagine any of them are going to go, yeah, let's bring Elon in.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
He doesn't have the money to buy, because if he were to buy it, he would have to... Actually, the more interesting kind of thing that no one watched, I actually read or looked at, which is Latin for, I had one of my analysts read, the earnings call from SoftBank. And a bunch of people asked questions about this anticipated investment in OpenAI at a $300 billion pre-money valuation.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
And basically in so many words, they said, what the fuck are you thinking? Can you please explain this? And what will be the structure of the investment? So I'm now beginning to think that that investment might be at risk because a lot of the analysts on the call were, what are you doing? This makes no sense.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
So for the first time, I'm now wondering if SoftBank actually reduces their commitment to that.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
How is our player, Tesla, domestically, who has its own manufacturing in China, faring against BYD domestically in China?
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Oh, I cannot tell you how impressed I am with Alice Han. She's my find. Occasionally you find somebody and you think this person is a genius and I want to give them more sunlight. And she's one of those people. Anyways, she's essentially said that, I mean, if you look at what's happened to Tesla in Europe, it's not much better in China.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
In January, retail sales of Tesla in China were 16% lower year on year.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
And get this, 60% lower than in December. So, I mean, BYD, and BYD is now the number one EV car manufacturer in the world. Going to a much broader point here, I think that the most important relationship that could evolve hopefully in the next three years, let's assume that Trump, supposedly he desperately wants a Nobel Prize. And so let me go to advising the president in a hopeful way.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
The most obvious way would be to solve the civil war in Sudan, threaten both sides, work with both sides. The other way would be if China and the US kissed and made up the, I mean, have you seen these cars? These cars are $10,000 EVs and really good. They're adorable.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
For another $2,000 or $3,000, you can install a lot of airbags and a lot of safety features. And in addition, I would even go further than that. I would create a bilateral AI commission where we... Supposedly 38% of AI engineers are Chinese in the US. And when we don't cooperate with them, they develop their own chips. They have incentive to do things kind of in and around us.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
I would have a bilateral AI similar to what Oppenheimer's vision was for nuclear, where we share everything with each other, but we also commit... to ensuring that AI is not used to create bioweapons by third parties or bad actors, because all we're doing is motivating the other to figure out workarounds to attack the other.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
The most important relationship in terms of a thong right now would be the first and second largest economy.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Yeah, but here's the Chinese playbook, and it's happening to Tesla. The Chinese playbook is very simple. Oh, Google, oh, Meta, come on in. And then they watch, listen, and learn, and then they steal their IP and prop up a local entrepreneur and capture the most of the value for the domestic market. And I think the same thing is happening to Tesla.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
I can't imagine a lot of that IP from Tesla didn't end up at BYD. I don't know about that.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
And battery, too.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
BYD sales plummet. Day after podcast. You have the worst taste in cars.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
They're super cool.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
In a second, they look like, I don't mean they're, they're kind of like the- It's like the new VW bug, but with technology.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
It's the car equivalent of fast fashion. It is. We have figured out supply chain to just bring you something for dramatically less money.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Yeah, that's exactly right. The only thing propping up Tesla stock right now and his wealth is this basic, the market has said, this is now a kleptocracy and your proximity to power is more important than your innovation.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Yeah, and also firing people who are investigating the company and getting rid of them. I guess that's a plus. Yeah, it's even, unfortunately, it's even, and this isn't in the script, but I'm just curious to get your quick reaction. Have you been following what's going on with Mayor Adams?
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Oh, God, I hope so.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Nobody in New York likes it. I agree. No, I said I hope so.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
I mean, essentially, what's effectively happened is he's instructed the DOJ to drop all prosecution efforts against Mayor Adams. And in exchange, Mayor Adams has agreed to comply with all efforts by ICE to capture or retain or detain and deport people.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
So what you have is, I'll make sure that you are not subject to the same laws that every other citizen is subject to if you agree to go against your constituents and let our ICE people into, who knows, churches or schools. I mean, this is really fucking ugly.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
The guy who will probably win is when Andrew Cuomo actually announces that he's in the race.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
It's a bunch of out-of-control progressives, one pragmatist named Whitney Tilson. who is a pragmatist, would be a great mayor, but probably doesn't have the name recognition. Governor Cuomo is going to come in and probably just lock it. But Kathy Hochul has, I believe, the power to remove Mayor Adams, and she should. She should. This is corruption at the highest level.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Hunter, this is really, and by the way, I was a supporter of Mayor Adams. I thought the case against him was quite frankly overdone. I did not think what he did rose to the level of, I don't know how the media was portraying it.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
This is but this is it's so damaging to the Democratic brand because the Democratic brand, unfortunately, has been tarred with a broad but fairly fair brush of. every democratically run city on the West Coast is a fucking shit show. They ignored drugs, they ignored crime, and the quality of life is awful.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
I said two years ago, if I were Fox, I would just broadcast live from downtown San Francisco every day. And so the center of Democratic branding for politics moved to New York, which is actually performing quite well and still offers, is still the best place in the world to go in terms of a crush of opportunity, culture, nightlife.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
New York really still is the best city in the world and represents the best of America and thereby the best of the Democratic Party. And now we have this bullshit. So it's really damaging on a lot of levels. I think Governor Hochul should move in and say, do a press release and say, I'm removing him as mayor.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
No, you know who I would ask? That's a good question. I just thought of it. I would ask Mayor Bloomberg to step back in.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Six to 18 months until there's a special election.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
You saw my thread or whatever it is. I can't keep track. I just put out Gulf of Distraction. That's all this is. I don't, you know, what, who cares? I don't, fine, call it that. I just don't.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Yeah, we'll show them.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
I appreciate that. Gulf of Dog.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Make America Scottish again.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
She's very calculating.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
She's not going to be on the go to the alumni cheerleading day where they have all these very cute 95-year-olds dressed up in pom-poms. She's an actual cheerleader. She's a gangster.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
They're in the background managing their brand really strongly with an eye on 28. And they're not going to like go down in some sort of like angry, near zombie apocalypse movie. Yeah, they're too smart. Yeah.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
So, you know, a broken clock can be right. I was a prediction machine last night. I wrote a bunch down.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
No, I was actually sober, which was kind of frightening. Interesting. When I was talking about, when you said that fuck, marry, kill thing, and I was talking about making sweet, sweet love to Mark Zuckerberg, and I thought I'd grab- You're still thinking about it, aren't you? Oh my God, I can't get off it.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
This could have been written by Sergei Lavrov, the equivalent of their secretary of state of propaganda. What might be interesting of the wildcard here is I'm not sure Europe is down with acquiescing to another murderous autocrat invading Europe and just saying, okay, it is what it is. What Secretary Hughes has said is probably pretty accurate.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Grabbing that chain, riding him like a dog and singing, who's self-harming now, you wanton bitch? Oh my God, my nipples are getting hard. And at that moment, at that moment, I thought, maybe I don't need drugs. Maybe I don't need drugs. Yeah. Anyways. This is all going to come crashing down, Kara. Anyways.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
If that's wrong, we don't want to be right.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
I think Tesla is about to experience its real first major existential crisis. Sales off.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Here I go again. I can't help it. I'm an addict. They're off 20% to 60% across European countries. They're off 50% in China. EV demand appears to be plateauing. They are getting the shit kicked out of them by BYD. They haven't really released a new mass adoption product in about seven years.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
And they have what is right now the worst brand ambassador in the world.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Yeah. And then my more boring one is I really think Google is going to – you're about to hear a lot of stories about Google search companies. share falling below 90 percent at the hands of Perplexity, ChatGPT, and also Reddit. I was even thinking just as YouTube has become the ultimate distribution platform in 2025, I think in 26, it's going to be Reddit.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
There's just a bunch of like there's so many moons lining up right now. I'm really anyways, I think that Tesla is about to have I can't help it. I'm just going to say it now. Tesla stock is going to be below 200 in the next six months.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
At some point, I'll be right.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
We'll see, right? Yeah, we'll see.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Do you have any thoughts, any predictions?
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Oh, you know what we should do?
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
And I'm serious about this. Alice, who I really respect, I would even call her a friend, the China analyst, Alice Han. She said, Scott, you should really, I haven't been to China since 2019. And I was saying, I was so excited about China. And I went there probably two, three times a year. And I haven't been back since 2019. And she said, I'll take you. It'll be a ton of fun.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
And you'll meet with some interesting people. You and I should go to China and you should pick up your BYD and see if you can get it back to the U.S.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
And pay the import. Pay the tariff and bring it back.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Yeah, the International Tourism Board, that's not going to be on any billboards. Wanastro, come to Shenzhen.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
We should do an event in China.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
It's very unlikely we're going back to the traditional borders.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Reach out to us.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
And I've heard that the CCP is actually a good organization because I can't find anyone who would say anything else. Bring us to China.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
After we see Wicked.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
We could see Wicked in Beijing. That'd be interesting.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Oh yeah, I'm going to, it's funny, I paused there because I feel like I rubbed my wealth in people's face. I'm going to Zermatt. I'm going to Zermatt on Saturday.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
But at the same time, the time you negotiate, you want to negotiate from a place of strength and what you've seen across Europe. You could argue that's one of the benefits of not only the invasion, of Ukraine, but also, quite frankly, of Trump, who signaled, I'm sick of supporting or giving everyone this very expensive military umbrella.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Supposedly we have this ridiculously hot ski instructor, so.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Really? Is it a concert or a showing?
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
That sounds really cool.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Today's show was produced by Lara Naiman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie and her Todd engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Brose, Ms. Saverio, and Dan Shulon. Nishat Kroas, Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business care. Have a great weekend.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
But you have seen a dramatic increase in military spending across the EU.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
So I'm not sure the EU is going to say, you know, Ukraine, if you can't, if you don't want to if you don't want to bend the knee at this moment, courtesy of whatever Trump and Hex that say, we've got your back. And what's just remarkable about Ukraine is in every conflict there's a new,
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
There's a new weapon that kind of rears up, whether World War I, it was tanks and biplanes, World War II, radar. Drones. Yeah. And this is all about drones. And it's just incredible what they have been able to do with substantially less resources. So I think you negotiate from a position of strength.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
And when you start off with this type of rhetoric, you're basically, this could have been written by the Russians, right?
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
I heard he consulted with Jack Daniels before he made the speech.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
The other wild card people are talking about is, you know who doesn't want peace? China.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
China was a real beneficiary of the war because they get oil at dramatic, you know, on sale. Because Russia, because they've been essentially shunned by every other major oil consumer.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
It felt like a rave party. It's like... I was like, let's drop some molly and turn off Russian gas.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
You brought a key point, and that is while at the end of the day, we might end up with some sort of commitment to not let Ukraine join NATO, because there is, if you talk to Professor Jeffrey Sachs at Columbia, who I disagree with on almost every foreign policy viewpoint, he would argue that we invited that Russia was backed into the corner because of the prospect of Ukraine joining NATO.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Maybe ultimately you know that you're not going to let them join NATO and America for the most part gets to make that decision, but you don't offer it up before the negotiations. You maybe even say, in one way will guarantee their security moving forward is incorporating the new Ukraine into NATO.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
And then Russia freaks out and says, okay, if you take, you know, if you give back 60, 70, 80% of the territory, you don't show up and negotiate against yourself and offer that up before you need to. So,
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He's the most Churchillian character of this millennium so far.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
I would say I have more confidence, actually, in the EU. I don't think— Keep in mind the EU is a large economy. They have dramatically increased their military budget. And quite frankly, they still remember what happens when an autocrat is let, when you give him, when you say, okay, here, you can have Poland or you can have this segment of France.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Anthony Chamberlain? Wasn't it Neville?
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
It's so rare. You're usually the one telling me I got it wrong.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Richard Chamberlain from the Thornburgs.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
With one of the hottest women ever, Rachel Ward.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
A love affair. His commitment to God. I'm like, dude, just tell God to put.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Oh, my God. Take that shit down and let us watch. I know. Put it on cable and let them go at it.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
Well, I mean, first off, to be fair, you can't pin egg prices going up 53%. It's the avian flu or whatever it is. But if you look at, if you dig in, inflation is sort of a crude number because there's core inflation.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
And if you really get to the nut of it, the thing that drove a lot of this kind of uncomfortable number, and it's probably the reason why the Fed is now pulling back on what they thought were going to be rate or the market thought anticipated to be rate cuts, is is shelter. Housing costs, including hotel and motel rooms, rose 0.4% last month.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
And I've always thought that... And the Democrats need to get off their heels in whining and bitching and being outraged and get onto their toes and start proposing some really dramatic, forward-looking... Because I think one of the reasons we lost CARA was that we were seen as a party of the past and everything's fine and let's hold on to our tradition. Yeah.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
I don't read anything you sent me.
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It takes too much time, and it's usually exceptionally—it's like 140— Well, you're articulating exactly what that piece said, but go ahead. 140 pace smeared over very woke toes.
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140 IQ. It's very smart woke.
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Anyways, so I do want to listen to that podcast here with the three economists. But anyways— Yes. The really exciting thing would be, all right, how do we implement a CHIPS-like act for housing?
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Because if you unleash the real economy, there's a lot of great housing builders out there, Pulte, you know, there's a ton of... And say to them, all right, I don't know if it's 3%, 5%, 10% tax subsidy, and also make it more difficult... for residents to sequester new housing permits.
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One of the biggest tragedies in American history, I believe, was we took housing permits out of the hands of, actually, the bureaucrats were trying to fire, and we put it into the hands of housing owners, who all of a sudden decided, if I own a house, I don't want any more new houses built.
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Trump’s Putin Call, Inflation Rises, and Sam Altman Strikes Back at Elon Musk
But a dramatic—I would love the Democrats to propose a dramatic increase of tax subsidy, whatever it might be, that increases housing supply well beyond its current demand and says, within the next 10 years, we're going to bring housing prices down dramatically.
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It has such a huge psychological impact on our youth because—and not only that, housing formation. I don't know about you, but when I— When I was younger and trying to figure out a way not to get married, I said, okay, let's get a dog. And then I was like, okay, let's get a house. And when you get a house, it's really a commitment to each other and you start saving.
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It's a great means of creating more cementing of a bond with somebody.
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Let me think. No. Okay. My housing strategy is very straightforward. It's a 0.1% strategy. Wealthy people are the most homogenous, boring people in the world. And that is, I'm convinced, essentially income inequality is only going to get worse. And the 0.1% are incredibly boring. They all wear Hermes ties, they party in St.
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Barts, they drive Range Rovers, and they want to live in one of six or seven places.
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Invest what you know and boner pills and two-headed glass dildos. I'm still looking for an investment there. Anyways, but back to real estate. The 0.1 percent all want to live in Dubai, London, New York, Palm Beach, Aspen, certain parts of LA, and then there's maybe two or three close seconds, and they're all crowding into a small number. Of homes.
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And in addition, the secondary benefit is I want to make it such that my boys can't avoid me. It's like, well, we can go to Tijuana and eat cheap lobster. We could go hang out at my dad's place where we have to have lunch with them. Anyways, I don't know how we got here. But Trump, the Democrats need a housing act.
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Well, my heart says yes, but my brain says based on all previous track records.
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If he can be found liable by a jury of his peers selected by both his defense and the prosecution and be found liable of sexual abuse, I'm not sure inflation is going to stick to him. So I would think, but what I probably know or what I feel is yes, what I know based on fact patterns is no.
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Well, this is, I mean, it really is, this company is, but here's the thing, the argument they will make when they get in front of judges, on earnings calls they will say, temporary lag, look at this, everything's great, we're amazing, the power here is unprecedented.
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When they get in front of a judge next week, they're going to be like, oh my God, things are so terrible, you can't break us up right now, we're really weak.
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Well, nationalists. I mean, just a quick definition. People throw around the term fascist law. They use it to describe Carter, Obama. People incorrectly use it to describe certain aspects of the Trump administration. Fascism is extreme nationalism.
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It's a belief that someone you elect who, for whatever reason, his view of what's good for the nation should supersede the other party, any governance, any checks and balances, even the courts, even you refuse to condemn violence against your enemies. You condemn immigrants. That is fascism.
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It literally, this kind of the current administration and their current policies are literally the textbook definition of fascism. So it's a word that's become overused, but it's absolutely appropriate here.
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Are you still in Australia, Kara?
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There is a real void that people are stepping into, I would say Trudeau. I'd also say Macron is really stepping.
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You're drawn to these individuals.
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Power is an aphrodisiac. I get it.
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They're real. Are you hot for Starmer yet? Keir Starmer, who assembled- I love him.
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Who assembled the world leaders. Yeah, pass the head up your ass. Non-dom thing. 10,000 millionaires have left the UK in the last three months. But other than that, he looks like a leader. He's got big shoulders and good hair.
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There are people stepping into the void. The leader of Denmark, the leader of Finland, there are people making really powerful speeches.
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I'll say more about it later, but I do think the EU, and it's a silver lining here, is stepping into the morass or the crevice or the void.
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Making out with macaron?
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It's a great city. Last time I was in Australia, I traveled to New Zealand and I was driving along the side of the road and there was a guy fighting a sheep. And I said, you know, in Australia, they shear them. And he said, fuck you, I'm not shearing her with anybody. That's good.
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Support for Pivot comes from the NPR podcast, Up First. Today's news landscape can be pretty overwhelming. There are constant updates to follow, late-breaking stories to track, and never-ending feeds to doom scroll. Trying to keep up with all of it would make anyone anxious, but it doesn't have to be that way.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
If you'd like to stay on top of the daily stories that actually matter without driving yourself insane, you might want to check out the NPR podcast, Up First. Up First covers the three most important stories of the day in just 15 minutes, so you can learn what you need to know and then move on with your day. What does that all mean?
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It means that you can be informed without compromising your sanity. Simply put, whenever NPR does something, you should give it a trial because the quality control, the pursuit of the truth, and generally, they're just good actors. I love NPR. So if you're looking for more news and less noise and a way to start your day off right and informed, you can listen to the Up First podcast from NPR today.
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I'll take it PG-13. You're coming to Texas in a few days, right?
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Well, putting truth aside, and I want to circle back to truth, I thought it was a win for him, and I thought it was a loss for Democrats. I thought he came across as resolute, as strong. I thought he looked good. I thought he was forceful. I thought he was articulate. And I don't want to be one of those nations that digresses into a total fucking food fight in our addresses.
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I think that it reflects poorly on the United States.
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Well, he was just he came across as forceful. And we are now in a situation where I have friends who have become who put out reels and just adopt every talking point, no matter how outrageous it is. But just a little bit of an economic reality check. He could declare it. America is back. Meanwhile, markets are tanking and the economy is stumbling. GDP, the U.S. economy, the U.S.
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I'm bringing cheese for us so we can handle any emergency. I'm calling it my Justin Queso.
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economy is contracting at the fastest rate right now since the COVID lockdowns. The Atlanta Fed has something called a GDP Now model, which estimates annualized growth. And it's gone from 4% up, which is remarkable, to negative 2.8 in the last month. Consumer confidence has had its greatest drop since COVID. Retail spending is down.
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The markets are not in free fall, but definitely declining. The NASDAQ has lost 9% in 10 days. All of the gains since the Trump bump have disappeared. He has the greatest levels of disapproval of any president except one other at this time in his presidency. And that other was Trump's first term. 52% saying he's ignoring the country's biggest problems. And just a little word search fund here.
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He mentioned Greenland. Three times more than affordable housing, veterans, or prescription drug costs. Zero mentions of healthcare. Zero mentions of veterans or prescription drug costs. Five mentions of tax cuts for billionaires. Five mentions of illegal aliens. Six mentions of the Panama Canal. Thirteen mentions of Joe Biden. And three mentions of annexing Greenland. Don't forget Panama.
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It is just, and my favorite was, the days of rule by unelected bureaucrats are over while Elon Musk. Sat in the audience. And oh, my second favorite.
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Free speech. It's back. Forgetting that on a social media post, he said he would ban illegal protests at universities and that he has barred the Associated Press from the Oval Office. So unfortunately, our leadership and our politics and even our truth have become just who can lie the most with the most confidence.
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So, okay, what have you been doing in Australia?
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Can you know what was just when you thought the guy couldn't get any more craven? The emotional manipulation of that girl who had her face, her nose broken and got a concussion because of a spike from a transgender volleyball player. I just want to remind everybody before they clutch their progressive pearls.
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A couple of years ago on this show, I said that transgender women should not be allowed to be in sports where there is money or scholarships on the line. I said that early and often, much to the, I don't know, disappointment of many of my progressive colleagues. I have said that early and often.
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At the same time, demonizing a transgender girl and emotionally manipulating and using as a prop another teenage girl to try and look at her. Isn't she beautiful? And she's a beautiful little girl and she had a concussion. And by the way, I played high school sports. The sport that has the greatest level of injury in the world is high school football. High school sports are chock full of injuries.
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Wait, you're going to sell 11 books this year?
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And again, see above. I do not think transgender women should be allowed to play in collegiate level. You can't have a 6'4 swimmer showing up and saying, I present as a woman and take every medal.
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My point is that was just craven to create that sort of emotional manipulation and to demonize. You don't think that that transgender girl who is the one who spiked the ball is probably getting fucking death threats right now?
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No one wants to hurt someone else. You don't use kids as props like that.
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Purely orchestrated by Putin.
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Purely orchestrated by Putin. I mean, just that was planned. Vance, who doesn't have, I mean, the only thing that gave me any sort of joy there was watching literally Senator Rubio lose all of his last final specks of soul and respect for himself.
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Knowing that TikTok would come up with every time he's presented himself as a cold warrior and he just sat there literally melting into a couch.
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That reminds me, what's the difference between a garbanzo bean and a chickpea?
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I'm not going to pay 50 bucks for a garbanzo to bean on my face.
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Think about it. Think about it.
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I pay 50 bucks for a chick to pee on my face. I really don't.
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There you go. We'll get you there. We'll get you there.
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I'm not that person. I don't think very many of us are that person.
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We treated representatives of the Viet Cong with more respect in negotiations around the peace agreement. You don't provide a world leader and then ambush them. It's just bad manners, and you lose credibility.
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He should have showed up with a big medal. We are giving you the nation's highest honor. Here's a statue made out of six karat gold. Look how fit and trim you are. We're giving you an honorary gold medal just for being awesome.
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And by the way, just a few facts about Zelensky. His grandfather fought in World War II. He lost people in the Holocaust. He's Jewish. He was reelected by 70% of the people. They complain about a lack of free press. He has not banned any other press unless it's Russian propaganda, just as the UK did. They wouldn't allow fascist papers to run anywhere.
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pro-Hitler ads while they were getting the shit bombed out of them. This guy, the greatest ROI, the greatest venture investment in history is America's mild, modest $60 billion, 70% of which is spent in the US mostly red states that has done the following. It's taken out a third of the kinetic power of Russia.
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Everyone would live in Australia if it wasn't so far.
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It has given China pause recognizing a small motivated army that's technically literate and backed by the West. Think twice before you do it. And it is the best thing about all of this is that it is unifying He is unifying Europe and he is saying to people around the world. And by the way, just a quick tangent. I heard from this kid. I apologize. I apologize.
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I just, I got to get something out of this.
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Go for it. I'm on a roll. No, this is just personal privilege. There was this lovely young man in my fraternity at UCLA named Greg Townsend. Just everybody liked this guy. We used to call him Townie. We went to the same high school. He was a year younger than me. Out of the blue, I get a message out from saying, I have a friend who's a human rights lawyer. I'd love for her to come on the pod.
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You know, every day people are calling us with ideas about who they think is fascinating and should come on the pod, right? And I say, what are you up to? And he goes, well, I went to law school. And for the last 20 years, I've been working for the UN, tracking down and prosecuting war criminals. And I'm like, it's just so funny.
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All I remember is listening to Led Zeppelin with this guy, and he's fucking hunting down war criminals and prosecuting them through- Impressive.
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Ooh. I had one of the best nights of my life in Australia. It involved the ex-girlfriend of the drummer of NXS. I'm dating myself. I was at the W Hotel, I was out alone, and these two women came up to me and said, hi, you're alone, and they took me out. We had a great time. I just, I had the best time. The water taxis, that polar place with the pool and the polar bear club, whatever it's called.
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This guy, I was so moved. I'm like, okay. I immediately went off and said, how can I party in St. Barts and make as much fucking money as possible? And he decided to go to Switzerland and get a law degree and then work with other good people to try and ensure that the- All right, and how are we going to knit this together?
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And try and ensure that the incentive system is that think twice before you start murdering children and raping women under the context of war. And he tracks these people down and he prosecutes them. And then the cherry on top is that funding for his entire group has been stopped. And so he's not sure what he's going to do next. And you know what?
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The majority of him and his colleagues are continuing to work. Anyways, Greg Townsend, good for you, my brother.
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One of the most powerful things about the presidency is they get the bully pulpit and they get to stand up in front of the vice president and the speaker and the cameras and the music and the majesty. and they get to win every time they do it.
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And I think the whole thing reflected really poorly on Hakeem Jeffries and democratic leadership because they clearly have no control over their constituents and their messaging is awful. We looked terrible, Cara. We looked reckless, immature, beside ourselves, you don't think that emboldens Republicans when they see us acting this way? What could they do?
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The bottom line is there's not a lot to do. You sit there, you're polite. There's probably a couple of things you can clap for when they welcome whatever, a war veteran, you can stand up and applaud. And other than that, you just sit there and you take it.
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Fine. I don't even think that's a good idea because I don't eventually we're going to digress to only half the chamber shows up for every presidential address. And I think there's a certain level. There's a certain level of decorum. But they this is, again, the Democrats have consistently shown they do not have discipline and they do not have leadership and they do not have.
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good messaging right now. They haven't gotten their shit together.
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It disgusted me when one of the squad put up the sign saying genocide when Netanyahu spoke. You just don't show up with signs.
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Well, there's tactical and there's strategic. On the tactical, you just show up, you're polite, you're the adults in the room, you nod, you get someone fantastic as we did to give the response. The response is a thankless job because you just can't command the majesty of the lighting and the camera angles. She did a competent slash good job.
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You sit there, you're polite, you have more respect for the flag and the rotunda than you do your tribal censors, and we did not do that. We showed that we were reckless and we're like, a kid coming home who is polite all day and then just vomits his or her emotions, speaking for a friend as a parent, and give mom and dad just like, who is this terrorist who just walked through the door?
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And by the way, in the parent-teachers conference, everyone's, he's just such a good kid at school. He's so polite.
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Yeah, and then you read all these child books saying, it's because they trust and love you. I'm like, well, I wish they trusted and loved me a little bit less.
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On a strategic level, you pick one or two issues, don't go after all these ridiculous DEI, transgender, Greenland, Panama. You go after a small set of issues, a surrender, to the American brand now means surrender, measles, and inflation. I would focus on those three things. I'd bring in experts, I'd be thoughtful, I'd be data-driven, and then I would fucking shut down the government.
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I would go upstream of Elon Musk and saying, no, we're not raising the debt limit. No, we are shutting down the government. You want to play hardball, Fine, let's dance.
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She understands the decorum.
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She was distracted. She was trading options on Robin Hood.
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You know what the Republicans have that we don't have? They have synchronicity. The synchronicity between think tanks, between their media and their leadership and their talking points, they are a well-oiled machine.
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We are flailing around. We are, you know, we define the term seizure. We're just out of control, our limbs flailing in different directions and have no control of ourselves. And you watch it, you watch what's going on, our response, and it's just sort of uncomfortable. It's like, okay, we got to be able to do better than this.
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But your analysis is the right one, and that is, who's our target audience? And the people who like a 70-something-year-old congressman from Texas waving his cane and walking and go, yeah, people, we already have those people. They're voting Democratic. Those aren't the people we need. Who we need is the person who voted for Trump and is now having second thoughts.
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And you need to be thoughtful, and you need to be measured, and you need to show, we're the adults in the room.
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And we're adults. We're reasonable. We're going to lay out the facts. We're not going to have an emotional response. We have emotional control. Because the people that loved and will applaud for this type, who are saying, you know, Stand up, walk out, yell them, good for you. Those people are on board with democratic policies. We don't need to convince those people of anything.
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We got to go after the people who voted for Trump.
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You want to hear it? Sure, go ahead.
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Yeah, my recommendation around what she should do is nothing. She's a reminder of how badly we fucked up. It would be bad. I'm sorry. And by the way, I saw Secretary Clinton last night at Chez Margot in New York. She just out of nowhere, I'm like, I know that woman. I wanted to go up and say I love you.
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I'm going next Christmas or next holiday. I'm taking my boys before we head back. I mean, it's really a tourism giant and some of the best wine in the world. It's got more kangaroos than people.
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I was doing my favorite thing. I was drinking at the bar alone. No joke.
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And I thought that her Secret Service people were going to attack like that tall, weird looking dude who's alone drinking. Anyways, but when you lose, you take a break for a while because all she's going to do is remind people, quite frankly, of why we lost. And this is what Vice President Harris should do.
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Abso-fucking-lutely nothing until we have a Democratic president who appoints her to the Supreme Court. She's just not from a, quite frankly, no mercy, no malice brand perspective. She should do nothing.
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I think Biden was the problem. Agreed. Everything you're saying is true. And the reality is she's a reminder of the policies and reasons we lost. And she should just stay out of the line. In terms of just what's good for Democrats right now, she should, quite frankly, just be under the radar.
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You know who's having a moment, and you were right on this and I was wrong, is your guy, Fetterman.
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Well, then we vote him off the island. He doesn't align perfectly with my ideas.
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And they did something that I think we should do here in the U.S., and that is, well, they're very paternal, and they take some of their— mineral wealth, and they invest it on behalf of people, and they have something called the Superannuation Fund, and it's essentially a pension program, and it has over $3.5 trillion under it, making it one of the largest pension funds in the world.
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Put the moral arguments aside, we have established amazing economic trade relationships and trust and rule of law and reciprocal. When I'm in the Gulf, I have a speaking gig in the Gulf and then October the 7th happens and I make some comments that they find disagreeable and they cancel the speaking contract. we have a contract.
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And nowhere in that contract did it say, you're not allowed to say certain things. And then we point it out and they say, you're right, we respect rule of law. We've got a great trading relationship. We're gonna come to a settlement. We have established really strong economic relationships with the world's largest economies over the last 80 years that benefits them and benefits us.
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And one of the key tenants of American capitalism democracy is we believe in lifting up people all around the world, that economic prosperity, if it's shared, we all do just much better. And we have amazing trading relationships with the world's largest economies.
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And we are taking them and saying to those economies, figure out alliances and relationships and trade routes and supply chains and legal agreements with each other and go around us and exclude us and be less inclined to trade with us moving forward. Because even if he drops these tariffs, They can't trust us.
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They can't start clearing off all Jack Daniels off of all shelves and figuring out how on earth are they going to reconfigure the supply chain of cars. By the way, with these tariffs, cars are going to cost, if these tariffs hold, an additional $12,000. Each car. People don't realize cars, General Motors cars, those big American trucks,
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The parts go back and forth across the Mexican and Canadian borders numerous times. So you're talking about another $12,000. More than half of America's produce comes from Mexico. Everything's about to—99% of shoes in America are imported. You're going to see this everywhere.
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The average U.S. household is going to see prices go up by $1,200 each year. And when the average household makes, what is it, $68,000 or $70,000, call it, $55,000 after taxes, that's the difference between being able to go on vacation or not.
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And by the way, it started with Tim Cook, who kissed his ass, and all of a sudden the iPhone was exempt from certain tariffs. So basically what he's doing is saying, okay, who's willing to give me money? Who's willing to kiss my ass? And then I'll figure out a workaround for you. This is what a kleptocracy is. This is corruption.
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It's just like... I was a graduate student instructor in macroeconomics for Professor Christina Romer at Berkeley back in the 90s. And we used to talk about tariffs. It's like... An obvious example of just how stupid we were. We'd bring up tariffs in the early part of the 20th century. Smooth holly.
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And we'd all, it was just so funny. We would kind of laugh at like, okay, this is, wait, hold on kids. This is what they decided to do.
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As if we had gone, it was like we literally tariffs were the economic equivalent in the world of medicine of leeches. Like, can you believe they did this?
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Can you believe they thought this would work?
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And here we are again. Makes absolutely fucking little sense.
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It's not a vacation. It's Survivor. Yeah, something like that. Why do your fantasies always involve something where I die?
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Jack Zhang, I think it's Zhang, he's a professor at the University of Kansas, summarized it perfectly with respect to tariffs are essentially, yet again, another regressive tax because lower middle income households spend 100% of their paycheck on these products. So again, they're the ones that get hurt the most. And he summarized it perfectly. He said, it's a rich man's war and a poor man's fight.
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These tariffs, yet again, really target lower and middle class homes. It is a regressive tax. Low-income Americans spend all of their money on these, think about this, produce, saving for a car, eggs. I mean, these are the people that get hit the hardest.
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If you do this, it's just... But moving to facts, all right? We get outraged. It's extortion that we're demanding rare earth minerals from Ukraine. Okay, I get it. But now let's quickly pivot to facts. Trump has said he wants $500 billion worth of rare earth minerals from Ukraine in exchange for continued military and political support. All right, let's just, a couple of facts.
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Well, you always ask this question, and it's obvious. I would just honorably kill myself. I would just find several pros and a bunch of fentanyl and just say, all right, I'm out. Game over. By the way, some bands from Australia, ACDC, In Excess.
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The entire global market for rare earth minerals is 10 to 14 billion. A rare earth mineral mine takes at least 10 years to spin up. So let's just look at, okay, well, You're right. It's extortion. Let's get angry. But let's look at the actual data and show just how ridiculous this is. This makes no sense.
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Well, this is going to be a shocker.
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This is going to be a shocker. By the way, did you see my, did you hear my appearance?
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That's ACDC. Jesus, didn't you have a childhood?
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You really didn't smoke pot. Anyways, yeah, ACDC. One of the great actors, not arguably a great guy, Mel Gibson.
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I just have a win. I'm trying, just because I'm such a glass half empty kind of guy, I'm trying to focus on or having some discipline around. If you look at the world, actually, the world over the medium and long term, despite some severe hiccups in the short term, the world gets better. And so your default setting should be Or you should always have in the back of your mind what could go right.
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Because generally speaking, over time, the world has gotten better. And I'm trying to think, looking at this mess and how upsetting it is, what could go right? And I think what could go right here is that I do believe a real silver lining the size of the cloud here is I do think that Europe is threatening to be an actual union.
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Yeah, lost it there, didn't I?
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And if you look at, most recently, the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, I think it is.
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Go ahead. She unveiled a historic $840 billion plan to increase EU defense spending. They're now looking at going past the 2 percent number, they're looking at coordinating. What they've decided is that, and this is the unintended consequence of recognizing they can no longer depend upon American consistency in the military umbrella.
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It really doesn't make any sense that Europe would, and they're recognizing this, that they would need to back down to Russia because Russia's GDP is about 2 trillion. The combined member states of the EU is 19 trillion. You know, Germany, France, and England all have bigger economies. Russia is just barely ahead of Spain. It's smaller than Canada. Both Britain and France have nuclear arsenals.
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They have very sophisticated manufacturing intellectual property. They have decent AI. They have fantastic communications technology. I believe, and this links to investments, if you look at European value stocks on a scale of 1-100, 1 being the cheapest they've ever been, 100 being the most expensive, U.S.
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growth stocks are at 98, and that is only 2% in history, only 2% of time have they been more expensive than they are now. European value stocks, big companies like Mercedes, L'Oreal, are at 2%, meaning 98% of time they've been more expensive. I think... that Europe is finally saying, okay, we believe it. We can't count on our rich, crazy uncle. He's gone just fucking insane. We can't count on him.
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Yeah, that's Meryl Streep. Now, the best independent film to come out of Australia. This is a gorgeous little film that introduced Nicole Kidman and the most beautiful woman in the world is in the film.
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But we as siblings are actually very strong when we coordinate. And we're a bigger economy. We have fantastic technology. And they have already stepped up. They immediately called a meeting in the UK. They're about to call another one in Brussels. And Europe is really stepping up. And my
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This really goes to not only my win, but my prediction, and that is I think you're going to see the European economy and European stocks rip. Because if you look at military spending, there really is some spillover in terms of technology. The most valuable companies in the world, Cara, are basically thick layers of innovation on top of technologies developed in the military.
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Apple is a function of a Cold War technology where we wanted to make sure we could put a missile in someone's pocket in terms of GPS accuracy. All of the internet was the Americans trying to figure out a nodeless or hubless communications network post a nuclear attack from Russia. The drone technology coming out of Ukraine could have unbelievable applications in the consumer economy as could AI.
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Anyways, my win... is that Europe is finally becoming a union, commanding the space it occupies. They're going to massively increase their coordination and their military budget. And I believe the stimulus of that spending and the new technologies it'll spend over to the consumer economy are about to set European markets on a tear. And it's already happened. They're up
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12% this year, largely on the back of European defense contractors that their stocks have accelerated, while the U.S. is flat. So I think we're about to see, my win is that Europe is finally a union, and that I think it's going to have huge economic benefits, both stimulative and in terms of technology spillover.
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That's it. That's all I got.
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Jesus Christ, you're awful. Anyways, Thandie Newton. It's a movie called Flirting, and it's about a boarding school in Australia, and it is so touching and so well-known.
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That's two great tastes I didn't see going together.
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That sounds fascinating. Can I go around here? I've been thinking about this a lot, that a lot of people came up to me at Mobile World Conference to talk about this. And there's a specific addiction that I haven't spent much time thinking about because there's not a lot of good research on it. And in the last two weeks, I've had three men, two young men, one older man.
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And the most recent was at Mobile World Conference. This kid came up to me, a kid, he's like 34, he's killing it. Great family, married two kids, just killing it professionally. And he said, would you mentor me? And I'm like, boss, I don't mentor people who have their shit going well. The kids I mentor are really struggling and really need it. You don't need it.
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And he's like, well, I have an addiction problem. And three men have said the same thing to me. And I said, what's your addiction? And he said, porn. And it's really interesting. Porn is probably the least studied addiction because there's very little peer review or academic research because very few people want to be known as a porn professor. You could do that.
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I'm not sure that's a good idea. I am doing a lot of research.
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But it really is something that we don't talk about a lot. I could see all three of these men when they said it to me, there was real shame in their voice. There's much more shame. If you say I have an addiction to alcohol, it's like, okay, if you say you have an addiction to porn, people are a little bit scared of you.
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It's creepy. They're like, keep their kids away from you. Anyways, I've been thinking a lot about young men and where I go to around this. is I think that, and this is more advice, is that I think the best thing in life, hands down, you know, economic security, relevance, that's all important, but it's a means to an ends.
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And the ends, in my view, are finding someone and having kids and having a loving, prosperous family. That is the whole shooting match. That starts with, in my view for a lot of men, with wanting to have sex. I think that's a wonderful thing and I think we've pathologized it. I was thinking I wouldn't have graduated from UCLA
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if I didn't think there was a non-zero probability I might meet someone on campus and eventually have sex with them. And I know that sounds crass, but it was the truth. That was a big motivator for me to get out of the house, take risks, endure rejection. If I'd had porn on my phone and on my computer, I'm not sure I would've gone on campus every day. That's what young men are dealing with.
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And that is a total loss or a near total loss of mojo and risk-taking to develop the skills they need. Here's the problem. You don't know. What you know is that your son and young men and some older men aren't getting out of the house as much, aren't taking risks, aren't developing skills, humor, kindness, demonstrating excellence. And as a result...
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It's this low-risk, low-entry means of a reasonable facsimile of a relationship called porn.
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And it creates unreasonable expectations on women. It creates an illusory vision of what a relationship actually is.
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And you don't, and I think about it, I spent so much time enduring rejection from women and developing skills such that occasionally, I could get lucky in taking risks. And guess what? Those skills have served me well my entire life.
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Well, thinking of, just speaking of Kate Hudson, the reason romantic comedies are two hours and not 15 minutes is this shit is hard, and it's worth it, and where I end up with is where I tell young men, modulate, I can't tell young men not to engage in porn, but modulate it such that you have the fire
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to develop the mojo, the effort, the skills and willingness such that you can make your own bad porn. That's the key. Porn is great as long as you're involved with another being.
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No, you know what I mean, sex. I get it, I'm not a fan of porn. To a certain extent, we've sort of demonized or chastised or pathologized young men wanting to have sex. That's a great thing. Want sex, have it.
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Today's show was produced by Larry Naiman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie Intertide engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Ms. Severio, and Dan Shulan. Nishat Kerwa is Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media.
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Trump's Big Speech, Trade War Roller Coaster, and Elon v. Jon Stewart
You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business care. I will see you in the great state of Texas.
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Yeah, they've been great. But the most, I would argue, comedians have always played a pretty big role in culture and highlighting the injustices of culture. I would argue the most important in that group is Bill Burr because I think Bill has so much credibility across the conservative ecosystem.
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and he was constantly setting progressives hair on fire with very funny, provocative, and whatever inappropriate to say about comedian. He's just gone off on Musk. I think for me, it represents the Nadir of the peak or whatever, where the dialogue has really flipped. I do think there's been a reveal. By the way, I wonder if Elon's going to bring one of his kids as a human shield to Jon Stewart.
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By the way, I don't think that's ever going to happen.
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Oh, no, never mind. I have a herniated disc. There's no way he's going to go on that show.
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By the way, just because you didn't ask, I've been in Barcelona, Miami, New York in the last 48 hours. You're not the only one who looks 110.
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Oh, thanks for saying that. Basically, my rap now is the cowardice domino that is big tech, that these individuals don't realize the damage they're having and they're enabling. They're the mortar and the bricks of fascism. And because the biggest companies were there sponsoring it, I'm like, these individuals are playing a really key and terrible role in our march towards fascism.
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Support for the show comes from UserTesting. Your brand is only as strong as the decisions you make behind it. UserTesting's human insight engine helps marketing product and business leaders make smarter, faster decisions with real human feedback, AI-driven insights, and the world's strongest participant network.
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And that's all we talked about.
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But there's a couple of reveals here or points, and that is one, and I've said this, this is one of my big themes for 2025, democracy and rights have now become the R is almost one. They're almost perfectly correlated with how much money you have. Because in almost every election in America, it's kind of 48% vote one way or 49 and 48 or 49 vote the other way and one or 2% swing the election.
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And lately, because of gerrymandering, it's 0.1% that swing the election. And it's pretty fairly obvious that Musk and his ad targeting and a third of a billion dollars in key states leveraged by a platform, he's probably decided the geopolitical priorities for the next four years globally. So if you don't think that rights are directly correlated to money, case in point, Elon Musk.
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And then when you look at Doge and what he's doing in Wisconsin, There are people on the right and they are intellectually honest. It's about politics for them. It's about a belief system. Whether you agree with them or not, you have to respect their ideals and they're putting their money, their time, their treasure and talent behind those ideals. I don't think it has anything to do with it here.
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And that is, if you look at Doge, Doge isn't about fraud and waste. The first thing they thought they identified on their wall of receipts at $8 billion was $8 million. And numbers two, three, and four, people can't even... verify. They seem to be false. But what they've managed to do really elegantly is remove regulators in autonomous driving.
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Equip your team with the power to validate every decision, co-innovate at scale, and build digital and in-person experiences with confidence. The best brands don't guess, they test. See how at usertesting.com.com. Pivot.
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This isn't about ideology. It's about money. And by the way, that judge that he was trying to get elected, Wisconsin, you need an exemption to directly own car dealerships like most states.
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The regulators or the lobby for car dealerships have made it very difficult for car dealerships to be vertically owned by the manufacturer because there's a lot of wealthy people and they think that it's good for competition. You have to get an exemption in Wisconsin. He has been suing in Wisconsin for this exemption. And if he gets his guy on the Supreme Court there— It'll likely be overturned.
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Folks, wake up. Money equals power, full stop. And this guy, it's all about money. It has nothing to do with his views politically or this all reverse engineers to I want my cars put on the road regardless of safety standards. I want Verizon kicked out of any bidding.
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I think people— I mean, the Koch brothers have a lot more intellectual honesty than this guy.
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Yeah, they're doing what they're doing. They're trying to figure out a way not to be broken up. What's counterintuitive is I think shareholder value would actually go up if they were broken up.
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But the problem is the people in charge want to sit on the iron throne of all seven realms, just not Westeros, and they get to decide. But Alphabet, while having probably more, maybe with the exception of Apple, more separate independent $100 billion plus independent companies that you could spend, they probably have four or five,
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They do have an existential crisis, and that is their search share or their share of search fell below 90% for the first time. And AI is starting to eat away at their share. And it is the ultimate example of the innovator's dilemma where they essentially... invented much of the original IP, yet they sat on their hands.
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And as a result, Alphabet's Gemini, their LLM, is vastly beaten by OpenAI, Anthropic, and even DeepSeek. And it's just, they got to be really kicking themselves at how did we let everyone get out ahead of us? In their latest earnings report, the stock tumbled by nearly 9%. And their revenue growth has slowed since this time last year.
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Well, we have very talented smart people too with smartphones. I would create... a group of people, elected representatives, that go to these places where they are and say, I believe you are breaking the law. You are not an elected official. You need to leave this federal government building. Respect the law. If the Capitol Police show up at the order of the president and say, you need to vacate,
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I would not vacate. And if you get arrested, fine. I'm not a fan of breaking the law. I think the law is on our side here. I think these guys are breaking the law. And just because you have permission from the president, let's fight it out in court and find out, well, can the president break the law? Because as we have seen, The president has been stopped.
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Anytime this shit gets in front of a judge, it usually gets stopped. So do you have the right as a citizen or an elected representative, or do you have the obligation to get in the way, legislative, verbally, legally, and quite frankly, at this point, physically? I'm not suggesting violence. I'm not suggesting these elected representatives have license to walk into any federal building.
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Millions of people have elected them. Find out where this shit is going on and go down there and say to these people, what you are doing is illegal.
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You're my junkyard dog. I like that. Thanks for saying that.
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And I'm thinking of doing ketamine recreationally tonight. Why? Well, I used to have this incredible ability as a young man to disassociate. I was basically sleepwalking through life. I didn't care much about anything. I'm having trouble disassociating from all this bullshit.
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But this is, but just moving to what we can do, the Democrats at this point, I mean, I remember talking to Ray Dalio about elected officials and he's like, and by the way, this is, he was like, this is war. Take the gloves off. I mean, this is like, this isn't try to understand or empathize with the people who elected this guy. In my opinion, this is war.
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And they essentially, they're challenging the constitution of democracy. I don't think it's time for us to try and figure out, like understand them. What I would say is, and I've heard from a lot of Canadians who appreciate our thoughts around the tariffs,
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And one person called me who, Canada's actually strangely like, there's like 12 families who kind of, I don't want to say run everything, but kind of own the majority of stuff in Australia. I mean, I'd like to think that America came to the aid of a lot of nations in real times of crisis over the last hundred years. And we want to keep doing that.
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I mean, at this point, I believe that nations need to come to the aid of America at this point. And to the extent that people feel frustrated or worried about America no longer being the shining beacon leading democracies all over the world or setting the tone, what Canada did was it, I think you need to be very Machiavellian strategic.
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A province in Canada has canceled $100 million contract for Starlink. They've said, we're just not going to continue to fund the lead of a coup. I'd hit them where they're in their soft tissue.
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And that is, if you think America plays and should continue to play a vital role in our democracy and be that shiny beacon on a hill, and you are using Starlink or your government is in negotiations around subsidies, whatever it might be for EVs or Tesla, I would make it clear
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that you are not going to support an individual who's leading a coup in a nation that has, for the most part, been a really staunch ally. I'm now at the point where I can't call them Republicans.
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And so I think I'm going to a fashion week party tonight. I don't have my kids. I push my meetings back till 10 a.m. tomorrow. So that all spells ketamine for the dog tonight.
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I think they are both kind of surprised and giddy that they're getting away with this and also scared of crossing Elon for fear they'll be primaried by Twitter and his hundreds of millions of dollars, which he can do now, given the fact that we let one man amass $400 billion in power. And two, you know, they're surprised. And also, quite frankly, Cara, I think Senator Murphy's fantastic.
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We come across as neutered and feckless at this point. We are like, well, look over here. Oh, I can't believe you would say it was DEI around a helicopter. You are exactly right. That is a sideshow.
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So I'm going to try it. Yeah. I don't even know how you take it, though. Do you know how you take it?
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Now, your house is on fire. You shouldn't be arguing over the pattern of the couch. It's just, and all of these things are important, but this really is, again, I think our elected representatives who have contacts overseas should be calling them and saying, you need to put pressure on Elon. And Trump is doing the same thing that Zuckerberg did to Sandberg.
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That was a medically supervised ketamine trick.
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He's using him as this very powerful and effective heat shield such that If he does go too far, and in fact, they do find this is illegal and they start Trump can back away and say, oh, I didn't know they had done that. Yeah, they went a little too far. He's done that.
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There's a big difference. Tonight, I'm going to do it to like me more. What?
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So he's basically I mean, to a weird extent, Elon Musk is a 400 billion dollar media platform weaponized Sandberg. He's a heat shield. And he's like, you understand this technology and how to go in there and shut off payments. And what they're hoping is it resets or recalibrates the playing field for negotiation.
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Let's start from you're getting zero, despite the fact that our elected representatives passed this law that says Head Start is a good thing. And this is, they went right to the mechanism for the payment. I mean, And it's, I don't understand. This is illegal. I would just, very simple. This is illegal, and I believe the people involved in this will be prosecuted. That is what I'm planning to do.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Again, another weapon of mass distraction. That's not gonna go anywhere. What could go somewhere, in my view, legally, is to say, these are the laws, and I believe you and these 25-year-olds have broken, and I plan to do everything within my power to enforce these laws.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
That is not tomato-tomato. Me at a fashion week party, hitting the moves, thinking I like me a little bit more than usual, doing ketamine with some strange person. By the way, as opposed to going to Washington, that is not tomato-tomato.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
I like calla lilies and you don't touch me anymore.
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That is huge. I want to have a good time tonight. I don't want to forget everything. I want to disassociate.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Do you snort it? Do you inject it? Or what I'm hoping, do you shove it up your ass? Hello, ladies. Who's got a glove? Who's got a glove?
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Well, okay. But before we even get to the notion that Egypt, I mean, look at the borders. Look at the Gaza border with its neighboring nations. No one wants to take these refugees, whatever you want to call it. I understand the argument. It is an interesting argument.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
The notion that we're setting up a situation where nothing's really going to be different and eventually we're going to face the same problems in two, five, 10 years again, that's a powerful argument. The notion that we need to be creative and thoughtful, fine. This is not the time, if you go into the emergency room, okay, the term stop the bleeding originates from a very logical place.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
And that is if you go into the emergency room with a gunshot or you've fallen and hit your head and you're hemorrhaging blood, they don't take your PSA. They don't talk about, they don't say check his or her cholesterol. They stop the bleeding. Everything else at this point is a worthy conversation that should be had by our elected representatives.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
But if we let a coup be successful and change the complexion of the negotiation, whereas opposed to arguing over who is prosecuted here and under what laws and how do we immediately arrest this coup? such that we're not negotiating, well, will you give us 50 percent of the funding back for Head Start, dear person who wasn't elected to make these decisions? Focus on stop the bleeding.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
The bleeding here, America is bleeding out. in a small building somewhere that has access, that is being remotely accessed by different locations, by a group of people under the cover of dark to stop payments based on programs that were passed by laws by our elected representatives. This is a coup and it's not a slow moving coup, it's a fast moving coup.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
And everything else is an ER doctor saying, okay, they lost their leg and they're gonna be dead in three minutes if they continue to bleed out. Let's find out what their good and bad, let's figure out what their blood pressure. I mean, no, none of that's important at this point. Stop the bleeding. This is our focus.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
So let me answer that. That's called MDMA or X, and I took it a couple times in college, and I remember thinking to myself, I don't have an addictive personality, but I remember thinking, this is so good, I cannot do this again.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
No, it makes me happy. It does make me fucking crazy.
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Do you know its initial use case? It was psychiatrists in couple therapy who wanted them to open up to each other.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
It's the least expressed. I don't need drugs. Well, I do because of people like you.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Disney Plus has added $13 million. The big thing comes down to churn, and that is there's this really uncomfortable dynamic where everyone but Netflix has to reinvent their entire customer base every 10 years or two years because they go on and they download the entire season of Ted Lasso, and then they cancel Apple TV+. And Netflix has so much, so much gross tonnage that their churn is only 2%.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Disney is number two, but it's at 4.8%. And then the other guys have even higher churn rates.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
But to your point, total share of video viewership is like 8% or 9% for Netflix. YouTube is 11%. You could argue YouTube is the number one streamer, but it's still categorized as a different sector.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Disney's parks, cruises, and resorts continues to be the gift that keeps on giving. Revenue up 3%, but the operating income was up 6% to 8%. Disney's done a good job incorporating ESPN into a pretty compelling bundle with Hulu. Moving on to Google.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Their full year revenue grew 14%, but people are freaked out about slower than expected cloud growth because they see that as a proxy for their AI offering. So they took the stock down a little bit. They're also worried about the amount of CapEx. Their capital expenditure is supposed to increase to $75 billion.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
The thing about Google, though, is that they have five separate businesses that do more than $30 billion in annual revenue. If their stock were to go down I mean, look at it this way. That's like saying they have the revenue power of five different Starbucks or five different visas with different businesses.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
They are just a cash, a series of cash volcanoes, seven products and platforms with over 2 billion users, search maps, Gmail, Android. They're just doing incredibly. Spotify is probably the most impressive performer from where it was, say, 12 or 24 months ago. And that is they essentially set quarterly record highs for revenue, gross margin, operating income.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
The stock has tripled in the last year. Their platform growth is accelerating. Their total monthly active users hit 675 million. their premium subscribers up 11%, their average revenue per user or ARPU is up 5%. And now kind of what I'll say, and I'll come back to it in a second, but the big theme here or something hopefully resembling insight is the following. If you look at the acceleration
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
In Spotify stock and in Netflix, I believe that that's more than just growth in the category. So Netflix now has more than 50% of its production overseas. And if you look at Spotify, less than 1% of its artists garner more than 95%. 2% of its streaming revenues.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Effectively, with the scale that these companies have, and by not sharing analytics or information, what Netflix has done is it has transferred a massive amount of capital, earnings power, money from the means of production, specifically artists, to Netflix shareholders. And that is when you put something on Netflix, they don't tell you how successful it is.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
I heard about this. I won't spoil it for you, but good for you. I'm convinced you're pulling a Scott when his kids were little, and that is you're coming up with a lot of reasons to leave the house right now.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
They might produce it in Spain or in Seoul, but they basically extracted a shit ton of capital from California based employees, from actors, from producers and said, we're kind of the big dog here and you have to operate under this new religion or this new operating model.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Because by the way, if you don't want to be in our Netflix drama, there's 179,000 other SAG-AFTRA people that are looking for work.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
I've got to go to San Francisco. Oh, my God, it's terrible. I'll miss you guys so much.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
there's two ingredients to the secret sauce here. And it's an asymmetry, they both have to do with an asymmetry of information. If Deadpool does $1.3 billion, the agent for Ryan Reynolds and for Hugh Jackman know that, and the next time they wanna do Deadpool meets Fast and Furious 18 or whatever, the agent from WME goes to the studio and says, I know how important Hugh Jackman is.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
And they extract a shit ton, a pound of flesh. In streaming, the only evidence that Ben Stiller has that Severance got more than one viewer is they order seasons three and four. So the asymmetry of information always benefits the person that has symmetrical information. When Jennifer Aniston's agent knew that the Thursday night lineup counted, depended, was resting on the pillar of friends,
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
The people producing and acting in Friends could extract a lot of revenue. No one in streaming has any fucking idea. And then the second big number out of the Disney earnings that fascinated me and explains why Netflix trades at 11 times revenue and Disney at two times, is that now more than half of Netflix's content budget is spent overseas.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
And some of it's done to be more multinational, but the majority of the reason they do it and the reason why they're building big studios in New Jersey is because New Jersey just supersized their tax subsidy. They realized if we can produce two eights in Spain or Seoul, instead of producing one possible eight or nine in LA, Go with the aides overseas.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Over 50% of their content budget is now spent overseas. Do you know what percentage of Disney's content budget is spent overseas?
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Like none. So essentially what Japan did to Detroit, Netflix is doing to Los Angeles. And I don't care. You want to talk about nuclear code secrets. Right.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
When we launch our series on Netflix and I say, if I call them and say, I am not working with you again unless you tell me how many people downloaded this relative to your other dramas, they're going to say, well, it was nice working with you, Scott. Because they don't want anyone to have that leverage. So asymmetry of information and the globalization of content production.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Fantastic product. Right. But all of those benefits, I mean, this is a straight line. There's a lot of innovation, a fantastic product, but you want to talk about a massive flow to the bottom line and who it's coming from beyond the natural growth, organic growth of the sector.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
It's coming from the gaffer, the lighting guy, and the woman who wrote season four of SpongeBob SquarePants and used to make 200 grand a year. And Netflix has said, you know what? I figured out a way to pay you 40 grand. And all of that capital coming out of high production states and people has moved to Netflix shareholders. And it represents a much broader trend in our society. And that is
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
The notion that we give a shit about stakeholders and not shareholders is just not true. Everything is run for shareholders. And by the way, there's some upside to that. I'm not arguing that it's the wrong way, but be clear, folks. Everything is now optimized to transfer as much capital as possible from states, from workers. The workers here are not being prioritized.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Production in Los Angeles was off 40% year on year, not because they're not talented, but because they're too goddamn expensive. And Netflix has found a way to keep them in the dark and then hire 80% as talented a person overseas for 30 to 40% of the price. It's a transfer of wealth from artists at Spotify and from-
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
The creatives in Hollywood to Netflix and Spotify shareholders and Spotify has made the jump. So they have so much leverage. They are now extracting revenue from the bottom 99.9 of artists. They're going to make less and less money.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Well, I'm glad you're back and you need to stop taking red eyes.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Incredibly well managed. I just think you got to give it to Dara. He and Apple were the ones that said, no, I'm not going to jump into the shallow end head first here and make huge capital allocations to autonomous.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
I'm going to wait. I'm going to rent other, just as, I mean, they're good at this. Uber's innovation is Airbnb's innovation, and that is I'll build a thick layer of software on top of other people's capital expenditure, on top of their apartments, their houses, and their cars, right?
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
When you turn 70, such as yourself, you, as a gift to yourself, you need to stop doing red eyes. I don't do red eyes anymore.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
So it's in their DNA to say, why don't we just ride, why don't we just be the remora fish off of Google's multi-decade, multi-tens of billions of dollars investments and autonomous? that's where we should be riding. That's where we should be playing the game. He is doing a great job of managing that company.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Well, if you think about the three layers in AI, there's the infrastructure layer, the NVIDIAs of the world, there's the LLM layer, the anthropics, the chat GBTs, and then there's the application layer. And the entire infrastructure and LLM world was thrown into disarray when shocker, China came up with something cheaper, right?
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
But I think what you're about to see is kind of a golden age or dozens of new unicorns in what I'd call the application layer.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
And I met with this incredibly impressive young man yesterday who founded a company called Rogo, which is essentially they take all of these financial data streams, whether it's Cap IQ or Bloomberg, and then they put a layer of intelligence, AI weaponized intelligence on top of it, and they turn...
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Your sleep, your nutrition, your sleep, your nutrition, and your exercise are the three pillars. And you need to prioritize sleep. You don't sleep while I'm playing. I have no more red eyes for you.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
they turn an investment banking analyst into someone fighting on horseback to someone in a Panzer tank. So you can type into this AI that's customized for financial services or institutions, put together an IPO roadshow deck for a fast fashion company that does this revenues and these are the concerns. And it'll put together a 60 slide deck of which 48 are pretty good.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
So you can basically do the job of three analysts and they'll say that it's making people more productive, but it's going to result in massive layoffs. Anyways, I think you're about to see dozens of unicorns in the application layer. I do think that the infrastructure and the LLM layer is about to shed tens of billions of dollars as people realize the moats aren't as big as they thought.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
That if Sam Altman can copy everything out there, someone's going to be able to figure out a way to copy Sam Altman's shit. But the additional customization or artisanal AI application layer in healthcare and in financial services and fitness and all sorts of things is going to create a bunch of branded consumer AI applications. I mean, that's what Airbnb is, right? That's what Uber are.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
They took existing infrastructure and breakthroughs and they branded it and they created interesting vertical niche applications. I think that you're about to see a bunch of companies. I mean, this guy, I had breakfast with this kid, 25, Jesus Christ. I'm like, can I come back as you? By the way, I'm going to be him tonight under the influence of Ketamine.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
No, by the way, you're not my call. Preet Bharara is my call. I literally, I have him. I'm about to make him and his phone number tonight my screensaver.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Tonight, it's like, this is the guy. Here's his number. I've told Preet this.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
You can ask me for anything, but if you see my name come up, I need you to answer. And I'm not calling to say hi. I'm not calling to say hi.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
I've told him I'll send millions of dollars of money to this law firm he's now like the rainmaker for. Anyways, but, you know, I'm not calling you. I'm calling Preet.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
I'll look up as a scold from you.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
By the way, I have an aura ring and I just downloaded my data and it says one thing. Try ketamine tonight.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
I like that. Thanks for saying that. Get away from her. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Anyways, this is, I mean, this is insanity or crazy, but I would describe it more apt as like late stage syphilis crazy.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
I can't wait. I just think I'm going to like me more tonight.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
But the thing is, that can go on for years.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
No, unfortunately. The good news is I'm so unattractive and unappealing now that you have to have someone else to engage in giving you syphilis, and that's just not going to happen.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
I used to like the word encephalitic, but that's not syphilis. That's a brain disease, cloudiness, but syphilis. I do like syphilis.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
I'm going to feel better about everything. It's not an insurrection. It's a dance party. Anyway.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
I wouldn't mind her. Your texts are mean. If she calls me and says, you meant this, I'm open to that.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
He's a very thoughtful guy. Mogadai, I really enjoyed the conversation with him. And basically, you should listen to the conversation, but basically summarize, like, Sam Altman is reshaping the way we think about things, the way we approach problems, potentially what types of weapons are developed. And he was kind of like, who the fuck is Sam Altman to get to do this?
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Nishat Kurwa is Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thank you for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Who is that guy in the corner at that Fashion Week party?
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
I get the sense he likes him a lot. That's the dog.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
You said something that really resonated with me, and that is I've been – I've fallen prey to what is a really smart strategy on their part, and that is the invasion of –
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Greenland or somehow some fucked up weird strategy for clearing out or the ultimate, I don't know, apartheid or whatever they're planning to do in Gaza or invading the Panama Canal or accusing a helicopter or saying that the people responsible for helicopter crash are somehow a function of DEI. You're exactly right. And it struck me what an idiot I was being.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
That's nothing but weapons of mass distraction from what is effectively a second insurrection by the same president. And insurrection is probably the wrong term. It's probably more of a coup. But you change the entire negotiation between someone, two people, when one person holds a gun to the other person's head. And what they have done, they're very smart and elegant here.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Instead of a bunch of Duck Dynasty mobs with trucker hats and goatees getting out of their RAV4s, It's the wealthiest man in the world who, in my opinion, is trespassing in federal property and has enlisted a bunch of acolytes and has stopped making payments for things like Head Start or the funding of AIDS programs or malaria treatment.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
There are people being carried out in stretchers that are in hospitals because they don't have funding. And these programs and this funding, whether you agree with them or not, or think they should be subject to review, are a function of laws that were passed by three branches of government.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
And they figured out a way to say, look over here at this helicopter crash, or it's DEI, or we have a plan to clear out Gaza. to distract you from the fact that we now have an insurrectionist or a coup being led by the world's wealthiest man. I think the Republicans are thinking, I can't believe they're letting us do this.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
And as long as we're kind of in favor of this, and now they're in a position, when you hold a gun to someone's head, it changes the complexion of negotiation. It's no longer, oh, you need laws to do this. It's like, well, we might turn the payments back on for Head Start, but let's talk about it. Well, no, we're not going to discuss it. I don't think they're going gangster enough.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
They probably just unmasked. because of their recklessness, the names and identities of CIA officers, which is an incredible act of treason and stupidity.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
So I want to know who are these young, highly intelligent, highly motivated people zealots following them into these buildings and shutting off payments to schools and Head Starts. I want to know their names.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
Oh, yeah, but they can unmask CIA officers who've put their lives in harm's way. to try and keep our Americans safe. I want to know who their names are. And I want to see Democratic governors saying, I'm going to do everything I can in my power to use the full faith and to the letter of the law to put you folks in prison. I think what you're doing is trespassing. I think this is a coup.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
And be clear, just because the new insurrectionist who was elected, I don't believe this is legal. And I'm going to hold the people accountable who are trespassing and part of a coup accountable. To just sit back and say, this is horrible and this is unlawful, we need to go gangster here and say, look, we are not negotiating around this stuff. This is illegal. This is a coup.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
This is the unlawful seizure of power. We are not gonna engage in these bullshit, ridiculous arguments over, you know, Gaza and Greenland. We are going to hold the people accountable. Here are their names, here are their faces. And we have contacted the local authorities in where these kids live, these young adults, and we are going to hold them accountable.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
We need to start hitting back in a way that disrupts what is the unlawful seizure of resources that have been leaked. You might disagree with them. Fine. That is not anyone's right. Our elected representatives pass these laws.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
I've had, we've been critical of Democrats, and I've heard from about six Democrats, one senator, five representatives. And he says, well, what would you do? And we talk a little bit about messaging. He's like, but that's not enough. And he said, well, what do you want me to do, walk down there and stop them? I'm like, yeah, I'd like to see all, whatever it is, 48 or 49 U.S.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
senators and any Republicans that want to join, I'd like to see a couple hundred members of Congress go to the fucking building where this is and demand to go in and physically stop this and let them arrest you. I'm like, fine. Let America see that there are still people who believe in government in the US and democracy. Let them arrest you. I'm like, go down there.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
This guy I'm talking to is a former, this representative, a newly elected guy, former service member. I'm like, Dude, if someone attacked our shores, you put yourself in harm's way. I mean, march down to wherever this fucking building is where all these acolytes and the high sparrow are and walk in there and demand they stop and let them arrest you.
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Elon Pushback, Trump's Distraction Trap, and Disney Earnings
For Democrats, this isn't the time to come together. This is a time to come to the rescue. get together, all of you, wherever the building is, wherever they're actually shutting off payments to veterans.
Pivot
Liberation Day, Elon Exit Rumors, and Guest Co-Host Jon Lovett
I think he's basically going to pull a Vivek and just slowly fade away out of, and I think Doge is going to die a quiet death because he has, it looks as if his power has been emasculated and two, he's just losing so much money right now.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Going on a war footing sometimes or preparing for a war footing can actually be good for an economy. People are disappointed that the Russian economy hasn't sunk as fast as some people thought because actually a war footing helps juice an economy, at least in the short term. This bullshit that the Ukrainian... Ja, es ist ein bisschen teuer. 60, 65 Billionen pro Jahr. Okay, gut.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Militärbudget ist 800 Billionen. Again, that the Brits realized they have more in touch or more in common with the continent than they thought. And maybe maybe do something like a backseat move where they become more integrated again with the EU. They increase their military spending and they put up a front that says, OK, we've got this.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I think this is an opportunity for leadership in Europe to say, Ukraine and Germany has said this, we've got your back. We recognize that this is a huge loss, but be clear, you don't need to surrender and fold right away. And the other silver lining is,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I don't know if you've seen any of these Republican town halls, but there are enough people who have grandparents who fought in the war, who remember how terrible Russia has been in terms of our own interests, and hate the idea that America is surrendering. Ich glaube, die Mehrheit der Amerikaner, die von diesem Daten beurteilt werden, denken, wow, das ist einfach zu viel. Ich bin nicht unten.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And yeah, it's great. And I enjoy that. And time with my boys. So it was wonderful. What did you do last week?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Ich verstehe nicht, warum wir uns zurückgeben. Es macht keinen Sinn. It is not good for the world. Even the far right is having trouble. I mean, okay, Tucker Carlson goes and gives Putin a lap dance and can't get over those amazing shopping carts at their grocery store. Folks, I have been to Russia. I mean, we are not going to have an outflow of American citizens going to Russia.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
You can be sure of that. It is not a great place. They have nothing on us, folks. Nothing. This is not a society, an economy... or a leadership to look up to. And I wonder if the silver lining here is that Europe becomes a union again. NATO actually hopefully comes back stronger, because I think it'll take some time, even if the Americans try and unwind it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I don't think they're going to be able to. And Europe puts forward a more unified front against... And they've been doing it. They've been spending more than us. But I hope this is the wake-up call. And I was thinking about... You know, this blitzkrieg of information to try and confuse everybody. DI, Doge. I read this morning they're trying to like partner, bring back Andrew Tate.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
It's all a fucking sideshow to get you to look away from the fact that they are trying to recalibrate the world order. And this is unacceptable. And I think it's unacceptable to most Americans. And I hope this Well, let me put something out there, which is...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
How do you think that manifests? Like if you were to guess what the on the ground, how do you think that shows up in today's electoral politics? What do you think happens?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
economy, back in red states. Und die Art und Weise, wie ich es positionieren würde, ist, dass es ein Stimulusprogramm ist, um die Produktion in den USA zu helfen, um Jobs zu schaffen. Und dass, egal, was du über die Ukraine denkst, wenn wir das nicht mehr tun, wird es eine dramatische Reduktion in Geld und Jobs und Prosperität in den meisten roten Staaten führen.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Dass das nichts anderes ist als, okay, wenn wir Gräne für die Nahrung für die Nahrung anbieten, wenn du das nicht mehr tust, würde es die Landwirte in Iowa schaden. Und nur um es zu akzeptieren, es sind 62 Billionen Dollar. Und was haben wir erhalten?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Lassen Sie uns die moralen Argumente entfernen, weil die moralen Argumente sind, warum geben wir eine Scheiße über Trennwaffen in der Ukraine, wenn mein Sohn einen Job nicht finden kann oder ich meine Diabetes-Medikamente nicht bezahlen kann. Ich denke, das ist eine faire Argument. Okay. Let's just look at it from an economic standpoint.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
For approximately 1% of our spending, we spend $7 trillion, so less than that, the majority of which comes back to red states, comes back to US manufacturing. We get to take out a third, or have so far taken out a third of Russia's kinetic power. We've destroyed a third of their tanks. We have put their economy on its heels to a certain extent.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
We have defanged what was supposed to be one of the most ferocious armies in the world. We have reduced the likelihood of terrorism against Western allies and terrorism domestically because a lot of their proxies, who they were supporting, have been castrated.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
They do not have the bandwidth to wreak havoc, which they have done since the end of World War II across different satellite countries because they are bogged down in a war. And it shows that essentially our enemy can be pushed back when the West gets attacked together and unifies without, by the way, without a single American boot on the ground.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
A manager's charge at the end of the day is to allocate capital to its greatest return, to a greater return than your peer group. The president is the greatest allocator of capital in history, thereby the greatest manager in history. The best ROI, the best example of great management over the last 10, 20, 30 years is the $60 billion stimulus program in the U.S. that has resulted in the defanging
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Oh, like that was, that feels a little creepy.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Das ist ein guter Deal für uns. It is a great deal.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Would you rather have Russia with this superior fighting force that the whole world is scared of, or to have a third of its army taken out, to have a ton of its soldiers, and I hate to say this, killed, to have China thinking twice about invading Taiwan, saying what a small motivated army can do that's technically literate and backed by the West.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
The West is a much safer place with the pushback that the incredible Ukrainian army has provided. Kind of at very little cost to us. I mean, this is chump change. This is just not a lot of money when you think about the fact it ends up back in our economy. It's not as if, this is not the problem, folks. Social Security is going to be 1.3 trillion dollars this year. This is 60 billion.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Elon Musk hat seit der Wahl 210 Billionen Dollar gemacht. Das sind 60 Billionen, um die Welt in einem viel sichereren Ort zu machen, mit einer starken Botschaft, dass wenn der Westen zusammenkommt, ist es eine unvermeidbare Kampfkraft und kann auf einen mörderischen Autokraten zurückgehen. Das geht um Botschaft. Geh weg mit den moralischen Argumenten.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Ich denke, diese werden auf sie selbst gemacht, aber sag einfach, das ist ein großartiges Investment. Es wäre dumm, nicht weiter zu machen, dieses Investment zu machen.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Ja, definitiv. Ich habe bemerkt, dass wenn Frauen, nachdem sie Kinder haben, etwa sieben, acht Jahre später, besonders Frauen, die ich glaube, viel Vertrauen aus ihren Ausgaben haben, wenn ihre Kinder etwas älter werden und sie bemerken, dass sie zehn Jahre lang nichts mit Kindern zu tun haben, Everyone talks about dudes' midlife crises.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Welcome back. We're just one month into Trump's second term, although it feels like an eternity. Trump's approval is sinking. See above, silver lining, with polls showing him underwater and his aggressive budget cuts aren't helping. Doge is slashing jobs at the TSA, FEMA and even the NIH unit researching Alzheimer's.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Meanwhile, Speaker Mike Johnson is cheering on Musk's crusade to shrink the government. But he's also throwing cold water on Musk and Trump's idea to send Americans $5,000 rebate checks with the supposed government savings. Some Republicans say it's unconstitutional, others call it a political stunt, and budget experts warn it would need congressional approval if the savings even exist.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
But Trump and Musk are plowing ahead, promising that Doge Dividend will put money in voters' pockets. I feel like I'm old enough to think that there is never a breaking point with Republicans. There are little spurts of pushback or where you think someone...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I have never seen midlife explosions across some of my partners and their friends. Oh my God, they go crazy. So you got that to look forward to. I love how you brought that up and you kind of liked that. You didn't mind the pervy As long as it was a little bit. It sounds like you kind of didn't like it, kind of did.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
aggressive topics issues inbound missiles that you're overwhelmed and become flat footed i suffer from this i don't even know where to start and the way you respond is the following is okay you don't need to respond to everything online you don't need to take up everything with emotion and anger uh you should cite experts you should bring in other bring in data and then pare down what you're going to focus on in terms of your pushback so
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
For example, I think Doge is a giant fucking weapon of mass distraction. Fifty billion dollars, fine. They want to try and right-size government. People are understandably concerned that there's a lot of waste. Government needs to be right-sized. I think the wrong messaging is all this quote-unquote injustice.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I get these national forestry people are wonderful and that there's going to be diapers on the side of your favorite trail and that they got an email and they've been fired after 18 years of service. But I think a lot of Americans say, welcome to the fucking work week. This happened to me or it happened to my cousin.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Private Equity came in and bought out our chiropractic clinic and we got our phones shut off. I think what is happening to a lot of these workers has happened to a lot of people in the private sector. And to be blunt, there isn't a groundswell of sympathy or empathy they were hoping for.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And people think the government needs to be reined back in as it has been on a regular basis, including under Clinton and Gore. Now, having said that, what I would focus on is the incompetence. Ich fokussiere mich auf den Fakt, dass sie nicht 8 Billionen Dollar gespart haben. Sie haben 8 Millionen gespart.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Oh, sie haben die Menschen, die den nuklearen Stockpil überstehen, gefeuert, um sie wieder zu verheiraten, was es mehr teuer macht. Oh, man kann klar sein, dass die Menschen, die die Regulierung Tesla's self-autonomous driving unit, they've all been fired, right? That this is essentially corruption and incompetence at very little money.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And the thing they should link this to is, okay, while they're off here playing Keystone Cops and playing incompetence, you know, incompetence girls gone wild here, they want you to look over here at 50 billion in savings. Okay. They're planning with with the tax cuts that will benefit me. I ran, I looked at the new tax proposal and I ran my W-2 through it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I'm going to save a million dollars a year with Trump's tax cuts, right? Fine, government's too big, save us that 50 billion. But be clear, you're not fooling anybody. You're planning to increase taxes on future generations by the biggest tax increase in history. It's 900 billion here. Let's just come together and agree on
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Somewhere between 12 and 18 times the amount of the 50 billion we're arguing over in terms of Doge. That while everyone is obsessed with Doge, because it makes for good TikTok and people know people in the government, the real story here is somewhere between 6 and 900 billion dollar a year increase in taxes on future generations. I think that's what we should be focused on.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I traveled a lot. I made a lot of excuses and left town.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Yeah, no, I was out. So, along those lines of children, today we're going to be talking about Trump turning on Ukraine, Trump's honeymoon coming to an end, and Mitch McConnell's retirement announcement and legacy. Let's bust right into it, Jess.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
One month into his presidency, Trump is making a dramatic pivot toward Russia, upending decades of US foreign policy, while previous Republican leaders championed a tough stance on Moscow. That was kind of their go-to. Today's GOP is largely silent as Trump moves to cut support for Ukraine and cozy up to Putin. His administration has even floated, excluding Ukraine from NATO.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Ja, wie Medicaid, 80 Millionen Menschen, 1 in 6 Haushalte oder 1 in 6 Kinder, 40% der Erwachsenen, die Älteren, die verletzt sind. Ich meine, das ist, und auch, es ist tatsächlich ein wirklich gut gelungenes, kosteneffizientes Programm. Es bietet Gesundheitsversorgung für Low-Income-Amerikaner bei einem niedrigeren Kosten pro Person als Privatinsurance.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
So Medicaid actually helps the economy because unless you're going to decide you're going to let people die of their cystic fibrosis or you're going to let old people, the disabled, wither away.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
What is the most cost-effective way to give people some dignity, to make sure that kids can actually, you know, we can provide their medication, we can provide their in-home physical therapy for the disabled? Well, this is a lower-cost way to do it. And it is very popular.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And the fact that they're, you know, hey, look over here at 50 billion in Doge savings and we'll give you a $5,000 check, but we're going to cut, what, $600 to $800 billion from Medicaid? I mean, this really is, it is, in my opinion, showing their true colors. And that is, at the end of the day, the most remarkable thing about the Republican Party is that it serves not the 1%, it serves the 0.1%.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Und die Tatsache, dass das alles ein riesiger Rauch ist, um zu sagen, schau mal hier, während wir die Taxen auf die sehr reichsten Amerikaner zahlen. Und ich denke, dass das wahrscheinlich zu weit ist. Ich denke, sie werden wahrscheinlich wieder auf Medicaid schauen.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Ich hoffe, dass sie nicht, weil ich denke, dass das wahrscheinlich der Anfang eines ziemlich seriösen, sauberen Schweppes oder, du weißt, nahe zu einem sauberen Schweppes, once we have the midterm elections. But Medicaid is, I would say, maybe with the exception of Social Security, is the most popular social program in America, maybe even more popular when you look at its effectiveness.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
But this is great messaging for the Democrats that, okay, do you know anyone on Medicaid? This is who they're coming for. And if you think, if they can cut, you know, 16 times what they say they're going to cut in Doge, that's what they're planning to cut from Medicaid. It's not like that. It's like at some point,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Ist jemand, und wir brauchen einen Republikaner, der ihnen sagt, dass sie keinen Sinn für Dissens-Sprache haben? An einem Punkt muss jemand aufstehen, und ich denke, dass jemand sein Hintergrund hier finden wird. Der Budget, den wir vorgelegt haben, hat nur 900 Billionen Dollar für die Medicaid-Kosten eingeführt. This is just, this is extraordinary.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And he's blaming Zelensky for a war Putin started. Meanwhile, a Quinnipiac poll shows that 81% of Americans, including 73% of Republicans, don't trust Putin. So why is Trump ignoring them? Jess, Trump's team is pushing for a peace deal on Putin's terms, which European leaders say would weaken Ukraine. If this strategy backfires, what are the long-term consequences for US influence and alliances?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Okay, we're a household that makes $50,000 a year. That's our tax receipts. We spend $70,000. That's our government expenditures. $7 trillion on 5 trillion tax receipts. And we are $350,000 or $35 trillion in debt. But we're going to cut our expenditures by $500. Ich glaube, es wird genug Leute sein, die weitergehen werden.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
social and say, this is just stupid to start sending checks when we're planning to run up the deficit another $900 billion a year to send checks to people for $5,000 rather than paying down the debt. That absolutely, again, to your point, that just makes no sense. All right. One more quick break. Stay with us. Welcome back.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Before we wrap, last week Senator Mitch McConnell announced he won't seek re-election in 2026, marking the end of a four-decade career that reshaped American politics. As Senate GOP leader, he cemented a conservative judiciary, steered his party through shifting ideological tides and clashed with Donald Trump in recent years.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
His exit raises questions about the future of the GOP and the battle for his Kentucky seat with former Attorney General Daniel Cameron and Rep. Andy Barr already in the race. Jess, what do you think McConnell's legacy will be?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
So I'm a full-blown ageist. And do you know who else is ageist? Biology. My son had a Halloween party, he was 14. There were 15-year-old girls in my house that are more qualified to be senator than Senator Feinstein was in the last year of her senate. They would have done a much better job. They would have had a much broader grasp and understanding of the issues than Senator Feinstein did.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Put these people on a fucking ice floe. Enough already. You have to be 30 years of age to become a senator. Why? Because a 29-year-old, they believe, does not have the experience, the maturity or the cognitive ability to make decisions on behalf of a country.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
But someone who doesn't know where the fuck they are and freezes on a stage when asking questions, someone who literally, there is a, I believe it's a Republican female representative who literally doesn't know where she is. It's tragic. She's suffering from late-stage Alzheimer's. Biologie sagt, holt mein Bier, wenn die meisten Demokraten darüber sprechen, Ageism zu schreien.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Oh no, I'm calm, I'm fine. I'm just fine.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And because we have a system with Citizens United where the incumbent almost always wins and these people must get great reservations at great restaurants in D.C. and they decide to never leave. We need age limits for both the Supreme Court and for our elected representatives. Enough already. I mean, make it something low like 80 or something like that. But at some point it is time to go.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
His legacy will be the following, in my view. showing to the world just how much Senator Schumer sucks. And that is this guy, call him Machiavellian, call him evil, he outplayed Democrats every step of the way. While our leadership decided to send a strongly worded letter around all these outrage around Merrick Garland, he always won. He managed to pack the courts up and down.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And when a 14-year-old girl has to carry a child from incest to term, when a woman is bleeding out in an emergency room parking lot from sepsis because a doctor is worried about going to jail, it is because our leadership were fucking neutered and didn't want to go gangster the way McConnell did. McConnell was shameless. He is the graveyard digger for democracy and he was highly effective.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
We need more Democrats like that. I want to see the same sort of shamelessness that Speaker Emerita Pelosi brings to her fucking corrupt insider trading. I want to see some of that gangster corruption, some of that gangster backbone, some of those big fucking balls to negotiations with Republicans. His legacy... Maybe he was right, maybe he wasn't, but he sure as hell was effective.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And this is the problem that the Democrats suffer from. And what I have suffered from my entire career is they cannot discern the difference between being right and being effective. He was much more effective than Democratic leadership. Yeah, can we disparage him and say that he was evil and that he did the wrong thing? Yeah, hold my beer, bitches. He outplayed us days one, two and three.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Yeah, Senator McConnell voting against Hegseth and Patel is like Hannibal Lecter deciding he's a vegan on his deathbed.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Oh, he did?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
He voted against Hegseth and Gabbert. You know, great. These folks seem to develop a conscience after they leave Congress and then go on Bill Maher or when they decide they're resigning. That doesn't... I don't think he deserves any, quite frankly, any props for that. All right. That's all for this episode. Thank you for listening to Raging Moderates.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Jess, by the way, I hope for you this week that at some point in the park with your kids, someone comes up to you and says the following. Gott milf.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
That's good. I've been waiting. I haven't been able to focus on anything else. Our producers are David Toledo and Chenenye Onike, our technical director is Drew Burrows. You can now find Raging Moderates on its own feed every Tuesday. That's right. What is real? Our own feed. There you'll get exclusive interviews with smart voices in politics and ours.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Please follow us wherever you get your podcasts. Just have a great rest of the week. I hope you have a ton of inappropriate comments coming your way.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I think that we take for granted that The number of people who have not died or the number of people who have died at the hands of another human being declined dramatically post the World War II order. That the number of children who died because of hunger or infectious disease has absolutely plummeted.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
That the number of people who get to be with their dying partner because we embrace civil rights. That the opportunity for
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
a black girl to become a lawyer or a doctor based on her merit without being held back based on her ethnicity, the color of her skin, her gender, her sexual orientation, that the post-World War II operating system in the West has been the most prosperous, decent, righteous era in history. And central to all of that was this post-World War II
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
in einer Ordnung, in der westliche Demokratien einander zurückhaben würden, dass wir Ziele hatten. Aber am Ende des Tages erkennen wir, dass die Wahlen, die Rechte, die Regelung der Regeln, ein gewisser Niveau der Dezimalität, keine dämonisierenden Special-Interest-Gruppen, dass wir ein Gruppe von Leuten aus der Dunkelheit gebracht haben, Deutschland,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Und die Alliierten haben unsere Feinde in unsere Alliierten gesetzt. In diesem erstaunlichen Wandel der Vision hat der Marshallplan unsere ehemaligen Feinde investiert. Und wir hatten diese neue Weltordnung der größten, prosperierenden Nationen der Welt, die einander zurückgebracht haben. Und wir haben dieses Operationssystem verabschiedet. Es war so unglaublich.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
It yielded such incredible fruit for so many people that we kind of took for granted that, well, of course, that's a default operating system. Why would we do anything else? So when Trump decides to ignore history and give in to a murderous autocrat that is invading Europe and lie to say things like Zelensky is a dictator or that Ukraine started this war,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I think even the Russians are shocked at this shit. I think they're like, what? Yeah, how did this happen? And you just can't help but think, okay, so is this essentially Trump saying to Putin, let's carve up the world, let's have spheres of influence. You have these rights to Antarctica or to the, you know, to the North Pole, not that all the ice is melting. We have...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Du kannst ein Domain über diese Nationen haben, ob es die Ukraine oder die Türkei oder die Crimea ist, und du machst dein Geld, ich mache mein Geld. Europa, sie sind fucking Wimps, ich bin müde von ihnen, ich bin müde von ihnen, die mich leuchten, was auch immer. Wir werden einfach die Welt öffnen. Und du bekommst deins, ich bekomme meines.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Und wir sind Diktatoren und wir sind Autokraten und wir werden beide ein shit tonne Geld machen. Other than that, I can't find reasoning for it. Is there a silver lining here? I think Europe is saying, okay, we can no longer depend on the US and we can no longer depend on their umbrella of military support. That might be a healthy thing.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Europe is substantially increasing their own military budget. But this is an upending of the world order since World War II that has been the most prosperous. The North Atlantic Treaty has been the most prosperous operating system in the history. So this is in my view, while everyone's focused on all this bullshit and this misdirects of DI or Andrew Tate or even Doge, I think is a misdirect.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
This really is the story. This is the thing we should be focused on. And that is, do you really want to break up what has been the most successful Alliance in history? Do we really want to have a reputation for abandoning our allies and saying, okay, History is wrong. When a murder side of crowd invades Europe, we shouldn't be worried.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
How much did you miss me? How much did you miss me? Is it tough?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I can't believe that. It's not easy to make Nazis less likable. And we figured it out.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
My trip was great. I was in Zermatt. I'm basically now... If someone told me I could never ski again, I would say, well, how much will that cost me? All I can think about is the ACL I'm going to tear. And it's cold. And I don't know, skiing is not my thing anymore. But it's a good way to trap my kids on a mountain. And European skiing is all about the lunch. And you go and you drink lunch.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Ich liebe dieses Wort, was könnte richtig gehen? Und ich frage mich, wenn ich das sehe, und ich war einfach überrascht. Ich meine, erstens, Senator Marco Rubio, wer the fuck bist du? Aber literally, und wenn ich das meine, ist es nicht so, wer du bist, um diese Dinge zu sagen, aber ich habe keine Ahnung, wer dieser Individuum ist. Er war dieser kaltere Krieger.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Das ist, wie er seine Außenpolitik stand, dass er ein kaltes Krieger war. Und jetzt sagt er, er bezieht sich auf die Wahrnehmung, dass die Ukraine den Krieg begonnen hat. Das wäre wie FDR zu sagen, was würden diese Schiffe in Pearl Harbor tun? Die Japaner, ich kann sehen, warum sie uns getötet haben. Es ist einfach verrückt, dass wir uns verabschieden würden.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Dass wir sagen würden, okay, das ist es. Wir verabschieden uns. Und ich frage mich, ich versuche hier die silberne Linie zu sehen. Ich denke, Europa ist mehr beeindruckend, als die Leute ihn kritisieren. Dassault macht unglaubliche Flugzeuge. Die deutschen Tiger-Tanks und die Verarbeitungsfähigkeit dort sind unglaublich.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Die Ökonomien von Italien und Frankreich sind immer noch relativ große Ökonomien. Die UK hat einige der besten Universitäten der Welt. Europa, das ist ein Wachstumspfad. Haltet eure Sachen zusammen und unifiziert euch.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
and put aside your petty stupid fucking differences because this is an existential threat because you no longer have a sane and quite frankly decent ally that I don't want to say you shouldn't have I'm not saying you took them for granted but quite frankly they realize now a big brother is not going to save us here we have to develop our own unified approach to an economy our own unified approach to a war machine and I think it might actually be very unifying in addition
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Every day throw so much shit out that they react to and chase that we can slip through almost everything because they're not unified. They don't know which arrow to put their wood behind. And so let's announce we're letting the Tate brothers back into Florida. Everyone goes apeshit. Let's blame a helicopter crash on DEI. Everyone goes apeshit.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And they're not looking at kind of the bigger issues that America cares about or they could actually have some reasonable chance of pushing back on. America, quite frankly, over the last couple of weeks has been the nation of surrender. Trump surrendering to Putin and the Democrats surrendering to Republicans.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And his argument was that, look, Schumer's argument was that all we were going to do here was play into Trump and Musk's hands by closing the government, shutting it down.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Everyone in the government or nearly everyone in the government would be furloughed except where he could invoke some sort of emergency powers to keep air traffic controllers and effectively never end the furlough and essentially shut down the government. And they didn't want to let him do that. We're at that point where we need to take that risk.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And that is the government is no longer a government of the people. When you are sending plans, when you are denying court orders, when you have the richest man in the world who has no congressional oversight or approval going upstream of those programs and cutting out funding to things like USAID, which by latest estimates is going to cost 3 million lives this year.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
then, okay, it's no longer a government of the people. You have usurped government, and we're not down with that. We are fine. Let's shut down government. And they also miscalculated. I listened to Senator Schumer on his follow-up on The Daily, and he said that, effectively, he thought, okay, this is, without it, the entire government would be shut down and we would be blamed. No, we wouldn't.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
If we then... whatever it is, 45 days of inauguration or what is it, 60 days now, the government is shut down. People would feel this and I believe they would hold Trump responsible.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Okay, he's inaugurated and the government gets shut down and it's not reopening and people aren't getting their diabetes medication and we're having trouble with flights and people aren't getting their Social Security payments. This was essentially the Democrats saying, we are so fucking disorganized. We have such an inability to punch back.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
I mean, for God's sakes, the first thing they should do, it's like when I was in Sunday school, they used to say, what would Jesus do? That was meant to be a framework for decisions. What would Jesus do? And now my attitude is for the Democrats. I am so fed up with their feckless, stupid rationalization of doing the weakest thing possible. What would Mitch McConnell do?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And what Mitch McConnell would have done here was said, this is an unacceptable policy. Unfortunately, Americans, and he could show data, don't agree with what's going on in the government. we'd like to work with the president, but the Republican party is so off the rails in terms of American priorities, we refuse to sign this bill and force them to negotiating table.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And also there was an in-between, there were several steps along the way, including a filibuster where we probably could have got some. I mean, this literally is like, oh, our biggest fears about how just incredibly weak and our inability to punch back because we have really weak
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
unstrategic leaders with absolutely no command of their constituents, that all bubbled up and said, yeah, your worst fears are being realized here, that there is no adult supervision. The kids are running wild at the Whole Foods and there's nothing we can do. There's absolutely, absolutely nothing No parenting here.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And the outcome here is I'm now convinced that the new junior senator from New York is going to be AOC in 2028. I think Schumer's out. I think he looks so incredibly weak. I'm just sick of being bested by people who have control of their caucus. Thoughts?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
So uncomfortable fights are just part of it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Yeah. Just lean in. And what was the... Let me help. So I'm very good at running other people's lives. Give me the situation. I'll tell you who is right, who is wrong, and what you need to do.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Yeah, I agree with all that. My only thing is the The social media being kind of put out there as we're fighting back feels like they hired someone's niece to do their social media. They just look so unnatural and so uncomfortable doing it. But this was an opportunity for the Democrats to at least fight back. And Americans will take bad policy over weakness.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
I think that one of Biden's losses was when you talked to him about When you talk to voters about policies, people vastly favored Biden's policies over the stated policies or non-policies of Trump. But they just—weakness and a lack of resolve are just death knells in politics. And right now, the Democrats look fragmented, weak, and just like we're clutching our pearls all the time and complaining.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
and yet have an inability to even punch back. And we just look weak, we look defeated, and we look like, I don't know, agents of surrender. All right, Jess, we're going to take a quick break. Stay with us.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Welcome back. The Trump administration is facing sharp criticism after ignoring a federal judge's order to halt the deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members. The White House argues the order came too late as the planes were already over international waters. It's weird. I heard planes can actually turn around.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
But legal experts warn this move could mark the start of a serious constitutional showdown. Meanwhile, concerns over immigration enforcement are also growing on college campuses where a Palestinian activist and Columbia University student leader, Mahmoud Khalil, now faces deportation.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
His arrest has sparked fears the administration is targeting political dissent under the guise of national security. Just... The administration claims it wasn't actively defying a court order rather than operating within the legal gray areas. What are the legal consequences of this move?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Yeah, this is really, if you think about, I mean, it's sort of deciding, all right, we don't have a country. If we're not going to have laws, an easy way to reduce a lot of crime would be to do away with search and seizure laws. And that is if for whatever reason,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
your local law enforcement or federal law enforcement can just come raid your house, raid you, incarcerate you, hold you for as long as they want until they're satisfied, they're either right or wrong, you would see a drop in crime. But we've decided that
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
It might be you with that knock at the door and that we're going to pay for a certain level of insecurity around, you know, overtime crime and those rights. And that that rule of law and that democracy attracts so many talented people and makes people feel so good about America that ultimately results in a greater quality of life, greater prosperity, greater economic growth.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
This is essentially saying, OK, we're now in an autocracy and the people in power get to kind of make the laws and basically not listen to the government. So there are literally no checks and balances. The Republican Party, who is in control, has said, I'm willing for an unelected official who was not born here to essentially usurp my power as an elected representative. Right.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
So that that branch of the government is gone. Then sort of the last man standing or the last defense between us and total autocracy was supposed to be the courts. And they have said, we don't give a shit what the courts say. Yeah. I mean, when I saw it, the courts have ordered these flights to stop. Then that means the flights can't go or can't turn around.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Well, they said they basically stuck up the middle finger and said, stop us. So this feels like when you challenge the court, nothing happens here. they will have the incentives and the signal that they are now the law, that the White House, the Trump administration and the supporters are now the law.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
The judges are now similar to Republican representatives who are so scared of being primaried or a weak and feckless Democratic Party that there's effectively, we've gone from checks and balances to absolutely none of them. They've all been sort of shut down. And the one that kind of tested my resolve around this, or I had some a moral dilemma, if you will, is Mahmoud Khalil's arrest.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And it did tickle my progressive censors.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
I think an individual here on a green card who is inciting violence, in my view, and shitposting America and making a campus environment less productive and kids can't go to class and basically tearing at the fabric of America, and also the legal argument for deporting him, is that when you're here on a green card, you are not supposed to promote or endorse terrorist activities.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
That is a legal argument for deporting him. And I can see making that legal argument. The problem is the way they went about it, and that is he was effectively disappeared. And that is he was arrested and detained, and his family and his lawyer couldn't even find out where he was. And it ended up he had been transferred to a facility, I believe, in Louisiana.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And that's the thing that's really upsetting and bothersome. And as much as I would like to see this individual having had been expelled and maybe losing his – I imagine he's – I don't know if he's here on a student visa or a green card.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Just green card. I can see – Not just green card.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Yeah, it's the best you can have. He has a green card. The bottom line is this, is that regardless of how shitty the speech may be, if you start rounding up people and deporting them for political speech, be careful for when that knock comes on the door.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Because eventually it means that if you have political speech that is counter or detrimental or disparaging of an administration that now appears to be ignoring court orders... and is suing and intimidating and saying publicly now that people at CNN and MSNBC should be prosecuted, I mean, we're effectively in a full, I don't know what you want to call it, dictatorship where speech is now chilled.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
So as much as I would like to see bad things happen to this individual because I think he's created incredible dissent and that he's wrong and that he's inciting violence, if, He hasn't really broken any laws. And this is just political speech. And he's getting disappeared and deported. You know, who's next? And what qualifies as political speech that is worthy of deportation?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
So there's a lot here. It feels as if because we show absolutely no resistance, no coordination, no backbone, and quite frankly, it feels as if the flooding the zone has the public looking in so many different directions.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
over if and what to respond to, that this is now, I used to think that the focus should be on Ukraine, our surrender to Russia over Ukraine, the deficits, but this feels like it really is something that Democrats should be focusing on in messaging. And that is, have we broken down all of our constitutional checks and balances that in fact make us a democracy and a country?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And the last week, I would think the last week, and I'm trying to think if I'm being somewhat, if I'm catastrophizing, it feels like the actions of the last week, if they go unchecked and the Democrats and the public don't coordinate, mature, gestate a really thoughtful, strong response to this, that we have pretty much taken a pretty strong step away from a democracy to an autocracy.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
What are your thoughts about Mahmoud Khalil's arrest?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Sure. No, I understand. I understand. No, the real fissure here is between you and horrible couples who are those couples who decide they're not giving their kids screen time. Those are awful people.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Yeah, those are, you know, those are the people that, oh, it's parenting and they shouldn't have screen time. Those are awful people. You need better friends, too. The real key here is you need to start hitting your children. That... immediately resets the operating system and brings a moment of shock, but a moment of peace to everything. And I'm in favor of giving them screen time.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Yeah, I do think that Democrats have a habit of sticking out our chin and having this fist of autocracy stone come for it. And to your point, if I had gone down as a faculty member of NYU with a big sign saying, burn the gays or lynch the blacks, they would have had no need for context. My ID would have been turned off.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
I would have been shut out of academia, fired, never allowed back on the campus, never been able to work in academia again. But when Yeah, free speech has never been freer when it's hate speech against Jews. And the Republican administration has now found an opportunity to tap into that rage and that wrong and go way too far and deny the rights of everyday Americans.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And this is just a huge failing, in my opinion, and has created an opening the size of the Grand Canyon for the Republicans to come in or for the Trump administration to come in and start violating everybody's rights. And I actually did advise or have been advising the Regency of the University of California on this issue. And their general viewpoint is, my advice was, this is super easy.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
They were really worried about fall, what happens when the students return last fall. And because UCLA, I think probably, I think the most shameful moment I've ever felt, and there hasn't been a lot of them, For my alma mater, UCLA, it was when kids were passing out bans to non-Jews. And if you didn't have a ban, you couldn't access certain parts of the campus.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
So they basically decided to prohibit Jews from certain, you know, from campus activities. And I thought, okay, what's going to happen here? And I don't know what happened, which probably means nothing. And they said, well, what would you do? And I said, it's very easy. The first protest, first sign of any protest around where there's hate speech is
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
or there are people trespassing who aren't students, or the students are doing anything resembling what would qualify as hate speech, of which there's a lot. If it's a peaceful protest, of course you do nothing.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
But if it's not, and it turns ugly, or they're occupying facilities, like what recently happened at Columbia, you give them 15 minutes to vacate, and then you start expelling students and let them call their parents and say, oh, that $72,000 tuition, I'm coming home. And you do that right away and word gets out really fast. And there was this bullshit argument that, Scott, these are young people.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
So first off, I totally empathize. I go absolutely crazy when our kids, my kids or other kids are loud and distracting. If they're really loud and distracting, I think you take them outside and separate them from the rest of the crew. I have no patience for that. Also, it's a very difficult situation. Actually, I'm now being serious because the reality is
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
We can't just start expelling them in a wanton kind of reckless fashion. And my response is the following. At Columbia, they expel 91% of freshmen every year. It's called the admissions process. And the notion that somehow you have a birthright to attend a private university and that you're protected by these first... You have... You're at a private organization.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
It's like no shoes, no shirt, no service. They have the right to kind of determine the laws as long as they're not breaking the law. And the fact that they have come across is so incredibly anti-Semitic. They have stuck their chin out, and the result is an overreaction in the Trump administration taking advantage of this weak, bigoted thinking to go the other way and have an overreaction.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
I do think, to your point, this is a response to an incredible lack of leadership and insanity. on university campuses. I'm about to do a college tour with my son and I'm fascinated by colleges and admission standards and data and enrollment trends. And it's interesting, the schools that are booming in terms of applications,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
are these Southern schools that are seen as apolitical or even a little conservative. Parents are sending their kids, they want their kids to go to college. They don't want a political orthodoxy. They don't want a school and administration that sees themselves as engineers of social engineers. It's really interesting. Southern schools are
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
where schools that are distinctly seen as somewhat center-left are booming in terms of applications. But Columbia University leadership goes down as such incredibly misguided, weak leadership that has set up an overreaction that has been justified. And the cloud cover for the justification of an overreaction has been what have been an incredible lack of leadership and blatant anti-Semitism.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
So this is, you know, this is like a lot of democratic policies. We start on the right foot, we take it too far, and we set up an overreaction because people are just rolling their eyes and thinking, okay, making an argument for a six foot four swimmer to show up to a swim meet. to a swim meet who presents as female and then blow away everything.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Didn't win a single race as a male swimmer, but is absolutely winning everything. And then having everyone on the left applaud and say, isn't that inspiring? You set up an overreaction where we begin demonizing a special interest group for no real reason. And the same has happened here.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
We take things too far, we stick our chin out, and we set ourselves up for an overreaction that makes things much worse than if we'd had a less insane, thoughtful reaction.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Or Wake Forest or SMU.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Vanderbilt is now as difficult to get into as many Ivy Leagues. There's so many applications.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And I get accused of this a lot, and that is I decide I understand parenting when it's bothering me, but I'm not interested in participating in parenting when everything's fine. And so it's a little bit like selective parenting. But I think the good news is this is only going to happen to you about every two weeks for the rest of your marriage until the kids are out of the house.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Yeah. Yeah.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Yeah, well, as you can imagine, I think a lot about this. And I do think it's tempting to think that because there's so much manufactured artificial stress, as someone who's going through it right now, from universities who've adopted a rejectionist exclusionary strategy, and despite sitting on an endowment the size of the GDP of a Latin American nation, only let in 500 students.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Dartmouth sits on an endowment of $8 billion and lets in 500 freshmen. Harvard sits on an endowment of 52 billion and decides to only let in 1500. That is morally corrupt. If you had a drug that made people less likely to kill themselves, more likely to get married, more likely to pay a lot of taxes, less likely to be obese, less likely to be depressed. Would you hoard that drug?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
We in higher education hoard that drug. We have the resources, we have the capability. There would be absolutely no sacrifice in the quality of the students. People say, oh, but the brand would go down. When I applied to UCLA, the acceptance rate was 76%. It's now 9%. And it wasn't exactly a Joey Bag of Donuts brand back then. We have become the enforcers of the caste system.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And as much as we like to believe that, oh, don't worry, college won't matter. It does because America is turning into a caste system and the easiest way for corporations to evaluate human capital is based on the school they went to.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
So the notion that it quote unquote doesn't matter anymore is a lie we tell ourselves such that we feel better about the massive amount of stress and the inequity and our disappointment in higher ed. And what has slowly happened in higher education is me and my faculty, sometimes who are 15 administrators to everyone who actually teaches,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
have decided that we would rather not have accountability, so we teach bullshit, ridiculous courses that have no measurable outcomes. Leadership, sustainability, DEI, ethics. Show me someone teaching ethics, I'm gonna show you a FIP, a formerly important person who hangs out at a university, makes two to $400,000 a year,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
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for trying to teach a 27-year-old in business school how to be more ethical, which is such the height of arrogance. Instead of being centers of excellence, we've turned it into a political orthodoxy machine where the vast majority of the faculty are very left not reflecting any diverse thought and where you can get in trouble for certain words. We have totally lost the script.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
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Our job is to give you the skills to go out and create economic security for you and your family and do great work, empower the economy. And the fact that we have become this exclusionary and this arrogant and teaching all of these bullshit courses with no measurable outcome, the result is we constrain supply. And it's not about who gets in, it should be about how many.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
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And also, I think your husband needs to realize as it relates to parenting that He's an influencer, not a decision maker. I have generally found, which is a bit of an abdication, and I want to acknowledge that, but I've generally found that mom has just much better instincts around how to handle this stuff than dad. I'm a sexist that way.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
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If a school doesn't increase its freshman seats faster than population growth, it should lose its tax-free status as it's no longer a public servant, but it's a hedge fund with classes. Higher education absolutely needs to be reformed. Anyways, that's my TED Talk.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
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There you go. Well, there's some nuance there. That's what I call it. It's nuance. All right, Jess, let's take one more quick break. Stay with us. Welcome back. Before we go, talks between the U.S., Ukraine, and Russia over a possible ceasefire are picking up steam. And the Kremlin is saying there's some reason to be hopeful. Specifically, the world's largest nation has become a surrender monkey.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
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Anyways, after meeting with Trump's envoy in Moscow, Putin signaled he's open to a 30-day truce, but with conditions that are pretty one-sided. He wants formal recognition of Russia's land grabs and a promise that Ukraine will never join NATO. Zelensky has stood firm on not giving up land, but lately he's prioritizing security guarantees over getting territory back right away.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
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Meanwhile, Americans are skeptical of Trump's handling of the situation. A new CNN poll shows 59% think Trump's approach won't lead to long-term peace. 50% say it's flat-out bad for the U.S., and nearly 6 in 10 disapprove of his handling of the U.S. 's relations with Russia. Jess, your thoughts here?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
I'll provide input around parenting decisions, and then mom gets to make the decision because I find she's just much more in tune with the kids. But yeah, the way the kids behave in public is absolutely a point of tension for me because I think what he's doing is just, I think he's reflecting on his own shortcomings as a parent.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Yeah, this is—I see a silver lining here, and that is the U.S. 's surrender to Putin, the decision to ignore these 80-year alliances with the largest economies in the world such that they can have— Sort of this, if you will, this mob deal with another autocrat and potentially thinking they can divide up the world. It's economically just really stupid. And the silver lining here is the following.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Europe may be a union for the first time, and that is the 27 member states of the European Union have finally recognized that they need to get their shit together and can't be this rich nephew reliant on Uncle Sam's largesse. They now actually believe there's just no getting around it. Uncle Sam has lost his shit, and we can't depend upon him for a military umbrella. The U.S.
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spends about $800 billion a year on defense. NATO and all EU 27 member nations spend a total of about $400 and $450. They have not been coordinated. They've been sclerotic. They've lacked investment. They've lacked risk capital. And this might be actually the moment for them to command the space they occupy.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And you have seen some signs of a pulse and of real leadership from the biggest leaders in the EU.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And I believe that they basically, the bad news is that America can't be counted on, which is really unfortunate and tragic to support the post-World War II 80-year alliance that has created more prosperity in the last 80 years than the world has created in the modern economy or the history of the modern economy. But the silver lining is that the EU may get more coordinated.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
They're talking about increasing their defense budgets from 1.9% of GDP to 3%. And what you've seen is the markets are responding. The quote-unquote Magnificent Seven, which consists of US tech mega caps, Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, and Nvidia and Tesla, have been incredible performers. But this year, year-to-date, they're down 8%.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Whereas the European Defense 7, that's the second biggest, that's the seven largest military contractors are up 46% and 65% over the last year. And the Stock 600, which is the European kind of S&P, if you will, is up 9% this year, and the S&P 500 is down 2%.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
If you look at military spending, as much as, and there's a decent argument here that it withdraws from more productive means of spending money on social services, there is, one, a stimulative effect, and two, there is a spillover. If you look at the most valuable companies in the world, whether it's Apple or Google, they're essentially built on the backbone of
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
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Defense technologies developed early on, whether it's DARPA, which was built to establish a communications network such that we could communicate in a post-Soviet nuclear attack that was hubless or nodeless, or GPS, which is what essentially Apple and Android are built on. And that was developed such that we could put an ICBM in Gorbachev's pocket.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
All of these military technologies do have a stimulative and a spillover effect. And I believe, and this was one of my big predictions late last year for 2025, that European stocks are going to vastly outperform U.S. stocks.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
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He feels as a man, he's a disciplinarian. And when the kids are out of control, it's a poor reflection on him.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And the nice thing about this is we're all talking as if at the negotiation table that it's up to, first and foremost, the U.S., who kind of is acting as the propaganda wing of Russia at this point, and then Russia And Ukraine isn't being invited to the table around these defense stocks and Europe plays absolutely no role. Well, here's the good news.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
If Europe gets its shit together and shows sort of the commitment and resolve from a spending and a boots-on-the-ground resolve that the U.S. and Russia have shown in spades. They don't need the U.S. The Russian economy is smaller than the Canadian economy. It's less than $2 trillion. And the GU or the EU member nations add up to about $19 trillion.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
So the European Union, should it show coordination, fiscal commitment, and perhaps even boots on the ground commitment, which I don't think they'll ever need to do, but show a willingness and a resolve, they don't need the US. And I'm hopeful that this additional spending and coordination might finally kind of stir a sleeping giant, and that is the EU.
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So I think this is a new era or could signal a new era where there's some great leadership in Europe, whether it's Macron, whether it's Keir Starmer. There is an opportunity here for Europe to finally be a union and command the space they occupy, push back on Putin with or without the U.S. 's help, and coordinate and spend and show some resolve here.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
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They are acquiescing to a gas station that has nuclear weapons on the roof, and they shouldn't be. They are a bigger economy. They have fantastic IP, fantastic weapons producers. Both France and the U.K. are nuclear powers. It is time for the Europeans to step up. It's going to be costly. That's the bad news. The good news is they can absolutely step up and push back on a murderous autocrat.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
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And what's just so tragic here is that Trump appears to be acting like a Russian asset. There's no evidence that he is, in fact, a Russian asset. But if you were to define the actions of a Russian asset, he would fit them to a T. But the good news is I'm not sure the European Union actually needs us.
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I think they have all of the spending power, all of the military technology to push back on their own. The question is, do they have the resolve and the leadership?
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Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Well, I go back to, I feel the same way. And I think a lot of Americans do. They feel despondent. And what helps me is that I realize that Yeah, as Winston Churchill said, the Americans, after exhausting every other option, will do the right thing, or will do the right thing after exhausting every other option. And we've faced really dark moments before.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
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80 years ago, we were rounding up Japanese American and putting them in camps, and some of them had sons fighting in the European theater in our own uniform. We, you know, we do get it wrong a lot, but generally over the medium and the long term, the arc of American justice bends towards the righteous. We waited a couple of years before entering World War II.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
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Canada went over there first and started training allied pilots. And finally, We decided to enter the war.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And I do think Americans are going to recognize that the Ukrainian people who are fighting for liberty and American values, that Canada with the largest undefended border in the world are actually our friends, that this move towards autocracy is so counter to everything that's wonderful and has created so much prosperity in the U.S.,
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that those values are steadfast, that those values matter, and that they're worth fighting for. So I have a lot of confidence that Americans, should we actually find leadership in the Democratic Party, and I believe we will, to your point, and you've always said this, we have a great bench, I think they're going to realize that a murderous autocrat
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
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invading Europe usually does not end well for Europe and then eventually for us. And I do believe there's a real moment, a kind of a, you know, people were calling Keir Starmer, Keir Churchill, or Winston Starmer. There's a moment here for a leader to step up and say that America needs to be America again.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
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And I'd like to think we're getting to that point, but we have been in these types of dark places before and American values do seem to show up and I'm confident that's going to happen. again, here.
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But this is, I would describe, and I think you're articulating it well, this does feel like a dark moment where our American values are taking a back seat to the temptation to have a strong man that's going to solve what are some very real problems here in the U.S. But I'd like to think that over the long term, after, again, exhausting every other solution, that we get it right.
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Yeah, so just recognize that kids ruin everything. Kids are the best thing that could happen to you that will ruin your life, and it does put a huge strain, I have found. There's actually, just to be serious for a moment, All the studies on happiness show that your least happy years are the years you're in, 25 to 45 specifically around child year.
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There you go. All right, that's it for this episode. Thank you for listening to Raging Moderates. Our producers are David Toledo and Chinenye Onike. Our technical director is Drew Burrows. You can find Raging Moderates on its own feed every Tuesday. That's right, its own feed. That means exclusive interviews with sharp political minds you won't hear anywhere else.
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Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Make sure to follow us wherever you get your podcasts. And one last plug, join us for our live show on April 17th in New York. Grab your tickets now. The last time tickets went on sale, they were sold out in 24 hours. No joke. Link in the show notes. See you there. Jess's kids will not be there. They will not be there. Jess, have a great rest of the week.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Realize, just make it clear to your husband, always defer to mom. ADM. He's an influencer, not a decision maker.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And you'll look back on the period where you have young children at home and reflect on that as the happiest time of your life. But what's interesting is in the moment, people without children are actually happier on average than people with children because of instances like this. But as they get older, I do find it gets easier and easier. Years are 11 and 9.
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Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
I knew that.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Yeah, no, it gets much better.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
That's really nice.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
All right. Before we dive in. In a quick announcement, Jess and I are taking the show live. We are literally woke royalty right now. We are literally the Duchess of Wokistan now. We're partnering with, get this, the 92nd Street Y in New York for a special event on Thursday, April 17th. That's right, Thursday, April 17th. And you can grab your tickets right now. The link is in the show notes.
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Trust us. You don't want to miss this one. Literally, I've been working my ass off for 30 years and I'm an overnight woke success because of you, Jess. This is literally like, I feel like Patrick Moynihan is It could emerge from his crypt. And who's the wokest person ever? Literally, we are woke royalty now. We're speaking at the 92nd. What are your thoughts?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
I heard he's not doing that well.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
It's like when you found out you got on the 80th percentile on the SAT and you thought, oh, I might get into UC Irvine. Anyways, but we feel you. But this is so exciting. I'm waiting for the fallout of my other co-host, Kara Swisher. She and I have not been invited on 92nd Street Y. But anyways, come see both. Come see both at the 92nd Street Y. This is very exciting on April 17th. Today...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
In today's episode of Raging Moderates, we're discussing the Democrats' fury over Schumer's vote on the spending bill. Trump challenging the courts on deportations and the latest on Ukraine-Russia ceasefire talks. All right. Let's jump into it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
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Last week, as the clock ran down to a potential government shutdown, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer found himself in a tough spot trying to balance a divided Democratic Party. His unexpected decision to support the GOP's stopgap funding bill sparked major backlash from House Democrats and members of his own caucus. who wanted a stronger stand against Trump's agenda.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
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The bill itself slashes about $7 billion in overall spending from fiscal 2024 levels, cutting $13 billion from non-defense discretionary programs while boosting defense spending by $6 billion. With no easy path forward, Schumer's choice has left Democrats questioning their strategy for the battles ahead in this volatile political climate.
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Jess, what led to Schumer's decision to back the GOP funding bill? And do you think him folding was a misread? What do you think?
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Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Jess, so this is going to be like every other show. You're going to have to carry it. I got home at about 2 a.m. last night from Mexico. Very jet lagged. Was up till 4. Took a Xanax. And I woke up about 10 minutes ago.
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And I'm feeling a little, I don't know. I feel like a Democratic member of the Senate. I don't know where I am. I just want soup. And I'm looking for people to do my work for me. And I have just absolutely no understanding of my surroundings or the current situation. So back to you, Jess. What's going on?
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I thought that was great. So, yeah, the graph that sort of indicates this is the very beginning of the last Trump administration in 17. 74% of Democrats wanted Democrats to work with Republicans and get things done. That number is now 42%. And there's a difference between being effective and being right. And right now we look neither.
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Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
It looks as if we are the gang that can't shoot straight between these ridiculous, feckless attempts to be angry at the joint address or march down to federal buildings and wave our cane. It's clear the leadership is divided and has no control over the caucus. They're responding late. One of the strategies that the GRU sort of invented and that Trump has adopted is flooding the zone.
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Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
and flexing our power and flexing our muscles and just being somewhat somewhat abusive. This is going to have, unfortunately, It's really going after what is a key attribute in any brand. And be clear, the brand is incredibly important. It's what precedes you. It's what puts you in the room before you're there in terms of negotiations and expectations.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
But one of the key things about our brand that people don't appreciate until now is the U.S. is actually fairly consistent. There are certain standards around free trade, rule of law, consistency. Quite frankly, we're slow to change things. We have
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you know, a checks and balances government that any large treaty you, you could believe that we just weren't overnight going to do away with NAFTA, that there was, you could invest around it, Mexico and Canada, because it would probably stay in place for a long time. And the only way it would be changed is if all three houses of government agreed on it.
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Not that, you know, someone had given the campaign $285 billion showed up with just a bunch of kids. By the way, I went to dinner with one of the, I was at a dinner with one of the Doge kids.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Yeah, I didn't speak to him.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Yeah, no, I'm pretty sure I'm going to be getting mail from the AARP. But yeah, it was sort of interesting and— I was initially going to go over and talk to him. I thought that's just going to depress me. Anyways, I'm now going to parties with Doge children. But this is it's hard to see how we don't come out of this pretty structurally damaged. It just doesn't doesn't make any sense to me.
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Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And what have you been up to? How was your weekend, I should say?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
All right. Let's take a quick break. Stay with us.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Welcome back. Last week, Texas Representative Al Green was formally censured after interrupting President Trump's address to Congress, shouting, "'No mandate to cut Medicaid!' as he waved his cane." The moment led to his removal from the chamber and a 224 and 198 vote to rebuke him, with 10 Democrats joining Republicans in the censure.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
This split underscores ongoing divisions within the party over how to push back against Trump. Greene, who has a history of direct action, including being arrested alongside the late Representative John Lewis, seems unbothered by the consequences, saying, Jess, what do you think this says about the Democratic Party that 10 of their own members voted to censure Greene?
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Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Is this about decorum or is it a sign of deeper fractures?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
He loves Jamaica.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Yeah, I thought it was really, really telling in the sense that, one, it was just, I think we came out of that, when I say we Democrats, big losers. We looked reckless, overly emotional. I think our behavior just turns off moderates and emboldens Republicans. Because, look, at the joint address or gatherings of Congress, the president wins. It's a bully pulpit. There's a lot of majesty. And
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Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
What you do in that situation, quite frankly, is you sit quietly, you say nothing. And in instances where they bring in a hero or a kid who's endured a lot of surgery, you stand up and you applaud. You show you're still a human, right? Instead, all of the disruption and the woman following her around with a sign saying, this is not normal.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I mean, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert look like idiots and we didn't like it when they did it. And we shouldn't copy that kind of behavior. It really made us look weak. I actually thought the best moment for the Republicans was when they removed him. I thought Speaker Johnson came across as authoritative.
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Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And we're starting to look like, I mean, it kind of made me sad just for America, where it feels like we're two steps away from being, whereas in South Korea, where occasionally the Congress just breaks out into fisticuffs. It's like we're about to become that nation. And the other thing I think it reflects poorly on Democrats is clearly our leadership has no control over these people.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Because this just didn't make sense for the Democratic Party. Your point is an interesting one. And that is, I've never understood why the Democratic Party eats our own. I'm still pissed off at Senator Gillibrand for getting all high and mighty and chasing Senator Franken out of office.
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Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
she got her seat. She was essentially an unknown. And in my view, she kind of brightens up her room by leaving it. And the Clintons appointed her right to the Senate seat that was vacated. My understanding is by secretary Clinton and the Clintons don't speak to her anymore. Cause I think that she's not a,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Not a very consistent person, but for her to basically eat one up for us to allow her to ruin the career of one of our most articulate and quite frankly, humorous voices counter to Trump so that she could have an 11 second run for presidency. That was the ticket no one was asking for. Remember that? The former mayor of New York and Kristen Gillibrand were both running for president.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And my favorite was she said she wanted to represent other young mothers. I'm like, you're a young mother? Anyway, is that rough? Is that rough?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
No, but she's much older than you.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I was good? Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. I am who I am. But yeah, I agree with you. I was, at first I thought it's good they censored him. And then I thought, why are we always deciding to eat our own and hold our, like you said, we shoot ourselves in the foot and I'm not sure we should be disarming anybody. unilaterally, but I thought it was a terrible look for Democrats.
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Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And you're 37, 38?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Yeah, what the Republicans have that the Democrats lack is a certain level of synchronicity and coordination. And that is, if you look at the relationship between these kind of conservative think tanks, conservative media, and Republican talking points and discipline, they're coordinated.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
But the good news is, is that for men, 50 is the new 30. And for women, 40 is the new 80.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And the sum of its parts or the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, whereas the Democrats look sclerotic, like, oh, we don't like the person giving the response because they were too moderate. Oh, we're going to have these random interruptions and yell out. We just look all over the place and disorganized. And quite frankly, we just don't have our shit together.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And something that people vote for is they would rather vote for someone who seems resolute and youthful and vigorous and competent than someone who just seems to be kind of flailing and don't know. You don't get a sense for where they stand. And the same reason why I think our trading partners are going to not trust the U S around different alliances.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I think that the American public right now looks at the democratic party and it's like, Jesus Christ, pick a theme. Like what, who are you guys? What are you? And the response to this has been ranging, you know, ranges from ineffective to kind of overly, overly emotional. It's just a, it's just not a good look for us. All right. Let's take one more quick break. Stay with us. Welcome back.
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Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Before we go, California Governor Gavin Newsom is under fire from LGBTQ plus activists after saying it's deeply unfair for transgender girls to compete in high school girls sports. He made the comments on the debut episode of his new podcast while chatting with right wing provocateur Charlie Kirk. Newsom wants a trailblazer for LGBTQ rights.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
also agreed that a Trump campaign ad attacking Kamala Harris over gender-affirming care was politically devastating. Speaking of Harris, she's reportedly considering a run for California governor in 2026, and she's told allies she'll decide by the end of the summer. One could cement her leadership in the Democratic Party, but take her out of the running for president in 2028.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
That's good. There's a term for that, New York. All right, enough of that. Let's get into it. President Trump sent financial markets into a tailspin last week.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Meanwhile, Democratic strategist James Carville has a message for the party. Do nothing. He argues that Republicans are so bad at governing, their own chaos will sink them. Jess, does Newsom's stance on trans athletes hurt his 2028 chances, especially with progressives?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Today, we're going to talk about Trump backtracking on tariffs, Representative Al Green getting censored for protesting Trump's trying to address, what Governor Newsom really thinks about trans rights, and James Carville's surprising advice to Democrats, do nothing. So markets kind of very volatile this week or last week with this ever-changing trade policy.
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Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I think in general, people look at the Democratic Party and are drawn to some of the ideals and some of the people and then go, oh, wait, but they're fucking insane. And this is one of those issues. I said this two, two and a half years ago on Pivot and got a lot of pushback.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
But when there was a bicycle race or a bike race in North Carolina, not a big race, but a race that was big enough that it had cash prizes. And a transgender woman came across the finish line five minutes before the rest of the crowd. And then you saw the footage of basically a six foot four swimmer with just enormous wingspan shows up and takes the NCAA finals and like shatters every record.
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Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And I think America looks at that and goes, they've gone fucking insane. And they're defending this because they decided this was some sort of woke, to establish your woke bona fides, you immediately had to go, okay, I'm going to ignore all common sense. And it was just it's done enormous damage that we don't have basic common sense.
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Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And I think I believe our view on this should be, look, if a local school board, we believe let's embrace the Republican ideology that on decisions around nuance, individual schools and parents should make up their own mind.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
If there's a school where they say, look, a 14 year old transgender woman would really benefit from participating in junior high school or high school sports, where, quite frankly, the stakes aren't that high. then fine, they can decide to let her participate. But anything involving scholarships, money, accolades, admissions to colleges, whatever it might be, or contact sports, quite frankly, no.
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Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And I don't see the crime against humanity here. I will never play basketball. I don't have those skills. I wasn't born with those skills. And I believe if you're born with testicles and a penis and the advantage of testosterone and that bone structure... Unfortunately, you don't get to play women's sports because to me, the math was just so simple.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
On Thursday, he delayed tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico, giving industries a brief bit of relief. But on Friday, He was back on offense, threatening new tariffs on Canadian lumber and dairy, claiming Canada has been ripping us off for years. The back and forth has left businesses scrambling and critics warning of economic fallout. Just
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And that is, if we're going to permit this and have no regulation around it, then essentially what you're saying is all the accoutrements of athletics, all the money, the fame, the prestige, the relevance, the self-esteem is going to slowly but surely be sequestered to people born with a penis. I was just shocked feminists didn't say, no, we can't. We can't have this.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And we just allowed this just strategically on an issue that really doesn't impact that many people. And I'm sure we'll get emails on that. That was where we were going to say, okay, this is a big issue for us. And we just come across as just insane.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And the one commercial that moved the needle more than anything during the presidential campaign was that commercial basically saying, you know, I think it was accusing the Democrats. Of course, I believe it was somewhat of an exaggeration or taken out of context. that we were paying for the transgender surgery of inmates.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
This, to me, I think this is Governor Newsom, who we know is running, you know, triangulating to the middle. And quite frankly, pissing off the left is a feature, not a bug in terms of your electability. Somebody is going to have to, you know, someone was saying, who's the leading candidate for Democratic nomination in 2028? And I said, it's probably governor you really haven't heard of right now.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Someone will rise to the moment. and I'm not even sure we know this person right now. I've always thought Governor Newsom would make a really strong candidate because I'm convinced we're a very luxus nation, and he just looks presidential. Also, I think he's a fantastic debater.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I think he's one of maybe a handful of Democrats that goes behind enemy lines, as evidenced by the fact he went on with very conservative commentator Charlie Kirk. But this needs to be an issue that the Democrats need to pivot very aggressively. People should have rights if a local school wants to Let a transgender girl play sports, more power to you.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
But with respect to anything regarding, you know, advantage, no, this just doesn't make any sense. They need to pivot hard on this because otherwise they are just handing a gift, the gift that keeps on giving to Republicans.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
How did these sudden shifts in trade policy impact businesses and global markets?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And there's definitely I felt that a couple of years ago when we were speaking about this issue, there's definitely a narrative you're supposed to sign up to. It's almost like the narrative around being a MAGA. You have to be MAGA or you could be alienated or voted off the island or Trump will go after you in primary.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
On the left, it's more nuanced in the sense that if you don't sign up to the narrative in this kind of certain ideology, you're treated like an apostate. And the blowback on this, if you didn't sign up for the narrative, and there was just no critical thinking, this kind of seemed like an easy one. But I think we lost a lot of credibility.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Anyways, what do you think of the idea of a Governor Harris?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I'm really split on this because she's a competent person, right? And I think she was a good attorney general, good senator. And she'd probably be, I'd like to think, a competent governor. The problem is, I think when you run for president and you lose against Donald Trump, quite frankly, I think you go away for a while. I don't think...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I think she'll be a talking point for Republicans and their races if she maintains her national profile. I think when you lose her president, quite frankly, I think the best thing for the party would be if she just went dark until we have a Democratic president and she's appointed to the Supreme Court. I think she'd be an outstanding justice. Yeah, I think she'd be an outstanding justice.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Anyways, the, but my sense is she's going to be a continued talking point. I don't think, I think she'll continue to be a flashpoint for, for Republicans. And I wouldn't be surprised.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I mean, I'll be curious, but given, I think she's setting herself up for real challenge and embarrassment here because about every couple of decades, a quote unquote lifestyle mayor governor wins in California cities and in the state because she's
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
The quality of life in some of our bigger cities in California, I'm from California, is eroded so much that I think the moons are lining up for what I call like a no-nonsense kind of Pete Wilson-ish kind of governor. And I would hate to see her run and lose. I think it would basically send a signal to the entire nation that democratic ideals are kind of just totally done and gone.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
So torn on this, because I think she's a competent person and would probably be a decent governor. But I think she her brand and the possibility of a loss and her as a constant talking point for Republicans reminding them of why, you know, Americans didn't vote for her in the first place will be a real another cudgel or a weapon that will benefit benefit Republicans.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Yeah. So speaking, speaking, being on the or kind of political strategy, what do you think of Carville's notion that Democrats should step back and let Republicans implode? Do you think this is a dangerous gamble, this notion of just do nothing?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
It's not do nothing as much as it is demonstrate more discipline. Instead of running over here and going, oh, my God, Gulf of America or male versus female. No, no, no, no. Be more disciplined. Talk about surrender in Ukraine and that they're coming after your Medicare and have experts and data and look like an adult and just hammer them.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
The difficult thing about Democrats is not what to talk about. It's what not to talk about. And specifically, they need to stop taking the debate around these ridiculous, stupid issues that don't affect anybody that are clearly being thrown out there as weapons of mass distraction. Even Doge, I believe, is a weapon of mass distraction.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And instead of getting all angry about 19 year olds, whether they should be in there. I get it, but the majority or a lot of moderates, quite frankly, see some of these firings and under the breath are like, well, welcome to the work week. This has happened to me and other people. What they should, in my opinion, be focused on is a much more boring but impactful piece of data.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And that is, this is all a distraction to the notion that one, they're going to increase the deficits by $800 billion a year, which is nothing but a tax increase. We're about to experience the greatest tax increase in history on young people in the form of unprecedented deficits. And two, they're coming for your Medicaid. There's no way. Look at what they're planning here.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
They've tasked the Energy and Commerce Department with cutting $800 billion. That means they're coming for Medicaid. And anything else, again, it goes back to the same notion. The Democratic leadership doesn't have the discipline that McConnell imposed or that, you know, it appears that Speaker Johnson and Trump are imposing on the Republican Party. We just lack... They just lack sort of that.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And instead, they just they take the bait and they start saying, can you believe he said this? And it's like, well, OK, that that. Yeah. All right. We all know he's reckless and he's weird, but focus on the things that are indefensible on Republicans part that are popular among Americans and hammer away on those one or two issues. So it's again, it's not do nothing. It's more discipline.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Just just before we wrap up here, what do you think of What happened recently that supposedly Trump has directed has basically said, all right, Doge is now an advisory or almost like a service to different cabinet members, but they ultimately get to make the decision around layoffs. Any thoughts?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Yeah, if this in fact is true, that he's now got to defer and the ultimate decision is made or not made by the cabinet heads, it's effectively, I think, the end operationally of Doge.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And the notion that we decided that an individual, the world's wealthiest man, who is severely addicted to ketamine, reported by the Wall Street Journal, is concurrently being sued by two women for sole custody of their children because he's not involved in their lives.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Maybe that's not the individual who gets to bypass any sort of congressional vetting or approval to decide if veterans or children get their medical care and food. In addition, if you look at what so far has happened from Doge, the audit, the only thing it has demonstrated, in my view, is that the U.S. government has a lot less fraud and waste than initially feared.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
If this were a physical, I would argue that the U.S. government has gotten a clean bill of health. That this wall of receipts meant to just highlight all the outrageous waste and fraud, there's no there there. The first thing they reported on the wall of receipts was an $8 billion savings. It ended up it was $8 million and it was money that had already been spent.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And then items two, three, and four, it ended up weren't even true. They're having trouble finding all of this waste and fraud that was supposedly out there. And this isn't an operation. This isn't about operational efficiency. It's about political ideology. I got an email from a
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
fraternity brother i hadn't talked to in 30 years a kid named greg townsend kid he's now you know 57 and after graduating you have trouble all you see when you hear from these kids is a guy used to do beer bongs with and that's you assume they're still doing beer bongs and listening to led zeppelin and this this this guy this man greg had gone on to law school and has been working for a division of the un pursuing war criminals around the world out of um out of switzerland
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I mean, I was just so blown away by his work. And he said that their funding had just been shut down, but they're continuing to work because they all are so committed to creating an incentive system globally where people think twice before committing war crimes. And essentially the funding was cut off.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
So if you look at where they quote unquote have, what Doge has really done, it's not an operational or an efficiency mechanism. It's a political ideology because they just decided, I know, let's just shut down all US foreign aid. That's a political idea. decision that has nothing to do with efficiency or fraud.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And what Trump has been really good at is using people as human shields and kind of soaking them up, having them do his dirty work and then firing them. 92% of his advisors were fired in the first administration, which was more than the previous three administrations combined. And I think he's essentially
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I mean, the thing about Trump that's just so obvious that people don't want to talk about, nobody, he is literally Chernobyl after the meltdown. You get near him, you're going to die a hideous death, at least your reputation. And it's happening to Musk. I see it here at South by Southwest. People are throwing shit at Teslas. When I talked about Tesla, I'm like, zero to 1939 in three seconds.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
It's really hard to understand the political calculus behind Where the political calculus here, the economic calculus, he really fucked up. And that is the opportunity to remove inspectors from the 32 different investigations across 11 agencies against his companies. Okay, that's an economic incentive to get involved and be cozy up to the president.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
But the cost that's being levied on him and his brands right now is enormous. People are canceling Starlink contracts. Entire countries are saying, Poland's saying, we can't count on you or your technology. Provinces of Canada are canceling Starlink. And I thought that's the one that is really going to scare the shit out of them.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
What's unusual about this, and I use Nike as a counterexample, Nike took a political stand. And sometimes it works. When they decided to embrace Colin Kaepernick when he bent a knee, that was a real political risk. But they did the math. And that is two-thirds of Nike sales are outside of the U.S. No international individual is that concerned or thinks the U.S. has race relations correct.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And about two-thirds of their revenue came from people under the age of 30 or non-whites. meaning the people that were outraged and did videos of burning their Nikes, that was probably their first pair of Nikes. They did the math and said, this is going to cement and tickle the sensors of the majority of our profits and revenue base. And Musk has done the exact opposite.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
75% of Republicans who he's sort of lighting up or illuminating or activating say they would never buy an EV. So he's done the exact wrong math here. And that is the group that he is most going to piss off and alienate It's sort of his core customer base. And all this bullshit in Europe, it does seem like there's a very healthy gag reflex in Europe around him trying to meddle in their election.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
But I have never, it feels to me, and I've said this before and I've been wrong, this feels like a tipping point. It feels like the worm has turned and I was thinking the Bill Burr rant against him. was sort of evidence of that. But Tesla has shed a third of its value in February. And I mean, the polling on this guy is absolutely, it's just brutal.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Anyways, I don't, I think, and I'm calling it and I've been wrong before, but I think the Musk brand has absolutely peaked and is crashing. And the fall right now feels, feels unsustainable.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Yeah. To your point, Kara was saying that Trump is scared of Musk, that he's the world's wealthiest man, which is his his metric for credibility and that he the last thing he wants to do is piss him off. I think he's just going to fade away. I think it's going to be if in fact he's going to disappear him. Well, no, I think Musk will decide to fade away.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Yeah, it's really it's almost getting a little bit comical. I think a key to these negotiations is it's really difficult to even understand what he wants. When I think about he says, OK, Canada's been ripping us off. It's it's hard to exactly discern what it means. And then he'll go to, well. They need to stop shipping fentanyl across the border. And that might be true of Canada. It's not.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I think Musk at some point is going to do the math and go, this is just not worth it for me. And also, if in fact it's now the cabinet members who get to decide or either do this or not do this, Secretary Rubio is not going to lay off some people in the State Department to save some money at this point. He doesn't give a shit about a small increase in the deficit. He's got a difficult job.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
He's not going to start laying off what he thinks might be bureaucratic. He wants all the firepower available. He can get. The notion that these guys are going to say, okay, I'm really going to take a chainsaw to my... The incentives are, I need to get shit done. I need to reflect confidence. I need to have decent morale. I need resources to get things done.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I'm getting shoved back and forth by these decisions. They need people. The notion that they are going to decide to start cutting costs, I think effectively or operationally, It might be, if in fact he's now there on top, so to speak, might be, if you will, the end of Doge.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Got to be the Pentagon?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
It's interesting. That was one, I think, strategic error on the part of the Republicans. I think they would have had a lot more credibility. They would have obviated or kind of defenestrated any criticism if they had gone after the Pentagon first. And that is, I would think it would have been much harder for Democrats to be critical of the process.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I thought that was a strategic error on their part. I would have started with the Pentagon. Any thoughts? Yeah.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
All right, Jess, that's it for this episode. Thank you for listening to Raging Moderates. Our producers are David Toledo and Chenenye Onekei. Our technical director is Drew Burrows. You can now find Raging Moderates on its very own feed every Tuesday. That's right. You can now find Raging Moderates on its own feed every Tuesday. 40% tariffs are against all of you. That's right, its own feed.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
That means exclusive interviews with sharp political minds you won't hear anywhere else. It ends up that Jess is very, not only talented, but very well-connected. This week, we're talking with Democratic attorney Mark Elias about why the courts could be the biggest line of defense against Trump in a second term. Make sure to follow us wherever you get your podcasts.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Jess, have a great rest of the week.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Thank you.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
It might be true, excuse me, of Mexico and China, or you could at least make a philosophical argument. The amount of fentanyl that's coming across the Canadian border, I think, could fit in a backpack. It's less than 1% of the fentanyl that comes into the nation. And in addition...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
We're now at a point where I don't even know if the tariffs are on or off based on what hour it is, where people are going to start clearing the shelves or developing alternative supply chains and alternative alliances, regardless of whether he takes the tariffs off again, because we just have no credibility.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
The Atlanta Fed tracker, or they basically have a mechanism for predicting GDP growth, has gone from positive 4% to negative 2.8. Consumer sentiment has had its largest fall since COVID. The economy is contracting at its fastest rate since the lockdowns. It's just really difficult to understand that.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
What the endgame here is, if he's putting this out to try and accomplish some big, beautiful deal that he can take credit for. Any thoughts on what's motivating the administration right now?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Yeah, so my understanding of tariffs is that They do make sense when they're used as a weapon to try and restore asymmetry and imbalance in trade. If the U.S. doesn't have access to the Chinese auto market, then fine, you want to bring your cars over here, we're going to tariff them. You might want to protect certain key strategic industries.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
The steelmaking industry, you can make an argument for, we need to at least have a few mills kind of always fired up, such that if we need to make tanks or our primary source of steel goes dark, like what happened with Putin and oil in Germany, we're not caught sort of flat-footed. But just a sweeping tariff at these levels is nothing but an increase. Nuh-uh.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I read that the average car, should these tariffs hold, is going to go up in price somewhere between $8,000 and $12,000. The way cars are manufactured is you actually have certain parts that leave Lansing, Michigan, go to Canada, have worked under them, then go all the way down to Mexico, have more work or assembly, and then come back to Lansing, Michigan for assembly at a Ford plant.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Some of the parts used to assemble a car go back and forth a half a dozen times across borders. So $8,000 to $12,000 increase per car. They're talking about an average increase per household of $1,200. I mean, this is really weird. And even more so than the actual tariffs is the sclerotic reputation we're establishing.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Because even if you decide, okay, we're going to do a deal and we're going to come to some sort of accommodation that works for both, who can trust that we're actually going to do what we said we're going to do? We're now talking about, supposedly, Trump wants Iran... to think about another deal where we're shutting off intelligence to Ukraine and then they bomb a hotel where Americans are.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
We talk about putting it back on and putting sanctions back on Russia. I mean, it's just the world economic policy is being run on this guy's blood sugar level at that moment, which means that if you're going to base billions or if you're the EU or trillions of dollars in trade and alliances and supply chains,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
on one man's blood sugar, you decide, no, I'm going to just have workarounds, even if they're more expensive. It's just the automobile industry right now. I'm at South by Southwest and a key theme here when I talk to advertisers is that they're advertising businesses down. I mean, this has so many ripple effects across the economy.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
They're advertising businesses down because some of the biggest advertisers are automobile companies and they literally are just, we don't know what to do. We've paused all marketing and spending because as far as we know, we're not going to have cars on a lot and we're just not sure what's going to happen. So they can't even plan.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
If the tariffs were absolutely going in, they would say, OK, we need to plan our business model. We're going to raise prices, find alternative routes or supply chain. But they would have a business plan. Right now, this is the worst of all worlds. I think that's what Eisenhower said. The wrong decision is bad, but no decision is worse.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
There are entire companies who have to make essentially no decision because they don't know what environment they're going to be operating in.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Jess, how are you?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I'm good. I'm in the great state of Texas at South by Southwest.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
The queen. I don't know. You're right. That's insane.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Jewish climate scientists.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Really?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Yeah, it really is. It's very difficult to understand the trade. And the trade right now at a very macro level is the following. We're basically trashing and fraying
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I'm all over. I just love me. I did a big, when I went on stage yesterday for Pivot, I danced around with my belly hanging out, screaming. That was a big hit.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
and making much more brittle and fragile these 80-year alliances with the world's largest economies that through free trade, coordination, general goodwill, cooperation towards each other, lower costs for Americans, and increase the sales of our products abroad. And now these nations are just going to figure out different alliances. And even if we go back and say, hey, just kidding.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
We didn't mean it. Love you. Come down to Mar-a-Lago. They're going to say, sorry, boss. You're just not a reliable partner. I don't know who I don't know who I'm waking up next to. And for me, everything comes back to high school. And then as I saw this fantastic study that attempted to figure out and get to the bottom of why popular kids were popular.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
So they looked at the most popular kids in high school. Were they the best looking? No. Were they the best athletes? No. Were they the smartest? Again, no. The thing they had in common was they liked the most other people. They were that kid that would, going down the hallway, would yell, hey, you know, Lisa, Jim, good to see you. What'd you do this weekend?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And was confident enough to like, like other people that those were the most popular kids. And I read this data showing that about three quarters of Americans feel pretty good about Canada. They're like, yeah, Canadians go on. But now two thirds of Canadians don't think of us as an ally.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
They have really been, I don't want to use the word traumatized, but really feel quite frankly, just poorly treated. And it's not like they're going to get over that in six or even 12 months. We are basically saying to the world, we're going to be the least popular kid.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And as a result, have fewer alliances, fewer treaties, less cooperation, because we're acting as if we think you're a fucking idiot. And where we keep yelling expletives or hurling insults at the other kids rolling by us. And the next day, the kid doesn't even know what we're going to say about that kid. We're just so unpredictable and big.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
That was a big hit. Yeah, no, mockery is always, the algorithms love mockery.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
Yeah, they're not at their all-time highs, but it's not like they've crashed. I wouldn't even say they've corrected. They've just come down a bit. So right now, all the catastrophizing around the economy, I think it could happen. I think it may happen.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
But so far, it would be unfair to say that the economy is crashing and there's evidence that these policies... I mean, economic history shows these policies don't work. But the loss in capital here, we've lost $5 trillion in market cap, but we're just back to where we were six months ago, and we're still up year on year. So... Things are bad. They've been a lot worse before.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
It's unlikely. Jess is way too easygoing. It would happen. A pivot that could happen, it almost happens every 48 hours. Jess is too easygoing and too mature. Yeah.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
Well, I'm technically a professor of brand strategy, and I don't I don't understand the nuance of political messaging. What I would say is that first you have to understand the calm strategy of the other side. You have to empathize with the enemy such that you can respond. The enemy right now has developed a calm strategy that is straight out of the GRU, which is flooding the zone.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
And that is there are so many things at them. Some are true, some are not. Some are, they know, ridiculous and will invoke an emotional reaction to misdirect you away from the key points we should be focused on.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
And so the key is, all right, if you know they're deploying this flood the zone strategy and trying to create so much noise and such an emotional, sclerotic, hysterical reaction, which is how I would describe the democratic reaction right now, Then the question is, all right, let's slow down and figure out how do you combat the flood-to-zone strategy or comm strategy?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
And the way you combat it is the following. you realize you don't need to respond to everything. You don't need to cry or scream into Twitter or TikTok on every issue. You don't need to have a viewpoint on the Gulf of cheaper eggs. You pick one or two key issues that resonate with Americans, you're disciplined, you're calm, you're measured, you bring in experts, you bring in data.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
The two issues I'm focused on are one, surrendering to Putin over Ukraine for what is not a lot of money, $60 billion, 8% of our budget,
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
the majority of which serves as stimulus back home, the majority of which goes to red states, we are one, taking out a third of Russia's kinetic power, two, giving China pause before it invades Taiwan, knowing that a motivated army armed with Western technology is a formidable foe. Europe is a union again. NATO is out of a brain coma. This is the best return on investment Americans have made
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
in a generation and we should continue to do it. That's an issue for me. And then that we are in fact about to ramp up the deficits by $800 billion a year to give the wealthy a tax cut. Those are the two issues that I'm focused on. I'm not interested in talking about whether a helicopter crash was a function of DEI or whether passports should have a third box or male and female.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
That is all a giant weapon of mass distraction. We should focus on the one or two things that are really important to Americans, be calm, be the adults in the room, and also just in general, move from being the party of indignance to the party of ideas. Start proposing big ideas, put them up for a vote. Even if they go down, say, all right, why wouldn't we raise minimum wage to $25 an hour?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
Why wouldn't we lower... Medicare eligibility by two years a year for 30 years and have nationalized health care. Why wouldn't we have mandatory national service instead of just getting indignant and waiting, being outraged for other people, being outraged at the lack of outrage? We need to have a more focused, disciplined response.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
We need to be the party of ideas instead of the party of indignance and clutching our pearls all the goddamn time. That's a personal attack on me. The 800 million. Billion.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
Yeah. That's annual. The number I've seen, what have you seen, Tim? I've seen $5 trillion additional deficit.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
Kind of goes on from there. But I'm wondering your thoughts. I think anytime you roll out veterans, it's a pretty powerful strategy. The only thing I would argue is that I think people have empathy, but I've thought the whole these good people are being fired argument is not our best argument. Because I think the majority of people in the private sector have experienced something similar.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
And the capitalism, quite frankly... I think a lot of moderates in the back of their head are like, welcome to the work week, boss. I received one of those emails when I was working at a car dealership for 20 years. And then somebody, a private equity firm came in and rolled up the car dealership and I got one of those emails.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
One of the cruel truths of capitalism is on a regular basis, there's a lot of injustice in the labor force. this is kind of feel bad for me. I got fired. It's not the foot I would lead with. It's that we're doing this in an incompetent way. I go after the wall of receipts.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
I would say that we're, we're doing stupid things that'll end up costing us more in the future, that they're not spending your money. Well, that the way they're going about this is incompetent, but going after the injustice and the emotional argument is,
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
I worry it falls flat because I think there's maybe incorrectly a perception that government employees have had it too soft for too long and that they're facing some of the harsh reality that the private sector faces every day. What about you, Jess?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
Well, first off, just to your point, there's so many things to be enraged. I was trying to pick which one I wanted to put forward. To not go upstream of Musk and what I think is the illegal usurp of constitutional power and shut down the government. just shows how fucking stupid we are.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
I just think that is outrageous that we're letting the government essentially become a vehicle for the transfer of wealth and rights from the poor and the middle class to the rich. We just sort of said, this isn't a government, we're shutting it down. I think it's unforgivable that we didn't just say, look, fine, have at it.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
You've decided the government is no longer really about democracy and constitution, so we're not going to continue to fund it. and let the chips fly. And I think we should have channeled Mitch McConnell, who has bested and beat the shit out of Charles Schumer every round for 15 million rounds running. I was incredibly disappointed. I thought that was an enormous strategic error on our part.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
So one, it's discipline around messaging. What you guys are saying is really powerful. Go to the data. You want to 6X the Doge savings? All right, let's get efficient. $2.6 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal so far. You want to 6X it? Stop all subsidies immediately to Tesla. Boom, 6X the efficiency of Doge. Let's get focused. Let's use data.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
I think, one, we need more discipline around messaging, more data. And then I also think we need to do a better job of synchronicity. If you look at the right, they're much better at coordinating their think tanks, their media, their politicians.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
around a very synchronized message we are somewhat like someone having a seizure with limbs flailing everywhere so we need more discipline around messaging no don't spend your your precious human capital and your platform on whether or not the helicopter crashes a dei don't even go there on naming god we just fine have at it the tape brothers don't talk about them
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
That's just a distraction meant to enrage and distract people. Talk about these one or these two issues. And then what we really need help with is, quite frankly, putting some of our senior citizens on an ice floe who are not able to reach people where they are right now. And that is some of our younger spokespeople need, in my opinion, greater license and rope to meet people where they are.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
And that is on these new mediums.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
Well, I think Crockett is good. I think OC is good. I actually think someone like Michael Bennett has got it. I think Chris Murphy has been a powerful voice. I think Wes Moore coming out and saying that he was going to focus his entire administration on the struggles of young men was really powerful. I think that Rich...
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
Richie Torres is driving the far left crazy because they don't know how to criticize his moderate policies with this intersectionality of being a black, Hispanic, a gay man. They just don't know how to react to someone like that who actually has moderate, reasonable viewpoints.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
Well, and to be blunt, that's a lack of leadership where they get the two of them in the room and say, okay, bitches, you both got to sign up and you got to get a, you're going to have to give here. You're going to have to give here. There's huge vent overlap on what you guys believe. These are the two messages you're going to go after.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
And we're going to weaponize your platform and your incredibly strong voices and your ability to meet people. where they are, and we're going to get more discipline. Look how disciplined the messaging is on the Republican side.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
Even if it's to get everyone to look over here and be outraged about something stupid that we shouldn't be talking about, they're just much more coordinated and disciplined. And we literally look like a giraffe having a seizure. You don't know which way its limbs are going to fly. It strikes me as a lack of leadership and coordination and discipline around messaging.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
Jessie, what do you make of that?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
It's really interesting.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
I think it's a really powerful idea. I think if a Richie Torres or a Mark Cuban started every day putting out...
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
two and three minute tiktoks or videos with responses to this stuff this is what we need to be doing this is why this all raised i think they get a ton of attention the message you get out there and not only that i think that the republicans would take the bait and start responding right now they're just rolling over us yeah and then all these people would have them on right like the like theo vaughn is not going to have on chris murphy but if mark cuban said he's running for president or whatever like sure like he'd be able to go on all these fucking things
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
I think we're to a point now where the public has said we value authenticity over or what appears to be authenticity of its coarseness and cruelty over decorum. I think it's pretty obvious. Gavin Newsom brings on Charlie Kirk and Stephen Bannon because he's running for president and he wants to become more, have the appearance of being more moderate.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
Okay, then just come out of the closet and say you're running for president. Just I'm Gavin Newsom. I lead the fourth largest economy in the world. Our economy is growing. Our budget is balanced. We have our issues. I know how to deal with these. What's going on is terrible here. I am running for president. And this is what is important to me and which should be important to you. Josh Shapiro.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
I mean, these guys, they're running for president, for God's sakes. Be honest about it. I plan to run for president. And this is why I'm qualified. And these are the issues I would focus on. And this is what really bothers me right now. Instead, they're like, well, I've got a job to do. I'm focused. Shut the fuck up. You're running for president. You wouldn't be on Bill Maher. Holla these guys.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
I'm sure, Tim, all of these guys are calling us. This is what they do. I hear from all of these representatives who see themselves as a vice president or potentially president one day. I'm fairly certain 90% of our representatives and our senators wake up in the morning, look in the mirror and say, hello, Mr. President.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
And I think if they just said, I want to be president, I think this is an incredible opportunity. I'm really distressed about what's happening in America. And every day they went on and hammered their points and their ideas. You know, Andrew Yang made UBI or the notion we'd be more empathetic towards just redistributing capital from the rich to the poor. He made it more palatable.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
He normalized it. He became a really important part of the dialogue. So there is an advantage to someone coming out right now and just saying, where I was headed is the following. All these guys call us and they ask you two for the same thing and me for a third. They say, I'm really interested in your ideas. I'd like to come on your podcast, which is Latin for I'm running for president.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
I want to start getting awareness, right? For me, they call me and they say they want my view on things, which means they want my money. They convince me I have some insight into issues and they want to have a discussion with me. What they're really saying is, give me a chance to agree with you and then write me a check. You hear from these people, Tim.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
All of these people are running for president. There's like a half a dozen of them. Come out of the closet and start occupying the space you want to command. Yeah.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
The greatest innovation in history wasn't the iPhone or the semiconductor. It was the American middle class. And key to that was 7 million men coming home in uniform who demonstrated heroics, were attractive to women. They were fit. We put money in their pocket through the National Highway Transportation Act, through FHA loans, through the GI Bill. And then... They made it with a ton of people.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
They had a ton of kids and had such wonderful lives. They said, why wouldn't we extend these rights and these liberties and this prosperity to women? Why wouldn't we extend it to non-whites? And we built the greatest society in history. And the thing that is missing from the middle class right now are economically and emotionally viable young men.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
They're 12 times as likely to be incarcerated, four times as likely to be addicted to Four times as likely to kill themselves. Our young men are struggling. There's no group in the world that has ascended faster than women. And we should do nothing to get in the way of that. Twice as many women elected to a parliament and democracies over the last 30 years.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
More women are seeking tertiary education globally. More single women own homes. Then single men in urban areas, women under the age of 30 are making more money. You're going to have probably two to one female to male college grads in the next five years. And we have essentially gutted every on-ramp for non-college bound males, which is the majority of them.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
We've taken wood, metal, and auto shop away. There are very few paths to a romantic partnership for a man or to economic viability for a man who is not exceptional. And the result is, is that women nor our country will continue to flourish if men are flailing.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
And there's a series of economic policies that have transferred so much money and opportunity for young people that it has disproportionately impacted young men. We have the most obese, anxious, and depressed generation in history. For the first time in our nation's history, a 30-year-old isn't doing as well as his or her parents were at 30. So what to do about it?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
You don't have identity politics where you just level up young men. You go minimum wage, $25 an hour, universal child care, vocational programming to restore some dignity to work, mandatory national service, more third places, encourage young people to drink more alcohol. The risk to their liver is much less than the risk of isolation and anxiety. There are a ton. We fuck this up for young people.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
We can unfuck it. Every person under the age of 40, and I think this is a unifying theory of everything, should have the opportunity to fall in love, should have the opportunity to have children, and the opportunity to have a house and a decent living wage. That is absolutely doable in the wealthiest nation in the world. Minimum wage, $25 an hour, universal child tax credit, tax holiday.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
Anyone under the age of 40, no federal income tax. It wouldn't be that much money because they don't make that much money. level up young people. And if you decide not to have kids and spend it on brunch and St. Bart's more power to you, the table stakes for the most prosperous nation in the world is fucking too expensive.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
I'm not telling people that they have to have kids to be happy. I'm saying America should be able to afford the opportunity for every person under the age of 40, the opportunity to meet someone, fall in love, have kids and, than live a life that they can have as a family. And right now, we've gone from 60% of 30-year-olds used to have a kid to 27%.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
Every economic policy, I think, should be reverse engineered back from one thing. How do we give young people the opportunity to have dignity, to have a reasonable standard of living, and the option should they choose to have children?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
This is pure speculation, but I think every piece of evidence shows that this may not be speculation. This may be reality. Imagine if President Trump was able to open a Swiss bank account and anyone could deposit money in it. And nobody knew but him that the money went in and he didn't have to file with anybody when he took that money or sold it. And imagine Putin said, I'll give you $10 billion.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
It's untraceable. But by the way, isn't Europe's funding of Ukraine really a problem? Isn't your funding really extending this war? Well, he's done that. The Trump coin is effectively a Swiss bank account that anyone could put money into and then call the president and say, I just put $10 billion in here. How would you like to be the wealthiest man in the world?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
And in unrelated news, are you going to continue to fund this war? That is what could be happening right now. And the notion that they put it out the Friday night before the inauguration is This is a level of grift that we haven't seen. Republicans would argue we're just more brazen and less opaque about it.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
You've been doing it through lobbyists, and Speaker Emerta, Pelosi, is probably the most blatant, brazen insider trader in history. I mean, you've got to admire, if you're going to be corrupt, don't play small ball like Pelosi for millions. Do it for billions like Trump. So I think that the Trump coin is nothing but pure unadulterated grift. It's the perfect scam.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
We used to think it was Donald Trump media where this stock that does 3 million a year, this company that does 3 million a year in business and loses 300 million is worth $5 billion. But here's the thing. He's going to have to file the SEC when he sells shares. He doesn't have to do that with the Trump coin. As far as we know, it's billions of dollars in pay for play. That's what he's set up.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
So I think that's happening in terms of the economy. The reality is guys like me have predicted nine of the last three recessions. Nobody knows. I can paint a scenario either way. These tariffs are to the economy what leeches were to medicine. None of us who know anything about economics can believe they actually think this shit's going to work again. Consumer confidence is crashing.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
The entire world and every large company and economy is trying to figure out workarounds to reconfigure the supply chain to not include American companies or the American government because they can't trust what is actually going to happen here. That should take a real... Toll on the economy, the American stock market is still overvalued.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
If you were to summarize the world's value into $100 right now, including debt, the US costs 70 and the rest of the world costs 30. So let me ask you, Tim, if you could buy the US for $70 or the rest of the world for 30, what do you think is a better value? I think I'd probably start investing in Germany and India and Brazil. That's exactly right. And that's what's happening.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
The capital flows are reversing and we're seeing people start to look at other markets on the U.S. because the U.S. is just very expensive. Apple's trading at 34 times earnings even after this drawdown on a company that isn't growing. And it traditionally trades at 18 and it's been as low as 9 in the last 20 years. Having said that, what do you do? I think you just diversify.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
And that is nobody can time the markets, don't have an emotional reaction. What you may want to consider is not only diversifying through low-cost index funds, but perhaps think about diversifying geographically and look at low-cost index funds in Latin America, Asia, and Europe. In sum, your Kevlar here is diversification.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
But don't listen to people like me because the reality is we just don't know.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
Tim, I wanted to say you're one of the few fearless voices out there. I love you go on TikTok and say, basically, I can summarize almost every one of your TikToks, your videos.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
it's eloquent it's basically what the actual fuck yeah and then you go on and you provide data and a great argument i think you're one of those key voices so keep on keeping on brother i'm doing my best i appreciate that very much guys everybody else we'll be back here keep on keeping on tomorrow for another edition of the podcast we'll see y'all then peace thanks for having us thanks tim
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
I'm raging about wealthy progressives who clutch their pearls and at dinner parties talk about how outrageous the activities of the administration usurping or blowing by every branch of government, whether it's We were hoping Congress would get in the way or at least be able to slow things down. That's why we have checks and balances. The administration has just usurped congressional power.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
And then we thought, well, at least we have the courts. And it appears as of a few days ago, they are now blatantly ignoring court orders. But that's not what has me raging. What has me raging is that I believe there's a conspiracy between the most powerful among us who are the richest among us
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
who pretend to give a flying fuck about the violation of the Constitution and the slow burn erosion of our democracy, but don't really speak out. Don't really contact our representatives. Don't really risk their own reputations. Don't protest. Don't call their senator.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
Don't use their platforms to really aggressively punch back, because here's the bottom line, we're getting richer, and that's a conspiracy. The conspiracy is the following, that rights are portable and rich people have figured that out. Everyone in my life will have access to mesofestrone. If anybody decides to weaponize the DOJ, I can lawyer up like no tomorrow.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
If things get really scary and they start rounding up people as they did 80 years ago, I can put a USB with Bitcoin, shove it up my ass and peace out to Dubai.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
Madrid, Milan, you name it. But the bottom line is rights and democracy have become purely a function of how wealthy you are in America. The wealthiest 1% are protected by the law, but they're not bound by it. And the bottom 99 are bound by the law, but not protected by it. And that in itself is incredibly upsetting.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
But the most powerful in the United States, which is disproportionately populated with progressives or people who claim to be progressives, are kind of stop, stop, it hurts so good because they've uploaded their W-2s into chat GPT. And if the Trump tax cuts go through, they're going to get richer.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
And so there's this unhealthy conspiracy where the wealthiest among us realize our rights are entirely portable. Our rights are not under threat. I could be in deepest, darkest red Mississippi. And if someone I care about gets pregnant, no problem figuring it out. None whatsoever. Rights in America are now a function of money. And the whole point of the Constitution...
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
The whole point of a democracy is that it's primarily there to protect the lower 50 because the top one have always figured out a way to have rights and it's never been more true. So what am I raging about?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
A bunch of very wealthy progressives who all claim that they're really upset about what's going on and aren't doing a fucking thing, but bitching and moaning to their friends under their breath because they're getting richer and they know they are not truly under threat.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
I think the math that's happening subconsciously is the following. If you're part of the fastest growing demographic class in America, it's not Latinos, it's not seniors, it's billionaires. We've gone from 500 to 2,500 in the last 10 years. You're probably in your 60s. Yeah, climate change is a problem, but it's a problem for your grandkids.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
Yeah, having a move towards kleptocracy that creates a less competitive economy where nations do workarounds in terms of supply chain, yeah, that impacts probably the next CEO or the next CEO. If you're in your 60s and you're rich, you think you've tapped into just the easiest way to get richer, and that is this guy is pay for play.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
If I know someone who knows someone and I can donate a million bucks to the campaign and get a lunch at Mar-a-Lago, that day he announces, this happened, that Ripple will be one of the cryptocurrencies included in the new strategic Bitcoin treasury program. And Ripple... surges in value. So, oh, I'm the head of a tech company.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
Give him a million bucks, be paraded around like some fucking whore for his benefit. This is the cheapest, easiest way to get rich over the next five or 10, maybe even 20 years. And the long-term damage to our democracy, just as climate change probably will not affect us. It may, but it probably won't. Who's really going to get screwed is our kids. And my generation has proven that
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
that we're just not long-term thinkers. That when you see everyone else getting really rich, really fast, the downward spiral is, fuck it, I'm going to get really rich, really fast. I'm going to play the game. The game is cheap. The most disappointing thing about our elected representatives, including the president, is not that they're whores. We've known that for a long time.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
It's that they're such cheap whores. And the wealthy and corporations have figured out for a small amount of money, they can weaponize government to their benefit.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
So I just think it's a lot of short-term thinking as evidenced by my generation, which continues to devote themselves more money, continue to ignore the long-term effects of climate change, continue to see this oncoming train wreck of deficits. Because, baby, I'm in the club doing rails of cocaine with champagne. And young people, you can give me your credit card.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
But sorry, boss, I'm the one in the club. You're outside. You'll have to pay my bill when I die. But until then, the credit card keeps getting approved and going through.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
How is that? Yeah.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
Oh, Jess, I don't like to take credit for things. I appreciate that.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
No, no, no, really. I'm not comfortable talking about me. Yes, Tim, it was entirely my idea. There were forces against the idea. That was an easy one. And what's interesting is now every person from CNN has an idea for something called the normies or something. Yeah. Anyways, it's all about the brand. Although people say we're more raging than we are moderate.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
Well, first off, I think most of those guys voted for Harris. I don't think they were excited about showing up to the inauguration, but they decided under the auspices of, they should never use the term stakeholder value again, because they clearly don't care about the long-term health of America or the constitution or some of the people in their organization that aren't rich.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
They've decided, and they can make the argument that for shareholder value,
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
It's worth it for them to show up in a tie, say he's handsome, give a million dollars to the inauguration committee, let him put out a fake press release that is totally fabricated saying we're spending an additional $400 billion on cloud-based infrastructure in Texas, which they were always planning to spend somewhere else, but let's repackage it and pretend it's his doing.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1002: Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: The Cheap Whore at the White House
They've done the math that for short-term shareholder value, This is the way to go. And the reality in terms of the marketplace, we would like to think the market's crashing. It's not. It's back to pre-Trump levels. We've done away with the Trump bump. But inflation, while sticky, does not seem to be skyrocketing. The markets are still at historic highs.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
So the question I get most frequently when I speak here is to compare and contrast the US with the UK. And I use a personal anecdote. My parents immigrated to the US from Glasgow and London when they were 19 and 22. They took enormous risks. I've been an entrepreneur my whole life. I like to think that a lot of my success is my fault, that I inherited sort of that risk-taking DNA.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
And when I speak to people in the UK, I say the primary difference is you're the ones that stayed. And that is it kind of comes down to a risk appetite. The U.S. has five times per capita the number of entrepreneurs. It has five times the dollar volume per startup. There's $5 million in venture capital waiting to be deployed for every startup in the U.S. versus $1 million in Europe.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
I love what Constantine said about a restaurant. I went into this great little restaurant in Soho a few weeks ago called Dig In, and I loved it so much, I left my card and said, can you have the owner? I'd like to open another one. Does he need money? I just would never do that here. I thought that was a really interesting insight.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
And the collision of risk, crazy ideas that occasionally become crazy genius, and technology, and intellectual property, and great universities... results in a company that no one had heard of five years ago being worth more than the entire UK stock market, NVIDIA. So there's just an enormous difference. The way I would summarize my impression of the UK economy, I'll just say London.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
I have no experience in it. I don't go anywhere that's not walking distance from Marylebone, so my bubble is pretty opaque. But the way I would describe the economy here is I love the term the Butler economy, and that is all the money I see being made here is people servicing wealth created somewhere else. You're either in financial services servicing rich people.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
You're either opening a restaurant or hospitality servicing rich people. But I don't see a lot of organic wealth creation. I interviewed the two quote unquote inventors of AI at one of your prestigious universities. My first question is, how the hell were you not able to make any money if you invented AI? Why haven't you been able to capture any money?
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
But just for your listeners, my summation of Europe versus the U.S. after molesting the earth for the last 35 years is U.S. is still the best place to make money and Europe is still the best place to spend it. Is this a failing nation, Scott? I think you have too much going for you to be described as a failing nation. You still have amazing universities.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
London's still the second best city in the world. Premier League, it's an unbelievable export. I know how ridiculous that sounds. People want to be here. There's still rule of law, rule of play. You still produce amazing rock and roll. I just don't see how you could say this is a failed... I would argue that the Second only to our entry into Iraq, the greatest self-inflicted wound was Brexit.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
An American can't understand why you would decide to increase your prices while reducing productivity in one fell swoop. It's difficult for us to wrap our heads around some of the economic decisions today. The UK has made, but I think a lot of people are kind of betting are hoping that the UK begins to grow again. So I'm in a weird way.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
I'm sort of I would call myself cautiously optimistic about the UK. I think at some point it registers it begins to occupy the place it could it should command, if you will.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
Well, if you think of the U.S. as setting the tone economically and maybe even culturally for the West, there's definitely a reversion away from... People feel that quote-unquote wokeism, and I don't like to use that word, but I'll use it here, was this sort of overcorrection to systemic racism and that it began to cause more damage than it was... were causing more problems than it was solving.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
Well, with respect to energy, Trump, issued an executive order calling it an energy crisis. Gasoline in the U.S. on an inflation-adjusted basis is less expensive than it was 50 years ago. We are now the largest oil producer in the world. I would argue that we have a housing crisis and that the executive order should have been around that.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
Just going back to the U.S., and I'm curious of the same dynamics and whether Constantine and Daniel agree with this. I believe this, the election in the US was supposed to be a referendum on women's rights. Women's rights did not show up. This was a referendum on young men, in my view. And that is, if you look at the two cohorts that swung most from blue to red versus 2020,
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
Two of the three cohorts, other than Latinos, was people under the age of 30 who in the U.S. are 24 percent less wealthy than they were 40 years ago. People over the age of 70 or 72 percent wealthier. Our tax code is basically an attempt to shove money from the young to the old. And to 45 to 64 year old women who I would affectionately describe as their mother.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
that is when your son's in the basement vaping and playing video games and i think a lot about struggling young men you don't give a flying about territorial sovereignty in the ukraine or ukraine excuse me or transgender rights all you know is your kid isn't doing well and 210 times a day your kid's getting a notification that somebody he knows is on a gulf stream or partying in st bart's and it's not him or her and so we not only have young people not doing as well
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
This pornographic wealth is just shoved in their face. And you end up with, in my opinion, kind of a young, struggling young man. No group has fallen further faster in the world, I would argue, than young men in America. They are, if you go into a morgue in the United States, and there's five people who've died by suicide, four of them are men.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
One in three men under the age of 30 has a girlfriend. Two in three women under the age of 30 has a boyfriend. Why? You think that's mathematically impossible? Because women are dating older because they want more economically and emotionally viable men. There's one in five men live at home at the age of 30, one in three under the age of 25. They're not having sex.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
They're more obese, they're more depressed. When women don't have a relationship, they oftentimes channel that energy into their professional lives. More single women own homes in the U.S. than single men. Women in urban areas under the age of 30 are making more money than men.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
And I think there's been a serious kind of lurch back, if you will, whether it's executive actions, declaring the border, a state of emergency, you know, stuff around saying that gender is a thing, there's male and female.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
When men don't have the guardrails of a relationship or a job or being in school, they pour that energy sometimes into unproductive things, misogyny, nationalism or extreme nationalism, conspiracy theory. In some, they become really shitty citizens. They become sequestered from society. So I'm worried in the U.S. our biggest threat is a new species of asexual, asocial young men.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
who are incredibly dangerous have opted out of America. 60% of 30-year-olds used to have one child in America, and that's 27%. So people, I think, in the US, and this is a genuine question, I don't know if it's the same problem here, our tax policies have taken money from the young, stuffed them in the pockets of old people, so Nana and Pop-Pop can upgrade from Carnival to Crystal Cruises.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
Meanwhile, young people can't afford education, they can't afford housing. And we especially see this really acute emerging crisis
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
among young men who are just opting out of America, who don't even want to try and date, don't even want to enroll in school, don't want to even try and get a job, just stick in their basements and go on Reddit or Discord, or why go try and shower or work out and get a relationship when you have you porn? Why get a job when you can trade stocks or crypto on Coinbase or Robinhood?
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
I think this is, in my opinion, this is the most dangerous trend in America right now.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
And most of these issues, the actually American public supports, I would say on a more cynical level, America used to be a platform for prosperity, the protection of civil rights, the projection of women's rights and power and democracy abroad. And I would argue that it feels like a pretty quick transition to almost like a
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
So I think there's a lot of nuance here. I would argue in universities, DEI is used as a giant misdirect from people such as myself who are enforcers of the caste system and wake up every morning and look in the mirror and ask ourselves the same question. How do I increase my compensation while decreasing my accountability?
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
And what I've found is the ultimate strategy is to create an LVMH rejectionist bullshit elitist strategy where Dartmouth sits on an endowment of $8 billion and lets in 500 kids. So the conversation around who gets in is a misdirection. The important question is how many. If you are not growing your endowment or your freshman class faster than population, you should lose your tax-free status.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
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We should be letting in more gay kids, more trans kids, more white Republicans from rural states. You know who doesn't talk about DEI? Junior colleges, because there's no admissions. They don't have a problem with DEI. So I think DEI on campus has ended up eating its own tail, started out with the right idea. Now it's nothing. And I would argue the same is somewhat true of the Democratic Party.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
I went to the Democratic National Convention. On the DNC.org website, it lists 17 special interests groups, and it says explicitly who we serve. Asian Pacific Islanders, seniors, veterans, Black Americans, the disabled. It basically lists, I added this up, 76% of the population. And when you say you're actively advocating for 76% of the population, you're not advocating for 76% of the population.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
I call it a kleptocracy, but America has become a platform for acquiring wealth and then leveraging that wealth as a means or a proxy of power. And the ultimate example of that was the launch of two meme coins, the Trump coin and the Melania coin, the day before the presidency, such that this conversation could have already or might happen this week. And I'll finish here.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
You're discriminating against the 24%. It's gone too far. I would argue in the workplace, having served on seven public company boards and and I'm going to do a lot of boasting here because I'm desperate for all of your affirmation, and 12 private company boards, there's still work to be done in the private sector. There still is a cycle of
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
40% of all venture capitalists and probably 70% or 80% of all venture capital deployed are white guys from just two universities, Stanford and Harvard. So I would argue universities, it's gotten out of control. I'd love to see the DEI apparatus disassembled, along with the ethics department, the sustainability department, the leadership department.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
These are all bullshit where we hire formerly important people with no standards. They never get fired. It just translates to more student debt. In the boardroom, in corporations, in certain sectors, I do think there is a need to be thoughtful about broadening the aperture of the lens and bringing in people who are underrepresented. There's still a dearth of women raising venture capital.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
So I think it's nuanced based on sector. But to just say all DEI is bad, I want to move to where the University of California did in 1997. They don't have race-based affirmative action. They have adversity-based affirmative action. I'm a beneficiary of affirmative action. I had something called Pell Grants. I was raised by a single immigrant mother who lived and died a secretary, so I got grants.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
I had unfair advantage because I came from a household that was low income. And I think that there should be affirmative action, and I think it should be based on color, but that color is green. The poor need our help. The moment you start advocating for special advantage based on any external factors, I think at this point in our society, it probably causes more problems than it solves.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
President Trump, it's Vlad. We're thinking about stabilizing our currency or trying to send the outflows of our reserves. So we're thinking about pulsing at about 600 billion rubles
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
into the Trump coin, which based on my economist estimation would take the value of it to a $20 or $30 billion market cap, making you one of the wealthiest men in the world, Mr. Trump, and none of this would be disclosable or transparent. Also, in unrelated news, we'd really appreciate you seizing arms shipments to Ukraine.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
What I've said on your show is that I think the male form, especially under the age of 30, with its bone structure, incredible double twitch muscle, and then this amazing... amazing chemical called testosterone, you're going to look back at your 25-year-old self and think, why wasn't I a fucking monster like Steve Bartlett?
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
So I think we've gone kind of full kleptocracy is the way I would describe it. Are you optimistic, Scott? Well, I'm a glass half empty kind of guy. I don't. I don't know if I'm just getting older, but no, I don't see a man convicted of sexual abuse or found liable who inspired an insurrection retaking the White House as a point of light for the American experience.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
And also, there is some masculinity when Russian soldiers pour over the border in Ukraine. You want some of that big dick energy that Daniel was talking about. In the case of Zuckerberg, I don't think... I don't think he really understands an aspirational view of masculinity.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
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I think when he couches immediately kind of trying to kiss Trump's ass because Trump threatened to put him in prison and what he used to call moderation, he's now calling censorship. And when you have an algorithm that elevates incendiary, hateful content, I would not describe that as masculinity. For me, masculinity comes down to protection, providing and procreation.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
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And I don't think it's a I think to talk about gendering a workplace in the context of trying to excuse a total elimination of what I would think is probably healthy moderation. I imagine Daniel and Constantine might have a different view. I don't I think he's just couching his. his supplicant obsequious kiss-ass behavior under the auspices of masculinity, it just doesn't ring true for me.
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And I'm not sure we need to man up or femme up organizations and companies right now. When I talk about masculinity, you know, if I say at a conference, oh, women are better managers, everyone goes, yes, that's right. That's right, right? That's okay. If I say men are more risk aggressive and make better entrepreneurs, you're a misogynist, you're out.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
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And the reality is men and women bring different attributes, but the masculinity and femininity, I think masculinity is a wonderful thing. I think we need a different image of it. I think people born as male have an easier time leaning into those things. Having said that, I work out at CrossFit with a bunch of lesbian firefighters.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
They bring great masculine energy and they could carry my ass out of a fire. So a lot of men demonstrate wonderful feminine qualities. A lot of women demonstrate wonderful masculine qualities. I don't think these things are sequestered to anyone born as a specific gender. What I think, what I talk about masculinity, I don't talk about it in the role of corporations.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
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I think that's just fraught with risk and not worth talking about. It should be about shareholder value or stakeholder value. I think young men need a code. We're going to church less. We have fewer relationships. So what's the code you hold onto in terms of, creating behaviors that are productive for you, yourself, society.
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And I think masculinity needs to be redefined as something more aspirational where you're celebrated for being really fucking strong. You're celebrated for not complaining. You're celebrated for creating surplus value, create more tax revenue than you absorb. You're celebrated for being aggressive. You're celebrated for breaking up fights at bars, not starting them.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
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You're celebrated for protecting your country, not shitposting it. You're celebrated for approaching strange women and expressing romantic interest. That's not a crime. And if she's not interested and you're rejected, you're both going to be fine. You're celebrated for getting out of the house. You're celebrated for working. You're celebrated for making money and liking money.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
I think there just needs to be a redefinition of masculinity in the context of helping young men find a code that they used to get from the armed services or from dual parent households. And I feel like they're struggling. So I like the idea of something that they feel in their bones and in their body and in their DNA that they can lean into that we celebrate.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
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And the conversation is flipped entirely. Five years ago, I was called a misogynist for talking about masculinity. Now the conversation is being led and advocated by one group and it's mothers. who are like, my son is not doing well. I got three kids, two daughters, daughters in PR with the other ones at Penn, and my son is in the basement vaping and playing video games.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
EMERGENCY DEBATE: What Trump’s Return Really Means for America & The Real Reason Men Voted for Trump! Is the UK About to Collapse?!
He needs something to latch on to. He needs a code. Anyways, but I apologize, word salad. Zuckerberg and masculinity, give me a fucking break. He looks like a Chechen Mali dealer. Sorry, back to you, Stephen.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
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To Trump's credit, he saw the opportunity and he flew right into the manosphere. Rockets, crypto, Joe Rogan, Theo Vaughn. He said, no, I'm not going to run from this. I'm going to fly right into it. Now, I would argue that his vision of masculinity has too much coarseness, too much cruelty, too much bullying. I don't think that's masculinity.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
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I think when we talk about Elon Musk taking risks, sending rockets that are captured by scissors coming down, inspiring the EV race, taking an enormous risk, making a shit ton of money. Yeah, that's a great form of masculinity.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
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Accusing men trying to save high soccer players, calling them pedophiles, calling your employees a sex criminal such that they have to leave their house, having 13 kids by five women or three women, none of which you live with, living next to, sleeping next to a loaded gun, of your self-control because of addiction. I don't think that's a great role model.
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I think it's an amazing role model for boys. I don't think it's a great role model for men.
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Yeah, I can't speculate on what motivates Elon Musk. I quite frankly just don't get the guy. And also, I don't have the domain expertise to comment on the rape gangs. It's such a serious, upsetting issue. I don't know it well enough to speak intelligently to it. Just the topic of censorship, though, as it relates to meta...
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A hallmark of a free society and a democracy is that pretty much anyone can say pretty much anything about pretty much anybody. I believe that. The question is, do machines and bots have free speech rights? Because if I say something, I believe... I may be paranoid, but it doesn't mean I'm wrong.
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I believe VCs whose portfolio companies I've said have overvalued have enlisted thousands of bots to basically just shitpost me over and over on X to diminish my credibility. I think because I've been critical of Putin that the GRU has hired troll farms to create lists of thousands of people to weaponize bots to say disparaging things about them. Do those bots have free speech rights?
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In addition, when Fox News distributes information to its anchors saying Dominion voting machines were weaponized by Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, despite the fact they knew that was not true. But they tell their broadcasters to do it anyways. And then Dominion says, this hurt our business. And you knew it was false. And you decided to communicate it anyways. Their courts find them liable.
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They have to pay three quarters of a billion dollars. What happened at Fox News was a dumpster fire compared to the nuclear mushroom cloud that on meta. So a lot of what we're talking about here, if you want to say that mRNA vaccines alter your DNA, I think you should have the right to say that. The dissenter's voice is important because occasionally the conspiracy theorist ends up being correct.
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The question is, when you have a business model that elevates the most incendiary, ugly content beyond its organic reach, should you then be exonerated from all liability and slander that traditional media companies
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If we were to say that Elon Musk is a pedophile and start stating facts and evidence of it, and he could show that it's hurt his ability to raise money for Tesla, and he filed legal action against this podcast, I think we would be in a world of hurt. And that legal liability is warranted. But the most powerful media companies in the world have Section 230 protection.
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So they have a business model where conspiracy theory or novel content, which is Latin for bullshit and lies, and the more angry it is, it gets elevated beyond its organic reach.
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So while I'm kind of down with the notion that we should have free speech and anybody should be able to say pretty much whatever they want, there's something wrong when we have algorithms that have a profit incentive around rage, conspiracy theory, and lies, and two-thirds of Republicans believe that the election was stolen. And when one in five Americans think that 9-11 was an inside job,
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I mean, we are... Let's be honest.
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I think that's such an important point because I think it's a real shame that AI LLMs aren't crawling the real world. I was at Granger's yesterday. Someone comes up to me, love your content, Let's take a picture. They're so nice. Another person comes up to me and say, I disagree with your view on this, but we have a civil conversation.
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And then I come home to 40 bots telling me I'm Professor Genocide. I mean, people in the real world, generally speaking, I don't know if it's because of the threat of physical violence or they want to have sex with you or maybe they think at some point you'll hire their kid or generally just a comity of man. But people in real life, I find, are just lovely and wonderful.
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And it's a shame that these LLMs aren't crawling this because the treif and some of the vile shit they're crawling online, which I don't even think reflects our species. I think it reflects... technology that has a profit motive around promoting the most incendiary, hateful content. So there's got to be some sort of medium speed here.
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And also, I got a fact, Steve, because you don't like Chick-fil-A, don't eat a Chick-fil-A. If Musk wants to pay $44 billion and turn it into a Nazi porn bar, that's his right. I don't think it's illegal. I don't think the government should step in. But I don't have to paint his fence. And I can go to another platform. That's my right too. And everyone says, oh, you're against free speech.
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I'm like, no, I'm not. I'm against being on a platform that makes me feel bad. So he has the right. And all this notion around meta, free speech, it's a little different because they control so much of the media. But these are media companies and they should be liable for slander or defamation the same way traditional media companies are involved.
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I think we could solve a lot of this problem by just removing 230 protections for algorithmically elevated content. If you decide to elevate content beyond its organic reach, then you are making an editorial decision and you should be liable if that in fact is slanderous or defamatory.
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I just want to respond to that. I think you're guilty of the same illusion of complexity that protects these companies from acting like actors such that they can do anything regardless of the damage to the Commonwealth to add shareholder value. If you implemented, we have, first off, this notion that you don't want to give up your identity.
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Trust me, they know everything about you, Constantine, already. And I could go get a ton of information on you from the dark web fairly easily with a credit card. So the notion that somehow we shouldn't have some sort of... You could have... We need age verification for social media. There's no reason anyone in the age of 16 should be on a social media platform.
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And regarding the civil rights activists or the women's rights activists that needs an anonymity, you could create a number of accounts and use blockchain or some sort of third party anonymous to have a certain number of accounts that says, look, if you want an anonymous parody account, you want to make fun of people, fine. If you want to
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an account talking about issues that you feel are sensitive from other markets, fine. We could absolutely figure that out and then figure out, okay, this account is doing nothing. It has no base. It has no soul. It has no values. It has 72 followers. All it's doing is trying to start fights online. All it's doing is trying to make people feel shitty about Britain or shitty about America.
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And the reality is these companies use that illusion of complexity such that they can have more bots creating more fake clicks, more Nissan ads, and more shareholder value. I think there's a middle ground here. I think we could figure this out.
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I see too, and I can only, I don't feel like I can wrap my arms around UK's issues, but in terms of the US political extremism, I would put it number two, you know, at negative 40 Celsius and Fahrenheit meet. And because of our electoral system and Citizens United, people from the far left who are crazy and people from the far right who are crazy are just overrepresented.
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And they come together to meet on reckless spending, deficit spending. They come together to agree on anti-Semitism. And there's just too many people on the far left and the far right. And the people in the middle, it's minority rule. They're just not represented.
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However, I think the biggest threat that people aren't talking about, and I've actually spent some time talking with the administration around this or the former administration, I should say, is loneliness.
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And that is you have the deepest pocketed, most well-resourced companies and people in the world trying to convince people, especially young men, that they can have a reasonable facsimile of life on a screen with an algorithm. And I think they literally go crazy. I think they wake up and they're obese and lonely and have no skills. We talked about this.
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I think young people, I say this jokingly, but have seriously, I think young people need to get out of the house more, drink more, make a series of bad decisions that might pay off. I think we need more sex. I think we need more people in third spaces, more church, more religious, more institutions, national service. We're mammals. And I worry that one in seven men doesn't have a single friend.
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One in four men can't name a best friend. So this loneliness epidemic where people get into a bubble and start engaging into conspiracy theory, not trusting each other, blaming women, blaming the nation, self-harm. I worry about, you know what I say to young men, I coach a lot of young men, romantic comedies are two hours, not 15 minutes for a reason. This shit is hard. And it's worth it.
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But I worry that we're raising, like I said, this new species of asocial, asexual being called the young American male that is obese, anxious, and just a shitty citizen.
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You need cheap energy. You're right. What I would argue, I think it's going to be liquid natural gas and nuclear. We haven't talked about AI. AI requires 10 times the energy. The AI query is a Google query. The choke point is energy. I would argue in the U.S., I think we'd benefit more from, as opposed to drill, baby, drill, build, baby, build.
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I think young people have seen housing prices just go crazy. There's a psychological benefit to household formation, forced savings. So I'm going to take your word because you're a very smart guy that Britain has implemented a series of policies. That energy stat you rolled out was incredible. But in the U.S., like I said, I don't want to say we're drowning in oil.
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There were more drilling permits issued under Biden. than the previous Trump administration. I mean, just to call Biden anti-energy or that somehow we have this massively overinflated energy prices, it's just not, that hasn't happened in the U.S. I would like, we need more homes in the U.S.,
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I'm older. I have 14 and 17 year old boys. And my observation is you can't tell them anything. The best you can do is you can try and model behavior for them. So I'm trying to be really kind to their mother. I'm trying to show them that, you know, if you're serious about having a good family, you got to be a generous, loving partner.
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I'm trying to be in great physical shape and which is getting harder and harder. I'm trying to be aggressive and around them in terms of business and trying to be kind. And what I do, I do talk to them about the concept of surplus value. I'm like, you're takers right now. You know, the UK school system, which is amazing, is investing a lot in you and you're giving almost nothing back. Me and your
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Your mother are loving you a lot more than you're loving us. You're just taking resources everywhere. You're a net negative. And you're crossing a manhood isn't sex or some religious ceremony. You're crossing a manhood is when you are start creating surplus value. You're loving more people than you're absorbing. You're listening to more complaints than you are complaining.
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You're creating more revenue than you're absorbing. That's the notion at surplus value. And I have this trick. called What a Man Does. And I've been doing this when they're kids. I'm like, guests show up, a man goes and gets their luggage and puts it in their room. A man is constantly scanning the table for empty water glasses.
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And I mean, one of the proudest moments I ever had was when like my six-year-old boy who was all like 30 pounds got up and went over this gigantic pitcher of water at this table and like started like trying to pour other people's water and everyone had no idea what was going on here. I do these things called what a man does. A man asks a woman out for coffee. A man pays for women.
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You definitely you know, we Democrats, we get it right. And then we just go too damn far. And and so I look at I'm a professor on a campus. D.I. 60 years ago, there were 12 black people at Princeton, Yale and Harvard combined. That was a problem. Race based affirmative action makes sense. This year, more than half of Harvard's freshman class identifies as nonwhite.
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I'm a sexist that way. I still have told my men, my son gave me this rap on, dad, you're so establishment. I'm like, do everyone have sex? I'm like, then you need to pay. I mean, that's the bottom line. Anyways, but what I would say is I'm trying to model good behavior or be a good role model, but I agree with Constantine and Daniel.
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I think every day they have more potential to lead the most amazing life in history. I'm not a nihilist. I'm not a catastrophist. I think I have big problems, but given the blessings of the sons born to these men and future sons that you'll have, Stephen, Jesus, it's good to be them. They have no excuse. They should rock on. They should have a wonderful life.
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But 70% of those non-whites come from dual income homes in the upper quintile of income earning homes. The academic gap between black and white used to be double what it was between rich and poor. It's now flipped. So DEI was a good idea that quite frankly has gone insane and now just represents... the same racism it was trying to do away with.
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And then we created two candidates who were the only candidates who could make each other viable. Vice President Harris, given the hand she dealt with, did the best she did. I think President Biden should be buried in a crypt entitled narcissist who decided that it made sense for him to go back on his pledge to be a transition candidate.
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and gave us a British-style election timing on the Democratic side in a marketplace where you need time and money. So it was not, we did not have a great candidate. There is an understandable swing back from what is an overcorrection around some of these issues. You know, parents, we gave them a huge issue with transgender rights. There's more Padel players in California than transgender people.
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And yet the Democrats decided to conflate it with the civil rights movement and think that it was okay for a woman who transitioned, a transgender woman, to enter a bicycle race and finish five minutes before everybody else, and then we all bark up the same tree and decide that it's inspiring. And parents all over the nation are saying, what has, you know, we've literally gone crazy.
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Where I would disagree a little bit with Constantine is that America choosing economic growth and prosperity, there are 190 sovereign nations in the world. 189 would change places with America over the last four years. We hit 71 new record highs in the markets, 97% of all AI.
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We've created more market capitalization in a seven-mile radius of SFO International Airport than Europe's created in the last 20 years. We have the lowest inflation in the G7. We have the highest growth. We've grown 10% since 2020. That's triple the rate of Europe. Biden was unable to communicate any of that effectively.
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Because there's this psychological dynamic that when your wages go up, you credit your own grit and character, and when the price of cereal goes up, you blame the president. Now, similar to the future or how William Gibson described the future, it's here. It's just not evenly distributed. Prosperity is unprecedented in the U.S. over the last four years. It just wasn't evenly distributed. Now –
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Having said that, in America, you can stop working in August and you've produced more and made more money than you have in Europe the whole year. And it has gotten better. It's got it says things are less bad than anywhere in the world in the US. Biden was unable to communicate it. And then talking about how great the economy is when rents were skyrocketing, tuition was going up.
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It was an ineffective strategy. But. I don't think it's fair to say Americans chose prosperity. We have prosperity. I would argue that, quite frankly, some of the Republican ideals are on deficit spending, which are nothing but taxes on future generations pulled forward. I mean, we'll see how that works. But his signature policies clamp down on immigration, tariffs.
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These things are wildly inflationary. So Constantine's right. It's going to be difficult. You don't know what's going to happen. But it feels to me, I would argue that my favorite appointment in the Trump administration in the adult in the room is the 10-year bond, which is going to say, sorry, girlfriend, when I believe the president tries to implement some of these economic policies.
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I wasn't sure if that was... Well, in single-sex boys school, they end up with double the amount of recess time. And that is they have... I equate boys to dogs. A happy dog is a tired dog. And if it's not tired, if it doesn't get to run, it's going to cause trouble. And I feel the same way about boys.
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So in these schools where they decide what's best for the boys, there's usually more exercise and more free play and more roughhousing co-ed schools. And you're also seeing, I think with boys, I mean, there's just, by even acknowledging that men play a critical role in boys' lives a few years ago, that was seen as sexist. What, you mean, what, you're saying moms can't do this?
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And I can just tell you there are certain moments when my partner needs me to weigh in. I don't know if it's the depth of my voice, my physical size, the way they relate to me, the fact that I'm not, you need dad. Or that's what I've found, especially with boys. They need almost like that, not physical intimidation, but it's almost like they begin tuning out their mom over time.
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I mean, they're incredibly close to their mother. They look to her for nurturing. When they really have a problem, I find they go to mom. But they will constantly test the boundaries. constantly. And I think a lot of single mothers, quite frankly with boys, just can't keep a lid on that kid. They can't control the kid.
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And I think you're finding at schools when there's no male kind of, I don't know, involvement or that, I don't know, what I'll call physical presence. And then you add on this DOPA machine that they get used to squeezing a DOPA bag a hundred times a day as they need it. And then you take the dopa bag away. They're just more prone to emotional outbursts.
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I'm curious if you've done any research around why that is that emotional outburst more common among boys than girls.
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So you brought up Boy Scouts. In America, there's Scouts for America. Right. And it can be boys and girls.
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But Girl Scouts have their own single sex. Yeah. But Boy Scouts aren't allowed to have their own single sex. So the question is, all right, what do you do? And I think that we need a societal zeitgeist that says immediately if there's no longer a male involved, we have to get other men involved and acknowledge that that's not being sexist, that that's important that you get men involved.
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So I came from a single-parent household, raised by a single immigrant mother who lived and died as secretary. Light of my life. As soon as my dad was gone and then he had to move away for work, She got other men involved in my life. And I had wonderful men involved in my life. I had a stockbroker, neighbor down the hall, came in with his girlfriend and said, do you want to go horseback riding?
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He said, take me horseback riding. I don't know if men would be comfortable doing that. in today's age. So getting men involved in their lives, after school programs, Boy Scouts. I had a lot of wonderful men. I used to go camping, you know, and there were men everywhere involved in my life.
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And I worried that a lot of those institutions and also there's a reticence and a hesitance for men to get involved in a boy's life that isn't theirs for fear they're going to be perceived as something's wrong with them.
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We need more male teachers. There's more female fighter pilots per capita than male kindergarten teachers. There's just, there's an absence. There are some boys, not some, there are millions of boys in America whose first male role model is a prison guard. And there are just no men in their lives. After-school programs being canceled, no women, very few men, K through 12. Dad's not around.
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There are literally communities. You read articles about it where it's like, where are the men? Yeah, so I'm trying to figure out where are they.
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It doesn't look like they're in work. They're not in college. The reality is there just aren't, for a lot of reasons, a host of reasons, a lack of male involvement in kids' lives is a big, big factor leading to this. There are other factors. There's socioeconomic factors. There's biological factors. There's a lack of vocational training.
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There's outsourcing of many of the jobs that made a man's path to middle class viable. You want to talk about the UK, a big problem is a lack of growth. There's not a lot of income opportunities there. for a young man who's not exceptional. And what we've seen in the U S is essentially, if you look at our economic policies and college, it's never been better to be remarkable.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Like if you're in the top 10%, if you're a high school class, you're going to make more money than the top 10% did 10, 20, 30. If you end up at Google, you're, you're going to make a kid at Google. Who's amazing. Computer science theory can make millions of dollars by the time the 30, but I can prove to every one of us mathematically, the 99% of our children are not on the top 1%.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And our economic policies have basically said that school and college is meant to identify a superclass of one percenters that we're going to try and turn into billionaires instead of figuring out the infrastructure and the programs to ensure the bottom 90 have a shot of being in the top 10. And one of the stats is just around college acceptance.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
When I applied to UCLA, the acceptance rate was 76%. Now it's 9%. I was unremarkable for whatever reason, prefrontal cortex, single mother, whatever you want to call it. But back then they had the mission and the charge to let in unremarkable kids. And that's no longer the case because America's superpowers are optimism. And we all believe our kids in that top 1%. And the reality is they're not.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Or people think, I like an economy where you can make a billion dollars because that's going to be me one day. So they have ignored the fact that we are crowding more and more prosperity and opportunity into the remarkable. And for me, it comes down to what do we want in America and the UK? Do we want a super class of billionaires?
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Or do we want a society and an operating system that gives unremarkable people a shot of being in the top 10%? It's become winner take all. And we have purposely... created a set of economic and educational policies that crowd a massive amount of prosperity into the top 1%. And we have opted for it because we believe we have a shot at being in that top 1%.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Best healthcare in the world if you're in the top 10%.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Marriage has become a luxury item. If you're in the top quintile of income-earning households, you're 75% get married. If you're in the bottom quintile, only 25. If you're in the lower quintile of income-earning men, only one in four chance of getting married.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Yeah, there's a lot there. There's some nuance around the pay thing. So the data I've seen is that women under the age of 30 in urban areas are now making more money. But to your point, the moment they have kids, where corporate America has really failed is it hasn't figured out a way to maintain a woman's professional trajectory once she decides to deploy her ovaries and have kids.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And there's some data saying, okay, two-thirds of divorce can be reverse engineered to the man starting to make less money. When the woman... and the relationship starts making more money, they become twice as likely to get divorced, three times as likely to use ED drugs because the guy loses a sense of purpose and self-esteem.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
What gets lost in that data is the reality is if a woman is stepping up and stepping into the economic void and being a greater economic contributor, then logically it would make sense that men need to step up logistically. And I think what a lot of women are saying is like, okay,
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
i'm not getting anything i'm not you're no longer a provider and by the way you haven't filled that void you haven't made up the delta so there's some there's some nuance around it what what also i think is important to say is that if women are better students and showing the discipline and the skills to go to college in an information economy and making more money then okay good on them just as for whatever reason men made more money maybe it wasn't fair but
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
it's not a crime against humanity if women have the skills to make more money. What happens, though, is the second-order effects that you're talking about, and that is, and we don't like to talk about this, 75% of women say that economic viability is hugely important in a mate. Only 25% of men. For men, it's not a criteria. For women, it is.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And Chris Williamson of the Modern Wisdom podcast, he has this great stat, or he calls it the high heels effect, and that is 50% of women say they won't date a man shorter than them. I'm curious what you think, but I think it's more like 80%.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I think it's an embarrassing thing to say because just instinctively, women feel like they'll be vulnerable during gestation and they want someone they think physically could protect them. I just think it's hardwired into them even if they don't know it. Women, metaphorically, are getting taller every year. And women made horizontally and up and men horizontally and down.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And when the pool of horizontal and up keeps shrinking, they just have – so this notion, a ton of great women – Where are the men or there's no men? There's a lot of men, just not men they'd want to date. Right. And then you speedball it with the guys who are in the top 10% can engage in Porsche polygamy.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
They can get a date every goddamn night, which does not encourage long-term or very good behavior. So the guys they all want are not incented to enter into long-term relationships. And the bottom half of men are literally shut out of the mating market. And we always kind of, and this goes to your Ballywick, kind of portray men as the predators and the idiots and they just got their act together.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
There's something strange going on in that as online dating, when a woman can go out with a guy, a high status male, and I'll put forward this thesis and I want you to respond to it. She can have sex with him, which gives her the impression that's her weight class for a relationship, but he's not interested in a relationship.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And then she basically decides the bottom 90 are no longer in her weight class. And you can't tell a woman to lower her expectations. But the reality is, and what I've seen on dating apps, is that all of the women want the same few guys and they shut out the rest.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
They go to porn.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Again, you can't tell women to lower their expectations, but this is the reality. When you ask a man if you could have a woman who had 80% of everything you wanted, 75% say, yeah, I'm on board. When you say to a woman a man has 80% of what you want, 75% say that's not enough. But even look at the media.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
What does the media tell a woman to do? He's out, but he didn't open your door. He's not nice to his parents. Walk right out on that man. Every piece of media is you don't need him. You're a strong, independent woman. Pull the ripcord. You're out. And it is the basic kind of communication around this is you are a strong, independent, powerful woman. That is wonderful.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And quite frankly, you don't need the imperfect man. And they're just not connecting. I read that on Tinder, a man of average attractiveness has to swipe right 200 times to get one coffee. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Thank you. Thank you.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
So I make my living looking at data and trying to come up with insights. I spent most of my career looking at data to try and add shareholder value. And then I have the luxury now focusing on things I'm really interested in. And I just sort of stumbled upon data about the reflects that the cohort that has ascended fastest globally is women.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
What you said is really powerful because if you walk down the hallway at Stern, there's Golden Seeds, Women of Venture Capital, Black Women's Consulting Club. There are women supporters. There's nothing for men. And these groups are really wonderful. Man Talks is one that I've been looking at. where they've said, let's get together and just be supportive of each other.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And it's a fairly new phenomenon.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And this is a wonderful thing and a huge collective victory. And the group that has fallen furthest fastest is men in Western markets. And the data was just so overwhelming. And also, I was close to being one of these men. I didn't have a lot of economic or romantic prospects when I was a young man. But there were programs and an environment where I could be successful.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And the data I've seen is that when the woman in the relationship starts making more money, they become twice as likely to get divorced.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And I worry that some of the temptations of technology, the economic trends... And had they been where they are now then, I could have very easily ended up a statistic. So I just sort of relate to these problems.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
you brought up two interesting things. When is your, your, your friend group? I have a similar group, same eight guys, eight guys I lived with my freshman year at UCLA for 30 or 40 years. We've been kind of constant contact email now on WhatsApp. When your friend had something bad happen to him, I think for a long time, men have weighed in and showed empathy for each other.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
What none of my male friends have ever done, their friend group would say is I, I've never heard one of my male friends go, I'm depressed. I'm, I'm just super fucking lonely and depressed. You just don't hear that from men. I'm struggling with anger. All of a sudden, I have erectile dysfunction.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I've never heard one of my male friends, when their mom dies or they get divorced, we weigh in with a lot of empathy. But you never hear them really open up because men are worried that if we display weakness, another man might kill us and take our shit from us or the women aren't going to want to have sex with us.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
So there's still, I think, a huge inability for men to proactively talk about how they're really feeling. And then you talked about a board of directors. A great board of directors for a man in his 20s, unfortunately, not unfortunately, is a girlfriend.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And I'll just use personal experience. I had a great girlfriend when I was 24, and she basically said to me, if you don't stop getting high every night, I'm going to stop having sex with you. That was very motivating for me. I really liked being with a partner.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Without the guardrails of a romantic relationship, I think men are just, I don't want to say lost, but women create more social connections outside of a romantic relationship. And sometimes that absence of a romantic relationship, they pour that energy into into friendships and their professional life, whereas men start pouring it into video games and Reddit and porn.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
So the fact that only one in three men in America under the age of 30 has a girlfriend and two in three women has a boyfriend, you think, well, that's mathematically impossible. It's not because women are dating older because they want more economically and emotionally viable men. If I hadn't been in relationships that were great guardrails for me in terms of my own behavior, my own ambition,
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I men need without the prospect or the existence of a romantic relationship. Men have worse outcomes than women who don't have. And it is what I'm. Do you agree with what I'm saying? Does the research bear that out?
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I think a real enemy of relationships and mating for people in their 20s that we haven't talked a lot about, I had Dr. Anna Lemke from Stanford on my pod talking about addiction and something we're just starting to come to grips with. And as I read more about it, I think porn is really... Let's talk about porn. Well, personal experience. I used to go on camp.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
The only reason I graduated from UCLA, I graduated with a 2.27 GPA. If I graduated with a 1.97, I wouldn't graduate. Not the only motivator, but a real motivator for me was was the prospect of meeting someone. I could go onto campus and there might be a chance I'd meet friends, be social, and possibly meet a potential romantic partner. It was very motivating.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
So the research I've looked at, and Richard Reeves from the American Institute of Boys in Medicine did research here, the point of failure, if you reverse-engineered issues to, is when a boy loses a male role model. And that is, in the U.S., we have the second most single-family parent homes behind Sweden.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And if I'd had porn on this and on my screen, always available, I'm not sure I would have gone on campus. I just would have spent a lot more time at home. And unfortunately, the deepest pocketed, most talented companies in the world are trying to convince young people that they can have a reasonable facsimile of life on a screen with an algorithm.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And what I say to young men I coach is that I'm not going to tell you not to consume porn, but try to modulate it because I think that fire of wanting to meet someone and wanting to demonstrate excellence and having perseverance and enduring rejection and getting your shit together and dressing well and smelling nice and showering for God's sakes, that mojo, that desire is incredibly important for society.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And we're taking young men's mojo away with frictionless, open access, on-demand porn.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Yeah.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And it impacts them. It'll impact the economy because the skills you have to develop to be successful in the mating market are life skills.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
You have to be able to endure rejection. You have to have a sense of humor. You have to be able to read the room. Show me a guy who's good in a bar. I'll show you a guy who'd probably be good in a boardroom. And the skills you have to develop as a young man, if you want a romantic and a sexual relationship, pay dividends the rest of your life.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
But we don't like to talk about this.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And what's interesting is that in single-parent homes, girls actually have similar outcomes, similar rates of high school attendance, income, rates of self-harm. Boys, once they lose a male role model, become much more likely to be incarcerated, engage in criminal activity, harm themselves. It ends up that while being physically stronger, boys are emotionally and mentally much weaker.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And if you don't develop those skills, I think it impacts your life across a bunch of dimensions.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Okay, so I coach young men. I take two to three on at any time. And I don't know if this is the right way, but it's my way. I'm like, you've got to lean into your advantage. When you're our age, you have capital. You have more money than time. They have capital. They have a lot of time. And I ask them to unlock their screen, and I say to them, I gamble with options. I gamble.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
At my age, I still gamble. I preach about low-cost index funds and I buy call options. That makes no fucking sense. It's gambling, but I know it. I watch porn. I try and modulate my use so I can put the majority of my sexual energy into my partner, but I watch porn because I want them to not feel like I'm going to judge them. They unlock their phone.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And I said, we're going to find 8 to 12 hours a week of time, of capital. And we're going to reinvest that capital in higher ROI investments. It is so easy to find 8 to 12 hours. I can sometimes find 7 hours or 15 hours just in TikTok.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
So the loss of a male role model is, I would argue, kind of the first point of failure that predicts that a kid, a boy is going to struggle. And that has impacts on family court, economic policy, and just general zeitgeist in our society where Men need to step up. If we want better men, we need to be better men. We need to step into that void.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I look at screen time. And I say, all right, come through with me. We're going to find 8 to 12 hours. And then we're going to reinvest that capital in three investments. One, we're going to start working out and getting fit. You're going to work out three times a week with weights. The human male form is spectacular.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
You should be able to walk into any room under the age of 30 if you're a man and know that if shit got real, you could kill and eat everybody or outrun them. I need you to be strong. You're going to be more mentally healthy. You're going to be kinder. Look at the people who break up fights at bars. They're big, strong men. Look at the people who defend their country.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
You want to be strong as a man. It feels fucking amazing. Testosterone, your bone structure, your muscle mass, it's amazing. Lean into that. We're going to get strong. Two, you got to start making some money. And the kids, you know, to be honest, the kids I'm coaching are really struggling. These are kids at home at the age of 23 with their mom, not getting along with their mom. Nothing going on.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
If you have a phone, you can make money. I don't care if it's Lyft, TaskRocket, because you got a taste for the flesh. And the way to start making a lot of money is to start making a little bit of money. Because you start to figure out the economy. How could I make more money? Maybe at some point, could I buy a car and hire a driver to be an Uber?
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
You know, what is the way, you know, could I get a certification in plumbing? You start figuring out and you start getting your greed glands get going. Oh my God, it's awesome to have money. I can go out. I can go to a concert. It gets those greed glands going. And then the third thing we're going to do
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
is we're going to put ourselves in the company of strangers and the agency of something bigger than ourselves twice a week. Church group, softball league, nonprofit, whatever it is. And then 3A, and this is – I just started doing this. I've only done it two times. And it's an exercise, and I say – and it goes to your – I think no is the way to success.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Show me someone who's successful. I'm going to show you a shit ton of no's. I ran for sophomore, junior, senior class president, lost all three times, decided to run for senior class president, lost. I applied to 38 jobs. I got one offer, nine schools, rejected by seven. I mean, I just, my whole life has been about no. And that's why I'm successful is I was always able to endure it.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
So I say, this is what I want you to do. I need you to go up to a stranger at wherever we're doing, church group, writer club, writer's club. whatever it might be online, educate, not online, excuse me, education, continuing education. And you're going to ask them out for coffee. It's a friend. Hey, what are you doing? You want to watch the game?
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Do you want to watch the Liverpool game this weekend? Let's go to a bar. If it's a woman, you might have an attractor to, Hey, try and get a wrap gone. Would you like to have coffee? And here's the goal. The goal is no. And we're going to celebrate now because you're going to call me and I'm going to say, did you ask someone out for coffee or to a bar? And most likely they'll have said no.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
They'll be polite, but they'll come up with an excuse. And then I'm going to ask you if you're okay. And you're going to say yes. And that's the victory.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
It's fine, it seems. The difference between creepy and romantic is the perceived attractiveness of the person making the overture.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
But my understanding is the majority of women still expect the man to take the initiative.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And this is one of the most frightening stats I've seen. According to Pew, more than 50% of men between the ages of 18 and 24 have never asked a woman out in person. And I just find that so just upsetting and rattling because that means they're either not asking people out or they're asking them out online where, quite frankly, they can't demonstrate any sense of excellence.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And I think the beautiful thing about human sexuality is sometimes you don't even know why you're attracted to someone. You like the way they smell. You find out they're funny. And that happens in person. But we need one more third spaces, more places people can meet.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And also, I actually think it would be helpful to have in the senior of high school a class called adulting, or amongst other things, you teach them about the interest rate on a credit card. You know, little things. My kid can do integers, and he doesn't understand the interest rate on his credit card.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And also, quite frankly, I think young men need guidance around how to express romantic interest while making the other person feel safe. And also... that if you express romantic interest and ask someone out for coffee and they say no, you're both going to be fine. You haven't committed a crime against humanity. As long as you're respectful and you don't make the person feel uncomfortable.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
But men aren't even asking women out.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And you think, well, women can be fantastic teachers, and it's true. But after-school programs, not as many coaches that typically are male, not as much compensation, so they don't get rewarded for being coaches. And if you just think about it logically, who does a teacher champion? A teacher champions someone that reminds them of themselves when they were a kid. And also just look at the…
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I want to throw a Molotov cocktail into this and something that's controversial I've gotten pushback on. I think one of the enemies of mating is that there's too little drinking. If you look at millennials, they spent $30 billion on alcohol. Gen Z, it's crashed to $2 billion. Peter Attia and Andrew Huberman have declared war on drinking.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I think young people need to drink more and go out and make a series of bad decisions that might pay off. I don't see drunkenness. I see togetherness. And I don't know how it was for you and your relationship, but I think of the majority of great friendships I have and the romantic opportunities I've had, not always, but often alcohol played a role.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And I worry that with a lack of going out, being out of the house, and also a lack of drinking, that we've taken away a social lubricant that breaks down some of the walls and some of the initial awkwardness and entry into a potential romantic relationship.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
There's incredible bias, I would argue, against males in school. A boy is twice as likely to be suspended on a behavior-adjusted basis. Twice as likely to be suspended for the exact same infraction is a girl. Five times as likely if it's a black boy. And once you're suspended twice, it probably means you're not going to college. In addition, look at the behaviors we promote in school. Sit still.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Brunello Cucinelli Cashmere V-neck sweater makes me look fantastic, makes me better, and is beautiful.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Be a pleaser. Be organized. Raise your hand. You basically just described a girl. And also, quite frankly, a lot of the jobs that require tertiary education attainment, there's more women now in law school and medical school. And quite frankly, good for them. They're just better at that. They're better students. They deserve to make more money. They deserve it. But the reality is...
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Portia polygamy. If it's never been better to be a very attractive male, but you have so much opportunity, it does not incent good behavior or long-term relationships.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I think the reality though on the ground is that if you're a high status male, you think age is on your side.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
It has huge ramifications when we no longer have wood, auto, or metal shop. They've gone away. So those used to be a pass to do some middle-class jobs. They've been replaced by computer science. So what are the pass for the two-thirds of males that aren't going to end up with a traditional liberal arts college degree?
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Because the reality is the math is just unfair to women.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Because if you're a 30-year-old male making really good money and just not unattractive, at 40, you're going to be even sexier. Your sexual currency goes up.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Well, especially if they haven't ever been in a long-term relationship.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Thank you. Thank you.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
that a lack of male involvement in kids' lives is a big factor leading to this. And once they lose a male role model, they become much more likely to engage in criminal activity.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I think about this a lot with my boys. And I think kind of the three legs of the stool are provider. I'm probably over focused on the economics. That doesn't necessarily mean making a lot of money, but at least being disciplined and responsible about it. Developing skills, certification, having a plan. Don't be the guy ordering a bottle of Grey Goose at 2 in the morning.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I'm going home because I've got to get up. I have a plan, and I have a vision for how I'm going to be a good provider. A protector, good manners. Your default system is protection. You constantly speak well of people behind their backs. You hear someone being critical of someone else. Your inclination is to defend them. You don't demonize special interest groups.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Your default setting, if somebody needs help anywhere or is being threatened, it's so heartbreaking to me that women feel unsafe when they see men. When they see a group of men coming down the street, surveys show women are inclined to cross the street.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And it just feels like from an early age, men need to be taught, anyone smaller, anyone more vulnerable than you, anyone in a special interest group, your default is protection. That's what men do. Think about masculinity, a soldier, a cop, a fireman. What do they do? At the end of the day, they protect. That is your default operating system is a move to protection. And then procreator.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I think you should want to have sex. I think you should be willing to take risks. I tell my boys, I did this for a while, they can't get back in the house unless they talk to a stranger. And my oldest, no problem. Hey, what's going on? My youngest, not as easy. Just go up and pet their dog. I think there are so many men out there that have no willingness or ability to open, to
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
You know, to just say hi, where are you from, to just open. And to want a romantic relationship is a wonderful thing. There's nothing wrong with that. Modulate your porn. Decide, ask yourself, would you want to have sex with you? Get strong, get fit, get your act together. Smell nice. Groom. If you can't dress well, find someone who can dress you.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
and initiate contact and want to have a relationship with someone. That's a wonderful thing. That mojo is the most purposeful, wonderful thing in my life is that I'm raising two patriotic, decent men. And it started with me really wanting to have sex with this woman I saw at the pool at the Raleigh Hotel. Right? And that sounds crass.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
It's like, I looked at her and thought, I am really attracted to this woman, so I'm going to take a risk. In the middle of the day, without the benefit of alcohol, I'm going to walk up and introduce myself to her and another guy and woman she was with. Hey, where are you guys from? And then 18 months later, our first son was born, middle name Raleigh, after the hotel. Take risks.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
B, want to have mating opportunities. You're a provider. Your default system is a protector. And there's nothing wrong with wanting to be a procreator.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
It's 60% of 30-year-olds 40 years ago used to have a kid. Now it's 27%.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
There's huge economic impact too because it used to be 12 people working age to support every senior. Now it's three to one. If we don't have kids... We're going to go into economic decline.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Well, on the right, they've conflated masculinity with coarseness and cruelty. The two kind of role models, you know, president Trump, who in my opinion, demonstrates a lack of grace and a lack of empathy and a lack of kindness. And Elon Musk is concurrently being sued by two women for sole custody of their, their kid, because he hasn't seen the kid.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I mean, is that, those are the role models we want for young men. And on the left, their vision of masculinity is act more like a woman. I don't think that's helpful either. I went to the Democratic National Convention, and there was a parade of special interest groups. Everyone was represented, except for the group that needs the most representation right now, in my view, and that is young men.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
If you go to the DNC website, they list 16 special interest groups, and they say, who we serve. They call it out, who we serve. Asian Pacific Islanders, seniors, the disabled, immigrants, black Americans. And I added it up. it's 74% of the US population. And when you say you're actively advocating for 74%, you're not advocating for the 74%, you're discriminating against the 26%.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And who are the 26%? Young men. Is this a consequence of DEI? I think that's part of it. I think there's been so many groups that have been discriminated against. And the way I would just loosely describe the Democratic Party is we have the right ideas and then we just take it too far. You know, women have gotten a raw deal So they need advantage. You know, gays have been persecuted.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Non-whites have had, there were 12 black people 60 years ago in Princeton, Harvard, and Yale combined. That was a problem. This year, more than 60% of Harvard's freshman class identify as non-white. So I think we got to get out of identity politics, but the notion, it largely came from the left, this notion of toxic masculinity. There's no such thing.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Because there's violence, there's people who are criminals, there's people who are unkind. That means they're not masculine. Masculinity is being a protector, a provider, a procreator.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And the Democratic Party seems to believe that leaning into anything around your advantage of being male in terms of your strength, your kindness, your wanting to procreate, your initiating sexual contact or sexual romantic interest is somehow a threat and somehow toxic. I just think they've sent absolutely the wrong signal.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And into that void has stepped basically thinly veiled misogyny that is just so ugly. And Trump flew right into it. The reason Trump won this election in my view is the groups that pivoted hardest from blue to red 2020 to 2024 were Latinos who were sick of being categorized by their identity.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
But numbers two and three were people under the age of 30, especially males, who are not doing very well and feel like Donald Trump feels their pain, and women age 45 to 64. And my thesis is that's their mothers. Because if your son isn't doing well, you don't care about territorial sovereignty in Ukraine or transgender rights. You just want to change. My son isn't doing well.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
First thing is forgive yourself. There's this natural... part of a separation where and I think this is true of girls but especially boys where to make the separation easier we don't get along with our parents in our senior year in high school and That doesn't mean your son doesn't love you. That doesn't mean your son's not going to figure it out. But to forgive yourself.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
But going back to more actionable things, try and get men involved in his life. And then, you know, dumb stuff like my mom made sure I was in Boy Scouts. My mom, when I got cut from the high school basketball and football team, she enrolled me in city leagues so I could continue to play sports. But it was mostly she wasn't sure that I had men in my life.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And I think that was really, really important for me. But, you know, I would just say that I feel like I need to coach men more. What I say to boys, one of the first things I say to boys, I had lunch with someone who's a fairly famous news anchor and her son. And I asked the mom to excuse, they started going at it. And I asked the mom to excuse herself.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And I said to the mom, I'm like, you realize this is the only person in your life ever that wants you to be more successful than you. You just got to cut this shit out. This woman is not your enemy. And I heard that, and I was a bit ashamed because I remember, like, being such an asshole to my mother, you know?
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
So I think, but I think I could say that to him because I could look him in the eyes and say, what the fuck are you doing? So I just think that male involvement for single mothers, and I think men are really willing to get involved, whether it's someone down the street, a coach, you know, a sibling, your brother, whatever it is.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
But I do think, again, the research shows that the point of failure is when a boy loses a male role model. And also to forgive yourself, being a single parent with a son, I think that's hard. I just think it's hard. Logan, you've got some questions I can see.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I think a great question. Proxy for masculinity and manhood is, and Richard Reeves introduced me to this, I think it's so powerful, and that is surplus value. It's not about a religious ceremony. It's not about having sex. It's not about an age. It's about getting to the point of surplus value. You create more tax revenue than you absorb. I say to my boys, you're negative value.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Look at all the resources going into you. Look at all the love. We love you so much more than you love us. Your teachers are spending all this time and energy, and you aren't giving anything back. At some point, that needs to pivot. So creating more tax revenue, noticing people's life, registering more complaints from other people than you are complaining, protecting people, adding surplus value.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Well, it's complicated. There's male abandonment. There's just no getting around it. But also, going back to family courts, sometimes the courts in our economy make it difficult for a man to stay involved in the kids' lives. And also, family court's getting better at saying, all right, the kids... I mean, just a personal anecdote.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
So these notions that, and I wasn't that guy. I wanted more from everyone else than I was giving. I was the guy that when someone honked at me, I was the guy that sped up and honked back to restore the universe to its place.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
If a Delta, if a ticket counter agent at the airline counter was rude to me, I needed to get back in their face to restore harmony to the universe because I'm a fucking baller. And what you realize is being a man is occasionally taking a hit, right? It's having surplus value. It's noticing people's lives. It's listening to complaints.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
It's occasionally thinking, well, maybe this person who cut me off in traffic, I don't know what's going on with them. Maybe their kid has diabetes. Maybe they're going through a divorce. It's adding more value than you're taking. And until the age of like 40, I looked at every relationship. Am I getting more out of this than I'm getting? And if I'm not, I'm out.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And what you realize is good business partnerships, you add as much or more value than your partners. Good relationships, you witness the person's life. You make them feel fucking awesome. If you leave this world a little bit in debt, that's the whole point. That's the whole point. Or a little bit, the world's in debt to you. That's the win. And I used to think as a young man,
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
That meant I needed to exit the relationship. I'm not getting more money or services than I'm giving. I'm not getting more kindness than I'm not giving. I'm not getting more hot experiences with this romantic partner than they're giving me. I'm out. No, it's the other way around. Being a man is surplus value.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I have a friend who recently has gone through divorce, two daughters, very much wants to be involved in their lives. there are 13 and 15-year-old girls. And quite frankly, dad's there on the weekends and they got their own thing going on. And they don't necessarily make dad a priority. And dad's not around for what I call the garbage time.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And that is what I found with my boys is the moments of serendipity and connection happen randomly when you're taking them to school, when you're out in the back, you know, jumping around or playing, whatever it is, these garbage moments. And when you're not in the household, for whatever reason, There's just, there isn't that much garbage time.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
another avenue to sort of take pressure off the pressure valve so yeah it's difficult it's difficult the way you the email you just read from that young man i don't i've stopped and it sounds crass i can't handle the emails i get anymore i'm getting so many emails from young men who are just i mean you like you read an email like that and you just like it's devastating.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
You know, I haven't gotten over the death of my father. I'm living alone. I've become addicted to, I mean, you just hear this shit and like, I know I have value to add. I just can't figure it out. Or, I mean, just, there's just so many of these men out there. And I think a lot of it is I always look to economics. I'm like, we've got to figure out vocational programming.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I think we should have national service. So people feel a sense of identity and connection. and purpose. Some of the lowest levels of young adult depression are in Israel despite all the existential threats because they all serve in the IDF for two to three years. I think we need More freshman seats at colleges.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I think we need more third places where people, I think a lot of it comes down to economics and policy programs. I think there's a lot we can do to help young men. But in the U.S., it's now 77% moving to 80% suicides. It's four to one. If there was any special interest group, you go into a morgue in America and five people die by suicide, four are men.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
If that was any other special interest group versus the control group, they'd weigh in with programs. But because of the enormous advantage I registered, and let's be honest, it was enormous. Basically, all prosperity in America, which was unprecedented, was crammed into 30% of the population, basically white males. So we just had a staggering advantage.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And now 19-year-old males are paying the price for my advantage. There's really a lack of empathy for them. And what I do think is hopeful is that Mothers and women in society now realize that the country and women are not going to continue to flourish if men are flailing. And it finally feels like we're having a real program.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
The governor of Maryland, Wes Moore, has said that his focus for his administration, this is a governor of a state, a liberal state, is going to be on helping the state's young men. I mean, that took such fucking balls for him to say that. And you know what? The populists received it well because on the ground, people are feeling it. They're really feeling how much young men are struggling.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I'm actually quite hopeful that we've turned a corner in terms of the dialogue. Because when I started talking about this four or five years ago, right away, oh, your hair wasn't on fire when women were. I mean, just, oh, there was such a gag reflex. It has changed so dramatically in the last four or five years.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And I think slowly but surely they lose sometimes connection with their kid. There's also, there's something weird going on. I'm curious, Logan, if you've got data on this, but you have a one-year-old daughter, right? You're going to be amazed when my unfortunate boy had a Halloween party and the boys are like cute, but they're dopes. They're boys.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
That's a great question. And I wish I had... a list of resources and I'm trying to assemble it around. All right. I mean, I'm, I'm involved with it because it's difficult to discern between ordinary young adult or adolescent problems. And when a kid's suicidal, I wish I had some sort of AI filter that would go, this kid needs help right away. Like there, here are some resources.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Here are some men's groups, you know, and I do a shitty job. I can't talk to all of them. A couple of them. I take the lazy way. I say, here's 500 bucks. Do better help online therapy. I'll pay for your first four sessions.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Just be, but I gotta be honest, I don't know.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Yeah. And I appreciate the offer and we should do this, but we should have a list that says, all right, what are you struggling with? And here are some Here are some resources or things you should think about.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
It's devastating. But something that's controversial I've gotten pushback on. I think the secret weapon for men that they don't leverage is to... I want to hear a woman's perspective on it.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
It's on you, brother. You've got more tread on you. You've got, look at all these cameras. I'm
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Any closing points you want to add, Scott? Well, just a message to young people in general. The arc of happiness is a smile and that is kind of zero to 18 is prom, football, you know, making out. It's generally pretty happy. The least happy years for people are usually kind of 18 to 45, economic stress, relationships are hard. You probably are someone you love a great deal, get sick and dies.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
There are some 14-year-old girls who look like they could be the junior senator from Pennsylvania. They're 5'10". They're articulate. Hello, Mr. Galloway. How are you? What a lovely home. And the boys are like, I don't know. And biologically, girls mature faster. Their prefrontal cortex is 18 months ahead of a boy's.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And if you're struggling, what I would just say is, you know, don't be afraid to reach out for help, but also realize that if you're not a member of parliament and you don't have a fragrance named after you, it doesn't mean you're failing and to forgive yourself and to recognize that those are tough years. I, You know, when my first kid was born, I tell this story a lot.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
It's supposed to be angels singing in bright lights. I felt nothing but shame. I was 42 and I was broke. I had put everything into my tech company. Great financial recession came along. I think my accountant called me and said, you're worth a negative $2 million. If we look at your debts, you're worth negative $2 million.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And about that time, my oldest son had the poor judgment to come rotating out of my girlfriend's. And all I felt with this kid was shame. I have failed. I've failed myself. And now I've failed on an entirely new dimension as a provider and a father. That was the first thing I felt when my son was born. And I wrote about it. And I can't tell you how many men I heard from.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
That all I felt when I had my first kid or kids was a sense of embarrassment and that I was already failing.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Nausea. I was in the delivery room and they were more worried about me and they thought it was because I was grossed out by birthing. It was because I was so ashamed. I just immediately felt like, oh my God, how did I put myself in a position where I'm a terrible provider on day one? I just felt a tremendous amount of shame. And I think most people, when you talk to them,
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
at some point, have felt really down and really embarrassed. And I just don't think that's anything unusual. And you want to forgive yourself. You want to say to yourself, I can add value to a company. I can make someone very happy. And try and surround yourself with people that make you feel good about yourself. And every day, just little baby steps. Write some things down.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
trying to exercise, trying to eat well. I can tell when I'm getting depressed, and I have this method of getting out of it. I call it SCAFA, S-C-A-F-A, sweat. It resets my operating system. Clean, try and eat really well at home. Abstinence, and when I say abstinence, abstinence from pot and alcohol, both of which I love, and I'm really good at them.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
An 18-year-old girl or woman is competing against a 16-and-a-half-year-old when she's competing against an 18-year-old. And they're even finding… That it's getting worse, that women or girls are starting to menstruate earlier and boys' testicles are descending later. So the gap in maturity, biological gap, they think might even be growing and they don't know if it's pesticides.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
They add value to my life, but when I'm not feeling good, I take them out of my life because whatever's going on with my sensors, I just don't want to mess with them. F is family. I find being around my boys is really important. And then A is affection. I find affection being around, even if it's my dogs laying on me or my boys. I'll say to my boys, let's watch TV.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And my boys instinctively throw their legs on mine. Not necessarily sex, but affection with my partner. Those are the things that get me out of a dark place. So try and figure out, if you can, what things help you get out of a dark place. But recognize everyone struggles.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And I'm not saying that you shouldn't reach out and find help, but everything online is telling you you should be in a Gulfstream and partying in St. Barts. No, that's just not, that's not the real world. And try and build a support system and also forgive yourself. Life is, happiness is a smile.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Kind of 20 to 45 is usually, you know, it's full of a lot of joy, but it's also full of a lot of, you know, oftentimes a lot of anxiety.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
No.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I did. My first marriage, we went to marriage counseling. And after the first session, we decided to get divorced. So I'm a little traumatized by therapy. Yeah. He cut right to it.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Yeah.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Just a quick anecdote. When I was a senior in high school and a freshman in college, I remember thinking, I'm strange. I'm... I remember feeling very insecure about my own psychological makeup, and that didn't help. And then I read a bunch of John Irving novels, The World According to Garp, Cider House Rules, and the people in it were just so fucking strange. It made me feel better about myself.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I'm like, oh, there's other weirdos out there. So what you say really resonates. It made me feel less self-conscious about how unusual I thought I was. So it just dawned on me that that was a big help for me. Wow.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
But when I meet my eighth graders' colleagues, there's a huge difference between the boys and the girls. And one of Richard's suggestions is that we redshirt boys, that we hold them a year back. The boys start kindergarten at six, whereas girls start at five.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Well, I've determined, I don't know how it is for you with books, but basically your publisher does nothing and then obsesses over the title. That is very true. So I had it work. It was supposed to be originally about masculinity. And then I realized that I don't have the skills or the domain expertise to summarize masculinity. So I changed it to work in progress notes on becoming a man.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
And I just talk about stories that I've written about, about some of the things we've talked about today and try and use masculinity as a code. I think everyone needs a code, whether it's the military, the religion, their family values. And I think masculinity can serve as a code if defined correctly for young men.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
But it's just a series of, like, stories about things I've gone through, some of my many ways I've failed and what I learned about trying to become a man, trying to be a good dad, trying to be a good partner.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
It'll be on the fall.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Scott, what are you most scared of? The way I took that was what am I most worried about? I'm really worried about an epidemic of loneliness from a societal standpoint that people are starting to believe they can disengage from life. And that leads to anxiety and depression and polarization that makes the world a less safe place. Personally, my fear has always been the same.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I'm always worried that my kind of selfish instincts manifest in an ugly way and I end up alone and old. You know, that's my biggest fear, that I end up dying under bright lights, you know, surrounded by strangers. That's my biggest fear. Because your selfish instincts manifest.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
You do something wrong in your relationship or you fuck up your... Yeah, just so as my dad is not a very... My dad ended up... My dad's basically alone at 95. And some of his less... Some of his lower character quality attributes I see in myself. And that's a fear. My fear is that, you know... Thank you.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Thank you.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Boys are just weaker. There's a crazy stat I read that two 15-year-olds, a boy and a girl, both sexually molested. And to be clear, they're equally heinous crimes. But the boy who's sexually molested is six to ten times more likely to kill himself later in life. It ends up that boys are just less resilient.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
Shame, they can't talk about it, aren't comfortable, feel. There's a lack. I mean, I think just until a few years ago, the social incentives were to never speak about it. I was on Lewis Howe's podcast, and he just openly said, I was sexually abused as a child. And it was so shocking for me to hear this big, handsome guy. I don't think he would have said it 10 or 20 years ago.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Masculinity Debate: Are Dating Apps Creating A Generation Of Incels?! Lonely Men Are More Dangerous Than Ever!
I think people would have assumed that it was his fault. It made him less of a man. So I think a lot of that has hopefully gotten better. But we just have to acknowledge boys mentally and emotionally are weaker than girls.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Power of Trump 2.0, Why Elon and DOGE are Working, and Independent Media's Impact, with Jason Calacanis and Chamath Palihapitiya of All-In | Ep. 1008
He's going to accuse me of overreach.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Power of Trump 2.0, Why Elon and DOGE are Working, and Independent Media's Impact, with Jason Calacanis and Chamath Palihapitiya of All-In | Ep. 1008
then come after me, bitch. To go after the woman, it shows one of two things. Either you're weak or you have an incredible bias, a misogynist. Let's just get to the source here. It's just so clear the guy wants to fuck me.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Power of Trump 2.0, Why Elon and DOGE are Working, and Independent Media's Impact, with Jason Calacanis and Chamath Palihapitiya of All-In | Ep. 1008
The sexual tension is palpable. I get it. And he's rich, so there is a shot. What is that? I mean, it's irrelevant.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
She's received some items from Quince and says that they're, I don't know. What did you say about them, Claire?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
Welcome to Office Hours with Prof G. This is the part of the show where we answer questions about business, big tech, entrepreneurship, and whatever else is on your mind. Today, we've got two great listener questions lined up. And then after the break, we're introducing something new. The Reddit hotline. Oh, my God. It's not the red phone. It's not the bad phone.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
We asked and read it delivered. Let's bust right into it. All right. Armand8194 asks, Scott, something used to preach as exclusivity as a great marketing tactic. No is the sexiest word in the English language. I always say that. But recently you've been releasing more and more podcast content. Can you reconcile the two? Yeah, so it's a fair point, and I worry about this a lot.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
So we had Pivot, then I launched ProfG, then ProfG Markets, now we have Raging Moderates. So I'm like AOL in the 90s when you'd stick your hand in a cereal box and you'd pull out a CD-ROM of AOL. I mean, it's like to resist is futile. And I do worry that the ubiquity of me, that people are going to start to have a gag reflex, like, oh, Jesus, this guy again.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
So what I'm trying to do is create more enterprise value. What do I mean by that? So my co-host on Profiting Markets, Ed Ellison, does the interviews now. My co-host on Raging Moderates, Jess does all the interviews. So I'm only on about half of the episodes. We're about to go daily. Speaking of like too much of anything is not a good thing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
We're about to go daily on property markets because the markets are daily and I'm only going to be on twice a week. I'll do some like impromptu guest appearances. But what you're saying is absolutely true. I try and create scarcity across my speaking. I price my speaking fees at sort of an outrageous rate.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
It's the Reddit hotline where we pull questions straight from Reddit. If you'd like to submit a question for next time. You can send a voice recording to officehoursofpropertymedia.com. Again, that's officehoursofpropertymedia.com. Or if you prefer to ask on Reddit, post your question on the Scott Galloway subreddit. That's scary. Which shit must be flying around on that thing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
dollar amount, because one, I don't want to work that hard, and I only want to go to places I like, and two, pricing is a signal. So scarcity is key. I'm very cognizant of that. I try and take time off, one, because I'm lazy, but B, so my co-host on Pivot, Kara Swisher, does pretty much every episode. I take the month of August off. I take weeks off at a time.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
I'm doing a college tour with my son, and they said, we'll set you up for Ramon. I'm like, no, you won't. Just find a guest host. So I think it's important to have a little bit of scarcity value. And I'm very cognizant of it. And quite frankly, you're right.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
I'm worried that at some point, I'm just going to dilute my brand equity and it's just going to be too much and people are going to get sick of dick jokes. I'm cognizant of it. Your theory goes to an important marketing theory, and that is the most profitable companies in history that have the greatest gross margins create the illusion of scarcity. I'm wearing a Panerai watch, which is
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
$1,000 of movements, plastic, and glass that they charge $11,000 for because they've created this illusion that Panerais are scarce. They purposely constrict supply such that when you see the watch you want, they can honestly say, well, we only have one. We have artificially reduced the supply of freshman seats at elite universities.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
I'm cognizant of the fact that I might be moving myself from what is kind of a scarcity luxury brand to a mass brand And I'm trying to ensure that it's just not too much Scott all the time through co-hosts and limiting or reducing some of my appearances. But you clearly have an instinct for marketing. And the illusion of scarcity is so important. In life, it's really important.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
In an interview, when you're interviewing with somebody, start asking them questions and act as if you're interviewing them and give them the impression that you might have another offer, that you are so good at what you do that you are interviewing them. Why? Because my human capital is scarce and a lot of people want to rent it. You don't want to be too available to potential romantic partners.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
You have to have lines that say, okay, this is unacceptable or don't be too available. Scarcity. Yeah, I think your instincts are right on. You wanna maintain, again, any high margin product equals the illusion of scarcity. Thank you for the question. All right, next question. Scott, when you hear or come up with your dirty jokes, where is the line where you think, ooh, that is too far?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
Okay, so I am generally a profane or vulgar person, but there's a strategy behind it. And that is, all strategy comes down to one question. What can we do that is really hard? Or put another way, what can we do that our competition can't do?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
Amazon and Netflix spend tens of billions of dollars on infrastructure and fulfillment and on content because their competitors can't because they don't have access to cheap capital. So they're like, okay, Netflix goes, if we spend $18 billion on content, Peacock just can't do it. Hulu can't do it. Disney Plus can't do it. Even HBO can't do it. And so that's where they go.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
And they focus on this kind of brute force spending strategy. Where I have decided to go in terms of trying to differentiate my podcast is, quite frankly, one of the reasons I am really crude is that, one, CNBC can't tell dick jokes. And I want to be known as provocative and profane. I also think that funny and profane, it kind of softens the beach and people become more open to new ideas.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
And we just might feature it in our next episode. By the way, just a little bit of insight. Let's bring this back to me. So we did in South by Southwest, we did a party or Vox did a party, which is basically where they feature all their quote unquote talent or lack thereof, the podcasters to try and get advertisers to advertise more on our podcast. And they let out some information.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
Also, I want to appeal to younger people. And quite frankly, young men respond to my type of profanity. Sometimes I go too far. Sometimes I can hear myself, the words coming out and thinking, you know, that's a little bit much. I've had parents write in and say, I'd like to play this with my kids, but I've stopped because you're so crude.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
I've had CEOs call me and say, I would have sent this clip to the entire company, but I can't be seen or heard sending out something with this type of profanity. I also, my kind of heroes are comedians that were social commentators and were also really profane, whether it was Richard Pryor or Lenny Bruce, or I think Bill Burr is a genius. These guys are not afraid to be profane and vulgar.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
So one, it's genuine. I'm a profane and vulgar person. Two, I want to appeal to young men. I want I want my content to resonate with them such that they'll listen to some of the lessons I have about what I hope is a positive vision of masculinity. And also, just purely strategically, it is clear when you listen to the show, this is not your father's CNBC. I appreciate the question.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
And just so you know, the other day, I walked into my son's room to have the sex ed talk. And I walked in with a condom and a banana. And he said, what's the banana for? And I'm like, well, I can't get hard on an empty stomach. That's good. Thanks for the question. Hey, Scott. They say wealth typically lasts about three generations.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
Are you doing anything different in the way you are raising your children to prepare them for the advantages they will have entering the market and how to contextualize them? Are you even considering this as a concern or is it overblown? Oh, no, it's a huge concern. I'm worried. If my parents had been wealthy and I knew that was sort of a backstop or a hammock,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
The only two things I know I would have had in my life if my parents were rich were a Range Rover and a cocaine habit. My motivation didn't come from wanting to be successful or wanting to have a positive impact on the world. My motivation was I grew up without money. It was humiliating for me and my mom. And I was very focused on, okay, what can I control?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
I can control how hard I work and the risks I take because I want economic security. My kid's probably don't have that same fire. I think about it a lot. I think about, you know, not spoiling them. You fly somewhere nice, you've worked hard, you want to fly business or first class.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
And then I see my 14-year-old playing with his flat seat and I see a seven-year-old woman roll by, I'm going to coach and I think this is just wrong. And I say to my partner, the kid should not be in business. And she says, well, fine, if you want to fly with coach and coach with them have added because they don't allow kids alone back in coach. So the reality is my kids know they have money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
The good news is that I find a kid's approach to money or anything else is that the parents have less impact than you think. And that is as parents, we like to think we're engineers, we're not, we're shepherds. And that is we get to choose the land they graze on, point them in the right direction, decide what they eat. But the sheep comes to you. And what I have found is one of my sons
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
He won't even let me buy stuff for him. I'll take him out and I'll say, hey, we went to Sunspiel, this great kind of British brand that's supposed to be the casual brand for James Bond. And I wanted to buy him a cashmere hoodie and it was 230 pounds. He's like, I'm not buying this. I'm like, no, you're not buying it. I am. He's like, no, no, no, I'm not going to spend this kind of money on it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
He just is physically uncomfortable with spending money. And I don't know where he got that because even when I didn't have money, I was very comfortable spending money. I was... You know, I haven't had a spending problem, but I've always been, I like to thank someone who enjoys life and is not afraid to spend money. Whereas my other son is like, will pop up and go, can I have two then?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
Basically, Vox, like every other organization, holds onto information like nuclear codes because an asymmetry of information creates advantage for the people who have the information. But they did let out the following, that one of our, or our fastest growing segment of anything I do across this entire, let's be honest, I'm a total podcast tour. I'm like, hey, hey, stranger, what's your name?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
So, and we just haven't treated them that much differently. I think about this a lot. I'm going to put some money aside so they can have, always have access to housing, always have access to education. But my plan is to spend it all before I go. My approach to spending is pretty promiscuous. I spend a lot of money. Every year I meet with my team at Goldman, I look at how much money I made.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
I already have my number and any additional money above that in terms of net worth, I either spend it or I give it away because I want to make sure my kids have some advantage, housing, access to education, but I don't believe in dynastic wealth. I know a lot of rich kids. I wouldn't say they're any more fucked up than other kids, but they're no less fucked up than other kids.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
So I don't think you're really giving much advantage to your kids with extraordinary wealth. Is it a competitive environment? Do you want them to have some of the opportunities that you've worked so hard to give them? Yeah, I want my kid to be able to live where he wants to live, to pick the career he wants to pick, which is obviously an extraordinary advantage.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
But just being blunt, I'm going to offer that to my children. I think you use money... with your kids to lever up or lever down. If one of my kids decides to teach public school, I'm going to probably give him a decent amount of money. If one is doing nothing and kind of just a ne'er do well, or, you know, I'm not going to give that kid any money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
So I think you have some control over it, not a lot, but it is something I think about all the time. And my approach, My way of expressing concern about this problem is I am spending money like a fucking gangster in the 50s just diagnosed with ass cancer.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
That's all for this episode. If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to officehoursofprofitmedia.com. That's officehoursofprofitmedia.com. Or if you prefer to ask on Reddit, Just post your question on the Scott Galloway subreddit and we just might feature it in our next Reddit hotline segment. What a thrill! This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
Our intern is Dan Shalon. Drew Burrows is our technical director. Thank you for listening to the Prop G Pod from the Vox Media Podcast Network. We will catch you on Saturday for No Mercy, No Malice, as read by George Hahn. And please follow our Prop G Markets Pod wherever you get your pods for new episodes every Monday and Thursday.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
Another podcast? Sure, why not? But the pod that's doing or growing the fastest is actually Office Hours. And Office Hours, the vision for Office Hours was when my mom and I, I moved in with my mom for about eight months when she was very sick. And one of the things we used to do was we would watch her favorite show, Frasier, and I based Office Hours on the Colin show on Frasier. Anyways, welcome.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
And that means your people can focus on the work that they want to do. That's putting AI agents to work for people. It's your turn. Get started at servicenow.com slash AI dash agents. The support for the show comes from UserTesting. Your brand is only as strong as the decisions behind it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
Hi, this is Dr. Crane, and I'm listening.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
So let me be clear, and I want to acknowledge up front, there's no such thing as a perfect solution where everybody wins. I think you make a solid argument for why there are instances where vouchers probably help good people afford programs, maybe put some competition on the public schools. When I look at – so the U.S. is strange.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
Our K-12 is some of the worst in the modern or G7 economy, but our universities are some of the best. And our education or our economy is beating everybody. So a lot of people would just do the analysis and say, well, shitty K-12. It's sort of the Hunger Games. you have rich parents or you're excellent and somehow you find a way to a good college, seems to be working for the U.S. economy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
The problem is I think it results in a lot of obesity, anxiety, young people without the skills to thrive in this economy that don't have a lot of economic power and probably, I don't want to say get exploited, but leverage for minimum wage that should be $23 an hour, not $7.25 based on productivity or just inflation. So
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
I feel as if the public school system is yet another example of not a direct conspiracy, but the accidental conspiracy of creating the bottom 90% who become very cheap inputs for shareholders of bigger companies that know how to manage the information economy and end up, quite frankly, just being exploited and paying
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
a lot of money for shitty sugary food and then becoming obese and then being handed over to the diabetes industrial complex. So I don't, part of that system though is I think that when I look at healthy societies where there's low childhood obesity, they have a private school option, but essentially there's just much more focus on the resources and measurements for good public schools.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
On average, American public school teachers make roughly $70,000 annually, while their private counterparts make about $50,000. So you're absolutely right. It appears that on average, public schools are paying people 40% more. Because quite frankly, you end up with probably a more difficult situation with a lot of low-income kids that probably bring a lot of anger.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
Maybe a single-parent home where the parents can't be involved in the kid's life. whatever the excuse is, but public school teachers, the market is saying we need to pay them more and private schools don't have to pay as much. Despite this, private school students consistently score better on assessments in almost every subject and some,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
UserTesting's human insights engine helps marketing product and business leaders make smarter, faster decisions with real human feedback, AI-driven insights, and the world's strongest participant network. Equip your team with the power to validate every decision, co-innovate at scale, and build digital and in-person experiences with confidence. The best brands don't guess, they test.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
Teachers' increased wages don't necessarily correlate with better outcomes. Why? Because the public school system is riddled with bureaucracy, quite frankly. And I think this kind of buttresses your point. In America, there are four times as many administrators in the public education system than there were in the 1950s.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
In 2015, the New York State School Board Association found that firing an incompetent teacher takes an average of 830 days and costs $313,000. The good news? School choice bills or laws that allow states to award vouchers to the parents of students in non-public schools are on the rise. This is true even across party lines.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
A 2024 poll of registered voters found that 83% of Republicans, 69% of Independents, and 70% of Democrats say they strongly or somewhat support school choice. I am really torn on this because what I have seen is the net effect of school choice or vouchers just subsidizes wealthy people who were going to send their kids to public or to private schools anyways.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
And this is Pulse Marketing, but my kids were at this lovely private school in Gulfstream, Florida called Gulfstream that costs 18 or 20 grand. And the idea that we were going to give people in the local community, we'd get $10,000 towards a school. I think all that would have done was of the 230 families, 200 of them would have just got a $2 million tax break.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
And taking money away from Atlantic, the high school, which is actually a pretty good high school, that they desperately need. Now, are there probably middle class families that would be able to attend a better school because of that $10,000 voucher? Yes. Is it good to have competition put on public schools? Yes. When we're talking about education, though, I mean, it gets so complicated so fast.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
So the Department of Education is supposedly on the chopping block. And I'm not one of these people that doesn't think the Department of Education should, you know, it used to be sort of this virtue signaling, everyone rallied around it. I think it should probably be much smaller. It's good at Pell Grants. It's good at figuring out student loans.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
It's probably done a lot of harm in terms of universal and mandatory testing, where every teacher now studies to the test. It's created a lot of unnecessary stress in our public schools. Parents hate it. Principals hate it. Teachers hate it. Students hate it. And I feel as if they, again, are trying to justify their own
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
So this is a long-winded way of saying, I see your point, but one, I'm on board with a dramatic decrease in the amount of bureaucracy through competition with public schools. I believe that teachers and principals should be fired and schools should be shut down if they're not performing, and new ones should be propped up.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
But I think we've got to figure out a way to get more parents involved in public schools because the number one signal of whether a school is successful isn't even resources, it's parental involvement. So trying to make public schools more attractive and the way you do that, I think, is with a lack of bureaucracy. And also, I just think it's going to take more resources.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
And I don't think that skimming the most blessed families and the most involved parents off of the top and pulling them out of the public school system, I just think we're further cementing a have-and-have-not caste system. Having said that, I think most of it should be left out. to the states and local governments trying to figure it out.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
One of the biggest problems we have in our society is that local schools are based on property tax revenues, so the wealthy neighborhoods have some private schools. The public school in Palo Alto and in Woodside is better than most private schools nationally because they have a lot of money from property taxes. So there has to be a leveling up.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
See how at usertesting.com slash PropG.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
The problem is the leveling up isn't just about resources. It's about keeping dual parent households involved in the schools. This is a difficult, tough question.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
More competition, more holding the teachers unions and public schools accountable, not being afraid to shut them down, having a reasonable ratio of administrators, clearing out the bureaucracy such that you can fire teachers and bureaucrats. But also, I'm just not down with taking more money for vouchers for the privatization of our education system.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
I think in general, you've had an oligarchy that is trying to insert a profit motive into every single public service, which ultimately just creates scale, a better service, and then they start raising the rents on everybody. Appreciate the question.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
Thanks, Anonymous from Unknown. Really appreciate the question. So my IPO recommendation of 2024 was Reddit, and it was a simple analysis. I looked at the 10 most trafficked sites in America, and all of them, except Wikipedia, a nonprofit, were worth between $600 billion and $3 trillion.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
And Reddit at that time was toggling based on the metric you looked at somewhere between the third and the fifth most trafficked site in America and was going public in a market cap of $5 billion. Because to that point, they had not done a great job of monetizing that incredible attention. However, I believe over time, you can monetize attention. It just depends.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
I remember looking at these charts 20 years ago, where newspapers were 10% of attention, but 30% of advertising, and the internet was 50% of attention, but only 15% advertising. I remember, okay, this is pretty easy. Find the internet companies that are commanding attention, and eventually these things are gonna calibrate and equalize. And I saw the same thing here.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
And the stock went out at, was priced, I think, at 35 or 38, shot to 60, and then went as high as 240, and has now been cut in half with a drawdown. So as we're recording this, their stock has been cut in half in the past month after Q4 earnings that reported underwhelming user growth, but that's still up. I think that still means it's tripled or quadrupled since its IPO.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
Global daily active unique users rose 39% year on year to an average of 102 million, just missing analyst expectations of 103 million. Why did it get hit so hard? The new meeting expectations in the internet economy is blowing them away. That's the expectation. The expectation is that you're going to blow away expectations.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
Although Reddit was now or is now the six most visited website in the world, it's worth 50 to 60 times less than other sites that command that same attention, including Google, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. So what do I think? I think this company is still a good long-term hold. It's got a market cap
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
now of $22 billion, which for a guy like me, one of my many flaws as investors, I anchor off the cheapest it's ever been. Yeah, it went public at a valuation of $5 billion. It traded to $7 or $8 billion that day, and now it's at $21. But it peaked at $40. It's come down. I think Reddit is a good long-term hold.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
I just think, again, if you buy into this notion that eventually monetization catches up with attention, I think it's a good long-term hold. Having said that, my general advice is the following. low-cost index funds, because nobody can pick stocks over the long term and outperform the market.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
Even Warren Buffett will tell you that they were investing in an unusual time with a lack of information and the asymmetry of information or your ability to find alpha or stocks that were undervalued was much greater, the likelihood of doing that than it is now. Warren Buffett, who is arguably the best investor in history, is telling people not to be stock pickers. So having said that,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
I believe that you can take 30% or should take 30% of your money and have some fun and invest in single stocks or single asset classes where you think you have some sort of insight or you believe that they're undervalued. And this might be that. What I would also suggest, though, is that two-thirds plus of your net worth is put in low-cost index funds. And here's a bit of the wrinkle there.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
Make sure they're low-cost index funds that aren't just solely focused on the U.S. The U.S. stock market is now at 98% in terms of value, meaning it's only been more expensive on a P-E ratio, 2% of its history. European value stocks are in the bottom 2%, meaning they've been more expensive on a PE basis or traded at higher levels for 98% of their history.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
This to me says to me that the markets or the rivers or flows of capital are about to reverse. That was one of my big predictions for 2025 is I think that non-US markets are going to outperform US markets. Anyways, will you ask? I like Reddit. I think it's a nice long-term hold. But just be careful believing that me or anybody else can give you advice on single stock picking. We can't.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
You want to have some fun? You want to try and find some alpha? Have at it. But keep the bulk of your firepower, your dry powder for low-cost index funds that are diversified not only across the S&P, but across different geographies globally. Thanks for the question. We have one quick break, and when we're back, speaking of Reddit, we're diving into the depths, into the bowels of Reddit.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
Support for Prop G comes from Quince. It's almost that time of year, vacation season, so if you're in the market for some luxury wardrobe upgrades that'll make you look great without breaking the bank, you might want to check out Quince.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Reddit Hotline Is Open: Scott on Generational Wealth, Dirty Jokes & A Bull Case for Reddit
Quince says they offer high-quality travel essentials at fair prices, including lightweight shirts and shorts from $30, pants for any occasion, and comfortable lounge sets. They also offer premium luggage options and durable duffel bags for your upcoming vacation. And you know who's tried out Quince? Our own Claire Miller, our producer.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
Hank from Sweden. The data says with imposter syndrome that you're supposed to practice self-compassion, be kind to yourself, acknowledge and accept your feelings, challenge negative thoughts, say, well, the market and other people who are smart think I'm in the right position, so maybe there's something to their views.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
I find that talking stuff out really helps, like telling people, Jesus, I feel like I'm in over my head or I don't deserve it. I just feel like You know, getting those thoughts out, help address them. And hearing yourself talk, you start to solve that type of thing. Being positive. I mean, eating, you know, eating well, being in good shape.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
And I think you just start to feel more confident across all areas of your life. Like I'm strong and I'm healthy, which means I'd be really good at anything, including my job. So imposter syndrome is a form of intellectual self-doubt that can affect anyone, regardless of their job. People with imposter syndrome often feel like they could have done better, even when things go well.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
I think if you don't have a little bit of imposter syndrome, it probably means you're a bit of a sociopath or arrogant, because the whole point, the reason we're so competitive is is that it's good for the species, right? I want to do better than the guy or gal next to me, which creates better performance, which results in a better society, and onward and onward, and things get better.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
So this competitive spirit is important. Constantly referencing and comparing yourself to others is natural, and that's part of that competitive instinct, but it can result in a lot of self-doubt. I just think, well, first off, a lot of people have this. I just said on a previous Office Hours that I've never felt like I was qualified to do anything I did.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
And then I realized when I showed up that everyone else is an imposter too, and everyone else feels as if they're an imposter. So it sounds like you're doing really well. Acknowledge everyone around you that they might be smarter than you think, and it picked you for a lot of good reasons. I would say be kind to yourself, try and engage in things that make you feel positive.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
I think working out and eating well make you feel talented and healthy and that you would be good at almost anything because you're this strong, healthy person. But recognize everyone feels a little bit of that. And again, go back to the notion that the market may be smarter than you think and you deserve to be where you are. Thanks for the question. Question number two.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
Thanks very much, Nicholas from Canada. What an interesting life you've led and how it's kind of good to be you. Okay, so it sounds like you want to go to a startup. So first off, nobody knows. And there's hints. What I've always done is I've always picked people, not companies.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
And that is, if you have the opportunity to interview with small firms, you want to go where you think the people are most impressive. Because a lot of times with small companies, they end up doing something that they hadn't originally anticipated. But If the people are super smart, they can more often than not figure it out.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
So I think you want to go somewhere where you think the person I'm going to report into, I'm going to learn a lot. And these people just seem really together. Now, hopefully if it's just a stupid idea, then fine. There might've been a lot of smart people with that dog walking app backed by SoftBank, but that was just a stupid idea.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
But you basically want to go into battle with people that you would want to go into battle with. And then also, I think the... where the company is in the life cycle is sort of interesting. My general experience is that joining a company with zero to 10 employees is that the risk reward ratio isn't there. Now, if the company works, those people make a shit ton of money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
But those are the people we read about in the newspaper. We don't read about the six out of seven companies and end up with a zero. Even worse than that, sometimes they go three, five, 10, 20 years and then end up with nothing. That happened to me at Run Envelope. I was there 10 years to work my ass off, invested $3 million of my own capital to end up with nothing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
That story doesn't get told a lot, although I tell it a lot. But the zero to 10 is huge upside, but I would argue like if you're not the founder and you're not gonna get 20 or 30% of the company, I'm not sure the risk reward is there. At the same time, when you join a company that's already at a couple thousand people,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
Welcome to Office Hours with Prop G. Today, we're kicking off a special two-part series all about careers, navigating them, advancing them, maybe even surviving them. I'll be sharing my best advice, which may not be very good. No corporate speak, no bullshit. I am going to tell you exactly what I'm thinking. And it might offend you and it might upset you. And guess what?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
unless it's a moonshot like a Google or a Salesforce, you'll make good money, but you'll never make super, super huge money. I find that the sweet spot from a risk reward standpoint is kind of 20 to 200 employees. And that is you're still early enough to get significant equity, but if they're at that point, it means that they have probably some level of product market fit.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
So I find that sort of the sweet spot of risk to reward, especially given that you have um, you have a family. In addition, there's other signals. Who are the people who have backed the company? How much capital have they raised? Um, how much press have they received?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
There's, you know, not, not all of these are, you know, it's sort of the good housekeeping stamp of approval, which by the way, approved talcum powder, which ended up giving people all sorts of cancer. So it's not a guarantee, but when there's good people and VCs, um, or customers involved, there's signals you should be able to discern around how the company is doing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
But again, I like the sweet spot of kind of, there's some limited evidence of product market fit, but at the same time, if I show up, I'm still gonna get quote unquote real significant equity. But again, this is a good problem. And also you gotta let the market decide, you gotta get the job first. So your first objective is to get one, ideally two offers so you can play them against each other.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
But let me finish where I started. With your background, living in Toronto and a family, it's just good to be Nicholas. Thanks for the question. We have one quick break before our final question. Stay with us.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
We're both going to be fine. Let's bust right into it. First question.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
Welcome back. Question number three.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
Thanks, Sasha. So say yes a lot. Business school and college are fantastic ways. You get invited to all this crazy shit. You get to go see, I remember, I don't know why this popped into my mind, I went and saw Don Valentine speak at an event at Haas. And you as a student can go up to Don Valentine and say, hi, I'm Scott Galloway. And I found out he ran this firm called Sequoia.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
And I don't think I leveraged that content, but I eventually ended up raising a lot of money from Sequoia. but you can kind of call on anybody from a professional standpoint, and they'll meet with you, have coffee with us.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
When students call me, and I'm not suggesting you do this, and say, I want to have coffee, I'm much more inclined to have coffee with them than even at this point, like a CEO of some company right now.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
You just have currency to meet people, and I would take advantage of that, both professionally or kind of networking at these sort of corporate events, but also a different type of networking is just to try to make as many friends as possible. And have fun. Say yes. Go to football games with people or whatever it is they do at your college. Go out for a drink. Also, invest in relationships.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
Send people nice notes. Be happy to see them. There's this great study that looked at who are the most popular kids in high school. And was it the athletes? Was it the best-looking kids? No. You know what it was? It was the kids who liked the most people. Not the kids who had the most people who liked them. But the easiest way to get someone to like you is to like them.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
The kids that were friendliness, waved at other people in the hall, were confident. Those kids were the most popular. I thought that was so obvious but fascinating. So what do you want to do? You want to go to as many of these kind of networking events as is, you know, doesn't get in the way of your studies. Say yes to stuff with your friends. Be nice to people. Be friendly.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
Like as many people as you can. And take advantage of the fact that people want to meet with you and you have access to all this incredible stuff. And more than anything, Try not to be in your dorm room or your fraternity or wherever you're living more than eight or 10 hours a day. Be out, be out in the wild, be out in the jungle, meeting people, running into unusual opportunities.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
That's what I worry about with most young men is there's too many temptations to sit at home and believe you can have a reasonable facsimile of life with a computer and an algorithm. No, get out of the house, go on campus, go to these events. Another trick I do, I did this whenever I walked into a room.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
whether it was a networking event or a corporate event at business school or a bar, I would demand that within 10 seconds, I'd lock eye contact with someone and I'd walk up and introduce myself. I'd break the seal because it's easy to sort of walk into a room and you don't know anybody and you just kind of sit there and you look at your phone to pretend you're doing something.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
And before you know it, you're just sort of, you know, sequestered and you're getting too used to not talking to people, right away, you roll into a situation, you're going to go up to a group of people or to someone and introduce yourself. Just break the seal right away. Anyway, Sasha from Boston, thanks for the question. That's all for this episode.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to officehoursatpropertymedia.com. Again, that's officehoursatpropertymedia.com. This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez. Our intern is Dan Shalon. Drew Burrows is our technical director. Thank you for listening to the Prop G Pod from the Vox Media Podcast Network.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Imposter Syndrome, Startups & Networking
We will catch you on Saturday for No Mercy, No Malice, as read by George Hahn. And please follow our Prop G Markets Pod wherever you get your pods for new episodes every Monday and Thursday.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
Support for Prop Tree comes from Viore. Oh my God, true story. I am wearing, totally coincidentally, guess what? Viore shorts. Viore's high quality gym clothes are made to be versatile and stand the test of time. They sent me some to try out and here I am. For our listeners, Viore is offering 20% off your first purchase. Plus, get free shipping on any U.S. orders over $75 and free returns.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
Thanks for the question. This really resonates with me, Duncan, because I am fundamentally a lazy person. And people are under the impression that I'm working all the time because of the content we put out. They think it's me and uploading videos to YouTube and drawing, sketching out these charts on a napkin. And they're like, it's amazing how much content you put out.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
Well, no, it's amazing how much credit I get for the content we put out. A couple of things. As it relates to laziness, investment banking and crew were both really important for me because without a rote schedule, without having to drag my ass out of bed at 5 a.m.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
where I'd be letting seven other men out down in the boat and my coach would kick me off the team, I'd sort of never gotten up at 5 a.m. Without the pressure and the routinization and the scheduling and the demands of investment banking, I just never would have worked that hard. So I've tried to put myself in a context where I had no choice.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
And also, I think deadlines are really important for a lazy person. My publisher, I don't know, they got 50, 70, 80% of my book revenues. And really all they do is set deadlines. But those are really important for me because without them, I'm not sure. I think I'd put out a book every five years instead of every 18 months.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
So try and find a context or platforms that just quite frankly manage you and impose deadlines on you. I try to reduce the amount of time in between the decision to do something and doing it. I'm trying to be more reckless. Oh, I should work out. Okay, start putting on your gym clothes. Don't think about it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
I get, you know, this is a position of privilege, but one of the reasons I have a trainer is not because they do anything I don't know, but if there's a guy in my backyard at 8 a.m. on a Tuesday morning, I got to get out there. Sometimes I wait till 8.10 because I'm so fucking lazy and I'll just pop my head out and say, hey, Sean, I'll be out in 10 minutes.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
But eventually I get out there, whereas if I was allowed to sleep in till nine and then have some coffee and doodle around, I'm like, oh no, the podcast is at 10, too bad, I can't work out. So scheduling, forcing routine, deadlines, super important for a lazy person. In addition, and also this notion, get rid of the time in between the decision and doing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
Welcome to Office Hours with Prop G. This is the part of the show where we answer questions about business, big tech, entrepreneurship, and whatever else is on your mind. If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to officehoursatpropgmedia.com. Again, that's officehoursatpropgmedia.com. Question number one.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
Oh, I should really call someone or I need to return this and just start writing it. I'm terrible. I get so many emails from people I want to respond to and I think, oh, I'll do it later. Now what I need to do, and I don't do this all the time, I need to get back to this person, start getting back to them now. There's nothing like now.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
And even if it's a little reckless, just, oh, I'd like to, you know, I need to take these supplements. Where are the fucking pills? Where are the fucking, don't plan. Just the inclination, try and get into the practice of what I'm doing. As soon as I think I need to do something, okay, start doing it. Don't think about it. Don't plan it. Just start doing it and get on it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
Otherwise, I just can't get over it. I was in Barcelona yesterday. I had all these plans for walking around, doing some videos, writing, proofing, editing a chapter, and writing a book on masculinity. I did fucking nothing. By the time I was at the Nobu Hotel, by the time I went down and had my Weird sushi lunch and went online and watched TikTok for two hours. I literally wasted.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
I didn't even walk around one of what is one of the most impressive cities in the world. I did goddamn nothing. Nothing. Because I wasn't scheduled and I didn't have things going on. Today, quite frankly, I am booked so solid. My assistant and my team has me doing so much of this shit, pods, I'm hosting a lot. And you know what? I need it. I need that scheduling.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
So try and put yourself in a position where you have deadlines and schedules imposed on each other. Get rid of the gap between I need to do this and actually doing it. Also, and this is a position of privilege, greatness is in the agency of others. I've always realized that if it's just me as a sole proprietor, I'm not going to put out that much because I'm lazy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
But what I've done is I've tried to figure out what am I really good at that no one else can do, and I outsource everything else. Now, that requires some capital. I have producers who write up scripts for me. I have someone helping me with my book. I have someone who does all our charts. I have someone who manages the business, the hiring and firing. I have a CFO. I have a personal assistant.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
When I say personal, I'm going to New York tonight. She's going to make sure I have granola and milk in my refrigerator so I don't have to go out and get it. Obviously, I have someone who cleans my home, someone who trains me. I'm a big believer in comparative advantage, and that is once you have a little bit of money, start thinking, how do I save time?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
And some of that might just be for you just to be lazy, but to free you up on the things you're good at. Let's summarize. Put yourself in a situation where you have imposed deadlines, a schedule, try and eliminate the time or reduce the time between I need to and actually just starting on it. Just start. Oh, I need to write a chapter.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
Just, okay, throw up in the fucking laptop and start writing, even if it's shit. Beauty is in the edit, by the way, when it comes to writing. And finally... As soon as you can, as soon as you have the resources, start outsourcing the stuff that you're not good at or that doesn't in any way leverage your unique skills. But again, I think laziness is underappreciated.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
I think there's a lot of us out there that are fundamentally lazy people. You just have to recognize your weakness and put in place the infrastructure such that you can do a workaround. Thanks for the question. That's all for this episode. If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to officehoursofprofitgmedia.com. Again, that's officehoursofprofitgmedia.com.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez. Our intern is Dan Shalon. Drew Burrows is our technical director. Thank you for listening to the PropG Pod from the Vox Media Podcast Network. We will catch you on Saturday for No Mercy, No Malice, as read by George Hahn. And please follow our PropG Markets Pod wherever you get your pods for new episodes every Monday and Thursday.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
It's a really interesting question. I think about this through the lens of I have a son who will be applying to college. And actually, for the first time, the demographics are on his side. Fewer boys are applying to a college and just fewer people are applying to college. Although what's against him is because I'm a narcissist and want him to go to a quote-unquote prestige or elite school.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
Is that true? You know, it's sort of true. I kind of come to the conclusion I just want them to be happy. But anyways, what you see is a crowding effect into the best universities. But on the whole, you're going to see tier two universities. go out of business like no tomorrow. People under the age of 18 represent roughly 21% of the total American population, down from 36% in the 60s.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
Jesus Christ. You want to worry about Social Security? Who's going to pay for this goddamn thing? It's young people paying for it right now, and they used to be like... you know, 12 to one working age people to seniors. Now it's something like three to one. In the next 20 years, it's projected that American share of children will fall by an additional three percentage points.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
The Census Bureau estimates that by 2060, America will add over 8 million children in comparison They estimate Americans over the age of 65 will increase by about 37 million. Okay, get this. 8 million new kids, 37 million more old people. The falling birth rate will likely have significant impacts on business, including baby product manufacturers, childcare services, and education providers.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
Additionally, There'll be an enormous increase in demand for products and services aimed at the elderly population, including senior care and retirement communities. Yeah, no doubt some of the companies catering to kids will suffer. But coming like Disney, I think they're fine because, one, it's so fucking crowded as it is, and it's become a rite of passage.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
Get yourself some of the most comfortable and versatile clothing on the planet. Viori.com slash PropG. That's V-U-O-R-I dot com slash PropG. Exclusions apply. Visit the website for full terms and conditions. Support for the show comes from ServiceNow, who is enabling people to do more meaningful, creative work, the work they actually want to do. You know what people don't want to do?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
People, you know, you're likely going to have child services called on you if you don't take your kids to Disney for what is the seventh circle of hell for a weekend of overpriced hotels and shitty food and two hour lines to get on the Avatar ride. I think Disney is going to be fine because there's a flight to quality and people will stop.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
you know, go one level down, Six Flags, Magic Mountain or Bush Gardens or whatever it is now, I think they'll suffer. But I think what people will do is end up spending more money across fewer.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
There's going to be a flight to quality just the same way that despite there being fewer young people, the elite colleges are booming because there's a kind of a rush to quality and they create this illusion of scarcity. They get more capital, trade at a higher multiple, reinvest in the new, you know, the new Star Wars land or Rogue Nine or whatever it is. And they kind of pull ahead.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
from the competition. By the way, Disney for kids and Universal for the teenagers is what I've discovered as I've gotten older. The problems here are bigger than consumer companies. And that is now about 40% of our budget goes to services, Medicare, Social Security for people over the age of 65.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
People aren't even getting elected to the Senate. They're like the hot young thing when they show up to the Senate at 65. We absolutely need to address... There's not only this aging, but the fact that we continue to cram more money into the pockets of the old people.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
I believe you could reverse engineer all of the biggest issues in our society, income inequality, polarization, extremism, to one thing, one stat, and that is for the first time in our nation's history, a 30-year-old isn't doing as well as his or her parents were at 30. That is a breakdown in the social compact. It doesn't mean a fucking thing that the S&P is touching new highs.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
It doesn't mean anything what GDP growth is if your kids aren't doing as well as you. So this connotes a bigger problem, specifically not only what it means for consumer brands with a population dearth, but what it means for our society when people no longer have the money or the confidence to have their own children. Thanks for the question.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
wow, Sean from Florida, we're going to need a bigger boat. So let's bring this back to me. My whole life, I've wanted to be a teacher. I thought I would really enjoy it and I'd be good at it. And I contemplated when I was in business school, applying to the PhD program and getting my PhD and pursuing a career in academia. And a couple of things happened.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
One, my mom got very sick and I knew that I would need to start making money, that I just didn't have the kind of the capacity to take on another three years of student debt or not be making money. in a PhD program. And also some of it is less noble. I just thought I'd really like to get out there and start making real bank.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
And I didn't see how I was going to do that as a prof, at least initially. So I went out, I gave myself 10 years before I would go back to teaching. And exactly 10 years later in 2002, after graduating from Haas in 1992, I joined the faculty at NYU. And one of the motivations for joining was I thought I was going to be rich and that I could leave and just go focus on teaching.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
And I took a job paying $12,000 a year as an adjunct professor at NYU. And as you have your plans, then God laughs. My company, Red Envelope, did go public and on paper I was worth a lot of money. And then I wasn't when the dot-bomb implosion happened. So I kind of woke up and realized I was an adjunct professor making $12,000 a year. Now, having said that, I think academia is a wonderful career.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
It's definitely a caste system. It's definitely some of the most discriminatory business in the world. Essentially, the people in charge hire their PhD buddies. They write bullshit research, which is 98% of peer-reviewed academic research. It's just bullshit to give each other citations such that they can qualify.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
They can get tenure, which is guaranteed lifetime employment, which translates to student debt, as two-thirds of these individuals within 20 years are totally unproductive and overpaid.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
And tenure is this kind of this grift where because Galileo said the world might be round and we thought we need to protect academics, we've decided that the guy who came up with Gap One Accounting in 1985 deserves lifetime employment. It's just fucking stupid.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
The result is a crowding at the top of the pyramid and young academics who are really outstanding have trouble moving up because these people will not leave. And most of this quote unquote tenure is nothing but a guilt and a tax on young people. It translates to student debt. The administrative state is out of control at universities.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
My department chair, or one of my department chairs in marketing was essentially a pretty weak academic who was a functioning or semi-functioning alcoholic. So I know, let's give her an administrative role. Look, you're going in as a practicing professor. Here are some tips. One, this is a business. And the way you increase your compensation is by putting butts in seats.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
You're probably not going to do great peer-reviewed research. I was thinking about doing peer-reviewed research, and then I read it. I'm like, this is stupid. None of this shit has any relevance to anything. And so I started doing a lot of research, but I did it on the guise of a private company called L2.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
And I got way more press and kind of private sector impact than almost any of the peer-reviewed research, maybe with the exception of some of the peer-reviewed research that the finance department does, which bubbles up guys like David Yermack and Aswathamotor and his imperial research, but it's just so powerful.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
But anyways, what I found is that the key to a currency, and there's four or five of these people, essentially at NYU Stern, we have four or five ringers. And that is someone, a professor that everyone feels like they got to take, Glenn Okun or Sonia Marciano at NYU. There are clinicals. They don't have PhDs. They're practicing professors, but they're outstanding teachers.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
And because it's a business, they have to have a certain number of classes that everyone, if they take three or four of these, they feel like they got their money's worth. Those people have real currency and power. I became one of those people. I became one of the ringers.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
And so I could put 500 butts in seats every year, which at $7,000 per class, which is what we charge at NYU Stern, you're technically generating $3.5 million in income. They're paying you a lot less than that, but you have some currency. So the key for you, my friend, is just becoming outstanding at teaching and getting more butts in seats.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
I would avoid the administrative state, you know, if it's a means of helping out, fine. But for the most part, I think it's mostly a waste of time. I find that most of the administration and kind of program stuff on campus is just people pushing paper to each other. And my career took off when I decided I was going to do nothing. I was never going to spend any time on campus unless I was teaching.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
to do a market check. And what you do is you quit every three to five years without quitting. Every three to five years, I would interview at another university. I'd get called by a Cornell or a Wardner or Columbia. I'd interview, I'd find out what the offer would be. And then I'd go to the dean or my department chair and say, I don't want to leave.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
I'd be transparent, but this is my current value in the marketplace. And I knew I had some currency because fortunately for me, the marketing department was not very strong in terms of in-room teaching. And they would match it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
And so, you know, you got to recognize that the leadership of universities generally sees adjuncts and clinicals as sort of, I don't know, like Russian soldiers that they just kind of throw into the meat grinder. And that is, oh, it's your calling. You don't actually need health benefits or money. We save that for the tenured faculty. So you have to create your own currency through butts and seats.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
And then you have to leverage it by occasionally interviewing with another university. That's kind of the politics of how the sausage is made. Having said that, you generally are in an environment where people are not assholes. They fight over every little thing because they're so little at risk or they're so little to be gained. But generally speaking, the people are pretty nice.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
The best academics are some of the most inspiring people you ever run across. Being on campus is incredibly inspiring. You do feel as if you're adding value. Being around young people is incredible. just incredibly, I don't know, invigorating. But let me finish where I started. A lot there, a lot there. A lot of trauma, a lot of PTSD, but a lot of reward too. Thanks for the question, Sean.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
We have one quick break before our final question. Stay with us. Support for the show comes from the Fundrise Innovation Fund. Think of the five biggest names in AI today. How many of those companies do you own shares of? Probably not many, maybe one, maybe two. Why is that? Because the open AIs and anthropics of the world are still private. That means unless you're an employee or a VC,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
You're out of luck. So it isn't hard to see why venture capital has been one of the most prized asset classes in the world. But unless you're worth eight or nine figures, you likely don't have access to these funds. The Fundrise Innovation Fund is different. It's already raised more than $150 million.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
America’s Demographic Problem, Why Scott Became a Professor, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Productivity
It holds a portfolio of pre-IPO tech companies that are valued at tens or even hundreds of billions of dollars. And most importantly... It's open to investors of all sizes. Visit Fundrise.com slash PropG to check out the Innovation Funds portfolio and start investing today. Relevant disclaimers can be found at the end of the show and at Fundrise.com slash Innovation.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
consumer borrowing plus the value of our stock market, 70% of the value is supposedly registered in the U.S. So if someone said to you, you can buy the U.S. for $70 or you can buy the rest of the world for $30, I would argue there's more upside to buying the rest of the world for $30.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
So I would use a robo-advisor, spend some time on AI, and say I want low-cost index funds, and I also want to make sure that I'm not only diversified within the U.S., but I'm diversified to a certain extent around my investments from the U.S. But low-cost ETFs or index funds. Also, it sounds if you're doing well...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
I'd be reticent or careful to blow that money or invest that money in grad school unless you really think it's going to pay off. Because you've been given a gift from your father, his hard work, his time. And at your young age, at 27, say it's $50,000.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
By the time you're 67, which will happen much faster than you think, with a low-cost ETF, you're probably going to have a really nice nest egg or something to fall back on. And I would imagine that's what your father wanted. So I'm not saying don't invest in yourself, don't go to grad school, but maybe...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
Welcome to Office Hours with PropG. This is the part of the show where we answer your questions about business, big tech, entrepreneurship, and whatever else is on your mind. If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to officehoursatpropgmedia.com. Again, that's officehoursatpropgmedia.com. So with that, first question. And also, I have not heard or seen these questions.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
Be very selective if you're doing well at your job and make sure you can get some financial aid. Just because I hate to see kids borrow a lot of money or spend a ton of money on grad school when it may not provide the pop that they're anticipating. That never used to be an issue. It always used to be worth it. Now you actually have to do the math. Let me back up. This is a really good problem.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
Congratulations to you, but again, low-cost ETFs, and I would do, say, 50%, 60% U.S., 40% international. If you want to lean into real estate, make sure you know what you're doing and you have some advantages there. But again, this is a good problem, and I'm sorry about your father's passing. It's something we all deal with, but it's something I don't think any of us are prepared for.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
It's heartbreaking when it happens, so I'm sorry about your dad. That's all for this episode. If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to officehoursatpropertymedia.com. Again, that's officehoursatpropertymedia.com. This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez. Our intern is Dan Shalon. Drew Burrows is our technical director.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
Thank you for listening to the Prop G Pod from the Vox Media Podcast Network. We will catch you on Saturday for No Mercy, No Malice, as read by George Hahn. And please follow our Prop G Markets Pod wherever you get your pods for new episodes every Monday and Thursday.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
Hi, Mike from Long Island. So you're 35. It sounds like you're in a good relationship. You both are working. Your wife's doing something important as a teacher. So the first thing is to recognize you're young. Sounds like you're in love. You're both employed. Things are pretty good for you. Okay, so the honest answer to your question is nobody knows.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
I talked to Michael Saylor, and when I leave his office, I had lunch with him. When I leave the lunch, I think I should put everything into Bitcoin. And then an hour later, I'm like, wait, what is Bitcoin again? Anyway, so the bottom line is nobody knows. Trump recently announced that his administration will be considering the creation of a national digital asset stockpile.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
While this really isn't quite a strategic reserve, it could still have a massive impact on America's involvement with cryptocurrency, specifically if the U.S. government weighs in and buys a shit ton, the price would go up. Currently, America holds more Bitcoin than any other government as a result of large-scale asset seizures, about $5 billion as of 2023. Even so... They've sold none of it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
Countries including Germany, Hong Kong, Russia, Brazil, and Poland are all taking steps to review Bitcoin as a reserve asset. In the past 10 years, Bitcoin is up over, Jesus Christ, 48,000%. In the past year, it's up 140%. Since the election, it's up 50%. So, okay, what do you do? The genius of Bitcoin, in my mind, is they've come up with this incredible means of creating
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
a somewhat credible sense of scarcity. What do I mean by that? We keep printing more dollars. We've had inflation, so you could argue that the value of the dollar goes down every year. You know, I bought a house, every house I bought 30 years ago is worth I wish I'd never sold it. It's worth six to 10 times what I bought it for, more than inflation.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
Is that because the asset's gone up in value and it's producing more rent? No, it's because there are more dollars chasing fewer assets. That's the definition of inflation. Or simply put, the dollars you throw into your mattress get worth less and less every year because we keep producing more of them.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
Bitcoin has created this credible feeling that because of the algorithm or the structure where it requires more and more numbers to be thrown at an algorithm or at a math problem, that it takes more energy, it limits the supply, and they say they're going to stop mining Bitcoin at 21 million coins. And the market believes it. So the market says, all right, this is a...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
This is a credible store of value and a place to hedge inflation. It's also a place to hedge currency risk. If you're in Argentina and your pesos are worth 30% less every month, you immediately get them. And there's currency controls, meaning you can't trade it for dollars. You immediately go into Bitcoin. So there is real use cases here, right? It's not a payment system.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
I've never been paid or paid anyone in Bitcoin. I don't see it as having a lot of utility. I just don't use the blockchain. Call me old-fashioned. So the question is, what do you do?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
I think it's highly unlikely, and I wouldn't wring your hands too much or spend too much time worrying that your assets are going to go to zero because of Bitcoin and America's decision or not decision to create a strategic reserve of Bitcoin. What you might want to do... is maybe put 2%, 3%, 4% of your net worth into Bitcoin.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
That way you're a little bit hedged, and if it does go up 2%, 3%, 10-fold, you feel as if you've participated in the upside. I would not go all in on this, much less really any one asset. If you're making some money, my guess is your wife has good benefits, max out your 401k, anything that's matched or tax-deferred, try and match that out, try and get
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
money taken out of your paycheck so it's never in your hands, and make sure you're diversified and in low-cost index funds. So if you're worried about crypto or you think that, in fact, it's going to be something that might take off, put a little bit of money in. Don't put all 3% or 4% or 5% in at one time, dollar cost in, because it's a highly volatile asset.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
But if you want to hedge a little bit against the upside or the downside of your current portfolio, then yeah, put a little bit of your money into, I would just probably do Bitcoin. I think some of the other shit coins are just too volatile and you end up staring at your phone all day. But sure, dip your toe if you think if that's going to make you feel a little bit better.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
But I wouldn't lose sleep thinking that all other assets are going to crash. Thanks for your question.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
Everyone thinks they're, well, thanks for the question. Everyone thinks they're aiming too high until they hit the target. I've never been qualified to do anything I've ever done. I wasn't qualified to get a job at Morgan Stanley. I definitely wasn't qualified to get into business school. I wasn't qualified to start a strategy. I've never been qualified to do anything I've ever done.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
So just put that away thinking that you're aiming too high. You may not hit the target. You may apply to be a VP somewhere and they say, sorry, you really aren't qualified. But the way you do this is you start interviewing. And the easiest questions are the hardest to answer. And that is, you know what they're going to ask you. Why should we hire you? What's different about you, right?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
What do you bring to this company that's unique? Why do you want to work here? And what do you do to try and improve your, you know, your sustainable advantage or these assets that are differentiated, right? In sum, what differentiates you? Why is it relevant to us? And how do you, what practices or what do you do that makes it sustainable?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
So you literally want to show up and kind of act like they'd be crazy not to hire you, right? I also find it kind of a hack in interviewing. to get the person to like you, because a lot of this is based on relationships and how they feel about you after the interview, is start asking them questions. People are narcissists or they're self-involved and they love talking about myself.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
So Lisa, how did you get involved at Salesforce? Or what do you like about working here? Or when you look at my skills, what do you think, do you think I'd be a good fit here? You know, what you want to figure out and you want to be confident is to say, okay, I think I'd be great at this, but is this the right fit for me? You know, start asking them questions. Who does really well at Salesforce?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
Or I'm just using that as an example. But the key here is you, you know, you miss all the shots you don't take. Just start interviewing and find out if in fact you're in that weight class. But circling back, you know, everyone's an imposter. Everybody thinks they've fooled people. Not everybody.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
Most people think they've fooled people when they get the job or get into graduate school or get a high character boyfriend or girlfriend. So, yeah, aim high. If you miss, don't take it too seriously. Keep aiming. And if you really want to see what your currency is in the marketplace, then go into the marketplace and try and start interviewing. Thanks for the question.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
We have one quick break before our final question. Stay with us. Support for Prop G comes from Domo. A lot of people think that data is just cold, hard facts about as impersonal as you can get. But wouldn't it be great if you could ask your data anything at any time? Like, how are sales this quarter? Or how's the new marketing campaign performing?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
Or what does the overall health of the company look like? Thank you. That's AI.domo.com.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
Welcome back. Question number three.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
So the first thing you want to do is you want to put it in a bond fund or a treasury fund that's getting 4.5% or 5% right now. If it's $100,000, that's $5,000 a year, low risk or no risk. So you're getting $400 a month. But don't just let it sit there. Put it into some sort of T-bill fund or what do they call it, certificate of deposit, whatever you want to call it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
Basically, if you put money in at Interactive Brokers or Schwab, I think you get between 4% and 5%. while you're trying to figure this out. Okay, so in terms of where to put it, You want to lean into your advantage.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
If you understand the local real estate market and you or someone in your life could manage those apartments and you're scrappy and maybe know how to fix up an apartment, buying real estate, fixing it up and turning into rental properties is a fantastic way to build wealth slowly. I own almost 30 rental units in Delray Beach, Florida, and they've been one of my best investments.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
It's obviously a lot is about when you buy, where you buy. And I bought in Florida when no one else wanted to buy, which is the time you want to buy because prices were really, really low. I bought these things for about an average of 100, sometimes 120,000. They produce really good rental income. And my guess is they've tripled in value since then, but I don't want to sell them.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
I want to have cashflow as I get older. So I think rental units, if you have some advantage, do you understand the local market so you don't overpay? Do you have the ability to manage them? Do you have some skills to improve them, to upgrade them? Otherwise, you'd be better off just buying REITs than managing your own real estate, because there really is some headache around managing these things.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
I would suggest, if you don't have those advantages or market knowledge around real estate, that you just take the money and you put it in low-cost ETFs. Not only SPY or QQQ the NASDAQ, but start thinking about maybe putting half of it even in some sort of diversified low-cost world index sans the US. Why do I say that? The US has become very expensive. And while, I mean, what do you know?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
You want low cost, you want diversification, you want an index fund or an ETF. but you're still, to a certain extent, trying to find alpha and pick stuff. So even though you're picking all of the S&P with SPY, I think the S&P, I would argue, is historically expensive, maybe even overvalued.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Thoughts on Bitcoin, How to Stand Out When Applying to a Job, What to Do With an Inheritance
I was with a buddy of mine who runs private wealth for JP Morgan, and he was saying, I said, the market cap of the US right now is equivalent to half of the total market cap of the globe. And he said, actually, it's worse than that because if you counter in debt, 70% of the capital markets are in the U.S. So if you add up the money corporations have borrowed and U.S.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
Support for the show comes from ServiceNow. Who is enabling people to do more meaningful, creative work, the work they actually wanna do? You know what people don't wanna do? Boring, busy work. But now, with AI agents built into the ServiceNow platform, you can automate millions of repetitive tasks in every corner of business, IT, HR, customer service, and more.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
I've checked out Masterclass. I watched the Masterclasses with Bob Iger and Martha Stewart. I enjoyed learning about them. Gave me different insight into managing the creative process. Right now, our listeners get an additional 15% off any annual membership at Masterclass.com slash PropG. That's 15% off at Masterclass.com slash PropG. Masterclass.com slash PropG.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
Welcome to Office Hours with PropG. This is the part of the show where we answer questions about business, big tech, entrepreneurship, and whatever else is on your mind. If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to officehourswithpropgmedia.com. Question number one.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
Support for PropG comes from Grammarly. Think about the most tedious part of your job. Is it writing the exact same email you've already written 100 times? Some studies have shown that 88% of professionals spend more than half their work week on repetitive writing tasks.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
Well, imagine you had an assistant that could take the small stuff off your plate and help make your writing more effective and persuasive. You're in luck! And as I've said before, it has made us more efficient and takes our written work, and makes it just quite frankly more competent. Get more done with Grammarly. Download Grammarly for free at grammarly.com slash podcast.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
That's grammarly.com slash podcasts.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
John from LA, thanks for the kind words. I pride myself on being transparent. Everybody talks about their wins and people don't want to talk about their failures. Section is still got a question mark around it. And that is the initial vision was find build this all-star team of the best professors at business schools and offer 80% of an amazing class.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
At every business school, there's five or six ringers that everybody has to take regardless of what they're teaching because they're so good. My thought was I'm going to aggregate all these ringers from the top 20 schools, put them online, really highly invest in marketing and graphics and production quality and give you 80%
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
the valuation class from Demodaran or from Adam Alter's marketing class or, God, I forget his name, this wonderful guy from Kellogg, Sarah Beckman from the Haas School, and give you 80% of her course for $1,000 instead of 7,000, which is what it costs to take these courses at a private university. I'm not sure if that's true at the Haas School. Anyways, in sum, it wasn't working.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
We were spending a lot more money. And without the certification you get from an MBA, we had trouble charging even $1,000. We got this incredible sugar high of COVID. And that is I put in, I raised a seed round of $7 million. I put in, I think, $2 million of my own money, maybe $3. And it just took off during COVID because everyone had a lot of time.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
And I knew that we were in a sugar high, but I didn't realize we were in like a speedballed meth cocaine high. And the company went from like one to 10 million overnight. I went out and I raised another $30 million. That was a mistake. I should have kept it small.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
I should have been more judicious with the capital because once we had $30 million, we brought in a management team and they started spending money like fucking drunk sailors on shit that didn't work. We hired Malcolm Gladwell to speak to our audience for a hundred grand or Adam Grant, who I love and think is great. We paid him a hundred grand.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
They're not worth that much money to speak to a bunch of prospective students as good as they are. So we were just wasting money. We went from 20 employees to 120. And here's the mistake I made that I continue to make in the private markets. And that is once I have access to capital, I try and grow too fast.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
I spend way too much fucking money, hire mediocre people, and then end up having to lay off 60 or 80% of them. And that is what happened here. As soon as we came out of COVID, revenues crashed, our burn was unsustainable, and we had to lay off 60, 70% of the staff. Now the company is about 25 or 30 people. We have pivoted to AI. What do I mean by that?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
We found a lot of people and companies coming to us and say, could you upskill our media department at L'Oreal on how to use different AI tools to make our department much more robust, give us this great... L'Oreal has always had amazing media buying. That's kind of, I would argue, their core confidence is they're just fantastic media buyers. They said, how do we take the most
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
cutting edge tools and turn every media planner or every media buyer into a warrior and make them just much better at what they do. So we have pivoted section to basically AI upskilling for the enterprise. And this is more my ballywick. I've always done B2B businesses. I've never done B2C. I like B2B more. It's based on individual relationships.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
Corporations, if you can move the value or move the shareholder needle for them, are much less price sensitive. Thank consumers. I've just always been in B2B businesses. Anyways, we pivoted. We have really wonderful investors. General Catalyst is my lead, and they've been incredibly supportive and nice and smart. And I have a good CEO, Greg Shove, running the business now.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
We have some very talented people in the organization, and it is starting to grow again. And we are now, I think, almost two-thirds subscription revenue, back towards a $10 million run rate and working with very large corporations. helping them, again, upskill certain departments within their organization around how to leverage these new AI tools.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
So I'm hopeful, but the last five years have been really mediocre. I have wasted a ton of time and money. Is that fair? Not wasted. Have not gotten the return I was originally hoping for. I would bet if I had to bet what's going to happen, there's an outside shot. It does really well. I think there's a good shot. We're going to get our money back. Keep in mind, we've raised $38 million.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
So I need to get my investors $38 million back before we start really showing any return. I'm fairly confident. Is that right? I think I'm fairly confident that'll happen. And we seem to finally have found our footing. Having said that, this is kind of the story of my life in most of these companies. I've had a couple of companies where it's just been up and to the right.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
usually I start something, it does okay, then it doesn't do okay. And the key is agility and kind of zero in on something that works. And I think we have finally done that after five years and spending 25 or $30 million. I think we finally zeroed in on something. They're signing up corporations and it's actually doing quite well and growing again. But this shit is hard. This is a
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
This is chestnut checkers, but it's finally, it seems to be kind of on its, found its footing again and doing really well. But again, one out of seven companies succeeds. I've started nine. I've had two do really well. I've had two or three just do okay. And I've had four just like flaming balls of shit, hit a giant wall and spray and everyone gets their face burned off.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
That was a little graphic. That was a little graphic. Anyways, thanks for the question. I hope that satisfies your need to understand what is happening at Section. And it's now called Section AI. That's all for this episode. If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to officehoursatpropertymedia.com. Again, that's officehoursatpropertymedia.com.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez. Our intern is Dan Shalon. Drew Burrows is our technical director. Thank you for listening to the PropG Pod from the Vox Media Podcast Network. We will catch you on Saturday for No Mercy, No Malice, as read by George Hahn. And please follow our PropG Markets Pod wherever you get your pods for new episodes every Monday and Thursday.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
Thanks for the thoughtful question, Jake, from DC. The 2024 cycle was the most expensive election in American history, with political ad spending totaling over $11 billion. However, it wasn't all disco for broadcasters. This was the first election where their share of total spending fell below 50%. Since the 2020 election, ad spending increased over $2 billion.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
But traditional broadcasters only saw 100 million of this growth. First off, I think it was Hearst or one of the big family owned media companies was really smart. About 20 years ago, they went and bought all these local TV stations in swing states thinking, okay, these are shitty businesses for about 20 months every two years.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
And that means your people can focus on the work that they want to do. That's putting AI agents to work for people. It's your turn. Get started at servicenow.com slash AI dash agents. The support for the show comes from UserTesting. Your brand is only as strong as the decisions behind it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
And then for four months, they're amazing businesses because they quintuple their ad rates and campaigns which think, okay, old people vote. What do old people do? They want to watch the weather and see that handsome, handsome young thing talking about the news. And they turn on their local news.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
And they can trap old people and they can run ads basically saying that, you know, the other guy is a pedophile and she's addicted to diet pills and you should vote for our guy. It's really weird. Human condition, it's much easier for us to believe something negative about someone than something positive. So as Newt Gingrich convinced his party 20 odd years ago, go negative, go early.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
Anyways, they bought these stations and they've been the gift that keeps on giving. They were able to scoop them up fairly inexpensively and they're just cash machines. I think that is about to come to an end for two reasons. First reason, Joe, second, Rogan. And that is when Trump went on Rogan, he got about 15 million downloads on audio and about 40, 45 million views on YouTube.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
So call it 60 million. For Vice President Harris, who by the way, totally fucked up and should have gotten on a plane. Joe Rogan is now more important than her or was at that point. to Austin and done an interview. I think Joe actually would have been kind to her. He's not about calling people out. He's pretty good that way. As a matter of fact, he doesn't call people out enough.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
Oh, mRNA vaccines alter your DNA. Really? Really? Oh, okay. You're not a fucking quack spreading misinformation that results in unnecessary death, disease, and disability. Really? Oh, that makes sense. No, it doesn't. Anyway, she should have done it. But for her to reach the same number of people, she would have had to go on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox every night for three hours for an entire week.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
As a matter of fact, a woman I really respect a lot who has a, I believe it's a Sunday morning show on CNN, asked me to come on every week and do this thing like, what's on your mind, where I talk for six to 10 minutes. And I said, I've done the math. No one 25 to 54 is watching CNN. And for me to do the work I would need to do because I like you and I think you're smart,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
It's just not worth – the juice isn't worth the squeeze. And I would have killed to go on Anderson Cooper or Michael Smirconish or Stephanie Ruhl. By the way, all three friends, all wonderful people. Or any of these guys. I occasionally go on Chris Cuomo because I like – I only go on with my friends. I know I'm name-dropping right now, but – It's just not worth it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
The people I'm trying to raise, I'm trying to reach a young man. I'm trying to reach young people that want to develop economic security. And guess what? They're not watching fucking CNN. Get this, the average age, the average person watching MSNBC is a 70-year-old white woman. Oh, but it makes sense for politicians to go there.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
What do you think a 70-year-old white woman has made up her mind around who she's voting for? Having said that, podcasts, 34-year-old male. 34-year-old males, what do they vote on? They don't vote on issues or values. They vote on economics. They're at a point in their life where they're trying to build economic security, and the economic issue is more dynamic. What do I mean by that?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
Every two or four years, it's not entirely clear which party will become the party of economic growth or become more favorable in the eyes of voters around economics. Traditionally, Republicans are the business people, low taxes, but people are starting to pay attention that under Democratic administrations the last 50 years, there's been 50 million jobs created.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
Under Republican administrations, there's been 1 million jobs. The markets tend to go up more during Democratic tenure. So people are kind of saying, okay, whoever can sell me is going to get my vote at the age of 34 if they're a male, whereas a 70-year-old woman, so where is everyone going to go? I think to podcasts.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
Now, having said that, your notion is how do they monetize it or how do we monetize it? I don't see why it would be any more difficult to run a 30-second ad saying, he fucking sucks, and then having the candidate go, I approve this ad. I think you're going to start to see Political ads.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
UserTesting's human insights engine helps marketing product and business leaders make smarter, faster decisions with real human feedback, AI-driven insights, and the world's strongest participant network. Equip your team with the power to validate every decision, co-innovate at scale, and build digital and in-person experiences with confidence. The best brands don't guess, they test.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
The reason I know that the sphere of influence is massively shifting, and I'm not exaggerating here, I bet 50% of the candidates, mostly Democrat, but also Republicans, I'm seeing as somewhat moderate, have reached out to me for quote-unquote advice. When people reach out to me for advice, it's not because they care about what I think.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
It means they want help finding a job, they want money for their campaign, or they want to come on the podcast. And I think that there's probably a hundred senators and congresspeople and governors who look in the mirror every morning and say the following. Hello, Mr. President, or hello, Madam President. And I've heard from most of them. And they claim they really are interested in my advice.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
And they say, hey, wouldn't it be a great idea for me to come on the pod and talk about it? What's interesting is the political candidates don't do well on podcasts. People would much rather hear from, I don't know, Kim Kardashian or a guy like Fareed Zakaria gets unbelievable downloads. He does so well. Anthony Scaramucci does incredibly well.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
He's not a political candidate, but he's a political commentator. Ian Bremmer, these geopoliticians, Josh Brown on the markets, Aswad Damodaran, Kyla Scanlon, a young person. These people get huge downloads. Mel Robbins, I had her on. People love talking about emotions and raising their kids. When I bring senators or congresspeople on, People just don't care.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
It's really interesting, but I am committed to bringing more and more politicians on, specifically moderates on the left and on the right, although I'm having trouble finding moderates on the right. I'm a moderate, but that wasn't a Nazi salute. Yeah, okay, okay. What are your pronouns, he and Himmler? Anyway, I do think that if you get attention, you can monetize it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
And if you have attention and influence, which podcasts will have, they're going to be able to grab a disproportionate amount of that what it'll probably be 15 or 20 billion going into the next election.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
So if you have influence and attention, you'll figure out a way to monetize it, whether it's ads, sponsored events, I don't know what have you, but we're gonna see, I think we're gonna see for the first time these local news stations start to feel some of the same pressure that every other media company has felt
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
And then we're going to see a massive transfer of influence, attention, and monetization to podcasts. In terms of conflict of interest, I read ads. I don't do crypto ads anymore because I worry it's gambling and I worry there's too many young men staring at their phone, losing money or making money on crypto. But I have no problem advocating for products.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
And if it's a conflict, if I'm talking about a company, I'm an investor and I try to be transparent. I'm here because I enjoy this, but I am a close second here because I want to make money. And I don't think people mind that. So what I think they mind is when they feel like you're abusing their trust and not being upfront about your intentions or your investments.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
So as long as you're transparent, I think that's fine. But coming your way, I'm Joe Bob and I approve this ad. Thanks for the question. Question number two.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
See how at usertesting.com slash PropG. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
Anonymous for Virginia. The first is, I'm really sorry you're stressed out. It's sort of the unknown sometimes is more stressful than the actual known. And that is a means of, I think, trying to assuage your stress. And there's the basics, spending time with loved ones, working out, meditation, breath work. I tried breath work.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
I tried this straw method from this guy named Dan Reeves, who I love, who's fantastic, this very soulful guy who does this 10% Happier podcast. Here's the straw method. Breathe in. Two seconds, then breathe out. Four seconds. Okay. That shit does not work for me. It does not work for me. The breath work does not work.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
I understand that you're stressed out, but anytime there's change or chaos, there is a silver lining, and that is sometimes there's opportunity where you don't see it. What do I mean by that? What is happening at the federal government level right now, I'm of two minds about it. The first is, to be blunt and coarse, welcome to the work week.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
The idea that you get a random email from someone who might be laid off and have insecurity and anxiety, people feel that across every business sector in America. In America. At the same time, the injustice I get, but there's tons of injustice in the private sector. The thing that I find most troubling about it is not what people, most media is reporting on. It's the incompetence.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
It's laying off workers who oversee our nuclear stockpile and then rehiring them thinking, oh, maybe we should, in fact, look after this shit such that it doesn't, you know, such that we can ensure that nobody, the babies don't start playing with it before it becomes less radioactive in 60,000 odd years. the way they're going about it, it just feels stupid and ineffective to me.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
And also the corruption, firing people that happen to be investigating Musk's business dealings, and also just the general incompetence. Oh, we saved $8 billion. Well, actually, it's $8 million that you saved. Oh, we're saving a million and a half dollars here. No, you're not. They already spent the million and a half. There's no way to get it back. So
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
I find the whole Keystone Cops fucking incompetence that doesn't reflect the general competence you find across most government agencies. I think I'm sort of of that attitude of let them. I think it's just so weird. The genius of the Republican Party is its ability to convince people who are going to get hurt the most that this is a good idea for them.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
In general, the reddest districts are the ones that are the biggest takers. The Department of Education is sends the most money per capita to these deep red states in the South. Okay, you want to eliminate the Department of Education? Fine. You want to eliminate
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
Medicare or take money out of Medicare, where six in 10 kids in poor households in red states get the medical treatment they need, okay, have at it, let them. You're about to see just how incompetent you think government really is, and when these cuts come home to you. So I'm sort of of the attitude of, okay, you wanted it, you broke it, you own it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
Now, coming back to your specific situation, one, until you actually get laid off, Unless, it's never a bad idea to do a market check, see what's out there, start investigating, start having coffees, do interviews if you have ideas on who you want to speak to. I don't think that's a bad idea in any situation to be kind of on a regular basis doing a market check.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
Having said that, I would not jump, I would certainly not quit until you have another job. And also, a couple things can happen. One, if you do get laid off, you'll probably get some sort of severance. And two, when there's change, Say they left 10 or 20% of the people at your organization.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
They're pretty soon going to realize they need people to actually run the fucking organization and the top of the pyramid. will quite frankly get broader and that is you might find that you're in a position to be promoted sooner than you thought because there's fewer people around.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
I've always told people when there's a transaction in the private sector, when their company gets acquired or there's layoffs, stick around because churn and chaos results in a lot of anxiety, oftentimes a lot of negative things, but oftentimes a lot of opportunity because the company is being reconfigured and you might wake up with a bigger and a better job. So in sum,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
find things and people that help manage your anxiety. Two, it's never a bad idea to do a bit of a market check and talk to people. And three, think to yourself, what could go right, right? We're always about what could go wrong. Well, what could go right?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
Maybe the organization, maybe people get laid off, maybe you're good at what you do, and maybe it ends up creating more avenues or arteries of opportunity for you. I appreciate the question, Anonymous from Virginia. We have one quick break before our final question. Stay with us. Masterclass is the streaming platform that brings insights from the world's greatest minds directly to you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Comes After the Podcast Election, Scott’s Advice to Federal Employees, and an Update on Scott's Company, Section
There you'll find instructors including Martha Stewart, Howard Schultz, RuPaul, and so much more. Masterclass is also highly accessible. You can access it from your phone, computer, smart TV, or even in audio mode. What's more is that 88% of Masterclass users claim that it's made a positive impact on their daily lives. All this for just $10 a month with an annual subscription.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Also, zuerst einmal anonym. Du solltest nicht anonym sein. Du sagst nichts, was deinen Job bedroht. Und du klingst wie ein so schöner Kerl. Und auch, du hast mehr Vertrauen, als ich, als ich in deinem Alter war. Du kannst die Anerkennung für andere Menschen ausdrücken. Ich hatte diese verdammte Notion von Masculinität, als ich in deinem Alter war. Du klingst wie in deinen 20er oder 30er.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
dass, wenn ich beeindruckt war, besonders mit einem anderen Mann, es sich irgendwie von dem, wie beeindruckend ich war, entfernt hat. Ich hatte keine Selbstvertrauen, um Anerkennung oder Wunder an andere Menschen zu erzeugen. Also bist du bereits weit vor dem Spiel und hast eine schöne Stimme. Jedenfalls klingt es mir so, als ob du dich wirklich gut für den Erfolg befestigt hättest.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Nun, um in die Akademie zu wechseln. Also, zu Beginn denke ich, dass Akademie als Karriere unterwertet ist. Es ist wundervoll. Es erzeugt viele Lohnwölfe, weil man viele Sachen selbst machen kann. Es gibt gerade ein paar Probleme mit Akademie.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
That's a really thoughtful question. And I think kind of information intensive white collar industries that to a certain extent trade in complexity. There's a lot of regulation. There's a lot of different assets. People have taxes. It's complex once you get above any reasonable set of assets. And so people want to feel comfortable.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Zum einen ist es moralisch korrupt, basierend auf einer exklusionären Rejectionismus-Bullshit-Kultur, dass Kinder nicht eingelassen werden, trotz der Tatsache, dass wir die Kapitalität haben, um eine Doppel-, Doppel- oder Quintuple-Klasse, das ist eine andere Redezeit.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Und es gibt zu viele ältere Leute, die nicht mehr gehen wollen, weil der Mann oder die Frau im GAP-1-Bereich die Unterschiede zwischen Blackwater und Bluewater Economics in 1978 verstanden haben. Und jetzt sind sie 80 Jahre alt und werden nicht mehr gehen. Sie zeigen sich einfach nur an den Fakultäten und sind sehr zerstört.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Ich arbeite mit dem, was ich glaube, ist wahrscheinlich die beste Fakultät in Amerika, bei NYU Stern. Und 10% aller Fakultäten sind einfach so inspirierend. These are people who give up a dramatic amount of compensation because they love teaching. And they are just so good at what they do. And their relentless pursuit of the truth, especially in this age, is just inspiring.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
And they're great storytellers and they care about people. Anyways, but the downside of academia is there's just a third... of the people at any institution that, quite frankly, just shouldn't be there, aren't pulling their weight. And because of tenure, which is essentially a guild for the unproductive, tenure is nothing but student debt in my viewpoint. Anyways, I don't know how I got here.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Welche Medien wären für dich am besten? Du hast eine großartige Plattform. Eine Sache, von der ich an NYU wirklich geholfen habe, ich sage viele provokative, aggressivere Dinge. Ich denke, ohne das Halo der NYU-Brande, könnten Leute einfach denken, dass ich ein Arschloch bin. Oder vielleicht ein kreativer Arschloch, oder vielleicht ein interessanter Arschloch, aber meistens nur ein Arschloch.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Aber ich denke, Leute nehmen das, was ich sage, mehr ernsthaft, weil ich versuche, ein bisschen Fidelity der Institution und der Akademie zu zeigen, indem ich ein Team von Leuten habe, die Dinge recherchieren, wir Fakten prüfen, wir über Sachen gehen, wir versuchen, in Daten zu marinieren. Ich habe einen Anspruch auf Bildung. Jedenfalls, ich denke, es ist eine sehr starke Plattform.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Also, welche Medien? All strategy comes down to one thing. What can I do or what can we do that is really hard? Das ist alles, was die Strategie ist. Was können wir tun, das wirklich hart ist?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Wir haben eine großartige Geschichte über die Größe im E-Commerce oder die Größe im Streaming, damit wir so viel günstiges Kapital erzielen können, dass wir mehr Geld auf Warehäuser und Flugzeuge oder auf originales Content sparen werden.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Wir werden 18 Billionen Dollar pro Jahr auf originales Content sparen, was mehr ist, als wir auf die gesamte Film- oder Fernsehindustrie in der 80er-Jahre gespart haben. Das ist wirklich hart zu tun. Also lehnen sie sich an ihre Vorteile ein. of just overwhelming the competition with capital via great storytelling and access to cheap capital. That is really hard to do.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
You need to decide, all right, what would be really hard to do? And the way you figure that out is you ask yourself first, what am I really good at? Could I start a podcast? And if I do a podcast, am I good at it? Do I have the ability to get good guests? Do I have a good voice? Am I compelling in this medium? Do I find that people want to listen to me? Do you write well?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Can you go on LinkedIn and start writing about your specific domain and immediately get people subscribing and following? Are you really good on TikTok? You want to figure out what is your medium. Und wie Sie herausfinden, welches Ihr Medium ist, ist, dass Sie einen oder zwei wählen und sagen, ich muss in den Top 10% in Bezug auf Follower sein.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Das ist eine Übung, die ich meiner Klasse und Brandstrategie gebe. Ich sage ihnen, dass sie ein Medium wählen müssen. Es kann Threads sein, es kann X sein, es kann Twitter sein, es kann Powerpoint sein. Und dann müssen sie eine Metrik herausfinden, die sagt, dass ich am Ende der Klasse in den Top Dezile sein werde. And you can figure out those numbers.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Security, they want an absence of fear, they want someone nice and young and attractive and bright such as you to show up and actually, to a certain extent, youth is a bit of a disadvantage here, but give them a sense of confidence that they're doing the right thing with their assets. And in exchange... Manchmal, oder viele Male, sind Menschen bereit, 1-2% ihrer Asset zu bezahlen.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
What is the number of followers you need on Instagram, on Reels, to be in the top decile? And it'll tell you, this is how many followers you need. So you need to figure out what is your medium. What I enjoy the most is writing because it's the hardest. But when you write something worthwhile, it moves people.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
There's something about the written word that when it's done well and you've taken the time and the energy to fact check, to proof it, to make it sound elegant, to have a good twist of phrase, to make people feel something. It really resonates. It sticks with them. If I go on Morning Joe or The View and I kill it, it gets a huge sugar high on YouTube. And it's fun and it's rewarding.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
But there's nothing like writing something that when you took the time, you were up, you proofed it, you fact-checked it, and it resonates and it moves people. It moves their emotions or it highlights something that other people were thinking but not saying. That for me is... Ich möchte nicht sagen, dass es am liebsten ist, sondern es ist am hervorragendsten, weil es die schwerste Sache ist.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Also das erste ist, kannst du gut schreiben? Oh mein Gott, wenn du gut schreiben kannst, sagt deine Marke sofort den Leuten, du bist smart und du bist beruflich, was eine gute Schokolade und Pfeffer nicht nur in der Akademie, sondern auch in der professionellen Welt ist. Ist das dein Medium? Or are you really good at presentations? Do you want to figure out a way to start speaking in groups?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Do you want to call people, conferences and say, Hi, I'm a professor of X. I want to come talk about this. I didn't get... 98% of my time on stage, I don't get paid. I've returned all my compensation to NYU, so they don't pay me. And the majority of the talks I gave for the first 30 years of my career, I wasn't getting paid for. Is that true? Consulting, I guess I was getting paid a lot.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
But I did a lot of free speaking gigs. Now I charge 50k for a virtual, 200k for an in-person, and 400k if I have to go to the Gulf or Asia. I don't get a lot of those, but I do get some of those. Now, I am boasting, but there is a reason. It is taking me 20 or 30 years of deciding that, okay, speaking is probably what I am best at, and I'm going to get fucking amazing at it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
I have a team of people pulling together 150 slide presentations. I go through it like it's a Broadway show. I rehearse it. I think of video. I think of sound. I think of emotional highs and lows. And every time I give one of these presentations or talks, and I do about... 40 oder 50 pro Jahr.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Ich gehe sofort nachher zurück auf das Team und sage, wir haben hier ein Narrativ-Arch hier, das einfach nicht richtig gefühlt hat. Dieser Witz landete nicht. Das war wirklich gut. Lass uns das anwenden. Lass uns das anwenden. Es ist, als ob ich einen Broadway-Show oder einen Film veröffentliche.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Aber jedes Mal, als ich den Film veröffentliche, bekomme ich die Reaktion des Publikums und ich bekomme den Recut. Ich bin okay bei Threads oder Blue Sky. Ich denke, ich bin ein guter Podcaster. Ich bin nicht sicher, ob ich großartig bin. Ich mag schreiben. Ich bin nicht sicher, ob ich großartig bin. Ich bin nicht sicher, ob ich großartig bin. Ich bin nicht sicher, ob ich großartig bin.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Ich bin nicht sicher, ob ich großartig bin. Ich bin nicht sicher, ob ich großartig bin. Ich bin nicht sicher, ob ich großartig bin. Ich bin nicht sicher, ob ich großartig bin. I'm not good on the phone. And you want to figure out what mediums you're not good at and then find one where you think, could I be the best in the world and really lean into that medium?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Meine Mutter hat diesem Mann 1,5% pro Jahr bezahlt, um eine Menge dreckiger Stocks zu kaufen. Und ich habe mir das angeschaut und gesagt, okay, das macht keinen Sinn, investiere in Vanguard. Dieser Mann kann keine Stocks wählen, er ist ein... 65-Jähriger sitzt in einem schlechten Büro irgendwo in Las Vegas und er hat den Markt untergebracht, aber er ist wirklich teuer.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
In terms of the content, in terms of the content, the specific crowds out the general. I was in the field of brand strategy. That's a pretty specific area. It wasn't design, it wasn't marketing, it wasn't media planning. It was managing your brands as if they were assets, like a portfolio in a mutual fund. And then I went even more specific.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
I started collecting data on the digital footprint of luxury brands. Not the digital footprint of all consumer brands, but the digital footprint of luxury brands. And I started doing rankings of out of NYU on which luxury brands were the most digitally competent. And I parsed it into five areas, genius, gifted, average, challenged and feeble.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
By the way, rankings are incredibly powerful when they come out of an academic institution because you have to do the work, you have to fact check the shit out of it. And then you put it out and wow. And the thing about a ranking is, it's not about who comes first, it's about who comes last. Und das wollte ich tun. Die meisten Ranking von Institutionen listet die Top 10 und gibt Werte.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Nein, ich wollte ein Ranking machen, das sagte, okay, Whoever it was, David Yerman, you're literally the worst brand in jewelry as it relates to digital footprint. Anyway, don't be afraid to go very niche. Pick your medium and commit to being in the top 10, if not the top 1%. And don't be afraid to switch mediums in terms of your focus. But you do create a flywheel.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
I do all of it because I find it's reinforcing. Long-winded way of saying, the specific crowd's out there, General. Find your medium, commit to being in the top 10% within a year, the top 1% within two to three years. Don't be afraid to switch mediums. But my friend in academia, if you write well, that is probably gonna be your go-to. That is the hardest thing I do. It is the most rewarding.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
And quite frankly, I believe it's the most impressive. Also, also in 50 years, it's unlikely people are gonna be watching your videos. It's unlikely people are gonna see your social. But your kids will likely read what you have written. And I find that nice to think about and very comforting. Congratulations on your transition to academia. I think it is a wonderful way to make a living.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Thank you, Anonymous from Colorado. That's all for this episode. If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to officehours at propertymedia.com. Again, that's officehours at propertymedia.com. This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez. Our intern is Dan Chalon. Drew Burrows is our technical director.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Thank you for listening to the PropGee Pod from the Vox Media Podcast Network. We will catch you on Saturday for No Mercy, No Malice, as read by George Hahn. And please follow our PropGee Markets Pod wherever you get your pods for new episodes every Monday and Thursday.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Die Mehrheit der Wealth-Manager in dieser Klasse könnte als teuer, aber schlecht beschrieben werden. Sie haben eine hohe EQ, sie machen dich besser fühlen, sie kommen zu deinem Haus. Jemand, der dich zu Abend oder zu einem Sport-Event bringt, bedeutet, dass ihre Kosten viel zu hoch sind. Weißt du, wer dich nie zu einem Nix-Spiel nehmen wird? Vanguard.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
And you are in kind of ground zero, I think, unfortunately, for disruption around AI. So what do you do? First, let's look at some data. According to Brookings, those in business and financial operations occupations are at the third highest risk level for disruption from large language models.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Additionally, Citigroup believes that over 50% of jobs in the financial services industry could eventually be replaced by AI. Pew Research found that 62% of Americans believe that AI will have a major impact on workers, but just 28% believe that it will have an impact on them personally.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Recent data suggest that AI adoption rates are just 5% in some industries, creating an enormous opportunity for those who do decide to utilize the new technology. So, my kind of saying around this, if you're going to go into this industry, you have to go in with your eyes wide open. And that is, you're going to have to get to scale within three to five years.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
And that is, if you're just managing a bunch of like 100,000, 500,000 million dollar portfolios, at some point, they're going to figure it out and just go to Vanguard. What you need to do is get to a certain amount of scale such that you can charge low enough fees such that, quite frankly, you're worth it. And what does it mean? What is value? It's fees over the services you're offering.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Or maybe it's the opposite. Anyways, you get my point. Und im Geldmanagement, die schlechte Nachricht ist, dass es so schwierig oder so einfach ist, 10 Millionen zu managen, wie es 1 Million ist. Aber die gute Nachricht ist, dass es so einfach ist, 10 Millionen zu managen, wie es 1 Million ist. Also Finanzielle Services ist viel wie ein Real-Estate-Broker.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Es ist ein dreckiges Geschäft für die ersten zehn Jahre. Es geht zu jedem fucking Event. Es gibt deine Karte an die Leute. Es macht viel freies Arbeit. Es macht eine Menge Arbeit und findet heraus, dass niemand, dass sie nicht wirklich Aspekte haben. But once you have a stable of clients, it turns into a really good business.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Now, the first thing is you are going to have to acknowledge the following or really adopt the following as religion if you want to be successful. AI is not going to take your job. Someone who understands AI is going to take your job. And that is AI still hallucinates and the majority of people still do not want to use an AI robo-advisor to figure out which funds they allocate.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Welcome to Office Hours with Prop G. Today we're wrapping up our special two-part series all about careers, navigating them, advancing them, maybe even surviving them. I'll be sharing my best advice. I don't know if it's the best advice, but it's my best advice. No corporate speak, no BS. That's right, NC17, R-rated advice. That's why we're here. I have not read or seen these questions.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Even if they decide to go all vanguard, there are still some decisions to be made. There are robo-advisors, but most people don't want to do that. You are also going to have to become exceptionally talented around the integration of how to make money and how to keep it. Now, what do I mean by that? Taxes.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
I would say the majority of my value add, Goldman Sachs manages my money, but really they don't manage my money. What they do is they manage my personal finance. What do I mean by that? I have several entities. They coordinate my lawyers when I'm creating LLCs. They give me tax advice, which is really their kind of value add.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Und das ist, ich sage, okay, ich denke daran, dieses zu kaufen, oder ich kaufe ein Haus. Soll ich es in ein LLC einsetzen? Wenn ich es in ein LLC einsetze, könnte es einen Ausstieg in den Steuern verursachen, weil das Haus wieder vergrößert wird. Aber wenn ich es in ein LLC einsetze, kann ich es in 2% pro Jahr reduzieren.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Und wenn ich es für zwei Jahre behalte und ein bisschen Geld davon erhalte, ist es für den 1031-Ausgleich qualifiziert. Wenn Sie sich überrascht fühlen, vertraue Ihren Instinkten. Es ist wirklich verrückt. Und behalten Sie fest, dass im Grunde genommen der Taxcode von sehr reichsten Menschen gewehrt worden ist. Es ist von 400 Seiten, glaube ich, bis zu 4.000.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Ich habe es gelesen, es ist bis zu 7.000. Und diese zusätzlichen Seiten sind im Grunde genommen Laufhäuser für die Reichen, oder im Grunde genommen ein Versuch, Geld von den niedrigen und mittleren Einkommenshäusern an die Reichen zu transferieren, die über die letzten 40 Jahre eine disproportionale Anzahl der Verluste aggregiert haben. Aber in dieser Komplexität ist dein Wertgeber.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Und das ist, dass du die Unterschiede verstehen kannst zwischen, okay, ich werde dir helfen, deine Assets zu allociieren. Wir werden in Low-Cost-Funds gehen, aber ich werde dir helfen, sie zu wählen und dich zu diversifizieren. Ich werde dir die armen Arbeiten machen, um zu verstehen, wo du zu konzentriert bist. Ich werde eine Beziehung mit dir erstellen.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Ich werde dir viel Arbeit für dich machen, kind of off the clock. Und ich werde wirklich glaubwürdig denken, and come to you proactively with different tax ideas or ways to essentially become more tax efficient. It was like Wayne Huizenga, the founder of Blockbuster, used to run those ads for the state of Florida, talking about Florida's zero income tax or zero state income tax.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
And he used to say, it's not what you earn, it's what you keep. So to a certain extent, a financial advisor, in my view, is going to have less value add on how you make money. How do you make money? You diversify and you go into low-cost index funds, all right? But how do you keep money is understanding their specific personal situation and how they figure out and navigate the incredibly complex
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Tax Code. And you're going to have to also be the one to cut your own fees as their assets grow. Ritholtz Management, my friend Barry Ritholtz and his partner Josh Brown of CNBC fame, they run a, I wouldn't even call it a hedge fund, I'd call it a wealth advisory fund.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
And as they have grown their assets, they have lowered their fees and they are very thoughtful and give personalized advice to their clients, which Vanguard, you know, they may claim to do it, but they really don't.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
And as a result, people decide, okay, Vanguard would be less expensive, but these guys are worth it, because they know my personal situation, they're willing to meet with me, they walk me through ideas, they're proactive. So you are going to have to become an AI warrior, my friend. You're going to have to figure out a way to get people's Finanzielle Komplexität, ihre Kreditkarten zu uploaden.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Christ, finde einen Weg. Geh zu dieser App, wo es ihnen sagt, wie viele Abonnenten sie haben. Das erste, was wir tun werden, ist, dass wir uns darauf konzentrieren, dir Geld zu sparen. Gib mir deine Kosten, ich werde... Und dann wirst du es zu verschiedenen LLMs uploaden und versuchen, Ideen für Kostenverschwendungen zu generieren. Du wirst ein AI-Warrior werden. Das ist, was du willst.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Das ist, was du willst. Wenn dein Komponist kommt, um sie auf das Managen ihres Geldes zu pitchen, You walk in with a Panzer tank. And that Panzer tank is knowledge. It's willingness to do good work, understand their personal situation and understanding of how it all dovetails with the tax code. And you understand how to use AI. That is your Panzer tank.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Let's bust right into it. First question.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
And the guy next to you or the gal next to you who shows up after you, they're showing up fighting on horseback because you understand. You're one of the 5% that understands how to use AI. Let me finish where I began. Hi Scott, I'm a big fan. I'm a 23-year-old living in suburban New York.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
So Anonymous, so you're a 23-year-old and my understanding is you're thinking about starting your own type of distribution business. I always thought, so I started my first business, I've been starting business my whole life, but Es ist gut, dass du mit Leuten sprichst, und ich empfehle dir nicht, dass du nicht sprichst. Aber die Art, wie du ein Geschäft startest, ist, ein Klienten zu bekommen.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Ein Fehler, den ich ständig gemacht habe, den ich ständig gemacht habe, ich mache es immer noch, ist, dass man glaubt, dass man Geld spart, ist ein Geschäft zu bauen. Nein, das ist es nicht. Es ist Geld zu machen, das ein Geschäft baut. Also, der beste Weg, diese Idee zu testen, ist, zu sehen, ob man einen Kunden bekommen kann.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Und ich weiß nicht, ich weiß nicht über die kompetitiven Dynamiken hier oder die Situation mit deiner aktuellen Firma, aber ich würde versuchen, einen Kunden zu finden oder einen potenziellen Kunden zu pitchen. Yeah, talk to people, get some advice.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
If you're an introvert and you aren't comfortable selling, then you need to either find somebody who can sell and make them your partner or you shouldn't be an entrepreneur. Let me be clear. Entrepreneur is a synonym for salesman or salesperson. You know what being an entrepreneur is? It's getting out a big spoon every day and eating shit. Du verkaufst ständig.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Ich spreche nicht nur von Kunden, sondern auch von Investoren. Der größte Verkauf, den ich je gemacht habe? Ich hatte immer gute Produkte in meinen Firmen und ich fühlte mich mehr als verkaufen, als zu beenden, weil ich Content Marketing kreieren würde, um Content zu kreieren, damit wir dann Inbound-Leads bekommen. Ich habe unseren Sales Team genannt.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Du verkaufst nicht, du beendest, weil wir einen wirklich guten Job mit Content Marketing gemacht haben.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
The biggest sell I ever did was trying to find really talented people and then convince them to join my firm when they had offers from Google and Salesforce or trying to convince people to stay that we would get to a liquidity event and they would get economic security with me as opposed to C above.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Going to fucking Meta, where they were awarded options that were already, you know, $300,000 in the money. You are always selling. And if you are not comfortable with that, or you can't get comfortable with that, then you need to find a partner who is comfortable with it. There are some people that are so good at what they do, that they can build a business without selling.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
My landscaper is this really charming guy who will bring me out and show me. He's very emotionally manipulative. He'll come out and show me this Bougainvillea that he's helping us drape over our garage. I absolutely love Bougainvillea. It reminds me of my childhood in Orange County and my dad's super into them. And he just picked up on the fact that I love Bougainvillea.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
So occasionally he drags me out and he shows me this thing and he literally goes over and kind of hugs it like he's in love with it. Das verkauft, das entwickelt eine Beziehung mit einem Professor oder Podcaster, der eine Beziehung zu Bougainvillea hat. Wenn du dir nicht zufrieden bist, diese Art von Beziehungen zu behalten, wirst du jemanden finden, der es ist.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Also absolut, geh raus und sprich mit Leuten. Aber wiederum, die Art und Weise, wie du ein Geschäft startest, was ein Geschäft baut, ist Revenue, nicht Kosten. Und bei 23, es klingt, als würdest du unglaublich gut funktionieren.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Das andere, was du dir fragen würdest, oder vielleicht eine Küchenkabinett zusammenbringen und sie fragen würdest, ist, würdest du aus einigen Jahren Erfahrung bei deiner aktuellen Firma profitieren? Lernst du? Hast du ein Senior-Level-Sponsorium? Wenn du diese Dinge hast, wirst du vielleicht etwas über das Sticken denken.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Ist es eine Möglichkeit, mit dieser Firma zu wachsen, wenn sie herausfinden, dass du abgeholt bist? Was mich immer wirklich überrascht hat, war, als junge, talentierte Leute weggingen und ich sagte, wo gehst du hin? Und ich denke, das ist einfach der schlechteste Job jemals. Was machst du? Und sie denken, na gut, ich will in einer Position sein, wo ich Leute managen kann.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Na gut, warum musst du mich nicht fragen? Ich würde dich managen lassen. Is there an opportunity at your current firm? Develop a kitchen cabinet. Think about whether you might benefit from staying a year or two years. And think about how you get that first client. And if you are not comfortable selling, then you need to find someone to bring in the organization pronto that is comfortable selling.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
Because that's what it means to be an entrepreneur, my brother. But again, 23 thinking this way, you're doing really well. We have one quick break before our final question. Stay with us.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
She seems likely to drown. What should you do?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Scott’s Career Advice: Will AI Take My Job? Advice for Entrepreneurs, and How to Find What You’re Good At
We're taking Vox Media podcasts on the road and heading back to Austin for the South by Southwest Festival, March 8th to the 10th. What a thrill! We'll be doing special live episodes of hit shows, including Pivot. That's right, the dogs go into the great state of Texas. Where should we begin?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
Support for PropG comes from BetterHelp. Starting therapy can be intimidating and, to be honest, expensive. People may be hesitant to even start, though they know they benefit from it. But your mental health is worth it. Traditional in-person therapy can cost anywhere from $100 to $250 per session, which can add up fast.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
I feel as if I found a little bit more of my purpose. I think I used to say my purpose was to create economic security for others. So I'm looking at things or look through things through a professional lens and thought, okay, I've always been very focused on economic security and I thought, okay, now I want to provide economic security for other people. That's changed.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
I think what I find my purpose now is I'm trying to raise two good men. And by the way, sometimes I'm not very good at it. I'm still struggling with it. I find parenting – I find almost anything I've ever focused on I can usually get pretty good at. I don't know if I'm any good at this parenting thing. I know I'm not bad at it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
But I don't know if I'm good at it, but I've decided my purpose is to raise loving, patriotic men. And I don't know if I would have said that a few years ago, that that is my purpose, if you will. The second thing is, and again, everything for me is kind of, it's very crass, but I'm very economically driven.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
I've decided every year that anything above my current wealth, I'm going to give away or spend. So I'm spending a lot more money and I'm giving away a lot more. And I know that may sound like virtue signaling and it is, but I'm trying to really focus on doing a lot with loved ones, getting more involved and trying to plant the trees, the shade of which I won't sit under. And I'm very focused.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
I feel like for the first time in a while, I have purpose and my purpose is, you know, being a relatively good father. And that gives me some comfort because I think I was sort of wandering around, okay, what is the point here once you get to a certain status of economic security? And the people who most influenced me You know, I get a lot of influence from the young people I work with.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
I find them really inspiring, really intelligent. I like the way they look at the world and I spend a lot of time with them. So I think they inform a lot of my view and kind of keep my perspective a little fresher than it would be otherwise. So I get a lot of inspiration, you know, from the kids in the firm. I think of them as my muses.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
Welcome to Office Hours with Prof G. This is the part of the show where we answer your questions about business, big tech, entrepreneurship, and whatever else is on your mind. Today, we have two great listener questions lined up. And then after the break, we're continuing our new segment, the Reddit Hotline, where we pull questions straight from Reddit.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
And there's a lot of great influences out there, a lot of great podcasters, my co-hosts. At Pivot Cara, I get a lot of cues from her on parenting. I think she's a wonderful parent. I really like Sam Harris. I get a lot of insight from him, a lot of things I hold on to. If you have economic security and people who love you, you have an obligation to speak out.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
He said that and it really sort of struck me. There's a lot of wonderful role models out there. But anyways, the two things I think have changed the most I'm focusing on are really focused on the reward I get from being a father and trying to catch up in terms of adding value to... I saw a chart that just struck me and it's such a nice thing that I try to remember and that is,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
There's a chart tracking how much time people are spending helping other people they will never meet, and it's at an all-time high. And I thought to myself, I'm not high enough on that chart. I need to get a little bit more focused on helping other people, even if there's no reciprocal benefit. Anyways, kind of a, I don't know, a hallmark answer. But anyways, I think it's mostly true.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
Is that true? Anyways, next question. From 1.6960 reads, Scott, what is a topic you'd like to learn more about? I've said that in my next life, I'm coming back as a Navy SEAL, a Broadway dancer, or an evolutionary anthropologist. I've always regretted not serving my country. I've always thought it'd be fun. My dad wanted me to go to Annapolis and took me for a tour there.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
And then I found out that back then it was all men, that you weren't allowed to leave the campus the first year. And then I made the mistake of going to Hilgard Avenue, which is where all the stories are at UCLA. And it was like a fucking Cinemax movie. And I said, no, I'm going to UCLA. But I've always regretted not in some way serving. I'd love to be a Broadway dancer.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
I just admire people who can dance. I cannot, and I'm just so enthralled and enamored. My first girlfriend, my first like obsession when I moved to New York was a Broadway dancer, Michelle Potter. She was in the play Chicago and she came out, she's the first person on stage and the way the dancers move, I was just so starstruck and crazy in love with her. She did not reciprocate my affection.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
She was not nearly as in love with me as I was with her. I think she's back in Kansas teaching dance class. Anyways, Michelle, I hope you're doing well. Nice person, too. Anyways, but more than anything, I'd like to come back as an evolutionary anthropologist.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
If you'd like to submit a question for next time, you can send a voice recording to officehoursaprofgmedia.com. Again, that's officehours.com. at propertymedia.com. Or if you prefer to ask on Reddit, post your question on the Scott Galloway subreddit. Jesus Christ, that's something I never thought I would say, Scott Galloway subreddit. And we just might feature it in our next episode.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
I'm just fascinated by our lizard brains, our amangala, whatever it is, our instincts that create the behaviors or motivate us or shape what we do and who we are every day. I find it fascinating. If you want to believe in nature over nurture, just have two kids. I mean, we just haven't treated our two sons that differently, and they are absolutely a different species. So I'm fascinated by
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
what happened thousands of years ago to us and how it impacts the way we respond to things. I'd also be very interested in learning more about adolescent psychology. I'm trying to coach young men and understand more about it. I feel as if to be really thoughtful about it, you want to understand kind of what they're going through.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
And I don't feel as if I know about it to be as helpful as I could be with some of the young men I talked to who are clearly struggling. So I'd like to learn more about evolutionary anthropology and adolescent psychology. Thanks for the question. And lastly, D. Ryan, 7575 asks, what's your podcast recording setup while traveling? Huh, that's an interesting question.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
So I have one of our best hires is a gentleman named Drew Burrows, who's our technical director. And Drew will, when I go on a long trip, sometimes join me and just follow me around and make sure that we're totally set up. And he sets up all the studios. I have exact replicas of my studio in my London, New York, and Florida homes. If that sounds privileged, it is.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
But what he also does for me is he puts together a travel kit. And it basically looks like kind of a dop kit for an aging...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
self-conscious you know prima donna i'm all of those things so if imagine a large toiletry kit and in it it has a mic a bunch of cords and a really good headset and you plug it into your computer bring up riverside and boom you're ready to go and then i test shots test lighting work with true because i'm usually in some hotel somewhere And it's really fit my lifestyle. Now, here's the problem.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
If you look at the churn in podcasting, if you were to look at the 100 podcasts and the 50 new entrants and the 50 that dropped out and who will likely be the winners and losers over the next 24 months, I think it comes down to one word, video. Stephen Bartlett, who's sort of a role model of mine, despite the fact he's 30 years younger than me,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
The first time, literally the first day I was in London, two and a half years ago, I went on his podcast and I walked into his studio and he spends all his money, puts it all back into production value. It's basically a TV show posing as a podcast. He has these cameras.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
I was just in Austin at South by and he had recreated a studio and there must've been 16 cameras and three cameramen and people editing real time and producing photos as a gift for me when I left. He's got the strongest video game. And if you look at what's happened over the last couple of years, Essentially, Spotify and Apple have ceded ground in the podcasting world to YouTube.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
What a thrill! Let's bust right into it. First question, I have not heard or seen these questions.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
People are listening to more podcasts on YouTube in terms of time listenership, in terms of time. than Spotify or Apple. And it's based on how good your YouTube game is and your ability to optimize. And Stephen was showing me how they optimize for guests and test titles and thumbnails. I mean, they're just, and we're not that.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
And unfortunately, my desire to kind of optimize for my lifestyle, which includes having a mobile kit, is probably not where the industry is headed. I think you're going to see, I've predicted that Stephen's going to overtake Rogan as the biggest podcaster in the world because of his video game. So my dop kit is just a setup. It's just a Shure, I believe, mic, some cords, a stand.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
Maybe we'll publish on Reddit our exact setup. And Riverside. And then the key is I have a very talented individual who helps me figure out the lighting. And then just like writing a book, kind of the magic in podcasting similar to a book is in the edit. And that is our producer, Jennifer Sanchez, will spend a lot of time trying to make me sound smarter by
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
adding in sound effects, or more importantly, not what's in the podcast, but what she decides to take out. I think the majority of magic happens in the edit, but my mobile kit is essentially a fancy toiletry kit with a few items. But I wonder if those days are coming to an end and the new kind of kings and queens of podcasting are going to have serious production values. Appreciate the question.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
That's all for this episode. If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to officehoursatpropertymedia.com. Again, that's officehoursatpropertymedia.com. Or if you prefer to ask Reddit, just post your question on the Scott Galloway subreddit and we just might feature it in our next Reddit hotline segment. This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
Our intern is Dan Shalon. Drew Burrows is our technical director. Thank you for listening to the PropG Pod from the Vox Media Podcast Network. We will catch you on Saturday for No Mercy, No Malice, as read by George Hahn. And please follow our PropG Markets Pod wherever you get your pods for new episodes every Monday and Thursday.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
But with BetterHelp Online Therapy, you can save an average of up to 50% per session. Your well-being is worth it, and now it's within reach. Visit BetterHelp.com slash PropG to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash PropG. Support for PropG comes from Viore. Oh, my God. True story. I am wearing, totally coincidentally, guess what? Viore shorts.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
Thanks for the question. And I'm an enormous fan of South Africa. I've been to Cape Town a few times. Obviously, safari is sort of a singular experience. I actually enjoy spending more time in the cities than I do safari. It's like two or three days of look at that lion, look at that zebra. It's great. A couple of days, that's fine.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
And then I start doing the afternoon drive and everyone gets angry at me because I'm not going on both drives for this magical experience. But anyways, I absolutely adore Cape Town. If I was a younger man, there's a lot of shit I would do if I were a younger man. But one thing I might consider doing is if I could figure out a way to make sort of a Western salary and live in Cape Town.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
I just thought in terms of quality of life, it seemed just like a fantastic place to live. So just a little bit of data. According to NBC, the part of Trump's presidency that Americans disapprove of most is his handling of the war in Ukraine. Also, more than half of Americans believe that Trump is too closely aligned with Russia, including more than a quarter of Republicans.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
Since the beginning of Trump's term, foreign opinions of the U.S. have plummeted. Get this, just 27% of Canadians now see the U.S. as an enemy country. A majority of Americans still see Canada as as an ally, this is, anyways, across the EU, the most common answer to who is the US to the EU is a necessary partner over an ally, a rival, and an adversary in every European country.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
They're seen as sort of basically become more from an ally to a necessary evil. Look, First off, let's back up. What is a brand? A brand is a promise more than it is the actual performance. And that is before you buy a car, before you attend a university, I'm about to do a college tour with my son. And he listed the universities he is interested in seeing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
And it came down to things like, it looks like fun, or I like the logo or the website of school. Basically, he has no idea. And he's facing, he's basically going to make a decision, which might be kind of a quarter of a million dollar decision when you look at how much it's going to cost his parents to send him to four years to one of these universities.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
So he's going to make a quarter of a million dollar decision. with 90 plus points of gross margin, meaning that the majority of that money will go to the bottom line for whatever institution he ends up at, based on brand.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
I mean, Hilga will do maybe a one or a two hour tour of the university, but it's basically essentially the promise, the branding, the messaging, the reputation of the university that will dictate these enormous purchases. Now, Bring that back to a country.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
There are millions of decisions made every day around trade partners, who you're going to do business with, where your kids want to go if they're incredibly talented and they can go anywhere. Where do they want to go to apply their exceptional human capital? What treaties do we enter? Will we let a military base be constructed on our own territory? Do we like their media?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
Will we not cooperate with bad actors that want to hurt them? Will we not launder money for terrorist organizations? There are millions of decisions every day, either pro or against, certain countries. And here's the brand impression of the United States. We're enormous. We're enormously wealthy and successful. We make a lot of mistakes, but our heart is in the right place.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
We're always seen, loosely speaking, as the good guys for the majority of powerful nations and economic powers around the world. And we have reaped enormous benefit. People want to buy our cars. People want to consume our superhero movies. People want to send their best and brightest to our universities. People want to cooperate with us.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
The brand America is one of the most beneficial, invisible, powerful aircraft carrier squadrons ever manifested by an organization anywhere. The US brand is staggeringly powerful and has produced all sorts of margin and ancillary benefits for 200 years for the United States. And that brand has fallen further, faster than any brand in history over the last two months.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
We are now seeing, what is the U.S. brand right now? Surrender to Putin with a mix of measles? I mean, what is our brand right now? You can't trust us? We're not consistent? Tariffs on, tariffs off. I think the U.S. brand has fallen further faster than any brand of this size and this depth in history. Thanks for the question. Question number two.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
Viore's high-quality gym clothes are made to be versatile and stand the test of time. They sent me some to try out, and here I am. For our listeners, Viore is offering 20% off... your first purchase. Plus, get free shipping on any U.S. orders over $75 and free returns. Get yourself some of the most comfortable and versatile clothing on the planet. Viori.com slash PropG.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
That's an interesting question. But rather than talk about market research, I'd like to turn this back to me. Let's talk about me. So my first firm, when I was 26, I started a company called Profit Market Research. And basically we helped big brands figure out their internet strategy and manage their brand as assets, like a hedge fund manager would manage stocks in a portfolio.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
And I really enjoyed it. It was fantastic learning, incredibly taxing personally, a lot of travel. A lot of golf and dinners with clients, things like that. And I sold the firm for my stake, at least. I sold, I think, for a valuation of $33 million, which felt like a lot of money at the time. But the Dobb-Bomb implosion and their divorce took care of most of that.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
And then I started a company called L2, which was a strategy firm that you referenced that I sold to Gardner. I got that one right. Went to a recurring revenue model. Basically, we'd collect a shit ton of data and then meet with a brand on a regular basis and give them our insights around what we think they should do with their digital footprint.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
And would charge a Nike half a million a year and a smaller brand like a Rolex 100 grand a year. Got to 20 million in revenue and sold it for $160 million. And it was acquired by Gartner. Let me be clear, a nice group of people, they've grown their shareholder value dramatically. They're clearly doing something right. Everything they did made no fucking sense to me.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
When we were acquired, it was like that Seinfeld episode where George Costanza decides to do the opposite of every instinct and it ends up his life starts going much better. Every decision they made post-acquisition is exactly the decision I would not have made. I was such a fish out of water.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
I was literally a tuna on the deck of a fishing boat, flapping around, trying to figure out how the fuck did I end up here? How do I get off of this boat? and back into the water. I was such a cultural misfit. And again, I don't think it's them. I don't think it's me. I just think it is.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
This is a firm that basically figured out a way to kind of industrialize and institutionalize what I would call good, not great research, and then sell it to the North Oklahoma State Bank, whereas we were doing kind of more bespoke I would argue, insightful research for brands like P&G and Nike. But look, they're companies worth several billion dollars and L2 was sold for 160 million.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
So clearly they're doing something right and I'm doing something wrong. Now your question around AI, I do think companies like Gartner and research companies are going to be able to do a lot more with a lot less. And this is what I think the honest all hands would be. And that is I've got great news. Our revenues and our EBITDA are going to go up. I've got even better news.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
I'm going to need a third of you to do this in the next five years or a third fewer of you or maybe two thirds fewer of you. But you don't say that. at the all hands. I think AI is effectively to corporations what Ozempic is to the obese, and that is it shuts off the signal that you need to eat more.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
And AI in boardrooms, and I know this firsthand, is shutting off the signal that if we're growing our revenues, we have to hire more. That's just the automatic signal. Oh, we're growing, we need to hire more. Well, actually, ever since the meta earnings call three quarters ago that said, hey, we grew revenues 20% and we did it with 22% fewer people, which took earnings up 70%. Let me get this.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
That's V-U-O-R-I dot com slash PropG. Exclusions apply. Visit the website for full terms and conditions.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
I can have the great taste of increased revenues without the calories of increased costs. Well, hold on here. I like the cut of that jib. Oh my God. That's out as right as rain. That's disco. And I'm talking like 70s disco, real disco. And so a lot of companies are trying to figure out, especially information-driven companies, how they use AI to
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
to create 80, 90% of the value of an analyst for 10% of the cost. Now, what does that mean? If you're an analyst in a market research firm, quite frankly, you want to be a samurai and AI is your weapon boss. Otherwise, someone's going to come along with more skilled and more dangerous and put you out of business. I've said this a lot. AI is not going to take your job.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
Somebody who understands AI is going to take your job. So I actually think that Gartner will likely, what do I think of shareholder value there? What will happen? I don't know. That's an interesting one. Will AI help or hurt them? I would argue for a firm like that, it may help them in the short run. They're going to be able to cut costs.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
I do not think you want to be an analyst in a market research firm right now, or let me put it this way, a mediocre one. And by virtue of just probability, the bulk of them are mediocre. An exceptional analyst who really understands AI... and knows how to become incredibly productive and put out interesting data. What do you do? You figure this shit out.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
I remember when I moved to New York, they hired an assistant for me. I was running an e-commerce incubator called Brand Farm backed by Goldman Sachs, Maveron, JP Morgan. Different story, different story. And they hired an assistant for me. And the assistant came in and said, I just need to tell you that I don't like computers and I don't use them. I'm like, okay, you can't work here.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
And to say that you don't understand AI or you're not interested in it probably means you're not going to be able to work in a market research firm. So this is what you want. You want a second screen at work.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
You want your screen, your typical computer screen, and then you want a second screen that has nothing but AI on it, that has Midjourney, that has Anthropic, that has ChatGPT, and a bunch of the other cats and dogs. And every time you do a task, you want to turn to your second screen and think, how can my second screen help my first screen?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
What additional insight, data, research, ideas really get good at prompting? And before you know it, your head's going to spin around all the different shit you can do. Turn this into a chart. What is a different way to frame this? What types of visuals might better display this information?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
What additional data, parables, historical, anthropological evidence can you do to support the following argument that I'm making today? in the above two paragraphs, right? Just so incredibly powerful. But your job, and you sound, you know, you are young, you're 34, you need to be a weapon. Oh, let's lay off the guy who really understands AI. Says no firm ever right now. You want to be that guy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
In sum, let me finish where I started. AI is not going to take your job. Somebody who understands AI is going to take your job. We have one quick break, and when we're back, we're diving into the depths of Reddit, the bowels of Reddit. We're about to do a colonoscopy on Reddit, and I promised to do what I always ask my colonoscopy doctor to do before I go under, and I think it's fucking hilarious.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
I say, will you run your fingers through your hair when you're invading me? And they always think that's really funny, and then I'm out. By the way, that drug, what's it called, propanopal, that they give you for the colonoscopy, that shit is money. Wow. Wow, you are sleeping like a corpse there. We'll be back for our questions from Reddit.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
So we want to introduce you to another show from our network and your next favorite money podcast, for ours, of course, Net Worth and Chill. Host Vivian Tu is a former Wall Street trader turned finance expert and entrepreneur. She shares common financial struggles and gives actionable tips and advice on how to make the most of your money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
Past guests include Nicole Yoder, a leading fertility doctor who breaks down the complex world of reproductive medicine and the financial costs of those treatments, and divorce attorney Jackie Combs, who talks about love and divorce and why everyone should have a prenup. Episodes of Net Worth and Chill are released every Wednesday.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Is America’s Brand? How AI Is Changing Work, and How Scott Records from Anywhere
Listen wherever you get your podcasts or watch full episodes on YouTube. By the way, I absolutely love Vivintu. I think she does a great job. Our first question comes from DebtItAll777, and they ask, Hi, Scott. What are the two things you've changed your mind about in the last few years, and who are the people who most influence you? So I would say they're kind of two profound changes in my life.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
I have a, as usual, I always enjoy incorporating my own personal parables into all of this. When my mom passed away, I handled all her, you know, only son. And so we had her bank account and I kept it open for a while such that we could pay any remnant bills. And I just left the money in there for a few years, mostly because I was too lazy to figure out what to do with it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Well, I don't know, but I reserve 50 tickets and daddy needs new shoes. So we'll see. Daddy needs new shoes.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And it wasn't a ton of money. And when I was reviewing it after year one, I noticed that $3,600 or something had been just taken out. And I said, what was this? Did we pay this? And it said it had some government thing on it. And it ended up that the Social Security Administration had continued to pay her Social Security for three months post her death. And they recognized it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
They have some system of figuring out. They look at death certificates or something. And then they just went in very cleanly and then pulled it right back out. So they were pretty efficient. and immediately figured out she was no longer living nor entitled to Social Security payments.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
GEICO, her insurance company, obviously I'm not very meticulous, I noticed something like two or three years later, I kept saying, what is this $120 payment that keeps going out of her account every month? And GEICO continued to take money out of her account for her car insurance. And so I called them and said, okay, my mom died. It might've been in four years. I'm like, my mom died years ago.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
I sold the car years ago and you have been taking money out for her auto insurance for years. And they said, well, per your policy, it's incumbent upon you to notify us. And they wouldn't give me the money back. So there's Geico, private sector, and there's government. One of them is corrupt, amoral, and inefficient, right?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Let's be honest. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. One of us is quirky and interesting. The other is smart and hot. I'm going with smart and hot sold us out. And I hope that doesn't trigger our feminist followers. But yeah, I've done a lot of these events. I've never had It sold out for this big an auditorium this quickly. And I think you're the variable here.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
That makes the government, the other guys, they were honest, very efficient, So the notion somehow, people got to stop shitposting government, right? And what I figured out is you can shitpost everyone in government unless they're carrying an assault weapon. We're pretty benign towards cops or an ax, firemen.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And if you're carrying an M15 with a uniform, then all those people are heroes and everyone else working for government is incompetent. Well, how can that be possible, folks? And we just don't give enough credit to the rank and file.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And one of the things that's most discouraging about all of this is that in the next administration, which I'm convinced is going to be a Democrat, because I think people.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Well, and I usually get this wrong. So let's be good news. I should caveat that. But I think that essentially Trump and the clown car here. is revealing itself every day. And I think even, not even moderate Republicans, but I think Republicans that are, Jesus Christ, we did not bargain for this. And I think the next administration will fill their administration with talented people.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
People want to serve, they can attract really talented people. We'll have no problem should we retake the White House in three years, in nine months to get competent people. The hard part is the millions of employees that work in the engine room and make this shit work. Because when you fire the people overseeing your nuclear stockpile, and then you ask them to come back, a lot of them don't.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And guess who doesn't come back? The people with the most external opportunities, which is Latin for the best people. Imagine you're... run, I can't even imagine. I've run organizations my whole life. If I said to the entire tech team, you're fired. I did it via email. I don't care how long you've worked. You're fired. Go all your emails been turned off.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And then a couple of weeks later, I said, Oh, I fucked up. I realized we do need technology. You're rehired. They just, most of the most talented ones would not come back. They'd be like, no, I'm, I'm sorry, boss. You can reach me at You know, LisaM at Google.com. I'm now at Google. So the hollowing out of what is, in my view, the most impressive organization in history, and that is the U.S.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
government, specifically, I would argue it's probably the U.S. military, but in general, the U.S. government. that gives delivered unbelievable prosperity, rule of law, rights for what are some of the lowest taxes in history. You just look at it as a product, the shit you get from America, from the US government and how much you pay for it. This is the best product for the price in history.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Anyways, we can't say who we have, but we have someone who's probably a likely contender for president and a huge power player. I didn't want to guess. Jess did. I thought we could carry the thing. I want more opportunities to talk about me. And he'll take some of the oxygen or she, he or she will take some of the oxygen out of the room because they're a player, a player. But you wanted a guest.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And you have to credit some of the people in the engine room doing this. And we are essentially saying to them, this is a bad place to work. And it's going to be very hard to bring back the morale, the standard. How are you going to get young people? How are you going to convince the best and brightest?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Some of our government agencies, specifically our security apparatus, recruits out of my class at NYU. I don't think a lot of them are going to want to go to work for the government any longer. I don't want to get summarily fired for no reason. I don't want to be overseas and find out. I just heard, I don't know if I told you this, a great kid, Greg Townsend, who was in my fraternity.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
I hadn't heard from him in 30 years. Four years. Anyways, and he said, I've been working for the UN. And I basically, he's in Switzerland and then he was in Africa. And he said, I hunt down and prosecute war criminals. And he makes a good living, not a great living. He made much more living in private practice as a lawyer. Met a woman, fell in love. She does something similar.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And he said, overnight, a few weeks ago, all payments were stopped. None of them are getting paid. And they've decided to continue to do this work. And if you think about, you know, it's probably a good idea that if people decide to go into remote villages and start killing women and children, that there might be a price to be paid down the road. That's a good incentive system to have in place.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And we've just decided to remove that incentive system. And when Greg finds another job, which he will, because he's a very talented guy, and at some point he has an obligation to support his family, if we call him back in four years and say, you know, we're sorry, we're firing up. whatever it is, the UN Rights Commission on or the, I forget what it was, the UN, I forget what organization it is.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Are they going to get people like Greg Townsend back involved in government? So this is, this is yet another example of how we are not thinking, how we are taking, we have taken for granted what an outstanding organization and people are so angry that they don't understand that organizations like this, the culture, the engine room is really hard to replace.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
It's not like turning off and on a switch. Even if we get the right people back in charge, the damage here is going to be lasting for a while. Any thoughts?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Tim Miller's been great on this.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
His mother. Go to his Instagram page and decide if you think he's a Venezuelan gang member.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Yeah. So I couldn't get past your career journey from academia to the private sector. And now you're on The Five and doing a pod with me. What went wrong? What went wrong? Okay. Let's take a quick break. Stay with us. Support for the show comes from SelectQuote. We can spend a lot of time worrying about our family's financial security.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Get the right life insurance for you for less at selectquote.com slash prop G. Go to selectquote.com slash prop G today to get started. That's selectquote.com slash prop G.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
So I'm dying to be relevant in Miami, in New York, in L.A. I could give a shit about being relevant in the Beltway. I think the Beltway is literally the name a cool bar in D.C. First off, the people aren't that hot. Secondly, no good bars, nowhere to go out after midnight. I mean, I could literally give a shit how relevant I am in the Beltway.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
So we want to introduce you to another show from our network and your next favorite money podcast, for ours, of course, Net Worth and Chill. Host Vivian Tu is a former Wall Street trader turned finance expert and entrepreneur. She shares common financial struggles and gives actionable tips and advice on how to make the most of your money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Past guests include Nicole Yoder, a leading fertility doctor who breaks down the complex world of reproductive medicine and the financial costs of those treatments, and divorce attorney Jackie Combs, who talks about love and divorce and why everyone should have a prenup. Episodes of Net Worth and Chill are released every Wednesday.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Listen wherever you get your podcasts or watch full episodes on YouTube. By the way, I absolutely love Vivian too. I think she does a great job. Welcome back. President Trump signed an executive order to begin dismantling the Department of Education, a long-held conservative goal.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
While he needs Congress to fully eliminate the agency, his administration is already moving key functions, student loans to the Small Business Administration and special education programs to health and human services. Critics argue this will gut protections for students, especially those with disabilities, while supporters say it will cut bureaucracy and return control to the states.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Jess, what immediate impact do you think this will have on students, schools, and families, especially... with layoffs hitting the department's civil rights office?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
So they don't do that.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Yeah, I went into ChatGPT and I asked if you wanted to
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
destroy america or undermine democracy what would you do and it gave me it was really interesting that things that came back with including have algorithms on social media to get people fighting with each other over non-important issues but one of the things that came up was said slowly erode public education such that people aren't critical thinkers and i'm like i started reading all these things and it's sort of frightening that okay that kind of feels like what we've done the last 20 years
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Not even the hotels are that cool. The hotels are lame. It's inspiring. It's where you take your kids. But if you want to roll, if you want to have some fun, if you want to meet super interesting people. Yeah, the people from DC, anyone who's lived in DC for longer than 10 years, pro tip, they brighten up a room by leaving it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And most of the people are from different districts, so they're from different areas.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
It starches them of all their cool once they get there.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Clearly. All right, today... In our episode of Raging Moderates, we're discussing what's going on with the Social Security Administration. Trump tries to dismantle the Department of Education in the 2024 presidential election autopsy report. All right, let's bust into it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Thank you. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
The head of the Social Security Administration, Leland Dudek, threatened to shut down the entire agency over a court ruling, only to walk it back after a federal judge called him out for misinterpreting her order. This all started when the agency gave Doge broad access to Social Security data to supposedly root out fraud.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
A judge stepped in, saying that was a major privacy violation, and Dudek responded by claiming that limiting Musk's team also meant limiting his own employees, essentially making it impossible to run Social Security.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
net worths of over 10 million, their tax returns purposefully get really complex. And you need highly skilled, well-resourced, and expensive groups of people to hold those people accountable. And this is what's happened with our tax code. It's created an incentive of the following, an incentive structure of the following.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
If you're really, really wealthy or you're a corporation, the incentive is to be absolutely as aggressive as possible. Because if you've got a parking meter in front of your house that costs 50 bucks, but the ticket... is 10 bucks, you're gonna break the law, or you're gonna be as aggressive as possible.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And our current tax system, as it relates to the wealthiest Americans, basically incents them to be as aggressive as possible in terms of what they write off, because A, probably there's no sheriff in town, there's a lack of agents, and B, even if the sheriff shows up, the penalties are fairly minimal. So the notion, and then this trope that somehow the good people of the IRS
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
are mean or harassing people. No, they're not. They're trying to make sure that people pay what they're supposed to pay so that we can afford SNAP food payments and the Navy. So again, another example, cutting funding from the IRS. Who does that benefit the most, cutting funding of the IRS? Does it benefit all taxpayers who are aggressive? No, it benefits the top 1%, full stop.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
The judge wasn't buying it, and now Dudek has backed down, but this whole situation raises big questions about what's really going on with Social Security under the Trump administration and Musk's involvement.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
See above my unifying theory of everything, Jess.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Break it down. That's why I'm here. All right. Let's take one more quick break. Stay with us. Welcome back. I just want to call out, you are entering that stage with little kids where you are going to be, you're going to have a cold for about the next 10 years.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
No, but their parents had a lot of meltdowns. So it's really a, I think mothers, I think women may know this is going to happen. I don't think most dads realize the panic- in stress you're gonna feel when one of your kids is not doing well.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
I mean, something God really does reach into your soul and turn on a switch that says, not only are you gonna love this thing, but you are not going to be able to relax for a millisecond when your kid isn't doing well. The few times my kids have not have had a health issue
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
I mean, I remember when my son had a breathing issue or a respiratory issue and he would do go on this, I forget what we call it, a breathing mechanism that they would put medicine in it and he would breathe through this thing. And I was so freaked out that the medicine had gone bad and somehow I might be like- Poisoning him. Yeah. You get so paranoid, so neurotic.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Meanwhile, protesters, retirees, and union members are sounding the alarm about potential cuts and disruptions to benefits, as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick suggested that only fraudsters would actually notice if Social Security checks just didn't go out one month. I can't even get past that statement without saying, Jesus Christ, talk about winner of head up your ass.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And I'm not someone who, at least until the last few years, was ever neurotic or worried about anything. And then Ted Sarandos' wife wrote this book, and I love this statement, that grief is the receipts for love. I think anxiety is the receipts for kids because, you know, you do get a lot of joy from them. But anyways, I feel for you because I never, ever anticipated the type of crazy stress.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
I mean, when your kid does break out on hives, there's no like, oh, it'll probably be fine. It's like, what the fuck? Like, get to the emergency room. Or even...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
I'll just go to work. Whatever. Man up.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
One of the lowest, actually, of course, one of the lowest paid providers. Let's back to me. Did you know when I applied to UCLA, I thought I was going to be a pediatrician? That's what I put in my application. Really? Yeah, and then chemistry disavowed me of that when I got a D in it. Sent me from South Campus to the North Campus.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Thank you for that.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
I'm good with kids, actually. I'm shockingly good with kids. Anyways, but it sent me from North Campus- I'm sorry, from South Campus to North Campus, where the people were much hotter and the parties were much better than the South Campus.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Everything worked out. But I actually thought, I actually believed I was going to be a pediatrician for about a year. Anyways, before we go, we're getting clear insights into what happened in the 2024 election.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Blue Rose Research's analysis shows that key voter groups, including Hispanic, Asian, young, and disengaged voters, shifted towards Trump, mainly due to his perceived strength on economic issues, including inflation. and the cost of living. Despite concerns over democracy, voters felt Trump was the better option.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Now, with Trump's popularity dropping, the Democratic Party is left scrambling, unsure about their identity and next steps. The analysis reveals that if those who stayed at home had voted, Trump would have won the popular vote by almost five points. While Trump's favorability remained steady, Vice President Harris and the Democratic Party saw significant drops.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And voters cared most about issues where Dems lost trust, like the economy and inflation, though they still trusted them more on health care. Jess, this is kind of your wheelhouse. Which findings from the Blue Rose data really caught your eye? Any surprises or patterns that stood out to you?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
That statement, as you can imagine, did not go over well. Let's have a listen.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Well, I love this stuff, but I like to bust the solutions that... In my view, even the poll is the problem of the Democratic Party's platform. And that is, in my view, how you get Latin voters back or Hispanic voters back is you stop talking about them. The way you get Black voters back is you stop talking about them. And what do I mean by that?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
The Democratic Party has to make it verboten to continue to engage in identity politics. And they should focus on the economy through the lens of the middle class. There's been too much advantage... crammed into the most, the most advantaged group in America right now are non-white children of rich people.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Because we have based affirmative action on race and our entire politics in the Democratic Party through identity. And it made sense 20, 40, 60 years ago. The academic gap between black and white 60 years ago was double what it was between rich and poor. And now it has flipped. And the swing voters have one thing in mind. Swing voters are have the economy in mind.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And this is the opportunity because it's dynamic, meaning some cycles people see Democrats as better on the economy, some Republicans as better on the economy. And what the Democratic Party, in my view, needs to do is say, look, we are going to restore the middle class. The most prosperous nation in the world should have the following table stakes.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Young people need the venues, opportunities, and means to meet someone, fall in love, And should they desire, own a home and have kids. So we're going to have mandatory national service, more freshmen seats, vocational programming, more interaction for less anxiety. We're going to have 7 million manufactured homes in cool little areas that cost 30 to 50% less.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
My dad is 95. He's struggling. And he is in hospice. He no longer recognizes anybody, including his son and his daughter. If his social security check didn't show up, I'm pretty sure he would come to and head down and protest. The notion that this wouldn't immediately cause massive panic For anyone whose son isn't the head of an investment bank and magnificently rich, I couldn't get over it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Then homes built on site, we're going to make it affordable. We're going to have low interest rate loans for anyone under the age of 40. We're going to have a tax holiday for anyone under the age of 30. We're going to have $25 an hour minimum wage. And if you don't want to get married and you don't want to have kids, fine. You can spend all that money on brunch and St. Barts.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
But we are going to get out of this lens of trying to shove advantage into and talk about the needs and the wants and the injustice of people based on their gender, their sexual orientation, or their race. And we're just going to say, we are here to reverse engineer everything we do to the following. The middle class in America and young people are going to have the opportunity
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
to be able to have kids and have a home and live in relative prosperity. And these are the eight, 10, 12 programs. And stop rolling out every special interest group, which all it says to the 24% of people that don't qualify for a democratic special interest group, that we're not going to discriminate against you. We're about the poor and the middle class rising up. That's it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
That's your only identity politics. Because even these polls are like, how do we get Hispanics back? No, you don't want Hispanics back. You want the middle class back. And you want to stop telling people you should vote for me because you're Hispanic and I'm better for you. Hispanics don't want you to talk about them as a group. Try and group
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Mexican-Americans in Los Angeles into the same group as Cuban-Americans in Florida. They have entirely different priorities. And the notion that the daughter of a Taiwanese private equity billionaire needs affirmative action is just fucking stupid. All of our programs should be focused on color, specifically money. If you don't have money in America, you need more. And corporations and the top 1%
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
should be paying a lot more, lowest taxes in history for corporations since 1939, 25 wealthiest Americans paying an average tax rate of 6%. And everything that has happened over the last 30 years is an attempt to cram more money into the top 1% of corporations. But for God's sakes, get away from these polls and this discussion of how do we get Black voters back?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
No, how do you get the middle class back? Stop the identity politics.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
This was tone deaf even for the Trump administration. Your thoughts?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
I think you have your sister soldier moment. And I say, you grow the fuck up. I'm not here to play identity politics. I'm here for young people. Programs to focus on young people would right now disproportionately impact and benefit young men who are struggling. It would disproportionately impact young men of color who are really struggling.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And look, Democrats need to come out of the closet and acknowledge the following data and truth in America. And that's the following. You would rather be born today, and this is a victory we should celebrate, you'd rather be born today non-white or gay than poor. And that's great. That's a sign of our victory. So who are we going to help?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
We're going to help the poor and we're going to help young people. And by the way, the way you calm special interest groups down who are used to Democrats showing up and pandering to them is you say, folks, do the math. There's a 70 percent overlap. between many of the special interest groups who count on the Democratic Party to represent them and poor and middle-income households.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
As MLK said, if you don't bring along the white poor, you're never going to make that much progress because it creates resentment. It also creates accidental racism where when you're at a school or anywhere, you immediately look at someone left and right and think, okay, did they get in? 54% of gay men are attending college. It's 38% of straight men.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
I mean, at some point, we just have to acknowledge the data and be the party of the middle class instead of rolling out every special interest group and having Michelle Obama, who I adore, go, who's going to tell them this might be a black job? That is not helpful. That is not helpful. And the only people that don't parade on stage are young men.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
when they're in fact are the ones who have probably fallen further faster than anyone. So get away from the identity politics. The discussion around how we get back Hispanics is only going to alienate more Hispanics. It's to say we've made tremendous progress.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
We are here to lift people up who are poor and make sure the middle class is the most prosperous middle class living in the most prosperous country in the world. And here are a series of programs. And if you want me to talk about
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
What goodies you get because of the color of your skin or your sexual orientation or whether you have indoor or outdoor plumbing, other than protecting a woman's rights to family planning, I'm not going to engage in that conversation. I'm here for the middle class, full stop. I think that message really resonates. It gets a lot of moderates back in the fold.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And it gets the white poor back in the fold. And I think a lot of non-whites are absolutely ready to have that conversation. They're sick of being categorized and taken for granted that I vote for Democratic because you're going to throw more goodies at me because of the color of my skin.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
No, they they. And. And Trump can point to a bunch of data from 16 to 20 that non-whites actually did okay during his administration. Now, granted, it was all debt-fueled, which is a tax on young people, but that's the argument. We've got to stop these deficits. They're going to fuck our children in 10, 20, 40 years. It doesn't matter what color you are, what sexual orientation.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
If we keep running up deficits, you're all going to be fucked. That's the argument.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Right. That's not a bumper sticker, is it?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
We sold out the Y. We sold out the Y. Oh, my God. I'm so excited about that. I keep rubbing it and Kara switches face. I don't know if you heard.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
I'm like, I don't know if you heard, but me and the much younger Jess Harloff sold out the 92nd Y in about three minutes. I'm like, we've never done that, have we, Kara?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
There you go. Actually, now all of a sudden I feel a little threatened and a little jealous.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Yeah. I think you guys, yeah, that's an interesting thought. Don't get any ideas. Remember who discovered you. All right. That's all for this episode. Actually, I think Rupert Murdoch discovered you. All right. That's all for this episode. Thank you for listening to Raging Moderates. Our producers are David Toledo and Chinenye Onike. Our technical director is Drew Burrows.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
You can now find Raging Moderates on its own feed every Tuesday. That's right. What a thrill. Its own feed. Folks, we're doing great, but we need you to subscribe to our own feed so we can hit certain benchmarks and bring in the big advertisers. That means exclusive interviews with sharp political minds. You won't hear anywhere else if you subscribe to our distinct feed.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
This week, Jess will be talking with Senator Gallego. Make sure you follow us wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss an episode. Jess, I'm glad. that your little girl is doing just fine. And again, I don't know if you've heard, we're doing an event at the 92nd Y and we're sold out.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Thanks, everybody.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Yeah, I mean, there's so much here. First off, one of the things that's really disappointing was, I think in the first Trump administration, he did find really talented, bright people and surrounded himself with talented and bright people. And I don't think that's the case here. I think the litmus test is, will you do anything I say? well, are you willing to go out and lie?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Are you willing to go out and just speak non-truths? He's looking for acolytes and cult members, not for competent professionals. I mean, just looking at the last commerce secretary under Biden, Gina Marie Raimondo, she was a venture capitalist, a lawyer, the governor of Rhode Island. She was outstanding.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And anyone who dealt with her thought, this is someone who does an outstanding job of representing U.S. commerce interests domestically and internationally. And this guy's going off and saying that Just stupid shit. First off, if you're guilty of Social Security fraud, I doubt you're going to complain. I think you probably want to stay under the radar.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Sky Galloway.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And if there's anything Doge has proven is that there's a lot less fraud and waste initially theorized, including Democrats. They're having trouble finding fraud and waste. And just a few things about Social Security. It arguably is the most successful social program in American history. It's taken senior poverty from about...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
They think it would be somewhere around 38%, and it's taken it to below 10%. So it's been hugely effective. Now, what I will say is, and we might differ a little bit on this, and I'm looking for points of friction because we're usually in sort of violent agreement. I do believe, well, you said that you paid into it, it's yours. I don't agree with that.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Jess, we are literally bigger than the NVIDIA conference. We're maybe even bigger than Taylor Swift. We have sold out in minutes the 900-seat auditorium. At the literally the Cathedral of Wokeism, the 92nd Street. We are sold out, Jessica Tarloff. I know. We are sold out.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
I think the reason they call it a Social Security tax, not the Social Security pension fund, is I don't think you or me have rights to Social Security when we hit 65. And the notion that I paid into it, I should get my money back, actually, the majority of people take out well more than they actually put in.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And if we're going to, I believe that nobody over the age of 65, or maybe even under the age of 65, should live in poverty. And I'm absolutely not against cutting Social Security benefits for anyone who needs it. I believe Somewhere between 10 and 30 percent of people who get Social Security right now should not receive it because they don't need it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
And that is the wealthiest generation in the history of this planet are senior citizens. And the fact that every year we affect a $1.2 trillion transfer from young people who are not doing as well as they have in past generations to the wealthiest generation in history means something is wrong. And I do think that the initial instinct around reforming Social Security is a good one.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
It's something I would like to see someone take on because I think when the program was started, people were living on average 10 to 15 years. They were dying much earlier. They weren't making as much money. They weren't working as long. So to means test it, And slowly but surely increase the age limit or the age qualification. We just need to do it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
There used to be, I think when the program was initially conceived, there were 12 young people paying into the system for every one person taking money out. Now it's three to one. And if you were really serious about this, this is how outrageous our economy has become in terms of the transfer from young to old. So it's a program that should keep seniors out of poverty.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
It shouldn't continue to be a wealth transfer from the young to the old who are already, as an aggregate, the wealthiest generation in history. We need serious reform. We need to dramatically change. cut the costs. It's been way too politically dangerous to get near. $40 billion child tax credit gets stripped out of the infrastructure bill.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Old people have figured out a way to vote themselves more and more money. It needs to stop a good, I'll go as high as a third of senior citizens should not be getting Social Security. Your thoughts?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Social Security and Education Are Being Reshaped
Basically no one.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
It might be enticing to try and sleep through the next four years, but if you're wondering how to survive a second Trump term while staying fully conscious, Pod Save America is here to help you process what's happening now and what comes next. Every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, John Lovett, Tommy Veeder, John Favreau, and Dan Pfeiffer wade hip-deep
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Yeah.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
and put aside your petty, stupid fucking differences because this is an existential threat because you no longer have a sane and quite frankly, decent ally that I don't want to say you shouldn't have, I'm not saying you took them for granted, but quite frankly, they realize now a big brother's not going to save us here.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
We have to develop our own unified approach to an economy, our own unified approach to a war machine. And I think it might actually be very unifying. In addition, Going on a war footing sometimes or preparing for a war footing can actually be good for an economy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
My trip was great. I was in Zermatt. I'm basically now... If someone told me I could never ski again, I would say, well, how much will that cost me? All I can think about is the ACL I'm going to tear, and it's cold, and I don't know, skiing's not my thing anymore, but it's a good way to trap my kids on a mountain. And it's European skiing. It's all about the lunch. And you go and you drink lunch.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
People are disappointed that the Russian economy hasn't sunk as fast as some people thought because actually a war footing helps juice an economy, at least in the short term. This bullshit that the Ukrainian government the war in Ukraine has somehow been bad for the U.S. economy. Yeah, it's sort of expensive, 60, 65 billion a year. Okay, fine. Military budget's 800 billion.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
By the way, about 95% of that has gone back to U.S. military suppliers and has juiced the economy in red states. I wonder if it might actually bring unity to Europe, which is that Europe might actually be a union
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Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
again, that the Brits realize they have more in touch or more in common with the continent than they thought, and maybe even do something like a backseat move where they become more integrated again with the EU. They increase their military spending, and they put up a front that says, okay, we've got this.
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Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I think this is an opportunity for leadership in Europe to say, Ukraine and Germany has said this, we've got your back. We recognize that this is a huge loss, but be clear, you don't need to surrender and fold right away. And the other silver lining is,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I don't know if you've seen any of these Republican town halls, but there are enough people who have grandparents who fought in the war, who remember how terrible Russia has been in terms of our own interests, and hate the idea that America is surrendering. to Putin, that we are surrendering to a gas station posing as an economy who is only taken seriously because it has so many nuclear weapons.
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Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I think the majority of Americans, as evidenced by that data, think, wow, this is just too much. I am not down. I don't understand why we are surrendering. It makes no sense. It is not good for the world. Even the far right is having trouble. I mean, okay, Tucker Carlson goes and gives Putin a lap dance and can't get over those amazing shopping carts at their grocery store.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Folks, I have been to Russia. I mean, we are not going to have an outflow of American citizens going to Russia. You can be sure of that. It is not a great place. They have nothing on us, folks, nothing. This is not a society, an economy, or a leadership to look up to. And I wonder if the silver lining here is that Europe becomes a union again.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
NATO actually hopefully comes back stronger, because I think it'll take some time, even if the Americans try and unwind it. I don't think they're going to be able to. And Europe puts forward a more unified front against... And they've been doing it. They've been spending more than us. But I hope this is the wake-up call. And I was thinking about...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
You know, this blitzkrieg of information to try and confuse everybody, DEI, Doge. I read this morning they're trying to like partner, bring back Andrew Tate. It's all a fucking sideshow to get you to look away from the fact that they are trying to recalibrate the world order. And this is unacceptable. And I think it's unacceptable to most Americans. And I hope this
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
people who do not want to be surrender monkeys show up at the ballot box in about, whatever, about 22 months and send their congressman a message that we are not down with this, that you need to speak up and say this is not right. Anyways, I'm trying to think of what could go right.
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Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And yeah, it's great. And I enjoy that. And time with my boys. So it was wonderful. What did you do last week?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
How do you think that manifests? Like, if you were to guess what the—on the ground, how do you think that shows up in today's electoral politics? What do you think happens?
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Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Yeah, this is a messaging issue in my view, because one, okay, it's 60, $65 billion. And what we've failed to do is show that the majority of this capital, a vast majority of it ends up back in the U.S. economy, back in red states.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And the way I would position it is it's a stimulus program to help manufacturing in the U.S., help create jobs, and that regardless of what you think of Ukraine, if we stop doing this, it's going to result in a dramatic reduction in money and jobs and prosperity across mostly red states.
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Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
That this is no different than, okay, when we send grain abroad for food aid, if you stop doing that, it would hurt farmers in Iowa. And just to contextualize it, it's $62 billion. And what have we gotten? Let's put the moral arguments aside because the moral argument is why do we give a shit about trench warfare in Ukraine when my son can't find a job or I can't afford my diabetes medication?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I think that's a fair argument. Okay. Let's just look at it from an economic standpoint. For approximately 1% of our spending, we spend $7 trillion, so less than that, the majority of which comes back to red states. It comes back to U.S. manufacturing. We get to take out a third, or so far taken out a third, of Russia's kinetic power. We've destroyed a third of their tanks.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
We have put their economy on its heels to a certain extent. We have defanged what was supposed to be one of the most ferocious armies in the world. We have reduced the likelihood of terrorism against Western allies and terrorism domestically because a lot of their proxies who they were supporting have been castrated.
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Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
They do not have the bandwidth to wreak havoc, which they have done since the end of World War II across different satellite countries because they are bogged down in a war. And it shows that essentially our enemy can be pushed back when the West gets attacked together and unifies without, by the way, without a single American boot on the ground.
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Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
A manager's charge at the end of the day is to allocate capital to its greatest return, to a greater return than your peer group. The president is the greatest allocator of capital in history, thereby the greatest manager in history. The best ROI, the best example of great management over the last 10, 20, 30 years is the $60 billion stimulus program in the U.S. that has resulted in the defanging
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
the pushback of an enemy at very little cost to us. And that cost comes back to us in the form of jobs in the U.S. This is, distinct of the moral argument, this is a great deal for us. It is a great deal.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Would you rather have Russia with this superior fighting force that the whole world is scared of, or to have a third of its army taken out, to have a ton of its soldiers, and I hate to say this, killed, To have China thinking twice about invading Taiwan, saying what a small motivated army can do that's technically literate and backed by the West.
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Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
The West is a much safer place with the pushback that the incredible Ukrainian army has provided. Kind of at very little cost to us. I mean, this is chump change. This is just not a lot of money when you think about the fact it ends up back in our economy. It's not as if this is not the problem, folks. Social Security is going to be $1.3 trillion this year. This is $60 billion.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Elon Musk has made $210 billion since the election. This is $60 billion to make the world a much safer place with a strong message that when the West comes together, is it an insurmountable fighting force and could push back on a murderous autocrat. This is about messaging. Do away with the moral arguments. I think those will be made on their own, but just say, this is a great investment.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
We'd be stupid not to continue making this investment.
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Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
What? Yeah.
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Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
We do. All right. Let's take a quick break. Stay with us. Support for PropG comes from Grammarly. Think about the most tedious part of your job. Is it writing the exact same email you've already written a hundred times? Some studies have shown that 88% of professionals spend more than half their work week on repetitive writing tasks.
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Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Oh, like that feels a little creepy.
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Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Well, imagine you had an assistant that could take the small stuff off your plate and help make your writing more effective and persuasive. You're in luck. because that's why Grammarly exists. Grammarly is your AI writing partner designed to help improve your communication. It's not just a glorified thesaurus.
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Grammarly can give you writing prompts, help with brainstorming, and can even help you strike the right tone for your intended audience. And the best part, they offer enterprise-grade security and will never sell your data. So you can have the peace of mind that comes from knowing that your data is completely secured.
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We've used Grammarly at PropG, and as I've said before, it has made us more efficient and takes our written work and makes it just, quite frankly, more competent. Get more done with Grammarly. Download Grammarly for free at grammarly.com slash podcast. That's grammarly.com slash podcasts.
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We're taking Vox Media Podcasts on the road and heading back to Austin for the South by Southwest Festival, March 8th to the 10th. What a thrill! We'll be doing special live episodes of hit shows, including Pivot. That's right. The dogs go into the great state of Texas. Where should we begin?
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Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
with Esther Perel, a touch more with Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe, not just football with Cam Hayward, and more, presented by Smartsheet. The Vox Media podcast stage at South by Southwest is open to all South by Southwest badge holders. We hope to see you at the Austin Convention Center soon. Visit voxmedia.com slash SXSW to learn more. That's voxmedia.com slash SXSW. Welcome back.
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Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
We're just one month into Trump's second term, although it feels like an eternity. Trump's approval is sinking. See above, silver lining, with polls showing him underwater and his aggressive budget cuts aren't helping. Doge is slashing jobs at the TSA, FEMA, and even the NIH unit researching Alzheimer's. Meanwhile, Speaker Mike Johnson is cheering on Musk's crusade to shrink the government.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
But he's also throwing cold water on Musk and Trump's idea to send Americans $5,000 rebate checks with the supposed government savings. Some Republicans say it's unconstitutional. Others call it a political stunt. And budget experts warn it would need congressional approval if the savings even exist.
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Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Yeah, I definitely, there's something about, I've noticed that when women, after they have kids, like seven, eight years later, especially women who I think got a lot of confidence from their looks, when their kids get a little bit older and they realize they've spent 10 years doing nothing but raising kids, Everyone talks about dude's midlife crisis.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
But Trump and Musk are plowing ahead, promising the Doge dividend will put money in voters' pockets. The rebate idea is already causing a split within the GOP, with Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski calling parts of Doge unconstitutional and disastrous. Could this be the breaking point where Republicans finally push back on Trump?
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Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
into the week's political news and fish out some political analysis you can trust. Yes, Tommy's shoes get ruined. Yes, he'll do it again tomorrow because the endeavor is worth it, and so is your sanity. Tune into Pod Save America wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Yeah, with respect to Doge, again, I think, I mean, it sort of goes to, okay, what to do? A common psychological warfare technique is to overwhelm the opposition with so many different outrageous things and so many different aggressive topics, issues, inbound missiles, that you're overwhelmed and become flat-footed. I suffer from this. I don't even know where to start.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And the way you respond is the following is, okay, you don't need to respond to everything online. You don't need to take up everything with emotion and anger. You should cite experts. You should bring in data. And then pare down what you're going to focus on in terms of your pushback. So, for example, I think Doge is a giant fucking weapon of mass distraction. $50 billion. $50 billion. Fine.
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Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
They want to try and right-size government. People are understandably concerned that there's a lot of waste. Government needs to be right-sized.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I think the wrong messaging is all this quote-unquote injustice that I get these national forestry people are wonderful and that there's going to be diapers on the side of your favorite trail, and that they got an email and they've been fired after 18 years of service. But I think a lot of Americans say, welcome to the fucking work week. This happened to me or it happened to my cousin.
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Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I have never seen midlife explosions across some of my partners and their friends. Oh my God, they go crazy. So you got that to look forward to. I love how you brought that up and you kind of like that, that you didn't mind the pervy As long as it was a little bit. It sounds like you kind of didn't like it, kind of did.
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Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Private equity came in and bought out our chiropractic clinic, and we got our phone shut off. I think what is happening to a lot of these workers has happened to a lot of people in the private sector. And to be blunt, there isn't a groundswell of sympathy, I think, or empathy they were hoping for.
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Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And people think the government needs to be reined back in as it has been on a regular basis, including under Clinton and Gore. Now, having said that, what I would focus on is the incompetence. I would focus on the fact that, okay, they didn't save $8 billion here, they saved 8 million.
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Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Oh, they fired the nuclear, the people overseeing our nuclear stockpile, only to rehire them, which makes it more expensive. Oh, you can be clear that the people regulating Tesla's self-autonomous driving unit, they've all been fired, right? That this is essentially corruption and incompetence at very little money.
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Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And the thing they should link this to is, okay, while they're off here playing Keystone Cops and playing incompetence girls gone wild here, they want you to look over here at $50 billion in savings. Okay. They're planning with with the tax cuts that will benefit me, I ran, I looked at the new tax proposal and I ran my W-2 through it.
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Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I'm gonna save a million dollars a year with Trump's tax cuts, right? Fine, government's too big, save us that 50 billion. But be clear, you're not fooling anybody. You're planning to increase taxes on future generations by the biggest tax increase in history. It's 900 billion here. Let's just come together and agree on
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Somewhere between 12 and 18 times the amount of the $50 billion we're arguing over in terms of Doge. While everyone is obsessed with Doge because it makes for good TikTok and people know people in the government, the real story here is somewhere between $600 and $900 billion a year increase in taxes on future generations. I think that's what we should be focused on.
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Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I traveled a lot. I made a lot of excuses and left town.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Yeah. No, I was out. So along those lines of children, today we're going to be talking about Trump turning on Ukraine, Trump's honeymoon coming to an end, and Mitch McConnell's retirement announcement and legacy. Let's bust right into it, Jess. One month into his presidency, Trump is making a dramatic pivot toward Russia, upending decades of U.S.
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Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Yeah, like Medicaid, 80 million people, one in six households or one in six kids, 40% of births, the elderly who are disabled. I mean, this is, and also it is actually a really well-run cost-effective program. It provides health coverage for low-income Americans at a lower per person cost than private insurance.
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Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
So Medicaid actually helps the economy because unless you're gonna decide you're gonna let people die, of their cystic fibrosis, or you're gonna let old people, the disabled, wither away, what is the most cost-effective way to give people some dignity to make sure that kids can't actually, we can provide their medication, we can provide their in-home physical therapy for the disabled.
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Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Well, this is a lower cost way to do it. And it is very popular. And the fact that they're, you know, hey, look over here at $50 billion in Doge savings and we'll give you a $5,000 check, but we're going to cut, what, $600 to $800 billion from Medicaid? I mean, this really is, it is, in my opinion, showing their true colors.
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Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And that is, at the end of the day, the most remarkable thing about the Republican Party is that it serves not the 1%, it serves the 0.1%. And the fact this is all a giant ruse to say, look over here while we cut taxes on the very wealthiest Americans. And I do think this is probably a bridge too far. I think they will probably check back on Medicaid.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I hope they don't because I think this could probably be the beginning of a pretty serious clean sweep or close to a clean sweep once we have the midterm elections happening. But Medicaid is, I would say, maybe with the exception of Social Security, is the most popular social program in America, maybe even more popular when you look at its effectiveness.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
foreign policy while previous Republican leaders championed a tough stance on Moscow. That was kind of their go-to. Today's GOP is largely silent as Trump moves to cut support for Ukraine and cozy up to Putin. His administration has even floated excluding Ukraine from NATO, and he's blaming Zelensky for a war Putin started.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
But this is great messaging for the Democrats that, okay, do you know anyone on Medicaid? This is who they're coming for. And if you think, if they can cut, you know, 16 times what they say they're going to cut in Doge, that's what they're planning to cut from Medicaid. It's not like that. It's like, at some point...
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Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Is somebody, and we need to be a Republican, going to give them a, do you have no sense of decency speech, right? At some point, somebody needs to stand up, and I think someone is going to find their backbone here. The budget proposed just endorsed cuts to Medicaid by $900 billion. This is just this is extraordinary.
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Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
It's just so insane. And I think the messaging so far has been pretty good around this. But the notion that Okay, we're a household that makes $50,000 a year. That's our tax receipts. We spend $70,000. That's our government expenditures, $7 trillion on $5 trillion in tax receipts. And we are $350,000 or $35 trillion in debt. But we're going to cut our expenditures by $500,000.
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Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
and send a check to people rather than paying down our debt. I mean, it's just, does anyone do math anymore? Have citizens gotten to the point where it's like, you know, I just give it up. My kids are fucked. Just run up their credit card. I don't care. I do think there's going to be enough people who are going to go on.
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Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
social and say, this is just stupid to start sending checks when we're planning to run up the deficit another $900 billion a year to send checks to people for $5,000 rather than paying down the debt. That absolutely, again, to your point, that just makes no sense. All right. One more quick break. Stay with us.
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Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Meanwhile, a Quinnipiac poll shows that 81% of Americans, including 73% of Republicans, don't trust Putin. So why is Trump ignoring them? Jess, Trump's team is pushing for a peace deal on Putin's terms, which European leaders say would weaken Ukraine. If this strategy backfires, what are the long-term consequences for U.S. influence and alliances?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Welcome back. Before we wrap, last week, Senator Mitch McConnell announced he won't seek reelection in 2026, marking the end of a four-decade career that reshaped American politics. As Senate GOP leader, he cemented a conservative judiciary, steered his party through shifting ideological tides, and clashed with Donald Trump in recent years.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
His exit raises questions about the future of the GOP and the battle for his Kentucky seat with former Attorney General Daniel Cameron and Rep. Andy Barr already in the race. Jess, what do you think McConnell's legacy will be?
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Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Oh, no, I'm calm. I'm fine. I'm just fine.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
So I'm a full-blown ageist. And do you know who else is ageist? Biology. My son had a Halloween party. He was 14. There were 15-year-old girls in my house that are more qualified to be senator than Senator Feinstein was in the last year of her Senate. They would have done a much better job. They would have had a much broader grasp and understanding of the issues than Senator Feinstein did.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Put these people on a fucking ice floe. Enough already. You have to be 30 years of age to become a senator. Why? Because a 29-year-old, they believe, does not have the experience, the maturity, or the cognitive ability to make decisions on behalf of a country.
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Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
But someone who doesn't know where the fuck they are and freezes on a stage when asking questions, someone who—someone who literally—there is a—I believe it's a Republican female representative who literally doesn't know where she is. It's tragic. She's suffering from late-stage Alzheimer's. Biology says, hold my beer, when mostly Democrats talk about, scream ageism.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And because we have a system with Citizens United where the incumbent almost always wins, and these people must get great reservations at great restaurants in D.C., and they decide to never leave, we need age limits for both the Supreme Court and for our elected representatives. Enough already. I mean, make it something low like 80 or something like that. But at some point, it is time to go.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
His legacy will be the following, in my view. showing to the world just how much Senator Schumer sucks. And that is this guy, call him Machiavellian, call him evil, he outplayed Democrats every step of the way. While our leadership decided to send a strongly worded letter around all these outrage around Merrick Garland, he always won. He managed to pack the courts up and down.
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Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And when a 14-year-old girl has to carry a child from incest to term, when a woman is bleeding out in an emergency room parking lot from sepsis because a doctor is worried about going to jail, it is because our leadership were fucking neutered and didn't want to go gangster the way McConnell did. McConnell was shameless. He is the graveyard digger for democracy, and he was highly effective.
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Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
We need more Democrats like that. I want to see the same sort of shamelessness that Speaker Emerita Pelosi brings to her fucking corrupt insider trading. I want to see some of that gangster corruption, some of that gangster backbone, some of those big fucking balls to negotiations with Republicans. His legacy... Maybe he was right, maybe he wasn't, but he sure as hell was effective.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And this is the problem that the Democrats suffer from and what I have suffered from my entire career is they cannot discern the difference between being right and being effective. He was much more effective than Democratic leadership. Yeah. Can we disparage him and say that he was evil and that he did the wrong thing? Yeah. Hold my beer, bitches. He outplayed us days one, two, and three.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Yeah, Senator McConnell voting against Hegseth and Patel is like Hannibal Lecter deciding he's a vegan on his deathbed.
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Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Oh, he did?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Oh, that's right. He voted against Hegseth and Gabbert. You know, great. These folks seem to develop a conscience after they leave Congress and then go on Bill Maher or when they decide they're resigning. That doesn't... I don't think he deserves any, quite frankly, any props for that. All right. That's all for this episode. Thank you for listening to Raging Moderates.
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Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Jess, by the way, I hope for you this week that at some point in the park with your kids, someone comes up to you and says the following. God milf. Oh, that's good.
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Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
That's good. I've been waiting. I haven't been able to focus on anything else. Our producers are David Toledo and Chenenye Onike, our technical director is Drew Burrows. You can now find Raging Moderates on its own feed every Tuesday. That's right. What is real? Our own feed. There you'll get exclusive interviews with smart voices in politics and ours.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Please follow us wherever you get your podcasts. Jess, have a great rest of the week. I hope you have a ton of inappropriate comments coming your way. I can't wait.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I think that we take for granted that the number of people who have not died or the number of people who've died at the hands of another human being declined dramatically post the World War II order. That the number of children who died because of hunger or infectious disease has absolutely plummeted. That the number of people who get to
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
be with their dying partner because we embrace civil rights, that the opportunity for a Black girl to become a lawyer or a doctor based on her merit without being held back based on her ethnicity, the color of her skin, her gender, her sexual orientation, that the post-World War II operating system in the West has been the most prosperous system decent, righteous era in history.
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Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And central to all of that was this post-World War II order where Western democracies would have each other's back, that we had disagreements. But at the end of the day, we recognize that elections, rights, rule of law,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
a certain level of decency, not demonizing special interest groups, that we had been, we brought a group of people out of the darkness, Germany, and allied, turned our enemies into our allies by, in this extraordinary move of vision, the Marshall Plan invested in our former enemies. And we had this new world order of the most prosperous nations in the world who had each other's back.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And we took this operating system for granted. It was so incredible. it yielded such incredible fruit for so many people that we kind of took for granted that, well, of course, that's a default operating system. Why would we do anything else?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
So when Trump decides to ignore history and give in to a murderous autocrat that is invading Europe and lie to say things like Zelensky is a dictator or that Ukraine started this war, I think even the Russians are shocked at this shit. I think they're like, what? Yeah, how did this happen?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And you just can't help but think, okay, so is this essentially Trump saying to Putin, let's carve up the world, let's have spheres of influence. You have these rights to Antarctica or to the North Pole now that all the ice is melting. You can have domain over these nations, whether it's Ukraine or Turkey or Crimea, and you make your money, I'll make mine. Europe, they're fucking wimps.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I'm sick of them. I'm sick of them lecturing at me, whatever. We'll just carve up the world. And you get yours, I get mine. And we're dictators and we're autocrats and we're both going to make a shit ton of money. Other than that, I can't find reasoning for it. Is there a silver lining here? I think Europe is saying, okay, we can no longer depend on the U.S.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
and we can no longer depend on their umbrella of military support. That might be a healthy thing. Europe is substantially increasing their own military budget. But this is an upending of the world order since World War II that has been the most prosperous country You know, the North Atlantic Treaty has been the most prosperous operating system in the history of our species.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
So this is, in my view, while everyone's focused on all this bullshit and this misdirects of DEI or Andrew Tate, or even Doge, I think is a misdirect. This really is the story. This is the thing we should be focused on. And that is, do you really wanna break up what has been the most successful alliance in history? Do we really wanna have a reputation for abandoning our allies and saying, okay,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
history is wrong. When a murderous autocrat invades Europe, we shouldn't be worried.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And there's some merit to those statements.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Can you believe that? It's not easy to believe that. It's not easy to make Nazis less likable. And we figured it out.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
How much did you miss me? How much did you miss me? Is it tough?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I love this term. Well, what if what could go right? And I wonder if I see this and I was just horrified. I mean, first off, Senator Marco Rubio, like, who the fuck are you? But literally, and when I mean that, it's not like, who are you to say these things? But I have no idea who this individual is. He was this cold warrior. That's how his foreign policy stance was. He was a cold warrior.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
And now he's signing up to the notion that Ukraine started the war. That would be like FDR saying, well, what were those ships doing in Pearl Harbor anyways? The Japanese, I can see why they attacked us. This is just insane that we would be surrendering, that we would say, OK, that's it, where we surrender. And I wonder, I'm trying to see the silver lining here.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump Ditches Ukraine and Cozies Up to Putin
I think Europe is more impressive than people give them credit for. You know, Dassault makes incredible money. Jet airplanes, the German tiger tanks, and the manufacturing capability there is incredible. The economies of Italy and France are still relatively big economies. The UK has some of the best universities in the world. Europe, this is a wake-up call. Get your shit together and unify.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
It looks as if we are the gang that can't shoot straight between these ridiculous, feckless attempts to be angry at the Joint Address or march down to federal buildings and wave our cane. It's clear the leadership is divided and has no control over the caucus. They're responding late. One of the strategies that the GRU sort of invented and that Trump has adopted is flooding the zone.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Every day throw so much shit out that they react to and chase that we can slip through almost everything because they're not unified. They don't know which arrow to put their wood behind. And so let's announce we're letting the Tate brothers back into Florida. Everyone goes apeshit. Let's blame a helicopter crash on DEI. Everyone goes apeshit.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And they're not looking at kind of the bigger issues that America cares about or they could actually have some reasonable chance of pushing back on. America, quite frankly, over the last couple of weeks has been the nation of surrender. Trump surrendering to Putin and the Democrats surrendering to Republicans.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And his argument was that, look, Schumer's argument was that all we were going to do here was play into Trump and Musk's hands by closing the government, shutting it down,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Jess, so this is going to be like every other show. You're going to have to carry it. I got home at about 2 a.m. last night from Mexico. Very jet lagged. Was up till 4. Took a Xanax. And I woke up about 10 minutes ago. Cool. And I'm feeling a little, I don't know. I feel like a Democratic member of the Senate. I don't know where I am. I just want soup.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Everyone in the government or nearly everyone in the government would be furloughed except where he could invoke some sort of emergency powers to keep air traffic controllers and effectively never end the furlough and essentially shut down the government. And they didn't want to let him do that. We're at that point where we need to take that risk.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And that is the government is no longer a government of the people. When you are sending plans, when you are denying court orders, when you have the richest man in the world who has no congressional oversight or approval going upstream of those programs and cutting out funding to things like USAID, which by latest estimates is going to cost 3 million lives this year.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
then, okay, it's no longer a government of the people. You have usurped government, and we're not down with that. We are fine. Let's shut down government. And they also miscalculated. I listened to Senator Schumer on his follow-up on The Daily, and he said that, effectively, he thought, okay, this is, without it, the entire government would be shut down and we would be blamed. No, we wouldn't.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
If we then... whatever it is, 45 days of inauguration or what is it, 60 days now, the government is shut down. People would feel this and I believe they would hold Trump responsible.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Okay, he's inaugurated and the government gets shut down and it's not reopening and people aren't getting their diabetes medication and we're having trouble with flights and people aren't getting their Social Security payments. This was essentially the Democrats saying, we are so fucking disorganized. We have such an inability to punch back.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
I mean, for God's sakes, the first thing they should do, it's like when I was in Sunday school, they used to say, what would Jesus do? That was meant to be a framework for decisions. What would Jesus do? And now my attitude is for the Democrats. I am so fed up with their feckless, stupid rationalization of doing the weakest thing possible. What would Mitch McConnell do?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And what Mitch McConnell would have done here was said, this is an unacceptable policy. Unfortunately, Americans, and he could show data, don't agree with what's going on in the government. we'd like to work with the president, but the Republican party is so off the rails in terms of American priorities, we refuse to sign this bill and force them to negotiating table.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And also there was an in-between, there were several steps along the way, including a filibuster where we probably could have got some. I mean, this literally is like, oh, our biggest fears about how just incredibly weak and our inability to punch back because we have really weak
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
unstrategic leaders with absolutely no command of their constituents, that all bubbled up and said, yeah, your worst fears are being realized here, that there is no adult supervision. The kids are running wild at the Whole Foods and there's nothing we can do. There's absolutely, absolutely nothing No parenting here.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And the outcome here is I'm now convinced that the new junior senator from New York is going to be AOC in 2028. I think Schumer's out. I think he looks so incredibly weak. I'm just sick of being bested by people who have control of their caucus. Thoughts?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And I'm looking for people to do my work for me. And I have just absolutely no understanding of my surroundings or the current situation. So back to you, Jess. What's going on?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Yeah, I agree with all that. My only thing is the social media being kind of put out there as we're fighting back feels like they hired someone's niece to do their social media. They just look so unnatural and so uncomfortable doing it. But this was an opportunity for the Democrats to at least fight back. And Americans will take bad policy over weakness.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
I think that one of Biden's losses was when you talked to him about When you talk to voters about policies, people vastly favored Biden's policies over the stated policies or non-policies of Trump. But they just they they just weakness and a lack of resolve are just death knells and politics.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And right now, the Democrats look fragmented, weak and just like we're clutching our pearls all the time and complaining and yet have an inability to even punch back. And this we just look weak. We look defeated and we look like, I don't know, agents of surrender. All right, Jess, we're going to take a quick break. Stay with us. Support for Profiteer comes from ShipStation.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
So uncomfortable fights are just part of it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Yeah. Just lean in. And what was the... Let me help. So I'm very good at running other people's lives. Give me the situation. I'll tell you who is right, who is wrong, and what you need to do.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Support for Prop G comes from Mint Mobile. Sometimes it can be nice to spend a little extra money, like when you want to spoil your child, or take your partner to a special restaurant, or when you want to show your parents you do make enough of your job. But no one wants to spend all of their extra money on a phone plan. Luckily, there's Mint Mobile.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
New customer offer for first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fee extras in Mint Mobile for details. Welcome back. The Trump administration is facing sharp criticism after ignoring a federal judge's order to halt the deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
The White House argues the order came too late as the planes were already over international waters. It's weird. I heard planes can actually turn around. But legal experts warn this move could mark the start of a serious constitutional showdown.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Meanwhile, concerns over immigration enforcement are also growing on college campuses where a Palestinian activist and Columbia University student leader, Mahmoud Khalil, now faces deportation. His arrest has sparked fears the administration is targeting political dissent under the guise of national security.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Jess, the administration claims it wasn't actively defying a court order rather than operating within the legal gray areas. What are the legal consequences of this move?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Yeah, this is really, if you think about I mean, it's sort of deciding, all right, we don't have a country. If we're not going to have laws, an easy way to reduce a lot of crime would be to do away with search and seizure laws.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And that is if for whatever reason your local law enforcement or federal law enforcement can just come raid your house, raid you, incarcerate you, hold you for as long as they want until they're satisfied they're either right or wrong, you would see a drop in crime.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
it might be you with that knock at the door and that we're going to pay for a certain level of insecurity around, you know, overtime crime and those rights. And that rule of law and that democracy attracts so many talented people and makes people feel so good about America that ultimately results in a greater quality of life, greater prosperity, greater economic growth.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
This is essentially saying, okay, we're now in an autocracy and the people in power get to kind of make the laws and basically Not listen to the government. So there are literally no checks and balances. The Republican Party, who is in control, has said, I'm willing for an unelected official who was not born here to essentially usurp my power as an elected representative, right?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
So that branch of the government is gone. Then sort of the last man standing or the last defense between us and total autocracy was supposed to be the courts. And they have said, we don't give a shit what the courts say. Yeah. I mean, when I saw it, the courts have ordered these flights to stop. Then that means the flights can't go or can't turn around.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Well, they said they basically stuck up the middle finger and said, stop us. So this feels like when you challenge the court, nothing happens here. they will have the incentives and the signal that they are now the law, that the White House, the Trump administration and the supporters are now the law.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
The judges are now similar to Republican representatives who are so scared of being primaried or a weak and feckless Democratic Party that there's effectively, we've gone from checks and balances to absolutely none of them. They've all been sort of shut down. And the one that kind of tested my resolve around this, or I had some a moral dilemma, if you will, is Mahmoud Khalil's arrest.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And it did tickle my progressive censors.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
I think an individual here on a green card who is inciting violence, in my view, and shitposting America and making a campus environment less productive and kids can't go to class and basically tearing at the fabric of America, and also the legal argument for deporting him, is that when you're here on a green card, you are not supposed to promote or endorse terrorist activities.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
That is a legal argument for deporting him. And I can see making that legal argument. The problem is the way they went about it, and that is he was effectively disappeared. And that is he was arrested and detained, and his family and his lawyer couldn't even find out where he was. And it ended up he had been transferred to a facility, I believe, in Louisiana.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And that's the thing that's really upsetting and bothersome. And as much as I would like to see this individual having had been expelled and maybe losing his, I imagine he's, I don't know if he's here on a student visa or a green card.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Just green card. Not just green card.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Yeah, it's the best you can have. It's a great card. The bottom line is this, is that regardless of how shitty the speech may be, if you start rounding up people and deporting them for political speech, be careful for when that knock comes on the door, because eventually it means that if you have political speech.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
that is counter or detrimental or disparaging of an administration that now appears to be ignoring court orders and is suing and intimidating and saying publicly now that people at CNN and MSNBC should be prosecuted. I mean, we are, you know, we're effectively in a full, I don't know what you want to call it, dictatorship where speech is now chilled.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
So as much as I would like to see bad things happen to this individual because I think he's created incredible dissent and that he's wrong and that he's inciting violence, if he hasn't really broken any laws and this is just political speech and he's getting disappeared and deported, who's next? And what qualifies as political speech that is worthy of deportation? So there's a lot here.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
It feels as if
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
because we show absolutely no resistance, no coordination, no backbone, and quite frankly, it feels as if the flooding the zone has the public looking in so many different directions over if and what to respond to, that this is now... I used to think that the focus should be on Ukraine, our surrender to Russia over Ukraine, the deficits, but this feels like it really is something that Democrats should be focusing on and messaging, and that is
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
have we broken down all of our constitutional checks and balances that in fact make us a democracy and a country? And the last week, I would think the last week, and I'm trying to think if I'm being somewhat, I'm catastrophizing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
It feels like the actions of the last week, if they go unchecked and the Democrats and the public don't coordinate, mature, gestate a really thoughtful, strong response to this, that we have pretty much taken a pretty strong step away from a democracy situation. to an autocracy. What are your thoughts about Mahmoud Khalil's arrest?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Sure. No, I understand. I understand. No, the real fissure here is between you and horrible couples who are those couples who decide they're not giving their kids screen time. Those are awful people.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Yeah, I do think that Democrats have a habit of sticking out our chin and having this fist of autocracy stone come for it. And to your point, if I had gone down as a faculty member of NYU with a big sign saying, burn the gays or lynch the blacks, they would have had no need for context. My ID would have been turned off.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
I would have been shut out of academia, fired, never allowed back on the campus, never been able to work in academia again. But when Yeah, free speech has never been freer when it's hate speech against Jews. And the Republican administration has now found an opportunity to tap into that rage and that wrong and go way too far and deny the rights of everyday Americans.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Yeah, those are the people that, oh, it's parenting and they shouldn't have screen time. Those are awful people. You need better friends, too. The real key here is you need to start hitting your children. That... immediately resets the operating system and brings a moment of shock, but a moment of peace to everything. And I'm in favor of giving them screen time. So first off, I totally empathize.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And this is just a huge failing, in my opinion, and has created an opening the size of the Grand Canyon for the Republicans to come in or for the Trump administration to come in and start violating everybody's rights. And I actually did advise or have been advising the Regency of the University of California on this issue. And their general viewpoint is, my advice was, this is super easy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
They were really worried about fall, what happens when the students return last fall. And because UCLA, I think probably, I think the most shameful moment I've ever felt, and there hasn't been a lot of them, For my alma mater, UCLA, it was when kids were passing out bans to non-Jews. And if you didn't have a ban, you couldn't access certain parts of the campus.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
So they basically decided to prohibit Jews from certain, you know, from campus activities. And I thought, okay, what's going to happen here? And I don't know what happened, which probably means nothing. And they said, well, what would you do? And I said, it's very easy. The first protest, first sign of any protest around where there's hate speech is
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Or there are people trespassing who aren't students or the students are doing anything resembling what would qualify as hate speech, of which there's a lot. If it's a peaceful protest, of course you do nothing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
But if it's not and it turns ugly or they're occupying facilities like what recently happened to Columbia, you give them 15 minutes to vacate and then you start expelling students and let them call their parents and say, oh, that $72,000 tuition, I'm coming home. And you do that right away and word gets out really fast. And there was this bullshit argument that, Scott, these are young people.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
We can't just start expelling them in a wanton kind of reckless fashion. And my response is the following. At Columbia, they expel 91% of freshmen every year. It's called the admissions process. And the notion that somehow you have a birthright to attend a private university and that you're protected by these first... You have... You're at a private organization.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
It's like no shoes, no shirt, no service. They have the right to kind of determine the laws as long as they're not breaking the law. And the fact that they have come across as so incredibly anti-Semitic They have stuck their chin out, and the result is an overreaction in the Trump administration taking advantage of this weak, bigoted thinking to go the other way and have an overreaction.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
I do think, to your point, this is a response to an incredible lack of leadership and insanity on university campuses. I'm about to do a college tour with my son. And I'm fascinated by colleges and admission standards and data and enrollment trends.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And it's interesting, the schools that are booming in terms of applications are these Southern schools that are seen as apolitical or even a little conservative. Parents are sending their kids, they want their kids to go to college. They don't want a political orthodoxy. They don't want a school and administration that sees themselves as engineers of social engineers. It's really interesting.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Southern schools or schools that are distinctly seen as somewhat center-left are booming in terms of applications. But Columbia University leadership goes down as such incredibly misguided, weak leadership that has set up an overreaction that has been justified.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And the cloud cover for the justification of an overreaction has been what have been an incredible lack of leadership and blatant anti-Semitism. So this is, you know, this is like a lot of democratic policies. We start on the right foot, we take it too far, and we set up an overreaction because people are just rolling their eyes and thinking, okay.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Making an argument for a six-foot-four swimmer to show up to a swim meet who presents as female and then blow away everything. Didn't win a single race as a male swimmer, but is absolutely winning everything. And then having everyone on the left applaud and say, isn't that inspiring? You set up an overreaction where we begin demonizing a special interest group for no real reason.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And the same has happened here. We take things too far. We stick our chin out and we set ourselves up for an overreaction that makes things much worse than if we'd had a less insane, thoughtful reaction.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
I go absolutely crazy when our kids... when our kids, my kids, or other kids are loud and distracting. If they're really loud and distracting, I think you take them outside and separate them from the rest of the crew. I have no patience for that. Also, it's a very difficult situation. Actually, I'm now being serious because the reality is
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Or Wake Forest or SMU. Wake Forest, yeah.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Vanderbilt is now as difficult to get into as many Ivy Leagues. There's so many applications.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Yeah, well, as you can imagine, I think a lot about this. And I do think it's tempting to think that because there's so much manufactured artificial stress, as someone who's going through it right now, from universities who've adopted a rejectionist exclusionary strategy, and despite sitting on an endowment the size of the GDP of a Latin American nation, only let in 500 students.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Dartmouth sits on an endowment of $8 billion and lets in 500 freshmen. Harvard sits on an endowment of 52 billion and decides to only let in 1500. That is morally corrupt. If you had a drug that made people less likely to kill themselves, more likely to get married, more likely to pay a lot of taxes, less likely to be obese, less likely to be depressed, would you hoard that drug?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
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We in higher education hoard that drug. We have the resources, we have the capability, There would be absolutely no sacrifice in the quality of the students. People say, oh, but the brand would go down. When I applied to UCLA, the acceptance rate was 76%. It's now 9%. And it wasn't exactly a Joey Bag of Donuts brand back then. We have become the enforcers of the caste system.
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And as much as we like to believe that, oh, don't worry, college won't matter. It does, because America is turning into a caste system, and the easiest way for corporations to evaluate human capital is based on the school they went to.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
So the notion that it quote-unquote doesn't matter anymore is a lie we tell ourselves, such that we feel better about the massive amount of stress and the inequity and our disappointment in higher ed. And what has slowly happened in higher education is me and my faculty, sometimes who are 15 administrators to everyone who actually teaches higher
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Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And I get accused of this a lot, and that is I decide I understand parenting when it's bothering me, but I'm not interested in participating in parenting when everything's fine. And so it's a little bit like selective parenting. But I think the good news is this is only going to happen to you about every two weeks for the rest of your marriage until the kids are out of the house.
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Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
have decided that we would rather not have accountability, so we teach bullshit, ridiculous courses that have no measurable outcomes. Leadership, sustainability, DEI, ethics. Show me someone teaching ethics, I'm gonna show you a FIP, a formerly important person who hangs out at a university, makes two to $400,000 a year,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
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for trying to teach a 27-year-old in business school how to be more ethical, which is such the height of arrogance. Instead of being centers of excellence, we've turned it into a political orthodoxy machine where the vast majority of the faculty are very left, not reflecting any diverse thought and where you can get in trouble for certain words. We have totally lost the script.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
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Our job is to give you the skills to go out and create economic security for you and your family and do great work, empower the economy. And the fact that we have become this exclusionary and this arrogant and teaching all of these bullshit courses with no measurable outcome, the result is we constrain supply. And it's not about who gets in, it should be about how many.
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Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
If a school doesn't increase its freshman seats faster than population growth, it should lose its tax-free status as it's no longer a public servant, but it's a hedge fund with classes. Higher education absolutely needs to be reformed. Anyways, that's my TED Talk.
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There you go. Well, there's some nuance there. That's what I call it. It's nuance. All right, Jess, let's take one more quick break. Stay with us. Support for Prop G comes from the NPR podcast Up First. What's your relationship to the news right now? Is it something you can possibly check 200 times a day until you feel sort of queasy?
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Or do you take the opposite approach and refuse to engage with anything coming out of Washington? It can feel almost impossible to balance the need to stay informed with thoughtful self-care. But if you're looking for a way to square that circle, you might want to listen to the NPR podcast Up First.
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Up First is a daily show that covers the three most important stories of the day in just 15 minutes, so you can learn what you need to know and then move on with your day. Every episode gives you what you need to be informed without compromising your sanity. Episodes touch on the essential stories on topics like international conflict, the new administration, and so much more.
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I listened to a recent episode on the situation in Ukraine and found it very even-handed and and just generally, you know, kind of fact-based. What do you know? If you're looking for more news and less noise, you can listen to the Up First podcast from NPR today. Support for Prop G comes from Nutrafol.
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Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
So I think, and also I think your husband needs to realize as it relates to parenting, he's an influencer, not a decision maker. I have generally found, which is a bit of an abdication and I want to acknowledge that, but I've generally found that mom has just much better instincts around how to handle this stuff than dad. I'm a sexist that way.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Welcome back. Before we go, talks between the U.S., Ukraine, and Russia over a possible ceasefire are picking up steam. And the Kremlin is saying there's some reason to be hopeful. Specifically, the world's largest nation has become a surrender monkey. Anyways, after meeting with Trump's envoy in Moscow, Putin signaled he's open to a 30-day truce, but with conditions that are pretty one-sided.
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Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
He wants formal recognition of Russia's land grabs and a promise that Ukraine will never join NATO. Zelensky has stood firm on not giving up land, but lately he's prioritizing security guarantees over getting territory back right away. Meanwhile, Americans are skeptical of Trump's handling of the situation. A new CNN poll shows 59% think Trump's approach won't lead to long-term peace.
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Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
50% say it's flat-out bad for the U.S., and nearly 6 in 10 disapprove of his handling of the U.S. 's relations with Russia. Jess, your thoughts here?
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Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
I'll provide input around parenting decisions and then mom gets to make the decision because I find she's just more, much more in tune with the kids. But yeah, the way the kids behave in public is absolutely a point of tension for me because I think what he's doing is just, I think he's reflecting on his own shortcomings as a parent.
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Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Yeah, this is—I see a silver lining here, and that is the U.S. 's surrender to Putin, the decision to ignore these 80-year alliances with the largest economies in the world such that they can have— sort of this, if you will, this mob deal with another autocrat and potentially thinking they can divide up the world. It's economically just really stupid. And the silver lining here is the following.
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Europe may be a union for the first time, and that is the 27 member states of the European Union have finally recognized that they need to get their shit together and can't be this rich nephew reliant on Uncle Sam's largesse. They now actually believe there's just no getting around it. Uncle Sam has lost his shit, and we can't depend upon him for a military umbrella. The U.S.
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Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
spends about $800 billion a year on defense. NATO and all EU 27 member nations spend a total of about $400 and $450. They have not been coordinated. They've been sclerotic. They've lacked investment. They've lacked risk capital. And this might be actually the moment for them to command the space they occupy.
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Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And you have seen some signs of a pulse and of real leadership from the biggest leaders in the EU.
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Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And I believe that they basically, the bad news is that America can't be counted on, which is really unfortunate and tragic to support the post-World War II 80-year alliance that has created more prosperity in the last 80 years than the world has created in the modern economy or the history of the modern economy. But the silver lining is that the EU may get more coordinated.
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Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
They're talking about increasing their defense budgets from 1.9% of GDP to 3%. And what you've seen is the markets are responding. The quote-unquote Magnificent Seven, which consists of US tech mega caps, Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, and Nvidia and Tesla, have been incredible performers. But this year, year-to-date, they're down 8%.
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Whereas the European Defense 7, that's the seven largest military contractors, are up 46% and 65% over the last year. And the Stock 600, which is the European kind of S&P, if you will, is up 9% this year. and the S&P 500 is down 2%.
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Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
If you look at military spending, as much as, and there's a decent argument here that it withdraws from more productive means of spending money on social services, there is, one, a stimulative effect, and two, there is a spillover. If you look at the most valuable companies in the world, whether it's Apple or Google, they're essentially built on the backbone of
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
He feels as a man, he's a disciplinarian. And when the kids are out of control, it's a poor reflection on him.
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Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Defense technologies developed early on, whether it's DARPA, which was built to establish a communications network such that we could communicate in a post-Soviet nuclear attack that was hubless or nodeless, or GPS, which is what essentially Apple and Android are built on. And that was developed such that we could put an ICBM in Gorbachev's pocket.
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Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
All of these military technologies do have a stimulative and a spillover effect. And I believe, and this was one of my big predictions late last year for 2025, that European stocks are going to vastly outperform U.S. stocks.
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Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And the nice thing about this is we're all talking as if at the negotiation table that it's up to, first and foremost, the U.S., who kind of is acting as the propaganda wing of Russia at this point, and then Russia And Ukraine isn't being invited to the table around these defense talks. And Europe plays absolutely no role. Well, here's the good news.
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If Europe gets its shit together and shows sort of the commitment and resolve from a spending... and a boots on the ground resolve that the US and Russia have shown in spades, they don't need the US. The Russian economy is smaller than the Canadian economy. It's less than $2 trillion. And the GU or the EU member nations add up to about 19 trillion.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
So the European Union, should it show coordination, fiscal commitment, and perhaps even boots on the ground commitment, which I don't think they'll ever need to do, but show a willingness and a resolve, They don't need the U.S. And I'm hopeful that this additional spending and coordination might finally kind of stir a sleeping giant, and that is the EU.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
So I think this is a new era or could signal a new era where there's some great leadership in Europe, whether it's Macron, whether it's Keir Starmer. There is an opportunity here for Europe to finally be a union and command the space they occupy, push back on Putin with or without the US's help, and coordinate and spend and show some resolve here.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
They are acquiescing to a gas station that has nuclear weapons on the roof, and they shouldn't be. They are a bigger economy. They have fantastic IP, fantastic weapons producers. Both France and the UK are nuclear powers. It is time for the Europeans to step up. It's going to be costly. That's the bad news. The good news is they can absolutely step up and push back on a murderous autocrat.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And what's just so tragic here is that Trump appears to be acting like a Russian asset. There's no evidence that he is, in fact, a Russian asset. But if you were to define the actions of a Russian asset, he would fit them to a T and But the good news is I'm not sure the European Union actually needs us.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
I think they have all of the spending power, all of the military technology to push back on their own. The question is, do they have the resolve and the leadership?
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Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Well, I go back to, I feel the same way. And I think a lot of Americans do. They feel despondent. And what helps me is that I realize that Yeah, as Winston Churchill said, the Americans, after exhausting every other option, will do the right thing, or will do the right thing after exhausting every other option. And we faced really dark moments before.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
80 years ago, we were rounding up Japanese American and putting them in camps, and some of them had sons fighting in the European theater in our own uniform. We do get it wrong a lot, but generally over the medium and the long term, the arc of American justice bends towards the righteous. We waited a couple of years before entering World War II.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Canada went over there first and started training allied pilots, and finally, We decided to enter the war. And I do think Americans are going to recognize that the Ukrainian people who are fighting for liberty and American values, that Canada with the largest undefended border in the world are actually our friends.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
that this move towards autocracy is so counter to everything that's wonderful and has created so much prosperity in the US, that those values are steadfast, that those values matter, and that they're worth fighting for.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
So I have a lot of confidence that Americans, should we actually find leadership in the Democratic Party, and I believe we will, to your point, and you've always said this, we have a great bench, I think they're going to realize that a murderous autocrat Invading Europe usually does not end well for Europe and then eventually for us.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Yeah. So just recognize that kids ruin everything. Kids are the best thing that could happen to you that will ruin your life. And it does put a huge strain, I have found. There's actually, just to be serious for a moment, all the studies on happiness show that your least happy years are the years you're in, 25 to 45, specifically around child-rearing. You'll look back
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And I do believe there's a real moment, a kind of a, you know, people were calling Keir Starmer, Keir Churchill or Winston Starmer. There's a moment here for a leader to step up and say that America needs to be America again.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
And I'd like to think we're getting to that point, but we have been in these types of dark places before, and American values do seem to show up, and I'm confident that's going to happen. again, here.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
But this is, I would describe, and I think you're articulating it well, this does feel like a dark moment where our American values are taking a back seat to the temptation to have a strong man that's going to solve what are some very real problems here in the U.S. But I'd like to think that over the long term, after, again, exhausting every other solution, that we get it right.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
There you go. All right, that's it for this episode. Thank you for listening to Raging Moderates. Our producers are David Toledo and Chinenye Onike. Our technical director is Drew Burrows. You can find Raging Moderates on its own feed every Tuesday. That's right, its own feed. That means exclusive interviews with sharp political minds you won't hear anywhere else.
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Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Make sure to follow us wherever you get your podcasts. And one last plug, join us for our live show on April 17th in New York. Grab your tickets now. The last time tickets went on sale, they were sold out in 24 hours. No joke. Link in the show notes. See you there. Jess's kids will not be there. They will not be there. Jess, have a great rest of the week.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Realize, just make it clear to your husband, always defer to mom. ADM. He's an influencer, not a decision maker.
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Support for PropG comes from Grammarly. Think about the most tedious part of your job. Is it writing the exact same email you've already written a hundred times? Some studies have shown that 88% of professionals spend more than half their work week on repetitive writing tasks.
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Well, imagine you had an assistant that could take the small stuff off your plate and help make your writing more effective and persuasive. You're in luck. And as I've said before, it has made us more efficient and takes our written work, and makes it just quite frankly more competent. Get more done with Grammarly. Download Grammarly for free at grammarly.com slash podcast.
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That's grammarly.com slash podcasts.
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On the period we have young children at home and reflect on that as the happiest time of your life. But what's interesting is in the moment, people without children are actually happier on average than people with children because of instances like this. But as they get older, I do find it gets easier and easier. Yours are 11 and 9?
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Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
I knew that. Oh, you did?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
No, it gets much better. I know. There's a very...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
That's really nice.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
All right. Before we dive in. In a quick announcement, Jess and I are taking the show live. We are literally woke royalty right now. We are literally the Duchess of Wokistan now. We're partnering with, get this, the 92nd Street Y in New York for a special event on Thursday, April 17th. That's right, Thursday, April 17th. And you can grab your tickets right now. The link is in the show notes.
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Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Trust us. You don't want to miss this one. Literally, I've been working my ass off for 30 years and I'm an overnight woke success because of you, Jess. This is literally like, I feel like Patrick Moynihan is... It could emerge from his crypt. And who's the wokest person ever? Literally, we are woke royalty now. We're speaking at the 92nd Y. Your thoughts?
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Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
I heard he's not doing that well.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Yeah.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
It's like when you found out you got on the 80th percentile in the SAT and you thought, oh, I might get into UC Irvine. Anyways, but we feel you. But this is so exciting. I'm waiting for the fallout of my other co-host, Kara Swisher. She and I have not been invited on 92nd Street Y. But anyways, come see both. Come see both at the 92nd Street Y. This is very exciting on April 17th. Today...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
In today's episode of Raging Moderates, we're discussing the Democrats' fury over Schumer's vote on the spending bill. Trump challenging the courts on deportations and the latest on Ukraine-Russia ceasefire talks. All right. Let's jump into it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
Last week, as the clock ran down to a potential government shutdown, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer found himself in a tough spot trying to balance a divided Democratic Party. His unexpected decision to support the GOP's stopgap funding bill sparked major backlash from House Democrats and members of his own caucus. who wanted a stronger stand against Trump's agenda.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
The bill itself slashes about $7 billion in overall spending from fiscal 2024 levels, cutting $13 billion from non-defense discretionary programs while boosting defense spending by $6 billion. With no easy path forward, Schumer's choice has left Democrats questioning their strategy for the battles ahead in Schumer's volatile political climate.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
What led to Schumer's decision to back the GOP funding bill? And do you think him folding was a misread? What do you think?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump's Deportation Plans Backfire as Dems Hit Record Low
I thought that was great. So, yeah, the graph that sort of indicates this is the very beginning of the last Trump administration in 17, 74% of Democrats wanted Democrats to work with Republicans and get things done. That number is now 42%. And there's a difference between being effective and being right, and right now we look neither.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
We are basically saying to the world, we're going to be the least popular kid and as a result have fewer alliances, fewer treaties, less cooperation. Because we're acting as if, you know, we think you're a fucking idiot. And we keep yelling expletives or hurling insults at the other kids rolling by us. And the next day, the kid doesn't even know what we're going to say about that kid.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
We're just so unpredictable and big. und unsere Kraft und unsere Muskeln zu flexieren und einfach nur ein wenig abwechslungsvoll zu sein. Das wird uns leider It's really going after what is a key attribute in any brand. And be clear, the brand is incredibly important. It's what precedes you. It's what puts you in the room before you're there in terms of negotiations and expectations.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
But one of the key things about our brand that people don't appreciate until now is the US is actually fairly consistent. There are certain standards around free trade, rule of law, consistency. Quite frankly, we're slow to change things. We have Oh, really? Yeah, I didn't speak to him. He's, I think, about 19.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Jess, how are you?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
How are you? I'm good. I'm in the great state of Texas at South by Southwest.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm going to be getting mail from the AARP. But yeah, it was sort of interesting. And I was initially going to go over and talk to him. I thought, that's just going to depress me. Anyways, I'm now going to parties with Doge's children. Aber es ist schwer zu sehen, wie wir aus diesem Problem nicht strukturell verletzt werden. Es macht einfach keinen Sinn.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Okay, lasst uns einen kurzen Break nehmen. Bleibt mit uns. Die Unterstützung für PropG comes from Domo. Domo lässt dich AI und Daten schnell, sicher und innovativ vermitteln, um menschliche Inhalte wo immer und wann auch immer du sie benötigst. Jemand auf deiner Team kann Domo für leicht vorbereiten, analysieren, visualisieren, automatisieren und Daten verteilen, alle veröffentlicht von AI.
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Domo geht außerhalb der Produktivität. Es ist designt, deine Prozesse zu verändern, um dich zu helfen, smartere und schnellere Entscheidungen zu machen und reale Wachstum zu beeinflussen. Alle gefördert von Domos Vertrauen, Flexibilität und Jahren von Expertise und Daten. Das ist AI.domo.com. Vielen Dank.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I'm all over. I just love me. I did a big, when I went on stage yesterday for Pivot, I danced around with my belly hanging out, screaming. That was a big hit.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Not all applicants will qualify for the lowest monthly payments, NerdWallet Insurance Services and California Resident License Number
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
That was a big hit. Yeah, no, mockery is always, the algorithms love mockery.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Willkommen zurück. Letzte Woche wurde Texas-Repräsentant Al Green ursprünglich gesensiert. after interrupting President Trump's address to Congress, shouting, no mandate to cut Medicaid, as he waved his cane. The moment led to his removal from the chamber and a 224-198 vote to rebuke him, with 10 Democrats joining Republicans in the censure.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
This split underscores ongoing divisions within the party over how to push back against Trump. Greene, who has a history of direct action, including being arrested alongside the late Representative John Lewis, seems unbothered by the consequences, saying, you have to be willing to suffer the consequences of
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Jess, was denkst du, was das sagt über die Demokratische Partei, dass zehn ihrer eigenen Mitglieder zu Censure Green gewählt wurden?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And what have you been up to? How was your weekend, I should say?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Yeah, I thought it was really, really telling in the sense that, one, it was just, I think we came out of that, when I say we Democrats, big losers. We looked reckless, overly emotional. I think our behavior just turns off moderates and emboldens Republicans. Because, look, at the joint address or gatherings of Congress, the president wins. It's a bully pulpit, there's a lot of majesty, and
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
He loves Jamaica?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Was du in dieser Situation tust, ist, dass du ruhig bist und nichts sagst. In Fällen, in denen sie einen Held oder ein Kind bringen, der viele Arbeiten durchgeführt hat, stehst du auf und applaudierst. Du bist sicher, dass du immer noch ein Mensch bist, richtig? Anstattdessen, all die Zerstörung und die Frau, die mit dem Zeichen folgt, sagt, dass das nicht normal ist.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Ich meine, Marjorie Taylor Greene und Lauren Boebert sahen wie Idioten, und wir haben es nicht gefällt, als sie es gemacht haben. Und wir sollten diese Art von Verhalten nicht kopieren. It really made us look weak. I actually thought the best moment for the Republicans was when they removed him. I thought Speaker Johnson came across as authoritative.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And we're starting to look like, I mean, it kind of made me sad just for America. It feels like we're two steps away from being, whereas in South Korea, where occasionally the Congress just breaks out into fisticuffs. It's like we're about to become that nation. And the other thing I think it reflects poorly on Democrats is clearly our leadership has no control over these people.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Because this just didn't make sense for the Democratic Party. Your point is an interesting one, and that is, I've never understood why the Democratic Party eats our own. I'm still pissed off at Senator Gillibrand for getting all high and mighty and chasing Senator Franken out of office.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
She got her seat. She was essentially an unknown. And in my view, she kind of brightens up her room by leaving it. And the Clintons appointed her, right, to the Senate seat that was vacated. My understanding is by Secretary Clinton. And the Clintons don't speak to her anymore, because I think that she's not a very consistent person.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
But for her to basically eat one up, for us to allow her to ruin the career of one of our most articulate and quite frankly humorous voices, counter to Trump, so that she could have an 11-second run for presidency, that was the ticket no one was asking for. Remember that? The former mayor of New York and Christian Gillibrand were both running for president.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And my favorite was she said she wanted to represent other young mothers. I'm like, you're a young mother?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I'm a 41-year-old woman. No, but she's much older than you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
You were good before that. I was good. Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. I am who I am. Aber ja, ich stimme mit dir. Am Anfang dachte ich, es ist gut, dass sie ihn zentriert haben. Und dann dachte ich, warum entscheiden wir immer, uns selbst zu essen und uns zu halten? Wie du gesagt hast, wir schießen uns selbst in den Fuß. Und ich bin mir nicht sicher, dass wir uns zerstören sollten.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Yeah, what the Republicans have that the Democrats lack is a certain level of synchronicity and coordination. And that is if you look at the relationship between these kind of conservative think tanks, conservative media and Republican talking points and discipline, they're coordinated. And the sum of its parts or the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Whereas the Democrats look sclerotic, like we don't like the person giving the response because they were too... moderat. Oh, wir werden diese random Interruptionen haben und schreien. Wir schauen einfach überall hinweg und sind unorganisiert. Und ganz ehrlich gesagt, wir haben einfach nicht unsere Scheiße zusammen.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
In your 37, 38?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Und etwas, was die Leute für wählen, ist, dass sie lieber für jemanden wählen, der resolut ist und jüdisch und furchtbar ist und kompetent ist, als für jemanden, der einfach nur flächendeckend ist und nicht weiß, du weißt nicht, du hast keinen Sinn dafür, wo sie stehen. Und das ist der gleiche Grund, warum ich denke, dass unsere Handelspartner
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
die nicht den USA über verschiedene Verbindungen vertrauen werden. Ich denke, dass die amerikanische Bevölkerung jetzt die Demokratische Partei anschaut und sich fragt, Jesus Christus, wählt ein Thema. Wer seid ihr? Was seid ihr? Und die Antwort auf das ist von nicht effektiv bis zu sehr emotional. Es ist einfach nicht ein guter Blick für uns. Okay, lasst uns noch einen kurzen Break nehmen.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Bleibt mit uns.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
But the good news is, is that for men, 50 is the new 30 and for women, 40 is the new 80. I hadn't heard that one before.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Welcome back. Before we go, California Governor Gavin Newsom is under fire from LGBTQ plus activists after saying it's deeply unfair for transgender girls to compete in high school girls sports. He made the comments on the debut episode of his new podcast while chatting with right wing provocateur Charlie Kirk. Newsom wants a trailblazer for LGBTQ rights.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
also agreed that a Trump-Campaign ad attacking Kamala Harris over gender-affirming care was politically devastating. Speaking of Harris, she's reportedly considering a run for California governor in 2026. And she's told allies she'll decide by the end of the summer. One could cement her leadership in the Democratic Party, but take her out of the running for president in 2028.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Meanwhile, Democratic strategist James Carville has a message for the party. Do nothing. He argues that Republicans are so bad at governing, their own chaos will sink them. Jess, does Newsom's stance on trans athletes hurt his 2028 chances, especially with progressives?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
That's good. Yeah, that's, that's. Es gibt einen Begriff für das, New York. Okay, genug davon. Lass uns da rein. Präsident Trump hat die finanziellen Märkte in einen Halsspin gesetzt letzte Woche. Heute werden wir darüber sprechen, dass Trump auf den Terror zurücktritt. Repräsentant Val Green wird für die Proteste, die Trump versucht, zu beurteilen, zensiert.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
What Governor Newsom really thinks about trans rights. And James Carville's surprising advice to Democrats. Do nothing. So, markets kind of very volatile this week or last week with this ever-changing trade policy. On Thursday, he delayed tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico, giving industries a brief bit of relief.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Ich denke, im Allgemeinen schauen die Leute auf die Demokratische Partei und sind gewöhnt auf einige der Ideen und einige der Leute und dann sagen sie, oh, warte, aber sie sind verdammt verrückt. Und das ist einer dieser Themen. Ich habe das vor zwei, zweieinhalb Jahren auf Pivot gesagt und habe viel Ausdruck bekommen.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Aber es gab eine Bicyclist oder eine Bicyclist in North Carolina, nicht eine große Rennstrecke, aber eine Rennstrecke, die groß genug war, dass es Geldpreise hatte. Und eine transgendere Frau kam fünf Minuten vor dem Rest des Publikums. Und dann sah man die Fotos von einem 6,4-Jährigen mit einem enormen Wingspan, der die NCAA-Finals aufnimmt und jeden Rekord zerstört.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Und ich denke, Amerika schaut sich das an und sagt, sie sind fucking verrückt gegangen. Und sie verteidigen das, weil sie entschieden haben, dass das ein gewöhnlicher, um einen gewöhnlichen Bonifatius zu erstellen, der sofort gesagt hat, okay, ich werde allgemeinen Sinn ignorieren. Und es hat enormen Schaden gemacht, dass wir keinen Grundsatz haben.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Und ich glaube, unsere Meinung darauf sollte sein, dass wir, wenn ein lokales Schulgebäude, wir glauben, lasst uns die republikanische Ideologie umbringen, dass auf Entscheidungen um Nuancen individuelle Schulen und Eltern ihre eigenen Gedanken machen sollten.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Wenn es eine Schule gibt, wo sie sagen, eine 14-jährige transgendere Frau würde wirklich von der Partizipation in Juniorhochschulen oder Hochschulsporten profitieren, wo ganz ehrlich gesagt die Stecken nicht so hoch sind, dann können sie entscheiden, mit ihr teilzunehmen.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Aber alles, was mit Wettbewerben, Geld, Wettbewerben, Abschlüssen in die Universitäten, was auch immer es sein könnte, oder Kontakt-Sport, ganz ehrlich gesagt, nein. Und ich sehe hier keinen Kriminellen gegen die Menschheit. Ich werde nie Basketball spielen. Ich habe keine solche Fähigkeiten. Ich wurde nicht mit solchen Fähigkeiten geboren.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Und ich glaube, wenn du mit Testikalen und einem Penis geboren wirst und die Vorteile von Testosteron und dieser Bohnenstruktur hast, Unfortunately, you don't get to play women's sports because to me, the math was just so simple.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And that is, if we're going to permit this and have no regulation around it, then essentially what you're saying is all the accoutrements of athletics, all the money, the fame, the prestige, the relevance, the self-esteem is going to slowly but surely be sequestered to people born with a penis. I was just shocked feminists didn't say, no, we can't. We can't have this.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And we just allowed this just strategically on an issue that really doesn't impact that many people. And I'm sure we'll get emails on that. That was where we were going to say, okay, this is a big issue for us. And we just come across as just insane.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And the one commercial that moved the needle more than anything during the presidential campaign was that commercial basically saying, you know, I think it was accusing the Democrats. Of course, I believe it was somewhat of an exaggeration or taken out of context. that we were paying for the transgender surgery of inmates.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
This to me, I think, this is Governor Newsom, who we know is running, you know, triangulating to the middle. And quite frankly, pissing off the left is a feature, not a bug in terms of your electability. Somebody is going to have to, you know, someone was saying, who's the leading candidate for Democratic nomination in 2028? And I said, it's probably Governor you really haven't heard of right now.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
But on Friday, he was back on offense, threatening new tariffs on Canadian lumber and dairy, claiming Canada has been ripping us off for years. The back and forth has left businesses scrambling and critics warning of economic fallout. Just How do these sudden shifts in trade policy impact businesses and global markets?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Someone will rise to the moment. And I'm not even sure we know this person right now. I've always thought Governor Newsom would make a really strong candidate, because I'm convinced we're a very luxurious nation, and he just looks presidential. Also, I think he's a fantastic debater.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I think he's one of maybe a handful of Democrats that goes behind enemy lines, as evidenced by the fact he went on with very conservative commentator Charlie Kirk. But this needs to be an issue that the Democrats need to pivot very aggressively. People should have rights if a local school wants to Let a transgender girl play sports, more power to you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
But with respect to anything regarding, you know, advantage, no, this just doesn't make any sense. They need to pivot hard on this, because otherwise they are just handing a gift, the gift that keeps on giving, to Republicans.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I felt it a couple of years ago when we were speaking about this issue. There's definitely a narrative you're supposed to sign up to. It's almost like the narrative around being a MAGA. You have to be MAGA or you could be alienated or voted off the island or Trump could go after you in primary.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
On the left, it's more nuanced in the sense that if you don't sign up to the narrative in this kind of certain ideology, you're treated like an apostate. And the blowback on this, if you didn't sign up for the narrative, and there was just no critical thinking, this kind of seemed like an easy one. But I think we lost a lot of credibility.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Anyways, what do you think of the idea of a Governor Harris?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I'm really split on this because she's a competent person, right? And I think she was a good Attorney General, good Senator. And she'd probably be, I'd like to think, a competent Governor. The problem is, I think when you run for President and you lose against Donald Trump, quite frankly, I think you go away for a while. I don't think...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I think she'll be a talking point for Republicans and their races if she maintains her national profile. I think when you lose your president, quite frankly, I think the best thing for the party would be if she just went dark until we have a Democratic president and she's appointed to the Supreme Court. I think she'd be an outstanding justice.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Yeah, I think she'd be an outstanding justice.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Anyways, but my sense is she's going to be a continued talking point. I don't think, I think she'll continue to be a flashpoint for Republicans. And I wouldn't be surprised.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I mean, I'll be curious, but given, I think she's setting herself up for real challenge and embarrassment here, because about every couple of decades, a quote unquote lifestyle mayor governor wins in California cities and in the state, because the quality of life is
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
in some of our bigger cities in California, I'm from California, is eroded so much that I think the moons are lining up for what I call like a no-nonsense kind of Pete Wilson-ish kind of governor. And I would hate to see her run and lose. I think it would basically send a signal to the entire nation that democratic ideals are kind of just totally done and gone.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
So torn on this, because I think she's a competent Ich glaube, dass sie ihre Marke und die Möglichkeit eines Verlustes und sie als konstantes Gesprächspunkt für Republikaner, um sie zu erinnern, warum die Amerikaner nicht für sie im ersten Moment gewählt haben, wird ein wirklicher Kuddel oder eine Waffe sein, die Republikanern benötigen wird.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Vielen Dank. DEI went from workplace darling to persona non grata in the blink of an eye.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Ja, so speaking being on the, or kind of political strategy, what do you think of Carville's notion that Democrats should step back and let Republicans implode? Do you think this is a dangerous gamble, this notion of just do nothing?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Whenever he speaks, you listen, because he's just so compelling and so matter of fact.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
That's right. But I think your instincts are right on, and that is It's not do nothing as much as it is demonstrate more discipline. Instead of running over here and going, oh my God, Gulf of America or male versus female. No, no, no, no. Be more disciplined.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Talk about surrender in Ukraine and that they're coming after your Medicare and have experts and data and look like an adult and just hammer them The difficult thing about Democrats is not what to talk about, it's what not to talk about.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And specifically, they need to stop taking the debate around these ridiculous, stupid issues that don't affect anybody, that are clearly being thrown out there as weapons of mass distraction. Even Doge, I believe, is a weapon of mass distraction. And instead of getting all angry about 19-year-olds, whether they should be in there,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Ich verstehe es, aber die Mehrheit, oder die meisten Moderaten, sehen einige dieser Anstrengungen. Und unter dem Atem sind sie so wie, willkommen zur Arbeitswoche. Das ist mir und anderen Menschen passiert. Was sie, meiner Meinung nach, darauf konzentrieren sollten, ist ein viel schwierigerer, aber empfehlenswürdigster Teil der Daten.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Und das ist, das ist alles eine Verlängerung der Vorstellung, dass sie einen, sie werden die Defizite um 800 Millionen Dollar pro Jahr erhöhen, was nichts anderes als ein Taxingriff ist. Wir erleben gerade den größten Taxingriff in der Geschichte an jungen Menschen in Form von unvorhergesehenen Defiziten. And two, they're coming for your Medicaid. There's no way.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Look at what they're planning here. They've tasked the Energy and Commerce Department with cutting $800 billion. That means they're coming for Medicaid. And anything else, again, it goes back to the same notion. The Democratic leadership doesn't have the discipline that McConnell imposed or that it appears that Speaker Johnson and Trump are imposing on the Republican Party. We just lack...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
They just lack sort of that. And instead, they take the bait and they start saying, can you believe he said this? And it's like, well, okay. Yeah, all right, we all know he's reckless and he's weird, but focus on the things that are indefensible on Republicans' part, that are popular among Americans, and hammer away on those one or two issues. So, again, it's not do nothing. It's more discipline.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Just before we wrap up here, what do you think of... What happened recently that supposedly Trump has directed, has basically said, all right, Doge is now an advisory or almost like a service to different cabinet members, but they ultimately get to make the decision around layoffs.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And the notion that we decided that an individual, the world's wealthiest man, who is severely addicted to ketamine, reported by the Wall Street Journal, is concurrently being sued by two women for sole custody of their children because he's not involved in their lives.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Maybe that's not the individual who gets to bypass any sort of congressional vetting or approval to decide if veterans or children get their medical care and food. And... In addition, if you look at what so far has happened from Doge, the audit, the only thing it has demonstrated, in my view, is that the U.S. government has a lot less fraud and waste than initially feared.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
If this were a physical, I would argue that the U.S. government has gotten a clean bill of health. That this wall of receipts meant to just highlight all the outrageous waste and fraud, there's no there there. The first thing they reported on the wall of receipts was an $8 billion savings. It ended up it was $8 million and it was money that had already been spent.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And then items two, three and four, it ended up weren't even true. They are having trouble finding all of this waste and fraud that was supposedly out there. And this isn't an operation. This isn't about operational efficiency. It's about political ideology. I got an email from a Fraterniebrother, who I hadn't talked to in 30 years, a kid named Greg Townsend, kid, he's now, you know, 57.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And after graduating, you have trouble, all you see when you hear from these kids is a guy you used to do beer bongs with. And that's, you assume they're still doing beer bongs and listening to Led Zeppelin. And this guy, this man, Greg, had gone on to law school and has been working for a division of the UN, pursuing war criminals around the world, out of Switzerland.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I mean, I was just so blown away by his work. And he said that their funding had just been shut down, but they're continuing to work because they all are so committed to creating an incentive system globally where people think twice before committing war crimes. And essentially the funding was cut off.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
So if you look at where they quote unquote have, what Doge has really done, it's not an operational or an efficiency mechanism. It's a political ideology because they just decided, I know, let's just shut down all US foreign aid. That's a political ideology. Und ich denke, er ist essentiell...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I mean, the thing about Trump that's just so obvious that people don't want to talk about, nobody, he is literally Chernobyl after the meltdown. You get near him, you're going to die a hideous death, at least your reputation. And it's happening to Musk. I see it here at South by Southwest. People are throwing shit at Teslas.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
You know, when I talked about Tesla, I'm like, you know, zero to 1939 in three seconds. It's really hard to understand the political calculus, or the political calculus here, the economic calculus, He really fucked up. And that is the opportunity to remove inspectors from the 32 different investigations across 11 agencies against his companies.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Okay, that's an economic incentive to get involved and be cozy up to the president. Aber der Preis, den er in seinen Branden leistet, ist enorm. Die Leute kanzeln Starlink-Kontrakte, die ganzen Länder sagen, Polen sagt, wir können nicht auf dich oder deine Technologie zählen. Die Städte von Kanada kanzeln Starlink. Und ich dachte, das ist derjenige, der wirklich die Scheiße aus ihm auslöst.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Was ungewöhnlich ist, und ich benutze Nike als Gegensatz, Nike hat einen politischen Stand genommen und manchmal funktioniert es. When they decided to embrace Colin Kaepernick, when he bent a knee, that was a real political risk. But they did the math. And that is two thirds of Nike sales are outside of the US. No international individuals are concerned or thinks the US has race relations correct.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And about two thirds of their revenue came from people under the age of 30 or non-whites. Meaning the people that were outraged and did videos of burning their Nikes, that was probably their first pair of Nikes. They did the math and said, this is going to cement and tickle the sensors of the majority of our profits and revenue base. And Musk has done the exact opposite.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
75% of Republicans, who he's sort of lighting up or illuminating or activating, say they would never buy an EV. So he's done the exact wrong math here, and that is the group that he is most going to piss off and alienate Das ist quasi seine hohe Kundenbasis.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Und all diese Scheiße in Europa, es scheint, als gäbe es in Europa einen sehr heiligen Gag-Reflex, als er versucht hat, in ihrer Wahl zu kämpfen. Aber ich habe es nie, es fühlt sich an, und ich habe das schon gesagt und ich bin falsch, This feels like a tipping point. It feels like the worm has turned. And I was thinking the Bill Burr rant against him was sort of evidence of that.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
But Tesla has shed a third of its value in February. And I mean, the polling on this guy is absolutely, it's just brutal. Anyways, I don't, I think, and I'm calling it, and I've been wrong before, but I think the Musk brand has absolutely peaked and is crashing. And the fall right now feels unsustainable.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Yeah, to your point, Cara was saying that Trump is scared of Musk, that he's the world's wealthiest man, which is his metric for credibility, and that the last thing he wants to do is piss him off. I think he's just going to fade away. I think it's going to be Wenn es in Wahrheit... Er wird verschwinden? Er hat einen schwierigen Job. Er wird nicht anfangen, was er denkt, könnte ein Bürokrat sein.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Yeah, it's really, it's almost getting a little bit comical, I think, a key to these negotiations. If It's really difficult to even understand what he wants. When I think about, he says, okay, Canada's been ripping us off. It's hard to exactly discern what he means. And then he'll go to, well, they need to stop shipping fentanyl across the border. And that might be true of Canada.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Er will alle Feuerkraft. He can get. The notion that these guys are going to say, okay, I'm really going to take a chainsaw to my... The incentives are, I need to get shit done, I need to reflect confidence, I need to have decent morale, I need resources to get things done, I'm getting shoved back and forth by these decisions. They need people.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
The notion that they are going to decide to start cutting costs, I think effectively or operationally, It might be, if in fact he's now there on top, so to speak, might be, if you will, the end of Doge.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Got to be the Pentagon?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Es ist interessant, das war ein, glaube ich, strategischer Fehler auf der Seite der Republikaner. Ich denke, sie hätten viel mehr Kredibilität gehabt, sie hätten obviiert oder eine Art von Kritik verbreitet, wenn sie nach dem Pentagon zuerst gegangen wären. And that is, I would think it would have been much harder for Democrats to be critical of the process.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I thought that was a strategic error on their part. I would have started with the Pentagon. Any thoughts?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
All right, Jess, that's it for this episode. Thank you for listening to Raging Moderates. Our producers are David Toledo and Chenenye Onikei. Our technical director is Drew Burrows. You can now find Raging Moderates on its very own feed every Tuesday. That's right. You can now find Raging Moderates on its own feed every Tuesday. 40% tariffs are against all of you. That's right. Its own feed.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
That means exclusive interviews with sharp political minds. You won't hear anywhere else. It ends up that Jess is very, not only talented, but very well connected. This week we're talking with Democratic Attorney Mark Elias about why the courts could be the biggest line of defense against Trump in a second term. Make sure to follow us wherever you get your podcasts.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Just have a great rest of the week.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
It might be true, excuse me, of Mexico and China, or you could at least make a philosophical argument. The amount of fentanyl that's coming across the Canadian border, I think, could fit in a backpack. It's less than 1% of the fentanyl that comes into the nation.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
In addition, we're now at a point where I don't even know if the tariffs are on or off based on what hour it is, where people are going to start clearing the shelves or developing alternative supply chains and alternative alliances, regardless of whether he takes the tariffs off again, because we just have no credibility.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And the Atlanta Fed tracker, or they basically have a mechanism for protecting GDP growth, has gone from positive 4% to negative 2.8. Consumer sentiment has had its largest fall since COVID. The economy is contracting at its fastest rate since the lockdowns. It's just really difficult to understand
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
What the endgame here is, if he's putting this out to try and accomplish some big, beautiful deal that he can take credit for. Any thoughts on what's motivating the administration right now?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Yeah, so my understanding of tariffs is that They do make sense when they're used as a weapon to try and restore asymmetry and imbalance in trade. If the US doesn't have access to the Chinese auto market, then fine, you want to bring your cars over here, we're going to tariff them. Nein. Nein.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
I read that the average car, should these tariffs hold, is going to go up in price somewhere between $8,000 and $12,000. The way cars are manufactured is, you actually have certain parts that leave Lansing, Michigan, go to Canada, have worked under them, then go all the way down to Mexico, have more work or assembly, and then come back to Lansing, Michigan for assembly at a Ford plant.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Some of the parts used to assemble a car go back and forth a half a dozen times across borders. So, $8,000 to $12,000 increase per car. They're talking about an average increase per household of $1,200. I mean, this is really weird. And even more so than the actual tariffs is the sclerotic reputation we're establishing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Because even if you decide, okay, we're going to do a deal and we're going to come to some sort of accommodation that works for both, who can trust that we're actually going to do what we said we're going to do? We're now talking about, supposedly Trump wants Iran... Think about another deal. We're shutting off intelligence to Ukraine and then they bomb a hotel where Americans are.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
We talk about putting it back on and putting sanctions back on Russia. I mean, it's just the world economic policy is being run on this guy's blood sugar level at that moment, which means that if you're going to base billions or if you're the EU or trillions of dollars in trade and alliances and supply chains,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
an one man's blood sugar, you decide, no, I'm going to just have workarounds, even if they're more expensive. It's just the automobile industry right now. I'm at South by Southwest and a key theme here wenn ich zu Advertisern spreche, ist, dass ihre Advertiservereinigungen runtergehen.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Ich meine, das hat so viele Ripple-Effekte auf der Wirtschaft, dass ihre Advertiservereinigungen runtergehen, weil einige der größten Advertiservereinigungen sind Automobilunternehmen und sie sind literal nur, wir wissen nicht, was zu tun, wir haben alle Marketing und Spenden aufgehoben, weil wir wissen, dass wir nicht viele Autos haben werden und wir sind einfach nicht sicher, was passieren wird.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Also können sie nicht mal planen, wenn die Tarife absolut rein geht, würden sie sagen, okay, wir müssen unser Geschäftsmodell planen, wir werden Preise erhöhen, alternative Routen oder Supply Chain finden, Aber sie hätten einen Geschäftsplan. Jetzt ist das das Schlimmste der Welt. Ich denke, das ist, was Eisenhower gesagt hat.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Die falsche Entscheidung ist schlecht, aber keine Entscheidung ist schlimmer. Es gibt ganze Unternehmen, die keine Entscheidung machen müssen, weil sie nicht wissen, in welchem Umfeld sie arbeiten werden.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Oh, the queen. I don't know. You're right.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
A Jewish climate scientist.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
Yeah, it really is. It's very difficult to understand the trade. And the trade right now at a very macro level is the following. We're basically trashing and fraying Ukraine.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
and making much more brittle and fragile these 80-year alliances with the world's largest economies that through free trade, coordination, general goodwill, cooperation towards each other, lower costs for Americans and increase the sales of our products abroad.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And now these nations are just going to figure out different alliances and even if we go back and say, hey, just kidding, we didn't mean it, love you, come down to Mar-a-Lago, they're going to say, sorry boss, you're just not a reliable partner, I don't know who I don't know who I'm waking up next to. And for me, everything comes back to high school.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
And then as I saw this fantastic study that attempted to figure out and get to the bottom of why popular kids were popular. So they looked at the most popular kids in high school. Were they the best looking? No. Were they the best athletes? No. Were they the smartest? Again, no. The thing they had in common was they liked the most other people.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
They were that kid that would, going down the hallway, would yell, hey, Lisa, Jim, good to see you, what did you do this weekend? And was confident enough to like other people, that those were the most popular kids. And I read this data showing that about three quarters of Americans feel pretty good about Canada. They're like, yeah, Canadians, go on.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Newsom's Centrist Approach and Kamala’s Political Future
But now two thirds of Canadians don't think of us as an ally. They have really been, I don't want to use the word traumatized, but really feel, quite frankly, just poorly treated. And it's not like they're going to get over that in six or even 12 months.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And that means your people can focus on the work that they want to do. That's putting AI agents to work for people. It's your turn. Get started at servicenow.com slash AI dash agents. Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
If I was born in 1920 Germany, I'd probably be wearing a Nazi uniform and probably would have died on a Russian field somewhere thinking that I was serving the fatherland. You are a function of where you grew up and in what time. And you can see with a lot of young men, these are really talented young men with a lot of opportunities.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
So I don't feel comfortable grouping them into the bigger swath of young men in America who have a lack of on-ramps to a good living, a lack of financial security, a lack of prospects, a lack of an ability to meet a potential mate and start a family. These guys are all incredibly talented and have a lot of opportunities.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And the only lesson, someone called me, a radio show called me, I didn't go on, and they said, what would your advice be to these young men? And I'm like, again, it's a sideshow, but what I would tell any young man is that we're in a high-pressure situation Do what I didn't do, and that is assemble a kitchen cabinet of people to advise you, say, this is what's going on.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Do you have any thoughts for me, whether it's your parents, whether it's your parents' friends, whether it's just friends? Because I saw being a young man, trying to express my manhood is quickly assessing the situation and then making a snap decision and trying to talk everybody into it. me being right, whatever that decision was.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
It is very hard to read the label, especially as a young man when you're more risk-aggressive and, quite frankly, don't have incredibly good judgment or reason. You're not that thoughtful. You're not that measured yet. It is really hard, if not impossible, to read the label from inside of the bottle. So the larger learning I would want to communicate to all young men is do what I didn't do.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
I would have saved myself a lot of heartache, a lot of professional missteps, a lot of broken relationships had I just reached out to people and said, this is the situation. Do you have any thoughts or advice for me? And you might decide not to change your mind about what you're doing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
But this is, you know, when you find yourself in kind of uncharted territory, it's just a really good idea to check in with people from different backgrounds and say, this is what's going on. It's pretty intense. Do you have any thoughts? And I didn't learn that until I was much older.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And I think men have a much more difficult time because we conflate strength and masculinity with being decisive as opposed to being thoughtful and listening.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Jess, did you watch the Super Bowl?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Yeah, it was. It wasn't a good one. We were due for a bad one.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
You know, I wasn't planning to. I'm not into sports, and it started at 11.30 p.m., and I made this big to-do about how it's basically this axis of evil between shitty fatty food and then the diabetes industrial complex and that the game is boring and CET. And then, of course, my 14-year-old said, Dad, you want to watch Super Bowl? I'm like, yep, let's do it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And Dana Bash... People don't trust the government.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
You are the government. That was the best line of the way.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Well, this is a serious issue, and I want to apologize for my Nazi references because they're not funny, although it is clear that Musk and Trump have made a hard Reich turn. And also, I don't know if you've driven the new Model SS from Tesla.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Well, you know, he's changed his pronouns to he and Himmler. But anyways, there's a lot in there. And I think that essentially you have, unfortunately, everything reverse engineers to one key statistic in my view. And if we don't fix it, we're going to have some form of revolution, famine, or war. And that happens in every society. And it's the following.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
The ultimate social compact is that my kids will do better than me. If I work hard, I play by the rules, my kids will do better than me. The definition, I used to think the definition of love was caring more about someone than you care about yourself. And I've broadened that to, you know, you give witness and notice to people's lives. But the people who you irrationally love are your children.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
You know, I always say to my sons, you're the only people in the world that don't want to be more successful than me. And I'm embarrassed to say that, but it's true. And when your kids aren't doing as well as you were at 30 for the first time in the nation's history, it's just a breakdown in the social compact. And people want chaos.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And so I stayed awake until the halftime show, which I thought was awful, by the way. And I get I'm not Kendrick Lamar's audience, but I thought the whole thing was just a giant snooze. What did you think?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
There's also, because we've had what I would argue is the best functioning organization. I think the most impressive organization in history is a wing of the U.S. government, and that's our military. And I think in the top five is the U.S. government. And Mel Robbins, who I think is going to probably displace Joe Rogan if Stephen Bartlett doesn't, has this new book out called Let Them.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And I'm sort of at the point right now where the people who are under the illusion that Trump represents them, the genius of the Republican Party is they represent the top 1% in corporations and they've convinced the bottom 99 that you should endorse us because once you get into the top 1%, you're going to love it here and you have more of a chance with us. And when Democrats keep...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
spewing out this elitist dribble and we continue to move towards a 30-year-old not doing as well as his or her parents, then the parents and the people under the age of 30 just want chaos. And what I say around some of this stuff, I'm at the point now where it's like, let them. The states that went for Trump are the states that are the biggest takers of federal assistance. And
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
So just see what happens when Veterans Affairs benefits, when we disrupt and shut down those people you can't trust. OK, let's see what happens to you and dad and your neighbors and what happens in these rural, dark red communities. when there is no head start. See what happens when you shut down DEI and there is no job opportunity for veterans. I'm at the point where it's like, you know what?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
You broke it, you own it. You're gonna get to find out. just how quote unquote incompetent government is, you're gonna find out that government is a lot more competent than you had originally thought. And you're gonna get a very ugly awakening in my view. And I'm sort of at the point of, all right, it's time. You really wanna see what life is like
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
In these red states, the people who are most rabidly for Trump, who tend to be in rural areas, tend to be, quite frankly, have a larger body mass index, are more dependent upon Medicare, are more dependent on government services. The biggest takers from a state perspective are the ones that went hardest towards Trump.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
which means when these payments and these programs get shut down, this isn't going to hurt us, Jess. I mean, we're upset about this because I'd like to think we have some fidelity to America and the Constitution and want to pay back based on the prosperity we've recognized because of this incredible system and rule of law and democracy. But quite frankly, this isn't going to really hurt you or me.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Our kids aren't in SNAP. We're not getting Veterans Affair payments. We're not getting Social Security payments, right? We're not. Yeah. We're not dying of malaria in Malawi or wherever, right? This won't affect us. It's just fascinating, though, that the people who I think are about to get the biggest dose of like, wow, be careful what you ask for, are the ones that are most rabidly pro-Trump.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
So my sense is at this point, you know, as Mel Robbins would say, let them. Have at it. You asked for it. You got it. Toyota.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Well, you're already starting to see it, and it kind of goes to, and we'll talk about this in a bit, potential solutions. But basically, sales of Tesla cars are diving in the EU. Electric vehicle market declined by 6% overall in January, so there is a structural decline. But sales of Tesla are down 63% in France, 44% in Sweden. 38% in Norway, 42% in the Netherlands, and 12% in the UK.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And as someone who has worked with automobile companies, they measure share in sales and basis points. And that is, if year on year, you're down a half a percent, the person running that country is sweating. I mean, these are, I mean, these literally are kind of implosions of sales. So it does appear that finally what, you know, everyone's been outraged at the lack of outrage on the left.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
It does appear that people, that the bloom is off the rose here. People no longer seem as a, you know, kind of this provocateur and innovator, but as someone who is a threat and that they just don't need to, Onus Carr, I'm curious, with all of these lawsuits and a DOJ investigation piling up, how serious do you think the legal threat is to Musk and Doge?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And what could the long-term fallout be other than, obviously, as popularity is going down? But I'll put forward a thesis. When you tell someone you can be a convicted felon and then reelect them, He's essentially decided the incentives and disincentives no longer apply to me, that I can break the law with impunity. Do you think there is a bridge too far here around these court cases?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
There was one fantastic moment when, of course, Taylor Swift got booed. That made me happy. Why is that? Is that wrong?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Is that wrong? I thought that was hilarious.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
I don't know. It's like the Roman Coliseum, except lions. We have Taylor Swift, so occasionally I think he'd boo against the lions. I don't know. I found the whole thing interesting. It's like America, where we sell boner pills and opioid-induced constipation medication while giving young men CET. You know, America. I just find the whole thing... I don't know. I'm too cynical.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
So when are you moving home? I'm not sure. 17 months, 3 weeks, and 4 days is what is on my calendar. Not that I'm thinking about it, but I'm looking forward to getting back to the States. Because, you know, things are going so well.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
The problem is these 2 million people don't want to leave. And even more, nobody wants to take them. Albania, what's the population of Albania? Look at the border. You want to see a fortified border? Look at the border between Egypt and Gaza.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
I don't think anything makes you feel more— Well, I mean, the reality is if you didn't know what was going on, I think the reality for most Americans, unless you're a veteran or a beneficiary of SNAP or Head Start, which is a lot of Americans, but quite frankly, if you're in our economic weight class, you can shield yourself from this nonsense.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
what Egypt and Jordan have decided is that the elements of this population that they cannot risk incorporating is chaos and violence. So this just doesn't seem like what I'd call a viable solution for anybody. So until we have, do we need to be creative? Yes. But I find this, most of those just sort of kind of ridiculous that, that, okay, you're going to relocate 2 million people and then,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
put up a bunch of residence inns and Trump towers and, you know, Westin hotels and then invite the rich ones back. I don't, it's like, okay, walk me through how this logistically actually makes any sense. So I don't see any viable path here. What do you think is the significance of the judge blocking Trump's federal worker buyout plan and how could this play out in the coming weeks?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
I mean, I guess the question is their attitude is it doesn't matter if it's legal or illegal. If we make an offer and people accept it, then it's done. So before you can get caught robbing the bank, just spend the money and enjoy yourself. And then if you get caught, OK, we'll give the money back.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
It just there is definitely a kind of like a move fast and break things kind of element here and have no regard whatsoever. For institutions or process, just see if you can get away with it. Whenever I see Republicans, I feel like they're sort of like, I can't believe we're getting away with this shit.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And it's like tickling their sensors. Isn't this amazing? And I even, I don't know if I'm imagining this, but I'm wondering if they're even getting a little bit nervous, like, Jesus Christ, I didn't realize it would be this easy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And I would argue you're probably a beneficiary of it and not in a good way. But what I recognize moving to London, which is, in my opinion, the second best city in the world, is it is really hard to beat America. And that is if you like opportunity, if you like a crush and a collision of culture, grit, creativity, there's just nothing like America.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Rubio was a fan.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Well, let's do that. But first, we have to take one more quick break. Stay with us. Welcome back. Before we wrap, Democrats are stepping up their strategy. Rallies are gaining momentum. Schumer is calling for opposition to every Trump nominee, and Jeffries is making his stance clear in negotiation letters. Jess, do you think this is the right approach? Do you think it'll be effective?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And my reductive analysis after I say this and it triggers some people molesting the earth for the last 30 years is that America is still the best place to make money and Europe's the best place to spend it. So when you're going into your spending years, absolutely spend time in Europe and go to Madrid and get a great bottle of wine for $10, not $80. Yeah.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
I mean, I was happy to see those Democratic congresspeople walk over. I think at least I think they need to be seen doing anything. But the optics here, I agree with you. It felt like a senior's home when they found out water aerobics were canceled or jello night had been switched to Thursday. I mean, it just felt, oh, God, that's that's how we're going to win this fight.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
That's the army we're sending in. You know, as we try and process this, there's. I want to move to like, okay, what do we do? And there's, I would argue, and I want to put forward some potential ideas and have you respond to them. There's short-term and there's long-term. And the first thing you got to do in any sort of strategy is you got to determine where's the soft tissue? What's the leverage?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
What are our assets? What can be exploited? And Hakeem Jeffries, I thought, was actually quite eloquent and honest when he said, they control all three branches of government. There's just not a lot we can do from kind of a legislative level. And when the stuff gets to judges, it gets pushed back, but they're, you know, they're moving at this blitzkrieg speed.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And my view is, okay, I think you go after the money. I like what they're doing by hacking and turning off these payment systems or intervening. I don't know what the right term would be. And I think you go after Musk's financial interests. So it's already happening in Europe, as I previously mentioned. Tesla sales are going down.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
I think that our congressional representatives and people who think what's going on here is a total subversion of our democracy, to make it known that you probably shouldn't sign up for T-Mobile right now because T-Mobile has just struck a deal with Starlink. You probably shouldn't be thinking about any advertiser on Twitter. That's an obvious one.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
You should be thinking about, okay, United Airlines has just announced a big deal with Starlink. How do you go after the pocketbook? I think that's really what Musk cares about. It's already happening with Tesla. I don't see any reason. Should the department, should veterans groups be doing anything around Tesla, Starlink, any of his economic interests? I think you go after the purse.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
because that's what I think these people care about. Over the medium and the long term, I think you draft resolutions and say, okay, if this unelected group of people can go in and start turning off payments, we're going to propose turning off payments or anything related to Starling. Starling, I mean, Musk, to a certain extent, is a huge beneficiary, and I even wrote a post titled Welfare Queen,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
The notion that he's trying to cut off payments and claim the government is too big and then its large S is wasted. Meanwhile, he's one of the biggest beneficiaries from this large S. Should we be thinking about, one, how do we go after the economic interests
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Elon Musk to say, we're not down with this, and you circumventing democratic channels to implement what you think is right, and we're going to punish you and your companies. And there's nothing illegal. You don't have to sign up for T-Mobile that's introducing Starlink. You don't have to fly United Airlines, which has signed a contract with Starlink.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And then over the medium and long term, I think you just have to tell Republicans, okay, you realize that if you can do this, then we can shut off Starlink. We have our own programmers, and we'll find out if a judge thinks that's legal or not. I do think, though, the nuclear option is now on the table, and that is I believe that the Democrats should credibly threaten
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
You know, check out Munich, which is an amazing city, Milan. Go to, you know, PSG game in Paris. It's just—but if you're looking to advance your career, your influence, your impact on the world professionally— Everything here, I would argue, is a kind of medium or second gear. It just can't get out of second gear. But I gotta be honest, I can't wait to get back.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
to get in the way of blocking the extension on our debt ceiling such that the next Treasury auction fails. Because at the end of the day, the reason why the tariffs were rolled back is the leverage in the people that Trump listens to are corporations and shareholders. And they called him around these ridiculous Canadian and Mexican tariffs and said, do not do this.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
This will have an immediate impact on the stock market. The adult in the room is the stock market and the 10-year bond. And he basically got these kind of non, I mean, these illusory symbolic concessions and then walked them back. And I think if the Democrats say, OK, you want to play Russian roulette, we're going to load the chamber around the upcoming Treasury auction.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And if you want to call all your buddies and tell them that interest rates are about to spike, which will take the stock market down. And I'm still trying to figure out if that hurts the 1 percent. Well, 1 percent of America's population owns 90 percent of the stocks. So I think that the real leverage here is around money and is around, you know, you want to shut down the economy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
You don't believe in a democratic process. Fine. We're going to shut down the economy and you're not going to be able to make the interest, the upcoming interest payments. And you're going to be the president for the first time. was so offensive, was so non-democratic that we felt we had no choice but to get in the way.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
You're about to be the first president where a treasury auction where America did not pay its debts. And let's see what happens, boss. But I'm trying to think of where we have leverage. And those are the only places I can think of because per what Hakeem Jeffries said, us just screaming outrage and waving our cane in front of a federal building, that's not working, right?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
We need to go after the money and we need to say, you're going to be the president that takes this stock market down, you know, eight or 10% on the opening bell next Wednesday after a failed treasury auction. Your thoughts?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
I can't wait to get back to America.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
So just reference all-time low for eighth-grade reading levels.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
So a lot there. I've felt that I got into it a little bit. Is it Ronit Weinberg, the head of the National Teachers Union? Randy Weingarten. I got that one close. Yeah. Randy Weingarten.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Something. I was circling the white fish. Anyways, I said that I thought that the union she represented was using the kids as drug mules during COVID.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Well, during COVID, she decided that, you know, we have to protect the teachers. And she was basically saying, you've got to pay us more and give us a ton of time off. And the reality was that the population of teachers in America is the least vulnerable. It was the least vulnerable to COVID. They were young, primarily female, primarily thin. These were the least at risk people in America.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And she was using basically kids and their mental health, which we found were severely impacted by being out of school, such that she could try and find a moment of leverage to get more money for her dues-paying members.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
I think teachers' unions—and I'm casting a broad brush here across all of them, but we have a tendency to sanctify all of them, not recognize them—that some of these unions are just bottom-line corrupt and really don't seem to care that much about kids despite their hushed, grandmotherly tones.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Yeah, well, that's the joke about Scotland. It's some of the finest minds in the world, and they all have the same thing in common. They left. Anyways, all right, enough of that. Today we're discussing Elon Musk's increasing government influence. I don't know if you've heard. He's this very wealthy individual who puts rockets into space but doesn't live with any of his children.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Where I would depart a little bit with you, and it sounds like also Governor Shapiro, is I am very wary of vouchers. Because I think effectively what vouchers do is like everything else in our society, the kind of the narrative of let's shut down the Department of Education and let's take money and just give people choice and give them vouchers. I think theoretically it makes a lot of sense.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
There are instances where someone would say, I'd rather take the money, put them in a religious school, or I want more choice. I get it. But effectively on the ground, I think what happens is what always happens in our government the last 40 or 50 years. It is nothing but a naked transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Because the reality is the majority of rural areas or poor areas don't have a private school option where they could use the voucher. The only reason they have a school is is because of federal mandated legislation that they have to have transportation and they have to have a school and the school has to be funded.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And all you are doing when you give, say, people a $10,000 voucher, and I'll use, I was on the board of my kid's school, there would be probably some people who are middle class who would rather have the choice. We charge $22,000. They come up with the $12,000. It would provide access to a private school. It'd be good for them.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
But really what it would be is a $2 million giveaway to the other 200 families that can't afford it, and it would just take income and desperately needed resources out of the public schools in that area. So I get it theoretically, but I think on the ground, all vouchers end up doing is, again, transfer money
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
From the poorest people in the districts that need mandated Head Start and schools and transportation and food programs to wealthy people who would just get – that would be – you know what that would be, Jess? You have two kids. That would be a $40,000 gift to you and me. My guess is – I don't know if you send – do you send your kids to private or public?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
So this is what a voucher program would be. It'd be a $30,000 gift from government to you and me.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
He's this former South African slash Canadian slash naturalized American. Anyways, interesting cat. We're going to talk about him. Reminds me of this very popular guy in the middle of last century who some people really loved.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
I would like to see, you want to talk about a way to save government tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars over the next 30 or 50 years? Do what Japan does. America has a 40% of its population is obese. That is an enormous strain on the well-being, the mental health, and our financial system. And one of the reasons healthcare costs $13,000 a year here per person and $6,500 in Japan.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
We have 40%, 70% of America is obese or overweight, 40% obese. Do you know what the percentage of the population in Japan is obese? 12%. Does it? And here's where it starts. If you wanted to increase the well-being of children in America, you would do what Japan does. And that is you'd find the extra money to have a chef at every school. And the chef has one mandate. Everything has to be fresh.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
There are absolutely no processed foods allowed in school because this is what we do. We give these kids shitty, sugary, cheap food. They get obese because the deal is, okay, we can get them addicted to the food industrial complex who basically ran every fucking ant last night on the Super Bowl and then hand them over to the diabetes pharmaceutical complex. And that's the axis of evil.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
North Korea and Iran are nothing compared to the food industrial and the diabetes industrial complex in this nation. And in Japan, they say we're going to spend the money. Have you seen those interviews with the kids coming out of school? What's your favorite food? Broccoli.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
right? And they say, your job at three in the morning, these chefs get up at every school, not hugely paid, but a lot of them do it, former chefs. They go to the fresh fish market, and they have to find fresh food every goddamn day. And these kids grow up with a different sense of nutrition. I love the idea of thinking out of the box and thinking long-term, but corporate interests get involved.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And again, this is our school system and our children, what I have found, is that America is nothing but a platform to transfer money to companies and shareholders who trade and traffic in addiction. Addiction to food, addiction to opiates, addiction to sex, addiction to dopa. And we use the kids as basically body bags or dopa bags. I have gotten so far off track, Jess. Bring me back.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Reel me back, Jess.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
But most people, you know, most people over time found that, well, it's interesting. They have the same hand gesture. It appears that they have the same body language. Anyways, we're going to talk about Elon Musk's increasing government influence, Trump's buyout offer to federal workers, and the latest Democrats' effort to fight back. All right, let's get into it, Jess.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
He's great on this. Yeah. He's great on this. Yeah, I agree.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
We gotta go. Thank you. Thank you very much. Let's leave it there. That's it for the episode. Thank you for listening to Raging Moderates. Our producers are David Toledo and Shananya Oneke. Our technical director is Drew Burrows. You can find Raging Moderates on its own feed every Tuesday. That's right. Raging Moderates on its own feed.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
If you want us to keep making this pasta of a podcast, please hit subscribe right now on YouTube or on our distinct Raging Moderates feed. Please follow us wherever you get your podcasts without fear or favor. That's right. That's right. The hit of the show, The One on Fox. That's what's coming next. And who is The One? That's right. It's Jess Harloff. We are immune.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
We are superpower fucking immune. fearless from tweets from the wealthiest man in the world. I'm not going to read any of those 11,000 comments. I'm not. You've definitely read them all. I have not. I'm not on Twitter. I'm not on X. I'm still calling it Twitter. Anyways. And by the way, who sold his Tesla two years ago and before he sold it, took a big fat fucking dump in the passenger seat?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
That's right. That's your man. Hit subscribe now. Jess, have a great rest of the week. You too.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
I've already I've already dived in the shallow.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Elon Musk's grip on the executive branch keeps tightening. His Doja crew has been popping up at federal agencies, snooping around sensitive systems. And until last week, when a federal judge blocked his team from accessing the Treasury Department's payment system, my understanding is every time they run up against a judge, they get blocked.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Republican support for Musk's role in the Trump administration is cooling off. An Economist YouGov poll shows only 26% now want him to have a significant influence. That's down from earlier numbers, Jess. Musk also tweeted at me and Cara, funny, I barely noticed my Pivot co-host over the weekend, accusing us of threatening his engineers just for calling out the harm they're causing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
So, look, before I'm not going to I don't want to get into a back and forth here. What I would say is that the comments made were made by me, not by Kara. And I find it sort of telling that he puts Kara's name first and goes after Kara instead of just going after the person who he has or should have a grievance with. And that's that's me. And anyways, I'll let you go first.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Any thoughts on what's going on with Elon, Jess?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
You know, I don't have a lot. At first, I started, this is what happens whenever Elon tweets at me or gets angry at me, and that is my phone starts blowing up with, are you okay? Is everything okay? And I'm like, I'm not on Twitter, so I'm shielded from most of the toxicity. And someone sent me a screenshot saying, of the tweet and that it had 11,000 comments.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And I'm like, well, I bet those comments aren't fun to read. But I mean, essentially, I start to get worried and I start to get panicked and I start to, you know, I start to get anxious. And then I realized, okay, whatever you say about Kara and me is we live with our children. We don't sleep with a loaded gun next to us. We're not severely addicted to a disassociative substance.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
We're not making Nazi gestures. And he's acting like these engineers are in Guantanamo Bay when the reality is Probably the most serious thing they're doing other than denying children and veterans their payments, trying to figure out if the meme for Doge should be wearing sunglasses.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And just this notion of these billionaire tears where he can't decide if it's his struggling engineers or just proper grammar. Like, pick a struggle boss. It's like, well, you don't have autocorrect. I start to read this thing. I start to get upset. I start to think about responding. And then I think, I don't want to create a sideshow.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
I want to focus on what I think is important, and that is highlighting. that we have somebody who was not cleared or approved by government or Congress, who is basically hacking into our federal systems. If China did this, it would be an act of war. Without the permission of Congress, and shutting off funds to veterans and children and the neediest.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And I think that's where we have to remain our focus. So, Musk saying mean things about me, that's a sideshow and it really doesn't matter. It's not important. And I'm not going to, other than, I want to stay focused on, you know, when you go into an emergency room, there's a saying called stop the bleeding.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And that is if someone comes in with a gunshot and they are hemorrhaging blood, they don't take their PSA or their cholesterol level. So my ego and me being butthurt or responding or getting into it with him on Twitter, that's a distraction.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
We need to stay focused on the fact that we are now in a position where we've created a series of incentives where when we convict the president of being a felon and he gets reelected, he has learned that the American public, as long as they control all three branches of government, will not hold him accountable for trespassing or hacking into our most sensitive federal systems.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Now, if it gets to a judge, it gets pushed back. But they're kind of in this blitzkrieg moment of let's ask for forgiveness as opposed to permission. That's what I want to stay focused on. So I'm trying as hard as I can, and this isn't easy for me, as you know, Jess, to put my ego aside and focus what limited audience and bandwidth I have on stopping the bleeding, if you will. Your thoughts?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
I'm just going to unshame Kara.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Well, she's better at counterpunching than me.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Yeah, she's fearless. And I did—I mean, it's interesting. You know, I'm thinking a lot about men and masculinity. It is interesting that the Doge team is all young men.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And I do think that at the end of the day, the people responsible for this are the president and Elon Musk. And I think these— I'm going to call them kids, but these young men, young men are more risk aggressive. Biologically, the prefrontal cortex doesn't catch up until they're the age of 25 to a woman's. It is interesting that there are no women as part of this group.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
Thanks for that. So I think they should be held accountable if a law has been broken here and that anyone who goes after the president or Musk for laws broken, which I believe they're trespassing. I believe that they have purposely circumvented Congress. We're in uncharted territory because you don't know if that's an actual crime.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
if that is a civil or a criminal offense when the president approves of it. I think that's for courts to decide. But I do think it's a sideshow to a certain extent to focus on these young men. To be clear, the people accountable for this, the people who are orchestrating this are the president, and Elon Musk.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Elon Musk’s Federal Government Takeover
And to a certain extent, the Democrats, I don't want to say who are enabling it, but have been caught flat-footed and have to figure out a way to strike back. And we're going to talk about that later in the show. But it is interesting. And just to be real here about these young men, I was thinking about it. I've said a lot.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
So first off, just because we're capitalists here and there's not anything important going on in the world, it's important to run a commercial as we start here. But effectively, a little insight into the podcast world. The RSS feed where people subscribe is what advertisers look at. And right now we're at 42,000.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Well, so as we stand here right now, the Dow's off 100 or about 200 points, which isn't huge. I think the market, what the market is saying is, And what a lot of Republicans, when they have absolutely no response for what is the strategy here, say, oh, this is, like you said, an opening salvo. What the market is saying is that he's done this.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
He'll get some sort of pinky promise, as Mark Cuban said. He'll declare victory and say, oh, we got this. They're stopping the shipments of fentanyl. And people will nod, do nothing. And he'll declare victory and then take these down or eliminate them. That's what they're saying right now. The problem with this is that when you threaten people, they remember it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
He's creating an enormous opening for Russia and China to establish military bases, goodwill, cooperation between their intelligence services. less likely to cooperate with ours, less likely to call us and say, hey, we have information saying there's a terrorist organization in a cell and a bunch of these individuals have gotten on planes and are headed to New York.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
We have a lot of nations that will call, will cooperate with our intelligence personnel. I think part of the problem is I think Americans have cold comfort that one, they don't realize how many people are out there in organizations that would like to come kill us and take our shit away. And that this, our government security apparatus has been so effective
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And once you get to 50,000, for some reason, the advertising industrial complex has decided then they can start advertising with us. And keep in mind, we still have ads, but they're those shitty rotational ads that have a stranger reading them. And if you want Jess Tarlop to tell you why Athletic Greens gives her that radiant look or why I am so much better now that I have Z-Biotics, which...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And we are so strong at getting the best, better end of trade agreements and the prosperity we recognize, which I acknowledge has been crammed into, you know, disproportionately into too few people's pockets. I think people take for granted just how strong our security and government apparatus is overseas. and how much that is aided by the ultimate cloud cover of goodwill towards us.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
That despite being arrogant, indulgent, loud, obnoxious, that people generally believe around the world, especially in the West, that we're the good guys, that they can count on us.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And so to kind of stick up the middle finger, create chaos, do real economic harm without even a clear signal as to what it is you want in return, but just to do this because you can, even if in fact he does retract these things. I was on the board. of a large specialty retailer. And I talked to the person who runs the company over the weekend. I said, what do you think he's doing?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And he said, well, we've stocked up because we knew this was coming. So we stocked up. We got a bunch of stuff in, like six months worth of stuff before this took effect because we knew it was coming. And we're banking that...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
when he realizes when all of a sudden the price of everything goes up for American consumers, he's going to pretend that it was a victory and that he negotiated some deal and back away. And even if that comes off with as little damage as we think, That is like radiation that 20 or 30 years ago results in, you know, from now results in leukemia.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And the other thing that the only kind of analysis I did here that I think uncovered something that maybe the media isn't talking that much about is that this has, this tariff thing has Elon Musk's fingerprints all over it. What do I mean by that? If you look at Tesla to their credit versus other automobile companies, the majority of
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
goes across the Mexican and Canadian border back and forth several times because there's different parts manufacturers with different advantages or skill sets across the trade agreements in Mexico and Canada. Tesla, to its credit, has built a company that has kind of a deeper manufacturing base. What do I mean by that? The majority of the car is assembled domestically.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And you think, well, what about China? They're going to have to pay tariffs when China imposes reciprocal tariffs. Actually, the majority of cars sold in China from Tesla are produced in China. Now, some of the Chinese manufactured Teslas that are sold in Europe face a 7.5% tariff, which, by the way, he's suing them for.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
But of all the companies in the automobile industry that will be least impacted by these tariffs, it's Tesla. So again, even—I mean, we talked about cutting off—he has access to the payments for Veteran Affairs, all these different things that people are worried about. Even where they don't see his fingerprints, his fingerprints are there.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I believe that he had a large—a lot of influence in how these tariffs were implemented, such that it has— It has seriously diminished the economic power of his automobile rivals. And again, it's, okay, the richest man in the world now has more access to the federal government payment system, can decide to turn off or on veterans benefits. I mean, just this crazy shit. And what do you know?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
He's the richest man in the world. And it all goes to the same place. And that is, and I was talking with Kara about this on Pivot. And we'll get to this, all of the websites that are disappearing around family planning and choice and HIV and vaccines. I see this as the far right and Trump have said, it's not a war on gay people or a war on women. It's a war on the poor.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Because I think the deal they've struck is they've said, you know, poor people always have a backdoor to family planning, to vaccines, whatever it is they need. They'll be fine. They'll figure it out. This really feels like a war on the poor.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
helps me go out and drink recklessly, and the next day I don't feel as shitty. Both ads that we will do. If you'd rather hear host readovers, please hit the subscribe button on our, both on YouTube and on our dedicated Raging Moderates feed. We would really appreciate it. Please do it now. We will tell you when we hit 50,000, but let's try to get there this week. Oh my God, that was so commercial.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And the flip side of that is that the richest man in the world is now basically much more powerful than any elected representative, any governor, any senator, any congressperson. I still think Trump's more powerful because he can fire Musk. But we now have an unelected person. And what do you know? He happens to be the wealthiest person in the world. This is full idolatry of money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
This is full capture by money of D.C. And I think it's going to come at a huge cost to the long-term goodwill. And it's so strange. And I'll stop my word salad here. For the first time in my life, and it feels really odd, I'm rooting for the Germans and the Canadians.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
When the German public turns out, 100,000 of them, to say, by the way, when your fucking idiot shows up and tells a far-right group here they should be proud of their culture, the majority of Germans do not believe that nor endorse that message.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
When Canada boos when the national anthem is sung at a sporting event in, I don't know if it was Toronto or Montreal, I got to be honest, I'm with them, and it feels really, really unusual.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
All right. Let's move on to banter. How are you?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Ruth Bader Ginsburg said that the symbol of America isn't really an eagle, it's a pendulum, and that, you know, it's never at the bottom.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And if you're looking for a moment of optimism, I believe that the majority of Americans will come to realize, whether it's through an inability to rebuild their house for less than 40% more, the fact that prices are going to go up, the fact that we're going to start to meet people who are really treated unfairly, or just the fact they're going to go, you know, I'm no longer as proud to be an American as I used to be.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I think there's a decent chance they have really overreached here. And some of the damage that's going to come out of this is going to frighten people who even thought they were, you know, I think a lot of people probably didn't sign up for this. And while it might feel good and like, yeah, take that, libtards. And I mean, I just find it so telling.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
that some of the agencies charged with rounding up, if you will, undocumented workers, where are they going? They're going to work sites, schools and places and churches. And it strikes me, okay, if you found a group of people and said, where can we find them? We can find them where only 40% of Americans work. 145 million people have a job out of 350 million.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
These people are working, they're going to church, and their kids are going to school. Doesn't that kind of make them ground zero for what America is supposed to be? And then to go macro, and I am not a believer in open borders. I absolutely think 250,000 people coming across the border in December of 2023 got us into this fucking mess. I think Biden did a terrible job.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
But at the same time, what we have to acknowledge is, okay, how did we get here? We got here. Because if America's secret sauce is immigration, the most profitable part of that sauce is illegal immigration. And we have known about it. 17% of people on a construction site are undocumented workers. There are all these videos now everywhere of all these work sites that are empty. They come in.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
It's the most flexible, profitable workforce in history. It's not Stanford graduates. It's not immigrants from India running NASDAQ companies. It's illegal, undocumented workers coming in, taking care of grandma, picking our crops, providing services for quote-unquote below market. I renovated a house. There's not a single American who will work outside. They just won't do it. You can't find them.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I 100% don't care. I don't even know who Luka Doncic— That's not true. Is that a Serbian tennis player? Who is—I have no idea who that is, seriously.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
They're still in plumbing and electric. Any other job building a house? He's like, I can't find domestic workers. And they're very profitable. They don't tax social services. They don't stick around for Social Security, despite the fact they pay Social Security taxes. So they've been demonized.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
This feels eerily reminiscent of the 110,000 Japanese who made the mistake of their parents being born in Japan. They did nothing else, and they were rounded up and put in camps. That was a stain on the American experience, and it feels like we're getting eerily close to some sort of kabuki version of that or some sort of karaoke version.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I don't know what the term is, a bad impromptu version of that. But this is... Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Anyway, that was crazy, but you don't care. Just so you know, pretty much every male viewer and a decent number of female viewers on YouTube right now have decided you are, in fact, the perfect woman. That you not only bring a lot of intelligence and you're obviously very attractive, but you understand the latest in basketball trades. You literally are.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
But I have no idea who that is. And I don't unless it's Cole Palmer. I don't care.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
What did I do this weekend? Really? My favorite weekend? I did absolutely nothing. My boy was home. My 17-year-old comes home on the weekends from boarding school. And my 14-year-old, on the weekends, he turns into, he's kind of difficult. I think, I don't know what it is about the dynamic, but on the weekends, he's tough.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I think that might have something to do with it. And then we went to a one-year-old's birthday party, Snoozerama.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I keep telling you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Yeah. Yeah. I'm out of that. I'm out of that stage. But they're nice people and I knew they'd have a bar. So it was fun. And then what did I do? Did I have any fun Saturday night? You know, really boring weekend. Didn't even watch any Premier League games. I'm headed to, after this, I'm bombing to the airport and I'm headed to Orlando.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
So welcome back. I want to talk about a couple of things and get your response in. to each of them. So a couple of the things we haven't been talking about, the US government has decided, or basically Trump has decided to eliminate and take down sites. According to reporting from Wired and the New York Times, more than 8,000 pages across government sites have been taken down since Friday.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
This follows Trump's orders to take down all outward facing media, sites, social media accounts that include or promote gender ideology. Topics of pages taken down include vaccines, veterans affairs, hate crimes, and scientific research.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Specifically, 3,000 pages were taken down from the CDC, 3,000 pages from the Census Bureau, 1,000 pages from the Office of Justice Programs, 200 pages from Head Start, a program for low-income children, and 180 pages from the Department of Justice. And this goes to a theme. That I'm big on.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And that is, I believe that the way Trump is implementing a misogynist, anti-gay ideology is to say to communities, if you're rich, you got nothing to worry about. If your nephew's gay or transgender or your daughter needs to terminate a pregnancy, don't worry that this is continuing a war on the poor.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Because one of the things they took down, I was reading about, was this HIV transmission calculator. where you went in and talked about the type of sex you practiced, your sexual orientation, very straightforward questions, and it said, okay, you're at high risk or low risk, but there's options available, or what type of options or programs are available for a pregnant woman who contracts an STD?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And I think about, okay, my son doesn't need that website. My son has education, education, to parents at home, money to figure things out, or my daughter would need it. This is an attack on poor people under the auspices of implementing a far-right, white Christian nationalist ideology with a wink and a nod saying, okay, but my daughters and my sons, if I'm rich, we need an out.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
We need a backdoor here. Your thoughts, Jess?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Again, see above. Like, you're not smart. I am doing a speaking gig at Disney World. And that's a first for me. Yeah, I'm doing a speaking gig at it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And you should keep that to yourself. But anyways, go ahead.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
It's a perfect storm of bad things. One, social media has gutted journalism. The number of journalists over the last 20 or 30 years is down somewhere between 20 and 30 percent. And they're arguably the largest cop ever. or the most powerful cop that doesn't carry a badge to report on this stuff. And they're just overwhelmed.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And in addition, the quote-unquote information that has replaced these journalists traffics in rage and makes you hate the government and hate each other, which has kind of led to this. And then you'd couple that with the idolatry of the dollar, where we let one person who happens to be the richest person in the world make these sorts of decisions.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
You end up with an uneducated populist who believes in conspiracy theory, is enraged, and the wealthy or the wealthiest man in the world will start making these unilateral decisions with a lack of checks and balances, not only from a Congress that's worried about him turning his sights and his money and his algorithms on them and primarying them, but because people are just so in awe. of money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
You referenced what I think is just a national disgrace. But again, so many disgraces, we can't focus on these things. And that is the foreign aid freeze. The U.S. Congress froze foreign aid, a decision that will go down, in my view, in history as one of the most short-sighted, destructive, and frankly, un-American failures of leadership.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
To be clear, foreign aid is a rounding error in the federal budget. It's about $70 billion or $200 per citizen in exchange for that. What do we have? Sudan, war-ravaged country, is on the edge of starvation. Until last week, U.S. funds supported 634 soup kitchens feeding 800,000 people. After the freeze, 434 of those kitchens were shut down overnight in Thailand and Myanmar.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Patients with tuberculosis and life-threatening conditions are being carried away on makeshift stretchers, told to leave U.S.-funded hospital within a week because they have no more supply of medicine and they have nowhere else to go in Africa. Famine-riddled Sudan is worsening. Six million people are on the brink of starvation. Four and a half million died.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Displaced people, they were on the verge of eradicating diseases, including malaria and malnutrition. Some of those clinics are shutting down. Global health, U.S.-funded HIV-AIDS programs in South Africa and Haiti has stalled, putting hundreds of thousands of lives at risk. And be clear, folks, even if you want to make the moral argument, well, that's a tragedy, but I want that $200 back.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Focused on American kids? Okay, that's an argument. Don't agree with it, but that's an argument. But the geopolitical fallout here is going to come back to haunt us. China and Russia are stepping into this void while the U.S. pulls back. Beijing is deepening its ties in Africa and Latin America. Aid isn't just about generosity, it's about influence.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And Washington's retreat is just going to leave this gigantic vacuum that our adversaries are happy to fill with a fucking fraction of their investment. Putin will come up with that $70 billion if he can grab some of that goodwill.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I think it's the seventh ring of hell for most of us. You have to take your kids there. And 364 days a year, I under-contribute to this whole parenting thing. And then one day a year, I take – or used to because now they're a little too old. Now they go to Universal. Universal is for teenagers, but Disney was for kids. I would take my two boys and six of their friends – to Disney for the weekend.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
So for 200—the majority of Americans, I think Republicans and Democrats, if you sat them down and said, this is the good we're doing around the world, around HIV, malaria— starvation, displaced refugees. This is what we are doing for pregnant women with AIDS, with kids, with vaccines. This is what happens if we withdraw. Are you willing to give us $200 right now, here and now, for the year?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I think the majority of Americans would say, absolutely. This aid freeze isn't just a moral failure. It's a strategic disaster, weakening our allies, funding humanitarian crises, and abandoning global leadership. It's going to cost us a lot more than 200 bucks per citizen.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
This is the definition of a lack of strategy and taking goodwill built over decades and investments by previous Americans and taxpayers and just trashing it in the worst way. This is just so dumb.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Yeah, I don't. At some point, we're going to have to do a show on what can be done here. But I've said around Democrats, this is not a time to come together. This is a time to come to the rescue and focus on the economic impact. I do think Democrats are starting to hit back. I loved some of the Senate confirmation hearings. I think Senator Michael Bennett is an absolute hero.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
By the way, who I supported for president.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I think there was a third somewhere in there.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
But I probably James Bennett, his brother.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Yeah, they're very impressed. But it really I know Senator Bennett. He's a really decent man. Public school superintendent. Senator was in private equity, understands capitalism. Anyways, I thought Senators Sanders and Warren were very effective. So it is good to see Democrats hitting back. But this does feel like we're in uncharted territory. Anyways, we're going to take one more quick break.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Welcome back. Before we wrap, Ken Martin's election as chair of the Democratic National Committee marks the beginning of a huge challenge after spending 14 years leading Minnesota's DFL in He's no stranger to political battles, but now he's stepping into a role with a lot more weight. His victory was a decisive one, but it's only the first hurdle.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Whoa. And that, as far as I'm concerned... Alone? Yeah, just me.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Martin's job now is to unite a divided party and rebuild momentum after disappointing losses in 2024, all while preparing for a tough battle against the Trump-led GOP in 2028. Jess, with contenders including Ben Wickler, who had a lot of big-name support, what do you think gave Ken the edge in securing the win, and how do you think he'll use this momentum to unite the DNC moving forward?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I might be able to rope another guy into the seventh ring of hell just so we can complain to each other. But as far as I'm concerned, that compensates for my negligent parenting the rest of the year. I think that... I can totally see... That you enjoy it? I don't understand it, but I can totally see it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I think we've done a really bad job, we being Democrats, of building our bench.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
I'm trying to think.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Yeah, but my view is that we've decided to opt for 90-year-olds who engage in insider trading and won't leave. that the top of the pyramid is so stacked with right but ineffective players that we're not advancing some of our younger voices fast enough. I just think there, I think if you're a young, ambitious, and talented player,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
You want to get to America and you want to be a Republican right now because I think the Democrats have decided that it's a senior's facility. And I just think we need to absolutely elevate – I mean, for God's sakes, Amy Klobuchar, I think she's 60 or 62. She looks like a teenager compared to the rest – or Hakeem Jeffries looks like he's 15 –
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
We need to get some of these younger, more forceful people. I'm not a huge fan of AOC's policies. I love that she said, I'm not going to the inauguration. He's a rapist. I mean, where are those voices? I mean, we needed to identify a cadre of 30 or 40. I mean, Secretary Buttigieg, I like how he came out and immediately tweeted, you know, zero crashes on my watch, boss.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Oh, my God. It's so awful.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And that's an unfair statement, and he should make it. But I don't think, I think we have, I don't know, I think we're like a corporation. I think a lot of these people need to be put on an ice floe, Jess.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
You're like— I will say this. When I was at—was it Walt Disney—or was it Disneyland or Walt Disney World— They have that princess thing where you sign up your little girl and she goes in and they make her up and they put wings on her and a little princess fairy thing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Every time I saw it, I thought, this is the greatest threat to democracy of an individual who shares company with Bashar al-Assad and can't call Edward Snowden a traitor is going to just destroy the morale of people who put themselves in harm's way every day and wonder, is this person really going to have my back? And then I think, oh no, she's not the worst.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
He's the worst, that we're going to have kids who are going to lose limbs and have hands and feet amputated, which is what happened if measles, we have another measles outbreak who's selling onesies to babies that says, you know, vaxxed and, I mean, unvaxxed and what is it? What were those onesies?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Yeah, and it's just very odd, really.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And then they have that little area where she's introduced and they have lights and smoke and she comes out. I sat there for 15 minutes while my kids were going on Space Mountain or something and watched the most beautiful little girls come out and you... They come out like they're floating. And I thought, oh, my God, Disney. Like, I've made me want to buy Disney stock as emotional as I am.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Yeah, he's coming across almost as like semi-legitimate. And Senator Rubio has always been a political animal. He wakes up every morning and looks in the mirror and says, hello, Mr. President. He would do anything to increase the likelihood. And quite frankly, and I'm circling back the very beginning here around our immigration policy, they got very serious about immigration about 20 years ago.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And they had something called the Gang of Five, and they included this very young senator named Marco Rubio. And he blew up the whole thing because his pollsters decided that in Iowa, they don't want anything resembling a path to citizenship for dreamers. So Marco Rubio will always do what he believes is the most politically expedient thing, full stop. I mean, he really is the opposite of...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And my favorite statement about Marco Rubio is who would have thought that peoples with the last names Cruz and Rubio would hate Mexican people so much? He really hasn't been. Anyways, and what's strange is I can see how he flew in 99 to zero because we have just changed, entirely changed the benchmark. But what you said about, is it Senator Hassan? That was really powerful.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Actually, I think that's probably a good place to end it. I don't have anything upbeat. What are you doing this week, Jess? Let's get back to you. Talk about something upbeat. Anything going on with your kids?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Very good. Trust me on this. You cannot take enough pictures when your kids are young. I, every day I send a photo of, Of me and one of my boys when I was with them when I was a kid. I sent it to them. I texted to them at school. And you can't take enough photos.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
There you go. All right. That's it for this episode. Thank you for listening to Raging Moderates. Our producers are David Toledo and Chinenye Onike. Our technical director is Drew Burrows. You can find Raging Moderates on its own feed every Tuesday. That's right. Raging Moderates on its own feed. Please follow us wherever you get your podcasts.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
It was these little girls. You could tell they were thinking about this all year and they picked out their outfit and they do such an amazing job. It really is. It really is incredible. But just to bring us back to reality. I had one of those moments that made me feel very depressed about income inequality, and I'm on the right side of that trade, so this is a story of privilege.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
But I took the kids, and the ride Avatar, it was a three-hour wait. So you could pass out the movie Avatar on an iPad, and people could watch it before they actually got on the ride. And you just saw so many families in line holding their kids asleep. And I thought, this is borderline abusive to create something that parents have to go to and the majority of people can't.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And I did one of those VIP tours where you pay thousands of dollars And you roll by the entire line, and then the person at the front of the line operating the ride gives you a hand signal in case you want to go twice. And I remember thinking, at some point, the people in the line, it goes Planet of the Apes and they kill us all. Because this is so out of control, the disparity between the life...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
that 99.9% of Americans have to lead and the rest of us who've gotten, you know, really lucky. Anyways, it was one of those moments I thought, this is weird. This is uncomfortable. Anyways, that's my Disney story. Okay, Jess, in today's episode, we're discussing chaos reigning across the federal government. Chaos is the right word.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Trump launching a trade war with tariffs and Democrats elect a new chair to lead their party. That's kind of a snooze. The first two...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
It's going to be hard to make that sexy. All right, let's get into it. Trump. The Trump administration threw the government into total chaos with a surprise spending freeze that cut off funding for things including school lunches, college financial aid and medical research.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Then just as quickly as it appeared, the freeze was blocked by a federal judge only for the White House to insist they weren't actually backing down, leaving everyone even more confused. But that was just sort of the first ending here. Trump has been on a signing spree, rolling out executive orders targeting schools, trans kids and immigrants, even tried to blame a deadly plane crash on DEI.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And on top of that, his administration sent a mass email offering millions of federal employees benefits. a chance to resign now and still get paid through September. Workers were stunned. Legal experts are flummoxed. And no one's really sure if this is even legal. Jess, I mean this sincerely. Where should we start?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Yeah, it feels like the high sparrow and his acolytes.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And you need to start. Okay. Just start. Just trust me on this. Look, this is just taking it in order, trying to... My mom used to say, how do you eat an elephant one bite at a time? Let's just start with the erosion. If you were to start with... We have 750 military bases in 80 countries. China has one in Djibouti in Africa.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And I think when terrorists try and transmit funds or they have a choice, a government has a choice between partnering with a U.S. company or a Chinese company or another Western company, they generally choose us. And first off, this notion that somehow America has been taken advantage of.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
As someone who has been roaming the earth, working with the biggest global companies in the world, I've done deals with world leaders on behalf of companies, not on behalf of the US government. The notion that we are somehow getting taken advantage of around the world is just so asinine. We flex our muscles every minute of every day around the world in terms of our trade agreements.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Do you think these 80 countries that host our military just decided to do it because they like us? I mean, that's some of it. But that goodwill, that power, we exercise and benefit from every day. So just starting there, the notion that this is somehow a recalibration to get back to some symmetry of equity, that's just not true.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And starting with the economic argument, not the moral argument, in Canada— First off, they don't even know what he wants. They're claiming it's because of the flow of fentanyl across the border. There really isn't a lot of fentanyl coming in from Canada. It's like 43 pounds. You could maybe make that argument for Mexico, maybe even for China, because some of it's being manufactured there.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
And that means your people can focus on the work that they want to do. That's putting AI agents to work for people. It's your turn. Get started at servicenow.com slash AI dash agents. Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
But Canada isn't dumping fentanyl from Vancouver. That's just not happening. And Canada can't even figure out what it is he wants. And keep in mind, this is a nation that in the Iran hostage crisis, the Canadian ambassador residence hosted or hid hostages. They risked their lives in the embassy there to help get Americans out. They followed us into Afghanistan, no questions asked.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
They followed us into Iraq, no questions asked. We have Major League Baseball. You just mentioned the NBA. We have American sports teams in Canadian cities. And we've decided to declare economic war on Canada. It's just – it just doesn't – it's not only reckless, it's stupid. And that's just on the economic side.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
We can go further into the different – the other mendacious things they're working on, but this tariff – This tariff is just – I always go to the economics. I'm like, okay, how can I figure out a way to take Brexit and expand it and supersize it where we make our nation less productive but increase costs for everyone in the United States? I know. Let's take Brexit.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: Trump’s Short-Lived Trade War
Let's make it 10 times worse or bigger. And then let's figure out a way to be really mendacious and mean to people in the United States and in special interest groups and across Europe. the world. Your thoughts.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Support for Prop Tree comes from Viore. Oh my God, true story. I am wearing, totally coincidentally, guess what? Viore shorts. Viore's high quality gym clothes are made to be versatile and stand the test of time. They sent me some to try out and here I am. For our listeners, Viore is offering 20% off your first purchase. Plus, get free shipping on any U.S. orders over $75 and free returns.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Episode 342. Route 342 is an east-west highway in New York. In 1942, Disney released Bambi. I used to call my girlfriend Bambi, and she thought it was because she had big, beautiful eyes. No, it was because I wanted to shoot her mother with a hunting rifle.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Ezra, you talk about or you say in the book that for a future that's pro-growth, pro-technology and has pro-liberal values. What does that actually look like in practice? Give me more. Well, let's talk about, I mean, beyond just clearing out, going from NIMBY to YIMBY, like they've done in Austin or in Minneapolis.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Give me an example beyond housing of how kind of a pro-technology, pro-growth, and pro-liberal values, how that actually impacts things on the ground. I think you guys could have written your book just on housing, because I think what you're saying really resonates with people, where we've turned it into an investment class.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
and turned over housing permits to homeowners and took it out of the hands of bureaucrats. And homeowners have an incentive to restrict the supply. But give me another example in another sector of how you think kind of being pro-tech and pro-growth might change our current approach.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Or can I not breathe today? Yeah, I remember, I grew up in LA. I remember coming home from school and your chest would hurt when you breathe in.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Welcome to the 342nd episode of the Prop G Pop. What's happening? The dog is home in London. I'm back in London town. People say, why did you move to London? People always say that. And I say, well, why am I in London? I'm an influencer, not a decision maker on these issues. The mother of my children said seven years ago, we're moving to London in five years or seven and a half years ago.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
So Derek, when we talk about energy policy, just to steel man this, that the very Republican state of Texas is now producing more wind energy than anyone, and that economics ultimately wins out, or that's a case study. And ultimately that creates less bureaucracy, let the market decide, more wind energy, lower cost of energy, more tax revenue to reinvest in our schools.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Isn't a conservative agenda more of an abundance agenda?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
And then she actually called my bluff, came over here, bought a house and brought the kids in school and then boom. We're in London. So let's stack rank London. What's the good? What's the bad? People are like, do you like it? Do you love it? No, I don't love it. I don't love it. Let me start with the good.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
We'll be right back.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
So we want to introduce you to another show from our network and your next favorite money podcast for ours, of course, Net Worth and Chill. Host Vivian Tu is a former Wall Street trader turned finance expert and entrepreneur. She shares common financial struggles and gives actionable tips and advice on how to make the most of your money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Past guests include Nicole Yoder, a leading fertility doctor who breaks down the complex world of reproductive medicine and the financial costs of those treatments, and divorce attorney Jackie Combs, who talks about love and divorce and why everyone should have a prenup. Episodes of Net Worth and Chill are released every Wednesday.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Listen wherever you get your podcasts or watch full episodes on YouTube. By the way, I absolutely love Vivintu. I think she does a great job. Ezra, I see the epicenter of all the things you're talking about are the perfect storm of bad things, whether it's an obsession with scarcity or the administrative state getting in the way of objectives or losing the plot.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
It's a world-class city, I think mostly because it became a haven for private capital or wealthy people looking to engage in tax avoidance. And let's be honest, That's what you do when you get rich. And part of the reason people are rich is because they're obsessed with money and they think about it a lot. Things you're obsessed with, you tend to be better at than things you're not obsessed with.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
I think the epicenter for everything you guys are talking about is my industry, where you have, when the dean announces we've rejected 85% of applicants, what do the faculty and the alumni do? They stand up and they applaud.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
I'm curious if you've thought about how this scarcity or non-abundance mindset has infected higher education and what policy recommendations you guys would make to address this problem.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Oh, right on, my brother. Literally, right the fuck on. I am here because of the generosity of California taxpayers and the regents of UC. Anyway, sorry. It's an extraordinary.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Mine was $7,000.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
No, no, no, mine was 7,000 for all seven years of undergrad and grad. Do you remember the admissions rate at UC when you applied? No. For me, at UCLA, it was 76% when I applied, and I was one of the 24%.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
And Prime Minister Tony Blair at the time passed a series of private property laws that said if you're a war criminal or an oligarch or just made a shit ton of money, And you're worried about taxation. You can bring all your capital here and it's safe and no one can come for it and take it. And also, whatever money you keep offshore, we will not tax.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
I think it's impossible to argue against the notion that we used to have these... individuals of extraordinary talent that would practice full-body contact violence of capitalism and then became very civic-minded with the spoils of that full-body contact violence of competition. It appears now we have the former and not the latter.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
My fear, though, is that waiting on the better angels of these billionaires to show up is not a strategy. And that I have now become, I've kind of just gone full Bernie Sanders. And I'd like you both to respond to this. And I believe that we just need a massive alternative minimum tax. My tax rate for the last 10 years has been 17%. I'm very transparent about
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
From my 30s and 40s, I was averaging over 30%. Then I got very wealthy, and my tax rate has been cut in half. I mean, in order to make these sorts of big, bold investments in rail, in UC, and still have the money to pay for our Defense Department, Medicaid, Medicare, doesn't it simply, quite frankly, just come down to restoring a progressive tax policy? Derek, any thoughts?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
And if you think about it, well, you don't get to do that in America. If you make a bunch of money in businesses and career or whatever and you repatriate it and bring it home such you can spend it on hookers and cocaine, that's where I go. That's where the dog goes. Then you get taxed on it, as you should be.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
And in the UK, that money, as long as it stays outside of the UK, you don't get taxed on it. So we get a lot of rich people coming here. Anyways, what do I like about the UK? Let's stack rank it. It is a great city. I've been coming to London for about probably 50 years.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
I've been coming here since I was a little, since I was a wee one, since I was a wee skipper because both my parents are from the United Kingdom. My father from Glasgow, my mother from London. And this place has slowly but surely gotten the mother of all facelifts over the last 50 years. In the 80s, this was not a nice city. The food sucked. The infrastructure was crumbling.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Get yourself some of the most comfortable and versatile clothing on the planet. Viori.com slash PropG. That's V-U-O-R-I dot com slash PropG. Exclusions apply. Visit the website for full terms and conditions.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Thank you. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
There weren't a lot of innovative businesses here. It just wasn't where you would decide to spend a lot of money. Now it really is sort of the most probably livable city if you're coming from America and an English speaker. So there's really interesting people. It is a world-class city. Premier League football, another amazing thing. Best thing about the UK in my view, proximity to the continent.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
And also, I will say the people are very welcoming here. You come here and people immediately say, oh, you're new. I had someone come up to me in the park and say, oh, you're new. Come over. We have dogs. We'll have dinner. I'm not comfortable with that. I don't want to go to a stranger's house for fear that I walk in and it's sort of weird and I think I'm trapped here for two and a half hours.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
But anyways, people have dinner parties when you arrive. Very, very nice. I found it very warm and welcoming culture. The downside, the downside. The second worst thing about it here, the business environment is really anemic, comatose. I just don't find there's the same entrepreneurial flair.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
We're back with more from Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson. Well, I have you. You're both great communicators. You're both strategists. You understand positioning, understand messaging. What thoughts do you have?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
So as a progressive, I found that I was sort of flat footed and just overwhelmed, just sort of they're flooding the zone with things that are meant to, I think, distract us, enrage us, male versus female, gulf of cheaper eggs, DEI causing helicopter crashes, because I don't think they want us focused on the fact that they're about to increase the deficit by $800 billion a year to give guys like me a tax cut, that we're surrendering to a murderous autocrat.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
I don't know what it is, but I have found that the majority of the economy here is about serving wealth that's been created elsewhere, that there isn't a lot of organic value creation. Most of the entrepreneurs are starting businesses to serve money made elsewhere. They're starting a restaurant, they're starting a wealth management company. They're starting a hotel.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
I think they're saying, look over here, because they don't want to focus on the important things that are just sort of indefensible. I'm curious what advice, and this has probably already happened, and Derek, I'll let you go first. Democratic Party calls and says, okay, we really got to figure out our messaging and our strategy here.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
And assuming that people understand that some of these policies are probably just economically ruinous, I don't even think it's the tariffs that are the most damaging thing. I think it's our inconsistency. You wanna see what he's gonna do around tariffs or economic policy, look at who I had lunch with last.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
And you can't have a consistent, when no country knows who they're waking up next to, they're remiss to do anything with you. It's like, well, he could call this off tomorrow. That's just no way to operate.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
an economy, much less a country, what advice would you have for Democrats in the DNC who say are of like mind and think, yeah, we need to take, you know, re-usurp government and constitutional authority. This economic plan is disastrous. What strategy? You're in the war room with James Carville right now, advising 2026 congressional candidates and then 2028.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
What strategies do you think we need to deploy, Derek?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
There's very little, I think, of a tech scene here. I mean, a little bit, a little bit of payments, but it's just not that same risk-taking infrastructure, whatever you might want to call it. By far, the worst thing about it here, oh my God, the weather. Jesus fucking Christ. It's cloudy and gray and 52 degrees. Well, good news is it'll be like that for the next, I don't know, seven years.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Oh my God. It is just, I didn't realize. I'm absolutely going to retire to like Arizona or something. Not true. Retiring to Aspen. Retiring to Aspen. Because the sun, at least for me, I have that disorder, seasonal disorder. I don't know. Is that really a disorder? Wanting to have sun all the time? But oh my gosh, I just can't handle it. I just cannot handle it. We've been here.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
I want to propose a thesis. I have two questions. I'll let you guys go. You've been generous with your time. I think that we oftentimes get focused on, we studied to the wrong test. And I'm trying to think, what is the goal? What is the mission? AI, GDP, productivity.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
I think it's all a means to the ends, but the ends are creating an operating system, a platform, an economy that enables people to have deep and meaningful relationships. And the three of us, I believe, all have partners and are raising children. And much to my surprise, I have found that that has given me purpose and a sense of being and a sense of satisfaction that I didn't anticipate.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
I wasn't planning to have children. For me, the unifying theory of everything, it should be we reverse engineer all of our public policy and economic decisions to one thing, and that is people 18 to 40 should have the opportunities to meet each other, mandatory national service, more freshmen classes, more third places, quite frankly, more alcohol,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
such that they can tax remote works, one in three relationships begin at work, such that we have more people, quite frankly, having more sex, falling in love, and then have the economic wherewithal To have children, universal child tax credit, pre-K, minimum wage of $25 an hour.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Quite frankly, just stuff more money in their pockets such that we go back to where we were 40 years ago where 60% of 30-year-olds have a kid versus 27% now. I don't think it's because people don't like kids. I think it's because they can't afford them. But the unifying theory of everything.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
is that any able-bodied American should at least have a reasonable chance that they will have the opportunity to meet somebody and the economic viability to have a family, and that everything should be reverse engineered towards that opportunity for young people, that that's the unifying theory of everything and should drive all of our economic and social policies. Your thoughts.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Two and a half years. Oh, I forgot. Actually, you know what? The best thing about the UK is the schooling system. The schools are great here. My two boys are so happy, thriving, doing great in school. Oh, another free gift with purchase. I don't have horror fantasies about waking up or getting up and turning on the TV and seeing my kid's school in the news because of a mass shooter.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
You just really don't have that here. Why? Because they're fairly reasonable people. Anyways, that's my breakdown of the UK, the United Kingdom. I would say to anyone who has the pleasure or the luxury or is fortunate enough to ever live abroad, I absolutely think you should. I could not do better than my life in the U.S. I will not do better than my life in the U.S. I love it there.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Ezra Klein is a New York Times columnist and the host of the Ezra Klein Show podcast. Previously, he was the founder, editor-in-chief, and then editor-at-large of Vox. Derek Thompson is a staff writer at The Atlantic and the author of the Work in Progress newsletter. He's also the author of the books Hitmakers and On Work, Money, Meaning, Identity, and the host of the podcast Plain English.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Their new book, Abundance, is out now. I said this off mic. I just admire you guys so much. I think you're fearless. I think you're great storytellers. Just keep on keeping on, gentlemen. Well done. Thank you, man. I appreciate it. Scott, thanks so much. Algebra of happiness. A lot of young people, more young people than ever as a proportion of the population are struggling with anxiety.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
I am very American. I didn't realize how American I was until I left. But you don't want to do better. What you want to do is different. And if you have the resources or the opportunity to live abroad, you should. And I think there's kind of two times when you figure it out. One, when you're young, because when you're young, you can dance between the raindrops.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
And I did a podcast yesterday with Anthony Scaramucci and Dan Harris from 10% Happier. And Dan has really been, the term is brave, but very useful in helping other people discuss and address their anxiety. He struggles with panic attacks, and he talks a lot about different cognitive behavioral therapy to help them manage through that anxiety.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
And he has this statement that I just love, and that is, action absorbs anxiety. And I'm going to share a story that is not a Hallmark story, but I think it's relevant. I coach young men, and one young man in junior college, about early 20s, we're just sort of talking, and I could kind of tell what's on his mind. I'm like, what's on your mind? He's like, I'm a little bit freaked out right now.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
And I said, what's up? And he said, I've been having trouble peeing. I'm like, what do you mean by that? I have trouble peeing, but it's because I have a huge prostate. He goes, no, it's been feeling funny and weird down there, and I'm worried I have an STD. And I said, well, have you had unprotected sex recently? And he said, yes, I have. And I said, look, I know exactly how to do this.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
I know exactly what you need to do. Right now, right now, you need to go to urgent care or there are all sorts of STD clinics in your city, lives in a city, and you need to get tested right away. And on the way to the doctor, you're going to start to feel better because you're taking action.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
And fortunately, we live in a society right now where the vast majority, if not all of STDs can even can be handled or addressed. As soon as you start taking action against this problem or this issue, you're going to feel better. Action absorbs anxiety. At the end of life, you're not going to regret what happened to you. You're going to regret being so stressed out about it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
And that is, if you're worried about anything with your health, you immediately go to the fucking doctor. And maybe that's a point of privilege for me because I have the money. But if you have resources, if you're insured, if you can go to urgent care, you want to address the situation.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
You can just go out, have a pint, meet friends. You don't have to live in a nice place. You're more flexible. If it's not great for your career, you can recover. Or quite frankly, when you have a lot of money. And I know that sounds douchey. Oh, we should all be able to move to Europe. Yeah, but you can't. The reason I moved to Europe, people say, oh, you wanted to get out of the U.S.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Whenever your health is bothering you, immediately, the moment you make the appointment, you start feeling better. I am addressing it. Action absorbs action. Anxiety. You want to move against this. This is really upsetting me. This is bothering me. How am I going to solve it? Fuck, I can't get an internship. I can't get a job. Well, okay. What do you need to do to get a job?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
You need to send out resumes. You need to put together a resume. When you start putting together your resume, that action starts absorbing your anxiety. It's very simple. Get out of your head. Get out of your head. At the end of your life, you're not going to be upset about
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
An STD scare, not being able to get a job or a health scare, the thing you're going to be worried about or the thing you're going to regret is how anxious you were about it. And here's what you do. You move to action. Action absorbs anxiety. This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez. Our intern is Dan Shalon. Drew Burrows is our technical director.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Thank you for listening to the Prop G Pod from the Vox Media Podcast Network. We will catch you on Saturday for No Mercy, No Malice, as read by George Hahn. And please follow our Prop G Markets Pod wherever you get your pods for new episodes every Monday and Thursday. I'm sorry, the tea's just better here. The tea's just better. It's like porn for me is better after an edible.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
The tea's just better. Wrong analogy. Wrong analogy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
because of Trump. No, not at all. I'm here because of the U.S., not because I wanted to leave. I'm here due to the prosperity I recognize in the U.S. And the reality is in a city like London or living in Europe, especially with a family or moving, you just need to lubricate it with a lot of money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
It's probably true if you want to live in New York or San Francisco or L.A., but still, the reason I'm in Europe is because America let me. All right, moving on. In today's episode, we speak with Ezra Klein, the New York Times columnist and host of The Ezra Klein Show, and Derek Thompson, Atlantic staff writer, author, and host of the Plain English podcast.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
We discuss with Ezra and Derek their new book, Abundance, which is all about how America learned to fail at abundance and how the left can fix it by embracing growth, progress, and the messy trade-offs of governing. So I did enjoy this conversation.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
I mean, something that plagues the United States, it's interesting, Derek and Ezra would say that the left suffers from sort of the bureaucratic state, you know, 12 times as much to build a mile of subway in New York versus Paris, which isn't known for its efficiency. We spent all this money on charging stations and none of them happened.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
I don't know if that's something that just plagues the left, quite frankly. Although what's interesting is that kind of these Republican-run cities just seem to be better run right now than Democratic-run cities. But anyways, that is what it is. I enjoyed it. They're both really fascinating guys. Derek's at The Atlantic. Ezra is at The New York Times. They're both just super thoughtful guys.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
And also, they seem like nice guys. And I'm glad they're doing so well. And I enjoyed having them on the pod, as will you. So with that, here's our conversation with Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson. All right, let's bust right into it. Gentlemen, where does this podcast find you? Ezra, where are you? I am in New York. You're in New York. And Derek? I am in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Nice.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
We were just talking about it. I'm doing a college tour with my son, and he's decided that he's interested in UNC. And I asked him why, and he said, because of the logo. And I thought, well, that's absolutely the right reason to pick a university. So your new book, Abundance, is about where America, liberalism, and the Democratic Party went wrong over the last few decades.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
You argue that right-wing populism thrives on scarcity. And the answer is abundance. Let's start there. What does that abundance look like? I'll start with you, Derek.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Okay, so abundance is a really nice word. Tell me on the ground what that means. Let's talk about energy. Does that mean drill, baby, drill? Like, how does this notion of abundance impact our energy policy?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
So Derek, I love the idea of abundance, but I'll put forward a thesis and you respond. We don't suffer from a lack of abundance. What we suffer from is this oligarchical zeitgeist where we've decided to optimize the US for the top 1%. And we don't suffer from an increase in market capitalization and an increase in wealth.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
What we suffer from is policies that essentially insert certain companies in between the consumer on some public goods, including healthcare, housing, prison system, where the objective or the metrics are shareholder value, not the public good. The private company inserts themselves in the middle. It does a great job, innovation, applies technology. And then
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Abundance Is the Key to Fixing America — with Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
It creates market power, raises the prices, and we end up with one in four households with children in red states are food insecure. I mean, quite frankly, just to sound like a liberal, isn't our problem not abundance, but quite frankly, that we are slowly but surely sequestering all the abundance to the 1%?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
When I think about The White Lotus, there seems to be a theme or a certain... I don't know. Someone told me that it's about... It's the different seven deadly sins. What are the creative anchors you try to hold on to? If you ended up doing a season eight, what do you think would be the common themes that would still be static through season eight that are present in one, two, and three?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
I'm curious with casting because when I first saw the lineup, how do you, when you think of a character and you think, okay, does it immediately go Parker Posey would be the right person for this? Or does she read and you decide that she brings life to the character? I would think casting would be such a, is it an art or a science? How do you go about it?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
Welcome to the 338th episode of the Prop G Pod. What's happening? The dog is back in London. He's howling. He's howling. He's fed up with the weather, but he's got a big fur coat so he can handle 55 and rainy. You know, the weather's not that bad here. It's actually, it's spectacular in London, a good 11 to 13 days a year. I mean, those days are just fantastic.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
You've been in the business for a couple decades. Describe, give us your sense. My understanding as an executive producer at the end of the day, you've got to have business acumen. You've got to understand budgets. You've got to understand trends. You're basically managing a small business that kind of gets funding, starts up, and then closes down, and then you hopefully monetize it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
What do you see are the major trends in Hollywood, and how has that shifted your approach to the business?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
I want to put forward two theses or observations as an outsider who like, I like to think I understand economics and I'm fascinated with the industry and you respond to each of them. The first thesis is that what Japan did to Detroit, kind of Netflix is doing to Los Angeles. And that is, I read that of the $18 billion content budget that Netflix spends annually
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
on content that for the first time, more than half of it is being spent overseas. And at the same time, I also read the production's down 40% in LA. Is the globalization of the media industry that's checking capital kind of out of America, specifically out of Los Angeles, is it as evident as I think it is?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
The other 352, not so much, not so much. Anyways, in Switzerland, went to Zermatt. One of the things I love about it is it doesn't have cars. It has these electric cars. And we stayed at this place called the Hotel Cherville. And we had a ski instructor that is a lingerie model and runs surf schools. in the summer in Bali. And then at night in Zermatt runs her family's creperie.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
Yeah, both cities you mentioned, you mentioned two cities in Canada. Is Canada, is that your go-to if you're talking about talent versus economics or stack rank it? What do you think are the most popular places on a risk-adjusted basis when you look at costs versus access to talent and beautiful locales?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
Second thesis, that the opacity of information when you run something on Netflix, you don't know how, other than them renewing the season, you don't really know how well it's doing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
Jennifer Aniston's agent knew that Friends was the anchor to the Thursday night and could kind of reverse engineer to how much ad revenue they're making and had the confidence to go ask for a million dollars per episode per cast member. And now that you really don't know what's working and what isn't,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
It's essentially what I perceive as a giant flow of capital from the industry, from the human capital to the shareholders of Netflix. Am I oversimplifying what's going on there?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
And we would stroll by and see this lyrically beautiful woman making crepes after she taught my kids how to snowboard for eight hours. I'm like, Jesus Christ, it's like a fucking Cinemax film. Is this for real? Seriously? Anyways, how did we get here? In Zermatt, back to London. Oh yeah, that's where we were. back in London, had a wonderful time, tried to ignore the news.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
We'll be right back.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
Take yourself back 22 years, and you had the knowledge of knowing where this business is gonna be today, or if someone's starting out in the business, Any kind of macro thoughts on their career that this part of the business is going to be the easiest place to find employment? This is the medium, the size of the screen. Any advice to a 22-year-old Dave starting in this business?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
What do you see as the major themes and how does someone foot their efforts to trying to take advantage of those themes in the industry?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
So America, what the fuck is going on? Is this a simulation? We're not going to talk about that. I'm done talking about it. Anyways, in today's episode, we speak with David Bernad, the Emmy-winning executive producer of HBO's hit, The White Lotus. Oh my God, little bit of surprise coming your way on The White Lotus. Little bit of a Easter egg coming right at you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
I'm not going to spoil it, but tune in. It is my favorite show since Game of Thrones, which I'm watching with my 14-year-old. It's a rite of passage for us. It has politics, sex. Geography, Magic, Sibling Rival. Literally, literally, Game of Thrones has everything. I took my son to the beach in Nantucket because his mother said it was time for us to have the sex talk.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
Thank you. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
So I took him down and said, it's time for the sex talk. He let out a scream like I have never heard before of no, and just begged me not to have the talk. And I said, fine, then we have to watch Game of Thrones because that'll give you 80 or 90% of everything you need to know.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
But anyways, I have been watching Game of Thrones with my 14-year-old, but I'm really excited about season three of The White Lotus. They bring together something fairly simple, but it always has themes around. I think it's the seven deadly sins. They just do such a fantastic job. And this season is no different. Tune in now. Okay, let's move on to some news.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
., in P. P. P. P. P. P. P,實, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac, ac of P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. ,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
For the first time, the top 10% of earners, those making roughly a quarter of a million dollars or more a year, account for 50% of US consumer spending. 30 years ago, that number was just 36%. So what does that mean? More money, more spending across the top quintile. Now the economy is more dependent than ever on the ultra wealthy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
So just as we wrap up here, a lot of young men listen to the show and they hear someone successful like you and they think, I'd like to be that guy. Can you talk a little bit about that? growing up who are really the big influences in your life, people or kind of situations that sort of change your life?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
And whenever I've known you for that long, but you're, it seems like you're always in like, you know, eight time zones away. How do you, and I know very little about your personal life, how do you, and maybe you don't, how do you establish any sort of momentum or traction in a relationship?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
When I first saw this though, it actually struck me that they're not spending more because I believe the top 10% control about 90% of the assets, meaning they have more assets relatively speaking than their spend, which means that they will save and invest more, which takes interest rates down, asset prices up, but isn't good for the economy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
And what do you do for sort of meditation or relaxation or just to stay kind of centered given the amount of anxiety and insecurity in your industry?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
When my kids hear me in the White Lotus, I owe you. I haven't told them. I can't tell you how excited. I haven't told them. We're going to watch it. You are going to bring so much credibility to me amongst my 14 and 17-year-olds. So I owe you. Just a couple more serious questions before we go. Anyone in your life you lost or that's not around that you wish you could say something to?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
And one of the things I've talked about in terms of stimulus is that if you were to put more money in the hands of lower middle-income people, the wonderful thing about lower middle-income households, if you give them a hundred bucks, they spend it, which results in a multiplier effect that's greater than if you give rich people money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
And last thing, anybody, and this can be serious, not serious, you'd just love to... give a shout out to and have them be surprised that if and when they hear about this, you just are thinking of just something, someone you're thinking about and anything you'd like to say to them and it'll get back to them?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
By the way, the fact that the 10% are now responsible for half the consumer economy versus a third, just speaks to a couple of things. One, how much money they have, but also a prioritization of experiences over things. The luxury market has actually kind of gone flat, but people are spending a ton of money on things like safaris and travel and private travel and experiences.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
David Burnad is the Emmy-winning executive producer for HBO's The White Lotus. He's also known for producing Uncharted, Jury Duty, Enlightened, and, and I didn't know this, White House Plumber. He joins us from Los Angeles. David, you are so far ahead of where I was. I didn't appreciate just how precious and wonderful It is to have the kind of the friend group you have.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
And what you're going to find is that you are the average, and there's signs of this, of those five guys. And so you guys building and loving each other, it's not only incredibly rewarding, it's a smart thing to do because you guys will progress and you'll fall together. And I'm telling you,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
In 15 years, you're going to look back, hopefully, on your kids and your career, and you're going to feel great. But it almost means nothing. It's almost as if it doesn't happen without that text group. And you're just a great example. I'm just so happy for your success and that you found you have your tribe of people to share it with. Thanks so much, David. And again, thanks for the opportunity.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
This was such a treat for me.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
Algebra of happiness. When you're overwhelmed with information overload, how do you respond? This isn't about stress management. It's about how to, if you're in an organization and you just have so much information and different touch points, or you are barraged with information that you find is like, outrageous or there's too many things going on.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
I'm obviously speaking about what's going on across our government right now. And I think it's a purposeful strategy to sort of blitzkrieg you with information such that you don't focus on their true objectives or what's really important. And it's easy to feel kind of flat-footed and how do you strike back? And I, for about a week, just felt sort of overwhelmed and didn't know what to do.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
And I don't like the idea of being offended and outraged and responding to everything. And I think there's just some basics around communication and responding effectively when people are kind of in your face or things are happening at work that you feel overloaded by because there's so many things that upset you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
And the first is to respond in a thoughtful way and recognize you don't need to respond to everything. You need to prioritize. At the end of the day, what's really important here? There might be things that are outrageous. The most recent one, as I've heard, the Trump administration is thinking about advocating for or pardoning Andrew Tate. Yeah, that's outrageous.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
Who the fuck cares with some loser in Romania that was, you know, spending time sex trafficking or in a webcam business and trying to sign a vulnerable young man to his crypto? Who the fuck cares? But that's look over here. That's not important. You don't have to respond to everything. Take a beat. You don't have to respond immediately to everything and shout into Twitter or into TikTok.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
The world doesn't need to hear from you on everything. And then bring, when you do respond, pick one or two issues that you feel especially strongly about that you think deserve priority. and that you, one, have some domain expertise in, and also bring in outside experts and facts and try and be very thoughtful and methodical and unemotional. If you can be offended, you can be manipulated.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
And when you're offended all the fucking time, it just shows, quite frankly, you're a little bit weak and a little bit easily manipulated. This is how you effectively counterpunch. Because keep in mind, a lot of people will try and overwhelm you. You know when you get in an argument with your spouse and they're losing and they immediately start bringing up something else? Okay, don't go there.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
Don't go there. Or they try and gaslight you with something else. Be disciplined. Be an adult. Be a warrior around this stuff. That is... Slow down. You don't need to respond to everything. Pick the one or two issues that are most important to you. Come with data, come with experts, be reasoned, be thoughtful. This is information warfare, right? This is storytelling versus storytelling.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
I think a lot of this is sort of the YOLO coming out of COVID, and that is people are getting smarter. And I've read a lot of the research that says people overestimate the happiness they'll get from things, and they underestimate the happiness they'll get from experiences. In sum, drive a Hyundai and take your husband to Africa.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
You don't have to respond to anything. And if you can figure out a way not to be offended by everything, that means you are a mark. You are what they want. You are easily manipulated. This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez. Our intern is Dan Shalon. Drew Burrows is our technical director. Thank you for listening to the PropG Pod from the Vox Media Podcast Network.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
We will catch you on Saturday for No Mercy, No Malice, as read by George Hahn. And please follow our PropG Markets Pod wherever you get your pods for new episodes every Monday and Thursday.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
I have found that I'm spending all my money, or most of my money, on really two things. Real estate in beautiful places, one, because it's a 0.1% strategy, and I'll come back to that, and I want my kids not to be able to avoid me when they're adults and think, well, it'd be more fun to go to Tijuana, but yeah, my dad has a place in Aspen. We just have to have lunch with him every day.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
Boom, hopefully they're in Aspen. And two, I buy into this 0.1% strategy. What do I mean by that? I think income inequality is only going to get worse. I'm going to fight it, but I think it's only going to get worse. I think essentially the Republican Party and the ruling party is the far right. They distract everybody with their kind of angry, coarse, anti-immigrant bullshit or whatever.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
Whatever you want to call it. But what they're really trying to do is create controversy such that it's a misdirect where you look over here and avoid the compact they have with rich people. And that is a lot of rich people give some lip service to how upset they are about what's going on. But this is kind of the bargain that Trump and other right-wing governments have with rich people.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
I'm going to cut your taxes. So you'll offer some sort of, quote, unquote, liberal bullshit faux concern. But you're really not going to get in the way of this, are you? Why? Because poor you, poor fucking you, your taxes are going to go down. And here's the thing. I'm not that worried about me. Anyone I know in my life that needs access to Mesa Festron is going to get it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
Anyone I know that needs legal protection from anyone abusing them because of employee or a violation of their rights, they're going to be fine because I have a shit ton of money to buy lawyers, right? If for some reason they started rounding up, name your favorite special interest group, which could happen with an economic shock here. in the United States. I don't think it happened in Britain.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
I do think it could happen in the United States now, which is feeling a lot like early 30s Germany. I have the money for a go-back to get the fuck out of here. Here's the bottom line. Money equals rights. And the violation of rights that takes place is from the far right.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
If you do believe it involves a violation of rights, you're protected from it if you're a rich person as long as you're getting richer. We are so focused on left versus right, we don't think about the real problem. The real problem or the real battle is up versus down, and that is the bottom 99 versus the top one.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
And what we do is we divide and distract and anger the bottom 99, so they're not focused on the real battle here, and that is the Republican Party, in my view, taking money from the bottom 99 and putting it in the pockets of the top one. And this is another example of that. But we have income inequality that is absolutely out of control.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
And what you see across the wealthiest people is in fact, they're exceptionally boring. What do I mean by that? They all party in St. Barts,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
They all send their kids to one of maybe 50 schools globally, and they all want to live in one of a handful of places, Dubai, London, New York, Palm Beach, Aspen, maybe a little bit of LA, maybe Singapore, not even so much, maybe a little bit of Hong Kong, but they're losing people. It used to be London.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
London is lost, and it's still going to be a place where rich people keep a home, but a lot of people are no longer living here full-time because they pass this non-DOM Tax Act, which essentially people who, very wealthy people who are citizens elsewhere could come here and pay essentially no tax.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
And then when the UK, understandably and theoretically and philosophically correctly said, all right, you got to start paying some taxes, they said, fuck you, we're rich, we're mobile, we can move anywhere. And that's the problem with a quote-unquote common sense tax policy that's progressive is people forget that the very wealthy are the most mobile people in the world.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
And I personally have two friends who are very wealthy who have peaced out, who have left, who've said, yeah, I get that it makes sense for me to pay some taxes here, but I'd rather pay zero. So unless there's some sort of multilateral tax agreement and alternative minimum tax across multiple nations, you're always going to have a race to the bottom. And it was back to
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
Back to rich people, there's too much prosperity being crammed into too few hands. The bottom 99 are reminded 210 times a day on their phone that they're not doing well. And then the echo effect, the epicenter of people not doing well is young people, because when a 50-year-old is not doing well, it's bad.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
But when a 25-year-old isn't doing well, it affects everybody in the household because everyone is used to their kids doing better than them. That's the bad news. Income inequality is going to get worse. The good news is it always self-corrects. Always throughout history, when it gets to these levels, it self-corrects. More bad news, the means of self-correction are war, famine, and revolution.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
We'll be right back for our conversation with David Burnett.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
Quince says they have enduring pieces, including Mongolian cashmere crewneck sweaters, iconic 100% leather jackets, and versatile flown-in activewear. And you know who's tried out Quince? Our own Claire Miller. All right, come on in, Claire. What do you think?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
There you go. Whatever you're looking for, Quince says that all of their items are priced 50% to 80% less than similar brands. By partnering directly with Top Factories, Quince cuts out the cost of the middleman and passes the savings on to you. You can indulge in affordable luxury by going to quince.com slash prop G for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
That's Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash prop G to get free shipping and 365 day returns. quince.com slash prop G. Support for Prop G comes from Nutrafol. Your hair and how you care for it, it's a very personal thing for most people. And if you've dealt with thinning or shedding hair, then you know how fraught it can be.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
Here's our conversation with David Bernard, the Emmy-winning executive producer for HBO's The White Lotus.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
David, where does this podcast find you?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
If I was, and there's a reason why I'm not an executive of HBO, but if I was pitched on the show, I'm not sure I would have seen it. It being this thing has sort of become a little bit of a cultural phenom. What do you think it is about this show that is tapped into it? When people ask me, I say, I love the White Lotus. I'm obsessed with it. And they say, why?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
If they ask me about Game of Thrones, I can kind of explain why I'm obsessed with it. And what is it about this show, in your view, that just sort of tapped into this kind of zeitgeist? It's turned it into kind of this phenom.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
Episode 338. The .338 caliber is used for hunting larger deer species, including elk and moose. In 1938, Superman first appeared in comic books. I've often wondered what it would be like to have sex with Superman. Well, it hurt a lot, said the Invisible Man. I made that up myself, no joke.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Making of The White Lotus, Scott’s Surprise Cameo, and Hollywood’s Shifting Landscape — with David Bernad
Give us a little bit of your backstory. How did you get to this position? And what exactly does an executive producer do? What have you been doing for the last three or four months?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
The support for the show comes from UserTesting. Your brand is only as strong as the decisions behind it. UserTesting's human insights engine helps marketing product and business leaders make smarter, faster decisions with real human feedback, AI-driven insights, and the world's strongest participant network.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
Episode 341. 341 is the area code covering California's East Bay Area. In 1941, Captain America debuted. What's the similarity between politicians and Marvel characters? They're now fighting amongst themselves to stay in business.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
It strikes me that a lot of this comes down to resources or money and who's going to foot the bill to continue the fight, if you will, or at least put us in a stronger position such that we can negotiate from a position of strength. And it also strikes me that the most obvious and simplest means of funding the war for another two years is to seize Russian assets.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
We have somewhere between $200 and $300 billion in Brussels. And the fear is that people don't want to do business with Russia, or excuse me, with the EU, if they're worried that geopolitically their assets can be seized. I would argue that that That incentive or disincentive to work with Europe is vastly dwarfed by the disincentive we should put in place not to invade your neighbor.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
Your thoughts on seizing $200 to $300 billion in Russian assets to fund Ukraine's fight?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
Welcome to the 341st episode of the Prop G-Pod. I didn't like that joke. It was an attempt to be clever, but I didn't think it was that funny. I just, I got to go back to the dick stuff. Anyways, welcome to the pod. What's happening? I'm back from Tulum. El perro está detrás desde Tulum. I've been to Tulum a bunch. People say it's really affected and overly expensive.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
China in the same group as Iran and North Korea in terms of their support of Russia. And my impression, it might be the wrong impression, is that China wants to stay on good terms, mostly with everybody, and they're being polite, maybe even supportive of Russia, but don't want to alienate the rest of the world and haven't gone.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
I mean, China, my sense is if China weighed in kind of feet first behind Russia in this conflict, it would be really, really meaningful. Describe or give us some nuance to what you meant by the Chinese support of Russia in this conflict.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
It's basically kind of like granola, sort of four-star service, six-star prices. Although Mexico is absolutely my favorite place to vacation in the world. I think it's the best value. And I do like the idea of being on the beach all day, pretending to be healthy so you can go out and abuse hallucinogens and listen to a DJ for, you know, a $700 bottle of alcohol. Yeah, that makes sense. Namaste.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
Equip your team with the power to validate every decision, co-innovate at scale, and build digital and in-person experiences with confidence. The best brands don't guess, they test. See how at usertesting.com slash PropG.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
So loosely, kind of a crude overview is that the world is bifurcating into sort of the U.S. and Europe and some of democracies globally, whether it's Japan or Australia. And then there's Russia, Iran, North Korea, and to a certain extent, China. And there's some nuance there.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
But just as the swing voter is the most important voter in the U.S., that small group of people that swing elections one way or the other, It feels as if this new swing voters in terms of size of economy and playing both sides a little bit are India and the kingdom. And it sounds like you're saying India, if you had to tilt them towards one side, it's towards Russia.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
One, I just want to confirm that that thesis is correct. And two, I'm curious what the kingdom's role in all of this is.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
Namaste. Anyways, I love it there. This was a different type of trip. It was a wedding. It was a mix of fabulous and nice people who seemed to be really, I don't know, into being together and celebrating people's love, their love for one another. Anyway, very much enjoyed it. Back in the UK, it is a spectacular day. Living in London is like living in San Francisco. I used to live in San Francisco.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
And the nine nights a year that you could actually dine outdoors, no one was ready for it. So we didn't know what to do. We were paralyzed. And it is such a beautiful day here today. I don't know how to respond. I don't know if I should take a walk. I don't know if I should take my dogs out. I just don't know what to do. I'm so flummoxed by this round, hot, yellow thing in the sky.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
So you've worked on Russia policy across three different administrations, Bush, Obama, and Trump. So I want to ask a more basic question, and that is, it is difficult for a lot of us to understand the endgame here and the strategy behind what Trump's approach to Ukraine. It feels as if he started the negotiation with Russia by folding.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
Like, okay, you can have everything, now let's start the negotiation. And from someone such as myself, who I think has a bias against Trump, it feels to me like Putin has agreed to buy billions of dollars of Trump coin And that in exchange, they've decided they're going to have two spheres of influence between two autocrats and carve up the world for their own financial benefit.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
Steal man a more logical explanation of the current complexion of Trump as it relates to Ukraine. In sum, what are they thinking? What is the endgame?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
Anyways, need to get settled. Need to get back in. I slept for 11 hours last night. I haven't done that in a while. I mean, crazy, just absolutely crazy. So up today, speaking of London, speaking of London and Europe and Russia, we have Dr. Fiona Hill, a senior fellow at Brookings, chancellor of Durham University and a former U.S.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
National Security Council official specializing in Russian and European affairs. We discussed with Dr. Earl Trump's role in the Russia-Ukraine war, the future of U.S.-Russia relations and the broader geopolitical effects of the conflict. I learned a lot from this conversation. It's a complex situation, but she kind of breaks things down in a pretty sober way.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
I enjoyed sort of her, the way she framed everything. I also like the fact I couldn't figure out her politics, which I always enjoy in someone we interview. Moving on. Some news in the higher ed space. Harvard announced it will offer free tuition for families earning $200,000 a year or less.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
How do you think this plays out? Many of us are just befuddled trying to figure out the incentive structure here, trying to figure out geopolitically if Europe steps up, the resolve of Russia, whether the U.S. is in, out, in, out regarding funding, intelligence, sanctions. If you were trying to do scenario planning here, maybe it's unfair to limit you to one outcome.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
What do you think are the most likely scenarios for how this plays out through the rest of 25 and into 26?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
Also, starting this fall, undergraduate students from families making under $100,000 will receive full coverage for tuition, housing, and food. Even those earning above that could qualify for some aid, depending on factors including debt and cost of living. Harvard estimates that 86%. of U.S. families could now qualify for some level of financial assistance under the new system.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
So I think this is a really nice press release. They'll get a lot of nice accolades for it. And let me be clear, I think this is fucking bullshit and a total misdirect from what is the underlying corruption that plagues Harvard and every other higher education institution. Let's break this down. It's not about affordability. As a matter of fact, this makes things worse.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
We're back with more from Dr. Fiona Hill. So I want to transition. You're the Chancellor of Durham University, one of the UK's top institutions. And I would just love to get, but you're also very familiar with the US. And the US does a small number of things really, really well. We're great with technology and software. We're great at media. We make the best weapons in the world.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
And I would argue that On a balanced scorecard, we dominate higher education, which isn't to say there aren't other pockets of outstanding higher ed, including in the UK. But as the leader of a UK higher ed institution, how would you compare and contrast higher education in the UK versus the US, and what can we learn from each other?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
And that is if you hit the lottery and you're one of two things, you're either the child of a rich person or you're freakishly remarkable, then you get shot into outer space of prosperity at an unbelievable speed of light. You don't have to take on student debt. But what about the middle class kid who's just good, not great, who's not freakishly remarkable?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
and whose father doesn't know somebody who has their name on the side of a Harvard building that gets arbitrage down from an elite university to an okay university that doesn't have the endowment of Harvard and ends up taking out huge student loans for a credential that's not nearly as powerful because fucking Harvard won't do what it's supposed to do and should do and expand its freshman class.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
So I can't resist. I didn't realize you were on the board of overseers of Harvard. So my sense is that there's just a different zeitgeist in higher ed, or one of the differences is that people in the UK think of universities as sort of a public good, and they don't feel the same obligation or gratification or ego boost by giving money back to the university.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
I just pulled up that the endowment at Durham is 110 million pounds or about $140 million. Is that accurate?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
But where I was headed with it was Harvard, I believe, has a $53 billion endowment, and it lets in 1,500 people a year.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
And in the U.S., I believe that higher ed, that we're basically the enforcers of the caste system, that we create artificial scarcity despite having the resources to dramatically increase our freshman seats, such that we can feel better about ourselves, and the value of the degree goes up for the incumbents at the cost of the entrance. And society, real large.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
Do you think there's an issue with a place like Harvard? With $53 billion endowment letting in 1500 kids a year, do you think the accusation that it's a hedge fund with offering classes and not really a public servant, do you think there's some truth to that accusation?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
This isn't about affordability. The Ivy League has been affordable for a long time because they have so much goddamn money. This is an issue of accessibility. This isn't about who gets in. That's another misdirect. Oh, isn't it great? 60% of Harvard's freshman class is non-white. But wait, 70% of those people come from dual-income homes in the upper quintile of income earning a household.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
Dr. Fiona Hill is a senior fellow at Brookings, chancellor of Durham University, and a former U.S. National Security Council official specializing in Russian and European affairs. Dr. Hill gained national recognition for her testimony during the 2019 Trump impeachment inquiry. She's also a best-selling author and leading expert on geopolitics.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
Dr. Hill, very much enjoyed this conversation and hope and trust that we'll have you on again. Really, really, I love how Sort of just sober and calm in the way you deliver or try to break down or distill what are very complex issues. Really appreciate your time.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
Algebra of Happiness Algebra of Happiness What makes a great day for you? For a long time for me, that was if I worked out. If I work out any given day, I feel like, okay, that was at least a reasonable to good day that I exercised. I feel more mentally set. I'm sort of, I've always had body dysmorphia. I always feel kind of weak and skinny. So working out makes me feel better about myself.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
So letting in the daughter of a private equity Taiwanese billionaire is not diversity. And giving a little bit of money away to people who couldn't afford it, or quite frankly, are the ones who could afford to take out student loans because they're going to graduate from fucking Harvard.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
It's good for me mentally. I associate a lot of good things with working out. So any day I worked out was a good day. That has changed for me. And that is now my new sort of go-to around this is a good day is if I can FaceTime with my oldest son who's at boarding school during the week and I can have some time with my youngest.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
I usually lay in bed with him just before he falls asleep and we just kind of chat for 10 or 12 minutes. If I can do those two things, then it was a good day. They make me feel like a good dad. It's very cathartic for me. I feel grounded. I like to know that they're doing all right and they are doing all right. But when I don't see them or speak to them every day, my brain goes crazy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
Is something gone wrong? Are they all right? My You know, communication, this is sort of a corporate lesson. Communication is with the listener. When you don't communicate with your employees regularly, they will start communicating with themselves and coming up with all sorts of crazy batshit ideas or conspiracies for what's actually happening at the firm. You need to communicate consistently.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
And I find if I'm not around my sons a lot and I'm not communicating with them a lot, that I start getting anxious about things. So what I want you to do or what I would suggest you do is the following. First, find out what is that one thing that every day makes it a good day for you. Is it going to church? Is it working out? And just be cognizant of it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
And also, also, it's not a bad idea to say, what one person in my life that I love immensely and know I know loves me immensely, does it make sense to check in every day, whether it's a text message, a FaceTime, or just to speak to them? And does that give you comfort every day? What makes a great day for you? This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez. Our intern is Dan Shalon.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
Drew Burrows is our technical director. Thank you for listening to the PropG Pod from the Vox Media Podcast Network. We will catch you on Saturday for No Mercy, No Malice, as read by George Hahn. And please follow our PropG Markets Pod wherever you get your pods for new episodes every Monday and Thursday. I'm good now.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
An average salary of undergrads, I think about 120 grads, average salary of HBS grads is about a quarter of a million first year. They can afford student loans.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
I don't know if it's the edibles I'm eating or the Xanax I had on the plane to get over the jet lag. Daddy? Daddy's even angrier than usual.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
The people who can afford student loans are the ones that get arbitraged to less universities because fucking Harvard's full of people like myself who are narcissists and through a mix of arrogance and self-aggrandizement put out press releases talking about financial aid when they should be putting out press releases saying, I know, let's let in more people than a good Starbucks serves on a Tuesday.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
If you had a drug, a pill that would make you less likely if you took this pill to be depressed, more likely to get married, more likely to end up in civil service, less likely to kill yourself, much less likely to kill others, much less likely to be depressed, end up incarcerated, end up being a ward of the state, would you hoard that drug? Would you say, sorry,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
Sorry, we have tens of billions of dollars. We could distribute this drug to not just 1,500 people, but to 15,000, but now with absolutely no sacrifice in the quality of the freshman class. Oh, that would hurt the brand. Bullshit. When I got into UCLA, the admissions rate was 76%. Now it's 9%. It wasn't exactly... a Joey Bag of Donuts brand back then.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
Whether it's owning a house or having a degree from an elite institution, this is what we're going to do to you young people. We're going to come up with all sorts of virtue signaling and talk about research and talk about brands and essentially say, okay, if you've got a shit ton of money to get in and if you're Freakishly remarkable, that's the Vaseline we rub over the lens of this corruption.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
It's not about affordability, it's about access. And if these universities that have an endowment over a billion dollars don't expand their freshman class faster than population growth, regardless of the bullshit press releases they put out,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
around financial aid, which is literally the dandruff off their fucking sleeves that means nothing, then they should lose their tax-free status because they're no longer public servants. They think they're fucking Birkenbags. That was a rant. With that, here's our conversation with Dr. Fiona Hill. Dr. Hill, where does this podcast find you?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
Good. Let's bust right into it. We're recording this on Tuesday. Trump is speaking with Putin today, ostensibly to discuss ending the war in Ukraine. Give us what you believe is the state of play, what each party wants from this and what you think the likely outcome will be.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
So it feels to me like Putin and Trump are, to a certain extent, negotiating against themselves in the sense that without Ukraine or Europe at the table, they can agree to whatever they want.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
It feels to me that they're under the impression they get to decide what happens here without getting the OK from Europe, who's been providing 60 percent of the funding, or the people actually doing the fighting who would have to put down their weapons, which is the Ukrainian people and their army. Isn't this a bit of a, quite frankly, more symbolic than real in terms of what actually happens?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
I always like to ask what could go right. And let me outline a scenario and you tell me if you think there's any veracity or likelihood, or if I'm just, you know, there's too many biases in my scenario here, but the EU combined has an economy of $19 trillion. You listed North Korea.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
They're basically, I mean, they have, they're willing to send their kids into a meat grinder, but their economy is about, I think about $30 billion. Iran's is 500 billion. China, obviously, that's a huge economic power. But my sense is they actually have a vested interest in keeping this war going because they get to get oil on sale from Russia because no one will buy their oil.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
If the EU gets its act together, coordinates their incredible military infrastructure—they have great military, great weapons manufacturers, they have incredible IP— if they could find the resolve to coordinate and perhaps make the requisite commitment, take their defense spending from 1.9% to 3%, which they've stated, quite frankly, they don't need the Americans.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill
Isn't there a silver lining here that Europe can actually do what they did in 1939 and say, no, we're not backing down to a murderous autocrat, regardless of whether the U.S. backs us or not? Isn't there an opportunity here for Europe to become a union and push back on their own with or without the U.S. 's help?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
Okay, what's going on? I am on vacation for the week. I am in Zermatt. Why am I in Zermatt? Because I can be. And that light at the end of the tunnel where my kids are no longer going to be... I'm so freaked out about all this data. Around 90% of the time you're going to spend with your kids is before they're 18, and my kids are barreling towards 18, so...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
You're also, I mean, you're definitely, you're going, my sense, or what I've read is you're going multi-channel, that you're actually taking your podcast on tour. Is that correct?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
It feels to me like podcasting, I mean, the original guys, the Marc Marons, the Alec Baldwins, there were some kind of initial people in podcasting and Joe Rogan has endured, but there's a constant reshuffling. I have noticed, for example, I think Joe Rogan is about to be displaced either by Mel Robbins or a kid here named Stephen Bartlett.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
There's just a constant disruption in the podcasting space. And because I'm obsessed with affirmation of other people and I'm always feeling economically insecure, I check the rankings every day and I can't get over
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
just how dynamic the rankings are right now, meaning that I would bet in the top 100 podcasts, 30 of them, and it feels like 50 weren't there six months ago, which means 30 or 50 that were in the top 100 are no longer there. What are your observations? I mean, I think people think of you as a very spiritual guy and a podcaster, but you're also a business person.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
When you sit down with your team and you think about the dynamics of the business right now, what do you see out there? What do you think is shaking up the industry?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
I'm spending most of my disposable time and money on spending time with them. Anyways, in place of our regular scheduled programming, we're sharing a conversation with Jay Shetty, the host of the world's number one mental health podcast, On Purpose. I found Jay to be really nice and soulful and what you would expect from someone who has the number one podcast on mental health.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
Support for the show comes from the Fundrise Innovation Fund. Think of the five biggest names in AI today. How many of those companies do you own shares of? Probably not many. Maybe one, maybe two. Why is that? Because the open AIs and anthropics of the world are still private. That means unless you're an employee or a VC, you're out of luck.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
We discussed with Jay his journey from monk to media mogul. the business of podcasting, and the key to personal growth and success. So with that, here's our conversation with Jay Shetty. Jay, where does this podcast find you?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
So it isn't hard to see why venture capital has been one of the most prized asset classes in the world. But unless you're worth eight or nine figures, you likely don't have access to these funds. The Fundrise Innovation Fund is different. It's already raised more than $150 million. It holds a portfolio of pre-IPO tech companies that are valued at tens or even hundreds of billions of dollars.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
And most importantly, it's open to investors of all sizes. Visit Fundrise.com slash PropG to check out the Innovation Funds portfolio and start investing today. Relevant disclaimers can be found at the end of the show and at Fundrise.com slash Innovation.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
I want to kind of move more towards your domain expertise. And I'm going to start out, I want to talk about a couple of things. I want to talk about anxiety and I want to talk about finding love. And I'm going to So just so you know, my guests are nothing but a vehicle for me to talk about myself. So this is that part of the program. I struggle with anger and depression.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
That's right. I have been there. It's like a little bird's nest overlooking all of LA. Something that people consistently ask me at an age of AI and digital is, what is the key competence? What should young people be studying to find success in economic security? And my view is the only enduring skill is storytelling. And I think of you as someone who has mastered storytelling.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
I've been able to manage it without pharmaceuticals. I do it through exercise, time with my boys, trying to eat clean. I have a bunch of tricks to try or practices to keep me sort of even keeled and hating my life less and less every day. But things will trigger me and I'll go down a rabbit hole. And that's happened to me recently since the election or since the inauguration.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
And whether those feelings are justified or there's something deeper, I've really struggled with trying to disassociate or separate or maintain some perspective around what's happened recently in the U.S. And this isn't a political statement. I'm not saying that my— anxiety is warranted or in any way justifies or indicts what's happening. But what advice would you give to me to say, okay, Scott?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
And for me, meditation is like flossing. I lie about it. And that is when my hygienist says, do you floss? I lie and I say, yes. I very rarely floss. And when people ask me if I meditate, I lie and I say, yes. And the reality is I don't. I really don't do a lot of meditation.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
So given that I'm a newbie, given that I'm struggling a little bit with anxiety, given the state of the world, give me your best shot. Give me your download on, all right, Scott, these are some best practices, some initial steps you should be taking to manage your anxiety.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
I'd love to hear a little bit of the origin story around how you developed your skills as a storyteller.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
I'll help. You were a consultant, right?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
. . . . . . ., en P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P,實 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , a la... Enhance your physical and mental wellness routines with Redwood Outdoors. Take advantage of special savings today. Visit redwoodoutdoors.com and use code PROFG to save $175.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
That's redwoodoutdoors.com, code PROFG to save $175 on your order. redwoodoutdoors.com, code PROFG.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
We're back with more from Jay Shetty. I love the way you think. You think in threes, very much like a consultant. And give us your top line thoughts on what you've learned with your partner and the relationship advice you would provide or give to more men who are in a relationship, a monogamous relationship.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
Kind of invokes that old adage that women want men to change and men want women to stay the same. Anyways, I have found that with a partner that they are forced to go through to change their complexion and approach to life because they take sometimes a disproportionate, unfair amount of responsibility around that. around the kids. But you've been very dense with your time.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
I just have one more question. You have a very public profile. It's impossible to have your profile and put yourself out there as openly and as provocatively on issues this important. without getting a lot of criticism. How do you deal with criticism and what advice would you be in terms of a practice for how to handle, you know, be thoughtful, right?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
I've never, anyone who is immune to criticism, I wouldn't trust. I mean, okay, that's, I think that makes you a sociopath. So how do you deal with criticism?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
Was there a moment, an aha moment, when you realized that you were good at it and that you might be able to make a living at it?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
Yeah, I like that. Embrace your insignificance in a healthy way. Jay Shetty is a global best-selling author, entrepreneur, and the host of the world's number one mental health podcast, On Purpose. Born in London, Jay embarked on a transformative journey as a Hindu monk before merging ancient wisdom with the digital world.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
His podcast, On Purpose with Jay Shetty, chops the charts as one of the world's leading podcasts with over 35 million monthly downloads and features. Influential guests, basically, you name it, I won't even go through all of these. And he also has several bestselling books. He joins us from his home. In Los Angeles, Jay, I really enjoyed this.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
You're sort of like enter into this like dreamlike state when I listen to you. I'm listening, but I just find a sense of calm about the rhythm and the cadence. You're really a joy to listen to. I appreciate your time and am really happy for all your success and think you deserve it. This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez. Our intern is Dan Shalon. Drew Burrows is our technical director.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
Thank you for listening to the PropG Pod from the Vox Media Podcast Network. We will catch you on Saturday for No Mercy, No Malice, as read by George Hahn. And please follow our PropG Markets Pod wherever you get your pods for new episodes every Monday and Thursday.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
And what was the first medium where you monetized it? Was it books, videos, podcasts? Give us the universe of Shetty. You've built what feels like a small media empire. What is the flywheel here? What do you do for awareness? What do you do for academic heft or intellectual heft, and how do you monetize it all?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
Episode 337. 337 is the area code covering southwestern Louisiana. In 1937, J.R.R. Tolkien published The Hobbit. True story. My porn name was inspired by The Hobbit. Call me Dildo Baggins.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
Because sometimes you read an ad and you think, I mean, for example, we no longer do crypto ads because I read this ad and I think, I don't have the time to do diligence on this. And I just don't, it just doesn't feel right. And I actually enjoy some of the ad reads, but we always toy with the idea, wouldn't it be nice to kind of go more artisanal? I have a lot of respect for Sam Harris.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Jay Shetty on Life, Love, and the Business of Podcasting
I know you've built a big subscription business. Break down the pluses and the minuses, in your view, of kind of the ad-supported model and the subscription model, and do you have a preference for one or the other?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
We discussed with Dr. K how tech addiction affects mental health, the science of relationships, and the challenges men face today. So with that, we'll be right back for our conversation with Dr. K.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
My premature ejaculation problem started when my other half dressed up as a superhero. Before I knew it, I came in a flash. Oh, God, it's all gonna end soon. Welcome to the 336th episode of the Prof G Pod. What's happening? I'm back in London after a short stint. I went to Disney World for a speaking gig and then I went to New York.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Welcome back. Here's our conversation with Dr. K., a psychiatrist and a co-founder of the mental health coaching company Healthy Gamer. Dr. K., where does this podcast find you? I'm in Houston, Texas. Dr. K., how do you describe what you do?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
I love that. And tell us about your journey. You went from being a video game addict to studying to be a monk to later becoming a doctor. Give us a little bit, give us some color on your origin story.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Had a good three or four nights there, saw a bunch of friends, went out, probably drank a little too much. Oh well, daddy went deep in the paint one night. I've been trying to drink a lot less. I'm trying to cut my alcohol consumption by 40 to 60%. Und ich denke, ich bin irgendwo zwischen 20 und 30. Aber ich bin jetzt auf dem Roll. Und ich fühle mich besser. Oder weniger schlecht, würde ich sagen.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Also, ich möchte zurückkommen zu einem bestimmten Punkt. Du und ich haben eine sehr ähnliche Urgenz-Story. Ich bin nach UCLA gegangen. Ich denke, UT Austin, die sind ein bisschen ähnlich. Große Land, große öffentliche Schulen. Ich habe auch eine Fraternität gegründet. Ich war 17, als ich nach UCLA gekommen bin. Ich hatte eine Verlängerung an Selbstdisziplin. Ich, wie du, hatte viele Fs.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Ich war auf akademischer Probation. Ich hatte keine Videospiele, wie du. Und ich hatte kein Pornografie. Wenn ich Videospiele und Pornografie hätte, wäre ich mir nicht sicher, ob ich das hätte gemacht. Ich hatte eine Akademische Prävention, und ich brauchte nur ein C-Average, um noch zwei Semester zu bekommen, bevor sie mich auslösen würden. Also habe ich das immer wieder gemacht.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Aber ich habe mich entschieden, dass ich, obwohl es eine Art, ich weiß nicht, eine ziemlich superficielle Lebensunwahrnehmung war, insofern wie superficielle Lebensunwahrnehmungen waren, war es ziemlich gut und ich habe mich genossen. Du hast dich entschieden, auf einem Flugzeug für Indien zu fahren. Was ist passiert? Oder was war dein Denkprozess? Ich bin in Austin, in einer Fraternität.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
You know, that to me sounds like a pretty good life, even if you're not doing well academically. What inspired you to get on a plane and go to India? Like, did you hit, was there a moment where you hit sort of rock bottom or did your parents force you? Like, what happened there?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Wie verstehst du... Ich trinke viel Alkohol, ich habe viel Wein getrunken, aber ich fühlte nie, als wäre ich ein Addikt. And at some point they were definitely inhibiting my academic progress. I would argue that it was worth it. It created a lot of friendships, a lot of figuring out my limits. I've often said, I got more out of alcohol than it's gotten out of me.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Ich fühle mich weniger schlecht. Ich war gerade in Regents Park, bevor ich diesen Pod gemacht habe. Ich bin ein bisschen runtergegangen. Und natürlich bin ich aus dem Zeitraum gegangen. Es gibt... A couple, one couple lessons I've taken away from previous podcasts. I did a podcast with Mel Robbins when I interviewed her for my pod.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
But it also had gotten just a touch more... frequent, I could have easily gone down a very dark path.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
If you're someone listening to this right now and you're at college or not in college and you think, I'm playing a lot of video games, I'm drinking a lot, I'm smoking a lot of pot, I'm watching a lot of porn, what are in your mind the signals that discern between what I'll call youthful, if a bit reckless behavior or irresponsible behavior and when you are an addict and you need to do something?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
So, she said something that struck me, and that is, do away with the stall or the time or the gap between deciding or thinking you should do something and doing it. I used to do, I used to be really good at this. I used to think, oh, I need to go work out. And as soon as I thought that, I tried to force myself to get up and put on my clothes and go work out.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Yeah, I like that. And one of the issues I have with the industrial medical complex is like, okay, you know, Doctors Attia and Huberman, who I think are fantastic, I've had them both on the podcast, have basically declared war on alcohol. And where they see drunkenness, for most people, most young people, I see togetherness. I think there's an upside to alcohol. Und ich finde, es ist sehr binär.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Die Leute, meine Ergänzung ist, mein Sohn spielt, und ich möchte spezifisch sprechen, ich habe einen 14-jährigen Jungen. Und er spielt wahrscheinlich etwa 30 bis 60 Minuten Videospiele pro Tag. Das klingt ungefähr richtig. Und ich höre ihn auf der Straße. Und er wird diesen Kampfschrei auslösen. Er wird sagen, ich höre es aus der Straße.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Und dann höre ich all seine Freunde lachen und ihn lachen und sie sprechen und es ist Gruppendynamik und Teams und lernen, wie zu verlieren. Und ich denke tatsächlich, Videospiele sind ein Adjekt in seinem Leben. Und es ist als Vater gleichzeitig.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Es gibt Zeiten in seinem Leben, in denen er sein Telefon versteckt und in den Kühlschrank geht und er pretentiert, dass er nicht gut ist und in den Kühlschrank kommt er nicht raus. Und ich weiß, er ist auf TikTok. Und es ist wirklich, und das ist eine langweilige Art und Weise zu sagen, mit Kindern oder mit Älteren, ich bin enttäuscht, ich bin enttäuscht mit meinem Telefon. Ich bin es einfach.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Wenn ich irgendwo müde bin, manchmal mache ich Entschuldigungen, um in den Kaffee zu gehen, damit ich meinen Telefon bemerken kann. Und ich bin nicht stolz darauf, aber zumindest bin ich alt genug, um es zu erkennen und es zu modulieren. Ich kümmere mich wirklich um das junge männliche Gehirn und Screen Time und Videospiele und Soziales und Porn.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
What do you think, as a young man or as a parent, what are some practices or best practices for ensuring you are trying to use these things in a positive way? Is your view, put time limits on it with kids not under a certain age? With your kids, what will be your approach to screen time?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Otherwise, I would start watching TV or eating and Und ich finde, dass ich jetzt viel auflöse. Und ich muss zurückkommen zu dieser Vorstellung, dass man etwas weniger glaubwürdig ist. Also, ich denke, dass Dinge wie Aktion eine Tendenz haben, sich einfach in Aktion zu bewegen. Oh, ich muss, ich will etwas schreiben. Dann starte ich einfach zu schreiben, richtig?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Und Dinge, die du denkst, sind eine gute Intention, wenn du denkst, ich denke viel. Ich möchte jemandem sagen, dass er eine beeindruckende Person ist. Ich kenne jemanden, der einen Podcast hat. Ich kenne sie nicht so gut, aber ich sah einen Clip von ihnen und dachte, das ist so smart.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Ich dachte, ich sollte ihnen wirklich sagen, wenn ich sie sehen werde, dass das ein wirklich interessanter Segment war und wie beeindruckend ich von ihnen bin. Und stattdessen dachte ich, nein, just text them now. Move to now. Mind the gap between... Eure Emotionen, eure positiven Gefühle, Aktionen und tatsächlich etwas tun. Wir haben auch, oder ich habe auch viel über Strategie gedacht.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Untertitelung. BR 2018 Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020 Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020 Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020 Untertitelung. BR 2018
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Und das ist, ich habe einige Diskussionen gehabt, und ich will das, was in der Regierung gerade passiert ist, und was ich beschreiben würde, ist, A strange, if not illegal seizure or I think it's trespassing and a hacking of our government systems to kind of stop payments and then negotiate where we should cut funding. I think the notion around cutting funding is a really valuable conversation.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
There's obviously wasting government. They don't have to put their feet to the flames of the private sector. They never effectively run out of money. Companies can borrow money, but at some point they run out of money. Whereas the government, especially the US government, is blessed and to a certain extent cursed a little bit, mostly blessed with the ability to keep printing money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Ich möchte hier etwas positiver sagen. Eine der Dinge, über die Sie sprechen, die super interessant ist, ist, was die Wissenschaft uns über die Formation von Verhältnissen und das Verlieben in Liebe erzählen kann. Was zeigt die neuesten Forschungen an, wie wir tiefe Verbindungen formen und wie die Technologie diesen Prozess reshapen oder mehr grundsätzlich darstellt?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Wie kann jemand heute in diesem digitalen Alter Liebe finden? Oh, so hard.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
So it likely doesn't have the same discipline around managing its house in a kind of prudent fiscal manner, as evidenced by the fact that we're spending 7 Trillion a year on 5 Trillion.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
I mean, I jokingly say that young people should go out and drink more and make a series of bad decisions. Doesn't that mean we should be a little bit more reckless with our emotions? Yes and no.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
in tax revenue so i'm down with that i think we should have an open and honest conversation around the department of education like what value does it add should it be reformed it's sort of enhance it don't eliminate it i think it's probably the right approach but it's a worthwhile conversation the question is should we be having this conversation with a gun pointed to our heads with a bunch of very talented young men who in my opinion are trespassing in federal buildings so a lot of people would say you're not trespassing if you're made
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Ich denke, wenn ich etwas mehr von jungen Männern wünsche, wäre es die Beziehungen. Nicht nur Freundschaften für romantische Beziehungen. Nur ein in drei Männern unter 30 Jahren sind in einer Beziehung. Zwei in drei Frauen unter 30 Jahren. Und du denkst, das ist mathematisch unmöglich.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Das ist es nicht, weil Frauen mehr ökonomische und emotional wirtschaftliche Männer wollen, also datieren sie älter. Und ich finde, ohne die Freude und wahrscheinlich mehr wichtig, die Schutzhände einer Beziehung, kommen Männer einfach aus den Tracks. Dass Frauen diese Energie in Arbeit und Freunde reinvestieren und Männer in Videospiele und Verschwörungstheorien reinvestieren.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Wie ist es, wenn ein junger Mann, der so viel Porn verursacht hat, mehr Wunsch aufbaut und mehr Risiken in Bezug auf die Begegnung von Frauen hat, oder sich in einen Kontext befindet, oder ein anderer Mann, der diesen Lauf der Glauben aufnehmen kann und die Verleumdung verhindert, die Risiken aufbaut?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
If you could give, and this is a difficult question to answer, but advice to younger men in terms of, you know, they're starting out, maybe their first job or college, as it relates to addiction, as it relates to establishing a healthy relationship, any practices you recommend? die sie auf einen starken Weg setzen können.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
a legitimate employee by the full faith of the White House, and then going in and without any sort of congressional oversight or approval under the auspices of an individual who has absolutely not been vetted by the U.S.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Welchen Hinweis haben Sie jungen Männern, wenn es sich um die Erkenntnis von Erdbeben, Screen-Time-Aktivitäten, Veränderung von Verhalten in einem digitalen Alter handelt, wo natürlich Erdbeben überall nur einen Klick entfernt ist?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
government to go in and make decisions around, they're not even decisions, they're like, we're cutting off payments, now let's start the negotiation, which literally is holding a gun to someone's head and saying, okay, now let's have a negotiation. So the question is, How do you get leverage here and how do you punch back?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Dr. Alok Kanogia, known as Dr. K, is a psychiatrist and co-founder of the mental health coaching company Healthy Gamer, which aims to help with modern stressors, including social media, video games, and online dating. He joins us from his hometown
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
in Houston and also we should note that Dr. K is also a popular Twitch streamer who engages with audiences by discussing mental health, addressing issues including addiction, motivation and depression. The Good Doctor has a book out, How to Raise a Healthy Gamer and Power Struggles, Break Bad Screen Habits and Transfer Your Relationships with Your Kids. It was published last year.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
I really enjoyed this conversation. Dr., if any... I find your story inspiring. I wish what has happened to you for more people. I think it's such a neat story and such a nice, just so nice to hear about a young man who kind of comes off the rails and then ends up on the fucking Concord somehow. I just think it's such a nice story. Congratulations on all your blessings and your success.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez. Our intern is Dan Chalon. Drew Burrows is our technical director. Thank you for listening to the PropGee Pod from the Vox Media Podcast Network. We will catch you on Saturday for No Mercy, No Malice, as read by George Hahn. And please follow our PropGee Markets Pod wherever you get your pods for new episodes every Monday and Thursday.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
When Republicans control all three houses of government, you're now the opposition party. And what do you do? Because something I've struggled with my entire career is the difference between being right and being effective.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
And whether or not you think this is a good idea or a bad idea, and I can understand it sort of tickles the sensors of people to think, government's just gotten so out of control that them going in and kind of Breaking some eggs, if you will. I think that appeals to a lot of people and I can understand that. The question is, one, is it the right way to go about it?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Are we setting a precedent where once the Democrats get in control of all three houses, they're going to start just randomly shutting shit off? Ich meine, wird das einfach in einen heruntergelassenen Spiral kommen, wo die standardischen institutionellen Prozesse der Demokratie einfach auf den Boden gehen für beide Seiten und beide Seiten verabschieden sich von einander?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Es gab früher einen bestimmten Niveau des gemeinsamen Respektes, das ist weg. Jetzt bin ich der Meinung, dass es sich um gemeinsame Zerstörung handelt. How I think you want to think about negotiations is one, where you have leverage and two, where are the pressure points on the other party, should you ever enter into this type of hostile negotiation.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
And the pressure points, I think, are the following. One, I think this is all about money. And that is, if you want to get leverage against Trump, you're going to have to get leverage against Musk right now, because he's kind of the heat shield doing all the dirty work here. Musk is about money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
And I think if you want leverage against Musk, you have to go after the purse, just the way they're going after the purse of these government programs. And it's already sort of happening in Europe. It is striking what's happening to Tesla sales. Get this, the annual year-on-year change of Tesla vehicles in France is off 63%. In Germany, 60%. Sweden, 44%. Norway, 38%. In the UK, 8%.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
I believe the EV market is actually down 6%. But this is essentially a meltdown. But if you wanted to send a message to Musk or if they wanted to send a message to Democrats, because I think Democrats are just as obsessed with money as evidenced by the fact that our Speaker Emerita continues to engage in insider trading. Another talk show, another talk show. I think we'd be going after money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
And instead of screaming into TikTok or showing up at federal buildings and waving your cane at people and saying, we're members of Congress, it's like, well, what could you do? I would suggest that you go after the purse. And that is trying to figure out a way um Leuten zu kommunizieren, dass sie nicht für T-Mobile signen sollten, weil sie einen Deal mit Starlink machen.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Oder sie sollten nicht United Airlines fahren. Oder sie sollten nicht Tesla kaufen. Oder wenn sie einen Uber bestellen und ein Model Y von Tesla kommt, dann canceln sie und sagen, ich fahre nicht in Teslas. Ich denke, das ist wahrscheinlich zu diesem Punkt der einzige Weg, um ihre Aufmerksamkeit zu bekommen.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Wenn man hier wirklich Gangster machen würde, oder was die Republikaner gemacht hätten, und das ist, die Regierung zu schalten, Essentially, when they were the opposition party, the Republicans said, all right, we're going to burn the village to save it. We're not going to raise the debt limit. We're going to let the U.S.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
government default on its debts, which would create essentially the ripple effect would be the treasury auction would fail. Interest rates would dramatically spike. You'd probably see a drawdown of anywhere between 10, 30 and 50 percent in the stock market. You would have kind of an economic, at least a pretty serious shock here.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Und ich denke, was wir leider haben, ist, wenn man in einer Kampf mit einem Oppositionspartei engagiert ist, und der Oppositionspartei zeigt eine Willenheit, nur viel weiter zu gehen als du, und du wirst zurückkehren, dann erzeugst du eine asymmetrische Vorteilung. Das Beispiel, das ich benutzen würde, ist, wenn du eine Armee hast, that's willing to put its own civilians in harm's way.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
And the opposing army is not willing to do that. What you're doing, which I think is the ethical thing, to not in fact bomb a place with civilians. But what you create is incentive for other armies to begin putting people in harm's way and using them as human shields. And I think right now,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
One party has essentially shown its willingness to shut down the government and the other has said, let's not do that. And I think the only way you're going to restore any sense of mutually assured destruction and get any leverage at this point would be to say, okay, we're willing to do this too. So where does this go? In the Trump administration, I think that you have effectively won
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Adults in the room, I would argue, around restoring kind of institutional norms, if you will. And that is the bond market and the stock market. And I think the Democrats at this point have to say, all right, our only pressure point, our only leverage here is probably to force the president on his watch to default on the government's debt and to give up or basically see a failed treasury auction.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
And this is going to happen on his watch. The Republicans threatened to do that in the last minute. They blinked. und es hat nicht auf Biden's Watch geschehen, aber ich habe den Eindruck, dass die Republikaner so aggressiv gewesen sind und so wenig Respekt vor irgendwelchen Art von Verschuldung, Anerkennung, Prozess, Institutionen, was auch immer man es nennen möchte.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Support for the show comes from ServiceNow. Who is enabling people to do more meaningful, creative work? The work they actually want to do? You know what people don't want to do? Boring, busy work. But now, with AI agents built into the ServiceNow platform, you can automate millions of repetitive tasks in every corner of business, IT, HR, customer service and more.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Ich denke, die Demokraten müssen auch zeigen, dass sie bereit sind, die Regierung zu schließen. So when you're negotiating, there's really only two things you need to remember. Generally speaking, in your negotiations, you don't want to make it emotional. You just want it to be, this is what we're willing to do, this is what we're not willing to do.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
And two, you have to show a willingness to walk away. And in this instance, it's a willingness, quite frankly, to go kind of nuclear and leverage a nuclear option and shut the government down and have us fail on our debt and have a failed treasury auction. And again, I want you to stop and when you think about things, it might feel good.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
I oftentimes point it out in meetings, okay, this is wrong and felt really good about myself, but I thought, am all I doing just antagonizing the other side? And don't threaten to quit unless you're actually going to quit, otherwise your threats become... A little bit hollow. Already the president is developing a reputation for not living up to his threats.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
I'm going to impose these 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada. They turn around and commit to doing what they're already doing. Ich meine, sogar die Sprache aus Kanada. Wir werden die Dinge implementieren, zu denen wir uns verabschiedet haben, und er schließt sie weg. Also, macht keine Verletzungen. Macht Versprechen.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Und macht sie sehr aufmerksam, besonders in einer Beziehung mit jemandem, den Sie interessieren. Ich erinnere mich, ich denke, Sie müssen sehr vorsichtig sein, wenn Sie mit Menschen sprechen, die Sie interessieren, besonders mit romantischen Partnern und besonders mit Ihrem Schwester, äh, bei Verletzungen. I just think it, one, reduces your negotiating leverage if there are threats, not promises.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
And two, it damages the relationship. In negotiations, you also have to remember, and we seem to be well beyond that in this instance. In negotiations, you want to remember that at some point you're probably going to have to work with the other party. You're going to have to do deals with them, get along with them, share the same household with them, raise kids with them.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Und es ist wert, in meiner Meinung, und das gehört nicht dazu, weil es fühlt sich so an, als hätte der Train die Station auf jeder Art von Mutual Respekt zwischen unseren beiden Parteien verlassen. Aber wenn du mit Leuten negotierst, musst du dir erinnern, ich denke, es ist okay, ein bisschen auf dem Tisch zu bleiben.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Erkenne auch, dass du in dieser spezifischen Negotiation nicht nur die Termine in diesem Moment negotierst, sondern du kreierst auch einen Kontext für die Beziehung nach vorne. So showing up in threatening nations with tariffs when you are the much more powerful economic entity, that is probably going to work in the short run. You may get something.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
In this instance, President Trump, as far as I can tell, got nothing, extracted nothing from Mexico and Canada. But we are the bigger economy. We could literally tank their economy. So if we want, we could extract our pound of flesh. The question is what happens after that with the relationship and the benefits we accrue from what is a very strong relationship.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
When these countries show up to help fight our fires, they follow us into wars in the Gulf, these relationships long term are an enormous asset. So what are you getting short term in exchange for giving up something perhaps more valuable? And that is a strong relationship. Success is the following. Success is I would argue is really just comes down to two things.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
And that means your people can focus on the work that they want to do. That's putting AI agents to work for people. It's your turn. Get started at servicenow.com slash AI dash agents. Episode 336. 336 is the area code covering North Carolina. In 1936, the first superhero to wear a skin-tight costume and mask, the Phantom, appeared in newspaper comic strips. True story.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
First, a series of small examples of discipline every day that add up to something huge. Take advantage of the flaw in the species and try and save five or 10 or 20 bucks a day. That is 150. 300, 600 Dollar pro Monat, wenn du jung bist. Die Zeit wird viel schneller gehen, als du denkst. Und das wird ein großartiges Geld hinzufügen.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Und wenn du 30 oder 35 bist, wirst du eine Ausgabe auf ein Haus haben. Und wenn du mein Alter bist, wirst du dich nicht um Geld kümmern. Du wirst einen Sinn für Sicherheit fühlen und mehr Zeit mit deinen Kindern und hoffentlich deinen Großeltern verbringen. Denke nicht daran, jeden Tag etwas zu tun.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Und du wirst einen Tag wachen, drei Monate, sechs Monate, neun Monate und denken, wow, ich fühle mich besser. Ich fühle mich mehr sicher. Ich bin weniger depressiv. I like the way I look naked. I feel more confident. I feel less angry. I feel more masculine. I feel more feminine. Whatever it might be. A series of small efforts made every day. That is an expression of discipline.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
And the second thing, the second key to success is putting yourself in a room of opportunities. Wenn du nicht im Raum bist, wenn du nicht physisch im Raum bist. Und wie tust du das? Du kreierst Allies auf dem Weg. Du schaust nicht auf Beziehungen als eine Transaktion. Du helfst Menschen, wenn sie weniger mächtig sind als du.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Jede Möglichkeit, jemandem zu helfen, jede Möglichkeit, ihnen zu machen, sich gut zu fühlen, ist eine Möglichkeit für dich, in einem Moment im Zukunft in eine Raum der Möglichkeit zu sein, auch wenn du nicht physisch im Raum bist. Hey, wir suchen einen neuen Medienführer. Und der Person denkt, ich kenne diese wirklich wunderschöne Frau oder diesen wirklich wunderschönen Mann.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
Wir sollten ihn oder sie interviewen. Weißt du was? Matt ist ein wirklich guter Typ und wirklich gut, was er macht. Ich werde ihn persönlich für ihn beurteilen. Und ich hoffe... He is hired. Having an evangelist internally. And how do you create evangelists? A series of small investments every day in relationships.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Male Addiction in the Digital Age — with Dr. K
A small expression of discipline every day around money, around fitness, around kindness, such that you put yourself in a room of opportunities, even when you're not physically there. Okay, anyways, in today's episode we speak with Dr. Alok Kanogia, better known as Dr. K, a psychiatrist and co-founder of the mental health coaching company Healthy Gamer.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
What do you see going on here?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
For a limited time, Nutrafol is offering our listeners $10 off your first month subscription and free shipping when you go to Nutrafol.com and enter the promo code PropG. Find out why over 4,500 healthcare professionals and stylists recommend Nutrafol for healthier hair. Nutrafol.com, spelled N-U-T-R-A-F-O-L.com, promo code PropG. That's Nutrafol.com, promo code PropG. Episode 339.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
We'll be right back.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
339 is the area code serving the Boston, Massachusetts area. 1939, the Wizard of Oz premiere. True story, whenever I climax with a woman, I scream out, Surrender, Dorothy! Or, I'm melting.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Support for the show comes from Betterment. When investing your money starts to feel like a second job, Betterment steps in with a little work-life balance. They're an automated investing and savings app, which means they do the work. While they build and manage your portfolio, you build and manage your weekend plans.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
While they make it easy to invest for what matters, you just get to enjoy what matters. Their automated tools simplify the complex and put your money to work, optimizing day after day and again and again. So go ahead, take your time to rest and recharge because while your money doesn't need a work-life balance, you do. Make your money hustle with Betterment. Get started at betterment.com.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
That's B-E-T-T-E-R-M-E-N-T.com. Investing involves risk, performance not guaranteed. Support for Prop G comes from LinkedIn. LinkedIn has grown to a network of over 1 billion professionals, making it stand apart from other ad buys. You can target your buyers by job title, industry, company role, seniority skills, and company revenue.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
LinkedIn has all the professionals you need to reach in one place. So stop wasting budget on the wrong audience and start targeting the right professionals only on LinkedIn ads. LinkedIn will even give you a $100 credit on your next campaign so you can try it yourself. Just go to linkedin.com slash scott. That's linkedin.com slash scott. Terms and conditions apply only on LinkedIn ads.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
So, and I don't know if the producer warned you, but basically I use these podcasts and the guests as a vehicle to talk about me.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
And I have one of the top domain experts in the world. On yourself or on something? I'm teasing you. On addictions. And I'm fascinated with addictions. And I want to talk about a couple of addictions I think I have. And you talk about whether they're actually clinically diagnosed addictions and what to do about them.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
And then I want to talk about the advice I give to young men and what I'm getting right and wrong because I... What I realize is I have a series of principles that I lecture young men about, and I don't know. I think I'm right, but I want to know what I don't know. So the first is, I believe that everyone has a certain amount of addictions. That's not true. Some more than others.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
But I think almost everybody has some level of something they do that is probably, if they did less, it would probably be better for them across their life, whether it's addictions to shopping, the affirmation, whatever it might be. And I am addicted to the affirmation of strangers. I care too much about what other people who I don't know will never know think.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
And sometimes that gets in the way of my relationships with people who I do, I should care about. Someone will say something mean about me or insult my work on a social media platform, and it inhibits my ability to be close to my loved ones that weekend. I see that as an addiction, an addiction to the affirmation of others and strangers.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
And I think that might be something that plagues, quite frankly, a lot of successful people or insecure people. And then I would also argue I have an addiction to money, that I'm very blessed and I got kind of enough money to live well or be economically secure. And I still almost every waking hour spend a decent amount of that time thinking about how to get more money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
even when I should probably, and I talk myself into believing it's for me and my family, but it's really just an addiction. I've spent so long trying to dig out of economic insecurity that I've become addicted to more, specifically more money. So addiction to the affirmation of others, addiction to money. Are those clinically diagnosed addictions and how should I be thinking about them?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Welcome to the 339th episode of the Prop G Pop. What's happening? The dog is howling. He's busy. He's like one of those Belgian Malinois dogs. It is not happy unless it's working all the time, like roaming property or defending someone. Except I'm not like that, but I basically have the tasks of a Belgian, of a Belgian Malinois, and that is I have so much shit going on today.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
I flew in last night from Barcelona, got in late. Came here, took an edible, crashed for like five hours. Now I'm up. I'm at the Faena Hotel, which I love, even though it's not really my design aesthetic. It's like a very handsome, wealthy, metrosexual Buenos Aires exploded into a hotel, which I think is pretty much the owner of this hotel.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Yeah, it's part of the thought. I believe that one of, I'm constantly saying something as a crisis, I overuse the word crisis, but I do think we have a crisis of loneliness.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Do you think you can be addicted to loneliness or that we just fill in the dope that we used to get from being social to, as you referenced, getting that hit with a low cost, low entry, low risk activity like YouTube or what have you? Can you get it? I have to force myself. It takes me almost as much discipline to get out and be around other people as it is to drink less.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
I have become, as I've gotten older, addicted to being alone. And I just find it easier, comforting, whatever happens. And I know it's bad for me. Could you say a certain level of deciding to be alone, maybe more than it's healthy, could that be classified as an addiction?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
And then I got to do this, and I'm going to this conference, this 0100 conference to host a lunch. Then I got to bomb up to Palm Beach where I'm doing a speaking gig. Then I'm on a plane to New York and, you know, wash, rinse, and repeat. But anyways, I'm in Miami. It's absolutely beautiful. Isn't it good to know what I'm up to? Thank God I know where he is. Thank God I know what's going on here.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
How have you seen the patients and the research you see come through your office and across your desk? Which addictions or types of addictions have you seen increase and decrease?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
I coach and work with a lot of young people. Specifically, I think a lot about young men. And the addiction I see emerging that I don't think is getting enough attention that just feels like a ticking time bomb to me is online gambling. And the reason I think of it as being so dangerous is my mother was a docent at the Bellagio in Vegas.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
And so she used to come home with all these facts about gambling addiction. And she told me, and you can confirm or deny this, that it has the highest suicide rate because you can get in so deep. If I develop an addiction to meth or alcohol, it generally becomes pretty visible to the people around me and they intervene and try to do something. I can get so deep with gambling and nobody knows.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
And then I get in so deep, I've spent my kids' college fund, mortgage the house. My spouse doesn't know what I've done. I see no way out and I decide to end it. And I see, I've just seen these stats that 50% of college males bet on the Super Bowl. And I see occasionally I'm in a scenario where I'm with a bunch of young men and they're all on their phones. And I think, oh, that's natural people.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Anyways, what are we going on? Today's episode, we speak with Dr. Anna Lemke, professor of psychiatry at Stanford University and author of the bestselling book, Dopamine Nation, Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence. We discuss with Dr. Lemke the rise of addiction in the digital age from drugs to social media and why our brains are wired to create more.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
I know kids are on the phones. They're all gambling on the game they're watching. And they're not doing a hundred bucks, Liverpool will beat Arsenal. They're gambling every seven minutes. The ball's gonna turn over. What you were saying about the ref. And I know these companies and the people architecting these algorithms,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
they will figure out who's going to lose their money and encourage them to bet more. And the ones who actually know what they're doing, they will block out of the platform. So it's a guaranteed loss of income. And I like to gamble. I think it's fun. I go to Vegas, I gamble, but I assume it's consumption. I assume I'm going to lose it all.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
It strikes me that we might, and tell me if I'm being just, I don't know, hyperbolic or inflammatory or, I don't know, exaggerating or just, you know,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
worrying too much here, that we're going to have hundreds of thousands of young men, and my sense is young men, and again, I'd like you to validate and nullify this, are much more prone to gambling addiction than women, who enter the world with massive financial hangovers and shame because of the constant presence of gambling apps. Your thoughts?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Plus, Dr. Lemke shares practical solutions to help build a healthier relationship with pleasure. I really enjoyed this conversation. You occasionally interview somebody, especially, and it's so rewarding when you interview someone in the sciences or the public health field, and you get the sense they genuinely care, that they want to figure this stuff out, they want to help people.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
There are professors and academics such as yourself looking at gaming. I found it really difficult to find anybody with deep domain expertise or peer-reviewed research around porn. And my assumption is that professors don't want to be known as Professor Porn, that there's actually shame in the academic community. You don't want to be that guy or gal.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
It's like, well, why did you decide to do that, professor? It's the second largest category, I think, on the internet. And relative to the size of it, There's a ridiculous scant amount or dearth of research around it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
I had thought that, or some of the stuff I read is that it's a small population consuming a disproportionate amount of porn that most men, young men and young women are able to modulate it. My fear around it has always been that It just being very transparent.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
One of the reasons I went on campus every day at UCLA was one, because I knew I was supposed to go to class, but two, the prospect that I might meet someone who over the medium or long-term would decide to have sex with me. Yeah.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Well, I think I sound like, I sound like most sons in their head and I think I just articulate it. And if I'd had porn available at home, I'm pretty certain I wouldn't have been on campus five days a week. I might've gone to four or three or two because it just might've been, I mean, the reality is I wanted sex so badly and my hormones were raging so much that I was willing to take social risk
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
And she highlighted something, we did this interview I think about a week ago, about a lot of young men or just a lot of men have addictions to porn. And there's a lack of peer-reviewed research on it because very few academics want to be known as the porn professor. And just literally after she highlighted what an issue it has become for many of her patients,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
and go out and try and meet people. And by the way, I think that's really healthy to think, I wanna take these risks. I wanna meet people in hopes that I can have a coffee, invite to a party, establish a relationship, and at some point along the way, maybe have those types of physical encounters. I think that is really, really healthy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
And I worry that, and curious to get your take, that it's not the hardcore addicts that are screwing up America around this stuff. It's that it just decreases across an enormous population of young men, their willingness to establish connections with others.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
That we're evolving, we're maturing a new species of asexual, asocial males that never get categorized or clinically diagnosed as addicts, but are just alone their whole lives and never develop these skills.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Is there a low level form of, I don't even want to call it addiction, but avoidance or replacement theory that could be even more damaging than what we think of as traditionally diagnosed addictions?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
I have had no joke, three men come up to me and start talking to me and we start talking about addiction and they look around and in the very self-conscious, they say, well, I have an addiction problem. And I, and we start talking and I'm, I'm pretty straightforward. I said, what's your addiction problem? And all three times it's been porn.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Super scary. We'll be right back.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
We're back with more from Dr. Anna Lembke. I want to move to solutions. And I'm sure you get calls from government officials in D.C. and Sacramento who ask for your advice on this stuff. I think most of this, if I could think of one thing to try and set a context that would reduce addiction, it would be third spaces.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
And that is trying to get as many young people as often as possible in the company of other young people and in the company of potential mentors, friends, and mates. I was in Israel after October 7th at the Nova Music Festival site or memorial. And I met with a battalion of IDF soldiers. And there were these young, extraordinary, fit 120 kids, 19 to 21, outdoors in the company of each other.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
and I want to learn more about it because it's something that I don't think we talk a lot about. And there's very little peer reviewed research. And as we think about men, especially young men and the access to this type of porn, I've often said that the nicest thing in my life is getting to raise children with a competent partner that, um,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Many of them go on to start businesses together, lifelong friends. A lot of them meet their spouses outdoors, serving in the agency of something bigger than themselves. And I thought, I just don't think nearly as many of these young adults are gonna end up addicts.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
And I thought, how can we do this a million times in different ways, whether it's continuing education, softball league, church, nonprofit, like third spaces. If I could do one thing, it would be third spaces. What is the one thing, your thoughts on that, and what is the one or two things you would want to do to set up a context of success and addiction avoidance?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
So after-school programs.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
What do you think that number is? Is it 16? Is it 12? What is it?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
We age get a lot of things.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
You know, it's just, if you can figure that out, if you can find someone who you share values with, that you're aligned with around money, and that, quite frankly, you want to have sex with, and you are blessed with healthy children, that's kind of the whole shooting match, or at least that's what I've decided is the whole shooting match.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Do you have kids, doctor?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
And what advice would you have? I find it difficult sometimes to discern between normal adolescent behavior, which is abnormal as far as I can tell, and when I should be worried, when I should think, okay, he takes his phone into the bathroom to watch TikTok and pretends he's in the bathroom for 10, 20 minutes. okay, is this 14 year old behavior or should I be worried?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
And as someone who's been a parent and like what pieces of advice, I don't know how old your children are, but as it relates to addiction,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Are there any sort of unlocks or critical success factors or red flags in your child's behavior where you can help discern the difference between what you'll call, not necessarily behavior we shouldn't correct, you know, get out of the bathroom enough already, but where you probably think, okay, this is getting serious and might require professional intervention.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Last question, doctor, and you've been very generous with your time. Very curious to get your thoughts and take on GLP-1 drugs.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Everything else for me was just like a means to an end, and I was never stated I always wanted more, more money, more experiences, more relevance, and I'm still on this fucking hamster wheel, and it's the reason why I'm here speaking to you right now. Is that fair? Is that fair? Anyways, let's stay at the faena.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Dr. Anna Lembke is a professor of psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine. She's also the author of the bestselling book, Dopamine Nation, Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence. I really enjoyed this conversation and you're doing such important work and you have such a nice vibe about you. You just reek of credibility and I can see why you're having such an impact because
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
I find myself just hanging on every word because I get the sense that you are really, I don't know, a good actor trying to just call balls and strikes. Really appreciate your good work and enjoyed the conversation, doctor. Oddsworth Happiness. I am starting, I had a bit of a gap, but I'm starting to coach young men again.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
And I actually had a kid come up to me last night, this guy in his early 30s, super impressive in the ad tech market, making real good money and kind of stalking me and asking me to be his mentor. And finally I just said, dude, you don't need my help. and who I'm trying to focus on are quite frankly, young men who are struggling.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
And I've actually taken on a couple men my age who are trying to reinvent themselves who are struggling, but I'm doing this exercise and it's having real, it's yielding real benefits, especially with young men. And that is, I was just struck by the stat I read that over half of men ages 18 to 24 have never asked a woman out in person. They'll swipe right, right?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
But if I had been a young man and had access to porn, I'm not sure any of that would have happened. I mean, why is that?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
They'll email somebody or whatever it might be, or they'll, who knows, like go on Craigslist and get whatever. But there's very, the majority of men 18 to 24 have not asked a woman out in person. And that just rattled me and made me so upset and sad. When I think about 18 to 24 for me was putting myself in an environment where I'd have a greater likelihood of being able to ask a woman out.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
And show me someone who can ask a woman out or handle the rejection or be successful at it. I'm going to show you someone. Anyone who's good in a bar is good in a boardroom. I think it's a key skill for young men. And so the exercise I've been doing, and I talk a lot about this, is one, we're going to get fit.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Two, we're going to start making a little bit of money, no matter what it is, Lyft driver, TaskRabbit. Three, we're going to put ourselves together. in a context, in an environment with strangers regularly in the context of something bigger than you, whether it's a church group, softball league, nonprofit, whatever it might be. And, and this is what we're going to do.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
No joke, part of the reason I used to go on campus and probably the only reason I got a 2.27 GPA from UCLA and not a 1.87, at which point I wouldn't have graduated, I wouldn't have gotten a job at Morgan Stanley, I wouldn't have gotten into a high school of business, wouldn't have met my co-founder of Profit, wouldn't have started businesses and 30 years later, 35, be at the Faina.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
And this is what we're going to recommend if you're a young man right now. I need you to approach a stranger and express interest in friendship or exploring a romantic relationship. And those are weird words. You would never say that. Hey, are you, you know, what are you doing this weekend? You want to get together, go to a bar, watch the game?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Hi, would you, you know, lay on your wrap or develop your wrap or lack thereof? Would you be interested in grabbing coffee or grabbing a drink? What have you. And that's not the win. That's not the exercise. The win is I need you to get to know. And unfortunately, that happens a lot, right? And that is I want you to go up to someone, do your best, try, say hi, would you like to have coffee?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
And then call me the next day and this is what's going to happen. Most of the time, the answer will have been a no. It's usually a polite no, but it's usually a no. And then I'm going to say, how are you? And this is what you're going to tell me. You're going to say, well, I'm upset. I'm bummed. But yeah, on the whole, I'm fine. That's the victory. That's the payoff. Because here's the thing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
No is the way to success. Specifically, your willingness to put yourself in a room where you get no's. If you're not getting no's, it means you're in the wrong room. and you miss all the shots you don't take. The number of no's, no's are your path to yes and success. So here's the victory.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
You express an interest in friendship, you express an interest in romantic relationship, and you get to the no, and that's the victory because you find out, you find out you're fine, they're fine, and it hurts a little less the next time you get to a no, whether it's inquiring about a job you're not qualified for,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
whether it's expressing interest in lunch with someone who might be able to mentor you or help you, whether it's expressing interest in someone that you are physically and romantically attracted to. The reason I'm staying or get to live the life I lead and I get to partner with someone who is much higher character and much hotter than me was no.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Specifically, my willingness to get to a shit ton of no's and then mourn and move on and get through them. What is the key to success? No. This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez. Our intern is Dan Shalon. Drew Burrows is our technical director. Thank you for listening to the PropG Pod from the Vox Media Podcast Network.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
We will catch you on Saturday for No Mercy, No Malice, as read by George Hahn. And please follow our PropG Markets Pod wherever you get your pods for new episodes every Monday and Thursday.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
And that is because I would go on campus and go to class because I was hoping deep down or something in the back of my mind was that I was going to meet a strange woman, establish a rapport with her, and at some point have sex with her. That was very motivating for me. And that sounds crass, but I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting to mate. And what I tell young men is the following.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
I tell them, look, I consume porn, but I've tried to, for the last 10 or 15 years, when kind of porn came on the scene, and I think it's really good advice, especially for young men, try and modulate your use. Because some of that desire, some of that wanting to meet people such that you can make your own bad porn, is key.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
You don't wanna extinguish those flames of desire, because those flames of desire can actually result in good things. They make you wanna be more successful. They make you wanna be in better shape. They make you wanna develop a rap. They make you wanna figure out a way to make someone else laugh.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
They make you wanna have a plan such that you're more attractive, such that you might, in fact, be able to get out there and establish your own romantic relationships. Anyways, what's the bottom line And the advice I would give to anybody, but especially young men, look, most people consume porn. Is that true? Most men, I think, consume porn. I get it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
But try and modulate your use and try and figure out a way to develop the mojo, the desire, and the skills that you can get out there and start making your own bad porn. So with that, here's our conversation with Dr. Anna Lemke. Dr. Lemke, what is this podcast behind you?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Sounds good. So let's bust right into it. In your bestselling book, Dopamine Nation, published back in 2021, you argued that constant access to stimulation is rewiring our brains. Four years later, has anything changed or any additional observations between then and now?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Something that I'm especially concerned about as the father of a 14 or 17 year old, especially with a 14 year old, and my colleague, Jonathan Haidt talks a lot about this, is that the rewiring is especially, or I guess the more appropriate term would be the wiring of the brain as children are going through puberty, that that can be especially damaging.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Are we about to flush into the economy or society millions of essentially dopa addicts that if they don't find it on their screen, they're going to find it elsewhere?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Support for Prop G comes from Nutrafol. We all deserve to love our hair, but sometimes that's hard to do when you have less of it than you used to. According to Nutrafol, a lot of factors that can contribute to your hair issues are actually a reflection of what's happening on the inside, including stress and hormones.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Talk about the different types of addiction. There's obviously addiction to screen and there's drugs, there's alcohol, there's pornography, there's gaming. Is there any way to sort of stack rank these addictions? And I was always told, I'm pretty open on my podcast. I love marijuana. I loved it in college. I took kind of a 20 year break because I was working my ass off.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
Now I've started using it again and I enjoy it. And I actually think it's additive to my life. But I remember people telling me that it was a gateway drug to more serious addictions.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
If you were to sort of stack rank different types of addictions in terms of what is the most dangerous or what perhaps is a gateway to other things, any thoughts about sort of the hierarchy or the waterfall of different types of addiction?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
I've observed something and I'd love you to get, or I'd love to get your thoughts on it. I go to a lot of conferences where there's a lot of young, successful people, whether it's South by Southwest, or I go to this event called Summit. And I've noticed over the last, going to these events for the last 20 years, that young people are not drinking.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
But it's not as if they've gone healthy or healthier. The aspirational set likes to think they've discovered a new technology and that they're innovators. And now they're all doing ketamine. Not all. A lot of them have substituted ketamine.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
or traded out alcohol for ketamine, ecstasy slash molly, 2C, which I guess is a mix of ketamine and molly, even to the point where they would roam around these conferences with their own concoction using eyedroppers and different means of, I mean, it's just staggering to me.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
I was on, I went to this thing called Summit at Sea and it was on a cruise ship and I went up and ordered a drink and the bartender said, Jesus, someone's actually ordering a drink. And this is amongst a crew doctor of wealthy young people who would generally be a line at the bar. Oh, and the one I missed was mushroom chocolates. And I imagine there's a lot of edibles in there too.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
I've just seen an enormous, and if you look at, it's having such weird knock-on effects. In London, 40% of nightclubs have closed since pre-pandemic because kids aren't drinking. And some of that is they don't have the money anymore. but they're swapped out. They're under the impression that it's healthier or less bad for you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs — with Dr. Anna Lembke
And they'd rather do mushroom chocolates and have one drink or Molly, and they see alcohol as old technology. I'm curious if you see... This is just anecdotal evidence, or if you see real evidence of this, and what your thoughts are around addiction and what it means for society when we're no longer two martini lunches, we're maybe doing a little bit of ketamine and trying to get on with our day.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
agents episode 335 in 1935 the first can beer was sold in richmond virginia and alcoholics anonymous was founded i really enjoy it it's the only place where i can pee in an uber and then show up and tell other guys who've peed in an uber that it gets better go go go Welcome to the 335th episode of The Prof G Pod.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
So it strikes me when we talk about mutually assured destruction, it strikes me that the two entities that would have to come to some sort of agreement around regulation or a pause, it would be the U.S. and China. And I'm sure there's other entities, but those are the lead dogs, right? Yeah.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
Do you think it's realistic that the Chinese would be sympathetic to this argument and that there's enough mutual trust to say, look, we got to, I don't want to say slow down, but put some of this behind wraps, share with each other.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
I mean, this was sort of Oppenheimer's, was it Oppenheimer's initial vision that we share this technology and say, okay, when one gets too far out ahead of the other, that's a problem. We need to control it together and realize that if one gets too far out in front of the other, the temptation to destroy the other is too great, at which point that person will destroy it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
We'll make sure they can strike back in some limited fashion. Do you think it's realistic? And maybe realistic or not, it's something we've got to do, that we try and strike some sort of treaty with the CCP and with China?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
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The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
Our own producer, Claire, ordered from 1-800-Flowers and she thought, Claire, bomb in here. What did you think? What did you think of those flowers?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
In today's episode, we speak with Mo Gadot, the former chief business officer of Google X, best-selling author, founder of One Billion Happy, and host of Slow Mo, a podcast with Mo Gadot. We discuss with Mo how AI could shape our lives in the coming decades, the opportunities it brings, and the risks it poses to society, ethics, and mental health.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
We also get into his latest book, Unstressable, A Practical Guide to Stress-Free Living. Yeah, that's going to happen. Yeah, I'm going to read a book and all of a sudden, Mr. Stress is going to leave the neighborhood. Call me cynical. Color me a bit skeptical. What's going on with the dog? What's going on with the dog? So I am in New York after a stop in Orlando where I went for a speaking gig.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
I think of a little bit of this, how I would couch some of your comments is you think we're entering into what I'll call an age of equivalence. I don't know how to, my semantics might be off, but I think of
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
america was able to develop and sustain certain competitive advantages manufacturing mostly because the german and japanese infrastructure had been leveled then services infrastructure and then a technology you know whether it was because of ip risk-taking multiculturalism and we were able to maintain
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
one, two, three decade leads and find the next thing and establish more prosperity and create and consume a disproportionate amount of the world's spoils. And tell me if I'm saying this correctly, you now believe that our competitive advantage around these things is shrinking from 30 years to 30 days.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
So it sort of should bring on this incredible age of cooperation and we should stop deluding ourselves that we're going to be able to get out ahead and win. Is that an accurate summary of what you're stating?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
I have absolutely no sense of Orlando other than Disney World, which is the seventh circle of hell for parents. Essentially, I do almost no parenting, 364 days a year, and I compensate for all of it by agreeing to take... my boys and their five or six closest friends to Walt Disney World, which is just, I mean, that is cruel and unusual punishment for a parent.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
An inability to sustain an advantage and all it does is create fear and weaken relationships and make one side more likely to strike while they're ahead and create workarounds because they're, you know, nothing creates innovation like war and the threat of survival, right? And what also really resonated was, and I've been saying this, I think Sam Altman is Sheryl Sandberg with hushed tones.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
Sheryl Sandberg was weaponized for femininity, her charm, her maternal instincts, gender, the important conversation around gender, to basically take what was a company that was creating rage, making our discourse more coarse, depressing our teens, and make it seem more palatable, to basically rub Vaseline over the lens of pretty mendacious behavior.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
And I feel like Sam and his hushed tones and his, that's a real concern. You know, Senator, I'm worried too. Meanwhile, I'm about to raise $40 billion to a $350 billion market cap. I mean, it's just, I have been to this fucking movie before and we are falling for it again and again. And so I want to propose something and have you respond to it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
And this is literally, you just inspired this thought. Yeah. similar to the way we have the UN or NATO. We have a new organization, and the two founding members are China and the US. And it's total open. There's offices in DC, Silicon Valley, Shanghai, and Beijing. Every room, every team has a mix of US and Chinese scientists, regulators, such that it's almost impossible to hide anything.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
We're all working on the same damn thing. And we're trying to solve the world's most difficult problems, food distribution, health, poverty. We're working together, but we're also making sure there's a very, very thick layer of supervision and enforcement such that we are constantly testing, how would you make bioweapons?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
And then we're sending our crawlers out to see, is anyone working on this that we don't want working on this? And we together try and like what Interpol was doing, where we had multilateral cooperation around the drug trade and arms shipments. But we have this multilateral organization that says, total transparency.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
But anyways, not doing it this time, just bombing in, speaking to a lovely group of people, then getting back on a plane and going up to New York while I spent four days. with the team and do a bunch of, I find New York, I get so much done in New York. There's something about, I don't know, everyone just seems to be on high, if you will. By the way, it's fascinating.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
And our job is to dole it out where we see the most opportunity to increase stakeholder value. And the stakeholders are all seven and a half billion people on the planet. And we're there to ensure that there's trust and transparency and ensure that the bad guys don't get this.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
and start doing, and we're gonna cooperate around either sequestering this or ensuring that the development of it to make weapons or create a new super virus, that we are hip to these things before anybody else and act against them. With that type of organization, do you think that's possible? And in your mind, do you think that that has merit?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
All these members clubs are opening. In the last couple of years, there's been Zero Bond, my favorite, Casa Cipriani, downtown, weird location. They put a ton of money into it, has that Italian vibe. I get the sense it's trust fund kids from New Jersey, but that's just me. And then what else has opened up? San Vicente Bungalows is opening up from Los Angeles.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
So everyone assumes it's going to be cool. And I'm excited about that. The Crane Club, which is the guys from the Tao Group who are probably the most successful nightclub. Like pretty much a giant fucking red flag is when you find out that your daughter's dating a club promoter. But these guys made good in...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
It made so much dough and cabbage and really kind of professionalized the industry, if you will. And they're the folks or the power behind Crane Club, so it should be interesting. And then I went to another one last week, and it's my favorite so far based on my Snap impressions. Chez Marco. Ooh, hello. Hello, ladies.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
Thank you. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
I don't know exactly how to describe it other than the thing that struck me was it was super cool, super crowded, and the thing I liked about it was it was intergenerational. What do I mean by that? There was a lot of young, hot people. It was a good thing. It was a good thing. New York, by the way, is run on hot women, hot young women, and rich men. That's it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
For everyone else, it's a soul-crushing experience. Anyways, and then it had people my age, and then it had parents eating and dining. And I love that whole sort of like, we can be cool at any age, which is becoming increasingly important to me as I Me come 100 fucking years old. Anyways, I love being back in New York. New York's on fire.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
Yeah. In every war, there's a new weapon that kind of changes the game. And I think people don't talk about this enough, but I think drones are the new. I mean, I think about millions of self-healing assassin drones and AI and the AI under the direction of some individual puts together a list of people who are not in the way of my wealth or my power.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
and those drones can be released at one of a thousand different, I mean, you can really get very dark very fast here. So I'm gonna try and segue out of this into something a little bit more positive.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
Yeah, it's definitely grumpy old men. It's grumpy, grumpier, and grumpiest. But I do find, whenever I speak to you, you manage to distill something down to something understandable and actionable for me. I love the idea of this multilateral agency. I was thinking in a zero-sum game philosophy that we need to get out ahead. We need to develop AI. We shouldn't be shipping NVIDIA chips to China.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
I was part of that crew.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
And what you have taught me is, okay, what if we cooperated around not only releasing it for the betterment of humanity, but also, quite frankly, policing the bad stuff together and being 100% transparent with each other and just saying, not only are there no secrets, but it would be impossible to have secrets amongst each other because we've just decided we're in the same office space.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
I really love that idea. And I think that as I think about candidates that I want to support in 2028, I do, or 2026, I do have access, mostly because I have money. But I think this is a really interesting view. Anyways, thank you for that. Your latest book, Unstressable, A Practical Guide for Stress Reliving, addresses the pervasive issues of chronic stress in modern life. In an interview...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
Still think it's the greatest city in the world and am excited to be here. I'm also going to talk to Mo about specifically, I think there's a paradigm shift going on in AI. A little bit of a teaser, a little bit of a teaser. I'm like those promos for all those YouTube videos that say, the secret to happiness is... And then they cut out.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
on the diary of a CEO with, by the way, Stephen Bartlett, who I believe is going to be the next Joe Rogan. You described stress as an addiction and a badge of honor. Say more. Why are we so addicted to stress?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
But we're going to talk to Mo about what I think is, I think I had a realization around what is, how the whole AI economy might shift. Anyways, with that, here's our conversation with Mo Gadot.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
How do we deal with stress in a more sustainable way? And as we wrap up here, are there any quick fixes?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
One of my favorite Steven Spielberg movies is this movie called Bridge of Spies, and this Russian spy who's been unmasked by the U.S. government is in court. He's being tried for treason or spying, and he's potentially facing life in prison. And his lawyer, I think it's Tom Hanks, says, aren't you nervous? Aren't you stressed? And he looks at him and says, would it help?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
Well, let's start there. Surprises of February. What are surprises in February from an individual such as yourself in Dubai?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
Anyways, Mo Gadot is the former chief business officer for Google X, the founder of One Billion Happy Foundation and co-founder of Unstressable. He's also a best-selling author of books including Solve for Happy, Scary Smart, and That Little Voice in Your Head. Mo, I mean this sincerely.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
You bring my stress down because I find you inspiring and relaxing, and you distill things into kind of actionable solutions. Really always enjoy speaking with you. I think you're really a profound thinker. Thanks for your good work. This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez. Our intern is Dan Shalon. Drew Burrows is our technical director.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
Thank you for listening to the Prop G Pod from the Vox Media Podcast Network. We will catch you on Saturday for No Mercy, No Malice, as read by George Hahn. And please follow our Prop G Markets Pod wherever you get your pods for new episodes every Monday and Thursday.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
you know i feel overreacted a bit and then underreacted a bit and you know life life there you go i hear you so uh let's bust right into it the last time you were on i think it's about a year ago and you're a little you're sort of our go-to this mix of spirituality and deep technical domain expertise and we were talking as you might guess about kind of our need to control the response to AI.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
Give us what you think the kind of current state of play is in AI, given some of the recent developments and how that may have influenced or did it influence your worldview or your predictions around or thoughts around the future of AI?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
Support for the show comes from ServiceNow. Who is enabling people to do more meaningful, creative work, the work they actually want to do? You know what people don't want to do? Boring, busy work. But now, with AI agents built into the ServiceNow platform, you can automate millions of repetitive tasks in every corner of business, IT, HR, customer service, and more.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
So I 100% agree with you. The idea that everything from which buildings are these targeted bombs, bomb first, what our perception of our government, election strategies, all of these things are now being decided by algorithms programmed by a very small number of people. That creates, I think, a lot of concern.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
The steel man argument is that if we don't iterate around the public's usage of these things, that other entities will leap ahead of us and their intentions are even more malicious than ours. That while capitalism perverts things, at its heart, it's not malicious. It might be indifferent, but it's not malicious. And the fear is that if we let other entities
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
entities run unfettered with AI in the sense that it becomes the Wild West and the public provides feedback and these models leap out ahead of ours, that ultimately the trade-off between a capitalist motive is worth it relative to letting other societies get out ahead of AI. Respond to that argument.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Future of AI and How It Will Shape Our World — with Mo Gawdat
And that means your people can focus on the work that they want to do. That's putting AI agents to work for people. It's your turn. Get started at servicenow.com slash AI-agents.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Are You Worth in America? (with Michael Sandel)
By the way, when we drop a pod from one of our sisters, our brother pods in the Vox Media Network, it's usually something that's really good. And that's why we get to cherry pick. And for those of you who don't know Preep Arara, He's very thoughtful, very soulful, and very dreamy. And by the way, he's my number. He's my one call.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Are You Worth in America? (with Michael Sandel)
If for whatever reason I end up in a prison somewhere, he's like my one call. And I've told him, if you ever see my name come up on your phone, it's not I want to hang out. It's pick up the fucking phone because daddy is in trouble. The dog's been picked up by the dog catcher and needs help. Needs help. Anyways, with that, here we are with Stay Tuned with Preet.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Are You Worth in America? (with Michael Sandel)
Welcome to another episode of The Prof G Pod. This week, in place of our regularly scheduled programming, we share an episode of Stay Tuned with Preet, a podcast in which former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara breaks down legal topics in the news and interviews leaders across politics, law, and culture.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
What Are You Worth in America? (with Michael Sandel)
In this episode, Preet speaks with Michael Sandel, a professor of political philosophy at Harvard and the author of several books, including his latest, Equality, what it means and why it matters. They discuss what human nature can tell us about governance, how higher ed can foster free expression, and how we might navigate deep moral disagreements in our politics.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
waiting for us to open the doors of the stadium. And that hit me really hard seeing a need that was so much greater than what we were prepared to meet. And then actually seeing us turn away more than 3,000 sick people who had come, many of them had walked even for more than a month from neighboring countries as the word had spread.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And they didn't get a chance to see a doctor because we didn't have enough doctors.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
So I loved it. I took 50,000 photos the first year. I got to watch every single patient pre and post-op. And the cool thing was I actually had a pretty big email list that I developed. So like it or not, You know, you went from getting an invitation to the Prada megastore opening in Soho to Alfred is 14 and suffocating to death on his face with the tumor pictures. So there were some unsubscribes.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
I mean, back then, email open rates were basically 100%. You know, you sent an email and people opened it. So some people got off the list, but others began to forward it. And the list actually grew exponentially. And I think some of my friends were just fascinated. Like, weren't you doing Coke with Scott like last month? And like, where's Liberia? You know, what is this hospital ship mission?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
So I was blogging a lot. I was sending out photos and videos. And I wound up raising money for the organization, over $100,000. just by telling these stories. So I think that was kind of this aha piece that maybe the same gift for promoting could be aimed in a completely different direction and could be used to raise money that helped people get these life-changing surgeries.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
So the year ended, I just signed up for a second year. And it was really in that second year that I went into the rural villages and I saw people drinking dirty water. And I had never experienced dirty water in my human life. I was born into a middle-class family. Water came out of the sink.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
I used to sell Voss water for $10 in the clubs to people who wouldn't even open the water because they were drinking champagne instead. So I saw humans drinking toxic, contaminated water from brown, viscous swamps, from green ponds. And I learned that half of the disease in the country was waterborne. And that half the country was drinking dirty water.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
Simply put, Scott is just an inspiration. I've said that in 100 years, there's a few people I know that I think will be remembered, but I think Scott is right up there. He's brought incredible inspiration vision, innovation, design, technology to the world of nonprofit.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
So I had this, you know, eureka moment in year two saying, here we are with not enough doctors turning thousands of sick people away with stuff growing on their faces. But yet half the country doesn't have the most basic need for health met. And at the time, there were over a billion people drinking dirty water on the planet out of six billion people.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
One in six people alive were drinking unsafe, dirty water every day. So I remember showing the pictures I was taking in the villages to the chief medical officer. And at the end of that second year, he just simply encouraged me, says, why don't you go make this your problem? Why don't you go back to New York and bring clean water to everybody in the world?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And I was like, all right, I guess I'll try. So the second year ended. I was 30. I was broke. Nightclub promoters, at least I was not good at saving money. I was very good at spending it. And I just came back. I'd given everything that I had to Mercy Ships and the people that I'd met in Africa. So I came back really penniless.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
Then I found out that my club promoter partner had not dissolved the company. So I came back to a big tax debt. And he said, sorry about that, but you can sleep on my closet floor for free in Soho.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
I'm sure so many founders you've had on here, you know, they... If we really knew what we were doing, we probably wouldn't have done it. Right. Or if we knew how hard it would be. Right. So I think that ignorance really helped.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
Well, I'll be honest. I don't talk about this, but the actual place that I was staying was a little bit of a drug den. People would come in and do drugs, but it was free rent and the couch was where I could work with a laptop. You know, I learned by nonprofit for dummies or whatever, you need a board. You need this thing called a 501c3. You need to hire lawyers. I didn't have money for lawyers.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And in those early days, what I did have was two years of photos and stories. that Brian Stevenson from EJI talks a lot about proximity. I had the authority that came with proximity to this issue. I had been in these villages. I had seen wells drilled. I had seen how water changed people's lives. And I had the photos and the videos to prove it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
So in those early days, I remember going to Double Seven or Lotus and I would get led into a DJ booth and I'm clicking through on a laptop You know, photos of people drinking dirty water. I remember, you know, people would say, Scott, dude, I'll give you money, but you are killing my buzz.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And I'm not, I want to be clear, I'm not passionate about potable water in Sub-Saharan Africa, but Scott is just such a visionary that, you know, he'll be a great fiduciary for your money. And just personally, I just think a great deal of him and the transformation he's gone through. So it's, I mean, I just think about it. It really is an inspiring story.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
Can we... But I was so passionate about sharing my experience and what I'd seen and inviting them to be a part of it. And, you know, it turns out very little money, maybe no surprise, came from the people who were going to nightclubs. So those former contacts, the people who were buying bottles, were not the ones who were buying wells.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
But... The first idea I had was to throw myself a birthday party in a nightclub on day one during fashion week. Nightclub promoters always, you kind of call in a lot of favors. You have a birthday, everybody knows it's going to be good. It's open bar and, you know, everybody comes out. So I tried to turn my birthday into the day one fundraising event.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And it was a place called 10 June in the Meatpacking District. I remember putting out this big plexi box at the door. And if you wanted to get into my birthday party, you had to put $20 into that box. And I actually remember there was a weed dealer who I knew very well. And he put $500 in the box.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And he said to me, this is the first charitable gift I've ever made in my life, but I trust where it's going. Wow. And, you know, what I learned as I talked to everyday people was there was a lot of mistrust when it came to charities. There were a lot of people who were cynical or skeptical about where charitable donations went. I would hear, you know, the expression, the black hole of giving.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
Charities are black holes. I don't know where my money goes. So I wondered, what if I created a charity where 100% of all the money we would ever raise would go directly to get people clean water?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And I wasn't sure how, it was a very non-traditional business model, but I talked to the lawyers about it and they said, well, if you open up two distinct bank accounts and you promise to put all the public's money in one account that only builds water projects, and then you raise overhead in the second account from other people, yeah, you could do this. Right.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
So I remember going down to the Commerce Bank on Broadway and Bond in New York City and opening up these two accounts. And I promised to that birthday party that all the money would go directly to help people living in a refugee camp in northern Uganda. So I raised $15,000 that first night. I remember we audited it. I take a lot of photos. You know, a bunch of people are counting the money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
From the $20. Yeah, 700 people came. Unbelievable. Yeah. And I take that money and we build our very first well in Uganda. We fix a couple wells. And then we document it so carefully with photos and video and satellite images. So we send people the Google Earth satellite coordinates, pictures, and we said, look, this is where your money went.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
You came, you gave $20, and people are drinking clean water because of you. And that closed-loop proof of concept was so... powerful and so unique. Other charities weren't doing that. They were not telling people where their money went. They just kept asking for more and more money that I realized I was really onto something.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
So that became kind of the first pillar of how we would reinvent or reimagine charity for this generation, how we would take the cynic and the skeptic and say, you know, come look at us. We're going to do things very, very differently.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
The second then follow-on idea was, wait a minute, if money isn't fungible in the way that we've set up the structure, I can build technology that tracks every single micro donation to the source. If we're going to be building infrastructure in Malawi and Uganda and Bangladesh and India, these are real things. They're water projects with actual costs and an actual location.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
So I remember meeting the founder of Google Earth and he's like, yeah, you could put all of that up. You could be the first charity in the world just to publish all of that completion data on Google Earth. which we then later moved over to Google Maps. So proof became this second core pillar of the organization. And then the third really was just a brand.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
I wanted to build an inspirational, dynamic, beautiful brand. I wanted to be the apple of charities, the charity that inspired people with hope and opportunity and not shame or guilt. Yes. And, you know, I figured if I put these three things together, we might actually have a shot at helping millions and millions of people get clean water.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
We might actually have a shot at building a movement that tackled this problem in our lifetime. We'll be right back.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
So we want to introduce you to another show from our network and your next favorite money podcast, for ours, of course, Net Worth and Chill. Host Vivian Tu is a former Wall Street trader turned finance expert and entrepreneur. She shares common financial struggles and gives actionable tips and advice on how to make the most of your money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
Past guests include Nicole Yoder, a leading fertility doctor who breaks down the complex world of reproductive medicine and the financial costs of those treatments, and divorce attorney Jackie Combs, who talks about love and divorce and why everyone should have a prenup.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
episodes of Net Worth and Chill are released every Wednesday listen wherever you get your podcasts or watch full episodes on YouTube by the way I absolutely love Vivian too I think she does a great job
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
Yeah, we've already passed that, yeah.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
You know, it's interesting. I mean, in some ways we're doing the same things as when we started 18 years ago. You know, we've now raised over a billion dollars, which is not that much money, you know, at this table, right? The people who have sat in this chair. But we've been able to mobilize a couple million people to give that.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
So the money has not come from governments or primarily foundations or corporations. It's been everyday people.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
I'll say as well, we've really helped bring awareness to this issue. And I think that the entire sector has grown. We now stand at 700 million people without water on a close to 8 billion population. So we've gone from one in six alive to one in 10, one in 11 alive. So we've actually made huge progress. And I think that's important because
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
You know, with any of these paralyzing global issues, I think to some people it feels like there's no end point. Yes. Right. We're just sending more money to Africa, you know, sending more money to these. No, we're actually making huge, huge progress. The biggest challenge that I tell our team is, you know, no one listening to this podcast woke up this morning.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
turned the tap on, took their shower, used filtered water for their coffee, maybe grabbed a bottle on their way to the gym or the yoga studio and said, my gosh, I'm so grateful for the clean water, to the privilege that I was born into. Let me go find a water charity so that I can go help people who are suffering. We have no customers, right?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
So I think the biggest challenge is how do we get people to even pause and consider the problem that they have never experienced?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
I still am looking for that key, you know, the unlock to generosity. I've picked up some things around the world. I'll tell you one really powerful conversation I had. I was about to go and ask somebody for $10 million. Young tech entrepreneur, been a part of a multi-billion dollar IPO, and I was flying out to Hawaii, and I stopped in San Francisco, and I was meeting somebody at the Battery,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And he was an older gentleman. I think he was a Goldman Sachs partner for many years. And I said, hey, I'm about to make this ask. So this is more money than I've ever asked a human for. I don't get any of it, right? I mean, 100% of it goes straight to the... But I said, how do you feel when someone asks you for a whole lot of money? And he said, one word that has just changed the paradigm for me
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And it was not what I was expecting. I was expecting him to say offended, uncomfortable. And he said, I feel flattered. He said, I feel flattered that they think I would be that generous. And I wound up making the $10 million ask, actually getting a $12 million gift from that family. And I had an experience a couple years later where I was going to make another $10 million ask. And I asked...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
the founder, and I did it in a really interesting way. And it was a kind of a beautiful proposal that spoke to the way that he had made his money. And he got back to me a couple of months later after getting this proposal. And he says, you know, that was really beautiful. Thank you for honoring me and my family. He said, I have only one question. Why did you ask me for so little?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And I said, well, because I didn't have the guts to ask you for 40 million. And he said, well, I'll do that then. He said, I need 10 years and I can send four right now.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
I think those two things, that it's okay to stretch someone, it's okay to ask them to think about radical generosity, to think about using their resources to end the needless suffering of others, maybe in a way that they hadn't even contemplated before. And I still think maybe we're just not asking for enough.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
Maybe we're just leaving so much human capacity for good, for generosity on the table by not being bold. Somebody told me once at Fundraiser, listen, there's only three things that people can really say. And if you're okay with all three of them, then you just got to keep showing up. So what can people say? They could say no. They could say less or not now.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And if you're okay with all three of those, right? And how many founders here have had no pitch decks and people probably crapping on their ideas, crapping on their pitch decks. So you have to really be able to take a lot of no's. And I guess the fourth category is when people say they're going to do it and they don't do it. That's probably the most frustrating.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
I'd rather just not be strung along and But I remember that I go home, if I hear seven no's in a day, my kids still think I'm great. My wife hopefully still thinks I'm great. And then you get up the next day and you go ask and ask and ask. And there's something almost freeing about the fact that none of it is personal gain. I froze my salary six and a half years ago.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
I haven't even taken a cost of living increase. I wanted to kind of take... you know, that incentive completely out of the work. So if I raise, you know, 100 million this year or a billion for the poor, it doesn't impact me at all, right? It's money going through your hands. And I remember just an early driver, I was sitting with a tech founder, you know, unicorn startup, multi-billionaire.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And over the years, a lot of people have said to me, why don't you just start a company and make a lot of money and give it away? You know, you seem like- I would ask you that question. You seem like, you know, it's just very logical. I've probably had hundreds of people say, you know, why don't you go start something, dude? Like ring the bell, you know?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And I would always ask them, how much have you given away? And let's say early on my number was, okay, well, I've given away 50 million through Charity Water and I've given away 250. Now at a billion, I'm starting to thin out those people. I know very few founders and probably very few founders sitting at this table who have given a billion dollars to the poorest people in the world.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And I think we're in the beginning of the second inning. Thank you. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. A mechanic gets dispatched, turns up on a motorbike with tools, fixes that project, the community pays for that repair, and then they move on to the next one. So, you know, using a smart thermostat...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
Well, when I was four, my mom almost died. Like you said, I was born in Philadelphia, actually. We had moved to Jersey to get closer to my dad's job. And we had just bought this very ugly gray house at the end of a cul-de-sac in the dead of winter. And we didn't know that we had just bought a house with a carbon monoxide gas leak.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And we start getting these strange symptoms, headaches, and migraines. And on New Year's Day, 1980, my mom passes out. She's unconscious on the bedroom floor, and she's essentially the canary in the coal mine, which leads to the discovery of massive amounts of carbon dioxide in her bloodstream, leads to the discovery of the leak, which was a improperly installed heat exchanger in the basement.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
the same idea to create a well where water can continue to flow over time and you know the uprates, you know that it continues to work in year three or year seven or year 10 as an association. So that's a really exciting sensor program that's still going on. We're working on four different sensors now for different water program types in different stages of R&D.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And we're raising all that funding separately as well. So that's not actually coming from the public donations. You know, that's an R&D fund. The second, you know, just example, I remember when VR first came out. Do you remember it was the Samsung phone that you would slide into that? It had Gear VR, right? And then Google had that little cardboard box. It was Google Glass.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
So I remember going somewhere, some conference, and it was Marriott, and they put a headset on me, and I was in the penthouse in Dubai, looking at Dubai. And I just remember thinking, wow, I could take people to Ethiopia or Malawi or Nepal to a village without water. And we're pretty scrappy too. There were no VR cameras on the market. So I got GoPro to donate eight GoPros.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And I found this guy, Chris Milk in LA to turn it into a 360 rig. And we went to Ethiopia and we shot this beautiful eight minute VR film of a 13 year old girl who gets clean water for the first time in her life. And people would put on the headset and see the swamp. that she was sharing with animals. It was fecally contaminated.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
They saw the rig, the million dollar drilling rig with Ethiopian drillers roll into her village and jump out and start looking for groundwater. There's this moment where they strike water and her father picks this little girl up and he's dancing and he's spinning her around.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And then at the end, you watch her walk to the well, pump it, and taste clean water for the very first time in her human life. And as primitive as the technology was, we would put headsets on people and they'd be weeping. Eight minutes later, they have tears streaming down their face. And we wound up using that film to raise millions and millions of dollars.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And my dad has an HVAC guy friend come over, and they rip this thing out, and I remember this crumpled heater on the curb that really didn't did irreparable damage to our family. What happened with my mom specifically is her immune system irreparably shut down after the carbon monoxide poisoning, and she was disabled and invalid for the rest of her life. My dad and I bounced back.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
We took it to our Met Gala, and after dinner served to 350 people in black tie, we served 350 VR headsets on trays. And we pressed play at the same time. We took everybody out and back in eight minutes. And the minute the film finished, we just asked them for money. We helped 100,000 people get water in that moment.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
So I'm always wondering how can we use technology to further the mission, which is really simple. The mission is just to get everybody on earth clean water. Yeah. That's the drop the mic moment. There is a finish line. When 703 million people have water, we're done. It's done.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
It's a world where every human has the most basic need for life met.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
I mean, I think I was almost a slave to the consumerism that I was pursuing, all the markers of success. However, and I've heard this actually from a lot of our donors, a lot of people will have a number in mind, and whenever they reach that number, the number changes. And I'm worried that if you live that life You know, it's almost like the cartoon, right?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
Like the carrot is just out in front of you. And, you know, it's consumption and more houses and more planes and more cars. And, you know, for me, I'm only speaking personally, it didn't bring happiness. So, you know, the animating quote... In my life, almost 17 years ago, there was a guy who worked for me and he was passing a New York City bodega, a deli.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And there was this saying on one of the boards outside, do not be afraid of work with no end. And it came from an ancient rabbinic text. Do not be afraid of endless work. And in some ways, I think the one path is endless spending, endless attaining, endless consumption, endless accumulation maybe, or endless service.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
I love that idea of if your work, if the work is showing up and saying, first, how can I be a great husband? How can I be a great father? How can I be a great friend? how can I be a great leader of an organization? And how can I serve? How can I make the biggest impact to people living, you know, close to me in my local community, in the global community, there's no finish line to that, right?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
It's the same way that there's never enough. There's no finish line, but you get to look back and like, oh, wow, we've helped 20 million people get water. Okay, hopefully I get to look back and say, oh, we've helped 100 million people on planet Earth. We've got this problem solved.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
You know, I was at Madison Square Garden not too long ago with my wife and, you know, Madison Square Garden holds a little less than 20,000 people and it was sold out for a concert. And I was like, we've done this a thousand times. Like you would have to build a thousand Madison Square Gardens to contain 20 million people. I was sitting in a thousandth of the impact
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
We were only sleeping in the house. We were sleeping upstairs. She was 24-7 unpacking boxes, you know, putting things in the basement and got the brunt of the exposure. So life had a radical change at four years old when I became a caregiver. Dad was a middle-class business guy, worked kind of in the electrical engineering space. Mom had been a successful writer.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And I haven't met these people. I'm never gonna meet 20 million, 20.2 million people with water. But that's the pursuit. How do I use what I've been blessed with, my time, my talents, and my money, and my personal money as well. I also believe in giving. I have to eat my own dog food. I need to be as generous as I'm asking other people to be. How do I use that in the service of others?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And it's, I think, you know, provides for a fulfilling life where you know that it matters.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
She was a journalist, and everything just stopped for her. So she was allergic. The best way to describe it is she was allergic to the world. If it was chemical and if it smelled, it made her sick. perfume, car fumes, fabric softener. There were signs on the outside of our house, keep out, chemically sensitive patient.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
I remember if I went to church and a lady hugged me and I came back with a little whiff of perfume, I would have to strip naked in the garage, change into surgical clothes, like hospital scrubs that had been washed in baking soda. And then I was allowed in my own house. So that was kind of, you know, chapter one of life. Very traditional Christian family, non-denominational.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
My parents prayed a lot. They went to church and they really would rely on their faith to get them through, you know, what would be decades of sickness and illness. So I grew up in that context, going to Christian school, then, you know, a public high school. I wanted to be a doctor.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
When I grew up, I had dreams of going to Johns Hopkins so that I could get a medical degree and cure my mom and then cure others with her condition. Didn't smoke, didn't drink, didn't sleep around, didn't cuss. You know, was on the good path. And then act two started at 18 when I came to New York City and somebody took me to a nightclub.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And I remember it was called Club USA and there was a slide that went from the balcony into the throng of the dance floor. And I remember going down that slide And feeling like I had arrived. You came out a new man. I came out a new man.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
So I announced to my parents that instead of going to Hopkins, which I probably couldn't have gotten into anyway, I would be moving to New York City to become a nightclub promoter. Because I learned that this was a pretty unusual profession that you could party for a living.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
So if you were not allowed to smoke or drink or have sex or cuss, you could actually do all of these things with reckless indulgence and get paid. if you got the right people in the right clubs, which is where my story intersected with Galloway because he was a customer of mine for many, many, many years.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
Oh, Scott. I used to host Scott back in those days. My parents are horrified that their only son is now in New York City filling up nightclubs before he's even legally allowed to be in clubs. And I joined a band, I grew my hair down to my shoulders, so I was playing in a rock band part-time.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
I was going to NYU part-time just because dad had saved up and it felt like I should take a couple courses and eventually mail him a degree that I never even saw for years. And I just loved every minute of it. I mean, this was lights and glamour and dinner at 10 p.m. with fashion models and other people's money and other limousines.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And, you know, it was kind of the dawn of bottle service where we all realized that you could sell a bottle of Absolute Vodka for $300. Yeah. That cost 20.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
When did that happen? So this is... My years were 1994 to 2004. Okay. So this was clubs like Lotus, Halo, Sweet 16. You know, this is before kind of marquee for people that, you know, know that club. It was Peter Gation at the Limelight and Tunnel, Club USA, Buddha Bar down on Varick. So it was... I mean, I just loved every minute of it. And it also felt rebellious.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
You know, I'm living out my childhood, the childhood I never got by having fun and having, you know, illicit fun. So, you know, I play this out for a while and I'm climbing up the ranks and I'm trying to chase models and make sure I own a BMW or Mercedes and have a nice place. And it's exhausting. Number one, it's really an unhealthy schedule. Your dinner was at 10 p.m. The club was at 12.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
After hours was at 4 a.m. And going to sleep was at noon. High on cocaine, taking Ambien to come down so that you could wake up at 7 p.m. and do it all over again.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
I don't have a problem with that. Well, I didn't for a while. I think it was Hemingway that said, you know, going bankrupt, like it happens slowly and then suddenly. So I remember this one moment on Houston Street where I was crashing at a friend's place and it was noon. And I remember taking sheets and comforters and trying to block out the light.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
at 12 o'clock and looking out on Houston Street at people in suits on their lunch break, you know, getting salads. Doing life. Salads. They had gone to the gym when I was at the After Hours Coke bar.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And just remember thinking, wow, this is so unhealthy. And the kind of end of chapter two for me happened in Punta del Este in Uruguay. I was on a vacation over New Year's Eve. I'd been in the business a decade. And I just, I had enough of the things that I had been chasing to realize that they were not going to make me happy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And I think I realized just how far I had come from this little boy who wanted to be a doctor to help others. Yes. The little kid who played piano in church and prayed and wanted to live a, you know, virtuous, high integrity life. And I missed home. I mean, in some ways it's kind of like the parable, the prodigal son, you know, he finds himself
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
halfway around the world covered in pig feces, you know, spoiling everything about his life and like wanting to come home. So I came back from that vacation feeling, knowing that a pivot was not needed in my life. A 180 degree course correction was in order. And I got the idea to, I grew up with this kind of Christian principle of tithing where you give 10% of your money to the poor.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
Well, I thought, what if I gave 10% of my time? What if I gave one year? Penance is probably not the right word, but kind of as a tithe of the 10 years that I had selfishly wasted. And I went and tried to serve others. Could I find my way on a humanitarian mission? And would I have any skills at 28 years old that would be useful to others? So I, you know, I'm a pretty extreme guy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
So just to be clear, I've been extraordinarily unphilanthropic the majority of my life. And the only time I ever gave money before the age of 40 was so I could go to some cool party and hang out with cool people and pretend I was being philanthropic. So I wouldn't describe myself as unphilanthropic.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
I sell everything I own and I start applying to the famous humanitarian organizations I've tangentially heard of. Save the Children, Doctors Without Borders, World Vision, the Red Cross, Salvation Army. It turns out that none of these organizations are interested in hiring a nightclub promoter, even for free. So I'm denied by everyone. And I just remember being so frustrated.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
I mean, here I'm ready to go. I'm ready for the life change and no one will take me. So finally, this one organization writes me back and I dusted off an NYU degree that I'd barely gotten majoring in communications because it was the easiest thing. And I found this one organization and they said, Scott, if you pay us $500 a month,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And if you're willing to go live in post-war Liberia, West Africa, which at the time was the poorest country in the world, having just exited a 14-year civil war, they said, we'll take you on as our volunteer photojournalist. And I'm like, great. Here's my credit card details. When does the mission start? And they said, a few weeks.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
So I finally have one organization who was willing to give me a shot at a year. And in some ways, I didn't even know it then, I was uniquely qualified to do this volunteer job as a promoter, as a storyteller.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
Now, I had been telling the story for 10 years that if you get past my velvet rope, if you spend lots of money in the club, if you rub shoulders with a celebrity or a movie star, your life has... Yeah. So I had actually been promoting 40 different clubs over 10 years. And I got a chance to promote something very different.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And this group was a charity that consisted of doctors and surgeons and nurses who would all give up vacation time. They would fly to West Africa and they would offer free medical services to people who had no ability to afford them. And they operated, which was unique, from a 500-foot hospital ship.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
So an old kind of broken down converted ocean cruise liner had been gutted and turned into a state-of-the-art hospital that sailed up and down the coast of Africa with 350 volunteer crew, all paying $500 a month like me, which helped the organization run. So I had never heard of Liberia before. I couldn't have found it on the map. You know, I joke, and I don't think this is hyperbole.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
I'm trying to catch up and invest in nonprofits that are really well run, where I believe that I'll get a great return on investment, and that is they'll have a big impact. And the two areas I'm focused on are mostly our teen suicide prevention and vocational programming for young men.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
I think I thought Africa was a country not made up of 50-some. Geography had been a distant past. I learned quickly. And my third day there, I had a really important moment where it was called the patient screening. And in advance of the ship landing, with the doctors coming into the port, a small team had posted flyers advertising the coming of these doctors throughout the country.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
And these flyers had pictures of conditions that we treated, cleft lips, cleft palates, flesh-eating disease, facial tumors, people who had been burned during the war who needed reconstruction. And, you know, we arrive at the port, my third day in Africa. We wake up at 5 a.m.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – This Nonprofit Raised $1B to Bring Clean Water to the World
and the government has given us the soccer stadium, the football stadium in the center of the city to triage the people who had come and put them through our stations and then hand out these surgery cards. And I knew that we had 1,500 available surgery cards. And when we turned up around 5.30 in the morning to the parking lot, there were over 5,000 people
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
First Time Founders with Ed Elson – How Bobbi Brown Built A Beauty Empire
So I enjoyed it. I really enjoyed working with those companies.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Wages
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Wages
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Wages
I'm Scott Galloway, and this is No Mercy, No Malice. A key question for all business leaders and owners. Are you paying your people a living wage?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Porn
I'm Scott Galloway, and this is No Mercy, No Malice. Young men face a variety of obstacles to thrive. One of those obstacles, on-demand porn.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
Red States receive more federal funding than they pay in taxes. Republican leaders, who are under the delusion they control the power of the purse and won, are instead quietly expressing concerns over what doge cuts mean for their constituents. Dismantling USAID hurts Kansans, who sell their crops to a government program that fights hunger abroad.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
NIH-Cuts threaten jobs in Alabama, Florida, Nebraska and other red states. One of Louisiana's Republican senators believes plans to gut the FBI will hurt his state. Cuts to the VA fall on a key Trump constituency as veterans skew Republican by two to one. Delete the Department of Education? Trump carried four of the top five states that received Title I funding for low-income students.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
Louisiana, Mississippi, Arizona and Alabama. Amid a chaotic transition, the White House mistakenly elevated the wrong person to acting FBI director. In any other administration, this kind of fuck-up would have been endless fodder for comedians and congressional investigations. In this administration, it barely gets a footnote. Brian Driscoll, aka Driz, will likely be fired soon.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
But the G-Man's response to an attack on his colleagues and the rule of law is a lesson in leadership and masculinity, defaulting to protection. Even if we lose, weakens him, as it inspires others to do the same. Think about this. A man who makes Nazi gestures owns the majority of satellites and space launch capacity and has usurped the power of the purse and Congress.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
A recent poll shows many moderates favor effective, move fast, break things, over right, checks and balances. Autocracies are seductive. In the short term they seem effective. A third of Americans on both sides of the political spectrum favor an autocrat as long as he, let's be honest, it's always a he, is aligned with their views.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
The same man is openly threatening other companies with government retribution if they don't spend money on his companies. Für die Demokraten und die Republikaner ist dies kein Zeitpunkt, um zusammenzukommen, sondern um zu retten.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
Viele, oder die meisten Amerikaner bis jetzt, fühlen sich nicht anders als unter der neuen Regierung. Und sie mögen die Idee, schnell gegen Probleme zu kämpfen, die sie glauben, aus der Kontrolle geflogen sind. Grenzüberschritte, Regierungs-Largesse, wachsende Ideologie.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
Der Blitzkrieg, der die Verbrechung von Alliieren verursacht, die Verzeichnung von Wasserböden und die Verabschiedung von Putin, hat viele Amerikaner, besonders Demokraten, flachgelegt, auf die Enttäuschung gewartet. If you believe that democracy should not surrender, as Trump is urging Ukraine to do, then the seminal question is, what to do? Honest answer? I don't know.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
However, I do have some ideas. Nobody had Elon Musk as master of coin on their 2024 election bingo card. Seizing the levers of the federal payment system was strategic and elegant, as it gave the White House a single point of control, with influence over government priorities and policies via control of money flows. I do something similar when my sons are misbehaving.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
Rather than attempting to parent hard, I just remotely shut off their phones' internet access. Department of Dad Energy. Dode. With the seizure of power, and money is power, Musk can reward friends, punish enemies, impose his political will, and effectively delete government agencies and departments by shutting off funding without worrying about pesky constitutional oversight.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
This is techno-authoritarianism. Musks dominion encompasses the public and private sectors, physical and digital realms, and even space. In a 2007 essay, Musk-Ally and Doge-Co-Architect Peter Thiel argued for a new Alexander the Great, i.e. a king or dictator to cut the Gordian knot of our age. The chief obstacle, according to Thiel, America's constitutional machinery.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
Thiel schrieb, Quote, Unquote. Mein Pivot-Co-Star Kara Swisher beschreibt diese Mentalität als, quote, Let's wipe the slate clean, then we'll build the civilization we want, unquote. The problem? A plurality of American citizens did not vote for this vision, much less these individuals. Trump won.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
In our system, the ideas he campaigned on can now become policy, assuming he has the votes in Congress. Musk ist der mächtigste Vizepräsident in der Geschichte und er wurde nicht mal gewählt. Seht euch die Zeitung von Musk hinter dem Resolute-Desk an, folgt von der surrealen Oval-Office-Pressekonferenz, wo Trump den Rolle als geriatrischer Vizepräsident zu Musks Politik-Blitzkrieg gespielt hat.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
Ich glaube, wenn ihre Gedächtnis, die die Libertards zu eignen hat, abschließt, werden die Republikaner im Kongress realisieren, dass sie einen Monster erschaffen haben, den sie nicht mehr kontrollieren können. Musk's digital coup subjugates the right as much as the left. His attempt to hijack the government also hijacks the MAGA agenda.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
By the way, at some point Americans will realize the conservative-progressive battle is a misdirect. The real fulcrum, where the battle is being waged, is up-down. Rich versus not rich. The wealthy and corporations whom Trump and Musk listen to will put up largely symbolic resistance to an emerging autocracy. They aren't going to suffer, as the world now offers civil rights for sale.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
The 1% can move anywhere by influence and ensure everybody in their circle has access to Mifepristone. The savings from Doge are again a misdirect from an enormous tax increase on today's youth via the deficits we'll register if Trump's tax cuts go through. I know a lot of very wealthy tech executives and financiers. The key to their wealth, yes, much of it is luck, not their fault.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
And much of it is talent. However, the real secret sauce is a focus. The acquisition of wealth is an obsession for the, wait for it, Wealthy, pro tip, anybody speaking at a university who claims they never thought much about money, is obsessed with it. The right's defense of Musk, that Doge is some patriotic gesture, is laughable. His focus and his only focus. Er wird ein Trillionär.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
Sein Volontärismus ist ein Versuch, die Obstacke zwischen ihm und größerem Geld zu klären, spezifisch Regulierer und Fair Play. Musk-Kultisten offern oft das gleiche, ah, schucks, er kann sich nicht helfen, er ist so authentisch Rap, wenn er sagt oder tweetet, seltsame, rexistische und einfach dumme Dinge. Aber sein Id?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
is always in check when it comes to saying anything about China, where officials likely feel they have leverage over Musk. So measured, so thoughtful, so disciplined, so obsessed with money. He recognizes he doesn't enjoy the umbrella protection of the First Amendment in China and accusing a member of the CCP of being a sex criminal, his go-to, would likely result in swift economic retribution.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
He may or may not suffer from Aspergers, but he definitely suffers from being an asshole. And by the way, for those of you bots waiting to fill the comments section with cries of TDS or an obsession with Musk, you're wrong. I've been clinically diagnosed with DAS, Democracy Addiction Syndrome. And bitches, after four weeks of this nonsense, incompetence, surrender, my affliction is spreading.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
If it's possible to hold our government hostage by capturing the federal payment system, then we need to work upstream of Musk's choke point. Already the Treasury Department has exhausted roughly 60% of the extraordinary measures at its disposal to delay a default on our bonds.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
The rates on the 10-year Treasury bill, however, indicate that Congress will raise the debt ceiling, as both parties have done 78 times since 1960. But what if Democrats refuse? A dozen GOP senators and 49 House Republicans, more than 20% of each conference, have never previously voted to raise the debt ceiling. Democrats have a strong stand here.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
If they credibly threaten default, rates on the 10-year T-Bill will increase and equities will likely suffer. This will be painful, but the pain will primarily fall on the 1% and corporations, i.e. those who own 90% of assets and have influence over Trump. In effect, the markets could do what Congress won't. Reign in Trump, kick Musk to the curb and demand the US remain a nation of laws.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
In March the government will run out of money, unless Congress acts. If the government shuts down, roughly 3 million federal workers will stop receiving paychecks. Stiffing the military, air traffic controllers and people who keep our food and water safe is stupid. It hurts them and us.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
At the moment, however, a sleep-deprived alleged ketamine abuser who makes Nazi salutes is cutting off funding for programs he dislikes and promising buyouts to federal workers with money that isn't there. Hakeem Jeffries is correct when he says there's little Democrats can do legislatively to stop President Musk. But Democrats shouldn't do anything legislatively to enable him either.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
Here again, Democrats have a decent hand to extract concessions, as a shutdown is upstream of Musk's power. Musk's wealth is the source of his power and his main point of vulnerability. One third of his wealth is tied up in Tesla stock, which briefly rose after the election, as the market priced in kleptocracy, but has plunged 30% since December.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
Proteste an Tesla-Lokationen in den USA zeigen, dass andere sich ähnlich fühlen. Tesla's brand value dropped 26% year over year, due primarily to Musk entering the political arena. His behavior in Europe, where he endorsed Germany's far-right neo-Nazi party, stoked a race riot in the UK, and stands accused of manipulating algorithms on X to influence public discourse in France...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
Das hat Tesla-Sales verursacht. In China, Teslas zweiter größter Markt, sind die Verkäufe jährlich um 11 Prozent geringer. Letztes Monat hat BYD viermal die Zahl der EVs verkauft, die Tesla verkauft hat. Musks Politik ist schlecht für Amerika. Wir müssen sie schlecht für sein Geschäft machen.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
Musk hat einmal tweetet, Quote, zwischen Tesla, Starlink und Twitter, ich habe mehr real-zeit globale ökonomische Daten in einem Kopf als jemals. Quote. Frage. Ist es in Amerikas besten Interesse, für einen Mann die kombinierte Macht von Henry Ford, NASA und William Randolph Hearst zu haben?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
Starlink ist ein großartiges Produkt, aber die wachsende Bewertung, die Musk über globale Kommunikation erzeugt, ist erstaunlich. Musk kontrolliert bereits halb die Satelliten in der Orbit. Er plant, in den nächsten fünf Jahren bis zu 58.000 mehr zu starten und verspricht, das Niveau zu 500.000 zu erhöhen. In der Politik schlägt das Pendulum immer zurück.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
Die Demokraten sollten klar sein, dass sie, wenn sie den Kongress wiederholen, die Dominanz in den Satelliten von Musk beurteilen und Regulierungen beurteilen, um im Interesse der nationalen Sicherheit zu arbeiten. Notieren Sie, dass das auch gute Politik ist, weil Musks Popularität auch bei den Republikanern sinkt. Denken Sie daran, als würde man Greenland invadieren, wenn Greenland Raum wäre.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
In the meantime, Senate Democrats can block government contracts Musk companies rely on by filibustering funding legislation, as Republicans do not have a filibuster-proof majority. When I interviewed historian Niall Ferguson on my podcast, he said British politics is a game of cricket between people who went to Oxford. Whereas American politics is a blood sport.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
I'd argue Niall misses some nuance. Recently, democratic politics have felt like a stern game of bridge at the rest home. For MAGA, the coarseness of our discourse is a feature, not a bug. Musk und Trump verstehen das. Sie spüren violente Rhetorik und leveragen politische Gewalt, wie am 6. Januar, weil Angst ein nützliches Werkzeug ist, um Follower und Opponente in Linie zu halten.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
Gestern begann ein DOJ-Offizier falsche Angelegenheiten von Menschen an Musk und seinem Team zu verurteilen und Angelegenheiten an Offiziere zu senden, um ihre Kommentare zu klarifizieren, also sie zu enttäuschen. Ja, freie Sprache, unless it's our guys. This is an attempt to cast a chill on opposing speech in what can be described as the fascist hymn.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
Speaking of fascist hymns, the Wall Street Journal reported on February 19th that Linda Iaccarino is now a brick in the fascist wall, threatening to leverage her dear leader's influence to block the IPG-Omnicom merger if they do not advertise on her platform.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
Despite credible threats, Trump has removed security details protecting his former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, General Mark Milley and Dr. Anthony Fauci, to name a few. In response, Democrats marched to a federal building and did their best impression of a seniors facility when Jell-O nights been cancelled.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
Die Demokraten sollten es klar machen, dass wenn sie in die Macht zurückkehren, Trump und jeder, der sich auch in den digitalen Krieg engagiert hat, auch ihre Sicherheitsdetail verlieren. Es geht um Incentiven. Wir müssen über die stark bewortete Liste gehen.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: DOGE: What Can Be Done?
Was ich hier vorgelegt habe, ist langweilig und unkompliziert, verglichen mit der Geschwindigkeit und zerstörerischen Kraft eines 19-jährigen Computeringenieures, der hoch auf den Bergen liegt. My concern is for America, but I'll be fine. The people who will pay a far greater price are Trump voters, who believe this fight is for them. It's not. It's against them.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Europe Becomes a Union
I'm Scott Galloway, and this is No Mercy, No Malice. As President Trump upends the post-World War II order, it's finally dawning on Europe that it can no longer rely on America. Europe becomes a union, as read by George Hahn.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Elon Musk, Welfare Queen
I'm Scott Galloway, and this is No Mercy, No Malice. This past weekend, Elon Musk called me cruel, mean, and deceitful. Two and a half years ago, I called him a welfare queen. You decide. Cruel, mean, and deceitful, as read by George Hahn.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
I like real estate, as no other asset class allows you to lever up 5 to 1 with a low down payment and a deductible interest rate. But the idea that homeownership is the best or only way to build wealth is a lie fomented by the National Realtors Association that needs to die. This lie leads to dubious financial advice for the people who buy homes that don't outperform the market.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
And it makes those who aren't able to buy feel like failures. But the most toxic byproduct of this lie is that it encourages incumbents to inflate the value of their assets by making housing scarce. Americans want to build wealth, and Democrats should speak in aspirational terms.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
But if housing is the primary or only vehicle for wealth accumulation, we shouldn't be surprised that our political fault lines are rich against poor, rural against urban, and old against young. If economic security is the nutrition of a capitalist society, then maybe we need to stop thinking of housing as an investment, but a consumable, like food, energy, education.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
The construction of millions of low-cost units for young people, coupled with tax-advantaged incentives to invest in the market, would result in a better path to wealth. In addition, we need to remove housing from the growing list of sources of anxiety for young people. It's housing, not an investment strategy or the arbiter of whether you're worthy enough to mate, start a family, or earn status.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
Economic security and deep and meaningful relationships are the American dream, not a mortgage payment. The call sign for the next administration should morph from drill baby drill to build baby build.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
Democrats need to be the party of ideas, not indignation. Our Project 2028 series will address critical issues facing American society through a no-mercy, no-malice lens. We begin with housing. The U.S. doesn't have a housing crisis, but an affordability crisis. Roughly one-third of Americans rent, and nearly half are cost-burdened, i.e., they spend 30% or more of their income on housing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
Since 2019, rents have increased one and a half times faster than income in most U.S. metro areas. In purely economic terms, increased housing costs reduce labor mobility and productivity as workers can't afford to live in high-growth areas. When human capital can't be invested in the regions offering the greatest returns, it dampens growth.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
One research project estimates that removing housing constraints, i.e. lowering costs, to increase the liquidity of human capital would increase GDP by $1.4 trillion. In some, there may be an economic as well as a social justification for government investments in housing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
Elevated housing costs also take a toll on health, as families who struggle to afford housing often delay medical care, eat less healthy food, and have higher levels of anxiety and depression. But the most catastrophic consequence of unaffordable housing is that 770,000 Americans are homeless.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
According to one study, communities where the median rent is more than 32% of the median household income are likely to see sharply higher rates of homelessness. But no matter where they live, homeless people suffer intense physical and mental harm, put a disproportionate burden on public services where they live, and reduce the quality of life for all citizens.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
The common denominator for struggling renters and the homeless isn't identity, but money. Increasing support for Section 8 housing and rent control may provide short-term relief, but in the long term, these programs become entrenched and suppress development. The quickest way to help poor people afford housing is simple. Pay them more.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
As I've written before, I believe minimum wage should be $25 per hour. There are approximately 32,000 homeless veterans in the U.S. While vets account for only 5% of the total homeless population, housing them is a good place to start as they're politically popular and have access to benefits. A federal No Homeless Vets pilot program could be a platform for testing solutions.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
It could also provide what's missing in American politics right now, renewed confidence that the government can take on big challenges. Owning a home marks one's progression into adulthood, starting a family, and building wealth. But for many Americans, the American dream has become a hallucination. This is especially true for young people.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
Between 1984 and 2024, the age of the typical first-time homebuyer jumped from 29 to 35. Since 1963, home prices have increased three times after adjusting for inflation, while the median household income increased about one and a half times. Nationally, the average home price-to-income ratio is 4.7.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
It's significantly higher in California at 8.4, Washington at 6.3, Massachusetts at 6.3, New York at 5.7, and Florida at 5.7. Housing experts say we need to build somewhere between 1.7 million and 7.3 million additional housing units. In the same way Ernest Hemingway described the process of going bankrupt, we got here gradually.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
Then suddenly, as the pace of home building has yet to fully rebound to the rate before the Great Recession. Increased costs for labor, building materials, and regulatory compliance have all contributed to the problem. The cost of building multifamily housing in California, for example, spiked by 25% between 2010 and 2020. Nationwide residential construction costs rose 19% over the same period.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
Construction costs have stabilized since the pandemic. Labor costs grew 3.8% over the past year, while the cost of materials was flat. Mass deportations and tariffs, however, will likely increase the cost of both labor and materials. Democrats don't have the power over tariffs and immigration, but they can champion cost-effective building.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
Manufactured homes, which are built in factories and finished on-site, are 35% to 73% cheaper than homes built entirely on-site. In Los Angeles, many homeowners can't afford to rebuild after the fires, as quotes for new construction can be two times or more what insurance will cover. A partnership between a nonprofit and manufactured home startup
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
aims to donate 100 pre-built homes that cost around $260,000 each. To rebuild L.A. quickly, local leaders should hyperscale this kind of building. When I interviewed housing economist Jenny Schutz on my podcast, she told me housing policy is relatively simple, but the politics are hard. Case in point? Around 75% of residential land in the U.S.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
is zoned exclusively for single-family homes, the most costly and least dense type of housing. Rezoning for multifamily housing and taller buildings would make it easier to build. At the federal level, the bipartisan YIMBY Act encourages block grant recipients to track and remove barriers to housing construction. HUD grants along the lines of Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
which Congress authorized $85 million for in 2023, have helped localities purchase land for affordable housing, streamline the building application process, and add local staff to fast-track affordable housing proposals. We should double down.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
Likewise, we should pass the Bipartisan Housing Supply and Affordability Act, which would allocate $1.5 billion in technical assistance to overhaul local zoning rules. Local governments and neighborhoods, however, hold most of the power here. Reform is costly and time-consuming, as new rules must contend with a confusing legislative labyrinth.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
The effects of an over-lawyered process are most apparent in blue states. A significant number of Californians left for Texas in search of jobs and affordable housing, the chocolate and peanut butter of economic growth. To win national elections, Democrats need to demonstrate that they can govern. The winning move? Go hard at zoning reform, cut red tape, and encourage development.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
Such a pivot could make for strange bedfellows. Zoning reform means taking on environmentalists and wealthy homeowners. The standard property tax model imposes taxes on land and structures. This discourages building, since new construction will be taxed. we should reverse the incentives and tax only undeveloped land, encouraging development while cutting taxes on existing homes.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
The idea has been proposed in Detroit and New York City to reduce the number of vacant lots in those cities. In Pennsylvania, several cities have used a similar split-rate tax that taxes structures at a lower rate than land. One study found that split-rate tax models can increase high-density housing units between 2% and 10%.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
Embracing the strategy could rebrand Democrats from tax-and-spend liberals to tax-cutting builders. This week, the California legislature released a report examining the state's failure to build enough affordable housing. The author's conclusion? The planning process is slow, crippled by red tape, and vulnerable to frivolous lawsuits, making it too damn hard to build in the Golden State.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
Exhibit A? In 2024, the state Supreme Court resolved a three-year battle over a 1,200-unit Berkeley housing project. Neighborhood groups argued that the noise predicted to come from college student housing amounted to a pollutant under the law. The neighborhood groups lost, but the case illustrates the larger problem.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
By the way, UC Berkeley has been there longer than any resident, and the scarcity model weaponized by administrations departments and existing homeowners is morally bankrupt. But that's another post. NIMBY homeowners have fashioned a state law, the California Environmental Quality Act, into an anti-growth cudgel.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
A California legislative analyst's office study found that CEQA litigation delayed construction by two and a half years. Only 20% of CEQA lawsuits target greenfields, i.e. converting open space to housing, while 85% of CEQA lawsuits were filed by groups with no track record of environmental litigation. A California state senator has introduced legislation to fast-track CEQA cases.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
Lawmakers in states and localities with similar laws should follow suit. Rents in Minneapolis increased by only 1% between 2017 and 2022, largely because developers increased the housing stock by 12% during the same period. Meanwhile, rents in the rest of Minnesota, which only boosted housing stock by 4%, increased by 14%. The unlock?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
Minneapolis reformed zoning laws to encourage taller multifamily housing projects and eliminated parking minimums that can cost $50,000 per space. It's a similar story in Austin, where city officials waged a decade-long political fight to tackle housing affordability through rezoning. Austin's new rules allow for single-family homes to be built on smaller lots...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
apartments to be built closer to single-family homes, and denser development along a planned light rail line. NIMBY homeowners tend to be loud and politically connected, giving the impression that their views represent the broader community. That is not the case. YouGov polling suggests that Americans may be more receptive to local development than previously thought.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
Support for building more single-family homes polls at 90% nationally, 81% locally. For senior housing, national support polls at 88%, local support is 84%. Nationally, 76% of Americans want more apartments built, while 65% support building more apartments locally. Low-income housing and homeless shelters are the least favored housing types, but even there, local support polls at 2 to 1.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
If you're a politician, you've been given a green light to ignore NIMBYs. Despite the conventional wisdom, people lose money in real estate. Homes are illiquid capital-intensive assets that come with phantom costs, insurance premiums, maintenance bills, and property taxes, all of which are expected to rise due to climate change.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
Owning also limits diversification, as homes are close to workplaces, meaning a local economic downturn or a natural disaster could wipe out your equity at the same time you lose a job. Historically, the S&P averages a 10% annual return, outpacing housing at 4% to 8%.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Project 2028: Housing
Moreover, real estate brokers typically charge around a 6% commission, 60 times the transaction cost you'd pay for a low-fee ETF that tracks the S&P. The advantage of homeownership is forced savings, as people don't want to risk the hassle and shame of eviction. Another advantage? Owning can stabilize monthly housing costs relative to rents.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
But when I sold the business, my tax rate on the proceeds, owning, was 17%. Even before selling, every small business owner gets an enormous shield, the power to push all manner of personal expenses through the company income statement, thus making them tax deductions for the business rather than taxable income for the owner.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Income that's acquired by selling an asset for more than you paid for it is a capital gain. and isn't subject to ordinary income tax rates. Capital gains rates, federal, max out at 23.8% instead of 37%. That's still not the biggest loophole.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Capital gains are only taxed when realized, typically when sold, so owners' assets grow tax-deferred, some you can depreciate as they go up in value, and their sales are timed to minimize taxes. Earners lose 20% to 50% of their gains from sweat every year, a massive gravitational pull. Owners enjoy cleaner propulsion. As their wealth grows, the taxes are deferred until they sell, if they ever do.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
But wait, there's more. The biggest tax break owners can register is dying, which resets the basis of their assets, so their heirs never pay taxes on the increase in value. Still, there's more. The most indefensible loophole award goes to the carried interest loophole, which permits investment fund managers to pay capital gains rates on their compensation fees.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Tax policy groups have been lobbying to close this loophole for years, and Congress nearly did it in 2022. But Senator Kyrsten Sinema took $2 million from the private equity industry, aka owners, and saved their $14 billion loophole. It's well known that our leaders are whores. What's more surprising and disappointing is what cheap whores they are. $2 million for $14 billion? But I digress.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Owners are so tax-advantaged that if they do have earned income, they often shield that from taxation as well. Donald Trump paid virtually no income taxes on the $427 million he made from The Apprentice, where he had an actual job, by offsetting that cash income with paper losses on his real estate properties. Real estate is another of the most tax-advantaged industries.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
In 2007, Jeff Bezos made $46 million in actual income, yet he paid $0 in federal income tax because he was able to shield that income with paper losses as an owner. In reality, his wealth increased $3.8 billion that year. In 2011, not only did Bezos pay no income tax again, he claimed and received a $4,000 child tax credit, a program intended to lower child poverty.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
If you paid federal income tax in 2011, you helped feed Jeff Bezos' kids. Don't worry. He's fine. Timing. A key advantage of control over timing is state income tax arbitrage, practiced often by company founders.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Several years ago, the media discovered the phenomenon of California entrepreneurs moving to Texas and Florida, and there was a lot of jazz hands about those states' friendly business climates and youthful energy. The truth was simpler. Texas and Florida have no state income tax, and many of those founders were about to recognize enormous gains via sales of stock that had become worth billions.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Elon Musk, who moved to Texas in 2020, sold millions of shares of Tesla, saving an estimated $2.5 billion in California income tax. When Washington State enacted a tax on income from asset sales, Jeff Bezos decided to spend more time with his father in Florida, which has no income tax, and sold 50 million shares of Amazon after he relocated.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
If taking advantage of Washington's schools, roads, and tech ecosystem to build wealth and then declining to pay taxes back to the state sounds wrong and a massive additional burden on middle-class taxpayers who can't peace out to Coral Gables, trust your instincts. The best time to pay taxes is never using the infamous buy, borrow, die tax strategy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
It's tax season in the U.S. 60 million-plus Americans' taxes are so simple, the IRS could process them automatically and just send a bill or refund check. Instead, the average American spends $270 and 13 hours filing their taxes each year. Spoiler alert, the IRS is the least popular federal agency. Last month, Doge came for the tax man.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Wealthy owners take out loans secured by assets such as company stock or real estate and live off the loans, which are not considered taxable income, instead of selling the assets, which would incur a taxable gain. When the owner dies, the stock goes to their heirs who, with their stepped-up basis, can sell enough stock tax-free to pay off the loans and start the cycle anew.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
This creates dynastic wealth, the lack of which used to be a key point of differentiation between Europe and the U.S. Used to be. Collection All of these strategies are legal and enabled by the complexity of the tax code. But that complexity also affords owners another means of avoidance – cheating. Skirting taxes stems from the complexity of the tax code itself.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Wealthy filers can take deductions that don't apply or classify income in inappropriate ways – And without an exhaustive analysis of the facts, there's no way for the IRS to determine what they've done. Some of the losses Trump used to offset his income from The Apprentice may have been illegal.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
The IRS believes he claimed hundreds of millions of losses on a Chicago real estate project twice, burying the double dip under a mountain of tax paperwork so tall it's taken the IRS a decade to dig through it. Owners can also choose to cheat bluntly, failing to report substantial income and making up fake expenses and losses. This was New York hotelier Leona Helmsley's strategy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Before going to prison for tax evasion, she told her housekeeper, quote, we don't pay taxes, only the little people pay taxes, unquote. Offshore entities are a time-honored strategy for tax evasion. Trump's campaign manager, Paul Manafort, concealed $16.5 million in income from the IRS in foreign bank accounts.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
The Treasury's analysis suggests $600 billion in owed taxes are not paid every year, equivalent to the total income taxes paid by the lowest-earning 90% of taxpayers. The avoidance is solely the domain of ownership income. 99% of the taxes owed on wages get paid. Owners can do this because Congress has starved the IRS of funding, and the agency audits fewer and fewer returns each year.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Revenueing these inequities is nowhere near as difficult as it would be to address many of the other challenges facing America. The most obvious and glaring remedy is to fund the IRS, enabling it to collect hundreds of billions in taxes owed but not paid.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
The Inflation Reduction Act was supposed to allocate $80 billion to the IRS over the next 10 years, but Republicans have attacked the measure, cutting $20 billion from the plan and keeping the IRS budget flat in 2024. Every $1 invested in tax enforcement targeting the wealthy returns $12 in revenue. To be clear, this isn't harassment, but enforcement.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Most externalities are a function of incentives, and the government has incentivized owners to be incredibly aggressive on their tax returns, as there is little chance they'll get caught. If you were on a highway with no police, would you speed?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Eliminating the special treatment given to capital gains is a simple fix that would increase tax revenue without increasing the tax burden of most Americans, reduce the incentive to cheat through misclassification, and make the tax system more fair.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Half the IRS workforce, 90,000 people in total, is reportedly on the Green Mile. Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress are inching closer to extending Trump's 2017 tax cuts. This is good news for the wealthy, i.e., owners. Lowering tax rates and decimating IRS enforcement capabilities is stupid. We get $12 back for every $1 given to the agency. but it's only a misdirect.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
so would eliminating the step-up basis upon inheritance, which wipes away billions in taxes owed by the wealthiest people with little justification or social benefit. We should remove the income gap on Social Security tax, currently a paltry $160,000, which would help shore up the Social Security trust fund and make the tax code, not rates, more progressive.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
we should restore the highest marginal tax rate for owners to 40%. Biden and congressional Democrats have proposed all of these changes in recent years, but to no avail. Since ownership carries with it some inherent tax advantages, a transaction tax would raise revenue from ownership in a fair manner.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Numerous proposals, including one from Mike Bloomberg, for a 0.1% tax on securities trades and other financial transactions could raise nearly $80 billion per year, with the potential side benefit of damping high-frequency trading, which adds volatility without benefit to the markets.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
we should also levy a compute tax on cloud and AI services, as the wealth created by these innovations is accruing mainly to the wealthiest owners. Compute is the new energy, and this is a chance to avoid the mistakes of fossil fuels, where we give tax breaks to owners and stick earners with gas taxes, among the most regressive surcharges in our system.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Finally, and most transformationally, Congress should take a chainsaw to the tax code, cutting the thousands of handouts to the ownership class that have been stuffed into it by lobbyists. Theoretically, finding the political will shouldn't be difficult, as the majority of Americans are getting screwed by lawmakers representing a small number of their fellow citizens.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Ironically, the Trump tax cuts paved the way for this change. By doubling the standard deduction, Trump ensured that just 10% of taxpayers take any itemized deductions, meaning 90% of voters should support eliminating the rest of them. Still, it may be a challenge, as the most valuable asset owners own is Congress.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
We should reinvest some of the hundreds of billions of dollars per year gained by these changes to make the system fairer for earners, i.e. the young. Expand the child tax credit and the earned income tax credit and raise the floor required to pay any tax at all. Currently, it's set by the standard deduction at $14,600 or $29,200 for single or married households.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
That would shield more lower-income households from federal income tax and reduce the impact of regressive state and local taxes. Lower the rates paid by higher but not highest-income taxpayers. The professionals and entrepreneurs who 60-hour-a-week climb up the professional ladder shouldn't be rewarded with a 45% tax burden. This will make earning the way to ownership, a.k.a.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
the American dream, more feasible. I am troubled by the trend away from patriotism, fomented by a tech billionaire class that conflates luck with talent, shitposts America, and prosecutes an economic war on the young. But America's promise does not resonate unless it's backed by performance.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
We diminish what's great about America when we fail to talk about what's broken in America, especially when the fixes are within our grasp. In defense of shielding owners, lobbyists and our representatives in DC argue the wealthy are our most productive citizens, can better deploy capital, and need incentives to keep innovating.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
There is some truth to this notion, but we aren't lowering taxes on the bulk of today's innovators, the super earners, or on future innovators, young people. Instead, we are ensuring a failure to launch by transferring more wealth to owners and seniors. The three legs of the tax stool are corporations, super-earners, and super-owners.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Corporate taxes are at their lowest levels since 1939, and the wealthiest Americans are paying single-digit tax rates, meaning the entire funding burden of our country rests on the super earners and the young, who will have to survive the tsunami of debt we are aggregating to finance this inequality. This is capitalism collapsing under its own weight.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
America, like any country, is a product, a mix of benefits that come at a price. America's been the best value globally for the better part of three centuries. Other than drugs, there is no other product so many people are willing to risk their lives to obtain. However, the value of America has diminished for super earners and the young.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
We talk about taxes and enforcement when the real juice is the tax code. Our tax code exacts a high price on earners, and the price is even higher when enforcement is rendered a paper tiger, as the shortfall is either added to the debt or used as a pretext for cutting Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and other programs.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
We're charging the former too much and keep asking the latter if we can borrow their credit card. The bad news? This was deliberate, our decision. The good news? We can decide to fix it. Life is so rich.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
As Warren Buffett once said, there is class warfare in America, quote, but it's my class that's making war, and we're winning, unquote. This post was originally published last May, but the war remains the same. Owners are crushing it, earners are getting crushed, and the battlefield, aka the U.S. tax code, continues to be a weapon of mass distraction.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Over the past several decades, America has waged a covert war against the young. One front in this war is our income tax system, which favors owners over earners. Young people are almost all earners, while owners are typically older. And the tax code is a wealth transfer vehicle for owners to garner a greater share of our common wealth. The good news? It can be changed. Back.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
If you get a paycheck, whether it's salary or freelance, and that's how you pay your bills, you're an earner. Owners, on the other hand, might collect wage income, but their real money comes through profits from investments, stock sales and dividends, rent from property, and other income streams derived from the ownership of assets. To be an earner is noble.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
You work for a living, and labor is a sacred thing. Labor is the source of food, shelter, entertainment, and every material pleasure of society. We even celebrate it with a holiday, the first Monday in September. Pro tip, if you want to celebrate Labor Day somewhere awesome, try as hard as you can to become an owner. Owners also get a celebratory day. It's April 15th.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Another pro tip, if you're ever featured in a commercial calling you a hero, it means you're getting fucked. The most fortunate in our society have no holiday as they don't need one. They recognize that holidays wallpaper over the inequity faced by anybody who gets a day in their honor. Income taxes for earners are deceptively straightforward.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Take your annual income, subtract the standard deduction, $24,000 for a married couple, make a few other calculations, and then pay a percentage of what's left to Uncle Sam. And the income tax rates for most people are low. A two-adult household making less than $100,000 per year pays 10% or less in federal income tax. Many pay much less or none at all. Sounds reasonable, right?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
But there's a catch. Several catches. First, for those paying only 10% or less of their wages in income taxes, other forms of tax are a heavier burden. At the federal level, Social Security and Medicare add almost 8%. then all states collect taxes, and most state tax systems are regressive. All told, lower-income people pay a greater portion of their income in taxes than many rich people.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Sales tax, property tax, and other government revenue sources – licensing fees, permits and filing fees, and car registrations – take a larger bite out of lower-income households. In low-tax Florida, the most regressive state, low-income families, earners, pay 13.2% of their income in state and local taxes. The middle class pays 9.1%, and the top 1%, owners, pays just 2.7%.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
In fact, lower and middle-income Florida households pay about the same in total taxes as they would in high-tax California. The next time you hear someone complain about low-income people who don't pay any taxes, remind them that income tax doesn't exist in a vacuum. Low-income people often pay over 25% of their income in taxes. There's a myth that the rich don't pay their fair share of taxes.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
The reality is most rich people, the super earners, pay more than their fair share. A married household making more than $500,000 per year is in the top 5% of households by income and pays an effective federal income tax rate around 25%.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Half a million dollars may seem like a lot, but careers that pay that well require expensive college and graduate degrees, entail long hours, offer little job security, and they're typically in high cost of living locations with high state income tax. In New York or California, add another 10% onto that 25%.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
With other taxes, including sales tax, the total tax burden borne by mid-career professionals can reach 40% of their income. The baller who makes seven figures plus is often working for the government. Their total effective tax burden can approach 50%. Until, that is, they can make the jump to light speed, i.e. become an owner. Think of building wealth as launching a rocket ship into orbit.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Rockets burn 95% of their fuel to escape Earth's soupy atmosphere and incessant gravity. Once you get to orbit, you're a master of the universe, covering thousands of miles with just a touch of propulsion. Wealth is similar. The atmosphere is your expenses. The distance traveled, your income. Most of us never generate enough current income to make the jump to space and become an owner.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Save enough to invest so our primary sources of income are passive. Saving your first $100,000 is incredibly hard. The next $100,000 is tough, but you now have momentum and start to see the curvature of the earth. Once your current income is substantially greater than your expenses, and you've deployed an army of capital that fights for you and your family in your sleep, you've made the jump.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
What we've done with the tax code has rendered the atmosphere thicker and gravity stronger. Go to law or medical school or live at the office, and you'll see your current income increase, but you'll also lose a bigger share to taxes, and the harder it gets to save and escape the gravity of being an earner. Imagine if taxes worked like this.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Everything you spend that's remotely related to work is deducted from your taxable income. Clothes you wear and food you eat during the work week, your car, your internet and cell phone bills, furniture and square footage where you work at home, like the kitchen table, etc., all taken off your income before taxes. Pretty much anything you do on days you're working, deductible.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
All past investments in education, deductible. If you spent more than you earned, as you did in college and graduate schools, you can roll over those losses as deductions in future years. In the meantime, deduct any credit card interest you're paying. Any money you don't spend, that's not taxed until you retire and start spending it. If you give it to your kids, it's never taxed at all.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
If this sounds familiar but awkward, it is. It's our tax code through the lens of the owner. The federal income tax code looks progressive. The highest marginal tax rate is 37%, more than three times what the average American pays. But the published tax rates are a weapon of mass distraction. They are the rack rate published on the door of your hotel room. Owners never pay the rack rate.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
They barely pay at all. Unlike earners' taxes, owners' taxes are complex. As a result, determining the total tax burden of the very wealthy is difficult. But here's what we know. In 2020, the 26,000 households with an income over $10 million paid 25.5% of their reported income in federal taxes, plus 5% to 10% in state and local taxes.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
But as I'm about to explain, much of the cash they received isn't taxable income, and most of the increase in owner's wealth is never taxed at all. The White House has estimated that the 400 wealthiest households pay an effective income tax rate of just 8.2%. And ProPublica found that the wealthiest 25 households pay just 3.4%.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
We can't say for sure what percent owners pay on average, but it's less than most of their employees pay. This complexity results in a transfer of wealth from earners to owners. The tax code has exploded from 400 to 4,000 pages in the past few decades. If you have GPS, advisors, loopholes for the wealthy, you want races run at night.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
If the government is meant to decrease suffering and add happiness, then our current system makes no sense. Paying taxes of $5 million on $10 million in income is the difference between flying first class and flying private. Paying $15,000 on $60,000 in income might mean foregoing a second child. Capitalism means accepting a society of winners and losers. And that's okay.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Wealth is a great reward for hard work. And talent is what drives us to create value. And capitalism has brought prosperity to billions over the past 150 years. The problem is the system, if left unchecked, becomes increasingly inequitable and unsustainable. We've morphed from capitalism to cronyism, rigged in favor of owners. How? Three ways. Calculation, timing, and collection. Calculation.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Amateurs focus on tax rates. Professionals zero in on the calculation of the income to which those rates apply. In the 1950s, the highest federal income tax bracket was 91%, except nobody paid it. The tax code was a mosaic of loopholes, ensuring high-income taxpayers were able to shield most of their income. Now the top rate is 37%.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
But while the colors and fabric have changed, the owner's tapestry of tax avoidance still exists. Owners receive cash from a range of sources. Rent from tenants, dividends from stock, interest from loans, distributions from trusts, profits from investment partnerships, loans and lines of credit from banks, proceeds from asset sales, and more.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
Much of this income is shielded by pages of tax code defining what is and is not taxable. Owners who invest in the oil business leverage tax code provisions Section 263, intangible drilling costs, Section 613, percentage depletion, Section 611, cost depletion, Section 167, geological expenses, Section 199, domestic production deduction. Section 193, tertiary injectant expenses.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Earners vs Owners
And Section 469, active losses. That's just one industry. Entrepreneurs are barely visible to the Treasury standing behind the tax code. Section 1202 excludes the first $10 million received in the sale of a business, a provision that saved me millions of dollars when I sold my firm L2 several years ago. When working at the firm, earning, I was paying 40-plus percent taxes.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
The road to fascism is littered with accusations of overreacting. So, color me overreacting. It's both the correct response and impossible to overreact. Never forget. Never forget.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
It's the final day of dry January. I tried it. Didn't last. I'm now drinking, again, like a Pan Am pilot in the 70s. Anyway, the 22% of U.S. adults who abstained from alcohol this month will get a personality upgrade just in time for the Super Bowl. Ostensibly, the Super Bowl is a contest between the two best football teams, but really, it's a platform for the real economy. The addiction economy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
As Matthew McConaughey says in the latest ad from Uber Eats, quote, the whole game is basically an elaborate scheme to make you buy more food, unquote. Super Bowl ads are a proxy for the addiction economy, as advertisers for the food industrial complex, beer and alcohol brands, online gambling, crypto, and social media platforms offer you dopa on demand. But there's a downside to gorging, no?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
Not to worry. There will also be ads from the medical pharma industrial complex for products that manage some of the damage. Pundits claim we live in an attention economy. We don't. Attention is just a metric for addiction. The addiction economy is broader, encompassing media, technology, alcohol, tobacco, gaming, pharma, and health care.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
The world's most valuable resource isn't data, compute, oil, or rare earth metals. It's DOPA, i.e. the fuel of the addiction economy, which runs the most valuable companies in history. Addiction has always been a component of capitalism. Nothing rivals the power of craving to manufacture demand and support irrational margins.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
Sugar and rum were the DOPA delivery systems and currency of the triangle trade. Later, the British East India Company was the Sinaloa cartel of the 19th century, producing and distributing a product China became addicted to, opium. At its peak in the last century, big tobacco acquired customers with TV ads and endorsements from doctors.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
But the addictive ingredient, nicotine, is how the industry extracts $86,000 to $195,000 per customer and costs those customers $1 million to $2 million in expenditures, opportunity costs, and healthcare expenses. Historically, the most valuable companies turned DOPA into consumption.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
Over the last 100 years, 15 of the top 30 companies by cumulative compound return have been pillars of the addiction economy. The compounders cluster in tobacco, Altria plus 265,528,900%, the food industrial complex, Coca-Cola, plus 12,372,265%, pharma, Wyeth, plus 5,702,341%, and retailers, Kroger, plus 2,834,362%, that sell both substances and treatments.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
To predict which companies will be the top compounders over the next century, consider this. Eight of the world's ten most valuable businesses turn DOPA into attention, or make picks and shovels for these DOPA merchants. Given a choice, most lab rats will pick sugar over cocaine. They'll even self-administer electric shocks for a sweet boost.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
Sugar stimulates our reward system 20 times faster than cigarettes. Food companies engineer processed foods not to maximize nutrition, but to hit the so-called bliss point, the exact combination of saltiness, sweetness, and other tastes that make their product delicious, but not so delicious that consumers feel sated after a small serving. In other words,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
Their food is engineered for more, not nutrition. The industry profits at the expense of its customers' health. According to a 2022 meta-analysis, 20% of American adults are addicted to food. Consumption of processed foods raises your mortality rate by 25%. The U.S. has a diabetes epidemic and an adult obesity rate of 40%. Compounding this public health crisis?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
Food companies have a history of purchasing their competitors. Diet companies. In 1978, Heinz bought Weight Watchers for $72 million. Unilever paid $2.3 billion for SlimFast in 2000. Nestle purchased Jenny Craig in 2006 for $600 million. In 2010, the private equity firm that owns Cinnabon and Carvel ice cream purchased Atkins Nutritionals. Most of these diet brands were later sold.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
These acquisitions are akin to Pablo Escobar buying the Betty Ford Center. McDonald's used to brag, one billion served. Considering the history of weight loss and diabetes drugs, desoxyfedrine, fen-phen, metformin, etc., pharma might just as easily brag, billions prescribed. After the food industrial complex makes people sick...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
We hand them over to the healthcare industrial complex to treat the chronic conditions of these lifelong customers. GLP-1 drugs are the most effective weight loss drugs to date, as they make us feel fuller for longer and suppress hunger cravings by modulating DOPA levels. About 12% of U.S. adults have now taken a GLP-1. and the average GLP-1 user spends 11% less on food and beverages.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
But it's early days for GLP-1s. Cost remains a barrier, and only one-third of employer health care plans cover GLP-1s for non-diabetic patients looking to lose weight.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
Anecdotally, a Bloomberg Businessweek profile of Bowling Green, Kentucky, where 4% of the residents take GLP-1s, tells us that restaurants, grocery stores, health care providers, gyms, and clothing retailers are all feeling the GLP-1 impact. If 60 million of the roughly 100 million U.S. adults who are obese took the drugs... Goldman Sachs estimates GDP could grow by more than 1%.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
As their full impact and second order effects play out, GLP-1s will likely transform the economy. Some people, smokers, used to reach for a cigarette immediately after finishing a meal. In the movies, they'd reach for a cigarette after sex. Today, most restaurants are smoke-free, but phones are ubiquitous before, during, and after every meal.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
We used to pick up a landline, Google it, to reach out and touch someone. Now that everyone has a cell phone, we spend 70% less time with our friends than we did a decade ago. we're addicted to our phones. And even when we're not seeking our fix, our phones are seeking us out, notifying us on average 46 times per day for adults and 237 times per day for teens.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
In college, I spent too much time smoking pot and watching Planet of the Apes. But when I decided to venture on campus, my bong and Cornelius didn't send me notifications. The compounders here are in your pocket. Sales of iPhones have made up roughly half of Apple's revenue since 2009. Of late, the company has rolled out screen time tracking and other anti-addiction tools.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
Apple's brand positioning is a bartender opening an AA chapter. Alphabet is incentivized to maximize screen time as 76% of its revenue comes from targeting eyeballs with advertising. Alphabet is a niche player in the device market, but its Android OS, 73% market share, is the perfect gateway drug, as it's open source and free.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
It took us 20 years to wake up to the danger of opiates, and about the same time for the phone. But it is happening. Eighteen states have passed laws restricting the use of phones in school, and roughly three-quarters of schools have policies restricting their use in the classroom.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
Yonder, a firm that makes locking pouches for phones, has increased sales to schools by 10x since 2021 to $2.1 million. When Mark Zuckerberg released a video announcing the end of Facebook's fact-checking program, Jimmy Kimmel joked that Zuck was dressed like a Molly dealer from Chechnya.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
The shoe fits. The difference? MDMA makes you euphoric while social media makes you anxious and depressed. As my NYU colleague Jonathan Haidt put it, the unconstrained combination of phones and social media has been, quote, the largest uncontrolled experiment humanity has ever performed on its own children, unquote. So far, the results are a mental health crisis.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
8% of teens are addicted to alcohol or drugs. 24% are addicted to social media. Unlike other platforms, TikTok is built around affinities, not the social graph. If chasing likes from our friends is digital heroin, TikTok's AI is fentanyl. The algorithm rapidly calibrates what triggers a user's DOPA response by feeding them hundreds of videos every hour, turning the user into a blissed-out zombie.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
According to a lawsuit filed by the Kentucky Attorney General, users can become addicted to TikTok within 35 minutes. The same lawsuit cited TikTok's own research, which stated that, quote, Unquote. We're hardwired for addiction.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
We're also wired for conflict, as competing for scarce resources has shaped our neurological system to swiftly detect, assess, and respond to threats, even before we're aware of them. As technology advances, our wiring makes us more powerful and more vulnerable. We produce DOPA monsters at internet speed. We can wage war at a velocity and scale that risks extinction in the blink of an eye.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
Human beings evolved in small, cooperative groups, where loyalty meant survival. This instinct makes us naturally favor in-groups, our people, our nation, our ethnicity, and distrust out-groups, foreigners, outsiders, the other. Genocide exploits this instinct by amplifying group identity and dehumanizing outsiders, making mass killing seem justified or even necessary.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
Violence repeated becomes routine. What was unthinkable on Monday becomes standard procedure by Friday. Removing the security details of our political adversaries who are under real threat from foreign enemies is simply repackaged violence. In sum, it's Tuesday in America. This week marked the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Soviet Army.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
Our proudest moment, in my view, was America's role in arresting this genocide, which represents the very worst perversion of human instincts. Now the U.S. risks becoming the font of this abomination. The president has repeatedly said that, quote, immigrants are poisoning the blood of our country, unquote.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
The world's richest man is making Nazi gestures and told a far-right group in Germany, quote, it's good to be proud of German culture, German values, and not to lose that in some sort of multiculturalism that dilutes everything, unquote. Our worst instincts remain static. It's our technology that's evolving.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice: Addiction Economy
Instinct morphing into fear and demonization, coupled with propaganda, rail transport, and Zyklon B, gave rise to the largest murder site in history. What might happen if these same instincts take root in a nation with unprecedented industrial might, armed with social media and AI? We need to cauterize this hate. people and bots in the comments section will accuse me of TDS. Have at it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
When I was, I moved to New York in 2000 and I didn't know anybody. And almost right away, I made good friends with a couple guys and I said, oh, you got to come to St. Parts for the holidays. I'm like, yeah, I'm down. And we knew enough people that knew enough people that were billionaires that own boats. And they would always have these crazy parties.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
And this one guy who was always on the boat, he was this really handsome guy with great fashion and always had the hottest women around him. His name was Andrew. And Andrew was rolling with all these billionaires. And I remember seeing him, or I had dinner with him in LA once, and he rolled up in this electric blue Ferrari. And he was pitching me. He said, I have a fund.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
Sound fine. That's good. Okay. Okay, enough of that. Back to me. So last night... So I don't know if you heard, but Chiltern Firehouse is burned down. So daddy needs – and by the way, I'm pretty sure that I – oh, I think I told you this. I was borderline hypertensive, which means I almost had high blood pressure. I was 140 over 80.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
I try and find value stocks or something. I was barely listening. And he said, and I'm giving like 22% returns last year. And my... It might bullshit me. A, I didn't have much money back then, but I'm sort of like, yeah, this is way too exotic for me. But he had raised and he listed all these billionaires in St. Barts that he had raised money from. And I knew most of these guys by name.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
And it ends up that what he was doing was taking money and giving money back to previous investors on redemption, claiming they got 20% returns when he was using the money as his own personal kitty. That is a Ponzi scheme. taking investors' money to pretend you're giving returns back to older investors, hoping new investors will see these false returns and put in more money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
And that's what Madoff did. I don't think it's fair to call this a Ponzi scheme. What I think this is, is a massively levered bet. Because at some point, So they're buying Bitcoin and then they're borrowing against that Bitcoin. So they're levering up and then they're borrowing as much as they can on that. They're just massively levering.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
He's making a hugely levered bet on an asset, and people have decided it's a legitimate asset class because people think it's a store of value. What you're saying is ultimately over time, I think, an asset really isn't an asset unless it's producing some sort of underlying cash flows, that it's not a security.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
My sense of this is pretty simple. You're going to get huge returns if Bitcoin goes up because he's levered the shit out of the Bitcoin he's bought. And it's going to go way down because he's levered the shit out of the Bitcoin. But he's not taking money and falsely claiming returns.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
And I uploaded all my results, my urine, my blood, all this shit, and basically everything came back. And I uploaded it into ChatGBT, and it said, okay, dumb shit, drink less. And so I just did my blood pressure last night. And it's 127 over 74 something, which means I'm back to, you know, the fucking rock star superhero I've always been. And I was trying to figure out what's changed.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
The notion that people are diving too aggressively into the deep end of a pool in a market that that is overvalued, and then massively levering up. Leverage is how smart people go broke, right? And as we've discussed on this show, we're big believers that the U.S. market has become too expensive and it makes sense to de-lever or perhaps exit.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
And also, to be fair, everyone thought Bitcoin was a hedge against markets. It's not. It's ended up being much more correlated to the markets than anyone had anticipated. And the Bitcoin maximalist, or whatever the term is, would claim that, oh, this is the perfect hedge against other assets. Well, actually, no. It's pretty tightly correlated.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
If the market pukes tomorrow, there's a 70%, 80%, 90% chance that Bitcoin goes down. So I think your argument is buyer beware because this is a levered bet that's levered to a market that's already bubblicious. This is like the pop here could be really, really loud. And Michael did say that you have to be able to survive this volatility. This volatility is massive. Right.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
The one thing he said that I really liked was he said, you know, fire is dangerous, but if you put fire in a car, it can move the car. I thought that was very sexy the way he said that.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
I think you're a little jelly.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
I will meet you in the comments section. We'll see what people say. Yeah, we'll meet in the comments section. And I can tell you what the comments will say based on who owns Bitcoin and who doesn't. Yeah, exactly. Or you're just going to be 50-50.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
And I'm convinced that my blood pressure has come down 13 points because Chiltern Firehouse has burned down. I would go there twice a week. I'd have four to five makers in ginger. So that's 10 makers in ginger. Four to five each trip? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Daddy goes deep in the pain. Oh, wow. I told you I'm a better version of me, a little bit fucked up. You've seen me fucked up. I'm nice. No, I agree.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
So we want to introduce you to another show from our network and your next favorite money podcast, for ours, of course, Net Worth and Chill. Host Vivian Tu is a former Wall Street trader turned finance expert and entrepreneur. She shares common financial struggles and gives actionable tips and advice on how to make the most of your money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
Past guests include Nicole Yoder, a leading fertility doctor who breaks down the complex world of reproductive medicine and the financial costs of those treatments, and divorce attorney Jackie Combs, who talks about love and divorce and why everyone should have a prenup.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
episodes of Net Worth and Chill are released every Wednesday listen wherever you get your podcasts or watch full episodes on YouTube by the way I absolutely love Vivintu I think she does a great job
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
So your first point's the right one. It's almost comical that they've called for them to declassify their share structure. Good luck with that. Now, I think what they'd wanna do is show up and say, we have a huge stake here and we wanna help you. The thing about activism that I learned is that
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
Typically, when you go into a board of a company, you find out that you're not as smart as you think and they're not as dumb as you'd hoped. And I don't do hostile plays anymore because what I find you want to do is you want to show up with a big stake and say, we're here to help. We're smart people.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
Yeah, and so that's 10 makers and ginger a week. So I'm basically drinking a half a bottle of makers. So I'm convinced, and I'm glad no one was hurt, I'm convinced the reason my blood pressure has come down is because Chiltern Firehouse burned down. That makes a lot of sense, yeah. I'm trying to find the new place. Last night I went to Soho Muse. I told you about this, right?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
And we want to be assets and help you brainstorm and maybe even provide more capital, provide introductions, brainstorm strategically. I find that's just a much more effective way to try and build shareholder value. And activism, and one of the reasons I was drawn to it because it suited my personality, it attracts a disproportionate number of assholes. And they come out guns blazing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
And what they fail to realize is that the people they're trying to embarrass publicly with their poison pen letters, unless it's really egregious, are humans and will circle the wagons and defend it even if your points are right. So my approach around this stuff evolved to, okay, we're big shareholders. We want to work with you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
Our default kind of operating system is to be great shareholders and great partners. But if in a year or two years, you're either stonewalling us or just making stupid decisions, we're going to go gangster on you. But we're here to help. We're going to try and get along. I find that's a more effective, what I call forceful yet dignified approach to this.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
Now, Lyft is an example of a number two that has not been able to establish differentiation. And it has been a shitty place because Dara has made some really deft moves around acquisition of food delivery services. he's just done a really good job. And they've kind of run away with it. And since the IPO, Lyft has lost 85% of its value, while Uber shares are up nearly 80%.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
Year-to-date, Lyft is down 11%, Uber's up 18%. Uber trades at 3.6 times sales, and Lyft trades just at 0.9, half its historical average. So this company... is struggling. It doesn't have the scale and it doesn't really have a niche to kind of focus on and sort of send a brand identity.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
And the example I would use is a car pulls up, it has an Uber light, and then I see it turn off its Uber light and it's a Lyft light. So, okay, if there's no differentiation in driver or equipment, That means, okay, and Uber's got scale. That means the only thing Lyft can do is compete on price. And if you're hiring the same driver in the same cars, how do you compete on price?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
That's just a downward spiral. You don't have the scale. So Lyft needs to find a strategy. Now, what should they do? I would not circle the wagons. I would invite these guys in. I don't know how much of the company they bought, but I find the best thing to do on an incumbent board is to say—the best way to shut up an activist is just to put them on your board, to say, come on in, the water's fine.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
And put them on your board. If they've purchased a lot of shares and then they have to shut up because of Reg D or insider disclosure rules, see if they have good ideas, listen to them, and get them kind of on your side, if you will. So that's how I would handle the activists. The tougher problem is what the fuck does Lyft do? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
Last I heard, you haven't been yet. Is this your first time? I went last night. So fucking Soho House decides, okay, we've let in too many riffraff at Elson. And we need a place for the players.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
Small cap player. I called them and they're like, no, we're sending out invitations slowly to members. I'm like, what the fuck? I'm a member. And she said, no, it doesn't matter. So anyways, I called someone who knew someone who knew someone. Went last night. Nice. Not Chiltern, but still pretty nice. And definitely like you could tell it's sort of a little bit of another level.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
And tonight I'm going to this place called Kensington Gardens, which is, I guess, also a new hotspot. So I'll soon be hypertensive again. Interesting. What's going on with your drinking?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. cle住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住住et Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Clet Doesn't matter what the trends are.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
You go into that because if you're great at computer science, you're going to get a job. If you're just a standout programmer, even if they're firing computer systems engineers, if you're great at it, you'll figure out a way to stand out and find work. If you think, oh, I'm just fantastic at biology, boom. I could be great at this.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
To acquiesce to the Trump administration? Perhaps. Someone from the administration come up to him and say, okay, now put your elbows on the table, you fucking coward. Anyways, sorry. Go ahead. Go ahead. That's all I have to tell you. A martini.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
Go into it and ignore what the trends are because you don't know where the world is going to go. Now, for the rest who are thinking, I just want to be an economic animal, I think sort of the universal or the most athletic degrees are take a decent amount of – if you can – I think you really benefit from finance and economics courses.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
I think you absolutely benefit from the sciences courses because if you have an understanding, a preliminary understanding of chemistry or biology, you kind of understand a little bit of everything. That is the building blocks of life. Business mimics biology. I mean, even the little kind of courses I took on astronomy or astrophysics, you start to go, wow, you see that in everything.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
Also, I wish I'd taken more English. Communication is the gangster skill that I think will endure. So your ability to write well, if you can develop that skill, you can more easily develop a skill around all communications mediums. I think that one of the reasons I write so much is I want to be a great speaker. I want to be great
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
on podcasts, and I think it all starts with your ability to write well. So I would wish I'd taken more English, more biology, an understanding of history, I think is really important. And also try and be, and this isn't a class, try and be as social as possible. Because A, it's an unbelievable opportunity to develop friendships and relationships. And at Google, when they put out a job opening,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
They get 200 CVs in minutes and they shut it down. And then they invite in 20 people. And 70% of the time, the person who gets the job is someone who has a friend at the firm that is advocating for them. And so what is the easiest way or likely the way you're gonna improve your odds the most of getting a job is having a lot of friends. How did you get a job, Ed?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
You had a best friend whose mom knew me. And they love you. Literally, Joanna Coles called me and said, you'd be stupid not to hire this kid. That's what she said. She'd be like, I think her words were, I am not getting off this phone until you commit, until you promise. I really owe my life to Joanna Coles. That you are hiring my son's friend, Ed Elson. And I said, well, what does he want to do?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
She's like, it doesn't matter, you fool. What a legend. Yeah, but it works, right? So I get the sense, you know, I mean, you've got a lot of flaws, but I get the sense. I get the sense you have really good relationships. You take your friendships seriously.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
And that's how you got this job, is you got someone in your life who just really cares for you and basically told his mom, help Ed get a job, or Ed... Ed said he knows this guy or likes this guy. Can you call him? I heard you know him. You want to get a job. You got to be good. Learn the basics. I like the sciences. I like communication and storytelling.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
But the way you get a great job and the way you change the trajectory of your professional career is relationships. And while you're in college, it is a great opportunity to establish a lot of really like great, deep, meaningful relationships.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
The best programmers understand logic, and they're almost like internal construction managers. They're great project managers. And also, someone's going to have to give these LLM prompts and build the system. So there's still going to be a need for them. It's just like anything else that...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
that gets digitized when technology comes into a sector, it usually takes the top 10% and they earn three times as much and the bottom 90 make less or aren't there. And I think that's happening in that field. The resonance here is day after tomorrow, I'm headed to the US with my oldest son for a college tour. And we've been
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
Thinking about, you know, there's an opportunity set of 100 colleges, and we're going to seven of them in five days. And we've been thinking a lot about it. And I said, all right, what are your criteria? And he's like, you know, I want a place with a great biology department. He's amazing. That's what he came up with because he's really interested in biology and he had some real aptitude for it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
And he said, what are your criteria? I'm like, I just want a small number of things. I want you to go somewhere where I think you're just going to have an amazing time because I had an amazing time in college. And if I could give my kids anything, I just want them to have the same amazing time I had. I want you to learn about yourself. I want you to learn about others.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
I would love for you to acquire some skills, specifically some skills around storytelling, communication. But more than anything, more than anything, what I would hope for you is that you experience, enjoy, endure a ton of relationships. I just want you at basketball games, in classes with 400 people, on campus all day long, and
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
tutoring people, getting tutored, hanging out, drinking with friends, playing ultimate frisbee, playing intramural sports. I just want you bumping off people all day long and creating just a raft of relationships and friendships. That's what I'm looking for. And so we're going to all these kind of
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
land-grant schools that are big public schools with football teams and intramurals and fraternities and sororities. I don't know if they'll do that, but tons of student clubs where they just feel like, quite frankly, like college. And I think a lot of parents feel this way. I think a lot of, if you've looked at the applications trends, the Southern schools are booming and
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
And quite frankly, it's like how collegey and how fun do they sound? We want our kid to go have fun. Schools like Wake Forest are booming. Their applications are booming. SMU, Vanderbilt is now more difficult to get into than many Ivy League colleges because a lot of parents and kids have said, I want my kid to have a college experience, full stop.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
That's the key. It's like anything else. You got to be good. Being intelligent, being hardworking, that's table stakes in this economy. The differentiator is the depth and number of relationships you have.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
It's not so much as a prediction, but an observation. We have this clown car called the cabinet right now. And I just think this is going to start to hit the economy. Strategy is two questions or one key question. What can we do that's really hard? And the biggest mistake people make in strategy is that they think they're punching a speed bag and people aren't going to punch back.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
And every nation we have levied tariffs against, they have levied reciprocal tariffs. They have punched back. And some are getting really smart. EU and Canada, I love this, have decided to pick products where they're going to put especially onerous disproportionate tariffs on products that originate from red states.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
And the whole world is sort of deciding now, including our allies, that they have this common enemy called this clown fucking car called the United States. And there's just no way that that doesn't begin to hit our economy. So I and it's dangerous to make predictions about the economy. I just don't see there's any way that this doesn't impact us in the back half of the year.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
I don't I think he has dug himself too deep. And if even if you were to say tariffs are off, just kidding. Nations are reconfiguring their supply chain and it's going to start to show up in Q3 and Q4 numbers in some. I'll just say I think we're headed for recession in the back half of the year.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
So two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, 67%, are incorporated in Delaware. And that generates, get this, $2.2 billion in corporate franchise taxes annually. That's almost a third of the state's budget. And I would imagine it's really high margin revenue. And as you mentioned, Musk, they basically denied or voided Elon Musk's $56 billion Tesla compensation package, despite shareholder approval.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
And you can go back on the tape. We said, whenever this happened, six or 12 months ago, Bad decision, bad board, but they get to make this decision. And that for the courts to overturn it was a judgment call on what is quote-unquote fair compensation. And if you want to talk about compensation in America around CEOs, you just shouldn't use the word fair.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
And in capitalism, the owner of the asset or the majority of the assets get to nominate directors who get to decide correctly or incorrectly the compensation of the CEO. And the moment someone weighs in and starts using words like fair or unfair and overrides the decisions of the people voted in by the owners of the company to make these decisions. In my view, you have government overreach.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
So I think they screwed up here. I think intrastate competition is a good thing. I think other states, in this instance, Texas, saying, okay, we want to compete with Delaware for companies to list here and offer them lower fees. The problem is there is a social good there. to some of this around the disclosure requirements and how a board behaves that is a social good.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
And I worry that there's a race to the bottom around governance that ultimately hurts retail investors. What are your thoughts?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
Today is number 1,461. That's how many beers there are in a Canadian brewery's presidential pack, offering one beer for every day of Trump's presidency. Ed, what's the difference between America and Canada?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
I bet if you surveyed Americans on if you said, what comes to mind when you say autonomous driving, the most common answer would be Tesla. And the reality is, and you brought this to my attention, Waymo is just miles ahead of Tesla. Tesla doesn't look very close to a competent self-driving or autonomous vehicle. And I took a Waymo six months ago in LA, and I was kind of blown away by it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
America has really nice neighbors.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
I mean, they're up and running. They have 200,000 paid rides weekly across Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin. I love the idea of autonomous driving. I don't... I'm trying to think how elitist this is going to sound. I don't like the drivers. I don't want any conversation. I assume they're going to take me the wrong way, which is probably not very nice. I get mad at them.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
I tend to get drivers who think they know the back roads, and I'm like, it drives me fucking crazy. I don't want them to ask me about the temperature, if I want to stream my radio. I'm an awful person. I don't... I don't want to talk to anybody.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
Yeah, I'm wondering what my star rating is. My general approach to service is I'm not easy to deal with, but I tip big. That's my approach. Which, that's pretty obnoxious.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
Yeah. First word douche, last name bag.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
I'm feeling very Canadian. I'm feeling super Canadian. Actually, I don't know if you know this, but Canada both passed same-sex marriage and now marijuana, which means actually they're interpreting the Bible correctly. Leviticus 20.13, if a man lies with another man, he should be stoned.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: GameStop Buying Bitcoin, an Activist Play at Lyft, & Gen Z Unemployment
The question I would put to you is they just raised— at 5.6 billion or last year, they raised 5.6 billion, I think at a pre of 40 and a post of 45. So at revenues of $50 to $75 million, that means they're trading somewhere between, I don't know, 70 and 90 times revenues. Would you invest in Waymo at 70 to 90 times revenues right now?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
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This feels like, if they can maintain this, this feels like a 2027 IPO that'll be pretty big.
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How did JFK break his arm?
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Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
I mean, think about any business that said, okay, for every city, there can only be two software companies. Right. And the governing body ruled by the owners of these software companies get to decide who the entrants are or are not.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
And then if they basically have one league, that means you extract rents from the players where you're the only game in town and you get to decide how much money the maker don't make. So it's – and it's especially bad in tennis where the players command only 18% of the total revenue generated by the sport compared to basketball where the players get 50% and soccer get – they get 61%. So –
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Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
By helping Jack off a horse. Jack off a horse. Break your arm.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
I love this. And I love that Liv came in and basically challenged the monopoly of the PGA. So I think competition is a good thing. But this is a perfect example of corruption with this veneer of benign goodwill because people have such affection for sports. But these are monopolies and the rents being charged to ticket holders or consumers are
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Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
And advertisers who have a limited supply of games, et cetera, and to the players themselves, bottom line, it's corrupt. I love this ad. I love it.
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Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
Yeah. Yeah. I'm reaching. I'm reaching.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
You may be right, because I don't know what the kind of established law is, but you want to talk about corruption. Start talking about the international bodies that don't even have to abide by anyone. They live in this kind of nether netherland where there's no essentially they're not subject to laws of any one nation. And they've established such monopolies.
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Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
And people have tried to take them on, and it hasn't worked. Ted Turner started something called the Goodwill Games, trying to start a competitive. My big idea when the World Cup was going through all of this nonsense, I do work with Nike, Adidas. And I brought up with both of them, I said, why wouldn't you basically start a nonprofit and host a competitor or start a competitor at the World Cup?
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Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
And just give all the money back to the, you know, try and break even, but basically try and root out the corruption that about six, eight years ago, the corruption at UEFA went just absolutely insane with paying off local officials. And it became about bribes, what host country got to host the World Cup.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
So anyways, I would like to see, I hope this works, but I trust that you've done the homework here and don't think that you think the courts are going to side with the league.
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Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
You know what it is. I had that same anxiety that when my partner asked me, you know, wakes up, it's like, oh, something. And I'm like, happy birthday anniversary. It's like, okay.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
There's just no getting around it. BYD has surpassed Tesla on almost every level in terms of tech. And Tesla sales in China have been cut in half in February. They're down 49%, while BYD's rose 161%. Their latest vehicle is 75% less expensive, so four BYDs for the price of one Tesla.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
This feels like it sort of is a metaphor for China in general, and that is in the last three months, China has kind of evidence or indicated or a metaphor for the resurgence is BYD. A year to date, BYD stock is up 64% and it trades at 33 times earnings, while Tesla is down 38%, but still trades at 166 times earnings or said differently. And I love this stat.
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Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
The market values each Tesla car sold at 425,000 in market cap, and each car from BYD, even after this run-up, for $39,000 a car. So even despite the fact that BYD's stock has skyrocketed and Tesla's has come down, I mean, think about this. The market still values Tesla at 10 times the value per car produced BYD, and BYD is growing.
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Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
So one of these, it would appear either BYD is dramatically, and this is the question, is BYD dramatically undervalued or is Tesla dramatically overvalued? And of course, I believe the answer is yes.
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Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
Oh, my gosh. Ed, that's great because you get your driver's license this year, right? Yeah, exactly.
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Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
Constantly. The first thing I say about you when people ask me about you is I'm like, everyone said, people say very nice things about you. And I would say, you know, he's 25. And people are like, I know. That's so amazing. So, wow, 26. That's not as impressive.
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Support for the show comes from NerdWallet. You've got a life to live and kids to pick up, but the nerds have already done all the work. You just answer a few questions and boom, the right auto insurance provider right there. You just saved a lot of time and a lot of energy. Using your brainpower to what matters most to you? Smart.
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So we want to introduce you to another show from our network and your next favorite money podcast, for ours, of course, Net Worth and Chill. Host Vivian Tu is a former Wall Street trader turned finance expert and entrepreneur. She shares common financial struggles and gives actionable tips and advice on how to make the most of your money.
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Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
Past guests include Nicole Yoder, a leading fertility doctor who breaks down the complex world of reproductive medicine and the financial costs of those treatments, and divorce attorney Jackie Combs, who talks about love and divorce and why everyone should have a prenup.
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episodes of Net Worth and Chill are released every Wednesday listen wherever you get your podcasts or watch full episodes on YouTube by the way I absolutely love Vivian too I think she does a great job
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Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
Advice to you at 26? Try and get a great shape. I think every man under the age of 30 should be a fucking monster. You've still got a ton of testosterone and great double twitch muscle and great bone structure. And you're going to spend the rest of your life from 35 on just trying to maintain. So get to a really good place physically.
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Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
I think this is overdue. And just to call balls and strikes, I think that this is a benefit that we've derived from the Trump administration. I don't like the way they're going about it, but for a long time, everyone has been saying that Japan and Germany and Europe have been freeloading or freeriding off of the military umbrella and expenditure of the United States.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
And finally, it looks like they're stepping up. And I do think that that is a direct function of Trump's withdrawal or basically saying, you can no longer count on us. I mean, this will be good, I think, for the German economy because they're outstanding in manufacturing. So you would think that they would make great weapon systems. And I like the idea.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
I think Germany is a well-run, well-governed place. And like I said, I think defense spending could be the stimulus. And also, I'm trying to play this trade. I think the Europe and defense trade is going to be a big one. And I've just recently made an investment in a European company. aviation company that I think has some defense opportunities. And I'm doing it based on two things.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
I'm hoping to get sort of a double whammy of capital flows into Europe and also the increase in defense spending.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
Say yes to everything. Invest in relationships. Try and establish as many friendships. It gets harder to establish friendships as you get older. So try and establish as many friendships as you can. And in the meantime, work around the clock. Try and get professional trajectory such that you can have economic security by the time you're in your 40s and 50s and spend more time with your family.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
The rivers are reversing. European equity funds registered their largest four-week inflows in nearly 10 years. And that's the most significant rotation out of U.S. into European equities since 1999. And a B of A survey showed that 60% of investors expect stronger European growth in the next year, up 9% from just two months ago. So 9% of people thought Europe was going to grow. Now it's 60%.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
The thesis I would have going into this is that they're estimating or they're proposing that the European Union is going to go from 1.9% of GDP on defense to 3%, a $19 trillion economy. You're talking about $150 to $200 billion in additional capex that the market wasn't expecting just six months ago. And that's annual. And where is that going to go?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
And what companies are going to be in front of that tsunami of capital? And not only that, with the tension between the U.S. and Europe, it used to be, okay, Europe, increase your defense spending. And by the way, please buy our submarines and our missiles. And there's no fucking way they're doing that now. Germany might say, in order to build these systems, we might buy some parts from U.K.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
and Italian companies or French companies. But no, we're not going to buy from the U.S. Sorry, guys. It'll be an intra-European stimulus. I think it's really fascinating. I'm also quite optimistic about it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
I like the fact that Europe, what I think is kind of the home of a lot of progressive liberal thought and really has been kind of a beacon of light for, I don't know, philosophy and democracy and kind of modern civilization. I'd like to see them get their time in the sun outside of just Zara and LVMH.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
Any mistakes you made at 26 that I should avoid? I made a lot. I think my biggest mistake was I wasn't as kind as I should have been. I looked at relationships as a transaction if I wasn't getting as much attention. I exited the relationship. I saw my employees.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
I started companies from the age of 27 as kind of a transaction where I thought if I'm not getting more value out of them than I'm paying, I would fire them. Well, you've had a massive turnaround on that. Yeah. Now I'm like, no, it's just the wrong role. Yeah.
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Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
I came of professional age in the Bay Area in the 90s, and there was this general zeitgeist that if you were talented and nice, it meant you were talented. But if you were talented and an asshole, it meant you were Steve Jobs. It meant you were a genius. And there was this terrible... zeitgeist or cultural norm that being an asshole somehow indicated that you were super talented.
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Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. . . . . . ., the, P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P, gener a. , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , a el... They manage or they train or they create the service standards and they just get all high margin, incredible revenue.
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Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
And I adopted that. I was never mean, but I could have been a lot kinder professionally with people. And also personally, I looked at my relationships as a transaction, not as like, how do I How do I end up on the right side of the ledger? And then something I did right was I spent a ton of time with my mom. And I know that sounds sort of lame, but I was very close to my mom.
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Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
We spent a lot of time together. She constantly came, stayed with me. I constantly stayed with her. And that was, you know, I'm an only child. So that was very rewarding. I'm really glad I did that. That's about it.
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Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
In addition, they found another way to make a shit ton of money and that is they said, okay, let's take a $5 million or an $8 million condo
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Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
in a high-rise on the beach in South Beach, and we've branded the almond residences, and we can charge $12 million for it because they get hotel amenities and the branding, and the owner, when he or she is not there, can put it back into the rental pool, and they rent it out, and they split the revenue. The owner gets 50%, and the brand gets 50%.
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Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
So I get someone else to finance the construction of something, ridiculously overpaid for it, and then it continues to make revenue for me because of the brand. I mean, this really is a lesson in the power of brands, a lesson in the power of demographic trends, and a lesson in kind of business models around you don't want to be in the business of owning the capital.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
You want to be in the business of managing it and taking revenue off of the top.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
Just to keep it real, I want to talk about a couple other hotel stories. When I was right out of business school, I started a company called Profit, and we did consulting, and we would just take any engagement. And I took an engagement with a pager company, helping them figure out their customer service, and it was in Minneapolis.
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And I went with my friend Lee Lotus, and I remember it because it was the day of the Clinton-Bush-Perot debate. And we got a hotel for 39 bucks a night, I think at the Minneapolis airport. And we had to go out and try and buy nose plugs or some like weird Vaseline to put under our, or weird scent to put under our noses because it stank so badly of smoke.
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Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
It literally felt like someone had fallen asleep and been burned alive by the smoke. And then the other one was I had a client, I think it was Roots or some Canadian company in Montreal, and it was my own company. We're a small business, so I think it was like 70 Canadian. And I checked in, and it was 1993, and whatever, I was your age, so the first thing I do, I settle in and I turn on porn.
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Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
Yeah. And it's not working, so I call down to the front desk. I'm like, the TV's not working. So this Asian woman comes up. It's the White Lotus scene again. Yeah, it turns on the TV, and of course, the porn comes up, and it's like going in and out. So she sits there and starts banging on the TV, and occasionally the porn comes in, and it comes out, comes in, comes out. Were you not ashamed?
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Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
You're at a point right now, so up until the age of like 22, you're basically a total draw. You're a total liability for your parents. As a young man, I mean, especially think about you. You're literally out of central casting for parents right now. And any time you spend with your parents right now, they're just going to get so much enjoyment out of.
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Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
Oh, it was fucking humiliating. It was like crazy embarrassing. And I remember thinking, and then this couple, this family of like five is looking for the room. They come into my room and start going, where's room 308? Is my porn is coming on and off my TV. She's banging on the TV. And I looked at the couch. I remember the exact moment I looked at the couch and it was covered in plastic.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
And I thought, this is where people come to kill themselves. This is that kind of place. She said, I want out. I can't fill this void in my chest. I'm going to go check into this hotel. Anyway, so I've seen hotels from all ends of the spectrum. You've seen all of it. I'm sorry, what was the question, Ed? What was the question?
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Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
Look, I believe in a really aggressive inheritance tax. I don't believe in dynastic wealth. One, it's bad for society. So rich kids get into the best schools and also inherit the money so they can start businesses. And there's a myth that the middle class is a naturally occurring organism. It isn't. It requires additional redistribution of income.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
And Republicans and the incumbents would like us to believe that, oh, no, the middle class is a naturally occurring organism and it'll come back on its own. No, if you don't take money from corporations and the most fortunate among us and redistribute it in the middle class, the middle class throughout history eventually goes away.
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Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
And what you have with dynastic wealth is you're taking capital that should go back into the ecosystem and just creating these dynasties of unproductive rich people. Now, the good news is that most of them aren't very happy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
And so for me, the reason that you can justify an exceptional inheritance tax is that additional capital or inheriting more than, say, 10 million bucks, that doesn't increase the happiness of your kids. I know a lot of rich kids, and I know a lot of kids who are not rich, and the levels of happiness are not greater among the rich kids.
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Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
So if the whole point is to create a society where people can have purpose and meaning and live a happy life, and they're getting no additional happiness, if you let them inherit more than, say, $10 or $20 million, then what's the point when you could redistribute that capital to other people and give them more of a shot? So I hate dynastic wealth.
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Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
But what you're seeing, and I see it, I mean, I think I've always resented rich kids because I'm not one of them and I was always jealous of them. But what you're talking about is already happening, Ed. I mean, when you go to these nice hotels, there's people in their 50s and 60s, and you can tell it's probably their money. And then there's a whole raft of a younger generation.
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Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
To be clear, some of them, whether it's tech, some of them, you know, whatever it is, but a lot of them are there with their parents' credit card. It's already happening.
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Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
100% no. The returns are shitty because it's a vanity investment. So there's a lot of people that love it. I'm sure they have some sort of deal. People love the idea of investing in almond. So that means they can extract, they can get very cheap capital, which spells shitty returns. So I would bet... that it's just not a great investment. It's like timeshares.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
And, you know, it's sad, but it's impossible to realize or really register. It's impossible. Have you ever lost anyone close to you? Just my granddad last year. Yeah, but that's natural. I would say that's sort of, you're sort of expecting that and the fact you've been at grandparents.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
I haven't seen the paperwork on the underlying dynamics, but because so many people love the idea of investing in Amman, they're going to get a disproportionate amount of capital such that they will be able to offer really shitty terms. I would bet the returns will be awful, but maybe there's some psychic return of saying, oh, I'm an owner of Amman and I get 10% off
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
I remember more hotel stories back when I remember taking my girlfriend I was trying to impress to a nice hotel in Cabo, but I signed us up. The reason I could go is I signed us up for a timeshare tour. And it was at a turn-on when I told her we had to take a two-hour tour in the middle of the day to look at timeshare opportunities. Yeah. That's what happens when you roll with a dog.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
When I laid that on her and got her down to Mexico, I'm like, oh, I got this free cocktail thing for us. She's like, oh, I'm not going to go. I'm like, you need to go. It's a timeshare pitch. We have to go. Otherwise, I can't get this room right.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
Do you think that's a turn on? God damn, that doesn't work.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
Yeah, my prediction is that the flows of capital into Europe begin to infect not just the defense contractors, but start to infect the other sectors in the economy. And that we're going to see, I think so far, European markets are up 13 or 16%. I think they're going to be up 30% plus this year. I think this is a trade, a momentum trade.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
And I think there's probably a lot of fund managers right now thinking, okay, I missed this, but it's not too late. And you're going to see just an entirely different willingness and promiscuity around allocating big pools of capital and to European stocks that haven't been there for 20 years. Quite frankly, I just think we're getting started.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
Yeah. And you don't realize, especially with your parents, you don't realize how quickly it comes when they're really old. And I really, that was something I got right. I spent a lot of time with my mom. Okay, I like that. All right, fuck that. Talk about AI and GDP. Let's get on with this shit. Let's get on with tariffs.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
This is tough because they say that the markets sometimes climb a wall of worry. And just as we started saying that the markets were really in trouble, it feels like the last two days have kind of rallied a bit. But I just saw this as a bit of a nothing burger. What did you think?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
Today's number, 63,000. That's how many pages are in the newly released JFK assassination files, but none of them contain any revelations. Ed, what do JFK and Bill Clinton have in common? What's that? Both their careers ended with a stained dress. Oh, dog.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
I think the Fed chair has basically one job description, and that is remain calm and carry on. It just wouldn't help if he showed up sweating, freaked out, and like, fuck, I don't know. I'm totally awake. I can't sleep. I'm so freaked out. And look at this data. Jesus Christ, I don't know what to make of this.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
If you want someone to kind of look nonplussed, like they're sleeping fairly well and not to be too alarmed, it needs to be the Fed chair. Like if the Fed chair shows up, You know, without his shoes and like he's been on a bender all night. It's just like, and popping pills.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
If every 15 seconds he said, I'm sorry, hold on a second. And he like struggled to get his pills out of his briefcase and then like started like throwing pills into his mouth and crunching on these things. That would be good. I'd love to see, I'd love for him just in the middle of these questions from centers. Just love to see him just like... bend over and just do a giant rail academy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
What would happen to interest rates then? How would the tenure respond then?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
You know, I don't know. You say you got a feel for Chairman Powell. I feel for the American people that are You have to live under a fascist ass clown making decisions that no one can discern, like which direction we're headed in. Is that unfair? Fascist ass clown. FAC. The silver lining is the following, and that is I do think the American economy, the gears just keep turning.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
And people keep innovating. People keep wanting to buy shit. People keep wanting to make money. People keep coming up with new ideas. And I think we probably overestimate the impact that the White House has on—it makes for a lot of headlines, but I wonder— I'm pretty sure we overestimated or underestimated. We give them too much blame and too much credit.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
But I would argue that these decisions, it would be impossible, I think, for them not to trickle down. And the fact that the GDP estimates have already come down, I think, is evidence these decisions are not good for the economy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
I love this. I think there are a few sectors that are more corrupt than sports leagues, and that is they leverage the fact that people feel really benign about them to establish regulatory capture and And they get even legislation that enables them to be monopolies. I mean, if you and I wanted to start a football team, an NFL team in Chicago, we can't.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
The NFL gets to decide they can control supply. And the owners love it because that means that they buy $4 billion and if they hold on to it for 10 years – They know it'll go up in value because they know the number of billionaires will increase as the economy increases and there's a fixed set of supply.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has a Global Market Rotation Begun? + Inside the Ultra-Luxury Hotel Industry
I mean, these things are so corrupt and they leverage this monopoly power and they extract rents from the players, from consumers. Ticket prices have accelerated. They're essentially legal monopolies. And it's just ridiculous to think that why shouldn't you be able to start a tournament, create another team?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Support for the show comes from NerdWallet. Your brain can hold around 2.5 million gigabytes of data, but that doesn't mean you should waste any of it on something you don't need to, like researching auto insurance. Because the nerds at NerdWallet have already done that for you. Looking for a lower rate?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
So there's two sides of this trade, including, you know, if the CEO had control of the company because he didn't have to raise a lot of money or he was doing so well that he had that kind of credibility with the board, he could have decided what to do. And maybe he did decide that it makes sense for Eric Schmidt to take over. Now, having said that, I would not invest in this thing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
I'm ageist when it comes to startups, and that is when Eric Schmidt took over Google, he was much younger and probably willing to put all relationships and all vacations aside for a while. And now he's a billionaire in his 60s who's probably in the midst of, like many of us, of a realization that he's going to be dead soon, and he's not going to work his ass off. He's going to focus on St.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Barts and relationships and time with loved ones and going to the World Economic Forum and talking about big thoughts and climate change. To drive a company like this is a young woman's game. And what he should have done, in my view, was taken the chairman role, because I think 80% of his expertise right now could be leveraged 10, 20, 30 hours a week and kept someone else in the CEO position.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Today's number, five inches. That's the length of a live turtle that a Pennsylvanian man attempted to smuggle through airport security in his pants last week. True story, Ed. I was blessed with a seven-inch dick, but now the priest is in jail. Ed, how are you? Ed, how are you? I'm just putting it together in my head. We have all these young interns.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
And also, I believe that luck is symmetrical. And in order for a company to have the kind of extraordinary success that Alphabet has recognized, that was a lot of luck. And I typically don't invest behind a person two times in a row because if it's super successful, I'm like, it's unlikely we're going to get lucky again.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
And I know that's a weird thing to say, but I think a guy like Eric Schmidt, I don't get why he's doing this personally. I think he's in his mid-60s, maybe late 60s.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Well, actually, Bezos has stepped down. as CEO because he's realized he's about to die soon, so he wants yachts and thongs. I think he gets it. But I think the question everyone's asking is, Ed, why do you hate Eric Schmidt? No, look, the guy is the chairman of everyone's dreams. He's intensely smart, intensely well-connected.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
I just don't understand why a guy at that point in his life would want to do When you're the CEO of a startup, I speak from experience here, your inbox is never empty. And you have to be able to work 15 and 16 hour days. The only time I've ever really grown shareholder value is when, quite frankly, my personal life is a bit of a shit show.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Because the marketplace is competitive and gives advantage to people who are willing to do nothing but work all the fucking time. And this is not a Hallmark commercial. I'm not saying this is aspirational. And I think a lot of people go to work for big companies.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
to leverage their IP, their distribution channels, and their platform, and their size, and the regulatory captures so they can work 40 to 50 hours a week, not 60 to 80. You want to be in a startup? You want to be in a company like this? I think it's table stakes, even for a guy like Eric Schmidt, to have to work around the clock.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
And if I were him with his wealth at his age, there's no way I would do that. Anyways, I'm bullish on Eric Schmidt, but as a chairman, I think this is a bad idea for him to get back into the game like this.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Look at me. Not that I'm comparing myself to these individuals. I have Catherine Dillon run our company, so I can just make dick jokes and go to South by Southwest. That's what he should be doing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
You're accurate. It is a rich kid. My interaction with the kingdom has mostly been around involvement with hedge funds raising money and some of the investments they make. And I find that they're actually incredibly disciplined and very smart and that they hire the best and brightest from the alternative investments world to try and allocate their capital efficiently.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
In this instance, maybe their eyes are bigger than their stomach. Maybe it'll be scaled back. But I'd like to see more big, outrageous ideas proposed. I would like to see in the U.S. them say, we're going to spend several trillion dollars to build a national high-speed rail, at least up and down the eastern seaboard. I'd like to see some big, bold infrastructure announcements in the U.S.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
They're literally just note to self, exhibit 22B. If I don't keep giving them increase, they're literally every day balancing the money they'll get from the lawsuit that I'll settle out of court. Only upside for us. Oh, we have a new intern. Wait, who's the new one? That's probably Bella you're talking about, who just came on full time. No longer an intern. Oh, Bella. Hey, Bella.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
We did one. Our Infrastructure Act was $700 billion, I think. They have seven projects of over a trillion. It looks as if this one is probably unrealistic, but I think that a place like the kingdom has the money and the mandate to quite frankly be, I don't know, be out over their skis a little bit.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Let me give you the pluses and the minuses of consulting. It's a great company to start because it requires little capex. Your expenses and your assets go home in the elevator every night. And if you don't have business, you can lay off people. If you do have business, you can ramp up.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
So in the sense, services companies are good businesses to start because they don't require a lot of IP or dramatic capex. You can start a consulting company, as I did, by just getting a client. I got Dreyer's, and I got Levi Strauss & Company, and Williams-Sonoma is my first clients. It's an incredible training if you want to be an athlete. You have to be a good communicator.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
You have to be good with analytics. You have to be good at managing relationships. You have to be able to sell. It really is training for a triathlon or a decathlon company. I think it's a fantastic – if you're coming out of business school and think, I want a second MBA, but I want it in the private sector, consulting is a fantastic training. It turns you into a great athlete.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
You make good money. You never get really wealthy. That's the downside because the barriers of entry here, it's a multiple of EBITDA business. When I started my second consulting firm, L2, which I called Business Strategy, I turned it from – intermittent consulting engagements. I used to charge Williams-Sonoma half a million dollars to do their internet strategy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Instead, I said to Nike, give me a quarter of a million a year, and I'll meet with you every three months and just look at data and give you advice. It is a very taxing business. Again, see above, it's a young woman's game. It's very taxing on your health and your relationships because When you're in the services business, you're always someone else's bitch.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Actually, this happened to me three times. The CMO of Audi, who was my biggest client, called and said, Scott, we love you. Can you be in Ingolstadt tomorrow? And the answer was always, yeah, yeah. I'll get on a fucking plane from San Francisco flying to Munich, be in coach because it was my money back then.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Welcome to Prop G Markets. That's right. She came to... Let's talk about me. I was at Stern yesterday and I spoke to 500 students and Bella came. And yeah, I was super nice to everyone. And then she told me she works for us. I'm like, I pay you. I don't need to be nice to you. That's right. Anyways, welcome, Bella. Very good. Welcome, Bella.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
With six young people trying to figure out a PowerPoint presentation of what we were going to say to Audi that they hadn't heard from McKinsey and bomb to the Kinkos when we got to Munich at 9 a.m. to print this thing out and then fly back to San Francisco the next day. It takes a real toll on your relationships and your health. It's a very taxing industry. It's also you make a good living.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Just answer a few questions and you'll find the top insurance providers in your area right there. So get matched with the right rate for you at NerdWallet.com. Using NerdWallet is more than smart. It's genius. Not all applicants will qualify for the lowest monthly payments, NerdWallet Insurance Services, and California resident license number OK92033.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
but it's hard to get really wealthy in consulting because it's all current income. I found it fucking exhausting. I don't want to golf or have dinner. If you're having golf and dinner with people you don't really like, it means you're in an undifferentiated industry. What do you mean by that? I mean, the truly great companies don't need to socialize with their clients.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
And also, if you're spending time, a lot of time getting taken to basketball games or dinners by third-party vendors, it means you're paying too much. It means you're getting ripped off. So Vanguard's not going to take you out to lunch, but your wealth advisor from name the brokerage who takes you to a basketball game, that means she is charging you onerous fees. That's a great point.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Anyways, the services business is we're all selling the same shit, and the way we differentiate is relationships. Anyways, that's my TED Talk on the services business. Yeah.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Support for the show comes from public.com. All right. And if you're serious about investing, you need to know about public.com. That's where you can invest in everything, stocks, options, bonds, and more. They even offer some of the highest yields in the industry, including the bond account, 6% or higher yield that remains locked in even if the Fed cuts rates. Bottom line?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Thank you so much for having me. Member FINRA and SIPC. Complete disclosures available at public.com slash disclosures. I should also disclose I am an investor in public. Support for the show comes from the Fundrise Flagship Fund. Real estate investing is boring.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Now, prediction markets, on the other hand, or even the stock market, which can swing wildly on a headline, those will keep you on the edge of your seat. But with real estate investing, there's no drama or adrenaline or excuses to refresh your portfolio every few minutes. Just bland and boring stuff, including diversification and dividends.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
So you won't be surprised to learn the Fundrise flagship real estate fund is a complete snooze fest. The fund holds $1.1 billion worth of institutional caliber real estate managed by a team of pros focused on steadily growing your net worth for decades to come. See? Boring. And that's the point.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
You can start investing in minutes and with as little as $10 by visiting Fundrise.com slash Prop G. Carefully consider the investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses of the Fundrise Flagship Fund before investing. Find this information and more in the fund's prospectus at Fundrise.com slash Flagship. This is a paid ad.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Well, as you know, I like to ground everything in a personal parable so I can talk more about me. So tariffs coming in, you charge a tariff. We charge tariff on aluminum and steel. And the rationale was we need to maintain a healthy domestic production or supply of steel. That kind of makes sense. If we go to war, we need tanks. We don't want to be too vulnerable.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
I'm now Pete Townsend. I'm the most talented member of the band, but fucking, what's his face? The lead singer? What's that guy's name? I don't even know who Pete Townsend is.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
So great, Cleveland Cliffs and U.S. Steel saw their earnings go up because their product became more competitive because foreign imports became more expensive. But that additional incremental income was vastly outweighed by the decrease in demand for products that had to dramatically increase their prices because of the additional cost of the input of steel and aluminum into their products.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
So we're net losers, even when they pay the tariff and there's no reciprocal tariff. And this comes back to my first parable. I don't know if you've noticed when we're on this show, I angle my head to the left. I guess I haven't. Now I'm noticing. You need to start investing in this relationship. You never notice.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
You haven't noticed all the Pilates I've been doing to try and be more attractive to you either, you awful person. Oh, no, I've noticed that for sure. Oh, I fucking hate Pilates. Angle of your face. All right, the angle of my face. My nose goes to the right. And the reason why it goes to the right is when I first moved to New York, I was bored, too much time on my hands.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
I was doing yoga and I was doing boxing. And I got a trainer, this guy, this boxing guy, and I'd spar with him. And he convinced me, he's like, you know, you got pretty good hand speed, you're in good shape. Why don't you enter this boxing tournament at this gym, this boxing gym we belong to? And I'm like, was stupid enough to think that was a good idea. So I'm 6'2, 190.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Exactly. You're going to have a panic attack hearing that. He was the lead guitarist of The Who. But the front man, Richard Daltrey, who starred in a great movie, Pinball Wizard, very handsome, better looking than the more talented... Pete Townsend, this is where I'm going. Everyone's like, oh, oh, Roger Daltrey, not giving any love to the real talent, Peter Townsend.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
It ends up that a guy who's 5'9 and 190 and knows how to box is fucking Mike Tyson. So I get into the ring with this guy. All I hear, all I remember was the bell. And the next thing I remember was all of these bright lights because I was flat on my back.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Oh my God. And my nose has never straightened. My nose now goes to the right. And here's the thing. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
And that's what it feels like at South by Southwest. Everyone's like, oh, Prof G.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
There are a lot of amazing female athletes that you have not mentioned at that dinner. There were.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Bella, I apologize.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Arguably one of the greatest football players in history, but you didn't bring her up. I didn't, but Andy Roddick. You brought up the white dude that plays tennis.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
And you went to Princeton, right? I did, yeah. Six foot three, white male. Figures. Privileged. The patriarchy. Oh, my God. Thank God I've got Claire. I totally agree with that. But literally on that stage of us with us was Megan Rapinoe, arguably one of the greatest, you know, football players in history.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
So to think that all of a sudden, wow, Apple is cheap. Okay, it's not as insane as it was a month ago. But to believe that the markets are on sale right now in the U.S., no. I mean, they're not at all-time highs, but by any metric, they're still expensive.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Her wife, Sue Bird, a retired WNBA player who was also, I think, won the NCAA championship two or three times.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Is that on your Wikipedia page who pays you?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
So supposedly, SoftBank was about to lead a round into open AI at a valuation of between $260 and $300 pre-money, putting a $40 billion round, putting it at a post of $300 or post of $340. I think the insecurity in the market right now is probably going to give them a reason to hit the sanity button and either get different terms or better terms or not do this investment.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
It strikes me that valuing OpenAI, as amazing a company as it is, as valuable or as impactful as AI is going to be, I would imagine a lot of his investors are like, it's beginning to smell a lot like WeWork. I guess my prediction is I'm not sure this round is going to close on the terms initially reported in the press because it hasn't closed yet. And it just feels to me this is too rich.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
If you're a limited partner in SoftBank, basically Masayoshi-san has tried to convince you that within five years, this will be one of the 10 most valuable companies in the world because it's going to have to have a trillion dollar plus market cap. to justify the kinds of returns for this type of risk, I think that is a difficult argument to make with any level of certainty right now.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Is OpenAI an amazing company at $50 or $100 billion? Absolutely. At $300 billion? I don't know. That feels very toppy to me, Ed.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
This industry is arguably one of the more seminal technologies in history. The ability to – my parents had to crawl across the Atlantic over seven to nine days getting seasick to get to America. Now you can get – you can – realistically fly from London to New York in about seven hours. And if you book well ahead, you can do it for $400.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
I mean, it's just this technology has been such an unbelievable unlock for economic growth, ability to see your family more regularly, mobility of capital to its greatest return. It's been just an enormous breakthrough. Airlines, if you net out all their profits and all their costs so far, are breakeven. It's been a shitty business. Differentiation is near impossible in this industry.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
What do they have? They're all flying the same tin cans. They're all flying one of two planes from one of two manufacturers, Airbus or Boeing. They're all flying into the same airport. It's very hard to differentiate on labor or service. And Southwest was able to find differentiation around a brand. That meant freedom. OK, you just got fired. You want to head to Vegas. You make a reservation.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
You need to change it. No change fees. We're not going to nickel and dime you with bags. It's freedom. It's the ability. It was total cost structure. Even the planes are super fucking ugly. They're orange because they found early on. that that was the paint that was most overordered and they could get the lowest cost on.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
They had all 737s for a long time to create scale around repair and maintenance. Everything was about low cost to give you economic freedom to take your human capital where and when you wanted. This is exactly what you just said, and that is somebody has done the analysis that says, okay, this cost of free bags is greater than the brand equity bump we're getting.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
In the short term, they will absolutely recognize a really substantial increase to the bottom line. But in an environment where it is so difficult to establish differentiation, I think they are trading off long-term margin for short-term stock gain. I remember one of my first clients, I started a strategy firm in my second year of business school, one of my first clients was Dreyer's.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
And this CMO who was just incredibly smart, this guy named Tyler Johnston. And we were going into a recession, this was 1992. And I said, well, why don't you just take down marketing spend? They were a company that was always about to be acquired by a bigger food company, which ultimately they were for a lot of money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
And he said, you can't take down, you always have to be disciplined about brand and marketing spend. Otherwise, all you're doing is juicing your bottom line and trading off long-term strength. And I think that's quite frankly what they're probably doing here. I haven't seen the numbers. The people from Elliott are very smart.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
But in an environment that is almost near impossible to maintain, establish and maintain differentiation, this was a tangible point of differentiation. So I would call this short-term financial engineering at the cost of long-term differentiation of margin power.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
And by the way, I love hot dogs. Last night, I decided to share a hot dog with a homeless person, and he said, fuck off, get your own hot dog. Anyways, let me be serious for a second. So I started a company called Red Envelope. And we spent, basically, I love benchmarking, which is consultant speak for ripping off other people's IP.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
And I was always fascinated with Tiffany, specifically how much IP and brand associations he managed to inject into this aquamarine blue box, and that elegance, sophistication. Romance, Audrey Hepburn. And I said, I'm going to start a company that is the Tiffany of hip, urban, progressive, more erotic sensibilities.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
And we came up, we spent a lot of time and a lot of money on a beautiful red box with a gorgeous bow. And we had people in our fulfillment center. tie the bow with hands. When a machine ties a bow, it looks like a drunk guy with big thumbs tied it. It just looks weird. And it was really expensive.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
And someone did the analysis and said that we actually have negative margin on some of our least expensive products when you put it in this beautiful red box. And I said, you don't get it. That is key to our brand. And so this is simply, this is why managers are supposed to get paid really well. They have to trade off
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
The temptation to add everything to the bottom line while managing long-term investments that create sustainable margin and brand power. And the thing about luxury brands and the thing about great brand builders, the analogy I use is like working out. When you work out, it's time expensive, it's a pain, and you're sore. And so is brand building. It's expensive.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
And the next day, it just fucking hurts. But if you're disciplined about spending and offering the services that buttress your brand associations, over time, you get stronger. You have an easier time. getting supplier relationships. You have an easier time recruiting employees. You have an easier time raising prices.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
But in a company like Southwest, I would be very careful to remove any tangible point of differentiation. I mean, how on earth do these guys compete against each other? What is Southwest's value proposition or differentiation now? Like, what is it? Well,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
Yeah, I think you're being unfair. So there's two sides of this trade. And that is the way corporate governance and decisions get made is that shareholders get to decide who are the board members. And the board members get to decide who would be best for stakeholders, which is Latin for shareholders.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The S&P 500 Enters Correction Territory
And the board decided that to get a guy like Eric Schmidt, who is arguably one of the most lauded, successful CEOs in history, to come run their firm, which sounds like it was struggling, quite frankly, is they decided, yeah, that is absolutely worth it. And I would imagine the value of the company is up substantially just on that press release.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Is Reddit Undervalued? + Netflix Goes After Podcasts
Support for the show comes from NerdWallet. Your brain can hold around 2.5 million gigabytes of data, but that doesn't mean you should waste any of it on something you don't need to, like researching auto insurance. Because the nerds at NerdWallet have already done that for you. Looking for a lower rate?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Is Reddit Undervalued? + Netflix Goes After Podcasts
Today's number, 0.004%. That's the chance of being born with a genetic mutation that allows you to sleep less than six and a half hours each night without any ill effects. True story, last night I had six hours of straight sleep. The other two were gay, but I woke up fulfilled.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Is Reddit Undervalued? + Netflix Goes After Podcasts
That's wrong. Let's enjoy it while it lasts. Today's discussion on property markets. I'm out of breath, by the way, because I did about seven minutes of working out. Yeah, I can tell.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Is Reddit Undervalued? + Netflix Goes After Podcasts
Just answer a few questions and you'll find the top insurance providers in your area right there. So get matched with the right rate for you at nerdwallet.com. Using NerdWallet is more than smart. It's genius. Not all applicants will qualify for the lowest monthly payments, NerdWallet Insurance Services, and California resident license number OK92033.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Is Reddit Undervalued? + Netflix Goes After Podcasts
I saw you doing something off mic. Secretary Hegsatz said that he did five rounds of 47 push-ups. So I'm committed to doing five rounds of 48 because I'm already very excited about whoever's going to be 48. And I did two sets of 48. So I'm trying to figure out, I'm on TikTok and YouTube, trying to figure out how to increase your push-ups. Strength. But anyways, Ed, what's going on with you?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Is Reddit Undervalued? + Netflix Goes After Podcasts
What's going on with you as I try to out-push up the DUI hire, Secretary Hegseth? What's going on with you?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Is Reddit Undervalued? + Netflix Goes After Podcasts
Hola, Eduardo. ¿Dónde está la biblioteca? Where are you staying? It looks like a nice hotel.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Is Reddit Undervalued? + Netflix Goes After Podcasts
Ask me what my favorite place to vacation in the world is as someone who's been literally everywhere. What is your favorite place to vacation in the world? Mexico. If I could only vacation one place... Would it be Mexico? I think it might be Mexico. Maybe Italy? Mexico, yeah. Really?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Is Reddit Undervalued? + Netflix Goes After Podcasts
It's got sort of that Mykonos amazing beach, beautiful water vibe for about 40% of the price. And the people are friendlier. Also, it's got extraordinary architecture, incredible food. I just absolutely adore...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Support for the show comes from Public.com. If you're serious about investing, you need to know about Public.com. That's where you can invest in everything, stocks, options, bonds, and more. And even under 6% or higher yield that you can lock in with a bond account. Visit Public.com slash PropG and get up to $10,000 when you transfer your old portfolio. That's Public.com slash PropG.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
I mean, clearly, they're going to cut costs. They're probably going to change management and severely reduce costs. And the issue, the hard part about retail is that you have to enter into these very risky business contracts called a lease. And everybody wants the same real estate. And the owners of this real estate are smart at maximizing their revenue by signing up for a 10-year lease.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
So when you pick... I mean, you have to be very thoughtful. So, and kind of the history of retail is restoration hardware goes public and they think we got to grow. So they sign a bunch of bad leases. They're really promiscuous. And then similar to Walgreens, three and four Walgreens are not profitable. And it's a 10-year weeping sore.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Unless you declare bankruptcy, you can't get out of that lease. So you're just losing money. So real estate, what are they going to do? They're going to let a ton of these leases expire.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
As it relates to private equity and bankruptcy, that's not surprising because private equity is usually, let's take all of its cash flows and use it to lever up such that we can have more upside and finance the acquisition with cheap debt. And when it doesn't work, they declare bankruptcy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Now, having said that, the debtors or the bondholders charge a certain interest rate that calculated in the risk of default. And when the bondholders, when it defaults, the bondholders get to seize the assets. And when a private equity company or a private equity-backed company has to, you know, when it goes bankrupt,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
generally speaking the private equity all the equity capital they put in they also get wiped out so it does lever up and you know go risk on on a company but it also creates a certain sense of urgency i think private equity has been good and that good for society i'm not one of these people that says oh they're ruining everything i don't think that's true there's a lot of entrepreneurs who've made a lot of money selling to private equity and the thing i like about private equity is
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
is they're usually very good at getting management vested in terms of the upside of success. They're actually quite generous, whereas venture capitalists, I find, are primarily just, with rare exception, just mendacious fuck douchebags who pretend to give a shit about anybody and then wash the founders out. Speaking for a friend, but so I like, I enjoy working with private equity.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
I think debt tightens the focus, if you will. And most of the time, these things, you know, it does make sense. And also there's two parties to the trade. The company doesn't have to sell the private equity. They don't, they've entered into this agreement knowingly.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
The people who are financing this debt enter into this trade knowingly and are getting a good, hopefully a good interest rate to reflect the risk. But this is a company that's a shadow of itself. It sounds to me what I would want to know is what percentage of their leases are coming up for renewal that we can get out of, because that's the obligation here that is most scary.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
And that's why a lot of retailers, good retailers, declare bankruptcy, because then they can go and cherry pick and hold on to the leases they want and get out of the contractual agreements with the leases that are hurting them. So I wouldn't be surprised. I bet this—I wouldn't be surprised if Sycamore actually does pretty well here. Do you want to hear my CVS and opiate story, Ed? Please.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
My CFO came in at L2, came in to me and said, I need to speak to you. And she's like, there's some really crazy charges at drugstores all over Manhattan. And I looked at him. I'm like, yeah, this is not me. This doesn't make any sense. I'm like, it must be fraud. He's like, no, it's not fraud. It's your assistant.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
And it ends up that my assistant was addicted to opiates and was going to every doctor in Manhattan getting a script for opiates and then going into a CVS or a Walgreens and not only getting her opiates, but buying $1,000 or $2,000 in cosmetics or gifts. And she was not only a criminal, she was a stupid criminal. And she would sign for everything and have it delivered to her house. Yeah.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Get this. She managed to spend, I think, over five months or seven months, $120,000 on my corporate card. What? I had various CVS and Walgreens all over Manhattan.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Ah, that's good. Great joke. Yeah, the pedophile stuff never gets old. What's going on with you? What are you up to?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
They lost her. And I remember calling her. I'm like, look, we have an issue here. You are clearly addicted to something. There's $120,000 on charges on my card. And not only that, I'm like, she's like, oh, I don't know what you're talking about. I'm like... You signed for the shit at your address. Your signature's on this stuff.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
You decided to have someone drop it off at your apartment, which wasn't – you're not exactly what I'd call a very – this is disorganized crime. And she immediately went into rehab, claimed disability, and tried to sue us for the options that we owed her. She dropped the case when I said I was going to turn it over to the Manhattan DA if she didn't drop the case.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
But anyways, that was my last assistant. That was that was the that was my last assistant.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
I think Musk, when he saw this, I think this probably sent a chill down his spine. If people start canceling Starlink contracts, I mean, they're already throwing shit at Teslas on the road. I just canceled a Tesla last night on Uber. I'm starting to cancel if it's a Tesla when it comes up. I think that Canada, I think this guy's making the right move, and I think you're only gonna see more of it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
I think people have just had it. What's a shame is that we don't have the same type of leadership here in the United States. There hasn't been a single CEO who has stood up and said, I am not going to participate in this pay for play kleptocracy. I'm not giving to the campaign. I am not going to be paraded around. You either have laws that affect all of us or none of us, but I have had it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
And we haven't had anyone that shows the balls of this leader up in Ontario. And it is so disappointing the domino theory of cowardice that has infected the rich and Fortune 500 CEOs. I can't think of one who has spoken out all under the auspices of quote-unquote shareholder value. Well, folks, your stakeholders include Americans.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
It is incredibly disappointing that we aren't showing a fraction of leadership that this guy is showing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
I think this is what is going to probably push Musk out of government or he's going to decide he's going to try and declare victory and leave. Because if you look at Starlink customer base, I mean, Tesla is already crashing. It's literally imploding.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
I don't know if you saw this video of Mardi Gras and someone, a Tesla truck or whatever you call it, was rolling down and everyone started throwing shit at it. Starlink was his growth vehicle. And there's one and a half million customers of Starlink in the US. You referenced that there's 530,000 in Canada, its second largest market. That's real.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
And then the number three market, Mexico, at 435,000. And then the number four is Brazil, who probably doesn't feel that great about Musk, who was threatening, was fucking with their internal politics. So You know, Starlink's value in the private markets, it's the most valuable company – one of the most valuable private companies and the most traded in the secondary market.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
I don't know. I haven't counted. I can't go here. There's no way I don't come across as the world's biggest douchebag talking about the number of seats.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
And I think it's a third of a trillion dollars. I think it's trading at $3 or $350 billion. That number is going to come way down because if they can't show the kind of growth that they've been showing – Also, you are seeing a lot of... You want to talk about Greenland's going. If I'm Telesat or Explore, the competitors, they have no trouble raising a shit ton of money right now.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
And because there is about to be a big gap in the marketplace for this type of broadband provider.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Yeah, that's right.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
kind of failed. You're the one I invested in, but is that what you're saying, Ed? Is that what you're saying? The one I invested in? The one I managed to pick?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Yeah.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Support for the show comes from Public.com. All right. And if you're serious about investing, you need to know about Public.com. That's where you can invest in everything, stocks, options, bonds, and more. They even offer some of the highest yields in the industry, including the bond account, 6% or higher yield that remains locked in even if the Fed cuts rates. Bottom line?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Thank you so much for having me. Member FINRA and SIPC. Complete disclosures available at public.com slash disclosures. I should also disclose I am an investor in public.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
On the face of it, it sounds like a great idea. I mean, if you think about the most valuable companies in the world are essentially toll booths. Right. Amazon makes a ton of their money sort of saying, all right, rent our cloud services. But the real toll is that if you want to have access to half of the U.S. e-commerce market, you got to be on our platform. And then we just collect a toll.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
It used to be 24 percent of third party revenues when you put your shoe company on their platform. Now it's about they get 45 percent because. You have one toll road. They're the toll booth. If you want to reach online consumers, there's two big toll booths. There's Meta and there's Google. They collect a toll to reach every consumer that's increasingly spending their day online.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
So I love this idea of an analog toll that says, OK. We get you coming and going across this incredible feat of engineering and leadership, the Panama Canal. But you got to think to get to propel through the water a several thousand metric ton vessel and have it go another whatever it is, 6,000 miles or 8,000 miles around this thing versus just slip through that little ditch we dug through Panama.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
If they can figure out a way to collect money on the in and the out, I've never heard a transportation company say, the Panama Canal's gotten too expensive, so we're just going to take the long way.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
One example, one example of reaching too far into the barrel, Aspiration, a finance firm that claims its products can, open quote, change climate change, end quote. In August, the company announced it was going public via SPAC at a $2.3 billion valuation. Change climate change. That would be awesome. Except there's a catch. This is a fucking debit card. He's so good.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Prof G. Paid for by Public Investing. All investing involves the risk of loss, including loss of principal. Brokered services for U.S. listed registered securities, options, and bonds in a self-directed account are offered by Public Investing, Inc., member FINRA, and SIPC. Complete disclosures available at public.com slash disclosures. I should also disclose I am an investor in public.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
I would have just thought that they believe that their average price per vessel of $341,000 that's charged to get through the Panama Canal, that they believe they can take that $341,000 number much higher.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
I didn't immediately connect that this gets them in Trump's good graces, but I can see the argument. If so, I can't imagine they would make this sort of capital outlay. I think that would be being a bad fiduciary just to cozy up to a guy who's going to be in office another three years and nine months, and quite frankly, in about two years.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
I think your analysis is more thoughtful than mine. I just assume that if they could put a toll booth on both sides of the Panama Canal, that if you do the math, I would bet it costs a lot more than an incremental $340,000 to take that ship around to go the long way. And they sense that and say, all right, we're capturing 10% of the savings here. We should be capturing 30 or 40%.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
I've switched. I'm now, when I'm interviewing people, I'm saying, oh, he's a DUI hire. I think you're a DUI hire. Yeah, I've never had a DUI. I'm surprised. Thanks for that. Back in the 80s and 90s, we all used to get fucked up and take to Sunset Boulevard and basically death traps. But anyways, good times. Youth. Youth.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
It was such an attempt to drape yourself in social justice while offering something pretty borderline fraudulent. They were saying that we take a portion of your credit card fees and invest in sustainable companies.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Yeah, this is a giant snooze. And just in terms of what I'm doing, I'm actually selling, starting to sell my Apple stock. Apple and Amazon have been my biggest holdings for the last 15 years. I bought Apple when it was trading at a P of 9, and now it's trading at a P of 37. Yeah, I think historically it's traded in an average around 18. And trailing 12 months, it's 37 or 38.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Forward earnings, it's 31, 32. And it's growing 2%. And quite frankly, its product lineup is just anemic. And in addition, the overlay there is I do believe that we're going to see the rivers, the flow of the river of capital into the U.S. I think those rivers are about to reverse. We've talked about it ad nauseum on the show.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
So I'm going to take the capital gains hit, and I am selling down my Apple and my Amazon, which are trading at extraordinary multiples. And with Amazon, you could sort of justify it, I think, because of their cloud business. Apple is arguably the best brand in the world, but the company is no longer growing. I think the mixed reality headset was just comical.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
And so in this notion of spatial computing is going to be the next thing, I mean, they're well set up for AR. They're going to be a relevant company for a long, long time. Let me put it this way. I don't see how they can justify a PE of 37 or 38 on a company that's not growing its top line revenues. So is it a great company? Is it going to continue to be really relevant?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Yeah, I just think it's overvalued right now.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
And if you read their website, and we got some financial information, we dug in, this was a shitty little credit card company charging onerous fees, claiming to do something they weren't doing and saying, oh, but we're a new economy company. And they had famous investors, they had actors.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Yeah, it's interesting. And it's easy for me to say because it's a very difficult business. But if Apple were coming out with its Project Titan, if Apple were just about now, and if it had not canceled Titan, it would have been coming out with a car just about now. Can you imagine how well positioned they would have been against Tesla?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
I think they would have found the justification for that PE just in the customer list. I think they would have built the most valuable customer list or waiting list in history. And that is, I think several million people would have come up with five or 10 grand just to be on that waiting list.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
A friend of mine, it ends up, was an investor and called me and sort of, I don't want to say put pressure on me, that said, do you want to speak to management? I think you got this wrong. I said to him, I said, we'll just call him Bob. I'm like, Bob, this is a fucking fraud. This is WeWork with a climate change veneer smeared over it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
And they could have said, I think that would have justified when everyone was trying to justify the 38 PE, which they're going to run out of reasons to justify. I think they could have pointed to that list.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
And the self-expressive benefit brand of Apple, which immediately identifies you as one of the wealthiest, most creative 14% of the globe because a billion people have iOS, the other real self-expressive benefit item in people's lives that they're willing to spend a lot of money on is their car. So I just think the Apple car would have been the most elegant way to say, I'm creative and wealthy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
And I think they would have done a good job. They could have outsourced the manufacturing. Anyways, I think they are kicking themselves that they didn't go the distance around Titan.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
The tax implications are ugly because I bought Apple at about $8 a share or $12 a share. So I've recognized a huge gain. I've sold some along the way, but there's just not getting around it. I'm going to have to pay $22 or $23.8. percent taxes, which is enormous, but I think it's worth it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
And my decision was, I have a friend of mine who runs a hedge fund that actually has my biggest allocation called Alana Partners, a guy named Orlando Marchant, who was a tiger cub and now manages money for family offices. And And he's just been sending me all these graphs about just how incredibly expensive U.S. growth is and how inexpensive the rest of the world is.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
And the stat that has just blown my fucking mind is that if you were to price all U.S. assets, they would be $70, including their equity value and their debt. And if you were to price the rest of the world sans the U.S., it'd be $30. So would you rather own the U.S. at $70 or the rest of the world for $30? And I am acting on that. I am selling down my U.S.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
growth portfolio and I'm investing in Europe. The problem is I'm already a little bit late. Europe is up, I think, 11 or 12 percent. The EU markets are up substantially and the U.S. is flat. But I am rotating out of the U.S. and my kind of growth plays. I'm overexposed in growth because I invest in a lot of private companies in the U.S.,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
But I'm going to get out of Amazon and Apple and reallocate that capital into Brazilian and European stocks.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Yeah, I think I'm probably going to sell all of it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
I'm so overexposed by virtue of what I do. You realize when you look at diversification, you're not only going to look at your assets, you got to look at your cash flows. Do you realize the majority of our cash flows are linked to the U.S. tech market? That's what this podcast is. You're very invested in U.S. tech.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Who listens to this podcast such that our advertisers will pay us a lot of money such that I can pay you, you know, nine, ten bucks an hour? Right. The reality is tech. You're an investor in tech. You're an investor in U.S. tech. People who are tracking South African value stocks aren't listening to this podcast.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
People who track American markets, which are dominated by tech, are listening to this podcast, meaning that you, Ed Elson, if you were really, really smart about diversification, you would not be investing in U.S. tech because you are very tied. This is what I didn't understand when I was your age. I was so over-invested in USA.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
I thought that was going to get more attention than the WeWork post because I thought it was even more obvious a fraud.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Running a brand strategy firm in Northern California, my entire livelihood was tied to the fortunes of tech. All my clients were either Kleiner Perkins portfolio companies or HP or Apple or, you know, I had these big kind of US tech companies. And then because that's what I knew and I thought, oh, this is where the future is, I'd take all my excess cashflow and I'd buy tech stocks.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
So when 2000 came, I ended up going from being worth a lot of money for a 30-year-old, 36, to being worth negative $2 or $3 million in the space of about three months. So we are overinvested in U.S. tech by virtue of the fact of what we do for a living. So I'm going to take basically everything that's not nailed to the ground right now and get out of U.S. growth in tech.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
I might go into a levered index from Drexel, but I'm going to go into a diversified mixed ETF or index around EU value stocks.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Well, I mean, I just like a lot. I think Mercedes is a great company, trading at a fairly low multiple. Porsche is on sale relative to where it was. L'Oreal is an amazing company. Shell, BP. There's a lot of – LVMH has come off a lot. That's not value, but it's come off a lot. There are a lot of great European companies. I'm very excited about Europe. A lot of this is confirmation bias.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
But I think Europe has been – We've had this conversation. Europe has been left for dead. It's not. I spent a lot of time in Europe, incredible universities, a lot of very hardworking people. It doesn't have the risk capital it should, but I think that's going to change. I think PE is getting their green glands going.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
And I think they're finally going to start acting like a union and take advantage of their size. So I'm very excited about Europe. And I'm very, you know, the bottom line is American tech is still going to do really well. It's just too fucking expensive.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
I want you to make a prediction, Ed, and I think you just made one.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
So I'm excited to see you in Texas. The last time I was in Texas, I was in Lubbock and I came across a sheep farm and there was a farmer fucking a sheep on the side of the road. And I said, in New York, we shear sheep. And he said, I'm not shearing her with anyone. I'll see you in Austin. I'll see you in the great state of Texas.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
God, like community-based EBITDA, WeWork.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
I loved Adam Newman's initial redefinition of EBITDA. And it was like, earnings before everything else, earnings before Dolly Parton, earnings before March Madness. It was like, let's pretend that profits are top line revenues before expenses. Let's just get rid of this pesky thing called expenses so we can say, pretend that we're profitable.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
But yeah, I appreciate the recognition and drinks on me this week in Austin.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
It just makes sense. This is part of capitalism, and that is they need to consolidate, bulk up, and then cut costs. These companies should have one back end as far as news, and if they have different front-facing... brands that appeal to different audiences, that's fine. But last year, Disney's linear networks revenue declined 9% and operating income was down 16%. They're not alone here. U.S.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
linear TV advertising will decrease an estimated 4% annually through 2030, which doesn't seem like a lot. But when it's going for another Five years, 4%, it means it's going to lose a quarter of its revenue or a fifth. And that means, you know, that's just real pain because some of those costs are fixed.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
So you're talking probably, they're probably going to shed another 20 or 30% of their workforce over the next five years. I just had lunch with a fairly famous news anchor who is fantastic at what she does. And she's one of the lucky ones. She's still making a lot of money, but I think her salary got cut by 30%. And you're seeing cuts across the most famous anchors of like 20% to 80%.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Joy Reid, Chuck Todd, Jim Acosta, and Lester Holt, all fantastic at what they do or did, all too expensive. And George Stephanopoulos, his contract's been renewed, though he had to take a pay cut from his previous $20 million deal. He's lucky he got his deal a few months ago. I think it'd even be less now. Rachel Maddow renegotiated. She is the friends or the anchor of MSNBC.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
She had to reduce her pay from $30 to $25 million. Yeah, cry me a river. That's not too much. Anyway, so look, the market is doing what it's supposed to do. It's reshaping. the winners and the losers. You're going to see, I think, private equity come in here. You're going to see a lot of consolidation.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
I think Disney is a survivor because of this unique singular positioning around family and just the incredible IP they have. I also wonder if this is an interesting take private opportunity. But anyways, what are your thoughts?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Well, if you look at means of production, and I did some analysis here, we're making three to four times the revenue per employee. And granted, we're small, but the means of production are so much less expensive in podcasting.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Now, granted, there aren't that many winners, but if you can figure out kind of a new media platform and keep it kind of lean and mean, you can just see what's happening here. It's just incredibly... challenging for these folks. I describe, I was jokingly describing the anchors as pilots for Pan Am in the 70s and that it's high prestige, they're banging stewardesses, everyone's impressed by them.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
But I'm like, your days are numbered. Pretty sure you're going to be, you know, on an Embraer from Lubbock, Texas to Amarillo making 38,000 bucks a year. That's a great analogy. I personally, the way I register it, Is 10 years ago when I was asked to come on CNN, I just was so excited. I remember the first time Anderson had me on his show and I was so I thought, wow, I've made it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
And now, unless it's someone I'm personal friends with or I don't go on because it's like the juice isn't worth the squeeze to come across as intelligent and the work and the prep you need to do. Not that many people are watching it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
And plus, I mean, you're literally, you're going to be exposed to dozens and dozens of new fans. 5 a.m. on CNN. That is literally like a 90-year-old that can't sleep.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
I think that's great. Congratulations. I didn't know about that.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
But yeah, broadcast television. What's interesting, though, is it still, you'll see this, there's still a prestige value. And that is when people see you on, I used to go on Fox every week. And when people see you on TV, for some reason, there's just this veneer of prestige, romanticism, or credibility that you don't get anywhere, unless, of course, you have a guest role on The White Lotus. Right.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Ah, let's bring this back to me. Let's bring this back to me. Anyways, Linear TV, it's not doing well.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
Agreed. Captain fucking obvious.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Has Apple Lost Its Mojo? + BlackRock’s $23B Bet on the Panama Canal
I think they're just overstored. I think they're doing the right thing. Again, capitalism in the markets at work. I can't believe this thing was ever worth $100 billion. What I'd be curious, I don't know if you have any information on this, is that my go-to as well, this is Amazon, another victim of Amazon. But I don't really know. Do you have any thoughts on what's actually going on here?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
If she and Putin had called this guy and said, all right, I mean, he's either this fucking stupid or this fucking corrupt because none of this shit makes absolutely any sense whatsoever. There is no evidence. There is no support. There is no empirical argument for why or how this does anything but reduce prosperity, throw our
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
throw our trading partners into the arms of our adversaries, Japan, South Korea, and China are talking for the first time about closer economic ties. So this is the inconsistency, the market capitalization loss, the general sort of reduction in the value proposition of our products abroad while increasing our prices domestically. This is Nigel Farage on steroids.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
But Trump is going to take down a bunch of Western economies in the short term. The big winner is China, because China is basically going to scoop up a lot of these trading relationships that we are throwing in the dustbin.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
Today's number, $6.6 trillion. That's how much value the U.S. stock market shed following Trump's tariff announcement. A record-breaking two-day wipeout. Ed, I just came from a Necrophiliacs Anonymous meeting, and suddenly it dawned on me, what happens if I die here?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
Yeah, the trope or the weirdness here, whenever no one in the administration can justify, explain, or rationalize a decision he's making, they claim he's playing 4D chess, that this is so stupid or crazy that it's crazy genius and you just aren't privy to his genius yet. Enough already. That's just fucking stupid. There's a lot of smart people out there. Tell us what you're thinking and
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
You know, this notion that, oh, all will be revealed as genius will be revealed. That argument doesn't hold. I think the best argument from an optics standpoint is it is true that we've lost a lot of manufacturing jobs. And at least theoretically, if you raise the price of imports, our domestic manufacturers should be more competitive theoretically, and you should increase manufacturing jobs.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
The problem is they impose reciprocal tariffs. I mean, just as an example, 88% of toys under the Christmas tree are from China. Tariffs on toys I think are going from 3% to like 33 or something. So a 20% increase in the cost of toys. 90 plus percent of Americans are on a fixed budget for Christmas gifts. They just can't spend whatever it takes.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
So just to bring it home, this Christmas, 90 percent of households are going to have 20 percent fewer gifts under the tree for their kids instead of 10 gifts. They're going to have eight. So the notion it's going to bring back manufacturing doesn't really hold. I do believe you could say, all right, we're going to give massive subsidies to the chips industry because it's strategic.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
It'll create good jobs. We're going to spend a lot of money on an infrastructure bill, which will create shovel-ready jobs for people here who don't have college degrees. I'm sympathetic to the argument that we need more on-ramps. But the notion that tariffs are going to somehow restore American manufacturing – It just, it doesn't pan out that way.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
As a matter of fact, almost every example, this is essentially the policies of Latin America from the kind of the 50s to the 80s, and it didn't work. It was a disaster for them. And then a lot of people think that essentially China, you know, had all of this kind of cultural backlash. And basically they said Mao Zedong, his strategies didn't work. So they've totally embraced kind of
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
I don't want to say open trade because they, in fact, are not open in terms of media. But let's just use that as an example. And to be fair, we should tariff the shit, i.e. ban TikTok because they don't allow meta into their country. That's an example where I think you could have tariffs or basically a ban. But essentially, meta trades at eight times sales.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
ByteDance trades at three, despite the fact it's growing faster. Now, why do our companies trade at a much higher multiple than their analog abroad? It's because one, we have rule of law here. We have higher growth. We have more innovation, great universities, more risk capital, more risk aggressive people, more flexible companies. We also are seen as consistent and that is good trading partners.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
Now, All of a sudden, in a matter of a few short months since inauguration, we've gone from the rule of fair play or rule of law being a huge attribute. I mean, I can't you can't overestimate when I speak to people who've come here, who've immigrated here. They say the rule of fair. I have a close friend who runs a lot of my money from El Salvador.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
And he's like, the bottom line is you can be successful in El Salvador and someone might just show up and take your money with the government's backing. Right. I have another good friend who came from Russia, said, you get the wrong, the wrong person makes a call about you, you're done. You get as much money as you can and you get out. The rule of fair law is no longer a given here in the U.S.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
Consistency. being a good trading partner. No, that's no longer a rule here. We're doing used car sales on the White House lawn. So what you're going to see here, and the reason why I'm transitioning out of U.S. stocks, is even after this route, we traded a P, the S&P trades at a P of around 24, 25, it was 28. Germany's around 21, Japan 16, China 14.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
A lot of that is directly correlated to what I'll call the separation business and state. And that is business embraces rule of law and competition, and the government stays out of the way. And that is not true in China. The CCP can weigh in, and you can't rely on the Chinese government to not meddle with competition. And that's one of the reasons it trades at a much lower multiple.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
You are about to see dramatic contraction in in the multiple across the S&P, because a lot of the features that created a flow of capital into the US, consistency, rule of law, are no longer attributes that people can rely on. This will take I mean, think about it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
I lost... I don't know, mid-single-digit millions, maybe $10 million on the 48 hours on Thursday and Friday. But that's the bad news. The good news is that means you have a lot of money to begin with. I'm blessed.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
If we go from a multiple of 25 to say where Japan is at 16, Meta, Ford Motor, P&G could increase their earnings 60% and the stock would be flat over the next four or five years. You can't outrun multiple contraction. If you've invested in Latin America over the last 10 years, you've been fucked and you might have picked great companies.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
that outperformed increased earnings, increased revenues, but the stock hasn't gone up because the multiple contraction has vastly outpaced the individual earnings or revenue growth of that company. And that is what, in my view, we are about to experience here in the U.S. through this inconsistency. All of a sudden, the U.S. brand is about kleptocracy and sclerotic decision-making.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
And I could kind of—I don't want to say I could kind of give a shit, but the reason I'm an emotional die-ball is I just finished up a college tour with my son, and it just is sort of this very—it's a marker in time, you know? It's just—we went to eight schools in five days, and— I decided I was going to be totally focused on parenting and not do any business calls.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
So we want to introduce you to another show from our network and your next favorite money podcast, for ours, of course, Net Worth and Chill. Host Vivian Tu is a former Wall Street trader turned finance expert and entrepreneur. She shares common financial struggles and gives actionable tips and advice on how to make the most of your money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
Past guests include Nicole Yoder, a leading fertility doctor who breaks down the complex world of reproductive medicine and the financial costs of those treatments, and divorce attorney Jackie Combs, who talks about love and divorce and why everyone should have a prenup.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
episodes of Net Worth and Chill are released every Wednesday listen wherever you get your podcasts or watch full episodes on YouTube by the way I absolutely love Vivian too I think she does a great job
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
And it's just sort of, you know, it's very emotional. He doesn't understand it, but he will when he has sons. But what happened on Thursday and Friday, for me, I was much more upset about the Trump coin. I was much more upset about... You know, Marines being kicked out of the service because they're transgender.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
The stock market, the Dow and the Nasdaq, are not the real economy. They're a reflection on components of the real economy, but there is some truth to the notion that that essentially the Dow Jones and the NASDAQ are essentially the PSA or the blood pressure reading of the top 10%, if not the top 1%. And what do you know?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
They've been on a record tear for 15 years and until a month ago, 72 highs in the previous 24 months, what have you. And I'm actually a fan of programs that would probably take, not purposely, the stock market down. If you were to say,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
that the alternative minimum tax on corporations who have now enjoyed the lowest tax rates since 1939, if you were to say corporations aren't paying enough taxes, we're going to have an AMT of 30%. That seems reasonable, but it'd be an enormous hike in corporate taxes because many of them, including the biggest corporations,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
names in business don't pay any because of the tax code, the stock market would go down because they would have lower earnings. I'd be in favor of that. I think people of your generation need disruption, maybe even if that means hopefully getting a chance to buy real estate and stocks at a from the incumbents to the entrants on a regular basis.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
And as I've said, we've done everything we can, specifically run up your credit card to smooth out disruption such that I can stay rich. If we were to raise minimum wage to $25 an hour, McDonald's and Walmart's stock would go down substantially. I'd be in favor of that. I think it's worth it. This is is a double whammy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
This goes from bad to worse in that it's not only does the stock market go down, but 98% of companies that export products are small and medium-sized businesses. 43% of US agricultural exports go to our free trade partners who've agreed to have lower tariffs. That's up from 29% in 1990. 40 million American jobs depend on trade. And that, you'd think, well, out of 355 million, that's not a lot.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
Prof G. Paid for by Public Investing. All investing involves the risk of loss, including loss of principal. Brokered services for U.S. listed registered securities, options, and bonds in a self-directed account are offered by Public Investing, Inc., member FINRA, and SIPC. Complete disclosures available at public.com slash disclosures. I should also disclose I am an investor in public.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
Only 150 million Americans work. So you're talking about a quarter of our jobs are dependent upon trade and we're going into a voluntary, unnecessary trade war. So there are certain components. They're trying to play the everyman. Well, it just impacts the rich. Well, okay, that's a fair argument.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
This, to me, is like so far fucking down the list of this ass clowns, un-American, bigoted, weird behavior. I find it just sort of disappointing. All of a sudden, the most powerful people in the nation have decided enough is enough when they lose, when their portfolio goes down. Yeah, I'm a bit of a mess today, but for the right reasons. We know this is stupid, so let's bust right into it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
But when you go after policies that reduce prosperity, reduce economic growth, reduce the demand for products across every company, including those that are not publicly traded, everyone's going to feel this. Everyone's going to feel this. So that just doesn't hold water. What I will say, and I just find it, I go back to this notion, look what money has done to us. Thank you. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
You did a fantastic video I thought was really powerful talking about tariffs can play a role in restoring trade symmetry. Talk a little bit about the asymmetry as it relates to U.S. tariffs and our trading partners.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. ,,,,,,, ,,,,,,, ,,,,,,, from what was historically high prices. So this notion that you should lever up or margin up, no. If you have some money and you wanna be in the market, I think you really wanna look at how diversified you are geographically.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
I've got to stick to our structure that producer Claire— By the way, that's super sexy when you're not flexible and have to stick to a script. Yeah, that's going to get you laid, boss. Anyways, sorry. Go ahead.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
And I love the idea of freeing up money to invest. I think that's a great idea for a young person. Okay, I'm gonna figure out a way I have some cash. I want a dollar cost average in. But I think it's about diversification. But the notion somehow that the markets are on sale right now versus what? Versus Wednesday night? True. That's it. They're not on sale.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
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Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
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Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
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Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
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Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
Be nicer to people. Be kinder. Order the good wine. It's Bill Bixby from The Incredible Hulk and The Courtship of Eddie's Father. Someone you probably don't know. Nope. When he was dying of cancer, he used to say to everybody, buy the good wine.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
Well, I'll talk about them and then I'll, I don't like to give financial advice. I'll say what I'm doing. And I'm in a much more blessed position than a lot of people for a lot of reasons. I got lucky and I'm talented. So, and I've been very open about my wealth on this program. So first off, same advice, don't panic sell. The markets could rip back up.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
Work with someone, talk to some people and say, am I too invested in the U.S. market? And how can I thoughtfully and rationally and in a mature manner start to diversify away from a geographic concentration? I think that same advice goes. And also, are there opportunities to perhaps diversify? maybe ramp up my investing through consuming less, right?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
And you don't like to tell people to consume less if they're already living close to the bone, but other opportunities to make a few cuts here and there. It's basically the same advice, almost the same advice for young people. Diversification is even more important for old people because they don't have the time to make it back. So diversification is your Kevlar.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
So this should be the impetus to try and figure out if you would benefit from diversifying. Now, what I am doing or what I've done, I'm doing nothing over the next few days because I think the market could go up two or three. This guy could announce all tariffs are off on Monday and we're off to the races. What I've been doing over the last three months is I have been doing –
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
I have been slowly but surely selling out of U.S.-based assets and buying European. I made my biggest private investment of the year was in a European defense company. My other one was I invested in a friend's company, Atlanta Partners, that manages specials in Latin America and Europe. I love that. It's mid-cap and small-cap and basic value.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
I wanted to get away from tech, what I thought was just— Now, I also want to be clear. I've been planning to sell Apple and Amazon down, and I waited too long. So I don't get it right. I'm not a genius. I still—I lost a shit ton of money Thursday and Friday from Apple and Amazon because I know I've been thinking about it, but I always thought, well, maybe when Apple hits $250 again, right?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
And it didn't. Now it's back at whatever—
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
So what I have done, or what I did, was I went short. I thought this thing's just too expensive, specifically AI. I lost... I don't know. I haven't even really looked. I think I lost somewhere between five and seven million bucks on Thursday and Friday in just my U.S. equities. But I got 30 percent of it back because I'm short Palantir and Tempest AI. I think AI is overvalued.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
I think Palantir is crazy overvalued, so I've been short those companies.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
I thought AI's gone apeshit crazy, and they went up dramatically, got hurt, but now they're well down. So I've got... I'm never perfectly matched in terms of net exposure, short, long, because I do think the market's general trajectory is up into the right over the medium and the long term. So I always want to have and do have a long bias.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
So I didn't get my full, whatever it was, $7 million in losses back, but I got two or three back, which quite frankly kind of... It kind of softens the blow. And I don't think it's a bad idea when you're like me and fully almost, you know, kind of overinvested in the U.S.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
because of real estate and equities and the fact that I make small investments and the fact that our business, quite frankly, and you need to take this into account, is very dependent upon the U.S. market. So I said, all right, I want to short the U.S. market. I want to short AI. So I went short on Palantir and Tempest, which I just think are just trading at crazy multiples.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
So I got some of that back. But what I am doing over the medium slash long term is I'm saying, okay, I'm probably, I was probably six months ago, 95%, 90% U.S. assets. I'm now 70%. And I'm going to try and go somewhere between 40 and 50 over the next three or six months because these cycles take a while to play out. It's not like you think, well, it's too late to diversify. Guess what, folks?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
If you want to diversify into Latin American or Asian or European stocks, they got whacked on Friday. So you might be actually, if you had some tax losses to harvest and you wanted to diversify, you're not really getting punished because while those markets didn't go down as much, they went down nearly as much. So it's still actually a decent time to diversify. So what am I doing?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
I'm trying to reduce my exposure to U.S. assets. Because I do think we're going to experience multiple contraction. No way to outrun it. I'm at an age where I can't make it again or I can't make as much back again. I have been wealthy three times, which means I have gone broke twice. Or not broke, but I've lost most of it. There's a saying that... Any fool can make money.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
It takes someone smart to hold onto it. I am that fool, right? I was not smart. I did not diversify because I started believing I was good at investing and going all in on NASDAQ stocks all the time because I understand technology better than anyone. Yeah, what a fucking idiot. Anyways, now I'm trying to learn. I'm like, okay, okay, I can maybe, you know, I can diversify a bit. That's my Kevlar.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
I'm not going to swing for the fences. I'm going to be more thoughtful this time and diversify. I believe in innovation. I believe in Europe. I believe in Latin American stocks. I hate to say it, but the Chinese, I think, are making a big comeback. So look, that's what I'm doing. I'm diversifying. I'm going more global versus just the U.S. I'm trying to pull in my chin.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
I'm trying to pull in my horns a little bit. And I don't think that's a bad idea when you're a little bit older. I think you want to be diversified.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
I love that. I love hearing it from someone with a British accent. Yeah, you're right. You don't want to bet against America. I would argue some of the damage here is structural, not cyclical, that he's undertaking. See above. What would Putin and Xi do differently if they wanted to just cede advantage from the U.S. to China and Russia?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
What would they do differently than what he's doing right now? And unfortunately, I do believe, and this is trying to manifest, we are going to elect somebody else after even red states realize. I mean, how many TikToks are we going to have over the next few weeks of I voted for Donald, you know, I voted for President Trump and I regret it. We're going to see a lot of those videos.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
It's going to be unbelievable. I mean, no doubt about it. The problem is there has been a world order. And inconsistency in a playbook. And America has been seen, and we've taken it a bit for granted, that we were seen as the stalwart. We were seen as the base. We were the pillar. We were the mortar inside of all these bricks of wonderful democracies.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
And I think he's literally ripping at the fabric of the world order today. And a lot of nations, even if we bring in someone who's seen as responsible and an adult from the Republican or the Democratic side, I'm not sure the world order is going to say, you know, we've reconfigured our supply chain through Mexico. We're buying more products out of China.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
We're doing a lot more trade with Germany than we are with the U.S. now. We're getting our agricultural products from different nations. If they're going to say, oh, OK, game on again, we're back in the U.S. I think some of this damage happens. I think the hangover here is going to outlive the Trump presidency. And that's what's so awful about this.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
I don't think that this is I think this is going to do long lasting damage, just as the way we had a 15 year bull market run. I think you could argue this might be the beginning. of a multi-year, not three and a half, but five, 10, 12 year reversal of those flows. And even if companies, even if they get their act together, the American economy is like no other.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
People are so innovative here, so risk aggressive, the gears turn on. But the thing I don't think they're going to be able to turn around is I think the momentum now is dramatically around multiple contraction for the S&P and the NASDAQ. And I think that is just going to be a vicious hangover that'll be several years.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
Volatility. That's the only thing I'm comfortable predicting. You know, it'd be fun to say the market's off another 5,000 points next week. Market could go up 3,000 points. This is the only thing I'm fairly certain on. is volatility. And don't try this at home, but you're going to see a lot of traders make money buying and selling options because we're about to see the VIX go crazy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
And traders love volatility because they can spot anomalies and panic selling and panic buying and weigh in with good bets on volatility. Anyways, long-winded way of saying my only prediction next week is volatility.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
Yeah. So the first myth we have to take off the table is somehow that America is the victim here, right? If anyone has been flexing their muscle and imposing onerous tariffs that we've been able to figure out a way to pay, I think some of your data, 25% tariff on Japanese trucks entering the U.S., they charge us 0% tariff. I think you said 82% for sugar imported in from Brazil, they charge us 13%.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
Typically, if there's asymmetry, we're on the right side of the asymmetry, so to speak. This will likely be the second largest or the largest own goal since our entry into Iraq. And the biggest or the largest was Nigel Farage convincing angry Brits because the economy hadn't grown that this would be our independence day. And the economy has just basically gone sideways since then.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
Tariffs make no sense. They've never made any sense. There are rare exceptions when they can be used tactically to restore symmetry in key areas where we're getting a raw deal or to protect certain industries that you need for strategic reasons. You probably need a certain amount of domestic steel production in case we go to war.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
But just to use one company as an example, Apple, the tariffs that he has imposed are gonna cost Apple $40 billion. By the way, it's the importer that pays the tariff. So they're gonna have to pay $40 billion, right? That comes right off the bottom line. The P.E. of Apple was 38. Now I think it's 34. So you're talking about a trillion dollars in shareholder losses to Apple.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
And I want to come back to shareholder losses. In addition, the idea is that if you kind of raise the cost, then it inspires domestic production. To produce an iPhone in the U.S. would cost $3,500 an iPhone. So we're not moving back manufacturing. All it's going to do is increase the price of an iPhone from $1,600 to $2,300 and reduce the market capitalization of Apple by a trillion dollars.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
And that is fairly typical of what happens across the board. So these – it is difficult to think of a more elegant way to reduce prosperity than And what people aren't talking about that's even more damaging is the uncertainty. People don't know how to plan their businesses.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
If he'd just come out and said, all right, 10% tariffs, businesses, both foreign and domestic, could plan their business, get on with it. They don't know who they're waking up next to. His sclerotic epileptic decision-making, he could cancel all tariffs on Monday. So no one knows what to do here. What they are doing—
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
is the largest companies, the largest economies in the world are reconfiguring their supply routes to excise American manufacturers and American services firms from their supply chain. This will take likely years, if not decades, to repair and reassemble.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
The other thing we're not missing, and Josh Brown brought this up, and I just think it was a fascinating insight, is that if you look at the products we export, a lot of finished products, a lot of high value manufacturing. By the way, we need to rebuild our manufacturing base.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
Now, we have purposely traded it off because the services jobs we've replaced the manufacturing base with are generally higher paying. And we are still the second largest manufacturer in the world behind China. But we, for example, we take an NVIDIA chip, very, very high value add, and we export those chips. Those products probably have a 50 or 60 point profit margin. We import Mercedes.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
Mercedes maybe, maybe has a 10% profit margin. The products we generally import in have a much lower margin than the products we export because we're bigger in services and high value add products. So let's just look at NVIDIA versus Apple. NVIDIA has a price-to-sales ratio of about 24.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
Mercedes has a price-to-sales ratio of 0.23, meaning if you were to go pro-rata and assume we're going to reduce a billion dollars because of these reciprocal tariffs, which they didn't think were going to happen for some reason, but let's just assume for shits and giggles a billion less dollars of Mercedes coming in because of the tariffs and a billion less of NVIDIA chips going out.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
That's a reduction in market cap of $23 or $24 billion to NVIDIA shareholders, and it's a reduction of $23 million to Mercedes shareholders. In other words, if we go pari passu and lose $1 for every dollar they lose… That's not the analogy. This is apples to aircraft carriers.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
The hit to our stock market, the hit to our market capitalization, the hit to the compensation via options of domestic employees that work for these amazing firms will be much greater, much greater than the hit to foreign markets. We'll hurt both. All the markets were down, right? Our market was down. Europe stocks, 600, fell 8%. UK's FTSE fell 7%. The MSCI Asian index fell 5%.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
This guy has figured out a way to elegantly take down the prosperity of the global economy. And I only have one of two scenarios here. And one sounds paranoid, but it doesn't mean I'm wrong. The first scenario is this guy's just a fucking idiot. And nobody around him has the stones to to say, this is just a really bad idea and it's going to cost you a lot of votes, a lot of support.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
Farmers are going to get hit the hardest. Canada and Europe are already deciding to be more strategic with their tariffs and they're going after the heart and lungs. They're going after the red states. They're either all acolytes or he just doesn't listen to them. My second scenario, and I know this sounds ridiculous, but what I would ask our listeners to contemplate is the following.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: The $6.6 Trillion Sell-off
If President Trump had received $10 billion or a commitment of $10 billion from both Putin and Xi into his Trump coin in exchange for dividing the Western alliance, for driving the biggest trading partners into the arms of China, for withdrawing from Ukraine... wouldn't that just make perfect fucking sense right now?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
But corporations, I mean, we just have two choices here. We either need to cut spending and raise taxes or have massive deficits, which are And it's important that we communicate this to people, nothing but taxes on you and Claire and the rest of the young people of this organization, just kind of laying in wait. So I find the whole – I think taxes are a really important conversation.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
I would like to see the best solution would be an AMT, an alternative minimum tax on corporations and the rich. And that is if you make over, say, $10 million, we want you to pay – A 50% AMT. Whatever loopholes you can come up with, great, but you're paying at least 50%. You know, well, that's a lot, Scott.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
It's not because every psychiatrist and psychologist and Daniel Kahneman specifically has shown that above a certain amount of money, you lose no happiness. Any more money doesn't make you any happier, so having a higher tax rate doesn't make you any less happy. And also, these tax rates are lower than they were in the 50s, 60s, 70s, and even in the 80s at those income levels.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
So I think tax rates could actually come down if you forced everyone to pay those tax rates. And that is you could lower the top tax rates on people if everyone paid them. You could lower corporate tax rates if everyone paid that rate.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
Today's number, $49 million. That's how much New York City's congestion pricing tolls brought in during the program's first month. This is an actual true story, Ed. When I first moved to New York, my first date was with a woman named Martha who took me to, no joke, a sex club. And one of us had sex, and it wasn't me, Ed. That's a true story. That's not a true story. No, it's a true story.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
Oh, Elliot, they're smart people. And Jessica, who runs her activist group, is a really smart guy. And marketing is important, but be clear, this is all marketing. I'm not sure. I think BP was actually, so I ran a brand strategy firm called Profit. And I think BP was a client. And the running joke around the office was beyond petroleum.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
And they'd like, you know, the ad team would hire an Asian dude, put him in a jacket and run a commercial talking about how algae is going to fuel the future automobile.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
They never spent a lot of money. I think right now, what is the research you guys did? That basically BP is allocating somewhere between three and 5% of their total capex renewables. That's just not a lot. They were never not in oil and gas. And this is basically saying, OK, get rid of all of it. Stop pretending. Stop running the ads beyond petroleum. Just say petroleum. It's here.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
Yeah, there's no substance here. This is them pretending for two decades, deciding that the big sunflower beyond petroleum would make them see warm and cuddly as they were belching more carbon into the air than anyone but maybe Exxon and Chevron. Because there is nothing, there is nothing like the arbitrage you get from fossil fuels in terms of the ability to do work.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
move earth, create different substances based on this incredibly cheap supply where you get a barrel, an absolute barrel of this shit that can be made into almost anything or provide energy to make almost anything. And the barrel costs 70 bucks. I mean, it's just so cheap. And these guys, these companies are just cash juggernauts. And basically, Elliot said, stop the bullshit.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
Stop the virtue signaling. Stop the posturing. You're a petroleum company. You always have been.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
The club was called Trapeze.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
We saw a lot of those energy stocks crash. with Deep Seek when all of a sudden people thought, oh, we might not need as much energy. And what you're saying is that was a bit of a headache. In fact, we're still gonna need a massive amount of energy. And I met with, a guy who's an energy guy, and he said, you got nuclear wrong.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
He said, and Mia kind of confirmed this in her notes, that the lag to bring energy capacity nuclear online is five, 10 years out at a minimum, and that the real play is liquid natural gas, LNG, and that you want to be looking at that space. And it'll be very interesting to see the other. There's the side note that really fascinated me.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
I don't know if you saw, but the number one producer of wind power now is Texas. And we should do a deeper dive at some point on the economics of wind power because it's politically, quote unquote, incorrect or politically sober, whatever the term you want to use is. Texas is the economics of wind have made it such that it is now in many ways a better bet than these dirty fossil fuels.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
Met this woman, really interesting woman, nice. I was very attracted to her. And I had this big deck. I lived at one Greenwich and I had basically this like 700 foot apartment with a 3000 square foot deck, see above single and desperate. And I used to have parties and people, and I met this woman super hot, seemed super cool. Yeah. Asked her out, kept asking her out.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
And finally, like, I'm getting nothing back here. And she's like, I have something I think you're going to like. And she showed up and said, I'm going to handle everything. And we went to this place and it was a West village or so go underground and it's like 300 bucks for the dude and nothing for the woman. I'm like, well, that's gonna be interesting.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
You had it. You summarized it perfectly, Ed, and that is the market is so used to these companies blowing away expectations that when they don't beat expectations, they don't meet expectations. And NVIDIA beat expectations on the top and bottom line, and I think the stock's off today. I mean, it's not off hugely, but you summarized it perfect.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
Expectations have become such that you're expected to massively blow away expectations. But I didn't take a ton away from this. Do you have any thoughts?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
And they give you a towel, and she changed into a towel. And anyway, she ended up making out and fooling around with a woman.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
That was my pick. New York story. NYU professor, would you let your kid take class with me?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
It's great IR. It's great investor relations to turn a bug into a feature, right? A, confronting it head-on. Let's talk about DeepSeek, and this is why DeepSeek is... It's good for us. It's a very well-run company. He's an outstanding CEO. I think Josh Brown said that it's up 100x, and I guess Josh has owned it for 10 years?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
I have no idea, but... I know I met Josh through his partner, Barry Ritholtz, who's also a very smart guy, and they're trying to be sort of a hybrid between a hedge fund and their business model and Vanguard, and that is every time their AUM goes up, they charge less money, but they're very smart. They're not stock pickers.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
Well, I guess they're stock pickers to a certain extent, but they're very much – They're sober about it. Yeah. They're one of the few funds I've ever thought investing in and even paying fees because they're just very sober kind of level-headed guys and they give it kind of – give it to you straight. And oh, yeah, those guys are like fun to go out and eat beef and drink bourbon with.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
They're such like Long Island guys. Yeah. Like, I don't even like basketball.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
100%.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
Look, it's an incredible company. I'm pissed off I never owned it. I have a difficult time seeing where it goes from here based on how just expensive it has become.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
Oh, I was so excited. I think I still probably text her, saying if she'll give me another shot at trapeze.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
You know what would be a total gangster move is if Elliot convinced NVIDIA to become a petroleum company. That'd be a test.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
Actually, also, my other New York joke. You know, New York is just full of rats. I made actually friends with this rat, and this ridiculously hot woman walked by, and I'm like, did you see the ass on that woman? He said, well, actually, I'm a tit rat myself.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
Well, this isn't anything new. Europe has a bunch of these programs. I think they garner or different countries in Europe garner about 3 billion in euros each year from selling different visas. I'm on a tech talent visa here in the UK where I convinced them that I would bring unique skills and they gave me a five-year visa. But
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
There was a similar program, I think, in the first Trump administration, where if you purchased a certain amount of real estate, maybe it was for people out of China. Canada has these programs. I mean, this isn't anything new. What's different about this is the price point. And at $5 million, that's just exceptional.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
And someone did some analysis and said that if you're gonna pay $5 million for a visa, it means you're worth at least $25 million. They're just not that many people that could afford this thing. So this bullshit that we might raise $5 to $50 trillion, I don't have a problem with it. The only thing is, at this price point,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
Ah, that's why you come here.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
If you can't figure out a way to get into America or another Western country for a lot less than this, it means you're on the run from the tax authorities or you're pretty shady. I mean, there's some analogies here. So when people ask me—by the way, I spoke at the Royal Academy of Arts last night, Ed. I don't know if you heard it, if you read about it in the press—
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
I did hear, a friend of mine said he met you, this guy. Oh, the former Goldman guy came up to me and he was like, I know Ed Elson. I'm like, well, I'm good for you. He's a nice man.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
Yeah, it was like a London highlight for me. Anyways, but people always ask in Q&A, how would you distinguish the U.S. from... And I say, look, my sense is, unfortunately, in the UK, most of the people I know, including the people in this room, is a room of very successful people. Their servicing wealth built or made somewhere else.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
And effectively, some form of this was a hugely successful program for Britain. And that is, I think it was in the 90s, Tony Blair or the odds put in place really strict private property laws. And that is, he said, I don't care if you're an African warlord or a Russian oligarch. If you bring $100 million in the UK and you buy a $30 million house in Mayfair, They can't come for it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
I mean, they, meaning any other government, can't come and take your shit away. Once you have private property here in the UK or you have money in our banks, no one can come for it. And people would argue it attracted some unsavory characters. At the same time, the majority of the capital and the majority of people attracted were just very successful people.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
And over the last 30 or 40 years, and I know this firsthand, having come to the UK once or twice a year for the last 40 years, London just got a dramatic facelift because it attracted so much capital. The US attracts people who want to make money. The UK and a lot of these places attract people who want to spend their money or shelter it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
And I wonder what kind of person are we going to attract if they have to spend $5 million to get into the U.S.? One, it's going to be someone very rich who, quite frankly, is a little bit in a hurry. And why are they – okay, they're rich and they're in a hurry and willing to give $5 million to get into the U.S. That says to me like, okay, the local tax authorities or the local –
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
And law enforcement is circling, right? And they're closing in on me and I need to get out and get to America. And so it'll be what will be really interesting. First off, this just isn't going to raise that much money because I just don't think there's that many people. The market, the total adjustable market here is not that big.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
The most interesting thing about this will be some great investigative journalist will get a source on the inside, and he or she will get the names of the hundred people that do this, the first hundred, and it's going to be really interesting to profile those people. And in one way or another, what this is, is people on the run, would be my guess.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
People who want to get out of the reach of tax authorities or law enforcement in their host nation, because there are cheaper ways to get to America than a $5 million tax This is sort of like giving the Trump administration, and Clinton did this too, a huge donation hoping for a pardon. To me, this is like effectively a $5 million you're buying a pardon, if you will, from another nation.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
Because I wonder if, especially with the Trump administration, if part of the wink-wink around this is you can't be extradited by another country.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
Well, it has been for a while, Ed, just to be clear. If you have money, you've been able to get into the U.S. for a while.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
Every Western nation at one point or another has been selling visas, has been basically, we live in a capitalist economy. If you have money, you can figure out a way to become a citizen of almost any nation with enough money. And a lot of people would argue the Trump administration is doing what the government's always done and Democrats have always done.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
They're just more transparent and more brazen about it. I've engaged in this arbitrage, and that is Claude de Jocas, arguably one of the two or three most talented people I've ever worked with, a Canadian. I went to Yale, a gymnast, just so impressive, great presence, hardworking, working at L2. Brings me, I says, can I speak to you?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
Brings me to the conference room and says, I'm really sorry, but I just got a message or a letter from the INS saying I have to return to Canada. And I'm like, fuck that. I'm like, don't worry about it. I'm like, I can figure this out. I've got money. And, you know, stay put. Don't worry about it. And we'll figure this out.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
I lawyered up with immigration attorneys and Claude has never left the U.S.,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
It's gotten much worse the last couple of years. The last two or three years, basically since the first Trump administration, and this is just shooting ourselves in the foot, that we're heavy-handed with the wrong people. We need to have borders. I'm all for deporting criminals. I'm all for the whole immigration debate, and we're going way past here, but going to the low end.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
If you wanted to solve this illegal immigration problem, all you would do is find employers. But no one wants to do that. But at the high end, this is just, it's again another distraction. It's not going to raise that much money. The most interesting thing is the cast of characters it's going to draw who actually are willing to pay $5 million so they can camp out.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
It almost feels like the most expensive witness protection program in history. That's good.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
I was reading that, essentially, if you look at the history of different sectors or categories of stocks... And 100 being the most expensive they've ever been and zero being or one being the least expensive they've ever been. U.S. growth stocks are at 98 right now, meaning that only 2% of the time in history have they been trading at higher multiples on earnings.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
At the same time, European value stocks. are trading at 2%, meaning 98% of the time they have traded at higher multiples throughout economic history or modern economic history. And so this isn't a prediction, but this is what I'm doing. I am starting to sell down some of my U.S. tech stocks, Apple, Amazon, and some others, and rotating into these very boring European value ETFs.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
But that's what I love about this strategy because about the time everybody throws in the towel, I remember probably the best investment I would say in terms of a lack of volatility is in 2010, I started buying homes. Actually, my partner, I can't take credit, buying homes out of foreclosure in Florida. and nobody wanted Florida real estate. And it didn't seem like it was ever gonna get fixed.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
That's when you invest. And I feel like just your reaction, that means it's time to invest in European value companies. And there's still some great companies, Nestle, L'Oreal, British Petroleum, Shell, Mercedes. Anyway, so I think this rotation is about to happen, or it might be three months, it might be three years. I think if you have a 10-year time horizon, I think you trim out of U.S.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
growth and you trim into Florida real estate, which right now is European value.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
I can't help it. I'm a broken clock here. Tesla is imploding. I think the stock is below $200 in the next six months.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
I hate this motherfucker. I really, I don't know if you've sensed that. Really? Yeah. I have no emotional distance here. I'm changing my prediction. I think this thing goes below 150. Oh, keep it. Keep the original. I can't help it. It's at a P of 180, and its sales are off 75% in Germany. And across Europe, they're off dramatically. I think the car line is really stale.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
To be fair, the stock is still up 50% over the last 12 months, right? It had a huge run up. And the market, you could also steel man and be a weak steel man and be more like an iron man or a hay man. It's clear his activities have really hurt him in Europe and in California, but probably the market was looking for an excuse to take this stock down.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
I think what will be the real interesting test here in terms of the association or affiliation of an individual's brand and their company is if Starlink starts to have contracts canceled. What do you make of this, Ed?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
I think that moment happened 48 hours ago. I think it was Bill Burr. He's probably my favorite comedian. I think the guy's just a genius and he's fearless. And he's been known for being just incredibly politically incorrect. And he's a favorite... of what I'll call sort of the intelligent manosphere. And that is he just mocks the shit out of Democrats and political correctness.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
And, you know, basically every viewer of MSNBC was grabbing their pearls every time they watch a Bill Burr clip. And he was just totally unafraid to be totally politically incorrect. And he went on a rant, and we should play that. We'll find the clip now.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
I think the worm has turned against this guy. I think that moment you're describing happened. 48 hours ago.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
Yeah, but you got it right. They paid a lot of taxes. If he wants to take a victory lap for it and make a point, good for him. And he has said for a long time, there's no reason I should pay a lower tax rate than my assistant. But his obligation to his shareholders, no one's going to disarm unilaterally. I believe tax rates should go up, but I engage in tax avoidance.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
I'm constantly thinking about strategies to minimize my tax bill. And there's a ton of ways you can do it legally when you're rich. And what we've seen is the tax code go from something like 400 pages to 7,000. And those incremental 6,600 pages are there basically to fuck people of your generation and transfer more wealth to my generation and to corporations. And
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
Cruise lines have weaponized various loopholes. They pay less than 2% for all the tax rates. General Motors in 2023 paid a tax rate of 5%. T-Mobile, which I would think was a very profitable company, pays an effective tax rate of 0.4%. Every company is going to do the best they can to pay as little as they can. That's their job. We're not doing our job.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
And that is there have been so many loopholes stuffed into the tax code. And what the misdirect is people think it's about tax rates. It's not. It's about the tax code. And I believe that as a percentage of GDP taxes, our corporations are paying the lowest taxes since like 1938. And at some point, you got to fund the government. And there's two things to do.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
There's either deficits, right, or you got to charge more in different types of consumption taxes. And I've said this for a long time. There's some mythology in the tax code. The bottom half pays almost no federal income tax. They pay a lot of consumption and sales tax, but almost no federal income tax.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
The people who get most screwed in our tax system are actually most of the people who work at Prop G Media. And that is you guys make very good livings, but it's all current income and you live in a high tax domain, New York City. So even as young as you are, you make exceptionally good livings for people your age, even though you may not feel that way.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
You're probably paying 30 to 40 percent tax rates at this point. That's a lot of money for a young person.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
But once you make the jump to light speed and get really rich, you can leverage all these different loopholes, whether it's 1031 exchanges where you can take real estate and roll it into a new investment, a new real estate investment without incurring a capital gain, triggering a capital gain.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
Even thinking of yourself as a stock, you produce, I have stocks that produce say 100 grand a year in dividends or growth. That gets to grow, not the dividends, but the growth grows tax deferred, whereas if you're an individual making $100,000, you lose 20% of it every year at least.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Nvidia Earnings are the Super Bowl of Business + Trump’s $5 Million Gold Card
So the tax code has basically said, all right, the bottom 99, we're going to basically fund the government with the kind of – 50 to 99th percentile. And then once you get above the 99th, your tax rates plummet. And the reason why America puts up with it is that we're so optimistic that people believe at some point they're going to be in the 0.1%.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
You know, I think at some point Nike was like selling air fresheners in their stores. And he said, get rid of all this shit. And the hardest part about specialty retail, and at the end of the day, this is specialty retail, is not what you have, but what you don't have. And that is you have a very curated, tight selection of things that send a very strong signal about the voice.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
And my understanding is they are cutting their beverage and food options by 30%. That means... Every three items, one of them is going away. I think that's a baller move. And this is what's going to happen. In the short run, that'll probably hurt, take a hit to revenues. It's complicated, new signage costs, new training.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
But over the long term or the medium or long term, I would argue it sends a stronger signal about what we do and what we don't do. And the bottom line is, at the end of the day, Starbucks problems are pretty basic. They were charging too much and delivering too little. And then I go into La Colombe and I'm like, hello, I'm with rich Corinthian leather.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
I literally think I'm having one of several million strokes that I've been experiencing. You get to my age, Ed, a stroke is kind of like, I don't know, it's like an erection when you're your age. It just kind of happens when you're least expecting it. Every morning. Don't brag. Don't rub it in my face. Literally. Literally don't rub it in my face. It all comes back to the penis.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
I feel like I'm a total Euro trash, which I like. And it's simple, great coffee, and I like the crowd in there. And it just feels a little less, there aren't as many like, you know, napkins and shit on the ground, right? Yeah, absolutely.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
So far, it's been worth it. And I don't, I have no problems with out-of-control CEO compensation. I just think that should be taxed at 70% once you get above kind of 10 million. But that's another podcast.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Shit, hold on a second. I had just a fucking fascinating insight and it slipped. It slipped by. Hold on. It's going to be so worth it. Oh my God. Hold on. It's going to be amazing.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Oh, essentially what they're doing is they're taking money The capital they were spending on non-customers and pouring it back into customers.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Well, that wasn't as good as I'd hoped.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Blinding insight.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Yeah, let's move on to T-Mobile.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Starlink is amazing. I heard United is doing a deal with Starlink. I would fly one airline over the other for Starlink. It's incredible. And I had one of those moments, you know, you have one of those technology moments the first time you bought something on your phone or the first time you use Google Maps. You're like, Jesus Christ, this is incredible. Yeah, the first time I saw porn. Wow, Ed.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
And nothing will ever be the same. Nothing will ever be the same. By the way, Ed, no one can make sweet, sweet love to me like me. Yeah. All right, where were we? Where were we? Oh, yeah, T-Mobile, AT&T, differentiation for telcos. So I can't imagine the pounds of flesh that T-Mobile was able to – that must have been so fun. Whoever was the Starlink representative negotiating these deals –
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
How are you, Scott? I'm doing pretty well. I found out I have to be in Orlando for a speaking gig, and at first I was bummed, and now I'm kind of sick of my kids, so I'm sort of excited. So I'm headed to Orlando on Monday, and then I go up to New York for four days. I'm excited about that. I'm going to do our... our team strategy meeting where you're all going to present your plan.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
They sat down with Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile and said, okay, let's be honest, this is going to be ugly. Who wants it? And we're going to give one of you a two- or three-year exclusive, which is going to give you tangible differentiation, which is nearly impossible. in your category, which will add billions, if not tens of billions of dollars in shareholder value, and we want it all, bitches.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
So them making these projections is saying to the market, we think this is going to be a tangible point of differentiation. What'll be interesting is when in their earnings or if they have to disclose the terms of this deal, because I bet- Yeah, T-Mobile's a winner here. The biggest winner, I bet, is Starlink because- Yeah, they're projected to hit
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
And I'm going to say, you make too much money and you're not growing revenues fast enough. Just so you know, that's the feedback you're going to get. I'm excited. What about you? What are you up to?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Addiction is a great business, and they're executing well against it. They've taken technology, addiction, network effects, monopoly. I mean, two-thirds of social media globally is on Meta. Really well-run company. I'm addicted to Instagram. I love it. I think it's fantastic. I can't stand Mark Zuckerberg, and I'm not getting off Instagram. They continue to perform really well.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
I wonder if their hardware appears to be on a roll right now. They're sold out across the Utes, the number one product in 60% of Ray-Ban stores, which obviously isn't a big revenue item, but they might finally have their own hardware point of distribution so they don't have to kiss Sundar Pichai or Tim Cook's ass. Have you tried those, by the way, those new Ray-Ban Meta glasses?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
I tried them about a year and a half ago. My son, I was skiing with my son, and he kept saying, Meta, take a photo. I'm like, what are you doing? He's like, I got these Ray-Ban glasses. And they're actually, I mean, this was a year, year and a half ago, and I thought they were pretty good. So headsets make no sense, but smart glasses, I think there's a future for. Absolutely.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
And I think that the Zuck is probably going to get some spillover effect from the massive investment he's made in these headsets. But They have capital. They've increased their CapEx 60% to 65 billion around technical talent and AI infrastructure. Meta AI is used by more people than any other AI assistant with over 700 million monthly active users.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
You're close with your sister, aren't you?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
It's integrated into Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
I actually don't. I agree with that. I mean, I don't mind it when you're disagreeing with me, despite the fact you hate the homeless. Yeah. But what they have is distribution and control of the consumer. They do own the rails in a way that ChatGPT doesn't, right? Totally. And their ability, I mean, we were talking about those moments, those technology moments.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
I've had some chilling moments, right? where I'm going to see a Paris Saint-Germain game and I have a real pop-up and it's on hotels in Paris. I'm like, how the fuck did they... I mean, it's incredible the targeting they could use.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
And it goes to the notion that Meta, more than I think almost any organization, maybe with the exception of Uber, has shown that if you can provide utility, you can violate everyone's privacy. That for all the bullshit and all the...
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Whining in Brussels and D.C., young people have said, violate my privacy just as long as there's a coupon or I can see where my QX60 is if it's coming around the block. Arguably, Mark Zuckerberg right now is the most talented. I mean, he's one of the three or four most talented business people in the world, if you just look at it from a shareholder perspective. They made huge investments.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
They're running away with it. And they're monetizing the fact that... I said that the core Facebook platform and now Instagram is the most successful thing in history. Communism doesn't have this many people. Capitalism doesn't have this many people. Democracy... There's no product. The Kardashians, nothing is as successful as Instagram right now.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
It's a product coupled with a Facebook core platform and then WhatsApp. These are the most successful things in history as far as I can tell. Someone might say, well, no, actually it's Google search. And he has been outstanding. They have been outstanding at monetizing it. Anyways, couldn't happen to a more mendacious fuck group of people, but yeah, they're doing outstanding.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Well, what was my stock pick at 2020? Now I'm really patting myself on the back. I'm going to... I'm going to elevate your praise on me. What stock did I say was going to be the biggest IPO of 2024, Ed? Reddit. Yeah. By the way, went public five or six months ago. It's up sixfold since its IPO. Incredible. I am so angry. I invested. I'm so angry I didn't back up the truck.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Fourth or fifth most trafficked site in America, and it went public at a $5 billion market cap. And every other company on that list trades at somewhere between $800 billion and $3 trillion. Anyways, thank you, thank you, thank you. I'd like to thank my agent. Exactly.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
You'll be a great uncle.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
I don't know. I think the market is, you know, this is a company that's now, I think it's the second or third most valuable company in the world. But, you know, the expectations, what you said a while ago, that if you don't blow away expectations, everyone's disappointed. Yeah. It grew 31%, not 33%. That's still incredible. It's also in this kind of arms race.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Its CapEx totaled $23 billion for the quarter. That's almost double what it did last year. And Nadella has said he's signaling a measured approach to capital allocation. You don't want to buy too much of anything at one time. You want to have the right ratio of modernization and demand.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Yeah, so... Shockingly, I've been looking at this. I look at the stock chart, and over the last year, it's basically flat, which I find kind of interesting. And over the last five years, it's up three and a half fold, but year to date, it's flat. So it hasn't registered the same. Is that fair? It's gone flat for kind of the last year, but I don't know if I have a lot of insight here.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Great company. Good management.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Well, you're awkward to begin with, but I think you'll be probably a little bit less awkward with children.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
I don't know. I think you just make fart jokes and threaten to hit them if they don't behave. That's my approach to children. But no dick jokes? You can get on the wrong list. The next time you move, you have to go next door and tell them you've moved in next door, which is a real inconvenience. It's a real bummer. All right. Well, should we start with our weekly review of Market Vitals?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Let's do it, my brother. Let's do it, Uncle Ed.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
, . . . . .. the, P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P, gener and . , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , a in
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
I do think it's a great car. I think the Cybertruck is basically a midlife crisis in stainless steel. I think that thing makes no fucking sense. I think that's just so stupid. The thing that's always shocked me as somebody who thinks they understand brands, you know, basically Tesla is turning into a car for crypto brothers with better credit scores.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
And so he's looking for more jazz hands. And also Waymo. I was in a Waymo in LA about four months ago. I think they have a big head start on them. So I don't... Oh, yeah. They've launched. They're giving rides.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Waymo's already done it. Yeah, it's here. It was really, really impressive. So at some point, we'll be right here. At some point, this thing gets cut dramatically.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Usually special charges or special revenue recognition, usually the market discounts that. In this case, it just makes no sense. This is not financial advice because you can stay, the markets can stay irrational longer than you can stay liquid. And I thought this thing was overvalued at 50 bucks a share. I know it's at 400. So we'll see.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
I think we do call balls and strikes. Hail Elon. Hail Elon. When I walked into, I don't know if it's his kind of right-wing proclivities have impacted the dealer network, but I went in to their retail store in Boca Raton and I said, what colors does the Model Y come in? And they said, Viva Lasso questions.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
I'm just fascinated with Robert Armstrong's notion of these industries that the capture here may be captured by 7 billion humans as opposed to a small number of companies. And it got me thinking, if all of a sudden you can have 80% of chat GPT for 10 or 20 or even 50% of the price. That was Old Navy's strategy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
My first consulting engagement out of business school in 1992 was they said, what are the demographic gaps out there? And we did this for the gap. And we came back and said, single mothers, they're a huge population and they want their kids to feel good about themselves, but they can't afford the gap.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
And so the basic premise of Old Navy, we came up with a new brand, was 80% of the gap for 50% of the price. And so we were part of the strategy to launch Old Navy. And Old Navy was the fastest zero-to-billion retailer in history. And generally speaking, this 80% of the value for 50% of the price is an incredible strategy. It's the strategy of Southwest.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Southwest said, we can be 80% of American, Delta, or United together. for 50% of the price.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
And I'm wondering if the old Navy of quote-unquote AI has come in, and where I think it impacts, I was trying to look for winners here, is that I'm trying to do a scan of what companies had put aside $100, $200, or $500 million, say a pharmaceutical company said, we need to expedite drug discovery in this great... era of AI.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
So we're going to have to put aside two, three, $500 million to build our own thick layer on top of chat GPT or pay them a shit ton of money or Airbnb or Expedia, which are probably making huge investments and working with open AI and guaranteeing them a ton of money for enterprise-wide access to their LLM. Did their costs of incorporating AI just reduce dramatically?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
are we gonna see a bunch of companies that are doing really well say, oh, and I've got good news, we're growing, and I've got great news, and that is we're gonna get all of the great taste of AI without the calories, specifically the cost.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
And that reserve or our CapEx planning of 100 or 500 million over the next three years on AI, it's been reduced by 90%, and that's all gonna flow to the bottom line. So my prediction is there's gonna be a new wave
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
of i don't know you would even call them you know remora fish that are just going to get kind of get free pickings if you will because their capex just i wonder overnight if it just went down 50 70 80 percent which is going to juice their earnings over the next two or three years
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Support for the show comes from the Fundrise Innovation Fund. is just getting started. Carefully consider the investment material before investing, including objectives, risks, charges, and expenses. This and other information can be found in the Innovation Fund's prospectus at fundrise.com slash innovation. This is a paid sponsorship.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
So I think on a regular basis, it's probably a good idea to have some churn and to have some recalibration of a company. And especially, I think, with the federal government, where I would think sometimes because of deficit spending and more bureaucracy, I'll probably get a decent amount of emails disagreeing with me.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
I think sometimes that federal employees aren't subject to the same regular reviews or standards that the private market imposes on the private sector. So I'm kind of down with the idea of occasionally looking at the federal government or state and local agencies and reviewing it or reviewing the size of it. Having said that, as a percentage of the population,
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Our federal employee base has actually been level or declined over the last 40 or 50 years. So it's not like it's swelled beyond something crazy, if you will. Now, it's not kind of the decision or what you do. It's how you do it. I do not like buyouts. And that is, I generally find that the people who take buyouts are your most talented people. Because who's going to take a buyout?
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Oh, I'm a really talented 30-year-old that has all sorts of options and they're going to pay me and I've been thinking about leaving because I have a lot of opportunities outside of the... you know, the DOJ or whatever it might be. Boom. Oh my gosh, I'm going to get eight months. Okay. Hey, Google. Hey, Salesforce. Hey, Akin Gump or whatever.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
I'm in and I got an eight month bonus, signing bonus to come to you. So I find it's a self-defeating process buyouts. And that is, I believe in performance reviews, I would have put more pressure on them to say, to have a thoughtful way to say, okay, let's do assessments. Because there's probably some departments that should be staffed up. The IRS should probably hire more people.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
For every dollar you put into the IRS, you get 12 back. And there's other departments that should probably lose more than, you know, 5% or 10%. I find this is just lazy, and you end up losing kind of your best.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
When I was on the board of the New York Times, they did a lot of quote-unquote buyouts of different newsrooms. They owned a bunch of newspapers. And local and regional newspapers were just getting the shit kicked out of them. They just didn't have a place in the new economy. And so they would do buyouts.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
the way they would do it was they would go to what I call the kind of critical employees and say, FYI, we're letting you in on this. We're going to do a buyout, but we have plans for you and want you to stay. I think in any organization, it shouldn't be that hard to identify kind of critical leadership or people who are doing, who are exceptional.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
And I think there's this Hallmark version of an organization where everyone's great. And if anyone is not great, it's about the culture and we just got to find them the right role. I don't buy that. I've said for a while, and this is not, again, aspirational. You never say this in all hands.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
I've kind of jokingly but have seriously said 10% of the employees at 120% of the value and the other 90% are negative 20%. And you need to identify that 10%, especially as you scale an organization and make sure that they're nailed to the ground. This is your equity stake. I'm overpaying you. You have no reason to ever leave. You're gonna do really well here.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Today's number 1.5. That's the percentage of global stocks the Norway Sovereign Wealth Fund owns, making it the world's largest single investor. Norway, where the dating scene is a sauna and a hike, and then you jump into a freezing river, and if you survive, you get a second date.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
It's one thing to cut costs, but what you wanna do is you wanna improve the tensile strength and the effectiveness. It's almost like you could, I would argue, If you had a growth mindset, you'd say, I'm going to give the IRS more money, but I need them to increase tax revenues by X dollars.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
I need the Department of Veteran Affairs to increase its customer service or its reviews, its satisfaction reviews among veterans by 5% a year for the next four years. And here's a bonus pool. And we'll keep hiring static. But we need you to be more productive. We need you to be better at what you do.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
I think that says Elon Musk written all over it, that rather than offering a carrot as well, they're going at it with sort of a kind of a blunt instrument stick. So I don't think this is the right way to go about it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Not really a joke, Ed, just sort of an observation. Here we are.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Just an observation. Let's go Norwegian. Let's make some cabbage here. This episode is brought to you by Fundrise. We think we're Norway. We think we're rich and civilized. Meanwhile, we're arguing over transgender. Meanwhile, we're arguing over Chan. Anyways, never mind. Keep that in. I'm getting so fucking old.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
I'm kidding. I think you're exactly right. I don't think Starbucks, I think Starbucks has an obligation to make money, treat its employees well, be good to its community, and then pay their fair share of taxes such that we can have a more systemic approach to homelessness.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
And I wonder if that same person is worried about the Red Lobster, Olive Garden, and the fact they're not letting homeless people hang out. I saw the earnings and I thought, okay, Brian Nicole is the CEO. And this guy is pretty much Jesus Christ in my book because he spent the last six years at Chipotle. So one, he owes me a lot of money. And I have eaten at Chipotle.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
When I'm in New York, I'm going to eat there basically lunch. Mary Jean, my chief of staff knows, she knows what I like. And it starts with cha and it ends with potluck. I love it there. I think he did an amazing job. The stock was up 9x when he was there. Wow. So I think that the market just wants to interpret everything this guy does and love it.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Because when I looked at the actual numbers, you know, they were fine. But I think the market is looking for reasons to take the stock up under this guy's leadership. And in the last... week, it's up 11%. So he's added 13 billion. The company's increased its market cap by $13 billion, and people have been saying he's already made 50 or 80 million bucks. That's cheap.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
They got a great deal on this guy. Because the market wants to love him and the market wants to say, oh, Jesus Christ is here and he's going to figure this out. The thing that stuck out to me, you did your homework here and your observation is more insightful and has a more interesting overlay around public policy.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
The thing I loved about it is it is impossible over time or very difficult to maintain the discipline to not add more menu items.
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Prof G Markets: Meta & Microsoft Brush Off DeepSeek + Starbucks Stages a Comeback
Because you launch one, everyone goes into group thing, people like it, there's some evidence, and we all start saying, oh, it makes sense to have charged lemonades or to have banana bread or to have sandwiches or to have, you just start, and before you know it, what Steve Jobs said to the CEO of Nike when he was on the board there, he said, get rid of all the shit.
Today, Explained
Serving your country while trans
I'm more of an X-Man fan myself. Call me Professor... Can I read minds? I can't really read minds, but I can empathize with anyone having a midlife crisis, which is essentially any tech leader, so...
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I think pushing back on Russia for $60 billion a year and setting a signal that we are willing to sacrifice for democracies and repel murderous autocrats, I think that's an outstanding investment. $800 billion a year to give me a tax cut? Bad idea.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And all this other shit is just a misdirect to get you to look away from what is about to happen, and that is the biggest tax increase in history on you and your children.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
It's a really thoughtful question. So when you hear Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren rail about billionaires and that we need a progressive tax structure, which I think is accurate, there's some nuance there in the sense that So I'll take you as an example, Trevor. I imagine you make an extraordinary living, but it's current income, meaning if you live, is your home here?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Are you a New York resident? You're probably paying 50 or 52% tax rate.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Because the majority of your income is current income, and you make enough money to be in the highest tax bracket. Now, I've made my living starting and selling businesses, and now I make my living buying and selling stock. My tax rate, I'm a Florida resident now, has been 17% for the last 10 years.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Well, here's the thing. The people that get screwed are the super earners. And then your tax rate plummets when you become a super owner. So when I was in my 30s and 40s making an extraordinary living as a consultant or as a writer, I was paying 30, 35, 45%. Once I became a super owner, my tax rate plummeted.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And this has been a conspiracy that both the Democrats and the Republicans have fomented. And where they come together is the following. And that is democracy over the last 30 or 40 years in terms of rights has become solely a function of how rich you are. Any woman in my life will have access to mesofestrone.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I could be in the deepest, reddest part of America, and if someone I know has an unwanted pregnancy, we're going to have no problem. If they start rounding up people, and people say that can never happen in America, bullshit. It happened 80 years ago. We started rounding up the Japanese, despite the fact many of their children were serving in the European market, fighting in our uniform.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
It could absolutely happen here. I think we're one economic shock away from, and who knows who the group will be. It might be Muslims, I don't know, or immigrants. I think it could get very ugly very fast. It's not a threat to me. I'm rich. I can peace out to Dubai.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Some of that. Some of that. Although, just to comment on that, I actually think in America, and this is a collective victory, and we should celebrate it, I think you would rather be more non-white or gay in America right now than poor.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Say that line again, though, but you would rather be born in today's America. And this is a sign of our collective victory, but should also inform how we allocate resources and lift people up. Affirmative action should be based on color, and that color should be green.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Yes. 70% overlap. But here's the bottom line.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Trevor knows kids. You don't need any help. Right. Your kids in America today, and we should celebrate this, you'd rather be born non-white or gay than poor. The academic gap between black and white 60 years ago was double between rich and poor. It has flipped.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Where are you coming in from, by the way? Oh, I have a place. I live in London, but I have a place here. You live in London? I do, yeah.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
But then the question is, how do we help them? Letting in the Taiwanese daughter of a billionaire is not diversity or firmness.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
60 years ago, there were 12 Blacks at Harvard, Princeton, and Yale combined. That's a problem. Race-based affirmative action made sense. This year, 60% of Harvard's freshman class identify as non-white. But here's the thing, 70% of those kids come from upper-income homes. So, Where should we go?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I think most Republicans and almost all Democrats agree that some people are born with wins in their face that deserve a little bit of help. By the way, I'm talking my own book. I got Pell Grants. My mother lived and died a secretary. We were generously upper, lower, middle class.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
So I got unfair advantage in the form of Pell Grants because I came from a household that was considered in the bottom quartile.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I think that's where it should be now. But what we have in the U.S. is a conspiracy between the 1% and any administration that says, you don't need to worry. You don't need to speak up. You're the most powerful, but bitch about it to your friends and wring your hands about what's going on. But you're not going to come out and speak about it. You're not going to refuse to go to his inauguration.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
You're not going to refuse to give him a million bucks because this is the bottom line. The rich... are protected by the law, but they're not bound by it. And the poor in this country are bound by the law, but not protected by it.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Your rights and your democracy have never been better if you're in the 1%, but the whole point of American constitutionality and democracy is that it's meant to protect the bottom 50. Rich people don't need democracy. They don't need rights because they have money. I have more rights than any individual in history because I'm rich. And that's what America has become.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
It's become an operating system for transferring rights and money and democracy to the 1% at the cost of the bottom 99. It is total bullshit. It is un-American and is the conspiracy emerging. And the reason why so many rich people are being quiet is because they're like me. They upload their W-2s to chat GPT. I'm going to save 930 grand this year if the Trump tax cuts go through. So stop, stop.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
It hurts so good. That was a mouthful. I loved it.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I grew up there. Around this stuff, I'm an influencer, not a decision maker. My wife told me we were moving five years ago.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Yeah. Well, I'm on the road a lot, so she says I don't get a vote. Is your wife British? No, she's actually born in Poland, raised in Germany. Both my parents are initially from the UK.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Is that what you're saying, though?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Well, so if you... To be fair, to acknowledge the point. So if you look at... There is still an economic apartheid in the United States. Latino and black households have an average wealth of $20,000. White households, $150,000. So it's hard not to acknowledge.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
There's some nuance that when you normalize it and when you compare black Latino households with a college education to white households with a college education, things get normalized or evened out.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I think we're falling into the trap of the following. I think that the algorithms and the incumbents want us to be thinking it's black versus white, and it's the old, quite frankly. Old people figured out they could vote themselves more money, and an average seven-year-old is 72% wealthier than they were 40 years ago, and the average person your age is 24% less wealthy than they were 40 years ago.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Every economic policy in America is meant to transfer wealth from the lower 99 to the top one, and specifically from the young to the old. And who it impacts most... is people of color and poor people. And the question is, how do we move to a solution?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I have dual. I was almost drafted when the Falkland Islands crisis broke out, which my mom was not anticipating. Wow. Yeah.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
No, I just want to use a model. The University of California, which saved my ass, I think had the right approach. In 1997, they did away with race-based affirmative action, and they went to what's called an adversity score. What is your background? Do you come from a single-parent household? Do you come from an economically strained household?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Do you come from a household where someone is incarcerated? And by the way, the overlap. That's genius. The overlap is 70%. But what it also solves for is the fact that, quite frankly, Trevor, your kids should not get affirmative action.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
The identity politics ends up enraging. How did we elect an insurrectionist as president? That's an honest question. And I think this is what happened. If you look at the groups that pivoted hardest from blue to red, 2020 to 2024, it was three groups. It was Latinos who, in my opinion, gagged on the notion that because of their identity, they were expected to vote some one way.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Mexican-Americans in LA are much different and have different priorities than Cuban-Americans in Southern Florida. They pivoted the hardest. The second biggest pivot was people under the age of 30, who for the first time in the nation's history aren't doing as well as their parents were at 30. That's never happened before. The third group that pivoted hardest to the right were women aged 45 to 64.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And I believe, I believe that's the mothers of young men who are failing. This was supposed to be an election on or a referendum on women's rights. We thought that's what was going to save us for those of us who supported Vice President Harris, that women's rights were going to step into the fold. Women's rights did not show up It was not a big swing vote in this election.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
My mom's passed. My mom passed. My dad is in San Diego.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
What showed up, quite frankly, was struggling young people and their parents. Because if your kid is in the basement playing video games and vaping, you don't give a shit about territorial sovereignty in Ukraine. You don't care about transgender rights. That's a luxury rich Democrats get to have, not us. My kids aren't doing well. And so they voted for chaos and change. And this guy is so coarse.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
So unconventional, so kind of non-bullshit, quite frankly, that you saw people pivot hard from blue to red.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Oh, it's a Scottish accent. Oh, he's a Scotsman. I love that. If I could give my sons anything, it would be a Scottish accent.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
But the data you're missing is the following. Black women overwhelmingly voted for Vice President Harris. Yeah. But more of them voted for Trump than they did in 2020. Oh, yeah.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
That's a strange phenomena, and that is a lot of women will vote for what they perceive as best for their husbands and their sons.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
But we all thought, at least I thought, I thought Roe v. Wade being overturned. Roe v. Wade's another example.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Fair enough. I mean, I'll give you another interesting stat where Trump was really brilliant. I'm fascinated by how he won. We're on a podcast, right? Trump flew into the manosphere, crypto, rockets. Joe Rogan, he flew right into the manosphere. He said, I am worried about young men. I relate to young men. I am coarse, aggressive. This wasn't the women's referendum election.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
This was the testosterone election. And he flew right into the manosphere. And quite frankly, it was brilliant. By him going on Rogan, 40 million video views, 15 million audio downloads. He got more attention in 90 minutes than Kamala. If Kamala Harris wanted the same level of attention exposure, she would have had to have gone on MSNBC, CNN, and Fox every night for three hours for two weeks.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
You know, they just wanted a better life, I think, while a lot of people came here. They came here when they were 19 and 22, respectively, on a steamship from Glasgow and London, respectively.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
She absolutely should have flown down to Austin. He saw the opportunity to appeal to struggling young men and the people concerned about them. And by the way, the struggles I talk about, I talk about struggling young men a lot, they're even more acute for young men of color. Yeah. A boy is twice as likely to be suspended as a girl on a behavior-adjusted basis. Same exact infraction in school.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
A boy is twice as likely to be suspended. A black boy is five times as likely to be suspended. So we have an education system that is not only biased, in my opinion, against males, it's really biased against males. All these problems I talk about with men, whether it's suicide, opiate addiction, homelessness, it's especially acute among non-white men.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
But this is something, going back to your question, when did this happen? I feel like America, our lack, and I'm an atheist, so I'm not suggesting that church is the answer, but as a nation becomes wealthier, its reliance on a super being and church attendance goes down. But into that void fall, we still need answers, so we try and find idols.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And the new Jesus Christ of our economy are technology innovators, tech billionaires, because this shit feels like magic, and these people create... trillions in wealth, so we're fascinated by them. And I think where we came off the tracks is this idolatry of money. When I was a kid, my dad's boss had a slightly bigger house, but we all went to the same country club.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
We all went to the same school. Money buys you everything from better healthcare to better schools to a much broader selection set of mates. So we have become obsessed, understandably, with money. The idolatry of the dollar and these tech innovators has gone berserk. And so the pursuit of the dollar, in my opinion, has crowded out almost all traditional character.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
When the wealthiest man in the world and probably the most admired man in the world is making Nazi salutes We normalize that shit. Why? Because he's really fucking rich. Look what money has done to us. Look what it's done.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
If you had a friend who was making Nazi salutes at parent-teachers conferences and was being sued by two women for sole custody of their kids and you had heard from credible sources that they were addicted to ketamine, wouldn't you move in and say, hey, boss, something's wrong here? But not if you're rich, not if you can put a rocket into space or make a shit ton of money with EVs.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Money has perverted us. It has crowded out all sense of character, of decency, of what it means to be a real man. We have decided that you can get away with anything as long as you're rich. It's been a total, in my opinion, a lack of a moral failing. We used to admire cops. We used to admire people who had fidelity to their religion. We used to admire people who defended our country.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
The sexiest man I remember thinking that I looked up to was my principal. He drove a 240Z. He smelled like Aqua Velva. He wore these cool coats with an elbow patch. He can't get laid now. Do you think a vice principal has any game in any city?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I think about that a lot. We should talk about it. Yeah, we're talking about it. Are we recording?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Welcome to the podcast. I'll be infinitely more charming and insightful then. So the way I would distill the difference between the U.S. and Europe is the U.S. is still the best place to make money and Europe's the best place to spend it. So my crude reductive analysis on someone at your age is you're probably still in the making money part of your face.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. to find purpose in their life through family. And they may decide not to do it. You don't have to have kids to be happy. But for God's sakes, if the most prosperous nation in the world can't offer people the prospect of meeting, falling in love, mating, and having a reasonable standard of living, then none of this is working.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
There's more opportunities that will bump off of you in the U.S. than will in triple the time in Europe. But once you get to a point of economic security and you start thinking about lifestyle, Europe's a much more civilized same place. It's great for kids.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
You can get a much better bottle of wine for $10 in Spain than you can anywhere in the U.S. The people are friendly, but the reality is the opportunities and the risk capital just isn't there. For every company in the U.S., there's $5 million in venture capital. For every company in Europe, there's $1 million.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
So there's just not nearly the risk aggressiveness and the opportunities to make money in Europe as there are here. So I would say, as I was when I was your age, I was very economically focused. I wasn't trying to be a better person or find a family or change the world. I was trying to be rich. And America is absolutely the best place to establish economic trajectory.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Well, first of all, thank you. Your comments are generous. I started talking about struggling young men five years ago. Real insight is when you state something that's obvious, but people weren't thinking about. And the data is just overwhelming. And that is no group has ascended faster globally than women. And by the way, we should do nothing to get in the way of this.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
More women are seeking tertiary education now globally than men. The number of women elected to parliament and democracy has doubled in the last 30 years. In the United States, women in urban metros under the age of 30 are making more money than men. more single women own homes than men. Two in three women under the age of 30 are in a relationship, only one in three men.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And you think, well, that's mathematically impossible. It's not because women are dating older because they want more economically and emotionally viable men. What you have in the US is no group has fallen further faster than young men. And it's for a variety of reasons. Biologically, their prefrontal cortex is 18 months behind a woman. So it doesn't catch up till 25.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
They just lack the executive function and the judgment. A big part is male abandonment. A lot of young men don't have the male involvement in their lives that is key. And even if you were to say that five years ago, the gag reflex was, well, what are you saying? Mothers can't raise sons? No, I'm not saying that at all. But the research is pretty striking.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
When there's a single-parent household, and let's be honest, 92% of the time it's the woman heading the household in a single-parent home, as mine was. The girl in the household has the same outcomes, same rate of college attendance, same rates of self-harm. In some, she's okay.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
The boy, the moment he loses a male role model, becomes much more likely to kill himself, much more likely to be incarcerated. What it ends up, if you look at the data, is that while boys are physically stronger, they're emotionally and mentally much weaker.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And we don't even want to acknowledge at one point four or five years ago, you could get into trouble by even claiming there was a difference amongst genders and young people. And if you were advocating for men, you were seen as a misogynist because so many unproductive voices filled this void with bullshit, thinly veiled misogyny.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Once you have money, peace out to Europe. So this is actually a question I had for you.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And what we have come to realize, and the dialogue's gotten a lot better and it's mostly been led by mothers, is that empathy is not a zero-sum game. We can still acknowledge the immense challenges women face. The moment you had kids, your average salary went to 73 cents on the dollar.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Corporate America has still not figured out a way to maintain a woman's professional trajectory when she decides to use her ovaries. At the same time, young men, if you go into a morgue in the United States and there's five people who've died by suicide, Four are men.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
If any other special interest group was killing themselves at four times the rate of the control group, we'd weigh in with programs. And finally, we're starting to acknowledge that women cannot continue to flourish and our country cannot continue to flourish if young men are floundering.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
It's a great point. If you were to reverse engineer, when a boy comes off the tracks and becomes an unproductive man, it's the single point of failure is when he loses a male role model.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
We have the second most single-parent homes in the world behind Sweden. And unfortunately, there's a taboo. If you were to get involved in a 15-year-old's life, if you were to look around the office and say, single mother, say, I'm Trevor, I'm going to a game, do you have a son who'd like to hang out with me? Because you're immediately suspected
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
You're immediately, quite frankly, Michael Jackson and Catholic Church have fucked it up for all of us. And that is if a man wants to be involved in a boy's life, there's a bit of trepidation. Is there something wrong with him? Is he up to something really mendacious or awful? Could he be possibly a pedophile?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And this is such a tragedy because there are so many men with fraternal and paternal love to give that maybe don't have kids of their own or maybe just are concerned or see the problem who are willing to weigh in. And they're kind of told by society not to. And also, quite frankly, men are not stepping up. There are three times as many women.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
applying to be big sisters in the New York Big Sisters program is there are men applying to be big brothers. In sum, if we want better men, we have to be better men. And you're exactly right. There needs to be a zeitgeist in our society. Family court, neighbors, the moment... a boy no longer has a male role model in his life, other men need to step into the void. My mom was really good at this.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
She made sure I'm still in contact with a couple of her ex-boyfriends. There was a neighbor across the hall who used to come over with his girlfriend and take me horseback riding. I had men in my life. And sometimes there are millions of young men right now, boys, the first male role model they have is a prison guard because men aren't stepping up. And I think of, I'm writing a book on masculinity.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I think of concentric circles of masculinity. You take care of yourself. You're strong. You're economically viable. You're kind. You're a fucking monster. You have this unbelievable thing called superior bone structure, risk aggressiveness, this amazing substance called testosterone. You protect others. You take care of yourself. Second circle out, you protect your family. You're a good provider.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Next circle out, you take care of your community and your neighbors and you help other people. The ultimate expression of masculinity, in my view, is to take an irrational interest in the well-being of a child that's not yours. And not enough men are doing this. And it is so easy to find them.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I think you're both right. One in six men three years post-divorce have no contact with their children. Some of that is male abandonment. Some of it is just a total lack of character. You don't hear a lot about female abandonment because it just doesn't happen that much. At the same time, family court is also, you would argue, biased against men. Sometimes it literally impoverishes them.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Sometimes also the reality is in divorce, there's a lot of emotion and my parents weaponized it and tried to convince me to hate the other. And you're just more inclined to believe the person you're living with, that the other person is bad. So I think that we need to change the side and say, okay, regardless of how you feel about each other,
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
You need to be supportive of each other for the kid's sake post-divorce. It's a nuanced argument with a lot of factors, but in general, there needs to be a zeitgeist in our society that the moment a boy loses a male role model, the community has to rally around that kid, the mother, the brothers, the uncles, and the men to say, we have to get men involved in his life. And that's not happening.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
It's not... think about it, after-school programs, not as many coaches anymore, right? They're not going into work. My first job was at Morgan Stanley. I got a lot of male mentorship. I was in a fraternity. I remember my quote-unquote big brother in the fraternity sitting me down my freshman year and saying, you need to stop getting high every night.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And I needed a 22-year-old male that I could kind of look up to. I didn't have a lot of male involvement in my life to tell me that. My first boss, you know, was a great guardrail for me. Young men need guardrails more than young women, quite frankly, where young women get them.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
When a young woman isn't in a relationship, she reinvests oftentimes a lot of that energy into her friend network, into her professional life. When a man's not in a relationship, he oftentimes reinvests it in video games and porn, and he sequesters from society. And a tremendous guardrail for young men that they're not getting is a relationship.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I think what's going on is mostly bad. I think that there's a series of... Eight-year alliances, the post-World War II order that was based on trust, reciprocity of free trade, a general notion that America might get it wrong, but our heart was in the right place, and that we believed in rights, women's rights, civil rights, democracy. We would push back on autocrats.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I think you're talking about the way the world should be, not the way it is.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
A 30-year-old male that hasn't lived with a woman or been married has a one in three chance of becoming a substance abuser. And a strong friend network is incredibly important. But without a romantic relationship, men have a tendency to not reinvest in their social network and their professional lives the way that women do.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
You clearly have figured out that male friendship is really important for men. They open up to other men. They can express. The people who have the most job prospects are the most social. They have an outlet with each other. Do you think in general, though, that women, once they get married, are really supportive of men spending more time with their friends?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Okay, most women see a guy spending more time with their mates as a threat to the relationship. In addition, corporations don't want men spending a lot of time with their friends. They want them making more money.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
But the larger point you bring up is the following. One in seven men in America doesn't have a single friend. One in four men can't name a best friend.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And we have what I would argue is a loneliness crisis. And the most frightening thing for young men right now, in my view, is that the deepest pocketed, most talented companies in the world are trying to convince young men, especially, that they can have a reasonable facsimile of life on a screen with an algorithm.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Why go through the effort of trying to have friends and figuring out the pecking order and your social currency when you can go on Reddit and Discord? And why, for God's sakes, would you ever go through the humiliation, the rejection, working out, having a plan, being funny, smelling nice, enduring rejection, feeling humiliated,
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
figuring out a way to feel confident, showing the perseverance such that you can establish a romantic or a sexual relationship when you have porn. So what we have is, I think, unfortunately, we're evolving a new species of asexual, asocial males. And they're the most dangerous people in the world.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Because, and I don't want to pathologize them. We have a tendency to say, oh, they're the school shooters. Actually, the people they're most dangerous towards is themselves. They're much more likely to harm themselves than harm other people. But the one thing the most unstable, violent societies have in common is a disproportionate amount of young men who have no economic or romantic prospects.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Yeah. And we don't like to have an ominous conversation around mating. The reality is women mate socioeconomically horizontally and up, men horizontally and down. And when dating apps are now where 50 to 60% of all relationships begin, the reductive analysis is the following. Can you signal resources and are you tall? Men have very few arenas to demonstrate excellence anymore.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
If you talk to people who've been married longer than 30 years, 80% of them say one was much more interested in the other. And it was almost always the man was much more interested. But when there's no places, when men aren't going into work, when men don't have third spaces, when they're not serving in the military together, they have no place to demonstrate kindness. He was funny.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I liked his hands. He was great at what he did. And so as a result, we have this dating environment where the top 10% get literally all of the interest and the bottom 90% are just shut out. And then they become very prone to really ugly voices that say it's a woman's fault. They're much more prone to misogynistic content. They're much more prone to nationalist content.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
We would push back on war criminals. And those alliances feel like, or that playbook feels like, and maybe we're taking it for granted, has been ripped up. And just distinctive, the morality of what I think is unforgivable, surrendering to a murderous autocrat, put the morals aside and just talk about it economically.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
So figuring out environments where more people can meet and more men, quite frankly, can demonstrate excellence such that they can get through the finer filter of mating that women have. The greatest innovation in history, it's not the iPhone or the semiconductor. It's the American middle class. And fundamental to that innovation was that 7 million men returned from World War II.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
They had demonstrated excellence in uniform. We gave them enough money so they could afford a home. We gave them jobs and they became very attractive to a lot of women. And we started the baby boom and we had such wonderful prosperity that American liberal households said, let's bring women into this prosperity. I know let's bring, let's bring non-whites into this prosperity.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And we got along because the majority of our leaders had served in the same uniform. So they saw themselves as Americans before they saw themselves as Republicans or Democrats.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
But unless we figure out a way to level up young people and find a place where they can meet and fall in love and mate and they have the economic wherewithal to do it, we're just gonna continue to generate the most dangerous person in the world, and that is a young man with no economic or romantic prospects.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I coach a lot of young men, and one of the first things they talk about is they really want a girlfriend. And the first question I ask is, would you have sex with you? Would you have sex with you? Do you have a plan? You don't need to be a baller. You don't need to be rich. But do you have a plan? Are you going to vocational school?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Are you thinking about driving an Uber and saving up so you can get a second car to have a second Uber? Do you shower? Do you have good grooming? Are you funny? Are you willing to endure rejection? Are you willing to try really hard? you know, would you have sex with you? And there aren't enough men. How many times have we heard I've got all these great women in my life. They're so attractive.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
They're so shit together, but they can't find a man. No, they just can't find a man they want to mate with. And women are getting taller every year. They're becoming more economically viable. It's leading to a lot more divorce because quite frankly, men are not ascending in terms of picking up some of the slack logistically. So it's like, okay, you're no longer a provider.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And by the way, it's not like you're really picking up the slack at home. So women are saying you're out.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
So for a lot of reasons, I think we have to figure out a way to have honest conversations with men around, okay, this is what women are attracted to, signaling resources. That's the hard truth. You need an economic plan. Two, intellect. Are you interesting? Are you funny? Do you have interest in current events?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And then the third thing, the secret weapon for men and mating that we don't talk a lot about is kindness. Women actually want someone who's going to be kind because it means you're more likely to be good to her parents and good to your kids. Where do young people find mates in America right now?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
We have some of the best trading relationships and mutual reciprocity agreements with the largest economies in the world. We trade, we get along, we trust each other, we're willing to go anywhere. arm and arm with each other. Let's look at Canada, largest undefended border in the world. That says something about our friendship. Open trade. They led us into World War I. We followed them.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
You're from London? Yeah. 40% of nightclubs in London have closed down since COVID.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Young people don't have money.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And they're also drinking less. But you were talking about kind of, I think our economy has moved from an attention economy to unfortunately in an addiction economy. And I think it's especially hard on young men who are more prone to addiction because they're more risk aggressive.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I think basically our economy now, the kind of axis of evil is get people addicted to shitty food, to gambling, to porn, and then hand them over to the addiction industrial complex. The most valuable company in Europe now is a GLP-1 producer. And then if you think about young men, They're much more prone to addiction and especially gambling addictions. Six and seven gambling addicts are boys.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
50% of college-age men bet on the Super Bowl. And the net income of Las Vegas is down 40% this year because everyone now has a casino in their pocket.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And the crazy thing about gambling addiction is that the addiction with the highest suicide rate is gambling. Because if you had a meth addiction, we would know it and someone would weigh in who cared about you. You can get out so far in front of your skis with a gambling addiction and no one knows.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
They were in World War II before us, training Allied pilots. I love the test of that wonderful, very emotional test of friendship that the Holocaust survivor said to Buffett when she was saying, who are your real friends? She said, my test is, I think, would they hide me? That is a very puncturing Question, right? And the reality is in the 1979 hostage crisis, the Canadian embassy, they hit us.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I love that. So I try to walk the walk. I try and coach two young men at a time. And the people I coach, quite frankly... are struggling. I get a lot of people who send me emails and say, will you be my mentor? And I talk to them. I'm like, dude, you could mentor me. I talked to some 24-year-old working at Google. He's like, I need a mentor. I'm like, you're just fine.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
The first thing I do, I try and do it in person, but oftentimes it's over Zoom. The first thing I do is the following. I say, unlock your screen. I want to see your app time. And the first thing I do to put them at ease is I say to them, I gamble. I buy options. I'm not immune from gambling. I like porn. I try to modulate my use, but I like porn because I want to put them at ease.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I'm not going to judge them. And I say, okay, everyone has an advantage. You want to lean into your advantage. Your advantage as a young person is you have a lot of capital, but you have human capital. You have more time than money. that's an advantage. We're going to find eight to 12 hours of human capital of time in your phone.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And it's so easy between TikTok, between X, between Coinbase, between YouPorn. In about three minutes, I can get them to find eight to 12 hours a week of human capital. I'm like, all right, next week, we're going to open your phone and you're going to show me that you took eight to 12 hours of human capital out of your phone.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And we're going to reallocate that precious human capital into three areas. One, you're gonna start getting fit. You need to be strong. If you're under the age of 30 and you're a man, you're blessed with an unbelievable physiology. Any man under the age of 30 should be able to walk into any room and know if shit got real, they could either kill and eat everybody or outrun them. You'll be kinder.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
You'll feel better about yourself. Who breaks up fights at bars? Big, strong guys. Who defends our country? Big, strong men. You want to feel better about yourself. You want to be less prone to depression. You want to feel good about your mating prospects. You need to get strong. We're going to work out three to four times a week, too. We're going to start making some money.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
You got a smartphone, you can make money in this economy. I don't care if you're a Lyft driver. I don't care if you're a TaskRabbit. Go into a Panera. I was on the board of Panera. If you show up when you're supposed to show up three times in a row, you can be making 18 to 20 bucks an hour in about a month because you're going to get a taste for the flesh.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
You're going to find out that money is amazing. And when you start making money, you start getting good at it. You start figuring out what are the behaviors They get rewarded for money. Where are the opportunities? And then when you find when you buy shit, it gets your greed glands going and you start thinking about, I'd really like to go on another date.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I'd really like to be able to buy my mom something. You get a taste for the flesh of money. The way you make a lot of money is by starting to make a little bit of money. No one starts off making a hundred grand a year. Most of us have had jobs where we're making no money. And then the third thing we're going to do is two times a week,
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
We're going to find ourselves in the company of strangers, in the agency of something bigger than ourselves. Church, nonprofit, a riding class. Homeless shelter. Any soup kitchen. In the agency of something else.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And here's what we're going to do after a month of that, where the exercise, this is kind of 3A, I want you to approach a stranger and express interest in friendship or, and this is a hard one, express romantic interest while making that person feel safe. right? Hey, do you want to watch the game this weekend? Let's go to the pub. Arsenal's playing Liverpool. Do you want to go?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Hey, would you like to have coffee? An attractive woman or a woman you're attracted to. She's not dumb. She realizes, okay, you're probably interested in her. And that's not the goal. The goal is the following. The goal is no. You're probably going to get a no. They'll be nice, but they'll probably say no, right? And I'm going to call you the next day and I'm going to ask you if you're okay.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And this is what you're going to say. Yeah, I'm fine. And that's the key. The key to success is no. Because you're going to realize, you're going to realize that the people who are successful, who have romantic partners, who have economic success, had a shit ton of no's to get to that point of success. This is the scariest stat I've read.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
They hit six American diplomats, taking enormous personal risk to get them out of the country, and then they stayed behind. And if they'd been caught, there's a good chance they would have been hanged by cranes. So the Canadians... are willing to hide Americans. They are really true friends.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
51% of 18 to 24 year old males have never asked a woman out in person. Think about that. They don't have the confidence or the skills to approach a woman and ask her out. That's it. The goal is the no, because you get enough no's, eventually you're going to get a yes. I can't tell you how much rejection I've endured from women.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And the reason I am with a really high character, hot person is because I got comfortable with no.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Thank you. We'll be right back. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And right now we're in a situation where they don't even understand why we're trying to levy so much damage on their economy. So this post-World War II order that America has been sort of the leader in is being ripped up. And I don't think it's a good idea. The silver lining, I like to think what could go right. I struggle with anger and depression, so I consistently ask myself what could go right.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
What could go right is that possibly Europe is finally a union. And that is they realize their rich uncle has lost his shit. Yeah. There's no more trust fund. We cannot count on the $800 billion military umbrella and the economic... what I'll call consistency and rational thinking of America. And they are talking about increasing their defense budget from 1.9% of GDP to 3%.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
And I think that stimulus, I think Europe actually coordinating because of the crisis around a lack of American leadership, The EU economy is $19 trillion. Russia is $2 trillion. Russia is actually smaller than Canada.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
So there's no reason that if the EU gets its shit together and starts coordinating and increasing their military budgets, they shouldn't be able to push back on Russia all on their own. And I think that stimulus and also the spillover of technology might actually create an upward spiral of economic growth in Europe.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
So I'd like to think the silver lining here is that some of the most advanced countries civilized democratic economies in the world and some of those robust economies are quite frankly getting their shit together. That Europe is a union for the first time in a long time.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I realized that if someone wasn't interested in me, someone didn't want to hire me, someone didn't want to invest in my company, I was going to be just fine. It didn't get in the way. I ran for sophomore, junior, and senior class president. I lost all three times. Based on my track record, I decided to run for student body president, where I went on to wait for it, lose.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Yeah, I think on the whole, this is not good for America and the West. And I would just want to acknowledge that Eisenhower, a general, war into the military industrial complex. He said, if you build privatized shareholder gains based on a war machine, you're going to invent reasons to need the war machine.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Having said that, I would argue that we on the left are sometimes naive about the fact that the moment some bad actors believe they can come for us and take our Netflix and our Nespresso away, they will. And that I actually am a bit of a war hawk and believe in a very strong defense.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I would also argue that just economically, two points, if you look at the most valuable companies in the world, whether it's Apple or Google, they're built on the backs of middle-class investments vis-a-vis the defense department. So GPS, which is what all mobile technology is based on, It was initially a technology developed for ICBMs to put them in the pocket of Gorbachev.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
DARPA, which is what the internet is built on, was made by an extraordinary investment meant to create a hubless communications network so we could communicate with each other after the Russians nuked us. So I would argue the military spending for the most part in the U.S., has been, I would argue, a net positive.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Now, that's not to say that it should any way rationalize entry into Southeast Asia or into Iraq. These are disastrous positions. Now, as it relates to, let me go to Ukraine. I think of a manager as somebody who's just supposed to allocate capital to a greater return than your peer group. That's their job as managers. The job of the president is he's the biggest capital allocator in history.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
But recognizing no is not the worst thing in the world is the key skill. And young men, because of a low entry, low risk entry into relationships with bots or AI sex dolls or you porn, have decided they no longer want to tolerate no. That is the key. But I would suggest...
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I would argue that the decision to allocate $60 billion a year to Ukraine is one of the best investments that has ever been made in the modern world. In exchange for that $60 billion, to your point, We've kind of defanged the reputation of this supposedly ferocious army of Russia. It was five days and Kiev's fallen, right? That did not happen. We've taken out a third of their kinetic power.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
A third of their tanks and much of their Navy has been taken out. Also, Russia is not a good actor towards us. Their intervention or introduction to our economy is to steal our IP and attack us from a cybersecurity. So them being focused on a failed war.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
a defenestration of their quote unquote ferociousness, and also sending a signal to the world that when the West binds together, we are a formidable fighting force. And all of this was without a single boot on the ground from America. In addition, that $60 billion a year, somewhere between 70% and 90% of it, has come back to the U.S. to manufacture weapons, mostly in red states.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
So for about 8% of our military budget, we are keeping a bad actor occupied, reducing their military kinetic power, and sending a message to the world that the West is a formidable backer of even a small motivated army. I think this is the best money we have spent in a long time.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
I think it's through numbers and data. In terms of the very real justifiable argument of like, there's a lot of problems here. We should be focusing all our capital here.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
The $75 billion in USA, the $60 billion in Ukraine, I would argue is nothing but a weapon of mass distraction to get you to look away from the fact that the tax cuts that Trump is about to implement will increase our deficit by $800 billion. And the problem is Democrats don't speak in language that people can understand. This is what a deficit is.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
A deficit is a tax on you and your children in 10 to 30 years. It crowds out investment in technology and education. They create more growth. It crowds out our ability to have programs for younger people. Basically, our debt, our entire federal budget is moving towards senior citizens. Forty percent of everything goes to people over the age of 65. Interest on our debt and the military.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
So we can't make these forward leaning investments that benefit you. And you're going to have to pay it back. Not me. I'll be dead by the time we run out of credibility and the Treasury market fails.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
so all of this nonsense around let's not invest in ukraine usa bring the money home the dojo 2.6 billion dollars in savings so far according to the wall street journal if you want to 6x the savings from doja stop all subsidies to tesla So your job is to allocate capital. So I think the helicopter crash was DEI, Doja, only male and female, the gulf of cheaper eggs.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
It's all a misdirect from the most irresponsible spending that we're about to incur. And that is you're about to incur a future $800 billion tax every year such that I can make more money. that essentially America has become about our fiscal policies have become the following.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
The Problem with Men, with Scott Galloway [VIDEO]
Give me your credit card so I can be in the club doing rails and champagne, and all you get to do is pay for it in the form of deficit. $60 billion is a decent amount of money, but it's nothing like the $800 billion a year we're going to lose in deficit spending. I think USAID is an amazing investment for people around the world to feel good about America.