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Can We Get Back Together With Canada? | Pivot

Live from Toronto, it's the Pivot Tour! Kara and Scott are hitting the road, and their first stop is a visit to our neighbors up north. They discuss tariffs and tourism, and how the U.S. can get back together with Canada. Plus, FAA cuts lead to flight cancellations, what the Supreme Court SNAP ruling is really all about, and the new wave of progressive mayors on both sides of the border. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 7:15 Flight Cancellations Mount 12:05 Supreme Court SNAP Ruling 21:45 U.S.-Canada Trade War 35:21 Mamdani the Role Model 43:21 Tourism Downturn 49:47 Q&A #pivot #podcast #pivottour #karaswisher #scottgalloway #canada #toronto #faa #supremecourt #snap #mamdani #tourism Producers: Lara Naaman Zoë Marcus Taylor Griffin Corinne Ruff Video Editor: Jim Mackil Vox Media's Executive Producer of Podcasts: Nishat Kurwa Subscribe to Pivot on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pivot/id1073226719 Subscribe to Pivot on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4MU3RFGELZxPT9XHVwTNPR Follow us on Instagram and Threads at: https://www.instagram.com/pivotpodcastofficial/ Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@PIVOTPODCAST Send us your questions by calling us at 855-51-PIVOT, or email pivot@voxmedia.com

Kara SwisherhostScott Gallowayhost
Nov 11, 20251h 0mWatch on YouTube ↗

At a glance

WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

Tariffs, tourism, and tech: Kara and Scott reassess US–Canada ties

  1. Recorded live in Toronto, Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway use humor and sharp commentary to explore the fraying yet interdependent relationship between the US and Canada. They link US policy failures—government shutdowns, FAA underfunding, tariffs, SNAP cuts, ICE raids—to broader questions about economic vitality, safety, and national character. The conversation moves from air travel and AI’s economic and geopolitical stakes to the asymmetry of US–Canada trade and how tariffs are driving Canada to diversify away from America. They close by debating progressive politics, tourism declines, masculinity, and how AI-fueled disinformation and social media demand aggressive regulation, especially to protect young people.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

Government-induced disruption to air travel erodes economic vitality and safety.

Flight cuts tied to US political brinkmanship hurt tourism, business, and overall productivity, while undermining decades of work that made aviation an extraordinarily safe, high-trust system.

AI may become a broad public good rather than a narrow corporate goldmine.

Galloway argues that, like vaccines, PCs, and airlines, AI could end up widely benefiting consumers and societies rather than allowing a small set of firms to hoard all the value—though he flags geopolitical and concentration risks.

US–Canada trade has long favored US shareholders, making tariffs economically irrational and politically hostile.

Because US exports to Canada tend to be higher-margin, higher-multiple goods, each dollar sold into Canada generates far more shareholder value than the resource-heavy exports Canada sends south, meaning Americans have actually been the bigger economic winners.

Canada’s forced diversification away from the US may strengthen its resilience and innovation.

Trump-era tariffs and unpredictability are pushing Canada to build new supply chains and trade relationships, reducing dangerous dependence on a single, volatile partner and potentially creating more room for homegrown tech ecosystems to flourish.

US budget choices expose a harsh value system that underfunds children while protecting older, wealthier voters.

With children making up a disproportionate share of SNAP recipients and public spending tilting toward seniors and enforcement (e.g., ICE), Swisher and Galloway frame current US policy as shifting from capitalism with winners and losers to “Hunger Games”-style cruelty.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

If you don't think vaccines are the biggest innovation in history, your head's up your ass and I can't save you.

Scott Galloway

It's as if the Trump administration said to ChatGPT, 'How can I elegantly reduce the prosperity of Americans inch by inch?'

Scott Galloway

Your budget reflects your values, and we've decided we're no longer capitalism believing in winners and losers; we're about The Hunger Games.

Scott Galloway

We have to absolutely get control of the technology industry and pass reasonable and important legislation around transparency, privacy, usage, safety.

Kara Swisher

There is now, unfortunately, a profit incentive attached to evolving a new species of asocial, asexual youth… it's as if we have connected a profit motive into planning our own extinction.

Scott Galloway

Impact of US government dysfunction on air travel, safety, and the economyAI as a general-purpose innovation and its potential value distributionUS–Canada trade asymmetry, tariffs, and Canada’s push to diversify partnersSNAP benefits, child hunger, and what US budget priorities reveal about valuesInnovation ecosystems in Canada versus the US (BlackBerry, Shopify, universities)Progressive politics and models of modern masculinity in urban leadershipAI, social media, disinformation, and regulatory guardrails for protecting youth and democracy

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