Scott Galloway Says Iran War is “The Definition of a Quagmire” | Pivot

1. 0:00 – 5:38

   Intro

   1. SGScott Galloway0:00

      This is kind of the definition of a quagmire, and that is I'm not sure at this point he has any choice but to put boots on the ground. I would argue at this point, Kara, Iran is winning.

   2. KSKara Swisher0:10

      [upbeat music] Hi, everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara Swisher.

   3. SGScott Galloway0:22

      And I'm Scott Galloway.

   4. KSKara Swisher0:23

      Scott, I have officially left your apartment in New York staying there.

   5. SGScott Galloway0:26

      Oh, you moved into your new place?

   6. KSKara Swisher0:28

      Yes. I bought an, a small apartment in Brooklyn-

   7. SGScott Galloway0:31

      That's great

   8. KSKara Swisher0:31

      ... in Park Slope.

   9. SGScott Galloway0:31

      In Brooklyn where all the kid- cool kids are.

   10. KSKara Swisher0:33

       I have to say, I enjoyed it. We went this weekend. We went to Ikea for 17 hours, which was fun, actually. Bought a range of inexpensive furniture, and it's very lovely, actually. We, we, we... It's very nice. I miss you, but I have to move on from our relat- our housing relationship. [chuckles]

   11. SGScott Galloway0:51

       So do you know how many times I've been to Brooklyn in 25 years?

   12. KSKara Swisher0:54

       How many?

   13. SGScott Galloway0:55

       Twice. Both times to be able to go to the SoHouse there. Uh, there's no reason to ever leave the island unless you're going to JFK or LaGuardia.

   14. KSKara Swisher1:01

       It's nice. We're very well known in Park Slope, I can tell you that. I got stopped a couple of times.

   15. SGScott Galloway1:04

       Oh, I don't doubt it.

   16. KSKara Swisher1:05

       It was crazy.

   17. SGScott Galloway1:06

       You're like royalty in Brooklyn.

   18. KSKara Swisher1:07

       [laughs]

   19. SGScott Galloway1:07

       Jesus Christ, I can't even imagine.

   20. KSKara Swisher1:09

       I can use-

   21. SGScott Galloway1:09

       "Hi, Kara. Welcome to Brooklyn."

   22. KSKara Swisher1:11

       I know. That's exactly what happened.

   23. SGScott Galloway1:13

       Mm.

   24. KSKara Swisher1:13

       It was like... Now, two other things. Let me just say-

   25. SGScott Galloway1:15

       Okay

   26. KSKara Swisher1:15

       ... two other phenomena. So I have all these books that I get for my podcast, and probably you do, too, right?

   27. SGScott Galloway1:20

       Mm-hmm.

   28. KSKara Swisher1:20

       I, I, I cannot get rid of them here. I put them out on the stoop in Brooklyn. They were gone. Like, I have to say, I get all these free books, and they're good books, and they're all interesting, but I have to... I like the whole culture of people walking by and taking things and giving away things. It's really nice. So yeah, there you have it. We are now officially semi... Not s- we don't live there, but it's nice, and anyone can stay. [chuckles] All you listeners can stay at my Brooklyn place. No, you can stay. I extend an invitation to you, Scott Galloway, but you'll never do.

   29. SGScott Galloway1:50

       It doesn't happen. Um, so-

   30. KSKara Swisher1:51

       It's not gonna happen 'cause it has Ikea furniture. That's why.
2. 5:38 – 9:17

   No Kings Protests

   1. KSKara Swisher5:38

      'cause I was assembling Ikea furniture. Over 3,300 events around the world. I went to the last one, I think. Over 200,000 people attended the flagship rally in Minnesota. Incredible crowds. Some signs, uh, stand out, including, "You can't bomb away, bomb your way out of the Epstein files," "My country went to hell and all I got was this lousy ballroom," and, "Balls for grabs," with a sign that said, "Free balls for Republicans." [chuckles] And they were-- I love the signs. I, you know, it was really into a lot of peop-- eight million people, that's a lot of people

   2. SGScott Galloway6:07

      I'm in London, although they did have a protest here, which I [chuckles] which I didn't go to. But I don't know-

   3. KSKara Swisher6:12

      You had a big march here

   4. SGScott Galloway6:12

      ... I did what all lazy people do to virtue signal, I reposted.

   5. KSKara Swisher6:15

      Yeah.

   6. SGScott Galloway6:15

      I reposted other people's sacrifices [chuckles] on Saturday.

   7. KSKara Swisher6:17

      I thought... No, it was-- They looked wonderful and festive. I thought Bruce Spring-

   8. SGScott Galloway6:20

      Yeah

   9. KSKara Swisher6:20

      ... I thought they were also did-- the messaging was excellent. I thought it was affordability, it's about no kings-

   10. SGScott Galloway6:26

       They did a great job

   11. KSKara Swisher6:26

       ... it was i-

   12. SGScott Galloway6:27

       Did a great job

   13. KSKara Swisher6:27

       ... everybody has-- all the progressives have modulated in a way that I think is very attractive. Very-

   14. SGScott Galloway6:33

       Yeah

   15. KSKara Swisher6:33

       ... they're moving into the James Talarico version of Democrats, right? The, "Hey, what are we gonna here to help you? Affordability, we wanna thing." And the one thing I really like, there was a picture, a beautiful picture of Joan Baez and, um, uh-

   16. SGScott Galloway6:48

       Jane Fonda

   17. KSKara Swisher6:49

       ... Jane Fonda-

   18. SGScott Galloway6:49

       Yep

   19. KSKara Swisher6:49

       ... that was with gray hair together, it was gorgeous. I thought that was-- I just thought it was visually very attractive. I think there is a real movement of people, of all these elections happening, and people are so sick of feeling bad and feeling like, uh, everything's a grift. It just feels... It-- There's definitely a tide. Um, I don't know if these protests help, but I like them. I think they're very-

   20. SGScott Galloway7:10

       Supposedly... Well, first off, it just feels, and I say this all the time, but my buddy Dan Harris, action absorbs anxiety. It feels really good to do things with other people. And Timothy Snyder says that protests start to build an infrastructure for organization and taking names, and people get invested in it, so they wanna turn out again, and they wanna register people to vote. They also... Supposedly the, supposedly there's a tipping point where if you get three and a half percent of the population to demonstrate, that usually connotes change. So this wasn't that, 'cause that would be, I think, about eleven or twelve million people. Just some data here. The October pro-protest drew roughly seven million, and, uh, Saturday's turnout was nine million. So it's building. And what's interesting, or the most interesting piece of data, I thought, is that two-thirds of the RSVPs came from outside major urban centers including-

   21. KSKara Swisher7:59

       Yeah

   22. SGScott Galloway7:59

       ... including conservative-leaning states such as Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, South Dakota-

   23. KSKara Swisher8:04

       I saw that

   24. SGScott Galloway8:05

       ... Louisiana.

   25. KSKara Swisher8:05

       Yeah.

   26. SGScott Galloway8:06

       And then-

   27. KSKara Swisher8:06

       Those protests. That takes something for people to do things like that there, like the villages. Did you see all the little villages carts?

   28. SGScott Galloway8:12

       Yeah. Yeah.

   29. KSKara Swisher8:13

       That was kinda cool

   30. SGScott Galloway8:14

       In what is traditionally very conservative. And also the, kind of the flagship was at, uh, uh, Minneapolis, where a-almost a quarter of a million people turned out. Uh, Springsteen performed, you mentioned Joan Baez and Jane Fonda, Maggie Rogers and Senator Bernie Sanders.
3. 9:17 – 17:59

   Trump’s Iran Threats

   1. KSKara Swisher9:17

      Trump says the US is [chuckles] in serious discussions with the new regime in Iran, but he's also threatening to completely destroy key energy sites if a deal is not reached. That's a nice way to negotiate. This is the Pentagon preparing for what could be weeks of ground operations in Iran, according to The Washington Post. Total number of US troops in the Mid East are now fifty thousand, around fifty thousand. That is insane amounts of people, roughly ten thousand higher than typical levels. Uh, the Iranian military is warning that any US occupation would lead to captivity, dismemberment, and disappearance. It is worrisome with all those people there. There's always something bad gonna happen. And as the war drags on, markets are sliding down, with Nasdaq and Dow falling into correction territory last week, and the S&P down about seven percent. Markets are sort of a, a, a trailing indicator of some of this stuff, I think. But, um, I think it, it's creates a jittery feeling just 'cause of the shifting back and forth. And if you noticed, a lot of Trump people, and especially Marco Rubio and J.D. Vance, were not on any of the Sunday shows. They're avoiding. All the cabinet members [chuckles] are avoiding the Sunday shows. Um, I had a really interesting interview before I went to New York with Thom Tillis, which I think you should all listen to. It's up today. I mean, he was expressing great distaste for this whole action. Um, we had a-- He's a, obviously, a very conservative senator from North Carolina. He's leaving Congress, so he feels like he can say whatever he wants, which he did. Um, so what do you think's happening here, Scott? I mean, the back and forth and the, and people are sort of tr- um, trying to get out of the Tr-Trump blast zone on this situation. I'm sorry to use that metaphor, but...

   2. SGScott Galloway10:48

      [sighs] Well, to say it's complicated is an understatement, but I'm one of the people that would argue that we've been at war with Iran for the last-

   3. KSKara Swisher10:56

      Sure

   4. SGScott Galloway10:56

      ... forty-seven years. The first act of this regime in 1979 was to take Americans hostage. The question is, is this escalation in the war, uh, was it a smart idea? And I think if it had gone seventy-two hours in terms of getting some-

   5. KSKara Swisher11:10

      Yep

   6. SGScott Galloway11:10

      ... coordination with European allies and even Gulf allies-

   7. KSKara Swisher11:14

      That's what Tillis said

   8. SGScott Galloway11:14

      ... you could have potentially declared victory and really had a win. Um, but this is kind of the definition of a quagmire, and that is, I'm not sure at this point he has any choice but to put boots on the ground, 'cause I-- and I had Senator Warner on my podcast. I would argue at this point, Kara, Iran is winning.

   9. KSKara Swisher11:32

      Yeah, that's-

   10. SGScott Galloway11:32

       That the-

   11. KSKara Swisher11:32

       Yeah

   12. SGScott Galloway11:33

       ... that the IRGC has shown that they can, they can push back the, you know, the great satans of Israel and the United States, and what is... A-at the end of the day, I think this is an enormous failure of, uh, our intelligence director, uh, Tulsi Gabbard-

   13. KSKara Swisher11:51

       Yeah

   14. SGScott Galloway11:51

       ... to not contemplate or consider a scenario where they cut off the Straits of Hormuz.

   15. KSKara Swisher11:56

       But she probably advised that. She didn't wanna go. She's the America First grea-- Her, her and Vance are on the maybe not so much kinda group.

   16. SGScott Galloway12:05

       Yeah, but you... Okay, but they sh- they're, they're claiming now that they're gonna [chuckles] try and work with their allies, who are all saying, "Fuck you if you're gonna be this much of a prick to us."But they've, they're doing shit in reverse order. They should have secured the Straits of Hormuz before doing this. They should have contemplated, well, what happens if they start firing Shahab drones that cost twenty thousand dollars and it costs us two million to shoot them down? What if they start firing them into Dubai? So, uh, some basic scenario planning and intelligence from the people try-- I mean, the, the-

   17. KSKara Swisher12:34

       I, I think he got that. I think some guy told him to do this. Like, I, the, the, the thing with this-

   18. SGScott Galloway12:38

       Yeah, but there's no leadership. That, it doesn't matter if it doesn't bubble up.

   19. KSKara Swisher12:41

       Which i- which is what Tillis said. Tillis was like, I... He always tries very hard not to insult Trump himself, but he's like the advisors. And he's particularly, for example, went after Stephen Miller on immigration. He particularly goes after the advisors. He's like, he's-- either you have an advisor who's stupid and just like tells them dumb things, or you have an advisor who knows better who says nothing, right? Who doesn't, who tries to like assuage the president versus... And he goes, "Either way, his advisors suck." You know, and I think that's true. But at some point, it's treating Trump like a toddler. Oh, we managed to keep him this or that. So it's a complicated situation there, is this guy wants to do what he wants to do now, and he has advisors who are either too weak to tell him the truth or tell him the truth and then get fired or slapped for it kind of stuff. I don't know. It's a problematic sit-- It's not, certainly not the, the group of rivals that Lincoln had.

   20. SGScott Galloway13:35

       Well, but a lot of people would argue on the opposite side that basically Secretary Rubio is the shadow president making these decisions, and so is his son-in-law, Kushner, so-

   21. KSKara Swisher13:44

       Right

   22. SGScott Galloway13:45

       ... you know, which is it? Is he listening to people or is he not? Because i-i-i-it-- To me, this is just such a striking intelligence failure to not do some basic scenario planning around what if. And we are now in a position of weakness where, I mean, the general, not the consensus, but when I speak to people in the intelligence community, there's a feeling, okay, the most obvious next step here is that he feels to save face because the RGC has said, "Fuck you. You can pretend you're talking to us. We're not talking back." We have dispersed, we anti-- we did scenario planning. We dis- we anticipated what if our leadership is killed, and they have dispersed military and executive authority out to the various regions. So they're like, "Cut off the head of the snake. That's okay. We-- The snake's gonna keep moving." So there was no basic s- uh, essential basic scenario planning here, and the general feeling is that he will land troops potentially on Kharg Island and then try and secure Kharg and do a deal to exchange Kharg for opening the Straits of Hormuz.

   23. KSKara Swisher14:45

       Right. No, but that's what we had before. Like, one of the things that-

   24. SGScott Galloway14:48

       I, I'm not arguing it's we're in a good spot. I agree.

   25. KSKara Swisher14:50

       One, one, one of the things when I talk to Tillis and when I also talk to Warner is that the same thing you're talking about, these drones and everything else, like the word obliterate, that he obliterated it months ago, the nuclear facilities, but now he's obliterating more. And, you know, Tillis, who's sort of ha- seems to have run out of fucks, was like, "Yeah, we obliterated again, and then we obliterated it." Like, y-y-you know, that-

   26. SGScott Galloway15:10

       You can't... That's like, uh, to say you obliterate, all right, so essentially what you have-

   27. KSKara Swisher15:14

       Well, he was making fun of Trump, I believe. That's what was happening there.

   28. SGScott Galloway15:17

       A-again, the, the key word in all of this coming out of Ukraine and now this war is asymmetry, and that is wars and shaping of, you know, energy routes and a-ability to solve things without, when diplomatic means have failed, have been based on very expensive platforms and technology no one else had access to. It has gone the entirely other way, and now you can essentially build a drone for twenty thousand dollars with a two-stroke engine similar to what's in a motorcycle. And that's like to say you're gonna obliterate it. W- If Te- if we all of a sudden declared war on Texas and most of the Southwest, actually, which Iran is bigger than, and said, "Okay, how do you find every little factory that's pull, push, pulling together lawnmowers?" That's what you're up against. You're not going to be able... And then they launch forty of these things, and the defense systems get confused, and all you need... It's similar, similar to the Department of Homeland Security or the FBI. They have to stop every terrorist attack, right?

   29. KSKara Swisher16:16

       That's right. Yeah.

   30. SGScott Galloway16:16

       And the notion that just one-
4. 17:59 – 32:26

   SpaceX IPO Preps

   1. KSKara Swisher17:59

      is preparing to launch the largest IPO of all time, reportedly targeting a one point seven five trillion dollar valuation, which is kind of a lot over their revenues, but okay, fine. That's-- It's a Musk company. Musk reportedly wants to have investors come to SpaceX to see facilities and rocket launches. He does that a lot. He invites people in to show off his wares, uh, but impressive wares. He does-- He's doing that with robotics too, which are pretty cool. Um, the company is also considering limiting share sales by early investors, uh, preferential treatment for investors in Musk's other companies, which is why they suck up to him so, and reserving a large-- That's why they buy Twitter, so they can get into this, and reserving a large portion of the shares for individual investors. That's fine. That's great. Speaking of making amends with his enemies, texts released as part of Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI show that Zuckerberg tested Musk, saying, "Looks like Doge is making progress. I've got our teams on alert to take down content doxing or threatening the people on your team. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help." Oh, he does wanna content moderate. Mu-Mar-Musk hearted the message and then asked Zuckerberg would be open to bidding on OpenAI with him, which the two seem to have spoken about on the phone. I mean, these people say one thing in public and another in private. But talk first about, um, the phone call, then the IPO, and, and, you know, Mark Zuckerberg will talk to anybody if it means a deal, so that's what I think about that.

   2. SGScott Galloway19:16

      I don't, I, I don't have a problem with the president inviting people into a call that he thinks can help achieve the objectives, whether it's someone who has domain expertise, whether Musk is the right person to have the, on the call. But I think the president should bring to bear any resources he thinks is gonna result in a more productive conversation. And Modi is probably wants, probably wants, uh, you know, Starlink, or maybe Modi and Musk have a preexisting relationship. Who knows? Or maybe like you said, he's just showing them off. The staggering thing for me is I, I can't wait for the S-1 because the target valuation of one point eight trillion dollars, this company, you know, it, it, it's projected or generated roughly fifteen to sixteen billion and about eight billion in profit in twenty twenty-five. That means at the IPO it's trading at a hundred and nine times trailing revenue.

   3. KSKara Swisher20:09

      Well, that's a Musk company, right?

   4. SGScott Galloway20:11

      Oh-

   5. KSKara Swisher20:11

      Are you gonna do like you did with WeWork? I'd love to see.

   6. SGScott Galloway20:13

      Oh, but that's more than pal... Oh, no, no.

   7. KSKara Swisher20:15

      Yeah.

   8. SGScott Galloway20:15

      This is a real company.

   9. KSKara Swisher20:16

      Yeah.

   10. SGScott Galloway20:16

       It might be overvalued-

   11. KSKara Swisher20:17

       Yeah

   12. SGScott Galloway20:18

       ... but WeWork as it scaled, lost more money.

   13. KSKara Swisher20:20

       Yeah.

   14. SGScott Galloway20:20

       This is a company with un- an unbelievable product and moats. It's... But two things can be true at once. Is it an unbelievable company with, I think, probably the widest moats in the business world right now?

   15. KSKara Swisher20:31

       Mm-hmm.

   16. SGScott Galloway20:31

       Absolutely.

   17. KSKara Swisher20:32

       For now.

   18. SGScott Galloway20:33

       For now. Um, but e- everyone feels like a distant number two. Like, who's the number two here? Piper?

   19. KSKara Swisher20:38

       I, I don't know. I think people will catch up in this. I think, I-

   20. SGScott Galloway20:41

       I think it's gonna take a while.

   21. KSKara Swisher20:41

       Like, look, everyone said no one would catch Tesla. Everyone caught Tesla, and it was a lot faster than we thought, right? You got-

   22. SGScott Galloway20:46

       Yeah, but manufacturing, manufacturing-

   23. KSKara Swisher20:49

       No

   24. SGScott Galloway20:49

       ... an EV versus launch capability.

   25. KSKara Swisher20:51

       No. I just... I think-

   26. SGScott Galloway20:53

       You think, you think someone's gonna catch up?

   27. KSKara Swisher20:55

       I think, I think Bezos is working on it. I think a lot of countries... There's fr- the ones happening in Europe. I think... Look, it's not gonna be the only one, and everyone's gonna be like, "Why are we..." You know, it's sort of like the Lockheed problem, right? I think a lot of people think it's an attractive thing to do.

   28. SGScott Galloway21:09

       Ninety percent of launches-

   29. KSKara Swisher21:11

       I get it

   30. SGScott Galloway21:11

       ... SpaceX-
5. 32:26 – 38:39

   Anthropic’s Legal Win

   1. KSKara Swisher32:26

      Scott, we're back. Anthropic just scored a win in its fight with the Trump administration, obviously. A federal judge in California granted a preliminary injunction temporarily blocking the Pentagon's efforts to label the company a supply chain risk. The judge didn't mince words in her ruling, saying this is a classic illegal First Amendment retaliation. Exactly. She also called it a, quote, "Orwellian notion to brand an American company a potential adversary for expressing disagreement." The Pentagon is pushing back, expected to appeal, of course, with senior official Emil Michael, another loathsome character, tweeting, "The ruling is a disgrace." Oh, Emil, get over it. The final decision in this case could still be months away. There's also a second lawsuit pending in D.C. Anthropic won the battle. It, you know, it's, it's, it's problematic to be in this ridiculous fight. I think it'll be over by midterms when they s- they jack Hegseth out of the place, but also a potent... And, and Emil, too. Also a potential factor, Anthropic is reportedly considering going public as soon as October. That is problematic for them. Um, so what do you, what do you... And related, a federal judge has put on hold the six point two billion dollar merger between Nexstar and Tegna, which would create the largest operator of local TV in the country, sixty-nine percent o-over the former thirty-some percent amount you're allowed to, um, bring together. The judge granted a request from DirecTV arguing the merger violates antitrust laws. A fourteen-day restraining order has been issued, and a hearing is scheduled for April seventh. Eight attorneys general have filed a separate lawsuit. Um, I, I'm gonna just play this. Let's listen to what our least favorite FCC chair, Brenda Carr, oh, I'm sorry, Brendan Carr, uh, had to say at CPAC.

   2. SPSpeaker34:02

      President Trump took on the fake news media, and President Trump is winning. Look at the results so far. PBS defunded, NPR defunded [audience cheering] Joy Reid gone from MSNBC, sleepy-eyed Chuck Todd gone, Jim Acosta gone, John Dickerson gone, Colbert is leaving. [audience cheering] CBS is under new ownership, and soon enough, CNN is gonna have new ownership as well.

   3. KSKara Swisher34:26

      Boy, this guy is just, just not doing his job, honestly. It's-- seriously, he's such a suck-up to the Trump administration. He's just explicit about it, and he's also not very smart. He's a moron. Um, so talk about these, these Nexstar, the, the Anthropic thing. It looks like everything, as usual, Trump does, he does something aggressive and stupid and loses in court, but he still does damage. So talk a l-- and then you can talk about Brenda if you want, but that's up to you.

   4. SGScott Galloway34:50

      Well, I'll go in reverse order. Brendan Carr has no business in the federal government. You're, you're not supposed to go into the government to use it as a means of attacking your political enemies and freedom of speech.

   5. KSKara Swisher35:00

      Yep.

   6. SGScott Galloway35:01

      I mean, just the notion, th-this guy makes Goebbels look thoughtful.

   7. KSKara Swisher35:05

      Mm.

   8. SGScott Galloway35:05

      And that is the, uh, directly calling out people who don't agree with your political views and then weaponizing government to try and get people whose views you don't agree with off the air, that's-- I, I just... It's like, it's just so blatant. It's, uh, okay, so when we get to appoint an FCC chair, we're gonna go after Hannity and-

   9. KSKara Swisher35:27

      Yeah

   10. SGScott Galloway35:27

       ... I mean, is that, is that where we're headed?

   11. KSKara Swisher35:29

       No, let him-

   12. SGScott Galloway35:29

       Do you want us to start-

   13. KSKara Swisher35:30

       Let him, let him blather on, his idiotic stuff. I don't care. He annoys me.

   14. SGScott Galloway35:34

       You know, uh, well, look, it would... Uh, it, it's just not qualified to be in government. With respect to Anthropic, most major AI companies have bent the knee to the government and worked with them in any, any military context they want. Last year, Google dropped its ethical guidelines that included a list of applications it would not pursue, including weapons and surveillance.

   15. KSKara Swisher35:53

       But it used to be able to do so without a problem.

   16. SGScott Galloway35:57

       Is that right? And then they put in guidelines, and then they-

   17. KSKara Swisher35:59

       Yeah

   18. SGScott Galloway35:59

       ... I thought they were s-- they relaxed their guidelines.

   19. KSKara Swisher36:02

       They did relax them, but I'm saying they used to be able to say no, and, and nobody had a problem.

   20. SGScott Galloway36:06

       Right.

   21. KSKara Swisher36:06

       They just didn't work for them, that's all.

   22. SGScott Galloway36:08

       Well, that's the whole point of private enterprise-

   23. KSKara Swisher36:09

       Yeah

   24. SGScott Galloway36:09

       ... is you get to choose your cl- you can fire your clients.

   25. KSKara Swisher36:11

       Mm-hmm.

   26. SGScott Galloway36:11

       Just the way consumers get to pick companies, companies get to pick their consumers, unless it's based on sexual orientation or race or what have you. Meta changed its policy to allow U.S. government agencies and contractors to access its Llama models for national security purposes. OpenAI, which once stated its goal was to benefit humanity as a whole, now has multiple contracts with the military and defense contractors. And by the way, I don't, I, I, I don't mind when companies like Palantir say, "We're gonna work with the government on, in the Defense Department." I get it. But you should also have the right to not to. I don't... So Anthropic is really, they're the only major AI company that has drawn a public line on autonomous weapons and mass surveillance, and now it's the only one being punished for it. So-

   27. KSKara Swisher36:56

       Right, but it's also winning in court, which is good, but it's still-

   28. SGScott Galloway36:58

       Perfect

   29. KSKara Swisher36:58

       ... is it problematic for the IPO from your perspective?

   30. SGScott Galloway37:02

       Well, it depends.
6. 38:39 – 53:26

   Nexstar and Tegna Merger Paused

   1. KSKara Swisher38:39

      the Nexstar thing, speaking of more on Brendan?

   2. SGScott Galloway38:42

      Well, we heard... I was actually really moved. A lot of people pushed back on my comments about how local news is a dying business.

   3. KSKara Swisher38:47

      Yes, they did.

   4. SGScott Galloway38:47

      And a lot of people pushed back and said, "I hate to hear this. It's, it's really important work." And also, to be fair, you know, there's a lot of local corruption th-uh, the, and the only check on it is local news.

   5. KSKara Swisher39:01

      Yep.

   6. SGScott Galloway39:01

      You know, seven, I remember Seven on Your Side. [chuckles]

   7. KSKara Swisher39:04

      Seven on Your Side.

   8. SGScott Galloway39:05

      Or, "From the hills to the seas-

   9. KSKara Swisher39:06

      I love Seven

   10. SGScott Galloway39:06

       ... to the San Gabriel Mountains, I'm Jerry Dunphy."

   11. KSKara Swisher39:08

       Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah.

   12. SGScott Galloway39:09

       Uh, who, by the way, Ted Baxter from Mary Tyler Moore was based on.

   13. KSKara Swisher39:11

       [laughs]

   14. SGScott Galloway39:11

       Supposedly wasn't, well, supposedly Jerry wasn't very smart. [laughs] Um, but he had broad shoulders-

   15. KSKara Swisher39:16

       I love local news

   16. SGScott Galloway39:16

       ... and just made you feel safer.

   17. KSKara Swisher39:17

       I used to watch it all the time. I loved Doreen Gentzler in DC when I was in college.

   18. SGScott Galloway39:20

       And they also had-

   19. KSKara Swisher39:21

       Jim Fahs

   20. SGScott Galloway39:21

       ... Bruce Herschensohn and Jim Tunney on Point Counterpoint.

   21. KSKara Swisher39:24

       Yeah.

   22. SGScott Galloway39:24

       And that 27 minutes of real news was bested by the three minutes of two people arguing like crazy.

   23. KSKara Swisher39:30

       Yeah.

   24. SGScott Galloway39:30

       And then basic-

   25. KSKara Swisher39:31

       Can I tell you, if it had been that era, you and I would've been a good local news team. Like, don't you think?

   26. SGScott Galloway39:35

       Oh, I would've predicted hail the size of can, of canned tomatoes.

   27. KSKara Swisher39:38

       [laughs]

   28. SGScott Galloway39:38

       I, I would've loved being a weatherman. I actually took meteorology-

   29. KSKara Swisher39:41

       Oh, very dear

   30. SGScott Galloway39:41

       ... my senior year.
7. 53:26 – 55:27

   The White House’s New App

   1. KSKara Swisher53:26

      and Android featuring press releases, an affordability tracker and an ice tip line of course. The Trump administration says the app offers a direct line to the White House, letting people text the president and sign up for newsletters, but those features just link to White House contact forms that are already there, letting the administration access users' personal information and some additional privacy concerns. People digging into the app, it took five seconds, found that it's tracking GPS location data every four and a half minutes. It's a privacy nightmare. Do not download it. Um, uh, just very briefly [laughs] and then we'll get to wins and fails. I mean-

   2. SGScott Galloway53:57

      I would rather give my ex-wife access to my text message history-

   3. KSKara Swisher54:02

      [laughs]

   4. SGScott Galloway54:02

      ... than [laughs] sign up for... I mean, who-

   5. KSKara Swisher54:05

      Uh

   6. SGScott Galloway54:05

      ... is fucking stupid enough to do that?

   7. KSKara Swisher54:07

      I know. It's not trustworthy. Don't sign up for it.

   8. SGScott Galloway54:10

      Oh, you think?

   9. KSKara Swisher54:10

      It's... No. But I mean, I wouldn't mind if the White House has an app, it's just this one is a really-

   10. SGScott Galloway54:15

       No, yeah. [laughs]

   11. KSKara Swisher54:15

       People were like-

   12. SGScott Galloway54:16

       Uh

   13. KSKara Swisher54:16

       ... "Okay, a company doing this, you'd call them scummy. The government doing this to its citizens?"

   14. SGScott Galloway54:21

       The same people that are demanding-

   15. KSKara Swisher54:23

       Triple scummy

   16. SGScott Galloway54:23

       ... voter rolls-

   17. KSKara Swisher54:24

       Yeah

   18. SGScott Galloway54:24

       ... that are, that are, that are targeting people, uh, uh, that are hiring Palantir to surveil people-

   19. KSKara Swisher54:30

       No

   20. SGScott Galloway54:30

       ... and you wanna sign up for their app?

   21. KSKara Swisher54:32

       Don't. And it's really sad, 'cause the White House should have direct communication with people, but to help people, not to take advantage of their fucking information. These people, like, literally, but someone who does apps is like, "I, I would think this is scummy for a scummy person, right? Not our federal frigging government." Very typical of the Trump administration. Do not get it. Do not get it. And also, an ice tip line. What kind of person are you that you tip on people? Ugh. That's my grand- my grandfather was, you know, a j-

   22. SGScott Galloway54:59

       New York

   23. KSKara Swisher55:00

       ... mob- mob- mob adjacent, I would say. Not really in the mob. Um, but like, I hate a, a rat. A rat, a rat. Like s- you know, it's fine to say, see something, say something. You see a bag in an airport, yes, report it, but reporting on your fellow citizens is, is-

   24. SGScott Galloway55:15

       But they haven't-

   25. KSKara Swisher55:16

       If they're not criminals-

   26. SGScott Galloway55:17

       ... they haven't committed a crime

   27. KSKara Swisher55:17

       ... if they're not criminals, fuck you for doing that, you terrible people. Anyway

   28. SGScott Galloway55:21

       Yeah.

   29. KSKara Swisher55:22

       One more quick break. We'll be back for wins and fails. [gentle music] Okay, Scott, let's

8. 55:27 – 1:07:42

   Wins and Fails

   1. KSKara Swisher55:27

      hear some wins and fails. I think I shall start.

   2. SGScott Galloway55:30

      You go.

   3. KSKara Swisher55:31

      Um, I, uh, you know, I really, I, I have to say [laughs] I really like Barb's Slope. I didn't think I'd say that, but I do. I'm a Manhattan girl, but I really enjoyed, uh, being there and, uh, spending time there. I like going to different places and, but I mostly wanna say the win is Scott Galloway for being such a good landlord to me when I was in New York, so.

   4. SGScott Galloway55:48

      That's nice. Thank you.

   5. KSKara Swisher55:49

      I-

   6. SGScott Galloway55:49

      I like having you there

   7. KSKara Swisher55:49

      ... he's been generous, and I love his apartment. It's wonderful. I, I love being in, like, a lot, I feel really good about cities, and I feel like New York feels great. Washington does feel great. I'm going to San Francisco soon. I just, I'm very, uh, I'm very up on cities these days and, like, kind of the creativity that you see everywhere, um, in, in them, and just kind of just a, I just love a melting pot of people, I really do. Um, so I really, I, I'm, I'm, wins are cities again, I just feel-

   8. SGScott Galloway56:17

      A melting pot at $3,000 a square foot.

   9. KSKara Swisher56:19

      [laughs]

   10. SGScott Galloway56:20

       Yeah, who's melting?

   11. KSKara Swisher56:21

       No, it's parked some place-

   12. SGScott Galloway56:21

       Dalton and-

   13. KSKara Swisher56:22

       But I'm just saying, I went all over the city

   14. SGScott Galloway56:23

       ... Georgetown. Yeah

   15. KSKara Swisher56:24

       ... I went all over the city, and, and it just was, I just love a city. I just love a city. I love the city.

   16. SGScott Galloway56:28

       I so could have predicted you to end up in Brooklyn.

   17. KSKara Swisher56:30

       I d- no. Uh, listen-

   18. SGScott Galloway56:32

       Oh, yeah

   19. KSKara Swisher56:32

       ... I would've done, I would've done the West Village, but Amanda really likesThat area and she has friends there, and I get it, and I get it, I get it I get it Anyway, um-

   20. SGScott Galloway56:43

       Oh, God, you're gonna have Birkenstocks and clothes and-

   21. KSKara Swisher56:44

       No, I'm not. I never wear Birkenstocks. It's never happening. No.

   22. SGScott Galloway56:47

       Oh.

   23. KSKara Swisher56:47

       I wear Vans. Let's be clear. All right. And my fail is, um, oh, God, there's so many, but I think the worst one is I mean, I was going between Melania Trump's robot for teaching children, which I'm like, worst idea ever. I'm sorry. Like, I don't mind robots folding laundry, and I'm sure we'll have them, and I don't mind them delivering things, fine, whatever. But teaching children should be done by people with help from technology. That is fine, but this personalized educators for American children and her walking out there, I couldn't tell which was the robot and which was Melania, which is a typical joke, but honestly, what an idiot. Uh, she's really... What a more moronic thing to, to, to feature at the White House as a featured stage and to stage the idea and insulting teachers. I, I, my, my kid just got in-- my little kid got into the same public school Claire is in for next year, and I went and walked by the teacher today, and I said, "Yeah, Alex," I mean, "Saul got in, um, to the class," and she was like, "Yay. Go." And I just love, I just, I love the teachers. They really are dedicated and committed, the ones we have dealt with, especially in public schools, but all the schools the kids have been to. Um, and so I just hated that, that thing. And the second one was Trump signing the U.S. currency. It has always been a Treasury Secretary person, just another grotesque, like, look at me, Mommy didn't hug me moment. So just gross. Just, just... Ugh. Like, I can't wait till we get rid of all this stuff, of all, all the gold in the office, which has gotten out of control, and the whole thing. I can't wait till we tear it all down, every bit of it, so including getting his signature off the dollar when, when he puts it on. Anyway, Scott.

   24. SGScott Galloway58:24

       I like those. Uh, so my win is, and you mentioned this, I watched Louis Theroux's documentary, The Manosphere, and I, I real- I... It was very illuminating for me.

   25. KSKara Swisher58:33

       Mm-hmm.

   26. SGScott Galloway58:34

       Um, and a few of the takeaways, uh, first off, these quote-unquote, you know, icons of the manosphere, these podcasters or, uh, the folks portrayed, they're grifters, and they don't even buy the things that... They don't even buy into the ideology. There's always a crypto scam or a-

   27. KSKara Swisher58:53

       Mm-hmm

   28. SGScott Galloway58:53

       ... trading platform-

   29. KSKara Swisher58:55

       Yeah

   30. SGScott Galloway58:55

       ... or, or, you know, buy their course or whatever it is. Um, and they themselves, this is not about ideology for them.

Episode duration: 1:07:44