EVERY SPOKEN WORD
55 min read · 10,753 words- 0:00 – 0:33
Intro
- SGScott Galloway
In terms of American politics, what this means is the following: J.D. Vance will not be president.
- KSKara Swisher
[upbeat music] Hi, everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara Swisher.
- SGScott Galloway
And I'm Scott Galloway.
- KSKara Swisher
Before we get into it today, a reminder, uh, to check out our YouTube channel. Be sure to like the videos and subscribe. We're, we're into the YouTube situation, and we're also in Roku. We're a lot of places. We've got a lot to get to today. So, uh, Donald Trump is defending his deal to end
- 0:33 – 15:49
Trump Defends Iran Deal
- KSKara Swisher
the war in Iran, saying critics who think he hasn't been tough enough are jealous, bad people or stupid. His comments come after he signed the memorandum of understanding, or MOU, at the Palace of Versailles on Wednesday, which was m- the most epic troll by Macron I've ever seen. He lured him there with gold and, uh, and it's the place, of course, where the Germans, uh, signed, uh, the, the, the World War I accord. Um, so let's talk about the Treaty of Versailles. Let's talk about some of the terms of this agreement. The Strait of Hormuz will open immediately, and Iran will be allowed to sell its oil freely. Also, they'll get some sort of fees which didn't exist before. Every... It's exactly the Obama deal, but worse, essentially. The US will end sa- I mean, Obama got a lot more stuff and paid a lot le- paid, paid a lot less and nobody died, and there wasn't the impact on the e- economy globally and in the United States. The US will end sanctions on Iran and unfreeze assets. The $300 billion fund will be established to help rebuild Iran, though Trump says the US will not contribute to it. Iran agrees to not procure or develop a nuclear weapon, but before, um, the, the Obama agreement was much more stringent. Um, the deal is set to be officially signed on Friday. It is not a final agreement. Doesn't seem much has been agreed at all. Uh, the two sides have 60 days to negotiate a longer term deal. Either side can walk away. Uh, the Republicans are, are not liking it, and those who are trying to defend it are pretzeling themselves. You know, he's lost the support of all manner of people, including Ben Shapiro, uh, uh, T-Tucker Carlson, of course, um, lots of Republicans, Bill, uh, Bill Cassidy, and many others are like, "This is a piece of shit deal." Es- they're saying it out loud, um, uh, Senator Kennedy, um, you know, the Democrats don't have to say anything. Um, be... And even Fox News is attacking him. Thoughts on the situation? 'Cause Ben, someone, uh, Donnie Deutsch said, you know, "I was for this, you know, this attack on Iran, but now this is, like, bullshit." He, he reminded me of you the way he talked about it, but any thoughts?
- SGScott Galloway
Yeah, I've gotta own it. I, I thought there was real legitimate rationale for military action. Um, th- there's just no doubt about it. It... Hillary Clinton talks about the dominion of failure, and I f- find this fascinating that-
- KSKara Swisher
Isn't that great? Mm-hmm.
- SGScott Galloway
Well, it-
- KSKara Swisher
Explain that for the people, the dominion of failure.
- SGScott Galloway
Well, just to relate to it on an individual level, have you ever been at a, you know, you're in a conversation with family or at dinner and you say something and someone disagrees, and you double down, and then you find yourself two months later defending and going deeper into a position that you've probably realized was wrong?
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
But you've doubled down-
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah
- SGScott Galloway
... and you keep going further and further.
- KSKara Swisher
Or gambling. You're gambling at that point.
- SGScott Galloway
And unfortunately, the American public rewards that doubling down as opposed to being contemplative and recognizing that a step back from the wrong direction is a step in the right direction.
- KSKara Swisher
Right. Right. Correct.
- SGScott Galloway
And we basically told our politicians, "Never admit you're wrong. Double down. Never acknowledge that things have not worked out the way we'd hoped, and we need to change course." And just to go to the, quote-unquote, "memo of understanding," let's start with the term memo of understanding.
- KSKara Swisher
Right.
- SGScott Galloway
Memo of understanding is a business term, and I have written and received dozens of memos of understanding, and this is what they are. If you're thinking usually in a business context about acquiring a firm or doing a large deal, you outline general parameters. "Okay, this is what you do-"
- KSKara Swisher
But not specifics. Correct. Not-
- SGScott Galloway
Well, you, you, you identify ranges. "This is what you do. This is what we do. We're interested in acquiring you, and this is kind of evaluation range subject to the following conditions. These are the people who would stick around." You kind of outline to basically say, "We need to at least agree on some basics before we get serious-
- KSKara Swisher
Mm-hmm
- SGScott Galloway
... and start conducting diligence and papering a deal." And it means noth- I would bet that somewhere between a third and maybe 50% of memos of understanding are consummated in a legally enforceable deal, and that's the same thing here. It is... This is obvious. They said, uh, Trump wanted an agreement, and they said, "We'll give you a memo of understanding because-
- KSKara Swisher
Right
- SGScott Galloway
... we know you're on your way out."
- KSKara Swisher
Right.
- SGScott Galloway
"This will not be enforceable." I don't even think... We can get into a conversation around how terrible this deal is, including the fact that it doesn't include random inspections. It's gone from one and a half billion in the JCPOA to 300 billion, and that sounds like a-
- KSKara Swisher
And people have died
- SGScott Galloway
... VC opportunity for Witkoff and Kushner.
- KSKara Swisher
Right. Yes.
- SGScott Galloway
The fact that they've essentially, have not, have a, have a, have an opening to start charging tolls again, this isn't an equivalent deal. This is a much worse deal. But here's the thing. It's not even a deal, Kara.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
It's a memo of un-
- 15:49 – 21:35
Reflecting Pool Goes Green
- KSKara Swisher
Pool. I wanted to ignore this, but it's crazy. The paint's coming off today. This $14 million renovation, they put this American flag blue on it, and they pa- Trump insisted on it. When there's other problems with that thing, it's for years and years. You know, like all fountains, all pools have problems. Um, and this is a big freaking pool. Um, but it, it's usually just the, the stone color, and he had painted it this color, and, and it's turned algae green. There's algae everywhere. Now the paint is coming off. There were pictures this morning. The Interior Department says it was a residual algae from the supply lines that were sitting there while the pool was being renovated. Most people say this is nonsense. Uh, any pool-- All these pool people are weighing in, which I'm enjoying very much. Um, they're deploying, quote, "high-tech nano bubble ozone technology" to combat this. Except workers were seen pouring bottles of hydrogen peroxide into the pool earlier this week [chuckles] like by hand. Um, some experts say the pool's new color has worsened the preexisting issues. Darker blue absorbs sunlight, increasing water temperature, making the pool ripe for algae. Um, apparently, there's phosphates in it. It's like... I, I, I... It's ridiculous, and what a fucking mess-up because they picked the wrong people to do this. They shouldn't have painted it. It's very much Trump, sort of like lack of transparency, overly expensive, and badly done. But I wanna talk about bad messaging because this is the Reflecting Pool, which is the head of the 250 celebration. That's a center of... Along with the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial. You know, th- those are symbolically beautiful and actually much visited during the 4th of July, and it's gonna look like shit. Talk about it from a brand... Is there a branding perspective? 'Cause it's getting a lot of traction, and usually I think these things are silly, but this one I'm like, "Yeah, this really... He fucked this up like royally in a way that seems ridiculous." Anyway, your thoughts.
- SGScott Galloway
Yeah, look, the, the analogy here, the symbolism is pretty strong. I would argue that the Reflecting Pool is actually what, doing its job and reflecting what's going on 500 feet away. I... By the way, I stared into a reflecting pool for too long, and it made me think.
- KSKara Swisher
[laughing]
- SGScott Galloway
Um, I know. Uh, I, I feel like it's been staring, the Reflecting Pool has been staring at Congress for several hundred years, and it's just finally given up.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah. Right. Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
And it went full moss.
- KSKara Swisher
Right. Right.
- SGScott Galloway
Um, I, yeah, I don't know. Uh, what do you... Uh.
- KSKara Swisher
It's a... I think symbolically, it's for a lot of people.
- SGScott Galloway
Yeah.
- KSKara Swisher
Most kids have gone to the Reflecting, like Americans, when they go on trips to Washington, if you get to go to, on a trip to Washington, as many people do. It's just like everything about it is like Can you do anything that doesn't suck? Like, it's, it's sort of l- uh, e-even though it's just the pool, it's the easiest thing to fix in all the many things that are hard in this country. And to fuck it up this royally is really quite something, I think. You know, it's, it does... It's a messaging of sort of this old man who is addled, who overspends our money. It's all tax money, and we're gonna have to pay for whether it's cleaning up the East Wing, whether these physical things. And you had talked about this, the, the destruction of the East Wing or what he did at the Kennedy Center with the name coming down. It's just... It's all, like, destruction we're gonna have to clean up after this, uh, you know, this elderly toddler, essentially.
- SGScott Galloway
Yeah. I was asked-- I was on a podcast yesterday, and they asked me what I thought about the Reflecting Pool in D.C. turning green, and I said, "No notes." I mean, it's, uh, uh, the, the metaphor, the analogy, whatever, uh, it's just, it's just perfect.
- KSKara Swisher
Anyway, algae, bad messaging, because, uh, just, it just sort of piles on. Okay, Scott, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, we'll discuss SpaceX's busy first week as a public company.
- SGScott Galloway
[gentle music] Support for the show comes from Framer. If your team wants a website that looks and feels handcrafted but is still fast to ship, Framer is built for that. You design on a visual canvas with responsive layouts, hosting, and a CMS built in, so the work is production ready from day one. Agents work alongside you to draft pages and polish sections. Then you review and publish what goes live. Framer is the pro site builder for creators, teams, and businesses that want a professional site and care enough to get every detail right. Agents solve the gap between AI-generated ideas and production-ready website work. The agent works in the same place where the real site is designed, managed, reviewed, and published. It lands on the canvas, stays editable, and can be published when the team is ready. Agents and Framer work alongside teams to streamline collaboration on the same canvas, build custom code components, create and manage CMS content, optimize SEO settings, and ship everything all in one place. Learn how you can get more out of your site from a Framer specialist, or get started building for free today at framer.com/pivot for thirty percent off a Framer Pro annual plan. That's framer.com/pivot for thirty percent off. framer.com/pivot. Rules and restrictions may apply.
- KSKara Swisher
[gentle music] Support for this show comes from Teleport. In the AI era, one of the biggest questions is how to contain agent behavior in your production infrastructure. In Teleport's survey of more than two hundred infrastructure leaders, the company found that those confident in their AI deployments have more than twice the incident rate of those that aren't, seventy-two percent versus thirty-three percent. Let's talk security basics. The most frequent causes of data breaches are human error and compromised credentials. But in the AI era, the challenge is that agents with broad privileges can find these credentials and gain access to sensitive data. Teleport establishes a unified identity layer for humans, machines, and agents that is cryptographically backed, which enables agents to be controlled and contained with the same rigor that you apply to other actors in your infrastructure. Security is complicated, but with Teleport, it doesn't have to be. Download the free report at goteleport.com/pivot. Scott, we're back. Let's go through
- 21:35 – 35:40
SpaceX Latest
- KSKara Swisher
a rundown of the latest SpaceX news. As we tape, shares are down six point five percent to a hundred and seventy-nine dollars, valuing the company at two point three five trillion, which is what it was when we last talked. Shares surged around fifty percent in the first days of trading, making SpaceX the fifth largest company by market cap, surpassing Amazon. Tuesday was the first day that investors could buy SpaceX options contracts and about one point eight million contracts changed hands. And amidst all this, SpaceX announced it will acquire AI coding startup Cursor for sixty billion dollars in an all-stock transaction. I thought this was rather smart. Cursor's annual sales recently hit four billion, making it a reliable source of revenue. It also gets them up to speed in enterprise. It moves... It takes the shitty product of Grok and makes it... You know, this is a smart mo- This is a very typical Elon move, is to buy, uh, something to get ahead, and I thought that was smart. Um, in another win for Musk, the DOJ told a Mississippi federal court that it should throw out a lawsuit against X AI, saying it is, uh, it has the right to run dozens of gas, uh, burning turbines despite not having permits for them. I'm not sure this is a victory for Musk. I think this is gonna come back to bite him. Before we get to our own thoughts, let's hear from our friend and founding partner of Puck, Bill Cohen.
- SPSpeaker
Hey, uh, Karen, Scott. So SpaceX, I mean, I think that, you know, Scott has been nailing this for, you know, weeks now, which is that it's one great business, Starlink, which is a fabulous business and kind of revolutionizing the world in many ways, and one glamorous business, the rocket business, uh, and one lousy business, uh, uh, X and X AI that they crammed in there, uh, and one a-astounding, uh, valuation, uh, with, you know, infinite multiples because only Starlink is, uh, really profitable. Uh, and, uh, it's just, uh, the latest example, frankly, of the Wall Street hype machine that, you know, is so, so good at, uh, hyping up, uh, stocks that, um, and companies that need to raise huge amounts of capital. I mean, you gotta give Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley credit for, uh, you know, raising eighty-five billion dollars of equity and, uh, getting this thing launched at a huge, uh, valuation, two point five trillion now, uh, exceeding Amazon. Uh, and it's been trading up, uh, although for the last couple of days it's, uh, been trading down, so maybe we've, uh, at, at, at a minor peak and maybe, as usual, uh, it'll be the retail investors that get left holding the bag here.
- KSKara Swisher
And of course, uh, s- a bunch of lockups come off over the next couple of months. Scott, how do you feel now? And, uh, talk about the acquisition of Cursor. Uh, I think it's smart. I do. I think the, the thing in the data centers is a mistake on the government's part to do that 'cause I think people are truly mad, but your thoughts?
- SGScott Galloway
Look, the IPO is nothing short of remarkable, and the fact that it, it's gone up so much, I mean, it's off a touch today, but I think it's up, what is it up thirty or forty percent since it initially priced? Kinda the game now is for the first, whatever, hundred years of the market, CEOs were compensated to underpromise and overdeliver. And the last 30 or 40 years, or 20 years at least, it's been overpromise, get your stock up based on these incredible projections of the future, and then use that cheap capital to pull the fut- future forward by investing at a rate no one else can match.
- KSKara Swisher
Right, using-
- SGScott Galloway
Amazon or Netflix
- KSKara Swisher
... u- using this inflated stock
- SGScott Galloway
Or go acquire companies. So for examp- with Cursor, and it, Cursor's a really good company, and they're buying it, um, they're buying it at a multiple of, what is it? Uh, I think they're buying it at a multiple of 15 times revenues. Uh, so when SpaceX is trading at 130 times revenues, it's accretive. So a, a $60 billion acquisition, which is a lot of money, but that gives them a really strong company that, a really strong AI coding tool that has 26% share for a three and a half percent dilution of that crazy t- two and a half trillion dollar market cap. So-
- KSKara Swisher
Right. And, and it makes the Groq story go away, the Groq failure story go away
- SGScott Galloway
... I mean, it, when you are sitting on a company, a stock that's at 130 times revenues, you tell every investment bank, and you tell your corporate debt people, anything that makes sense, buy it.
- KSKara Swisher
What would you... Give me a name. What should he buy?
- SGScott Galloway
Oh, shit, Kara. I don't know enou- enough about the AI space.
- KSKara Swisher
He's gonna shove Tesla in there, as I said he would, 'cause it's his-
- SGScott Galloway
Well, yeah, but that's not an acquisition. That's him stuffing another-
- KSKara Swisher
No, but I'm saying, what would you... Is there, there's a bunch of-
- SGScott Galloway
That's adopting one of the dwarfs so you can continue to sleep with Snow White. I think we're gonna see a lot. I think the M&A space, I think, I think if you're any investment bank and says, "I have this cool AI tool that would help shore up this component of, of X AI," uh, they get the r- calls returned right now. Because the way to think of it is, if you're looking for a house in San Francisco, and it costs $2 million, and you're worth... And it, it's a lot of money, and you're worth 3 million, it's worth... You, you really think about it. If overnight you're worth 30 million, you're like, "Honey, buy it."
- KSKara Swisher
Right. Exactly.
- SGScott Galloway
So everything in the world looks cheap to them right now.
- KSKara Swisher
Right. It does.
- SGScott Galloway
Because almost anything is technically accretive and adds to earnings because nothing out there is trading at 120 times revenues.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah, like perp- they could get Perplexity. They could get a bunch of them.
- SGScott Galloway
Perplexity, I... Yeah, that'd be an interesting one. Or it-
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah, 'cause they, they will paper over their problems with Groq, which are rather significant, which you make-
- SGScott Galloway
Well, uh, regulators, regulators won't get it through, but if they could, they should buy it. They could acquire Mistral.
- KSKara Swisher
Mm-hmm.
- SGScott Galloway
I mean, they could-
- KSKara Swisher
Oh, yeah. That's a good idea. Yeah
- SGScott Galloway
... uh, they, that, that would not get past regulators. But what could they not buy right now? I mean, there's rocket sci- does, does Rocket Lab or whatever the fuck that company is, does that have any technology they could use? They are looking at everything right now.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah, they've got to. Yeah, there's some really interesting stuff. The thing is, he doesn't wanna create sort of like a, a basket of nothing fits. It's gotta be strategic, like in terms of what... Like, so Cursor gets him enterprise business, it gets them, you know, highly talented people, it gets them a product people like-
- SGScott Galloway
Super smart
- 35:40 – 44:03
Snap’s New Specs
- KSKara Swisher
know you'll be rushing out to buy. Uh, Snap just announced its augmented reality smart glasses called Specs. Uh, Evan Spiegel called it a way to bring computing into the world and make it more human, though the style-wise, Wired notes the glasses are chonky. I would think that's a, that's a perfect word, actually. And at a price point of $2,195, they're well above the cost of most Meta Ray-Bans, which are a couple hundred. Um, and then though it's still about a thousand cheaper than Apple's Vision Pro, which people think they're gonna get rid of and replace with their glass version that'll compete with the Ray-Bans, investors don't seem to be impressed. Snap shares fell nearly 10% on Tuesday after the glasses were unveiled. I mean, n- n- I, I like, I very much like Evan Spiegel, but that was bad, him putting them on. I can't say anything else. It just... He's a handsome man, and it immediately rendered him unhandsome, and they looked kind of ridiculous, and pretending otherwise, um, seems silly. It... They're... And by the way, Meta's version of these glasses, which have more utility, and they have to be this big and chonky, um, uh, the Ray-Bans don't, almost have no utility. There's just a few things. But the ones that have more utility w- like mapping and, uh, all kinds of things, like, as if you're, you have a, a cell phone in your hand are very heavy, no matter how you slice it. So your thoughts on the chonky glasses?
- SGScott Galloway
I've ne- this is the first time in my life I've ever seen an image of Evan Spiegel and thought, "I'm cooler than Evan Spiegel." $2,200 for four hours of battery life, bulky frames, from a company that has never turned a profit. Let's go. I mean, [laughs] it is a terrible thing to say. I've never been a fan of Snap. I've always thought it was subscale. I think Evan is an innovator. I'm glad he's a billionaire. He seems like a lovely guy. He is a lovely guy. I've met him. Lovely guy. Uh, this is the beginning and the end of Snap as an independent company. This thing is dead on arrival. It makes a mixed, mixed reality headset from T- Tim Cook look like a viable product.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
This is... Uh, I mean, I don't know if you've heard, I'm not a big fan of these-
- KSKara Swisher
No
- SGScott Galloway
... wearables and headsets.
- KSKara Swisher
I am looking forward to seeing what Apple comes in with a li- a lighter version. I am looking forward.
- SGScott Galloway
I-
- KSKara Swisher
But they are very chonky. Have, have you tried these on? I have. I've tried the Specs and, and the Meta ones.
- SGScott Galloway
Oh, no, I'm not, I'm not part of the in crowd, the cool crowd. Uh, this is where it's all headed.
- KSKara Swisher
They're very heavy.
- SGScott Galloway
It's all headed to AirPods with AI and cameras built into them.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
And maybe there'll be some cool li- things, sunglasses, but here's the problem. Snap doesn't have the capital because, because what Meta can do is Meta can bu- burn $60 billion on a failed product and it's like a speed bump. Uh, this product is overpriced, under-engineered, because Snap at whatever it is, six or eight billion market cap, doesn't have the capital to compete in the hardware space.
- KSKara Swisher
A- and you can't make those smaller. I mean, from what I understand, they got a lot packed in there. You know, even, even the Ray-Bans are a little heavy, that I don't wear them 'cause I find them, like they're heavier than my glasses. And so... And they have limited features, like limited, limited features. And so it's like take a picture, record something. I, I think one of the things... You know, recognition is important. I think, you know, like if you were blind or other things, like who is that? Very helpful. That kind of stuff with limited features is great, but if you want anything really substantive, like... And I, and actually when you put them on and look through them, it's cool 'cause the room becomes... Like I saw one thing with the Specs, this was many years ago actually, um, they brought it to my house and I tried them on, and they were so heavy. They were ridiculous. But when you look through them, there was the planets in front of you, and you could walk through the planets, and it was beautiful. Like I have to say, that was cool, and I was like, how can we get to this kind of thing? So I, I, I... For the first time, I understood the planets. I know it sounds dumb because they were swirling around me, and I was like, how do you create this in a way that is light? And I don't think you can. I think you kind of have to have some sort of holographic room or something that you live in, or your room has cameras. Um, but this idea that you can have it all from the glasses means you have to wear these chonky glasses. And, uh, but when you're in it, it is quite lovely. It's just the, the... I don't know how they're gonna make these light and easy to wear, you know. They're, they're in the movies. They're always in... Iron Man always has a pair that looks pretty cool, but.
- SGScott Galloway
There's military applications, there's commercial applications, but from a consumer standpoint, these glasses and these 3D... It's always been like, it's always been like going to the planetarium at Griffith Park, which I used to do with my college buddies. We'd get ridiculously fucking high, go to the planetarium, and think, "This is amazing. We gotta do this again in another 24 months."
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah. [laughs]
- SGScott Galloway
I mean, this-
- KSKara Swisher
That's a really good-
- SGScott Galloway
It's just not...
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah. Yeah, you're right.
- SGScott Galloway
The commercial application is the most ubiquitous screen in the phone, I mean in the world, your iPhone, that you can hold up to something and use AR, not VR. And then where the, the only wearable in my opinion that's gonna, gonna really take off is the one that's already taken off, and that is AirPods. And the n- I mean, keep in mind, Specs, Snap launched Specs, and they are an innovator, in 2016 for 130 bucks, and nobody bought them, so naturally the solution was to make them 15 times more expensive and way uglier.
- KSKara Swisher
And heavier. Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
So-
- KSKara Swisher
Specs sort of look like the Ray-Bans, I'll tell you that. They definitely do. They did.
- SGScott Galloway
This is dead on, this is dead on arrival.
- KSKara Swisher
The ear- the early Specs. Yeah, the early Specs.
- SGScott Galloway
This is dead on arrival. Snap is an innovative subscale company that should be searching for an acquirer right now.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah. Who would buy them? Elon. [laughs]
- SGScott Galloway
I don't know. I don't, I don't know if, I don't know if Meta-
- 44:03 – 53:40
Predictions
- KSKara Swisher
Um, I have to say... Can I make one quick prediction?
- SGScott Galloway
Sure.
- KSKara Swisher
I was really struck by how... And I was just on The View, and I like those ladies of The View, but I thought they did a fantastic job with that interview with, um, um-
- SGScott Galloway
Vice President Vance
- KSKara Swisher
... J.D. Vance.
- SGScott Galloway
I agree.
- KSKara Swisher
I thought they did a great job.
- SGScott Galloway
Yeah, agree.
- KSKara Swisher
And I have to say, I... Because I'd be thinking like someone was like, "TV's over." I'm like, "Is all TV over?"
- SGScott Galloway
Yeah, it's important. Yeah
- KSKara Swisher
... or can you innovate TV? And when you see things like that, you're like, they created a viral moment that was also substantive. There are ways to innovate in the broadcast space, I think. And, uh, uh, oh, not secularly, because secularly it's going down. But I... When I saw that, I'm like, there would be a way to do this that was... Like, they did a great... They showed you could make products that are really people like, and I think it was viewed by a lot of people. It did like a huge, uh, social thing, and I was just like, "Good." Like, what would you do to innovate television, was really... It made me start thinking. And I have to say I pay compliments to them because that's not where you expect, I think, the best interview of him was done, I have to say, of all, all of them. And I thought they asked exactly the right questions. They had the amount of fairness and, um, fairness and quality, and also had a lot of good side eyes. Uh, Sunny Hostin and, and Ana had the best side eyes, but it was, it was well done, I have to say. So I predict more of that.
- SGScott Galloway
Yeah, I agree with you though. I, I, I, I thought they, they did as good a job as... They were very respectful. They were pushback when it was appropriate. I thought he did, I thought he did the best he could with the, the hand he's been built or dealt, I should say. I don't... You know, he was... You know, kudos to him. He wants to be president. Kudos to him. You gotta go into the lion's den like that.
- KSKara Swisher
He did. He did. Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
And I thought he was... Actually, th- in a weird way, I thought it was a win for both of them. I thought he came off as-
- KSKara Swisher
It was, it was well done
- SGScott Galloway
... more human.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah, I thought it was well done. Here's the problem. He's... Uh, what they should... The only question they didn't ask him is the one they asked Kamala. "How are... What would you separate yourself from?"
- SGScott Galloway
Oh, that's a great question.
- KSKara Swisher
That's the one I would ask.
- SGScott Galloway
What would you do differently?
- KSKara Swisher
What would you do differently?
- SGScott Galloway
What would you do differently?
- KSKara Swisher
Like, I would ask the... I would ask exactly the same.
- SGScott Galloway
That's exactly right.
- KSKara Swisher
That, that would've killed him. He could... 'Cause he'd have to have the same answer Kamala did, which is, "Not a thing. I can't think of a thing." He ca- he couldn't say anything is the thing. So that would've been the killer question. Sadly, I was not there. Anyway.
- SGScott Galloway
There you go. Uh, he wouldn't have come on if you were there, I don't think.
- KSKara Swisher
No.
- SGScott Galloway
Um, anyways, uh, okay, so my, my prediction is, and I've sort of already made it, uh, an activist is gonna show up in Four seven either to sell or spin the Specs division. They've spent three and a half billion over the past decade on their fever dreams of a wearable with no real return, and they spend about a third of their adjusted EBITDA on specs per year. And, and better capitalized competitors, including Apple and Meta, are struggling to make this product category work. And if they spun or shut down their Specs division, it's actually... It's not a great business, but it's a good business, and that is Snap for all of its issues and being subscale is only one of four scaled social networks. It has a billion monthly active users and nearly a half a billion daily active users, said my children.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
Uh, and Snap-
Episode duration: 53:40
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Transcript of episode 508lbndo1Eg
