Skip to content
PivotPivot

Trump's State-Run TV Launches... with a Whimper | Pivot

Kara and Scott unpack a judge’s order restoring White House press access for CNN, MS NOW, and Politico, as well as the lackluster launch of Trump TV. Then, Trump’s summit with Chinese president Xi Jinping, and the implications for Taiwan. Plus, Meta goes all in on Muse with new smart glasses and a Tamagotchi-like AI charm, Andreessen Horowitz launches an alternative to college, and Scott predicts another blockbuster IPO. Kara and Scott are going on tour! Get your tickets at https://www.PivotTour.com Subscribe to Pivot! https://www.youtube.com/@pivot?sub_confirmation=1 00:00 Intro 00:18 White House Press Access 01:49 Trump TV’s Disastrous Debut 7:03 Trump–Xi Summit 18:26 Meta's New Glasses and Gadgets 36:35 Andreessen Horowitz Launches College Alternative 47:27 Predictions #pivot #pivotpodcast #karaswisher #scottgalloway #whitehousepress #firstamendment #pressban #freedomofpress #trumptv #trumpximeeting #trumpxi #trumpxisummit #metamuse #metaglasses #metacharm #charm #tamagotchi #andreesenhorowitz #highereducation #college #californiaschools Producers: Lara Naaman Zoë Marcus Taylor Griffin Todd Wiseman 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 About Pivot With great power, comes great scrutiny. Every Tuesday and Friday, journalist Kara Swisher and NYU Professor Scott Galloway offer sharp, unfiltered insights into the biggest stories in tech, business, and politics. They make bold predictions, pick winners and losers, and bicker and banter like no one else. Episodes blend breaking news analysis with bold predictions, sharp debate, and the occasional argument between the two hosts. From New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Kara Swisherhost
Sep 25, 202657mWatch on YouTube ↗

EVERY SPOKEN WORD

  1. 0:00 – 0:18

    Intro

    1. SP

      Banning the press is like holding your breath to punish the air.

    2. KS

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

    3. SP

      And I'm Scott Galloway.

    4. KS

      Let me just tell you, a

  2. 0:18 – 1:49

    White House Press Access

    1. KS

      federal judge ruled that Trump's ban on CNN, MS NOW, and Politico was likely unconstitutional, granting a temporary restraining order telling the White House to immediately return, reinstate, and restore press credentials. It, it looks like they haven't gotten the memo. They're probably terrified of Trump in order to carry it out. As of this recording, some staff from all three outlets are still being denied access. It's not clear whether it's incompetence or Trump worry. Uh, they just filed for request for emergency hearing. Of course, the story will probably change 15 more times by the people-- time people listen to this episode. Maybe the people will be in. Whatever. The judge also rejected for now the administration's argument the ban was necessary to protect national security, which is specious. He questioned the stories the White House used to justify the ban, saying they were routine and noting that some were months or even years old. By the way, the source for a Politico story cited by the White House was Bre- Vice President JD Vance, according to status. I have been to those kind of briefings. What happens is they do these briefings where you say a source close to the president, and it's always, like, either the president or the secretary of state. And so that's-- I, I've been to those. They're so ridiculous, they're-- and stupid when, when you have to do them, and I've stopped doing them. But they're so incompetent. It's just-- I can't tell whether it's incompetence or they just don't know what to do with Trump or they're, uh, they're worried Natalie's gonna be mad. I don't know. I just... He, he should back down 'cause the microphones are terrible. Like, it's really kinda comical to watch the whole thing going on. And they l-- And speaking of Trump's TV coverage, and I love your comments on this, the White House launched Trump TV, a twenty-four-hour

  3. 1:49 – 7:03

    Trump TV’s Disastrous Debut

    1. KS

      YouTube channel with the administration's, quote, "greatest hits unfiltered all in one place." It's not exactly breaking the internet. It peaked at around eight thousand viewers at launch and dropped below four thousand within ninety minutes. As we record, the stream currently has six hundred and sixty-seven viewers. [laughs] So all of this is au-obviously autocratic handbooks and state-run TV. Really, there is something very meaningful here about the First Amendment and the ability of people to just report basic news from the White House. This seems insane on some-- on many levels. Your thoughts?

    2. SP

      Well, we always make predictions on Friday.

    3. KS

      Right.

    4. SP

      This is an easy one. He's gonna back down. He doesn't-- Trump doesn't need CNN's respect. He needs its attention. And for him, attention and coverage is oxygen, and banning, banning the press is like holding your breath to punish the air.

    5. KS

      Yeah. [laughs]

    6. SP

      It just-- It really doesn't m- It, it, it really doesn't make any sense.

    7. KS

      That's good. Yeah. Yeah.

    8. SP

      And-

    9. KS

      Yeah

    10. SP

      ... the most interesting thing here from a, quote-unquote, "democracy standpoint" is how many days of ignoring a judge's order do we begin to normalize?

    11. KS

      Right. Oh, very good point. Yeah.

    12. SP

      And, uh, I think at some point, unfortunately, one of, one of the really many dangerous things about the Trump administration is they get these orders, and then they hum and haw and kinda wait until-

    13. KS

      The last minute

    14. SP

      ... th-they-- They're sort of playing chicken with our democracy constantly.

    15. KS

      Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

    16. SP

      So the, the... And then the, the kind of the fun one or the kicker is, is the Vance detail, and that is the White House cited a leak as a national security threat, and of course, the leaker was the vice president. So-

    17. KS

      It's organized. For people-

    18. SP

      Yeah, that's right

    19. KS

      ... uh, what people didn't get is-

    20. SP

      It's not a security breach; it's a mirror

    21. KS

      ... it, it-- Literally, they organize these things, the-- for the press, who's working there, and so they can quote someone from the administration without it be-having his name on it. This is a common practice. Um, and they, they-- what they do is they, for people who don't know, they bring groups of reporters in, and Vance briefs them, and then the-- you have to say a source close to the administration. That, that's, that's the rule. That's the rule of the thing. So that's even... Like, it's not even, like, secret leaking that Vance did. This was organized leaking by presumably, uh, Leavitt when she was working there. I think they don't have a PR person there anymore, you know, and it's, it's Natalie and Trump sort of working it out. The Trump TV thing was pretty surprising. The numbers are so low. Like, wow.

    22. SP

      When I was probably, I don't know, when I was in junior high or high school, in Westwood, we had something, we had cable called, it was called the Z Channel, and it was this box with little buttons on it for each channel, and it had a cord that ran all the way [laughs] to the TV.

    23. KS

      Oh, wow.

    24. SP

      And one of my first major business lessons was the cable guy was outside messing around with the cable box, and I was watching him, you know, I was bored, and he was putting in all these things, and they were blockers such that my mom and I couldn't afford cable TV, so when I pulled up the Z Channel, it would go, "Eh, eh, eh," and you couldn't see it. Like, you could see it for a second, and when you're a thirteen-year-old and you have Cinemax-

    25. KS

      Yeah, I remember. That was the porn channel. Yeah

    26. SP

      ... you would spend a half an hour just to occasionally see a boob or something.

    27. KS

      Mm-hmm. Yeah.

    28. SP

      And I walked up to this guy, and I said, "Are those blockers?" And he was, like, a nice man. He showed it to me, and I'm like, "I'm at unit seven." And I gave him five dollars, and he looked at me, and he took the blockers out.

    29. KS

      Wow.

    30. SP

      And it was kinda one of my first business lessons-

  4. 7:03 – 18:26

    Trump–Xi Summit

    1. KS

      the White House. Ahead of the meeting, Treasury Secretary and Gray Poupon spokesman Scott Bessent discussed a possible US-China AI dialogue with his Chinese counterpart. That would reportedly include a communications channel for AI incidents that rise up to the national security level, which I cannot believe is not already in place. We asked, uh, the director of Greenmantle, Alice Hahn, about what she expects from the summit. Here's what she had to say.

    2. SP

      What do I expect coming out of the summit? Well, four things. Number one, a commitment rhetorically on both sides for continued dialogue. I do believe there will be another chance for the two leaders to meet, either in Shenzhen for APEC in November or for G20 in Miami in December. Number two, I do believe the Chinese will succeed in getting the Americans to delay the fourteen billion dollars in arm sales due to Taiwan. Number three, I do believe there will be continued signaling about the desire to extend, uh, the truce on tariffs and rare earths. Bessent's already announced a two-month truce, uh, up until January 10. And last but not least, I think the most important part of the r- bilateral discussion right now is AI controls, AI guardrails. It's coming at a time where we're getting a lot of news about rogue agents, the problems with AI alignment, and I do think both sides are invested and both leaders are invested in some kind of discussion about, uh, continued AI governance guardrails, uh, certain levels of, of controls being put in place. I don't think we'll get any big substance on this issue, but certainly some kind of rhetorical statement from both sides about the need for bilateral cooperation of AI.

    3. KS

      Well, that's great. That's really smart. Um, uh, you know, I-- What would meaningful US-China cooperation on AI safety look like? I think that's really the question. And, and Trump has already said they were gonna talk about AI, but he said, "But I wanted to let it go," except for one or... Forget, it was something very minor he was talking about, that the US Justice Department will be, will be the guardrail, essentially. Your thoughts?

    4. SP

      Look, they've, they've rolled out a technology as a solution that was invented in 1963, right? The, the Washington Hotline after the Cuban Missile Crisis. It is w- w- The boring stuff is what moves the needle, and there is some important stuff here. Or in 1972, we agreed with the Soviets to have something called the Incidents at Sea Agreement. Because if a nuclear submarine crashed on the shelf of whatever, we needed both-- everyone needed to know, okay, there's, there's 60 nuclear warheads at the bottom of the ocean, and maybe we can help you rescue these people. And if we detect a nuclear submarine and it looks like it's not moving, is it lining up for offensive action? So it made sense to say, "Okay, when shit gets real for one of our submarines or a military or an attack ship at sea, we're gonna be graceful with each other, try and help each other, and we are going to communicate with each other around what's going on."

    5. KS

      Right. Right.

    6. SP

      And one of the things we need for AI is the equivalent of the NTSB, the National Transportation Safety Board, that when there's an accident anywhere in, you know, in China or the US, we know about it. We share it with each other. It's like I say to my kids, "When you come home, if you've had a few drinks, if you tell me, I'm not gonna be mad. I just need to know. I, I want to know what's going on with you. I, I-- and I will afford you a lot of grace. I'm not saying I'll ignore things, but tell me when something goes wrong or you've had to, uh, whatever they're called, those nicotine patches, and come home and start throwing up. I, I want to know why, and I, I want-- I don't want you to be scared to tell me."

    7. KS

      Right.

    8. SP

      Are they called Nizz or Rizz or other little things you patch?

    9. KS

      I don't know.

    10. SP

      Anyway, my point is there's, there's something important to that. And then the other really, the most important thing of all of this, and it's, again, another terrible move in my view, and it's acquiescing to Russia, or excuse me, to China, is that the w- we've agreed to delay fourteen billion in Taiwan arm sales in exchange for AI rhetoric.

    11. KS

      Yep.

    12. SP

      So basically, we're trading hardware and defense of an ally for a press release, and it is so asymmetric, and you want to talk about a bad deal. China has not agreed to stop arming or helping arm, uh, uh, Russia in their fight against Ukraine or even Iran as they begin, as they, as we are in a war with them. But we're not gonna ship fourteen billion in what would be defensive, defensive arms to Taiwan.

    13. KS

      I am so certain they're going to surround Taiwan r- within the Trump. They've got only this two-year timeframe to do it. They, they must do it, and especially when they get the, the nod from Trump. It, it is-- That's what this is, right? This idea of not defending this, this nation. And I think even the nation has given up on thinking the US, watching all the other allies get, um, you know, w- w- Russia and all the others. I mean, everything's a press release with this guy. I mean, one of the things he was-- he's trying to rebrand AI called super intelligence. This is not a new name for it, and I, I don't know why he doesn't like artificial. Just everything's such a fake, and, and as you note, the real stuff like defending Taiwan or, or feeling like they're our ally or treating them like an, the ally they've been. And by, by the way, we totally depend on them with chips still to this moment. It would be devastating if, if China did what everyone thinks it wants to do and probably will do, which is surround it or somehow get control of, of Taiwan. Um, so yeah, right. This is all bullshit, super intell... When he said that, I'm like, "You are so stupid. I just don't know what to say," and you give away the farm every time with whatever malevolent ally heads our way, whether it's Xi or, um, uh, the guy from North Korea or anywhere else. Or he, like, embraces dictators and rejects democratic leadership, essentially

    14. SP

      But every victory on the battlefield for Ukraine against the, uh, invading Russian force makes it less likely China will invade Taiwan. It's-- People don't realize-

    15. KS

      Yeah, true

    16. SP

      ... how important it is and what a great investment helping the Ukrainian arm- Ukrainian army continue to accomplish miracles on the battlefield is. 'Cause you gotta think that the CCP looks at what's happened with a, a smaller military force that's technically sophisticated. I can't even imagine how technically sophisticated the Taiwanese a-asymmetric force would be.

    17. KS

      I understand that they are, like, starting to live with the idea they might be a, a part of China. Uh, that's what I've heard from people there.

    18. SP

      Well, that's-- But, and that's up to the Taiwanese people. Is it-- But my point is, if you look-

    19. KS

      Oh, they don't want to be. They just think it's inevitable. That's the thing.

    20. SP

      But it would be-- I, I'm going to whether-- I, I don't think it's gonna be, I don't think we're gonna have a hot war there. First off, the CCP is very smart, they're very measured, and look at what's happened to the two hostile powers, Russia and the US in Ukraine and in Iran. For all of their, you know, large army and everything, there's something very, uh, I find interesting. There's not a single soldier in the Chinese armed services that has one day of combat experience.

    21. KS

      Mm-hmm.

    22. SP

      And if, uh, it could be a disaster for them in a hot war with Taiwan, and Taiwan has mapped the shit out of the entry points. It would make Omaha look like... Maybe that's a bad example. Anyways, what you, what... The fear is that it's a soft, creeping economic invasion.

    23. KS

      Exactly. Exactly.

    24. SP

      Right? That makes it-

    25. KS

      Yeah

    26. SP

      ... just very difficult. If we continue to, to treat Taiwan the way we treat our other allies and friends, it, you wanna talk about if someone could go gangster on you. If Taiwan says, "Oh, we're gonna reconsider, uh, uh, the supply chain for chips to the US," I mean, they, they dominate. Um, and anyways, I don't... As always, our geopolitical strategy here makes no sense.

    27. KS

      Yeah, it makes no sense. I think what's, it's, it is astonishing how much he turns on allies, and Taiwan has been one of our staunchest allies and one of the helpers of creating this digital revolution too. It's just, it's one of these, uh, you know, I know so many m-amazing technologists from Taiwan, you know, and a lot of people who are in Silicon Valley, created these companies are from there. It is a, it is an astonishing country, and always under siege by the Chinese.

    28. SP

      Have you been there? I've never been.

    29. KS

      Yes, once, and it's amazing.

    30. SP

      Really? I'm, I'm interested to go.

  5. 18:26 – 36:35

    Meta's New Glasses and Gadgets

    1. KS

      I have purposely not asked you what you think of this 'cause I'm-- wanna be surprised. Now, Mark Zuckerberg and Meta are going all in on Muse, and now they want, uh, a new AI chat to be part of pretty much everything you do. At Wednesday's Meta Connect conference, Zuckerberg showed off several new pairs of smart glasses and a bunch of Muse integrations. He announced a partnership that will let Muse shop at Walmart, Best Buy, and other stores, not Amazon, and Zuck-- which who he's having a beef with. And Zuckerberg also unveiled a new lightweight VR glasses priced at twelve ninety-nine and expected next spring. Meta called them the sexiest pair of VR glasses you've ever seen. They are not. And from wearables to holdables, Meta is introducing a Muse Charm, a small device that fits on a keychain and lets you talk to Muse without using your phone, another iteration of Humane. Uh, ChatGPT has one coming. These are n- they think we all want Tamagotchis. Fine. And that's what it looks like. Meta hopes to ship it in time for the holidays. I must have your thoughts on how, uh, he kicked off the keynote with smart glasses and talking to a hologram of his CTO. Uh, check this out.

    2. SP

      [chime] Hey. Hey, Mark. How's it going? How's it going? Just putting some finishing touches on over here. You ready to do this? Yeah, man, we got a packed house out there. You better get on stage. All right, I'll be out there in a minute. Let's go have some fun. Okay. [chuckles] See you soon, brother. Yeah. [chime]

    3. KS

      He's no Steve Jobs, let's just say that. [chuckles] I just... He's still aw- he's not as awkward as he used to be. Let me pay him a compliment. He's not as hopelessly awkward as he used to be.

    4. SP

      Yeah, he's only just, he's only just very awkward now. Um-

    5. KS

      Very awkward. So what do you think of all this? I have no idea what you think. I will tell you what I think in a minute, but I wanna hear what you think.

    6. SP

      Well, [sighs] I mean, my observations are a little broad. Power and age are the enemies of self-awareness, and typically, o- really old people with a lot of power are the least self-aware people because you have so much, so much leverage and influence over people's well-being that they find the f- the shortest route to improving their own well-being is to kiss your ass. That's kinda the highest ROI strategy. It's not to antagon- it's, it's not to disagree with them. I mean, everybody says, "Oh, I appreciate when people disagree with me." In the short run, there's just too much... If you got, if you got two minutes with the president, you're just gonna say what a great guy he is.

    7. KS

      Yeah.

    8. SP

      And, uh, and when you're, when you're hoping to get promoted to SVP and you get five minutes with Mark Zuckerberg such that you can have more options and finally afford a home in the Bay Area, you're gonna say, "Oh, by the way, the new glasses are amazing." The other thing these companies are missing in my view is anthropologists, and that is people will n- people are physically uncomfortable in any way, and this is this a certain format of the headset, with their peripheral vision blocked because that's the shit. The shit that can eat you or you can eat doesn't come straight at you. It comes from the sides or behind. And so that's why you feel nauseous when you, when your peripheral vision is shocked. You, the bo- your body's saying, "No, no, don't block your peripheral vision. It's key to survival." The only thing people... Also, the only thing people will put on their face, it either is for survival, that is glasses to help you read. If you can't see, you're more likely to be eaten. Is it like, "Is that my son or a bear coming towards me?"

    9. KS

      You probably are not gonna get eaten, Scott, but go ahead. Yeah, I see your point.

    10. SP

      There's, by the way, I'm in Aspen. There's bears everywhere.

    11. KS

      Oh, okay. [chuckles]

    12. SP

      It's like dogs running around.

    13. KS

      Oh, God.

    14. SP

      It's like, "Oh, there's a bear."

    15. KS

      Don't get eaten by a bear.

    16. SP

      And I'm like, "What do we do?" And I use that joke, I'm like, of course, I said, "Well, you know, we should run." And the person I was with said, "We can't outrun a bear." And I'm like, "No, no, I just need to outrun you."

    17. KS

      Outrun you. That's the old joke.

    18. SP

      It's the old joke.

    19. KS

      That's the old famous joke.

    20. SP

      That's the good... Anyways, it-

    21. KS

      But what do you think of these though, and thus?

    22. SP

      Oh, I d- I don't, I don't think these people have learned the following. You only put something on your face for survival or that increases the elevation of your cheekbones such that you, more people wanna have sex with you. Putting... The, the reason, the only glasses that work here are Ray-Ban Meta glasses because it's a, it's Ray-Ban first and computer second. People don't want a computer on their face. Maybe they'll put a p- cool pair of sunglasses on their face with a computer in them, but these guys just has, haven't learned basics.

    23. KS

      It's still not there, and it's still the cree- You know, he did a really interesting interview with Joanna Stern, and she zeroed in on the creeper glasses. He got visibly annoyed in the interview. Um, but the fact that he's not addressed, like gets annoyed by it rather than be like, "Yeah, I get it," kinda thing, that's one. Two, uh, these are better than the other, the ones before it and better than the ones before that, but they're still very heavy and very invasive. I don't know what else to say. Like I, I wouldn't, I wouldn't subject other people to them. That's one. And so I, I'm not sure these will ever work properly. I think, again, they have to be in air-airpods for some reason so that they're much more subtle. They're so not subtle, any of this stuff. I think they're useful. Some people play music or, or take a note, uh, you know. I-I'm interested in the charm. Like I will never carry a Tamagotchi, I'll tell you that. And it's really interesting that they're all working on these versions of a little clip that you put on your... You know, Humane was one. Again, ChatGPT's gonna come out with one. I can't believe Apple won't have some version of this. Um, what do you think of this charm? I mean, everyone was like, "Wow, he did a charm." I'm like, this is like the tenth charm like that I have seen. And you know, he's trying to be adorable with it, with this little sort of squishy little squidy-ja little thing. But I-I find it... I would not use it. I'm an adult. Like maybe kids will. I, I doubt my sons would use it. I can't-

    24. SP

      No. A-again, I love pronouncing shit DOA. A M-Muse charm-

    25. KS

      Yeah

    26. SP

      ... is the Humane pin with a Meta logo.

    27. KS

      Mm-hmm. Yeah.

    28. SP

      Remember Humane?

    29. KS

      Yeah, of course. That's what I was just mentioning. Yeah.

    30. SP

      It raised about a quarter of a billion dollars. It charged seven hundred bucks, and it ended up selling its IP to HP for a hundred and sixteen million. And, uh, Rabbit r1 had the same mark or has the same mark. Every a- every AI gadget faces the same problem. There's a business problem, and there's an ego problem or a, a Sybil Split personality problem here. And the business problem is the following: every AI gadget is competing with the most successful consumer product in history, which is in your pocket.

  6. 36:35 – 47:27

    Andreessen Horowitz Launches College Alternative

    1. KS

      back. Andreessen Horowitz is backing a new San Francisco school designed as an alternative to college aimed at young people who wanna work in tech and build companies. The Horowitz Andreessen Academy, uh, will have no grades, tests, or traditional homework. Uh, I'm okay with that. Instead, focusing on AI, hands-on projects, internships, and mentorship from tech leaders. The first class will start in twenty twenty-seven with no tuition, but the school is unaccredited, meaning students won't receive a degree or transferable college credits. That's OpenAI, Meta, uh, NVIDIA, Anthropic, and other tech companies are founding pro- uh, partners in the project. Uh, pending regulatory approval, the school plans to expand to a two-year program in twenty twenty-eight, with tuition comparable to an elite private university. So they're keeping up the prices. Uh, you know, this is sort of what Peter Thiel's been talking about forever. Um, I don't mind. It sounds like a school to, to create workers for them. I mean, I, um, the thing I first thought was Soylent Green Is People. Um, I, I don't know. I just, I don't trust him. I don't trust them to do that. This is not who I want to be. And I think this stuff should be in colleges and in high schools in, as part of the curriculum, but, uh, they just hate education. They hate our current education system, and there's a lot to hate. Uh, your thoughts? This is your, absolutely your, uh, your area.

    2. SP

      Well, anyone who, who says that higher ed is not important and that your kid doesn't need to go to college, that means one of two things. They went to Stanford undergrad and grad, or two, their son just shit the bed on the ACT, and they're trying to make themselves feel better.

    3. KS

      [chuckles]

    4. SP

      When you manage to get through college, and, uh, it's not for everybody, but I think everyone should have the option because when you get a college degree, you become much less likely to kill yourself. You become much more likely to get married. You become much more likely to vote, much less likely to be obese, and on average, you earn about one point two million dollars more over your lifetime. Going-- The-- If we had a drug that made you healthier, happier, and a better citizen, would we hoard it? And that's, that's the problem with higher ed, is we are hoarding what is the miracle drug of the West. In nineteen hundred, only ten percent of kids had a high school degree. By the fifties, it was fifty percent. Now it's upward of eighty percent. And draw a line between that and our prosperity, and what you see is that education, including higher education, is the miracle drug that has advanced the West. I think it's important, just as Texas and Florida compete with California and New York and force them to offer better services at a lower price, I like these sorts of things. I think it's important we have competition. But what they fail to realize is in, in school, we don't educate, we certify. And having a school like this with a Harvard tuition without the Harvard logo is like having an Hermès scarf without the Hermès logo. You're just not gonna be able to charge the same amount.

    5. KS

      Yeah.

    6. SP

      The Thiel Fellowship paid kids a hundred thousand dollars to drop out and produce a few home runs and a lot of kinda quiet outcomes. The founding partners here, Google, Meta, OpenAI, NVIDIA, Anthropic, uh, you know, this is more like a town with a campus. What they're trying to do is create a pipeline of talented eighteen-year-olds-

    7. KS

      That's right. Soylent Green Is People

    8. SP

      ... so that they, they, before these kids know their market value.

    9. KS

      Right.

    10. SP

      And, uh, now again, I like this because college has become a caste system. Elite schools reject ninety-five percent of their applicants and grow their endowments and their class sizes. And if universities won't expand their freshman class, I, I think they deserve to have their lunch eaten and, and have their feet held to the fire. UCLA and Berkeley, nine and eleven percent admissions rate respectively. There's no one in there in the summer. There's no one there at night. We should expand our freshman class size by twenty or thirty percent. We are public servants, not a fucking Chanel bag.

    11. KS

      If only someone was on the board of this that could make these kind of changes.

    12. SP

      But in my view, the answer isn't in these VC-backed competitors. The answer is in our great public universities and doubling down on them. And let me just give you some stats about the University of California real quick.

    13. KS

      Y- disclose you're on the board, just for people who don't know. I was making a joke thereabouts.

    14. SP

      I can't imagine anyone doesn't know that because I'm excited about it, and I drop that every ten seconds when I meet people.

    15. KS

      Right. Okay. Wow.

    16. SP

      It's how I introduce myself now.

    17. KS

      Yes. Okay.

    18. SP

      "Hi, I'm Regent Galloway."

    19. KS

      [chuckles]

    20. SP

      Anyways, uh, and my nickname is Tripod in the fraternity, just to give more credibility-

    21. KS

      I know, I know. Once again. [chuckles]

    22. SP

      There we go. Bring it down.

    23. KS

      That one we know.

    24. SP

      Bring it back a little.

    25. KS

      Okay.

    26. SP

      Bring it back, just so they know who they're talking to.

    27. KS

      Regent Tripod. Okay, Regent Tripod.

    28. SP

      Okay, listen.

    29. KS

      Give us the thing.

    30. SP

      What percentage of kids at a University of California campus do you think pay no tuition? Not loans, pay no tuition through financial aid and grants. What percentage?

  7. 47:27 – 57:25

    Predictions

    1. KS

      I predict Kara's leaving CNN.

    2. SP

      Oh, God, here we go.

    3. KS

      How dare you, sir?

    4. SP

      Oh, God.

    5. KS

      All right, that's it.

    6. SP

      I'm leaving.

    7. KS

      [chuckles]

    8. SP

      I'm back. I'm leaving again.

    9. KS

      [chuckles] Here I go. The door, it's right there on the... [chuckles]

    10. SP

      Wait, they'll be like, "Wait, you're, you're gonna be like that kid from high school who had popu- and, like, hangs out in the parking lot two years after they graduated."

    11. KS

      Yeah. [chuckles]

    12. SP

      And everyone's like, "What are they doing here?"

    13. KS

      That's always a Matthew McConaughey thing.

    14. SP

      Something-

    15. KS

      That's always... I mean, you know, you-

    16. SP

      Don't they have anything to do?

    17. KS

      I know, that's me.

    18. SP

      Yeah.

    19. KS

      Goodbye, sir.

    20. SP

      Uh.

    21. KS

      Anyway, I'm gonna wear a top hat as I go. Anyway, go ahead. What's your prediction?

    22. SP

      Oh, God.

    23. KS

      I look good in a top hat.

    24. SP

      Literally.

    25. KS

      Let's be clear.

    26. SP

      I have a bunch of little ones. Um-

    27. KS

      All right

    28. SP

      ... okay, the Muse charm, the Muse charm ships, sells poorly, and quietly dies by mid 2027 along with these, these niche VC-backed universities. The Humane pin is its closest comparison. Trump TV, Trump TV goes dark or gets rebranded within six months. Uh, an Ellison-led group is gonna bring in money from the Gulf, but it's not gonna bring in Elon. I, I think if they brought in Elon, I think you would see names even bigger-

    29. KS

      They can

    30. SP

      ... than yours say, "I'm leaving."

Episode duration: 57:25

Install uListen for AI-powered chat & search across the full episode — Get Full Transcript

Transcript of episode 1Um5gy2kDNo

Get more out of YouTube videos.

High quality summaries for YouTube videos. Accurate transcripts to search & find moments. Powered by ChatGPT & Claude AI.