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Why is Everyone Freaking Out About AI Right Now? | Pivot

Kara and Scott unpack the recent AI panic, as Dario Amodei calls for a slowdown, Donald Trump dismisses concerns, and Sam Altman says OpenAI won’t go public this year. Then, they discuss Mark Carney’s push for closer ties with the EU, and why Canada and the U.S. may not be getting back together anytime soon. Plus, California’s new online child-safety laws, and Mitch McConnell’s surprise return to the Senate. Subscribe to Pivot! https://www.youtube.com/@pivot?sub_confirmation=1 00:00 Intro 00:19 The AI Panic 17:53 OpenAI Rules Out 2026 IPO 22:51 California Social Media Safety Laws 27:05 Mark Carney Courts Europe 35:21 Mitch McConnell Returns 43:54 Wins and Fails #pivot #pivotpodcast #podcast #karaswisher #scottgalloway #ai #anthropic #darioamodei #samaltman #openai #elonmusk #grok #markcarney #canada #tradewar #trump #california #airegulations #airegulation #regulation #mitchmcconnell #ussenate #senator 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 SwisherhostScott Gallowayhost
Sep 15, 202653mWatch on YouTube ↗

EVERY SPOKEN WORD

  1. 0:000:19

    Intro

    1. KS

      If one of their bots creates a virus and kills people, they need to go to jail, period. [upbeat music] Hi, everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara Swisher.

    2. SG

      And I'm Scott Galloway.

    3. KS

      First, uh,

  2. 0:1917:53

    The AI Panic

    1. KS

      uh, Donald Trump is dismissing AI concerns. This is the story, Scott. We really have to talk about this.

    2. SG

      Mm-hmm.

    3. KS

      Saying any efforts to limit the technology are part of a sick conspiracy [chuckles] against AI and data centers. We're part of a sick conspiracy, Scott. According to Trump, "The only control or guardrails that AI needs is a strong and smart, high IQ president, and the USA has that in spades." This comes after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay over the weekend calling on the AI industry to slow the pace of development. He wants independent evaluators to review company safety practices and urge a global effort, including China, to create standards and limits. In a rare and convenient show of unity, both Sam Altman of OpenAI and Elon Musk of Grok are backing Dario's call for a slowdown. Uh, Dario also spoke out on Face the Nation about wanting the government to be involved in all of this. Let's listen.

    4. SP

      Anthropic, and I would hope other companies, have done everything we can to try to, uh, have legitimate oversight mechanisms. I think the government and the public needs to have a stake, and this is why we've supported regulation of the technology. Regulation constrains the private companies. Regulation allows the public and its elected res- representatives to have a sta- uh, to have a say and limits what the private companies can do.

    5. KS

      So will the government get involved? Let's listen to what Speaker Mike Johnson said on Meet the Press.

    6. SP

      I think we've got to have, uh, meaningful regulation that does not smother American innovation. Now, the, the-- how to solve that equation, no one knows yet. We're not gonna rush in and pass a, a piece of legislation that would do harm to the country and put China at an, as an edge, and so we've got to do this carefully. Of course, we'd vote on that tomorrow if we had the solution, and I'll call everybody into session any day, but we have to make sure we're doing it the right way. I think the first step is to have a meeting of all the platform providers. I've talked to the president about this and others. W- I-- That-- I believe that's the next step. I think we need to do it quickly.

    7. KS

      Of course, they've been meeting with him for months. They were all at the inaugural, Mike. Anyway, and they've been meeting tons. What do you, uh, w- th- th- a lot of people are wondering what's called for this slowdown now. Did they see something, or is it just money? David Sacks, who is Trump's guru, who's been pushing just sort of Wild West kinda policies, posted, "Stop pretending the motivation is to slow down," uh, "is purely altruistic," noting they want to slow down open source. In this case, I agree with David Sacks, although I think he's been a menace because he's not loud-- allowed any w- w- reasonable legislation to go through. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang responded to AI fears last week, saying, "What better way to create a demand than to create a problem?" Um, uh, we'll get to AI, uh, OpenAI not going public until next year, which we have said many times. But talk a little bit about this, 'cause there's a lot happening here, and suddenly all at once. Uh, uh, you know, spurred by that, uh, Anthropic researcher who said it's gonna kill us, which I think got everybody's attention.

    8. SG

      Well, Speaker Johnson's response to this, what feels like existential issue, was basically to send out a save the date, to say that we should meet about it, and to say that if there was anything that reasonably cut, you know, the very fine or thread the very fine needle of not wanting to get in the way of innovation and create shareholder value and economic growth, which is key to an economy, at the same time recognizing the externalities, which, by the way, is a tension we have dealt with for centuries with respect-

    9. KS

      Yep. Absolutely

    10. SG

      ... to economic progress versus not capturing too many, too many gains for shareholders and outsourcing all the problems to the public. That, at the end of the day, other than keeping the nation safe, is what governments do through l- thoughtful legislation and local officials. Do they make that gavel for a man or a leader? Governor Newsom has passed 12 laws attempting to regulate AI. In China, they have laws that say no bot can pretend to be a person for longer than a certain amount of time, 'cause they realized in their nation and other nations, adults, uh, a- and kids were falling in love with Cersei Lannister.

    11. KS

      Right.

    12. SG

      They have certain hours that kids cannot use AI. They have all sorts of limits [chuckles] around how AI can be used for information. Now, granted, they're using it for control, but they have a lot of regulation, and what do you know?

    13. KS

      No, they understand the, they understand the dangers. They do.

    14. SG

      They understand the threat, and what do you know? Seventy-five percent of the Chinese populace is optimistic about AI, and we haven't done anything. Right now, America is engaging in an experiment. It's the following: We have never in the history of the modern economy had a trillion-dollar industry that is totally unregulated.

    15. KS

      Totally.

    16. SG

      Totally unregulated.

    17. KS

      And Mike, he's like, "We'll get to it," but it's like, it's been 20 years, Mike, in case you're interested, and we've seen the damage done. Let me, let me just posit something. One of the things-- I wrote to a pretty prominent, uh, technologist in this area, and they said, uh, you know, I, I was trying to compare it to nuclear, uh, proliferation, right? This is a very similar kinda thing. It should be global. I've been pushing for global standards for years and years with both Democrats and Republicans. And he said r- by-- if this was back then, Truman would have nationalized AI at this point. Um, you know, that, uh, what do you think of-

    18. SG

      That's an interesting point

    19. KS

      ... Tr- I know, and I, and this was a-- someone who does not believe in a lot of government thing. He goes, "We're at the-- It needs to be nationalized." Now, Donald Trump saying any efforts are part of a sick conspiracy, data centers, like, do nothing, is... P- politically, this is, like, not a good idea, I think. Um, and, and, and, and, and especially since he's utterly incompetent. He is not the person who is high IQ that can handle this. He is someone that gets bought and paid for by the technology industry. What-- Talk a little bit about the feeling also, and on the flip side, that it's all these companies trying to, to zone out open open source by solidifying, 'cause they can, if, if the, if the government passes regulations, they can pay for them, as opposed to small startups and things like that.

    20. SG

      There's just so much here. The first is, I'm gonna bring up a name here. Diane Whipple.

    21. KS

      Hmm?

    22. SG

      Do you remember that name?

    23. KS

      I don't, but go for it.

    24. SG

      33, a former All-American lacrosse player, and in January 20, uh, January 2001, about 25 years ago, she was mauled to death in the hallway of her Pacific Heights building by two Presa Canario dogs.

    25. KS

      Dogs. Oh, yes, I-

    26. SG

      Do you remember this?

    27. KS

      I was... Yes, I lived there then. It was terrifying. Yep.

    28. SG

      And-

    29. KS

      Crazy neighbors with a crazy dog, yeah. [chuckles]

    30. SG

      And the neighbors were prosecuted. One is still in jail, one died in jail. Because the law decided if you have these agents, i.e., vicious dogs, and you know they're capable of this, and they're off leash, and they run into a hallway, and they maul someone and kill that person, you are on the hook-

  3. 17:5322:51

    OpenAI Rules Out 2026 IPO

    1. KS

      speaking of money, 'cause money, you have to pay attention to the money here. Sam Altman has confirmed that OpenAI will not go public this year. He told Fortune that given the current safety concerns, this would be an ill-advised moment to take the company public. This is just an excuse. This is, they can't go public. Scott, I'd like to play a prediction you made back in February.

    2. SG

      I think that what was supposed to be the most anticipated IPO was the IPO of OpenAI in twenty twenty-six sometime this year or early twenty-seven. I don't think that's gonna happen Um, I think that-

    3. KS

      Whoa

    4. SG

      ... yeah, I think this company is, is now, is gone into full, um, I don't call it panic mode, but it feels as if the mo- momentum has a habit of creating more momentum, and I think the momentum is really negative around this company.

    5. KS

      So meanwhile, just, and I want to get your thoughts on it. Meanwhile, Anthropic's really chosen Nasdaq for its IPO. Even as it's scared of killing everybody, it is, will be going public, which could happen as soon as October. Uh, so how does Dario move forward with the IPO if he's so concerned? He's so concerned, Scott. And what does this mean for OpenAI? Because these are the two twin, you know, everybody else is peanuts compared to these two. Well, except for Gemini, but that's within Google, but go ahead.

    6. SG

      Well, we're never, we're never ones to feel bad for tech CEOs, but, uh, Dario and Sam are being pulled in a lot of directions right now. They have the society and philosophers and media saying, "Okay, do you really want to be the guys in your late 30s known as the greatest murderers in history? Or, or be the ones that are responsible for hospital systems having their power cut off through a cyberattack, that thousands of people die because they can't get their kidney dialysis, so the emergency room lights go out?" They have... I, I got to believe that unlike Mark Zuckerberg or even Sheryl Sandberg, who I think is given may- way more credit for not being psychotic than she should, I get the sense, I'd like to think these guys are actually concerned for a lot of reasons. Having said that, their job is to get their A, B, C, D, E, and F round investors who have invested hundreds of billions in their companies a return, and a lot of these guys, the VCs and the employees, have already started spending that money. Housing prices are up 24% in San Francisco. You don't think that all the engineers at OpenAI have already gone out and started shopping for houses? You don't think that the Series C at OpenAI is counting their money and saying, "I have this basket of shit in my portfolio, and my stake in the B of OpenAI is fi- is gonna pay for the entire fund, and I'm going to be a successful VC finally. What? You're delaying it? What the fuck? No, get out." These guys are being pulled in a lot of different directions, and because of a total lack of leadership of a regulatory body that says, "This is what is required to have a safe frontier model. This is what is required for a company like yours to assess the risks and put out an S1 and actually go public," they're in no man's land. They g- there's too much... Look what's happened in the market just since the kid came out and said there's a 10% chance of an extinction event. This is what's happened. SoftBank is down 15%, NVIDIA's down 3%, CoreWeave down 9%, Oracle down 5, Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet all lower, Nasdaq Futures down 1.5 to 2%. Not only OpenAI, NVIDIA, and Anthropic are really fragile right now-

    7. KS

      They all are

    8. SG

      ... the entire economy is really fragile-

    9. KS

      Yeah

    10. SG

      ... because Trump has made a giant bet on AI, which is responsible for 90% of the CapEx increase, 72% of the earnings growth-

    11. KS

      Yeah

    12. SG

      ... a ridiculous amount of the GDP growth. So our economy is now resting on a pillar where a guy showed up, a 28-year-old showed up and said, "Oh, by the way, the, the 40% of the Nasdaq is kind of engaged in this thing that might be an expected death of 80 million people, if that's just w- or 800 million, if you believe my 10% calculation." This is such a failure of leadership and governance.

    13. KS

      Yes.

    14. SG

      There should have been a regulatory body a couple years ago telling the media. Uh, the godfather of... I apologize, I'm all over the place. The godfather of AI right now, Hinton, summarized it perfectly. AI can go one of two ways. There can be a very good AI that helps solve pancreatic cancer, makes, makes people more productive, lowers costs, uh, figures out a way to take care of Mom more efficiently, extend life, extend quality. There's all sorts, figure out threats of nuclear de- Oh, there's all s- sorts of wondrous things AI could do. Good AI, bad AI.

    15. KS

      Yeah.

    16. SG

      I won't even go into the specifics of bad AI.

    17. KS

      No.

    18. SG

      We can all imagine them.

    19. KS

      Bad.

    20. SG

      But the fork in the road, a big component of the fork in the road is thoughtful leadership and-

    21. KS

      Well-

    22. SG

      ... multilateral cooperation, of which there is none right now.

    23. KS

      Right, and it's all coming, and that's the thing. Politically, this is a h- a powder keg. California Governor

  4. 22:5127:05

    California Social Media Safety Laws

    1. KS

      Gavin Newsom just signed a package of 13 bills targeting social media and AI use for kids, creating some of the strongest online protection in the country. The bills include a ban on platforms offering addictive features to users under 16, as well as stronger safeguards for AI companion chatbots. There's also a penalty of up to a million dollars per child if a social media company is found negligent in causing harm. There's still a s- a high hill to get, to get to these people. In signing the bills, Newsom took a victory lap for California, saying, "We're gonna lead the nation again." The bar is pretty damn low. Uh, Congress is not gonna follow suit on this. Now, there's, I get there's a lot of criticisms of some of these parts of these bills. They don't go far enough. They go too far. They do this. But, you know, this is a patchwork regulatory scheme, even if it's California, and so we need to have Congress, Mike Johnson, who is gonna be a footnote, by the way, you won't have your job, who, who, Hakeem fucking Jeffries, you better get on this, like, immediately, um, on the thing, because first of all, people care about it. You're seeing them express it through, through data centers. We cannot have these companies making the rules for the rest of us. Let's just be dead fucking clear about that. They cannot.

    2. SG

      When has that ever worked?

    3. KS

      Never. Never.

    4. SG

      [chuckles] When has that ever worked?

    5. KS

      Never.

    6. SG

      The incentive, when you-

    7. KS

      Never. Let's let the car makers decide on... You know who changed seat, who that? Ralph fucking Nader, by being an asshole, and that's great. We need that kind of... And that's what's coming for you people. You don't understand how much people hate you, and they, they feel it. They feel it in their bones, and so d- stop playing antitrust games. Stop playing, trying to solidify by t- finding an opportunity When you are, when you are screwing us. You're always trying to find an opportunity, these companies. Anyway, I'm gonna stop

    8. SG

      Yeah, the, the hate's about, the populist hate's about to bubble up from data centers to these frontier-

    9. KS

      Yep

    10. SG

      ... to these frontier models.

    11. KS

      It's the same stuff. It's the same stuff. Well, it, you, you, you've really blown it, kids. Let me just say. You've m- you've absolutely blown it. Anyway, let's get going on a quick break. When we come back, Mark Carney's power move. Support for this show comes from NetSuite. When your competition is already implementing AI, your business needs NetSuite Next to stay ahead of the game. You probably know NetSuite, the AI-powered business management suite that securely connects all of your data. It's a unified suite that brings together your financials, inventory, commerce, HR, and CRM into a single source of truth, trusted by over 40,000 customers. NetSuite Next is the next big leap in how business gets done, because AI is built into everything you do. It automatically surfaces custom insights throughout the day. AI agents work alongside you to solve problems and handle routine work. And any time you have a question about anything, you can ask, just like you're having a conversation with a colleague. NetSuite is customized for a wide range of industries, so it supports the way your business truly works. Whether your company earns millions or even hundreds of millions, it's time for NetSuite Next, where your business meets AI. If your revenues are at least seven figures, get their free business guide, Aligning for the Agentic Era: How AI Is Changing Everyday Work, at netsuite.com/pivot. The guide is free to you at netsuite.com/pivot. netsuite.com/pivot. Support for this show comes from Framer. Your website is the public face of your business, but that means any blemishes, typos, or ugly designs are showing up loudly and in high def, not exactly leaving a great first impression. Framer is the AI website builder that helps creators, teams, and businesses ship production-ready sites faster than ever while getting every detail right. Prompt, inspect, edit, and publish in one place at a whole new pace. It's an enterprise level solution powered by agents that provide premium hosting, enterprise-grade security, and 99.99% uptime SLAs. With Framer, agents and humans work in tandem. Agents bring speed and scale. People bring taste, judgment, and control. Framer's agents solve the gap between AI-generated ideas and production-ready website work. That's why leading brands like Perplexity and Miro build their websites in Framer. 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 30% off a Framer Pro annual plan. That's framer.com/pivot. Rules and restrictions apply. Scott, we're back.

  5. 27:0535:21

    Mark Carney Courts Europe

    1. KS

      While Donald Trump has been busy stoking the flames of a trade war with Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney, we love him, he's a handsome man, is on the rebound, working behind the scenes to pursue a relationship with the EU. He doesn't wanna fully commit to Canada membership, and is asking to be an associate member of the European Union. I love that. Just, they're gonna date. Um, uh, Carney has reportedly been speaking to the EU heads of state about energy, AI, critical minerals, defense, even visa-free travel for Canadians. He's scheduled to address the European Parliament later this year to flesh out his vision for how Canada would plug it t- into its $21 trillion EU economy. What do you think? What do you think? You love Mr. Carney, so tell us.

    2. SG

      Yeah, I, I think, I think he's gonna be Times Man of the Year. I think he's gonna win a Nobel Prize. I think he defines forceful yet dignified. Uh, and I think he's decided, I mean, e- effectively what you're gonna have is, and this is the opportunity for the next presidential candidate. I'd get out ahead of this. I would, I would propose an alliance, not only a free trading zone, but a diplomatic alliance between all democracies. And, a- and Carney, what the EU is desperate for is a leader with some power, because unfortunately, the whole is less than the sum of its parts, 'cause what they have is 27 veto votes. And their neighb- their re- other than saying what they don't like, they're really, it's very difficult for them to band around any sort of serious economic or technology policy, 'cause everyone has a say. And this is a big opportunity, uh, in my opinion, for Canada basically to continue in an effective way to say no, that we're not gonna be bullied. To, they have more in common right now with the EU than they have with the, [clears throat] with the US. The US will be big losers here. We're under the impression that we can bully anybody. We're a third of the world's economy. We, we just can't do it. I'm, I'm talking about my lunches. I'm having lunch with a, a guy who runs 150 billion, and he always says, "Where's the alpha? Where are your ideas?" My best idea right now is the following: There's $750 billion, or three-quarters of a trillion dollars, of commerce. I think every one of those $750 billion is looking for a new provider of those services. And I would, I'm gonna say to this guy, "What European companies are posed to take American, uh, to take a Canadian business away from America?"

    3. KS

      Yeah.

    4. SG

      Because if I'm-

    5. KS

      Should Mexico do the same thing?

    6. SG

      Huge opportunity for Mexico. Quite frankly, I don't think it has the same im- That's, that's a correct question and a great idea. I would think that with, with Carney trying to cuddle up to the Europeans, that if you're some Finnish manufacturer of ball bearings, and, uh, uh, and Canadian, Canadian whatever it is, paper companies are buying these ball bearings [chuckles] from a US manufacturer in Minneapolis, I'd be like, "Hey, it's gonna be a little bit more expensive, but we make pretty good ball bearings in Finland." I think there is so much, and to the detriment of American employees, factories, and shareholders, there is so much business that is now up for grabs.

    7. KS

      Trump always says, "We don't need anyone." I'm like, "Uh, we need people."

    8. SG

      Canada buys more from us than the EU or China.

    9. KS

      Kicks him in the teeth. Why does he think we don't need anything? What, what, what is that mentality of like, "We don't need them. We're bigger. We're, we have no need. They need us"?

    10. SG

      We have such a- an idolatry for businesspeople, and we shitpost our bureaucrats and our diplomats. This is why you need someone Who has worked in government as president, not a business person. Business people are used to kind of raw power and leverage and IP and go fast and break things. That's not how government works.

    11. KS

      It's not.

    12. SG

      Government is alliances and diplomacy, and recognizing that if we can get two-thirds of the world to cooperate, we're gonna win.

    13. KS

      Yeah.

    14. SG

      And that means giving. It doesn't mean dominating Canada. It-

    15. KS

      And you, and you can't dominate. You can't, actually. Look at those Hootie pictures of them with the-

    16. SG

      And you can't acquire it.

    17. KS

      Right. You don't acquire it.

    18. SG

      [laughs] It's not an M&A transaction.

    19. KS

      Right. Yeah.

    20. SG

      It's not a real estate transaction. It's diplomacy and cooperation, and recognizing in what is probably, w- w- we take for granted one of the greatest evolutions of mankind was people recognizing it's not about conquest.

    21. KS

      Cooperation. It's about.

    22. SG

      It's about cooperation.

    23. KS

      That's how the sapiens beat the Neanderthals, just so you know. They were smaller. They were less strong.

    24. SG

      The Japanese used to, when a airman was shot out in the Pacific, and he was sitting there, and he was healthy, the Japanese used to kill that person in the sea. It was, th- they were inhuman to our POWs. When they surrendered, we decided, "I know. We're gonna tax every American household, and we're gonna rebuild this amazing nation and culture," and we turned them into allies.

    25. KS

      And markets and friends.

    26. SG

      And friends.

    27. KS

      Right. Yeah.

    28. SG

      And what do we do to Canada? "Oh, you've been a remarkable friend. You've hid our diplomats. You followed us into Afghanistan. We're gonna fuck with you." I mean, [laughs] it's just, it, it, Tim Snyder has coined it best. We are in the midst and witnessing superpower suicide.

    29. KS

      It is. It's true, but it's one man. It's one man with his attitudes, and the rest of them gonna go along with it. I mean, there is gonna, there's a new book out by Jacob Weisberg essentially about cowards who st- who are sticking with this, and I think that's gonna be one of... Trump is Trump, and he will, I think, go down badly in history, but the people around him, to me, who know better, is the, are the ones that... I think he is stuck in a, in a, l- uh, you know, that he thinks he's a good business person, which he hasn't been really overall except by cheating. Um, but the people around him who know better, uh, that's the cycle I'm really interested in talking about going forward after we rid ourselves of this person. All right, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, we'll check in on Mitch McConnell. [whoosh] [upbeat music]

    30. SG

      This is advertiser content from Harvey AI. We have a choice over who we work with and who we don't, specifically who we allow to advertise and who we don't. And for those of you who watch my content, I am not an AI catastrophist. I'm an AI optimist. I think it's gonna create more jobs than it destroys, and I think our job as professionals is to figure out how to leverage these, these tools. AI, uh, more than almost anything I do in terms of what I could point to for real economic leverage and savings, is 100% in the legal field. Harvey is the AI designed specifically for legal work, trusted by leading law firms and enterprise legal teams. All right, so now I'm looking at their demo. It plugs into tools that lawyers already work with, LexisNexis, Microsoft. And this is a key, and I do this internally with my LLMs. With permissions, it lets you look at the firm's own files and databases. So here it's answering a question, reads the complaint, pulls the relevant terms, checks the web, weighs the evidence, and drafts a response. But it also can do this in a shared workspace between the firm and the client, so they both have visibility into the work being done and can both add value to it. I, I think this space is clearly sort of hand in glove for AI, right? So there's no doubt about it. This, I think, is, uh, is gonna be super helpful, not only for law firms themselves, but internally for general counsels at companies. Harvey is AI tailored for law. You can learn more at harvey.ai.

  6. 35:2143:54

    Mitch McConnell Returns

    1. KS

      back, and guess who else is? Mitch McConnell has finally returned to the Senate after three months away. He came back in a wheelchair looking very frail but told reporters he's there to finish the farm bill and keep backing Ukraine. He did not take questions. And again, did I say he looked frail? He shouldn't be there. McConnell was hospitalized in June after a fall, spent time in a rehabilitation center, and announced via statement, not any video, back in August that he would continue his recovery at home. Meanwhile, McConnell has continued receiving his annual Senate salary of $174,000.

    2. SG

      As everyone knows, I'm an ageist, so take this with a grain of salt. I don't wish him ill, but e- every point of data says the following: He's alive in the sense that his heart is still beating, and that is about it. My dad was alive for two years after he turned 93, but he wasn't there. And here's, uh, uh, and this goes again to this larger thing I keep harping on about term limits and age gating. We age gate on the front end. We should age gate on the back end. The first thing that goes with cognitive decline is your ability to recognize your own cognitive decline.

    3. KS

      Right. That is true. Same thing with Feinstein.

    4. SG

      I believe that Senator Feinstein, who is an American hero in my mind, I believe until the day she died, she thought, "Nothing wrong with me I'm g- I'm fine

    5. KS

      Scott, I'm seeing it in real time with my mom. Literally yesterday she was like, "I could go, I should go to New York and live by myself." And I said, "If you can get out of that chair and walk out the door, uh, you're welcome to it." And she, she... "I could do it." I'm like, "Well, then do it." You know, it just, that's the kind of conversat- And literally she believes she can do it even though she actually can't do it. It's, it's an astonishing thing to watch, I have to say. I, it's so counter-truthful, you know? But she believes it in a weird way.

    6. SG

      After my mom and dad got divorced, you know, a dad who wasn't very involved in my life would have to spend every other weekend with me, he had no fucking idea what to do with me, right? So after we saw every feasible movie that came out, we used to go go-karting. They had these go-kart tracks in the San Fernando Valley, which was a, you know, that's a dream for a-

    7. KS

      Oh, yeah

    8. SG

      ... nine-year-old boy to go go-karting.

    9. KS

      I, I, I would love going go-karting. It's just... Today, let's do that.

    10. SG

      It's a ton of fun.

    11. KS

      It's a ton of fun.

    12. SG

      It's a ton of fun.

    13. KS

      Ton of fun.

    14. SG

      And they had video games. A- anyways, it was a ton of fun. When I took my father's driver's license from him when he was 84, which was a very uncomfortable thing for him.

    15. KS

      I did the same thing.

    16. SG

      Very upsetting.

    17. KS

      Very.

    18. SG

      I was in the car with him and I thought, "My dad's gonna kill somebody." So I sat him down and I said, "I need your driver's license." And he said, "What are you talking about?" A- anyways, a very uncomfortable moment. Like, three years later, I showed up one weekend and said, "What do you wanna do?" And he's like, "I, I know ex- I, exactly what I wanna..." It was his birthday, and he's like, "What are you doing?" He's like, "Remember what we used to do?" He's like, "Let's go go-karting."

    19. KS

      Oh, wow.

    20. SG

      My dad thought he could go go-karting three hours, three years after I took his driver's license from him.

    21. KS

      Yeah.

    22. SG

      He was willing to get in a go-kart. Uh, let me go to the other side. Joe Biden has metastatic prostate cancer. You know who gets metastatic prostate cancer? 82-year-olds. The, we can't have these people in these positions of this much power and consequence.

    23. KS

      Well, take it, take it to Trump. Did you s- the picture, Biden looked actually-

    24. SG

      Agreed

    25. KS

      ... lively compared to Trump at that 9/11 thing. It's-

    26. SG

      This is where we disagree. I actually think Trump is more robust than you give him credit for.

    27. KS

      Because he sleeps on the stage, that's why.

    28. SG

      No, fair point.

    29. KS

      'Cause he sleeps in public.

    30. SG

      Fair point.

  7. 43:5453:36

    Wins and Fails

    1. KS

      and fails. I'm gonna go first.

    2. SG

      Yes.

    3. KS

      Uh, my fail is this ProPublica report that Russian oligarch paid for Donald Trump Jr.'s wedding. These people have no fucking limits, these people. Umar Kremlev, who is apparently close to Vladimir Putin, kicked in hundreds of thousands of dollars in wedding expenses.

    4. SG

      Saw that.

    5. KS

      These people have no limit to their corruption. This is insane. I mean, like, Hunter Biden gets in trouble for a laptop and a painting and some dumb Ukraine... It's stupid, and I agree, corrupt, but this is astonishing. Paying for s- for the president's son's wedding from a Kremlin oligarch that is close to Putin. It just seems to me we have well past anything that even the, the smell test here. It stinks to high heaven. And, you know, it just... I just... That was just as... I love ProPublica. They are doing God's work. I have to give them... They've broken lots of stories. By the way, so has The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal recently. Amazingly good stories about corruption and everything else, and also The New York Times, but this week particularly, The Washington Post, and this, and, and The Wall Street Journal. My win, of course, is Practical Magic 2. I haven't seen it yet, but it did... killed it at the box office, $46 million. This is Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. I am an enormous Practical Magic fan. It didn't do well when it came out, but has since become, like Hocus Pocus, a very popular movie, especially among millennial straight ladies, of which I am not, but they love it. I love this movie, and I actually... First, I impugned my beautiful wife by saying she, of course she wouldn't have seen it, 'cause she's a movie snob. S- she, she and I watched it on Saturday, 'cause we're gonna go to see Practical Magic on... 'Cause another friend of ours said, "I love Practical Magic." And we watched it, and she thought it was delightful, and it is. It holds up rather well. Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, especially Nicole Kidman, is very funny. They've made a remake. It's doing incredibly well. I- They're doing a great job on social media. I- It was originally directed by Griffin Dunne, who I have a lot of regard for. I forget... I don't know who the director is this time, but, um, amazingly thrilled that this did so well and showed, once again, certain things can have a renaissance. There's a lot of these movies like this that are coming back and are, and making, apparently, a very good movie. So congratulations to Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman and Practical Magic 2. Good job. You're killing it at the box office. Anyway.

    6. SG

      Yeah, it doesn't-

    7. KS

      That's mine.

    8. SG

      It doesn't surprise me that you like this irreverent, lighthearted '90s cult classic where the-

    9. KS

      Which is... Which, which-

    10. SG

      Where the Owens family curse-

    11. KS

      Yeah

    12. SG

      ... is, uh, imagine your ultimate defense mechanism against bad relationships with a man is literal death sentence for the guy. [laughs]

    13. KS

      They die. [laughs]

    14. SG

      I mean-

    15. KS

      It's really good. Oh my God, Aidan Quinn was in it. I, I... What happened to him? He was-

    16. SG

      That's literally... That's...

    17. KS

      Yeah.

    18. SG

      That is the ultimate in ghosting. [laughs]

    19. KS

      I know. It's ha ha ha ha.

    20. SG

      Get it?

    21. KS

      Oh, it's so adorable. Oh, it was such a good movie, and Amanda loved it, I just want to say.

    22. SG

      I don't think it was, but anyways, I'm glad you're happy with it. Uh-

    23. KS

      Oh my God, come on. It's such a n- movie that you would be so awkward during, I would imagine.

    24. SG

      Yeah. No, I kind of miss that one.

    25. KS

      They're so cute with the coconut and Stockard Channing and, by the way, Dianne Wiest are back again.

    26. SG

      I love Dianne Wiest.

    27. KS

      Amazing.

    28. SG

      She's one of the best characters in one of my favorite movies, Hannah and Her Sisters.

    29. KS

      And Arya from Game of Thrones is in it. I'm so excited.

    30. SG

      Yeah.

Episode duration: 53:37

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