EVERY SPOKEN WORD
135 min read · 27,462 words- 0:00 – 7:52
Intro
- SGScott Galloway
I'm worried that if I created an ability to have a dialogue with me, that it might some day reduce a young man's motivation and mojo to establish mentorships in the real world.
- KSKara Swisher
Could they make Scott AI be more of an asshole? Like, so that it's more like regular life?
- SGScott Galloway
(laughs)
- NANarrator
(instrumental music)
- KSKara Swisher
Hi, everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara Swisher.
- SGScott Galloway
Can you get over how excited people are about our tour?
- KSKara Swisher
I know, they are. Let's discuss it.
- SGScott Galloway
Oh, my God.
- KSKara Swisher
Let's discuss it. We're selling very brisk ticket sales, it looks like.
- SGScott Galloway
Yeah. We're already, I think, like, half sold out in San Francisco.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
I think that's mostly because of you.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah. Yeah, and-
- SGScott Galloway
More people are showing up to-
- KSKara Swisher
... Toronto.
- SGScott Galloway
... the tackle. Toronto?
- KSKara Swisher
Go ... Toronto. We're almost ... We're like half sold out there. More than half sold out there.
- SGScott Galloway
So just to remind people, DC, New York, Toronto, Chicago, San Francisco, LA. Did I miss anything?
- KSKara Swisher
No. I don't think so. I ... Uh, wait-
- SGScott Galloway
You don't think so?
- KSKara Swisher
Seven. Sh- Chicago.
- SGScott Galloway
The best comment though-
- KSKara Swisher
What?
- SGScott Galloway
... when we announced it was, "Just say it, you hate Arizona." (laughs)
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah. I know. People got mad.
- SGScott Galloway
You fucking hate Arizona.
- KSKara Swisher
Other cities got mad at us. We'll come to those cities.
- SGScott Galloway
Yeah. Yeah.
- KSKara Swisher
We will come to those cities, which w- I think we probably should've included another Midwestern city besides Chicago.
- SGScott Galloway
No, no, no, no.
- 7:52 – 22:31
Government Shutdown
- KSKara Swisher
first, the US government officially shut down this week, kind of a big deal, after Congress failed to reach a deal on funding. As of this recording, it doesn't look like this is getting settled any time soon. The White House is now withholding billions of dollars in funding for Democratic-led states and preparing to carry out massive layoffs. Democrats are calling Trump erratic and unhinged, he does seem a little bit more so, and say he's more focused on posting deepfake videos of Hakeem Jeffries in sombreros than negotiating. Meanwhile, about 750,000 federal workers are expected to be furloughed and services across the government are being disrupted. The Bureau of Labor Statistics is s- suspending operations, so no jobs reports and other key economic data for the time being. They're also targeting blue states. Ro- Ross Perot is saying it explicitly. Um, I, I, I'm gonna ask your overall thoughts and the best messaging for both parties right now, and, uh, and the polit- and I'd love to hear fr- your thoughts on the political economic consequences. But I did, uh, talk to some Trump people yesterday, some of the more reasonable Trump people. And, um, which there are, there are indeed, I hate to tell you, but there are. Um, and they were slightly worried because the crazies have taken over in the Trump White House, and they were talking about things like, this was crazy, that it should last 47 days because that's the number, that's the number of his presidency. They're like, they're like Taylor Swift, they're like Swifties, these people. They're like, they're interested in numbers. Um, and that they're very, uh, interested in a full, um... Uh, they're talking about a full, like, sort of prostration of Democrats. Some of the reasonable Trumpies are worried that nothing's gonna happen. And of course everyone alludes to his mental issues, like that he's really losing a step or two, it's been noticeable in several of his appearances. Um, so anyway, so that was kind of frightening to think about, like, sort of the, the, the crazier people in charge of the situation with no interest in negotiating. Go ahead, Scott.
- SGScott Galloway
Well, generally speaking, the American people do not like shutdowns as a means of negotiation over pollic- policy and spending. Their attitude is, and I think this is the right, uh, or, uh, an understandable viewpoint, is that you're supposed to figure this out at the ballot box, negotiations on legislative process. You're not supposed to be taking the budget and the operations of the country and the livelihood of government workers hostage. And it has not worked in the past. The, the last couple shutdowns were threats from the Republicans who wanted funding for a wall or wanted cuts to Obamacare, and they blinked because the nation said squarely, "Don't use this as a tool for, uh, negotiating public policy." Having said that-
- KSKara Swisher
Can I just make a note? The last three have been under Trump, but go ahead.
- SGScott Galloway
The last three have been under Trump.
- KSKara Swisher
The last three shutdowns have been under Trump. But go ahead.
- SGScott Galloway
So anyways, my point is these things don't usually work and Americans aren't fond of using this as a political cudgel or, or, or wrench. Having said that, and there might be some bias here, I think if you look at the, if you look at the surveys, the majority of the blame so far is being levied at Republicans. Or more blame, I should say. It's like 34 to 24. And the Democrats here in the leadership are being shockingly strategic.
- KSKara Swisher
Explain.
- SGScott Galloway
They're not saying, "Oh no, we, we want to renegotiate the tariff nonsense," or, "We want you to stop these, rounding up people with IS-" They have been very pointed. "We want you to extend subsidies so people can have healthcare." Potentially millions of Americans are gonna see their healthcare become unaffordable and it's gonna primarily target the most needy. And I wouldn't be surprised if the Democrats' demand around that would have more impact positively, if they get what they want, on Republicans. So I think they are strategically going after an issue that is both the moral high ground and a function of affordability and likely to divide the Republican base.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
And in addition, the Democrats were just screaming out with two words, three words, "Do fucking something."
- KSKara Swisher
Mm-hmm.
- SGScott Galloway
This is something.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
This is saying, "Okay, sorry, you've gotta come to the table."
- KSKara Swisher
Right.
- SGScott Galloway
So I, I actually think this is strategically, and again, there's a lot of, a lot of bad things about this, but keep in mind folks, when the Republicans say-... if they continue to do this, if they continue this battle, we're gonna fire people, not because those people don't add value, not because those people aren't important to landing planes safely on runways, not because those people aren't important to defend our shores, not because those people don't ensure that lower and middle income people can e- can enjoy one of the great assets of the Earth, and that is our national parks. We're taking the Hamas approach, and we're just gonna embed them in this fight, even if they get killed or put out a word- uh, put out of work. That is just a pure collateral damage hostage strategy. They have said to Democrats, "If you do this, we're gonna start firing innocents." Just-
- KSKara Swisher
And also we're gonna target your stuff. It's explicitly political.
- SGScott Galloway
Yeah. It's-
- KSKara Swisher
It's explicitly-
- SGScott Galloway
They're embedding government workers-
- KSKara Swisher
Mm-hmm.
- SGScott Galloway
... in the midst of the f- of the firefight for no other reason than they say, "They'll be martyrs on behalf of our great Republican battle."
- KSKara Swisher
Which some of them want, let's be clear. Let me just say, some of them, I mean, you can see Russell Vought getting hard on about firing people and getting rid of government. It's very clear. Uh, same thing with Stephen Miller, who's demented. He gave a demented speech about immigrants the other day. Another, uh, more demented, and let me just caveat that. Um, d- when... Think about the messaging so far. Now, uh, I sent you the Bernie Sanders and AOC one, which I thought was adorable.
- SGScott Galloway
Great messaging. Yeah.
- KSKara Swisher
Great messaging. Um, they looked terrific together. They were very articulate about what they want. This is all we want, was people shouldn't have their healthcare doubled in price, right? It was pretty clear and, um, uh, p- pretty clear, essentially. What is the next step to do? Because I think that, you know, John Thune is sort of puffing at his ch- who seems to be a reasonable person away from Trump, right? He seems to be one of your typical decent legis- uh, decent legislators w- who has been pretzeled in the Trump administration. Um, but he's sort of going, "Yeah, we're not doing anything." Like, they're... I mean, I know that's a posture. And I'm not a particularly good negotiator 'cause I'm like, "This is what I want. This is what I want. I just want this. Thank you." Um, I'm not strategic that way or tactic- tac- tactical, I guess. But he's- he's t- sort of doing the posturing. And I- I think, f- from talking to some Trump people, there's a group in the White House which is like, "Let's let it last forever." Like, "This is great."
- SGScott Galloway
Mm-hmm-
- KSKara Swisher
Like, they're very-
- SGScott Galloway
Mm-hmm-
- KSKara Swisher
... they're- they're giddy about it.
- SGScott Galloway
The anti-government techno-libertarians.
- 22:31 – 30:13
Electronic Arts Goes Private
- KSKara Swisher
video game maker Electronic Arts is being taken private in a deal valued at $55 billion, the largest leveraged buyout of all time. The investor group includes Saudis, uh, the Saudis, uh, Sovereign Wealth Fund, private equity firm Silver Lake, Egan Durban, and Jared Kushner's firm, Affinity Partners. Obviously, Jared is right in the friggin' center of this. And also, for people who don't know, MBS loves... Stays up all night and plays video games, apparently. That's what I was told by several people who hang with him. Um, the deal requires approval from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US, but it's... Uh, please, it's going through. It's 'cause it's Jared Kushner. Uh, Scott, you and I predicted in March that we would, uh, would see a deal like this. Let's listen. I bet a lot of these companies may go private. Do you ever see one of the very big companies going private?
- SGScott Galloway
It, that, that is an excellent point. If you look at, uh, at some of the fallen angels and you look at the amount of money, capital sitting on the sidelines in private equity, it's over $4 trillion of capital waiting to be deployed. I think we're going to see... I did my predictions check yesterday. I think we're going to see the biggest take private in history this year.
- KSKara Swisher
There, we had it. We were s- We're so smart. We called it. What do you think of this deal and others will follow suit? Obviously, the players, I know Egan, uh, pretty well. Um, obviously, Kushner was right in the middle of it 'cause of his, his, uh, close ties to the Saudis and his getting the money from them. Um, you know, it's a big deal to go private. The guy, the company has sort of struggled over the years, although they have some hits. Um, it's run by this Australian guy who's a surfer. He got all tight with, um, Egan, and then they have houses next to each other in Hawaii, apparently. Um, and then they pulled in Kushner, obviously, who was the, who was the, uh, the unguent, u- unguent here, whatever, the grease, in this particular, uh, deal.
- SGScott Galloway
So putting Kushner aside, and again, the Trump and... Uh, uh, the Democrats are corrupt. They just do it for small ball, right? Hunter Biden shouldn't have been on the board of any company. He just shouldn't have been, and, but he gets hundreds of thousands of dollars. And Jared says, "Oh, I know how to be nepo corrupt, but I'm gonna do it for billions." (laughs)
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah. Right.
- SGScott Galloway
And, and not only that, he hasn't done anything illegal. He's raised money on the back of his father's influence-
- KSKara Swisher
Father-in-law's, yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
... and he's doing a, he's doing a big deal. These deals are not easy to get done, so congratulations to him. This is a smart deal. Um, first off-... essentially, the Gulf is desperately trying to diversify away from a fossil fuel economy. And they know that the oil runs out, they're not sure if it's 30 years or 80 years, but they've basically got... The bad news is they have to diversify away from this fossil fuel economy. The good news is they have almost limitless capital to do it. So gaming, which is bigger than the TV and motion picture industries combined, uh, doesn't nearly get the amount of attention it deserves, is a huge industry, it's intellectual property, it would invite a new generation of young people. The other companies they have investments in are better in mobile and also since 2020, the gaming industry stocks have underperformed the market.
- KSKara Swisher
They have. That is true.
- SGScott Galloway
And so this thing was, I don't want to say was on sale, but what you have with Electronic Arts is they're kind of dominant in the old world, and that is consoles and handsets and you go buy a game. The future is around mobile and free games. And when you look at the amount of time that young people who are very attractive consumers, especially young men, spend on video games relative to the advertising they capture, there's an enormous... Remember those graphs, those charts we used to see that would show, uh, people spend 7% of their time reading newspapers and it, new- newspapers get 19% of ad dollars and people spend 30% of their time on the internet, but it's only getting 4% of ad dollars? This is like 20 years ago. You knew that eventually they would, uh, calibrate to the time spent. Essentially, ad dollars effectively lag but eventually catch up to where our attention is. The big opportunity and, and, uh, uh, the Kingdom has some investments in companies that are really good with mobile and free. The company, it underperformed, it diversifies the univ- the, the economy in the Gulf. I like it 'cause I think it brings us closer together. I really... You know, my bet and hope is that the Kingdom goes capitalist and continues to party in Mykonos as opposed to goes, going Islamist and fundamentalist, which the older folks' leadership wants. So I like this deal. I think it, I think it kind of works for everybody.
- KSKara Swisher
You know, EA has always... You know, uh, we've had the heads of EA at my various conferences years ago and years ago, and they were always sort of struggling in the digital age. Like, it, you, you know, it... I mean, obviously video games are digital on, on some level. But, i- it was always... Like, they moved from executive to executive. They had a lot of executive, you know, ****** and drang over at that company. And the question is where is... Are they going to be able to compete with the ones from China, the ones from, um, from all over the world, Japan and everywhere else? And I think they've always had an issue with that. And so they definitely need the money, right? In order to try to reassert themselves. But they kinda remind me, I know it sounds crazy, but like of a broadcast, like CBS. Like, ugh, here, what are you gonna do with this piece of shit? Like, Ellison.
- SGScott Galloway
Oh, no.
- KSKara Swisher
No? No, because they were older. I mean, that's what I'm saying. I'm just saying EA always had... always seemed behind the eight-ball constantly compared to especially China or any of the other many video, uh, Korea, all the, all the different places where really interesting innovations were happening.
- SGScott Galloway
No, no. Okay, so I would just say that... I'm trying, I'm trying to personalize this or humanize it.
- KSKara Swisher
Mm-hmm.
- SGScott Galloway
I would say EA is Tom Brady in that-
- KSKara Swisher
Oh.
- SGScott Galloway
... okay, maybe it's not winning Super Bowls, but-
- KSKara Swisher
Right, okay.
- SGScott Galloway
... it's young and it's strong and it's vibrant.
- KSKara Swisher
Mm-hmm.
- SGScott Galloway
Um, CBS is Tom Jones.
- KSKara Swisher
(laughs)
- SGScott Galloway
I mean, awesome in the '70s. Ooh-
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
... sexy in the '70s. But, you know, on his final... You know, on the back nine. By the way, I love Tom Jones.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah, I'm just looking at their games.
- SGScott Galloway
What's up, pussycat? Whoa, whoa, whoa.
- KSKara Swisher
Like, th- they have the-
- SGScott Galloway
God, that guy's a genius.
- 30:13 – 36:01
OpenAI’s New Video App
- KSKara Swisher
more news. OpenAI is taking, uh, on TikTok, Reels and YouTube with a new AI video generator app, Sora 2.0. The app will feature user-generated clips and feeds, uh, with algorithm-driven recommendations. Notably, Sora 2.0 will not... will include copyrighted content unless copyright holders opt out. What a s- what a fucking set of... what... Ugh. Anyway. OpenAI has been notifying studios and talent agencies about that over the last week. They're losing their minds, obviously. Meta also just introduced Vibes, a feed of AI-generated videos that will le- live in the Meta AI app. You know, a lot of it is AI slap, slop. Some of it is funny. J- Gavin Newsom has, has been making fantastic Sora, um, or different, uh, AI-generated videos making fun of Trump and Vance and everything else, which are quite good. But talk about the, the copyright opt-out. And, and Disney just ver- separately sent Character.AI a cease and desist letter to stop using its copyrighted characters without authorization. Talk a little bit about this. What, what, what will happen here?
- SGScott Galloway
Well, I- I just wanna send a message to, um, you know, Sundar and Satya and Sam. I opt out. Take this as notice.
- KSKara Swisher
Mm-hmm.
- SGScott Galloway
I'm opting out. Do not crawl my shit. Of course, y- of course, if I wanna play, if I wanna use someone else's likeness, or if I wanna... uh, if I wanna start playing... I- I don't know. You know. I- I- I- if I wanna start reproducing... I'm in my gym right now and I'm looking at my weights and they say "Rogue." If I wanted to start in China producing plates that said "Rogue" on them, does Rogue have to call me before and say they're opting out of IP protection? No. There's no such thing. Uh, the whole point of IP is people (laughs) don't have the time to-
- KSKara Swisher
Why do you think they think they can do this?
- SGScott Galloway
... send a letter to everybody and say, "We opt out."
- KSKara Swisher
Why do you... This reminds me of... Remember YouTube kind of played this game, and then later did the deals. They just went ahead and did it. And then s- remember they said, "You have to find your stolen content and tell us"? Remember that one, many years ago?
- SGScott Galloway
Well, this is, this is the dynamic at play. And that is, these companies with a leadership position that is helped by ignoring laws, by starting your ride-hailing app in Argentina without going through the, the, the bureaucratic process of getting business licenses. By showing that kind of growth in this market, you make so much fucking money that it's worth it to face the legal ramifications. So, they've done the math, and they've said, "If we can maintain the kind of growth we're gonna have by molesting other people's IP, even if it eventually gets swatted down in court, we'll have more than enough money. We're better off economically." It's the s- it's the analogy I've been using for 10 years. When there's a parking meter in front of your house, and it costs $100 an hour but the ticket is 50 cents, you break the law. And that's what they're doing here. They're saying... They know this will eventually work its way through courts. The biggest IP owners in the world will hit them hard, and they will start paying, similar to what YouTube has mostly done. YouTube used to be able to put anything on your videos. A Beyonce song to start, and whatever.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah, they did. Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
And now they have said, "Okay," and they've done these deals just about the moment it became, after they spent hundreds of millions of dollars pushing back. Uh, open- Sam has already said, "Oh my gosh, take a billion dollars and give it to the meanest, baddest lawyers and delay and obfuscate which will, uh, decision which will clearly come down against us." Because between now and then-
- KSKara Swisher
We'll be bigger.
- SGScott Galloway
... and any fee they come up with, we're gonna get another quarter of a trillion dollars in market cap by offering funny, funny memes of the Family Guy starring in a Star Wars film with Darth Vader. And everyone will have their hair on fire, but by the time they actually get a judge to say, "No, you can't do this," they'll have accreted another $100 or $150 billion in market cap.
- KSKara Swisher
Yep, exactly. This is such, this was the, sort of the YouTube playbook. And I, but I remember when YouTube said, "You need to find your stuff and tell us." I was like, "Why don't you not create a thieving service?" Like, you have to tell us who's shoplifting, you know. Uh, w- we've given them shoplifting tools, but it was really astonishing. And, and the, the idea that they, all of them, the c- character AI, there's Disney stuff on there. There's, uh, so many, so much copyright thievery happening again. And they just, they do it over and over again, and it's sort of like Lucy and the football with Charlie Brown with the media companies. I mean, ultimately, again, this has to be stronger copyright protections in Congress presumably. Um, but it's really quite astonishing that they continue to have this much cheek. You know, they're thieves. They're, they're... Years ago, Walt Mossberg called Facebook and Google and all of them rapacious information thieves, and they rem- and o- we- let's add OpenAI to that list. Um, one good thing they did after being... after people died, um, they rolled out some parental controls this week allowing parents to adjust settings on their teen's account, and they'll also be notified if an account shows signs of potential self-harm. Let's see how well they do that. Uh, I can't believe they didn't do that in the first fucking place, but there they are, there they are. Now, in this genre a lot of people in Hollywood are also up in arms over AI-generated "actress" that some talent agencies are reportedly looking to sign. Anyway, she's- she's a very attractive actress and looks very real, and they sort of must have crafted her out of a bunch of appealing actresses. Um, her name's Tilly Norwood, and she's, she's- she's really quite appealing. I- I have to agree. And so they're going crazy because they c- they, they didn't make it out of anybody, but it looks like they made it out of all of them. But you're in the AI mix right now, as I, the... I'm- I'm disturbed by AI Scott Galloway picture that you
- 36:01 – 48:43
AI Scott
- KSKara Swisher
sent me. You partnered with Google Labs for a new project called Portraits. They created an AI version of you to answer your questions and provide life and career advice. Let's listen to this AI Scott answer a question.
- NANarrator
Hey, it's ChatGPT. Ready to get started?
- SGScott Galloway
I got a good job offer, but it's in a random town. What should I do?
- NANarrator
A job offer in a random town? That's a classic fork in the road. What kind of job is it, and what are your career goals long term?
- KSKara Swisher
Oh wow, you sound so not you. But (laughs) you kind of. You adjacent. So talk about this. How are you feeling about it?
- SGScott Galloway
Uh, well, I'm, I'm genuine. I, I, I want your view on this because quite frankly how I feel about it has changed dramatically. About... I get between 10 and 30 emails a day from usually thoughtful young men, sometimes mothers, asking for mostly professional and career advice, or sometimes investment advice. You know, "I'm 30. Am I too old to go back to business school? I have gotten into this school with a full ride, but the better school is not giving me money. What should I do? How do I ask for a raise?" Those kinds of questions. And they're usually really thoughtful young men who take a lot of time to write to me, and, uh, I can't get back to all of them.
- KSKara Swisher
Mm-hmm, yep.
- SGScott Galloway
I can't get back to 1% of them.
- KSKara Swisher
And you feel bad. You feel bad.
- SGScott Galloway
Yeah, you don't know... you don't want to do an automatic response.
- KSKara Swisher
Mm-hmm, yep.
- SGScott Galloway
You feel like you're ignoring them. I'm constantly virtue signaling about trying to help young men, and then some young man takes a ton of time.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
... I don't respond to people under the age of 18 because I think-
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
... men should not have a, a, a n- not for, you know, n- not for anything terrible, but parents should decide what the influences are, uh, uh, in terms of their kids' life. Anyways, so about 18 months ago, we built a thin layer of innovation on top of an LLM and created Prof AI. And it answered about two or 300 questions a day. We thought it was really cool. And then about nine months ago, a woman who is my, one of my graduate student instructors at, uh, Stern, who is just so impressive... I'd use her name, but I don't wanna get her in trouble. She's just an incredibly impressive, competent person, came to me and said, "We can do this, but much better. We... At Google Labs, we're gonna launch a series of thought leaders to answer questions." Uh, there's no money involved, uh, th-
- KSKara Swisher
So it's an AI masterclass essentially, right?
- SGScott Galloway
So it's, the idea is that people who wanna answer questions and that you might get some benefit from understanding how they feel about things, but you don't have access to them. And it's wi- from Google Labs. Uh, I felt sort of funny in the beginning about working with Alphabet, but I really trust this person and think a lot of her.
- KSKara Swisher
So they, they ingested all your things.
- SGScott Galloway
So they, they crawled every podcast, every newsletter, every public appearance, and created a, a visual of me, and I actually think the voice is, is okay, so it's that you can ask this thing almost anything. And we spent a lot of time on safeguards. No one under 18, no advice around mental health. The truth is, uh, since we started working on this, I've become increasingly concerned, even freaked out about AI companions and synthetic relationships. One, uh, I have a nightmare that I wake up and find out that some kid hurt himself and he had a series of AI companions, including one with me. I just don't... I would never wanna read that. Two, on a more, or on a less mendacious level, I'm worried that if I created an ability to have a dialogue with me, that it might someday reduce a young man's motivation and mojo to establish mentorships in the real world.
- KSKara Swisher
With real men.
- SGScott Galloway
With real... A teacher.
- KSKara Swisher
Mm-hmm.
- SGScott Galloway
Uh, their dad's friend, their scout leader-
- KSKara Swisher
Mm-hmm.
- SGScott Galloway
... whatever it is. And so, uh, the thing launched, I said to him, "Look, I'm increasingly uncomfortable with this. I don't know how to reconcile it. I, I worry that synthetic relationships are attacking what's mammalia about us-"
- KSKara Swisher
Mm-hmm.
- SGScott Galloway
"... especially among young men." And I just, I, I, I, it-
- KSKara Swisher
So what happens to it? They, so they ingested it. Do you still have the rights to your things? Like they just-
- SGScott Galloway
Well-
- 48:43 – 56:57
Hegseth Lectures Military Leaders
- KSKara Swisher
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth held nothing back while addressing senior military ... uh, I don't even wanna talk ... officials in Virginia this week. Let's listen to some of his ... And I have to say, it was a crazy rant by someone who has moved onto other substances, it felt like. Go ahead.
- NANarrator
If the Secretary of War can do regular hard PT, so can every member of our Joint Force. Frankly, it's tiring to look out at combat formations, or really any formation, and see fat troops. Likewise, it's completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon, and leading commands around the country and the world. It's a bad look. It is bad, and it's not who we are.
- KSKara Swisher
Trump followed the sentiment. Let's listen to a clip, someone who happens to be actually fat. Go ahead.
- NANarrator
You can do anything you want, and if you don't like what I'm saying, you can leave the room. Of course, there goes your rank. There goes your future.
- KSKara Swisher
That was one of the few laughs. The generals were... Looked horrified by the entire thing. Uh, the president also suggested military use, quote, "dangerous US cities" as, quote, "training grounds," and told reporters at the White House that he would fire generals on the spot if he didn't like them. Um, wow, that was a real disaster, I have to say. Um, they did... The, the, the visuals from the j- from the, from the top, uh, l- military leadership were... Sort of said it all. And of course, they leaked the hell out of the thing. Also, Hegseth's, uh, focus on looks and outfits. They were expecting a strategic discussion about US military forces around the world and instead they got a rant by someone who was a lower-ranking person and someone who was a five-time draft dodger about how to run the military, but focused only on, on looks, uh, essentially. Let me tell you one other thing someone else told me was that, um, the, the reason he did this, and he... It was all from Hegseth, be... 'cause he is considering a presidential run, which I thought was insane when I heard it. Um, and that, uh, that people, other forces who were not so keen on Pete Hegseth running for president and think it's ridiculous got Trump to go to try to ruin his mojo there. Um, I thought it was d- hugely embarrassing, um, for, for everybody, especially the military which had to sit there and, and put up with it. Any quick thoughts?
- SGScott Galloway
There has never been, possibly in history, a room with more competence, bravery, uh, honor, humility in one room than there was in that room. It was a security risk to have them in one place. You don't think there was GRU and CCP taking photographs and saying-
- KSKara Swisher
Yep.
- SGScott Galloway
... "These are the most... Let's find their... Let- let's find what devices are on, what algorithms are on-"
- KSKara Swisher
Travel, how they travel.
- SGScott Galloway
"...on their kids, their movements, ev- That, that was just a stupid security risk. And for a guy who was... I mean, first off, I'm very into fitness.
- KSKara Swisher
I get it.
- SGScott Galloway
There is no... To, to hold a general who served honorably probably in Vietnam as an 18-year-old, who has, who has overseen combat... "Okay, Pete, I wanna see what you look like at 65." I mean, (laughs) the, the notion that he has any license being demeaning to that room is literally... is laughable. And all of this bullshit around, you know... I- I get it. Uh, uh, beards, whatever, I... It is, it is s-
- KSKara Swisher
That's supposed to attack, uh, m- uh, people of... Men of c- especially men of color. Some men have p- issues with, with, um, shaving, but go ahead.
- SGScott Galloway
It's so performative. It's so, it's so stupid. It, it doesn't result... It, it makes us weaker. I- i- and w- you have... You're, you're talking to the... He's a fuck-... He was a major-
- KSKara Swisher
I know. An anons-
- SGScott Galloway
Which means if he had been much better and spent another 20 years in the armed services, he might have been able to pack the bags for the people who ended up in that room.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
Uh, to, to lecture these people on leadership and what they-
- KSKara Swisher
Meaningless things.
- SGScott Galloway
...need to be doing to be a-
- KSKara Swisher
Meaningless things. It wasn't even on strategy.
- SGScott Galloway
All of this is-
- KSKara Swisher
It wasn't on our position in the world. It isn't... You know, if he had said, "Now we're gonna be this." Instead it's all performative. The other part is him talking them about being individualistic. This guy... There's not more of a fop in that cabinet than this guy. He's got funny socks, he's got weird things on the inside of his jackets. He's got tattoos. He's... Wears the stupid glasses. This guy is one... Speaking of individualistic, this guy just relishes in it, and to act like he's some, like, paradigm is kind of fucking ridi- He's such a ridiculous, performative clown. And, uh, the fact that he's thinking of running for president? I mean, oh my... And this was what he was y- using this. He was wasting taxpayer money to give himself a shine-up and he ended up looking like a, a clown.
- SGScott Galloway
The, the two, the two features that just were... Are, are always present in a, present in a room of leadership from our armed services are one competence. These people are literally charged with l- deploying lethal force in a thoughtful way and they're responsible for a ton of young men and women's wellbeing as it intersects with some of the most complicated supply chain technology, geopolitics in the world, and these people figure out a way to do it. From a young age, I, I, I... One of my roommates was ROTC. By the t- you know, I, I'm 24 doing fucking PowerPoint desks talking, you know... PowerPoint deck, decks talking about taking over some, some refrigeration company in Wisconsin and my friend was commanding 1,200 19-year-olds. I mean, the, these people, uh, uh, they one, demonstrate competence and then the second key feature which these people do not demonstrate in, in any fashion on stage is humility. They don't brag. They don't... Th- they, they don't... You know, and, and the other thing that the armed services represents, and it's not to say it hasn't had its problems around racism but it's been an enormous means of lifting up people based on character and competence. There's nothing that, there's nothing that melts away, racism and homophobia, like being in a foxhole where both of your lives are under threat. All you care about is the competence and the character of the man or the woman next to you. You're not thinking, "Well, I don't like Puerto Ricans." And so the armed services have been an amazing m- means of creating equality and progressive advancement. And then when you have these guys up there with this sort of like this, "You need to be fit and you can't have beards and-"
- KSKara Swisher
And then they bring out, you know... I said fat boy-
- SGScott Galloway
And misogynistic.
- KSKara Swisher
... and little man bombed, right?
- SGScott Galloway
I, I do... I, I gotta be honest. I do agree with one thing. I think in combat, the standards should be gender, gender-neutral. I think if you're g- applying to be in a combat position-... you have to qualify be able to... by being able to drag somebody 90 feet if they're wounded.
- KSKara Swisher
Sure.
- SGScott Galloway
I get that, but the reality is today's combat-
- 56:57 – 59:18
YouTube Settles with Trump
- KSKara Swisher
YouTube, uh, lastly, YouTube will settle a lawsuit over banning President Trump's account for over $24 million. YouTube banned Trump's account in 2021 after January 6th, and reinstated it, uh, later. Uh, the settlement funds will go to building the new White House ballroom, which looks so ridiculous. As a reminder, other big tech companies have done the same with similar lawsuits, with Meta settling for $25 million and X settling for $10 million. Um, oh God, why are they settling? They did nothing wrong at the time, it was very dangerous, then they reinstated. It was the right decision at the moment, uh, they shouldn't be paying off these bribes. That's what they are, they're bribes. I don't know. Your thoughts?
- SGScott Galloway
Yeah, I keep waiting for someone just to hold the line and say no. I mean, all it means is they're... he's gonna, they're gonna come back again. You're setting a really terrible precedent. I don't... I mean, uh, these companies are the same companies that fight people tooth and nail when their 15-year-old gets, uh, gets... is served content that encourages suicidal ideation and self-harm. They'll go to the mat for that shit. But when it comes to the president being butt hurt about something that was said-
- KSKara Swisher
Many years ago.
- SGScott Galloway
... they'll settle for tens of millions of dollars.
- KSKara Swisher
They're ridiculous. They look like such toadies. They look like toadies, these unctuous, right down to Sundar Pichai. I like Sundar Pichai, but Sundar, you're an embarrassment at this moment to me. I have to say. I've known you for many years, and I know you don't care what I think, but ugh, just really... I get your little pro- you should've held out. You would've looked smarter. Um, all right, Scott, one more quick break. We'll be back for predictions.
- SGScott Galloway
Support for the show comes from Silicon Valley Bank. Silicon Valley Bank is deeply embedded in the companies, products, and services that form the innovation economy. They're a proactive partner that helps bring their client's vision to life, and they fuel high-growth companies with tailored solutions and the hands-on support that turns potential into performance. Now, SVB is a division of First Citizens Bank. First Citizens Bank has always been dedicated to highly personalized service and supporting emerging sectors. That's why buying SVB made sense for First Citizens Bank and for you. SVB clients can now benefit from this combined commitment to tailored solutions, incredible service, and deep expertise from a top 20 bank with a national footprint. So, if you're serious about being part of the innovation economy, there's really only one bank for you, Silicon Valley Bank. Yes, SVB. Learn more at svb.com/vox.
- KSKara Swisher
Okay,
- 59:18 – 1:08:03
Predictions
- KSKara Swisher
Scott, let's hear that prediction. I'm curious who you think's going private, how interesting. What's a fallen angel?
- SGScott Galloway
Well, we, we talked about this. My picks were, and this isn't my prediction, but there's just some really big iconic companies that have a lot of IP and revenue that probably should be either acquired or taken private. A Bo- my favorites were Boeing, Intel, and Target. But I think you are about to see, and we predicted this... Uh, by the way, the... our prediction at the end of... beginning of this year was that M&A was about to boom again, and it was in a deep thaw at the beginning of the year. What did the investment banks announce? Record M&A. So, the universe of companies that Palantir can potentially acquire right now has gone up 1,000X.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah. It's, if you don't do it-
- SGScott Galloway
So their-
- KSKara Swisher
... it's stupid, right?
- SGScott Galloway
Their banker can show up... Well, when you're trading at 100 times revenues, anything you acquire that's trading at less than 100 times revenues, which is every company on the planet, is accretive to your earnings. The way I would describe it is, if your stock doubles, then effectively everything else has become 50% less expensive. And I think we're gonna see a titanic acquisition or merger from Netflix. I think there are so many existential threats, clouds forming around Netflix right now with some of this... I mean, Sam Altman putting out these, um, kind of, AI-driven videos and saying, "It's so you can communicate with your friends and family."
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
That is a lie. He's doing this and trying to pretend it's friendly such that every Hollywood producer starts going, "Jesus Christ-"
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
"... why can't we start producing films for three million instead of 300 million?"
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
So, I think there's some real existential threats to a stock that is now worth, you know, I don't know, $440 billion. Or, it... That stock, uh... by the way, one of my great investments, I bought Netflix at, um, 12 bucks a share. Um, it's now at $1,146. The part of the story I left out is I sold it at $10 a share-
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
... to take the tax loss and never bought back in. But basically, Netflix now has a four... almost a half a trillion dollar market cap. And I think they face some real threats.
- KSKara Swisher
They need to do something, yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
Well, the merger, the gangster merger of the ages would be the following.
- KSKara Swisher
Tell me.
- SGScott Galloway
Uh, Netflix and Disney.
- KSKara Swisher
Oh, I love it.
- SGScott Galloway
Because look at... it's very synergistic. First off-
- KSKara Swisher
Oh, and then Ted could run Disney, how fantastic.
- SGScott Galloway
Okay. Ding, ding, ding, ding.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
So-There's this co-CEO-
- KSKara Swisher
Mm-hmm.
- SGScott Galloway
... this guy named Greg Peters. I saw him speak at Cannes and I thought, "Jesus Christ, this guy is-"
- KSKara Swisher
Impressive.
- SGScott Galloway
"... so bright."
- KSKara Swisher
He is bright. So is Bella-
- SGScott Galloway
And by the way-
Episode duration: 1:08:03
Install uListen for AI-powered chat & search across the full episode — Get Full Transcript
Transcript of episode CsoK5h2npB8
Get more out of YouTube videos.
High quality summaries for YouTube videos. Accurate transcripts to search & find moments. Powered by ChatGPT & Claude AI.
Add to Chrome