Elon’s Ketamine Denial Hits New High | Pivot
Kara Swisher (host), Scott Galloway (host), Joni Ernst (guest), Joni Ernst (clip artifact) (guest), Tariff/China policy expert (clip guest) (guest), Narrator, Scott Galloway (credits reader) (host), Jeffrey Goldberg (guest)
In this episode of Pivot, featuring Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway, Elon’s Ketamine Denial Hits New High | Pivot explores elon’s Ketamine, Trump’s Tariffs, Taylor’s Masters, And Toxic Politics Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway open with personal banter before diving into U.S. political coarseness, starting with Senator Joni Ernst’s flippant Medicaid comment and what it reveals about Trump-style cruelty becoming a political norm. They debate the impact of social media on rage, gender relations, and public decorum, and argue there’s a big opening for ‘adult in the room’ leadership focused on fiscal responsibility and basic decency. They then examine state and potential federal efforts to age‑gate social media and smartphones, strongly backing stricter rules for minors while dismissing Big Tech’s privacy objections as cynical. The episode also covers Taylor Swift’s $360M reclaiming of her masters, Elon Musk’s alleged drug use and political downfall in “Doge,” Trump’s tariff theatrics and likely market manipulation, China tensions, U.S. reputation damage abroad, Ukraine’s daring military success, and a lighter close with cultural wins and fails.
Elon’s Ketamine, Trump’s Tariffs, Taylor’s Masters, And Toxic Politics
Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway open with personal banter before diving into U.S. political coarseness, starting with Senator Joni Ernst’s flippant Medicaid comment and what it reveals about Trump-style cruelty becoming a political norm. They debate the impact of social media on rage, gender relations, and public decorum, and argue there’s a big opening for ‘adult in the room’ leadership focused on fiscal responsibility and basic decency. They then examine state and potential federal efforts to age‑gate social media and smartphones, strongly backing stricter rules for minors while dismissing Big Tech’s privacy objections as cynical. The episode also covers Taylor Swift’s $360M reclaiming of her masters, Elon Musk’s alleged drug use and political downfall in “Doge,” Trump’s tariff theatrics and likely market manipulation, China tensions, U.S. reputation damage abroad, Ukraine’s daring military success, and a lighter close with cultural wins and fails.
Key Takeaways
Cruelty is being misbranded as leadership in U.S. politics.
Ernst’s Medicaid remark and non‑apology embody a broader GOP trend of mimicking Trump’s coarse style; Swisher and Galloway argue most Americans are tired of perpetual dunking and want calm, competent, humane leadership instead.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Social media monetizes rage and fractures core social bonds.
Galloway contends platforms profit by pitting people against each other while showcasing others’ prosperity, fueling resentment; he also argues they’ve successfully turned men and women into mutual antagonists, undermining the ‘greatest alliance in history.’
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Age and biology should be central in tech and policy rules.
They argue minors’ brains are ill‑suited for smartphones and addictive apps, advocating no smartphones under 16, stricter age‑gating at both device and app levels, and even age caps (e. ...
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Big Tech’s ‘privacy’ defense against kids’ protections is hollow.
Galloway points out society already trades some privacy for security and utility (air travel, passports), and that companies happily exploit far more sensitive behavioral data; invoking privacy to avoid age checks for kids is called cynical and indefensible.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Owning IP is about control, not just money, for creators.
Taylor Swift’s buyback of her masters gives her veto power over how her work is used—avoiding cheap or incongruent licensing—and lets her shape her long‑term legacy, a template they expect to matter even more in an AI‑driven future.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
We idolize wealth so much we excuse obvious dysfunction.
Using Musk, Galloway argues that if someone worth $400M behaved like him—drug use, erratic conduct, family chaos—they’d trigger an intervention, not adulation; at $400B, society rebrands addiction and instability as authenticity and genius.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Trump’s tariff threats likely serve volatility and insiders, not strategy.
Galloway describes the ‘taco trade’: Trump announces big tariffs, markets swing, then he often backs off, making these moves a predictable trading pattern; he now believes the real goal is creating exploitable volatility and insider profit, not durable economic wins.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Notable Quotes
“We’ve conflated leadership with cruelty and coarseness.”
— Scott Galloway
“I don’t think everyone wants to spend their lives as a 12‑year‑old asshole.”
— Kara Swisher
“Biology is undefeated.”
— Scott Galloway
“The notion that these people give a flying fuck about privacy is just laughable.”
— Scott Galloway (on Big Tech’s anti–age‑verification arguments)
“Look what money’s done to us.”
— Scott Galloway (on Elon Musk and the idolatry of wealth)
Questions Answered in This Episode
How can political leaders reclaim a tone of seriousness and decency without getting drowned out by those who profit from outrage?
Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway open with personal banter before diving into U. ...
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
What would an effective, privacy‑respecting national framework for age‑gating devices and social media actually look like in practice?
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
In a future saturated with AI, how should laws around likeness, voice, and creative IP evolve to protect artists like Taylor Swift?
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
What specific safeguards could reduce the potential for market manipulation and insider trading around major government tariff or policy announcements?
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
As global perceptions tilt toward China as a ‘force for good,’ what concrete steps could the U.S. take—beyond military aid—to rebuild its moral authority and soft power?
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Transcript Preview
Just so you know, excessive ketamine causes you to pee too much.
We've got the world's most powerful man, the President, and the world's wealthiest man both wearing diapers. (instrumental music)
Hi, everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara Swisher.
And I'm Scott Galloway.
How you doing, Scott? Where are you? What, what is behind you?
Uh...
Is that another AI situation?
(laughs) Another situation. No, I'm in, uh, I'm in the Faena Hotel in South Beach. I was in-
Oh, you're in the-
... Paris over the weekend. I went to the French Open, which was lovely.
Mm-hmm.
And, um, then I jumped on a plane yesterday and came here. I forgot my computer on the plane.
What?
Which is par for the course.
What do you mean you forgot your computer on the plane?
My third computer I've left on a plane, um, this year.
Wow.
Year to date, I've left three computers on planes.
Why?
Um, why? Because if my dick wasn't attached, you'd find it on a card table next to a script of Goodfellas in SoHo, Kara.
(laughs) I'm so glad I didn't find that.
Yeah.
What would I do with it if I found your dick? That's an interesting question.
There you go. Um, so anyways-
Put it in the refrigerator.
... I lose everything, but I'm at the- I'm safe and sound at the Faena.
Mm-hmm.
And my good friend Pablo Torittas saved my ass for bacon and got me a new Macintosh.
Mm-hmm.
And Drew and the team have fired it up, and now I'm doing podcasts from a-
Are you ever getting your computer back?
Uh, the wonderful thing about technology now is it doesn't matter. I'll get, I've already, I'll have a new one for me when I get back to New York and it, they're dumb appliances. It's all in the cloud now, so, so some lucky flight attendant has a lot of porn coming his way this weekend.
See, I, I leave things on planes and I go and find them. I go to the lost and found and I dig through it, and I found all my stuff dispersed, um, all kinds of things. So I go and look for things when I leave them.
Yeah, I do the trade-off. Uh, I, I was gonna go back to the airport and I figured it would cost me a half a day.
Mm-hmm.
And I don't, I don't wanna do it. I'd just rather get another computer.
You're not worried about people getting access to your things on that, on that laptop? All your secrets?
Yeah, I, I don't know. What, so they wanna know, they wanna know like what cock gobbler site I'm, I'm spending time at or what, what-
Install uListen to search the full transcript and get AI-powered insights
Get Full TranscriptGet more from every podcast
AI summaries, searchable transcripts, and fact-checking. Free forever.
Add to Chrome