Kara Swisher · 1:02:08
Recently... I mean, it's definitely a secular problem, has been directly because of his stupid ass decisions. There there was one after the next. So a lot of these problems were because of the way he's been managing this. And his CEO... Let me just say, Will Lewis, you should be ashamed of yourself with how you behaved and all your idiotic ideas.
Scott Galloway · 1:02:25
A bunch of producers at our different podcast. I don't know you can see. I have some of them behind me. You
Kara Swisher · 1:02:30
I know that.
Scott Galloway · 1:02:30
Yeah. But I I called... I sent a message to the woman who runs our company and said, we should be reaching out to some people at the post. Find people that we love. The post right now is literally a recruiter's dream.
Kara Swisher · 1:02:42
Yep.
Scott Galloway · 1:02:43
It is. One at the post, even the ones that the ones that didn't get laid off, will return your call right now.
Kara Swisher · 1:02:48
Yep. That's true.
Scott Galloway · 1:02:48
And these are very... I don't... Quite frank. I I I I feel sorry from the sense that this was their dream job. These people are gonna be just fine. Yeah. These these are very talented people. So I don't... I I think part of capitalism is
Kara Swisher · 1:03:01
Oh, I get it.
Scott Galloway · 1:03:02
You know? If you make if you make it easy to fire people, you make it easy to hire them. I think... I would bet 95% of these people in two years look back on this and go, yeah. I miss it. It was great training, and I'm making more money and having more impact and more relevance now.
Kara Swisher · 1:03:17
Fun. Yeah. It's true.
Scott Galloway · 1:03:18
And I don't have to wake up and hear what a guy in... Partying in Saint Bart's thinks about layoffs. I don't
Kara Swisher · 1:03:23
It's true. It's true. But in any case, Jeff, you're such an asshole. Anyway, one more quick break. We'll be back for predictions.
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Kara Swisher · 1:05:41
Okay, Scott. Let's hear a prediction. I... I'm going to take a moment, though, before you do that, to say, Savannah Guthrie's family, with their mom missing. I know... I've met her mom. She's amazing. I I hope hope hope they find her alive, and it's so sad what's happening. It's getting far too much. Like, media is sort of jumping all over it in kind of an untoward way. But if that helps get her back, I'm all for it. But I just wanna send my love out to her family. She she... They're wonderful people.
Scott Galloway · 1:06:16
It's really interesting, isn't it, how some stories really kinda... I mean, 35,000 people have supposedly been murdered in Iran. And the... But this story really hits you because, a, people really, really appreciate and have a lot of fondness for Savannah. But, occasionally, there's a story, and it just... It grabs you. Right?
Kara Swisher · 1:06:35
I mean, this story
Scott Galloway · 1:06:36
this story has really grabbed people because this is kind of everyone's nightmare, not knowing what's happening, not knowing what's going on. But I I was really struck at how... And it... It's nice that occasionally people slow down, and when they hear an individual story, it really moves them. And I think, actually, I think the attention being brought to it is probably a good thing.
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Scott Galloway · 1:06:56
I think there's a lot... If anyone sees their mom, they're gonna know it.
Kara Swisher · 1:06:59
That's right. Right? That's right.
Scott Galloway · 1:07:01
And so I think it's... Anyways, I I
Kara Swisher · 1:07:03
There's a surprising not big number of kidnappings too, like, in this country.
Scott Galloway · 1:07:07
It's very rare. Yeah. So We all talk about the fear of kids and kidnapping.
Kara Swisher · 1:07:11
It's all over TV, but it's
Scott Galloway · 1:07:13
not true. It's it's very it's very, very rare.
— Predictions segment begins —
Kara Swisher · 1:07:17
Alright. Anyway Let's hear a prediction from you.
Scott Galloway · 1:07:19
So, effectively, I don't know if this is really good news, but, essentially, there are social media bans breaking out all over the world. Norway We forgot to complete ban under 13. Belgium requires children 13 to have parental permission. Germany requires parental consent for users aged 13 to 16. Italy requires parental consent at sign up for users under the age of 14. And Spain just announced that it's going to... The latest country. They're banning social media kids 16. 82% of Spaniards support banning social media for kids 14. Greece is also nearing a social media ban for children 15. Australia has implemented a similar ban. Also, just a shout out to my colleague Jonathan Hite. I think this would have happened anyway, but he's expedited it. I think he deserves a lot of credit for this.
Kara Swisher · 1:08:06
Sure has.
Scott Galloway · 1:08:07
I mean, if you... For those of you thinking about going to academia, you can go into academia, study social science, get a PhD in psychology, and someday get entire nations to ban phones in school. So to think that academics don't matter, it's... You can have a lot of impact. Anyways, that's not my prediction. My prediction is that this is essentially not only common sense around our children, but this is the beginning of reciprocal tariffs. What do I mean by that? Other nations are sick of the sclerotic irrational punitive economic warfare that the Trump administration has levied on them with tariffs, and their tariffs are the following. They're gonna start banning our social media platforms. The UK is already going after x. You are gonna start to see, over the course of the next twelve to twenty four months, entire nation say, you know what? Maybe we don't need YouTube here. Maybe Meta should not be here. And they'll
Kara Swisher · 1:09:07
Maybe we won't use Zoom. I think France is stopping using Zoom in the government.
Scott Galloway · 1:09:11
They're gonna blanket in, okay, Meta is bad for children, which is true. But the real motivation in my view is gonna be like, you know what? We're kinda sick. If you're gonna start making it harder for Americans to buy our Mercedes and our Vuitton, we're gonna make it harder for people to watch YouTube and be on Instagram. I think European nations and the rest of the g seven are sick of big tech coming in, sucking billions of dollars out of their economy in exchange for opening a Facebook office in Milan. Their newspapers are going out of business. Their media companies are going out of business. Their manufacturers are going out of business. And this is essentially the thing that is tipping these companies over and giving them the backbone to start banning these things. And it's going to go up the food chain pretty soon. You're going to see a large nation say, you know what? I don't think we need Google. So this is while it's being done under the very righteous and worthwhile cause of protecting children, which I celebrate and I think is important, effectively what this is is a reciprocal tariff. And pretty soon, it's going to start creeping up. You know what's going to happen? Big countries are gonna decide, you know what? We no longer wanna use Goldman Sachs and McKinsey to do our banking. If you're gonna start fucking with us, we're gonna start fucking with you.
Kara Swisher · 1:10:27
And they start... Speaking of consumers, they're consumers, so they can speak with their... They can walk. They can walk. That's the thing. And there there are alternatives.
Scott Galloway · 1:10:34
I love the idea of consumers speaking with their with their spending power.
— Predictions segment ends —
Kara Swisher · 1:10:38
Yeah. I think it makes all the sense the world. Too. That's why you look like a like a unsuccessful pimp this week. What's your outfit for next week?
Scott Galloway · 1:10:45
I don't know. I'm thinking I bought... I... I'll give you a hint. I'll I'll give you a hint.
Kara Swisher · 1:10:49
Okay.
Scott Galloway · 1:10:49
I have a hockey jersey, and I'm not wearing any pants.
Kara Swisher · 1:10:52
Oh, nice. That's good. Good. Beyond brands. That's perfect. That's perfect. On trend and on brand. On trend. That's a really... It's really important, Scott, and I think you're right. This is... There are... Before when when these come... Europe was not innovative the way The US has been on all these services, there are alternates right now. There are so many alternates to everything. If the... If Silicon Valley thinks they hung the fucking moon, well, they did... They might have, but no longer. And there alternates in every single category now that you don't have to put up with the ridiculous midlife crisis antics of Jeff Bezos or whatever whatever fresh hell Meta's gonna leap and leash upon us. There are choices now. And some of them might be China, by the way, and that's that's saying a lot if they're... That's where they're going. So I agree with you. I think it's really important. Just so you know, everyone, we will talk about Moltbook and Openclaw next week. It's fine. Agent to agent was always the plan, but, we'll talk about that. It's interesting. And we also will talk about, section two thirty. There's been a new bill to overturn and replace it. Oddly enough, I ran into, Joseph Gordon Levitt this week, and he was here helping. We'll talk about that next week because section two there is really interesting. I had some really interesting discussions with him and others about it.
Scott Galloway · 1:12:05
Can I just say I love the image of you being barely able to see over the mail card going around and people mistaking you for a 15 year old boy? Can I just say I love that image? I love that you started the Washington Post mail room. That is really cool.
Kara Swisher · 1:12:19
It was... I I reorganized it. It really cool. Messy. I reorganized all the boxes because I'm so anal retentive. I remember doing that. It's like, what are you doing? I'm like, this is inefficient. Then I was like, in college. It's true. I was slightly tall.
Scott Galloway · 1:12:33
Fella. Don't worry. He'll grow. Oh, wait. No. That's Kara Kusher.
Kara Swisher · 1:12:36
Anyway, they didn't know my name at all. And let me tell you from doing that, everybody who was talented was nice to me. Untalented people were ass assholes. It was really tough.
Scott Galloway · 1:12:46
In a mailroom. I worked in a mailroom of Southwestern University School a lot where my mom ran the secretarial pool, and we used have lunch together.
Kara Swisher · 1:12:53
And here we are together again without my picture behind you. Anyway, I'm not offended.
Scott Galloway · 1:12:57
But here's the thing. I'm gonna have to move to a fuck. Everyone's all over me. You're selling your Apple stock. Did you unsubscribe this? I'm gonna have to move to Ted Kaczynski's shed and have no entertainment and have a ham radio because I'm running out of things to unsubscribe to. I wanted to Well, it's crutch. I've been binging that gay hockey thing, which I think could easily turn me something.
Kara Swisher · 1:13:18
Yay. What do you think? Really quickly. What do you... That's just funny because we'll have a bonus episode tomorrow. I spoke to the executive producers of heated rivalry about how they made the breakout hit for a fraction of the cost of other major streaming shows and what they've got coming out next. What do you think so far? I made Scott watch heated rivalry.
Scott Galloway · 1:13:37
I think it's an important series for young men to watch because there's different forms of leadership and masculinity and empathy and love and sexual identity. And I'll... I gotta be honest, Kara. Every time I see something like this, I'm reminded of how many people I lost to AIDS back in the in the nineties. And I don't think I hope and trust that young people and especially gay men realize how important science is and how fortunate they are and that America has made a lot of progress around these issues. I can't watch anything about gay men and not think about the nineties.
Kara Swisher · 1:14:09
You and I both. Absolutely. Anyway, I'm so glad you're watching it. I hope I can't wait till you get to episode five. Anyway, we wanna hear from you, and we have some homework for our listeners today. Send us a message about your favorite or least favorite Super Bowl ad after the big game on Sunday. Go to nymag.com/pivot or call 85551
Scott Galloway · 1:14:28
Also, I woke up this morning in a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey, a half bottle drink of Jack, and a condom hanging out of my ass. I don't know if that has anything to do
Kara Swisher · 1:14:35
We're taking that.
Scott Galloway · 1:14:36
With anything.
Kara Swisher · 1:14:37
We're taking that out. Go to nymag.com/pivot or call 85551 Okay. That's the show. Thanks for listening to pivot. Be sure to like and subscribe, not unsubscribe, to our YouTube channel. We'll be back next week.
Scott Galloway · 1:14:52
Today's show was produced by Lara Amin, Sonya Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie and Richard engineered this episode. Manolo Moreno edited the video. Thanks to officer Gibros, miss Severo, Dan Chelon. The shot Correv's Vox Media's executive producer podcast. Make sure to follow Pivot on your favorite podcast platform. Thanks for listening to Pivot from York Magazine and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com/pod. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business.
Kara Swisher · 1:15:23
Support for this show comes from the Pondering AI podcast from SAS. What does it mean to be human in the age of AI? How will it affect our jobs, our lives, and society as a whole? The Pondering AI podcast from SAS tackles the questions that don't have easy answers but need to be asked. Host Kimberly Neville sits down with innovators, researchers, and data scientists to challenge assumptions and explore what comes after the AI breakthroughs and headlines. If you're curious or concerned about AI, find Pondering AI wherever you get your podcasts.
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