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Kara Swisher · 47:04
I get so many headaches every month.
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Kara Swisher · 48:07
Okay, Scott and Stephanie. Let's move on to listener mail. Roll the tape.
Scott Galloway · 48:11
You've got you've got I can't believe I'm gonna be a mailman. You've got mail.
Speaker · 48:15
Hey, Kara and Scott. Greetings from Belgium. I love the show. I read some very worrying statistics about the health epidemic in The US. Ninety percent of The US health care spending goes to treating chronic mental health and stress related conditions. If it keeps going this way, it is predicted that the health care system or sick care system really could bankrupt The US within ten years. The American diet leads to chronic illness as well as cognitive and brain dysfunction, which are in fact preventable with the right diet and lifestyle choices. Chronic illness creates unhealthy and unhappy citizens, leads to the dumbing down of the population, and will further drive inequality and civil unrest. How can The US remain a powerhouse and globally relevant, influential, and competitive if its citizens are quite literally destroying themselves? I'm not sure if Big Tech has an answer for this, but I would love to hear your thoughts. Thank you.
Kara Swisher · 48:58
Oh, wow. Belgian's lecturing us now. Okay. Stephanie, we talk a lot on the show about platforms like Facebook destroying mental health, but... And, obviously, the pandemic has caused a mental health crisis, and everyone eats too much and bad food. So what what do you what do you think about this question?
Guest · 49:13
Listen. I think it's an important question. I think it's a real issue. Do I think on the list of priorities in America that's anything that we're going to address in the near term? Absolutely not.
Kara Swisher · 49:24
Yeah. So fatter and dumber than ever is really what you're saying?
Guest · 49:28
No. Sadly, the wealthier people are, the more focused they're going to be on optimizing their health and longevity. And the lower people are on the socioeconomic scale, the more they're going to suffer.
Scott Galloway · 49:40
Look, 60% of people don't know what they're going to have for lunch until five minutes before they have them. We have a food industrial complex that taps into this instinct that hasn't caught up to industrial food production. And just as we've politicized masks on the far right, we've politicized obesity on the far left, and we don't want to have an open and honest conversation around how overweight America is and how it's been, eighty percent of the people admitted to the ICU had some sort of comorbidity related to body mass index. And I think that we've got to look at how some communities can't afford to eat healthy. We've also got to inspire people from a young age. There's a real fear here and that is you don't want a 15 year old who's already insecure to be shamed about their body. All right, that is a real fear and we need to be thoughtful about that. But at the same time, remember, I don't know if they still have it. Do you guys remember the presidential fitness awards?
Guest · 50:32
Yeah, of course. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Speaker · 50:35
But I remember like
Guest · 50:36
Going up the road, on that thing. Yes.
Scott Galloway · 50:38
And I remember like literally training for a year when I was 12 years old. So it's trying to figure out a way to do eight pull ups because that was the only thing that stood in between me and the Presidential Fitness Award. Think we've got to figure out a way to get America very focused on its health and get strong. And I think, coming out of college and high schools in America, I think we've got to put more emphasis on, our goal is not to make our youth woke. Our goal is to make them warriors, both mentally, the ability to hold two contrary thoughts in their mind at the same time, but also to make them physically fucking monsters, to make them strong and fast and to think about their food intake and to think about exercise every day, regardless if they're an athlete or not.
Kara Swisher · 51:19
But I think I think Stephanie's right. The elites certainly do this. I'm, for example, I'm wearing a glucose monitor right now.
Scott Galloway · 51:24
Put that thing on you.
Kara Swisher · 51:26
You did. I have a new one. It's almost done. But it's really interesting. I'm getting a lot of information about my... But but what affects me and stuff like that. But let's talk about how tech can help. Now, you know, if you had one of these on a lot of people, you could do a lot, especially if there were just patches to understand what's going on. But, you know, grocery delivery platforms could possibly bridge food desert neighborhoods or or maybe it would further the gap, but possibly, could be good. These kind of monitors where people can know and have have advice and stuff and and make them very inexpensive. Mental health services that get delivered to more people because it's... You don't have to pay a lot of money to go to a doctor, inexpensive psychologist or psychiatrist. Stephanie, can tech help here? Or does it just make it bad?
Guest · 52:05
No, it can. Because even think about the impact of telehealth in the last year. We have seen mental health services broaden out who they're helping in an enormous way over the last year, especially for children in underserved communities because they If you are a mental health professional and you're working in one school, you can only help a certain amount of kids. But if you are doing telehealth, you can see a mass multiple of that. And if we sort of adopt more of those ideas and help underserved communities, whether it's economically underserved or generationally, we need to help senior citizens in terms of understanding this technology. It could make a huge difference. But I can tell you in my own mega privileged household, right in the last year with everybody home, people weren't moving. Kids didn't have sports. They didn't have after school activities. So for my seven year old, she wears a Fitbit. But like I can do that because I went, oh my gosh, my kids aren't moving. All we're doing is baking. We need across the board to do this in a bigger way because when kids do make their way back to school, all they did, right? When Will Smith, a few weeks ago, you know, came out with those photographs of himself saying he's in the worst shape of his life and he just spent the last year in his pantry, everyone did. Eating processed packaged foods. And this is an opportunity, especially to help our youth.
Kara Swisher · 53:26
Yeah. Especially reaching out. I think tech could actually make a big difference here even as they mentally fuck with people in other areas, whether it's Instagram. It's usually Facebook doing that. But there are ways that this stuff can really help as as it's been always the case with the Internet. Scott, last word.
Scott Galloway · 53:42
There's some huge silver linings here and that is we might be able to push primary health care. There were less than 1% of doctor's visits were virtual, now they're 30%. And can we we push out a disperse great, not only great, take healthcare and put it, take it off its heels and onto its toes, instead of being disease driven, be health and maybe even fitness driven, but also to disperse the sweat industrial complex and give people cheap ways to just use their body weight in their home and maybe a few weights and just get people into being strong. I think from all all levels, an early age, we're a strong nation, we're a stronger character, we need to be strong physically.
Kara Swisher · 54:20
Yeah. Well, you know, the lesbians are already doing that. Lesbians all have really fit and strong traits. You're
Scott Galloway · 54:24
creating an army
Kara Swisher · 54:27
of children, just so you know. That's our secret thing. Anyway, that's absolutely true. I think it's a 100% true. I spent a lot more time doing telehealth, and it was I... It was... Reminders helped, all kinds of stuff. It was it was a really interesting thing, and it did just fine. Yeah. Did just fine. And I went to the
Guest · 54:41
I've seen more doctors because of telehealth in the last Yep. Than... I mean, I'm the queen of canceling every doctor's appointment because, like, telehealth changes everything.
Scott Galloway · 54:50
Right.
Kara Swisher · 54:51
Yeah. A 100%. And then I just went in for reg... The tests that they needed, the blood tests, and they were very convenient in my neighborhood because they were already doing... There are all these testing facilities that are popped up. And so then now they've shifted to blood tests and things like that rather than COVID related. And people gotten used to it. Alright. Scott, Stephanie, one more quick break. We'll be back for predictions. Stephanie, you have to have a prediction.
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Kara Swisher · 55:39
I get so many headaches every month.
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— Predictions segment begins —
Kara Swisher · 56:41
Okay. Scott, you're gonna go first so Stephanie can think of it. What is your prediction or strategy you'll throw out there on the podcast that will inevitably become Twitter's next move? I don't know. What what it could be.
Scott Galloway · 56:50
I think Stephanie's calling John Snackier or Stephanie's boss. This is not, I think Zaslov needs to be, I just don't see Brian Roberts deciding to sit on the sidelines and say, Oh, that's interesting. And not only that, I think as we, mean, I if you look at the kind of the, I call it the bonfire of the Benjamins. If you look at who's lost the most money the fastest, it was probably Gerald Levin. Then it was maybe Marissa Mayer with Tumblr and Yahoo. But now number two is John Stankey in this. And I just don't think this deal commands the space it occupies. I think that Comcast saying to their bankers, well, what could we do? And he'll call Stankey and say, look, you have an obligation to consider this. He'll initially rebuff them and say, sorry, boss, your shareholders demand that you take a very hard look at this. They are very sophisticated, they're very aggressive. They have a $250,000,000,000 market cap and they have distribution versus Discovery at I think, what was it 16,000,000,000? This story is not over. So, anyways, you're about to
Kara Swisher · 57:54
hear that Comcast My column says that. It was about to appear. Just... There has to be a Comcast in here. There has... They have to come in here. The tech companies can't. The Comcast has to. It's the only company that can. Disney can't step up. Already did their thing. And this is ridiculous that it's going to discover. It's just, like, too small. It's ridic... And it's it's not enough, by the way. It's not enough. And so it needs a much bigger thing. And this eventually will be an existential crisis for Comcast 100%. And Stephanie has no comment. Stephanie, what's your prediction?
Guest · 58:22
My prediction is that America has decided COVID is over, and you're gonna quickly see more and more states that haven't yet dropped their mask mandates. Just look at the American people. Look at New York City. Several months ago, this city was left for dead. It was anemic. Walk around New York City right now. Looking good. Is.
Kara Swisher · 58:40
Looking good in
Guest · 58:40
Fuego. Walked into an H and M yesterday to buy my daughter a pair of socks. I'm not exaggerating. There were 35 people online, right? People are packing in restaurants. People are coming back to the city. You know, this idea that, oh, people are going to come back to work by the end of the year. More and more companies are going to have their employees back ASAP. The banks want to bring this And back I really think the only thing that held them back from demanding more in person work is that they were worried about media pushback. People are done with COVID. They're going move on. Whether
Kara Swisher · 59:16
Yeah. Agree.
Guest · 59:16
New York is thing, but I'm saying that's that's where we're at emotionally.
Kara Swisher · 59:21
And the real estate market too.
Guest · 59:22
Real estate market.
Kara Swisher · 59:22
I've had a lot of friends who said it's insane suddenly suddenly. I, you know, offers. I've had a lot of offers on houses I've had. It's really kind of the cities are back. I would agree with you on that, Stephanie. And I find something you'll
Guest · 59:33
For all of you that rushed out of the city that said, oh my god. The city's dead. I'm moving to some big house in the suburbs. Yeah. Great. Enjoy your commute.
Kara Swisher · 59:41
And enjoy the suburbs, which is not enjoyable. In any way. And my prediction is that Jeff Zucker's gonna be Stephanie's boss, and good luck, Jeff, on that one. That's all I have to say.
Scott Galloway · 59:50
Coming in hot. Coming in hot.
Kara Swisher · 59:53
Oh, Jeff. Call me Jeff. Call me Stankey, who is the worst media strategist in modern history.
Guest · 59:59
You know what though, Kara? It doesn't matter. As long as you're a big giant executive, whether you have a job or get carried out, you leave with a big bag of dough.
Kara Swisher · 1:00:07
You know, Tim Armstrong, although he looks like a genius now, left with $60,000,000 when he didn't look like a genius. So there you have it. And in in fact, he he deserves it now.
Guest · 1:00:15
Who cares what the likes of media critics have to say about you? You leave with all the money.
Kara Swisher · 1:00:19
They do. They care. Stephanie, they care. Trust me. They do. They do. Anyway, this has been a fantastic show. Thank... Except for Stephanie. No no commenting. Otherwise, she was brilliant.
— Predictions segment ends —
Guest · 1:00:30
Crying on a on thousand thread count shit.
Kara Swisher · 1:00:33
Anyway, that's the show. Please send us your listener mail questions. That was just a great one from Belgium. We love them. Go to nymag.com/pivot to have a chance to be on the podcast. Scott, please read us out.
Scott Galloway · 1:00:45
Today's show was produced by Rebecca Sinanis. Ernie and Jotod engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows. Make sure you subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts. If you're an Android user, check us out on Spotify or, frankly, wherever you listen to podcasts. If you liked our show, please recommend it to a friend. Shark Week hosted by Stephanie Ruhl.
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