Pivot · Dec 13, 2024

Internet’s Luigi Obsession, Biden Pardons, and Guest R.J. Cutler

Automatic transcript of the end of the episode, from 1:01:04. Speakers are labeled by software and may contain errors. Highlighted passages are Scott’s predictions.

Guest · 1:01:04 Documentary. If you look at any one of those films that's gonna be on that 15 film list, you're gonna see beautiful movies, a great art. Kara Swisher · 1:01:11 Who would be your dream subject next? Who are you work... Or who are you working on next, and who would be your dream subject? Scott Galloway · 1:01:16 It's a great question. Guest · 1:01:17 Well, I'm I'm in the middle of working on a film about the... This last world series that's going to be on Apple. I'm very excited about that. As a big baseball fan, I... I've had a lot of passion for that subject, and getting into the guts of it is really exciting and interesting to me. I think Steve Cohn would be a a, you know, a a great subject, and it's very interesting as a as a sports owner Just The trader? Scott Galloway · 1:01:48 SAT Capital? That's who Yeah. Kara Swisher · 1:01:50 That guy. Yeah. That's who he's talking about. Guest · 1:01:51 Yeah. He owns the New York Mets. He just he just signed Juan So to to the largest contract of any any athlete in history, but he sees his ownership as public service. And that is a very interesting thing because every fan Kara Swisher · 1:02:06 Also, and then he's got the history of being sort of a rapacious capitalist too. Like, what Guest · 1:02:11 It's... Yeah. So he's a really he's a really interesting subject, and I'd I'd love to make a film about him. Kara Swisher · 1:02:17 That would be a great film. Guest · 1:02:18 Yeah. Different... Listen. Different opportunities come along, and and, you know, we Kara Swisher · 1:02:24 So Steve Cohen is your dream subject. Guest · 1:02:26 Well, he's a... Next next one on my mind. I'm a Mets fan. You know? I've been there my whole life. Scott Galloway · 1:02:33 That's your baseball fetish coming out. Just real quick, two docs... Two or three docs you would recommend we go find that maybe people haven't heard of. Guest · 1:02:40 Yeah. I would say take a look at at Frida, which is such a a beautiful film about Frida Kahlo that Carla Gutierrez made, and I would encourage people to see a film called Sugarcane, which is a beautiful and heartbreaking film about the abuses of Native American children at Catholic church run boarding schools, made by Julian Brave, Noise Cat, and Emily Cassy. Yeah. Scott Galloway · 1:03:08 In Canada? Is that the one? Guest · 1:03:10 Yes. It's in Canada, but, you know, it's... I mean, Joe Biden has issued an apology from the American government for their involvement as well. And, anyway, it's... That that is a beautiful and beautifully made film. There are... As I say, if if if people looking for documentaries next week, the shortlist will come out, use that as a guide because there are, there are gonna be a lot of terrific films, on that list. But my... I'm... I... I'm I'm a big big big fan of those two movies. Kara Swisher · 1:03:41 Can ask you super briefly? Any crime ones? Because they're everywhere. It seems like crime ones are, like, the the bread and butter of the world of Netflix now. Yeah. I mean Which is why I like that Martha did well. Guest · 1:03:51 Yeah. Me me too. Not not not that come to mind. Although I will say for for... On Amazon, for MGM Plus, last year, we did a series called Murph the Surf that was about America's original true crime superstar. He was a a figure in the early nineteen sixties who made... He he stole the... He and his gang of surfer kind of criminals stole the the biggest diamond from the Museum of Natural History in the world. Kara Swisher · 1:04:24 Oh, it's like that Patrick Swayze movie. Scott Galloway · 1:04:26 Right? I was just singing the Keanu Reeves film. What was that? Guest · 1:04:29 Point blank. There's a a connection there, but it was incredible. Bob Dylan sang about this guy, Murph the surf. He was a... He was... People were, check it out. That's a true crime that goes back to the roots of true crime. Kara Swisher · 1:04:41 Okay. Great. Anyway, RJ Cutler, this is a wonderful documentary. Martha's on Netflix, and Elton John's on Disney plus. Thank you, RJ. Guest · 1:04:48 Thank you, guys. What an honor to chat with you. Really enjoyed it. Scott Galloway · 1:04:51 Thanks, RJ. Kara Swisher · 1:04:52 Scott, what do you think? He's great. I love... I think he's... He... War Room was a groundbreaking documentary. He's done so many that are so good. Anna Winter one. This guy never misses. Scott Galloway · 1:05:01 I remember that. I love the Anna Winter one. If it's the one I remember, it was great at highlighting the power of her number two. Yeah. That that was what I took away from that. But, Frida Kahlo has one of my favorite quotes. She says, I want my death to be glorious, and I don't wanna come back. I love that. I love that. Kara Swisher · 1:05:19 Got her wish, I guess. Scott Galloway · 1:05:21 Yeah. I don't know if it was glorious, but... Yeah. No. I think about that. I think about that a lot. Have you planned out have you planned out your last your last, like, the ninth ninth inning for yourself? Kara Swisher · 1:05:31 Yes. Totally. It's all in my my will. Scott Galloway · 1:05:34 Yeah. So have I. Kara Swisher · 1:05:35 I have to add you now. I have to add you in some way. Scott Galloway · 1:05:37 I appreciate that. Kara Swisher · 1:05:38 I have... I plan... I I put money in for a big party in my... Well, a huge hula. I wanna put the fun Scott Galloway · 1:05:43 That that that... Do a little dance. Kara Swisher · 1:05:44 I wanna... I put the fun in funeral. I'm gonna put the fun in funeral. And I have Scott Galloway · 1:05:47 We don't have to worry about that. You're gonna go about forty years after me. Kara Swisher · 1:05:50 That's true, but I wanna have a fun funeral. One of the things I do have is for my... If I... I'm... I probably get cremated, but I do want a kind of a head... If I wasn't, I have a headstone in mind, which is... Then it's punctuation is important here. Fun exclamation point fun exclamation point fun exclamation point death, period. That's what I want on my headstone. Fun fun fun death. People will laugh in the cemetery when they see it. Like, they'll go, that lady. What a funny lady that was. Scott Galloway · 1:06:19 I like that. It's nice. Kara Swisher · 1:06:21 I'm so glad you're thinking of your funeral. We'll we'll we'll go to... Hopefully, one of us will go to the other's funeral. That's... That will be the case. Correct? Unless we die together. Scott Galloway · 1:06:28 What do you mean? In in case both of us go... Are killed on our way to Vox in the same car? Yeah. Chances are that's gonna happen. Kara Swisher · 1:06:36 That could be. Scott Galloway · 1:06:36 That's gonna happen. Kara Swisher · 1:06:37 Would be in top in the in the in the story, me or you? Who would be? Scott Galloway · 1:06:41 Oh, definitely you. You're much more iconic, and you're considered an advocate for your community. I'm just like Kara Swisher · 1:06:46 Kara, switcher and this guy. No. I'm kidding. I think it'd be equal. Scott Galloway · 1:06:49 I'm just that guy with the dick jokes. What happened to him? Oh, he was hit by a bus. He was hit by a bus looking the wrong way. Moved to London. Kara Swisher · 1:06:55 Yeah. I know you wouldn't. It'd be the same. Alright, Scott. We gotta go. One more quick break. We'll be back for predictions. Make it a good one. Positive teeth. [Ad break] Kara Swisher · 1:07:38 The [Ad break] Kara Swisher · 1:07:50 And they hear the sound. [Ad break] Kara Swisher · 1:08:04 What we're after. [Ad break] — Predictions segment begins — Kara Swisher · 1:10:00 Okay, Scott. Let's hear a prediction. Scott Galloway · 1:10:02 Look. I... The fact that their earnings report was not that long ago, I think Meta's next earnings report are gonna actually, again, exceed expectations because, what I have come to believe is that Meta has figured out this ultimate algorithm, or we used to think that sex sells. That was the ultimate hook for advertising and building share... Shareholder value. Inject sex into advertising, sequester people around these three channels they watch, inject a mediocre product with these great brand codes. And what we figured out since the introduction of Alphabet, quite frankly, is there's something that sells better than sex, and that is rage. And effectively, meta creates a lot of ointment for your rage and your disappointment, cute dog videos, wonderful inspiring moments, but it's also at the end of the day, monetizes it incents, It shepherds. It cultivates. It matures. It gestates, and it monetizes rage. And the amount of rage... And you don't really feel it until you step back and think about it in The US and Europe over the last three or four months because of the lead up to the election, I think is probably the greatest it's been since maybe Vietnam. I don't know. But the more rage there is in a society, the more coarse our discourse becomes, the more grief. Met has probably had record days the last few days because of what's happened with the murder of this HCA individual and how many... How polarizing it's been for people. So, essentially, one in three Americans reported spending increased time on social media during the election. Three in four members of Gen Z report spending more time on Instagram during election season. Political ad spending was expected to top $12,000,000,000 a cycle, which is 30% greater than it was in 2020, and digital media garnered 2028% of that, which is nearly triple what it got four years ago. So politics plus rage, it just adds up to peanut butter and chocolate for Meta. Meta is gonna have their best earnings, and, unfortunately, it's directly a function of the more fucked up in the head, the more angry we are, the better this company does. Kara Swisher · 1:12:15 Something they all do well at. You know? They all... And that's a great prediction. That's a really great... I agree with you. I do think there's gonna be falling off. People are — Predictions segment ends — Scott Galloway · 1:12:23 They're exhausted. Kara Swisher · 1:12:24 Exhaustion. We'll see. Everybody. But not... But they will benefit first compared to TV or everybody else. Anyway, for the rest of you listeners, it's time for this week's poll. Time just announced its person of the year is, surprise, surprise, Donald Trump. I think it's probably the right choice. Who do you think Scott should have been person of the year? Just curious. And and we wanna ask our our listeners too. Do you have a thought? I thought Donald Trump was the right choice. Scott Galloway · 1:12:45 My person of the year would be Rav Alouf Herzee Halevi, who is the general staff of the Israeli Defense Forces. In other words, he runs the IDF. Kara Swisher · 1:12:53 Okay. Alright. That's interesting. Scott Galloway · 1:12:55 I think Israel is basically reshaping the Middle East and doing all of the West dirty work for us. The... Between the the precision attacking at Hezbollah, between taking out Iran's air defenses, between absolutely kneecapping Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and now Assad in Syria. You have, in my view, a reshaping of the Middle East at the hands of the incredible execution of the IDF. Kara Swisher · 1:13:20 Alright. I say it's Taylor Swift. Okay. Scott Galloway · 1:13:23 Wasn't she the person of the year last year? Kara Swisher · 1:13:25 I don't know. She didn't get you. She was. I think she's gonna you. She won it. I think it's Donald Trump. I'm sorry. It was, I was going Scott Galloway · 1:13:31 to say that. Only one person who's won it three times. He's won it twice now. Do you know he won it three times? Kara Swisher · 1:13:35 Who? Who? Scott Galloway · 1:13:36 FDR. He's the only person. A bunch of people won it twice. Kara Swisher · 1:13:39 He's the only He served. FDR is the Scott Galloway · 1:13:40 only person who won it Kara Swisher · 1:13:40 three times. Yeah. I would have given it to Elon and say the real president to drive Donald Trump crazy if I was running that place just see... Make him Oh, Scott Galloway · 1:13:47 first lady Alanya. Kara Swisher · 1:13:48 First lady Alanya. Anyway, you have your choice and let us know. Visit us on threads at pivot podcast official to answer. We'd love to hear your thoughts. And we do wanna hear from you. Send us questions about business tech or whatever's on your mind. Go to nymag.com/pivot to submit a question for the show, or call 85551 Elsewhere in the Kara and Scott universe over on raging moderates, Scott spoke with Tim Miller. We both think he's great from the Bullwark podcast. Let's let's hear Tim's take Handsome. Handsome man. Let's hear Tim's take on how Democrats need to regroup in 2028. Let's listen. [Ad break] Kara Swisher · 1:14:30 Yeah. There's a lot of those. They've got a lot. You've got Whitmer, Fetterman, AOC. There's a whole bunch of them that actually... I'm pretty good at that. Sort of... I think so. We'll see. Anyway, great great show, Scott. It was... I listened to it after you told me about ASTRA. It's terrific. Okay. That's the show. We'll be back on Tuesday with more pivot. Can you read us out? Scott Galloway · 1:14:50 Today's show was produced by Lara Nayman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie Nertaut engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, miss Severio, and Dan Shulon. Nishat Kurwa is Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to PIVOT New 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, have a great rest of the weekend. [Ad break]