Pivot · Dec 7, 2018

The U.K. piles on Facebook

Automatic transcript of the end of the episode, from 17:13. Speakers are labeled by software and may contain errors. Highlighted passages are Scott’s predictions.

Scott Galloway · 17:13 Decisions, but people say he's he's actually a very decent man. Kara Swisher · 17:17 Oh, this new thing. They're decent, but they've ruined the world. I'm sorry. I'm not Scott Galloway · 17:20 going anywhere. People who work for Jeb love him. So this is Yeah. Kara Swisher · 17:24 These are, you know, George and Barbara. He's he's a lovely guy. Scott Galloway · 17:28 George and Barbara, you know, sort of their blink and the universe mattered. They raised good, responsible children. Yeah. Even though I think the marketplace, and I think this is right, has said, we're not comfortable passing the mantle of the presidency between fathers and sons and husbands and wives, which I think is actually a good thing. Yep. This is an impressive family, and the patriarch passed away. I was just very moved by the whole thing. But the image that will really stick with me, and it was on Twitter, was Bob Dole having someone... These guys Kara Swisher · 17:59 Oh, lift him up. Yeah. Scott Galloway · 18:00 Lift him up and then him giving his salute to George. I thought that was really powerful. Kara Swisher · 18:05 Yeah. I just... I... Again, I I I do have admiration for George Wick, although it was to me, like, it was a quainter version of awful, like, conservative... The awful conservatism. It was a quainter, less less dangerous version of what's happening now. I I... Some... In some ways, I kind of like to just see it out there and rapacious in the rapacious ways. And for example, Trump today saying, you know, apparently, he said, I don't care about these deficits or whatever because I'm not gonna be here. Right. Like, presidents think like that. He just said it. And I'm sort of like, alright. You're an asshole. Thank you for confirming. You know, in a lot of ways, even though it's an awful sentiment, it's something that all of them behave like. Scott Galloway · 18:41 Yeah. Don't know if anyone's told him, but his kids are probably gonna be around for a while. By the way, strongest economy in a long time, and we're exploding the deficit. What passes for bipartisanship is reckless spending. Right? Yep. Republicans want tax cuts and military spending. Democrats want social social programs. And then occasionally, we decide, I know. Let's do it all, and let's fuck future generations. It's literally like we're speaking to the future and saying, fuck you. I want mine, and I want it now. Kara Swisher · 19:07 Speaking of saying dirty words Scott Galloway · 19:09 Too much. Kara Swisher · 19:10 Naughty words. Scott Galloway · 19:10 Too much. Kara Swisher · 19:11 No. I like it. I like it. No. Michelle Obama disagree with Sheryl Sandberg on the lean in. That shit doesn't always work. Yeah. That was interesting. Scott Galloway · 19:17 That was. That was... And it was a new color for Michelle Obama who tends to be always the diplomat. Kara Swisher · 19:23 She is. I was thinking when they go low, we go low. Yeah. Sort of... Scott Galloway · 19:28 She's the one Kara Swisher · 19:29 who said that. Scott Galloway · 19:29 She's a super... What do what do you think? Do you think Michelle Obama... Do you think she has a future in public service? Do you think anything? Kara Swisher · 19:35 I don't think she's running. I think she likes being Michelle Obama. Yeah. I think she likes I think why would she do that? Why would she subject herself to that? She can be influential. I think she's you know, the book is the most I think it's the top seller of the year. People like her. The minute she enters politics, she gets Scott Galloway · 19:51 She's done. I Yeah. — Predictions segment begins — Kara Swisher · 19:53 She's pressures. It all it all moves off. And I I don't... You know, I think she's perfectly competent to do it. It's not it's not like the... It's not that. It's that she's if you were her, like, is this what you wanna spend the next twenty years of your life doing? 100%. Years. Yeah. So... And, like, you know, she's already done it. She's already been there. She's already... I don't know. I don't know. She doesn't seem to want to do that. Anyway, last thing, predictions. Scott? Scott Galloway · 20:20 Predictions. So I think... Oh, I have a couple. One Okay. I think miss Amber will be gone within twelve months, but it'll be her idea. I think they're hoping this dies down, and I think she's gonna announce that she wants to go run a foundation or or talk about service or... But I think she's I think she's done. I think she's gone. But it'll Kara Swisher · 20:39 be I would her disagree with you. Scott Galloway · 20:41 You think she's around in a year? Kara Swisher · 20:42 Yes. I do. Scott Galloway · 20:43 Okay. Well, bet Kara Swisher · 20:44 I was with some Facebook people last night. I don't think she's Scott Galloway · 20:46 going anywhere. Really? Kara Swisher · 20:48 Mark has to kill her. He's not gonna kill her. He's not gonna throw her under the bus. It's not gonna happen. Scott Galloway · 20:52 And and my big prediction is I talked about the AWS spinner. Always did that. Another prediction, I think that Amazon is gonna start making the kind of the business story of '19 and innovation is the movement of big tech into health care. And if you look at industries and the kind of the disruption index in terms of what industries are most disruptable, it's you just look at the price of the underlying service relative to inflation. And with Right. The reason Facebook and Google were so successful is the media industry kept raising its prices faster than viewership. And this disruption or this unearned margin of profitability, they stuck their chin out, and Google and Facebook were there with kind of fists of stone. So you need this industry waiting to be disrupted that consumers don't like and it's fat margins and it's just charging too much. And there's nothing that is more disruptable right now than health care, which I think is now 18% of our economy. And I was asked, I got a call from a... I won't use his name, but an iconic kind of globally famous investor. And he said, which of these four do you think, and I'll turn the question to you, I'll give my answer, are... Would be most successful moving into health care? And I said, well, the easy the easy last place is Facebook. No one's gonna tell Facebook they have diabetes or an STD. Kara Swisher · 22:07 Right. Scott Galloway · 22:08 Number three, I think weirdly enough is Google. Even though they're great with data, my sense of their health journey is It's been kind of these moonshot CSR things, cure death. Kara Swisher · 22:17 Yeah. They just don't wanna die, Scott. That's Scott Galloway · 22:19 really Yeah. There you go. Kara Swisher · 22:20 That's the Scott Galloway · 22:21 problem. I'll be so ready when that swings around, hopefully, in forty years. Anyway, that's probably Yeah. Kara Swisher · 22:25 That's not gonna happen for you. You you don't get to not die. Scott Galloway · 22:28 Yeah. And then You and I are too. From what I understand, the mortality rate's still a hundred percent. So. And then number two, think, is Apple. Most people would pick Apple's number one. I think the data they collect from all the wearables is is inflated in terms of its importance and its utility. And they don't have the core asset you'll need to be a player in health care. In and out is their investors like profits. So the company that I think is gonna go after health care and just scare the shit out of everybody when they start peeling off the most actuarially appealing households in America and insuring them, I think they're gonna go through the insurance store, is Amazon because they know Kara Swisher · 23:03 I agree with you on this. Scott Galloway · 23:04 They know your body with you. They know your body mass index based on the size of the clothes you order. They know the food, how healthy your diet is. They're pretty soon gonna know the pharmaceuticals you're on. They're gonna know if you're in monogamous relationship. They're gonna know if you're wealthy. All the things that indicate you're in good or poor health. And what they'll do is they'll offer over Alexa. They'll say, hey, Prime member. Would you be interested in exploring a way to cut your health care costs in half with Prime Plus insurance? And they will literally take the healthiest, most profitable, or least expensive households off the table, and we are gonna freak out. Kara Swisher · 23:36 Yeah. I think that's really... I think you're right. I was... They could do almost anything. They could sell... I was just thinking the other day because I had another mishap that I... With Home Depot and stuff that I tweeted about. And I literally could have gotten Amazon to deliver You're — Predictions segment ends — Scott Galloway · 23:48 at Home Depot. Kara Swisher · 23:50 Hold on. Home Depot and I had a had a disagreement. But they did handle it well in the end, but it's because I tweeted to all the people. But but actually, I didn't... Well, lots of things went awry. But but they... But I... When I was doing it, I looked on Amazon. Could have gotten it in two days, and I know it would have been delivered beautifully. I thought I just... I didn't pick Amazon because I didn't wanna give them every bit of my business. That's... You know what I mean? Like, I was like, I can't let them be fantastic again. And and because there's so many stuff now coming out about the the the toll on the... These delivery people, the toll on the people in the packet, the toll... There's there's so much... You know, it's sort of like these... You know, I don't I don't want to compare this to like a Harry Potter movie, but Dobby. You know what I mean? There's all these people working under the hood at these places that are suffering in a way that we don't even think Scott Galloway · 24:36 about Nice for Potter reference, but I have two questions. The first is... First off, I wanna ask her, as a point of personal privilege, to give Home Depot another chance. They're an outstanding organization with great management team. They're I fantastic at what they do. And it's really nice to see a big retailer actually succeeding in the world of Amazon. So I think your instincts to go to Home Depot are really strong. Kara Swisher · 24:56 Well, tried. They they ended up breaking my garage. But I won't go into it. Scott Galloway · 25:00 There you go. There you go. Kara Swisher · 25:02 And then Karma. Karma. Karma. Karma chameleon. And So the last thing. I will do that. Are you on the board of Home Depot or something? Scott Galloway · 25:10 No. But I like those guys a lot. They're golden aprons. They're they're... I know the guys in digital there, the CEO's, like, just a... Like an earnest Kara Swisher · 25:17 You're always wandering around with drywall, I'm sure. Right, Scott? That's your... I know. Scott Galloway · 25:21 I seriously am the least handy person you've ever met. It is Kara Swisher · 25:25 This comes as zero surprise to Carousel. Scott Galloway · 25:26 Oh my gosh. I don't Kara Swisher · 25:28 I'm very handy. Scott Galloway · 25:29 I go into a Home Depot, and it's seriously... I might as well be in... On the moon. I don't I don't even know what's in there. I can't even recognize that stuff. People buy wood and lumber there. I'm like, where are they taking this stuff, and what are they doing? What are they doing with this wood? And they buy drills, and I'm like, well, you have to plug this thing in. What is this? Kara Swisher · 25:47 You know what I'm getting you for Christmas? Scott Galloway · 25:48 It's gonna be tool belt. Battery? Kara Swisher · 25:50 I'm getting you a tool belt, Scott, for Christmas. That's the plan. I like it. Little tiny little hammer for you. A little screwdriver. It'll be nice to practice. You wander around. Scott Galloway · 25:58 Oh, wait. My question. You brought up the the poor treatment of Amazon workers and things that are coming out. My question is this. Do you think this is unique to Amazon, or we've just been sort of Kara Swisher · 26:07 They're not as nice as they could be. They should be three times as nice, I think. You know? And three times as as fast forward. Scott Galloway · 26:13 Isn't it just coming to light that that that kind of minimum wage workers all across America get treated like shit? Kara Swisher · 26:19 Yes. This is what I... My point was at the beginning is their businesses. They don't care. Yeah. They just don't. Scott Galloway · 26:23 100%. Kara Swisher · 26:24 Speaking of predictions, we're gonna play on the show of Recode Decode this week, a tape of my son, Louie and Casey Newton talking. I want you to comment on this. Predicting socializing will happen in private groups rather than on social media. Speaker · 26:39 I have I have a hot take about social media. Yeah. So in 2019... I think 2019 is the return of the group chat. If you talk to people about the kind of social interactions they actually like, it's group text, whether it's an iMessage, whether it's on your Snapchat, talking to a small group of friends, you know exactly who's there. You can share your in jokes. You don't have to pose for people. You can just be dumb. Mhmm. There's none of this pressure. If you use an app like Snapchat, all of those chats can just disappear. They're not gonna haunt you forever. Kara Swisher · 27:09 Mhmm. Speaker · 27:09 Or maybe you just use iMessage and it's end to end encrypted, and you you feel like you're probably gonna be fine. But I think increasingly, more and people are just going to want to group chat and not worry about the rest of everything that social media has to offer. Kara Swisher · 27:20 What do you think, mister Swisher? Scott Galloway · 27:21 I agree with that. Kara Swisher · 27:22 Wow. So what do you think, Scott? What do you think about what Louie and Casey said? Scott Galloway · 27:27 So anything your son says, I'm inclined to agree with. But I think what you have is I think young people are actually more aware of the danger and of... I think it's drilled into them earlier and more often that your digital record goes on your permanent record. Kara Swisher · 27:47 Mhmm. Scott Galloway · 27:47 And if you want to have a conversation or you wanna express anything a little bit off color or more aggressive, it should be done in small groups. Now... But but what... Can you expand on what he meant by the the socialization will take place in groups and not online? Kara Swisher · 28:04 Well, was Casey's idea, and I think Louie agreed with it, is that he was... He he actually... Louie went even further. Was in that Casey said that he thought that you wouldn't be in these larger groups, that you would be in these small... The group chats, and it's more... You know, it's happening on a bunch of places like Instagram and other places. And Louie made the example. He was in a cube, and he uses Snapchat, which you can't use there. He was there over the holidays. And he started using the Instagram group chat thing. He was like, it was so uncool to use Instagram to talk to my friends, which was interesting. But he was talking about the idea of being just in a... You know, he likes Snapchat and the concepts around it. And so he said even more so, but then he went a step further and he said, well, you know what I'm really interested in is analog, talking to people in person. I was like, So what a Yeah. So strange. And so they definitely are a warrior group. You know. My other son is just starting to use, he texts a lot more, which is interesting. How old Scott Galloway · 28:59 is he? How old is your youngest? Kara Swisher · 29:00 13. He does. I mean, he knows how to use Snapchat and stuff. I'm pretty sure he's texting. And he uses his video games to talk to his friends. Like, they're playing Fortnite and then they talk. Then they have a social time. Scott Galloway · 29:11 Tony, be careful with Fortnite. Be careful with Fortnite. Kara Swisher · 29:14 It is My Scott Galloway · 29:16 kid literally during the weekend, we... He was doing... He did... Does well in school. And as a reward, we said, we'd like to let you play Fortnite because all of his colleagues, all of his buddies play in their class. And I'm telling you that we gave the kid crack. It's Kara Swisher · 29:31 just No. Really? Interesting. I don't know. My kid does really well in school. Scott Galloway · 29:33 Oh my gosh. All weekend long, we'll be on the beach. Beautiful day, boogie boarding, hanging out, running around with the dog. And he's like, can we go home now? Can we go home now? Kara Swisher · 29:41 Oh. No. And it's Scott Galloway · 29:42 because he's thinking about Fortnite. Kara Swisher · 29:44 Well, it wears off. That's where my kids were like that and then it wears off. They don't stay Scott Galloway · 29:48 at it. Yeah. Think it's I think this addictive quality has. I think it's a phase it'll grow out of in about seventy, seventy five years. So... Kara Swisher · 29:54 No, stop it. No, my kids aren't using it as much. But they like it. They still like it, but they aren't using it as much. But it's interesting is a lot of what they like about it is the socializing, I think, about the way they're doing that as much the games. And they like, actually, was really interesting. I had a bunch of them, 13 year olds over, and I was asking what they liked. A lot of them like the stories in them, like whatever they are, like the historical stuff and this and that, you know, that there's... Every one of these things has a different story and they they actually enjoy They're playing it. The French Revolution. One of them, the Assassin's Creed. I don't know. Scott Galloway · 30:22 They're playing it like, Kara, I like the historical stuff. Where can I go kill someone on screen? Kara Swisher · 30:26 No. They do. I'm telling you. They do. They like the stories. They like the stories, which is these video games have gotten to be really interesting in terms of stories. Scott Galloway · 30:32 Do you bond Kara Swisher · 30:33 I don't think it's the way to learn history. I'd rather they read, like, Right. Podcast alright. Rather than Scott Galloway · 30:39 Do you bond with your kids over media? Do you play video games or watch Kara Swisher · 30:42 TV No. I or don't play video games. No. We bond over cooking. We made... We we went over cooking and talking. Scott Galloway · 30:47 Oh, it's nice. Kara Swisher · 30:49 Debating. That's how we bond. And going out and and wandering around. Anyway, this has been a great week. Thank you for hosting. We will have... We... All our kids on the show, maybe we'll just do the show. Scott Galloway · 31:00 That'd be nice. Kara Swisher · 31:01 Yeah. And that'll be good. So next week, we'll be... We'll we'll we'll have lots more do to talk about. There's... I think there's there's gonna be Google coming to congress, I think, next week and stuff. Scott Galloway · 31:09 That's right. Kara Swisher · 31:10 There'll be plenty plenty for us to chew over. Anyway, Rebecca Sananis produces this show. Nishat Kerwa is Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Thanks also to Eric Johnson, who's sitting right across from me in my kitchen in San Francisco. Thanks for listening to, Pivot from Vox Media. Join us next week for more of a breakdown on all things tech and business. If you like what you heard, please subscribe on Apple Podcast or wherever you're listening. We're fans of our founding sponsor, Smartwater. Delicious, Smartwater is vapor distilled, people. Vapor distilled for purity. Okay? That's even more distilled. With electrolytes added for taste, it leaves us feeling refreshed and ready for the next challenge. Learn more at drinksmartwater.com.

Came true

Resolved Jun 1, 2022 · about 4 years after it aired

Pivot #12 · Aired Dec 7, 2018

When Sheryl Sandberg leaves Facebook, she will announce that she wants to run a foundation or focus on public service.

Top executive Sheryl Sandberg is leaving Facebookwashingtonpost.com

2 more sources

How we graded it

Counts as true if: Upon leaving Facebook, Sandberg publicly states an intent to run a foundation or to pursue public service/philanthropy.

Sandberg left her Facebook/Meta executive role in June–September 2022 and publicly stated her intent to focus on her foundation and philanthropy, directly matching Galloway's either/or prediction of 'run a foundation' or 'talk about service.' Though this occurred well after the implied 2019 window, the resolution criterion only requires that upon leaving Facebook she state such intent, which she did explicitly in her June 1, 2022 announcement and subsequent interviews.

Researched and graded by AI on Oct 13, 2026

2 / 5