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Kara Swisher · 57:56
Okay, Scott. Wins and fails. What is your... I have a fail. Can I do your fail?
Scott Galloway · 58:01
Mhmm.
Kara Swisher · 58:02
Disney CEO Bob, Chapek won't condemn the Florida Don't Say Gay bill. He put out a memo that I found mildly offensive, you know, saying that there's other ways to... I want to be crystal clear that the entire leadership team unequivocally stand in support of LGBTQ plus employees and their families and their communities, we're committed to creating a more inclusive company and world. We all share the same goal of a more tolerant, respectful world. Where we differ is the tactics to get us there, and because the struggle is bigger than any one bill in one state, I believe the best way for our company to bring about lasting change is through inspiring content we produce and welcoming culture we create in the diverse community organizations we support. Okay. That means I'm
Scott Galloway · 58:44
not gonna So that was a conference room full of $850 an hour communications consultants gang banging a memo and turning it into something fucking meaningless.
Kara Swisher · 58:55
Yeah. Yeah. This is
Scott Galloway · 58:56
a this is a slam dunk. Yeah. We we love Florida. We have... We we... Florida's been great to us. We stand with a 100% our gay brothers and sisters, and we are 100% in opposition to this legislation. A three sentence memo, and all this
Kara Swisher · 59:14
But they've been doting money to statewide elected officials who supported the bill. He added the company also donated to politicians who opposed it.
Scott Galloway · 59:21
Well, haven't given money to everybody, to be fair. They give money to everybody. They spread it around. But this is how ugly this thing is. So I think there's a legitimate conversation that if your child is pursuing hormone therapy under the age of 18, the parent should be informed. I think that's a worthwhile discussion. I think it's a worthwhile discussion, this notion, or at least the fear, that when 10 people in a class in whatever, seventh or eighth grade, raise their hand and say, I am this sexual orientation. That's a worthwhile conversation. Yeah. When you have a legislation called don't say gay, how the fuck is that any different than state sponsored legislation that says, don't say Jew or don't say black? How is it any different? You're starting from a point of, I am going to be a bigot because I believe there is a vein on the far right that is also bigoted that will see me equally as crazy. And you always got to go back to the source of the disease, and the source of the disease here is something really boring, and it's always the boring shit that gets you. Apologetics. It's gerrymandering. They went into Texas, the new lines have been drawn just recently, and they have packed all of the Democratic districts with all Democrats. They have packed all the Republican districts with all Republicans. So what does that create? It means general elections are no longer elections. Every election is now a primary election where everybody tries to be crazier on the left or crazier on the right. Mhmm. And we end up with legislation with titles of don't say gay.
Kara Swisher · 1:01:04
Yeah. It's interesting. You know, one of the things that... But Czepak could know better than this. He told the staff that I do not want anyone to mistake a lack of statement for lack of support. As we have seen time and again, corporate statements do very little to change outcome or mind.
Scott Galloway · 1:01:16
Jesus Christ.
Kara Swisher · 1:01:19
Instead, they are weaponized by one side or the other to further divide and claim. Simply put, they can be counterproductive and undermine more effective ways to achieve change. Well, I hope you are beating them up behind the scenes, Bob, because if you're not, something... Saying something publicly makes a difference. It made a difference in the trans bathroom debate. It makes a difference. It may seem like virtue signaling, but it isn't. Not not for Disney. Disney runs that state. Disney runs that state. And when you push back with your cruises or whatever, these politicians pay attention. But whatever, whatever. Don't worry about Bob. I want the other Bob back. That's all I have to say. The other Bob wouldn't
Scott Galloway · 1:01:52
have done that. And his cashmere sweaters?
Kara Swisher · 1:01:53
I would have
Scott Galloway · 1:01:53
I think Bob Iger would have handled this differently. I'm not like
Kara Swisher · 1:01:58
Totally. He would have done something.
Scott Galloway · 1:01:59
What Chapek wants to be known for.
Kara Swisher · 1:02:00
Yeah, he just This seems guy seems, a lot of his, I don't know. I just, I want the other Bob. I want Bob One back. Anyway, that is my fail. My win is gonna be this WeCrash, but I can't say anything more. So what is your win and fail?
— Predictions segment begins —
Scott Galloway · 1:02:17
My win is Airbnb, where I am a shareholder disclosure, but I'm fascinated by the fact that people are reserving apartments in Ukraine as a means of giving them money. Strikes me it's now become sort of a GoFundMe or a payments platform. And it just got me thinking that Airbnb is probably gonna evolve into the launch of credit cards, similar to the SBG credit card, where you get 2% credit on Airbnb stays. They'll be able to transact
Kara Swisher · 1:02:41
I would do that.
Scott Galloway · 1:02:42
Revenues. Because that's the case. If you can't use crypto or you can't send money to Ukraine, you can Airbnb. Airbnb is now a payments platform. So it strikes me when you have... And everyone's in a race for super app, right? Uber's now doing food, ticket reservations, event reservations. Everyone's in a race for super app. And Airbnb's really elegant UI and design could push them into dating, into payments, into banking. You you get off your plane, and boom, it says, hi. Do you need a ride? Do you need a date? Do you need to transfer money? Do you need a credit card? It's on your phone. It's called the Airbnb, you know, Amex card or whatever. Maybe they don't even need a a processor. But my win is I think Airbnb now has become... It's pretty obvious. They kind of accidentally became a a payment platform platform for for donations to the Ukraine... Or excuse me, Ukraine. My my fail is
— Predictions segment ends —
Kara Swisher · 1:03:37
You have a big fail right now. Go for it.
Scott Galloway · 1:03:39
Well, Joseph Politano wrote a great article in Sub Stack, and Derek Thompson's been talking about kind of this abundance economy or the abundance agenda, which has led to stagnation, and that is, I believe almost everything we do in our society, from a government or tax or fiscal policy, is nothing but a thinly veiled transfer of wealth from young people to old people. We talk about income inequality, but generational inequality is really the epicenter of a lot of our problems, because the ultimate compact any society has is that if you play by the rules, a 30 year old will be doing better than his or her parents. And for the first time in American society, that is no longer the case. And what we can do, one of the many things, but an important thing we can do, is expand opportunities around higher education. It's the reason I'm here with you. It's still a fantastic on ramp into a great middle or upper income lifestyle, and that is take advantage of the best universities in the world. And while we've been able to scale Google, and we've been able to scale Salesforce 24% a year, we can't seem to scale our great public universities more than 1% a year. And part of that is evidenced by what has happened at the University of California in Berkeley, where a neighborhood group has bound together and using overregulation in California around environmental protection has basically forced the Supreme Court in California has upheld the decision where they are not gonna be allowed to build additional housing on land they own, on land that Cal owns. Right. And as a result, they've had to send out 5,000 letters and say that we are going to have to reduce or maintain our student population. And this reflects something much more mendacious in our society.
Kara Swisher · 1:05:16
So this is just so people don't know, Berkeley is a very is a very regulated area. It's like, if you wanna talk about California, well, Berkeley would be the place you might start in. And so people in the neighborhood, and this is not uncommon, the town and gown, pull and push and pull. It happened in Georgetown near Georgetown University. And so what they're doing is you can't you can't house these students, and therefore you can't expand and make it bigger, and and it it restricts the ability of Berkeley to add more students.
Scott Galloway · 1:05:44
Well, creates... It's a war. It creates a scarcity mindset. And that is if I already have a house, I don't want more housing. If I'm already a big company, I don't want competition. Right? If I already have a university degree, I want to make admissions more difficult. And this is an older population saying, don't want change, I don't want churn, I want scarcity, which increases the value of my assets at the cost to young people. And by the way, the population of students happens to be browner, younger, more female than the homeowners, who, by the way, none of them moved into their homes before Berkeley was there. Right. And so if there has ever been, in my opinion, license for eminent domain where investments in public infrastructure create good for the Commonwealth, the University of California Berkeley has the second most Nobel Prize winners in the world. We have a habit of producing women who end up in the cabinet. So when you reduce the student population by 10%, you are reducing Nobel Prize winners. You are reducing females in the cabinet of the administration by 10%. And this is nothing but the thinly veiled attempt by an older generation, which we have gotten very good at, at creating scarcity such that our assets go up at the cost of future generations and younger generations. Yeah. And also... I'm sorry about
Kara Swisher · 1:06:59
people who don't know the area. I taught at Berkeley. I took a journalism class there one semester just once. It's a very nice area now around the university, but it is dominated by the university. Anyone moving in there has to know that, has to understand. But the housing prices have gone up rather significantly, and so there's sort of a NIMBY kind of thing happening there. It already was there, but it's really... There's no question if you moved in, the university dominates that whole neighborhood in in in Berkeley where it is located.
Scott Galloway · 1:07:29
I call this bullshit of Philip Seymour Hoffman and other actors would get whipped up into a frenzy and say, NYU was growing too fast and was losing the character of Soho. I'm like, NYU is the character of Soho. Mhmm. Again, this all comes back to the same thing. You want things to slow down and not change once you got yours. But how are we going to level up young people? And if you talk about the one place we absolutely need to scale, it also, to be fair, it demands and warrants a more creative conversation from university leadership to say, should we be building campuses in less expensive impacted areas? Should we be moving to hybrid learning so we can expand capacity? Be Should developing products outside of the traditional four year degree, a two year degree in cybersecurity or health tech? So we need to be creative in higher ed, but public institutions, if there is one point if we can take back homes running Amtrak or putting in a military base, we should be able to build housing on the land we own for our greatest, in my opinion, greatest upward lubricant of the middle class in history, which is our great public institutions.
Kara Swisher · 1:08:35
This was no surprise on all sides. You know what I mean? Because if you know those neighborhoods, again, the prices have gone up. It's now a very attractive place to live in the Bay Area. And it has a very push pull, but it's like, listen, the students were there first. Sorry, They weren't. You have to know when you're moving into Berkeley, you're gonna get the University of California at Berkeley.
Scott Galloway · 1:08:56
What's more important? Housing prices of boomers or access to the greatest upward... By the way, the moment we started... And I'm I'm obviously a Cal grad.
Kara Swisher · 1:09:06
I could
Scott Galloway · 1:09:06
see that. But the moment we started integrating diversity into the rankings, the University of California Berkeley became the number one ranked school in the nation. We don't see that as important to expand. You have this life changing drug called the University of California, and you want to limit its access to people. Yeah. But you're
Kara Swisher · 1:09:24
right about the they have to figure out new ways to teach and not
Scott Galloway · 1:09:27
just 100%. Be percent.
Kara Swisher · 1:09:29
It's a beautiful campus, by the way, and it's very vibrant, and there's certainly a lot of parties. My brother went there and had a party house. I mean, I can't imagine he drove people crazy. My sister-in-law went there. But again, this is just the wrong decision. Just the wrong decision.
Scott Galloway · 1:09:46
Anyway, so my win is Airbnb as an adjacent payment platform and all the opportunity to scale into different categories. And my fail is the scarcity culture fomented by my generation at the cost of younger generations.
Kara Swisher · 1:09:57
Yep. 100%. Those are very good ones. It's a very good argument, Scott Galloway. I'm glad
Scott Galloway · 1:10:01
you're back. Thank you, Kara.
Kara Swisher · 1:10:03
I'm glad you're back, other guy. What's his name Who's the actor playing you again?
Scott Galloway · 1:10:07
Kelly Alcoigne.
Kara Swisher · 1:10:08
I'm gonna close
Scott Galloway · 1:10:08
this We'll get together with you.
Kara Swisher · 1:10:10
Alright. Okay. You keep saying that. Okay. Alright. How's your how's your date with Ben Stiller? Did that happen yet?
Scott Galloway · 1:10:15
It is happening. It's set. Talk about an awesome force. It's gonna be me, the very handsome George Hahn, the very soulful Rex Chapman, and the very famous Ben Stiller. I'm gonna have
Kara Swisher · 1:10:26
That happened with with with the year old
Scott Galloway · 1:10:28
Don't go there. Don't go there. Okay. With Ando? I'm not inviting Ando this time, but I want him to hear about it because he'll get jealous.
Kara Swisher · 1:10:36
I hope Ben shows up. I'd feel sad if he doesn't, and for you sad
Scott Galloway · 1:10:39
for Don't even say that. Don't even say that. Ben's excited. We've been I
Kara Swisher · 1:10:42
need a backup celebrity. Need a backup Yeah, bringing Kelly into this picture. Anyway, in any case, I hope you have a good time. Anyway, don't forget if you've got a question for us, this is whether it's about tech, business, media, or whatever you wanna discuss. Go to nymag.com/pivot or call 85551 The link is also in our show notes. Okay, Scott, that's the show. We'll be back on Friday for more. Can you please read us out?
Scott Galloway · 1:11:13
Today's show was produced by Lara Naim and Evan Engel, Taylor Griffin, Ernie and Jotot, engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows and Mule Severio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. We'll be back later this week for another breakdown of all things tech in business. Let's have legislation that says, let's say gay. Let's say black. Let's say Jews. Let's say women. Let's say people of color. Let's say America. Push back on this bullshit.
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Scott Galloway · 1:12:38
only. See
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