Kara Swisher · 31:49
Regulatory regimes and things like that. And the the sloppier they are in rolling these things out, the worse it's gonna be. Even if these accidents are not there. I mean, I feel terrible for the 17 people who died, but it's it's gonna be it's gonna be under much more scrutiny. And so being sloppy about it seems not the way to go. And I know that most of the others are sort of like, ugh, this guy. Like, this guy. This guy, like, keeps fucking it up for the rest of us even though he's obviously the pioneer here.
Scott Galloway · 32:17
What I don't understand is why they didn't start. It strikes me that autonomous driving goes hand in glove for trucking, long haul trucking late at night when there are just no other people or cars to hit. I would... I... I'm just... I... It's... I'm befuddled as to why they wouldn't start there and then move into consumer.
Kara Swisher · 32:36
They are. I I literally just did an interview with with Aurora. They're... That's where they're starting.
Scott Galloway · 32:40
Because in my Tesla, you could do autonomous driving mode or whatever it was, and I I found it very uncomfortable. But, anyways, it just needs to be adjusted for... I do think innovation comes at a cost, and I would just like to see the numbers adjusted relative to people who are drive just, you know, not
Kara Swisher · 32:56
autonomous driving. The thing is that they don't reveal it. Right? They're not... They're they're just playing a little fast and loose, and the other makers think it's a problem because it's gonna it's gonna have down... Downstream effects for them because they'll be lumped in with sort of more sloppy behavior or yelling at the government. They don't particularly wanna yell at the government.
Scott Galloway · 33:13
Not to defend Elon, but it was because of Elon that the market exists.
Kara Swisher · 33:16
That's correct. That's correct. I get it. But you still don't want someone, like, running around screaming at the government. It's it's a very Travis Kalanick way of behaving. And so you're gonna have these issues as you move forward. They're certainly a lot less dangerous than people, but you're still gonna get a scrutiny. And so I think it's incumbent on the people doing it to be extra safe and extra respectful of the problems they have, even as they're learning them. And everybody knows that once you get them out there, the longer term benefits are greater because the the technology learns, and that is a 100% true. But we'll see. But we like the chargers. Maybe be a little more careful, Elon, on the, on the accidents. Let's bring in our friend of Pivot. Jennifer Polka served as deputy chief technology officer in the Obama White House and is the founder of Code for America, a nonprofit that works to improve government digital services. She's written a new book called Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better. Welcome, Jennifer.
Guest · 34:18
Thanks for having me. It's good to see you.
Kara Swisher · 34:21
So talk a little bit about this problem. This has been a problem we've talked about for years. If you're signing up for anything, the public digital infrastructure has long been far behind the private sector. Tell... Talk to you about why that is. Because as as, you know, technology moves forward and people are used to using these things, it's unusual the government is... Now it's gotten better, but it's certainly not caught up to the way we behave in our private lives.
Guest · 34:46
Yeah. And I think a lot of people look at that, and they say, oh, wow. We've really gotta get these platforms onto the cloud, or we just need the better programmers to come from the private sector. But I wrote the book because I think it's kind of a deeper problem than that, and I wanted people to understand it. You know, a good example would be the clearing the criminal records. This is a project that we did at Code for America. It's still going on where, you know, if we had all these, states that have decriminalized marijuana, and as part of that, the people who had a criminal record should have it taken off. They don't need to be living under the cloud of a felony anymore. But the process to get it off was, like, you know, a year long of, like, gathering data and information from the government and filling out really complicated forms and then sending something into, like, various different government offices and waiting for your your your court date. And then, you know, if you get that, then you have to go back to all these offices. So, like, nobody got their expungement. And, I think a lot of people look at something like that and they say, okay, this process has been designed to be heard for people. We must not want them to get those records expunged. But I think the deeper problem is that, like, it hasn't really been designed at all. These are a process that sort of accumulated or accreted over time, and it's been no one's job to go back and look at them and say, wait a minute. These are just records in a database. There's a database somewhere that says this is a felony. We can find all the ones that are eligible, and we can change them. And, you know, it's it's it's really got to be someone's job to actively design these services that work for people.
Kara Swisher · 36:28
One of the hard things is besides money, and we'll get to that in a second, you described the outdated technology that's in use. Some systems are using COBOLT, which is a sixty year old program language. The IRS has been planning to update one of its core systems for the past twenty three years. Talk about why it's difficult for government to make PACE. There's so much great software out there or make updates.
Guest · 36:47
Well, because we don't just go update stuff in government. We have these really complex processes, and the processes have to do with going and finding all the possible requirements that anybody could think of. I mean, really everyone can think of. They all get to pile them all on. That takes several years. It can take a decade and has in many cases. Then they bid that out to a vendor, and that could take a couple years. And then they have often, you know, a couple to ten to fifteen years to build it all. And by the time they do all that, the software that they're gonna get back is, you know, by definition wildly outdated. So that it's not just that we, you know, it's not just that we don't do it right. It's that we have these processes that often force us to do it wrong. Now, of course, there are great public servants who are getting the right outcomes there. But, you know, I think about this guy who I met when I was working in the White House, who was at the Department of Veterans Affairs, who had some software that just really didn't work for processing veterans claims. And I was asking him about, know, hey, why does it do this? Or why'd you make this choice? And he kept saying, that's not my call. I don't have an opinion on the business requirements. And in fact, I teach my staff not to have an opinion on the business requirements. If they ask me to build a concrete boat, I'm gonna build a concrete boat. And, you know, that's that's where we... How we get there is that we have these processes that build concrete boats, and they don't float.
Scott Galloway · 38:17
Yeah. Nice to meet you. When you look at the landscape of where government intersects with technology, whether it's figuring out better record storage for health care or access to broadband for low income neighborhoods or figuring out maybe some sort of a digital currency backed by the US government, where would you say the lowest hanging fruit is for the government to get behind a certain technology?
Guest · 38:41
I think that it is not about a certain technology that we should get behind. I think it's about really in the end of the day empowering public servants to use their judgment. We actually have great people in government, and they don't... They're sometimes blocked from updating our technology because they're told to do a very, very specific thing instead of to make it work. So we have this whole infrastructure that's about fidelity to process instead of getting the outcomes that we need. And I I just think that there's not a particular technology that's gonna save us until we have a different approach, and we're supporting smart public servants to, like, do the right thing.
Scott Galloway · 39:21
I think most people would agree that that's a cultural issue, and the US government with its resources and its mandate and its talent could use, you know, an improvement in culture to kinda get things done. But if if that were to happen, where do you think the biggest opportunity is where we would realize a better Commonwealth?
Guest · 39:40
Oh, that's a good question. I mean, in general, I think there... It's hard to answer because everything feels like an existential threat these days. But ultimately, you know, when people have bad experiences with government services, particularly means tested benefits where this whole apparatus of let everybody pile everything on. So you get, for instance, in in supplemental nutrition assistance, it's like the form that we were looking at in California had two twelve questions. And a bunch of them were, like, not only confusing, but kind of insulting, like assumed that you were a drug dealer, assumed that you had traded your SNAP benefits for ammunition or guns. You know, people have these bad experiences, and then they vote at lower rates. This has been shown through through research. I think that alienation that we see when people are frustrated... I mean, you don't have... Doesn't have to be means tested benefits. It can be like filing your taxes. I did this with my, my 20 year old daughter last year trying to actually file her, like, taxes that should have been really simple, and I just wanted to tear my hair out. So you get this frustration with government that carries over to your feelings about voting and civic engagement and democracy, And that is such a threat to the country that we need to have right now. We need people who believe in government, want to get involved, you know, that are actually voting in elections, especially those who are the people who need these government services the most.
Kara Swisher · 41:15
Does the quality of service have to do with the user base? You give you give an examples of gumming up service and veterans benefits. So far, you mentioned this California's SNAP programs. These are food benefits. Is that one of the problems? Is it's the people they don't care much about, so why not just make it more difficult for them?
Guest · 41:32
I think that there's simply more neglect in these areas where there's sort of not a constituency with a powerful voice. There's a lot of cases where it really isn't, in my mind, primarily intentional. It is, in some cases, absolutely intentional. You look at Social Security. I actually probably shouldn't admit this. I manage my grandmother's Social Security for her online. Like, I use login.gov, and I go check her stuff and make sure she's, you know, getting her checks and manage her finances. It's really easy. Social Security is great because they have a really powerful constituency. People understand that for them. But it's also because we've had really good people at Social Security making this good for, like, you know, fifteen years. They've been working on their digital. It's been great.
Kara Swisher · 42:20
So it just depends on the agency, and nothing's directed from the center. Correct? Like, just depends on on, on where they're from, but which which agency it comes from?
Guest · 42:30
It's both. I I I think having a powerful constituency saying this has to be good helps a lot. But, yes, it can also just be, you know, the agencies that have had the power to figure it out a little bit better.
Kara Swisher · 42:43
Or they get a lot of negative attention like with Obamacare signing up for that. That was a big deal when that didn't roll out, which is probably during your time. Correct?
Guest · 42:52
Yeah. I happened to be there. It was sort of the reason in the end of the day that we were able to stand up the United States Digital Service was that, we've been trying, and there wasn't a clear enough, reason to have it happen until healthcare.gov fell over. But that's another really good example of how that dynamic can happen in agencies. So I tell in the book the story of a career public servant who was at Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, which CMS, that's the agency that had to implement the ACA in the form of healthcare.gov. She was really well respected, and so she was pulled into helping fix HealthCare dot gov. But then after that, she really wanted to show that the agency could do better, and she gets thrown, you know, the next big law that comes down from congress. It was called MACRA. Doesn't really matter what it stands for. And she really decides she's gonna do this right. And I think the story of what she has to fight against to get the rollout of MACRA to be the exact opposite of the rollout of healthcare.gov. Like, in the end, when they launched this, doctors are delighted. Like, they're... They have braced the call center for, you know, all the complaints that doctors are gonna call in with because they always do whenever there's a change to one of these things. And instead, people are calling in and going, oh my god. This is so easy. There must be something wrong. Am I on the wrong website? But the re... How she got there was not like, okay. It's now in the cloud, or, like, I got better programmers, though, of course, those two things were true. It's that she got handed regulations that we're gonna make it impossible to be good and said, wait a minute. That's not gonna work. You're gonna have to talk to me about this. We're gonna have to change it. So, you know, early example, actually, this is one of our colleagues, from the United States Digital Service. They say, okay. Well, the first thing that doctors have to do is choose, are you a sole practitioner, or are you in a group practice? And they're like, oh, by the way, there are nine different definitions of a group practice.
Kara Swisher · 44:50
Right.
Guest · 44:50
Right. Well, you know... And and most digital teams in government will just say, oh, okay. I guess I have to code all that in. And these guys said, no. That's not gonna work. Like, we can't make something that makes sense to people unless we can consolidate some of these definitions. And... But she had a whole bunch of other things like that where she really stood up for a service that would work.
Kara Swisher · 45:10
It's often a single person. Right? It's often a single person who does these things.
Guest · 45:14
Well, she will tell you it absolutely wasn't a single person. I I like to call her out because I think she's an incredible leader that a lot of people talk about, but she will tell you it's a team of people who support each other. She's a really great leader, though. Let's give her credit for that.
Kara Swisher · 45:27
Let's talk about long and short term solutions. Are there any short term solutions whatsoever?
Guest · 45:32
I mean, in the short term, I think the biggest thing we could do is, like, force government to be able to hire people more quickly. We've got so many amazing technologists who wanna go work in government, and it takes nine months to get them hired. And, there's some stuff that that the agencies could do. There's stuff that congress could do, and there's stuff that the average American couldn't... Could do to ask their representatives to fix this.
Kara Swisher · 45:56
So are there a lot that wanna get into it, or has that always been the push is that they could go into companies and make more money? Although, there's been layoffs at those places. There might be more opportunity for good staffers.
Guest · 46:06
Well, even before the layoffs, we were starting to see a lot of people sort of disillusioned with tech who were saying, you know, is this really how I wanna spend my life? Like, I could be helping, yeah, people get their food benefits. I could be helping refugees come into this country. Like, the the mission is actually super, super compelling. We did have trouble getting people in in the beginning. But once they see it and they see what they can do, they kinda really wanna help. And now we have more people than... Not more people than we can use, but more people than we can get through the system right now. And they're really good people.
Scott Galloway · 46:44
A lot of what we've been talking about is kinda cultural issues, and some of that comes down to... We've talked about the end user and technology. But a lot of it is the people that go to work in government. And as someone who teaches kids at an elite university, I see a lot of very impressive kids go into the armed services. A lot of kids decide that they wanna go make a shit ton of money and then run for elected office, but you don't see a lot of impressive kids thinking I wanna go to work in government just at kind of a field level. What do we need to do to, you know, create better pathways or make working for the US government more attractive to younger talented people?
Guest · 47:26
Well, I do think that's changing. I have a stat from Stanford in the book, actually. I don't remember the exact stat. But, yes, if you look overall, there's not as many kids coming out of Stanford who wanna go to government. But, like, if you slice it by what they say is most important to them, if it's making money, no, they're not gonna go. But if you look at those who said mission as their number one thing they wanna do, they're disproportionately wanting to go into government. So I think we may be getting some of the right kids. Do we need more? Yes. And to make it more attractive, I think they have to understand the impact they can have. And then, I mean, it's not just that they don't think they're gonna make as much money. I mean, I think a lot of people who do this will tell you they're happy people even though frustrating because they feel like it's really meaningful work. But the basic stuff of, like, even if you wanna do it and you get stuck in a nine month hiring process and then along comes, like, BCG or McKinsey gives you an offer, you're gonna... You may just take it because you can't wait nine months. So there's some really basic stuff that we can do to fix the hiring pipeline, to fix how civil service works that I think would just... I know it sounds really basic, but would go a long way to getting these folks in.
Kara Swisher · 48:41
Let me ask you. What... So what's the longer term solution?
Guest · 48:43
I think the longer term solution is we have to have, like, a political constituency behind what I'd call state capacity. You know, can government do what it's supposed to do? What we decide to do together? Like, can we actually execute on it? So I think mostly when we think about, like, our civic roles in in life, it's
Kara Swisher · 49:04
like we're we're gunning for
Guest · 49:06
a particular policy that we want passed, and that's great. We should be. But if we're not also or at least equally obsessed with can the government deliver on that policy once it's passed, we're just gonna stay stuck in this place. It's just like the wheels just spin. And so I think people have to think differently. We have to push our elected leaders to think differently, and really focus on... And also also, I'd say philanthropy. Like, philanthropy is constantly pushing for policy change, but not funding the state capacity to have that policy change mean anything.
Kara Swisher · 49:39
Right. Right. And then people have disrespect for the government because it's... They're they're... It's not working. So are there any opportunities for AI? Are you thinking about this? You optimistic about how the government could use it or concerned or both?
Guest · 49:51
Yeah. I mean, I think, like, everybody, I'm I'm both. So I'll tell you, I was hanging out the other day, as one does, at the New Jersey Department of Labor, and there's a fantastic team there that's really making unemployment insurance work a lot better. And we know how hard that was, for all the states. But, like, one little thing I saw was this designer who's done a lot of work on different, benefits over over the years. And she had been in the process of helping New Jersey redesign all the notices that people get. So, like, you apply, you get an email, you get letters. All these things are really confusing. And if you've ever gotten one of these things, you read them and you're like, what does this say?
Kara Swisher · 50:30
I just got one from the IRS. I don't understand it.
Guest · 50:33
So you don't know what it means. So she is like, a genius at rewriting these things so that you know what you're supposed to do when you get the damn letter, and she'd been going through them at a certain pace. And then ChatGPT came out, and she just started feeding the letters into ChatGPT with the prompt, re... Can you rewrite this so I can understand it better? Now she didn't then, like, go publish that. Like, she took it to the policy team like she always does and said, how much of this is right? How much of this is wrong? And... But they were getting through these redesigns... I mean, the rewrites and redesigns, like, at a way faster rate.
Kara Swisher · 51:12
Stuff that's very easy to explain that they can't get wrong does tend to work really well in these environments. That makes total sense.
Guest · 51:18
So I call that, like, under the banner of... This is like a line from the book. It has to make sense to a person. This is what the teams that are fighting their sort of over... Overly complex policy and procedure requirements say. Like, I get that it's complicated. It has to make sense to a person. So this is a way in which AI can help government services make sense to a person. Now the flip side of it is, yes, AI can take super complex stuff and make sense of it, but we shouldn't use that as an excuse not to simplify this stuff. So can I give you one story about how complicated this stuff is? So when I was working in California on clearing this backlog of 1,200,000 unpaid unemployment insurance claims in, like, July, August, September 2020, sort of the height of the pandemic craziness, I had a colleague who was working with these claims processors sort of day by day, side by side, asking them questions so she could figure out, like, where we were stuck. And one of these people kept saying to her, I'm not quite sure about the answer to that question. I'm the new guy. And finally, she was like, okay. Told me you're the new guy, like, 10 times. How long have you been here? And he said, I've been here seventeen years. And he said, the people who really know how this stuff works have been here twenty five years or longer. So that's why we couldn't clear it is you only had this many claims processors. So, like, 40% of the claims had to go through an experienced claims processors, and you could not manufacture new ones for twenty five years. So every staff member that they hired supposedly to help the claims processors were just distracting the claims processors. So their solution had been high... Hire 5,000 staff. We were able to show that every staff they hired slowed claims processing, and the core problem is that it takes twenty five years to learn this stuff. So if we then say, okay. Great. I mean, in the short term, could we have used some really great AI to clear it to... Yes. Sure. In the short term, absolutely, I'll take it. Let's get those 1,200,000 claims cleared. In the long term, though, if we say, oh, we don't have to resolve this problem of this policy complexity that is just staggering, we're just gonna let that... You can't just leave that there. Like, that has to be addressed. And I am afraid people are gonna say, oh, it's okay. We don't have to deal with that now. Now we have AI.
Kara Swisher · 53:42
Yeah. Absolutely. Alright. Jennifer's new book is called Why Government is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better. Reviews are saying it should be, quote, required reading for politicians and policymakers. I'm not sure they read anymore, Jennifer, but we really appreciate that.
Guest · 53:56
No. But their staffs read, and they can tell them what it said.
Kara Swisher · 53:59
Alright. Okay. Alright. You're so positive. You're always so positive. Anyway, thank you so much.
Guest · 54:04
Thank you. This is great. Appreciate it.
Scott Galloway · 54:05
Thanks, Jennifer. Nice to meet you.
— Predictions segment begins —
Kara Swisher · 54:07
Alright, Scott. One more quick break. We'll be back for wins and fails.
[Ad break]
Kara Swisher · 55:14
Okay, Scott. We're back for wins and fails. I am going to go first, Scott. Do you mind?
Scott Galloway · 55:19
Of course not.
Kara Swisher · 55:20
Okay. Fred Ryan, the publisher and chief executive of the Washington Post, just announced he's departing in August. He's been under a lot of pressure. He's been in the position for most of the decade since Jeff Bezos bought the Post. Stepping into the interim CEO role immediately is Patti Stonecipher, a founding chief executive of the Gates Foundation and more recently director of... On the Amazon board. She'll lead the search for Ryan's replacement. Patti is fantastic. She's married to Michael Kinsley, by the way, for people who don't know, great journalist. Very good news for the people at the Post. I think there was a lot of frustration with Fred. I like Fred personally, but he was he was... There was a lot of... He was in the way of a lot of change, I think, that needed to happen. And Patty is really top level, top shelf. I've known her from very beginning of Microsoft, and so that'll be great. That'll be that'll be an interesting transition. I doubt she would stay in the full roles. That's not really her area of expertise, but she certainly knows how to run things. Again, she was a big Microsoft executive too at Microsoft. So a really good good news for the Washington Post, I think, over time that Jeff has done something. He obviously knew... He'd heard from a lot of reporters who might have talked to too who said that change had to come, and it had to come at the publishing level. I guess, my fail, my fail... What is my fail? This Trump noise. It's... The the idea of violence is so repulsive. So I guess my fail is really terrible, terrible people like Carrie Lake, who are doing that and think it's cute and dealt with for political means. They're they're they're they're paper tigers, and I wish someone would throw water upon them so they would melt away. Just people like Cary Lake should melt. Anyway, that's my fail.
Scott Galloway · 56:56
So twenty five years ago when I moved to New York, I kept getting set up on dates, which is a great thing. And I was set up with this really impressive intelligent woman for lunch at... What was it called? Oh, god. It was that next to the Morgan Library. It had a moment. Anyways, and had a really lovely lunch with this woman. And I don't think either of us could figure out if we'd been set up or it was a date. We had a really nice lunch, but I was traveling all the time. She was traveling all the time. We never saw each other again. Know who that was? Oh, who? Patty Stonecipher.
Kara Swisher · 57:27
Woah. You're kidding.
Scott Galloway · 57:29
Yeah. Like, a quarter century ago.
Kara Swisher · 57:31
Wow. And then she married a a really high quality man, but go ahead. Sorry.
Scott Galloway · 57:36
That's so nice.
Kara Swisher · 57:38
I love Michael Kinsley so much.
Guest · 57:40
I I
Scott Galloway · 57:41
could be hosting all these high brow cocktail parties in DC. I could be the total lady of DC. Oh my god. Anyways, she seemed like a really lovely person. Super impressive.
Kara Swisher · 57:54
She is.
Scott Galloway · 57:55
Indeed. Okay. Winston fails. My... It's not a fail, but most... Both of them have to do with football. I've been thinking a lot about when I was a younger dad. I was really excited to get my kids into CrossFit and World War two history and aviation and all the shit that I'm interested in. And what you realize is that if you want if you want your... If you wanna be... You know, go from being an okay dad to a good dad and maybe someday aspire to be a great dad, Your job is not to get your kids interested in what you do. Your job is to develop their interests, and then you get into their interest. And that's what I have found has been a real unlock for me. Nice. Well, I have absolutely no interest in professional sports. None whatsoever.
Kara Swisher · 58:37
You sound like you do. You go on and on about it. That's interesting.
Guest · 58:41
Go ahead.
Scott Galloway · 58:41
And the reason why
Kara Swisher · 58:42
Yeah. Your kids.
Scott Galloway · 58:43
Is because my sons are into it. And I'm into my sons, and I'm into shared experiences with my sons that will remember the rest of our lives. I would never go to a football match had I not had kids. It's just not my thing. But here's the thing. The the the fun and the joy of being a dad is you go to this stuff and you... You know, I don't even watch a football game. I watch for something to happen, and then I watch their reaction. That's the moment. Right? And my advice to fathers, under the auspices of my virtue signaling moment is the real joy in in in fatherhood is finding shit that they're really into and then bringing it out in them and then sharing it with them. And I can't tell you just... I mean, we went to this game, and I said I said to my son, this is your day. We'll do whatever you want. The game started at 10PM because they wanna broadcast it for US and Western European cities. So they start the game at 10PM. You know what time we left for the stadium? No. We left for the stadium at 04:30. Oh, no. We were there four hours walking around the village, finding different things to do, buying jerseys, trying different desserts and different... I mean, he's just so into it. And then do you know what time we left the stadium?
Kara Swisher · 59:59
Two in the morning.
Scott Galloway · 1:00:00
01:30. He wanted to stay for an hour and a half. And that that thing that's just so amazing about Premier League and European football, Inter Milan lost the game. You know how many of their fans were there ninety minutes after the game had ended? Every damn one of them. I mean, these fans are just so graceful and into their team. I mean, the whole... The stadium holds, like, 80,000 people. I bet ninety minutes after the whistle had been called, 70,000 were still there. But, anyways, fail or win or whatever you wanna call it is an unlock. Take it from me, dads. Find the shit your kid is interested in, and it's your job to get into that, not vice versa.
Kara Swisher · 1:00:42
That is really nice, Scott. And it also, by the way, the win really is Patty Stonecipher didn't marry you, but but Patty.
Scott Galloway · 1:00:49
Good for... She dodged a bullet. That's... Talk about dodging the mother of all bullets.
Kara Swisher · 1:00:54
When we were at the the restaurant site, people were around for pride this weekend. It was a pride weekend in Washington. And this dad, who I thought looked like like a Trumper. I don't know why. He just did. You know what I mean? Like, he he he looked like that. And he walked in. He was wearing pride stuff on his shirt, and his son was with him who was younger but seemed gay to me. You know what I mean? Like, and was all excited, was holding all this pride stuff, and and it was really nice. He was... He... They had just been to pride. He took his son, and I thought, ugh, I should not assume anything, and I felt very good about that. And I'm sure the guy didn't wanna go to... I don't wanna go to Pride, and I'm always... And I'm gay, but I thought that was really nice that the parents... Two parents were with the son, who I'm I'm suspecting that's who they were supporting during this. And it was really nice. It was nice to see. Anyway, that's very good, Scott. Do you have a fail? Do you have a fail?
Scott Galloway · 1:01:44
So my next one is Antonella Racuzzo. I hope I'm getting that name right. But essentially, the Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia has been just buying amazing athletes. They just basically took over the PGA. They got Benzema and Ronaldo, two of the great figures in the history of football. They paid Ronaldo at the age of thirty eight, four hundred million to come play in the kingdom. And recently, the biggest news in sport was that Lionel Messi, who's probably the best active football player in the world, you know, he's probably the best, Mbappe is probably gonna be the next best. But, anyways, this guy is fantastic, a class act, won the World Cup, greatest game in history. And he could have got probably 6 to 800,000,000, and he chose, Inter Miami. He's going to the Miami team. I mean, it it... It's just Miami is such an amazing city, and I can tell you the reason... You know, when Ronaldo who took $400,000,000 and and lives... Has to spend half his year in in the kingdom, which I enjoy going, but it's no Miami. When he comes and visits his buddy Messi in in South Beach, he's gonna think, I fucked up. Because these guys have enough money. That's not it. They're not gonna want more money. They're gonna want five years back in terms of where they live. I'm gonna bet that Lionel Messi came home and said, we gotta do this. He's offered us 600,000,000. And she said, Lionel, we're moving to Miami. Yeah. Perfect. Because to raise our kids, our three boys who are school age boys, we're still young, To live in Miami for the next five years is gonna be an amazing experience.
Kara Swisher · 1:03:23
That is true. Except for the rest of Florida. I... Just so you know, there were two dozen white supremacists protesting outside of Disney this weekend, but, you know, whatever. That state is so fucked up.
Scott Galloway · 1:03:34
You just had to do that, didn't you?
Guest · 1:03:36
I did. Did.
Scott Galloway · 1:03:37
Enter Miami. Miami and Antonella Racuzzo, they made an amazing decision here. This is a huge win. Miami wins. Culture, really robust, amazing beaches, ridiculously fucking hot people, a Latin vibe, a thriving LGBT community, amazing weather.
Kara Swisher · 1:03:55
Miami Except for the book banning, it's a fantastic state to live in.
Scott Galloway · 1:03:58
I'm talking about Miami.
Kara Swisher · 1:04:00
I know. I know. Get it.
Scott Galloway · 1:04:01
Miami is the winner here, and I'm gonna bet I'm gonna bet that they have the same relationship that a lot of couples have and that on the really important stuff, mom has a better instinct around this stuff. I'm gonna bet that Antonella made this decision, and you know what? She's my win. She made the right decision.
Kara Swisher · 1:04:16
Now you're going... Now you gotta go back to Florida, don't you?
Scott Galloway · 1:04:19
Welcome to enter Miami, Antonella and Lionel. This is gonna be the one of the best decisions you have ever made. You are gonna have a wonderful life.
Kara Swisher · 1:04:27
So when are you moving back to the Florida Coast?
Scott Galloway · 1:04:30
Oh, gosh. I don't know. Is that a... You're serious question?
Kara Swisher · 1:04:36
Yeah.
Scott Galloway · 1:04:37
My son's in high school and thriving, so we're here till he's out of high school.
Kara Swisher · 1:04:41
Alright. Okay. You love that Florida. That's all. You just love that.
Scott Galloway · 1:04:43
Love it. You're always Absolutely love love the lifestyle. Love it.
— Predictions segment ends —
Kara Swisher · 1:04:46
Okay, Scott. That's enough. We wanna hear from you, our listeners. Send us your 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 Scott, that's the show. We'll be back on Friday for more. Read us out.
Scott Galloway · 1:05:02
Today's show was produced by Lara Neiman and Taylor Griffin. Ernie and Jotod engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows and Mia Silverio. Make sure you subscribe to the new show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thank you 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 and business. Hello, Messies. Hello, Miami. Hello, life is finite. Hello, you made the right decision. Welcome to the great state of Florida. Welcome to the coolest city in Latin America, Miami.
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Scott Galloway · 1:06:48
fall
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