Speaker · 17:45
Here's something that matters just as much, the battle to control state legislatures.
Speaker · 17:50
That's the most important thing we should be focusing on right now.
Speaker · 17:53
The GOP has a trifecta in 23 states, which means they control the governor's seat plus the state house and the state senate. For Democrats, it's 16 states.
Speaker · 18:04
Meaning that the opportunity to pass the policies that the majority of our state supports, things like increasing minimum wage, legalizing marijuana, codifying abortion.
Speaker · 18:15
If Democrats flip just a handful of state legislatures, the majority of Americans will now live in the state under full democratic control, which could have big policy implications.
Speaker · 18:26
That's all on the table with the democratic trifecta.
Speaker · 18:29
This week on America Actually, we're in Wisconsin, and we talked to Francesca Hong.
Speaker · 18:33
We have an opportunity through Wisconsin to actually start improving the brand for Democrats.
Speaker · 18:40
Catch us every Saturday on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast.
[Ad break]
Kara Swisher · 19:31
And we're back. Alright. Wins and fails. Would... Please go first. Would you please go first on
Scott Galloway · 19:36
your Okay. So my win. My win is my win is restoration hardware. Oh, fair that enough. I was at the Palazzo. I had one of these Palazzo concepts in the Meat Packing District. And Mhmm. The CEO there, Gary Friedman, full disclosure, I would call him loosely a friend.
Kara Swisher · 19:54
Okay. Loosely. What's a loose friend to you?
Scott Galloway · 19:55
I don't wanna know. We're not close. I don't know. We we like each other, and we see each other once in a but we're not close. Okay. But, anyways, my point is this guy's a mad genius. And, typically, in business, the way to add shareholder value is to be the second to do something and kind of copy other people's and innovate. And Restoration Hardware literally does ridiculously crazy things. To build a 120,000 square foot palazzo in the middle of the meat packing district and then put a restaurant on top that doesn't that doesn't serve alcohol, some of the
Kara Swisher · 20:24
things been there. I have been to that restaurant. It's quite lovely.
Scott Galloway · 20:27
They're gonna do... They're doing these ridiculous numbers out of this thing, and they literally decide
Kara Swisher · 20:31
stock analysts are going crazy. The stock is... The stock analysts like it.
Scott Galloway · 20:34
It's nuts. And some of the things he told me that he was planning to do is trying to create an ecosystem around hospitality and landscaping and design, and none of this makes any sense. None of it makes any sense until they do it, and then it's genius. And they are taking such risks.
Kara Swisher · 20:51
Tried the experiential thing. Like, you know, Barney's... Remember Barney's had something on the roof and stuff like that?
Scott Galloway · 20:56
Yeah. But a a place for
Kara Swisher · 20:57
Explain that. A place. That environmental situation.
Scott Galloway · 21:00
Okay. Armani Cafe and Raffle On, we're not talking about a place for Upper East Side ladies of lunch to go have brunch on Sunday. What Restoration Hardware is doing is something... It involves yachts, planes, a new concept in hotels, landscaping. You hear this stuff. And as someone who's been on board, you go, that's crazy. And then they do this stuff, and you're right. It's crazy like Picasso genius, and it's inspiring that there's firms out there.
Kara Swisher · 21:27
It's just a couch. Goodness sake. Really? Crazy.
Scott Galloway · 21:29
Oh, they're creating an ecosystem.
Kara Swisher · 21:31
It's inspiring. Me just say three Restoration Hardware pieces. I like them a lot. It's because they're super boring looking. Like, they're not... Like, like, I know they're tasteful because I have no taste. And so I know they look good, but I do... They're they're they're wonderful furniture. I have to say I I like
Scott Galloway · 21:45
them for This company, it's inspiring because they've decided we have a vision. Let's be fearless about it. Let's do it. And the crazy stuff occasionally really changes things. And I find what they do just an incredibly inspiring. And then look at on the other side. Look at Pottery Barn. Pottery Barn used to be the player in home furnishings. So restoration hardware isn't the truck that's run over Pottery Barn. It's the bull that's run it over and then backed up and gored the shit out of it. The board members of Williams Sonoma Inc, who owns Pottery Barn, I mean, my question to them is, for god's sakes, don't you get tired of someone kicking you in the nuts every day as Restoration Hardware is for the last decade? Williams Sonoma Williams Sonoma literally needs an activist. They have been the definition of uninspiring for the last decade. They have
Kara Swisher · 22:32
I think that's your job, Scott. I think you should do that.
Scott Galloway · 22:34
I'm too old. I'm too old for that shit. I can't I can't do that anymore. Alright. Anyway, that's my What is what is your hardware. My fail is my fail is beyond meat, and this goes to my prediction.
Kara Swisher · 22:46
Oh, interesting. Someone... One of the grips on stage was asking me about that yesterday at my television appearance on Silicon Valley. I will be winning an Emmy. Go ahead.
Scott Galloway · 22:55
Okay. $13,000,000,000 market cap on quarterly revenues of 65,000,000. So we're talking about a company trading at about 50 times revenues, which makes
Kara Swisher · 23:04
Yeah.
Scott Galloway · 23:04
Facebook in the heyday look cheap. I mean, this is this is a company that might change the world. It's kinda like a Tesla, and that is will it change the world, or is it overvalued and potentially gonna go out of business? The answer is yes. Beyond Meat is the new Tesla in my view. It just doesn't make any sense as a share... As a shareholder. This goes to my prediction that the stock's gonna be cut in half in the next twelve months, and it all goes back to something much deeper, Kara, and that is Mhmm. At Royce Hall, at University of California, Los Angeles, one of great... The greatest... Second greatest public, college in America, just behind University of California Berkeley. But, anyways, at Royce Hall, there's two towers, and one of them is slightly obtuse or doesn't foot to the other because the architect prescribed to this theory that effectively when you attempt to do something in total architectural perfection, you're mimicking god, which is blasphemy. And I feel that I know that personally when I first moved to New York and I didn't have a lot of relationships and I just gotten divorced and I was kinda feeling down and I don't believe in god, I didn't have any spiritual reference. I filled that spiritual void in my life with one thing. And you know what that one thing was, Karen?
Kara Swisher · 24:09
Drinking.
Scott Galloway · 24:10
Bacon. And what is beyond me trying to do? They are mimicking god by trying to replicate bacon, and they are about to
Kara Swisher · 24:19
be punished. I didn't know where that story was going. Are about
Scott Galloway · 24:21
to be punished. If you want if you want a dog where
Kara Swisher · 24:25
I thought that story was going, but go ahead.
Scott Galloway · 24:27
My god. Give your dog a pig's ear. Have you ever given your dog a pig's ear?
Kara Swisher · 24:31
What are talking about? Don't know. Oh my god. Pig's ears.
Scott Galloway · 24:33
Try and get your kids to love you the rest of your life. That takes therapy, tough but gentle college. Just give the dog a pig's ear yours for the rest of its life.
Kara Swisher · 24:43
Alright. Baked.
Scott Galloway · 24:44
Anyways, Beyond Meat. I'm gonna circle back to Beyond Meat.
Kara Swisher · 24:46
Alright. We're gonna circle back on that. Alright. Okay.
Scott Galloway · 24:49
Alright. Overvalued.
Kara Swisher · 24:50
Beyond Meat stock failure. Okay. I got it.
Scott Galloway · 24:53
Beyond Meat wildly overvalued. Cut in half in the next twelve months. You're winning. You're wins and fails.
Kara Swisher · 24:57
You for Christmas. I know. My wins and fails. You know, I thought one of the wins was, again, Ronnie Molla. She put in a a Freedom Information Act, which is a fantastic thing journalists can use to get all of ICE's technology contracts, and she published them. Some of the 27 pages of tech companies are working with ICE, including Peter Thiel's company. Palantir has been paid more than $92,000,000 for different things, all sorts of different things. Other partners include Dell, Concur, Microsoft, and dozens more. And so the question is, what's the upshot for these companies? Obviously, contracts. And is there any backlash, that company like Microsoft should worry about? I I don't know. It's an interesting question because, you know, in some cases, it's an issue for a lot of people to be
Scott Galloway · 25:38
working with. Okay. But let me let me let me just ask a few questions. Why why shouldn't they work with ICE?
Kara Swisher · 25:44
Well, they... That's the thing. That's the question. I'm just saying I I like to know... Would... I just want transparency. Who's working for... When you ask them, they hide it. Like, when I asked the AWS... The head of AWS that, he wouldn't say. Like, just say it if you're working for them. So I like the idea that it's a win that we... That... That's transparent. Then we can debate the issue, and people who work there can decide. A lot of people who work there don't wanna do work for ICE even if it's just HR software. They just don't wanna help them in their in their in their thing. I'm just saying. I'm I'm saying it's just... I just like the idea that it's out in the open transparency. The same thing I wanna have happen is with the FTC, and I wanna file a Freedom of Information Act. It's like, how did they make that decision with Facebook? I wanna know exactly what happened, and they keep it hidden from us. And so if they're so proud of their decisions, they should tell us how they... They should show us their homework. I want... I like showing their homework. That's what I like. That's my win is the ability to get more transparency out of these companies. The fail, I think, was, again, Facebook with its mind rating tech. It was announced two years ago. They have updates and stuff. It's an interface for decoding spoken dialogue from brain signals, which disturbs me because it's Facebook. It implants sensors on the brain and uses them to record brain activity, something you do not want Facebook to do. And let me put Casey Newton from The Verge pointed out in his newsletter, the interface. This seems like a good time to ask whether any of this work should, you know, be done in the first place. It's in the nature of these technologies to improve exponentially often away from public view and to mature before any real public conversation about them can take place. Again, my theme, which is a win and a fail, is if we don't have transparency around these things, we're gonna have the same terrible situations that happen all the time. Thank you.
Scott Galloway · 27:21
Well, the... So there's a lot there. But my question is if you're an American company and you're a public company, which by virtue of that means you've benefited enormously from an infrastructure, an ecosystem, a public education system, financial markets, the armed services who protect our borders, and generally, you know, fantastic, I don't know, software weapons, the things we're really good at, Then why on earth wouldn't the most noble customer in the world be the US government? And then who are these people to be in a position to decide which government agencies are less or more noble than the others? Isn't the first client any American company should wanna work for or be open to working for is a
Kara Swisher · 27:59
Well, except maybe not this administration. Like, look.
Scott Galloway · 28:02
An administration on downside. Right? You're gonna stop working for the government every four or eight years based on who we like and
Kara Swisher · 28:06
don't like? Well, maybe. I don't I don't know. But it's... You know, what what would happen if it got more and more like that?
Scott Galloway · 28:12
But the majority of the people working at ICE were there pre Trump. I I just... I I don't understand the whole movement around people somehow shaming companies for working for the US government. The United States government is the most noble entity in the history of of mankind. It turned... It it it's almost cured, in my opinion, that the CDC and research in our system has hopefully arrested HIV, and we turn back Hitler. Like, what other company has done that? What other organization has done that? So I say work with the government.
— Predictions segment begins —
Kara Swisher · 28:40
Recently. We've done a lot of great things, but you know what I mean. I mean, I think it's good to... Again, transparency is all of that. Then you can make a choice. You can decide whether to work for Palantir. You can decide whether to work. Like, I think a lot of this sort of hidden in the shadows. It reminds me of a piece I did back in 2016 when all the tech leaders, they skulked at Trump Tower, not saying anything and trying to hide it. I I happened to write a story about it, so it got out. But they... Like, the skulking is what bothers me. Okay. You wanna do this? Tell me what you're doing. You wanna do your face thing? Let me... Let's debate it publicly. Let's have a lot... Like, the only people that should matter are people who who are elected officials. Even if you don't think they're great, they were elected officials. And so what I don't like is these tech companies making decisions behind the scenes for us. But but in any case, we can debate this, mister mister Patriot. So predictions predictions.
Scott Galloway · 29:26
We only I gave you my prediction. Beyond Meat is cut in half in the next twelve months. This time.
Kara Swisher · 29:31
That's a good one. What about Impossible Foods and stuff like that?
Scott Galloway · 29:35
Look. I think it's a fascinating category. It's gonna wake up Tyson and all these other agra industrial complex from there, what I'll call Hormel. Plant based, slumber this way... Same way Tesla has woken up Germans and Americans from their electric slumber. It's gonna be good for the planet. We're all gonna be fascinated at how, you know, not bad fake bacon tastes. Although, let's be honest, it can't replace the real thing, but it's it's gonna get cut.
Kara Swisher · 29:58
It's called fakin'.
Scott Galloway · 29:59
That's right.
Kara Swisher · 29:59
Do you mean fakin'?
Scott Galloway · 30:00
That's right. Fakin'.
Kara Swisher · 30:02
I'm good. I'm doing fakin'. Anyway, that's okay.
Scott Galloway · 30:04
So Do have a prediction?
Kara Swisher · 30:06
I don't have predictions. That's your job. I don't have to do that in any way.
Scott Galloway · 30:09
That's alright.
Kara Swisher · 30:09
I predict that you're probably gonna be right about that. That's what I predict.
— Predictions segment ends —
Scott Galloway · 30:12
I appreciate that.
Kara Swisher · 30:12
We'll talk about Tesla and the others next week, but I'm about to be interviewed by pod father Bill Simmons right after this. And tonight, I'm gonna be on John Lovett's show. Love it or leave it, I am somewhat cheating on you, Scott. What... You were on some of lot of podcasts lately, I noticed. What else have you been on?
Scott Galloway · 30:28
I'm on a ton of podcasts. I'm on, your... I'm on all the touchy feeling ones now because of this book algebra... My book algebra of happiness. Number 13 on Apple hardcover nonfiction by angry depressed professors with erectile dysfunction. And... Oh, and by the way, speaking of rankings, hold on. Yeah. Hold on. Oh god. Apple created a new category called news commentary. And who was number one for a good thirty six hours last week?
Kara Swisher · 30:53
You and I.
Scott Galloway · 30:54
That's right. That's right. It's not one dog. It's not one cat. It's a kennel, and it's the best kennel in the world.
Kara Swisher · 31:01
Okay. That's right.
Scott Galloway · 31:02
You're number one. Let's retire now.
Kara Swisher · 31:04
Dog? Am I the cat?
Scott Galloway · 31:06
I'm Michael Jordan going to play baseball now. It makes no sense, but I just wanna leave on a
Kara Swisher · 31:10
high note. We were number one. Great. That was great. We're very popular. We are very popular.
Scott Galloway · 31:14
We should look... We do say source. Isn't it? Thank you and thank you.
Kara Swisher · 31:17
Do more, Scott. We need to do more.
Scott Galloway · 31:20
Seriously, I'd like to just really give a heartfelt thank you to our dozens and dozens of fans out there that tune in
Kara Swisher · 31:25
every week. So many.
Scott Galloway · 31:26
What are you
Kara Swisher · 31:27
talking about?
Scott Galloway · 31:27
We're in there. Number one. Number one.
Kara Swisher · 31:29
Number one. We are number one just for today, but thank you. That was that was wonderful. I don't like to toot my own horn.
Scott Galloway · 31:34
Oh, yeah. No more than 11 times a day. Let's talk about your medals from Georgetown. Anyway I
Kara Swisher · 31:40
I might say I was just on a television show that will be appearing on HBO, and I will win an Emmy, and that'll be fantastic. I'll bring you to the ceremony.
Scott Galloway · 31:47
I like that.
Kara Swisher · 31:48
Scott, it's been great.
Scott Galloway · 31:50
It has been great.
Kara Swisher · 31:51
Lot to talk about next week. There's gonna... A lot going on. I'm gonna be coming from Provincetown, Massachusetts. I'm gonna drive down to Brewster and and and talk to you from there. That's where I'm going with the gays.
Scott Galloway · 32:01
Forward to
Kara Swisher · 32:01
Me and the gays.
Scott Galloway · 32:02
Good stuff.
Kara Swisher · 32:02
We'll talk next week. I'll see you soon, Scott.
Scott Galloway · 32:06
Thanks, Kara.
Kara Swisher · 32:08
Today's show was produced by Rebecca Sinanis and Eric Johnson. Nishat Kerwa is Pivot's executive producer. Thanks also to Eric Anderson, Rebecca Pastro, and Drew Burrows. Make sure you subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts. If you like this week's episode, leave us a review. If you have any suggestions about what you wanna hear us talk about on a future show, send us an email, pivot@voxmedia.com. Thanks for listening to pivot from Vox Media. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business.
