Scott Galloway · 1:07:32
You know, more empathy for people who are victims. And the the thing that really struck me is I have heard several women say the following. They hate getting in Ubers because the Uber driver starts chatting them up, and they feel unsafe.
Kara Swisher · 1:07:51
You can ask for a woman in Uber... Both Lyft and Uber. You can... And you can ask for a woman.
Scott Galloway · 1:07:56
But that's something Uber drivers have no desire to talk to me.
Kara Swisher · 1:07:59
Mhmm. Wow.
Scott Galloway · 1:08:00
They have... They don't
Kara Swisher · 1:08:01
You're not gonna put out. Little do they know that you would put out. That's the thing.
Scott Galloway · 1:08:06
Well, that's the thing. There you go. I would... They... Sometimes I tip them off when I get in the front seat. No. But I... I thought I thought that's the last fucking thing I would wanna deal with is I'm coming home late from a dinner. And by the way, I wanna be clear. Some of these guys, Norwoods guys, are probably just friendly. Right? But they but they shouldn't have to deal with that shit.
Kara Swisher · 1:08:28
Most. Are.
Scott Galloway · 1:08:29
And I thought Most are. And that's why that's why... And then on the Waymo caller, the guy who runs Waymo was saying... I think it was the guy who runs Waymo says, this... The... Some of their biggest uptake has been by
Speaker · 1:08:40
It's a
Kara Swisher · 1:08:40
woman who runs Waymo, but there's another guy that runs it with her. But go ahead.
Scott Galloway · 1:08:44
But have said some of their biggest uptake has been from women. And I'm like, that just makes sense. Right? You don't wanna deal with it. And quite frankly, I don't I don't... I... If I could have a driverless car, I was thinking about it. Would I wanna do it? My experience so far in driverless, I haven't enjoyed other than the technical sophistication and the wonder because they go so fucking slow. It's like having mere 16 year old over a cautious driver. I hate that.
Kara Swisher · 1:09:07
They've gotten better. They... They've got... They're now like an aunt who's a good driver, but it's too slow. It used to be grandma who's not such a good driver.
Speaker · 1:09:14
And
Scott Galloway · 1:09:14
But the promise of the promise
Kara Swisher · 1:09:16
in my faster in San Francisco.
Scott Galloway · 1:09:19
Oh, that... That's great. Because I think the promise of of autonomous is the following. In London, the most... One of the most crazy, frustrating experiences is the open road, no traffic, and in certain places where there's cameras, the guy is no joke, has to go 25 miles an hour.
Kara Swisher · 1:09:38
DC. It's
Scott Galloway · 1:09:38
okay. Trying to get to Heathrow to make a flight, and you're on a highway, and he's going 25. And the real... In my opinion, the promise of the promise of autonomous is that you'll be able to do away with speed limits, and you'll let the supercomputer decide that thing can go 90 miles an hour.
Kara Swisher · 1:09:52
That would be a great thing. That would be great. Yeah. Why do we have those signs at all? Anyway, we'll see. You know, we'll see. I think he'll probably get that pay package approved, although the two big shareholder services who he keeps trashing said this is fucking ridiculous. And he said there'll be... He has enough control that he'll be able to control his robot army, whatever that means, but not enough.
Scott Galloway · 1:10:12
Bernie Sanders thinks to that package?
Kara Swisher · 1:10:14
Oh, god. He doesn't like it. Doesn't like it. He has to hit certain numbers, by the way, everybody. Like, if he doesn't... He'll find a way to get paid, this guy. But he said he he doesn't have enough control if he's insane not to get fired. And I'm like, sorry. I think we passed that station on the train of of Tesla at this point.
Scott Galloway · 1:10:34
But but but let me take the other the other side of his pay package. I'm actually relatively unoffended by the pay package. Mhmm. Because he's made a lot
Kara Swisher · 1:10:42
of money for it.
Scott Galloway · 1:10:43
But what he's saying is what he's saying is if I make shareholders 4 or 5,000,000,000,000
Kara Swisher · 1:10:49
I should pay.
Scott Galloway · 1:10:49
Will you give me a 10 or 20% commission on that? In my opinion, from a pure capitalist standpoint, I sort of get it. What I am not comfortable with is someone who aggregates that kind of capital and then pieces out the taxes and engages a massive tax avoidance and that he makes... He pays a smaller percentage of his earnings than a person on the factory floor. So don't get in the way of upside of compensation, but tax people. Have a progressive
Kara Swisher · 1:11:17
tax You know, it is linked to his it is linked to his performance. And... But that said, when he said my robot army, it made me, like, frightened on humanity. Just... He does this all the time. He's such a troll. Anyway, well, he'll propagate it. It doesn't matter, and we'll all be outraged. And then they'll tear down the West Wing, and we'll be outraged. Anyway... Alright, Scott. One more quick break. We'll be back for predictions.
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— Predictions segment begins —
Kara Swisher · 1:13:40
Okay, Scott. Let's hear a prediction. What's your prediction? Just so you know, New York City mayor Eric Adams just endorsed Andrew Cuomo, which I predict will make Zoran Mondani the mayor.
Scott Galloway · 1:13:51
That'll give him another 11 votes.
Kara Swisher · 1:13:52
Oh god. Jesus. They want that Curtis to get out. Curtis ain't getting out, I think. I think Curtis is in... With him and his cats are in it to win
Scott Galloway · 1:14:01
it. No. I think Curtis is the Ralph Nader of the conservatives. He's like, no. It's democracy.
Kara Swisher · 1:14:05
I like Curtis a little bit. I like... He seems insane, but I like him.
Scott Galloway · 1:14:09
I like the hat.
Kara Swisher · 1:14:10
I like the whole thing. I like the cats. I like I like... I I actually have enjoyed him weighing in during these debates. It's usually Mondani and Cuomo screaming.
Scott Galloway · 1:14:19
So was a guy like that. New New York's such an amazing city. They always bring out an interesting guy. Remember the guy, the rent is too damn high. Remember the guy with the
Kara Swisher · 1:14:26
black gloves?
Scott Galloway · 1:14:27
He just kept saying the rent is too damn high.
Kara Swisher · 1:14:29
He was right. They're trying to get him to pull out so that Cuomo is doing everything possible that's nothing to do with the voters. It's like Trump's help, get... Air Adams out, you know, everything except appeal to voters, which would seem to me to be the thing to do if you wanna be mayor of New York. But what
Scott Galloway · 1:14:48
are they? Trying to get people to pull out often doesn't work. Okay.
Kara Swisher · 1:14:52
Let me hear this prediction.
Scott Galloway · 1:14:53
Said my 15 and 18 year old. My prediction is the following. So America is run for profits. What dictates our society is shareholder value. The worth of someone's character, their ability to have health care, their ability to have freedom, their ability to have a broader selection set of mates is based on their ability to acquire shit or signal that they can acquire shit through monetary economic power. That's how America is run. The Chinese government is essentially run, and China is run for control and for power. And one of the ways they do that is they're much longer term thinkers about what positions them long term geopolitically. And I think essentially what's gonna happen here is the following. I was sort of blown away by the fact that this OpenWait browser that Sam Altman has basically shoplifted that anybody can use because it's sort of technically open way to sort of, like, open source. I think if I'm the CCP, I am pissed off. They have their problems, but, essentially, Trump is really fucking with them with these sclerotic 100% tariffs, nontariffs, and they are being very strategic. And they said, okay. We're gonna come for the heart and lungs of Republican voters. And hey, folks, I don't know if you heard, but we buy 50% of your soybean crops. And from these red states, we're stopping and we're starting to buy from Argentina. And your president is stupid enough to give Argentina money as we transfer business. That business is never coming back. Farmers are out of business. They're now going after rare earth minerals that are key and play a real strategic role in everything from cars to missiles. And I think the next... I think after going for our hearts and lungs, they're gonna go for our jugular the following way. I think they're gonna release a series of open source or open weight AI tools that crush or put real pressure on our magnificent 10 and take down our market and put us into a Western recession. If I were in charge of CCP defense and strategy, I would be saying to Xi, if we really wanna go for the jugular, America is now a giant bet on AI. Let's make this a bad bet. And the way we're gonna do that is we're gonna release a series of DeepSeek and DeepSeek like competitors that are free, open source, and essentially do the following. My biggest client... I started a strategy firm when I was 26. My biggest client was The Gap. We did a bunch of demographic research, and the group we found that was most underserved, and I could relate to this, was single mothers who wanted their kids to feel good about themselves because they were very self conscious about their lower income and that dad wasn't around. And so we positioned what I thought was the most brilliant thing in the world at that time, and that is we said 80% of the gap for 50% of the price, and we targeted single mothers, and it was called Old Navy. And Old Navy went from zero to a billion faster than any retailer in history. I think China is about to go Old Navy with open AI or
Kara Swisher · 1:17:58
old Navy on AI. Going BYD on
Scott Galloway · 1:18:01
Exactly. Exactly. But they're gonna do it in AI. Oh. And they're gonna say, here's an idea.
Kara Swisher · 1:18:06
Talking
Scott Galloway · 1:18:06
to PC? Of amazing AI tools that are all free that you can build on top of. You don't have to pay a subscription fee. We're not gonna pelt you with advertising. And guess what? We're gonna take the magnificent 10 down, and we're gonna take your whole fucking economy down.
Kara Swisher · 1:18:20
Make them five and a half. The magnificent five and a half. Oh, wow. That's really good. I like that. I like it. I like it a lot. And by the way, for people who aren't paying attention, Xi has just consolidated power over to CCP. He's made it smaller. He's gotten rid of people. He's really runs the show. Anyway, great one, Scott. Okay. Well, that's quite a... I like that. I'm gonna watch that one carefully. Anyway, we wanna hear from you. Send us your questions about business tech or whatever's on your mind. Go to nymag.com/pivot. Submit a question for the show or call 85551 Elsewhere in the Karen Scott universe this week on professor g conversations, Scott spoke to one of my favorites, Heather Cox Richardson, a historian at Boston College, author, the voice of the newsletters from an American, very popular. Let's listen to a clip.
— Predictions segment ends —
Guest · 1:19:03
One of the things that frustrates me to no end is the idea that there was ever a United States Of America that was not multicultural is simply a fantasy. And, you know, we talk in history about how whiteness is a constructed category and, you know, that... You know, you get all kinds of pushback on that. But it is worth remembering that Irish immigrants to The United States were not considered white. You know, I just sit there and think, okay. We're just gonna make it up. Right? We're just gonna construct our idea of what the past looked like. Because the reality has always been that The United States was about working together as communities within a very, very broad range of people.
Kara Swisher · 1:19:46
She is amazing. I hope... She's an amazing... And everybody should read her and and listen to this.
Scott Galloway · 1:19:50
I love her. I... So I think she's an inspiration. I love a professor who's just, like, so passionate about a very narrow niche of the world and is, like, after working her ass off for thirty years, she's an overnight success. She's... I just love that she's getting a ton of what I think is well earned recognition and attention because I love having her own.
Kara Swisher · 1:20:08
Wow. Good for you. Oh, good for her. Yeah. She's a very sharp historian. And reminder, we're going on tour. We're gonna be going to Toronto, Boston, New York, DC, Chicago, San Francisco, and LA. We're sold out in Toronto and San Francisco already, but please visit pivottour.com for tickets, especially you, Chicago. You want... We got an extra large venue for you guys because you have big shoulders. Come see us there. Okay. That's the show. Thanks for listening to Pivot, and be sure to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We'll be back next week. Scott, read us out.
Scott Galloway · 1:20:36
Today's show is produced by Lara Nayman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie Inertod entering this episode, Jim Mackle edited the video. Additional support from Kate Gallagher and Annika Robbins. Thanks also to Gibrales, miss Severo, and Dan Shalon. Nishat Kurra is Vox Media's executive producer of podcast. Make sure to follow Pivot on your favorite podcast platform. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine at nymack.com/pod. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Kara, safe travels.
[Ad break]
Speaker · 1:21:32
Fall savings are happening now at The Home Depot. Save up to $500 on select appliances, plus enjoy free delivery when you spend $998 or more. From prepping to cooking to cleaning up, Frigidaire has you covered. The custom flex temp drawer switches from fridge to freezer. With more than 15 cooking modes, including stone baked pizza mode, you can enjoy restaurant quality pizza in as little two minutes. Then clean up with the Frigidaire dishwasher featuring the industry's fastest normal wash cycle. Shop fall savings now at The Home Depot. Off of value, October 21, US only. See store online for details. With the score tied
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Kara Swisher · 1:22:27
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Kara Swisher · 1:22:31
blowout sale.
