Pivot - Elon's First Cabinet Meeting, Trump's Gold Card, and Bezos' WaPo Revamp

Episode Date: February 28, 2025

Kara and Scott go off on Jeff Bezos' revamp of The Washington Post’s opinion section. President Trump's first cabinet meeting (feat. Elon Musk) and DOGE’s surprise leader. They also have thoughts on President Trump's new $5 million “gold card” for wealthy foreigners, and the latest market moves by Tesla and NVIDIA. Plus...Scott's upcoming cameo on HBO's The White Lotus. Follow us on Instagram and Threads at @pivotpodcastofficial. Follow us on Bluesky at @pivotpod.bsky.social. Follow us on TikTok at @pivotpodcast. Send us your questions by calling us at 855-51-PIVOT, or at nymag.com/pivot. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Can you move along, please? Hi everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara Swisher. And I'm Scott Galloway. Scott, how you doing? I finally finished my move.

Oh, congratulations. Oh, Scott, it's like, oh, I feel like so in need of not moving anymore ever again. Well, the good news is that probably won't happen. The next move, you won't even be aware it's happening. You... To the grave. You'll have, no, no, no, no, no.

You're not that old. You'll have some Filipino nurse saying, it's okay, Ms. Swisher, just follow me. And you'll be like, where's grandpa? You'll just, will be so out of it, you won't even notice. Yeah, yeah, grandpa, I'm a lesbian. You'll literally, it'll be like watching a senator stroll around the halls of the rotunda.

Oh, Jesus, those senators. Oh, I gotta tell you, Scott, being in, right now we're like, okay, now we're in Washington, and, like, we're like, should we leave Washington? Because it's just so heinous. Although we never see these people, so I guess who cares, right? Who cares? I am...

This is a dark side of me. I hate to admit this. I'd kind of welcome a measles outbreak in D.C. right now. I just think that... I think this surrender clown and his cabinet of the best friends Measles ever had. I mean, at what point, and of course it hits a small community in Lubbock. I mean, at what point does, do these literally

head up your ass, cruel, weird decisions come back to DC. I saw this statement, I think it was from Corey Docteau, and it just perfectly summarized, I really have a difficult time encapsulating what I think is going on or the kind of gestalt of this elite class of tech bros and their representatives in Washington,

the vice president and the president. And he summarized it perfectly. He said that they believe there's an in and an out crowd. And if you read Alex Karp's new book, it's basically engineers and innovators of the in crowd and everybody else is the out crowd. And that essentially the theory is, and I think it's a philosopher, I forget,

his theory is that with the in crowd, they are protected by the law, but not bound by it. And the out crowd is bound by it, but not protected by it. Oh, I love that, Corey. And I thought that perfectly summarized what is going on here. And that is these guys love COVID bailouts.

They love the protections of free speech. They love the law. They expect the Justice Department to weigh in. Contracts, big fat contracts. But they themselves are not subject to it, right? No, no. I mean, whether it's paternity court, they would have a field day with the-

Andrew Tate getting out in Romania, sex trafficking. The role model for male abandonment, you know, doge king. I mean, literally the notion that these folks don't weaponize or don't use the laws and means of transferring wealth and rights from the poor to them, but at the same time, don't feel bound to it. If you want to see, I'm really ranting now, if you want to see a massive amount of corruption, just wait until about three years from now when we find out what happened between now and then in the crypto markets. You are going to see so many scams.

But it's also, Scott, it's in plain sight. Look, they're thinking of switching. Starlink people are working at the FAA and suddenly Verizon might be losing its contract to Starlink. It's so like, obviously, it's so in the open. Like that's the thing, there used to be sort of back rooms where this shit went down. Now it's front room. You're watching it and then they're telling you why you're stupid for not thinking it's smart.

Like that's the whole trick. It was interesting because I have a lot of federal workers in our school as I think I've told you. I wonder if I always ask what they do and it's always so helpful, like the stuff they're doing, whether it's at the FDA or one is at the Ag department, one parent's at the Ag, it's just so important what they're doing. And like they don't know what to do about the stupid five things I did this week kind of thing, like, you know. And then Musk mocks them saying it's inane and trivial, they should have been able to do it.

And then, so they have an ounce of sense in the middle of lunacy. That's what drives, like, sure, they could do it, but why? Or let me give you an example, it's not everybody because, look, Apple shareholders voted, so did Costco and John Deere, to keep DEI initiatives in the company. They can do that, right? Instead- Private company. Private company, except now Trump is threatening them

and Tim Cook has to say, we've got to follow the law. Even though shareholders who are supposed to be the best friends of these fuckers, want something else. It's just amazing, it's amazing. These guys, I can't tell you how profoundly disappointed I am in this, these horrors trying to protect themselves or excuse their behavior, texting you or other people.

I hate myself. Well, we fucking hate you more. We hate you too. If there's anybody who has the money and the resources to stand up to this bullshit. They should. Tim Cook. It is Tim Cook, Satya Nadella, Sundar Pichai, Sam Altman and his hushed tones and concerns

about AI. Fuck you. You are literally the very principles rule of law, separation between business and state, systemic laws, not individual laws where you give a million dollars to a campaign for favorable treatment, these ridiculous fake announcements. okay, put out a press release claiming they were spending a quarter of a trillion dollars because of President Trump, even though it's all fucking jazz hands, it's all bullshit.

Somebody I'd like to think in the business community is gonna reach down and feel these circular things in between their legs and go, you know, no. A vagina? No, there you go, or a vagina and say, okay. A vagina. Let's be honest go. Or a vagina and say, okay. Let's be honest though, they're all men. And say, okay, no, we're not doing this.

And you're right, shareholders brace. He might announce a bunch of tariffs until he like- Except he's got permission from shareholders to do it. Right? He has, the shareholders have spoken of what they want. At Apple, they've said we want to they want to yeah, so does Costco So somebody like either you listen to shareholders or you're not trying to protect them They've decided knowing full well what the price is what they want

Anyway, we'll see where it goes but speaking of which we've got a lot to get to today and the one person we're gonna talk about Initially is exactly this person. We're gonna talk though about about invidious earnings which were blockbuster Tesla struggles. No one wants to buy their shitty cars. They're not shitty cars. They're shitty because of their owner, their creator and in fact not even their creator. I don't know. I like the Model SS. Swastikaar?

Swastikaar, yeah. Zero to 1939 in three seconds. All this stuff is so good. His pronouns are not he and Himmler. Himmler. Nice Himmler. Often a forgotten Nazi, but very critical. There you go. Played a key backup role, character actor in the whole deal time.

No, he did a lot. He was quite horrible. Anyway, and Trump's gold card, which is ridiculous. But let's start with Jeff Bezos, speaking of tiny balls. He watched him post opinion editor, David Shipley. By watched in Post Opinion and David Shipley, by the way, my wife used to work for him, but she quit and is thrilled that she did, now that this came out,

has stepped down after Jeff Bezos announced a significant shift to the opinion page. Bezos said the Post will now publish daily opinion stories on two editorial pillars, pretty much, and you have to be for them, personal liberties and free markets. You can't be against those. What does that mean?

I will tell you, yes. Personal liberties, I'll do what I fucking want. Free markets, I'll do what I fucking want. There you go. Okay. I get what they're trying. They're trying to be the Wall Street Journal. It's that the Wall Street Journal

has intelligent people working for it. And the Washington Post has Megan McArdle. The opinion section will cover other subjects as well. Not really, but will not publish viewpoints opposing those pillars. What's the point of having them? What does that mean? Meaning if you're against, if you're for social justice or some regulation, you can't write a piece. You can't oppose free markets, even if you do. Like if you have a very good argument about why we need guardrails on Amazon's

shitty behavior and I don't know, whatever, you can't oppose Jeff Bezos. He said he believes the viewpoints in the new categories are underserved in the current market of ideas and news opinion. No, they're not, Jeff. They're done by the Wall Street Journal, which does them, don't always agree, but pretty fucking good. It sounds're not, Jeff. They're done by the Wall Street Journal, which does them, don't always agree, but pretty fucking good. Sounds like not original idea. The head of the opinion section, David Shipley,

who already took a fall, took a, he just fell down when he was doing the Kamala Harris thing, has decided he can't do this. I can't believe he didn't go the first time, but here it is. And of course, Jeff Bezos, in an interview with Matthias Dockner in 2018, said he would never do things like this.

And this is exactly what he's doing. He said he'd be embarrassed and he would feel terrible when he was 80 years old. So here we are. He can do what he wants with this fucking newspaper, but it's a piece of shit now. Go ahead. But I don't even really understand what that means. We're only going to talk about...

It doesn't mean anything. I don't... So do you not have an opinion? Isn't the whole idea of opinion is that you're going to be provocative and perhaps upset some people and catalyze a dialogue that perhaps helps craft better solutions? What's the point? He says the internet has viewpoints opposing those pillars. Hmm. Fair point. So why wouldn't the Washington Post? I don't, I just don't get any of this. I'm having trouble even making an argument for or against it. I don't know what it means other than him saying, I don't like the way it's being run now. I don't.

Like I kind of get it, but it's so but it's so like kindergarten version of opinion sections. It's like, oh, we need more diverse voices. Oh, okay, get them, publish them, do them. Have everybody argue. You have to have viewpoints opposing personal liberties and free markets if you really want to have an opinion section, but he doesn't really want to have it. He wants a billionaire propaganda arm. This is what Penny, that I think has dropped in his noggin, is that I can use this as a cudgel.

Musk can use Twitter X as a cudgel. I can use this as a cudgel. So I can do this via. Now, interestingly enough, the Wall Street Journal has been very critical of Trump, right? They've been very critical about the tariffs, about the behaviors, about the nonsense, and actually making some great arguments. And they've featured those. I'll be interested to see what Bezos—well, I'm not interested at all, but we'll see what he does here. But it seems like he'll try to get someone—I don't know.

There's a lot of people who think this, who go on and on about say and do what you want. Then when push comes to shove, you don't get to say and do what you want. You get to say and do what your billionaire owner wants. I mean, the reality is with these newspapers now, there used to be about 60 or 80 million subscriptions in the US. It's gone down to 20 million.

Some have made the jump to digital such as the New York Times. But the problem is it's gone down to 20 million. Some have made the jump to digital, such as the New York Times. But the problem is it's a zero sum game. And so when they sign up, when they thought, okay, the Washington Post is doing good work, it usually comes at the cost of someone else. They are now, as someone who's, I think, got some distance from the Washington Post,

I like it, I have affection for it, but the reality is it just feels like it's circling the drain right now. Yeah, absolutely. It doesn't feel like it has a gross strategy. Significance, relevance. And the people who like the Post are, quite frankly, I hate to use this word, but kind of the cultural elite.

They don't anymore, actually. My view is they're pretty prickly. And when a billionaire weighs in with his views without really understanding journalism, it turns off their readers and their employees, and it's probably very damaging for the culture. Right. Are they gonna get MAGA readers? They're not. They're not.

MAGA readers have really good stuff to read. They have all kind of... You want to read Ben Shapiro? You want to listen to Megyn Kelly scream at you for some whatever fucking reason she likes to scream all day? There's all kinds of great content out there. You have plenty of choice in that area. So they're not gonna, you know, they're like, there's this so, the sensible center is horrified

by Donald Trump. So kissing up to him seems like the stupidest move. The two winners here are, if he had said, I do think there's an opportunity. If you look at the amount of media coverage that sports gets, if you look at the amount of media coverage that sports gets, if you look at the amount of media coverage that politics gets, I think relative to its importance in the economy and the consumer's obsession with it, I would argue the opportunity in media and in podcasts, and I'm thinking a lot about this, is business.

So if he were to say, if he were to say we're going to focus, we're going to try and really beef up our coverage of the economy and business issues relating to the markets and everyday pricing and how it affects people's lives. And we're going to debate the shit out of it? Because we all are kind of obsessed with Amazon and taxes and innovation and how AI affects us or doesn't in terms of our jobs.

I think there's real opportunity here. Agreed. The biggest winner of this move, hands down, are the heads of HR in recruiting at the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. Because every talented, my sense is that every organization, there's between 10% and 20% of the employees that add 120% of the value, and the rest are negative 20.

And what I mean by that is you have to have B players to scale. I know that sounds disparaging, but at every organization, they're generally a group of superstars that just drive a disproportionate amount of value. Absolutely. Those 10 or 20 people at the Washington Post have their pictures and their names like an FBI mob board at the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. And guess what? They've already grabbed all.

I'm having lunch today with one the New York Magazine just grabbed. They'll all return your calls now. They have never, you're gonna see, they are literally the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and some media players are gonna come for the heart and the lungs of the Washington Post. They are picking and choosing.

I've talked to the Times people who do this hiring. I've talked to the Journal people and they're calling me to ask me who's good, who do I think of this person, this and that. They're not going to grab everybody, by the way, even if they're really good, but everyone's leaving. Today, I'm having lunch with Ben Terrace,

who's a wonderful political reporter, and he's joined New York Magazine. Fantastic. Did great work at the post. And by the way, let me just weigh one in. They are doing, some of the reporting has been excellent. They did a great piece on Elon being a welfare queen, which you retweeted, $38 billion. They did another one, they did like six or seven really great accountability stories in recent weeks. So when is Bezos going to meddle there? Which I think he will, 100 percent. But you're right, it's an opportunity to pick

an area to go into and really drill the fuck down. The way he's going is so stupid. I would deploy AI in a really smart way, they're doing it in a stupid way. They are just going, this is a huge opportunity. When did Jeff Bezos become Marc Andreessen? That's what I want to know. He was always like this.

Really? I always thought he was a pretty like even-handed guy. No, he was super aggressive. He was always, let me just tell you, of all the people I covered, he was the most tweaky when it came to stories he didn't like. He does not like journalists. He doesn't. He never did. Mark Andreessen actually kind of liked journalists.

Yeah. But the bottom line is, it's because most journalists just aren't that hot, Kara. I know that's what it is. I'm just saying. Bezos came from Wall Street. He worked for whatever, a hedge fund, D.E. Shaw, I don't know what that is, an investment bank hedge fund, whatever. He was older. He was money-focused. I never thought he was anything, but I called him Feral in my book. He was Feral. And I think

he broke up with his wonderful wife. And look, Lauren's fine, whatever, but it's a different personality. And he had an opinion. If you listen to that 2018 interview, it is a different person. Now he likes wearing those weird, unfortunate shirts that he wears and tight jeans and showing off his chest and living the good life on the yacht. And he doesn't give a fuck. You know, who knows? I think he's a really dull thinker.

Anyway, moving on. President- How do you really feel? President Trump hosted his first cabinet meeting, speaking of stupid, Wednesday, with co-president Elon Musk in attendance. Really, truly, standing up, talking almost as much as Trump.

Trump recognized Musk to speak first and surveyed the room on approval for Doge's at work and whether they like Elon. Guess what, Scott? Everybody applauded. Yay! Although Marco Rubio looked like he was. Guess what, Scott? Everybody applauded. Yay! Although Marco Rubio looked like he was, you know, having diarrhea at that moment.

Elon at one point said Doge had accidentally canceled an Ebola prevention program. Let's listen. We will make mistakes. We won't be perfect. But when we make a mistake, we'll fix it very quickly. So for example, with USAID, one of the things we accidentally canceled very briefly was Ebola prevention. I think we all want Ebola prevention. So we restored the Ebola

prevention immediately and there was no interruption. Not true according to expert after expert. Everyone down the field saying nothing's been restored. It's gone from 60 people to six. restored. It's gone from 60 people to six. He just opens his mouth and he tells, he's disingenuous. Trump also addressed efforts to slash federal workforce, which he's going to continue, including 65% or so of the EPA. He talked about terrorists, the upcoming meeting with Ukrainian President Zelensky. He's trying to shake him down for mineral rights. So it's pay per flay military help, which we really have sort of done, but not this explicitly. Just the whole thing was, and getting the cabinet just to applaud, they probably were like, they tried to resist some of this dodeus stuff and now they had to applaud in public. Like, can you, I wish someone had gone,

yeah, I don't like him, he's a fucker, President Trump. But no one did, of course. Anyway. Yeah, well, speaking of the Wall Street Journal, they did some great analysis a couple of days ago saying that they think so far Doge has saved a whopping $2.6 billion. Yeah, a whopping.

And- They're claiming 60, right? They're claiming 60. Yeah, they're claiming 60. And by the way, Musk has received subsidies, depending on how you count them, somewhere between 15 and 50 billion. So if you want a 6X the Doge savings,

just cut off all subsidies to Tesla. Yep, yep. And it's just, again, it's look over here. And also I'm trying to do the analysis. I believe that these tax cuts will cut, will cost taxpayers more in terms of the treasury, just the benefits that Elon Musk will accrue than the savings he is garnering at Doge.

That's right. So if you wanted to double the savings of Doge, you would just say, okay, thank you for your service, but you are no longer entitled to the tax cuts. I mean, this is, it's just the math ain't mathin' for lack of a better term. I don't think they should focus on the injustice. I don't quite frankly, I don't think it's outrageous to get an email

from somebody saying, tell us what you did last week. I think that happens. It's how it's done, Scott. It's how it's done. Agreed, agreed. But that's not where our focus should be. Our focus should be, okay, you recognize that the Department of Energy has been,

Department of Energy, and I forget what the exact term is, has been tasked with cutting 800 billion. There's no way they can avoid Medicare and Medicaid. And by the way, when you privatize, okay, so a kid is still gonna need his medication. Unless we decide to just let them die, they're gonna get their medication, but this is- That's what we're doing.

Go ahead. Okay. Give me some running room. I don't think that's gonna happen. What's gonna happen is it's gonna be privatized and either the employer or the individual or the county or the state is going to have to go into the private market and buy it.

And then the insurance company and the pharmaceutical and the medical industrial complex will insert themselves, make it less efficient, less cost-effective such that shareholder value goes up in the industrial medical complex. The privatization, essentially what these autocrats or these oligarchs want is they want the privatization of everything, that way they can insert themselves

in the middle for shareholder value. There are cities that have privatized everything, the utilities, the water, services, they've privatized everything. And what happens traditionally or typically is that there are some things that should be privatized. But when you privatize the post, as they did here in London, what you end up with is a more expensive service where shareholders and

companies get to skim or scoop up that incremental margin. And that is what they want here, is they want to get government out so they can insert, one, private enterprise and make money, and two, emasculate any regulation or oversight of their near grifty businesses. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I would agree. And what's happening here is they're really hurting people who voted for you. Have you seen the spate? There's a great one speaking, which in the Washington Post, she hoped Trump's victory would change her life, but not like this.

Doge cut her job. And she was like, oh, I thought they were going to take DEI people. Like, what? was like, oh, I thought they were going to take DEI people. Like, you know, honestly, Leopards should eat every one of these people's faces as far as I'm concerned. You know what I mean? They did everything in their self-interest and then he didn't do anything he said he was going to do so far,

and they're cutting them. And so they're going to, you know, no showed in front here, but they voted for what they voted, and this is what they're getting. I agree. But the basis of DEI or the arguments against DEI is that it made sense, I think, if you were to steel man this, it made sense at some point to have DEI, but many of these problems, I won't say have been solved, but have been addressed in terms of a workforce that somewhat resembles the population. The problem is, is the basis of the arguments for doing away with DEI is that you risk economic growth

and even safety if in fact you're not hiring based on competence. Now, that is a real argument, but that argument holds no water when you are hiring fucking idiots to go into your cabinet, when you're hiring Fox News hosts to be the Secretary of Defense and you're claiming we need to get rid of DEI so we have more competence,

that this becomes a meritocratic. I mean, it's just so cynical to talk about skills and domain expertise and who earned and deserves the job and who would execute or prosecute the job with the most competence when you are bringing in seriously a fucking village, a circle of village idiots. First measles death since 2015. First one. Planes are falling out of the sky. Like there's been like seven of them right now, at least seven really dangerous plane things. I mean, as I say, they they they they exchanged DEI for DAF, dumb as fuck. Okay, Scott, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, more on Doge.

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You can go to attio.com slash pivot and you'll get 15% off your first year. That's attio.com slash pivot. first year. That's attio.com slash pivot. Germans went to the polls this weekend and how it was the biggest election turnout in a generation. More than eight in 10 eligible voters cast a ballot. Frederick Murs, a conservative from the CDU parties on track to be chancellor, he said today it's time for traditional democratic parties to start getting things done. The world won't wait for us.

It won't wait for long drawn out coalition negotiations. We must be capable of acting again quickly so that we can do the right thing in Germany. The party that came in second place, the Alternative for Germany or AFD, is from the far right fringe. So it is perhaps inevitable that America's unelected vice president, Elon Musk has spoken in support of the AFD. But so has America's elected vice president, JD Vance. On Today Explained, the Transatlantic Alliance no one wants. Weekdays in your feed wherever you get your podcasts. Scott, we're back. Let's talk about some of the notable Doge moments since last we taped. The White House confirmed that acting Administrator of Doge is indeed not Elon Musk, but a woman

named Amy Gleason. Gleason's LinkedIn lists her as U.S. Digital Services Senior Advisor at CBS News when contacted Gleason regarding story, said she was in Mexico and declined to comment. They just gave a name. And that very testy woman who does press for Trump gets very testy. Very testy. She's got very Megyn Kelly vibes. Anyway, 21 Doge staffers resigned saying in a letter they would not lend their expertise

to carry out legitimizing Doge's actions. The staffers were previously part of the US Digital Service, which was created by President Obama. So these are people who were there helping the government update themselves and they're just not going to put up with big balls and the rest of the crew, the group of idiots, douche boys, crew. The Trump administration and Doge had a rough week with courts. On Tuesday, three federal judges dealt setbacks to the administration involving federal spending, refugees, and foreign aid.

Though Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily delayed a midnight deadline for the administration to unfreeze $2 billion in foreign aid payments on Wednesday. Scott, I have no comment on this. I'm in Mexico. Yeah, I don't. But I'm more interested in, they're using her as a prop such that somebody,

I think someone, I think, my guess is Musk's lawyer said, nothing good can come from you having any sort of official affiliation here. That's right, yeah. And so we need a figurehead to just prop up and say they're in charge, even despite the fact no one can even find her or get any sort of statement from her. Oh, she's in charge that way.

When these myriad of lawsuits actually get to a quote unquote judge who looks at the law, we need to figure, it's almost like they've created, she's effectively the equivalent of a human LLC, where you create a corporate shield between her and Musk. I just can't, I'm trying to figure out the legalities. human LLC where you create a corporate shield between her and Musk. I'm trying to figure out the legalities. She worked for the old service and from people there, she was not.

She's a figurehead. She's meaningless. She did not impress people with her skills. That's what I would say is how they talk about her. No, she's just a figurehead. It's ridiculous. I mean, what's interesting is they do want this to be in court all the time. So they just, it's like a, it's like a ground war with these people, right? And they keep pushing back the way they, after the Apple shareholders, and they're going to threaten Tim Cook. They just never friggin give up. They're like, they're, they're swimmers. I don't know what else to say. The strategy is probably very smart just to keep making trouble and move from department to department, making destruction, and then fixing it will be just impossible, right? That's, that's the goal I think here. Can I ask you a question?

I'm, I'm veering from the script, which will drive our producers crazy because we won't get to sell as many fucking zip recruiter ads. Oh, zip recruiter. That's right. Link it in. Link it in. Z-biotics. Let's party tonight and let's not feel it in the morning.

Hello, dog. Why don't we have any weed ads? You'd like the edible ads. You think? Jesus, not for you, not me. Oh my God, ED, chewable Viagra. Hello, have you met me? ED slash weed ads.

All right, go ahead. What's your question? What did you think of James Carville's opinion piece that would the Democrats to just sit back and let them have at it and let Americans kind of see what happens here? Well, he's been awfully wrong about a lot of things if you really actually follow him closely. He's like, this is how it's going to go for Trump. He's going to lose this way. And then he did. And someone noted-

Well, we said that. I know that's true, but we're not James Carnville, right? So I think it's not a bad idea, except if it's a very serious thing, right? If it's something really hair on fire, we should be hair on fire appropriately. I think we should be obstruct. I think the Republicans, when they got into office and they were in the minority,

just speaking of someone who's retiring, Mitch McConnell shut it down. I think that's what we should do. I think we should be difficult, obstructive, not worry about people blaming us for it. Just get in the way. Just muck up the gears. Let them make a mess.

I would agree with him on that. I would agree. There's no use saying, can you believe, I was on CNN last night with Caitlin Collins, and she goes, what do you make of this Gaza AI thing? I'm like, I don't give a fuck. It's racist, it's obnoxious, he's doing it to distract us, moving on, it's stupid. And why are the belly dancers having beards?

I don't know, I don't care, I don't care. And I think it's mean and terrible and cruel, but what do you want me to say? That's what I think he is. So I think that's the kind of reaction. We can't like swing at every stupid pitch these people put out. I liked it.

What did you think? I'm torn. I actually, I think I have a little bit more reverence for James. I think he's brilliant. And I- I do too. I do too because-

I enjoy how sort of courageous he is. I thought his clip on Fox was just amazing. Great. That was great. And I haven't think of him as sort of a role model. I just like how he's eased into his eighth decade wearing LSU sweatshirts and just being fearless. And also I went to a wedding with him.

He likes to party, but go ahead, you'd like him. Oh, I'm sure, you know that guy. He's like, I'll have a mint julep there for five minutes. Yeah, that was, and her's wife, Mary Matlin, they're an act. They're like, they were the funniest people at the lesbian wedding, but go ahead. They're a pair.

I worry that if we don't, I think there's a way to respond. I like what you said, become obstructionist and just, and get in the way of stuff. I'm up for actually shutting down government. I think we should just say, fine, how about it? No, let's shut it down. But I worry that if we don't respond pretty aggressively, that we de facto normalize what's going on.

And I struggle with it, because I can see his point. It's a really interesting tactical suggestion. Yeah, play dead. Well, just to just sit there and say, this is all Republicans now. Let's let them have at it. See what happens, folks. Hey, US now, let's let them have at it, see what happens folks. Hey, US citizens, you broke it, you bought it.

This is you and not even not give them the satisfaction of being hysterical or responding or swinging back or counterpunching wildly. But I think where I land is, I think you need to be smart about how you respond, but you need to just say consistently with facts and experts, we cannot normalize this. This is not, measles should not be a thing. What she did, yes, 100%. I think aggression is, I think we let them, let them own everything and

then aggression back. Just be like a fucking pain. Like do a Mitch McConnell. Just do a Mitch McConnell. I think, you know who I think we need more of? I think we need more kind of what I'll call dark, I don't want to call it dark maga, but dark woke. Have you, one of my favorite comedians, Bill Burr. I love Bill Burr. It's basically saying this billionaire fuck musk, just because he didn't get laid in high school, we have to put up with his hair plugs

and his total lack of empathy. It's like, how much more money do you guys need? I just, you know, when people can't, people, there's so much money in this country and people can't, people have to get a second and a third job and can't be with their kids. And he, I think we need more of that energy, just embrace. Right in their face, you do, because I was, I told you, I was at an event and one of the stupid tech bros came up to me and they're like, oh, we're beating you, Kara. We're beating you. That's true.

I looked at them and I said, you're still a dickless asshole. They were like, and I still don't want to talk to you. I moved a lot. They didn't know what to do. They were not going to get me in any way. Yeah, you have to still punch them in the nose. Anyway, speaking of punching, and it was speaking of not lack of erection,

it's been a tough week for Tesla. Tesla shares plunged more than 8% on Wednesday, pushing its market cap below one trillion. The stock is down 25% for the year. That drop followed the news that sales in Europe are down 45% from this time last year. Elon backlash is being credited with some of the recent decline,

but other factors include increased EV competition from China, BYD, and consumers wanting a new model. Where's the new fucking model, Elon? Why don't you make better new cars? Not better cars, it's a good car. And there's lots of choices, and nobody likes this fucker. And people are putting things on the cars, writing on the cars. People have signs on their cars saying, I hate him too. I don't know what stop taking the air out of my tires and keying in my thing. I don't do this, but I think about keying them. I do.

And that's the thing, I never think like that. I'm like, oh, I should key this fucking car. But I don't, just everyone know that. Is there anything to be done here? Is it just a declining situation for this company? Well, I mean, first off, all these things require context. And that is, in the past year, the stock, even with its drawdown, is up 50%.

It still trades at just an exceptional valuation. It's trading at PE today of 145. I think Ford trades at a PE of like six or seven. So I think the market, when a company becomes this overvalued is looking for reasons to take it down. But there's just no getting around it. The sales are down in Germany and across Europe and also in California sales are off between 10 and 40%.

So this is really having an impact on sales. And he still gets, I think about a third of his net worth from his stake in Tesla. I think it's just getting started. I mean, I think about a third of his net worth from his stake in Tesla. I think it's just getting started. I mean, I think you remember my prediction three weeks ago. It was, you were right. My broken clock was that at some point,

this is gonna hurt the brand so much. I mean, I gotta think at some point, people don't want to drive into a parking lot and have people flip them off. Which is everyone's, not everyone. A lot of people's inclination now when you see someone in a Tesla is to- I don't like them.

Is like, oh, what an asshole or flip them off. I sold my Tesla three years ago and people said I was overreacting. It's like, you should stay out of politics as a general rule for brands. It is finally starting. I think it got him some loyalty. I think it sort of was a reference

in a little bit like kind of innovation, politically incorrect. Actually, I think that it got him some loyalty. I think it sort of was a reference and a little bit like kind of innovation, politically incorrect. Actually, I think that probably got him some additional customers for a while. But this feels like a lot of people, even people who probably support him think, I just don't need the hassle of someone judging me by the car I roll up in in terms of my politics.

Now I want to be judged when I roll up in a Range Rover. It means that I'm in the midst of a midlife crisis and I can afford it. And would you like to jump on, speaking of erectile dysfunction? in terms of my politics. Now I wanna be judged when I roll up in a Range Rover. It means that I'm in the midst of a midlife crisis and I can afford it. And would you like to jump on, speaking of erectile dysfunction? Yeah, it's a good looking car. For people for context, as Scott was saying,

a year over year, it's up 47, almost 48%. Five years, it's up 561% and max 22,000, 23,000% up. So six months is up 40 percent, one month is down, but down is where it's headed. Look, if they had a great car, people might buy it, but you're right. I think that a hassle,

even if you like Elon Musk, is probably going to bother people. I don't hurt any of these cars, but I did yell a pin dick to someone in a cyber truck recently, which I enjoyed. And I like to do it. Pin dick. Pin dick. Pin dick. The interesting thing will be-

Pin dick. So the stock's overvalued. The market's looking for reasons to take it down. The product lineup feels stale. The interesting thing will be is if his kind of off-camera activities here or his extracurricular activities begin to infect Starlink, because Starlink really is an amazing product and they are signing up new customers like crazy. What I'm interested in or waiting for is the first company that says we're reconsidering our deal with Starlink. Because so far it's just impacted Tesla. with Starlink because so far it's just impacted Tesla. If it goes after, if it starts to infect SpaceX, SpaceX slash Starlink, then Houston has a real problem.

And I think you probably are gonna see that in the next 30 days, a big carrier or a government or someone's gonna say, we're rethinking our relationship with Starlink. I think one of the things that's important that people should think about is, is the product good? Can save you a lot of stuff.

Although even if the product's good and people think you're an asshole, it does affect it. You just stop buying it. I definitely have bought less Amazon stuff because I'm like, why should I give this guy money? I'll give it to Macy's. It's a little harder, but it's not that much harder.

They still have a better product in terms of delivery. But I'm like, I just don't, oh, I just don't like them. I just don't like them. Or I like, you know, I just, I don't want to give Jeff Bezos money. And that's how people, that's how it begins, right? And then you find other alternatives. It's a real opportunity for car,

other car makers, that's for sure. It's funny to say that because last night I was watching Game of Thrones with my 14 year old. Again. And the easiest way to buy it was on, it never gets old, Kara. It never gets old. And so, but last night,

the easiest way to buy it was on Amazon Prime. And for the first time I thought, is there another place I can buy it? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Small little decisions like that. Pindick. All right, Scott, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, we'll talk about Nvidia

beating earnings expectations and Trump's plan to woo wealthy foreign investors. This week on Profit Markets, we speak with Mike Moffat, founding director of the University of Ottawa's Missing Middle Initiative and a former economic adviser to Justin Trudeau. We dive into the state of Canadian politics and we get his take on the biggest challenges facing Canada's economy. Canada's economy is like three oligopolies in a trench coat. We have a lot of inequality that way.

We have high levels of market concentration because we have this tension in Canada where we want things to be Canadian. We want Canadian ownership, but when you do that, you create a moat and whenever you create barriers to entry, you're going to naturally create oligopolies. You can find that conversation exclusively on the ProfG Markets podcast. Scott, we're back. Nvidia has done it again with another Blockbuster Earnings Report. Quarterly earnings were $39 billion, a 78% increase compared to Q4 last year. Profit spiked 80% from a year earlier to $22 billion, beating Wall Street's expectations. The company

projected revenue in the current quarter will rise 65% to $43 billion, a little less than 78%. It was still good. Has N Has Nvidia put these deep seek fears to rest? Remember just a month ago, Nvidia had a $600 billion wipeout when deep seek burst on the scene. It seems like nobody's talking about that now. Thoughts on this? Because, you know, again, by the way,

for people to understand, it really, the stock market rises and falls on Nvidia's shoes right now. And only, speaking, you know who I interviewed? Aswath. Aswath Dharamanarayan? Yes, he talked all about this, but it's seven stocks that are moving the stock market and Nvidia is at the top of the list.

Yeah, some would say 10, but yeah, the Magnum is at seven. He sold his Nvidia, just so you know. Yeah, like what's interesting about the market right now is when it, with respect to Nvidia or some of these other companies, their expectation or the expectations are that they'll beat expectations because what happened yesterday was, again, Nvidia beat expectations. It came in at 39.3 billion versus a projection of 38.3. Its earnings were 89 cents versus projected 84 cents

and the stock is down 1% today. People have gotten so used to, or the market has gotten so used to these companies just blowing away expectations that when they only slightly beat expectations, they kind of, if you will, actually don't meet the expectations. So this company has gotten just so incredibly,

you know, the unusual thing about this company and people like to compare it to Cisco is that Cisco's price earnings multiple went crazy and the price earnings multiple has expanded here, but it hasn't expanded nearly as much because their earnings growth has also been exponential. So like it does appear to have, I don't wanna even say flat line because the gains

have been so extraordinary, but the stock is down 5% year to date. And it's just flat for the last six months after what is like a hundred X increase over the last, I don't know, over the last decade. It really has been the stock of the last decade, but the expectations around these companies now are that you're going to beat expectations. Mm-hmm. So what? What's going to happen here?

You still feel people are going to start spending less on it? They're also seeing competition. They will see competition as has other companies. I'm of the mind that there's a non-zero probability, maybe a one in three chance, where AI ends up being more like the PC industry and the airline industries, where consumers capture the majority of value

because they're not able to create sustainable moats. And I think DeepSeq was the first sort of signal of that. And that is, arguably, jet transportation and PCs should be the most valuable companies in the world. They're not. And I wonder, I mean, a lot of these LLMs are beginning to feel pretty similar. Although I can't stand Anthropic.

It's so fucking PG-13 thing. I can't make recommendations around this. And then we'll talk about American penises. Okay. And also I think it's just gonna be, this could be in fact one of those industries where, and this is a good thing, the winners might be us, the winners might be all industry.

Industry has garnered enormous in citizens shareholder value from Jet Transportation and the PC, but very few companies were able to create moats such that they could capture a lot of the value for specific shareholders. And I think if there's evidence of that this year or there's a slowdown, I think you're absolutely going to see a real correction.

And all I can say is what I'm doing, because I don't think anybody knows, I am rotating out of US stocks into foreign stocks. Because if you look at US growth stocks, which have really carried the day for the last 15 years, relative to the historical averages, they are in the 98th percentile right now. So there's only 2% of the time in history, like basically sometime in 1999 or 2007,

have they been more expensive. At the same time, large cap value companies in Europe, Latin America and China are at their 2%, meaning that they've been higher 98% of their historical, or in history, they've been higher 98% of the time. So I am rotating out. Interesting, interesting. Let me, can I tell you, Aswath said not to do that.

He thinks these US companies are global companies. And so you are investing globally. You're investing globally. And by the way, if in fact you're dumb enough to listen to any of us, absolutely listen to Aswath. But when you have Apple- He's on my podcast today, but yeah, go ahead. But when you have Apple trading at a PE of 39

and it traditionally trades at 18. I mean, it's just not a bad, it's not a terrible idea to think about taking some chips off the table. And some are in cash, like Warren Buffett is much more in cash. He's moved hugely to cash. But Oswald said don't do that because you can never time it correctly and you can be too slow or too fast, like you were saying the other day. Anyway, speaking of cash, President Trump is unveiling a new visa to attract rich foreigners

to the US, the Gold Card. For $5 million, very high level people will get legal permanent residency and a new route to citizenship, according to Trump. The Gold Card would replace the current EB-5 visa, which requires investors put in a million dollars and creates at least 10 jobs. The new initiative is set to be rolled out in two weeks, although some experts are skeptical that it can happen without congressional approval. I don't know, more than 100 countries do offer golden visas to wealthy investors and individuals,

including Australia, Greece, Italy, and Spain. It's not a new idea. I don't know. It's just another hand-wavy distraction. I don't know. I just feel like whatever. Like rich people always get to live where they want. So, okay.

That's right. Rich people can go not only shopping for clothes or experiences, they can go shopping for rights. So if they're back to the statement or these people are protected by the law, but not bound by it, If you're a wealthy person, in fact, you are, you are, the, the law has kind of gotten fed up with you. You can go somewhere else, or if you're worried about persecution,

but you're right, this is nothing new. The EU has taken in approximately $23 billion selling visas across Greece, Malta, Portugal, Spain. The UK used to have a golden visa and then the populace got pissed off by it. What's unusual about this is the price point at 5 million. I would think that that probably just appeals. So I'm on a visa here in the UK.

I'm on what's called a tech talent visa, where I had to say, I bring specialized, differentiated skills around technology. So give me and my family a five-year visa." And they agreed. The notion that you can buy in is not new. What's weird is the price point, because what I think this says is you don't have any other options,

and maybe you're a little bit on the run, or- Yeah, right. Exactly. We're going to get the bad ones, like the kind of sketchy ones. Or the tax authorities are closing in on you. Because if you look at one of the reasons the British economy or London specifically has done really well,

or I would argue has done well over the last 30 or 40 years. I mean, London is the most, Paris is the most beautiful city in the world. London is the most handsome. And when you came here in the 80s, I've been coming here since I was a kid, because my parents are from here, it was a shitty city.

Bad food, ugly rundown. It was just infrastructure was collapsing. It was really a mess. And Tony Blair basically did something similar and that is he passed a series of incredibly airtight private property laws that said, you can be an African warlord or a Russian oligarch, but if you bring in a million, 10 million or a billion dollars into the UK and you

buy property here and you invest your money with British banks, no one can come for it. It's here. No one, no one can come take it away from you. And as a result, London basically became even more so than New York, I would say, every wealthy person's second or first home. And it has catered, it has become a Butler economy. And one of the- But it's kind of the sketchy ones, right?

It feels like there's a lot of like mobsters from Russia. Well, I'm not sure that's fair. Some of them, but it does, it definitely, I think the rich people, the very fine rich people are already here. I just think this appeals to- That's a great point, because here's the difference between London and America.

People go to America to make their billion. People come to London to spend their billion and protect it. And that is my biggest criticism or observation of the London economy. And this is the question I spoke at the Royal Academy of Arts last night. I needed an excuse to drop that, so I'm doing it right now. Fancy.

So fancy. Oh my God. You say it like this, fancy. I sat next to this lovely woman named Dame Rothschild last night, who's actually a quite successful author. She gave me the whole Rothschild story. Dame? Dame Rothschild, yeah.

Okay, all right. Anyways, by the way, that is an incredible venue. I think that was part of the Highlander London experience so far, but anyways, people always ask me,. I think that was probably the highlight of my London experience so far. But anyways, people always ask me, how would you distinguish London from the US? And one of the things I say is that this entire economy in the UK

is serving wealth created elsewhere. And that is the wealthiest people I know here are people in money management. They own great hotels, great restaurants. They're servicing wealth that was built and created or inherited somewhere else. Or stolen. Well, I think that's a little unfair.

I think the majority of these people, well, the majority of the people I know here made a lot of money somewhere else. Okay, anyways, whereas in the US, people go to the US to make their money. And there's so much risk taking and so much aggression. Again, my collective distillation or summary, having molested the earth for the last 30 years,

is America is still the best place to make money and Europe is the best place to spend it. Butler's, butlers, they're good butlers. It's a butler economy. Can I give you a piece of information? DAME is an honorific title given to women who have been admitted to certain orders of chivalry. Well, it's like being a sir.

It is the theme, sir, it's a sir. Yeah, it's like being knighted. You're knighted except you have indoor plumbing. That's correct. Well, whatever's Trump. Sell your stupid gold things. You're not gonna make much money at it, but whatever.

It'll be really interesting to see how many people do it and who it collects. If you need to spend $5 million to get into the US, that's not a great forward-looking indicator of why you need to do that. I feel like we're getting the sketchy types are gonna roll on in. the U.S., that's not a great forward-looking indicator of why you need to do that. I feel like we're getting the sketchy types are going to roll on in. It will be real.

Someone will do some investigative reporting and find out the first- Oh, that's a good story. David Farinhold, calling David Farinhold from the New York Times. The first hundred people that are willing to pay five million bucks to hang out or hide in the U.S. or avoid local tax authorities. All right. It's going to be very interesting. Yeah. All right. to hang out or hide in the US or avoid local tax authorities. It's going to be very interesting. Yeah.

All right. Come on down, you sketchy people. All right, Scott, one more quick break. We'll be back for predictions. OK, Scott, let's hear a prediction. I think Doge is going to be over and done by the end of the year. I think the reason that Musk invented it and came up with it is for money. People talk about patriotism or I, every time we-

It sure looks like it. Every time we dig further into these things, we find out that these individuals are doing everything to try and get richer. And I think he thought I can get in there and under the auspices of some sort of fucked up perverted means of patriotism or getting out my anger or whatever it is, or getting more news about me, I'll also get a twofer because I'll basically fire everybody who's getting in the way of my autonomous car. Yeah, his work is done.

Yeah, I'll get in the way. I'll defenestrate anyone around trying to get in the way of space launches. I think it's all about money. And I think he saw an opportunity to clear out the regulatory hurdles that's between him and a trillion dollars. Having said that, I think over the last 30 days,

he's found out there's a tax to this. And that is, I think, I felt a noticeable pivot in the last 48 hours of the narrative around all this shit. I think I felt a noticeable pivot in the last 48 hours of the narrative around all this shit. I think people, well, you tell me, cause I'm in a bubble and I don't understand the American people anymore. And I realize how out of touch I am,

but I felt like, okay, people wanna give Trump the benefit of the doubt. He should get to pick his cabinet. A lot of people voted for this. No, they don't like Musk. Nobody likes Musk. Right. People think, okay, government is too fat.

I kind of like it kind of tickles some of my sensors that they're feeling some of the pain of the private sector. It feels as if the narrative has turned just in the last 48 hours where all of a sudden Trump and Doge are on their heels and people, including Republicans that voted for Trump, are pissed off. They're like, we wanted more efficiency, we wanted leadership, we did not want this type of heartless recklessness. This does not appear to make any sense. Yeah.

And I think with Musk, I think the straw that's gonna break the camel's back here is when people start canceling contracts at Starlink. And he says, wow, I'm actually losing money doing this. And I think that is about to happen. I think he is a brilliant guy, but it's all about money. The math is gonna show that he is better off pulling of Eveq Ramaswani and it's like fate.

Remember Eveq? Eveq was the co-head of Doge, remember him? Yeah, he's not quiet. And so this is what's gonna happen. It's gonna be like what happens to old actors. They don't die, they just fade away. He is gonna, Doge and Elon Musk are gonna fade away because you can be sure he's doing the math.

And he was like, even if I can get rid of all those pesky regulators, I'm still losing money here because my sales are plummeting because the general public across the US, much less Europe, when they see these idiots surrendering to Putin and when they see the type of recklessness and they see that they're not saving any money, all they're doing is making our government less competent.

You're gonna see Tesla sales continue to plummet, Tesla stock continue to go down. And again, the pivotal moment here is when it starts to infect Starlink. And I think he's gonna fade back to the corporate sector. Yeah, it's interesting. People like the idea of the government efficiency thing. So do you and I.

Well, Clint and Gore did it. Almost every president's done it. Yeah, right, exactly. But listen to this, this was a Pucks, Peter Hamby wrote a piece, not just about the polls, which you can take, the White House is saying polls show people love him and love it, which isn't true. Hamby looked at focus groups and swing voters.

Who cares about the maggot people? They're gonna to like them. He can shit on the stage. They'd like it. Recent focus groups of swing voters in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Florida, they like the idea of efficiency. They hate Elon Musk. This is some of it.

Polls, for instance, don't tell you that Musk is a weird nerd, which is how Adam, a Trump-voting hockey fan from Macomb County, described the billionaire last week, or that he's a complete tool, as Michael from Milwaukee put it, or scary, Tiesha from Toledo, or selfish, DeAndre from Milwaukee, just looking to enrich himself. Perhaps Eric, a real estate appraiser from Pittsburgh, put it most poignantly, extremely radical, scary, I just shudder that Trump has given him carte blanche. These are the big things. Musk and Doge are treated with skepticism. They like Trump because he looks strong when Biden was weak.

So it's not affecting Trump, they just don't like Musk. Eventually it will affect Trump and that's when he'll act. But swing voters do not like this fellow, no matter how you slice it. Anyway, we'll see. You're right. That's a great prediction. Elsewhere in the Scott and Kara universe, this week, Scott spoke with David Bernat, the Emmy-winning executive producer behind HBO's White Lotus.

They discussed the making of the hit series, the shifting landscape in Hollywood, and wait for it, Scott's surprise cameo in the next episode of White Lotus. That's right. The big screen. It's about time. I'm so excited. I'm going to watch White Lotus. Tell me Clint Eastwood dog. I am going to download it. I'm going to Australia Saturday just so you know. Really?

Yeah, I am. I'm going to listen to White Lotus so I can hear your voice. That's a long way to someone your age. Yeah, I know. It's true. Moving the books. Okay, let's listen to Scott. Let's listen to this interview. I was in Kusumui. You sent me the first recordings. I listened to it.

I almost shit my pants because I was like, I don't know if- This sucks. This sucks. I don't know if it's going to fly. And I think I had, then I heard you mention it on, I think on Pivot. And so I was extra nervous that I was gonna somehow disappoint you, I did not wanna disappoint you. And so I called, I think I got, maybe I was back in LA

or might've been still in Thailand. And then I was like, I had the smart idea of sending Jason Isaacs over to your apartment. Just, you know, I was like, maybe Jason could help you read with you. And I remember I was like very anxious. I was like, Jason, call me as soon as you get out of there. Jason called me and he goes, we did an hour of takes. It could be all dog shit.

Maybe there's something in there. And I have to say genuinely, you are great in the show. In those hour of recordings, we found gold. I'm hoping this is the beginning of a long Hollywood career for you. Let me just say, I came to your apartment. I go into Scott's apartment. I walk in and there is Lucius Malfoy sitting there and the guy from the asshole from the Patriot.

I was like, oh my God, hello. And he was lovely. And you and he were running lines, whatever. He was in the kitchen, you were in the studio. And I was like, hello, Lucius Malfoy. What the fuck are you doing here? He's a tall drink of lemonade. He's a handsome man.

He's a very handsome man. I'm a handsome man, yeah. So this is great. This is great. I'm excited to hear you. I'm excited to hear you. So I gotta add some color here. He called me and said, would you consider doing a cameo? I'm like, yes, how much will it cost me? I mean, I'm so to hear you. I'm excited to hear you. So I got to add some color here. He called me and said, would you consider doing a cameo?

I'm like, yes, how much will it cost me? I mean, I'm so excited about it. And they love Pivot, the whole white lotus team. Yeah, and basically I did, I read my lines and I thought, oh, it's like kind of own a room. You're a lawyer giving some very bad news to someone. It's just, of course, face radio. It's just my voice.

And I thought, oh my God, I nailed it. And I sent it and they wrote back, well, we love it, but we think it can be even better. And I later found out that they were thinking about cutting it out. I was so bad. Oh God. And Jason took me into the studio

and it was such a learning experience for me because he would do stuff like, I do a line and he'd go, no, he's like, you're scared of this dude, but you're also angry. Have you ever been scared and angry? And he's like, think about it. And I talked about it and he's like, no, he's like, you're scared of this dude, but you're also angry. Have you ever been scared and angry? And he's like, think about it. And I talked about it. And he's like, okay, now hit it.

And he's like, no, no, no, no. And then on another line, he'd be like, this dude is banging your wife and you are now really pissed off and you just found out and you're gonna tell him this, hit it. And we did this back and forth where he was trying to bring out emotions in me.

And he'd be like, no, no, no, you're reading to an eight-year-old a comic book, be more animated, hit it. We did this back and forth for an hour and I was practically sweating. I was so exhausted by the end of the hour. And it made me walk away with such an incredible appreciation for just how fucking hard acting and directing is. And this guy literally turned my chicken shit

into what I'm hoping is chicken salad. And it was so generous of him. He's not a director. He didn't get paid to do this, but he wanted the scene to be grained. He was lovely. He was lovely. And he was the guy, he's the lead in the show.

By the way, Parker Posey is hilarious. Oh my God. There's a great article about her in New York Times today. I love Parker Posey so much. I get so thrilled she's getting the attention. She's fantastic. I think Jason owns the screen whenever he's on it, but obviously I'm a little bit biased,

but he was so, it just gave me an appreciation. You think acting is like they're really good looking and just act like themselves. That is hard. That was one of the hardest hours I have ever spent. You were a little bit shook up, but you loved it. Let me just say, he's still as handsome, has a great head of hair.

And by the way, we have a lot of acting, Justin Thrill, by the way, congratulations, Justin. He's getting married. That's right, he is. Are you going to the wedding? I am, yeah. I can't go. I think he's mad at me.

Yeah. I can't go. No, I'm excited. It's to loom, daddy's gonna do. He said, get on Scott's plane. I was like, oh, he's right. This is literally the douchebagiest conversation we have ever had, talking about my White Lotus experience

and going to Tulum. I don't care, it was fun. Scott, I'm excited to hear you. I'm gonna listen to White Lotus because of you. While we're at it, let's put this question on threads. Which one of us would survive an entire season at the White Lotus and who would get killed off? Scott or Kara?

And how? You don't even need to put that question out. It's going to be 90-10. It's going to be you auto-exfixiating. I'm done. That's where it's happening. I'm dead. It's going to be you doing the David Carradine out in Thailand.

100%. That's what's going to... Anyway, just weigh in if you could think of something. By the way, we're killing it on YouTube. We're growing like crazy and I'm very excited. We're all over the place. So visit us at Pivot Podcast, official to answer. Scott, before we go, this just came over the wires. Katy Perry, Gayle King, and Lauren Sanchez are going to space in the next launch from Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos' rocket company.

It's not really a mission. They're calling it a mission, but they're gonna join three other women as the crew of the set to launch in the spring. Just like, I thought it would give you a chance. It's the 11th crewed flight of the New Shepard rocket. No, no, no. I wish them the breast of luck. I mean, I wish them.

Okay, all right. If there's an explosion in the capsule, we gotta be quick to judge. Oh, I knew you would do this. That's okay, I allowed it. I allow it, I allow it. Anyway, good luck. I'm a fan of fake breasts

and I have found so far that they taste real. Okay, and Godspeed. That's why the people come here, Kara. Godspeed, ladies, Godspeed. Okay, Scott, that's the show. We'll be back That's why the people come here, Kara. Godspeed, ladies. Godspeed. Okay, Scott, that's the show. We'll be back on Tuesday with more Pivot. Please read us out. Today's show is produced by Lara Neiman, Zoe Marcus,

Taylor Griffin, and Corinne Ruff. Ernie and Todd entered in this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Miss Severio, and Dan Shillan. Nishat Kuro has Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod.

We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business.