Pivot - Epstein Saga Continues, Trump Launches Distractions, and Cuomo Relaunches Campaign

Episode Date: July 18, 2025

Kara and Scott discuss whether Trump will fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell, and all of the administration's efforts to distract from the Epstein scandal.   Elon Musk’s Grok scores a contract with the Defense Department, and Andrew Cuomo will officially run as an independent in the NYC mayoral race.  Plus, the House advances three crypto bills, and Kara and Scott are feeling better than ever after getting some love from a certain fellow podcast host. Watch this episode on the ⁠⁠Pivot YouTube channel⁠⁠. 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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Join industry leaders including Flatfile, Replicate, Modal, and more. You can go to atio.com slash pivot, and you'll get 15% off your first year. That's attio.com slash pivot. Stop. Do you know how fast you were going? I'm gonna have to write you a ticket to my new movie The Naked Gun. Liam Neeson. Buy your tickets now and get a free chili dog. Chili dog not included. The Naked Gun. Tickets on sale now, August 1st.

There's regular cold. And then there's the mountains are blue cold. Mountain cold refreshment. Coors Light. The Chill Choice. Celebrate responsibly. Must be legal drinking age. Is it, you see it a lot or not?

See what? What are we worried about? Root canal. I just had root canal this morning. Jesus. I know. Man, my mouth is not moving. Hi everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara Swisher and I just had root canal. So I have a lot of mouth issues, Scott.

I might drool during the show. Let's be honest, that's a distraction from the Epstein files and I'm not falling for it, Kara. I'm not falling for it. There's cane sugar and coke. I'm not falling for it. It's true. God, I have the worst teeth, Scott.

Do you have good teeth? I have terrible teeth, my dentist told me this. Oh my God, I have. I didn't go to the dentist till I was nine, at which point I had eight cavities and then I fainted in the waiting room. So no, I don't have good, we have, the Galloways are not blessed with good teeth.

I had braces in graduate school. I was very self-conscious of my teeth. I have veneers. I have spent the GDP of a small nation so my teeth can just look reasonable. Yeah, I just got a crown. I had an implant recently. They found another cavity while they were fixing this one today. So both sides of my mouth have like, you know, when they put the stuff in, they don't even put me to sleep, which I would prefer. I have a great doctor, Dr. Schwartz, but I got to tell you, he moves so fast.

I was like, I have pivot to do. And he goes, you know, you'll drool. And I said, I get it, it's fine. We got to bring the people their information. It's an uncomfortable topic, but I'm a fan of women getting implants. It's important that you feel good about yourself. And I find that they actually,

they may not look real, but they taste real. They do not, they do not look good. Anyway, so thank you Dr. Schwartz for doing it so fast. Dr. Schwartz, the dentist. The dentist, he's my dentist. We're meeting for Whitefish later. I don't even know if he's Jewish, anyway. Okay, okay, I do.

Spoiler, I'm sorry, a dentist in DC named Dr. Schwartz. No, no, he's a Baptist. I don't know for sure, okay. In any case, he's a Baptist. I don't know for sure. Okay, in any case. Yeah, no, he's- I've judged people based on their religion. He's a legislative aide to Mike Johnson. Yeah.

Okay, listen to me, listen to me. Scott, even though I'm incredibly unattractive right now and possibly drooling, I don't even know if I am, do you know who's eyeing us from across the room? Who's that? None other than New York Times- Emily Ratajkowski. No, Michael Barbaro.

Oh, we love Michael. I know. This is the daily. Apparently, he's got a thing for us. Here's what he said when asked which podcast or creator he would like most to collaborate with. Let's listen to the dulcet tones of Michael Barbaro. Is it Barbaro?

I don't know. The king and queen of pivot, Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway. I just think those two have an extraordinary chemistry and a tremendous amount of wisdom. And so I want to work with them. And implants. What does that mean he wants to work with us? Work what? Oh my God. First off, I don't listen to a lot of podcasts. I listen to The Daily. I absolutely adore it. It's like listening to Kamomile T.

explain the Fed rate hike. Oh yeah, it's delicious. I get the sense that guy, I don't know Michael, I get the sense he's so woke that he records from like underneath a weighted blanket in between panic attacks, wondering if his cat's milk is ethically sourced. I can't even imagine how woke that dude is. Oh, he's a really nice guy.

He's a nice guy. You know what the Daily is seriously like? I love it. Now listen to it. It's like having your smarter friend whisper in your ear, it's worse than you think. Shh. Shh.

Shh. Well, I stroke you. And sometimes, most of the time it's amazing. Sometimes though, it's literally like it took 23 minutes to give you the same vibe as a really good Slack emoji. It's like that took 23 minutes. I know, I know, but he's insulting him. He likes us. He's more handsome than us.

He'd be the top. It's the best podcast out there. I know. It's number one. Apparently, we are,'d be the top. It's the best podcast out there. I know. It's number one. Apparently we are, let's just say. It's number one. No, it shifts back and forth with Joe Rogan

and different things, but. Huh, I love how he does that. And he pauses it. And you know they pause it, they go, okay, put in a huh right now. Yeah, that's it. That's it. I like when he goes, this is the daily.

I spent one dinner with him completely using his voice, talking to him in his life. Oh, there's video of him, he's dreamy. He wasn't, he's dreamy. They're all dreamy now over there at the New York Times. They're doing a lot of video and a lot of like Vaseline's happening. Oh no, trust me.

Unless they've cleared out the building, I spent some time there. I know. But if you looked at the video between him and Ezra Klein, it's like lettuce in your polycule. I mean, come on. We're not good looking enough for their group. No.

No, we're not. Thank you, Michael. We're big fans. We stack above Russ Duhat or whoever pronounced that guy. Let's take him to dinner and invite over like a Kombucha Somalia. That guy's got to be so woke. Well, he wants us, so that's all that matters to us. It's good to be wanted. Thank you, Michael. Thank you, Michael. We're very pleased with that.

I like being objectified. If he could speak more specifically to our physical attributes outside of your implants, I would appreciate it. I have very broad shoulders. I look better. Michael, just so you know, I'm six years old but naked. I look 59 and 7-8. You big tall drink of lemonade. True fact, Michael, I've never seen old, but naked I look 59 and 7 8s. You big tall drink of lemonade.

True fact, Michael, I've never seen Scott naked. Actually, I've seen the top half of you naked, I have. You've seen me naked a lot. What are you talking about? No, I haven't seen the bottom half and I hope never to. Let me just say, it's on my list of things never to do. Nickname of the fraternity, don't ask me. Don't ask me.

I know, the tripod. Don't ask me. You told me. The tripod. Tripod, stop it. Stop it, me. You told me. The tripod. The tripod, stop it, stop it. I don't wanna talk about it. Okay.

I, we're never gonna do a naked thing ever. You're literally giddy right now. You're still on the nitrous. I am, because, no, I'm not on nitrous. They didn't give me nitrous. I love nitrous. They didn't give me. Oh, what's the point?

You have got to start living your life. I know. I go to the dentist. I want nitrous. I have, by the way, I have terrible dental hygiene. I brush my teeth twice a day and I'm like, I walk in there and they love this. And I say, I have terrible dental hygiene. I brush my teeth twice a day and I'm like, I walk in there and they love this. And I say, I have terrible dental hygiene.

You're gonna give me a bunch of shit in a lecture, none of which I'm gonna listen to or use. I get my teeth cleaned every three months. And it's always like a hot Brazilian woman who's a single mother. I get really fucked up on the nitrous. They don't give me nitrous. I start getting emotional.

And by the end of my teeth cleaning, I'm waving her hand. Yeah. And writing a memo to the dentist about what an amazing professional she is. You know, all the people who work at dental, things that I've had experiences are great. All the people who clean.

And we'll stop with the dentist stuff, but nonetheless, I don't do nitrous. I got those shots. I still feel like I'm spitting. In any case, let's talk about it. It doesn't matter. I have trays right now. Do you have trays?

I have Invisalign. Every time I go- I did use Invisalign, yes. I'm serious. I am paying for my dentist's house in Aspen. He lives in Aspen. He's never at his dentist. He's like this dentist to the stars, Jonathan Levine.

And every time I walk in there, they're like, uh-oh, we found something. You need some antibiotic crypto treatment that's gonna cost $11,000. Dennis to the stars, Jonathan Levine. Every time I walk in there, they're like, ''Uh-oh, we found something. You need some antibiotic crypto treatment. It's going to cost $11,000.'' I'm like, ''Well, it's my teeth. I got to spend it.'' Yeah, I can see you going, ''Yeah, yeah, yeah.'' You're like, ''They see you coming.''

Oh, they're like. All the doctors see you coming. A hundred percent. Just saying. Anyway, we have a lot to get to today. We do. Besides Michael, anytime Michael call us, we're really easy. We're totally easy. Trump lashes out at his base over the Epstein files.

This is going on, and Groff goes to Washington. But first, look, President Trump and Jerome, speaking of a distraction, this is something that's been ongoing. He said it's highly unlikely he'll fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Let's just be clear, he's not allowed to. So it is highly unlikely unless he comes up with some scheme, despite reports that he was considering it, even showing a draft termination letter to a group of House Republicans to

get their buy-in, I guess. After those reports rattled markets on Wednesday, I mean the doubt dropped like a lot. And Trump said in an Oval Office presser, we're not planning on doing anything, at which point the markets bounce back. Trump also said he was surprised that Powell was appointed, apparently forgetting he was the one who did that back in 2017 and quite effusively. Literally all these, it's so interesting. He's the one who appointed him, he's pretending he didn't.

He was like, I don't know who appointed him. And there he was. Trump has been slamming Powell for months for not cutting interest rates, calling him a major loser and a stubborn mule. He's now targeting the Fed's $2.5 billion renovation project, suggesting there might be fraud at play, which could be grounds for Powell's ouster. It's ridiculous that everybody, the bankers are being public about it, ouster. It's ridiculous that everybody, the bankers are being public about it, the Wall Street Journalist being very explicit. And Powell himself has been pretty vocal about Fed independence, which means serving at his full term, which is up next year. It's not that long. Let's listen to what he said to the Economic Club of Chicago back in April. Our independence is a matter of law. Congress has, in our statute, we're not removable except

for cause, we serve very long terms, seemingly endless terms. So it's, we're protected in the law. So, you know, Congress could change that law, but there's, I don't think there's any danger of that. Fed independence has pretty broad support across both political parties and in both sides of the hill. So I think that's not a problem. Yeah, Jamie Dimon, Goldman Sachs CEO, David Solomon, other the bank CEOs, touting Fed

independence. Even Secretary of the Treasury Scott Besson confirmed to Bloomberg that the formal process of finding Powell's successor has begun, but he didn't say that Powell should come out. He didn't name any candidates. Reports suggest that Kevin Hassett, director of National Economic Council, is the top contender. Kevin Warsh, former Fed governor, is also in the mix, as is Besson himself. So what is happening here? And then which of these do you think he will name? I think I know exactly what's going on here.

Okay, tell me. Well, it's as if we're at the Nuremberg trials and one of the people on trial starts playing the kazoo hoping that we'll all forget why we're there. It's a magician sawing his assistant in half and then yells out Benghazi hoping that people will look away. This is what is going on at the White House right now. It's his comms team and Claude or Chad GPT saying, what can I do every day?

What can I announce every day that will capture the media's attention such that they look away from the Epstein files? Look at how he, this has nothing to do. He's been at this for a while. Like Scott, he has, he's been at Powell's before. But go ahead. He waves a letter talking about the firing,

waves a letter thinking that everyone from Vox media, podcasters to the New York Times, to CNBC will go, Chairman Powell is threatening to fire him. And then the next day he goes, oh no, I was just kidding. This was all a giant ruse. The day before it was 85% tariffs on Canada. The day before that, it was revoking the citizenship of a talk show host because he doesn't like her.

And tomorrow, Kara, it's gonna be something else. He is in a room. Coca-Cola didn't turn out to be taint. That's the only one I liked. He is in a room. Oh yeah, that's right. We have a new trade agreement to change the sugar cane or the sugar in Coca-Cola.

Make it Mexican Coke. Make it Mexican Coke. Every day his comps team, and this is all he cares about right now is saying, putting into chat GPT, what will the media go for in order to ensure that the story of Epstein is pushed out of the news cycle. He had no intention of doing this before the market's reaction.

He has no legal authority whatsoever to start revoking citizenship for no real reason. And tomorrow, it'll be something else. Something illegal. This is- Make a guess of what it is. Give me one. If you're sitting in there, what would you tell him to do? I think he's gonna announce like a 700% tariff on, you know, SUVs or something.

I mean, it's just getting, it's getting so ridiculous and weird and crazy. What's amazing to me was that the market responded, that it's still, the market's still taking this guy seriously. But every- It wasn't for a minute. Now it was like, ugh. Every 24 hours.

First off, he and the wealthiest man in the world are such attention whores. They are addicted to attention. That a heroin addict will shoot a parent going, this is a bad idea. I've got my kids for the weekend and my in-laws are coming over. This is probably not a good idea to shoot up,

but they can't help that they're so addicted. These guys are so addicted to attention that they'd rather get attention for something that makes them look stupid than not be in the news cycle. And he now has a very valid reason because I'm not, the one conspiracy I've always held onto is- Okay, we're gonna get to Epstein in a minute, but go ahead, keep going.

But this is what's going on, Kara. Okay. This has nothing to do with the chairman. But he will stay there. There's no way he's pulling them out. Look, OK, so let's go to the substance of the issue. The majority of nations that have grown their economy faster than the rest of the world have one thing in common.

One, they are in fact democracies. China is an exception, but the majority of the economic growth around the world has come from nations that decide that they're going to democratically elect their leaders. They have great universities. They're usually blessed with natural resources. They have the wisdom to engage in alliances so they can trade. They bring women into the workforce. I mean, there's just a few that have civil rights.

There's a few things that are the underpinnings of economic growth. And one of those things is an independent Fed, because here's the bottom line. If you let the government decide what to do with respect to our economic policies and our fiscal policies, you end up with George Washington to George Bush, $8 trillion in deficits. And then you end up since George W. Bush

with another 30 trillion in deficits. The reason why every fiat currency in history, and it'll happen to the dollar, ends up being worthless is that the political pressure to increase short-term prosperity by printing money or lowering interest rates is greater than these elected leaders' fidelity to the long-term interests of the country. And so when we let politicians who have two and four and six-year cycles make these decisions, we end up making short-term bad decisions

that hurt the country in the long-term. So the best practice, one of the key best practices across almost every G20 country is they say, there's too much temptation for the leader to want to get re-elected and give a short-term sugar high and lower interest rates. And I taught micro macroeconomics in graduate school and they will be teaching in graduate school for years.

This period where Jerome Powell managed to take inflation from 9% to 2% without triggering a recession. That's like literally like sticking the landing. All right. Well, but that said, the impact of Trump's policies over the last few months is starting to show up in the economy. New data out this week is inflation ticking up in June. Prices also rose in categories affected by tariffs like toys, furniture, and appliances. The job market is starting to show some cracks where there are indicators that consumers

are reining in spending. Still, the economy is holding up better than expected. Economists now see less risk of a recession than they did three months ago, as you noted, according to a Wall Street Journal survey. Is there another shoe to drop? Banks are riding the volatility. Goldman Sachs is supposed to be the best ever quarter for stock trading, and several other banks beat earnings expectations and

At the same time Trump is threatening new sanctions on Russia, you know, another economic probably Maybe not so much for our economy if there's no peace deal with Ukraine in the next 50 days He says he'll launch a secondary tariff slapping hundred percent on countries that continue doing business with Russia That would mean countries like India China Turkey face heavy tariffs for buying Russian oil, a move that could trigger a global spike in energy prices. I doubt, I'm not sure Putin cares, but talk about these circumstances. Where are we with the economy from your perspective? The real question on everyone's mind right now, or the most important question we should

be asking ourselves is that at this moment, Kara, is Michael Barbaro touching himself? He's back. He's back. The answer is yes. The answer is always yes. But go ahead. Well, look, the economic data that came out, I looked at it and I thought, okay, this is the ultimate anger pillow for the far left and the far right. There's some indication that certain items, especially the ones subject to tariff, had a greater increase in inflation. But at the same time, catastrophists like me are disappointed because the reality is inflation,

and I think at 2.7 or 2.8, just isn't that big a deal. And the economy has been more resilient than people who are kind of in the back of their minds looking for some Schadenfreude of the economy collapsing and blaming it on Trump. Yeah, it needs to collapse next summer, everybody. But go ahead. The headline, and I haven't seen the headline,

the headlines from Fox will be economy resilient. The headline from CNN will be inflation rising. This is, there's something in here for everyone. There's a little bit of data showing that the tariff sensitive goods services went down. They're not subject to tariffs. Some of the industries subject to tariffs have shown a little bit of a spike in price. But the reality is we're not going to probably see the effects of this or not until the fall

because it takes a while for it to snake through the economy. The Russia thing, when I immediately knew that the war was not going to end was when I saw Chiron yesterday saying that Trump has demanded that Putin end the war in 50 days. That is just so fucking stupid. You really think the Russian people have endured over a million deaths and or casualties

and you think that he's gonna scare when the president says it needs to end within 50 days. The interesting thing though, I mean, Russia's economy does, you wanna talk about an economy that appears to be cracking, the rubles shot up. It's now back to being worth less than a cent and it did recover a little bit.

But this war is really, I mean, I believe they lost, what did they lose? 17 or 18,000 people in Afghanistan, they backed out. They've lost a million people here. And it feels as if the economy is really starting to show tracks there. And I've said this for a long time. I think that both Biden and Trump to a lesser extent,

but they both deserve credits. The greatest investment in terms of ROI in the last 20 years for America has been the 50 or $60 billion a year, or about, I don't know, 8% of our military budget that we have given in weapons that is sort of a stimulus to red states and weapons manufacturers in the US.

There's no way Syria would have gone. There's no way we would have been able to take out Iran's air defenses. It has sent a message to China to be very careful, be very careful invading a motivated, technically literate Taiwan. This has been, NATO is coming together, Europe has been inspired to increase its defense spending.

This has been the best investment Americans could have made. And all by, by the way, we did this without putting a single boot on the ground. And you watch what we're going to see in terms of technical innovation around drone technology. So I think this is, there are never good wars, but there are less bad wars.

The support of Ukraine and incredibly brave people there, is the least bad war in a while. Yeah. Although the devastation obviously is horrific. I think they'll come bouncing back like, that'll be the place to be in 10 years. Ukraine, Kiev. Full of technologists, full of, I just, they are a very innovative country

in terms of they were before and now I think more than ever. They're very technically oriented. So I think you'll see a piling of Silicon Valley people in there. Similar to a lot to Estonia, all those countries, but Ukraine will be a really, I think a centerpiece of that when this war is over. Yeah, we'll see. When we get back after a quick break, we'll talk about the drama that's not going away anytime soon. sense, so achieving and maintaining compliance takes a ton of time and money. Vanta is a trust management platform that helps businesses automate up to 90%

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The Epstein mess continues. Since we last spoke, House Speaker Mike Johnson has broken with Trump and is calling for the administration to release the Epstein files. That said, he voted against doing a debate about whether to release them or not, which is interesting. But Republican Representative Thomas Massie, who's a real thorn in Trump's ass of Kentucky, is attempting to force a vote on the House directing the DOJ to release the files. The measure has been co-sponsored by at least five other Republicans.

Interestingly, almost three minutes of footage is wiped from the video released by the DOJ of Epstein-Seldor, according to the forensic experts working with Wired. Maureen Comey, the Manhattan federal prosecutor who worked on the Epstein case, has been fired. Yes, she is the daughter of James Comey. She also worked on the Diddy case. Meanwhile, President Trump has called the story democratic bullshit and pretty boring stuff, labeling those who are invested in as weaklings and stupid.

The Democrat suck isn't working very well. Because one incredible thing is Bill O'Reilly was going on about how this was the Biden administration doing all this. The anchor was like, this was all under the Trump administration. He died under the Trump administration, he was prosecuted under the Trump administration. All of a sudden, Riley went, oh, speaking of old man,

he got it completely wrong. Anyway, it's not a democratic thing. This was all done under Bill Barr and everyone else. So any change in opinion on whether Republicans would be pushing him? Because as I predicted, Laura Ingraham, many others sort of tamped it down. Looks like Dan Bongino's not going anywhere.

I said they were all gonna bow down. That said, I don't know if they'll bow down for too long. So, and obviously Elon is not bowing down at all. He is tweeting up a storm about this, and he made a very good point that essentially deny everything, make other allegations, and try to make it go away. And he said, it's not gonna work this time.

And he's pushing on it really hard and it probably changing the algorithms of X to to push a lot of this stuff because it's good for X I hate to say it but He's certainly not backing down and neither are many others Any thoughts Alex Jones is is not at all, but I'm not sure he matters as much This is a rare he's an incredible communicator kind of going I think the learning is that when everyone is zigging, there's always a huge opportunity to zag. That when everybody is following one strategy or one investment thesis, then it creates

enormous alpha and upside to go the other way. And Trump, Anthony Scaramucci pointed this out and I thought it was so remarkably insightful that basically every politician in the world says something along the following, I'm socially liberal and fiscally conservative. I mean, what does 80% of America say that if you want to describe their politics and they don't want to assign themselves to a party they go socially liberal, fiscally conservative. Actually, that's not true, but go ahead.

It's the opposite. Most in the middle, they're more socially conservative and they want more Medicaid. That's where I was headed, was that Trump decided, no, the opportunity is to be fiscally liberal. Keynesian socialist, irresponsible fiscal policy. Shower money on everyone, increase the size of government, run up deficits.

This is like if the Democrats all of a sudden said, oh, we are in charge and we can just continue printing money. And all of a sudden the Democrats are now the adults in the room going, oh my God, this has gotten out of control. He's also, he zags around communication. American politics got so politically correct and starched and there were so many lies and telling people what they wanted to hear

and couching everything in passive aggressive behavior. And he just came out and said, oh, she's fat or he's an idiot. Or, and America quite frankly just loved it. They absolutely loved it. Where he is really, this is such a rare misstep for him because if he had just taken the approach of say his taxes, he was never going to release his taxes.

But he lied. That's a good comparison. He lied and said, oh, of course I'm going to release them and then wink, wink to behind the scenes, don't ever fucking release my taxes. If he had done that here, eventually this would have gone away. But he became so defensive and obviously guilty.

I said- He looks guilty. It looks like when I walk in and my dog, my dog Leia, my great dame has gotten into the trash, I know it. She's, she's sulking around like, uh-oh, won't make eye contact, putting her hindquarters- Yeah, that look, we had the dog look.

He looks like this times 10. He has fanned these flames unbelievably and handled it so poorly. He could not, I think I said this on Monday, if someone had said to him, if he had said, tell me, give me the body language, the statements and the complexion of someone who is clearly guilty of something and freaked out about it, that is how he has behaved.

So what should he do? Say, again, as I said, should he just say he's going to release them and then not release them or agree with his people and say it's terrible, nothing can be done about it? I mean, in this case, he does have the power to release it. So it's really hard to say, yeah, I agree we should release it and then not release it. Because he's the one who promised it in the election. He's the one who talked about it incessantly.

He's the one who trained his followers to be conspiracy theorists, right? And these people are committed, more committed to the conspiracy than they are to him at this point. It's just so weird about this and the statement about what it says about our politics. And that is, first off, what do you know the first bipartisan action, or the first demonstration of bipartisanship in this fucked up electoral body is over a conspiracy. That's what it took to bring Democrats and some Republicans together, was a conspiracy. That's what it took to bring Democrats and some Republicans together, it was a conspiracy.

And what's weird about it is I get the sense that they're not, the people who are so outraged about this, they're not outraged that they want to know if these people are guilty of raping children. They want to know if their conspiracy is valid. It's not, it's just so strange. And also what I don't get is a following and why I believe, wow, there may be a there there,

is that if he had just done what any number, I mean, at some point this island looked like a little bit like what you would imagine Davos would look like except with bathrobes and ankle monitors. I mean, this gathering, there were so many people there that are really powerful. And the majority of them have said, yeah, I fucked up. I thought it was gonna be a good time and a good party

and everybody else was going. Yeah, you talked about that. Keep in mind, Kara, this is a country that has forgiven him after he was found liable for sexual abuse. And so many accusations on top of that. And he's worried about, and he thinks this is worse. him after he was found liable for sexual abuse. And so many accusations on top of that. And he's worried about, and he thinks this is worse. So how could it be worse?

Yeah, who'd have thought that someone who had that history. What are your thoughts here? I think I'm fascinated how interested I am now in understanding. I think there's a huge opportunity here for fraud, that they will release certain things, because he keeps saying she can release the credible things, right? And so I think there was a joke, I thought Jordan Klepper did a great job talking about that they're going to try to fake things, like fake conversations and things like that. There's a huge opportunity for manipulating this information if it does get released,

so be dubious of some of it, and creating kind of a mess so you don't know what's what. There's a huge opportunity for really hurting people that are not guilty who just stupidly went to his island. At the same time, a lot of it probably is, it's probably worse than you think, right? What this guy has on these people, because he was operating for decades, by the way, Jeffrey Epstein. It wasn't a short time. And people kept going after he was convicted in a sweetheart deal. All the people in Florida were involved in the sweetheart deal, including one of Trump's former cabinet members, and ended up having to leave because of it. I think Trump is acting guilty because he is guilty.

The question is, what is he guilty of? What exactly is he guilty of? What proof is there? Why hasn't the proof come out till now? You'd think this stuff would come out, and it's interesting that it hasn't. That's another thing. The other thing is, he keeps saying incredible evidence.

What does he say? Everything he says I pay attention to. I think it's a big giant mess. And if I were him, I'd let it all out and let the chips fall where they may and make it confusing for everybody. Make it a bigger hot mess than it is. I think it's not going to go away. The Maureen Comey thing, why would you do that? Why would you file the prosecutor of Jelaine Maxwell? Is he preparing to pardon her?

And I think, let me just say, I think Elon has a very good point. What is she doing in jail? He's calling it a hoax, the whole thing. Why is Jelaine Maxwell in jail if it's a hoax? I'd like to know. Well, and again, if the election was stolen in 2020, how many people have been arrested? Zero. Anyway, so again, what is Maureen Comey's firing? Again, start playing the kazoo. Do you think it was an accident that he fired her yesterday?

No, I just think what's interesting is a firing of federal prosecutor and a tape gap. That reminds me of someone, Nixon. I feel like just MAGA has given us license to talk about our favorite conspiracy. Do you remember the Godfather? I don't think he was murdered. I think this is what happened.

You know how in Godfather 2, the Robert Duvall character visits that guy in witness protection or in prison who's going to testify against Michael Corleone? And Robert Duvall, the concierge, comes to him and says, hey, you know, being ancient Rome, they used to kill themselves, and then their families would be taken care of? He basically says to him, if you kill yourself,

we'll take care of your family. I think something along the lines of, all right, care of. He basically says, if you kill yourself, we'll take care of your family. I think something along the lines of, all right, if you want to kill yourself, we'll figure out a way such that no one gets in the way. Something went on here. This is just two cameras, two guards, and through just a series of very, very unlikely events, he was able to do this. This is, I mean, this really is the stuff of conspiracy theory. It's just sort of like you read about this and there's no less than probably a dozen or two dozen people.

If someone came to that person and said, oh, by the way, if somehow $10 million ends up in a Swiss banking account, this guy's going to end up dead. I think there's a lot of people who are on that island who would probably nod. So this is, and again, I come back to the same thing. First off, the Comey thing was another one

of his attempts at distraction, hoping that the media would pick up on it. If I had to guess, he slept with someone underage and there's proof of that. Yeah, that's called rape. That's right, raping kids, raping children. That's what I'm saying. I think that is- Well, that's what everyone's guess is. That's called rape. That's right, raping kids, raping children. That's what I'm saying. I think that is-

Well, that's what everyone's guess is. That's the assumption. It wasn't that he had mushroom chocolates on the island and watched the sunset. I mean, it's not, this is, he is really worried here. And you think, well, maybe he's worried about his friends. He doesn't give a flying fuck about anyone else. What about a special counsel?

Did you see Lauren Boebert's suggestion? Matt Gaetz He doesn't give a flying fuck about anyone else. What about a special counsel? Did you see Lauren Bovert's suggestion? Matt Gaetz. Yeah, hire a special counsel, but how special will that counsel be? I know, Matt Gaetz was her suggestion. She's such a bubblehead, man, she's such a bubblehead. Yeah, I don't know about that. Yeah, I don't think you hire,

although he'd know how to find it. Yeah, like appointing Matt Gaetz to the special counsel is like trying to defuse a bomb by strapping it to your ex-wife. I thought that was funny. You're not really trying to solve the problem here. You're trying to kill two birds with one stone. Just be so bad. Oh my God. Can you imagine? Of course, he gets sucked up into it

because of course, it'll start talking about his problems. Same similar problems. Wait, we're gonna have a special counsel, like make it a special counsel who was accused and investigated. And I think he was cleared to be fair of the crime he'd be investigating. Who knows?

What's the next thing? Just very quickly and we'll move on. Well, I know what the next thing is. Something fucking outrageous and stupid that we all go over. Well, I know what the next thing is. Something fucking outrageous and stupid that we all go over here, so we're not talking about Epstein. I don't think anyone's going over here.

I know. Well, okay. But I was working out with my son yesterday, and the Chiron, and CNBC, and CNN all talking about Chairman Powell. He's not going anywhere. Nothing is different about Chairman Powell's job than it was 48 hours ago, except it's crowded out more and more reporting about Epstein.

Epstein's not going anywhere is what I meant. Epstein's not going anywhere until the files are released. That is it. That's what you think. Do you think this is gonna, there's no camping this time. It is not dying. I mean, the Fox News is,

you know, interesting, the other day, they were counting Fox News and it mentioned Epstein four times because Trump said something and Biden 52 times. It was crazy. They're trying very hard. A lot of conservative media is very nervous about what to do here because they love the conspiracy theory, but they don't love that it's linked to Trump so closely now.

So it's going to be hard for them to figure out. Although the Wall Street Journal certainly has been aggressive in covering it, but still not heavily. Not as heavily as it should be. They sort of give it glancing attention. So it'll be hard for all these conservative media things, but I think it's going nowhere until they release the files. And then that will take up all the time.

And now Trump's whole administration is Epstein. That's it. That's all it is until the midterms, I think. I don't think it's going away like his other. Most of his stuff moves on. This is not moving on. But we'll see. We'll see.

In another news, Defense Department is going to start using Elon Musk's favorite chatbot, Grok, which is interesting because Elon's really attacking Trump. XAI announced this week that it secured a $200 million contract with DoD to develop and implement AI tools for the agency. Anthrop at Google and OpenAI were awarded similar contracts. XAI is also rolling out Grok for government, a suite of products that can be customized for specific uses across science and healthcare and other sectors. And I suppose it can go into Hitler mode if it needs to.

And that's not all. The latest Grok update includes companions for super Grok subscribers, an anime girl and a panda. They're already doing all sorts of problematic things. I'm not going into it. What happens, we'll see, when it gets into the government, I don't think they're capable of making a commercial product or product for government. But so far, they haven't been able to. Your thoughts? Any quick thoughts? Well, initially, in order to try and quell concerns about AI and stave off any possible

regulation, they all had, literally all of them, whether it was LAMA or Anthropic or chat GPT, all had language that essentially said that they would never use their models for military warfare or nuclear industries. They have all recently changed that language or gotten rid of it because there's money here and big money. So all of this, I mean, all of them were like,

this is dangerous, we realize it's dangerous, we will never use it for military applications. And they're like, oh, there's a check here. Get rid of that line. I'm gonna do the Michael Barger. Mm. Mm. Mm. So what you're saying is. What you're saying is, Scott.

Anyways. That they're greedy fucks. Yeah. So what you're saying is, even though he claims to be a heterosexual, if you have a dreamy salt and pepper beard, he'd go there. He'd go there. Anyways, poor Michael Bobar.

The last thing anyone's gonna do now is compliment us. Literally the last thing. I need to say, he is exquisite. No good deed goes unpunished, Michael. Exquisite, Michael, we think you're exquisite. But I have, but also I personally, I really endorse and in favor, in favor of this intersection, which for some reason we have avoided between our nation's most innovative companies and

our military industrial complex. I think other nations are trying to figure out, I mean, one of the learnings we're going to take away, I think from the war we were talking about, the war in Ukraine as the following, that just stating you're going to increase your military budget by 100, 120 billion, that's again, drunk uncle practicing his karate in front of everybody thinking it's impressive. Karate. Karate. The lesson you can take away from the war in Ukraine can come down to one word, asymmetric.

And that is there have been $300 drones that have been taking out $3 million TU-144 tanks or whatever they're called. We should be massively investing in asymmetric warfare, things like drones, things, AI, predictive technologies, because the reality is the kinetic era is over, and that is thinking if you have more tanks, you're automatically gonna win the war.

That used to be true. Wars used to be a function of brute force. It's no longer the case. And I think companies like Anderle, Palantir, which I have been critical of, the reality is at the end of the day, we should have our brightest working hand and glove and stop all the fucking bitch, stupid,

like walkouts at these companies saying, we're not gonna work with the defense industry. Well folks- No, they can do that, they can leave, they can leave. Like people do what they want. And they should be inquired for, oh, come on. We're going to walk out over lunch, that'll show up. Well, no, no, they have to leave.

That'll show up. If they don't wanna do it, they should leave and they have every right to do so. I love what you say. You don't like Chick-fil-A, don't eat a Chick-fil-A. But don't walk out over lunch and think that somehow that's gonna make any difference. And a lot of these, I don't, I've said this a lot,

I sound very, I don't know what the term is, Republican here. I think a lot of Americans take for granted just how many people out there would like to kill us and take our shit away. And that we need the most robust fighting force in history. And you invest in your opportunities, not your problems. The most successful organization in the modern world

is the US military. So we should continue to invest in it, but we should continue to invest in it smartly. And I do think these companies can bring a lot of value to the Defense Department. The one thing I like is, like, everybody got some. Like, I think there should be a lot of competition with the defense. They have an opportunity here not to have one.

They have a problem with Starlink and with SpaceX, with the space stuff, putting up satellites. If you have all the companies here, that's great. One thing that's a problem is that chat GPT is taking, I don't know if you've seen the recent stats, still chat GPT is huge. The others are progressively smaller. Microsoft doesn't even show up and Grok doesn't show up at all. Yeah, it's running away with it.

It's running away with it, even though they're losing all kinds of researchers. That said, I think it's good to have competition in the sector if we're gonna do this. Agreed. Did you get the anime girl at all? I didn't. Nobody's using Grog.

No one's using, very few people are using Grog. Anyway. Oh really? Yeah. Let's look at the numbers. It's like crazy how far down the chart they are. Anyway, all right Scott, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, we'll talk about Andrew Cuomo

taking on Zoran Mamdani again. Summer's here and you can now get almost anything you need for your sunny days delivered with Uber Eats. again. Happily, yes. A day of sunshine? No. A box of fine wines? Yes. Uber Eats can definitely get you that. Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol in select markets. Product availability may vary by Regency app for details. Support for Pivot comes from LinkedIn.

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You've got mail. Hello, I'm an avid listener and I strongly believe you should cover the story of Curtis Yarvin. It's important to explore who he is and how he has influenced the MAGA and the Tech Bros movement. Curtis Yarvin is a very online far-right philosopher whose ideas include the fascinating, the esoteric, the absurd, the racist, and so on. Six months into the Trump administration There's evidence that he is influencing the MAGA movement and even President Trump

JD Vance knows him and likes him Elon consulted him about this third party idea Yarvin can take some credit for inspiring Doge and as you'll hear ahead one of Trump's most Controversial doesn't even begin to cover it, ideas may have come from Yarvin or someone who reads his sub stack. I can almost guarantee you that Trump does not. Everything's computer. Today Explained, weekday afternoons. Scott, we're back with more news.

Are you registered? No, you're Florida, Florida. Former New York governor Andrew Cuomo will officially run as an independent. Let's just make sure the New York state comptroller heard that. I'm a Florida resident. Florida resident, yes, you are. Former New York governor Andrew Cuomo will officially run as an independent in the NYC mayoral race after being defeated very handily by Zoran Mamdani in the Democratic primary.

I mean, he beat him like a rug. Cuomo posted a campaign video on X which has under 6,000 likes. It's really sad. The reply from Mamdani with a link to donate to his campaign has over 181,000 likes. It was well done. The former governor plans to ask all candidates other than Mamdani to pledge to drop out of the race in mid-September if they aren't in the lead, including himself, I guess. And current mayor Eric Adams, who will also run its independence, said Cuomo asked him to drop out of the race, which he called the highest level of arrogance.

I would agree with Eric Adams. I don't agree with him on anything. Meanwhile, Mamdani has been making the rounds, meeting business leaders and visiting DC to meet with Democratic leaders. He had a pretty cool reception from a lot of them because he just did. He's tried a little bit to assuage their worries. A lot of people are looking at Bill de Blasio's policies in Mamdani's and Bill de Blasio is left of Mamdani, which is interesting according to a lot of stuff I've read. But Cuomo is so non-vibrant. He looks like an old man.

He looks weird. People are making memes out of him walking around with his face and stuff like that, which are very funny. I know he's shook up his whole campaign, but I don't see him making any ground here. Any thoughts? Well, it reminds me of when, in 2016, people said that only Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump could make each other viable.

I feel as if Governor Cuomo, who I like more than most people, I think it's easy to be critical of him. I get it. But I actually think he's a decent man, would be a decent. I think he'd be a good placeholder. I think he'd be competent. I would have voted probably for Cuomo. Some of them, I'm Dominus, I've said this,

I'm not a New York resident. I also think that people totally freaking out about his international policy is, he needs to make sure the subways run on time. I think some of his policies are absolutely asinine. But having said that, I like you, I think I got swept up in this fever of young people taking charge

and pushing back on the establishment. And he's a viable, I think it's gonna be a rough summer for Mamdami. He has done something very smart in the last week, and that is he is pivoting towards the center. He has agreed not to use or applaud the term globalizing infatata, which is deeply offensive. You said infatata.

Intifata? Yeah, thank you. Only Cuomo and Eric Adams could make a guy who wrote a rap song praising the funders of Hamas, a viable candidate. And also what this really is a lesson in, and this kind of, and I'm sort of here for it, is young people pushing back, and also he put on a masterclass

in how to run a campaign for a new age. It is going to be a rough summer for him, because I think these guys with their money and also I think New Yorkers are really going to start digging into some of these policies. And basically, you know, people are going to get smart when they start pushing back on him. They're going to start saying, okay, these quote unquote state-sponsored grocery stores are nothing but state-sponsored bread lines.

He's going to have a rough summer. All right, but there's only going gonna be like three of them, Scott. That's like over, maybe so. They could take advantage of it. There's only gonna be like three or four of them. Sure, it's politics. So it's fine to like try to get better, if he pivoted and said,

you know, what I really wanna do is get better food into these neighborhoods and let's figure out an interesting and good way to do it. He could do that, he could pivot that in a second. And he should. He will. And he should. And he will. Second thing, a lot of the other stuff, he just has to be a second. And he should. He will. And he should. And he will.

Second thing, a lot of the other stuff, he just has to be more explicit of what he means by rent freezes. So I think he has an opportunity actually to clarify himself in a really good way and in a very powerful way. So- Well, if he's smart, he'll pivot to the middle and he's sort of doing it.

It's not just the middle, clarify himself. Okay, here's what I wanna do. Let's work together. You mean back away from ridiculously fucking stupid positions. No, but he was thinking, but he wasn't specific. And when you start to actually hear the specifics, they're not quite as nutty as you think they are, as you think they are, which I did.

Oh, he's backpedaling. The rent freezes. Rent freezes don't work. No, but it's a rent freeze on a certain number of things. Nonetheless, he has an opportunity to define himself, and he's got to do that. That's the key thing is he's got to define him, not let them do it, because they'll do it in this ham-handed way that makes him look like an idiot. Secondly, let me finish.

Well, let's go. You think he's, I'm just gonna ask you a question. You think he's gonna have no problem that he's gonna run away with it? No, I think he's gonna have, he has an opportunity to keep the narrative going for himself or they're gonna do it for him. And so he needs, that's all I'm saying is,

and it's an opportunity to clarify. And so anything that seems weak, the things that bug you, that drive you crazy, he should start to clarify for those voters. Secondly, as an opportunity to reach out to voters of color, poor voters of color, and really go into those neighborhoods and start talking. That's where Cuomo is strong. He absolutely is. So he can start doing that. The third thing is that the rich people of New York have lost their fucking ever-loving minds about this. You know, calling him a mark. I'm like, calm the fuck down. You've worked with all kinds. Like, the stuff they've tolerated on Trump. You have no credibility, you people.

You're just no credit. You look like rich people running for the hills. And that to me has astonished me. Like Ken Langone, like just all of them, like calm down. Like you might have to work with this guy. So let's figure out a way to work with him, right? Rather than like kneecap him almost constantly. I don't know if he's going to run away with it. I can tell you if Cuomo doesn't do something because he really looks, go look at his physical.

He used to be a big vibrant man. He's, it looks like he's lost weight. I don't know how, but he looks like he's lost a substantive amount of weight. He looks non-vibrant. He looks old. He looks very awkward in, in regular settings with people. I, he looks old, he looks very awkward in regular settings with people. I think he's like he's all the energy that Cuomo did bring to the table and he absolutely did, he's lost. And so is the Adams the other choice? I think he and Adams are going to eat each other up and Mom Donnie's gonna win. I don't see how he can't win unless he makes a big giant mistake. And if he clarifies himself and becomes more palatable to more people, and it doesn't have to be the rich people because they're never going to like him, I think he's got a great chance.

That's my opinion. I think like Cuomo is a flawed candidate. I think for 67, I think he looks great. I think he looks really robust. There's a lot of flaws there. Those flaws are dwarfed by a guy who cut a backroom deal with an unpopular president to let ice into his city. Adams, the only prediction I'm willing to make here is that it's not going to be Eric Adams. So but and also to a certain extent, you know,

everyone's focusing on the moment that Mamdami, in my opinion, won, at least the primary, was when on the debate stage, they asked them, what is the first place you would visit? And they all got out there, virtue signaling and self-importance and said, well, I'd go to Israel. Dude, you're the make sure the trash is picked up. And he said, and this was the moment for him. He said, I go to Brooklyn, I go to Harlem, I'm about improving the city. And these folks in operational roles, when you're the governor of South Dakota,

do you really need- To go to Israel. Yeah. And you're basically saying, I'm gonna take taxpayer money and instead of doing my fucking job, I'm gonna pretend I'm bigger. I'm gonna pretend that I should be president. No one gives a shit what you think

about the war in Ukraine or Gaza. You're here to run the city and make sure we have good schools, that people are safe. And instead they are, and he ran right through that. That was brilliant on his part. And it also more than what happened- That's why I think he's going to do a good job here, but go ahead. Well, and what it says is it might be a turning point.

The most exciting thing about his win, and I would not have voted for him, but the most exciting thing about his win was within seven days of him winning, 4,000 young Democrats filled out paperwork to run for office across the nation. And that's what we need. We need more young people who think, if this guy can do it, so can I. I am so sick of the old pulling the future forward on my credit card. I have had it. And so I'm like, we've both said, we're a little bit caught up in this fever

and what it says about democratic politics and they should absolutely take some notes from his playbook around how he weaponized new media and also focused on affordability and represents a new generation. Anyways, Ted talk over. Yeah, let me say one final thing. One of the things that drives me crazy is there was

an Arizona race where an influencer didn't win, thought that she might. She got pretty far against an equally progressive candidate who was taking over her father's seat. They're like, it's a sign of trouble for Mondami. No, it isn't. If you're genuine in your area, if you're Abby Spanberger and you want to be more conservative and centrist in Virginia, it works for Virginia, that'll work. If you're in Ohio and you're more centrist, that'll work. If you're AOC and you're who you are, that'll work.

What you have to be is genuine and interested in where you are. It doesn't speak to the bigger Democratic Party. That said, they will use, if he wins, the Republicans will try to make Mondani into a demon. I think it's going to be very hard to do so. They tried really hard to do that with Nancy Pelosi. It didn't work. It worked for Hillary Clinton. He is so charming, it'll be very hard to demonize him.

And I think making these people more than they are is probably a bad idea. Everyone should be who they are in the area they're in. That's my only thing. Have you interviewed him? I'm going to. Yeah, I just, I was saying Kara Swisher and this guy are like, and I think that'll be. Yeah. He should do it.

It totally fits. I was deciding, should I interview Cuomo? I was talking about this with Amanda. Oh yeah, I would. It'd be an interesting interview. Yes, it would be. You're getting your ass handed to you. What is your thought here? What are your plans? What's your plan?

Yeah. You come across as tired and the past. How are you going to combat that? A lot of real interesting questions. And your social media is cringed. You need some help. Anyway, blink your eyes three times if you do. I think the whole world is, well not the whole world,

but those of us who are, you know, the side piece of Michael Barbera are hoping that you interview both, especially Mamdami, but also Cuomo. I'd love to see you interview both of those guys. I'm gonna ask him. I'm gonna ask him this week. Or hear it, I should say. Anyway, the House has advanced three crypto bills moving on and a defense measure after setting a record for the longest vote in interview both of those things. I'm going to ask him. I'm going to ask him this week. Or hear it, I should say. Anyway, the House has advanced three crypto bills.

We're moving on. And a defense measure after setting a record for the longest vote in the history of the chamber. GAB holdouts agreed after being promised a future vote to ban the Federal Reserve from missing digital currencies. The Genius Act, which would regulate stablecoins, is on track to hit Trump's desk this week and could mark Congress's first ever major crypto legislation. We'll see. Bitcoin is currently trading at $118,000 after hitting a high of $120,000 at the start of

the week. Very quickly on crypto. And also, I just want to note, they're also voting to cut funding for NPR and PBS, which is heinous on their part. They managed to get that through so far in this rescissions package. Thoughts on either of those things? Well, look, PBS, NPR, I grew up with them.

I think they do enormous service, and there's just certain people who won't get straight down the middle news anymore with these funding cuts. I am a little bit, I have a little bit of a Republican twinge on this, and that is their public funding has become such a political football that I wonder if at some point they're better off without the public funding and just leaning on listeners such as myself who

get register enormous value to support it. It just feels like it's been such a political football for so long. That means people in rural areas will never have any news that is not tinged. I think, look, that's a fair point. And I touched on that at the beginning of my comments. It's gonna be 1.1 billion, couple percent. It'll hurt them though. I would love to see an NPR and a PBS be really well-funded by private individuals

such that the Republicans could stop using it as a punching bag at every hearing. For years, yes, that's correct. Yeah. So let me commit. Based on what you said, I'm going to give some money to NPR and PBS and public radio because I think they do an amazing job. And the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is what you want to give to. Go ahead. Corporation for CPB. But what was interesting is a survey came out and they asked people what

media entities are the most trusted for trying to be moderate. What was interesting is the two that came up as the most trustworthy in the middle, were companies formerly known as having a conservative and or progressive bent, and the two were The Wall Street Journal and I think it was PBS. Was it PBS or NPR? I think it was PBS. But what's interesting is that quality journalism does break through, even if you have a political bent or a reputation for political bent, because the Wall

Street Journal was always known as conservative, but they said they limited their conservative viewpoint to the opinion section. They did. They do. I worked there. I worked there. I loved working there. I know you did. Also- They were amazing journalists. It's a testament, quite frankly,

you got to give it to Rupert Murdoch. I agree. He left it alone. He has done an amazing job stewarding that publication. He has. No question. Then in our business, I've said for a long time, I think we should every time we do a podcast, send a royalty check to Joe Rogan,

who blew the medium open. NPR's podcasts, they're the original gangster of saying that audio quality, it matters. Production quality, they do such a good job. When you listen to their stuff, it is so tight and so well produced. Anyway, I'm a fan, I'm gonna, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. I think one of the things that you listen to their stuff, it is so tight and so well produced. Anyway, I'm a fan. I'm gonna, Corporation for Public Barcasting.

I think one of the things that you have to note is that they have, what drives me crazy is this idea that Elmo is woke or, they're just saying be nice. They're not like, they do. They go on and on these right-wingers. And remember, Tinky Winky was gay or whatever. And that, cause he had a purse.

And the thing that drives me crazy, the same thing with Superman. They're like Superman's woke and then, of course, it's the most successful movie of this summer. Secondly, if you go back to old Superman things and you read it out loud, they would call that woke. It's like Superman says,

this is from the 40s, be nice to everyone regardless of their religion or their race. This has been a Superman thing forever. It's just these people using these iconic things like Elmo and Superman as a cudgel is really, it's so lame, they're so lame. Be nice is not a woke thing. It's a nice thing to teach kids.

And I love everything that NPR and PBS does. And please watch Ken Burns' American Revolution coming up, and we'll send you a tote bag if you give me $25. I don't know. Folks, Elmo is conservative. If you actually listen Elmo, he talks like a dictator or a LinkedIn influencer on mushrooms. All right, crypto really quick, two seconds, and then we'll get to your point. I think the space needs regulation.

There's just no getting around it. By the way, I bought my first, for the first time I'm a coin or I bought indirectly through a Bitcoin treasury company, I bought Bitcoin. Finally. Just for diversification, really. And I'm just so sick of missing out on all this. What they've done, Bitcoin is just,

it's a remarkable phenomenon. There's no getting around it. And I don't understand the nuances of the regulation, but this category needed some sort of clarity around regular regulation. The Genius Act sets rules for stable coin users such as I think it requires one to one backing with redemption rights, anti-money laundering compliance. Those are good things. That'll be good for the space. Many of them already do this. I think Circle and Paxos already do this. And it will bring some clarity to the unregulated players. Then there's something actually called the Clarity Act.

And it formalizes the regulating bodies, which I think is a good, good idea. Bitcoin and Ethereum will go to the CFTC or ICO tokens will go to the SEC. Stable coins will have shared oversight. And then there's the anti CBDC act. This is the one I really don't understand. And as far as I can tell that act is to make sure that the federal reserve cannot create a digital currency that they're worried that threatens the dollars reserve currency status.

And they frame it as defensive privacy, preventing the government from spying on how you spend money. But it's essentially a play towards, my understanding is it's a nod towards the anti-surveillance crowd. But it's also the government probably doesn't want, wants to ensure that the dollar's reserve currency is not threatened. So to their credit, I think they're trying to bring some clarity to the space such that it maintains its momentum. Yeah. David Sacks got what he wanted in this one. He shepherded this one through.

Anyway, we'll see where it goes. And we should be watching that. Absolutely. What's happening there? That's interesting that you invested. All right. One more quick break. We'll be where it goes. And we should be watching that. Absolutely, what's happening there. That's interesting that you invested. All right, one more quick break. We'll be back for predictions. No Frills delivers.

Get groceries delivered to your door from No Frills with PC Express. Shop online and get $15 in PC optimum points on your first five orders. Shop now at NoFrills.ca. Hey, this is Peter Kafka, the host of Channels, a show about media and tech and what happens when they collide. And this may be hard to remember, but not very long ago, magazines were a really big deal. And the most important magazines were owned by Conde Nast,

the glitzy publishing empire that's the focus of a new book by New York Times reporter Michael Grinbaum. The way Conde Nast elevated its editors, the way they paid for their mortgages so they could live in beautiful homes, there was a logic to it, which was that Conde Nast itself became seen as this kind of enchanted land.

You can hear the rest of our chat on channels, wherever you listen to your favorite media podcast. What's up y'all, it's Kenny Beaton. The 2024-2025 NBA season is over, but all that means for us is that the 2025-2026 season is already beginning. On Small Ball, we'll be talking about breaking news, major trades, and all the exciting developments the offseason has in store. Which teams are tearing it down?

Who is retooling to make a championship push? And what teams are leaving me dumbfounded by their lack of direction? Don't miss Small Ball with Kenny Beach, a new episode drops every Friday, available on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, Scott, before you get to Bridget, because I just want to say, I had been approached by so many people about your incredibly touching tribute to your dad. And I just want to say, again, it was really wonderful. And I think our listeners really, I've been hugged more this week than ever before, people without, without asking people are like, I need to hug you.

I was like, okay, on your behalf. So I just think you really, one of the strengths that you have is you show your emotions and it's really important to a lot of, not just men, but women seeing you do that, I have to say. So it's been unusual this week to get so many responses. So there you have it. Thanks for saying that. I predict you're week to get so many responses. So there you have it. Thanks for saying that.

I predict you're gonna get even more woke. You know, and it'll- I love what you described me as a San Francisco lesbian. By the way, I am in San Francisco. What, are you? I'm in San Francisco, yeah. What are you doing there? I'm coming there next week.

What are you doing? Where are you? I know that hotel. What hotel are you in? You don't have to say. I'm at the Four Seasons. I'm visiting my sister. I'm going to have lunch with her today.

Oh, say hi to your sister. She's fantastic. Yeah. As you know, I'm in Colorado, so I took the opportunity to come out and just have lunch with my sister. Lovely. Anyway, let's hear your prediction then. Besides the fact that you, me, and Michael will be in a cuddle-puddle soon.

Hello. Smack her ass, Michael. Let's hear your prediction then besides the fact that you me and Michael will be in a cuddle puddle soon. Hello Smack her ass Michael Smack her ass like she keeps protect. She keeps correcting me Poor Michael Is he married what's his marry he's married the married. He's married? The three of us. The three of us will have a couple spicy margaritas and explore how serious is that relationship. We're gonna have a sex tape

and then we're gonna send it to Meredith, his boss. A Philippian. He'd probably get a raise at the New York Times. Come on, that's a good one. If Kamomile Teal tried to explain the Fed rate hike, that's the daily. I love that. Oh, I'm sorry, my prediction.

My prediction is- You know, I asked him to be a cohost during Scott Free August. I hope he'll do it. And what did he say? He'd be perfect. He wants to do it. He's gotta ask the time for permission.

Meredith, if you can't do it, you're getting in the way of our throuple, which is discriminatory. And I mean, Meredith, stop giving into your heteronormative patriarchal management views around what daily the podcast host should do. That's so funny. Love Meredith.

Anyways. Love Meredith. Okay, so my prediction is pretty straightforward. Before this podcast even airs tomorrow, there's gonna be another incendiary look over here, batshit crazy, hollow threat, promise. I'm raising, I'm putting a 200% tariff on my enemies, rare earth minerals, I am firing, I have decided I'm going to imprison Alec Baldwin

and there's gonna be something so- What about area 51? He should release the files on area- Who knows? That would work. That would work. This is my prediction. They are in a room- Need a conspiracy with a conspiracy, sasquatch?

He's not focused, he's not doing anything. The majority of his time right now in efforts are not being spent on increasing the material or psychological wellbeing of Americans. No, they're not. It's on their inner room with AI going, what can he do or announce tomorrow? It doesn't matter if it's stupid.

Doesn't matter if he has any, any intention of actually following through that will keep the news off of one word, abstain. Every day for the next seven days, Kara, and we should track this and read them out. Okay, all right. There's gonna be something stupid, incendiary, which has absolutely no chance of ever becoming reality

in an attempt and the media will fall for it. They'll go, Jesus Christ, what is he thinking? And they'll start talking about that rather than what he doesn't want everyone to talk about. And that is he is freaked out for some reason about the release of the Epstein files. He thinks it's gonna go away. He does internally, they're saying

they think it's gonna go away. I don't think it is. Sorry, Trump, you better address it. That's all he's gotta do. He's gotta address it. Do you have any predictions? I think he is going to probably have to release these things and then we'll have to worry about the fraud involved in it. I think he has to release them. I don't think he has going to probably have to release these things and then we'll have to worry

about the fraud involved in it. I think he has to release them. I don't think he has a choice here. I don't think he can. He is very good at pushing things off. I think he absolutely can. He's going to have to release these things. And I don't think it's going to be like his taxes or anything else.

He's not getting away with this one. I think Elon is correct about that. It's not going to work this time. Anyway, we want to hear from you. Send us your questions about business tech or whatever's on your mind. Go to nymag.com slash pivot to submit a question for the show. Or call 855-51-PIVOT. Elsewhere in the Kara and Scott universe,

this week on Prof G Conversations, Scott spoke with Greg Lukianoff, a free speech advocate, First Amendment attorney, and president of FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. Let's listen to a clip. Well, in terms of First Amendment law, anonymous speech is protected, but I don't think that's sufficient enough of an answer. And I think, I tend to think of the justification for anonymity as like a seesaw.

That especially if we lived in a free and enlightened society in which people welcomed dissent and welcomed disagreement and there was no imaginable idea that you'd be punished for it, then the justification for anonymity would kind of bring hollow to people. Yeah, I like that. You talk about that issue a lot, Scott. It's an important one. Okay, that's the show. Thanks for listening to Pivot. Be sure to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We'll be back next week. Scott, read us out.

Today's show is produced by Lara Neiman, Zoe Marcus, Taylor Griffin, and Kevin Oliver. Ernie and her Todd engineered this episode. Thanks also to Jude Burroughs, Mia Severo, and Dan Shalon. Nishant Kherwa is Vox Media's Executive Producer of Podcasts. 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 nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Michael, call us.