Pivot - Facebook’s Blacklist, Apple Trims iPhone Production and William Shatner Went to Space

Episode Date: October 15, 2021

Kara and Scott discuss Facebook’s blacklist of dangerous users, Apple cutting iPhone production due to the global chip shortage, and how Texas-based airlines are responding to Gov. Greg Abbot’s anti-vaccine mandate. Also, their thoughts on the controversy around Dave Chapelle's Netflix special. Plus, Kara reveals some fascinating details from her high school years. Send us your Listener Mail questions, via Yappa, at nymag.com/pivot. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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tells you which leads are worth knowing, and makes writing blogs, creating videos, and posting on social a breeze. So now, it's easier than ever to be a marketer. Get started at HubSpot.com slash marketers. Get started at HubSpot.com slash marketers. in New York. I'm up here filming the CNN pilot, which made me deeply insecure because we go into some Bond-like lair in the meatpacking district and they open up this huge elevator door and there's like 40 people there for I don't know what. No, they're there for me, for this pilot. Huge imposter syndrome, huge insecurity. And then what makes it worse? Yeah.

Don Lemon shows up, and he's very handsome. He's very handsome. He's very handsome. Did you say hi from me? I like Don. I said hi. Yeah. And then I'm really fucking insecure, so I go to Shake Shack, which helps a little. Wait, why was Don Lemon there?

I don't even understand. I'm not supposed to reveal the behind the scenes. Okay, whatever. Don, you know, Don's a sand and star. Anyways. I'm not supposed to reveal the behind the scenes. Don, you know, Don's a sand and star. I get that. And then I'm still insecure. And then what do I do? I have

drinks with Paul Rabel. Do you know Paul? Yeah, I love Paul Rabel. He's a lacrosse star. Not only lacrosse star, greatest living lacrosse player. Not that there's many dead lacrosse players. But anyways, he's the greatest. And he just retired. The guy looks like he was chiseled out of stone.

Yeah, he needs a sweetheart. I could not listen to a word he said. All I kept thinking was, how does the same species produce him and me? I'm the different phylum or genome. Yeah. God. And so that makes me deeply insecure. He's a perfect version of you, Scott. He's no version of me. Yeah. God. And so that makes me deeply insecure. He's a perfect version of you, Scott, is what he is.

He's no version of me. That's true. He's not. He's complete. That's just no version of me. What else did you do after that? No, I just went and got Makers and Ginger. But anyways, go ahead.

Now I feel better. Go ahead. What'd you do? I got my booster shot and my flu shot last night with Clara with me. Nice. Which booster did you get? The Pfizer. The Pfizer.

The Pfizer, yeah. Yeah. Not as cool as us with the The Pfizer. The Pfizer, yeah. Yeah. Not as cool as us with the Moderna. All right, whatever. Nonetheless, I'm all boosted up. You're going to feel a little loopy. I just want to warn you. Am I?

I am also. They gave the flu shot at the same time. I thought that was super interesting. Right. But Clara was enjoyable to it. That's just my evening. This is what I do in the evenings. Then I made her dinner, and we dipped chicken in applesauce. That was my evening. Oh, I so win. I do in the evenings. Then I made her dinner and we dipped chicken in

applesauce. That was my evening. Oh, I so win. I so win. I so win. Paul Rabel and May I Close in Ginger. I so win. Then I want to get to it. Then I watched the Dave Chappelle special with my son, Louis. Oh, I'm so curious. I watched it too. There's a lot of controversy around it. I'm so curious. Are we going to talk about that? Yes, we are in just a second. But before we get to that. Space, the final frontier. William Schottener got back from space safely. I'm so filled with emotion about what just happened. I just, it's extraordinary.

The Star Trek actor flew aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard capsule. He's the oldest person to fly in space or near space, I guess. Jeff Bezos greeted him on landing. At the same time, Blue Origin's undergoing, I've read several stories about the employees at Blue Origin, overworking employees, mishandling, harassment allegations, a dude culture under its CEO.

And then also Prince William suggested we should be more focused on saving the planet than having William Shatner shoved up into space. Well, then we're all going to contemplate that suggestion. Prince William has a view on space. But we agree with him. You agree with him. I'm just saying he's on your side. Space tourism is ridiculous.

I'm just saying. You're in violent agreement with Prince William. What does William think about climate change? You know what? They can have opinions. Why do you get to have opinions and they don't? But why do we have to care? That's my question.

Why do we have to care about your opinions? I think it's fine. I think he has the same opinion as you do. He has the same exact opinion. Now, getting back to Blue Origin, they have a 20%, according to CNBC, attrition rate employed, which is really nerve-wracking when it comes to rockets, I think. What is the average? Like 8 or 15? I don't think that's terrible. Typical attrition is 8 to 9% a year. But anyway, they do have this issue around the CEO and the dude culture, which comes as zero surprise because it's a rocket thing.

I'm sorry, a dude culture at an organization taking the wealthiest man's penis into space. And they're shocked it's a dude culture. Yeah. No, I think Gloria Allred's their general counsel. I mean, come on. Does that shock anyone? I know. I get it.

But it doesn't mean it has to be so. It doesn't mean that. Anyway, nonetheless, up and down for Bezos this week. What does Prince William think? Hush up. Listen to me. Listen, I'm glad they sent William Shatner. I think that was actually pretty smart.

Anyway, we'll see how that goes. I think still, it doesn't matter. Elon Musk is cleaning their clock is all that I know. I can understand. And doing real stuff. Doing real man stuff. William Shatner, any 90-year-old doing anything like this, it is inspiring. I mean, I don't know if you saw his interview with Anderson Cooper, but the guy at 90 is really impressive.

There's just no getting around it. He's a character. And Blue Origin, I don't care. I don't know what the attrition rate is. Their PR department is fucking genius. The astronaut they put up who didn't have a chance to be an astronaut, I forget her name. Yeah, Wally Funk. Wally Funk.

And then Shatner, It is an inspiring PR stunt. If they had been really smart. Yeah. If they had been really smart. What would they do? When Shatner came down on the capsule, the Blue Origin capsule, they would have had everyone dress up like apes. And then when he walked out of the capsule and he landed back on Earth and everyone was an ape, they should have filmed that. Just to see how a 90-year-old reacts to going into space and coming back and it's all apes.

So he would Charlton Heston it. You know he'd Charlton Heston it. Oh, my God. That would have been the gangster move of the century. I'm so glad you're not a billionaire. I'm so glad you would have unlimited money to do shitty things to people. That'd be trouble. Here's the deal.

I wish they would stop doing stunts at Blue Origin and actually do. Yeah, but that's all they have, Kara. No, they don't. He has, Cara. No, they don't. He has unlimited funds. No, no, no. You can really innovate and they could really compete. I think they could. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. When the United States was producing cars that got eight miles to the gallon and didn't have airbags, we were sending people a quarter of a million miles and landing them on a rock rotating several thousand miles an hour. We didn't even know what the rock was made of. And then we figured out a way to get them back safely. And we want to celebrate. I mean, this is literally like, I find the whole thing so, I mean, literally ridiculous. I think this is totally ridiculous. So does Prince William.

You and he are on the same page on this issue. You're together. Anyway, let's get to Dave Chappelle because I did watch it last night. Netflix won't apologize. That's the message of co-CEO Ted Sarandos, who we had at Code recently, sent to employees who are angry over Dave Chappelle's newest stand-up special, The Closer. Chappelle's new set features

several, I don't know if to say, anti-trans, anti-queer comments. They're just, they're jokes. They're jokes is what they are, including a bit where he brags about beating up a lesbian. That one, it was not offensive. I'm sorry. That was rough. That actually gave me pause. I thought that was over. That one didn't bother me. See, as a lesbian, I was like, oh, he's just doing his same thing. Let me just, like, in the memo to staff, Sarandos said, we have a strong belief that content on

screen doesn't directly translate into real world harm. That one, I was like, yes, it does. But nonetheless, it was a really interesting situation. Netflix is seeing a lot of employee, they're seeing less user complaints than they are employee complaints. And they're bringing in a trans activist to talk to the company. They are having town halls. They, of course, are famous for their say-what-you-think culture. So, you know, it's roiling the company, which is – and Bella Bejaria, who is the head of programming there, and Sarandos are standing firm. So, I'd love to get your thoughts on it. I have thoughts on the show. But go ahead.

I can start, whatever. Well, I always go first. You go first you go first and I'll give you my thoughts I think this is more my first premise is comics get a wide berth and it's not the same

100% thank you it's not the same as you know people are like well Facebook he's saying you know

Facebook doesn't do any editing even though they do do editing right so that's a different thing they're just spilling toxic waste all over the place

this was an editorial decision and they're acting like it was an editorial decision, and they're taking responsibility in that regard, including when things turn negative. But in terms of comics, I think there should be a huge, huge birth for all comics. That said, they really should have more trans comics on the thing. Like, they just should. They should try to, they talk about their diversity. I don't see a lot of them there. So, if they're talking about lots of voices, they should have lots of voices that can push back and et cetera, et cetera. Third thing is, that's special. A lot of it's really funny.

But at the same time, at some point during the thing, I'm like, something happened to you as a young comic where someone called you transphobic. And I get feeling angry about that. But at some point an hour into it, I was like, that's enough. That's enough. That's enough. You know what I mean? Like, I just, I felt like he won't let it go. And he tries to link himself with empathy.

And I was like, all right, like, okay. Like, why this group of people that you have to continually do your jokes on? And there's, like, a wide world of people to do it. And again, I don't pick his jokes, but at some point it was like, all right, that's enough of those. Something's wrong. It turned into something really, like, unusually. Why this group of people? And it is because when he was a young comic, there was that story.

So that's how I feel. I feel like, you know, he just can't stop talking about it. And I thought that was odd, too. And kind of mean. And mean. And mean and ultimately not funny by the end. I don't know. What do you think?

I think we're sort of, you know, brothers or siblings from another mother on this. I entirely agree with you. I think that it's important. Comics advance the dialogue. Comics say things that make people uncomfortable. And whether it was George Carlin, Michelle Wolfe got radical pushback from the right. Your friend got pushback when she kind of- Kathy Griffin. And my sense is, yeah, it should start a dialogue when they're out of line. Okay, fine.

But I don't think you ruin their careers. And that's what I don't like about any of this. And people say, well, what's the difference? I had this conversation yesterday. And they say, Scott, you're constantly criticizing Facebook for putting up hateful content. If people find this hateful, what's the difference? I'm like, well, Facebook takes content, and if it ends up that it's hateful and really upsets people, it promotes it beyond its natural organic reach because it finds value and shareholder value in it. And that is not what

is going on here. And first off, I love David Chappelle. I think he's a genius. I think he's incredibly talented. And so, for example, I think the same show published a fantastic one-hour show of what I thought was probably the most moving hour of comedy I had seen in a long time. And I believe her name is, and I hope I get this right, Hannah Gadsby. Hannah Gadsby, yeah. And it was just very moving. And I would imagine some people on the far right found it, might have found it offensive. But I think it's important that these individuals say things that make us uncomfortable in the context of humor because I really do think it helps people think outside of their bubble. And at least somewhat, I think humor is an incredible way to take, in some ways, to take down the volume and actually empathize as opposed to antagonize.

And I think many of the cultural influences in our society that have advanced the rights of people have been comedians. And I think part of acceptance to a certain extent is when a community is actively ribbed on a regular basis. And I don't – I'm not saying that that exonerates people from saying hateful things. There was a moment in the show where he talks about – see, the moment that didn't bother you, actually, I thought, wow, that's a little rough. He talks about someone kind of getting in his face and that he basically says something along the lines of like, you know, bitch, I'm about to go crazy on you. And it's like he has so many young viewers. I would have thought, you know, you got to be careful. People look up to him in such a way.

You just shouldn't be talking about casually creating a laugh track out of violence. Yeah. He does it a lot. He doesn't do it a little bit. You know, he calls women bitches, people of color. I think there's a difference between that and someone in a community that's, I don't know, taking a lot of shit

and saying, and talking about small acts of violence. I do think young people listen. I just would have said if it was Agent, I don't know who he talks to, he should probably

just cut that out. That's just not, you know, I don't know. I think he wants to do that. I mean, the whole thing's called The Closer

and he just, he wants to say his piece and it really, I did finally understand was that whatever happened in Oakland when he was a young comic, where there was a story

where they talked about punching down. At some point, like I get that. I like, like they continue and people don't hear the show and then they have opinions about the show. And I was like, by the end, he was kind of punching down. He really was.

I have to, you know, and in a way that I was like, all right, a few things, discuss the controversies around you, do it in a comic way way and then at some point you're like you're just not you aren't going to get over this are you like that kind of thing and so i thought that was it became not funny like by the end and then and then the one thing i i didn't like was when he had a supporter who was a trans comic um who he used he hung everything on on her um everything on her this everything on her.

This is the one that killed herself? Yeah, and then complimented himself about giving a trust fund to her daughter, etc., etc. And I was like, did you link her death with this? Do you know about whether this was the case? I was like, cut it out. The exact thing he accused everybody else of, he was absolutely doing. And so, it was interesting, but I do still think, I think the Netflix employees should do walkouts. I think they should complain. I think they should send a message to CEO Ted Serendis. I think Ted can have his opinion. I don't agree with him on the content on the screen doesn't directly translate. It doesn't maybe directly, but it certainly translates. And I would recommend people seeing a movie called The Celluloid Closet. Oh, yeah. It's been around forever. It was a book by Vito Russo. It's the documentary's narrated by Lily Tomlin.

If you want to understand why people don't like gay people, watch that. Why for years didn't? I made my mom watch it. I think it changed her a little bit. We've been running an ad against gay people for about 50 years called media. I think it changed her a little bit. Well, we've been running an ad against gay people for about 50 years called Media. And trans people, the last part is trans people are under siege right now in a way that is, you know, I can take the, early on when I was gay, I didn't like the lesbian jokes. But now I'm like, oh, whatever, it's fine. Make dyke jokes all over the place.

But this is a community under siege. And this obsession with talking about them continually when there's so many better targets seems a little much. That's what I would say. But interesting controversy. I can't believe we agree. There's two components of it. I think we're largely in agreement that comedians should have a wide berth. They advance the dialogue. What we're doing here is one of the key positive externalities of comedians.

It's forcing people to talk about it offline and have a dialogue around this. For him personally, the guy's such a genius. He has such a powerful platform that I think when you have that type of powerful platform, you do need to think more broadly around the impact you're having on society. And one, he comes off as defensive. Yeah, he comes off as defensive. I did not like invoking the name of someone who is deceased and positioning her as his buddy and supporting him. I thought that was inappropriate. And two, you got to decide how you want to use your platform. And he decided to

use this platform to basically say, this is why I'm right. This is why you're wrong. This is why I'm right. And a guy like that has so much power to sort of, I don't know, liberate groups or help his community think maybe a little bit more, I don't know, empathetically. I came away like this guy's a little smaller than I thought, right? A little smaller. He came across as defensive. Yeah. He came across as using all his humor and

all his skills to say this isn't why i've grown this is why i was right yeah and i just i'm like boss you don't need that you're jesus christ you're probably one of the most influential comedians the last 25 years like i don't at the end of the day at the end of the day cara yeah i think he just could have shown a little bit more grace. Yeah. That's what it comes down to. Agreed. Agreed.

And it does do harm. It does directly translate to harm. It just does. In any case, it's interesting the debate's going. We'll see what happens within Netflix. But Netflix, I think Netflix is totally on the right. I think Netflix should have. Except for that one sentence.

I was like, it does. What was the one sentence? We have a strong belief that content on screen doesn't directly translate into real world harm. Come on. I'm on Ted. It does. All of this does. Eventually it does.

Eventually it does. And that I will stick to on a lot of things. That doesn't mean these comics shouldn't say it, but just stop pretending it doesn't. It doesn't have some effect. Anyway, speaking of effect. Shit, have you seen Squid Game? Do you want to talk about violence? Oh, yeah, I know, right?

Is everyone going off on a game? Although there's, I think it's Abu Dhabi. They're recreating it, but without the violence, the game. Oh, that's going to be a stint. I know, you know some rich people somewhere are doing it for real. You know that, like you get that, like there's some hunt. Anyway, one last thing is Texas-based airlines

are telling Governor Greg Abbott where to shove his anti-vaccine mandate. Southwest and American Airlines said this week that they'll comply with the federal government's vaccine mandate for large companies. This puts them in conflict with the Texas governor who tried to ban vaccine mandates via executive order. Both airlines have said federal law supersedes state law, and they are correct. So there'll be lots of lawsuits all over the place, but I think they're right. These are forward-facing companies with customers, and that's how they have to think about the public health. Oh, my God. This is so ironic. I literally just got an email, a text message from the head of public relations for Blue Origin asking if I would take a William Shatner action figure and livestream me shoving up my ass. What do you think? Yes or no?

Am I in? Can you get to the topic? That's called a Tuesday night for the dog. That's called a Tuesday night. I'm going to buy you a seat on one of these and say, don't let him come back. That's not a good idea. There is no way I'm getting on that shit. And by the way, you know how space tourism ends?

A crash. In a fucking flash. And I hate to say that. Space is dangerous business, folks. Yeah, probably. All right. Hello, Billy Shatner. I'm hate to say that. Space is dangerous business, folks. Yeah, probably. All right. I'm going to take that action, Dahlward. No man has gone before. Greg Abbott is going to lose this right, old white evangelicals in Iowa. A lot of stereotypes there, a lot of identity politics in that statement.

We're going to focus on what's good for the economy. And our business, yeah. And our businesses. And stop playing politics with our businesses. And the cruise line stuck up the middle finger to Governor DeSantis. And the airlines are sticking up the middle finger. I mean, the Republicans are supposed to be pro-business until they see an opportunity. They've got to know what most of their customers think.

And I suspect they know that customers would like a vaccinated workforce. A hundred percent. I'm sorry. You hear a lot of cruise line people saying, 90-year-old people who take cruises going, no, I'm comfortable. Liberty. Give everyone serving my buffet food. They don't have to be vaccinated. Do you think anyone's saying that?

Getting on Carnival and then airlines. So it's just so cynical for Republicans to say they're pro-business until they're trying to get one more straw at the next Iowa caucus from a governor who wakes up every morning and says, hello, Mr. President. Yeah. And then Trump's going to screw them anyway. So like, calm down, boys. That's what I say. Anyway, let's get on to our first big story. Facebook keeps a secret blacklist of supposedly dangerous organizations and individuals. Obviously, you, Scott. And now we know who's on it, thanks to The Intercept. The list contains more than 4,000 entries.

There's terrorist groups, you'd expect, but also politicians, writers, charities, hospitals, and some long-deceased historical figures who probably don't post that much. The list is tiered. The most restrictive tier is largely made up of terrorist groups from the Middle East and South Asia. Many American white supremacist groups are classified in the lower tier, meaning they're subject to fewer restrictions. Anyway, what do you think about this? So, this is going to probably shock people. I think Facebook got it right here.

And actually, I think they should be applauded for this. They've actually made more effort and I think more progress around actually linking and acknowledging offline behavior with who should be allowed online. And I absolutely think these organizations should be doing it. I think they're trying to be thoughtful about it. these organizations should be doing it. I think they're trying to be thoughtful about it. I think a lot of these people who start white supremacist groups or, you know, are quote unquote, for lack of a better term, radicals from any political spectrum, I don't think they should be allowed on Facebook. And I think Facebook should err on the side of doing too much of this, not too little. And so I think they got it right here and I applaud them for it. And I think more platforms

should take a cue. I don't think it's your right to be on Facebook or Instagram. I think they got it right here, and I applaud them for it, and I think more platforms should take a cue. I don't think it's your right to be on Facebook or Instagram. I think it is their obligation when their platform reaches a population the size of the southern hemisphere plus India to be really thoughtful about the damage some of this content can do. So I actually think they got it right here. What it is, though, is it's a government – you know, you do have things like the Southern Poverty Law Center, et cetera, who makes these lists. a government, you know, you do have things like the Southern Poverty Law Center, et cetera, who makes these lists. I think linking with these kind of groups that have already been tracking this is a smart thing.

I do, it could move into a problematic area, just like, because this is not just the Southern Poverty Law Center. This is a group of people who can do stuff. This is a Southern Poverty Law Center with an ability to shut voices down, right? Southern Poverty Law Center just lists things and that's that, right? They don't really, they can pressure, they can do things. These people actually have an ability to turn the on-off switch on or off. And so, they just have to acknowledge and weigh into it and realize that they're going to get it wrong a lot of times.

And that they're going to run into a buzzsaw of political opposition because some of these groups have ties to U.S. politicians. And so, they're not comfortable making these calls, but they have to either get comfortable making these calls or let someone else make the calls for them, which is problematic. And especially because right-wing content does do better on Facebook. It just does, and Facebook's acknowledged this. Yeah, but I feel as if we can't have it both ways. We can't criticize them for letting content go in federated.

It's mostly on algorithms. I agree with this. And at the same time, when they try and edit that content and leave really noxious, dangerous content off and create lists, they get criticized. My feeling is they don't do enough of this. They are a media company.

By the way, you're on the blacklist of Facebook. I have inside information. I'm on the, like, who gives a fuck list. He has no influence list. Anyways, but I think they get it right here. I think every media company ultimately has to make editorial choices. And I'd rather see Facebook

err on the side of being too harsh. And then they got criticism. Where they got criticism was, okay, they disproportionately ban, you know, Muslim groups versus white supremacist groups. And I'm like, well, our government's been doing that. You know, Americans are a lot more scared of anyone that's a threat with a different color skin than anyone who's a real threat and usually a bigger threat with the same color skin, i.e. domestic terrorists.

So, you know, kind of welcome to America. My only point is wading into this is very complex because then everyone's going to have a what about, what about. Like, just we're talking to David Chappelle. Why are you talking about this over this? Why are you doing this over this? So, any group that's either aggrieved or actually been subject to all kinds of discrimination is going to be pissed. And so, we have to acknowledge Facebook as a media company, and that's what they're going to be doing.

And they're too big a media company. have to acknowledge Facebook as a media company, and that's what they're going to be doing. And they're too big a media company. That's the second part, which we'll have to click in, is their power is too vast and needs to be smaller. Like, that's just the way we did with oil or railroads or whatever. I think that's, and it just happens because it's linked to media that it's so, but you know, remember William Randolph Hearst? There were a lot of problems with him for many years when he was, he was the,

Rosebud. Rosebud. Rosebud. Rosebud. Yeah. At the beginning of that movie, I was like, oh,

it's, it's the sleigh. Got it. Okay. Have you been to the Hearst Castle? I have. I love it. It's great.

Oh my God. I'm like, the parties I could throw here. Oh my God. But at the same time, it's sad. Don't you think it's sad? It's big and lonely.

I don't like, it's funny you say that. I don't like big houses. I think they're lonely. I freak out about the day my boys are out of the house and I'm in a big house. I'm like, that's it. Just bring on the opium. I'm ready. I'm done. I'm checking out. Your house isn't that big. It's a little big.

In any case, Rosebud, I think this is going to be a big issue for them. And you know what they have to do? They have to suck it up and accept the criticism for things like this because they're making choices. And making choices, just like with Ted Sarandos, that's what leadership is about. And they are too big. So I think that's where they're going to fall in. You know, Sarandos, you can turn the switch to Disney or HBO or whatever.

In this case, they have a lot more power. or HBO or whatever. In this case, they have a lot more power. And this feels alien to say, but on this issue, and I can feel, I can feel I'm getting like spontaneous back knee

or something weird's happening to my body. On this issue, Facebook got it right. Well done. I think they're doing the right thing here and I think they're setting an example for other online platforms. Jesus, that feels weird.

Who am I? Who am I? Who am I? Yeah, you're Bacne. Bacne. I love that word. Bacne. That's a great word. Remember Bacne?

I used to get Bacne. I never had it. But I was really fortunate. It started, it cleared up and it moved to my face. Did you see my prom photo? Yeah, I did. You looked handsome. I have one that I'm going to send you.

I'm going to put it up of me in college. I look exactly the same. So the true story, true story. I didn't think I had a prom date. And I, you know, 12th grade, 6'1", 130 pounds. And this is a nice story. And it's about me. Okay.

Prettiest girl in the school. Yeah. Prettiest girl in the school asked me to prom. Wow, why? And I was not the most popular. I was not the most handsome. But I made her laugh. Oh. That was such? And I was not the most popular. I was not the most handsome, but I made her laugh. Ah.

That was such, and I posted that picture. Yeah. And me and the other guy who's in the photo is still my closest friend, Adam Arkman. I feel like I'm in a John Hughes movie right now,

but go ahead. I found that photo and it brought back so many memories. Yeah. I posted it online and everyone's been really kind and nice. Yeah, especially about the hair. I was like, whoa, that's a lot of hair you got going on.

That's what everyone talked about, the hair. Hair. Well, there's a lot of hair going on. I went to all four proms. All four? There's four proms? Oh, you went to a private school. We could only flip one prom.

No, there was four. I went in ninth grade, 10th grade, 11th grade, and 12th grade. I had a boyfriend who was in 11th grade when I was a freshman. I had a boyfriend who was in 11th grade, a different one, when I was in 10th grade, same boyfriend in 11th grade. And then I went with a friend of mine in 12th grade. I went to all the proms. Yeah, I think that's nice. Yeah, I had a lot of boyfriends. Kara Swisher had a lot of boyfriends. You little, you saucy little minx. I'm a saucy little minx. I was an easy girlfriend to have. I was. I was like, I never really was like clingy and I would have sex with them. That's pretty much why I was a great girlfriend. Anyway. That's a cocktail every young man likes to hear.

Lesbians make great girlfriends to straight men. I was like, they're like, oh, you're not very clingy. I'm like, no, I'd like you to leave. All right, Scott, let's go on a quick break. Can I get you an Uber? Can I get you an Uber? Are you done? Can I get you an Uber? Out of here. Okay, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, we'll talk about, you think that's funny.

John Hughes is spinning in his grave thinking, how come I didn't write that comedy? All right, Scott, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, we'll talk about Apple's supply chain problems and take a listener mail question. Apple's supply chain problems and take a listener mail question. Fox Creative. This is advertiser content from Zelle. When you picture an online scammer, what do you see? For the longest time, we have these images of somebody sitting crouched over their computer with a hoodie on, just kind of typing away in the middle of the night. And honestly, that's not what it is anymore. That's Ian Mitchell, a banker turned fraud fighter. These days, online scams look more like crime syndicates than individual con artists. And they're making bank. Last year, scammers made off with more than

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I'm John Blenhill, and I'm hosting a new podcast at Vox called Explain It To Me. Here's how it works. You call our hotline with questions you can't quite answer on your own. We'll investigate and call you back to tell you what we found. We'll bring you the answers you need every Wednesday starting September 18th. So follow Explain It To Me,ented by Klaviyo. Scott, we're back with our second big story. Apple will make fewer iPhones this year due to a global chip shortage. Apple has said it may cut iPhone 13 production by up to 10 million units. They do sell a lot of those things.

By some measures, the global chip shortage is getting worse. She said it was going to eventually get better. The length of time between the chip orders and deliveries have grown for nine months in a row as of September. Apple has also struggled to make enough of the new Apple Watch Series 7, but that might not be such a big deal. Reviews of the Series 7 say it's nothing to write home about, although it's a very attractive looking watch. Why are we getting so bad at making things? So let's talk about supply chain, Scott. Well, let me start where I would finish in that you always like to find a lesson for young people. And kind of the biggest, I don't know, the biggest decision, the biggest decision a young person will make is who they decide to partner with or have kids with. That's

the biggest decision you'll make in your life. And if you make the right decision, everything burns a little brighter. And if you make the wrong decision, everything's just harder. But probably the second most important decision for a young person is where they decide to allocate their most finite capital. They usually don't have a lot of money, and that's their human capital. And it's the boring shit where you make a lot of money and get really rewarding careers. And supply chain right now, understanding logistics, understanding how you move products around or how you look at how content is produced, how it's distributed, that stuff is, that is where shareholder value gets created.

The biggest, the most accretive moves in history in business, whether it's Apple opening stores or Amazon making this bold, visionary investment in what no one was thinking about, and that's how do they get your stuff faster, has created trillions of dollars in shareholder value. And we've taken our supply chain, our global supply chain, for granted. And what's happened is a lot of companies have gone to the lowest common denominator in terms of price, and they become very regionally vulnerable. And that is, if you're a shoe company that does a disproportionate amount of your

manufacturing of your shoes in Vietnam, and there's a supply in the supply chain, supply chain put me out of business. So let's go to the fifth segment of every show. And then, you know, how do we talk about Scott? My, almost my entire net worth was in red envelope. I kept doubling down. And there's a lesson here. And that is once you get to 30, you should never have more than 50% of your assets in any one asset. And I don't care about stories about Zuckerberg. I just don't do it. Diversify, even if it hurts.

I had 90 plus percent of my net worth in red envelope. Yeah. And then all of a sudden, Christmas is coming. Holidays 2008. The dirty secret, especially retail, is you lose money for 50 weeks a year and you make money, a ton of money for like 11 days before the holidays. And all of a sudden, everything hit at once. A Wells Fargo credit analyst said, I don't like the markets. We're pulling in credit lines. So we didn't have the same access to credit. Everyone talks about the equity markets. It's the credit markets that start economic implosions.

And two, there was a longshoreman strike, and all of our merchandise was stuck on one cargo container 30 miles off of the Long Beach. By the way, there's a cargo container slowdown. Everywhere. Like if you've seen these pictures of ships being parked offshore. So there was a strike. Like if you've seen these pictures of ships being parked offshore. Yeah. So there was a strike.

And then the software at our distribution facility on the Kentucky-Ohio border, the software in these guns that's shooting out labels, sent about 40,000 gifts to the wrong address. Now, think about what happens when you send the wrong gifts before holidays to 40,000 addresses. It's bad. Think about the customer service logistics. I believe bad is what it is. And you know what happened? Our stock went from $8 a share, I don't forget, whatever it was,

to zero in Chapter 11 in about 25 days. Wow. So I went from, oh, I'm done, I'm economically done, to, oh, wait, I'm 40 and starting over economically.

And it was because of supply chain. Supply chain got Scott Galloway here with me today. Back to modern day, and there's a geopolitical aspect here. We have taken for granted the global supply chain, and then COVID came in and interrupted it. And the chip shortage has had huge ramifications across the auto industry. The question, and I've been working with a couple of companies on this, is that, ramifications across the auto industry. The question, and I've been working with a couple companies on this, is that, is there an opportunity to revisit your pricing? So in a very, kind of the land of undetected consequences, car dealerships are more profitable than they've ever been.

Because what they haven't had, because the supply chain of automobiles was so robust that quite frankly, the industry just produced five or 10% more cars over here than demand. So you would go in and you could buy a Nissan Altima. I don't know what the price is, but if you bought it for $28,000, the thing literally was costing 26.5 to produce. And so they were making no money. And now, because there's a shortage and they have half the volume, the auto dealerships for the first time have something that low-wage employees have for the first time in 30 or 40 years. They have pricing power. Yeah. And just being able to price an Altima at $7,000 above what the dealership has to pay

for it instead of $1,500, even if they only sell half as many, it's double the profits. Yeah, they're doing a lot better. I'm going to interject. One of the things that's interesting is I interviewed Farrah Stockman last night. She has a new book called American Made, What Happens to People When Work Disappears. And she chronicled this ball bearings company that had to close and move to mexico is more around the nafta stuff but how they sort of became accolades of trump the people it's a really great book it's called american made

and one of the things we talked about was the idea of the global supply chain moving closer to even in this country and how does that happen how do you and one of her points was a lot of american manufacturing was just old, right? That it was back to this particular factory, which was called the Cadillac. It's called Link Belt. It was called the Cadillac of bearings. Just got old and not innovative. And so we were sort of discussing whether more and more companies through this

would either make their own chips, for example, with chips or whatever, or that the supply chain would move closer again back to where the customers are. And it was a very interesting discussion about how this has caused a lot of political roiling and gave Trump an opening, right? So, it is interesting if you could, she was talking about the Biden, the infrastructure bill, and she says, there's a lot in there that we should be doing. It's just there's so many things we need to be doing and fixing. But the idea of moving manufacturing back here, which I think is a really interesting concept, is just what you're talking about, is the idea of things closer to the consumers. Well, our supply chain has been designed around, mostly around low cost.

Go to the lowest cost source. And then when you have an interruption like this, it takes cost, it makes them skyrocket. So what they're saying is what we need is a more dependable supply chain and one that takes advantage of proximity. And also a lot of the advances in robotics have made actual onshoring technology.

If you combine some of the incredible innovation around robotics and also the fact that if you domestically produce it, you save a lot in transportation or you have more flexible supply chain, it's worth the incremental cost. So I think what a lot of people or companies are finding is that the total focus on low cost that resulted in producing 80% of your tops in one region of China made you very vulnerable. Yeah. And the other thing is, and I always go to where are the dangers here? I think probably, in my view, one of the most underreported stories, I think the most dangerous place in the world,

or potentially the most dangerous place in the world where World War III might break out, and I know that's a nice thought, is in Afghanistan. It is in the Ukraine. I think it's Taiwan. Everyone used to talk about, so we fought for basically half a century and came up with fake wars and proxy wars to try and control supply routes and supply of oil. And I think the new oil, if you will, or the new resource that is strategically and geopolitically just incredibly important is chips. And Taiwan plays a huge role in chips. And I think China is- PMSC, who went to Taiwan. I think China is spending a lot of time, and they're very smart, trying to do what I'd call a creeping invasion of Taiwan. I think it's a really, we have to think of manufacturing as an asset in this country again. And also helping politically, because it calms people down when people have work.

You know, all the studies showing people need to work. Because it gives them meaning, even if it's a small job. One thing, just I'm going to take it off a different way. Apple's in these, once they get these AirPods and watches to us, they're putting health monitoring in quite heavily. Thermometer, all kinds of stuff within these watches. So they're really doubling down on services, especially health services. And they have a big event coming up next week

where they're going to unveil new MacBooks and possibly these new AirPods. Prices might be higher. People who buy Apple goods are used to higher prices. So it's not a doubt it will have that much of an impact. I think they're just moving forward. I mean, I think they'll just have higher prices and people are fine with Apple doing that.

But it is interesting that they're sort of trying to make these AirPods into more than just that. It's improving hearing, a conversation boost. I was looking at the Watch 7 because I keep buying Apple Watches and then not wearing them. All the stuff on and around health monitoring is really interesting and also slightly scary, I guess.

I don't really know. No one cares about my heartbeat. But anyway, i think apple could be okay if they moved forward heavily into championing manufacturing closer to home yeah the there's there's a lot here so i think that um i mean first off we always talk about underhyped or overhyped which is the title of my presentation i did for you and by the way i spent a lot of time on that kara i don't think you've acknowledged the expression. You did a great job.

I said great job like 20 times. Everybody else just gets on stage and has you ask questions and then they peace out. I spent like fucking four weeks with my team

trying to... You did a beautiful job. Anyways, anyways, that's right. Mary Meeker with erectile dysfunction. Here he is.

Here he is. Okay, so, so, the thing that doesn't get a lot of attention or doesn't get the attention it warrants is AirPods. I mean, they are – if AirPods were its own business, it would be a Fortune 50 business. Think about all the attention the Apple Watch got. AirPods are the iPhone if they weren't made by the same company that makes the iPhone. They are just an enormous, enormous innovation and an enormous business.

And also, I think this is so exciting because if you look at the largest, arguably largest consumer business in the world is U.S. healthcare. It's also the most disruptible. Four out of five people aren't satisfied with their healthcare. And I think about you. You've been very open about your stroke. I think we'll get to a point where, you know, you are looking at an iPhone to unlock it now. Agreed. The technology is there.

It might go, alert, Kara, something is going on. Get to a medical professional immediately. Agreed. something is going on. Get to a medical professional immediately. It might be able to say, in your AirPods, your temperature is elevated right now. And you're also in an area with a lot of COVID, reported COVID infections. Please get somewhere and get tested. This is super exciting because the bottom line is doctor's offices and hospitals are ridiculously unpleasant and intimidating places. And people go-

I agree. I didn't have doctor's appointments for two years. I did them all in San Francisco when I was there. It wasn't unpleasant, but I definitely was, if I had had telehealth in a much better way, I probably never would have gone back. I'll use this as an example. And like this, if things go really poorly here, this will be a very downloaded episode. I have a dot, you can probably see it,

on my forehead. And I've been trying to get an appointment with my dermatologist to have the thing removed and looked at, right? It starts happening when you're my age. You should, yeah. And between my travel schedule and everything and the fact that my dermatologist is like, well, we're in the Palm Beach office in December 18th. I'm like, okay, I can't do that. Did you send a picture? My doctors, you send a picture. Yeah, really? Mine's not like that. But my point is- That's right. Well, we have San Francisco doctors. We send pictures, and then if they look at it,

they're like, hmm, get in right now. Whatever. You went to four fucking proms. Anyway, so, but I should be able to hold up an app onto my head, and it should go, okay. You can, just not with your doctors. Yes, you can. Well, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about AI ai that says get into a dermatologist right now or okay you can do it when you get back from from hanging out with you know don lemon at the studio at cnn plus get yourself i'm sure don lemon has a really good dermatologist i think he and i are going to be good friends i don't think so no i think you're gonna be good friends i don't think so i think

not yeah i think he's gonna get jealous of our friends. I don't think so. I think not. And AC is going to get jealous of our friendship. No, I don't think so. I think none of this is going to happen. Anyway, The Onion, just so you know, this is on a funny note, had an article this week. Speak English, The Onion. White House warns supply chain shortages could lead Americans to discover the true meaning of Christmas. That's good. Yeah, everyone's saying order your toys now. Yeah, whatever.

You know what it's going to do, though? What? It's going to massively increase downloads of digital product. It's going to be literally the, not the last, but another nail in the coffin of toy stores. Because everyone's just going to, the digital supply chain is still pretty robust. There were plenty of toys in the toy store. My kid, we broke down and gave him Assassin's Creed. Now he wants a Grand Auto theft auto.

No. And I'm like, no freaking way. I held the line on he's six no just kidding no no my one time when that was happening when i think it's grand theft auto um i was like don't they shoot prostitutes and and my son was like oh oh he goes just bad ones and i was like what no no no they have guns like, no, like it's not happening, boys. And I think that was a good mother. No, the thing that really turned me off was it showed a bunch of high school senior boys

trolling around going, let's find us some lesbians. He would say Chappelle. Anyway, let's pivot to a listener question. You've got, you've got. I can't believe I'm going to be a mailman. You've got mail. Hi, Kara and Scott. This is Emily in Washington, D.C.

I've heard you talk favorably several times now about the German rule that puts employees on the boards of companies. But if that's so great, then why so many German scandals involving massive lapses in board oversight? Volkswagen, Deutsche Bank, Wirecard, et cetera. As Scott knows, a board should be able to push a company to innovate and change in ways that management might not be able to do on its own. But employees are very risk averse about their own companies. So the more employees on the board, the less interest it would probably have in questioning assumptions or making major pivots. Right. So how do you make the argument in the American case without our companies becoming less ethical, innovative, adaptable and profitable? Thanks. That's a good question. I'm going to let you take this one, Scott. But I have adaptable, and profitable? Thanks.

That's a good question. I'm going to let you take this one, Scott, but I have to say, I think she's kind of right, but kind of wrong in that I think you need more than one. And I think American employees are less go-along, get-along than other employees. But what do you think, Scott? You've been a very difficult member of boards so many times. So talk about this. Yeah, I've been on seven public company boards and about 15 private boards. And I find corporate governance fascinating. It's something I like. It's something, anyways, I think it's important. And so essentially, a board is supposed to, you're supposed to demonstrate two words, care and duty. You're supposed to act as a fiduciary and show concern for all the stakeholders. And you also have a duty to basically understand the numbers and make sure that the audit committee

isn't going to come up, isn't going to find unwelcome surprises. And I think that actually, I wouldn't link the two. I think that German employees or more employees on boards is a really good thing because power is a function of proximity. The reason that the number one person, the CEO at a firm makes on average two to 10 times what the number two person makes is the number one person is in the board meeting all the time and gets to sit and establish a personal relationship with the compensation committee. And they're always deciding, erring on the side of, oh, he or she is a good person and we need to be generous. And I mean, the CEO, everyone talks about CEO compensation. The thing that hasn't been done

that's more shocking is the number one person literally makes a multiple of what the number two person makes. And it's a function of proximity. So having directors be more proximate, if you will, or closer to workers on the floor is really important because that is part of the reason that we're always – you know, I think if somebody really – I think if we on boards had much more contact with the people serving the food, the people at the cash register, I just think they'd make more money. I think we'd see that these are people who are good people trying hard and struggling, really struggling. So I think it's a good thing. Now, Germany, I think that's a different thing. Some of the scandal there, I think what happens with great companies that have done really well and are icons of the nation, it's easy to enter into consensual hallucination that things are working or to overlook things or to just get, quite frankly, fat and happy and not do your work as a director. And I've been guilty of this. Sometimes on the train or to just get, quite frankly, fat and happy and not do your work as a director.

And I've been guilty of this. Sometimes on the train down to the meeting, I'm reading the board book the day before. And if I'm really good, I look at it the weekend before and I start highlighting things. And I will call the CFO before the board meeting and saying, I don't want to take too much time at the board, but I have questions about this, about this, about this. Our margins have gone from this to this. I don't understand why. That's what a good director is supposed to do. And what you need here is the same thing

we've been talking about across big tech. You don't find Facebook 5 billion, you find them 50, or you do a perp walk. The incentives are wrong here. And that is the algebra of disincentive is wrong here, or deterrence. And that is when Enron collapses, nobody, there's been like 11 directors that have ever had to even come out of pocket with money. And the bottom line is if you're on the board of Theranos or if you're on the board of Enron. Yeah, nobody's suffering. And you really fuck up like this in terms of oversight and governance, quite frankly, there should be a penalty. You should actually have to come out of pocket with your own money. And guess what? Directors are going to start doing their, you know, start really thinking about reading that board book and asking the right questions.

Or not being directors. Like there is director's insurance. Or deciding maybe that's not worth the risk. Right. But it's a really good gig. I mean, on most boards, public company boards, you get between $150,000 and $300,000 a year in comp for what are effectively four or six days. I mean, everyone says, oh, we're not going to be able to attract good directors.

Bullshit. I have people calling me every week saying, hey, I would be willing to go on boards. Everybody wants to be on boards. I just don't buy that. There's a line out the door of people wanting to be on boards. What's it like to be a difficult director? Is there a lot of pressure?

I mean, you've had that happen at the New York Times. You had it in several. You talked about one the other day, I think, where you were kind of the skunk at the garden party. What is that like to do that? It's hard, correct? I mean, in terms of instead of agreeing with everybody, there's an impulse to shut down that kind of stuff. It's super fucking uncomfortable. down, that kind of stuff. It's super fucking uncomfortable. I accused the most famous venture capitalist in the world and the most powerful venture capitalist in the world of using

our company where I was on the board as a dumping ground for the failed products of his other technology companies. And it was absolutely, not only was it right, it was the right question for a director. And on the way to the airport, they called me and said they were kicking me off the board. And it was devastating for me. I mean, it was really devastating. I remember thinking, I got to the airport to return the car and I'm like, I don't even know what to do next. This is so clearly wrong. And I'm so clearly outgunned. I can't go up against a billionaire. I don't know what to do here. I don't, you know, and the board dynamic was everyone try to figure out what the billionaire's thinking and get there first.

But that is your job. It happened to me two months ago, and I know I'm trying to portray myself as a hero. I get it wrong a lot. I imagine you're very difficult on boards, but go ahead. We're supposed to, you know what the boards of Theranos and Enron all had in common? Non-difficult.

They got along really well. That's not our fucking job. Yeah, I agree. Our job isn't to get, you want to be respectful, you want to be thoughtful, you want to be open to pushback, you want to say,

thank you for that, I was wrong, I feel much better now. Your job on the board is to have a little bit of friction and sparks and say, that doesn't make any sense to me.

What you're saying doesn't make any sense or we need the CFO to come in. Yeah, because it's also planned and so it's like a dance number when these come in. It's also planned and so, like, it's like a dance number when these boards have it.

It's like a lot of them are like country club meetings. It's like lunch after a round of golf. Yeah, do you remember Evelyn Y. Davis? She was a board activist.

You know, she was a shareholder activist and she'd show up at meetings like Giant Food when I was a young reporter and everyone would roll their eyes

and I was like, I love this. She's causing them problems and not everything she said was right. She was a little, some of her stuff was a little far out but at the same time I was like, I love this. She's causing them problems. And not everything she said was right. Some of her stuff was a little far out. But at the same time, I was like, good.

She's asking them questions. Good. And the stuff they do to limit your ability to ask questions as shareholders, the way it's sort of choreographed, is really ridiculous. These things are choreographed. And there should be places where people get asked questions or public companies. Anyway, great question. But generally speaking, just to wrap this up, there is a difference between being right and effective. This is where I failed on boards is that I've come in too hot and it's reduced my effectiveness. And two, what I will say is I am shocked.

I've worked with a couple hundred directors. I'm pleasantly shocked how many directors take it very seriously, really do a lot of work offline, and really get to the bottom of stuff. And also, I will say this, I think most CEOs appreciate, I have a reputation as being a difficult director, and there's no hiding it. And guess what? I constantly get asked to go on boards because CEOs, it stresses them out in the meeting, but guess what? Most CEOs are usually pretty open to it. They like the pushback. As long as it's respectful

and it's not totally disruptive. Nobody likes, but a lot of them do reward board members with all kinds of bennies and so they behave. Well, we're rewarded the day we show up.

Yeah. Your compensation is fixed. Yeah, I get it. But you can tell when you get on a board if it's like a cooked board with all their buddies. But most of them aren't. Most of them are trying to do their job.

Okay. All right. That was an excellent question. Send us more. If you've got a question you're curious about, go to nymag.com slash pivot and submit it for the show. Thank you, Emily. All right, Scott, one more quick break. We'll be back for predictions.

Support for this show comes from Constant Contact contact you know what's not easy marketing and when you're starting your small business while you're so focused on the day-to-day the personnel and the finances marketing is the last thing on your mind but if customers don't know about you the rest of it doesn't really matter. Luckily, there's Constant Contact. Constant Contact's award-winning marketing platform can help your businesses stand out, stay top of mind, and see big results. Sell more, raise more, and build more genuine relationships with your audience through a suite of digital marketing tools made to fast track your growth.

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The Capital Ideas Podcast now features a series hosted by Capital Group CEO Mike Gitlin. Through the words and experiences of investment professionals, you'll discover what differentiates their investment approach, what learnings have shifted their career trajectories, and how do they find their next great idea? Invest 30 minutes in an episode today. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Published by Capital Client Group, Inc. Okay, Scott, give us this week's prediction. You know, I literally was,

hadn't thought of one. I was trying to, i think it goes to i think apple and amazon are um gonna bump up against each other so look you know they're all bumping up against each other in different ways right they're bumping up in video or they're bumping up in cloud google and amazon they're all kind of bumping up each against each other in big ways i think the next big bump if you will is going to be in health care between Amazon and Apple. Yeah. I think they both see that one of the greatest opportunities to create shareholder value is the dispersion of health care away from doctors' offices and hospitals to our devices and our homes and our Alexas and our iPhones.

And when you look at Amazon's wearable, the Halo, and the fact that obviously Apple has a huge advantage in wearables, but at the same time, Amazon has a huge advantage in distribution and also in smart speakers. I think that they're both. new apps and programs and recurring revenue programs. And even Amazon, I think it's going to get into diagnostic and health. But I think Apple and Amazon are about to like meet in a dark alley over healthcare and start going at each other. Meet in a dark alley, not to cooperate, to fight. Oh yeah, that was the wrong analogy.

Duke it out. That was the wrong analogy. Yeah. It's about to be like an, it was kind of a brewing simmer. It was a border skirmish. It's going to turn – I think Apple and Amazon are both going to be like – they're going to be both the fastest growing healthcare companies in the world. Okay. Over a billion dollars. There's nowhere else to go.

And they're going to go after each other. Yeah. They're going to increasingly – it's like, okay, Elon, while Elon and Bezos are sword fighting with their dicks in near orbit, Tim Cook and Andy Jassy are gonna have a real fight. Over healthcare. Like a bare knuckle fight over who gets to leave healthcare. Elon and Apple over cars, so we'll see.

Elon and Apple over cars. The more important one is probably the fight between all of them and cloud. You know, there's more like iconic or interesting ones, And then there's the ones that are more important around shareholder value. Competition. Look at that. I bet things will be better. Do you have any predictions? No, I don't. I never predict. You're the predictor. I predict you will have more predictions. Anyway, I predict that you will never have that hair back that you had in high school. And I predict- Hello, Billy Shatner.

Hello, Billy. that I will never go to another prom again even though I went to four. Let's just point that out. Anyway. My prom photo. Huge online. Anyway, let's read us out, Scott.

Read us out. Today's show was produced by Lara Naiman, Evan Engel, and Taylor Griffin. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Ernie Andretat, and Gene in this episode. Make sure you subscribe

to the show on Apple Podcasts or if you're an Android user, check us out on Spotify or frankly, wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to Pivot from Vox Media. We'll be back next Tuesday for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Hello, little Billy Shatner doll.

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