Pivot - Instagram's Teen Accounts, Fed Rate Cut, and Guest Justin Theroux

Episode Date: September 20, 2024

Kara and Scott discuss Donald Trump's crypto plans, and Melania's bizarre promotional videos for her book. Then, Instagram is rolling out teen accounts, with default privacy for users under 18, messaging restrictions, and more. Will these changes do some actual good, or will they just help Instagram avoid scrutiny and regulation? Plus, the Fed makes a major rate cut – what does that mean for consumers and investors? Finally, our Friend of Pivot is actor and writer, Justin Theroux. Justin chats about his new movie, "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice," how he's experimenting with AI, and why he's a Pivot superfan. Follow us on Instagram and Threads at @pivotpodcastofficial. 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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Hi, everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara Swisher, and I'm in a basement. Yeah, but it's impossible to keep you there. You have been all over my feed as there is nothing an algorithm likes more than someone absolutely barbecuing, putting on a spit, spinning around, eating, and then I don't know what the term is, but you, anyways, we should just play the fucking clip. How many laws do you think there are restrictions on tech companies? Just love you to tell me. Hundreds.

Zero. Zero. So where are all these laws that you just, you just said a lot of words. Well, listen. You literally just said a lot of words, all of which are untrue. There are no laws restricting speech online.

In fact, there's one law, section 230, that allows them to get away with anything. Let me ask you this. Literally, you just said something that was willfully inaccurate. Let me go to your social media component question. In 2020, did Twitter not restrict the Hunter Biden laptop story? Guess what? CNN's made mistakes. They made a mistake. And then they said they made a mistake. And that also is a mistake to restrict free speech is what you're saying. It's not a mistake to make.

It's a mistake to make a mistake is what it was. And it wasn't a restriction. It was a fundamental mistake. And what is Elon Musk doing right now? He cuts things off all the time when he feels like it. It's just, this is what media companies do. It is interesting. So I'm going to guess, I don't notice, that you put that on the big screen when you and Amanda were alone.

You played it and then it was sexy time. Did you guys just go at it? I haven't been home since that happened. You know, let me say, this is Brian Lanza, senior advisor to the Trump campaign. He just kept coming out with, you know what, he was sloppy and didn't know the facts. He called Hoffman Reed Hastings. Then when someone pointed out that Vance called Trump America's Hitler, he said, yeah, that was 2020. Who cares? Like, literally, he's just, he was sloppy and ignorant. And it was exhausting. Like they just, and another person on the thing didn't know who Gwen Shotwell was at SpaceX,

kept saying that Elon did it all. I was like, do you know Gwen Shotwell? And they're like, no, who is that? I'm like, so you don't know SpaceX at all. It just went on and on and on around a number of falsehoods. It was really, you know, the problem I have, and I think they should have more reporters on these programs. I'm sorry. If you're going to say something, you should at least do the research or do the facts. And so he didn't. So I just showed him the way. There's two things there in addition to your kind of awesome body slam here.

The first is that when only four of 44 secretaries and cabinet members who you worked with are endorsing you in your second run for presidency, it kind of leads to a scenario that we have now. And it is the Trump campaign has just awful fucking surrogates. I mean, as much as I didn't like Kellyanne Conway, I forget the really attractive blonde woman who was a surrogate for him, a spokesperson for him. She was quite good. Vice President Harris's surrogates are Secretary Buttigieg, Governor Newsom. They are fantastic. You know, Senator Kelly. I mean, these guys are just's not a good person. I think CNN is doing a terrible fucking job. And that is they are putting up programs with village idiots on the other side, and it doesn't benefit the debate. It's fun.

It tickles our sensors to see you just school somebody. that show. It is a couple incredibly biased people on the left and a couple of village idiots on the right who just have a food fight and talk past each other. It is not helping the discourse. Yeah, I think it's a bigger problem because it's a bigger problem in society as a whole is that you, you know, including with this pet thing, you just can say lies over and over again and then say you said a lie and it was okay. And that's, you know, it's just, I think the reason it resonated is because I had the facts, and I was like, you are, when I said willfully inaccurate, I think people were like, finally, someone's saying exactly this. And what happens when people are, say, attacking things he says, they don't correct him for one, in this guy, in this particular guy,

says. They don't correct him for one in this guy, in this particular guy. And it was, you know, a lot of people do it. I corrected him respectfully, actually. I was not like screaming at him. I think a lot of what happens with the left people, they just argue a point that is inaccurate in the first place. And so it's no one ever gets any illumination, right? Or what's happening here. And so I'm like, this is a ridiculous argument about rhetoric because it's so clear that the rhetoric levels don't make a difference and they're nonsensical and they get away from the point. But at the end of the day, that's not your job. And these companies are now in the business of entertainment, not in the business and news. And if they were actually in the business and news, they have an obligation. You know who, I remember I watched Deirdre Bolsa on CNBC with

Keith Rabois, who went on to just essentially lie about Open Door's financials, to basically say they'd been profitable and gross. And she would stop him and very politely go, Keith, you can't say that. That's just not true. And according to Gap Accounting, they have, because a lot of older people, you know, average age dead of CNBC viewers would take this guy who looks credible and they put, of course, the moniker billionaire next to his name and think, oh, if he likes Open Door and it's doing really well, I'm going to go buy stock. And she had to stop him, I think three or four times. And she had- I saw that. It was fantastic. She had the presence to, I think, three or four times. And she had... I saw that. It was fantastic. She had the presence to, in a forcefully yet dignified way, stop him and say that. The debate moderator who we would kill for, that should pass a law saying everybody has to run by this guy. Did you see the guy that moderated the debate for the congressional district in Colorado that Lauren Boebert ran for?

Oh, I love him. He was just... He's amazing. You have apologized for for. Oh, I love him. He was just he's amazing. And you have apologized for the theater incident. I certainly have. And I just want to make sure. Did you apologize for the behavior that went on with you and your date or the vaping? Or did you apologize? Or pardon me? Or did you apologize for lying to voters about what you did that night and the disrespect that you showed to service workers that night? What specifically were you I don't believe there was disrespect.

There were things that were absolutely taken out of context. There's video of your interactions with service workers. Because these guys, it's very hard to have the ability to fact check real time. And also, quite frankly, what you did, Abby should have done. And the guests aren't. Well, I'm going to give her the thing of, I happen to know a lot about this, right? And so you should have people on that happen to know a lot about it. I think they should have more reporters on, I've told them this. Agreed. So I knew a lot. And so that's the issue. You either have someone who knows a lot on the topic, if you're going to take up the topic, who is actually a reporter or an academic or someone who's an expertise. But just like saying, you know, sometimes when they do that on some of these panels I'm on and they go, Ukraine, I don't speak. I don't know what I'm talking about. Right? I don't say a word. I don't have an opinion or a take because I don't know what I'm talking about. And unfortunately, into the breach go these people who don't know what they're talking about. When he said Reed Hastings, when he met Reed Hoff the difference, right? That just stupidity is infinite and intelligence has its limitations. And I just, I think we do need to do it.

And the reason it's resonating is because of that. And we are still being taken advantage of by foreign interference that wants us to do this kind of, you know, pig wrestling, essentially. I don't know what to call it. It's crap. It's crap, as they say in Scotland. I don't know what to call it. It's crap. It's crap, as they say in Scotland. Crap. We're back to Scotland.

There's a commercial opportunity here, and that is to establish some sort of service, almost like a commercial, that runs for 60 to 120 seconds at the end of every news program that is powered by AI, or if we can find them, three or four journalists that sort of seem moderate, that just go for 60 to 120 seconds, take every face, and basically

fact-check them and say, this person lied 11 times, this person exaggerated three times, this person- We have someone on CNN that does that, but it has to happen in real time, don't you think? that's sort of almost like FDA calorie count on food or whatever, from someone or something or an organization that say, these guys are pretty, at least have the reputation of being neutral arbiters. I'd love to see that chyron running during the presidential debates that just say, this is not accurate. This is not accurate. Whatever it might be, because the American public is to blame here, because rather than the truth, they just want to feel good. And they want to see people embarrass each other and fight each other. I agree. You know, as you know, I work for the McLaughlin Group. It's the same thing. It's just

like, at least be accurate if you're going to make a point. I don't mind having a difference of opinion, right? One time, I'm not going to say who it was, but someone there on the panel likened it to pro wrestling. And I looked at them and I said, that's say who it was, but someone there on that panel likened it to pro wrestling. And I looked at them and I said, that's shameful. Right before it started, I was like, you think this is fun? Like this is, and you know, you don't want to come across like, you know, like, oh, how dare you think this is this? I think it should be interesting and people should have great, great debates are so great to watch, right? Really good ones are so, they're not just, they are entertaining, but they can be really illuminating and they should be great debates. Great debates are so great to watch, right? Really good ones. They are entertaining, but they can be really illuminating, and they should be illuminating is what it has Secretary Clinton. Yeah. Yeah, I really enjoyed it.

I like her a lot. She's a spicy lady, he says. Whenever I'm on AI and I'm thinking about, I'm trying to bone up on something around geopolitics, I ask, what would Hillary Clinton say about this? She's very clever, isn't she? She's very clever. Anyway, thank you for saying that. I wish it wasn't a viral thing in a weird way. I'd like, people need, I don't think.

No, mommy loves it. Mommy loves it a little bit. No, I don't. I don it wasn't a viral thing in a weird way. I'd like, people need, I don't think. No, mommy loves it. Mommy loves it a little bit. No, I don't. I don't. Here's why. Because I've been listening to a lot of like voters. They want real information.

They say it again and again in these focus groups. They're not talking about the fighting. They're like, enough of this. I know, I want to know things. And I think that they deserve that. Anyway, we've got a lot

to get to today, including Instagram rolling out major changes for teens, which, you know, interesting, and what the Fed rate cut means for consumers, investors. Scott, I'm eager to hear what you have to say about that. Plus, our friend of Pivot, finally, is actor and writer Justin Theroux. We're going to talk to him about his new movie, AI in Hollywood and more. We love Justin Theroux. He has become someone, he's a fan of Pivot and we're a fan of Justin's. So excited. Are you excited for Justin? Yeah. He's a leading man, yet a character actor. And also he's got one of those, people don't realize this, he's actually a very, do you know he wrote Tropic Thunder? He did. He's a writer. One of my favorite movies. He's very

talented. He's like Renaissance man. He's talented and talented. Now we're trying to guess how many times you're going to mention his fantastic hair. Anyway, first, the Trumps have entered the crypto business. Oh, my God. The two words together, Trumps and crypto, in a live stream on ex-former President Donald Trump, who seemed to display no knowledge of what crypto is, announced World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture. There wasn't any detail, actually, in the announcement, but it's reportedly being pitched as a borrowing and lending platform. The company's social account said it aims to drive mass adoption of stable coins. One of the people who's involved seems to be, he calls himself described, I think, dirtbag, and I sounds about accurate. The people he's affiliated with are speaking of really downgraded people. Several members of Trump family have roles in new business, according to them, including 18-year-old Barron Trump, who's listed as a decentralized

finance visionary. Okay, sure, Barron, sorry, you're 18, we can talk about you, and I think you're probably inadequate to the task, to say the least. So, why is he doing this so close to the election? I mean, the grift is rather severe here. Yeah, but I don't, I mean, it's just crazy. Something like 5% of his campaign donations have gone to his owned entities, whether it's fees to use his plane or his hotels or holding an event at one of his golf courses. So the kleptocracy is almost a known known. I actually, as much as I hate to admit it, I think this might be smart because some of the undecideds here are libertarians and the crypto folks, the likelihood increasing his chances of winning back the presidency. Because there is a big chunk of voters up for grabs here that are one-issue voters around crypto. And they're trying to figure out who would be better around.

One in five Americans now own some cryptocurrency. And it skews. It also skews a little bit younger. It skews a little bit more male. It actually skews, interestingly, the stuff I've seen, despite the conferences I've gone to on this, there's a lot of non-whites who have invested in crypto. So for him to kind of come out and say, not only am I your friend in crypto, I'm in the business. As I thought about it, I thought, you know, it's probably kind of a smart signal that he's the guy, if you like crypto, he's your man. Well, you know, it's probably kind of a smart signal that he's the guy. If you like crypto,

he's your man. Well, you know, that's a really smart way of putting it. I hadn't thought about it. Scott, as always, you do this. I'm like, oh, he's right about that. Listen, the people he's affiliating with here, the minute you dig deep, are really sketchy characters, right? Of course. And so it does have the possibility of being so like the next indictment. That's what I feel like, like the social media thing, a true social, which is down in the dumps. It went up a little bit because he said he wasn't going to sell, but there's other ways of getting money to him through that. The way he set it up, it's another group of grifters that are involved in this thing. And people, either grifters or people who have incompetencies that are really rather pronounced. And so, you know, and of course, he does have all these fans who want him to get into this so that they can make a killing in some way. But I also think it opens a line of attack for Kamala Harris in that if you're against the dollar, right? Like that kind of stuff. I think it does. There's a much larger swath of people that think I would

really like to have a stable economy and crypto is not that thing. I don't think she should get near this. I agree with you. She should talk about the economy and how a strong economy is important and supporting the dollar. But she does not want to get near this because no matter what she says, she'll come off as anti-crypto. Yeah, she should say, we think crypto is really important. It should be done in an honest and that's the kind of thing she should say. Something like that. Or show, I don't know, if she actually showed up and said something about

mining and the limit on 21 million coins and it's established itself. If she just had two or three talking points that showed she knew about three million times more about this actual innovation than Trump and outlined two or three just basic policy measures around supporting crypto, but she should not go after him about this because small business people, he's a private citizen right now. He's running small business people, he's a private citizen right now. He's running for president, but he's a private citizen. And a small business in crypto, you don't want to be in any way seen as against either of those things. Right. I think you can paint him as the grifter part of it.

And I think it's great. I think really, you know, really honest crypto people are wonderful and we should push it. That kind of thing. really honest crypto people are wonderful and we should push it, that kind of thing. She could do a little, he's the grifter part, because people do understand that, that there's a real casino gang hanging. The grifter part, and this is the challenge she faces, or what I would argue is her task, and that is everybody knows who wants to know or who cares that he's a grifter. There's no new information here. Fair point. And it is so easy. And we constantly as Democrats sit around just flummoxed

that you, the potential Trump voter, can't see what a criminal and a bad person he is. And we've got to stop it because they already know and they're like, hold my beer. I'll show you. Yeah, I can actually vote for him. Despite how disgusted you are in me and my lack of disgust, sit here and watch me vote for him. They got to spend all of their remaining capital

on this is my vision for the economy. This is my envision for alternative asset classes because all the people who are or are not going to vote for him based on who he is, that's done. That's done. Don't spend a moment on it. I agree. Someone, I was at a very fancy dinner last night, and someone correctly said to me, I was like, it doesn't matter what you say about him. It doesn't matter how many things he does, you know. And one of the things this person observed, which I thought was correct, is he's got a very high floor and a very low ceiling. It doesn't matter. That floor is not coming down. Anyway, speaking of Trump family members, Melania Trump is doing some interesting campaigning. We haven't seen her for a while, allegedly, according to people I've spoken to. She's very upset about a lot of the Laura Loomer stuff because she's rolling out a book largely.

Loomer stuff because she's rolling out a book largely. The former first lady has a memoir coming out early next month, released a clip on social media defending her nude modeling work. Let's listen. Why do I stand proudly behind my nude modeling work? The more pressing question is, why has the media chosen to scrutinize my celebration of the human forum in a fashion photo shoot. Are we no longer able to appreciate the beauty of the human body? Scott, this is a layup for you. The more pressing question, Scott, is what do you think of this? Well, it's kept my nude photos closeted for a while, and I agree with her. Look, no one was talking about this. No one cares. I thought this was the onion.

I don't. I know. Everybody did. No one cares. No one cares. People went, this is real. There was a lot of this is real online, but go ahead. No, there's literally nothing.

There's nothing to say about this other than, Madam First Lady, no one cares. No one's scrutinizing it. You've decided to make it an issue in hopes of selling more books. There's no, everyone is down with it and more power to you. And I encourage you to pose naked again. I don't, I mean, go for it. Get on it. You're rather controlled. I was hoping for a little more Scott here, but I like it. I

like this controlled Scott. It really is bizarre. She's going to have a hard time rolling this thing out because she doesn't do regular media stuff. And so she's going to have to do stunts. Like, this is a stunt. It's a ridiculous stunt. It's just weird. She's doing it weeks before an election, but all right, Melania, knock yourself out. I don't think she's going to be in the White House if he wins. I got to give it to her. There's nothing funny about leaked celebrity nudes, which is good because I have a difficult time masturbating while laughing. So I just don't think it's anything to laugh about. Okay. You knew it was coming. I knew it was coming. I was waiting. That's why this is a layup for you. You knew it was coming.

So I want to get to something. This is another, I'm giving you another layup, a third layup here. Are you ready for more wearables? Snap has unveiled fifth generation of its Spectacles AR glasses. The Spectacles are only available for developers who have to commit to paying $99 a month for a year to build AR apps for the device. Snap is partnering with OpenAI to give developers tools to build their AI features with the glasses. The announcement comes a week before Meta's Connect event

where the company unveils its latest hardware. They are still big. They're still big. I saw them on several people's faces, and they're big. What do you think? They're going to keep going. These Snap or it's Meta or Apple, they're going to keep going here. Well, look, I don't know if you heard, but I just saw this on Reuters. The Mossad have detonated all of the mixed reality headsets in Lebanon, but no one was injured. No one was injured.

That was a joke online. I saw that. That was, you stole that. Some might call it picking lowest hanging fruit, but go ahead, go ahead. Tell me what you think of these, of why they keep at it. You know, the honest answer is I don't know. I think that the hardware here, first off, I think Snap's a very innovative company. I think it's subscale.

I think it's having trouble competing. And it's one of the more creative ones. I've always thought it was the perfect acquisition candidate once its stock got to a reasonable level. But even at this level, it's now, it's still too big for a traditional media company and all the biggest players don't want to raise any trust scrutiny. I love Evan. I like the team there.

I think they do as good a job as they can being a subscale player in a market dominated by just giants. In terms of the headset itself, they don't have the capital, in my opinion, to maintain the staying power here. The most successful wearable, the only wearable that works is your iPhone. People would say, well, what about the Apple Watch?

Apple has spent tens of billions of dollars and has the capital and the endurance or whatever the sustainability to just promote that thing for a good 20 years. And now it sells more watches, the entire Swiss watch industry. They do not have the capital because these things will work once you get micro camera technology and microprocessors to the point where you can have it on an elegant piece of glasses. They don't have the capital to pull that off. So I just think this is another interesting press release. I think the Uber dorks will try it and like it, but it's not dead on

arrival. It dies a slow... In six or 12 months, we're not talking about it. Yeah, but I think this area, they're not giving up on the idea of heads-up display. I think that's where it's going. I think eventually your AirPods will have cameras in them. You're right, micro cameras, and it will speak to you and it will surround you. There's a word that- From Apple. I interviewed, yeah, from someone else, but there's a word that Satya Nadella did yesterday called agentic, agentic, right? An agent on your behalf. And I interviewed Mustafa Suleiman, who runs their AI yesterday at Los Benzitec, and I'll be on on. But I think this idea of an agent on your behalf. And I interviewed Mustafa Suleiman, who runs their AI yesterday at Los Benz Tech, and I'll be on on.

But I think this idea of an agent that surrounds you has got to have some sort of audio. And he talked about audio being critical. Audio and visual that surrounds you in some way where you just ask questions of it, like Jarvis on Marvel, on the Avengers movies. So look, these are going to, these are eventually, they're going to be

just like phones were. They used to be big, giant blocks of like computing, and then they got smaller and smaller. And this is where it's headed. That's my, as you know. The company that's going to capture all of the shareholder value here will be the company that has the wearable, the supercomputer in your pocket, and the brand. It's going to be Apple. And you're right. They're going to, with Apple AI, which they're rolling out with their new phone, which I bought today, of course, with essentially a wearable that I have on my person all day long, specifically AirPods, and with an unbelievable supercomputer that everybody has so they can program it at scale. So when I walk by an apartment and I say, or if I just say to Apple, I say,

order me an Uber or whatever, and it can do it if it hears certain words and it says, whether it's Siri or Apple, Apple intelligence, whatever it is. Or if I walk by an apartment complex and say, are there any apartments to rent here? It'll say, please hold up your phone and give me a visual. But certain things will be fine just with audio. Some things will require visual. But the idea of needing something that, again, violates your instincts and that as fucks with your peripheral vision, it just doesn't work.

Apple will wait for Snap and other players to push boundaries of innovation, and then they will come in as the second mouse and scale it. They will. I agree with you. I think it'll be interesting. Anyway, okay, let's get to our first big story. Instagram is finally taking action when it comes to protecting kids online with a new effort called teen accounts. Accounts for users under 18 will now be private by default, which they should have been all along. There will also be messaging

restrictions, more parental supervision, and automatic emuting during overnight hours. Automatic, which is critical. The changes are rolled out for teens in the U.S., the U.K., Canada, and Australia in the next two months and globally in January. Instagram plans to use AI to identify kids lying about their age starting next year. Seems a little creepy, but they have to figure out ways to do this. Instagram CEO Adam Aseri said they're expected to lose some meaningful amount of teen growth and engagement. Jonathan Haidt shared results of a survey he did on Gen Z and social media in the New York Times. Almost half of Gen Z wishes social media platforms like X and TikTok didn't exist.

as social media platforms like X and TikTok didn't exist. There's so much here. Scott, look, I can start, but I think you should start, and I have some thoughts on this. But what do you think of these teen accounts? What impact will it have on teens? And do you think others will follow Instagram's lead? This is a misdirect. Anyone under the age of 16 should not be allowed to be on social media, period. And this is Adam Massaria as a new Sheryl Sandberg, and he will start lying to us and convincing us that all of a sudden, Meta's DNA is now different. It's no longer a gorilla, it's a zebra and gives a flying fuck about young people. And while I think Adam is a good guy, I think he's very likable, Meta's core competence is finding very likable, charming people to convince us that they are not lying.

And this has, remember how this would have been impossible to pull off, and yet they have figured out a way, very easily and inexpensively, using the AI they have at their fingertips to go, this person is clearly under the age of 16. And then they can detect if you're lying to them about your age, they ask you to upload a government issued ID so they can verify it. Oh my God, they figured it out. And don't you know, they figured it out on the eve of the Child Online Legislation Act. All of a sudden, just as we've come up to the edge of actually doing something, they're trying to say what the alcohol and the tobacco industries have both done. And they've said, uh-oh, the wolves are circling, the jig is up. They've figured out we're lying. They figured out we will say anything to increase shareholder value. So let's pretend all of a sudden to give a flying fuck and convince them,

oh no, you don't need to do anything. We're regulating ourselves. Folks, you're a day late and a dollar fucking short. Do not believe anything these people say or do. This should do nothing. Fine. This is great. Well done, Adam. Thank you very much. Go on The View. Pat yourself on the back. You're the new leader. You're the new official liar. This should not do anything to get in the way of legislation. To start, absolutely. I think that this was, let's put, this is legislation Scott's referring to that is about to come up and they are trying to end run it, essentially. And it's taken up to the edge. You're right. It's interesting. I got a really great text from someone I talk about this issue who's a parent. And he goes, none of the changes they announced today, I'm going to just read him. I'm not going to identify him, but none of the changes they announced today would have prevented the harms my daughter and all her friends and pretty much every kid experienced. The unwanted advances from other kids, the unwanted violent sexual self-harm content they get recommended in reels. I did some basic testing recently when they announced changes to the sensitive content, and I can tell you it was trivial to get a video of a woman talking in great detail about how great it is to get gangbanged, recommended to an account of a 13-year-old girl

with all the faults and no searches. I do think getting a parent involved when switching a teen account public is good, but only if they explain what that actually means to everyone involved. But ultimately, it looks like Meta is trying to pawn off teen safety on the parents when it is their job to create a safe product. And Instagram still hasn't added a button where a teen can say when they get an unwanted advance, how can they even talk about protecting against inappropriate content if they don't let teens let them know when it happens. Adam understood why it was important and how easily it is bet to do when I spoke to him, yet they refused to do it. Sigh. I think that just kind of says it. I just don't know what to say. They should have buttons. They should have been

able to do it. And they're pawning far too much off on parents, which include also Apple. I've done it with my kids. It's really hard to do it. And I agree with you. 16, that should just be it. There are some kind of obvious things about tech that always struck me. Tumblr was a porn site. And the venture capitalists and Tumblr itself tried to pretend it was something else.

And the moment they acquiesced to pressure to get rid of porn, their traffic dropped by like 30 or 40 percent overnight. And a company that got purchased for $1.1 billion seven years later was sold for $3 million. One of the core value drivers of traffic at Instagram begins from a place of perversion. And that is, let me encourage, let me create algorithms such that women under the age of 18, minors, sexualize themselves. And then I'm going to let their peers and strange men from around the world comment and potentially contact them. That is, that's generously called that pedophilia light or diet pedophilia. And this is now an accepted thing, the over-sexualization.

Do you realize how much, I remember I was working in specialty retail and people used to get so outraged at like Forever 21 or Top, I forget what was Top. Remember Brooke Shields with the pants, with the jeans? Yeah, they were saying, okay, these specialty retailers are just in business to dress up teenage girls like slots. And the mothers went crazy and Congress went crazy. What is Instagram for 15-year-olds? I mean, essentially it's two things. It's wealth porn.

It's all porn. It's either wealth porn or actual porn or kind of Cinemax. It's all porn. It's either wealth porn or actual porn or kind of Cinemax. And yet, and yet, and I wasn't allowed into see The Exorcist when I was 17. I mean, we just, again, we've decided there's an entirely different set of standards around these platforms that generate shareholder value and is seen as innovators. You could not get away with any of this shit. If you were holding a rave, a party, and you encourage 15-year-old girls to dress provocatively, and you allowed 55-year-old men from around the world to come in and talk to them and comment on their outfits, do you know what would happen to the venue, the agency hosting that event? I mean, it'd be raided by the police. They would be in big trouble. So here's the deal. Look, it's great that they're doing this, but it's so late and it is still so hard. Let's just cut to

the chase and protect kids by not letting them on it. This is not, everything should be by default. And if you're a parent, it is very hard to manipulate these things. Let me just tell you, I have a hard time understanding the parent blocking thing. And I sit there and I'm like, what, what do I push here? And I did it at the Verizon level. I did it at the Apple level.

And let me just tell you, Apple's not out of the woods here too. Their tools are not good enough. It's super easy and they don't want to make it easy. And I'm sorry if they're going to see a lack of growth. They shouldn't have any growth here with kids. And there should be separate services that are safe, where you cannot get on if you're that age. And if you fake it and are reported immediately, you get kicked off. And more, by the way, if you start to really creep out kids. This should be just so easy to do. I'm going to move on really quickly.

Amedda also made another big move this week, banning Russian channel RT from its platform for, quote, foreign interference activity. No shit, Sherlock. The ban comes after U.S. government announced sanctions against RT, accusing of carrying out covert influence operations. They're actually not as covert. They're just, they're overt, I guess. YouTube also removed hundreds of channels with ties to Russian government-backed media earlier this week. Why do you think there's such a flurry of action right now? RT said in a statement, it's cute how there's competition in the West who can

try to spank RT the hardest. The woman who runs RT is one crazy chick, I got to tell you. And she says it outright. There was a report this week about how Elon Musk is constantly recycling and amplifying Russian talking points and propaganda. You know, these people are just winning the propaganda war here with us. And the fact that they did this so late and is fine and good and, you know, tiny little clap for that, but it's just too late. Too little, too late. Same thing.

Yeah, I don't. Look, I think a lot of this comes down also to one thing that everyone gets allergic around because the incumbents have done a great job of fomenting this myth that we should have that anonymity outweighs the damage of these trolls and people who aren't being honest about who's behind this content. And this is an obvious one. If you're putting up news sites that look like the Washington Gazette or something, and it looks like an American website running out of DC talking about how there's all this momentum to end the war in Ukraine and people are fed up with funding Ukraine and you find out, oh, it's actually being funded by Russian agents. Okay, but we immediately have this thing of, right, there's a discussion because it's quote unquote

speech. The second thing we got to go to is I think it would be so easy to say, when I talk about identity, we've been talking this for a long time, I think it would be so easy to say, when I talk about identity, and we've been talking about this for a long time, I think in a democracy where you have rights of free speech, the requirement to have identity online far do it under the auspices of anonymity. The human rights advocate in a Muslim country that is not friendly to women, whatever it might be. It would not be that difficult to figure out a way to have a certain number of anonymous accounts and, quite frankly, use AI to say, are they using their anonymity to, in fact, talk about important issues under the auspices of a threat to their safety? Or are they doing it just to wreak havoc with our society? That is not speech. Think about the meteor that hit the, this is what I'm writing about this week on No Mercy, No Malice. The impact of the meteor that is the internet has done way more, had way bigger impact in the last 30 years than that meteor has had. And I worry that we are becoming a different species where we're becoming more isolated, more coarse, and we are evolving so fast that our institutions, our paleolithic instincts,

our paleolithic instincts, our medieval institutions, and this godlike technology, we can't keep up with it. And this is one of the manifestations of that, is that when you decide, you fall under this bullshit of the incumbents and the criminals, that everything is free speech and you shouldn't force anyone to have identity. You know why people are generally civil? And when you go outside your house, it's generally speaking a nice place because people have identity. Yes, you're right. You're right. All right, Scott, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, we'll talk about the Fed making a major move and we'll speak with friend of Pivot,

the dreamy Justin Theroux. 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 $10 billion. It's mind-blowing to see the kind of infrastructure that's been built to facilitate scamming at scale.

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of scam centers all around the world. These are very savvy business people. These are organized criminal rings. And so once we understand the magnitude of this problem, we can protect people better. One challenge that fraud fighters like Ian face is that scam victims sometimes feel too ashamed to discuss what happened to them.

But Ian says one of our best defenses is simple. We need to talk to each other. We need to have those awkward conversations around what do you do if you have text messages you don't recognize? What do you do if you start getting asked to send information that's more sensitive? Even my own father fell victim to a, thank goodness, a smaller dollar scam, but he fell victim and we have these conversations all the time. So we are all at risk and we all need to work together to protect each other. So we are all at risk, and we all need to work together to protect each other.

Learn more about how to protect yourself at vox.com slash zelle. And when using digital payment platforms, remember to only send money to people you know and trust. Scott, we're back with our second big story. The Federal Reserve has made a big move this week, cutting interest rates by half a percentage point, a larger cut than many had anticipated. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said a recent hiring slowdown combined with a decline in inflation convinced Fed officials that a large cut was needed. This is the Fed's first rate cut since 2020, which feels like they did before that. But let's talk about, do you think the cut is a good move? Global markets are rallying

as of this recording, the Dow popped 500 points at the opening bell. I'd love you to talk about that and also what it means for people looking to buy a home or car. Obviously, there was questions about the election. Jeremy Powell dismissed claims that the rate cut was politically motivated in any way. It is presser on Wednesday, but people don't want to pay as much for mortgages or cars or prices, essentially. So give us the very quick rundown. Well, I would say other than Putin, and that's in a negative fashion, I think the most consequential person in the last few years has been Chairman Powell. He redefined the term soft landing, where you're able to cool the economy while not shoving it into recession. So his ability to, you know, his craft or artisanship or ninja-like

command of these weapons called interest rates have just been fantastic for the economy. So what do I think? Whatever Chairman Powell says, you know, I trust. This was a bigger rate. This was a pretty big hammer. Typically, they only do a 50-bit decrease or change in interest rates when they're trying to avoid a recession, when they feel a little bit panicked. But this is pretty straightforward. The news is pretty accurate here. The economy is cooling a bit as evidenced by increasing unemployment and decreasing job openings. At the same time, inflation has almost come down to its target level. So he's put on a masterclass so far. It's usually the market's pricing in another three or four rate cuts. In terms of how it affects consumers, I think this is more

interesting. And that is nobody predicted that an acceleration of 500 bps of interest rates, which is arguably, I think, maybe the fastest acceleration over that shorter time period in history, would take the prices of houses skyrocketing because the unintended consequence was it created these unexploded IEDs called mortgages where no one could leave their house. So it reduced supply and housing prices skyrocketed. And now the conventional wisdom is that now that mortgage rates are coming down, that it'll see housing prices go up, but it may not because what it may do is free up or unlock some constipated housing supply of people who didn't want to move because they didn't want to give up a 2.5% mortgage for a 6% mortgage. But maybe

if they're giving up a 2.5% or 4% to move back and be close with their family or take a new job, it may lead to more supply. So we're kind of in the world of unintended consequences. Typically, throughout economic history, the year following the beginning of a rate-cutting cycle, the markets go up 12% to 14%. But as we've seen the last couple of years, sort of all bets are off. But I will repeat what I've always said for these people trying to make hay by saying that the economy is awful. Just as the technologist said, the future's here. It's just not evenly distributed. This economy is not evenly distributed. I want to be clear about that. And that goes to a lot of things around tax policy and social policy.

We have the lowest inflation in the G7 and the strongest growth. He has put on a masterclass. Yeah. It's just that people have to feel that. And I think when it goes to home buying and cars, that's going to make a difference. We'll see. It's too, you know, the idea that it's going to affect the election. We've only 50 days. Come on, stop it. There's just not going to happen.

People will not feel better because of this immediately. They might feel better later in the year, but we'll see. Anyway, all right, let's get to our friend of Pivot. see. Anyway, all right, let's get to our friend of Pivot. Justin Theroux is an actor and a writer, and his latest role is in a little film called Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice. Justin is also a Pivot fan. That's how we met him. Welcome to Pivot, finally. Thanks for having me. Thanks for having me on the show. Yeah, yeah. You want to... I am a huge Pivot fan. Yeah, why?

Why? We're perplexed as to why someone... I don't know. I actually was trying to think about this before I got on. You know, I hate to break it to you, Cara. It was Scott Galloway who I think first came on my radar.

We almost met in D.C. after the White House Correspondents' Dinner, but you were being coy. I wanted to meet you. And then I had seen Scott go off like a firework on the Bill Maher show. And I loved seeing that. But then we met in California when you were about to do the Bill Maher show through Brooke. And I basically, you were my first date and then Scott was my second.

Right. Scott was playing really hard to get. He's always like that. Anyway, we're thrilled to have you here, and we're thrilled to have you with such success. I mean, one of the things people don't realize about you, you're quite a renaissance man in Hollywood, including as a writer.

Scott's in my favorite movie. But let's start with Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice has been crushing it at the box office. It's made over $264 million worldwide as of last weekend. Huge hit. In addition to the nostalgia factor, why do you think it's been such a hit? Because not all of these work, right? And obviously, Tim Burton's doing it again.

Right. I've been a part of ones that haven't worked. And I don't know. It's one of those things. He's obviously sort of in the cultural zeitgeist at all times, whether it's Halloween or Christmas or, you know, there's just sort of, he's sort of like a wallpaper that comes to life every couple months for whatever reason.

And so he's always in the background, but then he becomes in the foreground. Right, it's interesting because Beetlejuice didn't, was of my youth, I would say, like the original one. And so it's interesting because both kids are highly aware of it, who weren't even born when the original one came out.

But nostalgia, if it's done well, is a good thing. I don't know. I don't ever know whether it's even nostalgia. You know, many elements came together. The wonderful Jenna Ortega has probably a grip on your kids somewhere in the same way that Taylor Swift has, you know, a grip on some people and not others. You know, the alchemy, I think, was right. You know, he had the old cast coming back and some new elements like Jenna and myself.

Yourself, absolutely. Explain to people what role you play just so people, when they go see it. I play a horrible, I don't know, Scott, maybe you can relate to this, but I play this sort of, this unctuous boyfriend. No, not in the way that, Carrie, you're thinking. Okay. I play a guy who's sort of like her manager slash producer slash wants to be in her life, trying to get into her life and love interest. And he always sort of reminded me when me and Tim were working on it as this guy who's sort of like the boyfriend that your mom brings back to the house. Scott both had single moms.

I don't know if Scott ever had this experience. No, you did have this experience, but you had great boyfriends come back. My mom would occasionally bring back a guy who was always a little too like, hey, buddy, what's going on? Come over here. Let's do something rad together. And you'd be like, I just met you last night.

I don't want to hang out with you. And so we sort of keyed off that guy. And he's really a D-bag. He's a lot fun to play. A D-bag. Yeah, a D-bag. Well done. Well done. Scott, go for it. All right, Justin, it's great to see you. Also, just full disclosure, I consider Justin a good friend. I did need to disclose that, but it brings up my credibility hugely. And I just want to give you shit. You decided to wear a tank top? What are you, fucking Melania Trump, trying to get our downloads up? You literally wore a tank top to the interview. I'm not wanting to wear a tank top.

I didn't even know this was being recorded. I should have covered everything in the background. You want to know the honest truth? I set my alarm for 9 o'clock knowing we were doing this at 10.30, and my alarm, for whatever reason, and I just rolled out of bed. I really did did i just came out of bed so i just threw under the tree all right so i got i got a compliment i got a compliment he's got to make him he's got to objectify you at least once i'll be able to objectify him in a minute justin is a super thoughtful generous guy we have a lot in common as he referenced both raised by single mothers he found out where beetleice was premiering, found out where my kids live, and made sure

that they got to the premiere. And by the way, my kids said it was, my kids weren't that interested. They were too young to remember the original Beetlejuice, but they said it was amazing and a quarter of a billion dollars in box office receipts, and they were just so impressed that I know you. So anyways, thank you, Justin. The question I have is, you've been in this business a while. You've been on all ends of it.

You're a writer, you're a producer, creator, front of the camera. Just really curious, if you were talking to a group of analysts or investors about what's going on in Hollywood, how would you describe the industry right now? Like, what do you see coming? What are your thoughts on scripted television, the streaming wars? Give us the state of play from Justin Theroux. Well, I don't know. You know, I've been very fortunate. I mean, without disclosing anything to anyone, you know, I've gone out with a couple projects this year that I think over the last 10 years would have been easy buys.

You know, like this is a thoughtful, interesting script that's engaging, that has many elements that we haven't seen on television. And, you know, a couple of those have not been accepted. And it was the first time where I thought, oh, wow, there really isn't an appetite for wonderful at the moment. It's not to say that it's, I don't know whose fault that is. Could be my scripts. Could be that these are just not good scripts and my radar has gone completely whack.

I've heard that from a lot of people. It's not discriminating. It's that they don't know what's about to happen and so they don't want to take any risks. Yeah, I think there It's that they don't know what's about to happen, and so they don't want to take any risks for some- Yeah, I think there's a moment of fear. You know, it's like, you know, if you're, and I'm not a stock market guy, but if you were a stock market guy,

like you guys sort of follow, you're kind of just going, yeah, okay, look, let's just, we're going to put our chips on Coca-Cola. We're going to spread our chips across, you know, whatever it is, IBM and Apple. And, you know, they're like, we're not to spread our chips across, you know, whatever it is, IBM and Apple. And, and, you know, they're, they're like, we're not going to, you know, we're not interested in a cool little startup that might win a couple of golden globes anymore. You know we're going to

just play it safe. I'm hearing a lot of, and on the writing front, I, on those sort of meetings that I've taken, they're like, do you have anything? And then they basically, without describing a medical procedural drama set in a hospital in Chicago, they basically describe that. And you're going, well, you're just talking about, you know, ER, Grey's Anatomy or something. And you're thinking, wait, what? We're making, we want to make those?

Like, but I think, you know, I'm an optimist. So I think this will bounce back. I think, you know, I'm an optimist, so I think this will bounce back. I think, you know, the good news is we still have an enormous amount of outlets and an enormous amount of channels. And frankly, I think it gives YouTube an opportunity to play in a bigger, you know, they still have a big pot of money, I think that they could play with and do some interesting things or. You've been, you've done pretty much everything other than, I think, lighting and sound, and you probably did that. Done a little sound. If you were advising a young person going into Hollywood, would you say, would you, how would you stack rank acting, writing, producing behind the camera for people who look at the industry and know it's under

tremendous strain? There's evidence everywhere. What, A, what do you personally enjoy the most? And what would your advice be to a young person in terms of the right place to focus your efforts? I wouldn't be able to speak to, I mean, I think you're always at the craps table with acting. You're relying a little more on luck. You know, the way to really, to guarantee your chances of success are training. I honestly believe that. I'll speak just to acting for a second. I think everyone who can do a half-decent impersonation of their uncle thinks that they can go be an actor in Hollywood. There's a separation between people that want to go to Hollywood and be

famous and then people that want to go into acting. And I think there's a huge difference. And, um, and so I was lucky enough to get four years of training as an actor. And the first probably 12 jobs were not Shakespeare and they weren't, uh, Ibsen and they weren't, um, you know, I didn't have to, you know, they were jobs where I really had to bend myself to a part that I didn't want to do on a soap opera or something like that. And you have to be able to do those lines with confidence. So when people are like, yeah, I think I'm going to go act. And, you know, I just, I think I'm, you know, usually it's some sort of a good looking girl or boy. And I go, and I go, Oh, okay. And then you go, what are your, what's your training?

Like I did a couple hours seminar, Stella Adler offshoot or something or other. And you go, well, that's not really, you know, if I'm going to be a plumber, you know, I'm going to want to get training. Yeah. As far as just sort of where you should direct your attentions. I mean, I also was lucky in that I sort of went omnidirectional. And again, we had encouragement from the wonderful Ben Stiller to write. And he gave me basically four years of education writing for him. He's an incredibly hardworking actor, director, writer, producer. And when I wrote for him, there would be times where he would kick scenes back to me nine times, 10 times, 14 times ago. This is a great scene. This is a funny scene.

It's eight pages long. Can you make it four pages? And then I'd make it four pages. And then he'd say, this is fantastic. Now it's two pages. It's got to be two pages. And so, you know, he just sort of ground me, you know, he really put me on the millstone and in a great way and taught me how to create story. And then just taught me any number of things that I could go on and on about, about what it takes to create a script. So you focus on training, but you are at the mercy of these studio executives, you know, in a lot of ways who are just sort of panicked. That's my feeling is they feel when I talk to them, they feel panicked and ignorant at the same time. But they were poorly pushing, for example, for this movie to go straight to streaming early on instead of giving it a theatrical release, which would have been stupid, right? But I want to talk about this idea of streaming and what you do when you're signing onto a project now, not just theaters versus streaming but where to go because you you you have a little more uh agency

because you do more stuff right well scott's the big hollywood mogul now he's the one selling scripts getting clean in the room left and right 100 i'm glad you finally acknowledge that i'm glad you're in touch with your feelings and not threatened by our friendship, Justin. And I'm out here in the desert just looking for a drop of water. But you have to pick now. Like, when you just said YouTube, like when you're making project decisions, you know, it was a while when the tech companies came in and now they're real buyers, right? Apple is a real buyer of pretty good stuff, right? Some of it good, some of it not, but a lot of it good. Where do you, how do you make a decision of who you're going to affiliate with now? Because there's so much, you know, there's so many choices. You know, without describing what each characteristic is,

I think each place has, you start to go, oh, this feels like it wants to be at X. You know, that's the decision that everyone makes. So a script comes in or is created, and then you go, all right, where are we going to take it? And they go, you know who would be there? And then you sort of isolate your three best buyers for it. You know, if you have a hard-charging, R-rated comedy that's really going to be, you know,

trying to find the edges of the room comedically, you're not going to probably go to Apple with it necessarily because, you know, I think they're, you know, their business is iPhones. You know, they don't want to do anything that messes that up, nor should they. You're going to probably go to Netflix because that's Ted Sarandos, who's shown to have some real spine when it comes to putting edgy comedy out there. So it's sort of like that. I don't know. And for dramas, I don't know.

You think, well, this is a very piquant, maybe a much harder needle-to-thread drama about a blah, blah, blah. Well, we might go to FX with that because, you know, they only make a couple of things a year. Their output isn't as high as Netflix, but FX, this really feels like it belongs with them. You want to find your partner. I mean, it's kind of like dating, you know, whatever you're, if you're wanting to swipe right or left, you know, you want to sort of find the right, you just want to find the right partnership because inevitably if you're wanting to swipe right or left, you know, you want to sort of find the right, you just want to find the right partnership. Because inevitably, if you, if, if in those situations where you make a piece of content, the word I hate, and it's not a happy marriage, it will not be a successful show. You know, you want everybody singing in the same key.

Well, would something like The Leftovers, which was so brilliant, be made today? I keep thinking. I mean, maybe it would. Maybe it would find a different audience, kind of stuff like that. It could. I think it would probably find HBO again, because HBO, they were very kind to us.

That was not a show like House of Dragons or Game of Thrones that tapped into the zeitgeist and people were dressing up for our characters as Halloween. That was a show that took some real integrity. And it was one of those strange things. It was getting wildly good reviews based largely on the writing and some of the performances. But they stuck with us, you know. And our budget dropped a little bit, I think, in the third season. But we never really wanted that show to live for five years.

Damon Lindelof, a wonderful writer, always said, this is probably max a three-season show. And again, even now, they're sort of saying, like, they want things that have five seasons. You'll be happy to know that Emily in Paris got a fifth season, so maybe you can be on it. When we talk about AI all the time on the show, and there's been a lot of news in Hollywood this week, California Governor Gavin Newsom just signed a pair of bills that will give actors more protection over their digital likenesses. Lionsgate plans to start using generative AI in

the creation of its new movies and TV shows, according to The Wall Street Journal. As a writer, and particularly as a writer, but also as an actor, how do you look at these things? It was a big contention during the strikes. How do you look at AI right now? And do you use it? What do you like about it? What don't you like about it? And again, full credit to my friend Scott. He, you know, when I would hear you guys talk about it, like, this is coming. This is a tool. This is a thing.

I'm writing a script currently. I reached out to Scott and I said, okay, what do I download? How does it work? Is it private? You know, like, what are they taking from me? What are they not? And he said probably the most accurate thing. He says it's, you know, AI, as far as writing goes and as far as, you know, being able to write the right prompts for it is largely pretty anodyne.

It took me a while to figure out, you know, what parameters I wanted to sort of put in and what prompts I needed to give it to sort of really get where and where it was going. prompts I needed to give it to sort of really get where and where it was going. But it had a couple little toeholds in it where I thought, oh, that's interesting. I hadn't considered that. In the few instances where I've sort of used it or, you know, had a bit of writer's block and going, oh, maybe it's kind of like a writing partner in a way. And it likewise can be helpful in saying, in just answering simple questions in a way that Google doesn't. You know, like I'm working on this period thing

and I needed to know sort of the origins of the word fuck and, you know, whether this thing, whether that word works in a period piece, you know. And so in this timeframe, give me examples of the time, you know, that the word fuck was used or first example or whatever. And so it just gets to the point a little quicker than Google does, you know. Oh, wow. I'm excited to see that now. So 25 years ago, Mulholland Drive, Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion, deeply underrated piece of content.

I agree. Strangers with Candy, Wanderlust, The Girl on the Train, The Spy Who Dumbed Me, On the Basis of Sex, Bumblebee, Lady and the Tramp,

and you have written Iron Man 2, Tropic Thunder, Rock of Ages, and most recently White House Plumbers, The Mosquito Coast, Kara Reference, The Leftovers. You've been prospering, not surviving, prospering in a creative industry for several decades.

I have two questions. One, what are your creative hacks for trying to put yourself in a moment of flow so that you can feel like, okay, I have a better chance of doing something well here versus something quote-unquote anodyne? better chance of doing something well here versus something quote-unquote anodyne. And then my follow-up question is, if you were adopted by Larry Ellison tomorrow and he said, Justin Ellison, you can do anything. You can make any film. You can star in any movie. Anything you want to do creatively, you can redo, make the sequel to any film ever, what would that be? Well, the list of credits you just read out to me speaks to my first point, which is training, because every single one of those parts required a different part of my training to employ, whether that's comedy, drama, farce, surrealism. I mean, farce, surrealism, you know, I mean, doing Mulholland Drive was like doing, you know, Brecht to a certain extent.

So I had a good background. I could play varied characters. You know, that is, like it or not, the job. We have to play multiple, multiple characters. And, you know, if anything, I attribute whatever sort of character success I've had is to be able to play other characters and go unnoticed, but try and be good in them. Because that IMDB listing reads like a cardiograph. It's up and down. It doesn't make any sense. It's not like, well, he got this part and he did that show for 10 years,

and then he went and did a couple of movies. And that was also, I credit my gut to just going, what is the next interesting thing? The word no is a powerful, powerful word in anyone's career, and being able to say, no, I'm not going to dedicate my time to that. There's a couple of times where I've said yes to things because it's been the smart thing to do or it's the right director to do it with, and I've been miserable. My gut was telling me no, but my bank account was telling me yes or something. I've just been, you know, I've just been, I think my gut has been good on that. To find flow, I don't know. I don't know.

You know, when you occasionally you're doing a scene and you just, you find yourself in that bliss state where you're going. I don't know what the equivalent for you guys would be either in writing or in, or even in podcasting where you just, I feel like I've heard it a couple of times when you guys have been podcasting, where you guys are just in flow. And that's just sort of tuning in, listening, and luck, you know, and you have a beautiful experience, you know, and you just go, wow. And you drive home at the end of the day and you go, that was special. And I don't know what accounts for that. It just happens sometimes. What would you most want to do? Unlimited funds,

what would you do? Oh, unlimited funds. Larry Ellison. I'd like to open a production company and take the seven scripts that I have on my shelf, some of which I've written, and I'd like to delegate. I'd like to hire a team and I'd like to delegate, I'd like to hire a team, and I'd like to delegate and get us and dusting them all off and working on them and start producing them, you know? I mean, it is the worst thing about being a writer, director, actor. Actors in particular have it hard because it's the one profession where you need someone's permission to do it. You have to join a basketball team every single time. And you have to get, there has to be a draft pick that happens for every job that you have. And it's, you know, even if you're a violinist, you can go to

Washington Square Park and play violin and put a hat out. You can't do that with acting. It's a terrible thing, which is why I think so many people are sort of just putting out their iPhones and looking silly on street corners. But you know what? They're making content. Right, right. What TV show or movie do you love right now? You know, I'm going to be disappointing. I'm going to be disappointing in this answer. I love, I scour the internet every, every, at the beginning of every month going, what in the prompt I put into my Google is this like best new documentaries coming out in, say, September 2024. And I, I really like documentaries, like, almost more. I watch things that friends of mine are in and I love certain things, but I really do. It's going to sound so sort of art school and dumb, but I really like watching people behaving in a real setting.

And when you can see a good documentary like Fog of War, it's like an incredible character study of McN you know, McNamara, you know, or when you can watch someone reacting in real time, that's the most nutritious sort of food for me. So I really like watching people, you know, I mean, I guess that's sort of the job as a writer and an actor, you know, when you know how the sausage is made. Oh God, don't be so fucking mature. What big movies have you seen that you've enjoyed? What original script? What can we stream right now?

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice is a, what can you stream? I don't know. I mean, there's a great documentary coming out that I want to see. You're sexy enough without the whole, I like the documentary rap. Jesus Christ. If you want to come see my etching Scott. He's a substantive man unlike you.

Scott is like styrofoam. I really, I really. He comes, keeps surfacing to the top. Well, sometimes I won't say which thing,

but sometimes I listen to, I listen to the things that you guys are listening to. I'm like, what are they doing watching that when they could be watching this?

Oh, see, you know what, Scott? He's better than us. He is. He's handsomer. He's fitter.

He's smarter. He's got better hair than you, for sure. What did you think of Baby Reindeer? Lightning Round. What did you think of Baby Reindeer? Okay. All right. Lightning Round.

Baby Reindeer. I was so excited for this sort of like light jaunt about a stalker. And I was just gut-punched and almost borderline nauseous by the middle of it. Okay, next. Saltburn. I thought it was a wonderful performance. Saltburn. Saltburn, haven't seen.

Saltburn. Haven't seen. You're going to get a lot of haven't seens probably. Dune 2. Dune 2. Dune 2. I know it has sandworms, but sadly haven't seen it. Although I love Rebecca Ferguson.

Emily in Paris. I'm telling you, Emily in Paris, I think I've, I don't know. I saw the first couple episodes of the first season. I don't know. I'm telling couple episodes of the first season I don't know I'm telling you I'm a white wall

has just gone up and you're just bouncing a ball off it anyway Justin Theroux you are we are your biggest fan actually

and you can catch him if you want to see him in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and he's he's terrific in it it's really great thank you so much

thanks Justin I want to come back, Scott, and I want to talk about my feelings later. Thanks again. All right. We appreciate it. Sounds good. Anytime.

All right. Bye. All right, Scott. Isn't he the best? He is dreamy, even as Kara the lesbian says. Just for a moment, my second internet friend,

my first was George Hahn. My second is Justin. He reached out to me and I thought it was a fake account because I said, I know who Justin Theroux is. This can't be the real Justin Theroux. And I wrote back and it seemed like him. He is the nicest man. Nicest man. He is an astonishing writer and thinker whenever I talk to him, just a really substantive man. And that's why he likes documentaries, Scott. There you go. There you go. Yeah. Nice man. And that's why he likes documentaries, Scott. There you go. There you go. Nice man.

All right, Scott, one more quick break. We'll be back for predictions. Okay, Scott, let's hear a prediction. So we try to call balls and strikes here. And as you may have ascertained, if you're really thoughtful or perceptive, Cara and I are not enormous fans of Elon Musk. But I do think that Starlink is just an incredible product. And Starlink has 2,500 airplanes now under contract after United's mega deal. after United's mega deal. And essentially now two-thirds of active lower satellites are controlled by SpaceX and their subsidiary Starlink. And I don't know if you've ever used this. It's got somewhere between two and three times the speed of your residential broadband, but you're on a plane. And you know, I don't know, I've had a few of these moments where technology just absolutely

blew me away. Where the first time I took a picture of a check, the first time I bought something when I was outside on my BlackBerry because I was headed to the theater and didn't have checks, the first time, I don't know, I got my car tuned up wirelessly. There's certain moments where you go, Jesus Christ, that is just awe-inspiring. Kind of like the time I got that declawed frozen hamster and stuck it up my ass. Is that technology, Kara? Is that technology? I knew you couldn't do it.

I knew you couldn't do it. But go ahead, move along. And when you talk about maritime and you talk about the fact that this thing, I mean, when you're on a plane eating bad meatloaf and for the eighth time, your go-go wireless goes out of range. And you have to pay for it. And you have to pay for it. And then you have to sign up and you're like, did I just pay another 25 bucks for this thing?

This thing is literally a 10x better product. And right now it's trading in the private markets at $210 billion, which is double Tesla's price to sales ratio. We predicted a long time ago it was going to be worth more than Tesla. And so that's not my prediction because this thing is already at a quarter of a trillion dollars. The prediction is similar to how all of these people who are Netflix have gotten taken to the woodshed. The Warner Brothers and the Disney and the Paramount Globals of the world over the next year are going to be GoGo, of the world over the next year are going to be GoGo, publicly traded, Viasat, MRSAT, KVH Industries, Iridium Communications, SES, all of these Intel stat, Telestat,

all of these companies have put out shitty technology for maritime and transportation, trying to give you some semblance of broadband. This is the Netflix of that industry. You're going to see tremendous disruption here. Which is what makes it so sad, because he can do things like this. And that's what's sad about him. I have to say, he's lost interest in Tesla, it looks like, in terms of creating new fresh cars. But this is a great product. This is a period great product, which makes his decline, his amplification of Russian propaganda, his heinous behavior, all the more tragic in so many ways. Anyway, I agree with you. I think you're right. I'm excited about it. I was just on a United flight and I was like, what the fuck am I paying $24? It doesn't work. I can't get it on. And then the stewardess is like, it must be your fault. I'm like, it is absolutely not my fucking fault. It's that you have a shitty system that you foisted upon your consumer and people work on points. Well, and they're brilliant.

They've just signed a multi-year spokesperson agreement with a naked Melania Trump. Yes, all right, all right. 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. Submit a question for the show

or call 855-51-PIVOT. Okay, Scott, that's the show. We'll be back on Tuesday with more Pivot. Can you read us out? Today's show is produced by Lara Naiman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie and Retard engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows and Neil Severio. Nishat Kurwa is Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine, 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.