Pivot - Trump’s Press Crackdown, Paramount Settles, and Anthropic’s $2 Trillion IPO

Episode Date: September 22, 2026

Kara and Scott unpack the Paramount–Warner Bros. Discovery settlement, the White House’s escalating fight with the press, and Amazon blocking Meta’s AI assistant. Then, they break down Trump's plans for an AI Force, whether Anthropic can pull off a $2 trillion IPO, and the stakes of Trump’s upcoming summit with Xi Jinping.Watch this episode on the ⁠⁠Pivot YouTube channel⁠⁠.Follow us on Instagram and Threads at ⁠⁠@pivotpodcastofficial⁠⁠.Follow us on Bluesky at ⁠⁠@pivotpod.bsky.social⁠⁠Follow us on TikTok at ⁠⁠@pivotpodcast⁠⁠.Send us your questions by calling us at 855-51-PIVOT, or email [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Learn more at Harvey.a.I. They go from being true ballers to true bitches. Ballers to bitches. Hi, everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine in the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara Swisher. And I'm Scott Galloway. First off, I just want to say, I was right again.

Perriman has reached a settlement. with a coalition of 12 states that sued to block its Warner Brothers discovery takeover, clearing the biggest remaining hurdle to the deal. Paramount will not have to sell off cable channels as part of the settlement, although the full terms of the agreement have not been disclosed. But it looks like very much behavioral remedies and not structural ones as promised by Rob Bonta, who looks like a fool here, actually, a range of concessions reportedly discussed,

including a $1.5 billion investment in production in California after threatening to leave. a dingbat editorial board for CNN and CBS to ease concerns over independence, which is completely toothless, a commitment not to sell either studio lot, I'm not sure what that's about, and a potential penalties at Paramount fails to produce 30 movies a year, which they already do. So I want to talk about this a little bit. I've got some props for you. Is that okay? So, you know, I don't know if you know this, but I work for CNN sometimes.

This is a CNN logo that I stole from them when I was there. Do you like it? Cool problem. That logo. That's going. Okay. Oh, wow. Are you making an announcement?

No, not an announcement. I have a contract with us. This coffee is delicious. I want to have some in this delightful MSNBC cup. It is kind of old. It's not MS. MS. No!

Yeah. Now! Can I just take you into the, I started a brand strategy firm profit when I was in business school. I'm just dying to know. They're in a meeting and they're like, okay, it can be MSNBC. It was Microsoft and NBC. We can't, we said we want to lose MS, but it can't be NBC because of corporate reasons. So MS now, news right now.

And then some genius went, no, we need to make it sound more urgent and wake up the old people. Call it MS now, put an exclamation point on it. Stephanie Ruhl does that. Now. Put an explanation. No, no. I just took my Cialis. I want to see that Ari Melbourne now.

Now. Now. He is a sexy beast. I got the oxygen tank. I know, I know. I just watched a Pam Greer film. The Seattle is checking in. Where's that, Melbourne?

Now. Okay. In any case, no, my contract, I was just literally reading my contract today, as you might imagine when this news struck because I threatened to leave. And I am asked my agent to get me out of my contract. It ends December 31st, so it's only a few months, right? I just can't. I just thought, like, I was trying to.

trying to figure out ways I could work with them and some, like, license you made. But then I thought, fuck these guys. I don't want to work for them. I just don't. I got too much to do with you, Scott Galloway. Kara, let me give you a little insight scoop here. Yeah. I think there's a decent likelihood when you show up to whoever it is you show up to at CNN and say,

I want out of my contract, they jump up and say, congratulations, no problem. No, not at all. You're wrong. I know you think that. I know you'd like to run me down. We'll miss you. Best of luck. No.

Well, maybe the Ellison's, that's for sure. But not, no, no, they've been trying to keep me. Very nicely, been trying to keep me. And I have a lot of regard for the executives there now. I have other things that make more money that matter more, that have a bigger audience. And I just. Let the door hit your ass on the way out. So anyone with a last name, Ellison.

No, I'm just saying. I just don't want to work. Why is it? They don't want me. I don't want them. And I have been very explicit. I'm breaking up with you. No, stop it.

Stop it. They just stop it. They think they have shoddally, I think they are terrible media owners. I'd rather work for Rupert Murdoch. What other media firm do they own? They own CBS. And you think they've been? Well, okay, fair point.

Fair point. I answered my own question before I was done with a question. Let me say, I think they're terrible media. Gotta love land man. That's fine, but they didn't do that. You love Top Gun. I love him to make Top Gun movies the rest of his life. I'd be thrilled to watch them.

And I will go to Top Gun 3. So I'm trying to incorporate a Top Gunman. metaphor. I worry at MS now. I'm not necessarily going there. I worry if you stated CNN that the Ellison's produced along with Top Gun, you would hit the same glass ceiling as Goose. You'd hit the same glass ceiling. Oh, well done. Pretty good. Pretty good. I love Goose. That was a good character. Yeah, supposedly on Top Gun 3. Kelly McGillis is returning, but you know who is not returning. Goose. Oh, I know. That's very funny. Anyway, a farewell in Adia. I can't leave yet, but I will leave as soon as I can.

It sounds like you're going to be a great employee. I'm out. I'm out. Until I'm legally, I'm gone the moment I am no longer legally. Yeah, let's invite her back to. You know what, I am much in demand, Scott Galloway. I know that. I'm just saying, I'm much in demand.

Everyone's afraid of you. Okay, give me strategy what I should do besides say, fuck you. Yeah, fuck you is my instinct. Your strategy, Kara, is you invest in your opportunities, not your problems. That's correct. Podcast media is a problem. And you, like many people, have a fetish for it and think that if you see a CNN or an MS Now logo over your head, it makes you more credible. You've already worked for the most credible brands in the world. You should go direct to consumer. You make more money than you've ever made anywhere else in your life talking to an irreverent Bradborough. You should invest in. You just started something very cool. And by the way, just saw our listeners know, we have rehearsed none of this. You started something really cool called Off with Kara Swisher where you're making all this cultural commentary. Invest in that and invest less time, energy, and effort in an 80-year-old looking for Ari Melbert

to come on. Yeah, I get it. Invest in the opportunity. I am when I learned how to surf in Hawaii, and I thought, I'm an amazing surfer. I'm gifted at this. And then I tried to surf in Newport where there's real waves or harder waves. And I found out I am not a very good surfer. Go to where the snow is good and the waves are great.

and that's podcasting and direct-to-consumer. You don't like anyone telling you to do anything. You are a shitty employee, and I say that affectionately. As a shitty employee yourself. I would have made more money if I'd stayed at Morgan Stanley. I was too insecure and self-centered to work for other people. It is a skill. It's not because I'm a baller.

You are that in spades. Invest in your opportunities, not your problem. Thank you, Scott Gowler. I think I shall do that. I'm going to focus more. There's so much podcast opportunity. And I mean the broader podcast stuff and some other stuff I'm interested. It's so fun to try things, like doing that off with Keroswisher, and that's going to go somewhere.

I have more stuff to do. I feel like it's right. But talk about the deal itself. I mean, this looks like Bonta gave in. I don't know why he was even doing it in the first place. What does your overall feel for this, away from my interests in the situation? Pure regulatory theater. We decided, as they should have, that two enormous media companies can merge because they need to compete with even more enormous

media companies. There was no legal reason to block this merger. And, oh, but they extracted from them a promise to make more movies. That's like letting Goldman and J.P. Morgan merge if they promised to build more ATMs. This is regulators started out saying, this is Godzilla. It's an existential threat to humanity. And they settled by saying, we'll make more movies about Godzilla. Yeah, and keep your studios, keep your real estate in Los Angeles. This is total weak sauce. This is Rob Bonta deciding he wants to run for governor and giving it a populist bullshit.

I don't like the concentration of media, but the bottom line is when you do the math and you look at antitrust law, there was no legal leg to stand on here other than bothering them and trying to extract their pound of flesh. So fine, they're going to get, oh, and my favorite, the CNN editorial.

I know, I know. You know how I feel about that. That's my favorite. I sent you what I thought about it. That's like when the WGA, the worst run union in the world, extracted agreement from the studios to discuss AI. That's my favorite. Yeah, editorial board. You have to have a conversation with us about AI. Oh, yeah, that'll save you.

Yeah, exactly. And the editorial board's just, I'm going to read you something I wrote because I just think it's such a dingbat nonsense to do that. This is what I wrote. A history lesson. Do you remember the 2007 five members special editorial oversight board? that Rupert Murdoch agreed to form when he bought Dow Jones spent meddling by him. I do and thought it was a name then. Within a year, Uncle Satan, my nickname for Rupert, had put his minions in place, moved out Marcus Broccoli and installed longtime factotum Robert

Thompson, whom I nicknamed the naughty vicar, so no one was there who might complain to the board, utterly predictor and painfully stupid. The committee publicly said as much, pointing out the obvious they were powerless. The Columbia Journalist Review aptly called it the Committee of the Absurd, And since then, repeat after me, kids, ownership equals control. If Ron Bonta thinks such a toothless entity will be effective, he is a knucklehead. By the way, Murdoch had done the same tricks earlier when he bought the Times and the Sunday Times in London. Both boards are non-existent today. Thus, it will be with the Ellison's.

Just this is like, these things, you know, I would, as I said, I'd rather work for murder. But he did the same game on these people. and they're far less able owners of CBS who've put in incompetent management so far don't seem capable. It seemed capable of controlling the media very nicely. That's what they're good at. I just think these boards, why don't you be on the board?

Cause some trouble. I just committed to a board that meets six times near in California. I know, you're on a good board. You're on an actually good board. So look, okay, this is a good merger because in media, media plays a really important role, especially news media. And unfortunately, news media, unless it's elevating conspiracy theory or that mRNA vaccines alter DNA and getting content produced for free

and then using AI to addict you and serve you to exact right Nissan ad at the exact right moment, it's become too expensive to do good journalism. And unless you have a benign billionaire or someone with Deep Pockets who sees an economic motive in funding this for ego reasons or otherwise, these things are going to go away. Now, CBS Paramount, was going to go away faster. If this merger didn't go through, that company was really going to struggle. It is subscale. Warner would stay in business. It just would go sideways and probably be a shitty place to work or invest. Even their sub-scale. Together, they got a fighting shot. I don't think the Ellison's are as, I think the Ellison's like money more than they do Republican politics. Oh, that's not true of Larry. It's

maybe true of David. I think David was sort of more democratic. Ellison is on the hook personally. Yeah, I got it, but I'm telling you. He is. He is a billion in debt. He is very political. He's got to make this work economically. And CNN, I just don't, I just don't think it's, I don't think overnight, you're going to have the ghost of Lou Dobbs on CNN. I don't worry. I don't know. The stuff they've done in CBS is pretty grotesque. But let me just say, let me relate it to related news. The five major TV networks are suspending their rotating White House pool coverage after Trump administration refused to allow CNN to serve as a pool representative. This comes shortly after President Trump banned CNN, MS Now, and Politico from the White House saying media outlets shouldn't be able to

report fictions and lies. Actually, they are allowed to do that, Donald Trump. From all three outlets were turned away Saturday with our White House press passes deactivator confiscated. Trump said there was no single story that prompted the ban calling the result of the years of negative coverage and warning that other outlets could be next. Apparently Natalie Hart fed him all manner of negative clips from MS now. All three outlets are set to sue the administration. They have an excellent lawyer Ted Boutros asking a federal judge reverse the ban, which probably will be because it's government. She'll make no law restricting the freedom of the press. So they'll probably restore access.

He might restore it for the Ellison's, I guess. But everyone's banding together. This is important because, you know, I think it's the last guess of an autocrat here, what he's doing. And maybe he was up late with Natalie, you know, shooting the shit. But it is related, like, who owns these things and who has the guts to stand up to this kind of nonsense. I watched real time with Vermar because Jess was on. And there was a guy, David Gruff, Brough? Anyway, and he said that he was defending First Amendment and said that Robert Kraft, who owns the Gillette Stadium in Boston, should allow McLemore to play, and the president should allow all of these media outlets for the White House press briefings. And I find that that's a false analogy. Robert Kraft owns Gillette Stadium. He's a private person. I get to decide who's in my house. And if they offend me for whatever reason, I can say, fuck you, you're not welcome in my home.

I get to say that. If Robert Kraft feels a McLemore as a raging anti-Semite, of which I would agree, he can say, yeah, I'd rather him just not be in my house. He gets to make that, he gets to make that assessment. The White House is our house. It's the definition of a public space. And we have decided, like, that the most important thing that we put, let me think, number one, in terms of our amendments, that it's important that media has a check on government. But net net, this ultimately ends up being a distraction, because these White House press briefings, Donald Trump's ego is going to result in him restoring it because he'd rather have a raucous party where occasionally someone offends him than have a sad party that no one shows up to. And the media, even Fox is like, okay, this is wrong.

And as the media does, and this is a wonderful thing about the media, they do look out for each other. Finally, yeah. I was waiting. I was waiting. I was like, is Foxx? Because the Fox News person is head of the White House Correspondents Association, and she's been very suck-up-eated Trump. But she did make strong statements. You got to give her credit. You remember I was so against that stupid White House correspondence dinner. What happens when the Biden or the Harris or the Newsom administration blocks Fox? I mean... Should not. Should not. Agree. But my point is, they all realize we're next. I mean, we can't have this. We've got to have Anyways, I think this ends up, you're in this business and have a better gut for it.

My thesis, another distraction. Ultimately, everyone's back in the room. Your thoughts. It is another distraction. You're absolutely right. I think he's, you know, he got jinned up by Natalie at night and not in the ways that are fun. We don't know that. Could be a lot of fun going on there.

I doubt it. She's the most influential member of this administration, by the way. because Susie Wiles was away, and that's when this stuff dropped from the reporting. I think it's, it is a distraction, but boy, Scott, it's terrifying. You know what I mean? Like this is. The autocrats handbook? Yes.

I think he's on the last vestiges of an autocrat situation. And I think it'll be like what happened in Hungary, you know, with Orban, et cetera. It's still disturbing in the United States of America. Hungary doesn't have the First Amendment. We do, and it's so dead clear here. And it does matter who owns these things, which is why the Ellisons are ill-equipped to do it. I don't think they have any backbone. They'll suck up to anyone that'll matter.

I think they're going to get a buzz off from the Democrats if things change in November. And I think that's another thing that's going to happen and hurt that company quite a bit. That said, they have to like know. Media ownership requires a certain amount of backbone. It really these days. And I fear they don't have it. I again, as I said, like Murdox actually, his newspapers, whether it's a journal or some others have been very good reporting, like really strong. I wouldn't call it anti-Trump reporting. It just is really tough on the corruption of the Trump administration. And you need those things. And so it is a distraction, but it's also incredibly worrisome that he does this. Also, because I think he's, by himself late at night with this young, stupid woman. What's incredible to watch a lot of these cabinet members, and we have a very interesting quote right now,

but there's all these cabinet members, you know, just jumped on the thing, of course, because they don't say things. The worst of them was Scott Besant, who the great Poupon man is working my last nerve at this point. But the press cares more about press than anything else after the White House. Well, CNN is platforming them, Kara. You know, he is the Treasury Secretary.

Oh, I'm sorry. I was thinking of Scott Jennings. Oh, Scott Jennings. Yeah. Oh, I'm sure he'll get a raise in the new Ellison administration. But, good, he can take my money. But Scott, they all backed him. And so when we're on this topic, this idea of quizzlings and cowards and people that enable,

Trump is clearly off his rocker. And he loves the press and hates them. It's the same old story. But let's hear a clip from Jake Weisberg, who has a book out on all of the people and institutions who have failed to stand up to Trump called profiles in cowardice. Let's listen. The biggest coward in America today is Jeff Bezos. The president of the United States is attacking the free press. He has banned several news organizations from entering the White House. He's taken their press badges away. And what is the owner of one of the most important newspapers in the United States doing? Nothing. What's he saying? Nothing publicly. And I suspect nothing privately.

And what makes Bezos such a coward is that he didn't used to be this way. In Trump won, he was a stalwart owner of the Washington Post. He stood up to Trump's bullying. He said and did all the right things. So what's happened? I think the answer has to do with his competition with Elon Musk in space. That's the thing he cares about. It's the thing he cares about more than the free press. It's the thing he cares about more than American democracy. I used to think that when you had a billion dollars, that was the ultimate, fuck you money, pardon the expression. But it turns out it's I'm fucked money because it gives Trump power over you. He can come after your assets.

He can take away what you have. And people in a way who are vastly wealthy seem to be more threatened in terms of what their ambitions are, what they have to lose, than people who have a lot less. Anyway, it is interesting what's going to happen to this class of cowards. I don't know how you look at it. I mean, I get going along with the president, but at some point, not to defend the First Amendment, and which was all over, whether it was Mike Walts, that guy, or any of these Congresspeople, it's really, that's what worries me, Scott. That's what really gets me. Is they're like, huh, good point. They're really mean to you.

I've been thinking about this a lot, and that is, I think you and I, I've both thought, you want just the right amount of money. I have some friends who I would argue have exactly the wrong amount of money, and that is they've made enough money so they feel no impetus to take a job, and no job meets the bar they have for what they should do. And they wake up two, three, five years later, and they've done fuck all. But they don't have enough money to retire or live the life they want to lead for the rest of their lives. They have exactly the wrong amount of money. So they end up turning down opportunities because they have the wrong amount of money.

There's something to having a right amount of money where you don't let perfect be the enemy of good. You just get on starting, like, making your career and making progress. It's great to not have economic anxiety. We have the right amount of money in the sense I was thinking about that, and that is we have enough economic security, and this is wonderful thing, where we have independence. And what it appears is that when you have billions, it creates interdependence. You start becoming dependent upon the government for a contract. And that is, fuck you money turns into wealth that gives you more to protect. And we were told billionaires would be value-out because they'd be uniquely independent

and no one could buy them. And it turns out the opposite may be true, that they may have more soft tissue. Rockets need government contracts, banks need regulators, media company mergers need approvals. So kind of the bigger the empire, the more windows somebody, can throw a brick through. And I used to always get angry at these guys and say, what's the point of having all this money? But what I'm more empathetic to is that they build huge companies

with a lot of people depending on their shareholder value. They become obsessed with the success of these companies. They don't want to be the guy that like Amazon or Blue Origin or whatever it is. And as a result, they go from being true ballers to true bitches. So, baby. Ballers to bitches. Ballers to bitches.

So there's, anyways, I came up with this insight last nine under the influence of edibles. There's a curve of the right amount of money. No, a curve. What is that number? Do you have a number? Depends on who you are. I think about this way too much. Because you need a lot of more edibles than I do, for example.

But I think that the right amount of money, I have an equation for this and I wrote a book about it, times your annual burn, including how much money you'd like to give away, take that number times about 25. And once you have that number, realize that money is ink in your pen and it can write news stories, but it's no longer your story. And you should be totally focused on relationships and enjoying your life. And beyond that, money becomes another thing you need to manage. And also, there becomes a fear of losing it. Right. That is exactly. That's exactly right, Scott. I think you're right. That's what I was thinking. After I heard this, I was like, oh my God, no. I just don't want to even figure it out. I just want to walk away and make something that's mine. That's all I felt like. You know what I mean? Like that I own, that I control. You're a lot easier to manage than all these people. And totally enjoyable, let me say. They're ever saying that. That may be the nicest thing you've ever said. Even when we argue, you know, by the way, there is an issue around Robert Kraft. We're not going to get into.

it, but it is a little scary. The issue of the robocrap is like he lets Kanye in and not this guy. Like, if you're going to do this, be consistent. I didn't like him colluding with everybody. You don't have to be consistent. You can have whoever you want over for dinner. I get it, but the colluding among all of them was, hmm, hmm, hmm. See, I don't know that part. Who is colluding? Yeah. He called all the other stadium owners, all the rich guys. And they, and that to me, that's collusion. I'm sorry. It's just kind of, oh, wow, that's kind of scary. Well, that's a little mean girls, but you're allowed to do it. I know, but it doesn't make, doesn't make me happy. I think it's just, I think we should let everybody say what they want to say. That's what I said. Anyway, you want to come to my

house. I'm now becoming a free speech. And make fun of Jews, you're not coming to my house. You don't have First Amendment rights in my house. I would never do that. Well, I know. I'm not saying you would. I'm just trying to make a point. I don't. Yes, I get it. I get it. I think that whatever's name is, McLemore, has a right to go on Broadway with a microphone dressed up however he wants and say very offensive things. Public space have out of brother. Yeah. Yeah. In this case, what he said wasn't as offensive. It was the past stuff, I think, that they were reacting to some of the past behaviors and dress-ups and stuff like that. It's pretty ugly.

Ed Shearin looks pretty ugly. Oh, I didn't believe I have to look about Ed Shearer. Oh, poor Ed Shearin. These celebrities try so hard not to get involved and they just get into it. Yeah, he kind of woke up and like, what the fuck? Yeah, he then, of course, did a little virtue signaling into his concert. Anyway, I don't care about it. I haven't been following it.

The people in Gaza are suffering, that kind of stuff. He did one of those speeches. Oh, wow. You're really going on a limb there. Yeah, I know, exactly. He just, I just don't want to think about insurance. I don't like him, so it doesn't matter. You don't like his music?

No, he's just stupid. It's like elevator music to me. That is anti-Palestine. I know. Oh, my God. You must like Taylor. Oh, my God. I love him.

You don't like his music? I don't. I hate it. In any case, here's the last thing I would say about this whole thing is where is Elon Moss the free speech, warrior on all this, nowhere to be seen. These people, as Amanda, my wife says, were pretending. All these free speech warriors were pretending. Yeah, that was all bullshit. It's all bullshit. Anyway, let's get back to the tick of it all. When we get back after a quick break, we get ready for

Amazon blocks meta-AIs assistant muse. Hey, what's up, guys? It's Babish. And on this week's episode of In the Booth, I'm joined by chef, cookbook author, and Food Network legend, Alex Squareshelley. We're talking about Chopped, the Hamptons, and what it takes to make a cry-worthy pasta. You can listen now wherever you get your podcasts. Support for the show comes from ShipStation. Business owners are always looking for ways to be more efficient, both with their time and with their money. And the one thing that most businesses overpay for, shipping.

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for free. That's upwork.com to connect with top talent ready to help your business grow. That's UPWRK.com. Upwork. Scott, we're back. It's time for some AI news because, you know, it's not killing us this week, but they're just beefing with each other. First up, Amazon has blocked Meta's new Muse AI assistant from shopping on Amazon, saying Meta didn't get permission for letting the agent access its door. Amazon says Muse raises security and privacy concerns because it can access customer accounts and order histories, and it doesn't identify itself as an AI agent while browsing. It's interesting because you have to, I just downloaded Muse and I gave Mark Zuckerberg almost zero access to anything, including my Amazon. It wanted to go buy something for me on Amazon, and I said,

know, I didn't give it the access to it. But if I give it the access, it's not of Amazon's fucking business if I want this thing to shop for me, not that I would let it. I didn't let Mews have my mail. It's probably going to be very ineffective or my access to my Gmail or access to my some people are giving their financial stuff, not giving it access. I just want to see how it does on lots of little things like I'm going to Vienna tomorrow. What's a good walk? That kind of stuff. What do you think about this pushing back Amazon? This is going to happen a lot, right? Correct? Because they're going to want you to use their Amazon AI, presumably, which I use, by the way, when I use the service. I like your take, and I'm just sort of processing this real time, because, for example, if you use a VPN and you do it at two

in the morning, or you fool, you say you dial into United Airlines or JetBlue from a different country at a different time, it'll give you a lower fare because it discriminates. And so the airlines want to block VPNs. Actually, I don't know if that's true, but I would imagine they have an economic incentive. And Amazon has said, we don't want people super smart, or we don't want thousands of agents coordinating trying to figure out the lowest price and when to buy, and they're blocking it. My initial reaction was, I think this is an incredible product opportunity for Amazon. And I want the same. Amazon, toll booth, gate governor, to be deployed across to every content creator such that

when any AI or crawler comes to any of my IP, I set the parameters on whether I want it done, I want to charge for it, and then the bot decides if it wants to come in, if it wants to pay the toll. That's a great business opportunity. Because the model here is pretty basic. People say, well, AI is effectively ingesting every piece of human IP ever created, strip mining it and selling it back to the people who it's putting out of work. There's a real legitimate concern there. And the model is very basic.

When you listen to KROQ 106.7 Rock of the 80s in Los Angeles, which is the greatest radio station in history, and you listen to the B-52s, at the end of the year, KROQ pays the, recording artists, whatever, call it. Yeah, RAA, I think it is. They pay them, call it a million bucks, because all of the artists have agreed to license their music, and then the Wrights Association distributed it out. And then they go, okay, KROQ, you are 1% of our playlist,

and they send $10,000 to Warner Brothers who represents the B-52s. I think we need the same technology here. I'm all for AI having access to data. I would like AI to have access to my data. I like it when people say, write something, in the voice of Scott Galloway or what is the lesson on sweating and economic security for Maltau. I just want to be either compensated for it. Actually, it's a smarter way to get a con. Actually, now, because it used to be you sort of get a Vig

if they got, you pay pennies, and that was always so confusing. It is a smart way to get paid for content. I think the issue here is these two beasts fighting, AI beasts fighting each other. AI, Amazon has a ton of AI. I use Amazon a lot, as much to my chagrin and my wife's sugar. But it's really effective and I'm not quite, I have to sort of stack rank the people I'm offended with in tech. And it's, I'm focused on Andy Jassy, not Jess Bezos in this situation, which is a stupid excuse, I know. But, but they use a ton of AI and I find myself using it more and more. Does this, like, I just bought, it sounds silly, but I want my washers and dryers to move out so I could clean behind them because I'm anal retentive. And I said, oh, does this

hold this much weight, or what about this kind of washing machine? I hadn't answered me. It was like, instead of me searching around, or how high is it off the ground? And instead of me, I could have found it, but you'd have to sort of sort out, you know, scroll, scroll, scroll, click, click, click, essentially. And in this case, it answered in seconds. The same thing with Muse. Have you downloaded Muse yet or not? You're the most periscuous person on Earth on these things. Did you not download it yet? There's a lot of meaning. I haven't, but it's number one in the App Store. And I actually, I'm not sure, and I'm going to think this through more,

I wouldn't be surprised if Muse ends up being the biggest player in AI. I would agree. I would agree. There's another company called Instinct, which is a smaller company that also gets. I was looking at that someone sent me a list of how good these things are, and Muse and Instinct rate at the top compared to all of them. Although I think you're going to use AI's separate. Like the Amazon AI's, I don't think Muse will be as helpful as the Amazon and what I'm

buying, right? It might be okay, but I get better information from Amazon, but it will be a race to see which AI you tend to use as a utility going forward. I just don't want to give Mark Zuckerberg access to my email. I worry, what if I have an email in there that something about him that I'm working on or who knows? Like I can just imagine it. And that's my worry is who do you trust. Do you trust Apple? I don't trust Apple as much as I used to. That's for sure. We shouldn't have to trust companies. There should trust regulators to make laws. Right. And I was looking at it very carefully, and I suspect it's easy to hack. That's one of the things. But you do have to give permission. And it has less, the more permission you give it to access your stuff, the better it is

for you as an assistant. I called my assistant on Muse Mark, by the way, and then I've now ordered it to look like Mark Zuckerberg, so I can order Mark Zuckerberg around. But it's a really interesting. I would recommend you trying that, and I'm trying instinct, too, just to try it. But again, it's not as much efficacy without stuff. But these guys are going to, these Amazon, Apple, Facebook, meta are going to battle it out over who your assistant is at this point. And I guess Microsoft, I don't know. I think Facebook could win here quite handily. The brightest mind in business is Mark Zuckerberg. And unfortunately, most good CEOs verge on sociopathy.

He verges on psychopathy. And so, if I think about how brilliant he is, he finds an incredibly, he finds an incredibly attractive person to serve as heat shield and be the comms person and says to him for $10, 50, $100 million, you, Cheryl Sandberg, Nick Clegg. And who's the latest heat shield, its reputation is going to be in Tatters in about 36 months? Dina Powell. Yeah, Dina's about to become the new face of awful, but she knows it. She's a smart woman, and she can surround herself with a lot of people who like her and a lot of, a lot of Vaseline on the lens. Well, she is charming. Cheryl Samborne.

The only argument about Cheryl Samburg was what she was going to be California governor and president until we figured out she, she invented a business model that were 15-year-old girls who were cutting themselves and then tried to cover it up. And then Nick Klig with this charming British accent. Okay. All right, Nick, you're lying too. The latest, highest paid liar in history who's, he's so good at this. He finds these incredibly attractive people. I bet the conversation is very straightforward. Your reputation is about to be ruined for the rest of your life.

Yeah, but you get to sit on that sweet, sweet dough. But you wouldn't do it? You can console yourself in your villa in St. Bart's and on your private jet. He's, and not like that, his ability to go to skate to where the puck is. And here's the thing, AI, loosely speaking, in terms of who wins, the three legs of the stool are the compute, the model itself, how sophisticated it is, your access to GPUs or infrastructure for inference and compute. And then the raw material is the data or the input. I would argue that the part that gets commodified is the actual technology or the LLM itself. Everyone can buy

of GPUs, as long as you kiss Jensen's ass long enough and you can find the money, the point of differentiation... He's getting tired of some. Will be your access to first-party data. Who has more access to first-party data than anyone in the world? I agree with you. I think it's between meta and Apple. And Apple's really slowness.

Oh, I don't think Apple wants to be... I think they're going to outsource... As an agent, like creating an agent for you. Like, Siri has been such a fucking disaster. Anyway, it'll be an interesting fight between companies like Amazon, keeping people out because they're not going to want muse up in their grill, right? That's the thing. And that's, and it is powerful.

But I have to say, if I give Muse permission to look at my Amazon data, fuck you Amazon, but I'm not going to Amazon. But you just said something, access. The biggest, people always ask me what do you do with AI. And I say, I use it to edit stuff. I look for data. But the biggest unlock was I gave Claude Pro or co-work, whatever it's called. Come, he's a terrible brand.

So anyways, permission to look at my email. Oh, my God. I read about a company I invested in eight years ago. I have no idea. I can, please look at my emails, see how many shares I own, then look at the web and see what those shares are worth in secondary market. And it comes back and says, you've lost 80% of your value. But at least I know.

Yeah, now you know. Now you know. It's like that South Park episode. That South Park episode. Carman goes into a bank. He got a bond from his grandfather. It's like, I'm here to invest $50. And it's gone.

And it's gone. And it's gone. And it's gone. What a great show that is. I have to say. In other AI News, just this is interesting, Anthropic, open. and SpaceX AI and Google are being sued by a group of AI subscribers who claim the companies illegally agreed to slow down AI development.

The plaintiffs argue that coordinated slowdown would hurt consumers by making products improve more slowly while subscribers keep paying the same prices. This is an innovative way to do this. They're facing heat everywhere. You slow down, speed up. We are paying money for this stuff. Good money for this stuff. It's going to kill us, that kind of stuff.

And in related news, Donald Trump says he's creating an AI force modeled on the Space Force while dismissing concerns about AI as a hoax. He's offered few details about his AI force. I think he just made it up in the middle of the night. It's unclear whether it would be military, civilian agency, how it would operate or where funding would come from. Trump also will name a new czar soon, a position previously held by David Sacks. And Grift, watch alert as Trump pushes back on the calls for AI slowdown. He and his family are profiting from the AI boom. What a surprise, according to.

the Washington Post, by the way, even if Jeff Bezos is a coward, the Post news section is doing a great job. Trump's investment accounts have disclosed nearly 30,000 security transactions since this is a return to White House transactions, including buying and selling shares in companies that provide the chip servers and energy-powering AI. The White House says the investments are handled by independent managers. I'm sure it's the same feeling of paying back the Russian person who paid for Donald Trump Jr.'s wedding. So talk a little bit of this. You've got the political part, you've got the lawsuits that go all kinds of ways. There's obviously the political elements of what's happening. And then over in California, Gavin Newsom just issued an executive order to speed up to

AI safety laws and explore requiring AI companies to build a kill switch. Talk about all this sort of shifting forces all over the place, whether it's legal, political state. So a lot here. I think they've mislabeled this. I don't think they should refer to it as a kill switch. I think we need circuit breakers. And there's just never been a need or a bigger wide space for a regulatory body to come in and have subpoena power, testing and approval requirements, hold periods, the equivalent of the NTSB, that every incident you have to report immediately. We can absolutely, I believe we can absolutely handle it. So every CEO can believe AI is dangerous and still be rationally compelled to accelerate because what is this is the prisoner's dilemma.

And I don't think a pause is realistic. I think the incentives are against that. And also, there are some really wonderful things happening with AI acceleration, including trying to address climate change. So the strange thing about the industry, the people building the bomb are also the ones telling us the bombs scare the shit out of them, while investors ask for another $100 billion to build a bigger bomb before the other guy does. And that's why voluntary coordination just doesn't work here. It's economically unstable and why coordination would instantly create antitrust questions.

The biggest opportunity for the Trump administration, which I think they'll miss, is a really thoughtful administration would have already had several hundred diplomats, economists, technologists from China and the U.S. hold up somewhere in Alaska or in South Korea outlining a memo of understanding around cooperation around AI. But what about this space force? He loves to have a space force or an AI force

and a czar and this and that. This requires an enormous, as you said, coordination both domestically and internationally. And instead, he wants to have some guy in charge. Like, this is my AI guy. Yeah, that's loyal to me. Lowell to me, and it's like so self-interested like David Sacks has been. And then he himself is buying and selling stocks in this area. I mean, the fact, you know, the crypto bill collapsed, the Clarity Act's just absolutely. There's a great story. And I think the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal about the collapse of it largely because one, Brian Armstrong, who was leading at a coin pose is a horse's ass. That's one. And two, they couldn't, you know, the grift of Trump was so massive that, that it gave Democrats an end to like torpedo it.

And rightfully so, because they wouldn't do the correct, you know, stopping, you know, this grifter family from taking things. And they're doing the exact same thing over in AI investments. Yeah, so there's two things here. There's space and there's corruption. I think one of the biggest opportunities. So amongst the many existential threats facing Americans right now, I harken back to the day,

when the elevators were going to stop MI2K or Greek sovereign debt was supposedly going to affect all of Europe and take the global economy down. Yeah. I long for the days of just people dying from COVID. It just, this is, yeah, but I mean, think about this. Every day it's a mass extinction event. Mass extinction. Well, but one of those existential crises is, in fact, our debt.

And I'm writing a lot about this right now. A third rail, everyone talks about the third rail of entitlements. We need to have a serious conversation around our military spending. And there's a big opportunity to take the one word that defines the Ukrainian and the war in Iran, and that is asymmetry, and figure out a way to partner with companies like Anderol and say, okay, Northrop Grumman and Boeing, there's just been so much creep. when you have a weapons program for a plane, which is a great plane that's going to cost one and half trillion dollars and the Pentagon hasn't passed an audit, let's think big. How could we take,

how could we turn our military into the most lethal fighting force ever that costs 500 billion a year instead of one and a half trillion? Because the problem is we associate that number with macho. And every Democrat is afraid to say, let's take it down to 1.49, because that means I I don't have testicles. Right. But, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, a person you want to be doing something. So that's a confidence issue.

Right. But there is something about asymmetric warfare that leverages our unique advantage about our ability to haul stuff into space, our ability around connectivity, the fact that we have the best universities in the world looking at this stuff. And also, also, it might make sense to partner with the EU, Canada. Oh, that would be nice. And possibly, possibly, China. Also, Ukraine.

Do you see what they're doing blowing up all manner of things in Russia, which Trump is trying to get them to stop? Unbelievable. An $80 billion millet. Unbelievable what this country is doing. The most successful fighting force in the world is doing it on a budget of $80 billion, and we're losing a war in Iran on $1.5 trillion. How do we have five times the fighting force and lethality of the Ukrainian army for $400 billion or $500 billion instead of $1.5 trillion? where we have, we have literally one billion dollar bombers. May I make a historical point?

Most of the people that fought the Roman Empire had equal amounts of, there was not a lot of innovation and weaponry, equal amounts of weapons, same weapons. They did it through organization, discipline, and strategy, really, right? And in this case, it's not necessarily the weapons, it's that how do you deploy it, and we should be able to do this. It is kind of shocking. how much Ukraine is doing with very little money. And of course, Trump is trying to stop them

because he's Putin's bitch. Anyway, this is the last thing. Anthropic is reportedly pushing its IPO from October to November. Investors are talking about potential $2 trillion valuation. Anthropics expect to reach more than $100 billion in annualized revenue by the end of the year up from $65 billion as of July. The company could publicly release financial documents about the offering as soon as a couple weeks from now. I'm sure you'll be pouring over them. Those sources tell the Wall Street Journal decision to aim for November was made before the former Anthropic researcher warned that AI companies are moving too fast. Give us some predictions. Will Anthropics IPO really happen this year? It would bigger than SpaceX. It would be,

if that's the case. And also, there is, people feel like the latest version of ChatGPT is getting some real traction. I forget what it's called. They all have new fucking names. It tries me crazy. Do you feel, how do you look at this? This is a shift, and it was, again, before this, hair on fire stuff around this researcher. Let me just make one note. I'm working on a book right now and I went back and found some old speeches of Sam Altman. In 2015, he said virtually the same thing this researcher said. So this is not new, a lot of these worries. He wrote an essay, the first sentence of which is essentially AI will kill all of humanity or could kill all of humanity. Anyway, what do you think about the anthropic IPO? But let's buy some stocks, Scott. What do you

think about it. Well, so a $2 trillion valuation is what they're saying at a $100 billion run rate by the end of the year. It's not a company going public. It's a country's GDP going public. And that's why Trump has been so compromised. He wants a piece of it. And he sees it as more important. So he's like, distinctive extinction risk, existential risk, go baby go. I doubt it gets done by the end of the year because of all of the different. Well, it. I think they have to. To a certain extent, I don't want to say I feel sorry for these guys, but they have their series A, B, C, D, E, and F investors.

There are probably no less than 50 VCs who manage to get into the B or C round of Anthropic, who are sitting on a septic tank of shit that just didn't work. And the difference between them raising Fund 3 and being a hero and being the guy who started a VC fund and it didn't work is whether this thing gets public of the valuation. So he's got, in addition, he probably has thousands of people who put a down payment on a ridiculously overpriced house in San Francisco who borrowed from the in-laws saying, oh, it's going to go public in three months, not going to have $11 million. There are a lot of incentives for this guy to get public.

At the same time, not having put in place guardrails, not having put in place or understanding the regulatory framework. I mean, there's a lot of things that just say maybe a pause to slow down. that gives them a chance to maybe kind of check back on the CAPEX and report a quarter of increased or gives people greater visibility into where they, they released one of these ridiculous we work-like EBITA statement saying, well, if you don't look, if you take out inference and compute, we're profitable. It's like when we were tried to calculate EBITDA. Take out the flour, the bread is really. Take out, yeah, take out.

It's kind of like profits before any costs. I mean, it's just so stupid, right? So it feels to me like he's got a lot on his plate to get a public offering done. So you think a push, a push. I got to think that if it happens, it's going to be Q1. We're running out of time. Do they do January IPOs? I don't see why not.

Well, I know, but I don't recall a lot. Like, is it March or? The honest answer, Kara, is I don't know. That's a lot of pent up. That could really be bad, especially if the stock market blows, which, you know, a lot of the stock people feel like they're calling for these slowdowns in order to catch up, right? Like, that it's all faint versus. I think they've got a, I just going public in the midst of insecurity about a mass extinction event. Yeah, I agree.

It's kind of. I mean, let me put it this way. You know what I'm really excited? I'm really excited to read a section in the S one called Risks. Rists. I mean, how are they going to outline this risk? Well, the thing is, both Altman and Emote have so much, I've just been digging into stuff from 10 years ago. Because I said on the stage at Atlantic this week is at the Atlantic Conference, which was an excellent conference, by the way, that, like, I was at dinner parties where they were all saying these things, like, very clearly.

Like, I was like, I don't know why this young researcher suddenly got to everyone. but these guys were saying it. And then I went and found a lot of their early writings. And it literally says, probably it'll kill us. This is how much it'll kill us. The thing we'll probably die from is this. Like, they have so much history of this that it's really, you know, I just want to make sure I was, I mean, I remember these dinner parties.

But at the time, it was speculative, right? And now they, I guess, they're seeing some proof whether it's Google jumping out of the sandbox or them jumping out of the sandbox. They haven't yet gotten to a missile silo. but it's only five minutes till that. So it'll be interesting. So you think it's going to push till next. Will it be that big?

Will it be a lot of demand for this? Oh, God, yes. I mean, I keep hearing the numbers are doubling every month. And I'm going back to this big. You'll buy it. If I could get on the IPO, I would buy it and then flip it on the first trade. Flip it, see? Buy it, flip it is what you.

No doubt. I mean, this is going to be, this will be the most anticipated IPO in history, more So, but just going back to the metaphor or the analogy used around cooperation, an IPO requires a cooperation of hundreds, if not thousands, of entities in people. And trying to be, trying to be the first IPO while claiming the moral high ground. I know. While saying you might kill everybody. Yeah, it's complicated.

Yeah. Anthropic doesn't want to be first. It just needs, it just, it's just a going first also happens to serve the safety narrative and the balance sheet at the same time. Nature doesn't, yeah. Nature doesn't ask the coral and the fish if they love each other, but there's going to have to be some sort of cooperation in detente and reasonable sense of safety as arbitrated, I would think, by a regulator.

By regulatory. They should have, they shouldn't have this stupid AI force. There should be significant regulation. They should back it. You know, they're always worried about it in a way they, this would help them. You're absolutely right. By the way, I had heard from someone that they didn't think that open AIA would go out at all, which was interesting. That's another topic.

All right, Scott, let's go on a quick break. We come back with Chinese President Xi coming to the U.S. American automakers have a warning for Donald Trump. Support for the show comes from Atio. There are sales teams out there who never seem to stop moving. Always a step ahead, always on the number, working. with a level of precision that doesn't seem normal. It's no secret.

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I was very surprised how soft they were. They're made of organic cotton. They feel expensive and they aren't. And that's what I liked about them. No scratchiness. I slipped like a baby in them. And I was really happy and I'm going to buy more sets because they're some of the best sheets I have slept on. Find the fall pieces you'll reach for most at Quince. Download the Quince app for app exclusive

offers or go to quince.com slash pivot. Get free shipping on your order and 365 day returns now available in Canada and the UK too. That's QINCe.com slash pivot. Scott, we're back as Donald Trump gets ready to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in D.C. this week, a coalition of automakers and dealers is asking me to keep Chinese cars out of the country. That's a damn shame because they're adorable. The group urged Trump in a letter to keep the door firmly shut to Chinese automakers raising concerns about job loss and national security. They should be concerned. Again, these models are fantastic. Trump recently said he'd be open to Chinese companies building cars here as long as they hire American workers, which they've done many foreign countries have done before. One more wrinkles,

Xi is expected to bring a group of Chinese business leaders with them to the U.S. and might include the founder of Chinese EV giant BYD. Of course he would. Thoughts about this? What do you think is going to happen here? I don't think there's going to be a discussion of AI safety, as my guess, or it's not going to be a significant one. Yeah, I think he'll be more focused on claiming stupid shit, like, I've got more tariffs, and we're going to give people $5,000 back. Like, Detroit wants the summit's diplomatic cooperation, right? They want some sort of a stable truth or they want protection. And asking she to show up as a bonobo and negotiate as a chimp, so to speak, I don't, look, I hate to say. say this, when I was in a B-YD in Brazil, they're everywhere. And I got in and I thought, oh, this is a model Y or whatever.

He says, no, it's a B-YD. And he said, how much is it? And he said, he figured out, it was like $14,000 or $16,000. I'm like, we're fucked. And just as we- I thought the same thing when I saw them. When my first big consulting, this is the best engagement of the world. When I was right out of business school, I met, I got him Warren Hellman.

And he said, I've got a great assignment for you. I want you to come to every Levi-Strausson company board meeting. I don't want you to sit next to anybody. I don't want you to talk to anybody. I want you to listen for a few days. And then I want you to stand up and tell us exactly what you think. I was 27. Wow.

This was the best consulting engagement in history. That's why you're the way that you are. That's why I'm the way that I am. Anyways, I remember this. We're in Singapore, and they were having this big debate about continuing to manufacture Levi's in the South. And I said, okay, all this is is a transfer of wealth from your shareholders to the good people in those factories. But I said, I know how the story ends.

In 10 years, you're not going to be manufacturing denim in the United States because you will eventually opt for shareholder value and reinvest in places with higher paid jobs and grow your company. I, for the first time, I'm beginning to believe that American cars are Levi's. I don't know if we're going to be manufacturing them in 20 years. Because when I look at cars coming out of China and the, they have. have cars now that can go 600 miles without a charge are zero to 60 in two and a half seconds. All manner of gags on them that are fun, like all manner of fun features. Cost $40,000. And there's some that are that are six and $7,000. Remember, I bought my,

I don't know what your first car costs, but I had a Honda Civic for $6,000, $7,000, something like that. Oh, God, I've had so many bad cars. I had a Volkswagen Rabbit, then I had a Renaulta car, then I had a Chevy Chavelle brand. I had a Rebbe. Convertible. Then out a BMW 318, And I, you moved up. I went down. You went up and I went down. I kept going up and up to three chain. Anyways.

But my last car was a range rover. 120 grand. It's a cooler brand than what they're producing in China. But China is effectively making a better SUV for 40 grand. And I just don't think we can compete. Yeah. So what should happen at the summit? Like there's not going to be any AI stuff.

I doubt it. I don't think it's within his ability unless he's going to get a I don't know. I can just hope that the political move they could restore, if they were truly focused on what would be best for them, America, and quite frankly, in the midterms, would be to announce, have somebody in the administration who's smart say, we have been negotiating behind the scenes for several months on AI, and we've come to an understanding on the following important things around weapons, around privacy, around, here's what AI is at the end of the day. Good AI. A small rural hospital.

in Alabama can incorporate the same AI best practices or best practices using AI to reduce sepsis as they're doing at the University of California, San Francisco, which is the best hospital in the world. It levels up. It can help people treat. Level up. It's a leveler up. Like whether you're in Lagos, Lagos or in Lausan, Switzerland, this is an opportunity to bring middle powers up. That's a good AI. The bad fucking AI? Is there right now only nine nations can produce a nuclear bomb, we might be at 149 nations in six months. That's the bad AI. It's a leveler for good intentions. There are cyber crime organizations of two, three hundred people. There's a feeling with AI. You can start the same cyber crime

organization with one person now. Right. Yeah. Unless we get together and cooperate, specifically with China, you're going to see a leveling up in very bad ways. And these guys, I mean, this is basically the equivalent of a cyber crime organization, which is supposedly costing the global economy trillions of dollars, is about to go from two or 300 people in Russia or Ukraine to one person with a Claude Pro subscription. So these guys getting together and saying, we are starting the most effective, transparent, multilateral enforcement and regulator agency. We don't want our kids killing themselves.

And there are chances of this, Scott. This is the opportunity for a Democrat. We're going to go the other way. We're going to create a free trading zone, a non-tariff zone, cooperation around military and AI, the likes of which you have never seen. And we're going to unlock so much fucking economic growth and reduce the existential risk here because democracies and China, which deserves a seat at the table because whether you like it or not, they're number two. And they have brought 500 million people out of poverty. we are going to, on a different level, cooperate with them, but we're going to create an indomitable entity of democracies

and capitalist societies around economics that will result in massive deflation, prosperity, shared best practices, force people to respect their borders. China's not evading anybody. I love all this, but you know what? It's really important to keep Caitlin Collins out of the White House. That should be our focus, okay, because she never smiles.

All right, Scott, one more quick break. will be back for wins and fails. So like any good millennial, I have a love-hate relationship with Gen Z. It's the phenomenon rattling millennials. They just look at you. They want something bigger themselves. Lifestyles are priority. Motivation is being inspired.

But regardless of how you feel about Gen Z, it's undeniable that they're changing national politics. Generation Z is increasingly showing less loyalty to traditional political parties. many now more likely to identify as independent. So what is going on with the kids? I think the biggest misconception about Gen Z's politics right now is that all of a sudden they're all socialist. That is just not the case.

They are embracing candidates who are offering new bold ideas in the absence of those ideas from establishment Democrats. This week on America, actually, Gen Z researcher Rachel Jambaza joins us to separate Gen Z fact versus fiction. It's not rocket science. And this is, you know, I keep saying like, Young voters aren't that complicated after all. It's pretty simple. Catch us every Saturday on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast.

You might have noticed that when you go to the supermarket these days, you can get all kinds of milk and many of them have no relationship to a cow. Soy, almond and oat are the usual suspects, but you can get rice and hemp and pee and cashew and macadamia and pistachio and coconut. The list just goes on and on. Take oat milk. About a decade ago, I'd never even heard of it. But then suddenly oat milk was everywhere. And some people were even willing to pony up around $100 for a carton.

Why? What happened? The whole plant milk vibe seems to be that they're healthy and good for the planet. But is that true? Are they better for us and for the environment than cow's milk? All that, plus the weird story of how we even came to drink cows milk in the first place in this brand new episode of Gastropod. Find gastropod and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Phoebe Judge.

And for more than a decade, I've hosted the podcast Criminal, telling stories about people who've done wrong, been wronged, or gotten caught somewhere in the middle. But while I was starting one of the very first true crime podcasts out there, I was also taking phone calls from my sister, from prison. This fall, I'm going on tour, and I'm telling a story I've never told before, my own. Pre-sale tickets are on sale now for Criminal Plus members. General sale tickets go on sale on Thursday, September 24th. Get tickets at this iscriminal.com slash live.

Okay, Scott wins and fails. I'm going to go first. I have a lot of sales. I'm going to do them all at once. I have one win. I know people have issues with the New York Times, all my inner issues, but what an amazing media organization. And congratulations on your birthday.

And thank you for letting me hear Janelle Monet up close. That was really cool. And it was a really fun party. So congratulations. That's my win. The fails are so many. I don't know where to count. First, why did Amazon cancel ride or die with Hannah Waddingham and Octavia Spencer? It was their number one show. Someone buy it. Apple, I don't care. It's such a good show. And it was like ladies with guns are my favorite thing. That was a fail. Another fail was obviously all the quizlings that went along with Trump on the First Amendment stuff. You know, you better like the First Amendment because it's coming for you if you don't protect it. That's the number one Amendment, and you should protect it above all things, of the many rights we have. It's the one of the, that First Amendment with lots of stuff in there is the most important of all of them.

And the last one is this insane fucking, I live in Washington. I'm getting a little sick of this, President Trump. You're making a mess of everything, but your plan, 250-foot triumphal arch that is going to be on my way to the airport, which I already has to see your big ass golden horses, which is irritating enough, will now double as a military conference. We'll now double as a military complex, because nothing says democracy like housing drone snipers and large amounts of ammunition in your monuments. I just don't know what to say. This is insane if we let him build this. I hope we stop them. Same thing with the Kennedy Center. There was a lot of people. Just the whole manner of things is just a massive bail here. And so I just, I don't know what

to say about it, but I hope there's enough legal moves to stop him from doing all this manner of things because it really is, again, working my mind. last nerve. I have two wins and a fail. My first win is New York. I spent the entire weekend here, did my favorite thing, roamed around, Jack's Y. Frida, bought T-shirts at James Purse, sunglasses of Warby Parker, shoes it on, went to Blank Street coffee and mocked all the Jen Ziers or whatever they're called waiting in line two hours for yogurt at this weird place called Mimi's. New York or nowhere has a line of an hour. I'm telling you, Kara. You don't recognize you're in a golden age when you're in it.

This is a golden age in New York. Really? Packed. I was there, too. Packed. Packed. Packed. Everywhere. Last year, last year, 65 million people visited New York.

80 billion in economic activity. It supports 400,000 jobs. It used to be 54% of New York's economy. Now it's 60%. We've created one million jobs since COVID. There's always an asterisk. Most of those jobs are healthcare, so most of the jobs are looking after old people. But wow, has this.

I went to Sartiano's. I went to, as usual, Zero Bond and Chey Margo. Everything is packed. Everyone is friendly. No one's at home planning the extinction of the human species. People are not at home gambling on whether the Fed raises interest rates. Also, neighborhoods that are usually quieter down near the memorial. I was down there.

Tons of people. You have that festival San Geronimo, what the fuck it is? I went there and I bought baked oysters. I mean, it just, or fried oysters. Oh, the Italian one, yeah. The city, the Disneyland of democracy and capitalism right now is New York. And it is wonderful. Trump is visiting his best friend.

It's got a fucking loiter to do with nothing with Mom Domi. No, I know it doesn't, but I'm just saying he gets the credit. He'll get the credit. Well, okay, fine. He'll get the credit. He's doing a good job. But if you were going to credit anybody would be Eric Adams. And after Mom Domeny's out of off, anyway, there's a lag period in government.

That's my whole point. Fine. He's still giving a credit because he fails the potholes. I agree he will get the credit. My point is New York is just on fire right now. And the bad news is our inflation is 4.6% versus 3.4. It's sort of a metaphor for America. And that is if you're the right place at the right time, you are just killing it. If you're the kind of person that shows up for jury duty, your rent's going up too much and you're incurring inflation. But anyways, always has to be an asterisk. My second win, I stumbled on what I think is the cool. nonprofit in the world, and I DM'd them and I haven't heard back. And there's some virtue signaling here, but I'm going to do it anyways. I have finally found the nonprofit that I was born to support. It's called Giving Words. And it's a Virginia nonprofit organization that fixes up, donated use cars, and then gives them away to single mothers. And one of the biggest barriers to economic independence for single mothers is they can't afford to get to job interviews.

it takes them, they have to take public transportation. In rural areas, there is no public transportation. It is a huge barrier to economic independence. This isn't 1-800 cars for kids, right? That song. It's not that one. No, this is not that. This is not that.

This is Edie Brown, this husband and wife, Edie Brown and Ginny established the charity in 2018 after identifying reliable transportation as a critical obstacle for single mothers trying to access employment, education, and health care. You're going to love this. They partner with the local high schools, and the organization partners with the Automative Technology Program

at Louisa County High School in Mineral, Virginia, where students gains hands-on vocational experience repairing the donated vehicles. And they've refurbished and donated more than 60 free vehicles to families and needs. So Eddie and Ginny, reach out to me. I'd like to be supportive. But this is about single-man.

moms. It's about economic opportunity. It's about teaching young men vocational skills. I just, I read this and I thought, oh my God. It was designed for Scott. Single mom. Hi. I'm like, I wish I thought of this. I wish I thought of this. Anyways, my second win. And I'm serious, Eddie and Ginny reach out to me. If you Google me, you get way too much information and can reach out to me. Oh, my loss or my fail is there's all this scuttlebutton reporting about Democratic elders trying to talk Vice President Harris out of running for president. Vice President Harris, outstanding senator, I think she'd been outstanding justice. I thought she was a lousy presidential candidate. She didn't make it even to Iowa in 2020. I thought she was given a raw deal in 2024, and I will give her this. I thought she had one of

the most outstanding political performances of the last 50 years in her debate with Donald Trump. I can't imagine the pressure on her. I do not think she's a good candidate. The poll sure is number one right now. I think that's mostly name recognition. The majority of people who take those polls just say, oh, I've heard of her and I've heard of that handsome guy in California. I don't think she will make it very far this time. But let her cook. That's correct.

Thank you, Scott. I thought you'd say, yeah, that's a good idea. I hate when elders visit people. I hate it. When the Democratic of the Republic machine pick a candidate or try to get Bernie out or say McCain, you're the right person, it never works. Let me give you who the people polling number one were in the Republican presidential elections at this moment. At this moment, polling number one was Rudy Giuliani. At this moment, polling number one was Herman Kane.

At this moment, polling number one was, oh, this is my favorite, Fred Thompson from Law and Order. He was actually pulling number one. He was good on Law and Order. The Democrat, the full body contact violence of the primary process not only surfaces the right person but for the right person for the moment. Nobody thought Nixon had any business running for president again, again and again, and he won. So while I personally don't think Vice President Harris would make a good president, let her cook. She might make a good president. She might make a good president. She doesn't make a good candidate, right? Who knows? And guess what?

What are you kidding? It's such a full fucking bar at this point. But go ahead. The primary process is like Navy SEAL's training. It produces a fucking warrior when you let it run. Great, Scott Galloway. I love that. I thought you'd say, go with the elders. And the Democratic Party elders don't have a great track record here. Do you know who was at that party? Chuck Schumer.

He actually looked good. He looks good. He looks good. I would agree with you. He's got his wheat. He's going. And the only thing the Democratic elders should be doing right now is saying, how can I help? Have at it.

Also, they should be saying, I'm going to select a return. retirement community now and move along. Anyway, we want to hear from you. Send us your questions about business tech or whatever's on your mind. Go to nymag.com slash pivot to submit a question for the show. Or call 85551 Pivot. Okay, that is the show. What a good show this has been.

Thanks for listening to Pivot. And be sure to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We'll be back on Friday. Hey, Stephanie Rowl and Rachel Maddow. See you soon. That means. Today's show is produced by Lara Neiman, Zoe Marcus Taylor Griffin, and Todd Wiseman. Kate Gallagher and Brad Silvestor fact-checked this episode.

We'll see. And Ernie Interteteen engineered it. Thanks also to Gibros, me of Severo, and Dan Shalon. Nishat Kuroas, Vox Media, as executive producer, podcast. Make sure to follow Pivot on your favorite podcast platform. Thank you for listening to Pivot from Box Media. We'll be back later this week for another breakdown of all things, tech and business. Governors, representatives, senators, former presidential candidates, business people, let them cook.

have at it. Will we get to decide?