Pivot - Trump's Rally, Bezos Backlash, and Guest Daniel Lubetzky

Episode Date: October 29, 2024

With one week to go until the election, Kara and Scott discuss Donald Trump's rally at Madison Square Garden, and the role of Jeff Bezos in The Washington Post's decision not to endorse a presidential candidate. Plus, Michelle Obama sends a message to male voters in what Scott calls "the most powerful speech given in 2024." Then, Elon Musk has reportedly been in contact with Vladimir Putin since 2022, but will the U.S. government take action? Our Friend of Pivot is Daniel Lubetzky, founder of Kind Snacks, and the newest permanent investor on "Shark Tank." Daniel explains how his Builders Movement initiative is trying to hold politicians accountable for toxic polarization, and shares some behind-the-scenes stories from "Shark Tank." Follow Daniel at @danielubetzky 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

Scott, I'm moving to London with you. We got a spare room. Okay. Bring your umbrella. All right. I've got a lot of kids. I got four kids. If you move here, you got to support Arsenal and bring an umbrella.

Other than that, you're all welcome. All right. The wretched refuse of the swish glass can. And plus, you have to leave Claire when you go back. I need a daughter to take care of me when I'm older. No, no way. Are you raising my daughter? Hi, everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara Swisher. And I'm Scott Galloway. Scott, where

are you eating an apple? I'm in the great state of Florida. I'm staying at my friends Bobby and Jojo and their Canadian, which says it all. they act like we own the home and they're guests. They're like, oh, we hope we didn't bother you last night. I'm like, keep in mind, we're the guests here. It's okay. You're allowed to get on with your lives. How are you liking Florida? I love Florida.

I live in a, or we have a home in a wonderful little town called Gulfstream. And we have great friends here. And yeah, I mean, it's easy to shitpost Florida. I think I feel like probably similar to Florida, the way you feel like San Francisco. And that is, I think it's a, I don't want to say it's underrated, but we have a really nice life down here and it's less crazy than people think. We actually live in kind of a purple district. Our representative, Louis Frankel, is a Democrat. I think it's good to be around some Republicans.

And the quality of life here is fantastic. But bottom line is, I love it here. I love Gulfstream, and I love our friends here. Just don't like their state laws, that's all. Yeah, there you go. Not thrilled with their state laws, even if there's pockets of purple, whatever. I prefer pockets of purple, actually.

Washington, I know lots of Republicans in Washington. Anyway, we've got a lot to get to today with the election coming down the wire. A big weekend of political headlines. Sorry, kids, but it's politics this week. Plus, our friend of Pivot is Daniel Lubezki, the founder of Kind Snacks, an investor in Shark Tank. He has a new initiative that I've helped him with a little bit that's tackling toxic polarization head-on. I actually appeared and agreed with Karl Rove. See what I'm talking about? Getting along with the Republicans. That's the last Republican I thought I'd get along with. But we'll talk about that. Speaking of which, toxic

former president and a Florida resident. Donald Trump's rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday was full of racism, sexism and profanity. It included speeches from Melania Trump, which was calm by comparison. Elon Musk, who was wearing a hat that used Nazi font. That was nice. And Trump's childhood friend, David Rem, who called Vice President Harris the Antichrist. Speakers at the rally also made insulting comments towards Puerto Ricans, Jews and Hispanics, including calling Puerto Rico a pile of garbage, which was a comic. I get it, but it wasn't funny. And of course, everything was vetted. In his speech, Trump said the U.S. is, quote,

now an occupied country and again, described Democrats as the enemy from within, which J.D. Metz spent a lot of time pretending he didn't say. What do you think about that rally? It was, I mean, I know why he did it, because he loves attention and he wants to dunk on people. But that felt like that 1939 Nazi rally that arguably the bluest of blue in Manhattan was a good move. I was shocked how much energy there was, how many Trump supporters there are in Manhattan. And I realized you can take a train. They're not from Manhattan. Come on. Well, they were in Manhattan. But look, I thought it was, generally speaking, the turnout was positive. I think that, and I might be overestimating it, but I think we might have our October surprise that helps the Democrats. And that is, I think his name's Tony Hinchcliffe, the comedian. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's a broad term.

He's one of those people that moved to Austin to be around Joe Rogan, one of those hanger-oners. But go ahead. I generally believe that comedians deserve a really wide berth, and art is, what was it, Andy Warhol said, art is getting away with it. I like it when comedians are irreverent, even inappropriate, in the context of trying to soften the beach and get us to think, and I cut them a really wide berth. I think Dave Chappelle has said some offensive things, but Bill Burr, when he talks about, he's a pro-life guy, but when he talks about, he makes, you know, just because a pie is half-baked doesn't make it a pie. I think

these are, I think comedians actually play a really important role. Michelle Wolfe, who offended a lot of people. Can I finish? Yeah. Thank you. Well, Michelle Wolf makes what a lot of people think is offensive comments. I think we cut her a wide berth. This guy, his joke about Puerto Rico being a big pile of trash in the ocean, it not only didn't land, it was just so incredibly tactically stupid at this point in time because in Pennsylvania, there are 400,000 Puerto Ricans. And if just 5,000 or 10,000 of them get motivated not even to switch their vote, but to vote for Harris and actually kind of souls to the polls, feet to the street, that could swing the entire election. And I thought what he said was so, it just landed so poorly.

And it was so really offensive. There was nothing funny about it. It was just sort of feeding into this zeitgeist that Trump is just deep down, his DNA is a racist and he's not your guy unless you're from Northern Europe. It is exactly, and I don't know if you saw this, but immediately post the rally, every Republican who's running for something distanced themselves from the comments. Well, you know, I'm agreeing with you on, look, it landed in the room of energetic people. It didn't even land in the room. The crowd didn't like it. In any case, it wasn't funny. I don't mind irreverent comics if they're funny. This

wasn't funny. And also it was vetted by the Trump people. Oh, it was vetted? Yes. It didn't just do it off the top. It was in a teleprompter. They knew what was coming. So they knew what he was saying. They could have easily said, look, Joe, or whatever his Tony, whatever his unfunny name is. They could have said, you know what? Dial it back on the radio. It just was, he totally wanted to do it so he could get liberals going, oh my God, do you believe that? That's their favorite juvenile tactic in order to get people mad. But it was just pathetic. And especially since that was the, and it didn't just end with that. It was like a range of things about Jews, about none of which were funny. Like, I get it. I get the idea that comics

should be funny, and they should be able to say things. Even David Chappelle, and I think he goes on and on about trans people in a way that's not funny. But ultimately, initially, it's funny, and then it's not, because he overdoes it by an hour, at least. But that's his business. He wants to do that. In this case, it's time and place, right? They did not have to have this guy there. And he wasn't funny. And he's- He's there. And sure, he's a comic, but that's a broad term for this fella. But it wasn't just him. It was his friend. It was calling Hillary Clinton a bitch or something like that. It just went on.

And Tucker Carlson is so strange. I don't even know what to say. Elon wearing, you know, Nazi font on his hat. Like, they were just all trying to like, get the libs going, which is their favorite thing. And they're tasteless and horrible people. I don't know. I'm sorry. I just, you could attract all kinds of people to, I've been in Madison Square Garden with conservative groups, when there's sports events, where there's wrestling. It's like that whole area attracts lots of different people. So I'm not surprised you got people there. It's only 19,000 people, by the way, that fit in.

Anyway, I think it does turn off undecided voters. And it's just typical of what we're going to get if he wins. This is going to be a nonstop hate fest. And let's tell stupid jokes about women's boobs for four years and black people and watermelons. Are we back to that, that joke, black people and watermelons? So funny. Just tactically speaking, as we go into the last eight days, I'm focused on how she, you know, what happens here, like who actually wins. And the racists, the dog whistles, the weirdness, the awkwardness, the inappropriate, I feel like the market has already absorbed that. I'm speaking very tactically. There are 400,000 Puerto Ricans in Pennsylvania. 5,000 of them decide to get off the couch who are going to support Harris, but maybe might not have made it to the polls. See that. And everyone seeing that clip get motivated to turn out. It could literally decide who's president.

Yeah, I agree name a lot more. I think that was the October surprise because there's 400,000 Puerto Ricans in Pennsylvania. Also, Bad Bunny, 45 million followers. J-Lo, like, aye, aye, aye. And they're all going to, you're going to see so much shit on TikTok. Yeah, they, it was interesting, Mike Madrid, who writes about Latin, he wrote a great book on Latin, Latina voters, said that it's just going crazy. It's sort of suddenly has been like, I don't know why people don't get this. This guy is a full on racist. Donald Trump is. Anyway, I'm sure he thought it was funny. I talked to Reid Hoffman on On with Kara Swisher about what Trump supporters think. This was before the rally. Let's hear what he had to say.

One of the things I've heard from some of the people who are supporting Trump is like, oh, yeah, he's talking about tariffs, but he won't do that. He's just talking about that as part of doing it. And that's the classic, like what Hindenburg said about Hitler. That's correct. Which is like, oh, no, this is just a populist. He's not going to do anything. It's like, no, no.

Generally speaking, you should take someone seriously. So that's the good side. The bad side is, you know, grifter crony capitalism. It's I'm buying something for myself. Right. And he is the greatest coin op president in history. Anyway, it was an interesting interview with him. You know, one thing that struck me at that interview, he's a little scared if Trump wins because he's been so he's backed E.G. and Carol. He's done all kinds of things.

He actually said, I'm a little nervous for myself in the case of Trump win. Yeah, I had an interesting conversation with a fairly well-known news anchor, like one of the most iconic news anchors. And he was asking me about living in London. And I said, oh, that's great for quality of life. We're actually, we're a bit worried if Trump wins. And I thought, you're really worried? Do you really think that he would come after you? And he's like, I don't know, but we'd rather just not have that risk. Yeah. Yeah. So it's not, whereas it's not Alec Baldwin or whoever threatening to leave, it's people saying,

I'm actually worried. I think that me and my family could be on the wrong end of a Justice Department or an FBI weaponized by someone who's vindictive. I hope that's not... Shit, I don't know. Every time I say, don't be worried, I end up being wrong. Well, speaking of acquiescence, the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times are facing a backlash for deciding not to endorse a presidential candidate. Let me just say, you don't have to do that, but it was 10 days before the election when they made this decision. The Post publisher, William Lewis,

who I think is one of the most unctuous toadies around, announced the decision, saying it was, quote, consistent with the values the Post has always stood for, which is not true. Well, you just got here, you fucker. Anyway, but the editorial board reportedly already— You're just salty this morning. You're taking no prisoners.

I'm sick of this. Zero fucks given on a Monday morning with Kara Swisher. I'm taking no prisoners because this guy is bullshit. This guy is such a toady from Rupert Murdoch to Jeff Bezos. But the editorial board reportedly already had a Harris endorsement drafted and approved, which the Post's owner, Jeff Bezos, reportedly decided not to post. Multiple columnists have resigned from the Post in response to the decision. The Los Angeles Times also had a Harris endorsement piece from its editorial board ready to go. It was blocked by the paper's publisher at the last minute, Patrick Asuncion. Several members of the editorial board resigned after the decision. There's also a problem between him and his daughter. His daughter says it's over Gaza.

He's like, my daughter seems crazy. It's not that reason. I've interviewed Patrick. I find him to be very intelligent about medical things. Otherwise, he's somewhat of a bonehead. saying he didn't read the endorsement. It doesn't matter if he read it, Will. You think we're stupid? Tell me what you think of these. And again, I don't think you should necessarily endorse a presidential candidate. I just don't think you should change your mind 10 days before an election when your own editorial board, which is supposed to be independent, which obviously has already drafted something.

Yeah, but if you look at the fact pattern of the Post, they've had an endorsement. The last time they did endorse someone, I think, was Bush versus Dukakis. So for the last, whatever it is, 40 or 50 years, they've endorsed somebody. People inside the paper said the endorsement was lined up. And the frightening part of this is that supposedly someone at Amazon or a division of Amazon met with someone from the Trump campaign to talk about government contracts and that there was pressure applied not to do an endorsement. And when you don't do an endorsement, the Washington Post, let's be honest, doesn't do an endorsement. It's

an implicit endorsement for Trump. And what Sam Harris said that sort of, I wouldn't say changed my life, but informed it. He said, if you have economic security and people who love you unconditionally, you have an obligation to speak your mind. Because we live in a society where everyone starts buying into a narrative and feels pressure to bark up the same tree, if you will. And this is the problem and the benefit of a society and autocracy respectively. And that is, if you're an autocrat, look at the incentives in the math. If I were to vigorously endorse Trump, I don't believe that Harris would come after me or my business because she adheres to the constitution and doesn't believe in persecuting her political enemies or weaponizing the government to go after her political enemies.

That's not true with Donald Trump. He has said that I'm going to pursue Google or that this individual should be locked up. So the algebra is the following. The incentive is for all of these people who can't stand Trump to occasionally throw him a bone and seem less against him. There's very little downside to supporting Trump publicly as a business person. And there's more downside to supporting Harris, because if you don't support Harris, he's not going to come after you. If you don't support Trump, he might come after you. And this is an example of that. And that is you have, and this is what's so upsetting about it, is you have a guy who should

be less afraid than anyone in a capitalist society that affords a lot of power to people. And the fact that he appears to be bowing to pressure from an individual who exerts autocratic tendencies is just incredibly disappointing. I think arguably this is the worst hit to Bezos's brand in a long, long time. He looks terrible here. You know, I think the problem is, it's also the people at the post at the top didn't push back, the editorial board or Will Lewis. And one of his quotes just drove, I'm sorry I'm mad at this guy, but he's such a toady. The decision to end presidential endorsements was made entirely internally and neither campaign nor candidate was given a heads up or consulted in any way at any level. Any reporting to the contrary is simply incorrect. Will, you are unctuously disingenuous.

You don't have to give them a heads up or coordinate. It's a mendacious distraction. And it's just, what does that have to do? You don't have to talk to the campaign. He knew he's in trouble with space stuff. Trump met with the Blue Origin people that day. What a bad look. You know, is all this a coincidence? Maybe, but it certainly looks bad. And so that Bezos has said nothing. I mean, I'll tell you why I'm so spicy.

I worked for Ben Bradley and Catherine Graham and Don Graham, and they had integrity. They had guts. They had balls. You tweeted that balls picture, who has balls and no balls. They had the integrity that, you know, she especially was really under pressure on lots of broadcast licenses and everything else from the Nixon administration. And what did she do? She gave him the double finger and said, do what you will. Go ahead. Go ahead. And she actually, when they were serving subpoenas, she left the Washington Post newsroom, do what you will. Go ahead. Go ahead. And she actually, when they were

serving subpoenas, she left the Washington Post newsroom and went to her house. So only she would be jailed. Can I just say that? Like, what a set this lady had. And I loved her. I loved dealing with her. She was, and to have these clowns running the Post is so, I want to buy the newspaper, Scott. You and I want to talk about it. It's so funny you said that. I had the same thought. Let's buy it. Let's get together some people

with much deeper pockets than us and offer to buy it from him. But don't be performative about it because my guess is he's had it with this shit. All of these billionaires that buy this stuff regret it. They all regret it. Yeah. They're all like, oh, God.

Well, these tech billionaires, they don't know how to... There's rich people running things. They all have tiny little balls, teeny little balls, Jeff Bezos. That's what you have. Little titos. Little titos, a little hormone replacement therapy, whatever you're doing. They get smaller, right? Is that right? Oh, I'm sorry. Did I say that out loud? I don't know. I can't find mine, so I don't know if they're smaller. Allegedly. I can't find mine. You have enormous balls compared to Jeff Bezos. But again, it's a low bar.

By the way, who publicly released their endorsement this week? That's right. I thought you were going to say who publicly took pictures of our balls this week. But go ahead, you did. Go ahead, say your endorsement. Who did you endorse? Let me guess, Trump? I put out on my No Mercy, No Malice an endorsement of Harris. And to be honest, other than trying to be a good American and speaking your mind, there's no upside. Because the people who listen to you know you endorse Harris. And the people, you know, basically every comment was, I agree or stay in your lane, I'm unsubscribing. And this is the problem again. Look, I believe... Free speech. Yeah. No one's denying your right to do it. And I also

think most CEOs of most companies should probably stay out of this. I don't think that's why... I think they're there to create shareholder value. When you are the owner of a paper that is the paper in Washington and probably the premier brand in U.S. politics, of course you should have an endorsement. I mean, of course you should. And then when they have one lined up and the owner weighs in, the kind of hands-off or mostly hands-off owner at the last minute, that is you have to be our hero here. You have to be the last person to bow to pressure here. And so this is, I don't think it's too late. I think he could have fixed this. I think he could have said, look, it got very noisy in my brain and I thought it would be easier just not to.

This was a mistake. I have listened. I've asked the editorial review to reconvene, be thoughtful and issue an endorsement. He could fix this. It's not too late. He wants them space contracts if Trump wins and Harris won't do anything bad to him if she wins. Interestingly, the person who might have some trouble is Elon Musk, who reported being in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin since 2022. As a reminder, SpaceX played a significant role in the Russia-Ukraine war, with Starlink providing internet access to Ukraine and thwarting the Ukrainian drone attack on Russia in 2022. At one point, Putin reportedly asked Musk to avoid activating Starlink over Taiwan as a favor to Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Musk is one of the former president's biggest donors, as you noted.

He may be up for some sort of weird cabinet position, something of efficiency. Repercussions. This thing is nuts. And he apparently didn't talk to the White House when he was doing this. I think it's a failure on behalf of our government and a lack of trust in institutions. When you have individuals who are this powerful and technology is beginning in kind of these supranational individuals, there is absolutely no reason that a world leader should feel impetus to call a business leader because they have that much power. This needs to be run through the Defense Department. And in no

uncertain terms, our Department of Defense, our Secretary of State, our Joint Chiefs need to crisply move against anybody who decides to insert themselves or puts them in a position. The head of NASA did. I think he's going to, Leland's going to try to roll over him. He did. He said, this is a problem. National security problem. This is an enormous problem. And this is, it all stems back from, and I'm going to sound like Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren. Can you do it in his voice? When people, well, I'd probably have an easier time doing it in her voice.

When people amass this kind of wealth in a capitalist society and this kind of power and technology has the ability to be kind of spun up or spun down this quickly. And technology kind of is borderless as it is with satellite technology. And technology kind of is borderless as it is with satellite technology. You have business people who might be addicted to a disassociative drug cosplaying world leaders. And they're not elected. That's just not a good idea. Who knows what he's saying to them. I hope they spied on him, I guess.

Don't they spy on people when they talk to Putin? Supposedly Putin and Xi, but Putin more aggressively begins building a file of embarrassing facts about anyone who's rising in power, and then they remind them of that when they're talking to them, including Trump, right? So anyways, but this is, I think, crisply American institutions that we elect and we fund massively and we trust, even if you shitpost them, you trust the Department of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff and NATO to make these kinds of decisions. I don't want Elon Musk negotiating battlefield communications technology directly with Putin. CEOs talk to world leaders, but our government is dialed into it. This is ridiculous. This is nuts. And he's going to continue in a Trump administration. By the way, President Biden called Musk out for his hypocrisy on immigration after The Washington Post was a great story.

The reporters of the Washington Post, can I say you are doing a wonderful job. Fuck your owner, but you're doing a wonderful job. Reported that he worked illegally in the country on a student visa. Let's listen. Well, that wealthiest man in the world turned out to be a legal worker here when he was here. Oh, I'm serious.

He was supposed to be in school when he came on a student visa. He wasn't in school. He was violating the law. He's talking about all these illegals coming our way. Yes, the irony. He was an illegal. He has talked about it. I've heard him talk about it. Yeah, it's a bit of a sideshow, but it goes back to, I think the primary reason we haven't been serious about immigration reform, and to be clear, we need borders. Immigration has gotten especially bad, although illegal border crossings are actually down this year. But what people don't want to acknowledge is the reason we haven't fixed this is we haven't wanted to fix it until recently, because immigration is the reason we haven't fixed this is we haven't wanted to fix it until recently because

immigration is the secret sauce of America. But what people don't talk about is the most profitable part of immigration is illegal immigration. And that is specifically, illegals basically show up. They don't get arrested. They commit crimes at a lower rate. They don't call services. They don't tax our services. They don't even like to go to the hospital. They don't call the cops. They don't call the, they commit crimes at a lower rate, they don't call services, they don't tax our services, they don't even like to go to the hospital, they don't call the cops, they don't call the fire department because they're worried about being sent home. And they're this flexible, inexpensive workforce. Oh, and by the way, they pay taxes. And then they tend to leave once the crops are picked or there's a lack of demand or a lack of supply of

jobs. It's sort of the ultimate flexible, highest ROI labor force in history. And this is, I don't want to excuse what he's doing, but we should have immigration laws that allow a guy like Elon Musk to stay more easily. I would like to see anyone who shows that kind of IQ, risk-taking, even back then he demonstrated this. We should accommodate. If you know anybody, when I first started L2, the most talented, and I talked a little bit about this, one of the most talented people I've ever run across was a woman named Claude DeJocas, took me into a conference room, said, I need to speak to you. She'd gone to Yale. She was a gymnast, Canadian. She said, I have to leave. I couldn't get my visa in time and I have to leave and I

have to go back to Canada. And I'm like, you're doing no such thing. I have money. I'm going to hire lawyers and we're going to figure this out. And unfortunately, if you have money, you usually can figure this stuff out. But the fact that our INS or whoever it is, is kicking the most talented people out of the country and at the same time turning a blind eye to the most profitable part, it's just all, it's all fucked up. But yeah, this is going back to the beginning. It is incredibly hypocritical. Although I don't think he's been that aggressive against illegal immigrants. Has he been? Or immigrants? Yes. He's like half the negative stuff on Twitter that's inaccurate is from his tweets. About immigrants? Yes. Oh, no.

He's like demented about immigrants. See, I'm not on X. I don't see it. Ugh. He's just like dialing it up everywhere he goes on immigrants. That's been his biggest focus lately. He got off the trans for a minute and then now he's on immigrants and I don't know, woke. I don't know.

Whatever. He's a tiresome scold. You said something earlier in the podcast I didn't realize. I've just been blissfully ignorant over the past, over this weekend. He, he had, you think that the,

the font on his hat was purposely reminiscent of Nazi propaganda? It's a, it's a font. It's not, it's a Nazi font. What is that? Look like it. Look like the Nazi font to me.

Anyway, you know, I always think of this, the thing that really got me, I'll tell you, was that they did this Madison Square Garden thing just miles from the Statue of Liberty, right? Where on the Statue of Liberty, there's a poem, which is called The New Colossus, right? It's a sonnet by Emma Lazarus, right? She wrote the poem in 1883 to raise money for construction of it. And the last part, keep your ancient lands, your storied pomp, cry she with silent lips. Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. This is the part I think is important. The wretched refuse of your teeming shores and these, the homeless tempest tossed to me. I lift my lamp besides the golden door. I mean, honestly, what is, my grandfather came in on that, on a ship. He was a wretched refuse. He was nobody. And he made a company. He raised children. You know, it's just,

it's so depressing. It's so depressing to watch these people. Thank you. That's my poetry. It's so depressing. It's so depressing to watch these people. Thank you. That's my poetry. That's why I'm really bothered by this. And we'll speak with a friend of Pivot, Daniel Lubitsky, the workplace, one thing's for certain. Choosing the right candidate is a huge responsibility. I remember the first time I stepped into the office for my first job. I was feeling excited to be there and then by the end of the day, incredibly depressed that that was what my life was going to be. Anyways, and if you're hiring and want to find the best candidates for your office, you need ZipRecruiter. Right now, you can try for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash pivot. When you post a job on ZipRecruiter, their powerful matching technology starts showing you qualified candidates immediately. You can even use ZipRecruiter's invite to apply feature

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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 more political news. Michelle Obama made a powerful plea to voters over the weekend at a rally in Michigan, her first appearance on the trail this year. She's such a good speaker. Obama warned about the risks that Donald Trump poses to women's health and told women they should demand

to be treated as more than baby-making vessels. She also took a page out of Scott Galloway playbook and directed her argument towards men. I think she must be listening to you, Scott. Let's listen. But to anyone out there thinking about sitting out this election or voting for Donald Trump

or a third party candidate in protest because you're fed up, let me warn you, your rage does not exist in a vacuum. If we don't get this election right, your wife, your daughter, your mother, we as women will become collateral damage to your rage. Scott, you could have written that. What do you think of the case? I thought it was arguably the most powerful speech given in 2024. I would agree. Both of them. Because as someone who's thinking a lot about masculinity, and I'm writing a book on it, trying to figure out an aspirational modern form of it, given the world has just changed. You know, I come to these three legs of the stool, provider, protector, and procreator. And protector, she just called on.

quote in the speech I thought was just outstanding. If your wife is shivering and bleeding on the operating room table during a routine delivery gone bad, her pressure dropping as she loses more and more blood or some unforeseen infection spreads and her doctors aren't sure if they can act, you will be the one praying that it's not too late. You will be the one pleading for somebody, anybody to do something. And then she goes on to say, if we don't get this election right, your wife, your daughter, your mother, we as women will become collateral damage to your rage. This is really trying to call on what men should have as a default operating system as men, and that is to move to protection. And she called on that. She said, look, guys, moved to protection. And she called on that. She said, look, guys, it's time for you to step up and protect us. We are under threat. And going very base, the reason women choose mates in large

part is based on who they believe, if they are vulnerable, especially during the time of leave, if they are vulnerable, especially during the time of pregnancy or when the kids are young, that you have the skills, the intellect, the kindness, the strength, the courage to protect them. That is primarily or the key reason why women find certain men more attractive than others. And men, if they want to express their masculinity, if they want to be true men, their default has to be to protection. And there is no one who we are set up to protect or have more of an obligation to protect than the mothers, the spouses, and the daughters in our life. And I thought she just tapped into that perfectly. I thought it was so powerful. Yeah. And it wasn't, it wasn't tisky. It's like, let me tell you, boys, it was really,

she's such a gifted political speaker, man, her democratic, having been there when she did it, and also then watching it later. What a political talent, honestly. I know she doesn't want to run, but I'm like, she articulates things. Just, you know, I know she's a lawyer. She's going to be good at talking, but she's trained as a lawyer. But man, she's an astonishing person. Anyway, let's change the subjects. Let's talk some entertainment news. California Governor Gavin Newsom wants to get Hollywood back on track with massive increase in the state's film tax incentives. We touched on this last week about the number of productions declining in the

California area. Obviously, that's been happening for a while. And it was always completely there. And then they moved around to other countries, etc. But Newsom announced a proposal on Sunday to boost the state's tax credits from $330 million to $750 million. Still not that much. Increase could take effect as early as July 2025 if approved by the state legislature. Overall production in the LA area was down 5% in Q3, the weakest quarter of the year, below 2023 strike levels. California has lost production dollars to other states that offer attractive incentives. Georgia, as you know, is among them, but New York also, as well as countries including Canada and Croatia. Croatia apparently looks like a lot of places. You know, it's a lot cheaper to send people all over the place. And Georgia's made a really aggressive and has a lot of production happening there, which is a good thing for a state to do, to bring things in and away from California. So what do you think about this? I think it's not very much money, but it's more money. What do you think? This is a good move. And in general, I don't like subsidies because it ends up being a

race to the bottom and corporations do this. And when everyone wants to be the Pepsi generation and keeps throwing shit at Amazon and they lie and say that Columbus, Ohio, or Phoenix actually have a shot when it ends up just being whoever's closest to his man caves, right? D.C. and New York. You know, at some point, we do need actual tax revenue from corporations. And the biggest ones have been very good at playing states off against each other. So as a whole, there's something about this subsidies that bothers me because eventually what you have is corporations who now have the lowest tax burden they've had since 1938. I don't know how to solve it. Competition interstate is actually good on a lot of ways. In this specific instance,

given the atmospherics, given what's happening to LA, this is an easy one. It's a great idea. Just explain what they are for people who don't understand what they do. Because, you know, this race to the bottom idea is important because people want, like Texas wants to cut taxes to bring people there, et cetera. And it often can be a race to the bottom. Explain why they're good. Well, if you're producing a movie, if you produce it, what they're basically saying is, Canada has a big tax subsidy. They say, if you produce your film here because of the jobs, whether it's catering or makeup artists or editors or the people who rent the vans and the trucks and the cameras, it'll inspire enough economic activity that what we'll

do is we'll give you a credit. If you spend $30 million on a film, we'll give you, when you qualify and the majority of the filming and post-production, whatever's done here, we'll give you a $3 million credit. And that may not sound like a lot, but if you can reduce your exposure by 10, 15, or 20%, it dictates where you're going to film. And Atlanta's been very aggressive about this. Vancouver. Vancouver. Canada's been very aggressive. And the U.S. or California had a smallish kind of underfunded credit. And basically what he's done is he supersized it. And the analysis is really powerful that basically justifies why you would do this. For every tax credit dollar allocated, California benefited from at least

$24 in economic output, $16 in gross domestic product, $8.60 in wages, and $1.07 in state and local tax revenues. So this is actually, from a tax standpoint, it's tax neutral while inspiring a lot of economic activity. And especially in LA... Where they have the stuff. Yeah. It's a really good idea to strategically because the quality of talent in LA is just superior to any region in the world around this stuff. People dream, when really talented creatives or people wanna be in the movie business, when they come out of, you know,

they're the star of the drama club or they're good at building sets and they come out of high school or college, if this is their dream, they get on a bus or a plane for LA. So it's such a big part of LA's identity. And if you can offer, you don't even have to be less, just as long as you're competitive.

A lot of people are going to choose to shoot in LA because the talent pool is so deep. So this is, given the reality that there are other states and countries offering tax credits, and the fact that production, by some estimates, is down something like 30 or 40% in LA, this was absolutely the right move at the right time. Yeah, and they have all those studios. I did, you and I both done productions there and they're just so superb, the people that work there, whether you're on something like Bill Maher

or I was recently on a TV show. It's just so good. They're so good from even down to like the craft table. 100%. And I have done it in other places. It's not the same as Los Angeles. It just is in our California. So they should, they should own it. They should keep it. But although I have to say, you know, the L word was done up in Vancouver and I used to visit my friends up there who are

doing the L word. And it was, they also had a really tight day. I think Jennifer Beals lived there or maybe she still does. It was really a great place to film and a great place to live for a lot of those people. So there's tons of TV shows in Vancouver and Atlanta. So anyway, good for Graven Newsome. In any case, let's bring in our friend of Pivot. Daniel Lubezki is the founder of Kind Snacks and the newest permanent investor on Shark Tank. He's also the founder of the Builders Movement, a nonprofit initiative aiming at tackling polarization worldwide. Welcome, Daniel. Thank you, Cara. Thank you, Scott. It's so nice to see you both. Good to see you. Just for disclosure, I was on one of his first calls, and me and Karl Rove, a person I never thought I wanted to talk to ever, let alone agree with, had a really interesting discussion, which was surprising for me. Anyway, we'll talk about it in a minute, but for people who might not know you only from Kind Snacks and Shark Tank, explain what the Builders Movement is and what it actually does?

The Builders Movement recognizes that 87% of Americans are fed up with all this hyper-partisan tribal division. And we want to transform this us versus them mentality with a problem-solving mindset and toolkit. And we have analyzed over the last 10 years, the five or six forces that are contributing to toxic polarization and to try to counteract them in education, civics, and the media with our own mousetraps that are in the process of being built, including the Builders Power Rankings that you just participated in. And we're grateful that you agreed to go on with Karl Rove and Andrew Yang. So you've sort of gamified this recently by launching these power rankings, which I said I participated in.

Talk about how the rankings work and hold politicians accountable. So our insight is that all of us are really, really exhausted with just being used by scandal and politicians to raise money and to divide rather than solve problems. And so instead of voting just purely based on whether somebody has a D or an R or we're trying to get people to study,

are there actual builders or dividers? Are they helping unite and bring light and solve problems together, or are they dividing, demolishing, and destroying? And we used, we partnered with a polarization research lab to use AI to scour all resources on the internet and elsewhere every week to try to see whether people are actually introducing bipartisan legislation, whether they're actually speaking on the issue substantively, or whether they're just trying to set out fires to destroy one another and

criticize one another. And to be transparent, it's not perfectly designed yet because sometimes people are appearing, at least from my perspective, a little bit poorer because they were tough, but maybe they were being tough responding to somebody that had attacked them. Right, because they're persistent and pernicious haters. Launched within three, four months, the minimum viable product, lowercase MVP. We hope that over the coming years, it'll become the most viable player and it'll become the source for people to go to builder's power rankings for them to understand whether somebody's being a builder. And from AI, they get a score, a blended score based on whether they're introducing bipartisan legislation, solving problems, being constructive, or whether they're dividing. And then, at least for this round, every week we bring in panelists across the spectrum of politics to criticize the rankings and to have a nuanced conversation. And we've had over a quarter million people that in the last two, three weeks have joined and learned a little bit more. And we hope to do a better job of getting people to think through those issues. Okay, Scott?

It's always good to see you, Daniel. So I'm wondering, so similar to how there are rankings from Democratic and Republican institutions kind of giving them a score in different special interest groups, whether it's the NRA or Planned Parenthood, they put out ratings or rankings. This seems like it's another rating that's basically going to say how bipartisan or how moderate you are. Is that accurate? That's literally the aspiration is for people to replace those hyper-partisan scoring things with an all-inclusive builders ranking. And Cara criticized appropriately when she was on the panel that we didn't have one for independence. Today, we rank Republicans and Democrats and for both the five top builders and the five bottom dividers. And it's a very hyper nonpartisan by structure. We cannot make it partisan because we're criticizing dividers and praising builders

from both parties. As an aspiration, we hope to also do that for independence and to try to introduce more and more independence. One of the biggest problems with our system is that the systems are right against independence, against its foreign comments. One of the problems we have is only 13% support Congress. One of the problems we have is only 13% support Congress. There's 13% for Congress, but 90% of Congress members get reelected. And it's because of gerrymandering and all these systems that both the Republicans and the Democrats create in the system to try to divide the spoils and staying power. And this is why people are so dissatisfied because we keep seeing that the choices that we're being presented are really, really inferior as a result of the

duopoly that creates so much stagnation. And we hope to introduce a system where we're going to hold accountable and not just say, oh, just because I'm a Republican or a Democrat, I'm going to blindly vote for my no. Have they been builders? Have they been actually solving problems for my community? Are they actually addressing what we need? Or they're just, right now we have a big incentive for, like Cara said, for the Marjorie Taylor Greene's or AOC's of the world to be. Oh, I'm sorry, Daniel. You cannot put them in the same.

I'm sorry. You simply cannot. How about Rashida Tlaib and Marjorie Taylor Greene? Nobody is like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Daniel. See, this was my problem with this whole thing, is there are certain people who are pernicious haters that are gaming everybody else. But go ahead.

Cara, what's interesting to me from the last 10 years of doing this work is that I have the identical conversations with both sides. And when I say this, they say, Daniel, come on, nobody's as bad as the squad. I'm like, you know what? What's interesting also is when you talk to the media and you say, guys, you're really only covering the dividers and you're not covering the builders. And they're like, no, we're doing our job. We're doing our job. That's not true. They're not doing their job because guess who covers Marjorie Taylor Greene, the New York Times. Guess who covers the squad? Wall Street Journal. Guess

how much coverage does the Wall Street Journal or Fox News give to Marjorie Taylor Greene? Zero. She is not in the media on the right wing. The right wing doesn't- The journal has. The journal certainly has. Barely. Barely. We did a study last year called Change the Coverage, and it was fascinating. The media that leans Democrat covers all the crazies from the right wing. The media that leans right covers all the ones on the left.

I utterly understand that. My mother didn't know about Arnold Palmer when I said about the Arnold Palmer comment about Trump because she watches Fox News. She's like, what? What did he say? Oh, no. It was fascinating. I'm like, apparently he has a big schlong, but let's go. But you've called yourself a moderate. Where do moderates fit into the initiative,

especially in the current political moment? I think we can all agree last night was really a terrible situation. And for people who don't know, you're the son of Sonia and Roman Lubecki, and they're a Holocaust survivor and a Lithuanian Ashkenazi Jew. You also grew up in Mexico City, correct? Is that survived the Holocaust, was liberated by American soldiers. When he was, after being in a hospital and as a refugee for a year, he then immigrated to Mexico, where he met my mom. My mom was born in a small town in Mexico. Her parents had immigrated a generation before, also from Eastern Europe. And I immigrated to the United States when I was 16. A teenager.

So you're aware of all these. I mean, you've lived all these issues and everything else. So talk about you being a moderate right now and how you were trying to get to the center in some fashion makes it very difficult. I think a misunderstanding of people is that they think that moderates have to belong to... You can be a Democrat or Republican or an Independent and be a moderate.

For us, we stopped using the word moderate because it carries certain connotations that are not what we're doing. So we started to use the language of builders. But for us, a builder, a person that uses compassion, creativity, curiosity, and courage, they're the forces of a builder's mindset. And they apply not just in civil society.

They apply when we're building kind a company or you're building any bridges, any jobs, any social enterprise. If you have curiosity, you don't assume that you have all the answers. You have a little bit of humility to listen to the other side. You have compassion to understand where the other side is coming from, or, or of a critical listener and a critical, uh, thinker, and then you have the courage to work across lines of difference and you have the creativity to think outside the box and come up with solutions. So those are the things we're trying to instill in society through education, by replacing all these rigid ideologies that come from the extremes

with actual tools for helping young students and all of us replace this increasing rigidity from social media and other things with a little bit of a better ability to think through these issues. So, Daniel, in order to have a ranking that impacts people and says, assuming you're looking for kind of bridge builders or moderates, you have to have candidates that are at least somewhat viable as moderates. And I think that's a real challenge now because of gerrymandering. And essentially, there are no general elections anymore. It's all about the primary because of the way districts have been gerrymandered and because of the way the algorithms love polarized, divisive rhetoric. Does any of this matter if we

don't get to final five or rank choice voting? Because I'm worried that your rating will be just bad for everybody who we have ends up in the general, if you will. I think you're correct that the incentives matter and people, these politicians, they don't tend to be leaders, they tend to be followers and they respond to those incentives. And I do think you're right

that we need to have structural changes to reduce gerrymandering and increase participation in primaries and all the things you mentioned. And there are a lot of builders, there really are. We just don't hear about them because the media doesn't do a good job portraying them. And part of our job is to try to elevate them. So Senator John Ossoff, a Democrat from Georgia, appeared twice as a builder. Representative Laurie Chavez de Raymer, a Republican from Oregon,

Chavez, de Ramer, a Republican from Oregon, appeared twice as a builder. And these are people that are in battleground districts or states that have been so gerrymandered that the general election doesn't matter, that they just try to throw red meat at their primary voters. So Representative Lance Gooden, a Republican of Texas, was a divider, two or three rounds. Representative Eric Swalwell, a Democrat of California, Representative Mary Miller, a Republican of Illinois, Caldwell, a Democrat of California, Representative Mary Miller, a Republican of Illinois, they kept coming up as people that were just engaged in personal attacks rather than constructive solutions. I think Scott thinks of himself as moderate, right, Scott?

Yeah, I do. Right, yeah. So there's a famous poem of Yeats, the center will not hold, right? And now we have the noisy among us are the ones that are getting the most attention. It's a famous poem, obviously. But are you concerned that polarization

is going to get worse after the election? And which candidate would be worse, given their records? I am absolutely terrified about our direction of our country either way. I am frankly, nothing short of terrified. You know, Karen, Scott, I known you from the work I used to do in the Middle East

for 25 years to build bridges between Israelis and Palestinians. And my assumption when I immigrated to United States and I grew up and I went to law school and I did my work was that the way I was going to contribute was by bringing American values abroad and by trying to have respect, rule of law, kindness, civility, democracy be the values that we bring to others. And I worked for close to 30 years already helping Israelis and Palestinians, Jordanians, Egyptians to trade with one another, build a movement to empower moderates. And if I have to score myself, obviously I would fail. All of these tribalization and division and divisiveness is being exported across the world.

And foreign adversaries that are authoritarian rulers, whether it's in Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, are on vanguard. But we really, really need to take this very seriously. And I think that the only way we're going to change this is going back to what Scott was saying about structural changes and about demanding from both. You know, this is a duopoly. The Democratic and Republican parties are both broken. Think about what we have today. You have a presidential candidate from the right where 40 out of 44 of his self-selected cabinet members said, do not vote for this guy. And he, you know, prevent... They're not just saying, do not vote. They're saying he's a fascist.

And they sought, and he sought to prevent the orderly transition of power and leading up to January 6th. Like, I cannot support him. But in spite of that, it's like he should be easily defeated. You have an election that's going to be so, so tight. So you have to question and understand that there's problems on the left too, because

if the Democrats are not able to field a candidate that can easily defeat the person with a track record, the system is completely broken. And I can walk through- Or people like autocrats, Daniel. I just like them. I don't think so, Cara. I don't think so. I think that's, Daniel. I don't think so, Cara. I don't think so.

I think that's too simplistic. I don't agree with you. I think they love them in certain places. They seem to like a big daddy, I guess. Before you go, let me ask you quickly about Shark Tank. The New York Times recently had a story that looked at how the show evolved over the years and reclaimed, want to understand the U.S. economy.

Watch Shark Tank. Tell me why you're doing this. What does it reveal about the economy and entrepreneurship? And I like some of the panelists, others, I think you're as dumb as a box of hammers, but I think you're smart. So tell me why you're on it. First of all, every one of the... Kevin O'Leary, but go ahead. Kevin O'Leary is ridiculously smart. They process, they're witty and they process really fast and they all keep me on my toes. Part of the reason I'm on it.

Daniel, Daniel, you're a much better entrepreneur than Kevin O'Leary, but go ahead. Go ahead. You're very kind. Part of the reason I'm there is because it's really intellectually stimulating and challenging. Like Mark Cuban notices things two or three rounds before I do. Like he asks a question, I'm like, where is he going? Oh my God, he was right. I learned so much from them. But the most important thing is the entrepreneurs that they come in. And by the way, it takes a lot of guts to shop on that carpet. And then they tell

you these incredible stories and provide the incredible stories. And honestly, entrepreneurship is one of the last hopes for our nation and for the world. It's where you're building bridges, where you're thinking like a builder, when you're taking the risk to actually do something constructive, to build something good for society. And it's probably our biggest secret weapon as a country, and we need to support it and elevate it, and that's why we do that. Give us some behind the music here. What is the most surprising thing you found out about Shark Tank and don't have it be how smart they are, your other sharks, give us some gossip. It's for me, Scott, when I first did the first season, Mark told me, get over it because everything resets. And I didn't quite understand it, but what happens is you, this is your money and this is, and you don't know enough.

So you have to develop very quick pattern recognition. And then you decide that you want to go for a deal. And then somebody throws you under the bus and you are authentically pissed off. And you're like, really upset. And then there's a break. And by the next round with the next because we film in two parts so you film

eight or ten episodes in one day and after a 15 to 20 minute break you reset and these guys are like they really you really do get into it

and then you need to reset and you form new alliances and Daniel's still back in number one like what did you do to me? well that was my the first season

I was like upset for a few seconds and now you have to just reset, reset, reset. And what's the most recent company you've invested in, Daniel, on Shark Tank? Well, we cannot share till they air. Most recent public one, public one that people know about? There's a woman, there's two women that launched a company called Toasted. They're immigrants also from Venezuela, and they make frozen refrigerated Hispanic food that's delicious, like arepas, cachapas, like foods that for Hispanics will love them,

but even, you know, Americans like them. It's kind of like a sandwich bread made of corn that tastes really, really good. And what's cool about them is they were, she had a baby the same day that her episode aired and she was carrying the baby and watching the episode. Yeah, that was a great one. I love that one. I love Arepas too. I just want to tell a very brief story about Daniel of how I met him is he owned code.com and I wanted to get it from him because we ended up with code.net. I own the code.com.

The code.com. And I wanted it for our new site. And he called me back and he said, if you could change your conference to a conference about peace, I will give it to you. And I was like, no fucking way, Daniel. And I never forget that. And he's like, yeah, we need peace. I'm like, we don't need peace, Daniel. I mean, give me the thing. I'll give you a million dollars. No, he wanted a conference. And even today, Daniel, I'm not going to do a conference about peace, but I appreciate, I did show up at your thing and Karl Rove and I did give you a hard time, which was fun to do together. But your next challenge is the challenge for society.

It really is the question, are we going to allow the center to not hold? And if we don't, every one of your listeners do something to become a builder and to try to solve their communities. It is going to catch up with us. It's going to get worse if we don't all take it upon ourselves to do something. Although that Karl Rove and I are the center now is really something frightening. Anyway, thank you so much, Daniel. And I really thought it was really enjoyable what you're doing. And I hope you really get them any more help you want about it. And Scott would be a really good advisor to that. Anyway, thank you so much, Daniel Lubezki. Thank you, Scott and Cara.

It's nice to see you both. All right, Scott, isn't he a lovely guy? I like to give him a hard time, but... So I met Daniel in 1999. We were in the same Global Leaders of Tomorrow, Davos. And he was the peace guy. He was just running around. He had all these weird little businesses

bringing Palestinians and Israelis together. And he was starting all these ridiculous businesses that made no sense. And we're always like, but he was so likable and he had such a big, good heart. And, but I don't want to say it wasn't taken seriously, but he's always the guy like, peace is the answer. Peace. And we're like, oh, Jesus Christ, it's the peace guy. When he wanted the website.

And then he starts this company called Kind. He's like, showed up in my office and said, can you help me start this business? And I'm like, well, not really. I don't know much about the confection market. Anyways, fast forward like seven years later, he sold it for a billion dollars. The peace guy. And it literally, there are few people you would be more happy if they make a billion dollars than Daniel Lubezki.

Let's get him to help us buy the Washington Post. He's a really, he's like a big hearted, lovely guy. And the candy bars are delicious. And that's what they are. I'm sorry to tell you, but that's candy bar. Anyway, they're fantastic. I want a week around something like that. Anyway, Scott, let's go on a quick break.

We'll be back for wins and fails. Support for Pivot comes from Anthropic. If your company could tap into a powerful source of knowledge, analysis, and creative problem solving, imagine what you could achieve. Innovative ideas could be realized faster than ever. Claude, the AI assistant from Anthropic, empowers your team to rise to new levels of productivity and innovation by providing vast knowledge and rapid analysis. With Claude, your existing talent can harness cutting-edge AI to work smarter, brainstorm bigger, and pursue visionary goals, complementing human ingenuity. What a word salad! I'm going off script just to tell you I, no joke, use Claude almost every day. I think it's fantastic. Claude is next-generation AI assistant

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slash clod. Support for the show comes from Smartsheet. Attention, project managers, are you in the brink of burnout? Is your company going through a transformational change and expecting you to somehow figure out how to execute new programs and processes and guide Thank you. of Fortune 100 companies. Smartsheet is the platform of choice for big names, including Iron Mountain, Autodesk, HP, and more. That's because whatever your aim, whether it's department initiatives or organization-wide goals, Smartsheet can streamline processes and unite teams to deliver more impactful work. You can track projects, prioritize tasks, and visualize data, all on a flexible, scalable platform. Smartsheet powers the shift from reactive to proactive by helping organizations plan, capture, automate, and report all in one place, which ultimately means teams can move faster, drive innovation, and achieve more. Learn how Smartsheet can help your business

at smartsheet.com slash pivot. That's smartsheet.com slash pivot. Smartsheet, work better at scale. pivot, smart sheet, work better at scale. Support for the show comes from HubSpot. Picture this, you're at a party and someone asks you what you do as a marketer. How do you even begin to describe it? You have to generate leads, score them, contact them, create content, gather data, and tomorrow, do it all again, and wonder if it's even working. Marketers are spread way too thin, but HubSpot has a better way. With the help of Breeze and tools, including Content Remix, now you can turn one piece of content into a suite of assets. Pinpoint the best prospects with predictive lead scoring and level up your campaign's KPIs with a

new analytics suite. So your day-to-day becomes less busy work and more driving revenue through the roof. And most importantly, you'll have a way easier time describing what you do at parties. Visit HubSpot.com slash marketers to learn more. Okay, Scott, let's hear some wins and fails. I sort of already mentioned mine. I'll start with my fail. My fail is the comedian mocking the Puerto Rican people in Eight Days Out. Distinctive, the racist undertones of it.

It's just tactically really, really stupid to insult a community that comprises 400,000 voters in the ultimate swing state. It's just distinct of the underlying troublesome comments. It was a self-inflicted injury that the Trump campaign did not need at this moment. That's my fail. Just strategically, just could not have been more stupid. And my win, I thought Michelle Obama's comments telling men that they're essentially they need to protect women. I just love the notion of associating manhood with a default setting around protection. I thought she was very powerful. And I hope that a lot of people, specifically men who are sort of on the couch and not thinking that

some of the issues facing women right now don't affect them. They absolutely do. So I thought she was really powerful. I think that's probably my favorite speech of 2024. So anyways, my fail, just this unforced error on the Republicans' part, insulting a community that could play a huge part in the election. And my win is a very forceful former first lady, Michelle Obama. She really is impressive. She really truly is. I would say my fail is the Washington Post editorial leaders. Let me just be full disclosure, my wife works for the op-ed section. She's not involved in any of this and didn't have any idea about any of this. But there's two people who've just left the board.

Molly Roberts, a young woman, she's resigned. An editorial board member, David Hoffman, is also resigning. Just for people who didn't know, Hoffman, legendary reporter, accepted the Pulitzer last week for his series on new technology and the tactics authoritarian regimes use to repress dissent in the digital age and how they can be fought. That was what he won his Pulitzer for, and he's just resigned from the board, the editorial board of the Washington Post. David, you're a hero. I'm sorry,

those pieces were wonderful. Molly is a young woman. It's a very male, white male board. Others are going to leave. It's largely white male board. I'm sorry, that's what it is. And they pretend they have other people on it that aren't really serving. I'm sorry, that's what it is. And they pretend they have other people on it that aren't really serving. And so just a real fail from them. I can't say a lot because my wife works there. I wish she didn't, I'll be honest with you. And so she has lots of other opportunities and to have to work with these people is really something I'm not thrilled about, but it's her choice. In any case, my win is that there are, again, when I hear some voters speaking, not these terrible people at this Trump rally, I'm sorry. And I'll use the Hillary Clinton term, some of these people are deplorable, they absolutely are. I've been listening to a lot of interviews with independent voters,

and they're so smart. They really are. I know we make fun of people who haven't decided, et cetera, et cetera, but they are considering really important things for their families and their lives. And I get that the choice seems very stark here. And, you know, I think that they, I'm very heartened by listening to them, at least, because they're being considerate of things. And the second win is the New York Times editorial leader, Katie Kingsbury, who I haven't always gotten along with, I have to say. I think she's a tough nut, but she is posting their Kamala Harris endorsement and the video they made, which was really good. And actually, the editorial was quite good and well-argued and stuff like that. And she's dunking on them. And I just got to say, Katie,

new respect, new respect for your, and it was a very well-written endorsement. And I would like to put an offer out to anyone at the LA Times or the Washington Post who has that endorsement of Kamala Harris. Please, please leak them to anybody, any reporter, and my lines are open if you have it. Please, I'd be happy to publish it. We'll be happy to read it here on Pivot. Anyway, we want to hear from you. Send us your questions about business, tech, or whatever's on your mind. Go to nymag.com slash pivot to submit a question for the show or call 855-51-PIVOT. I know there's a lot of politics, but it's almost over.

Well, not really. It'll probably keep going. And while we're at it, the results from last week's Threads poll are in in response to the question, who would make a better Halloween costume, Cara or Scott? I won by a landslide,

winning with a whopping two. 72% of the vote. And actually- Is that really a win? It is. Is that really a win? Actually, Kristen Soltis Anderson and Lulu Garcia Navarro on Chris Wallace's show, Dressed Up Is Me, they put on glasses.

They had leather. They had my hair and everything else. So they also dressed up for me. I agree. I'm the great winner. Does this convince you to change your costume to Kara Swisher? You're so much more accustomed. I look like a fish that swam too close to a reactor.

You have big hair and sunglasses. You're a much better Halloween costume. But I need your help. What are you doing? It's kind of down to two costumes. One of them is not you. I'm either going to go as Richard Simmons. I thought that was the choice.

Okay. But the problem is I'm going to a party in London, which sucks because it's cold and the women don't dress as slutty. So it's not nearly as good. It's like a giant tease.

I'm in Miami, but I can't be here for Halloween. Anyways. That would be perfect for Miami, but go ahead. Either Richard Simmons, but less powerful in London or the breakdancer from the Australian breakdancing team. That's sort of common. Let's think a little harder. We got to do better? Yeah.

I got to think. Got to do better? I can't beat Deadpool. I was a huge fan of Deadpool. You could go as Arnold Palmer's penis. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm.

Hmm. I have no response for that. Golf clothes. That's interesting. Shave your beard. Get real slick. Just saying. Yeah, you're not good at this.

You're not good at this. I think you should go as Arnold Palmer's penis. Anyways, if anyone has any ideas, what I should go as Halloween, Okay. Please send them in to Cara at VoxMedia.com. No, I was at a Halloween store with the kids this weekend because I have to go every weekend right now. And I found one costume I almost bought, which was a payphone costume. I almost bought it and then I just didn't. You were going to go as a payphone? I was going to go as a payphone.

I am a payphone. Get it? No one would recognize me. See? I'd blend in. They're like, what is that? Well, I'll think about it, but I think you should go as Arnold Palmer's penis. That's my choice. Okay? That's interesting. Anyway, Scott, that's the show. We'll be back on Friday with more. Why don't you read us out? Today's show is produced by Larry Naiman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie and her tot engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Mia Severo, and Dan Shulan. Nishat Kerouan 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 and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine at n1mag.com slash pod. We'll be back later this week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Cara, have a great rest of the week. Support for Pivot comes from Miro. While most CEOs believe innovation is the lifeblood of the future, only a few feel that their teams excel at innovation. The problem is once teams move from discovery to ideation to product development, outdated process management tools, context switching, team alignment, and constant updates massively slow the process. Now you can take a big step to solving these problems with

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