Pivot - Trump’s Strange Playlist, Kamala on Fox, and Elon’s Robot Fail

Episode Date: October 18, 2024

Kara and Scott discuss the latest from the campaign trail: VP Kamala Harris’s potential Joe Rogan appearance, former President Trump’s musical rally, and Elon Musk’s $75 million donation to his pro-Trump Super PAC. Plus, Elon’s big Cybercab reveal, Big Tech's nuclear energy buy-in, and a listener question on financial planning with a parent. Also, answer our listener poll on Threads, here! Follow us on Instagram and Threads at @pivotpodcastofficial. Follow us on TikTok at @pivotpodcast. Send us your questions by calling us at 855-51-PIVOT, or at nymag.com/pivot. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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AI requires a different approach to storage. Solidigm is ready for everything the AI era demands. Learn more at storageforai.com. You're real pretty. Your voice is pretty. Yeah, handsome voice. It's like when people meet me and they kind of cock their head and go like, oh, that's what you look like. Hi, everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast

Network. I'm Kara Swisher and I'm in Scott Galloway's living room. Oh, Kara, let's be honest. It's our living room at this point. It is. It's nice. Can you tell the people what you were just doing when I arrived and I had to sit in the foyer? Kara, I don't like to brag. You do. I just, you know, when I have a famous person over, I like to respect their privacy. I am now good, good friends with Jason Isaacs from The Patriot, the Harry Potter films. He's like one of those great Shakespearean British guys who's also quite handsome.

And delightful. And delightful. And delightful. You got to hang out with him. He had many a story, a very charming story. You're going out with him in London. Now you've made a new friend, a new famous friend.

I have made a new friend. Yeah. Like you were, you're going to be in that thing. Yeah, I'm really, I'm super excited. Of course, it's hilarious. My first kind of major

original scripted drama appearance is just my voice. Yeah, that's perfect. I don't know what to take from that. That's perfect. You're real pretty. Your voice is pretty. Yeah, handsome voice. It's like when people meet me and they kind of cock their head and go, oh. Yeah, right, because they know your voice.

I know. That's what you look like. I got it. We were talking about this. I've always looked at, I don't know, Hollywood and the industry, not askew, but you know, oh, anyone can do that. And I tried it and it was so hard and I was so bad at it. And they sent over Jason and he literally turned my chicken shit into chicken salad. And I just, I'm like intoxicated. This guy was so good. And so he gave me such great direction and told me what points to hit and set up scenarios. All right, this is, you know, imagine you just found out this. And like, I'm just totally blown away.

I've decided. You love it now. Oh, no. I need to be, I'm going to be Glupshido, the new character in Star Wars. Can you say what you're doing? Are you allowed to say what you're on? It's a voice. You play a voice over the phone.

Yeah, I don't. allowed to say what you're on? It's a voice. You play a voice over the phone. Yeah, I don't. I'll just say it's arguably one of the most popular original scripted dramas, and it's coming back for a new season. I don't know if I'm allowed to say anything. No, I think you're not, because I'm also in one that I taped, as you recall, in Los Angeles. Oh, you had to one-up me, didn't you? Well, I'm on camera. You had to one-up me. I had to join SAG, as you know, to do it. I'm on camera, and I play myself,

so that's a little easier for Kara Switchman. I gave my money to a Thai orphanage. So I don't have to. I'm serious. That's a true story. So I don't have to join a union. But they'd love to have me. They'd love to have me.

Can I just tell you, if you appear enough, you have to join SAG. And that will be a day where I will do a dance. Now I get it. You know what? You're going to get intoxicated. You're going to be on your own set of your show, and Rosamund Pike will go, Scott, we'd really like you to play yourself. I'm totally starstruck.

I'm like, in my trailer, I'm on Calla Lily's, Haribo gummies, starch, and some saran wrap. Right now. Okay. Right now. In any case, we are in New York. We had a beautiful event last night where Scott and I were interviewed by Joanna Coles at Zero Bond. That was fun. We're being very, like, we're having some good time.

We're just fucking fabulous. It was fabulous. After all this bullshit, you dealing with, I don't know, the McLaughlin Report and me dealing with clients and employees, we're like, these are our salad days. These are our salad days. It's true. And we had our staff over, all the staff from Prof G, from ON, and we want to thank them for their amazing work. And we had them all together and they asked us questions. Mostly, most of the time. I'm not sure I'd call it amazing.

Yeah. Okay. Good, you know, amazing-ish, amazing-ish. Amazing-ish. Anyway, we've been doing a lot. I'm very excited. I'm very excited. So my favorite question from last night, and I want you to repeat your answer. Okay. Mostly because then I want you to ask me. Why don't you just answer it? This really thoughtful young woman said, what is each of your purposes? Like, what is your goal now in life, Kara?

I didn't have one. I didn't have one. I'm doing exactly what I want. You didn't have one? That's why I don't have one. I didn't have one. I'm doing exactly what I want. That's why I don't remember. You really didn't have one? No, I was like, no, how do you find purpose? I was like, I love my work and I love my family. Oh, that's right.

You said that. I think that was it. I like what I'm doing. I don't have a worry about that. But you had a good answer. You need to do more ketamine and be more intentional. No, I don't say words like intentional intentional and that's why I'm happy. But what is your answer to that?

I said that I love what Richard Reeves said in Boys and Men about surplus value, about figuring out a way that you give more love than you take. You create more tax revenues than you've taken from the government. You know, you're better to your parents, which isn't easy, than they were to you over the course of their lifetime. I love just the idea of surplus value. It's totally- I love that. Yeah, it's fantastic. I think, quite frankly, that's how you become a man. And I tell this to my boys. Your school's spending a lot of time and energy on you. You're not giving anything back. Your parents are loving you more than you're loving us back. At some point, you're going to add surplus value. I love that notion. Also, for me, it was

sort of giving up the scorecard, if you will. I used to kind of mark all my relationships, and if I didn't feel I was getting more out of them, I would shed them or get upset, which is just stupid. It's a scarcity mentality, right? It's an idea. Well, yeah. It's not the way to live your life because you'll always inflate your own contributions and deflate other people's. It's a terrible way to live your life. It was a big unlock for me, which is kind of similar thing. And then when I did my ketamine therapy, and I knew this, but I came out of it,

and I just sort of clarified, and I guess I didn't clarify, but just cemented the notion that I'm supposed to, my mission now is to raise patriotic, loving boys. That's my mission. I think that's every parent's mission, is to raise really healthy, wonderful citizens. And give care of your apartment now. I think it's time that you turn it over to me. That almost came in second, but it was third. I feel like if you want to be

a giver of cornucopia and of boundlessness, you should sign this apartment over to me. You've been here every day. I think you're here more than I am. I know that. You're very generous. You're a very generous man. Thank you for saying that. But we've been here every day. I think you're here more than I am. I know that. You're very generous. You're a very generous man. Thank you for saying that. But we've had a good time. I love spending time with you, Scott. I do.

It's really enjoyable. We laugh. We have a lot of laughs. I'm coming to London next week, but you're not going to be there. I'm not. I'm not. Can I go over your house

and look at your things? As if you were going to ask. Yeah. No, I'm going to call your wife. Is she there? No, she's off partying, isn't she? Yeah, no, she's in Miami

at some music festival in her, this arrested adolescence phase that I think she's going to grow out of in about 30 or 40 years. Oh, your wife is fun. With all of her hot Florida friends who are also going through this. I used to be, I used to be hot and now my eggs are dying. I need to try every drug and go to every. You're not a party. You're not a music festival kind of guy oh my god i went three years ago and i'm like and and i went and saw rufus de sol first off i was literally like you know i'm here to pick up my daughter or my granddaughter right right and two it was crowded and all i could think about this is how you think when you get old i'm like what if there's a fire what's the yeah what's my exit plan what's the exit route that's how you think when you're older i'm like if i slipped

and broke a hip right now would anyone even notice it's route? That's how you think when you're older. I'm like, if I slipped and broke a hip right now, would anyone even notice? It's true. Yeah, that's how you think. Yeah. Anyway, I think you have a good time. I do my drugs at home and I turn on Spotify. That's my music festival. I think you have a good time.

I think you were actually happy last night, which I really like. I didn't know you were happy. Yeah, I had a great time. You're very smiling. Anyway, we've got a lot to get to today besides us being personally happy and joining the Hollywood ranks, including Kamala Harris's Fox News interview, which was last night, Donald Trump's disturbing dance party, if that's what you want to call it, and Elon Musk's RoboTaxi event that was basically smoke mirrors and fake robots. Let's get to it. I heard you first.

We discussed this yesterday. I heard you have an update. Your apology to Dax Shepard that I suggested you do. Oh, we're back to our star fucking. No, no, but this was it. People are, many people ask me about this on the street. This is important? The Dax Shepard situation.

Yeah. My testicles finally descended and I sent him a text apologizing and he was incredibly gracious and generous back. And he didn't say, though, no problem, I'll come back on your podcast. He won't. We want to have you back on the podcast. He was very gracious, very polite, but that's it.

I'm out of Dax's life. You know why? What did I tell you? Why did he not offer something in return? Why, Kara? Because you're on a lower shelf. That's literally my new nickname, lower shelf. People are going to start coming up to me

and going, hey, LS. He commented he's not higher. Oh, did he comment saying he's not on a higher shelf? No, really? Well, that's what a higher shelf person would do. Oh, he's commenting back. Oh, yeah. He's on a higher shelf. Dax, I'm sorry. Plus, now your wife's in like the hottest sitcom. You're on a way higher shelf now. You've moved up. Your wife has moved you up a shelf. People love that. No one wanted this. Is that what it's called? People love it. Nobody wants this. It's great. I watched the whole season.

You have to watch it. There's problems, but it's funny. It makes you feel good. You should watch it. It's great. And Adam Brody is a dreamy man, I have to say. He plays a hot rabbi. Yeah, George Hahn's cousin, Catherine Hahn, played a hot rabbi in Transparent.

She is. And she's on a show, too. She's on one. Oh, she's huge. Yeah. She's like the character actor of all character actors. Now she's a lead in a new Marvel too. She's on one. Oh, she's huge. Yeah. She's like the character actor of all character actors. Now she's a lead in a new Marvel thing. She's blown up.

She's a bad witch. She's a bad witch. But who's trying to be good, but not really. But anyway, Dax, thank you for being so polite. Thank you, Dax. That's what a higher shelf person would say, but indeed you are. So this is interesting. Big tech is going all in on nuclear energy. I've talked about this for AI.

This week, both Google and Amazon have announced they're investing in new generation of small nuclear reactors. Remember, we keep talking about this, these small nuclear devices that people are going to have. Follows Microsoft's recent move to revive the Three Mile Island nuclear plant. That's a move. They must really need energy. Are you surprised they're all doing this? They've just decided to revive nuclear. They have decided. Look, if the choke point, it appears, is not demand, it's not applications for AI, the choke point is supposedly the incremental demand and power consumption. And if you think about, so nuclear right now provides nearly half of America's clean energy. It's one of the most reliable energy sources in America. It doesn't need to be windy. The sun doesn't need to be out. It's also, in case we haven't forgotten here, in case we don't remember, it's carbon-free. And every year I pick a technology of the year in my predictions. In 2022, I picked AI. In 2023, I picked GLP-1. Spoiler alert, for 2025, it's absolutely nuclear. And if you want reliable, serious, efficient energy that has no carbon footprint, and let me just remind everyone again, my favorite bumper sticker, more people have died

in Ted Kennedy's car than in a nuclear power plant in the United States. It all roads lead to one place, and that is nuclear. And the innovation here because of people, the capital pouring in, I think big techs, I think it's going to be great that big techs going into this. Bill Gates is a big, yeah. I did an interview with him where he talked about it just recently and then a couple of years ago. And then oddly enough, I did an interview with Oliver Stone, who's really into this nuclear energy, which was odd. He's still odd. He has a bunch of conspiracy theories. He wanders around and spews every now and then. But he had done a whole documentary on this. And Sam Altman's very invested in, I think it's called Helion. All kinds of different efforts happening here. It definitely got bad PR. That was Oliver Stone's thing. And when I did these interviews at the time, this was three years ago maybe, when I was doing my New York Times podcast, I got so much pushback from people. And Stone was making the point that it got bad PR because of movies, Hollywood. Worst branding in history. And the new generation are different. They're not going to see those sort of menacing looking towers, although I'd be interested to see what they do at Three Mile Island. But the new technology around them is really quite interesting. And it's an important thing to invest in because, as Gates says, you know, solar isn't going to make it. Wind isn't going to make it. Recycling isn't going to make it.

We're going to need a number of things. And now with these huge pulls on the energy grid because of AI, that's another thing. And it's great. Let the tech companies pay for it. That sounds good to me. First off, I remember I grew up in Southern California. And when I was learning how to surf, some of the surfers used to go, I think it was San Onofre, because they use water to cool the reactors. And so there was so much hot water that there was a part of the ocean that was actually warm. And it's not dangerous water. It's just water that's been heated. And there's no free lunch.

There are, quote unquote, waste or emissions. And it's spent nuclear fuel. But you could take all of the nuclear fuel and it would be, you could put it in a container that would cover one football field and be 30 feet high. That is the total. Now, granted, you don't want to get near that shit. It needs to be secure. It's not going to be not scary for, you know, thousands of years. But it's one football field, 30 feet high.

That's the total emissions. I'm so into nuclear. You know what we should do? We should have Elon stop focusing on the election and take it in one of his rockets and bring it to Mars. I think that's a great idea. What? Take what? Take the nuclear stuff and bring it to Mars.

Take the waste. Take the nuclear stuff and bring it to Mars? Take it into space. Yeah. I mean. I don't know how you're squaring that circle. I don't know what's going on there. What is that?

I just think I'm trying to think of a way to dispose of it. Not on this earth. Oh, I see. Take it somewhere else. I'm way ahead of you. Oh, you are wayaring that circle. I don't know what's going on there. What is that? I just think I'm trying to think of a way to dispose of it, not on this earth. Oh, I see. Take it somewhere else. I'm way ahead of you. Oh, you are way ahead of me. Obviously smarter. I'm an actor. You're an actor now. You're not so smart. You're pretty. Anyway, last thing,

Anthropic CEO wants you to know that AI will change our lives. This is a company that's a little less positive about AI and was more, it was started by people who were worried about safety. But Dario Amode, who is another well-known figure, has released an essay titled Machines of Loving Grace, laying out a utopian view of AI's impact, which was interesting. In the essay, Amode suggested AI could accelerate 100 years of medical process, something we talk about a lot, making it possible in just 100 days, cure mental illness and alleviate poverty. about a lot, making it possible in just 100 days to cure mental illness and alleviate poverty. The CEO says the powerful AI could come as early as 2026, and that there are also ways it could take much longer. It's really interesting because I've had conversations with, as I said, Bill Gates, Yuval Harari, with Meredith Whitaker this week, who runs Signal, about the utopia of AI on with Karis Fisher. But we also have to be realistic about the dangers.

Let's listen to a recent interview I did with Yuval Harari, the author, who both Scott and I have a great regard for. What is AI? Why is it dangerous? What is the threat? And a lot of people

have difficulty grasping it. It's not like nuclear weapons. Right. That the danger was obvious and nuclear war, which will just kill everybody. What's the danger in AI? And I think one of the key issues in the conversation about AI is to explain that it's not about the big robot rebellion,

it's more about the AI bureaucrats. It will take the world from within, and not by rebelling from outside or from below. I mean, AIS, it's not a general intelligence, but it doesn't need to be. Within a bureaucracy, you need a very kind of neuro-intelligence to gain enormous power. He had some really interesting thoughts that went off in different directions. I saw this play this week in New York, McNeil, with Robert Downey Jr., which also covers the issues around AI. But Dario doing this is really interesting because he's sort of been more of the alarm raisers. But might it have anything to do with Anthropic hoping to raise funds at $40 billion valuation? Tell me what you think's happening here. Well, I'm really betting or

hoping that Anthropic does well. First off, Anthropic, we might as well call it Amazon AI. It's just hilarious, all these sub-brands, in an attempt to distract the FTC and the DOJ from the fact that it's the same players. There is the new duopoly forming, and that is OpenVidya is what I call it. So anyone that's a challenger to either of those firms is good, I think, for the ecosystem and the economy. And the way I use AI is I use it as a thought partner. So if I'm writing- And you use Claude from Anthropo. I use ChatGPT and Claude.

Right. Okay. And why wouldn't you? It doesn't make any sense to me that someone would just use one or the other, because if I'm writing something and I think, okay, give me, I mean, I will absolutely, you know, we're doing character development for this original scripted drama. And I'm thinking, okay, this character needs some hobbies to add some texture to their personality. And I'll put in the character. I'll do everything. I'll say this is, I'll even describe that, you know, what the original scripted program is about, everything.

I'll say, give me some, give me some interesting hobbies that would be, feel real for someone in this position, but add some flavor and unexpected. And I'll come back with eight hobbies and five of them make no sense. Two of them are fine. And you think one, you're like, wow, that's great. That you wouldn't have thought of. Yeah. And then I go to cloud or chat GPT and I type in the exact same prompt to see what it

thinks. So why not have one thought partner? Why have two? And also in an indirect way, indirect way, and I don't like to do this very often, but I'm going to bring this back to me. back to me. Anthropic is my best investment of 2024 because I'm fascinated with bankruptcy filings. See above losses, virginity at 19. And I looked at the bankruptcy filing for FTX, and it listed all the assets. And it said, they have some shit coins, have some Bitcoin, have a little bit of cash. And one of their assets was, it said Anthropic shares. And I couldn't figure out how much. All it said was they had invested a half a billion dollars in Anthropic, I think somewhere between three and four years ago. And I thought, okay, realistically, they probably own 10% of Anthropic, or basically FTX has 10% of Anthropic as part of their asset base.

And I thought Anthropic is probably worth $30 to $40 billion, meaning that the $9 billion in claims against FTX, a bankrupt FTX, 30 to 40 cents on the dollar were just in Anthropic shares. So I went out, and when I went out, you could buy claims against a bankrupt FTX for 22 cents. And I thought there's at least 22 cents worth of anthropic shares here for the debtors or for the claimants. And I made my, what is probably my biggest investment of 2024. And fast forward, it's always great to talk about your wins. I also got the shit kicked out of me on a healthcare startup, so I lose money all the time. But anyways, these claims now are worth 120 to 140 cents on the dollar and it all started with Anthropic.

Yeah. You talked about that. I'm glad you disclosed that, by the way. By the way, me, 16. Okay. Me, 16? I don't get it. 15. 15. Anyway. 15 what? what i don't understand you talked about when you lost your virginity oh god 15 16 i didn't care i was a lesbian i didn't care if i slept man it would get i didn't have to give them blowjobs i didn't find any of these like fun loving lesbians in high school i was unusual i was unusual i didn't want to give people blowjobs because i thought that was repulsive and so i would sleep sleep with them. Thank you. Find a lesbian. That's what you needed to do. Anthropic was sort of the, there's all these safety, like the guy who left Ilya, left OpenAI, you know, others involved in safety are pushing that. And Anthropic was that company of people that were much more dreamy about the idea that we keep everything safe and that Sam Altman was rushing too hard to commercialization. And that's precisely what they're doing, right? Correct? In a capitalist society where your kids are going to have more opportunity, you're going to live

longer, less likely to be depressed, less likely to be obese, have a much, much larger selection set of mates, and people will laugh at your jokes if you have a lot of money, the incentive in America all points to one thing. It's not be a good person. It's not think about the Commonwealth. one thing. It's not be a good person. It's not think about the Commonwealth. It's do whatever you need to do or say to get the price of the shares and the equity value up. And all you need to do, if you want to understand why corporations are making the decisions they're making or why a CEO is saying anything or why David Zaslav is at the U.S. Open with Tom Cruise, probably hoping to sign him up for some sort of movie deal with HBO or Warner. Or Elon Musk also.

All you need to do is reverse engineer to the money. And the notion that these guys, even Volvo, who generally wants a safer car, they do it because they realize there's demand and people will pay incremental margin for an underpowered car. But why do they have to go on about Sam Altman's, in a recent blog post, suggesting superintelligence? They really are selling it with massive prosperity, which I prefer. I have to say, I prefer Sam Altman's version because at least he's being honest,

like we're going to make some dough here. I find it irritating all these people that say, safety, safety, safety worries. And then the minute they need to make money, they go right to the money, which I don't mind if that's what they say. I just don't want to listen to them yammer on about how great it's going to be for all of us when you know it's going to be great for them and maybe for us. Yeah, I think the wrap should be our focus is on for-profit. We think this, like anything,

will have, any technology is going to have a ton of upside. It'll also have some externalities. And we're, you know, genuine about trying to work with government. And they all say this, and it's a lie, but we're trying to be thoughtful about the potential harms here. That's the best they could do, but they're not. They're going to always, look, when you're paid not to understand something, it's really easy to not understand it. The CEOs of tobacco companies could just never make the link between nicotine and addiction or between combustibles and lung cancer. Despite evidence everywhere, the thought that we were going to try and get them to realize that the CEO of Exxon is ever going to come to grips with the existential crisis of climate change. No one at his funeral is going to say, you know, he was the CEO of the biggest fossil fuels company in the

world, but he choked back on it and shareholders lost money. But maybe the world is one millionth of a degree cooler than it would be otherwise. All they're going to remember is if he was a generous guy and if he had a fat house and his kids did well, every incentive in our economy points towards money. I find it irritating they have to always go with utopia. Like, it's going to be so good for everyone. And I think it probably will be. I just am like, stop selling past the sale, I guess. We're connecting the world.

Yes, just like you're making money, right? Okay, got it. Organizing the Earth's information. Yeah, exactly. Like, you're not here to don't be evil. Stop it. Stop it. They can't help themselves, these tech people. Anyway, let's get to our first big story.

Vice President Kamala Harris appears to be taking our advice. I'm sure she's listening to everything we say. As her media blitz continues, Harris' campaign officials met with Joe Rogan's team this week about a potential interview, although, because he's such a doormat, it's perfect to go on there. Although an appearance has yet to be confirmed. Doormat? You really think he's a doormat? I think he's gullible. Oh, he's just like, whatever someone says, he's like, oh, interesting.

He'll just be complimented that they're there. Donald Trump also hinted at doing Rogan. On Wednesday, Harris, why wouldn't they? It's enormous. That's why she did

Call Your Daddy. On Wednesday, Harris sat down with Fox News's Brett Baer. Another thing we suggested she do, and in fact, things got heated. Brett was trying to be Mr. Tough, I guess, and did a few Republican talking points and talked over her quite a bit. I thought he needed to, I know what he was trying to do, but he didn't, he looked like he was super nervous. Harris pushed back. It gave her an opportunity to push back against some right-wing talking points and also tried to make the case for why Trump is so dangerous. Let's listen. You and I both know that he has talked about turning the American military on the American people. He has talked

about going after people who are engaged in peaceful protest. He has talked about locking people up because they disagree with him. This is a democracy. And in a democracy, the president of the United States in the United States of America should be willing to be able to handle criticism without saying he'd lock people up for doing it. Yeah, I thought she was quite strong. Her answers on immigration were OK, but she was there. She did say her presidency would be different than Biden's, which is what she didn't manage to do on The View, which I think people want her to do it in a deft way without throwing him under the bus. So do you think she succeeded in winning over any right-wing voters? I thought going there was a good thing. And it's not, you know, I was on CNN

last night and Scott Jennings, who can be super irritating, although isn't stupid, was like, well, she doesn't get a participation trophy. And I almost. She kind of does. She does. She kind of does, Scott. She kind of does. Because he's not. That's right.

And also, guess what she didn't do? Spend 30 minutes swaying to music playing Ave Maria three times. God, that was weird. So she didn't do that. And so, you know, they grade her on such a curve compared to him. He literally is addled. No comparison. And at the economics club, he spewed nonsense.

I thought this was a win for her. And I thought it's good that she does. She should do it again. She should do it over and over again, everywhere. Yeah, look, just being there. If you want to be part of the resistance, you have to go behind enemy lines. And if you're good at this, it goes. I mean, the best moments for Clinton or for Governor Newsom are when they go on Fox because they can. Yeah, and Pete the best you have. And he's back in their face with it. And I thought she was okay. I think on the whole, it was a win for her. Like, she's not great on her feet. And sometimes her words come across. And I want to be clear,

she is held to an entirely different standard than Trump. Well, because she can string a sentence together, but go ahead. Well, and all that. I mean, the reality is we, I'm going to go there. It's just a different standard for a woman. A woman is, if she was hallucinating on stage and said, oh, we're going to listen to this song and set up their swang for 30 minutes,

it'd be, everyone would just be like, oh, she's crazy. She's not a serious candidate. We can't vote for her. I thought it was good that she went on, She's not a serious candidate we can't vote for. I thought it was good that she went on, but this will be the election of the podcast because if she goes on Joe Rogan,

which I think she's going to do, she will reach more people by being on Rogan than she would reach if she went on CNN, Fox, MSNBC, in primetime combined. He gets 11 million listeners per show. Go on all those shows every day of the week for a full week. Not as many people will see you as if you go on Joe Rogan. She also has to go on everything. I think she'll get better as she does it, right? Everybody gets better as they do things. We got better at this podcast as we did it, right? And I do think once, you know, interestingly, after the debate, even my mom was like, oh, she was pretty good. Like, they just need to-Trump people, by the way, women, not one detractor. He also had a bizarre, this bizarre

event on Monday where he had enough of answering questions, of which we're all pre-selected, by the way. It was 39 minutes. They replayed Ave Maria, which the last time I heard it was at my grandmother's funeral. I'm sorry for your loss. Thank you. It was like 30 years ago. That's the trauma. We figured it out. That's the trauma. Trauma. I know. Ave Maria. I cannot believe he played it three times. Governor Tim Walz summed it up pretty well. Let's listen. He stopped taking questions and stood frozen on stage for 30 minutes while they played his Spotify list to people. Do you think he knows the story behind the YMCA song? Look, it was strange, but if this was your grandfather, you would take the keys away.

You would take the keys away. You would take the keys away. Yeah, and Kristi Noem looked like a home health aide. She looked like she needed to find a dog to kill to take the attention off of him. Some people have dismissed this stuff as silly or weird. I find it concerning. Reuters has polling on whether people believe Trump is, quote, mentally sharp and able to deal with challenges. 53% of voters agreed with that sentiment in July of 2023. That number is down to 46% as of last week. People are sort of getting the message. What do you think about his, you know,

she could always have done better, but she could string sentences together and go, you know, mano a mano with Brett. He had a very hard time in all his interviews having any cogent sentences. How do you, you think this matters? Has it gotten through quickly enough? I think the Trump campaign believes that as of right now they would win and they're playing defense. I mean, they're, Susie Wiles, the brains behind all of this. I think she's basically said, look, we have momentum right now. Just put him in a basement. Don't let him speak. And he's kind of gotten the message. He doesn't go free for him. He doesn't want to answer questions. He's trying to avoid anything. I think at this point in the campaign, it's a strategic mistake. The way you lose in football

in the second half, if you're up 2-0, is you play not to lose. And he's playing, I think right now, he's playing not to lose. I think she's doing absolutely the right thing. I'd like to think, and again, I won't speak for you. I'm too close to lose. I think she's doing absolutely the right thing. I'd like to think, and again, you know, I won't speak for you. I'm too close to this. I'm too emotionally involved in it. But I think where the next two or three weeks are going to really help is, one, I do think money helps in terms of turn out the vote in a ground game, and she has more money. And two, I think her team of surrogates, whether it's Bill Clinton and Waffle Houses or Barack Obama speaking to black men, I think her surrogates are more powerful.

But it's very interesting. The momentum has swung back pretty aggressively towards Trump over the last two weeks. I'll be curious what happens this week in the ultimate litmus test. In my opinion, the only poll I'm watching, the only poll I trust is the stock price of Donald Trump media. I don't. I think it's all gamed, along with Polly Market, which is controlled by Peter Thiel, by the way, FYI. Well, it's pretty interesting. It was at 46 when, you know, after the Biden debate, when everyone thought he was still going to stay in, and then when he dropped out of the race, and Vice President Harris got some momentum, it plummeted to 12. And in the last two weeks, since he's sort of reestablished some momentum, it's now back up to like 34. It doesn't mean that it's not bound in truth.

I think they're confident, and that is absolutely true. That said, he was at Univision last night, and Scott, this audience, was subject to him. He's gone out. He's not in a basement, that's for sure. He's around. Grandpa is wandering around saying weird things. He was on Univision. Go watch some of those clips.

One guy, he said, January 6th was a gathering of love. He started going on about immigrants. When a guy asked, I got to tell you the questions from this, I think it was a largely Hispanic audience, were great. They were like, okay, you're going to get rid of all these immigrants. Who's going to pick my crops? Like I pick crops for years. You're going to make prices go up.

And they had great, one was like, I'm sorry, I'm a Republican, but what is going on with you on January 6th? You need to stop. He had all kinds of nonsensical questions. And when he did that January 6th was a gathering of love, literally the whole crowd was, you know when you look down when an old person pees in their pants, you're like, everybody doesn't want to say anything. That's what the whole crowd was looking down anywhere but at him. And they were concerned. Like, this guy needs to be taken off stage because he needs to have his diaper changed. And that's what it felt like.

The more he's out, the more it's dead clear he's mentally incapacitated or increasingly. So, I'm not so sure I believe in the Trump stock thing. I think they're confident. I think it's misplaced confidence because I do think this crowd was fascinating to watch them react to him. And the same thing at the Economic Club. Anywhere he goes, he's addled. He's just addled. Anyway, what he's not addled about is he would quote, he would do something about Google in an interview with Bloomberg's editor-in-chief, which I was talking about.

something about Google in an interview with Bloomberg's editor-in-chief, which I was talking about. Trump was asked about the DAO's recent proposal to possibly break up Google, which he initially responded with a rant about a lawsuit against Virginia election officials. When pressed again, Trump called the company a threat and that without breaking Google up, things could be more fair. This is, again, he threatened Mark Zuckerberg. You know, he said Google has to be careful. It will shut down. He will shut it down. J.D. Vance is making things up, whole cloth, saying that he has now said the election was stolen and that the tech companies colluded to do so without any proof. And also, actually, the Twitter files show that it didn't do what all the right-wing said it did. But he's doubling down on just flat- out lying, J.D. Vance.

So what should tech companies do? Because at one point, they're all up in the grill of tech. And at the same time, J.D. Vance is like sleeping with all of them. I mean, not really, I don't think. But anyway.

Yeah, look, the whole thing, it's just so hilarious that a far right talking point is that they're being censored and that, you know, censorship and Senator Vance's go to in terms of a weapon mass distraction when asked about January 6th is like, will you admit that the media has been censoring Donald Trump and censored Donald, you know, censored information, suppressed information about what was on Hunter Biden's laptop in an attempt to go, look over here, I don't want to actually answer this question. This censorship thing, the closest thing we have to really broad sweeping censorship is when the person running for president has said, I'm going to shut down Google because I don't like what they've said about me. They've been unfair to me. They've been very unfair. All the articles, like all the articles, 40 of them are negative. I said, that's because you're a jerk.

But isn't that the definition of censorship? That I am using the power of my office to try and intimidate media companies? No one's calling that censorship. So we've just entered this weird phase where I have a view of his disruption and chaos. I want to burn government down. I am sick of a group of people consistently telling me lies, the establishment, whether it's Liz Cheney or the Democrats. I'm sick of the establishment. I see prosperity everywhere. I don't seem to be participating in it. I'm not going to marry this guy. He's not going to be my rabbi, but I like his no-nonsense, hard-charging right. They think he's better on economics. They think he's better on the border, whether you think that's true or not. And they're just now, he's flooded the zone with so much crazy shit

that people just are immune to it. It's a very, I've never seen anything like it. I don't know. It's lie after lie. And now J.D. Vance is the most heinous liar. He's a liar. He, to me, is the most frightening figure here. Because I think Trump is mentally disabled. And I think they're going to, I would watch my back if I were Trump if I won this election. I'll tell you that. Of course, the CEO who's not worried is Elon Musk. We're learning more about his donations he made to the pro-Trump super PAC he created earlier this year. Although I heard it's like a hot mess over there, as I'm hoping he'll do to Trump what he did to Twitter as revenues. He's given nearly $75 million to that super PAC, which is not very much for him since July,

according to recent FEC's fines, but it matters a great deal. This money is important. He's also threatening to go to Pennsylvania and do his own things because he's a pathetic attention sponge. How much impact do you think this has? This is a lot of money for Trump. Yeah, but to be fair, I mean, these people are allowed to get money and we have our big donors, right?

We have Reid Hoffman. We have- Vinod Khosla. Yeah, Khosla, Gates. Bill Gates. Sheryl Sandberg. Yeah. No, I get it.

Reid Hastings. I don't think Sheryl's giving that much money, but- I think she is secretly, but go ahead. Is she? I'm surprised she doesn't have a picture with her and a big check. And anyways, we have our big donors. They have theirs. And Trump or Musk is one of them. You know,

that's fine. I don't see that he's allowed to do it. We have our big donors, they have theirs. You mentioned that last night, which I thought was the idea of someone asked about how do we get them to pass legislation? And Scott immediately was like, overturn Citizens United and get money out of politics and pay politicians more. Just illuminate us on that very quickly, the idea that you were saying. Well, look, Citizens United, the idea that money is people and has a voice, we don't believe that in other nations. There's government matching for elections such that good people who spent the majority of their life in public service who don't happen to be rich have a shot at running. They don't allow political ads before a certain time. I mean,

keep in mind, the UK has an election start to finish in about four weeks. And I actually think it's good for the nation because all we do for 18 months is figure out how much we hate our neighbors and how much they hate us. It's just bad for America. So if there was any way to overturn Citizens United, that would be the start. And then when I heard this about, because I have a fairly positive view of Mayor Adams, I don't know much about him. Oof, I'm so anxious, but go ahead. And it's over plane tickets and hotel stays sponsored by from the government of Turkey in exchange for him expediting fire safety, putting pressure on fire safety commissioners to approve the fire safety infrastructure at the I think it was the Turkish embassy. And it's like, Jesus Christ, such small ball. The problem is that's something politicians do every day, but you're not supposed to do it from a foreign agent or foreign entity. That's where he's getting into trouble.

And I thought, this is all a function of the following. When our elected representatives are hanging out with billionaires and hanging out at the most beautiful venues, but they're having trouble, it's not easy for them to pay their credit card bills. A lot of Congress people actually have roommates because they can't afford a second place to live in DC. And by the way, Nancy Pelosi can trade fucking stocks after confidential hearings with defense contractors. That makes no fucking sense. Yeah, I agree. Pay them more. I think we pay our Congress people a million bucks a year and we pay our senators two million bucks a year because these people are important. Most of them are very qualified, very esteemed, have a ton of opportunity costs. So pay them well.

I'm curious, Scott, what would you ask for for a bribe from Turkey? I would not ask for a plane ticket. What would you ask for? I would ask for great seats to the European Championship in Istanbul with my son. That's all it would take? And then I'd want to go up to Bosphorus. I'd want to party with some hot Turkish chicks on the roof of the Soho House, Istanbul, which is the old American embassy. I can come up with a lot. I can come up with a lot. Yeah, I know. I felt like he didn't ask for enough. If he's going to go for bribery and get in trouble.

Yeah, look. Eric. No, I felt like he didn't ask for enough. If he's going to go for bribery and get in trouble. Yeah, look. Eric. Whatever we talk, whatever Vox asks us to do anything, we're like, oh, we'll do it. But it's going to cost you.

We're whores, but we're expensive whores. That's correct. I was like, Eric, come on. You're such a cheap. Like, if you're getting bribed a plane ticket. If you're going to sell out, get a jet, get a golf string. A plane ticket. Like, really?

In a hotel? Go New Jersey Senator. What that, that, get gold bars. Yeah. That, yeah, yeah. Anyway, they're cheap. I love that. They're cheap horse. The guy had gold bars in his closet.

Oh, I love a gold, I bet you have gold bars here. Oh, no, I'm innocent. Do you have gold bars here? No, I don't have any gold bars, but I always, I always travel with a rough cut gem stuck up my ass. More for sensory pleasure. I think you have gold. I'm going to look around for gold bars later.

Okay. No gold bars. Scott, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, we'll discuss Elon's robot taxi event where not everything was what it seemed. And take a listener mail question about facing financial challenges with a parent. Support for Pivot comes from Greenlight. The school year is already underway and you've probably done all the back-to-school shopping

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steering wheel and pedals, costing $30K, if it's ever made. Elon said the car would be in production before 2027, but acknowledged, I tend to be a little optimistic. Yes, he's been predicting cyber taxis since a decade ago, I guess, full self-driving, et cetera. He also, including to me in many interviews, he also unveiled another vehicle, the RoboVan, which he called the RoboVan for some reason. Let's let him explain. What happens if you need a vehicle that is bigger than a Model Y? The RoboVan. The RoboVan is, this is, we're going to make this, and it's going to look like that. Now, can you imagine going down the streets and you see this coming to war too? That'd be sick.

Actually, the Robovan looked like a lot of stuff in iRobot and the director complained it looked exactly like it. It also said he had 20 seats, it had 14. It was ridiculous. It looked like a giant toaster on wheels. He's never going to make it. Elon was pushing Tesla. I will bet a lot ofaster on wheels. He's never going to make it. Elon was pushing Tesla. I will bet a lot of money on that. Elon was also pushing Tesla's Optimus robots, which you predict could be the biggest product ever of any kind. But he neglected to mention that robots at the event were actually remotely controlled by humans, so not much better than Disney robots, not at all

better than Disney robots nearby where this event was at Warner Studios in Los Angeles. It wasn't a game changer. Obviously, one of the things he forgot to leave out is Waymo has been operating in the streets of many, many cities for a long time. Shares of Uber went up. And by the way, Uber might buy Expedia, which Dara Kostushahi used to run, but that's an aside. And even if Tesla actually delivers on technology, will you actually be able to buy these things? What's the business? I think, and then meanwhile, let me just say in a compliment, and I think this is Gwen Shotwell. That's who I'm going to compliment.

They managed to bring a rocket down, a big giant booster down and catch it with two chopsticks, essentially. Amazing. And meanwhile, he does this P.T. Barnum bullshit. Talk about what's happening here. It's such, I mean, it's so bipolar in terms of behavior. Yeah, but I'm glad you brought that up because in the same week, it, let's be honest, that was just remarkable that it could launch its Starship vehicle, the largest rocket and the largest booster rocket ever, and then caught its super heavy booster rocket back on the launch pad. Literally caught it with, as you said, these giant chops. I mean, that's just

unbelievable. Yep. Gwen Shotwell, good job. It is clear he has basically no longer really cares about Tesla because did you listen to him speaking? He clearly hadn't rehearsed. No, not at all. He didn't know what he was talking about. And it reminded me of the following. I once heard, I wasn't invited, but I met this really nice woman who was marrying this famous kind of celebrity chef. They rented out this incredible destination, the hotels, the flowers. Everyone shows up, 300 guests. And the groom was a no-show.

What? Oh, I so much want to go to a wedding like that. Oh, God. I think it sounded pretty depressing. Anyways, but, you know, we're all here. We've rented the place. We got to have a party. So they ended up having a party.

This, to me, was they rented this whole thing. They've been telling their analysts they were going to have a day and update them. And they had literally nothing to say. They did have the vehicle there, the cyber taxi. It looked cool, or a robo taxi. The design looked great, but he gave no specifics around details, around technology, around timeline. He even said, what was most telling, he said, we expect this to be in full production by 2025. And then there was a pause and he goes, maybe 2026. You're just making it up, yeah. Every auto analyst worth their salt said this was such bullshit.

And I think they knew they had a turd on their hands. So they said, I know we'll create weapons of mass distraction. They basically had a concept car, this Reboven. If you go to any auto show- They're never going to make it, and it's a Lyft. It was on a fake soundstage, and it's a fake thing. It's fake. Look over here, because the main event is such a turd,

we have to distract people. If you go to an auto show, there's crazy cool concept cars everywhere that will never see the light of day, and that's the Reboven. And then he said, I know, let's have robots, which is a technology in search of, and then these quote unquote autonomous robots

that can watch your kids and make you dinner. And it ends up there were people in the audience with remote controls controlling the robots. The biggest tell here was he didn't even know his lines. He hadn't read his lines. And so what was really interesting is the market. And again, the thing I love about stock prices is they're an incredible form of media in the sense that they absorb millions of points of life from people who have nothing but a profit motive, usually. And if you look at what happened, everyone was really freaked out

that this might be the end of Uber and Lyft. If all of a sudden there's a million autonomous cars on the road competing with ride-hailing companies, Uber and Lyft. As soon as that event happened, the next day, every analyst went, oh God, nothing to worry about here. This is not a threat to Uber and Lyft. And their stocks are up 11% and 10% respectively. So the market has weighed in here and said, this is a big head fake. And again, Tesla at eight or nine times revenues versus Toyota that is now growing as fast. Amazing company. Has guessed right on hybrids or planned right, is trading at I, 0.8 or 0.9 times revenue. So either

Toyota is vastly undervalued or Tesla is vastly overvalued. But this was the worst product launch. In the same week, we had one of the most amazing product de-launches or launch captures, and the worst product launch all from the same man. I thought it was fascinating. It was fascinating. I'm literally, because he's spending all his time either jumping on stages and doing political stuff, or he doesn't care about Tesla. And everything they introduced is already in the field by other companies. And he would have to really focus here. I don't think he could do it, although he's been lying about autonomous college for years and years. I like that he even lies.

I don't even care. He's sort of like, it's a hope and a dream. I do that sometimes. Like, I'm going to do this. I don't mind that, but he's constantly now saying things that just aren't true. I'm going to have two kids at 60. That's right. That's correct.

I did say that to myself, and then it happened. So I don't even mind that. I love how you just figured out that you're going to be really old. When they go to college. When they go happened. So I don't even mind that. I love how you just figured out that you're going to be really old when they go to college. It's like, you assumed you were going to go into a cryogenic chamber. Well, I'm like Elon in that way. Hope and a dream, Scott. Hope and a dream. But I'll be living at this beautiful apartment that you're now going to sign over to me. Anyway, it's all one floor. It means I don't won't fall too hard and break my hip. All right. Let's, whatever. Good job on the rocket, Gwynne Shotwell.

Oh, my God. She's amazing. She's amazing. Gwynne Shotwell. We need to focus on Gwynne Shotwell all the time. And it'll drive him crazy. He'll end up firing her because she's a really great operator. And over at Tesla, I think he hired his chief of staff who helped him with that weird glass thing.

Like everybody left Tesla recently and now he's putting all these lackeys into place. Anyway, um, you're right. He's, he doesn't care about Tesla anymore. I just imagine him walking around going, Hey, you want to have kids? Hey, Hey, want to propagate? Okay, Scott, let's pivot to a listener question. Want to propagate? Okay, Scott, let's pivot to a listener question.

This question comes via email. I'll read it. Hi, Cara and Scott. Big fan of the podcast and would love your insights on a financial challenge with a parent. How do you approach financial planning with a parent who is increasingly keen on betting against the U.S. economy, influenced by questionable sources and conspiracy theories, basically anything but mainstream media? My mom is particularly bullish on gold, convinced that the U.S. dollar, influenced by questionable sources and conspiracy theories, basically anything but mainstream media. My mom is particularly bullish on gold, convinced that the U.S. dollar

is on the verge of collapse. I strive to listen and offer data-driven advice, but I'm concerned that if I challenge her beliefs too directly, it will push her further towards those ideas. How can I communicate

that the U.S. economy isn't on the brink of implosion without alienating her? Thank you, Nikki from Texas. Oh, man. Scott. Oh, I don't know. Get control of her stuff, I guess, Nikki. Scott, you answer this one. Have her committed. Have her committed. My mom spends way too much money, but it's her money. I don't really care what she does with her money. I think you got to reframe the argument,

and that is rather arguing against her foreign asset class, because quite frankly, she might be right and you might be wrong. Each of you has a 50-50 likelihood that gold is a good or a bad investment or the U.S. economy is going to go up or down from here. It's the wrong argument. The argument is the following. It's, Mom, we have some money. You have some money. Nobody knows. The brightest people in the world don't know. What they do know is that we shouldn't put too many of our eggs in one basket. Mom, if you feel you have insight here or you get some reward from picking this stuff, then okay, we're going to take 10, maybe 15% of your assets and you're going to buy gold. But we're going to put the rest in diversified index funds because here's the thing, mom, you don't have the time to make it back.

And it doesn't matter how smart you are. Warren Buffett lost 50, 60% of his net worth during the great financial recession. You can be a genius. The market will always trump individual behavior. So if you want to have some fun, you're really into gold, fine. But the majority of your assets, because we love you and we want to make sure that you are always economically fine and that you don't have the emotional stress of financial stress at this age, we're putting the rest in diversified index funds. Can we agree on this, mom? You want to put some money in gold, fine,

but the majority of it needs to be in diversified low-cost index funds. Don't argue over asset classes. She knows no less or more than you. What you know is that she needs to be diversified and ensure she doesn't have the stress of financial stress at this point in her life. Listen, Nikki, I would do the opposite. I would make a fake gold bar and hand it to her and try to get control.

That's called parental abuse. That's correct. Because you're protecting her. I think, is she old? I don't know. If she's not old, I don't know. I'm always like with my mom and her money, you know, if it's your money, spend it down to zero and then you'll be at our behest at some point. But I don't, I think you can't protect people from the things they want to do. What you can protect them from is schemes and things like that. That's something that's important. Don't let her buy Trump gold coins or sneaker, gold sneakers, whatever she happens to like gold. Be careful of scams and keep her out of those. Let her buy a gold, whatever, a gold future or whatever.

Individual assets at that age are a scam. Yeah, I agree. But I'm just saying, just buy a little bit of a gold. What is a gold future? What do you buy? You don't actually buy gold, right? Give her some Krugerrands.

Old people like Krugerrands. Now I'm being ageist. Give her some. Krugerrands. Put them in a safe so people don't come and steal them from her as she gets older.

Have her stay at Trump Plaza and there's going to be gold everywhere. Gold everywhere. I don't know. It's very difficult. My policy with my mom is just she wants to spend her money, let her do whatever she wants

as long as she isn't fooled by something. What does Lucky spend her money on other than poochy dresses? She looks fabulous. She does look good. What does she spend her money, let her do whatever she wants, as long as she isn't fooled by something. What does Lucky spend her money on other than poochy dresses? She looks fabulous. She does look good. What does she spend her money on? Oh, silly things. Trying to buy things, buy stuff for the children, my kids, and a lot of that. A lot of stuff we don't. We get a package from Ralph Lauren every five minutes, most of which we take back.

Her daughter's a podcast baller. Her son owns a coal company, and the other son is a head of anesthesiology. She should be spending all your money. No, I know that. I get it. Lucky, go to Vegas. Get a cocaine habit, Lucky. Your kids are rich.

She used to buy clothes. It used to be clothes and rental properties and whatever. She has a shopping problem, I would say, But she likes it. It makes her happy. I don't know what to say. It's her money. She should do whatever he wants with it, as long as she doesn't get scammed out of it, which really, there was an incident where she gave someone her numbers on the phone, very typical. And they were trying to get into her bank account. My brother handled it, that kind of stuff. I just, as she gets older, Nikki, watch for scams. It really is something sad that happens to not just elderly people, but they're much in the focus of those people. Anyway, while we're on listener mail, we want to start having you, the audience, be more part of the show. To start, we have a question for you. How often are you personally using AI, just like Scott Galloway? Now, to answer, go visit us on threads at Pivot Podcast Official and submit your answer. And let us know what else you want to know about Club Pivot, also known as your fellow listeners, that we're calling them Club Pivot. Club Pivot. I like it. Club Pivot. Do you like that? I don't know. It seems kind of

cool. Yeah. Anyone can get in. Cheap drinks and anyone can get in. The people are not that attractive, but it's free. It's free. Yeah. Anyway, give us your answers. We'd love to know how you personally use it. We talk about how we use it, especially Scott, who uses it much more than I do. But please let us know, and we'd love to hear from you. If you've got a question of your own you'd like answered, send it our way. Go to nymag.com slash pivot to submit a question for the show or call 855-51-PIVOT. All right, Scott, one more quick break. We'll be back for predictions. Fox Creative. This is advertiser content from Zelle. When you picture an online scammer, what do you see? For the longest time, we have these images of somebody sitting crouched over their computer with a hoodie on, just kind of typing away in the middle of the night. And honestly, that's not what it is anymore.

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Get ready for your next adventure with Ether Apparel. And for a limited time, my listeners can get 25% off orders over $400. Just go to EtherApparel.com and use the promo code PIVOT25 at checkout. That's A-E-T-H-E-R, apparel.com, and use the promo code PIVOT25 for 25% off orders over $400. Don't wait. That's EtherApparel.com. Okay, Scott, we're going to hear a prediction, but I'm going to make a very short one. Italy just passed an anti-surrogacy law, and it's very much aimed at gay men having children, taking away parental abilities for gay people, not women. Many of them have uteruses and can't be stopped from having children,

although maybe that's also in the offing there. This is coming to this country, this kind of attitude towards, you know, everyone's like, oh, don't panic. When we all said Roe v. Wade was going to get overturned, it was like you're over, you know, you're being dramatic. Nobody was dramatic. Dramatically saying this, I listen to what the evangelicals say and the right, and they are very much against gay marriage, gay parenting. What happened in Italy, which is heinous, and Georgia, go fuck yourself, you terrible, heinous shrew. I think that this is going to be coming here. These ideas of pushing back on gay marriage, gay having kids.

And I have, you know, the fact that J.D. Vance hasn't said anything about this since he's pro-family. And again, I have one more child than he does. This is really dangerous, I think, what's happening in Italy. And I hope it doesn't happen here, but I listen to what the right says. And they have it out for gay marriage and gay parenting. So, there you have it. If you really cared about families and wanted more kids, you'd put more money in the pockets of young people. 60% of able-bodied Americans aged 30 to 34 used to have at least one child.

Now it's 27%. And I don't think it's because they've turned off the kids. I think it's because they don't have the money. And also, just like gay people have kids, they're great parents. Well, okay. I'm going to be honest. I don't think they're any better or any worse than straight parents. And the majority of them are going to be good, loving parents, as are the majority of heteronormative couples. Okay.

Okay. I don't. In any case, let them have kids. They want to have kids. It's wonderful to build a family. I don't think they have any less or any more right to have kids than I do. Well, we never had rights before, and now they're taking them away. The godparent of my son is a gay man.

By the way, shitty godfather, but he loves my best friend. So anyways. Tim Bruns, he's very handsome. Okay. And he loves my best friend, so that's enough, but he's a shitty godparent.

Okay. Anyways. Oh God, I'm going to get shit for that. Anyways. But yeah, look, I would like, someone asked me, Magic Wand, what law would you pass? I would love a law that basically said,

a constitutional amendment that said, anything that gets in the way of love is illegal. If any law that makes it such that someone can't be in visiting hours when someone is dying, no, we don't have that. Anything that says it's going to make it harder, much harder for a single mom to spend time with her kids, we don't want to pass that. Family court. We need to think about family court and how we set up men for success with their children post-divorce. I think we should all reverse engineer

or think about every piece of legislation having a certain guardrail. And that is, does it get in the way of the whole shooting match? And that is deep and meaningful relationships and people having the ability to care for and love other people. And this is just exactly that. We need kids, and if they're going to be in a loving household, that's it. There's nothing you can't get in the way of this. And there's no evidence whatsoever that these kids are any less or any more loved

than kids brought into any other household. So let me get this. You're going to let a single parent have IVF or have her own kid or have his own kid? And by the way, I'm in favor of that. But you're not going to let a dual-income household have kids? Makes no fucking sense. Yep, yep, yep, yep. Let me be clear about, by the way, on this bill. It already extends a practice inside the country to also include those who seek it out in places where it is legal, such as the U.S. or Canada.

So they can't travel or they have, there's prison, two years in prison and fines. And again, Giorgio Maloney can go fuck herself. I'm so upset about next summer. I'm only spending six nights, not seven in Capri. Have you been to Capri? Oh, my God. And by the way, my family's Italian. So I'm just saying it's a monstrous law.

It's a monstrous law. Great place to vacation. Those people get it. Milan's an amazing city right now. Venice. Oh, gosh. I just love Puglia. The Amalfi.

Yeah. Yeah. She's a Christian mother. She describes herself as a Christian mother who believes children should only be raised by a man and a woman. Divorced lady, sit the fuck down. Thank you. All right. So, sorry, go ahead.

What's your prediction, Scott? Well, it just goes back to what we were saying. Donald Trump media, the stock, it's- Is down today by 6%. Well, there you go. Why? Think about this. Why is it down 6%? The market-

Because he's addled. No, the verdict is in. She did well on Fox last night. I find this thing fascinating. Anyways, my prediction is the following. In the next, by November the 7th or 10th, let's assume this election is going to be challenged by everybody. So say by November the 10th, between now and November the 10th, Donald Trump media, which I think is around 30 bucks, will be below- Yeah, 29. Will either be below 10 or above 80. This thing has become literally the tail of the whip on the prospects of Donald Trump recapturing the White House. The most volatile stock over the next

few weeks is going to be Donald Trump media, which attempts to absorb a million points of light and guess as to whether he's going to be in the White House. This thing, 30 now, it's going to be below 10 or above 80 within three weeks. All right. So just for people to understand the range, his 52-week range is 11.75 to 79.38. It was way, way, way, way up when Biden was after the debate. It almost hit 100 at one point, didn't it? Yeah, I don't know if it got quite there. I'm trying to look.

The range doesn't seem to say that. 79.38 for 52 weeks. But it was down when she was doing really well at the debate in September down to 12. It's now at 29, but it's dipped 5%. Actually, it's down 5% in the last six months.

It's up year-to-date, but it's down 20% in the last three months, just for people to understand. It hit 98 in March of 2022. Five days, it's up 22%, but today it's down 10, 6, 7%. So if she goes on Rogan and does well, it's going down further. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You could be watching Rogan, and if you get the sense she's doing well, it'll close down 10% the next day. I find it just super interesting to watch. It's literally, in my opinion, it's a more robust poll than Quinnipiac or any of these other guys. All right.

Well, that's that. Okay, Scott, that's the show. We'll be back on Tuesday with more Pivot. I would love you to read us out. Today's show was produced by Lara Naiman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie Andertodt engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Ms. Severio, and Dan Chalon. Nishat Kurwa is Vox Media's executive producer of audio.

Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business care. Have a great weekend.