The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway - Sugar Relationships, Is It Still Worth Learning a Second Language? and Sharing Wealth After a Big Exit

Episode Date: July 21, 2025

Scott weighs in on the ethics and dynamics of sugar relationships. He then considers whether it’s still worth learning a second language in the age of AI translation, and wraps with advice on how to thoughtfully support loved ones after a major financial exit. Want to be featured in a future episode? Send a voice recording to [e-mail], or drop your question in the r/ScottGalloway subreddit. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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What does the attack on higher ed mean for America? That's this week on The Gray Area with me, Sean Ille. New episodes every Monday available everywhere. Megan Rapinoe here. This episode, we are riding the vibes of W All-Star. We talk about our favorite moments on and off the court, and we catch up with the breakout stars of the weekend, Courtney Williams and Natisha Heydemann, aka the Stud Buds. Plus, we get into all the drama at

the Euros. Check out our latest episode of A Touch More wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube. Welcome to Office Hours of PropG. This is the part of the show where we answer your questions about business, big tech, entrepreneurship, and whatever else is on your mind. If you'd like to submit a question for next time, you can send a voice recording to officehoursofpropgmedia.com. Again, that's officehoursofpropgmedia.com. Or post your question on the Scott Galloway subreddit and we just might feature it in our next episode.

First question, our first question comes from a matter of fap on reddit. They ask, Prop G, what are your thoughts on sugar relationships? Aren't all healthy relationships mutually beneficial? What are your thoughts on its social acceptability and portrayals like in the latest White Lotus season? Please pardon my username, but had to ask the question on my alt, but feel free to identify me as such. Haha. Look, I think every relationship is a transaction to a certain extent. And I don't, the bottom line is I don't have a problem with it.

I think as long as there's consenting adults, I think there's a real problem with trafficking young women around the world where they're forced into relationships where they are preyed upon because of their economic desperation. I think that should be illegal. And when certain members of the Manosphere are accused of trafficking young women, I think that should basically convince everyone that we just don't need to listen to these people around trying to help young men. But if you're a young person and you enter into a relationship with someone and you're giving up your time and you have more time than money

and they have more money than time, yeah, you're consenting adults. I don't see anything wrong with that. I think that traditionally the male-female dynamic in the United States was, I get emotional support and nurturing from the woman and the man provides financial support. And over the course of the last 30 or 40 years,

women have been able to step up and provide more financial support. And there's a decent argument that men haven't stepped up in terms of emotional or domestic or logistical support creating an imbalance where a lot more men are a lot less attractive to women. Now I think there's other things involved there. I think online dating creates unreasonable expectations on both sides.

I don't think young men have venues to demonstrate excellence. Young people aren't getting together. There's a zeitgeist of the moment you see not even a red flag, but a magenta flag. You should exit the relationship immediately. Like, oh, he didn't open your door. You're out of there. Well, okay, folks, not all of us are perfect. Anyways, I have no problem with it is the bottom line.

I have absolutely no problem with it. I think at some point relationships are transaction. It's just a matter of cadence and currency. And as long as you're both consenting adults also, let's be honest. The relationship is usually an older man giving a younger woman money. And if a younger woman whose fertility window is much shorter, who's in a city that values women of a certain age and devalues women of a certain age, if she's giving up her time, she should at least ensure she's going to get something out of it. And if the man has more

money, I don't see any reason. So I have absolutely no problem with sugar relationships if in fact they're both consenting adults and it works for both of them. I think every relationship involves some sort of transaction and as long as you're both sides are transparent, as long as both sides are honest with each other, yeah, have at it. I think there's absolutely no problem with it.

So sugar away. Our second question comes from Paul. Not from Reddit. Paul asks. Hey Scott, this is Paul, long time fan of the pot. I actually got to shake your hand this past January in Houston after one of your speeches. We shared a brief memory flashback to Petrero Hill in the nineties and Goat Hill Pizza. Following up to a recent comment about second language learning being less valuable in today's AI era, one of my sons studied Mandarin through college and a formal language training program including some immersion in Taipei and Beijing. I get your point. AI tools like real-time translation

make the transactional need for another language less critical. But do you think that overlooks the relational side? Trust, nuance, mutual respect, that can only be built through two people communicating directly, especially in something as geopolitically important as the US-China relationship. Thanks to you, your team for the content and the occasional good jokes. Pete O'Reilly Occasional? Come on, Paul. Thought it was good to see you in Houston. Look, I agree with everything you said. I think of, I've just finished writing a book on masculinity, or I don't know if it's masculinity, called Notes on Being a Man.

And the thing about when you write a book, you can get on almost any media outlet, or at least I've been blessed enough that if I write a book, I can get on almost media outlet. And I think a lot of it is because people in media realize how hard it is to write a book. And they're like, okay, you did the work and they have some goodwill towards you. I would imagine that I remember going to China with my friend, Doug Guthrie, who was the head

of Apple University in China and was the Dean of the George Washington Business School and a colleague of mine at NYU and a big China scholar. And he got up on stage and started speaking perfect Mandarin. And the whole audience just kind of stopped and very, listened very attentive attentively, because here was a white dude from the U S speaking perfect Mandarin and there's just no doubt about it. That's like, people go, that's hard. So we have more goodwill for you. Also, I think my understanding is learning a language is like learning

an instrument and that is even if you never end up making a dollar from playing the tuba or get any additional advantage from understanding Mandarin or French, it opens a part of your brain when you're young that helps you absorb other knowledge more easily. That it's a great training. It's like when you damage a muscle and it grows back stronger. Essentially, I think learning the languages and music damages that muscle, your brain, and it grows back stronger across a variety of activities. So I'm not saying that we should get rid of language classes. I learned Spanish and it introduced me to

Gabriela Garcia Marquez, 100 years of sol años de soledad and 100 years of solitude. I remember reading it in Spanish and there's the most beautiful scene in this book where this young woman is so beautiful that she literally, she literally floats away. And I remember telling my mother, my children at one point, I was like a little drunk and feeling pretty good, that she was so beautiful that I thought at some point

that she might, you know, that it was a realistic or there was a non-zero probability that the winds were gonna kick up and she was literally gonna just fly away or float away. And that romance and understanding it through the lens of Spanish, and I think Spanish is such a beautiful language. I took five years of Spanish. I'm a lot of fun at a Mexican restaurant.

I actually still can't speak it. beautiful language. I took five years of Spanish. I'm a lot of fun at Mexican restaurant. I actually still can't speak it. Mrs. Whitten at Emerson Junior High School, no, University High School, always gave me a B even though I probably should have got a C. I was terrible, terrible in languages, but I liked her and she liked me and she always gave me a B, which was comforting to get a B in Spanish. Anyways, I'm a fan. I just, what I don't like, or I think is stupid, is all of these, you know, tiger moms trying to get their kids to learn Mandarin by the time they're, you know, in 11th grade so they can go to China, which is going to economically conquer the U S for the most part. When I started going to Europe in the nineties with my consulting firm, Prophet,

you'd walk into a meeting in France and they would speak French and be pissed off that they needed to translate for you. And now what I find is that Lingua Franca, even in Germany, when I go to meetings in Audi, they conduct the meetings in English. And I find generally speaking the corporate world in Europe now is now conducting meetings in English. And with AirPods and iPhone and AI, you're going to basically be able to speak any language or at least understand it. Having said that, you know, take language or music for economic prosperity or utility. I think you take it to learn, to appreciate the art,

everything you've said, I think it's wonderful. So I think we're pretty much in agreement here, but the notion that you need to learn Mandarin to be economically viable, I just don't buy it. But yeah, it's something I wish I was better at. I took Spanish for a long time and I was just never very good at it. I clearly don't have any earful languages. But anyways, we'll be right back after a quick break. We'll be right back after a quick break.

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made with no synthetic sweeteners or dyes. Groons says their daily snack pack of eight gummies contains more than 20 vitamins and minerals and more than 60 whole food ingredients. Grab your limited edition raspberry lemonade Groons, get up to 52% off when you go to Groons.co and use the promo code PROPG. That's G-R-U-N-S dot co and use the promo code PROPG at checkout. Hey, this is Peter Kafka, the host of Channels, a show about media and tech and what happens when they collide. And this may be hard to remember, but not very long ago, magazines were a really big deal. And the most important magazines were a really big deal. And the most important magazines were owned by Conde Nast, the glitzy publishing empire

that's the focus of a new book by New York Times reporter Michael Grinbaum. The way Conde Nast elevated its editors, the way they paid for their mortgages so they could live in beautiful homes, there was a logic to it, which was that Conde Nast itself became seen as this kind of enchanted land. You can hear the rest of our chat on channels, wherever you listen to your favorite media podcast. Welcome back. Our final question comes from Reddit. Mother Ratio 9806 asks, Hey Scott, I'm at a crossroads with my wealth creation. I'm about to have an exit.

I don't have much family, but I'd love to financially help out those who care deeply about post-exit. Is there a rule of thumb for family donations? And is it ongoing or a one-off? So I never really gave away a dollar to anyone or anything until I was 40. And now that I have some economic security, I like to give money away.

It makes me feel masculine. It makes me feel civic and I pay or I give some money away to my family. I pay for education for some of my, uh, some of my nieces and nephews. And I like it. I think it's a great investment. It's easy for me. And it's a big source of relief for their parents because education can be so expensive.

So it's sort of a win, win, win all around. What in terms of best practices, one, a do it, if you have the money, do it. I don't believe in hoarding wealth. I got to my number in 2017 and I'm giving everything above it. Now I either spend it or give it away. And what I would say is the best practice is don't expect anything in return. Decide if you're giving it.

If you're giving it, you don't expect anything in return. You don't expect your brother to be nicer to you. You don't expect your nephew to send you pictures of his or her graduation. You don't, I mean, if they do that, great. But if you're expecting anything, one, I think you're setting yourself up to be disappointed too, they're going to feel some sort of pressure that you're sort of controlling them through money.

What I try and do when I give money to family members is I try to make it as like seamless as possible. Hey, I was thinking about paying tuition for Jimmy. And I'd really like to do that. I have a fund that does that, da da da. How much does he pay? And then there's some back and forth. How much is it?

Are you down with it? Get the wiring information, send it, and don't bring it up again. Don't bring it up again. Giving money is a weird thing. It can make them feel less, I don't know, less adult or less successful. You don't want them to feel bad. You don't want them to feel bad.

You don't want them to feel like there's any reciprocal expectation. You don't want to feel like you're exerting control. You're not trying to flex and make them feel bad. So just one, don't expect anything back. Make it as seamless, easy. Don't bring it up again. If they say, thank you, great. Oh, it's no problem.

Don't dwell on it. Don't bring it up that you want this to be giving, right? You don't expect anything in return. You don't, you don't even need them to acknowledge it. You're giving it to them. It's out of your mind. You've given it to them. It's done.

It's over. Uh, so one do it, especially if you're in a position to do it. And you're going to find as you scratch the surface, even if you have cousins who look economically prosperous, they're stressed out about money. So it's an easy way to relieve stress. Money is nothing but the transfer of time and work to other people. So if you can give someone back a Sunday because they don't have to spend as much time working or they're not as stressed, you take tension out of the relationship. It's a wonderful thing to do.

So yes, do it. Two, don't expect anything back. And three, make it as clean and easy and covert and ninja-like as possible. Don't turn it into a big thing. Just do it. It's done. Never think about it again. And also just be really grateful and enjoy time

thinking about how fortunate you are that you get to do that for other people. It feels, it really does feel wonderful. That's all for this episode. If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to officehoursappropgmedia.com. That's officehoursappropgmedia.com. Or if you prefer to ask on Reddit, just post your question on the Scott Galloway subreddit, and we just might feature it in an oncoming episode.

This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez. Drew Burrows is our technical director. Thanks for listening to the Prop G pod from the Box Media Podcast Network.