This is going to be the moment when Sam

Alman quite frankly [ __ ] the bed.

>> Hi everyone, this is Pivot from New York

Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast

Network. I'm Cara Swisser

>> and I'm Scott Galloway.

>> To explain for listeners, Scott has a

new background in his studio and guess

what? I'm not in it.

>> Oh, I have no idea what you're talking

about. Oh, this

>> this

>> the metaphor

>> the metaphor the metaphor I would use is

that you're my first wife and these are

Bellar Russian hookers who I have

>> I don't see any pivot there's no like me

going like this what is happening

>> uh do you want the honest truth or am I

supposed to be snarky around this

>> whatever either one it's probably a bad

explanation

>> uh no I'm very focused on enterprise

value and um priv

Vox owns a piece of Pivot.

>> No, we do. But go ahead. Go ahead.

>> Well, we we own it, but Vox everyone the

thing I hate about the corporate

structure and ownership of Pivot is that

everyone has veto authority, but no one

has control. I like having control. And

as you know, about 5 years ago, I

started launching my own pods.

And quite frankly, it's your pivot has

the biggest reach.

>> Mhm.

>> Um

>> my pivot. Now it's my pivot. It's like

our children, your children. Go ahead.

>> But I'm very focused on um trying to

create

>> distinct enterprise value that I have

control over. So pivot

>> pivot is the biggest and the best and

kind of your firstborn and I I love it

and I'm fond of you.

>> But in terms of trying to build

enterprise value, I'm focused on the

prof pods because I control it. And let

me tell you, you're the same way. You

have on with car.

>> I just have on. That's all. But go

ahead.

>> Well, but control is an addictive

substance. Yes.

>> And I like making and quite frankly we

get we make a lot of money from pivot

but it's very difficult to figure out a

path to enterprise value because Fox

because Vox

>> kind of controls or semicontrols the IP.

So I'm just very honestly very focused

on building enterprise value around the

plethora of podcasts we are developing

here.

>> Let me make an argument. They don't

actually control it. We can do whatever

we mostly do whatever we want. You know

that it's it's me.

>> No. or it's going to be very difficult

for us to sell pivot for a [ __ ] ton of

money and that's the business that I'm

in.

>> Well, well, in a couple of years we can

certainly correct.

>> Yeah, I guess the terms of the agreement

are the IP turns back.

>> It's just me that's your problem.

>> No, I don't I I like working with

partners. I've always had partners in my

business. I think that when I advise

young entrepreneurs, I'm being serious.

>> Who with a partner? Because the most

rewarding thing in I think the most

rewarding thing in life is to raise kids

>> with a competent person that you love

and and also to build economic security

with someone you care about. It's just

I think that is really rewarding. I also

think it's much more rewarding to build

businesses

>> with someone else. I think one of the

most rewarding things about Pivot is you

and I have built it together and

occasionally we get on the phone and we

just bask in our success and it's really

fun. Mhm.

>> The way I describe it is inevitably when

I travel because I I'm usually on a

corporation's dime. I stay at these

amazing places and inevitably if I'm

when I'm alone, I get upgraded to

literally the presidential suite at the

George Sank in Paris.

>> But if you're in it alone,

>> it's like it didn't happen. It it just

doesn't mean anything. So,

>> I do think building businesses I've

always had partners. My partner at Prop

Media is Katherryn Dylan, who I've

worked with for 15 years. My partner at

Pivot is you and to a lesser extent Jim

Bankoff. The But yeah, the most

rewarding thing is building something

with a partner. But with respect to the

pictures behind me,

>> I want to set PropG uh up in a corporate

structure position such that I can sell

it for a [ __ ] ton of money

>> to an old media company that's panicking

that they're not in the fastest growing

out supported medium.

>> Is that too much information? Oh, and

then what are you going to do with your

first marriage pivot that got you all

that? That got you?

>> I I'm still here. I'm here.

>> What made you attractive to Russian

[ __ ] What? What?

>> I take you to the Olive Garden every

Thursday night. When we get drunk at a

convention, we might have some bad sex,

>> right?

>> But, you know, I'm still here. I'm still

here. I'm hanging around until the kids

go to college.

>> Oh, man.

>> Until Taylor and Zoe go off to college.

>> Uhhuh. Uhhuh. You know, I I got to be

honest, G, at this point in my life.

>> Yeah.

>> It's like this this uh resistance

subscribe. A lot of people reached out

to me and said, "Why didn't you organize

with these people?" I'm like, "The idea

>> I've heard that. I've gotten a lot of

calls from people."

>> The idea of getting a bunch of activists

and liberal uh media figures on the

phone and trying to get consensus sounds

like my worst [ __ ] nightmare.

>> Yeah, I got that from like a dozen

people. Who Who was the last one? Katie

Kirk. Katie Kirk. I

>> Yeah, Katie reached out to me. And to be

honest,

>> they're right. But my view is

>> I'm a ready fire in guy. I'm going to do

what I can do. I've got a ton of

momentum and then

>> you do your thing and I'll support you.

But the idea of getting on the phone

with all of these people to decide

whether Netflix should be on the list or

not.

>> That's just not my style.

>> I know that. I know it. I Everyone was

like, "Why do you do that?" I'm like,

"Cuz he doesn't like you." Like I don't

know. He just wants it.

>> No, it's not that I don't like these

people. It's like I would rather take a

leadership.

>> No business I've ever started made any

sense.

>> Yeah. Yeah.

>> But my and not only that

>> thing, this goes to a deeper spiritual

thing. One of the things I don't like

about getting older,

>> I used to be more fearless when I was

younger. I used to call people I wanted

to meet and I used to approach people. I

used to go to crash parties I wasn't

invited to. And now I'm just sort of

recently heckling from the cheap seats.

I have very strong opinions about

everything, but I'm doing less. And I

want to move back to taking risks and

actually doing [ __ ] and risking public

failure because I think that has been

other than being born a white

heterosexual male in the 60s and the

irrational passion for my well-being of

my mother. The thing the reason I am

somewhat successful is I've never been

afraid of public failure. Yeah.

>> And I've gotten more Speaking of which

I've gotten more afraid as I've gotten

older. I want to get more I want to get

into the game. I want I want to get back

on the You'll see what happens when you

leave me. Anyway, I don't really care. I

have other things I can do. Um,

>> I'm leaving you. I still returned your

angry text messages at 2 a.m.

>> Guess who called me the other night?

You, cuz. Cuz you wanted to chitty chat

with your favorite person on the planet.

But let me inedible and I was bored. No

one else would talk to me. I had to call

someone in Eastern Standard Time because

everyone else was asleep.

>> So, no, but we've been sharing you've

been sharing, speaking of looking

ridiculous, what why why were you in a

fur coat looking like a unsuccessful

pimp for your resistant unsubscribe?

That made me laugh my ass off, I have to

say, with a hat.

>> Tell me where it's where are you right

now. Give me a quick update and then

we've got a lot to talk about today.

>> So, I I like I think the truth has a

nice ring to it. Out of the gates, it

was bigger than I expected. I got to

about 100,000 150,000 uniques a day. It

has leveled off and it's not growing and

I'm not hearing from as many CEOs. I've

been doing some research

>> around how do you sustain a movement

like this and one of them was

>> join with people. Go ahead.

The hole is great on the sum of its

parts. I will take over this as island

on my own. I'm like one of those

Japanese soldiers in the hills of the

Philippines 20 years after the war has

ended terrorizing everybody.

>> Yeah.

>> No, but this there was a study done out

of Kellogg and it found that it's

actually not economic damage. It's

public shaming visav the media. It's

media attention. And so I've been going

on CNN once or twice a day. I was on MSN

Now. I've been on NPR. I'm about to go

on

>> You need to go on Fox. Yeah, I'm

probably going to go on Fox. I mean, I'm

like you. This is going to sound

arrogant, but it's true. I can get on

any network any day of the week. And

>> I get it.

>> And what's interesting, though, is when

I do, and I'll come back to the when I

do these crazy unchained,

you know, weird, he's definitely not

running for president now videos.

>> Uh, they get about five or six

hundred,000 to a million views. And when

I go on CNN prime time, I get 3 to

400,000.

So, the power of social is so powerful.

And what I find about social is it's a

chance to be your spirit animal. And

people love that. People love I went up

to

>> I went up to, you know, my partner's

closet. I grabbed a fur coat and a

ridiculous hat because I was going to

talk about land.

>> Your hat. Stop pretending it's your hat.

>> What's that?

>> It's your hat and coat. But go ahead.

Well, I like to spend $1,600 at Kimosabi

in Aspen for a hat that I look like

Billy the Special Child, who's the

latest the latest winner of the

Makea-Wish Foundation in El Paso, Texas.

>> Oh, you look so ridiculous.

>> I look totally [ __ ] ridiculous.

>> [ __ ] ridiculous. Anyway, where are we

going? Very briefly, Resisted

Unsubscribe. We have a lot to talk about

today. There's so much

>> So, a lot of the organizations that do

actually organize, Defiance and

Indivisible,

um I'm coordinating with now. Uh, I'm

trying to reignite the momentum and I'm

I'm going on a bunch of public media and

I'm hearing it is in I mean granted I

hear from people who are supportive, but

I'm hearing from high school kids saying

I'm trying to get my entire senior class

to unsubscribe from Spotify. Will you do

a Zoom? So, I'm I'm trying to I hate to

admit it, but I'm trying to The worst

thing what's even worse than fighting

with your allies is fighting without

them. So, I'm trying to do a better job

of

>> Yeah. reaching out, which I hate.

>> I know. But you're gonna have to,

sweetie. You got it. Takes a village.

>> It's It's kind of leveled out and I need

to reestablish.

>> Yeah, it's a good idea. People got

excited about your good idea, right? And

we'll talk about the Washington Post

later because I've gotten 900 calls

about that. People are back to

>> Well, you know, the Washington Post and

and journalists are just so [ __ ]

precious. You guys should precious.

Scott, I need you to stop. 300 people

are fired yesterday.

>> You you literally 300 people are fired.

I'm going to slap you back to last

Sunday. But first, let's first stop.

We'll get to the Washington Post and you

better collect yourself cuz I'll slap

you. I will. I'll slap you back to last.

>> What's the dynamic here? I say something

stupid and then you say and then you

come in with your warriors of wokeness

and everyone's like, I love car.

>> It's not warriors of wokeness. 300

people lost their jobs. You can have a

little empathy.

>> 20,000 people lost their jobs at UPS.

>> You know what the we owe the Washington

debt of gratitude for the stuff they did

for many, many years, you know.

>> That's right. whose parents put them

through Sarah Lawrence and they're more

precious than everybody else.

>> They're not more precious. It's still

important. It doesn't matter. You don't

have to stack rank people misery.

>> Come on. That that's not true. I'm not

doing that. But we should talk about it

because I do have some thoughts on it

and I know you get to. But first, we're

going to talk about anthropics.

Something really kind of fun. Um it's

taking aim at Open AI and chat GPD with

a series of Super Bowl ads poking fun.

It it is the perfect satire at recent

news that ads are coming to chat uh GPT.

I want to play one of the anthropic ads.

All of which, there's four of them, I

think, that feature a young man visiting

a therapist to talk about his mom. Let's

watch.

>> How do I communicate better with my mom?

>> Great question. Improved communication

with your mom can bring you closer. Here

are some techniques you can try. Start

by listening. Really hear what she's

trying to say underneath her words.

Build conversation from points of

agreement. Find a connection through

shared activity, perhaps a nature walk.

Or if the relationship can't be fixed,

find emotional connection with other

older women on Golden Encounters, the

mature dating site that connects

sensitive cubs with Roaring Cougars.

>> What?

>> The tagline appears on the screen at the

end that says, "Adds are coming to AI,

but not to Claude." Uh they've struck a

nerve with Sam Alman, the CEO of uh

OpenAI. Sam posted on X. The ads made

him laugh and then went on to share a

novalicized rant as Techrunch put it. He

argued the campaign was dishonest and

misrepresented how chat GBT would ever

use ads. Oh my god, [ __ ] them if you

can't take a joke. I think these ads are

brilliant. They actually the way they

depict um chat bots is perfect. That

pause, the smile, the kind of

you know lowest common denominator

advice. But you these are great branding

as you told me. So tell me as a Mr.

Brands what do you think about these?

>> Uh this is genius and this will be seen

as the pivotal moment for when in 12

months anthropic is more valuable than

open AI. This is a definition of

intelligent branding. And one construct

or vehicle for great branding is you

ladder the competition.

Well the way you ladder the competition

to try and zero in on the soft tissues.

You go we're this, they're this. And

then you say okay is this point of

differentiation

uh truly different? Are we really

different this way? Two, does anyone

care? Is it relevant? And three, can we

own it? Is it sustainable? So, in this

instance, they said, "All right, uh,

we're not going to have ads. Is that

different?" Yes, chat GPT is having ads.

That's truly differentiated. Is it

relevant? Yeah, it is relevant because

you're providing your most intimate

information. There's a memory around AI

and the idea that it's not giving you

the best answer, but an answer it can

monetize is really uncomfortable for

people. And then, is it sustainable?

mostly unless open AAI which is a

nonzero chance they might backtrack on

this but basically this is the perfect

branding it's differentiated it's

relevant to consumers and it's

sustainable and the execution here is

just gorgeous it's just beautiful this

occasionally like when Hyundai came out

with their 7-year warranty ad that

changed the complexion of Hyundai

occasionally there's an ad campaign that

literally changes everything they're

fewer and fewer because people don't

take advertising as seriously. They take

real time innovation more seriously.

This will be this already is the out of

the Super Bowl. This is going to be the

moment when Sam Alman quite frankly [ __ ]

the bed and Daario became the new face

of AI. Uh but I believe this will be the

pivotal moment with also a focus on

enterprise versus the consumer. They're

going Dell versus versus gateway going

consumer or they're going enterprise

versus

>> this is a consumer play because it's all

about people asking advice from these

things. Let me tell you one of the

things that really struck me and I don't

know how you felt about it was the tone

of voice of these and the the one is

better than that. I just saw another one

and it was the execution is fantastic.

>> It was a woman talking to her business

plan and was offering her whatever a

like a like a like a web space kind of

thing. Um, but the voices and the and

the lack of emotion and the lack of

empathy in their voices and yet they're

the robotic nature of people. This is

what sounds like to people.

>> The shift in the tone. It goes from

human to anodine.

>> Mhm. Genius actually. And the thing

about

>> and pauses the pause until they answer

the cuz no one would do that, right?

Everybody jumps all when they talk they

have a normal interaction. But the pause

is what got me was perfect. Well, the

Super Bowl is basically the ads aren't

worth it. Whatever they're charging 8

million for 30, it's not worth it. The

only way it's worth it and you know, you

know, if the ad was worth it before the

ad ever airs and then it's how much play

is it getting on YouTube and and already

Anthropic's ads are worth more than

they're spending because everybody's

talking about its buzz. Ben Stiller's ad

for Instacart is going to be the silver

medalist here. It's [ __ ] hilarious.

>> It is. It's with um what's his name? Oh,

that guy.

>> Yeah, he does flips and everything, but

basically

>> don't do the flip.

>> This has nothing to do with the ad on

the Super Bowl. It's about your

permission to be evaluated and go viral

because you're advertising at the Super

Bowl.

>> Yeah.

>> And already Anthropic has gotten a huge

>> huge return. And also, if you'll notice,

>> Sam Alman is sounding very defensive.

>> He Oh my god, I laughed. But like, you

know that he should have said nothing or

said that was funny. Those are the only

two answers, right? That was Benson Boon

in the in the Benson.

>> But this was this was a pivotal turning

moment. What do you think?

>> I thought I just loved it. I thought it

was perfect. It also was, you know, it

really put a finger on what people don't

like about AI, right? It really did.

Yeah. They're such like ew. Like, oh,

like it's not a person. And it it was it

was actually kind of in their brand of

we're not those guys, right? Like it

also it didn't say what they were, but

it said what they weren't. And I think

that and what they aren't is something

that's very unattractive to people,

right? What what they are is attractive.

It's like I want to I want to use this

AI, but I don't want that. Like that's

what I thought was effective there. And

it it it for the the the actors who are

doing the chat bots are the workout one

with the guy working out was

>> I thought of the old Spice commercials.

I'm here on a horse. I have diamonds in

my hand.

>> Yes, I know. It was perfect. But it was

anyway good job uh Claude and and

Anthropic. It really is. And and Sam

really should have just said that was

really funny. Loved it.

>> But kind of what's more uncomfortable

about this is the following.

>> The number one use case of AI. You know

what it is?

>> Therapy.

>> So imagine you're giving someone the

most intimate details about your life.

>> Mhm.

>> And then the AI decides where to insert

an ad. It's imagine I've I've been I'm

getting served all of these ring light

therapists that are quote mental health

professionals telling everyone you don't

need a job, you don't need a

relationship, you need to work on

yourself first. Yeah, that that's

helpful.

>> Mhm.

>> Anyways, I heard one of these ring light

therapists recommending a dating site

>> and I thought, is this person being

compensated by this dating site? Imagine

sitting down and talking to a therapist

and giving them your most intimate

details and they say, "Oh, you should

absolutely go on Lexapro. And by the

way, I'm sponsored by Eli Liy or

whatever.

>> Doctors are, aren't they? They I mean,

that's that's a tale as old as time.

Anyway,

>> but people are using AI as a more

trusted doctor than their doctor. People

are going to AI.

>> I mean, doctors get all those gimmies

from pharmacy people. You know that like

there's a whole

>> And by the way, that's been seriously

pulled back and regulated as it should.

I used to get invited to these dinners

to to speak about

>> back when I was running a brand strategy

firm. invited to these dinners with with

neurosurgeons sponsored by Sandos or

whatever

>> and they've pulled back on that a lot

because they realized but if you're

giving AI the most intimate if you're

saying to AI

okay I have panc I have prostate cancer

my gleon scores are this and I don't

know whether I should have my prostate

removed or if I should just continue

therapy low-fat diet the idea that the

AI might be trying to figure out what ad

to insert at that moment Yeah. Yeah. It

has a very Facebooky feel to it, I'll

tell you.

>> With Google, you expect it. With

Facebook, you expect it. But right now,

everyone's under the impression that the

AI is their friend trying to help them.

>> Absolutely. All right. Moving from that,

let's run through a rapid fire update of

all the Epstein news that's happened

since we talked. I mean, seriously, this

is just First, let's listen to what

President Trump had to say to CNN's

Caitlyn Collins when asked about

Epstein's victims. This was something

else. And then JD Vance followed up with

a really even worse version of it. But

let's listen.

>> Yeah. What What did you say? Go ahead.

CNN,

>> what would you say to the survivors who

got

>> You are the worst reporter. No wonder

CNN has no ratings because of people

like you. You know, she's a young woman.

I don't think I've ever seen you smile.

I've known you for 10 years. I don't

think I've ever seen a smile on your

face.

>> Survivor. You know why you're not

smiling? Cuz you know you're not telling

the truth.

>> Uh that was something, Nick. Uh that was

something. Uh, let me say I think the

reason she got under her skin is cuz

what she was talking about was the

survivors of Donald Trump, you know.

>> Well, you mean that he's mentioned 5,700

times.

>> Yes, exactly. I think he knows deep in

his in his incredibly narcissistic

denial personality. He knows, right? And

so he knows what happened. These people

know what happened. And so, you know,

it's typical old man says, "I never seen

you smile." I've had that. Women have

that happen to them all the time.

>> Smile, sweetheart. Yeah, you should

smile more. You should put Cara Swisser

on the back of your thing and say thank

you. But um but uh it's really it was

really something. That was really

something. And and then what was

incredible is that JD has followed it in

a really ridiculous interview with Megan

Kelly in which he said, "Well, he just

wants her to have fun, you know? Oh my

god, he's he's a the cringiest cringe of

he just takes something that's bad and

makes it worse, which is really hard to

do in this situation."

>> I thought I see it's funny. I had a

different reaction there. I kind of

expected it from J. What I thought was

especially heinous was Megan Kelly

defending. Yeah.

>> The president referenced her menstrual

cycle. There's a there's got to be a

line where as someone has a certain

level and I go back, you know, not just

not just everyone should have a code in

lines. You don't the key isn't to be

likable. You everyone deserves

boundaries in a relationship and

boundaries around the behavior they will

accept and not accept. When the

president insulted the looks of Senator

Cruz's wife, that should have been a red

line and it should be like, "I'm never

supporting you ever again." And when the

president referenced Megan Kelly's

menstrual cycle, that should have been a

line where she would, I would think, for

the rest of her career go, "This guy has

a problem when it comes to women." And I

was

>> I was uh texting this morning with uh

Molly John Fast. And the the thing I've

been trying to wrap my hands around I

want to get your viewpoint here around

the Epstein files. And the problem is or

I see the biggest problem is that what

we need is a a thick layer of an

institution that we trust. And that used

to be the Department of Justice to go

through in the FBI these these 3 million

pages and say, "Okay, our job is to use

discretion and the rule of law to parse

what is illegal criminal behavior that

deserves public attention and what does

not deserve public attention like being

on an invite list to a party in St. arts

that Jeffrey Epste was going because

right now we're overpunishing [ __ ] that

is trivial and superolous and we're

underpunishing

child rape.

>> Yep.

>> Everything has been mushed together and

because we don't trust an institution

>> to go through this and say this is

criminal activity and warrants public

scrutiny and legal scrutiny. And quite

frankly folks, we're not even going to

release this [ __ ] because all it does is

impug people for no reason. Mhm.

>> But the problem is there's no arbiter.

There's no institution that

traditionally we've had trust in that

we're comfortable with doing it. So

everyone's like release the files. They

release all 3 million. I don't even know

if this is helping right now.

>> They released half. They've released

half. They're not What are your

thoughts? I

>> I just He's a pig. I'm sorry. He's just

an old man pig and JD Vance made it

worse. And Megan Kelly, forget it. She's

a bluffer to all of them and she's going

to put this on her show. So hey Megan,

good to give you content. You'll attack

me and not Scott who's appropriately

critical of you. But that's fine.

Whatever you want, girl. Um, next up,

Bill.

>> I've been on Megan's show. Have you been

on her show?

>> No, of course not. Why would I Why would

I get it, though? I think she's very

talented.

>> She has turned into something else.

Scott, you're not paying attention.

>> No, no, no.

>> Don't interrupt my sentence to score

points with your woke warriors.

>> What I was going to say with you with

the woke warrior.

>> What I was going to say, well, let let

me finish. is that I register that she

like Candace Owens

>> has literally gone off the [ __ ] deep

end.

>> Yeah.

>> And I can't figure out if it's because

the rage algorithms love rage bait so

they get more money every time they say

something incendiary or they have

literally gone insane. Like they haven't

taken a red pill. They've swallowed like

you know a red cyanide pill. But I would

argue over the last few years, Megan has

gone very very

>> conspiracy theory and has decided the

more insane incendiary [ __ ] I say

>> Mhm.

>> Uh is it that she's making money or is

she has she seriously lost her [ __ ]

>> Yeah. I don't know. I don't honestly is

she's I don't care. She's just one of

those people I've decided to like put in

the trash bin of my whatever. She can

she can say whatever she wants about me

if I provide good content to her. Knock

yourself out, girl. Anyway, Bill and

Hillary Clinton have agreed to be

deposed on camera at public hearings in

the Epstein investigation. That should

be something. Obviously, when I

interviewed Ro Connie, he said they

absolutely should. I agree. So should

President Trump. They should also bring

him in. They should bring all these

people in. Um but they're having them

and Hillary did this morning was like,

"Bring it on." Like I'm a little scared

for the Republicans, honestly. And she

wants cameras there. She's like, so

obviously she's got something up her

sleeve, and I wouldn't I don't I think

this woman has run out of [ __ ] after

being like whacked, right? I mean, some

of it is her fault, but boy, have they

just she's she's loaded for bear, I

would say, is my feeling. And um they

could throw them they could she's going

to talk about Trump the whole time.

That's what she's going to do. the it's

in my going back to my brand strategy

course. I do people as brands and I look

at them as brands and break down their

core attributes

>> and I did the Clintons and I did Bill

and Hillary and they both especially

Bill but they're brand attributes that

are so powerful. First off, Bill has

Opraike empathy. I generally get the

sense when I met Bill Clinton I thought

this guy cares about me. I'm going to

support him the rest of my life. I got

you get the sense he genuinely like

>> he's very

>> cares

>> and it's so it comes across as so

genuine it's hard to believe it's not

genuine. Anyways,

>> the second thing is you would never want

the Clintons on the other side of

anything you're doing.

>> These people are ruthless and smart.

>> I don't care if you're I don't care if

you're picking players for a softball

team. If these people had no athletic

ability, I would still want them on my

team cuz they would figure out a way to

kneecap the second baseman. throw a I

think she's good at I think she's

>> if I I can't wait for this and if I were

if I were the Trump administration the

last [ __ ] thing I would want

>> is cameras on a very wellprepared 155

[ __ ] IQ is Secretary Clinton because

>> well did you see did you see Trump said

I like Bill Clinton like he was

>> all of a sudden he's trying to be like

they're pretty good people going

>> and they shouldn't have to undergo this

>> you I'm sorry Bill Clinton and Hillary

Clinton

are testifying. Could these could the

Trump administration be more stupid? And

you're going to have a bunch of trust me

there's going to be three or four

moments

>> where some idiot staffer has given a

bigger idiot Republican a stupid

question

>> and you are going to see one of the

Clintons slap them back so silly. I

can't I literally can't I'm not going to

watch this. This is my Super Bowl. I

can't wait for this.

>> Yeah. Anyway, let's get through the last

two. Melinda French Gates, another smart

cookie, said references to her

ex-husband and filled her with

unbelievable sadness that he along with

others needed to answer the question

that remained. Gates himself apologized

yet again. But I thought Melinda Gates

handled herself with so much class given

she keeps getting asked about her the

behavior of her ex-husband. Um, I would

hate I would hate that. I would hate

that. I thought she handled well. And

and let me add into that, you can pick

either one. CBS is pulling a 60-minute

segment with longevity guru Peter Aya,

but the network's news editor and chief

Barry Weiss is reportedly refusing to

fire him a contributor. Um, I'll on the

way weigh in very quickly here. I've

heard from a lot of people they really

want him gone and they should because

you can easily replace him with someone

like Scott Galloway, for example, who

knows all about the he's, you know,

Scott.

>> You're the longevity person now.

>> Yeah, I'm the longevity person. I'm

using it for marketing. I'm like, great,

keep this like keep this uh Epstein

soiled um person who already a lot of

people think is a bit of a grifter on

there. And plus, she's added uh um

Andrew Huberman, I know you like him,

but and and Markman, who is really I'm

sorry, it's just codswall up a lot of

the stuff he he blabbls about. Um

anyway, either one, Melinda or

>> Yeah, but okay. So I I think I think

Melinda French Gates joins

a crew of women and this is sexist who

seem to have a different approach to how

they acquit themselves when they become

billionaires. And that is they're more

focused on philanthropy. They

demonstrate grace. They demonstrate

empathy, focused on their kids. And they

have just I mean I've told you this kind

of one of my personal heroes is

Mackenzie Scott. the approach she takes

to her life and giving versus the other

half of the marriage. It's just there's

something about the female brain and

this is sexist because I'm

distinguishing between the

>> sexes. It's actually

>> and by the way, let me be clear. Let me

let me piss off women. I think men often

times the male brain brain because of

testosterone and more risk

aggressiveness sometimes more than often

make outstanding entrepreneurs and I

think that male aggression has put us on

the moon and discovered vaccines. So,

let me give some credit that it's also

disparaging or people are going to take

it as a hate crime against women. When

they become billionaires, it appears

that the female brain is much more about

how do I help others versus how can I

have the most [ __ ] fabulous life with

with, you know, in Aspen. There does

seem to be a real distinct difference

between these divorces and how the

female side of the equation acquits

themselves versus the male equation. I

would say Sergey Brand and an Wajiski is

another example of that.

>> They're everywhere. Look at these

examples everywhere.

>> Island by him too.

>> Look at all these examples everywhere.

And then also though, and I think we're

going to agree on this or disagree on

this, but I want I think Dr. Peter Aia

is a [ __ ] distraction here. Let his

colleagues, let his podcast listeners,

let his podcast network, as far as I can

tell, he did not commit a crime. He just

comes across as a creep. Hold on.

>> Think that.

>> Hold on. But but there is credible

evidence that the president of the

United States, who has been mentioned

5,700 times, may have engaged in child

rape. So I could give a flying [ __ ]

about a longevity doctor and the creepy

emails he sends. This is about criminal

activity amongst our our cabinet and our

our president and not creepy emails from

a wellness doctor. I get your point and

I I'm going to say yes, but do we have

again as I said before, do we have to

stack rank these things? I mean, you can

say and I agree with you. I repeat,

>> one's about indictments. The other is

about who cares.

>> They should be we should be focused on

criminally indicting the people who have

who have abused young women or young

women, not women, young girls. Children,

let's just go right to children. I'm not

speaking of Megan Kelly trying to figure

out which age is okay. None of them.

>> The the 15year-old, they're 15. They

look like they're 18, so it's okay.

>> They're wearing, you know, extensions,

you know, like, oh my god. Like, so I

agree with you on that. That said,

it's okay to say, "Ew," to like Howard

Lutnik, yuck, what a liar about his his

affiliations with thing. It's okay to

say, "Wow, Peter Adio, what a creepy

dude." It's okay to do that. Also,

that's all I I just don't think you have

to like

>> there should be a DOJ releasing to the

public information and to grand juries

again on diamonds on criminal behavior.

>> Agreed.

>> And quite frankly, they should not be

releasing

>> Kevin Marsh or whatever his name is, it

comes up. He's in the Epstein files

because he was on an invite list.

>> I I Yes. If we had institutions we could

still trust that aren't perverted by the

president's total overrun of a co-equal

branch of government, you could have an

FBI and a DOJ that would say, "Here's

the information we're releasing cuz it's

pertinent and here's the information

we're not releasing cuz all it does is

create distraction and delution of the

real criminals here."

>> But the guy who was head of Paul Weiss

who acquiesed very early to the Trumps,

he had to step down because of his I

mean I'm just saying there is devils. I

agree with you. I think we are actually

agreed on this. Um, but I just would

note that Peter Aier wrote, "The worst

thing about being friends with Epstein

was that he couldn't tell a soul about

the financier's outrageous life. I

wouldn't want to work with this fucker."

So anyway, um, let's go on a quick

break.

>> If if AI went through every email you

sent, could they find [ __ ] that makes

you look really bad?

>> Not like this. No, not even close. No.

No.

>> Yeah, it's probably

>> No. And not you either, by the way, FYI.

I don't think so either.

>> Come on. Like it's mostly you like

yelling at me. Really? That's what

really happens, people. Oh yeah. Me

yelling at you. I think you got the I

think you got your pronouns off there or

whatever we're calling me yelling at you

at 2 a.m. You need to apologize to so

and so and Cheryl You're being unfair to

Cheryl Samber.

>> You know what? We had a lovely chat last

night. Scott and I did. Just so you

know. We did.

>> We tal we spoke last night.

>> We two two nights ago. Last night. Two

nights. Anyway, we had a lovely time. I

went out last night with my lovely wife.

Let's go on a quick break. We come back.

Alphabet earnings. Really interesting.

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Scott, we're back onto some earnings.

Alphabet beat earnings and revenue

expectations with a net income up almost

30% from the year prior. Well done,

Sundar Kachai. Uh the company expects

2026 capex spend to be this is

incredible 175 and uh 165 and 175

billion which could be more than double

2025 spending and obviously all on AI

shares are down 5% in the last uh couple

days because at the time of the taping

very briefly what do you think of these

alpha earnings because you've been

focused on on the Google the owner of

Google

>> uh Alphabet was my stock pick for 2025

that this is nothing short of staggering

um annual revenues uh at 400 billion

right now. YouTube revenue up 9%, Google

Cloud up 48%.

Cara, oh, and by the way, Open AI was

supposedly going to kill Google search.

Search is up 17%. Google services

revenue up

>> 14%.

>> They finally move fast.

>> The market was a little spooked by their

capex expenditure. In this case, it's a

feature, not a bug, cuz they have the

money to do it.

>> And you want to talk about a comeback

story for the ages? Back in 2022, the

market decided that search had an

existential threat with chat GPT and the

stock was off 40%. And guess where?

Guess where the stock is now since it

hit that low? It's up fourfold.

And since the quarter that chat GBPT was

released, Google search revenues are up

48%.

They get about 90 to 95 times the number

of queries as Chat GBT. And the thing I

took away from this these earnings were

two things. One, staggering. And two, I

think Open AI is [ __ ] They're getting

attacked from the side by anthropic with

incredible positioning highlighting

their their soft tissue around

advertising. They're getting attacked

from above by Alphabet, which has more

probably IP and a fire hose of two

billion people a day to point at their

own AI platforms. And they're getting

attacked from below by these openweight

LLMs out of China. I I saw this and I'm

like Jesus Christ this company is on

fire and well managed and then I thought

there is no you I think we have seen the

peak of open AI's valuation. They're

supposedly raising money at 850. I think

that'll be the high water mark.

>> All right. Hope well interesting. All

right. Now on to Disney. The company

topped earnings and revenue expectations

with experience department reporting

over $10 billion in quarterly revenue

for the first time. That's the with

parks. Overall revenue for the

entertainment segment of the company was

up 7% year-over-year. Not bad. He made

another big announcement. The CEO Bob

Iger, Josh Demorro, will replace him. He

has been at Disney for 28 years and most

recently served as chairman of Disney

Experiences, which makes up roughly 60%

of the profit last year. The company

also promoted top television executive

Dana Walden to president and chief

creative officer. The I mean she gets

the um consolation prize, I guess. Once

again, Scott Cara was right. Let's

listen to who I predicted Disney would

choose in the October of 2024.

Um, any idea who is who is going to be

the next uh Bob Iger? Probably be

someone internally pro. I'm guessing

either Josh or or Dana Walden. One of

those two. It just seemed like it's hard

to run a company like Disney if you

haven't been there 103 years. Um, so uh

we asked our friend and founding partner

of Puck, Bill Cohen, for his thoughts on

the transition. Let's just quickly

listen to him what he had to say.

>> In many ways it was the inevitable

choice. Uh, in some ways it was the most

ironic choice. Uh, I say the ironic

choice because of course uh Bob Chapek

uh ran the parks and events uh division

of Disney when Bob Iger selected him to

be his first successor. And we all know

that that did not work out uh at all.

And now he's got uh Dearo as his uh

successor, also from the parks division.

And I say the inevitable choice because

look, let's face it, that's the division

that's been hitting it uh out of the

ballpark uh for the last few years. He's

been monetizing uh the Disney IP uh

beautifully. They were also very smart

in keeping uh the people around uh at uh

Disney uh who uh have the skills that he

doesn't have uh including Dana Walden

promoting her, Alan Bergman, Jimmy

Petaro uh running ESPN. So, he's got a

good cast around him. If tomorrow can

keep up uh what he's done at uh in the

parks department and uh increase the

Disney stock price, which of course is

what everybody wants him to do because

it's floundered for the last couple of

years, uh he'll be a success. If if uh

he can't do those things, and it's a big

question mark still, uh he may go the

way of Bob Chapek.

>> Uh it's too big, actually. But uh what

this really interesting, I thought that

was really smart. I mean,

It's still you Scott and I both think

this companyy's going to get bought for

some reason. I just Right. Correct. Are

we still on that?

>> If it if it doesn't get if it doesn't

get bought that's inviting an activist.

They'll give the new CEO a 24-month

honeymoon period. But I wouldn't be

surprised if someone is aggregating

stock right now because if you look at

the 10-year returns of the S&P, it's

almost quadrupled. Disney is flat. And

Bob Iger is the guy who decided after a

successful tour of Vietnam to go back

and basically has had his legs blown

off. I mean the the one of the worst

decisions in history in corporate

history personally was for Bob Iger to

decide to shoot his successor and come

back in like he was MacArthur. He

wasn't. He anyways um this company will

have an overhang on it until they do the

following.

This should be good bank. It should be,

if you will, it should be um the

streaming service, the studio, and the

parks. They feed each other IP, there's

Synergy, and there's flywheels. And then

they've got to get rid of um ESPN, ABC,

cable networks, FX, Free Form, Disney

Channel, Nat Gio, cuz these things are

just an anchor. and the linear

businesses

and the linear businesses are just

awful. But the experiences, the parks

and cruises and streaming are growing

and getting profitable. And when you

have a conglomerate like this, what the

market does is they find the shittiest

business which is the linear business

and they assign that multiple to the

entire company. So Disney is probably in

my view is one of the few values or good

buys out there right now because it has

unmatched IP. the parks business,

assuming that the tariffs are reversed

and people start coming back to the US

at some point, is is singular. I don't

care what anyone think. If you don't

take your kids and spend $1,400 a night

in a shitty hotel three or four times

before the age of 10, they call child

services on you. They have a monopoly on

>> not just that. Not just that, it's toys.

>> Frozen. You have to have Disney Plus.

>> They still haven't been like, you know,

like I don't think they they don't have

Coco Melon. I think that's over at

Netflix. They they still haven't caught

on to some trends. That's my worry for

them is they've got a lot of old trends,

right? A lot of old stuff like uh K-pop

Demon Hunters, for example. That was

Netflix again. Like, and some of the

other ones that are very popular with

kids, the more cutting edge ones, they

don't seem to be on top of them. So, I

would imagine that uh Dana and there has

to really focus on that. Like what is

hot? like they they they have the

traditionals and Frozen two and I mean

three and four are coming out which of

course we have to see and then we'll

have all the things um but you know

they've missed a lot of turns on the

newest kind of viral phenomenas that are

very lasting too right and so that would

be my thing and but content isn't the

point it's the parks it's the streaming

it's the IP and what do you do with that

and so to me they have to really um

understand maybe have a little more of a

range change an IP or something like

that as as they're doing over at Netflix

and other places. Just they could be a

little more innovative. But you're

right, it has to be spun off. Let Jimmy

Baro run all of those. I've known him

for a long time from Yahoo and very

smart executive.

>> Their their experiences division in Q1

reported three times the operating

income as the entertainment division.

The entertainment division,

>> the crown jewel there, the streaming

services are actually getting some

leverage. Their operating income was up

72%. So if you have this unbelievable

singular business with enormous modes

called the experiences division and you

have the studios which create IP for

your streaming services which is getting

momentum and right now you know Netflix

is Walmart and Disney is LVMH in the

sense that Disney has a singular

positioning around family that will be

very strong for a long time and command

margin. those two growth companies

together and then you shed the problem

child the linear networks this company

immediately they could I I said this

last year I think they could sell and

they won't do this ESPN ABC

Entertainment Global Networks FX all

that [ __ ] NetGo I think they could sell

it for a dollar and the company would be

worth more in six months

>> because it's an enormous overhang on

them

>> makes a lot of profit

>> every analyst every analyst report says

the following good good, great, good,

but there's always a butt and that is

these huge cable companies. And by the

way, that company

just done it before he leaves, you know,

done.

>> I think he wanted a bigger number. He

put a for sale sign on these things 24

months ago.

>> He did. Yeah.

>> But private equity and there's a and now

it's like whatever the one is from con

Comcast. Someone is going to consolidate

these things. And by the way, that'll

probably be a good stock cuz someone

will come in and start cutting costs

faster than revenue declines. And people

usually overestimate the speed of

revenue declines. That'll be a good

business. It'll be a totally different

business.

>> There's going to be a lot of activity

because look, if Paramount doesn't get

uh doesn't get Warner, that's going to

be someone on the lookout. You've got

Comcast sort of waiting in the wings. I

went to an Olympic party last night.

Boy, they have a great month coming up.

They've got the Super Bowl, they've got

the Olympics, and they've got the NBA

something or other. They're calling it

Legendary February. Um, uh, you know,

they've got to do something. So, there's

going to be a lot of activity here. And

you're right, the spin-off of ABC

provides an opportunity for any of these

players, uh, going forward. Anyway,

let's go on a quick break. When we come

back, uh, we're going to talk about the

Washington Post layoffs, and I'm going

to get some advice from Scott Galloway.

Scott, we're back with more news. The

Washington Post has laid off about 30%

of its employees. The cuts impact both

business and newsroom roles including

over 300 there roughly 800 journalists.

Interestingly, I looked at old memos. Uh

Bezos had added up to a thousand. He

really grew it and now he's on growing

it. Um in all sections of company have

been impacted with a focus on sports,

local news, and international covers.

Executive editor Matt Murray told the

staff the company had lost too much

money for too long. It will now be

focused on national news and politics,

business, and health. Uh maybe they can

hire Peter or Tia. Um, I want you not to

say people are precious right now. I

want to talk about this because I've

gotten dozens of, you know, I had been

interested in looking at figuring out a

way to buy it. Um, I've gotten lots of

calls this week from both employees,

very wealthy people, people who are

civically minded here in Washington,

rich people. Um, what do you think's

going to happen here? I mean, let me

just very briefly, since I worked there,

again, I started in the mail room. The

way they did this, Bezos hasn't said a

word. The CEO didn't talk to any

employees. Hasn't been seen since they

did this. They they handed the bag to

Matt Murray to deal with it. Um, which

to me was just cowardly. Um, you know, I

put on threads. Bezos has twice the

muscle and he's half the man from when I

met him. Um, but and that was a personal

insult. I meant it in a really very

significant way. Um, what do you do with

this? What do you do? And what do I when

I get all these calls like I'm doing

great with the podcast although

apparently you're leaving me. Um and I'm

just banging bouch.

>> Okay, it's fine. I don't care.

>> Consensuality.

Who would have thought Hunter Biden

would come across as so wholesome? All

these prostitutes are on TikTok saying

he was respectful. He likes they're all

like they're all like he likes crack and

having sex with grown women and he looks

wholesome right now. He's not in the

Epstein pile. surprised. He's nowhere in

the Epstein box.

>> I have to say, yeah, I agree.

>> He looks like Richard Thomas from the

Waltons right now.

>> Who else? Maybe Gavin Newsome. I'm like,

how did you not get in the Anyway, um

tell tell me what to do here. Tell me

what you think. Obviously, let me just

tell you. Thanks, Jeff. Really, the

economics have changed. Everybody knows

this. Stop lecturing us on things they

know. They definitely had to cut cost.

If I took it over, I I'd cut cause. not

in this nasty prickish way while I'm

appearing with Pete Hegsth. Uh looking

like I've had way too much Botox, but

and I would say something to them if I

was doing this given how rich I am and I

certainly could afford it. I don't mean

to say he has to lose money, but boy,

the look is so bad. It's such a bad

look. Him swaning around Paris while

he's done this and then not even

speaking to them. The whole thing just

stinks the way he handled this of really

good people who will find who will find

jobs at some point and but it's a lot of

people in the market all at once. So

what to do here without insulting this?

Go ahead.

>> Okay. So this is Cara Swisser calling me

at 11 p.m. or midnight asking my advice

from the Washington Post and if and how

you should get involved. Is that

accurate?

>> Yes, correct.

>> Okay. First thing I say is hold on a

second. I got to take my dogs out to pee

because I just took edibles and I'll

forget. And if they pee on the stone,

I'm I'm going to be in a bowl of hurt.

That's the first thing I say.

>> All right. So now you

>> I take the dogs on a walk and I think

about it. This is what I would say to

you. Don't touch this thing with a

[ __ ] 10-ft pole. Cuz here's the

bottom line.

>> First off, Jeff Bezos has made a

terrible personal brand error by not

doing the following. He should have

said, "I have incredible reverence for

uh journalism, for free speech. I bought

this because I think it plays an

important role in our society. it has

come to my attention or I have decided

I'm just not the right owner and he

should have sold it to Bloomberg or some

other billionaire two years ago and they

would had a going away party forum and

he should have wrapped himself in

the importance of great journalism and

there are what's so sad right now about

the Washington Post is from I would call

it kind of 2018 to 2023

they were on an upslope I started

reading the Washington Post I subscribed

to for its business news. I thought they

did a really good job of business

coverage.

>> Talented journalist, an important

>> good stories.

>> Yeah. An important

>> American asset and he should have gone

out. Instead, he looks like someone who

is purposefully trying to disassemble it

limb by limb. Now, the reason you should

not get near this, Cara, is because if

you were worth 10 billion and willing to

allocate two or three billion over the

next 20 or 20 years, I'd say

>> for the good. Yeah,

>> have at it. It's philanthropy. Because

here's the bottom line. In an era of

social media where two-thirds of news is

now garnered off of social media where

they don't have to pay for content, long

for thoughtful fact check investigative

journalism is a shitty business. And

also, let me be clear, the few newsrooms

I have been in, and I've been in some

important ones, there's a general

expectance and entitlement that, oh,

you're some rich person and you're

funding my very important civic duty,

and I find there's a lack of recognition

of the fact this is a private company

that needs to figure out a way to make

money.

>> I think that's been starched out of

them. But go ahead. I agree with you. I

I still think they find themselves

especially precious and that

billionaires owe them a living.

>> Well,

>> and there may be they may be there may

be billionaires who see an opportunity

here

>> to if you could find a billionaire

backer who said this is so important and

there are amazing journalists. It's an

important asset. We have fewer and fewer

of these assets that actually do the

work and people trust. This plays an

important role in society. I'm hoping

that someone pops up and says, "I'm

putting together a an advisory board of

12 amazing journalists, business people

that will be the oversight board other

than writing a check for $200 million to

subsidize this thing every year, I'm not

going to be involved because I see the

importance." It's the same way someone

writes a one or $200 million check to

their favorite, you know, to Peeta or to

or to uh, you know, Planned Parenthood

or to whatever it might be, PB, what

whatever their philanthropy.

And I say that in the best of terms, and

that is it has a social good, but as a

capitalist endeavor, this [ __ ] just

doesn't make any sense. Unfortunately,

if you got involved without without

having billions of dollars to throw at

the problem, you would just get you

would get all of the frustration with

none of the credit or the appreciation

regardless of your skills in journalism.

So, unless you're willing to partner,

unless you can find a billionaire who

says, "Okay, I'm going to take your

guidance around an advisory board. We're

going to run this thoughtfully. We are

going to impose some discipline on it,

but we're willing to lose a 100red to 2

million million a year. It's just going

to be good money after bad and more

frustration.

>> Could there's no restructuring of this

from your perspective? I mean, it

doesn't have to be what it is, right?

You and I have both started businesses

and quite successful ones

>> unless you're going to milk it. There's

no business here. There's no c there's

no for-profit business here,

>> right? That's what I'm saying. What else

could you imagine it being?

>> I think the What's the one in the London

that you where you live? The Guardian,

right? Don't

>> I think in order to get profits, you

have to engage in rage baiting and AB

testing and a lack of factchecking and

not the New York Times has done

everything right in my view in terms of

investing early in innovation and

technology and it's still a small shitty

business. Only fans will do more revenue

than New York Times this year.

>> Absolutely.

>> So what do you do? I I of course you

invest in digital. Of course you have

more subscription programs. But the the

the only business strategy here is the

following. You have to find a deep

pocketed billionaire who says this is

such an important asset. It has such

positive externalities for our society

that it's worth me cutting a check for

100 to 200 million a year.

>> But the notion that someone's going to

come in and reinvent the Washington Post

with new subscriptions and new ideas.

No, it's not going to happen.

>> I don't think that. Let me tell you. I

think there is I agree with you. It's

not a big and you're right. The New York

Times is incredibly successful and is a

very small business. I wouldn't say it's

a shitty business. It's a small

business, right? It's not Sorry,

Meredith, but it is. It's small, but but

she's done a great job with her small

business.

>> Unbelievable. And it's profitable, which

is great. I wonder if you could do that

here and have a similar juosition

because the Post has always been the

sort of the Jan to Marsha at the New

York Times, right? But I like

>> pretty distant second. I know. Pretty

distant second.

>> It is. And of course the journal is in

there too. And that's going to undergo

something when Rupert goes, you know,

there's that's going to change. Um but

but it's a really interesting to me. I

know it's emotional. I know you know you

think it's emotional, but I always think

like if I was handed CBS, I'm like I

don't know what to do here. like I

wouldn't the post I'm like well what if

we try like it feels like there is some

opportunity here and I don't mean to

make a lot of money that's not what I'm

talking about I'm talking about making

something that is sustainable useful

profitable enough right so that and and

and serves enormous profitable in terms

of society right in helping society and

helping really good journalists do what

they do best and get get out of their

way that's my feel that's how I feel but

you're Right. It's a it's I I was saying

to someone this morning,

>> there's no way you can maintain the

quality of journalism and the

factchecking and the investigative

reporting unless you have someone who

recognizes the public good outweighs the

profit motive here. I agree.

>> And we keep we keep finding new people

who think that they can have both.

>> And the reality is if you want to give

people bodily autonomy and have Planned

Parenthood in Mississippi, you're gonna

lose money. I mean,

>> this is a public good.

>> Yeah. It plays an important role and I

pray I can't for the life of me figure

out why Bezos didn't find

>> this is the bottom line. Republican

billionaires buy football teams,

Democratic billionaires by media

companies.

>> Except turned into whatever he turned

into.

>> Why didn't he call Michael Bloomberg and

say, "Michael, you already have a

newsroom.

>> Take this off my hands for a dollar."

>> Yeah.

>> And Bloomberg, whatever you think of

Michael Bloomberg, he's a hero of mine.

>> Yeah.

>> I think he cares about I think he cares

about democracy. He tries to hit it down

the middle. I think he would do a great

job with the post.

>> Then he's not so insecure as Jeff Bezos

>> and at some point one of these one of

these 30 or 40ome crypto or tech

billionaires is going to pop up. Matthew

Prince from Cloudflare just pulled out

of my ass. He strikes me as a really

thoughtful guy, a really nice man. I'm

like, is your legacy going to be a

cloud-based company or is it going to be

maybe saying journalism is important?

I'm gonna take a billion dollars and

over the next decade I'm gonna make sure

that the Washington Post continues to

have you know

>> or maybe maybe a lot of these people

>> no fear no favor around DC politics or

it's a consortion of them but it but the

first meeting has to be

>> the first meeting has to be stop the

[ __ ] consensual hallucination we're

going to lose $100 million a year.

>> I agree. I agree. And on a personal

level, I have to say when I was talking

to someone this morning who I very much

like I was like, you know, I'm making a

ton of money and I get to do what I want

and it's easy. It's not easy. It's just

pleasurable.

>> Oh, Cara, if I'm telling you, if I were

advising you personally, I'd be like,

don't get [ __ ] near this. Look at

your life right now. You're having an

impact. You're making a [ __ ] ton of

money. You got young kids at home, and

you want to be up late at night talking

to the editor of something, saying why

he's pissed off at you cuz you went from

11 people to N. You don't need this [ __ ]

at this point in your life. Anyway, I I

would say let me just tell you the

please give to their guild. They got

laid off. These are people who've done

an amazing public service and I gave a

substantive amount of money for me um to

them.

>> I'm sorry. I'm I'm going to piss off

everyone. Why are we giving money to

people laid off at the

>> I do that with lots of layoffs, my

friend. You don't know that.

>> You do with the 12,000 people laid off

at Amazon last week.

>> Uh there if there's a fund, I'd be happy

to give to it. Absolutely. I do. I do.

I'm sorry. I do that a lot. You don't

know that. It's a quiet little thing I

do. Um anyway, I will if there's one a

fund for Amazon, please let me know and

I will be happy to give do it.

>> No, you won't. You're not give money to

people laid off at a greedy [ __ ] doesn't

mean I am. I give a lot more money.

>> You really think greedy [ __ ] is the

right? I think you give a I think you're

very generous. I'm just

>> Anyways, I I don't I would I would like

to know what the severance is. I'll give

you an example. This cupcake thing

called sprinkles. the the female

co-founder came on and said, "This is

not what my legacy wanted to be." She

sold the private equity and she gave

people one day's notice when they all

got fired. Those people should be

publicly shamed like crazy. I would like

to know what the severance is for these

300 people, but there are massive

layoffs everywhere.

>> I agree. And also those snake ranking

the snake rank

>> those people who are being laid off.

>> I this is going to sound weird. In some

ways, they're they're going to be better

off. The Washington Post gets very

talented people. In an effort to reduce

costs, they've hired they've gone

younger and younger because younger

people are willing to be underpaid.

You're going to see so many new

substacks.

>> You're going to see so many little puck

is going to hire a bunch of these

people. You're probably going to hire

one or two of these people,

>> maybe.

>> These people are going to go on to

greener pastures as opposed to being

subject to the whims of a billionaire

who wakes up and thinks

>> true. Oh, I don't I don't I don't know

how I feel about the post. Lay off 300

people and keep my distance from it. But

what the [ __ ] is he thinking not finding

someone else to take it off his hands? I

don't get it. I just don't get it.

>> Let me say a lot of the decline

recently. I mean, it's definitely a

secular problem has been directly

because of his stupid ass decisions.

There there was one after the next. So,

a lot of these problems were because of

the way he's been managing this and his

CEO. Let me just say Will Lewis, you

should be ashamed of yourself of how

you've behaved and all your idiotic.

>> We have a bunch of producers at our

different podcast. I don't know if you

can see, I have some of them behind me.

Carrie,

>> I know that. Yeah.

>> But

>> yeah,

>> I I called I sent a message to the woman

who runs our company and said, "We

should be reaching out to some people at

the post. Find people that we love."

>> The post right now is literally a

recruiter's dream.

>> Y

>> everyone at the post, even the ones that

the ones that didn't get laid off, will

return your call right now.

>> Yep. That's true. And these are very I

don't quite frank I I I I feel sorry

from the sense that this was their dream

job. These people are going to be just

fine.

>> Yeah.

>> The these are very talented people. So I

don't

>> I think part of capitalism is

>> I get it.

>> You know if you make if you make it easy

to fire people, you make it easy to hire

them. I think I would bet 95% of these

people in two years look back on this

and go, "Yeah, I miss it."

>> Yeah, a lot of them.

>> It was great training and I'm making

more money and having more impact and

more relevance now.

>> You are fun. Yeah, it's true.

>> And I don't have to wake up and hear

what a guy in parting in St. Barts

thinks about layoffs. I don't

>> It's true. It's true. But in any case,

Jeff, you're such an [ __ ] Anyway, uh

one more quick break. We'll be back for

predictions. Okay, Scott, let's uh hear

a prediction. Um I I'm going to um take

a moment though uh before you do that uh

to say uh Savannah Guthri's family uh

with their mom missing. I know I've met

her mom. She's amazing. I I hope I hope

hope they find her alive. And it's so

sad what's happening. It's getting far

too much. Like the media is sort of

jumping all over it in kind of an

unourred way. But if that helps get her

back, I'm all for it. Um but I just want

to send my love out to her family. She

They're wonderful people.

It's really interesting, isn't it, how

some stories really kind of I mean

35,000 people have supposedly been

murdered in Iran.

>> Yeah.

>> And but this story really hits you

because a people really really

appreciate and have a lot of fondness

for Savannah,

>> but occasionally there's a story and it

just it grabs you, right? I mean, this

story this story has really grabbed

people because

>> this is kind of everyone's

>> nightmare, not knowing what's happening,

not knowing what's going on. Mhm.

>> But I I was really struck at how and it

it's nice that occasionally people slow

down and when they hear an individual

story, it really moves them. And I think

actually I think the attention being

brought to it is probably a good thing.

I think there's a lot if anyone sees her

mom they're going to know it.

>> That's right.

>> Right. That's right.

>> And so I think it's

>> Anyways, I I

>> there's a surprising not big number of

kidnappings too like in this country.

>> It's very rare.

>> Yeah.

>> We all talk about the fear of kids and

kidnapping.

>> It's all over TV, but it's not true.

It's it's very it's very very rare.

>> Right. All right. Let's hear a

prediction from you.

>> Effectively, I don't know if this is

really good news, but essentially

um there are social media bans breaking

out all over the world. Norway has a

complete ban under 13. Belgium requires

children under 13 to have parental

permission. Germany requires parental

consent for users aged 13 to 16. Italy

requires parental consent at signup for

users under the age of 14. And Spain

just announced that it's going to um it

uh it's the latest country. They're

banning social media kids under 16. 82%

of Spaniards support banning social

media for kids under 14. Greece is also

nearing a social media ban for children

under 15. Australia's implemented a

similar ban. I also just a shout out to

my colleague Jonathan Height. I think

this would have happened anyway, but

he's expedited it and I think he

deserves a lot of credit for this. Um, I

mean, if you, for those of you thinking

about going to academia, you can go into

academia, study social science, get a

PhD in psychology, and someday get

entire nations to ban phones in schools.

So, to think that academics don't

matter, it's you can have a lot of

impact. Anyways, that's not my

prediction. Um, my prediction is that

this is essentially not only common

sense around our children, but this is

the beginning of reciprocal tariffs.

What do I mean by that? Other nations

are sick of the sclerotic, irrational,

punitive economic warfare that the Trump

administration has levied on them with

tariffs. And their tariffs are the

following. They're going to start

banning our social media platforms. Uh

the UK is already going after X. You are

going to start to see over the course of

the next 12 to 24 months entire nations

say, you know what, maybe we don't need

YouTube here. Maybe Meta should not be

here. May and they'll they'll blanket

>> Zoom. I think France is stopping using

Zoom in the government.

>> They're going to blanket in, okay, Meta

is bad for children, which is true. But

the real motivation in my view is going

to be like, you know what, we're kind of

sick. If you're going to start making it

harder for Americans to buy our Mercedes

and our Vuitton, we're going to make it

harder for people to watch YouTube and

be on Instagram. I think European

nations and the rest of the G7 are sick

of big tech coming in sucking

billions of dollars out of their economy

in exchange for opening a Facebook

office in Milan. Their newspapers are

going out of business. Their media

companies are going out of business.

Their manufacturers are going out of

business. And this is essentially the

thing that is tipping these companies

over and giving them the backbone to

start banning these things. And it's

going to go up the food chain pretty

soon. you're going to see a large nation

say, "You know what? I don't think we

need Google."

So, this is while it's being done under

the very righteous and worthwhile cause

of protecting children, which I

celebrate and I think is important.

Effectively, what this is is a

reciprocal tariff. And pretty soon, it's

going to start creeping up. You know

what's going to happen? Big countries

are going to decide, you know what? We

no longer want to use Goldman Sachs and

McKenzie to do our banking. If you're

gonna start [ __ ] with us, we're gonna

start [ __ ] with you.

>> Speaking of consumers, they're

consumers, so they can speak with their

they can walk. They can walk. That's the

>> I love the idea of consumers speaking

with their with their spending power. I

think it makes all the sense.

>> I know you do. That's why you look like

a like a unsuccessful pimp this week.

What's your outfit for next week?

>> I don't know. I'm thinking I bought I

I'll give you a hint. I'll I'll give you

a hint.

>> Okay.

>> I have a hockey jersey and I'm not

wearing any pants.

>> Oh, nice. That's good. Good. Be on

brand. That's perfect. That's perfect.

on trend and on brand. Uh that's a

really that's really important, Scott,

and I think you're right. This is there

are before when when these Europe was

not innovative the way the US has been

and all these services. There are