Hello, Los Angeles.

>> Today's number, 98%. The percentage of

people in this chosen profession who do

not make a living in their chosen

profession. Acting.

Welcome to ProfG G Markets.

There we go. So, I usually start with a

joke. I was trying to think of a

streaming joke. Uh, Ed, true story. I

broke up with my first girlfriend

because she claimed that Netflix was the

lowest price streaming media company.

And I just couldn't have a relationship

with someone who was a Hulu cost denier.

Hulu cost.

>> Yeah. Yeah, they get it. All right. You

want a dick joke? Is that what we're

looking for here?

>> Ed, I just have this

this sinking feeling my girlfriend has a

dick. It's just something I feel inside

of me.

>> Welcome to Prop Market from Los Angeles.

>> That's good. It's very good to be here

uh here in Los Angeles, known as the

center of Hollywood. That's what a lot

of people think of LA, but it's it's

also the center of a very exciting new

technology. And before we'd like to

begin, I just like to share some numbers

of my own. You know, I love data Scott.

uh on that technology and this historic

city's relationship to it. So before we

start, I just going to give you uh share

some data here. Uh so this today's

number, the first number is 3,000.

That is the percentage increase in

California's GLP1 prescriptions in less

than 5 years.

The next number is 1 in 10. That is the

share of Californians who currently use

GLP-1 drugs. The final number is $1.6

billion. That is how much the state of

California spent on Ozic and WGOI in one

year. More than the entire state park

budget. Very impressive numbers, Scott.

You know, I think maybe half of these

people have probably lost their jobs to

AI. But the one thing that I can see

looking at the audience is everyone is

very hot and very thin. So, let's just

give it up for the crowd one more time,

the city of Los Angeles, and then we're

going to start getting into the show.

Before we do that,

>> we can't talk about GLP1 just for.

>> So, uh, seriously, I think GLP1 is going

to be bigger than AI. And it AI is

basically fear is the product. I'm so

[ __ ] awesome. I've created this

monster that's going to destroy the

world after I've sold my shares and

peace out to the code deserve with a

bunch of Russian [ __ ] That's not

helpful.

GL talk to anyone who's on a GLP-1 or

use and uses AI every day and ask them

what's had a bigger impact on their

life. And while the incumbents and the

current seniors or incumbent industry or

politicians want to create this illusion

of complexity around how difficult it

would be to solve our problems, whether

it's inflation, weakness, uh a lack of

optimism for the future for young

people, it comes down to our deficit.

The easiest way, absolutely the easiest

way to solve the deficit problem would

be the following.

In Japan, they spend $5,500 per consumer

on per capita on healthcare. We spend

135. We spend $8,000 more than Japan on

health care. Times 350 million people,

you're talking about $3 trillion a year

in incremental health care costs. Why?

40% of America is obese. 72% are obese

or overweight. In Japan, 4% are obese.

If you wanted to solve the deficit, you

would go after the health industrial

complex, hospital systems, kidney

dialysis, statins, pharmaceuticals.

And just just to piss off people on the

left, the diabetes industrial complex

has tried to convince us that people

aren't obese. They're finding their

truth. No, they're not. They're finding

a [ __ ] ventilator. Obesity is the

menace in this society. And we have we

have a way to solve it. America should

put out, the government should put out

an RFP for a billion doses of GLP-1 and

give it free to any household in any

rural area making less than $60,000 a

year. You would see slowly but surely

our health care costs go down and for

the first time we could really

significantly address our deficit. But

instead, the incumbents want to convince

you that it's not a solvable problem.

GLP1 is the technology that could

revolutionize the West. Back to you, Ed.

I think you're preaching to the choir

here. And now that we've done that, I'm

going to move us on to our first story

of the evening. We are live in the

entertainment capital of the world. Here

in Los Angeles, movies and TV generate

more than 115 billion dollars every year

and support nearly 700,000 jobs.

Hollywood doesn't just drive culture

here. It drives the economy itself.

However, the industry is at a turning

point. AI is rapidly changing how films

are made and at the same time the

traditional media model continues to

erode. Last year, the combined

viewership of broadcast and cable was

surpassed by streaming for the first

time in history. Meanwhile, short form

video continues to surge as well. So,

the big question that is hanging over

this city is simple. What will the

future of Hollywood actually look like?

Here to answer that question, we are

speaking with the man at the center of

the industry. Ladies and gentlemen,

please welcome Ted Sarandos, the co-CEO

of Netflix.

>> Thank you for being with us, Ted.

>> Thank you for having me.

>> I hope you weren't offended by Scott's

jokes.

>> I'm glad the joke portion is out of the

way.

>> He was covering his ears.

>> I was just hearing all about GOP3s now.

So, which is very LA that we want the

next thing. We don't the more advanced

one.

>> Yeah. Is that the one that gives you a

head of hair? If I had your hair, I'd be

I'd l If I had his hair with my rap, I'd

be the number two leading in the polls

for the Democratic nomination for

president.

>> Look at that hair.

>> Yeah, that's the problem. Yeah. All

right. So, we're going to get into the

questions here. Ted, I'd like to start

with something I think is on everyone's

minds, and that is the maybe

acquisition, then not acquisition of

Warner Brothers Discovery. Just to jog

everyone's memory back in December,

Netflix had agreed to buy Warner

Brothers Discovery or at least the

studios and the streaming assets for $83

billion. And at that point, it started

something of a bidding war with David

Ellison of Paramount. There was kind of

a a lot of auctioning happening and then

eventually David Ellison uh bought the

company for $10 billion. Netflix decided

to walk away. So, first question to you.

What was the thinking behind going after

these assets and then what was the

thinking in ultimately deciding to walk

away from the deal? Um, we looked at

Warner Brothers as an asset, kind of a

once in a generation asset. Uh, basu

company that does te television

production. We're one of their biggest

buyers in that space. um and a a wealth

of IP that we could develop into. You

know, we're I'm very proud of the team

and I'm very proud of what Netflix does,

but we've been doing it for about a

decade and they've been doing it for 100

years.

>> Yeah.

>> So, for us it was being able to uh

accelerate our existing business model,

our success story with or without it. Um

and we figured out what the price point

was. And one one of the things that I've

been doing at Netflix since the

beginning is valuing content and

figuring out what is it worth to us?

what is it worth in the market? Um, we

did all the work. We came up with the

price point you talked about and we

thought that's what if we can buy it for

that that would be good for the

business, good for our shareholders,

good for our members. Uh, and but a

price significantly higher than that, it

wouldn't be. And I think typically when

people get into these deals, it's a lot

of emotion. There's a lot of ego and you

don't want to lose. You put in a lot of

work. Um, and when they came back with

this significantly higher price point,

um, it was more than we were willing to

pay and we just we said no. um a lot of

ego sounds

>> and like I said we have built to where

we are today organically and we have

tons of headroom to keep continue to do

that. Um and this would have just been a

little quicker at its own.

>> What do you think the odds are of AI

coming not even at Hollywood but at the

creative community in general? Do you

think do you think the fear is

overestimated underestimated?

>> Um I think it's overestimated. I think

um like every other techn technology

advance in entertainment and

storytelling, it's made the business

better and bigger um by presenting more

opportunity. And I think creators today

are going to use it. I've seen this

evolution from the beginning of friends

who are writers who said that we're

going to do everything we can to stop

AI. It's going to destroy our careers to

the point where they're using Claude as

a writing partner today. Uh and they

basically use it, train it to say this

is how I write. This is how I think

about character. This is how I move

story. Here's everything I've ever

written. Now, you're not allowed to

write anything for me, but you can you

can bounce ideas off of me all the time,

all day long. And it's been makes them a

better writer. They believe it makes

them a better writer. It doesn't replace

a writer's room because a writer will

come up a writer's room will come up

with a couple of good ideas, a couple of

interesting ideas, a couple of original

ideas. AI is not built to do that ever.

I mean the the the the tool itself is

built to give you the most predictable

outcome possible, the antithesis of what

we're trying to do when you make a TV

show or a film. So will will AI help

things? I look at things right now of

how we're using it in production today.

Things like previs. So even just think

about the the technically working out a

very complicated stunt shot before you

do it, which increases the safety on

set. I mean people forget that people

die on these productions all the time.

Uh and so these kind of things are

making the business a lot more efficient

with something and again I don't think

it's meant to replace any creativity. I

don't think it's designed for that and

on its best day it won't do that. Um and

if you somebody says well what about if

you need a script you don't need a

script that's surprising. You've seen

these you know these Hallmark movies and

these kind of things that they they want

them to be predictable. Well, the the

cost of the script for those movies

about 1% of the budget. So, it's not a

gigantic savings for anyone to do that

or pursue that. So, I'm actually much

more excited about the upside and the

potential of the technology than I'm

worried about it's going to displace

creatives.

>> So, we always make a prediction at the

end of the show.

>> In fact, I'm very long on human

creation. I'm in I'm building a billion

dollar studio in New Jersey right now.

So, I'm I'm very long on human creation.

Yeah.

So, at the end of the show, we always

make a prediction. And two years ago, I

made a prediction that Netflix would

merge with a large entertainment company

and become the biggest media

subscription company in the world.

Except I predicted it was going to be

Disney. I look at Disney, its stock is

below where it was 10 years ago. And I

see a combination between Netflix and

Disney where you would take your

unbelievable IP, you know, K-pop Demon

Hunters, uh, Wednesdays, Stranger Things

rides, vertical eyes in what is a

singular parks business. And then you

you would own Family and Adult. You'd be

the largest. And quite frankly, I would

want to break up. I don't think that I

don't think that merger should ever

happen because I think

>> you don't like these mergers. I know you

don't. Yeah. Well, we're going to talk

about inflation later, but corporations

have been able to consolidate and charge

everyone higher rents, but that's a

longer talk show.

>> But you could get it done in this

administration.

>> Thank you. Um,

but you could get it done in this

administration.

Would you ever consider do or let me put

it a different way academically? Do you

see the industrial logic behind creating

this unbelievable vertical juggernaut

with your IP, their distribution with

parks and owning subscription across

family and adult? To me, that just makes

all sorts of industrial logic. Look, I

think that right now one of the big

benefits we've had as a brand from the

beginning of time, we started mailing

DVDs just around the US, but back then

we carried every single thing ever

published on DVD. So, we had over

100,000 titles to choose from on

Netflix. So we were a kids brand, we

were a art house brand, we're a

documentary brand. And because of

personalization, it we we really were

all those things to all those different

people. So we didn't really pigeon

pigeon hole oursel. So we when we say

what's a Netflix show, it's your

favorite show. It's really not like, you

know, Disney is going to have a very

hard time getting broader than a family

brand. They're very, very good at it.

They're really great at it. Uh but it's

very difficult for them when they try to

get too broad. And I and we are a

general entertainment brand. be just

because it's in our DNA and we got very

good at serving all those individual

audiences and personalizing the

experience in a way that they didn't

really have to and most company most

entertainment companies don't HBO has

got a very specific brand you know

people think oh it's an HBO show it's a

prestige television that's all but it's

pretty narrow and and they've never been

able to get into the family business for

that reason and I think our advantage is

is that we are a broad we're a broad

brand and not just um casual but we're

I would argue bestin-class in all those

categories. So, I think that's helped us

not need to do the things you're talking

about. No. Do I want to someday be in

the parks business? I'm not sure. Uh,

but we're doing right now we're looking

at, you know, we're opening, we opened

one in Dallas, one in uh Philadelphia,

Netflix House, which is a 100,000 square

foot entertainment experience that does

all those kind of things, but it's a

night out. It's not where you go on

vacation. Uh, and that's we're kind of

toe dipping on some of this stuff, some

of the consumer experiences. We have a

live tour coming up of K-pop Demon

Hunters, that kind of thing. So, it

would accelerate that for sure. But,

that's a a very big transaction you're

talking about. And we're really not like

we're not seeking uh, you know, to to go

out and buy things. We built everything.

We're much better bu builders than

buyers, I think. Um, and I think like I

said that the Warner Brothers aside

because it was a very unique uh product.

Uh, it didn't have all the things you

don't want in that deal. Uh, and it did

have great IP and it was a if at a price

point we'd have closed on it. But

there's I don't I can't think of any

other thing like it.

>> Yeah. You mentioned Netflix House you

said which recently launched in

Philadelphia in Dallas. The plan is to

Vegas coming soon.

>> Vegas coming up. Um, it seems as though

Netflix is getting into the parks

business. Um, you said it's maybe a

night out, but how central is physical

venues? How central are live events to

the business going forward?

>> Look, it's mostly about fandom. It's

mostly about how do you express your

fandom? How do you like, oh my god, I

can't get I can't wait for One Piece the

new season. So, you go and you have this

experience uh, you know, in inside a

Netflix house and there's a big

incredible uh, One Piece escape room and

you take all your friends and you have a

great night out. Um, I I don't think

these are these are all kind of additive

to the really strengthens the IP uh, in

in a great way. And at the end at the

end of the day, it's it can be a very

profitable business too if you do it

well and do it right at at scale.

>> Yeah, Netflix is one of the largest

streamers in the world. It's certainly

more popular than Disney Plus,

Paramount, Hulu. There is one other,

some would call it a streaming service

though which is very popular uh and that

is YouTube uh which is actually

dominating in terms of television

viewing time. How do you think about

YouTube? Do you think of YouTube as a

competitor? And if so, what is your

approach to competing with them? I look

at anyone who you you pick up your

remote control and decide what you're

going to watch as a competitor. And I

think to your point, if people are

watching YouTube on on television, I

they we compete with them for that time.

And I don't think we compete with them

directly for that type of content or

that kind of engagement, but definitely

for that time spent. And I think the

beauty of of every advancement of

entertainment is it keeps ratcheting the

bar up and everyone has got to compete

for the next thing. So if people are

interested in this, you got to get good

at that. And you have to keep doing

that. I think if you think about how

back when broadcast television, it was

just broadcast television and then

there's cable channels and then there's

cable originals and then there's premium

paid channels and there's premium

originals and they keep kind of

ratcheting up on on each other. By the

time we got into it, the likeliness that

a streamer was going to produce a an HBO

caliber show like House of Cards was

pretty un unthought of. Um, so the but I

think this is kind of the same thing.

Will people uh step into YouTube because

it's a very easy entry point uh to

develop their storytelling skills and

will they find that that the

monetization there is not quite what

they want it to be if they've got bigger

ambitions and will they go out and look

for other things Netflix perhaps or

another streamer another network all

those things will happen and it's all

just part of the landscape of how people

are watching and it's not I I'm I'm

frankly fascinated by watching like for

me if I watch Saturday Night Live on

Sunday morning on YouTube.

>> Am I watching NBC? Am I watching

YouTube? Or am I watching Saturday Night

Live?

>> So, are we competing with them? I'm sure

we could. I If I was watching uh NBC, of

course, we're competing.

>> Yeah.

>> So, I think so. We're just We We're

trying to constantly win those moments

of truth when you sit down on the couch

and pick up the TV, press the button to

choose what you're going to watch. I've

got to entertain you.

>> Yes. One thing you didn't mention on

that point, you're competing with

YouTube when you pick up the remote and

you turn on the TV.

Increasingly, people aren't even doing

that. They're taking their phones out

and they're scrolling on their phones.

And for young people, for Gen Z, we're

spending around 8 hours a day on our

phones. To me, that's eating into

content time. That's eating into watch

time. And something we've been talking a

lot about uh on on on the show is the

idea that clips seem to be taking over.

Short form content seems to be kind of

king at the moment. Do you those are

obviously dominated by basically

Instagram uh you could argue YouTube

shorts kind of and Tik Tok do you think

of Meta and Tik Tok as competitors as

well? I think if they're if they're

doing it on the TV, I do. I do. And I I

would tell you this. I think that people

what's really remarkable. Um if you look

at the consumption of professional

content, uh TV film, TV series, films um

on phones, it's that the cons that

consumption has been remarkably flat for

about seven years now. So you you are

seeing a lot more video on mobile.

>> Yeah.

>> But the the professional content on

mobile is about 2%. And it's been

steady. And what's more amazing is

through the entire advent of the

internet and tablets and phones and

YouTube and all this all these free

options even that um television

consumption and movie watching on bigger

screens is remarkably stable too. So

people are multitasking there's all

these you know to describe this to make

to make it make sense you have to think

well how is that possible? Well, they're

doing it at the same time. And so, and I

do think that there's one of those

things where say, "Well, people don't

have the attention span for TV anymore."

Well, wait till the new season of

Wednesday comes out and people sit in

front of their TV watch eight hours of

Wednesday. Happens every season.

>> So, the good news is in 2008, I bought

Netflix stock for $12 a share.

>> Wow.

>> Here we go. Yeah. But wait, now you

listen to everything he says.

So it's I think on a split adjusted

basis it's now at 700. The bad news is I

sold it three months later at 10 bucks a

share for a tax loss.

I literally want to find a time machine

so I can go back find track my ass down

kill me and then kill myself.

Anyways, distinct to that your stock is

up I think 850% in the last 20 years. So

the last 5 years it's kept pace with the

S&P but it hasn't outperformed and the

last year has been not a tough year but

you're a CEO of a public company and

it's very much what have you done for me

lately and I think the general sense is

and you tell me if this is not correct

is the clip economy that

that Ed is talking about is just eating

I mean the fear is of people our age is

we don't know what we don't know and

what I see with my kids and I think

unfortunately right now the most

powerful force in media I would argue is

probably Instagram else and that is our

brain. We have a generation of people

being wired to consume content in 60 and

90 second for big format.

>> You now have including debt the

acquisition you passed up you

technically

after I I heard you were passing I

texted I'm like you got $12 billion to

go plan traffic now it feels like you do

need to inspire some more growth. You're

you're still growing, but I doubt you

think of yourself as a mature company.

And your growth your growth is still

solid, but not the growth it once was.

With that $112 billion,

where are you going to find growth? Is

it continuing to do what you do, or do

you have do you have other ideas about

new businesses you're currently not in?

>> Well, look, we're about 9% of total TV

watching right now in the US in our most

mature market. We're about 45%

penetrated in our addressable markets

and growing that penetration and growing

share in what we're doing is a big is a

big business. You know this this uh

first quarter of this year we grew our

revenue by 18%. Uh we grow our 16% we

grew our gross margin by 18%. Uh we've

got a guide off this year you know for

this year to be 12 to 14% of growth um

and 31.5% margin. We also have a

doubling of our ad business to $3

billion this year. Um, so we've got a

lot of growth on the horizon of what

we're doing because we just have barely

scratched the surface in what we're

doing. You know, it's it's remarkable to

me in some of these TV markets around

the world that we're, you know, we're

still in our infancy in a way. So you we

go out and see and if I worried a little

bit about what you were saying, I I

obviously we follow consumer trends. as

we see what young people are doing and

then having tried to distinguish what

will they do when they have more money

and less time which is generally how

these things evolve. Um and it's part

being part of their media landscape is

really important and they may use they

may use the phone to get excited about

something. Um, you saw that we just

redid our um, TV UI, but we also redid

our mobile UI and added vertical video,

not to compete with Tik Tok, but to be

um, more discoverable in a format that's

more native to younger people when they

use their phone to find things. And the

ease of use of going from this, you

know, from the vertical video on the

phone to the actual presentation on your

TV is really where we're focused. And

there's a lot of growth there. Plenty of

growth. But you don't you don't see a

need or an opportunity to take your

content and slice it up in some sort of

new using new technology and create or

play in the short form video space.

>> I I I mean we can but I think like I

said I don't know there's a lot in on

the phone there's an enormous amount of

competition for your attention on that

phone and a lot of it is free. It's

almost all free. So what I'm looking for

is the most valued moments of truth. I'm

looking for that entertainment worth

paying for. You know, when we first

started back on before, you know, from

DVD into streaming, our big mantra was

we our content has to be better than

free. Yeah.

>> Because at that time, piracy was the was

the competition and we had to be better

than piracy. We had to give people a

reason not to steal because it was so

easy to download that back in those

days. So, that was always been our

focus. We have to be we're a super

consumer focused business. We constantly

are looking at how we're entertaining

people. We look at our qual the metrics

in our internal metrics, how we grade

ourselves on how we're entertaining

people on things like, you know, how do

they complete, how fast do they go from

season 1 to season two, um do they tell

a friend, do they post about it, do they

give it two thumbs up? Um all all this

internal is always focused not on the

quantity of watching as much as the

quality of the watching because it has

to be good enough to pay for

>> on this idea of I mean Netflix is sort

of the premium product. It's better than

free. I think everyone agrees on that.

But there was a controversial decision

that you made back in 2022 that I think

you did not support, which is that you

launched ads. You launched advertising.

Um,

>> it seems to have been an enormous

success. Ad revenue is on track to

double to $3 billion, more than 250

million ad tier viewers. Talk about the

decision to implement advertising in

Netflix. A lot of people said, "No, this

needs to be a a premium product. We

don't want advertising on our platform."

But at the same time, a lot of people

use it and a lot of people seem to like

it.

>> Well, look, I I one of the things I

figure out as we go is people are re

have completely different opinions of

what's what they want and how they want

it and what's premium to them and how

they define it. And the one part of the

audience that we were not addressing was

the one who wanted a lower price point

and didn't care about ads. And there's a

lot of them. It turns out and

particularly you're talking about young

people who grew up mostly watching ad

interrupted content constantly. Yes. So

for them it wasn't it was a completely

different thing. The reason we were so

not in the advertising business at the

beginning was it was kind of a classic

counterposition move. You know when we

first got into DVD our competition was

Blockbuster video stores. What did

people hate about video stores? Late

fees. So we were the no late fee

company. We total counterpositioning. So

we get into streaming we're in the TV

business. What do people don't like

about TV back then? What were they

complaining about? Advertising and

having to wait till next week for an

episode. So, no advertising, everything

at once. Great counterposition. And over

time, how does that evolve? And we

always fancied ourselves a choice

company. We wanted to give people

unlimited choices. Well, one choice was

I would like a lower price and I don't

mind and I don't mind advertising and we

were not offering that. So, that's why

we got into it.

>> What do you think people are complaining

about now that you need to solve? Well,

over time, I think if you give you it

goes down the path you guys talking

about, I think uh people will be

complaining about AI slop in a few, you

know, pretty soon because I think

they'll look at things you if you see it

already people pick apart a movie poster

on Reddit with every little you know

glitch in the in the in the system,

right?

>> That because it was because it is AI

slop. I think it's going to I think

people will a bunch I think will will

turn on the AI slop and they'll really

more even more value quality production.

Netflix recently launched video podcasts

which is exciting.

>> Who would do a video podcast

>> lame? You've struck deals with IE art

media bar stool and many other podcasts.

And I just saw uh today that you just

signed a deal with J Shetty um who's

going to be bringing his podcast over to

Netflix. Talk a little bit about getting

into podcasting. Why is that the move

now? Look, I think it's a great

evolution of the format. So, we tried

talk shows over and over again, and I

think the format itself has kind of

given way to podcasting. Um, I think the

internet has kind of stratified things.

Everything movies are either gigantic or

tiny, you know what I mean? And there's

kind of nothing in the middle anymore.

And I think with podcast, it's kind of

this the same thing around people's

appetite to hear an interview with their

someone that they're interested in. They

really want to hear this long free form

interview uh that with their no makeup

and guard down uh just a real casual

conversation and they're not really in

they don't care how long you know

they'll spend 3 hours on these things

sometimes or they want the 30 secondond

clip of it. What they don't want is the

overproduced 7minute couch interview on

the talk show that they used to tune

into. You know when I was growing up 45

million people at night used to tune in

to Johnny Carson and watch and so the

whole country was into that. Uh today as

you see the late night ratings are not

what they used to be. It gets chopped up

into clips and people are mostly

watching it in social anyway. So when I

look at this and say well what we

weren't doing was this new generation of

talk shows and I think it's we're seeing

we're very small in it today. We're

moving is very rapidly on it. J Shetty

was kind of the big deal today because

it's moving from YouTube to Netflix and

Spotify. Um and the what we're seeing in

the very early days that's very

promising is that people are watching um

and they're watching during the day uh

where they tip where streaming usually

doesn't take place much uh and they're

watching more more mobile than they used

than they're than we're used to seeing

on other for on other kinds of

programming.

>> Well, if you ever want to acquire a

podcast with a strange professor and a

guy with a weird accent,

>> you'll find you'll have to work on that

Hulu joke before you come over.

Yeah, I think your insight on podcast is

just just genius.

>> Remember the old like podcast where now

video podcast. Now when you ask someone

to be on the podcast, they got to they

got to get dressed up. They got to go.

They got used to

>> turning into talk show. Everything's

turning into TV.

>> Everything's a talk show. Yeah, exactly.

I'm glad we don't have to eat hot wings

to sit here. It's nice.

>> So

you could live anywhere you want. I

mean, you could be the co-CEO of Netflix

from anywhere given the way your

industry um is set up and the dynamic

and the kind of the currency you have in

the marketplace and you choose to live

in LA and I I find I don't know because

of social media, but I find all the [ __ ]

posting of cities on the West Coast is

just so overdone. I was in San Francisco

yesterday.

I was in the hellscape of San Francisco

yesterday and just kept thinking, "This

place is beautiful." And then,

yeah, and by the way, it's added the GDP

of Europe since World War II in the last

18 months. Um, and then you come into

LA, you fly over the Pacific Coast, you

go to In-N-Out Burger, you see this

collision of creativity, the Uber

drivers are hot, right?

It's an interesting insight there. Yeah,

>> everyone is so hot here. Anyway, the you

you choose to live in LA, so I'd love to

hear just your views on why you could

live anywhere and despite the very real

problems that LA faces,

>> you choose to live here. And also just

what advice and I'm sure you've been

asked by the governor and other people.

What do you think LA could do to ensure

I mean the creative community I don't

want to say it's been gutted here but

there's now more spending and production

in Vancouver in Toronto there is in LA.

So one why do you personally choose to

live here continue to live here? And two

what advice would you have for city

officials and government and federal

officials to try and

>> yeah even recapture some creative

creative juice here? Yeah, look, I I've

been um I've lived here for

going close to 30 years. Um California

is a great state. Los Angeles is a

beautiful city. Has a lot to offer. It's

a little broken. It's very broken

actually. I'd say that we've been very

slow to recover from CO. I think we've

had this kind of over the last decade or

so this kind of u pull away from

production in Los Angeles and the a lot

of the creative culture that is here

because people are here creating.

They're here making the thing I wish I

would have been here for is kind of in

the heyday of seeing the mult going to

the tapings of the multicams of

Parammont uh those Friday night shoots

of of Mor and Mindy sounded a mate like

really magical. Um but I think even

seeing a production going around in your

city people get very excited. It's a it

really I think it stirs the imagination

uh in ways that have led to all kinds of

creative things in California technology

and entertainment and there's an energy

here. There's something about coming as

far west as you can and then start

dreaming and I I believe in it and I

just believe in the concentration the

talent concentration here. Now all that

said the production is moving to other

places. California has not been

competitive for production, not

competitive with other states, not

competitive with other countries. Um,

Los Angeles is a very difficult, very

expensive place to work if you're making

a movie or making a TV show. And I'm

telling you that firsthand because we've

have 30 productions in Cal in LA in

California this year, mostly in LA. I

have a $200 million movie here that a

big chunk of it is because we're doing

in LA that it costs that much. Um, and

uh, I think that whoever is going to be

the next governor, whoever is going to

be the next mayor has got to invest in

competing for production in California,

please.

And and and

more than that, in Los Angeles, you've

got to streamline the systems. If if I

get in a car to film a scene and drive

from Venice to Beverly Hills to Los

Angeles, which without traffic you might

be able to do in 25, 30 minutes, I need

three different permits with three

different schedules, three different

fees, three different deadlines of when

I have to file for them. It's it's all

that it's that times everything you do

here. And as an example of a counter

example, we're investing. We're building

a big studio in New Jersey. Um they they

put up the probably the best production

incentive in the world, not in the

country, in the world. Uh to and and

that pulled a lot of work back from

international production back into the

United States, kept jobs in America. Our

productions in the last 10 years have

created 150,000 jobs. Um so we it's 325

billion dollars of economic impact from

our original productions, just Netflix.

So this is a real industry and being

able to compete with those industries

where I was coming in and doing anything

else at that scale, creating that kind

of employment, having that kind of

economic impact,

municipalities would be, you know,

knocking each other out to get that

business. But in California, I think we

probably just took it for granted that

the crews were here, the talent was

here, everything was here, and they let

the infrastructure get pretty long in

the tooth. And they let Georgia and

other places get really good at crew

building. So, it's not you're not really

taking a sacrifice to make it somewhere

else, right? We just did um uh Lincoln

Lawyer here. It's going to finish in the

in the first four seasons, it's brought

in uh over $400 million of economic

impact to California. 4,300 jobs. 4,300

jobs. That one that one show.

So, um I So, I feel like that that that

appetite, that hunger to stay in the

game, I don't know why it dissipated,

but it did. And like I said, the next

governor is going to have to address it.

And I think the next mayor has got to

not only uh look at everything that

makes it hard to really sit down. I I

hear everybody complaining about

everything that's wrong about this

working in this city. And I I'm I have

had very few discussions with the

decision makers how to fix it. And and

I'm happy to do it. I ask for it all the

time. I offer it up all the time. Uh but

I haven't seen much change. A lot of

young men listen to this podcast

trying to be without thinking it through

too much. This is not an investor

question. You don't have to think about

the stock price. I whenever I talk to

you, I try and pitch you on starting a

Tik Tok competitor and you just sort of

like humor me and then we end up talking

about your kids. Um, what advice would

you have in terms of what you've gotten

right and what you've gotten wrong or

the learnings uh trying to be a good

partner, good husband, and a good

father? Look, I I feel like the we we

we're brought up to be uh find this

thing called life work balance.

um to figure out what's the exact amount

of right balance between how much time

you have to dedicate to your wife and to

your kids and to your house and to your

job. And the truth of it is there is no

such thing as life work balance. There

are times that you have to be intensely

in the game at work and people and and

and you have to realize that when you do

that, you have you create tension at

home and then you're going to have to

you have to come back and reinvest in

that and make sure that people know that

you had to go away, but you're still

here and you're still here for the for

supporting them and loving them and

hearing them and that I just but I'm

going to be really tied up for a couple

of weeks or I'm going to be really tied

up for the next couple days. um and and

understand that uh it's a you have to

make deposits uh in all in all those

things all the time and don't kill

yourself trying to create this thing

which is a myth a myth I think which is

that there's any such thing as life work

balance

>> and on raising kids

thoughts on uh you I mean we just

ultimately we always end up talking

about kids thoughts on you know you want

to be a a good had.

>> Yeah.

>> Right.

>> Yeah.

>> Learning's there.

>> Yeah. Look, I think um your kids are

watching you all the time. And I think

they really are. Even if you think

they're not paying attention, they are.

And they're picking up the good and the

bad, and they're picking up the things

that you celebrate. They're picking up

the things that you value. And I I'll

tell you my wife was very uh very

helpful for me when my kids were younger

of saying things teaching me to say just

to say things like um those are not our

values cuz when kids would always want

to constantly tell you like well so and

so can do it they could do this isn't

fair whatever you just say yeah that's

just those are not our values and it was

a revelation of a thing to hear and it's

such a simple thought uh but kids really

need to hear it and they deeply deeply

want boundaries and I like many as uh

you know went through a period after

after a divorce and being a single dad

where um I wasn't always able to provide

those or or chose not to maybe because

it just was hard. Uh and I think that um

Nicole was really great for me and for

my kids in introducing those ideas to

us.

>> It's a good place to end.

>> Yeah.

>> Ted Sandos is the co-CEO of Netflix.

Thank you so much.

>> Thank you, Ted. Support

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odo.com.

So, if you haven't noticed, gas has

gotten very expensive.

Sounds like they have noticed. In the

state of California, gas prices have

risen to more than $6 per gallon. And

here in Los Angeles, it is even higher.

It's $612.

Unbelievable. But higher prices aren't

just a California story. Across the US,

inflation is accelerating at a historic

rate. National gas prices are rising at

their fastest pace since 2022. And the

personal consumption expenditures index,

which is the Federal Reserve's preferred

measure of inflation, that just came

out. It just hit 3.8%, which is the

highest number in almost 3 years.

Consumers are now feeling it. The

consumer sentiment index just dropped to

an all-time low, worse than the Great

Recession, worse than the CO 19

pandemic, the lowest score we've ever

seen. And the big question for investors

now is, are consumers reaching a

breaking point? That's the question to

ask yourself if you're invested in the

market. Scott, I'm just going to rattle

through some of the inflation data here.

So PC inflation, I said it hit 3.8%,

highest since May 2023. CPI 3.8%. PPI,

this is the producer price index. This

measures wholesale prices that just hit

6%

inflation year-over-year. Services

inflation up 3.3, shelter inflation 3.4,

energy inflation 17.9%,

gasoline inflation up 28.4%

year-over-year. I don't know if it's

just me, but I think it is fair to say

at this point that inflation has

officially gone out of control. Or maybe

or maybe I just have Trump derangement

syndrome and I'm just reading into it

too hard. Maybe I'm just political.

What do you think, Scott? Inflation

brings down societies or starts

revolutions. People think when you're

unemployed, you're depressed. But when

you're actually what causes a revolution

or a change in a society is when you're

working two jobs and you're still

hungry. And if you think about

inflation, it really has been very

pernicious. If you're not making more,

if you're not making 25% more than you

were in 2000,

between

um inflation and a lack of strength in

the US dollar, you're behind.

And what inflation does is we've had

more so than since I think in the last

probably 30 years recently. What you

essentially have is a a transfer of

wealth from earners to owners. Because

if you're making $100,000 a year working

as a makeup artist in Hollywood,

uh, and you aren't making 120 with by

within 5 years, your quality of life has

gone down. But meanwhile, the person who

owns assets, owns a building, owns real

estate, uh, in fact, they're just fine.

So again, it's another transfer of

wealth from the earners to the owners.

Now, the problem is, well, okay, great.

What do we do about it? It's the boring

stuff that moves the needle and we don't

want to have an adult conversation about

what's required to reduce inflation.

We're spending 7 trillion on 5 trillion

receipts in our government. Essentially,

inflation is too many dollars facing too

few products. And when you're spending 7

trillion on 5 trillion, you're just

going to have inflation. It's reeling in

government spending, which is going to

cause a lot of pain. And quite frankly,

it probably means kissing and making up

with China and figuring out a way to

have the probably the biggest tax cut in

history would be if one um we kissed and

made up with China. Um because you're

going to I mean 88% of our toys under

the Christmas tree are from China. Uh

these tariffs are just it would be it

would be difficult to think of a more

elegant way to raise prices across the

board than tariffs. That's just

literally I taught macro and

microeconomics uh uh when I was at

graduate school in Berkeley and we used

to use tariffs as an example of how just

[ __ ] stupid they were a 100red years

ago. I mean we were just

so

inflation is literally how you start a

revolution and I think it's already

happening. I think we're having a small

a number of small forms of revolution,

but it requires an adult conversation

around long-term policy planning, which

America and to be blunt, American voters

just don't want to have. But this is how

societies fail.

>> And at the same time, you're protected

from inflation if you have if you're

earning more money because you can

decide to downgrade your purchases. And

this is the other big problem that we're

about to see. If inflation is rising,

then you could decide and you're making

a lot of money. Okay, maybe I won't eat

out tonight. Maybe I won't order the

beef tonight. Maybe I'll go for the

chicken. Maybe I won't take that

vacation. You can really adjust your

lifestyle in accordance with inflation.

For the lowest earners in society,

you're already at the floor of the

spending and you can't downgrade any

further. The the floor just continues to

rise. And that is exactly what we saw in

2022 where for the lowest earners in

society, inflation actually rose 8%

faster than it did for the rest of us

than it did for the average of the CPI.

Again, because they couldn't make any

lifestyle adjustments. They couldn't do

that. Now, on the policy point, you make

the good point that there are a lot of,

you know, complex and important

discussions that we could have on how to

reduce inflation, how to prevent this.

And most of the time I'm in agreement.

We need to get people together. We need

to get a think tank together. Get all

the expert economists and figure out

what are we going to do about inflation

on this round of inflation? I have two

ideas on what we could do.

One, what has been the most inflationary

thing that we've seen in our economy

today? It's been one thing. It was

tariffs that added 1% 1 percentage point

of inflation. We were at 2%. You added

one percentage point, you got us up to

3%.

Very easy fix there. Get rid of the

tariffs. Done. Policy solution.

One of the easiest solutions ever.

And then what was the second thing that

this president did? The second thing

that he did was in February he decided

to launch this war in Iran. He did not

plan on how he would execute it. He did

not plan on what he would do about the

straight of Hermuz. wouldn't plan on

what he would do about the fact that gas

now cannot get out of the straight of

moves and now gas prices are up 50%. And

what did that do? It added again 1

percentage point to inflation. So we

were at two, tariffs took us to three,

Iran took us to four. The the Federal

Reserve's target inflation rate is 2%. I

have two ideas to get us back down to

two, back to where we were supposed to

be. Get rid of the tariffs. Get out of

Iran. Those are the solutions.

And it's unbelievable

how we have manufactured this problem

for ourselves. We talk about the

inflation that we saw during COVID which

was really bad. And we should recognize

that. I mean we had 8 n 9% inflation at

one point but the reason that happened

was because there was a pandemic that

showed up which gked up supply chains

and then we had to figure out what to do

about the fact that we couldn't get

together in person that we couldn't

physically interact with each other.

That's why you saw those price prices

rise. That was the problem. And it was

something that we couldn't do ourselves.

We couldn't address it ourselves. This

one is all our own doing. And as I said

to you before, this reminds me of

Brexit. This this is exactly what

happened in Britain. Just decided, you

know what? We're going to put up

barriers and make life harder for

ourselves. Those are the policy

solutions for me.

>> Ed, you give me hope. I think I think

you're wonderful. I That was perfect. I

have nothing to add to that.

Well, one thing that we should also

think about then is what are investors

thinking about this? Because we've

talked about on the show, inflation is a

problem for the economy, but the economy

isn't necessarily the stock market. Um,

and investors so far haven't been so

worried about this inflation problem

because ultimately stocks go up. So at

this point, how are you thinking about

inflation as it relates to the equity

markets and how it could affect stock

prices going forward?

>> So the the Dow and the NASDAQ I think

are two of the most damaging metrics

ever invented because they create the

delusion of prosperity. Uh 90% of the

stocks are owned by 1% of the populace.

So essentially the Dow and the NASDAQ

are not a proxy for the well-being of

America. They're essentially a wealth

index for the top 1%. And spoiler alert,

they're killing it. We don't track

suicide rates among teens. Does anyone

know what that is? It's it was at an

all-time high two years ago. It's

actually come down the last two years.

Opiate deaths. Does anyone know per

100,000 what that is? That's actually u

wonderful news that's come down the last

two years. My point is we don't we don't

track the things that impact the

well-being of Americans. We're obsessed

with we've been told that the well-being

of America is essentially what is the

well-being of the top 1%.

And the reality is America is now a

giant bet on AI. And that is effectively

93% of GDP growth and now 40% of the

market of the S&P is based on the

capbacks of 10 companies that have made

a giant bet on AI and they're not

subject to tariffs. uh they are I mean

it's obviously an unbelievable

technology they have access to capital

but the reality is the majority of us or

the majority of Americans aren't

aren't participating in the uplift of of

the NASDAQ or the S&P and going back to

the notion of revolution in this country

I think that when you see people

traveling 100 miles to protest a data

center data centers have essentially

become a vessel or physical

manifestation for income inequality. And

people are just incredibly angry because

what they see is

all I hear is that the NASDAQ and the

S&P are going up. All I hear about AI

companies going public at a trillion

dollar market capitalization

and I'm trying to figure out, you know,

I'm sitting there and I'm one of the 40%

of US households. You want to hear

what's criminal about the United States

right now? The S&P is on an all-time

high. you know, housing prices here, the

average house has gone up, I don't know,

I think 40% pre-COVID and 40% of of

American households have medical or

dental debt. And so, you translate that

down to a household, that's that's a

single mom whose 15-year-old daughter

wakes up in screaming tooth pain and has

to go to the emergency room or emergency

dental visit and has to borrow the money

to get a root canal for her daughter. I

mean, think about think about the the

the shame of that, right? And we don't

but we don't track medical and dental

debt. Like, quite frankly, who the [ __ ]

cares that the NASDAQ's at an all-time

high when when our team So, we need

different metrics and we need um a once

a metric becomes kind of universal, it

it ceases to be relevant or important.

But the general sense is or my sense is

is that we are really um I mean

effectively we're we're moving back to

where we've been throughout history and

it's the following. The American middle

class is an accident. From 1945 to 1995,

America had 5% of the world's population

and we had 40% of the economic growth.

So we had eight eight times we had eight

times the prosperity and we did it

through diversity, competitiveness,

uh incredible distillation of rights

across our population such that they can

enter the workforce and make good money

and felt confident to buy homes, felt

confident to take risks and those types

of things.

We're returning to where the world

usually is and where economies most

economies have been for 99% of history

and that is a small number of

hardworking talented fortunate people

who sometimes garner a lot of the resour

resources through inheritance create

regulatory capture invest money. We do

it through Citizens United in the

government and start alligating and

aggregating more and more capital and

they basically run away with the game.

And in our nation, we've essentially

decided to embrace that and move back to

the laws of the jungle. We have

lower taxes on people who sell assets

versus people who earn assets. So, we've

made a conscious decision in this

country to move back to sort of this

Darwin law of the jungle that most of

the world has lived through. And the

reason why we vote for it and tolerate

it is that America's superpower is our

optimism. It's also our Achilles heel

because the majority of us think at some

point we'll be in the 1% and so we're

somewhat tolerant of this massive

aggregation of the 1%. It's like that

Simpsons cartoon where the guy is is is

is you know applauding this billionaire

and he says you know we're poor right

and he's like yeah but wait till you see

how I treat the poor once I'm rich.

So I but I do think we're at a breaking

point here. I think when six families

own more wealth than the bottom 50%

we've decided we're no longer about

America and where I am and I'm a

capitalist I believe in private property

uh but the greatest economic growth the

greatest positive sentiment in America

was in the 60s7s and 80s when

incremental tax rate uh above a certain

amount were 60 70 and 80%. And where I

am is that I think we need absolutely

need to move to a point and I'll wrap up

around happiness. I think a lot about

happiness and trying to optimize it. And

there is a relationship between money

and happiness. Money can't buy you

happiness is a lie. It can. That's the

bad news. The good news is according to

Daniel Conorman, an Israeli American

psychologist and a role model of mine,

did a lot of research on the

relationship between money and

happiness. and it tops out at a certain

point. Um, where you can own a home,

health care, take nice vacations, absorb

an economic shock. That's supposedly in

America is around $150,000. I think in

LA it's probably more like $800 or

$900,000.

But above that, above that you get no

incremental happiness. So then the

question becomes and what I would put

forward is why wouldn't you have say

pick a big number over $10 million over

three or $10 million in income why

wouldn't you have incremental tax rates

of 70 or 80% because here's the thing

the key to tax code is having taxes that

are least taxing if you taxed health

care food and um I don't know healthcare

food and say you taxed education those

taxes would be really taxing because

people would become less healthy and

less educated and more depressed. But if

you get no reduction in happiness,

making 7 million a year instead of 12,

but that incremental $5 million can

provide say universal or say child care

for 500 homes, their incremental

happiness is enormous. So I have become

a little bit socialist on this. I think

it's time we have an alternative minimum

tax.

I'm I'm sounding very I realize I'm

sounding very AOC here, but I've come

full circle on this. I do think there's

something to the notion of massively

increasing an alternative minimum tax

above a certain amount of money. We also

need to start shaming people who hoard

wealth. I just don't think it

I just don't think it there's there's

just no reason people should be worth

what nation states are. It's not going

to make any happier. Anyways, I think

it's probably a problem if you've got

inflation rising at 4% people in to your

point one in 10 Americans still living

in poverty and at the same time this is

the year if this SpaceX IPO all goes to

plan we'll see $2 trillion valuation I

don't really buy it if it all goes to

plan we're going to be the world the

world's first generation to witness the

world's first trillionaire in Elon Musk

who we ran the numbers on this we looked

at how much money he's going to have

again If the IPO goes to plan, we'll

see. He's going to be worth 3.2% of US

GDP.

The richest American in history before

Elon Musk existed was John D.

Rockefeller.

John D. Rockefeller at the height of his

wealth was worth, wait for it, 1.5% of

GDP. So Elon Musk is about to be more

than double as wealthy as the wealthiest

American that has ever existed in John

D. Rockefeller. And at the same time,

we're experiencing this inflation. And

at the same time, we still have huge

numbers of Americans who are struggling,

who are struggling to put food on the

table. And then I think about my

generation and why young people are so

upset and why young people are going to

these data centers and protesting them.

And the fact that half of us don't even

believe in capitalism anymore. They

prefer socialism instead. And this is

essentially what this entire podcast is

about is capitalism. It's about markets.

And increasingly we have decided that we

no longer believe in that system. We

just want to opt out of the whole system

itself. The fact that those two things

are true at the same time to me at some

point you have to you have to

acknowledge the elephant in the room.

You have to call it quits at some point.

Acknowledge this is a problem. We cannot

continue on this path. So I think that

you're probably correct that we're

moving in something of of a difficult

direction and probably reaching a

breaking point.

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This has gotten so boring. Let's get to

questions. So let's see. Our first

question is from Shane. So, it turns out

it's Shane Smith.

>> Shane Smith from Vice Media.

>> Yeah. Hey, Shane.

>> Long time listener, first time caller.

>> Just back from Iran, right?

>> Just back from Iran.

Uh, it's [ __ ] up. As one of the sort

of poster children for the I I saw a

podcast that you guys did. It was

amazing about the sort of death of of uh

independent/ new media of which uh I get

kicked in the face a lot for. So I'd

like to say it it it feels like we're

heading towards a world where a handful

of companies control what gets made,

what gets seen, how it gets distributed.

And in that world, independent media

doesn't have a meaning. So what do you

guys think is the future of independent

media? And is there one? And it's sad

that Ted's gone because I'd like to hold

his feet to the [ __ ] fire.

>> Yeah, he would be the guy to answer

that. I don't know what Scott's thoughts

are. My I've made my thoughts pretty

known and perhaps I should have made it

known to Ted, which is I think the

future of media is one word and it's

clips. That's it. I simply look at the

amount of time that young people

especially are spending on our phones.

It's coming out to around eight hours a

day at this point. If you actually

annualize it, if you count up the days

over the course of a calendar year, the

amount of time that we're spending on

our phones, it comes out to 118 days per

year looking at the phone. And we spend

122 days asleep, which means that we

have 125 days left over to do everything

else with our lives, to meet people, to

establish relationships, as Scott has

talked about, to establish a network.

People wonder why are young people

underperforming? Why can't they get

their act together? Something that I

often say is like we're operating with

40% less time than our parents did. We

just don't have as much time to live our

lives because we are addicted to the

phones. To me, that means that the only

opportunity in media, you have to go as

hard as possible at social media, as

hard as possible at the phone. Ted

mentioned that he's thinking they're

integrated vertical clips. that is going

to be sort of the the way to get the the

marketing material to get you to watch

the show. My view is the vertical clips.

That is the main content. That's where

people are spending their time. That's

where you need to be invested. So,

that's how we've thought about it with

our business. I mean, we do this podcast

and it's really fun to be here, but

honestly, a lot of me is thinking, what

were the best clips from this from this

podcast show? How are we going to get it

out on social media, on Instagram, on

Tik Tok? To me, that is the future. And

if you're a new independent media brand,

you need to be thinking about how do I

dominate the algorithm because if you

don't do it, someone else will. And the

people who have been dominating are not

the best role models, not the best

people we want influencing the minds of

young Americans. So that would be my

advice. Clips,

>> look, I don't media is obsessed with

itself and wants to go back to the good

old days. I was called today and asked

about CBS. I'm like, who cares about

CBS? Like the average age of a CBS

viewer is dead. I mean it's just

seriously the average age of CNN viewer

is 64, Fox at 69, CNBC at 64.

And I see a lot of incredible

alternative independent puck, Semaphore,

Axios,

uh the guys at Bullwork are doing a

great job. I'm very open about our

economics. we we'll do 20 million this

year at very strong EBIT to margins

growing 20 to 30% a year.

I do think there is probably a need for

a BBC like tax where there is an attempt

to have just straight up news uh that

just calls it as it is and attempts

attempts to just and it's hard to do but

attempts to call it you know straight

down the middle if you will. Uh, but I

don't media tends to have

I wish the Washington Post would just

die already. I'm sick of talking about

it. And I think a lot of those really

talented reporters are going to find

really good work at independent media

companies. We tend the media tends to

think of itself as so precious and so

selfobsa obsessed. So I don't the death

of traditional media. Yeah. It's going

away because it's fat. and I go into

Rockefeller Center to go on NBC and I

see these huge buildings. Podcasts are

essentially 80% of a television show for

10% of the price. It's an arbitrage of

the means of production where you can

offer the vast majority of ABC News

Nightly. I'm not as good-looking as that

guy, but we can be unfiltered and we

cost 3 5% of what it costs to produce

that show. But I I think media is

actually I don't want to call it in a

golden age, but I think there's huge

opportunities for independent media. And

if you love if you love to write, if you

think you have a different view or spin

on things, fire up a podcast, fire up a

Substack. I think that you can make a

you know, it's it's really hard. It

always has been hard, but you don't need

to be as good-looking, which is

which is nice. Uh anyway, Shane, I I'm

actually excited. Shane, you've got a

great podcast. I've been on your podcast

a couple times. I think that uh I think

it's a great business to be in and I

think there'll always be right now I

think there'll be a there's still the

future's bright for great content and

people who are fearless and hold um you

know neither fear nor favor around

power.

>> Yeah. Another question from Rabbi Steve

Lea.

>> Rabbi leader. My question is in a

society and a culture and in a nation

like ours

whose DNA is individuality

and autonomy and valition and whose

politics are petty and coarse.

What are the mechanisms if any by which

we can strive for and and hopefully

achieve

greater unity and the common good? What

are the tools that exist in a culture

essentially built upon individuality

and autonomy and valition?

>> So, we're going with the easy stuff

first.

Look,

>> I know the answer. I'll just let him.

So, I'm an atheist, but I do think we

need more religious institutions and

more church and attendance at temple and

mosques. I think getting together and

serving in the agency of something

bigger than yourself, especially for

young people with shared values and a

code is really important. One thing I

would love to see across

uh our nation, if there was one policy I

could have

and have a magic wand, it would be

mandatory national service. is is

as screwed up as screwed up in as many

problems as we have in this country. Um

I don't think young people really have

any sense that the the best thing and

the smartest thing they could have done

was to be born in America. And I think

that even still and I think the way we

create a sense of unity in some of that

character you're talking about is giving

young people the opportunity to spend

time with people from different

religions, different political

backgrounds, different ethnicities,

different incomes, and just see how

incredibly wonderful other Americans

are. Because I think social media

basically says, "What's your identity?

What are your political beliefs?" And

then go to that corner. And the enemy

isn't

Russians pouring over the border in

Ukraine or income inequality or climate

change. The enemy is your neighbor who

doesn't share your political beliefs. So

there needs to be a unity, a greater

unity around between all of us as

Americans. That's where I go is how do

we just learn to love each other again

and the flag.

>> I would also add just on that, I think

we're starting to see signs that that

might actually be happening naturally.

If you look at church attendance among

young people, among Gen Z specifically

right now, it's actually started to go

up. And I was walking through the

streets of New York and I was in the

West Village and I looked and saw a

church on the side and I saw a line of

young people going around the block and

extending for two blocks just to get

into church on Sunday. And I think what

we're starting to see, I mean, I felt

for a long time that we needed to

institute some sort of policies to get

us out of our screens, get us off of our

phones, get us in rooms together with

one another like we are today. And I

still kind of believe that we need to

sort of push it push that along per

perhaps with some sort of policy, but

it's it might be happening naturally.

And we're even seeing this. I mean, we

we talked uh the other day about the

attendance and these in-person sauna

raves and young people getting excited

about going to get going out to these

run clubs and getting together. I wonder

if the pendulum is starting to swing

back and if we can get to a place of

community and being with one another

naturally versus having to force it. Um

probably what we want is to do both. But

I feel optimistic about it. All right,

we have one final question and then

we're going to call it a night. And our

question is from Adelaide on floor two.

>> Hi Scott. Hi Ed. My name's Adelaide. I'm

10 years old. Um Ed, great to see you

again.

>> So I just I just want to interrupt.

>> Can you come into the light? Everybody

wants to see you.

>> Adelaide I got on a Zoom with a few

months ago. Adelaide is 10 years old.

and she's come all the way out to Los

Angeles with her dad. Adelaide, I'm so

glad you're here. I just want to give

you a round of applause and please

continue with your question.

>> Thank you very much, Ed. Scott, you and

Ed represent two completely different

generations. For someone my age, looking

ahead,

what is the biggest advantage my

generation has over older generations?

And what is the biggest trap we need to

avoid?

>> Uh I think the trap and I this theme has

recurred throughout this conversation

throughout the night. The trap for your

generation, for my generation, for both

of us.

It is the screen, it's the phone, it's

technology. The amount of time that we

are spending in person with our friends

has plummeted over the past two decades.

And people keep wondering why is that

happening? Why aren't people hanging out

with each other? It's because we're not

spending enough time with our friends,

which has been overtaken by the amount

of time that we're spending on the

phone. And so there's a reason why one

in five Gen Zers today say they have

zero close friends whatsoever. The

loneliness numbers are really bad

throughout America, but it's especially

bad for younger people, and it's because

of the phone. That is the trap. That is

the thing that you have to avoid in my

view. Uh I hope Scott has talked about

this. We've talked about this. I hope

that maybe we can create some social

policy, some age gating rules such that

we can keep that out of schools, keep

young people off of social media as much

as possible. But it has taken over our

lives and your superpower could be to

not let it take over yours. So I just

want to start with the trap. That would

be my recommendation to you and it's so

good to see you. Thank you so much for

coming.

>> I got the hard one. Um, I feel like if

you're here, it means you're here with

your dad. I think it means you have

engaged parents. Um, you're clearly an

incredibly impressive uh, young woman. I

I don't know. I I I feel like you should

be mentoring me. Um, there's and I'll

just end here because I don't have a a I

think your This is going to sound trit,

but I think your ability to potentially

be in service of others um has never

been greater. I think that young people

can have such an impact on other young

people and people they've never met with

all of these new mediums and

opportunities to communicate and get

involved in other people's lives. I wish

I'd learned when I was your age how

rewarding service is. I didn't figure

that out to older and uh and with

technology you can inspire other kids

and communicate with them. So I would

say it sounds right but service but let

me go back let me just indicate or out

my generation the way you express

there's something called your love

language and it's it's it's acts of

service acts of affection gift giving

uh dudes in my generation and men my age

used to do this to me my love language

is money can I give you a bunch of money

to take your dad out to dinner while

you're here.

>> The answer is yes. You should say yes.

I'm just telling you you should.

>> This couldn't be any tactic.

How much was it? How much was it this

time?

>> It was $34.

>> That's all the time we have questions.

Um, but before we go and thank you all

so much for coming. It's great to be

here. Scott, I think you have some

important people in the audience who

deserve a shout out.

>> Yeah, sure. We always try and highlight

uh nonprofit Laura Tour. I'm going to

highlight the Big Brothers and Sisters

of America. So, there's a waiting list

of 30,000 uh boys and girls looking for

meners. And unfortunately, if you were

to reverse engineer, we talk a lot about

struggling young men. If you were to

reverse engineer, when a boy comes off

the tracks and becomes uh a young man

with with issues or problems, it's when

the man loses or the boy loses a male

role model through death, divorce uh or

abandonment. And at the moment, and we

have the most single parent homes uh in

the world right now. And at the moment

that that boy loses a male role model,

he at that moment he becomes more likely

to be incarcerated than graduate from

college. What's interesting is that

young girls in single parent homes have

similar outcomes as dual parent homes.

Same rates of college attendance, same

rates of self harm. It ends up that

while boys are physically stronger,

they're emotionally and mentally much

weaker than girls. And uh we can have an

app now that can with a photograph

register the emotion of your dog, but we

can't find enough 30-year-old men to

throw a football around with a

12-year-old boy. So, this is uh the the

call out to uh whenever we have an event

like this, we have so many impressive

young men and women in the audience. The

ultimate expression of humanity and I

think the ultimate expression quite

frankly of masculinity is to get

involved in the life of a child that

isn't yours. So you don't need to be C

of Goldman Sachs. You don't need to have

a degree in child psychology. You just

need to be someone who's trying to live