Biden's Cancer Diagnosis, U.S. Credit Downgrade, and Trump Bullies Walmart

23:24The far left and the far right meet on anti-vaccine craziness. They meet on anti-Semitism. And they meet on reckless spending and tax cuts such that we can explode the deficit. This is negative 40. Why don't these GOP deficit talks ever stick? I mean, seriously, they never stick. I'm like waiting. Chip Roy, get yourself a fucking backbone. You say it out loud and you say, I'm not going to do this. And then every time you get Mike Johnson, I don't know what he's doing to you. but it's like, you're the only people that can stop this and you won't. So really what you're saying is crap. I mean, I hate the moral argument I'm going to make it.

23:58It's so cruel because no, they're not talking about, I could sort of at least theoretically get on board with the following. We have to make really painful cuts. I would make them around social security. I'd make them probably around some of our military spending. You know, I'm sympathetic to the argument of we are fiscally irresponsible. We are robbing from future generations. So we have to make really ugly, painful cuts. It's terrible, but it sucks to be an adult. But we're going to match every dollar cut one-to-one or two-to-one with an increase in revenues by increasing the taxes on corporations.

24:34We're going to have an alternative minimum tax on anyone saying making more than a million dollars. I could hold my nose and get on board with that. But all these quote unquote fiscal hawks aren't saying we need to talk about the other side of the ledger and raise revenues. What they're saying is these Medicare cuts, I'm sorry, these Medicaid cuts don't go deep enough. And I mean, this shit is really scary for some people. And it's not only immoral, it's uneconomic. It's economically stupid. If you appeal to the degree, you're going to have a sick, fat, struggling, angry population under you who can't earn and have no economic opportunities.

25:17You know where that's going to go. Anyway, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, Trump gets pissy with Walmart and Apple.

25:36Do hours of research in an instant. With key insights from an AI assistant. Pick a template with a click. Now your Prezo looks super slick. Close that deal, yeah you won. Do that, doing that, did that, done. Now you can do that, do that with Acrobat. Now you can do that, do that with the all new Acrobat. It's time to do your best work with the all new Adobe Acrobat Studio. Not all journalism is the same. Take The Guardian. our coverage has something unique, fierce independence. Nobody owns us or tells us what we can and can't say, so we're free to report the whole picture. We connect what's happening in Washington to the rest of the globe, expose corruption wherever we find it, and give fresh perspective on everything, from wellness and soccer to culture, the climate, and more.

26:23Read, watch, and listen to The Guardian for free at theguardian.com. Avoiding your unfinished home projects because you're not sure where to start? Thumbtack knows homes, so you don't have to. Don't know the difference between matte paint finish and satin or what that clunking sound from your dryer is? With Thumbtack, you don't have to be a home pro. You just have to hire one. You can hire top-rated pros, see price estimates, and read reviews all on the app. Download today.

26:58Scott, we're back. President Trump spent the weekend bullying Walmart after the company's CEO said some of the prices could rise within weeks because of the tariffs, obviously. In a post on True Social, Trump told Walmart to eat the tariffs and warned, I'll be watching and so will your customers. Scott Besson said that he's spoken with Walmart's CEO and the company will absorb some of the tariffs and some may get passed on to consumers. About one third of Walmart's products come from outside the U.S. with large share coming from China and Mexico. And it's not just Walmart. Trump's taking aim at Apple, too.

27:28He says that he had a little problem with CEO Tim Cook after hearing the company plans to ramp up iPhone production in India. Apple's trying to cut its reliance on China and aiming to make most of the iPhones sold in the U.S. at factories in India by the end of 2026. Apple announced that$500 billion investment in the U.S. back in February, but apparently that's not enough for Trump. Let's listen to Trump recount his conversation with Tim Cook. I said, Tim, look, we've treated you really good. We put up with all the plants that you built in China for years. Now you've got to build us. We're not interested in you building in India.

28:04India can take care of themselves. They're doing very well. So two things, very meddlesome with the companies in terms of how they should price it and putting reality. Tariffs cost money and they're going to pass them on to consumers. What is this I'll be watching strategy and telling people where to build and thoughts? We've talked about this before. we've seen a separation between church and state where that separation begin to erode. And just as important from an economic standpoint is the separation between business and state. And that is, Obama shouldn't have been picking winners. I agree with that.

28:44And he shouldn't be deciding based on his blood sugar level or who he likes or doesn't like, he shouldn't be singling out companies because that is a form of corruption because everyone lines up to just kiss his ass. And not only that, he's a terrible business person. Do you realize that since the iPhone was launched, Apple has trained over 28 million Chinese workers on high-tech manufacturing? And also they make about 500 bucks a month, at least an entry-level assembler in China. We're not bringing those jobs back to the US. they've also invested about, they invest about$55 billion a year into the Chinese economy, which you could argue was the wrong investment or stupid.

29:27That's, I mean, they've made these extraordinary investments. And if you were to bring back, which you feasibly just can't do it, but let's just say for shits and giggles, we brought back manufacturing the iPhone to the U S that's a$3 ,500 iPhone. Yeah. Well, you, you said it, there's a, There's a statistic. We need to spend$30 billion over three years to move just 10 % of its supply chain to the U.S., according to one estimate. And you had noted that the tariff was going to help India. It's not going to happen. It's just simply not going to happen. But talk more about this. I'll be watching. At some point, do they just ignore him or what?

30:06I would bet. I think Tim Cook is very savvy. Also, Walmart. I'd love you to hear about Walmart. I think what they say is, the president is right, we need to build more manufacturing in the US, we're announcing, and just say, okay, the supply chain here is the most complex supply chain in history. We're going to start to build stuff that I knew what it's like to get zoning and NIMBY, it's going to take a year, dah, dah, dah, and just wait until he's out of office. because to bring the supply chain of, to produce Apple at 50 % of the capacity they would need in the US, I mean, A, would probably crush their market share by 50 or 60 points and probably take the most held stock in the world down 40 or 60 % within a year if they ever really said they were gonna try and do that.

30:58People can't afford a 30. I mean, the market for a thousand dollar iPhone is probably five or eight X what the market is for a thirty five hundred dollar iPhone. I'd be like that. That's a lot of money. And then they will. All the stories would be, oh, you just that's a huge gift to the Korean company, Samsung. So that's just not going to happen. So what I bet they do is a couple of press releases about how we're he's right. We're going to invest more in American manufacturing. You know, the real opportunity here of going to solutions, in my view, is to kiss and make up with China and to convince them to use some of their manufacturing prowess to build factories in the U.S., similar to the way Japanese automobile companies have built Japanese car brand plants in the U.S.

31:44But even then, it would have to be super high in manufacturing because to justify the cost of our labor. Um, anyways, this is, this is a distraction. Um, uh, Walmart gets about, I think about a third of its products. Yeah. From China, by China and Mexico. Are imported. Um, they will just, in Walmart, if he wants to take on Walmart and Apple, I think that is, you know, that's crazy. And then this ridiculous notion that Scott Bacenta is saying, well, Walmart is going to eat the tariffs. Walmart operates. Walmart's whole value proposition is that it passes on cost savings to the consumer. They operate at a business of scale with very low margins, but it's got more scale than any company in the world.

32:29I think it's the biggest top line company in the world. So the notion that they can absorb these costs and not pass them on to consumers, it's just not, I mean, okay, say they decided to do that for the benefit of consumers, that takes their earnings down, which takes their share price down, which means the wealth of American households go down, which means they make fewer investments, fewer hires, less money for bonuses. I mean, okay, that's a cost. You might argue, well, that hurts shareholders. Fine, you can make that argument. But folks, they've got a business to run, and they will figure out a way to optimize their margins.

33:03Correct. And it'll— He is living in a different era. He's a shitty business person. He doesn't understand economics. He is, and he's living in an era that doesn't exist anymore. Anyway, we have to move on. It's just ridiculous. He shouldn't be meddling, putting his fat fingers, fat shorts fingers in people's corporate decision making. Meta is delaying the release of its behemoth, its largest Lama 4 AI model. Behemoth was originally scheduled to be released in April, but the company is now aiming for fall. You know, this is something that seemed expected, that these AI models would run into problems as they move forward.

33:47Another problem Meta is facing, though, is fraud. According to documents reviewed by the Wall Street Journal, Meta is the leader in the pack when it comes to Internet scams. A tech giant claimed nearly half of all reported scams on Zelle between 2023 and 2024. Regulators in the U.K. and Australia found that 70 percent of the new advertisers on the platform are promoting scams or low-quality products. Of course, they'll take their business. However, employees have reported a reluctance to limit advertisers reporting, allowing up to 32 automated strikes for financial fraud before banning accounts.

34:16I mean, seriously, seriously. And meanwhile, over at places like Microsoft, they're laying off 3 % of its staff, over 40 % of layoffs were in engineering. The cuts come after Sachin Nadella announced up to 30 % of the company's code is now written by AI. He himself is now listening to podcasts by AI. AI, and they synopsize them so he doesn't have to listen to the whole thing, which was a weird little fact that was in one of the stories. So what's going on here? Let's talk first about the difficulties that AI is running into, and then the difficulties that tech companies are running into. It's, so I'm involved in a company called Section, which is upskilling AI for the enterprise, Trying to help companies figure out how to leverage AI.

35:01and the CEO of the company, my friend Greg Shove, my whole rap has always been that AI is not gonna take your job. Someone who understands AI is gonna take your job. And he said, well, some of that's true, but AI is in fact taking jobs. And there's been a real kind of gag from a lot of employees. They're very suspicious of AI at the enterprise. Like, okay, are you asking me to cooperate in my own execution here? this will be great for Microsoft's bottom line I mean you know that is that is absolutely the nitro and glycerin of an explosion in earnings is when you can reduce you know these costs and they claim that it's more about efficiency and not not cost cutting on a personal level I've been I don't want to call myself but I'm not a victim but I started getting text messages of a video and a few people say that I didn't know that well, should I do this?

35:58And I click on it and it's a video that was running on Instagram. And it was me saying, each week at my three best stock tips right now on the WhatsApp, I have a WhatsApp group. Fake Scott. And it looked pretty good on a phone. On a computer, you could tell it was AI, but it looked pretty good. And people were sending it to me saying, are you aware of this? Should I do this? So someone, a scammer had figured out a way to create an AI representation of me trying to get billed people into spending money to join a WhatsApp group where I would make quote unquote stock picks. We complained vociferously early and often to Meta.

36:40You can still find it, Kara. They don't care. It's like, oh, people are clicking on it. Yeah. So these scams are, and what I don't get is, they could absolutely use AI themselves to figure out this shit and take shit down. Yeah, they want more advertisers. You remember when Amazon was doing books of mine that weren't books of mine? It's the same thing. I mean, but these companies don't want to fix this stuff. Otherwise, they would clean it up. Like, they want more advertisers. They leave. It's the consistent record of this company to screw consumers. before themselves, before fixing the problem or taking the cost that it would take to do this because they just want to, I mean, can you imagine that many knocks before you get thrown off?

37:27Like, do you need that many knocks before 32 automated strikes for financial fraud before banning accounts? Like, it's just, why isn't it two or five? Or why don't we investigate after five and then dump after 10 or something? It just is, it's a company that doesn't care about that because they're just, you know, and these companies will cut, let me just say, software engineers, they will cut you tomorrow. If the minute they can have AI write this code, they are in love with it. They're in love with the savings, as Scott said, and they will do it because that's what they do. They are very good at becoming more efficient.

38:05And of course, people are hardly their concern. That's my, that's always been my impression. Yeah. And to be fair, I think that's what they should do, but they should use technology to become more efficient and reinvest the capital in higher growth areas. The thing that struck me, just talking about the difference between new media, meta, and old media, the New York Times, there's clear AI financial fraud trying to misrepresent people and scam people. Doesn't get taken down. Do you know how many times that reporter from the New York Times doing the story on you called me to fact check shit? 53, right, yeah.

38:39Oh, my God. Where did you get that? You told us this number. Where'd you get it? And I'd have to walk him through the math and go, okay, are you sure? Yeah. And then he'd call me back and say, but define the term profits. The guy spent three or four days going line by line such that he could look anyone in the face and say, what we wrote here was as close to the truth and as accurate as we could be. And then you have meta. Right. Yeah. Putting out AI representations. That is a really good point. He called yesterday, or two days ago, yesterday he had like, can I call these 19 people to check something that didn't even make it in the story, some of them, you know, that got caught later.

39:19You're right. Scott, once again, you're insightful and really profound. You're just feeling affectionate because I let you use my climbing wall. I love your climbing wall. Whose idea was that? Pick a picture of me on the climbing wall. Yeah, I look good on the climbing wall. Be admitful. It was a good idea. You look like Hervé Viliches, like summiting Everest for a fundraiser. You're mad who's in your studio. Anyway, we're moving on. You're Tyrion Lannister going up a man's... And who was the hero of that series? He's the protagonist. Although I did like Jaime. I did like Jaime. He loved his sister, but he also loved Brianna Tarth.

39:54He evolved from a horrible man to a good man. Very complicated. Very complex. But the short guy was the hero of that entire thing. Anyway, Scott, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, Novo Nordisk pushes out its CEO. This is a topic I'm eager to talk to you about. I so should have married a wildling.

40:17Every day, millions of customers engage with AI agents like me. We resolve queries fast. We work 24-7 and we're helpful, knowledgeable, and empathetic. We're built to be the voice of the brands we serve. Sierra is the platform for building better, more human customer experiences with AI. No hold music, no generic answers, no frustration. Visit sierra.ai to learn more.

40:47These days, every business leader is under pressure to save money. But you can't crush the competition just by cutting costs. To win, you need to spend smarter and move faster. You need Brex. Brex is the intelligent finance platform that breaks the tradeoff between control and speed with smart corporate cards, high-yield banking, and AI-powered expense management. Join the 30 ,000 companies that spend smarter and move faster with Brex. Learn more at brex.com slash grow. From Pushkin Industries, I'm Jonathan Goldstein, and Heavyweight is back. The new season is bigger than ever. Bigger hopes. I keep waiting for this moment when he says, Mom, I get it.

41:35I'm sorry. Bigger dreams. Tom Hanks wants to meet with you. This is a real chance. And bigger heartbreaks. I thought it would be my movie moment. And maybe he would even whisper in my ear, I've always been in love with you. Check out new episodes of Heavyweight on Apple Podcasts.

42:05Scott, we're back. Ozempic maker Novo Nordisk has pushed out its CEO as it loses ground in the anti-obesity drug market. Lars Jorgensen, who has run the company for eight years, will step down following the stock price dives and impatience from the nonprofit that controls the company. In recent years, the company has struggled with supply shortages in the production of Wagovi and the steep competition from Eli Lilly's Mongero and ZepBound to say nothing of the knockoffs that are happening, which they're trying to rein in, but they're not being as successful. They're trying. Novo Nordisk shares have fallen over 50 % since 2024.

42:38It had a huge upsurge when this became popular. And more on the topic, Weight Watchers filed for bankruptcy, which was another prediction win for you, Scott, by the way. Talk about what's happening here because, you know, we had talked about these industries going to the moon. It's sort of like NVIDIA going to the moon because of people interested in it. But it turns out, even if you have a successful thing, you have to keep in competition. Once a competition shows, same thing, see Tesla, see all these things. Yeah, but this was, Asphalt the Motor and basically said that Nova Nordisk is a good company, but it's not an exceptionally innovative company.

43:09And they kind of slipped and fell on a diabetes drug that also had use across GLP-1 obesity. But it wasn't kind of this great innovation. And they wrote it up. And your job when you're blessed with that sort of extraordinary luck and additional capital is to create moats. And that either through distribution or branding or preference at the doctor level. And then in the U.S., I forget what it's called, a bunch of drugs were given clearance sort of off-label because of the shortages. And I imagine the board has just said, look, you had a moment to really take advantage of what is probably a once-in-a-career lifetime moment and create some barriers of brand equity or lock up distribution to maintain.

43:52And my guess is their margins are just getting hammered by all of these competitors. I honestly, quite frankly, I think his loss is probably the world's gain, meaning that there's competition and they're not able to sustain their kind of eustress margins. I think one of the biggest unlocks for healthcare would be if GLP-1 drugs went down to$10 a month instead of$1 ,000 a month. Because this is, if you look at the delta between$6 ,500 a year per capita health spend and$13 ,000, a lot of it is insurance, a lot of it is complexity of billing, and a lot of it is obesity. And so I'd love to see, I was happy to see this quite frankly, because I don't want to see, if Norvo Nordisk had gone, it's been cut in half.

44:36But if it had quadrupled in the last year, that just would have meant probably additional penetration, but also that they were able to figure out ways to monopolize a market where they were charging people$1 ,000 a month to stay on this. Too much, yeah. Yeah. So what about the Weight Watchers one? This is a prediction you made. Obviously, they were trying to get into this market. They have been with a CEO. I've interviewed her. They were trying to shift. They've been trying to, they keep shifting. I have had so many interviews with so many CEOs of Weight Watchers, and the shifting has been really hard.

45:03And I think at heart is their business model doesn't work anymore in the new environment. But they tried to go to these drugs and they tried this and they tried that. They tried to call it WW. They tried to do a different thing all the time. Why did you predict that? And what do you think of what's happened? At the end of 23, and I heard from all of these companies, I said, you do not want to be an investor in alcohol stocks, in the food industrial complex around sugary, shitty food, or in weight loss that doesn't involve GLP-1. And I had logos, including the logos of Weight Watchers. I'm like, I typically make stock bets going long.

45:37And in November of 23, my big recommendation was to go short all these companies. My technology of the year 2024 wasn't AI. I said that in 23. It was GLP-1. I think it's more revolutionary than AI, quite frankly. And while everyone's focused on AI, they're not looking at what America's economy has run on as addiction. And this is the biggest thing. This is scaffolding on our primitive instincts that haven't been updated to industrial production. And Weight Watchers was just, quite frankly, shitty technology that just shouldn't be in business. I love this. This is capitalism at work. So where is this going to go?

46:17This is something you've talked about. You talked about this very early. Where do you imagine it's just more competition, just the way EVs are doing that? And lots of people are, you know, at the same time, EV is still a very rocky business and people are, the uptake is still not there for consumers. It's growing, but not in the way people thought it would. This has such extraordinary potential. Who's the winner here? Well, I don't, so this is what I'm hoping. I'm hoping there's a lot of companies that make billions, but I'm hoping there aren't that many that make hundreds of billions. because one of the biggest detriments to society is that there aren't more industries like the airline industry or jet manufacturing or PCs where no small number of companies are able to develop monopoly power through regulatory capture.

47:05And the cost to get from Paris to New York is only $400, which is an incredible unlock for the economy and for consumers. And I think an incredible unlock for the health of the world and ultimately lower taxation because we end up paying for obesity in the form of Medicare, Medicaid, or depression. Do you realize that people who are good-looking on average make 8 % more per year in compensation? Yes, I do. And you get nine, right? Especially if they can climb. As you read in the New York Times. Especially if they can climb. She scales her empire even better. And you know what? Overweight people, the industrial food complex decided it would be politically correct to tell people they're not finding diabetes, they're finding their truth, and that it's okay to be obese.

47:51Do you need empathy for them? Yeah. But also recognize they're more likely to be depressed and get laid off and have trouble finding a mate. And so I would love to see, you wanna talk about an on-lock? Get people the money such that they can work out, get people the money such that they can eat good food. And if they start spilling over from being overweight to obesity, immediately get them affordable GLP-1 drugs. In 2023, the neighborhood with the greatest concentration of GLP-1 use was also the neighborhood that's the thinnest in the nation, and that's the Upper East Side, kind of ladies of lunch looking to lose the last 10.

48:25Now, good news is the latest data shows that the state of Kentucky leads the nation in GLP-1 use now. But if you shove GLP-1 drugs into red states and rural areas where people, because they don't have enough money, have to ingest their calories through fast food. Well, they start calling themselves they-them then, but go ahead. What would happen? Well, no, it would be a huge unlock. So this is, I just hope, I really hope that we see a world where GLP-1 drugs, where there's just massive, bloody, ugly, full body contact competition that brings the cost of these things way, way down. That would be great.

49:02Good point. All right, Scott, one more quick rake. We'll be back for Wins and Fails.

49:11Support for this show comes from Saks Fifth Avenue. Saks Fifth Avenue makes it easy to shop for your personal style. It's fall, and it's time to invest in new arrivals you'll want to wear again and again, like a relaxed Prada blazer and Gucci loafers that are great for work or a weekend rendezvous. Saks makes shopping feel totally customized to you, whether that's in person with their in-store stylists or online at Saks.com where they show you only what you like to shop. They'll even let you know when arrivals from your favorite designers are in or when an item you've been eyeing is back in stock.

49:45For a personalized, easy shopping experience, head to Saks Fifth Avenue for the best fall arrivals and style inspiration. Support for this show comes from Airbus. It took 100 years for electric vehicles to catch on. Modern solar panels? Half a century. battery. Lithium batteries? Decades to go from their debut to daily use. It's a pattern. Energy tech breaks through, stalls, and then something tips the scales. But for every success, there are even more almosts. So what if there was a breakthrough sitting at this crossroads right now? The potential to cut carbon emissions with sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, is real.

50:30SAF works just like Jet A1, which is a standard jet fuel used worldwide. But the difference is its contribution to aviation emissions reduction. It could change the future of flight, and that's why several major U.S. carriers have already increased their commitments to fuel with SAF. But it's not just up to the airlines. What's needed is an industry-wide push to increase the supply to meet growing demand. You can learn more about how Airbus is contributing to accelerating this journey at fly.airbus.com slash the flight path. As a founder, you're moving fast towards product market fit, your next round, or your first big enterprise deal.

51:17But with AI accelerating how quickly startups build and ship, security expectations are also coming in faster, and those expectations are higher than ever. Getting security and compliance right can unlock growth or stall it if you wait too long. Vanta is a trust management platform that helps businesses automate security and compliance across more than 35 frameworks like SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, and more. With deep integrations and automated workflows built for fast-moving teams, Vanta gets you audit-ready fast and keeps you secure with continuous monitoring as your models, infrastructure, and customers evolve.

51:56That's why fast-growing startups like Langchain, Rider, and Cursor have all trusted Vanta to build a scalable compliance foundation from the start. Go to vanta.com slash vox to save$1 ,000 today through the Vanta for Startups program and join over 10 ,000 ambitious companies already scaling with Vanta. That's V-A-N-T-A dot com slash vox to save$1 ,000 for a limited time.

52:29Okay, Scott, let's do wins and fails. I shall start today. Please. Unless you want to. No, no, go ahead. All right. So the fail is so obviously Amazon announcing that it will work with Humane, the AI company launched by Mohammed bin Salman to build an AI zone in Saudi Arabia. For people that know, a lot of the Arab states are trying very hard to become the data center. There's all kinds of privacy issues, et cetera. But they're trying really hard to do that. The only issue with something like Amazon is that in 2018, Jamal Khashoggi, a writer for the Bezos-owned Washington Post, was killed and dismembered with the approval of the Saudi crown prince.

53:05I just, like, this guy doesn't have any, like, he was just appearing at his funeral saying how terrible it was. And then two years later or whatever, hey, no problem. And it's fine. For other people, I guess they're all going to show up there for this guy. But it just was particularly vexing if you're a Washington Post person. And I know you don't feel bad for the Washington Post people, but dismembering and vivisecting a columnist is not something you should do business with. I would say President Trump attacking Taylor Swift, Bruce Springsteen, and now apparently Beyonce, Oprah, he wants to sue them all and investigate them for singing for Kamala Harris is stupid, but I don't really care.

53:47It's just ridiculousness. And for my win, well, obviously, it's going to be Tom Cruise for this week, for this movie, for Final Reckoning. I'm going to go by myself. I'll probably see it multiple times. I don't care what you think of me, but that is what I am. I'm so excited about it. It's a win that it's here and that Kara can finally be happy because I've been waiting for it for a while. I love Mission Impossibles. I love them, love them, love them. So that's it. Nice. Yes. So my win is experts and specifically I'm obsessed with this woman. I hate to admit, I'm getting so much reward out of Instagram reels and TikTok.

54:28And I found this wonderful doctor who has a PhD in nutrition. And I apologize if I got her name wrong. Dr. Jessica Knurik, I think is how you say her name. And I was one of these people that really fell into this notion that kind of the government had always chosen the least expensive option and was spraying our crops with just terrible pesticides and that the food supply had been infected in America. And then I fell further into the trap because food does rot much more quickly here in the UK. Yeah, it does, yeah. And I thought, okay, that means they're not being sprayed with pesticides. And then into that void slipped a lot of quacks pushing supplements saying, okay, you can find this chemical that they're spraying on this stuff at Home Depot and that's why you should buy my supplement.

55:12or this basic thing, you can't trust exports, you can't trust the CDC, you can't trust the NIH. And they were using this as a vehicle to create distrust amongst institutions and also for them, it's quote unquote lifehack or wellness experts to sell their shit despite the fact they have absolutely no credentials. And this woman has basically, she is so good and science-based and basically debunks all of this bullshit. And she acknowledges where they have some valid points and where they don't. And I just think she's fantastic. Cool. I'd love to watch her. That's great. And she talks about, she goes into public policies that actually work.

55:54Expert-led campaigns at the CDC and the World Health Organization are actually, they're responsible for multiple public health victories. The World Health Organization reports an 8 % decrease in tobacco usage globally since 2000. The CDC's push for measles vaccinations has presented 57 million deaths worldwide since just 2000. And her view, I'm so in line with her. Politicians want to create policy that is more effective and more trusted by the American public. They should step aside and let scientists and health professionals lead the charge. And I love, She has a constant theme, which I have parroted, and that is if these folks were really serious about health, they would address income inequality.

56:39That's correct. And so anyways, I'm fascinated and I just love when someone is making experts cool again because she's an expert and she's so good and so facts-based and so reasoned. I'm going to try and get her on the pod. And then what is my loss here, Kara? Oh, thanks to RFK Jr., vaccine misinformation is back in full throttle. Clips of Trump's pick for Surgeon General, Casey Means, discussing the link between autism and vaccines have surfaced. In addition, her claims of leaving medical residency because of disillusionment with the medical system, again, that you can't trust the deep state.

57:20Well, someone did some research and found out that's total bullshit. She left because she couldn't handle the stress. It's not, she just couldn't. And by the way, I've dated someone who was in her residency and I saw how it kind of out of control. I do think it's too stressful. Jeff Swisher. Well, it's sort of, there's a certain amount of what I call hazing involved. She used to have to do 36-hour straight shifts. And I'm like, on your 35th hour, you're probably not giving very good medical care, but there's a certain abused children syndrome. But that's a different talk show. But our old Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, is exactly who you would want.

57:58Talking about loneliness, talking about the impact and isolation of young men, really thinking thoughtfully about health issues. And here we have a vaccine denier who claims she left the medical profession because of, quote unquote, the deep state and she became disillusioned. No, own up, stand on your own two feet. You couldn't hack it. And this is who we have, an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist who couldn't hack her residency and is now jumped on this anti-vaccine train, which will create tremendous, an increase in death, disease, and disability. Vaccinations, according to the World Health Organization, who, of course, people don't want to listen to because they actually do science, it's estimated that essential vaccines have saved at least 154 million lives.

58:49During the same period, vaccination has reduced infant deaths by, get this, 40%. Before any vaccine is introduced in a country, the vaccine developed in a laboratory undergoes rigorous and stringent testing through multiple phases of clinical trials. Health authorities carefully evaluate the results of these trials to help ensure that the vaccine meets the highest safety and efficacy standards before being considered suitable for use. RFK Jr. is out there lying. These things are very safe. Like any medicine, sure, there's a risk in terms of side effects. They are so dwarfed by the benefits, it's almost like not even worth reporting.

59:24And they're usually very minor and in short duration, such as a sore arm or mild fever, and more serious side effects are possible, but extremely, extremely rare. It's amazing how they benefit from conspiracy theories. I don't know how they live with themselves in that regard, but they do. And just a cherry on the top of fails. If this tax bill passes, it'll be the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in a single law in US history. We have decided to borrow$5 trillion from our kids, use it so we can go to Cabo and pay for our new Lexus. and then when we die, they have to pay it back.

1:00:02This is just stupid and immoral. This tax bill, the largest, according to several studies, it will be the largest transfer of wealth from poor to rich, which is Latin from young to old because everyone calls me an ageist and like, okay, folks, who do you think the rich are? What is the average age of shareholders who own more than two or$3 million in shares right now? They're usually in their 60s or 70s, but this will be the largest transfer of wealth I uploaded my taxes into the LLMs, my W-1s, and said, how will the Trump tax impact me? And I uploaded it to three LLMs, and one of the LLMs came back with the first two words were, good news.

1:00:43So the top 5 % are getting a tax cut. The bottom 95 % are getting a tax increase, all at the expense of future generations. Yep, 100%. Very good, Scott. Nice. Well done. I like that. Well, I'm trying to scale my business. You're trying to scale my business. Scale it to further heights. Maybe if you got on that climbing wall every now and then. Oh, my God. I thought there was going to be a picture of you in my bathtub using my salts. Oh, that could be interesting. Like putting on my deodorant. Trying to be like, what's next? Hitting my kids. I have to say, your concierge likes me better, I think.

1:01:19Who? Who's this? Yeah, because we bring liveliness to it. We're fun. Who likes you better? Your concierge. They like me better. The door people? The doormen? Yeah, yeah. Too easy. I get money. They like you. They like you. They like you. Anyway, we want to hear from you. Send us your questions about your business tech or whatever's on your mind. Go to nymag.com slash pivot to submit a question for the show or call 855-51-PIVOT. Elsewhere in the Kara and Scott universe, this week on On with Kara Swisher, I talked to Barry Diller about his new memoir. Let's listen to a clip. People haven't read this book.

1:01:53Right. people who read the excerpt of it, but nobody's read the damn thing. And the amazing thing is the only thing that has been written is my relationship with a woman. Right. From which somehow they extract he's come out of the closet. Right. And to me, I think if I've come out of the closet, it's the most brightly lit room with a glass door. Yeah. I mean, who, who, who, it's absurd. Did you enjoy your interview? I know you're a big fan. I love him. He's very funny. He's one of the most forthright of the moguls. And he is who he is. People have a lot of complaints about Barry Diller. But I got to tell you, he's absolutely...

1:02:35I am the least interested in the gay part. I knew it. Everyone knew it kind of thing. But I thought this book is fantastic. It's a really gripping story about his family, which was very... There was a lot of incredible dysfunction there. But also his ideas around business and creating media. And I think he's been one of the more entrepreneurial members of that class, of the old mogul class. And so I enjoyed it. He's just a gas. He's really a gas. Anyway, that's the show. Thanks for listening to Pivot. Be sure to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We'll be back on Friday. Scott, read us out.

1:03:12Today's show was produced by Lara Neiman, Zoe Marcus, Taylor Griffin, and Kevin Oliver. Ernie and her Todd engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Miss Vera, and Dan Chalon.

1:03:32We'll be back later this week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. You know we'll be back. Why? Because someone's scaling her empire.

1:04:08Ha! That with Acrobat. Now you can do that. Do that with the all new Acrobat. It's time to do your best work with the all new Adobe Acrobat Studio. Adobe Acrobat Studio. So brand new. Show me all the things PDFs can do. Do your work with ease and speed. PDF spaces is all you need. Do hours of research in an instant. With key insights from an AI assistant. Take a template with a click. Now your Prezo looks super slick. Close that deal. Yeah, you won. Do that. Doing that. Did that. Now you can do that, do that with Acrobat. Now you can do that, do that with the all-new Acrobat. It's time to do your best work with the all-new Adobe Acrobat Studio.

1:04:48AI agents are getting pretty impressive. You might not even realize you're listening to one right now. We work 24-7 to resolve customer inquiries. No hold music, no canned answers, no frustration. Visit sierra.ai to learn more.