Roberts Criticizes Trump, FTC Firings, and White House Installs Starlink

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24:42Scott, we're back. Starlink is now accessible at the White House. White House officials said the move was an effort to increase internet availability, saying some areas the property couldn't get cell service. This is nonsense. The system was reportedly routed through the White House data center. Your officials said Starlink donated the service and the gift was vetted by lawyers overseeing ethics issues at the White House counsel's office. So many tech types I talk to say this is dangerous. It's like putting Putin's listening device in the White House, but that might already be there in the form of the president.

25:10So I don't know. What do you think? It's also ethically ridiculous. Well, it's more just sort of the White House is turning into a giant infomercial for its political allies. But in addition, I think it's stupid of SpaceX and Starlink. Starlink, I absolutely love Starlink. I think it's an amazing product. It's a superior product. And its competitors all of a sudden have seen their stock prices surge and have access to capital to potentially at some point be a competitor. I think Jeff Bezos, I think everyone is eyeing this space going, these guys have created an opening because of Musk's kind of overt political activity.

25:47I'm now thinking, how do I get rid of, or how do I not use Starlink? And I just think this is a dumb move for them. People are, he is alienating 52 % of the population overnight with his products. And I just want to give a shout out to me. I sold my Tesla before it was cool three years ago. and I don't know if you saw the Senator Kelly just did a, just did made a big deal of him selling his Tesla. This is next. Starlink, if you, they basically decided to politicize this product. And I think just on an economic level, shareholders, SpaceX is one of the most actively traded and most valuable private companies on the secondary market.

26:32It's also responsible now for the majority. It's the largest source of wealth now for Musk because he owns so much of it. And it's an incredible product, but it looks like it's going to go the same way of Tesla. And that is it's attracting a ton of competition. People will catch up and then people given sort of a coin flip or a tiebreaker will opt for the company that's not run by someone whose politics they don't agree with. So I think it's a stupid move. I just don't know why the The security issues to me or whatever. They can get whatever they want from this guy, the Russians. But you can imagine this creates a more porous environment, which may be the point.

27:09Another thing they're doing besides making us less secure is also, from a technical point of view, is removing information from websites all over the government that is, you know, mentions people. And there's two things that really stood out. The first, the HHS has removed the Surgeon General's advisory on gun violence from its website. spokesperson for the agency, said the content was removed to comply with Trump's executive order to protect Second Amendment rights. Firearms are the leading cause of death for children and teens in the U.S. Also recently removed, this was heinous, articles about Native American code talkers have been removed from some military websites, including having been labeled DEI, the Navajo code talkers aided America's victory at Iwo Jima.

27:49Historically, critically important group of people who did this. and I think they're removing all kinds of things that, well, some words don't work and they end up removing the wrong thing because they have a list of fucking words that don't work instead of going through this kind of thing. They just do this wholesale, you know, cut and paste essentially. Replacing this information is going to be very difficult over time because it will be replaced eventually, but between the firearms and these code talkers, it's, I feel like I'm living in 1984, like in the book 1984. I don't know how you feel.

28:25This is, I mean, again, it's difficult to know where to focus because the hits keep on coming. But as you referenced, number one source of death for children in the United States, past accidents, cancer, drowning, drug poisonings is now firearms. And as someone who left the U.S. two and a half years ago, this, Tonya, free gift with purchase living in the UK is you don't have these horror fantasies involving gun deaths or mass shooters. Yeah, you talk about that. 54 % of U.S. adults report that either they or a family member have experienced a firearm-related incident. One in five have a family member who was killed by a firearm, including suicide.

29:08And then going back to, I always like to ground everything in a personal parable. When I sold my first company, Profit, it, there was a 20-year anniversary of the company. I started the company when I was 26, and me and the other co-founder were not invited. The CEO wanted it to be all about him. Fine. Okay, have at it. And we used to joke that we were living in a fascist state, and we were Trotsky being erased from photos. And even we heard about them showing up to clients and referring to themselves as the founders. We were literally erased from the scrolls of history from this company, despite the fact that we had hired everybody that was now claiming they were the founders.

29:53And to go back in history and say to the two and a half million African-Americans that registered for the draft, the one million African-Americans that fought in World War II, the 33 ,000 Japanese-Americans who fought mostly in the European theater, despite the fact that maybe their parents had been sent to confinement camps, 120 ,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry, And then to not at least nod that many of them served in World War II. There was 20 ,000 Chinese Americans. There were 44 ,000 Native Americans. Somewhere between 5 % and 10 % of the entire indigenous population fought in World War II.

30:33A quarter of a million Filipino Americans, 400 ,000 Hispanic Americans. And to not acknowledge that is to not acknowledge one of the great victories, one of the great civil rights advancements in American history that makes our military so – the U.S. military, I believe, is the most impressive organization in history. And across many of its achievements and many of its victories, it was also a tremendous means of progress in civil rights because there's something about wearing the same uniform and being dependent upon the guy or the gal next to you that has a tendency to make you look at each other for your character and your skills and nothing else.

31:15and that armed services have been an outstanding means of progress for special interest groups. And to remove their commitment and their sacrifice, it's just so un-American. It's un-American. It's petty and it's cruel and it's weird. It's just weird. It's just so weird. I mean, especially these, the gun stuff is beyond belief. It's just a fact. And I think what's really, you know, obviously it's get another attempt, like with the judges. This has a theme, everybody. You remove the judges. You remove information. You only tell people. I don't think it works at all. I honestly don't. I think people are sick and tired of this, and they get it.

31:51And Americans are a uniquely difficult group of people. And so I don't think it works. I don't think it holds. I think in other countries, sometimes it does. But in this one, I think people get furious about it, especially stuff like this. I mean, literally, they have one issue with DEI, and they cannot stop. That's the thing. They cannot stop with one or two things. They've got to completely erase everything, especially this cut and paste of words. Like they, I forget what they took out, some dumb thing. But that's beyond belief. This to me is ridiculous. And everyone knows that gun violence kills kids.

32:27That's it. I don't care how many things they take down. Everybody knows. And everyone's aware of it. And they will pay the price here for going overboard on almost everything. Well, we hope they'll pay the price. I think they will pay the price. So far they haven't. We keep hoping and waiting. But just back to the erasing people from photos of history and a really positive part of our history. You're going to Puerto Rico. 53 ,000 Puerto Ricans fought in World War II. I love all your stats, Scott. 400 ,000 Hispanic Americans, including 350 ,000 Mexican Americans. These are people who came here, felt really fortunate to be a part of this great experiment called America and decided to put themselves, you know, and risk bodily harm to serve in a uniform to fight for the rights of all Americans.

33:16And we're erasing them from history. It's just, it's very strange and self-defeating. And how likely are people going to be to raise their hand and say, I will fight for my country, thinking that at some point my contribution might be starts from history. It's very disappointing, to say the least. It's very typical. It's not a surprise. I think karma's a bitch. I think putting people in jail that never had a criminal record without due process, everything is, karma's going to be such a bitch here. I just believe that because it's one thing after the next where injustice happens. And so we'll see.

33:52Let's go on a quick break. We come back. We'll talk about BYD's big breakthrough.

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36:08Scott, we're back. Chinese EV company BYD is promoting a new fast-charging technology that can allegedly add 250-mile range in a five-minute charge. Woo, I was very excited about this. The new battery and charging system will be used in BYD's next-generation vehicles, and the company plans to build more than 4 ,000 ultra-fast chargers across China. This puts BYD well ahead of Tesla, whose superchargers currently add around 170 miles on a range of range for a 15-minute charge. It takes longer than that, just so you know. BYD shares hit a record high yesterday on the news. The company is up more than 50 % for the year with a$160 billion market cap as Tesla is down 30-some percent, 30-some percent.

36:47It goes up and down, but it's mostly 30 % for the year. Is this Tesla's deep-seek moment? Tesla stock is currently headed for its nine straight weekly loss. It's now 53 % below all-time highs. Statistically, everybody's gaining, including U.S. makers of EVs, all over the place. And Tesla is losing a market share. And of course, there's a protest that go on across the country. Attorney General, he's trying to get an assist from Attorney General Pam Bondi, is labeling recent attacks on Tesla dealerships an act of domestic terrorism directed at Elon Musk, who was weeping about it on Fox News, saying he's only done lovely things for people his whole life and he's never been violent.

37:27And I, well, fine, he's created a situation where people die, but that's whatever you say, Elon. Bondi said in a statement that the DOJ will investigate these incidents and pose severe consequences on the people involved. There's definitely an organized protest across. Interestingly, by the person paying for it is the wife of Steve Jervison, who is Elon's pal, the ex-wife, who's a big Democratic donor, is helping get these things organized, these protests, which is perfectly within the rights of her and the protesters to do. Obviously, not within the rights are violence, but they're certainly allowed to cause all kinds of ruckuses in front of these places and put up Nazi pictures of Elon and stuff like that.

38:12But BYD is doing the innovative things Tesla should be doing if its CEO was paying attention. And secondly, if people don't like Elon Musk, they can protest against him. And for the attorney general to call it domestic terrorism is really beyond the pale. Again, an ad for Elon Musk by the president, his own personal attorney general. In the first two months of this year, Tesla sold 60 ,000 vehicles. BYD sold 481 ,000. And that represents a 75 % increase year-on-year of BYD and a 14 % decline for Tesla. And despite Tesla losing a third of its value in the last month, if Tesla trades like other car companies that are growing at the same rate, which is declining, now the majority of car companies are growing faster than Tesla.

39:06that puts its stock at about$14 a share. So the notion that somehow Tesla has had some market correction, we haven't even seen a correction around Tesla. Not compared to what it does. What do you think of Bombay doing this? And the protests. What do you think of the protests? They continue. They haven't stopped, which is really interesting. I'm of two minds. And that is, I don't think people should damage physical property. I joke that whenever I get a Tesla, I cancel or I let it wait outside. I have started canceling when I get Teslas and I try to put it in the notes, although you can on Uber.

39:42I don't think people should deface property. I don't think people should feel unsafe in their cars. But a peaceful protest is an American right. Or calling it Cybertruck owner an asshole. If you choose to buy it, I think that's perfectly fine. I think of it as long as - I don't agree. You buy a Cybertruck, I do think there needs to be - It's such a - For the benefit of all of us, I think we err on the side of civility. Quite frankly, I didn't like it when J.D. Vance gets booed on a ski mountain with his family. It tickles my sensors, but I think that in America, ideally, you want to err on the side of giving people some grace when they're out in public, including driving their car.

40:25I'm turning into an old person. You are, because I think that's exactly what it is to be an American. I think Americans do that. I didn't mind when all the Christians went nuts about Disney. They can protest. I didn't love the Nazis. I'm not saying you can't protest. What I'm saying is if someone is out skiing with their family, if someone is driving a car, I don't think verbally assaulting them or verbally screaming at them. That's your right. I'm not saying it's not legal, but it doesn't mean it's right. And I think one of the nice things about America is that we do have a certain level of comity or respect for each other.

40:58I was at a party, an F1 party in Las Vegas, and someone showed up wearing a MAGA hat. And that individual, a woman, was kind of immediately surrounded and people started shouting at her. I did not think that was right either. They should be able to wear a MAGA hat. And I think we have to err on the side when we're out in public, err on the side of civility. You have the right to say things, but calling someone an asshole because they get out of a certain brand of car, we're just a slow burn into an erosion in everyone's quality of life. Oh, no. I think it's sort of a long tradition of the United States doing this.

41:33I think you're living in a country that doesn't. I mean, I, you know, I just, I feel like I don't love a lot of it, but this Cybertruck in particular is somewhat offensive to my eyes. And that's probably one of the reasons it compared to a lot of cars. But, you know, you've been in a line and some dick douche-doss drives up in a Ferrari who obviously is just rich and it's compensating. And everyone goes like this under the breath, right? Yeah, but they don't start screaming, hey, you little dick weirdo. They just say, let him or her get his or her coffee and get about their day. I don't. True.

42:07True. True. I don't know. I think the protests in front of these Tesla showrooms are fine. I think that's the way you express your lack of confidence. I agree. I think there's a difference between that and yelling at people while they're going about their day. I don't, anyway. I'll stop yelling at you, Scott. Okay, fine. You want to find that. There you go. Dick, dick. There you go. I have to pay women to yell at me. I should do that to you. I don't know, Scott. I like your, like, niceness, but I think it's okay if people want to express themselves. I think people get the message. Obviously, a lot of people are selling them because they don't like being called assholes.

42:44Yeah, but Kara, there's places in, there's very Republican-dominated MAGA-loving parts of this country that I think you and I can go to, go about our day, and people generally say, I don't agree with their politics. Maybe I don't even think they're, maybe I even think Kara and Scott are bad for America, but I'm going to let them get on with their day. See, you live a different life than I've been called a dyke in so many southern states, I can't even tell you. And that's wrong. And that's wrong. I'm like, whatever, dude. And I always have a line. They'll say something and I'll go, you're the alternative.

43:15And then it tends to shut it down. I mean, I always have a line and I feel sorry for them. You should be able to have a certain confidence in America. You're going to be able to live your life without worrying about being verbally assaulted or treated with a lack of respect or dignity. That's what you do in a civil society. That's what you do in America. That would be nice for all of us who aren't some people, but it doesn't happen. Well, again, I don't have your lived experience, but don't you generally feel that you're fairly, you can go about your day? And I mean, is that the case? You really feel like in a lot of places?

43:48Certain places, I don't go. Yeah, I keep telling you this. I feel uncomfortable. I feel like if I say something about my kids or Amanda and I express any affection in public, I'm very worried. And especially comments. It's always comments. And I, you know, it's something you think about in the back of your mind. And I think a lot of people, very different people think about it all the time. Women walking down the street at night. You know, it just is, it's a very different living experience. But I always have a line back. I always, you know, because I've gotten it so much. I always have like, are you the alternative?

44:20Blah, blah, blah. I have a bunch of them that I do. And it feels like it's like breathing. You know, you undo it all the time. One time, it happens when I was the kids. You know, not who's the mother. That's another one people loved. Who's the dad? They always like to do that one, which is fine. Whatever they're ignorant. For people driving a certain car and for people of a different sexual orientation, I think that we should shame anyone that gives those people a hard time. I don't. What about a lesbian in a Cybertruck? There you go. Where do you do that? Isn't that, if you'd said a lesbian in a Subaru, I would have said, well, that's redundant.

44:56Yeah, that's true. See, we don't mind. We're fine with it. I don't care. But I'm sure there are lesbians who have Cybertrucks, but I'm not speaking to them anymore. I don't think so. I don't think. I've never seen a lesbian. It's not. And you'd think that would be a car. No, it's a really ugly car. It's just an ugly fucking car. Every time I see it, it offends my eyes. And I don't say anything to them. I think, what an asshole. And they always take up and they always go first at the stop sign, these people, consistently. But I don't yell asshole to them. This Tesla backlash is not going to stop.

45:25And Scott's right. It's going to extend to Starlink next. Well, the thing you've got to be really fearful of is that the LGBT starts in militia and they call themselves Al-Gaeda. Oh, my God. It's militia Etheridge. No, that's right. Sorry. That's right. Anyway, Al-Gaeda. That's very funny. I like that. So this is one that's sort of in your wheelhouse. Forever 21 filed for bankruptcy this week. The second time is six years this time putting the blame on fast fashion retailers Timu and Sheehan. In a court fine, Forever 21 noted non-U.S. retailers selling products at drastically lower prices made it difficult to retain a core customer base.

46:02The company plans to liquidate while looking for a buyer for its business or its assets. Sheehan and Timu are facing their own struggles with Trump's terror, so he delayed cracking down on the loophole that exempts low-cost items from getting taxed. He probably won't delay on it. I don't know. I just think Forever 21 sucks. But what do you think here? I just think it sucks. It just sucks. I think you summarized it. And the other two don't, and the other two don't, even if they have advantages in China. Look, I've said this, that a de minimis loophole that favors foreign retailers over domestic, fine.

46:38I think there's an argument that they should do away with it to create a level playing field. I get that. But Forever 21, I group into a group of specialty retailers whose value proposition I would identify is dressing 15-year-old girls up like sluts. I just, that, there was an entire genre of retailers who literally like send your 15 year old and we'll make her look like a slut. I mean, that's essentially what the fashion was or the genre. It was, you know, anyways, I don't agree. I used to, I get some, even today, a lot of the girls' clothes are really questionable, and the boys' clothes rock.

47:16They're, like, so cool. They're, like, so interesting. And the girls' clothes are always, like, some of them are, like, ooh, no, no, no. I think it's Instagram. I think it's the algorithm sexualizing girls. I'm talking about five-year-olds. Yeah. But, look, there is, I mean, if you look at what's happening, and I love this, that if you look at over the past 20 years, inflation-adjusted clothing prices have dropped about 50%, and unit consumption has doubled. And this kind of connects back to antitrust. The clothing and apparel industry is globalized. It's relatively terror-friendly, and it's incredibly robust, meaning there's a ton of competition.

47:52What does that mean? It means that Americans can buy more at a lower price. On an inflation-adjusted basis, the price of apparel has been cut in half. And by the way, folks, when things get cut in half in price, It means your prosperity skyrockets. We want competition. We want, and if you don't realize what tariffs are going to do, about 99 % of our clothes, no, I'm sorry, 97 % of our clothes are made abroad. What's a good U.S. retailer that competes with Sheehan and Timu? Who would you say? I mean, they're all the expensive ones, right? The gap sort of doesn't. Oh, there's no low cost maker. There's no low cost.

48:33There's expensive ones like Hannah Anderson Rocks or there's all kinds of really wonderful higher end children's clothing, for example. I'm just thinking of children's clothing. But it's, I mean, I'm trying to think. H &M, I like a lot. I like the other one. H &M's not U.S. Yeah, no, they're not U.S. The iconic U.S. fashion specialty retailers are, in my opinion, urban outfitters. Urban and free people are two of the hottest brands. But the majority, if not all of their manufacturing is abroad. I remember, and I always love an opportunity to have a professional flex. The first, one of the first consulting clients I had, one of my mentors was a guy named Warren Hellman of Hellman and Friedman.

49:13And he said, I have a great assignment for you. I was like 27. And I'd started this quote unquote strategy firm. He said, I wanted you to come to Levi Strauss and company board meetings. I don't want you to talk to anybody. I want you to listen to the entire board meeting. And then I want you to stand up and give your view. And it was me and a guy named Lee Clow from Chiat Day got to do this for four board meetings. And one of the first things I said was they had, back in the 90s, Levi's jobs and companies still had domestic manufacturing. And the Haas family, who are very paternal and really civic-minded, were very committed to keeping domestic manufacturing.

49:45And the CFO got up there and I can do math. I said, what is the cost per unit producing domestically? And it was like, I think it was 11 bucks a pair. And the cost to bring in the same quality from just across the border in Mexico, or I forget where we were, Honduras, was$3.80. sense. And so I'm like, okay, but just to be clear, what you have decided is that you're giving people naturally artificially high wages that once they're laid off, there's going to be nowhere else to go. And eventually, of course, they outsourced all of their production. We are meant to go to the lowest cost provider for more prosperity.

50:23We need to maintain a certain level of domestic production. For example, the shoe industry has these ridiculous tariffs claiming that if we go to war, we need domestic manufacture of boots, which is just stupid, right? We could spin up a factory to build boots pretty quickly. But the clothing industry is an example of an increase in prosperity because we've globalized it and we don't have massive tariffs. So, I mean, it's striking how Timu and Sheehan, like one out of five things purchased over the holidays were from those two companies. But Forever 21, you know, it just, like you said, it just couldn't compete, nor should it.

51:00I like it when nations compete for our dollar. It just sucked. I never could go in that store. It was like terrible. And I like a cheap clothing store. In any case, we'll see what happens with the others. But obviously, as Scott said, it's global. Okay, Scott, let's pivot to a listener question. The question comes from Kyle. Let's listen. Hey, Scott, Kara. It's Kyle from New York. Big fan of the show. I had a question about Trump's proposed federal income tax elimination for anyone making less than$150 ,000 a year. I've heard a lot of discussion recently about how Trump's economic policies really only benefit the wealthy and harm the younger, less wealthy portion of the population.

51:45This policy seems like it's in response to that discussion. I'm curious from your perspective, is this a moment where credit is given or credit is due, or is this more hand-waving? Curious your thoughts. Thanks, guys. I would like to see a tax holiday on anyone making under a certain amount or people under the age of 40, similar to what Portugal's done. The problem is, will this come at the cost of Social Security. We need to hear more. I hope it's not populist bullshit. I need to do more analysis. I think it makes a lot more sense than this ridiculous no tax on tips. The waiter gets a tax cut, but not the dishwasher.

52:25And the reality is the majority of people in the services industry don't pay any taxes anyways because they don't make enough money. But I just need to understand more about this. We'll see. Yeah. Yeah, we'll see. I mean, in concept, it's a great idea. And, you know, again, what's really the point is rich people need to pay more taxes. Like, I don't know why that. And corporations. Corporations. That's really what has to happen. We're paying the lowest amount of GDP as represented by the taxes since 1939. People, it's worth noting that Americans in this income range who make less than$150 ,000, they pay more in payroll taxes than in income taxes.

52:56And soon tariffs. Yeah, so hand-waving for right now. Anyway, you got a question of your own, go to nymag.com slash pivot. Submit a question for the show or call 855-51-PIVOT. Okay, Scott, one more quick break. We'll be back for predictions.

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55:10Okay, Scott, let's hear a prediction. Look, I'm going to go off script here, and I'm going to – I don't have a prediction, but I'm especially slow today because I was up until 4 a.m. binge-watching all four episodes of what I think is, so far, the media. property, other than The White Lotus, of course, the media property of 2025 or The Media Achievement. Have you seen Adolescence, Kara? No, I haven't. No, I haven't seen it at all. I've heard about it. I've heard it's amazing and depressing and upsetting, but I've heard several people talk about it. It is really powerful. So I'm not going to give anything away here.

55:50It's a British crime drama miniseries from Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham and directed by Philip Berantini. It's about a 13-year-old schoolboy who's arrested for the murder of a female classmate. And the interesting thing from a creative standpoint is each scene is shot in one take. And it is so powerful. It brings up social media. It's obviously violence, crime, father-son relationships, families, the impact of social media, the anxiety and depression that young people are dealing with. It is, it is, it's like if you wanted to explain to someone the stress that young people or adolescents are under and facing and what it means and how it ripples out in so many negative ways, it would be, it would be really hard to do it more efficiently than watching this, this four-part series.

56:47Can I ask you a question? Is it, is it, because I tend to avoid these things now, Now, even though I've heard a lot about this show and also Euphoria or any of these, there was a documentary about teens. There's all kinds of things. I kind of avoid them because they're so upsetting to me. How do you deal with that? Because you're writing a book on it, obviously, which comes out when? I'm moving it up. I'm turning in my manuscript early. I'm hoping that it'll come out in November. It was supposed to be a stream next year, but I feel like the moment is going to pass if I don't get it out soon. No, you should.

57:14You've been the leading woman. Josh Hawley's writing a book on masculinity. I mean, I got to get it out. You need to dare him to a fight. But how is it watching these things? Because I think I have noticed I have tended towards happy things when I'm watching things. And severance, because it's so good, by the way, season ender this Friday. I just, they either have to be really astonishing like severance or very happy like running point, right? I can't. Talk a little bit about this because you're writing a book on it. These topics are dire. How do you manage to feel hopeful watching any of this?

57:46And that's one of the reasons I avoided adolescence. Well, it's easy, Kara. I've leaned into my anger and my depression. I mean, I'm not the person to talk to about maintaining a positive outlook. I struggle with this shit. And one of the things you referenced, which is a social norm, which is kind of interesting, is that in boom times or positive times, tragedies and dramas are more popular. And then in depressing times, romantic comedies are much more popular. People want to get out of the mood they're in. Or like White Lotus, something that's like. That's just pure entertainment with some, you know, some subculture.

58:19By the way, Sam Rockwell's monologue from last week is incredible. I heard. I heard. I haven't seen it yet. But this is, I mean, it talks a lot about school bullying via social media centered on incel subculture. And people don't realize how powerful that is. This week's post, I'm writing about porn, which I think is playing an unfortunately increasingly not important large role in young men's lives. But this, if you've read about this stuff but don't understand it and wonder, want to see how it's really impacting people on a ground level in an exceptionally compelling and gripping way. But you asked me how I deal with it.

58:58To be honest, Kara, I'm having trouble dealing with it. For the first time in my life, I was thinking about this the other day. I've always been able to disassociate from the news. Since this last election, I'm having trouble disassociating. I'm that guy who's that fucking downer at a dinner party that turns everything into, well, yeah. You are posting happy things on, I've noticed. I've got to. You really have. A lot of them are delightful, by the way. Oh, thanks. Yeah. But yeah, so the answer is how do I handle this shit? The answer is not well. But this is such a powerful piece of media that it's so satisfying because you feel as if you've learned and you can't.

59:35I watched, I turned the thing on at midnight, and I was up till four in the morning. I just couldn't turn away from it. All right. Adolescence is a recommendation and a prediction, I guess. Okay. Elsewhere in the Kara and Scott universe, this week on Prof G Conversation, Scott spoke another happy thing with Dr. Fiona Hill, a senior fellow at Brookings, chancellor at Durham University and former White House Russia expert, also testified during the impeachment been hearing. He's a really smart person who worked for us and now does not. Let's listen to a clip. The big difference between Trump and Putin is Trump is a totally one-man show.

1:00:13He's destroying the state. Putin operates within the state. He's a creature of the deep state. He's not dismantling the Russian state. That was already dismantled, you know, under Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin. For Trump, he doesn't really pay any attention to any of the people around him. He uses them as emissaries and envoys, but he doesn't do his homework. They can't actually advise him on anything. And that makes Trump very unpredictable. So I think if Putin's looking at his own crystal ball, he also can't say where this is going to go. Well, that's heartening. That's an interesting thing to say.

1:00:43She's brilliant, actually. She's really brilliant. I'm glad you had her on. Okay, that's the show. Thanks for listening to Pivot. Be sure to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We'll be back on Tuesday. Scott, read us out. Today's show was produced by Lara Neiman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie and her Todd engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Miss Saverio, and Dan Shalon. Nishat Kerouaz, Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media.

1:01:11You can subscribe to the magazine at nmymag.com slash pod. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Adolescence on Netflix.

1:01:24Thank you.