SpaceX IPO: Markets, Morals, and What It Means for You

21:00and have a hearing where Katie Porter pulls out a whiteboard and says, you're naughty, naughty, naughty. They don't care. They got on their plane and they go home. But if there when and if there are significant economic boycotts, then they have no choice but to respond. I just don't know if we're ever going to see something like that. Right. When we talk so much about, you know, Bezos and Amazon and as people are saying, like, I hate it or I hate those social media companies, they're saying it while they're scrolling through Instagram and then ordering Amazon packages. Scott? People will opt for their economic security.

21:30And if they think they can get 10 or 20 percent in a one or two hour trade, they know this is overvalued. They know that the game is being rigged here and they will take the allocation to get their 10 or 20 percent. No one says at a funeral, you know, this guy didn't participate in the SpaceX IPO because he had real integrity.

21:47Kara Swisher:Right. That's true. Well, they'll say that at mine. OpenAI has filed for an IPO. The company has not yet decided on timing, saying in a statement, it may be a while because there are things we want to do that are likely easier for a private company. I don't know what that is. Like, what, orgies? I don't know. OpenAI has last. No, no. But in their defense, there's a lot you have to do, explain, account for when you go public. It's not easy. OpenAI was last valued at$852 billion. The filing comes shortly after Rival Anthropics. Which of the three are you betting on? And how worried are you about the concentration of so much market value in just a few companies?

22:25Kara Swisher:Does it make the entire—Scott has been talking about how the entire market is fragile. The entire market is fragile. And I think the name of the game for all of them, honestly, is to be—you don't want to be the last one to IPO. Right? There is this huge appetite for AI. Everybody's so excited. But there's so much, and there's potentially so much overdevelopment. I think you just don't want to, of all of them, you just don't want to be the last one when you've exhausted the market. And it's already exhausted. No one is rooting for this IPO more than Elon Musk other than Sam Altman. This sets the tone for the next couple IPOs.

23:01If this comes out really strong, these guys are going to be able to come out and say, look at our numbers versus SpaceX, and you were willing to buy in it 100 times. Open AI and Anthropic are going to look like value stocks compared to SpaceX if SpaceX holds up. Yeah, if it holds up, if there's enough money. And in the case of Open AI and Anthropic, especially as it relates to a retail investor, those are companies that people actually could say they know and they see more than they do SpaceX.

23:28Kara Swisher:That's a good point. All right, one last thing. Inflation was up 4.2 % annually in May, the highest in three years. Much of the surge came from the increase in oil prices, obviously, which have risen 35 percent in the months since U.S. and Israel attacked Iran. But fear not, President Trump is feeling optimistic about the situation. He likes it. Let's listen to a clip. Are you going to serve, Mr. President, about the latest inflation number, which came out this morning? Could that be a thing? No, I love it. The numbers were trying to hold. You know what I really love? I love the inflation. OK.

23:57Kara Swisher:How much does he love inflation? And both of you, first you, Stephanie, how much would it rise before he started to not love it so much? Well, two things. Like, as somebody who spent his life deeply in debt, I guess he could say, yes, inflation works for me. If you put it in full context or when he tried to do a cleanup later, he's basically saying inflation's not bad. Think about where it could have been, right? People thought oil was going to be$200 a barrel. But the fact of the matter is, and he said just this week, like, listen, gas prices were really high when Biden was in office, which was the case when Russia first invaded Ukraine.

24:35But guess what? Those high prices and inflation, I would say, were the fundamental reasons why Joe Biden and subsequently Kamala Harris didn't win the election. Donald Trump promised to lower prices day one. He obviously hasn't done that. I think when he talks about affordability being nonsense or an old-fashioned term, I think he's selling the truth because he is in a gilded cage surrounded by people who have made—who are already super wealthy and they've made more money in the last two years than is even conceivable. But where it's politically devastating and not necessarily for him because he doesn't need to be president again, but for every Republican running, that soundbite of the president saying inflation's great, that hurts.

25:17You and I both have mothers that voted for Donald Trump, and I assure you, my mother does not think inflation is great, and she could tell you the price of London broil and the price of gas today. Like you said, London broil. This will hurt Republicans. I say London broil because, like, that's the cut she buys.

25:32Kara Swisher:Would you like some London broil? Scott? Well, people don't. 4.2 % doesn't sound like a lot. What you need to do is quick math for people in terms of compounding. And that is at 4.2%, if that holds, that means the tuition to go to NYU at$62 ,000. If you have a baby today, when the kid is ready for college, tuition is now$125 ,000. Or bring it back just five years. It's easier for people to wrap their heads around. That means a car that costs$50 ,000 is going to cost$61 ,000. It's not 4.2. It's 4.2 compounding. And the other thing about this inflation print that's so bad is for the first time in several years, inflation is now greater than wages, meaning the quality of everyone's life, their prosperity is diminished.

26:19But not for Trump and the people who are around Trump. And he's happy as a clam in that bubble. I think if it wasn't for the war in Iran, he would be on cloud nine. And also, it just bears mentioning that for the three of us, it really doesn't matter because we own stocks. We own assets. We're hedged against inflation because our house goes up 4.2%. Our stocks go up 4.2 % because Apple will raise its prices. Who this hurts are earners that don't have assets yet. So, and let's be clear, revolutions don't start because people aren't employed. They start because people are working two jobs and are still hungry.

26:58And this is yet again, it's another, there are still, Argentina's had 120 % of inflation. There's a class of people there that have always stayed wealthy because they own land. So the landowners and the stock owners, traditionally older people in the United States, are just fine. Inflation is yet again another transfer of wealth from non-asset owners who are earners to the asset owners. Garrett, let me just say, when people say, when wealthy people say they're panic-stricken over Zoram Mamdani coming for capitalism and leading the eat the rich sentiment, He's not leading the eat the rich sentiment.

27:35Donald Trump saying I like inflation is fueling the eat the rich sentiment, not the mayor of New York. That is correct.

27:43Kara Swisher:And the tech bros saying all manner of nonsense every day of the week and twice on Sunday is the same thing. It's anger. It's anger inducing. And that's where you feel it, I think. Prediction on which of the IPOs coming or is the stock market about to take a deep fall, as many people think. So which of all the IPOs, which one would you buy into? And are you worried about the stock market? Listen, I've been saying I've been worried about the stock market for quite some time. And if you talk to CEOs that are not the Magnificent Seven or that run companies that are impacted by tariffs or mass deportation, those companies are not booming.

28:18They are struggling. They can't walk into the White House and offer Donald Trump a plane or God only knows what. It's not so easy for them. So I think under the hood, things aren't great for lots of companies. But honestly, I'm not betting against the stock market because the only way it's been going is up. And a current appetite for AI, to me, it might be fragile, but it's big. It's big. All right. Which one would you buy? It's on a plate in front of you.

28:42Kara Swisher:If I was hanging my morals out the window, I'd buy all of them. Oh, okay. All right, then. There you go. All right. Thank you, Stephanie. And everyone be sure to watch her new MS Now show. I'm going to yell it. Money, power, politics. Weekdays at 9 a.m. She's going to be getting up early to give us the lowdown on everything. Tell us what this move is about. What is the situation with MPP? I think we need a great big morning show. I think that especially, obviously, we cover politics. We cover current events. But the economy is the number one thing that people vote on. Tomorrow, as we talk about the SpaceX IPO, we're going to have a newly minted trillionaire.

29:22We are 16 years out from Citizens United and have more money going into politics than ever. And not just politics because, hey, I like this candidate. Politics because it's directly impacting policy, not to mention the gargantuan grift and corruption under our nose right now. I couldn't cover all that in one hour. I thought it was important that we covered it. And we covered it in the morning for two hours and in a way that we're sort of setting the tone for what we cover here because it's not just about following Trump and the crazy thing he's saying today. We're fundamentally changing potentially the way our economy works, the way capitalism works.

29:59And I think we need to cover it in a comprehensive way. And you guys know this as well as I do. The way that business news has traditionally been covered, it's business news covered for an audience that invests in the markets. And when CEOs go on TV, they're not necessarily giving their worldview. They're talking about specific information about their companies that's going to impact their earnings report and their stock performance that day. we need to have much bigger and broader conversations than that. And that's what we're hoping to do.

30:27Kara Swisher:At nine in the morning, too. So you're on after Morning Joe. So Morning Joe sort of yammers on for a long time about politics mostly. So you're going to come in with a real hard-nosed show in the morning, essentially. Yes, but also, I mean, yes, at nine in the morning. But I also think, and you guys know this, I actually just talked about this in an interview the other day. I think that when people watch TV, yes, people watch live TV, but it's more you watch the show that you want to watch. and if you make an important show that matters, it doesn't actually, if Landman is your favorite show or Friends and Neighbors and I said to you, what time is it on?

30:59What day? You might say like, oh, I think it comes out on Fridays. I think for me, the most important thing isn't who's necessarily watching me at nine. It's how do we make the best show that counts? Because that's what people are going to want and need to see. Think about the way pivot, think about the way people consume pivot. Yeah.

31:14Kara Swisher:Yeah. Usually when they're drunk, but no, no, no. Morning, running. Not just Scott. Not just Scott. By the way, Stephanie, I don't know if you, this is very much related to what you're talking about. We were talking about Taylor Swift. And I don't know if you guys heard, but all of her exes are getting together and collaborating on an album. And it's going to be called Maybe She's the Problem. Oh, my God. She saved the Knicks. Don't, don't, don't listen to them. Stephanie appreciates that. Don't answer the question. Stephanie appreciates that. By the way, just let's divert from the news. When Stephanie calls me, I'm both excited and scared because typically her calls start with, typically her, not exaggerating, her calls start with, I think you're really fucking up.

31:55Kara Swisher:Oh, nice. Or I'm worried about you. I get a version of that. It's like whenever she calls, I'm like, uh-oh. This is either going to be very good or very bad. Okay, you know what? That's called a person who doesn't waste time, who's an actual friend. It's called a friend. No, you're a friend. I saw Scott on a personal issue the other day, and when I started the call, I said, let me get to somewhere private. And he immediately said, are you getting a divorce? Oh, my God. All right. No, I didn't. That's a lie. I said, wait till the kids are gone. Wait till the kids are out of the house. It was a divorce.

32:27I was calling Scott for some parenting. I was calling for actual parenting advice from Scott, which he is fantastic at when it comes to boys. And his immediate response, I just said, let me get to somewhere where no one else in the family could hear me. Wait till the kids are out of the house was his response. Thanks, Scott.

32:44Kara Swisher:Okay. And then he proceeded to give me incredible advice. May I just say, I have two fine sons. You might. Yes. Yeah, we've heard over and over and over. Yes, one of them is quite good at cooking, if you didn't know. Yes, he's working for a restaurant now. Oh, God, here we go. In San Francisco. He's very excited. He has a little outfit, too. The other is at Michigan. He's wonderful. He's got a fantastic girlfriend. Know all about him. No, he's got a fantastic. He loves his job. He's manufacturing things in an advanced way. All right. Thank you, Stephanie. Thanks, Stephanie. Good to see you. Thank you all so, so much.

33:16I love you both. Scott, I'll slide into your DMs later. Anyway, let's go on a quick break.

33:22Kara Swisher:When we come back, the Trump administration's freak out over Jeffrey Epstein.

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36:47Kara Swisher:Scott, we're back. The Trump administration cannot escape the assessing files, nor should they be able to, no matter how hard they try. And we're now getting more details about the internal panic about Epstein over the last year. Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan shared an excerpt from their upcoming book, Regime Change, with the New York Times. Both are New York Times writers, by the way. Here are some highlights. The situation became an Epstein war room where strategy meetings took place. J.D. Vance suggested having Tucker Carlson interview Jelaine Maxwell in prison. There was talk of then-deputy A.G.

37:17Kara Swisher:Todd Blanche going on Joe Rogan, but Vance wanted to go on instead of Blanche. Dan Bongino warned this would be President Trump's Iran Contra. There was talk of nipples and President Trump's disrespect for nipples in the room. And as funny as that sounds, it was pretty grotesque, his abuse of a young woman. But this is what this entire leadership is talking about, is whether he'll be able to handle the nipple stuff getting out. It's not just the White House, and it has nothing to do with nipples here, Bill Gates was on Capitol Hill this week testifying behind closed doors about his connection to Epstein.

37:56Kara Swisher:Gates said Epstein tried to use information about his extramarital affairs as leverage after the two had cut ties. Well, obviously he did. He's an evil villain. He also acknowledged that meeting with Epstein was a grave error in judgment, which he said before, and put his philanthropy work at risk. And it certainly did, including his own reputation. Talk a little bit about, did anything surprise you about how the White House dealt with the Epstein stuff? They sound like fucking amateurs. Every time I was reading it, I was like, what a bunch of amateurs. Big fights between Bongino and Patel and Bondi and Susie Wiles just sitting over it like a demented mother who doesn't know how to control idiot children.

38:33Kara Swisher:Will this be a major issue in terms? And I will say, as you know, I was very much an early on saying this is a real problem. Reuters is out with a new poll. Seventy five percent of people think the government is hiding information on Epstein's clients. And a lot of it is falling as much as Trump has tried to push it off onto other people on the president himself. So I think we agree that it should be an issue. I don't think it will be. There's recent data showing there's these March focus groups ranked Epstein six amongst voter concerns ahead. So it's well in the back of the bus here. I think it is, again, unfortunately, I just don't think it's that big an issue.

39:09I think the American public is so numb to this kind of stuff, especially in the Trump administration. What I actually found more interesting was the whole Gates testimony, and that is he has some of the best and brightest PR people because it wasn't an accident. So when you call someone to come testify in front of a special committee or whoever he testified, you have some say in it. He has the best lawyers in the world. Yes, he does. And what do they do, Cara? They got it behind closed doors, and they got it during the NBA finals, during Iran, during the SpaceX IPO. This is what you do. You know this business better than I do.

39:47When you have shitty news, you bury it on a big news day, right? Yep, absolutely. So Gates, whether you think he deserves to be flogged in public or how guilty or not guilty of whatever you think he is, I just admire the PR savvy here.

40:02Kara Swisher:Yeah, that would be Larry Cohen. Behind closed doors during a very, very heavy business news week. This story is going to come and go. Well, I still think it's a – I'm going to disagree with you because I think I was actually completely accurate at the beginning of the Epstein thing that it's a big deal. I think among the base of people, it remains an illuminating and a thing that gets them going. I don't think it goes away. And what was interesting was Dan Bongino during this whole thing kept saying that to the Trump people. But this is not – they kept minimizing it, saying it's not a big deal.

40:32Kara Swisher:It's not a big deal. It was a big fucking deal. And this is something I knew from reading all these QAnon boards. This is at the center. I think it's still at the center. I think it creates an atmosphere among people like Rogan and others of these fucking liars. I think Iran's a bigger deal for them than Epstein. It is now, but I'm saying this is like one more, you know, another brick in the wall, like that kind of thing. And so I think Epstein remains a bearing wall of this presidency, and he cannot get away from it. I get the nipple thing and everything else, and as much as I think he's kind of like an oaf, Dan Pagino had it right.

41:08Kara Swisher:And so, by the way, did Vance, although Wiles was sort of accusing of being a conspiracy theorist. But I think Vance had his finger on the pulse of bringing it out like as much as possible, even if it hurt the president slightly, because the transparency was more important than what's in it. Unless, of course, there's very clear and inconvertible evidence that he slept with an underage girl, which it's still not proven. There's been a lot of allegations of it, certainly. So I think it's still there. I think it sits there like mold. It just sits there and it sits in the minds of a lot of people like Massey.

41:45Kara Swisher:And even though he's zeroed them, he has not zeroed them. I don't think by any means. And I think Vance knows it. And Bongino certainly knows it. And with Gates, look, you're right. This was a good time to do his, and he kept going, I'm here voluntarily. Did you see that? Which was kind of interesting. I think this has hurt his reputation. Oh, yeah, no doubt. For a long, long, long time. No doubt. I think he is going to suffer. He has done some amazing works. I think his wife is looking, his ex-wife is looking fantastic with all this different financial things she's putting out and handling her image quite well throughout this whole thing.

42:22Kara Swisher:But I think he is permanently harnished, and I'm not sure how any conversation he has going forward does not include this topic. So I think he has done enormous damage to himself by affiliating himself with Epstein. And it was a grave error in judgments, and it did put his philanthropy at work. So I think it's there. I think it's still there. Yeah, hard to argue with. All right. Let's go on a quick break. We come back. Paramount lashes out against Netflix.

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46:00Kara Swisher:Scott, we're back with more news in this endless fucking merger. Paramount is accusing Netflix of waging a scorched earth campaign to kill its$110 billion deal with Warner Brothers in a letter to the DOJ, Paramount's chief legal officer, Makin Delrahim, says Netflix is trying to, quote, poison regulators and other stakeholders against the merger. Oh, come on, Makin. I know Makin. Of course they are. Netflix is calling their claims absurd. It's not the only thing Paramount is doing to get the deal across the finish line. The company reportedly submitted a list of concessions to head off antitrust lawsuit by California and several other states.

46:35Kara Swisher:That'll include New York and possibly Massachusetts, I'm hearing. Recently, actually, I've gotten notes from people in Hollywood saying this thing is a little shakier than it looks. I'm not so sure about that, but I'm surprised I'm getting them. The EU is also currently reviewing the merger in light of the backing of those Middle Eastern wealth funds. Thoughts anywhere? Of all the media CEOs, the one I know best, which isn't very well, is Ted's around us. And any campaign to try and undermine this would have to have Ted's blessing. And this just isn't Ted's style. No. He's not. He's just going to wait and buy it when they fuck it up.

47:13Kara Swisher:They're$80 billion. And I don't see any exterior lobbying of people who are clearly in Netflix's back pocket. I don't see a bunch of Democratic senators getting all jonesed up about this. So it doesn't ring true for me. What does ring true is that some blue state AGs are starting to look into it. Oh, they are. I've met with them. Yeah. Absolutely are. And may file suit, but I don't see, it just, when I read that, it doesn't, what I do, what I know about Ted, he's, Ted is kind of, you know, when Ted retires, he'll probably be like a diplomat because he's just not the kind of person to shitpost or go on the offensive against people.

47:57Kara Swisher:I think they're trash talking it behind the scenes. Like, because of the obvious situation, this has enormous amounts of debt on it. It's a lot. But I interviewed him on stage in L.A., and I gave him, you know, an opening. I said, isn't the creative community going to scream out in horror when this acquisition closes? And because of the A.I. and, you know, trying to find efficiencies for overpaying. I gave him – I set him up to – and he just – he immediately pivoted to something else and said he hopes they do well. I just don't – he's just not that – he's not of that ilk. No, I think they're shooting themselves in their own feet and they want to blame other people.

48:35Kara Swisher:This has been really cloddish. Every step of the way, this acquisition feels cloddish. And the debt is the debt. That's what it is. And one of the things I want people to focus on is there's a huge amount of debt. The ugliness is not now, even though there's a lot of ugly right now, it's going to happen once the deal is struck because these people cannot keep the promises they've made. They're not very good promise keepers. Some might call them mendacious at times. but they will not be able to keep up there what they are saying they're going to do. And that's when the ugliness will truly start when they have to make these cuts, which have to be significant, no matter what they say, unless Larry Olson decides to just take his money and bankroll the whole thing, which I don't think he will.

49:18Kara Swisher:This is going to be tough for Hollywood and they know it. And I think they're going to have real troubles. And then that's when Netflix comes in and sucks up all the pretty parts would be my guess. I actually think it probably closes, though, because I talked to an economist this weekend and he said it doesn't really fit the whole way for a monopoly. In terms of streaming, if you factor in linear content from their flagship channels, CBS, HBO, and HGTV, the hypothetical combined platform gets roughly 20 % of total US hours streamed and Netflix is at 60. In terms of total TV viewing time, the combined Warner Brothers Paramount streaming and TV All In would represent about 12.2 % of total US viewing TV watch time.

50:03And that's less than YouTube currently has at about 13%. In terms of box office sales, Paramount and Warner Brothers represent roughly 25 % of the domestic box office. And they're just so well connected with Trump. They'll end up selling off like SpongeBob SquarePants so some regulator can feel like they've got a win or something or divesting of some stupid children's program. But I think this goes through. Kalshi has it at 75%. I think it's actually higher than that.

50:28Kara Swisher:Yeah, I've just noticed a lot of Hollywood people, and the smart ones, I'm not talking about the dumb ones, have been like, hmm, this feels bad. Something feels bad. But I think it's largely all the noise around CBS and the disaster they're perpetrating there. But I think it's more, I just think the pain is going to come once the deal is done. That is where it's going to happen. And you're going to see, like, how are they going to get out of this box? And none of them are Houdini in that gang. So that's the problem. We'll see. We'll see where it's going. But definitely, the state attorney generals are involved.

51:01Kara Swisher:They're going to try to, They will get them to sell something up there. I am still very concerned about the backing of these Middle Eastern wealth fans owning this much of our media. But, you know, no one else seems to care. But I find that really. And EU will, they'll have to do a lot of favors for people going forward. And later, Ted Zerondes and YouTube will take it all over. That's my feeling. Like, it's really, these people are like, not, don't count compared to those two. And where you should watch is YouTube and Netflix. That's pretty much how I feel. And Disney to a lesser extent. Anyway, last thing, Canada is the latest country to crack down on social media for teens.

51:40Kara Swisher:The government proposed a bill this week to ban kids under 16 from using social media, though most companies can get exemptions if they prove their platforms adequately protect young users. It's not just Canada. As we said, across the pond, UK Prime Minister Starmer is weighing a similar ban. It's across the world, but don't expect this to happen in the US. Our embassy in London posted about the potential UK ban writing the United States favors parental empowerment over government mandates, whatever. Also worth noting, though, Australia's social media ban is struggling. 70 percent of teens are still using social media apps, according to a recent report, because they can get around this stuff.

52:14Kara Swisher:So I think it's more teens continue to smoke after we put stuff on packs and made it harder to buy them. I don't really think that should be the goal there. But I think a society has to say this stuff sucks and is dangerous. So I don't mind just the saying of it. So how do you think about UK and Canada doing this? I think it's great, and I think it's overdue. I don't think there's any reason why anyone under the age of 16 should be on a social media platform. I think one of the greatest threats to our society is that we're evolving a new species of asocial, asexual males. And that 40 % of the S &P is now tied to trying to convince these people to sequester from their relationships and be online.

52:51And part of the problem is just as their brain is getting wired through puberty, you're teaching them to have constant visual stimulation. and be staring at a stranger. I mean, there's even evidence now that their posture is changing.

53:04Kara Swisher:A leaning over? Yeah, unless you have like a – They're back to your Neanderthal, right? Unless you have collective action. And I do think these bands, you know, schools aren't going to allow you to have a phone. If you're a preschooler in middle school, you're not allowed to have a phone. I mean, anyways, I think this is – it took us 30 years to figure out tobacco or regulate it. It took us 20 years with opiates. It looks like social went on mobile in 2013. it looks like it's going to take us exactly about 20 years. But I think this is a great thing. Europe is leading on this. It's weird to describe Europe as an innovator on regulation, but as somebody who has grown up with kids in the kill zone, exactly the wrong age at exactly the wrong time, you know, a lot of people will say to me, I'm really worried.

53:48I have a five and eight-year-old. I'm like, no, no, no, you're fine. We'll have this figured out by the time they're 13 and 14. But if you went through COVID as a teenager and grew up with social media, I really think you faced some significant headwinds in terms of emotional regulation.

54:05Kara Swisher:I do. Can I make another answer? First of all, as I said, it's a sign that society thinks it's important, just like we did with cigarettes or seatbelts. Not everyone wears seatbelts. Lots of teens smoke. Guess what? Lots of teens drink, even though we have rules. It's the society saying to its citizens, we think this is bad. you can cheat and they will no question I think that argument is so false like oh teens will get it anyway I'm like okay they'll get liquor anyway they'll get everything so I think that's number one it says something about your society that you care enough and it isn't mandating it's just saying like as with cigarettes as with drinking we shall our teens shall not do this and I think that's perfectly fine and you know the people that say it's not they're they're not paying attention to everything else the second thing is I do think social media is on the decline among young people, not among our people who are addicted, fatally addicted to these things.

54:57Kara Swisher:But I do think I watch a lot of young people and I know a lot of them are on there, but I think the age is a little higher. I would put an asterisk on that. I think it's declining among wealthy, informed young people who have strong parental influences and the money and the resources to get engaged in other things. I think if you're the child of a single mother, home alone a lot, I don't know. You know, I mean, even among young men, do you know supposedly men ages 20 to 30 are spending more time and less time outdoors than prison inmates? They're on a fucking screen. And just to go to some - No, I think, I'm talking about social media.

55:36Some of it's gaming, I agree. But just the big tax excuse has always been, we can't find, it would be impossible for us to detect underage users. Guess what? When Australia passed an act, The platforms deactivated nearly 5 million teen accounts in just one month. They were able to figure it out. And meanwhile, that very same detection is being withheld from Americans because our federal government has no interest in protecting children from the harms of social media. The Kids Online Safety Act passed the Senate 91 to 3 and then died when House GOP leadership refused a floor vote. So the bill's been reintroduced and is stalled again.

56:14A March House markup was pulled amid partisan fights over preemption. And 40 bipartisan state attorney generals are begging Congress to act, warning the House version would gut state child safety laws. So this is—

56:27Kara Swisher:I like you bringing the data, Scott. Well, the last federal law protecting kids online was COPPA, and it was in 1998. So wait, let me—you don't think the world has changed in 28 years regarding technology and the potential harm for children? Come on. I would not ask you—I think Australia's not working is not the— question. It is, teens will find a way. But I do think a society stepping out and saying it. And let me just note, I don't know if you saw this, the trailer just came out for The Social Reckoning, which is the follow-up to The Social Network. Jeremy Strong from Succession is playing Mark Zuckerberg.

56:59Kara Swisher:He's got the voice on down pat, although he looks too old, I have to say. He's oddly looking old. But it's all about this. It's all about, and it's, you know, it's the story of Francis Haugen, really, pretty much, and his Facebook files, and how they knew what they were doing, and they did it anyway. And this was the first. To me, this was the moment that Zuckerberg went villainous, right? That he started understanding something that I'd written about in the Times of 2018. This came out in 2019, 2021, period. But this was the moment. And I think this movie, it'll be really interesting, by Aaron Sorkin, And once again, revisiting this issue is that this guy is living large on the backs of teens, on the backs of kids, on the backs of everybody.

57:46Kara Swisher:And I don't think it's going to be great for the image. And I think to say it again and again has to happen, including these laws, these movies, and everything else. And Jeremy Strong literally sounds so much like him, it's disturbing. Well, the ability of big tech to wash over Washington and separate them from the best interests of our children with money, you know what's gotten in the way of the Kids' Online Safety Act, better known as COSA? It forces platforms to exercise, open quote, reasonable care in designing features so they prevent and mitigate specific harm to minors, things including content promoting suicide, eating disorders, sexual exploitation, and compulsive use patterns.

58:28Big tech is fighting those things.

58:31Kara Swisher:Yeah, that's because they go, oh, it could be used for this. They go behind their First Amendment nonsense that they tend to try to push out there. Yeah. You can't anticipate everything. I just want the society to say no to this. Just like kids with phones in schools, no, no, no. And that's what a civil society does to these companies, whether they're cigarette companies, liquor companies. By the way, liquor is on the decline. I think social media is going to decline more than you think. I think that's my prediction. Anyway. All right, Scott, one more quick break. We'll be back for predictions.

59:07Hi, I'm Maria Sharapova, host of the Pretty Tough podcast. Each episode, I sit down with high-achieving women to discuss the pursuit of excellence without apology. This week, model Sports Illustrated cover girl and entrepreneur Ashley Graham talks about the time she almost quit. I called my mom and I said, Mom, I just, I'm not going to do this anymore. And she told me, no, you are going to stick this out. Your body is going to change someone's life. Every decade, you're going to go through something different. So be really happy with who you are right now because things change. Check out Pretty Tough, new episodes on Wednesdays.

59:41You can watch it on YouTube or listen in your favorite podcast app.

59:49Big news this week for all my Gordon Gekkos, my Robin Hooders, my Claude Squad, But Anthropic, which is newly the most valuable AI company in the world, announced it would be going public. That news follows reporting that OpenAI plans to go public as soon as September. And that that news follows reporting that SpaceX, which also considers itself an AI company, will be going public in maybe just a few weeks from now. Welcome to the era of the Omega IPO.

1:00:21We are about to see millionaires, billionaires, and yes, probably even the world's first trillionaire created overnight. And yes, it's that guy. This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy. Chainsaw! But all the tech bros who are going to make all the money, they need our money way more than we need their products. And we're going to remind you why on today's Explain from Vox. So the 2026 midterms is shaping up to be an all-out brawl. But the biggest fight may not be between Democrats and Republicans, but over the congressional maps itself.

1:00:58Kara Swisher:Gerrymandering is not a good thing. We don't like it. And then all of a sudden, we're going out and telling people, vote for this. So I'm in Ashland, Virginia, a small town just outside of Richmond, which calls itself the center of the universe. And that checks out because it's the center of the political universe, at least when it comes to the 2026 midterms. That's because Ashland sits in Virginia's first congressional district, which is one of only about 35 or so that are actually competitive. That makes Virginia particularly important when it comes to the question of gerrymandering. The gerrymandering is a major problem, but it's not like Democrats drew first blood with this one.

1:01:35Donald Trump doesn't think he should be held accountable by anybody, so he's trying to change the rules because he doesn't like the game.

1:01:40Kara Swisher:We've shown what we're capable of. Now let's keep up the push through the midterms. America actually will be in your feeds and on YouTube every Saturday with an interesting interview in politics or culture.

1:01:57Kara Swisher:Okay, Scott, let's hear a prediction. Well, one is a simple, funny one, and the other one is more serious. But the simple one is you're about to see revenues at the 100 biggest podcasts go up 20 to 30 percent. Oh, yay. That's us. Additional just from, like, everybody make their wagers. Pivot is about to get a great deal of money, and so is every other big podcast to be the, quote, unquote, to be the— The exclusive. The exclusive. They've already come knocking. I don't care if it's Yahoo, Scout, or Gemini. These guys are all going to— Yahoo. We're about to— Yahoo, claw. Remember all that cheap, cheap money that was being thrown around in 99?

1:02:44Kara Swisher:That was mattresses. That was mattresses. I mean, you're about to see the podcast universe have this tsunami of money just to say, hey, Joe, we'll give you 10 million bucks if you decide that you only use open AI. Right. Anyways, that's my stupid, simple one. But the more specific one is that, I mean, look, the fix is in. And I just think it's so fucking obvious. Musk called Trump after doing a lot of analysis with his bankers and said, you know, I spent$250 million to get you elected. He probably said, no, you didn't get me elected. He said, well, can you acknowledge that I helped? He said, yeah.

1:03:20And he's like, I'm considering putting$2.5 billion into the midterms. How would you like that, President Trump? Well, I'd like it a lot. Well, if you can get Paul Atkins over at the SEC to waive that stupid rule that doesn't allow retail investors from participating in great companies like SpaceX, I just have this hankering to put in two, three, maybe$5 billion into the midterms.

1:03:41Kara Swisher:The hankering, hankering, yes. And again, what does that do? It sends$30 to$50 billion in incremental dollars hunting for$100 billion in available shares of SpaceX. This is all of a sudden, there's 50 % more people looking for homes in San Francisco than there was with any other previous IPO. And let's just do the math. Say that takes the price of SpaceX up just, let's be conservative, 10%. At$2 trillion, that's$200 billion. He owns 40%. So he gets$80 billion. Why wouldn't he promise the president$10 billion in the midterms? Citizens United, he can do whatever the fuck he wants. So if he called the president and said, hey, call Paul and tell them to do away with this stupid rule, such that retail good Americans can't invest in the best companies.

1:04:36And I got a hankering to put$10 billion to work in the midterms. I mean, quite frankly, wouldn't it be stupid not to do that?

1:04:43Kara Swisher:Yes, absolutely. That's how it works. That's how it works. And it was my prediction is the fix is in. What people aren't focused on is this, the waiving of the NASDAQ 100 rules that you got to wait a year and let price settles is going to create the ultimate false flag signal of pricing on the day of this IPO. That's what they're doing. Oh, they're all talking it up. And you're like, oh, you people. And Stephanie's right. Morality has nothing to do with it. I could never be an investment banker. I couldn't be a lawyer either. I wouldn't. I'd be like, you're guilty. You should go to jail. I'm going to turn you in.

1:05:13Kara Swisher:I just couldn't do it. I just couldn't do it. Same thing. You suck. I'm not going to take you public. I just couldn't. I just couldn't do it. I don't know. Well, whatever. Someone has to. Anyway, that was a great prediction. I think you're absolutely right. And about the podcast thing. Yay. Yay. Yay. Yay for us. but we'll take we'll cash those checks though but you investment bankers are evil people you know what I mean let me say how fucked am I that he's going to be a trillionaire I'm kind of fucked aren't I well I'm all on board now I love this kind of populist economist out of the UK Gary Stevenson and he he totally changed my frame of mind and that is taxes are Kevlar against corruption because when people aggregate too much money they become corrupt you know power corrupts an absolute power absolutely corrupts.

1:06:00And our taxes are what stands between us and having one person who can decide when to turn off an on-battlefield technology and the invasion of Europe.

1:06:07Kara Swisher:Yeah. Yeah. Do you think you'll like hire an army just for me? I don't know. I just feel like, oh, no. It was irritating before, but now I'm fucked. Anyway, elsewhere in the Karen Scott universe, this week on Prof G Conversations, Scott spoke with Ann Applebaum, one of my favorites, too, and Fiona Hill. Wow, Wow, what a pair about how Ukraine is rewriting the rules of warfare, the hidden weaknesses of authoritarian regimes and the future of global power. Let's listen to a clip. I think actually what Ukraine could show is that the beneficiaries of all of this ought to be society, the private sector, the innovators, and that we need to find some kind of model after this, a refresh after all of the dust has settled here, while the dust is settling, to basically get ourselves back into gear again.

1:06:54So a trillion plus defense budget that's going to be top down is not the way to go at all. You're absolutely right. That is not the model. A lesson from this is that soft power is underrated and hard power is overrated.

1:07:08Kara Swisher:Correct. And we've just gotten it all wrong. Scott, I'm glad you did those two ladies. They're badasses. Yeah, it was our 400th episode and they asked me who I would want on the show. And I said either Ann Applebaum or Fiona Hill. And they said, look at both. So I was really excited to have them on. The women shall save us. Yeah, impressive women. Anyway, we want to hear from you. Send us your questions about 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. Okay, that's the show. Thanks for listening to Pivot. Be sure to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

1:07:41Kara Swisher:We'll be back next week. Today's show was produced by Lara Naiman, Zoe Marcus, Taylor Griffin, and Todd Wiseman. Aaliyah Jackson engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Brosman, Savera, and Dan Chalon. and Shaq Kauras, Vox Media's executive producer of podcasts. Make sure to follow Pivot on your favorite podcast platform. Thanks for listening to Pivot from Vox Media. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business.