Tesla’s Chargers, The Writers’ Strike, and What Global Policies Will Save the World

24:10And the best part is that Odoo replaces multiple expensive platforms for a fraction of the cost. It's built to grow with your business, whether you're just starting out or you're already scaling up. Plus, it's easy to use, customizable, and designed to streamline every process. It's time to put the clutter aside and focus on what really matters, running your business. Thousands of businesses have made the switch, so why not you? Try Odoo for free at odoo.com. That's O-D-O-O dot com.

24:42Support for the show comes from Z Biotics. So I drink a little bit less these days. I'm trying to tone down my consumption of alcohol, as I think is a good idea when you get to my age, 50. But when I do pour myself a cocktail, I want to make sure my next day also feels great. Or let me say, just to be honest, less bad. And if you want to feel your best in the morning or better in the morning, you could start the night before with Z-Biotics. Z-Biotics pre-alcohol probiotic drink is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic. It was invented by PhD scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking.

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25:49So if you're unsatisfied for any reason, they'll refund your money. No questions asked. Remember to head to zbiotics.com slash pivot and use the code pivot at checkout for 15 bucks off.

26:06Scott, we're back with more listener mail. This one came in via email. Let me read it to you. Scott and Carol, longtime fan and steadfast listener. I'm a communications consultant who's increasingly asked by clients to worry less about earned media and traditional kinds of PR and more about owned media, blogs, email, newsletters, and wait for it podcasts. My question is, where does this all go? In a year or five years? Or what we'll be using to tell stories? Are we looking to a future of more in-person, real-life conferences and meetups? Or are we just going to be swiftly shunted to social reality as the preferred method of storytelling and B2C messaging?

26:43TLDR, if streaming and podcasts are both over, what's next? Thanks. Kenny from Chattanooga. Well, Kenny, thanks for writing. I don't think it's over. It's just changing. I think it's great to communicate via podcast as a company. Some of them are quite good. I mean, look, my Succession podcast was won by HBO. It just was really well done. Blogs are a good way to do it. Email newsletters. Owned media is actually very effective compared to earned media. I guess that's what you call it in traditional kinds of PR because I don't think people are listening. I think that it will change to see you should be on TikTok.

27:17You should be doing storytelling anywhere storytelling is happening. I don't know if that's a problem. I don't think streaming is over. I don't think podcasts are over. I thought there was overspending with celebrities and things like that, which I thought was economically ridiculous. All of us knew that at the time. They were economically ridiculous. But any way you can tell stories is fine. I don't think traditional PR is going to work anymore. That's for sure. And that will be replaced by AI if used at all. It's mostly useless, it seems like me. Wonderful advertising is still a great way to tell a story.

27:51then there's lots of new creative ways to do that. If there was one skill I could give my kids, it would be storytelling. It's not Mandarin, it's not computer science. I think storytelling is enduring. Whether it's the ability to raise capital or the lower caste of capital, whether it's the ability to entice a crowd, whether it's the ability to attract mates. Storytellers, whether it's Mick Jagger or Beyonce, have a broader selection set of mates because what they are is they're amazing storytellers. this is now what the next part of this are what are the mediums and that's a tougher one to tell I don't think anyone saw the rise of TikTok obviously it's social media I'm a huge fan a huge fan of getting together in person I'm not even talking about can so that was great it really was I learned a lot but go ahead I agree but something did strike me when I was there it is very stratified and it's kind of like not even it's really kind of sequestered to the top one And what I would like to see as part of an infrastructure act is a fairly significant investment in what we refer to as third places, parks, opportunities for nonprofits, leagues.

29:00Used to be churches, other community groups. Religious institutions, subsidized extension classes. We need to touch, we need more unsupervised opportunities for random encounters in the service of other people. And that's one of the reasons I'm a fan actually of national service, because I used to go to Westwood Park and play basketball. And I remember it was 28 bucks a year, and I got to play in every league there. I made a bunch of great friends. I found mentors. You know, my dad's been married four times, so I've been to every temple, Presbyterian Church and Unitarian Church in Los Angeles, and I made a lot of wonderful friends there.

29:38But there is an absence of third places. And we need something more than just conferences that kind of the tech elite go to. We need a reason to get it. Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, all of that. We need more of it. It's school. Kids in school and everything else. That sure was a very clear signal from the pandemic that kids need to be in schools. Like they just need to physically. 100%. Online schools just don't work. And after school, you know, drill team and drum line. And I mean, just all that stuff is so important. You know, one of the things that Clara loved at Cannes, there was a daycare that they had that was free, which was great.

30:17So we could go off and do work and stuff and Amanda could get a break. And they loved it with other kids and met kids from all over the world. And it was really interesting. And I was like, do you want to come with us to see this thing in Valls or whatever? And she's like, I'd like to go back to school. You know what I mean? She just wanted to hang with people, which was interesting. I do agree with you. I think it's interesting because on the storytelling, it's critically important. And you're just going to have to just cope with whatever's come. And you don't have to make owned media, blogs, email newsletters, and podcasts sucky.

30:48You don't have to if you're a PR person. They can be really interesting. You can be interesting and tell a story well, even if it's PR, right? Even if it's about your company. It's just become boring. And it's done by people who are not interested in what they're doing in a medium that's dull. And so storytelling, you can be good no matter where you are, what you're doing. And you should find new and creative ways to, I guess I said, TikToks and everything. And as what Scott said, to real life thing, I think you're 100 % right. I think we have to invest more in all variety of in-person things.

31:20It's so well worth it for people to do it. Oddly enough, I went to church when I was a kid and I don't at all anymore. Like most people, actually, the numbers are really striking. I've been walking past churches and wanting to go in, and not just because it was in France and pretty. I had this feeling like I kind of want to go in for a service. And I don't want to go to the Catholic church because I have all kinds of issues. But I was like, the community part is what I loved about it. The sitting in a room full of people. Please greet your neighbor. Remember that? Turn to the left. Give them a blessing.

31:51Say hello. Shake their hand. It's wonderful. I just, for some reason lately, I've been having a feeling it's not religious. It's not. It's something else. It's something beyond religion. And so, yes, it's a weird feeling. It's so strange that every time I go past a church, I want to go in for a service, which is interesting. Quaker meeting. When I used to go to temple or to the Presbyterian church, I noticed the temple was more about education. The sermon or whatever you call the rabbi was basically almost educating us. We talked about politics and it was just some incredibly, you know, well-educated, a lot of domain expertise, reading it in life lessons.

32:27When I went to the Presbyterian church, what I found is it was just a bunch of good people who wanted to be together in the agency of something bigger than them. And it was just a – I remember the minister coming up to me. I think it's called a minister. I was an 11-year-old. First service coming up to me and go, I heard you're out staying with your dad. My mom and dad, you know, he was on his third wife. And he said, come over tomorrow. I have a bike for you. Every 11-year-old boy needs a bike. You know, these are like good people trying to help strangers. and I miss that a lot. The problem is I just can't get over the legacy stories, but I agree with you.

33:04I miss that community and that connection. And it's helpful. And even if it was elite, it was just fun. I have to say being around a lot of people, just walking down all kinds of people. I was watching people outside. They were leaving the Palais because we had an apartment across from it after they'd done their awards and they were having a great time, right? You know, you didn't see this, but it was on a screen on the front of the Palais. You could watch the ceremony as people were winning their things. It was lovely to watch. Claire and I sat and watched it, and then everyone poured out and then went off to things.

33:36And it was a really nice, even if it was a lead, this was sort of the regular grunts who were getting awards and stuff. I found it very lovely to watch people just spill out of a gathering. And it just was, I don't know, it was really nice. Anyway, here's the next one. I'll read it. Hello, Ms. and Mr. Swishaway. That's our name just together, just so you know, Swishaway. It sounds like a toilet product. Swishaway, yeah. Swishaway. What kind of global policies, in your views, would prevent existential technological disaster for the next generation? Oh, just a light one. Examples of already always happening existential threats, rapid climate change and species extinction from fossil fuel, global political destabilization, social media, Skynet, AI, and nuclear war, atomic tech.

34:24I'll take my answer off the air via my genetically enhanced and AI-enabled Palm Pilot. Thank you. Eric from Brooklyn. Oh, man, global policies. Well, I guess I'll start again. We need to have AI policies in place right before this starts to really roll out around the uses of it, and we could imagine all the bad uses easily. So I think that's number one, a global regulatory body dealing with this issue immediately. As to climate change, again, a global body that agrees to do things. We have a lot of people who don't believe in climate change, and in the absence of that, a much faster move, as much as I love all the renewables, And much as I love solar, et cetera, et cetera, and I'm interested in fusion, the work they're doing on fusion, we've got to bring nuclear energy back.

35:13It's not nuclear bombs. It's not. And it's been relatively safe over the time. And even the Chernobyl, a very, very small number of deaths compared to what fossil fuel is doing to this world. We have to make a choice here. And so that's one thing, I think, nuclear energy. And I think many, many people who protest against it are misguided and don't understand the overall feelings about it. I just did an interesting interview with Oliver Stone. He has a new documentary called Nuclear Now. It's quite good. He has some kooky ideas in general about other things, but he's correct in this particular point.

35:53Via social media, another, we have to have global standards for social media. But unfortunately, it's now owned by people who, some of whom have lost their marbles in many ways, and so allegedly lost their marbles. And so there's nothing we can do since it's private. Most of them are privately owned. More regulation, any regulation about that. Scott? American superpower is our optimism. Our species superpower is cooperation. And this isn't a new idea. And there are examples of a lot of wonderful organizations that reach across borders for the common good across not only the commonwealth, but the well-being of humanity.

36:31We have the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which is obviously comprised of Western nations. But we have the Geneva Conventions. We had rules around war that we all agreed to. We decided to not have to use gas, to use chemical, to have chemical attacks in World War I. I'm sorry, in World War II, after we saw what they could do in World War I. We now have an agreement. There is technology, battlefield technology, with these hyper lasers that when they're fired will blind everybody on the field permanently. That technology exists, and every nation, including nations that are at war with each other, have decided to sign up for that, and they do not deploy that technology on the battlefield.

37:11We have multilateral agreements around bioweapons. So we have been able to do this. And what's required is leadership and a comity of man. And realize that we have, we went from 50 ,000 nuclear warheads in the US and Russia, respectively, down to 10 ,000 because we cooperated. So these agencies have real meaning and they work. And we need more of them specifically around, I think, probably AI or technology more generally. We need an AI regulatory body. I think it should be run first out of NATO for security reasons, but then we all need to cooperate. We cooperate. The World Health Organization attempts to get everyone on the same page.

37:48We've got to work with China on AI. 100%. But we have taken our worst enemies and decided across the most sensitive topics to work together in the past. And there's no reason why we can't continue to do that and have better organizations that are even stronger and serve humanity. We do cooperate. And so this isn't anything new. We just need – what we need is we need leaders who recognize it's worth the effort, it's worth the work, and we want to plant trees, the shade of which we will never sit under because these are long-term investments. 100%. Any thoughts on any other parts? I think regulation of social media would be nice for once.

38:27I don't know if you can do that. that'll be interesting. I don't know if you can do that globally. I think that's individually. Yeah, it becomes much more regional, right? Based on, I know that's a, I would just settle for any regulation around social technology. Technology is the largest industry in history that has avoided any regulation for this long. And they have learned from the sins of the father, specifically Microsoft, who didn't want to play the regulation or the lobbying game, and then immediately was found guilty of monopoly abuse. And so the new tech titans are much smarter, and they weaponize a pay-for-play government.

39:06And they have been incredibly deft and effective. Space. They're owning space now. I don't know if you saw this, but Sam Altman, the Mr. Regulate Me Please guy, it ends up that he's actually participating or funding regulators who have all of a sudden decided that the regulation they're proposing is not the right regulation. so we need leadership here we need more marguerite vestiers lena khan professor tim woo who just left the administration but these organizations matter they're important and and they can work yeah they can absolutely we've got to trust our regulators a little more rather than demonize them support for the show comes from odoo running a business is hard enough and you don't need to make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other one for sales another for inventory a separate one for accounting.

39:53Before you know it, you find yourself drowning in software and processes instead of focusing on what matters, growing your business. This is where Odoo comes in. It's the only business software you'll ever need. Odoo is an all-in-one, fully integrated platform that handles everything. That means CRM accounting, inventory, e-commerce, HR, and more. No more app overload. No more juggling logins. Just one seamless system that makes work easier. And the best part is that Odoo replaces multiple expensive platforms for a fraction of the cost. It's built to grow with your business, whether you're just starting out or you're already scaling up.

40:25Plus, it's easy to use, customizable, and designed to streamline every process. It's time to put the clutter aside and focus on what really matters, running your business. Thousands of businesses have made the switch, so why not you? Try Odoo for free at odoo.com. That's O-D-O-O dot com.

40:47Support for the show comes from Odoo. Running a business is hard enough, and you don't need to make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other. One for sales, another for inventory, a separate one for accounting. Before you know it, you find yourself drowning in software and processes instead of focusing on what matters, growing your business. This is where Odoo comes in. It's the only business software you'll ever need. Odoo is an all-in-one, fully integrated platform that handles everything. That means CRM accounting, inventory, e-commerce, HR, and more. No more app overload.

41:15No more juggling logins. Just one seamless system that makes work easier. And the best part is that Odoo replaces multiple expensive platforms for a fraction of the cost. It's built to grow with your business, whether you're just starting out or you're already scaling up. Plus, it's easy to use, customizable, and designed to streamline every process. It's time to put the clutter aside and focus on what really matters, running your business. Thousands of businesses have made the switch, so why not you? Try Odoo for free at odoo.com. That's O-D-O-O dot com.

41:51Okay, last one. I'll read it. Tara and Scott, you guys are so in the know on everything. I'm amazed by your intellect. How do you stay on top of the wall? What do you read specifically? Do you carve out time in your day? How do you make it a priority with the kids? Susie from Pittsburgh. Yes, Susie, we're geniuses. I don't know what to tell you, but our intellects are so massive. That's how we do it. That's it. That's our problem. Go ahead, Scott. You go first on this one, then. I get asked this a lot, and I don't have a good answer. I think greatness is in the agency of others. Whenever we do the show, one of the analysts at PropG, Mia Silverio, puts together notes for me.

42:30I did an editorial call this morning, and we'll literally just spend an hour on the phone with the 10 people who work at PropG just talking about ideas. And if something's really interesting, we start pulling data on it. I learn a lot from you, Cara. I try and find interesting media sources. I do find less so now, but Twitter used to bubble up really interesting things, sort of crowdsource interesting ideas. And I'm very fortunate. I have a lot of people who will text me something, including you saying, this is really an interesting article that cuts to kind of the cuts to the core, if you will.

42:59But I don't have my go-to when I was a consultant, I had the secret weapon or two. I used to go to The Economist and I used to go to something. My real secret weapon was something called American Demographics, which was his magazine. That's a good magazine. I've read that. But now it's just kind of a hodgepodge. Now it's sort of crowdsourcing from my team and colleagues. Yeah, I would say I'm a little more disciplined than Scott is in that regard. I read all the major newspapers every morning or at the evening and look for stories. And I read widely The Atlantic. I scroll it and then I pick the ones I want.

43:36I read The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post. I look at Politico. I look at the San Francisco Chronicle. I just am interested in San Francisco. I look everywhere for the information. I love the Puck newsletters. I tend to stick with news sources I trust, which I've covered. So I used to spend a lot more time on Twitter. It's a waste of my time unless I'm interested in dunking. Like funny dunks is what I find there now. You used to find a lot of interesting ideas. But I now specifically search people. I have a list of people on any one subject that I look for, whether it's politics or banking or something like that.

44:14Everyone else I absolutely ignore, and I didn't used to do that. I used to be very open on Twitter. I do those emails, like CNN's Five Things. I love the email that Semaphore puts out, the Puck newsletter, the Axios. Yeah, I'll look at all the newsletters. Casey's platformer, I look at. The Dealbook from Andrew Oswergen. He does a great job. On Instagram, I love Jessica Yellen's News Not Noise. I find it's like a quick hit to get up to speed on stuff. I like Oliver Darcy's CNN thing. That's a lot of media, but I have cut back for sure. When I want to know about something, I go in a deep dive on the regular media things.

44:48I watch some TV. I watch Stephanie Rule's 11th Hour because I like Stephanie's. It has a nice synopsis. Everything else is noise to me. I find it noisy. I look at it sometimes, but a lot of it is repetitive and sort of a dog race kind of stuff. And I find it, I don't like a dog race. Like, who's up? Yeah, and Saturday and Sunday, God, I consume a lot of media. Saturday and Sunday morning for me are Fareed Zakaria, Michael Smirconish. And on Sunday morning, I go to Margaret Brennan at Face the Nation. Yeah, see, there, you do do a lot more. And then I tend to get recommendations from friends. People send me stuff a lot of the time.

45:24And I talk to people more than most people. And so I'd rather do the reporting myself. It's just because of me. But I do carve out time in the morning and in the late evening. and priority for the kids. I stop. We have dinner usually. I try not to look at the phone or try to respond. Most of the time on the phone, I'm responding to my other kids, like someone's trying to reach us or family or Scott or something like that. And then we on pivot and also on, we send stories back and forth all day long on things like, and we do that. Like I looked at this, what about this? It's really helpful. So it's a lot of people you trust.

45:59But in general, we're very interested in curious people, I would say. Don't you think, Scott? We love it. We're information vacuums, aren't we? I find this stuff, I don't even think of it as work. I just find this stuff so interesting. And people know I find it interesting. And I develop nice relationships this way. I just heard from someone, this Molly Jung Fast woman. And I thought, oh, I was flattered that she took the time to message me. I have another good friend, Whitney Tilson. And whenever Whitney finds something that he thinks I would enjoy, he sends it to me. And your friends are a great source.

46:30What I would say is, where do you start? When you find stuff that you think is relevant to other people, start emailing stuff to them, and they'll start emailing back. Or texting. I tend to text more than anything else. And then lastly, I do other things that are just weird. I just started listening. I listen to history podcasts quite a bit. I'm listening to one called The History of Rome, which is 12, 13-minute segments on the history of Rome, and I'm going to go all the way through it. I had studied. I do a lot of historical reading on a lot of stuff, but I used to read. Now I listen. And I find it, they're 12 minutes.

47:02It doesn't take that long. And if I get tired, I turn it off, but never goes anywhere. And so I do that. I do that. And so with the kids, I try to, you know, do just stuff with them. We just take time. Just take time, don't you? You took your kid to the soccer game. We did marshmallows last night. We traveled. We brought them on our trips. We both brought them on our trips. Yeah, but even – and also, I mean, just thinking about it, it keeps going is probably once a week do a full episode of The Daily from The New York Times if it's a subject matter that I want to know more about. I think they do a fantastic job.

47:36I just listened to a finance podcast with my friend Scott Goodwin who's a credit investor and this is an incredible podcast on credit cycles. He's with Diameter Capital, so occasionally I find a finance podcast that I'll go deep into. But, oh, my God, it's so – There's so much content. There's so much great stuff out there. I watch a lot of docs on Netflix and mostly on Netflix, actually, on HBO. I watch documentaries all the time, which I love. On things that aren't news things, like on physics. This in no way is instructive or helpful. We've basically just told them to do meth and watch media all day.

48:13Watch and listen to media all day. Right, all the time. Anyway, those are great questions. Send us more. Go to nymag.com slash pivot to submit a question for the show. or call 855-51-PIVOT. Okay, Scott, that is the show. We'll be back on Friday for more. And again, listeners, thank you for your great questions. I love the way you guys ask questions, whether it's RJ handing it to Scott. I like that. Push back, argue with us. We love it. We will argue back at you. We love the questions we get in person. We love meeting you, as we've said. We really do enjoy it. And if you don't agree with us, tell us.

48:50We love to hear from you. We are not the world's experts on everything. And if we're wrong, let us know. And if we're right, let us know. All right, Scott, read us out. Today's show was produced by Lara Neyman, Travis Larchuk, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie Indratot engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Mille Silverio, and Gaddy McBang. Make sure you're subscribed to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Box Media. We'll be back later this week for another breakdown of all things tech and business.

49:25Support for the show comes from Odoo. Running a business is hard enough, and you don't need to make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other. One for sales, another for inventory, a separate one for accounting. Before you know it, you find yourself drowning in software and processes instead of focusing on what matters, growing your business. This is where Odoo comes in. It's the only business software you'll ever need. Odoo is an all-in-one, fully integrated platform that handles everything. That means CRM accounting, inventory, e-commerce, HR, and more. No more app overload, no more juggling logins, just one seamless system that makes work easier.

49:57And the best part is that Odoo replaces multiple expensive platforms for a fraction of the cost. It's built to grow with your business, whether you're just starting out or you're already scaling up. Plus, it's easy to use, customizable, and designed to streamline every process. It's time to put the clutter aside and focus on what really matters, running your business. Thousands of businesses have made the switch, so why not you? Try Odoo for free at odoo.com. That's O-D-O-O dot com.

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