The Future of Threads, Biotech, and Education

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1:27Hi, everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara Swisher. And I'm Scott Galloway. I know I promised you an entirely Scott Free August, but he and I just can't quit each other. So we're bringing him in. He's really right now in Aspen or Spain or wherever the fuck he goes on his vacations. But we are going to go through a listener mailbag. So you have just a little bit more Scott because I know you miss him so desperately. There you go. If you can fix it, you got to stand it. You got to stand the dog. You got to stand. You got to. You got to have a little Scott in August, even though we do like Scott for you, August, because Scott enjoys himself and we have some fun guest hosts.

2:03But it's always good to bring Scott back. And I know you guys miss him because people talk to me about Scott all the time, wherever I go. All right. Let's get to these questions. You've got, you've got. I can't believe I'm going to be a mailman. You've got mail. I'll read the first one. Hi, Kara and Scott. With the introduction of threads in the meta-owned universe, do you think this might be a stepping stone to a single verified identity-based social media app? The seamless connection between Instagram and threads made me wonder if meta has all this data. The only difference is format, features, and functionality.

2:32So why wouldn't these experiences ultimately be combined? Thank you for your insights. I love the pod. Thank you, Isaac, from Minneapolis, by the way. That's who it's from. I'm going to start. Adam Aseri has said they thought about it to a lot of interviewers. They thought about Brigham. They thought it was stupid. It was like a turducken, as I talk about, which is a turkey, duck, and chicken together. And they didn't think they worked together. These are all different use cases. Americans tend to, even though in other countries, they mash the stuff together. Like in China, it's not something Americans want, especially, and a lot of people don't want it.

3:03And so he thought they were different use cases and you can't make Instagram text-based and you can't make this. There'll be video on it and things like that, but it's a very different experience and a different product. Scott? Well, okay. So a seamless connection between Instagram and Threads, a unified sort of single verified identity-based social media. The reality is that exists. It just doesn't exist for the consumer. And that is on the back end, they have a profile of every individual and they treat you from an advertising and a business standpoint as a single app. But what they've done is they've created different offerings with different brand equity and different business models.

3:43And they're not going to give that up because the diversification they have with a large juggernaut cash cow called Facebook and then a growth vehicle called Instagram and then a new emerging nascent company called Threads and then a global telco company called WhatsApp. The last thing they want to do is meld all that and create reverse diversification and less clarity around the value proposition of all of them. So I think it would be a bad move from a risk standpoint. But effectively, what Meta has done is what you're saying just from a business back end standpoint. Yep, 100 percent. I think they have to interoperate.

4:23You have to be able to post easily or sign up easily. I think the one thing everybody is saying that worked really well was the sign up was fast if you had an Instagram account. And that was good. That was the ability to do that. I think there's a lot of back end stuff they can do together and cross posting. You should be able to cross post to all these social media sites, by the way. And that's something that's coming from for threads, I think. You can't. You used to be able to put your Instagrams on Twitter and you could see them on Twitter. And then they stopped that because of competition.

4:52And that was stupid. But it took away a great functionality for consumers for their own corporate interests. One second. Williamson O'm owns Pottery Barn in West Elm. So why not just put them all in one store? And the reality is it dilutes. Ooh, good one. It dilutes the brand equity. But they have the same database on the back end with your address and your lifetime value and the same warehouses and the same management team. The consumer value proposition is stronger when they have distinct offerings and distinct brands. And they're very different brands, by the way. That's right. Even though they're similar, they're different.

5:20And they need a different kind of marketing and everything and pricing and everything else. Anyway, here's one about biotech that came in via email. I'll read it. Dear Kara and Scott, I'm finishing my PhD in biomedical science in the SF Bay area. Not a week goes by without hearing someone speak to the next decade as the biotech era. Do you see biotech as just another life cycle in the history of Silicon Valley? Will it need to be something fundamentally different? We've seen horrendous outcomes from the tech business model being applied to biotech. For example, Theranos, Ubiome. We've also seen big tech companies supporting massive biotech efforts, Verily, at Alphabet.

5:55There's so many of them I've written about, I've forgotten, by the way. Anyway, I love the podcast. It's gotten me through many late nights at the lab bench. I've even noticed myself embracing some kind of inner Prof G in my teaching style and emulating Kara in my writing. At least one of those is a good thing. Which one? Thanks, Alex. Alex, thank you. So, Scott, why don't you go first on biotech? You're more of an investor than me. Biotech, what's interesting about biotech is you're really swinging for the fence. If you look at the most volatile stocks on any given day, seven of the 10 will be biotech stocks.

6:30Because you really are, you know, we talk about venture capital. The riskiest sector in the world is biotech. because you can invest$50,$100,$200,$300 million and find out that your drug or the breakthrough you're working on has zero viability. At the same time, you can stumble upon, or not stumble upon, but you can find something that's going to create$500 million a year in gross margin revenues for 20 or 30 years. But where I would just end this is, you know, congratulations to you. If you're getting a PhD in biomedical science, it means one, I don't want to make assumptions, but it probably means you grew up in a really supportive household.

7:09Two, you had access to incredible education and certification. Yeah, you are blessed with, you're genetically blessed, you're probably very smart and have a certain predisposition towards discipline. So it's just, you know, it's just good to be you. And so, well done. And even though these organizations you work for are going to incur significant risk and some will thrive and some will just go away, your skills are incredibly portable and you'll just go on to the next thing. I just, I can't imagine kind of a better place if you're going to start at the age of 30 with any certification in any field for the next 50 years, that certification in that region, something tells me you're going to have a financial security, you're going to have interesting conversations, an interesting group of friends, and you're going to have purpose and meaning in your professional life.

8:03I just, yeah, it's good to be you. Yeah. Funny you say that because Alex Swisher, this is also Alex who's writing us, he's going to Michigan in the fall. And thank you, Scott Galloway, for helping him decide. Second greatest public university in the nation. Yeah, he's very excited. He's bought a lot of t-shirts and sweatshirts and things like that. But nonetheless, he is going to specialize in, he's obviously a very strong in technology in general. He's one of these minds. Obviously, he's really strong in technology, but he's going to do a combined neuroscience and engineering degree. So I found that fascinating.

8:40I think there's going to be more and more. I know Silicon Valley's had a rough history around some of this stuff, and there already are huge biotech companies, by the way. But this is an area with CRISPR, all these innovations going on, and a lot of it is in the Bay Area, by the way. A lot of the companies were there to start with, and the VCs. Even though crypto got a out of the heat and now AI is, biotech is so, and has being helped by AI and machine learning. This is going to finally come together in a really positive way, I think, for society, even though there's lots of dangers as there would be, you'd have to anticipate them.

9:17But to me, they're going to fuel each other in a really significant way. The stuff around cancer, I hear, I talk to a lot of these people and it's not my area of expertise, but most of them feel like they're going to solve cancer. I've never heard people say that. You know, some of this, some understanding and creating medications, I think is going to be, is going to move so quickly. Drug discovery, drug interactions, which kills a lot of people, much more so using AI and various tools. So I feel like this is a great area to be in, but there will be a much smoother situation And there is money, money, money, money to be had.

9:56The early tech efforts by Google, there was one from Microsoft. There were so many of them were so laughable. And some of them ignoring the FDA, some of the stuff and Theranos thing. It's not going to be defined by Theranos. What would be ironic if someday they did make a machine like that, which someday they will, probably. Not today and not that one. But I'm very bullish the same way Scott is. Well, you know, two guys from Michigan die and wake up in hell and they find out they're still in Michigan, Kara. They're still in Michigan. That's good. Ann Arbor is actually very nice. You're coming there with me.

10:32It's a little too cold. I'll go to a Wolverines game. Michigan football is amazing. You know what? We're coming there with me. They've asked me to speak there because I've been affiliated with them through the Livingston Awards, which are done out of the University of Michigan. But Alex won't let me come in the fall. He's like, no way. But maybe if I bring you, he'll let me come because he likes you better than me, I think. But he doesn't want me to go early in his career there. Tom Brady. Okay, hold on. Tom Brady, Iggy Pop, Terry Crews, James Earl Jones, Tim Allen, and Larry Page. What do they all have in common?

11:00University of Michigan. That's right. All right. And Sanjay Gupta. And also one of the most underrated presidents, Gerald Ford. Oh, yeah. Go blue. Go blue. What can you say? Magic Johnson. All right. Okay, wow. Are you on Wikipedia right now? Ann Coulter. Bit of a foul ball. Ann Coulter. Bit of a foul ball. I can't wait to go to a game with her. Mike Wallace. He went in like the 1700s. All right. Okay. Get off of Wikipedia. One of the things that's funny is when I run into Michigan people, literally to a person, and there's lots of them, by the way, they all say the same thing to me. First of all, they're lovely.

11:36Unlike people that I meet from Harvard who are so usually arrogant and have to tell me they went to a college in Boston. That's how they say it. Michigan people always go, no matter what age they are, go, that was the best experience of my entire life. Someone who's like 103 says that. And they go back like six and seven times a year. And I don't know. It's really, they're very enthusiastic about their school. Well, I have a drop to Mike alum here. And it's not Gilda Radner who also went there. Okay. Drop to Mike alum. Material girl. Madonna went to Michigan. What? I can't wait to tell Alex. That'll be really good.

12:11Go, Blue. Anyway. There you go. 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. 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.

12:40No 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. 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.

13:18Support 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.

13:46No 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.

14:21Okay, let's listen to another one. Tara and Professor, this is Greg. I'm sitting in a cornfield working my summer job in Hastings, Nebraska, but I'm a school teacher by vocation, and so I know well what you're talking about with those third places in society. And we've known in schools for a long time that the kids who are involved in the extra things do better. But boy, things are starting to catch up with us here in Nebraska even. And my school has really made a push in the last five years to get more kids involved. We've tried to create more activities, more things. And I'll tell you what we're learning is that we have about 70 % we can get involved and we have about 30 % that we don't.

15:09So every time we add new activities, we're just making the 70 % busier. And I wondered if you guys had any idea, how do we engage the ones who seem unengageable? And honestly, in their defense, they're out working. Some of them are our families are struggling. You know, we're looking for ideas. Thanks, guys. Greg, how's the cornfield, Greg? What are you doing in that cornfield? Why didn't you explain this to us? I think he found a bag of cocaine of one of the students. I love him. Went into the cornfield. He seems to be having a really good time. Oh, I love Greg in the cornfield. Thank you, Greg.

15:47It's so great. It's so, so great. Teachers of the corn. Can I just say, yesterday when I was having lunch with Jeff at this great place called the Alpine Inn, it's near Sanford University, Someone came up to you, a fan. He's like, of course, okay, fan of Karen Scott's. And that's who it was. And I think her name was Lisa, I believe. And she was a school psychologist. It was his teacher. And she was talking about that too, like what's happening with mental health in schools. So tell me, Scott, this is your area. You're a teacher, sort of. Yeah, but this, okay. I'm a professor and a narcissist and standing up in front of 300 people and talking about something I enjoy is barely a teacher.

16:27What this guy's doing is real work. Because if you spend any time, I've spent some time in my old high school, you just recognize that these people are underpaid and over deliver. And look, in terms of engaging kids, it strikes me that he's, it sounds like the school system he's in is doing a great job. Because the bigger problem, as he referenced nationally, is there isn't enough. They did a drum, I mean, this was so nice when I went back to my high school, the superintendent came and met me of LAUSD, and they had a drum line. And I immediately got pitched on funding the afterschool program for half a million bucks a year.

17:03They can have these afterschool. And it's the shortage of the programs. So the 30 % of the kids who aren't engaged, maybe they shouldn't be. Maybe they're just into their own thing or they're working. I had jobs my senior year to try and save money for college, so I couldn't engage in a lot of afterschool activity. But I think he's thinking the right, He's even using the right language, right? Third space is in the sense that we have to have more parks. We have to have more leagues. Even if it's religious institutions or nonprofits, we need, and I'm a big fan of national service at a young age, I think like things like ROTC, because we need more opportunities for young men and women to get together and establish empathy for people from different backgrounds, different sexual orientations, to meet each other, to make friendships, to fall in love.

17:50And there's not enough of that. There's not enough interaction between hybrid school and homeschooling and remote work and the fact that we don't like each other and our parents aren't talking to their neighbors because they support Trump or don't support Trump. We're sequestering from each other. So I love the idea of something wonderful. Commonality, of commonality, something common. Bump off each other. One of the best things I loved about a big high school was we had the varsity basketball team, the JV, then the Bs and the Cs. So if you were just interested in basketball, you could play. And then there was not only the cheer squad, there was the drill team.

18:24And then there was a drum line. And then so it strikes me that that stuff is so powerful. And the only thing I would say to a teacher is teachers are really powerful in the sense that I've been reading a lot about why young men are struggling academically. And a big part of it is that about 70 to 80 percent of primary school teachers are female and about two thirds of high school teachers are female. And naturally, if you're a woman, who do you empathize with and champion? You find yourself. Is that true? If you do surveys of who a teacher champions or taking interest in, unnaturally, it's people who remind them of themselves at that age.

19:08Interesting. And you empathize. You're like, that's me. I get this little girl or this little boy. And an absence of male role models across a child's life is one of the biggest reasons why young men fall off the rails. And then bad role models fill the space. That's exactly right. If they don't have a male role model at home and also if they don't have a male role model at school, which they are less likely to have because there's just fewer men at schools. What I would say to this individual is this guy just sounds like a good guy. You can just hear it in his voice, right? And so what I would say is he has an opportunity to maybe find – I think the ultimate demonstration of masculinity is to take an irrational interest in the well-being of a child that isn't yours.

19:51I think that is the ultimate expression of masculinity. Yeah, interesting. And so if he finds people who aren't engaged, my guess is he just sounds like the kind of guy, and I'm projecting all sorts of shit here, that everybody likes this guy. And if he says, and if he's involved and just himself tries to get some kids who he thinks might be a little bit detached or a little bit struggling. And Mrs. Banta was this, our teacher who did the leadership class at university high school. I ran for every office and I lost every time. And Mrs. Banta would create positions for me so I could be in leadership, the class for student government.

20:29Oh, my God. Because she liked me. Were you captain of the call way? She invented like literally like – I ran for sophomore, junior, and senior class president. Poor little Scott. Oh, my God. I'm dying, Scott. I'm dying. You didn't win. Well, I ran – this is a true story. I ran for sophomore, junior, and senior class president. Lost all three times. based on my track record that I decided to run for student body president where I wait for it lost. Don't talk about prom next because I know about your prom situation, but go ahead. Mrs. Banta would track me down and say, you know, we're thinking about starting something called the 10th grade Senate.

21:04And I'm like, great. Do I have to run? She's like, no, it's appointed. And I'm like, who makes the appointment? It's just like I do when you're our first appointment. And I used to get to come to the leadership class. Oh, my God, Mrs. Banta. Oh, you're killing me. Scott, don't kill me. Don't kill me. This is terrible. Oh, now I have a vision of Scott, young Scott. Oh, gosh. Six feet, 130 pounds of bad acne. It was a really good look. And wildly insecure. And wildly insecure. Wow. But my point is teachers can have a big impact. And not only that, I'm not saying that girls don't need help, but I think young boys right now need especially a lot of help.

21:42It's interesting. And also, especially people who have to work and have to make money. they need, unless you're incredibly motivated. Working is actually a good way to have community too, by the way. I think most people, you know, my kids are very lucky that they get to parents who are like, what are we going to do with you that's going to be community-based? Like Alex worked down at a really cool water conservation and animal conservation thing in D.C. for part of his senior year. They have to do, they have to give back and stuff like that. And, you know, we all figured it out together and it was great for him.

22:17He built all these hawk because he's tall. He was able to put nets up for them and stuff. So he's lucky that way, but you could get it through. And I think it really helped him to do that as a person, but he has the help to do it, right? He has people encouraging him to be 70%, the 70 % that are busier, you know, and those people tend to do better. They're absolutely right. And for the 30%, you know, working is a good way. People have to work. A lot of people do have to support their families. One of the really great charities in San Francisco that Lorraine Powell Jobs is actually in the Amherst School of Health, it helps.

22:54It's called College Track or something. It helps people because they have, with a lot of things, because their own families they have to help support. You know, it helps pay, like, internships so that they don't have to, because a lot of rich kids can take free internships, for example. But there's all kinds of ways to do it, including community groups, sports, what Scott was saying, Mrs. Banta's fake sonnet for Scott Calloway. Oh, my God, it's killing me. It's really important to do this. And you're not going to get to everybody, unfortunately, because of circumstances, wealth, or family issues.

23:30And just some kids don't engage. But we have to try to reach as many because those, you know, we get these sad kids who feel isolated. And especially with social media, they'll be more isolated. So critically important. We love you, Greg. Stay in the cornfield. Don't go changing. Don't go changing. All right, Scott, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, a listener wants to know where Pivot came from. Okay.