In short
Pivot episode covers three big tech/politics stories. First, the “White House UFC Fight”: Trump’s 80th birthday UFC event at the White House drew major tech and political figures (Mark Zuckerberg, Joe Rogan, Lindsey Graham, Paramount CEO David Ellison, plus senators/cabinet officials). The hosts argue the event was politically useful pageantry but was derailed by a fighter’s misogynistic/racist cheap shot at Michelle Obama, which Dana White later condemned as “nonsense” about free speech. They contrast this with the World Cup and the Knicks as more inclusive “masculinity” examples.
Second, media consolidation
DOJ cleared Fox’s roughly $110B Paramount merger as unlikely to harm competition, though states and Europe can still challenge it. The episode frames this as fast-tracked by political influence and notes looming debt and cost cuts.
Third, Fox buying Roku for $22B
Fox gains access to 100M+ households; Roku founder Anthony Wood joins the board. They highlight Roku’s ad-supported growth and Tubi’s CEO Anjali Sood.
Finally, SpaceX IPO
shares jumped ~19% on debut; hosts discuss engineered scarcity, governance/lockup concerns, and federal support (NASA grants). They also discuss the Trump administration ordering Anthropic’s model access shut for national security reasons, amid skepticism about motives and related OpenAI investigations.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOWorld Cup Excitement
0:03 to 1:03
Kara and Scott discuss the thrilling World Cup matches and their experiences.
“It's the only business software you'll ever need.”
World Cup Excitement
1:55 to 5:00
Kara and Scott discuss the thrilling World Cup matches and their experiences.
“A bunch of gay men are going to show up and ask for autographs?”
The UFC Event Controversy
5:00 to 7:42
The hosts analyze a recent UFC event tied to political figures and discuss its implications.
“President Trump celebrated his 80th birthday ringside with this USC Freedom 250, where fighters compete in front of a crowd of 4 ,300 with the actual White House as a backdrop as a marketing thing.”
Masculinity in America
7:42 to 11:16
A deep dive into the perceptions of masculinity and its representation in media today.
“Trump is down 10 % among young men over the past few months.”
Mergers and Media Consolidation
11:16 to 14:00
Discussion on the implications of major media mergers and their impact on the industry.
“At a minimum, it probably wasn't strategic planning the timing, but I think anything that distracts from this memo to understand it.”
Media Consolidation Concerns
14:00 to 18:03
Discussion on media mergers and the implications of debt and scrutiny.
“I was worried about the consolidation of media.”
Media Consolidation Concerns
18:48 to 19:55
Discussion on media mergers and the implications of debt and scrutiny.
“Here's a finding that should stop every tech leader cold.”
Media Consolidation Concerns
20:49 to 21:01
Discussion on media mergers and the implications of debt and scrutiny.
Fox Acquiring Roku: Implications for TV
21:01 to 26:31
Exploration of Fox's acquisition of Roku and its impact on the TV landscape.
“Speaking of this, Fox Corporation is buying Roku in a$22 billion deal that could reshape how Americans watch TV.”
SpaceX's Public Debut and Market Impact
26:31 to 28:00
Discussion on SpaceX's IPO and significant market movements.
“And device hardware still runs at negative gross margin, but they sell hardware at a loss to capture platform users.”
Show all 21 chapters
SpaceX IPO Market Reaction
28:00 to 39:05
Analysis of SpaceX's IPO performance, market dynamics, and implications.
“And as one Scott Galloway predicted, it did indeed close up on its first day of trading.”
SpaceX IPO Market Reaction
40:13 to 40:24
Analysis of SpaceX's IPO performance, market dynamics, and implications.
“All investing is subject to risk, Vanguard Marketing Corporation Distributor.”
Political Implications of Wealth Concentration
41:35 to 42:04
Discussion on wealth concentration, philanthropy, and political influence.
“That's joindeleteme.com slash pivot code pivot.”
Trump's Economic Handling and Anthropic's Shutdown
42:04 to 43:40
Discusses Trump's disconnection from American financial concerns amid AI regulatory actions.
“His handling, in a certain light, makes sense.”
Concerns Over Government Regulation of AI
43:40 to 46:46
Explores mistrust in government motivations behind AI regulation and the implications for companies.
“for its$200 a month AI plans with consumers alleging it oversold the usage allowances it offered.”
Legal Risks for AI Companies and Future Implications
46:46 to 49:02
Analyzes legal challenges faced by AI companies and the geopolitical implications of AI regulation.
“I don't think, you know, I think he can be a little bit, you know, righteous, but at least it's righteous for the right things on some level.”
Meta's PR Initiatives Amidst Controversy
49:02 to 50:32
Discusses Meta's initiative to help visually impaired veterans and the surrounding controversy from UFC events.
“I think this is headed one way, and that is it'll probably result in the administration putting all sorts of restrictions on Chinese open-weight models trying to come into the U.S.”
Social Media Regulations in the UK
51:32 to 56:00
Explores the implications of the UK's strict teen social media law and its impact on youth.
“Each week, I sit down with CMOs, CEOs, founders, cultural thinkers, the people building, breaking, and reimagining how businesses grow or don't for conversations about what creates value and what destroys it.”
UK's Strict Teen Social Media Law
56:00 to 1:01:54
Explore the implications of the UK's new social media law for teens.
“Like back off, like, and say you're sorry.”
Reflections on Northern Europe
1:01:54 to 1:06:18
Insights on economic growth and social policies in Sweden and Amsterdam.
“I was in Stockholm, and then I was in Amsterdam.”
Listener Interaction and Upcoming Interviews
1:06:18 to 1:07:18
Instructions for listeners to submit questions and a teaser for future content.
“Are you going to wait for some fucking idiot to start saying stupid shit about your daughter?”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Kara Swisher:Support for this show comes from Odoo.
0:02Scott Galloway:Running a business is hard enough, so why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other? Introducing Odoo. It's the only business software you'll ever need. It's an all-in-one, fully integrated platform that makes your work easier. CRM, accounting, inventory, e-commerce, and more. And the best part?
0:23Kara Swisher:Odoo replaces multiple expensive platforms for a fraction of the cost. That's why over thousands of businesses have made the switch.
0:30Scott Galloway:So why not you? Try Odoo for free at odoo.com.
0:35Kara Swisher:That's O-D-O-O dot com.
0:41Scott Galloway:Support for the show comes from Klaviyo. Imagine hiring two brilliant employees. The first takes your marketing from idea to full campaign, email, SMS, push, and the time it takes to describe it. The second handles every customer conversation, 24 by 7, on answering questions, recommending products, handling orders, both on brand and always on. Your next hires, Klaviyo's AI agents. Get started at klaviyo.com.
1:11Scott Galloway:Support for the show comes from CoreWeave. Everywhere you look, AI is expanding what we thought was possible. And at the center of it all is CoreWeave. Medical research and diagnosis, education, complex visual effects for movies, science and technology breakthroughs. CoreWeave powers AI pioneers around the world with purpose-built tech, building what's never been built before. CoreWeave is the essential cloud for AI, ready for anything, ready for AI. To learn more about how CoreWeave powers the world's best AI, go to coreweave.com slash ready for anything.
1:44Scott Galloway:Admiral Swisher, take over.
1:50Kara Swisher:Hi, everyone. This is Pivot from the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara Swisher.
1:54Scott Galloway:And I'm Scott Galloway.
1:55Kara Swisher:Oh, do we have a lot to talk about. Wow. Well, first off, where are you? I'm in New York.
2:01Scott Galloway:I know that. You're at the Equinox Hotel?
2:03Kara Swisher:Oh, thanks for telling everybody. Yes.
2:05Scott Galloway:Well, I'm sorry. You're not that important. That's not a security risk.
2:09Kara Swisher:I get it.
2:09Scott Galloway:A bunch of gay men are going to show up and ask for autographs? I'm going to tell everyone where you are all the time.
2:15Kara Swisher:Please, I'm not that important. And you're like put a tracker on you.
2:18Scott Galloway:I'm not that important.
2:19Kara Swisher:I try very hard not to say where you are.
2:21Scott Galloway:Yeah, find the nearest bar. Oh, my God, don't get hostile.
2:24Kara Swisher:Where did you go to the like? Did you finally go to that stupid UFC thing last night?
2:28Scott Galloway:I did not go. I did not go. You have the energy of it. I came home early, I told you this, to watch the World Cup with my boys. Oh, good. And it was a mistake.
2:37Kara Swisher:It was a mistake, I got that, yeah. But are you enjoying the World Cup anyway?
2:41Scott Galloway:Oh, it's fucking amazing. Good. The Netherlands and Japan was an amazing game. And I know you're very excited about this. Scotland's victory over Paraguay won nothing. Scotland has so much momentum. You heard it here first. I think they're going to beat either Morocco or Brazil. And if Scotland makes it to the quarters of the semis, I'm taking my kids to Boston and we're going to go see it. Oh, all right. That sounds fun.
3:06Kara Swisher:Sounds like a good thing. It sounds very wholesome.
3:08Scott Galloway:And also the U.S. The U.S. had a big victory. They did.
3:12Kara Swisher:They did.
3:12Scott Galloway:So anyways, I'm all about the World Cup.
3:14Kara Swisher:Well, good. Did you watch the Knicks or not? Did you care?
3:18Scott Galloway:I hate to say it because let me put it this way. I'm super excited about New York. I fucked up leaving. I'd love to be in New York right now because I think the city is electric.
3:25Kara Swisher:Yeah, it is.
3:26Scott Galloway:I don't care that much about basketball. So I basically watched it on TikTok. It was a nice win, though.
3:31Kara Swisher:It was a nice win.
3:33Scott Galloway:It's great for the city. The city seems like everyone is really unified. It feels very, kind of demonstrates the power of sport.
3:41Kara Swisher:Yeah.
3:42Scott Galloway:It feels really good. You're there.
3:44Kara Swisher:I am. I'm not going to be here. I'm going to meet you in Cannes, but I'm going early to Paris with my kids. Cannes. Whatever. Cannes. Anyway. Well, that's right. We're going to be in the south of France together. That's right. We are. Exactly. Are you bringing the kids? Yes, I am. The little ones, not the big ones.
3:58Scott Galloway:You've got to learn how to travel. The point of travel is to escape the children. No. I like my kids.
4:04Kara Swisher:Let me get to the point. The Knicks. So, it turns out I was sitting next to a Knick all day during that Devil Wears Prada thing. I didn't recognize Carl. Anthony Towns. I was sitting with Malti. I had no idea. He was so sweet when he was being interviewed.
4:17Scott Galloway:They're usually pretty easy to spot, especially in contrast to Kara Swisher.
Read the full transcript
4:21Kara Swisher:I know, but you don't, I guess, but I just don't want to, like, I just didn't know. I knew he was a sports figure. Anyway, he was sitting next to me all day. I look like such an idiot, but he was so, they were all so good. I don't usually watch basketball, but I have to say of all of them, I like basketball the best if I have to watch something. I thought it was very heartening. And everybody, everyone watching it from the streets and just New York really makes me want to live here now, I have to say. I shouldn't say that too loudly around Amanda.
4:46Scott Galloway:You do live there now.
4:47Kara Swisher:I know, but I mean full time. I was like, it's such a nice vibe. New York is such a great vibe. And in a contrast, the UFC really soiled itself with that idiot player saying that terrible thing about Michelle Obama.
5:00Scott Galloway:He's not a player. He's a fighter. But yeah. A fighter, whatever. That was weird. No doubt about it. That was unfortunate.
5:06Kara Swisher:Let me lay out what happened. President Trump celebrated his 80th birthday ringside with this USC Freedom 250, where fighters compete in front of a crowd of 4 ,300 with the actual White House as a backdrop as a marketing thing. There's a lot of marketing going on, whether it was Bud Light or whatever. Meta did something very laudable. They were giving these glasses to blind service members. I think their brand took a hit for being associated with it. Anyway, the guest list reads like a hoose hoops with power, tech, and money. Zuckerberg was there, who is a big fan. And this is the only thing I genuinely like about him.
5:38Kara Swisher:I'm glad he's committed to that, whatever. Joe Rogan was there, as you said, Cabinet Secretary's Senators. Lindsey Graham looked very happy, surrounded by muscled men. Of course, Paramount CEO David Ellis was in the audience as the event streamed exclusive behind Paramount. Plus, paywall, nothing says the people like a paywall. We'll talk about that more in a minute because, you know, again, this one fighter grabbed and took this cheap shot at Michelle Obama, which is part of a conspiracy theory among the right, and they seem to be obsessed with her and the Obamas. Now, UFC CEO Dana White later told Time magazine, everyone knows my position on free speech, but I hate that kind of nonsense.
6:16Kara Swisher:I don't think you need to defend free speech, Dana. Can't you just say this is horrible? They always have to find some dumb excuse.
6:24Scott Galloway:I think that was a good comment from him. I guess.
6:29Kara Swisher:It's the least he could do.
6:30Scott Galloway:But we disagree on this because I actually think, well, we're going to, I think the event was a win for the White House. I know. Distinct of that dumb moment, which will get a lot of play. But, look, I think that essentially just the way Tucker Carlson is trying to shore up the Nick Fuentes manosphere part of the party, there is still a large segment of America that wants to embrace some form of masculinity and feels like it's been shoved aside. And I feel the same way about masculinity that David Frum feels about the border, and that is if progressives don't enforce the border fascists will, and if Democrats can't come up with some sort of symbolism or role models that demonstrate strength and service as masculinity, then the Republicans are going to fill that hole with violence and misogyny, which is exactly what they're doing.
7:21Scott Galloway:And unfortunately, it not only highlights this performative, weird, dominant, misogynistic form of masculinity that is just, in my opinion, absolutely the terrible role model for young men. It highlights to me that Democrats haven't been able to identify anything around an aspirational viewpoint around masculinity.
7:41Kara Swisher:I'm going to push back. Trump is down 10 % among young men over the past few months. They're way down. It's not because of this event. No, I'm just saying. It's just, I think this version of masculinity, you know what a better version? We're the Knicks, the way they were. And I'm taking away the owner, who I don't particularly like. But I thought they display, you know, a lot of, like, a support of women. If you notice, there was a lot of mothers. There was a lot of sisters. There was a lot of— Agreed. They always talk about, you know, the guy, the main guy, Brunson, was, you know, he gave up a big pile of money to have other people on the team, including Kat, Carl.
8:16Kara Swisher:Well, he wants a ring.
8:16Scott Galloway:He wants a ring. He wants a ring, of course.
8:18Kara Swisher:But it's like, it just shows like the difference of the watch parties was really rather insignificant. And so if you want a version of masculinity, that's a version of masculinity that is very sporty, very masculine. It did a lot to heal the male loneliness epidemic. Have you seen people out in the street like that, men out in the street like that?
8:38Scott Galloway:Absolutely love it.
8:39Kara Swisher:Yeah.
8:39Scott Galloway:I don't think there's any way to not highlight the Knicks, their players, New York, what have you. And again, look, I think that event and the pageantry and the flyover, I think there's a large segment of America that likes that stuff.
8:57Kara Swisher:I like a flyover, by the way. I'm not saying I don't like a flyover. I think there are ways into this that are very, very clear that you can support things. I think it's – this is Monica Hess in the Washington Post. I think she did a great job. And she also is a big supporter of MMA, by the way. She likes it. The problem isn't the fighting on the lawn. People who love the UFC have had to sit through decades of presidents inviting poets and cellists and opera singers to the White House, and the turnabout is fair play. The problem with Sunday's broadcast wasn't the fighting. The problem was the tonally incoherent emulsion of patriotism and bloodlust, history, and by this crap, an event happening for the people, but tucked behind a paramount paywall.
9:37Kara Swisher:I think that exactly, that's what it felt like. It felt like, and by the way, all the cheap seats, they were stuck in that one area of, they weren't at the White House, which was, this is what she also wrote. What do we make of this other than this is America? Bring me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses advertising Bud Light and trucks in loud we trust. Bring me your ring girls dressed skimpily in sequined stars and stripes and your men with cauliflower ears and a bunch of sailors dancing to YMCA. I just, there was such an, I don't know, I do contrast these things. I also contrast the World Cup, too, which looks wonderful and diverse and interesting.
10:13Kara Swisher:And the crowds are, I don't know. It's just, there is a way to appeal. And I think Democrats should embrace it. But this was grotesque. And the center of attention will be this idiot, this idiot who's had his head hit too many times, making an incredibly misogynistic. It's racist. It's just, like, gross. And no man doing anything. That's what it is. That's what it is. Yeah, look, her comments, her assessment is really, I don't know, the reporter's commentary is really, really impressive.
10:46Scott Galloway:And I do agree the World Cup and the Knicks are better. Look, at the end of the day, just politically, Cara, it was a total distraction and occupied the news cycle from the fact that we have a shitty memo of understanding on something actually a lot more important.
11:02Kara Swisher:We will get to that, yeah.
11:03Scott Galloway:So just from a distraction standpoint, I think it was a wimp. If they hadn't had that event, the media would have been much more focused on something that has much larger implications from the world. And that is Donald Trump walked into a car dealership demanding a Ferrari and is leaving with a Camry because he's figured out he has bad credit.
11:23Kara Swisher:That he's overpaying for. Yeah. That we're just giving them everything.
11:26Scott Galloway:At a minimum, it probably wasn't strategic planning the timing, but I think anything that distracts from this memo to understand it.
11:37Kara Swisher:Even if it's a terrible statement. I get it. I get it. Well, we've got a lot to talk about. We're going to talk about that. The Trump administration, by the way, is fighting with Anthropic again, and SpaceX, of course, went public. That seems like 100 years ago. But, you know, speaking of Paramount, it got Justice Department approval. The merger has just cleared a key hurdle. The DOJ says its review found the roughly$110 billion deal is unlikely to harm competition for consumers, removing a major federal obstacle. The deal isn't done yet, though. The state attorney general, including Californians, are still reviewing the transaction and could challenge it.
12:09Kara Swisher:David Ellison said the merger remains on track to close by September. He's got to because after that, a so-called ticking fee would kick in, making the acquisition more expensive. European regulators are still weighing approval. Well, what's interesting to me is the Justice Department apparently shut down its investigation into Paramount's bid to buy Warner Brothers before career staffers even had a chance to weigh in. And those lawyers weren't just skeptical of the deal. They were actually leaning towards recommending the DOJ sue to block it, arguing that combining two of Hollywood's biggest studios would be bad for competition.
12:41Kara Swisher:But with the Ellisons and Trump, the fix apparently was in. I think, you know, we'll get to the Roku deal, which actually Fox just bought Roku. But these mergers are just coming fast and furious. And I think no one was surprised by this. It's a question of if the states or the European Union can slow this thing down. But you were concerned with Netscape with higher prices. How do you feel at this moment?
13:08Scott Galloway:Netflix with higher prices. So, yeah, the reality is if the economists I talk to say that it's hard to say these guys have a monopoly. When you look at the fact that the combined viewership still won't rival YouTube's, when you look at their revenue, it's nowhere near what the revenue is for the media companies, the tech media companies we talk about. So, you can accuse them of overpaying. I had a chill run down my spine over the weekend when I read that Mark Thompson is being considered as kind of the manager they need to come in for CBS News.
13:43Kara Swisher:The only one. Actually, the others who they mentioned said no. But go ahead.
13:47Scott Galloway:But it just all of a sudden it sent a chill down my spine. I'm like, what? The Ellison's on CNN? It's like it hadn't fully dawned on me. Yes, I can tell you. From a straight regulatory standpoint, there was really no, in my opinion, valid reason to block it. And by the way, I've switched on that. I was worried about the consolidation of media. But when you include competitors around watch time, revenues, there really wasn't an economic argument. Now, in terms of mergers, you're going to see a flurry of them because anyone who's thinking maybe we'd like to buy companies, they're like, let's do it while the doing is good.
14:28Scott Galloway:Because if you get a Democratic administration in there, you're going to have much more scrutiny around these mergers. And I mean, you already see it. You already see attorney generals, AGs in blue states getting much more excised about this merger than the federal guys. But it's going through, and it'll be really interesting to see what kind of the first moves are or ramifications of this consolidated company.
14:53Kara Swisher:They've got that debt to deal with. You know, I just recently interviewed a whole bunch of big media companies, just because that media people, and they're all like, this debt is fucking ridiculous. Most of them are very much focused on the debt and the math of the situation. I think they'll have to make enormous cuts. And, you know, a lot of the rest, speaking of distraction, a lot of the rest is a distraction. And with the CNN thing, well, you know my feelings on that. I'm leaving as soon as I can.
15:18Scott Galloway:So you're out. You're out of CNN.
15:19Kara Swisher:Yes, yes.
15:20Scott Galloway:You've been trying to talk me into doing shit at CNN for 24 months. No, that was before.
15:25Kara Swisher:You're not listening to me. Do you invest in our relationship? I've been saying it publicly for a while.
15:29Scott Galloway:Well, that's why lesbians have the highest rates of divorce because both of them are listening.
15:34Kara Swisher:Yes.
15:34Scott Galloway:It's important that in a relationship that the man not listen a lot. That's key to the survival. Well, I'm not used to that. That is key to the survival of our relationship. There's a lot of shit that just runs right over my head.
15:46Kara Swisher:Let me try to outline it. I don't want to work for the Ellicott's, and I don't want to work for their hand-picked minions because I think they're incompetent. That is what I've said over and over again. And I like, I love working with the people at CNN. I very much like Mark Thompson, and I hope they put him in charge because I think he would do a great job. I just don't see any way that these people make good decisions, and I don't trust them. That's it. I don't want to work for tech people. You know, they're more than, they can, you know, I don't know. There's just, I'm just not staying. There's lots of places to go.
16:18Kara Swisher:I don't, like you, I think TV's great, but it's not that great, like, to put up with this shit. Like, I don't, that's one thing. I like, you know, I like making that series. I just, you know, I don't, except if I owned it. If they want to buy it, they can buy shit off me if they feel like it. But other, but I don't want to be, I don't want them to own something.
16:37Scott Galloway:You don't think, see, I would argue for Kara Swisher. If they gave you an agreement to work at CNN and said, you know, like, we're just, this is the editor, this is who's in charge of your stories, why wouldn't you, you don't think you'd be able to fashion an agreement?
16:53Kara Swisher:I don't think they would do that. I don't think they would do that. Like, if they would pay me every time a person I don't like talks to me, I guess. But no, at this moment, no, not the way they're behaving right now. And this, by the way, this whole, like.
17:05Scott Galloway:Well, Leslie Stahl, demand to stay because you'll protect CNN from this evil.
17:10Kara Swisher:I am not. I don't think I have that power to do it. Anyway, there's lots of other options. And I'm under contract with them until the end of the year. And I'm hoping they'll let me out early because I don't want to affiliate with them. That's all. I left Murdoch, too. This is not a new, fresh thing for Kara Swisher to flounce out and do better. No one cares. But it says something.
17:32Scott Galloway:I just want everyone to know I'm absolutely a whore. An expensive four. So, Ellison's, you have my number.
17:38Kara Swisher:Oh, oh, I heard about that. Let's not get into that issue.
17:41Scott Galloway:You have my number.
17:43Kara Swisher:Yeah, they called you. I know that. I was defending you on that, by the way.
17:46Scott Galloway:I appreciate that.
17:47Kara Swisher:They had your number. We don't need TV at this point, honestly. We are TV. We are TV. Just with much better economics. It's just like a headache, and then I have to see them. Anyway, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, Fox is buying Roku.
18:03Kara Swisher:Support for today's show comes from Atio. the AICRM. Every business has a CRM horror story. Too much admin, too little signal, never telling you what you actually need to know. How do teams know where to focus? The ones winning have it figured out. They're using Atio. Connect your email calls and product data, and Atio instantly builds your CRM with complete context. Then you ask Atio to plan your next move. Prep for meetings, spot deals at risk, and draft outreach. Atio searches, updates, and creates across your data to accelerate your workflow. Join 8 ,000 companies using Adio to scale without the chaos.
18:37Kara Swisher:Try Adio free at adio.com slash pivot.
18:45Scott Galloway:Support for this show comes from Teleport. Here's a finding that should stop every tech leader cold. Organizations most confident in their AI deployments have more than twice the security incident rate of those that aren't, 72 % versus 33%. That's from Teleport's 2026 Infrastructure Identity Survey of more than 200 infrastructure security leaders. A data breach isn't just a costly endeavor, it can damage trust. The most frequent causes of data breaches are human error and compromised credentials. But in the AI era, agents that are granted broad privileges dramatically increase risk. Solution services like Teleport, an AI infrastructure identity company, provide an identity and access platform that is purpose-built for modern, highly automated environments, which are now deploying agents into production.
19:31Scott Galloway:Teleport establishes a unified identity layer for humans, machines, and agents that is cryptographically backed that enables agents to be controlled and contained with the same rigor that you apply to other actors in your infrastructure. Because in the new era of AI, the problem isn't agents, it's the privileges we're giving them. Download the free report at goteleport.com slash pivot.
19:55Kara Swisher:Support for this show comes from NetSuite. When the competition is moving faster and business in every sector are starting to adopt AI, how do you even begin to keep up? NetSuite Next. You probably know NetSuite, the AI-powered business management suite that securely connects all of your data. It's a unified suite that brings your financials, inventory, commerce, HR, and CRM into a single source of truth trusted by over 43 ,000 customers. NetSuite Next is the next huge leap in how business gets done because AI is built into everything you do. It automatically surfaces custom insights throughout your day.
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21:01Kara Swisher:Scott, we're back. Speaking of this, Fox Corporation is buying Roku in a$22 billion deal that could reshape how Americans watch TV. It's a big play for advertising-based television. Just so you know, Fox gets access to over 100 million households worldwide. Lots of people use this, combining its live news, sports, and Tubi streaming service with Roku's massive platform. The combined company would become the third largest player in U.S. television by share of viewing, putting real pressure on the likes of YouTube and Netflix. I've always liked Roku. Roku will operate under the Fox umbrella with Roku founder Anthony Wood, who's a really interesting person joining Fox's board in a subordinate role.
21:37Kara Swisher:That's interesting. Fox's shareholders own about 73 % of the combined companies, with Roku shareholders holding the remaining 27. And the deal still needs a sign-off from both shareholder groups and regulators. it's interesting because they deliver all the networks into living rooms you know they're like it's almost like a cable company in a weird way I use I think I'm using my Roku in Brooklyn like because I didn't want to get the cable bundle or something like that I haven't hooked it up yet but I've always liked Roku I don't use it that much but I thought Anthony did a nice job and I'm just curious you know he can't get any bigger presumably is why he's selling I think it's a great move
22:13Scott Galloway:Yeah. Something I didn't see coming, and the moment I looked at it, I'm like, this makes all sorts of industrial logic.
22:20Kara Swisher:Who else could have bought Roku just before you move on from that?
22:23Scott Galloway:Who else? Well, there's the obvious, like, there's the obvious Warner Brothers Paramount.
22:28Kara Swisher:Yeah.
22:29Scott Galloway:Disney. I mean, this isn't, they have assets that are incredibly important. They have, I mean, they have a ton of first-party data. They have first-party data across 100 million households, which is a really strategic asset. It gives Fox a direct viewer relationship that cable and broadcast never offered advertisers, right? So, because you have the cable company in the way. Fox projects 400 million in run rate cost synergies.
23:02Kara Swisher:They needed this. They needed this.
23:04Scott Galloway:It's a really savvy, bold move.
23:06Kara Swisher:It is. I thought, oh, my God. Yeah, it just makes a lot of sense. Yeah.
23:10Scott Galloway:What's interesting is they actually sold their shares in Roku at 58 bucks a share to fund their acquisition of Tubi, and now they're buying back in at 160. Fox will own roughly 73 % of the combined company.
23:23Kara Swisher:Yeah. No, no, no. But wait, I just said, but they had had shares before?
23:27Scott Galloway:Yeah, so my understanding is that Fox actually, they had Roku shares in March of 2020. And they sold them at 58 bucks a share to fund their half a billion dollar Tubi acquisition.
23:41Kara Swisher:Yeah, which has been very helpful to them.
23:43Scott Galloway:So, look, this is a company that's making a big, bold bet, recognizing their core businesses in structural decline. I think it's really, like, I think the folks at Fox are really smart.
23:55Kara Swisher:Yeah, this is a smart move. I thought that. I'm like, huh. But it is a big bet on advertising-based versions of this, right? Because Roku is advertising-based and it's not subscription-based.
24:04Scott Galloway:But here's the thing. If you look at the trends, subscription streaming has been eating into linear advertising-supported TV for the last 20 years. In 2024, it stopped gaining share. It's like 50-50 right now. Too much, yeah. I mean, for example, I don't know if our listeners know this. they can watch Pivot or Prof G markets on Roku. It's available. We have a channel on Roku. And it gets huge, huge viewership. Is it a significant revenue generator? Their total revenue is around$4.7 billion. No, for you.
24:44Kara Swisher:For you. Oh, no. We launched two months ago.
24:49Scott Galloway:But my attitude is, if you look at enterprise value, just, and I'll try to be transparent about what we're trying to build a property markets and what we're trying to build a pivot. The way you increase enterprise value and increase the multiple on your EBITDA is one, by right now adding subscription revenue, which we're doing on Substack, and two, having alternative distribution and differentiating your media mix or your revenue mix. So what starts small, I think we'll do 100 or 300 grand in revenue from Roku or advertising on Roku by serving all of our odds on Roku. But what you want is, if you ultimately are thinking about enterprise value, it's a multiple of your profits and your growth.
25:34Scott Galloway:But what increases the multiple is how enduring that revenue is, i.e. as much subscription revenue as possible, and also a diversified set of revenue streams. So my attitude is, while it's been an effort to reformat our content and put it on Roku, it's absolutely worth it because what you want to say to a potential investor or acquirer is look at all these different points of distribution and types of revenue mix that create a more enduring company. But just to get back to Roku, 4.7 billion in total net revenue, up 15 % year over year. Platform revenue of 4.1 billion, that's up 18%. Gross profit of$2 billion, up 15%.
26:18Scott Galloway:Last year was their first GAAP profitable year. The company reported an end income of$80 million in Q4 alone. So it's kind of hit that tipping point.
26:28Kara Swisher:Yeah. Small but sustainable.
26:30Scott Galloway:And again, over 100 million households have Roku at the end of 2025. And device hardware still runs at negative gross margin, but they sell hardware at a loss to capture platform users. I would argue that Roku is arguably the most important media company that people have never heard of.
26:49Kara Swisher:Now, let me just point to another person, Anjali Sood, a young woman, chief executive officer of Tubi. This is a free ad-supported streaming service they have, and she was the previous CEO of Vimeo. But she's expanded the user base. I think it's 100 million users, and it's the most watch-free TV streaming service. It's very quirky, and you can find all manner of stuff on there. But I think the two of them are very savvy. They're both incredibly smart. Like, that's the thing. And I think one of the things, you know, Lachlan Murdoch, I just think, was born into his job. But these are two. One of the things, I just interviewed Peter Chernin for my podcast today, another smart former Fox executive.
27:30Kara Swisher:One thing that Rupert's been good at is executives. Like, they're very sharp. And you should listen to the Chernin one because I think it was a great interview. But, you know, just really smart executives, and this is the case. Anyway, very smart. You can also, by the way, watch us on YouTube. By the way, we're very promiscuous. The entire, Scott and Kara are very promiscuous. Anyway, let's move on to the other one. We like this deal. SpaceX, of course, seems like 100 years ago, officially public. And as one Scott Galloway predicted, it did indeed close up on its first day of trading. And you had said it was going to be about 20 % and not more, which is interesting.
28:09Kara Swisher:It was a 19-point-something percent. Shares are at a high of 177 at the time of this taping after the company's public debut on Friday, making the current market cap 2.32 trillion. You thought it might be a scooch under two. His first day on the market, over 500 million shares traded hands. A lot of movement here. Elon himself, of course, crossed the milestone thanks to the POP becoming the world's first trillionaire. There were some notable buyers. Gina Reinhart, Australia's richest person, bought over a billion-dollar stake in the company. and Cathie Wood's ARC investment bought more than$500 million worth of stock.
28:42Kara Swisher:So go through if there's anything surprising there, because venture and also venture funding for U.S. space technology firms, excluding SpaceX, jumped$7.5 billion in 2025 from$2.5 billion in the previous years. Probably we'll see if that goes anywhere, because it's also a money, it can be a money furnace, as the word you use. But any thoughts on where it is right now?
29:03Scott Galloway:So I thought that the bankers and Musk and – look, I think the most significant thing here is that this – we've never seen such engineered, manufactured scarcity. There was tens of billions of dollars of demand for this IPO that has never existed for an IPO before. And then you combine it with the fact that unlike other IPOs that went public on the NASDAQ, it didn't have to float more than 10%. It only floated 5%.
29:35Kara Swisher:Yeah, very scarcity, as you said.
29:36Scott Galloway:So you've just created manufacturer scarcity. Now, to be fair, it's up again today. So this has created a level of excitement in the market. I do think you have to highlight the positives here. And that is I never want to be someone that demonizes success. There are 14 new billionaires in Texas that you've never heard of. Those people will give money away. They will start new businesses. Something that's uniquely American is that we continue to produce companies like this and entrepreneurs like Elon Musk. It's going to create a lot of economic growth. You're going to see a surge in philanthropy from Berkeley to the University of Texas.
30:15Scott Galloway:It inspires a lot of people. There's a lot of positives here. And we're seeing venture funding increasing in space-related projects. So there's a lot to like here. I don't like the manufactured scarcity and what I'll call the overlying narrative of sort of like the hero's journey here.
30:41Kara Swisher:And the numbers of certain businesses are not great.
30:43Scott Galloway:Yeah, look, from a valuation standpoint, and this is what Musk has always been able to do, is to create this narrative over numbers that's like no one else in history. But right now, the stock is trading 30 % above the IPO price. And then he has also, again, and I go back to governance, there's all these different lockups. Like if you trade on a certain platform and you bought shares through direct share purchase on a certain platform, they technically don't have a lockup. But if they sell their shares, they can't trade on the platform before, which is like a soft lockup. There's certain criteria around when you can sell if the stock is up a certain amount, et cetera.
31:27Scott Galloway:To be fair, Elon's locked himself up. I doubt he's planning to sell. He'll just borrow against his stock. But what they've effectively done, which you're not supposed to do, is they've created different classes of shares, which you're not supposed to do. So, again, I find that this is really inspiring and important and going to be great for economic growth on certain levels. I also believe that this entire sector is going to have not a collapse, but a pretty serious drawdown when people after two or three earnings calls are forced to justify anything resembling a future that involves the kind of earnings built into this thing.
32:05Kara Swisher:Right. And then the rush to space technology firms, same thing. They're going to overinvest, which is normal, like I would assume, presumably.
32:11Scott Galloway:And quite frankly, that's one of the great things about America because we overinvested in the Internet and the technology survived and a lot of those companies came back and that investment was good. but you didn't want to be one of the investors over-investing initially.
32:24Kara Swisher:Choice.com, yeah.
32:25Scott Galloway:Yeah, so, but I said, somebody called me, and I said this on Pivot. Someone called me and said, I have allocation, should I take it? And I said, take it and trade out on the first trade.
32:33Kara Swisher:Although, if you buy it and trade out, you don't do as, most people don't do as well, except in certain cases, right? There were all these, like, really interesting statistics of buying and selling that were not good in the long run over time. It's just you've got to hit the exact right one or you lose money most of the time.
32:53Scott Galloway:This was different because, so first off, trading out, you get short-term capital gains at a higher rate. So there's a lot of evidence that shows that just generally with investing, you're better off just buying and trying to never sell. It's just trading is a difficult game. I thought, and I said this, I said, they are going to manufacture a 20 % pop. The bankers and everyone are figuring out a way to create a supply-demand imbalance that will exactly peg this at a 20 % pop. What's impressive and punctures that theory is that it's up another 11 % today. And the thing that, also just the thing that deserves a nod, is the best VC in the world is not Andreessen Horowitz or whoever initially funded SpaceX.
33:42Kara Swisher:Teal, Founders Fund.
33:43Scott Galloway:It's, in my opinion, it's Uncle Sam and that SpaceX investors and the banks taking SpaceX public should remember that we would not be here today without grants from the federal government. In 2008, SpaceX was on the verge of bankruptcy and would likely have run out of money if not for a grant from NASA. And the golden law.
34:02Kara Swisher:Same thing with Tesla.
34:03Scott Galloway:And then the golden law of stupidity here, Trump is trying to cut NASA's funding by more than 20 % this year.
34:09Kara Swisher:Same with mRNA technology, same with the government is one of the greatest investors of all time, if you think about it that way.
34:15Scott Galloway:Best VC in history, whether it's medical research for our universities or electric charging stations. And they would argue back, well, they're going to get their bite. They're going to get enormous return through tax revenues. The big debate this will stir is in America we've been talking about for decades now. What's dominated the conversation is how you create wealth. The conversation that is superseding that is what you should do with wealth once you have it. And so right now, Elon Musk could buy all of Manhattan, every building, every condo, every park with his. That's how much money he has right now.
34:59And whether or not this level of concentration of power, which comes in a capitalist society for money, presents a risk.
35:08Scott Galloway:And I'm of the mind that I think it's important that eventually, and I'm in favor of eventually having trillionaires, but we should have guardrails over the power and progressive taxation, which we don't have right now.
35:19Kara Swisher:Can I just say one thing I'm going to push back on and that you've created all these rich people are going to give to charity. If you look at the statistics, I don't think they're going to be charitable. I don't think they're going to do good things. I just don't. I don't think this class, I don't think Elon Musk has had a very good record. So I just, I'm not expecting these people to be. I think they're going to be on an ongoing quest for more money and more power and more consolidation. So I'm not impressed with their charitable thoughts. And I'm glad they're creating jobs, but they would immediately cut you if they had to.
35:50Kara Swisher:I just don't think they have that.
35:51Scott Galloway:You're talking about, okay, but I think we need to parse that. And that is, if you look at billionaires and their wives, the wives have hands down been more philanthropic. and it doesn't, and the quote unquote, billionaire masters of the universe have not acquitted themselves well on a lot of levels. But there's just no doubt this type of wealth creation event is gonna result in a surge in philanthropy. It just does. Because - That would be great. You're gonna have a lot of people who wake up and have$20 million and think, I'm gonna give 2 million bucks to the local food bank or I'm gonna give 50 ,000 bucks.
36:29Scott Galloway:I talked to, you know, I'm involved with the University of California. They're all revising their giving goals up for next year because of the IPOs coming down. And they have so many alumni. I'm not talking about, Elon Musk, I think it would be, you could make a credible argument that he's not the most philanthropic person. I get that. And you can definitely make an argument that Mackenzie Scott and Melinda French Gates are more philanthropic than their husbands. But when you see these types of liquidity events, local philanthropies surge in terms of money. Look, for all of SpaceX's problems and income inequality, there isn't a nation on Earth that wouldn't kill to have those problems.
37:13Kara Swisher:I would agree. I just think it's going to go into political activism in a way that could be deleterious to most of us. That's where it's going. It's not going to helping a kid eat better. Let's be clear.
37:24Scott Galloway:Elon Musk, in my view, can probably decide who the next president is.
37:29Kara Swisher:Yeah, that's correct. He spent$250 million and had influence on the election.
37:36Scott Galloway:Maybe he didn't decide it, but he had influence on it. What happens if he decides to put 2.5 % of his net worth or$25 billion or 100 times what he spent last time?
37:50Kara Swisher:No, he's a freight train.
37:51Scott Galloway:And also, to be fair, are we comfortable? And he deserves credit. One of the things that he doesn't get enough credit for is he has turned off Starlink for Russia. And it has put Russia at a severe disadvantage to Ukraine. And I think that is a wonderful thing and he deserves credit for it. Having said that. Except if tomorrow he changes his mind. Well, that's exactly right. Having said that, should that power reside in a private citizen that has no government or electoral oversight? No, it should not. But the, look, it's a ton of economic growth. The banks made a shit ton of money. You have a lot of people.
38:31Scott Galloway:4 ,000 people became millionaires on Friday.
38:34Kara Swisher:I get it. I get it. I hope they're better at it. I just think, I'm not even, Musk is one thing, but I'm worried about others that aren't quite so broad. I just like, I always, whenever I see a box, I think the U-L-I-N-E, I don't know how to pronounce it, but they're like huge givers to crazy right-wing causes. And so I just am like, oh God, the boxes, the this, the that. Anyway, I just hope that they are charitable. It's a Citizens United problem.
39:00Scott Galloway:Yeah, I hope that they're charitable.
39:02Kara Swisher:That's what I hope. Anyway, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, we'll talk about the Trump administration coming for Anthropic yet again.
39:16Scott Galloway:Support for the show comes from Vanguard. To all the financial advisors listening, let's talk bonds for a minute. Capturing value and fixed income is not easy. Bond markets are massive, murky, and let's be real, lots of firms throw a couple of flashy funds your way and call it a day. But not Vanguard. Vanguard bonds are institutional quality. Institutional quality isn't a tagline, it's a commitment to your clients. It means top-grade products across the board. The lineup includes over 80 bond funds. They're actively managed by a 200-person global squad of sector specialists, analysts, and traders.
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40:24Kara Swisher:Support for this show comes from Delete Me. It's never too late to start protecting your online privacy. My wake-up call when I looked at the dashboard of Delete Me and saw how much crap was out there about me and a lot of my personal information all collected in really strange and weird ways by a lot of companies. I had no idea who they were and made me feel like that I was being stalked. I discovered a lot of inaccuracies also at the same time, and I found an enormous amount of information about my life for dozens of years. So if you've ever thought I should really be doing something to protect myself from stalkers, scammers, and hackers, but you're not sure what, here's what you do.
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41:35Kara Swisher:That's joindeleteme.com slash pivot code pivot.
41:42Kara Swisher:The U.S. and Iran say they've agreed on terms to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
41:48Scott Galloway:You already see oil prices from a high of$126 a barrel down to about$80 a barrel today. That's a lot of progress.
41:57Kara Swisher:The war, of course, drove up the price of gas and other essentials and has led to some ugly polling for President Trump. 61 percent of adults polled by NPR, PBS and Marist disapprove of his handling of the economy. His handling, in a certain light, makes sense. His priority was preventing Iran from getting nukes. But Trump's messaging was unusual, unusual for a president. Last month, a reporter asked Trump to what extent was he thinking about Americans' finances when he negotiated with Iran. I don't think about American financial situation. I don't think about anybody. What's he doing? Coming up on Today Explained from Vox.
42:44Kara Swisher:Scott, we're back with more news. Anthropic had 90 minutes to take down its most powerful models, mythos and fable, which is mythos, but the public version of it. On Friday, at the request of the government who cited a national security threat, the Trump administration issued an order barring all foreign nationals from having access, including Anthropic's own non-U.S. employees, including a lot of them at the top, essentially forcing the company to take it offline. The decision was probably made after a conversation with Amazon's Andy Jassy, who told officials researchers and his company got fable to provide information to be used in cyber attacks.
43:14Kara Swisher:Anthropic sent staff to Washington to meet with the White House, which is trying to fix the dispute. I'm sorry. I just think they're waiting for an excuse here to get Anthropic. I think maybe Jassy might have said this, but the minute they could, they jumped on Anthropic. And, of course, Anthropic's making the argument that every other model can do this too, and they're just cherry-picking. By the way, the company is also being sued for its$200 a month AI plans with consumers alleging it oversold the usage allowances it offered. So that's that. And then, by the way, a coalition of states attorney generals have opened an investigation into OpenAI.
43:53Kara Swisher:The company was served with a subpoena seeking documents related to its activities and impact on users, including activity related to minors and seniors handling of health data and company policies. Earlier this month, Florida became the first state to file a lawsuit against OpenAI and Sam Altman alleging the two knowingly released an unsafe product. That's an interesting, that's a separate thing, but this anthropic attack by the White House is really interesting. Of course, they were just waiting for something to come at them, as usual. David Sachs just lies in wait.
44:26Scott Galloway:Yeah, I had mixed emotions here because I think it's a good thing. I'd like to think that the government's involvement in acting crisply around the threats of AI is overdue. So I applaud the government moving in crisply and saying, we need to shut this down until we understand it better. I applaud that. The problem is I don't trust these people. I don't know what their motivations are. I don't know if they're generally concerned about the well-being of society, or if this is just politically motivated, trying to shut down one company because you have political donors at the other. And supposedly, I just got off, I just had Ian Bremmer on the pod talking about Iran.
45:10Scott Galloway:He said at the G7 meeting, the shutdown of Anthropic was a bigger topic than the memo of understanding in Iran, because if you're a foreign company and you've deeply integrated Anthropic into your workflow, and all of a sudden it's turned off, you know, it's like, okay, does this mean the government has a kill switch for AI that when whoever it is is angry at them, just turns it off? So this is, again, this all comes down to the same fucking thing. You don't trust these people.
45:45Kara Swisher:And why isn't there a congressional, like, that everybody has to live by? Why does Andy Jassy have a conversation? I'd like to hear from Andy fucking Jassy right now. What did he say? Why does he, like, why did he, he's, they're an investor in Anthropoc, by the way, so I'm not sure I even trust that story. I don't even know if I trust the Jassy part of the story. I'd like him to speak out publicly about it. But, yeah, I agree. I don't trust these fuckers, and I think they're doing it to kneecap Dario because he's been a nuisance for them.
46:13Scott Galloway:Yeah, he's not their chosen, he's the one that said no on self-healing, or, you know, on weapons or privacy violations. So he's on their shit list. And, you know, I love the idea, but Dario and Anthropic would say, perhaps correctly, that these same jailbreaks are things that the reason why they shut down are available on other models.
46:33Kara Swisher:Again, they're not a perfect company. I get that they're being sued for over allowances. I just think there's going to be, they are in the front and they are not going along with this administration. So you're going to see all manner of nonsense attacking them. And some of it, you know, I don't think they're perfect. I don't think, you know, I think he can be a little bit, you know, righteous, but at least it's righteous for the right things on some level. And I just think this is, as I said, this is not about national security. This is about a beef and a rumble between different Silicon Valley interests.
47:04Kara Swisher:That's it seems to be.
47:06Scott Galloway:We need a panel or a regulatory body that's bipartisan with experts, economists, philosophers who say, okay, maybe it shouldn't take 10 years to release an AI model for the public, similar to the way it does for drugs. But we need 30 days in an institution or an agency represented by the briefs Congress that says, okay, before you release anything, it's got to go through this 30, 60, 90 day screening where we bang the shit out of it. and everyone is subject to the same regulatory approval. And that kind of regulatory certainty is good for the economy. It's good for companies. They want to know what rules they're playing by.
47:45Scott Galloway:They don't want to have to think, Jesus Christ, I got to go to a fucking UFC fight or fear that they're going to turn off my next version of this product. But supposedly it's created chaos abroad
47:57Kara Swisher:because a lot of companies and even defense departments
48:01Scott Galloway:And NATO members decide to use Anthropic into their scenario planning or to figure out when to turn off and on power that runs into hospitals. And all of a sudden they've got to go, okay, you mean one guy based on criteria we can't figure out has, again, a kill switch on an important technology. And there is—
48:22Kara Swisher:But to me, if you read David Sacks' stupid excuses, he's such a pompous ass. And I just trust none of this. They do not care about all of us. They care about this Silicon Valley beep, and you can feel like the hand of others here. It's just you don't trust them. Like you said, I think you put your nose on it. Now, what's more serious are these lawsuits, you know, in terms of how good their product is and whether it's accurate or not. I just, that's to me where some of the real issues are going to come with all these companies, all the social media companies, everybody else. It's impact, whether it's data centers or miners or bad health stuff or bad data, but unsafe products is actually where I think the action is.
49:02Scott Galloway:I think this is headed one way, and that is it'll probably result in the administration putting all sorts of restrictions on Chinese open-weight models trying to come into the U.S. and disrupt what is becoming an increasingly difficult case to justify the ROI on these token expenditures. And so, this is, again, going to take on its own sort of terra feel and geopolitics. It helps a company like Mistral out of France, who is not subject to the same things, although supposedly that's inferior technology. I'll be very curious. I wouldn't be surprised at all if all of a sudden Trump decides these Chinese, that American firms can't use these open weight models coming out of China.
49:45Scott Galloway:But this is the next big political football, I think, is who and how it gets to use American AI firms and what AI models are allowed into the U.S.?
49:55Kara Swisher:I do think these safety things are building with parents and everyone else. I just do. I think that, as you said, the brand AI has gotten so many hits. It's almost like this idiot who got hit in the head and said racist and misogynistic things at the UFC fight. It just is getting, it is getting a bad rep. And there's going to be legal implications, I think, because I think people are upset and angry. And it's not, as Mr. Wonderful says about his data centers, the Chinese fault. It's your own. All right, Scott, one more quick break. We'll be back for wins and fails.
50:31Scott Galloway:Hassan Piger has blown up in recent years. After the 2024 election, the popular leftist Twitch streamer became a go-to voice for the Democratic Party. But Piger's glow up has angered a section of Democrats who are growing louder in voice.
50:45Kara Swisher:Hasan Piker is anti-American, he is bigoted, he's anti-Semitic, and he is deeply misogynistic.
50:53Scott Galloway:So in March, a Democratic group called Third Way published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal's opinion section saying, quote, Democrats are too cozy with Hasan Piker.
51:03Kara Swisher:He is such an extremist that it will only do damage to Democrats and hurt their chances of beating right-wing populism.
51:10Scott Galloway:Now, Piker is controversial, no doubt. But is he toxic? I don't think this helps Republicans at all. I think, as a matter of fact, Third Way's brand of politics has helped Republicans. Their attitude has been to constantly concede on culture or issues of the Republican Party and never focus on economic populism. I'm Estet Herndon, and this is America Actually. Catch us every Saturday on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Seth Matlins. My new show, Create or Destroy, Reimagining Marketing, explores how every decision a company makes, not just the marketing ones, but the HR, IR, pricing, org design, and planning ones, the ones most don't consider marketing at all, contribute to either creating value or destroying it.
51:53Kara Swisher:Each week, I sit down with CMOs, CEOs, founders, cultural thinkers, the people building, breaking, and reimagining how businesses grow or don't for conversations about what creates value and what destroys it. It's a business show. It's a marketing show. Creator Destroy is the show that argues they've always been the same thing.
52:12Scott Galloway:From the Vox Media Podcast Network and the Wisdomist Company. New episodes drop weekly on YouTube and your favorite podcast app.
52:25Scott Galloway:After the better part of two decades, something impossible just happened. Siri became good. At Apple's WWDC developer conference, Apple once again presented its grand plans for AI and the future of everything. And the star is a brand new voice assistant that by all accounts actually appears to have done the job this time. This week on The Vergecast, we're talking about all of the news from WWDC, including all of the stuff coming to Apple devices this fall and what it means that Siri actually works now. That's The Vergecast, wherever you get podcasts.
53:03Kara Swisher:Okay, Scott, let's hear some wins and fails. Would you like me to go first?
53:07Scott Galloway:You go first, Cara.
53:08Kara Swisher:This is, I'm going to do a win and a fail together because one of the things around this UFC thing is Meta's used opportunity to do PR for itself, which fine, I don't really care, around this giving blind veterans these glasses, right? These glasses that help them navigate. I think this is a great thing. I don't care if it's a PR thing. I don't care any manner of it. I do think, I know, Oh, and Amanda was actually telling me, this is really helpful for people who have disabilities, like blindness, these glasses. I think all of them, not just metas, but everybody's, not these Ray-Ban ones, but I suspect Apple, will have a lot of utility for people who are blind.
53:46Kara Swisher:I think it's very exciting, and I think it's a good thing. Look, I don't mind if you use PR for doing that. I get it, and it's fine, and it helps people, and I give it a lot. This was an effort pushed by Dina Powell, who they just hired, and good effort. And they should do a lot of these things. Nonpartisan would be great. They don't have to just mob up with Trump all the time. They should go with everybody to do these things to help people. And again, I don't care if they get a PR win off of it. That's fine by me. What I think is that them doing it during this UFC fight took the focus off the veterans in that way.
54:22Kara Swisher:You know what I mean? Because it just is like, oh, God, didn't you expect that something terrible would happen here? And so, as I said, I really do admire Mark's like of MMA. It's kind of like one of the most human things about him. But it just was like, here's something that's for good. And then you get this idiot say something and create all manner of problems for them. So it was a good attempt and then it got drowned out. Something good got drowned out. And again, I don't even mind if you trot Ivanka Trump out. I just, I don't love it, but whatever for these kind of things. But if it helps these veterans, a good thing.
55:00Kara Swisher:I just think it got in the way of what the veterans, they were trying to do for veterans, which I think is a real thing. But they should do a lot more nonpartisan things that helps the rest of us. But any, you know, as they say, anything Trump touches turns to shit. And that's, I felt that my dad was a veteran. I have a lot of family members who are veterans. I wanted to be a veteran. As I always say, I would have been an admiral about to be fired by Trump right now if I had my career choice. But it was, I really felt bad that this was, got sucked up into this ridiculous nonsense at the White House with UFC.
55:36Scott Galloway:I just, the vision of you being an admiral, I don't.
55:38Kara Swisher:I would be an excellent admiral.
55:39Scott Galloway:Yeah.
55:40Kara Swisher:I would. By the way, Dana White's on the board of Meta too, just so you're aware. That's win and fail because I was like, oh, here's something good. And here it got sullied. And the story as usual went off onto another way. And I don't blame the media for it. I don't blame, this guy said something so terrible and grotesque at the White House. This is where this woman used to live, you fuckers. Like back off, like, and say you're sorry. Say you're fucking sorry for that piece of shit.
56:07Scott Galloway:Anyway, go ahead. Okay, my win here is the social media ban in the UK. Oh, yes. Britain just announced the world's strictest teen social media law going further than Australia, the country that inspired all of this. Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced Monday that TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, Facebook, and X will be banned from offering services to under-16s. As someone who has a 15-year-old in the house, I can tell you that I think the most... The negative, anxiety-inducing thing in our household is our 15-year-old's usage of social media. And people say, well, that's a parenting thing.
56:51Scott Galloway:No, they pay for the tube with their phone. If you tell them not to use social media, they're isolated from their friends and become more depressed. This needs to be a collective ban, and that's what the prime minister here did. There is no reason, no justification for anyone under the age of 16 being on any social media platform. Some people will say, what about YouTube? Fine, put out a kid's version of YouTube. I'm down with that. But this goes into effect in spring of 2027.
57:25Scott Galloway:Overnight, curfews and infinite scroll limits are under consideration. consideration, or excuse me, overnight curfews and infinite scroll limits are under consideration. Liability falls on platforms, not on children or parents. It's consistent with Australia's approach, which fines companies up to 50 million for noncompliance. It needs to be a percentage of revenues, I would argue. And then Britain's existing online safety act has already cut visits to porn sites by a third and raised the share of children encountering age checks online from 30 % to 47%. Spain, Greece, Slovenia, and France are already pursuing similar bounds.
58:07Scott Galloway:And Australia's December 2025 laws officially triggered a global cascade. And a study of 18 to 24-year-olds found out that not using social media for one week significantly reduced symptoms of anxiety by 16%, depression by 25%, and insomnia by 15%. This isn't just a win for teen mental health. This is a win for democracy. The more time you spend on social media, the less you believe in democracy.
58:38Kara Swisher:You know, can I, one thing you pointed out, if they had gone and tried to make a safe product, like that's, you know what they're going to do? They're going to say, it's not going to work in Australia. It's not going to work. That's their argument. It's never about the thing. It's never about that this is deleterious. And by the way, speaking of which, that movie's coming out, The Social Reckoning, which is the part two of The Social Network. Mark, Jeremy Strong from Succession is playing Mark Zuckerberg. As I noted last week, why do they never talk about the thing? They just say how it doesn't work and how it does this and this and that, but they never want to talk about the thing, which is, are you hurting people with your unsafe products?
59:16Scott Galloway:Yeah, but again, I don't think we should fall into the trap of believing that the owners of McDonald's or Ford are going to figure out, are going to focus on anything other than what car do Americans want to drive? What's the design? And we don't give a shit that it gives you diabetes. We just want basically a food orgasm in your mouth. It's up to us as voters, and we have done this, to implement, to appoint really smart people who decide to devote their lives to government and regulatory concerns to protect the well-being of the commonwealth. If we're waiting on these companies to start thinking about the safety and harms of their product, good fucking luck.
59:58Kara Swisher:True, but look at the cost we pay for obesity and fat. Why do we keep doing this to ourselves? That's the thing.
1:00:05Scott Galloway:I agree, but when you say we doing it to ourselves, the capitalist system is companies are rapacious, engage in full body contact, violence, not worried about other people, worried about getting a product that commands margin. And quite frankly, that works as long as you have regulatory bodies ensuring that opiates don't gut, you know, small towns in Appalachia. But again, asking, we can ask the question, we can all hope for a guy who's in charge of AI with hushed tones who just adopted a baby boy and he's concerned about AI and this really attractive woman who says, we need to do better and we are open to regulation.
1:00:52Scott Galloway:They're all fucking whores. And we have built a whorehouse and the whorehouse works, but you have to have a cop.
1:01:01Kara Swisher:Can I quote you on that? We have built a whorehouse and the whorehouse works. Go ahead.
1:01:05Scott Galloway:The whorehouse works.
1:01:06Kara Swisher:That's your next book, The Whorehouse Works.
1:01:08Scott Galloway:Well, it's funny. I was just at a wedding in Amsterdam and the Rosewood there used to be an orphanage and then a whorehouse. And I thought, well, that's a pipeline. Oh, God.
1:01:17Kara Swisher:Oh, my God. I can't believe you just said that.
1:01:19Scott Galloway:Anyway.
1:01:20Kara Swisher:I think I know that hotel.
1:01:21Scott Galloway:I get mad at us. They're doing their job. And we keep trying to shame them into thinking about the safety of their product.
1:01:30Kara Swisher:You're right.
1:01:31Scott Galloway:You think McDonald's is just going to decide we need to have salads? It's just the right thing to do. Remember, it didn't work? Yeah. I mean, anyways, we need economic incentives and regulations that punish these people and create disincentives. I like it. Prime Minister Keir Starmer. My fail, I just spent the most wonderful week in Northern Europe. I was in Stockholm, and then I was in Amsterdam. And Sweden is growing. It's kind of the non-European European country. It's growing two and a half percent. It is actually produced, despite having the population of North Carolina, it's produced companies including King, Klarna, Spotify, Ericsson.
1:02:17Scott Galloway:They produce a ton of unicorns. Very clever people. And they have the industrial might or productivity of Germany with some of the innovation of Silicon Valley and the social policies of Bernie Sanders. And then you go to Amsterdam, where they have become kind of the ground zero for data centers in Europe. They have ASML. If NVIDIA is the picks and shovels, ASML makes the picks and shovels. Productivity is up two and a half percent. The economy is strong there. These are some of the wealthiest countries in the nation. And they settle an argument. And this is my fail. America has tried to convince its population that you can't have billionaires and universal healthcare.
1:03:03Scott Galloway:Bullshit. Yes, thank you. These companies prove you can have really wealthy people and you can have universal pre-K. Yes, indeed. And you can have child services. And I spent some time with the founder and the people running Spotify this weekend. And they were all in the valley. They all moved back to Sweden where they are paying much higher taxes. And they're fine to do it because they trust that the government is going to spend their money well. They trust that being able to ride a bike to work and have a kid with special needs is going to be taken care of. And I did not see a single homeless person, by the way, in Stockholm.
1:03:41Scott Galloway:Granted, that's probably not indicative of all of Sweden. And granted, do they have problems with immigration and housing prices that follow prosperity? 100%. But we need to stop in America believing that there's a myth that inequality, that inequality and billionaires and unicorns demand a rapacious lack of a safety net.
1:04:06Kara Swisher:Yeah, I said the same thing about Korea when I was there. They're healthier. Oh my God. It's so universal health care for one, but the other stuff I agree.
1:04:12Scott Galloway:Great one. Anyways, I love, I had such a nice time. I was so blown away.
1:04:17Kara Swisher:I'm glad.
1:04:18Scott Galloway:By Sweden. And I was actually at my best friend's son's wedding, Jack Markman, this incredibly impressive young man that reminds me of my, he's like the mini me of my friend. And I had time, I spent, I did myself a favor. I spent, I went early and I left late and I spent time in both of those places. They are such incredibly lovely places. I'm glad you went. Anyways, they trust that their governments are going to spend their money correctly. They trust each other. They trust, there's also really strong governance such that they attract foreign investment because they know they're not going to get fucked by a corrupt government or a corrupt politician.
1:04:58Kara Swisher:They also just convicted in Norway, the princes, I think.
1:05:02Scott Galloway:I saw that.
1:05:03Kara Swisher:I mean, they just, look, when you do bad things, no matter where you are, you get, not all the time.
1:05:09Scott Galloway:Okay, Prince Andrew?
1:05:10Kara Swisher:I know, I agree with you on that. I don't know.
1:05:13Scott Galloway:I mean.
1:05:13Kara Swisher:I agree. But it's heading that direction. It's heading that direction. But he was removed.
1:05:17Scott Galloway:They kicked him out of, they defrocked him or whatever the fuck they do with the monarchy here.
1:05:22Kara Swisher:Yeah, but no, he's being investigated finally. But you're right. A hundred percent. Fair point.
1:05:27Scott Galloway:Well, he'll pay a bigger price than any of those billionaires on that island. That's true.
1:05:30Kara Swisher:That is true.
1:05:30Scott Galloway:Anyways, my win, my fail is this false dichotomy. we've talked Americans into believing that you can't have billionaires and really robust capitalism and growth and not have universal health care and child care. You absolutely can. And the Netherlands and Sweden produced that or proved that in spades.
1:05:49Kara Swisher:Yeah. And in America, you don't have to insult a very impressive black woman in order to feel like more like a man. You in fact, what an idiot.
1:05:58Scott Galloway:And by the way, Michelle Obama does demonstrate more masculinity, service, strength, than that dude. You know, anyway, I can't even go. I saw that and I thought, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. Thank you. What the, like, what, what? Does that guy have daughters? I don't know. Okay. I don't have any of them. Are you going to wait for some fucking idiot to start saying stupid shit about your daughter? Yeah, I just, anyway. Oh, we don't like them. Admiral Swisher, take over.
1:06:28Kara Swisher:Thank you. By the way, I like MMA, but fuck that guy. Anyway, and by the way, Dana, say something stronger, like even stronger. Like kick that fucker out. Okay, 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. Send a question for the show. Or call 855-51-PIVOT. Elsewhere in the Karen Scott universe this week on On, I spoke to Peter Chernin, one of the producers of the hit film Backrooms. he talked, this legendary media executive, entertainment media executive, he talked about how studios are rushing to sign YouTubers and why that's a mistake.
1:07:04Kara Swisher:Let's listen to a clip.
1:07:06Scott Galloway:Every single meeting in Hollywood over the last 10 days has been, find me my YouTuber. That's not the smartest thing on Earth. You know, it's no different than saying, find me a sequel to something else. You know, it's worth noting, we spent three years on this project. You know, we spent a period of time chasing, We spent a long time working on the script. We spent another year on production. And, you know, it's not just saying bet on a YouTuber. It's not just saying bet on some... It's betting on a very specific piece of content and betting on a very specific piece of talent.
1:07:39Kara Swisher:He is a class act and so smart. Anyway, that's the show. Thanks for listening to Pivot, and be sure to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We'll be back on Friday.
1:07:49Scott Galloway:Today's show is produced by Lara Neiman, Zoe Marcus, Taylor Griffin, and Todd Wiseman. Additional assistance from Kate Gallagher and Brad Sylvester. Ernie and your Todd engineered this episode. Thanks to all Sturge Bros, Mia Severo, and Dan Chalon. Nishat Kroos, 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 later this week for another breakdown of all things tech and business care. I will see you later in the week.
From the publisher
Kara and Scott unpack the White House’s UFC spectacle, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery clearing a major merger hurdle, and SpaceX’s blockbuster public debut. Then, they discuss Fox buying Roku, the Trump administration’s latest clash with Anthropic, and state attorneys general investigating OpenAI.Watch this episode on the Pivot YouTube channel.Follow us on Instagram and Threads at @pivotpodcastofficial.Follow us on Bluesky at @pivotpod.bsky.socialFollow us on TikTok at @pivotpodcast.Send us your questions by calling us at 855-51-PIVOT, or email pivot@voxmedia.com
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