The Year in Pivot: AI, Unions, Taylor Swift, and Insults Galore

24:12Anyway, all right, Scott, let's go on a quick break. She's a good-looking woman. She's a good-looking woman. Let's be clear. When we come back, and Gavin Newsom's a good-looking man for you. All right, Scott, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, we'll talk about The Year of Strikes and one of your favorite subjects, the Barbie movie. Oh, God.

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25:01Scott, we're back with our end of year review, looking at some of our hottest takes on the biggest stories of the year. And few stories got our listeners riled up like the entertainment strikes. What are we doing? Moving around furniture on the Titanic? It's crazy. So the jig is up, AMPTP. Let's listen to one of your early takes on it. In the 80s, in Britain, the coal miners, I think it was the national - You're doing a coal mining prediction? But go ahead. I'm setting it up. I don't want to be replaced by AI. I'm trying to provide some creative context here. So I think it was the National Minecrafters or Mineworkers Union took on Margaret Thatcher.

25:47And basically, Thatcher said, this is my moment to show that I'm the Iron Lady. We need to move to different types of energy and just said no over and over and basically broke the back of the coal miners union. The same thing's about to happen here with the writers. They have the same skill set or a similar skill set to authors, to journalists, and they make a lot more money. In addition, this is a dream come true for the studios and enforced multilateral pause and spending as they recalibrate and have cloud cover to come back with fewer employees. The union here, the writers union has so badly miscalculated the power dynamic here.

26:30And the studios are going to slowly but surely, quietly, they are going to break their backs. and this is going to end really poorly for the writers. It's going to end, I can't, it's almost, I wouldn't be surprised if we found out that the studio heads got together and said, piss off and upset the writers union so they go on strike and force all of us to stop spending in producing content because every individual is like, I got eight shows I haven't gotten to yet that I'd like to watch. So this is going to be remnant. This is the information age coal miner strike in the UK. It's going to end really poorly for the writers.

27:09They are totally, and all this virtue signaling with stars that make$10 and$20 million a year showing up and pretending that they stand with their brothers and sisters, I just think it's hilarious. You're going to see this union come back to the table, and the studios are going to just do what used to happen to me when I was trying to raise money through the 90s with VCs. They're going to grin fuck them. They're going to say, that's interesting. Writers are really important to us. We should keep talking, and they're going to do nothing. thing. And then when a bunch of the riders that are going to be replaced by AI anyways, start thinking, I can't pay my rent and start putting pressure on the union to settle, the union's going to end up with a worse deal than they had going into this thing.

27:49So my prediction, the information age equivalent of the British coal miner strike is happening with the rider strike and it's going to end the same way. Who's Margaret Thatcher? So the studio heads are Margaret Thatcher. You don't get my analogy? I thought that was pretty good. I do. I get it. I agree with you. A bunch of writers and actors have written me and I'm like, I think you're, I don't think you have leverage here. A lot of people disagreed with us, Scott, but we made our point and we definitely called the end of the writer's strike.

28:22The Hollywood writers and studios have reached a tentative agreement on a new contract. That's after a marathon five days of talks. The deal still needs approval from the union board and members for the strike to end. But first, let's talk about us because we predicted this pretty closely. We initially thought it might go on and on. We never thought it would be short. But let's hear what I said back in August 17th when Don Lemon was co-hosting. My prediction, I'm going to go separately, not on Donald Trump, but on the writer's strike. I feel like it may settle by October 15th. I think there's some pain starting to feel by the studios who are in a better position from a leverage point of view.

28:59I think there's a lot of pain from writers and actors, and I don't think they're calling them rich people or is really working particularly well with the public. And I think they have to they have to settle in on some on some level and maybe push certain things down the road. I don't know. I just feel like maybe by October they'll have to be settled. Here's what you said a little over a week ago. OK, so Drew and Bill were shamed. They said, look, this is really awful. You're being an awful person. But they effectively ended the strike. And I believe the writer's strike is going to end in the next 30 days, if not the next two weeks.

29:35Here's the thing. The writer's strike gets done within the next 30 days because the big guys that aren't Netflix, the big guys sans Netflix are like, okay, we've been played. Netflix, this was a feature, not a bug for Netflix. the writers, the most important people, the most talented and probably smartest and biggest voices that I can tell, my pulse marketing talk to them are like, I am fed up with this shit. We have handled this poorly. So we got it right. Let's talk what's in the deal first. As of the taping, we don't have the full details, but the New York Times reports the writers got some concessions on most of their demands from the studios, including bigger royalty payments for streaming content and guarantees that AI won't chip away at their credits and compensation.

30:19So what do you think? What do you think? Besides we're geniuses? I think this is another signal at the beginning of the end of unions. Interesting. People think they're stronger. Tell me why. And that's perfect for corporations. Continue to give labor the illusion that they're well represented when only 11 % of the workforce or about 3 % or 4 % of the population are even members of unions. such that corporations can slice and dice and either move to the 27, either avoid unions or move to the 27 states in the union that are basically have outlawed unions. But look at it this way, and we won't know until we get the results.

31:00First off, no matter what the terms were, the WGA has to pretend it's a monumental victory. Otherwise, why exactly did I lose six months of income, but look at it this way. It's a three-year deal. Effectively, they took everyone's wages as a means of negotiating. It took a lot of their members or all of their members down to compensation of zero for six months. So over a three-year deal, that means that unless they got an increase of total compensation of 16%, they've lost money because people are out of work for six months. So I'll be very curious to see the language, but this hot girl union summer is nothing but a head fake and jazz hands.

31:46The number of people who are actually in unions declined last year. And again, the stat that just kind of purposely embodies the dissonance here, the head fake around labor and its effectiveness, is that 330 Starbucks unionized. Yes, you noted this last week. Okay. Not one of them got a collective bargaining agreement. And that is for all the jazz hands and excitement and headlines around 330 Starbucks stores unionizing, it hasn't translated to a single cent in increased compensation for those workers. Well, not yet, right? Presumably not yet. They're just getting started, that particular group, right?

32:22We're just getting started with the end of this. Okay. All right. Now tell me, I want you to make, I know this is hard for you, I want you to make not a pro-union argument, but what was good about what they did? You think nothing? About what the writers did? Yeah, about what the writers and the actors and the UAW, et cetera, et cetera. They're bringing attention to the fact that in a nation where work is central to our economy and productivity and gives people purpose, and in a nation where we've had unprecedented prosperity, it needs to translate to progress. And a small nod towards progress is that anyone that works 40 hours should have some dignity and not live below the poverty line.

32:59Their aim is true. Their intentions are valid. They are the wrong construct. And instead of going to join a picket line that represents 4 % of America, Joe Biden should do his job and raise minimum wage for the first time in 15 years across 100 % of workers. In the end, the writers won a$233 million three-year deal with producers, including pay bumps, bonuses, and AI regulations. Plus, you did say one phrase we don't often say. Can you guess what that was? I was wrong. I don't know. What did I say? Let me just say I love labor. I just think the construct representing 11 % of labor is not doing an effective job for all 100%.

33:44First off, let me acknowledge, I said it would break the backs of the union, the Riders Union, similar to the coal miners. I was wrong. The Riders Union is going to be intact. I think they did get some, I don't know, substantive concessions. But I don't, quite frankly, I think there's some liberal media bias here calling this thing. They call it exceptional. The media takes the bait and says substantial, you know, substantial victory. And I've read through this agreement. So let's just talk about it. They're getting, they garnered an increase of 5%, minimum increases of compensation, 5%, then 4 % at the three-year deal, and then 3.5%.

34:31So that's 12.5%. Now, you could discount it back because they're not getting the other four and the other three and a half to the years two and three. But let's just call it 12.5%. Let's just give them the benefit of the doubt. If it's a three-year deal and they forced everyone to make zero for five months, they got to get 14 % just to get back to even water. But let's say, well, Well, Scott, that's not fair because those increases will help them negotiate a new deal in three years. All right. Since their last deal, inflation is up 10%. I think any economist is going to look at this deal and go, hey, writers, not any of your fault, but as a function of the economy and the fact there's too many of you, you are now making less money on a real wage level after this deal than you were when you struck the last deal three years ago.

35:14The Screen Actors Guild ended its strike on November 8th, also winning higher wages and limits on AI plus streaming bonuses. I just can't fucking handle this. It was a giant fucking nothing burger. Well done. Well done. Declare victory and leave with your loss. Jesus Christ. Another prominent labor action we covered, the six-week rolling strike by United Auto Workers, a real union that had real leverage and didn't have their head up their asses and actually negotiated a better life for their constituents. Anyways, and their innovative leader, Sean Fain, who won them sizable pay raises, cost of living adjustments, and more from the big three automakers.

35:51Don't forget, there was also the largest healthcare strike in U.S. history, also easily resolved. And as of this taping, there have been more than 350 labor actions in more than 600 locations throughout the country. Scott, has the year changed your mind at all about the state of unions in the U.S., which you pillory constantly? I don't think there's any denying that if you look at what the UAW has accomplished, And also, they're starting to feel, I mean, they've reached down and they feel these two round things called testicles. They are going after bigger and bigger fish here. It would be impossible not to acknowledge the gains of unions, specifically the UAW.

36:28Okay. But do you think that's a template for where people could go, where you actually do a good job for your constituents? Well, I mean, a longer conversation here. I think over time that with red states, right-to-work states, which is basically code for anti-union, that we have, unfortunately, an economic structure that preys on lower-middle-income people and that we need more government intervention and regulation in one union called the federal government through minimum wage. But that's – anyways, that's my TED Talk. One of the biggest stories of 2023 was, of course, girl power. I actually don't believe that.

37:04But anyways, it's written here. Which Kara reminded me repeatedly. Again, this copy is written by a bunch of women, not girls. Because we're correct. And you are, as you said earlier, wrong. Hi, Barbie. Hi, Ken. Hi, Barbie. Hi, Barbie. The Barbie movie grossed around$1.4 billion globally. Beyonce's tour boosted the U.S. economy by$4.5 billion. And Taylor Swift's generated about$5.7 billion domestically. And she's still going, but Scott still struggled to get on board. She waved to me at her concert and I didn't wave back. I'm expecting an album about me. She didn't. She was calling the police.

37:41But let's listen to what you had to say. Yeah, there's a few things that have more cultural significance than I know less about. Like if you held a gun to my head and said. Oh, no, don't say this. The Swifties will come for you. Say a Swift song. I would know. So, but everything I've understood, understand about her is that she's a great artist and a good person. And most importantly, just because I know you want to bring this back to me. Okay. I went on ChatGPT. Yeah. I'm obsessed with this. I know you are. I'm literally obsessed with this. I know you are. And I said, write a song about Taylor Swift falling in love with Scott Galloway.

38:15Oh, no. And it came back with this ballad. And the ballad was kind of vanilla. So I decided to spice it up. And I added the element that makes every story better, specifically my erectile dysfunction. So I said, in reference to his erectile dysfunction, let me read you just a few ballads. Okay. He's an NYU professor, silver-tongued and smart. In the sea of suits and ties, he's a work of art. Even though he's got a secret, one that makes him feel so small, he's still the bravest man standing so tall. He's open and he's honest about his private fight, a struggle that's unseen hidden in the night.

38:51But he stands strong, unashamed. Where's his truth like a crown? Oh, Scott Galloway, your courage brings me down. Oh, no. Or she could fall in love with me, go on two dates, and then write ballads about me. She's such a great business person. She runs her own shit. She gets shit done. She puts on a great show. She's like the all. She's like a omnipreneur. She runs everything. Super impressive woman. She also didn't take the money from the FTXs of the world. She just looked at it and said, no. Remember Barbenheimer weekend? And it seems so long ago when Barbie and Oppenheimer came out on the same day and everyone went to both except Scott.

39:31Scott refused to see Barbie for a long time. I mean, even Matt Gaetz went before Scott did. I actually sat near him. So you got that going for you. I wish I'd sat right next to Lauren Bobut. Hello. Can she date my 17-year-old? Seriously. That is every. Oh, stop. Beetlejuice. No. Get to grab breasts and get Big Ed and the twins yanked. Oh, my God. Let's listen to what you have again. The ultimate date for a 17-year-old. That's our elected— Welcome to Congress. Welcome to Congress. Look back at your idiotic comments on this. Representative Boebert, come on over. All right, move on. Stop talking.

40:09Little matinee for the dog? Play the tape, producers. But first, the Barbie movie comes out today, and Matt Gaetz's wife doesn't think you should watch it. I actually went to the same screening as Ginger and Matt Gaetz. They were sitting right near me. posted photos of her and her husband on the red carpet at the premiere, which was at the British Embassy for the film, while giving her not-so-positive review among her complaints. It, quote, neglects to address any notion of faith or family, which is weird because it's about dolls, and disappointingly low tea from Ken. I don't feel this is correct, having seen it.

40:44And by the way, they were both laughing quite a bit during the movie. Just FYI. Just FYI. What did you think of the movie? I loved it. I thought it was great. I thought it was funny. That's interesting. Why? It's deep and shallow at the same time, if that makes sense. It's very funny. There's all kinds of kitschy stuff. There's all these throwbacks to old movies, whether it's the Truman Show or Singing in the Rain or Busby Berkeley musicals or, you know, a lot, The Wizard of Oz. So it's got a lot of that funness and the costumes are fantastic. There's a lot of very funny jokes at making fun of feminism.

41:14It makes fun of woke men. It makes fun of manly men. It makes fun of Mattel quite a bit. So it has a nice sense of humor about everyone. And the whole thing about Loti from Ken, the whole point is to talk about what Ken really is, which is an accessory to Barbie, as my wife Amanda says. I thought it was really well done and adorable. There's a few, you know, kind of goofy notes. At one point, America Ferrer has to give kind of a feminist-y speech that I would have – they didn't need it. They were making those points without hitting you over the head with it. But otherwise, Greta Gerwig is a gifted, gifted filmmaker.

41:50And I have to say, Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling were fantastic. He steals the show in a lot of ways because he's got this kind of boneheaded character. Reminded me a great deal of you, Scott. Thanks for that. No problem. I hear that a lot about me and Ryan Gosling. I get that a lot. Yes. I mean, in this role as Ken. You're a Ken. If you call me a Karen, I'm going to call you a Ken from now on. And he just is great. He steals the show because he's got so many great outfits, etc. Scott, it was a huge weekend at the box office. Barbenheimer brought in a combined grand total of$244 million in ticket sales in the first three days.

42:24That's a big number. Barbie accounted for$162 million of that, while Oppenheimer brought in$82 million, well over expectations for both of those movies. That's 12.8 million tickets bought for Barbie and 5.8 million for Oppenheimer. It's set to be the fourth highest box office weekend of all time. And Greta Gerwig has sold the most tickets for a female director in, I think, history. The people have spoken. Barbie is clearly the winner here, financially speaking. You have not seen Barbie still, even though it's about men and women and the things you talk about of men being lost. I will ask how you thought of Oppenheimer, but Barbie was the clear winner financially and is leading the way and dragging and bringing Oppenheimer, which is also a fantastic movie, with it.

43:08And combined together, people were very excited and made it an appointment viewing, which hasn't happened in a long time for both of them. and they both spurred interest in each other. So tell me what you thought of Oppenheimer. Well, first of all, the weekend and the box office receipts are really a win all around. I mean, if there was an industry that needed good news, it's not only just Hollywood, it's specifically movie theater. And something that was really inspiring, we did dinner before Mission Impossible at the Century City Mall. I'm not exaggerating. The mall was electric and everyone was wearing pink.

43:46For Oppenheimer then. No, go ahead. For Oppenheimer. All the women were in pink. There was a lot of men wearing pink. And I thought it was nice. I think anything that creates sort of a collective is nice. I think we need more of that. We actually, our plane got delayed on Saturday by four hours. So I said, all right, let's bomb to the movie theater. And we went to the Van Nuys Regency. And we were five minutes late to see Barbie. So we saw Oppenheimer. When Scott finally did see Barbie, well, it didn't go that well. Let's listen. Okay, so I saw Barbie. Oh, oh, oh, okay. Let's hear it. Let's hear it.

44:24I just think it was such genius, like threading the duality of life and measured humor that was insightful, yet didn't take itself too seriously around identity politics. I really think it's one of the movies of the ages in a deeply relevant statement about our society. Oh, my God. You're fucking with me, right? I walked out. What? What? I walked out, yeah. What do you mean? Why? I mean, I bought a ticket. I went in. I sat there for 45 minutes. And as usual, I had to go to the bathroom. And I'm one of those theaters where it's a pain to go to the bathroom. I just didn't have the, I don't know.

45:01I was too embarrassed to go back. And I was a little bit high on edibles. and I'm like, I'd rather go to Carl's Pharmacy. Here's how I save the night. There's this amazing - Okay, why didn't you like it? It's literally crossing the billion mark, but okay, go ahead. Kara, I'm a 48-year-old guy with erectile dysfunction who drinks bourbon and watches Goodfellas and war movies at night. I mean, how could I like Barbie? Seriously. Come on, it's funny. And by the way, I just want to say - I want you to say one nice thing about it, but go ahead. I think she's spectacular. I think he's spectacular. The set design was beautiful.

45:35I get why people like it. There's some really, that's not, what I will say is this. When I read the movie Money, or I read the book Moneyball, it's about analytics and sports. I'm aware, yeah. And I heard they were making a movie. I'm like, how on earth are they going to make a movie? And they made a fantastic film out of something I never thought could be made into a movie. What I will say is it's not easy to make a movie about Barbie because it's so charged. It could just go so many wrong ways so often. And they do, I thought they thread the needle perfectly. I I thought it laughed at itself, but it also had deep meaning.

46:07I love the black and white scenes with the mother and the daughter. That stuff always tugs at my heart. But yeah, I saved the evening. I left. I walked out. What was happening when you walked out and had to pee? What was happening when you were peeing? You didn't even get to Casa Dojo Mojo with Ken? You didn't get to that. America Ferreira, is that her name? And her daughter pulled up to save her from somewhere. From Mattel. From Mattel, yeah. That's where, that's why. You didn't get back to the, to Barbie land with Ken? I went back to something better. I went to this place in Aspen called Carl's Pharmacy and it has all these old toys.

46:47And I got, get this, I got a stretch Armstrong. I got a miniature version of an Etch-A-Sketch. I got a lint brush and a Clark bar and the book Dune. I mean, how do you know I was on edibles without knowing I was on edibles? And then I went home and just stared at my purchases for an hour, and I watched TikTok. It was a fantastic evening. Oh, my God. I don't get why Barbie is so popular. There's a whole dude section. There's a whole male, like, identity section. I can't believe it. I get it. I get it. I still don't understand. How can she be so popular when her knees don't even bend? That's good.

47:21Okay. That's good. You know what's going to have to happen now? From the Vox Media Podcast Network. You need to watch the rest of it, and you and I are going to watch the rest of it. You and I in your apartment in New York. This qualifies as workplace harassment. The matriarchy is, again, forcing me to do things I don't want to do. Oh, you're such an idiot. The women are making money and making shit happen. And you're eating edibles and playing with Stretch Armstrong. That pretty much sums it up. That's a surprise to you. More women, more single women-owned homes than single men. Women are killing it.

47:52Our listeners were angry at you for not staying for the whole thing, Scott, and justifiably so. We got a lot of emails about that, but you did a little better with Taylor Swift once you stopped telling terrible jokes about her. Taylor Swift was amazing! Oh, you went to Taylor Swift. Yeah, I got you a friendship bracelets. I got your friendship bracelets. I would like that. I have them with my son, actually, or my sons. Yeah, yeah, I have several for you. One says reputation. The other says haters gonna hate. Other says Swift as fuck boy. Was it great? People say she puts on an amazing show. So, Scott, let me just say, by the way, it was crawling with Silicon Valley people who had the fancy seats.

48:32I had good seats. I had good seats, but not like the fancy down on the floor seats. I have a couple of observations. What an astonishing performer. What an astonishing. She delivered, what's beyond thousand percent? I mean, first of all, the visuals were amazing. So, she used visuals beautifully on these screens that were just like such an, it was like a theatrical show in that regard, but beautiful and amazing. She shifted from really like very elaborate dance stuff and moves to like her gal with a guitar or a piano. Amazing. She commanded this. It's a Sleeve Eye Stadium. I think it was 75 ,000 people.

49:11She held them in the palm of her hand. She also 44 songs got three and a half hours. Let me I can't even and without much of a break. Costumes were astonishing. Her dancers, she gave a lot of space to them. And so they look like they were having fun. they made her look good. I mean, this one, and then she spoke to the audience and she's so, you know, she's obviously highly intelligent, but her connection with the audience is, the girls around me were a lot of young girls, a lot of teenage girls losing their minds, but also older women, a lot of dads, a lot of dads, like Pivot. Let me just say, I did a lot of selfies with dads who are there with their daughters.

49:50They were thrilled to see me asking They don't agree with you on Taylor Swift, by the way. They said, get lit. Teach Scott about Taylor Swift. And I said, OK, I shall. Can we make a deal? If I stop with the dick jokes, will you never bring up Taylor Swift again? No, no, no. Because you're not going to stop with the dick jokes. Fair enough. Fair enough. Big Ed and the twins are still with us. All right. But let me just say, dick jokes are not the engine of our economy in keeping us out of recession. All right, Scott, one more quick break. When we return, it was a stellar year for our banter and insults.

50:23We'll share some highlights.

50:49From wellness and soccer to culture, the climate and more. Read, watch and listen to The Guardian for free at TheGuardian.com.

51:02If somebody's going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go fuck yourself. Scott, we're back. One of the biggest complaints we get is that we talk about Elon Musk too much. And we do talk about him a lot. But whenever we talk about him, there's a common thread. Let's see if you can pick it out. The greatest self-inflicted wound in history in terms of public perception is Elon Musk, had he never downloaded the Twitter app, would be the most admired person universally globally, hands down. Elon Musk has responded to the new Twitter competition in a characteristically classy manner.

51:37On the day Threads was unveiled, he threatened to sue Meta over it, which most people think is nonsense. A few days later, he tweeted, Zuck is a cuck, and challenged Zuckerberg to, quote, a literal dick measuring contest ruler emoji. Gee, what a funny, he's 52, people. Let me just start again. He's 52 years old. He's an old man. I realize I'm playing armchair therapist here. This isn't the person who is very happy at their steady state. You know, it's just, this was a very expensive way to feed his ego. And I'll tell you, if this guy had a dollar for every really stupid and racist thing he did, he'd be, oh wait, he does.

52:11He does. Nevermind. But here's my mini review of the Musk bio. Sad and smart son, slowly morphs into mentally abusive father he abhors, except for with rockets, cars and more money. Often right, sometimes wrong, petty jerk always. Might be crazy in a good way, but also a bad way. Pile O' Babies, not Steve Jobs. You're welcome. That's my review. Pile O' Babies. Pile O' Babies. You know, I think the most generous thing you could say is it was an intense bout of jet lag. But there's something going on here. And I, of course, went to chat GPT and I typed in, what are the symptoms of a narcissist having a breakdown?

52:50And it came back with intense rage and anger, blame shifting, emotional dysregulation, paranoia, depression and anxiety, manipulative behaviors, isolation, self-destructive behaviors, increased sensitivity to criticism and breakdown of relationships. I mean, his statements were so ridiculous, Kara. Do you realize that 497 of the Fortune 500 companies in the United States are clearly blackmailing us because they refuse to advertise on our platform? And then to go after Disney, and it's like just the whole thing was just – and to be that profane and that aggressive, and then to somehow threaten advertisers that the world will hold you accountable if Twitter goes down.

53:39Earth will. Earth will. I thought the most disturbing part as someone who raises boys and talking about, as a 13-year-old, just the incredible hardship and dysfunction he faced. And so his answer or his response to this incredible abuse, being the son of a model and an emerald miner, was the decision to save humanity by making us an interplanetary species. I mean, he's literally, he's just like kind of fucking lost his shit. Yeah, he's deluded. This is a 52-year-old man, okay? He's a 52-year-old. This is how he behaves. It's shameful. I think we've made ourselves clear, but if not, I'm sure there will be more to discuss in 2024.

54:21Anyway, speaking of chodes, this is my favorite part of the show as we look back at some of our best insults and banter. But first, let's start off with some, and there's a lot to pick from, of your not-so-humble brags, or your, as I like to call them, the weakest flexes in the world.

54:43Twitter will have a new chief twit. Last week, Elon Musk teased that he had found a new CEO to take over parts of the company. On Friday, he confirmed what Kara Swisher had long known. Another prediction. It wasn't really a prediction. Ding, ding, ding, ding. Ding, ding, ding. That the job was going to Linda Yaccarino. By the way, Wall Street Journal, I did know it. Stop it. Stop pretending you're an exclusive. I went on the end of that call from Uber and Yahoo and all these companies where you We had shitty CEOs. And you call me and say, I can't believe you. You were so right. And I'm like, I literally am going to hang up.

55:16I can't believe you were so right. They do. They say that. Don't we like me? I feel impressed that you threw the word declension into the conversation, Cara. You get points for that from the vocab gods. I got 700 on my SOTs, but go ahead. No idea what that means. Go ahead. I've inferred it from the context, Scott. On our emergency pod, when we taped on Friday, they had real problems or scandal. Let's play a clip again where Kara's the hero. I'm not the hero. I just want you to respect my reporting skills. I am actually, I think, the finest tech reporter in Silicon Valley. So you might respect me for who I am.

55:55Listen to you. People love it when we disagree, which we always do with grace and maturity. Here are some examples. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Here are some examples. I thought your whole thing this year was to be nicer. You remind me of sickness and death. I get that every day when I see myself naked. I don't need you showing up with your horse voice. I'm in very good shape otherwise. All right, Scott, when you decide to become less of a douche nozzle, we will move on. Douche nozzle? Douche nozzle. It's my favorite word. That's what the young people say. Let's just go a little bit behind the music here.

56:30I get invited, and so you find a way to muscle your way. I didn't find a way. I was also, it said Kara and Scott, by the way, my name first. And no one forwarded. It's Scott Callaway. No, I got. My advice is Scott. I will send you the invitation to both of us. And they forgot to forward it to me. It came into our pivot email. And they were wondering why I hadn't responded. I have been hauling a suit around the great. You're wearing a suit? Oh, not me. I'm going to the White House. You're not wearing a suit? No, I've been there a hundred times now. You've never been there. How exciting. Yes, I know.

57:00Which means, I know you're a hundred times more important than me. No, I've never been there. I've never been invited. I've just been there a hundred times. I've lived in Washington. Well, yes, you did, kind of. Little bit. No, I didn't. I didn't. Stop with your weird insecurity about everything. I just happened to live there. My insecurity is called common sense. Have you met me? I covered it as a reporter. So I have obviously been there. It's wonderful. You're gonna love it. It's a real - I'm really excited. It's a thrill every time I go there. First off, when I saw in the script today that we were going to replay some back and forth between you and me.

57:30Yeah. It was like watching this crime drama I grew up on called Scooby-Doo, where there was always just a shock at the end that the innkeeper was the one who was the ghost. And I'm like, whatever this back and forth is between Kara and me, Kara is the hero and she is right. I was, though. Actually, can you just acknowledge that my reporting was stellar? You were right. But let me, first off, when I see people on the street, they don't say, oh, you bring the greatest insight around tech, Yonkara. They say, we love the chemistry between Yonkara. So let me just go meta here and find out why you are so desperate to always be the hero.

58:11Hold on, hold on. I will tell you why, but go ahead. Hold on. I grew up on two hours a day. We were an experiment in Laguna Niguel and the shores for cable TV. I grew up on four episodes a day of I Dream of Jeannie and one episode a day of Scooby-Doo. Me too. So I am a sexist who doesn't trust people close to me. And this is what I think happens to you. You'd walk into the garage and your mom would be talking to Jeffrey. And like moms, you know, most moms who treat their boys with, Jeff would say, Mom, can you get me another six pack? And she'd go get it. And he'd be like, I'm thinking about going to med school.

58:45And she'd say something along the lines of, well, whatever you want, because mommy loves you and you are wonderful. And then you would walk into the garage and she'd say something like, you look fat in that. Or what are you wearing? You look like a lesbian. And the need, I just want you to know. Here's the need, Scott, for all women. You matter. We love you. Here's the need. You matter. We love you. How about I was wrong? How about that might come out of your mouth? I get it wrong all the time. I constantly say I get it wrong all the time. Here's the deal. I was listening to it and you mansplained me on something.

59:18And you were playing it over and over and over? No, only because I had to deal with that online. This is the closest thing to porn you watch. You stop talking. Stop talking. Last year, our signature insult was salacious fucks, but we came up with some new ones this year. Check them out. He's a fucking idiot. A mendacious, consistent serial liar. He's just a crusty old fuck. Greg, fathead, and the other guy, Jesse, whatever the fuck. The blowjob on a piece of paper. Sad, flaccid, punchy men in their 50s. Noodle, noodle spine people.

59:56Okay, Scott, that's the show. We'll be back next year for more pivot, more insults, more love. Because we love each other more than ever. That's it. More than ever. If you're wrong, I don't want to be right. I'm so excited for Barbie 2. We're going to go together. It's going to be so exciting. You complete me without Barbie. Okay, today's show was produced by Lara Neiman, Travis Larchuk, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie and her taught, engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Miel Saverio, and Gaddy McBain. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thank you for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media.

1:00:30We'll be back in the new year for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Greatness is in the agency of others. So one more time, today's show was produced by Lara Neiman, Travis Larchuk, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie Indertot engineered this episode. Thanks again to Drew Gross, Miel Severo, and Gaddy McBain. A wonderful team, a wonderful year. Thank you so much. And speaking of great, one last time, Taylor Swift. There you go.

1:01:03Support for this show comes from Airbus. It took 100 years for electric vehicles to catch on. Modern solar panels? Half a century. Lithium batteries? Decades to go from their debut to daily use. It's a pattern. Energy tech breaks through, stalls, and then something tips the scales. But for every success, there are even more almosts. So what if there was a breakthrough sitting at this crossroads right now? SAF, or sustainable aviation fuel, could forever change the future of flight. Learn more about how Airbus is contributing to accelerate this journey at fly.airbus.com slash theflightpath.