In short
Pivot Podcast Episode Notes
Episode Overview Podcast Title: Pivot Episode Title: TikTok in Court, Shein and Temu Crackdown, and Guest Evan Ratliff Hosts: Kara Swisher & Scott Galloway Release Date: [Insert Date] (every Tuesday and Friday)
Episode Description Kara and Scott discuss a range of topics, including a recent assassination attempt on Donald Trump, TikTok's legal challenges, the Biden administration's crackdown on Shein and Temu, and insights into OpenAI's future plans. The episode features Evan Ratliff, a tech journalist and host of the podcast "Shell Game," who shares his experience with AI technology. Additionally, the hosts share personal stories from Scott's recent birthday celebration in Scotland.
---
Key Themes and Discussions
- Serious Political Developments
- Assassination Attempt on Donald Trump
- Scott discusses the implications of the second assassination attempt on Trump, noting the rising trend of violent acts linked to disaffected individuals.
- Gun Violence in America
- The conversation shifts to gun laws in the U.S. and compares them to those in other countries, emphasizing the need for reforms to address mental health issues and occurrences of mass shootings.
- Scott reflects on the normalization of mass shootings and the societal adaptation to such violence.
- Rhetoric from Influential Figures
- Elon Musk's controversial social media posts post-assassination attempt are criticized for inciting potential violence.
- Discussion on the impact of rhetoric on public sentiment and safety.
- Tech and Business Updates
- Biden Administration's Crackdown on Shein and Temu
- The new shipping rules target low-value shipments from companies exploiting loopholes, significantly affecting Shein and Temu's profitability.
- Scott, who is an investor in Shein, argues for equal tax treatment among competing companies and highlights the need for fair trade practices.
- Legal Battle for TikTok
- TikTok's ongoing court case against a law mandating the sale of the app to a non-Chinese owner is discussed, with predictions on its outcomes.
- The hosts speculate on potential compromises while addressing national security concerns.
- Insights into OpenAI
- Future Directions for OpenAI
- Discussion on OpenAI's shift from a nonprofit structure to a more profit-focused entity, aiming to raise significant funding.
- Scott mentions the competitive landscape of AI and the importance of strategic partnerships in the industry.
- Interview with Evan Ratliff
- Introduction to "Shell Game"
- Evan Ratliff discusses his new podcast exploring AI technology, focusing on creating a voice clone of himself to interact with people.
- The reactions of people engaging with the AI and ethical concerns around AI voice usage are explored.
- Impact of AI on Creative Industries
- The conversation touches on AI's potential to replace certain jobs in creative fields, with advice for creatives to focus on unique expression to remain irreplaceable.
- Scott and Evan discuss the importance of navigating AI's rise while maintaining authenticity in creative works.
- Personal Stories
- Scott shares anecdotes from his birthday celebrations in Scotland, emphasizing the emotional weight of gathering friends and family.
- Kara and Scott engage in lighthearted banter about their experiences and appearances during the celebrations.
---
Key Takeaways
- Political Climate: The ongoing violence and divisive rhetoric in politics have significant implications for society.
- AI and Creativity: As AI technology evolves, creatives must adapt by focusing on originality and personal expression to remain relevant.
- Consumer Benefits: Despite turmoil in the media landscape, consumers are currently benefiting from an abundance of high-quality content.
---
Wins and Fails Wins
- Scott's Birthday Celebration: A successful and emotional gathering with friends, highlighting the importance of personal connections.
- Advancements in TV: Quality content in television continues to thrive, providing entertainment and creativity.
Fails
- Toxic Rhetoric: Dangerous comments made by influential figures like Elon Musk and Donald Trump contribute to a hostile environment.
- Challenges in the Creative Field: The threat of AI potentially replacing human creativity is a pressing concern that needs addressing.
---
Listener Engagement
- Call to Action: Listeners are encouraged to send questions about business, tech, or other topics to be featured in future episodes.
---
For more information and to listen to the episode, visit [Pivot Podcast Official](https://nymag.com/pivot).
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Support for this show comes from Strawberry.me. Be honest. Are you happy with your job? Or are you stuck in one you've outgrown? Or never wanted in the first place? Sure, you can probably list the reasons for staying, but are they actually just excuses for not leaving? Let a career coach from strawberry.me help you get unstuck. Discover the benefits of having a dedicated career coach in your corner. Go to strawberry.me slash unstuck to claim a special offer. John Ares has arrived. I would like you to meet Ares, the ultimate AI soldier. He is biblically strong and supremely intelligent. You think you're in control of this?
0:45You're not. On October 10th. What are you? My world is coming to destroy yours. But I can help you. The war for our world begins in IMAX. Tron Ares. Rated PG-13. Maybe inappropriate for children under 13. Only in theaters October 10th. Get tickets now.
1:06Hi, everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. This is Kara Swisher, and I look fantastic in a kilt. Scott, happy birthday. You do look fantastic in a kilt. I'm Scott Galloway, and I heard you were excellent on the archery range and axe throwing. And shooting. And shooting. Let's leave that out. That's right. Yeah. Yeah, I was. It was really good. We're going to talk about you in a second, but I did. The Scottish men kept calling me wee lassie, which was irritating. I love that. But they were like, oh, do you need a ride? We lassie up the hill. You got the full Scottish experience.
1:43Scotland's actually quite progressive, I think. I think the UK is more progressive than the US on a lot of ways. But tell me about you. We had such a lovely time in Scotland. What a beautiful place. And beautiful, gorgeous. Your friends are lovely. Beata, let me say, did an astonishing job. And by the way, it was interesting in all the tribute videos, it was all about how lucky you were to have her as a wife. I would concur. How did you feel? um i was anxious for a while and then once the speech was over on saturday i was able to enjoy myself but you know when you ask 80 or you ask 100 people to come to scotland you know you're really hoping they have a nice time i mean yeah it's not i had friends from la and san francisco so it's not it's not you don't want everyone to have a good time you want to everyone have a great time and i to be honest carol i was just a little bit overwhelmed with emotion.
2:43I had everyone from my sister to my best friend from the fourth grade to, you know, I just, it was just a lot for me. And once, once all the speeches were over Saturday and I got the sense everyone was having, I'm a transistor. I'm not with my family. If my kids are happy, I'm happy. If I'm somewhere and everyone's having, if someone else is laughing, I'm happy. So for me, it was once we got to kind of through sort of halfway through Saturday night. It was obvious that everyone was having a nice time. And all the speeches were over. Then I could relax. And everyone had a great day Saturday. And so, yeah, it was very rewarding.
3:22I don't think I'll do it again. All right. It was. Well, I don't know. This was the big one. What, the 75th? Probably the 75th, right? No, I still, in 10 years, I'll do my 60th. Yeah, okay. there's an active thread on reddit trying to figure out how much it cost oh that was sort of interesting and also a reddit talking about how on instagram i only follow hot women i'm like you didn't know that what am i supposed to call economists what's the point of instagram it's like my cinemax well let me just say it was a beautiful place it was at a haunted hotel that was nice um and uh and it was just there was full of like animals that were preserved and it was really fantastic it was so scottish it was so like um it just felt like we were in a movie in a lot of ways but let me just say scott you have a blessed life that's all i appreciate you really do and i know you have a hard time we had a little chat while we were there on the couch they're looking like we're dating a lot of people thought we're strangely disturbed by that because you had a tattoo of my initials that's right and it's still there by the way it's a good tattoo um but uh it was very you were very you have a heart you should No, you're very much loved.
4:30I appreciate that. And I know that. Thank you. Can you ask? I have one question though. What was that thing in the front that we're wearing? Is that a murse? The little furry thing that you wear in front of your penis, which I didn't have. No, it's just a little purse. I don't know the actual name of it. Did you get a knife for your sock? Yes, I got a knife, but it wasn't. It's called a sporin, apparently. That's what Lara tells me. I got a little knife, but it wasn't a real one. So I was vaguely disappointed about that. No, I'm sure there's a Scottish name for it. Sporin. It's a sporin. No, the purse, the purse you're talking about.
5:01The purse is called a sporin. Oh, you're right. Sporin. Very good. Do you know more about Scotland than I do? No, Lara just typed it to me, so I didn't know that. I just said furry, weird. Oh, wait, she sends you tips and not me? Yes, that's correct. I have the deck so stacked against me here. It's true, yes. I'm always the one that gets in trouble. Yes, yeah, yeah, yes. I'm always the one that has my jokes edited. If you would even read the script, which you never do, you would be part of this. I like to be authentic. It's the real dog. It's the real dog. He doesn't go to the groomer. He doesn't respond to hand commands.
5:32Which dog are you? Are you like a Scottish? People saw the picture of us because I'm so short and you're so tall. And they were surprised by us in kilts. But it did look like that Danny DeVito, Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, Twins. You're a Scottish wolfhound and I'm a terrier. That's what someone said. I'm sorry. We saw that picture. And I look like a recently divorced father dropping off his five-year-old daughter at Edinburgh Elementary School. I mean, we look ridiculous. There's a reason we're on a podcast and not on TV together. I'm sorry. I wouldn't be sitting down. We are just not Mika and Joe.
6:08We are strange. We are a strange pair. We are a strange pair. Thank God for the audio medium because I saw those photos. We are a strange pair. I look like the alien from Close Encounters for the first time. You look like a Scottish redo of Hervé Villachez going, The kilt! The kilt! I mean... The kilt boss. Hey, boss. We look so fucking odd. We do. I mean, cute in an odd way. We do, but I like it. You know who I look good with, George Hahn? You look childlike. You literally look childlike. I looked like... With George Hahn, I looked good. And by the way, George Hahn turned his kilt into a Britney Spears video later in the evening.
6:44Yeah, he did that thing with his shirt and he started... Oh, God. Yeah. Hit me one... Baby hit me one more time. He did dirty dancing. I admire anyone that behaves that way. And he doesn't drink alcohol. I just think that's so impressive. I know. We had a good time. Your wife danced a lot, too. I saw Amanda bust in a move. Bust in a move. She likes to dance. You do not. I could tell you were hating it. I was. And in the kilt. I can't dance in a kilt. So anyway, we have so much to get to today, including President Biden cracking down on Shein and Timu, your two favorite Chinese retailers. And TikTok gets its day in court.
7:17But there's so much more going on. Plus, our friend of Pivot is journalist Evan Ratliff. He's got a brand new podcast, Shell Game, where he's embarked on a fascinating experiment with his AI voice clone. Kind of cool. But on to serious news. The FBI is investigating what appears to be a second assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. It's not clear yet. Trump was on his Florida golf course Sunday when a Secret Service agent opened fire on an armed man hiding in the bushes. A suspected gunman is Ryan Wesley Roth. I think it's Roth or Roth. A 58-year-old formal construction worker.
7:49He's been charged with two federal gun crimes. He supported Trump in 2016, but more recently favored other Republicans like Nikki Haley. He's registered unaffiliated, but voted in a Democratic primary this year. He's got some he's all over the map, but pretty much a Republican again. What were your initial thoughts when you heard this? Look, this is if you're going to have we don't have a monopoly on mental illness. We don't have a monopoly on disaffected young men, although this guy was unusual in that he was 58, who are looking to recapture social capital through what they perceive as some sort of heroic act of violence.
8:32But this is just happening too much. And I mean, whether it's school shootings, I mean, all roads lead to the same thing. when we were in Scotland, the guy who drove us to the hotel was taking everyone shooting. And I said, tell me about the gun laws here. And he said, oh, you can get a gun here. It's just, you have to take a psychological test. You can't have a criminal record. And then the local police officer can then, if they want, say no. And they oftentimes come to your house. They want to see where you're storing the gun. And what do you know? And then, by the way, after they had this horrible mass shooting at a school, they, within a couple of weeks, passed laws outlawing assault weapons.
9:18And I actually believe if we had fewer mass shootings in the U.S., there'd be more momentum against them because there'd be such spectacles. But because we have so many of them, what you said was actually really radical or kind of radically insightful and depressing, and that is humans adapt. And Americans have adapted to the steady state of mass shootings in a nation where NRA and far-right folks claim that there's nothing we can do about it in a nation where it's the only place that it happens. So for me, it all just reverse engineers to guns. And if you look at key moments in history, arguably the most seminal person of the 20th century was a 19-year-old man joined a group called the Black Hand.
10:02I mean, when you're 19, I don't even know what that means. And he ended up murdering. Archduke Francis Ferdinand, which not only kicked off World War I, but set the stage for World War II. So if it's not school shootings, if it's not worrying about our kids being shot or cut up by hot metal, at some point you'd like to think that maybe we'll see that you destabilize the world when you have so much access to so many guns by people who are going through a mental health episode. Yeah, it seems like that. I was looking at the social media for this guy. is, you know, is typical. I mean, there's all these nutters online now.
10:38They're just nutty. They're just, and, you know, you wouldn't necessarily, you know, his son said something lovely about him saying he's, I can't believe this is him. But, you know, there's, he just was intense online and just overstimulated, let's just say. You know, and speaking of overstimulated, after the last shooting, this last, there were calls to dial down rhetoric. And Trump certainly has not done that, hasn't happened at all. people have not dialed down rhetoric at all. And speaking of which, Elon Musk, of course, because he cannot keep himself out of the center of attention because he's a truly heinous person at this point, had a horrific post on X after the incident, essentially encouraging violence against Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
11:21He later deleted it. I'm sure his lawyers got involved and said, oh, he what was funny in the room among his employees and paid people wasn't quite as funny online in text. What a fucking asshole. I don't know what else to say. He should be investigated. He has contracts with the government. I just, this is just, he won't pay a price for it, but what a truly horrific person he has, he is, is, and has become. Yeah, it's, my dad, my dad asked me once, he said, a few years ago, he said, as your profile is going, have you found that you're more measured in your comments? And I proudly said, no, I want to be authentic.
12:00And if I'm thinking it, I say it. And my dad said, you should be more measured, Scott. He said that as your influence grows, you need to be careful about shooting from the hip in the sense that you have an impact. And if a few people who are unstable or are extremists are listening to you now, now it's hundreds or even thousands. And you want to be really thoughtful just about, you know, the ripple effect of some of the things you said. And I thought, wow, he's, you know, I hate it. I hate it when he's right. And when you have, there's just a different, there should be a different set of standards for when you put out a communication to 175 million people.
12:43Well, they don't. I mean, he essentially had a very rapey one at Taylor Swift and which was followed by Donald Trump. I didn't interpret that as rapey. I did. It was creepy as every woman did. Oh, creepy, yes. I agree. It was weird. I'll get you pregnant. Like, what? Like, excuse me? It was grotesque. For women, every woman I know was like, ah, that's really gross. And the other one was Donald Trump saying yesterday, just before this shooting, this recent attempt was, I hate Taylor Swift. I felt worried for Taylor Swift, who has so much security around her. That was dumb. That was really dumb.
13:16That just just. Well, it adds up. She's a woman. Right. Right. But in all caps, it calls out people to do something to Taylor Swift. It really does. And what an irresponsible person and then himself, you know, be the subject. I don't think the assassination attempt, if it is that, will have any impact on election because, again, we've gotten used to it with him and in general. Yeah, I don't think so. I think the first one, first off, his political instincts with the blood on his face to pump his fist and the image of the flag in the background, that'll be the image of the decade. We're going into the RNC convention.
13:54I mean, it just, the momentum was there. This is a bit of a nothing burger other than at some point, at some point you'd like to think we're going to do something here. Because if a world leader is assassinated, it potentially can lead to world war. And I don't want to be resigned about it, but when you have this many guns, these many, I mean, this guy, this guy, I believe, was convicted of owning a firearm in 2002. too. He's had run-ins with the law. And any other Western nation, if you have run-ins with the law, you don't get an AK-47. So anyways, all roads lead back to the same place. And I find the whole thing a bit of a distraction.
14:46I don't think it's going to have any impact on the race. But at some point, I'm a broken fucking record here. There's no reason to have weapons of war in a nation with 350 million people. It just doesn't make any sense. 100%. 100%. It's a shame. And stop with the fucking tweets. They're not funny. They're not funny right now. They're not funny ever, but they're really not funny right now. And again, Elon Musk is a heinous piece of shit. Thank you. All right. The Biden administration is proposing new shipping rules targeting Shein and Timu and Alibaba. Longstanding trade law allows low value shipments to enter the U.S.
15:22without duties and bees have been abused by companies, the administration says. The new rule would prevent those exemptions. A report from the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party says Xi 'an and Timu are likely responsible for more than 30 % of all packages within the exemptions. According to committee, a Gap paid$700 million in import duties in 2022, while Xi 'an and Timu paid none. I think that probably needs to be fixed. What do you think about this? It does make things more expensive for the American consumer, for the average. Yeah, look, just disclosure, I'm an investor in Shein.
15:58I think this is hard to argue for maintaining. I don't, I mean, two things. They're taking advantage, as companies do, of a loophole. And what I would like to see is these taxes done away for everybody. I'm totally anti-tariffs, anti-taxes, unless it's used as a strategic weapon if we're outsourcing pollution or someone or the Chinese decide to try and dump steel, whatever it is. But I'd like to see the taxes. I mean, Gap and H &M, you know, say they paid 700 and 200 million respectively on this tax, because this is a loophole that says if it's less than$800 and it's going direct to the household, you don't have to pay these.
16:39I think it's import taxes. So I think this is hard to argue that this shouldn't be closed or they shouldn't get rid of the taxes or the import duties on the other brands. What they don't realize is this is only a small cost or delta in what gives these companies such an incredible advantage. And Shein, and the reason I invested in it, is that if you look at companies over the last 20 years that have added tens of billions of dollars in market capitalization, they tend to have one thing in common, and that is their asset life. And the really amazing thing, and the reason I invested in Shein, and the reason why even with, if they have to pay these tariffs, they're still going to have an unbelievable advantage over these other players.
17:20And these two companies will be responsible for one and$5 spent over the holidays. And their advantage is the following. It's all software. They don't own any assets. They don't own a single factory, a single truck, a single plane, a single warehouse, or a single store. And what they do is they use AI to examine activity on their site. And with this machine learning and AI, they can go, okay, we're going to need exactly 7 ,700 pairs of bell-bottom tie-dye jeans. And then within a microsecond, the software goes, these are the three best factories to produce it. And then other pieces of the software start going, okay, this is the fastest way to get it to the consumer.
18:00And because of all of this incredible demand estimation, it's because it's such a low price. There are fewer and fewer returns. It's more efficient. And they're able to charge a fraction of the price of Zara. I mean, it's what Zara did to everybody else. These guys are doing to Zara and it's all with software. There's no assets here. So as a result, Shein is going to be the second largest apparel company in the world, surpassing Amazon this year. And next year, they're probably going to surpass Walmart with no assets. So this will hurt them a little bit. I think it's unfair. I think they should pay the price.
18:36Yeah, they should pay the tax. But be clear, it's barely going to slow their growth. That's not the issue here. The issue is these other companies have an outdated business model, and Shein has just a much better business model. Yeah. Well, Walmart was ahead in technologically. That's why they did so well. Technology always matters in these cases. But we'll see. They deserve to pay the tax. Sorry. Sorry, companies. You have to pay the tax. That's fair. All right, Scott, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, we'll talk about some big changes coming to OpenAI, and we'll chat with our friend of Pivot, Evan Ratliff.
19:06He'll share what it was like to create an AI clone of himself. I think we need an AI clone of Scott Galloway.
19:15There is a lot to talk about when we talk about Donald Trump and Jimmy Kimmel. One big question I've got is why, in 2025, are late-night TV shows, like Jimmy Kimmel's show, still on TV? Even in our diminished times, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, they're just some of the biggest faces of their networks. If you start taking the biggest faces off your networks, you might save some nickels and dimes. But what are you even anymore? What even is your brand anymore? I'm Peter Kafka, the host of Channels. And that was James Ponowozik, the TV critic for The New York Times. This week, we're talking about Trump and Kimmel, free speech, and a TV format that's remained surprisingly durable.
20:03for now. That's This Week on Channels, wherever you get your favorite podcasts.
20:13Scott, we're back with more news. TikTok is heading to court to fight for the right to remain available in the U.S. as we tape on Monday. The case stems from the law signed in April, which would require ByteDance to sell the app to a non-Chinese owner or face a U.S. ban. ByteDance sued to block the law in May, arguing ban would violate free speech rights. The court ruling will not likely be the final say as legal experts expect the case to go to the Supreme Court. Is there anything TikTok can say that would be impressive enough to get them out of the ban? Obviously, it's going to probably be a stay and back and forth, but it looks like they have to do something now.
20:49Yeah, look, I don't I think this is going to get solved. I think if I think they're playing, my guess is TikTok's doing everything it can to try and delay until hoping that Trump gets elected or hoping that after the election, people that it's, I think they're hoping that it's Trump. Cause even though Trump is now turned, you know, is, is now say he's for TikTok cause he hates Facebook. They're hoping that similar to other issues that were like a cat chasing a light and then we get distracted with something else. But I don't, I, I think this, and I've said this, I think it will on the eve of the banning, the White House and the quote-unquote folks at TikTok, meaning including the CCP, will come to some sort of accommodation because I think a decent way to bet on anything is just to follow the money.
21:39So I think they'll come to some sort of accommodation in terms of spending it or divesting it. There is a face-saving element with China, though. They feel they are bigger than the U.S. You know what I mean? They aren't going to act like they acquiesce to the U.S. So I think there's elements of that, of not, you know, standing down. It'd be interesting if Vice President Harris has part of this. Obviously, she has legal skills. And, you know, this is a dicey thing. She's been sort of in the middle of this, like, well, there should be a ban. There should be not a ban, but a new owner. That's, I think, how she's putting it.
22:11And so, and I think she must be fully aware of the constitutional issues around free speech here. So it'll be interesting if she was, they sort of gave her a gimme here and let her be the face of a settlement of some sort where everyone gets to keep their TikTok and yet U.S. security is protected, right? That seems to me what will happen here if something will happen. If not, it's going to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court will decide what's a national security issue and what is, you know, if we can as a country do that. We do it in other areas. And whether this is a free speech right or just a national security issue or both in some fashion.
22:48Yeah, but it falls under the same rubric of we've decided that anything that's communicated digitally can be categorized or immunized for any scrutiny, whether it's a defense threat or hostility or crime, if we just call it speech. And we have consistently, frequently, early and often decided that defense trumps free speech. And I believe that the Supreme Court would find that here. So I don't... There's certainly precedent with broadcast networks, magazines, other media, right? They can't really own it in the same way. And any remedy would probably involve a divestiture of ownership. And to your point around China not wanting to save face, I think that argument would have held more water two years ago.
23:33Because in the last two or three years, the Chinese stock market has shed three. The Chinese stock market is literally off. Yeah, that's a very good point. By a third. It's been cut in half. And here's the thing. When the economy goes really bad and people's quality of life goes down, in most democracies, they vote in the other party. Voting in the other party in China means revolution. And to a certain extent, I mean, granted, they're autocrats, but to not think that they're not very sensitive to what people are thinking. To the financials here. They need to understand. China has to keep pulling about 30 to 50 million people out of poverty and the middle class each year, or there's going to be a revolution.
24:11And things do not end well. It's not like they go start building homes for Habitat for Humanity and a library gets named after them. They end up getting killed when they're overthrown, if you will. So these guys, if you think about Xi, he cannot kneecap his thoroughbreds economically. And the kind of really tough line, the really tough line he's taken with Didi and some of these companies, there are now big companies in, Alibaba's been cut by 60%. Right, they have because of what they did to Jack, yeah. There are analysts now who are saying that Chinese companies are uninvestable. And this is a big issue for their economy.
24:51So in China, you remember all this bullshit that China was going to overtake the U.S. economy by 2028? We have absolutely, we're killing it. We're absolutely beating the shit out of them. Anyways, my point is I think they need to come to some sort of accommodation. They're hoping that, like on so many other issues that we have, the attention span of a cat. Yeah, it's got to be done very deftly. It's got to be done super definitely with cooperation from decent Republicans. And I think Harris is going to be right. Just like the hostage negotiations with Russia. I think she might benefit here from it looking like she handled it.
Read the full transcript
25:36Right? Handled. That's a strong thing. With minimal criticism. Right? And that we can get it out of the way. But it is better to get it out of the way than have it go to the Supreme Court. Because the Supreme Court will rule in favor of defense. Especially the Supreme Court. Although it has done a lot of free speech stuff around companies and has ruled against like Missouri and Texas. So who knows? Next, speaking of people that are killing it, Sam Altman has told OpenAI staff the company's nonprofit structure is set to change next year, according to Fortune. And OpenAI spokesman responded to reports saying the nonprofit is core to our mission will continue to exist.
26:10How much it exists, we'll see. But as we discussed last week, OpenAI is now in talks to raise about$6.5 billion. It would value the company at$150 billion. That was a big leap from$100 billion. It's doing very well. It's selling a lot of, it has a really good strong balance sheet right now. Of course, but things cost a lot. That's the problem. Microsoft is set to participate in the funding round. And Apple and NVIDIA are also in talks to invest. I mean, they already need money from all over the world for this kind of funds. Talk about the new funding. What do you think of these numbers? And what's your latest prediction when OpenAI goes for an IPO?
26:49I don't know. It's difficult to predict when companies go public because they're now, what's different is you, just maybe 10 years ago, you wouldn't be able to raise$7 billion in the private markets. So, and not only that, the reason you went public was a fundraising event to raise this kind of capital and also provide liquidity to the existing shareholders. And you can do both of those things now in the private markets. So it's like, well, when do we really want to? Unfortunately, what that's led to is the starching of all the upside to private investors, VCs and institutions. Now, if open AI goes to$150 billion, it might even go to$500.
27:28And unfortunately, when these companies decide to go public, oftentimes the best companies is when they think it's gotten so fucking expensive, the only people we can convince to invest at a higher valuation of retail investors. So a lot of the kind of fun, a lot of the kind of the white meat or the real value here gets starched out in the private markets. I don't think they could stay private. I mean, the question is, why would they go public unless they thought retail investors were the only ones dumb enough to keep bidding this thing up? And at$150 billion, we said this the last time, relative to other AI companies, I think it's undervalued because if these other companies are raising at what they're raising at.
28:08And spending, right. With a fraction of the strategic assets, the leadership. I mean, Sam Altman really is kind of the Bill Gates or the Elon Musk, whatever the analogy is of his generation. He has managed this thing really well. They're pulling away. They're raising a ton of capital. The new, you know, I don't know if you've seen this new feature where they, they, it thinks longer. I think that's brilliant marketing. They have more capital to spend. But I wouldn't expect an IPO anytime soon. They don't need it. Why do they need it? Why do they need to go public? Well, it's interesting. Well, because they've got competitors everywhere.
28:43I mean, Larry Ellison just gave an interview at Oracle. His best buddy Elon Musk said that - All-time lie, by the way. Oracle just said an all-time lie. Yeah, I know. He's become the second richest man for, I think, briefly. I think he's probably down again. But he said that vast AI-fueled surveillance system can ensure citizens will be on their best behavior. Thanks, Larry. Maybe we should be watching you. Jesus, tomorrow belongs to me. I know, I know, I know. I was like, maybe we should watch Larry a little bit. On their best behavior? Blah, blah, blah. Define best behavior, white man. What does that mean?
29:12Between you and Musk, God, we really do need A.I. to watch you too. But he also, you know, he was saying they begged Jensen Huang for GPUs over dinner in this interview. You know, this is, people are really spending here. And so I would suspect they absolutely have to be geared to be competing with these people who are spending money all over the place. And Musk, he did some, I think it was in Tennessee or one of those, he did illegal things that were questionable about the power grid there. I think he put in methane things hurting people there. They're all in the race. And Ellison talked about nuclear reactors that he needs to build to create the energy necessary.
30:02So the money is just, the costs are massive. And again, even though I think fewer players will win here than others, it's a race. The race is on. So he's got, Sam Altman's got to be as strong as he can against these. And he needs as many allies. There is sort of an Allison Musk team and a Microsoft, Altman, Apple team. So NVIDIA is sort of in the middle, but I suspect, you know, probably will maybe invest here too, which I think then the Justice Department has to look at the stuff too. So there's enormous money happening here. So we'll see. But just real quickly, one guy, Ellison, is probably the kind of the billionaire no one's talking about in AI.
30:44I think their AI group is going really quickly. Yeah, talk about their stock. Their stock is on the table. Their stock just hit an all-time high. Yeah, that's because he said AI several times. But it's more than just AI washing. They are actually, they're fastest growing. I think their revenues are 6 % or 7%, but their AI group is exploding. Just this week, it started September 9th, and now it's gone. It was down in the 100, it's been around 139, 140, and it just came up to 173 in the last couple of days since September 9th is when. It's a really well-managed company. and no one ever, I mean, quite frankly, he's a billionaire.
31:22I mean, there are very few people that are as powerful in executing as well and as rich as him that get his little press. You don't really hear about him or Oracle a lot. And they are executing really well. He saw AI. And I mean, Microsoft was obviously the visionary in terms of existing companies around this. Alphabet, you would argue, has been slowest, but he has to a certain extent kind of turned to tanker. And you could argue maybe a little bit less Dell, but the stock's at an all-time high. He's an outstanding manager and the team there has done a great job. Yeah, he's also an older gentleman, speaking of age.
32:01He's an older gentleman. You know, Salesforce stock has gone up too, even though it's down for the last month. It's been moving since September 11th or 9th or something like that. It's been moving slowly up from the 240s to the 260s close. Anyway, it's interesting to see what's happening with all these shares in that genre area. But yes, Larry Ellison's a very sharp cookie. So we'll see what happens. I think they need to go public. They need as much howitzer power. We're using too many shooting metaphors, but they need as much power as possible. They need as much whiskey power as possible, Scott Galloway.
32:40Anyway, do you like that accent? The second is worse than mine. Do you like it? That sounds like a language that twins speak to each other. Yeah. Anyway, let's bring in our friend of Pivot.
32:54Evan Ratliff is a longtime tech journalist and the host of a new podcast, Shell Game. He's been a great podcaster for many years. So, Evan, tell us what this new podcast is about. We sort of previewed it as about AI capabilities. But give us your elevator pitch on this one. It is about AI, but it's sort of taking AI from a very personal, immersive approach, I would say, which is that for the show, I created a clone of my voice. I attached that clone to a phone line. I attached it to an AI chatbot to power it. And I created what's called a voice agent, which is basically a semi-autonomous AI voice that could be set out into the world.
33:36and then I kind of let it loose. I let it talk to people. I had to call people. I had people call it. I set up a line for it to talk to telemarketers and scammers. I talked to my friends and family. And so I was sort of doing a combination of things, kind of seeing where the technology was when it comes to voice AI and also how people reacted to it. Because I think what I was most interested in was just sort of... The reaction. The reaction, like how... Knowing it wasn't you, correct? It wasn't tricking. people necessarily. It was tricking people. Sorry to say. Some people. Some people. It was only, it was sort of, it had varying success at tricking people.
34:14I mean, I had to call my friends and family from my phone number, attached to my own phone number, without them knowing that I was doing any such project. And most of them pretty quickly realized it wasn't me. They realized something was amiss. Or something was wrong with you. Let me just say, it's called show games. So So after making the show, are you more or less worried about it? Because one of your friends, I mean, again, as you said, you do lots of things on your behalf, including talking to therapists and friends and marketers. One of your friends said he felt so lonely talking to the AI.
34:48So do you feel more or less worried about the capabilities? I would say more worried than when I started, although I was fairly worried at the beginning. Why is that? I think partly because there's a lot of talk about sort of the big AI safety issues, the more Doom-related issues or the kill switch or this and that, but less about sort of the daily infiltration of AI into our lives and what we want to do with that and what that's going to mean for us to be human. And I think voices actually sort of brings that to light in a way that just typing into a chat box or sending an email that ChatGPT has composed doesn't, in that you're going to be interacting with AI voices.
35:33You're going to be hearing AI voices that are almost real, very real, sound real, can fool you. And the question is, how much of that do we want in our lives? And I just think that discussion is not even happening. Like, there's AI therapists out in the world right now. Right. But your friends were not fooled, necessarily. I mean, they weren't, right? Correct? Because it doesn't really mimic you that well. It mimics me well. I mean, not for my oldest friends. I mean, I had one friend who spoke to it for 10 minutes, believing that it was me, but that I had had a mental health break. Okay. And on that note, Scott?
36:13Nice to meet you, Evan. My sense is, so the entertainment community is really worried about AI replacing actors and podcasts at some point. They listen to Kara and me and then start mimicking. We feed into the LLMs, today's or this week's news, and it throws in a dick joke. Kara gets angry at me. Kara talks about somebody she knows. And then, boom, we put out a reasonable facsimile of Pivot. and pretty soon Vox no longer needs Kara and Scott. I have found that is not the case, that it is shockingly anodyne and so far hasn't made the progress that everyone was worried about. You've been there. A, do you agree with that?
36:58And B, what advice would you have for creatives who are looking to inoculate themselves as this gets better? Is it being more salty, differentiated? Advise your kids, if they're creators, on how they stave off the advances in AI. Well, I mean, I would agree with you that it is fairly anodyne. I mean, the sort of running joke of the show is that when you have them speak at length, it becomes incredibly anodyne. So for instance, we have them talk to each other. They have these conversations that are sort of unbelievably mundane. But on the other hand, I think the problem is for many, take podcasting, for example, there are so many people speaking into microphones now and many of them are just mimicking each other.
37:42And when the content that is being created is itself anodyne, it's relatively easy to replace. So I think part of the problem is we've dumbed down much of what we consider journalism on the internet to a level that it actually is replaceable by an anodyne LLM or a voice-powered LLM. And so if I was giving advice, it would be to try to find unique ways to express yourself that are not based on everything that you hear every day. Because the problem is people are just mimicking what they're hearing. I mean, you can go on Instagram and just get clip after the algorithm, just feed you, clip after clip of people saying literally the same thing in different forums.
38:25And so I think uniqueness is going to be at a premium because even if it can replicate your voice, it's going to have a much harder time replicating that creativity, which doesn't mean that creativity is necessarily safe. Like the more creative you are, the safer you are. But I do think that the more anodyne what you're doing is, the easier it is for it to be replaced. Right. But it's like the emails you get that aren't very good, right? They're not interesting as writing yet, at the very least. You wish it could do something else? I was surprised. And I think a lot of people who have listened to the show are surprised at how good it is, actually.
39:05Like, I think as much as tech journalists write about LLMs, they write about open AI and what's the new model and this and that, most people are not consuming all that stuff. And when they find out that you can make a voice clone that sounds reasonably like you, that is powered by AI and can have its own conversations, a lot of people are quite shocked and concerned about that. So I found that in that sense, it's actually more powerful right now than a lot of people think it is. Now we say, well, it can't do this, it can't do that, it can't act in a movie, it can't actually be a journalist. But even it's sort of pushing the boundaries of those things too.
39:45Like I had to conduct interviews, interviews that I would have conducted. And the fact is like some of the questions that I would ask, that I would put into a document for myself to ask, it's pretty good at asking those questions. It's not very good at following up. But even some of the people I talked to, they didn't know it wasn't me because they're expecting a journalist to ask questions and that's what they got. But that's being you. I would like it to be like Jarvis on, you know, on the Avengers movies like that, where I have a discussion, do this for me, do that for me. I could see that being much more attractive than it being me.
40:19Like a digital assistant kind of thing? Yeah, that seems very logical to me and very helpful, actually. You produce this show independently. I'd love to know a little bit of why you decided to do this Of course you were the long time host along with others of Longform You also did Persona, the French Deception And you also did a very famous thing way back when About 12 years ago I guess Where you vanished You vanished and Wired had a reward when you worked for Wired I think you worked for Wired But you were off the grid communicating Which I remember that at the time They eventually found you in the challenge to get you.
40:58You left a coded message, et cetera. You've done a lot of different things, obviously. That was honestly my favorite, The Vanishing. You and many people. Yeah. Talk about why you decided to do this independently and about the end of long form, which was, I think, in June. I think June is when it ended. It was, yeah, right at the end of June. I mean, there's a long answer to a short answer when it comes to doing it independently. I think the shortest answer is I knew what I wanted to do and I wanted to have complete control over how it was made. I mean, if you listen to the show, it's like a lot of it is very weird and it's very funny because we kind of push the boundaries on these strange ways you can use it, like having a talk to therapy or having a talk to itself.
41:40and I just didn't want, in this day and age, when you do a podcast with a big platform, a lot of people get involved and they have a lot of opinions and they're very institutional. And so some of those opinions are, they're not really willing to take risks. And I was very happy to take risks and I didn't want anyone telling me not to. That's the basic answer. Well, welcome to our club. That's what we don't like. What? That's what we say. We often are like, are you speaking to us? Because we're not listening to you. So I did, we built a Prop GAI And one of the things I found, I'm curious if you believe this or found the same thing.
42:14I find that AI is progressive or woke is the wrong term. It's politically correct. And that it's been trained on, I think because these companies are worried about, you know, everybody tried to start getting it to say racist things or say stupid things. Which it did. Which it did. But as a result of that, I think it's built in so many protections that I find that it errs on the side of being very overly sensitive is the term. I found it that it's overcorrecting to the, I don't know, like your stepmother or your mother-in-law doesn't want to say anything that might offend people. Even when occasionally Kara and I will say to somebody, that's just fucking stupid.
43:02It would never say that. Did you find that it kind of errs on the side of being overmannered or politically correct? That's what I found. It's certainly overmannered. I didn't really explore the political correctness or the wokeness aspect of it. Like that's not a big interest of mine, but it did, when it came to being well-mannered, I would take it even further, which is that, so for instance, when we had two of them talk to each other, so there's two AI versions of me in conversations with each other, and I would prompt one to be angry at the other. I would say, you're angry at the other one.
43:34You're angry at this person you're about to talk to. The reason is up to you. they would resolve their differences within a minute or two of the conversation. And I believe that's because, and they would often do it using mental health terminology that I think the training data tends to center on. There's so much discussion of mental health now. There's so much discussion of mirroring back what someone says that it would use all these techniques. And I would have to really prompt it very severely for it to stay mad. I literally have to say, there is nothing that will make you let go of this anger.
44:07and then it would do it. But short of that, they would always come to an agreement. It was actually quite lovely, but it was also, there was something very strange and funny about it. Well, although I would argue if you had real people not on Twitter and you had them in a room, that's exactly what they do. People don't, you know, they'll do it on a social network, start really going down a rabbit hole of anger and rage. But when you have two people in a room, they tend to try to come to an agreement. I don't know. I've always noticed that, which I think is the difference between online and offline sometimes.
44:39Certainly in person. Yeah. I mean, it all highlights a value of in-person communications. I mean, the whole thing points to what you get when you sit across the table from someone. Right. Right. It's very hard to get people, except if you're on Jerry Springer's show, but that's all designed for bullshit. But I have one more question. What will you have the AI do in season two of this? I'm not sure yet. I mean, the question is, will I even And will season two even be AI driven? I mean, the sort of premise of the show is it's a show about things that are not what they seem. So that covers a lot of my journalism over the last 10 to 20 years.
45:17Yeah, it does. So it may be AI. I mean, I'm surprised the extent to which people love the AI agent. Like they want to hear more of it. They want more calls. They want it to be prompted in different ways. People want to call it. Now I have people, people can call it and talk to it and people love doing that. And so there's something in that that I might explore further. But I also I don't want to be the AI voice guy forever either. Yeah, that's true. I mean, it's interesting for now. In two, 10 years, I'll be bored with it. Like, why would you want to talk? You know what I mean? Sort of trying certain things.
45:49Scott, last question. Curious after getting deep here, what jobs do you think are most at risk? And if and what businesses would you advise people to consider starting, leveraging this technology? I mean, the most obvious thing that's immediately at risk is all sorts of call center based telemarketing stuff. I mean, that's the stuff that it's used for right now. So that's an obvious one. But I think anything where people are just sort of reading off a script. I mean, a lot of the a lot of the advertising you're going to hear is going to have voices in it. Be surprised if you're not hearing that already a little bit.
46:25I mean, you both probably know, like, there are podcasters who use this to fill in parts of podcasts using clone voices like that. is already happening right now. There's a major podcast platform that tried to launch an AI hosted podcast. And so this doesn't mean like podcasting is under threat necessarily, but I think they're going to infiltrate. It's going to be much less sort of like everyone getting wiped away in an industry and much more just sort of like little places where it starts to be to infiltrate. And then it kind of grows out from there. We were thinking of translation, right, Scott, the idea of translating it.
46:59Well, that's an easy one. You can now you can now put almost any podcast and even the video, it doesn't get the eye movement right, but you can do it with other languages. But the customer service is really what Evan was talking about. It's just crazy how much more efficient I've been using all these bots for airlines or whatever you call them, chat agents. It's been really striking. Do you think there really is a threat? Do you think that the fear of the writers unions about an AI in these writers and we're putting together a writers room and and the showrunner said should we have AI in the room and I said no you should have people know how to use AI in the room just for brainstorming do you think that their fears are overblown underblown I don't think they're overblown I mean I think it's very smart to try to have discussions about this before it's absolutely everywhere.
47:56Because the risk is like it's being put into the market without any of these discussions. And so places, unions and other places - Wow, that's never happened before in tech, but go ahead. Right, exactly. And so anywhere where these discussions could be had, whether it's around trying to ban it from writer's rooms or whatnot, it doesn't necessarily mean like it has no place there or it has no place in getting you past a writing block or prompting creativity or whatever. Like without condemning the technology, I feel like having the discussion, well, what do we want out of these rooms? What do we want out of human writing?
48:26Those are discussions that are worthwhile to have. Yep. That's a fair point. Anyway, does your voice have another name? Evan 2? Evan AI? Well, for the purpose of the show, it was always me. So it's just AI Evan Ratliff. But oftentimes it was just operating under Evan Ratliff until questions. All right. Okay. Evan Ratliff. That's interesting. Anyway, we really appreciate it. It's a really cool podcast. It's called Shell Game. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you, Evan. Thanks, Evan. Thanks for having me. All right, Scott, what'd you think of that? That guy's impressive. He should be on TV.
48:59He's got a great voice. He's very handsome. Yeah, it's obviously very talented. Yeah, the long form is amazing. But I found it really interesting what he was saying about trying to get the AIs to be angry at each other. But what people don't realize, there's only three things you need to have in your arsenal for all conflict at resolution. When things get really heated, you pick one of the following three things. You just pause, you look at them in the eyes and you say, I'm taking the kids, I'll be at my sister's. That's number one. Number two, number two, man or woman, you pause and you look at them and you say, is that the menopause speaking?
49:35Question mark. And then the third thing, if you really, if things get really heated, you look around and then you look at them and you go, wait, you can see me? Boom! Conflict over. World peace, Kara. You're welcome. I like Scott in this seventh decade of his life. Fifth. I'm seriously, I'm done. We need to stop. The scrotum lift is kicking in. Anyway, whatever. You do whatever you want. You're 29. Okay. All right. Next up, wins and fails.
50:14When did making plans get this complicated? It's time to streamline with WhatsApp. The secure messaging app that brings the whole group together. Use polls to settle dinner plans. Send event invites and pin messages so no one forgets mom's 60th. And never miss a meme or milestone. All protected with end-to-end encryption. It's time for WhatsApp. Message privately with everyone. Learn more at whatsapp.com. Running a business comes with a lot of what-ifs, but luckily there's a simple answer to them. Shopify. It's the commerce platform behind millions of businesses, including Thrive Cosmetics and Momofuku, and it'll help you with everything you need.
50:55From website design and marketing to boosting sales and expanding operations, Shopify can get the job done and make your dream a reality. Turn those what-ifs into... Sign up for your$1 per month trial at shopify.com slash special offer. This episode is brought to you by White Claw Surge. Nice choice hitting up this podcast. No surprises. You're all about diving into tastes everyone in the room can enjoy. Just like White Claw Surge. It's for celebrating those moments when connections have been made and the night's just begun. With bold flavors and 8 % alcohol by volume, unleash the night. Unleash White Claw Surge.
51:33Please drink responsibly. Hard seltzer with flavors. 8 % alcohol by volume. White Claw Seltzer Works. Chicago, Illinois.
51:43okay scott let's hear some wins and fails shall i go first sure go ahead the emmys were delightful i watched i didn't watch it in real time but i thought the outfits were great and i thought it was i thought steve martin at the group from only murders in the building selena gomez steve martin and um martin short he's dating by the way he's dating um a meryl streep he's dating meryl streep So, but not dating? I don't know. It's not confirmed. Whatever. They seem like they're dating. You mean actually in real life? Yes. Just rumored. Oh, no. They're sitting together all the time. They're out. I'm sorry.
52:16Martin Short and Meryl Streep? Mm-hmm. I don't know how I feel about that. But I know. But that's what it has happening. They were sitting together. They've been going to things together. I'm sorry. Sophie chooses Martin Short? I just am not. It's a rumor. But I'm just telling you. Yeah. I think it's so. Anyway, the Emmys were really delightful. There's so much good television. Baby Render, they both won. Yeah. Jean Smart winning for Hacks. I just love it. She gave a great speech. I thought it was, TV is really, even though the economics of it have changed drastically and not in the better. It's great for consumers.
52:50Yeah, it is. I got to say Hacks is so good. Jean Smart, that's my win. My fail is Elon Musk and Donald Trump tweeting very dangerous things around people's, I hate Taylor Swift. and the threat against Kamala Harris and Joe Biden. It's repulsive. You cannot, you need to stand the fuck down. I don't think you will because you're both toddlers, but it's dangerous. It's actually dangerous. You can make as many memes as we want about this thing, but it's not funny. You're not funny. You're only funny to the people you pay and they don't think you're funny really. And they have to laugh. They're forced to laugh.
53:28So that's my fail. Nice. Yeah, I wanted, I was really excited about, I thought Richard Gad, if I think about all the artists who have really changed the world or I admire, they're just sort of fearless and they do something that could easily be mocked and they show a level of vulnerability and courage where it's like, okay, no one ever thought of that. And this guy, Richard Gad, I thought his performance, because it was autobiographical, was just so raw. And so I just thought it was so powerful. I couldn't, anyway, I really happened for him. And also, I believe his counterpart, the woman who plays the stalker, I believe she also won.
54:10Hiroyuki Sonata won for Shogun. By the way, Shogun record 18 Emmy wins, just so you know. Oh, it did. I didn't know that. But what people, we talk, we should post a lot about, you know, how stupid the union is or I do or how these companies are becoming a shadow of themselves and consolidating because Netflix is running away with it. But what we don't mention enough is that the biggest winner here are the consumers, because the quality and depth of original scripted television right now is just insane. It's just incredible because they're all in a content war and they're all basically putting each other out of business, quite frankly, with the exception of Netflix.
54:48Anyways, I'm like you. This is a weird one, but I wanted to share it because I thought it was interesting. There's this wonderful TikToker reels of this woman who has alopecia and she's talking about, she goes out with a wig on for the first time and she does a 30 second video showing her hair loss. And she's very emotional. And she's saying that this is the first time in a decade I've gone out without a wig to run errands and I'm not going to let alopecia change my life. It's really a wonderful, very gripping TikTok or I can't remember if it was TikTok or real. And I remember thinking, I was looking at this woman, she had this most beautiful skin, a great smile.
55:25And it's like, yeah, people are going to look at her and think, oh, okay, she has hair loss. But then they really, they look at the whole thing and they think she's an attractive woman who looks nice. She had the great nails. And what I would say, and I so related to this, because I remember when I was a young man, when I started losing my hair, and it was like five years of just ridiculous stress. Because for me, it meant kind of my manhood, my youth. My hair was something I took a lot of pride in. I had a ponytail. You had spectacular hair. I was amazed by those photos. I did. And when you start losing it for a lot of reasons, it's just devastating.
56:05And like so many things, what I realize now and what I would want to try and communicate to people, especially young men and also especially young women, a lot of whom experience hair loss, but they have to wear wigs because it's unforgivable for a woman to lose her hair in the eyes of a very luxist America. America, I can promise you the thing you're going to regret is how upset you were about it. And that people, when they look at you, they look at the whole thing. And there's, you can be in shape. You can take great care of your skin. You can, you can dress interestingly. There's so many people look at the entire thing and anything to do with my looks or insecurity, my acne, when I was younger, my hair loss when I was a little bit older.
56:53The thing I really regret about it is how upset I was. I don't regret the acne. I don't, I mean, I would rather not had it. I don't regret the hair loss. Yeah, I would rather have, I would rather have George Clooney like hair, but what I regret is how upset I was. And I wanted to reach into TikTok and tell this woman, let me be clear, guys look at you and they think, oh, there's a nice woman that I would like to know or date. Yeah, you have hair loss, but that's it. They don't, they look at the whole package. Hair is a lot of power. You know, it does. But let me just tell you, I think you look very good without hair.
57:31I think you look just as good. I think you look very stately. You know, Patrick Stewart, think about all the people who look fantastic. I so look like that alien from close in. I look like, I look so like that guy. But anyways, I stand. Whatever. Whatever. I think I think you look great. I think you look great. And go ahead. I have hair transplant in the form of money. I have long flowing locks. Scott, that birthday just showed that's not why people like you. Go ahead. You're being generous. But what I want, it's impossible to communicate this to people. You can tell them until they're blue in the face.
58:08But anyone who's struggling with something about their aesthetics, that's not what you're going to regret. regret. You're going to regret how much you beat yourself up over it. And there's so many different ways to be attractive. Unfortunately, there's more ways for a man to be attractive. If a man is funny, does well professionally, it is interesting. Unfortunately, women are mostly evaluated based on their aesthetics, but there's so many different ways to express aesthetics. This TikTok really moved me and I thought I can totally relate to this woman. Okay. All right. Well, we will watch this.
58:45I guess I did two wins. Baby reindeer. That's okay. Baby reindeer and shogun and this young woman's courage. And I wanted to like wrap my arms around her and go, trust me on this. People look at you and think you're an attractive woman and I'd like to know you or I'd like to date you. And that's all you got to be focused on. That's it. All right. It's so interesting what affects you, Scott Gallo. I have to tell you, you're always a surprise to me. by the way I forgot one win and fail is you're cheating on me with Jessica Tarloff and I love it see that's a win and a fail that's generous of you you're being very supportive I think people are I mean I know people are tuning in for her but yeah we talked about it last week but it's done very well people seem to like it so tune in tune in raging moderates we're raging we want to hear from you send us your questions about business tech or whatever's on your mind go to nymag.com slash pivot to send a question for the show or call 855-51-PIVOT okay Scott That's the show.
59:39We'll be back on Tuesday with more Pivot. Please read us out. Today's show is produced by Lara Neiman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie and her Todd engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows and Mils Severio. Nishat Kerouaz, Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back later this week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Young people, if there's something about your physical appearance that's giving you, making you insecure, that keeps you up at night, trust me on this.
1:00:14You're going to look back and the only thing you're going to be upset about is how upset you were. Figure out a way and there's a million different ways to be attractive to others and most importantly, attractive to yourself.
From the publisher
Kara and Scott discuss the apparent assassination attempt on Donald Trump, and what impact (if any) this will have on the election. Then, Tiktok has its day in court, the Biden administration cracks down on Shein and Temu, and what we're learning about OpenAI's future plans. Our Friend of Pivot is longtime tech journalist Evan Ratliff, who embarked on AI experiment with his new podcast, "Shell Game." Plus, Kara and Scott share some fun stories from the big birthday weekend in Scotland.
Follow Evan at @ev_rat
Follow us on Instagram and Threads at @pivotpodcastofficial.
Follow us on TikTok at @pivotpodcast.
Send us your questions by calling us at 855-51-PIVOT, or at nymag.com/pivot.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
