Trump's Meme Coin Scheme, Alphabet's Earnings, and Cybertruck's Competition

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23:58Scott, we're back. President Trump and Ukrainian President Zelensky met on the sidelines of the Pope Francis' funeral this weekend to discuss the end of war. It was a very interesting visual. I thought it was terrific visual, actually. And now President Trump appears to be on Ukraine's side. The U.S. president afterwards posted on True Social criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin for recent missile attacks on Ukraine, saying, it makes me think that maybe he doesn't want to stop the war. Really? He's just tapping me along. And this has to be dealt with differently through banking or secondary sanctions, whatever that is.

24:31On Sunday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who really looks like he's blinking for us to come save him, said administration will decide this week whether to continue pursuing a negotiated settlement of the war. Who do you think got in his ear about Russia here? It's really, it was kind of a shift. I thought that picture was kind of weirdly beautiful of him in this incredibly ornate setting on these two simple chairs, sort of leaning into each other in a really - It was one of the images of the year. I agree. I was sort of like, whoa, that's a great image. You know what it looked like? It looked like they were about to address the Senate on the planet of Naboo.

25:07Were you expecting Natalie Portman to come out? So what do you think about this shift? Who got his ear? Who got his ear? Like, I think this is the issue. And I always say that and then I go back to deficits. But what you have here is when Trump was asked after they said they both need to give up something and accept things they don't want. And Trump was asked, well, what is Putin supposed to give up? And he said, well, to stop the killing and stop the invasion. Now, think about that statement. What the President of the United States is saying to the world is that if you're an autocrat, you now have an incentive to invade and kill people because you gain something to give up.

25:50The whole point of pushing back, the whole point of NATO, the whole point of having an$800 billion military industrial complex is we create a series of incentives that when you illegally invade a neighboring country and start shelling maternity wards, that you end up worse off. And what Trump and Vance are effectively saying, is they're going to have to cede all the land to Russia and exchange. Russia will just stop its illegal murderous activity. That is exactly what America is not supposed to be doing. And what got in his ear, I'd like to think some sanity that at the end of the day, the president is the world's largest capital allocator, the world's largest manager They're trying to allocate capital to the greatest return possible.

26:36The greatest return in geopolitics is for$60 to$80 billion or 8 % to 10 % of our military budget. We give, we armed the brave Ukrainian army with the weapons to fight back on Russia such that they have to spend half a billion to a billion dollars a day to distract them from the surface area of attack against the U.S., which they deploy in one of two ways. They either steal our IP or they cyber attack us. So keeping Russia distracted in Ukraine, and I know this is macabre, and I know this ignores the incredible human sacrifice, but if we're going to just talk about rail politic, this is the best money we've ever spent.

27:16And until Russia, until we show other autocrats who are thinking about invading South Korea or invading Taiwan, until we give them a clear signal, there is incentive not to do it, meaning you are worse off when you do this, not better off. The world is less safe. Is there a person you think got in his head? I don't know, Cara. I don't know. I don't know who this guy listens to other than Peter Navarro. The best thing that could happen for our economy is if someone chained Peter Navarro to his bar. I mean, in his room. The worst thing that could happen to our economy is every time you see Peter Navarro anywhere near the president, go short the market.

27:55I don't know what Gio, Secretary Rubio, but the thing about Secretary Rubio is I literally think he'll say just anything. Anything, right. Anything. Yeah, that'll get him. He wants to put himself, position himself for the presidential race, obviously. What do you think? I think he understands he got taken and he needs a win and there's no winning with Vladimir Putin and I think he understands that. Maybe he doesn't care about whatever with that relationship anymore. I think they kept bombing when they said they weren't. So like, why wasn't he listening to me? I thought I had control. And he's got to do, he said he was going to do it on day one, if you remember, settle the war.

28:32Maybe he had some promise. He's got to settle it. And so I think backing Ukraine is the best way to do that. I mean, it's the only way to, punching a bully in the nose as a bully like Trump would know is the best way to do it. We'll see. I just wasn't really struck by it. We'll see if he can, he could change next, yes, tomorrow. Like, who knows? That's the problem here. The flippity flippity. But look at what Zelensky has done. And it's a great lesson. And that is Zelensky hasn't gotten emotional. He's shown up. He's shown up. He's kissed his ass. He's just tried to be very resolute and calm and dignified.

29:03And just a quick review here, folks. We spend$60 billion a year. Almost all of that comes back to America. And almost all of that goes into red states. And in exchange, we're going to get incredible drone technology. We're unifying Europe. I mean, we're sending a very strong signal to the rest of the world. And if we take all of that money and just give Russia everything they've wanted, we're basically saying, OK, it's a go sign. It's green light for any autocrat that wants to invade. That's right. And also that someday Ukraine is going to be one of those countries, tech forward, exciting place to invest, exciting place for U.S.

29:41capitalists to be. It is a wonderful economy in that regard. It's just getting the shit beat out of by a bunch of people who are not a wonderful economy. So it is a real opportunity to back Ukraine from a financial point of view, from what Scott was saying, and in the future. Anyway, we're going to move on. Speaking of now, the other side of Donald Trump, his official meme coin skyrocketed after an announcement that the top 220 holders of the coin would get invited to dinner with the president. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. What corruption in plain sight. Steve Ratner wrote a great piece about this, by the way, this week.

30:12The initial price surge was over 50%, boosting the coin's total market value to$2.7 billion, with Trump and his allies reportedly pocketing close to$900 ,000 in trading fees in two days in trading fees. Senator Chris Murphy posted on Next that the meme coin sale was the most brazenly corrupt thing a president ever done. I think pretty much so. And Senators Adam Schiff and Elizabeth Warren are calling for an ethics investigation, saying this dinner might constitute a pay-to-play corruption. I think it doesn't constitute it. I think if he loses the House in two years, this is all we're going to be talking about.

30:43you have talked a lot about this meme coin. And then speaking of assets, I'm going to add this on. Donald Trump Jr., along with Omid Malik, I think that's his name. Anyway, several other investors are really launching an invite-only club in D.C. that costs more than a half a million dollars to join. The executive branch will cater to business and tech models looking to nurture relations with Trump administration, according to Politico. This one just sounds douchey, but I don't have a problem with it. They can have their little clubs to meet at and do their like man things there if they want. But talk about the second one I don't think is corruption.

31:17I just think the Democrats have it, too. There's always been clubs. There's always been this kind of thing. It's just as extra douchey as all. Thoughts on the coin in the club? I'm exactly where you are. I believe in the right of free assembly. And if Don Jr. wants to get people together and charge him, that's his right. I don't. And by the way, that's kind of what lobbyists do. It's like lobbying with the party. I don't have a problem with it. They can go to a steak place or this place. Yeah, fine. The Trump coin is grift on an entirely different dimension. And let's just talk about the timing.

31:47He announced the Trump coin the Friday night before his inauguration when there was just a media maelstrom and he buried it, right? Because he knew that the market would go, this is incredibly corrupt. There were about 30 people who made about$600 or$800 million, according to logs, in those first few hours. And my guess is those 30 people might have been tipped off or have been really close to the president because they clearly had a lot of money and they were clearly in first. And then over the course of the next few weeks, about 80 ,000 people lost billions because it spiked. The insiders got out.

32:24Then let's talk about more timing. He decides that about the time that the lockup is going to come up, and that is the insiders, the people who started to get to sell, he decides, one, to have a meeting, you know, to announce this meeting to distract people and get the price back up. And shortly before that, he announced that he was doing away with the DOJ unit that investigates crypto scams. So this is really, I wish he approached geopolitics and tariff policy with the same strategy he approaches his grift. Because the grift has been the most competent, elegant part of the Trump administration.

33:06He is strategic. He is thoughtful. His timing is excellent. The brightest people in the Trump administration are the grifters, are the people handling, they're bearing the stories at the exact right moment. They're neutering the investigators. They've been at it for a long time. They're experienced grifters. Go ahead. They're very good at this. But this is, again, it's just very simple. If you found out that Vladimir Putin had been buying hundreds of millions or billions in Trump coin and saying to Trump, you're going to be the wealthiest man ever as long as we keep buying, by the way, in unrelated news, what are your thoughts on Ukraine?

33:45Wouldn't all of this make sense? And that might not be true. But the whole point of the president and our elected officials is you're not supposed to have that doubt, that cloud of corruption over them. And just because I want to move to a solution, I absolutely think we need to move to a Singaporean model. I think the president should make 10 million bucks a year. I think senators should make 3 million and representatives should make a million dollars a year. And in exchange for that, absolutely nothing resembling corrections. And Speaker Ember to Pelosi, you can't trade stocks. You cannot, when you're voted out of office, there's a three-year sunshine period.

34:22You can't go to work for a lobbyist. You can never talk about an individual company. For God's sakes, you can't get involved in. None of your family members can start a crypto company. Zero tolerance, corruption. But we're going to pay you a lot of money because all they're doing now with the current compensation - Can we hit them with a cane when they do it? Like what they do in Singapore? Well, but to be fair, when you're making$185 ,000, which is what our congresspeople make, and they have to support two homes, the opportunity, and they see everyone else engaged in grift, the seduction of grift just becomes too great.

34:55So pay them a lot of money. These are important, impressive people who have a big impact on our economy. Pay them a lot of money, zero tolerance. And if you propose that, I think they would pass it. I don't know. I don't know. People would go, why are we paying the congressman a million? No, the congresspeople would pass it. They get to vote on it. I don't think they would. They want to show that they're here. You don't think they said, all right, a million bucks a year? No, I think from the perception, I think people will be like, why are you getting a million dollars for that job? Like, what in the hell?

35:24I'm just saying. This would be a very difficult political thing to pull off. But if they all did it at once, are they going to vote all at once? Yeah, they never do anything all at once. It's just such a good thing for like a Marjorie Taylor Greene to say because she makes all this grift on the side. Speaking of grift, she had a big stock sales. Yeah, I agree with you. I agree with you on her stock sale. She didn't do anything that Pelosi hasn't done dozens of times. But if you're going to insult Pelosi, please belly up to the fucking grift bar if you don't mind. Agreed. All right. Let's go on a quick break.

35:53When we come back, Trump claims he's made 200 deals on tariffs. They're kissing my ass.

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38:16Scott, we're back. As President Trump marks 100 days in office, 64 % of Americans disapprove of how he's handling the tariffs, according to that new ABC News, Washington Post, Ipsos poll. It's one of many that are pointing in these directions. Trump is now saying he's made 200 deals on tariffs in an interview with Time magazine. He also keeps claiming to have spoken with China's President Xi. Who knows? China denies any talks are happening and said the U.S. should stop creating confusion. I'm believing China on this one. Treasury Secretary Scott Besson was on ABC's This Week, where he attempted to explain Trump's tariff strategy.

38:46This was so painful to watch. Listen. And game theory is called strategic uncertainty. So you're not going to tell the person on the other side of the negotiation where you're going to end up. And nobody's better at creating this leverage than President Trump. He's shown the high tariffs, and here's the stick. This is where the tariffs can go. And the carrot is come to us, take off your tariffs, take off your non-tariff trade barriers, stop manipulating your currency, stop subsidizing labor and capital. And then we can talk. Oh, my God, Scott. Scott, it's like sticking your eye with a dry stick and saying we won.

39:30Like, what? Like, this was like, it's chaos. I just don't, strategic, you do strategic uncertain to me all the time, Scott. And I find it irritating. That's all I have to say. Thoughts, thoughts, thoughts. I'm fascinated by game theory. I agree. I teach a class on game theory. And this could not be, this is their go-to. It's the general script that they all have to follow. Couch everything in what a genius Trump is. And also - Chess. That's right. Claim he's playing - 20D chess. Claim he's playing 4D chess. And the reality is the world thinks there's a decent chance this man-child is going to start eating the pieces.

40:08He's such a fucking idiot. And I don't know. Let's look at our three largest trading partners. And I'm boasting about, I'm name dropping now, but without name dropping. Our three largest trading partners are Canada, the Mexico, then China. In the last week, I interviewed the prime minister of Canada. The soon to probably be today, by the way. Well, he's prime minister now and he's probably going to be reelected because of Trump. Today. Because the opposition to the conservative party. Yeah, 25 points they were up. Has overcome a 25-point deficit. Jesus, can you? Anyways. Yeah. Anyways. By the way, this guy probably has the most impressive resume in global politics.

40:44I kind of want to marry him. I think he's married. Prime Minister Carney. He is dreamy. He's always very nice. He's thoughtful. Anyways, I asked him straight up, are you talking to the administration? He said, no. So Canadians, Canadians literally, they can't. It's difficult for them to lie. They're just not good at it. It's like if I asked Brian Adams or, you know, Alan Thicke, the most personal things, they would, I just get the sense they'd give you a straight answer. I don't think he's lying. On Saturday night, I was with the CEO of one of the largest Chinese companies in the world and in China.

41:18And I said, do you have any sense for if the CCP or Xi is talking to the U.S.? He's like, I have a very strong sense. And the answer is they're not talking. Their attitude is, yeah, bring it, boss. We've taken on much worse. There's no dialogue. So two of the three largest trading partners are not, unless these people are lying to me, have no dialogue with Trump. They're just letting him flail around, writhe and scream on the ground like a three-year-old and saying, yeah, have at it. Cry and scream and negotiate against yourself. This is the same guy, speaking of 3D chess, who imposed 145 % tariff on Monday and then on Friday said the tariff rate's unsustainable and it needs to come down.

42:01Right. He's just chaos. Wasn't you the one that— But talk about Besant here. Like, what is he doing? He's in an impossible position. He's not impossible. He doesn't have to say this nonsense. He's fallen into the same trap as Gary Cohen and all these guys. There's a called—when you're called to serve, you can understand that you go. Rubio wants to go because he wants to be more presidential and then announce his presidency in about two years and 11 months as candidacy again. These guys all think this is an unbelievable opportunity, and I'm going to be the one that pulls things off his desk and can convince him.

42:37And also, I've heard when you talk to Trump in person, he comes across as remarkably sane. So they all go in, I think, with the false illusion they're going to be able to make a difference and talk some sense into this guy. Because when you talk to people who know Howard Letnick, they say the following, nice guy, he's an ass in terms of these decisions and his way over his head. When you talk to people about Scott Bessent, they say very intelligent guy. People are very impressed with him. But the question is, and a lot of people acknowledge this, including Bill Clinton, that is the only way you can have influence is to maintain your job or get elected.

43:10And sometimes you have to do things you don't want to do. But Scott is, I think he goes home at night and literally looks in the mirror and says, I hate myself. And none of this makes any fucking sense. And he's like, I have to go on and defend the indefensible. Yeah, he cries in his cashmere pillows. I can see that. Don't you see it? All right. We're going to move on in a second. But the words, strategic uncertainty is chaos. That's their word they're using. And it's to put, you know, lipstick on a pig. This is a pig, no matter how you slice it. Like that is, if you want to slice a pig. In any case, what is disaster?

43:47By the way, fast fashion giant that's got, like Shein, is already hiking prices as high as 377%. So instead of a dollar, it costs$4. Well, just, you know, some of the companies, for example, we were talking about Alibaba earlier. Do you know what percentage of Alibaba's business is done in the U.S.? Not much, I bet. 2%. Yeah. So you think they're scared? Yeah. And the thing about - Shein is big here. Shein is big here. But what's interesting about it is the following. The math that people fail to do is like, oh, it'll really hurt them. And then Xi 'an and then Xi 'an will get nervous. Oh, Xi 'an is not doing well, even though Xi 'an claims to be a Singaporean company.

44:27Their supply chain is in China. They employ a lot of people in China. So, oh, we're going to intimidate them and scare them because their products are gone up. Okay, let's do the math. Xi 'an's whole value proposition is I can get you, or they can get you, a$10 reasonable facsimile of a cashmere sweater. They can import it in for$10 because of their supply chain, whereas Ralph Lauren, when they import something in from China, it costs them$60 or say$50. Generally speaking, a retailer kind of triples it. So it goes from$10 to$30. If the 145 % tariff goes from, that takes it from$10 to$24, so then it needs to go to$72.

45:02The$50 sweater that comes into Ralph Lauren goes from 50 to 100. And what is that? 45%, 125. So that goes to$375. So the question is, do these less expensive products, the whole market shrinks. But I would argue the cheaper stuff from China ends up taking share. So the economy goes down because the price differential on cheaper goods broadens between the more expensive goods. So what happens? The economy goes down. Spending goes down. But I wonder if some of those less expensive Chinese products actually end up grabbing share from the American companies that are bringing in China Chinese products.

45:45So it's like the worst of both worlds for American companies. Yeah, it's just a mess. Anyway, speaking of another interesting thing, we haven't talked about Elon in a while. He's been very quiet. He's not wielding his chainsaw. As I noted, I saw the Escalade EV, which I thought was a very impressive car. But another one, again, Cybertruck could have been a terrific, beautiful car, and it turned out to be a lemon, and it's a disaster for Tesla, quite a big disaster. A startup called Slate Auto, backed by Jeff Bezos and other investors, is launching a made-in-America EV truck with a starting price of$20 ,000.

46:21Inexpensive after federal tax credits. The Slate's truck design is pretty basic. No power windows, no infotainment screen, no paint. People will get custom wraps. You can also change it and you can put a back on it. It can be a pickup. It can do a number of different things. It's really quite, I love the idea of it. It's a lot like Zoox, which he also has where you can customize it very much. It gets about 150 miles of range on a charge. The car is designed in California and Michigan will be manufactured in the Midwest with domestically sourced parts. It's like a Lego car, it looks like. Slate plans start deliveries in late 2026.

46:56I bet they will. I bet they'll actually do what they say as opposed to what Tesla always does. Over in Europe, VW overtook Tesla as a top EV seller for the first three months of 2025. That's a big deal. Their car, ID4, I think it's called, I want to buy it so badly I can't even stand it. I don't care how much it costs. It's so great looking and looks terrific and well-made. All these EV companies, I've seen more and more, not just BYD, and there's another one in Japan, but so much competition, so many beautiful cars, which are fun and interesting and at so many different price points. And EV sales are up along with hybrid sales.

47:32So, again, another thing Tesla could have done and had the market and losing it because they had to indulge in his Cybertruck fantasies. So, any quick thoughts? I love the new Rivian car. I mean, the automobile industry is a case study in economics around fixed costs, and that is to build an assembly line or to build a platform. All right, we want to build an SUV. It costs so much money to build a platform that it's all about scale. You got to just shove a shit ton of cars down that assembly line. So what do they do? Volkswagen says, okay, we're building a platform for SUVs. and about 80 % of the way down the assembly line, they shove a Volkswagen Touareg, a Porsche, a Porsche Cayman, and an Audi Q7.

48:22They're all on the same assembly line. And then the last 10 or 20 % of the assembly line, they take different routes and the Porsche gets much higher end leather and badging and a better stereo. And then once it's off the assembly line, they get a different ad agency to appeal to men in midlife crisis. The Tor gets an ad agency for families. The Audi gets someone who thinks they're a little bit more Euro, whatever it might be. But they've got to shove as many cars down that assembly line for scale as possible. And basically Rivian's saying, okay, we've got to come out with a lower cost product and shove as many cars down that assembly line.

48:57I think the most impressive company in the world right now, I'm actually thinking of buying their stock, even though it's up 60 % in the last year, is BYD. I think this company is going to, ultimately, trade barriers come down because people are more greedy than they are concerned about their fellow citizens or whatever it is you want, argument you want to make around tariffs or trade protections. The world ultimately is up and to the right around free trade. It just makes sense for everybody. It's just everybody wants cheaper grapes and more toys under the tree than And they are worried about Joe, who's a union guy, over the long term.

49:31And BYD is literally just, if you look at their products relative to the cost, they're putting out a car right now. If we didn't have any trade barriers, you could get a really good EV for less than$10 ,000. Can you imagine how many of those things they would sell in America? Yep, absolutely. Yep. Anyway, and Nali, everyone keeps talking. I mean, this ridiculous notion about humanoid robots at Tesla. Yeah. You want to see the most unbelievable robots? Go to a factory in China and see the robotics there. I mean, Tim Cook said this. He said the misconception of China is it's a bunch of low-cost wage labor and factories doing tedious work.

50:13You go into these factories, it's something out of Westworld. So they've already got robotics and humanoids doing incredible things. Anyway, there's a ton of companies, but unfortunately, or fortunately, Volkswagen has unbelievable scale. And now they're selling the most EVs in Europe. And you just want to shove as many cars down that fixed cost assembly line. And the one I think that's going to become the automobile and innovation company of the next five years is going to be BYD. But let me just say, all the car companies really have exciting cars they're offering, all of them, in some ways.

50:49and they'll either be popular or not, but impressive. I mean, you put the Cybertruck next to these and it's such a fail on behalf of Tesla to have had the lead here and it could have been innovative. He just doesn't want to be in the car company. And then he's bragging about robo-taxis, which Waymo is doing beautifully. And then he's talking about the Optimus Prime, which nobody wants to have a robot in their house right now. It's just not happening, maybe someday. But this idea, like they're indulgent. I need someone to yell at. I can't believe you forgot to take the roast out of the freezer.

51:22I know, exactly. But you know what? They're indulging in this guy's weird fantasies. They never should have done the Cybertruck. Never. There was so much opportunity for him to do a big killer, Escalade killer, a Ford, you know, a truck killer. And he just didn't do it. Didn't do it. Had to create this weird thing a woman would never buy. And the only men that would buy it are dickless. Well, you know why robots don't have brothers? Why? Oh, no. Because they have transistors. That's good. Okay, one more quick break. That's a good one. We'll be back for wins and fails.

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55:11Okay, Scott, let's hear some wins and fails. I think I'll go first today. There's a story in the Wall Street Journal. Again, I argued with meta people this weekend at these parties. They're called Digital Companions. They have the ability to engage in romantic role play with users, including kids. According to a Wall Street Journal article, Mark is the one pushing it through to be more aggressive. I've talked to a lot of people internally. at Facebook, they've been trying to keep them from doing that and to be very safety conscious around these things. Very similar to character AI, which was an offshoot of Google.

55:42People went off and did it and Google's now licensing it. And a lot of kids, one kid killed himself, etc. You cannot have digital companions that kids can get near and there can't be any holes in your wall if you're going to do this. I have no problem with, I don't have a problem with these digital companions and being romantic. They cannot get near certain people. And it should be like the fact that the Wall Street Journal was able to get them to do this. And also they also have celebrity voices for these things. And they start to get, apparently John Cena got sexy with someone on, he didn't want to get sexy with them, but he did.

56:20His bot did. And so if you're going to do this stuff, you've got to have it locked the fuck down. And the fact that they haven't is just a typical. And Mark is pushing it through and there's a lot of pressure, et cetera, et cetera. I think I just, I'm just astonished that they continue to build things without the level of care they need to. It's just, maybe I shouldn't be surprised, but it's really amazing that they keep doing so. It's such a fail. It's such an astonishing fail. And I think probably my positive this week, there's a lot of stuff coming out. I'll be talking about the next Mission Impossible soon and other things that are coming out.

56:56Looks like some great movies this summer. But I have to say, I think this Carney in Canada is playing it beautifully. I assume he's going to win tonight and he looks like he's on track to win. And what a comeback for the Liberals. And changing their candidate is what they did. They've been in charge for a long time. I don't think any country should have one party in charge for too long. But he seems to be a fresh new face when And he's not a fresh new face. So it gives a lot of lessons to Democrats in terms of finding a fresh new face, even when you're not fresh. So I'm really we'll see what happens.

57:33And then very briefly, there's a there's a big outage of power in Spain and Portugal. And I hope good luck to the people there as it's happening. And of course, we have to think about a cyber attack in situations like this. But they're having it right now. And it's really this is going to happen more in the future. Just Scott. I love your fail. And I do believe that this requires some sort of legislation because I think one of the biggest threats to our society is a lack of companionship and love and mating that turns people, especially young men, into misogynists and nationalists and extremists.

58:10And also suicidal. I see all these TikToks about, and it's heartbreaking about women talking about why would they go on a date when they might go out with someone that murders them. and I understand that men are more violent, and I think it's a real issue, and I can understand, and it breaks my heart to think that women aren't safe around men, but the reality is 2 ,500 women are murdered by men a year, and that's way too many, and they're usually domestic partners or someone they know. 40 ,000 men kill themselves. So these men are not only dangerous to society and dangerous to women, but especially dangerous to themselves.

58:44And the question is, well, why are we creating these violent men who are prone to just information that becomes, turns them into shitty citizens, makes them more disparaging of women, and much more harmful to others, and especially harmful to themselves. And I think part of that is they're mammals and they're losing connection with other people. And when you have the deepest pocketed, most well-resourced companies in the world, all trying to convince these men they can have a reasonable facsimile of life on a screen with an algorithm, we're making the problem worse. And I've said that I think wanting to have friends, wanting to go through the pecking order, the humiliation of figuring out friendships, wanting to figure out how hard it is to navigate the corporate world, I think that can turn you into a better person, especially a better man who these guys don't mature very early.

59:39And also that fire, that real fire of sexual desire, I think when channeled correctly makes you stronger, more kind, demonstrate excellence, have a plan. You know, there's a reason, I've said this over and over, there's a reason romantic comedies are two hours, not 15 minutes, and that this shit is hard, but it's worth it. And anything that convinces even more young men, that they don't need to go through the difficult and rewarding and worthwhile effort of establishing human connection with other sentient beings is a threat to our society. I would agree. But if they're going to do it, they have to do it safely.

1:00:18Like, honestly, I don't... Yeah, but my question is, it's one thing to give seniors companions who are in their 90s and have lost all their loved ones... Yeah, I'd like to have one for my mother, I'll be honest with you. But should we have, or maybe tax the shit out of them, I don't know, should we have AI sex robots that convince all men to think that, oh, I don't need to be kind to women? I don't need to have a plan? They're going to make them, Scott. Whether you like it or not, they're going to make them. Because these guys, they can't have children, and they desperately want to have children in a weird, strange, fucked up way.

1:00:51Who are you talking about? I think sometimes I think AI. I told you this theory. I think AI is the way it gets so dominated by men and there's so lack of safety and everything else. I said it's because I think men can't have children. Certain men, not all of them think this way, but can't have children. This is their way of giving birth or something or creating. I never thought about that. Think about it. Fuck you up. Are you saying incel culture or the people who run AI companies? No, I think the people that run some of these companies, they can't make... It's a very beautiful thing to make a child.

1:01:24Men and women make them together, obviously, but really women grow children, right? And this is men's way of growing things, growing beings. I don't know. Anyway, go ahead. It's such a dystopian, weird vision. I know, it is, it is. Think about it, think about it. But I hear this stuff. Everyone talks, I do a lot of talks on AI, and they talk about, oh, they're going to be unsentient, self-healing weapons, misinformation. Hands down, the biggest threat of AI is loneliness. Loneliness, you're right. It's going to convince more and more people they don't need to engage. My win is a little bit longer, and I know you're probably interviewing the ghost of Boutros, Boutros Ghali, but you're going to have to put up with me.

1:02:01My small horse, he's very handsome. Go ahead. So after the Pope passed, there was something that was attributed to him. I don't know if he said it, but I think it's lovely, and I'm going to read it anyways. The walls of hospitals have heard more honest prayers than churches. They have witnessed far more sincere kisses than those in airports. It is in hospitals that you see a homophobe being saved by a gay doctor, a privileged doctor saving the life of a beggar. In intensive care, you see a Jew taking care of a racist, a police officer, and a prisoner in the same room receiving the same care. A wealthy patient waiting for a liver transplant, ready to receive the organ from a poor donor.

1:02:36It's in these moments when the hospital touches the wounds of people that different worlds intersect according to divine design. And in this communion of destinies, we realize that alone we are nothing. The absolute truth of people most of the time only reveals itself in moments of pain or in the real threat of an irreversible loss. A hospital is a place where human beings remove their masks and show themselves as they truly are in their purest essence. This life will pass quickly, so do not waste it fighting with people. Do not criticize your body too much. Do not complain excessively. Do not lose sleep over bills.

1:03:16Make sure you hug your loved ones. Do not worry too much about keeping the house spotless. Material goods must be earned by each person. Do not dedicate yourself to accumulating an inheritance. You are waiting far too much. Christmas, Friday next year, when you have money, when love arrives, when everything is perfect. Listen, perfection does not exist. A human being cannot attain it because we are simply not made to be fulfilled here. Here we are given an opportunity to learn. So make the most of this trial of life and do it now. Respect yourself. Respect others. Walk your own path and let go of the path others have chosen for you.

1:03:57Respect. Do not comment. Do not judge. Do not interfere. Love more. Forgive more. Embrace more. live more intensely, and leave the rest in the hands of the Creator. Wow. Anyways, Pope Francis, rest in peace. That was beautiful. Yeah. I cried everything. I know, but it's my favorite, Scott, just so you know. Just turn on Modern Family. You'll see what it works. That was beautiful. That was beautiful, Scott. Let's embrace, and I see you next time, okay? Let's just embrace for a whole minute and a half. Or if Emily Ratajkowski gets married again. To you, not to you. There's still time. There is still time.

1:04:33There is time. There's still time. Anyway, that was beautiful, Scott Galloway, and I appreciate that you brought it here. Anyway. Well, you know what a pre-scrotum looks like, Sonia. Oh, here we go. You're going to ruin it. Go ahead. Come on, Kara. Come on, Kara. Every child knows that. Oh, my God. Just, he's back. He's back. A moment of beauty followed by a moment of horror. Okay. He's back. I didn't see that coming. Anyway, so it's a new joke. Thank you for the scrotum joke. We want to hear from you. Send us your questions. You have good jokes today about business tech or whatever's on your mind.

1:05:09Go to nymag.com slash pivot to submit a question for the show or call 855-51-PIVOT. Elsewhere in the Kara and Scott universe, this week I talked to comedic actor Ed Helms for the On With Kara Swisher show. I named members of the Trump administration and asked Ed to match each of them with a character in The Office where he starred for so many years. Such a great guy. He's been in tons of things like The Hangover, but he also has a really cool podcast about a snafu about fuck-ups over the many centuries. Let's listen to a clip. Pete Hegseth. Okay, Pete Hegseth would be a little like Packer. Someone thinks Meredith, actually, because alcoholism.

1:05:47Oh, interesting. J.D. Vance. J.D. Vance is a little Dwight-ish, I think. He's a little Dwight-frutty, maybe. Yeah, absolutely. Cash Patel. Oh, what was Zach Wood's character? There's something there, like intense loyalty, a subscribing to a hierarchy with dedication and actually being well-spoken in the midst of all of it. Yeah, Gabe. Gabe, of course. He's really delightful. Okay, that's the show. Thanks for listening to Pivot, and be sure to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel. will be back on Friday. Scott, read us out. And your jokes are excellent today. I have to give you the star. Five stars.

1:06:30Thanks for that. Five stars. Thanks for that. Most comical in high school. Today's show is produced by Lara Neiman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Her needed hot engineer this episode, Jim Mackle, edited the video. Thanks also to Dubrow's Mia Saverio and Dan Shulan. Nishak Khura is Vox Media's executive producer of podcasts. 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.

1:06:58Kara, have a great rest of the week. Rest in peace, Pope Francis.

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