X’s Check Mark Trouble, Lyft’s Typo, and Bezos’ Tax Break

24:43Unleash White Claw Surge. Please drink responsibly. Hard seltzer with flavors. 8 % alcohol by volume. White Claw Seltzer Works. Chicago, Illinois.

24:55Scott, we're back. When Jeff Bezos announced his move to Florida last year, he said he wanted to be closer to his parents and Blue Origin operations. You and I thought that taxes might also be a factor, and it looks like we were right. Bezos has sold about$4 billion worth of Amazon shares in the last week or so, according to SEC filings. Living in Florida allows Bezos to avoid Washington State's relatively new 7 % capital gains tax on sales of stocks and bonds worth more than$250 ,000. Bezos also reportedly intends to sell 50 million shares over the next year. And thanks to his Florida residency, he'll save at least$610 million, according to CNBC.

25:30All right, then. There you have it. Of course, we're going to see more billionaires moving to Florida or Texas. I'll note another billionaire making the move, Elon Musk, just switched SpaceX's incorporation from Delaware to Texas just a few weeks after a Delaware judge voided his Tesla pay package. That's, you know, moving, you know, okay, there you have it. Yeah, like states, I mean, I don't like to, I wish it was more transparent. He claimed it's because he wanted to be close to his grandfather. His parents. His parents. I think states should compete. I like the fact that Texas and Florida are putting pressure on high-tax states in the Northeast to get their shit together and manage their state more fiscally responsibly.

26:10I think it's good when states compete. However, however, we should have the same treatment of long-term capital gains on stock that you own as we do on options. And it's the following. If you move to Texas from California. Or Washington. And you exercise your options and you have a gain. You pay taxes based on the state when those options vested. And if you are going to make, in Jeff Bezos' case,$60 or$80 billion by leveraging, amongst other things, in addition to your genius, your good fortune, your business acumen, you're going to leverage the University of Washington. You're going to leverage an unbelievable public school system.

26:51You're going to leverage the roads. You're going to leverage an environment of technology started by Boeing. You're going to leverage the Seattle Tacoma, I mean, airport. Then you owe them. You owe them. And if you have built$60 billion in wealth leveraging the infrastructure of Washington state, you need to pay taxes to Washington state on that$60 billion. Now, if and when he decides to move to Texas or Florida, if that$60 billion goes to$100, then fine, he pays no state tax on that incremental$40. Similar to what we do with options. We know how to do this. It's a little like a divorce, right?

27:29When people are trying to move to another state to get a better divorce. Like, you got to pay your divorce bill. Except you get 100%. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, but if you try to move places in order to save money like this, the tale is old its time. Like moving to, where did they move? To Monaco. Monaco is where the Europe is. It's similar to my parents' divorce in the early 70s where my dad is the billionaire and my mom was the state. My mom got dick and my dad got everything. My mom too. It's venue shopping. And, you know, again, it's tale as old its time. It's not a new, fresh thing. But I would agree with you.

28:06I think that's a smart way to do it. And they're not going to want to do that. And then they should start their businesses in Florida, which they're trying to do. But it's sort of been a big – it hasn't worked out as well with all those people. Oh, God. Give me a break. All these people coming down to – VCs coming down to Florida pretending they're going to inspire the tech community when they're not honest. Rather than just saying, I have an enormous unrealized capital gain and I like hanging out in Miami, which is an amazing city. until Florida makes a requisite investment. I mean, it's all the same thing.

28:39Every major company or tech company worth over$100 billion, much less$10 billion, has one thing in common. It's a bike ride from a world-class engineering university. And unfortunately, Florida doesn't have a lot of those, if any. The University of Florida is a great university, but I wouldn't describe it as a great technical university. I don't care if you're Spotify near that great university in Stockholm, or if you're BlackBerry near whatever that university is in Ottawa, you have to make an investment and educate because this is what happens. No, they don't want to do that. They're cheap bastards.

29:12I think St. Louis is going to do really well. Why? WashU has an amazing engineering department. This is what's going to happen. A couple of kids in a dorm are going to start something amazing. They're going to sell it for billions of dollars, and then they're going to fall in love in St. Louis, and they're going to stay there, and they're going to take— Although it only happens a little bit. But Chicago, remember when Groupon and a whole bunch of people sort of were going to make Chicago that? It just didn't catch on. It hasn't caught on in Miami. I know they'll call and yell at me. It does happen.

29:39It happened in Boston. It's happening in North Carolina. To an extent. It's happening at Wharton, Philadelphia. That's how it starts. It still has not replicated what has happened in two places, which in this country, I would say. Three places. Los Angeles for entertainment. Yes. But in terms of half, it's Washington State. It has happened. It's the San Francisco Bay area and Los Angeles is really – and New York and Boston to an extent, lesser extent. I mean, this is your friend Aileen Lee. It used to be – I'm parroting her. It used to be 95 % market share of those two things. Now it's down to kind of 50 or 60.

30:13It has been diffused. Anyways, my point is – but you need money for that. And unless there's – I mean, this is my kind of rant about Florida. The kids from – the brightest kids in Florida all have one thing in common. They leave. And until we can hold on to young people and not be a place for tax pats and seniors, the state's never going to live up to its potential. And it starts with world-class universities, full stop. Yeah, I would say Austin certainly has made, but there was a big - Look what's happened. Michael Dell, you're making my case. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But there was a big boom there.

30:48I covered all this. That's why I wrote a lot about these Silicon Desert or Silicon Cowboy or whatever. There's a boom and then it falls off. Like Dell, definitely Austin is definitely another center, but it still hasn't gotten even close to Washington state. It's amazing. What's happened in Austin is amazing, Carol. I would agree. I would agree, but it's still not. And it started with Michael Dell in his dorm room. Yes, I agree. And I think Elon is actually making something significant with SpaceX there. And that's great. Good for him. Anyway, moving on. And Lyft shares went on quite a ride this week after the company mistakenly projected its margin would expand 500 basis points in 2024.

31:28Stocks subsequently spiked 67 percent in after hours trading. Lyft, the CFO, clarified on an earnings call that there was only a typo in the press release. The margin was actually expected to expand by 50 basis points. One analyst called it a black eye moment for Lyft and a debacle of epic proportions. In spite of the snafu, Lyft did have some actual good news to report. revenue was$1.22 billion, up 4 % from a year ago, and gross bookings jumped 17 % in Q4. Wow. Oops. Oops. Yeah, this gave me PTSD. First off, good for Lyft, and they had a good quarter. When I was on, so I started coming to go red envelope, and I brought in this master of the universe, Mike Moritz, who eventually took my role as chairman.

32:13And I said, basically, my partner did an audit of the technology of the company and said, all the technology we have is shitty technology. The only thing it all has in common is it's the shitty technology of Sequoia portfolio companies. And he sent that memo to the board. I copied it and said, Mike, you're not doing your job as a fiduciary to all shareholders. You're using Red Envelope as a dumping ground for the failed products of your portfolio companies. And two days later, I was kicked off the board. And so being a very angry man with a lot of time on his hand and a little bit of money, which is very dangerous, I ran a full-scale proxy fight to replace the board and the CEO, who was a total incompetent, and that's being kind.

32:51But because I challenged the master of the universe, he decided she was a great CEO and wasn't going to go anywhere. About six months later, she went on an earnings call and said, oh, when we said we had gross margins of 48 points, we were wrong. We overestimated our gross margins by 1 ,000 basis points. And our actual gross margins are 38 points. And the stock went from 12 to seven in a single trading day. And at that moment, I knew I was going to win the proxy fight at the next annual meeting because every investor went, this management team is totally incompetent to overestimate gross margins by a thousand basis points.

33:30So when I saw that, but this quite frankly, wasn't as bad. This was a typo. This wasn't management coming together and trying to figure out, like just getting numbers wrong. This was a typo, but it sent the stock on a wild ride. And my guess is there's going to be, I'll be curious to see if there's shareholder lawsuits, but it's more sort of, it makes for good spectacle here than anything else. But the stock went crazy thinking that they had vastly outperformed. It was a beat, but they thought it was an amazing beat. Anyways, it was an opportunity for me to relive my tour of Vietnam called Red Envelope.

34:03Lastly, a match group, home of Tinder and other dating apps, is being sued for creating addictive products. The lawsuit claims the business model is predatory and rewards compulsive use, accusing the company of negligence and violation of consumer protection laws. The accusation of similarities to litigation other social platforms have faced about knowingly designing addictive features in a statement match called loss at ridiculous and set it at zero merit. The suit also seeks damages for people who paid to use the apps and new warnings about risk, risk of addiction. I don't know what to say. I feel like I'm kind of on matches side.

34:39It's ridiculous. You're kidding. Dating apps are addictive. Like, I don't know. I don't know. Maybe am I missing something here? Yeah. Yeah, tell us something we don't know. I mean, it feels like it'd be not just cocaine, but crack cocaine. Not only do they implement the same sort of gamification and visual stimulation and random rewards that Tristan Harris talked about that create that slot machine effect, which constant dobe it by just pulling the arm again. But when you're thinking about the opportunity for a romantic relationship and you get evaluation or you get feedback, some positive but mostly negative, especially if you're a man on these apps, I can't imagine these apps wouldn't be addictive.

35:27How could they not be addictive? I don't know. Is there a lawsuit here, though? Is there some? I don't. Right? Because we kind of are like, yeah, these social platforms. Yeah, tell us something we don't know. Alcohol is addictive, okay? What do we do about it? Yeah, but so this is why, this is the only reason I'm asking, and I'm going to play devil's advocate here, is we think social media platforms should be held accountable for what it does to teen girls or addiction and stuff like that. And we think that's okay. Is this any different or not? I mean, these things get pretty mendacious pretty fast.

35:56Fake profiles, where they give people the sense that there's more opportunity and build their hopes when there isn't. You know, that's pretty, that's sort of, that's just immoral. But they're not doing anything that any other app that's selling sneakers or washing machines is doing, trying to create you to just stick on the app. I don't. Yeah, but how's it different than social media? Because I know you and I. I don't think it is. It isn't. It isn't. But we think social media should be subject to lawsuits around addiction or not. Because it definitely has self-esteem issues, which is linked to addiction of using them, right?

36:34Well, it's not. Okay. Anyway, addiction itself, I think, is so complicated to prove in a court. I think what we've advocated for is that around health, as it relates to kids, maybe even elections, that similar to the rest of media, they should not have Section 230 protections such that if they find that, in fact, Facebook is sending out emails to girls, teen girls, with images helping them kill themselves, that they have some liability for that. We're not going to even go to trying to prove what is addictive or what isn't addictive because ice cream is addictive. We're going to go to liability.

37:16Now, if they are lying to people and saying, okay, there's a ton of really hot, interesting people here who are really interested in you and they're fake profiles and they're not such that you spend more money, that's fraud, right? But I don't, you know, we have big laws around addiction. We tried to outlaw alcohol. It didn't work. I don't, I think that's tough to figure out. What about like something, I suppose like on cigarettes, there's warnings, right? Maybe they could have warnings on them in this regard. Warning pursuing love is addictive or bad for your health. It is. Addicted to love, play that song.

37:51Might as well face that you're addicted to love. I've never been on a dating app, although my nickname at the office was Swipe Left. What is Swipe Left? Tell me. I don't know because I've never... Swipe Left is I'm not interested. Oh, okay. Got it. Okay. I like that. I'm going to call you that, Swipe Left. Thanks for that. No problem. I personally, would I advise single people? I think it's easy to be a purist when you're in a relationship. If I were single, I would be accepting every invitation to a dinner party. I'd be letting my friends know that I was single. I'd be politely and in a dignified way when I met people professionally, following up and seeing if they might be interested in coffee and trying to sense if they were, in fact, interested in me in more than a professional relationship, which I think is okay.

38:33One in three relationships begin at work. And I'd be on the apps because the most rewarding thing in your life is going to be finding a romantic and sexual partnership where maybe someday you decide to partner together economically and have children. And you know what? It's really fucking hard. And it requires effort and rejection. And I say do it all. I see all the negatives. There's a great Vanity Fair reporter who wrote a great story about sort of the way men treat women on these apps. And I didn't like it. It was really kind of repulsive. I think it's the opposite, Kara. I know. And let me just finish.

39:05So there's lots of issues with these apps, including bad profiles, et cetera, et cetera. And sort of the way people treat each other is kind of interchangeable and fungible, which I don't like. But that happens in life at bars, too. So it's not like a new, fresh thing. On the whole, I've had her, as many as horror stories are, I think there's been a lot of really wonderful stories of people meeting on these things. Many of my friends met on apps and are married. It's been great for the gay community. Many, many, many. Yeah, absolutely. And not always. It sometimes can be very lonesome. I talk to a lot of gay men about it.

39:42You know, it's more transactional. It is what it is in that regard. But I think they make some, a friend of mine keeps taking it off his app because it makes him feel bad. Louis had a dating app. He took it off and made him feel bad. I've never used them, so I can't speak from experience. But I do think, on the whole, they're kind of okay. I think they're better than bars in some cases. Bars can be really depressing, I think. What dating apps do is they speedball a market. And that is, because everybody thinks they have access, technically, to everybody, they, in some instances, women increase their standards.

40:22And you can't tell a woman to not increase her standards, right? The problem is that the top 10 % of men get 80 plus percent of the interest, letting them engage in what I'll call Porsche polygamy, which doesn't incentivize them to establish long-term relationships and quite frankly, lets them get away with probably what is not great behavior. At the same time, if you want as a man who is, if you're 5 '8 and you're not making hundreds of thousands of dollars, and maybe you're not great looking, and maybe you didn't graduate from MIT, you don't have a chance to be funny. You don't have a chance to demonstrate your kind.

41:00You don't have a chance to demonstrate that you have wonderful body language or a confident. It's all about online, essentially with women, it's their aesthetics, and with guys, it's their ability to signal resources. But the difference is men have lower standards and will swipe right a lot more. And if you want to talk to validation that men in what I'll call the lower half of attractiveness on basic economic viability, you want to find a means of validating they have no worth to the opposite sex. They should just go on dating apps. It's really brutal for what I'll call an average man. Yep. No, 100%.

41:34Again, I've never been on them. I'm too famous. Actually, though, you know what? I won't say their names. There's some very famous Oh, that fancy app, right? That fancy app. Raya or whatever, the league, whatever. Raya, the league. Actually, it's not true that I've never been on the app. Years ago, I'll tell this story very quickly. And I actually didn't put it in my book. Barry Diller called me and said, this is a really cool app. They had just invested in it. And so I loaded it up and looked at it. And I had written a lot about dating apps, you know, all the other ones that existed. And they were different.

42:06I knew how they worked. and I hadn't, this was, what's, Tinder, it was Tinder. And so I looked at it and I, you had to load yourself up to be, to look at it. And I was like, oh, all right, I'll create a profile to see how it works, which I do with a lot of apps. And I didn't realize you're up live the minute you do it. And all of a sudden I started to get like, essentially older lesbians and young goth girls like went at me. And I was like, what? I'm live? Like what? You couldn't skulk. You couldn't wander around anonymously on it. And I was married at the time, and I took it right down. I was like, oh, my God.

42:47I was live on it. But it was super interesting for the four seconds I was on it. It's funny because I did something similar. I went on seeking arrangements. And since then, I've been having sex with Russian and Brazilian girls in exchange for$400 and a bottle of Roche-Posay. And I've been doing it for seven years, but strictly for research. Strictly for research. Okay. Strictly. Strictly. I wonder, is that what it costs? I don't even know what it costs. I just pulled out of the air. It's got to be more than that. I don't know. I don't know what you're talking about. I'm just trying to move on as fast as I can to get us out of this.

43:18Okay, Scott, let's pivot to a listener question.

43:28this question comes in via email from jesse i'll read it scott and cara i've been listening to your show for about a year now i recently changed careers from operating a small company that i founded with a friend to teaching a high school in flatbush brooklyn i was thrown headfirst into teaching economics my question is given this golden opportunity to educate the youths on the subject of econ. What do you recommend I cover? One of the other teachers at the high school called High School Economics Adulting 101. I want to arm kids with financial literacy. What are some lessons you wish you had learned earlier?

44:00Any resources you could share for making what seems to be the most, one of the most boring topics? Interesting. Thanks, Jesse. I'm going to start, Jesse, it's not boring at all. Money's not boring at all, at all. Like, I think this is a great course. And I think kids should, I think this should be absolutely required in high school. And I don't don't call it economics. Call it money. One on one or adulting is fine. I think this is great. There's all kinds of books kids could read. I think they should do hands on stuff. That's always the best way to do it is doing hands on use, you know, making investments, et cetera, et cetera.

44:32I think this is a critical course for kids and it is very interesting to them. I don't think it's I don't think they're not interested in it. I don't know. What do you think? I think it's wonderful. And when we talked about this, I heard from, I was trying to find the emails we were talking from this, I don't know if it was a guy or a woman, but saying that they are very involved in high school financial literacy and now 50 % of high schools are offering some sort of course. But I noticed this with my own boys. My own boys can do derivatives and, you know, no calculus, but don't understand the mortgage on a credit card.

45:05Or I'm sorry, don't understand the interest on a credit card or don't understand why I'm shopping for a better mortgage rate. I'm like, okay, they should be learning that first. So I think it's great. I think there's a lot. Unfortunately, because I think things have become so politicized and so sensitive, and every lawyer at a school district is like, just don't do it. It's too much risk. I think we should absolutely have more education about the difference between the male and the female brain. I think we should have classes and mating dynamics. I, quite frankly, and this is going to get me a ton of shit, I think we should be teaching young men and young women about menopause.

45:39Someone should occlude me in as to what my mother was going through. Well, there is a sex education course. I don't think you should call it mating 101. I feel like that's not going to work in Florida. You have a mating dynamics. Just how do... There is sex education. Kids still take that course. My kids do that. I think it's called sex ed. Yeah. Anyways, I think there's a lot of opportunity to help. Because when I've had to try... What's interesting is, you know, people say, well, that's the parents' responsibility. Whenever I have to try to have these conversations with my kids, they literally run for the hills.

46:13They're just not interested in getting a lecture from me about interest rates or they're - I had a good conversation with my boys about that. I know, I know. That's because you're a much better parent than me. But anyways, and you also have much better attention to detail. No, I just was like condoms, boys. Anyways, but financial literacy in high school, I think it should be mandatory. And I think kids would be interested. I think kids want to understand the stock market. I think they I want to understand stocks and bonds, understand why it's important to understand the interest on your student loans.

46:47Savings. What's good debt? What's bad debt? I do think parents, though, should take it. I spent a lot of time recently with Alex because he's sort of on his own for the first time financially over all kinds of things. Not just that, not just getting on a plane, but there's a mess in your airport. I was like, figure it out. And then he did. And I'll give you three tips, but figure it out. And we do that with money. I've been doing that with money for them for a while. Like, you know, pay your bill. Like, they're like, what do I do? I'm like, here's I'll tell you once and then you have to figure it out from there.

47:21I recently was discussing mortgages with Louis because, you know, he just at some point soon he'll be thinking of saving up for a house or something like that. But I think it's important. My mom used to ask me to help her work with her to balance her checkbook. Remember those checkbooks? Like you'd go through and you'd write a check and you'd write it out and you'd do the math. I learned on my own. My mom wasn't very good at that part. But the sex stuff, same thing. It's all these things. Adulting 101 is actually a great name for a course. And it could include dating. It could include not sex, but dating.

47:54You know what I mean? That, relationships. It could include finance, getting an apartment, renting, all kinds of stuff. Hygiene. I know it sounds dumb, but hygiene. Do you want me to talk to your kids about anything? Do you need help? Yeah. Yeah. No, I need you in India right now. I need to get on a plane right now for the southwest coast of India because I have had it with them. I have had it. I just was like, two things, boys. You be nice to ladies. If you aren't, I'm going to break your arms and condoms. Thank you. That was my entire discussion. All right. It's your responsibility. There you go.

48:31It's your responsibility as a man. That's what I said. Anyway, and they were okay. They didn't flee. I was very straightforward with them about it. Anyway, that's what we say. Thank you, Jesse. I'm glad you're teaching that. It's really great. And every high school should have it. All right. So if you've got a question of your own you'd like answered, send it our way. Go to nymag.com slash pivot to submit a question for the show or call 855-51-PIVOT and be as smart as Jesse. That's a great question. All right, Scott, one more quick break. We'll be back for predictions.

49:03There 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 for now.

49:52That's This Week on Channels, wherever you get your favorite podcasts.

50:00Okay, Scott, let's have a prediction from you. I feel like I've had one in a while. Go for it. Yeah, mine are pretty, this one's pretty boring, and I think I'll agree with it. I think that two people are going to have an outsized impact on the election. And I'm talking our book because we're both progressives here. But we talked about last week. I think Taylor Swift could be a seminal force in the election with a turnout to vote. I think we're going to hear her. Did you see that poll? I didn't. One in five Americans believes she's. Oh, it's a conspiracy. It's a conspiracy that she's working with the CIA or whoever.

50:34It's crazy. One in five and about half of America has heard of the conspiracy theory. I don't know. Less than half of America has a passport. There's a lot of weird stuff going on in America. But Taylor Swift we talked about. But the other one, I was so blown away by Jon Stewart's inaugural show. You liked it. Some people criticized us. I loved it, too. But go ahead. I mean. Go ahead. Tell me why. I agree. He hit everyone in the fucking face. I mean, he just said, I mean, the moment when he said, it was just so hilarious when he showed all the clips, all of Biden's cabinet. And he was like, I was with the president today.

51:10And he was sharp. And he was focused. And he was on point. And then Jon Stewart just goes, do you have any of that on film? Because we never seem to capture those moments on film. And then he goes after Trump. He's just - He took a wallop at Trump. He's literally, and I'm guilty of this, he has something that I'm struggling to hold on to, and that is pure, un-fucking-filtered truth, going after both sides. It is ridiculous that these, you know, Perfect is not on the menu here, and he is absolutely hitting both sides hard, and I think he has so much credibility among the people. And there's nothing like humor to soften the bench before the Marines come in.

51:53The moderates will decide this election, the swing voters and swing voters immediately put up their screen and go, yeah, whatever, partisan. Right. This guy is so is so hard hitting on both sides that I just think a tremendous number of really important voters. Well, that's the criticism he got. Let's just let's just address that. They did. They were like he focused. The argument is there's not a comparison between an old guy and an old guy who's a fascist. And we get it. I've said that last week, right? But the story wasn't about fascism. The story was about these guys being too old. I know, but they were saying he should have noted that one of them is a fascist and more.

52:36I'm just telling you. I get it. But the reason why he's so effective. That's what he got criticized for. I'm just telling you. I'm sure the right would have said, yeah, but they should have pointed out that Biden just seems really fucking old. I mean, both sides have their yeah, but that they would have liked Jon Stewart to do. He was talking about the fact. He doesn't care. He's not there. He's not there to please you. The average age of Americans is 38. I had Admiral Stavridis on my show. This guy who commanded, you know, he's been in charge of carrier strike forces. This incredibly impressive man came across as spry and youthful.

53:07I think he's probably late 50s, early 60s. It is insane, literally insane. And he just needed to point it out on both sides that this is where we ended up. Anyways, I'll bring it back. Taylor Swift, we talked about. I think we're going to hear the name John. I think John Stewart is going to play an enormous role in the election and in the discourse over the next nine months. I would agree. I also threaded that. I said, this was true. He's still got it. He's still fucking got it. Oh, God, great. Again, I got whacked by all the lefties and progressives or whatever. And I was like, you know what?

53:40He's not here. He's not going to go changing to try to please us. He is doing his job. And, you know, whatever. You don't have to like it. You don't have to watch it. And by the way, again, they didn't watch it. They didn't watch it. And I'm like, you cannot comment at me unless you saw it. Sorry. I just refuse to listen to a word you say, and I'm going to block you if you do that. One of the things I think he said at the end, which really resonated with me, is sort of blame game that goes on with everyone feeling like I've gotten, I'm terrified, I'm this. He said, it's up to fucking you. Every day, you got to get in there and fight the fight.

54:18You have to stop blaming everybody else. It's about it. I was trying to make this point. They were attacking the media. Fine, attack the media. But you know who it is? It's voters. Go persuade voters. You have tools to persuade voters. The media is not going to save you. The media is not going to save you. He said this at the end, and it was so articulate. It's like, stop fucking bellyaching and get in the fight. Get in the fight and do what you want, but stop complaining. And I love that. I thought that was a particularly good thing. Outstanding. It's a good thing for, outstanding. That was, oh my gosh, I watched it on YouTube last night.

54:58That was some of the fastest 20 minutes I'd seen. And by the way, ratings are up. You can talk about he's old and nobody's, and the decline in these shows. That's 100 % true. But ratings were fantastic for that. It was fantastic for the Super Bowl. It was, people will watch if good shit is happening. That's just the way it is. And it rose rather significant. He's sort of like the Rachel Maddow slot, right? Right. MSNBC has her and people really like what she does. He'll play a much bigger role than Rachel Maddow because moderates put up a screen when they see Rachel. Is it standing as she is? I agree.

55:31I agree. But I'm just saying. I'm not going to comment on her politics. She shows up with real work. She's an outstanding professional, but he he will have it's frightening and it's true. This election is going to be decided by 50 to 100 ,000 kind of ex-urban soccer moms in three or four states. And those folks— Persuadables. One, I think a lot of younger people are going to turn out that ordinarily wouldn't turn out if Taylor Swift tells them to. And I think as we go younger, they're more Democratic. And two, Jon Stewart just, I think, increasingly will highlight the truth. And the truth is on our side, Kara.

56:11He does. We have some really unfortunate features about our guy. I think it's insane that we have this guy running, quite frankly. But he's too old, but he's not a fascist, and he's not a criminal. And he's a decent man. And he's a good man. And he's been effective. And by the way, your point about youngest administration, you're right. It's a young administration. Yeah, and he's surrounded himself with youth and vigor. Jon Stewart will call balls and strikes, and the balls and strikes are on our side over the next nine months. And I think a lot of moderates are just going to listen to this guy.

56:45You watch. Trump's going to go after him and start attacking him because he's going to realize he's starting to hurt him when he just highlights the truth every week. And the reason why this guy has so much credibility is he's unafraid to go after how fucking insane it is that Biden is running. Yeah. Yeah. And he gets credibility among the moderates. Anyway, Taylor Swift and Jon Stewart. I got to say, Jon Stewart's very popular among the young people, too. Much more so than you realize, I would say. It's not just us. It's not old people us. Not just old people who are on Seeking Arrangements. Generous bald man with home in Soho who vacations in the Maldives looking for fun girl for no frills fun.

57:23Okay. Okay. Anyway, John, good job. You are not irrelevant anymore. Okay, Scott, that's the show. Don't forget to check out our feed on Tuesday, which is a special crossover episode with Esther Perel's Where Should We Begin? Again, Scott and I went for couples counseling with Esther, and you can hear all about our special relationship. And we didn't even meet on an app. It was just meet cute. That's how we met. Cute. In Germany. That's where we met. Auf Deutschland, we met cute. Anyway, please listen to it. It's actually good. Scott, you were very vulnerable. You were very vulnerable. It was a beautiful, beautiful time.

58:00Anyway, please read us out. Today's show was produced by Lara Neiman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie Inertot engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows and Mil Severio. Nishak Kurwa is 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 next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business care. Have a great weekend.