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Thank you for listening to us and to podcasts. I just, I really, today is not a day to be late. I know you're wearing a Liberty hat. Leave it on. Always being a lesbian. Okay. Put on your earphones. We gotta go. Hi everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine in the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Cara Swisher and it's Cocktober. No, Scott, we'll get to that in a second. Welcome. What? Cocktober? That's a joke. That's Arnold Palmer. Cocktober surprise. Get it?
Oh, yeah. I asked for an Arnold Palmer stiff yesterday at Jack's I Freed and they didn't get it. You're like, what? What do you mean stiff? I mean, it's a joke. I can't drink that now. It's so sad. We'll get to it. We're gonna get to it. Well, Lesbian's a vote was out of thing. Exactly. I've always loved an Arnold Palmer. You're a lesbian now. No, no, no, no, no. I'm a power lesbian. Oh, right. Okay.
I'm a power lesbian. I have never been to a WNBA game. And because I know Cara Swisher, this total power lesbian couple, Leanne and Pia. I won't say their last names because for security reasons, I think they're very high profile, but they know who they are. I get to go. This is what it means to be friends with Cara Swisher. My first WNBA game. I go to the last game of the finals on the floor. Spike Lee came by and said, hide all the important people. He totally ignored me.
I think your movies are overrated in the offense. But anyways. And then I'm sitting there watching this amazing thing. We have halftime. I go and meet these other. This really interesting woman and her partner. She's an alphabet. She's a VC. By the way, not that I noticed, but both kind of crazy hot. Not that I noticed. I just heard of people I got the sounds. We don't like.
And then I literally, when I was on a plane once, the Dalai Lama was there and he came up to this woman and child and he blessed them with the flowing robes and everything. In the middle of the game, Megan Rapino is like waving and high. And I said, Leanne, I think Megan Rapino is saying, hi, and she looked over. She's like, no, she's waving at you. And I wave back and she jumped up and wave to be wave dad at game five of the WNBA by Megan Rapino. That is super.
That is literally like being blessed by the Lama. Yes. I am officially a power lesbian. You are. I am the new fraternity. Joy Bagadona is representing the lesbian community. What is up with these gay men in tech who are threatened by a carol? I don't know. What is up? I don't know. But I'm so glad. I did. Megan texted me. She got there late. And I said, pay attention to Scott. Give him some love and stuff like that.
And I was thrilled you were there. I finally, after all your hem and in hawing you went. I thought you were going to ghost the lesbians, which would have been the end of your life. No, no, no, no, no, I'm done. I'm not crazy. Aubrey Plaza was there. There were celebrities aplenty. It was like a rock. Tell us why you now like the NBA, please.
Look, I love the sport. I love watching that the energy, the electricity was just fucking amazing. But the thing that struck me is that I've been thinking a lot about how much young people seem to dislike America. And I think it's because our prosperity is not evenly distributed. I do think young people have it more difficult than we had it.
But I also think social media and algorithms and bad actors on these platforms are trying to convince them that America is a lot worse than it actually is. And last night was a lesson for me. And I just don't think people, especially young people appreciate how far we've come. I used to go to a lot of my dad was a sales person for ITT, OM Scott.
So he used to get a lot of tickets to stuff. So I used to go to Rams games sporting events when I were a kid were basically corporate VPs. It was all corporate and all wealthy white men. That's it. Those were the only people at sporting camps. When James Harris became the first black quarterback who played for the Rams. Why would see the first black quarterback? Because the assumption was in all sports that black people did not have leadership skills and couldn't be in the bringing position.
And of course now every amazing quarterback or near every amazing quarterback is non white at that game last night. It was people. I thought it was going to be this big lesbian fest. No, it wasn't. There was a healthy gay contingent there, but there were straight people there.
There were people of all races. I don't want to say all income backgrounds, but even on the gun the dance floor, it wasn't a bunch of ridiculously hot white women with huge eyelashes. They had something called the senior liberty and it was a dance true. Yeah, they were fun of 60 to 85 year olds. I mean that shit is wonderful. Yeah, it was wonderful. It's got a great energy.
So that stadium that stadium is not only America, but I just don't think young people realize how far we've come. I know it was fun. It's actually fun. Did you go to the food air the special area of eating? Oh, they have a little candy room and everything. I was like ridiculous. I think you know, Mike's Mike's candy and my pants and Charleston shoe, which is always a you know.
I am so thrilled you did that. I really am. I feel like your friends are lovely. Thank you. Your new name is Barbara as a lesbian. Okay. Barbara, just call me babs. That's your name. Papa, can you hear me? Yeah. Any. With all like the plastic surgery I've got lined up. I tell them I went in. My doctor gives me a toxic says, all right, what do you want to look like? And I'm like, I want to look like Barbara Streisand in the first young told.
Okay. I don't want to say. All right. You're we've got to think of more lesbian things for you to do, but I am thrilled you did that. I'm glad you liked it. Did you see the owner? Oh, yeah, she was there. So I saw what's my clear side. Yeah, yeah, I'm going to give a speech at the end, but yeah, I'm now clearly the representative for the entire lesbian community. I think I have my work is done. I'm my work is done. I'm at the top of the heat.
You are anyway, we've got a lot to get thrilled. We got a lot to get to today, including increasing tensions between open air and Microsoft and Elon Musk, million dollar giveaway, which raising legal questions. A lot of them plus our friends of pivot are Sean tall of Fernandez, from the cut and Lauren Sherman from Puck. They've written a new book, which is pretty interesting selling sexy Victoria's secret and the unraveling of an American icon.
They just had a new Victoria's secret show, but the previous owners were all wrapped up the Epstein and all kinds of nonsense. It's a really interesting business story of everything. Oh, wait, you had a big moment. I did. I was on one of my favorite people, Desi Lidic, who's not a lesbian, but we always she were on the Daily Show. Let's listen to a clip.
I think most startups would probably say that they get into it because they want to change the world. They want to make this a better place. They want to help society. But these companies met a Google Amazon. Do you think that there's some disillusionment that what they think that they're doing is beneficial? Oh, I never thought they thought that. I just think they just said that along with the fact they wear hoodies, but they've been casual mirror hoodies. So they've caused me to go.
So, you know, so anyway, it was fun. They she was great. That's a great show. I have to say. I do a great job. Louis came with me. I've his girlfriend. Amanda came up. We had such a ball. The thing that I noticed about that show in addition to John Stuyth and producers have done an amazing job just like fostering and ensuring all these amazing young comedians is the biggest contrast I noticed because I think I know you know this.
I've also been on but the the audience. The audience is young, cool people. I think I've gone to other big shows. It's like they empty out the senior some because they don't have a lot to do. This was people with a lot young people funny. The thing they do after is really cool. It's a cool scene. It's how I imagine the crowd at SNL would be.
Yeah, great snacks to fantastic snacks. Louis took a ball. She's a star too. She's really impressive. She wore sunglasses for me. She's just a lovely person and so funny. I think she's one of the so many Ronnie Chang is good. They're all good. Jordan Clipper and the other guy. Yeah, they're fantastic. All of them really good handsome guy. I love him. I think handsome guy. Yeah, they're handsome guy. He's very funny.
Anyway, speaking of handsome guys, Disney will name a new chief executive to replace Bob Iger in 2026 handsome Bob for division leaders at Disney's are hoping to grab Iger's spot. They are. I think it's Dana Walden. Disney's top television executive. She's also very close friend of Tacoma Harris's Josh Demaro who runs the theme parks and video games. Alan Bergman who is Disney's movie chief. I met him back in the oil a well days and Jimmy Pataro who I also know from Yahoo who runs ESPN.
The announcement came along with a board shake up James Peab Gorman the veteran Wall Street banger who joined Disney brought this year will become chairman. He's a he's an Iger affiliate, I would say any idea who is who's going to be the next Bob Iger. Yeah, since I don't know, but this was overdue. I think it was a mistake for Bob to go back and I think a lot of these companies that have had real trouble in the markets. I think I think churn is a good thing.
And as much as I love really like Bob Iger and things a great executive, I think we need to clear out. This generation and bringing a new generation of people who grew up with different mediums understand the technologies. I don't know amongst these four. I don't know any of them. If you were to pick someone. I know Jimmy Jimmy's got digital experience. That's for sure.
Right. I can't imagine the person but quite frankly I can't I mean here's the bottom line is that it's so much about luck like which division you're on and hopefully your division is growing. ESPN right now is a problem. It's it's a it's a bug not a feature. And if he can turn it around, that's great. But the theme parks and video games just from a sector standpoint that guy is going to have an easier time looking good at the right moment than the person who's running ESPN.
Yeah. What about an outside person name an outside person who you'd like to see it on it. God that's really interesting. Besides you and I which would be fantastic. I don't know. I think the most talented guy on the sidelines right now is Jeff Sucker. Yeah. But I don't I don't know I don't I don't have I don't have a vision for somebody would come and do you have any ideas.
No, I don't actually which is where we are right. Like who is like a you know, years ago, Sheryl Samberg was abandoned about for that job. It's got to be someone who does can deal with talent and also Wall Street. It's a really tough. I know who they'd like to get. They would they can't get them. What who? Ted surround us. Oh yeah. You're right. I mean, you realize Ted. Yeah. We'll talk about them in a second.
We're done a video store for for a year. I mean, the guy just has a great gut for content. He's a brilliant businessman. He's humble. He's amazing at talent. He obviously understands a new age. Now a lot of talent would say that he's single handedly is starting the margin from talent and absorbing it up until to Netflix. He's a brilliant businessman. And I don't know if you know this, but I bought Netflix at 10 bucks a share. Oh, that's a good news.
I sold it at eight and it's now at 700. I literally want to find a time machine so I can go back and kill me and then kill myself. That would be my Gulfstream right now. I'm not better. I have a name done a Langley at Universal. I think she's presented over a lot of really big successes. Allegant, beautiful person, very sharp. Everybody likes her doing really well there.
You know, she's she's someone that's a really I think is just well liked and sharp as a friggin' tack. I would put her in the list. Yeah. Anyway, it'll probably be someone internally probably I'm guessing either Josh or Dana Walden. One of those. I don't know. She's been around. She's a fox. Remember she's she's been around the block. I think you know, she's probably her and this if Harris wins. She she gets a big up. I think I was suspect she gets a big up. They are very actual good friends.
But speaking of test, Randos netflix shares are up 7% after reporting Q3 earnings. The streamer beat expectations on earnings for share and revenue and saw a 35% quarter record of jump for its ad supported membership tier add tier counted for over 50% of sign ups. That's crazy. They've made it work. The company said it expects Q4 revenue to rise 14% to 10.3.13 billion and expects a 12% growth revenue in 2025. I mean, they've also got hit shows all over the place.
The nobody wants this. This little wrong calm is doing really well. All kinds of shows. I think Apple is keeping up with a couple of their shows, but and some others. There's good shows all over the streaming environment right now. This is now a good strategy. Netflix is one step ahead of them at all times, you know, in everything they're running away with it or they or pass on. They've ran away from it. They keep running.
I mean, there's a couple things that it's that struck me about Netflix. The first is for the first time in their history of the last two years. They haven't increased their content budget, which is them saying we've kind of won and don't need to because they they have the money.
They've achieved capital with their stock price, but they've sort of because of the riders strike transferring power to people who already had a large content bank in the reality is none of us were none of us are thinking I'm going to I'm going to unsubscribe from Netflix because my content bank is it's it's shrunk from 24 months of shit. I need to get to 22 months.
And so they their stock went just a ship while everyone else went down, but also for the first time more than half their content now is being produced outside of the US. And while Los Angeles will never be destroyed because it has in an out burger. Los Angeles productions way down. Go ahead.
The spending on content is actually up to percent this year. So it's basically flat, but it's moving from L.A. to Albuquerque to Dublin, Ireland to Madrid to South Korea. So basically Netflix is globalizing the production of the supply chain of the content industry.
And it's it's taking a real toll on the existing creative community. And then you add in the fact that Netflix is only the second largest streamer. They think that the largest or not YouTube is the largest streamer. And then you pull up additional 10 or 15 billion a year and oxygen out from the incremental growth from YouTube and tick tock.
And this industry is just being it's being reshaped around Netflix, YouTube and tick tock. That's true. And the existing players are just getting killed. They're just fine. They have some good shows. There are good shows. I think but like they've got right now nobody wants us, which is the zeitgeist show right now, which is about a hot rabbi. Essentially this monsters, the lion Eric Menendez, or as it started, they may get out of jail with the attention. This has brought them.
You know, they've got obviously their old things like love is blind. They got stranger things, etc, etc. And I think what's really interesting. I mean, they've got they just just like one after the next after the next and some of them are just OK, but you see big celebrities like Holly Berry.
Like all these big names are in there, you know, in all the streamers, which is interesting, but then they have things like you and yellow jackets and the Lincoln lawyer, these shows that are in the diplomat they're bringing that back for us. I don't know if you heard, but there is an original scripted drama about big tech that literally had every streamer bidding on it. And they chose to go in that place. I think that's something.
You did. I'm excited to see how I think you picked exactly the right place. I think you're going to hit it. I was a tough one. I absolutely love HBO. That was a tough one. I know, but I think it's right in this ad support. By the way, I had absolutely no influence over who we went with. I know, but I think it's good. I'm just kind of the tech guy. They they they they I'm going to interview you when it premieres at the Paris theater, which Netflix owns. They just they pass away.
We do it at the camp film festival. I want to go with the Paris. Julia Binoche. I would like Julia or Maude. I see myself with either of those people because they don't see the pipe intimidates me. She's she's too crazy hot. Yeah, she's going to ignore you completely. I need to go with an 80s sex. Oh, hello. She'll go like that. Oh, hello. I love her and all the bond movies and stuff. Okay, let's get to our first big story.
Sam Altman once called open a eyes relationship with my show soft the best romance in tech, but that love is starting to fade according to report in the New York Times, which some of Microsoft are pushing back on to me recently. I just I got a lot of text.
Financial pressure on open AI and concerns about its ability have contributed to attention between the cookies is super expensive. Open AI employees have also complained that Microsoft is not providing enough compute power. That's going to be a normal complaint. Some of the attention is also tied to Microsoft's hedging its AI bets and spending
650 million dollars to hire Mustafa Suleiman and most of the employees from inflection. Sam Altman and several open AI executives are probably not happy about that move when I interviewed Mustafa earlier this month. I asked about the team's relationship with open AI. Let's listen to that exchange.
What is the relationship between them? Are you competitors? What do you know? No, no, no, we're siblings, you know, sometimes siblings are competitive. Yeah, sometimes they squawful, but largely we're on the same team. You know, so and that that's amazing for us like we collaborate closely with them on everything from, you know, the research side to core infrastructure and so on.
Obviously we build competing products, right? And I think that's healthy and a natural part of things and so it's a good relationship. Do you buy that and what do you think about this situation or these companies stuck with each other? Could they actually go their separate ways?
No, they're too inexplicably linked. The agreement is that I think up until 100 billion Microsoft gets 49 or 51% of the profits. They're, they're like Simon's twins, but that doesn't mean they don't like each other. And at some point someone takes out a steak knife and threatens to cut the corpus and half. They're so pissed off of the other.
The issue I find with stuff like this and it's the most, in my opinion, the most challenging thing in business is compensation. And imagine you're this brilliant young systems engineer or AI, you know, AI developer at Microsoft. And you're working in there's three of you on your team or five of you or 20 of you and you're working with the team at OpenAI and you collaborate and integration.
The folks at OpenAI who've been there three years, say you've both been there at your respective firms three years, right? They're doing the same thing to working together similar skill set and the folks at OpenAI their options are worth $40 million. And the folks of Microsoft their options are worth 400,000.
It's like it reminds me of Bane Consulting firm started a division called Bane Capital and they lifted in Mitt Romney, I think it was a founder. They lifted a few of the best and brightest consultants out. And all of a sudden, hey, remember Lisa, he used to sit next to us and try and tell Mars how to if they should go into Thailand or to tell the, you know, to tell the Libyan government how to improve their image even though they're murderous.
Lisa is now at Bane Capital and I heard she just she got $4 million off her latest deal and we're making 400,000. So I always go to the money. I would bet the friction here is different levels of compensation between people working together. I would, I would imagine that causes a lot of dissent within Microsoft.
Yeah, that's a really smart point. Well, there's also questions about Microsoft's equity stake and governance rights when OpenAI becomes a for profit company. Both Microsoft and OpenAI have a higher investment banks to advise them on this process. So that's also going to be another issue. But you can imagine Microsoft's like we're $3 trillion company, you're $150 billion company and we've got this brilliant young man.
It would be impossible for Sam Altman not to have a little bit of a God complex right now and think, you know, my dick is 11 inches even if it's not. And Microsoft is used to a commit Microsoft is used to a command to control structure. And as far as Microsoft is concerned, it's like we're on top bitches. We we invest a lot of money. We've been very supportive here and the folks and so they probably think, okay, we just need to diversify a little bit away from a company we can't totally control.
And then OpenAI says wait, you're diversifying, but you don't want you want us to coordinate not compete. I imagine there's tension and flare ups and border scrimmages everywhere. Yeah, and of course, do we get enough resources? Are we getting enough sources? Anyways, they're difficult thing. Meanwhile, former OpenAI CTO mirror maraudies reported raising funds from BC's for a new AI startup. Of course she is. And as did the previous people who left like the asset skiver.
Proplexity is also now in funding talks looking to double its valuation to more than 8 billion. Competitive threats, it seems like everyone who worked for OpenAI is starting their own company, the safety company, even though they're raising an enormous amount of money. Dow Jones and your pie post by the way filed a lawsuit against proplexity for copyright infringement. That's the company that a lot of people are targeting. This is just going to happen. This funding is going to continue correct.
I mean, the bottom line is once you have a hundred acts return like this and the future looks bigger and brighter and it's it's one step away from the best performing stock in history and video. Everyone's looking for places to put money in AI and why not go with the guys who aren't at 150 there at 40 I personally think that if we're talking about the LLMs, I think that OpenAI is basically running away with it.
The Netflix, the Netflix of the sector. That's right. And Netflix was the Amazon media and OpenAI is going to raise a ton of money pull away from I think. Anthropic and Claude with their relationship with Amazon will be the kind of the lift to OpenAI's Uber, maybe a little stronger the Pepsi to their Coke. Proplexity has a really nice brand positioning. It's seen as AI search, which is brilliant brand positioning.
I think the rest of these folks, especially at the money they're raising at my advice to any of these companies raising would be to slow your role around valuation because this is the hard part when I was raising for money for red envelope. I knew the froth was incredible and I went on I raised money at evaluation of 120 million. And and the problem was within about a year post 2000 it was worth 40 to 60 and it just creates all sorts of dysfunction at the board level.
And also with employees who are all like I'm rich. Well, I'm not. And I'm and then you have some people in the boardroom who are I'm going to board right now in the way their view of the CEO is entirely based on when they invested. The people who invested recently are like, what the fuck is going on here? We're not we don't have any affinity for this guy's idiot fucking decisions.
And the early investors are like, Oh, cut her some slack. And I'm like, well, that's because you're up 10 acts on your investment. I get why you are very forgiving. But the folks who invested last year are probably down 30%. Anyways, it's mismatched durations smart advice. They won't take it. They will grab as much.
They sort of have I mean, this is a tough one because they sort of have a responsibility to protect sort of existing shareholders and not take the dilution. But if I look at you know that graph that shows time to mass adoption, you know, TV took 10 or 20 years. And then the facts took five years and Instagram took three years, the cycle time to mass adoption of a 10 X product is getting shorter and shorter. And unfortunately that also means the time to monopoly or do.
And I think that do uply is already formed here. I think it's open video. The Netflix of anyway, we'll see what happens. I think they're going to raise money and they're not going to listen to a very good piece of voice you just gave actually.
And also for the latest episode of on with carousel, I interviewed Robert Downey, Jr. He's starring in the Broadway plate McNeil, which gets into some ethics of morality issues around AI. I asked about the implications for Hollywood who is doing some lawsuit, some deals, etc. Let's listen.
So Robert, these images are deep fakes of you and others. They use Genevieve to create these digital replicas. Tony Stark died in the Avengers endgame. They could resurrect him without you existing now given how much body work you have. And do you have a writer to protect your likeness, something you want in your contracts going forward.
I'm not worried about them hijacking my character soul because there's like three or four guys and gals who make all the decisions there anyway and they would never do that to me with or without me. So future executives certainly will. Well, you're right. And I would like to hear state that I intend to sue all future executives. Just on spec. You'll be dead Robert.
I know, but my law firm will still be very active. It was an interesting discussion. He was he's a very sharp cookie. This is a really interesting show. But you know, it is interesting. He has an enormous body of work and one of the great actors of our time. Really, he won the Oscar, you know, a choplin. Right. No, he won it for Oppenheimer. But it was interesting because he really does think about these things, but there is it'll be interesting. What happens to actors like him going forward?
Because he's coming back, by the way, as Dr. Doom, he's becoming a villain, which is interesting because we did we get we touched really briefly on Elon and he was sort of like, yeah, yeah, that guy. Not me. Not he's not playing me because he on thinks he's stony stark and Tony Stark does not think he is a lawn in many ways. Anyway, let's go on a quick break.
We come back Donald Trump's closing arguments take a vulgar. That's the word they're using vulgar term. It's penis jokes, Scott, and then you're the expert. So we'll talk about it and we'll speak with friends of pivot. Sean Tell for Nandes and Lauren Sherman about the rise of all victorious secret really fascinating business story.
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Scott, we're back with two weeks to go into election day. The presidential candidates are making their closing arguments in very different ways. The president, Kamala Harris, focused on abortion rights that are rallying in Atlanta over the weekend and visited black churches and a push for early voting. Former president Donald Trump had a stage managed photo op at a McDonald's serving fries to supporters in a closed place. That was after a rally where he shared a story about.
Golf or Arnold Palmer's penis by the way, his daughter today said, honor Palmer did not like Donald Trump thought that was grotesque. You're the expert on penis jokes. Why don't you, what did you think of this penis joke he made? I don't know. It represents. So, all right, the person who wants to be commander in chief from represent us to allies and enemies and to parliament's around the world, you got to put on tie.
And that is, you're going to church, you got to put on a tie. You're going to a funeral, you got to put on a tie. You want to be president of the United States. You just secure that shit. You, you, you equate yourself and you compose yourself with a certain level of decorum. You are the ultimate statesman. Full stop. So that at a minimum, it sort of says it just reflects poorly on this person's qualifications to command that role to.
And I don't like to say this, but I think it's true. I think that is a big part of his appeal because I think for the last 30 or 40 years, politicians stood in front of people and told them whatever they thought they wanted to hear and use PG 13 or g rated analogies and language in people just felt like I'm just sick of being lied to.
They want to penis joke like this. Yeah, but I think part of it's part of his appeal care because he's raw. I hate to use this word. He is authentically accrued and coarse person. And there's a certain level of that outrageousness that I think appeals to his base.
I don't. I think he seems cognitively disabled. I think this is lack of inhibition. I don't think this was planned. I think, you know, I have heard from people who spend time with him. He is kind of, he is kind of dirty in person, right? Like in privately, he tells dirty jokes and stuff. I think he's lost his fucking mind. I think he's cognitively to say it. And he doesn't have control. And I stopped just doing it on.
And I think he's just pain as which is gross, I think. And I think a lot of independence don't like it much. Didn't like that one. There's one thing to be funny. The other thing that it's just weird and creepy. I think I'm not so sure it is appealing. This new one.
But here's the problem. Yeah. The strategy works here because we're talking about this, which people don't really care about. Instead of saying, OK, if he implements tariffs and cuts down on immigration, it's going to be wildly inflationary.
And so he'd rather, hey, look over here, am I already just behavior? The people who don't like him, be indignant about it. The people who do like them don't care. Instead of having a thoughtful conversation around policies that would be massive inflationary for America. So quite frankly, he wins on this stuff. Yeah. It's true. He's willing to go low. When they go low, I go lower, very low or subterranean.
There's such a contrast in these two candidates. I mean, you know, Jim Gaffigan at one of those dinners was like, I if you don't understand the contrast, I don't know what's wrong with you. There's a lot of surrogates out there. Michelle and Barack Obama both hitting the campaign trail with Harris this week. Liz Cheney is campaigning with the vice president and Elon Musk is doing town halls and Pennsylvania engaging in some potentially illegal practices.
You've talked about the importance of surrogates. Trump also indicated that Nikki Haley might be joining him on the campaign trail. We'll see. Do you think they're effective at this point in the game? Well, first off, actors traditionally have shown they always lean democratic, whether it's Warren, Bati and McGovern actors always seem to and there isn't a lot of evidence that that helps.
Well, I do think it's really powerful to have the Obama's out there. I think I think Secretary Buttigieg, Governor Shapiro, Governor Whitmer. I think these are powerful, articulate surrogates. And if you look at the kind of the team, you know, it's it's it's Kelly on Conway and Ted Nugin on the Trump side. It's just an Elon.
Yeah, and Elon and just going to Elon for a second, the same issue is there. I saw everyone with their hair on fire citing election election law saying just just so people don't know. Let me fill them in. Elon is randomly awarding a million dollar daily price to register swing voters who sign his packs petition supporting the first and second amendments.
Federal law says it's a crime to pay people with the intention of inducing a reward and be cast a voter get registered. Election law experts just split over whether his actions crossed the line. Let me just play this speaking of Shapiro Pennsylvania Governor Shapiro is asked about the legality of the giveaway by Kristen Welker on Meet the Press. Let's listen. When you start flowing this kind of money into politics, I think it raises serious questions that folks may want to take a look at.
So you think it might not be legal, yes or no. I think it's something that law enforcement could take a look at. I'm not the attorney general anymore. Pennsylvania, I'm the governor, but it does raise some serious questions.
See, I think this is just risk assessment by Elon. They're not going to come after him and if Trump wins, it won't matter. His allies argue because he's not directly paying for registration, but for petition signature, it's not illegal. It's very typical of him. This is a very typical risk. He would take easily, including attacking dominion systems, which I think is probably.
Not a great risk to necessarily take, but go ahead, finish what you're saying about him. It all comes down to incentives and the order of deterrence. The whole point of our criminal justice system is that criminals do the math or when you're about to commit a crime, you do a
lot of math and it's the following, the likelihood on caught times the potential penalty has to be greater than the potential upside. And one of the biggest problem that ails our society is in certain key sectors and components of our economic system, the
current deterrence is all fucked up and I'll give you a couple of very three stark examples. If I met her and I know I sit on top of research that is showing that there is a direct correlation between usage of my platform and teen depression and self cutting.
I continue to engage in this or I violate my consent degree and I knowingly violate my consent degree, I know that the likelihood I get caught that the lay and the size of the fine are vastly smaller than the upside of continuing to break the law in taxation.
I really wealthy people have an incentive to be so fucking aggressive with their taxes because their taxes are so complicated and the IRS has been till Biden so underfunded that the likelihood you'll get caught and the penalty are vastly overwhelmed by the amount of money you're going to say.
Yeah, by being incredibly aggressive on your taxes and now let's go to musk who gives a shit if it's illegal they're not going to they're not going to put him in jail they're not going to say to Trump you know the all of our election laws are the following lie cheat break the law get an office and then it'll be embarrassing and the election commission will find you and they'll shame your election your campaign manager and you're still the fucking senator.
So the the incentives until they say until there's some sort of real risk that they can shut down for example all your media spending if they say okay if this guy engages in this he could go to jail or the campaign has to stop all media spending like that. You could get an injunction if it's really blatant what incentive is there for must not to do this.
Yeah, I agree. I think everyone's like I can you believe I was been asked to be on to I was like he can he doesn't care he's not going to pay if she if he wear if Trump wins he's got free. This is a Scott free risk that he takes and if he loses she's going to have a hard time going after him and she probably won't right.
And so I think our laws especially election laws do not anticipate shameless fox like they just don't and this is Trump and this is you know as you're saying with the penis joke it's just I don't I think I think I think a lot of women who've got to be a tough yuck you. And I agree with you paying attention to him, but I think it brings to question whether he's cognitive saber and that's a negative that is showing up on pole after pole after pole is is he Biden to dirty Biden essentially.
And those numbers are showing some real residents we were showing off some stats about that easy tool to and then therefore you're voting for for JD Vance who is paid for by Peter teal and Elon Musk essentially.
So I do think it's a risk for must take and he will take it because he will be advantaged and if she wins I think he's he the risk will be problematic for him but not not fatal for him you know he'll just he'll just behave although saying she hates Christians and stuff like that shows that he's really he's also mentally has some mental problems I think the real quiet winner and this is Peter teal and I think he will take down all of them because he quietly
he's very sharp he sits behind the scenes he and Elon did not get along before this by the way at all in a way that was significant so I suspect if Trump wins there's going to be one ugly there's going to be one ugly fight going on among those people there's about a one in three chance if Donald Trump is real
elected that that he dies in office just based on his age and his body mass index that means there's a guy who was a mediocre entrepreneur VC at best served four years in Marines which he should be honored for got elected to Senate what two years ago
and this guy is bought and paid for by Peter teal it's not his service in the Marines it's not he's a smart guy it's not his book it's not any of that there's two reasons that senator rants could be a heartbeat from presidency and basically the president there's two reasons the first is Peter the second is teal
that's the one I'm watching you know I think he wants in more trouble in the front presidency then a common hairs I think he's got issues and a you know democratic issues of investigation and regulatory there is going to be an ugly fight at the top there if Trump wins I wouldn't want to be Trump I think he's among some very difficult characters I didn't see that that's interesting I didn't I didn't see that but because the way I see it again it just always
in my opinion they're not going to get a lot I'd love to write a book called incentives I just don't people connect the dots but here are the incentives and this is what's so dangerous about not immediately having a gag reflex around a move to autocracy there's greater incentive to support Trump than Harris if you're famous or your because here's the thing if you're Elon Musk and you support Trump very very visibly and Harris is elected they're not going to they're not going to punish your country
they're not going to punish your company they're not going to put you in jail they believe in rule of law yeah that's right Donald Trump is saying if I'm elected I'm going to prosecute Google to the full extent or Jews it's your fault if I don't get elected so all of the incentives are OK if I rude for this clown and he doesn't win I'm OK because the people the other side believes in rule of law they're not going to go after personal persecution but the autocrat I think he's going to have to say I'm going to have to take the money and go to the market and do the trade and that's not the problem with the other side I don't want to go to the market and then I'm going to try and do what I do and that's what I do is I'm going to have to do it and I'm going to try to get a lot of money and then I'm going to go to the market and I'm going to do it and I'm going to have to do it and I'm going to do
might come after me. I think that is what's exactly gonna happen. So who say more? What do you mean, Karen? I mean, I think Elon's in more trouble in a Trump presidency. I think he doesn't. He's the one who sort of, he's got obviously some cognitive issues. He's, you know, he's really lost his mind in many ways, allegedly. I think Teal is pulling all the strings here. I just, Peter Teal is quiet and deadly.
He loves us, he's loud and he just reminds me of some of these oligarchs that ended up not living. But, but the whole point of a democracy, the whole point of having different branches of governments and members of Congress and three branches and a military, a secretary of fence that comes from a civilian background, not a military. All of these things are meant to put in place, checks and balances.
And we're about to, for the first time, I think maybe there's someone else where essentially you have one man, Peter Teal, who could literally control the president. There is no, something, something Peter Teal will never hear from a vice president or potentially a president, Vance, something he will never hear is no. That's right. Ever. He's the one I'm watching. I'm not watching, he's just a ridiculous circus of a person.
I know I think it'll end badly for him, but Peter Teal is the one I'm looking at. Anyway, we'll see. Let's bring in our friends, a pivot. Teal Fernandez is a fashion features writer at the cut and Lauren Sherman is Pucks fashion corresponded together. They've written a new book selling sexy, Victoria's Secret and the unraveling of an American icon. Welcome both of you. Hi, thank you for having us. Thanks for having us.
This, the New York Times Review puts it at this book is about bras in the same way that citizen Kane is a movie about a sled, which is to say not at all. Talk about this because this is a business story and for people who don't know, Victoria just started their fashion shows again after a very controversial, some of the executive, one particular one that had a marketing, feels like a sexual harassor of the old school. But talk a little bit about what the story you wanted to tell.
Why don't we start Chantal? Yeah, Victoria's Secret has been so connected to the zeitgeist for decades and we really sought as a window into the American consumer psyche. It's a brand that so many women have had a hate love relationship with, but it was so dominant. It really didn't have any meaningful competitors at its peak. And we really wanted to explore how that happened. How did such a tiny boutique come to dominate a really utilitarian category and turn it into a fashion category.
And it was also a way to talk about the rise of specialty retail, which Les Wexner, who acquired Victoria's Secret from its original founders and scaled it. So impressively, you know, he didn't invent specialty retailing, but he sort of perfected that model and through telling the story of specialty retail, it's a way to talk about the way that American fashion has evolved since the 1950s and all of these really fascinating ways.
And Lauren and I wanted to write this book because there was the Victoria's Secret downfall was really a marketing angle in the media that the angels were out of touch. But it was also, we felt there was the business story there that hadn't been told that really also led to the challenges that that brand had. And Lauren, they, Wesner is a really unusual character, I think. He obviously shaped Victoria's Secret and brought it to, like very similar to what happened at Starbucks.
There was an original Starbucks and then Howard Schultz made it into Starbucks essentially. And his maximum for the business was we sell hope, not help. He obviously was close with Jeffrey Epstein who reportedly used his ties to him to lure young women. Talk a little bit about him, Lauren. So he, it was sort of proto fast fashion. He changed the way we all shop. And I think everything Sean Tall said American culture is consumer culture.
And he was hugely important in the making of the American mall is like a part of society. And he very, very early his parents were in the trade like many Jewish immigrants. And he very early saw what his parents were doing. They owned a small store and realized, oh, the price value equation of the clothes they're selling isn't right. I could be making things cheaper without brand names. And people would buy them because they would feel like they were better value.
So it was all about value value, value pre-Wexner owning Victoria's Secret. It was more like a Barney's. There was sets. This is like late 70s and you could buy a Braun underwear set that was $2,000 there. And he bought it like all the old executives, the first thing they talked about was the $20 red teddy that he brought to market. And he kind of took the style that the Raymond's, the original founders created and scaled it and made it cheaper and faster.
And so he's a very interesting character as personal life too. And the relationship he had with Epstein and how much control he gave Epstein over his life, he gave him power of attorney a couple years after they met. And this is a guy who was very closed off and had really only worked with people he knew since high school. A lot of his first business partners were people he grew up with.
So it's a very strange, strange relationship that we get into and it's sort of their relationship and the rise in fall of Epstein sort of mirrors the rise in fall of Victoria's Secret. So why? Why was Epstein? I think, you know, there is like you could get psychology 101 here. Wexner is a very shy, closed off person who did not feel comfortable in New York City in the 80s.
There's a big New York magazine profile from I think 85 where Wexner's sort of like on the scene in the city and Epstein provided, you know, as everyone knows, he was charismatic. He had a lot of connections, really powerful people trusted him. And so I think Epstein was sort of a buffer to all these things that made Wexner really uncomfortable and he felt protected by him.
He also, you know, as Epstein came in, Wexner's mother who had been like a very controlling figure in his life, Bella had worked at the company essentially since it started. She sort of receded to the background. Epstein took her role on a board of a charity that they worked on. Like there were all these things where Epstein's presence allowed him to kind of get rid of, there's this guy Bob Moroski who had worked with him since the beginning. They fired him.
Like it allowed him to kind of be like a henchmen type thing. It's nice to meet you both. So my sense is the Epstein scandal makes for interesting media and articles, but it had almost nothing to do with this downfall. I just don't buy it. I think this is a story of merchandising that missed the mark. And there's been a ton of scandal. The founder of Abercrombie and Fitch did not rape himself in glory and they've had an unbelievable renaissance.
When I think of Les, I think he got something very right and very wrong. He actually was known, especially retails, the guy that first brought data, like hard data science to, to especially retail. He said, that's how I remember him. But the whole angels, this unattainable aesthetic, the merchandise, it just kind of like most specially retail. Isn't this just a story of quite frankly and it's not sexy, but they just got the product wrong for a really long time.
Yeah, I think by the time the conversation turned against the angels and it was seen as culturally out of step, they already had a lot of merchandising problems. You know, they're the way that business was structured between e-commerce and stores was completely separate, they had invested in e-commerce. There was the rise of the bra let, you know, that kind of underwire molded cup bra that was their bread and butter, their highest light. That's for sure.
Yeah, if they're active where it had been stronger when all of this happened, they probably wouldn't be in the position they are now. We really pinpoint it to their miss on the bra let. That's sort of foreshadowing when the bra let became really popular in culture about 10, 11 years ago. There were a lot of executives internally who were pushing it and Wexner in particular was like, no, again, we sell hope, not help.
Our vision of sexy is an underwire bra also underwire bra, they're more expensive, they have higher margins and they're harder to make. We see that as sort of the turning point that active where stuff for sure to and we cover that in the book, but I really see the sort of, they really miss the mark on the bra let and that meant they miss the mark on like everything that was happening in culture and marketing. Which happens to many retailers, right? There happens to many.
I mean, if you don't get cool lots versus petal busher as your fuck, do I remember several stores here in the Washington area that I covered retail for seven years and they missed one thing, especially if they were on trend, but you read about the company and it applied them digitally because they were ahead. They had an early website live streaming these shows. They took advantage of Facebook and Instagram. What happened from your perspective?
I think Waxner underestimated the power of e-commerce and especially in the 2010s when there were all these direct to consumer startups coming into the space and the technology was really evolving. There wasn't that investment at the company and he was a great interview that he did around that time saying that smartphones would be a fat and that people would want to shop in person.
He saw especially the bra as something that women were going to want to shop in person for and he felt he was an outlier like the Apple store is a forer that would always draw higher than average traffic in the mall. While there is some truth to that in terms of women wanting to try and bras, the convenience of e-commerce, obviously we all know, it was something that they needed to invest in and they really just weren't until really 2019, which is crazy.
You guys have a retail, I'm curious if you agree with this, but the turnaround that I think doesn't get the attention it receives is Abercrombie and Fitch. We could, when I say we, I was on the board of Urban Outfitters, we could about Abercrombie and Fitch or two to 500 million just like five years ago. Now it's going to market cap of 8 billion. Do you think there is any opportunity or likelihood? A victory secret has lost huge awareness.
Obviously, a very strong distribution, or I would imagine a ton of leases, some of which are still pretty good. Do you think that there is any possibility of an Abercrombie like turnaround for the firm? Sean Toll actually did a great profile for New York Magazine on the business and what they've done with it.
It's a very different business, as you know, bras and fashion and victory secrets is going to incorporate more clothing into the business again, but it's not a seasonal of a business, it's more about replenishment. And so much smaller, well, Abercrombie is much smaller than victory secret. So they're very, very different businesses and the distribution that Victoria Secret has means that it is still giant. It's still a six billion dollar year.
Now that's the product they're shipping, the margin on that is terrible. So it's shrinking. So the business, I see it probably continuing to shrink, shrink, shrink. It's probably a healthy probably a two three billion dollar business and right now six billion too much would be more profitable to be smaller. But I think, yes, I think there's definitely an opportunity for it to have a Renaissance. And Abercrombie was really smart that they didn't rely on the old imagery.
They used the same billing blocks, jeans, cute tops, sweaters, but they made it modern and they divorced it from the Bruce Weber of it all. Victoria Secret. I don't know if they have like the three savvy executives in place at this moment. They just got a new CEO. We'll see what she does. But a lot of that credit us to do with Fran Horowitz and seeing her merchandiser and her marketer and the three of them working together and using the data right. So it's possible.
Right. So, but they just Victoria Secret just fashion show returned after a six year hiatus in the wake of a me too and other controversies. You Swiss beer reinvention for the brand and the show got mixed reviews at best. One critic called it a relic of another time. What do you think of what they did there and why? It did feel weird to see it, right? And then the competitors, is it Kim Kardashian's skims or some of these fashion companies, Shantel? Yeah, Skims, Ari, Rihanna's brand.
Those are some of the main competitors beyond sort of the department store brands that don't have much marketing like Wacol or Naturi. The fashion show I think was interesting. It was an opportunity for them to get a lot of organic media coverage. There was a ton of coverage last week. Clips all over social media. I think the lesson from Abercrombie is that there's a lot to be gained in focusing on the product over the fantasy or the marketing.
And that seems to not be the priority still of Victoria Secret. Though with this show, they pushed on the Amazon streaming. A lot of it was shoppable in a way that it never was before and was never part of the strategy before. I think it's hard to say it will see how the results are, but I don't think it moved to the needle culturally positive or negatively for the brand. And I'm sure they spent a ton of money on it.
And they have a new CEO, Hillary Super, who came from Rihanna's brand, who only started about a month ago. So perhaps her priorities will evolve. And this show was planned long before she was hired. So it's interesting to track, but yeah, I think there was one reaction I thought was really interesting is especially younger people wanted a campier version of the show, because that's what they remember from the 2010s. And this show was not that campy. It was more sophisticated.
They had the former Vogue Paris editor in chief, styling it at a manual all. So they were going for that fashiony angle and it doesn't really seem like that's what younger people wanted. Yeah, it felt very Joan Collins. I'm just curious. When you look at the world, especially retail, who do you admire the most? Who do you think is just killing it right now? I really love skims.
I think it's so interesting the way they've taken the Victoria's Secret playbook and twisted it in subtle, but profound ways. And I think Yens and Emma agree they were the couple behind that are really sharp merchants and understand again, how to mix that focus on product and marketing. The thing about the Kim Kardashian brand that's a polarizing family as well. But you hear that word of mouth is saying, oh, this product is actually good. And you never hear that about Victoria's Secret.
And I think they could engineer that kind of conversation if they focused on it. They have a lot of product. But I think skims has just been, they've been having fun with the Victoria's Secret model and, you know, bringing back some of their former angels. And in a way that a Victoria's Secret, I think, has still been sort of in an apologetic era that they seem to be coming out of now with this show, but has been dogging them recently.
I think the question for skims is whether or not, when they only have four or five stores right now, whether or not they can do retail is important. And having a ton of distribution is important. Victoria's Secret has 800 stores. That's way too many. But like a store, what's a store for? The value of a store is different now. And so can skims figure out how to make those stores productive?
Whether that means people leaving the store and buying stuff online immediately or buying a ton of stuff in store, that's the big question for me on that front. I mean, I would say generally in specialty retail, I think most companies have not figured out how to make the stores productive. They need to exist, but what does that mean? And there are a lot of big questions from me on that end. And there's no exact answer.
But the big thing is these stores are big capital expense, like they cost a lot of money. And so how do you make them worth, they need to exist, but how do you make them worthwhile and not a road margins and all that stuff. So you know, you have a machine and the others, you know, glow and stuff like that or mouji, they're just fine. They're just, you know, they, of course, they have big stores in New York, but not everywhere. Hello, Restoration Hardware Sephora.
There's a bunch of stores that are working. In the future, how does that look? Because they open and close very quickly. The stuff is, I don't see Victor as you can have any advantage whatsoever when all those are there. I think shorter leases and more understanding that this is cyclical. Like, Aloe right now is on top, but they tried to raise, I forget it, like a really crazy valuation last year and they weren't able to raise the money.
So everybody thinks Aloe is so great, but they're opening stores like crazy. They have a very interesting business where they have a blanks business that they run under another name that fueled the Aloe business. But like, what's it going to be in two years when people are sort of over that aesthetic if they're not able to evolve? It's a tale as old as time, right? Especially retailer gets, it's hot. They raise a ton of capital. They spend like trunk and sailors. They over expand.
It's the story of Restoration Hardware. It's the story of all of them. Which is why Victoria's Secret is so impressive because they survived many of those cycles already before. So why has this cycle been so tricky for them? I have an idea. I want to pitch all three of you around Victoria's Secret and I want to get you a reaction. I saw that fashion show and they're trying to have it both ways. I think they absolutely got it like, pouring it up.
I think they should basically have the hottest men and women and do something with only fans and have a show where basically everyone should just ridiculously fucking hot people naked everywhere. I think they need to embrace their roots, your thoughts. I'm, I'm Bob, I'm underwear from Uniclo. I was saying. I don't want to fuss. And Uniclo shares just crashed. I like the idea of them doing something more dramatic, like excluding more people like we need to do it.
They're trying to be sort of appealed to everyone and I think that's tough. I just don't think a fashion show is the answer. Like if you all looked at their marketing on Instagram, it's terrible. That's where they should be putting the money. If they want to use only fans like that, the high fashion has embraced only fans in certain cases and it's worked really well. I think that's a clever idea, but they need to be where the customer is and right now.
Like the other big thing is product is king at the moment. People actually think their experts on what product is good and bad and their product is not great. And so there's no one on TikTok. On TikTok, everybody's like, Abercrombie and jeans fits so well. No one's saying that about a victorious secret bra. Because what sells it now is comfort, not sex. You know, if they want to be this huge cross cultural brand, it's about comfort. Yeah. Sorry.
100% are you could, the inverse, you could I personally think if you took it, Athleisure or Lulu Lemon and Victoria's Secret, they're inversely correlated. I think women have gone to Athleisure and away from this. I mean, you literally, Lulu Lemon arguably the best performing special retailer of the last 15 years. And it's just kicked the shit out of Victoria's Secret. It's taken all that margin and all that. Yeah, the world, the world is, the world is dramatically changed.
I can't get over though. Well, it's the longer conversation. I love specially retail. I really, really enjoy your work. All right. Thank you. Sean Tal, Fernandez, and again, the book is selling sexy, Victoria's Secret and the unraveling of an American icon. Thank you so much. Thank you both. All right, Scott, I love how you come alive when it comes to specialty retail. You love that specialty. Who built Williamson, I'm a stress website in 1994 here. Yeah, I know. I like that.
I like that about you. You have a lot of expertise. Anyway, one more quick break. We'll be back for wins and fails. Support for the show comes from United for Business. Part of building a successful business is deciding what you stand for and to make that mission happen, you also need to figure out what you fly for. For all your business travel needs, you can rely on United Airlines. I'm a big flyer of United Airlines and I love it. I am a premier 1K.
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To critically acclaim series, the diplomat returns for his second season starring Carrie Russell. A deadly explosion in the heart of London Shatters US Ambassador Kate Wilersworld, as she struggles to rebuild the lives that broke and help her team that's been split apart, Kate's worst fears unfold. The attack may have come from inside the British government. Watch the diplomat October 31st, only on Netflix.
And after you binge the series, listen to the diplomat, the official podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, Scott, let's hear some wins and fails. You go first. Well, my win is, I just wanted to bring some attention. I was thinking, how do I show Leanne and Pia some gratitude here? I just want to talk a little bit about the WMBA. The playoffs average, 970,000 viewers across the first 17 playoff games. That's 142 percent increase over 2023. One year, they're up to an half old.
They attracted an all-time record of more than 54 million unique viewers of season in person attendance average, 9,800 fans, up 48 percent from last season. Merchandise sales increased 600 and 1 percent from 2023. The WMBA received nearly 2 billion videos across its social media platforms, more than quadruple last season's total. So the nice thing here is at some point, this money, this incremental attendance is going to result in a TV contract in higher salaries.
The other thing could just bloom me away. I was asking all about the players. A decent number of the players on the court had given birth. Yeah, they've kids there. They're wise and slamming into each other. Anyways, my win is a WMBA. Again, thank you, Leanne. My work is to... I can now retire. And Pia for inviting me to such a great event. My loss is... I can't... I really... I know that's just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean I'm wrong.
And that is when I see young Americans and the way the things they're saying and the way they're behaving on campus and the things they say online, I really do believe that they have an entirely incorrect view of America right now. And I believe that... You've talked about a lot. Well, folks. Okay, so let's just go... I think at the end of the day, the most important thing a government can do is ensure rights, defend our borders, and also create a context or prosperity.
That's Latin for a healthy economy. Let's talk about our economy right here right now. We are at full employment. That's... We have the lowest unemployment since 1968. And if you turn on certain networks or listen to certain podcasts, they'd have you believe that it's the fucking depression. Our inflation is at 2.2%. So... It's a good... Bill Mar was pointing this out. The lowest in the G7. Okay, hold on. What about GDP? What about growth? It's the strongest in the world.
We are going to be responsible for 80% according to the World Bank of 2025 forecast in GDP. In 1990, the U.S. accounted for 2.5% of GDP of the G7. Today, it makes up half. Output per person is now 30% higher than in Western Europe and Canada and 60% higher than in Japan. Gaps that have roughly doubled since 1990. Mississippi is America's poorest state. That's the worst in the U.S. economically. But its hardworking residents earn on average more than Brits, Canadians, or Germans.
And then lately, China has gone backwards. Having closed and rapidly on America in the years before the pandemic, its nominal GDP has slipped from about 3-4% of America's in 2021 to 2-3rd today. By the way, I should note, I'm getting... I'm parroting all of this from Jeffrey Sonnefeld, my friend, and world class academic from Yale. The U.S. under Biden became the world's largest energy producer. We produce a third more energy than the Saudis and Russia.
Biden granted 50% more oil and gas drilling permits than under Trump. Biden's deficit... Trump's dark vision of this country is completely off. The Biden deficit cut the... Co- was cut by one-third, it tripled under Trump. Immigration in the last six months is far below Trump's border crossings the last six months under Trump. And unrivaled. 76 record highs in the stock market in the last year. Folks, young people? Yeah, we still have work to do, but there are 190 sovereign nations in the world.
In terms of prosperity, your rights, your ability to express who you want to be, 189 would trade places with us. So yeah, we got work to do, but also take some pause in just how ridiculously fucking lucky. And part of your stuff on hold on. Hold on. All right. So, you know, you have to be born in America. And the notion that it is really bad right now, don't buy it. Don't buy it. All right. You're sounding a little like Obama there.
I think my win was a really wonderful movie that's SNL, which I think is doing was relatively funny this week. And by the way, Billy Irish is so fantastic. They had Michael Keaton as the guest, but and Maya Rudolph was great, but they had a... I was scared about scrolling TikTok that was so funny because it was exactly true. It's this video. I go find it because it makes you laugh hysterically and they were parading all the different genres of TikTok.
And I thought it was just on point and made me laugh and laugh and laugh. And because it was exactly like TikTok is all this ridiculous stuff. And they did a beautiful job of it, which it's something that made me laugh. My fail is are these lies that keep getting. And I know you say they get attention in this and that, but what a terror. I think it dovetails into what you were talking about is that Trump just was on a thing saying that people go to school and they come back transgender.
He just repeats it again. I saw that. He's done it. He's say goodbye. Have a lovely day. You love it. You come back barber. And they come back. They come back again. Yeah, that happens all the time. Never. And like these late term abortions and these incredible lies they tell. Or just repulsive. This is not what America is. It is. These are dark and sick people. I'm sorry. Same thing with Elon Musk lying about Dominion lying about this.
Just the he did a series of lies and they have lies that are unchecked. Let me tell you something. They're not unchecked. Someday. Someday. I'm sorry. You're I think this is there's going to be such a backlash against this kind of behavior. This is failure of of of not our best natures and it's really grotesque to see some of them.
And then the Republicans defending this like Mike Johnson who is such a tool when Jake Tap was mentioning the honor of Palmer thing was like pretending it didn't matter. It does matter. This kind of discourse brings us all down. We are as God said a great country. And this is so beneath us. This dark, ugly, lying pieces of shit version of our country. We know again, fuck you. That's not what we are. We're much better than that. And I have kids. God has kids.
We have great hopes for them and and they are great people. It's just gross. These are terrible role models and the sooner they're gone, the better. Anyway, 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. Just a minute question for the show. We're called 8551 pivot. And on that note, the results from last episode's threads poll are in. In response to the question, how often are you personally using AI?
31% of you answered daily. This is amazing. 20% of you answered weekly. 31% of you answered occasionally. And 18% of you answered never. Interesting. Anything to say very quickly to the 18% who said never? When I first moved to New York, my team interviewed and hired an assistant for me. And she walked in and we were talking and she said, oh, I don't use computers. And I said, you can't work here.
If you want to begin to employ to an America, you need to understand AI the same way we needed to understand computers. Excellent. That's an excellent thing, Scott, is not having any of your shit, any of you today. Anyway, that's because he's a lesbian now. Power lesbian. Power lesbian excuse. Ten oh ladies. Okay, Barbara, that's the show. We'll be back on Friday for more. Today's show was produced by Leroy Namens, Zoe Marcus and Taylor Griffin. Ernie and her tight engineer this episode.
Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Miu Savario and Dan Shulan. And his shot is Fox 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 of Fox 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. Congratulations to the World Champion, New York Liberty.