Trump’s Controversial Picks, Bluesky’s Pop, and Spotify’s Subscriber Jump

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Hi, everyone. This is Pivot from New York magazine in the Fox Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara Swisher and I'm still not over my cold. Scott, I'm really sorry. I apologize. And in a twist of fate, I'm the one that's going to file the sexual harassment suit. We have had to watch you walk around in briefs or underwear or whatever the fuck that is.

I wear men's briefs. Yeah, I love them. Yeah, shorts. Yeah, it's like a bathing suit. That's something that's something to be enjoyed when the camera is off. I understand, but you demanded that I get to make myself tea so I don't sound quite as bad, but it's very early in the morning. I'm in San Francisco. That's where I am. Yeah, you actually look nice. You look spry. Thank you. I am spry. I think I'm still at East Coast time.

So speaking of spryme in New York, back to me. I'm in New York. Are you wearing underwear? I am wearing underwear. Okay. I don't go, Command O. Big head and the twins need a little support. Yeah, don't do, Command O. It's such a mistake always. Come to New York, you know, I'm London five hours ahead. So I discovered something I just didn't think existed. And that is people are actually up at 6 a.m. and at Equinox. I went to Equinox at 630, 1130, my time.

Oh, all of these horrible people that are super productive and get up, the gym was packed of these handsome, these gorgeous gay men who clearly have jobs. I didn't know those existed in New York. I thought everyone just had rich parents, or like, I don't know if they're writing a script or something. The gym was packed. There are morning people out there, Kara.

There are. Why did you go? What was going on? Did you just step nothing? I'm jet lagged. It was 1130, my time. I couldn't sleep. I'm up at 5 a.m. I'm like, what I'll do? I'll go to the gym. So. What did you do? What was your routine? My routine arm. I do these lame. Well, I used to, like, two years ago, I was literally doing CrossFit. Now, I'm like, have one of those things that goes around your waist and jiggles to you. And I used to, like, a little arm roller on my arm fat.

Oh, I love those. Yeah, I'm joking. I don't do that. But I can't. It's hard for me to do weights now. I do a lot of band work, which is sort of lame, but good for my shoulders. And I do. I row a lot. And then I try and do, like, you know, some dumbbell work. I love the thing I miss most is I love pullups. And it's hard for me to pullups now. Oh, yeah. To just shoulder. Not just shoulder. And you still have trainers and things like that in London.

Oh, Cara, I have an army of people trying to keep me alive. I am supporting the UK economy, whether it's my NAD treatments or it's not going to come over and like my physical therapist or, yeah, no, I'm, I'm a big keeping Scott from falling apart. I'm a big fan of the services industry. They're basically paid friends. They talk me like, how are you doing? Or they're really supportive. They're like, oh, I saw you on the daily show. You were genius. I'm like, what's that?

I'm sorry. Come again. They're just really supportive nice people. Do you remember in Florida when Alex worked out with you? Now he's really built. Alex is like built. Like you can't believe now. He's white LeBron. The guys have fucking specimen. I know he really is. Like he works out now. He did. But they have a little gym in the bottom of their frat. That's where he and he does it by himself. Just.

I love it though. He looks, in by the way, there's a lesson here. I really do believe that any man under the age of 30. The our bone structure, our double twitch muscle and then this amazing substance called testosterone flows over it. I think any man under the age of 30 and Alex has leaned into this should be able to walk in any room and know that a shit got real. They could kill and eat everybody or out.

Oh, okay. I don't want the sun to do that. Well, I'm not suggesting you do that. But men who are really physically fit. If you ever see a guy break up a fight at a bar, it's the strongest guy in the room. Well, sometimes sometimes it's the strongest guy. Some of those boneheads that are all jacked up causing it to right. I have found the opposite that when you get strong, you become more kind. And I think this has a lot to do with masculinity.

I think real men defend their country. They don't shit post it. Notice all the people that are trying to be macho by show me someone. Let me first way. What do you think Stephen Miller looks like naked? Yeah, not he looks weak. Why did you put that in my head? Why did you just literally put that in my head? Look at all these tech bros who talk all big and macho and tough. You know, what do you think that what kind of shape these thing there in when you get strong.

They're no Arnold Palmer. That's what I would say. They're no Arnold Palmer. When you get strong, I really do believe this. I think you become more kind because you feel better about yourself and you're less insecure. I have to say I encourage Alice to work out. And you know, it's just good for his mental health for young people. I think to have 100%. But not just that, but just have other hobbies, do other things that aren't work.

And by the way, be more attractive to potential mates because it's not it's not just much that you know, big biceps. When you're physically fit, it says to potential mates, friends and employers. I show up. I'm disciplined. I can commit to something. So I'm a huge fan. I am too. I have a trainer. I go three times a week. I go. I know you do. I love that.

The first thing I saw Alex, we got on a boat. And the first thing I said is like, dude, take off your shirt. And he's like gun shows in town. Listen, Matt Gates. He didn't even he didn't even think that was weird that an old man was saying, take off your shirt. He's like ripped it off. And he's like gun shows in town.

He's he did think it was weird. He's just super polite and stuff like that. So, you know, by the way, oh, did you hear about my Chris Wallace situation? He left the network in a flurry of flouncing. So Chris, yeah, I heard Chris is out and that he's he's going into podcasting like, come on in Chris. The water's fine. Come on in.

Anyway, they have is they're pretending to I have to tape tomorrow and they're pretending it didn't happen, which is why cable has a problem. I was like, I'm going to say Chris come over to podcasting. It'll be fun. Good luck. We'll kill you. But they don't want me to say that.

Okay, so I have no inside information. I just know what's been reported. First off, let me say expensive. They're all too expensive. He's a great journalist. That's exactly right. Chris Wallace is an icon. He's had an amazing career. And my understanding is based on what I've read in the trades is that when CNN plus was a thing and they wanted to bring him over. So you know, plume, they were they're paying an eight million bucks a year.

And I bet they decided this guy's an icon. He's amazing and given the environment. We can pay him a million a year. And I think this is a conversation that is happening all across cable TV right now is when people's contracts are coming up. I think they're saying the following. How do we love you? We need you to take an 80% cut and pay and how does like what? I'm going to go drink white wine and start a podcast. How can I keep up with my NID supplements?

That's exactly right. So I would imagine and I don't know this. They said to Chris, we love you. The economics of this business are just do you realize that I met with another guy who used to run CNN and lovely guy. And he said that 2020 versus 2024 viewership at CNN.

And the cable networks is down 50%. It is. It is the numbers are tough. It's been cut in half cut in half. Kara. I'm my God. I mean, I've 50% decline in in viewership. And I'm still just blown away by the fact that MSNBC the typical viewers is a seven year old white woman. It's like, OK.

You know, it's interesting. I was just thinking I'm thinking a lot of luck as I was irritated because they're like, we're not going to discuss it on the show. And I was like, why it's funny. It's interesting. It's a cool topic. Where are you going? Chris. Yeah. We go and like it's so stupid and they're pretending like we don't break the fourth wall was what I've been told that I'm like, well, I do.

I have no idea. It's like the wall. I was like, you can't have relationship with viewers unless you tell them what's going on, right, including about yourself. And it's a really cool discussion to have if you're honest with your son. 100% super interesting. Right. And they're like, don't say anything. I'm like, oh my God. Whatever. It's your station. If you want to run it that way, but put, you know, file it under death of cable television. But one of the things I think is interesting.

Television only had one way to go. And then they wanted to streaming and all kinds of ways. I think that's where you are with cable. You can make interesting shows that become digital. I think Thompson has a very difficult situation ahead of him and continues to as do all the cable companies cable networks. But remember when TV was was dying and it was declining. It was broadcast television, but television wasn't right.

Video wasn't so how do you then how do you translate something like a CNN into something that's popular again, right. How do you get it to the right people? It's not like the content all the content is bad. Some of its ridiculous. But how do you do that? That's what's interesting to me. Like doesn't have the same trajectory that that broadcast television does, which has never been more vibrant, right. Netflix is worth a fortune.

And I think that's a lot of people. But I don't know. It's just an interesting. I think about this a lot. CNN is going to increase in value of the next two to three years because what they're probably going to do is reduce costs by 20 to 40%. And my fear of my cautionary tale and Mark Thompson does not ask me this. But CEOs tend to look at their most successful season and China replicated not recognizing the world has changed. And I'd be shocked if Mark Thompson wasn't thinking the following.

Find find and or create a bunch of incremental content that I can put behind a paywall because he's going to take the playbook that was very successful from the New York Times where they built a really nice subscription business by moving the paywall increasingly forward and having more subscription products. CNN. I don't think that's the right strategy CNN still has the most traffic news side in the world. That's worth a lot.

But he talks about that a lot. And because everyone has gone behind a paywall because they listen to the market that valued every dollar from subscription at 3x what they were value like a Netflix like that 100%. So unfortunately though the consumer has been trained that for every dollar a month you pay subscriptions you should get a billion dollars with a content whether it's Netflix or Spotify.

I mean those you want to talk about a consumer value when I get 18 billion dollars of content for 12 bucks a month and I get I don't know I didn't how you measure the dollar value of Spotify with every single podcast or music music ever song ever written for whatever is 899 or 10 bucks a month.

That is the measuring stick for consumer now what it's happened in this is the opportunity and this is why you know we we decided every six months to say no to the idea of putting pivot behind a paywall is that advertisers still need a way to reach consumers. And the most valuable consumers are getting harder and harder to reach because between Netflix and Spotify there's nowhere to find them with your ad on the release of wicked or the new range Rover or the new air Jordan whatever it is.

So if you're in the business of good content that is out supported I think it's actually pretty good time because all of these companies still need to find these consumers I agree I agree I find it really there's a whole new way once you begin to cook there obviously there's rumors of layoffs but then these spin offs are interesting.

And then everything gets real that's to me is like once we understand the economics we can figure out what's great right that doesn't instead of being like bemoaning the end of like seven to $10 million dollar anger so I just I just sat there I was like all of you like not just.

Chrissy you know he's a great journalist and everything else and that was the way it was but it's it's like what can we do now with this right I see opportunity if you start to cut costs and just accept what's happening and then create great content because that that doesn't die it just reminds me of.

Broad what happened broadcast television in news I guess that makes sense because it's still valuable like where we're rising like crazy on the charts lots of news commentary and all of them if you look at these news commentary podcast not just podcast podcast slash video podcast charts they're all independent every one of them practically it's not from.

You see an NBC news in there or something like that but you largely see entrepreneurial efforts which is especially from the right wing yeah but Chris is such a you know better than I do and by the way thank you because I know Chris Fisher he featured me in his show look who's talking to Chris Wallace which I think about 14 people watch it because I stuck it on HBO.

But that was I really enjoyed it he's a fantastic interviewer his voice is wonderful he's smart he's really an icon it would just be so interesting I think you know would be great content what would be his podcast when you put him with a black lesbian from San Francisco what do you do what you do no no just a lesbian I don't want to play identity politics just a lesbian okay anyways don't go there Scott go there's got anyways but the most interesting content you could have on Saturday morning was you guys asking Chris what happened in him in a transfer.

And in him in a transparent authentic way going through exactly what happened in the thought process and we're planning on doing next because this is where Chris is he's highly prestigious top of his game but he's effectively a pilot for pan Amarilance in the 70s he'll like that and it's like what do we do next we're the man we're bangin stewardesses where people think

are really interesting we can we're making 500,000 dollars here in the 70s banging stewardess well you get what I'm saying right could be a pilot in the 70s with like a mustache and you look good net outfit a mustache and people would say you look like Clint Eastwood or James Coburn Jimmy C big hero those guys had a good life but they saw the riding on the wall they're like okay in about 20 years I

or someone like me is going to be making 68,000 dollars a year flying fucking spirit airlines with people getting off bitching about you know how what a terrible experience this was the news anchors I think are literally pilots for pan Am in the 70s that they know and these are smart people they're really talented they know their best days from a compensation standpoint are behind them they don't though Scott I think they do they do but they don't like it I'll tell you that

course no one likes it no one ever it's really interesting no one ever I've never I've done I don't know 1500 reviews and when I say review at the end of the year we give people bonuses right right no one ever says realistic I've never heard anyone say you know what on a risk

adjusted basis looking my skills in the marketplace I'm probably over compensated and mathematically 50% of your people are over compensated in 50% are under compensated unless you can perfectly figure out what someone's worth is in the marketplace which no one can no one has ever said oh yeah there was always backward looking everyone's like go in 2007 I was over compensated no what they think is in 2009 I got ripped off by these suits who aren't paying me as much everyone will anchor off the

high point and they think that is the world's natural order the year I made the most money and everything else is an anomaly or injustice no you are overpaid well there you have it this is the interesting discussion we should have been on sand and anyway thank you Scott it was I was glad to hear your analysis because I was irritated all right we got a lot to get to today Donald Trump speaking of crazy cable

shows it's like dancing with the stars but free show has raised eyebrows with some of his cabinet picks and his best friend Elon gets a new roll dog king whatever plus as ex users flee the platform blitz guys reaping the benefits and so is threads by the way number one and two on the

app list but first president like Donald Trump will reportedly deliver on his campaign promise to stop the tiktok ban though how do it is unclear he's just saying it the federal law passed in in April by Congress both both houses says tiktok must be sold by January 19th the day before the inauguration or face a ban if tiktok doesn't sell by that deadline Trump could call on congress to repeal the law or ask his attorney general for

the executive enforcement whoever that is we'll talk about that in a second and remember tiktok took the government to the US court of appeals back in September to overture in the ban depending on the decision the case could still go to the Supreme Court there's probably a deal to be had here right I mean I would assume if he goes the non enforcement route which by the way Andrew Jackson did a whole bunch of presidents have done that it puts apple and google in a tricky

position because trusting Trump they will be penalized for distributing tiktok in their app stores it's really interesting it's actually exciting because he could non non comply I guess right that's correct with anything the Supreme Court or the Congress has put out any

thoughts well one of the many things that is disturbing that's being normalized is that the last week has been basically updrafts in the market and for what I'll call a legitimate reason in that as the markets hit uncertainty and even if you don't

the uncertainty of the presidential election has gone away people now are sort of no longer holding the breath getting on with business getting on with making the you know making making investments in the markets gone up the other component of the market is much more troubling

and that is Tesla stock is up whatever 20 25% since Trump won or 20% and is it because demand for UVs is gone is it because there's some new regulation is it because they've announced I don't know new model no the reason why Tesla stock has gone up is because Elon Musk went all in on one

candidate gave $119 million and there's a natural assumption that we are now in a clip to accuracy in this company will get ridiculous subsidies or be able to control regulation that hurts his competitors so what used to drive the economy was

in the spending now what's driving the stock market is in expectation of clip to see for people who are on the right side of Trump right now and that's just not how market should be run yeah all right so we're going to get to that in a minute but what's going to happen here specifically

I now believe that tick tock I'm going back on a prediction because I when the data changes I change my mind I I now doubt it'll be banned because it's all comes razor the most obvious explanation is the right one here and that is one of his biggest donors is one of the biggest show shareholders in

tick tock and he hated tick tock until he liked it and so I think he's now willing he's now going to not ban it because I think it was this straight forward and a lot of people can he like he can say it but what can't these are things he can do at some point he may not have the power to do

something well I don't know the semantics of how enduring Biden's executive order is it's a congressional law it's not an executive order it's remember it was passed in congress oh was approved by the congress yeah so now it's in court so it's then got to go to the court of

appeals and Supreme Court but he doesn't have to enforce it as a law you have a new attorney general Matt gates I know we'll get to it we'll get to it hold it hold it all right new secretary of education Joe exotic oh my gosh if this is fucking dancing with the stars not a presidential cabinet

it is yes it is that's what I said it's that is that is that those star wars can't you know some people using nothing we'll get to that in a minute so he could he is going to try to make a deal here with tick tock I assume that's what we think correct it sounds to me like the market which has been eerily right is predicting that we are now full club talker see and that if a big donor has a big stake in tick tock the president is going to figure out a way to pay him back

and what to be fair what a lot of people in the Trump administration or cynical voters will say a Scott that's always happened it's just not happening is elegantly as you would like and let me let me use an analogy here that I think is out Becky and Becky Lori Laughlin didn't go to prison for giving USC a half a million dollars to get her daughter in or paying a consultant she went to jail for not giving USC two or three million dollars directly that's why I like that yeah if she had

done maybe even a million dollars and gone through the front door the development department and had the Laughlin creative arts her daughter would have gotten but because she tried to cheap out and only spend a half a million dollars on a consultant

they basically put her in prison and that's what's happening you know that's effectively what's happening here and that is or that's what people would say as it's got you're angry because you want them to go through this opaque lobbying infrastructure where a bunch of lobbyists and congress people get supported by the national association of pharmaceuticals and get their campaigns instead people are just going have cut out the entire infrastructure of the lobbying you know case

tree whatever they call it and are just going direct to the president and that's what you're the same thing is happened these people are just being more transparent and more direct and more efficient about it yeah that's what's going on we think they'll they'll do some deal interesting of speaking of the market Disney shares are 14 for some time this taping after narrowly beating estimates with the help of its growth and streaming revenue for the company's

payment segment increase 14% year over year fueled by record numbers from inside out to which was a surprise that I think and Deadpool and Wolverine Disney sports segment revenue which is primarily ESPN was flat but profits fell 6% the company says expects a double percentage growth in its entertainment segment in 2025 and separately spotify shares are up 17% after the company reported a 12% job in total paid subscribers you're called the couple last week snapchat snap did really well

the streamers total revenue was up 19% is on track to have its first full year of operating income profitability wow wow that's amazing to think about the company also seems to be ready to take on YouTube and video podcasting announcing a new program that will pay creators a cut of subscription earnings and ad revenue for videos I guess it's academia like second try at the podcast business which you failed relatively miserably

and except for the Joe Rogan thing did well it might might be part of this well will this make any notable dent for you to bear they far too far heads of talk first about Disney and then spotify well the tail that's wagging the dog in terms of the markets reaction to Disney stock is streaming people think okay that's that's the future and it's streaming business delivered a 321 million dollars in profit which is about

a sevenfold increase in the last quarter so some of the consolidation that's happening the streaming market and also the pricing power that the market now has looking at Netflix raising the prices and also just the unbelievable content of IP of Disney yet we always suggested that they were one of the one standing survivors they yeah they were one of the survivors and also their positioning is really clean their positioning is family

and I just can't imagine I tell you can I just interject we visit every single day of the week I'm sure it's so worth the money it's so worth the money and not just my older kids use it for the marvel stuff and we use it for like Agatha and you know there's something on it for all of us and now that they've integrated Hulu it's really it's a must have in our house for for everybody if you have kids it's child abuse if you don't

take them and wait in line for three hours to do avatar and spend $900 a night on a shitty hotel room called you know the Disney whatever it is princess hotel yes I've been there carers but there the Disney has a really unbelievably strong positioning in the marketplace and I remember when I signed up for Disney plus and by the way the sign up was a fucking nightmare it was like five or six years ago maybe eight years ago because with whatever they were 10 and seven at the time

we had to see the first episode of the Mandalorian like we were going to spend two for eight hours trying to figure out how to sign up for Disney plus to watch the Mandalorian so they're streaming there's consolidation in the market there's weaker players cutting back

they're spending for the first time two years in a row Disney are assuming Netflix is not not increased its content budget the market is rationalizing consolidation costs cuts and Disney is reaping the benefits with great IP very singular positioning in the market the market has I mean yeah they want the parks to do well this is their cash generator the movies are important unpredictable business though but I think the the real white meat if you will for the markets is what's

happening with what's happening with streaming and you know what I really like this because Bob is announced a successor or that they're they will yeah by 2026 it's going to be really nice for Bob to go out again with a metal pen he's going to return from a second tour of Afghanistan with another metal on his uniform he's going to leave on a high note here so I'm happy for him and coming yeah they may go outside there's there's rumblings and you and I

mentioned some possible candidates but there are a lot of things outside the guy who's conducting the search apparently quite serious oh they always have to have a consider outside candidates if it's a good board anyway what about Spotify well the interesting thing here is a Spotify Netflix but five years behind and that is Spotify lost a ton of money made huge investments to basically consolidate the music market and Netflix controls

seven percent of all streaming video I would imagine Spotify has near monopoly power on streaming music I mean I just don't see how you're into music and you don't have Spotify also well apples puts on a pretty good fight but go ahead I think any nineteen year old claims to be into music has an account on Spotify I got to say my friends use app like Apple music better and I use Spotify more I think Spotify is incredible I'm using their

AIDJ okay oh my god it's so good I'm granted it's just it's just B52's R.E.M. and Calvin Harris songs I know you've been you have a lot but what about the video going into video podcasting and stuff like that I was thought I was thought quite frankly that now that the FTC and DOJ I was thought that Ted should buy I thought if Netflix and Spotify merged and was the ultimate yeah content streaming subscription program it

would be just irresistible it would be but Spotify turn profits their stock is up two and a half X over the year revenue growth of nineteen percent paid subscribers grew twelve percent they have essentially pulled off a Netflix net as they have so massively spent on content consolidated the

market now they have quote unquote Netflix like pricing power and I would argue near monopoly power people say I'm a song music Apple music I don't buy it I think if you're in the music you got to be out I think Spotify is the Netflix of music yeah I just don't think they can adjacent they had the real didn't have success I mean when like you and I think about stuff what do we need them precisely for I guess the

audience right but do we people find this anyway I don't know I just feel like YouTube is the place it's going to dominate this for well you're talking about to okay so when it comes to podcasts the new primary means of distribution is not Apple podcasts it's not Amazon podcasters Spotify

it's YouTube and that is okay fifteen million downloads of the Joe Rogan interview of Trump forty million views on YouTube right so and the most quite frankly the most impressive podcasters a guy like Stephen Bartlett rich role what do they do their video first podcasters their audio is

perfect but the way they differentiate yourself rich role demands and I didn't want to do this lecture even does the same thing rich role said to me I want you on the bottom I I love retro I don't know if you watch because it's great smart soulful handsome dude that uses

kind of his experience through recovery to talk about life he's really this like it's a great podcast anyways but he's like to me on again he's like well let me know in your life his studio is fucking a gore hills yeah and Steve Bartlett uh says bill mar has a stole studio system there

too so does how we Mandel I know it sounds crazy but go ahead how we Mandel that's that's a synapse that hasn't fired in a while I'm just telling you I was there it was interesting but go ahead how is in podcast now well maybe he'll run some space to Chris Wallace yeah that was good

even hungover by the way I've switched to Keela I'm now I'm now Justin my good good friend Justin Theros that I should start drinking to Keela so now I'm drinking to Keela you should you don't look like him if you do that seems doubtful you know if that's true we're gonna see to Keela

sales boom okay if that if word got out that I could look like Justin Theros by drinking to Keela cost of me goes to be worth more than Tesla tomorrow everyone you went out with last night is handsome or the New York I'm sorry how do you know who I went out with last night I know I know I know

drop names as much as you I do like to drop names how do you know who I went out with last night I just know do you know we can say who it was but it was all it was very handsome men you went out with me yeah I you know I don't I just think it's tacky to brag about I think it's tacky to brag

about your friends I don't have you seen George honor Anderson Cooper recently uh uh uh I know they were out doing to Keela shots with you but here's what listen speaking of people we met you and I met very delivered the other night we had a nice drink oh my god we are so full

name dropping right now we're literally right no but this is why was something he said was the most interesting which was there's a different experience with the audio and the video and so there's different businesses in the same that's why podcasting is so interesting because there's

lots of ways to eat the apple right that's what's interesting I wouldn't say now it's all that I think if people go now it's all video podcasting or wrong it's like all of all of the above as you always say it's my feeling let me interpret first I have caros really generous with me she wanted

to introduce me to Barry so I went out late and yeah I have a traffic anyways um anyway so I but those were really loving supportive messages I got from you like you're standing up someone who is so much more important than you Scott this is pathetic anyways so I think I think the guys said

if he eats your face I will not stop it let me summarize my conversation with Barry I'd say something you know my like whole like innovation ramp and this is a podcast and going and is delicately and as elegantly as possible he would basically say to me but Scott you're a fucking idiot

and here's what and this is what really is happening he was right he kept doing that over and over and he's right by the time I walked out of there my whole world view was in doubt I'm like oh well you know why because he's done this he's created network smart nobody's also done it he

understands and he's curious he's one of the most curious he never he is impressive man he's a curious for to the new things that's why I like him anyway he looks good too I love that hanging out of the carlile I literally felt like Woody Allen and Angie Dickinson were gonna walk through

the door that is so old I felt so old and so white and so rich I don't like to go above 14th street the carlile carlile do you know what I was telling him that's where when lucky when I came out my mother was screaming at me at her sheet of pen house around the corner and I made her

meet me at the carlile because she wouldn't scream there and that's what I don't when I walked in there I was like oh my god this is where I talked to my mother about being gay for one of the first times and it has such a memory I was like I hate this but it was it been forgotten that that was

where it took place now I can see Barry Dillard there like like and Tom Worson like me and me and Jimmy Garner used to pick up chicks and head to Cuba but I got it tell you Barry Dillard's on top of the fucking he's so smart he's so he's just very smart in no way antiquated we're totally name

dropping and like talking about how awesome we are but I have but but more and probably back to me I now have friends I love this all of these people this is the best thing about last night carol everyone every dude has to find a posse of guys that all came together I'm not exaggerating

I had nothing to do last night so I texted Justin I'm like what are you doing he's like I'm on my way to this event for the Hyundai Genesis and he's like he's like it'll be land but you want to join me I'm like I'm in and I'm there 10 minutes later and then we text George John we're like what are

you doing he's like nothing like come eat us and then I text Anderson I'm like we're out drinking and he's like I'm in a car I'm on my way so many people so many people have fucking nothing to do when you least expect it and all of us just came together on like five minutes notice it was very

rewarding anyways I have my new drinking friends now one of them doesn't drink but that was the best I love that I think it's important for you to have your man friends anyway all right let's get to our first thing sorry Donald Trump is back at the White House this week meeting with President

Joe Biden and promising a smooth transition unlike what he did by the way Trump has also been busy with lots of announcements about his cabinet advisors the one that is they started off normal Susie Wiles Marco Rubio and now we're at the Matt Gaetz Pickford Attorney General and Fox News

weekend host Pete Higgs Seth for Secretary of Defense we'll get to Elon Musk and Vivek Ramoswanis leading the Department of Govern Efficiency or as I'm calling it the Department of Grotesque Egan Maniacs or the Department of Grandstanding Edge Lords I don't this is like gets

weirder and fucking weirder also in the mix Russia's best friend Tulsi Gabbert for Director of National Intelligence and Kristi Nome killer of dogs for Homeland Security Secretary Chuck Todd posted these confirmation hearings may just save cable TV for the short term he got sort of

dinged for but I would have to agree first before whether they'll make it through overall thoughts well he's made there's some additional announcements that have come out he's announced that Sue Sylvester Jane Litch's character from Glee is going to lead the Department of Performing Arts

um also I don't have heard the most recent one God Bluth from a rested development will our net's character is going to be the new secretary of housing and urban development and also Baron Harconan from a dune will head spice production on the planet of Iraqis nice nice like it

I'm now believe I now believe that the appointment or the the floating of the idea of mad gates for attorney general within about an hour at least in rikowski or senator mokowski who I love uh basically said this is that mad gates is an unserious candidate and I look forward to

vetting a serious candidate I don't I think this was them saying you're a loyalist give them something and what they've done I think is run cloud cover for just a shitty pick as opposed to a fucking crazy stupid pick and that's what mad gates is to be a g that just makes no sense

and then if you really want to talk it's been called a loyalty test for senate republicans and they're newly elected leader senator john thune they all were pushing for rick uh whatever the Florida idiot uh rick Scott rick Scott he was he was the one the magga was pushing absolutely

I don't think rick Scott is an idiot I don't know if it's politics but oh my god he made a mess of the senate committee he was running are you kidding but he's he's at least competent he's elected I don't know look perfect is not on the menu here I mean when senator rubio looks like a thoughtful

pick with gravitas or secretary of state every which is hoping for someone who has some administrative and some leadership experience but my favorite is that there are not one but two heads of a committee on efficiency I mean that kind of tells you yeah I know I know this makes no fucking sense

are getting such a good day it's like the grace commission right remember the grace commission under ragan he was going to drain the swamp and he created that commission of leaders to cut everything the private sector survey on cost control to reduce government waste clinton had it

launched the national performance review w had the president's management agenda obama had efficiency reforms and trump created the reform task force to eliminate inefficiencies he attempted unsuccessfully to shut down 19 agencies and it is a popular political move two thirds of

americans think the federal government is wasteful and bureaucratic and but let's just look at some data here trump is by no means our most efficient president federal employment under trump rose 3.4 percent during his first term compared to an increase of 1.3 percent in obama's second term

it did increase federal employment did increase by over 6 percent under Biden despite all the rhetoric the u.s. government spends less as a share of gdp than it's pierced uh u.s. government spending is projected to be about 38 percent of gdp that's less than japan which spends 42 percent

uk 43 percent in germany at 48 percent the u.s. public sector which they claim is overstaffed well they do more for their citizens but go ahead true the u.s. public sector employs 14 percent of workers which is more than germany's 13 percent in mexican 12 percent which can

know it's based on what you said is probably inefficient but less than france is 21 percent and the uk is 23 percent now let's just specifically go to the pick of of uh elan or alana first lady alania to head in efficiency let's just talk about efficiency at tesla the automobile

industry revenue per employee is 1.07 million per employee of bmw gm 1.2 1.1 excuse me 1.02 million per employee ford $980,000 million per employee mercenaries bans $950,000 Toyota $760,000 and pulling up the rear as the least efficient of these companies is tesla

clocks or registers revenue of 740,000 per employee so the least efficient car company revenue per employee is tesla so anyways i find the whole thing it'll be very interesting they claim they're going to cut this thing by i don't know two trillion dollars which means they'd have to like

nobody didn't mention it in the press release no numbers like he went on and on on twitter but of course like that's just nonsense it's just nonsense anyways i'm finding this thing is so if you're going to be dumb be don't be don't be dumb be outrageous no one's really taking this

seriously because it just seems so outrageous no i'll even congress and we're like yeah he can ask we're not doing it um you know even the republic of the republican ones it the gates nomination is interesting only because um he what's interesting about this is of course his behavior with young

women women under age he resumptive congress on allegit whatever uh resumptive congress on Wednesday days before the house ethics committee was set to vote on releasing a highly critical report of their investigation into him kevin McCarthy said this on the record about his behavior

essentially and the resignation it and the investigation but they can still release it from what i understand so i don't see how they get this thing through i just don't i i i mean it would be ridiculous for this is clown to be a uh anything what is your take i agree with you that i i think

i i just think there's a lot of republican first off the thing i don't think the market or people have absorbed is as of today Donald Trump is a lame duck president yeah that's what i mean and he's not gonna he's not gonna have nearly the power to intimidate

republicans and i got to think it's gonna be very tempting for republicans on a pick like this to go no this to basically pull him rickowski and say this is not a serious candidate i got to think the trump administration realized he probably wasn't gonna be able to get gates through but they did it

anyways what do you think they're trying to do here what's their end game i don't know because they're frittering away an amazing victory right that you know it seems like now they're like now we're like oh god the idiots are back like i don't know he has such an opportunity to not fritter

away what was a spectacular return to power and now we're talking about mac gates and and uh and jailbait that's what we're talking about now like as opposed to like what he could be doing and Elon doing these stupid you know he's gonna he's calling it the manhattan project of our time

again it's gonna blow up in their face that's that's why it's a manhattan project their time like it's such a waste of opportunity here and largely because i think he is of the mind is i'll say something crazy and then i'll say the next thing that's crazy and the next thing that's crazy

but it's i'm talking about being effective and this is not effective in any way if he really you know maybe over to the right they're like gonna be deporting people and hoping that people don't don't notice that if it's particularly ugly looking and so i honestly i think there's no planning

here and i think they're just letting people in interestingly um you know i think the doge think is just fucking nonsense it's just ridiculous and um you know you can't really uh there's not going to be a government department just kind of ridiculous and you need to be created by with

congresses authorization not wasting their time on that and they're not they're going to cut what they want right um so one of the things that's interesting is that he's been down in mara lago and as i said was an issue everyone's now reporting um how irritating he is um and and bc news

quoted a sourcing elan is behaving as if he's co-president people are irritated by him the guess that won't leave um i think this is just they're frittering away with was it clear and definitive win and i'm not sure why they're doing it so i don't nature i don't know i'm not i've no

idea i don't know i do think that the appointment of the bass pro shop swimmer guy has had a u.s fish and wildlife service makes sense i don't i don't know i don't get animal actors the new secretary of health and human services i don't i don't get by the way i'm i'm so on bus

feet right now christie know what a laughable ridiculous personality she is they're all fox news people is like you know who i like though who's now the new uh sent a majority leader is um soon soon he's very reasonable i like him i think he's reasonable and all he does he pushes back on

trump and i know he's very handsome carer yeah you like i have did you add for drinks with him i don't know if he'd be up for impromptu drinks with me and george on i'll try but i'm not sure yeah all right i'm going to give i'm going to give you a word of the day it's called cacchus

tockracy government by the leesuitable or competent citizens of the states a state or society governed by the leesuitable or competent citizens it's the modern regime is at once a plutocracy and a cacchus tockracy that is the word of the day here at pivot okay no joke i heard that word

an hour ago scab burns who's the showrunner and the writer on this the show i'm working on and said uh was talking about rebranding the democratic party and someone suggested cacchus tockracy and he's like are you crazy no one's gonna no one can spell that word anyway i know joke i feel

like it should throw salt over my shoulder or whatever it is you doing your when you're i don't know superstitious but i heard that word no joke 90 minutes ago cacchus tockracy it's the word of the day it's the word of the week well we'll see what happens all right let's go in a quick break

we come back we'll talk about blips guys big week support for this episode comes from sass how is AI affecting how you learn work and socialize and what you need to know to make responsible use of it as a business leader worker and human in

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subject to change additional fees terms and restrictions apply c-a-t-t dot com slash iPhone for details stop we're back with our second big story x competitor blue sky is gained over 1.2 million new users in the past week following the election users has been announcing their

exits from x due to elons must support of Donald Trump but also a change in terms of service which we talked about earlier this week which means you can only sue elon in this dumbass Texas area one of those users is our friend Don Lemon let's listen to his announcement

I once believed that it was a place for honest debate and discussion transparency and free speech but I now feel it does not serve that purpose in addition starting this Friday November 15th exes implementing new terms of service which among other things states that quote all disputes

be brought exclusively in the u.s. district court for the northern district of Texas or state courts located in tarot county taxes in quote who is that again Don don don lemon that was de la mall you didn't invite him last night he's another handsome man I'm intimidated by Don Don

it was bitches at me when he hears about something that's cool and says you didn't invite me and then I invite him he's like I'm sorry I'm busy oh now he's gonna know now he's gonna know he wants to be invited because I want to say yes oh I say you didn't even try you didn't even reach out you

wait he's talking about what we've talked about last week this is something but what's interesting is the departures and you know despite the huge urban news blue skies still I I had a count on there and I like it it's quite good I'm still also on threads which I also like to and threads

is really killing it with numbers and they're close to two two hundred and seventy five million right now blue sky is 15.2 million users well threads has two hundred and seventy five million and X has six hundred million I think some it's an interesting I like that there's competition

I don't know what to say I like the service it's quite good it's free it's run by you know very calm people it seems reporters love blue sky my man it particularly supposed to be cool bar and I'm the cheesecake factory over threads I like threads as some as some users leave at it's advertising

agencies are reportedly expecting some advertisers return to the platform for political leverage given musk closeness to Trump I think that's not gonna last it's not effective as an advertising platform you know and that what a way to get ads like because people are scared of you

and by the way over at meta they plan to introduce ads you knew this was gonna happen early next year so Scott if you're an advertising deciding where to spend money as a business versus anything else versus a cactusocracy which of these platforms do you spend on and and they don't have

advertising on blue sky I believe because I think that correct so I know nothing about blue sky I'm not on it other other than George Han is really going on social said you need a presence on blue sky and I trust the judgment but I'm not are you on blue sky yes I am and can you describe for the

listeners out there what what is it why do you like it what's different about it because they have different things like it's um with threads you get weird suggestions of food a look at it doesn't have you know in order of time you know it doesn't do that so it's you you're always seeing things

that are old days old it's they de-focus news and politics although I get a lot of it my my feet on threads is quite vibrant Amanda looked at mine versus hers and hers was like a lot of like you know come on's and we're you know edge edge lordy kind of stuff that edge lordy more like

marketing kind of stuff it's more like Facebook is I guess versus the way Twitter used to be I guess that would be and blue sky's cool they're very funny if I enjoy it very much although on threads I really like the foods there's a lot of food videos and planting plants videos that I like it's

a little more like Instagram um I I like them both and they're I like them differently it's like liking like she said it's like a cool bar and Brooklyn versus uh a cheesecake factor and I like a cheesecake factory so I don't I don't have a problem with it um some people might uh so I think they're both really very good platforms obviously blue sky's much smaller but it's cooler it's definitely cooler and but it's not snotty either I would say I like it but where would you go if you're an

average it wouldn't go on x it's literally go over there it is a Nazi born bar there's so much white supremacy it's so nasty it's that the Rick Wilson left Twitter uh Pope by uh Garty and left Twitter it's useless as a marketing platform as an advertising platform as a place not to feel

sick to your stomach about humanity essentially yeah there's not that about it but you said this so from an advertiser standpoint you got a bet on meta meta's people talk about the algorithms as it relates to the consumer and serving you up content and putting you literally in your own

reality uh and I I think Reels has gotten better and better that the gap between TikTok and Reels I think is narrowing in terms of Reels I can't get over how good um Instagram and Reels are right now I think they're doing I think they're doing a great job I think threads is fantastic the thing

that doesn't get enough attention is the ad stack that Facebook has assembled I mean the things they can do for advertisers and how efficiently they can do it for you and they basically the biggest brands have the advantage of high being able to hire media agencies to plan and allocate their media

spend and this has always been kind of lorry owls and unilever core competence was always media spend and that is it's not that they're creative as any better I would argue it wasn't the product so any better but they had the smartest people figuring out how to spend their marketing dollars

or 12 or 15 percent of top line revenue more efficiently more elegantly more strategically than any other firm because they have these amazing media planning and buying agencies now essentially what the ad stack at Facebook as we able to do is like okay you're a small business doing 10

million dollars a year selling beard oil jackdorecy um we can give you kind of the media planning capabilities and targeting of a lorry owl or a unilever with our ad stack and so when they turn that ad stack on advertisers who want an outrun it across threads and with how robust the information

real-time information and sentiment and activities going to be people literally tell you what they're doing on threads I think it's if you're betting on advertising dollars and efficiency and who wins and who gets the most ad dollars per person I would think threads is immediately going to the first

quarter the threads really get serious about monetization threads will be a bigger business than Twitter or X overnight the thing you pointed out though is that quite frankly that's not must probably primary objective he has bought the ultimate propaganda machine to serve his aims that's

not costing him a lot of money because he fired 80 percent of the people so it to use and you pointed this out to me to use ad revenue or business fundamentals as the metric for whether this $44 billion acquisition by a musk made any sense by the way which was finance three quarters of it

or two thirds of it was financed by other people's money or debt from who aren't going to complain yeah we want to be in the space x IPO or all want to like hang have proximity to Elon Musk you pointed out that I've been looking at the wrong metrics oh my god this is a stupid business he's lost so

much money no it's increased his fear of influence and that's worth 10 percent of his net worth so like but in terms of your question around where does an advertiser go an advertiser is going to go where everyone goes reluctantly and that is to meta yeah that's correct 100 percent meta is going

to benefit us and let me just say Instagram is a very good product threats is a very good product I know people don't have the journalist always like belly egg but for most people it's actually pretty enjoyable they never think of it like a like a regular person it's very enjoyable and so is

Instagram and it's well done I always find something to look at I don't feel bad after using it I don't feel bad it's very I like it's like I it's replaced I don't know television to me I guess I watch a lot less television other watch very specifically you know streaming and so I don't

get journalists get like there's no politics there's no this I'm like shut the fuck up like you're not the user they're looking at right you're not the user they're thinking so they put in a very good effort here and I see I know exactly what their issues are and they should have

something where the timeline is much more current right it's not but let me just tell you kids all you journalists it's not Twitter I'm sorry your girlfriend became a junkie I don't know what to tell you you can't it's never happening again Twitter's gone and it's and you need to move

on you need to move on with your life and and by the way blue skies lovely I have to say it's funny I'm I there's there's there's a little too many lecture lecture people on threads like when the the comments what all I'm saying is great to have choices and I like that there's different

businesses and you can have different things I've always thought that the dissipation of social media was a good thing not a bad thing and advertisers aren't really going to move back to X they maybe they'll buy $30 just to have their name there so Linda Yacquireno can swan around New York and

pretend she's an actual CEO and so whatever like whatever that's my that's my rant thank you very much in any case I think you should go on blue sky I do yeah I should start it but just some numbers according to the report released by Cantor a net 26% of marketers one in four planted

decrease they're spending on X in 2025 and then blue skies up now at 15 million threads is now at 275 million I mean it's it's going to catch X in seconds yeah although I will say Twitter still I'm I have been on Twitter in two years it does still seem to attract news you know

inspire a lot of watercolor conversation I still get a ton of text messages with links to an accident an X tweet or whatever it is and I have to write back I'm not on X I can't see this can you send me a screenshot it it does hold still a lot of what I'd call because of journalists and

and the other thing that's sort of sad about what's happened here and it's happening everywhere is I would argue Twitter I mean Twitter's just gone red pill and I would argue threads is pretty blue pill because if I put out a tweet saying saying an American hero in a picture of Biden

it'll get 2000 likes and if I say we should have had a competition on a coronation my feed is filled with look either sign up for your PBS subscription or commit Harry Carey but you don't understand the assignment I think threads it's very not an argument discussion threads is very left the

thing I like about threads and the thing I especially love about LinkedIn is the vibe is just less ugly it's less angry I don't know if it's fewer bots or there's fewer trolls that I don't have some like little dick failed venture capitalist tweeting about me 450 times on threads because I

made the you know it committed them the crime against humanity of saying his shitty portfolio companies were we're not worth anything that how's that teacher boy yeah let's do no it's not Keith it's someone it's someone who's anyways it doesn't matter now I'm turning into fucking Twitter anyways

but threads is a little more people push back I still get all these bots who are out there I don't know if it's a GR US CCP just trying to start a fight in my in my feed saying stupid things with a dog picture in 22 followers but there's less of that on threads there's so far Twitter always had

that by the way Twitter always had that for years and years it's just a question of what's an enjoyable user experience and I do think it's just it's dying it's clearly dying and people who I never I keep just get off of it you'll feel better I've had I agree there's a lot going on

there but I think it's in the specific areas and it's not a pleasant place to be and a lot more people I thought would never come off or off and then once you go off you're like why I was there I can find this information on blue sky I can fight on X I can find it on blank you can

just real quickly you can see an environment where he lets Trump fold true social into Twitter and in exchange he says all government agencies have to release all data including information on when you're getting your Social Security check or everything through X and so you can see now the full

weight. Takashtocracy. Well they're 100% 100% so and that's where we are that the markets I'm being redundant the market should move based on a consumer economy not in the expectations of a kleptocrat right so it was actually that would be kleptocracy anyway it's they're all bad words anyway one more quick break will be back for predictions. Support for Pivot comes from Anthropic if your company could tap into a powerful source of knowledge analysis and create a problem

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sonos dot com forward slash pivot to wrap up your holiday shopping at sonos dot com slash pivot okay Scott let's hear a prediction except the fact that you'll probably go on blue sky what's your prediction uh so just a couple quick ones um i've always been fascinated by the fact that all

these local do you ever watch local news sometimes not really yeah if you ever want to throw back if you want to know what's like to be 80 just watch local news and i would describe hey gem what's up with the weather that could we could have hail the size of golf balls killer bees it could happen to

you yeah it's it's a mix between an older guy that has a grandfatherly comfort and a hot young woman who is still waiting to be on the today show they basically hemorrhage money or make no money for 20 months and they get to underpay their talent because everyone's hoping to get elevated

to you know brine Williams old seated NBC news they don't make any money or they make very little money uh the talent and then for four months every 24 months they triple or quintuple their ad rates and they just get totally this tsunami of cash from elections because the general

conventional wisdom which is no longer that wise anymore is that old people vote and this is the place where you can reach a ton of old people in a local area for either the local congressional race a ballot initiative so a lot of smart companies i think including herds went and bought a bunch

of local TV news stations and said this might be a shitty business but four months every 24 months it's an unbelievable business what i believe is going to happen is that that those good times and that unearned income is about to come to an end and i think you're going to see a lot of that capital

flow to the new arbiter who get who have who gets elected in that is podcast and i know i'm talking we're talking our own book here but you're about to see local TV stations start to reflect the economics that footst of the actual value of these companies and this we're we're going to have to

read Matt gates ads not doing it i think political advertising is gonna is gonna wash over podcasts based on what happened in this election to the same extent it happens when you watch the local news and then my just second real quick prediction is these tariffs are not going to happen at

nearly the scale that trump is threatening because you're going to see given that trump is a lame duck president given that a lot of republicans do have a business background and i do think a lot of them understand economics are going to decide to go out on a limb and say if you want to

increase the price of eighty eight percent of the toys under the christmas tree by sixty percent i am not down with that and i have concerns republicans because yes they all have their line in the sand don't they and it's usually a financial one money yeah do you know what you know what a

very prominent republican told me it was like a fake trump or like pretends to like him and hates and buying the scenes i said i said are you put up with this craziness and he goes we only need him for two more years literally i was like it was so sinister it was so sinister god i was like what

they're like we only need him for two more years i was like oh good gods poor trump in some weird way i mean not really i don't care but but this is how tariffs work have you noticed mexico is already announced reciprocal tariffs if trump does anything along the lines of what he's

threatening they're like okay if you want to put mexico and canada are now our biggest trading partners they've now replaced china trade is still a function of proximity mexico's a fantastic trading partner they said look if you're gonna if you're gonna put twenty forty sixty percent

tariff on our products guess what boss we're gonna do the same thing our consumers are gonna see prices go up your consumers are gonna see prices go up it's just when i first moved in york i was bored and i used to do yoga which was fine i did it to what there are a few things i'm worse at

than yoga but i like the vibe it helped with stress and there's a lot of hot women but i also thought all right but i need to hit something so i started boxing and my trainer who i'm paying is like you should enter this tournament you're pretty good at what you get do you have good hand speed

so i'm six to a hundred ninety and when you enter six to one ninety just fun little boxing tournament at a gym you end up finding fighting a guy who's five nine and literally looks like mike tyson and all i remember was i've got out there and the next thing i remember literally the next thing

i remember is a bright light and it was because i was on my back staring up at bright light i don't even remember i could beat you i don't even remember him taking his fist back to throw a punch and i don't know if for the viewers at home see how my nose see how my nose goes to the right

that's my souvenir from my one boxing tournament my nose goes permanently to the right oh i wish oh i wish go back in time i'd love to see that but this is the fatal flaw in strategy or when people are trying to determine a strategy and that is they assume in business that

their competitors are a speed bag and don't hit back i'm going to play 60% tariffs on china well guess what china is not a speed bag it will hit you back and they too will go fuck you boss we're putting 60% tariffs on everything that comes into china and by the way

everyone from estaylotter to north face you're going to take away chinese consumer revenue from these companies you know alibaba a lot of us products go to china via alibaba like like honestly we have a we there's a lot of businesses here in this country the only place we're selling

buix is china i mean china china loves american brands they love Ralph Lauren they love so they love our beauty products they love estaylotter products the beauty anyways starbucks starbucks can i ask you a separate question rfk like the easel last crazy on the train on the on the clown

train you know i would imagine he gets pushed back from the man a's groups and exceed oils i was like he's gonna get trump's gonna call from the man he's people and they're gonna be like stand down on him like you know and in that way you vaguely are like well he's right man a's is bad for you

that's true he's literally the definition of sweet and savory in the sense that it occasionally i hear three or five minutes from rfk and i think this guy is fantastic let let him tell you about the food industrial complex and what the shitty food is doing for our

kids you know like you know what this guy is a leader i think is when he talks about the environment he is really good quite frank when he talks about israel i think he is fantastic it's when you get too far down the rfk train but go ahead but then we stop at the vaccine station and he says the

best thing you can do for a new mother who has a baby is come up next to her and whisper don't get her vaccinated you know what huh he's so crazy that he brings the whole crazy with him he doesn't it just he brings his whole self to work and that's the problem i mean i think that

it's very good to focus i'd rather have michelle obama do it by let's all eat salads but let me just tell you i heard she's not up for anything in the trump administration speaking of people punching back do you think the man a's people aren't going to punch back do you think the pharmaceutical

people do you think the people that don't own and scott and i call it this the diabetic industrial complex isn't going to punch freaking they're not they're not speed bags either and in fact they are the person who knocked you out scott right so that's the that's the problem he's going to have with

rfk yeah i don't know how much money they gave but it's interesting i mean granted we're lowering the bar so forward so so but like for example i really did not want mint romney or w to be president i really thought these would be bad presidents looking bad oh my god they look like i think senator

romney seems like a wonderful president i know it's our expectations are so all right we have to end soon but i have one short predictions now i would dearly love comelair as to run for governor of california for twenty twenty six davin newson gets termed out she would drive

to frought crazy in those last two years because the power of california i think it's the fourth or fifth biggest economy now i've heard in charge of california would be speckt hack you know it would be because by the way california is on the return like that i got to say simranc

you know i always say this but all these cities are getting are starting to see openings of stores just during see restaurants simrancisco selected deniel ulyrie as gub as as mayor um things are turning around it including in new york by the way new york is a lively as can be new york didn't

need to be turned around new york net new york i know but it had it had its moment that it went through the sad and went through the sad for a little bit it did i'm just saying it her running california if they start to really address which they have been the homeless problems the fentanyl

problems um i think her being governor would be sweet sweet revenge in a lot of ways because that's a powerful position in this country the governor of california i don't know i'm i'm going to go off from the assignment i wonder for political careers over and she's going to go be the head the

chair of a private equity firm and just make bang i don't think she's if i'm um vice president Harris why wouldn't she go be like chairman of the carl ale group make a lot of money just enjoy her lie she might she's but it's not for two years it's not for two you could do that you could do both

because they do think she's got another punch in our speaking of but to what and california is the most ungovernable nation it's the fifth largest economy in the world with a lot of special religious groups that make it impossible i'd like the storyline i you're right you're right i just

like i wouldn't be surprised care of her okay and this is what i think her next stop is i think under the next democratic president she becomes a supreme court justice i think that is what her oh yeah that could be that could be makes him money until then and then does she really want to

run another campaign what if she loses i i don't know if i were her i wouldn't want to subject myself to that bullshit maybe so i don't think she does i think people have a lot of affection for anyway just an interesting little idea to think about that's why i like a you know

why i like us versus cable news i like us because we consider everything we have problems we discuss them we have issues we talk about them sort of we're a little bit biased we we're a little bit biased ish i know but we got i think we like each other more recently i've just had that great affection

for you recently i don't know why i appreciate that i need that hold that thought well whatever it is i'm doing could you please tell me so i could do more of it we had a rough time over the summer but i feel much better anyway well you came to your senses no i did not you did anyway no it's not

true you came to your senses anyway once again fuck you you stopped abusing whatever meth you were you were doing in the closet whatever and and i made and you made my career i got it people come up to me and say can Scott stop saying that i said no just let him say it because it makes him feel

better oh yeah you're turning into Trump people say sorry okay we got a good start you want to hear from you send us your questions about business tech or whatever's on your mind this is gold by the way go to ny mag dot com slash pivot to submit a question for the show are called 85551 pivot and now listeners time for this week's threads poll we may put it on blue sky of sky goes over there the question this week is who is the worst pick so far representative mat gates for attorney general

i can't even say that out loud without laughing senator marco rubio for secretary of state fox news host pate hegs south who's such a doose nozzle for second go watch some of his stupid videos for secretary of defense uh you where's those dumb glasses that like doosh nozzle men wear those those

weird anyway um and elan muskin the fake ramaswani for uh government efficiency find us on threads at pivot podcast official to vote and we'll be doing another call and show soon we love those submit your voice mails of questions you'd like to ask us live on air and let us know where to reach

you okay scott elsewhere in the car and scott multiverse this week on this week's prof do market scott you and ed spoke with josh brown co-founder and CEO of writ holds wealth management about the accuracy of the prediction market super impressive yeah um uh bitcoin hitting an all time high and

advice to people who are concerned about a second trump term let's listen really briefly spend the next four years put your head down make fucking money focus on how you can improve your own life and the pendulum will swing back and if you're horrified by some of the things like the overturning

of roe v wade or the way we're going to see very cruel deportations uh of uh immigrants like if you're horrified by those things and rightly you should be the wealthier you are the more opportunity you will have to do something about it screaming on twitter crying into a tiktok all

that does is make the people on the other side uh feel even more emboldened my advice is arm yourself with money it is the only way to make change you know you don't have to like that what i'm saying is true you just have to accept it because everyone else has wow is he a brother from

another mother jesus that's got gall away with the yeah we're of like minds wow yeah we're of like minds he and his partner Barry rittholds both listen to our show and by the way they're they're they're such long island they're like the best of long island i know i'm looking i'd be very

excited like have a trans am in front parking lot and throw a throw a beer at you when you're on your way to high school and then on your way back to invite you in fear first bong love uh they're like such good guys they're such long island man and they're super smart by the way

they have five billion under management yeah very funny that's really i love that that's really good anyway go listen to it before we go happy birthday to our best friend George horn who's got one out with last year is sexy years old today i don't know how old it is but he looks fantastic

happy birthday George happy birthday and by the way i'm going to put out a happy birthday my son saw it turns three on the day this publishes oh no let me just tell you that's been three years let me see you had him you had him when you were 73 that makes you wait with same

words okay good anyway happy birthday salt speaking of balls out kids he's one of them i'll tell you he's like ah let's go um we're gonna have an exciting birthday party for you this weekend and i love you okay we'll be back on Tuesday with more pivot read us out scott today's show is produced

by Lara name and Zoe Marcus and Taylor Griffin earned her total of engineered this episode thanks also to Drew Burrows miss evario and dan shulon nishat kurwa's 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 your magazine 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 breaking new secretary of the interior david haselhoff support for the show comes from AT&T what does it feel like to get the new

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