--:-- Kara Swisher: Well, and to be clear, and I do believe he's a broken sociopath, but he's also a genius business person. And this is where it's headed. Yep. He's like Bill Gates. I think that, actually, I think Bill's a very decent man. But anyways. I agree, but he's like him. And well, you didn't know Bill back in the day. I'm just telling you, he's that way. William? Yes. Because I'm so young. No, he's not a pleasant character. Not a pleasant guy. Anyway, so, and then I think the third leg of the stool here is that you mentioned WeChat. The one thing the Chinese platforms have done really well is integrating payments into their platforms. Yep. And this encryption and then this talk of a Facebook currency slash Facebook coin, you can in the future. Explain that to the people. It's really interesting. I think it's probably the most underreported story, and that is Facebook is talking about a coin that would be different than Bitcoin because Bitcoin is essentially a currency. And a currency is when two parties agree that something is worth something. So you can have a fiat currency where you agree this green piece of paper actually is a store of value. But what they're talking about, as I understand it, is having dozens or even hundreds of currencies deposited to back up this coin such that if you potentially see something you like on Instagram you could literally just sort of double click it and it on its way And the two biggest frictions I think, in technology from a consumer standpoint are one, are very mundane. One is charging. Charging is like the bane of my existence. And then two, payments. It's very difficult to transfer money securely. It's very difficult to pay for something. You know, I hate, I'm flying down to Florida last night, I pull up whatever it is, GoGo on Delta. And the hassle is putting in your credit card, getting it wrong, the CBC number. I pay with miles. It really is a tax. You pay with miles? I do. That's just strange. I have so many miles. I fly everywhere. Go ahead. Give them away. No, not to you. I need it. I'm back. How do I get to Austin? We're going to talk about that in a minute. So they're going to create a currency. They want to jack you into their system, essentially. Yeah, which is really exciting because when I think about someone I'd like to have greater control over the global economy, it's Mark Zuckerberg and Shel Sandberg. So this is, but it's really frightening. This is a marked production, as they say, as when he had it on the bottom. I think this is all Mark because it's all data oriented. I think it's completely, this is a marked production. There's a lot here. There's moving to, you know, skating to where the puck is in terms of private messaging. There's payments. There's continuing to be able, in my view, abdicate responsibility around any sort of editorial control over the content. And there's potentially moving to kind of a seamless global currency or payment platform. So again, I think this is a genius business move and quite frankly, just really fucking frightening. I think this company has way too much control and it should, you know, another reason why it should be broken up. Or maybe they can't do it. Look what happened to Bill Gates. Remember when he all of a sudden discovered security after having the Swiss cheese of a software platform. You know, oh, security. People like security. And Apple had been doing it forever. And then suddenly he got, or when Bill Gates got the internet, oh, the internet, not these close. He's very similar. I'm writing a conference. I'm going to talk about this. It's very similar to a Gatesian move. And Gates is always well known as the best businessman, not the most visionary person and somewhat, you know, he had for a long time that malevolent kind of figure. Yeah, but I think the move or the outside intervention that changed the world as it relates to Microsoft with the DOJ moving in on them in 1999. So let's talk about that because I think that's really smart. They mush them together so they can't take them apart. Who was hired, just hired by, in Congress, on a congressional panel that oversees antitrust, Lena Kahn? Explain for the people who she is, Scott. You love Lena Kahn. I do. Do you love Lena Kahn? I do. She's brilliant. She's a gangster lawyer who, as a law student at Yale, published kind of the seminal piece saying we need to get away from this consumer test or pricing as the litmus test. Consumer harm as evidence by pricing as the means of determining antitrust and go back to this Brandeisian notion of sort of more power in the channel. And I mean, she has had a huge impact. Did you just say Brandeisian? Brandeisian, isn't that what it's called? The old Brandeisian approach to antitrust? Yes, that is right. So explain what that means. It's a different look at things because you cannot show consumer harm because Amazon works so well, for example, or Google's so great. Like you can't show consumer harm as easily. which is one of the tests. It's more about power in the channel and if you're suppressing competition, regardless of what happens to the end consumer. Right. That used to be the antitrust test. And I think we're headed back there because it's impossible to really do consumer harm test, one, when the end product is free. And two, we're in this unusual trope of an environment where there are certain companies that are able to become most valuable companies in the world, especially Amazon, without ever getting to meaningful profitability, meaning they can soak up market share by continuing to offer lower, lower in prices without ever having to compete fairly, so to speak. Well, I do want to get into this. Everything's subsidized, like IPOs for Uber and Lyft and stuff like that. It's all about that. So this is a big deal. And Silicon Valley is super shook up by this, I think. And they should be because antitrust, she's a-coming. She's a-coming, and she is not pleased about the situation. And I think it'll be interesting. Speaking of which, I will be interested in interviewing Amy Klobuchar at South by Southwest, where you are also coming. And that's a big thing for her. She's also on the antitrust committees and has talked about these issues. And it's certainly, aside from all the comb stuff and all the boss stuff, she's quite adept at some of this. One of her pillars of her presidential bid is to regulate tech. Yeah, and maybe you've heard more than I have. But my sense is they're all sort of jumping on this notion of power is bad and the concentration of power among big tech is something we need to look at. But I haven't heard any of them really outline what they mean by that. Is it antitrust? Is it FTC? Is it DOJ? And by the way, lean is just sort of the tip of the iceberg here in terms of some of these immunities. I think 2019 could arguably be referred to as the year, hopefully, that immunities are kicking in. Because not only is Lena Kahn going to work for Congress, the FTC has set up a 12-person subcommittee to look at. antitrust. We see France, and unfortunately, we don't really have time to get into the story, but France has passed legislation saying, all right, big tech, we give up. Your tax lawyers are smarter than our tax authorities, and we're going to charge you 3% of top-line revenue, which I think is a really interesting move, and we're going to see more of it around the globe. But there's a lot going on. But I haven't seen a candidate yet really say, X, Y, and Z, this is how we would break up Facebook, or we need regulation. I am going to ask this of Klobuchar, because she's a significant person on a significant committee who has talked about these issues. So she's, that's one of the questions I'm going to ask her. What should I, should, should I ask her? I'm going to tell you who I'm interviewing. And then you and I are going to be at pivot at South by Southwest. That's right. Live in front of a studio audience. With a lot of barbecue in our face kind of thing. There you go. So I'm, I'm going to go through them. Give me a question. Klobuchar. Do not say Klobuchar. So the thing that bothers me most about Senator Klobuchar, what I would want to know is, is not the Klobuchar or being angry or being a bit of a jerk. It's like, okay, there's a lot of people who have that reputation in positions of leadership. The thing I found most disturbing about those reports is that she actually got in the way of people's careers when they decided to leave the office, that she was vindictive and purposely tried to- Parentally, too. Yeah, make it difficult for them to get the next better job. And I think there's a general code among bosses and leaders that when young people leave your organization, you err towards trying to help them. And I think it's a very poor reflection on her character. That's a really good question. I'd want to know. It's one thing to be a jerk. It's one thing to be mean. But are you vindictive? Because that's just not the kind of character. That's a great question. We have enough of that in the White House. We need a change here. Vindictive. He doesn't seem to have control of anyone who leaves. They end up writing books about him. What an idiot he is. So he can tweet at them. The second one is Kathy Griffin, who got into a mess of trouble with putting that tweet on the internet and that photo. of Trump's head. It was a comical thing, but people were quite offended by it. That's what she said. So I'm interviewing her, and she has a new documentary about what happened. You're interviewing Kathy Griffin? Yeah. Yes, there's a new documentary about her, about, you know, I forget what it's called, but, you know, she was essentially canceled. She was canceled after the one thing, and it went crazy on social media. I've always thought she was quite a talented stand-up. She's funny. She's fearless. She's fearless. So what shall I ask her? Oh, I don't know. She got canceled and others didn't. It was really interesting. She's just funny. Just what's life like or who else? God, you got to get interesting. Wait, let me finish. I'm not even done. I want a question for Kathy Griffin and then Marguerite Vestager. Not as funny. Oh, Marguerite Vestager. Will she hang with Scott? She's my hero. I saw her on the train. I said hi. You want to come with me? It's Sunday. I know her pretty well. My question for Marguerite Vestager is what is she doing next? What does she want? What would be the ideal next thing for her? Because she's leaving her. Yeah. I don't know. Something. Yeah. Kathy Griffin, I don't know. Favorite, God, I don't know. Favorite TV. She's an interesting, funny person. Yeah. So that's three. Who else? Any other panels or anything else? I have you. I've got Arlen Hamlin. I've got Wendy Davis. Wow. I've got so much to go. I've got lots of stuff. And we have the Vox Media House. Wait till you see it. And my kids are coming. You're going to meet my sons. No kidding. And if you give me any trouble, they're very large young men and they will deal with you in the correct manner. There you go. You're bringing both your kids. Both my sons, yeah. Yeah, my son's looking at UT. My son is looking at my oldest. UT Austin. Yep. Awesome school. I'm going on a comic show, my friends. That's great. Yeah, you can't come to that. But it's going to be fun. The Vox has a cool house, Vox Media at the Belmont Theater. And we have all kinds of stuff. We've got video games. We've got mattresses on the ground. We've got music. We've got all kinds of stuff. You're going to enjoy it. It's really lovely. I'm excited. Maybe we wander over to the New York Times one nearby which is also I get to go to There you go Yeah So all right wins and fails Wins and fails All right well we do that after we take a break We take a quick break and then we get back to our show Avoiding your unfinished home projects because you're not sure where to start? Thumbtack knows homes, so you don't have to. Don't know the difference between matte paint finish and satin, or what that clunking sound from your dryer is? With Thumbtack, you don't have to be a home pro. You just have to hire one. You can hire top-rated pros, see price estimates, and read reviews all on the app. Download today. Support for Pivot comes from LinkedIn. From talking about sports, discussing the latest movies, everyone is looking for a real connection to the people around them. But it's not just person-to-person, it's the same connection that's needed in business. And it can be the hardest part about B2B marketing, finding the right people, making the right connections. But instead of spending hours and hours scavenging social media feeds, you can just tap LinkedIn ads to reach the right professionals. According to LinkedIn, they have grown to a network of over 1 billion professionals, making it stand apart from other ad buys. You can target your buyers by job title, industry, company roles, seniority skills, and company revenue, giving you all the professionals you need to reach in one place. So you can stop wasting budget on the wrong audience and start targeting the right professionals only on LinkedIn ads. LinkedIn will even give you $100 credit on your next campaign so you can try it for yourself. Just go to linkedin.com slash pivotpod. That's linkedin.com slash pivotpod. Terms and conditions apply. Only on LinkedIn ads. Okay, we're here with Scott who has returned with the large music and stuff like that. I thought he was going to use the Rocky theme song, but here he is. So wins and fails, Scott. Who is winning and failing this time since you've been away? You can do stuff since when you were away, too, if you want. Oh, since I've been away? Okay. So my win, if we're going to go all the way back, is a guy who moves around with a walker but stands 10 feet tall, Elijah Cummings. I thought he had one of the great moments of the last year. I just thought he had incredible gravitas. You know, the biggest loser, obviously, of that hearing, hands down, was the guy who decided to put a black woman up as a prop and to prove someone isn't racist. I thought that was not only racist, but just generally just ridiculously stupid. Yeah. Yeah, the Saturday Night Live had a good skit on that. And then winner. Who are your losers? Who are your winners and losers? And then I have a win. Oh, gosh. I just I do feel that that hearing. I think Trump is not doing really well, but you never know with him. He's like, you know, he's like Teflon in a lot of ways. So I don't know. He just seems to, you know, lost here and there. And his social media stuff is sort of petering out. No one's, he does something crazy on social media and everyone's like, oh, is he yelling again over there on Twitter? So I think there's some bit of, just as what happened when his show started to lag. And I, again, as you know, I watched every single episode of The Apprentice. You got tired of it. Like, you're like, stop talking. And so I think, I think maybe he'll gin it up again. But I think people are tired of being in an outrage over whatever he says next. So we'll see. And I think the Democrats might have overextended with all their subpoenas. We'll see. Yeah. And what about – tell me – you had – giving credit where it's due. You had the best prediction of the last month and that is the day before Amazon pulled out. You actually predicted that. What do you think of this letter that's been circulated by Cuomo and all these business leaders in New York asking for that? Trying to get them back? Yeah. They're not coming back. That's not Jeff Bezos' way. No way. I agree. He does not suffer fools. I'll tell you that. That is one thing about him. And it's one thing I like about him. But I don't see how they could be pulled back. And think of the controversy if they came back, what they'd have to give them. And, you know, they're better off doing what they're doing. And, you know, again, as you know, I thought the whole thing was a circus. So, you know, it would be nice for them to have a thing. They should just open something up, just like Google has a big thing near Chelsea Market. And Netflix has a big office in New York. They should just have one. Like, stop. It's no big deal. They should have one in Washington. They should have maybe one in the Midwest, perhaps. But this idea of multiple HQs is kind of insane as far as I can tell. I don't know. I did the math here. So supposedly 25,000 jobs for $3 billion. So at L2, we created 150 high-paying jobs, which I believe entitles me to $19 million. So with $19 million, I've literally thought about this. I think you should wait for Cuomo to show up or to Blasio. Well, okay. I don't think it's that – people laugh, but I don't think it's that outrageous. Small business creates two-thirds of the jobs in America. I agree. I agree. You should get $19 million. And I figured it out. The cement helipad costs $150,000. I'm putting mine on the top of faculty housing, and we're unions, so let's assume it costs a million. Do you have a helicopter? Well, I've been looking at them on control. I can get an Airbus A340 for about $3 million because I'm not greedy. I just want a dual-engine roto helicopter. So I've got $4 million. So that leaves me $15 million, which will get me a Chipotle pulled pork burrito bowl for the next 134 years. So where's my helipad and my burrito bowl? I've created these jobs. And by the way, Tim Cook's not running around with his handout. Apple's creating jobs. He's not. That's what I mean. He's an adult. Google's doubling the number of jobs in New York. They don't have their handout. So Bezos, you know, finger off the camera and hand back in your pocket, boss. I know it's true. Stop it. Tasteless as ever. There you go. International travel does not change. I am who I am, Carol. You know, it's interesting. I'm going to be having Gavin Newsom, but you are also coming to the Code Conference in June, so we can ask him about this kind of stuff. Like, he's, you know, he is a state that has a lot of the tech, and it'll be an interesting question. I'd love to know his thoughts on the Cuomo situation. So I have a Gavin Newsom story. They both have good hair. Yeah, I had a Gavin. In 1995, I thought I was going to be, like, crazy rich. I started an Internet company, and all the bankers were telling me. I was like, oh, it's going to be suicidal. I thought, oh, well, if I'm going to be super rich, it means I'm super important and I should run for office. So I started talking to people in local politics about running for supervisor in San Francisco. And I went to this forum and I met this guy who had just become or was running for supervisor named Gavin Newsom. And I shook his hand. I looked at him and talked to him like, that's it. There's no fucking way I could ever be anything. This guy, I mean, literally, this was like 20 years ago. And I remember meeting this guy and going, I don't know what this guy's going to do, but it's going to be impressive. It's like, okay, he's super smart. I really like him. Super articulate and, like, tall and handsome. Okay. Beautiful skin. Oh, my gosh. The whole nine yards. Wow. In that way, he's actually a really interesting and complex person. I think people, you know, his looks. Complex because he was banging his campaign manager's wife? What makes him complex? You know what, Scott? What makes him complex? Fair but for the grace of God. What makes him complex? I'm just saying, well, his current wife and 17 children, He was like, my brother, oddly enough, here's a weird thing. My brother's been the anesthesiologist for his 19 children or whatever at the hospitals in California that he goes to. My brother's been his anesthesiologist? That's the whitest thing ever said. My brother's been his anesthesiologist for his children. Well, that's what he just is. It's not his. His wife's when they had the babies. Anyway, that's TMI. But nonetheless, he's a lovely guy and it'll be an interesting questions. He's turned his life around. Let's just skip games. I'm not sure it ever needed turning around. And there's a couple of speed bumps like you. Yes, there are. But look, Trump does that every, like, it's Wednesday for Trump. So don't even start. Don't even start. Gavin Newsom, when he does bad things, it makes it more complex. Yeah, but, you know, the person in question that happened to it, they all said it's fine. Like, so let's just let them, it's not like hooked up into Roger Stone and payments and Michael Cohen. There's not like that going on. Let's talk about Gavin. And I don't know if people ever want to talk about politics, but I can't resist. Why wouldn't, as governor of California, tall, handsome, smart, complex, as you put it, why wouldn't he be mentioned more often as a candidate for president? He's not going to run. He said it. He said it already. He might someday, but he's not going to run now. Yeah. By the way, speaking of friends, a friend of mine from business school, a really impressive woman, Eleni Sakopoulos, is the lieutenant governor. Oh, great. That's great. Well, I will be forever in his death for doing the gay marriage thing when it was very unpopular. Yeah, illegal. He did it when it was illegal. Let me just say leadership. Yeah, leadership, leadership, leadership. And when someone does that at a time where it really hurts them, I'm going to be very loyal in that regard. And I'm not an identity politics person. I just showed leadership. Good. And I really appreciated that. So a win. I just want to get out there another win. Well, last one. All right. I don't know if you felt this way. We're about the same age. I was actually quite sad when I heard about Luke Perry. And I don't know why. I was trying to figure out why do I care about Luke Perry And he seemed like a decent guy part of my youth at least watching 90210 Also he was in a movie that if you have Netflix called Normal Life with Ashley Judd that was actually a pretty good movie. Wow. And I just felt bad for the guy. And then the other guy I heard about that really sort of made me sad was to hear about Alex Trebek is suffering from pancreatic cancer. Very late stage, too. So, you know, pulling for you for 100, Alex Trebek. Nice man. Infinitely Canadian. Well, you know, I don't know if you're aware of this, but I wrote a very, it's become a very popular column in the Times this week. Well, of course it is. Of course it is. There it is. I don't know if you know this, but I write what has become a very popular column. It was. No, I wrote about my stroke. And my brothers are an anesthesiologist. Listen, when I write about internet bylaws, it's not popular, even though I write about it. I write about issues international. But when I wrote about my stroke, I got dozens and dozens of people having a similar thing, many of whom survived, some of whom had people that didn't survive. It was a really interesting thing to write about my own stroke. I've learned so much about this. When did that go down? When did that happen? You should read the column. It's seven years ago. I had it in Hong Kong. My brother saved my life. He's a doctor. The doctor that delivered Gavin Newsom's children, or not delivered, was the anesthesiologist. So I had a stroke in Hong Kong, and I was ignoring the signs and thought it was just a headache and just a weird thing. And my brother said, get to a hospital right now. You're having a stroke. And I did within the – you have to get there within three or four hours to be able to be okay. And what are the signs just so we can make this a public service announcement? I did. I wrote them in the thing. But tingling in my hand, I couldn't keep something in my mouth. I had this called dysphagia, which I garbled my words, several words for a while, just for a short time. I had a TIA, which was a mini stroke it's called. But if I hadn't gotten help, I could have died very easily. So coming out of that, just quickly, coming out of that near-death experience or something that could have been really bad, anything, any way or approach to life that changed? Well, yes, I became worse than I am now. Yes, I talked about that in the piece. Like one of the things I said, if you want to understand the roots of why I'm so considered so tough, it's like, I don't have time for this. Like you, I don't have time. And my dad died of a cerebral hemorrhage too. So it all sort of made me think that we have little, little time on this earth and I really don't have time for a cerebral hemorrhage. Well, we do and it goes faster and faster. Yeah, and so instead of manifesting itself in niceness for me, it manifested itself. what the fuck? Come on. What are you doing? Life is short. I'm not going to be nice. No, not nice, but I'm nice to my kids and stuff like that. No, but it was more like, you know what? No. Like, I'm very outspoken, so it's interesting. It was good. It was an interesting issue. I was sad to see Luke Perry die.