Q2 Quarterly Review: The State of the World According to Pivot

[AI Agent Advertisement] AI Agent: AI agents are getting pretty impressive. You might not even realize you're listening to one right now. We work 24-7 to resolve customer inquiries. No hold music, no canned answers, no frustration. Visit sierra.ai to learn more.

[The Guardian Advertisement] Narrator: Not all journalism is the same. Take The Guardian. Our coverage has something unique. Fierce independence. Nobody owns us or tells us what we can and can't say. So we're free to report the whole picture. We connect what's happening in Washington to the rest of the globe, expose corruption wherever we find it, and give fresh perspective on everything from wellness and soccer to culture, the climate, and more. Read, watch, and listen to The Guardian for free at theguardian.com.

[Podcast Intro] Kara Swisher: Hi, everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Cara Swisher.

Scott Galloway: And Cara, I am no longer an Olympic hopeful in the trials for synchronized swimming. They did a mandatory drug test, and they came back, and they said that they found some urine in my THC.

Kara Swisher: Oh, my God.

Scott Galloway: And I guess urine is a banned substance. Get it? Found urine in my THC.

Kara Swisher: I got the whole situation. What do you think of that?

Scott Galloway: That was something else, huh? I think she will play an important role not only in athletics, but in this ridiculous standard that includes THC as a performance-enhancing drug, which it is not. It's a life-enhancing drug. I'm convinced. I think it can help you sleep better. I think there's real utility in THC. But I think she'll go. I think she's going to pay a price, but I think they're going to revisit some of these rules.

Kara Swisher: Yeah, that would be good. That's a shame, though. Big athlete.

Scott Galloway: Big athlete.

Kara Swisher: It is a shame. And then, there's all kinds of things going around the Olympics. There's political things and people protesting and people protesting against the protests. And it feels like it's going to be a bit of a mess, I have to say. So I'm glad you're not going, in other words. But listen, we're going to do a fresh new thing. I mean, obviously today I would talk about China and Didi and all kinds of things that are going on, which we should talk about at another date. But I think today we're going to do something that's new and fresh, which is it's the end of the second quarter. And we're going to kick off something a little different today, our quarterly review series. We are going to hold ourselves accountable the way we hold other people accountable. So like any good business, it's good to take stock of how well you've done so far and forecast what the future might look like. So going forward, every quarter, we're going to do a roundup of the biggest wins and fails, see how well we did with our predictions, and also make some new ones. And then some of our friends at Pivot will give us their takes on what's coming in Q3 and beyond. All right, let's kick off to start with a look at the biggest topics and issues of 2021 so far, and let's declare some wins and fails. First off, Scott, the biggest topic of the entire year so far has obviously been coronavirus recovery.

[News Clip] News Anchor: The coronavirus has changed life as we know it across America. The government's strategy was to try to contain the virus. These are scenes from the world living with coronavirus.

Kara Swisher: We've talked about it a ton and a half over the last year and a lot in the last six months. What do you think the major wins and fails have been there?

Scott Galloway: I think the biggest win has been the vaccines. I think vaccines are the most wonderful product ever invented in humanity. They represent global cooperation and science and truth. I think the most disappointing thing is that, and hopefully, I think America's comorbidities, our arrogance, our politicization of things that we should pull together on, and having what was supposed to be the most innovative, wealthiest, tech-enabled, the majority of pharmaceutical companies that are here are the most robust. You know, we spend more money on healthcare than anyone in the world. You'd like to think the most robust, responsive government in the world that can defend the shores and, you know, 5% of the population and 20% of the infection. So how we responded to this, and you can't just blame the government, but how we responded as a people. Yeah, mask. There's just no getting around it. We botched this terribly. Now, having said that, American firms with a global cooperation of German firms and Turkish immigrants who immigrated to Germany, I know you know this, folks, that these vaccines developed in record time are just an incredible, I don't want to call them a gift, an incredible achievement of humanity. What are your thoughts?

Kara Swisher: You know what? I'm going to be pro-internet again. The internet worked. Look, the internet helped us in terms of work and work. You worked. Interesting. Delivery. I mean, I think, everything that we needed to get through the pandemic was provided, unfortunately, by these Internet companies, which did their job. In terms of that, they, of course, also gained their power, gained even more power over lots of industries, and it will continue to do so. And repercussions going forward in commercial real estate everywhere, everywhere you go, restaurants, retailers, communications, meetings, business travel, everything. And so I think the Internet worked. It didn't break down. Now, there's obviously these ransomware attacks and all kinds of cybersecurity issues that are ongoing. And just recently this week has been in the news a lot. But, it didn't break down and it got us through this thing. Whether people had to stay home and I think it was without it would have been really a much different situation. How would you do that without? Of course, people have been through pandemics before without the Internet, but it certainly helped. The only place it didn't help, which is a fail, is education. Continues to be either it just doesn't work for younger people, maybe works for college students. It did not work for people under, you know, high school level. It just didn't. It put into sharp relief how badly our educational system serves the least among us and also now the most among us. And except for people who could pay for their stupid pods or whatever the heck people did. And, some private schools that were up and running way before public schools and things like that. So anyway, to me, the Internet was a win and the fail was the digital education and tele-education. But the other things, I think, pretty impressed in where it's going to go. That's what I would say.

Scott Galloway: That's a really interesting point. It's as if these major internet companies were invented for a pandemic, and had we not had a robust e-commerce and home delivery and ability to consume data and work remotely, things would have been much worse. The second order effect I would point out there is that the ascent of these companies, especially their share price, which now constitute a quarter of the S&P 500, resulted, in my view, hampering or diluting our response because I think the people who have a disproportionate amount of control over our government and its response, the shareholder class, 90% of all equity and real estate values owned by 1%, quite frankly, were living their best lives. And I think it dampened our response. If Amazon and Google stock had been off 40 and 60% respectively versus up 40 and 60%, I think we would have seen a more robust response.

Kara Swisher: True, true. I would agree. I would say that their growing power and money is disturbing. That's, of course, the fail of the win, if that makes sense. Moving on.

[News Clip] Official: Please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., do solemnly swear.

Joe Biden: I, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., do solemnly swear.

Kara Swisher: Six months into the Biden administration, what's been the biggest win and biggest fail so far? What do you think?

Scott Galloway: So I wasn't a fan of Biden. I didn't think Biden had any shot.

Kara Swisher: You did not.

Scott Galloway: Who was? And speaking of predictions, Kara the Swisher. But go ahead. Did you predict Biden?

Kara Swisher: Yes, I did.

Scott Galloway: You kept insulting him. First, you were in love with Beto. Then you were in love with Yang. And then whatever. You kept being in love with all these man boys.

Kara Swisher: I wasn't Yang. I was Bloomberg. Whatever.

Scott Galloway: Man boys, every one of them. Anyway, so you were right. And I remember you were informed by Lucky. Lucky was least offended by him. And you thought that's how we're going to win is someone who doesn't offend the Fox viewer. Anyway, I thought the biggest win, I think going to the G7 and basically saying we're back and that we need to cooperate on things like climate, things like global taxation, and obviously more cooperation around the novel coronavirus. And I'm hoping this biggest win is still ahead of us. I think the biggest opportunity is to invade the shores of India and Brazil and other nations with vaccine and reassert our generosity and power as a nation.

Kara Swisher: Fail? What about a fail?

Scott Galloway: I don't really have what I'd call – I don't – it's hard. It's difficult.

Kara Swisher: I've got one.

Scott Galloway: I can't look at any one action and think they really screwed up. I mean, they have to make so many decisions every day. They're going to make mistakes. But I don't look at something and think, oh, wow, they really blew it here, which I was thinking every five days in the last administration. What are your thoughts?

Kara Swisher: Yeah, that's true. That's true. Win, I think, is – look, they just opened the White House gates again. Like, they're gone. All that stuff. And I know it sounds – it's a visual. Like, you could see them today. Like you're so used if you live in Washington or spend a lot of time there to be able to walk up to the White House. And the gates around the White House were just terrible. I don't know how else to put it. It just was like, what has happened to us that we can't control ourselves enough not to do this? And so I like that sounds dumb. But opening those gates today, I was like, OK, I'm going to breathe for a second. I think that the ability to breathe and not think about who the president is for five minutes has been fantastic. I think the biggest fail, on the other hand, was is is and I realize I understand why they're doing this. But the reliance on bipartisanship, the non jamming of the Republicans, these people have many of them, not all of them, have very much bad intentions. Would you end the filibuster?

Scott Galloway: Yes. A hundred.

Kara Swisher: Like, you know what? These people aren't operating every time you give them a chance to operate in good faith. They really don't like Joe Manchin. Good luck with the 10 senators. You didn't find them. They just are, they're constantly pushing the envelope, whether it's with trans kids or anybody. They just, anytime they can, like, whether they're going to redistrict, there was just a story about Louisiana thinking of cracking cities and pieces so they could win. They will do anything to hold on to power as demographics change against them.

Scott Galloway: Well, aren't they just smarter than us?

Kara Swisher: Yes.

Scott Galloway: Aren't they playing a better hand of poker with worse cards?

Kara Swisher: Yes.

Scott Galloway: Like, I think we should play just like them.

Kara Swisher: The pushback I would do there is that if you don't have some sort of bipartisan cooperation at some point, these solutions aren't durable. Obamacare was almost overturned because it wasn't a bipartisan. I mean, there's very few. Look at all the shit we're overturning because it was very partisan from the Trump administration that if you don't have some level of cooperation from people who are considered moderates, and I grant you that it's very hard to find those anymore in the Republican Party. But if you can't find a few of them, that anything you pass is just not that durable. It gets overturned in four years or eight years.

Scott Galloway: Fair, but they are under the thrall of Trump. And until we knock that out of them, and they will be cooperative when you, I think in this case, you know, speaks awfully big stick. I'm just on a Teddy Roosevelt. You know, you got to, they are in the thrall of Trump and they, you got to like show why that is not going to help them in some way. And of course, you know, the election is so tight. And it's I just think cautiousness, especially when we're going into this next election, you know, the minute they get control of this, the House and the Senate, they'll be insane as usual. You know, and the tolerance of Marjorie Taylor Greene is just, you know, and I get the Ilhan Omar detractors on the same thing. It's not even close to the same thing. She's threatening to people there. The Democrats and liberals in particular are always played by the right. Always. Every time. Every time. We suffer from both sideism. We like to acknowledge. Not me. We always like this. We always like we I do think we as progressives always want to acknowledge the argument on the other side, even when we should.

Kara Swisher: Exactly. I get that. I get it. They take advantage of our good.

Scott Galloway: I don't have good nature. I think they're I just would slap them hard and slap them continually until they stop and make sure that they didn't get up again on the ones who are doing all this incredible damage and try to find, of course, the ones that are cooperative.

Kara Swisher: But I think bipartisanship is overrated by this administration.

[News Clip] Congressman: First, we have Mark Zuckerberg, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Facebook, Sundar Pichai, Chief Executive Officer of Google, and Jack Dorsey, Chief Executive Officer of Twitter. We want to thank all three of you for joining us today. We look forward to your testimony.

Kara Swisher: OK, earlier this year, we saw so many big tech hearings. Who are the real winners and losers here? Mark Zuckerberg, the American people, perhaps?

Scott Galloway: No, that's a hard no from Kara Swisher. Who do you think from these tech hearings?

Kara Swisher: There was one good one, David Cicilline.

Scott Galloway: Oh, yeah, you stole my thunder there. I thought individually Representative Cicilline threw the best hearing. I do think that actually, after a slow start with people not understanding technology, I think some of the hearings were really well handled. In terms of individuals, I think Tim Cook has done a genius job of disarticulating himself and his company from quote unquote big tech as has such and Adela and Microsoft. They've managed to remove themselves from a line of fire. And China. China, it's really interesting. China's looked at what happened here and has made, China has some of the things that The most interesting thing about Didi being banned is that China has assessed—

Kara Swisher: Not just Didi, there's a bunch of them.

Scott Galloway: 100%. But China has basically made—observed what has happened here and has said, big tech is too powerful and is bad for that society. We are going to check their power and ensure what has happened in the U.S. does not happen here.

Kara Swisher: Yeah. And regardless of whether you think it demonstrates an autocracy and that's not how business should be handled and sends chills through the bones of anyone wanting to invest in a Chinese company. Those are all valid concerns. It's just interesting to think the Chinese are smart people. The government, they are very smart. And they look at us and they think, no, we're not going to let it get there. They believe we have been overrun and it's too late here.

Scott Galloway: They believe, oh, no, you're done. You've been overrun. It's Josh Hawley and Amy Klobuchar on steroids. That's what it feels like. It's like, whoa.

Kara Swisher: You know, you hear their concerns about privacy.

Scott Galloway: Yeah, I think that's right. Location.

Kara Swisher: And they're doing what we should do in a much more democratic way. They're just deciding it, and that's the theory.

Scott Galloway: Systemic, legally supportive way. Yes.

Kara Swisher: It feels like, look, it's just like we're the sons of bitches, not you. It feels Chinese. It feels like we will be abusing being the surveillance economy. It feels like something they would do in China.

Scott Galloway: You know, I'm sorry. I agree with the directionality perhaps, but not the methods. This is just chilling to entrepreneurship. It is chilling to people who are going to start companies and investors and everyone else. I get why they're doing it, but it's like, we're the only assholes and down is not really the best way to go about regulating tech.

Kara Swisher: But what do you think? So Tim got out. Mark got slapped around a lot, right? But still, the stock's at an all-time high.

Scott Galloway: Yeah, I think Facebook's been hit pretty hard, although their stock price is going up. I think, to be optimistic, this is who I think wins. Our tax base wins. Our national parks and our army and our navy and food stamps wins because through global cooperation and shining a light on these firms, we recognize they are not paying their fair share. Investors will win. We will do – there will be a breakup. It might be a year, might be 10 years, but whenever you disarticulate these assets, it's accretive for shareholders because you find that when YouTube no longer cooperates with Google because they're separate companies, you have more competition and more shareholder value. Neva, the subscription search engine, will survive because Google now knows that they're being looked at. And if they just want to take billions of dollars and use their heft to force people not to work with other upstarts, you're going to see the next six months, we're going to see more startups.

Kara Swisher: Yes, you were saying it.

Scott Galloway: And in the history of the modern U.S. economy. And the reason why, the reason why is because small businesses are emboldened to actually compete. And investors are emboldened to invest.

Kara Swisher: Yeah, I would agree. In the greatest job creator in history in those small companies. I've heard of so many people leaving bigger companies. I think it's also pandemically. And, you know, people are leaving their marriages. That's what's supposed to happen. Or they're getting married or they're leaving their jobs or they just have to get out. They got to get out. In any case, I think it'll be slow going. I'm a little bit more like, uh-huh, they're not going to get got for a very long time because this ain't China. And in fact, we're like the polar. We just literally don't. They have so much money. They have so much lobbying power. And they do actually have the power. So as much as I like Lena Kahn at the FTC, they're trying to block her, Tim Wu. The Biden administration is doing all the right things. I just don't think the judges are going to allow it. So I think these are nice hearings. But I see it much slower. And I think very little is going to pass. And especially with some of the political partisanship around conservative bias, which is untrue. I think that's a problem.

[News Clip] News Anchor: It's a cryptocurrency. You can trade for conventional money.

Scott Galloway: Oh, so it's a hustle.

Kara Swisher: All right. Fourth, Scott, earlier this quarter, you called cryptocurrency a mini revolution. Who's winning? Who's not? The shareholder class, corporations, China, Elon Musk, the environment. Please break it down.

Scott Galloway: So I think cryptocurrency, the meme stock movement, Black Lives Matter, the Me Too movement are all have all very righteous components of them and are movements that in and among themselves are justifiable. I think the incendiary belief beneath all of them that's powering or making pouring fuel on the flames, if you will, is income inequality. And in 2008, when stocks were allowed to fail, when the markets were allowed to drop to their natural levels, people of my generation got an opportunity to buy Apple at $12 a share. It's now at $140. They had the opportunity to buy Amazon at $130. It's now at $3,400. We have decided that my generation, that half a million or 600,000 Americans dying is bad. But what would be tragic is if we were to let the NASDAQ go down. So we borrow $6 trillion against a younger generation and an unborn generation credit card so we can prop up and artificially inflate assets, which has created a lack of opportunity for a younger generation that wants their shot at buying things on sale. And the result of that is that they're inventing their own asset classes. And one of those asset classes that they're rallying around, and a lot of them have proof points to say, look, boss, you capitalized on incredible dislocation and volatility. We weren't given that opportunity, so we're going to create our own asset classes and our own volatility. The innovation there, it's becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. There's so much capital going into fintech and DeFi that you're going to see a ton of interesting products and services. I was sort of skeptic. I think a lot of that was boomer and jealousy that I missed out on the run-up. But you're going to see a lot of big winners and big losers. I think a company like Coinbase is probably not going to hold its value. I think it's the analogy I would use is AOL.

Kara Swisher: But you're not buying the coin itself.

Scott Galloway: But a lot of these –

Kara Swisher: You're buying the companies around it, correct? That was what you said? You're not buying the actual coin?

Scott Galloway: I don't have the confidence to pick a coin. Everything just looks ridiculous to me. I don't understand it. The only investment I've made in the crypto space is in Ledger, which creates – which is the Nano, which is kind of the premier cold hardware storage wallet.

Kara Swisher: Yes, we talked about that.

Scott Galloway: 15% of all crypto is stored on these things. But I think it's exciting. I think it's exciting for young people. And also the big winners here, for the first time, there are as many people of color as a percentage in investor in the stock market and in these assets because of things like crypto and because of these online trading platforms. It has brought in a new generation of investors.

Kara Swisher: Here's what I think. That is very exciting. I think corporations and the government are going to wander in here and break it all up. It'll be much more regulated in a year from now.

Scott Galloway: Well, they're doing it in China.

Kara Swisher: They are in China. We've got to move them in here. So you're bearish on it.

Scott Galloway: I am. I'm not bearish. I'm just like, guess what's about to happen to these? You know, the people that were originally involved are all sort of, some of them are conmen, some of them are sketchy, some of them, they're all going to be replaced by like J.P. friggin' Morgan. You know what I mean? Just like they can't keep, rich people can't keep their mitts out of this. And so, you're going to see a lot more corporations come here and they're going to want everything, they're going to gentrify this neighborhood. I just think they are. That's what they're going to do, this crazy neighborhood. And they already are doing it. And so I think that there was happening in China, of course, another crackdown by China on Bitcoin because it is a threat to the yuan. Anyway, that I think powerful people understand it's powerful and therefore we'll move on.

[News Clip] Congressman: Today, we will be holding a joint hearing entitled Disinformation Nation, Social Media's Role in Promoting Extremism and Misinformation.

Kara Swisher: All right. Last one. We've had so many conversations about goods and evils of social media this year, especially following the January 6th capital attack. What wins and fails can we call it here? I say my win over the interview with the Parler CEO was a good one, but go ahead.

Scott Galloway: I'm not sure I'd call that the global win for social media. But anyways, look, I think that when two out of three people have joined extremist groups on Facebook, that group was suggested to them. When I think you have algorithms that continue to amplify divisiveness versus inclusiveness. And when components of the insurrection, which in my opinion is just one of the most damaging, one of the most terrible things that has ever happened in our country, when you see social media kind of at the center of it, I think that things have, hopefully we've hit peak bad social media with people trying to hunt down the Speaker of the House and the Vice President. And I just don't think Twitter nor Facebook can just shrug it off. I think, and I'd like to think the American public realizes that they played a role. And also, to be fair, so do Fox. And I think to a lesser extent, because I think they're much more thoughtful, is CNN. And that is, do we need, does media need to figure out a way to not provide the fodder to polarize people online and to take these divisiveness and then use technology and processing power to scale it?

Kara Swisher: Well, I think, we'll see. I think they're continuing to allow the big lie to go around. A lot of the Trump bullshit is still out there. I think, you know, they move on to whether it's, you know, there's some stuff around AIDS drugs that are just terrible. Like, I don't know. I just feel like they just are hoping we don't, you know, we're lifting the rug up and, oh, God, it's ruined over here. Okay. The wins and fails then are what? You think it can't get as bad. That's your win is that it can't get any worse is essentially your win.

Scott Galloway: I think Facebook and Twitter, and I want to acknowledge I'm addicted to Twitter and I have a lot of self-awareness. I just got off with Sam Harris, who's one of my heroes, and he just reminded me that you become where your attention is. I'm spending too much fucking time on Twitter. And as a result, I become more terse. I look for reasons to dunk on people. I try to distill thoughtful arguments into snappy, quick ways to encapsulate them. I am much too concerned with other people's view of me. And it just struck me that, Jesus Christ, this thing I'm addicted to, I don't think I'm addicted to anything as much as I talk about substances. I don't have an addictive personality. But Twitter and Facebook, specifically Facebook, have been, in my opinion, probably net negatives for society. The wins, you would have to argue. I actually think Snap and Pinterest, who I was not optimistic about, have done a great job. I think that the creativity at Snap, I think Pinterest trying to take more of an editorial lead around, I thought the decision they made this week was a bit ham-handed around some of the content they're going to remove around weight loss or diet ads. But anyways, my point is I think it's hard to deny that both those companies haven't carved out really robust niches and great businesses. I think they've done a great job. And also the biggest winner, the biggest winner globally in the Internet is a social media platform called TikTok.

Kara Swisher: Well, which is affiliated with China. We'll see where that goes, actually. That'll be interesting. I think they're in a little more trouble now.

Scott Galloway: Yeah, we'll see what happens there.

Kara Swisher: Interesting. I would say you're correct. But that algorithm, the TikTok algorithm?

Scott Galloway: Yeah.

Kara Swisher: Yeah. Go ahead.

Scott Galloway: Very strong.

Kara Swisher: I would say you're correct. You are addicted to Twitter. You are addicted. All right. We're going to go on a quick break. We'll come back. We'll do our self-evaluations by taking a look at how we've done with our predictions, what we got wrong, and more importantly, what we got right.

[Thumbtack Advertisement] Narrator: 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.

[LinkedIn Advertisement] Narrator: 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 pivot pod. That's linkedin.com slash pivot pod. Terms and conditions apply. Only on LinkedIn ads.

[Podcast Resumes] Kara Swisher: Okay, Scott, we're back. We make predictions every week. Sometimes we're wrong, sometimes we're right. Let's start with what a manager might call areas for improvement, as they say in HR speak. Those predictions we got wrong, or shall we say in some cases, they're just not right yet. So in February, Scott said Twitter should and will buy CNN. What happened? It sold itself to Discovery. What CNN did, essentially. What do you think?

Kara Swisher: Well, the problem is they got halfway there, but the CEO wasn't there for the afternoon strategy session of Twitter. Twitter should absolutely buy CNN. Its stock has gone up. They're moving to a subscription model. I think the stock has doubled in the last 12 months, and they could have picked up CNN. I don't know. I think there'll still be an opportunity, but I think that would be – If you had the most, in my opinion, the best journalism in what I'll call real-time news, which I believe is CNN, coupled with the kind of the pulse or the heartbeat of breaking news anywhere. I think when news happens, people have a tendency to go to Twitter right away. I think it would be an outstanding – I think one plus one would equal three here.

Scott Galloway: I think because of what you talked about, the fact that it's now part – let me be clear. Them being part of this Discovery Plus thing only means there's going to be a ton of hard-to-yet-imagine divestitures and spinoffs. Because that thing right now makes only slightly more sense than if, say, AT&T had bought it. I think Jeff Zucker's very happy to be at the top of this. It's not going nowhere.

Kara Swisher: I'm going to push back on you, Scott. I think you're wrong. Twitter should maybe buy it, but it won't. Jeff does a fantastic job, but he, whether there's going to be a lot of moving parts at this new discovery thing, specifically because of the single share class of stock, specifically because, because David Zasloff should enjoy his time in the sun because he's going to throw up and it's not his first quarter earnings, but a second as a public company and a bunch of other people are going to come in.

Scott Galloway: All right. Okay. All right. Okay. We'll see. We'll see.

Kara Swisher: I just think these guys managed to play golf and cuddle up quite a lot. And I don't think that's what's going to happen here.

Scott Galloway: Anyway, we made a cuttle. A gulf and a cuddle. A little cuddle. A guttle. A business cuddle. A buttle. Just so you know, that's what all us white guys do. We play golf and then we cuddle. That's right. That's what we – you got us figured out. A cuddle group. You got us figured out. And then we burned dollar bills to light our cigars. Read some of the coverage of the deal. It feels so cuddly and romantic even. Oh, it was so fucking obnoxious. The Steve McQueen poster. You don't want to set that. Of course, I got a call from these ass-ass on people. They're like, come and visit. I'm like, I'm not cuddling. It not happening. Anyway, come have a steak. I have a steak with them.

Kara Swisher: OK, we made a few predictions next about Apple. Scott predicted Apple would launch its own search engine. New. Its own social network. New. And it might acquire Peloton. New. So why isn't Tim listening to us, Jim Cook?

Scott Galloway: Oh, I see where we're going with this. Just saying you make more predictions. I see the point of the show. I'm coming next, but go ahead.

Kara Swisher: Okay. Go ahead. Tell me why. Why isn't Scott listening? Why isn't Tim listening to you, Scott, if at all?

Scott Galloway: I don't know. He has a habit of adding a lot of shareholder value. Look, I think they are absolutely going vertical. I still think if Peloton comes down and Priz still acquire them, but where they're going is with another connected device. And that is the next connected device from Apple will be the car. The auto industry, it's really industry, has transitioned from a low-margin manufacturing business to a higher-margin software business. They used to be worth $100 billion globally that's now worth $700 billion because of Tesla. And I think that Apple looks at Tesla and says, sorry, guys, here we come. Your lunch has just gotten too big. We're going to take some of that. And so I do think that Apple is going to make some, is going to increasingly go vertical into your home, into your car, in search. I think I was wrong 100% on the social thing. I think they look at social and think, Jesus Christ, we want no part to that. And it's an ad model and they couldn't charge. I don't think they could charge. They're all about apps and payment and premium. And I don't think they could charge for a social media network. So that one was a big fail and a big miss. I still think Peloton ends up in the hands of a platform who can better monetize its incredible attention and its rabid customer base of some of the most influential people in the world. Your thoughts?

Kara Swisher: I agree with you on Peloton. I think it will not do a search. But a search engine will change just the way Amazon does a search engine of sorts, you're searching on it. So I don't, I think it will Peloton and things like that. I think cars are right. I think eyes and visuals. Yes. Those are the things that's going to be coupled with devices. That's what they're going to do. Health, healthcare, especially. All right. In February, I predicted Ted Cruz would lose reelection in the midst of the Texas power grid failure controversy. He has not, he has not been up for reelection yet, but I feel like he's going to eventually lose reelection. I stand by that. I stand by that. The end of June, Eircutt stated. I mean, eventually, everything else. No, no, there's some people running against him. I think he's such a putz. And so it's 26. You know, he just, it's really clear to me that he is the most vulnerable Republican. That's what I say. I think nobody likes him. So I'm going to stick with it.

Scott Galloway: I disagree. I think Texas has proven itself to be batshit crazy if they vote for Ted Cruz over Beto. Political predictions? The most vulnerable senator in America right now is someone who's consistently kind of cut and run on big issues and is the most coin-operated senator in the United States, and that's Marco Rubio.

Kara Swisher: All right, last one. In early May, both of us predicted that the Facebook Oversight Board would let Trump back on the platform. Early June, Facebook announced the former president is suspended for two years and can't return until, quote, the risk to public safety is receded. I've never been happier to be wrong. That was a surprise to me. I'm glad they threw it right back in their face. And I'm glad Facebook did the right thing.

Scott Galloway: Great. Okay. We were wrong. We're glad to be.

Kara Swisher: We have low expectations for these people. So the fact that I thought, I think they did it only because that oversight board was better than they are, than the actual managers. And they had, they pushed him right into a corner. That's what I think, which was good. It was a good corner to be pushed in.

Scott Galloway: Oh, that's right. I forgot about them. The UN board. You know what they did? They showed a set. They showed a set. They got it to happen. And that's what it was a good decision. and we'll see what happens. Of course, they couldn't quite do suspended for good the way Twitter did, but I'll take it. I'll take it in the win column. It's better not just to watch this crazy press releases go out. And of course, grr or whatever. What is this? What is this? Getter.

Kara Swisher: That's right. Getter. That's not happening. It got hacked, apparently.

Scott Galloway: Oh, God. Donald Trump. I'm sorry to laugh. That makes you happy. I'm like, oh, come on. Stop it.

Kara Swisher: Yeah. All right. Let's talk about the predictions we got completely right. On January 15th, Scott predicted, quote, consumer stocks and the consumer economy is going to roar for the next 12 to 24 months, adding colorfully people are going to go apeshoot with their spending and their consumer discretionary stocks are absolutely going to rip. And it did. That same day, Kara predicted Lady Gaga would be, quote, off the charts of the inauguration. And she was. So good for us.

Scott Galloway: Better for you, but good for us. Like predicting Lady Gaga is going to be good is not a really hard one. But I did predict Elon Musk was going to be good on SNL, and he was. And you did not. You did not trust me on that one. You got me there. You got me there. But the consumer stocks, where are they going now? People are worried. They're worried. So you had a trillion dollars pumped literally into consumer's bank accounts through the CARES Act. And then you had an additional half a trillion dollars in savings because people weren't going to the Olive Garden or going to Disney World. So you have a trillion and a half dollars. You have individuals with not only with money, but also pent up demand for consumer products. And you have a supply chain that's been constricted, giving them all kinds of pricing power. It's sort of the perfect storm of good things for the consumer companies that were one, able, had the balance sheets to survive and also had the foresight to start investing in technology. When you see how companies have reshaped, you know, Panera, a company I'm involved in now, gets more than 50% of its food starts digitally, whether it's pickup, whether it's delivery. I mean, it's just amazing how some of these consumer companies have reconfigured their supply chains. Crisis is a terrible thing to waste. A lot of them cut costs by 10 to 20%. And then when the economy and consumer spending came back, their EBITDA just ripped. Good picking, good analysis.

Kara Swisher: Another one, on May 7th, Scott said he was going to buy some Dogecoin before Elon Musk appeared on SNL and sell by the time Weekend Update aired, which he did. People actually began selling it off at the beginning of the show. And then there was a brief rally during Weekend Update when Musk joked, yeah, it's a hustle. It dropped again, falling to 0.47 the next day. Well, that was good. Good job, Scott.

Scott Galloway: Thank you. You knew that was going to happen. You did a good job. And then you're not in any of the coin now, correct?

Kara Swisher: Don't own any of it. Don't understand it.

Scott Galloway: Don't understand it. Understand it better than 99% of the public and don't understand it.

Kara Swisher: Okay. Do you understand it? Do you own any coins? Oh, yeah, you own coins and we can't find them. I don't. I do. We can't find them. I will find them along. You know, I also have a bag of marijuana somewhere from 20 years ago. And 10 or maybe 100 Bitcoin. I don't know. All right. One prediction we made a few times is that TikTok would get further into e-commerce. In May, they started testing in-app shopping in Europe. Well, that was an easy one, right? That was pretty easy. What do you think about that?

Scott Galloway: Look, the biggest, I would argue, the business technological winner of the last 12 months has been the algorithm of TikTok and its ability to take signal liquidity and entertainment and let creators disperse their creativity directly to the end consumer with this fantastic vibe and creativity. And then the algorithm's ability to not take the liquidity of two data points that Netflix gets. Did you watch it all the way through? Which did you select? but take hundreds. Do you comment? How fast do you watch it? You know, where do you go after it? And the fact that these things are only 15 or 30 seconds gives them the ability, and they take advantage of it with what I think is one of the most remarkable algorithms we've ever encountered and calibrate on things that you didn't even know you liked and you do. And then if they're able to collapse that with an ability to start calibrating in on the things you want and then serve you a 30-second ad featuring that product, sort of similar to what Facebook, and I think Facebook does an amazing job with their ads, quite frankly, on Instagram.

Kara Swisher: Yeah, they do.

Scott Galloway: Almost every ad I see on Instagram, I'm like, that's relevant. I want a vacation there. I want to buy that shoe. Take that to video. That's what TikTok has the ability to do.

Kara Swisher: Yeah, we'll see where that's going. Could be interesting. Let me just say, I agree with you. You know, I just was eating peaches because my mother-in-law bought them after seeing an ad on Instagram. They were peaches, direct-to-consumer peaches. They're delicious. I'm just saying that's what prompted her. She says, I never lose Instagram, but then I saw this ad. I just had to buy them and they're delicious. Let me just say. Anyway, Scott, one more quick break. We'll be back with our friends at Pivot and their predictions for Q3 and beyond, as well as some of our own.

[Ad Break]

Kara Swisher: Okay, we are back with the prediction segment of our quarterly review looking into Q3 and beyond with our friends of Pivot. So let's start with the labor shortage from Congressman Ro Khanna.

Congressman Ro Khanna: Hi, Karen, Scott. Ro Khanna here. My prediction is that next quarter we will see a decline in the labor shortage. Many women are going to return to the workplace. As you know, the primary cause of this labor shortage is women who had to leave the workplace because child-rearing disproportionately fell on them. And this is why we need child care policy. Two million women who had child care responsibilities had to leave with kids out of school. If we can get child care in place in this infrastructure bill, we will see the return quicker. We also need policies that will help integrate women back into the workplace, particularly young mothers who left. That should be the focus of our policy. But some of it will happen on its own as schools are opening, as camps are opening, as we are seeing the pandemic hopefully winding down.

Kara Swisher: I like that Ro Khanna, don't you? Ro. I like that Ro. He's a good guy. I'm just reading his new book. It's coming out in February. He's a very likable guy. Listen, I think he's right. At the same time, I don't think the child care policy is going to pass. What do you think? You don't think it's going to pass? You don't think it's being included in the infrastructure bill?

Scott Galloway: No.

Kara Swisher: Hmm. Well, that, again, that's nothing but a refusal to invest in the middle class. And it's also becoming an existential issue for us. And that is women are having fewer kids because they've basically decided it's a fucking awful deal for them. And if we don't make more long-term decisions, propagating the species is important. And one of the ways you do that in capitalist society is ensuring that women have guarantees of their job when they come back, providing childcare. Regardless of the morality of it, you're going to see our economy start. I mean, look what's happening in Japan and Italy, where women have figured out having kids is a bad deal. We need to do it for the long-term economic health. The thing I'm most frightened of, I mean, I think there's actually some wonderful things about this labor shortage. It's like for the first time in 30 years, there's always a tension between capital and labor. For the first time, labor, I don't even say this has the upper hand, but has a hand here. Small hand. It finally has some bargaining power.

Scott Galloway: Yeah.

Kara Swisher: It finally has some agency, like can ask for $12 an hour instead of $10 an hour. Kind of like it, don't you? So I hope it goes on for a while.

Scott Galloway: Me too.

Kara Swisher: What's that?

Scott Galloway: Yeah, I agree. I think they have their upper hand for now. For now, they do. And as soon as people return to the workplace, they will not. But there has to be something in place that isn't unions, that's something else. What is the next version of worker power that is consolidated? That's really what's interesting. It's very easy to break workers apart. It really is by companies. And this is a moment where they need the workers more and they have to provide more.

Kara Swisher: You know, someone, I was talking to someone in a store, they're like, oh, we're having a hard time. Like, why don't you give them more stuff? And someone else next to me is like, yeah, why don't you give them more stuff? Like, it was like, you know, it was sort of like, oh, they had never even occurred to them that they could be better employers. So it's interesting. We'll see what happens. And of course, there are small businesses who really do suffer if they have too many costs. But there's the brakes right now. And I think that workers do have power.

Scott Galloway: In our economy, we generally bucket stakeholders into three different buckets. The first is consumers. The second is investors slash shareholders. And the third is workers. And we have decided that consumers are the king, that shareholders are the prince, and workers are the pauper. And we make purposeful decisions. When we cut unemployment benefits to try and help businesses gain the upper hand to get people back to work because they will literally have to live in their car unless they take that job for $10 an hour, we are prioritizing shareholders over workers. And shareholders have seen the NASDAQ quintuple in the last 13 years, while workers have seen minimum wage go from $7.25 to $7.25. The best union we have in the world right now, and I'm not a fan of universal basic income, but the most wonderful thing about this CARES Act is it's finally given workers, frontline workers, some leverage that they haven't had in 30 years. They can say, well, you know what? It not a choice between this shitty job and starving. Away from this situation we need a child care policy period. It so embarrassing that we do not have one. It is just I just the other country we an embarrassment.

Kara Swisher: And that's really, you know, that's the lowest rung on the totem pole. And that's really, it's so ass backwards, as one of my relatives would say. It's ass backwards. Anyway, next up, a prediction from LightShed Partners Rich Greenfield on the future of streaming. One of the things we talk about a lot.

Rich Greenfield: In terms of predictions, I think the one everyone should be focused on is Disney buying out Comcast from their Hulu stake early. It's becoming more and more apparent that Disney needs to have one sort of full offering for direct-to-consumer, not Disney Plus and ESPN Plus and Hulu, all as separate entities. I think they're going to buy Hulu out early. There's already an arbitration battle that's been going on between the two companies. I think it ends soon. Disney buys out Comcast at a pretty significant valuation, but then collapses the services into one unified streaming offering.

Kara Swisher: Yeah, I like that. I'm not that I'm petty. Comcast should also have bought it. FYI. Are you say Peacock again? Go ahead.

Scott Galloway: Well, that's the thing here. It might be manned by its dog here. It might be Comcast buying out Disney because Disney's stock is up, but Comcast has to do something. Comcast needs a bold move here. So I think it might be the other side of Rich's coin here. And not that I'm petty, but Rich slapped me down on Twitter when I said before Quibi launched that it was going to be DOA. And he said Quibi will be a success and that he had seen Quibi content. but Comcast the interesting player here to watch is Comcast Hulu he's right though Hulu will not be an independent property for more than 24 months yeah great I agree I think Comcast got to get there's rumors you know that Param you know Sherry Redstone is prepping the thing for sale and now she's got to be a seller versus a buyer and I think the stock was up and now it's down again or whatever in any case there was a lot of talk on several smart newsletters I read about that about what would Comcast move in here, then it can't really own CBS and NBC. So we'd have to diversify here, get rid of it. And so they have to make a move. Comcast has to make a move. Absolutely. And maybe it will be buying Discovery Warner when it goes through that period of fallowness that you have been predicting. But I agree. Someone's got to make a move here. They've all got to make the big moves because they're not big enough. They need to be bigger. Any other predictions on streaming? I think he's right. I think that's I think you're right, Scott. I think you've taken his prediction and made a better one.

Kara Swisher: Yeah, I think Rich has got something going on. The biggest thing in streaming is going to be these guys go vertical with different types of offerings. I think the most interesting thing is going to be Disney Plus when it starts incorporating offline offerings. I think they're going to expand it to special access to parks, cruises, vacations. And I think, if you will, OTT and video games are the only media that's streaming. And they're going to verticalize into other entertainment. if AMC hadn't skyrocketed and became way too expensive one of those guys would have picked it up and gone vertical into theaters and turned AMC theaters into like Disney experiences it's still it's still you know even though F9 and some others like A Quiet Place 2 have done really well at the box office it's still no matter what those things are going to get pulled into all of this everything's about streaming and being bigger whether it's the experiential of the theater or offering these movies It's going to be all wherever the consumer wants, wherever they want it. And that's where it's going. And whatever Hollywood says, it's not going back to the old days. Although Quentin Tarantino apparently bought a movie theater, the Vista, in Los Feliz of Los Angeles. But that's just romantic, quaintery. So we'll see. Anyway.

Scott Galloway: That's like a rich Republican buying a football team. Exactly. I'd like it. And he only is going to have it on film. The biggest and boldest move in streaming over the next 12 months will have one word, Comcast. They've got a quarter of a trillion dollar market cap, very smart, very aggressive. And they've got 10 million subscribers right now. Supposedly, that's inflated when you look at how many people are actually doing it. And there's no way they're going to admit defeat. That Brian Roberts is very smart on the deals, although Peacock has to make fun of it. He deserves to be made fun of.

Kara Swisher: Anyway, let's go to our friend of Pivot MSNBC, Stephanie Ruhle, for a prediction on infrastructure.

Stephanie Ruhle: Hey there, Kara and Scott. It's Stephanie Ruhle here talking infrastructure. To me, infrastructure, it's like getting a dog in a bathtub. You never get all four of those legs in the tub, no matter how much that stinky dog needs it. And I'm sad to say, I'm not sure anything is going to happen. I think from the president's perspective, he absolutely wants a bipartisan deal done. I think it would have taken something that was less than a trillion dollars. Now it's bigger than that. And if he were to sign something, it would be a huge win, right? But there is absolutely no chance that Republicans are going to stand with Biden in doing this partial hard infrastructure deal that's then linked to the soft infrastructure deal. Why would they do that? That's like the greatest, most giant, enormous win for Democrats. And the other thing they're leaving out with this, we'll just go at it alone. You can't just go at it alone without the Senate parliamentarian weighing in on this. Remember, in the American Rescue Plan, when Democrats wanted to push raising minimum wage in there, it was the parliamentarian who said, permanent minimum wage has nothing to do with temporary COVID rescue. We're not going to do that. So they don't know what this nonpartisan parliamentarian is going to say. And separately, my last point, this whole argument that it's Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema are the only ones standing in the way, they're not. There are a whole lot of centrist Democrats who represent blue-ish or swing states, states like New York, New Jersey, Illinois, California, who are also not going to sign on to just the infrastructure package that Democrats would do going at it on their own. Back to, will they get something done on infrastructure? Unclear. But the current standoff doesn't feel good. And by the way, Republicans would love to see this happen. And they would love to say, we agreed on a deal on a bipartisan basis and Democrats asked for too much. They're the ones who don't want bipartisanship. So, yes, it's the ultimate game of politics right now. I leave it to those in D.C. to figure this all out. But, of course, they're going to go home because nobody has a better schedule than Congress does. And we'll see what happens. But right now, I'd say infrastructure deal, it's a dog in a bathtub. See you, Kara and Scott.

Kara Swisher: All right, Stephanie, dog in a bathtub. I'm going to let that metaphor stand, although it's...

Scott Galloway: What is she, Warren Buffett? What's going on with her? I thought I was the only one that ate edibles around here. Dog in a bathtub? What's going on? Stephanie, you're wrong. The infrastructure bill will pass. I think it will pass. It's like a dog in a bathtub. It will pass. This one will pass. I think they're not... Okay. Politics is politics, but this is good politics, and I think it'll pass. I think, you know, it'll be a watered-down version. It'll be things you don't like, and I agree. You know, I think it'll pass. What do you think?

Kara Swisher: I think she's wrong. Dog not. You can wash the frigging dog eventually. Put him in the shower, Stephanie, just so you know. I'll come over and wash your dog's brain if you'd like. Thank you. We shower our dogs every day. One loves it, one hates it. Little information on me. So, look, I think it passes, and I think the reason it passes, or one of them puts it over the goal line, is the disaster in Florida.

Scott Galloway: Agreed.

Kara Swisher: I think it was a very stark and ugly reminder that America isn't a country. America can't claim to be the wealthiest country in the world. America can't be a beacon of hope, a beacon of progress and prosperity if our buildings pancake. So I think that this is – and Biden was smart to go after this issue first as kind of a temple for his legislative agenda. because I do think there are a lot of Republicans that have bridges that are falling apart in their districts. I think everyone agrees. And infrastructure is wonderful. The jobs it creates are usually great middle-class jobs. Good for the economy.

Scott Galloway: Yeah, it's good for the economy. It makes us feel good about ourselves. It sends the right signal to people. Good for jobs, good economy. Did you see all those Republican governors signaling to get vaccinations because they're so low in those Republican states? Those heavily Republicans. They're all very conservative Republicans like to get a vaccination. because, you know, 99% of the people dying from COVID right now don't have vaccinations. 99. Guess who? Guess what they didn't do? Get a vaccination.

Kara Swisher: Yeah.

Scott Galloway: Well, they didn't get vaccinated. People know. Get economy. It'll help the economy for FFFF, whatever you say, for fuck's sake.

Kara Swisher: Anyway, all right, last prediction. We don't agree with you, Stephanie, or your dog, your dog, your dirty dog. Anyway, Preet on antitrust. It's like a dog in a bathtub. Let's go. Preet is Preet. We invited Preet because I know how much you regard Preet.

Scott Galloway: Oh, of course we did. Let's bring in Preet.

Kara Swisher: Yeah, right.

Scott Galloway: All right, Preet, let it roar. There we go.

Preet Bharara: Hi, Kara and Scott. Over the next six months to a year in antitrust developments, we might see renewed antitrust action against Facebook and other large tech companies by new and aggressive Federal Trade Commission Chair, Lena Khan. On the legislative side, keep track of a package of six antitrust bills that are being pushed by a bipartisan group of legislators led by Senator Amy Klobuchar. Lastly, President Biden is expected to sign an executive order that will target corporate consolidation in the tech industry.

Kara Swisher: All right. Well, you know, not so much of a limb there, Preet. But yes, yes, I think Lena Kahn will come back with a hard charging new suit with a lot of proof and stuff like that. But obviously, these bills are going through. We'll see if they'll pass. I don't have as much confidence in that. And we'll see about executive orders. Scott, what do you think of Preet's prediction?

Scott Galloway: Let me just break it down. I'm going to say absolutely nothing, but I am sexy and articulate, and I could put your ass in prison someday. He just read the newspaper from three months ago. What was that?

Kara Swisher: You are so jealous of Preet Bharara. That's it. It's sad. I thought it was pretty good. He literally just said it. It's pretty good. Like we said, we want you to say nothing. Don't be mean to your colleagues. I'm calling HR immediately.

Scott Galloway: Like I said nothing. Immediately. Anyways. Frank's going to kick your ass at code.

Kara Swisher: You're right. How obvious is my jealousy? It is so obvious. How obvious is my jealousy? Anyway, now, Scott, it's our turn. What is your big prediction for the next quarter and beyond?

Scott Galloway: Okay. I was writing a bunch down. Something that keeps it authentic here is I don't really prepare. But anyways, some of my predictions. Okay, I don't know who will be the first $2 trillion company, but the first $3 trillion would be Amazon. I think in the last half of the year, the thing about the markets that just amazes me is that it has an incredible ability to see around the corner and ask itself over and over what's next. And I think that in the latter half of this year, despite an increase in GDP, despite incredible new business formation, I think you're going to see the private markets do well. I think the public markets are going to incur incredible volatility and we're going to see some of the most step change downs in the market. I think we're going to have some of those volatile days in the market in the next six months as the market begins to go, okay, $6 trillion in debt, a reshaped economy. What happens?

Scott Galloway: What happened at the end of '99? If you look at almost every single financial metric on a bar chart where the x-axis is time, it's at historic levels except for 1999 and 2007. I mean, it literally looks as if history is beginning to rhyme, and we don't like the next verse.

Scott Galloway: I think the last half of the year we're going to see incredible volatility in the markets. We talked about Comcast, and Disney is going to introduce what I think is the most exciting recurring revenue bundle in the consumer world. I think every family is going to have to own it, and it's going to take OTT to offline, online, which I think will be super interesting.

Kara Swisher: I like that. That's good. That's good. I like that prediction. I don't really have one except I'm going to make Preet's forum. I think Alan Weisselberg is going to flip. I'm just making that up. I don't know if it's true.

Scott Galloway: You think he's going to flip? Flip on Trump?

Kara Swisher: I don't think it's going to matter, but I think he's going to flip on Trump. That's what I think.

Scott Galloway: Yeah. That's a different show, but I look at that and I'm like... I've read a lot of people, they're like, "This isn't good. He's going to jail for a little while." And I don't think he wants to go to jail for a little while. I don't think it's worth it. He's an old man. Alan, the Weisselberg guy. I think he's a comfy old man. He's not going to a nice prison. He's not going to.

Kara Swisher: That's what I think. So I'm just making that up. I'm not a lawyer. I just read a lot of lawyers like Preet Bharara.

Scott Galloway: Anyway, okay, that is the show.

Kara Swisher: Scott, this is our only show this week, but we have lots to talk about. By the way, Chuck, we're going to find out in the next six months. Chuck Todd from Miami is not Chuck Todd from Miami. His name is Alistair. He's from Delaware. He's married to a woman who has a master's in library science. He breeds labradoodles. That whole charade, that shit is over. I know who you are, Chuck Todd.

Scott Galloway: And also my other big prediction is Anderson Cooper and I get closer and closer. Our friendship continues to blossom.

Kara Swisher: None of that is true. None of that is true.

Scott Galloway: Anyway, Scott, that's the show. Don't forget, if there's a story in the news you're curious about and want to hear our opinion on, go to nymag.com slash pivot and submit a question for the show. Scott, read us out.

Scott Galloway: Today's show is produced by Camila Salazar and Ernie Andrew Todd. Engineer this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows. Make sure you subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts or if you're an Android user, check us out on Spotify, frankly, wherever you listen to podcasts. If you like the show, please recommend it to a friend. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. We'll be back next week for a breakdown of all things tech and business.