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

Support for the show comes from Saks Fifth Avenue.

Sacks Fifth Avenue makes it easy to shop for your personal style.

Follow us here, and you can invest in some new arrivals that you'll want to wear again and again, like a relaxed product blazer and Gucci loafers, which can take you from work to the weekend.

Shopping from Saks feels totally customized, from the in-store stylist to a visit to Saks.com, where they can show you things that fit your style and taste.

They'll even let you know when arrivals from your favorite designers are in, or when that Brunello Cachinelli sweater you've been eyeing is back in stock.

So, if you're like me and you need shopping to be personalized and easy, head to Saks Fifth Avenue for the Best Fall Arrivals and Style Inspiration.

Now Now you can do that, do that with the all-new Acrobat.

It's time to do your best work with the all-new Adobe Acrobat Studio.

Hi, everyone.

This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network.

I'm Kara Swisher.

And Kara, 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.

Oh my God.

And I guess urine is is a banned substance.

Get it?

Found urine in my THC.

I got the whole situation.

What do you think of that?

That's always 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.

Yeah, that would be good.

That's a shame, though.

A big athlete, a big athlete.

It is a shame.

And then, you know, 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 that, 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, 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 with a little different today our quarterly review series

we are going to hold ourselves accountable the way we call 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.

The coronavirus has changed life as we know it.

These are scenes from the world living with coronavirus.

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?

I think the biggest win has been the vaccines.

I mean, 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 are here, 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,

there's just no getting around it.

We, we bought this terribly.

Now, having said that, American firms with the global cooperation of German firms and

Turkish immigrants who immigrated to Germany.

I know you know those 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?

You know, I'm going to be pro-internet again.

The internet worked.

Look, the internet helped us in terms of work and

delivery.

I mean, I think, you know, everything that we needed to get through the pandemic was provided, unfortunately, by these internet companies, which did their job.

Like 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,

you know, 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, you know, 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 do you, how do you, how would you do that without it?

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 was not it would put into sharp relief how badly our educational system serves uh 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 teleeducation.

But the other things, I think, pretty impressed in where it's going to go.

That's what I would say.

That's a really interesting point.

It's as if these major internet companies were invented for a pandemic.

And had we not 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 all 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 value is owned by 1%.

Quite frankly, we're 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.

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.

Please raise your right hand and repeat after me.

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

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

Six months into the Biden administration, what's been the biggest win and biggest fail so far?

What do you think?

So I wasn't a fan of Biden.

I didn't think Biden had any shot.

You did not.

Who was?

And speaking of predictions, Kara the Swisher, but go ahead.

Did you predict Biden?

Yes, I did.

You kept insulting him.

You kept, first you were in love with Beto, then you were in love with Yang, and then you're whatever.

You were kept being in love with all these man, manboys.

I wasn't young.

I was blown.

Whatever.

Manboys, every one of them.

Yeah.

Anyway, so, and 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 as 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.

Fail?

What about a fail?

I don't really have what I'd call,

I don't, it's hard, it's difficult.

This is going to come under bias.

I can't look at any one action and think they really.

They 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?

Yeah, that's true.

That's true.

When 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 they, the, the, 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, okay,

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,

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 win the filibuster?

Yes.

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.

You know, 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 into pieces so they could win.

They will do anything to hold on to power as

demographics change against them.

Well, aren't they just smarter than us?

Yes.

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

Yes.

Like, I think we should play just like them.

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.

Aaron Powell, Jr.: 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,

speak softly, big stick.

I'm just on a Teddy Roosevelt state.

You know, you got to, they are in the thrall of Trump and they, you've 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, 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 Elon 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 sides.

We like to acknowledge.

We always like to, we always like, I do think we as progressives always want to acknowledge the argument on the other side, even when we shouldn't.

Yep, exactly.

I get that.

I get it.

They take advantage of our good.

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 like get up again on on the on the the ones who are doing all this incredible damage and try to find of course the ones that are cooperative but i think bipartisanship is overrated by this administration okay earlier this year we saw so many big tech hearings first we have mark zuckerberg chairman and chief executive officer of facebook Sundar Pachai, 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.

Who are the real winners and losers here?

Mark Zuckerberg, the American people, perhaps?

No.

That's a no, hard no from Karen Swisher.

Who do you think from these tech hearings?

There was one good one, David Cicillini.

Oh, yeah, you stole my thumbnail there.

I thought individually representative Cicillini 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 Setchinadella and Microsoft.

They've managed to remove themselves from a line of fire.

China.

China, it's really interesting.

China's looked at what happened here and made China has the most interesting thing about Didi being banned is that China has assessed Didi, there's a bunch of them.

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.

And regardless of whether you think it demonstrates an autocracy and that's not how business should be handled and it 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.

That government there is, 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.

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, you know, you hear their concerns about privacy.

Yeah, I think that's right.

They're doing what we should do in a much more democratic way.

They're just deciding it.

And that's the specific.

The systemic, legally supported way.

Yeah, yes.

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.

That's something they would do in China.

You know, I'm sorry.

I'm not, I have no, I agree with the directionality, perhaps, but not the methods.

This is just, this is chilling to entrepreneurship.

It is chilling to people who are going to start companies and investors and everyone else.

It's, I get why they're doing it, but it's like we're the only assholes in town is not really the best way to go about regulating tech.

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.

Yeah, I think Facebook's been hit pretty hard, although

their stock price keeps 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 a creator 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, and we've said this, than 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

in the greatest job creator.

So many people leaving bigger companies.

I think it's also pandemically.

People are leaving their marriages.

This is what's supposed to be.

Or they're getting married or they're leaving their jobs or they just, 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 at the Biden administration's doing all the right things.

I just don't think the judges are going to allow it.

So I am, 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.

All right.

Fourth, Scott, earlier this quarter, you called, we're moving these through these fast.

You called cryptocurrency a mini revolution.

It's a cryptocurrency you can trade for conventional money.

Oh, so it's a hustle.

Yeah, it's a hustle.

Who's winning?

Who's not?

The shareholder class, corporations, China, Elon Musk, the environment?

Please break it down.

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 bucks a share.

It's now at 140.

They had the opportunity to buy Amazon at 130 bucks.

It's now at 3,400.

We have decided that my generation, that a 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 capitalize 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 a 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 coin itself, but a lot of people are not buying the companies around it, correct?

That was what you said.

You're not buying the actual coin.

I don't have the confidence.

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 the

Nano, which is kind of the premier cold hardware storage wallet.

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 an 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.

Here's what I think.

That is very important.

That's the corporation 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.

Well, they're doing it in China.

They are China.

We got to move them in here.

So you're bearish on it.

I am.

I'm not bearish.

I just am like, guess what's about to happen to these?

You know, you know, the people that were originally involved are all sort of, some of them are con men.

Some of of them are sketchy, some of them, they're all going to be replaced by like JP friggin' Morgan.

You know, I mean, just like they can't keep the rich people can't keep their mitts out of this.

And so, you know, you're going to see a lot more corporations coming here and they're going to want everything, you know, they're going to gentrify this neighborhood.

I just think they are.

That's what they're going to do, this, this crazy neighborhood.

And they already are doing it.

And so I think that there, you know, what's happening in China, of course, another crackdown by China on Bitcoin because it is a threat to the yuan.

Anyway,

I think powerful people understand it's powerful and therefore we'll move on it.

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.

Today, we will be holding a joint hearing entitled Disinformation Nation, Social Media's Role in Promoting Extremism and Misinformation.

What wins and fails can we call it here?

I say my win over my interview with the parlor CEO CEO was a good one, but go ahead.

Go ahead.

I'm not sure I 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 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 this divisiveness and then use technology and processing power to scale it?

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's, it can't get as bad.

That's your, that's your win is that it can't get any worse is essentially.

Okay, I know.

Look, I think Facebook and Twitter, and I want to acknowledge I'm, 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 don't necessarily, 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.

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 with these.

Interesting.

See what happens there.

Interesting.

I would say you're not going to be able to do that.

But that algorithm, the TikTok algorithm,

very strong.

I would say you're correct.

You are addicted to Twitter.

You are.

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.

Adobe Acrobat Studio, so brand new.

Show me all the things PDFs can do.

Do your work with ease and speed.

PDF spaces is all you need.

Do hours of research in an instant.

With key insights from an AI assistant.

Pick a template with a click.

Now your Prezo looks super slick.

Close that deal.

Yeah, you won.

Do that, doing that, did that, done.

Now you can do that, do that, with Acrobat.

Now you can do that, do that with the all-new Acrobat.

It's time to do your best work with the all-new Adobe Acrobat Studio.

Support for Pivot comes from groons.

If you've ever done a deep internet dive trying to discover different nutrition solutions, you've likely had the thought, surely there's a way to improve my skin, gut health, immunity, brain fog without offending my taste buds.

Well, there is.

It's called groons.

Groons are a convenient, comprehensive formula formula packed into a daily snack pack of gummies.

It's not a multivitamin, a greens gummy, or a prebiotic.

It's all of those things and then some for a fraction of the price.

In a Groons daily snack pack you get more than 20 vitamins and minerals, 6 grams of prebiotic fiber, plus more than 60 ingredients.

They include nutrient dense and whole foods, all of which will help you out in different ways.

For example, Groons has six times the gut health ingredients compared to the leading greens powders.

It contains biotin and niacinamide, niacinamide, which helps with thicker hair, nails, and skin health.

They also contain mushrooms, which can help with brain function.

And of course, you're probably familiar with vitamin C and how great it's for your immune system.

On top of all, groons are vegan and free of dairy, nuts, and gluten.

Get up to 52% off when you go to groons.co and use the code PIVOT.

That's G-R-U-N-S dot C-O using the code PIVOT for 52%

off.

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 not 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?

Well, the problem is they got halfway there, but the 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.

I don't, 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 spin-offs because that thing right now makes only slightly more sense than if say AT ⁇ T.

I think Jeff Zucker's very happy to be at the top of this it's not going nowhere that's my i'm gonna 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 is 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 uh david zasloff should enjoy his time in the sun because he's going to throw up uh and it's not his first quarter earnings but his second as a public company and a bunch of other people are going to come in all right.

Okay.

All right.

Okay.

We'll see.

We'll see.

I just think these guys manage to play golf and cuddle up quite a lot.

And I don't think that's what's going to happen here.

Anyway,

a golf and a cuddle.

A cuddle.

A business cuddle.

A buddle.

That's just so you know, that's what all us white guys do.

We play golf and then we cuddle.

That's what you got us figured out.

You got us figured out.

And then we burn 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 with the Steve McQueen post.

I when i said that of course i got a call from these that's on people they're like come and visit i'm like i'm not cuddling it's not happening anyway um

come have a steak i'll have a steak with them

okay we made a few predictions next uh about apple scott predicted apple would launch its own search engine

new its own social network new and it might acquire a peloton new so why isn't tim listening to us tim cook

Oh, I see where we're going with Jim Cook.

I'm seeing you make more predictions.

I see the point of this show.

We see them.

I'm cooking next, but go ahead.

Okay.

Go ahead.

Tell me why.

Why isn't Scott listening?

Why isn't Tim listening to you, Scott?

If at all?

Yeah, I don't know.

He has a habit of adding a lot of shareholder value.

Look, I think they are going absolutely going vertical.

I still think if Peloton comes down in price, they'll 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.

You're right.

The auto industry, it's really industry has transitioned from a low margin manufacturing business to a higher margin software business that 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 of 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 social media networks.

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?

I agree with you on Peloton.

I think it will not do a search engine.

But a search engine, it'll 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 you're right i think uh eyes and visuals yes those are the things it's going to be coupled with devices that's what they're going to do health health care especially all right in february i predicted ted cruz would lose re-election in the midst of the texas power grid failure controversy um he has not he has not been up for re-election yet but i feel like he's going to eventually lose re-election i stand by that i stand by that the end of june aircut state

i mean eventually everyone No, no, no, there's some people running against him.

I think

he's such a putz.

And so it's 20 seconds.

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.

I disagree.

I think Texas is proving 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 run on big issues and is the most coin-operated senator in the United States.

And that's Marco Rubio.

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.

Great.

Okay, we were wrong.

We're glad to be.

We have low expectations for these people.

So the fact that I think they did it only because that oversight board was better than they are, than the actual managers.

And they pushed him right into a corner.

That's what I think, which was good.

It was a good corner to be pushed in.

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 happened.

Of course, they couldn't quite do suspend it for good the way Twitter did, but I'll take it.

I'll take it in the wind column.

It's better not to watch his crazy press releases go out.

And of course, Ger or whatever.

What is this?

What is this?

Getter.

That's right.

Getter.

That's not happening.

It got hacked, apparently.

Oh, God.

Donald Trump.

I'm sorry to laugh.

That makes you happy.

I'm like, oh, come on, stop it.

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 ape shit 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, better for you.

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.

So

with the consumer stocks, where are they going now?

People are worried.

They're worried.

So you had

a trillion dollars pumped into, literally into consumers' 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.

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 pickups,

whether it's delivery.

I mean, it's just amazing how some of these consumer companies have reconfigured their supply chains.

A 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.

All right, 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 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.

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?

Don't own any of it.

Gonna buy it.

Don't understand it.

I understand it better than 99% of the public who don't understand it.

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-apt shopping in Europe.

Well, that was an easy one, right?

That was pretty easy.

What do you think about that?

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 two data points or the two, 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?

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.

Yeah, they do.

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.

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, they were peaches that 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.

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.

PDF spaces is all you need.

Do hours of research in an instant.

With key insights from an AI assistant.

Pick a template with a click.

Now your prezzo looks super slick.

Close that deal, yeah, you won.

Do that, doing that, did that, done.

Now you can do that, do that with Acrobat.

Now you can do that, do that.

With the all-new Acrobat.

It's time to do your best work with the all-new Adobe Acrobat Studio.

Okay, we are back with the prediction segment of our quarterly review, looking into Q3 and Beyond with our friends at Pivot.

Let's start with the labor shortage from Congressman Roe Conna.

Hi, Karen Scott.

Roe Conna 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 childcare 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 to 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.

You like that, Roe, Connor, don't you?

Roe.

I like that Roe.

He's a good guy.

I'm just reading his new book.

It's coming out of the book.

He's a very likable guy.

Listen, I think he's right at the same time.

Really?

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?

No.

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 that 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.

Yeah.

Small hand.

Finally has some bargaining power and finally has some agency, like can ask for 12 bucks an hour instead of 10.

Kind of like a junchu.

So I hope it goes on for a while.

Yeah, me too.

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.

You know, someone, I was talking to someone in a store.

They're like, oh, having a hard time.

I'm 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 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 come the breaks right now.

And I think that workers do have power.

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 bucks 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 725 to 725.

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, 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's not a choice between this shitty job and starving.

Away from this situation, we need a child care policy, period.

It's so embarrassing that we do not have one.

It is just, I just, the other country, we're in embarrassment.

And that's really, you know, that's the lowest rung on the totem poll.

And that's really, it's so, it's so

ass backwards, as, as my,

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 talked about a lot.

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.

Yeah, I like that.

I'm agreeing.

So not that.

I think Comcast should also have bought it FYI.

FYI.

Are you going to say Peacock again?

Go ahead.

Well, that's the thing here.

It might be man-bit stock here.

It might be Comcast

buying out Disney because

Disney stock is up, but Comcast has to do something.

Comcast needs a bold move here.

So I wouldn't, I think Rich might, 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 throwing Quibi in his face.

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, agree.

Agreed.

I agree.

I think Comcast got to get there's rumors, you know, that Paramount, you know, Sherry Redstone is prepping the thing for sale and that 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 you can't really own CBS and MBC.

So we'd have to diversify here.

Anyway, 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 you're right, Scott.

I think you've taken his prediction and made a better one.

Yeah, I think Rich has got something going on.

Look, 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, 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, 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 in the experience, whether it's the experiential of a 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 Vilas, of Los Angeles.

But that's just romantic quaintery.

So we'll see.

Anyway.

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.

And 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, as we make fun of it,

deserves to be made fun of.

Anyway, let's go to a friend of Hibbot MSNBC, Stephanie Rule, for a prediction on infrastructure.

Hey there, Kara and Scott.

It's Stephanie Ruhl 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 he 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 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 Kirsten 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 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 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 this ultimate game of politics right now I leave it to those in DC to figure this all out but of course they're gonna 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.

All right, Stephanie, dog in a bathtub.

I'm going to let that metaphor stand, although it's.

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.

Like a dog in a bathtub bill?

This will pass.

This won't pass.

I think they're not.

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?

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 dogs for you if you'd like.

Thank you.

We shower our dogs every day.

One loves it, one hates it.

A 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.

Agreed.

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.

It's just, so I think that

this is, and Biden was smart to go after this issue first as kind of

a tempo for his legislative agenda, because I do think there there are a lot of Republicans that have bridges that are falling apart in their districts.

Yeah, I would agree with that.

And infrastructure, infrastructure is wonderful.

The jobs it creates are usually great middle-class jobs.

Good for the economy.

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.

You see, 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 the very conservative governors 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, yeah.

Well, they didn't get vaccinated.

They know, people know, get economy, it'll help the economy for FFFFS, whatever you say, for fuck's sake.

Anyway, all right, last prediction: we don't agree with you, Stephanie, or your dog, and your dog, your dirty dog.

Anyway, pre on antitrust.

It's like a dog in a bathtub.

Let's go.

Preet is pretty.

We invited preet because I know how much you regard preet.

Oh, of course we did.

Let's bring in Preet.

All right, Preet.

Let it roar.

There we go.

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 Kahn.

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.

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 charge in a new suit with a lot of proof and stuff like that.

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?

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?

That's it.

I'm jealous of Free Far.

That's it.

It's sad.

I thought it was pretty cool.

He literally just said.

It's like we said, we want you to say nothing.

I'm calling HR immediately.

Immediately.

Anyways, Freak's going to kick your ass.

How obvious is my jealousy?

How obvious is my jealousy?

Anyway, now, Scott, it's it's our turn.

What is your big prediction for the next quarter and beyond?

Okay.

I was writing a bunch down.

You know, 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?

What happened at the end of 99?

If you look at at almost every single financial metric on a bar chart that's 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.

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.

I like that.

That's good.

I like that prediction.

I don't really have one except I'm going to make preets for him.

I think Alan Weiseler is going to flip.

I'm just making that up.

I don't know if it's true.

You think it's going to flip?

He's going to flip on Trump.

I don't think it's going to matter, but I think he's going to flip on Trump.

That's what I think.

Yeah.

That's fodder for 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.

My money is worth it.

He's an old man.

So that's what I think.

Alan, the Weiselberg guy.

I think he's a comfy old man.

He's not going to be even a nice prison.

He's not going to.

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 Barra.

Anyway, okay, that is the show, 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 has, and he breeds labradoodles.

That whole charade, that shit is over.

I know who you are, Chuck Todd.

And also my other big production is Anderson Cooper and I get closer and closer.

Our friendship continues to be a good thing.

We've yet to produce Anderson Cooper too.

None of that is true.

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.

Today's show is produced by Camila Salazar, Ernie Andretod, engineered this episode.

Thanks also to Drew Bros.

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.

Adobe Acrobat Studio, so brand new.

Show me all the things PDFs can do.

Do your work with ease and speed.

PDF spaces is all you need.

Do hours of research in an instant.

With key insights from an AI assistant.

Pick a template with a click.

Now your prezzo looks super slick.

Close that deal, yeah, you won.

Do that, doing that, did that, done.

Now you can do that, do that, with Acrobat.

Now you can do that, do that with the all-new Acrobat.

It's time to do your best work with the all-new Adobe Acrobat Studio.

Your sausage McMuffin with egg didn't change.

Your receipt did.

The sausage McMuffin with egg extra value meal includes a hash brown and a small coffee for just $5.

Only at McDonald's for a limited time.

Prices and participation may vary.