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

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All right, I'm going to go make some tape back behind me. Get to see my underwear.
Oh, Jesus Christ, Kara. Hi, everyone.
This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara Swisher, and I'm still not over my cold, Scott.
I'm really sorry. I apologize.
And in a twist of fate, I'm the one that's going to file the sexual harassment suit. We have had to watch you walk around in briefs or underwear or whatever the fuck that is.
Briefs. Men's briefs.
I wear men's briefs. Yeah.
Oh, God. Men's briefs.
Jesus, Cara. I love them.
They're like shorts. It's like a bathing suit.
It's cool. That's something to be enjoyed when the camera is off.
I understand, but you demanded that I make myself tea so I don't sound quite as bad. But it's very early in the morning.
I'm in San Francisco. That's where I am.
Yeah? You actually look nice. You look spry.
Thank you. I am spry.
I think I'm still on East Coast time, though. So speaking of spry, I'm in New York.
Yeah. Back to me.
Okay. I'm in New York.
Are you wearing underwear? I am wearing underwear. Okay, good.
I'm going to go commando. Big Ed and the Twins need a little support.
Yeah, I bet. Don't do commando.
It's such a mistake, always. Come to New York, you know, London five hours ahead.
So, I discovered something I just didn't think existed. And that is people are actually up at 6 a.m.
and at Equinox. I went to Equinox at 6.30, 11.30 my time.
Oh. All of these horrible people that are super productive and get up, the gym was packed of these handsome, these gorgeous gay men who clearly have jobs.
I didn't know those existed in New York. I thought everyone just had rich parents or like, I don't know, writing a script or something.
The gym was packed. There are morning people out there, Kara.
There are. Why did you go? What was going on? Did you just have nothing? I'm jet lagged.
It was 1130 my time. I'm like, I couldn't sleep.
I'm up at 5am. I'm like, what I'll do'll do? I'll go to the gym.
What did you do? What was your routine? My routine? I do these lame. Well, two years ago, I was literally doing CrossFit.
Now I have one of those things that goes around your waist and jiggles you. And I use a little arm roller on my arm fat.
Oh, I love those. Yeah, I'm joking.
I don't do that. But I can't.
It's hard for me to do weights now. I do a lot of band work, which is sort of lame, but good for my shoulders.

And I do, I row a lot. And then I try and do like, you know, some dumbbell work.
I love, the thing I miss most is I love pull-ups and it's hard for me to do pull-ups now. Anyways.
Oh, yeah, because your shoulder, it'll knock your shoulder out. Do you still have trainers and things like that in London? Oh, Kara, I have an army of people trying to keep me alive.
Trying to keep you young. I am supporting the UK economy, whether it's my NAD treatments or someone to come over and like my physical therapist or I, you know, I'm a big.
Keeping Scott from falling apart. I'm a big fan of the services industry.
They're basically paid friends. They talk to me like, how are you doing? Or they're really supportive.
They're like, oh, I saw you on The Daily Show. You were genius.
I'm like, what's that? I'm sorry? Come again? They're just really supportive, nice people. Do you remember in Florida when Alex worked out with you? Now he's really built.
Alex is like built, like you can't believe now. He's white LeBron.
The guy's a fucking specimen. I know he really is.
Like he works out now. But they have a little gym in the bottom of their frat.
And he does it by himself. I love it though.
And by the way, there's a lesson here. I really do believe that any man under the age of 30, our bone structure, our double twitch muscle, and then this amazing substance called testosterone flows over it.
I think any man under the age of 30, and Alex has leaned into this, should be able to walk in any room and know that if shit got real, they could kill and eat everybody or outrun them. Oh, okay.
I don't want my son to do that. Well, I'm not suggesting you do that, but men who are really physically fit, if you ever see a guy break up a fight at a bar, it's the strongest guy in the room.
Well, sometimes. Sometimes it's the strongest guy, some of those boneheads that are all jacked up causing it too, right? I have found the opposite, that when you get strong, you become more kind.
And I think this has a lot to do with masculinity. I think real men defend their country.
They don't shitpost it. Notice all the people that are trying to be macho by, show me someone.
Let me put it this way.

What do you think Stephen Miller looks like naked?

Yeah, not good.

He looks weak.

Why did you put that in my head?

Why did you just literally put that in my head?

Look at all these tech bros who talk all big and macho and tough.

You know, what do you think,

what kind of shape do you think they're in?

When you get strong.

They're no Arnold Palmer.

That's what I would say.

They're no Arnold Palmer.

When you get strong, I really do believe this. I think you become more kind because you feel better about yourself and you're less insecure.
I have to say, I encourage Alex to work out. And, you know, it's just good for his mental health for young peoples, I think, to have.
100%. But not just that, but just have other hobbies, do other things that aren't work.
And by the way, be more attractive to potential mates. Well, he's a girlfriend.
It's not just much that, you know, big biceps. When you're physically fit, it says to potential mates, friends, and employers, I show up.
I'm disciplined. I can commit to something.
So I'm a huge fan. I am too.
I have a trainer. I go three times a week.
I go. I know you do.
I love that. The first thing I saw Alex, we got on a boat.
And the first thing I said is like, dude, take off your shirt. And he's like, gun shows in town.
Listen, Matt Gaetz. He didn't even think that was weird that an old man was saying, take off your shirt.
He's like ripped it off. And he's like, gun shows in town.
He did think it was weird. He's just super polite and stuff like that.
So, you know. By the way, oh, did you hear about my Chris Wallace situation? He left the network in a flurry of flouncing.
Chris? Yeah, I heard Chris is out and that he's going into podcasting. I'm like, come on in, Chris.
The water's fine. Come on in.
Anyway, they're pretending. I have to tape tomorrow and they're pretending it didn't happen, which is why cable has a problem.

I was like, I'm going to say, Chris, come over to podcasting. It'll be fun.
Good luck. We'll kill you.
But they don't want me to say that. Okay, so I have no inside information.
I just know what's been reported. First off, let me say.
Too expensive. They're all too expensive.
He's a great journalist. That's exactly right.
Chris Wallace is an icon. He's had an amazing career.
and my understanding is based on what I've read in the trades is that when CNN Plus was a thing and they wanted to bring him over. Plu.
C.O. and Plu.
They're paying him eight million bucks a year. And I bet they decided this guy's an icon.
He's amazing. And given the environment, we can pay him a million a year.
And I think this is a conversation that is happening all across cable TV right now. It's when people's contracts are coming up, I think they're saying the following.
Hoda, we love you. We need you to take an 80% cut in pay.
And Hoda's like, what? I'm going to go drink white wine and start a podcast. How can I keep up with my NID supplements? That's exactly right.
So I would imagine, and I don't know this, they said to Chris, we love you. The economics of

this business are just, do you realize, and I met with another guy who used to run CNN, a lovely guy, and he said that 2020 versus 2024 viewership at CNN and the cable networks is down 50%. It is.
It is. The numbers are tough.
It's been cut in half?

Cut in half, Kara?

Oh my God.

I mean, a 50% decline in viewership. And I'm still just blown away by the fact that MSNBC, the typical viewer, is a seven-year-old white woman.
It's like, okay. You know what's interesting? I was just thinking, I'm thinking about a lot because I was irritated because they're like, we're not going to discuss it on the show.
And I was like, why? It's funny. It's interesting.
It's a cool topic. Where are you going, Chris? Yeah.
Where are you going? Like, it's so stupid. And they're pretending.
Like, we don't break the fourth wall is what I've been told. And I'm like, well, I do.
What's the fourth wall? I have no idea. It's like the wall.
What's the fourth wall? I was like, you can't have a relationship with viewers unless you tell them what's going on, right? Including about yourself. And it's a really cool discussion to have, if you're honest with yourself.
100%. Super interesting.
Interesting, right? And they're like, don't say anything. I'm like, oh, my God, whatever.
It's your station if you want to run it that way. But file it under death of cable television.
But one of the things I think is interesting. Do you remember when television only had one way to go? And then they went into streaming in all kinds of ways? I think that's where you are with cable.
You can make interesting shows that become digital. I think Thompson has a very difficult situation ahead of him and continues to, as do all the cable companies, cable networks.
But remember when TV was dying and it was declining? It was broadcast television, but television wasn't, right? You mean video. Right, video wasn't.
So how do you translate something like a CNN into something that's popular again, right? How do you get it to the right people? It's not like all the content is bad. Some of it's ridiculous, you know.
But how do you do that? That's what's interesting to me. Like, does it have the same trajectory that broadcast television does, which has never been more vibrant, right? Netflix is worth a fortune, blah, blah, blah, stuff like that.
I don't know. It's just an interesting, I think about this a lot.
CNN is going to increase in value over the next two to three years, because what they're probably going to do is reduce costs by 20 to 40%. And my fear, my cautionary tale, and Mark Thompson has not asked me this, but CEOs tend to look at their most successful season and try and replicate it, not recognizing the world has changed.
And I'd be shocked if Mark Thompson wasn't thinking the following. I'm going to try and find and or create a bunch of incremental content that I could put behind a paywall because he's going to take the playbook that was very successful from the New York Times where they built a really nice subscription business by moving the paywall increasingly forward and having more subscription products.
CNN, I don't think that's the right strategy. CNN still has the most traffic news site in the world.
That's worth a lot. He talks about that a lot.
And because everyone has gone behind a paywall because they listened to the market that valued every dollar from subscription at 3x what they were valuing. Like a Netflix-like thing, right? 100%.
So unfortunately, though, the consumer has been trained that for every dollar a month you pay in subscriptions, you should get a billion dollars worth of content, whether it's Netflix or Spotify. I mean, you want to talk about a consumer value? Wait, I get $18 billion of content for $12 a month?

And I get, I don't know, I don't know how you measure the dollar value of Spotify with every single podcast or music ever, song ever written for whatever it was $8.99 or $10 a month. That is the measuring stick for a consumer.
Now, what has happened, and this is the opportunity, and this is why we decided every six months to say no to the idea of putting Pivot behind a paywall, is that advertisers still need a way to reach consumers. And the most valuable consumers are getting harder and harder to reach because between Netflix and Spotify, there's nowhere to find them with your ad on the release of Wicked or the new Range Rover or the new Air Jordan, whatever it is.
So if you're in the business of good content that is ad supported, I think it's actually a pretty good time because all of these companies still need to find these consumers. I agree.
I agree. I find it really, there's a whole new way once you begin to, obviously there's rumors of layoffs, but then these spinoffs are interesting.
And then everything gets real. That to me is like once we understand the economics, we can figure out what's great, right? That doesn't, instead of being like bemoaning the end of like $7 to $10 million anchor salaries, which just, I just sat there.
I was like, all of you, like not just Chrissy. You know, he's a great journalist and everything else.
And that was the way it was. But it's like, what can we do now with this, right? I see opportunity if you start to cut costs and just accept what's happening and then create great content.
Because that doesn't die. It just reminds me of what happened to broadcast television in news, I guess, if that makes sense.
Because it's still valuable. Like, we're rising like crazy on the charts.
Lots of news commentary. And all of them, if you look at these news commentary podcasts, not just podcasts, podcasts slash video podcast charts, they are all independent.
Every one of them, practically. It's not from you see an NBC News in there or something like that.
But you largely see entrepreneurial efforts, which is especially from the right wing. Yeah, but Chris is such a you know him better than I do.
And by the way, thank you, because I know Kerry Swisher, he featured me in his show,

Look Who's Talking to Chris Wallace, which I think had about 14 people watch it because I stuck it on HBO. But that was, I really enjoyed it.
He's a fantastic interviewer. His voice is wonderful.

He's smart. He's really an icon.
It would just be so interesting, I think. You know, it would be great content.
What would be his podcast? Would you put him with a black lesbian from San Francisco? What do you do? No, no, no. Just a lesbian.
I don't want to play identity politics. Just a lesbian.
Okay. Anyways, don't go there, Scott.
Don't go there, Scott. Anyways, but the most interesting content you could have on Saturday morning was you guys asking Chris what happened and him in a transparent, authentic way, going through exactly what happened in his thought process and what he's planning on doing next.
Because this is where Chris is. He's highly prestigious, top of his game, but he's effectively a pilot for Pan Am Airlines in the 70s.
Oh, he'll like that. And it's like, what do we do next? We're the man, we're banging stewardesses where people think we're really interesting.
We're

making $500,000 a year in the 70s. I think he's banging stewardesses.
Well, you get what I'm saying, right? It was good to be a pilot in the 70s with like a mustache. You look good in that outfit.
A mustache. And people would say, oh, you look like Clint Eastwood or James Coburn.
Jimmy C, big hero. Those guys had a good life, but they saw the writing on the wall.
They're like, okay, in about 20 years, I or someone like me is going to be making $68,000 a year flying fucking Spirit Airlines with people getting off bitching about, you know, what a terrible experience this was.

The news anchors, I think, are literally pilots for Pan Am in the 70s.

They know, and these are smart people.

They're really talented.

They know their best days from a compensation standpoint are behind them. They don't, though, Scott.
I think they do. They do, but they don't like it.
I'll tell you that. Oh, of course.
No one likes it. No one ever, it's really interesting.
No one ever, I've never, I've done, I don't know, 1,500 reviews. And when I say review, at the end of the year, we give people bonuses, right? Right.
No one ever says, realistically, I've never heard anyone say, you know what, on a risk-adjusted basis, looking at my skills in the marketplace, I'm probably overcompensated. And mathematically, 50% of your people are overcompensated and 50% are undercompensated unless you can perfectly figure out what someone's worth is in the marketplace, which no one can.
No one has ever said, oh, yeah. It's always backward looking.
Everyone's like, oh, in 2007, I was overcompensated. No, what they think is in 2009, I got ripped off by these suits who aren't paying me as much.
Everyone will anchor off the high point. And they think that is the world's natural order, the year I made the most money and everything else is an anomaly or injustice.
No, you are overpaid. Well, there you have it.
This is the interesting discussion we should have been having on CNN. Anyway, thank you, Scott.
I was glad to hear your analysis because I was irritated. All right, we got a lot to get to today.
Donald Trump, speaking of crazy cable shows, it's like Dancing with the Stars, but freak show, has raised eyebrows with some of his cabinet picks and his best friend Elon gets a new role, Doge King, whatever. Plus, as ex-users flee the platform, Blue Sky is reaping the benefits, and so is Threads, by the way, number one and two on the app list.
But first, President-elect Donald Trump will reportedly deliver on his campaign promise to stop the TikTok ban, though how he'll do it is unclear. He's just saying it.
The federal law passed in April by Congress, both houses, says TikTok must be sold by January 19th, the day before the inauguration, or face a ban. If TikTok doesn't sell by that deadline, Trump could call on Congress to repeal the law or ask his attorney general for selective enforcement, whoever that is.
We'll talk about that in a second. And remember, TikTok took the government to the U.S.
Court of Appeals back in September to overturn the ban. Depending on the decision, the case could still go to the Supreme Court.
There's probably a deal to be had here, right? I mean, I would assume if he goes the non-enforcement route, which, by the way, Andrew Jackson did, a whole bunch of presidents have done that. It puts Apple and Google in a tricky position because trusting Trump, they won't be penalized for distributing TikTok in their app stores.
It's really an interesting, it's actually fascinating because he could non-comply, I guess, right? That's correct. With anything the Supreme Court or the Congress has put out.
Any thoughts? Well, one of the many things that is disturbing that's being normalized is that the last week has been basically updrafts in the market. And for what I'll call a legitimate reason in that is the markets hit uncertainty.
And even if you don't like the outcome, the uncertainty of the presidential election has gone away. People now are sort of no longer holding their breath, getting on with business, getting on with making investments, and the market's gone up.
The other component of the market is much more troubling, and that is Tesla stock is up, whatever, 20%, 25% since Trump won, or 20%. And is it because demand for EVs has gone up? Is it because there's some new innovation? Is it because they've announced, I don't know, a new model? No.
The reason why Tesla stock has gone up is because Elon Musk went all in on one candidate, gave him $119 million, and there's a natural assumption that we are now in a kleptocracy, and this company will get ridiculous subsidies or be able to control regulation that hurts his competitors. So what used to drive the economy was consumer spending.
Now what's driving the stock market is an expectation of kleptocracy for people who are on the right side of Trump right now. And that's just not how markets should be run.
Yeah. All right.
So we're going to get to that in a minute. But so what's going to happen here specifically? I now believe that TikTok, I'm going back on a prediction because when the data changes, I change my mind.
I now doubt it'll be banned because it's Occam's razor. The most obvious explanation is the right one here.
And that is, one of his biggest donors is one of the biggest shareholders in TikTok. And he hated TikTok until he liked it.
And so I think he's now willing, he's now going to not ban it because I think it was this straightforward. And a lot of people will.
But can he? Like he can say it, but these are things he can't do. At some point, he may not have the power to do something.
Well, I don't know the semantics of how enduring Biden's executive order is. It's a congressional law.
It's not an executive order. Remember, it was passed in Congress.
Oh, it was approved by the Congress. Yeah.
So now it's in court. So it's then got to go to the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court, but he doesn't have to enforce it as a law.
Yeah, but if the new attorney general, Matt Gaetz. Yeah, we'll get to it.
We'll get to it. Hold it.
Hold it. Hold it.
New Secretary of Education, Joe Exotic. Oh my God.
This is fucking dancing with the stars, not a presidential cabinet. It is.
Yes, it is. That's what I said.
The Star Wars cantina, some people are using that thing. We'll get to that in a minute.
So he is going to try to make a deal here with TikTok, I assume. That's what we think, correct? It sounds to me like the market, which has been eerily right, is predicting that we are now full kleptocracy.
And that if a big donor has a big stake in TikTok, the president is going to figure out a way to pay him back. And what, to be fair, what a lot of people in the Trump administration or cynical voters will say is, Scott, that's always happened.
It's just not happening as elegantly as you would like. And let me use an analogy here that I think is apt.
Becky, Aunt Becky, Lori Loughlin, didn't go to prison for giving USC a half a million dollars to get her daughter in or paying a consultant. She went to jail for not giving USC two or three million dollars directly.
Yeah, to buy a logger. Yeah.
If she had done maybe even a million dollars and gone through the front door of the development department and had the Laughlin School of Creative Arts, her daughter would have got in. But because she tried to cheap out and only spent a half a million dollars on a consultant, they basically put her in prison.
And that's what's happening. You know, that's effectively what's happening here.
And that is, or that's what people would say is that, Scott, you're angry because you want them to go through this opaque lobbying infrastructure where a bunch of lobbyists and Congress people get supported by the National Association of Pharmaceuticals and get their campaigns. Instead, people are just going, have cut out the entire infrastructure of the lobbying, you know, K Street, whatever they call it, and are just going direct to the president.
And that's what you're, the same thing has happened. These people are just being more transparent and more direct and more efficient about it.
Yeah, that's what's going on. We think they'll do some deal.
Interesting, speaking of the market, Disney shares are up 14% time this taping after narrowly beating estimates with the help of its growth in streaming. Revenue for the company's entertainment segment increased 14% year over year, fueled by record numbers from Inside Out 2, which was a surprise hit, I think, and Deadpool and Wolverine.
Disney's sports segment revenue, which is primarily ESPN, was flat, but profits fell 6%. The company says it expects a double percentage growth in its entertainment segment in 2025.
And separately, Spotify's shares are up 17% after the company reported a 12% jump in total. Paid subscribers, you recall, last week, Snap did really well.
The streamer's total revenue is up 19% as I'm track to have its first full year of operating income profitability. Wow.
Wow. That's amazing to think about.
The company also seems to be ready to take on YouTube and video podcasting, announcing a new program. They'll pay creators a cut of subscription earnings and ad revenue for videos.
I guess it's ex-Daniel like second try at the podcast business, which he failed relatively miserably in, except for the Joe Rogan thing did well. It might be part of this.
Will this make any notable dent for YouTube, or are they far too far ahead? So talk first about Disney and then Spotify. Well, the tail that's wagging the dog in terms of the market's reaction to Disney stock is streaming.
People think, okay, that's the future. And its streaming business delivered a $321 million in profit, which is about a sevenfold increase in the last quarter.
So some of the consolidation that's happening in the streaming market and also the pricing power that the market now has, looking at Netflix raising the prices and also just the unbelievable content of IP. Of Disney, yeah.
We always suggested that, that they were one of the ones standing. Survivors.
Yeah, they were one of the survivors. And also their positioning is really clean.
Their positioning is family. Yeah.
And I just can't imagine any household. I have to tell you, can I just interject? We use it every single day of the week practically.
I'm sure. It's so worth the money.
It's so worth the money. And not just, my older kids use it for the Marvel stuff and we use it for like Agatha and, you know, there's something on it for all of us.
And now that they've integrated Hulu, it's really, it's a must have in our house for everybody. If you have kids, it's child abuse.
If you don't take them and wait in line for three hours to do Avatar and spend $900 a night on a shitty hotel room called, you know, the Disney, whatever it is, Princess Hotel. Yes, I've been there.
Kara's been there. But Disney has a really unbelievably strong positioning in the marketplace.
And I remember when I signed up for Disney Plus, and by the way, the signup was a fucking nightmare. It was like five or six years ago, maybe eight years ago, because with whatever they were, 10 and seven at the time, we had to see the first episode of The Mandalorian.
We were going to spend two, four, eight hours trying to figure out how to sign up for Disney Plus to watch The Mandalorian. So there's streaming, there's consolidation in the market, there's weaker players cutting back their spending for the first time two years in a row.
Disney, or excuse me, Netflix has not increased its content budget. The market is rationalizing, consolidation, cost cuts, and Disney is reaping the benefits with great IP, very singular positioning.
And the market, the market has, I mean, yeah, they want the parks to do well. This is their cash generator.
The movies are important, unpredictable business though. But I think the real white meat, if you will, for the markets is what's happening with streaming.
And you know what? I really like this because Bob has announced a successor or that they're- They will. Yeah.
By 2026. It's going to be really nice for Bob to go out again with a metal pin.
He's going to return from his second tour of Afghanistan with another metal on his uniform. He's going to leave on a high note here.
So I'm happy for him and the company. Yeah.
They may go outside. There's rumblings.
And you and I have mentioned some possible candidates, but there are rumblings of outside. The guy who's conducting the search is apparently quite serious.
Oh, they always have to consider outside candidates if it's a good board. Anyway, what about Spotify? Well, the interesting thing here is Spotify, Netflix, but five years behind.
And that is Spotify lost a ton of money, made huge investments to basically consolidate the music market. Netflix controls 7% of all streaming video.
I would imagine Spotify has near monopoly power on streaming music. I mean, I just don't see how you're into music and you don't have Spotify.
Also, well, Apple's puts on a pretty good fight, but go ahead. I think any 19 year old claims to be into music has an account on Spotify.
I got to say, my sons use Apple, like Apple Music better. And I use Spotify more.
I think any 19-year-old who claims to be into music has an account on Spotify. I got to say, my sons use Apple Music better, and I use Spotify more.
I think Spotify is incredible. I'm using their AI DJ.
Okay. Oh, my God.
It's so good. I mean, granted, it's just B-52s, R.E.M., and Calvin Harris songs.
I know. You have a lot.
But what about the video going into video podcasting and stuff like that? I always thought, quite frankly, that now that the FTC and DOJ, I always thought that Ted should buy Spotify. I thought if Netflix and Spotify merged and it was the ultimate content streaming subscription program, it'd be just irresistible.
It would be. But Spotify turned profits.
Their stock is up two and a half X over the year. Revenue growth up 19%.
Paid subscribers grew 12%. They have essentially pulled off of Netflix.
And that is, they have so massively spent on content, consolidated the market. Now they have, quote unquote, Netflix-like pricing power.
And I would argue near monopoly power. People say Amazon Music, Apple Music.
I don't buy it. I think if you're into music, you got to be on.
I think Spotify is the Netflix of music. Yeah, I just don't think they can adjacent.
They didn't have success. I mean, when you and I think about stuff, what do we need them precisely for? I guess the audience, right? But do we? People find us anyway.
I don't know. I just feel like YouTube is the place that's going to dominate this for.
Well, you're talking about too. Okay.
So when it comes to podcasts, the new primary means of distribution is not Apple podcasts. It's not Amazon podcasts or Spotify.
It's YouTube. And that is, okay, 15 million downloads of the Joe Rogan interview of Trump, 40 million views on YouTube, right? So, and the most, quite frankly, the most impressive podcasters, a guy like Stephen Bartlett, Rich Roll, what do they do? They're video first podcasters.
Their audio is perfect, but the way they differentiate yourself, Rich Roll demands, and I didn't want to do this, Lex Friedman does the same thing. Rich Roll said to me, I want you on the pod.
I'm like, I love Rich Roll. I don't know if you watch him, but he's this great, smart, soulful, handsome dude that uses kind of his experience through recovery to talk about life.
He's really just like, it's a great podcast anyways. But he's like, do you want to be on? I'm like, yeah.
And he's like, well, let me know when you're in LA. His studio's in fucking Agora Hills.
Yeah. And Steve Bartlett.
Bill Maher has this whole studio system there too. So does Howie Mandel.
I know it sounds crazy, but go ahead. Howie Mandel, that's a synapse that hasn't fired in a while.
I'm just telling you, I was there. It was interesting, but go ahead.
Howie's in podcast now? Well, maybe he'll rent some space to Chris Wallace. Yeah.
That was good. Even hungover.
By the way, I've switched to tequila. I'm now Justin, my good, good friend Justin Theroux said I should start drinking tequila.
So now I'm drinking tequila. You should.
You're going to look like him if you do. That seems doubtful.
But anyway. You know, if that's true, we're going to see tequila sales boom.
Okay. If word got out that I could look like Justin Theroux by drinking tequila, it's not happening.
Casa Migos would be worth more than Tesla tomorrow. Everyone you went out with last night is handsomer than you are.
I'm sorry to get information. How do you know who I went out with last night? I just know.
I know everything. I don't like to drop names as much as you.
I do like to drop names. How do you know who I went out with last night? I just know.
We can say who it was, but it was very handsome men. You went out with three handsome men.
Yeah, you know, I don't. I just think it's tacky to brag about.
I think it's tacky to brag about your friends. I don't.
Have you seen George Hahn or Anderson Cooper recently? No, they were out doing tequila shots with you. But here's what, listen, speaking of people we met, you and I met Barry Diller the other night.
We had a nice drink. Oh, my God.
We are so full name dropping right now. We're so full name dropping.
We're literally like. No, but this is why it was, something he said was the most interesting, which was there's a different experience with the audio and the video.
And so there's different businesses in the same. That's why podcasting is so interesting because there's lots of ways to eat the apple, right? That's what's interesting.
I wouldn't say now it's all video. I think if people that go, now it's all video podcasting are wrong.
It's like all of the above, as you always say. It's my feeling.
Let me interpret. First off, Kara is really generous with me.
She wanted to introduce me to Barry, so I went up. Late.
And I have traffic. Whatever.
Barry Diller. Anyway, but those were really loving, supportive messages I got from you.
Like, you're standing up someone who is so much more important than you, Scott. This is pathetic.
Anyways, so let me summarize. I think specifically I said, if he eats your face, I will not stop it.
Let me summarize my conversation with Barry. I'd say something, you know, my like whole like innovation ramp and this sort of podcast and going, and as delicately and as elegantly as possible, he would basically say to me, but Scott, you're a fucking idiot.
And here's why. And this is what really is doing that over and over.
By the time I walked out of there, my whole worldview was in doubt. I'm like, oh.
Well, you know why? Because he's done this. He's created networks.
Because he's smart. No, but he's also done it.
He understands. And he's curious.
He's one of the most curious. He never- He's an impressive man.
He's curious to the new things. That's why I like him.
Anyway. He looks good too.
I love that. Hanging out at the Carlisle.
I literally felt like Woody Allen and Angie Dickinson were going to walk through the door. That is so old.
I felt so old and so white and so rich. I don't like to go above 14th Street.
The Carlisle. Carlisle.
Oh my God. Do you know what I was telling him? That's where when I came out, my mother was screaming at me at her.
She had a penthouse around the corner. And I made her meet me at the Carlisle because she wouldn't scream there.
And that's what when I walked in there, I was like, oh, my God, this is where I talked to my mother about being gay for one of the first times. And it has such a memory.
I was like, I hate this place. It was even forgotten that that was where it took place.
Now, I can see Barry Diller there, like, like, and tell him worse. Like me and me and Jimmy Garner used to pick up chicks and head to Cuba.
But I got to tell you, Barry Diller's on top of the fucking. He's so smart.
He's so he's just very smart in no way antiquated. We're totally name dropping and like talking about how awesome we are.
But I have, but more importantly, back to me, I now have friends. I love this.
All of these people, this is the best thing about last night, Kara. Okay.
Everyone, every dude has to find a posse of guys. That all came together.
I'm not exaggerating. I had nothing to do last night.
So I texted Justin. I'm like, what are you doing? He's like, I'm on my way to this event for the Hyundai Genesis.
And he's like, it'll be lame, but you want to join me? I'm like, I'm in. And I'm there 10 minutes later.
And then we text George Hahn. We're like, what are you doing? He's like, nothing.
I'm like, come meet us. And then I text Anderson.
I'm like, we're out drinking. And he's like, I'm in a car.
I'm on my way. So many people, so many people have fucking nothing to do when you least expect it.
And all of us just came together on like five minutes notice. It was very rewarding.
Anyway, so I have my new drinking friends now. One of them doesn't drink, but that was the best.
I love that. I think it's important for you to have your man friends anyway.
All right, let's get to our first big story. Donald Trump is back at the White House this week meeting with President Joe Biden and promising a smooth transition, unlike what he did, by the way.
Trump has also been busy with lots of announcements about his cabinet advisors. The one that is, they started off normal, Susie Wiles, Marco Rubio, and now we're at the Matt Gaetz's pick for Attorney General, and Fox News weekend host Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense.
We'll get to Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswani's leading the Department of Government Efficiency, or as I'm calling it, the Department of Grotesque Eagle Maniacs, or the Department of Grandstanding Edgelords. I don't this is like gets weirder and fucking weirder also in the mix

Russia's best friend, Tulsi Gabbard, for Director of National Intelligence, and Kristi Noem, Killer of Dogs, for Homeland Security Secretary. Chuck Todd posted these confirmation hearings.
He may just save cable TV for the short term. He got sort of dinged for it, but I would have to agree.
First, before whether they'll make it through, overall thoughts? Well, he's made, there's some additional announcements that have come out. He's announced that Sue Sylvester, Jane Lynch's character from Glee, is going to lead the Department of Performing Arts.
Also, I don't know if you heard the most recent one, Gob Bluth from Arrested Development, Will Arnett's character, is going to be the new Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

And also, Baron Harkonnen from Dune will head spice production on the planet of Arrakis. Nice, nice.
I like it. I now believe that the appointment or the floating of the idea of Matt Gaetz for attorney general,

within about an hour, Lisa Murkowski or Senator Murkowski, who I... that the appointment or the floating of the idea of Matt Gaetz for attorney general,

within about an hour, Lisa Murkowski or Senator Murkowski, who I love,

basically said that Matt Gaetz is an unserious candidate,

and I look forward to vetting a serious candidate.

I think this was them saying, you're a loyalist, give him something.

And what they've done, I think, is run cloud cover for just a shitty pick as opposed to a fucking crazy, stupid pick. And that's what Matt Gaetz is to be AG.
That just makes no sense. And then if you really want to talk- Well, it's been called a loyalty test for Senate Republicans and their newly elected leader, Senator John Thune.
They all were pushing for Rick, whatever, the Florida idiot. Rick Scott? Rick Scott.
He was the one that MAGA was pushing. Absolutely.
Yeah, I don't think Rick Scott is an idiot. I don't love his politics, but.
Oh, my God. He made a mess of the Senate committee he was running.
Are you kidding? But he's at least competent. He's elected.
I don't know. Look, perfect is not on the menu here.
I mean, when Senator Rubio looks like a thoughtful pick with gravitas for Secretary of State, everyone's just hoping for someone who has some administrative and some leadership experience. But my favorite is that there are not one, but two heads of a committee on efficiency.
I mean, that kind of tells you- Yeah, I know. I know.
This makes no fucking sense. Are you kidding? It's such a ridiculous...
It's like the Grace Commission, right? Do you remember the Grace Commission under Reagan? He was going to drain the swamp, and he created that commission of leaders to cut everything. The private sector survey on cost control to reduce government waste.
Clinton had it, launched the National Performance Review. W had the president's management agenda.
Obama had efficiency reforms, and Trump created the reform task force to eliminate inefficiencies. He attempted

unsuccessfully to shut down 19 agencies. And this is a popular political move.
Two-thirds of Americans think the federal government is wasteful and bureaucratic. But let's just look at some data here.
Trump is by no means our most efficient president. Federal employment under Trump rose 3.4% during his first term compared to an increase of 1.3% in Obama's second term.
Federal employment did increase by over 6% under Biden. Despite all the rhetoric, the U.S.
government spends less as a share of GDP than its peers. U.S.
government spending is projected to be about 38% of GDP. That's less than Japan, which means 42%, U.K., 43%.
In Germany, at 48%. The U.S.
public sector, which they claim is overstaffed. Well, they do more for their citizens, but go ahead.
True. The U.S.
public sector employs 14% of workers, which is more than Germany's 13%, and Mexico's 12%, which connotes based on what you said, it's probably inefficient, but less than France's 21% and the UK's 23%. Now, let's just specifically go to the pick of Elon or first lady Alania to head in efficiency.
Let's just talk about efficiency at Tesla. The automobile industry,

revenue per employee is 1.07 million per employee of BMW. GM, 1.02 million per employee.
Ford, $980,000 million per employee. Mercedes-Benz, $950,000.
Toyota, $760,000. And pulling the rear as the least efficient of these companies is Tesla clocks or registers revenue of $740,000 per employee.
So the least efficient car company revenue per employee is Tesla. So anyways, I find the whole thing, it'll be very interesting.
They claim they're going to cut this thing by, I don't know, $2 trillion, which means they'd have to like.

No, but he didn't mention it in the press release.

No numbers.

Like he went on and on on Twitter.

But of course, like that's just nonsense.

It's just nonsense.

Anyways, I'm finding this thing is so if you're going to be dumb, don't be dumb, be outrageous.

No one's really taking this seriously because it just seems so outrageous.

No, even congressmen were like, yeah, he can ask.

We're not doing it. You know, even the Republican ones.
The Gates nomination is interesting only because what's interesting about this is, of course, his behavior with young women, women under age. He resigned from Congress on Wednesday, days before the House Ethics Committee was set to vote on releasing a highly critical report of their investigation into him.
Kevin McCarthy said this on the record about his behavior, essentially. And the resignation, it ends the investigation, but they can still release it from what I understand.
So I don't see how they get this thing through. I just don't.
I mean, it would be ridiculous for this clown to be anything. What is your take? I agree with you that I just think there's a lot of Republicans.
First off, the thing I don't think the market or people have absorbed is as of today, Donald Trump is a lame duck president. Yeah, that's what I mean.
And he's not going to have nearly the power to intimidate Republicans. And I got to think it's going to be very tempting for Republicans on a pick like this to go, no, to basically pull on Murkowski and say, this is not a serious candidate.
I got to think the Trump administration realized he probably wasn't going to be able to get Gates through, but they did it anyways. What do you think they're trying to do here? What's their end game?

I don't know, because they're frittering away an amazing victory, right?

You know, it seems like now they're like,

now we're like, oh, God, the idiots are back.

Like, I don't know.

He has such an opportunity to not fritter away

what was a spectacular return to power.

And now we're talking about Matt Gates and jailbait. That's what we're talking about now, as opposed to what he could be doing.
And Elon doing these stupid, he's calling it the Manhattan Project of our time. Again, it's going to blow up in their face.
That's why it's the Manhattan Project of their time. It's such a waste of opportunity here, largely because I think he is of the mind is I'll say something crazy and then I'll say the next thing that's crazy and the next thing that's crazy.
But it's, I'm talking about being effective and this is not effective in any way. If he really, you know, maybe over to the right, they're like going to be deporting people and hoping that people don't notice that if it's particularly ugly looking.
And so I honestly, I think there's no planning here. And I think

they're just letting people in. Interestingly, you know, I think the doge thing is just

fucking nonsense. It's just ridiculous.
And, you know, you can't really, there's not going to be

a government department, which is kind of ridiculous. And you need to be created by

with Congress's authorization, not wasting their time on that. And they're not, they're going to

cut what they want, right? So one of the things that's interesting is that he's been down in Mar-a-Lago. And as I said, was an issue.
Everyone's now reporting how irritating he is. And NBC News quoted a source saying Elon is behaving as if he's co-president.
People are irritated by him, the guests that won't leave.

I think this is just, they're frittering away what was a clear and definitive win. And I'm not sure why they're doing it.
Suicidal nature, I don't know. I have no idea.
I don't know. I do think that the appointment of the Bass Pro Shop swimmer guy as head of U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service makes sense. I don't.
I mean, just. Oh, and Roman Roy will be the new deputy administrator of NASA.
Yeah. Yeah, I just don't.
I don't get. Hannibal Lecter is the new secretary of health and human services.
I don't get it. By the way, I'm still on BuzzFeed right now.
Kristi Noem, what a laughable, ridiculous personality she is. They're all Fox News people.
It's like... You know who I like, though, who's now the new Senate Majority Leader? Thune.
Thune. He's very reasonable.
I like him. I think he's reasonable.
And not only that... He pushes back on Trump.
And not only that, he's very handsome, Kara. Yeah, you like him.
Did you go out for drinks with him? I don't know if he'd be up for impromptu drinks with me and George Hahn. I'll try, but I'm not sure.
Yeah. All right.
I'm going to give you a word of the day. It's called cacistocracy, government by the least suitable or competent citizens of the states, a state or society governed by the least suitable or competent citizens.
The modern regime is at once a plutocracy and a cacistocracy. That is the word of the day here at Pivot.
Okay, no joke. I heard that word an hour ago.
Scott Burns, who's the showrunner and the writer on this show I'm working on, was talking about rebranding the Democratic Party, and someone suggested kakistocracy. And he's like, are you crazy?

No one can spell that word. Anyway, no joke.
I feel like I should throw salt over my shoulder,

whatever it is you do when you're, I don't know, superstitious. But I heard that word,

no joke, 90 minutes ago, cacostocracy. It's the word of the day.
It's the word of the week.

Well, we'll see what happens. All right, let's go on a quick break.
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Scott, we're back with our second big story. Ex-competitor Blue Sky has gained over 1.2 million new users in the past week following the election.
Users has been announcing their exits from X due to Elon's Musk support of Donald Trump, but also a change in terms of service, which we talked about earlier this week, which means you can only sue Elon in this dumbass Texas area. One of those users is our friend Don Lemon.
Let's listen to his announcement. I once believed that it was a place for honest debate and discussion, transparency and free speech, but I now feel it does not serve that purpose.
In addition, starting this Friday, November 15th, X is implementing new terms of service, which among other things, states that, quote, all disputes be brought exclusively in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas or state courts located in Tarrant County, Texas, end quote.
Who is that again? Don Lemo. That was Dee Lememon.
Yeah, you didn't invite him last night. He's another handsome man.
I'm intimidated by Don. Don always bitches at me when he hears about something that's cool and says, you didn't invite me, and then I invite him, and he's like, I'm sorry, I'm busy.
Oh, now he's going to know. Now he's going to know.
He wants to be invited, but he doesn't want to say yes. Oh, I see.
You didn't even try. You didn't even reach out.
DeLemon. Anyway, he's talking about what we've talked about last week.
This is something. But what's interesting is the departures.
And, you know, despite the huge jump in years, Blue Sky is still. I had an account on there, and I like it.
It's quite good. I'm still also on Threads, which I also like, too.
And Threads is really killing it with numbers, and they're close to 275 million. Right now, Blue Sky is 15.2 million users, while Threads has 275 million, and X has 600 million.
I think some, it's an interesting, I like that there's competition. I don't know what to say.
I like the service. It's quite good.
It's free. It's run by, you know, very calm people, it seems.
Reporters love Blue Sky, Amanda particularly. She goes at the Cool Bar and I'm at the Cheesecake Factory over at Threads.
I like Threads. As some users leave ads, advertising agencies are reportedly expecting some advertisers to return to the platform for political leverage given Musk's closeness to Trump.
I think that's not going to last. It's not effective as an advertising platform.
And what a way to get ads, because people are scared of you. And by the way, over at Meta, they plan to introduce ads.
You knew this was going to happen early next year. So Scott, if you're in advertising deciding where to spend money as a business versus anything else, versus a catcistocracy, which of these platforms do you spend on? And they don't have advertising on Blue Sky, I believe, because I think that's correct.
So I know nothing about Blue Sky, I'm not on it, other than George Hahn, who's really good on social, said you need a presence on Blue Sky. Yeah, you do.
And I trust the judgment, but I'm not on it. Are you on Blue Sky? Yes, I am.
Can you describe for the listeners out there, what is it, Why do you like it? What's different about it?

Because they have different things. With Threads, you get weird suggestions of who to look at.
It doesn't have an order of time. It doesn't do that.
So you're always seeing things that are days old. They defocus news and politics, although I get a lot of it.
My feet on threads is quite vibrant.

Amanda looked at mine versus hers,

and hers was like a lot of,-ons and weird edgelordy kind of stuff. Not edgelordy, more like marketing kind of stuff.
It's more like Facebook is, I guess, versus the way Twitter used to be, I guess that would be. And Blue Sky's cool.
They're very funny. I enjoy it very much.
Although on threads, I really like the foods. There's a lot of food videos and planting plants videos that I like.
It's a little more like Instagram. I like them both and I like them differently.
It's like liking, like she said, it's like a cool bar in Brooklyn versus a cheesecake factory. And I like Cheesecake Factory, so I don't have a problem with it.
Some people might. So I think they're both really very good platforms.
Obviously, Blue Sky is much smaller, but it's cooler. It's definitely cooler.
But it's not snotty either, I would say. I like it.
But where would you go if you're an average? You wouldn't go on X. It's literally go over there.
It is a Nazi porn bar. There's so much white supremacy.
It's so nasty. Rick Wilson left Twitter.
Pope Guardian left Twitter. It's just useless as a marketing platform, as an advertising platform, as a place not to feel sick to your stomach about humanity, essentially.
Yeah, there's no doubt about it. But you said this.
So from an advertiser standpoint, you got to bet on Meta. Meta, people talk about the algorithms as it relates to the consumer and serving you up content and putting you literally in your own reality.
And I think Reels has gotten better and better. The gap between TikTok and Reels, I think, is narrowing in terms of Reels.
I can't get over how good Instagram and Reels are right now. I think they're doing a great job.
I think Threads is fantastic. The thing that doesn't get enough attention is the ad stack that Facebook has assembled.
I mean, the things they can do for advertisers and how efficiently they can do it for you. And they basically, the biggest brands have the advantage of being able to hire media agencies to plan and allocate their media spend.
And this has always been kind of L'Oreal's and Unilever's core competence was always media spend. And that is, it's not that their creative was any better.
I would argue it wasn't that their products were any better, but they had the smartest people figuring out how to spend their marketing dollars, their 12 or 15% of top line revenue, more efficiently, more elegantly, more strategically than any other firm because they had these amazing media planning and buying agencies. Now, essentially what the ad stack at Facebook has been able to do is like, okay, you're a small business doing $10 million a year selling beard oil, Jack Dorsey.
We can give you kind of the media planning capabilities and targeting of a L'Oreal or a Unilever with our ad stack. And so when they turn that ad stack on advertisers who want to now run it across threads and with how robust the information, real-time information and sentiment and activity is going to be, people literally tell you what they're doing on threads.
I think it's, if you're betting on advertising dollars and efficiency and who wins and who gets the most ad dollars per person, I would think threads is immediately going to, the first quarter that threads really get serious about monetization, threads will be a bigger business than Twitter or X overnight.

The thing you pointed out, though, is that quite frankly, that's not Musk's probably primary objective. He has bought the ultimate propaganda machine to serve his aims that's not costing him a lot of money because he fired 80% of the people.
So to use, and you pointed this out to me, to use ad revenue or business fundamentals as the metric for whether this $44 billion acquisition by Musk made any sense, by the way, which was financed, three quarters of it or two thirds of it was financed by other people's money or debt from. Who aren't going to complain.
Yeah, who all want to be in the SpaceX IPO or all want to like have proximity to Elon Musk. You pointed out that I've been looking at the wrong metrics.
Oh, my God, this is a stupid business. He's lost so much money.
No, it's increased his sphere of influence. And that's worth 10% of his net worth.
So, like, but in terms of your question around where does an advertiser go, an advertiser is going to go where everyone goes reluctantly, and that is to Meta. Yeah, that's correct.
A hundred percent. Meta is going to benefit from this.
And let me just say Instagram is a very good product. Threads is a very good product.
I know people don't have – journalists always like bellyache, but for most people, it's actually pretty enjoyable. They never think of it like a regular person.
It's very enjoyable. And so is Instagram.
And it's well done. I always find something to look at.
I don't feel bad after using it. I don't feel bad.
It's very, I like, it's like, it's replaced, I don't know, television to me, I guess. I watch a lot less television.
I don't watch very specifically, you know, streaming. And so, journalists get like, there's no politics.
There's no this. I'm like, shut the fuck up.
Like, you're not the user they're looking at, right? You're not the user they're thinking. So they put in a very good effort here.
And I see, I know exactly what their issues are. And they should have something where the timeline is much more current, right? But let me just tell you kids, all you journalists, it's not Twitter.
I'm sorry, your girlfriend became a junkie. I don't know what to tell you.
It's never happening again. Twitter's gone and you need to move on.
You need to move on with your life. And by the way, Blue Sky is lovely, I have to say.
It's funny. There's a little lecture people on threads, like when the comments, all I'm saying is great to have choices.
And I like that there's different businesses and you can have different things. I've always thought that the dissipation of social media was a good thing, not a bad thing.
And advertisers aren't really going to move back to X. They, maybe they'll buy $30 just to have their name there.
So Linda Yaccherino can swan around New York and pretend she's an actual CEO. And so whatever, like whatever.
That's my rant. Thank you very much.
In any case, I think you should go on Blue Sky. I do.
Yeah, I should start it, but just some numbers. According to the report released by Cantor, a net 26% of marketers, one in four plan to decrease their spending on X in 2025.
And then Blue Sky's up now at 15 million. Threads is now at 275 million.
I mean, it's- It's going to catch X in seconds. Yeah.
Although I will say Twitter's still, I haven't been on Twitter in two years. It does still seem to- Attract news.
You know, inspire a lot of water cooler conversation. I still get a ton of text messages with links to an X, an X tweet or whatever it is.
And I have to write back. I'm not on X.
I can't see this. Can you send me a screenshot? It does hold still a lot of what I'd call because of journalists.
And the other thing that's sort of sad about what's happened here and it's happening everywhere is I would argue Twitter, I mean, Twitter's just gone red pill. And I would argue Threads is pretty blue pill.
Because if I put out a tweet saying an American hero in a picture of Biden, it'll get 2,000 likes. And if I say we should have had a competition, not a coronation, my feed is filled with, look, either sign up for your PBS subscription or commit Harry Carey, but you don't understand the assignment.
I think threads is very, not an argument discussion. Threads is very left.
The thing I like about threads and the thing I especially love about LinkedIn is the vibe is just less ugly. It's less angry.
I don't know if it's fewer bots

or there's fewer trolls,

but I don't have some like

little dick failed venture capitalist

tweeting about me 450 times

on threads because I made the,

you know, I committed

the crime against humanity

of saying his shitty portfolio companies

were not worth anything.

How's that Keith, your boy? No, it's not Keith. It's someone who's, anyways, it doesn't matter.
Now I'm turning into fucking Twitter. Anyways, but Threads is a little more, people push back.
I still get all these bots who are out there. I don't know if it's a GRU or a CCP just trying to start a fight in my feed, saying stupid things with a dog picture and 22 followers.
But there's less of that on threads. There is.
Threads so far. Twitter always had that, by the way.
Twitter always had that for years and years. It's just a question of what's an enjoyable user experience.
And I do think it's just dying. It's dying.
It's clearly dying. And people who I never, I keep, just get off of it.
You'll feel better. I've had, I agree there's a lot going on there, but I think it's in the specific areas and it's not a pleasant place to be.
And a lot more people I thought would never come off or off. And then once you go off, you're like, why was I there? I can find this information on blue sky.
I can find it on X. I can find it on blank.
But you can just real quickly, you can see an environment where he lets Trump fold true social into Twitter. And in exchange, he says, all government agencies have to release all data, including information on when you're getting your social security check or everything through X.
And so you can see now the full weight. Cacistocracy.
Well, 100%, 100%. So, and that's where we are.
The markets, I'm being redundant, the markets should move based on the consumer economy, not on the expectations of a kleptocrat. Right.
Actually, that would be kleptocracy. Anyway, they're all bad words.
Anyway, one more quick break. We'll be back for predictions.
to a smooth, creamy yogurt. Enjoy six remix varieties, three Epic Complete Protein Oikos remix options, or three craveable light and fit remix options.
See remixyogurt.com. Last week, we at Today Explained brought you an episode titled The Joe Rogan of the Left.
The Joe Rogan of the Left was in quotations. It was mostly about a guy named Hassan Piker, who some say is the Joe Rogan of the left.
But enough about Joe. We made an episode about Hassan because the Democrats are really courting this dude.
So Hassan Piker is really the only major prominent leftist on Twitch, at least the only one who talks about politics all day. What's going on everybody? I hope everyone's having a fantastic evening, afternoon, prenew, no matter where you're going.
They want his co-sign. They want his endorsement because he's young and he reaches millions of young people streaming on YouTube, TikTok, and especially Twitch.
But last week he was streaming us. Yeah, I was listening on stream and you guys were like, hey, you should come on the show if you're listening.
I was like, oops, caught. You're a listener.
Yeah.

Oh, yeah, I am.

Yeah.

Thank you for listening.

Head over to the Today Explained feed to hear Hassan Piker explain himself.

Okay, Scott, let's hear our predictions,

except the fact that you'll probably go on Blue Sky.

What's your prediction?

So, just a couple quick ones. I've always been fascinated by the fact that all these local—do you ever watch local news? Sometimes.
Not really. Yeah, if you ever want a throwback, if you want to know what it's like to be 80, just watch local news.
And I would describe— Hey, Jim, what's up with the weather? We could have hail the size of golf balls. Killer bees.
It could happen to you. Yeah.
It's a mix between an older guy that has a grandfatherly comfort and a hot young woman who is still waiting to be on the Today Show. They basically hemorrhage money or make no money for 20 months.
And they get to underpay their talent because everyone's hoping to get elevated to Brian Williams' old seat at NBC News. They don't make any money, or they make very little money, the talent.
And then for four months, every 24 months, they triple or quintuple their ad rates, and they just get totally this tsunami of cash from elections because the general conventional wisdom, which is no longer that wise anymore, is that old people vote. And this is the place where you can reach a ton of old people in a local area for either the local congressional race, a ballot initiative.
So a lot of smart companies, I think including Hearst, went and bought a bunch of local TV news stations and said, this might be a shitty business, but four months every 24 months, it's an unbelievable business. What I believe is going to happen is that those good times and that unearned income is about to come to an end.
And I think you're going to see a lot of that capital flow to the new arbiter who gets elected, and that is podcasts. And I know we're talking our own book here, but you're about to see local TV stations start to reflect the economics that foots to the actual value of these companies.
And this- Oh, are we going to have to read Matt Gaetz ads? Not doing it. I think political advertising is going to wash over podcasts based on what happened in this election to the same extent it happens when you watch the local news.
And then my just second real quick prediction is these tariffs are not going to happen at nearly the scale that Trump is threatening because you're going to see, given that Trump is a lame duck president, given that a lot of Republicans do have a business background, and I do think a lot of them understand economics, are going to decide to go out on a limb and say, if you want to increase the price of 88% of the toys under the Christmas tree by 60%, I am not down with that and I have concerns. Republicans.
Yes, they all have their line in the sand, don't they? And it's usually a financial one. It's money.
Yeah. Do you know what a very prominent Republican told me who's like a fake Trumper, like pretends to like him and hates him behind the scenes? I said, are you put up with this craziness? And he goes, we only need him for two more years.
Literally. I was like, it was so sinister.
It was so sinister, Scott. I was like, what? They're like, we only need him for two more years.
I was like, oh, good gods, poor Trump in some weird way. I mean, not really.
I don't care.

But this is how tariffs work. Have you noticed Mexico has already announced reciprocal tariffs if Trump does anything along the lines of what he's threatening? They're like, okay, if you want to put Mexico and Canada are now our biggest trading partners.

They've now replaced China.

Trade is still a function of proximity.

Mexico is a fantastic trading partner.

And they said, look, if you're going to put Mexico and Canada are now our biggest trading partners. They've now replaced China.
Trade is still a function of proximity. Mexico is a fantastic trading partner.
And they said, look, if you're going to put 20%, 40%, 60% tariff on our products, guess what, boss? We're going to do the same thing. Our consumers are going to see prices go up.
Your consumers are going to see prices go up. It's just when I first moved to New York, I was bored and I used to do yoga, which was fine.
I did it to- What? There are a few things I'm worse at than yoga, but I liked the vibe. It helped with stress and there was a lot of hot women.
But I also thought, all right, but I need to hit something. So I started boxing and my trainer, who I'm paying, who's like, you should enter this tournament.
You're pretty good at what you do. You have good hand speed.
So I'm 6'2", 190. And when you enter a 6'2", 190, just fun little boxing tournament at a gym,

you end up fighting a guy who's 5'9

and literally looks like Mike Tyson.

And all I remember was I got out there

and the next thing I remember,

literally the next thing I remember

is a bright light.

And it was because I was on my back

staring up at bright lights.

I don't even remember. I could beat you up.
I don't even remember him taking his fist back to throw a punch. And I don't know if for the viewers at home, see how my nose, see how my nose goes to the right.
That's my souvenir for my one boxing tournament. My nose goes permanently to the right.
Oh, I wish. Oh, I wish.
Go back in time. I'd love to see that.

But this is the fatal flaw in strategy or when people are trying to determine a strategy. And that is they assume in business that their competitors are a speed bag and don't hit back.
I'm going to place 60% tariffs on China. Well, guess what? China is not a speed bag.
It will hit you back. And they, too, will go, fuck you, boss.
We're putting 60% tariffs on everything that comes into China. And by the way, everyone from Estee Lauder to North Face, you're going to take away Chinese consumer revenue from these companies? You know, Alibaba, a lot of U.S.
products go to China via Alibaba. Like, honestly, there's a lot of businesses here in this country.
The only place we're selling Buicks is China. I mean, China loves American brands.
They love Ralph Lauren. They love our beauty products.
They love Estee Lauder products. Anyways, Starbucks? Can I ask you a separate question? RFK.
He's the last crazy on the clown train. I would imagine he gets pushback from the mayonnaise groups or the seed oils.
I was like, Trump's going to call from the mayonnaise people, and they're going to stand down on him. And in that way, you vaguely are like, well, he's right, mayonnaise is bad for you.
That's true. He's literally the definition of sweet and savory in the sense that occasionally I hear three or five minutes from RFK and I think this guy is fantastic.
Let him tell you about the food industrial complex and what this shitty food is doing for our kids. And you're like, you know what? This guy is a leader.
I think when he talks about the environment, he is really good. Quite frankly, when he talks about Israel, I think he is fantastic.
Don't go too far down the RFK train, but go ahead. But then we stop at the vaccine station and he says the best thing you can do for a new mother who has a baby is come up next to her and whisper, don't get her vaccinated.
And you're like, what? Huh? He's so crazy. He brings the whole crazy with him.
He doesn't, it just not, he brings his whole self to work and that's the problem. I mean, I think that it's very good to focus.
I'd rather have Michelle Obama do it by let's all eat salads.

But let me just tell you.

I heard she's not up for anything in the Trump administration.

Speaking of people punching back, do you think the mayonnaise people aren't going to punch back?

Do you think the pharmaceutical people, do you think the people that don't own and Scott and I call it this the diabetic industrial complex isn't going to punch friggin.

They're not they're not speed bags either.

And in fact, they are the person who knocked you out, Scott. Right.
So that's the, that's the problem he's going to have with RFK. Yeah.
I don't know how much money they gave, but it's interesting. I mean, granted, we're lowering the bar so forward.
So, so, but like, for example, I really did not want Mitt Romney or W to be president. I really thought these would be bad presidents.
Looking back. Oh my God, they look like.
I think Senator Romney seems like a wonderful president. I know.
It's our expectations. All right, we have to end soon, but I have one short predictions.
Now, I would dearly love Kamala Harris to run for governor of California for 2026. Gavin Newsom gets termed out.
She would drive Trump crazy in those last two years because the power of California, I think it's the fourth or fifth biggest economy now. Her in charge of California would be spectacular.
It would be, because by the way, California is on the return. Like I got to say, you know, I always say this, but all these cities are starting to see openings of stores, you're starting to see restaurants.
San Francisco elected Daniel Lurie as mayor. Things are turning around, including in New York, by the way, New York is as lively as can be.
New York didn't need to be turned around. New York, New York.
I know, but it had its moment that it went through the sad. It went through the sad for a little bit.
It did. I'm just saying her running California, if they start to really address, which they have been, the homeless problems, the fentanyl problems, I think her being governor would be sweet, sweet revenge in a lot of ways because that's a powerful position in this country, the governor of California.
I don't know. I'm going to go off from the assignment.
I wonder if her political career is over and she's going to go be the head, the chair of a private equity firm and just make bank. I don't think she's, if I'm Vice President Harris, why wouldn't she go be like chairman of the Carlisle Group, make a lot of money and just enjoy her life? But it's not for two years.
It's not for, she could do that. She could do both.
Because I do think she's got another punch in her speaking of. But to what end? California is the most ungovernable nation.
It's the fifth largest economy in the world with a lot of special interest groups that make it impossible. I like the storyline.
You're right. You're right.
I just like this. I wouldn't be surprised, Kara, if her.
OK, this is what I think her next stop is. I think under the next Democratic president, she becomes a Supreme Court justice.
I think that is what her future is. That could be.
Make some money until then. And then.
Does she really want to run another campaign? What if she loses? If I were her, I wouldn't want to subject myself to that bullshit. Maybe so.
I don't think she'd lose. I think people have a lot of affection for her.
Anyway, just an interesting little idea to think about. That's why I like it.
You know why I like us versus cable news? I like us because we consider everything. We have problems.
We discuss them. We have issues.
We talk about them. Sort of.
We're a little bit biased. We're a little bit biased-ish.
I know, but I think we like each other more recently. I've just had great affection for you recently.
I don't know why. I appreciate that.
I need that. Hold that thought.
Well, whatever it is I'm doing, could you please tell me so I could do more of it? We had a rough time over the summer, but I feel much better about our relationship. Anyway.
Well, you came to your senses. No, I did not.
You did. Anyway.
No, it's not true. You came to your senses.
Anyway, once again, fuck you. You stopped abusing whatever meth you were doing in the closet, whatever.
And you made my career. I got it.
People come up to me and say, can Scott stop saying that? I said, no, just let him say it because it makes him feel better. Oh, yeah.
You're turning into Trump. People say.
People say. Sir, sir.
People are saying. Okay, we got to go.
We want to hear from you. Send us your questions about business tech or whatever's on your mind.
This is gold, by the way. Go to nymag.com slash pivot to submit a question for the show or call 855-51-PIVOT.
And now listeners, time for this week's Threads poll. We may put it on Blue Sky.
If Sky goes over there. The question this week is, who is the worst pick so far? Representative Matt Gaetz for Attorney General.
I can't even say that out loud without laughing. Senator Marco Rubio for Secretary of State.
Fox News host Pete Hegseth, who's such a douche nozzle. Go watch some of his stupid videos for Secretary of Defense.
He wears those dumb glasses that douche nozzle men wear, those weird. Anyway, and Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswani for government efficiency.
Find us on threads at pivotpodcastofficial to vote. And we'll be doing another call-in show soon.
We love those. Submit your voicemails with questions you'd like to ask us live on air and let us know where to reach you.
Okay, Scott. Elsewhere in the Kara and Scott multiverse this week on this week's Prof G Markets, Scott, you and Ed spoke with Josh Brown, co-founder and CEO of Rit Holtz Wealth Management, about the accuracy of the prediction markets.
Super impressive, yeah. Bitcoin hitting an all-time high, and advice to people who are concerned about a second Trump term.
Let's listen really briefly. Spend the next four years, put your head down, make fucking money, focus on how you can improve your own life and the pendulum will swing back.
And if you're horrified by some of the things like the overturning of Roe v. Wade or the way we're gonna see very cruel deportations of immigrants, like if you're horrified by those things and rightly you should be, the wealthier you are, the more opportunity you will have to do something about it.
Screaming on Twitter, crying into a TikTok, all that does is make the people on the other side feel even more emboldened. My advice is arm yourself with money.
It is the only way to make change you you don't have to like that what i'm saying is true you just have to accept it because everyone else has wow is he a brother from another mother jesus that's scott galloway with an accent yeah we're of like minds wow yeah we're of like minds and his partner, Barry Ritholtz, both listen to our show. And by the way.
I love Barry. They're such Long Island.
They are. They're like the best of Long Island.
I know. I've been on Barry's show.
They're the guys that have a Trans Am in their front parking lot and throw a beer at you when you're on your way to high school. And then on your way back, they invite you in for your first bong load.
They're like such good guys. They're such Long Island men and they're super smart.
By the way, they have five billion under management in their businesses. Yeah, very funny.
I love that. That's really good.
Anyway, go listen to it. Before we go, happy birthday to our best friend, George Hahn, who Scott went out with last night, who is sexy years old today.
I don't know how old he is, but he looks fantastic. Happy birthday, George.
Happy birthday. And by the way, I'm going to put out a happy birthday.
My son Saul turns three on the day this publishes. Oh, nice.
Saul, let me just tell you. Wow, that's been three years.
Let me see. You had him.
You had him when you were 73. That makes you wait with St.
Ford's and F. Okay, good.
Anyway, happy birthday, Saul. Speaking of balls out kids, he is one of them..
I'll tell you. He's like, let's go.
We're going to have an exciting birthday party for you this weekend, and I love you. Okay, we'll be back on Tuesday with more Pivot.
Read us out, Scott. Today's show is produced by Lara Neiman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin.
Ernie Andretot engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Mia Severio, and Dan Shulon.

Nishat Kurwa is Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts.
Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and

Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod.
We'll be back next week

for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Breaking new Secretary of the Interior,