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Keroswisher. I'm Scott Callaway. How you doing, Scott? We're both in New York not seeing each other.
“Actually I got, I think, so one of those TikToks right in I went home and I was, I don't”
like to do this, but I had a few drinks and I get very sentimental when I'm a little bit drunk. I saw all of a sudden all these reels about how basically 90% of your time spent with your kids is before the age of 18 and I'm an 18 year old leaving for college in the fall and I freaked out and booked a flight home Saturday morning against all my meetings Monday
late.
Oh my God, so you're back in London and immediately walked in the house and my, neither
of my boys wanted anything to do with their friends. Well, you're there. Sure. In the room playing video games talking to friends and like, I'm done. They're like, well, that's good.
Oh, how nice. That's nice. I heard you were out. You know, I was tracking you. I texted you.
I thought you were out. Do you have to pause you out? I have to pause. I have to pause you. You were out with some famous people.
“Apparently walked into something with Sean Pan and walked out with Martin Scorsese.”
I don't understand what's happening. I don't understand what's happening. The scariest thing is I get a text message from you saying, why are the grenades out tell Sean Pan and I'm looking around like, Jesus Christ, I'm being watched. My friends write me whenever they see you out about and the thing is very hard.
Yeah. Let me go to this way. That could get so much worse. I know exactly. I'm watching you at all times.
I have to. I have to. I have to. I have New York is really kicking it. I got to tell you, it's so we have the kids to come into Brooklyn so everywhere you go.
There's not a part of the city that's not on fire because of the next, you know, but it's not that. It's something else. It's really interesting. Well, it's a lot of things.
You know, I mean, okay, crime is at historic lows. There's bonuses or all-time highs. New stores, the city has shed its skin since COVID. People are excited about the new mayor. People are excited.
World cup is coming. World cup is coming and the thing I notice that was really exciting is we used to love to go to different European cities during the World Cup. Like if Paris was in a World Cup match, you can go in Paris and it's just fun. Everyone just on fire.
Well, I was in Morocco and Morocco made it with the quarterfinals. I felt that way in New York during for the next. You go out by any bar and there's just a ton of young people watching the next game. Yeah, you know, who's, you know, the scum that's coming to the garden party, the Madison Square Garden. Trump.
He's fucking in up. They have all these outdoor watch things all around Madison Square Garden, which is really fun. And now they can't do it because stupid Trump is coming to the game. The Dolan James Dolan who's kind of a towed is invited them, which ruins it for all the fans.
That's how much he cares about, you know, blue colored people who can't affor...
price tickets.
It's really fun and stuff and now they can't do it because you need a perimeter around
the garden, which is in the dead center of Manhattan, which is a creates all manner of nonsense from traffic whenever you think that sucks. I'm surprised who would want to be there. I would think that crowd would be there. They're going to be with the shit out of that.
I think so too. They're absolutely. It's going to be bad. I think it's going to be. He's wrecking it for everyone on the traffic issues already.
Not bad enough. Anyway. You know, I did this weekend. The kids came up to Brooklyn and we did a little kite flying in prospect park. And stuff.
But I went to the loveliest way in Connecticut. It was a guy who was a producer. His name is John Adler.
I got married to his long time partner.
And so it was a gay wedding at a country club in West Point. And it was so fun. It was really fun. It was the greatest gay wedding I've been to. But it was lovely the family was there.
They were so supportive. And it took, I felt good about humanity after this wedding. Because there was, and a lot of the like this guy, jeweler, it was like uncles and cousins. They were all pivot fans, which was nice and asked me about you. So the jeweler asked me the like, it was nice.
It made me feel good about humanity.
“That's what weddings are generally supposed to do, right?”
Not always. I don't know. I was. Yeah, sometimes I go to wedding. I'm like, this is a little last but this was just one of these wonderful family weddings.
It was really enjoyable. We've got a lot to get to. I'm glad you're back in London with your boy star. That's a good thing. Hunter Biden, he's into his act too.
And I'm loving it. He has fame on X. Floor Presidents on now has 700,000 followers on the platform. After a re-emerge last month saying, I'm Hunter Biden.
You never actually heard from me.
Since then, he's taken this incredibly candid approach. He's quite canny at social media, joking about his previous controversy, including drug use. And one post he'd rest the bag of cocaine found at the White House. In 2023, saying it definitely wasn't his, because he would never forgotten his drugs.
In another, he replied to an accusation that he was part of an elite, "Oh, look, our class of the selfie itself." That is a great motel off, I-95. It's really interesting, because he's actually engaging with maggot people a lot. And they're kind of liking it, they're kind of liking him.
Really interesting. I know it's kind of silly and sort of me me, but I got to say, I find it very interesting how he's doing. It's not that to city.
“I think people like, yeah, I think people love that kind of vulnerability and honesty.”
And also, I think, I'm on this anti-optimization kick, or I think the optimization trend is just kind of way too fucking far. It has. And you see that if you're truly about optimizing, you go to 80%, 80% of good sleep, good health, nutrition, and then you indulge the other 20%, you don't want your metrics to consume
the joy in your life. And also, I think people are just sort of ready for a funny guy who smokes crack. I don't love it. It doesn't. It doesn't.
Yeah. Anyway, from what I've heard, it's pretty addictive, but anyways, I hope for him that he's no longer smoking crack. Yeah. But I think Hunter, he's just a unique personality.
He's got that kind of, I don't know, for like a better term, that Twitter is. The thing that kicked it off, and I hit to admit this was his interview with Candice Owens. Yeah. That was part of his comeback tour. Yeah.
And I refused to watch it, because my understanding is he kind of indulged sure conspiracy theories on Israel, Charlie Kirk, and Trump's assassination attempts. Right, didn't push back. But the Google search on Hunter Biden is skyrocketed. He is, you know, he's an interesting guy, and there's get this.
There's now a 26% chance on Calshy that he runs for president in 20. Oh, no, he's not going to get president for president. One in four chance. One in four chance. I think he's defending the Biden's.
They've been so clotters about defending themselves. I don't think Joe Biden's so great or Joe certainly isn't. But he's sort of like, yeah, we're broken people. So what? And like the stuff you're throwing around about me isn't true.
Some of it is.
“So I think that's why it works, is that he's defending his family in a way that seals.”
A great point. People want people want to like a Biden right now. Well, but they, I don't know, the Biden's have done a great job. That's my point. They're looking for someone to like in the black act.
I don't, I, I thought, Dr. Biden, I thought you did it bad. I don't, I don't think she's, she hasn't served the Biden family well in my view. Yeah, I think, you know, she's mad and righteous. Yeah, I don't, you know, I speak. Anyway, I'm really enjoying Hunter.
I'm really enjoying what you're doing. And, and it's interesting where it goes, I'll be interested because you can't just live on Twitter and social media loan and Spencer Pratt just found out. There was a lot more heat around him than there were roads and so he's just been surpassed in Los Angeles. And, and of course, the right is saying the, including President Trump that they actually was stolen, it wasn't.
There was a very big movement around it's nithio ramen, who is a very well qu...
And she's pulled ahead of him in the LA mayoral primary and is probably going to stay there.
“And, of course, the right is calling it Rick, but it's not that's how they do votes in California slowly because a lot of nail it.”
So, that, that was a lot, it was sort of snakes, he was like snakes on a plane of politicians, that's my feeling. Well, then we did okay, got a lot of votes, still. Yeah, I, I, I think it's, I actually think the California elections are somewhat hardening, you know, yeah. Star was money, holding with attention, the Sarah Pierce of Experiencing Confidence and he appears to be doing well. And the mayoral race, I mean, at some point we're going to talk about Canada quality because it struck me as incompetence versus a conspiracy theorist.
But I like the fact that he came in third, it's actually bad for best.
It is because this other woman's impressive in many ways, he's a democratic socialist, I think. But she's got, you know, she's an MIT person, she worked on homelessness, she worked in India, she worked. She's a really interesting character. Well, I don't know enough about her, then I certainly going to learn. She's got a race on her hands here now.
She is interesting, but more than that, it's D versus D now versus D versus R and D versus R and L I. It's vastly skewed towards D and especially when the D is prior, their primary qualification to run from mayoral, is at their house burned down.
Yeah. So, you know, California politics have been kind of, it's blurred the line between entertainment
and public service, but, you know, at least Netflix cancels shows when they're underperforming. They don't seem to do that in California.
“And I think a lot of this bullshit has started with not only Trump, but the fact that it appears”
that the primary qualification for a cabinet post now is that you're a news host, or celebrities. But it didn't work, right? You know, it didn't work. It's every hit on our heat on social media, then real actual voters, which is, you know, is interesting, because we talked about this last week, but, you know, we said that Daniel Lurries doing a great job in San Francisco, but he's also online. And I said, it's not like he's compelling,
like Spencer Pratt, who's a douche nozzle, and I got a call from, and now all this, I pick up the phone,
I wasn't looking who called and he goes, "Not compelling," and it was Daniel. And I said, "Yes, that is how you." That is why you're doing something. And then the best way. Yeah, I said that. I said, "No, you're not compelling at all, and he is a douche nozzle, and you are not a douche nozzle." Anyway, it just shows you that social media may not be what we think it is,
right? Exactly. In terms of politics, the voters want what voters want, and I really feel good about
“voters right now. I think they know what they want. Anyway, let's move on to the big story. Again,”
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, the more on, has inserted himself in the 60-minute drama. I don't know why, because he's supposed to be deciding on this car post on an ex about fire correspondent Scott Kelly after Kelly spoke to New York Times, responding to a comment about how Kelly was surprised. He got fired, car, the moron, wrote, "One of the reasons why trust and media is low is so many legacy journalists are completely out of touch. You do not get away with that behavior, and any
run of the middle jaw." Well, yes, Brendan, you moron. He was asking a basic question of why were people who had no reason to be fired. He should not be weighing in. Neither should any of those people, though Kelly says CBS manages ones out of touch. Let's listen to clip from an extraordinary interview. He did the front of mine, the Luke Garcia Navarro at the New York Times. It was full of stuff, so let's listen to it. Of course, we have to reach out to a younger and younger audience,
but there are argument about joining the internet age as just disingenuous. It's almost as if Barry Weiss and Nick Billson were sealed in a time capsule in 1990, and it just cracked open. They just discovered the internet and they're running around telling everybody how important it is. At CBS News, yeah, joined the fight. Anyway, I love this voice. It's such a good bird. We've been saying that. It's not everyone knows this. It's not new fresh things. So I want to talk about this in a
different way. I mean, I thought the interview was extraordinary and it's really damaging. That's said I don't know if something's going to happen about it. But we had a great talk last night. It's got called and there's a business aspect to this. I really want to talk about obviously the interview was really a lot, including this idea that he put his hands on Nick Billson, who was putting a place to run in 16 minutes, a lot of controversy around him, which didn't turn out to be true,
but this one executive Tom, and I don't know how his camera does. Anyway, he was saying that he tried to manhandle Nick Billson, which wasn't true, and then said, "Oh, okay, you didn't." The lack of reporting on the behalf of CBS Management is really quite striking, and Scott called him out, Scott Pelle, who's voice is familiar with. But you had this really great take about business, and I love you to reel it out a little bit, because I thought it was different than the typical
Those fuckers kind of thing, which, in fact, they are fuckers, but go ahead.
Yeah, I think if you just look at the industrial logic or lack thereof, you get to what's going on here, and that is, this is a rare instance of broadcast media performing well. And so from an industrial logic standpoint, you just wouldn't fuck with it. And we use the analogy of performing open art surgery on your best performance. I love that. I thought that was so nice. It makes no sense, right? So why does this make sense? Because regardless of whether
you like the elephant or not, David Ellison is a smart guy. His father is a brilliant business person. He just is. And they understand, they may not understand media or journalism, but they understand culture and incentives, and they're vastly understandable to their value. I would say Larry does, but go ahead. Fair enough. Although I, I would argue, is suddenly seems competent. He's competent. He's competent, not a wrong media, but he's good at making
never tough guy. But go ahead. So the question is, why would they, why would they fuck with
something that's working? I mean, that's the question. So it becomes, all right, first off, and this is where I go to. While journalists and media are obsessed with themselves, and think this is like an attack on democracy and journalism. I understand that the chill on journalism and the journalism with the key component of democracy. I'm of the camp, they're quite frankly, if the Washington Post and 60 minutes go away, journalism's going to be just
fine. That's not to say we shouldn't be concerned. That's not to say this isn't another example of Trump trying to put a chill on journalism. I get it. I'm, you know, when when you try and encourage taking vaccines off the market, I think that is a real existential threat to the health of all being of Americans, I think if 60 minutes were to go away, those people are going to find
amazing jobs and create reasonable facsimiles of, of incredible journalism as they've continued to
produce at 60 minutes. And I just push back a tiny bit. This, that's not true. They are an important of the many fixtures and it's working. I do think it's more than that. And what Scott Pelus has, why are you firing competent people who are doing a great job? And I do think they're
“important. I think they're important to have a top of the food chain and a lower part, too, and”
it's sort of so I don't, I do think fucking with the Washington Post is very damaging because of this, some of the stuff they do. And, and fucking with 60 minutes, same thing. So go ahead. And, and, and I believe that those journalists and their, their outstanding work and their willingness to take truth to power will find a ton of different vessels if the Washington Post and 60, 60 minutes as a construct go away. I don't think it's a threat to journalism. Okay.
As, as evidence by what you're doing and hundreds of other interesting new companies are doing. Having said that, what's interesting here is just looking at it through a business lens, it doesn't make any sense to go up to Derek Jeter and say, "We don't like you. We want to bench you." Or, it's like benching Lionel Messi in the World Cup. It doesn't make any industrial logic. And so, if you go up the food chain, it's one of two things here. Either the elephants
are so passionate about having a viewpoint that puts, puts forward a more conservative viewpoint, that they're willing to take these risks, and potentially kill Messi, right? Before the World
“Cup or whatever, I don't, and I don't think that's it. I think that the math is pretty straightforward”
here. I think the elephants, the owners of Warner Media, the new owners, have decided, there's more economic upside if they do Trump's bidding and potentially lose value at 60 minutes. It's not economically an important business to CBS and might have a halo effect on the whole thing. But even CBS, the network itself, I think the elephants have done the math and decided that we would rather there is more, and this is a problem with an autocracy, and this is a bigger
indictment or society. I think the elephants have done the math and say we would rather risk killing a healthy player that's a small business and curing favor with a guy who can give us TikTok on a platter at 80% off. I think he already did that. And I think he'll continue to do it as long as we carry favor with it. And this is the problem. This isn't about the death of journalism. This is about an autocracy where oligarchs are made if you support the current administration,
the elephants have done the math. Yeah, we'd like to hold on to 60 minutes, but what's more
“important. Or don't care. I think don't care. Yeah. And nice to have. We don't really care,”
because the numbers here are so small. Whether numbers turn into tens of billions of dollars is if the president is on our side, because he perceives us as being on his side. And if we have to throw 60 minutes on the funeral pyre to show loyalty, so be it. Yeah, it's really interesting when you said that, first of all, it's like, oh, it's important. And then I thought, you know, actually, when Tim Cook brought that golden statue, why do you do it? Like, because the
reputation on it was bad, and then he appeared at the Melania thing, right? It's such a
reputational hit. I was like, oh, he invested 100 million here and got 50 like Elon giving money to the
Packs invested 50 million here.
it's a trade. And they don't mind taking the reputational hit, same thing with Bezos. Why would they go
“on the hammer on so idiotically, right? Because he wants something, right? I mean, that whole”
he's gotten more mature, like, come on. Like, stop it. Like, you just saw that Christian welker review looks like a giant baby, giant baby, Huey. And I was like, you're right, he gets they get more money out the other side. The issue is they're, they don't mind throwing out the really beautiful thing, right? Like sometimes when you junk something that's just fine, but that's what it is. And so it feels much more, it is political. It is political because I do think they're
much more pro-Israel, et cetera, et cetera. But and much more like anti-woke, which sort of feeds into their selections, editorial selections. But it is about, like, they'll get more out of it. Now, what two things I'd love you to tell them, look, Trump's at the very end of this is where at the end of the, you know, the king is falling down, right? On a daily basis, he looks quite sick. Let's not pretend he doesn't look like he had a stroke or something. Something happened to
him. And so it's at the tail end, you see the Republicans pushing back, you see the polling, which is really significant, even among female conservatives, male conservatives, female conservatives, farmers, like all his thing breaking down. Why would you double down on him right now? Because it seems like you'll get the reputational hit. Because afterwards when the Democrats come in, they're not going to forget. And by the way, probably the attorney generals will file a sue while we're taping this
against to slow down the merger. And it will slow down the merger. So why would you do it now? Like,
“if your is smart as Larry Ellson is and trust us, we tell you he's very smart. Why would you do it?”
It seems like the dumb bet right now. Yeah, I don't think it is, Cara. Keep in mind. The deal has enclosed yet. Right. It has enclosed. Right. The deal hasn't closed. If Brendan Cargets a call from
Trump saying, I'm having second thoughts about media consolidation, a deal hasn't closed.
And Trump has been has shown a willingness to violate all norms, not afraid of court battles. Yeah. Maybe it gets overturned in court in a year or two years at which point CBS continues to hemorrhage viewership. Trump can absolutely kill this guy. Trump can call Ellison and basically say, I want you to cancel big bang theory and he would do it right now. I'm trying to come up with a CBS show like the new matlock, whatever it is. Right. Yeah. And I think Larry calls his son and
goes, kill this show. Because if this deal doesn't go through and it doesn't close, I mean,
“so one, he has very strong short-term incentive to be supportive of Trump. And two, they still have”
two and a half, you know, you still have two and a half years left and nothing proves. I mean, think about all the guys that showed up that we mocked, all the tech executives from such in a dollar to all men, did tariffs affect any of them? Yeah. Any of them? They got contracts with government. They got this. They got everything they wanted. And Jensen Hong, I'm going to take you to China and try and get you to sell chips. And now the Chinese are saying, fuck you, we're not going to buy your
chips. It's, there has never been a return. It not cat backs, not AI, not plant property equipment,
like investing in Trump right now. That is what a good autocrat does, he says. Okay. But what happens come November when the dem, if the Democrats win the way they think, if they even win half of what they're going to win, there's, there's going to be hell to pay. Or maybe they don't think there. Here's the problem. Graham Plattener. Graham Plattener has had a series of really disturbing accusations against him by, by various women and the tongue. Okay. The problem is,
we apply a purity test to ourselves and to our candidates that the Republicans don't apply. And as a result, they feel safer. They're, we threat lock her up. Have you heard, we don't have chance of lock him up at Democratic. We're better than that. And I, I get it. I like that. But the reality is the, the incentives are the following right now. Get on, get, get in with Trump, get your money, the Democrats are fucking pussies. And that was a wrong word to use. That's right now.
The word, the Democrats, they're, they'll feel bad for us and they'll try and understand us and they'll hallows in front of Congress, fine. But the upside here is so much greater than the downside with dealing with an autocrat. Right. It's a risk assessment. I do understand make a little perdition here. We've probably moved on in the thing. But I think the Democrats are much more less
Opposed to anything.
if they make bad decisions that they have to live with it, right? If they'd pick Pratt, they have to fucking live with it in Los Angeles. And I know the rest of everyone who didn't vote for them to live with it. But I am, I'm a firm believer in voters. I just think I'm always, I always feel like they
always get it ultimately. And then I think Pundits and everyone else that does it often get.
Sometimes they do. Sometimes they're very cany. But I just feel like to me, you're betting on someone who's about to collapse. And we've been saying that we haven't sang that for a while. No, and I have to look at him. Look at him. It's going down. Do you really think he looks that? I'm just, well, look, I'm not talking about him. Yes, I think he looks that bad. He looks really bad. But that's not what I was talking about. I'm not talking about death. I'm not like whatever. He's, he's old. He's
going to die within 10 years. So whatever. It's going to somewhere in there somewhere in there. And but the, the, the numbers. I'm looking at the polls. And I, a year ago, I said, I think his polling
“is going to collapse. And it has collapsed. And so that's what I'm looking at is voters. Voters”
don't like this shit. And I think they are sticking their chin out so far with all their nonsense. Why would you fire company people? What it looks? And also it creates a listen. CB, other CBS is other executives are furious because it's ruining the CBS brand, which is a very successful. It's done okay in the network with all their old people shows that doing okay. And so I think you're starting to see leaks from, you know, there was one from this woman who was running CBS entertainment.
You're sort of started seeing it from other news. You're just starting to see it. And if she couldn't, this could mess up the deal itself because of the heat on the other side, right? It'll, it'll embolden more people from 60 minutes to speak out and it'll embolden more stories. And let me tell you folks, there's more shoes about to drop. I hear about everything. And so it's going to be a continuing leak leak leak leak. And if you remember, they're a Chris Lick thing.
And I just think David Zazzles just quicker to fold, right? Or, but it took Jeff Bezos two years to fold on Will Lewis. But eventually it messes up the brand and they happen to have other things. Now Jeff just has the Washington Post. We could hold out for two years. But Zazzles off was starting to feel the pain elsewhere. And so that to me is the problem. So, and then David looks dumb. And David looking dumb to Daddy is not a good thing for him. You know what I mean?
“Like, and so that's why I think there's a lot more play here. And I, and I do think the Democrats”
will, will extract something from them in a way. I don't think there's as weak as you think they are. And from hearing from them, bygones is not in their vocabulary right now. It is, we will now be. Coming around and remembering what you did. So maybe they won't do it. But I, that's the tone I get from them. So we'll see. Anyway, I really enjoyed your idea of what they're doing and you're absolutely right. The business way to look at this. Just to talk more about 60. So
four of the seven, I think four of the seven anchors have left. And the key executives,
the editors, the key editors who you don't know their names, but critical. That's really the
heart and lungs. But the 75, what you call staff, editors, junior producers, statisticians did it. None of them have left. They can't lead. Let's be clear. They have jobs. There's not a, it's not a big market. So right. And they have mortgages and, and all the, I know, I know exactly what the Elvisson did here. They called them and said, they called Leslie Stallons. I'd love Lee or an icon. Things are tumultuous. We promise, we promise we'll let you do whatever
you want. And by the way, if you just stick around another 12 months until things settle down,
“there's another $5 million bonus for you. That's what I would have done. And I'm sure that”
call took place. And then they called the 12 critical people of the rank and file and said, look, tell everyone that when there's this kind of tumult and the top of the pyramid gets chopped off, there's a tremendous sucking sound upward and they would be stupid not to hang around to see
what additional opportunities emerge. And people will always think about themselves before they
think about the brave new world of the attack on journalism. They have mortgages to pay. They have college funds to fund. And this is what will happen. Just as we thought all the noise and social media was going to dictate the mayoral race, all the noise around 60 is going to come down to the following. If the first six or dozen episodes in the fall are good, 60 will be fine. And if they're not, that thing will collapse under the weight of all this controversy. So it's, it's going to be,
it's going to be about, it's going to be about the product full stop. It's going to make the product because you do need those courses. And maybe they can't. You know where about this and I do. Well, I know the people they're calling, because I'm hearing from everyone they're calling, and none of them want to go there. They don't want to, they're calling some interesting people who are good, but all of them are like, I'm not selling my fucking reputation with these clouds.
Well, how do they get gas? And also I never miss an opportunity to make myself feel important.
I was approached about a roll at 60 minutes.
Well, and I said no fucking way. I don't want to be. That's like the last thing if, if you're,
I mean, quite frankly, either fuck is Leslie Stahlstein? Well, can I take a word on that, and then we'll move on? I know Leslie really well. She used to come to all my conferences. She's really terrific. I talked, she was trying to internet thing a couple years ago, and I helped her with it. She's not texting me back. Let's just say, Leslie, I've helped you a lot. I really feel irritated by the fact that you want him to text him back, but that's another issue. I predicted she would do this,
and everyone said I was wrong. But listen, this is the end of her career. She wants that retrospective of her career next year or the year after. She wants the party. She does have a loyalty to the place. She's been there so long, and so she feels by staying. She's protecting it. Like at least
“someone's here to hold it back and watch them. My ish, and I think that's genuine. I do. I think it's”
genuine with her. She's, she's, she's like, cut her up. She blade 60 minutes, right? So I think that's
inner thing, and she wants that. Like if she left now, there'd be no retrospective. There'd be no end of her career. And I think she wants that. And from that's from it for a selfish point of view. From the other point of view, she thinks she can save it. She could at least protect it for the time being until she'll wait them out. My problem is they're going to go just around her. They're just going to go around her, and I don't think she realizes that. How much they're as cany and smart and
tough as she is. She doesn't have as much leverage by staying. And that is, I think she made a mistake, but I thought she would stay. So that's my take on. So I don't know because I'm doctor. I'm glad you didn't go. Thank you. I would have not been happy about that.
Under the auspices of the latest episode of Don't These People Have Friends, Leslie Stahl is an icon.
Leslie Stahl is 84. Between one and two percent of 84-year-olds were full-time, by the time you're 87, it's less than one percent. Leslie Stahl may live another 20 years. She's going to be working full-time for a matter of, you know, years of not months. I mean, that's just, and I know that sounds just, I am an ageist, and so is biology. Yeah. She shouldn't be buying green bananas at this point.
Now, I don't think it's a good choice. As a friend, a French should say to her, Leslie, you put out the following memo. I have loved and appreciated and feel blessed to have been a part of this organization. I am proud and did my best regarding my work here. It is time for me to leave. And everyone else would have filled in the blanks and every fucking room she would have walked into for the rest of her life. She would have got a standing
ovation. Instead, now, under some narcissistic notion that she's going to be able to control what happens in every production meeting? Oh, my God. How naive are you? She had a chance to put the world's greatest dot on top of an exclamation point at the end of a career, and she's missed it. This was the perfect, perfect exit to a storied career. I'm not, I'm not angry. I'm not shit posting her for staying. I'm shit posting her for not taking an unbelievable
opportunity to put a Tiffany ribbon to put a Tiffany ribbon on the Aquamarine blue box. It was her Tiffany career. Yes. What a missed opportunity.
“Good bye, sir. Like that kind of thing. Good day. Good day, sir. Good day, sir. Can I ask you?”
I want you to say what they wanted you to do in 60 minutes, which cracks me the fuck up, because then it's not to do the like big interviews with Trump or do the investigation. No, no, not this is where you dress up in a fear. Just for people to know. What did they want from Professor Galaway? To do one or more of those Andy Rooney segments. Yeah, so you're Andy Rooney. And now what really bothers me about soda pop is what?
And by the way, let me, let me be clear. I grew up watching 60 minutes with my mother. Had someone called me 12 or 24 months ago and offered me that role. I would have just, I would have said, I'll pay you. What do you want? What do you want me to do? I would have, that would have been literally other than hosting a podcast with you. That would have been my crowning achievement professionally. And now I'm not, I'm not going to add to this course of
unqualified people, the cosplaying journal. I'm like the last fucking thing I wanted to wake up to social media after they just after they hear that I'm joining. I'm having anything to do with this shit show right now. Yeah, and you were scared to me, right? Were you scared to me? Uh, not really. Fish. Fish? I just would have yelled at you like are you? No, no, no. I'm like,
“you know what? Can I just say you're better than that? That's how I feel.”
And quite frankly, I think I like the people they're more than you do. I don't have it, you know, I actually, I like some of them. Yeah, but I'm like, this is the last fucking thing I want to be
Associated with right now.
You can do 60 minutes things here, and you can do about penises. So you can do it there. I'm just saying,
anyway, we're going to move on. Really interesting story, but I appreciate your business thing. It was so struck by it last night when you called me. Anyway, we're going to go on a quick break. We come back to SpaceX IPO approaches.
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“Nova Nortus KS. Get started and learn more including important safety information. We'll go”
to clinical studying information and restrictions as at hymns.com. Scott, we're back. I thought you did a great job sort of analyzing the SpaceX IP. It really helped me and a lot of people were telling me that. But the company is expected to be in trading on the NASDAQ. This Friday will be the largest IPO in history. A lot of moving parts. A couple of things we've learned in the last few days. SpaceX is share price at $135 giving the
company evaluation of roughly 1.77. You said it would be under 2 trillion. It won't be fast-tracked onto the S&P 500. This is a new development after the index decided not to change its rules for these mega cap IPOs. Thank you. They've probably got a lot of pushback from the people. And there's more space bet. It's also made a major deal with Google selling off its seed core
Google Pay SpaceX $920 million a month over the next three years for computing power. That includes
access to at least 110,000 Nvidia chips. Elon was smart to grab those. This is similar to a deal that SpaceX recently made with anthropics. So it's becoming an infrastructure provider, essentially. Google which is already investor in SpaceX, everybody is, by the way, is calling this a short-term timely agreement to ensure they can keep up the surging AI demand. They will go get their own stuff later and they're not going to rent it. Talking about what's happening now
and what you see happening in the next week and the deal and we're going to talk a lot
“about the IPO and Friday obviously. But right now going into it, how are you looking at it?”
It's just so interesting. And my judgment is clouded because I've been so wrong about Elon Musk's adventures in the market. And I haven't fully appreciated what a meme stock he is and everything he
Touches.
from XAI data centers. What's interesting is that they overbuilt and it ends up that's fine because they can just rent the capacity out to someone else that probably a higher price than it originally anticipated. Look, SpaceX is current multiple. It's going out at 94 times revenues. The deal would value a deal that would total at least, you know, one trillion additional market cap from if you just valued this what it should trade versus its competitors, even being generous.
What does it matter for alphabet? It owns a 6% stake in SpaceX, which it purchased in 2015.
And they did this when the company was valued at just $12 billion. So 6% of a one trillion
in market cap is about 60 billion or more than five hours. Yeah. And remember, remember when Yahoo had the Google stake that there was one of the big things they got out of it. Anyway, they had a big stake. By them agreeing to buy purchases compute when you look at the multiple, for every dollar they spend on compute. They're technically getting five back in the increase in the value of their stake in SpaceX. Right. Yeah. So we talk about these circular deals, but this one looks like a
“note brainer for Google. So look, I think SpaceX's multiple will deflate dramatically as revenue”
grow, but the point stands, you know, alphabet has a vested interest in SpaceX's revenue is going up. And then, and then, like, I think in the last just seven days, maybe 14, there has been a dramatic vibe shift. Oh, interesting. And that is, this study that came out in MIT that said 95% of CFOs are stating that they're not getting the return they'd initially anticipated. Yeah. I was on a webinar hosted by section talking about AI. And the comments I would describe is whenever people come in and
talk about the Brave New World of AI, it's like a giant fucking eye roll. People are really in the business world are starting to sour on the Brave New World of AI. And this won't be the same lipmus test directly as anthropic or open AI. And I'm curious if you sense this, but I sense a little bit of like, you know what? This is beginning to feel like bullshit. The job apocalypse everyone's been predicting is not here. The, you know, notion that this is going to change absolutely everything,
the idea that we're going to have one person companies that could be billion dollar unicorns.
“I remember that one. You know, I had the CEO of Lillion. He said AI's ability to accelerate”
drug discovery is vastly overhyped. I just wonder if people are beginning to say, okay, this is beginning to feel a little 99. It feels like there's been a tangible vibe shift around AI in the last few weeks. And then what, how does, how does it affect the SpaceX IPO? Because there's star, there's other businesses in here, is it just because this is an AI IPO? Well, the AI that's got attached to it is I refer to affectionately as a money furnace is, I mean, there's no doubt. He's,
he's saddled. He's turned a great space business into a company, hemorrhaging money, because he's going to try and fund and play catch up in AI. What's interesting is he's, it looks like he's got a rip cord here in the form that he's now running out of his infrastructure. But nothing, nothing feels or says froth in a market like a 94 times revenue valuation.
“Right. But is that Elon or AI? That's the, is it just the Elon is so that? I think the answer is yes.”
I think Elon plus AI plus rockets in the rocket business or the, the Starlink businesses are great business. But my god, 94 times revenue. So what happens? Give me like the, the day of the week after and the six months after. Everyone is predicting trough after like pretty quickly after relatively quickly after not immediately. You know, I've gotten this so wrong, Cara, but people have called me and asked me to just spit in the IPOs. They've got allocation. I said, I wouldn't
get near SpaceX and if you do, I would sell on the first trade. I think SpaceX is about to hit a 10-year
high on the minute it goes public, meaning it'll be all downhill from there. I just don't see how it just even with even with even with Elon and AI and rockets. I don't see how it does. And he's going to put robots everywhere. Cars that, you know, all the promises are still that and their tough ones, their tough promises, he's got 100%. The one I'm most or least, saying when about our least, pessimistic on is anthropic because the momentum is so dramatic there. So you'd buy into that.
I would buy into the IPO. I'm not sure it'd be a long-term hold based on the valuation going out. And open AI? I think that's, I think if, if one of them struggles and could be a broken IPO, I think it could be open AI. I think the momentum is so negative. Yeah, SpaceX is a conglomerate.
It's harder to tease apart and Elon.
might be seeing a decline in the crypto market right now is all of those people are selling to buy
into the SpaceX IPO. I mean, you're also probably going to see a decline in the larger market
“for tech stocks because I think so much capital is going to be sucked up by these guys.”
But Elon has, look, it's a cult. And it's the same. I wonder what's going to happen to Bitcoin because that has a culty field to it. And I think a lot of Elon stands are Bitcoin holders and are going to fund their SpaceX purchases with sales of Bitcoin. Right. Right. So that's another thing. Yeah. So anyway, so we'll see what happens. We'll be talking about it on Friday. But so you'd say, go that at 1.35 and it drops. Because they're, they're having some
punitive stuff if you sell it too quickly, too. There was some other stuff. Well, there's also to lock-ups that people are being asked to commit to. I think Elon and his banks will probably create enough artificial scarcity to manufacture a pop. But I think 6, 12, 5 years down the road. 5 years is tough. I wouldn't, I wouldn't get near this thing. And if you are, if you do get
allocation, look at the first trade, consider getting out on the first trade. And the index hurts
it. Right. The lack of being in the index funds now. Well, that would have been additional demand out front. But, you know, every IPO up until now has not been in the SMP. So technically, that should, that shouldn't hurt. And there was complaints about it being, you know, you were being forced to buy it if it went into the SMP because of the people who are new to index funds. It'll be super interesting. But 94 times right. I know. Okay, Amazon and credible
coming. A lot of people think it's overvalued. What's a trade up for and have times revenues? I like that you like math still after all these years. And you interestingly, speaking of what you were just saying Donald Trump is looking into the government stake in AI companies. Oh, buy at the top. So American people can quote benefit from the success of AI. He says leaders of all the big AI companies are coming to the White House as early this week to discuss the idea. I mean,
it's such a socialist thing. Open AI on the White House already an ongoing talks about government stake according to the SMPC. This is something that's animal benefit floating for a while. He needs the help as you were just noting. Altman was in DC last week. And that was Senator Bernie Sanders. It's been pitching a simpler plan because he's a socialist. Sanders is proposing a sovereign well fun creating a one time 50% tax on all on the stock of AI companies giving the public
a direct ownership sake. Talk to me about this because I don't I'll love it. I feel like way like I get I get that for example, the government gave a loan to Tesla when it was in trouble and didn't
“get anything back for it. And Elon got all the juices. But that's what the government is there for.”
And they got they got their loan paid back, but they didn't get a stake. And that was okay. But I don't know. What do you think? It is very easy once you get elected and everyone thinks you're great and you have power to get start thinking you can control industrial policy and start picking winners and losers. It is very tempting. That's socialism. You control the means of production. When you do that and you start believing you're better than the private market and the full
body contact violence of capitalist private markets. You end up with warehouses in Ireland full of unsilled Dolorians and Air France. It does not work. If you want to support an industry, like the Chips Act, everyone gets the same opportunity in the same subsidy. So if you want to support the EV market and you give tax credits and subsidies, everyone's available to it. When you put a golden share into US steel or invest an intel, you have decided you're smarter than the market.
You are always wrong. This is socialism. This is this is chronism. It never works for the economy.
At the same time Bernie Sanders is equally wrong. Taxes that are industry specific don't work. They came up with the same nonsense idea around oil and gas when they were printing money in the 70s and 80s because then what happens is Microsoft and AI company. If we start producing podcasts with AR, we in AI company is Apple and AI company. We need a more progressive tax structure. The taxes are most successful companies. Whether it's anthropic or whether it's Apple or whether it's
no varnortis or whether it's Eli Lilly. But when you go industry specific taxation doesn't work. Because then capital starts picking industries based on tax. It's not where the greatest return or innovation is. It is bullshit populism going after a specific industry. It creates a ton of bureaucratic, unnatural acts across capital applications. Why AI? Why not? Why don't we unlike the hotout for us? What about cigarette companies? Yeah. What else can we have?
I love metals. Americans like McDonald's. It's have a more progressive tax rate for McDonald's and anthropic and open AI. And why not others? That's it. Industry specific taxation doesn't work.
“And if you want to invest in native industries or orphan industries or industries that have strategic”
importance, fine. But when Donald Trump has failed business person gets into the business.
MRNA technology, which they took away stuff.
but it needs government funds. The chipsac made sense. It makes sense. But everybody gets access to it.
“Right? Every company you're not picking winners and losers. And so just as Trump is trying to pick winners,”
that is no better, nor any worse, then Sanders trying to pick losers and deciding what all men go into the White House to do because he needs the support. Right? It gives him a little bit of stable support, stable support. The biggest bailout since the banking industry bailout will be the following. But it'll be positioned as growth. There will be some sort of government-backed debt offering or backstop for AI companies who can't afford the infrastructure spent they have
committed to when it's clear these valuations are not going to hold up and also Trump realizes entire economy he is bet on AI. The biggest bailout that'll be positioned as a quote-unquote growth opportunity for the U.S. government. The tax payroll hold the back. Right. Trump, Trump will, Trump will position as I'm a smart business man. We have an opportunity to invest in this. It is going to be a bailout. It'll be holding the back. 100%. They want to
wear to God. We'll privatize the gains and socialize the losses because Trump thinks he's smart and thinks he's a good business person. It makes such bad deals. Oh, I just said no, no, no, let them die. As you said, a number of years ago, we're talking about playing. We're talking about airlines. They're like, just let them die and something new will happen. Just think you're saying about that. New guys. New dumb money will show up and say, I want to start an airline called,
you know, Hooters. I mean, there's no shortage of people who who who who desire to start airlines.
“Hooters airline would be good. There was a Hooters airline. Was there? Yeah, you didn't know that?”
Did you fly? There was a Hooters airline. What? No, I never, I've never been in a Hooters actually.
I'd like to go. I have been in a Hooters because the wings are very good. Let me say. They're excellent. Excellent wings. And they actually, the ladies are really nice in the Hooters. They do a great job. They are very, very nice. The ladies of the Hooters are nice. There's a wonderful story about a gay guy at a comic going into Hooters when he was his father brought him there to try to man him up. And the ladies immediately understood what the kid was going through and
were sweet to him. He said, I would love Hooters people to rest in my life because my dad was trying to man me up and they understood that I was gay and it made me feel wonderful and gave me delicious wings. Anyway, here's to the Hooters ladies. All right. Let's go on a quick break. We come back. Siri gets a makeover. Support for this show comes from Teleport. Here's a finding that should stop every
tech leader cold. Organizations most confident in their AI deployments have more than twice the security incident rate of those that aren't. 72% versus 33%. That's from teleports 2026 infrastructure identity survey of more than 200 infrastructure security leaders. The data breach isn't just a costly endeavor. They can damage trust. The most frequent causes of data breaches are human error and compromised credentials. But in the AI era, agents that are granted broad privileges dramatically
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Because in the new era of AI, the problem is an agent. It's the privileges we're giving them.
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Scott, we're back with more news as we tape Apple's planning to announce a series overhaul at its annual developer's conference. Oh my god, you think.
The new Siri features a chatbot style app and uses Google Gemini technology, ...
web search. Siri will be able to understand personal data and analyze on screen content and
use it will be able to return to their prior conversations. A conference is the last of Tim Cook's tenure before he hands the reins to John Ternis. There was a good story about how
“behind they were, Tim saying they were behind on AI and not doing enough. I think Siri has been”
one of their worst things they've ever done. It's so useless. I was walking here from the subway. I was in Manhattan this morning doing some meetings. And I got a telly Scott, like it couldn't call ananda. Like it can't do things. It sucks. Siri sucks. So, you know, and I'm not going to be happy that it just is workable at this point. I'm just a finite useless. And I think Apple is really missed a boat here for many years for decades, even your thoughts. Yeah, we've talked
about this. I mean, it's right up there with the cyber truck for like the biggest product fails. And that's unusual for Apple. The rebuilt Siri runs on a custom 1.2 trillion parameter Gemini model
under a deal worth approximately a billion year to Google. And it's a three-tier ruining system.
The handle's queries on device are simple tasks. Apple's private cloud from moderate requests and Google's Nvidia B200 GPUs are used for heavy reasoning. And they're claiming that new capabilities are multi-step commands, persistent conversation, history, synced via iCloud and an on-screen awareness. It's being launched as a standalone app for the first time. And they've delayed the overall twice. The original AI boss left the company before it shipped. And critics warn that Apple is
rendering AI to Google the same way it surrendered search. And deepening the reliance on a competitor, I would argue is a smart move because of the licensing deal. And John Tartis, you know, he might switch direction and want to put his mark on this thing. It's a big, it's a maker, I don't know if it's a
“maker break-bed for Apple, but it's important because as of earlier this year, they were the only”
big tech company whose CapEx decreased from last year. I'm not sure that's a bad thing, but if you think about a market, I mean, I accidentally turn on Siri by hitting the wrong button on my phone 10 times a day, which means it is the most accessible AI in the world. If I'm constantly bringing up AI accidentally on my iPhone, that means it's the most accessible AI in history. And for them not to be figuring out a way to get some of that AI juju, you know, it feels like a missed opportunity.
Even if it means outsourcing all of it to someone else, they should be the front end. And Siri is arguably, at this point, I wonder if Siri needs a rebrand because it's come to be, it's come to be emblematic of something that just doesn't work. It doesn't work. And I do put a lot of trust and Apple in terms of privacy. I'm not worried about interacting with it as much as I am, like, you load up everything into AI and I don't. But I feel I trust Apple, but it's incompetent.
“It's like, it's a bad assistant. I don't can't believe it took this long for Tim Deb, this assessment.”
But, you know, one would imagine it's critical going forward, especially if they're going into
glasses and things like that, you know, that you have this thing that just does what you ask it to do on a basic level. You know, there's AI in everything now and so much of it is so bad. I do think, and it's a missed opportunity because they're so good at everything else. Well, the best experience I've had with Apple AI happened this morning. I was working out, and as always, I was listening to my mix of yellow and REM in the next house.
Oh, I love yellow. And Capcut, for some reason, I have the Capcut on my phone. And Amelia had said, "Learn more about Capcut's editing features." And I just instinctively went, "Oh, God, fuck off." And Siri responded, "I won't respond to that." Oh, yeah, it does that. When you crash at it, it totally doesn't. It was chastise if you hadn't, I got it made me laugh a lot.
I thought that when you called them stupid, when I called, "I won't respond to that." Which I do on a daily basis. I was like, "I'm sorry, you feel that way." So I've been saying to everyone that I won't respond to that. Anyway, that's the best experience of that play I've had. Anyway, good luck Apple, make it better. We have very low expectations that you will.
All right, Scott, one more quick break. We'll be back for wins and fails. Café in your best form. With Cuba, we'll have a coffee at Knopfdruck at Genus Moment. With the new Cuba-Wan capsule machine from Chiba, we'll have to find out about the special thing about it. Full Monday, thanks to innovative press brutality,
and on September 17, it's a coffee for everyone. Every week, we'll have a coffee already at 9.20 pm. And here's the Cuba capsule machine in Diner Chiba, Fiali and Chiba D.E. Hi, I'm Maria Sharipova, host of the Pretty Tough Podcast.
Each episode, I sit down with high-achieving women to discuss the pursuit of
excellence without apology. This week, model sports illustrated cover girl,
“an entrepreneur Ashley Graham talks about the time she almost quit.”
I called my mom and I said, "Mom, I'm not going to do this anymore." And she told me, "No, you are going to stick this out. Your body is going to change someone's life." Every decade, you're going to go through something different. So be really happy with who you are right now, because things change. Check out Pretty Tough, new episodes on Wednesdays.
You can watch it on YouTube or listen in your favorite podcast app. Big news this week for all my Gordon Geckos, my Robin Hootters, my Cloud Squad, and THROPIC, which is newly the most valuable AI company in some world, announced it would be going public. That news follows reporting that open AI plans to go public as soon as September,
and that that news follows reporting that space X, which also considers itself an AI company, will be going public in maybe just a few weeks from now. Welcome to the era of The Omega IPO. We are about to see millionaires, billionaires, and yes, probably even the world's first trillionaire created overnight. And yes, it's that guy.
This is the chainsaw of your accuracy, turns all. But all the tech pros, who are going to make all the money, they need our money way more than we need their products, and we're going to remind you why on today's plane from box. The way I was just struck by this, there's all these movies that people are going to
the movies for obsessions and backrooms, which is starting on YouTube,
“kind of things, but they're wonderful. I think people really like them.”
I don't think just because they start on YouTube, they have to be bad.
But domestic box office crossed a billion dollars last month, the number not seen since
before COVID, which is interesting, and that's without a Marvel movie, which I think is nice. There's a lot of really interesting things out there that are doing well, lots of different interesting movies. The big winners right now are the Michael Jackson Biopic Michael, which I have not seen, because it doesn't include some others stuff about, and I think it needs to be there. And the devil was prodded too, starring Cara Swisher, of course.
But there's it's just nice. You're seeing a lot of that, and I do, I've noticed I've gone to the movies recently. I know you don't, but I hadn't now I am, because I want to see them in the movie theaters, and there's a couple of movies. I do want to see in the, in the movies, the theaters, including the next Top Gun David Ellis, and I think you do, and let me pay
you a compliment, because I never do. You make a marvelous Top Gun movie, and I like your Star Trek
work, and Mission Impossible. My fail is the 60 minutes, because it's so unnecessary and stupid, and I know reporters, I agree with you, can be like a little bit, you know, self-serious, and, you know, pompous, and something. In this case, they're really all right, and it's not, they're really all right. This is so dumb, and if they can answer the question, why did you fire a competent people? If you can't actually even answer it internally,
there's something wrong with you. And the same time, my one favorite phrase that I'm using a lot now, and Pornette had, when he was leaving with that thought meeting with Scott Pellie, he was, he said, as he was leaving, he sort of floundstowed, because he was getting fried by Scott, and Scott is a tough guy. He said, "Enjoy the bagels." There's some people from 60 minutes that they're going to make secret t-shirts called "Enjoy the bagels,"
exclamation point, and I just enjoy that, but I don't enjoy any of the rest of it. I don't, I think it's sad, and it's unnecessary and stupid. Anyway. I like it. "Enjoy the bagels," there you go, enjoy the bagels. So look, my win is the death of higher education has been
“greatly exaggerated. Applications are up, but that's how my win, my win, is our great public”
universities. One of the most under-reported stories in America right now. I think it's that the market is finally disciplining higher education, and that is families are waking up and realizing
the paying a half a million dollars for a bachelor's degree is a luxury good masquerading as an investment.
And applications to our flagship public universities, which are a much better value, are exploding. The University of Texas at Austin received more than 90,000 applications up 25% year on the air, while applications at places like the University of Virginia, University of Michigan have search for a label. Oh, my son's there, Alex is there. The University, my alma mater UCLA, gets 160,000 applications. They get the number of
a small city. And why are they doing this? Because we're coming to an uncomfortable truth, and that is after your first job. People care that you got into a good school, but they don't
Care if it's a good school or quote unquote an elite school.
went to a good school, and they also care whether you can just do the work. They're also great
“schools. Let me just say for Michigan, it's substantively less expensive than Louis school.”
UC San Diego. And NYU, I'm sorry to tell you, it's substantive. University of North Carolina. Yeah. I mean, these are outstanding schools. The guest was a cheap. Can we just point out? It wasn't cheap, but it was substantively more less expensive. It was less expensive. I'm not saying, I'm not saying it's a good value. I'm saying it's a much better value. It is. And the ROI gap that you're referring to is staggering at many flagship
state schools, and in-state student congratulate with tens or even hundreds of thousands less debt. Then access and access comparable employers, alumni networks, and graduate school opportunities. You know, the elite schools have spent 30 years turning themselves into luxury brands, and the public flagship spent 30 years building capacity, research, and outcomes. Did you see what I sent to the numbers for those elite schools? Go on up over 100,000 each for
each year. It's crazy. That is crazy. Yeah. So look, the new American dream isn't getting into Harvard. It's getting rejected by Harvard, and then going to Michigan or Texas, landing the same job,
and using the quarter of a million dollars you saved as a down payment on a house.
And I should post higher at all the time, because I think me and my colleagues have been drunk on scarcity and reflect this dangerous trend towards rejectionism, where we feel good when we turn away 90% of our applicants similar to a head of a homeless shelter, writing that he or she turned away nine and ten people last night. We are public servants, not air meds bags. But I do think our great public universities are doing their level. But you go to the University of Wisconsin of Madison,
“and you see exactly what you should see. It's not, it's not the Ritz Carlton Madison.”
The buildings are a little tired and haggard, and there's thousands of students floating in and out of their classes, and it's a bunch of middle-class kids from Wisconsin and Minneapolis, who are not freakishly fucking remarkable. Some of them were captain of the class team. Most were not. Most are socially conscious. Most have not figured out a fresh water start up to bring potable water to Rwanda. They're just good kids looking for great futures. A lot of our public
universities are doing exactly what they're supposed to be doing. And folks, when you hear someone saying, "Oh, our daughter, we're thinking that she doesn't need education because of AI or higher
ed." That means she just got a 22 on the ACT. Higher ed has never been more important. Critical
thinking, social responsibility, getting along with others, relationships, getting your heart broken, breaking other hearts. If you are one of the one-third of American public that has access to higher education, trust me on this, it is a really solid plan B, especially if you can go to one of our great public universities, or continue to follow their mission. Can I put in a little plug for public schools in general? My personal, my little kids. And I have to say, I feel so good about them
and they're great, and they're doing really well. I went to public school, kindergarten through graduate school, and the generosity of California taxpayers and the vision of the reading of the University of California are literally why I'm here with you now. And my total tuition, first off, acceptance rate of UCLA 74%, was one of the 26% that didn't get in, but I reapplied and they let me in because they had that kind of capacity in bandwidth. My total tuition, five years
undergraded, two years graduate school, $7,000. I showed up to UCLA with a like a 1982 Volkswagen Rabbit, and $300. And I got through all five years, and all two years of graduate school with
no money with student jobs, and $15,000 total in debt. Amazing. And now they want you to be Andy Rooney.
There you go. Anyway, I really appreciate it. That's a great one Scott. Is that your fail? That's your win, what's your fail? That's my win, thanks. My fail is, my fail is for our is electric car. This is a rare misstep from one of the world's great brands. I feel like Ferrari announcing an EV is like makers mark my favorite whiskey brand announcing it's launching
“bottled water. It might make sense, it might even be profitable, but something important just”
died. It's a Ferrari, a Ferrari, a Ferrari, a Ferrari, a Ferrari, a Ferrari, a Ferrari, a Ferrari. For God's sake, nobody spends a happy eye for people to not know, right? It's like text ruins something, fucking something else. Nobody spends a half a million dollars on a Ferrari because it's efficient. They buy it because it makes irrational noises that trigger a primal masculine, wonderful instinct in the mail brain. The end, the engine isn't a feature. It's the product. And
luxury is about scarcity, emotion, and theater. And an electric Ferrari is becoming a very expensive
Appliance.
a random oral sex because you have a hot appliance. Maybe a sub zero, but only if you on the home
around it. Anyways, don't know how I got here. The challenge is an engineering. Every component automaker can build a fast EV. The challenge is replacing 80 years of Italian heritage, built around noise, vibration, and mechanical drama with software. Damn going electric is like, say it looks like a Honda. Well, it's like, it's like Rolex launching a smart watch. It might sell, but you've confused the source of your value proposition. This is one of the great
brand mistakes of 2026. You're right. It really, even I looked at and I was like, not pretty car,
“and Ferrari would be pretty. Like, you know what I mean? It was like so simple. I think it was a”
Johnny I've missed up. Anyway, we want to hear from you, send us your questions about business tech or whatever's on your mind. Go to NYMag.com/pivot, submit a question for the show or call eight five five five one pivot. Elsewhere in the carrot and Scott universe, I did a show about sports. And in this case, the World Cup. This week on on with Cara's Fisher, I'm talking about the World Cup, which kicks off later this week with the US as one of the co-hosts. I talked to a
panel of experts, including New York Times Sports correspondent, Tarrick Pange, we talked about the crazy ticket prices, and also the fears that ice will ramp up and force them among other things. Let's listen. One of those people will be soccer fans. We'll be football fans. We call them here. They'll be coming from all over the world, all being the United States, hoping to go
“to games. I remember last summer, the US hosted the Club World Cup, and there were Brazilian teams”
there for example. And I talked to some fans of Flamengo, which is Brazil's most popular team who were living in Boston. Now, they were going to go in convoy to watch the games last summer. And at the last minute, they thought, hang on. This might not be a good idea. We don't want to be so visible, driving in this big convoy of Brazilians to this soccer match. It's really good, and guess who asked the questions? Scott, Galaway. You know, they love your question. You'll
like the answer, Scott. I appreciate it. Yeah, but you're talking about sports. It's like Greta Thumbur reviewing steak houses. I mean, it's a good, it's a good, you know, they, I let them talk. I just ask questions. I'm sorry. It's like a cat breaking down the Westminster Dog Show. It's like, it's like, our cake talking about vaccines. It's literally, the world came off its axis when you were, I think I did a good job. I did. I can't do it again. I think it would
be easier for a none to review only fans. I just, anyway, you helped me a great deal, and they gave
“a good answer. I told me, you called me and you said, you said, you have to do me a solid. And I”
thought it was going to be something big, and you're like, I'm interviewing the head of FIFA, you, or someone you have to ask a question. Yeah, yeah, the quarter quarters on the World Cup. Yeah, I can do that easily. By the way, ticket prices, I'm obsessed with the World Cup. I went to Russia. I went to LA in '94 and went to Russia. I went to Qatar. I'm going to this one. Granite, it's the final, but category one final seeds, which are good seeds. But to go to the final,
the ticket price, the face value, is $38,000. No, but then it's like a hundred and some. Go England,
it's coming home, Kara. It's going to be vain. They said they say Spain is amazing. No, they said Spain
is going to win. They said, yeah, kid, they said Spain. All of them greed Spain was going to win. I was like, okay, they said Spain. Anyway, anyway, and I don't even know what that means. Oh, and I know there's some new player there, young player. And this is the last thing for Messian, some other person who is the second. Granaldo. And also Harry Kane. This is the last show, right? Correct. Well, they said the last time, but it looks like this does look like you have
some change over. You also have in Bob Bay, you have the gentleman you refer to as Laminia Mall, who was scoring goals at the age of 17. I took my son to a game and I looked at him and I felt bad. I'm like, I'm like in a disparaging way and like, I'm like, that kid's younger than you. I'm like, you better like get something going on. That kid's younger than you. That's enough sports talk. That's enough sports talk. That's enough for Kara. Okay. I'm sorry. He joined FC Barcelona. It's 16.
Okay, go find another person for that. No, Kara doesn't care. Well, let's be honest. Oh, my God. Okay. He's literally the only unicorn to come out of Europe. He is the European unicorn.
His left foot. He's carrying a nation of 48 million people on his left foot. I'm glad you're not.
You're literally, you keep talking. Okay. That's the show. Thanks for listening to him. Enjoy yourself this week. Scott, you have the SpaceX, I feel, and the world cup. Be sure to like and subscribe to our
YouTube channel.
markets, Taylor Griffin, and Todd Wiseman. Alia Jackson engineered the episode. Thanks also to
“DuBros, Mr. Vera, and Dan Chilon. The shock for us, FoxMedia is a soccer producer podcast.”
Make sure to follow Pivot on your favorite podcast platform. Thanks for listening to Pivot from
New York Magazine of FoxMedia. We'll be back later this week for a breakdown of all things tech and business.
