Starmer Resigns, Reflecting Pool Fiasco, and Amazon Dumps OpenAI Movie

Megan Rapino here. This week on Why Are You Like This, I'm talking with Vice President Kamala Harris. We talk about her thoughts on public service, how DC has shaped her, and we find out if she's planning to run for President in 2028. Check out the latest episode of Why Are You Like This, where we get your podcasts, and on YouTube. I'm Aina Garten. I'm my new podcast Happy Hour with Aina. I'm inviting really interesting guests to join me for a drink and a fun conversation at my kitchen table in New York City. I'll be getting personal with chefs, actors, comedians, musicians, and writers I admire. So grab a snack, pull up a chair, and join us. Subscribe to Happy Hour with Aina on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes will be available every Wednesday, starting September 16th. Haven't had much luck on the dating apps lately? Don't worry. It's not just you. It does seem like across sex and dating and partnership, cohabitation, marriage. All of these behaviors are kind of on the decline. How to fight the romance slump and find a connection in real life. That's this week on Explain It To Me. New episodes, Sundays, wherever you get your podcasts. Turn on your cameras at the producer's laughing. That's my limit this test. Or do they have their head in their hands? Hi everyone, this is Pivot from New York Magazine in the Box Media Podcast Network. I'm Cara Swisher. That's it. We're done. That's it. Cool show. The French I think are in for some reason. I feel like where are they? I think they were in New York doing getting up to all kind of business because of the World Cup. Well, we're here. The French team felt standing. I hate to say. The French team is in the United States, I believe, where they were doing all kinds of French things and we're here doing all kinds of American things. You are far away from me. They were in the same air-general area right now. I just got here to con. Can. I'm on this wonderful island called Hotel du Cap. We've been avoiding you. I mean, we can't wait to see you. We can't wait to see you. You're not going to see the kids. They're here, though. They're out and about with the craps right now outside in the beach and con and everything. We just got here by train. I have to tell you the weather here is lovely. In Paris, it was so hot, like this sweltering heat dome across Europe is not a little thing. It's crazy. It's like so hot. I've never experienced anything like it. I have to say that. Paris and Summer is in a city. It's a convection oven with better architecture. I mean, it just, it starts to heat up and it's, I mean, it's really, it's, there's something about, I don't know. London, when it's hot, when it's, when it's 78 in in LA, you think, oh, it's so pleasant. Like, when it's 78 in London, it feels like you're in Africa and you could die. Oh, right. Summer is in Europe takes on a different dimension. I don't know if that's because they don't have air conditioning or what it is. No air conditioning in the apartment. We rented. That was nice. That was a lovely little extra part of it. It was a beautiful apartment, but then it was so hot. It was like, it was like an oven. Anyway, now we're here at the beach with you to 54-year-old burgers and pull boys asking me, what type of logo would you like, Mr. Delaware? Yeah, I know. You're the expensive one. You are. We're staying at a beautiful apartment box, got for us, which is nice. And we have lots of do. I'm sorry. Box pays for you, but not for me. What's going on here? I you because you have to stay at the fancier's place. Would you like to stay in this apartment with me? There's an extra bedroom. Well, I would have liked to have been offered. Now I'm going to send it. Where's Bangkok? Wait, I'm sending it to the Murdoch guy. I'm sending my hotel build to the Murdoch guy. All right. You stay at the fancier's place as I do not. We have a lot to do. We have a live pivot here. I've got a live on. Are you doing profitgy here or not? It is not here. Yeah, I just do, I just raised a minus or not doing live profitgy though, but they're not interested in the market thing here. They like they like pivot and we're doing it at the ad week house, which I think is in a brothel somewhere outside to loose. Good excellent. In the 10 years I have been here. Yeah. It's literally like the second invasion of Normandy, the Americans. It used to be the ad agencies Martin Sorrell and Maurice Levy and John Ren. No one gives a shit about the ad agency. No, it's creators. Have you noticed creators? The creator economy. The creator economy. The YouTube has a thing. Everyone has the creator economy thing and there's a lot of creators here. Most of them I don't know, but we are considered a creator in case you're interested. We can finally come round to us, I guess, in some way. Final ash. So just some data about 500 YouTube creators are expected at Canada from 400 last year with new UTA and Adobe creator beaches. So they're taking over the beach. Can added a creative brand line at the AI craft for the AI craft category for 2026 signaling creators as a core strategy. And they're attracting an unprecedented amount of ads, but creator revenues are set to exceed 21 billion this year, more than doubling from 2022. Interesting. Smaller influencers are attracting advertisers. Nano and micro influencers take 49% of US creator spend more than double their share. Where's a nano micro instead of tiny person? What is a name? No, I mean, long tail. It used to be. So podcasting is all about the top 100 creator. The long tail and the creator economy is actually doing really well. They get about half the spend, which is unlike other mediums where it all goes to the biggest players. Brand creator spend jumped 23% last year while traditional TV ad budgets fell 8%. So the creator economy is really booming. Yeah, we will discuss that at the at week house and they understand they will throw money at us. That's our hope. Correct. But if you look at, I mean, podcasting it went from it went from kind of these dramas like cereals and interesting, you know, scripted podcasting. Then it went to the interview, the Rogan's of the world. Then it's kind of gone to I think more like the commentators are analysts. And I think the next place is proprietary data sets and interpreting them. Actually, I'm parroting this intelligent woman's comment on a real. I got to find out who she is incredible. All right. Okay. All right. Well, you know, we're going to do our next act is going to be unnatural acts. That's what I think we should do. And we should do only things. You had me to an natural act. I don't know what you're talking about, but I mean, but we've got a lot to get to today. There's so much going on, including Green Watergate. Get it? Green Watergate. I told you this thing would blow up. President Trump says it will be, he said, will be in fixing the seriously vandalized reflecting rule, vandalized by him. Trump is claiming without evidence. He's lying that vandals cut the 250 foot gash in the pool's new lining and poured corrosive and destructive chemicals into the water. This is nonsense. There's cameras everywhere in Washington, just so you know, he said multiple people have been arrested tied to the alleged destruction. This is just nonsense. One of them was a former Olympian who was accused by the park police of destroying government property. He says you reach down to touch a strip of peeling paint. I was down there to Scott. It was peeling it. Nobody was touching it. Everyone was sort of shocked and amazed by how grotesque it was because you know, you go down there. I've gone down there quite a bit and I've never really noticed the skiminess of it. And it really is. It's green, all this paint's peeling off. So he's lying. And Trump, of course, should be accused of vandalizing a lot of Washington whether it was the East Wing or the grass in front of the White House for his party. You know, it's just ridiculous, but it's taking on a life of its own. It really is in terms of a metaphorical thing or maybe you don't think that. No, I mean, the president has caught between two straights of water. And I personally, I think this is kind of a non-story. America's turning 250, and we've managed to turn reflecting pull into a culture war. I just forgot to say, just fix it and let's move on. I don't, I kind of, you know, they're lying and saying that it's sabotage and vandalism. It isn't. It's incompetence. It's a government project turning into another government project. And the Democrats love to talk about. I think we have bigger fish to fry. I would agree, but I don't think it's about, I think people get it in a second because again, as I told you, it's a symbol. And it's also the guy who did it. It's another piece of griff. And it looks incompetent. It looks incompetent. And you know, one of the jokes online was that, you know, Washington is now scar after, after he took over on the Lion King. But there is more to that because then you link it, I think, with Iran, too, which continues to be like a problem. Like here's the thing you point back and forth. And that is the real problem. It is, but it's symbolic of just complete idiocy. Like, like really stupid. We'll get to some other stupid things coming up. But talk a little bit, I noticed you were talking about a lot online, the MOU, which seems the Iranian seem to have us by the short hairs. That's what it feels like to me. I don't know about you, but they're not doing anything. They're just dragging us on, I guess, and being ready to take man's, which I completely think they deserve. Trump has delivered on his promise of unconditional surrender. The problem is we're the ones unconditionally surrendering. It is insane. Anyone who can do math, anyone who understands a memo of understanding anyone who can look at their activities, my mind. It is just so incredibly clear and tragic what is going on. The IRGC recognizes he's left. The midterms are coming up. It is a very unpopular war. He got no support from the public, from Congress, from other nations. He underestimated the resilience of the missile systems. He has handed them something more powerful than a nuclear weapon, and that is an ability to choke the carotid artery of the global economy in the state of Hormuz. They know we are out. All they have to do is operate in between, is delay in obfuscation. It's just delay. Every day that goes back, it's less likely we're going to go back in with military action. So they just have to operate. They have to operate between humor them, agree to meet in Switzerland. Don't get a deal none. They have the perfect false flag. Oh, Israel's bombed Lebanon. You're not living up to your part of the agreement. We're out. They have no intention of giving anything back. And the only thing that's going to come out of this, besides Trump's incompetence and JD Vance, having about as long as presidential runners, Senator Gillibrand, is that we are going to look back on this and recognize one of the greatest acts of diplomacy, was the JCPOA. Right. Which is good. And Obama's saying so. He's doing a lot of press right now around it, by the way, the comparative. We have Russia and China signed it, where they were coasting enters the agreement. We can't get Israel to sign this agreement. Much less European nations. We had limits at 3.7 enrichment. They're already at 60. There's no money. There's no constraints around nuclear enrichment in the agreement. He keeps saying all these bullshit threats. So we'll, we'll open the straight up hormones. We'll get you. We'll get you. The straight up hormones would take, to keep it open, would take two carrier strike forces, paratroopers and Marines on the ground on Iranian soil. That is not going to happen. The net net here is the following. America comes out of this much weaker, Iran much stronger. And we're going to look back and realize that the JCPOA was one of the more impressive, active diplomacy of the last 50 years. Yep. Except they continue to deny it. It's really like, it's the same thing with the reflecting pool. And the reason why I'm harping on it, it's the same thing. It's the same kind of like, no, this is what's happening. You know, you've seen all these communications from the White House. And we look, it looks so ridiculous when it's the reflecting pool, but it's the same exact communications. You know, they're blaming the New York Times. They're blaming, you know, for the coverage. They're blaming Obama. He's blaming everybody. And it's the same thing. Oh, it's Vandals. It's this. It's that. It's him. He's just a disaster. And again, I point to, finally, someone is starting to write about it, his mental state, which seems demented. And we'll get into that a little bit more. But the way he's sort of lashing out in this crazy way, when it's all his fault, it seems. And of course, blaming to poor JD Vance. I mean, I never feel that sorry for that guy, but I got to say he's been dragged. He's been, he's been pensed. I don't know what else to say. He's sort of stuck holding the bag here and trying having to defend it. And it's worse than when Kamalaere has even lightly said, I wouldn't change a thing on the view, right? Sort of the same exact thing. So I mean, it's disastrous for the Republicans in so many ways, because he doesn't have it out. So my worry, because I think he's, he lashes out like resting back. Janine Piro arresting people for this thing. This was like, let me tell you, Janine, I was down there. I didn't touch the strip of paint, but it was stripping off by all by itself. It's going to be disastrous. People are soiling themselves in the most ridiculous ways. And in Iran, it's staying with the reflecting pool. It's just stupid, although costly to the fed to us, those taxpayers, the same thing with the rest of the mess he's making. But in this case, it's disastrous. I mean, really, truly does that. I don't know how anyone's going to get us out of this, because we got two more years of this lunatic. I don't even know what would what could happen. He gets sideline. What I don't know, like he's not going anywhere, even if he loses power. Yeah, but I think if if the, if Democrats take Congress have the power of subpoena, and hopefully if they were to get back Senate at a minimum, there'd be enough power to get in the way of a lot of this stuff, except that Iran will then develop a nuclear weapon. I feel like he right now, you know what I mean? Like that's with a worry. That's the only thing we all agree on. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. But wow, we've given him a chance here. He's, this is in the economy itself. Anyway, let's go on a quick break. We come back. Resignations, feuds, and more. And we'll get into all the European political drama. Hey, what's up guys? It's Babish. And on this week's episode of In the Booth, I'm joined by Chef Cookbook author and Food Network legend, Alex Gora Shelley. We're talking about shops, the Hamptons, and what it takes to make a cry worthy pasta. You can listen now wherever you get your podcasts. So like any good millennial, I have a love-hate relationship with Gen Z. It's the phenomenon rattling millennials. They just look at you. They want something bigger themselves, lifestyles of priority. Motivation is being inspired. But regardless of how you feel, about Gen Z, it's undeniable that they're changing national politics. Generation Z is increasingly showing less loyalty to traditional political parties. Many now more likely to identify as independent. So what is going on with the kids? I think the biggest misconception about Gen Z's politics right now is that all of a sudden they're all socialist. That is just not the case. Yeah. They are embracing candidates who are offering new bold ideas in the absence of those ideas from establishment Democrats. This week on America actually, Gen Z researcher Rachel Jamfaza joins us to separate Gen Z facts versus fiction. It's not rocket science and this is, you know, I keep saying like, young voters aren't that complicated after all. It's pretty simple. Catch us every Saturday on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. Is the U.S. military facing a leadership crisis? It would be an obligation on the part of Secretary Hedgeseth and President Trump to say, "Look, here's why these officers didn't meet our standards." And it can't be because they were politically aligned with somebody they didn't like. I'm John Feiner and I'm Jake Sullivan and we're the host of The Long Game, a weekly national security podcast. This week, Admiral Bill McCraven joins us to reflect on the 25th anniversary of 9/11 and what the firings and resignations of senior military leaders mean for the armed forces. Search for and follow The Long Game, wherever you get your podcasts. Scott, we're back with big news here in Europe. There's a lot going on. Keir Starmer just announced he's stepping out as Britain's Prime Minister giving into mounting pressure from his own party. Starmer said he'll stand office until a new party leader is selected and likely to be this guy named Andy Burnham, former mayor of Greater Manchester, very popular guy. Trump got ahead of the announcement of the weekend, noting Starmer would step down as saying he'd failed badly on immigration and energy policy. Also, a lot of attacks from Elon Musk, by the way. Starmer's resignation comes almost 10 years to the day since the Brexit vote. The UK has had six Prime Ministers in that time. Talk a little bit about you live there. What has happened here? Obviously, he was going to lose an election and he had won in a landslide in a very short time ago. I think a lot of it comes down to economics. It's very strange. Beatham, Mikanos, and St. Bartz and Y are parts of those nations, but they're not. They're islands that have an entirely different culture. I feel that way about London. I think London's essentially an island in the UK because if you look at the UK, seven out of 10 IPOs in the last 10 years are below the offering price. GDP was supposed to take a four to six percent hit from Brexit. That's second greatest own goal in geopolitical history behind our entry into Iraq. You have now the UK as a whole has a lower average household income than Mississippi. Then there's London, which is essentially where the richest people in the world, part capital and have a European lifestyle without actually engaging in the UK economy. It's a very strange place. Since I have moved there, after we have a new UK, a new Prime Minister in several weeks, I've been there four years, this will be my fifth Prime Minister. Fifth, right? You know, there was a bunch of conservative guy. There was forest. It's not politics. It's speed dating. It's beginning to feel like a LinkedIn jobs page. It's just so, you know, but without growth until they figure out a way, I thought they should do back sit. They should reintegrate into the European economy because without growth, all of this gets harder and harder. And the weird, the quagmire here, or the, not the quagmire, the enigma is that the UK has all the underpinnings of a great democracy and economic growth engine. It has incredible universities, rule of law. Culture compounds. Everybody in the world wants to or would wouldn't mind the idea of living in the UK for a few years. Absolutely. It's delightful when you're there. It's wonderful place. And yet they open AI and Thropic and SpaceX are going to raise 150 billion in fresh capital. The UK raised the total of two billion last year in its entire IPO market. They just can't get out of their own way and Brexit and just to go to politics. Since World War II, no individuals done more harm to Britain, in my view, the Nigel Farage, who might be, who might be a Prime Minister at some point. So I have was stayed woefully ignorant to UK politics, but it is difficult for me to understand how the foundation of 60. access, how they continue to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory here. And I got to think it's something, it's got to be a big bold move, even even the non-dom thing. We kicked out. Basically, they chased a lot of billionaires out of the UK. And I understand the sentiment, it's, let's tickle the middle class sensors of people who are angry, but at the same time, the treasuries gone down because a lot of wealthy people are leaving. And that reduces your tax base to, you know, provide for the NHS and these social services. But this is, I mean, UK politics and then what do you have, you have the rise of populism, they have had real problems, you know, to a certain extent, it's a metaphor for the West. You have, or when the West goes wrong, stagnant wages, housing shortages, immigration anxiety, and institutional distrust. You also have a lot of it meddling by Elon Musk in terms of backing a bunch of very violent people against immigrants. And American export is political divisiveness. Right, yeah. It's not helping. But if Elon himself that's meddling quite a bit. Yeah, but then JD Vance comes over and lectures them about free speech. It's like, we shouldn't, you know, my view Americans should be here saying, you're our greatest ally. How can we help? What can we do together? How do we open more free trade agreements instead? Instead, Musk shows up and says rise up white people or, I mean, essentially, and JD Vance comes over and waves his finger out of him around free speech. It's just, and now they've got to figure out a way to basically untangle the technology, their new, Britain's nuclear arsenal runs on American technology. And all of a sudden Europe is waking up and going, what the fuck? We have become way. The conservatives, the conservatives aren't popular either, and Farage kind of is. It's like nobody's popular, it's a real, it's a very angry nation. But when you don't have growth, people's prosperity goes down, and they just get angry and angry. So again, not to talk too much about money, but they have got to figure out a way to get growth going again. When your growth grows, you have more money, you have more flexibility, you have more power abroad, you have more, you can't have a powerful nation that's shrinking its GDP. And again, I was in can when Brexit happened in the pound crashed. It's cost them 8% of their GDP, which is like taking hundreds of billions of pounds into the street and just lighting it on fire. Yeah, they may return to the, I mean, it's interesting because Europe is getting more and more unified, speaking of which Trump's latest feud is one of his pals, basically his European Marjorie Taylor Greene, Italian Prime Minister, Georgia Maloney, and his spat started after Trump. This is so strange. Again, I'm sorry, this guy's lost his mind after Trump claimed Maloney begged him for a Maloney of small money, begged him for a photo last week's G7 Summit in France. He responded with a video and Instagram, which was quite remarkable, calling Trump's claims totally fabricated and saying, "Italy, and I never beg." She also accused Trump of being more accommodating to the enemies of the West than his own allies. Trump then doubled down, saying Maloney is doing poorly in Italy with her level of popularity, which she fired back. My popularity is none of your concern. I suggest you focus on yours, pointing to his bad, his lower, increasingly lowering popularity. Boy, this woman, even though, let me just, let's be clear, she's anti-gay marriage. She's anti-trans. She's anti-immigrant. She's not. She's Marjorie Taylor Greene, essentially. This is the European version of her. At the same time, I was like, "Go, Georgia." It was interesting that he continues, again, the sign of someone who was having some cognitive problems. It seemed like to me. This is usually such an asshole. He's always been an asshole, but not this much of an asshole. She just took it to him, which I've found merely, I mean, obviously it helps her in Italy, because he's not popular there, and he's not popular anywhere in Europe now. They were tight as ticks, if you recall. This is, again, greatness isn't the agency of others. European countries have been our strongest allies. We share the same values, same democracies. We've worked together. We've had incredible, the post-World War II world was largely shaped by America and European values. Trump decides, again, he's figured out a way to manage to feud with an alienate allies while simultaneously praising adversaries. We've spent 80 years developing these alliances, and Trump treats them like some sort of fantasy football league. Maloney to her credit, she remains. Her popularity is actually greater than most Western leaders. He decides to pick a fight with one of the few European leaders who actually likes him. She went at him on the Pope too. She didn't much like his comments on the Pope either. Yeah, well, I mean, come on. Criticizing the Pope is like of someone in Italy, and you just don't do that. None of this makes any sense, Cara. Doesn't make any sense. None of it. I believe her. Believe the woman. Yeah. Totally believe her. I believe her. He's such a creep. Little pieces of his brains are coming off like the paint on the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. But this is interesting because she's a really, because she's really, if you actually look at a lot of our policies, they're pretty heinous in terms of how she behaves, but she's sort of shifted. I mean, she used Trump to sort of get there, and now she's cutting him loose like more than others actually. The others haven't been quite as critical of him. A starmer certainly hasn't, right, or any of them have. I don't know. The Germans have it. She's really taken it to the wall. Anyway. I don't know. I think I think most of them have decided, wait a minute. It's a smart move from Millie because she comes across as a leader and not afraid, and, you know, and he's not good for her. It's not bad. Good for her. We looked terrible once again. By the way, it's really interesting to be in Europe because a lot of people are saying, you don't like Trump do you? To me, I'm like, no. Really? No. Yeah. A lot of the Europeans sort of test it when we were in bearer several different times. Like, you're not a fan of Trump. I'm like, hardly. Like, hello, lesbian family, like, no. And so they asked several Europeans, whether there's a tour guide, an Eiffel Tower, or whatever, sort of like poking to see if we liked him, which obviously we looked like an ad for not liking Trump. And anyway, let's go on a quick break. We come back new details about how Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos tried to cozy up to Trump. This is an interesting story. Scott, we're back. President Trump probably took frequent jabs at Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos as he tried to build ties with his administration. That's according to a new book by New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman and Johnson Swan, who I'm going to have on the on podcast soon. The president told guests stories about Zuckerberg and Bezos kissing his ass, which they were saying you not believe the text I got from these tech guys I got to show you. Seeing them, Zuckerberg sent Trump a photo of a letter written by one of his young children, which said they were looking forward to a golden age of America. Trump, a rally slogan, Bezos, meanwhile, reportedly told Trump that the Washington Post was one of his worst investments and that people there are really terrible. Oh my God. I mean, honestly, and then of course, he was showing it to Elon too. They all made fun of them and, you know, anyway, it was kind of, I mean, by the way, on the other side, they insult him behind his back too, but what is that? What has happened here from your perspective when you were reading sort of this stuff? I'm not surprised by one did of it whatsoever, but I don't know if they'll get their reputation back. We always thought Trump was a jerk, but this is really kind of a sequence. Yeah, but it represents a flip that is, that is sort of, represents something in my view kind of dark and that is politicians used to kiss the ass of billionaires because billionaires had money and politicians wanted to get elected and it became kind of a pay for play thing because of Citizens United. But when you think about this, Bezos and Zuckerberg are worth hundreds of billions of dollars. And yet they both still feel compelled to kiss the ass of an 80 year old real estate developer. Capital lowest chases power, but Silicon Valley spent 20 years selling us government didn't matter. And then everyone started flying to Washington. Because what this signals around the dark part is the following. If you're worth a quarter of a trillion dollars and still kissing the ass of the president, you're not, this is moved from buying influence to renting protection. This is a transition for pay for play democracy to something even worse and that is a mob protection racket. Yeah. Where if I want, if I want to hold on to my wealth, I got to start paying for protection. Because anybody that doesn't sign up gets in his crosshairs and potentially, you know, all of these guys, Jamie Diamond is the only one I can tell of all these like this power crew that hasn't kissed his ass and is actually willing to occasionally say the obvious. And now the government is suing JP Morgan. Right. So it doesn't matter how powerful you are, you got to pay the mob. And this is what you have, you want a democracy where money can't buy influence or can't buy too much. Then you move to a democracy, a quote unquote democracy or a kleptocracy where money buys everything. And now we're, in my opinion, a protection racket where Bezos and Zuckerberg got to, like, got to kiss the ring here. It's feeling very Russia. Do they got to, do they got to, I feel like they're more powerful, I don't even understand it. Like, I don't, I don't know. I mean, they could wait them out. Like, they got so much money, they could do so much damage to him. You're gonna, if the, I do think of the Democrats. Take Congress and we get about 18 or 24 months out. I think you're all of a sudden going to see As I say these guys are gonna grow testicles again I think you're gonna see a switch because I know they all tell you they can't stand them But the smart play I hate to say at the smart play is just to kiss his ass I guess but it's so great. You don't have to do it in a grotto with your kids. Oh my god Like my child wrote this team. Do you know much of a loser? You look like that you're pimping out your kids And then base us just sell the fucking wash and boast if it's one of your worst investments and people are I don't get that we talked we've talked that I still don't understand why you still owns that you know It's not just me who is interested. There was a dozen people wouldn't engage with any of them I've talked to everyone on wouldn't engage not once What would he do? What is he like like I don't know what's happening if he doesn't like it If it's his worst investments and people are terrible and by the way Jeff they hate you Why not just get rid of it? It's so weird. Yeah, I don't get that one. I don't give him power By the way, it's do it did an amazing story on Tulsi Gabbard this week like it's done several amazing stories Around the corruption and everything else. I mean the news parts the the editorial section is such weak sauce now It's really hard to read But I agree. I don't understand it. I think I don't know When when they're sucking up to the normal president Are we gonna forgive them or do we care? No, they sort of soil themselves pretty significantly. I don't know but it feels It feels very Russian in the sense that doesn't matter how rich you are You got to send put in his big and no matter where you are you might if you really piss them off he's gonna put a Neuro toxin on a door knob. Yeah, but he's this guy. He wasn't gonna do that That's the thing. It's not like in there I kind of see it because he like that's kind of going out of window kind of thing This is just something else. Yeah, but I think I think these guys in a capitalist society begin to equate success and ego and Influence just with a number and that is your net worth and I think they're very smart and they connect all the dots and see the matrix around how to increase their net worth and They've they've connected the dots here and say just kisses ass. It's it's it's a really high ROI activity So gross. They're just gross. They're picking out your kids. It's just gross. Sorry. It's just gross. It's gross In other Amazon news, but this is interesting Amazon's movie studio is dumping an upcoming film about Sam Altman saying the project We better served in another studio the decision comes as Amazon plans to invest 50 billion dollars in open AI this year The mover police done the filmmakers very good filmmakers by the way Andrew Garfield was in it I am in the script. I don't come off very well. I look like I'm too nice to Sam, but I don't care Since Amazon had already spent about 40 million dollars on the movie tested it for markets. It's working towards a release date They I don't know and they can't this is not getting picked up Netflix past apparently a couple of different places past and it's you know It's it's a high-level film. I read the script and I didn't like it I thought it was fictional in a lot of ways. They sort of painted Jeffrey and as a party guy which I'm not in my experience and they made that one guy who Revelled against Sam into a hero and I don't think he was either. I thought it was kind of broad and didn't I thought it was not a good script But there's of course the other ones coming out about Mark Zuckerberg the the sequel of the social wrecking which we've previously talked about About Francis Hagen and and that that whole situation. That's coming out. That's good that that is coming out with a guy from the bear But when you feel I don't know I don't like I'm not surprised I got rid of it if they just invested in opening eye, but it seems kind of dumb Spending all that money. Yeah, it's not much 40 million who cares. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but We were well into the development or even production writers room of Our series on Netflix about big tech that got the plug pulled. Oh, this has gotten the plug pulled. Yeah, I think they've just decided that They don't want to be villains Yeah, and they don't it's not worth the risk you piss off either powerful people you pissed off the president All these M and A all these regulatory concerns and quite forget the American public seems to have soured on AI Or it could just be the following the story of Sam Alman is not interesting and that it seemed more interesting 12 months ago And then it is now so I think they'd you know think well, let's just do season four of Euphoria I don't I think they've done the math here and decided that story is about big tech the gay hockey people seems Yes, let's do let's do the women's talking to him this year incredibly well toy story five is like killing it And he's opening always your credit. I meant to tell you you've been talking about theaters and I've been shit posting them The best performing media stocks the last 12 months hasn't been Meta or it hasn't been it's been theaters Theater when to the theater he did he loved it. He's going again. Oh, RL is a is a trend again But anyways that the the back to clinical artificial the name of this that they've killed I think they just do the math and go Okay, the story is not interesting. It's gonna piss off potentially a lot of powerful people is this worth it and Look, I saw this happen up close and personal and I still tell us more about this plug bowling for you Tell explain to the people what your show was so people understand So I I connected with Res media who did the morning show incredibly talented guy And then I had a we had an amazing show runners got burns from the born identity incredibly talented guy. We signed up Roseman Pike to play the lead character based on you know loosely based or inspired by Cheryl Sandberg It got we we We did our pitch and it got bought in the room which never happens and never remember Netflix committed to the entire first season Wow finally oh my god finally after a swing and a miss and being being in the face about 10 times I got something going everything's going fine. Everything's going fine Netflix doesn't like the scripts The showrunner leaves Roseman has some family issues and just the wheels came off the bus And what probably happened is Occam's razor probably just fell apart because Holly was stuff tends to and they didn't well not knowing when you get to this No, I know I agree with you. I mean we were we were scouting locations and then so I meanly went to was there some polit because Okay, meanwhile Netflix is making a bid for Warner Bros And so I mean they go is something else at foot here and then I talked to The that incredibly impressive woman and Netflix runs all our content She was very straight with me. She said problems with the scripts You know family issues for the lead and this happens And I believe that I believe that's what happened But then you see this thing get it the plug pulled I think the creative communities basically said America is tired of hearing about big pack And there's a ton of there's a ton of um second order risk around these stories right? Yeah, yeah That could be it could be that what's doing well and what's not you it'll be interesting to see how the social reckoning does right Although some people say it's a mess of a script with Aaron Sorgan. I haven't seen it But it's getting a big put that's getting a big push and that's the the second part of the Facebook story It's it's a it's an accompaniment to the social network By this time Sorgan and not Fincher is directing which we'll see how he does But you're right. It's like do we want to see more about these assholes right like that kind of thing I guess I still think the story of big tech is the biggest story that's never been told I still think someone's gonna produce it. I think I think based us in musk and shale samberg And what I wanted and they agreed to in the first season was I actually think shale samberg is one of the more interesting characters in big tech I think she's actually in many ways more interesting than musk and but When you hear about these people's lives He just wouldn't believe it unless you knew it was real. I think they're incredibly complex interesting strange people And the story is angry unhappy Yeah, but again, it's it's it really is and no one's told it that well It's the biggest story that is yet to be told people were obsessed with obsessed with succession News core is a pimple on the elephant a big tech right you're right this story really hasn't been told you know I think it's gonna be it's gonna be theater and opera like that I just have this feeling that there's gonna be a theatrical show Or in that regard right where it's gonna be told because I have a couple ones going and I don't think they'll ever get made I just don't think they will Both my book my memoir and then another one with Bradstone and I that we wrote years ago We wrote the treatment four years ago and it's moving But slowly and as a question is do people want to watch unless you make it really like succession work because it was like fantastic Cast fantastic script You know rich people fucking things up. Well, I think it might have to wait a step To get to these people, but they will they'll be gotten their amazing characters in a terrible way speaking of things that are Crashing to the ground SpaceX hype is crashing as we take on Monday SpaceX shares are down to $167 down 17% value company a 2.2 trillion still enormous The stock is still up 24% from the IPO praise, but oh down over 16% from its peak A lot of people feel this is gonna keep coming down. I don't know, but some people are buying So will it have the effect on the upcoming IPOs and and let's hear a question From a listener about Elon shares. It is impact on the company and then we can answer all these questions So if you tried to actually sell or borrow against you know even a smaller percentage of it tomorrow What happens to the price if he dies or they can pass a date tonight? What's the stock like really worth the next morning. Zero. Zero. Like, oh my God, that would be, you look out fucking below, but your thoughts? Well, my understanding is, there's a lot of nuance there. My understanding is he's agreed to a self-lockup of a year. So he hasn't sold it. He's not selling any shares. But he could borrow against it. That's exactly right. And he can borrow way more than he could ever spend against it. Explain how Pete Rich people do that, Scott, for people that don't understand, borrow him against your stuff. Okay. So the ultimate wealth accumulation and income inequality strategy is the following. If you're fortunate enough to have equity in a company that does really well, it's called the Buy, Barrow, Die Strategy. And that is Jeff Bezos owns $120 billion in Amazon shares. And to fund his lifestyle, he borrows against it at very low interest rates. And then he puts a lot of it in trust. And when he dies, there's a step up in valuation. So as kids don't have to pay taxes on it or when he actually starts selling, he decides he needs to spend more time with his dad and Florida, such that he doesn't have to pay back the cost of the infrastructure of the great state of Washington that built his $120 billion in Fortune. And the greatest distinction between the wealthy and the not wealthiest that following, are you an earner or you an owner? And you want to do everything you can, whether it's tax-free, investment vehicles, getting the money out of your hands, automatic investment every month. You have to get to be an owner because the thing about owning stock or houses or assets is they increase in value, tax deferred. What do I mean by that? If you make $100,000 a year, you're an asset increasing your wealth by $100,000, but you lose 30% of it in taxes. Whereas if your stocks go up $100,000, as long as you don't sell, there's no taxable event. Now what should happen is that we need new laws such that when you borrow against your assets, it creates a taxable event on the capital or the asset you're borrowing against. Because what effectively has happened is the owners are just pulling away from the earners. It's never sell your stock, let it keep going up and borrow against it for your lifestyle needs. And then you can take additional capital and start investing in other things and diversifying. And we're going to have the last 20, 30 years in America, we've been obsessed with how to create wealth. And over the next 10 years, they're going to have a very important conversation around what do you do and what is expected of wealth. But now what's going to happen with this stock, I mean, because let's assume he's not going to be incapacitated or dead or, but he will borrow against it if he needs the money. I mean, how much money does he actually need if he wants to save fund presidential election, for example. You know, he's worth a trillion dollars. Right. He can go to JP Morgan and say, loan me $10 billion and they're not going to ask him what he's doing with it. And he could literally overwhelm the airwaves and social media with his chosen candidates. Is the stock going to go down? Okay. Let me just be clear. SpaceX trades at a price to sales ratio, well, let's do the other way. Apple trades at 10 and a half times price to sales Alphabet 11, Tesla 16, Nvidia 39. By the way, all these companies going faster, except for Tesla and SpaceX, SpaceX trades at 131. Meta, an amazing company, trades at 7.3, Amazon trades at 3.7, Amazon 3.7, 3.7. Oh, my God. 10 is usually the thing, right? 10 to 15, correct? 12. Yeah. Those are higher margin companies. Amazon's in a low margin business. Right. I think the only stock in all of these that I would buy right now is Amazon. Because what you get is you get a distance number two to SpaceX with the core business of the retail platform. If you want to talk about AI, the adjacent AI place to go after industrial robots, of which Amazon has two and a half times the total amount of America. For FedEx, you have to be worried too, same thing. If I could go, if I could go short any category right now, it would be a basket of the secondary AI players. And if I could go long any category, it would be GLP ones. I don't know if you've seen what's coming out of the American clinical collagen gathering, but they're now saying that metastatic cancers get cut in half the growth rates when people are in GLP ones. Also, these foods, as you said, two years ago, the cuts in prices for Doritos and for all that shitty food is really quite significant. There's now not enough cottage cheese around and yogurt and things like, you know, it's really interesting. In terms of how people's tasted shift, because one in eight Americans is on this drug at this point. I think it's going to be one and two. I agree. I agree. Yeah. Yeah. My prediction is both of us are on GLP ones, some form or my question. Oh, I'm going to start my cardiologist was like, we're going to have your stroke ever again. We're going to do a small amount. I'm going to do it. I haven't started yet. They're talking about potential, potential delay of dementia and Alzheimer's. They're finding out. No, my cardiologist was like, yeah, it's a fucking little way we're doing it for you. They're just finding out all sorts of, there's never been an innovation that appears to have second order effects that are this positive, usually find externalities that are negative. You know, you get, you blast someone with chemo enough, they get leukemia 20 years later, right? There's big tech, all sorts of externalities. The externalities of GLP one, you know, and there are issues around nausea, muscle loss, but the, every time they do more research, they keep finding out better and better things. Yeah, I think it's the biggest test case. It'll be interesting with the, there are some negative effects and so like that, but it's a little like a certain, you know, but one of the things is people eating whole foods and craving things that protein, that protein related, healthy proteins, which is really interesting. Anyway, we'll see. I would agree with you. You call this one very hard two years, at least if you recall, I remember this, I remember being struck by it. Anyway, SpaceX shares good luck if you buy them and let's not hope Elon dies or is incapacitated tonight because it is a look at below for that stuff. Correct. I mean, let's just answer his question. If something happens to him, that price, even though SpaceX is a very fine business, it's not a very fine business. It's just a telco in the sky, essentially, with that. No, the meme, the co-leader of the meme, that would be, yeah, that would be, yeah, I got to believe that would be disastrous for Tesla and for SpaceX. Everything. Yeah. He's the one. He's the key man. Anyway, one more quick break. We'll be back for wins and fails. Okay, Scott, let's hear some wins and fails. My win is tourists in the U.S. for the World Cup. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I think international fans are leaving the World Cup raving about America, our food. Nice. I mean, it's just a laryson. They love your waffle house. I mean, it's just like the Boston and this tartan, the tartan army was delightful. What the world is finding out is in America, it's core distinctive podcasters like us and Trump. America, Americans are generous, interesting, wonderful people and it's an amazing culture and they're getting to see that. But we get to see just how wonderful these nations are. And like I said, I think the World Cup is doing what the UN initially envisioned it would do. I think it's bringing people together. These viral online videos show fans excited about American food, our huge portions, Chipotle, Shake Shack and many more, visitors to NYC, we're able to be part of the legendary NYX parade. The World Cup has attracted a projected 10 million visitors, Airbnb searches and host cities jumped 80% year on year. Visitors are staying about 12 days, attending two matches and spending over $400 a day on average. New York City's tourism chief, Julie Coker, likened the boost to hosting as many as eight Super Bowls in six weeks. I just think the World Cup, I think FIFA is one of the most corrupt organizations in sport. But I think the World Cup is just incredible. The fans, it's a fans, it's a fans, they were just a fan of the landfall. But you see people in Kansas welcoming, you know, these people from Norway, you see the Japanese, I just, it really is, I think we forget that generally speaking, these cultures are wonderful. Generally speaking. And we're not Trump. Yeah, generally speaking. People want to get along. Generally, we're not that divided, we just have the most profitable companies in the world trying to divide us. And we have a president who's trying to divide us. It's just great. I mean, I think, you know what I struck by here is you get the feeling, and this is just being in France for a short time, is they really want to like us. Like, you know what I mean? Like, I had so many Europeans like testing to see who are you, one of those people, Americans. And you're not. And then they're like thrilled to have you there, one, like I have to say, everyone's been really lovely everywhere we've gone. And I do think there's a backlash happening, Scott. I do. People are like, I'm tired of being angry at these hawkers. I'm like, let's just get rid of them. Let's just move along. And like, and you're right, the world cup, I, I know you don't think as much as the next, but like, it's just, there's a feeling. I think you're absolutely right. And this is, these people want to like us. They want to like us in a lot of ways. So there you go. My fail in this is indicative of social media is that polymarket is flooding social media with fake trading videos. There's a great, I think the Wall Street Journal is doing a great job. They did an analysis that found that polymarket paid dozens of college age creators to post videos have faked. trades and fake wins on the platform. So one of the videos, for example, shows a young man saying he won $100,000 on a bet. The Trump would say McDonald's in public, but in reality, all of the counts that made the bet lost money. And to make these clips, Polymarket built copies of its website and then told creators to make, quote, trades on those sites and hide that they were being paid by Polymarket. So, yeah, by the way, I feel I should disclose that at Profty Markets, we have a data partnership with Kelsey. So, but we're not doing, anyways, but gambling and gaming for young men is really corrosive. And I still can't resolve what to do about it because you don't want to fantasize young people. And it's a tough one. But at a minimum, these companies shouldn't be posting fake social media posts that show someone winning when they didn't. It's just, it's praying on their worst instincts and it's it's disingenuous. Yeah, it's just do your business. If people want to use it, you don't have to like trick people. And these are great businesses. But Polymarket's audience is 70% male. And the most common age demographic is 25 to 34. So again, it's young men. And a plurat and guess this, can I use a comparison? You know, those two, when you were after Robinhood for a while. And then the other people that you worked with public, public, public income, they seem like the Robinhood people, Polymarket people. I don't know. Well, they're especially aggressive. And I have problems with all of it. I don't, I don't have moral clarity about all of it, quite frankly, any of it. But the deceptive marketing mostly affects young men and in just evidence of who they're targeting. A plurality of Polymarket's display ads are on what site? I'll give you a guess. Young men, they're trying to reach young men. Twitter. Horn hub. Horn hub, that makes sense. So this is, and again, I don't know if you can regulate this. They'll say it's free speech. Everybody's making money. But this does feel like deceptive marketing. Anyway, that's my fail. That's a good fail. That's, I agree with you. I think you're, I mean, it is. It's just, why do you have to trick people? Just make other great businesses. People love this stuff. They love the prediction markets. The data is interesting. They're addictive. But they just stupid. It's just con people. My fail is the way the Republicans are continuing to attack James Talleriko over his sexuality, which is, I think it must be Trump mistook his Lord cisgendered for six genders or something. But Stephen Miller is particularly heinous in terms, and especially because he's such a loathsome creature. It's just, it's grotesque. It's really grotesque and weird. And I hope it doesn't work. I fear it might. But this, this idea of, of, of, of accusing someone of being transgender and this so it continues. And especially Ted Cruz. I mean, honestly, I hate to say he should know better, but he I guess he doesn't, but Miller and Cruz and a lot of them are just grotesque. It's just gross. I've never seen anything like this. And it's really hateful and cruel and, you know, and especially because these particular men are particularly loathsome men at the same time. And so I think that's just, I just can't stand it. Every time I see them do it and they keep doing it, they must to be seeing some polling or something. But they're also terrible people. It's just gross. Like, I don't even under it. So, hey, it's a misogynist. It's transphobic. It's, it's definitely, it's all manner of weirdness on these people's part. And just like, again, a bunch of people I cannot wait to see go away at some point relatively soon. And we never have to speak of them again. It's how I feel about a lot of these people. On the positive side, really thrilled to see a toy store. It did so well. It's one of my favorite movie franchises. I, the third one, I lost, I lost it at the end of that one about, it's about, it's about toys. And it's about everything. And this one is, you know, focused in on empathy, focused in on all the good things we've been talking about in this show. And I haven't seen it yet. I want, I have my kids at my little, I saw that the other one's obviously with my older kids, because it's been so long. This is the fifth one. And sometimes when you get to five, you're like, you got to be kid and kid. So you just want to sell toys. But the reviews for this, and I have not, I want to see it in the theaters, speaking of which. And we're going to, I've downloaded all of them here. And I'm hoping to watch all four movies with the little ones and then take them to it. I just feel like, what a, what an astonishing franchise it's been. And it's just, I dare you not to cry. I know almost any of them. I just, I cry. And I don't cry. That last, the third one just killed me, just killed me. And I don't know why. I just, it's just beautiful. And this one's about stuff this. It's about digital, but it doesn't demonize digital. It just talks about play with kids. And I'm very excited to see it. So I'm really happy for the Pixar people for putting out a great film. And I'm excited to see it. Well, you know what my, go ahead. Sorry. You know what my ex-wife said when I came home and found her fucking Woody. Oh, she said, she said, she said, you have a friend in me. Oh my God. How could you do this to me? Come on. That's easy. No. That's easy. The worst. That is the, I'm not going with you to this movie. You're not getting near my children on this trip. There we go. I can't. I'm pronouncing it right. I can't. Anyway, can, can. I don't, thank you for ruining my beautiful gorgeous moment about children playing and everything else. I truly appreciate it. You're not allowed to go to this movie in any way. You've got a friend. Stop. Stop. Stop right now. Anyway, so Scott, I'm looking forward to seeing you. I might see you at a party tonight. Maybe I won't see you at a party, but I want to ride on that zodiac. You know Toy Story 6 is about. Oh, no. No, no, no. It's about me. I'm serious. Toy Story 6 is about Andy's mother's toys, which coincidentally are also called Woody and Buzz. Oh my god. All right. You have ruined my win. Those are so bad. Those are so bad. They're so bad and they're so sad. That's my limit. No, no. They're going to afterwards. I'll go, uh, Scott, do we really want to do this? And we're going to. So that's the way that that's where Larry goes, uh, like that. That's the boys. Anyway, I will see you in person at live. We're going to have lots of people there. It'll be fun. I think it is sold out. Uh, we are. And I am also doing a live interview with Jim Beckoff and Meredith Levin, uh, from the New York Times. Oh, stop. I mean, that sounds really interesting. Yeah. Where's NPR hosting that? Yeah. Oh, it's going to be great. We're going to talk about D.I. at the Forfeuse Service. Listen dirty, dirty. I'm going to see Teen Scotland at the at the Crane Club pop-up on the pallet tomorrow and midnight. Then I'm going to the Spotify party. Yeah. Who wants to roll with the dog? We will. We will. I will see you in a few days, Scott. And we want to hear from you also our listeners. Send us your questions about business tech or whatever's on your mind, including Scott's filthy, filthy brain this week. Go to nymag.com/pivot to submit a question for the show. We're called 8551, uh, pivot or elsewhere in the Karen Scott universe. This week I'm on with care. So I talked to Harvey Levin, founder of the celebrity news juggernaut TMZ, who I adore about its new Washington DC bureau and expanded political coverage. Let's listen to a clip. I do want to just say one thing that, you know, you're referring to this as, you know, politicians being a form of celebrities. Right. Yeah. You can push that. I don't view it that way. Okay. I view it as pop culture. We cover pop culture. And pop culture can be a lot of things. You know, it can be sports. It can be entertainment. And pop culture is politics because a lot of the things that affect everybody emanates from Washington DC. And it emanates from the courts. It emanates from Congress, from the president. And it affects all of us. So they are an integral part of pop culture. So to me, it has never been a stretch. It's a really good interview. They tried for years to do this. He's a great guy. And by the way, they're breaking some stories. I have to say that they really are. They're like, when they took those pictures of politicians during those shutdown, like, like, Lindsey Graham with his bubble wand Disneyland, I think they're doing an excellent job. Reminds me of the old Washington Post, which used to do this kind of stuff, a mix of things. Anyway, he's great. I've known him for many, many years. I like Harvey a lot. And he's a really interesting entrepreneur in media. He's one of the OG ones. Okay. That's the show. Thanks for listening to Pivot. Be sure to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We'll be back on Friday live from Cannes. Today's show is produced by Larry Neiman, so a Marcus Taylor Griffin and Todd Weisman. I'm an earning-interested entrepreneur at this episode. Thanks also to Drew Broes. Missed a very intentional on-the-shot Korozbox Media's Executive Rooster podcast. Make sure to follow Pivot on your favorite podcast platform. Thanks for listening to Pivot from Box Media. We'll be back later this week for another breakdown of all things tech and business, go team Scotland versus Brazil.