What's up y'all, I'm Skyler Diggins, seven times WNBA All-Star, Olympic gold medalist, and Mom. And I'm Cassidy Hubbard, a post and reporter for nearly 20 years, covering the biggest names and stories in sports. And Mom. And this is and Mom, a community for athletes, game changers, and moms of all kinds.
Dropping May 14th. Happy and with us. And I'm Skykal, a car, you sound low energy. I'm not on the energy.
It's just a Thanksgiving exhausting time for me, especially now that there's a war on Thanksgiving apparently. Did you hear that? I'd say more. Oh, God, President Trump last night was acting like there was a war on Christmas, which wasn't really a war.
There's now apparently a war on Thanksgiving, which said nobody, never, any time. In any case, Happy Thanksgiving, Fall Harvest, in all the seasonal holidays. I'm so grateful to be here with you, Scott. I'm so glad to be here with you.
I'm so glad to be here with you. I'm so glad to be here with you. I'm so glad to be here with you. I'm so glad to be here with you.
I'm so glad to be here with you. That is literally, that's crazy. You're in a lot of cities. A lot of cities.
A lot of stuff. A lot of news. We got a lot to talk about. Obviously, one of the biggest this week is London is ending Uber's license to operate.
The city is Uber's biggest in the EU market. The London transportation regular stripped its license to operate in the city, although that's under appeal. They said the company is not fit and proper. I love the British people to run private hiring service.
And there's a pattern of failure that puts passengers at risk. It's an identification system that allows unauthorized drivers to game the system. So it has 21 days to appeal to ruling. And then the decision puts 45,000 license drivers out of work in London.
What's interesting here is that Uber was the first place, Derek Koshashahi, the new CEO, went when he became CEO because he had so many problems in London. It was such a critical market. What do you think about? It's just another thing for Uber, correct?
Yeah, and what's happening here, they're basically saying that a bunch of people are claiming to be Uber drivers. They're already Uber drivers. And that's a bit of a red herring or a false flag. The same thing happened.
I don't know if you saw it, but I think it was yesterday. Chicago announced a new density tax. But it's not really a density tax. And that's another kind of head fake.
What it is is, it's a tax. The density tax only applies to ride hailing firms, not to taxi. So what you have here is kind of overdue. The governments are fed up.
They look at this organization that's come in. They didn't, as much as apply for a business license, it's not paying their fair share of taxes. And there was an interesting article in Business Insider basically saying that the value creation of Uber is a function of regulatory arbitrage. And if you think about New York, where at one point you cost $1.4 million to get a tax medallion for the right to have this unit of delivery called a taxi and someone borrowed money, a driver borrowed money to finance that.
They were paying $100, $140,000 a year just in interest, whereas Uber doesn't pay that. So if your unit of delivery has $100,000 a year advantage, you literally just can't compete. So my uncle Michael and London was my family's from London, was a black cab driver and he probably made, he put a daughter through school. They had a nice middle class lifestyle.
He was a soul income runner. I would guess he made $60, $100,000 a year. He had a nice middle class life. He spent two years learning every crook and cranny of the London Metricles area.
So London Metricles are fantastic. Yeah, they're the real deal, right? And they're charming and they're sort of almost like the best kind of gay-ish people. Yeah, they're wonderful.
And I think it's expensive to have. I'm still getting over the other uncle who drives black cabs in London, but go ahead, keep it up. Okay, sure. Wonderful guy, uncle Michael.
Anyway, so this is Municipalities Pushing Back on Uber. And what you're about to see, and I actually watched the video of you at the Deal Book Conference asking, I'm not sure if I should. The economic feasible question, yeah. Yeah, by the way, you are fearless.
I mean, I always really appreciate you getting out there. Andy Ross wanted me to do that. They wanted, you know, I'm there to be like, I'm the mean lady in the audience, essentially. But I was like, you have to ask that question.
The economic people. One of those things. Yeah, not just Uber, but Lyft and the others. This feasibility.
And I think there was a great piece in the New York Times this week about Amazon, like sort of the advantages they've gotten through taxing and through other things that they don't have to, that these retailers can't keep up because of the constant innovation that's paid for elsewhere or through no taxes or like, like, whatever it is. That's right. Anti-competitive behavior. But I was fascinated by your question.
And basically, Dara said that ride-hailing is the core business. We don't need a flywheel. And this will be profitable. And so I dug into the earnings call and tried to understand the economics of this thing.
And I do believe that they could get to profitability by their state of 2021. But here's the thing. Between governments deciding, well, you should be subject to a fraction of the regulatory and tax burden as every other transportation company. They're coming to that realization and they're coming up with concentration or density taxes.
They're basically banning them from cities. So you're going to see more taxes. So cost-making against Uber. And then there's the drivers stuff like in California, AB5.
And then they're going to have to raise prices. So that's why that's why that's why it's getting out with Dara. You're going to have to raise prices. They're just false.
100%. And so what will happen? So on Monday night, I have a board meeting in Philadelphia on Tuesday. And I'll take an Uber from New York to Philadelphia late Monday night.
Yeah, I take Uber's everywhere. What? Okay. What's that $400?
What does that do? What does that do? I think it's $150 if you take a black car at $450. Did you get a megaboss?
What do you really? A megaboss? Yes. I don't work for Google.
But what's a megaboss? The bus, $10 goes $10. I literally take Uber. Absolutely.
I think I spent $1,500 a month. But here's the thing. It's probably not good for the environment. It probably should cost more.
It probably the fact that drivers can't, they can't figure out a way to get drivers minimum wage across the board. I mean, there's just a lot of externalities here that the government has decided, okay, we're going to move in. So what will happen? They could get to profitability.
I think Dara was being honest there. But the problem is for them to get to profitability, they'll have to withdraw from certain markets. They'll have to take their growth way down in the current market capitalization. Which we were talking about before.
The businesses are smaller. They're market cap. The market cap reflects a company that maintains the current growth rates and gets to profitability. And they can't do both.
So yes, the good news is yes, I do think this company can get to profitability. The bad news is it's going to be a nice little profitable company. We're tenderly, not 50. Right.
I get once again, which is this idea that there was one question there, whether, you know, does Dara lack the vision? I just think Dara understands this. You know, like he's not like Travis, he's not killing in every city. It's very easy to kill in every city if you're not actually making money.
And I think that's a lot of people who were really hoping this was like the golden ticket to everywhere. But the one thing that is problematic is this driver fraud, whether that's going on, and they certainly have to tamp down on. They've been trying to fix those issues of safety and everything else. And they introduced a taping that you can tape your ride, which seems unusual to me.
But they're trying all kinds of things to fix that issue. It's just a question of how they treat, to me, how they treat drivers and whether they get the money they deserve. And then secondly, you know, the smaller it is, you're going to have to be smaller Juneau close, the rideshare faulted last week, and their parent company partnered with Lyft. I mean, this is going to be, you know, there's one issue.
Maybe if there's just two of them, they can do something like that's more economic, but it's difficult. Anyway, thinking of economics, our billionaires pricing themselves after democracy, Michael Bloomberg, he's pissed off everybody. Like, it was the Warren's hair is on fire, essentially. He announced he's joining the crowd primary.
His net worth is $52 billion. He's not doing any grassroots fundraising. So he's not going to qualify for the Democratic primary to be, he doesn't care. He won't appear on the ballot in early states, but he's about to buy like tons and tons and tons and tons of ads and television ads all over the place.
So what, what think you of this candidacy? It's sort of the, I'm going to buy my way into it. That's what all some of the other candidates are saying. $31 million on ads in 25 media markets.
What do you think? Yeah. And he also gets cheaper ad rates because he's buying those ads as a candidate as opposed to a pack. And for some reason, broadcast outlets have different, they're mandated or they're regulated into offering the lowest possible price to candidates themselves, but not to packs.
So sort of the law of unintended consequences of billionaires getting lower rates on his, his campaign ads and say, and Elizabeth Warren or somebody else who actually is not taking back money. But it's just, there's a lot of strange things going on. Like, I think billionaires buying their way on the stage as how it shows. Yeah.
Yeah. Well, as how it shows tried to do as I was thinking about doing it as Tom Steyer has done. I mean, Tom Steyer wouldn't be on stage unless he was a billionaire. Having said that, I think with Bloomberg, I do think that running what is ultimately one of the 20 largest economies in the world for 12 years, I think that he does have some, I think he is a legitimate candidate.
The fact that he's worth $52 billion, that being a huge asset, look, Citizens United has made it such that money is seen as kind of this democratic voice and you have a huge, we live in the ultimate capitalist of Darwin Hunger Games. And as we've decided that people with money get to do a lot of things, including be a viable candidate for president by sheer virtue of their wealth. And until we do, we'll listen to you. And these TV markets are going to love it.
The TV markets are going to love the money that they're spending. Interestingly, he hired to be his digital director, Facebook's chief marketing officer, which is sort of like fascinating. But do you think these attacks by the other candidates will work like you're buying your way in, you gave a lot of money to Republicans, you know, and then the controversy around people from Bloomberg that they won't cover Bloomberg himself and they won't cover the Democrats, but they will continue covering Trump and they won't do any investigations. I think every talk about heads blowing off a lot of people internally there, you know, I wrote to some people who always worked around like, wow, that's something else.
That's, you know, well, this is your bag. Your turn, what do you think of it? I think it's awful. I think it's incredibly bad media ethics.
You know, I'm not surprised necessarily, but it certainly is. If I was working at Bloomberg, I'd be horrified and I don't know what I would do. I would quit. I would quit.
I would quit. Here's the thing. This is a question I would do. I saw that memo from John Mcgillthwaite.
I would quit. Right. But here's the issue. Like how do we get back in the White House, we being Democrats without taking our gloves off?
Well, this is more than gloves. This is unethical. Yeah, okay. The Rupert Murdoch is unethical.
Fox television has basically become totally, it's not, there is no journalistic integrity there. They've just decided they're going to defend the president regardless of what he does. So do we just stand by and just complain and bark at the moon about it? Or do we take our gloves off?
I'm ready for shit to get real. I don't. It seems like, again, I get it. I get it.
I get it. I get it. Anyway, to get there is the way to get there. And I don't think that's the case.
I don't know. I think Democrats are different. I think Democrats are different. Not all the time, but certainly at least aspire not to cheat, aspire not to lie, aspire not to lose every ethical consideration.
And of course that might mean you lose as usual. Okay. So we can sit around and console our loss and our, you know, our woke nature. I mean, we, I think we got to get in there and we got to mix it up.
We got to make deep fakes. Let's make some deep fakes. Like deep fakes don't even count. Like everything that comes out though.
Did you see the whole Turkey back and forth with Trump? I mean, I was like, and seeing like every day it's a lot. It's just, the thing is every day it's a lie, like a serious lie that they're like, yeah, I lied. You know, so we want to see some lies coming our way.
I mean, I bet your concerns around the ethics around Bloomberg are going to dissipate pretty fast when we see the conspiracies that come out after a Jewish billionaire who owns a media company. What kind of conspiracies are going to try to be in the US? Yeah, yeah, that's true. It's going to be, it's going to be crazy.
So I'm like, my viewpoint is buckle up. It's about to get rough. Yeah. I think it's a really, I appreciate the amount I lived in New York.
I think I love the bill. I think I love the bill. And I have a fantastic judge of threading the needle between economic growth and having concern for the unions and I just think he's. Stop and frisk, stop and frisk, was he tried to walk away from?
You know what's scary about that? It was absolutely the wrong thing to do. I think it helps them nationally. I think that there's a large part of America that quite frankly has become the key critical voting group that is tired of this insufferable woke attitude they perceive from the left.
And I think that actually helps them among those voters. And I think it was wrong. He's apologized for it. I think it's a terrible policy, but in a strange way, I think it actually helps them with that middle kind of middle.
That's really, you really want to peel that? That's the kind of candidate you want to peel to that? Shh, quietly. You want to attack people of color unfairly.
I want to ask clown out of office. I want someone different in Pennsylvania. I am willing to go there. I think that the market has been ripped open for the middle.
We, a sociopath beats a socialist seven days and on Sunday, which was what Stephen Schmidt said and he's absolutely right. We need some, it's so hard to unseat a one-term president when the economy is doing well. And you're just not going to do it with a construct of socialism which people paint Warren, which people paint Sanders with if in fact the economy is doing well. Socialism is a different economic model.
And that's the kind of the one thing that's working right now in America or you could argue that it's sort of working and instead. I'm looking for a lot of people Scott. 100%. I agree with you.
But most of America thinks that the one thing that is doing okay is the economy. So if he paints the kid, the far left candidate, someone who wants to move us totally up and the economic construct of capitalism, take away their health insurance, boom, he takes 37 or 38 states. It has to be, I hope it's Bloomberg, but one thing's for sure, I believe and I think Democrats are coming to this realization. It has to be a centrist.
If it's not Bloomberg, it's going to be a mere people. Well, Obama was right up there with that. Right in there with that. Right in there with that.
It literally looks like a Republican right now if you've seen what he's been saying. Yeah, he's coming out early and often and saying, guys, folks from the far left, that's just not where America is. Anyway, I hope, I'm curious, what do you think? You're sort of, you have a little bit more distance from it than me.
Do you think he has a shot or this is just sort of your health? I don't know. He muscles his way in there. That's the thing.
But you know, you never know. There's a really noisy left. It's a fed up, you know, every American constituency is fed up. Just grab our vote and then ignore us kind of thing.
I think that's definitely a thing. I think that women are just like, what do we do? Like most women are tending toward anybody but Trump, you know, that kind of thing. We do get like sort of this boogeyman scare every time he has one of those stupid droughts and things.
That's what everybody thinks. I don't think that's what everybody thinks. I think that they are. I think in the way that there was a quiet group of people that was for Trump before, I think there's a quiet group of people that are like, he's horrible.
Which is interesting. I was with somebody who was from Kentucky, a doctor recently and he can't stand Trump but at the same time he can't stand the whole healthcare thing, the Medicare for All. So it was really fascinating to listen to him because he really didn't like the medical for All. And I think most people are really interested in a couple of things, histories around healthcare, issues around everything else.
Everything else is just noise. And not to say that this Ukraine thing isn't, these people should go to jail. Many of these people involved in this. And so I do, you know, what they've done is just horrible.
But I think when most people are thinking day to day, like, yeah, that's horrible but I can't pay for my healthcare, that kind of thing is really where it's at healthcare. Raising your kids, even as things as addiction, tech addiction, things like that. I think people care about that kind of stuff more than anything else. So we'll see who is able to appeal to that group of people.
It's going to be tough. It's definitely going to be tough. So we're going to take a quick break now. And I probably, if Bloomberg's running mate is Jeff Bezos, I think that will be a problem.
Except everything will be delivered perfectly right at the top. I'll get our packages sometime. They are amazing. I just had like a bag of worth with FedEx and I'm like, God.
You should have closeted Amazon file. I don't love Amazon. I don't love them. I hate them and love them at the same time.
Did you see the controversy around Albert? Yes. Of course, their way says the same thing. They're just egregious conversations.
That led me to every long term relationship I've had. It was the most passive aggressive letter in the world. It was like, we want to help you rip us off and we hope you'll be at least environmentally sound. God.
It was just such a good deal. Everybody makes innovative products or just more of my exam as well. Because Amazon does rip them off in seconds. It's like really literally.
It's our own version of the Chinese like, like, never years ago. Everybody does it. We've just never seen anyone that's good at it. Yeah, they're really good at it.
Anyway, we have to take a quick break. We'll be back after this. I'm Maria Sharapova and I'm hosting a new podcast called Pretty Tough. Every week I'm sitting down with Trailblazing women at the top of their game to discuss ambition, work ethic and the ups and downs that come on the path to achieving greatness.
We'll dive into their stories and get valuable insights from top executives, actors, entrepreneurs and other individuals who have inspired me so much in my own journey. Follow Pretty Tough wherever you get your podcasts. So we are 250 years into this American experiment and I say it's going okay. I give us like a C plus.
There is no perfect past but there is also no exclusively negative past because humans are going to human. That's what we do. I think the story of America is the struggle of people who have not been included in the promise of America to expand those principles to include more people. What's going to determine the next 250 years of America and how do we write a new social contract that can give us the democracy we deserve?
Okay, so I'm just going to be a jerk here because I'm a historian. So we have to have a prologue explaining, you know, we the people. Okay, you know, I just don't remember it from Schoolhouse Rock. We the people that go into the former for a future.
If that was justice, what is it? Insurance domestic tranquility. So you're talking about a foundational document. So I'm building a document that will protect American democracy.
That's this week on America, actually. Welcome back to Pivot. Let's hear from a friend Scott. We have a lot of friends at FOPS.
We call them FOPS. So this week, Google fired four employees who are active labor organizers within the company. At least two of them were outspoken internally about Google's contracts with customs and border protection, Google's and a memo to employees saying the firing happened for clear and repeated violations of our data security policies. We reached out to a friend at Pivot to get some perspective here.
Meredith Whitaker who you've heard on my other podcast, recode, is the co-founder of the AI Institute, who was a Google employee for 13 years. She was an organizer of the Google walkouts about a year ago and later resigned from the company, went a lot of duress. This week Meredith tweeted that she thought the recent forefires were actually illegal. All four of these people have been involved in organizing, have been involved in this push back against unethical decision making at Google.
And Google chose the week before Thanksgiving when the news cycle dies down to terminate these people. So I think we have to read this in the context of Google continually clamping down on organizing and in the context of Google as a company that is famously open access, right, that has a value in their orientation, accessing documents, exploring prior art, understanding best practices of the company by reading up on how other teams and other projects are doing things. So this is an interesting issue about these. Google still continues to be in the midst of these struggles with employees.
And it may be true. I mean, they're going to have to prove this, obviously, in the firing that these people accessed information that they shouldn't have accessed. And of course, given the excuse, but these people are on high watch by Google would be my guess in terms of uses of anything in the company. But these are all very active users.
And do you think this has an effect that these, you know, they hired a union buster? They're obviously not on the great side of employees here. Employees are there. Are there bread and butter?
Where do you think descends? I think this falls under the auspices of our other banner of it sucks to be a grownup. I don't think private companies have an obligation to put food on your table as you organize to make them look stupid. Just as Facebook, in my view, keeps hiding behind this bullshit first amendment.
They're not the town square. They're a private company. They have the obligation and the rights to take down content. And at the same time on the other side of the coin is that I don't think Google has an obligation to get let people express their rights to organize.
I think there's some union protection around organizing for unions, which I think is valid. And obviously that's a legal question. But I think the employees at Google, for the most part, have come under the impression that they have the rights to do whatever they want. When I leave a company or a company that might get purchased, I sign all these agreements to basically say, I can't say a goddamn thing about the company.
And granted, I was giving a lot of money to sign that thing. But the folks at the good folks at Google make a shit ton of money. They get free lunch. They get that mega boss you're talking about.
And you know what? It sucks to be a grownup. If you decide to start organizing against the company and quite frequently. You're gonna put it back.
You know, Google has been famous at this for years. It's been the DNA of this company. This is open access attitude. They've actually changed the meetings now.
The talk back. If you would have been at those, this is how they raise them. And then they're surprised at behaving this way. So I don't know what you do when the DNA of your company is like this.
And you talk that talk. We are here to talk about it. And there is real pushback from these workers who don't want to be making this. You know, they've sort of involved them and now telling them, you're not so involved.
So I think there is a bigger management issue to deal with here. And maybe they want to become, I don't know, a palantier or whatever sort of a more top down organization. But these people are not gonna stop talking. And I think you're gonna see that.
Again, the soul cycles the same way. I think there's a lot of pushback from the instructors. You have a problem. Companies that are built around your part of the solution and your part of the management are gonna face this.
They're not gonna like it, but they're gonna face it. And they deserve to face it if that's the company culture they're created. I don't deserve scrutiny, more power to these people. But they decided to be martyrs.
And when you decide to be a martyr, you usually end up dead. And that's what I just don't. I hope these people go on to great careers. I hope that Google learns from this.
I hope that we learn what Google is doing. I think all these things are happening. But you embarrass your own company that's paying you $200, $300, $400, $300, $300. And you get fired, you know, spoiler alert.
No, you know, of course, to me that's like a fucking IQ test. If you are working for a private company and you are taking time to embarrass them, they're probably gonna try and figure out a way to fire you. It sucks to be a grown up. I think it's shocking for giving this particular company.
But you're gonna see it all over the place, Amazon. You're gonna see it everywhere. Now, those companies had much more top down. They never really did promise them a rose garden.
Google did promise these people. That's interesting. I never, you know that much better than me. You're claiming that internally they have actively said, say whatever you want.
They do. They have being generator. They do. They let everybody say what they, you know, let it all hang out.
And then they're like, oh, maybe not so much on that part hanging out. It was like, it's so interesting. One more interesting is how you became an old Republican man from Montana. This is really fantastic.
It's really interesting. Everything with the Republican part is right. Oh my God. It's fascinating.
You're like, these young people talking. What's going on? Where's my man, Munsel? Anyway, we're gonna take a...
That Hannity's a hoot. That Hannity's a hoot. Bag of rage. Oh my God.
I mean, it's Tuesday. It's time to big time. That's right. That's right.
Alright, so we're gonna take a quick break and we're gonna be back after this. This week on Networking Shell, I'm joined by tanks and Atra, the meme king with over 50 million followers across tank good news, influencers in the wild, and his personal account. Tank is breaking down what the meme economy really is, how much a single sponsored post pays, why major brands are throwing serious money at jokes, and how mean culture, think preparation, age, starter packs, and a perfectly timed screenshot is actually reshaping how we think about money and value. Get ready for a conversation that'll change the leaves, scroll, make your rethink what going viral is really worth, and prove that sometimes the most serious money moves are wrapped in the silliest of jokes.
Listen, wherever you get your podcasts, or watch on youtube.com slash your rich BFF. Okay, we're back, old man. Listen, we're gonna talk wins and fails and it can't be anything about your hip. Right, like we can't.
What is your win this week? What is your fear? Yeah, you and I, just finding common ground here. I think you and I have the same win.
No, we do. We do. You go with your win. My win is Sasha Baron-Con.
I do like that. I do like that. All right, tell me what. You said my win.
That was the best speech of 2019. He's such a channeling us. I feel like he's, you know what, occasionally someone comes along and they just organize everyone else's thoughts. Remember Chris Hughes did that big op-ed at New York Times and basically parried at everything.
Yes. Yours truly, and you have been saying for the last three years. My feeling is, when I first read that I'm like, well no shit. I had like, we've been saying that for three years.
But I'm like, welcome to the resistance brother. He was incredibly articulate. It was American defense league speech. And he made some good points that in the 1930s, if Facebook existed, Hitler would have started talking about his solution to the Jewish problem on Facebook.
And Facebook immediately responded and said, well, that's not true. Our policy is that if anything could potentially incite violence, we take it down. But the reality, Hitler didn't wake up and just murder 12 million people. He worked up to it.
And Facebook is letting people work up to it. And that was his point. So it's not- Let's play a little bit of that speech. That's wasn't true.
This is not about limiting anyone's free speech. This is about giving people, including some of the most reprehensible people on Earth, the biggest platform in history to reach a third of the planet. Freedom of speech is not freedom of reach. Sadly, there will always be racist, misogynist, anti-seamites and child abusers.
But I think we can all agree that we should not be giving bigots and pedophiles a free platform to amplify their views and target their victims. Okay. Also, that was great. He also wrote an op-ed expanding on the ideas for the Washington Post.
He called them the Silicon Six, the CEO's and former CEO's of Google, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter. So you like this. You like this. You do this celebrity speaking out the way they speak from the Trump.
That's not been very effective. But you haven't heard celebrities speak out like this. Yeah, this guy though. It's sort of a negative forward-looking indicator on the age we live in where the most credible reasonable voice is Borat of 2019.
He's really brilliant though. Come on. He's so brilliant. And I thought he summarized very eloquently and anything that gets more oxygen to this issue.
I mean, the latest ridiculous statement from Carolyn Everson when she claimed that nobody here wants us to be the arbiter of truth and everyone in the audience was going, yeah, actually, we would like you to have some, at least some input onto regulating false content. But I thought he was so elegant. I thought it was so powerful. Facebook probably should have ignored it.
Instead, they jumped into the fray and they just made it worse. But anyways, my winner is Sasha Baron-Con and the increasing anyone who gives oxygen to the fact that Facebook is the most dangerous organization run by a sociopath that is one of the greatest threats to democracies and just peace and prosperity worldwide. So 2020 is not going to be better for Mark Zuckerberg. And actually that's my fail this week, which was tweeted by an ex-employer of mine, Kurt Wagner, who's now working for Bloomberg, who of course has got ethical problems there.
But Mark Zuckerberg has completed his 2019 personal challenge of hosting a series of public discussions on the future of tech, which were pretty limp, I thought. But he spoke to eight men and one woman, all white, just like, who does the advanced work for this guy? Like, honestly, like that was just like, come on, really? You're not even trying to pretend you care about other people's opinions.
It was really, I didn't even, I had looked, oddly enough, I looked on the podcast I was noticing it was on Spotify. And I was like, wow, this is a funny crew of people that he talked to. And then I realized it was that. And it was sort of a surprise again.
I just, I wasn't paying attention, but then it was pointed out. I was like, oh God, really, this is all just PR bullshit. That's what I kept thinking and badly done PR bullshit. So I was pretty disappointed by that.
Because I do think he's meeting with people behind this. I've met him at three or four people he's had over for dinner, all of whom he should have over for dinner. But I think he's just much more comfortable with men than women and people are white than not white. I just don't know what's going on.
Like why, and maybe I would love him. Maybe he released a whole list of people he had dinner with, for example. I would love to see that list. That would be interesting to me.
I don't, it's not us, obviously. Neither of us have been invited for dinner unless you have it. But a lot of it, you know, hate the game, not the player that unfortunately the game is still mostly run by old white dudes. I guess I just think you could try.
Yeah, there's so many people. You could be like, look, you don't have eight white guys and one white woman. You just don't. But dinner things are more interesting.
These secret dinners he's having all over the place. These quiet little dinners. I think I would love to see that list. And you know, he doesn't have to necessarily publish it.
But I'd love to have him write something after each one. I think he's got a bigger job than other people. And he needs to be more transparent, I think. That would be my thing.
What is your fail of this week? So my fail is, it's going to sound strange, but Harvard and nonjared to Dada. So I don't know how to say his name. I thought he just had the line or one of the lines of the last year.
He was speaking at Harvard. He described Harvard as the world's largest drive-through reputational laundromat. And what I get, I constantly get a lot of resumes and something that is disqualifying for me or that disqualifies the person immediately is at the bottom when they say that they've completed some Harvard fill-in-the-blank exec ed program. And typically it's like driving up in Canary Yellow Ferrari.
It's basically saying I have a little dick because anyone who feels the need to put- They're going to cut me off from taping from Harvard right now. We'll keep going. Anyone who feels the need to put that they went to some ridiculous Joey Bagadon. It's three-day weekend exec ed thing from Harvard that their company or they were willing to pay $20,000 or $30,000 so they can put the Harvard logo on their LinkedIn profile.
That means you're radically insecure about your educational background and you're looking to look for the drive-through reputational laundromat. And I thought he just summarized it perfectly. He's a great guy. He also went out to Brett Stevens.
Plute's going to plute. Did you see that? Plute's going to plute. He's not as a one man wrecking ball.
Sometimes he's right. He's wrong but boy. Do I enjoy watching him? He's good.
He's really good. He's your fail. I talked to you. He's Mark Zuckerberg.
And like, not doing that. I think he's, you know, I think, I was going to buy you the Harvard T-shirt for Christmas. Yeah, that's just not my brand. The shirt store.
Yeah. I don't think I'm wearing that T-shirt. I see people wearing them. Not here.
It's fine. But I see people wearing them elsewhere. And I'm always like, hmm. Well, you know, I like the pictures of Defra Epstein and the Harvard sweatshirt.
That's not my favorite image of 2019. Yeah, that's true. Any predictions, Kara? Predictions.
I predict it. No, I don't know. You're the predictor. I don't have a picture right now.
I do think it's going to be interesting to see the shakeout over because it's going to be quiet time over Christmas, even though it's been a crazy news year of what shakes out in January with these political things. I do think the focus on tech will continue and at the same time not be part of the election whatsoever. I think nobody cares. Nobody cares that these people are doing all this stuff, except in the aftermath if they continue, if there's a problem.
And so as you said, the pressure is not going to really continue on these companies, as long as they keep making money. And that's really the horrible truth, is that a lot of these things are important. Teddy Schlieff had a really good piece this week on recode about this, about that nobody, she's talking a lot about tech, but her people who follow, who like her don't even care about it. I thought it was a great piece.
Although I really enjoy her speaking up about it, but I think it's not going to touch them in any way, her continuing to tax on them or anything else, even though it makes for great discussion for us and things like that. All right, you're predicting. Speaking of making bank, you know, which podcast is the 97th most popular podcast in Singapore this week? That's right.
The dog and the jungle cat are just rolling in the whatever the super high prediction of the prediction. The initial kind of the first and second innings of the streaming wars with all these different players had, I'm declaring a victor. And that victor, well the victor is a streaming war so far. Everyone came out of the gates.
Right. Anyways, Disney Plus is just killing it. There's just some data here. They're signing up nearly a million new customers each day.
Yeah. 16. Oh, yeah. Oh, my God, the Mandalorian.
I got it. I got it. You're free for buying a phone? I don't know.
I don't know. I don't know. Brian just gave me an offer and I took it. Like I didn't have I read through it.
I didn't have to like give my new baby up or anything like that. And I took it. It was a year. That's like getting a free iPhone for signing up from AT&T.
Apple still got $20. I know that. I'm just saying I didn't have to. I was worried I had to give something for.
But it was great. You're paying. You're paying one way. I'm going to Big Sky for the last week.
That's where you go. I've never been there before. I can't wait. I heard you were cold.
Next up, Frosty Cancer. Ooh, go ahead. He's on my hair. I'm sort of I think he's struggling.
I think I suspect. Yeah, he's struggling. Anyway, did you see that Jane Fonda film? You would have loved that.
It identified her life by the five men she's with. I'm not going to lie. I'm going to ledge with her the other day and I can decline because I have to do something. You turned down Jane Fonda.
I couldn't. I was I don't I can't go. Did she was speaking at the Washington Post and there was a breakfast before and I couldn't. I couldn't.
Then she was called the Open Lgings. She would have been like aerobic slavery. Yeah, I'm wearing them right now. All right, finish your prediction Scott.
We have to go. Hi with Amanda. They've made five million dollars through in-app purchases in its first 13 days. They're trying to keep out of the market.
People are trying to. Have you seen how cute that baby out is? I have never felt maternal instincts like I feel and I see babyota on the mandol fog. Anyways, I'm getting in touch with my maternal son to be a new historian.
That's it back to me in my prediction. So there's also a flywheel effect here. This is really interesting who downloads which has been cross-promoted with Disney plus close close to 55% of the past two weeks and ESPN is seeing downloads increase by more than 50% We had 26 million daily viewing sessions over the past weeks I don't know from the first or the second inning but Disney plus We always thought I predicted that the mother of all wars was coming between Netflix and Amazon Prime video It looks like the war that shaping up is between Netflix and Disney plus and I think over the next 12 months You're gonna see Disney probably grab some market capitalization from Netflix But anyways in some Q1 and this isn't really much of a prediction It you're gonna see more and more articles around saying what Disney plus did right and X Y and Z did wrong But Disney plus is out to an early What is the impact on Netflix etc etc? Well, I think Netflix so the war He's like I heard from so many people from me feel like right on brother Yeah, literally tons of people right on brother So how does impact Netflix Netflix largely wins or loses by international growth because in the US everyone already has Netflix And it's I believe that weight impacts Netflix is that there if the stock is way down a point of distribution a Google or an Apple or Disney buys Them if their stock is way up they go a choir distribution either Roku or I don't know maybe the PlayStation I don't know Sony's probably too expensive but Netflix is either Netflix at some point in the next 24 months will be vertical either to being acquired Or through an acquisition if things get if things get scary for that is really big.
That's a big prediction I like that You know I wrote a very lovely piece about Disney about how much they struggled for years and years and I did a history I'm old about how much they trouble and then this is finally the thing so I got some Well, you had you had the best line now I've started you know, this is one of the downsides of working with you So I feel an obligation to read your stuff And so if you do read your stuff, but you did have occasionally you stumble upon a pretty good line And you had a great line in there about Disney said the best way to describe it is the Empire finally strikes back Yes, that is true. Also in any case now I've got to go do some more baby things and eat some pie and therefore you'll never hear from me again anyway Scott soon We're gonna be going what twice a week are we soon tk two weeks a week we have a lot of Too much of a bad thing it starts this Tuesday double dog for the holidays Pivot podcast and emails at pivot at box me now. Come happy Thanksgiving to you guys I was happy thanks even to all our fans, please happy Thanksgiving and we appreciate I appreciate I appreciate it To just how generous and how much good will we get from our you know Quote unquote doesn't it doesn't defend it's a nice thing in my life. I know it's a nice thing in your life It is it's really nice and we across the globe.
We are a global entity me and this GOP lover over here. We're a phenomenon We're like Nutella Go have some turkey Scott. No lots of turkey have some turkey have a great Thank you and you're getting ready for twice a week We will run out of things to save each other but we're gonna try anyway We're grateful everyone who makes pivot happen to today's show is produced by Rebecca Sonones Eric Anderson as pivots executive producer Thanks also to Rebecca Castro and Drew Burrows make sure you subscribe to the show on Apple podcast If you liked our show, please recommend it to a friend Thanks for listening to this pivot podcast from Vox Media We'll be back next week for another breakdowns of all things tech and business except two times as much do X