Stephen Miller’s Promotion, Big Tech’s Reality Check, and Guest Harvey Levin

Kara and Scott are live in Los Angeles! They unpack Stephen Miller’s promotion to chief of staff, the post-election stock market roller coaster, and the ongoing backlash against data centers. Then, what L.A.’s mayoral shake-up means for the city, and a farewell to the Cybertruck. Plus, TMZ founder Harvey Levin joins to discuss the colliding worlds of politics and pop culture. This episode was recorded live at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles on November 6, 2026. Pivot Tour sponsor Beehiiv has a special offer! Get 30% off your first 3 months at beehiiv.com/pivot with code PIVOT30 Watch this episode on the ⁠⁠Pivot YouTube channel⁠⁠.Follow us on Instagram and Threads at ⁠⁠@pivotpodcastofficial⁠⁠.Follow us on Bluesky at ⁠⁠@pivotpod.bsky.social⁠⁠Follow us on TikTok at ⁠⁠@pivotpodcast⁠⁠.Send us your questions by calling us at 855-51-PIVOT, or email Pivot@voxmedia.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

2026. 11. 8.1:10:25

요약

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Recorded live at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles, Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway discuss the death of traditional media and the rise of social platforms with TMZ founder Harvey Levin. They explore Levin's decision to expand to Washington D.C., his observations on the celebrity-to-politician transition, and the future of content creation on YouTube and TikTok.

핵심 요점 1Traditional television news is reaching a legacy status as median viewer ages climb toward 70 while younger audiences lack cable.

핵심 요점 2TMZ's expansion into political coverage was driven by popular anger during the government shutdown, specifically targeting congressmen on vacation.

핵심 요점 3Modern media strategy requires being promiscuous across platforms like YouTube and Instagram to reach additive audiences rather than competing for a zero-sum pie.

핵심 요점 4The Johnny Depp and Amber Heard trial signaled a dramatic shift away from television, as the narrative was almost entirely dominated by user participation on TikTok.

핵심 요점 5Accountability for tech giants and billionaires through tax policy and antitrust is cited as more vital than populist rhetoric that doesn't fix underlying economic issues.

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Oh, you're very sweet. I'd give you a kiss, but I'm not going to. Hi, everyone. Live from the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles. This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara Swisher. And I'm Scott Galloway.

All right. Before we start, I'm going to thank our sponsors. Our title sponsor is Beehive, the platform for building an audience and a business around your point of view. We just started the Pivot Post there. We love Beehive. From newsletters and websites to podcasts and communities, Beehive brings all your content all together in one place. It's the only one of these platforms I would have been on and proud to be on. Thanks also to our official sponsors is Tanium and Odoo. All right. We're going to start off with our guests, which we did in Minnesota with with Senator Klobuchar, who's now Governor Klobuchar.

But today, she was amazing. You should listen to it. We want to do something a little more Hollywood. So our next guest made his name chasing celebrities out of restaurants. Recently, he's been showing us that politicians are just celebrities with worst publicists. So we want to talk about this because Harvey Levin is someone who really has has really evolved over the years and done all manner of interesting things. And a lot of his stuff, I have to say, his coverage the coverage in Washington is quite good and and asking a lot of important questions, which I was I'm really fascinated about where it's going.

So we'll find out. So please welcome the executive producer and founder of TMZ, Harvey Levin. So Harvey and I met each other a long time ago when I was at the Wall Street Journal. I did a profile of a very nascent little site called TMZ that I was noticing was growing very quickly and was doing some interesting things online. I was so frightened by her because she is small but fierce. And and it's sort of like Cracker Jacks. And I wasn't sure when we first interacted, I thought she was going to tear me apart.

Yes, and I didn't because I was really interested in the real great in the business because it was sort of I was looking at all kinds of new things and this was in the early Internet. But let's start now right now. Trump is the first president who was a TMZ story long before he was a political one. Did covering him as a celebrity for decades shape how the media covers him as a president? And how did how did you think of it? Cuz you wanted a DC bureau for a long time and it finally happened.

And your big your big story was Lindsey Graham at Disneyland, I think. Disney World. RIP Disney World. RIP. But he looked great with that wand. And and and TMZ viewers flooding you with photos and members of Congress on vacation during the shutdown. Talk a little bit about Trump as a celebrity moving into presidency and why you guys decided finally to go to DC. As for Trump, I've I knew him for 20 years. And I knew him in a totally different way. I mean, he was the star of The Apprentice.

He was, you know, a businessman. And I never thought of him as a politician. And he was a very different person from what you see. And How so? Because he was the most laissez-faire guy that you could imagine. I'm gay. He couldn't give a shit. Um, he would talk about other people um, and just live their lives the way they want to live their lives. Um, I saw him treat people in his building um, really well. Um, and and people who worked there loved him. And to a person, the people I know who knew him and then saw this radical change um, when he ran for office.

We were everybody was just dumbfounded. And, you know, what Bill Maher said, um, was just so smart because he's he acts the role of president. It there's it's I I think that there is an act here. And I'm not saying that I don't ascribe bad motives to what he's doing because I do. But the person that I knew before is just not this guy. And something either changed or he's putting on an amazing kind of Barnum and Bailey act. Well, I'm not so sure that's the case because a lot of it is quite toxic and angry and has it repercussions all over the world.

For sure. the world. But when you think of covering that politics has become a celebrity thing right now. So talk about going to Washington. Why did you decide finally to cover it? And your reporters do actually ask questions a lot of Washington. And the reason I didn't cover Washington and covered tech was because it was so incestuous the way the press and politics were together and they were at the same party. And your reporters really do ask pretty good questions of these people as they're moving.

Some of them are funny, some of them are tough, because some of it is interesting. Talk a little bit why you decided to go there. Well, I have a passion for politics and I wanted to do this when TMZ was part of Warner Brothers and twice I was on the eve of launching it and Warner Brothers killed it cuz they were nervous. And they thought that we'd piss off a congressman who had a regulation that Warner Brothers needed and they would the congressman would vote against it.

So they blinked at the very end. And both times they shut it down. This time, um, I was able to do it. And the reason I wanted to do it is, you know, you say incestuous and I think it is. It's also cookie cutter that when you look at reporters in DC, they are cut from the same cloth. They kind of look the same, they ask the same questions, the cadence of interviews are the same. So what I wanted to do for a long time was zag.

And I have these two guys who have worked for me for a long time. And they are you know, I mean, if you looked at them, you'd call them ragtag reporters. They dress differently, they're young, they they they speak to politicians the way they talk to each other. And they don't interview and that is to me the secret sauce. They don't do interviews with people. They have conversations with people. And there's a huge difference. They don't have five questions in mind when they talk to somebody.

They just go with the flow. And the flow can go in all sorts of places. And a lot of people can't do it. These guys I I just I love them and they are brilliant. And in two days, they won Congress over. And people wanted to talk to them. And what they found was that when we posted this, it got millions and millions of views because the politicians showed a human side. And it doesn't matter if they're Democrat or Republican. But my guys are just really good at bringing things out because they're really they're just authentic.

Is it a good thing that politics has now become entertainment? It does feel a little like the Hunger Games at this point in a lot of ways cuz it has real-life implications for people. And I get the idea. I think cable news is boring. I think it is cookie cutter. I don't think they're particularly tough. Corporate media just isn't, hasn't been. But it does it is it a problem that, you know, and now we have all these politicians who are very comfortable, especially these new Democratic ones, very comfortable online.

Is that a good thing or is there should there be some gravity because there are again, real things happening across the country with Politics and entertainment has intersected for a long time. Mhm. George Murphy was a senator from California. Ronald Reagan, gopher from The Love Boat, Fred Thompson, and, you know, and I can go on and on. And, you know, celebrities John Glenn was a celebrity and became a senator. So entertainers have been part of DC. Right. Absolutely. Sonny Bono. Sonny Bono. Sonny Bono. Um, who ended up being kind of a formidable congressman.

Yeah. And um, and so I it's not they're not strange to politics. Entertainment and politics have always kind of intersected. But I don't see it as that. I see it as pop culture. That politics to me is part of pop culture. And pop culture is, you know, has a big tent. And it's sports and it's celebrity and it's business. It can be technology, it could be anything. And so I I just think it fits in pop culture because so much of what they do really involve it well, it should involve everybody's lives.

And I just don't see it as strange and I don't think it's necessarily new. I do think that stuff you did about the congressmen on vacation had an impact. Had a was really interesting. That came out of anger. Yeah. That you know, I well, it did. I was interviewing a TSA agent during the government shutdown. And the and Congress was about to go on a two-week Easter break. And this woman was telling us that she was losing her home, her mental health was going down the drain.

She didn't know what she could do with her kids. And I just got so angry. I just said if you guys see pictures if you guys see your congressman on vacation, take a picture and we'll put it up on our platforms. And two days later, Lindsey Graham's at Disney World with a bubble wand. And and and all of a sudden, every body started sending these pictures. And it had an impact. And and honestly, um, I launched TMZ DC in a week because I realized this is the moment.

Okay, Scott. So I think of TMZ as being singular. Like I have trouble even identifying who your peer group is. So traditional media and allies paid a price for it. Traditional media, I mean, we keep getting nostalgic for a Death Cab Bounds and oh, theaters are back and and the reality is media, traditional media is really hurting. And if you were starting, if you said thought, okay, I'm a talented person, you graduated from University of Chicago Law School, decided to you taught you know, you taught for a while and then you decided to go into media.

If you were starting a media company in LA and you thought, you know, I want to carve out a distinct new property. I want to do something different, right? Take go back to you're just in LA and you want to do something singular and different. What would you start right now in the media space? What would the content be, the category? How would you approach it? Build a build a business 30 take yourself back 30 years ago and you have a mandate to start a new media company.

What would it look like? We're doing it. Um, look, I I speak at journalism schools and the idea that they're still teaching television is insane to me. Tell I mean, television, you know, you look at news on TV and the median age is somewhere between 67 and 70. And and people and people under 30 have don' have cable. Yeah. And so there are no new people coming in and you know how the story ends, right? Death. Yeah. And so well, and so television is legacy. And even websites now are legacy.

So my focus is my focus is on social and especially on YouTube. Beginning next week, we're launching a documentary a month on YouTube. And we're we're not only putting it on YouTube, but it's a YouTube style. It looks different. And the people in What does that mean? What is a YouTube stuff from your perspective? There's it it it's raw. It has it it it's raw. Um, and there's more of a connection. The people we have just have a way of connecting. There's feedback that you get.

And we can do things that you can''t do in traditional media. Um, we can take chances and go out there and we have an amazing documentary coming up next week. And we're going to do one a month. So my focus is YouTube, my focus is social. We have content creators that we're developing. I'm merging all of it as one. So the legacy stuff and the social stuff is all kind of merging. Do you stay on the do you stay on legacy? Yeah. It's sort of like writing a wave into shore.

You know, if you can ride it in as far as you can, you do it. Right. Um, I'm not going to give up our TV shows. Right. But TV's going to go away. It it's going to go away. And I think websites, you know, I mean, it's crazy to say, but websites are legacy right now. What do these big legacy media companies do? I mean, obviously the biggest one was the merger of Paramount and Warner Brothers recently. And you used to work for them. Um, it two biggest studios.

I used to. After Halloween, I did not. Um, Happy Halloween. Boo. Boo, David Ellison. Um, Uh, he's fine. I'm leaving. No. No. No. It's I've left. Thank you. Um, so you know what? I said what No, I meant I meant what I said and I said what I meant. An elephant certain 100%. Thank you. I have children. It's from Horton Here's a Who. Thank you. Um, so uh, but there's two big newsrooms. There's HBO. They've got enormous amounts of debt. And by the way, Oracle stock has declined rather precipitously, which is a problematic cuz Daddy Bank is going down.

Right. But talk a little bit about what use this as an example because here's they've making a big bet. And you've got Disney obviously, you've got Universal, and then all the small ones. What what what does a company like that do? You used to work for them, as as I said. Well, you know, it's interesting. I don't know if you guys watch Dancing with the Stars. Yes. But I what they did did something really fascinating. That show was tanking. And they decided to kind of embrace social media and bring on these social media people and required them it was part of the contract that they go on TikTok every day.

And it's become incredibly successful again. It the show is a huge hit. And what they've done is recast it using relevant platforms. And you could use still use a legacy platform. And if you can tie the legacy platform to something more relevant, it lifts the legacy. And I think that happened with I think Dancing with the Stars is a good example of it. But I think that's a model of what Yeah, I've always had this feeling and in my office, everybody thinks I'm they they hate the term.

But when we started when we started TMZ Live about 15 years ago, what I wanted to do was blend I wanted to blend digital with linear, the television with the Internet. And I was I always thought, you know, you have a screen in your living room and now you can integrate it and you can have you can you can go online and look at websites and then you can also watch television. And I'm just thinking, why do you have one remote for one and one remote for another?

And why are they separate? Because you could take the best assets from from websites, from digital, and then you can apply them to a linear experience, and it becomes so much richer with photo galleries and comments and all that. So I kept I I kept telling my my office, we're going to we're going to call this Intervision. It's going to be a combination of the internet and television. Intervision. Intervision. Okay. It never took. Yeah. Yeah. But the concept of it is still, I think, the goal that you can take all of these assets and produce better products because all of a sudden, I mean, wouldn't it be more interesting to be able to, you know, have this split screen where photo galleries appear and comments appear almost in real time and that, you know, by bl- why not blend them?

I mean, why do you have to have these two separate things? Well, it's got to be because of the because of the huge cost. They have these massive studios, these massive costs. And, you know, in my experience and doing stuff for CNN, and I kept think I kept adding up the dollars they were spending, and I did my little podcast in my studio that cost $25,000, and it was making more money you know, it was I didn't understand I didn't understand I didn't understand how they could possibly bring the costs down.

No, and look, as as as media gets more fragmented, um, and audience get gets more fragmented, um, you know, it's going to be really hard for these studios to survive. It just is. I I mean, I shouldn't tell you this, but I'm so fucking proud of this that my staff produced this thing that we're doing on YouTube next month or next week for a thousand dollars. These are these should be $300,000 productions, and we did it for a thousand dollars. And and we thought about how we were going to do it.

I'm I'm really excited about this because it's different. And so that's kind of where we're going. Where you're tapping into is podcasts and now YouTube. We got more views on YouTube than we get downloads audio listens. Basically, podcasts are the new television shows with a lower cost means of production. It's just arbitraging the means of production. Oh, so we're uglier. You said we're what? Nothing. Um, based on podcasting. Yeah. Uh, what is your view of, um, Instagram features? Are you going to go hard at that?

Do you think it's going to be disruptive or Um, disruptive how? Well, long-form content will be available on Instagram now. They're clearly going after YouTube. I see it as additive. Additive. Yeah. It's going to grow the pie. Pardon me? It's going to grow the pie. You don't think it's going to you don't think it's going to cannibalize Netflix or YouTube? You know, it's funny. Our experience has been that, you know, we can po- we we like today, I mean, we we talked to Pete Buttigieg. Yeah.

We put it everywhere. We put it on YouTube. We put it on our TV shows. We put it on the website. We put it on Instagram and TikTok and Facebook. And it it it's additive that ultimately, you know, for example, if you want to go to a sponsor a a and and get an advertisement, you don't say to them, this is I mean, you could say, well, this will, you know, buy a pre-roll just on X. But what if you go to them and say, yeah, you can get one million views a one million set of eyeballs on X, but if you get if you if you work with us on all of the other the platforms, you could get seven million sets of eyeballs.

Well, that's good for them. It's more money for us, and it's cumulative. It's not it's not a zero-sum game with these platforms. Yeah. You're talking about being media promiscuous, really, is what you're talking about. I always say that to staffers. I'm like, be as promiscuous as possible. And I you can do it in your personal life, too. I don't really care. But I have thought about this a lot. It doesn't really matter. And years ago, when I was at the Wall Street Journal, I'll never forget they were talking about doing another print version, which I I was I was the young person at the time, and they they brought you brought me into a meeting because they're like, how can we get young people to read the newspaper?

Kara, what do you think? And I said, uh, you could tape a joint to every page. And they threw me out of the meeting. They threw me out of the meeting. And my point was like, it doesn't matter if it's on salami or wherever it is, it's where people want to get it. But they couldn't think get it out of the distribution system. So just be everywhere. Be everywhere. And see what works and then abandon what doesn't. I have one more question for you. But can I just say one other thing?

Sure. One of the things I found so fascinating in the last couple of years is the Johnny Depp Amber Heard trial. That was dominated by TikTok. That forget about websites, forget about television, any other platform, forget about it. That was a TikTok trial. And people got invested in it, and it was just people would spew opinions, and it brought this thing to life in such an unbelievable way. Was it was it that different than the O.J. trial, though, which was on television? Well, yeah, because O.J.

was just TV. And O.J. was gripping, but it was television, period. Television. This, you know, the news covered it. You could watch this on NBC Nightly News. You could watch it on CNN, rest in peace. You could watch it you could watch it um, you could watch it anywhere. You could look go to websites. TikTok dominated it. And it's because of this user experience and this kind of, um, I don't know. It it it it it it was almost like a town square for people. And when I w- when I looked at that, I thought, traditional media is gone.

When I saw that trial. This is a great message for L.A. Um, all right. So, um, well, the one last question I had, Amazon just Amazon the other tech player in this, um, just announced, uh, a Melania series, which is streaming soon. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. No. Yes. Yeah. Yes. It's not a bribe at all. Um, that's even after they spent the money on the movie that shot the bed at the box office. Um, when you think about sort of you're you're basically saying death of traditional media, which has been long predicted, and it's it's been a downward slide.

That's absolutely true. Um, but two of the most powerful media owners in the country, um, seem to have been doing the president favors. Um, with the Democrats about to have subpoena power that actually sticks, uh, who should be more worried, Amazon or the Ellisons?

Hmm. Or Rupert. You can add in him, too. Although that old crocodile, no one's getting him. Well, I don't know. Do you th- do you think the sub- I don't I that doesn't seem on their bingo card right now. Is it? Yes. I would guess Ellison more than anybody just because of the alliance with Trump and the merger, and they're going to want to see What happened? What happened? But, you know, as important as that is, they got a lot of other things to look at.

Right. Yeah. I mean, they have got a lot to look at. Right. Although, um, you're going to boo me for this. I am really pissed off at uh, Congressman Robert Garcia. That it w- I'll no no, but let me tell you why. When when the first thing after the election is lawyer up, it's no, I get it. But they don't have it. I get it. And and they should, but the messaging is so important. Donald Trump lost the plot. He didn't get that people cared about they wanted their lives better.

And that should have been the first message out of the gate. This other stuff can happen, but it's like, don't fuck it up. You won. Don't fuck this up. And I feel like that was the wrong message. Yeah. Well, as a lawyer, you're sort of giving away the game, right? We're going to get you. And Yeah. And I don't think that was what you say Wednesday. Yeah. Probably to probably Monday, next Monday. That's fine. Maybe just issue the subpoenas and say get your ass to Washington this week.

I'm really sorry, by the way. No, that's all right. No, I'm sorry because you told me I should be funny and I'm not. Oh, well, you are. Okay. Last question from Scott. So you're you're a you're a self-identified political junkie. You you know a lot of these people. You're kind of at the helm of the bobsled in terms of seeing what's going on. I don' know your politics. Well, actually, I think I do a little bit. They change all the time. Um, but did you see this coming on Tuesday?

And what surprised you? I didn't know it would be this big, but I knew it would be big. But Donald Trump, when he came out Wednesday, and he decided to go to the ballroom and talk about the ballroom, and all he did was just rhapsodize about how beautiful this thing is. It I I swear to God, it rem- what I was thinking was, this is like when your grandfather has a bad day, and you take him out to the garden so he can kind of enjoy his hobby and forget about what happened.

And it felt like that to me. It really felt that way to me. Right. Yeah. When I watched that. He doesn't get it. And with Stephen Miller, he's he's just going to See, my problem is, I'm afraid that he's going to double down now and just defy everything. He can't be prosecuted. Supreme Court said that. So, he doesn't go down without a fight. And now Stephen Miller is pulling the strings. So, I think we're in for trouble. Trouble. Well, we'll leave it there. I think we're in for trouble.

All right. To leave it on a happy note, are you going to miss Lauren Boebert? Well, you know, it's there are there's always another movie at a theater, right? Yes. All right. On that note, Harvey Levin.

Um, we're going to go on a quick break, and when we get back, we'll talk national and local politics.

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Scott, we're back live from L.A. But before we get to local news, Trump is taking a break from ruining the White House decor to shake up his inner circle. Susie Wiles is out as chief of staff, moving over to his political operation, allegedly. She's out. Replacing her is, uh, someone someone said evil life-size thumb, Stephen Miller. That's accurate. Here are some of my favorite Stephen Miller jokes today. The internet never fails to deliver. Um, Stephen Miller hasn't even heard about his appointment yet because he needs to wait for the sun to go down.

S- Stephen Miller can't see himself in the reflecting pool. And that's not just because of the algae. Naming Stephen Miller chief of staff is like looking at a five-alarm fire fire and deciding the problem is a shortage of gasoline. Message from the American people received by Trump. His response, let's go with Little Himmler. That's from Anthony Scaramucci. So it's not mine. What does a Miller run White House look like for the next two years? I want to talk about that. What is it going to be?

If he's if he's there for two years. And the other one is Stephen Miller couldn't even win a primary with his family. Um, which is actually true. His family really dislikes him. Um, talk a little bit about this. This was quite I I I was it's interesting because, uh, in the podcast I do with Hillary Clinton, she goes, Kara, he's going to be more deranged. Because he seemed a little docile looking at the ballroom on the first day. Um, and I said that to her, and she goes, don't kid yourself.

This is this is going the wrong direction. And she talked about a concept about when you lose, you keep losing. You keep moving into that direction. And it becomes almost, you know, self-har- self-harming yourself to do so. Look, I I think Susie Wiles, arguably, given what she was working with, is one of the most talented politico operatives. She won, she likely orchestrated the greatest political comeback in history. And for him to bounce her, you get rid of the person, one of the few people who seems to have had any luck managing him, to someone who's enabling him or making him crazier.

I d- I remember taking my dad's driver's license away, and it was a very emotional time for him. And I said, I'm like, like, you're going to kill somebody. And the next morning, I'm like, what do you want to do? And he said, I want to go go karting. I'm like, no, you didn't get no, we can't go to a place where children where you can run them over. So, y- yeah, I don't I it to me this is you have a a five-car alarm. So what do you do?

You send in someone drenched in gasoline. I just don't get the thinking around sending in someone who embodies the very things that the nation gagged on. It just it really doesn't make any sense to me. I don't I don't get it. What happens here because one of the rumors that Susie Wiles is trying to force out Pete Hegseth, and by the way, there's going to be impeachment there's going to there's going to and he's going to be impeached. Um, from the senators in both Republican and Democrat senators I've been talking to, they're going to impeach Pete Hegseth.

That's what I'm hearing. That's right. Um, and very soon. Next week, Thomas Massie has put in these impeachment things. But the first thing Pete Hegseth did was say patriots or whatever that the the so it looks like the circle is getting rather small and disturbing. It's Natalie, Stephen, and Pete Hegseth. And Mario is Mario is wander- wandering around. Mar- Marco Marco, not Mario. Marco Rubio. Doesn't really matter. He's just I I think it's going to be very interesting to see if, um, Secretary Rubio decides to resign because I mean, he He said he isn't.

Okay, every morning since he could walk, he's looked in the mirror and said, hello, Mr. President. That is that is what he wants. And right now, you know, Trump has always been a bit of Chernobyl. Anyone who gets too close to him doesn't survive. And he's now Chernobyl with a reactor as Malone. And I don't think I think Rubio is really trying to do calculus. Like can he come up with a reason to to distance himself? Because all of a sudden it looks like the top GOP nominee or the one who has the most likely prospects.

It used to be Vance, Rubio, or Rubio, Vance. But all of a sudden it looks like it's DeSantis or someone else because everyone says these guys are near you know these guys are ground zero. for the Ebola virus right now. So I don't I I I just can't figure out what the what the thinking is here. And also I mean I hate to be I'm I gave myself 72 hours of joy and I've immediately gone back to the real me which is angry and depressed and catastrophizing.

Um I think Stephen Miller is a dangerous person. Yeah. And And I agree. The if you think about what has really damaged our nation, it's not having a megalomaniac who's corrupt and not and incompetent. It's been a lack of guardrails. And these it's the boring shit that gets you. Barry Goldwater said this 50 years ago that we were seeding too much power, legislative power, and actual laws to norms. There were just a series of norms that the president would never do that. And then he came in and said, sure I can do it.

I don't need to check with Congress. I can bomb a country. I can fire people. I can cut veterans benefits. I can cut off aid to single mothers. I can cut food stamps. I can send 23 years old 23 year olds into the Department of Veteran Affairs and just start canceling contracts if the keyword trans comes up in a contract, you cancel it. And everyone said, you can't do that. And we found out he can. And so the idea that we now have somebody who appears even less shameless and more I mean we all knew that guy in junior high school, right?

The guy who became hall monitor and used it to terrorize people. It it I think he's I I would argue You know he's from here. He's from Santa Monica. He went to Santa Monica. He went to Samo high school? Yeah, someone in the audience friend of mine said Your fault. Your fault, yeah. Yeah, I don't I think I I said It's a bad joke but someone said there's there wasn't clearly enough bullying at Santa Monica high school. Um In this case I'll allow it. Um but but one of the things that's interesting, well I don't quite know why he did I I was fascinated because I did text Hillary I was like you were absolutely right.

And she goes it's going to get worse because it's this it's this circle of losing that you keep losing even more. Like you it's she had a very technical smart lady term for it. The only thing is I think he's bored with geopolitics and domestic policy. The analogy I use is remember in the '80s and '90s they had those TV shows where they said it was like it was capitalism on steroids. It was literally the worst of us and it was so entertaining where they said to some middle class dude or lady, here's a shopping cart, here's a store, it's been emptied out, you got two minutes to grab as much shit as you can.

Yeah. And you'd watch this person throwing in stuff and then figuring out we clothes are not high value to weight. I need to go to the jewelry department. I think Donald Trump for the next 23 months and three weeks is is in a snatch and grab. I think he's going to be totally focused on trying to steal as much money from the American public in terms of our reputation and our assets as possible. And I'm hopeful that he just ignores domestic policy, ignores geopolitics. That's my hope is he's just totally focused on where is the jewelry section?

Except you have someone like Stephen Miller. To me I think it's a little more disturbing we're going to move on in just a second is he's an 80 year old man in clear cognitive decline and you have this one person with access to him who's aided by another aid Natalie. It's the the two of them are as tight as ticks and and an emphasis on ticks. Um but they are tight as can be and they're controlling all information to the person who has the nuclear codes.

So I find it more disturbing because he is not there's nobody there's nobody in that White House now who is not there's not a press secretary, there's not there's not a person except for Marco Rubio who has his own But but the good news is as of Tuesday there now is an actual legislative branch that has subpoena power, has oversight power. Well, that's a good thing. And and this you know the new the new heads of the Senate Intelligence Committee, the Oversight Committees are adults and will not and are very prone to disagreeing and marching up there and saying, no you can't do this.

Well, one hopes the some of the Republicans will be doing that because it doesn't work. That's Oh you. Oh, I know that but that's what happened during Watergate. I'm going to move on to local news. We we are not as intelligent about Los Angeles like but but you just have a new mayor, progressive Nithya Raman. Uh first Mom Dani now Raman. It talk about I I confess I don't I I local politics here I don't know as well I know my where I live DC. I do I know San Francisco well with Danielle Lurie.

Very different kind of mayor. There's all these very interesting mayors across the country. Um but talk a little bit about this idea of these sort of progressive mayors in these big cities in these various now she hasn't done anything yet because she's not mayor so we can't judge her on anything as being a mayor. But there are worries and there was a real fight there. There was a real fight between them. Um so talk a little bit about where you think stuff like this is what's important.

Because the Olympics are coming here. Yeah, like I don't I don't think Nithya Raman won. I think Karen Bass lost. I think it's similar to like I don't and I think the false signal that the media loves is that this is some sort of referendum on socialism. No, it's not. Bass didn't lose to a socialist. She didn't lose to Nithya Raman. She lost to the Palisades fire. And and also there'll be a lot of media about how the two biggest cities are now run by a socialist.

Folks, LA mayor is basically fucked less than neutered. This is the LA mayor oversees 17 billion, New York oversees 112 billion. It's the county supervisors that have all the power. And this wasn't about socialism versus whatever the politics were. This was about renters versus owners. This was about a 45 year old versus a 72 year old. No 80 year old should run the country. No 72 year old should be overseeing cops that have to retire at 55. Enough already. This was this was whatever you think like like I and I I I don't know if that's an audience there.

I think socialism has never worked on this planet the true definition of it. So I'm not a fan of her politics. What I think people mistake socialism for in terms of the momentum it has right now is capitalism with more empathy and a redistribution of social programs to the middle class. And practicing the type of socialism at least economically. And by the way with Mom Dani my attitude is let him cook. If he wants to plant trees, if he wants to be a great role model for young people, if he wants to you know make the city feel good, have at it.

I don't I don't care what he thinks about public policy quite frankly. But to believe that this is some sort of signal about America embracing socialism, no. This was about renters versus old owners, young versus old, and quite frankly I mean this was this was Democrats didn't win this election, folks. Trump lost it. This wasn't a blue wave. This was a red riptide. And we are right now renting the people who awarded this election specifically and I'm switching gears but the the three groups that went hardest hardest every group huge wave, right?

Uh white women under 45 pivot red to blue, right? The three groups that pivoted hardest I mean massive pivot the kind of pivots we haven't seen in 50 years were three groups. Uh Hispanics 28 points, young people 18 to 29 30 points, young men 38 point swing. That's just striking. But here's the news. These are swingers. These these guys And not in the good way. But go ahead. These these are the swingest swing voters in history. They're not Democrats or Republicans. Their vote is up for grabs.

And the thing that scares me and Harvey alluded to this is the following. I think we need accountability, absolutely. I'm looking forward to seeing the Whitkoff kids in front of some committee in in Congress explaining what they had to give up or what dad promised such that they could get a billion dollars into their crypto fund based out of Luxem. I will be up watching C-SPAN really into it. For every ounce of quote unquote it shouldn't be retribution, it should be accountability. For every ounce of subpoenas and accountability, there needs to be a pound of economic policy plan because those people Yep.

We need to transition if the Democrats don't move from being the party of indignation to ideas, those swingers are going to take another key home and another spouse home in two years. Right. So yeah, for the wonks like us and if you're here you're politically motivated, have at it. Call people in front of Congress, make people make people explain themselves. But for God's sakes, what's your plan for universal healthcare average $25 an hour minimum wage, housing credits, vocational programs, get rid of the cap on Social Security.

If we don't we think these people are animated by social issues. No, they're not. They want a job, they want a house, they want a spouse. That's what we need to be focused on. So in that regard, California's new governor-elect Becerra says his biggest priority is cost of living. Beyond that, he isn't committing to much. He says everything's on the table on taxes, energy, and healthcare. He's already backing off a campaign promise to reverse medical cuts for undocumented immigrants. Um but I mean I think that is what a lot of them are saying.

Even someone like El Saied the thing that attracted my son to vote for him was Medicare for all. Like it was not anything else. It was not any of the other stuff. It was it was Medicare for all. It was housing and and things like that. So I do think they are talking like that. You saw Talarico right after doing thousands of interviews and they were all none of them were about revenge. They were all about delivering. I mean I think the messaging is the correct messaging.

But one of the one of the issues is one one would assume that might have been cooperative, right? And that he would want and one one Democrat was joking let's just put his name on the Trump you know the Trump $25 minimum wage bill, the Trump SNAP returns bill, the Trump transfer everyone bill. So transfer anyone who wants it bill. And he would be cooperative but with Stephen Miller there it does change the equation. This guy is you know the original besides being looking like Nosferatu he's the original not wanting to cooperate.

His aggression is scary and also freaky when you see like there's a every time he goes against Jake Tapper I'm I'm just like nervous because Jake Tapper's like what the fuck. And he's just he keeps going. It's like he does not want to cooperate and I don't think there's a a second Stephen Miller behind the scenes. Yeah, but I I think I don't want to say it's it's a no lose situation but let Trump veto $25 an hour federal minimum wage. Let him veto a commitment to Ukraine to refund the war in Ukraine.

Majority of Americans I don't believe understand we have totally abandoned Ukraine. So very quickly Becerra opposed the billionaire wealth tax which didn't pass. Um did you think that was can he fix affordability without going after Silicon Valley money? The billionaire tax that was populism gone gone wild. I live in London and this is one of the problems with the progressive side of the Democratic Party which I'm a proud member and that is we would rather tickle the sense of upper middle class white liberals than actually figure out a way to have pragmatic growth such that we can fund social programs for for low income residents.

We'd rather say stick it to the billionaires than actually and then watch them leave London and go to Milan and Dubai. The treasury we passed something called non-dom in the UK. It emotionally and philosophically makes all the sense in the world. And billionaires left and this year they're going to collect less in the treasury. So a and by the way billionaire taxes or wealth taxes I get the logic they don't work. 13 of 16 countries in Europe that have passed them have repealed. So alternative minimum tax, absolutely.

But we have to be honest. You're paying 13 and a half percent if you're an upper income earner here in in California. It's got to be worth it. And this isn't popular but is the question do you have to raise more revenue or cut programs? The answer is yes. And for all the populist rhetoric about how to spend money somebody has to be I personally think we were talking to Senator and now governor-elect Klobuchar in in Minnesota and I said to her backstage, if I were you I'd become the Saudi Arabia of the digital age and welcome all data centers.

It's cold as hell up there. They have power and they have massive land. They don' need to put these things near cities. If we want to pay for our navy and our food stamps and child tax credit, you have to have economic growth. The best message Democrats could do right now is say, we're open for business and sensible regulation and accountability build great businesses. We can walk and chew gum at the same time. They wanted to unplug they unplugged San Onofre. And what happened? The next year we spent $350 million dollars more on power generation and put millions of of tons of carbon into the air but the activists celebrated and they were going to unplug Diablo which is 14% of electric power.

Great. Feel I I hope blue people and activists are really excited as their electricity bills in California are now 60% higher than What you are what you are talking about is the way this was rolled out. The data centers as you and I have talked about for a long time which was completely predictable is the way they were rolled out. It was NDAs was Elon Musk rolling over citizens and doing whatever or Kevin O'Leary that moron in Utah accusing accusing people of being Chinese communist officials.

Instead of doing things with the communities it created an anger which was expressed in this election. And it's not so much that I think you know what one of the things like when I was talking to people from Virginia there are hundreds of data centers in Virginia. It's just the way this was done out with it has to be one closed loop water systems. Yep. Two, no NDAs. Three, guaranteed property taxes. Four, no every rate increase will be paid for everything. And so I think that's where the discussion begins begins and how it should be done.

But it certainly shouldn't be decided on by the seven AI companies who managed to get to the White House for lunch every Tuesday. And that's that is the issue. And I think you're right Democrats have to look like not pro business but like look billionaires maybe we'll not do this billionaire tax but alternative minimum tax you're going to start paying up your fair share of taxes. Corporate people you're going to start paying up your fair share of taxes. There needs to be thought if you were to describe the economy into three buckets, it's owners, shareholders, it's earners, the workers, and it's consumers.

Pretty much every piece of legislation the last 40 years from Democrats and Republicans has done one thing. It's transferred power and prosperity from the from the earners and the consumers to the owners. Full stop. As a percentage of GDP corporate profits have never been higher. As a percentage of GDP wages have never been lower. It's pretty basic. Why on earth I mean there's just some obvious solutions here. An analyst who works for me and makes $180 grand pays $9,000 a year in Social Security tax. I make a lot more than that.

I pay 9%. Let's flip it. You pay zero until you get to 180 and then you start paying 6%. We need to reverse the flow of capital and opportunity from from the from the earners and consumers to the owners through antitrust. I mean it's the boring shit that moves the needle here. It's tax policy. There's a $750 billion tax gap. I'm going to have to stop you soon but keep going. Fund the IRS for God's sakes. Well, that's the $750 billion. There's 2. The biggest expense in America is not the Navy or it's not the military, it's not interest on our debt.

It's the $2.2 trillion dollars in loopholes we give to corporations and rich people. Yes. There's just some basic fixes. Bernie Sanders stop. Um okay, we're going to get to that. So we need to take a quick break and we come back how big tech and the markets are responding to the blue wave.

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Hey y'all, it's Astead from America Actually at vox.com. We know that you have big questions about the world, and so do we. At Vox, we focus on covering the things that matter in your life and the things that make you curious. Whether that's the big politics questions of the day, climate solutions that might actually work, or hopeful news in cancer or Alzheimer's research. We believe that journalism made for the everyday curious person can make a difference in making a better world. And if that sounds like something you want to be a part of, Vox now has a brand new app, and it brings all of our journalism together in one place.

Go to vox.com/app to download today. Scott, we're back live from LA. Uh Democrats aren't wasting any time lining up investigations of Big Tech. Possible probes includes Trump's use of Musk's Grok to plan the Maduro operation, Apple hosting tracking apps used by ICE, Meta requiring local governments to sign NDAs on data centers. Uh everything Doje did, speaking of the IRS, and where the data went. That's another one. Um there the different meetings, everything, all these things. In anticipation of subpoenas, Washington law firms are meeting with executives and several are pitching to become Musk's personal counsel.

Um talk about this because after as of the statement, the markets are taking a breath after Thursday's brutal sell-off of tech, which wiped out about 2.5 trillion dollars. Chip stocks led the recovery with a strong jobs report helped. Anthropic's IPO is now a big test. Major investors are skeptical can hit its 1.5 trillion dollar valuation, and Cal-State odds on an IPO announcement for December fell from about 85% to 57% this week. Um I talk about these two things because they're clearly, you know, from those CEOs, those tech CEOs standing in the front of the inauguration, which was to me one of the most reprehensible pictures I've ever seen, because they were in front of elected officials and the cabinet, even though the cabinet is I didn't mind them blocking those people, but that's fine.

They shouldn't have they should have been in the front row because they were elected. Um and so um what what is going to happen here with these uh with obviously there's been a big memes about, you know, Mark Zuckerberg is now going to be, you know, uh drinking kefir and um wearing earrings and calling themselves they them. Um what what is actually going to happen here with these companies? They're going to be much friendlier to Democrats, of course. I myself have gotten a lot of calls from them recently, um and before they didn't call me.

I'll be going to a lovely Facebook party on Tuesday in DC, for example. I'm going because I make them super uncomfortable. Um but what happens now, especially with the markets not knowing what to do? And the only other thing I would say is someone asked me this morning on a radio show, they're like, "Well, the markets are really now the this AI bubble is getting and it's the voters that did it." I said, "No, it's these ridiculous Ponzi scheme fundings that did it, and Wall Street realizes the time has come to stop them."

So talk a little bit about this with all these the different interacting stock market, the numbers, the IPOs, and these subpoenas that are going out. Okay. All right. Is that enough? It's all interrelated. I believe the biggest myth uh since 1945, and the GOP has done an amazing job since Reagan of branding themselves as pro-growth and pro-business. They're pro now it's largely people have figured out it's pro-billionaire not pro-business because if you look at economic growth, if you were to average the economic growth and job growth of democratic administrations versus Republicans, Democrats have democratic administrations have actually kicked the shit out of Republicans on job growth, stock market, GDP growth.

So we've done a bad job of branding. The thing that spooked the market, I think, one, I think a lot of it is just they were just looking for an excuse to let some air out of the bubble here, and that might be a good thing rather than a crash, if you will. But the thing that spooked the markets is that 41 of 42 measures on the ballot that were anti- data center, 41 of 42 passed. And so the compute companies are the pure played the pure play leveraged AI companies, whether it's Anthropic, whether it's Open AI, whether it's Coreweave, the compute companies that are totally focused on AI and then leveraged up with a lot of debt, that got scary or that has gotten this election looks scary for them because if they all of a sudden run up against populist rhetoric that basically shuts down their business, the companies that have not done

that poorly are, I mean, quite frankly, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, you know, the big guys that have diversified, to a certain extent, and this is the sad thing about regulation, is regulation, while it feels good, tends to be a moat for the incumbents. Yeah, that's what people think. If you look at, I mean, basically Bezos and Zuckerberg and Nadella and and Sundar are all saying, "Yeah, shut down all new data centers. I've already got my compute." Yeah. Yeah. And it's the new guys that need incremental compute that are really screwed if this regula so unfortunately regulation ends up, quite frankly, buttressing the advantage of the current incumbents.

And you can see in the performance the last few days, there's a bifurcation where wind has come out some oxygen has come out of the market on the whole. The guys that's really hurt is the new guys who are very leveraged and a pure play on AI. Because Amazon's a diversified business, and then the best-performing stock of all the MAG 7 year-to-date in 2026 is the player that decided to sit out of the AI arms race. Apple. Yeah. So I think the market has just responded it's it's hard to get a signal on two or three data points, and I think it's still trying to figure it out.

But I would say again to democratic to my progressive brothers brothers and sisters, be careful what you wish for, because think about that hyperscalers. They're planning to spend it one of the things I hate I've been on a bunch of public boards. I say that because I'm desperate for your affirmation. I want to sound more important than I am. But I hate I hate stock buybacks. I'm like, "No, no, no, no. We're we're not out of ideas. Let's grow. Let's hy and by the way, the public should hate stock buybacks.

I think stock buybacks should be taxed because you want companies being promiscuous, hiring more people, taking risks, buying property, plant, property, equipment, people, right? We had massive stock buybacks the last 20 years. And now these guys are convinced that AI is the future, and they're spending a trillion dollars on capex. By the way, that's great for the economy. And if they're taking the risk with their companies and their balance sheets to pump a trillion dollars into the economy, we want some of that juice. Every state I think what they're worried about is that it it that the revenues don't appear, right?

That you know, that it becomes a version of what happened to the first internet crash except in a quantum level. And I that let me let me read something actually. What I what I do think is happening is the is this popular popular and voter-fueled anger towards tech and what it does to society. And this includes social media. And let me read something Ed Elson posted on threads, uh which I thought was great. Uh you've trained him well and he's now much smarter than you. Um of the more than 40 data center proposals on US ballots this week, only one passed.

Americans resoundingly rejected them. This is partly why AI stocks are tanking. We can debate whether data centers are good or bad for the local community. There are genuine pros and cons, but that might be besides the point. The truth is that this is the first time regular Americans ever wielded leverage over Silicon Valley. For decades, they've been powerless, powerless to monopolization, regulatory capture, and unprecedented societal control. Now Silicon Valley needs the American people's permission for something, not just something but the very thing they bet the farm on, and the American people's answer is a simple no.

This is a dramatic shift in power dynamic Silicon Valley never experienced before. It'll be fascinating to see how it plays out. Um which I think was great. I think that's pretty much says it. So uh speaking of that, um I do think I'm sorry, can I just I I I I know you're going to get angry at this. You know who's been amazing at saying no and making everyone feel awesome? What? Europe. Yeah. And by the way, Anthropic founded six years ago in America would be already one of the three most valuable companies in Europe.

And here's the thing. We have a tendency to look at everything through a shareholder lens. The railroads benefited all of the US and humanity, and a bunch of companies went bankrupt going at it. Have at it. A bunch of companies went bankrupt and shit and there was a crash in the market with the internet, and we've all done better. No companies made a lot of money really in vaccines. No companies made a lot of money producing jet manufac uh commercial jet manufacturers. I believe the big winner of AI is all of us because I do believe the majority of those companies are going to go out of business, and along the way we're going to have a big market correction.

I'm going to get a lot less wealthy, and you're going to figure out ways to have a better life with AI. That's okay. Not as long as it's not decided on by seven of the same men in a room with Trump. I'm sorry. No, I I know you love this idea of the good idea. Good governance. Absolutely, have at it. They don't want good governance. And the Gilded Age was followed by the Progressive Era. It this is where we're headed. I think Ed is 100% right.

I'm going to disagree with you and just move along because I'm running this show. That's why people tune That's why people tune into the Let me just say That's why people tune into the show. By the way, 93% of GDP growth has been capex from the hyperscalers. I'm not suggesting there shouldn't be thoughtful regulation and you shouldn't make sure that you're these are good for the communities, but folks, be careful what you wish for. All right. At the same time, the creators are saying 10 it could have a 10% chance of killing all of us.

We should have some guardrails. Um but the person who's going to get the most attention here, and this is our last item, Elon's had a bad week that's getting worse. Um uh Texas uh Governor uh Gina Inohosa says Musk can work with the state, but on our terms. She's asking Texas to hold off on a possible sale of a state park to SpaceX. Meanwhile, and I know listen, I've seen quite a few of them here in Los Angeles, but the Cybertruck is done. Uh Musk said says uh Tesla will wind down production in Texas around the middle of next year to make room for its cybercab robo-taxi, the robo-van.

Robo-van. As if. Sales have been falling almost since launch. It's it's uh it's less successful than the Edsel, um which is true. It sold a lot less. Some of them Elon bought a bunch of them, too. So we don's know the real sales. To top it off, the White House said SpaceX donated the Starlink service, but records showed the Pentagon paid SpaceX nearly $1.2 million for Starlink work at the White House since last year. Incoming democratic investors will want to know why. Um there's a great story in the New York Times about the beginning of the end of Musk's political power.

He spent, of course, $500 million on the midterms and got back um nothing. Nothing. Um but but I don't know if you know this, he's very wealthy and the amount of money he spent. If you were a millionaire, it's about $400. Uh so he has plenty where that came from. And does he just and he's lost he's lost $80, 90 billion dollars in value right now, so have a lot of the tech moguls, but does he just buy his way back in by 2028 or not?

But your point's the right one. Like the I think I one of the first bills that should be proposed is campaign finance reform. Like you have you know, we we like to hate the politicians, but hate the game. the person that typically until recently raises the most money wins. What's very interesting and heartening about all of this is that someone can spend almost half a billion dollars and the ROI just seemed to plummet. A candidate the candidate is bigger than than the capital. I like I now I've gone, speaking of Europe, um I think a lot about the relationship between money and happiness.

And the reality is there is a relationship. Upper-income people are happier, the middle-income who are happier than lower-income. That's the bad news. The good news is that it tops out. Once you get to a point, if you live in Los Angeles, where you have a home, can take nice vacations, enjoy absorb an economic shock, send your kids to good kids to good schools, have good healthcare, you get no incremental happiness for anything above that. In LA, that's probably about a million or 2 million bucks a year, by the way, but where I am now is that in a capitalist society where they've just become so obsessed with the idolatry of the dollar and innovators that power so much power can cede to unelected private individuals that the adage of power corrupts and absolute power absolutely corrupts is more true than ever.

And I now believe that really progressive taxation is our Kevlar against billionaires who are turning off and on warfare technology as Europe's been invaded. So it we need first bill out of the gates campaign re finance reform. And I'm now of the mind I and I'm I'm going to sound like a socialist here, and I'm not. America was capitalist in the '80s and in the '70s, and the top tax rate was 80%. And by the way, if you get into that top tax bracket of 80%, you're not any less happy because you're making so much bank that your happiness is already peaked.

So we have become out of control in terms of one man, a private citizen's ability to control the government and make decisions that only elected officials should be allowed to make. Yep, I agree. And he's become a cart he's become a a cartoon villain, and he he really is. been become that way. And it does it it it doesn't really matter if it's Elon or any of them. I always say someone's like, "Oh, you don't like Elon." And that's not actually the case. I don't think if I liked him, I wouldn't want him to have that much power.

Like No individual should have that much power. And and he is not elected. He's unaccountable. And he should work on his not the Cybertruck, obviously, because that was a shitty product. Um but he should work on those kind of things and not have this it it would be a really good thing for him and for the rest of us for him to go away for a while. Get off Twitter and stop talking. Um are you going to buy a Cybertruck now that they're not going to make them for like an investment?

As true story, I had um I had a Tesla. Great car. You started shitposting me on Twitter, so I sold it not before taking a giant dump in the passenger seat. True story. Not good for resale value.

As US Americans voted in the midterm elections, a lot was uncertain, but one thing was clear. This year, many of the attention-grabbing candidates identified or were identified as populists. Gina Inohosa, a Democrat who ran a surprisingly competitive race for governor in Texas, populism is about economic power. Sam Forsteg, who ran for Congress as a Dem in Montana, I'm running as a populist because populism is what the the Democratic Party is supposed to be about. It's what democracy is supposed to be about. Josh Turk, a Democrat up for a congressional seat in Ohio, we want to once again have a common-sense pro-populist that is fighting for the people.

And Senate hopeful Dan Osborne, who ran as an independent in Nebraska and didn't use the word populist, but My life sucks too. Costs are too high. The last 10 years in the US have been defined by Trump-style populism. This year, candidates from across the political spectrum embraced the populist mantle. On Today, Explained from Vox, what has 10 years of populism gotten us, and are we ever going back? Today, Explained drops every weekday. Hi, it's Phoebe Judge, host of Criminal. I'm going on tour. If you like hearing me tell stories about people, well, I've decided to tell stories about my life and the people I love.

A letter was left carelessly around. So I've sort of got red-handed. It's a show about secrets and forgiveness. I hope you'll come see it. Find all our tour dates and get tickets at at this thisiscriminal.com. is criminal.com/live. Support for this show comes from Beehive. Whether it's writing, podcasting, or starting a business, sometimes the best way to learn how to do something is to just start doing it. Beehive is a publishing platform that helps you find your audience and your voice. It also helps you manage your website, track subscriber growth, dig down into your analytics, and build a community.

And when you're ready to get revenue flowing, Beehive lets you offer paid subscriptions connect with advertisers through the ad network, manage direct sponsorships, or sell digital products. You don't need a huge audience or a fully formed media company to begin. Start with your expertise, curiosity, or a subject you think deserves better coverage. Beehive gives you both a place to publish and tools to find your next readers. All you need to bring is your unique perspective. I'm excited because I am about to start a Pivot Post Beehive newsletter with Scott Galloway for Pivot.

I really like the platform for a lot of reasons, especially because it's so focuses in on the creator more than anything else, and I really appreciate that about them. I'm very excited to start up Pivot Post on Beehive, and it's the only place I would do it. Visit beehive.com/pivot, that's b-e-e-h-i-v-e.com/pivot, and start building your newsletter today.

Kara on all these tours does surprises for me. And the last one she brought my fourth grade girlfriend. And Debbie Brubaker, who it ends up went on to be high school valedictorian and then married a woman, insert joke here. Um but uh let's put a picture up. Kara travels and works harder than any person I know. This is Kara's luggage. And I would describe this not as luggage, but a cry for help. And and I'm very into appearances. I want to be more impressive to people.

I want to be more interesting to men and more attractive to women, and the the brand that does this in luggage, they're not a sponsor by the way, is Rimowa. So I went to Rimowa today, and she and I have entirely different tastes, so I bought a piece of Rimowa luggage that I would never buy.

That's my surprise. She she brings my girlfriends who are married to women, I bring her luggage. What the fuck? This is awesome. Look at this bad boy. Oh some it looks like a car. Thank you. I exposed myself and you jab, you jab. Can't we send someone to college for this amount? I got a gift receipt. You can go get some bad things. Okay. In any case, thank you. Thank you so so much. I love my piece of luggage. Yeah, you seem thrilled. I make an effort.

Someone's investing in this relationship. I'm taking the kids I'll be at my sister's. Go ahead. The thank you. It's a lot. It's big. Great guys. I mean, come on. That's a big fucking suitcase. We put a ribbon on it. Oh, you're very sweet. I give you a kiss, but I'm not going to. Anyway, on that note, you can catch selected shows on the tour on your YouTube and your podcast feeds. One more thank you to our title sponsor Beehive. If you've got something to say, Beehive gives you the tools to publish it and grow your audience and get paid.

Uh Scott, I'm going to get inside this suitcase in a second. Um I really appreciate it. Thank you. You're very welcome. I yeah Thank you, Kara. You invest in our relationship, and I really appreciate it. Scott is a wonderful partner, even though we often disagree about things, but he's incredibly generous and and and is and is a work in progress, which is all we should hope to be. Uh can you read us out? Today's show was produced by Lauren Haniman, Joey Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie and Ted Andrew en this episode.

Thanks also to Nishat K Fox executive producer of podcasts. Be sure to tune in next week for all things tech and business. Thank you so much. Thank you, Los Angeles. Thank you, California. Thank you, America.

Support for this show comes from Beehive. If you've ever thought about putting your work out into the world, but weren't sure where to begin, Beehive can help. Beehive helps you build your audience and your business while giving you more time to actually create your content. The recommendation network helps new people discover you, while monetization tools like paid subscriptions, digital products, and a built-in ad network let's you experiment with different business models and find what works best for you and your audience. Because creating your content is hard enough, let Beehive help you with everything else.

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