Elizabeth Holmes
Related people
Episodes
Notes
Pivot with Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway · Anthropic's IPO Filing, Elon's Talarico Obsession, and Elizabeth…
-
How Much Did the Elizabeth Holmes Documentary Make?
Kara Swisher says You Can See Everything, the Elizabeth Holmes film directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, made $45 million in two weeks. It was the second-highest-grossing movie that weekend, just behind Clayface, and the biggest opening for a non-musical documentary since Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 in 2004.
She liked parts of it and not others. Nathan Fielder, she says, is full of trickery and may be pretending to be on the subjects' side. Amanda Seyfried is the best thing in the movie and deserves an Oscar. Elizabeth Holmes, in Kara Swisher's view, is the pattern of tech people she has covered: denying accountability, lying, and acting like the victim. She thinks Holmes bel
-
Who Should Control Starlink in a War?
Scott Galloway says one person who was not elected should not be able to throttle Starlink or Starshield in a war. His comparison is Charles Lindbergh buying McDonnell Douglas and then cutting the guidance on planes sent to defend an ally, with London left exposed. He says that is the shape of Elon Musk slowing Starlink so Ukraine could not launch defensive drones, the ally weakened, and civilians dead.
If that is what happened, he says he would call Musk a traitor to the West, and that the government is at fault for leaving the switch with a private citizen. He thinks the admission landed this week because lawyers expect a hearing in Congress, where lying again would be worse, and because
-
What Does Anthropic's IPO Filing Say About Humanity?
Scott Galloway reads the risks section of Anthropic's S-1 and says his favorite line is that advanced AI could pose a catastrophic or existential risk to humanity. The filing says the models may behave in unintended, misaligned, or autonomous ways. He glosses that sentence as "they could blow us up." It also says capabilities may advance faster than Anthropic's ability to develop, validate, and implement safety measures.
He is quoting the company, not freelancing the science. He had turned back to the filing to read the lines out, and he says the safety sentence means the product should not be out in public.
-
Did Elon Musk Restrict Ukraine's Starlink?
Kara Swisher says Elon Musk is finally admitting that SpaceX restricted Ukraine's access to Starlink. She and Scott Galloway had already said he did. The account she relays is that Ukraine violated Starlink's terms of service by using it for offensive drone strikes. Ukraine disputes that. Musk also says Starshield is a different system controlled by the U.S. government, and that what the government does with it is up to them.
Ukraine's report, as she gives it, is that Starlink and Starshield are back to normal speeds after more than a week of disruptions that hit military operations and led to deaths. She calls his explanation a lie. In her view he should not be in a position to sway a batt
-
How Fast Did Anthropic's Revenue Grow?
Scott Galloway says Anthropic is the fastest-scaling software company in history. From the IPO filing, he puts revenue at $386 million in 2024 and $4.5 billion in 2025, up 12x.
Kara Swisher reads the front of that filing. Anthropic has committed more than $600 billion to future cloud deals. Five customers accounted for about a quarter of revenue in the first nine months. Ninety-four pages of risk factors warn about rogue AI models and opposition to data centers. The co-founders, including CEO Dario Amodei, would keep 50.1 percent of the voting power. The company has not said how much it plans to raise or the offering price. She says Elon Musk is attacking data centers at the same time, and
-
What Is Elon Musk's $443 Million to a Trillionaire?
Scott Galloway says $443 million is $443 to someone worth a million dollars, once Elon Musk is treated as a trillionaire. He first calls the midterm giving $440 million, then uses $443 million for that ratio. A millionaire who thought a candidate threatened the car wash, the government contracts, and the tax credits would spend $443. It is the price of a good dinner. That is why the money aimed at Talarico does not look large from Musk's side of the table.
Kara Swisher calls the giving staggering and says it is nothing like Michael Bloomberg's $80 million. Scott Galloway says the money has an impact and that the return is falling, and that checks like this keep cutting at democracy until Ci
-
What Should Democrats Do If They Win the Midterms?
Scott Galloway says a win in the Senate and the House would be a red riptide, not a blue wave. It would mean voters hated Democrats less for a moment, not that Democrats are back, because Democrats are not polling. Speaker Jeffries, he says, has to move at once on affordability, a progressive tax structure, healthcare insecurity, and tariff policy. Otherwise the public had a one-night stand and does not want a relationship.
Kara Swisher says they will follow up. She picks up Hillary Clinton's warning about the time between the election and January, when the new Congress has to be seated, and says to expect hijinks before then.
-
Why Does Obama Ridicule Trump?
Scott Galloway says ridicule is more powerful than indignance, and that this is what Obama understands and the rest of the Democratic Party does not. Outrage is a hobby. Comedy is a strategy. Obama does not sound mean, and he does not sound like Trump derangement syndrome. He ridicules the guy.
Few people, Scott Galloway says, manage a brand the way the Obamas do. They show up late and they are careful about when they speak. He thinks that adds 10 or 15 bips to Democrats who are running. It will not save a bad candidate. It is another couple million gallons of water forming a wave, cloud cover, and the candidate still matters more than the visit.
-
What Did James Talarico Say About Elon Musk?
James Talarico says Elon Musk wants Texas land, Texas water, and Texas taxpayer dollars, and that Musk wants his own United States senator. Talarico says Musk is trying to buy Texas, and that on November 3 the state will tell the world's first trillionaire that Texas is not for sale.
Kara Swisher plays that clip after she reads the money. Musk, she says, just gave another $76 million to his PAC, taking his contributions to Republican groups this cycle past $445 million. The PAC has spent more than $12 million attacking Talarico, the Texas Democrat. She says he has been using the "not for sale" line all over the place.
-
What Is the Mosquito Bowl Movie About?
Scott Galloway's media win is The Mosquito Bowl, an American war sports drama about a football game played during World War II. Peter Berg wrote the screenplay and directed it for Imagine Entertainment, adapting Buzz Bissinger's 2022 book, The Mosquito Bowl, A Game of Life and Death in World War II.
Four top American football players enlisted in the United States Marine Corps after the attacks on Pearl Harbor while preparing for the Battle of Okinawa. Most World War II movies stay in the European theater. The Mosquito Bowl shows the brutality and cost of war. Battle scenes are very hard to recreate. Steven Spielberg's landing on Omaha still sets the bar, and The Mosquito Bowl comes pretty c