Scott Galloway, Constantine Kisin & Daniel Priestley — Scott Galloway is an American NYU marketing professor, serial entrepreneur and author. Constantine Kisin is a British-Russian commentator and co-host of the Trigonometry podcast. Daniel Priestley is a British entrepreneur and author who runs a business accelerator.
The gist
Steven Bartlett convenes three of his favourite commentators the day after Trump's second inauguration to make sense of a moment of social, cultural and economic transition. They debate whether Trump's win is a kleptocratic turn or a rejection of 'managed decline', and clash over the US economy versus a UK they see as over-taxed and entrepreneur-repelling. A long, sober stretch covers the crisis of young men, masculinity, and loneliness, followed by DEI, free speech, Elon Musk, Section 230 and bot-driven platforms. They close on net zero and energy costs, and each father offers advice to his sons.
Big reveals
- Galloway calls America a 'kleptocracy', citing the Trump and Melania meme coins launched the day before the inauguration.
- Galloway refuses to see 'a man convicted of sexual abuse who inspired an insurrection' as a point of light for America.
- Galloway names Brexit the UK's greatest self-inflicted wound 'second only to our entry into Iraq'.
- Galloway argues no group has fallen further faster than young men in America, calling them a dangerous new 'asexual, asocial' species.
- Galloway says Elon Musk is a great role model for boys but not for men, citing his conduct and addiction.
- Kisin credits Elon Musk's amplification of the UK grooming-gangs scandal with forcing the British government into action.
- Galloway proposes removing Section 230 protection for algorithmically amplified content so platforms become liable for defamation.
- Kisin says net zero is 'deeply, deeply immoral', impoverishing pensioners while Britain emits only 2% of global carbon.
Things worth remembering
- Galloway claims the US had 71 record market highs and grew 10% since 2020, triple Europe's rate.
- Around 10,800 millionaires left the UK last year, an increase of about 160% on the prior year.
- In the US you don't hit the top tax rate until six times the average wage; in the UK it's just 2.5 times.
- Some Britons deliberately cap income at 50,000 pounds to avoid the 40% tax band; Priestley says staff have asked for a day off to stay under it.
- Nvidia is now worth more than the entire UK stock market despite being unknown five years earlier.
- One in three US men under 30 has a girlfriend while two in three women do; one in five 30-year-old men live at home.
- One in seven men has no single friend and one in four cannot name a best friend, per Galloway.
- AI requires roughly ten times the energy of a Google query, making energy the choke point.
- Kisin says UK energy prices are about four times those in the United States.
- Kisin compares the social-media upheaval to the printing press, which he says triggered two centuries of religious war.
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Scott Galloway's upcoming book on masculinity
Scott Galloway
“I know Scott you've got a book coming on masculinity which we're all very very excited about. We've been waiting it's long overdue.” — Steven Bartlett 01:39:29Find it on Amazon