Pivot Extra: America at 250 — with Heather Cox Richardson

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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SPEAKER_2 (0:31)

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SPEAKER_3 (1:03)

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Scott Galloway (1:38)

If there's one thing fans ask us for, it's more Kara and Scott. Is that true? Well, anyways, if you're going into withdrawal over the weekend, you can check out an episode of Prof G Conversations right here in your Pivot feed. For more conversations like this one, listen and follow The Prof G Pod wherever you get your podcasts.

Episode 401 401 is the area covering the entire state of Rhode Island. In 2001, the first generation iPod went on sale. True story, my son asked me what it was like to be married, and I said, just delete every song but one off of your iPod.

SPEAKER_1 (2:19)

Go, go, go.

Scott Galloway (2:29)

Welcome to the 401st episode of The Prof G Pod. What's happening? In today's episode, we're sharing our live conversation with Heather Cox Richardson. We commemorated our nation's 250th birthday and discussed power, institutions, technology, and the future of American democracy. And if you don't want to miss our next live stream or other content exclusive to Substack, you can subscribe at profgmedia.com. Anyway, we hope you enjoy our conversation with the one and only Heather Cox Richardson.

Heather, thanks so much for being with us today.

Heather Cox Richardson (3:04)

It's always a pleasure, Professor Galloway. How are you doing?

Scott Galloway (3:08)

You know, I'm doing all right. I guess I'm in a constant state of anxiety.

I would call it low-level anxiety. How are you feeling?

Heather Cox Richardson (3:20)

Same.

You know, and one of the things that really jumps out to me is how many different stories are coming at us from so many different places where you not only have to read what is in front of you, but also guess what is really happening. And that's just a lot of mental work. And you know, you and I devote our lives to it. But for people who are trying to pay half attention, I just don't know how they're getting through their days.

Scott Galloway (3:42)

Yeah. It's sort of which story to focus on and where to allocate your attention and your, not your outrage, but your concern, if you will. So let's start with something you wrote in the past week. It's been sort of a master class in two of Trump's defining moves, cheating the system and spectacle. The reflecting pool renovation cost 16 million, 10X what he claimed and is now fouled with green algae. The Kennedy Center tarp is still up, the UFC fight sponsored by his own family's crypto company.

In your view, talk a little bit, is the cheating getting more brazen or are we just more aware and sensitive to it?

Heather Cox Richardson (4:19)

I think probably both.

The fact that we're getting more aware of it is interesting, and I'd love to pick that back up. But the thing that really jumped out to me in the last week was the members of the Kennedy Center board being really clear about the fact that they had fulfilled the court order to take Trump's name off the building, which they may or may not have done, and we assume it's been done because they certified to the court they had done it. But then they covered it with a tarp. Obviously now, a tarp that's designed to stay there for a long time because they've actually cut pieces through it to access the doors of the Kennedy Center. That just jumped out to me that literally they said, we did what you told us to.