The New Rules of Power — with Anne Applebaum and Fiona Hill

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
Support for this show comes from Odoo.
Running a business is hard enough, so why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other? Introducing Odoo, it's the only business software you'll ever need. It's an all-in-one fully integrated platform that makes your work easier. CRM, accounting, inventory, e-commerce and more. And the best part, Odoo replaces multiple expensive platforms for a fraction of the cost. That's why over thousands of businesses have made the switch. So why not you?
Try Odoo for free at odoo.com. That's odoo.com.

**Scott Galloway** (0:41)
Support for the show comes from Cohere. As AI advances, one thing matters more than ever, staying in control. Most AI comes with strings attached, like sharing your data and infrastructure or compromising your independence. With Cohere, you don't have to give up control to gain capability. You can have both, from frontier models to out-of-the-box tools. Cohere gives you everything you need to build and deploy secure, scalable AI that drives growth and delivers results. Your data, decisions, and competitive edge stay yours. You control your AI on your terms.
To see how AI can empower your organization without compromising what matters most, visit cohere.com/vox.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:26)
Support for this show comes from Fetch Pet Insurance. Do you have a pet? Every six seconds, a pet owner in the US gets hit with a vet bill of over $1,000, and it's almost always an unwelcome surprise.
That's where Fetch Pet Insurance comes in. Fetch is the most complete pet insurance. Get paid back up to 90% of vet bills. You can use any vet in the US and Canada. All vets are in network. Go to fetchpet.com/save.
Right now for your free quote, that's fetchpet.com/save.

**Scott Galloway** (2:04)
Episode 400 If you listen to all 400 episodes back to back, you'd spend more than 16 straight days with us.
Anyways, in 2000, the iPhone didn't exist and the.com bubble was at its peak. True story, I got a new iPhone for my wife. Pretty good trade. Okay, that's not good. All right. Why do the Chinese love iPhones?
Because the best gifts are the ones that your children made for you. Is that wrong?

**SPEAKER_1** (2:34)
Go, go, go.

**Scott Galloway** (2:44)
Welcome to the 400th episode of The Prof G Pod. 400? I can't remember the 399th. Actually, I can't remember what I had for breakfast. Mom, where am I? Heat my soup!
I'm so ready to be an old man. All right, I get ready. I guess I was an old man when I was 22 But I do remember the first episode of The Prof G Pod. So it was during COVID.
So let's bring this back to me. I had just raised a shit ton of money for a company called Section and I was going to start a media company.
I made the same rookie move. I always mistake. I went out and thought, oh, I'm an entrepreneur and I've raised a lot of venture capital. I need to get big splashy office space. So I rented an entire floor. I sub-leased from one of the LVMH brands. It's been sucking wind. Just a short walk from my house and we were going to a million dollars building it out and then we're interviewing a bunch of people on the podcast and I interviewed an epidemiologist from, I think it was the University of Maryland. This guy just clearly knew his shit and this was when there was some cases in Seattle, a couple of cruise ships, people were starting to worry.
They hadn't even shut down and decided whether or not they were going to have South by Southwest or not. I, of course, decided I was a mini epidemiologist and this didn't present a threat to the world. I talked to this guy and quite frankly, he scared the shit out of me. After we were off, Mike, I said, all things considered, just what are your thoughts here? He goes, people don't realize how bad this is. I freaked out and I realized that in our little corner of our one-floor office, we were all huddled very close to each other and I said, okay, everybody needs to get their laptop and go home. I might be being paranoid here, but this epidemiologist says this is worse than anyone, thanks. I then called my partner and said, load up the kids, we're headed somewhere. I did this analysis. I was looking for a place that was remote, low density, high-end resort, sunshine, as at that time, for some reason, I thought or I read somewhere that heat might kill the virus, and within 30 minutes to a good hospital and within an hour, fly to a great hospital, like I put together a speech spreadsheet. I came up with the Myocoba, and we pieced out to the Myocoba, and we were all planning to go to Aspen to go skiing, and then Aspen got closed down, and the whole thing, COVID started. And we ended up spending several weeks down there, and which is obviously a story of privilege. But we had decided to start the Prof G Podcast, and our first guest from the Myocoba was Aswad Demodaran, and trying to figure out wireless. But anyways, the first of 400, or number one, was from Mexico as COVID was breaking out. God, God, the world has changed. Anyways, with that, we appreciate if you've been here for some or all of the 400, we very much appreciate your support. And with that, we wanted to do something, special is the right word, but wanted to bring on two people who I just think a great deal of, and I think deserve more attention. And when I think of Prof G and what we're trying to do here, we're not necessarily trying to find celebrities or the most well-known people, but people who provide new thinking or insight to really important issues. And so we thought we'd have both Anne Applebaum and Fiona Hill on, who are very well known in their respective domains, but sometimes don't have, I don't know, the general curb awareness of some of the more popular podcast guests. But I just think the world of both of these women, I think they're so unafraid and insightful and intelligent and right to the point. So anyways, with that, we hope you enjoy our conversation with Anne Applebaum and Fiona Hill.