Ellison's Rebrand, Netflix's Struggles, and Elon's Breakup

"Gut gemacht" — that was Elon Musk's response when the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) won 44% of the vote in a state election. Scott Galloway called it America's most successful export: not democracy anymore, but polarization, sold through one man's algorithm. That was one of several threads in a packed episode of Pivot, where Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway covered Musk's personal and political entanglements, the closing of the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger, Netflix's growth problem, and a sobering conversation about the Cornell fraternity rape allegations that turned into an extended meditation on raising better men.

Elon Musk: Breakup, Bullying, and the AfD

The episode opened with the strange public dissolution of Elon Musk's relationship with Shivon Zilis, the Neuralink executive and mother of four of his children. Zilis announced the breakup on X, posting screenshots of their text exchanges after Musk unfollowed her. "I feel sad," Swisher said, summarizing the tone. "The whole thing was such an obsequious breakup." She noted that Zilis works for Musk, making the public airing even stranger. Galloway's advice, drawn from Albert Brooks in Broadcast News: "Keep it to yourself." He wondered if there was a strategic motive — "I'll give you a million dollars a month if you say great things about me on my platform" — but mostly he was struck by the lac