The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
00:11:14 · Greg Lukianoff
[00:11:14] S1: the intersection of something that was very important for the success of, forgive the expression, the West, which is intellectual intellectual property is a... Like, I'm really starting to appreciate even at an even deeper level how important the patent system was for a a lot of the progress and prosperity we take for granted today. Now I also did intellectual property law for for the one year I wasn't working at FIRE after law school, and I was troubled by it in a lot of ways. And when it comes to trademark and copyright, you know, there... There's a there's a major tension there where essentially... And we're talking about copyrighted works. That essentially you want knowledge to be free. You don't want it to be unreasonably withheld. So we have, you know, copyrights expire, for example. Things go into public domain. The best argument for the AI companies is that essentially they, you know, they they they have the same access to open information as everybody else does and that they can use that. The best argument against it, of course, is that you are, in some cases, you know, stealing, information from copyrighted sources at a scale that simply wasn't practical before. But the funny thing for me is I know, for example, coddling the American mind, we got the, like, the notices of being... It was, you you know, part of trained models. And they asked me if I wanted to like participate in one of those class action lawsuits. And my response was like, well, no, I'm actually kind of excited. I'm actually pleased that they're using my contribution in order to inform what it thinks.
00:12:45 · Scott Galloway
[00:12:45] S0: One year anniversary of Charlie Kirk's death. Any thoughts on where Americans stand on speech and what his murder kind of revealed about it?
00:12:57 · Greg Lukianoff
[00:12:57] S1: You know, I had a lot of criticisms of Charlie Kirk also for not being great on on freedom of speech, particularly of of scholars he disagreed with. I think he was really bad on that. I did, however, after he was murdered, you know, Goblin watched some of the ways he actually debated with some of these kids and came away much more impressed with it, for lack of a better word, than than than I expected. He he was more patient and, in some cases, nicer than I I expected him to be. And none of this matters for for... Also for what happened. The guy was murdered. And as best we can tell, the guy was murdered for trying to argue with people, you know, that he disagreed with, but usually in a pretty civil way. And I watched the way this is handled sometimes on the left. They they... They've turned him into a caricature of who he was by the time he died. A lot of the stuff that people really object to what he said, I always try to, like, take seriously the possibility I'm wrong. So, like, my... After he was murdered, I I tried to actually, you know, reevaluate him. And some of the stuff that I didn't notice is that some of his more that I would consider, you know, again, my own political opinion, obnoxious statements were before he actually started debating with students. And I thought when you see people, you know, celebrating his murder or refusing to talk about it... And that's something we found, by the way, in the FIRE research is that as far as topics that students find very uncomfortable to talk about, Charlie Kirk is the new one that's been added to Israel Palestine as things that students don't wanna talk about. I I think we've handled it... I think the right handled it terribly by going after people who said insensitive things about him being murdered. But I also think the left, you know, handled it pretty terribly by, in some cases, acting like, well, that guy just had it coming.
00:14:48 · Scott Galloway
[00:14:48] S0: Support for the show comes from Superhuman. There's a lot of potential for AI assistants to make your job easier, but not if every ass starts with you debriefing the entirety of the project from scratch. Ideally, you'd be following along from the start and ready to jump in as soon as you need help. Superhuman says they've got the solution. Superhuman Go comes from the makers of Grammarly. It can embed in the tools you and your team already use, but was ready to help without having to switch apps or break your flow. It can help you make sense of a dense message thread, help you get ready for a meeting, or catch a typo before you hit send. And when you get stuck, Go can help you brainstorm, outline, or review relevant context so you don't lose your place. It's basically an AI assistant that's always on, always ready to help. Bottom line, Superhuman is built for people who take the work seriously and expect their tools to do the same. You can try Superhuman Go from the makers of Grammarly. Find out more at superhuman.com. Support for the show comes from Gusto. One of the things nobody tells you about starting a business is that you have to do a lot of incredibly tedious tasks yourself, like running payroll, but Gusto can help. Gusto is online payroll and benefits software built for small businesses. It's all in one, remote friendly, and incredibly easy to use, so you can pay, hire, onboard, and support your team from anywhere. Gusto helps you with automatic payroll tax filings, simple direct deposits, health benefits, commuter benefits, workers' comp, four zero one ks, you name it. Gusto makes it simple. And they have options for nearly every budget. It helps you save time with built in automated tools, offer letters, onboarding docs, direct deposit, and more. You can even get direct access to certified HR experts. Gusto is ranked number one on G2's highest satisfaction products list for 2026, and it's trusted by over 500,000 small businesses. And switching to Gusto is quick and simple. Just transfer your existing data to get up and running fast. Plus, don't pay a cent until you run your first payroll. Try Gusto today at gusto.com/provg and get three months free when you run your first payroll. That's three months of free payroll at gusto.com/propg. One more time, gusto.com/propg. Support for the show comes from USA Facts.
00:17:06 · Scott Galloway
I've interviewed countless politicians, and if there's one thing we all find disconcerting is when they butcher the facts with some biased half truth. Give us a break already. So when I had the chance to debate conservative podcaster Ben Shapiro, our natural response was bring it on. Why? Because it was sponsored by USA Facts, and each debate segment started with a presentation of government data and facts, employment, government spending, income data, housing, and more. The topic, the American dream. Is it still within reach? We argued. We found some common ground. We actually debated, and there were no personal attacks. Watch the full debate on The USA Facts YouTube channel. We think you'll find it unlike any other debate. That is entertaining and informative. We hope you check it out. FIRE, which is your organization, it's the foundation for individual rights and expression. So most recently FIRE released its college free speech rankings. You surveyed nearly 63,000 students across two sixty two schools, analyzed school policies, and tracked various free speech controversies and outcomes at certain schools. We have a tendency to just say higher education. Mhmm. But but Bob Jones University is just much different than NYU. Absolutely, Jeff. Tell us what trends you saw as it relates to free speech across different the different universities. What observations would you make?
00:18:28 · Greg Lukianoff, Scott Galloway
[00:18:28] S1: I would say one of the most positive observations is how much leadership matters, and how schools like Vanderbilt, where Daniel Diermeyer, you know, takes the search for truth incredibly seriously, and he knows that requires conflict. He knows that requires structured friction. And they they went from having not a great rank... Ranking to being, I think, number five, nationally. Same thing with Dartmouth. Dartmouth, you know, rocketed to the top because of leadership. And how much difference a good leader who gets the centrality of the search for truth can actually make even in a relatively short period of time was something that gave me some genuine hope. On the other side, the schools in New York City aren't doing so hot. [00:19:13] S0: Yeah, let's talk about that. My employer, NYU, is it fair to call my employer? Anyways, the the campus I'm affiliated with finished dead last. Yeah. Below little... Below every other school you ranked. How did that happen? Or what what earned them dead last?