Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer
Aug 4, 2026 · 40 min · 14 segments
Paramount Skydance wants to merge with Warner Bros. Discovery in a $111 billion deal that would put even more of Hollywood—and two major newsrooms—under one corporate roof. Washington State Attorney…
Nick BrownGuestDavid GoldsteinHost
Nick HanauerHostSo Nick, since Trump won re-election, uh, I have been, uh, writing on social media and talking about something, uh, I call soft secession.
Other people use that term as well, which really describes a devolution of powers that, uh, we typically have left to the federal government to have and to enforce and, uh, leaving them to the states, uh, to do.
And I think this is a really good example of states stepping up, filling the void, and, uh, using their collective resources to help enforce, uh, in this case, antitrust law, not just in the Paramount, Skydance, Warner Brothers merger, but as Nick talked about also in the Live Nation case.
And I think it's a, a really important development, not just, uh, politically, of course, but also economically, because these...
You know, when you look at things like antitrust, it can have such a huge impact, not just on employees and consumers, but on the economy as a whole.
No, it's very exciting and, um, you know, hopeful that the states can intervene and win-
And although it is just a profound shame that we need to use our resources in this way.
And, and to be clear, when we talk about something like the entertainment industry, if people just dismiss it as, "Oh, who cares how many movies are being made or who's making them or who's distributing the TV shows?" You are missing one of the greatest economic forces of the U.S.
The U.S. as an, uh, just financially, as an exporter of entertainment content, of TV and movies and music, is just enormous and overpowering, but also i- it turned us into a cultural power.
So Nick, since Trump won re-election, uh, I have been, uh, writing on social media and talking about something, uh, I call soft secession.
Other people use that term as well, which really describes a devolution of powers that, uh, we typically have left to the federal government to have and to enforce and, uh, leaving them to the states, uh, to do.
And I think this is a really good example of states stepping up, filling the void, and, uh, using their collective resources to help enforce, uh, in this case, antitrust law, not just in the Paramount, Skydance, Warner Brothers merger, but as Nick talked about also in the Live Nation case.
And I think it's a, a really important development, not just, uh, politically, of course, but also economically, because these...
You know, when you look at things like antitrust, it can have such a huge impact, not just on employees and consumers, but on the economy as a whole.
No, it's very exciting and, um, you know, hopeful that the states can intervene and win-
And although it is just a profound shame that we need to use our resources in this way.
And, and to be clear, when we talk about something like the entertainment industry, if people just dismiss it as, "Oh, who cares how many movies are being made or who's making them or who's distributing the TV shows?" You are missing one of the greatest economic forces of the U.S.
The U.S. as an, uh, just financially, as an exporter of entertainment content, of TV and movies and music, is just enormous and overpowering, but also i- it turned us into a cultural power.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.