The Case for Prenups, and Why Young People Aren’t Getting Married — ft. James Sexton

In part two of our Office Hours special on relationships, Scott Galloway and divorce attorney James Sexton discuss whether couples should keep their money separate, why every marriage already has a prenup, and what’s driving young people away from marriage. Plus, they share advice for de-escalating conflict and making space for imperfect love. Want to be featured in a future episode? Send a voice recording to [email protected], or drop your question in the r/ScottGalloway subreddit. Plus, you can now call or text Scott a question at our new Office Hours hotline: ‪(201) 472-3656‬. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Speaker 00

  Hogging seats on a crowded train, not saying excuse me, watching videos on your phone with no headphones in. Sometimes it feels like we don't know how to act anymore. What we have been seeing increasingly is people breaking rules. Why should I play by the rules if nobody else is going to do that for me? This week on Explain It To Me, how to mind your manners. New episodes, Sundays, wherever you get your podcasts.

• 0:36Scott Galloway?

  Welcome back to Prof Giam Relationships in a special two-part series about love, marriage, and what it takes to make a partnership last. We're joined once again by divorce attorney and author James Sexton. Today, we'll ask your questions about sharing money in a marriage, de-escalating conflict, and why fewer young people are getting married. James, good to see you again.

• 0:54Speaker 02

  Good to see you, Scott. Always a pleasure.

• 0:56Scott Galloway?

  All right, let's bust into this. Question number one comes from Food Lifestyle, Inc. on Instagram. Can two people have a loving, affectionate, successful marriage if they keep their money separate? James?

• 1:07Speaker 02

  Yeah, I think absolutely. I mean, I think, you know, there's all permutations out there, but I'm a big fan in most aspects of relationship of like the you, the me, and the we, and this kind of Venn diagram. I think the idea that if we don't have everything completely commingled all the time, that somehow it means there's a division in our relationship that's going to create distance between us, I don't think it's honest. And I don't think it's necessary. I think, you know, if it's happy for the two of you and it doesn't scare the horses, it's nobody's business. You know, I think if the two of you see, I think there's value in having some separation. I mean, if we have only joint accounts and only joint credit cards, okay, we've got full transparency. But that also means when I buy you a birthday present, you're going to see what it cost and where

• 1:50Speaker 02

  I bought it. And if I bought it the day before your birthday or a month in advance your birthday, there's no privacy whatsoever. Maybe this is generational and I'll get accused because I'm Gen X of old fashioned ways of thinking. But, you know, if a woman in my life says, hey, can you get this out of my bag? I'd give them their bag because I was raised, you don't go in a woman's bag. You bring her and give it to her and then you take it. So I think it's the same thing. Like, I think there should be some privacy in relationship, whether it's medical autonomy, whether it's financial autonomy, there should be some level of it. But that being said, total disconnection from the finances and having everything, be it's yours and mine, and there's no ours. I don't think that that's necessarily healthy. But again, I don't think it's one size fits all. I think it has a

• 2:33Speaker 02

  lot to do with people's relationship with money individually, which has a lot to do with the way that they were raised, and it has lots of other values built into it.

• 2:42Scott Galloway?

  I mean, I find sometimes that you need to be attracted to a partner, you need to have similar values. I think the thing that people don't spend enough talking about before they enter doing a long-term relationship is each of their relationship jointly and individually to money. Who is expected to make the money here? What is your approach to spending? What are your expectations around lifestyle? Who's responsible for providing that lifestyle? I think these things are, and there's data that shows that financial agitatus, the number one's cause of divorce. At least that's what I've seen in my, my personal experience. And there's some data here. I think there's no one size fits all. It's entirely up to you. So if you're entering into a relationship where one person has

• 3:24Scott Galloway?

  a lot of assets and you do not, it's entirely fair to say, you know, there's, there's pre-assets that go back to me, if there's post-marriage, and then there's stuff we do together. And then also, I think, and granted, I've never had a prenup, so I'm, I'm, you know, do as I say, not as I do. But it seems to me that a prenup just makes everything much easier, such that once you're in a very ugly situation. It's like, I have a, I have a contract with every major business relationship I have. And 98% of the time, we never refer to the contract because we don't need to, because it's going well.

• 4:01Speaker 02

  But you're smart enough to know that the worst time to learn how to fight is when you're in a fight. Like, the best time to make a rule set is when there's an abundance of optimism and love between the two people. And I always tell people this idea that a prenup is in any way unromantic. Every single marriage has a prenup. It's either one that was written by the government and can be modified by the state legislature of the state in which you reside, or it's written by you and the person you allegedly like more than the other eight billion options in the world. Now, leave it to, like, whatever your political view, whether you're a left, right, or a raging moderate, the truth is, we all at some point in the last 15 years have looked at the government and said, yeah, they don't know what the hell they're doing over there. So why would you say, I'm going

• 4:43Speaker 02

  to trust the rules of my relationship to a future government that I haven't had any say in yet? I think prenups are an example of two people saying, hey, this is our relationship, our rules, let's define that rule set in a way that makes sense for the two of us. Because something you said in our last conversation, Scott, that stuck with me, is this idea of all relationships are about an exchange of value. And we've entered this moment in the world where daring to say that a relationship is an economy, you know, where like we both bring something of value. And what that might be can be totally different. Like, how many apples is worth an apple? Well, that's easy, apples to apples. But how many apples is worth a pineapple? Well, now we're having an economy. We're having a conversation about

• 5:28Speaker 02

  where are you, you know, in the world, like, and how prevalent are apples versus pineapples? Same thing with love. Like, I think it'd be okay if we said, hey, I bring an abundance of resources to this relationship economically. I bring problem solving skills to this relationship. You bring sweetness and kindness and warmth at the end of the day. What is that worth? That's a perfect, you know, a perfectly subjective, beautiful assessment. And to say, well, one of these is worth more than the other, that's a very individualized thing. There might be some people that find each of those traits to be invaluable. And there may be people that say, oh, yeah, I can do that myself. So I think it's a very personalized

• 6:10Speaker 02

  decision that we've just stopped talking about because the conversation feels icky, but I don't think it has to.

• 6:18Scott Galloway?

  The data is clear, though. A 2026 Harris poll found that 53% of engagére married Gen Z and millennials have signed a prenup. That's up from 2022, Gen Z at 41%, millennials at 34%. Prenup requests have dramatically increased, and it's largely being driven by requests from women. And again, I think that's also a function of women have more economic security, bring more to the relationship economically, and want to have, what you just said is so powerful, and that is, we all have a prenup. It's just a question of whether someone you've never met and to, to our, you know, hourly compensated employees who may not always have congruent incentives.

• 7:00Speaker 02

  You've been to the DMV? Did you walk around the DMV and go, oh, yeah, these people should be in charge of everything? Like, it's government employees you're trusting to write the rules of your relationship. And again, at a moment, and I do a ton of, I do five, six prenups a week, the conversation is between two people that like each other literally the most. At that moment, I like you, you're my favorite person. Like, what is marriage but the legal codification of you are my favorite person out of eight billion options? You can't discuss with that person what value you each bring to each other. By the way, what a romantic discussion. Here's what you bring to my life. Here's the value

• 7:42Speaker 02

  you give to me. Here's what every day I'm so grateful of for you. Here's the pieces of you that if they went away, I would feel a hole in me for the loss. That's a beautiful conversation. Here's how I feel scared. Here's what I'm afraid of. How can I protect you from everything, including a future version of me? Like, how can we protect each other? And because we can't feel loved if you don't feel safe. And prenups are about feeling safe, both people feeling safe.

• 8:11Scott Galloway?

  Question number two also comes from Instagram. Miss V Lady asks, every relationship experiences tension or arguments. What's your method to de-escalate? James?

• 8:23Speaker 02

  Wow. So I, you know, I'm a huge fan of apologies. Like, in every aspect of my life, personal and professional, I'm very quick to apology because it doesn't cost anything. And most of the time, there is something for me to apologize for in almost any interaction. Like, I think that there's, it's such a safe move. Like, when I get on the phone with a lawyer, I have a lawyer on the other side of a case, and I've never had a case with this person, and they just come at me really hard, you know, they just come at me really aggressive. I'll immediately say, you know, I know this is our first case together, but just from the way you're coming at me, like, if I said something in our initial communication that like made you feel like I didn't respect you, or that we had to be like off of this kind of tone, I'm really sorry. Like, I really didn't mean to do that.

• 9:05Speaker 02

  Immediately, they'll go, oh, well, no, that, you know, that's just kind of how I do things. I'm like, oh, okay. Hey, yeah, no, I won't take it personally. But I just, I didn't want to think, like, if I say a lot of stuff, I might have said something that offended you, or maybe you saw something on TikTok I said that pissed you off. Like, whatever it is, I'm really sorry. I'm a big fan of being quick to apology, like, real apology, too, not bullshit. Like, I'm sorry you feel that way. Like, real apology. Hey, listen, I know you seem very hurt right now. You're very upset at me right now. I know I didn't mean to hurt you, but anything I did that hurt you, I am profoundly sorry for, because I know I didn't mean to. Like, I think there's a lot of value in being quick to apology

• 9:46Speaker 02

  and owning your share of whatever's going on there. Now, that's not to say you roll over on everything and you concede that everything's your fault. But I just think that when you start a conversation with, all right, listen, anything I did that made you feel unloved or undervalued, I'm genuinely sorry for that, because I know I love you and I value you. So if I got that wrong, I apologize. How, how much can you escalate after that? It's really pretty hard, you know, to escalate when someone starts with an unconditional sense of, whoa, whoa, whoa, I'm sorry that we're in this position right now.

• 10:20Scott Galloway?

  I think that's so powerful. I think as a younger man, I just thought apologizing was acquiescing and connoted weakness.

• 10:27Speaker 02

  Me too.

• 10:29Scott Galloway?

  It just, it really is powerful. And I've figured out that if someone's upset in your life that you, that you really care about, they might be upset for the wrong reasons. There might be something else in their life. But if they're upset, you want to immediately acknowledge, you're upset, and you mean a lot to me, and you're smart, and, you know, as rational as, or more than most people. So if you're upset, I'm inclined to think there's something wrong, and I've done something wrong, and I owe you an apology. And that's okay.

• 10:59Speaker 02

  To the extent that I have, to the extent that I have made you feel, because it's not really always about the feeling, too. Like, it sounds like you feel really hurt. I know I didn't mean to hurt you. And anything I did that caused you hurt, I know I didn't mean to, and I'm really sorry. Like, that's very powerful as an opening move. And then we can get into the meat, you know, we can get into the meat and potatoes.

• 11:24Scott Galloway?

  Yeah, the nuance here is the following, and that is,

• 11:29Scott Galloway?

  There's a sweet spot and there's, it took me a while to realize, I grew up with a single mother and the biggest source of attention in our household was a lack of money. And I quickly figured out that if she was happy, I was okay. If she was unhappy, I was not okay. Cause there was nowhere to hide. It was just me and her. And so I grew up, basically, if a dude, if my, if a guy, a friend, whoever is not doing well, I'm like, how can I help? But then I sleep like a baby that night. I'm okay. I don't want, I don't sound unfeeling. If a woman in my life is unhappy, I freak out. It takes me back to a very ugly place. And unfortunately, one of the real problems that I realize now

• 12:11Scott Galloway?

  with my ex was that whenever she was upset, I immediately went to managing her and de-escalating and not being open and honest about what was going on in my head. And so when we got to a point where I was then finally honest with her about some of my concerns and true feelings about the relationship, it was like a ton of bricks landing on her head. So yeah, I use, I use humor to de-escalate. I absolutely, and one of the greatest things about my partnership right now, we had a fight last night. We've probably fought maybe once every couple of months. At one point, one, at one, maybe two points in the middle of the fight, we

• 12:53Scott Galloway?

  both started laughing. And I think, I thought, you know, our relationship is going to survive. If we can, it's, this laughing just helps so much.

• 13:00Speaker 02

  Yeah. I think keeping a sense of humor and connection is a huge piece. And I think also, you know, assigning good faith to what's going on there. Like I, it took me so long in relationship to figure out that you can be mad at me and still love me. Like I think having kids really taught me that in a really profound way, because you know, once they were teenagers or in middle school, it was like, oh my God, I really don't like you right now, but I still love you so much. But there was a part of me that could see, like, you know what, like, literally you'll never meet a person in your entire life who says the best years of my life were middle school. It's just like an impossibly difficult time. But it doesn't change the fact that, you know, like, yeah, I love you, but like,

• 13:42Speaker 02

  oh my God, I kind of can't stand you right now. And I feel like in a deep loving relationship, nobody teaches you. Like I grew up feeling very much like, oh, if mom was happy, then I'm doing a good job. If mom's mad at me, I got something really wrong. And again, like love was tied to achievement. And I think that, that of course, it's, it's impossible not to create that dynamic when your kids do things, you're, oh, I'm so proud of you. You know, you want to praise them, but it does create this connection between successes and accomplishments and love as opposed to just being, look, I love you because I love you. You can fail and I love you. You can fail and I'll be proud of you that you tried. Like, and I think there's something really beautiful about the ability, even in the middle of the fight, to just go, hey, you know, whether it's a laugh or whether it's

• 14:26Speaker 02

  to say, hey, look, we're in this right now and I totally disagree with you and you totally disagree with me. You know, I love you, right? Like you know, I love you. Like I remember saying to my scowling son at one point, like, I know you love me and I know you know I love you. I'm mad at you right now. And by the way, you're at an age now where if you don't hate me once in a while, it means I'm a terrible father. So you're going to hate me sometimes. And I want you to know, I'm comfortable with that and I still love you and I still know you love me. And I think there's something to be said for like, let's call that timeout and just point out that, hey, guys, we're in this. I love you. I'm mad at you, but I love you.

• 15:02Scott Galloway?

  Yeah, I do. I do think there is absolutely a sweet spot in between de-escalating, being willing to apologize, but don't do what I did. And that is say anything to de-escalate and manage the relationship and never, never really express your true emotions because you just want out of that temporary conflict. Okay. We'll be right back after a quick break.

• 15:34Scott Galloway?

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• 16:16Scott Galloway?

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• 16:47Scott Galloway?

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• 17:32Scott Galloway?

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• 17:56Scott Galloway?

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• 18:40Scott Galloway?

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• 19:08Scott Galloway?

  Welcome back. Question number three comes from Research Daily. Number one reason why young people aren't getting married today?

• 19:17Speaker 02

  Wow. I mean, there's a lot you could dig into here. Yeah, I was going to say, I think that's like, you know, Middle East. How should we solve it? Like, oh, that'd be easier. Um, yeah, I think there's a lot. I mean, I think there's some very basic economic reasons. I think, you know, the, the, the prospect for young people, you know, immediately getting out of college, I think it's very challenging right now for them to, to be able to envision a future where they have economic independence and the autonomy that they can, you know, meet a partner and have a place to live together and have some semblance of, you know, moving forward in life. I think that's challenging in these economic conditions. And I do think that is different. I mean, you've talked plenty about this and I think it's absolutely true in terms of, of the disparity

• 19:59Speaker 02

  in wealth, you know, for young people versus the boomers and above. I also think that it's been sold now, relationship as almost a form of weakness, that you've, you know, you've given into traditional gender roles, that you've given into, um, you know, any kind of, of a deep connection with another person means you're untethered from connection to yourself. I think that's just such a load of bullshit. I mean, I, I just feel like, you know, relationship, like I can't learn everything I need to know about myself from myself. And the suggestion that I could is, I think, a form of insane hubris. I think we need each other very much. And I think there's something really beautiful about saying, I can't see my blind spots. That's why I need relationship in my life is because

• 20:42Speaker 02

  there are blind spots, because I can't see them. And having someone there who's cheering for you is just about the greatest thing in the world. I think, paring back to what we talked about last episode, I think that's why being dismissive and disrespectful of your partner is so brutal. Look, even constructive criticism is still criticism. Like, the world is just constantly critiquing us and we're critiquing ourselves. If there was a person in my life who talked to me the way I talk to myself, I would have beat the crap out of them long ago. You know, from the minute I wake up, I'm, what are you doing? Get out of it. Come on. What are you, get to the gym. What are you doing? You can't do that anymore. Yeah. Like I'm constantly criticizing myself. And then the world is constantly antagonistic at us. So having somebody who's just cheering for you is just about the warmest, most wonderful

• 21:27Speaker 02

  thing. And I think it's why we want it so badly. But we've created this, you know, algorithmic enrage and engagement where, you know, it's, it's better to talk about all the things people are doing wrong in relationship. And if you talk about how wonderful your relationship is, it becomes a sort of flex that's super uncool and no one wants to hear it. You know, if somebody says, oh my God, I just started dating this new guy and here's all the reasons he's so wonderful. Everybody wants to hear about it. But it's like, oh my God, my husband of the last 10 years is so wonderful. Everybody's like, shut up already, you know, because there is something about long-term coupling that we as a culture have started to feel like, oh yeah, this is not something a person should be proud of, their ability to maintain

• 22:10Speaker 02

  connection over an extended period of time. Whereas we fetishize newness and novelty and like the early days. Look, you know, if, if Jack and Rose on the Titanic, if he had lived, you know, Leonardo DiCaprio's character had lived, eventually she would have been like, all right, when are you going to get a job and stop painting the French girls? Like, what's going on here, buddy? Like, thank God there wasn't room on that door for him. Because fundamentally, that relationship ended before it could turn into the slings and arrows of daily life for human beings. That's the stuff we have to recognize is the nuts and bolts of relationship. And that's the stuff that we actually really want, if we're honest with ourselves. It's not super sexy though. It's the day-to-day

• 22:54Speaker 02

  life of, of two people connecting to each other.

• 22:57Scott Galloway?

  Yeah, the scale here is really dramatic. In 1980, 90% of 35-year-old men had been married. Now it's 60%.

• 23:05Speaker 02

  Wow.

• 23:05Scott Galloway?

  And roughly a third of today's young adults are projected to never marry. And I always go to the economics. I think about this stuff a lot, and it is multi-dimensional. But if you were to try and pick one thing, the causal evidence would point to the decline or the economic decline of the American male.

• 23:24Scott Galloway?

  Economists point to the China trade shock, and that is when manufacturing jobs vanished and men's earnings fell, marriage and fertility fell right along with it. And that is, look, 78% of women's state economic viability is key to a mate. It's only 25% of men. So when young men are less economically and emotionally viable, there's just going to be less partnering. In addition, women are stepping up and their criteria are increasing, which is understandable. And also, they're not as economically indentured or panicked and feel like they've got to enter into a mediocre or a bad marriage. You also have very basic mundane things. There's fewer venues for them to meet and approach each other and for the man to demonstrate excellence.

• 24:09Scott Galloway?

  70 to 80% of couples that have been together longer than 30 years say one was more interested in the other in the beginning, and it was usually the male. But the male was, you know, he was so kind to his parents at church, I fell in love with him. He was great at work. He was funny. I liked the way he danced. 40% of pubs and bars in Britain have closed. Where remote work, remote schooling, lack of church attendance? Where are men supposed to demonstrate the excellence to a anthropologically much more selective female species?

• 24:43Speaker 02

  Well, and let's be honest about the options that are presented to women now. They're so far beyond anything that men have put in front of them. I mean, I jokingly tell my friends whenever they talk about like, you know, a hall pass in relationship where, you know, they say like, oh, my hall pass is Angelina Jolie. And like, oh, her hall pass is Brad Pitt. Okay, the chances of Brad Pitt, if a woman says, hey, do you want to go have a quickie? Saying yes to that is much better than if I went to Angelina Jolie and said, oh, by the way, you know, I'm permitted to have sex with it. Like, she's getting, she's getting an influx of offers all day long. So the truth is, women are confronted constantly by endless amounts of options. And I'm smart enough to know, you know, I don't keep potato chips in my house because

• 25:25Speaker 02

  I know I can control my food environment better than I can control my brain. So when you're inundated with options of perfect people and you're in a relationship with an imperfect human being, like, one of the key metrics, I always tell people when they're talking to me about their relationship in real life, not in my professional life, I always tell them, like, are you comparing your wife or girlfriend to your imagined version of a perfect wife or girlfriend? Because I guarantee she's going to fall short if that's what you're comparing it to. Are you comparing yourself as a father to your imagined conception of a perfect father? Because you will fall short. Like, you have to compare real people to real people and not just in the like dating profile online or public facing social media persona, because

• 26:09Speaker 02

  that spanks on your personality at that point. Like, you're showing a very curated version of yourself. And then we're in relationship with people in the real day-to-day life, without makeup on, without filters on. So I think it's a real dishonesty to forget the fact that we're just being inundated now with options all the time and criticism all the time. And I think that's a perfect storm of relationship discontent.

• 26:36Scott Galloway?

  Yeah, I think our, everyone's expectations have gone up because of social media and men are bringing less to the table. So if expectations increase and men economically and emotionally are bringing less to the table, there's just can be a lack of connection. But there's some mundane features, too. Supposedly, housing prices are a form of birth control. Every 10% that housing prices have increased, marriage rates have declined by 1%. Because buying a house or saving for a house together is kind of, it creates momentum around monogamy. I think there's just so many features. Also, your, your happiness isn't a function of what you have. It's a function of your expectations relative to what you have. And I think every day, young people are hit with a series of expectations that make

• 27:21Scott Galloway?

  it almost impossible for any partner to live up to that, male or female. Also, something I don't like, and this may sound sexist, I think if you were to listen to any female-driven podcasts, and the majority of quote-unquote female thought leaders out there, there's just this underlying theme that all men are either irredeemable or incompetent. And you are handed, as a woman, I believe, so many red flags. What? He doesn't open your door? He doesn't send you an Uber? He doesn't ask follow-up questions? He's out. Well, okay, folks, you know, neither are perfect on, on either side. And what I recommend, you know, I advise a lot of young men around dating. And I say, the first question I ask them, would you have sex with you?

• 28:06Scott Galloway?

  When's the last time you worked out? Are you getting help on dressing? Do you have a plan for economic viability? Do you listen? Do you make an effort on dates? I'm not talking about spending a lot of money, but like putting in, demonstrating valor, demonstrating some creativity. Are you willing to endure rejection? Do you have the skills to find female friends so you can learn how to behave around them? Would you have sex with you? And then the advice I give to women, and I know much less about young women than men, is second coffee. And that is, while I've, I worry that you've been taught that the perfect man is out there. Let me just dispel the notion that that person exists. And I'm not suggesting that you date creeps, or that if you feel absolutely nothing, that you should continue to engage in the relationship.

• 28:51Scott Galloway?

  But if things just go okay, or even good on a first date, but it's not perfect, maybe think about a second coffee and just see if he has the ability to start demonstrating more valor and more excellence. Because every mammal has a courtship period where they have to demonstrate over and over an ability to bring you a mouse, or to, to dance higher, or to beat up another male, you know, in a bullfight, or whatever it is. Are you giving anyone the opportunity to demonstrate excellence?

• 29:23Speaker 02

  Yeah, I think the best thing about romantic love is also the scariest thing about it. And that is that I think our greatest fear as humans is not that we won't find love and we won't fall in love and we won't feel love. I think our greatest fear is that we're not worthy of love. I think there's this feeling that if you really knew me, like, if you could see inside me and see all the weakness and all the shit I need to work on and all the things I get wrong, like, like, if you like me, if you love me, it must be that you bought this persona. You bought the, the bright ties and bullshit that I'm selling. Because if you saw the real me, the part of me that's insecure, that has things to work on, that's scared, you wouldn't really love me.

• 30:08Speaker 02

  And romantic love at its best is someone saying, no, I see the whole thing. Like, I see the parts of you you need to work on. I see the parts of you that are beautiful and vibrant. I see all the stuff that's in you, and I love you. Like, I love that stuff. I love the stuff you need to work on because it's what makes you human. And when you allow yourself, when you're brave enough, and it, and it requires bravery. And if you're not scared, it's not brave. Like, you have to be scared for something to be brave. I think if you can be brave enough to lean in to saying, I'm going to show this person my true self, all the stuff in me, so I can really feel their love, that's the most rewarding thing in the world. But in a culture, like you said, where we're constantly being inundated, particularly

• 30:53Speaker 02

  women, with images of, well, here's what he's getting wrong, but yeah, he's good at this, but what about this? It's very scary for men or women to acknowledge to another person, other than maybe their therapist or their closest friend, yeah, there's stuff I got to work on, there's stuff I don't get right, there's weakness in me, there's fear in me. But, but if you can be brave enough to be vulnerable that way, and we can give each other the kind of grace we want other people to give to us, I, I think that, again, it's the, it's the hardest thing about love, and it's also, if we can find it, the most redeeming, wonderful, beautiful thing about love. It's why we keep trying. It's why, you know, we, we focus a lot on 50% or so of divorces, you know, of marriages ending catastrophically in divorce. But 86% of people remarry within five years of their divorce.

• 31:38Speaker 02

  What does that tell you? But that even when this catastrophically fails, we, we go back right to the casino and we try again. We're like, let's, let's keep going with this thing because there's something in us that knows that this is something we need.

• 31:52Scott Galloway?

  Especially men. I want to talk, just as we wrap up here, a little bit around solutions. We recognize that relationships are a net positive for people, especially even more so for men. Widows are happier after their husband dies. Widowers are less happy. If a man hasn't cohabitated with a woman or been married by the time he's 30, there's a 1 in 3 chance he's going to be a substance abuser. We recognize that relationships are good. So how do we get through, if you will, this sex extinction event or these relationship crises? And I think there are three things we need to focus on. The first is just basic economics. If we keep transferring money from young to old, and young people don't have economic viability, it's going to be harder for them to plan, to get together, to present a future to each other where they're economically viable.

• 32:36Scott Galloway?

  The average 70-year-old is 72% wealthier than they were 40 years ago. The average 25-year-old is 24% less wealthy. We need to stop the transfer of wealth and opportunity from young to old. The second is, I think in this, I think we should have mandatory national service. If you look at the number of friends, mentors, and maids, people found in the IDF or in Singapore during national service, I think it's an incredible leveler. I think it's an opportunity to meet people, be in the company and the agency of other people. I think that would go a long way towards not only restoring our patriotism, but also give people a chance to, a chance to meet. Also, I think remote work and the anti-alcohol movement have been really bad for mating.

• 33:22Scott Galloway?

  And the only way I think you fix that is with a series of tax credits that say, okay, if you're a place where young people get together, Third Spaces, a third space is a place where people get together not to work and not to sleep, we're going to provide you with some sort of economic incentive. You can qualify for that economic incentive, by the way, if there's dancing. I think dancing is a huge component of mating that unfortunately has gone away. And also, while I, I think you need to be cognizant of addiction. And whether or not people are telling you that alcohol makes you a lesser person, or it's getting in the way of your professional life, I do think this anti-alcohol movement is getting in the way of relationships. And that is, you know, I've jokingly said and gotten some pushback, but there's some truth in this.

• 34:06Scott Galloway?

  I think young people need to drink more and make a series of bad decisions that might pay off. But I think all of the, all of the cards right now, James, are stacked against people, you know, every person I've had a relationship with, I didn't initially think, oh, this is absolutely the right thing. This just makes all the sense. You know, anyways, a series, a series of like, welcome, I don't want to call them mistakes, but a little bit of throwing caution to the wind, taking some risks. Go ahead, I'll give you the last word here.

• 34:34Speaker 02

  I gotta tell you, I'd never thought about dancing before, but as soon as you said it, I actually thought, you know, dancing is actually a phenomenal entry point because dancing can be a demonstration of competence, right? Like, oh, I'm good at this, I've practiced it. Or it can be a demonstration of like self-effacing confident humor. Like, yeah, I suck at dancing, but I'm just gonna, yeah, but I'm gonna get into, I'm really gonna, you know, like, I'm terrible at this, but I'm gonna just move my body fearlessly.

• 34:59Scott Galloway?

  Yeah, I'm a bad dancer, but I enjoy it anyways.

• 35:02Speaker 02

  Yeah, like, it's so many, dancing is a great example of lack of confidence, overconfidence, incredible competence, lack of competence and no awareness of it, which is kind of endearing and cute sometimes in people. Like, it's a great opportunity. And by the way, moving your body and, and moving your body with another person in a way that isn't necessarily sexual, but isn't asexual either. So I think that actually is, I've never really thought about it before, but as soon as you said it, I was like, you know what, there is something about people being in a space, moving their bodies together, whether it's yoga, whether it's dance, whether it's, but something where dancing is a great metaphor of that, and I think it's a great opportunity. Plus, you have to put your damn phone down for five seconds, which would probably be the best thing that would happen to anybody under 30 right now.

• 35:45Scott Galloway?

  Yeah, and occasionally make eye contact. All right, that's all for this episode. James Sexton, also known as America's Divorce Lawyer, is a trial lawyer with two decades of experience negotiating and litigating high conflict divorces. James, I really enjoyed this. Thanks so much for joining us today.

• 35:59Speaker 02

  It was a blast. Always fun to see you, Scott.

• 36:02Scott Galloway?

  This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez and Laura Janer. Kami Rique is our social producer, Brad Williams is our editor, and Drew Burrows is our technical director. Thank you for listening to the Prop G Pod from Prop G Media.