Nick
Appearances
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
You go to New York much? Never. I close my house. I basically, I trick my wife. You know how your wife always wants to renovate your house? No idea. No idea what that's like. My wife always wants to renovate my house, right? Every minute I've been alive, my wife has wanted to renovate parts of my house. So we moved out once a year and a half ago.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
And I went to learn how he picked the judges, right? And the Supreme Court and why it didn't. And I'm just very detailed. And so I started studying what transition is, right? And I started studying it. and I started studying tariffs. because he wanted to talk about tariffs. And he's always thought the trade deficit was wrong and basically a rip-off of America.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
And I started studying everything about it. And so he and I would talk about it. And we knew everything about it. And then he picked me to run Transition.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
I'll give you an example. So there's a book called The Gatekeepers that was written. And people gave me, oh, you should read this book. And it's about chiefs of staff. And basically, there's another way to call it. It's called the jerks, right? Because what they do, imagine you're the gatekeeper. You're the gatekeeper of what? Of the man who was elected president of the United States of America?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
He needs the gates kept from him? And if you listen to Nixon tapes, You hear him scheming to try to learn anything. Because what happens is the chief of staff, everybody reports to the chief of staff and the chief of staff reports to you. So you can't get on Air Force One without asking the chief of staff. You can't get a document unless you have the chief of staff.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Like literally the rubber chicken. So sort of every night you go out. And so the boss of my company, Bernie Cantor, he got tired of going. So he didn't want to go. So he would send me with his wife. And I would be her walker. I'm the 30-year-old CEO of the company. And I'd take her to the party. And after the party, I'd put her in a limo. And she'd go home. And DJT would say, well, let's go out.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
No one can come see you unless you have the chief of staff. And if they take your phone away, you know what you are? You're imprisoned. And that's the gatekeepers. So I said to Donald Trump, I said, look, You fired Reince Priebus, who was your chief of staff. Then you fired John Kelly, who was the chief of staff. Then you fired Mick Mulvaney as the chief of staff.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Then you would have fired Meadows, but you didn't get a chance because of the next election. So I said, why don't you fire the job? What you need is a chief of staff who's actually a chief of staff, not who's the gatekeeper. Right. Right. And so that was an example of how I changed it. And so Susie Wiles is perfect for Donald Trump. You know why? She lets him be him.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
John Kelly took away his phone. So he couldn't communicate with anyone. Whereas Susie embraces who he is, helped him get elected, ran a great campaign. She's perfect for him. in this role. And so that's what I brought. So I brought like an understanding of him. Right. And an understanding of the role. Right. And that's why I convinced your friend, David Sachs. Every time he said, I can't do it.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
I would call him and say, it's an emergency. It's emergency. I need to see you. He'd fly and go, what is it? I go, you need to join the administration. He goes, that's what the emergency was. I go,
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Okay, so Doge comes, it's October of, before the election.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Early October. October 2024. October 2024. Yeah. Like the beginning of October 2024. And I called the president and I said, I need to spend an hour with you.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
i have my big ideas yeah right so he gives me he says look i'm not sure what to do october 7th right why don't we figure out what i should be doing october 7th so we decided we're going to go out to the oh hell which is uh uh a super religious uh hasidic jewish um messiah you know the people who wear black hats think he's the messiah and they have a crypt for him where you write a note and you put a note in all right and so
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
We agreed we'd go out to that grave site and we'd probably win 60,000 of those kind of voters, which is pretty cool for a day. And then we drove there and back together, the two of us. So I had an hour and a half, just he and me talking. And I said, I want to balance the budget in the United States of America. And this is the way we're gonna do it.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
No one's ever checked the just under $4 trillion of entitlements. Every politician thinks what you have to do is you have to take the retirement age from 65 and make it a 70. And you have to do this and this and this and this because they never think about the money. But people like us would say, what's the first thing you do? What's the value I'm getting from my money? Right?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
And what you find is if nobody ever, like as in ever, like I could say the word ever 12 times, has looked at where the money goes. And so there's not even a process to get it back when you send it to the wrong person. You just send another one out. Like, think about it. You just, well, I sent it accidentally. Accidentally. Notice how it's accidental.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
It's always accidentally sent to the wrong person. Really, you wouldn't ever say the 5.9 million people who work for the government, there could be some crooks in there. No, no, no. It's all accidental. What a load of nonsense this is. There's some percentage of this. But you would say... And you would say. No, just zero base it and let's figure out where. It's got to be 25%.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
We'd all say if it's never been checked, how could it not be 25%? Right. How could it not be?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
And the answer is that's a trillion dollars a year.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Okay. So I said, I think we're going to cut a trillion dollars a year in expense. And then I think we can, through tariffs and other means, we're going to get revenues of a trillion dollars.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Incremental revenue. And we're going to balance the budget.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
There is zero basis. Zero basis. Where I was yesterday and where I am tomorrow, I get, oh, it's a tax cut. No, it's not. It's the exact same thing as yesterday as today. To say continuing yesterday, tomorrow, He's like, silly.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
No, we'll talk about tariffs. Let's just finish. Let's just finish Doge. So I'm in the car with him, right? And I said, we're going to balance the budget. And I said, but I have one favor to ask of you. If we can balance the budget for you, will you agree to waive all income tax for every person who makes less than $150,000 a year for the United States of America.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
And so we'd go out. It wasn't planned. But he was at the party. He was 45. I'm at the party 30. And we chased the same girls. It worked out fine. And by the way, Here's the thing about Donald Trump. He was the most famous, the most fun, the most interesting person 30 years ago, 33 years ago. I mean, here's the best thing. He's been on the cover of Time magazine 59 times. No way.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Which, by the way, is about 85% of America. And the reason you want to work for Donald Trump is he looks at me and goes, sure. You realize the President of the United States said, if you balance the budget, sure. And he's not lying. He's not kidding. He's like, yeah, that seems like a great idea. Right? And so... And then I tell him, okay, I'm gonna go recruit Elon. Because Elon's all in, right?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
He's already said he's all in. He's already said he's going to Pennsylvania, right? So I call Elon and I don't know Elon. I don't know, but he's perfect for this. So I use my superpower, which is I call everybody else I know who knows him and they arrange and I'm texting with him and he agrees to meet me on October 14th. So I fly down to Brownsville, Texas. He's gonna catch the rocket.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
on October 14th. So he invites me down for the rocket catch. He's not inviting me for the rocket catch. He's just inviting me down that that's a good day for me to meet him. So I fly down, I see the rocket catch, which is awesome. Awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome. And then I expect to meet him.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Okay, so I flew down to see Elon and with with my with my son and So we watched the rocket right and then they said, okay He's gonna go hang out with his engineers and party with them Seems reasonable. It's like our hour and a half and then he just goes dark and
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
I'm just sitting there waiting. And then they take me and I go to like the equivalent of a Margaritaville, you know, where you have like a basket and you can get quesadillas. And you get a Diet Coke and a red sort of plastic thing that's about this tall. I got 4,000 ounces of Diet Coke in it that comes in this big. Love that.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
But now, to his credit, he sends me all the executives from SpaceX are hanging with me. But he's dark. And what happened is he took a nap. He was up all night doing the engineering and he went to sleep. So then when he finally wakes up, so I'm just sitting there like, you know, doing the, like, I don't know him really. So I'm just doing the thumb twiddle.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
I'm going, okay, you know, this guy's- You had a couple cases of years.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
So then he wakes up, he says, come to my house. right i'll see you in my house so his house is 1200 square feet it's got the furniture in it that i had when i graduated from college yeah right okay i'm not kidding i'm not kidding it's 1200 square feet and it's got the furniture plastic chairs and okay so i say um we're gonna balance the budget i need to cut a trillion he's like i'm in
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
He says, I think we should cut 80% of the federal government because the essential employees, if the government shut down, essential employees are 450,000. And there's 5.9 million people who work for the government. How can 450,000 be essential and there's 5.9 million? So he says, like Twitter, I think we should cut 80%. And I say, I know how to cut 50%. And he says, I want to cut 80.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
I said, I know how to do 50. He goes, are you with me or against me? I go, I know how to legally do it. What do you have? And my son says it was like two alpha dogs just like fighting with each other for the first half hour. And then, so then X comes in, right? And then he's got to walk X. He's got to walk his son X out. So he walks his son X out. And I'm thinking maybe the meeting's over.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Because we've been together a half hour, 40 minutes, and maybe it's over. Because he got up and he walked out and he comes back and he sits down and he goes, Howard, this meeting is... That's what it says. And we sit down and we map out the plan. I tell them what a gratis vendor is. Because I designed, because I was not going to go into the government. I was doing transition.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
What is a gratis vendor? A gratis vendor is an approved vendor for the United States of America that gives product to the government. It doesn't sell it. So therefore, I don't have to go through the whole process of becoming a proper vendor because you're giving it to us. And then if you give it to Article 2, which is the president's stuff, then the president can accept it. Right?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Because it's give. Sorry, what's an example of this? I write some software.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
I write some software for the Commerce Department to do a better job of X, Y, Z. You just give it to me. and then I do QA on it, and I can take it. If you sell it to me for $1, we go into government hell. Right, the whole rigmarole. Right, but if you give it to me, right, and then I set up, you know, so I said, I'm calling it Doge, and I registered the name Doge.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
And were you familiar with Dogecoin? Of course, it's Elon. So what happens is, in the Defense Production Act in World War II, Yes. In order to get all the great executives of America to help with production, they named everything after jazz singers or everything. Of the people who were on the committee, that it would make them laugh and smile.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
And then he leans over to me and he goes, and 20 were good. Like, but who can take that? I mean, who could take it? Like other people, when you have a bad cover of Time Magazine, you'd crumple, right, and be sand on the floor. Instead, he's like, bring it.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Right? So I picked a doge so he would laugh and smile. And he said, get the F out of here. Like when I said, we're going to name it Doge, the Department of Government Efficiency, which I didn't think of. It was on the internet sort of floating around in June.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Right? But I literally registered it. Right. As the Department of Government Efficiency, like make it a real thing as a gratis vendor. And I said, this is how I've done it for me. Yes. So that I can run Canada Fitzgerald. You can run SpaceX. Right. You're not you don't have to sign the conflict form and all this stuff because you're not working for the government. You just
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
giving stuff to the government. You are literally giving of yourself. But you're not looking for anything. You're not taking any money. You're not owning anything. You're not doing anything. You're not on that side of the wall. You're on this side. You're outside. And so we had fun. We talked for two hours.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
And then on my Twitter feed, I took a picture of me and Elon outside, and I put up, welcome to Doge. We are going to rip the waste out of our $6.5 trillion government and balance the budget. We must elect Donald J. Trump president. And I posted that with my, I probably at the time had 25,000 viewers, and I got 45 million views. Wow. Right. So it was me and Eli.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
And that was the beginning of Doge. Yeah. Right. Then I ran transition, which is so for the transition, I had a room in Mar-a-Lago. Big conference table in the middle. Four 85-inch screens on one side and a mirror of four 85-inch screens on the other side so that you and I could talk to each other. So the president sat across from me. Elon sat.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Oh, and then I'll tell you one other story about Elon. So he wins the election. President wins the election. He accepts it like Wednesday at 2 o'clock in the morning. Elon's not on stage. If you see, I'm on stage. Elon's way in the back of the room. There's 1,000 people in the room, 2,000 people. He's way in the back. He goes home. Thursday afternoon, I call.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
I'm doing a dry run of the launch of my transition, right? And the president is superstitious. He's never had one conversation with me about transition. He totally trusts me. He wins the election. Now he's got a... You know, I'd sit on Jesse Waters already.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
No, about one job, about one thing.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Because he's superstitious. He's superstitious. Like, don't waste your time. Don't jinx it. Right? Just go win. You gotta go win. So what happens is he... So I'm doing a dry run. So I call Elon. And I say, where are you? He goes, what do you mean? I'm in Austin, Texas. Whatever. I go, what are you doing? I mean, what is the point?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
of you spending three weeks living in Pennsylvania helping the guy get elected if you're not gonna help him pick the cabinet? Like come on, right? Because the way President Trump works, he makes decisions by orchestra. He likes lots of views and opinions. He likes them. And anybody who says, oh, the last person who sees him gets him, that's because they don't know him at all.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
The answer is, it's an orchestra. And I would say, OK, I'm the first violin. At the time, I would describe myself as second violin. So this is an orchestra. So the president's not going to make a decision with me and him alone. No, no, he's gonna have, so it went like this. President sitting across from me, right? At the conference table, Elon to his left, Susie to his right, right?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
JD to my left, Lyndon McMahon, who was my co-chair, right? But she wrote all those EOs that he did. That was, she was responsible for, and I was responsible for personnel, but she was with me for personnel. So she's sitting to my right, JD sitting to my left, Don Jr., right, Stephen Miller, and he, there was always 12 people in the room.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
They were never like me and him hushed in the corner doing this or that, never. And what we would do is I would put eight candidates on one screen, right? And then big candidate on each screen. Most beautiful AI picture of you you've ever seen. And people would walk in and go, where'd you get that photo? I'm like, what do you think I did? I took three of your photos.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
So what happened is a big picture of the person. They're key highlights of the resume, not boring. With their education.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Right? And then you would click a button and you'd see him speaking. 20 seconds at a time, four of them. Right? So it was about 80 seconds. And you're not speaking about the job. Right. Just like, how do you present?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
And what you can see is his whole cabinet. can talk. All of them. Because he picked them knowing I need you to be able to talk, to be able to present our ideas and our concepts out there. And that's key to him. And the way I would joke to people is, how do you do it? I go, watch. Pitch. So you'd throw him a curveball. He wouldn't swing. You'd throw him a fastball, he wouldn't swing.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
adds energy to him. So everybody else's energy, what they don't understand is people bring negative energy to Donald Trump and they're just charging his battery. Your energy around him comes to him. So when I come at him with a lot of energy, he comes back with a lot of energy. It doesn't matter. He never steps back. He just sort of takes it like the centrifuge and then hurls it back at you.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
You'd throw him a slider, he hits the ball, hits it to my glove, I go, here you go. You go, well, how do you know that? I go, because I know the guy for 33 years. I know what he wants. And he loved the process. And you know what happened? You saw what happened, right? First day, eight candidates, 12 jobs, national security. Okay, he says, what do you want? I go, eight to four.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
I put up eight candidates. I recruited everybody. I had 150 of the best Republicans in the United States of America. They each gave me five people, who then gave me 10 people. I had thousands of people to pick from. The whole government was set up to pick from. And then we picked candidates. I had eight for every job. Eight, eight, eight, eight. Eight to four, that's Friday.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Sunday comes in, four to two. In the morning, I fly everybody in for the two. I prep them. We go in and meet them, two to one, final interview, give them the job. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. Monday, we're done with national security. Okay, now we're rolling on and it just pounds out. Why? Because he had every candidate. Everybody knew it. Everybody was prepped. Everybody was aware.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Everybody was done. You know, that's why I had to beat the heck out of David Sachs because I needed David Sachs to be in the government. I recruited David. I pounded on David. You can ask David, right? I beat him and beat him and beat him until he finally said, okay, I'm going to do it. And I did that for everybody. And I made sure he had the greatest choices.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
And then every once in a while he would call me at night and say, throw this guy in, throw this guy in, throw this guy in. We did a vet on everybody, but I didn't take out anything negative. I am not a negative person, you can tell. I'm positive. So why would I discuss anything negative about any candidate? Until they get picked.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
He was tortured by his attorney general in the first term. And we were not going to have that ever again. So we needed strong backbone, strong capacity, of which Matt Gaetz has it. And I know Matt Gaetz, and he has it. But we did not know what that vet was gonna say from that report from Congress. So here was the idea. We fight for him. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
And he's been that way always. So this is not new.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
We moved out for a year and a half, about six years ago. And she only did half the house. And she still rues the day that she only did half the house.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
This is who he is. So those other people who attack him, they think they're attacking him. They're charging his battery. They're literally charging his battery. So he comes back bigger, stronger, bigger, stronger. And once you understand the man, the most intuitive person that you've ever met. And people say, well, okay, so people who know me, I don't suffer fools.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
And they have all these derogatory, all my left liberal friends, all these derogatory statements about the guy. And they know me really well. And they'd say, well, how can you work for him? I'd say, how can I work for him? The most intuitive person, he senses it, he knows it. He calls me up and he says, Panama Canal. That's racist, because Panama Canal, it just feels wrong.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
And then he sends me on the quest to go, I didn't do anything, I just start the quest to go look at it. The mouth that's east is a deep-water port by the Chinese. The mouth that's west is a deep-water port by the Chinese. They're building bridges over it, so our ships and our military ships should go under In our hemisphere, a Chinese bridge. So then I said, okay, let's go prove it.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
, , , , ,, P P P P P P P P P P ac la ac ac ac ac ac ac ac ac ac ac ac ac ac ac ac ac ac ac ac ac ac ac ac ac P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P gi wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh wh th th em th em th em th em th em th em th em th em th em th em th in th in th in th in th in th in th in th in th is th in th in th in th in th in th in th in th in th in th in th in
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
a trillion of waste, fraud, and abuse out, and then make a trillion from having other people and resetting global trade. And once you understand global trade and how it makes sense and where it came from.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
I'm going to give you a sad example. And so help us understand, are people going to lose their jobs? I'm going to give you a sad example. We all remember during the COVID, there was the PPP money. Remember that? Yeah, totally. So it was proven that $200 billion of the $1.2 trillion was going to Chinese fraud gangs.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Is that proven? You just make up a company, you know, Joe's Deli. You make it up, Joe's Deli, right? Say you're in trouble, file, and they sent you money. So why wouldn't Chinese gangs do that? Come on. So we show, not we, but people showed the government, those people, that money. And instead of stopping, they said, yeah, but we can't stop because there are real people who need the money.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
And so what happens is because no one's ever been fired, ever, for sending money to the wrong place, people send it on purpose. I'm not saying everybody sends it on purpose. I'm saying there are some people who send it on purpose, some people who are complete morons, and an enormous number of people who work for the government who are awesome. I mean, amazing people, right? But what percentage?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
So I have a friend of mine, he owns a big shipping company. I said, take two iPhones, put them on a stand, and just go through the Panama Canal. The Panama Canal, they sort of drag ships through like this. And I said, just go video both ways. Just video both ways. 70% of every letter is Chinese. Then I'm talking like the size of container ships, the stores, like I'm not talking like. The signage.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
There's 5.9 million people who work for the government. You're like, Wow, that's like so many and we're paying them all and how many do you really need?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
I mean if the answer is two million Wow, and we could talk about how We understand it and how we're going to retrain society for the AI Industrial Revolution is coming which is going to create the greatest set of jobs and greatest set of growth ever ever okay, but that but then we could talk about that but the key is
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
stop sending money to the wrong place so we can make sure we can always defend sending money to the right place. I would Never allow, if I can stand it, to not pay somebody who retired at 65 their benefits.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
I find it disgusting when we're the richest country in the world and some politician says, in order to save Social Security, rather than getting rid of the waste, fraud, and abuse, we should move it to 70. How about no? How about we're rich enough to give people the benefit of the bargain of being a great American. But let's put great people in charge. That's really well said.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
So I remind people that On the Earth, there was the Dark Ages. So the Dark Ages meant that the world knew how to read. And then because of religious and other actions, they burned all the books. And literally, the Earth stopped learning how to read for 500 years or 400 years. We didn't know how to read. And we knew how to read before. So how could you forget?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
So America was built on tariffs with no income tax. No income tax till 1913. None. Greatest, richest country in the world. So when Donald Trump says, make America great again. What he's talking about is from 1880 to 1913, when the country had so much money that we had blue ribbon commissions, which you guys would have been on, to try to figure out how to spend the money. And no income tax.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Yeah. So that was the deal. What I did is I bought a house in Washington. I said, do you want to renovate the house? She said, yeah. I said, great. We hired a contractor. Wait, you bought Brett Baker's house, no?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Then we put in the income tax in 1913. Why? Because we're entering World War I. And don't we all need to contribute to protect democracy and to protect our way of life? Then what happens is the world goes into chaos. We come out of chaos, right? And then we're starting to think of, well, what do we do? What do we do? And then 1929, the stock market crashes, right?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
1933, we start to say, oh, God, we forgot. We need to do tariffs. 1933, how can you do tariffs when the markets crash, the world's going into depression, and you're going to do tariffs in 1933? You can't charge the rest of the world money unless the rest of the world's okay. That's right. So it was... Too little, too late. So then we come out of World War II. It's 1945.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
We need to rebuild the world. So we decide we're gonna take our tariffs down. And we'll let them, here's the key, we'll let them have tariffs be up. And we will export the power. of our economy to let them rebuild. And we let them rebuild. And that's what happens. So 1945, we have the Marshall Plan, right? And we do it in Japan, of course, because they need to be rebuilt.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
What's the difference, right? So they need to be rebuilt. And then what happens? We have the 50s and we have the Korean War. So we let them rebuild, which means low tariffs here, high tariffs there. Low tariffs here, high tariffs there. Then we have the Vietnam War, right? So now all of a sudden we have all of Southeast Asia. Low tariffs here, high tariffs there.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
You know what the best example I can give you to make it crystal clear? Kuwait. We spend almost $100 billion freeing Kuwait, right? You know who has the highest tariffs against the United States of America? The number one country with the highest tariffs against the United States of America? Kuwait. And you think, What? That's insane. But here's what it is.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Just random signage like you're riding on a road. It's all Chinese. And then I do the research and I call him back and I say the magic words between me and him. I have your path. which is I've done it, I've done the legal work, I've done everything, right? So when you start talking about it, you have a foundation. It's not just you talking. So people think he's just talking.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
If you go back to this understanding the way America thinks, you need to be rebuilt. You were just destroyed, right? All their oils were, you remember red, the guy's name was red something. And he was the guy who capped all the, there were fires in all the oil wells and he capped them all. And it was amazing. So we let them put up high tariffs. But you know what the problem is? then we forget.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
And we let it go. So Donald Trump comes in and says, it's gotta stop.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
So Donald Trump gets elected 2016. Who understands this? Okay? Let me give you a hint. Donald J. Trump. Who else? Nobody.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Right? You'd say, wow, he understands. And how long has he been talking about it? 40 years. Why? Because in the 80s, he's saying, what are you doing?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Okay. India, has a 50% tariff on average, 50. We have on average four, okay? I would say to the person who said that, can I ask you a question? What are you talking about? They're 50 and four. Here's what you're talking about. When we're all equal, And everything is free and fair. If you raise tariffs and they raise tariffs, isn't it bad for society? The answer is, of course it is.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
But there's two differences. Number one, let's do human beings first. Before we go to the math, let's go to human beings. Once upon a time, we had an auto industry in Detroit and in Ohio.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
But Detroit then some genius named Bill Clinton signs the North American free trade agreement or Corporations you can screw Americans and go get cheap labor in Mexico and break the unions by going to Canada now if you were a General Motors I'd say It's like my birthday. Yeah, but if you're a worker and who comes from Michigan or Ohio, they just signed, you know what they signed?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
He's never just talking. He has people behind him who bring him his foundational structural outcome. And then what does he do? He went and played golf that afternoon. He called me at seven in the morning. He said, what do you got? We talked from seven to eight. He went and played golf. And that afternoon, there's the American flag in the middle of the Panama Canal in some truth he puts out.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Worst statistic I'm gonna tell you today, average life expectancy. of high school educated workforce. So by the way, United States of America, two thirds is high school educated, one third is college educated. The difference today of average life expectancy between those two categories is seven years. Seven year average life expectancy.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
It's not the air, it's not the food, it's not the medicine, it's despair. My grandfather worked in the auto factory. My father worked in the auto factory. I have a good life. I'm going to do Friday Night Lights and football. I mean, it's going to be a good life. I have a good middle-class life. I'm a member of the United Auto Workers. Life is going to be good. The factory moves to Mexico.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
And I am just screwed because the government of the United States of America didn't care about industrial policy and didn't protect me at all and let cheap labor in Mexico. I'm sure the Mexican people went from $4 an hour to $5 an hour and they're kicking it. But I destroyed you.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
And that is incredible failure of industrial policy, which nobody wants to talk about, but you talk about it as average life expectancy, and you're talking about it, about reshoring and building the life for the people who are America. That's why you elect Donald Trump president. You elect him because I didn't spend one minute doing politics. until he asked me to help him.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
But when he asked me to help him, I started spending time with him. When did I learn this? And who taught me this? The President of the United States. This is not me teaching him. You understand, this is him teaching me, and you can see him talking about it in the 80s. Right? He's been talking about this for a while. And what it does is it means resource.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
So number one, we have to care about human beings. That's a globalist view. Yes. If I take my production and move it to Mexico, it's better for me, Mr. Corporation. Okay? But it's not better for me, Mr. U.S. citizen of the United States of America who's working at a car plant. That's bad news for him. Okay? And that's number one. And now let's go to number two. which is the math of it all.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
If we say free and fair trade, I want to remind you, there ain't no such thing. There is no country in this world that is free trade, zero. And we are the lowest and the dumbest because everybody else is higher and more protective. So they protect their farmers. Here, I'm sitting at the dinner. Modi comes to town. And I say to him, when Donald Trump, we have dinner.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
And after the niceties, Donald said, go ahead, Howard. And I said, you have 1.4 billion people. And you brag to us how amazing your economy is. Why won't you buy a bushel of our corn? We'll buy a bushel of our corn. So our farmers can't go to him, but his, of course, can come at us. Right? Why is that okay?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
You know, and we can go into all the stuff that, oh, I mean, I don't even want to go into it because if I had another hour, I could regale you with stories that are fun with that.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Inflation comes from... Printing more money. Okay, let's say the United States of America had 1 trillion dollars. That's all we had. That's it. No more okay, and I Want to buy a bottle of water and you want to buy a bottle of water one came from America and the other one came from Fiji Right then and I tariff Fiji then that water is a dollar and a quarter and this water is a dollar and
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
And that's the fun part. So you work for the most intuitive guy, unbelievably smart, unbelievably thoughtful, who knows what he's doing. And it's so fun for me.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
That's not inflation. That means that one's more expensive. But I can choose to buy this one. Okay, so you're right. This toy might be more expensive and that toy's not. I get it, but that's not inflation. Here's inflation. Snap my fingers, now we have two trillion. That water's $1.50, that water's $1.25, everything's more expensive. That's inflation.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
So inflation without tariffs is everything's $1.25. Inflation with tariffs is $1.25 and $1.50. And so you have to understand inflation doesn't come from tariffs. Certain products, if I put a tariff on a mango, We can't grow mangoes in America. You just can't grow a mango. If you put a tariff on a mango, the mango would be more expensive.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
But if the president chose to put a tariff on a mango, then the mango is more expensive. That just becomes a consumption tax. It's like a sales tax. Right? It's a sales tax. It's a consumption tax. If I want to buy a mango, it costs more money.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
So then that's just like another version of income tax. How do you think about- Okay, so the idea is to not do that.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
That's the idea. The idea is to choose things that are going to reassure. Come here. This is so important. Hire my people. Bring it home.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Someone will say- $2 trillion so far. I mean, he's been in office, right? Like seven weeks, eight weeks? Yeah. $2 trillion of committed domestic production coming back because of his tariffs, right? TMC saying, I'll build semiconductor wafers. Yeah. In Arizona. Everything we do, they're going to build it here. That word is never coming.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Unless the tariffs. So what happens is you bring it here, you create the jobs here, and then they avoid the tariff.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
The beauty of putting Donald Trump in the White House is it's giant three-dimensional chess. So we all have Stockholm Syndrome for the Internal Revenue Service. We think we like the Internal Revenue Service. We don't say it, but when we say we're going to charge a tariff And other countries who lean on us, who rely on us, who bleed on us, who can't live without the oxygen that is our economy.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Because remember, the thing about our economy is while we have a $29 trillion GDP, we are the consumer economy. of 20 trillion. And this is the key thing. We buy everybody's stuff. So who's more important? Let's say they have an economy that produces stuff and we have an economy that buys stuff. The customer's always right. We all know the customer's always right because
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
If no one buys it, they can't produce it. So everybody needs our economy. When? Now. I mean, to the fact that China consumes less than 10 trillion and primarily tries to figure out how to sell it to itself. So they don't buy anybody else's stuff. So we are the world's consumer. We're the world's customer. So that's point number one. So we want them to come here, and if they can't come here,
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
What if you pass? Okay, now let's say there was a 20% tariff. And in order to sell his goods, he knows he can raise the price 10%, but he can't really raise it 20. So he eats 10 and the price goes up 10. Let's just say. That 20 goes into the conference of the United States of America from the president of the United States who said, we're going to balance the budget.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
And then his goal is to drive down income tax in the United States of America, including a waiving tax. So what has he said so far? With that in his pocket, knowing that this is what we're going to try to do, what does he announce? No tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on social security. Why is he saying those things?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Right, because he knows that he's got, Elon's gonna cut, and Howard's gonna raise, and he's gonna have the tools to deliver on his promise. Literally the money. More money for folks to spend. And they'll have more money to spend, right? So if you actually get the external revenue service, right, which of course I named, you know I named it, but you know what the funny part is?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
I came up with the name. I wrote a truth, right? And I sent it to DJT and I wrote, this is my huge idea, you know, with one of those things that goes like this. You know, like this is my huge idea. Right? And because it's the external revenue service. But it only matters because I work for him. Because if I worked for Joe Biden or anybody else, they wouldn't care at all.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
So the fact that he loves a great idea, the minute you say it, and it becomes his idea, my idea is useless. A good idea in his hands is all the value in the world. So the external revenue service, if we went back to Make America Great Again, which is pre-1913, which is let them pay, you don't pay.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
That's a beautiful house. I can talk about whatever you want, by the way. I'm happy to talk about serious things, casual things.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
And what that means is let them pay, try to balance the budget, try to waive tax on everybody who makes less than $150,000. And look what you did for America. Holy moly, look what you did. And by the way, labor costs come smashing down. Because it's tax-free. So if their earnings are tax-free, then they're happy to work because they get the money.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
So what happens is cost of labor comes down because we're run correctly as a government.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
John Paulson had a call with Donald Trump and was talking to Donald Trump and was kicking around the idea of we should sell, right? Why do we give away visas? We should sell them. And they're talking about it. Donald Trump calls me, gets me on the phone, right? We all talk about it, right? And then we go from there. And then my job is to figure out, like I always figure out, how to do it.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Well, no, I wasn't the finance chair. I was the transition chair. Transition chair. Okay, so I ran transition, which we'll talk about. But so let's go through. So I'm friends with him, right? But I'm building my business, young guy building my business. And then 9-11 happens. Yeah. So, I'm friends with the guy. I'm just friends with the guy. But then 9-11 happens.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
What's the path? Let's go figure it out. Of course, about two weeks from today, it goes... Elon's building me the software right now. And then out it goes. And by the way, yesterday I sold 1,000. Oh, you did?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
So if you're a US citizen, you pay global tax. Yeah. So you're not going to bring in outsiders going to come in to pay global tax. So if you have a green card, which used to be a green card, now gold card, you're a permanent resident of America. You can be a citizen, but you don't have to be. And none of them are going to choose to be.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
What they're going to do is they're going to have the right to be in America. They'll be $5 million, and they have the right to be in America. They have the right to be in America. As long as they're good people. And they're vetted. And they're vetted. And they can't break the law. We can always take it away if they're like evil or mean or bad or something.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Not mean, but you know, if they do something horrible, you can take it away, right? But the idea is if I was not American and I lived in any other country, I would buy six. One for me, one for my wife and my four kids because God forbid something happens Want to be able to go to America and I want to have the right to go to the airport to go to America and then to Say hello, mr. Letnick.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Hello, mr. Lennox and the letnick family. Welcome home, right? That's what I want to hear I don't want to hear I can't come here when there's a you know, a horrible war a horrible whatever right? I want to be able to go home right and once I'm home and meh, might as well build a business. So you have the most productive people in the world gonna start spending time here.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
They're gonna have a family office. They're gonna hire some people. And you're not gonna tax their external worldwide income. They only tax the money they make in America, which is what we do now. But their global income stays out.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
There are 37 million people in the world who are capable of buying the card.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Now, I'm not saying they will, but they're capable of buying. How many do you think you'll sell? the president thinks we can sell a million.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
So the idea is, and it's going to go fast, meaning you apply. Right? We take your money and the way computers work now, they have these cool things, like these computer things.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
You put stuff in and they actually check everything. It's fantastic. You don't even have to plug them in anymore. It's amazing. They get the information through the air. I mean, you could do a better vet than anybody in government has ever done it before in one second. Better than they've ever done it before.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Kind, sweet, calls me all the time. Just good human being. Nice, warm, caring, good human being. But then I'm knocked out. So, what do I do next? I try to rebuild my company, take care of the families of 9-11. I lost 658 people who worked for me. And we had a policy. We want to work with people that we like. So when we had an opening, we didn't use headhunters.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Do you know why? There's always a reason. And the reason is, it's a great reason, which is that in the mid-70s, we changed the way government accounts for software. We took a 10-year contract, and you have to take the contract upfront. So if I'm signing a contract with you for 10 years, a million a year, I have to take it against my budget for 10 million, so I'm not doing it.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Where? Everywhere. Why? Because it's illogical. Now, what I'm doing is I'm saying, okay, I gotta collect tariffs. Right? So I go to one of the great software companies of the earth and I say, I want you to give me You're gonna build for me for America. You're gonna build the greatest customs processing ever. We're gonna take a photograph. It's gonna know what it is. It's gonna go through AI.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
It's gonna know what it is. It's gonna know what the tariff is. It's gonna determine the percentage. It's gonna know the weight. So when you weigh the thing plus the package, you'll know what it weighs. You don't even have to open it. It'll weigh exactly the right amount and you'll do this and that. And these are all things that I know and all things I could figure out.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Because you know the way gold works? A gold bar is about 40 pounds. You know the way I know that gold bars, they weigh it, and they weigh it out 13 digits of decimals. So basically, if you touch the thing, it's not going to be 13 digits of decimals. So you have a perfect scale, and you weigh it, and that's like the code.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Right? Because you can't touch it. If you touch it, you'll change the, and you can't get it right out 13 digits. It's just not possible. So that's what we do with stuff. You know what it weighs, right? Three t-shirts on it. If you're sending the same three t-shirts, they always wear the same But what's incredible is you're convincing?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
I say build it for me for free Yeah, I put it in for free. I Don't what other countries in the world you think gonna buy now? Right. If it works for us. Well, remember, you have to connect to me.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
So every country is going to buy.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
And it's a great business model. Right. If the greatest customer in the world says they'll take it.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Right? And you got a guy like me there.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
I mean... It's not that hard when you say it's free. You know, free is like not that hard. I mean, yes, it is... And then what I do is I get the head of that technology company, because then I use my superpower, which is my friendship with Donald Trump, and then I go in the Oval Office and we call them together. And we call the CEO together and make him promise the president.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Because promising Howard, he's like really nice. Promising DJT, that's something else entirely. So I get these guys to promise Donald Trump that they'll build it. Now let's see him renege. Yeah, that ain't gonna happen. So when you get Elon to say, I'm gonna build it for you, And he says in front of the president, like, how great is that?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
You got like the greatest technologist, the richest guy in the world, he says, I'll build it for you. You're like, thank God, right? And then I get, you know, I go to the heads of Google and Microsoft and Amazon, they're all,
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
for america building for us right for free right to make america better because they are great american companies and in exchange for that we're going to help them through all sorts of things that are towards fairness just towards fair because i you can't get me to do something outside the world of fairness but i tell you what if it's unfair
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
We would say to everybody at the firm, does anybody know anybody who'd do this job? And so, you know, young lady works for me says, you know, my best friend is an HR person. They have to have capacity, but once they have capacity, imagine we hire that person. Now what happens is it's not one big happy family, but people really, really care about the company.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
I'll be on your side as hard and as positive as I possibly can be.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
All right. So I'll give you an example that's sort of live right now. Yeah. Right? So we have DeepSeq. We have Quinn. We have Dobao. Yeah. Right? And I don't think We should be having apps in America. And I don't think we should have their website in America because they all go back home.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
But it's open source, and I want our American companies, including college students, to be able to download it and build on it. But I want to make sure that there's no part of it that says, send it home to Dada, or store now and analyze later. So I need that out. So what I want to do is I'm going to embrace what you guys know. You guys are used to product evaluations.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
So let's do a security vow.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Right? And say your industry, and you can't let it get overrun by Chinese. Because what happens is if there's a policy, right, all of a sudden 100,000 people from China come in and they say they're John Smith and Todd Peterson, right, but they're not. And then you think the vote is this way.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
And it's easily manipulated. So we have to be very careful. But my... First instinct is to lean on, and that's why I see it's important to have David Sachs as my partner, right? Someone who knows it and someone who can live and breathe the industry, right? And so what we're gonna have is we're gonna have security evaluation.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
and say if the security evaluation model says that this is a good model, then people can download it. But it's got to go through the industry. And I want it to feel and smell like what we're good at. I don't want to create like, oh, this is what government's doing. I don't want the government to do it. I want us to do it, but I've got to figure out the right way to do that.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
And that's important for America.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
And compete. The only thing I think I really need to do, and that's with regulatory, is post-quantum cryptography. Okay, I think that is vital to us. That's right. Yeah. Right? Yeah.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
No, I'm gonna put it out because, you know, we all have passwords, right? For those who are watching who don't know this, our password's called asymmetric, right? Yours is different than mine. Right. That's the key. and cryptography is just the computing. So asymmetric key cryptography, you have your password, I have mine, and they're the key. Obviously the central hub has our key, duh.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
A quantum computer we know can break all of them in a nanosecond. Like all of them in the whole world, including the CIA, all of them, RSA 2048, all of them can get broken in a nanosecond by a quantum computer. So the defense of it is called post-quantum cryptography. Right? We know how to do it. And we'll come out with a rule that says America's got to protect itself.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
And by the way, there are- Because every once in a while, you need to have a new standard that says it's coming. We know what it is. Please, God, go put it in because we need to have it in. We need America to live.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
And that's our company that's on the top. five floors of the World Trade Center on 9-11 when the plane hits it. Kills everybody at the office. My brother Gary, he dies at 36. My best friend Doug, he dies at 39. I had just turned 40 that summer. I had a party. 65 couples.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
The greatest customer in the world. The United States government. The most powerful, the greatest customer. Buys stuff. We walk in. We're going to buy... Here's an example I like to use. We're going to buy 2 billion COVID vaccines. When we buy it, Pfizer and Moderna stocks are going to triple. They're going to triple. Because then we say, everyone's going to have this vaccine. If I were...
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
After Jared Kushner negotiated the best deal he could, if Howard Letnick walked in the room, Howard Letnick would say, what do you think? 20% warrants? 20% warrants? Right. Right? What? So we'd make $50 billion off of who? Nobody. We didn't take from anybody. We didn't do it. Okay. The shareholders of Pfizer, who we've just tripled them with our order. Right.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Now, how many of my customers in my life have required that from me? All of them? All of them. Lucky. This isn't like, oh, Howard, this is the greatest new idea ever. This is just proper. So I don't view risk of the sovereign wealth fund. I view the first couple of years of the sovereign wealth fund or Scott Besant and I making money Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Say, well, but you can't invest and lose. Don't you lose money? No. Why? Well, if I have big daddy of the United States of America behind me, And I'll give you an example. We buy missiles episodically. Launch a missile, buy a missile. Launch a missile, buy some missiles. The people who sell us missiles have bad quarterly earnings or good quarterly earnings, but they're episodic. Here we go.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
I will sign a contract with you. 10-year contract, cancel it at the end of five years to buy X amount of missiles, and I'll pay you quarterly. then they can take that contract, they can go finance it. Their financing costs go . Their earnings are steady, and their multiple improves, and their stock doubles. And I say, in exchange for that reasonable thought, how about a little warrants?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
But don't give me some stock. Just give me the upside. If I help your stock go up, I get to share it, and you know what I do with that money? Wet my beak a little bit. And then I take the money, for the United States of America, and I put it into the social security system of the United States of America. And then all of a sudden, so the social security system says it's $4 trillion in the hole.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
If we cut the waste, fraud, and abuse out, it becomes $1.5 trillion. And by the way, Frank Bisognano, the greatest executive, the greatest payments executive ever to join the US government is about to get confirmed and take over the social security system. Okay, Frank ran Fiserv, $120 billion public payments company. And when Donald Trump asked him in his interview, can you handle social security?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
40th birthday, yeah. Right? 27 people at my party get killed.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
It's 1.3 trillion a year. He goes, well, let's say I handle 500 billion a day, so Wednesday. Thank you. Thank you.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
These are my friends. These are my friends. So I'm driven to take care of the families of the people who died. And I commit 25% of all of our profits. But the company is destroyed. So we go from making a million a day. I was a rich guy, right? What's the definition of a rich guy? No personal debt, no corporate debt. Ken Fitzgerald, no debt. So how do you survive 9-11?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
You don't owe anybody any money. The only money you're losing is your money is your money so we survive and we take care of our friends families And then we build the company back up. So you could see like I'm a special guest on the Celebrity Apprentice, the first season of Celebrity Apprentice when Piers Morgan wins. Did he fire you? No, no, I wasn't a contestant.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
I'm a little beyond being a contestant. I was a special guest. I'd come in like, if you see during the auction, I'm standing next to him at the auction, you know, and I'm helping him. Like I'm just his friend sort of as an extra all along the way, you know, every once in a while.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . a P a
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
We're friends all the way, but I'm rebuilding my company. Yeah. And then, so I'm not interested in politics. Okay? I don't do anything in politics because I got my head down. We had the financial crisis. Candidate for Children was great in the financial crisis.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Raise your hand. And the other thing is, do me a favor, color inside the lines, okay? In high school, if she says this guy is orange, the answer to the test is orange. When you get to college, you can argue with the professor all you want. High school, color inside the lines, give the teacher what she wants, make sure she loves you, and you're getting a good grade. That's the rules of life.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Yeah, New York candidates. Think about it. You're in New York. You try to pick social liberals, fiscal conservatives, if that even exists anymore. But if you're in New York, you have to pick. Look, I grew up in New York, so I'm socially liberal. What else could I possibly be?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
And my wife beat that into my children so that they would have it in their souls, in their moral character of someone who's fighting for you needs to have your love and respect back. You take them for granted. If you treat them badly, if you treat them like, oh, aren't I so great, then you deserve what you get. And my wife has taught that moral fiber into my children and it resides in them.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
And the other thing my kids have is they have empathy. which is a very unusual thing for young people. And it's because they were raised with their father crying every day. I cried every day until October 21st, 2004. every day because I thought of someone I hadn't thought of, you know, or someone would say 650 people died. And I just, there was, you can't process all of that death without crying.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
And the only reason I remember is because as I fell asleep, I told my wife that I didn't cry today and she wrote it down. That's the only reason I remember. So my kids are fantastic. They've been incredibly supportive. And my wife's the best. And she lives with me in Washington. We bought Bret Baier's house. So I have a nice house, big enough for my ego to expand. Very important.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
So my husband found one that big yet.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
You're an incredible American. Thank you very much for everything. This was really fun in coming to talk.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
They are so capable. Each of them is so capable, so thoughtful. I mean, I am honored to be on this cabinet with them. But we all get to work for Donald Trump, who can intuitively tell you, go fix eggs. And then Brooke goes fix eggs and eggs are down like 40% and Brooke fixes eggs. I mean, how awesome is that? And gas is down 40 cents. Right, and he's only just begun.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
If we get the Constitution Pipeline in New York passed, and I sat with him while Donald Trump lectured Governor Hochul on the unbelievable oil and fracking that they have in New York and the wealth that New York could have if they unleashed it, but they refused to unleash it.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
So he's gonna force the Constitution Pipeline, which by the way, will drop gas on the east coast of the United States of America in half. I mean, this is, and that's, you know, then you got, that's Chris Wright. That's Doug Burgum. You got Brooke Rollins. I mean, you could just go, you know, Scott Besson, you know, so thoughtful and elegant. I mean, he just step by step by step.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
You know, so early when Chuck Schumer was young before he became what the president now calls a Palestinian, you know, you know, he, you know, I raised him, you know, I raised the money and gave money. Donald Trump gave him money. Same. Right. I did, too. Yeah. I mean, because he was he was that's what he said he was. He was social liberal, fiscal conservative.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
And you have really the most fun cabinet working for the most intuitive, smartest guy to ever sit behind the resolute desk. And we're going to make America great again, not as a slogan, but we're going to balance the budget. We're going to change America.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
And and so, you know, we all give to those kind of candidates, but mostly, you giving to get along and to be able to ask him a question if you needed to ask him a question. But there was really no, I had no drive in that. Like I said, the first four nights I slept in Washington in the last 20 years were when Donald Trump was elected. I had never slept there. I'd come down, visit a little, go home.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
What am I staying here for? So he calls me at the end of October 23. Okay.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
No, no, I was, so I gave him money and I gave Hillary money. You gave Hillary money in the first term. Yeah, because Hillary was incredibly helpful to me post 9-11. Remember, she was a senator. Right. And New York needed help. Right. And Hillary was incredibly helpful. And I was driving the team to help New York rebuild because I had relationships with a whole bunch of congressmen.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
And they were going to do nice things. Like Bill Young ran house appropriations. Right. Bill Young was my friend.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Through a whole variety of things that had to do with... I used to go to Bethesda Naval Hospital and I used to walk around and I would bring music there for the men who got hurt from the military who were in Bethesda Naval Hospital. And we would walk around. I'd go with my wife and then I would engage the young man with music. I'd give him music and ask him what CDs he wanted.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
This is when CDs were there and I'd bring up a Walkman. And my wife would pull the family outside. And she'd pay a year of their mortgage and all their expenses. Because what people don't realize is your son loses his leg. Right? Dad and mom come flying in and they're gonna stay by his bedside. What job do these people have that allows them to be at their son's world?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
And their world is falling apart because their son lost his leg. So their world is falling apart. But at home, their world is falling apart. And so my wife would just try to figure out how much money it was and just give him a check. And no form, no nothing, just give him the money.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
and and help him so i would bump into bill young and his wife who they were just they ran then defense appropriations and they were there just being good human beings and so we became friends and he said to me once he said is there anything i could ever do to help you I'm like, look, you're like a congressman from Florida who does defense appropriations.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
And I'm like a Jewish guy from New York who's in finance. If there ever were two SKUs that we're never going to meet, this is two ships going, right? We got nothing. So I said to him, look, we're just going to be friends, right? We're never going to do anything. And then he runs house appropriations. And so when New York needs money to rebuild after 9-11,
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
They go see Bill Young to try to get a bill passed. And he said, how can you come see me without Howard? This is post 9-11. So I'm running New York, and Hillary does a really nice job for New York. And I told DJT, I call him DJT because I've known him for always. I said, I told him that I can't forget. I'm just not the person who's going to forget. Of course I gave him money. Right?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
And by the way, he still tortures me for it. You know what the best part is? As a good friend does. Right. You know what the point is? See, other people would sort of curl back.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
Right? So here, right after he gets elected, okay, here's a story for you. So right after he gets elected, he has a dinner in New York. Right? So he invites me to the dinner in New York because I'm his friend. And then while he's giving his talk to his first dinner in New York, he goes, wait, wait. Hillary's supporter. And he points at me. Right? So I stand up. I go, hey, everyone. And I sit down.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
You know, he's just sassing me. OK? Because I gave him tons of dough. He knows I love him. And it's fine. OK, so we're 2023. So we're 2023. And he calls me. And he says, will you help me? And I had not thought politics. Now, I gave him money in 2020 reelection. Probably gave him 10 million bucks. I raised him 15 million bucks. So I was, you know, once, I'm on his side the whole way through.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
I'm raising him money in 17, 18, 19, 20. While he's president, I'm totally on his side. But I'm just his friend. I'm not engaged. Okay, because I'm still rebuilding my life. Okay, and then 2023 calls me, says, will you help me?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
and i actually thought about it like and that was the first time i really thought politics and then i said yes and i gave him 10 million bucks right then and there and then i started talking to him i started going on the campaign trail i started doing research i started doing knowledge i wanted i talked about everything i talked to him all the time about everything did you love it
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
So I've known the president since I was 30 years old. So I used to go on the, we call it the charity circuit in New York. So there's basically a charity party every night when you live in New York.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
There's nothing not to love. As Donald Trump says, this is 1,000 Super Bowls for him. And for me, it's only 100 Super Bowls. If you're dedicated to America and you're willing to wear America's clothing and to stop worrying about yourself and only care about America and have no objective post. The president hates when these people have, like they raise money post from people they met in here.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Howard Lutnick | All-In DC
So I'm never going to work again. I'm never going to work. This is all I care about. I'm just going to help America. So he asked me to help him. And I start thinking about it. I start studying everything. And I read everything. And I read everything about the White House. I read everything about everything I can possibly read, because I'm just that way. And then I start helping them, right?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
The AI Cold War, Signalgate, CoreWeave IPO, Tariff Endgames, El Salvador Deportations
Mm-hmm.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
The AI Cold War, Signalgate, CoreWeave IPO, Tariff Endgames, El Salvador Deportations
Look at how he sits. He's so cute.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
White House BTS, Google buys Wiz, Treasury vs Fed, Space Rescue
Oh, okay.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
White House BTS, Google buys Wiz, Treasury vs Fed, Space Rescue
What I'm doing is I'm saying, okay, I got to collect tariffs, right? So I go to one of the great software companies of the earth, and I say, I want you to give me You're going to build for me for America. You're going to build the greatest customs processing ever.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
White House BTS, Google buys Wiz, Treasury vs Fed, Space Rescue
I put it in for free. I don't know. What other countries in the world do you think are going to buy now? Right. If it works for us. Well, remember, you have to connect to me.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
White House BTS, Google buys Wiz, Treasury vs Fed, Space Rescue
So every country's going to lie.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
White House BTS, Google buys Wiz, Treasury vs Fed, Space Rescue
This is awesome.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
I don't think that someone's genetics should determine race. whether or not they go to a school. And I think that their socioeconomic background, experience set, values, successes, failures are the things that they could have affected or that I think probably better define whether we want to take a moral stance on giving other people opportunity.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
So I think that that's a kind of good and reasonable place for us to end up.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
What do you guys think about... creating a leg up for people that came from a disadvantaged socioeconomic background. So put race aside.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
but an individual that grew up in a difficult circumstance that didn't have the privilege of going to a good school or having a good education, worked hard, tried, but didn't end up with the best test scores or didn't end up with the best GPA because of the conditions they were born into.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
Do you think it's appropriate to give those individuals a leg up in the application process, putting race aside, but just call it socioeconomic disadvantages?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
And they went to school in Atherton.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
Or a rural district with no education. Appalachia. Appalachia. Both are kind of equivalently disadvantaged or differently, but both disadvantaged. Yep.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
Totally. I 100% agree. And I feel like we've used race as a heuristic for that conditional background.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
And that's what makes it hard because race is not necessarily, it's certainly there's a correlation, but it's not necessarily indicative of the socioeconomic disadvantage that someone may have faced and had to overcome in order to perform and succeed at the level that they could have given their conditions.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
And so I certainly think that the incorporation of one's socioeconomic background should be a critical part of the application process. And it's certainly in the same in the job setting, ultimately.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
Well, I think that would go a long way. Because we do still have a college application process, Chamath. So there are still going to be a set of criteria used to determine whether or not our kids end up getting into a specific school if we and they all kind of say, hey, it makes sense.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
Well, in my work cohort, North Carolina State's a great school. We hire a ton of people from there. So that's a great school, actually.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
I think the structural... Monopoly is that they then get and have the most capital, which they can then use to build facilities and support staff that can come and do core research. And so you then get all these research staff, particularly in technical fields, in science and medical fields and so on, that want to come and be on campus.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
And that then creates the network effect of undergrads getting a better education because they're getting exposed to the best talent.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
I think you're the only Ivy Leaguer here.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
But did you get exposed to it? I mean, I know when I went to Berkeley, I worked at Lawrence Berkeley Labs. I got to be exposed to Nobel laureates. It was actually like... I think particularly in my field, like I majored in astrophysics and physics, like that was a great school to get exposure and you actually had that opportunity. I think that's part of the challenge.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
Schools with really great graduate programs and research that goes on on campus actually can give a better educational experience to the undergrads. It's almost like you're getting these internships and these fellowships and these TAs and professors.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
Yeah, that's right.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
I think that that's a lie we tell ourselves. I'm talking about applied work too much. So I'm talking about you go up to Lawrence Berkeley Lab and you work in an actual lab that does really interesting research. Okay, so my point is, if we both agree that these fundamental sciences is the key. Definitely, yeah, yeah. That's what I'm pointing out, yeah.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
Well, I do think in a digital era, core education has commoditized. And I think most people can get most of the way there without necessarily paying 60 to $80,000 a year, and then being partnered in some way with that on the ground internship or integrated kind of program where you get actual hands on experience.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
So I don't know, like, I mean, the university model, maybe does not make sense for most fields. J. Cal, what do you think?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
Where did you go to school, Jake?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
I will say, I feel like my experience in the workplace is that One's college or university is completely decoupled from one's performance or ability to succeed in the workplace in an meritocratic workplace. And when I say meritocratic, I mean excluding nepotistic workplace settings and excluding demographically biased workplace settings. 100%.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
And if you exclude those two, it honestly does not matter what school someone went to. They could be brilliant. They could be hardworking. They could be passionate. They could be a leader. The school doesn't matter.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
And in fact, perhaps the corollary is true, which is the people that went to the schools that determine success generally have a very hard time succeeding in the workplace because anytime they face failure, it is a challenging circumstance for them that they are unable to overcome.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
And that's particularly true in entrepreneurship, that's been my experience, perhaps in the broader workplace setting, they could work well, where they're told all the time, if you do this, then you get that they do this, they get that they feel good, they succeed in that model. But in the in the real world, that's not the model.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
And I think that that's a really important fact that's colored my point of view on how the higher education system actually does perform with respect to improving the quality of our workforce in the US. Separate of that, I will say that in technical fields, the research environment on certain college campuses can be incredibly, to Chamath's point,
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
opportunistic for getting exposure to hands-on work that you might not otherwise get in technical field.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
That's what I mean by like the basic, the base education has been commoditized. You know, it's the hands-on experience that one gets that makes a huge difference.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
Well, I think you and we keep... Everyone keeps trying to reduce this down to some deterministic binary system, which is like it works or it doesn't. And the truth is... that the conditions of the world are changing all the time. The news is changing all the time. People are taking action all the time. There's a shift in current events all the time.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
As a result, the forecast is changing all the time. And so what a betting market or a poll does is provide a probabilistic forecast of the future. There is a probability of something happening. It is not trying to say I as a poll or I as a market am right 100% of the time or not. It is saying here's the estimated distribution of outcomes in the future.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
So there is a 20% chance or an 80% chance of Shapiro, 20% chance of him not being the case. Turns out that that 20% is where Harris ended up going based on some meeting she had in some room with some group of people that we aren't privy to and that the market in that case was not privy to. What Nate Silver does, and I think people need to understand this a little bit,
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
When you gather polling data, that poll has some predictive power based on how the pollsters conduct their poll, who they call, how they screen candidates for the poll, et cetera, et cetera. So different polling companies, it turns out, are better or worse at making that directional probability bet than others.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
And what Nate's models do is they account for the historical performance of different pollsters and weight them differently to create a basically a multipole prediction. And so that's what his system is set up to do. And remember, he similarly doesn't give you one outcome. He gives you a distribution of outcomes.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
I think his simulation model has probably a thousand or 10,000 simulations that come out of it. And those simulations, he says, look, there's a 29% chance of this happening, 70%. He's not trying to say, here's what's going to happen. He's trying to give everyone a point of view on the distribution of things happening in the future, just like weather forecasting is not perfectly predictable.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
It's very predictable for tomorrow. It's less predictable for three days from now. And it's very unpredictable 12 days from now. And that's how these polls also work out. And that's also how these massive mega models of polls and it's also how prediction markets work.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
So basically, when I read those polls... or I read the summary of the polls, I have a bias based on my interest in the outcome that says that thing is BS, that thing is right. Oh, look at this. And everyone points to this stuff for confirmation bias of their opinion and to denounce the other side. And so it all gets caught up as kind of a media angle when people use polling data.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
And also fundamentally when people kind of get involved in polls and create polls, there's also the risk of bias. And part of what Nate Silver and others try and do is figure out, does that bias come out in the polling performance historically?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
And that's how they kind of weight whether or not this poll is gonna be a better or worse indicator than other polls of the distribution of things that might happen in the future.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
So I think it's actually a step a little bit deeper than that. Kamala Harris and Tim Walz have only ever worked for government. Trump and Vance have worked in private industry. It's not just their perspective being colored by the lack of participation in the private economy, but the lack of employment in the private economy. They've never worked for a private business.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
They've never been employees of a private business. They've never built a private business. I'm not trying to be disparaging, but I do think, I'm just trying to underline the point here, Chamath, which is the voters' choice is, do you want candidates that are not typically government operatives? Or do you want candidates that have spent their whole career as government operatives?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
And that is effectively what the voters are going to be voting for. And they're going to make a decision, they may want to have someone that's going to lead the biggest government in history, because they've spent their whole careers in government. Or they're going to say, you know what, the biggest government in history needs to be significantly altered.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
And we want to bring someone in from the outside that's worked in private industry. And that is the voter's choice. That's one way to view the voter's choice here.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
That could be because he's never, it could be because he's never, it's because he's never, maybe it's because he's never had a private sector job.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
It might be a feature to their ticket. And I think that there's a perception of experience in government that is deemed to make a government leader more appropriately suited to be a government leader. A career politician. Well, not even a politician, just career experience, either being employed by or working within a government, local, state, or federal.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
And remember, Kamala started her career at the DA's office in Alameda County before moving over to San Francisco DA's office. And then she was DA of San Francisco and then attorney general and so on and so forth.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
And how the free market incentivizes the creation of improved productivity, which over time translates into improved prosperity for the society within which that is taking place. That is so critical. And we saw that happen even in China in the last 30 years when the government allowed entrepreneurship to flourish in certain parts of the country.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
As a result, there were significant productivity gains and they brought a billion people out of poverty.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
Three, two. I just had to take a leak. I just, I go outside my office and then I come back. Oh, you like a nature pee? You're a nature pee guy? Me too. I love a great nature. Well, I have this great office at home, which is like a building outside of my house.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
Yeah, so just to give a little more detail to it, J. Cal, and you can actually see it, I think, Nick, if you want to pull up the page 8283. in the document. So the wealth tax is 25% of your unrealized capital gains if your net worth is above 100 million. And the first time this happens, you can split up the payments over nine years.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
You have nine years to kind of pay down the assets or sell the assets or borrow the money you need to make those tax payments. After that, you can actually make those payments over five years. Those payments are ultimately treated as prepayments on taxes that will be due when you realize the capital gains.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
Every year you have to report to the IRS, separated by asset class, the cost basis and the estimated value of every asset you have. You then have to determine your tax that you owe because of the difference from last year. You start out with tradable assets of stocks. Those are just valued at the end of year. Illiquid assets like private companies or real estate.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
You don't have to get a valuation. If there was a financing event or some other sort of major revaluation, you have to use that value. And if there isn't, the number goes up every year by some nominal rate that will be set by the treasury. So the treasury is basically gonna tell you what they think the value of your company has gone up on an annual basis. And that's the determination evaluation.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
You can file an appeal. So for all the entrepreneurs and startup people listening, There's a process that they're proposing that is basically the government saying, if you didn't get a new financing round done, the price goes up. And if you disagree with the price going up, you go back and you appeal it.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
So they've addressed this and that's the final provision. And what they said is that if a taxpayer is treated as what they're calling illiquid, meaning that their tradable assets, the stocks that they own or the cash that they have is less than 20% of their total wealth, then they may elect to include only the unrealized gain in their tradable assets to determine their tax liability.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
However, if you do this, you will actually have a deferral charge, which means you'll ultimately pay a higher tax on the capital gains on your illiquid asset when you do have a realized capital gain on it. So they're trying to cover the fact that people might have all their assets tied up in real estate or all their assets tied up in private company stock.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
And again, I feel like we're kind of shouting into an abyss here because this is only going to affect such a small number of people. But they've really tried to write this in a way that ultimately covers the kind of pushback that you're highlighting. I'll say one other piece of pushback that's been received and tested in the Supreme Court.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
A lot of people have said that the 16th Amendment prohibits this taxation. A ruling from the Supreme Court was published June of this year. And in that particular case, there was a repatriation tax for folks that left the country. It's the Moore versus United States tax case.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
And when people left the country, the government under the Tax and Jobs Act, which was passed under the Trump administration, the government had a right to go after people's assets and tax them on their unrealized gains, even after they give up their US citizenry. This was challenged to the Supreme Court, and there was a number of amicus briefs filed
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
on this case that said the government does not have the authority and Congress doesn't have the authority to actually tax on unrealized capital gains. And at the end of the day, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. And they did not overturn on the position that the government actually did not overstep their authority to be able to tax unrealized capital gains.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
So there is some Supreme Court case precedents here that indicates that this will not get thrown out on an unconstitutional ground basis. So there is a lot of conversation that this might actually become a real case. I'll pause there. And I actually have a theory I want to talk about in a minute, but it's a little bit of an extension from this point. But that's a summary.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
Okay, I've got a theory.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
I was trying to figure out why we seem to be like embracing socialist principles and why I keep seeing more of this stuff become mainstream and almost become normalized. And I was looking at the total GDP of the United States is $25 trillion. The federal budget for next year is proposed to be 7.2 trillion. And state and local budgets combined is about 4 trillion.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
So if you look at government spending, it's about half of GDP now, state, local and federal, which roughly equates to about half of people in the United States are employed directly by government, or indirectly, because the government is the primary revenue source of their business.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
And I think that that's why this set of policies, and I'm not talking about the tax on the centimillionaires as much as a simple disregard for the fact that the United States over time, the prosperity that we've realized has been driven by a free market economy. by enterprising individuals going out and saying, there are people that are asking for things.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
I'm gonna figure out a way to build those things and make it for them and sell it to them. People will pay for it. They will work hard to do it. And the incentive structure in a free market has enabled productivity improvements and enabled ultimately prosperity. but we've reached a tipping point.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
And the tipping point is when half or more of the population begins to be employed by the government, at which point that concept is lost because now it is the government that is the employer, not one's own individual liberties and ability to go out and be enterprising. And so I think that the budget of government tipping to 50% of GDP is the reason why these policies become mainstream.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
That's my theory. And so it's a relationship of government spending as a percent of total GDP, which translates into employment. Very reasonable.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
I wouldn't use the term taker sacks because there are hardworking people that work for the government. And so it's not necessarily about just taking a free check or there's certainly an aspect of that to some degree. But it is about the government becoming the primary supporter of individuals in this country through employment or through subsidies or through checks or through what have you.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
Or private company workers that just happen to have the government as their only customer.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
What's the political affiliation of like, has there ever been surveys done of employees at the federal level and what their political affiliations are?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
Do you support the Trump tariffs as a solution there, Sachs? Because those are fundamentally going to be inflationary, which is going to make the costs go up for everyone. Well, I don't know.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
Sachs, let me ask you one more question. Do you think that the Biden administration's bills, the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS Act, both of which were meant to revitalize that middle class kind of industrial economy through government funding of developing new facilities in the US to onshore manufacturing, is that not a good, reasonable solution to that problem?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
It should have been renamed the Inflation Maximization Act, the IRA.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
What about the chipsack?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
you know, they can't manufacture.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
Buenos Aires is a beautiful, beautiful city.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
No, this is great. Sitting while urinating aids in muscle relaxation, benefiting men with tight pelvic floor muscles, or symptoms of an enlarged prostate. Sitting to pee enhances stability, reduces the risk of falls, and minimizes messiness, especially for him.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
I mean, I think the Fed target is 4%, which is kind of where we're at. I think we're at 4.2 or 4.3 now. And so the Fed tries to balance inflation, unemployment and rates. That's kind of the three things that they're looking at. So they make adjustments to rates. Obviously, if you take rates too low, too fast, you have an increase in inflation. So they're targeting inflation's 2%.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
They're targeting unemployment's 4%. So if you take rates too high, you can certainly reduce inflation, but then the economy can contract or slow down and job cuts start to come through. So now...
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
With inflation kind of supposedly approaching 2% and unemployment over 4%, the market, if you look at the trading markets, they are now estimating a 100% chance of a three-quarter of a percent rate cut by the end of 2024 and a 70% chance of a one-point rate cut by the end of 2024. So the question is, are they going to do three quarter point cuts by the end of the year?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
Are they going to do a 50 basis point cut and then a 25 or a 50 and a 50? The next couple of weeks will determine which direction. And then obviously, Chairman Powell has his big speech happening on Friday.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
50 or 75% chance of a quarter point cut, 20% chance of a 50 basis point cut. and then 6% chance of no cut, which is kind of strange because the trading markets, this is obviously a prediction market, but the trading markets are showing effectively 100% chance of a three-quarter point cut by the end of 24.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Massive jobs revision, Kamala's wealth tax, polls vs prediction markets, end of race-based admissions
Like, do they hold you?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
I don't think they'll be seeing me pulling tits on the dairy farm anytime soon. That's colloquial for milking, by the way.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Okay, perfect. So now do you want me to add that to my bet for this one?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
One and done is absolutely the way to go about this. Here we go. First part we've got to do here is pick out a dealer.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
These definitely are real dealers. They're certainly Eastern European as far as I know. I don't know what their quality of life is like. I imagine they're warehoused somewhere and put on the tools. Now, I went with a young lassie today and she rolled bold and asked for me. So I'm going back to the boats because they've been good to me.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Yeah, it's gone from 15,000 to 1.3 million in this entire journey. So, yeah, a little bit nonsensical, but... Okay, this looks like a good... He looks like a hot worker.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
He's going to work for us. You're going to cop the insult live as I do it. All righty. It is day 15, going to Blackjack and betting $1.73 I've got. We have a $14,000 bet going on the line for me personally, but I actually have some absolute legends with me today. I'm betting for the besties from the All In podcast as well.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
They're going to bring the luck, having been rolled, bowled, and arsed by a young lassie yesterday. So $34,000 goes on the line. Oh, no, no, you guys want $10,000, right? Not $20,000? Jeez, I better not take it.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
did. 24,000 is going on the line. Aldela looks like the kind of bloke who stops at red lights playing GTA. We won't hold that again. I will not, if you will. I need to see good cards. Jackets! Jackets!
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Gentlemen, that has really just happened. You've just turned 10 into 25. Holy. Holy cow.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Mate, I'm actually breaking my own rules for you guys. I filmed today's hand, day 14, but I'm going to film tomorrow's hand for you guys right now. It'll roll out.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
We just keep rolling every week.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
I wouldn't have to run anything if I could just play one hand of blackjack with you guys and I'd land jack ace every week. That is unbelievable.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
How about I go first class to the Orland Summit? Now there's a guy.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Correct. Yep. Kiwi living in Calgary. Been here since September 2022. The missus and I.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
From Taranaki, so West Coast, North Island, certainly not somewhere, it's not a holiday destination for certain if you're going there. It's like dairy farming country. It's beautiful, but it's off the beaten path. So, yeah.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Gentlemen, what an absolute pleasure to walk amongst some goddamn greats. Let me see if I can put a bit of pep in your step with a one-time blackjack hand to kickstart one of the greatest podcasts on earth. It is, I can't confirm this is not AI. You did this? We're going to rock and roll proper today.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Do you know what? We holidayed here, my fiance and I, May 2022. And we thought it was just going to be a holiday then back to the farm.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
But I guess we had that COVID cabin fever like the rest of the world and loved our time here so much that we just decided before we even finished the holiday that we cracked on to getting our visas and got back, sold up my livestock and leased the farm back to my parents. And and made the move. And we haven't looked back.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Armchair Expert early and ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Or you can listen for free wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome, welcome, welcome to Armchair Expert. I'm Buck Rogers and I'm joined by Jean Lightyear.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
You should watch it with him. This is what daddy should be doing if he hadn't done what he did. You couldn't control your emotions for four minutes while I self-taped. But, you know, I do just want to put a fine point on that. I, too, have been liberated by casting people. I just wish every actor could start casting. Yes. Because, man, it takes all the fucking onus off your shoulders.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Okay, well, that was great. You turned down nobody wants it. I think that'll be a hot story. Headlines flying.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
People are going to be so thrilled by what the final outcome is.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Yeah, so if I've decided it's in the window, I want her to work. If I've decided she's done having children. We have such opposite personalities. I know what she'll get in love with and she'll get blinded by this one element. And then I'll just be the little voice going, well, you also need a really good director or you also need blank.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
And then conversely, she'll be monitoring my ego and my low self-esteem and reminding me, you know, we help each other in that way.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Yeah. Now, you know, since I interviewed you, I don't know if this is a fair assessment, but I had this, and maybe I told you then, I don't think I was brave enough to, but I have admired your choices from the get-go, truly. And I guess my conclusion was, it maybe was just to mitigate my judgment of myself, but do you think knowing your dad has money has helped?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
I wondered more because you do produce things now and there is an element of your now growing business. By the way, my favorite production company name I've ever seen, you know, his production company's named Good at Business, right?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
It's so, so good. As a performer, you just want to be ignited and have fun and be engaged and keep that momentum going. As a producer, it's a different endeavor. You must consider the marketplace.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
What I did see, I want to give my dad credit. My dad was an entrepreneur. He started many businesses and they would work out for a while and he would buy a bunch of stuff and then he would go bankrupt and just over and over again. He was a passionate guy at starting things and not a great manager of things.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Yeah. The endurance aspect of the business isn't something that people really talk about or think about quite often.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
And that's my problem with your fucking dad tell me yeah please let her rip this is season eight of big mom yeah by the way i watched three episodes last night it's as good now or better than it has ever been thank you i just was dying last night it's so fucking good that's the longest running show on netflix adult show
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
This is the final season. Yeah, this is the last interview.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Because we all died from Kroll's children's illness they picked up at preschool. Not because we wanted to end the show, but with your show, eight seasons in, do you have these psychotic moments where you're like, I think the show sucks and nothing new is happening. I got to change it. And then I'm like, no, you don't. Do you have that battle?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
There's a sweet spot. Howard evolved. If you chart Stern from 95 till now, it is a different show, but it was just this perfect level of incremental change as he acknowledged his own changing.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
I want to frame this whole thing. The theme of this one, I want to be best friends. This interview. Great. Because I'm still best friends with my best friend from 11, Aaron Weakley. You talk to him daily.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
But you know why it didn't work? Sadly, it's W-E-A-K. Like he's a weakling, but he's very strong. I bet he is. Please don't challenge him.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Well, this has an explanation. And I'm curious, do you ever buy stuff off Instagram, the ads that are curtailed to you?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
No, he's way cooler. He loves who he is more than I do. And that's why you guys are good friends. Yeah. You're a star who hates himself, and he's a regular guy who's totally at peace. So I'm watching last night the show, and it still shockingly goes hard. Yeah. The whole time you're kind of like, I really can't believe it's on TV, which is a fun feeling to constantly have. Thank you.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
And I wonder, could you have done that show solo? Or do you think you and Andrew have a bubble where you're like, as long as you and I think this is okay, it's okay.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Yeah. Somebody does do his research. I watched you and McFarlane talk. It was really interesting. Even the thing you just said that your characters age, it didn't even occur to me like, oh yeah, cartoons, the characters don't ever age. No.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Yeah. Can we also just throw in Goggins as like a hint of maybe Goggins? Unintentional, but I can tell you what really happened was I see an ad, they weren't these. And I was like, those look fun. Maybe I would wear those in the summertime. A light pant. Ordered them. And then it was like, when funding gets complete. And I was like, I didn't know this was a business model.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Oh, yeah. We've done other shows with other people. And if we sit down, we have to stop ourselves. On the fact check, we literally have to stop ourselves. Like, oh, it's been too long.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Hello. Returning guest, but long, long time. Why? Seven years long time. Nick Kroll, an actor, a writer, a comedian, a producer.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
She's about to tell you that she loves working with other people. And that she would like to permanently work with other people.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Mulaney, I was going to bring that up too. I got to say, I was embarrassingly kind of ill-informed on Mulaney. Turns out so was I. Yeah. Then I was on a trip that he was on, and I was like, oh, I really like him. I'm going to watch his stand-up special. I watched it.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
You had been pushing hard for Mulaney. You're a first-in-Mulaney fan.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
And so I watched his stand-up special, and I'm an addict. Anything addict, I like. It's so fucking great. But then I was wondering, were you at that intervention? I produced that intervention.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Good for business? Good at business? Good at business?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
I mean, you've been on probably both sides of it. Just to tell you really quick. So Aaron, the reason we're back in business is he went another 19 years after I got sober. He got sober five years ago. And so we too had a restart basically five years ago. And it's like, oh good, back in business.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
It was so, I mean. You can tell me you don't want to talk about it. No, because I mean, I do. Because I had a relapse and Monica had to deal with it. Yeah. And she had to be detecting things. And we've explored that a lot. And I think a lot of addicts get to go on TV and talk about the experience. And I think they get to do stand up about it.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
And I don't really think you hear enough from the people who are fucking terrified and thinking you're losing your mind, maybe.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
That's a business model now that I didn't know about. And they're selling them and it appears they've already made them, but I don't know if it was maybe just a digital, whatever. I took a fucking gamble. And then like months later, they raised funding. They arrived.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
But I wonder, so for Aaron, we had 16 years of him still at it. And I never said a word. I knew what was going on. He knew what was going on. I'd go back to Detroit. We'd spend time together. I knew he was doing his best in those times to not be as fucked up as he was.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
And the very first time I ever said anything was he was growing weed at the time. There was a house next door. He wanted to buy this. Nothing wrong with that. Keep going.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
On the up and up. So I bought him this house. I bought like a house in Detroit for $65,000. And I called him on a Monday to say like, hey, the house is closed. You can start growing weed in there. And... He didn't call me back for like five days, which is just not him. Even in the height of his addiction, he's very responsive. By day four, I'm wondering, is he dead?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
And then when I finally get on the phone with him on day five and he goes, oh, hey, sorry, dad, I had the worst flu ever. And I go, Aaron, dude, who do you think you're talking to? I had a lot of those flus too.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
And I go, I think you're going to die really soon. And I don't want you to. And I have a fucking treatment center in the Caribbean. If you want to go, it's handled. In my mind, I'm like 98% sure he's going to say, fuck you. And he goes, yeah, I'll go. And I was like, oh my fucking God. Yeah. Well, I just got to add one thing for the comedy. He doesn't have a passport.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Yeah. And then I went on and I just said, I'm going to only wear these all summer. So I ordered every version they make and I'm waiting for funding. But these ones just came.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
So now he knows he's going to dream it, but we have to wait five days. That was the most stressful five days of my life. Is he going to make it?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
If I tell you I'm doing it, then the next thing is I have to stop.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Yeah. And then I'll put an end to this because I don't want you to feel like in any way it's exploitative. But I will add, I just told a story recently. I worked with a comedian. who was supposed to be sober, got fucked up in the movie, did so many things. I was about to say innumerable. You already said it a while ago, and I didn't want to repeat innumerable. It's so good. He did so many things.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
We almost got in a fistfight on sex. He tried to put glasses on my face and poked me in the eye, and he was so disruptive, and it was a mess. And then two weeks after, I hate his guts, he has to have an actual cop on set with him. That's how bad it got. And there was a point where he's running through this store and the cops chasing him like Barney Fife is a heavyset cop.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
And he's going, chase me, officer, chase me. And I'm on my fucking chair waiting. I just start laughing so hard. And I'm like, oh, my God, he's so fucking funny. It broke my hatred. And I started laughing. And it's hard to have compassion for people who are charismatic. But it can be harder for people who are really funny and charismatic because they can win people back over.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Yeah. I wanted to say a few more things about Big Mouth. One is, did I write it? You're at 67 characters you've done on the show. I believe it's... 79. Wow. More than... It was fun to watch you and McFarlane talk. I encourage people, if they're animation nerds, to find you guys chatting. And I was also thinking, what an accomplishment for you to have done eight seasons there.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
But you're also talking to a dude who's done 20. I minimize this. He's like, actually, I've done 138 seasons of American Dad.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
I asked Mike Sher this at one point when I was interviewing him. I'm like, does it make you a little bit mad that if you had the same career in the 80s and 90s, you would own the Red Sox? You'd be Tom Warner. Yeah, totally. And you, eight seasons of a fucking show, you'd have a couple hundred million dollars. Mm-hmm.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Yes, and by the way, this is so in keeping with the thing I admire about you, which is you might not have gotten $100 million, but you made something that could almost not be made. And of course, on your deathbed, you'll have so much more pride in that.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Okay, the other thing I wanted to say about Big Mouth specifically Similar to when I was watching the studio. Have you watched the studio? I watched most of it, yeah. There's so many accomplishments in the studio. Technically, it's so impressive. It's so fucking funny. It's so well acted.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
But when we met with Seth about it, I was like, can you zoom out and take a little bit of pride about the people that are willing to come be with you? And when I look at the amount of people you've had on Big Mouth over the last eight years, are you able to take in what a testament it is to your character and just that people would want to work with you?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Is Instagram a sponsor? They're huge. They're our only sponsor. Congrats. But yes, I feel guilty. And the way I've talked myself out of the guilt is like, yeah, who knows what the sizing is whenever you order online. But I'm not going to go to a store. I get so sleepy when I shop. You shut down? Yes. Do you ever go with your wife somewhere and she wants to shop?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Like that to me, I would hope would be one of the nicest things about the show.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
You may be invited to play golf. Hockey, hockey.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
That whole last dance, everything is just like, that's when it became personal. Most of his energy was figuring out how he could hate his opponent.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
And it proves, more importantly... You think a trophy and success will heal those wounds. No, you actually just got to go heal those wounds.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Yes, harness it and then put it away when you need to put it away.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Shall we talk for a second about I Don't Understand You? Sure. Tell us what happens in this.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Or you dress up like your wife and go shopping on your own. Yes. I walk into a store with either my daughters or my wife, and the very first thing I do is look for a bench. Look for the chair. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
And a fucking active cruise ship. I've got a one and three-year-old. Was that Rogan? Was that Laura Miller Rogan's movie? Yes.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Baby's got a diarrhea. Do you want to hear really quick? Aaron and I, my best friend, we figured out where that saying comes from. It is from the early 1900s. And a woman brought her baby to the Italian doctor. Mamma mia. Baby's got a diarrhea. It's not a big deal. We weaponized it. But it was just good news. They were so worried the baby was something wrong. Or is the baby dying of dysentery?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Big Mouth, Kroll Show, The League, Sazeej Party. Eighth and final season of Big Mouth out. On the 23rd.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
We recently read the top 10 earners of stand-up, and we were just aghast.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Oh, good. Yeah. It went bankrupt, and we no longer have anything to do with it.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
And I don't know that's any better because you put it on there and you're like, this is a bingo. You bring it home and then still somehow something went wrong. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So my thing is just like I just order stuff and then I try it on and I go, great, someone in LA is going to get a great pair of pants. It goes straight to Goodwill. Oh, really?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Really good at business. Especially the diaper business.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Aaron and I have an N.A. beer. Can I try it? Absolutely. Please send it.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Use a mortar and a pestle. A lot of people aren't. They don't know. And bring that with you everywhere you go.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
It's brutal. Have you watched Love on the Spectrum? I've watched a little bit of it. Watch a little bit more just to get this. And I think this was Kristen's observation. The thing that unites all kids on the spectrum is they are relentlessly mean to their mothers. Every time their mom starts talking, they're like, oh, ma!
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Like, these poor mothers, they have this kid that they have to give so much time to. Yes, yes.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
You just... Yeah, so there's just like a stream of stuff going to Goodwill that still has the tags on it.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Yeah, it's fantastic. Yeah, so lastly, this is a very busy couple months for you.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
And then I Don't Understand You, June 6th. Yeah. So every few days, you have a big project coming out.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
They're all dramatically different as well, which is helpful. It's not like you have three superhero movies coming out in a week and you got to somehow explain how that's the next year. I can't believe I'm the bridge between DC and Marvel again. So adults is... I watched it last night. Oh, you did? Yeah. Awesome.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
You can immediately sense when something's generated by the people in the show and that they have some rapport and that they're real comedians and they weren't just cobbled together with whoever had an agent.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
And one of the gals wants to now incorporate her new boyfriend. Yes. A young Monica Padman. She's fantastic.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
When I was watching it, I don't know why I get so comforted by this. I've said this before, but when I watched English Teacher, I don't know if you've seen that show. Yeah. Not to get on a soapbox, but I think early when I was adjusting to the transition in comedy, which was totally righteous, you should let the folks make the jokes who the jokes are about.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
And I watched English teacher and I was like, yes, this dude's gay and he's going so fucking hard on this topic. And that was the solution. What I didn't want was for these topics to go away. Everyone needs to get made fun of.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
I think we all have this maybe knee jerk concern that the younger generation is so fragile and precious. Yeah. And so the thing that was so comforting about seeing this is like, oh, they're going fucking hard. Like the kid they know comes out about being molested and they're just going so hard about him being molested. And I was like, oh, wonderful. Comedy is still very much alive.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
And the younger kids are going to push just as fucking hard and just let them do it. That's the part I really liked about the show.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
No, I was just enormously relieved watching it. Oh, good. Comedy is going to win.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Because I go into everything thinking, oh, these fucking precious. They can't even take a joke about each other. Yeah. I hope I'm owning it.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Just to push back a little bit, hard to hate on a hustler. Like, if there's someone combing through... Sure, absolutely. And they profit off my thing...
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Yeah, of course you wouldn't say that. Billy Bobble Bottles. What's his name? Billy Bottles.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Can I be your brother that shows up as Billy Bottles? Yeah.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
I want to have a quick conversation with Coach Steve. Okay. As Hermium Permium.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Because I feel like they share an essence, and I just want to see how it goes.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
So I'm just going to introduce you to Hermium Permium. He lives by himself in an apartment, and it goes pretty well. Where do you live, Steve? I'm not living anywhere particularly, so I'm just wondering if you got extra space in that place.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Oh, I'd love to have some visitors over. My mom misses Monica. She's in and out sometimes, and she'll bring snacks.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
This has been great. Okay, and then the last one, I want to do Frito talking to Hormone Monster.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
So, yeah, it's been seven years since you were here. Wow. And if I had bumped into you on the street last month and said randomly, how long do you think it's been since you were on, what would you have said?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Because I feel like we could go somewhere that might make Monica throw up. She hates Frito. Does she hate the Hormone Monster?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
You're going to have to double up on the Z. Can you double a Zeep? I always double my Z. Nick, you're a blast. I wish you came more frequently than every seven years, but I'll take you. That's what my wife says. Hey! Got a Deesh!
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Oh, well, thank you. You're part of that success story. Everyone in the first year when there was no reason to trust us, I have deep gratitude. Next time you have three projects coming out in a week, please come back. And congrats on getting married and having two children since we saw you last.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Okay, well, then I'm relieved by that. I don't mind that you're not in the show, but the fact that you're disgusted by my bride is unacceptable. All right, be well. Thank you for having me.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Fuck. Oh, but I didn't know if you were making a decision like everyone's making. That was a fair question. God. What happened?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Well, I wanted to celebrate you if you were embracing. Fuck that.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Yeah, that's great. Can you understand there's a movement where women aren't shaving anymore, and I thought maybe you'd join that movement.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Yeah, I'm in the same boat. I shave my arms now. I have all this money tied up in these tattoos and I want them to be visible.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Yeah, and I feel terrible for you. I've said that now that I'm grooming a lot.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Yeah, yeah, it's growing. Although I may have a big, I might have a, I'm now thinking I might have a nice deposit in the drawer in my bathroom. I think maybe I haven't transferred some to the main storage.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Okay, so we all went to Monster Jam on Saturday.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Okay, so we all is Charlie and the boys, Ace and Wilder, the two handsomest men in Los Angeles. And then my girls, Lincoln and Delta, and then Delta's friend.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Yeah, and then Eric. Eric, yeah, that's all. So we went. It was immediately fun. It's so fun. Monster Jam's so fun. We got to ride in the, like, 12-passenger monster truck. That's great. I was kind of not clocking any of this, but apparently Delta and her friend had brought their two most important stuffies in a red bag. I didn't know that.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
And it's spectacular. I watched it. It's spectacular. It is a laugh riot.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
I probably would have been like, maybe we don't bring them into the event.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
It's imperative that people understand the stakes here. So anyone that knows Delta would know her son, Groot.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
I don't know that I've ever seen, and I had very deep relationships with my stuffies. I had three bears that I loved and I thought about them. And if I was gone too long, I felt guilty. Like I was very in touch and close with my stuffies.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
I don't, I didn't name them. One was a polar bear. One was a brown bear. And one was like a-
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Koala bear. There were different breeds, so I didn't, breeds, the species.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
I just never was like addressing them. I was just squeezing them and feeling guilty.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Never. Okay. And they didn't travel out of my room either because I was too afraid something would happen to them in the wild. Okay, but to put like this in perspective, Groot goes everywhere with us. Groot has truly a bigger wardrobe than Delta. Yeah. He has many different jammies. He has swimwear.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
That mostly, that's all she asks for, is things for Groot. And he has books he reads, and he's an artist, and she makes him dinner. It's such a huge part of her life, Groot. And then I didn't know this. I learned this recently about Groot. She was kind of explaining what was going on with him athletically. And then I said, is Groot disabled? And she said, yeah, Groot is disabled.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
And I said, oh, what's his disability? And she said, well, he's half tree and half boy. So he needs to breathe carbon dioxide as a tree, but he needs to breathe oxygen as a boy. So his lungs are like half dedicated to breathing. And so that's kind of an impairment for his cardiovascular. Additionally, this is all real. Like I didn't even know Groot was disabled. But I just had a hunch.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
There was some way she was talking about his athleticism and his outfit. Sure. I don't know. I asked. And he is. And then she went on to tell me another challenge he has is he's got both veins. And then he also has to have plumbing for the water.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Double duty. Also, his bark hasn't come in and that's going to make him more stable.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
And I'm going to be honest. I love Groot. Like he's also my grandson. And when we snuggle at night, I go, I want a little time with Groot. So he has to be in my milk.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
No, no, no, no. Just I will want Groot in my left nook and Delta in my right nook if we're all laying together. But she's got to give me some grandpa visit.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Yeah, like a little baby boy. So, okay. So, great time. We're having the best time. Now we're up in this huge suite. There's like 50 people in there. It's a blast. It's hectic. And Delta comes up like mid-show. Again, I'm going to say it. I've said it before. There's no better show on earth than Monster Jam. It starts and it doesn't let up. Race, race, race, race, race. Stunts, stunts, stunts.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Yeah. So it's a party. We're eating food. And then Delta comes up to me and she is... She's passed. I don't want to say she's hyperventilating. She is so scared and panicked. And she said, we lost... Groot. And I'm like, what do you mean? I didn't even know Groot was in here. We lost the bag. So her friend was in charge of carrying the bag. She brought it in here.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Someone maybe stole it or whatever. And I'm like, okay, no one stole it. Everyone that came is still here. No one left mid time, you know? So now we start scouring all the bathrooms in there. And then we go through systematically and we look under every single chair. This takes 35, 40 minutes. I'm missing the monster jam. Sure.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
I can hear it. That is helpful. And, um, I say at some point, okay, it's not in here, which means it didn't come up here.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Now, we arrived and we went right out onto the arena floor to take that ride. So it's like we're seven stories up. That was pre-show.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Yeah, so, well, here becomes the investigation. So then Carly and I are, I'm like, oh, I made a video of them getting, I'm like, did they even bring the bag out of the car?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
I took pictures. Yeah. I take some, oh, yeah, there's the red bag. Then I have footage of them getting on to the monster truck and she's carrying the bag. We don't have footage of them getting off, but I'm like, but this is, she would have never set it down in the elevator or on the walk. It definitely had to get left in the truck. So now, exactly. And we're now mid-show. This is hours later.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
No, that truck has now been already put in a trailer to go to the next Monster Jam. So I asked my friend Sally, who I've been... You know, going to Monster Jam with Sally as our host for, I don't know, eight years now.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
She's an incredible lady. Nice. She's an arm cherry.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
She's so sweet. And I'm like, I don't know what else to do. But, like, here's the situation. She's a mom. She put out a full court press.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Oh, look, okay, I'll try to get into that truck. Like, I'll try to find the truck in the parking lot and try to get into the semi to get into this monster.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
So, like, an hour goes by, and Delta's really, like, she lost her son. Oh, my God. And I'm very pessimistic. I'm like, who knows? They set that bag down anyway. There were so many bags and so many things and so much equipment, and it's in an arena. So I was really, really— And then the show ends. And then we just sit there for another 45 minutes while the whole place clears out.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
We're kind of like waiting to see if they're going to find group. And then she says, well, you guys are free to, if you want to just wait in the car. So anyways, we go sit in the car now. And then I get a text from Sally. It's a picture of her and she's elated and she's holding the bag. She found the bag in a random golf cart somewhere.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
On its way to a sex trafficking. Don't say that.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
When that bag returned. You know, I was starting to think about what our next two weeks to a month. Like I was like, this is going to be.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Yeah. It's going to be devastating in a way that I'm not sure how we're all going to deal with. We lost Groot forever.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
And then I said to her, I was like, once we had Groot, I was like, you know, I started thinking like, what do I do? Would you have wanted me to find the same Groot? And she's like, no. Yeah, because it's real and he's real and there's no replacing him.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
If we bumped into each other, my guess would have been, I think three and a half.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Yeah. She is. I guess she has ethics. I don't know.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
I guess I'm wondering, is your time now warped as you age like mine is?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
And like, they love him and he becomes kind of a mascot for Monster Jam.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Yeah, but he's like, now he chews tobacco and he's grown up a little bit.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Yes, yes. He could have been on a real adventure.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Well, not given what I've learned about his. Now, what if like the driver of Gravedigger found him and started keeping him on the dash? And we could like, then we were watching and he was riding on the dash proudly.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Oh, it was really an event. So I missed a good half of Monster Jam. Both looking for and then panicking over.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Yeah, I mean, if you were to ask me at some point what I would pay for his safe return, it would have been embarrassing.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
No, I know. So that was all happening. She now feels so guilty and she's crying. Delta's crying inconsolably.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
I'm like the dad watching. And so I kept going, oh, sweetie, it's totally okay. Delta should have been carrying her own bag. Oh, that's nice. I was like trying to comfort her and trying to comfort Delta. Her Groot is in there too.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
She's got the double whammy. She's lost her stuffy and she lost Delta's stuffy.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
I didn't get a good gander at it once. They were all reunited. I didn't even know we were bringing stuffies to Monster Jam.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
I hope not. And then, okay, now this is the thing that we go back to. We've been talking about this the last few episodes. I'm like, and I'm talking to Charlie and Eric. I'm like, you know, all I got to do is keep trying to find Groot and not say, this is why we don't. What you want to say as a parent is this is why we don't bring stuffies to sporting events.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
And I was like, she has learned that lesson. I don't need to tell her that. She is in major discomfort.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
And so I let it go. But then I, on the way home, I was just saying how grateful I was that he was back.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
A little bit. And then, and then I said, he's just so valuable. We got to make sure that we're safe when we bring him places. She goes, but he can't just be a boy that lives at home and doesn't go and do things. I can't just be protecting him from, and I'm like that. I know that's a great
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
But there's a ton of things we can take him to so he's not stuck in the house, but that are also maybe not so distracting as Monster Jam.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Okay. I just can't imagine holding that little guy. He's so sweet looking.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
I told her that's why I didn't know he had a disability because he's so smiley. I have no idea he's suffering from anything. He's in a perpetually great mood.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
It sounded like there's some pain accompanying these. Okay. Yeah.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Sure, sure. A great way to spend three and a half hours. Wow, you're right. That's a new element I haven't incorporated into my overarching theory on accelerating. There was so much more boredom and boredom takes longer. Yes.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
It's so stupid. It's so funny. It's a real life who's done first.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
How many episodes in each? Ten. So you watch 20 episodes.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Right, right, right. You just didn't put it very high on the list.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Sending it to you. My body. My physical body. My physicality and my body. And I sent it to you. For your leisure, for your entertainment, for your critique. I think it's only been three years. I do have seven years of photos of you. And I love mapping the progress.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Right. Yeah. Who just was everyone obsessed with that also was a murderer? Wasn't there recently someone everyone thought was hot? Was it the United Health assassin with people really horny for him? Luigi.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Yeah, you can't go back in time. He's got very powerful eyebrows.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
I think that industry is evil and I don't think you're allowed to kill people.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Busy couple weeks for him because also on the 28th, he has the FX show Adults. It's on Hulu and on FX. And then he has a new movie out on June 6th, I Don't Understand You. Those are the many projects and offerings of Nick Kroll. Please enjoy Nick Kroll.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Oh, wow. That's great. Five seasons. Oh, there's five seasons. Oh, so you're fucked for the whole week.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Like this is, you think you're a killer or you think you're a pervert.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
He's only so culpable. It was very confusing. But it was just. And he didn't do a good job. Like he should have recognized what was going on much sooner and said, it's a television show on Netflix and the title is you.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
But he did say I was watching You about seven times before it's a show on Netflix.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
When he said daddy's money, when he brought that, I keep thinking how funny that was when he said that. Do you remember that?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
He was a mess. He was coughing and snorting. A little indigestion there for a minute. I fucking loved it.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
My kink. That is your kink. Sick little cutie. That could be your clothing line. Sick little cuties. Sick little cuties.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
But it's more than that. He's got that thing some people have. Where he is just like infinitely comfortable in his own skin, which is so appealing.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Yeah. The women came after me. Should I tell you that?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
What I thought was an incredibly obvious joke about period underwear and Tampax. Such a joke. Some women really came at me hard.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We really did uncover, though, something with the X. Yeah, I know. Because Maxi Pad, Tampax-
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Now, last interview, I don't remember that I hit you with anything really gotcha, but I do have a single gotcha this one. I'm going to go a little shorter today. Okay, so. I immediately start sweating. Oh, Jesus. Here it comes. Here it comes. I've been waiting.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Someone said that. Someone suggested that in the comments. And I think that's brilliant. And I don't think that's what it is, but that's a brilliant.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
I'm just trying to imagine the Tampax people going like, okay, let's call it, it's a tampon, but let's build on that and let's add X because of the chromosome.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
That they wanted to imbue a sense of max, like max comfort, max absorption, max freshness, max... What was the word?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
They had the word attached to Tampax in the ad we showed.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
That's good. It's good. We'd have to track down whoever named.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Okay. Well, while you read a fact, I'm going to ask AI if the inventor of maxi pads is still alive.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Well, it had to have. Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner, an African-American inventor, is renowned for her development of the adjustable sanitary belt, a precursor to the modern maxi pad. Okay, so they really went back. That was 1912. Oh, wow. She passed away in 06, so that's off the table.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Okay. You turn down, nobody wants this. Pause. And so my question is, why didn't you want to kiss my wife slash how long have you been closeted?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Kenner's invention patented and featured a moisture-proof pocket designed to hold menstrual pads securely in place. The innovation. Okay, we're in our face. Uh, racial discrimination. That's a bummer. And of course, uh, was awarded five patents. In summary, Mary Beatrice Davis and Kenner passed away.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
And I was like, okay, so I don't know if we're giving her credit for a maxi pet or she did the belt.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Or they do it weird. They'll do like a minute. So I just saw this. And congrats to Dumal and Minka Kelly, friends of the pod.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Ransom Canyon has 2.6 billion minutes viewed. And to put it in perspective, Mobland, which I love and is seemingly a hit, everyone I know is watching it, had like 580 million. So a four and a half X of second place. But they do minutes, right? So that's an interesting way to quantify it.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Wow. I wouldn't have picked that up just from walking around and people telling me to watch stuff.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Give Money Heist another shot. It was subtitled?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Oh, I know when I started, which is so fucking good. The Pit? Deli Boys. Oh! Have you tried? You gotta try it.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
It's such a unique tone that they are pulling off beautifully.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
You know, I like discovering these hiccups in my thinking.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
They have to deal with this Italian mob boss quite often.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
And they're Pakistani. And the patriarch, not even the patriarch, one of the partners in the criminal organization, an older guy, he hates Indians, right? He's constantly talking about how he hates Indians. And so he's sitting across from this Italian mobster and he He says, I'm Pakistani, but I'm telling the truth. Indians are terrible. And the Italian goes, oh, I thought you were Indian.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
And he goes, no, I'm not. They are our mortal enemy. And then the Italian mobster goes, so you guys look identical to each other and you hate one another? And he goes, oh, cookie just got canceled. Then they all laugh at the notion of a mobster could get canceled.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
But then I was like, I think people do go, how do these two people hate each other so much? They're clearly related. And then I was like, yeah, I would never think that about the Irish and the English.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
And then I wondered if people in India are looking at those people going like, wait, you guys are the same people. Why are you fighting? I wonder if it's like whatever in-group you're in, it seems crazy on the outside.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
So this is a great gotcha. By the way, I wouldn't have even known. I was FaceTiming with Kristen right before this. I go, I have Nick. And she goes, oh, yeah, you know, he turned down. Nobody wants this. And I was like, oh, my God, thank you so much. Thank you for giving me. I did my research. Thank you.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Yeah. Like six. Six more years he's got of being sick. We're not sick anymore.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Probably more sick than I was pre-kids in general.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
But, like, they just stop putting their fingers in each other's mouths and butts. And, like, they just, they get a little more separated as they get older.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Right. I'm just saying I revealed a lot that I had some vestigial racial thinking that I caught myself.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
And you can keep it time locked in your mind and memory.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Is it painful? Is it painful because you feel like you're missing out on the mothering experience or is it painful because you feel excluded from your friends in a way? I. Which pain is it?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
This is like Matt Damon turning down Avatar and missing out on $250 million. Do you know that story?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
If I were you, I would just want to be crystal clear if it is a desire to have the experience versus the A student in you.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
He tells it openly. It's wonderful. He was offered 10% of Avatar on the phone with James Cameron. To be Signore Weaver? And I said everything right here. Yes, absolutely. To be Signore Weaver. You cannot ignore Signore Weaver.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
That's hard to know which is driving it. But I think one is worth chasing and one is worth overcoming.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Yeah. So what does a guy in your situation do? Like, what is this 37 year old guy who can't go get a donor?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
I mean, yeah, they could. And then they got to get a surrogate. And it's definitely more complicated. You're like you're a stop at a sperm bank away from having a kid.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Well, maybe because of fertility. But, you know, like a dude who's not loaded and can't pay for a surrogate and egg and all that stuff. I wonder what how they wrestle with it, you know?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
How much is a sperm donor? That's not terribly expensive.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Carrie sent me this incredible post that a girl at our high school had put on Facebook and, um, she was a grade younger than us. I believe I didn't like, of course I didn't recognize her right away, but it was this really heartfelt, beautiful post about the complicated nature of Mother's Day and
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
She basically had to say goodbye to her mom at 16 because the mom moved to Arizona and the mom was not healthy mom. And so this girl was living, going to my school.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Paying for an apartment. She sent it to me because she goes, side note, that's fun. I was once in detention and Dax Shepard said to me, what'd they put you in for?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
And then went on to say, don't worry about all this. Your life's really going to start in two minutes. And I know mine's not ending here in this.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Whether I said that or not, who knows? Maybe in her mind, I said that. But I'm delighted that on that detention, we had, you know, like a fun.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Yeah. But it was just a really sweet post and a reminder of like, man, some kids like the experience can be so right. Carrie sent it to me going, I'm such a fucking asshole for bitching about my two loving parents, you know, whatever.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
But yeah, there's kids in your high school that are like, they're supporting themselves and living in an apartment.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Follow Armchair Expert on the Wondery app, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to every episode of Armchair Expert early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
And when Monica edits, you're going to go like that guy, Todd Haynes.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Well, hold on a second. I swear to God. Okay, great. By the way, I didn't know till today they offered it to you. But when I read it, I was like, you got to get Brody. He's the only option.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
That was meant to be aggressive. This was not. Can I have that over here? Oh, yeah, absolutely. I'm going to take one from me. Mind if I just spit loogies out while we... No, of course. ...his monocle, a test. I'm just a disgusting mess of coffee. He's constantly nose-blown.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
And we're both blowing our nose in a very cute and appealing way. Sick little cuties.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Now, did you go so far as to go back through your emails to see? You did. It was an offer. I don't remember.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Overcoming a lot of childhood trauma of being overlooked and then trying to rule the world because no one wanted to. Exactly.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
It's funny. About five minutes ago, I was in my daughter's bedroom, which is a little smaller and probably better for the sound. And our neighbor across the street is doing a construction project and just whipped up their drywall mixer. Do you live across the street from me? Yeah. In the last five minutes, I've been frantic.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
I have been. I was working in the wine industry for almost 20 years.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
What were you? I worked in marketing, social media.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
So now I work at our regional food bank called the Redwood Empire Food Bank. And I do grant writing and corporate partnerships. Busy time of year?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
We do. This takes place in a little town called Windsor, just north of Santa Rosa. That's the home of Charles Schultz. That's right.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
It's January 2000. I'm 18 years old. In between my semesters at my freshman year of college, I was going to the junior college here in town. Most of my friends had already left to go back to their schools. Some post-holiday blues, post-Y2K excitement.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
So I was just kind of moping around the house and my sister lived at home. She was a little bit older than me and she loved going to the gym. So she dragged me to the gym one day. Put on, you know, new pair of warm-up pants that I had, a big hooded sweatshirt. Exactly what I thought someone who would go to the gym would wear, you know, but not at all. Ooh.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
it's not a very big gym it was the first time i'd ever been to a public gym they kind of had the check area and the machines kind of in the front and then tucked in the back were a few treadmills and all the free weights so we went in hopped up on a couple of the treadmills to do a little warm-up we were jogging for a few minutes and my sister she'd hopped off and went to go do like her routine whatever she was going to do and i decided to stay on the treadmill i did a little running in high school so
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
Started building my confidence a little bit, putting up the speed, trying to get familiar with, you know, being on a treadmill. You know, probably five minutes go by and I'm going pretty fast and feeling good. Of course, I've got lined sweatpants on and a big hooded sweatshirt. So I'm getting hot. I'm way overdressed. Decided I need to take my sweatshirt off.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
The thought does not even cross my mind to like stop the treadmill, take my sweatshirt off and start up again. I'm going to just go ahead and try and take my sweatshirt off while I'm on the trip.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
Yeah, you know that move in the car where you're driving and they take a sweatshirt off or something and you can kind of do it real quick.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
No, if anything, I wanted to be anonymous. I was a pretty shy kid. Luckily, it wasn't very busy. I was kind of off on my own. You know, got one arm out of the sweatshirt, pulled the sweatshirt over my head. And that was when I lost sight for the first time. Oh, wow. And immediately stopped feet. I fly off the back of the truck. Oh, no. And I wish it would have ended there.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
And that would have been fine. I probably would have been okay. But the way this gym was set up was that, you know, it was 2000. It was pre-flat screen TVs. So the TVs were hanging on the ceiling. And they were the big tube TVs. And they were down the middle of the gym. So the treadmills were turned to face the middle of the gym, backed against a wall. Oh, no. Okay, okay, okay.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
Bounced off the wall, landed back on the treadmill. Back on the wall. Wait, what?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
So I'm basically like in a dryer and a tumble cycle is kind of what it felt like. Are you still blinded by the sweatshirt? Completely blinded. Sweatshirt completely halfway over my head. Can't see anything. I'm just kind of bouncing back and forth between the treadmill and the wall over and over again.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
So, you know, eventually I hear my sister screaming, not really helping, but she's screaming from the other side of the room, you know, somebody help. All this is happening so fast. It was probably only 30 seconds, but it feels like 10 minutes that I'm just bouncing back and forth between treadmill and wall. Eventually somebody came and stopped the treadmill.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
I took inventory outside of my torn warm-up pants. No, this is so sad.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
I mean, I feel fortunate that it wasn't too busy. There wasn't that many people there. I pretty much left immediately after that. I was like, I'll wait in the car while you finish your workout. I'm not hanging out anymore. I'm done with the workout. I'm never ever going to exercise again.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
I have a feeling that people who work there probably had that on security footage and probably got a real charge.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
I was pretty sore the next day. Burnt up knees a little bit, but more bruised ego than anything.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
Call 911! I called her last night to kind of corroborate the story. And she was like, what I remember is I was working out and all of a sudden I hear this big thud. And then I turn around and I see her arms flailing around on the treadmill.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
I have. Stayed outside for my running for a while.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
I wouldn't say I'm the most graceful person either, so I've been known to trip just on the sidewalk.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
You just start telling people, you know who I look like. Shout out to my daughter, Grace, and my son, Sam. I let them listen to a very choice few of these.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
Oh, God. I'll wait until they're a little older for that one.
Bad Friends
New Episode Out on Patreon
Yaxi, Yabora. Yaxi, Yabora. Yaxi, Yabora. Where are your arms now? Yaxi, Yabora. Yaxi, Yabora. Yaxi, Yabora. The yard bone is gone.
Cleared Hot
Episode 372 - Seth Gehle
Okay, got the red smoke. North and south. West of the smoke. West of the smoke.
CreepCast
The Pigeons Around Here Aren't Real | Creep Cast
Howdy, Caleb. Any idea what this straggler's doing here?
CreepCast
The Pigeons Around Here Aren't Real | Creep Cast
I reckon it's a runaway tourist attraction from a few towns over. He rubbed his bushy chin.
CreepCast
The Pigeons Around Here Aren't Real | Creep Cast
Help me put it in the back of the truck. I'll store it in the barn until its owner shows up.
CreepCast
The Pigeons Around Here Aren't Real | Creep Cast
Mr. Scarecrow, Mr. Scarecrow is doing a good job today. What?
CreepCast
The Pigeons Around Here Aren't Real | Creep Cast
I'm calling aliens. I'm betting on aliens. What do you think?
CreepCast
The Pigeons Around Here Aren't Real | Creep Cast
Transformer exploded. Must be. I guess it's Megatron and Optimus Prime fighting out in the cornfield again. Do you mean that the Go-Box and the Decepticons are fighting again? There it is. That's right, Spencer.
CreepCast
The Pigeons Around Here Aren't Real | Creep Cast
It's going to be a long night. Yes, ma'am.
CreepCast
The Pigeons Around Here Aren't Real | Creep Cast
You mind doing one last thing? There's a tarp in the barn. Be a dear and go get it for me. Sure, ma'am.
CreepCast
The Pigeons Around Here Aren't Real | Creep Cast
Spence, lunch is ready. Get down from there.
CreepCast
The Pigeons Around Here Aren't Real | Creep Cast
Where's Spencer? He's trying a brand new diet of cold eggs and ham. Ew. He's trying a brand new diet of beating his cock off.
CreepCast
The Pigeons Around Here Aren't Real | Creep Cast
You're going to be just like him when you're older.
CreepCast
The Pigeons Around Here Aren't Real | Creep Cast
Yeah, he asked for a couple Jolly Ranchers. Oh, God. Did you give him the Jolly Ranchers?
CreepCast
The Pigeons Around Here Aren't Real | Creep Cast
Don't move, honey. Mom, what are we doing? We're playing dead, honey. If you do good, we'll bake you your favorite cake. But you gotta be perfectly still, alright? Okay!
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
All right, boys, this podcast is sponsored by Shopify. I couldn't be happier because we have used Shopify since the very beginning for the last like 10 years to be able to sell full send merch and now happy dad merch, board jerky, a ton of different stuff to you guys.
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
So all the note boys, we've agreed on one play for UFC and it's live on the app right now. It's our community play. So if you guys are looking to fire this weekend on the fights, ride with us on our picks. We all agreed on this pick. It's going to hit guaranteed. Also people that ride with us on these UFC picks, prize picks is going to be given out 50 pieces of merch.
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
So if you guys have a new business venture this year that you guys want to start, Shopify is by far the best e-commerce platform that you guys need to use. No matter what stage of your business at, if you're at our stage in your business, or if you guys haven't even started a business, if you're brand new, Shopify is there for you every step of the way. And it's so easy to get started guys.
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
Take it from me. I did this back in the day about 12 years ago and Shopify is good for any different type of business venture. If you're starting a fitness company, or you're selling granola bars, whatever you're doing, it doesn't matter. Shopify's backend is unmatched.
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
My favorite thing about it too is like I said, whether you're small or big, it has everything you need to take control of your business and take it to the next level. They're always there for you every step of the way. Shopify powers 10% of all e-commerce in the US. They are truly a global force in e-commerce. They're in over 170 countries.
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
Plus, Shopify's award-winning customer service is there to help you every step of the way. Boys, don't wait now. Starting your business in 2025 is the year to do it. We got you guys on a special deal if you guys want to sign up. Go to shopify.com slash full send and you get a $1 per month free trial. Easy as that. I want to see you guys getting fired and starting your own businesses.
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
Shopify.com slash full send. I love Shopify, like I said. Guys, take it from me as an entrepreneur and someone that has been using Shopify literally for 12 years. I don't even know what other platform I would use before Shopify. It's literally just a one-stop shop. They are the best in the game.
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
So go to shopify.com slash full send $1 per month free trial and take your business to the next level today.
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
to people that win so that's pretty sick if you ride with us you have a chance to win an exclusive piece of merch this is like the best time to to fire on prize picks nfl playoffs sweating prize picks and watching nfl playoffs there is nothing like it also we got the college finals monday there's a free square right here add this to any of your picks It's just going to boost your entire lineup.
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
Yeah, I think we're good. We don't want to take up too much of your time. We know you got a big week. We appreciate you coming through, brother.
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
I think last time we saw you was in Elbrus. the mountains when we go back i want to come back we were going to ask you i think we need to come there for like two weeks plus and actually train and the best months i think it's may april may you can come did you go back up there for this camp
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
And as always, we got you guys on Code Nelk. If you guys put in $5, you get $50 for free. No strings attached with that code. I love PrizePix. There is no better time to fire. NFL playoffs, UFC, college, Super Bowl's coming up. Download the PrizePix app. Use Code Nelk. Let's get in the pod.
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
10 years to get to where you are. Yeah, yeah, of course. Do you feel like you've sacrificed a lot to get to where you are now?
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
Golf's good when you start to see improvements and you start hitting good shots. You get addicted. It gets addicting. Yeah. Because it's all mental too, right? I know what you mean.
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
Do you think this could be the last fight if you win at lightweight?
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
Because if you beat Arman, you've cleaned out the entire division, right?
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
Because I saw Dana said today that he's going to fight in the fall.
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
That guy's not stepping foot in Dagestan. He's not going anywhere.
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
You're getting a lot of business opportunities, I'm sure. So you're purposely just saving.
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
I've seen you guys talking too recently about Coach Habib. Is he like a little too crazy in the gym now pushing you guys? Because the way you guys talk about it, it seems like... Yeah, of course.
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
We don't want to take too much of your time. I know you're cutting weight.
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
Thank you, guys. Did you have any of that honey? You said you had honey?
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
Good training camp and we're ready. Is this your first time doing a long camp in the United States? No? Before fight in UFC, we're always doing... We always prepare here. Is it different when you like leave Dagestan to come train to United States? Do you like it here?
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
I saw Khabib talking about sacrifice and we asked Islam too. But do you feel like you've had to sacrifice a lot to get to where you are now?
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
How do you, how do you see yourself beating Murab in this fight?
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
And real quick, in the spirit of UFC, we just dropped brand new UFC full send stuff on fullsend.com. If you guys head over there, we got tees, we got hoodies. Super simple, super clean. I like this shit. You can just rock it anywhere. You can rock it to the club. I love this shit. UFC full send. So go to fullsend.com right now. Grab some UFC full send shit. Let's get in the pod.
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
Were you good at hockey and do you still watch the NHL at all?
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
Do you envision that moment in the octagon, like getting the belt wrapped around you?
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
After the fight is there or when you come here and you're not about to fight, is there any American fast food that you like?
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
if I said it I would say it I would stand on it you just keep I get scared once he's sitting with you it's crazy bro alright we don't want to take up too much of your time we know you're cutting weight you got a big week and we wish you the best of luck bro thank you bro appreciate you thank you so much thank you yes thank you Ali
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
Yeah, you think you could take Ovechkin and a scrap on the ice?
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
He said he's more Georgian than you and he represents Georgian values better than you. Yeah.
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
Do you think that was the best Sean O'Malley that night? Or do you think it was your style that just threw him off?
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
Does it suck when you see Dana saying that in the media?
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
You got to let some girls hold the belt though, right? Oh yeah, of course.
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
What do you expect from the press conference tomorrow? Because last time, you guys kind of stole the show.
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
Yeah. How do you see your, like, title reign playing out? Like, how many times do you want to fight, and would you ever move... I guess Toporia's up at the next weight class, but...
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
All right, boys, as you guys know, Bitcoin has been on fire. I just opened up the MoonPay app and it is absolutely booming. I've been really focused on holding more crypto recently and I have switched to MoonPay. I find it the easiest app for anything crypto related. So what I really like about MoonPay that I discovered is you can use Apple Pay,
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
You can use like any credit or debit card and you can use PayPal to buy crypto, which I love. It's super easy. Like you could buy it in any way and it always works. If you hold different cryptos like Bitcoin, ETH, Solana, you can monitor in real time the changing of the markets on Moonpay app. Moonpay also has 24 seven customer support that's there at all times, which I love.
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
Or like the licking. Did you lick him, Sugar, or something?
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
Yeah, you kept kissing him. What's up with that? Is that like a troll? Totally a troll. What?
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
So guys, if you're looking to get into crypto, buying, selling, holding, make sure you download the Moonpay app. Trump's back in office, so we've seen what's happened already. Who knows what's going to come? If I was you guys, I'd be holding. That's what I'm doing. The Moonpay app is available on the iPhone and the Android, or you can go to moonpay.com to sign up.
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
We also have a link in the description as well. Make sure you guys follow at Nelk Boys and at Moonpay on X because we're going to be doing a ton of crypto giveaways, like for real. So make sure you guys follow us. Don't miss out on that. It's going to be absolutely free money. We're going to be doing that every month. So don't miss out on that. It's literally free money.
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
Just follow Nelk Boys and Moonpay on X and be looking out for it, boys. Buy some crypto. Take advantage of what's to come. Trump's back in office. We never know what's going to happen. I'm feeling good about it. I'm holding. Download the Moonpay app. Let's get back into the pod.
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
How do you see yourself winning this fight? Because you guys have very similar styles wrestling, and you're both really good at striking. So how do you see yourself, like, winning this fight?
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
What's your watch collection like? How many pieces do you have?
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
I saw you weren't impressed by his performance with Poirier. You didn't think he did a good job?
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
What's a post-win fight present look like? What was the last one?
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
Are you, like, were you ever a fan of, like, McGregor? Yeah, of course.
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
All right, boys, we have a massive UFC pod today. The co-main event and the main event all on one pod. This is insane. Before we get into it, if you guys have not downloaded the PrizePix app, you've got to try it. It's an absolute no-brainer. I have fired on every app when it comes to firing on sports, and PrizePix is by far the best, hands down. We have a special play this weekend.
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
Armand's not going to be on Frontier Airlines, right? Nah, he's not taking that.
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
What do you think about Teporia? Do you think he moves up to your division?
FULL SEND PODCAST
UFC 311 Special | Ep. 145
Is that a fight that you'd potentially like down the line?
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Well, firstly, I was never super physically strong compared to other guys. Even though I do go to the gym once or twice a week, but just going back to childhood and up to this day, I never felt like I was quite physically as strong as a lot of other men. And I was always, especially as a teenager, I was super skinny.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
So that also kind of contributed to this belief that I'm just not physically strong enough. Also, I was never much of a risk taker. I was always more on the cautious side. And I have a tendency to kind of overthink and analyze things. I was never like a daredevil slash, you know, reckless risk taker.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Right. I was always more on the sensitive side, like... Emotionally, I would be more sensitive than the average guy, I feel. And I also have a tendency to be introverted slash on the shy side, like you mentioned, similar to your previous belief.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
I guess I just assume that all these things I listed make me less masculine compared to my competition, and therefore a woman will likely to choose more masculine guys rather than myself.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Yeah? Well, also there was a girl back in freshman year of college that I was interested in. Um, and, but back then I was super skinny, like on the borderline underweight and we got along really well, but she just, she ended up friend zoning me. And I thought that part of the reason was that I was too skinny. And she actually mentioned me being super skinny a couple of times.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
So I thought that had something to do with it.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
She never dumped me. She just friend-zoned me. We were friends.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
No, she gave me a bullshit reason saying that she doesn't want to ruin our friendship, but obviously I knew that was just the cover-up. But she did mention me being skinny a couple of times, and Okay.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
I mean, a woman never directly told me that I'm not masculine enough. But... Because they don't give you a reason why they reject you, typically. It's just something I assumed might be part of the problem.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Well, my first girlfriend mentioned that she didn't break up with me because of it, but she did mention one time that I'm a little feminine. That was years ago though. So I feel I changed a lot since then, but that was like 12 years ago or 11.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Zero.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
No.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
I would say probably similar to you that it gives me a reason not to approach, especially if I'm at the bar at night. I see my competition and I see a decent amount of guys that I think are more physically strong and maybe more masculine looking or more attractive.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
So having that belief allows, like it gives me a reason not to try to approach because I think, you know, it's probably not going to work because I'm not as good as some of my competition.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Exactly.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Yeah.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
I guess it gives me something to work towards maybe. Like if I can become physically strong or masculine. Like there's something to strive towards.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Makes me feel inferior, disempowered, and also kind of hopeless about my dating prospects.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Disempowered as in... I'm unable to attract the woman that I want because I feel I'm not good enough or masculine enough in that sense. Okay. Hopeless because I assume that, uh, you know, most women aren't going to be into me. And so I'm probably not going to be dating, not going to be able to date the kinds of women that I really want.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Inferior to more attractive or more masculine than.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Okay.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Yeah, I'm in that position.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
I am just not man enough for really hot girls.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
I feel so disempowered.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Look at all these men, and I'm not a man. I'm small.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
This is not fixable. I'm hopeless.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
This is unfixable.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
I'm too sensitive. My muscles are too small.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
I'm not a risk taker.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
I'm like a woman.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Women want a man. I'm just too ladylike. Why would they want me? Jesus Christ, this sucks. Jesus Christ, this sucks. Why bother? Why bother?
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Like 3.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Pretty hard. Borderline impossible.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Very unattractive.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Oh, absolutely.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Yeah, I usually don't even try. So that probably prevents me from potentially getting some success at least. And also having that fear. It's also self-fulfilling prophecy because if I do go on a date and I'm super worried about not being masculine or confident enough, that just puts me more in my head, makes me very not confident. And then the girl can probably sense that and then it's just...
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
It just proves my original beliefs.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Yeah.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Yeah.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Well, I am six feet tall and a lot of women would think that's kind of masculine because they prefer taller men and they associate that with masculinity in a way.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Great start. I'm a healthy weight now, so I'm no longer that borderline underweight teenager, young adult that I used to be. Okay. I do have some muscles. I weigh 180 pounds.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
I used to weigh 130 back in the day.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
I used to practice kickboxing. And I was 15 at the time, and I remember I was doing this drill with this big, muscular guy who would go pretty hard on me, even though I was only 15. He was like 29, I believe. I remember he hit me in the jaw, and a piece of my upper tooth chipped off, but I didn't even feel it.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
And then another guy in my kickboxing class, after the class, he actually complimented me, saying that I'm a very strong guy.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
I hope it's just muscle. No, it's actually not, but that would be nice. I like being dominant in the bedroom.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
On the rare occasion that I do have the opportunity.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Nothing too inappropriate, but I just show dominance.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Well, tall is good, but also someone kind of wide, really broad shoulders, really muscular arms. My arms are pretty skinny. So muscular arms, big shoulders. That's the physical part. And then personality wise, I would say also like someone with a broader face, bigger jawline.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Part of that physical approach.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
I like Gerard Butler. I kind of like Gerard Butler. He seems very alpha.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Maybe. Maybe. Is it possible? I think so. What do good lawyers do?
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Yeah, that must be the case.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Remember where? No, just like random people on the street. Well, I actually do know, I used to have a crush on this young professor in college, not in college, in grad school. And I assumed her husband must be this big macho guy. And then I found him on the internet and he was like this short, very chubby, bald, balding, unattractive guy. And I was like, whoa, what happened over there?
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
So I used to have a crush on this young university professor. At university? She was really beautiful. Yeah.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
He is her husband.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Yeah.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
The ones here? Biceps.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Unfortunately, they don't find out the dominant and bad part until later. That's unfortunate, but yeah. Okay. Got it.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Definitely it would feel more powerful and confident. And I have moments where I feel that way when I believe kind of falls off temporarily. Okay. And I feel more masculine and dominant and it makes me feel much more powerful, confident. And yeah, hopeful about my prospects. So basically the opposite of having that belief.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Yes.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
I think so, although I would probably feel... that I don't want to burst, I believe. So even though I might internally feel that I'm masculine in the moment, I would be afraid that if I approach and she rejects me that It's going to burst my belief, and then I'm going to go back to feeling not good enough. You know what I mean?
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Does it have to be like the exact opposite of the non-masculine belief?
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Okay. I would say something like a lot of women would find me attractive because I am tall, intelligent, charming, and A gentleman, but also dominant in the bedroom.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Tall, intelligent, charming.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
And a gentleman, but also dominant in the bedroom.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Hopefully the latter. I guess it depends on the woman.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Probably gentleman.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Yeah, it seems reasonable.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
It's all intelligent, attractive, or sexy.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
I like calling myself Nico because it sounds so cool and sexy.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Are going to be attracted to me because I'm tall.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
I'm a gentleman.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
I am intelligent.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
And I am dominant in bed.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Nico is going to make them go, oh.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Nico is going to make the girls go, oh.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
I'm six foot, bitches.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Do that again. I want a 10% more vocal commitment. Go. 180 pounds of kickboxing muscle.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
I'm not masculine or man enough for women.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
I was friend zone 15 years ago.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
I am Nico.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
I have an abundance of quality women.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Because I am tall, intelligent, and a gentleman.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Go. Nico will make you go, oh.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
So I started doubting my old belief and started focusing more on... a better belief that I also think has a lot of truth to it. And then I basically changed my body language to reflect that new belief.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Yeah. Absolutely.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Yeah, for sure.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Yeah, that sounds great.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
I am attractive to a lot of beautiful women because I am tall, intelligent, charming, gentleman, and dominant in the bedroom. I am Nico.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Thank you. It was life-changing.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Sounds great.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
I would say one belief slash fear is that I worry that the woman will sense that I'm maybe not masculine or confident enough. Maybe she'll sense that I'm a little more on the shy side, like shy slash sensitive. And when I start worrying about it, that makes me feel even more shy or not confident. So it's like a negative spiral that I go into.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Yeah, I'm also kind of insecure about showing my interest to the girl because I feel as though it will make... It will automatically put me below her because girls, and especially if they're attractive, they're used to guys showing a lot of interest in them. So I feel if I show interest, I'll be just like all the other guys that have shown interest in her.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
And she will automatically put me in that category of every other guy and basically...
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Well, I guess physical attractiveness. I don't think I'm a bad-looking guy, but I haven't had a whole lot of success with online dating, even though I think I have pretty decent photos. But there's obviously room for improvement. But since I've had so little success in online dating, it kind of carries over into the real world, too.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
And I think, well, these girls don't like me when they see my good pictures, so why would they like me in person?
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
That I'm not attractive enough to date the kinds of women that I find attractive.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Well, if we're talking about pictures, it's more physical attractiveness.
How to Get a Girlfriend with Connell Barrett
Struggling with Dating Confidence? Try this Mindset Shift to Become Instantly Magnetic to Women (Live Coaching Results)
Right, and in the real world.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Caretakers Need to Care for Themselves with Seth and Lauren Rogen
Wow.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Caretakers Need to Care for Themselves with Seth and Lauren Rogen
Hi, Michelle and Craig. My name is Nick and I'm 38 years old and I live in Miami, Florida. I have an elderly mother who's recently been admitted to an assisted living community due to her Alzheimer's disease progressing beyond our family's care. But the road to getting there was tough. For several years, my dad and I were her primary caregivers.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Caretakers Need to Care for Themselves with Seth and Lauren Rogen
Well, my dad was her primary caregiver, taking care of the house, cleaning, cooking. And then I was my dad's caregiver. I'd grocery shop for him, make sure he was eating properly, come over to watch the game. But that often meant I was leaving my own wife and young son at home a few nights a week. Now my relationship with my wife is suffering.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Caretakers Need to Care for Themselves with Seth and Lauren Rogen
She's very understanding of my situation, but we lack any real time together outside of going to work, taking care of our house, making sure our son has everything he needs. And then recently, in one of our weekly visits to see my mom in her new care facility, she introduced us to her new boyfriend that she met there.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Caretakers Need to Care for Themselves with Seth and Lauren Rogen
The only problem is, my dad is very much in love with her and dedicated to her still. We know in our heads that this is the disease taking its effect. but were having a difficult time watching my mom turn into someone that sees me and my father as, quote, the assholes out to ruin her relationship with the love of her life.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Caretakers Need to Care for Themselves with Seth and Lauren Rogen
And now I'm left wondering, after all these years of strain, what will the emotional fallout of all of this be? My dad's sense of himself without my mom and his heartbreak at what's happening at the end. I'll continue to be there for him, but my own home life has suffered so much for so long, and I know my wife and son deserve so much more.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Caretakers Need to Care for Themselves with Seth and Lauren Rogen
In the midst of it all, I haven't even begun to try to come to terms with the fact that my mom is no longer the same person that raised me and supported me through the best and worst moments of my life, and soon that she won't be here with us at all.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Caretakers Need to Care for Themselves with Seth and Lauren Rogen
How do we even begin to come together again as a family when we're all exhausted, already devastated, and have no real time to take care of ourselves? How do we move forward, each of us, successfully from here? Thanks for your thoughts. Nick. Ooh, Nick.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Caretakers Need to Care for Themselves with Seth and Lauren Rogen
She's great.
Kinda Funny Games Daily: Video Games News Podcast
Report: God Of War Side-Story Releasing This Year - Kinda Funny Games Daily 03.24.25
Trey?
Kinda Funny Games Daily: Video Games News Podcast
Report: God Of War Side-Story Releasing This Year - Kinda Funny Games Daily 03.24.25
Yeah, it was, yeah.
Kinda Funny Games Daily: Video Games News Podcast
Report: God Of War Side-Story Releasing This Year - Kinda Funny Games Daily 03.24.25
I thought he was having a movie night.
Legends of Avantris
Icebound | Ep. 24 | Passage of Rime
Nick, we have to just light it without engaging it.
Legends of Avantris
Icebound | Ep. 24 | Passage of Rime
Get ready to dodge! I don't know how else to say this, but whale!
Legends of Avantris
Icebound | Ep. 24 | Passage of Rime
Tomorrow. Tomorrow I will start. Tomorrow I will, Pingas! Tomorrow I will slam on the cooler.
Legends of Avantris
Icebound | Ep. 24 | Passage of Rime
Derek, that is such a fucking move. Oh, but there's a sail. Well, of course you know that they would keep the canvas here.
Legends of Avantris
Icebound | Ep. 24 | Passage of Rime
Near. Your. We found something. We found something for you. Well, what is it? Look at this! And we have this horrific bone effigy.
Legends of Avantris
Icebound | Ep. 24 | Passage of Rime
Would you enjoy some calming burning alive? A calming cup of being burned alive.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
And I ended up getting into bringing on clients that just weren't a great fit. They weren't a great fit. And for what it's worth, when you're starting out, you say yes to everybody because you just need to generate cash flow. Low hanging fruit, right? Exactly.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
But over the years, through that learning, I can say, OK, you know, out of all these clients I've worked with, who are the 20 percent that I meshed with the best that I was able to get the best result for? That 20%, that's who I want to focus on. That's who I want to attract.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
Those other 80%, I can find other solutions for them, whether it's in online programs, free lead magnets, trainings, YouTube videos, or maybe I can say, hey, Jim, you're not a great fit for me, but Jill over here is awesome. Talk to Jill. I think she's going to be a better fit.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
And so I think focusing on that, I think, again, is a real challenge, is saying yes to everybody, finding yourself in the wrong situations, and then, like I said, learning from that, taking on the 20% that are going to be a good fit.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
You know, we're always learning. And I'm kind of in this growth phase of my life right now in that in order to hit new milestones, it requires us to change as human beings, right? And we kind of talked a little bit about this up front. Where does God want me to go? Because there's so many different routes and avenues that I could take, which are going to lead to all sorts of different outcomes.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
And it's not always clear what the right path is. So what I pray for, what I read when I read the Bible is, what's the direction? Where do you want me to go? And I don't know exactly what that looks like, Mick. But what I do know is that there's certain characteristics of that person, of my future self. There's going to be things that I'm going to need to be doing.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
Nick, I'm just so honored and blessed to be here on the mic with you. Your camera looks amazing. For someone who just started their podcast in March, you are freaking crushing it, bro. Thanks for bringing me on the show.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
I'm going to need to be lifting weights. I'm going to need to be reading daily. I'm going to need to be waking up early. I need to make my bad habits more difficult to accomplish. So, for example, I like to play video games. I like video games. I know that makes me unattractive to women or whatever.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
I like video games, but I also realized that that's more of a consumption when I should be creating. So, so what do I do if I find myself playing a video game too much? I delete it. I unsubscribe. I make it harder. It doesn't mean I can't go out and download the game again or resubscribe again. I could do that.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
But putting all those additional steps in the way make it less likely I'm going to do that because it's more difficult. I want to make my good habits easier to accomplish. I don't think my bad habits harder. And I think that's been a big part of my personal growth path.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
Mentorship is a tough one. It's very difficult to find good mentors. I was at a men's group at church the other day, and we're reading this book, Become Your Future Self Now. And I remember I was just talking about, I'd had a guy on my podcast. He's a billionaire. He's just like one of the biggest real estate investors in the world. I got invited out to his home in Fort Lauderdale.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
He's got a yacht in the back. He's got like 12 people on staff inside his home. It's Crazy. So I was kind of telling the story real quick. And afterwards, after the session was over, this guy comes up to me and basically hard sells me on becoming part of his coaching program. And I was like, that's, that's not the type of mentor I want, you know? And so it's tough. I think, you know, for me, Mick,
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
And I don't necessarily know that I have any specific mentors, like the pastor at my church is great. My father's great. I can learn a lot from them. But I think one of the best ways for me to learn is working with clients that are farther ahead than me. So finding someone who's built something amazing, that's doing millions of dollars in revenue, how can I add value to that organization?
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
And then I get a chance to actually get paid to learn. Because... now I'm generating income for me and for my team, but I'm also learning like, Ooh, wow. That's the way that he set up his organizational structure. That's really smart.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
I can kind of take that back to my team or wow, that his tech stack is really working or that, that AI tool that they're using and the way they're integrating AI into their client. That's really good. I'm going to, I'm going to take that back. So,
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
you know, I think for me, and again, kind of moving this year, I wanted to surround myself with killers, people that are, that are farther ahead than me. And a lot of that has just been working with clients that are generating more cash or running bigger teams and bigger organizations and taking that as lesson, not just for me, but for my team and for the other clients that I'm working with.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
Cause if something's working for this client, well, let's go and let's replicate it over for this client too. And then everyone shares in that growth.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
And this is, I think, probably one of the most important topics of our generation right now. We're going through something as dramatic as the printing press right now with AI. And where I think people should be focused on is a couple of things. A, how can I train AI models properly? and prompt AI models to give me the output that I want. And that is going to evolve over time.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
But I think that a couple of things that are going to be true is the more information that I have digitally on my business, as far as vision, mission, ideal team members, ideal customer profiles, all the branding, the brand guides. where I'm finding people maybe have big spreadsheets full of financial data, marketing data, customer journey data.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
All that data has become very, very, very important because you're able to train AI models specifically within the context of your own organization. And the more streamlined and the more documentation that you have on your organization and what you're trying to accomplish, the faster you're going to be able to train models to accomplish things. different things.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
Yeah, it's incredible the opportunities that you get. I mean, I've gotten the chance to talk to people like Pat Flynn, Sean Cannell, Patrick Bet-David, Dave Rubin. I've talked to presidential candidates, the mayor of our city and our county down here in South Florida. Quick funny story. I was president of the board in my condo association in Coral Springs, Florida recently.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
And honestly, this is one of the first things I do when I bring on a client. I say, send me over your brand guide. You know, if I'm doing, you know, YouTube, if I'm doing email marketing, give me all the information you have on your organization. Let me see your customer, all that stuff that I mentioned. And I'm going to train an AI model on that specific business so that
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
I'm able to give them results much more quickly, much more rapidly, and much more accurately. And then it becomes a sounding board that can ask questions. Hey, I'm thinking about running this type of campaign. What do you think? It'll help me see blind spots. It'll help me find opportunities that I didn't know. It'll help me find leaks in the business. It's kind of funny when you start...
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
Leveraging this properly, you get results so quickly, Mick, that there's almost this temptation to say, I actually can't send this result to a client yet because he's going to think that it devalues the work. When you can do something in 10 minutes that it used to take two days to do, it almost devalues what you're doing. Right. And the flip side, I had Chris Doe on my podcast.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
We kind of talked about this and he said, well, if the client is upset because you're sending them work too quickly, you say, oh, well, you know, if you like, I'd be happy to send it to you three days later. Would that do you want it? I could give it to you now because speed is actually the value that you're giving. Speed is the value that you give to your customers and your clients.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
So it starts with starting. And I know that sounds obvious, but I'll go back to an example of Mr. Beast. Mr. Beast, one of the biggest YouTubers on the planet is constantly asked, how do I grow a big YouTube channel? And the advice that Mr. Beast gives is, make 100 YouTube videos and try to make each video better than the last video.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
And it sounds elementary, but what ends up happening is you just get better the more you do something, right? And I think there's a lot of that. I think people are a little bit afraid. It's a big hamburger to just swallow in one bite. We have to take bite-sized chunks out of it. But I would start, like I said, you could pop open ChatGPT. You should be opening up a ChatGPT every day.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
It's $20 for a premium account that gives you better results. It gives you web search. It gives you the ability to create GPTs. And amongst other things, you get a greater, you can get more results. So a $20 chat GPT, it's 20 bucks. It's the greatest tool that humankind has ever seen.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
So opening up something like that, implementing it using automation is level two, starting to automate it with things like forms. I'll give you a cool example here, Mick. People, this will get juices flowing here. I had to hire a new position recently for an email copywriter, an email marketer to help me out with my newsletter, AIupdate.ai.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
And what I did is I put out a post on this job listing board, said, hey, everyone, I'm hiring an email copywriter. If you're interested, go fill out this Google form. It's a Google form. And I asked various questions at Google Form that were very specific, that only someone in that realm would know. Like, what are the KPIs I'm looking for? How would you improve open rates on emails?
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
And there was this weird rule, this weird bureaucratic rule that you couldn't have shingles on your home in this particular little development. Although right across the street, all the homes had shingles. And we had a huge roofing project. We didn't have the budget for it. But shingles were recommended by a roofer, A, because they would be more effective.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
If you were going to spam, how would you solve that problem? Some kind of technical stuff. And I automated that using Zapier. Over to ChatGPT and I said, hey, ChatGPT, I want you to review all the people, all the responses that people send in. And this is what I want you to specifically look for. And I prompted it. I trained it again.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
This is the skill of our generation is knowing how to train and prompt. Totally agree. Gave ChatGPT all the context that it needed to actually handle these prompts coming in or handle these responses coming in. And I said, for all the responses, I want you to give them a ranking response. one being the worst, 10 being the best.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
And what it did is it was able to go through dozens and dozens and dozens of applicants. And I was able to narrow it down to the top three instantly. instantly. And it is so hard to find good talent. It is very difficult. It's extremely time consuming, but when you can use some, I set this up in an afternoon and now it's replicable. Anytime I want to bring on a new team member, boom, done.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
I can get it done. And so it's, it's, it's unbelievable what you can start to do once you start using AI as a To answer your question, start using it for 10 minutes a day, get comfortable with prompts, learn better prompts, and then eventually you can start automating with forms and information like that to just completely scale out any sort of system or process.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
It gets me so excited. You know, any team member that's not using AI, they need to be using AI. And I think for a lot of team members, it's kind of scary because they think, oh gosh, if I'm using AI all the time, then I'm gonna, my value is gonna be lessened, but it's actually the opposite.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
Because what AI inexorably does is it turns beginners into proficient, proficient, whatever their thing is. You can go from beginner to proficient like that using AI. But what it also does is it makes experts efficient. Because now all that little busy work stuff that you were doing and like, oh, I got to sit down and write an email. This is what used to take me an hour.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
And B, they were going to cost about half as much to execute the plan. And the city building department was like, nope, you can't do it. You can't do shingles. And so I said, you know what I'm going to do? I know the mayor. I'm friends with the mayor because I've had him on my podcast. I went into the next council meeting, went up, shook his hand, shook the hands of some commissioners.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
Now it takes you two minutes.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
It's unbelievable. Another thing that I just put out there when it comes to AI is everyone, if you walk away from this, here's one thing that I really want you to think about. If you are using Zoom calls, you absolutely must have an AI Zoom note taker that follows you around the internet. It is absolutely life-changing. There's a bunch of them out there. I'm using Fathom right now.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
That's the one that I like, but there's a bunch of different ones. But it's changed my life. I don't even barely do phone calls anymore. If I'm going to do a phone call, I'm just going to do an audio Zoom call because this note taker will take away key highlights. objections, key moments in the call, next steps.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
You always want to walk away from a Zoom call with like, what's the next thing that I need to do? What's the next thing that this person should do? It lays all that out. It can automatically send the notes to the person who is on the other line. It's taking out a transcript. By the way, you can use all these transcripts. You can use all these notes to program and set up AI models.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
So if I know I've had all, if I'm keeping track of all the Zoom calls that I'm having with a use that to train my chat GPT prompt. Now you're gonna system for training your GPT models. And additionally, this program Fathom uses an API and it automatically adds all the notes to my CRM. So anytime I'm on a sales call, Boom, automatically going into my CRM. I'm gathering data.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
That's the key here is we wanna gather as much data as possible because as AI gets better and more efficient, all the data that we have is gonna be used to instantly program what the next thing is.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
Yeah, I will say that the number one objection I hear from people when they start talking about AI is they say, well, a robot can't replace what I do. I'm about human to human connection. That's what's important. I think what people miss is that the AI tools on the back end enable you to be more focused on the person that's in front of you.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
Right. AI in implementing just some of the things we talked about today, Mick, is the best way to start working on your business instead of in your business. Because you can set up that GPT, like you said, that COO one is brilliant. You set that up once and now you've got an executive assistant that you probably were going to be paying $75,000 a year for. Yeah. Boom. Boom.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
I got a chance to just say, hey, guys, this is the deal. This is what our roofer recommends. I kid you not, Mick, the very next day we had approval for shingles for our community. Unbelievable the connections you can make through podcasting and new media.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
I'm really excited about what I'm doing on YouTube right now on the Mark Savant channel. It just grows like crazy. I'm a YouTube partner. Like I said, over 1.5 million views. I'm just focusing a lot on these AI tools. What am I learning? What are other people learning? How can we leverage that? We're in a golden age. There's a lot of fear out there right now.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
And I think that there's some of the fear is warranted, but we're in a golden age of opportunity right now. It doesn't matter where you're born, where you come from. These AI tools are so inexpensive. A lot of them are free. And if you could find a lane, you can start to leverage it. And it's a very exciting time.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
So I would just encourage people, if you want to know more about some of these specifics, where I can actually do a screen share and go deeper on some of these tactics, I'm doing that all on the Mark Savant YouTube channel.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
You can find Mark Savant Media all across the web. Mark Savant Media.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
You too, Mick.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
That works, that works. Or create your own AI agent that goes around and communicates and spreads love and word, you know?
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
Well, I come from an insurance background. I've been an employee my entire life. My entire life was an employee. And then at about age 35, I was like, you know, I'm tired of being yelled at on the phone all the time. And I decided I was going to shift and I tried different sorts of businesses, Mick, but I eventually was like, I'm listening to podcasts all the time. I'm learning a lot.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
These are fun. Let me try out a show. And within a month, I was speaking to presidential candidates, NFL players locally, the mayor of my city. I was like, this is awesome. I want to do more of this. And I just kept doing more and more of it. And now I've got a pretty mature agency with nearly a dozen team members. We're producing some of the larger shows in the fatherhood space.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
We're doing a lot of YouTube. And now I've got a thriving YouTube channel with over 1.5 million views, over 5,000 subs. And it's been a real blessing and a real honor to just do this. It's so much fun.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
I think that there is some value in trying to go viral. And what I mean by that is on YouTube specifically, the first thing I do before I hit record is I try to understand what the title of my episode is going to be.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
I appreciate that. And I will say, you know, on the idea of going viral, I think that there is some value in trying to go viral. And what I mean by that is on YouTube specifically, the first thing I do before I hit record is I try to understand what the title of my episode is going to be.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
And on YouTube specifically, you want to make sure that there's alignment from curiosity driven by the thumbnail, clarity delivered by the title, and then confirmation delivered in the first opening hook of your video. While you shouldn't necessarily be chasing views, you should be aware of the market cap. How many people are searching for this?
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
What's the chance that I'm going to get in front of more eyeballs so I can actually deliver my message? And I think that it's important to understand that concept of search, volume, competition, all that matters with standing out in the YouTube world.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
I come from an insurance background. I've been an employee my entire life. Eventually was like, I'm listening to podcasts all the time. Let me try out a show. And within a month, I was speaking to presidential candidates, NFL players locally, the mayor of my city. I was like, this is awesome. I want to do more of this. And now I've got a thriving YouTube channel with over 1.5 million views.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
Well, God bless you, man. It's a tough road. Basically, when I graduated from college, I was trying to find a job. I just couldn't find a great job, nothing I was excited about. My dad, who is a state farm agent, said, hey, Mark, why don't you come kind of learn the insurance business. You can work for me. So I got licensed pretty quickly, certified pretty quickly.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
And it just started kind of running the things at the office in short order. The agency was really successful, but there were a couple of things that I noticed, Mick. And one of the things I think is really important for everyone to be kind of hyper aware of what's going on in your industry, our industry trends. And what I had noted is that
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
Every day, every week, every month that went by, more leads from our business were coming in through the corporate website and being closed in a call center corporate. And I said, hmm, well, this is interesting. How relevant am I going to be to this whole value proposition if I'm not actually closing the leads myself? Everyone was just going to statefarm.com and closing the leads.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
And then we'd follow up with them the next day and kind of tweak things and fix things and be that face. So I think it's really important right now in the world of AI to in the world of robotics, in automation, in new media. Where do I fit into this? Because things are going to change. The jobs that are here today are not necessarily going to be around in the next decade.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
One of the things I think is really important for everyone to be kind of hyper aware of what's going on in your industry, our industry trends. And what I had noted is that more leads from our business were coming in through the corporate website and being closed in a call center corporate.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
Well, I think the first thing that most agencies and most corporations get wrong is that they think that social media and content creation is about selling. You know, for example, I was just at a local chamber meeting. I'm going to be hosting an AI panel at the chamber next month. And I was kind of going through their Instagram.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
Every single Instagram post was an ad for an upcoming event or an upcoming sponsor. And I just don't know that that's the most effective way. I'll give you another example. I took on a client recently who was a hyper niche. He's one of the biggest Amazon sellers in the world. He's doing $20 million in sales on Amazon every year.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
in addition to his own SaaS program, in addition to his mastermind program. And what we recognized when we got in there is we're watching his videos and all the videos were just kind of talking about join this new session, join this new program, sell this, sell that. And we went in there, we kind of revised the strategy to just be, let's teach people how to do the thing. We'll use your software.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
And what we found is that by demoing, by showing, by connecting people how to do something, it just completely transformed the channel. I would say four times the views immediately. And the other thing that we switched up was the call to action. So he had had a call to action. And this kind of goes back to your original question about what should we be doing? What should our goals be?
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
But the original call to action that we were sharing in pinned comments and in the description was get on a call with one of our sales team members. members, right? Get on a call. And the problem with that seems so obvious, but we need to nurture people. People do business with people that they like.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
And when I think about content creation, that's like, how do I connect with someone and make people feel like they're They can actually like me and know me. And so we changed that up. And immediately, now we're generating about two quality leads every single day from his YouTube channel. And this hyper-niche program, the customer lifetime value for each lead is about $1,500.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
So it's kind of powerful when you stop thinking about it as an advertising tool and as a connection entertainment or teaching tool.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
Well, it's incredibly, incredibly important, even more so in this AI world where everyone kind of feels somewhat disconnected. I want to actually talk about a kind of a really practical example. You know, we just had a presidential election and they're calling it the podcast election. Because all the views, like, you know, you look at the two candidates, Kamala and Trump.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
trump and see what was their media strategy how were they connecting with the people trump's going on rogan he's going on i recorded video he went on like the top four four of the top five podcasts right and i think people feel like they really got to kind of know him whereas kamala she did some big shows you know she went on like the breakfast club she went on call her daddy but most of the the things that she was doing was like bite-sized content like right you're going to
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
You're going to hear me talk for 10 minutes on a particular topic, maybe 20 minutes. But when you listen to someone talk for an hour, two hours, three hours, you start to feel like you're kind of getting to know them. And so that's kind of like a practical example of like what happened there. Probably give you even a more practical example, Mick. And this is kind of funny.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
Every single time I go to a conference, somebody recognizes me. Every single time. I was at Patrick David's Vault Conference last year and I was just talking to someone and this guy Abraham comes up and goes, Mark, Mark, is that you? I'm like, yeah, hey, I'm Mark. He's like, I listen to your podcast all the time. I was like, cool. It's nice to meet you. It's really cool to meet you.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
A few months later, we were doing business together. He became kind of a student in one of my programs. And the following year, we were rooming together at another conference and he's referring me business. And so it's that kind of like you said, people like we talked about people do business with people they like, they know, they trust.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
And when someone can watch you, hear you, listen to you, it paves that path forward. People are getting primed up. So we don't want to, I think, be selling in our programming. We want people to kind of get to know, to like us, say, I want to know a little bit more. And then we let our backend do the selling, our websites, our landing pages, our emails, our lead magnets, that sort of thing.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
Wow, that's a deep question. I think, you know, for me, the biggest impetus is legacy and being an example for my children. Like I said, I was an employee my entire life. And then when my daughter hit about two or three years old, I was like, I want to set a better example. I want to build something better. And so I think a lot of it comes down to setting an example for our children.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
You know, I just remember growing up, seeing my dad building his agency, going to work early, coming home, dinner with the family, and then two, three hours, opening up that Rolodex, making calls, making it happen. And he was able to carve out a great life for himself, for his family. It's empowered him to provide for various churches and homeless organizations.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
My parents actually had a homeless person living in their house for nearly a decade because they wanted to invest. To me, I think it's about giving, more so about giving back to the next generation, showing this is how we treat people. This is how we build up the world in a better way. And I think that the legacy is really where that because comes from. I wanna feel valued.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
I wanna feel like every time people experience me, they walk away a little bit better than they were before.
Mick Unplugged
Mark Savant | Content Creation and AI: Mark Savant's Expert Insights on Strategy and Success
Well, I think this is something you talk about a lot, Mick, is leadership. And one of the most challenging things I think for me has been how do I surround myself with the right people? How do I bring on the right team members? How do I bring on the right customers? And, you know, another challenge I think when you're new is you kind of have to say yes to every opportunity that's out there.
Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth
2541: This Strength Building Technique Activates More Muscle Fibers... & You're Probably Not Using It (Listener Live Coaching)
Yeah, exactly. He's super pale like Justin. He has the same last name, too, basically. He's a Scottish guy. Is he Andrew's? Andrew. A couple of albino buddies, huh?
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Oh, und du hast sie einfach zusammengefüllt, um dein Sandwich zusammenzubringen? Sehr klug.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Ich hoffe, das sind die Pancakes. Das war früher mein Lieblings-McDonalds-Frühstück.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Glaubst du, dass jemand die Pancakes bestellt hat, das Essen gegessen hat und dann die Packung gesichert hat und gesagt hat, ich werde das für die nächsten 40 Jahre versichern?
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Was du tun kannst, ist, deine Pancakes zu kaufen, deine Sausage zu kaufen. Normalerweise würde ich Maplesirup benutzen. Eine andere Pancake. Boom. Mmmh.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Das ist alles, was ich in einer Platte von Essen wollen könnte.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Warte, also das ist was, 40 Jahre altes Tee? Ja. Kann ich es riechen? Es riecht wie schwarzer Tee. Es riecht älter. Oh, schau dir die Farbe an. Das ist legit. Ich denke nicht, dass ich das trinken soll, oder? Ist das nicht gefährlich? Ich trinke es. Es ist unmöglich, dass es sicher ist.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Ich kann es trinken. Wirklich? Es ist eine once in a lifetime opportunity. Es kann nicht sicher sein. Es riecht nicht sehr gut. Ich meine, es riecht wie Tee. Es riecht wie Stahl. Die rauhe Version riecht viel besser. Im Hinterkopf hätte ich wahrscheinlich mehr darüber nachgedacht.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Mh. Lass uns auf die Barbecue gehen. Muss man das? Es ist so gut. Du bist der Fleischmann. Warum erklärst du es nicht? Wir haben ein paar schöne, saubere Rippen, einen schönen Beutel von gehacktem Teig. Wir haben die Chilis auf der Seite. Ein süßes kleines Burger, obwohl das damals nicht ihre Fokus war. Und ein paar Chips.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
In einer guten Art und Weise. I feel like I'm eating real chicken.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
You mentioned a lot of things, but when you said bacon, I mean, that's how I know this is the burger for me. Can I feed you? Please. Really good.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Und dieser hat so Retro-Vibes. Ja, das ist wirklich, wirklich cool. Nick, wir haben eine Chance, hier 1 Million Dollar zu gewinnen.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
I freaking love these things. The Grimace. No way. Ronald McDonald. Is that the Hamburglar? Right there. Is that the Hamburglar? It looks like them. We shouldn't eat these. Given that it's been expired for 30 years, it's not bad. It's disgusting. It's not good. It's time for the Holy Grail.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Ich muss auf einer dieser Rippen anfangen. Möchtest du einen Klo? Ich muss mich um die Hände kümmern. Ich will das Gefühl haben, das sie in den 40ern hatten. Das sieht so gut aus.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Not based on taste, that looks so good. I'll give you a hint. Think about how big it is. Oh, it can't fit in a bag? Close. Zu groß für ein Kind? Nein.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Es sieht aus wie eine Supreme Pizza. Es hat wirklich jedes Thema. Verdammt, das sieht gut aus.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
That is definitely fitting through the drive-thru window. Das riecht gut.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
I know I'm Max the Meat Guy, but I would have crushed these back in the day.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Kannst du dich für das überziehen? Wow, das funktioniert. Das Problem, mit dem ich immer gestruggelt habe, war, dass der Boden nie das Salat-Dressing-Distribution hatte. Ich fühle mich, als ob wir es gut gemacht hätten.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Vielleicht wusste ich nur nicht, wie man back in den Tagen schicke. Das hat sich sehr gut gemacht. Oh, diese guten alten soggy Croutons. Ich habe sie vergessen. Das ist definitiv eine höhere Qualität Salat, als ich es damals gewohnt habe.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Es ist, aber ich glaube, ich habe gehört, dass die Kalorien und das Trösten alleine so viel wie ein ganzer Burger sind. Ist es tatsächlich gesellschaftlicher?
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Ja, hol es auf. Das Ding hat sich komplett öffnet. Es macht im Grunde eine Platte. Richtig, es ist eine kleine Platte, als würdest du sitzen und boom.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Freshly opened seal. It's a chicken nugget Tetris. No way. Yeah. Dude, is that thing still gonna work with batteries?
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Ja. Das bringt wieder Erinnerungen. McDonald's Changeables. Die großen French Fries. Du hast die Arme. Was? Du hast den Kopf hier. Das ist das Pikachu-Tool. Verdammt. Es macht einen Geräusch. Das ist cool. Das ist ziemlich cool. Ich muss mit Sonic gehen. Ich denke, er geht hierher. Oh, hier sind wir. Was ist das? Einer dieser Verhandlungen? We've got ourselves a minion.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Ich erinnere mich, dass sie nach dem Bestellen immer sagten, würdest du diesen Super-Size lieben? Ich würde immer sagen, ja.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Das sind zwei meiner Lieblingsstücke. Ich sehe McFlurry und einen McRib.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
I always go with M&M. They kind of freeze and they get all nice and crunchy. Do you really? Every time. It really is so good.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
The entire menu? What? And it smells... Wir haben einen klassischen McDonalds-Burger, die OG-French-Fries und einen absolut perfekten Schokoladen-Milkshake.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Ich bin einfach überrascht, wie zirkulär die Eier immer sind. Na, sie haben sie in einen Mold gebrochen. Oh, ich dachte, sie hatten nur zirkuläre Eier. Das ist gut. Das ist wirklich gut.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Ist das das beste McDonalds-Menü-Item aller Zeiten? Oder das schlechteste?
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
This looks like real rib meat. The problem with the current McRib is that it's essentially a burger in the shape of a boneless rib rack. Whereas this looks like the real deal. We have our bun, that beautiful saucy meat. Looks like a bunch of pickles, onions, simple sandwich. But in my opinion, it is hard to beat.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Ich liebe es. Nick, das ist zu viel Sauce. Willst du etwas? Klar.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Ja, ich liebe das. Wow, es ist saucy. Die Sauce ist das, was es macht. Es ist ein dreckiges Sandwich.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Danke. Das ist die Travis-Scott-Kollaboration. Wege ich den Hat so? Oder so?
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
This sandwich is so big that you can't really even bite it. That doesn't mean we won't try. It just all looks very fancy right now.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Das könnte die kleinste Frise sein, die ich je gesehen habe. Das ist echt. Das ist wie ein Ein-Biter.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Das ist der original Container, in dem sie die Friesen befestigt haben. Das ist so verrückt. Sie sind wirklich eine Art und Weise. Das könnte der einzige original McDonalds Backen aus den 50er Jahren sein.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Du kannst sagen, dass es alt ist, aber wie du gesagt hast, ist es in guter Form. Wie riecht es? Es riecht wie Papier. Hier, Max.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Viel dicker, viel mehr substanziell. Ich habe keine Zutaten. Es ist nur Käse und Burger. Das ist wahrscheinlich, wie es sein sollte.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
And remember, it only cost 15 cents. I'd buy like 100 of those. Well, this is the real test, the French fries.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Nick. I really enjoyed my time on this video, but this is enough.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Ich denke, ich brauche das zu retten. Ich meine, wie viel kosten diese Sachen?
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Okay, ich wecke meine Hände nicht mit diesem. Wir retten das hier. Dude, Nick, das ist...
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Ich meine, es sieht aus wie ein Postcard. Sie machen keine Kupone mehr.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
25 wäre zu viel gewesen. 24, das ist gut. Wir haben auch ein paar andere Coupons. Wir haben einen Cheeseburger, einen Doppel-Cheeseburger, einen Doppel-Hamburger und einen Triple Thick Shake. Sind diese heute noch valid? Mal sehen, wann es ausgeschlossen ist.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Ich glaube nicht, dass meine Großmutter mir jemals ein Fisch-Sandwich gemacht hat. Meine hat es. Wirklich?
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Ich glaube nicht. Ein speerter French Fry? Das ist echte Milch aus Macau. Die machen das nicht mehr.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Ah, sieh, ich würde das machen, aber ich würde jeden einzelnen Teil von Soda Flake machen. Und was macht dir Shake zu denken, wenn du über McDonald's denkst? Es gibt natürlich die gebrochenen Maschinen. Es gibt den grünen Shake. Der Shamrock-Shake. Der Shamrock-Shake.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Wie fühlt es sich an, die Möglichkeit zu haben, diesen aus einem originellen Shamrock-Shake-Kuppen zu trinken? Ich fühle mich, als hätte ich in der Vergangenheit tatsächlich transportiert. Mein Geist spielt Tricks auf mich selbst. Das ist so verrückt zu sehen. Minty.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Like a real mint flavor. Yeah. Max, there's one last thing that you know we need to do to move on. When you say we, are you referring to you?
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Es gibt viel hier. Ist das das erste Mal, dass wir ein Happy Meal gesehen haben?
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Ja, es ist wie ein Big Mac von heute, aber viel stärker. Hartiger. Hartiger, ja.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Ist das, was ich denke? Wer ist das? Ist das der Hamburger? Es ist der Hamburger. Oh mein Gott.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Und schau dir einfach die Preise auf dem Menü an. 10 Cent für ein Brotbeer, Peanut Butter Jelly und French Fries für 20 Cent. und ihr berühmtestes Gemüse, das gebarbecuierte Fleisch, Ham oder Pfeffer.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
He actually stole my burger? That is unbelievable. The Hamburglar actually burglarized my burger.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Ist das der originelle Salz und Pfeffer? Der originelle 1970er Salz und Pfeffer von McDonald's. Denn das ist das erste Lebensmittel aus dem Zeitraum, das wir theoretisch tatsächlich probieren können.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Das ist wahrscheinlich der coolste für mich. Du denkst das? Ja, es ist das echte Essen. Total real, originelles Essen. Das ist wirklich verdammt cool.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Tastes exactly like salt. Put some pepper. You think it's still gonna taste peppery? Yeah. Nichts?
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
This is 50 plus year old cookies. 1975 McDonald Corporation. So these cookies are exactly 50 years old.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Ja, wir werden etwas herausfinden. Was ist das? Ist es Ronald McDonald? Es sieht so aus, als wäre es sein Gesicht. Das ist sein Kopf.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Das ist sein Kopf. Ich denke, um es zu sagen, dass ich es gemacht habe, muss ich den 50-jährigen Kuchen probieren. Es riecht wie ein 50-jähriger Kuchen.
Nick DiGiovanni
100 Years of McDonalds
Is it really? Yeah, yeah. Mine's dry as the freaking Sahara. Seriously? Bone dry. Wow, ich fühle mich. Wie kann das, wie kann das? Hör auf zu Max.
Nick DiGiovanni
I Cooked Against Robots
Robots are becoming more and more like humans. They can build cars, clean your house, and even do parkour. But in this video, I'm cooking against three levels of robots to find out who's the better chef, robots or humans.
Nick DiGiovanni
I Cooked Against Robots
Yeah, but your robots aren't even touching the nuts. I actually think I might win this challenge. I'm actually going to do something the robots can't do and switch my pans around to kind of keep things even as well. And the robots, they just don't have arms.
Nick DiGiovanni
I Cooked Against Robots
And start. Oh, there it goes. So the key to making a nice slice of toast, Mark, while your toaster just slowly takes its sweet time over there, I like to quickly hit both sides of the toast right away. And you have to be very gentle. You don't want to press into the toast. Wait, why tweezers? I'm cooking against a $500 robot.
Nick DiGiovanni
I Cooked Against Robots
The key with toast is to make sure that the outside is nice and crispy while the inside stays nice and light and fluffy. This is a butter knife, right? No. Oh my gosh, look at that.
Nick DiGiovanni
I Cooked Against Robots
At this point, I'm just trying to finish my pizza before Mark makes number four.
Nick DiGiovanni
I Cooked Against Robots
I'm done too. Very, very different looking pizza. Very different looking.
Nick DiGiovanni
I Cooked Against Robots
All righty, I feel like this is off to an unfair start, but it's not done yet.
Nick DiGiovanni
I Cooked Against Robots
I am sorry, Mark, because I know you wanted robots to win. I did. Deep down. I really did.
Nick DiGiovanni
I Cooked Against Robots
For level two, I'll be cooking against MOLY, the world's first fully robotic kitchen. I'm kind of scared. It took 10 years of research to make this robot, and it can recreate movements of a professional chef and has over 5,000 recipes uploaded to its memory. We're going head-to-head to see who can make a better pasta dish, and at the end, a blind taste test will determine who wins this round.
Nick DiGiovanni
I Cooked Against Robots
Before we start cooking, I'm going to choose the recipe that Molly's going to make today. And since we're doing pasta, I'm going to go with a spaghetti puttanesca. I just found out that this is a kill switch, so if he starts beating me, I'm just going to whack him. It's time to find out if Moley's really worth that $100,000 price tag. And here he goes.
Nick DiGiovanni
I Cooked Against Robots
First things first, it looks like he's turning on the cooktop. Oh, we're going for the olive oil. Good start, Moley. Now it's grabbing some olives, anchovies, some garlic, some capers. Sometimes I feel like Moley's just doing fancy movements to flex on all of us. What? He's using a spatula?
Nick DiGiovanni
I Cooked Against Robots
Moley's scraping the bottom of the pan right now, making sure all those nice little flavorful bits aren't sitting there and burning. The more I watch right now, the more nervous I'm getting about this competition. Thinking about pressing the red button. It just tapped, and now he's scraping off the extra ingredients on the spatula. This is unbelievable. And in we go with the tomato sauce.
Nick DiGiovanni
I Cooked Against Robots
And he's gonna mix it all up. Here comes the pasta. Oh, come on, with the tap. That just seems like you're rubbing it in. Some of that pasta is sitting above the water right now, so I'm wondering if Moley's gonna do anything to make sure that that goes under the water. Okay, at this point, you have to wonder if the robot just heard me say that, or maybe it's just really that smart on its own.
Nick DiGiovanni
I Cooked Against Robots
So I'm guessing right now that Moly has it down to an exact timing. And I'm thinking right now that this might be the most perfectly cooked pasta I have ever seen in my life. Oh, you missed the noodle, Moly. Let me help you. It's very well cooked. This here seems like the final step, just throwing in these herbs. So after one last wipe of the spatula, it looks like the dish is complete.
Nick DiGiovanni
I Cooked Against Robots
That was amazing. The only chance that I might have is if the judge picks up on that some of the pasta might be a little bit less cooked than the rest of the pasta. Molly didn't quite fully stir it all the way here, but I'm going to help Molly plate it onto a nice dish so the judge cannot tell which is the robot's and which is mine.
Nick DiGiovanni
I Cooked Against Robots
I'm going into this challenge a bit nervous, but for my dish, I'll be making an uni butter pasta. To begin, I'm starting out with this fresh sea urchin. Sea urchin tastes almost like butter, so it's gonna be perfect with our pasta. First, I'll add these to a small blender, making sure to use plenty.
Nick DiGiovanni
I Cooked Against Robots
Then for a bit of acidity, I'll add just a touch of yuzu juice, and for a bit of color, just a touch of saffron oil. Now, because we wanna make an uni butter, I'll take a few nice knobs of butter and add that to my uni. Once it reaches a nice, smooth and creamy consistency, our uni butter is done. Now, I'm actually gonna cook my pasta a little bit earlier than Moly cooked his.
Nick DiGiovanni
I Cooked Against Robots
I'll start by tossing a generous amount of salt into my pasta water, and then in we go with some fresh homemade pasta. You hear that, robot? Homemade pasta. I'll go in with a bit of pasta water to a new pan, and then drop in a nice few spoonfuls of our fresh uni butter. We'll mix this together so it forms a nice sauce, and then in goes our pasta.
Nick DiGiovanni
I Cooked Against Robots
I know robots aren't supposed to be able to feel emotions, but I have a feeling Molly's scared right now. I'll add in my pasta, nice and tight in the center of my plate, then finish with a nice drizzle of herb oil, a few pieces of fresh sea urchin, and just a few nice microwaves. Time to see who wins.
Nick DiGiovanni
I Cooked Against Robots
After a bit of plating help, here's the robot spaghetti puttanesca, and here's my dish, an uni butter pasta. The way they're plated, the judge shouldn't be able to tell who made which dish. Harrison will be the judge for our blind taste test.
Nick DiGiovanni
I Cooked Against Robots
I just lost to a robot, fair and square. That means we're tied one to one, and it all comes down to round three. For level three, our final challenge, I'll be cooking a steak against Neo Beta, an advanced humanoid robot. What's up, Neo? How's it going? The way this will work is simple. In front of us are three steaks. We've got a porterhouse, a filet mignon, and a ribeye.
Nick DiGiovanni
I Cooked Against Robots
We're each gonna cook one, and the audience will decide in the comments below who is the true champion.
Nick DiGiovanni
I Cooked Against Robots
I'm down for rock, paper, scissors. You ready? Rock, paper, scissors, shoot. I beat you. Fair is fair. You get to pick first. Go ahead.
Nick DiGiovanni
I Cooked Against Robots
Go for it. It's all you. Oh. I'm probably going to go with the ribeye. The stakes have been chosen. Best of luck, Chef Neo.
Nick DiGiovanni
I Cooked Against Robots
The first thing with a steak, of course, is salt and pepper. So I'm going to go salt all over my beautiful rib eye, and I can see you're also starting with your salt. By the way, how long have you been cooking? I'm curious. Three months. You've only been cooking for three months?
Nick DiGiovanni
I Cooked Against Robots
I don't know if you're trying to get in my head or what you're doing, but it's not going to work.
Nick DiGiovanni
I Cooked Against Robots
Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Okay, perfect. So our oil is in both of our pans. I think my oil is getting to that temp that I'm ready to put my steak in. What about you? Me too. Nick, would you mind handing me that spatula over there? Yeah, absolutely. Not a problem at all.
Nick DiGiovanni
I Cooked Against Robots
Nice and easy. Hey, are you ready for this sound? Yeah, let's see it.
Nick DiGiovanni
I Cooked Against Robots
No way you just did that. All right, I'm going to go for my flip now. Mine doesn't look as good as yours.
Nick DiGiovanni
I Cooked Against Robots
Mine's actually done. I'm gonna go ahead and start resting it.
Nick DiGiovanni
I Cooked Against Robots
Listen, this is it. I'm not helping you anymore. I need to make my chimichurri. Now I'm going to go in with a bit of olive oil and a nice splash of white wine vinegar. Then some garlic, fresh parsley. Whoosh. Whoa. Just a touch of paprika, a few red pepper flakes, a bit of garlic powder, a touch of salt, a good amount of fresh cracked pepper, and last but not least, my secret ingredient.
Nick DiGiovanni
I Cooked Against Robots
A few pistachios. You see what you're up against right now? Yeah, that's advanced stuff. Here we go. You want a taste?
Nick DiGiovanni
I Cooked Against Robots
Congratulations, Neil. We finished cooking both of our steaks. The question now is, whose do we cut into first?
Nick DiGiovanni
I Cooked Against Robots
They are very cute. Thank you. Because stirring just one pan wouldn't be much of a challenge, we each have five pans, but there's just one of me and there are five robots. We're going to be stirring pine nuts, which are expensive and burn really easily.
Nick DiGiovanni
I Cooked Against Robots
I'm gonna cut right in the middle. I'm going to give you a sneak peek first. What do you think?
Nick DiGiovanni
I Cooked Against Robots
Moment of truth, OK? Three, two, one. Look at that. As much as I hate to admit it, it looks like Neo also got a perfect medium rare. Before you all vote in the comments below who won this challenge, I won the first level. Then the robots won round two with that amazing spaghetti puttanesca. So it all comes down to this, level three. Neo, why don't you explain your dish first?
Nick DiGiovanni
I Cooked Against Robots
I will admit, yours actually looks pretty good. But what I have here is a more flavorful ribeye cooked perfectly medium, which is my personal favorite. You and I can agree to disagree on that one.
Nick DiGiovanni
I Cooked Against Robots
And under it, I've made a pistachio chimichurri and topped it off with a few extra parsley leaves.
Nick DiGiovanni
I Cooked Against Robots
They don't really do much. All right, guys, you've seen everything you need to see, so make sure you go subscribe and then go down to the comments below and say who you think won. Neil, any last words? Let's face it, Nick.
Nick DiGiovanni
World's Largest Chicken Nugget
Here are all the shapes of the nuggets. We got a bell, we have a ball, we got a boot, and a bone. Nick, I think we should make a bone.
Nick DiGiovanni
World's Largest Chicken Nugget
And we're going to make a nugget a thousand times bigger than this.
Nick DiGiovanni
World's Largest Chicken Nugget
Go slower, Nick. We made it back with the nugget. Now put it down, Nick.
Serialously with Annie Elise
225: Stalked, Harassed, & Shot 14x on the Bathroom Floor! The Twisted Case of Becky Bliefnick
What's the biggest mistake you made at your wedding? Honey, I love you, but said I do.
Serialously with Annie Elise
225: Stalked, Harassed, & Shot 14x on the Bathroom Floor! The Twisted Case of Becky Bliefnick
Hey, my name is Ted Bleifnick. It's me.
Serialously with Annie Elise
225: Stalked, Harassed, & Shot 14x on the Bathroom Floor! The Twisted Case of Becky Bliefnick
What's the biggest mistake you made at your wedding? Honey, I love you, but said I do. Not my mistake. Not my mistake. I love my wife.
Serialously with Annie Elise
225: Stalked, Harassed, & Shot 14x on the Bathroom Floor! The Twisted Case of Becky Bliefnick
The idea of murdering someone, let alone the mother of my kids, is not any part of who I am.
Serialously with Annie Elise
247: Exposing The Truth About Belle Gibson & Netflix’s ‘Apple Cider Vinegar’
I don't like that hate word, but sometimes I feel like turning around to her and saying, Belle, I hate you.
Serialously with Annie Elise
247: Exposing The Truth About Belle Gibson & Netflix’s ‘Apple Cider Vinegar’
She's stuffed it up real bad. I've had to go through counselling myself. I don't like to be in public. I've had people come up to me and ask me questions and they think I'm like her when I'm nothing like her. But I really hope she does watch this and see how much I am hurting.
Serialously with Annie Elise
247: Exposing The Truth About Belle Gibson & Netflix’s ‘Apple Cider Vinegar’
I am. My kids see me hurting as well. I don't have autism at all, no. Even when I was a kid, she used to call me retard.
Serialously with Annie Elise
247: Exposing The Truth About Belle Gibson & Netflix’s ‘Apple Cider Vinegar’
I hated myself and I didn't want to be around. I was shy, placid and I didn't like to be out in the public just because things she said.
Serialously with Annie Elise
247: Exposing The Truth About Belle Gibson & Netflix’s ‘Apple Cider Vinegar’
That's correct. Like, I talk to a lot of people. I do have trouble with reading or writing, but that's, you know, always been the case. She knows what she's done and said is completely wrong. Like, it's... it's embarrassing.
Talking Counter
Episode 126: PGL Cluj Playoff results, PGL's Field of Dreams and the CS ecosystem
Do you like cheeses? What do you want to talk about with the counterfeit, Jason?
Talking Counter
Episode 126: PGL Cluj Playoff results, PGL's Field of Dreams and the CS ecosystem
And they aired it, too, didn't they?
Talking Counter
Episode 126: PGL Cluj Playoff results, PGL's Field of Dreams and the CS ecosystem
Yeah, it's only about fucking 20 euros a beer in fucking Sweden.
Talking Counter
Episode 126: PGL Cluj Playoff results, PGL's Field of Dreams and the CS ecosystem
But we are in a nice hotel.
Talking Counter
Episode 126: PGL Cluj Playoff results, PGL's Field of Dreams and the CS ecosystem
All right, let's get the fuck out of here. Let's get out. Goodbye.
The Best One Yet
🦅 “Falcon Mode” — Lyft’s enshittification. Labubu’s viral dolls. Bezos vs Trump on “Tariff Fees.”
Let's hit our three stars. 15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in a dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50%, that's a fat tip. T-Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, cause we're here to go. We can't wait no more, so just start the show.
The Best One Yet
🦅 “Falcon Mode” — Lyft’s enshittification. Labubu’s viral dolls. Bezos vs Trump on “Tariff Fees.”
Start the show.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Wednesday, Salute Jay Wednesday, January 29th. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. Here's the top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Well, Jack, we're back, baby. Stocks rebounded Tuesday after freaking out on Monday. Yeah, the panic from China's DeepSeek AI app has eased a bit.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
They're developing infrastructure that we would need if we wanted to live on Mars or the moon, including space farming. Besties, there are like four or five other satellite building companies we found too, publicly traded, all up double digits so far this year. Oh, in the startup scene, they're buzzing too. That's true. Last week, two space startups filed to IPO, Voyager and Carmen. That's big.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
We haven't had IPOs in so long. If SpaceX IPO'd, that'd be like the wildest IPO of the decade. And now, Houston, we do have a problem we should point out, shouldn't we, Jack? All those companies and all those stocks Nick and I just mentioned, they are very risky investments. After all, they depend on Earth colonizing Mars, something that's not exactly guaranteed to happen.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
And that's why in the last two years, there's kind of been a black hole in the space industry. All the stocks have been down, sucked away, and only now are they reemerging. One small step for my portfolio, one giant leap for my risk profile. So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies over in the space industry? We are entering the final four frontiers.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
Yetis, most people think that everything has been discovered, that the days of exploration are over behind us. But there are four frontiers ripe for exploration still in our lifetimes. space, the deep seas, the Arctic, and artificial intelligence. Yetis, those four frontiers are the new Wild West. They are the new world that are still open for us to explore. They're the new new world.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
Yeah, they are, Jack, because no one nation fully controls any of them, nor does any nation fully understand their potential. And yet, each is filled with economic opportunity and resources. And power. And with a power-loving president in the United States and the disruption of global norms and alliances, there is a new land rush literally into this 21st century.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
Space, the Arctic, the deep seas, and the unknowns of artificial intelligence. Those, Yetis, those are the four final frontiers. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for Ceviche Wednesday? X just announced X money with 61 words and a tweet. It's a partnership with Visa. It's basically Venmo. But the real measure of success in finance is getting your direct deposit, the Beyonce of banking.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
It's a corn chowder cough drop. It's a matzo ball of menthol. We'll take two more. Now, Progressive is selling these things starting with their chicken noodle flavor. But you open up the aluminum can of soup with a can opener, and instead of soup, you got two dozen candies in there. They're a little like cough drop-y kind of candies, but it's soup.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
For our second story, it's Royal Caribbean. Their stock hit an all-time high yesterday on record earnings and an expansion to rivers. Because cruises have always been the value meal of vacations. And our third and final story. The space industry is buzzing after Trump's goal to put an American flag on Mars. Space. It's one of the four final frontiers. But yetis, this pod's not over yet.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
Here's what else you need to know today. First, we got an update on DeepSeek. On Tuesday, we told you how China's AI app did AI at a fraction of the cost. It wasn't just chip stocks that fell as a result of that news. A bunch of big energy stocks fell over 20% too. Big energy companies expected a surge in demand on electricity because of AI's electricity needs.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
But China's app shows they may not need that. DeepSeek showed that AI doesn't require expensive chips, and it doesn't require lots of energy either. Also, quick correction to yesterday's show, we said that DeepSeek does AI without NVIDIA chips. However, three eddies pointed out DeepSeek does have NVIDIA chips, just their older, less advanced chips.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
DeepSeek bought NVIDIA's H800 chips before export restrictions kicked in. Second, Google is changing the name Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America in Google Maps. Google said they will follow the U.S. government's lead when it comes to the naming of places. To users in Mexico, it will still be called the Gulf of Mexico. And finally, Starbucks earnings are out, and the theme was back to barista.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
Sales fell, but not as bad as expected with Starbucks' turnaround. And as of this week, Starbucks has brought back the condiment counter so you can pour your own damn half and half in your coffee. Oh, and they brought back mugs with free refills, like porcelain mugs, if you're taking a latte. For here, please. For here. They're also encouraging baristas to go full Picasso.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
They're encouraging baristas to make latte art. You know, I know how much you love coffee, Jack. One of my life goals is to hand you a macchiato with a hummingbird in it. I love hummingbirds. I know you do. No one else knows that about you, but I know you do. Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Brian Kane from lovely Cheyenne, Wyoming.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
We just discovered, thanks to Brian, there is a musical road over in Hungary. Get this. Near the town of Tapiozin Martin in Hungary, there are grooves in the pavement that create vibrations that play a song, usually a Hungarian folk song, while you drive at just the right speed.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
It's basically a rumble strip, but they're spread out in certain distances and have different like texture so that it makes a song as you rumble over them, but only when you drive the right speed. Right, so Jack, if you go 50 miles per hour in Hungary on that highway, you will hear this song. musical road.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
Basically, this soup company turned chicken noodle into a sucking candy. But we actually think there's a bigger market here. Jack and I were talking before the pot and we're thinking cough drops with Kleenex tissues as the packaging. Yeah, you open up the cough drop and you have a tissue ready for the next time you sneeze. Or Jack, could Ricola come out with a grilled cheese cough drop?
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
It's not good for the wear and tear on your tires, but it is good for keeping people driving the speed limit. Yetis, you look fantastic today. And if you're sucking on a soup cough drop, all the more power to you. You look even better. And as always, we'd love if you shared the show with a friend because that's how we grow. HYHTBOI, have you heard the best one yet?
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
And Jack and I will see you tomorrow. If you know, you know. And there's the third one. And before we go, a happy birthday to Yeti Jack Gonzalez over in Chicago doing logistics. Happy birthday to Felipe Scalette in St. Louis, Missouri, who listens with dad in the car. And Brooklyn Barco down in Phoenix, huge ABBA fan, is a dancing queen for the birthday celebration.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
And I just have one question for birthday girl Amanda Balce in Vancouver, British Columbia. Who is the current quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers? We heard that you know more NFL quarterbacks than the rest of your family.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
It's a birthday celebration. Happy birthday. And to the Kansas Yetis out there, happy Kansas Day. Big day for Kansas. Well, Super Bowl Sunday is a big day for Kansas. True, true, true. They got two. And Chris Marslender, 3V, and the Chia Network team, congratulations on launching a brand new financial product, Permuto. Permuto. Cool name. It is a cool name, Jack. Cooler than X money.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
And if you want to get a shout out on this podcast, all you got to do is fill out the form in our episode description. This is Jack. Nick and I both own one Bitcoin. And his name is Ben. Somebody recently asked me, who likes alliterations more, Nick or you? I was like, that's a tough race. I couldn't tell you. It works. It works every time.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
Would that kill them over there? Only if it came with a side of tomato soup cough drops. Okay, Jack, here's what I'm thinking. An oatmeal flavored Dayquil cough syrup. Would you buy that? If it knocks me out and has me sleep through the night, I would buy that. Again, we'll take two.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
So besties, if you're sniffling, wiping your nose or sneezing right now, you don't actually need a spoon to solve your physical problems. You can just suck on a soup drop instead. Tissue sold separately. Jack, let's hit our three stars.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
Now, Yeti's Nvidia stock is still down 10%, but the rest of the market thinks a low-cost AI provider, even from China... is a potential good thing. Just like we said in yesterday's pod, actually. But in the meantime, Jack and I found three fantastic stories for you. Jack, what's on today's T-boy? For our first story, Twitter just turned into a financial firm.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
For our first story, X, formerly known as Twitter, just announced a partnership with Visa for peer-to-peer Venmo-like payments. Is X on its way to becoming the everything app or is it a nothing app? And why does this remind us of Beyonce? I haven't told you this part, Jack, but it just did remind me of Beyonce. You ready? I'll save for the takeaway. Okay. I got you.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
But yetis, have you ever heard of Goldman Musk? How about JP Twitter or Morgan Stanley Tweet? Well, now you will because Elon's ex finally announced their first big payments feature powered by Visa. It's called Ex Money. It's basically a Wall Street and social media love child. Yeah, which got its daddy's credit card.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
And it's been a long time coming because financial payments, that is a regulated sport. So in the two years since Elon has owned Twitter, he's been quietly gaining approval from all the states to do something with finance. And he's up to 41 states that have approved it. Well, here's the news.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
Instead of securing the final nine states to build out his own finance network on social media, Elon is partnering with Visa. Everyone with an ex-account will soon be able to send money to other ex-users through their Visa debit card. And then ex-users could actually transfer money to their bank accounts using X. Your move, Instagram.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
So if you just had brunch with buddies, you can tweet a picture of the pancakes and then pay Timmy on X for everyone to see. Because the ultimate millennial flex really is telling people what you just spent money on indirectly through emoji. All right, so Elon has always wanted X to become the everything app, right? I like that that got a little chuckle out of you, Jack.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
It wasn't a huge chuckle, but it was a little bit of a chuckle. Well, back to Elon. Soon, with this news, you can buy anything on X, right? Well... I got to pause the pod on you right there. And you know why, don't you? Internally, Nick and I call this section of the story the caveats. Because first of all, X money isn't a thing yet. They only announced that it will launch, and I quote, this year.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
Yeah, you got to bring a huge grain of salt the size of the Atlantic to this thing. Because Elon said back in 2022 that he would have payments on X by 2023. And with Tesla, everything he announces ends up being five years later. Like the cyber car. So it wouldn't be a surprise if X money launches way later than this year.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
Also, we should point out that Visa didn't actually say anything about this new deal at all either. And the entire announcement from X was just one tweet by the CEO, Linda Iaccarino. 61 words total. We were looking for a press release. We couldn't find one. Finally, Jack, when you look at what this product is, what is X actually launching here?
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
They're just launching a copycat of Venmo, which has been around for 16 years already. We would call this Venmo 2.0, but it kind of is just Venmo 1.0. Yeah, 16 years after Venmo. So this news doesn't really make X the everything app, kind of makes X the like maybe something, anything more app. We'll see. But we've said that Elon practices roundup marketing.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
Because X is partnering with Visa. But there is one golden anchor that everyone in finance really wants. And X doesn't have it yet.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
When he's not quite done with a product, he always just rounds it up. Well, the new Venmo version of X is the perfect example of it. So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies over in finance? The real measure of success in finance is direct deposit. Ah, yetis. For X to really become the everything app or a finance app, it has got to get your direct deposit, your weekly paycheck.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
The ultimate anchor product in banking is where your paycheck goes. Yeah, that's the direct deposit. Basically, if all your financial things, products, and accounts are destiny's child, then the direct deposit is the Beyonce. You see what I'm saying, Jack? Basically, whatever bank account gets your direct deposit, that's where you link your credit cards.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
That's where you make most of your transactions. If you request a loan, it's probably from that bank. It's the anchor of your financial existence. The fintech industry is so desperate to get your customer direct deposit that they offer bonuses just to move it over there. And when we worked at Robinhood, a fintech company, it was a key internal goal.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
They were always asking, how can we get people to send their paychecks to their Robinhood account? So yeah, it is this Visa announcement. It could be the start of a respectable financial business for the social media platform X. But the real measure of success in finance and payments It's direct deposit. Because if finance is destiny's child, then direct deposit is the Beyonce. Okay.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
That's pretty good. It's pretty good.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
For our second story, there's one stock beating Bitcoin since the pandemic, and it's Royal Caribbean Cruises. A Americans are going gaga for cruises because the cruise is the value meal of vacations. And our third and final story is the biggest winner of the Trump presidency so far, the space industry. Space.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
For our second story, the comeback stock since the pandemic is Royal Caribbean Cruises. Royal Caribbean is now expanding from oceans to rivers. America is absolutely gaga for cruises because it's the value meal of vacations. Jack, let's whip out the calendars here. Take us back to March 9th, 2020. What did we see when we looked out the window?
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
March 9th, 2020 is when the pandemic symbolically arrived in the United States via cruise ship. That's right. The ship was quarantined in San Francisco Bay. A hundred people were on board who had COVID. And Jack and I were recording an episode in San Francisco. Remember, we waved to the ship. I saw it go under the Golden Gate Bridge.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
Yeti's no industry was more hurt during the pandemic than the cruise industry. Stock in Royal Caribbean fell from January to March of that year, just two months, by 85%. Airlines got a bailout, but cruises did not. Cruise stocks were all in the dumpster for three full years. Investors avoided them like the plague because they kind of had the plague on board, potentially. Literally. Literally.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
But since 2022, Jack and I have been keeping track, and no stock has recovered more from its pandemic lows than one particular cruise stock. Royal Caribbean. Yeah. If you bought stock of Royal Caribbean in mid-2022, congratulations, because it has 8x'd in value since then. That's right. This cruise stock is outperforming Bitcoin over there.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
And Royal Caribbean just put a cherry on top of the self-served ice cream sundae you did on the poop deck. Right next. They're now expanding to a new body of water. Here's the news, yetis. Royal Caribbean is launching lake cruises. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I read that wrong. Pond cruises. I'm sorry, Jack. I read that wrong. Royal Caribbean is launching river cruises. Starting with Europe.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
This is bad news for Viking river cruises, which we've all seen the commercials targeting senior citizens. That's true. They fell 12% on news of new competition from Royal Caribbean. But it is great news for Royal Caribbean, whose stock jumped to a new all-time high on news they are moving to a different body of water. And it's not just that Royal Caribbean stock has recovered from the pandemic.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
Their stock today is twice as high as it was ever before the pandemic. Jack, do you still own Norwegian crew stock over there? No, I bought Carnival for a short period. How did that go? I should have hung on to it, but I felt guilty about it. Story for another podcast. In the meantime, Yetis, toss on your tankinis because Americans have gone gaga for all sorts of cruises these days.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
Pre-pandemic, Royal Caribbean could charge $150 per person per night to ride on their cruise ships. All right, Jack, what's it going to cost you now if you want to get the unlimited shrimp buffet on a Royal Caribbean? They've jacked up prices by 48%. They're now charging $223 per person per night on average. That's not even the best part, is it, man?
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
Satisfied cruisers are telling Royal Caribbean they would do a river cruise with them too if they would offer it. So Royal Caribbean ordered up 10 new river boats and they're making their maiden voyage down the Danube River in 2027. The next MTV spring break, maybe on a Royal Caribbean Mississippi River cruise going down to like Panama City Beach. Yeah.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
Trump has started a new space race, so we need to tell you about the four final frontiers. But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. How's that for alliteration? We got three Fs in that final one, Jack. Not too shabby. Could we buy a consonant? But Nick, right now, every family I know has at least one sick person in it. Well, Jack, it makes sense. It is peak runny nose season.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
Heads up if you live on the bayou, because apparently Royal Caribbean is going to do an Okefenokee swamp trip the next time. Did you say whompy swampy? I said Okefenokee. And if you know Jack, you know. So what's the takeaway for our buddies over in the freshwater cruise industry? Cruises are the value meal of vacations. Yetis, back in May of last year, Viking Cruises IPO'd.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
We covered it on this pod. They were capitalizing on record demand for cruises. Then in December of last year, we covered news that Disney is doubling their cruise ship fleet from six vessels to 12 vessels. Suddenly now, Royal Caribbean is racing to the Rhine with River Cruises 2. What's going on, man? The reason is easy. Cruises are a cheap vacation with one clear price.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
It's an all-inclusive ticket. Full disclosure, not a cruise guy. I like a land spa, Jack. I want to be seated during my massage. You're not a cruise guy because you love planning vacations. No, that's true. And cruises are the opposite of that. You don't plan at all. No, I would jump off in the middle of the ocean. Oh.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
But with a cruise, you don't need to fly because the cruises now depart from 51 different port cities. Pretty appealing. So you can bring the family on a vacation just by driving to your nearest port. Yeah, cruises have gotten more expensive as cruise lines have more pricing power right now, but... But they're still an affordable choice overall in the $2 trillion global tourism market.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
Besties, in this inflation ravaged economy, there is value in offering value meals. Donald's offers a value meal that's one low price and includes everything you need. So does Royal Caribbean with their cruise tickets. And that is why cruises are at all time highs right now. They've always been a value meal of vacations. Now, a quick word from our sponsor.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
For our third and final story, 10 days into the Trump presidency, one industry has taken off, and that industry is space. Space docs and space startups are popping right now. So we have to talk about the four final frontiers. This is Major Tom to ground control. I'm buying shares of SpaceX. I love that song by David Bowie. Reminds me of that scene from Walter Mitty, If You Know, You Know.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
We already said If You Know, You Know on the show, Jack. You can't say it twice now. Too many people won't know. Yeti's one overlooked detail about President Trump's first term as president, he actually established the sixth branch of our military, the Space Force. 50 years after we landed on the moon, the Space Force was established in 2019.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
Schools are teaming up with tissues these days. So chances are you could use a bowl of soup or maybe a cough drop right now. But yetis, if that's the case, Jack and I have some fantastic practical news for you. And what is it, Jack? Progressive Soup Company just invented soup drops. Get this. It's not a cough drop and it's not a soup. It's a soup drop. Let's explain. It's a lentil lozenge.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
And it immediately took over the Space Command from the United States Air Force. And guess what? That means the Space Force already has a space base. And guess where it is? Where is it, Jack? The very northern tip of Greenland. That's right. We've already got a military base in Greenland, and it's the Space Force.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
Now, everyone knows that Trump loves tariffs and attention, but his favorite industry may be space. After all, Trump's first buddy, Elon Musk, is the planet's top space entrepreneur with SpaceX. And at his inauguration, Trump said that he will, and I quote, "...pursue our manifest destiny into the stars and place the stars and stripes on the planet Mars."
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
Jack, aren't you reading like a little kid's space book to the pod sun right now? Yeah, I'm reading a National Geographic book about space. Are you learning anything? I'm learning more than the kids are. Get this. One day on Mars is almost exactly equal to one day on planet Earth. Can I explain? Hit me. What do we got? Earth takes 24 hours to spin around, i.e. one day.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
Mars takes 24 hours as well, plus 37 minutes. Yeah. What are the chances we have the same day length with Mars? Those Martians are the same age as us. We really are similar. Yeah. But yet, here's what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. Donald Trump's JFK-style race to Mars mission, it's actually brought the attention of Wall Street to space. We found six pure play outer space stocks.
The Best One Yet
☄️ “The 4 Frontiers” — Space Inc.’s Trump jump. X’s Venmo-y Visa deal. Royal Caribbean’s value meal.
that are all up double digits so far this year. Yeah, to quote the movie Wicked, all these space docks are defying gravity right now. Intuitive Machines, for example. They're making vehicles that can drive on the moon and on Mars. They're up double digits. Or Jack Rocket Labs. They provide rocket launch services to NASA and other space groups. How about this company called Redwire?
The Best One Yet
🏃 “We Met on Strava” — Strava’s $2B run app. Nuclear’s hot streak. Nespresso’s Frappu-pivot.
Yeah.
The Best One Yet
🏃 “We Met on Strava” — Strava’s $2B run app. Nuclear’s hot streak. Nespresso’s Frappu-pivot.
So how about we say our three stories? 15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in a dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50%, that's a fat tip. T-Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, cause we ready to go.
The Best One Yet
🏃 “We Met on Strava” — Strava’s $2B run app. Nuclear’s hot streak. Nespresso’s Frappu-pivot.
We can't wait no more, so just start the show.
The Best One Yet
🏃 “We Met on Strava” — Strava’s $2B run app. Nuclear’s hot streak. Nespresso’s Frappu-pivot.
It's kind of like when you give yourself your own nickname and you try to, like, get other people to do it.
The Best One Yet
💑 “The Parenting Pod” — Our 3 Best Pop-Biz Stories on Parenting
15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in a dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm. Jack, Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50%, that's a fat tip. T-Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, cause we're ready to go. We can't wait no more, so just start the show. Start the show.
The Best One Yet
🎩 “Cheat on Anything” — Cluely’s cheating app. Home Depot’s secret garden. The Fed’s Batman independence.
Jack, let's hit our three stars. 15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in a dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50%, that's a fat tip. T-Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, cause we ready to go.
The Best One Yet
🎩 “Cheat on Anything” — Cluely’s cheating app. Home Depot’s secret garden. The Fed’s Batman independence.
We can't wait no more, so just start the show.
The Best One Yet
🫰 “Andreessen-In-Chief” — Trump’s Venture Cabinet. Netflix’s Live Adele Quarter. Trump’s Executive Orders.
38.
The Best One Yet
🫰 “Andreessen-In-Chief” — Trump’s Venture Cabinet. Netflix’s Live Adele Quarter. Trump’s Executive Orders.
38.
The Best One Yet
🫰 “Andreessen-In-Chief” — Trump’s Venture Cabinet. Netflix’s Live Adele Quarter. Trump’s Executive Orders.
15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in a dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50%, that's a fat tip. T-Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, cause we ready to go. We can't wait no more, so just start the show.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Trader-Costco-Gonia” — America’s favorite brands. Dockers’ Casual Friday innovation. Klarna’s revenue-per-human.
Talk Like Yoda Day today is.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Trader-Costco-Gonia” — America’s favorite brands. Dockers’ Casual Friday innovation. Klarna’s revenue-per-human.
You can be Tom Brady, you plant nanny on weekends. Yetis, remember to five stars, drop down and give us please. Because the best way to show the grow.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Trader-Costco-Gonia” — America’s favorite brands. Dockers’ Casual Friday innovation. Klarna’s revenue-per-human.
And Now, personally, I should point out, I believe Jack has been fighting for three years to keep his bird of paradise alive. Is that true, man?
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Trader-Costco-Gonia” — America’s favorite brands. Dockers’ Casual Friday innovation. Klarna’s revenue-per-human.
Either the market wants it or the market doesn't.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Trader-Costco-Gonia” — America’s favorite brands. Dockers’ Casual Friday innovation. Klarna’s revenue-per-human.
That's true. That's true.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Trader-Costco-Gonia” — America’s favorite brands. Dockers’ Casual Friday innovation. Klarna’s revenue-per-human.
And today's pod is the best one yet.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Trader-Costco-Gonia” — America’s favorite brands. Dockers’ Casual Friday innovation. Klarna’s revenue-per-human.
I'm sorry, Harris. Can we get a recount over there?
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Trader-Costco-Gonia” — America’s favorite brands. Dockers’ Casual Friday innovation. Klarna’s revenue-per-human.
What?
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Trader-Costco-Gonia” — America’s favorite brands. Dockers’ Casual Friday innovation. Klarna’s revenue-per-human.
You did say that.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Trader-Costco-Gonia” — America’s favorite brands. Dockers’ Casual Friday innovation. Klarna’s revenue-per-human.
That's right. According to the New York Times, plant nannies will now come to your home to pamper your plants.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Trader-Costco-Gonia” — America’s favorite brands. Dockers’ Casual Friday innovation. Klarna’s revenue-per-human.
Operator!
The Best One Yet
👿 “Don’t Pick Duke” — March Madness investing advice. Google’s biggest acquisition. Corporate Nickname Curse.
How do you do, fellow kids? Try to not be that guy.
The Best One Yet
👿 “Don’t Pick Duke” — March Madness investing advice. Google’s biggest acquisition. Corporate Nickname Curse.
That's true. And if the other person swiping is a science nerd, they'll be very turned on by that remark.
The Best One Yet
👿 “Don’t Pick Duke” — March Madness investing advice. Google’s biggest acquisition. Corporate Nickname Curse.
Please don't make this a thing.
The Best One Yet
👿 “Don’t Pick Duke” — March Madness investing advice. Google’s biggest acquisition. Corporate Nickname Curse.
Don't know what this Ineality stuff is, which is fine. I'm fine to be like the ignorant doofus. Occasionally.
The Best One Yet
👿 “Don’t Pick Duke” — March Madness investing advice. Google’s biggest acquisition. Corporate Nickname Curse.
I think you took it too far on that one, Jack, but we'll blame your Audi for it. Let's hit our three stories.
The Best One Yet
👿 “Don’t Pick Duke” — March Madness investing advice. Google’s biggest acquisition. Corporate Nickname Curse.
I have no idea. That must be something that went way over my head.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Wednesday, ceviche Wednesday, December 18th, and today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Yeti is one reason we lost our voices last week. What was it, Jack? The Knicks game in J.G. Mellon. Also, we were preparing bonus podcasts for the holidays for you, the besties out there. True.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
And NVIDIA's chip eggs are the most expensive thing on earth right now. Good point, Jack. So besties, add it all up. And today there are eight American tech companies worth $1 trillion. And together they form an amazing new acronym. Oh, it's amazing. Jack, why don't you list off those companies? Here's the eight companies. Broadcom, Alphabet, Tesla, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, NVIDIA.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
And Jack, what do the first letters of all those companies spell out? Batman. Batman. Double M, double A, because you know you got Amazon and Alphabet and Apple in there. But it still spells out Batman. When Nick and I worked at banks, there were five big tech stocks, and Wall Street liked to refer to them as the FANG stocks.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
And last year, there were seven big tech stocks, and Wall Street referred to them as the Magnificent Seven Stocks. But now with Broadcom in the mix, that's a solid consonant. The letter B? Yeah, yeah. It changes the acronym potential immensely. Totally. We now have eight tech companies worth a trillion dollars known as Batman. Yetis, get this.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
The eight Batman companies are worth a combined $19 trillion. That means those eight companies alone are worth more than the entire stock markets of the European Union and China combined. Sit down, stand up, and put on a cape again. It's insane how top-heavy our stock market is, dominated by tech stocks. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at the Batman Stocks?
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
Within AI, there's guts companies and there's brains companies. Now, Yetis, we have said before that behind everything digital, there is something physical. Behind every chatbot, there's a server humming with NVIDIA chips inside. Well, that physical digital combo is a really good framework to understand where all the players in artificial intelligence sit.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
Batman. The Batman stocks. It's a real thing. And Batman stocks. It's happening. This is Jack. I own one Batman stock and I wish I owned all eight. It's hard not to be bullish on Batman, Jack. But yet it is before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Fantastic mix for Ceviche Wednesday. Love the mix. Chestnuts roasting on an open fire. But Jack, is that open fire burning with chestnut tree wood?
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
Because, Yetis, each of the eight Batman stocks is a winner in some way of this artificial intelligence boom. For example, Meta, Microsoft, Tesla, Apple, and Alphabet are developing the brains of AI. The brains, the consumer-facing AI, like Apple's Siri, Microsoft's Copilot, Tesla's CyberCab, or Meta's AI Assistant. On the other hand, NVIDIA, Broadcom, and Amazon are building the guts of AI.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
The guts! NVIDIA has chips, Broadcom has chip infrastructure, and Amazon puts it all together as cloud computing. So the way we see it, there are eight American tech companies worth a trillion dollars that are booming with AI, and they are the Batman stocks. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for ceviche Wednesday? After 58 years, Hot Wheels sales have never been higher.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
Hot Wheels, they took a trick from the candy industry. They put them near the register because that's an impulse buy. For our second story, a stegosaurus skeleton is IPO-ing on Friday. And they're targeting 31-year-olds with money, but not millionaires. This dino IPO is a reminder to not just know your customer, paint your customer. And our third and final story.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
With Broadcom hitting a trillion dollars, the Magnificent Seven is dead. It's the era of Batman. They're all AI winners. They're guts companies or they're brains companies. But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, today is the big Fed decision day, probably the market's biggest day of the month because of our Federal Reserve.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
Investors expect our central bank to cut interest rates across this economy by 0.25%. But there's a lot of hesitation in the markets because there's a big question about whether they'll cut rates again next year. Second, Bluey is getting a Disney movie. Bluey! But not until 2027. Yeah, those Australian puppies are profit puppies. And the franchise, it's actually worth $2 billion.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
We did a whole story on it earlier this year. So Disney's partnering with the BBC for the movie rights to that wonderful, wholesome Heeler family for the big screen. And finally, Starbucks wants to be the best job in retail, so they're making a big move, doubling down on paid parental leave.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
They're giving baristas who work at least 20 hours a week, 18 weeks if you're a birth parent, and 12 weeks if you're a non-birth parent. We're talking paid parental leave. To sprinkle on some more context, that's better than the 14 weeks guaranteed in all European Union countries. The new CEO, Brian Nicol, wants baristas to smile again, so he's giving them some nice benefits.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
Now time for the best fact yet. This one whipped up by Jack and me because you know what? When we did our dinosaur research for today's story, we dove in deep T-boy style. Dude, this is actually from Wilder. Wilder, the podson whipped this up. He came home from school the other day and he said, dad, the T-Rex is American. And I was like, what?
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
The T-Rex is a native American dinosaur is what we're saying. According to Wikipedia. Tyrannosaurus rexes are from the western North America. Yeah, more T-Rexes have been found in Montana, in fact, than in any other state. And Jack, wild follow-on fact, the Stegosaurus and the T-Rex never even met. Really? There were nearly 100 million years between the Stegosaurus and the T-Rex.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
Yetis, you look fantastic over there. Jack, you look fantastic because tonight I'm going to Hamilton thanks to your Christmas gift. There we go. There we go. A Christmas gift for Nick and Molly. Hamilton. Nick. I'm so excited. It's a story about the United States, patriotism, ambition, and New York City. It's a combination of all the things I love.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
If a Tyrannosaurus wax walks on the screen, I'm going to like it even more. Throw in a couple hot wheels. I'm so excited for you guys to finally see Hamilton. Yetis, if you haven't yet, check out our newest episode of The Best Idea Yet, our weekly show. This one's on the untold story of Pez. We dropped the link in the episode description.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
Because yetis, you may not realize it, but every flame of every fire differs depending on the wood that's being burned. The flame, the shape, the aroma, the crackle, those are the variables of classic firewood. Those are the fire fundamentals because not all fires are created equal. And it turns out there's always money in the fire shed. Get this, Yetis.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
And remember to hit us up at tboypod on Instagram to tell us your favorite story of the year. The best ones yet of the best one yet. We'll see you next. And before we go, a happy first birthday to Yeti Arthur Hahn in Bainbridge Island, Washington. His grandma's taking care of him because he's the best baby yet.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
Happy birthday to Marlo Williams in Nahant, Massachusetts, who sings the T-Boy theme song and knows the words by heart. Just outside Boston. And Kevin Dolan, the Rangers fan, is turning 33 in Tudor City with bar trivia. Jack Kevin was at our live show. Yeah. He was looking fantastic in row four. Feels like 94. Yes, it does.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
And Deegan Dwyer has got a big boy birthday down in Charlottesville, Virginia. Happy six-year anniversary of starting an accounting firm to CEO Nick Samuel of Samuel Associates. And Justina Oginaka is publishing their first children's book available on Amazon when Prince and Reggie didn't win. Great book.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
And a big shout out to Justin Canney, who's starting their planuary planning over in Philadelphia. Yeah, Justin created his own planuary calendar with every weekend for the year already mapped out, which is exactly our vision of planuary. Awesome job, Justin. All of 2024's trips I had planned in January felt really satisfying to look forward to those trips.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
Bestie, stay tuned because next month we got a whole lot of planuary talk. And to anyone else who's celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Disney and Amazon, and Nick and I both own stock of Apple. If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
Startups are now selling different types of firewoods to give you a different fire effect in your fireplace. That's why we love capitalism. You can even make a market out of a fireplace, Jet. So naturally, Nick and I dove in T-boy style to the fancy firewood industry. Hardwoods like oak, they burn slower. But softwoods like pine, they burn quicker.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
Cherrywood burns quieter, while sprucewood burns louder. If you're cooking a romantic meal for two, applewood is going to waft out scents of apple. Now, Jack, if you're hosting a party for 12, then hickorywood is going to smell like nostalgia. This is Jack. I just bought a cord of firewood for $350. I think it was a good deal, but I actually don't know what kind of wood it was. This is Nick.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
I don't know what a cord is. It feels like a lot of money. Well, overall, the cracklier the sound, the more you're going to have to pay for that wood. It turns out spruce wood, to get that pop, is going to cost you a premium. I just read that kiln-dried mature wood with character goes for $250 a quarter cord. Again, I think you're making up this cord word, Jack. Doesn't seem real to me.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
Never heard of that measurement. Sorry, Nick, if you buy firewood, I guarantee you it's sushi grade wood. Oh, I'm only buying the sushi grade straight out of Tokyo, Jack. See, yetis, we've discovered an entire fancy firewood industry. Yeah, real thing. Because it turns out there is some yield in that Yule log. And there's always money in the fire shack. Later up, Jack. Let's hit our three stories.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
We're about to take a couple weeks of vacation, but we have six bonus episodes we have prepared. And one of them that we prepared is the best one yet of the best ones yet. But we need your help to create that special episode. Yes, we do. We need you to tell us your favorite T-Boy stories of 2024. Was it the can of babes? Was it the Costco Kirkland condos? Was it our live show in New York? Maybe.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in a dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50%, that's a fat tip. T-Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, cause we ready to go. We can't wait no more, so just start the show.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
For our first story, the hottest toy this year is one of the oldest toys in history, and that toy is the Hot Wheel. After nearly 60 years, Mattel's Hot Wheel toys, they're accelerating, while the price of Hot Wheels is actually breaking. Full disclosure, Yetis, but this is Nick, and I own... 318 Hot Wheels. Really? Unopened. I know. I didn't tell you about the opened ones. What?
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
I've been to Nick's childhood bedroom. They're all hung up on the wall like it was a toy store. Yeti is the toy industry. It's struggling right now. Kids, they're shifting from traditional toys to screens. But the big outlier is Hot Wheels. Hot Wheels, the tiny toy cars with die-cast chassis. A dragon-shaped sports car. I bet that's in your collection. I got three of them. A potato-shaped SUV.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
I got four of them. 1967 first edition Ford Bronco. Yeah. That's a keeper. And according to a UBS analyst, the demand for Hot Wheels is shockingly only growing. After 58 years of selling Hot Wheels, sales of Hot Wheels are at an all-time high right now. Get this, besties. Mattel's steadiest business is Hot Wheels. Sales are up 14% and just hit $1.4 billion this year.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
That's 20% of this toy company's revenue, and one-third of Hot Wheels are sold to adults like Nick. Yeah. Nothing wrong with that. In fact, Mattel is selling 23 Hot Wheels cars every single second. That's over 700 million a year. Which leads to one of our favorite trivia questions. Who is the world's top car seller? It's Mattel.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
In fact, Mattel makes 10 times more tires than the entire global car industry. Take that, Matchbox. For the record, Hot Wheels are superior to Matchbox cars, but that's a story for another pod. So given everything Jack and I just said, Yetis, Mattel is now strategically applying the Barbie playbook to Hot Wheels. They're giving Hot Wheels a movie. That's right. Mattel hired J.J.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
Abrams, director of Star Wars and Star Trek, for a live-action Hot Wheels movie. The cast and premiere date are TBD, but we think a two-inch sedan with fire paint on the doors could win an Oscar someday. Yeah. It's got potential. And since Barbie sales jumped 16% after her record-breaking film, we expect Hot Wheels sales to probably set another record in the coming years. So watch out, Ken.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
Hot Wheels is Mattel's new favorite son. Which actually, Jack, leads to the wildest part about this whole Hot Wheels story. You ready for this, yetis? Hot Wheels was invented by a man named Elliot Handler. Interesting. Who was married to a woman named Ruth Handler. Interesting. who happened to invent Barbie. We repeat, Barbie and Hot Wheels inventors were married in real life.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
Maybe. It was a cookie crisp. Cookie crisp. My voice is back, baby. Oh, yes, it is. So we just posted on Instagram and we would like you to comment with your picks of best stories at T-Boy Pod. Help us pick the best mix yet on Instagram by telling us your favorite T-Boy story of the year. But in the meantime, today's show is the best one we've ever done. Jack, three stories for today's show.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
And together they co-founded Mattel, which has to be an episode of The Best Idea Yet. Oh, we got to do a whole deep dive on this, Jack. Now, Elliot's insight was that cars are the one product that kids can't own until they're much, much older. So he created the first car replicas, sold them at car shows, and hoped that dads during the post-World War II car boom would bring them home to their kids.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
A lot of pent-up demand. And I think that's how your car collection began. All 300 plus of them. But yes, Deez, the reason why Hot Wheels is selling better than ever right now is actually because Mattel didn't get greedy. Which leads to our takeaway. Yes, it does. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Mattel? Hot Wheels took a strategy from the candy industry. It's an impulse buy.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
Yeti's shocking hero stat here. But after six decades, Hot Wheels are now cheaper than when they launched. The average price of a Hot Wheels car is $1.25. I'm looking at Mattel's website. It's $1.25 for just about every car. Jack, if you adjust for inflation, that price today is less than when it was 58 years ago. So Hot Wheels has bucked the trend of inflation. But get this.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
Hot Wheels is the only toy that's widely distributed at grocery stores. That's right. Aisle 6 at Stop and Shop, you can buy Hot Wheels. In fact, pro tip, I buy them for my nieces and nephews, $1.25 at the grocery store. And they're at grocery stores because Hot Wheels borrowed a strategy from the candy industry. They're an impulse buy.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
Yeah, the impulse buy, the blink buy, an unplanned purchase of a cheap surprise product at the end of your shopping trip when you're psychologically open to doing so. Kit Kats and Tic Tacs, they're kept right by the register because you're like, yeah, sure, throw it on there too. In this economy, I'll take six Hot Wheels.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
Hot Wheels are priced for $1.25 and kept by the register, too, for the same reason. So Hot Wheels, they're the top toy this holiday season because they borrowed a strategy from candy. Stay cheap and stay close to the register. For our second story, the final IPO of the year is the wildest IPO of the year. Because on Friday, you can buy shares of a dinosaur.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
So we dove into the fossil financials of this wild IPO. Now, Yetis, to start with some context here, have you noticed that Jack and I have covered fewer IPOs on the podcast this year? It's true. There are half as many companies going public as there were two years ago. Jack, it's almost like IPOs have gone extinct. Interesting, because the final IPO of 2024 is a stegosaurus. That's right.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
It is a pure play paleontology stock. Ross from Friends is pumped about this because over in Wyoming, they have discovered already two-thirds of a skeleton of a stegosaurus. And Jack, why are they securitizing the Stegosaurus? Because the market for dinosaurs is booming. Yeti's last year, Ken Griffin, the financier, paid a record $45 million for another Stegosaurus dino.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
The market for Littlefoot is lit. It's the best moment for dinosaurs since 200 million BC. Yeah, that's the Cretaceous period. So when Nick and I heard about an SEC filing for a dinosaur IPO, we grabbed a pickaxe and we jumped in T-boy style. We called up our buddy, Dr. Grant, and we jumped into the numbers. Jack, let's talk about the asset. What are we looking at here, man?
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
The asset that's being sold here is a Stegosaurus fossil. Late Jurassic period. It's 23 feet long, seven feet tall. And now small detail, but important detail. They found 17 of the 22 back plates of the Stegosaurus. They already got them. Those are the spiky things that come out of the back of a Stegosaurus. It's the distinguishing feature of that dino.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
What do we got on the pod? For our first story, sorry, Barbie, but Mattel's top toy this year is Hot Wheels. Hot Wheels, their sales are up 14% because Hot Wheels pumped the brakes on inflation. For our second story, for the first time ever, a stegosaurus is going public today. That's right. True story. A dino IPO.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
Part of this financing is to help find the rest of those back plates of the Stegosaurus. Now, once the excavation is complete, the company is going to keep 80% of the ownership and put the dinosaur skeleton in their company museum in New York City. Sounds terrifying and awesome at the same time. Now, Jack, those are the assets. What about the financials?
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
They're selling 20% of the ownership of the Stegosaurus for $14 million spread across 200,000 shares. Mr. Wonderful, that means they value this dinosaur at 69 million bucks. So this is a fractional investing opportunity. It is. You can own a tiny share of a stegosaurus. And if it grows in value and then the owner sells it one day, you could enjoy a return on that stegovestment.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
But like any investment opportunity, there are risks. Yes, there are. The risks are that, you know, the price is pretty high after we got to research the industry. They price the shares to be 50% more expensive than Ken Griffin's stegosaurus. Now, will this dinosaur make money? Yeah, maybe. It could generate ticket income if they put it in a museum.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
Or someday if they sell it at an auction for a higher price. In the meantime, though, you cannot buy this Stego stock on a stock exchange. You can only buy this stock through the Rally app. Which presents another risk. When you want to sell, there might not be a buyer there because it's not that liquid a market. Even though you want to put some fossils in your 401k.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
But when Nick and I saw the $69 million valuation and the $69 per share price of this IPO... We got curious. Yeah, life finds a way to our takeaway. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our dino buddies over at the Stegosaurus IPO? Don't just know your customer, paint a picture of your customer.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
Yetis, the most interesting part of these financial documents that we noticed, it was the description of the potential buyer. Rally, the collectibles company that bought this dinosaur and is IPO-ing 20% of it, said this about their potential buyers. And they said the expected stock buyer is a 31-year-old who made a little bit of money, but is not necessarily a millionaire. That's specific.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
It is very specific, yeah. So before IPO-ing this stegosaurus, the startup has a very clear image of who they're trying to sell to. Yeah, maybe this guy made money on Bitcoin and wants to go to New York City to look at the Stegosaurus that he partly co-owns. He's going to tell the person next to him, I bought stock in that for $69. Someday, I'm going to sell it for $420.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
Jokes aside, this is actually an important marketing exercise for successfully launching any product, even a dinosaur stock. Paint a visual picture of the core target customer you're trying to sell to. Come up with a description of their age, their style, their finances, because the better you know them, the better you can target them.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
This dinosaur IPO for 31-year-old kind of wealthy people, but not millionaires, it's a reminder. It's a reminder to paint your customer. Now, a quick word from our sponsor.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
So Jack and I jumped into the dinosaur stock that was 250 million years in the making, or billion. It's million, I think. It is million. We can round up on that. For our third and final story, Broadcom just passed a $1 trillion valuation. It's the eighth American big tech company to hit that trillion dollar milestone. So Jack and I need to discuss the new acronym on Wall Street. Here it is.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
For our third and final story, with Broadcom joining the $1 trillion club, The Magnificent Seven is out. The cool way to describe big tech stocks right now? What is it, Jack? Batman. Batman. The best acronym yet. But Jack, before we talk about... The Batman. Batman. Let's talk about Broadcom. Who is Broadcom? This is the latest company to hit a $1 trillion valuation.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
And shocker, they did it thanks to AI. Broadcom has always been a chip company, but now they've got an AI division. Broadcom, based in California, makes wires, cords, and connectors that hold AI processing chips together within a data center. But Bessie's Jacker, I'm trying to think of an analogy for you for how to understand Broadcom's business.
The Best One Yet
🦕 “Dino IPO” — Stegosaurus goes public. Mattel’s Hot Wheels win. Broadcom’s BATMMAAN stocks.
If NVIDIA makes the eggs, Broadcom makes the egg carton. Yeah, we opened up the refrigerator on this. And those egg carton revenues quadrupled already this year, thanks to the AI boom. In just the last few days, Broadcom stock is up 30% after awesome earnings, making it the 12th company ever to hit four commas. Because Broadcom makes the egg carton the stuff that holds NVIDIA's chip eggs together.
The Best One Yet
📕 “Hedge Fund University” — Harvard’s $2B battle. Coachella’s Pay-Now-Party-Later. Netflix’s Dr. Evil plan.
This is Nick.
The Best One Yet
📕 “Hedge Fund University” — Harvard’s $2B battle. Coachella’s Pay-Now-Party-Later. Netflix’s Dr. Evil plan.
It is.
The Best One Yet
📕 “Hedge Fund University” — Harvard’s $2B battle. Coachella’s Pay-Now-Party-Later. Netflix’s Dr. Evil plan.
Yeah, I'd like to report a urinal that I left in the backseat. I don't know. I just forgot to bring it out with me.
The Best One Yet
📕 “Hedge Fund University” — Harvard’s $2B battle. Coachella’s Pay-Now-Party-Later. Netflix’s Dr. Evil plan.
Well, you can't see me from the bottom down, Jack. Let's just round up on that one.
The Best One Yet
📕 “Hedge Fund University” — Harvard’s $2B battle. Coachella’s Pay-Now-Party-Later. Netflix’s Dr. Evil plan.
Honestly, if we're in a calm period, I'm getting scared. I don't know what that means, man. But Jack, three stories for today's show.
The Best One Yet
📕 “Hedge Fund University” — Harvard’s $2B battle. Coachella’s Pay-Now-Party-Later. Netflix’s Dr. Evil plan.
Jack, don't leave that plunger in the back of your Uber X. Let's hit our three stories.
The Best One Yet
📕 “Hedge Fund University” — Harvard’s $2B battle. Coachella’s Pay-Now-Party-Later. Netflix’s Dr. Evil plan.
That's kind of a cynical way to look at it, but you could look at it that way.
The Best One Yet
📕 “Hedge Fund University” — Harvard’s $2B battle. Coachella’s Pay-Now-Party-Later. Netflix’s Dr. Evil plan.
Literally.
The Best One Yet
🏟️ “Football = Housing” — Stadiums’ apartment strategy. Nutella’s Americanization. Hotels’ junk fee ban.
Yeah. I haven't met a girl Scotty yet.
The Best One Yet
🏟️ “Football = Housing” — Stadiums’ apartment strategy. Nutella’s Americanization. Hotels’ junk fee ban.
I would define reclaiming as to take back what was yours. Something you possess is lost or stolen, and ultimately you triumph in finding it again. Listen to Reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky wherever you get your podcasts.
The Best One Yet
🏟️ “Football = Housing” — Stadiums’ apartment strategy. Nutella’s Americanization. Hotels’ junk fee ban.
Here it is.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Wednesday, ceviche Wednesday, March 12th. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-Boy. The top three stories at the intersection of business and pop culture. All right, the last two episodes, Jack, you revealed you're a Maxinista. And he told us you only eat Costco Kirkland food. What are you going to reel in this episode?
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
They are going to start charging for checked bags. This is blasphemy for Southwest Airlines. It begins May 28th, and the price is TBD. Basically, we just described the worst rundown of airline news since snakes on a plane. For Southwest, this wasn't just a betrayal. It was a brand betrayal. I mean, Jack, no checked bags? That was core to the entire Southwest brand.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
Southwest literally trademarked the term bags fly free, and it was front and center on their website. Arguably, that is their greatest IP, bags fly free. But Southwest stock is down 50% in the last four years, putting pressure on their no-fee position. Jack, remember the great Christmas outage of 2022 when Southwest canceled two out of three flights in one day?
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
Over the course of nine days during Christmas time, they canceled two-thirds of their flights. Well, Southwest business and its stock have been limping along ever since then. That's why a hedge fund acquired 10% of Southwest stock, earning themselves five seats on the company's board of directors, and they were able to make some changes to the company that put pros before cos.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
They started putting profits before customers. For example, that hedge fund just canceled the number one ranked airplane perk of all the perks. They killed the thing customers loved to boost short-term profits, turning Southwest into a fee-ocracy. Just like all the other airlines. Now, interestingly, we should point out Southwest stock rose 9% on Tuesday on this new profit-first move.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
But hearts are a little heavier at Dallas Love Field. So Jack and I were looking at the situation. Yeah, that's a short-term win for the stock. But Jack, what about the long-term? We're going to have to speak to the pilot again.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
You like the Renaissance painters? Nah, I really like the Trader Joe's chalkboardists. Why is she so into TJ's? Because Trader Joe's actually fills each location with unique and locally relevant art. Jack, let's just look at the East Village Trader Joe's back in New York City. It's the busiest Trader Joe's in the country. We live two blocks away. We shop there all the time.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
To quote Vito Corleone, loyalty is the thread that holds society together. Without loyalty, there's chaos. Yetis, in business, without loyalty, there is a price war. And that is why airlines focus so much on loyalty. Frequent flyer loyalty is what allows an airline to raise prices by 50 bucks, but you'll still pay for that ticket.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
Well, the wildest part about this Southwest story, the airline actually did a survey last year that determined they would lose $300 million every year if they took away free bags. In other words- Making you pay for checked bags would get a loyal Southwest customer to start considering other airlines. But Southwest's hedge fund-dominated board, they didn't believe that survey.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
And now Southwest has been changed to look like all the other airlines. They've got bag fees. They've got pay-for-your-seat selection fees. They've got fee fees. Southwest is now even on Expedia for the first time ever. So you don't have to search Expedia and then Southwest to figure out what's the cheapest. Yes, short term, all this may boost revenue for Southwest.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
But long term, being like every other airline, kills loyalty. And without loyalty, it's a price war. Or as Mr. Corleone put it, without loyalty, it's chaos. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for Savice Wednesday? As the trade war rages, the US stock market is down since we lost to Canada in hockey. It's just like a hockey fight.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
Nobody wins with tariffs because both sides get punched in the teeth. For our second story, MrBeast Inc. is worth $5 billion. It might IPO someday, and they make more money on candy than content because transparency with his fans is MrBeast's best asset. And our third and final story is Southwest Airlines. They ended their beloved free checked bags, putting flyer loyalty at risk.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
Loyalty, it is the thread that holds society together. Without it, there's chaos. But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, there might be a ceasefire in Ukraine. Huge news. The U.S. announced yesterday it would continue funding the military in Ukraine if, in return, Ukraine would agree to a 30-day ceasefire.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
And all of this is contingent on Russia accepting the terms. And second, we finally have another IPO this year. And that IPO is Hinge. Not the dating app. Hinge, the virtual physical therapy app, is trying to go public. $390 million in revenue in 2024 with a net loss of $11.9 million. Hinge is an app that's going to tell you to squeeze that little inflatable ball between your knees.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
About 10 reps, three sets a day. It should launch a dating version. Like, if you have a knee injury, connect you with someone who doesn't have a knee injury, right? They just issued their IPO paperwork. We'll cover it if they make it to the New York Stock Exchange. And then finally, the Wall Street Journal reports the most annoying part of your car is the door handle.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
New cars have weird door handles. Yeah, according to Strategic Vision's latest survey, positive feelings for car door handles have fallen 50% in the last 10 years. Car companies think they're tech companies and they're making door handles door buttons. It's like roulette. It's like, will this button open my window or will it open the door?
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
And when you wander into aisle six of that Trader Joe's, what are you going to see, Jack? Their salad sign is inspired by a 19th century Augustus Caesar sculpture because of Caesar salad. And Trader Joe's coffee section sign was inspired by a Rodin drawing. Vincent Van Gogh, Edward Hopper, Leonardo da Vinci. Each artist's style is subtly referenced on Trader Joe's chalkboards and wall mural.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
We have a Model Y and every time I look at that door handle, I don't want to get in the car. Give me my handle back. Don't need a button. And for that matter, don't need a button. Give me a knob to handle the heat. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Jack Leonard from lovely Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Over my paternity leave, it was Dr. Seuss day.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
Well, Dr. Seuss, aka Theodore Geisel, wrote Green Eggs and Ham on a dare from a publisher about writing a book without using more than 50 different words. He accepted that dare, and he wrote green eggs and ham using exactly 50 different words. And yes, we will read them.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
A, am, and, anywhere, are, be, boat, boat, box, goat, could, dark, do, eat, eggs, fox, goat, good, green, ham, here, house, I, if, inlet, like, many, me, mouse, not, on, or, rain, Sam, say, see, so, thank, that, thee, them, there, they, they, train, tree, try, will, with, would, you. I will not eat them with a mouse. I will not eat them in a house.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
I thought you were going to say cookie crisp, but I like that too, Jack. Yetis, you look fantastic today. And remember, if you are in line at Trader Joe's, look around. Look around. You're surrounded. Free artwork. Michelangelo.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
Apparently, there's a portrait that some artist did of Mona Lisa, and it's got a name tag, like a Trader Joe's name tag, and it says Mona L. And then turn to the person next to you in line and say, hey, H-Y-H-T-B-O-Y. Have you had the best one yet? That is how we grow the show. It really is when you tell your buddies about T-Boy. Jack, I'll see you tomorrow.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
And before we go, a happy birthday to Yeti Brian Stewart down in lovely Conroe, Texas. And happy birthday to Alex Goh in New York, New York. And Brent Cousinby Behrens turning 46 years old down in Santa Clarita, California. With the whole Brady Bunch and the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
And the legendary bestie, Tyler Rice, who is at our live show in New York City, just released a book, Tactical Disconnection. Congratulations on the publishing, Tyler. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. Oh, and check out our latest episode of The Best Idea Yet, because it's all about Costco's Kirkland brand. This is Jack.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
I own stock of Amazon and I recently bought stock in Lyft. If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
In fact, there are over 150 permanent pieces of art at that one Trader Joe's location. It's insane. And guess what? It's not just that one 14th Street Trader Joe's. No, get this. Each Trader Joe's employs an in-house artist to make that location unique art. That's right. They have a bunch of cashiers, a bunch of stockers, and an artist at every Trader Joe's.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
I mean, the sad part here, Jack, we both shopped at that epic Trader Joe's in New York City about a million times. And we never noticed all the amazing artwork that's apparently all over the place. which leads to our takeaway on the Trader Joe's art collection. Don't just look at the price tags and the nutrition facts when you're shopping at Trader Joe's.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
Next time you're in line, look around at the artwork around you. You don't need to go to the Louvre to find beautiful things. Just look over there at that lettuce sign because Trader Joe's art gallery is the new Guggenheim. Your move, Whole Foods. It's magnificent. Jack, let's hit our three stars.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
I'm such a retail diva these days. Jack's a tar-shaped girly. All right, three stories for today's show. What do we got on the project? For our first story, Canada just hit the United States with a new thing, a 25% fee on Canadian electricity. Trade wars, they follow the same pattern as hockey fights. When one side drops the gloves, the other side drops the gloves.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
For our first story, Canada has added a 25% electricity fee and is threatening to cut off juice to New York, Michigan, and Minnesota. Stocks dropped again on Tuesday because trade war two has turned into a hockey fight. Literally. Speaking of literally, we can actually pinpoint the moment that U.S. stocks started falling in the Trump presidency. And that date is February 20th.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
And why is that date significant, Nick? Well, Jack, it's because that's the day after the United States lost to Canada in overtime of the NHL All-Star Hockey Tournament. Connor McDavid scored a goal in overtime. America lost the game, and our stock market has fallen every day since then. You've heard of hockey stick growth? This was a hockey stick decline since then. It's wild.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
Now, Monday was the worst day on Wall Street since 2022. And on Tuesday, the S&P 500 officially fell into correction territory. It's down 10% from its highs. The reason? We have real economic pain now being felt on both sides of the US and Canada border. And in the meantime, Trump's tariffs have united Canadians like a Maple Leafs Cup win.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
They elected a new prime minister, and suddenly, Canada has Marc Messier mojo. Here's the latest news. The province of Ontario just added a 25% fee to all electricity exports going to America. And Canada exports a lot of electricity to America. 1.5 million people in New York, Michigan, and Minnesota are going to have a 25% more expensive electricity bill at the end of the month.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
And then Canada went further. Ontario's premier even said he would shut off all electricity to the United States if Trump escalates the trade war further. Scary stuff. It is. Now, yetis, here's what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. It actually follows the same pattern as a hockey fight. If one guy drops the gloves, the other inevitably drops the gloves too.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
Trade war two is straight out of the first scene and happy Gilmore is what we're saying. Here's the story. Trump started this fight by imposing 25% tariffs on all made in Canada goods. And Canada's new prime minister said this about Trump dropping the gloves. After getting elected prime minister, he said, we didn't ask for a fight, but we're ready when someone else drops the gloves.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
He's literally talking about dropping the gloves in this situation. And the latest, latest news? Yesterday, Trump punched back. He retaliated to Canada's retaliation with yet another new tariff. Basically doubling the tax on made in Canada steel up to 50%. And the result of Trump's new steel tax, the price of aluminum and steel in America have doubled in just one month.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
Yes, we'll buy more American made steel, but we're going to end up paying nearly double for it. And Canada's probably planning their next retaliation in this trade war. Which would be the equivalent of pulling the jersey over the helmet like this, Jack. Thank you for bringing levity to the situation. But Nick, this is a shocking state of affairs we have right now.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
For our second story, we just got the financials on the business of Mr. Beast. It's actually a $5 billion company. And the world's greatest creator surprisingly makes more money on candy than he does on content. And our third and final story, Southwest Airlines just deleted its most beloved perk. It's gone. No more free checked bags. Besties, can you put a price on love? Yes.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
It really is, Jack, because when you add it all up, our neighbor, our friendly rink rival, and our biggest trading partner is now our enemy. Canada is our enemy? And investors, they don't love that idea either. Trade War II, it's been hitting the markets for three weeks. Since the day the US lost to Canada in the NHL's All-Star Game, Stocks are down by 10%. Oh, breaking news, by the way.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
This is a big one. As we were recording this podcast, the Canadian premier actually paused the 25% electricity fee we just mentioned a second ago. Apparently, he's in talks with the Trump administration to de-escalate the trade war, although tomorrow, he may just bring the electricity fee back. We're relieved by the de-escalation, but tomorrow's going to be another story.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in North America? Nobody wins with tariffs because both sides get punched. Or Jack, I guess we could say both sides lose some teeth. Yeti's funny thing, Jack, and I noticed, everything that's played out with this trade war is taught in Econ 101. This is a textbook trade war. We could have predicted every sequence of events.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
We pretty much did, Jack. Like if one country imposes tariffs on another country, the tariffing country does not benefit because the tariffed country retaliates. It's logic we learned in elementary school. When one side gets hit, the other side hits back. In economics, you call it tit for tat. And that's why we think this looks just like a hockey fight.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
If one drops the gloves, the other inevitably always drops the gloves. And it's why we've been saying for years, nobody wins with tariffs. In a trade war, both sides end up getting less and paying more in taxes. Americans may not get Canadian electricity. Canadians may not get Jack Daniels whiskey. And the prices of everything we trade with each other go up. Yetis, nobody wins with tariffs.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
Both sides lose a few teeth. For our second story, we just got the numbers on Mr. Beast's business, and they are not what you'd expect. Because Mr. Beast actually makes more money on candy than he does on content. Yeti's Jimmy Donaldson. Jimmy is the most watched entertainer on earth, but you know him by his stage name, Mr. Beast.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
But Mr. Beast, the way we see it is really like Brad Pitt, Steven Spielberg, and Vanna White all rolled up into one celebrity. He's an A-lister of Gen Z, the second most followed person on earth. Jack, let's talk some numbers here. Mr. Beast has 350 million YouTube subscribers. That's more than Netflix, twice as many as Disney+, and 10 times as much as Peacock.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
And Mr. Beast happens to also be a venture capital-backed business. Mr. Beast has raised $400 million from venture capital, pegging his valuation, his company's valuation, at $5 billion. Which is more than one single lift. And rumors have it, he may IPO that company, which would make Mr. Beast Inc. the first human-based IPO since Martha Stewart.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
The only time the IPO paperwork has health information is when we're IPOing a human, Jack. His ticker symbol would be SMASH, as in smash that subscribe button. But get this, yetis. Mr. Beast actually makes more money on chocolate than he does on YouTube. And that's wild, because you think of him as the YouTube guy. He's actually more of a candy connoisseur.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
Jack, let's dive in T-boy style to the numbers here. According to Bloomberg reporting... Feastables, his chocolate bar business, generates $250 million in annual sales, netting a profit of $20 million. Now, this, again, is a chocolate bar business. It's not like a disruptive app technology business, right, Jack? No, Mr. Beast basically took a Hershey's bar and smothered it in Mr. Beast branding.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
And he's getting a nice 10% margin on that business for selling chocolate. But Mr. Beast isn't known for candy bars. He's known for videos. And how did those videos perform compared to the candy? His YouTube and Amazon videos produced $250 million in ad sales and licensing, but he lost $80 million. So Mr. Beast's videos got 74 billion total views.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
Actually, yes, you can. We calculated it. There is a price. We actually calculated the price on lost love for this story. Which is the worst kind of love. You don't want to lose that love. But yetis, we're going to pivot back to love because the greatest art collection in the country isn't an art gallery at all. No, the greatest art collection in the country is actually at Trader Joe's. Get this.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
They are the most watched thing in history since the sky. And yet he lost $80 million on them? Here's the reason. MrBeast spends $4 million to produce each of those YouTube videos that he publishes. Basically, he's doing Hollywood budgets for his social media views. Again, it's MrBeast Inc. He has 200 people on staff down in North Carolina working on each production.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
He's got to feed those people and he gives them health insurance too. They're getting full perks. That's expensive. His most recent video he published on YouTube was a challenge. It let people compete against Ronaldo, the soccer star, in soccer to win their chance at $1 million. $1 million was just the prize money.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
That didn't include paying anyone, getting them to travel there, or the whole set design of the place. For his show on Amazon, which is called Beast Games, he built a thousand towers for the challenge in episode one. And how much did that cost? $15 million. $15 million. a write-off. So he gets crazy views, but his expenses are crazy big for those views.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
So besties, after looking at these numbers, yeah, we think of Mr. Beast as the king of content, but really, he's more like Willy Wonka. Because his video business lost $80 million, but his candy business made a $20 million profit. And overall, Mr. Beast is still in his loss-making era, which is why he needs all that venture capital money. It's actually a lot like Amazon.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
They never made money for like 20 years and then started making a lot of money. As we said before, Mr. Beast should be the next CEO of Amazon. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies following Mr. Beast? Transparency is now an asset on the balance sheet. Yeti's wild story. But on the set of Mr. B's new Amazon show, he actually used up the entire $100 million budget almost instantly.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
So he was out of money. But then in the middle of the production of episode one, without telling anybody, he decided to double the prize. No one at Amazon knew this. He didn't clear this with like, you know, Frank from finance or Carol in accounting. He said, the winner of this challenge isn't going to win $5 million. You're going to win $10 million.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
And I'm paying for that extra money out of my own pocket. Now, here's what Jack and I found fascinating about that. Five years ago, Mr. Beast told his audience that he would put every dollar he makes in ad sales back into the production of more YouTube videos. He has pledged not to profit on his YouTube videos. This is why he has the biggest YouTube audience.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
The more you like his videos, the more money he'll make on them, and then the more epic he'll make the new videos. Because he reinvests every dollar back into future videos. Basically, video is Mr. B's loss leader. It allows him to make a profit on his side businesses instead. These $5 million videos lose money on purpose.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
Because that pledge not to make money drives future audiences to be even bigger. Because audiences love that pledge, they are happy to buy Mr. B's chocolate bars when he asks them to. Which he does in every YouTube video. It's a reminder that in business today, transparency is now on the balance sheet. Now, a quick word from our sponsor.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
According to the New York Times, Trader Joe's grocery stores are America's best art galleries. Jack, you're going to have to sprinkle on more context for us, please. The art critic Julie Averbach just published a book, The Art of Trader Joe's. She also wrote her thesis at Yale on the Trader Joe's art style. That's right. She's an Ivy League-trained Trader Joe's enthusiast.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
For our third and final story, Southwest Airlines is deleting the most important part of its distinctive brand. Free checked bags are gone. Southwest is adding a bag fee, and it reminds us of a lesson from the Godfather. But yet it is Jack and I study industries on your behalf. And we noticed it is tough for airlines out there these days, ain't it, Jack?
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
On Monday, the stocks of the four biggest US airlines lost a combined $24 billion in value. Let's start with our two go-tos. I got Delta, you got United. What's going on with both of them? Apparently, we're all booking less travel right now due to the economic uncertainty. Yeah, like you'll go to Cabo if you get the bonus.
The Best One Yet
🏒 “Hockey Fight” — Canada’s electric weapon. MrBeast’s chocolate surprise. Southwest’s Godfather fee.
And then American Airlines came out and said that their bookings are down too, partly because of that plane crash that happened in the river in Washington, D.C. Sadly, we are all still kind of thinking about it. Now, Yetis, there's four airlines in America that make up 80% of the industry. And the last one of those four to speak was Southwest. And here's what Southwest basically did.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Wednesday, ceviche Wednesday, February 12th, and today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Jack, grab me a napkin, because yetis, we just visited Ben & Jerry's flagship store. We jumped in T-boy style. We went to the original scoop shop yesterday to promote our episode of The Best Idea Yet.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
Which leads to the big question, Jack. Is the CFPB gone? No. Technically, only Congress can eliminate a government agency because it's Congress's job to create them. In fact, the new head of the agency said he's actually going to announce a new direction for the agency. What kind of direction?
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
Well, Mark Zuckerberg and Mark Andreessen, those techies, they've complained that the CFPB harasses tech companies that try to get into finance. So the CFPB actually could reopen with the same mission, but a different approach. A different approach like being friendlier to both finance and tech companies. But in the meantime, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is shut down, but not out yet.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
So Jack, what's our takeaway for the CFBB? Does the E in DOGE stand for efficiency or elimination? Doge, the Department of Government Efficiency. We think it's a great idea to eliminate wasteful government spending. And with an annual budget of almost a billion dollars, there's definitely money to be saved at the CFPB. So a renewed culture of cost-effectiveness? Yeah, we're all for it.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
And so are the majority of Americans. But gutting an entire agency to the point that it can't function... That's different than efficiency. Yeah, that's a de facto elimination of it, which requires a bill from Congress, not Doge. Making an agency whose job it is to protect consumers from financial firms more efficient. is very different than eliminating it.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
Honestly, it reminded us of barbershops. There is a difference between a hair trim and a buzz cut when you're talking to your barber. Just like there's a difference between trimming waste and eliminating the agency. Which leads to the fair question. Does the E in Doge stand for efficiency or elimination? Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for Savice Wednesday?
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
Coca-Cola's star product is cow milk. It's a brand called Fairlife, and they're trying to be the Gatorade of dairy. Milk just took a lesson from margaritas. They are now sold ready to drink. For our second story, it's Ferrari. They have a blacklist. If you impugn the brand's purity, you may never buy another Ferrari. Miranda Priestly, she'd approve. Ferrari is a tastemaker.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
And our third and final story is Doge. It's turned its attention this week to the CFPB, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. So does the E in Doge stand for efficiency or elimination? But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, if you were willing, waiting, hoping, begging for interest rates to come down, don't hold your breath.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
The Fed chairman, Jerome Powell, testified yesterday to the Senate. Yeah, Jerry said he's in no rush to lower interest rates given the risk of inflation sparking up again. Second, if you're in New York at the South Street Seaport, look out for the new Leaning Tower of New York. Yeah, this tower leans. It goes three inches to the side compared to the bottom.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
How does that compare, though, to the Leaning Tower of Pisa? It doesn't compare. Now, the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy leans at four degrees, not one degree like the tower in New York. So Pisa is four times more linear than the New York leaning. Oh, a couple other things you got to know today. The Gulf of America has officially arrived on Google Maps.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
And the Super Bowl ratings just came in at an all-time high of 128 million viewers. Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Alisa Stearman from lovely Austin, Texas. Yesterday we told you that the U.S. Treasury will stop making pennies. Yeah, so we suggested that because of inflation, the U.S. Treasury should bring back the $1,000 bill. And America used to have a $1,000 bill. We did.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
Three different versions, actually, with three different men on them. Okay, so we had President Cleveland on one version, the mayor of New York, DeWitt Clinton, on the other version. And Robert Morris, a founding father from the state of Pennsylvania. And guess what? Robert Morris happens to be Elisa's fiancé's great, great, great, great, great grandfather. I think you put him one too many grades.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
I had five. Did I hit that? Did I hit that? Did I round up on that one? Oh, Elisa, I'm sorry. soon to be Alyssa's great, great, great, great grandfather-in-law. Right? Yeah, it is. You look fantastic today. Jack, I just want to say your iambic pentameter reading that publicly traded poetry was, you stuck the landing on that thing.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
It's IPO-etry. Besties, if you've got a lovely poem about a brand you're in love with, send it our way. We may get it on the pod. You got two more days until Valentine's Day, so get those pencils sharpened. Peloton, you broke our hearts. That's all I got to say.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
And before we go, a happy 27th birthday to Abdul Malik Ford. It's belated in Tacoma, Washington. And happy birthday to Greta Jean Kramer from Brattleboro, Vermont, who is turning five years old. I'm checking the list, Jack, and that is the eldest of the next generation of Kramer children. Am I right? She's got, I think, seven cousins right now. Soon to be nine. No, not true.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
Because two of them are her sisters. Actually, she's the best ballet dancer in the tri-state area. Happy birthday to Abraham Lincoln from LaRue, Kentucky. And Brandon Arvider in Denver, Colorado. Happy birthday, Brandon. And happy birthday to Kara Enos in Franklin, Tennessee. And Jack, Richard Hayes and the whole Zarb School of Business at Hofstra.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
Here we go. Silence, please. My heart beats for you around the clock. Once for the workouts, once for the stock. In a pandemic, you were innovation, selling home gyms across the nation. But Peloton, oh Peloton, we speak now to thee, for you broke our heart financially. We spin your classes every week, but the analyst reports look so bleak.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
Enjoy this pod because Professor Richard puts it on. Thank you, Rich. Go Pride. And Rascal the Dachshund, thank you for living such a good life for your parents. This wonderful dog, Rascal, would listen to this show every day with their owners, and Rascal lived a wonderful life.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
And besties, if you would like to get a shout-out on this show, or you want to get one for your buddy, just fill out the form in our episode description, or go to tboypod.com slash shout-outs. This is Jack. Nick and I still own Stockin' Pallet Top. And we also own Stockin' App.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
Legal tender. It could be a meat company.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
If you like The Best One Yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com. We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
I'm not sure which one you've burned more, calories or investors. Our losses are still so, so sore. Wall Street gave you zero pity after killing big on Sex and the City. In you, we still hold equity to the shock of Cody Rigsby. Is it too much to ask for a turnaround plan? Please sell to Apple if you possibly can. The 90% stock drop, it ain't been fun, but we're still long on Peloton.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
Yetis, hit us up with your own IPO-etry, your own publicly traded poems out there. Poet laureates, yeah, you know where to find us.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
Nick, it's our three stars. Let's hear it. 15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dawn. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50%, that's a fat tip. T-Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, cause we ready to go.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
We can't wait no more, so just start the show. Start the show. Start the show.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
Yeah, we did a whole episode on Ben & Jerry's. You got the fish food in a cone, right? There you went. Yeah, I got fish food in the car. And we went like a man on the street interview style.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
For our first story, get this. Coca-Cola's biggest acquisition ever is a milk company, Fairlife Milk. Milk is having a moment because Fairlife bottled it. Yetis, come with us over to Chicago. Because if you walk into the Coca-Cola office in the West Loop, you're not going to see a Coca-Cola logo, are you, Jack? You're going to see a cowbell. Yep.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
Because according to Bloomberg reporting, Coke employs a team of super tasters who test their most valuable new product line, which is dairy milk. Specifically, Fairlife dairy milk. That's right. That's right. America's biggest soda brand has gone all in on the utter. Coca-Cola acquired Fairlife in 2020 at a final price of $7 billion. Okay. You know what that means?
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
That means Fairlife Milk is Coca-Cola's biggest acquisition in its 103 33-year history. And the numbers will turn you lactose tolerant. What do we got, Jack? What kind of stuff? Fair Life is selling a billion dollars a year now, which is up 10x from 10 years ago. All right, Jack, I'm going to need you to spore on a little context for us over there. What is this, a bowl of cereal for a podcast?
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
Everyone we asked trivia questions about Ben & Jerry's, they knew the answers. They did, they did. Vermonters know their company. I was a little surprised you didn't get hot fudge, Jack. Man, we don't do that here. We let the ice cream do the talking.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
It is. Now, Coke just announced their quarterly earnings. It's a $50 billion of revenue last quarter. So Fairlife is a small part, but it's the fastest growing part by far. Fairlife Milk is outperforming Coca-Cola sodas. It is outselling its juices. It is outpacing Coca-Cola's coffee brands. And even after 10Xing in the last 10 years, there's still room to grow. Yeah, there is.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
Because only one third of Americans have even tried a bottle of Fairlife Milk. Jack and I heard this story, and this is what we found fascinating. Fair life milk is defying two of the biggest trends in America. Not milk and honey, milk and money. Okay, here, get this. Milk is a commodity. Like, all milk is the same, it all tastes the same, it all looks the same.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
And yet, fair life charges three times more. In this economy? On top of that, cow milk consumption, it is down 30% per capita since 2010. And yet, fair life sales are at an all-time high. How is that possible, Jack? One key is those super tasters in the Chicago's West Loop milk office. Yeah, good point, Jack. They have optimized milk. Fairlife has engineered their milk.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
They have filtered it to have higher protein and less sugar, and that has opened up a whole new audience. I didn't realize milk had sugar, but it naturally does. It does. And they've managed to filter out the sweets that you don't want. which created a new customer base for them, Ozempic users. Ozempic users love Fairlife milk because it's got 50% more protein.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
Basically, Fairlife has engineered milk to be nature's protein shake. It's the first milk to brand itself as a sports drink. Fairlife is positioning itself like the Gatorade of dairy. So while alt milk sales like Oatly are dropping, Fairlife's real milk sales are soaring. Yeah, Jack, by the way, did you know what my family used to feed me when we were growing up, my parents? Milk. My soda.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
Yeah, it is. Three fantastic stories for today's show. Jack, what do we got on the pod? For our first story, Coca-Cola's biggest acquisition ever, milk. Coca-Cola bought Fairlife Milk for seven billion dollars. Why is milk their fastest growing product? Because they stole an idea from cocktails. For our second story. If you give your Ferrari a custom paint job, you can never buy one again.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
You know what that is? Milk and soda mixed together? Yeah, it is. And it works. What do you mean it works? I don't know. We loved it when I was eight. Well, Jack. I got nipples. Could you milk us a takeaway over there? What's the takeaway for our buddies over at Fairlife? Milk has taken a lesson from margaritas.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
Yetis, the number one type of alcohol performing well these days, it's ready to drink cocktails. Basically, canned cocktails are the top selling alcohol. And the reason is the convenience. A canned cocktail unshackles you from the bartender and lets you crack open a six pack of Negronis at the beach. Well, we noticed that Fairlife has strategically applied that same formula to milk. Milk?
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
is the most at-home product of all time. It is. People used to deliver milk to your home with milkmen. Even today, Jack, think about this. Milk is literally designed for your fridge. It's sold in gallons in a rectangular shape. And the fridge has a shelf on the door designed for that gallon of milk. Which requires two hands just to pour. And a glass to pour it into.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
But Fairlife recognized a wider opportunity to sell milk on the go, basically a ready-to-drink milk bottle. Fairlife is the only milk sold in an ergonomic bottle that fits in your hand. It also fits in a cup holder, and it's got a cap that twists on securely, not pops on like most gallons of milk. That's how this company's bid a billion dollars. Their core value prop is convenience.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
Fair Life's disruption wasn't just engineering a super milk with more protein and less sugar. The disruption was making milk portable, inspired by the ready-to-drink cocktail. For our second story, Ferrari is considering a wild new policy. If you give your Ferrari a custom paint job, you can never buy another one. The Ferrari Blacklist shows the power of tastemakers.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
All right, so last year, remember when I read that book about the founding of Ferrari when I was in Italy? I'm so glad you did because you brought a lot of lessons out of the show. Okay, so Enzo Ferrari was such a control freak that a royal prince once showed up to pick up his green Ferrari and Enzo said, I'm not doing it. And the guy said, I bought a green one.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
And he said, you're getting a red one. Oh, yeah? Yeah. Ferrari does have a thing about redness, don't they?
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
Well, Jack, for most of its existence, 90% of Ferraris sold were red Ferraris. It's part of the brand, basically. It is. But today, just 40% of Ferraris sold are red. Justin Bieber's got a baby blue Ferrari. Black China, she's got a pink Ferrari. The famous DJ, Deadmau5. Great guy. He painted a cat with like a rainbow tail behind him. on his Ferrari. Well, that leads to the news.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
A hundred years after its founding, Ferrari is doubling down on being a control freak. The CEO sounds a lot like Enzo Ferrari. He said, I don't like strange Ferraris on the road. He doesn't like these color customizations. He actually said that twice. He said, I don't like these strange Ferraris on the road. I think it's an English language limitation. Yeah, we were reading the earnings report.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
So he says that he's worried about the secondary market for Ferraris. He wants Ferraris to maintain their value, and he thinks that these crazy color combos hurt the value of all Ferraris. He actually compared this strategy to the fine dining industry. Some restaurants have a fixed menu. You have to go with what the chef says. Others let you choose off the menu.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
Well, Ferrari, they are a very particular Michelin-starred chef. They want to set the menu. But here's the problem. America is a free country. America. If a customer buys a Ferrari and wants to paint a rainbow on that thing, they're allowed to do so. So get this. According to some reports and a tad bit of rumor, Ferrari has created a blacklist.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
And according to Fortune Magazine, if you're on that blacklist, first of all, congratulations.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
It means you bought a Ferrari.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
Good for you. Impressive. But you can never buy one again. Shh. Sure, you can paint the words, my other car is a Lamborghini on your Ferrari, but that's your last Ferrari. You can add a purple paint job, put your initials on the back of it, but that's your last Ferrari. In fact, Justin Bieber is reportedly on the Ferrari black. And why is that, Jack?
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
Ferrari has a blacklist and Justin Bieber is on it. And our third and final story, Doge has stopped all work at the CFPB, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Well, Jack and I worked at banks back when the CFPB was invented, so we can explain what the heck is going on. But Yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Fantastic mix of stories. A hot fudge covered mix of stories, Jack.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
Because of news reports that he had wild partying one night and lost his Ferrari. Oh, also, Deadmau5, the DJ, he's also on the Ferrari blacklist. Because of that cat with the rainbow. It makes sense. When he posted it on Instagram, he called it his Ferrari. Oh, Mr. Ferrari, no like. No, Ferrari doesn't like any of that. No me piace. Now, here's the ironic part, though.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
Every other luxury car brand is doing the opposite when it comes to customizations. And Jack, remember we did the story last year about Rolls-Royce. They built a whole new factory for custom extravagant Rolls-Royce features. And those personalized perks are their profit puppy. Yeah, they are. Rolls' CEO says, we're not the taste police. We'll help you and sell you
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
Whatever taste you want onto a roll. On the other hand, Ferrari is the taste police. They're basically like, I don't know, straight out of Mean Girls. On Wednesdays, we drive red. And despite that control freakiness, Ferrari stock is at an all-time high because of our takeaway. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Ferrari? Ferrari's blacklist is straight up Miranda Priestly.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
Yeti's The Devil Wears Prada. Great movie, Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, 2006. It's all about fashion. It's kind of a comedy. It's fantastic. I actually had to watch it at Michigan Business School. Had to? Yeah, well, it was part of the curriculum. Oh, you did? Yeah, it was. Yeah, it was part of my marketing class.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
Really?
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
It was really cool. Well, in the movie, Miranda Priestly runs an iconic fashion magazine. And she says this about the blue sweater that Anne Hathaway is wearing. Push and play. You're wearing a sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room. From a pile of stuff. She's talking about the role of tastemakers in fashion. Exactly.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
And last year, we said that Rolls-Royce positioned its cars as art. They can price them high because they're customized just for you. On the other hand, Ferrari has repositioned its cars as fashion. Priced so high because their brand is controlled. by them. Going so far to protect its brand that they may blacklist you? That is a tastemaker you'd pay for.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
Ferrari is borrowing from the fashion industry. They're borrowing from Miranda Priestly.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
For our third and final story, our government's youngest agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, was just told to stop work by Doge. And the best way we can explain this is with a barbershop analogy. Now, Yetis, when Jack and I were like fresh out of college, first year jobs, we were working in banking and a brand new government agency was created.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
This was fresh after the financial crisis. Fresh after it. Nick and I had to walk through Zuccotti Park where Occupy Wall Street protests were happening every day to get to work. In our suits. That's the context that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was created. The CFPB was meant to ensure that financial products are fair and transparent. Now, we already have a consumer protection agency.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
It's called the FTC. Good point. But finance is a different animal. Yeah, because we can tell you from studying finance and working in finance, banks have a long history of dishonest marketing, taking advantage of the poor, greed, Gordon Gacko, you've seen it. So this new agency, it investigates banks, credit card companies, and credit rating agencies for dishonest practices.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
Now, when the CFPB was created, from the start, banks opposed it. And so did some politicians who were worried about overregulation. But here's what they actually do. Last month, they sued Capital One for advertising high-yield interest rates, but not actually paying those interest payments to customers. They actually got Capital One to pay out $2 billion back to consumers.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
Hold the fudge. But Yetis, warning to all lovers out there. We are 48 hours away from Valentine's Day. Yes, we are. It's probably too late to buy flowers or even make your own chocolate. But instead, we have a solution. Write a poem. A poem to inspire you. Jack and I have actually written a poem about a company that we love. It's a tradition we started last year. We call it publicly traded poetry.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
The CFPB deposited that money back into customers' accounts. Basically, it gave customers what they were promised. So add it all up, and banks say that the CFPB creates more paperwork, more friction, more challenges for them to do business. But the CFPB says its mission is to be a check on the big power of banks. by protecting consumers from having their money unlawfully taken.
The Best One Yet
🏎️ “Bieber’s blacklisted” — Ferrari’s rules of ownership. Coca-Cola’s Fairlife milk. DOGE vs. CFPB.
But here's the news. The CFPB's future is in question now that it's been targeted by Elon Musk's Doge. On Monday, Trump's new head of the CFPB told all staff to, and I quote, stand down from performing any work task. The new head of the agency, he told workers to stay home. He even deleted the social media accounts for the whole agency. And then Elon tweeted, CFPB, RIP.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Wednesday, ceviche Wednesday, December 12th. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. I don't know, Jack. What do you want to do tonight? Maybe go to the Nick. Nick's Game, not too shabby. Wild story, but Nick and I got invited to the Nick's Game tonight by a Yeti.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
Now, funny thing yet, Jack and I jumped in T-boy style, and we discovered it's not just Airbnb's founder who's going anti-one-on-ones. NVIDIA's CEO- Jensen Huang, he did a 180 on the one-on-one as well. And Jensen Huang of NVIDIA, he runs the world's second most valuable company. He's 55 direct reports. And none of them get recurring solo meetings with him.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
In fact, we did the math on this one too. If he did a 30-minute one-on-one meeting with each of those 55 employees- Two and a half days of his week would just be recurring one-on-one meetings. NVIDIA wouldn't be a chip company, it'd be a chatting company. And the more we research, the more we see a trend of erasing the one-on-one in tech.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
Instead of recurring weekly meetings, more tech companies are having team meetings. Oh, there we go, right. And if the boss wants to talk about a specific thing with his underling, or vice versa, you can set up time to discuss it. Instead of calling that a one-on-one, you can just call it a conversation. Like the rest of the world. Exactly.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in tech? Having one-on-one meetings. The one-on-one evolution is an example of groupthink. It's follow the leader fever. Now, Yeti's interestingly, we noticed there was plenty of research both for and against the one-on-one meeting. Adam Grant says that one-on-ones are great to retain employees.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
Your epidermis is your biggest organ and it's your biggest payday. Yeah. It's a derm boom. Here's the news. Dermatologist residency applications are up 50% in the last four years because medical students have realized that dermatology has the best pay to work ratio in the industry. You ready for this? Hit me. Dermatologists only work four days a week. Okay.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
But on the other hand, Harvard has a study that shows one-on-ones hurt productivity among employees. But what we're more interested in than the merits of a one-on-one meeting is how they got so big in the first place. Because in tech... The hot idea in innovation or HR or branding, it rapidly gets mimicked by the whole rest of the industry.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
It's why every tech company has a rainbow-colored logo, or every tech company does quarterly and yearly OKR goal-setting frameworks. True. And why every tech company does one-on-one manager meetings. Oh, and remote work, Jack? Like, that rose rapidly in popularity across the whole tech industry, and then now it's declining across the whole tech industry.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
Apple's slogan is famously to think different. But within Silicon Valley, there's a whole lot of groupthink. And the rise and fall of one-on-one meetings, that is another example. It's follow the leader fever. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for Ceviche Wednesday? Someone wants to acquire Hershey's again, but only if the Milton Hershey Family Trust agrees to it.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
Because Hershey isn't a typical company. Hershey is like a constitution. For our second story, OpenAI just launched Sora. You enter a text prompt and it generates a video. We played around with it and we think AI video is more of a threat to Madison Avenue than it is to Hollywood. And our third and final story is Airbnb's Brian Chesky.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
He's leading a movement to end the recurring one-on-one manager meeting. Ah, the rise and fall of the one-on-one meeting. In tech, it is an example of groupthink. It's follow the leader fever. But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, General Motors just announced they are shutting down Cruise, their robo-taxi fleet, for good. Cruise is gone.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
They're going to invest instead in advanced driver assistance for human drivers behind their General Motors cars. You want to hear the numbers yetis? Well, GM invested $10 billion into cruise, but won't put another dollar back into it. They're calling it quits, which means that Waymo and Tesla have one less competitor in the robo-taxi market.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
And second, a federal judge just ruled that Kroger cannot merge with Albertsons after all. The grocery aisle, aisle six, is going to remain separate. It's going to be different. It's going to be two different companies. The Biden administration sued earlier this year to block what would have been the biggest grocery merger ever.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
Yeah, the FTC said there'd be less competition in groceries, which would result in higher grocery prices. How much are those eggs? And a federal judge just agreed. The merger would have hurt consumers. And finally, DoorDash already delivers food, groceries, and dinner, but now they're delivering your wedding dress.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
DoorDash partnered with David's Bridal so that your special day can't get ruined because you forgot- Your dress. Wait, you know this happened at our wedding, right? What? Oh, you don't even know the veil? It was forgotten on the mainland. They don't know where the veil was and someone had to get it on a ferry an hour before the wedding. Who saved the day?
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
I think it was someone named like Christy over on Cape Cod dropped it on a ferry to go to Nantucket. Guardian angel. Guardian angel. But now DoorDash will do it too. Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Andy Roberts down in lovely Covington, Georgia. Couple weeks ago, we did a story on the return of Dippin' Dots, which is the ice cream of the future.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
Interestingly, we said that the key challenge for this business was they had to keep Dippin' Dots ice cream at negative 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Which is a challenge because regular freezers only go down to zero. But negative 40 degrees Fahrenheit is actually a very important number. Because negative 40 degrees Fahrenheit is also negative 40 degrees Celsius.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
They have like no emails to go through at the end of the day. Zero inbox. And they get doubled the salary of other doctors. Oh, Check out the Instagram account Dermfluencer. Jack, what are you going to see when you go to Dermfluencer? This dermatologist is showing off a glamorous lifestyle as a skin doctor and 3 million followers are watching.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
Since the two temperatures are non-parallel linear scales, there's only one point where the two intersect. And that point for Fahrenheit and Celsius is negative 40 degrees. I didn't understand any of that, Nick. No, I know. But I can confirm, negative 40 Fahrenheit is also negative 40 Celsius. And it's the perfect temperature for a Dippin' Dot.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
This is either a coincidence or an ice cream conspiracy. Dippin' Dot. Yetis, you look fantastic for Ceviche Wednesday. If you haven't yet, two of the best things you can do to grow the show is one, click to follow us, tap to follow us on Spotify, Apple, or wherever. You'll get the show every day. And then drop down and give us five stars and a review. We love reading them.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
We read every single one of them, and it helps us grow on the podcast platform. True story. Helps us grow in the rankings. By the way, 9,000 of you have left us reviews on Apple. which means a lot of you have yet to leave us reviews on Apple. Yeah, we know the numbers. A lot of you owe us a review. In the meantime, Jack and I can't wait to see you tomorrow.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
And before we go, a happy birthday to Yeti Siva Nagalakshmi over in Hyderabad, India, celebrated the best birthday yet. And happy 28th birthday to Antonio Rosales in Chicago, Illinois. And Carlos Guevara down in Mexico is a legendary fan having their favorite birthday. Huge shout out to Martin Thomas, who met Nick on a red-eye flight to New York City. Yeah, I wish I was there.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
I know, it was great, right? Actually, I don't wish I was there because red-eye flights are horrible. I can't believe how well you're performing on this pod after sleeping only three hours on your flight. Jack, the pod just gives unlimited energy. It's powerful. And a happy birthday to our buddy Dan Katz from New York and Riverdale and Brooklyn.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
And he lived in Germany for a while too, so he gets all of them. It's raining cats and just cats. Now let's get to that Knicks game. This is Jack. I own stock of Netflix and Amazon, and Nick and I both own stock of Airbnb. I literally have a blemish on my cheek. I were removed almost. No, I haven't done the procedure yet.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
Funny enough, the procedure is called BBL, which everyone thinks means Brazilian butt lift. You got to double check with that doctor when you get in that room. Is this right, BBL? You're like, do whatever you want, doc. Surprise me. Surprise me. If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
In fact, the average dermatologist brings home a pay of $541,000. thousand dollars a year, Jack, could you sprinkle on some context? That's double the average pay of a pediatrician, which is kind of messed up. It is. But medicine is a market. And you know what, besties? People are willing to pay big to have dewy, wrinkle-less skin like Jack's 42-step skincare routine.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
I'm already paying big with my 17 skincare products. And you know what? If you're a derm, you can charge $5,000 for a 20-minute laser treatment. And Botox, it's a profit puppy. Plus, there's way fewer emergencies in dermatology. Good point. So dermatologists enjoy much steadier, more reliable hours. This is Thompson. That pimple, it can wait until tomorrow. Don't worry about it.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
Interesting detail from the Wall Street Journal, a record high 71% of new dermatologists are women because many are working mothers who appreciate the flexibility. And because women have way better skincare routines than men. It's true. Dermatology, it's the new brain surgery. So don't forget the sunscreen. Good point. Skin cancer. They're not just removing that blemish on your cheek.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
They're saving people's lives.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
Jack, SPFT boy, let's hit our three stories. 15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50%, that's a fat tip. T-Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, cause we ready to go.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
Legendary Yeti by the name of Jordan. He heard we were coming to New York City, and he said, I got a VIP box with a couple of seats with your names on it. We said, we finish the pod at 6.50. We'll be at the garden by 7 p.m. I've never been to a Nick's Game. So excited for tonight. Love Yeti Nation. Jack, three fantastic stories for today's pod. What do we got on the show?
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
We can't wait no more, so just start the show.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
For our first story. For the third time, a giant food company is trying to acquire Hershey's chocolate. And for the third time, Hershey's probably won't sell. Because Hershey's isn't a company. It's a constitution. We'll explain. Yes, we will.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
Now, Yetis, Jack and I have covered a lot of legendary products, companies, brands, people on this pod, but the Hershey's Kiss, ah, the Hershey's Kiss is a masterclass in PR spin. Because the way that the chocolate hardens, the Hershey's Kiss actually looks like a teardrop. But then Larry over in marketing said, hey, let's call it a kiss. And honestly- Let's just call it a kiss.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
Nobody's going to question it. No one questioned it. Hershey's invented the Hershey's Kiss in 1907. And today, the 130-year-old company is more valuable than ever. And Bloomberg reported this week that an even bigger company, Mondelez, wants to acquire the legendary Hershey company.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
Mondelez plus Hershey's would be America's biggest snack company and America's biggest chocolate companies in one company. Jack, could one say that Mondelez and Hershey would be like peanut butter and chocolate? Chocolate? Fair point, because Hershey's owns Reese's.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
Combining the Chicago and Pennsylvania-based company would put Oreos and Hershey's, Reese's and Twizzlers, Sour Patch and Nabisco, Chips Ahoy and Ritz, all under the same roof. Oh, besties, if you want to buy this new stock, you'll have to ask your mom to take it out of the cookie jar. There's no skim milk in that company. This is a heavy cream kind of business.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
It's a heavy cream kind of business. Now, to sprinkle on a little more context, Jedis, no price has been formally discussed yet. According to Bloomberg, Mondelez has merely made a preliminary approach to Hershey's. Which means instead of hiring investment bankers, they hired Oompa Loompas? I don't know. No, I think they sent an email. Yeah. They said, do you want to talk? from an Oompa Loompa.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
But Bessie's Jack and I jumped in T-boy style and we discovered this is not the first time someone's tried to acquire Hershey. In 2002, Wrigley, the gum company, tried to acquire Hershey's for $12.5 billion. But Hershey's said no. In 2016, Mondelez tried to acquire Hershey's for $23 billion. But Hershey's said no. It's 2024 and Mondelez is reportedly trying again.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
For our first story, Hershey stock jumped 20% this week. on reports that America's biggest snack company wants to acquire it. But caught in the crosshairs of this epic deal is the Hershey School for Orphan Children. Wild story. Crazy story. For our second story, it's OpenAI. They just launched the coolest tech of the year. It's called Sora, which turns your text into videos.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
This time, Hershey's stock rose 20% on hopes that they'll accept the deal. Maybe Mondelez tosses in a French kiss, you know, to seal the deal. We'll see what they can do to make it happen. But in the past, Hershey's has refused to sell, even when they've had incredibly good prices offered to them. Chocolate covered prices.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
Because unlike every other publicly traded company in America, price is not the most important thing for Hershey. It's something even sweeter that they care about. Something in their gooey chocolatey core. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Hershey? Hershey isn't a company at all. It's actually a constitution.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
Yeti's Milton Hershey, he didn't just scale chocolate manufacturing like no other American in the world. Milton Hershey did something we'd never seen before. He established the town of Hershey, Pennsylvania, a town incorporated by his chocolate company. In fact, Milton Hershey and his wife, they love children, but they were never able to have children of their own.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
It's actually a really sad story. So they created the Milton Hershey School for Orphans. It still exists and enrolls 2,000 students today. Oh, and the company Hershey? Well, today they are a publicly traded firm worth $40 billion. That's seven lives. But 80% of the voting control is held by the Hershey's Trust. Interesting. Which was established in the legacy of Milton Hershey and his wife.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
And guess what they prioritized, Nick? What's their focus, Jack? What's their focus? Not profits. The charitable endeavors of the Hersheys. That family trust. It also owns the amusement park that Hershey built to make children. It's a wonderful story, what the Hershey's have done. Amazing story.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
And get this, Hershey is so important to the state of Pennsylvania, the state attorney general can seek to block any sale of the company. Sit down, stand up, and keystone again. Pennsylvania can block the sale of Hershey because it's that important to the state. So for Mondelez to acquire Hershey, both the charitable trust of the family and the state of Pennsylvania must approve any deal. And
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
That's why the way Jack and I see it, Hershey's isn't a company. Hershey is a constitution. For our second story, OpenAI just made its most highly anticipated move of the entire year. They launched a product called Sora, which is their text-to-video platform. And Jack and I will tell you what industry this wild new technology is going to affect the most. but yet he's brain rot.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
That's the word of the year for 2024. Brain rot. Artificial intelligence might be the word of the century. Yeah, well put. And it actually all began with ChatGPT. OpenAI's text-to-text artificial intelligence was launched back in November 2022, two years ago. One year later, OpenAI launched DALI, which is the same generative AI as ChatGPT, but text-to-image. And one year after that-
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
Yesterday, OpenAI launched text-to-video, and it's called Sora. Sora. Sora. But Nick, how does OpenAI describe this new platform? Well, OpenAI describes Sora as our model that can create realistic videos from text. That's the most underrated sentence of the year. Yeah, it is. Because this Sora product is the wildest tech that Nick and I have ever used.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
Yeah, what Jack and I are saying here is that this technology will let you type a description and then turn those words into video. It is a one-click movie. For example, imagine a family of grizzly bears eating sushi together. Well, actually, you don't have to imagine it. We typed that into Sora and it created a movie of bears eating sushi. They were all sitting at a picnic table eating sushi.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
Jack and I tried it out to make a video of this podcast. And the result? It was pretty good. It was pretty good. It was pretty good.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
And we posted it on our Instagram. It's literally like grizzly bears chomping into like a California roll with some chopsticks. And a computer made this video in like 15 seconds of generating. Now, besties, of course, Jack and I are curious about the business model here. We should point out that OpenAI ain't UNICEF. So this is only for paying customers who pay $20 a month for ChatGPT+.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
And naturally, because Jack and I are your liaisons in the business world, we signed up and we posted that video of the bears eating sushi that we created via ChatGPT Sora. But since we're paying $20 a month, we decided to have a little fun with the software. We got a little wild yesterday. So we tried to recreate a video of Nick and me hosting the show in our pod studio. Okay.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
Why don't you tell the Yetis how we pulled this off? Here's what we typed into Sora. Two American guys in their mid thirties who are having fun co-hosting a podcast together about business news. And you know what Sora did? It created a video without any cameras based on that description. And it looked, it took about 20 seconds to create the video and then it was done. We watched it. Pretty good.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
And our third and final story. The entire tech industry does weekly one-on-one meetings between managers and their direct reports. Except for Brian Chesky. Here is why Airbnb's CEO is trying to kill the one-on-one. But Yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. I mean, no one else is doing this mix. Love the mix today, Jack. Nick, what did you want to be when you grew up?
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
Which one's me? Which one's you? Pretty. This is pretty good. Pretty good. They actually showed one version with like 50 year old dudes.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
The other version with like guys who look not as good looking, but they were guys. They were guys. So besties. We posted that on Instagram as well, but. Guess what happened since everyone was getting curious about this brand new AI video product? Sora crashed. It crashed. Everyone wanted to create a video with one single sentence and a push of an enter button.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
Now, our first thought here, wow, this is a huge asset to the video production industry. Game of Thrones season 16, they can cut out their CGI budget altogether. Simply enter dragon fighting other dragons in the air with blonde haired, long haired dudes on top of them, and Sora will generate their special effects. Where am They're in Sora. They're all in Sora now.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
Chachi Petit can create essays, Dali can create portraits, and now Sora can create movies. But besties, before you cut the cameras on the industry, you should hear our takeaway first. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at OpenAI? AI video is more of a threat to Madison Avenue than it is to Hollywood. wild.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
Yetis, you just watched an AI-created video of a Kraken sea monster pulling a ship into the ocean or bears eating sushi or two guys podcasting. And a computer made those videos in like 15 seconds. But Jack and I don't think this is actually a threat to Hollywood yet. For one, actors and writers guilds, they both wrote protections into their five-year labor contracts against the use of AI.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
And so Hollywood is safe right now. But Madison Avenue, on the other hand, the advertising industry? They've already begun using AI to create commercials. Coca-Cola already published their own AI-generated commercial for the holidays. It was a Coca-Cola truck driving through the woods, and as it passed fir trees, those trees lit up with Christmas lights. It was all AI.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
So if Coca-Cola can use computer software to make their commercials, then that makes them less reliant on ad agencies. That's one reason. We also just saw the biggest merger in advertising history this week. We did. The two largest ad firms on earth, Omnicom and Interpublic, they just merged because when the going gets tough, the tough get merging.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
And when companies can use computer software to create their commercials, that's tough for the advertising industry. So in the short term, besties, OpenAI Sora is less of a threat to Hollywood and more of a threat to Madison Avenue. Now, a quick word from our sponsor.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
For our third and final story, can I grab 20 minutes on the calendar, Jack? Not if it's recurring. Because Airbnb's founder, Brian Chesky, refuses to do one-on-one meetings at Airbnb. The tech industry invented the one-on-one meeting, but now it's turning against them. Yetis, legend has it that the first ever one-on-one meeting was between Steve Jobs and an intern. Is that really a story?
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
You know, Jack, it's a good question. I wanted to be an astronaut, maybe president, maybe a doctor. Probably didn't have a podcaster up there. You know what the most popular answer is today? Talk to me. Dermatologist. Yetis, dermatology. It has become the most in-demand job in the medical field. The skin doctor is now the wind doctor.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
Not really, but no one can confirm or deny that story, Jack. However, since that momentous potential moment, the tech industry has thrived on the one-on-one meeting. The one-on-one. It's when you and your manager or you and your direct report have a one-hour chat while sipping coffee or just grabbing a room or taking a walk around the neighborhood. And you're doing it every Tuesday at 2 p.m. sharp.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
It's a weekly recurring meeting with a manager to discuss progress, your important tasks, your career development, and maybe if you're lucky, one little piece of office gossip. The one-on-one is a... Did you see what she was wearing? Never mind. We'll discuss it after the show. We'll discuss it after the show, Jay. And the one-on-one is at every tech company. Oh, every tech company.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
But it started in the 2010s. Then it basically took over the whole tech industry, didn't it, Jack? Nick and I worked at Robinhood for three years, which means by my math, we had 156 one-on-one meetings with our managers each. Although funny point, Jack, when we were doing one-on-ones with people, they actually put us together. We were the only guys who had a two-on-one meeting.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
We were doing two-on-one meetings.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
You're right. But in the meantime, every tech company is doing one-on-ones. Amazon and Facebook do it. Google does it. Netflix enshrined the one-on-one meeting in their famous culture deck. But here's the news. After 15 years, Airbnb's Brian Chesky is challenging the one-on-one status quo at tech companies. You know how many one-on-ones he wants? Zero.
The Best One Yet
🍿 “1-click movie” — OpenAI’s Hollywood video. Hershey’s orphan school. Brian Chesky’s 1:1 meeting hate.
He told Fortune Magazine that the one-on-one model is flawed. He said it turns the bosses into a therapist, like they're listening on the couch to whatever their employees are saying. More fundamentally, he points out that company challenges usually involve team dynamics. Good point, good point, good point. But the team's not in the room if it's a one-on-one meeting.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
This is Nick. This is Jack. It is Wednesday, ceviche Wednesday, April 9th, and today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Ooh, people are terrified out there. The stock market continued its trade war trauma yesterday. The S&P 500 is almost in a bear market. It was down 19% from its peak as of this recording.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
Tell me why a chatbot can't do the job. Ugh. Back to the drawing board. Now, the conclusion at the end of the letter was also surprising. This rule, all six of these new rules for AI apply to everyone. From Ian the intern all the way up to Erica the exec. Now, besties, add it all up. And if you're not using AI on a daily basis, this serves as a wake-up call.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
Tariff, tariff, and tariff them, Jack. How about alcohol-free mouthwash? Tariff that. Oh, Jack, what about those ketchup packets that are impossible to open and you gotta do it with your teeth? How about cardboard boxes within cardboard delivery boxes? 100% tariff. How about saying the phrase cool beans? 1,000% tariff. Can we toss a tariff on small talk?
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
We've never seen a company require AI from everyone. but this could become the new standard. Full disclosure, Jack and I use AI every day. We don't use it for the creative process. We use it for the research process to save time. But now, it's part of our daily routines. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Shopify? Shopify just made AI part of the dress code.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
The idea is the way Jack and I see it, companies these days fall into two types. First, you got the AI agnostic. They don't care if you use or don't use AI, just get the work done. Then there's the AI antagonists. You can't use AI if you have a creative position. If you do, you better highlight it. And if you don't highlight it, you could get fired.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
But Shopify, they represent this new emerging third category, AI mandatory. You must use AI each and every day. For Shopify, AI isn't a resource. It's a requirement. It's like the company dress code. You can't show up to work unless you're wearing a suit. Well, you can't show up to Shopify unless you're using chat GPT. After Shopify's memo, AI is now mandatory. AI is now part of the dress code.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for Sub-EJ Wednesday? ThredUp is a tariff winner. Yes, it is. Their tariff-proof used clothing is also low-priced, which is good in a recession. As trade war sustains, the winners will be the three Fs, frugal, friendly finance. For our second story, Colossal has done it. They de-extincted their first animal. After 13,000 years, the dire wolf is back.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
Colossal is so good at raising money because, like Hollywood, they focus on blockbusters. For our third and final story, Shopify is requiring all workers to use AI every day. Managers can't hire a new person unless they explain why AI can't do the job. It's a wake-up call. AI is now mandatory in corporate America, like the dress code. But yetis, this pod's not over yet.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
Here's what else you need to know today. First, wild day of trading on Tuesday. Stocks rose at first. We thought there was a comeback on Trump's claim that he had deal negotiations with South Korea. But that wasn't enough. The rally failed and stocks ended up down for the day. In fact, the White House just announced 104% tariffs on China that go into effect last night at midnight.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
Which for those keeping track is retaliation on retaliation on retaliation's retaliation. Or if you're keeping track with your kids, that's tit for tat for tit for tat for tit for tat. And second, if you live in the Northeast, you are getting a new food delivery option. That's an old option. Seamless. Seamless was the first food delivery app in New York City. Like in 1999, I think.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
It was the first one I used. Well, I guess it wasn't an app if it was 1999. No, it was a URL web worldwide webpage. Eventually Grubhub acquired Seamless, then they shut down Seamless, but now they're bringing the brand back. It's like we said, retro tech making a comeback. And finally, the Jeff Bezos Earth Fund is screening 100,000 cows and sheep to identify the ones that fart the least.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
That's right, some cattle emit 30% less methane than others. You can smell them. And Bezos wants to prioritize those climate-friendlier cows when it comes to breeding. Interestingly, selective breeding has been used for centuries to boost certain traits. Usually the traits they try to boost is maximizing milk production. You're right, yeah, yeah. Now it's minimizing flatulence.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
Embargo all conversations about the weather. We don't care what the temperature is. What about clapping when the airplane lands? Oh, that's a retaliatory tariff if I've ever seen one, Jack. And finally, exposed male toenails? 2,000% tariff and a complaint to the WTO for emotional damage. Besties, we're running a list of these tasteful tariffs. A list of import fees on your ix.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
Feels like Colossal could have gotten involved in this, Jack. Those Velociraptors, they don't fart too much. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one set in by Nitin Gulati over in New York City. Yesterday, we said that Ford was doing a trade war discount. They were offering employee pricing for all. But get this. Back in 2009, Hyundai launched a more creative discount during the Great Recession.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
Hyundai let you return your car if you lost your job. Yeah. If you got laid off 16 years ago, they'd just let you come back to the dealership and give the car back. That was such a well-received promotion that Hyundai sales rose 24% in the following year, which is double the industry pace.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
In fact, it was so, so successful, they revived the campaign during the pandemic in 2020 for just a few months, and it was successful then too. Niton, incredible fact. Thanks for sending in. Apparently, he wrote his entire business school thesis on that promotion. If Hyundai hasn't hired this man, hire this man. We'd like a word with you. Jack, you look, oh, you hear that? What is that?
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
It's the dire wolf howl. Jack, that's the dire wolf howl. It means we've got to wrap up. It means we've got to wrap up the show. Yetis, before we go, remember to drop in the comments on Spotify or YouTube your tasteful tariffs. I think we should tariff this phrase, that's above my pretty grade. Yeah, let's tariff that phrase. Remember to tap to follow the show, and Jack and I will see you tomorrow.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
And before we go, a happy birthday to the legendary Podson Wilder celebrating with the best birthday yet. He's four years old. Can I give you some stats about the Podson? Jack, let's jump into this S1 on the Podson. His favorite color is purple. His favorite animal is a T-Rex. Good move. And his favorite food is chocolate waffles with maple syrup and peanut butter all mixed together.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
It's a bit of a problem, but yeah, he loves it. And a happy birthday to legendary Yeti Savannah Westwood celebrating down in Orlando. She's got a sushi dinner and heading to Tampa for some gambling this weekend. Okay. Not too shabby. And Caleb Randall down in Arlington, Texas is the best dad with the best birthday.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
Congratulations to Maureen Papanastio in West Hartford, Connecticut, who won the March Madness pool because she didn't pick me. Duke. The numbers don't lie. And Caroline Curris from the Spotify comments still owns stock of Peloton. Just like us. Which we now need to add to the disclosures. We're with you, Caroline. Someone's getting this comeback soon. Peloton Condolences Club. We should start it.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
And if anyone else wants a shout out on this show, wants to get their buddy a shout out, or if you've got the best fact yet, we've got a link in this episode description or go to tboypod.com slash shout outs. Nick and I will see you tomorrow. Can't wait. This is Jack. I own stock in Amazon, Netflix, and Ford. Nick owns stock in The RealReal.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
And Nick and I both own stock of Shopify and ETFs of the S&P 500. If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com. We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
A list of taxations on Tacky. So besties, for Ceviche Wednesday, drop your ideas for tasteful tariffs in the comments below. The seven-day public comment window opens now. We are accepting tariff proposals on everything cringe. Although I should point out, Jack thinks we should tariff toothbrushes with bristles that are too hard. This is a long-standing debate.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
The only toothbrushes available to purchase should be soft bristled toothbrushes. It may be a Jack issue or it may be a nationwide issue. Either way, let us know your tasteful tariffs.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
For our first story, there is one stock surging in the trade war, and that stock is ThredUp. It's doubled this year because ThredUp's business model thrives on a trade war. Here's why ThredUp's CEO was giving high fives after Trump's tariff announcement. But yetis. Trade War Almanac Day 7. Jack and I have been keeping track from the tariff trenches for you.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
Warning for Anne Hathaway, the kingdom of Genovia may get hit with tariffs next. No word on what the princess is going to do, Jack. Three stories for today's show. What do we got on the pod, man? For our first story, the surprise big winner of the trade war so far is ThredUp. ThredUp, because when it comes to tariffs, the winners are the triple Fs, frugal, friendly finance.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
Here's how tariffs are affecting the economy today. As you know, Yeti, stocks are down 20%. There's a whole lot of red out there. We have told you about the trade war losers. But there's one winner, a big winner, and it's ThredUp. ThredUp? ThredUp, the company that IPO'd in 2021. We should point out they're down 85% since then, right, Jack?
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
They've never made a profit and investors are growing impatient. But get this, in the last week, ThredUp stock has surged 20%. In fact, ThredUp is up 100% so far in 2025. And besties, if you think Amazon runs impressive logistics, well, ThredUp is that. But with pit stains. Because they're an online secondhand marketplace. It's ThredUp.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
So they examine, inspect, clean, and then sell your pre-loved clothing, footwear, and accessories online. Yeah, like Jack, when your six-year-old anthropology sweater finally sells on ThredUp one of these days, they are going to send you a commission check because it finally sold secondhand. And it turns out ThredUp is a rare trade war winner. Yes, it is.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
Because its supply chain isn't overseas, it's in your closet. That is why ThredUp's CEO was giving literal, and this has been fact-checked, high fives to his team on word of Trump's trade policies. ThredUp's core belief, according to the website, is in a sustainable future for fashion. He was handing out champagne. We haven't verified that. Secondhand champagne.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
And because this company likes sustainable fashion, it means they hate fast fashion. Well, that's convenient because Trump recently closed the $800 de minimis loophole that Shein and Timu were using to sell cute, cheap tops to the United States. So fast fashion on Shein and Timu will effectively get twice as expensive with Trump's tariffs and the closing of that loophole. But on the other hand...
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
second-hand clothing for those used cute tops on ThredUp is now twice as affordable. Comparatively speaking. So hopefully this trade war is actually an opening for ThredUp to finally find profits in the second-hand clothing game. Same for its peer companies, The RealReal and Depop, which have also struggled to profit.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
What Jack and I are saying is that ironically, this trade war could be the plot twist that saves the second-hand fashion stocks. Because they don't import clothing from Myanmar. No. They import from someone's armoire. Ha ha ha ha! And there's no tariffs in between some dude's armoire and ThredUp's distribution facility. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at ThredUp?
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
Biggest winner of the trade war is the Triple F. Frugal, friendly finance. Yeti's tariffs are a tax and taxes result in less consumption. That is just a basic econ 101 fact. And in a world where we consume less, certain businesses will do well. And we call them friends of the frugal. Like Jack, for example, auto parts chains like AutoZone, they're going to do pretty well, right?
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
Yeah, because you're going to delay your new car purchase because of the tariffs and keep your used one running as long as it can go. Or repair shops, like you're not going to get a new iPhone that's $300 more. To avoid the tariff. you'll pay a hundred bucks to fix your crack screen. Over in fashion, secondhand thrift and resale shops are immune from tariffs because they are frugal friendly.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
Even Netflix can be considered frugal. Yeah, it can. I mean, 20 bucks a month, that's a lot for a subscription. Yeah. But it's cheaper than going out to dinner or paying for a concert ticket. Your next date night may be watching Squid Game season one for the fourth time. In a trade war, we all buy less. That's just the truth.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
For our second story, we've covered the startup Colossal before. They're trying to bring back the woolly mammoth, but they actually just brought back a different extinct animal, and that animal is the dire wolf. For our third and final story, Shopify's CEO just issued an ultimatum. When it comes to AI, it's use it or lose it.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
And that is why the trade war winners will be the frugal, friendly finance businesses. For our second story, Colossal, the startup reviving the woolly mammoth, just had its first de-extinction. It brought back the dire wolf. This is a wild story. And to succeed in de-extinction, Colossal has turned to Hollywood. Yetis, two years ago, we told you about the Jurassic Park startup.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
Their business plan is the same plot as the movie that Steven Spielberg directed. Instead of Velociraptors, they're starting with a more recently extinct animal, the mammoth, the woolly mammoth. Colossal was worth $1.5 billion when we first covered it two years ago, but now it's worth $10 billion. And they just pulled off an act of God. They brought back the direwolf. That's right.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
Yeah, Jon Snow's pet from Game of Thrones, that direwolf. The direwolf was extinct in the last ice age, 13,000 years ago. Jack, I believe that was the late Pleistocene era, and the direwolf back then was 25% bigger than your standard North American gray wolf. The direwolf was believed to hunt horses, hunt bison, and possibly even mammoths. So this is a beast of an animal.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
And because life finds a way, Colossal just birthed three of these new direwolves back from extinction after 13,000 years. We repeat, the direwolf is back. The only one not happy about this news is Jeff Goldblum. Ha ha! We saw a bunch of photos. These are big white wolf puppies. They're pure white. They look like the thing of a sci-fi movie. I mean, they look like a polar bear wolf.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
Now, one of these new ones is named Khaleesi after, that's right, the Game of Thrones character. And this company even got George R.R. Martin, the author of Game of Thrones, to pose holding one of these wolf pups. We repeat, the author of Game of Thrones showed up at their biotech facility, tweeted, winter has come, and posted a picture with a dire wolf now not extinct puppy.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
And they were sleeping on an iron throne. And now, in case you're curious to jump in T-boy style, Colossal is keeping all three of these dire wolves on a secret 2,000 acre facility whose location is unknown. TBD, whether they've built a wall around it and put the Night's Watch to defend these wolves. And in case you didn't know, this is a startup that's funded by the CIA.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
So yeah, they're pretty good at secrecy. But we have a treat for you. Colossal released audio of the first dire wolf howl heard in the last 13,000 years. Here it is. So, Yetis, Jack and I were trying to analyze what the strategy here was for Colossal, and we realized this wasn't a minimum viable product. This was a magnificent viable product. Colossal is proving traction with a wild example.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
But here's the surprise detail. Bringing the dire wolf back from extinction was actually the result of three failures. This was actually their third choice. In 2022, plan A for this startup was to resurrect the woolly mammoth. Yeah, they wanted to de-extinct the biggest land mammal in history. So they put a mammoth embryo inside a surrogate elephant mother But the egg wouldn't take.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
And by it, he meant your job at Shopify, because he just added AI to the company dress code. But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories... Whoa, what? A mix of stories. Love that mix of stories today, Jack. Investors are not happy about the trade war tariffs. Economists hate tariffs. They make everything more expensive. But Nick and I were thinking,
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
So instead, Colossal pivoted to plan B, resurrect the Dodo. The Dodo, a random, extinct, crazy-looking, flightless bird. But the problem, Jack? The eggshell. They couldn't get the new Dodo embryo into the hard-shelled surrogate ostrich egg. Third time's a charm. Plan C, they were going to resurrect the direwolf.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
Yeah, it's not as big as the elephant, Jack, and there's no hard shell like the old ostrich bird. They found DNA for the dire wolf in a 75,000-year-old skull, and they edited 20 genes of today's modern gray wolf to include the DNA of the dire wolf. And then they gestated that embryo inside a domesticated large dog. This feels like a bingo game. But it worked. It did work.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
And that's how they proved their concept, not with the most minimal version, but with the most magnificent versions. So what are they going to do now with these three animals they brought back to life? I know what you're thinking, Jack. What's the business model here? Are they going to open Dodo World, open Mammoth Land? Are we getting a dire wolf lodge chain coming from these guys?
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
I think this is where the plan deviates from Jurassic Park's plot. Colossal now says their business model is conservation, but one of their key investors said they don't even care how this company makes money. As long as what they're doing is awesome. So, paging Dr. Grant, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Colossal? Colossal's success is a lesson from Hollywood.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
They focus on blockbusters. Yet he's interesting tension here. No business model, no plans to monetize, and yet Colossal has the widest and deepest range of investors we have ever seen. They've received money from Peter Thiel, Paris Hilton, Tom Brady, the CIA, both Winklevite twins, and Peter Jackson, the creator of the Lord of the Rings movies.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
All that funding is why there were 10 billion bucks today. Colossal isn't launching products. They're launching plots. Blockbuster-sized plots. The lead investor in Colossal's latest fundraise is the Hollywood producer behind the movie Inception. And Jack, what was his one condition to put millions into the company? In exchange for my money, you need to bring back a blockbuster.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
Now, Yiddish, we know there are a lot of species going extinct. Ones that are easier to de-extinct than a woolly mammoth or a dire wolf. But that wouldn't have satisfied the investors. That's not how you raise $225 million in funding, Jack. You don't become a $10 billion company by bringing back some extinct newt that no one's ever heard of.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
Because Colossal, they started with the biggest mammal on Earth and a fictional character from Game of Thrones. Colossal runs their biotech business like a Hollywood studio runs a movie business. They focus on the blockbusters. Now, a quick word from our sponsor.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
Every big moment starts with a big dream. But what happens when that big dream turns out to be a big flop? From Wondery and At Will Media, I'm Misha Brown, and this is The Big Flop. Every week, comedians join me to chronicle the biggest flubs, fails, and blunders of all time, like Quibi. It's kind of like when you give yourself your own nickname and you try to get other people to do it.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
and the 2019 movie adaptation of Cats.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
There's some things we wouldn't mind tariffs for. Yeah, like things that are so annoying, maybe they should be tariffed. We call them tasteful tariffs. We do. Things that we would tariff not for economic reasons, but for social reasons. For example, cargo shorts? Tariff them. QR code restaurant menus? Tariff them. Can we tariff pre-meetings before the real meeting?
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
Find out what happens when massive hype turns into major fiasco. Enjoy The Big Flop on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Big Flop early and ad-free on Wondery+. Get started with your free trial at wondery.com slash plus.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
For our third and final story, Shopify's CEO just published a letter that will change how you use AI at work every day. Because using AI is now mandatory. Oh, Jack, I got a long list of job interview questions here. Let me know if you got any of these. Tell me if anyone's ever asked you this. Tell me about a challenge in your life.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
How about tell me about an ambiguous problem you faced at work where you used data to reach a solution. Yeah, it's a wordy one, but I've gotten on to it. How about this? Where do you see yourself in five years, son? Tell me something you're going to stop doing, something you're going to keep doing, and something you're going to start doing.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
I'd probably walk out of the interview if someone asked that at that point. Keep notes. Repeat the beginning of the question five minutes ago. But yet, there is now a new question to add to the interview list that you better prepare for. How do you use AI on a daily basis? You better have an answer for that question if you work at Shopify. Shopify, the $100 billion B2B e-commerce platform.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
That's Shopify. They enable the buying and selling of anything online. But the biggest news from Shopify right now isn't earnings, isn't annual reports, it isn't tariffs. It's a letter from the CEO that leaked online. It was so controversial and widely discussed that the CEO, Tobias Lutke, decided to tweet it, the whole letter.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
Now, Jack and I jumped in T-boy style and we read the letter for you because we guarantee you that your CEO definitely read it too. The letter includes Shopify's perspective when it comes to AI. And here it is. Use it or lose it. And by it, we mean your job at Shopify.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
The CEO's internal memo was conversational, but it finished with a very clear list of six things that you must have when it comes to AI. Very direct points. And here are the highlights. Point number one, using AI is now a fundamental expectation of everyone at Shopify. In the 2000s, touch typing was a fundamental skill. In the 2020s, it's now AI.
The Best One Yet
🐺 “Dire Wolf of Wall Street” — Colossal’s 1st de-extinction. ThredUp’s tariff win. Shopify’s mandatory AI.
Point number three, your AI usage will be a question in every performance review. Your manager will be asking you how you use AI daily. No prompting, no promotion. Point number five, and this one was a surprise. We really didn't see this one coming. Before asking for more headcount or hiring, you must prove AI can't do the task. Oh, you want a junior content strategist to join the team?
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Wednesday, Poké Wednesday. I'm sorry, Ceviche Wednesday, January 8th. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. The stock market just had its first bad day of 2025. The S&P fell 1.3%. The Nasdaq fell 2%. No clear reason why, but apparently it's not going to be a perfect year, Jack.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
By the way, the golfers, they can continue to compete in PGA Tour tournaments while they play TGL on the side. And each of those players happens to be mic'd up for the game. You can hear Tiger talk trash to Rory about his short game. But you don't just hear those players, you also... feel the players. They're tracking the players' heart rates.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
So if Rory misses a gimme putt, you'll see his heart rate hit like 200. Plus, the players own 10% of the league, so incentives are aligned. And that's something Tom Brady never got in the NFL. And finally, TGL owns a strategic night of the week. The competitions are on Tuesdays. No competition with PGA Tour and no competition with the NFL.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
The only thing missing from this league, Shooter McGavin and a one-eyed alligator, Jack. Pour one out for Chubbs. Took him down in his primes. Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at TGL Golf? This is the first sports league designed for dopamine. Yetis, every other pro sports league was created pre-TV, a hundred years ago.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
You'd watch one sport or another, probably in person, that was it. But in the attention economy, TGL isn't competing against a baseball game. They're competing against TikTok, Netflix, and Instagram. So TGL is actually the first sport that was designed to compete with social media. The golfers have a 40-second shot clock to keep things going fast. Each competition, it can only last two hours.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
And with all the camera angles, you can see every player for every shot. Oh, and that volcanic lava hole we mentioned, it's made to go viral. And the course, it physically changes, so that goes viral too. And we expect sports betting to be injected into every shot of the game. Did you hear what McElroy said? I don't know, but I put 50 bucks on it. I put 100 bucks on Tiger wearing red.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
So besties, new sports leagues, they're emerging all the time, like pro pickleball. But this is the first league designed for dopamine. Because pickleball is designed for daiquiris. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for Ceviche Wednesday? Mark Zuckerberg is ending fact-checking on his apps and basically putting a MAGA hat on meta.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
On social media, do your own research is now the only option. For our second story, our Surgeon General says that alcohol causes cancer, so he's recommending a warning label be placed on liquor. What he's recommending is a nudge, but never underestimate the power of the nudge. And our third and final story is TGL. It premiered last night. It's a brand new indoor virtual-ish team golf tournament.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
And this is the first ever sports league designed for dopamine. But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, you may not realize it, but stock markets are actually closed tomorrow in honor of former president Jimmy Carter. President Biden declared it a national day of mourning on Thursday, January 9th. So parts of the government are closed too.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
Videos mentioning egg white skincare have surged 1.5 million percent in just the last quarter. What we're saying is that we're wearing egg whites for 15 minutes to look 15 years younger. Jack, you want a 43-step skincare routine? Did you add this to this thing yet? This is 44. Alex and I tried out the egg white omelet. Sorry. The egg white face mask. Dude, you paint it on your face.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
Jimmy Carter died at the age of 100 while we were on break last week. And his funeral is on Thursday at Arlington National Cemetery. We're still going to produce a pod though. So we'll have an episode for you Thursday morning. And second, while we were on vacation, Party City went into bankruptcy and actually shut down all of their stores right before New Year's. It's a huge bummer. It is.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
I'm a big fan of Party City. Yeah, it's a lot of fun. It's a really good time. But there's actually been a lot of bankruptcies recently because interest rates are still very high. Struggling retail chains are running out of money. Also, they interviewed the CFO of Party City and he said... The helium got really, really costly. So costly. Too soon, dude. Really funny, but too soon.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
He said it, Jack. He said it. And finally, Walter White's house from the TV show Breaking Bad is on the market in Arizona for $4 million. $4 million, which is double the price of any other house in the neighborhood. Honestly, it's a very Walter White thing to do. I think it's $4 million on the off chance that there's like $100 million of cash buried under the bed. Don't ask any questions.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
Just don't ask any questions. Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Savannah Westwood from lovely Orlando, Florida. This one's wild. In Finland, when you get your doctorate, You get a sword. Not too shabby. A sword on your graduation day. It's actually meant to symbolize standing up for truth and freedom of research. In America, if you get a PhD, you get a diploma. Yeah.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
In Finland, you get Valyrian steel. It's like a knighting, but you're a doctor, not a sir. I think that's how they're going with it, Jack. Great, great thing that Finland's doing. Yetis, you look fantastic today. And if you've got the best fact yet, or if you just want a birthday, anniversary, bar mitzvah shout out on this show, we've got a link in this episode description.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
Or just go to tboypod.com slash shout outs to fill out a simple form. We want to get your voice on the pod. Hit us up and we'll get you here. All right, dude. I think it's time to wrap up the show. I cracked the eggs. The egg whites are ready for you. One second. Do you put the cucumbers on your eyes if you're doing the egg white for Todd a face mask, Jack? Funny enough, you cook the cucumbers.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
You don't cook the eggs. If you know, you know. And before we go, a happy birthday to Yeti Madalina Romana celebrating over in Portugal. And happy birthday to Ruby Chavez in Garden Grove, California. And Jackie Marino's got the best birthday yet over in New York City. Happy birthday to JB Blankfein over in New York City.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
And Cara Fuller from Hobe Sound, Florida is on a trip to Iceland next week to celebrate the best birthday yet. And happy 22nd birthday to Sophia Petrovaz in Newport, Rhode Island. Good luck on those GMATs. You got this, Sophia. And a happy birthday to Jesus Andrade over in Oklahoma City. That's a shout out from his old boss who was introduced to T-Boy by him four years ago. Nah. Not too shabby.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
Enjoy the New York City celebration, Jesus. And a quick shout out to Tony from Brooklyn, who let us know that there's a fake T-Boy account on Instagram trying to pull off some kind of crypto scheme. Yeah, it's not us. We are at T-Boy Pod on Instagram, and that's from us. Jack and I will never ask you for your money or a rando crypto scheme.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
Although we're kind of impressed and feeling flattered that someone tried to impersonate. It was very nice of them. And Jane Smith and Noah Nietzsche are going to have some very tall babies because they just got engaged over in Boston. Just outside Boston. And to anyone else, celebrate something today. Make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. I have to tell you the funny thing.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
It eventually gets crusty and you sort of peel it off. And along with the egg that you're peeling off, you're peeling away imperfection and impurities. So Jack, you got a frittata facial. No, I got a fried egg face mask. Hey waiter, just put the Eggs Benedict on my brow. And that's it. You can walk away. But here's the best part. In this economy, egg whites are both a facial cleanser and a dinner.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
Molly texted me that she bought the dip and she bet on NASDAQ in her Robinhood account and bought some. What dip? It was like a slight dip. But then I was also like kind of down like last couple days. And then I was like, also, it's an investment, not a bet, right? Oh, God. She wrote back, he, he.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
Because first you do the facial and then you eat the eggs. Exfoliate. activate scramble so jack it's kind of like dr seuss always taught us isn't it man i like egg whites on my chin i like egg whites on my grin sam i am i feel hotter wherever eggs have been besties let's hit our three stories
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in a dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50%, that's a fat tip. T-Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, cause we ready to go. We can't wait no more, so just start the show.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
For our first story, Mark Zuckerberg just made Meta go MAGA. Zuck is ending fact-checking on Instagram and Facebook. So we're covering the history and the end of fact-checking. Oh, yeah, it is. Your Uncle Andy's Facebook post, the one about aliens abducting his neighbor's cow, is going to face a big change. It actually just got the blessing of Instagram and Facebook. Yeah, it's about to go viral.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
We're not going to get that win streak we were hoping for. No, the streak is over. But still, we got three fantastic stories for today's show. Jack, what do we got? For our first story, Zuck just announced the biggest policy change in years. Instagram and Facebook are done fact-checking because Meta has gone MAGA. We'll explain. For our second story, alcohol stocks.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
Congrats to your Uncle Andy. Because Mark Zuckerberg just announced there is no more fact-checking at his social media apps. Nada, none, dunzo. Instead, he's replacing human fact-checking with community notes. Community notes. Jack, what exactly are these new community notes that we're all going to start seeing over on Instagram?
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
Community notes is something that Elon Musk invented when he acquired Twitter. Here's how this goes down, Yetis. On X, when someone posts lies or misleading content, users can jump in and add context. It's kind of like the way Wikipedia does it. And if a critical mass of people say that this tweet is wrong, then a little note is going to be attached to the bottom of the tweet saying, this is wrong.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
Although those community notes, they usually come too late because, you know, people saw the misinformation already. They didn't see the community note. The misinformation goes viral. The community note does not. But this led to the big question Jack and I were curious about. Since 2016, Meta has invested $100 million in fact-checking with real-life human beings. So why the big switcheroo?
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
Well, Zuck said yesterday that fact-checkers had been making too many errors and it had become political. Plus, he said meta has got to get back to its roots of free expression. But what is Zuckerberg really saying, Nick? Jack, can we get a little translation on that quote, please? It's pretty clear here that Zuck is trying to warm up to the Trump administration.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
He says that social media has been censoring conservative views for years. And In fact, this fact check switcheroo by Zuck is actually part of his big let's make up hug that he's been trying to pull off with Donald Trump. Get this. Yesterday, Zuck also said that he's moving the company's trust in safety teams from California to Texas.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
And the day before that, Zuck appointed Dana White, Trump's buddy and the CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championships, to join Meta's board of directors. And of course, like every other tech CEO, Zuck bent the knee by donating a million dollars to Trump's inauguration. Jack, Zuck even got a MAGA tattoo on his left calf over New Year's. He didn't do that, did he?
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
You're going to have to fact check me on it, Jack. Oh, wait, I can't. Community note! Zuck said yesterday, it feels like we're in a new era after the election. So he actually is explicitly saying this is because of the election. So after years of Instagram and Facebook pushing puppy content above political content, they're pulling a switcheroo and reversing. This is the last policy update.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
Political posts are going to be welcomed on Instagram and Facebook again. Jack, can we get another translation on that? Trump's post will be more visible than ever on Instagram and Facebook. And maybe your uncle really did see an alien take his neighbor's cow. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Meta? Do your own research is now your only option. Yeah, it is.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
For more than two centuries, we relied on journalists and experts to be the arbiters of the truth. But the internet disrupted news and information, and our trust for institutions have gone away. In fact, Elon Musk said last month, you are the media. And honestly, we think he's right on that. What he means is it's up to you to decide what's true and what's false.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
even though the average person isn't qualified to do that when it comes to complex matters. As Axios put it, trustworthy information will now co-mingle with garbage and misinformation. So on X, Instagram, and Facebook, each person is going to have to decide what's fact and what's fiction. And now quick side note from us, you know, we fact check everything we do on our show every single day.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
They're down big after the Surgeon General said that alcohol causes cancer. Besties, your next bottle of Jack Daniels could come with a warning label. Big one. And our third and final story. Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy's brand new indoor golf league debuted last night on ESPN. But this golf league is not designed for greens. This golf league is designed for screens. Four! Shoot him again.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
If we get a fact wrong, we correct it in the next podcast. It's really important to us. And we hope you continue to trust us because we do fact check. But on social media, we are now in the do your own research era. Do your own research is now the default. Do your own research is now your only option. For our second story, the worst performing stock so far this year, it's alcohol.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
Alcohol stocks are dropping. Because the U.S. Surgeon General says that alcohol causes cancer. And alcohol deserves a warning label. You know, Jack, if we're going to start off this story, we may as well share a few hangover cures. Anything good? What do you got these days? I always did a bacon, egg, and cheese. I don't know if it works, but it makes me feel good. Some people do ginger tea.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
Some people do element. You know, I would like a deep tissue massage if that's possible. I feel like that's extremely effective. Well, unfortunately, the entire alcohol industry... is still suffering a New Year's Eve hangover, and that Advil ain't working. No, it ain't, because the stock in the parent companies of Budweiser, Jack Daniels, and Smirnoff all fell 2-5% since New Year's Day. Why?
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
Because a report was published by the U.S. Surgeon General, our top medical scientist. And Vivek Murthy came out swinging. He said that alcohol causes cancer and that there is, get this, no safe level of alcohol to drink. He went on to say that the more alcohol consumed, the greater the risk of cancer.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
In fact, that is why the Surgeon General also just asked Congress for warning labels on alcohol bottles just like they do with cigarettes. A warning label. The next time you buy a bottle of Fireball, there might be a big cancer sticker next to that Dancing Devil logo. If you get smeared off ice by your buddy Timmy, I think you can sue him now, Jack. Honestly though, Nick, I was shocked by this.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
Yeah, because everyone knows asbestos, cigarettes, and radiation, that can lead to cancer. But according to the report, less than half of us knew that alcohol could. Timing for dry January, isn't it, Jack? So we put down the pinot and we jumped into the numbers T-boy style. Hey, bartender, close out our tabs. Now, the current guidelines on healthy amounts of alcohol, what is it, Nick?
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
You're not to have more than two drinks a day. In fact, growing up, they told us that a bottle of red wine was actually good for your heart. Either way, the Surgeon General says all those guidelines have been wrong. Yeah. He points out that alcohol causes 100,000 cases of cancer every year among Americans. Oh, and Jack, what was that one particularly wild cancer stat?
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
Overall, one-sixth of breast cancer cases in America are caused by alcohol. Now, the reason alcohol is able to do this is because as your body metabolizes alcohol, it damages the DNA, and the damaged cells divide, and that leads to cancer. Plus, alcohol depletes the vitamins we have that help us fight cancer naturally. So alcohol's a double whammy.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
But besties, Jack and I got curious, so we dove further into the numbers. And what did we discover, Jack? Like a bottle of Brunello, it's even more complex than we've said so far. Yeah, so yes, the risk of cancer increases with each drink you drink every week, but how much does that risk of cancer actually increase?
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
The Surgeon General says that the average American man has a 10% chance of getting cancer in their lifetimes if they have no alcohol consumption. Okay, but Jack, what if that average American man has seven drinks per week instead of zero drinks per week? Your chance of getting cancer rises to 11%.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
So besties, add it all up, and one drink per day increases your risk of cancer by about 10% for both men and for women. Two drinks per day? They didn't say how much that increases your risk of cancer, but I don't know, 20%? It was more than I expected, honestly. It's not a huge number, but it's not a small number. Meaningful numbers here. It's not going to make me never get a Negroni again.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
Friday nights, I'm still going to do my celebrate the wins routine and pour that Negroni, Jack. But maybe only on Friday nights. And not six of them on Friday nights. Although I wasn't doing six of them before, for the record. I think you've said enough. I think we've made ourselves clear. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in the liquor industry? Never underestimate the nudge.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Fantastic mix of stories. Love the mix today, Jack. We have some great news. If your news resolution was to look hotter this year. Because the first big beauty trend in 2025 is egg whites. Bad news if you're a vegan. Just to be clear. Yeah, spoiler alert. Because egg white face masks are back, baby. Actually.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
Yetis, the Surgeon General is not recommending a ban of alcohol. That would infringe on freedom and get some people pretty freaked out. Instead, he's recommending a nudge. That warning label is a nudge to nudge you not to drink. Now, Jack and I jumped in T-boy style, and we discovered that three countries already have alcohol label warnings.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
South Korea already has it, Ireland is about to get it, and the third one... was Canada. Canada tested out warning labels for alcohol in the Yukon territories. And the result? Sales of labeled alcohol fell by 7%. 7% drop, all because they put a cancer warning on the Jack Daniels labels. Now, not all labels are equal.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
Larger labels are more effective, and labels with fewer words but more visuals are also more effective. But still, that simple nudge of the label, it is a powerful economic force. Never underestimate... The nudge. The nudge. Now, a quick word from our sponsor.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
For our third and final story, the world's two best-known golfers launched a brand-new indoor golf league that just debuted last night. It's called TGL, and it's the first sports league not designed for competition, but designed for dopamine. You know, yet he's Jack and I didn't grow up with country clubs.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
So like everything about golf, we learned from Rodney Dangerfield and a whole bunch of gophers and Caddyshack. You know, the hole is the ball's natural habitat. He's got his bags ready. He's got his tickets. Send him to the airport. Bring them home. Bring them home.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
But the two better golfers than Jack, me, Rodney Dangerfield, or those gophers are Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, because they're also golf entrepreneurs. Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy raised $500 million to create a brand new golf league called TGL, which stands for Tomorrow Golf League.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
And they used that half a billion dollars to build an indoor golf facility because this golf league is entirely indoors. Three on three golf. It premiered last night on ESPN. The golfers drive the ball into a gigantic screen, but then chipping and putting happens on an indoor course in the arena. This is a tech enabled futuristic golf league experience.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
If Andreessen Horowitz wore pleated khakis, that's this. It's like video games, Topgolf, and Happy Gilmore had a beautiful, beautiful baby. The ESPN had the first game last night in their brand new indoor golf arena in Florida. Now, Jack and I got curious. We jumped in T-boy style. And the business model of this new golf league, it's the same as all the other pro sports leagues out there.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
They make revenue through ticket sales, merchandise sales, and media deals. But we did notice that everything else about this new golf league is unprecedented. Yes, it is. Yetis, we said last year that the sports industry overall is being disrupted right now. Well, TGO Golf is the most visual example we've ever seen of exactly that statement. Let's go back to the venue.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
Actually, the egg white face mask dates back to the early Italian Renaissance. Women used to paint their faces with egg white liquid in order to achieve a paler look on their face. Well, thanks to TikTok, the egg white facial is back, baby. And it's the fastest growing beauty trend in the market. That's right. Gen Z is trading out CeraVe for chicken eggs. Yetis, here's the news.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
It is purpose-built just for this game. It's in Florida, and 1,500 fans can look down at the golfers as they compete in real life. Players are teeing off into a giant virtual simulator screen and then they're chipping and putting in real life all in front of you. And since it's a virtual screen, the holes, they can use their imagination. Like one hole is a volcano. It's a volcano.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
Like you don't slice the ball into a cute little pond of water. You slice it into a pit of lava. Each event is 15 holes of golf and each hole, they change the green within the arena to so that the slope is different for each hole. Because there are 567 hydraulic jacks under all the grass, so they can literally turn like a par four into a par five with hills and a hurricane.
The Best One Yet
🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.
They can turn an easy putt into, you know, a really steep uphill putt. The best is this isn't your typical golf because it's got three PGA players on each team. And there are six teams that represent America's biggest cities. New York City's got a team, Atlanta, Boston, San Francisco, LA, and Florida. LA, by the way, best logo on the team. Cool jerseys.
The Best One Yet
🥐 “Baguette Bangers” — Le Pain Quiotidien’s disco. China’s disappearing data. DoorDash’s vibe-cession.
The limit does not exist.
The Best One Yet
🥐 “Baguette Bangers” — Le Pain Quiotidien’s disco. China’s disappearing data. DoorDash’s vibe-cession.
It's kind of like when you give yourself your own nickname and you try to, like, get other people to do it.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Wednesday, ceviche Wednesday, March 5th, and today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. One second, Jack. I just got to put a candle in this bratwurst because I believe it is somebody's birthday. over there. It's my full birthday, not my quarter birthday, okay, Nick?
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
It's a Snow King, which is a snowman who wears a crown, a red cape, and carries ice cream in one hand. Like Frosty married the Michelin Man and had a baby. And most of the locations have a person wearing that mascot as a costume. This mascot has gone viral for getting into physical fights with other store mascots. The Snow King is beloved over there because he's so extreme.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
And the third extreme is the Mishu Song. Every Mishu can play only one song inside this door. It's a jingle, and it's set to the tune of America's Oh Susanna. We're just going to mess with your heads and play it right here. It's never going to leave.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
That's all they play in the stores. On repeat, all day, every day. That's extreme. So we know what you're wondering, Yetis. How have you still not heard about the biggest chain in the world? Because it's only in China, Japan, Australia, and South Korea so far. But the most extreme part of Mishu is actually something we haven't even mentioned yet. It's not actually a fast food company.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
Done, done, done. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Mishu? You may know the business, but not necessarily the business model. Get this, Yetis. Mishu doesn't own or operate a single store. Because all 45,000 Mishu stores are franchises. All of them. Now, for Starbucks, only about half of them are owned by the company. The other half are run by local business people.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
For McDonald's, 95% of locations are franchises. The company still runs 5% to understand the business. In fact, every fast food chain Jack and I know of runs at least some locations on their own to understand the business. But not Michoud. So Michoud is actually just a supply company when you think about it. Exactly, Jack.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
Like 100% of Michoud's business is actually licensing the name, licensing the brand, selling supplies, selling ingredients, giving recipes to the 45,000 restaurant owners. So, Michoud is the world's largest buyer of lemons, but they don't make a single glass of lemonade. Michoud simply sells those lemons to the Michoud franchisees.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
So, Michoud is the world's biggest fast food chain, but it's actually not a fast food company. It's a supplier. And that is a reminder that when you know the business, you may not necessarily know the business model. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for your birthday? 36 years old, I'm feeling great. Nick, you can finally watch SportsCenter without cable.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
It's called SC+, and it's for Gen Z sports curious. It's a playbook on content catering to youths, a.k.a. the Riz Pivot. For our second story, America is now in a trade war against Mexico, Canada, and China, and each country has already announced retaliatory tariffs. It's trade war two, and the car industry in particular is suffering from policy whiplash. And our third and final story is Mishu.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
Jack, they all followed in the footsteps of the DLT. The DLT, the Doritos Locos Taco, is the latest episode of our deep dive show, The Best Idea Yet. The DLT, it's part Dorito seasoning, part taco shell, part crazy. And depending on how big your belly is, it's definitely something you've dreamed about.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
It's the world's largest chain, and it just IPO'd in Hong Kong. You may know a business, but not necessarily the business model. But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, President Trump just put all military funding for Ukraine on pause. President Trump won't give Ukraine aid until he's convinced that Ukraine's president wants peace.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
He's asking Ukraine to shake hands with the much bigger country that tried to invade it. Then on Tuesday, President Zelensky submitted a peace proposal to the United States. So we'll see what happens. And second, major ports along the Panama Canal were just sold for $23 billion. The old owner was a Chinese company, which the White House hated.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
But the new owner is BlackRock, a massive American money manager based in midtown Manhattan. And finally, if you open your Uber app in Austin, Texas today, you might see robo-taxis as a ride-hell option. That's right, because Waymo just turned on the robo-taxi service in Austin right before the South by Southwest festival begins. You can only access Waymo robo-taxis in Austin using the Uber app.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
You can't use the Waymo app like you can in San Francisco or Los Angeles. Oh, here's the awkward part. Austin is also Tesla's new headquarters, so we're expecting Elon to maybe make a competing announcement about the CyberCat. I think he doesn't want South by Southwest being Waymo'd. Which one is going to become the verb first? Now time for the best fact.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
Yeah, this one whipped up by my co-host Jack because it's his birthday and he gets the fact. Now the Oscars just happened, Nick, and you know I love movie trivia. Now one of my favorite categories is name an actor who's been a villain more than once. I'm thinking of people who frown a lot. So Ralph Fiennes has been an actor, a villain in more than one movie. I feel like he's only a villain.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
Kevin Spacey has been a villain three times, I think. You're not giving me much time to guess, but keep going. You're on a roll. I just discovered an actor who's been a villain in four different movies. Alan Rickman. Oh, Rickman. He was Severus Snape in Harry Potter. Classic. He was Hans Gruber in Die Hard. Got snubbed. He was the bad guy in Sweeney Todd. Didn't even see it, but I love it.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
And in love, actually, he's not a very good guy either, is he, Nick? No, no, no. No, no, no, no. He could have shown a little bit more love. The late, great Alan Rickman is the greatest villain of all time. But a good guy in our hearts.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
Yetis, you look fantastic today. Jack, you look like you're in your prime. You're in your prime number year, actually, man. 37's a prime number, baby. I thought it was 35, but honestly, who's counting anymore? In the meantime, besties, remember to check out The Best Idea Yet, our weekly show, which just dropped, about the Doritos Locos Taco. Besties, we'll see you there. Jack, have fun tonight.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
Besties, if you want to understand the very beginning of influencer marketing and things going viral online, then listen to this episode. Because an idea scribbled on a 10-year-old post-it note actually saved Taco Bell. And that note almost got thrown out. And the result caused the world to go crazy on this new thing called Twitter. I think you mean loco.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
We'll see you tomorrow. And before we go, a happy 28th birthday to Alex M, celebrating in Boston, just outside Boston. Happy birthday to Jackie Wong from Memphis. Shout out for bowling their first ever perfect 300. Okay, drinks on Jackie. Is that 10 straight strikes? I've never had two in a row, Jack. And Tom Snyder is celebrating a birthday, maybe in a RoboCab, in Austin, Texas.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
And congrats on the promotion. Happy birthday to Alex Crowe in Eureka, California. And Leslie Akin in Menlo Park is celebrating the best birthday yet. Happy birthday to Shane Kroll in Chicago. And Rick Finlay is turning 33 years old down in Dallas. Happy sixth birthday to Wade Jeffers in Athens, Ohio. Wade, you and me got the best birthdays, don't we?
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
Margo Zern celebrating a birthday down in Hotlanta, Georgia. Happy birthday to Felicia, who is looking fantastic at the age of 37 today in Galena, Kansas. And Shane McConnell's got a birthday in Boise, baby. Happy birthday. And happy birthday to Ryan Tite from San Francisco, who's a leap year, baby. So we're not going to celebrate on leap day.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
On that note, happy birthday to Steve Harden, who's also a leap day, baby. Yeah, good guy, good guy. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Disney, Nick owns stock in Shake Shack, and we both own stock in Chipotle and ETFs of the S&P 500.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
Yet is this best-selling taco of all time is the next episode of our weekly show, TBIY. The best idea yet. The untold origin stories of the products you're obsessed with. So later today after this T-boy, check out our weekly deep dive show, TBIY. New episodes drop every Tuesday for the best idea yet. Tap the link in the episode description because the Doritos Locos Taco is the best idea yet.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
I'm feeling good, dude. You're in the best shape of your life. You're in the best shape of your life, Jack.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
Nothing wrong with celebrating quarters, Jack. A candle and a brat is exactly what the doctor ordered. Maybe a yak sweater in the future, but I want to get your hopes up. Yetis, we got three fantastic stories for Jack's big birthday. Jack, what do we got on the TV, boy? For our first story, ESPN just launched a Gen Z sports center that they're calling SC+.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
For our first story, SportsCenter, the most profitable TV show of all time, is finally making what we're calling a Riz Pivot. It's called SC+, a shorter version of SportsCenter designed for the Gen Z sports curious. Yet, Jack and I have noticed that anything today branded with a plus sign, it means you're going to have to pay for it. And that all started with Disney Plus.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
You might not remember, but back when it launched in 2019, Disney Plus was the first time a plus was used as a corporate suffix. Netflix didn't use a plus. Now the pluses are everywhere, and it means you have to pay $9.99 a month for it. And finally, this week, Disney put its most successful show of all time on Disney Plus. We're talking about SportsCenter.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
You know, Jack, I didn't get to grow up with you, but I feel like your Saturday mornings consisted of you and your dad in boxers, maybe with a t-shirt on, maybe not, but watching SportsCenter.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
Here's what would happen. The Yankees would be playing way past my bedtime. So in the morning, I'd rush to SportsCenter and I would put up video cassettes on the bottom so that I didn't see the score on the bottom and spoil it. And I'd wait for the highlights. It's the best part of my morning. Is this your 37th birthday today or your 47th?
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
But yet, this is what Jack and I find fascinating about SportsCenter. SportsCenter is actually the most profitable TV show of all time. And we've got proof. We got the receipt. Because SportsCenter's first episode was back in 1979. And it's had 60,000 episodes since. And SportsCenter airs multiple new episodes every single day throughout the day.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
SportsCenter was the flagship of ESPN, which was Disney's historic profit puppy. Now, as cable TV started conquering America in the 90s and early 2000s, SportsCenter anchors became the first influencers. They were. I bought Dan Patrick sunglasses. Your uncle shaved his head, Jack, because of Scott Van Pelt.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
In fact, it's thanks to SportsCenter that ESPN demanded the biggest cut of the cable bill by far. Jack, can we just pause the pause for a sec? And can you repeat that for everyone in the stands? I'm going to say it differently. As recently as 2015, ESPN made three times more in affiliate fees than the number two cable channel did, which was TNT.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
Like we were saying, SportsCenter, it isn't just a profit puppy. It's the most profitable TV show of all time. But because of cord cutting, SportsCenter's viewership is a fraction of what it used to be. Which leads to the news. Jack, step on up. What's the news, buddy? ESPN just gave SportsCenter their biggest makeover since Babe Ruth. Not sure about that analogy, but let's go with it.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
Because they're now letting cord cutters watch SportsCenter. That's right. Even if you've cut the cable TV cord, you can now get a new version of SportsCenter called SC+. Ten years overdue, in our opinion. Classic. But SC Plus is a 15-minute long show that airs daily on Disney+. And the entire format is a top 10 plays that happened yesterday.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
Now, funny thing that Jack just said, it's 10 years overdue in our opinion, because the new SC Plus is targeting 10-year-olds. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at SportsCenter? SC Plus shows the playbook of catering to youth. So, Yetis, ESPN basically just created a sports center for Gen Z. A Riz pivot, if you will. They low-key covered sports center in Riz until it slaps.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
So Jack and I will tell you if this business plan slaps or if it's cringe. For our second story, it's official. After a one month delay, the U.S. is now in a trade war against Canada and Mexico. So to understand the pain of these tariffs, we're looking at one product. The Chevy Silverado. For our third and final story, the world's largest fast food chain isn't McDonald's or Starbucks.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
And they did it with four specific strategies. The first one is the wardrobes. The anchors are wearing suits because it's ESPN, but they're also wearing sneakers because they're under 30. And now the second key is something Jack and I know well, the content, the format. It's basically bullet points. The top 10 format is a predictable top 10 highlight reel. The third key here is five second ads.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
The commercial for Daredevil, Born Again, was so fast, you don't even have time to change the channel. And that's part of the strategy. And finally, the last... Can Gen Z SportsCenter save SportsCenter? Does this new SportsCenter slap or is it cringe? Let us know in the comments. For our second story, America is officially in a trade war with our neighbors after 25% tariffs hit Canada and Mexico.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
To understand the pain that this means, we're looking at one product. One product. The Chevy Silverado. Now, Yetis, maybe you did or maybe you didn't circle your calendars, but either way, Jack and I got your backs. Remember last month when we told you that Trump delayed the tariffs he was going to hit Mexico and Canada with by one month?
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
Well, we got a calendar notification and that delay expired yesterday. So, as of yesterday, anything entering the United States from Canada and Mexico is now subject to a 25% tax. As we said, it is trade war two. Oh, and by the way, trade war two has also already escalated with China this week. As of yesterday, tariffs on anything coming from China doubled to 20%.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
Remember what we said, besties, nobody wins with tariffs. It's bad for investors, bad for companies, bad for consumers, and we'll explain why right now. Okay, so Jack, let's talk about the response quickly. The companies, the reactions, what happened in the markets? Yesterday, Target and Best Buy both said that they were going to pass on tariffs to us through higher prices.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
So Target and Best Buy stocks both failed. Also yesterday, Chipotle, which imports avocados and tortillas from Mexico, they said they wouldn't raise prices. Instead, they would absorb the cost. But that means that profits at Chipotle are going to be smaller, so Chipotle's stock fell as well. No matter how a business responds to these tariffs, they're going to suffer.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
And so stocks overall fell the past two days. Like we said, nobody wins with tariffs. Extra guac is about to get extra. But get this, stocks, as measured by the S&P 500, have now officially fallen below where they were the day after the election. That's right. The Trump bump of the last couple months, it has now officially disappeared.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
But the biggest loser of trade war two might actually be the Chevy Silverado. The old Chevy Silverado. And anyone who may want to buy a Chevy Silverado. Because get this, Yetis, Chevy sold 673,000 of their flagship pickup trucks last year, and half of them were assembled in Mexico or Canada.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
So Jack and I got curious, we dove in T-boy style, and we followed the journey of how you make a Chevy Silverado truck. Well, when those Mexican or Canadian-made Silverados enter the US to be sold at a US car dealership, General Motors will now have to pay a tax of $10,000. $10,000 per car. A 25% tariff times a $70,000 Silverado is a lot of money.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
It's Mishu with 45,000 locations. Mishu sells ice cream and boba tea for $1 in China and it just IPO'd. But Yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories, on my birthday. Your fantastic four-quarter birthday. What a mix of stories, Jack. Let's do my favorite thing, which is trivia. What product was so viral that it required 15,000 extra workers to serve it?
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
And we're not even including this seat heater upgrade on that. But Jack, what about the 50% of Chevy Silverados that are actually made in America? they're actually going to get more expensive too. And why is that, Jack? The power steering and door trim panels of all Silverados are made in Mexico.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
Oh, and according to the Financial Times, the taillights of those Silverados made in America are actually made in Canada. So no matter what, the Chevy Silverado is about to get a lot more expensive. And that's going to hurt sales, it's going to hurt General Motors stock, and then it's going to hurt consumers. Silverado, though, is just one example. It's not just the car industry.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
Good point, Jack, because actually any big manufactured thing probably had its passport stamped in Canada and Mexico a whole bunch of times before it ended up in your pantry. And why is that? Well, ironically, it's because of a major trade deal that Donald Trump signed in his first term as president. And we'll explain in our takeaway.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are consumers in America? American business is being punished with policy whiplash. Policy whiplash. Yeti's wild detail that everyone forgets from this whole story. The reason American car companies are building in Canada and Mexico, what is it, Jack? It's because of the trade deal that Trump made in his first term. Remember?
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
It was like the new NAFTA, the U.S.-Canada-Mexico trade agreement. It meant that cars could freely be traded between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada as long as they were 75% made in North America. Well, based on that deal, which President Trump called the most important trade deal ever, car companies started making factories in Canada and Mexico. And the United States. True, true, true.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
Ford, GM, and Chrysler, they spent billions on the belief that North America was a free trade zone. But here's the policy plot twist. Five years later, today, all those factories are now being punished with these new tariffs, and that... So, is GM going to pack up from Mexico and Canada and move their Silverado plants to the U.S.? That's what Trump wants.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
But probably not, Jack, because that would be really expensive. And President Trump could change his mind again, and that would be even more expensive for them. He probably will change his mind again. I wouldn't be shocked if in a month these tariffs are either doubled or gone.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
Well, no matter what he does, this is why America's car stocks have plummeted 20% just since November's election and why car prices are about to spike as well. Because five years ago, Trump dramatically changed the rules of trade in North America, and now he's doing it again. Add it all up, and businesses are now suffering from policy whiplash.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
Now, a quick word from our sponsor.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
For our third and final story, the largest fast food chain in the world is a brand you've never heard of, and it's called Mishu. Mishu sells $1 ice cream and boba teas in China, and it just IPO'd out of nowhere. Out of nowhere. But Yetis, remember last year when we covered the story of the bubble tea bubble? Boba tea stocks were dropping like tapioca.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
Jack, what product was so viral it was invented in a top-secret research lab? We're not talking about the atomic bomb or the H-bomb. It's the Doritos Locos Taco. The Doritos Locos Tacos. When Doritos and Taco Bell had a baby, we actually got the most influential brand collab of all time. The Popeye's Chicken Sandwich, Dunkin' Donuts' Charlie Drink, and Starbucks' Unicorn Frappuccino.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
Well, Yetis, there is one outlier to the bubble tea bubble, and it's a company called Michoud. And it has more locations than McDonald's. Jack, could you sprinkle on a little more context, please? Michoud's 45,000 locations beats McDonald's 42,000 and Starbucks' 38,000. Yeah, it's twice as much as KFC and like 40 times more than Shake Shack. But what the heck is Michoud?
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
It's actually a drink chain that sells everything for a dollar or less. Ice cream and boba tea. That's all they sell. Honestly, my two favorite things. Jack, this is the dollar store of dessert. And that's why it's worth one-tenth of McDonald's, despite having more locations than McDonald's.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
Because there's only so much profit you can make when you're dedicated to a $1 price tag like a Frappuccino-only discount Starbucks. And here's the news. They just IPO'd at a $10 billion valuation over in Hong Kong. The stock of Mishu popped 40% on its first day of trading like a cheap little sugar high. But here's the question we're all wondering. Yeah.
The Best One Yet
💥 “ESPN Rizzzz” — Gen Z’s SportsCenter. Silverado’s tariff explainer. Boba Ice Cream IPO.
How did Mishu become the biggest chain on earth? Well, yetis, Jack and I have said before, there is no competition at the extremes. And Mishu has positioned itself at the extreme of every customer touchpoint. The first extreme is Mishu's price. Their average mango tapioca milkshake sells for 83 cents. That's extreme. All right, the second extreme is the Mishu mascot.
The Best One Yet
🙈 “1 year without shopping” — The No-Buy-2025 trend. Chick-fil-A’s champagne drive-thru. Spotify’s Spice Girls monopoly.
15 years before this song Two boys from the Northeast met in a dorm They had an idea to cause a cultural storm It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm Jack Nick, that's it I don't even think they need to practice 50%, that's a fat tip T-Boy City on your at list If you know, you know, cause we ready to go We can't wait no more, so just start the show
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Wednesdays of VK Wednesday, December 4th. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Well, Jack, to quote Karen Smith, on Wednesdays, we do wear pink. Looking good over there. Yeah, you too, man. You too.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
You got contracts, you got documents, you have to email those documents, you got to get signatures from every party three or four different times. It's a bunch of admin work. So the point of the new app is less contracts, less documents, less emailing around for signatures so you can focus on selling.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
Simple is building an AI-powered app that you can speak to and it'll do all the admin work for you. Now, the moment for this is key in the industry. And why is that, Jack? The National Association of Realtors had to settle an antitrust lawsuit this year. We covered it on the pod. And the result is more paperwork for real estate agents to handle.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
Now, to sprinkle on more context, Zillow has already identified this opportunity. Zillow, the $20 billion real estate tech giant, has something similar already. It's called Dotloop. They handle the back-end real estate agent work. But Ryan's team, they would get on Instagram and tell you that that's old tech. His app is AI enhanced. Which is basically location, location, location.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
Yeah, AI is the ocean view. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies in real estate and beyond? The next frontier of tech is serving the un-techie. Yeah, it is home selling. It is an inherently person to person to person to person business. Tech can't replace real estate agents. There's simply too much money on the line. You want a human handling your case.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
And the smell of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies at an open house, chat GPT can't do that right now. But those human real estate agents can go much further if they've got some tech on their side. Jack, how about another example of a tech company serving the un-techie? ServiceTitan, which is SaaS software for tradespeople. They just filed to IPO at a $5 billion valuation.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
Yeah, interestingly, ServiceTitan is serving HVAC technicians with technology so they can spend more time in that boiler and less time on bureaucracy. Yeti's for years. Highway 101 in Silicon Valley, it's advertised software targeting people who are already working in software. But the way we see it, the next frontier of tech is the un-techie of industries.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for Ceviche Wednesday? Jaguar is going through a metamorphosis from old school car company to new school EV company. One man's bad press is another man's good press. For our second story, 24 years ago, just one in 20 nurses in America were men. Today, one in seven are men. It's the MERS surge.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
Men switching from manufacturing to nursing is the perfect example of the AI work reshuffling. For our third and final story, Ryan Serhant. He just raised venture capital money to launch Simple, a real estate app for agents. Because the next frontier of tech is serving the un-techie. But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
First, the courts in Delaware just once again blocked Elon Musk's $56 billion pay package. This summer, 72% of Tesla shareholders voted that Elon should get that gigantic bonus. But the Delaware courts are doubling down. They say the package set up in 2018 was compromised because the board was too close to Elon.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
Hear us out. The most expensive day to buy a Christmas tree is the most ironic day for something to be expensive. Turns out the average price on Black Friday last year was 112 bucks a tree. Black Friday is the most expensive day to get a Christmas tree. Black Friday, great for shopping deals, bad for spruce deals. So if you go straight from turkey to tinsel, you're paying the most for your tree.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
So Elon is appealing probably to the Delaware Supreme Court and probably amplifying anti-Delaware tweets on X. He's probably tweeting about this right now. And second, Stoli Vodka officially filed for bankruptcy. Stolichnaya is now Stolichnada. The main problem was the Russian brand. It's gone into the toilet after the Ukraine war began. Yeah, not good for Russian vodka.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
But interesting detail here. Stolichnaya Vodka is actually headquartered in Luxembourg, and it's made in Latvia. Pour one out for Stoli. In Soviet Russia, vodka drink you. And finally, it's Spotify Wrapped Week, the moment that the whole world finds out what you listen to. You don't know which day it's going to be, but at some point this week, Thursday, Friday, maybe even tomorrow or today.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
Or just come out right now. I'm just fully embracing it. I listen to Sabrina, big fan. Huge. Espresso all day, every day. I'm more than a big fan. I just think she's really creative. You're basically Domingo at this point. Just had to say, direct from Domingo. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Anne Oland from Philadelphia, but now living in Phoenix.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
Actually, Jack, you know, Anne told me this one in person. She did? Yeah. When we were on Nantucket for Thanksgiving, we were out at a restaurant. Anne recognized me, came on over. We had a fantastic chat at our table. It was so nice. Yetis, we love seeing you in the wild. Thanks for coming up, Anne. Here's the best fact yet.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
When it comes to letters, where do we get the term lowercase and uppercase? The term lowercase and uppercase are actually very literal, and they go back to the very first printing press. Capital letters were kept in the top drawer in those early printing presses because capital letters were used less often. So they were kept in the uppercase.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
And uncapitalized letters were kept in the bottom drawer, close to the printing press, because they were used the most often. So they were kept in the lowercase. There you go. Capital letters... were called uppercase because they were kept in the uppercase. That's all we got to say about that. It's all about drawers, actually. Like most things in life.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
Yetis, you look fantastic today, but we got to hear what your tree date is. For me, it was five days ago. Which was basically like buying a piece of real estate, Jack. That was by far the most expensive tree.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
I'm sure that's what the salesperson told you, Jack.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
You paid a premium to get the full tree experience is what I'm hearing, Jack. It's not BYO's saw though. Besties, are you maximizing for tree joy or are you minimizing for tree price? Let us know in the comments. We've got a poll going on Spotify right now. And remember to send this episode to your buddy who works in real estate. Ryan, check your DMs. We just hooked you up.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
HYHTBOI and Jack and I will see you tomorrow. And before we go, a happy birthday to little Teddy Panzer celebrating the big day down in Montclair, New Jersey. Little Teddy? Is that our buddy's son? It's Mike and Mia's son. It's Mike and Mia's son. That's who it is. I love the name Teddy. Oh, great name, great guy.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
And a happy retirement to Paula Hauer in Grafton, Wisconsin, who's leaving nursing after many legendary years of helping a whole bunch of people. How are you doing? She's doing great.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
And Michael Dravo, thank you for the super thoughtful words in the comments on Spotify. We love seeing what you're thinking. Thanks for dropping in every day. And a big shout out to Howie Wee, who's listening from China and really hopes that we don't get banned in China. And yetis, if you want a shout out in an upcoming pod or you've got the best fact yet, just fill out the form.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
But after that, the price of that pine is dropping 2% every single day.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
We've got a link in this episode description. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Netflix. Nick owns stock in Zillow. And Nick and I both own stock in Spotify. If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
Yeah, tree prices have actually fallen 55% by the time 12-24 rolls around. So here's the question. Do you maximize joy by buying early? Or do you minimize price by buying the tree late? Do you buy a $112 natural Black Friday Christmas tree? Or a $50 Christmas Eve tree? Jack, do you optimize for the cost or do you optimize for the caroling? Oh, Tannenbaum. Oh, Tannenbaum. Yes?
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
When are you buying your Tannenbaum? Yetis, hit us up in the comments. We want to know. Do you buy a tree now or do you buy a tree later? And if it's in between, we got to hear a date. When you bought a tree five days ago, like I did. Sorry, two trees. Now you're just showing off.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
For those watching on YouTube right now, Jack wearing slam and salmon, I'm wearing slam and salmon, and we're feeling fantastic.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
For our first story, after a wildly controversial month, Jaguar, I'm sorry, Jaguar has finally unveiled the future of its cars. People hated Jaguar's rebrand. They didn't like it. So we're asking the big question, is any press really good press? Now, Yetis, over the summer, I read a book about the history of Ferrari.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
Great point. Great point. Jack, what do we got on today's T-Boys? What's on the pod? For our first story, Jaguar, the 100-year-old British car company, has controversially burned down their brand. But Jack and I are asking the big question. Did Jaguar burn down its brand or did it actually light it up? For our second story, we're looking at male nurses.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
And Jack, do you know what the founder of Ferrari, Enzo Ferrari, said the most beautiful car he ever saw was? You told me it was Jaguar. Yeah, the Ferrari founder's favorite car he ever saw was a Jaguar. Jaguar, founded 102 years ago in England. true. It's the race car with a pouncing cat coming out of the hood. Besties, this brand, it became the embodiment of Great Britain.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
The Queen had two of them. James Bond has ridden in three of them. And if Harry Potter showed up at the next Hogwarts high school reunion, he'd be driving a green Jaguar. Well, he'd probably be driving a broomstick. I think he'd do a Jag Jack. Fun fact about Jaguars. Most Jaguars you see today are green because that was the original color of the British racing team.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
Which is the same reason that most Ferraris are red. Italy's racing team was red. Yetis, you are not a London banker unless you're driving a green Jaguar to your second home up in the Cotswolds. But here's the news. Over the last month, Jaguar shut itself down in the most dramatic move in car history.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
This was one of the most controversial rebrands since King Henry VIII rebranded the Church of England.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
Well, Jaguar basically did that for its entire car company. Because besties, Jaguar burned down its own brand to start entirely from scratch. Here's what happened. First, Jaguar got rid of their iconic Jaguar logo. There's no more animal in the brand anymore. A century of brand equity, poof, completely erased.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
They also changed the G in the middle of their name to be an uppercase G surrounded by lowercase letters. And then the CEO clarified that the correct pronunciation of Jaguar is actually now Jaguar, Jaguar. It's like if Porsche came out and said, it's pronounced Porsche. everybody. In fact, this rebrand of Jaguar included a video that had zero cars in the video.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
The video was just flamboyant models with shaven heads wearing pink and colorful dresses. Jaguar burned down their image of the aspiring car racer and middle-aged banker who they always appealed to. And reincarnated as an avant-garde fashionista brand. Yetis, if you're looking at the new Jaguar brand, it's going to look like a lip liner that you bought at Sephora.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
But Nick, it wasn't just a Jaguar rebrand. They're changing their entire business. Because Bestie's Jaguar also shut down all production of their cars. They're not making any new cars right now. The factory's closed while they turn themselves into an electric car company. It's more like a metamorphosis than a rebrand. Jaguar doesn't roar anymore. It means...
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
And then Monday at an art show in Miami, they finally unveiled their first new car, their concept car of the future. And Jack, what does this new Jaguar actually look like? Looks a lot like Tesla's cyber cab. It's kind of like a big iPad. It's minimalist. It's got a futuristic design. Coolest part, the front seat is separated from the passenger seat with a wall.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
It's like you're flying business class, but you're in a Jaguar. So besties, Jaguar created controversy. It angered Brits. It burned down its heritage in the biggest British drama since the Magna Carta. But there's two other things you need to know. First, this isn't the first time that Jaguar has radically changed their name.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
No, Jack and I jumped in T-boy style and discovered that Jaguar's original name was SS. But since the Nazis ruined that abbreviation, they originally changed their name to Jaguar. Also, Jaguar is not British anymore. No, it hasn't. In 2008, it was acquired by Tata, which was symbolically significant because India is a former British colony.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
Because the number of male nurses in America has tripled in the past 20 years. And this is actually a double win for the future American workforce. And our third and final story. Bravo and Netflix reality TV show host Ryan Serhant is known for million-dollar real estate listing. But can an influencer launch a real estate app? But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
But the bigger question Jack and I got to ask, after one month of anger, confusion, and intensity, was all this press actually worth it? So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Jaguar? That's actually the wrong question, Nick. Because one man's bad press is another man's good press. Yetis, over the last decade, Jaguar's car sales have fallen 80%. The U.S.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
market share of Jaguar is just 0.05%. Less than one out of a thousand new cars sold in America is a Jag. The brand has become irrelevant. Yet over the last month, Google searches for Jaguar hit their highest level since Google's been keeping track. So coverage of Jaguar's rebrand, it was negative. It was bad press, but that bad press was from car buffs and car buffs aren't buying Jaguars anyway.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
But for a new potential customer base of future Jaguar buyers, this was actually good press. We don't know if this surge in brand buzz will convert to sales. They got to deliver a good electric car first. But we do know that bad press and good press are relative to which audience you're actually trying to talk to.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
And if the old school car press hates this new Jaguar, then new school future EV buyers might actually like it. Because if a brand is trying to pivot to a new customer, one man's bad press is another man's good press. For our second story, the hot new job for men, it's nursing. Male nurses. Yetis, it is a nurse surge. But the biggest surprise isn't the male nurse surge.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
It's which men specifically are becoming nurses. Now, Jack, how about we start this story by sprinkling on some context? Should we turn things over to our buddy Robert De Niro? Let's play this clip from Meet the Parents. Push and play.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
Well, 24 years ago, besties, when that movie came out, nearly 95% of all nurses were women. Economists called nursing a pink-collar job. The data just shows that historically, men gravitated toward being a doctor and women toward nursing. In German, the word for nurse is Krankenschwester, which means sister is in the name nurse. But the reality is, nursing, it is a rough and tough job for anyone.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
I mean, the pandemic was brutal. It was terrible. And it's always been a profession that sees both life on the one hand, but death on the other hand. And yet, society considered it feminine until now. Because here's the news. The number of registered male nurses in America has tripled in the last 20 years.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
Sit down, stand up, and put on some scrubs because men now make up 15% of registered nurses in America, according to the Wall Street Journal. When we were growing up, 1 in 20 nurses were men. Today, 1 in 7 nurses are men. So add it all up and check. Gaylord Focker, he was kind of ahead of his time, wasn't he? Dudes, they're putting on scrubs. Nurses are multiplying, baby.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
But here's the even bigger shocker. What is it, Jeff? The men who are switching into nursing happen to be the most manly macho men of all. They are manly men, men in tights. Because, besties, increasingly, men are leaving male-dominated blue-collar industries to join women-dominated pink-collar industries.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
The Wall Street Journal interviewed a bunch of male nurses down in Georgia, and they happen to be former metal welders. And other men jumping into nursing are ex-military, ex-firefighters, ex-building and destroying things with their hands. They saw the importance of nursing, which traditionally just wasn't a dude field.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
And double interesting, the men going into nursing tend to enter nursing mid-career. Good point, Jack. These are not male nurses who are getting out of college and jumping in at 21 at the nearby hospital. The average age of a first-year male nurse is in their early 30s. So, Jack, we should point out, what is the main reason why this is happening? As always, it's about money.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
Fantastic mix of stories. No one else is doing this mix. The week after Thanksgiving, every family has to face an existential holiday question. It's actually an existential argument. When to buy the Christmas tree. Do you buy immediately and get as many days of merry as possible? Oh. A whole month of mistletoe and ornaments not too shabby. Or do you buy later when it's closer to the festivities?
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
Yeah, the average registered nurse in America has a $95,000 salary, which is 50% higher than the nationwide average salary. But the other reason why 35-year-old dudes are switching their factory gloves for hospital scrubs is... is our takeaway. Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in every industry? Men switching to nursing is actually an AI bull case.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
Yeti's the bigger reason why blue collar guys are jumping into nursing. It's because nursing is AI robot proof. One steel worker who became a nurse told the Wall Street Journal, I'm looking for something safe from automation. And that welder we mentioned earlier thought his job was at risk of robotics taking over. So he jumped into nursing.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
It'll be a blow to many blue collar workers if automation and artificial intelligence replace their once reliable and consistent careers. But this pivot to male nursing, this MERS surge right now, it is a shining example of a win-win double win. Because we have a nationwide shortage of nurses right now.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
So men switching into nursing, it protects that worker's future employment and fills a critical employment gap that we have. Besties, so much of the discussion of artificial intelligence and automation these days is the fear of jobs lost. But the MERS surge, the surge in male nurses, is a bright spot. Yes, it is, Greg. Maybe it's even a model for the future. Greg Falker, you've been redeemed.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
Now, a quick word from our sponsor.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
For our third and final story, Ryan Serhant of Bravo and Netflix fame just launched an app for real estate agents. Because there's a huge underserved workforce that could really benefit from some tech. Besties, you're going to want to send this to your favorite real estate buddy, and then you can charge them a finder's fee after they listen to the episode.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
We'll give you a second to send this pod to them right now. Yeti's owning Manhattan. Million dollar listing. Those are both Bravo and Netflix shows hosted by Ryan Serhant. Ryan Serhant, handsome man, the Martha Stewart of Manhattan real estate, basically. Kim Kardashian of condos. Can we call him the Salt Bay of buildings? You just did, Nick.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
Yeti's Ryan offered $10 million to whichever agent in his TV show could sell a $250 million penthouse in New York City. Ryan Serhant. He's the 40 year old silver Fox who spun his TV fame into his own agency known as Serhant real estate, which is actually the number six firm in New York. But here's the news. Ryan Serhant just closed another deal. And this one does not, doesn't have a good view.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
It was actually a $45 million fundraise from two venture capital firms for his new tech startup. That's right. The reality show real estate influencer is now a tech founder. He launched an app called Simple, which awkwardly has a period in the middle. It's kind of an annoying spelling, but we'll get to that later. In the meantime, this app replaces admin work for salespeople.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
I'm kind of still eating Thanksgiving leftovers. It doesn't feel like Christmas tea drop and shine. It turns out, Yetis, there's another key variable you have to consider when timing your Christmas tree purchase. And what is that, Jack? The price. Price, get this, besties. According to the payments company Square, the price of a Christmas tree declines every single day. until Christmas.
The Best One Yet
😼 “New car, who dis?” — Jaguar’s rebrand controversy. The Manly Nurse Surge. Bravo’s real estate app.
It uses tech and AI to give a real estate agent time back so they can actually sell. never fill out a form again. Never fill out a form again. Those words are music to the ears of real estate agents. Because here's the interesting thing if you do not work in real estate yetis. Real estate salespeople, they have unfortunately become administrative people.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
This is Nick. It's Wednesday, ceviche Wednesday, April 2nd, and today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Oh, Jack and I are coming at you with an update from the Ambies, the Oscars of podcasting, baby. First of all, go right now to our Instagram because we have some fantastic behind the scenes highlights.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
According to our internal T-Boy podcast listener data. You, yes, you are listening right now on an iPhone. But despite how much you think you know your iPhone, you don't really know your iPhone. True, because besties, the true story of how the iPhone was born is barely even known at Apple. Did you know that at first, Steve Jobs hated the idea of the iPhone? Yeah, that's right.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
Okay, so Zuck got his team together a few years ago and said, you know what? We're going to copy that same formula that TikTok uses with a new thing called Reels. He zucked the idea. He told his engineers, do exactly what TikTok is doing, but in this new tab called Reels that we're putting in Facebook and Instagram.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
Now to go back to when Jack and I were roommates together in college, you know, back then you would write on someone's Facebook wall after a party, maybe give them a poke and then you tag them in some birthday pics, right? But today you open Instagram and you just scroll videos of some hotel influencer you never met and then swipe to the next video, another influencer you've never met.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
And then another video of like some news clip. It's a friendless space. It's actually a very different physical action because today you're just scrolling through and consuming. But 15 years ago, you would make actions and interact. It's a different physical action. But ironically, all the changes that have happened to Facebook, which Zuck was behind, now he wants to undo them all.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
Because Zuck has realized that Facebook's original friend focus from 15 years ago is actually a differentiator today. So he's changing the app to be more about friends, less about strangers. The OG Facebook, it's back like 2006 spring break with Carson Daly. Zuck realized there are no social networks anymore. There's only stranger networks.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
Now, Zuck likes that social networks are now stranger networks, doesn't he, Jack? But on Facebook, he's bringing back the friends tab. It will be free of promoted posts and free of content from people you're not friends with. you're actually going to see your buddy, Timmy. And Jack, we should untag him in that photo. So man, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are everyone in social media?
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
Prediction. Gen Z is about to turn Facebook into a verb again. Now, yetis, we've said that retro tech is having a comeback right now. It's the return of Y2K. Remember how Yahoo email address signups are jumping right now? Yeah, and also, we've told you our 20-year rule of nostalgia. Facebook was launched in 2004, basically 20 years ago.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
And we know that loneliness levels have hit record highs among young people. In part because of the algorithms which send us down friendless holes of content with strangers. So Jackson, my prediction, it's that Gen Z will embrace Facebook for the first time in their lives. The next time you see a 20-something, they might be poking instead of TikToking.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for Savice Wednesday? Hooters is bankrupt, but it's getting bought back and re-Hooterized by the OG founders. Hooters changed sports bars by 3% and it worked back then. It's Virgil Abloh's fashion rule in action. For our second story, Canada's new PM is declaring a warlike plan to double the number of new homes built.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
But the key is cutting red tape, which looks like an everything bagel of policies. And our third and final story, Zuckerberg is making changes to Facebook that will prioritize friends. It's going from a stranger network back to a social network. And we think Gen Z is going to make Facebook a verb again. But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
Okay, the front pages of CNBC, Wall Street Journal, and every other major news source have been the same for four straight days, right, man? Speculation about Trump's tariffs. What will he do? What won't he do? What will he pretend he's going to do? What will he fake us about? Nobody knows, but we will actually find out today when the president announces Liberation Day at the White House.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
We'll digest, we'll analyze, and we'll probably whip up a takeaway about it in tomorrow's pod. And second, OpenAI just snagged the biggest private fundraise in the history of money. Again. I feel like every time they raise money, it's the biggest ever. Hey, Sam, you set your own record again. You beat yourself.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
This time, OpenAI raised $40 billion from venture capitalists at a $300 billion valuation. But there is one interesting caveat, isn't there, Jack? Some of that money is conditioned upon OpenAI successfully converting to become a for-profit company. And awkwardly, Elon Musk sued OpenAI to stop that conversion, and that case is going to trial.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
The iPhone, the most influential invention of the last hundred years. The iPhone, the most profitable product of all time. The iPhone, Steve Jobs' creation that changed the world. But the man credited with creating it actively fought against it. And honestly, we had no idea until we did the research for our weekly show. The real origin of the iPhone begins with a guy named Tony. That's right.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
And finally, the NFL is eliminating the first down chains. They're going full electronic to decide if you got a first down or not. You're not going to call out the chain gang anymore. We're not going to look at the chain and the tip of the football and see if it touches it. Okay, just repeat.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
We're talking about the two dudes with the two big things with a chain between them that awkwardly sprint onto the field. Full disclosure, I've been a member of several chain gangs. The worst part is if there's a tackle happening over there, you might get destroyed as a member of the chain gang. It's an awkward position, Jack. I'm glad you shared that with us. Now time for the best fact yet.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
This one whipped up by Jack and me to tell you the best brand April Fool's jokes from 24 hours ago. Yesterday, Subway introduced Subway. It's a line of protein shakes from the Subway chain that isn't happening, but actually should happen, yeah. Then Yahoo launched a touch grass keyboard.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
Which is a keyboard with actual grass growing in between the keys, so you get a little outdoor time when you're typing away. Then Ikea launched a new store concept called the linear store layout. It's actually a straight line, not a maze. You're in and out in 20 seconds. It's actually wonderful. And then the Kansas City chief shared a picture of Andy Reid, but with no mustache.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
Right, which was only topped by Warren Buffett, who's going to acquire Tesla for $1 trillion. That last one wasn't an April Fool's joke. It was just a lie. Oh, by the way, Skims is not launching a Wall Street lie. That was our April Fool's joke. A lot of people wanted the Skims sweat-wicking shirts. Yeah, we made that one up. I hope that didn't feel like a lie.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
I think that was pretty clearly a joke. But that's a story for another pod. Yetis, you look fantastic today, and we know exactly where you should go after this show, because we've got the best idea yet for you. We got a link in the episode description to hear the untold origin story of the iPhone.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
You are listening to us probably, statistically speaking, mathematically, on an iPhone right now, but you don't know where that iPhone really began. And if you missed the iPod, This story goes in that too. Oh, we're going back into the grand papa of the iPhone. Tap the link in the episode description. Nick and I will see you tomorrow. Can't wait.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
And before we go, a happy birthday to Yeti Sofia Rodriguez, turning 14 years old down in Greensboro, North Carolina. And happy birthday to my buddy Dave Fleming from Brattleboro, Vermont, now crushing the slopes in Utah. And Hannah, the Yeti I ran into on the airplane with her luggage. Hannah, fantastic to have you with the show. I'm glad we saw you on the way back from Chicago.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
Thanks for enjoying the pod. Congratulations to Will Martin of Cork, Ireland, who won a golden tie at the Starties in New York City. And congratulations to Guy Raz and the How I Built This team who won Best Business Podcast at the Ambys. We were honored to be up there with you. What an amazing group of nominees and what an incredible show and experience, man.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
We were hoping we would win, but if anyone was going to beat us, we're glad it's you. Congratulations, guys. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon and Nick and I both own stock of Apple.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
And a top secret team over at Apple named Project Purple. And while Darth Vader was Luke's father, the iPod was the iPhone's father. So yetis, check out the latest episode of our weekly show, The Best Idea Yet. Every week we go deep on the untold origin stories of the products you're obsessed with. This week, it's the iPhone. Hey Siri, do you know how the iPhone became the iPhone?
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
She doesn't even know, Jack. Can you believe? No one knows. Because the iPhone is simply the best idea yet. Oh, but today's show, today's three stories for T-Boy are fantastic.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
Spoiler, we didn't wear tuxes. But I got to say, you look glam over there, Jack. That was impressive, man. I mean, you literally did the glam cam. You know, my first time doing the glam cam, I would do another one very soon. I like that. Now, we didn't end up winning Best Business Podcast. That went to Guy Raz and How I Built This. Incredible.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
For our first story, Hooters restaurants just filed for bankruptcy so that the OG founders can buy back the chain. The old Hooters is dead, and Hooters Airlines illustrates why. That's right. They had an airline. But Jack, let's travel back in time for a moment. 42 years ago, six businessmen started a restaurant chain that they couldn't get kicked out of. That wasn't a lead into a joke.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
That was like what was written on their founding documents for this brand new restaurant chain. Cooters Incorporated, a place where guys will never get kicked out. Or if you wanted to shorten that, you would call it Hooters, delightfully tacky yet unrefined. Hooters. They serve tall drinks served by waitresses in short skirts.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
But like the Red Lobster and TGI Fridays, Hooters has become a victim of the macroeconomic environment. And cultural environment. They got sued recently because they wouldn't allow male waiters. And now they're ending their Hooters bikini nights as well. Hooters peaked at 400 restaurants doing $1.2 billion in annual revenue, but now they're a third smaller than they used to be. So here's the news.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
Hooters just filed for bankruptcy. The original founders plan to buy back the company from its current ownership and bring some heat back to those wings. Now, yetis, this is what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. While everyone was distracted by the Hooters' staff, we noticed that Hooters was more experimental as a food chain than we realized.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
First, in 1993, Hooters basically pioneered chicken wings as a scalable food at sports bars. Basically, they realized that the wing of the chicken was the most profitable part of the bird. But then, over the next two decades, as the chain grew nationwide, they really tested the limits of the Hooters brand. We jumped in T-boy style.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
In 2006, Hooters opened a Las Vegas casino that actually lasted 13 years until they shut it down. And then in 2007, they launched Hooters Energy Drink, which also shut down eventually. But we're not going to stop there, are we, Jack? Hooters Airlines was launched in 2003. Hooters leased seven airplanes from Boeing to launch an airline.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
Then they would put three of their waitresses as the flight crew on each of those airlines. What was Hooters Airlines like? Well, same dress code as the restaurants, same chicken wings and beer, just all served at 30,000 feet. And now the interesting innovation, I guess you'd call it, Jack, is that they basically turned the entire cabin into a bar, a sports bar. NFL games and in-flight trivia.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
Yeah. That's what you got on Hooters Airlines. You like yell bingo from row 34B. It was a pretty niche market though. They actually targeted dudes going on golf trips. It's hard to build a world-class nationwide airline when you're dependent upon single dudes who have a little bit of vacation time.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
If you're going to lose to one show, that's exactly the legendary man you want to lose to. But we did win on the red carpet. So check out at T-Boy Pod on Instagram. Yetis, we had a blast. Thank you for helping us almost win that award. And Jack, three stories for today's show. What do we got? For our first story, it's Hooters.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
So after just three years, in a tough moment for airlines, we should add, Hooters Airlines shut down in 2006. Well, now the founders seem to have learned their lesson about just experimenting with too many wild things, and their new strategy is back to the Hooters roots. Or as they call it, re-Hooterization.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
They're actually hoping for a more wholesome, family-friendly vibe when they emerge from bankruptcy. Again, bikini night on Thursday, canceled. Ha! Can't believe we even have to say that they're doing that. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are delightfully tacky and self-aware over at Hooters? Virgil Abloh's 3% rule applies to sports bars just as much as it does sneakers.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
Yetis, Hooters built something that there was demand for. A sports bar, but man-cavified. Or to quote the founders, a sports bar that no guy would ever get kicked out of. And the dress code of the Hooters waitresses was really the only difference. It was a sports bar with a 3% change to the status quo. The waitresses. That was the difference from a typical sports bar. Just a 3% difference.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
That's all it took. Well, Jack and I put our strategy hats on, and famed fashion designer Virgil Abloh, he was famous for this concept. Give the customer 97% of what they know, but just change up 3% to make it feel novel. Hooters did that, and it worked. But then they went way beyond the 3% change when it came to the airlines and the casinos.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
Jack, turning an airplane into a sports bar, that's more than a 3% change. That is a 300% change. Too much. So now Hooters is returning to their original 3% innovation. A regular sports bar, but 3% more unrefined. Because the way we see it, Virgil Abloh's 3% rule of innovation applies to sports bars as much as it does to sneakers.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
For our second story, to solve the housing crisis, Canada whipped out a World War II era plan. Canada's Department of Building Homes may actually be the perfect plan for America. Well, Jack, if we're going to talk World War II plans, let's go back to 1945, back when Canada had a real serious housing crisis, man.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
Soldiers returning home from war needed to start their new lives, but they needed a roof over their heads first. Well, fast forward to today and Canada's new prime minister says we are facing the same housing crisis now. But not for soldiers. Right. For everyone. Boom. Here is the new goal for Canada's new PM. Double the number of homes that are built annually in the country to 500,000.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
500,000 homes a year in Canada. That's enough to fit 21,000 Vancouver Canuck hockey teams. Maybe it's the maple syrup talking here, Jack. But you know what? We could use some of that World War II housing planning down here in America as well. I mean, we've been saying on this pod for years, build, baby, build.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
The restaurant chain famous for their company dress code just filed for bankruptcy. So we got to talk about the time Hooters launched Hooters Airline. True story. For our second story, Canada's new prime minister just announced a dramatic plan to solve their housing crisis. And it's based on a World War II playbook, and it involves Long Island.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
Because both the United States and Canada have decades of underbuilding that simply hasn't kept up with our growing populations. Check your bank account. Both the US and Canada spend way too much of our paychecks on rent or mortgages. The high price of housing, in our opinion, is the biggest source of anxiety, full stop, in our country. Which is why we saw this story and we had to cover it.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
Canada is creating a, and I feel like we need a horn announcement here, Jack. Department of Building Homes. It is a wartime plan to cut time and cost of building a home. Now, the name of the new entity is actually Build Canada Homes, and it's going to act like a housing developer. Now, they're going to do the expected stuff.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
They're going to give incentives to builders, and they're going to give tax breaks to developers to build more homes. Okay, but Jack, what's the key really interesting thing that they're also doing over there? They're pumping 17 billion US dollars into specifically factory-built houses. Factory-built houses. Yetis, that's the plan up in Canada. But Jack, Am I wrong?
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
But where have we seen such a similar plan before? We saw a similar plan here in the States, in Levittown, New York. Right down the LIE from where your dad grew up, right, man? My dad was born in Levittown. It's a little Long Island town, which was America's own post-war housing solution. You read about this stuff in history textbooks. Yeah, let's go back to 1947.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
Back then, Levittown would let World War II veterans choose from six different housing markets. There were only six choices for your house and fewer options let them mass produce 6,000 new homes in record time. So Jack, basically your grandparents were looking at these six options and one of them was a model house called the Cape Cod house.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
Yeah, the Cape Cod was a 1,000 square foot house that they were offering for just $10,000 at the time. Adjust for inflation, that's a $140,000 home in today's money, not too shabby. And since they mass produced it, it was a pretty good house despite that low price. Three bedrooms, one bath, and the kind of kitchen that makes you want to carve up a roast ham for the whole family.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
And those are the vibes that Canada is trying to achieve again today. Mass produced houses in factories to keep costs down. Now, there is another way to keep costs down. Yeah, there is. Rip up the red tape. And that other way leads to our takeaway. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are everyone in the home market? What does red tape look like? It looks like an everything bagel.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
Yeah, yetis. Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, two economic policy wonks, they just published a book called Abundance. In that book, they describe the housing policy fails that have been happening for decades in blue states. For example, in Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco. Basically all the places I've spent most of my time are live jack.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
You know, they would pass a bill with a billion dollars for affordable housing, but that bill would then get suffocated by other priorities. Other priorities like the house must be built by a minority owned home builder.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
or that the home builder must employ female construction workers at a higher rate, or that the houses must only use green building materials, or that the houses must have extra-inclusive disabilities access. Now, after all of that combined red tape requirements, it actually cost around $800,000 to build each one of those quote-unquote affordable units.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
And our third and final story, Zuck is turning back the clocks on your Facebook feed. Instead of a cacophony of videos from people you don't know, Facebook is bringing back the friend. Isn't it cacophony? That's what I said, Jack. Cacophony. Yeah, it is before we had that wonderful mix of stories. Fantastic mix of stories. What a mix for a Ceviche Wednesday.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
In other words, all those priorities, which are valid and worthy in their own right, had the effect of killing the affordable housing bill. And that is called the everything bagel problem. And it's why we appreciate Canada's wartime branding of the continence housing crisis. To build affordable housing, you must focus on affordability and nothing else. And what does red tape actually look like?
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
Well, it looks like an everything bagel. Now, a quick word from our sponsor.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
For our third and final story, Zuckerberg, who dismantled Facebook to make it more like TikTok, now wants to bring back the OG Facebook. What's it all mean? One social network is actually getting social again. Now, yetis, Jack and I just flew back from Chicago. I was in the aisle.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
I was seated next to a grandfather, and that grandpa actually spent two-thirds of the flight flipping through Facebook. Honestly, my neighbor, who was a grandma, did the same exact thing. Yeah, it makes sense. Facebook is now basically a digital senior center. That's what it is. It's the Boca Raton of social networks. It is, and we've got the data to back it up.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
55 to 64-year-olds use Facebook the most, and the younger you get, the less you use it. You see, it's actually the opposite with TikTok. 18 to 24-year-olds use TikTok the most, and the older you get, the less you use it.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
Now, honestly, we think Facebook should just embrace the boomer generation, but after 10 years of Facebook basically being a punchline and losing users, Zuck wants to make Facebook cool again. Or, based on his new political identity, he wants to make Facebook great again. Which leads to the news. Zuck is bringing back elements of the OG Facebook, including the Friends tab. Translation?
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
We can stop swiping on strangers, and we can start poking friends again. And if you don't know what we mean by poking friends... It's totally appropriate. It's totally appropriate, and you're not going to get our next Y2K reference either. So Jack, to sprinkle on more context here, could you please tell us about the year 2018? In 2018, TikTok arrived in the US in a real way.
The Best One Yet
👙 “Final Hoot” — Hooters’ Re-hooterization. Facebook’s OG makeover. Canada’s WWII housing solution.
And that's when social media started to become anti-social. Because TikTok prioritized videos, not images and text. And those videos are of people you don't know. And watching those videos of strangers you do not know, it turns out that was algorithmically addictive. TikTok started stealing time spent on Instagram and Facebook.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
This is Nick. This is Jack. It is Tuesday, T-Boy. Tuesday, April 29th. And today's show is the best one yet. This is a T-Boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Yeti's Bill Belichick may not know where he met his girlfriend. But Jack and I know that these are the three best business stories you are going to hear anywhere today. Great call. We're not getting into that.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
On the other hand, UNC's fencing team, they're not getting any revenue because their sport doesn't generate it. And that's the key here. That is one reason why UNC is pushing this new influencer course, this new influencer academy. They're trying to help the non-stars make money too.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
Now, we should point out the school, UNC, isn't going to get any money from the social media earnings of their athletes. If a wrestler posts a promoted post for Kellogg, the wrestler keeps all the money. Or here's a good example. The UNC star basketball player on the women's team, she has 132,000 followers. And how much does she make when she does promoted posts, Jack? 15,000 per Instagram post.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
Now we should point out, Jack and I are both student athletes here. I played the full contact sport of lacrosse and Jack played the partial contact sport of quarterback and football. So we know there are challenges for student athletes already. Well, for us, we had to be students and athletes. Me not getting hit most of the time. But these guys have to be influencers running a business as well.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
Plus, you got to spend two hours every day getting taped up in the trainer's room because that's part of the job. I need more stim. More stim. No, not the ice bath. Not again. You know, Jack, we played the UNC men's lacrosse team once in college, and they just had the best calves I've ever seen. You say that about every team. It's a side note. I just thought I'd share it publicly.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
Starbucks literally acquired the Frappuccino IP, all of the IP. Even fewer people know that Starbucks' famous CEO, Howard Schultz, hated the idea at first. That's true. Howard actually thought that the Frappuccino was an insult to coffee culture. And yet today, without the Frappuccino, we wouldn't have iced lattes.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are anyone trying to grow something on social media? To win on TikTok, you don't have to dance. Yeah, it is. Jack and I jumped in T-boy style to the training materials from the influencer consulting firm that they shared with UNC.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
We learned that the biggest reason athletes don't want to post on social media is what this consulting firm calls the cringe hump. Ah, the cringe hump. Athletes are worried that they'd have to do silly dances or cliche TikTok videos in order to win on social media. But there's actually other ways. The real way to win followers is through consistently posting their special, unique talents.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
For a D1 gymnast, it was simply showing the intensity of her daily training ritual. For a wrestler, It was simply showing us the proper way that he does a bench press. The insight is that what is basic to the athlete is actually hugely sought after by their followers. And that's a lesson to anyone trying to build a following for themselves or for a brand online.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
If you're worried about the cringe hump, just remember you don't have to dance. You simply have to show us the thing you're so good at.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for T-Boy Tuesday? China's tariffs have inadvertently created a baby tax, as 97% of baby gear and 80% of toys are made in China. If tariffs remain, we need exemptions, and the very first should exempt the baby tax. For our second story, Star Wars Episode III brought in $42 million at the box office this weekend.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
Half went to theaters, half went to Disney. So to save theaters on slow weekends, they should turn their clocks back... 20 years. For our third and final story, UNC Chapel Hill is giving all student athletes an orientation class to make money as an influencer. D1 Affluencers. Because to win on TikTok, you don't have to dance. But Yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
I'm sorry, is there a typo here in our notes, Jack? I'm seeing that we have some deflation news. Is that correct? As in the opposite of inflation. Plane tickets are actually getting cheaper. Domestic demand to travel in the air is dropping because of economic uncertainty. Now, the latest data we have is for March, where airfare fares fell 5% from last year.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
But airline CEOs said in earning calls that it was worse in April, so prices are probably going down even more. Second, Washington Commanders, the football team, just announced a $4 billion deal to move back across the river into the city of D.C. They're moving from Virginia back to Washington. Yeah. The Washington football team is redeveloping where RFK Stadium currently is.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
That happens to be where the Then Redskins football team won three Super Bowls in the 80s and 90s. The city of Washington DC, by the way, is forking in $1.1 billion to support the new stadium, which opens in 2030. And finally, we just got the ultimate example of bring your kid to work day we have ever seen.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
A stock analyst at Jefferies brought their kid into the office for earnings season and put the kid on the phone. That's right. This kid then grilled the CEO of Pepsi during the Pepsi earnings call and asked like a pretty tough question of them. The 13-year-old girl, Melina, asked the CEO of Pepsi, what are you doing to stop Ozempic from hurting your snack sales?
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
Today, without the Frappuccino, Starbucks would still just be a regional coffee house. And today, without the Frappuccino, Zoolander would still have his three male model buddies.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
I'm just pointing out, Jack, Pepsi stock is down since that earnings call. So she's asking the tough questions over there. Now time for the best fact yet, which is this specific statistic. Every day in the United States, 47 children age zero to 19 years old are diagnosed with cancer.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
Now that fact, that shocking fact was sent in by Yeti Daniel Paul, a longtime Bestie listener whose son Jack passed away just this past February. So to honor his son, we both donated personally to a cancer research organization called that Daniel is promoting in his son's memory. And because we think this is really important, we were also just really hit and surprised by this.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
And we just appreciate Daniel as such a longtime listener. We wanted to share more information with you. It's called the Morgan Adams Foundation, but the website you can go to is ithasbeenapleasure.com. And Jack, it's such a unique name for a website. Why is it called ithasbeenapleasure.com? It has been a pleasure was Jack's catchphrase.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
Daniel, thank you for telling us the story about Jack and for sharing more information so that we can all participate if we want. And honestly, there's few better life sentiments I can think of, Jack, than the concept of it has been a pleasure. Yetis, you look fantastic today. And odds are, statistically speaking, and I know Jack is right now, holding a coffee in your right or left hand.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
And if you are, check out our episode of The Best Idea Yet about the Frappuccino. It's a wild one. The Starbucks Frappuccino and the real dude behind it. So Jack and I will see you on The Best Idea Yet. Enjoy the show. And before we go, a happy birthday to Yeti and Laura Bruskin down in Arlington, Virginia. And happy 18th birthday to Drew Kosmak in Chicago, Illinois.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
And we got a birthday for Jay Farrick, who's celebrating at T-Boy University, if you know, you know. And happy birthday to the prolific Andrew Zucker from New York City. No one writes better and deserves a headline better than the man, Andrew Z. Zucker. Happy 43 years together to Henry and Karen down in Texas. And Daniel Prado refused to not be polite to chat GPT. And Daniel, the robots love you.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Disney and Netflix. If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
Yeah, it is. No matter how you take your coffee, this story, the true origin story of the Frappuccino is for you. So check out the latest episode of our weekly show, The Best Idea Yet. Because this week, we'll tell you the true beginnings of the Starbucks Frappuccino and how it was in Starbucks. Tap the link in the episode descriptions or search The Best Idea Yet wherever you get your podcasts.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
But Jack, today's show, fantastic. Should we hit our three stories?
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
For our first story, tariffs will hit one particular group more than any other, and it happens to be the cutest group in America. Babies. China tariffs have inadvertently created a baby tax. But yet is, to start by sprinkling on some personal context here, Jack had a baby like six weeks ago. I know.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
We're not getting into that. We're not getting into that. But just trust us on it. Jack, three stories for today's show. What do we got on the pot? For our first story, the biggest tariff in this trade war is on strollers. Yep. Baby strollers. Goo goo ga ga. It's a family tax, which is why if the tariffs don't end, the exemptions won't. will begin.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
And Jack, did you consider one of the most popular strollers in the country, the legendary Uppa Baby? Yeah, we got that with our first baby. Okay. Now it's having its third baby butt sitting inside of it. We actually have one of these too. My dad calls it the Cadillac for kids. Because this thing has four-wheel drive, full suspension, leather interior, but it's pricey.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
Yeah, this is a $900 stroller. Oh, but wait, do you see the chassis on this thing? Although, Jack, 900 bucks, that's going to sound cheap compared to the price starting this week. The price of the Uppa Baby Premier Stroller is going up to $1,200, a $300 increase. Because one baby registry site spilled the beans on her price sheet for baby products for the next week.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
Maybe you didn't get the UPPAbaby and you're looking at the Thule baby stroller. That's Swedish design, but it's made in China too. So it's going from $650 this week to $900. Now, Thule did buy extra inventory ahead of tariff, so their price hike is effective in June, not May. But still, baby gear is getting a big price pop, isn't it, Jack?
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
Yeah, and it's not just the big stuff that comes on wheels. Those scent-containing diaper trash cans, you know, those things that keep the stink inside? 40% higher prices right now. How about baby bottles, Nick? Those are going up 50%, and your baby's got to drink. If you've got a baby in diapers, you're going to notice this price pop in virtually all the baby gear that you buy.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
In fact, add it up, and the CEO of BabyList estimates that these tariffs on China are going to add an extra $1,000 across the board for new parents with babies. But the baby tax doesn't end after you go in for the six-month checkup for little Johnny. It grows up into a kid tax, too. By the way, we should point out, baby gear is like football equipment. You need it to step on the field.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
The only person this is good for, this tariff, is the Facebook marketplace section for baby goods. Yeah, you're not playing the Pittsburgh Steelers unless you got a helmet, shoulder pads, and a jockstrap on, and you're not raising a baby without diapers, a diaper pail, and a solid stroller. Now, like any war, trade wars have various fronts.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
And this story reveals that we're particularly vulnerable on our young flank. Get this, yetis. 97% of strollers, made in China. 91% of high chairs, made in China. 87% of car seats, Jack, why don't you take the honors? Made in China. By the way, we've bought six car seats because we have two cars and we have three kids. They add up, Nick. At that point, you could probably buy a yacht, Jack.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
Oh, Nick, and it's digital too. Nearly 100% of baby monitors are made in China. But it doesn't just stop at babies when it comes to this family tax, does it, Jack? There's the toy tax, because 80% of toys bought in America are made in China, according to the New York Times. So four out of five teddy bears are stitched up in Beijing, and now their prices are probably going to get near doubled.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
Now, you might be thinking, isn't the whole point of this trade war to get stuff to be made in the USA? Well, we were thinking it too. And as the CEO of sippy cup company Munchkin said, they could do that, but the cost would go up by double to manufacture in the United States. Yeah. America decided decades ago that China would make our baby stuff because it's cheaper.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
For our second story, Star Wars Episode III, The Revenge of the Sith, just celebrated its 20-year anniversary by re-releasing in movie theaters, and it made $42 million at the box office. The Star Wars re-release may hold the solution to save movie theaters. Help us re-release. You're our only hope. And our third and final story. UNC Chapel Hill just launched a class for its varsity athletes.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
To undo that, it would also take decades and it would make things more expensive in the end. Now, in Trump's first trade war from like six years ago, farmers were the losers as China stopped buying U.S. grown crops. And during that first trade war, Trump compensated farmers with tariff revenue. So? We expect something similar to happen this time, but for parents.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
And the entire baby and children's industries are lobbying hard for it right now. In the meantime, Jack, let us know when you toss that up a baby stroller on Facebook Marketplace. I will. It's got to go to a Yeti first. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are everyone facing the baby tax? If the trade war doesn't end, the family exemption will begin.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
Yetis, one trend we expect to see if the trade war continues is this word, exemptions. Specific industries or products will be strategically excluded from tariffs. If a product is important to a politically important demographic, it'll probably get an exemption.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
President Trump already made a carve-out for electronics like iPhones because $2,000 iPhones would have been particularly angry for voters. Well, if these tariffs remain in place, we expect lots of exemptions, many more to come. But there's no more sympathetic demographic than new parents. And Trump, he says his administration's goal is to increase the birth rate.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
Well, the entire kid-baby economy is made in China, which currently has the highest tariffs of 145%. So if this trade war continues without a deal, it must continue with exemptions. And the exemption on the baby tariff or the family tax, we expect that will be the first. Don't do it for the babies. Do it for the parents.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
For our second story, the Star Wars 20-year anniversary re-release was such a success this past weekend, it's a lesson to all of modern cinema. We think the re-release can save the movie theater. And we got the numbers to back it up. But Jack, first, allow me to read this long thing. Are you going to do the opening credits thing?
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
Jack, this past weekend, in a theater far, far away, the force was strong in 2,800 movie theaters across North America. Yeah, it is 20 years after premiering in the year 2005. The final prequel of Star Wars came back to theaters this past weekend. That's right, Star Wars Episode III, Revenge of the Sith. And it was the number two film at the box office this past weekend.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
And now, Jack, when you say number two film, can you please sprinkle on some numerical context for us what that means? $25 million of tickets sold domestically plus $17 million abroad is a $42 million haul. Ching, ching, ching. Now, Disney takes half of that, but the theater, they get to keep the rest.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
Translation, a 20-year-old Star Wars movie just made Disney $21 million of pure profit in just three days. Two and a half million Americans paid 10 bucks each to see Star Wars in theaters. Even though you've been able to watch it for free on Disney Plus for like seven years. That tension made us realize there is something going on here.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
It shows that the demand for in-real-life collective fan experiences is more powerful now. than the greatest force in the galaxy. Basically, you'd rather watch Star Wars with a bunch of dudes dressed up as droids plus one woman dressed up as droids. Yeah, dressing up as Chewbacca is a lot more enjoyable if you're not the only one doing it. That yet is.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
If this weekend's re-release was Luke Skywalker, then 1997's re-release of the first Star Wars was Yoda. That's right. Here's what Jack and I find fascinating. Back in 1997, the 20-year re-release of the original first Star Wars, Episode IV, brought in 50% more revenue in its reopening weekend.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
In fact, Jack and I just dove in even further and discovered that the re-release industry is really, really enormous. Titanic did a 15-year and 25-year re-release, and combined in those two events, they brought in $420 million of box office globally. Jack, how about The Lion King? 2011, it returned to theaters, and that cartoon bought in $186 million. Jurassic Park, Avatar, The Exorcist.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
How to become an influencer. But to win on social media, you don't have to dance. And we will explain it. But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Whoa! What a mix of stories for T-Boy Tuesday. There is one coffee that disrupted the beans business model more than any other. And what is that coffee, Jack? The Frappuccino.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
They all put up giant numbers, even though they were old films. Besties, what Jack and I are saying is the business model of the re-release is so smart, it deserves an Oscar. For theaters, the re-release is a reliable seat filler. Exactly. They selectively choose weekends when no other blockbusters are premiering or releasing.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
And for studios, the 50% cut of ticket sales, that's pure profit when it's a re-release. The movie budget was already paid for and there's no marketing needed because the movie is already so well known. So it's a double dip for the studios. Yes, it is. Like Darth Maul's double-sided lightsaber. Profitable it is. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies doing the re-release?
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
To save movie theaters, set their clocks back 20 years. Follow us on this one, yetis. If you adjust for inflation, movie theaters are still half as lucrative as they were before the pandemic. That's brutal. It is. Basically, Netflix's gain is movie theaters' pain. But there's one big way that cinemas can adapt to the streaming era. Here's what Jack and I are thinking.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
During slow weekends, fill the blockbuster gap with whatever happened 20 years ago. The success of the Star Wars re-release is more proof of our 20-year rule of nostalgia. A 20-year-old nostalgia. That 20 years after an event is the optimal time when demand is all the way back up. After 20 years, it's novel for young Star Wars fans who get to see it in theaters for the first time.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
And for those who did see it in theaters 20 years ago, now reliving the magic, it is nostalgic. And this formula can work for things beyond movies. Like the Red Sox. Let's say they won the World Series 20 years ago. Show Game 7 against the Yankees in its entirety in theaters. Everyone in Boston will go. Because here's the key. Fans like being among other fans for a collective experience.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
And the re-release guarantees that. Wild idea to save the movie theater business. Set their clocks back 20 years.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
For our third and final story, the University of North Carolina has added a new course to its athletic student orientation, Influencer Academy. Colleges are training affluencers, and it's actually a business lesson for all of us. Now, yetis, Jack and I have no connection to the University of North Carolina UNC, but we got to say, there is no college better at branding
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
The chilly milkshake of a coffee that turned drinks into a dessert. The Starbucks Frappuccino. 30 years ago, the world's first Frappuccino was blended. Got to correct ourselves, Jack, because did you know the Starbucks Frappuccino wasn't exactly invented by Starbucks? That's right. The Frappuccino name and recipe was actually invented by an independent coffee shop in Boston. That's right.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
than the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, UNC. Piper, no! Didn't she go to UNC? Yeah, this is the only school to own part of the color spectrum. Chapel Hill Blue. 3% of the students at that university are varsity athletes. That means 850 student-athletes across 28 sports. And the newest talk at their orientation, what was it, Jack? Becoming a D1 influencer.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
Social media is part of the curriculum. Because UNC partnered with a creator economy consulting firm called Article 41. It's led by a Tar Heel alum, and they're basically talent agents... for Instagram influencers. Their biggest client, Alex Earl. And what they've added to UNC is basically a customized course and orientation on how to make it on social media.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
How to convert your followers into income. We looked at this course and basically this is a form of financial literacy. Treat TikTok like a trade. at least for the fit co-eds who are kind of famous on campus. Now, Yeti's the reason Jack and I were fascinated with this story is that UNC's D1 Influencer Program is a case study to understand the NIL and the ath-fluencer industry.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
Now, before the 2018 Supreme Court decision to let amateur athletes get paid, college athletics was a different transaction. And what was that transaction, Jack? Scholarships. Athletes got a free education, which is like a $200,000 value, in exchange for their skills on the field, which helped market the university.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
But soon, since this Supreme Court decision, colleges will begin paying athletes directly for the first time ever. That's according to an NCAA settlement. There's going to be a revenue share. A revenue share. And here's how it works. UNC makes $95 million every year in media, merch, and ticket sales on all that bright blue athletic material.
The Best One Yet
👶 “End the $1K Baby Tax” — Tariffs crush strollers. Star Wars’ epic re-release. UNC’s D1 ath-fluencer class.
And they're going to share 22% of it starting this year with the athletes playing in those games. That's right. In 2025, $21 million will be paid out to the athletes who play for UNC. But it's only for the revenue-generating sports, we should point out. Good point, Jack. Like football, baseball, basketball, they're going to get big checks.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “AI’s Goodwill Hunting moment” — China’s DeepSeek Drama. Coke vs Pepsi vs Costco. Unlimited PTO Paradox.
Let's hit them, Jack. Cheers. Start the show.
The Best One Yet
👺 “Nightime beast, daytime beauty” — The Ugly Beauty trend. Hot Debt Summer. Lilo & Stitch’s recipe.
I would define reclaiming as to take back what was yours. Something you possess is lost or stolen, and ultimately you triumph in finding it again. Listen to Reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky wherever you get your podcasts.
The Best One Yet
👺 “Nightime beast, daytime beauty” — The Ugly Beauty trend. Hot Debt Summer. Lilo & Stitch’s recipe.
Yeah.
The Best One Yet
👺 “Nightime beast, daytime beauty” — The Ugly Beauty trend. Hot Debt Summer. Lilo & Stitch’s recipe.
Seriously.
The Best One Yet
👶 “IBO: Initial Baby Offering” — Podcast Update…
This is Nick, and this is... Oh, yeah, you got that bell from the New York Stock Exchange. It means one thing and one thing only. IBO, Initial Baby Offering. Yetis, Jack and I were so excited to whip up the best one yet for T-Boy Tuesday for you. We have three fantastic pop biz stories ready. But that's a story for another pod. Literally. Because Jack's wonderful wife, Alex, went into labor.
The Best One Yet
👶 “IBO: Initial Baby Offering” — Podcast Update…
parenting. Plus, we also just dropped the latest episode of our weekly show, The Best Idea Yet. And guess what the topic is? Sesame Street, the untold origin story of the most influential kids show ever. What are the odds? Our Sesame Street episode is dropping on The Best Idea Yet the same week as Jack's brand new baby. It's perfect. And honestly, we didn't even plan that.
The Best One Yet
👶 “IBO: Initial Baby Offering” — Podcast Update…
But two weeks ago, I got to hang out with Jack at his place for a bunch of days. We were just crushing content. We were prepping all those bonus episodes I just told you about. And each morning, as I jet-laggedly wandered up the stairs at 7 a.m., Jack had woken up at 5.
The Best One Yet
👶 “IBO: Initial Baby Offering” — Podcast Update…
He'd prepared a list of 28 potential stock market stories for the pot, he'd done a CrossFit workout, and he'd toasted up Eggo waffles for the entire family. And then he would hand me a bowl of oatmeal, the way I like it, extra, extra almond butter. And the reason I share all those details with you is because I think Jack has a superhuman strength to make people happy.
The Best One Yet
👶 “IBO: Initial Baby Offering” — Podcast Update…
It's this unending source of energy that would make a lithium-ion battery blush because Jack pours himself into every business story for this pod. But he also manages to pour himself into everything he touches for his two boys, everything he does with his wife, Alex, and everyone he meets each day. Jack gives you, and he gives everyone, 110% of himself. No exceptions.
The Best One Yet
👶 “IBO: Initial Baby Offering” — Podcast Update…
So this new baby is lucky to have Alex as a mother and lucky to have Jack as its father. So, Yetis, we got three takeaways for you, and I'll try to whip them all up for you. First, Jack's baby is happy and healthy. Second, we've prepared bonus podcasts for you right here for the next few days. You're going to love them. And finally, we'll be back with our daily show, as usual, next week.
The Best One Yet
👶 “IBO: Initial Baby Offering” — Podcast Update…
But in the meantime, you are still looking fantastic. So celebrate these wins, and Jack and I will see you, as always, tomorrow for the best one yet. Trust me, it's DIY. If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.
The Best One Yet
👶 “IBO: Initial Baby Offering” — Podcast Update…
And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
👶 “IBO: Initial Baby Offering” — Podcast Update…
Jack and her hit the hospital and already they're now nesting it up with a beautiful new baby. Apparently, we whipped up the takeaway so hard on the last episode, we caused contractions. But besties, to sprinkle on a little more context for you, according to the Wall Street Journal, this was their third IBO, initial baby offering. That's right, they've got three wonderful little babies now.
The Best One Yet
👶 “IBO: Initial Baby Offering” — Podcast Update…
And when Jack's back on the mics next week, I'll let him share all the details on the latest. But for now, according to the analyst reports, this new baby is a T-boy. But yetis, we know what you're thinking. We've been hanging out with you every single morning for seven straight years. What happens next? What's going on with the pod? Is Jack potting from a little hospital bed over there? No.
The Best One Yet
👶 “IBO: Initial Baby Offering” — Podcast Update…
Actually, we've been preparing for this event weeks in advance because a Yeti never leaves a bestie hanging about pop business news. So Jack and I whipped up five fantastic bonus episodes for you for the next few days right here. Entire episodes curating our best stories yet on five of your favorite topics. And here they are. Fashion, growth hacks, leadership, the housing market, and of course...
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🍿 “The Entertainment Pod” — Our Best Entertainment stories from 2024
They bet on a bunch of good options, but they depend on 10% to hit it big. Yetis, those are the three best entertainment stories of 2024.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🍿 “The Entertainment Pod” — Our Best Entertainment stories from 2024
Now a quick word from our sponsor.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🍿 “The Entertainment Pod” — Our Best Entertainment stories from 2024
I don't.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🍿 “The Entertainment Pod” — Our Best Entertainment stories from 2024
Yetis, let's go back to July 15th, 2024.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
This is Nick. This is Jack. Welcome back. It is Tuesday, T-Boy, Tuesday, January 21st. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-Boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Welcome back from the long weekend. How was Jennifer? How's your mom doing, man? We went down to New Hampshire. We saw my mom.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
Taxes, tariffs, and truth posts. Every president has a different scoreboard, but they are all economic. For our second story, it's Bumble. They brought back their founding CEO, Whitney Wolford. She is a boomerang CEO. And when it comes to leadership, there are sugar highs and there are real meals. And our third and final story is Gmail and Microsoft.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
They're now forcing all corporate clients to pay for AI for all of their customers.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
Why are you talking like Pinocchio? Because I feel like Pinocchio is the ultimate AI. I'm
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
Well, yet is the AI adoption curve. It is hitting a speed bump. But yet is this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, we just got the early data on New York City's new congestion pricing, the biggest traffic tax in America. Travel time over the New York to New Jersey tunnels and bridges are down 30 to 40%.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
During morning rush hour, it takes half as long to get through the Holland Tunnel. So it's definitely improved traffic. Crosstown Manhattan from the river to the river, it takes 20 to 30% less time. Although we should also point out restaurants are reporting 10% less business and parking garages are getting 20% less business. I'm surprised restaurants are reporting 10% less business.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
I think a lot of people would pop in and grab a bagel, Jack. With a car though? Aren't most people taking the subway? So much double parking. Second, the Ethiopia Stock Exchange, a brand new stock market, started trading last week. That's right. 60 years ago, Ethiopia's emperor shut down their young stock exchange. But Ethiopia is Africa's second largest nation with 120 million people.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
If you said Jimi Hendrix playing Wild Thing live, you'd be correct. But that is not the wildest part about this song. Because at the end of it, Jimi lit his guitar on fire. That's right. Jimi Hendrix finished his solo by burning his guitar on stage. And which guitar was it that Jimi Hendrix lit on fire? Well, Jack, that would be the guitar that invented rock and roll. The Fender Stratocaster.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
So they just relaunched the stock exchange. Fun fact, 25% of Ethiopia's economy is the coffee bean. And finally, the NBA could be getting an awkward new rival. Yeah. Because LeBron James has started a basketball league. Yeah, well, get this. LeBron's business manager is part of a startup that is raising $5 billion to start a new league.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
It's going to have six men's teams and six women's teams and play the games worldwide. It's basically like an international mini NBA Olympics. And it's the latest disruption of professional sports. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one whipped up by Jack and me because it is National Hugging Day. I'm a big hugger, man. Big hugger, big huggers. We do it. Look at this.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
The length of the hug matters. A hug lasting at least 20 seconds releases more oxytocin and amplifies the calming effects compared to a short hug. I got to say, 20 seconds, that's a cuddle. I mean, Jack, a 20-second hug is a kidnap. That's what that is. We've hugged a million times. Have we ever held each other for 20 seconds? I don't even know if it all adds up to 20 seconds.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
By the way, teams that hug, studies show, or teammates who hug, tend to show improved performance and trust and just do better. We can attest to that. And finally, we asked ChatGPT who are the best huggers out there. Guess what ChatGPT said. They said The Rock, Oprah, Keanu Reeves, and Winnie the Pooh. I would love to get a hug from Winnie the Pooh.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
We don't know what data they used because this is a chatbot and it's never been hugged, but yetis, those are the best huggers. So yetis, if you got a buddy near you, give him a hug right now.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
H-Y-H-T-B-O-I. H-Y-H-T-B-O-I.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
By the way, yetis, before you go, remember to check out our weekly show, The Best Idea Yet, because we just dropped a brand new episode today. Without the Fender Stratocaster, we wouldn't be able to hear the guitar in Stairway to Heaven. That's right. This guitar led to rock and roll. You're going to love the story, so check out The Best Idea Yet.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
And before we go, a happy birthday to Sol Olinstein, turning 30-30 in New York City. And Jack, get this. What? Sol is doing a senior citizen-themed bar crawl across Manhattan because he's turning 30. Senior citizen, huh? I'm joining you tomorrow, Sol. And Max and Kara in San Francisco just welcomed a beautiful baby girl named Kara last week, and she's a tea girl. Congratulations.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
And happy birthday to Mira Ashwin. He's turning 14, a proud Swifty in Ridgewood, New Jersey. on the way to school and crushing it in school. And Thomas Tawasterna, the bestie Tawa referred him to this podcast. And we should have a national tell a buddy day about T-boy. Thanks to Thomas. Happy birthday, Tommy. Happy birthday to Lacey Matney in Lake Oswego, Oregon.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
And we heard you have a profit puppy named Polly Puck. And Lulu Bacon, the best name we've ever said on this podcast, just turned 10 years old in Alameda, California. Happy birthday, Lulu Bacon. And a huge happy first birthday to TJ Agby in Jersey City. The big one. Just one, but still a babe. And congratulations to Kendra Sinclair, who's pregnant with their first child upstate.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
The owner of the reclaimed motel is going to have a baby in the next week or two. Happy early B-Day. And a big shout out to Trevor Yeager, who's been listening to T-Boy all the time on a four mile walk. T-Boy's been their top pod for two straight years. Trevor, love that walk you're doing in Florida every day. Pumped to be there with you.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
And to anyone else who's celebrating something today, make it a T-Boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Bumble and Disney. Nick and I both own stock of Apple, and we both own ETFs of the S&P 500. Is Black Swan event racist? Did you just Google that? No. According to Gemini, for free, it is not.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
From Bruce Springsteen to Blink-182, your favorite guitar solo was probably played on a Fender Stratocaster. But few know about the Strat, as the Beatles called it, and its full true origin story. This guitar was the result of a bitter entrepreneur rivalry. This guitar involved the biggest financial deal in music history at the time.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
This guitar is so important, it's hanging in the Smithsonian Museum in D.C., Because regular guitars couldn't be heard over the loud drums and the vocals out there. We needed the guitar to be electric for rock and roll to be possible. Ipso facto, no strat, no Rolling Stones. Yetis, this guitar is the latest episode of our weekly show, The Best Idea Yet.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
Best Idea Yet, the untold origin stories of the products you're obsessed with. So later today after this episode, check out our weekly deep dive show. New episodes drop every single Tuesday. Tap the link in the episode description because the Fender Stratocaster is simply the best idea yet. It's the best. But Jack, today's show, this T-boy, this is a T-boy. Should we enter three stories?
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
Let's do it.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
It's $5 for a Lyft ticket. You'll walk up that thing. And you were with your parents in San Francisco. We saw them in San Francisco. Molly and I went down to Carmel-by-the-Sea. Jack, I saw Pebble Beach. Nice. I didn't play Pebble Beach, but I saw Pebble Beach. Jack, three stories for today's T-Boy. Besties, welcome back. What do we got on the pod?
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
For our first story, starting today, Trump kicks off his second term with an agenda of political and economic disruption. But Trump has one number. That's his personal report card. And we'll tell you what it is. But yet, eight years ago, Donald Trump inherited a solid economy from Barack Obama, and then he supercharged it. How? Mainly by cutting taxes. Yes.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
It ballooned the national deficit, but it also ballooned the stock market. Now, a few years later, that all ended with a pandemic that damaged Donald Trump's economic scorecard. Trump's second term aims to do the same thing as his first term did. And what is that again, Jack? Supercharge the strong economy that he's inheriting from Joe Biden. But pause the pod for a sec, Jack.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
Could you please sum up Trump's big economic plans for the next four years? And can you do it in a way that is simple, shareable, and involves a little bit of alliteration? You want me to just use three letters? I would like to use three letters, probably the same one. Here's the three Ts, taxes, tariffs, and truth posts. The three Ts, the first one of them is taxes.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
Trump already cut corporate taxes back in 2017, almost in half. Yeah, down from 39% to 21%. Now, he'll definitely convince the Republican-controlled Congress to extend those tax cuts. and probably kill taxes on tips too. Also on taxes, he'll possibly bring back the SALT deductions, which help wealthy homeowners save on tax. All right, the second T is tariffs.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
Trump is determined to massively escalate the trade war that he started in the first term. Besties, you know what we're expecting next? Trade war too. We're talking 60% tariffs on everything made in China. And 10% tariffs on every other country in the world. Now, we should point out that we don't think tariffs will bring jobs back from overseas like Trump thinks.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
But the pain they inflict on other countries could be used as leverage to get other things for the USA. All right, Jack, that's two Ts. What's our third and final one? Truth posts. Truths. Because Trump governed the first term through tweets. This time, he'll do it through truth. So yetis, we're expecting executive orders on immigration. That could have a huge impact on the economy.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
And they'll be posted on truth first. And more executive orders to deregulate businesses, liberate crypto, punish enemies, a whole bunch of them. There's also so much more to expect, but lots that we can't possibly expect. For example, who knew a pandemic was going to define Trump's first term? Didn't see that in 2016. I think that's called a black swan event, right? That's racist, Jack.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
Now time for our takeaway. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over watching the Trump economy? Every president has a different scoreboard, but they're all economic. Yet he's the overwhelming reason why Trump won. People thought he'd be better for the economy. But the metric by which presidents rate their economy is different.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
For example, Obama cared most about job numbers because he took over after the Great Recession. Biden cared most about inflation because he presided during historic price increases. Well, we think Trump cares most about the S&P 500. One single, simple, braggable number. The stock market is Trump in a nutshell. Oh, totally. It represents richness.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
For our first story, yesterday, Donald Trump was inaugurated to his second term as president. So Jack and I will tell you the most important number of the next four years, Trump's scorecard. For our second story, it's Bumble's founder, Whitney Wolfhard. She is back as CEO. She has boomeranged back to Bumble. So we researched the stock performance of boomerang CEOs. And our third and final story.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
I mean, Jack, the S&P 500 is literally the 500 biggest stocks in the stock market in one single number. Now, the most interesting thing to follow in Trump's second term is the conflict between his favorite economic policies and his favorite economic scoreboard. Good point, because Trump's tax and tariff policies could increase inflation and interest rates, and that could hurt his scorecard number.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
It could hurt the stock market. Yetis, every president has a different economic scoreboard. For Trump, it's the S&P 500. For our second story, Bumble's founder, Whitney Wolf Hurd, stepped down two years ago. But get this, now she is coming back, baby. So we did the research on boomerang CEOs. Boomerang CEOs. And the numbers are wild. But Jack, let's start off this story with a hero stat.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
This one's wild. What do we got, man? 20% of Americans who left their job during the pandemic have returned to that old job. Boomerang employees, yetis. They are becoming the new normal. Although you probably don't get the same desk you had before. And if your yogurt was left in the fridge, it's probably gone as well.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
Well, yetis, boomerang employees even happen at the top with boomerang CEOs. For example, ladies first dating app Bumble is bringing back their CEO, Whitney Wolfe Hurd. That's right. The queen bee is boomeranging back to Bumble. Whitney Wolf Hurd founded Bumble after leaving Tinder in the mid-20-teens. She was actually the youngest woman ever to IPO her business. Amazing story.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
After that, though, the stock of Bumble has fallen by 80%. So she stepped out of the CEO role in 2023. But here's the news. Whitney Wolf Hurd is now returning as CEO of Bumble in March. She's back, baby. Which is kind of ironic for a dating app company. It is kind of ironic. I know what you're thinking. It's like she broke up and now is getting back together with her ex.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
Yeah, like it wasn't you, it was me. Maybe it was you actually. It's like a Bennifer situation. It is like a Bennifer, although I hope it turns out better for Bumble than it did for Ben Affleck. Yeah, he's been smoking a lot lately.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
Too many times. But yet he's Jack and I got curious about the performance of Boomerang CEOs. So we jumped in T-boy style and the results are fascinating. The three biggest examples of boomerang businesses are Apple, Starbucks, and Disney. Yes, they are. Jack, let's share the data with the Yetis. Disney, they got a boomerang CEO. Tell us the story, man. Bob Iger was an iconic CEO for 15 years.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
Then after he left, the stock fell under his successor. So he came back and the stock's up 20% since. Okay, Starbucks, another amazing boomerang CEO story. Howard Schultz founded the company. He's actually been the CEO three different times. Yeah, true story. And in the two boomerang times when he came back, the stock 5X'd and the stock rose 20%.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
But maybe the most iconic boomerang CEO story of all is at Apple. Steve Jobs co-founded Apple but was fired. When Apple brought him back as CEO, the stock jumped 300% in that first year. So, Besties, add it all up, and our research shows that boomerang CEOs significantly increase the stock price. So what does this all mean? What does it mean?
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
Is a boomerang CEO the secret to fixing a busted business? All you got to do, bring back the CEO of your, and suddenly the stock's going to hit an all-time high? No. Nope. That's not the solution. No, it ain't. Because of our takeaway. Good timing, Jack. Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in Boomerang CEOdoms? In leadership, there are sugar highs and there are real meals.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
Yetis, with some exceptions, the stock jump from a boomerang CEO's return is a short-term sugar high. What companies and investors prefer is something that lasts long-term. They want a real meal. A real meal. So the true test of a leader, it isn't what they do on the job. We think it's how they set up the company for future success. And the best example of that is Apple.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
Have you noticed that your Gmail is asking you if you can summarize your inbox with AI?
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
with Steve Jobs and Tim Cook. Exactly, because after Steve Jobs, Tim Cook took over, and Apple's value has 20x'd in those 14 years. In other words, the best thing Steve Jobs ever did was groom Tim Cook to be his successor. Now, besties, we should point out, from that perspective, a CEO coming back is actually kind of bad news, right, Jack?
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
It's a sign that they didn't find the right successor last time. So Whitney's return to Bumble may bring the stock a short-term sugar high. Much more important, though, is who Bumble picks next to take the reins for the long term. And that would be a real meal. Now, a quick word from our sponsor.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
Yetis, Google is pulling a Costco.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
For our third and final story, if you have a company email, Yetis, then you're getting an AI surprise this week. Google and Microsoft are both adding their AI assistant into everyone's company email. Surprise! Is it for free? Costco would like a word. Yetis, a strange thing happened to our entire T-boy team last week.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
On Friday, we were all going through our morning email and we got pop-ups from Google. They told us that AI was in our inbox.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
Did you upgrade our Google email account, dude? And then I said, no, Jack. And that's when I asked Jack, how much are we paying for our Google Gmail accounts and this AI new thing? What's going on, man? The answer is neither. Because Google added AI to our T-boy corporate Google account without us asking. In fact, this is going to happen to all of you.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
Everyone with a corporate Gmail account is going to get this AI surprise. By the way, Nick gave it a shot. He let it craft an email to get Jeff Bezos on the show. Fingers crossed, fingers crossed. Honestly, in the meantime, this kind of feels like Clippy. You know what I mean, Jack?
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
Popped out of nowhere and it's enthusiastically copy pasting things. Now, this felt like some kind of a free sample Costco style. It did. It felt like a Costco free sample. It did, Jack. But guess what? It wasn't. Google raised the price on our corporate Google account. Get this, Yetis.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
The same day that Google added AI to all the corporate Gmails, they also raised the price of corporate Gmail by $2 per month per person. So it's not a free sample. No, it's not. And wait, there's more. Microsoft announced the same thing on the same day. How is this not collusion? Microsoft now includes Copilot, their AI assistant, in all the Microsoft Office email packages as well.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
But with Microsoft, it's not free. They're increasing the price of all Office subscriptions by $3 per person per month. Now, this might sound like a bargain to you because both Gmail and Microsoft Office were charging $20 a month for AI. Now, everyone gets it for just $2 or $3 a month. But that monthly fee for AI was optional before. This new, upgraded price is required.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
This is a huge revenue boost for both Google and Microsoft because Google and Microsoft control basically the entire country's corporate emails. So like Gmail, Microsoft Office will now eagerly summarize any email for you, whether you like it or not. But they're going to offer to get Sundar Pichai on the show. And both of them look just a little bit desperate for you to use AI. They look thirsty.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
It feels like clippy. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Gmail and Microsoft Office? AI has hit a speed bump on the innovation curve. Ah, the innovation curve. Yetis, that describes the pace of how tech is adopted by five different types of people in that order. The first people who adopt technology are the innovators. The second are called the early adopters.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
And then there's three more phases, which represent the majority of consumers. But interesting thing, AI has hit a speed bump. It now needs to get beyond the early adopters because it's kind of stopped there. Look at the data. ChatGPT downloads have slowed and AI usage isn't surging like it was the same time last year.
The Best One Yet
🇺🇸 “47’s Favorite Number” — Trump’s Report Card. Bumble’s Boomerang CEO. Gmail’s AI Clippy.
And that is why Google and Microsoft are now forcing everybody to try AI by bundling it in emails. They need you to try AI because they need to get past the early adopters. Besties, add it all up and AI just hit a speed bump on the innovation curve. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for T-Boy Tuesday? Trump's second term has begun, and his economic policy is three Ts.
The Best One Yet
🌈 “N-E-T-F-L-I-X” — Sesame Street’s Savior. The Startup-Burying Startup. America’s AAA Downgrade Situationship.
That's incorrect. What? So apparently you can grow plums on the beach.
The Best One Yet
🌈 “N-E-T-F-L-I-X” — Sesame Street’s Savior. The Startup-Burying Startup. America’s AAA Downgrade Situationship.
Here's what else you need to know today.
The Best One Yet
🌈 “N-E-T-F-L-I-X” — Sesame Street’s Savior. The Startup-Burying Startup. America’s AAA Downgrade Situationship.
That's factually accurate. Well, Daily Harvest just got acquired by Chobani, the yogurt company, for $600 million.
The Best One Yet
🌈 “N-E-T-F-L-I-X” — Sesame Street’s Savior. The Startup-Burying Startup. America’s AAA Downgrade Situationship.
All right, Nick. Sunshine.
The Best One Yet
🌈 “N-E-T-F-L-I-X” — Sesame Street’s Savior. The Startup-Burying Startup. America’s AAA Downgrade Situationship.
That is a high-class onomatopoeia right there.
The Best One Yet
🌈 “N-E-T-F-L-I-X” — Sesame Street’s Savior. The Startup-Burying Startup. America’s AAA Downgrade Situationship.
The most awkward situationship you can imagine.
The Best One Yet
🌈 “N-E-T-F-L-I-X” — Sesame Street’s Savior. The Startup-Burying Startup. America’s AAA Downgrade Situationship.
Yeah, that's the story.
The Best One Yet
🌈 “N-E-T-F-L-I-X” — Sesame Street’s Savior. The Startup-Burying Startup. America’s AAA Downgrade Situationship.
You might get a letter in the mail that you don't want to open. Honey, put the sushi back in the fridge.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Tuesday, T-Boy, Tuesday, March 18th. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-Boy. The top three stories at the intersection of business and pop culture. Markets closed up for the second day in a row. No news is good news on Wall Street. Not too shabby, Jack. There's even rumors that egg prices could be coming down soon.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
In fact, we think MTV is the most impactful TV channel in the history of TV. Fact, no TV channel has influenced culture more than MTV has. Without MTV, we wouldn't have music videos. Without MTV, we wouldn't have reality TV. But did you know that MTV initially refused to play music from Michael Jackson? They only did it reluctantly because David Bowie intervened.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
That's why your buddy over at Stanford GSB is still thinking about starting his own thing. There's a political reason for the surge in law school applications too. Yes, there is. Historically, law school applications actually jumped during election years. Which we just finished. Yes. High profile battles on immigration, civil rights.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
Basically, law schools get a Trump bump from all the controversial topics. Because for some reason, like every famous politician of all time is a lawyer. Oh, totally. And we actually call this the Atticus Finch effect, don't we, Jack? You think you can impact positive change on the world through politics, especially when politics are in the news.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
So you pull a Harvey Dent and you go full Aaron Brockovich on law school. You mentioned Harvey Dent, Aaron Brockovich, and Elle Woods. What other fictional... Oh, you haven't mentioned my cousin Vinny. I plead the fifth, Jack.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
So Jack, do you pledge to tell the takeaway, the whole takeaway and nothing but the takeaway over there? You can't handle the takeaway. Law school teaches you how to think. And we think that is AI proof. Now, yetis, of course, a third reason for the law school surge is artificial intelligence. Everyone wants to know which career paths are safest from AI.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
Now, there is no data fully out there yet, but we think the ones that require critical thinking are the safest from AI. Medical degrees, law degrees, creative degrees. We don't think you can program any of those professions into code. Yeah, to get more detailed, our thought is that no industry is immune from AI. In fact, many basic associate work that's now done at law firms, it's done by AI.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
But the most important way to job proof yourself is a role where you have to think. Power of law school is that it equips you with a new way of thinking. As opposed to a skill that's more functional, like writing code. Because functional means automatable. Besties law school, it teaches you how to think. And we think that thinking is AI proof. We think.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for T-Boy Tuesday? Pepsi is buying Poppy. Five years after Poppy changed its name, its look, its container, and its category. Everything but the drink. Because yeti, sometimes to go to the ball, you need to go full Cinderella. For our second story, Apple's AI-enhanced Siri is delayed indefinitely. She still can't speak AI.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
Voice, it is the next revolutionary interface. But Apple, they got their foot in their mouths. And our third and final story. Law school applications jumped 21% this year for political, economic, and technology reasons. AI is still best at doing. Humans are best at thinking.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
Or Jack, another way I've heard this the other day is you want to be telling the machine what to do, not the machine telling you what to do. Thinking is more AI proof than doing. But Yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, Forever 21, home of the $1 cute top, just filed for bankruptcy again, but this time for good.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
It's planning to close all 350 remaining stores forever. is ending. Now, interestingly, Forever 21 blamed Sheehan and Timu for all their problems, the fast fashion disruptors from China. Specifically, they're complaining about the de minimis loophole, the $800 loophole that lets those Chinese exports come into America for free.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
And second, the fate of Ukraine could hinge on a phone call that happens today. Donald Trump has a phone call scheduled with Vladimir Putin to discuss the ceasefire in Ukraine. A lot hangs in the balance of this call between these two strongmen. And finally, Robinhood is letting users buy contracts on prediction markets related to March Madness basketball games.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
It's a wild story, and so is MTV's transformation from music TV to reality TV. From Total Request Live to the Jersey Shore. We did a whole episode on MTV, and you can check it out on The Best Idea Yet. So besties, if you are on a beach, if you're in a bikini, or if you're just stuck on a flight down to Fort Lauderdale, listen to this episode this week. To quote Exhibit, we pimped out this episode.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
Translation, you can bet on March Madness basketball games. Oh, they didn't say bet. Okay, okay, okay. They said you could purchase contracts on prediction markets related to the outcomes of the March Madness basketball games. Your move, SEC. Your move. This is a backdoor move by Robnett to effectively let you sports bet, but without the sports betting regulation. Say sports betting.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
We didn't say sports betting. Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Scott Schiller over in lovely Vancouver, Canada. Last week, we compared that famous Skype incoming phone call sound effect to the sound effects of Slack. Well, Scott wanted to share a little bit more about the sound of Slack.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
Wow. Okay, first of all, great background history on the sound of Slack. Second, one of the greatest voices we've ever heard was that Yeti, Scott. He's got a voice for podcasting, for sure. He's got a voice. We just said earlier in the takeaway, voice is the future. You're AI-proof, Scott. You're AI-proof. By the way, Yeti, send in your best fact yet by tapping the link in the show notes.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
We want your voice on the pod. Yetis, you look fantastic over there. Jack, what do you think? Is this tankini going to work for me? Is this good for the beach? Are you talking spring break? I'm talking spring break over here. Spring break! If you want to hear about MTV, the company that invented spring break reality TV and the music video as we know it, we've got the perfect episode for you.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
This episode is dripping with nostalgia. Also, when Michael Jackson dropped Thriller, it almost broke MTV. True story. All of that is on The Best Idea Yet, our weekly show. Go listen right now. We also drop the link in the episode description. And Nick and I will see you tomorrow. Can't wait.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
And before we go, a happy birthday to Yeti Jackson Baker, turning 18 in skinny Atleys, New York, shredding his axe and T-boying while he does. And happy 30th birthday to Zach Steinfeld in lovely Atlanta, Georgia. We're wishing you a perfect 300 bowling game. If you know, you know. And Christina Smoloski down in Centennial, Colorado, is buying a house today. Huge milestone on the birthday. that.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
And happy 28th birthday to Meredith Johnson in South Lake, Texas, who cannot wait to celebrate with the besties in Houston. Let's go. And to the USC Annenberg School of Communications, thanks for stopping by. They just jumped into the T-Boy studio while they're visiting San Francisco. Great to see you guys.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
And finally, a shout out to some boring business owning yetis who are crushing it with their unsexy businesses. Matt Bowser owns a golf cart rental business called Joyride. Fred bought a 37-year-old asphalt company in Orlando. And Danny Gulls launched in High Bar, a cleaning solutions business over in Oregon. This is Jack.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
Nick and I both own stock of Apple and Robinhood, and we both own ETFs at the S&P 500, and I own stock in Amazon and Berkshire Hathaway. If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
For our first story, it's official. Pepsi is acquiring Poppy for $1.95 billion to get into the prebiotic soda craze. It's a really nice exit for Poppy, which actually pulled off the biggest brand pivot in the history of liquid. Trivia. Jack, what do SodaStream, Tropicana, Gatorade, Quaker Oats, and Poppy all have in common? They've all been acquired by PepsiCo. Yeah, Pepsi.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
Eggs going down, stocks going up for Todd is Tasting. Fantastic, Jack. Feels like a T-boy. What do we got on the pod today? Poppy, the buzzy prebiotic soda, was once on Shark Tank asking for a $2 million valuation. But Poppy just sold for $2 billion to Pepsi, thanks to Cinderella. For our second story, Apple's big AI upgrade for your iPhone, it just got epically delayed.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
You got some taste buds over there. They're Gatorade bathing themselves right now because Pepsi just confirmed rumors on Monday that they're buying Poppy, the prebiotic soda, for $1.95 billion. Prebiotic soda. Yetis, we got to drop some definitions on you over here. Jack, probiotic soda- What is probiotic soda exactly? Probiotic is something like kombucha, which adds new bacteria into your gut.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
Okay. If that's probiotic, what is prebiotic soda? Prebiotic is when the drink includes fiber, which feeds the existing bacteria that's already in your gut. So add it all up and Poppy's prebiotic soda is kind of like a yogurt, but liquidified in your gut. Like if Dr. Pepper and Tums had a soda baby.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
In fact, when we jumped into the numbers T-boy style, Poppy is number two in sales behind Olipop with $100 million in revenue. But Poppy is growing fast. Meanwhile, Big Pepsi, their soda sales have been shrinking or flat for years. And you know what Jack and I say when you talk to a CFO, growth is good for your financial gut. So Pepsi is buying poppy.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
But it's funny timing because just last week, Coca-Cola, they didn't buy a prebiotic soda. They launched one called Simply Pop. But Pepsi knows the age-old rule. If you can't beat them, buy them. So Coca-Cola is trying to beat them. Pepsi's just buying them. Looks like that vending machine drama really paid off.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
Now, few know, but Poppy was actually called something else recently until it pulled off a huge rebrand. Poppy pulled off what Jack and I call a Cinderella rebrand. Because they changed every detail about the company except... the underlying product. Yeah, we call it Cinderella because this is a full body makeover that's going to require a whole lot of magic to pull off.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
In 2018, a husband and wife team went on to Shark Tank to pitch their drink and ask for investment. And guess what? They got a deal from Shark Tank. And Jack, what was that drink exactly? It was called Mother, an apple cider vinegar-based sparkling soda. It was great for your gut health. Mother! Mother, it was served in a bottle. The logo looked like script written in the Victorian era.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
It was basically giving co-op farmer vibes, one could say. But in 2020, after just two years in the business, sales were slowing. Right. So they gave Mother a major makeover. They changed four specific details. The name, the logo, the container, and the category. Here's what happened. Mother changed to Poppy. They went from an old-school script to bright, fun colors.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
They switched the container from a bottle to a can, and they changed the product description from apple cider vinegar beverage to prebiotic soda. Yeah, rolls off the tongue a little bit better. Add it all up, and Mother transformed into Poppy. Completely different look in every way, and yet the same underlying product. And Poppy's dressing itself up like Cinderella paid off big time.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
Like a fairy godmother waved a magic wand. Jack, this was such a magical makeover. Poppy should start delivering the soda in a pumpkin carriage. Not a fairytale guy? So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Poppy? Sometimes to go to the ball, you need to go full Cinderella. Jack, can we talk about the financial results after Poppy pulled off that epic pivot?
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
The year after the makeover, sales grew by 100%. And they've doubled every year since that rename and rebrand. And it's changed everything about the company. First, they changed the customers. They went from niche remedy in your mom's medicine cabinet to a teen trendsetter. They also changed the use case from an infrequent health product for your gut to a daily soda alternative.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
Because Apple's foot is in Siri's mouth. And our third and final story. applications to law school surged by 21% this year, and we found three reasons why. One of them, a JD teaches you how to think, and thinking is AI proof. We think. But yet, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Fantastic mix of stories today, Jack. You may still be stretching out on a beach with some banana boat.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
You can literally see Poppy's inflection point tied to that one exact moment when they went through the Cinderella makeover. Many founders are afraid to cut deep into their brand or to change the brand. Oftentimes, if you do change the brand, you just tinker with the name or the logo.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
But Poppy is proof that sometimes the products can be perfect, but it might not succeed because of the wrong marketing. So Poppy just kissed the Pepsi Prince with a $2 billion deal because of that brave Cinderella pivot five years ago. For our second story, Apple just made an embarrassing confession. AI Siri just got delayed indefinitely. Apple stock has fallen by 17% since Christmas.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
Because of all of big tech, Apple's doing the least with AI. down to its core. But yetis, let's check the calendar here. Jack, last June, 18 months into the AI frenzy, what did Apple tell us? They finally announced something with AI. It was called Apple Intelligence. Apple Intelligence, AI. But nearly a year later, Jack, I'm looking at my iPhone over here and I feel like I'm looking at an iPod.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
Here's the only AI I see on my Apple products. Yeah. Nick will send me a five-word text message. Yeah. And then instead of seeing the five-word text message, I'll see Siri's attempt at an AI summary of his five-word text message. Which is also five words long. It's like, Siri, do less, man. Now, we thought that by now, Siri would be fluent in chat GPT because that's what Apple told us would happen.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
We thought that by now the future of Apple would be here. We called it Super Siri. Super Siri, the ultimate personal assistant built into your iPhone, synced with your MacBook, in your AirPods too. So basically a Siri that you'd say, hey Siri, what was the name of that guy I got coffee with last week at Starbucks? Siri would check your calendar and tell you the name into your AirPods.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
Or you'd be like, hey, Siri, can you go on Resi and book me a dinner reservation at that place that Alex just texted me about? It would go to iMessage, find the restaurant, and then book you the reservation on Resi. Or like, hey, Siri, what is this thing on my side? And who should I be seeing about this? Siri would figure that out.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
Apple said that Siri would be able to move across apps to do tasks for you, which would be the ultimate personal assistant. They said that last June. But two weeks ago, they made a low-key, super disappointing announcement that AI Super Siri is delayed indefinitely. Or as Apple put it, we anticipate rolling out a more personalized Siri in the coming year.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
Anticipating launching something in the coming year is as noncommittal as it gets. Siri, she's 14 years old, but she still doesn't speak artificial intelligence. Now, in the headline... We said that Apple's confession was embarrassing. Yes, we did. Because delays is something that Apple just doesn't do. They don't do that.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
Like maybe you bought the iPhone 16 because of Apple's AI announcement last year. You thought it was the first AI iPhone, but now you're sitting here with your Apple 16 and it still doesn't do AI. Yeah, those AI features are probably going to come out in the next iPhone, iPhone 17. Sorry, no backsies. Apple's got a great reputation of only launching stuff when it's ready.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
but they jumped the gun with AI. Side note here, Jack, what is Warren Buffett doing about Apple stock these days? Warren Buffett, the 93-year-old investor, is no AI expert, but he sold most of his Apple stock last year. Did you catch that? Didn't notice that, but now we're sharing this. Yeti's Berkshire Hathaway sold two-thirds of their 900 million shares of Apple last year.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
And since Christmas, since Warren got done selling, Apple stock has fallen by 17%. Hey Siri, can you tell us what the heck is going on right now?
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Apple? Voice is the next revolutionary interface, but Apple has its foot in its mouth. Yetis, here's what Steve Jobs said at the 2007 iPhone unveil.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
You may still be kicking it down in Cabo, besties. But when it comes to spring break, there's one brand most associated to it. In fact, this brand basically invented, scaled, and turned spring break into a business. They turned spring break into- Yeah. Spring That company is MTV Music Television. MTV transformed spring break into a national phenomenon. Into a profit puppy.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
The mouse, the click wheel, and the multi-touch screen made the Mac, the iPod, and the iPhone possible. Those physical innovations, that's what brought Apple the most profit of any company in history. But those revolutionary user interfaces, as Steve Jobs called them, they're all going obsolete.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
Because the way we see it, the future of tech will be controlled by voice, completely hands-free computing. My iPhone's amazing. Yeah. But an iPhone I never have to pull out of my pocket or tap around on, that's even better. Amazinger, amazinger. Apple, they had a 10-year head start with the voice of Siri, but she still can't speak AI.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
Which means that ChatGPT, Amazon's Alexa, or Meta or Google's chatbots could win the voice race. Yetis, listen to our epic podcast host voices right now. Whoever wins with voice wins the next era of consumer tech.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
For our third and final story, hold on to your MBAs because applications to law school surged 21% higher this year. We'll tell you why your buddy is getting a JD instead of an MBA. But Yeti's first full disclosure, Jack and I are both the sons of lawyers. My dad's a lawyer. Nick's dad's a lawyer. Yeah, my mom's a lawyer too.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
And actually, the reason we do disclosures in the podcast is because our legal parents told us that they're lawyers and we should do disclosures. Yeah, we're not lawyers. We actually went to business school. We did. But at business school, we were more impressed with our JD classmates. Our law school classmates, they're doing three years of school and they're doing way more reading than we were.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
Law school. It's what smart people do when they don't know what to do. And here's the news. More people want to do that. Applications at America's top 200 law schools rose by 21% this current application season. At the University of Michigan, applications are up 30%, the most in their 166-year history. And the University of Michigan's law library?
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
is one of the great architectural feats of the Midwest, Nick. Over at Georgetown, 14,000 applications to the law school for just 650 spots. That's less than 5% application rate. This is a bar exam boom. It's an Esquire search. May I approach the bench? No, there's too many of you. You may not approach the bench. I heard there are so many law school applications.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
Elle Woods got waitlisted at Harvard. That's not true. It is true. Now, yetis, the waitlists for this application season are so deep, the law schools are doing something they've never done before. Standby lists like airplanes do. They're giving people a sense of where they are on the waitlist.
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
So they can either write off their chances of getting into Michigan or still hold out hope that they'll get in. Now, Jack and I got fascinated with this story, and we discovered there are three interesting reasons that explain the law school boom. One economic, one political, and one tech. All right, Jack, let's start with the economic. What's the economic reason for the bar exam boom?
The Best One Yet
👸 “How Poppi got Pepsi’d” — Poppi’s $2B Cinderella deal. Apple’s SuperSiri delay. Law Schools’ app surge.
The hiring pullback, starting with the tech industry, has continued. So white-collar workers are looking for alternatives. Yeah, the tech session. Zuck started it with his year of efficiency, and then Amazon continued it by culling mid-manager white-collar jobs. According to the Wall Street Journal, the percent of MBA students still looking for a job one year after graduating is up to 23%.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
This is Nick. This is Jack. Welcome back. It is Tuesday, T-Boy. Tuesday, February 18th. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-Boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. How was Valentine's weekend? You got like a babysitter for three days over the weekend, basically.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Jack, the answer, please. The Patagonia fleece. The Patagonia fleece.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Now that one is hypocritical. You know, last year, JP Morgan actually had to cap worker hours working at their investment bank because a banker at another bank actually died just from working too hard.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Yeah. So like six months after he says you can't work more than 80 hours a week, investment bankers, he tells all those ambitious investment bankers, I work seven days a week.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Yeah. And like implies you're supposed to as well. So Jamie Dimon's basically saying come in seven days a week and his bank saying the opposite. And then Jamie finished with this final point in the leaked audio.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Pairs well with the New England college quad or like your SAS job you have in San Francisco.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddy ripping on work from home, Jamie Dimon? The best professional investment to make in your 20s is a commute. That's actually a quote from us. Jack and I talk about this all the time. It's about the importance of doing in-office work when you're in your early 20s. Here's what Jamie said about that.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Honestly, we really think this is true. Coming to the office, it teaches professionalism, etiquette, people skills. You get to meet Carol from accounting. You learn something from her. You may otherwise never speak with her, Jack.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Remote work is great for older workers who have a family and maybe want to buy an affordable house further away from the city.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
He could conquer mountains or he could conquer spreadsheets, but odds are it's done in a Patagonia cinchilla fleece. But before Patagucci went all Fratagonia on us, it was actually founded by one of the most counterintuitive entrepreneurs in history. A man named Yvon Chouinard told people to stop buying Patagonia because of sustainability.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
But when we were 22 and we shared an apartment with three other guys in the East Village, including our buddy Timmy, we commuted to work on the subway every day. And we wouldn't have it any other way. Yeah, we wouldn't.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Those were formative years that started our careers right.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Even just the process of going into work, like you put yourself together in a different way. You interact with people in a different way. And honestly, loneliness wise, you just end up doing more things when you're already out going to the office. That's why the best professional investment to make in your 20s is commuting into work. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for T-Boy Tuesday?
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Zelle now handles a trillion dollars a year of transactions. That's more than Venmo and Cash App combined. And Zelle is winning because Zelle does the job to be done. For our second story, the NBA's TV ratings are down, partly because the game is dominated by three-pointers now. In economics, that's called a market failure. And the NBA has got to step in to fix it.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
And our third and final story is Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan Chase. He ranted about work from home and Audio of that rant leaked. And we think the best professional investment to make in your 20s is a commute into the office. But yetis, this pod's not over yet.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Here's what else you need to know today.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Get this. Apple is reportedly considering making humanoid robots. It's unconfirmed, but it's a scoop from an Apple analyst that they're looking into autonomous robots to roam your house and maybe the whole world. Apparently, these Apple robots would be shaped like a Pixar lamp, but also kind of look like a human being, like an iHuman, I guess. Oh, so it's like a tabletop robot?
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
like a little human robot, I think. Either way, we think you should do something different, Apple. Make a smart toilet. Make the eye toilet. Second, retail sales just had their worst drop in almost a year.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
And the reason is the freezing cold weather we had in January.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Retail sales fell 1% in January from Denny's Diner to Bloomingdale's Bralettes. Because it was literally snowing, freezing, and sleeting across half the country, including New Orleans. And finally, gold dealers are flying physical gold bars from London to New York City on tariff wars. Here's the situation. Europe might get hit with big tariffs from America.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
So gold in Europe is priced $20 cheaper per ounce than it is in the United States.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
This is wild. But to take advantage, traders are getting on airplanes from Europe to the United States and checking bags of gold bars. It's gold arbitrage, a cool example of arbitrage, and a really heavy checked bag fee. So if you're flying back from London right now, turn to the guy next to you and say, have you had gold bars in your bag? Because they might. Now, time for the best fact yet.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
This one sent in by Brian Cornett from lovely Carpentiera, California. The state of Vermont was actually an independent republic for 14 years. 7077 to 7091. It had its own constitution, it had its own currency, and it had its own postal system. That's right. It was its own economy. Vermont was its own country, literally, for half a dozen years.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Now, Nick, who's from New York, likes to claim that we were basically New York's property for a little while.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
We owned a jacket. I think legally, technically, we owned the land. I'm just saying. But then Vermont became the 14th state just missing out on the original 13 colonies. You're welcome, Jack. Yetis, you look fantastic over there. And if you are right now wearing a Patagonia fleece, which odds are like more than half of you are, you are going to love our latest episode of The Best Idea Yet.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
He actually made the Forbes billionaire list and called that a failure. And he came up with the company and the fleece while hiking mountains. With the guy who founded the North Face. Can you believe that? It's a wild story. Yeti's the most popular pullover of all time is the next episode of our weekly show, The Best Idea Yet. The untold origin stories of the products you're obsessed with.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Yvon Chouinard was an incredible innovator.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
He wanted to save the world, but accidentally like was hurting the world with his fleece sales. It's a crazy story.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
I love how he literally discovered the fleece because of a toilet seat. And then Jack, when he told people to stop buying it, like he literally said, don't come in the stores anymore.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Of course, of course that resulted in the opposite.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
You got to check out this show. So go to The Best Idea Yet. Jack and I will see you there. And before we go, a happy birthday to legendary Yetis Lloyd Brotman and Merrill, who are celebrating in Philadelphia. They are fantastic Eagles, and they are fantastic Philadelphians. Happy birthday to Marielle Sparks-Cardinal in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
And Sydney Barnes has turned a nine-year-old down in Aptos, California. Happy birthday, Sydney. Happy birthday to Bi-Chuan Lo in Nanning, China. And Cindy Lester is turning a 60 years old over in Mesa, Arizona. Happy birthday, Cindy. Happy birthday to Chris Sesney in Renton, Washington, who does a morning walk with Mr. Pickles. I assume listening to our show.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
And Grace is moving down to San Diego for a new job. Grace, enjoy the tacos. And a shout out to Cordell Zelensky, who's a big fan of Jamie. And Amanda Whitman in Boston, just outside Boston, leaves the best comments on all our social media at tboypod. Amanda, we love having you with us. And the comments are the comments.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
And a big shout out to future parents, Cody and Kim Rhodes from Spangdalem, Germany.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
And this is from Uncle Alejandro.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
And Jack, a Fieldston Eagle who I ran into on my flight to SF. Jack, she's fantastic and she loves the show. Great to have you with us. And finally, we did that poll last week on Spotify. If Netflix gets into podcasts, what should we call them? Okay, 22% of you said net pods. And 78% of you said PodFlix. Hear, hear. Yeah. PodFlix and chill.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon and Reddit, and Nick and I both own stock of Apple. Wilder asked me, who is that? When I was like telling Siri what song to play. Oh, that's awkward. I was like, but she's not a real person. And he's like, why is she not a real person? I was like, because she doesn't have a body like us.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
You can't touch her. Wow. Jack, in like 30 years, you're going to look back at my convo and it's going to sound racist. If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
So later today after this TVOI, check out our weekly deep dive show, TVIY. New episodes drop every Tuesday of The Best Idea Yet. Tap the link in the episode description because the Patagonia fleece is simply the best idea yet. Should we hit these three stories?
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
We had an epic day date Saturday. Yeah. Skiing Monday. It was a great weekend. Skiing Sunday as well. Oh my God.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
First, a quick word from our sponsor.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
For our first story, as we said before, what the hell is going on with Zelle? Zelle is actually way bigger than Venmo and Cash App, and we just got the data. Zelle just passed $1 trillion in annual transactions because Zelle has become the email of finance. Oh, yetis. Last week, Valentine's Day, big question. Yeah. Did he split the bill? Did he go Dutch? Did he send you a Venmo request?
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Well, statistically speaking, if he did split the check, he didn't Venmo you. Nope. He zelled you. He zelled you because Zelle has just become the first peer-to-peer payment to pass $1 trillion in annual transactions. Jack, could you sprinkle on some context, please?
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Back to back. Jack, you know what I made Molly for Valentine's Day? What'd you make her? Carbonara. You know why? Why? There are eggs in it. You think eggs are the grandest gesture of love? It's bigger than caviar these days. Yeti's three fantastic stories for today's show. Jack, what do we got on the T-boy? For our first story, it's Zelle.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Well, we don't need to provide context that a trillion dollars is a lot of money.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
We always say trillion like a couple times a year. Like we rarely use the term.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Turns out $1 trillion is twice as much volume as Venmo and Cash App did combined.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Zelle now has 151 million Zelle accounts. Jack, could you sprinkle on some more context, please? Venmo has 60 million active accounts. Cash App has 24 million. So Zelle has almost twice as many as those two accounts.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Combined!
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Venmo and Cash App. These are culturally relevant brands. They're companies we all know, talk about, laugh about. Rappers mention Cash App in their lyrics. Venmo has become a verb among millennials. Literally. And yet, the two best-known payment apps are getting crushed by a boring service with a stupid name. Is it short for gazelle? It's actually gazelle, bunchin', yeah.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
That one checks out, Jack. But besties, Jack and I got curious, so we jumped in T-boy style. What the hell is a zelle? We're not going to make that rhyme again, Nick. If you say it three times, you get a zelle bonus, Jack. Well, the way Jack and I like to think about zelle is it's actually a disruption disruptor, and we'll explain.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Zelle is actually run by a company called Early Warning Services, which is an even weirder name than Zelle is. Sounds like a weather company, but it's a finance company. And that finance company happens to be owned by America's seven largest banks. JP Morgan, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citibank. It's like a co-op.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
But instead of, you know, hippies as members, it's finance institutions as members.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Now, in 2017, those banks created Zelle in response to the disruption coming from the startups Venmo and Cash App.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
The big banks rightfully saw those two digital peer-to-peer payment apps as a threat to their banking business.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Well, eight years later, it appears that they are now disrupting the two disruptors because all the legacy banks basically partnered up and it's working. And because the big banks are interconnected, Zelle lets us move money directly from accounts instantly and for free. That's their advantage because Venmo and Cash App, they can't compete from the outside.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
They make you move money into a separate wallet so they have to charge you if you want an instant money exchange. Meanwhile, Zelle is more than just seven banks. They now have 2,200 legacy banks that have all joined their anti-Venmo network. Basically, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. All the competing banks have teamed up against these two smaller startups.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Add it all up and Zelle, a fully functional brandless utility, is beating the fanciest, coolest fintech apps. Or Jack, what's another way you could put it by using the word disrupt multiple times? Zelle was designed by the disrupted to disrupt the disruptor. Basically, if you think about it, Zelle has become like email, right? It's basically email for finance. It's simple. It's boring.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
You're not going to believe it, but Zelle is bigger than Venmo and Cash App combined. So we got the details on what the hell is going on with Zelle. For our second story, it's the NBA. Their TV ratings are suffering because there's simply too many three-pointers. Well, guess what? There's a solution to the NBA's three-point problem, and we found it in an Econ 101 textbook.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
No single entity owns or controls it, but we're all using it. Or another way that we could think of it, Jack- I don't think we need any more ways. I was just going to say it's like a sidewalk. No, thanks. We're good with email. I use it all the time, but I have no personal feelings for it. Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Zelle?
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Zelle is winning because of the jobs to be done framework. Yeti's Harvard Business School professor, Clayton Christensen, coined the term jobs to be done to understand why you actually buy a product. His theory is that customers hire products like they hire people to do a specific job. Here's the example. This professor studied why people bought McDonald's milkshakes.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
And surprisingly, the top customer was actually commuters.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Because commuters wanted a long-lasting treat that was holdable in one hand and wouldn't make a mess. Right. And milkshakes do that job the best.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Well, similarly, when you need to send money instantly, not with cash, then it is Zelle that does that job. Venmo and Cash App, they have social features and they try to gamify things by getting you to add a pancake emoji to your Venmo payment. One sec, Jack. Our buddy Timmy just sent us seven pizzas. No clear reason why. But that's not what you're hiring for. No, it's not.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
On the other hand, Zelle does the job to be done. And that is why Zelle is now the largest peer-to-peer payment by far. For our second story, the NBA's viewership is dropping because there are simply too many three-pointers. There's an economic reason why we have too many threes in basketball, and there's an economic solution to it, too. True story, Jack.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
On my flight back from New York City to San Francisco, you know who I sat next to? A basketball player. A bodyguard for a basketball player. He wouldn't tell me who, he wouldn't tell me who, but he was big. He was huge. He was huge. But the reason that bodyguard for an NBA player was on our flight was because the NBA All-Star game was this past weekend in San Francisco.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Did he intimidate you physically? I asked the other person to go let me out to go to the bathroom.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
I didn't ask him.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
But yet he's midway through the NBA season. There is one major problem. Basketball viewership is down. NBA ratings have fallen by 18% this year. And every sports fan has a theory they're posting on Reddit as to why. Some say that today's players are too coddled. Others blame the lack of rivalries. Others say no one plays defensively. defense.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
But we think the reason NBA viewership is down is that there are simply too many three-pointers. Yeah. Because the data shows it. Get this. According to Bloomberg, 25 years ago, the average team shot 14 three-pointers per game. Today, the average team shoots 37 three-pointers per game. In fact, the Boston Celtics attempt 48 three-pointers every single game. That's outrageous.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
That means five players are taking 10 threes each game on average. Honestly, Boston, it's inappropriate. So instead of enjoying a diverse mix of dunks, jump shots, and threes, all we're seeing are threes and putbacks. The two outcomes are the three gets made or the three is missed. But yet, here's what's fascinating about this story.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
There's actually an economic calculation that explains this three-point palooza. It's called expected value. Expected value weighs the benefit of an action with the probability of its success. So here's the math for three-pointers, Jack. 36% of three-pointers taken in the NBA are made on average. And the return, if you make a three, is three points.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
And our third and final story is Jamie Dimon. Jamie. He went on an expletive-ridden rant about working from home, and we found audio of it.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Therefore, when you do the math, the expected value of shooting a three-pointer is actually 1.08 points. How about for dunks or for two-point shots, Nick? Yeah, what is that, Jack? There's a 40% chance that a two-pointer is made in the NBA on average. And if it is made, you get two points. So when you do the math, the expected return of a two-point shot is 0.8 points. There it is. Easy math.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
There's a higher expected value of shooting a three than there is for shooting a two. Ipso facto, it makes more sense to shoot threes than to shoot a bunch of twos because they have that higher expected value. And now that the math is so clear, teams are realizing this and coaches are coaching their players to shoot more threes. And Jack, who started this trend to shooting more threes?
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Steph Curry did 10 or 15 years ago. And Jack, who's entrenched shooting threes as the new normal? All 30 NBA teams, because it's how you win games. And here's the paradox. A team wins by shooting more threes, but the fans don't like when you shoot more threes. It makes the game less complex, more predictable, and less fun overall when it's just a game with three pointers being taken.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
And most of all, Muggsy Bogues hates it. Great basketball reference for a hockey fan. He told me on the flight. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies watching basketball? The NBA's three-pointer problem has a solution, and you can find it in economics. Yetis, what's happening in the NBA actually has a term in econ. It's called a market failure.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Yeah, we got the tapes, so we are breaking it down line by line with Nick and Jack play-by-play analysis. But yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. What a just fantastic mix of stories after a three-day weekend, Jack. Love it. Trivia. Yes. What product got so popular that the owner told us to stop buying it? Besties, what product found its magic material in a toilet bowl cover?
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
A market failure, when the market, left to its own forces, results in a bad outcome. Well, three-pointers are winning games, but they're also losing fans, and that... is a market failure. So in economics, when a market outcome isn't optimal, in other words, when there's a market failure, that's when the government steps in.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Yeah, the government will tax the thing causing a problem or create a rule to ban the problem. They intervene.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
And in the case of basketball, the NBA is responsible to step in because it kind of acts like the government here.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Actually, Jack, we've seen this before. Like this happened in baseball when the league banned the defensive shift.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Yes, we did, Nick. And fans love that the shift is banned.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
So the NBA, they need to institute some rule changes. Maybe they move the three-point line back. Or Jack, they change how many points a three-pointer is worth. They should change the math and only give you two and a half points for a made three. Honestly, we don't know. But we do know that basketball faces a market failure. And it will take the NBA to intervene to fix it.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Now, a quick word from our sponsor.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
For our third and final story, an expletive-laden rant from Jamie Dimon about remote work leaked last week. So we're breaking down line by line why he thinks everyone should be in the office every day. We got the tapes. But first, Yetis, our hero stat of the day.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Get this. According to McKinsey, 2024 is the year that workers return to the office.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
They surveyed 800 companies and the number of workers in the office doubled in the last year.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
68% of the employees at those companies said they're now mostly in person working in the office.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Now, a side note about going back to the office. Amazon now requires you to be in the office five days a week, but Amazon doesn't have enough desks. Hey, Alexa, send Amazon some desks on Amazon. True story. Amazon ran out of desks. But another return to office leader in business is JPMorgan Chase, America's biggest and most profitable bank. And the head of that bank is Jamie Dyer.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Jamie. Who's been the CEO of JPMorgan Chase for 19 years. He's also a born and raised New Yorker.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
And besties, you're about to hear his New York accent and his New York cussing in a wild, leaked voice. audio tape.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
We're going to play the clip, bleep the bad words, but here's Jamie's rant during a company all hands last week.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
And what product is beloved by both finance bros and granola crunchers alike?
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Now we should point out, Jack, texting does happen in the office as well, to a lesser extent than work from home. But you know, people are still slacking and texting when they're in meetings in the office.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Yeah, if he doesn't want people texting during meetings, he needs to have a no devices policy in meetings.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
That's a good idea. I like that. I like that. But besties, here's the second thing Jamie Dimon said.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
We're fans of summer Friday, full disclosure. But you know, if someone says they're working and they're not actually working, that could be a problem.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
Work from home is a privilege. So don't ruin it for everybody else.
The Best One Yet
🏀 “3-Pointer Economics” — NBA’s shot problem. Zelle is beating Venmo. Jamie Dimon’s rant.
If you're supposed to be on the clock, answer your phone when your boss calls. Which leads to our third point from Jamie Dimon.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Tuesday, T-Boy Tuesday, December 17th. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-Boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Yetis, we know what you're thinking. Why is Jack podcasting with Tyra Banks? over here. Well, I am not the America's Top Model Tyra Banks. I'm just wearing our T-Boy merch on the podcast.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
You know, it was not a commodity. Very different experiences. Yeah, you told me that cruise like awkwardly kept pulling over, even though everything seemed safe. The cruise one kind of struggled. It like had to make a right turn, and it got too nervous, and it never made the right turn. Right turns are the easiest turns. Oh, totally.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
But the Waymo one, it's much more confident about the right turns. Aggressive, if you will. Got that catwalk swagger like you, TJ. Yeah, Tyra Banks over here. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Waymo? Much of the time, the business with the deepest pockets wins. And in the case of robo-taxis, the shallow pockets have already quit.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
Yetis, five years ago, Ford, General Motors, Volkswagen, Uber, all the serious players in the car industry were also trying to be players in self-driving. Those car companies, they thought self-driving would take five years and $5 billion to figure out, that's it, boom, we're done. The reality is it's been much harder. It's taken like 15 years and $50 billion to figure out self-driving.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
And those car companies, they just can't afford that kind of investment. But who can afford that investment, Jack? Tech companies. Alphabet's Waymo, Elon's Tesla, and Amazon's Zoox are leading the self-driving industry. Besties, before robo-taxis will ever turn a profit, it's going to require billions of dollars of investment every single year.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
The tech companies have enormous profits to fund those investments, but car companies don't. And that's why General Motors, Ford, and VW are dropping out, but Google, Amazon, and Tesla are doubling down. Waymo passing Lyft and Cruise, it's a perfect reminder of this reality. Deep pockets win games. Money is a moat. And Big Tech, they've got cargo pants deep pockets.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
Yeah, they've got a whole lot of pockets, Jack. You're going to have to check those pockets. They're so big. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for T-Boy Tuesday? Crumble Cookies is in a thousand locations across 50 states. It's Utah's sugar unicorn, and they have a B to A business model. B to A business to algorithm. They don't serve consumers or other businesses. They serve algorithms.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
Well, the answer, Yetis, is the Pez. Pez candy. You pop it out of a tiny tube and it was meant to make you stop smoking. That's right. The candy that comes out of Batman's mouth. Yes, it was inspired by smoking. That wild Pez story is the latest episode of our weekly show, The Best Idea Yet. The Best Idea Yet. The untold origin stories of the products you're obsessed with.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
For our second story. It's GTLD. Gym, tanning, laundry, and drones. New Jersey's drone drama has lit up the stocks of drone companies. The hottest sector of the Trump stock market is the military-industrial complex. And our third and final story is Lyft. They've been passed by Waymo in their hometown of San Francisco, according to third-party data. Deep pockets win games.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
And to win in self-driving robo-taxis, you need some really dope. deep pockets. Like the deepest pockets of all time. Like the Abercrombie six-pocket cargo short kind of pockets. That's what you need if you want to win. Only big tech has those pockets. But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, Apple has a big new plan to save their iPhone sales.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
Get this, foldable iPhones. According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple is changing the shape of their iPhone with two new models that'll come out in a couple years. Now, one is going to be a thinner iPhone, about half as thick as your current phone you got there. Which is really thin, I guess. And the other one will be a foldable phone with a whopping 19-inch screen. Isn't that a monitor?
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
Half tablet, half phone, half giant computer. And second, the German government has collapsed. Olaf Scholz lost a vote of confidence in the German government. And that comes just one week after France's government fell apart too. Oh, and then Jack, a little bit further up north. Yesterday, Canada's finance minister resigned, sending the government into chaos over there.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
Across the world, voters are punching incumbents for inflation by voting them out of office. And finally, TikTok has formally requested that the Supreme Court intervene to stop the TikTok ban. On the same day, TikTok CEO went to Mar-a-Lago to ask Trump if there's anything he can do. Only one problem, the TikTok banning bill was passed by Congress and it was signed by the president.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
January 19th, the day before the inauguration, is D-Day for TikTok. So follow us on TikTok while you still can, yetis. We got some good videos out there. Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Yeti Christy March down in Colleyville, Texas. Have you noticed on your iPhone that when you snooze your alarm, it always snoozes for nine minutes?
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
I don't even think you can choose a different number. No, you can't. Like why nine? Why not 10 minutes or a five minute snooze? Why nine? The origin for the nine minute snooze actually goes back to early clocks, which were mechanical clocks, not digital clocks. Yeah, apparently it was physically easier to set a snooze to a single digit number on a mechanical clock.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
So they went with nine because it's the biggest single digit number. And I guess even though Apple's slogan is think different, they're not thinking different when it comes to the length of a snooze. So besties, if you just snooze this morning for nine extra minutes, you can thank the leftover legacy of old time physical clocks.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
Yetis, you look fantastic out there, and you look especially fantastic if you're wearing the T-boy pink hat and the T-boy sweatshirt. Stop fishing for compliments, Nick. People are giving them out, Jack. I'm not asking. I'm just receiving, man. You can buy your T-boy merch before the holidays at tboypod.com slash shop. And if you're looking for more T-Boy today, listen to The Best Idea Yet.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
Our latest episode just dropped. It's on the Pez dispenser. It is a wild story. The Best Idea Yet. It's a full deep dive 40 minute episode on Pez. You're going to love it. You can check it out right now. The links are in the show notes. Jack and I will see you there. And before we go, a happy birthday to Alex Patry, a new bestie, actually a belated birthday.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
He's turning 44 down in Dublin, California. Dublin? Is that how you pronounce it? You know, I assumed it was different from Dublin, Ireland. I don't know. Sometimes we do different pronunciations. It's Dublin, dude.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
We'll go with Dublin. And a happy special birthday to Sherry Adkins, who's celebrating in the Dash, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. And Silas Strawbridge, a belated 17th birthday celebration in Englewood, Colorado. Happy 35th birthday to Helen Ching in Warminster, Pennsylvania. And Sophia Aguirre is turning 44 years old with the best birthday yet down in Hotlanta. Happy 15th birthday to Avatar.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
But Jack, could you sprinkle on some context for our buddies over at Pez? Pez is 100 years old. It is. But they still sell 75 million Pez containers every single day. And the Pez candies, yeah, they still taste like chalk. And yet few know that Pez actually began as an anti-cigarette device. Get this, instead of reaching for a cigarette, Pez wanted to offer you a sweet instead.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
Yeah. It was a wild movie when it came out. It was okay. And Jack Diskin was supposed to come to our live show in Seattle, but couldn't make it. So we got to wish Jack the best 23rd birthday ever. Congratulations to Joshua Thomas, who just got a new job with a double promotion down in Texas. And Olga Corson has joined the family business. Congratulations and welcome to construction, Olga.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
The floors at the new Portland, Oregon airport, I would eat off them, Nick. And their construction company did those floors. And to anyone else celebrating something today, except for Nick on the catwalk. No, just kidding. Including Nick. Make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon. Nick and I both own stock of Apple. And I own stock of Ford.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
They even made a Pez dispenser that looks just like a lighter. Now that I see it, Jack, I can't unsee it. And even fewer know about the Pez Outlaw. The Pez Outlaw, a law-breaking, Pez-loving citizen outlaw who almost took down the entire company. So later today, after this T-Boy episode, check out our weekly deep dive show, The Best Idea Yet. The Best Idea Yet. New episodes drop every Tuesday.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
We got a link in the episode description. Because Pez changed candy forever. Even though Pez was never meant to be a candy. So tap the link in our episode description and check out The Best Idea Yet. Because Pez is simply the best idea yet. But today's show, Tyra Banks? Yeah. It looks better than your silhouette. Oh, today's show looks wonderful. Don't do a feline impression.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
Let's hit our three stores.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
First, a quick word from our sponsor.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
Our holiday merch collection shipped yesterday. So if you order T-Boy holiday merch, it'll arrive at your door in a few days. If you didn't order that merch, we have good news for you. We have this merch available to buy right now. That's right. Our essentials collection is still available at tboypod.com slash shop. How does this look, Jack? How do I look like this? Is this good?
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
For our first story, Crumble Cookies just hit its 1,000th store. It's in all 50 states. They're a billion dollar company. They are a cookie unicorn. Because Crumble realized it actually only has one consumer. And who is that, Jack? Instagram. Yeah. Now, yetis, Jack and I love whipping up some trivia for you. Here is a good one for the holidays.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
Ask your family, what state has the highest sugar consumption per capita? Okay, what do we got, Jack? Options, options. What's the answer? It's Utah. Yeah, it's Utah. By far. Yeah, Chicago does logistics. Salt Lake City does sweets. Like the $5, 700 calorie cookies over at Crumble, the fastest growing food chain in America.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
Now, Jack and I did cover Crumble two years ago, and back then, Jack, I listened to the story, checked it out. We said they had 500 stores. Today, they've doubled to 1,000 stores, and they just hit $1 billion in annual revenue. And now they're in all 50 states. In fact, Crumble just opened locally in Vermont as their final frontier.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
They opened their location just down the road from the original Ben & Jerry's. Shots fired, Jack. And they had the gall to serve ice cream, too. Mint chocolate chip shots fired. How dare you, Crumble. Now, Jack and I jumped in T-Boys out to the financials, and each Crumble location is bringing in 1.2 million bucks a year with a 15% profit margin, which means... Not too shabby.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
There's some dough to be made in cookie dough. Yes, there is, because crumble is part of the trifecta of girl pop culture these days. The priorities for teens are Starbucks, Sephora, and a crumble sugar cookie. Honestly, the pink one looks so pretty, I want to put it on a pocketbook and give it to Molly for Christmas.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
Which is why both Regina George and Janice Ian would consume a Utah-based crumble cookie right now. But what Jack and I find fascinating about this company is that Crumble is the purest example of FOMO marketing. They bake the cookies. They manufacture the FOMO. Yes, they do, because Crumble borrowed a strategy from streetwear brands to go viral. The art of the drop. Get this, Yetis.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
Every Sunday at 6 p.m., every single week, they drop six new flavors that are only available this week. Which means you gotta buy that buttermilk pancake brittle cookie now or it's gone forever. Mom, if I don't get this, I'm gonna die. They have a cinnamon toast eggnog cookie that you have to eat by Christmas or you'll be the Grinch.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
And because your 12-year-old is nagging you to buy 13 dozen of these cookies, teens love it, but parents hate it. These cookies are exceptionally unhealthy, but the kids go rabid for them. Like we said, the FOMO marketing... It's a viral, viral move. Except Mormon moms in Utah. Yeah. They're standing in line too. Good point, Jack. Salt Lake City does Dolce.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
So Jack, what's the takeaway for our 700 calorie buddy is over at Crumble Cookies. Crumble pioneered a brand new business model. We call it B to A, business to algorithm. Now, Yetis, as you learn in business school, there are two primary business models. One is B2C. That's a business that sells to consumers. And the other is B2B, a business that sells to other businesses.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
Is this a good look for me? You're a tiger. You're a tiger. If you order the hat, Nick will never do a feline impression ever again on the show. Go to tboypod.com slash shop. Jack, three stories for today's show. What do we got on the pod? For our first story, Crumble Cookies is now in all 50 states. Wow. They got the fastest growing food chain thanks to a new business model.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
But Crumble is a new third business model that Jack and I have noticed, and we call it B2A, business to algorithm. Because Crumble knows if they can win on social media, the rest of the business will fall into place. So Crumble's entire business plan is just about growing organically on social media. Everything they do is about getting attraction and engagement on the social platforms.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
For example, Crumble drops six new flavors each week, like we told you, but they announce them first on TikTok and Instagram. Crumble partnered with Pantone, the paint and color company, to get perfectly colored cookies optimized for an Instagram feed. In fact, Crumble has 30 people on its social media team, professional photographers, videographers, filmographers, 30 of them.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
We looked it up on LinkedIn. There's more people on their social media team than on their marketing team. We've never seen that before. Jack, what's the result for Crumble? Six million followers on Instagram, 10 million on TikTok, which is five times as many as Starbucks and three times as many as McDonald's. Then all that attention is digital salivating, which translates into real sales.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
They've realized that you can scale really cheap if you just crush it on social media. So crumbles and consumer, it isn't another business or another consumer. It's Instagram. And we call that B2A. Business to algorithm. For our second story, drones. They aren't just the hottest topic on conspiracy blogs right now. Drones are the hottest topic on Wall Street.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
Because the military-industrial complex is back. Yes, it is. But this time with AI-piloted drones. Now, yetis, Jack and I should let you know that Snooki didn't teach us much, but Snooki did teach us that New Jersey is known for GTL. Gym, tan, laundry. It's what I do every Saturday. But Jack, it's time to add a fourth level. To the GTL of New Jersey. Drones. Drones.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
Starting a month ago, people all over the Garden State had been reporting sightings of drones way up there, all the way up in the sky. You can see pictures online. There's lights in the sky in the darkness. Some of the lights are moving, some of them aren't moving, and it's the top headline on the New York Times.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
Now, with the government not saying much, it's left conspiracy TikTok to fill the news void. Now, this could be a group of pranksters standing in a backyard flying a bunch of drones to scare people. Yeah. Or it could be a foreign government. Or it could be some aliens. Or it could be my nephew Vinny whose drone he's playing with out of the Don Bosco prep.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
Now, what the government has said about these drones is that they're probably not drones at all. The government says they're probably airplanes, like normal flights with human pilots. It's a bird. It's a plane. Actually, it's my nephew Vinny's drone, Jack. That's what it is. Questions remain. Meanwhile, the uncertainty press is very good press for the drone industry. Get this.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
The number six most talked about stock on Reddit this week. It's a drone stock that we didn't even know existed. It's a company called Red Cat. Yeah. This is a pure play drone maker whose stock jumped 20% yesterday. Now, we should point out, Yetis, this is a small speculative company worth under a billion dollars called Red Cat. We rarely cover companies worth less than a billion dollars.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
But the drone industry is popping on Wall Street right now, and it's not just conspiracies. There are very real-life applications of drones that are already happening. For example, recreational drones. They can be seen at every tourist site from the Eiffel Tower to the Tower of Pisa. I'm pretty sure there's a GoPro up there, guys. Oh, police.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
They use drones right now to monitor crowds, record video at events, concerts, sports games. Don't jump the turnstile. There's a camera on that. And the militaries across the world are using drones right now in the air and the sea to spy and attack, like self-flying weapons. And of course, there's an Elon angle here. Yes, there is, Jack.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
Jack and I call it B to A, business to algorithms. For our second story, there's a drone mystery in the skies above New Jersey that everyone is freaking out. So Jack and I found three drone stocks. That's right, drone stocks. And they're flying too. And our third and final story. For the first time ever, the Waymo RoboTaxi just passed Lyft in the city of San Francisco.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
He's encouraging the White House to invest in drones instead of fighter jets. Which is literally the plot of Top Gun 2. Like, that's why Tom Cruise came out of retirement. Because of the drones. See the movie. And finally, Donald Trump Jr., the president-elect's son, recently joined the advisory board of a publicly traded drone company, which sent the stock up 5x in the past 30 days.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
Add it all up, and the new meme stocks are drone stocks. And I'm pretty sure Vinny bought one of those stuff. Oh, Vinny definitely did, Jack. So Jack, what's the, oh my God, what is that up there? Oh, that's Jack.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
It's our takeaway. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in the drone industry? The hottest sector of the Trump stock market is the military industrial complex. Yetis, Jack and I love to study history, and President Eisenhower warned America as he exited the White House in 1960 of the military-industrial complex.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
His warning was that politicians liked war because they often owned stocks in defense companies, and they often work at those defense companies after they're done in office. Well, we noticed that we're seeing something similar today. And it's not just the president's son who's blown up stocks of drone companies these days.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
Palantir, a tech company founded by Trump advisor Peter Thiel, is now a top military contractor. And how is Palantir's stock doing, Jack? It's quadrupled in 2024. It just joined the NASDAQ 100 stock index. And that drone stock we mentioned, Red Cat, they jumped 20% this week because of a software deal. with Palantir.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
Palantir is bringing AI superpowers to the US military and Red Cat drones are now going to be piloted by Palantir's AI. Besties, that is the industrial military complex and it's the hottest sector of the stock market. Now, a quick word from our sponsor.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
For our third and final story, Waymo is now a bigger ride hail company than Lyft in San Francisco. It's a shocking reality check on Waymo's rise and on Lyft's demise. Yeti's funny thing happened to Jack and I over the weekend. We got a tip from a Yeti that became this story. Joe Esposito in Los Angeles replied to us on an ex-post. And we jumped in T-boy style. We got curious.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
According to a third-party data provider called Yipit, Waymo has passed Lyft in San Francisco. Sit down, stand up, and hail a ghost cab, Jack. That is shocking news. Because Lyft has been operating in San Francisco for 12 years. San Francisco was Lyft's first city and remains its headquarters city still today.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
And yet, in just a couple years, Waymo, the robo-taxi, has overtaken Lyft in its hometown. According to this third-party data source, 56% of rides in San Francisco in November were Uber rides. 22% were Lyft, but 22% were Waymo. And in the month of December, Waymo is going to pass Lyft for sure. That's right. Waymo, owned by Alphabet, the owner of Google, is now valued at $45 billion.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
Sit down, stand up, and hail a RoboCab again because Waymo is beating Lyft because money is a moat. But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories... I mean, does it get any better than that? Fantastic mix of stories today, Jack. Yesterday, we asked you our weekly T-Boy trivia question. What candy was invented as an anti-cigarette product? What sweet was started to help you stop smoking?
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
Waymo is worth seven times as much as Lyft. That's right. Waymo is now a verb in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, and Atlanta. And it's worth seven Lyfts. If you're going to the Cloud AI Crypto Conference, you're not Ubering there, you're Waymo-ing there. Side note, Nick takes Waymo to work most days. Yeah, I do. Even boomers in San Francisco are taking it, right? Totally.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
The guys in my neighborhood, 80 years old, they're popping in a Waymo, Waymo-ing down to the financial district. So Yeti's Waymo is having its Barbie moment. It is. There's a whole lot of love, attention, and good news for these self-driving cars with nobody behind the wheel. The only question is when Waymo is going to get a Hot Wheels. You think that's happening soon, Jack? That's got to happen.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
It's probably happening. Because last week, Waymo also got another big win. And what was that, Jack? Cruise, the robo-taxi company owned by General Motors, shut down its funding, which means one of Waymo's biggest competitors quit the industry. And now, besties, nearly 10 years ago, General Motors acquired Cruise for a billion dollars to get into the robo-taxi industry.
The Best One Yet
🛸 “$UFO” — Drone stocks’ mystery surge. Crumbl’s $1B cookie. Waymo beat Lyft.
Cruise is based in San Francisco, too. It's a tech company, but it's an expensive tech company. That's right. General Motors lost a billion dollars every year since they acquired Cruise. So after a decade and $10 billion invested in this robo-taxi startup... GM is calling it quits. We're done. Jack, second side note, I've taken both cruise and Waymo robo taxis, and they're not the same.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Tuesday, T-Boy. Tuesday, April 15th. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-Boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Yetis don't withhold any longer. Your taxes are due today. Pause the pod. File that W-2 like you're writing off your soul. But today's pod is so good, it should be an exemption.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
If meta loses, the government will ask a judge to force meta to sell Instagram and WhatsApp.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
First of all, that'd be kind of cool. Like, imagine a publicly traded Gram, which is a company that competes with Facebook instead of collaborates against it. A publicly traded Instagram stock, not too shabby. And by the way, Zuck would make a bunch of money if he was forced to sell Instagram. He could probably sell it for, like, a trillion dollars.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
But Zuck would lose a bunch of power for all that. And the fact that this trial has not been dismissed is a sign of the limits to lobbying Trump. Basically, Zuck's suck-up strategy failed. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for T-Boy Tuesday? Videos are going viral on TikTok showing where American brands are really made and what they really cost to produce. $5 Lulu leggings to us?
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
It looks like China's weaponizing TikTok in the trade war. For our second story, Moleskine, the 200-year-old notebook, is tripling their US stores in 2025. Their Gen Z board of directors shows the value of age diversity. And our third and final story, Meta is on trial. Their acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp were allegedly illegal. And it shows that Zuck's sucking up strategy failed.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. The first all-female space crew in decades successfully returned back from orbit. The six-woman crew included the musical artist Katy Perry, the journalist Gayle King, and of course, Jeff Bezos' fiancee, Lauren Sanchez.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
It was the first all-female space flight since 1963, and Katy Perry's probably working on a song about it now that she's back down from orbit. Second, guess who's ironically loving all the stock market volatility right now? Who's into it, Jack? The big banks. Oh, yeah. Goldman Sachs just announced its best quarter ever.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
Stock trading revenue jumped 27% in the first quarter because they're making money on market moves, whether it's up or down. Whether you're buying or selling, banks are taking trading fees, fee fees, and fees on those fees. And finally, trade war almanac, day 15. How tariffs are messing with the economy, Nick and I are keeping track. All right, iPhone, how we looking?
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
Are we going to pay five grand for one of these puppies, Jack? You're probably wondering how iPhones are being affected by tariffs. We are too. Yeah, on Friday, Trump announced he's exempting iPhones and electronics from the China tariffs. But on Sunday, he walked that back. saying there were, and I quote, no exceptions announced on Friday. And Wall Street, they have no idea what's going on.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
We're all confused. Apple stock jumped 3% Monday because no one's really sure. Hey, Siri, you know what? I'm not even going to ask her. Now time for the best fact yet, this one sent in by Uncle Sam in D.C. Jack, what do we got for the fact? Last year, Berkshire Hathaway paid more in corporate income taxes than any American company ever, by far.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
Even after selling that brand to a big toy company, he had to sue to get paid what he was owed. We actually mentioned him during Black History Month. And we turned that fact into this entire new episode. So yetis, check out the latest episode of our weekly show, The Best Idea Yet. Because this week, we'll tell you the true origin story of the super soaker.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
Get this, Warren Buffett's company paid $26.8 billion to the feds. We know because we read the Warren Buffett-Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letter. And Nick, can you read the final sentence in that letter? So thank you, Uncle Sam. Someday your nieces and nephews at Berkshire hope to send you an even larger payment than we did in 2024. Spend it wisely. Happy Tax Day, everybody.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
Yetis, you look fantastic over there. Jack, have you ever seen a CPTS-2000? Don't know what that is. It's the only super soaker that was banned because it was too powerful. It was shooting people's eyes out. Yeah, apparently someone lost an eye. No one knows who. You're going to poke somebody's eye out with that thing. Mom, she's hitting me first.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
Yetis, listen to the untold origin story of the super soaker. At one point, the best-selling toy in America. We got a link in the episode description. It's a wild story. It's also an inspiring story, incredible tale of the founder who just pushed and pushed and pushed and side hustled his way to success. Check it out. And Nick and I will be back with another T-Boy tomorrow. If you know.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
and before we go a happy birthday to a couple legendary two-year-old twins henry and arthur born in san francisco but living it up on the upper east side of manhattan happy birthday to aiden paksoy in san francisco and a happy birthday to matt dwyer from nantucket who played lacrosse at a small unranked college in new hampshire but statistically speaking this fantastic father-in-law is still the top attackman in long island history happy birthday matt and jack
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
Patrick from Bedford, New Hampshire. Get this. He's an accountant born on tax day. Celebrating today on his busiest day of the year. Congratulations to Nisha for publishing that new single, Midnight Crisis. And a shout out to Riley Sangbush, Allison Levine, and StoryMaker1316 for guessing right on our TBI trivia yesterday. And to anyone else who's celebrating something today, make it a T-boy.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
And Kenny Penny, thanks for trying. You were so close. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. Nick owns stock of Lululemon. I own stock in Berkshire Hathaway, and we both own stock in Apple. If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
Tap the link in the episode description to listen to our other show, TBIY. The best idea yet. Oh, also, we're going to tell you the secret to a successful side hustle. You're going to love it. But today's show is fantastic. Today's show, Jack, you should deserve a deduction. Jack, let's hit our three stories.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
Chinese factories are exposing American brands to influence how you buy. What we're saying is the trade war is now moving to TikTok. Now, yetis, Jack and I use social media for a bunch of research. We like to find trending stuff before it's in the news, before it's even trending. And this one has not been covered by the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, CNBC, or anyone else. And here it is.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
TikTok videos from Chinese factories are exposing the real price of your clothes. They claim to spill the beans that your Made in America brands are actually made in China. that the American brands you love are actually charging you 10 times more than they pay for those clothes. Here's a few examples of the videos we found on TikTok. These are wild. Let's hit them, Trey.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
So Jack, three stories for today's show. What do we got on the T-boy? For our first story, there's a brand new front in the trade war that nobody is talking about. True story. Chinese factories are exposing American brands on TikTok. Do your $100 Lululemon leggings actually cost just five bucks to make? We'll tell you in our first story. There's a revolution brewing.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
Interesting. One company produces for all of those brands? Oh, and get this, Jack. That video got 1.7 million views.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
So that one you can tell is a voiceover with AI because they mispronounced Xihan.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
Still, Jack, I'm looking at the numbers. 2.6 million views on that video.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
All right, our last one. Oh, let's hit it.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
Crazy. $100 leggings from Lululemon only cost $5 in China? I'm taking my pants off right now, Jack. I am insulted by those prices. That video got 9.4 million views on TikTok. Okay, pause the pod. Jack, what did we just watch? It looks like Chinese factories are doing a diss track. on American capitalism. I feel like we're in the middle of a capitalism rap battle right now.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
That's what these videos are. So Nick and I tried to dissect these videos and we realized they're making two distinct points. First point is respect made in China. Made in China is where high-end products are actually created, according to these videos. Their second point is really about the price. Lulu, yeah, they're ripping you off. Because Lululemon is charging us 20x markups.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
They're taking a $5 pair of pants and charging us $100 in the stores. If your Align leggings cost $100 at Lulu and $5 in China, like, at that point, you're not going to the Westfield Mall. You would book a flight to China and buy them direct from the factory. But Nick and I heard those 20x markup numbers, and they sounded... off to us. Like Jack and I are studying profit margins all the time.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
We have not seen retail profit margins of physical goods at like 90%. So we fact check those numbers by looking at Lululemon's audited financials. Because Jack, what's the one thing we happen to love in particular about the United States stock market? It's a bastion of truth. Yes, it is. Legally. If Lululemon lies in their earnings report, they can go to jail.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
All right, so Jack, let's whip out the latest copy of Lulu Lemon's quarterly earnings. What kind of numbers are we seeing? They pay 40% of the revenue in COGS, which are their costs of goods sold. So based on those COGS, that cost of goods sold, Lulu is saying the $100 pair of leggings that they sold you cost them $40 to produce. So Lulu says their leggings cost $40 to produce.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
TikTok says they're $5 to produce. Again, Lulu says it cost them 40 bucks to make those Align leggings. TikTok says you can buy them for five bucks straight from the factory in China. That's a huge difference. Which leads us to the even bigger story that's in our takeaway. So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies watching these viral Chinese factory exposure videos?
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
China just weaponized TikTok in the trade war. Yeti's full disclosure, we don't have proof of China's government being behind these factory exposure videos, and we're not saying that China's government is behind them. But TikTok's algorithm did push those three videos to 13.7 million users, even though each of the videos was posted from an anonymous TikTok account.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
For our second story, how is Moleskine, a brand that makes journals, books, and diaries, thriving right now? Moleskine is winning because it's got a board of Gen Zs. That's right. It's got a Gen Z board of directors. And our third and final story, the epic antitrust lawsuit against Meta began on Monday. And here's what's at stake. Zuck could actually lose Instagram.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
And that's a reminder about a reality about TikTok. The algorithm is a black box.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
The concern with TikTok has always been that the Chinese government could demand an algorithm tweak to sow distrust and misinformation on Americans. Well, Jack, that's kind of what's happening here, right? These videos have made people very angry at US brands. We can tell from the comments. And during the trade war, they're right now helping build empathy for Chinese factories.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
Even though they're saying numbers, five bucks per leggings, that Nick and I didn't pass our fact check. It is good to know where your clothes actually come from. That was interesting and important to see. But like we said, it's clear to us that much of the numbers and stats from these videos are hugely exaggerated.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
So besties, add it all up.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
And for the first time, we were seeing the trade war reach a new battleground, TikTok. When you've heard politicians call for TikTok bans, something like this was their concern. And that is what is so important about these $5 Lululemon leggings videos. They show how China can weaponize TikTok in the trade war.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
The Italian notebook is 200 years old, but living its best life. Moleskine doesn't have age serum. They do have a Gen Z board of directors. True story. But Jack, let's talk art history here for a second. Pablo Picasso, he sketched in it. Vincent Van Gogh, drew in it. Ernest Hemingway, he took a shot of whiskey, a second shot of whiskey, and then he wrote, for whom the bell tolls, in it.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
Since the 1800s, Western artists have written and drawn in a book bound by moleskin. But it wasn't until 1997 that an entrepreneur turned that moleskin concept into a brand. Moleskin with an E at the end because that differentiated it. Now, to clarify, is there the skin of the mole bounding these books? That's a fair question. I'm sure Pete is asking it too.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
But technically, no moles were harmed in the making of these diaries, Jack. It just appears to look like the skin of a mole. So Moleskine IPO'd on the Milan stock market. They were a publicly traded notebook stock, but they're now privately owned, still based in Italy. And you probably got three of them as a graduation gift. It's the default diary.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
The only question is, are you getting lined pages or dotted pages? You've probably seen someone at a Starbucks scribbling their next great American novel on one of these. Or if you're like me, you were gifted one, and now it just sits in your man bag. Because you use your computer. But besties, this is what Jack and I found fascinating about this story.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
Despite the obvious digital threat, in a world where everything is on screens, Moleskine is in growth mode. Moleskine is sold at 29,000 stores globally today. Got them at your Barnes & Noble, your campus bookstore, your airport gift shop. But it's also got its own Moleskine stores, and they're planning to triple the number in the United States to 30. They even own a handful of cafes. Yeah.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
Because a majority of Moleskine journaling is done with a macchiato on the table. But the profit puppy of Moleskine, what is it, Jack? Branded notebooks. Whatever corporate event you went to recently, you probably got a Moleskine corporate branded notebook in your gift bag. That's what's driving sales. In fact, 50% of Moleskine's revenues come from these corporate gifting events.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
Whatever college you went to, there is a Moleskine version of your college notebook. I mean, Jack, Moleskine has basically become the intellectual equivalent of the Patagonia fleece. But we were still curious. How is an analog notebook thriving in a digital world? Part of it is the backlash against screens that you're seeing in a lot of places these days.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
People want to respite from the blue light. But we noticed it's also something else, something more specific. Moleskine's board of directors. Sorry, their board of Gen Zers. Yeah, that's our takeaway. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Moleskine? Moleskine is a textbook case of age diversity.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
Get this, yetis.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories...
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
Moleskine has a Gen Z board. That's right, an advisory board of people who never even learned to write cursive. Yes, they do have a regular corporate board, but they have another board, 18 people all under the age of 30. Basically, the chief of cringe control. That's this Gen Z board. They started this Gen Z board three years ago, and they meet periodically with the CEO to suggest trends.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
So with this age-specific board, the CEO is accountable to the customer who they're targeting. The Gen Z board is why Moleskine has doubled down on strategic branded partnerships. Moleskine for Wicked, Moleskine for Saturday Night Live, Moleskine for NASA, all those notebooks, they were driven by ideas from the Gen Z board.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
What a mix of stories. Love the T-Boy Tuesday mix, Jack.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
Moleskine is more relevant than ever today, 200 years after the first one was made, because they've made generational perspective a top priority. It's a textbook case of age diversity.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
Yesterday, we asked you a trivia question. What famous toy was invented by a NASA rocket scientist? And the answer is... The Super Soaker. The billion-dollar toy that was created by accident in a man's bathroom. The Super Soaker. It's destroyed more sibling relationships than any other toy in the world. Mom! He shot me first! Mom, she shot me in the eye!
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
Meta versus the United States. We're about to get the dirt, though, on everyone in tech. Not just Zuckerberg, because of the subpoena. Ooh, the secrets are in the subpoena. But Jack, let's travel back to 2012 and 2014 when the Obama government made two big mistakes. And what were they, Jack? They let Mark Zuckerberg acquire Instagram and they let him acquire WhatsApp.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
Or as Jack and I call it, the two original sins of social media. Because a decade later, meta dominates social media thanks to those acquisitions. And the US government is trying to undo both of those deals that it approved. Basically, the government is trying to control Z their approvals of the Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
Here's what's at stake. Should Instagram and WhatsApp be split from Meta?
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
Well, that trial began on Monday and all of tech is tuning in. But the lawsuit for this trial was actually filed in 2020 during Trump's first term. Nick, why did it take a whole administration for it to go from lawsuit to trial? Well, Jack, because the commerce cops known as the FTC Federal Trade Commission took five years collecting evidence. Here's the news that Nick and I discovered.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
The FTC dropped the S-bomb on just about everybody in Silicon Valley. And by S-bomb, we mean subpoena. Subpoena. to figure out if Meta is a rule-breaking social media monopoly. The court is requiring others to provide testimony or documents in this trial. And in some of these cases, Meta is subpoenaing the competition that hates Zuck and Meta. If we ever got subpoenaed,
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
we must respond truthfully under oath to whatever questions get asked. Basically, if someone did something bad, it is illegal not to tattletale on them if you're subpoenaed, right? It's illegal to not tattletale if you know they did something wrong. Yeah, like Jack, you know in Mean Girls, Regina George has that burn book where she rips on everyone? Yeah. A subpoena is like the opposite.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
It's like instead of one ripping on all, all get to rip on one. I think that holds legal water, Jack. I believe it does. So, Bessie, Jack and I found this fascinating because we jumped into the court filings and saw all the parties who have been subpoenaed. And the list is wild. It's huge. Alphabet, TikTok, Snap, Pinterest, Nextdoor, they've all been subpoenaed in this big meta trial.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
Honestly, we're most excited to see what Snapchat says in the subpoena, right? Oh, because Zuck ruthlessly has copied Snapchat's innovation in the past decade. Oh, and it's not just tech companies that got subpoenaed in this deal. Walmart was subpoenaed. Match Group was subpoenaed. The New York Times. They're all parties to this epic trial.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
And they may tell the government that when it comes to online ads, there was only one place they could go. They had to buy ads from Meta. Or who knows, maybe they'll say something that's favorable to Meta in the trial. We won't know until it happens. Okay, but then here's another wrinkle in this whole Zuck drama.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
All those companies that got subpoenaed, they asked the judge to seal the evidence of their testimony so nobody would see it. But the judge said no. I'm going to let it all out in the open. That's why this trial is so exciting for guys like Nick and me. The juice of this trial isn't just going to come from like a cross-examination with Zuckerberg straight out of a movie.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
It's going to come from all those subpoenas. We're going to learn a whole bunch of company secrets about meta and Walmart and Snapchat and Alphabet and TikTok. This is the kind of thing you only learn in a trial. To quote Jack Nicholson, yeah, you can't handle the truth, but we'll grab some popcorn. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Meta?
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
It also became the top-selling toy in America in the 1990s, right after it debuted. Basically, where there was water, there was a Super Soaker. But few know the story of the Super Soaker's legendary founder. A black man who grew up in the segregated South. Lonnie Johnson was a NASA engineer who worked on spaceships, but side-hustled with water guns.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
Zuckerberg's suck-up strategy has failed. Yeah, it is. After Trump was elected, Zuck pivoted hard to MAGA. He started the lobbying equivalent of Facebook stocking. He's probably bought like a dozen Cybertrucks just to try to get into Trump's inner circle. Yeah, and he bought a third house for his fourth yacht in Washington, D.C. And now with this trial, it's clear what his goal was all along.
The Best One Yet
🤔 “China’s Factory Revolt” — Trade war moves to TikTok. Moleskine’s Gen Z board. Zuck's FTC lawsuit.
Zuck's goal was to get this lawsuit dismissed. because Trump has dropped cases against white-collar criminals and pardoned other corporate fraudsters before. But he has not dropped his antitrust lawsuit against Zuckerberg's meta. Again, the stakes are huge.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Tuesday, T-Boy. Tuesday, January 14th. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-Boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Stocks are up, Bitcoin's down, and Jack's trying to pull off some kind of flannel situation over there. I do look like Bob Vila over here. I like what you're working with.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
Brutal. They feel like they're held hostage because they spent so much money on those speakers, right? Exactly. And Sonos' new Ace headset, the reason they did the app update in the first place, it was totally overshadowed by all the rage about the app update. So the news as of Monday is that the CEO is out. He said that we let far too many people down.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
Basically, Sonos has seen more drama than a conscious uncoupling. Like the real housewives of Sonos. For real. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who we can hear over at Sonos? If you botch the app, you botch the whole product. Yetis today, no matter how physical the product, chances are it is infused with technology.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
It is Hershey's best selling candy, better known as the best selling flavor combination in history. But did you know that there's a psychological reason why people like the peanut butter and chocolate combo? And did you know that the peanut butter cup was actually invented by mistake? And did you know it all began 100 years ago with a down-on-his-luck frog salesman?
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
And we consumers have such high expectations of technology, because of Apple and Google and whatnot, that we get very upset when the app falls short. So consumers are now making product decisions not based on the hardware, but based on the software. For example, cars. Cars were always a hardware product. You looked under the hood and checked out the engine. But electric cars today...
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
They're more about software than hardware. Great example, Jack, because you and I both own electric vehicles and we both just re-upped our leases. And we got another Tesla because the software was so good. But I ditched my Volkswagen because the software was so bad. That is why CEOs are being judged not just by how good the product is, but by how good its accompanying app or software is.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
The espresso machine might make great lattes, but if the touchscreen is glitchy, you hate that espresso machine. Honey, just toss it out. So today, a product is only as good as the software that runs it. Besties, if you botch the app, you'll botch the whole darn product. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for T-Boy Tuesday?
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
Whatnot is rising in the app store as TikTok nears its end in America. Whatnot's live stream shopping is a mastery of psycho-economics. For our second story, it's NVIDIA. Their stock fell on news of new export restrictions for their AI chips. AI chips are officially military arms. AI chips are like digital uranium. And our third and final story is Sonos. Their CEO is out. Gone.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
Because he never recovered from the company's botched app update. Besties, if you botch the app, you botch the whole darn product. But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, big week in Washington, D.C. Trump's picks for positions like treasury secretary get confirmed by the Senate in the next few days. That's right.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
Trump's cabinet appointees must get 50 votes in the Senate in order to lead our government agencies. And second, if you're interested in betting, listen to this, because pretty soon you can bet in the sky. First of all, Kalshi, one of the online prediction markets, just added Donald Trump Jr. as a strategic advisor. Meanwhile, Delta Airlines is partnering with DraftKings for in-air betting.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
Betting on airplanes is illegal since the 1960s. But now you can play roulette from your seat back. And finally, Shake Shack is tripling their number of locations. They're going up to 1,500 shacks. Shake Shack has been the top performing burger stock of last year. They've nearly doubled. And yet, Shake Shack is the most expensive fast food burger. What's going on, Jack?
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
It's all about expectations. Totally. Because you compare Shake Shack to a nice restaurant. So compared to a nice restaurant, Shake Shack's actually a discount. you don't compare Shake Shack to a fast food burger, in which case it would have felt expensive. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one whipped up by Jack and I for the lovely city of Los Angeles.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
Some of the wildfires in Los Angeles are contained, but others are still raging with more wind coming this week. Okay, right now, this is on pace to already be the costliest fire in American history. We have friends of the pod based in Los Angeles that we've been thinking about for over a week now.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
This guy, he had 14 mouths to feed back at home, so he made one giant chocolate-covered bet. H.B. Reese is the most stubborn, hardworking entrepreneur Nick and I have ever read about. He totally is, Jack. And Milton Hershey was his guardian angel. Yetis, the untold origin story of America's favorite candy involves a real-life Willy Wonka.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
A huge portion of our team, the people we work with, our editor of this episode, Trey, he's down in LA. Our ad sales team at Wondery, they're in LA. Our talent agents at UTA, Rebecca, Oren, they are in Los Angeles. We've been talking to these people. And personally, we know a couple of people who've lost their entire homes. It's devastating.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
Yeah, we actually know people also who have just had to pack up their cars with a few things and they're just waiting to evacuate. Which is a traumatic experience in and of itself. So Yetis, if you're in Los Angeles or you know someone in Los Angeles, you can let them know about these businesses that are offering what we think are really good services to help.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
Airbnb is offering free emergency housing to 25,000 families in LA at airbnb.org. Planet Fitness opened up gym access to anyone so you could shower, use their locker rooms, get cleaned up at any Planet Fitness. Instacart is waiving all delivery fees in Los Angeles. And if you know someone with babies, Bobby, the baby formula company, will let you gift baby formula through their website.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
You can buy formula for people in LA. There's a bunch of other organizations doing amazing things, and there's a lot of ways that we can donate and help. In the meantime, the city of Los Angeles is lovely. We are thinking of all of our yetis and besties there, and we know you're going to come out of this. Yetis, you look fantastic for T-Boy Tuesday, but we don't want to leave you yet.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
Jack, what's the best place you can go right now? To our episode description to click the link to listen to the best idea yet. We've got a wild story on the true origins of the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup and that crazy frog salesman who made it happen. H.P. Reese was a wild card. Great guy. Milton Hershey was his guardian angel. Even wilder. Jack and I will see you at the best idea yet.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
And before we go, a happy birthday to legendary Panther Yeti Lizzie Horvitz from lovely Cleveland, Ohio. What do they call Cleveland, Jack? Paris on the Lake. Paris on the Lake. And happy birthday to Alejandro in Chicago, who's turning 12 and listening to the show right now with his dad. We see you, Alejandro. And Maison Zabet is celebrating his 30th birthday in lovely Reedsburg, Wisconsin.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
Happy birthday to Chris Costello in Brooklyn, New York, who's celebrating, get this, at a Hans Zimmer musical score concert. That's how you do a birthday. The guy's got range. He did the Lion King and he did Interstellar. And Chris has taste. And Justin Fitzgerald got stuck in a window seat with no window seat. 17 seat. Hate the window seat with no window seat. Trigger warning, Jack. I'm sorry.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
I know that hits your heart. Seat 17 seat. Avoid it at all costs. And Amanda Whittem, legendary Yeti, got her T-boy sweatsuit. She felt fantastic. She's been rolling in it all week. And congratulations to Savannah Westwood, a great Yeti in Orlando, Florida, who's walked enough dogs to cross the state of Florida three times.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
And Grant Murchison is a Yeti who found the last Chuck E. Cheese with an animatronics down in North Carolina. Send us a pic, Grant. Don't send us a pic because that scares us every time. Kind of freaks us out. Those things get freaky. This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon and Instacart. Nick owns stock of Shake Shack and Delta. And Nick and I both own stock of Apple and Spotify.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
And we both own a Bitcoin named Ben. If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
And that origin story is the latest episode of our weekly show, The Best Idea Yet. The untold origin stories of the products you're obsessed with. So besties, later today, after this T-boy, check out our weekly deep dive show, The Best Idea Yet. Because you're obsessed with Reese's Peanut Butter Cookies.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
Even if you call them Reese's Pieces. Fine, I had four of them. New episodes of our new show drop every Tuesday. So tap the link in this episode description because the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup is simply the best idea yet. But let's hit our three stories because they're the best ones yet. Jack, let's hit the next show.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in a dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm. Jack, Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50%, that's a fat tip. T-Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, cause we ready to go. We can't wait no more, so just start the show. Start the show.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
You're going to build us a home, build us a podcast studio? What's working with it? I like it. Measure twice, cut once. Ha! Honestly, I think you look fantastic. But Yetis, we've got three fantastic stories for today's show. Jack, what's on today's T-boy? For our first story, barring a Supreme Court intervention, TikTok will be banned in five days. Five days?
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
For our first story, there is one app hoping to fill the post TikTok void. And that app that you got to know is Whatnot. Real time live shopping. Live shopping will be the next trend in America thanks to psychonomics. So we got to tell you about Whatnot. Now, yetis, Jack and I last year, probably our best performing, most viral video that we put on TikTok got like 2 million views, right, man?
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
We calculated how many men in finance there were with math. But that doesn't matter in five days. Because unless the Supreme Court intervenes, TikTok will be banned starting Sunday. That's right, besties. Unless China sells TikTok by this coming Sunday, TikTok will be banned. Oh, by the way, Lemon 8, another ByteDance-owned company, that's probably going to be banned too, according to the law.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
In fact, one random TikTok alternative called Red Note just hit number one in the app store on Monday because everyone just assumes TikTok is going away. But another potential beneficiary of a TikTok ban is a new app called Whatnot. Whatnop, a real-time live shopping app that happens to be the wildest shopping experience you have ever seen.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
Because this app is Instagram meets eBay meets reality TV. All in one. And last week, Yetis, Whatnop raised $265 million and hit a $5 billion valuation because TikTok's in its final days. Now, Jack, you and I should pause the pod for a second. We should sprinkle on more context because this is a new frontier, these live shopping apps. Live stream shopping is already huge in China.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
China has 80% of the live stream shopping market. Live shopping is also big on TikTok right now. You can whip out your TikTok and do a little live shop shop. Now, to understand live stream shopping, think about this. TikTok democratized the ability to post things online. Well... Whatnot democratized QVC. I like what you did there, Jack.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
Because yetis, collectors will set up accounts on Whatnot, turn on their cameras, have production studios like in their basements that are actually pretty nice, and then sell anything to users of the Whatnot app. And if you're a user of the Whatnot app, you're swiping through videos like you used to swipe through TikTok. You are.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
But each video is a person selling some random interesting collectible. It could be like Disney merch. It could be crystals. Like, Jack, it kind of feels like you're walking through a night market in Bangkok. You get that vibe, man? Yeah. But there's some credibility here because Whatnot, the app, vets each seller.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
And if that seller doesn't send you the thing you pushed buy on, Whatnot will reimburse you. In fact, Jack and I jumped in T-boy style to the numbers and we calculated something wild about Whatnot's size. There's so many sellers selling random stuff on Whatnot. that they have three times as much video content as all of cable television. And there's like wild examples out there.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
But there's already a new replacement called WhatNot. WhatNot. Yetis, WhatNot is the new app you gotta know. It's Instagram meets eBay meets MTV. For our second story, Nvidia stock fell after a new rule from the White House about what countries can buy its chips. Because AI chips are the new uranium. And our third and final story is Sonos.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
Like we found a great example in San Francisco. This old San Francisco collectible coin store went on Whatnot just to sell their collection of 19th century currency. And how did this small random coin shop in the middle of the city do, Jack? They're selling way more on Whatnot than they ever sold in their physical store. $4 million worth of coins sold on Whatnot.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
There's another dude who's selling European men's wallets. This guy's dressed like Vanna White. He's selling for six hours a day, and it's only European wallets. You see, this is shopping, but it's also entertainment. Exactly. You can watch videos for hours, not buy anything, but still leave the app feeling satisfied. Like that guy you found selling, what was it, Jack? It was flags.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
Vintage American flag. So he had this 48 star American flag behind us. And to get me to buy the flag, he explained, you know, Hawaii and Alaska statehood and where the country was when Congress approved them as being the 49th and 50th states. It feels like you're watching Pawn Stars on the History Channel, but Chumlee is selling the stuff directly to your wallet.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
What I'm saying is unlike TikTok, this is a productive waste of time. Yeti's Whatnot's innovation, the way we see it, was turning e-commerce into reality TV and then putting it on your phone. It sounds pretty cool. It's Survivor meets Amazon. It's Etsy meets Squid Game. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Whatnot? We have to talk about psychonomics. Psychonomics.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
Yetis, that is our term for when companies use psychology to boost their economics. And that's exactly what Whatnot's doing. They are a master of psychonomics. For example, every Whatnot video includes a live comment so fans can encourage you to buy. So as a user, you're feeling peer pressure.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
Oh, and also there's a countdown clock that keeps the seller on their toes and creates a sense of urgency for the buyer. They also have this thing called sudden death auctions. Right. Which is when the next bid wins. Yeah, it's crazy. So you see a sudden death logo come up on the screen. You grab your phone to type in $50 as quickly as you can.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
Could you imagine if Billy Mays was doing this for six hours a day and then you had... Billy Mays here. Two seconds to get 50 bucks off OxyClean. Add those tactics up, and that's why whatnot users can spend hours scrolling through live shopping videos. So besties, Jack and I think live shopping habits will be China's next big export to the United States with or without TikTok.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
Because $5 billion whatnot shows how psychonomics can power live stream shopping. For our second story, Nvidia just issued the most angry, upset, bitter, aggressive press release we have ever seen. Because Nvidia's chips are being treated by the White House like they were nuclear weapons. Less than a week left.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
The Biden administration has less than one week left in the White House, so they have been making moves the last few days, Jack. They've been very active with executive orders, but the latest one that came out Monday morning might be the biggest. If you You happen to make, you know, artificial intelligence computer chips. Well, you can now only sell them freely to 18 ally countries. That's right.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
Our top European and Asian allies have the green light. They can buy as many NVIDIA AI chips as they want. It's kind of like Mean Girls. You can sit with us, you can't, and you can enjoy the AI chips while you're sitting with us. All the bullies in the lunchroom, in Nick's analogy, are China, Iran, Russia, and North Korea. They have been deemed red light countries by this executive order.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
Sonos is known for the fancy sound system at your parents' second house. But the CEO of Sonos was just fired for making one huge mistake. But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. I mean, that was a cliffhanger, but three fantastic stories, Jack. Love the mix today. Yesterday, we asked you our weekly trivia question. And here's what it was.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
They are forbidden from accessing America's top AI technology. So you got green light countries who can buy any of our chips. red light countries who can't buy any of our chips, Jack, I gotta ask, who are the yellow light countries? The rest of the world.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
The 100 plus other countries who can buy NVIDIA or other top AI chips, but only in limited quantities and with serious security strings attached. Malaysia, you're cool. You can buy them, but only this many of them. And Nick, those yellow light rules, they're intended to stop China from accessing US chips through intermediary countries like, I don't know, Saudi Arabia. So besties, add it all up.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
And the goal of this red light, green light, yellow light, who can buy our computer chips point is to prevent China and other adversaries from accessing our most powerful chips that can power AI. Now, yetis, that was the new rule from the president. But Jack, what was the response from NVIDIA, the company that, you know, is famous for making AI computer chips? NVIDIA was furious. Furious.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
We have never seen such an angry and aggressive press release. This is just one quote, but here it is. Rather than mitigate any threat, the new Biden rules would only weaken America's global competitiveness, undermining the innovation that has kept the U.S. ahead. That is the corporate equivalent of flipping a table on a Bravo reality show.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
Now, the rest of the press release, NVIDIA actually praised Trump, name dropping him twice in the same report. Which is honestly, it's a politically calculated move that we're seeing others do at this moment as well. With Trump coming into office next week, every tech company is keen to flatter him.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
It just is a lot easier to bash the lame duck outgoing president and compliment the incoming new president. It's political calculus that just about everyone has made. Basically, NVIDIA is hoping that Trump will cancel the order once he's inaugurated. But still, NVIDIA stock is down 11% in the past week because of this rule. Because this one rule could put a big dent in its business.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
Nvidia happens to sell about $17 billion worth of computer chips to China. That's what they did last year. That's 11% of their business. Now, not all those chips are going to be restricted. Only the most cutting edge AI chips are affected. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Nvidia? AI chips are officially military arms. They're like digital uranium. Yeti's wild stat we noticed.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
One expert told the Financial Times that China is only six to 18 months behind the United States in the AI arms race. And honestly, Jack, that sounds like the plot of Oppenheimer, the movie. And that makes sense because we see AI as being like nuclear power. Yes, we do. Nuclear can be used for good or it can be used for bad.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
So the Biden administration is trying to keep AI chips away from our adversaries like it's a bomb technology. NVIDIA's chips, like nuclear power, can be used for peace, say AI chatbots. But on the other hand, NVIDIA's chips can also be used for wars. to build advanced weapons, surveillance, drones. It's possible.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
This new chip export restriction was probably Biden's biggest final move as president, and it makes one thing official. AI chips are military arms. They're basically digital uranium.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
What famous candy was invented by a frog salesman? Well, the answer to that question happens to be the most popular candy in America. What is it, Jack? The Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. No, the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. It is the number one most demanded candy at every Halloween. And it's also the top selling candy outside of Halloween. The Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
For our third and final story, Sonos just fired its CEO because of a single, simple app update. This is the first time we've ever seen that, but it won't be the last. We'll explain why. Okay, Jack, our favorite hero stat about Sonos. You want to tell it to the Yetis? This is really good. Sonos is the only publicly traded company whose name is a full palindrome. Okay, spell this out, Yetis.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
S-O-N-O-S. It's the same left to right, and it's the same up or down. If you flip the name over either dimension, it still says Sonos. Sonos, it is the Santa Barbara-based sound system. Sonos, a billion and a half dollars in revenue, 50% profit margins. Not too shabby, Jack. This is the Mercedes of speakers. But here's the problem.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
Sales fell by 16% last quarter, and the stock, while the rest of the stock market grew 25% last year, Sonos fell by 30%. And then there's the latest news because yesterday the CEO of Sonos stepped down. The CEO was fired because he botched an app update this past May. Here's the deal. The Sonos app was beloved by Sonos speakers owners. A lot of people love it.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
Many used the Sonos app instead of Spotify or Apple music. It was that good. But last May, Sonos came up with a new app update that was supposed to improve the app experience for everyone. Instead, downloading the app update brought you bugs, lost features, and one huge mess up. Many Sonos users set alarm clocks and sleep timers so that they wake up to music on their Sonos speakers.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
Okay, but this new app had deleted that feature. It no longer existed. No more alarm clocks. And Sonos didn't apologize. They didn't explain why that feature was gone, so everyone was just kind of pissed. And remember, people had built speakers that were made by Sonos into their bedroom architecture. They depended on the sound system. And the new app update... was a total pain. Okay.
The Best One Yet
📹 “The Next TikTok” — Whatnot’s $5B shop app. Nvidia’s uranium problem. Sonos’ CEO oopsie.
It made all that money they invested in their speakers feel like a waste. Can I read you the latest app update? All right, here's the latest review about the Sonos app. Here it is, here it is. One star, spectacularly bad from Lowell62. This person says, Sonos is one of the worst apps I've ever seen or had the displeasure of using. It is wildly unfortunate and we're held hostage in their product.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Tuesday, T-Boy Tuesday, May 13th. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-Boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Jack, I am looking at a relief rally right here. Stocks are popping to start the week like nobody's business. The S&P 500 jumped 3% yesterday. It was an ocean of green. Toy stocks are popping.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
Hey, Darlene, where are we flying? At an iced Coolada 30,000 feet, son. That's pretty good. You clearly married someone from Boston. I stuck the land in on that. But yet, here's what Jack and I find fascinating. As we have told you before, where there are eyeballs, there will be ads. Last year, we told you that United Airlines was pioneering targeted ads on their airplanes. That's right.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
United knows that a 42-year-old father from Florida is sitting in seat 34B. So what is United going to do, Jack? Show them ads for a 12-pack of Titleist golf balls. Yeah, they're going to start targeting your screen with ads just like Instagram or Facebook would. So airlines have already dipped their toes in the advertising business.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
But now JetBlue, they're flying an airplane right through the whole industry. JetBlue's going even bigger on this, but also kind of going backwards, right, Jack? A 100-foot-long billboard that flies at 30,000 feet and can fly 500 miles per hour. Technically, this JetBlue Duncan airplane is the biggest flying ad since the Goodyear blimp. Yeah. But Jack and I got to ask, is this a slippery slope?
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
Is JetBlue opening... Pandora's advertising box. Yes. In 10 years, we bet you JFK's tarmacs are going to look like Times Square. Every plane is going to be painted with a corporate ad. I could see this, Jack. I mean, we were talking about it before the show. Like, does Delta really need every 767 in their fleet to look the exact, exact same? It's nice to have a uniform fleet. It is.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
But Delta's going to cave at some point when Starbucks offers them a hundred grand.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
A quarter million bucks to make this look like a Frappuccino? I think our painters can make that happen. Sports is doing it. Airlines will, too. There's going to be ads everywhere. Yeah, and JetBlue, the next time they give us their earnings report, is probably going to have a new line item in the income statement. Ticket sales, check bag fees, advertising. Yeah.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at JetBlue and Dunkin'? When it comes to collabs, start with the hometown heroes. Yeti is the top marketing trend right now. It's collabs. Two brands hook up for a mutually beneficial combo product. The risk of a collab is that it looks like a marketing gimmick and that customers roll their eyes.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
So one overlooked strategy we think for avoiding collab blowback is to partner with another hometown hero. Focusing on one region may feel niche, but it actually drives higher enthusiasm from everyone. After all, branding is driven by love beyond reason, and so is a person's passion for their home. Socially, that's called hometown pride. In business, we call that the hometown premium.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
So with Dunkin' and JetBlue, Boston Flyers will love it, people from the Midwest will tolerate it, and us New Yorkers will just ignore it like we do everything out of Boston. Nice. But still, this Bostonian Dunkin' Jet Blue collab unlocks a whole lot of hometown premium. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for T-Boy Tuesday?
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
Yeah, in fact, between her tickets going on sale and Katy Perry's first concert, stocks dropped 30%. Fast forward to today, and Katy Perry just had her biggest month since then. Katy Perry just flew to space. Katy Perry just released a new album. And this month, uh-oh, Katy Perry started a concert tour. That's right. The ticket drop actually lines up exactly with the beginning of the trade war.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
President Trump moved markets with a tariff pause, a plane, pharmaceuticals, and a Middle East party. President Trump and the rich Middle East oil nations, a match made on geopolitical Tinder. For our second story, Vineyard Vines is getting their two co-founding brothers back. Next, they should launch a restaurant. Just look at Tommy Bahama. Lifestyle brands follow a life cycle.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
And men stick to the fit, women chase the head. And finally, Dunkin' Donuts has taken over one JetBlue airplane completely. It's a flying billboard because when it comes to collabs, start with the hometown heroes. But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, shares in Coinbase jumped after hours on Word. They are joining the S&P 500 index.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
It's a big milestone for the number one crypto exchange. It means the finance disruptor just got validated by the most prestigious club in finance, who they're trying to disrupt. Coinbase is now officially one of the top 500 stocks in America. And second, since Pope Leo chose his pope name, we're expected to see a baby bump in Leos out there.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
Nick, Leo actually began trending after the year 2000 because of Leonardo DiCaprio. Yeah, I still haven't seen Titanic, but I trust it. Today, Leo is 20 times more popular than it was in the year 2000, thanks to Leo and Titanic. Although we should point out, Jack, we may have hit peak Leo last week. Not only is the Pope named Leo, yeah, he's the 14th Pope named Leo.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
Maybe he'll spell it differently. Maybe throw like a silent H in there or something. He's not spelling it differently, Nick. And finally, the partner of Elizabeth Holmes has launched a new startup in, guess the sector... Blood testing. No joke. His name's Billy Evans. He has two children with the convicted fraud, Elizabeth Holmes, and he's trying to raise money for a blood startup.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
I mean, what blood type is he, Jack? Like B positive? As in be positively sure you're not defrauding investors. Move fast and break laws. It's on slide three. Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by our buddy, Rachel, our cycling buddy, Rachel, because it happens to be National Bike to Work Week. I wish so badly I could bike to work today. Yeah, I know. I'm sorry you couldn't.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
But I just don't have a good biking situation. I'd have to drive on a road that's like 40 miles per hour. We can't lose you, Jack. We got to have you for the pod tomorrow. But we should point out, Yeti's for National Bike Week, there are actually more bikes on planet Earth than there are cars. That's right. There's two billion bicycles, one and a half billion cars.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
And what's really the capital of biking in the world, Jack? You could guess this one, I bet. Yeah, it's the Dutch. It's the Dutch. It's the Netherlands. That's right. In the Netherlands, they have an average of 1.3 bikes per human being, the highest bike per capita ratio in the world. A typical house of three people in the Netherlands has four bikes. Yeah, I remember.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
You're actually a wonderful biker. I should point, I mean, because I can't bike very well. You basically taught me how to bike and how to throw a football. And I gave you Vindred Vine's ties. Yetis, you look fantastic for T-Boy Tuesday. If you haven't yet, snag tickets to our Chicago live show. We got a link in this episode description. And then, hey, tell your buddies today. H-Y-H-T-B-O-Y.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
Have you had the best one yet? Nick and I will see you tomorrow. That's how we grow the show, if you know. A happy birthday to Yeti A.J. Richardson, turning 37 years old in Norfolk, Virginia. Love the Power Rangers, and he thinks we should do one for the best idea yet. I agree. It is confirmed. That is a good idea.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
The day she launched tickets, stock markets plummeted. Katy, are you telling my phone one time? It's like Katy Perry's teenage dream was an economic drop. Baby, you're a firework because you make the stock market blow up. But yet it's not just Katy Perry going on tour that reminds us of 2008. Lady Gaga just played Coachella. And Miley Cyrus just dropped an album too. Remember Usher?
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
Happy birthday to Jamie Cohen from San Diego, who is either walking the dogs at the gym. probably listening to this pod for either one of them. And a happy 10th birthday to Daniel Ramirez down in San Jose, Costa Rica, who is celebrating the best birthday yet. And a big shout out to Karen Schneider of Weymouth, Massachusetts. Just outside Boston. Karen is officially a professional photographer.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
And if you want to get a shout out for yourself or a buddy on this show, we've got a link in the episode description. Fill out the form and we'll make it happen. This is Jack. I own stock in Bumble and Disney, and Nick and I both own ETFs of the S&P 500.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
He released Love in This Club back in 2008. And he's back. He did the Super Bowl halftime show last year. So besties, add it all up. And Katy Perry once said, you're going But earmuffs, if there's any stockbrokers listening. Honey, you're going to have to turn down the Katy Perry.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
For our first story, yesterday was Mega Monday. Here, Yetis, is your synopsis about President Trump's last 24 hours that definitely moved your portfolio. Planes, prescriptions, tariff pauses, and Middle East parties. Here's what you need to know about all of them in five minutes. Now, besties, this story really begins yesterday at 3 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. Jack, what happened then?
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
Toy stocks are surging. Honestly, you could get more than two dolls this Christmas. I know. It's a major reset in the trade war. And the reason... is the first of our three stories. Jack, what are today's three stories for the T-boy? For our first story, it's Mega Monday. Starting at 3 a.m. on Monday, we got a barrage of business headlines from the White House.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
At that time on Monday, very early morning, the Treasury Secretary, Scott Besson, announced a 90-day trade war ceasefire with China. All right, ceasefire. I like those two words. Jack, could you sprinkle on more context, please? Tariffs between the U.S. and China were so high going into it that we had an effective trade embargo for a full month. Like, no joke.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
Ships stopped coming across the ocean to the U.S. from China. They were just in port, not going anywhere. But that... because the US is dropping tariffs on China-made goods to 30%, and China is dropping tariffs on US-made goods to 10%. Add it all up, and this is being described as a total reset for these epic trade talks.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
From 145% to 30%, huge de-escalation between the world's two biggest economies. Now, Eddie's Jack and I jumped in T-Boys style, and we believe this tells us two big things. First, it tells us that the U.S. and China are talking again. Both sides are seeking a deal. Both sides are working to come to an agreement.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
Second, it tells us that Scott Besson, the Treasury Secretary, not Donald Trump, appears to be leading those trade talks. And Wall Street seems to be thrilled by that development. Now, Yetis, we should point out that the U.S. hasn't won concessions yet from Beijing. But stocks rose 3.3% yesterday on hopes that our Treasury Secretary can lead us to a more fair status quo with the Chinese.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
As you know, Jack is a musical guy. So, Jack, I know what you're thinking about this, right? We've said Treasury Secretary three times already in this story. Not since Alexander Hamilton has the Treasury Secretary of the U.S. been this important. Scott Besson, not gonna give up his one shot. My bestie paused the pod for a moment. That was just the top headline.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
Three other stories blew up our phones with notifications. First, Cotter, or Qatar, because we've heard it pronounced both ways for the record. I think it's Cutter. I've been to the region plenty of times. I hear both pronunciations. Well... Cotter is trying to gift President Trump a 747 jumbo jet. As the temporary Air Force One.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
Now, when Nick and I worked in finance, we couldn't legally accept any gifts worth over $100. This airplane's worth $400 million. Yeah, we did the math on it. It's actually worth 100 times more than the Statue of Liberty adjusted for inflation. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Either way, this Cutter offer to give President Trump a 747, it makes Boeing look bad, that's for sure.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
Yeah, because Boeing, which makes the Air Force One, hasn't updated the plane since 1990, and their new version isn't coming out until 2027. It's just very delayed. Okay, so the second huge announcement we got yesterday was that Trump had an executive order that totally rocks the pharmaceutical industry. He announced a 30-day deadline for pharma companies to lower prices for prescription drugs.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
If they don't lower the price on like Thytastrosol, then Trump threatened to use presidential powers to force prices down as much as 80%. So now RFK Jr. is in talks with the pharma companies trying to get Americans the same price for drugs as the rest of the world gets. Now add all of this up, Yetis, and we've talked planes, we've talked prescriptions, we've talked China, tariff pause.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
And Jack and I will explain all of it using planes, prescriptions, and parties. For our second story, your preppy college formal is calling because Vineyard Vines just got its co-founders back. Their first move back at the helm, Vineyard Vines Vacation Resorts, man. I'm interested. And our third and final story, Dunkin' Donuts has its own JetBlue airplane. That's right. Darlene is flying direct.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
Jack, I'm pretty sure there's only one topic left that begins with P. Parties? Parties. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are everyone watching the markets? Trump's first foreign trip has a fundraising goal. One trillion dollars. One trillion dollars. Yetis, President Trump's first foreign trip in his first administration... was to Saudi Arabia.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
And that was supposed to be the case for his second administration, too, until the Pope died and he went to the Vatican. Now, Trump arrives today in Saudi Arabia, and he'll visit Qatar and the UAE as well this week. His reported goal is to bring home $1 trillion worth of deals and investment pledges. You know what? We're looking at the situation.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
Honestly, President Trump and these rich Middle East oil nations, they are a match made in geopolitical tinder. They go perfect together. Oh, it's lovely. Because Trump wants foreign investment into the United States. And Middle East kingdoms, led by Saudi Arabia, want opportunities to diversify away from oil. Barack Obama pivoted to Asia. Joe Biden embraced NATO.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
Well, Donald Trump is making money in the Middle East. Yeti's presidential trips are a signal, and Trump's first foreign trip has a fundraising goal, $1 trillion. For our second story, Vineyard Vines is back, baby. The co-founding brothers are returning to run the business. And that's big, because Vineyard Vines hasn't even started the lifestyle life cycle.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
Yetis, there's a little thing Jack and I learned in finance we should share with you. Every time a Vineyard Vines tie is bought... An analyst gets his wins. Yeah, because it's the unofficial dress code of a Morgan Stanley internship. Yeah, although it's the official dress code of formal night over at the La Crosse Sig Sig Ep House. I think that's literally true. Yeah, no Vineyard Vines, no punch.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
Because there's no brand that is more prep than Vineyard Vines. Vineyard Vines looks like J. Crew went to an Ivy League boarding school on the coast of Cape Cod. When I arrived at college, I almost drowned in Vineyard Vines silk. Full disclosure, because I had six of them and I insisted on wearing them. I borrowed like three of your ties over the years for formal dances.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
But, Bessies, Jack and I should point out, Vineyard Vines is not just some pastel punchline. We actually think Vineyard Vines was an early disruptor in fashion. And one of the best-run fashion businesses. Because it was founded in 1998 by two brothers, Shep and Ian, who had jobs in New York City in finance that they did not like. They never wanted to wear ties again.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
Although, ironically, they launched a tie company. And the first drop they did on Martha's Vineyard, they sold 800 ties in one single day. Yeah, it was like 40 grand of ties in a single day. And Jack, what was the real disruption here exactly?
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
These two CE bros, we can actually call them that because they're brothers, they noticed that all the ties in the financing were the same color, same patterns, and same conservative look overall. So Vineyard Vines was the first to introduce pink or hot dogs or flamingo designs on the ties. Basically, any symbol that represents not being at work, that might be on a tie from Vineyard Vines.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
The key was the lack of symmetry. These were asymmetrical designs. And today, they bring in $500 million a year in clothing sales, and they're probably valued over a billion dollars, although we don't know for sure because it's private. I add it all up. Vineyard Vines, they are a unicorn whale. Their logo is a pink whale. But here's the news.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
After stepping down a few years ago, the bros are back, baby. Those two founding brothers are returning as co-CEOs. Shep and Ian are boomerang CEOs at Vineyard Vines. Yeah, boomerang CEOs. Just like Whitney Wolf Hurd at Bumble and Bob Iger at Disney. Boomerang CEOs, they returned back to the company. But here's what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. Vineyard Vines is 27 years old.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
Yeah. Which is past middle age when it comes to the fashion industry. And yet, Vineyard Vines' business is wildly stable and consistent. First of all, those two founders still own 100% of the business. They didn't sell a single thread to private equity. Or Jack, how about their store growth? That's been consistent. Five stores a year, and they're now up to 126 of them.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
Dunkin's JetBlue airplane is the perfect example of the hometown special. But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories... What a mix of stories. No one else is doing that mix today, Jack. Love the mix. For the past few months, we've been tracking some recession indicators for you. Yeah, recession indicators like Botox, hair dye, frozen pizza, men's boxers, men's briefs, men's panties.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
$500 million a year in revenue is impressive, by the way. It is, so let's bring on some context. That's twice as much as Allbirds, it's the same as Stitch Fix, and it's half as much as Skims. Now, besties, the reason Jack and I think Vineyard Vines is such a consistent business... is because of males. Men, men, males, dudes, guys. Men literally shop differently than women, according to the CEO.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
You see, men buy and commit to a brand that works for them for years. Women tend to switch it up. Yeah, what we're saying is that men stick to the fit, women chase the hit. And nearly 70% of Vineyard Vine customers are men. So basically, your boyfriend finds Vineyard Vine khakis that fit well, and then he wears them for the next two decades.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
Yeah, Jack, Molly's been trying to find like a fleece for San Francisco weather for like six years. It's like her Eldorado. We've got like a fleece graveyard in the closet of every fleece she's tried. Meanwhile, you have your outdoor voices pull over that you've had for like 15 years. Still loyal. Still loyal. But here's our big question. Is Vineyard Vines too stable? Yeah.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
Has it missed out on growth opportunities by not expanding more? Jack and I think we've got the answer and it's our takeaway. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Vineyard Vines? There's a life cycle of lifestyle brands. Yeti's spoiler. On our weekly show, The Best Idea Yet, Jack and I are going to publish an episode next month on Tommy Bahama.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
And Sir Bahama is the perfect case study in the evolution of a lifestyle brand. Because Tommy Bahama started with clothing, but then expanded to restaurants, and then furniture, and then hotels and resorts. It was able to expand to all those verticals because Tommy Bahama is a lifestyle brand. Right. The lifestyle is vacation by the beach.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
Now, Ralph Lauren, they've done this same thing too, the same evolution. Started with clothes, then bars, then coffee, now hotels. So it feels like Vineyard Vines impressively owns one particular lifestyle, preppy New England coastal chic lifestyle. But maybe Vineyard Vines hasn't completely capitalized on that lifestyle like its lifestyle peers have.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
How does Vineyard Vines not have a resort on Nantucket yet? Jack, how does Vineyard Vines not have an oyster shucking bar down in Charleston yet? We think that's the challenge of the new and old co-CEOs. Because ultimately, there is a life cycle to a lifestyle brand. Now, a quick word from our sponsor.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
Every big moment starts with a big dream. But what happens when that big dream turns out to be... A big flop. From Wondery and At Will Media, I'm Misha Brown, and this is The Big Flop. Every week, comedians join me to chronicle the biggest flubs, fails, and blunders of all time, like Quibi. It's kind of like when you give yourself your own nickname and you try to, like, get other people to do it.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
and the 2019 movie adaptation of Cats.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
Find out what happens when massive hype turns into major fiasco. Enjoy The Big Flop on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Big Flop early and ad-free on Wondery+. Get started with your free trial at wondery.com slash plus.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
For our third and final story, Dunkin' Donuts. Their brand has taken over an entire JetBlue airplane. This is a flying billboard. Because the most overlooked strategy in collaborations is the hometown hookup. Oh, Yetis, pour out your Diet Coke in a plastic cup for JetBlue. It's been hard for JetBlue lately, right, Jack?
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
Their merger with Spirit Airlines got blocked, they missed out on the post-pandemic international travel craze, and their stock is down 95% from their all-time high. That's right, JetBlue stock is trading at $4 a share, so JetBlue is trying to turn around their life the same way we humans do. Reach for a cup of coffee. Here's the news. JetBlue has turned an entire airplane into a Dunkin' ad.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
No, we're not tracking that. But the wildest alternative indicator of a recession? It's Katy Perry. Baby, you're a firework. Yeah, that Katy Perry. Because when was Katy Perry's first concert tour ever, Nick? Jack, that would be the Hello Katy tour back in 2009. And right after tickets went on sale in the fall of 2008, we got a financial crisis and a great recession began.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
I wish you could see a picture of this, but it's an entire Airbus A320 airplane painted with Dunkin' Donuts branding. 100% Dunkin' branding. Like JetBlue, they're not getting a government bailout right now. Instead- They're getting a Duncan cold brew, apparently. Now, we should point out JetBlue has a tradition of promoting causes by painting one of their airplanes with branding of that cause.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
They've done NYPD branding, Boston Bruins branding, the nation of Puerto Rico. Each of those got a JetBlue airplane at some point. But now JetBlue is going full corporate billboard. It appears Duncan's paying for this. It's even going to name the plane Brewing Altitude, like a Duncan ad. I think the FAA flight control center is calling it brewing altitude, is approaching runway AB. Yeah.
The Best One Yet
🐳 “Preppy Billions” — Vineyard Vines’ revival. Trump’s Mega-Monday. Dunkin’s JetBlue airplane.
This is an Airbus A320 airplane with zero blue on it. It is just orange, pink, and brown with a huge donut on the tail. Seriously. Yeah. Now, the key here is that Dunkin' Donuts is based in Boston, and JetBlue is the biggest airline carrier in Boston. So, add it all up, and this is basically an all-New England deal. Ben Affleck's not flying private anymore when he hears about this. One sec.
The Best One Yet
📉 “Worst Drop Since ‘22” — The crazy recession theory. Skype’s audio logo. Touchland’s viral hand sanitizer.
15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in a dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50%, that's a fat tip. T-Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, cause we ready to go. We can't wait no more, so just start the show.
The Best One Yet
🟠 “Penny RIP” — End of the Penny. Dunkin’s diss track. T-Mobile’s dead-zone killer.
Let's do it. Start the show.
The Best One Yet
🫶🧾 “Eras Tour receipts” — Taylor Swift’s concert payday. Disney’s doubling cruise line. DeBeers’ industrial diamonds.
15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50%, that's a fat tip. T-Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, cause we ready to go. We can't wait no more, so just start the show. Start the show.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
This is Nick. This is Jack. It is Tuesday, T-Boy. Tuesday, May 6th. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-Boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Yetis, in case you missed it yesterday, mark your calendars. We announced our next city for the T-Boy live show. What do we got, Jack? On July 23rd, Nick and I are going to record this podcast live. Oh, yeah.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
Now, Yetis, finance professors, they always say, hey, you can't beat the market. You shouldn't even try. And yet, Warren Buffett has beat the market consistently for 60 years. Five and a half million percent return. We've never seen anything like it. The result? Berkshire is now worth a trillion dollars.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
The only non-tech company ever to hit that high besides Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil company. So we know what you're thinking, besties. How the heck did Warren Buffett pull it off? And the answer is our takeaway. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our Omaha buddy over at Berkshire Hathaway and everyone investing right now? Where culture leads, money follows.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
Yetis, when Jack and I started working at Robinhood, after we sold our first startup to Robinhood, the compliance officer named LaSauvon showed us this cool video. It's Warren Buffett testifying to Congress in 1990. He was saying how he would clean up Salomon Brothers, the Wall Street firm that had recently been in a scandal.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
Cartography is a thousand years old, but Google Maps is the only map to go viral. Get this. Two billion humans use Google Maps every month to get from point A to point B. And the numbers are so big, it would make Magellan explode. But if you think Google simply built maps with a team of engineers... Oh, boy, are you wrong. Get this. Google Maps was built by a startup. Nay!
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
Yeti's thousands of men and women in finance try to pick stocks just like Warren Buffett, but nobody ever has. That clip shows why. It shows his commitment to a culture of integrity, and it was unmatched. So besties, the secret sauce to Warren Buffett's success, it's not stock picking prowess, it's cultural prowess. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for T-Boy Tuesday?
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
President Trump asked his Commerce Secretary to create a 100% tariff on all movies filmed abroad. It's Quentin Tarif-tino, baby! The trade war just leaped from the physical. to the digital. For our second story, Skechers just sold for $9 billion, and the stock will get delisted as this private company takes over.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
One man's trash is another man's target customer. And finally, Warren Buffett is retiring as the CEO of Berkshire at the end of the year. His genius wasn't in calculating stocks. It was in creating a culture. But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, OpenAI is abandoning their conversion to become a for-profit company. Awkward.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
It will instead transform its for-profit subsidiary that owns ChatGPT into a public benefit corporation that is controlled by the nonprofit parent. Don't worry, besties.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
And second, Lady Gaga had a free concert over the weekend in Brazil that was the biggest concert in history for a female artist. Two and a half million people attended. It was on Copacabana Beach in Rio. Madonna drew 1.6 million people at the same venue last year, by the way. But the biggest concert of all time, it was 1994. It was Rod Stewart, and it was at the same venue.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
And by the way, this summer is expected to be the biggest concert summer ever. And finally, Brawny just launched the largest innovation we've ever seen in the paper industry, an unprecedented three-ply paper towel. Which makes it 50% stronger than Bounty's two-ply toilet paper. Sorry, not toilet paper. Paper towel. Big distinction. That's the math.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
But we should bring up, this could bring up an escalation. A slippery slope in the paper towel industry we haven't seen since the nuclear crisis of the 1960s. You don't think Bounty's going to launch a four-ply paper towel, do you? Jack, it could end up like Gillette and the Razors. Remember the Mach 18? We need a mutual de-escalation right now. Before things get out of hand.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by the lovely Molly Martell in San Francisco by way of Alan Hall at Middlebury College. And yes, we said lovely because she's my wife. Now, many people think of May 6th as simply the day after Cinco de Mayo. Molly thinks of it as her birthday, but she also pointed this out, Jack.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
Not only is it Seystein Mali's birthday, it's also the birthday of one of the greatest structures in the history of architecture. On May 6th, 1889, the Eiffel Tower officially opened to the public during the Paris World's Fair. It was supposed to be temporary, but the city of Paris decided, let's keep this thing. They said, you know what?
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
Happy birthday, Mali. You look fantastic. Great girl. Great girl. Yetis, you also happen to look fantastic today. And right after the show, we know exactly what you should check out. Make a right, make a left, and then go straight to your destination. Our TBIY episode of Google Maps. If you're listening to our Frappuccino episode, you've gone too far.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
You need to do a U-turn and listen to our Google Maps episode. The best idea yet. And Nick and I will be right back here tomorrow for another T-Boy. If you know. And before we go, it's a birthday week in the Brink family. Brookie Brink and Skyman Brink are celebrating birthdays just outside Boston in Ingham, Massachusetts. Brookie and Sky, can't wait to see you next winter at Sugarbush.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
Two Danish brothers living on their mom's couch created Google Maps. But then once Google acquired their startup, they used it to make Steve Jobs very, very, very angry. This is the unknown part. Google Maps caused the biggest tech beef in history between Google and Apple. This story is so wild, it even involves the CIA. Oh, and Google Street View?
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
And down south in Montclair, New Jersey, it is Sophie Panzer's best birthday yet. Happy birthday to Will Power in Chicago, who's killing it at work and is a great partner and a fan. Fantastic father. And Lindsay Paluzzo in Chicago as well is celebrating with the best eighth graders for the fantastic birthday of Lindsay. And finally, tickets to our live show in Chi-Town come out tomorrow.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
We'll see you there. Check it out. This is Jack. I own stock of Berkshire Hathaway, Netflix, Disney, and Crocs. And Nick and I both own stock of Apple and Robinhood, as well as some ETFs of the S&P 500. If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
The wildest logistical accomplishment since Hands Across America.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
If you want to hear the true origin story, check out the latest episode of our weekly show, The Best Idea Yet. Google Maps. It turned a two-dimensional piece of paper into a multi-dimensional economy on everyone's phone. Tap the link in this episode description to listen to our other show, The Best Idea Yet, on Google Maps.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
Because this week we tell the true and untold origin story of that wild product.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
For our first story, President Trump announced a 100% tariff on movies not filmed in the United States of America. What does that mean? It means the trade war just leaped from physical goods to digital, too. The industry is dying a very fast death. That's not a quote from The Fast and the Furious. It's a tweet from President Trump on Sunday night about the Hollywood film industry.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
From the Vic Theater in Chicago. Oh. Oh boy, 1,000 seats. There you go, Jack. There you go. Tickets drop tomorrow. Follow us at T-Boy Pod on Instagram for the link.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
Because other countries give tax incentives to Hollywood so they will film abroad. And President Trump says that is a national security threat. So our first thought, what is it, Jack? We're going to need domestic dupes for all these foreign filming locations. Yeah, like the Avatar sequels. They can't film those in New Zealand now. It's going to be too expensive.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
What's the New Zealand equivalent of the United States? Oregon? Yeah, let's do an Oregon, Jack. Broad landscapes with the ocean right next door. Or instead of filming in Austria, you could do Vermont. Instead of Paris, do the French Quarter of New Orleans. Oh, you need a location dupe for 18th century England? The back bay of Boston, baby. Just blur out all those Dunkin' Donuts in the background.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
Yetis, what we are saying is we are about to face the first ever Tom Hanks tariff. Or do you want to go with Tom Cruise tariff, Jack? Tom Huddleston tariff. Or Jack, what about Quentin Tariftino? Can we go with that? That's pretty good. Now, Yetis, Hollywood is...
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
And economists think this is unprecedented. Because tariffing physical goods is pretty straightforward. It's been done for 100 years. But trying to tariff a movie, how would that even work? The fear of the industry is that a new tax might have to be added to movie theaters when you go and buy tickets. There's a whole bunch of other questions.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
What will happen to films that have already been filmed overseas, like the Wicked sequel? Or Jack, what about the Minecraft movie that's in theaters right now? That was filmed abroad. Does that mean prices are going to double at the cinema? And if so, when is that effective? And Jack, this tariff, does it apply to animated films in addition to action films?
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
They're not shot abroad, but they are coded abroad. Oh, and Jack, will TV shows be included if we're talking Hollywood? Trump only mentioned movies. So, Basties, like with previous tariff announcements, this one is raising more questions than it is answers. But here are some of the facts about the industry. In the 1970s,
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
You're going to love this live show. But Jack, three stories for today's pod. What do we got on the T-Boy? For our first story, Hollywood was just terrified. Oh boy. All movies must now be made in America or else pay a 100% tax. So we are turning our spotlight on the first ever digital tariff, the Tom Hanks tariff. For our second story, Skechers was just acquired for $9 billion.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
60 to 70% of all movies and TVs were filmed in Hollywood studios right here in Los Angeles, California. But Jack, could you sprinkle on some context to Hollywood today? The percent of movies filmed in Hollywood is down to 18%. Much of film production has moved to Atlanta, New York, or the UK due to tax incentives.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
That's why Ben Affleck recently said California has taken the film industry for granted. Too much red tape when you're trying to tape film. So a new tax on movie tickets filmed entirely or partially overseas, that will make American-made movie productions more competitive.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
It'll make Disney more likely to greenlight a project if it doesn't have to be filmed abroad and be subject to all those new taxes. But as economists would point out, it could also, like all tariffs in general, simply make the entire market smaller. There isn't going to be a Lord of the Rings sequel if filming in New Zealand means a 100% tax.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
But besties, update as we're recording this episode right here. The White House just said no final decisions have been made on movie tariffs And they're still, and I quote, exploring all options.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in Hollywood? The trade war just made a leap from the physical to the digital. Yetis, this announcement by Trump is a declaration of war on digital goods. And digital happens to be what America's economy does best. Remember, 70% of America's GDP is non-physical stuff that we make.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
In fact, as Jack and I have told you, our economy's digital power has been our strength during this trade war. Because as countries retaliate against the United States... they were never able to retaliate against the U.S. technology, software, movies, music, or finance that we export abroad.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
But Trump's Hollywood tariff, it would make all our digital services suddenly fair game for trade war retaliations. Don't be shocked if countries announce reciprocal tariffs on U.S. filmed movies. And that is why Netflix's stock and Paramount's stock, they both dropped on news of the Hollywood tariff. And even if governments don't act, we could get boycotts from citizens abroad
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
Just like Canadians are boycotting Made in America whiskey. Because the Hollywood tariff, the Quinton Tariftino, it opens up a new front in the trade war. It would be the world's first digital tariff. For our second story, Skechers, the least athletic shoe brand in history, was just sold for $9 billion to private equity.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
Skechers became the third biggest shoe company on earth by jumping generations.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
We're doing a little reputational risk right now, but Jack, you want to share with the Yetis our thoughts? Is Skechers one of the great American fashion startups? Of all time? I mean, hear us out here. Founded 33 years ago by Robert and Michael Greenberg, a father-son founding duo, baby. I can't think of another father-son company. It's a lovely story. Also an LA-based company.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
The father is still the CEO, the son is still the president, and the company is still headquartered right by the beach. They IPO'd in 1999, and get this, sales of Skechers have tripled. from $3 billion 10 years ago to $9 billion today. In fact, Skechers is still in growth mode. Their stock, I'm sorry, their sales jumped 13% last quarter.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
In fact, by sales, Skechers is the third biggest footwear brand in America behind Nike and Adidas. That's right. Skechers is walking all over Birkenstock. And when Crocs heard this news... They almost choked on their gibbets. Well, here's the news. Skechers is being acquired for $9 billion by the private equity firm 3G Capital. That's right.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
The same PE firm that once acquired Kraft Heinz, Burger King, and Budweiser. The stock jumped 25% on news of the acquisition. In fact, the stock rose so quickly. So fast. Investors pulled a hamstring trying to catch up. Slow down over there. Here's the surprise when Nick and I jumped in T-Boy style. Yes, Jack. Every sneaker brand is defined by top performance. Just do it.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
Skechers is the third biggest shoe brand on earth. And why is that, Jack? There are more retired athletes than there are athletes. What are we going to do with cleats? Honestly, what are we going to do with cleats? I haven't bought cleats since I was 21 years old. Skechers is the only shoe company that gets that. Third and final story. What do we got, Jack?
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
Phil Knight came up with this idea initially in the 1960s. Yeah, we read his autobiography, and he talks about how aspiration is how you sell sneakers. Kind of like how if a Jeep is good enough for World War II, it's good enough for your Costco run. Well, if a Nike sneaker is good enough for the New York Marathon, it's good enough for your gym visit.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
And yet, Skechers is the opposite of aspiration. That's right. There is no sneaker more associated with walking, not running, than Skechers. It is literally the only shoe that adds treads to slow you down. The unofficial dad shoe of Stroll and Disney World, too, by the way. And it pairs well with a fanny pack. Oh, it looks fantastic with a fanny pack.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
And Jack, remember when Skechers did try to do performance shoes? I do. We covered it on our newsletter before we launched this podcast. Skechers shape-ups. They were purported to tone your calves, your butt, even your abs, because the way the shoe was shaped, you had to be on your tippy toes the whole time. But Jack, what happened in 2016 with those Skechers shape-ups to boof up your booty?
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
The FTC charged them with deceiving customers, so Skechers paid $40 million in a settlement. But then, yetis, instead of falling down, Skechers made a pivot. They made a generational jump, actually. Basically, Skechers realized the sneaker industry was just too obsessed with the young, with youthfulness. What about the not young? Every shoe company was ignoring the entire population over 55.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
They added foam insoles to make the shoes comfy. They launched slip-ons so you don't have to bend over to put these things on. They basically said, we're going to make a shoe not for track and field, but for the shuffleboard. Now, Skechers still has basketball shoes and baseball cleats available today. That is a fair point, Jack. But the biggest celebrity athlete endorsement Skechers has? Yeah.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
It's your Nana's pickleball team. Yeah, they've switched from kickball to pickleball. From the Dallas Cowboys to Del Boca Vista. No more Justin Bieber. They're all in on Tony Bennett, baby. So Jack, what is the takeaway for our buddies over at Skechers? One man's trash is another man's target customer. Yeti's Skechers CFO said that Skechers does the complete opposite of every other shoe brand.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
Mainly, they found who Nike ignored. Nike is for superstars. Hoka is for elite runners. On is for tech bros. And Adidas is for fashionistas. Even in their marketing, Skechers found value in retirees. The same kind of retirees who they're targeting. Because look at Martha Stewart, Joe Montana, and Howie Mandel. They're all past their prime.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
They're all retired, but they're still household names and they're Skechers celebrity endorsers. Yeah, Nike's not sponsoring Wayne Gretzky anymore because he's not on the ice, but Skechers will, and they did. Skechers' strategy was basically to embrace retirees, to fill the hole left by every other shoe brand. Because one man's trash is another man's target customer.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
Over the weekend, Warren Buffett announced that he is retiring from Berkshire Hathaway at the end of the year. So Jack and I found the secret sauce to the world's greatest investor. Get this. It's not calculations. It's culture. But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Whoa, what a mix of stories, Jack.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
For our third and final story, Warren Buffett is stepping down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. So here is our living eulogy to Warren. Warren Buffett's secret to financial success and a 5 million percent return. True story. It actually has nothing to do with stocks and has everything to do with culture.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
New York City restaurant influencer does the Berkshire Hathaway shareholder conference. Come with me as we review the hottest new shareholder event in the history of finance. That video caused a minor stir on our socials. But then something else caused a major stir in the news industry. Warren Buffett's retirement announcement at that shareholder conference was a huge deal. That's right.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
After 60 years, Warren Buffett will retire to become chairman of his investment firm on January 1st, 2026. A man named Greg Abel will take over as CEO. We actually did an episode on him one year ago. We did. So there's a link in the show notes if you want to hear that episode and hear our profile of Greg Abel.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
But Yeti's Berkshire stock, it fell 4% because shareholders are sad that the legendary Warren is leaving. But Nick, imagine if Warren Buffett, who's 94 years old, had died while still being the CEO. I don't even want to picture that, Jack. So this announcement ensures a smooth succession from this wise old man to someone younger. In fact, he got a standing ovation.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
And honestly, Warren's response tells you what kind of a guy he is. Here's how he responded to the standing ovation he got after announcing his retirement.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
In fact, Yeti's people in his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska, love Warren so much, they don't list their homes in U.S. dollars. They list them in the number of Berkshire Hathaway shares. I know. Now, here's a reminder about what Berkshire Hathaway does. First, they buy entire companies outright, like they've bought Geico and Dairy Queen in the past.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
Or they buy stock of companies who they can't buy outright, like shares of Amex, Apple, or Coca-Cola. And under Warren Buffett's leadership, Berkshire has picked the right companies. They've picked the right stocks, and they've done it for 60 years. Get this, Warren Buffett has only lost money in 11 of those 60 years.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
This year, the stock market overall is down, but stock in Berkshire Hathaway is up by 20%. This might be his best year yet. In fact, Berkshire Hathaway stock has risen 5.5 million percent from 1964 to 2024. Mathematically, I don't even know what that means.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
Odds are, statistically speaking, there's one app besides the podcast app open on your phone right now. And that app is...
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
Here's how we got there. The average annual gain of Berkshire Hathaway stock is 19.9% for 60 years. Which happens to be twice the rate of the S&P 500 over that same period. And if you're wondering when to sell the stock that you recently got a nice gain on, well, Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway would tell you to hold it forever. That's right.
The Best One Yet
🎬 “Quentin Tariff-tino” — Hollywood’s digital trade war. Warren Buffett’s secret investing sauce. Skechers’ $9B retirement.
Their quote is, our favorite holding period is forever. And what's the reason for that, Jack? They describe long-term compounding of gains as... like a snowball rolling down a hill. It gets bigger and bigger. What that means is, as a stock gives off dividends, you could just take that cash and spend it, or you could reinvest it in that same dividend-driving stock. Berkshire reinvests.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
This is Nick. This is Jack. Welcome back. It is Tuesday, T-Boy, Tuesday, March 4th. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-Boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
And then Delta paid for the plane tickets to go to that Hilton location for that same TikTok star. Nick, the next time a Kardashian sister ghosts some guy, he's probably getting a car deal. Totally. Sponsored breakups. They're happening. This post-breakup Cabo trip is brought to you by tequila. Yetis, if you just got broken up with, here's the game plan, by the way.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
Post about your beef with your boyfriend on LinkedIn, tag the CMO of Unilever, and show a photo eating a pint of Ben and Jerry's. Agreed. Next thing you know, you're getting a Ben and Jerry's flavor named after you. So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies watching these branded breakups? Passion points are the key to loyalty points.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
I love those numbers. I love those numbers. I mean, Jack, I've been keeping score here. I'm pretty sure that's your unprecedented third IBO. It is. And it's another baby boy. All right, Jack, let's get into the financials here. Let's talk numbers. The weight of the new baby. Seven pounds, seven ounces. Another lucky number. Love it. Height of the new baby.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
Yetis, sponsored breakups, they actually involve huge brand risks. Like, you need to be on the right side of that social history. Yeah, your social media team better go deep and figure out who's the right person. Like, you want to choose the victim, not the bad guy or the cheater.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
Yeah, that's the person, by the way, who fans want to celebrate turning the relationship lemons into ad money lemonade. So this whole concept is a huge surprise. I mean, big companies like Procter & Gamble, they hate controversy. They tend to avoid sponsoring anything that might get messy. Yeti's 80% of toilet paper buyers are women. And that hero stat, that explains the surge in dude wipes.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
They tend to avoid sponsoring anything that might get messy. And yet those relationships are also highly relatable. They are highly personal. Those breakups are what energize fans. Think about that dinner party where someone started spilling the beans on their breakup story. Everyone at the table was fully engaged.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
So when your friends pick sides in a breakup, it's actually a lot similar to how they pick sides about brand choices. So when Rachel Kirkconnell broke up with Matt James, you had to decide, are you team Rachel or team Matt? Just like, are you team Coke or are you team Pepsi? Brands are doing sponsored breakups because passion points are where you win loyalty points.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for T-Boy Tuesday? Dude Wipes is disrupting toilet paper with their irreverent bathroom marketing. By irreverent bathroom marketing, Jack means potty humor. Dune wives, they saw that 80% of toilet paper is bought by women. So they paused and saw an opportunity.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
For our second story, Donald Trump ordered the creation of a national crypto fund that includes three lesser known crypto. But markets hated it because it's like a crypto account, but linked to our nation's credit card debt. And our third and final story is a new thing in marketing. Sponsored breakups. Sponsored breakups.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
Brands are taking the risk to pick sides because passion points win loyalty points. But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, the tariffs on Mexico and Canada that got delayed a month. Well, they actually go into effect today. Stocks fell on the news that there is no room to negotiate a delay this time. The S&P 500 is now actually down so far this year.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
The president will explain his thinking on tariffing our neighbors in tonight's State of the Union address. Second, the Academy Award winner for Best Picture. Maybe you hadn't heard of the movie when everyone was talking about it at the water cooler yesterday. Because Enora, the Best Picture of this year, had a budget of only $6 million. That is so tiny.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
It actually only brought in $30 million at the global box office, and yet it just won Best Picture. That's actually part of a trend. The Academy has been selecting smaller movies, I mean films, for the Best Picture. Best picture category. Yeah, from 2000 to 2010, six best pictures had $100 million budgets. But since then, only one best picture has cost more than $100 million.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
And that, trivia, was Oppenheimer. Yeah. And finally, Six Flags just destroyed its most epic roller coaster, the Kingda Ka. This thing went up almost 500 feet and then dropped directly down. It's like half the height of the Empire State Building. There's video online of it being demolished. Six Flags, get this, they thought it wasn't big and scary enough.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
Well, it's actually length and it's 20.25 inches. Okay, valuation of the new baby. This kid is worth at least three lifts. Oh, at least four lifts. And this baby just disrupted his diaper, Jack. I should point out, the mom is healthy. Alex is doing fantastic, and so is the baby. We have a healthy third baby. However, Jack, your baby's siblings have got some competition now.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
They're actually building a record-breaking new roller coaster, although the stock fell because investors are like, won't believe it when we see it. Like multi-record-breaking, according to the company. Now time for the best fact yet. This one whipped up by Jack and me for T-Boy Tuesday. What do we got, Jack? Get this. Today is Mardi Gras, which is French for Fat Tuesday.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
And it's called Fat Tuesday because it takes place before Lent. You basically use up all your indulgence before the 40 days of deprivation and Catholicism. But the biggest indulgence of all when it comes to Mardi Gras, it's the beads. Yeah, the beads down in New Orleans. And we got the numbers on the beads.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
In 2018's Mardi Gras, the city of New Orleans had a major bead problem after the celebration. In fact, 93,000 of those Mardi Gras beads got pulled out of the storm drains of New Orleans. Correction, 93,000 pounds, Nick. That's how many beads swamped the city of New Orleans today. which is give or take 100 billion beats. Yeah, it is.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
If you got the best fact yet, send it in to us and we'll get your voice on the pod.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
And especially you, Jack, you are glowing right now and you performed fantastically on today's show. That was amazing. Thank you very much. If I'm glowing, it's because I'm happy to be back. And I'm just happy to be a father of three. It feels really awesome. Yeah, can we pause the pod for a sec and just acknowledge what's going on here? Jack's family is three babies now.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
They just delivered one a week ago. They're having a fun time and they're smiling the whole time doing it. And it's just really fun to watch you guys thriving in this moment, Jack. Thank you, Nick. Spoken like a true pot father. If you know, you know. Jack and I will see you tomorrow. Great to be back, besties.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
Her birthday was yesterday, actually. And she was magnificent in the delivery room. And I actually meant to say, Jack is Alex's wonderful husband. Keep crushing it, Alex. And a happy birthday, bon anniversaire to Coco Flageolet from France, living in the Presidio. Happy 29th birthday to Derek Liu in San Francisco, California. And Pruthu Patel is turning 30 years old in Cannon, Ohio.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
Her husband actually has a special surprise for her. Should we share it here? He's coming to New York this weekend to visit you. He's already packed and he can't wait to see you. And happy birthday to William Slade, who turned 10 in Geneva, Illinois. And a happy belated to Hudson Harris, who turned eight years old up in lovely Kennebunk, Maine.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
Happy birthday to Caitlin Reese in Chandler, Arizona, who is crushing it at her new job. Derek Borilski down in Denver is a new dad and just celebrated the best birthday yet. And happy 13th birthday to Safiya Ali in Atlanta, Georgia. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. Nick and I both own stock in Robinhood.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
We both own some Bitcoin and Ethereum, and we both own ETFs of the S&P 500.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
The word on the street is they've been colluding for more snack food. That's true. They're trying to corner the market for goldfish right now. But Jack, I still got to ask the big question from the analysts. What name did you choose for this new publicly cuddled kiddo? Our third son is Oakley East, Kravici Kramer. Oakley East Pravici Kramer. I love it. Thank you. I'm hearing it. I'm absorbing it.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
It is a very, very on-brand name for you guys. I call him Mighty Oak for short. The Big Oak Tree. And can we talk about the nature theme you guys going on? Because that's the marketing here. Well, we have a son named Wilder, another named Brooks, another named Oakley after an oak tree, and a dog named River. I think we call that an investment thesis, Jack.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
So, Yetis, thanks to all of you who left comments for Jack, Alex, their whole family, and their new baby, Oakley. And thank you all for giving us the time for me to have a paternity week. I had an awesome time with the boys. Alex has been giving her all to all of it, literally. Alex was with the newborn all week and I was with the older two boys. We actually went skiing six days in a row.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
It was pretty fantastic. Every day of the paternity week, not too shabby. Besties, we missed you and we hope you enjoyed those bonus episodes we dropped over the last few days. And I'm absolutely thrilled to be back. And I can't believe I get to do this with you, Nick, every day for our work. I get to do it with you, Jack. Besties, we're pumped to be on the mics. And we've got a T-boy today.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
I'm back, baby. It's great to be back. I had an awesome week off. We'll get to more details in a second. Sounds like you got three hours of sleep last night, but we're going to work with it, Jack. Yet he's great to be back on the pod. Three fantastic stories. Jack, what do we got on the show? For our first story, Dude Wipes is the fastest growing company in the bathroom.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
Jack, what do you say we swaddle these three stories? Double swaddle. We got a bassinet to finish. Jack, let's hit them.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
For our first story, Dude Wipes, the toilet paper alternative for dudes, just passed $200 million in sales. Dude Wipes is beating the bathroom monopoly because of one stinky number we found. Now, Jack, in order for us to tell this business story to the Yetis, let's open up Hoarder's Almanac week number one. What was the first shortage of the pandemic, man?
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
The very first shortage of COVID-19 pandemic was toilet paper. Toilet paper. Toilet paper. That was number one. Did Shank a guy for a roll of Charmin. You were stocking up on toilet paper like your body depended on it. Now, that shortage at the beginning of the pandemic was an opportunity for toilet paper alternatives. Yes. Specifically, wipes. Specifically, specifically, dude wipes. Dude wipes.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
That's the subject of this story. They're basically wet baby wipes, but they're dripping in man brand. Jack, can you get a little more specific with the context, please? What else we got on this? If a dry roll of toilet paper is uncomfortable and a bidet is luxurious, dude wipes are somewhere in between.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
Now, Yetis, we should point out that years earlier than the pandemic, the dudes behind dude wipes went on Shark Tank and got a $300,000 angel deal from Mark Cuban. Because, as they told the sharks that day, stop wiping your butt with sandpaper. Your butt hates you. So when the pandemic demand surge came, the dudes were operationally ready over at Dude Wipes.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
Sales hit $40 million a year in 2020, but now they've blown way past that. They just hit $200 million in annual sales. In fact, singer John Mayer just said he uses two dude wipes at once when he's in the bathroom. That is so random. I love it. I should point out, it's actually just the finisher. Yeah, good point, Jeff. Whereas the founder says it's for the second to last wipe.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
They're doing $200 million in sales. This wet wipe for men is the disruptor of doo-doo, and it's all thanks to one number. For our second story, the president just announced a national crypto fund. Bitcoin surged 15% and then Bitcoin fell 15%. We will explain why. And finally, the next frontier in advertising is breakups. We're talking sponsored breakups. Real thing.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
But either way, ladies, when you open up your man's dop kit, statistically speaking, you have a high chance that you'll find that your dude is wet wiping. Yeti's Jack and I got curious about this story. Why has this been the one pandemic habit that survived? We think it's authenticity. Yeah, we do. Because a majority of toilet paper is actually controlled by three brands in America.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
Scott, Cottonelle, and Charmin. And for those three brands, Jack, how would you describe their marketing? Figurative marketing.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
Like picture a six pack of Charmin toilet paper. There's a fluffy cartoon bear hugging the toilet paper on the package. And why are they using cartoon bears for toilet paper, man? Because the bathroom is a private, personal, and dirty space. Brands want to stay clean, cute, and cuddly instead. But we noticed that Dude Wipes did the opposite.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
They've leaned into the literal and the uncomfortable, and it's all felt quite authentic. Yeah, for example, the founder of Dude Wipes, he loves poop hunts. He posts about them on LinkedIn every day. The social media team, they put a poop emoji on every tweet. The Dude Wipes headquarters has a toilet bowl in every single conference room. It was a huge boost to the plumbing industry locally.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
They even pioneered a concept called ass sponsorships, where they would put a Dude Wipes logo on the butts of boxers when they're in the boxing ring. So Dude Wipes has embraced the dirty booty. Yes, they have, Jack. Yes, they make marketing jokes that sound like my four-year-old son would love them.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
But those jokes, they feel authentic, and that resonates more deeply than a bunch of cuddly teddy bears on a box of Charmin toilet paper. We should point out, though, Dude Wipes has failed in a couple places. Yeah, good point, Jack. There have been limits to the Dude Wipes brand. They tried to expand their brand to deodorant, and that hasn't worked.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
Also, Dude Wipes has been sued over their flushability. Are these really plumber approved? The city of Vancouver doesn't think so. But either way, Dude Wipes just blew past $200 million in sales, so we paid attention and we whipped up a takeaway. So, Jag, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Dude Wipes? If a statistic gives you pause, then there might be an opportunity.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
Yeti's 80% of toilet paper buyers are women. And that hero stat, that explains the surge in dude wipes. So 80% of toilet paper is purchased by women, which makes sense because they make the majority of household purchasing choices. But 100% of us use toilet paper, right? But dude wipes saw that number 80% and it gave them pause. And they saw an opportunity in that pause.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
Toilet paper brands market mainly to women because that's who buys them. But what if you try marketing to men instead? The results? Men started to care about toilet paper because a toilet paper brand started speaking to them. And they started making their own toilet paper purchases as a result.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
What we're saying is that when dudes saw that 80% of toilet paper was purchased by women, they paused and they thought about that number. If a big number like that gives you pause, then it might be hiding an opportunity. For our second story, America is creating its first national crypto fund, and it's wilder than your crypto buddy's Robinhood account.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
But the surprise issue with this crypto reserve, it's linked to our national credit card. We'll explain. But yet he's as promised on the campaign trail. President Trump is setting up a strategic Bitcoin stockpile. Yeah, like a Fort Knox of digital gold. But not exactly. Because on Sunday, President Trump announced something much riskier.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
Trump posted on Sunday, he's creating a working group to create a crypto strategic fund. Now, besties, we'll get into the details of that in a second. But the immediate reaction from the markets, what was it, Jack? Very positive. Yeah, it was. Bitcoin rose 15% and gained some serious bromantum heading into the week.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
Our buddy Timmy down in Miami said they were popping bottles at the clubs like it was 2021. But on Monday, after a day to digest this post, Bitcoin fell big time. And so did all the other cryptocurrencies. Because of the details. Yetis, this is what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. This new crypto fund, it isn't just Bitcoin.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
In fact, the announcement didn't even mention the word Bitcoin. Instead, Trump's post mentioned three cryptos you may not have even heard of. Those cryptos are XRP, Solana, and ADA. Now, these are not meme coins, we should point out, but they are obscure, highly volatile cryptocurrencies.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
When an influencer breaks up with her boyfriend, big brands are now picking sides. But yetis, before we get that wonderful mix of stories. What? An amazing mix of stories. I love this mix, Jack. The cutest news on Wall Street right now. What is it, Nick? Oh, the cutest news on Wall Street, Jack. I think you should tell us. It ain't Bitcoin. It's babies. Specifically, Jack's IBO.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
These crypto that Trump wants to put in the strategic crypto fund, they're not in the same class as Bitcoin or Ethereum. Bitcoin and Ethereum are seen as potential global stores of value. Those other three, no. simply no. Now, naturally, getting name dropped by President Trump sent the prices of those three surprise cryptocurrencies soaring yesterday.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
And Trump did clarify in another post that the fund would, in fact, have Bitcoin and Ethereum as well. But here's the problem, Yetis. Instead of legitimizing crypto, the botched execution of this new fund once again made crypto look less serious. And we saw that in the markets. By Monday evening, Bitcoin lost all of its post announcement pop, falling all the way back down to $86,000.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
Because after getting the details, even Bitcoin enthusiasts were disappointed about what they read. But the bigger issue with this idea has less to do with the current president and has nothing to do with partisan politics at all. The bigger issue actually has everything to do with our country's fundamental financial situation, no matter what party you belong to.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in crypto? This would be like buying crypto with a credit card. Yet is last month, President Trump ordered a plan for a United States sovereign wealth fund. This crypto fund he announced on Sunday faces the same fundamental issue as a sovereign wealth fund would. We simply don't have the money for it.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
Yeah, like the countries that have sovereign wealth funds and crypto funds, they're the countries with surpluses. Their governments bring in more revenue than they spent. Norway and Saudi Arabia have the biggest sovereign wealth funds. because they have huge oil wealth in that country.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
On the other hand, if you're in an indebted country like the United States, these ideas are simply not financially responsible. Because you don't have a surplus to buy this stuff with. You'd need to finance it with debt. Now, are there arguments for buying crypto on the idea that it could rise in value in the future? Yeah, totally. That makes sense. But crypto is a risky asset.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
And buying crypto with debt is a very risky thing to do. Because you owe people that money in case crypto falls and you got to pay interest on that debt while you're buying the stuff. So this Friday, the White House will host their first ever crypto summit. We hope they take action to legitimize crypto. Because a plan for the U.S.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
government to buy crypto using our national credit card, it doesn't. Now, a quick word from our sponsor.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
For our third and final story, the next frontier in marketing is romantic breakups. Influencers, actors, and celebs are ending their relationships and then getting their breakups sponsored. Welcome to the era of sponsored breakups. That is the latest season of The Bachelor on ABC. Jack, who we got? Who are the players here? Rachel Kirkconnell. Was one of the players.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
And she ended up dating a guy named Matt James. It was an influencer relationship. You could follow the whole thing on Instagram. It was lovely. It was delightful to watch. But after a trip to Japan, Rachel got broken up with him. It had something to do with her picking a bad restaurant on their big vacation, apparently. But here's the shocking part, Yetis.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
Rachel didn't get mad and Rachel didn't get even. Instead, Rachel got a brand deal. True story. Yes. There is currently a commercial going around for brawny paper towels because brawny paper towels cleans up the mess like a messy dinner you selected in Japan. And that brawny ad, it probably went over your dad's head because he doesn't watch reality TV. But it lands with her fans. Yes, it does.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
It's an inside joke they were happy to be a part of. After that commercial, team Rachel is now team brawny and brawny has seen a bump in their business. Especially from millennial women. Now, yetis, Jack and I dove in T-boy style to this story because it reveals an emerging trend in marketing. The Wall Street Journal did a whole article on it. Sponsored breakups. Or as we call it, brand breakups.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
Like, there is actually big corporate money betting on big drama of celebrity breakups. Do you remember Bravo's Summer House, Nick? Classic, instant classic. When the engaged co-stars ended up splitting up. Well, Carl from that show got a deal with Goldfish Crackers because he ate Goldfish Crackers on the show.
The Best One Yet
💩 “TP’s wet disruptor” — Dude Wipes’ rise. America’s 1st Crypto Fund. The Biz of Breakups.
But then his ex, Lindsay, she got an ad deal with Cheez-Its, which made fun of Carl's Goldfish ad. And it's not just your basic food and beverage brands getting involved. Hyundai is doing breakup branding. True. They gave a car to an Instagram star right after a divorce. And Hilton gave a TikTok star a free vacation after her breakup.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Tuesday, T-Boy, Tuesday, February 4th. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-Boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Not a T-Boy for stocks, was it, Jack? Not a T-Boy. Stocks fell yesterday because of our first story. Oh, yes, they did. Jack, three stories for the pod. What do we got on the T-Boy?
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for T-Boy Tuesday? The trade war that was about to start with Mexico and Canada is on pause for one month. The benefits so far are a more secure border. The costs, they're going to take a little longer to measure. For our second story, Levi's became the leader of the baggy jeans trend, thanks to data from Google.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
Go with your gut for innovation, but go with data for revelation. And our third and final story is Robinhood. It's a top stock since the election and just launched Super Bowl betting. Robinhood shows the value of making something that was private, public. Which Nick and I have to do in our disclosures every episode. I still own shares of Beyond Meat.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
I'm just going to throw that one out there too, Jack. I haven't told you, but I actually sold my Peloton. The machine, not the stock. I still have the stock, but I sold the machine on Facebook Marketplace. You buy and hold that one, baby. But yet is this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
First, although tariffs with our allies were called off, tariffs with China actually begin today. A new 10% tax on everything made in China entering the US starts today. That is going to raise some government tax revenue, but also increase prices and hurt company profits that make in China. Don't be surprised, though, if a new deal with China delays those tariffs by a month or two. Yeah.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
And second, Roku is launching a Women's Sports Now program on the Roku channel. This women's sports show is a partnership with Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine production company. What is the Roku channel, by the way? It's their channel for free TV content daily. But with that... They've got the great American baking show. Interesting. And yes, Paul Hollywood is in it. Classic. And finally...
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
Grab the makeup remover because Blue Man Group, the musical of guys painted in blue hitting pipes, just had its last show ever. After 34 years and 17,000 shows and 82,000 gallons of paint, the Blue Man Group are done.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
And that private equity firm decided that the blue paint was too expensive.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Eduardo S. in Cambridge, Massachusetts. On February 4th, 2004. Yes, Jack. 21 years ago today, Mark Zuckerberg and his roommates launched the Facebook from their Harvard dorm room. Get this though, yetis. Facebook's early code included a feature called Face Mash.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
who ended up getting a monopoly on Monopoly's riches. So besties, you played Monopoly, but you don't know Monopoly. And that best-selling board game ever is the next episode of our weekly show, The Best Idea Yet. TBIY, the untold origin stories of the most viral products of all time. So later today, after this T-boy, go check out our weekly deep dive show, The Best Idea Yet.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
Which was a hot or not style swiping game with the Harvard student body being judged by classmates. Which got Mark Z in a lot of trouble with Harvard. And that controversy is what led him to create the Facebook instead. So it's Facebook's 21st birthday. It is. Send us a pic from your 21st birthday because you probably posted that pic on Facebook.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
And you're probably going to look at it now and be like, man, I got to take that pic off of Facebook.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
Yetis, you look fantastic today. But before you go, we know exactly where you should go, and it's to the board game Monopoly. We got a link in the episode description for our 45-minute deep dive on the wild origin story of Monopoly. It's crazy. Monopoly began as a game that was anti-capitalism, and then it got totally embraced by capitalism.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
Yeah, greed is apparently good, at least if you have Broadway Junction. So check out the best idea yet right now, and Jack and I will see you there. And before we go, a happy birthday to Katie Martell, my sister down in New York City who's celebrating either at a Rangers game or at a club that I could not get into, Jack, down in Tribeca. Trick question. Both.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
And a happy 25th anniversary to the Sims video game. Turning 25 today. Happy birthday to Paul Miraglia from Port Washington, New York, where my dad grew up, and a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University's MBA program. And Marshall is turning 32 years old over in Chicago doing logistics. Happy birthday to Calvin Chang in Sugar Land, Texas.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
And congratulations to Stella in Philadelphia, who sold her first Girl Scout cookies box. Congratulations, Stella. Jack, let's ring that sales bell. And if you want to get a shout out or submit the best fact yet, check out the links in the episode description. Jack and I will get you on the pod. This is Jack. Nick and I both own stock of Chipotle and Robinhood, and I own stock in Roku.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
New episodes drop every Tuesday. Tap the link in this episode description because Monopoly is simply the best idea yet. Dibs on the thimble. Dibs on the railroad.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
For our first story, we've got a trade war two update. Wild day. Painful import tariffs on Mexico. They're getting delayed a month. And guess what? So are the tariffs with Canada. Crisis averted, but here are the deals that were reached yesterday. Yesterday, yetis, we covered the opening shots of Trump's second trade war, Trade War II.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
Then, President Trump and President Scheinbaum of Mexico had a phone call Monday morning, and they both decided to delay their tariffs on each other by one month. All right, Jack, results of the phone call. What do we see, man? Mexico agreed to protect their border with the United States with 10,000 troops to stop illegal drug and immigration crossings.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
For our first story, the trade war that was about to start with Mexico and Canada is on pause for one month. The benefits so far are a more secured border. The costs, they take a little longer to measure. For our second story, how did Levi's identify the baggy daddy jeans trend before any other apparel company? Get this, five years ago, Levi's struck a secret deal with Goo.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
So it seems like for Mexico, Trump's trade threat worked. This deal could limit illegal immigration and illegal drugs like fentanyl from entering the United States. And we saw some stocks in the stock market issue a huge sigh of relief. Yeah, Chipotle, Ford, America's number one beer, Modelo.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
They all rely on Mexican-made stuff, which would have gotten more expensive with the new 25% made in Mexico tax. Again, next weekend, your Super Bowl guac was about to be extra, extra. So for Mexico and the United States, they're still on good trading terms for now. How about Canada? Well, Jack, funny you should ask.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
Bessies, just as Jack and I were recording this podcast, and I had three buckets of maple syrup about to hoard in my pantry. We got an update. Donald Trump reached a deal with Justin Trudeau of Canada yesterday. Pretty much the same outcome for pretty much the same deal. Canada is investing $1.3 billion to secure their border with the United States along with 10,000 frontline personnel.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
As a result, both the USA and Canada are delaying their tariffs on each other from coming into effect by one month. Just like with Mexico. Basically, the benefits of both of these trade deals appear to be both. border-related. So Jack, can we sprinkle on a little more context to both of our northern and southern borders, please? Yeah. When it comes to the borders, they're not equal.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
For example, less than 1% of the fentanyl that the U.S. Border and Customs Patrol seized last year, only 1% was from Canada. 99% came from Mexico. So with Mexico, the border concerns were very real, and there was a clear benefit there. With Canada, not as much. Still, Trump's going to call the Canada announcement a win, that he used the threat of tariffs to extract policy concessions.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
Now, interestingly, besties, earlier in the day, Trump implied there was only one way for Canada to escape all of these tariffs. He said this from the Oval Office yesterday, I'd like to see Canada become our 51st state. And since the tariffs have been merely delayed a month, they haven't been solved yet, he's keeping the world on the edge of its seat.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies trying to add up what happened in the last 24 hours of global trade? The costs of what happened are going to take time to measure. Yetis, we just discussed the benefits of this trade war. The United States gets reinforced borders, a clear policy win. The costs are more obscure.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
Since we haven't actually had tariffs yet, the two main costs of this trade war have been reputation and uncertainty. Right. First, the U.S. reputation, as in whether allies can rely on us because we just almost started a trade war with two of them. And policy uncertainty, whether businesses can plan for their investments when the rules are so chaotic.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
But the very fact that allies and foes could be threatened with massive tariffs at any moment, that has a cost. CEOs hate that kind of uncertainty and that kind of policy whiplash. So besties, add it all up, and it's going to take months, maybe years, before you can properly compare the costs and the benefits of trade war to. We'll see what happens. We'll cover it on the show.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
For our second story, Levi's has become the big winner of the baggy daddy jeans trend. This story is about how Levi's used Google to predict a fashion trend, and it worked. But Jack, if we're going to tell this story, then get in the car, loser. We're going shopping for loose and oversized jeans. Wide jeans, boyfriend jeans, relaxed jeans, slouchy jeans. Is that a fit? It is.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
And our third and final story is the top stock in America since election day. What is it, Jack? Robinhood. Robinhood. And now Robinhood is putting all its chips on the Super Bowl. But before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Fantastic mix for a T-Boy Tuesday, Jack. Trivia. What board game was once banned by both Cuba and the Soviet Union? It wasn't Twister. Feels like it's not Twister.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
All I know is the best sellers are the jeans with enough material to sew a parachute out of. Slim fit has died a slow death. I'm keeping mine though, Jack. They're going to come back. In Levi's latest earnings call, the CEO mentioned the word baggy six times, which was kind of hilarious. Baggy daddy jeans. Their sales are up 15% at Levi. That is three times the pace of overall jean sales.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
Here's the wilder stat. Baggy jeans are a basket booster for Levi's. True. You need to buy a whole wardrobe to match those big baggy jeans. The average customer buying baggy jeans also bought one additional item to pair with those jeans. So not just $100 jeans. You're suddenly spending $500 on matching shoes and a top as well. Sorry, mom, I'm going to need more Stella McCartney pumps, new jeans.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
Now, we covered Levi's' baggy bump two years ago on this podcast. We did. But we just found out how Levi's knew about it. This is what we found fascinating about the story, yetis. Levi actually predicted the baggy daddy jean trend five years ago, thanks to Google. In 2020, Levi signed a deal with Google Cloud to collect denim sales data worldwide.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
Then the engineering nerds over at Google ran a daily machine algorithm to identify purchase trends. That's a direct quote, their words, according to the Wall Street Journal. They pulled receipts from 50,000 stores, 49,000 of which were not Levi's stores. That's key.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
So they gave Levi's data from other stores that were selling Levi's, like Macy's, Bloomingdale's, or like, I don't know, the tri-state county mall that you shop at. That sounds lovely for a visit on a Saturday, Jack. And what was Google's discovery that they shared with the denim dudes over Levi? That massive trove of data showed Levi's that it's not just Gen Z Jenny buying looser fit jeans.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
Mom wants them. Grandma wants them. Uncles and dads want looser jeans too. Millennial Millie and Boomer Bob, they're all getting looser fit jeans, it appeared, without anyone picking up on this. Google's data showed that the baggy jeans trend was multi-generational. And they gave Levi that information early.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
On the other hand, if Levi's only had their own customer data, like they would have found out too late. They don't even know the age you are when you're buying this stuff. Instead, Levi's moved fast to offer baggy jeans to all bodies, to men and to women. And that's wild. This 172-year-old company that began by selling 501s to gold miners from a horse and buggy, they just went full Silicon Valley.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
Sheehan and Teemu, they identify real-time fashion trends with their app. Well, Levi's managed to upstream them with the help of Google. Where were you on the yak sweater trend, though, Levi? I can't wait for that birthday present, man. I'm working on it, Jack. I'm working on it. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Levi's? Guts are good for innovation. Data is best for revelation.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
Yetis, one of our most popular stories last year was one that we did about going with your gut instead of following the data. But how do you know which to go with? Well, here's a guiding tool. Here's the way Jack and I think of it. Go with your gut on challenges of the imagination, like creating something new. For example, the iPhone.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
Steve Jobs went with his gut and innovated something completely new. new. On the other hand, data is a powerful tool for identifying trends. Netflix uses data from existing shows to decide what next show to produce. And we just saw that Google's denim data is how Levi recognized the baggy daddy jean trend before anyone else.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
It's not limited to this, but in general, your gut is best for innovation. Data is best for revelation.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
No, it wasn't. It's the game that was invented to criticize America, but instead glorified it. Cards Against Humanity? No. This game is actually played in two out of three American homes today, and it's the best-selling board game of all time. Oh, I think I know what it is, Jack. It's a game you buy with real money, but you play it. Fake money. Monopoly. Monopoly. Here it is, Jack.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
For our third and final story, the best performing stock since the election, it's Robinhood. Because Robinhood has turned privacy into publicity. We'll explain. But Jack, first, let's go back in time a little bit. Remember the GameStop drama? Oh, do I remember. January of 2021, Robinhood was the story, and Nick and I were working there. Yeah, that was back when we were at Robinhood.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
We were doing the podcast, and man, that was intense. AMC, cat memes, GameStop to the moon, and then GameStop to the floor. Well, after that, Robinhood spent a couple years in the penalty box with regulators, but Jack... Robinhood is back, baby. The viral stock trading app emerged from Sherwood Forest in brand new brand colors. Just last year, Robinhood turned from green to neon yellow and black.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
And they also launched a new version of Robinhood, like a Bloomberg tournament for active stock traders. And right before the election, they launched prediction markets. You could bet on Trump or Harris in the stock trading app. you could bet on the presidential election. But here's the news. Grab your helmets and your jockstraps because Robinhood is now in sports betting.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
Just like with the election, Robinhood is partnering with Kalshi, but this time to let you bet on the Chiefs or the Eagles in the Super Bowl. Now, we dove in T-boy style to this, and technically they say this isn't sports betting, but Jack, this is betting on sports. Anyone on the Robinhood app can bet on the Chiefs. Sounds like sports betting to me.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
But here was the bigger observation from Jack and I. Robinhood stock is actually the top performing stock of the Trump presidency. It has nearly doubled since election day. You got a crypto comeback, a deregulation push, bullish vibes across the market. They're all good for the Robinhood app. And that's why Robinhood stock is actually up 400% in just the last year.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
It's at $50, which is about 25% higher than its 2021 IPO. Now, yetis, Jack and I worked at Robinhood. We sold our first company to Robinhood. And the way we've always seen Robinhood is as a finance company that really wants to be a social media company. Right. When we got there... They were doing their first growth hack, which was to share the app with a friend.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
And if your friend signed up for Robinhood, you both got a free stock. Oh, you want new features on Robinhood? Then you have to sign up for a Robinhood waitlist and then share that waitlist with friends to move up on the waitlist. The meme stock trend we mentioned earlier, that powered Robinhood's rise and it was really all about social media. Now, these growth hacks were incredibly successful.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
But just last week, Robinhood got two new competitors in the social investing space. First, Elon's X announced Venmo-like payments are coming to the X app in a partnership through Visa. And then Trump's Truth Social partnered with Charles Schwab for crypto ETF and stock trading. So actual social media platforms are entering the investing space now. And that's new.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
So Robinhood stock is up, but Robinhood's got two brand new competitors starting last week. So we got a brand new takeaway. Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Robinhood? It's the private to public pivot. We're seeing it everywhere. Yetis, Robinhood recognized early on the opportunity in turning a private action into a public activity. We'll explain.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
What do you think? Do you hear that? I guess you're the banker for this episode. Yetis, Monopoly's origin story is actually the opposite of what you expect. Because this game rewards greed, but was invented to stop greed. Yetis, Monopoly is a tribute to capitalism. But it was created by a woman who was basically a communist. And on top of all that, the whole idea was actually stolen by another guy.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
We're talking about investing because money and investment decisions were historically taboo to share, but now they're not really taboo anymore. We're okay telling you that we've lost a lot of money owning Peloton stock. And we still own it. Are we ever going to sell? Never, Jack. But besties, we have seen other companies also capture that value too.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
They take a private act and they make it a public act. Think about LinkedIn. Yes. They turn job promotions and unemployment announcements into assets that you share with everyone. Or Jack, what about Twitch? They took gaming from a solo gamer activity to a spectator sport. And TikTok, they turned journaling and confessions from something very private into a public act for your followers to see.
The Best One Yet
🥞 “Maple Syrup Mayhem” — Trade War’s wild 24 hours. Robinhood’s Super Bowl bet. Levi’s Baggy Secret.
Yeah, you want to share with the besties what our guess is that Robinhood does next? They're going to make a feature so that you can really easily share your portfolio and your trades on Instagram, TikTok, and X. Next thing you know, that Peloton investment, it's going to be on your Tinder profile. Robinhood's revival shows the hidden opportunity in turning the private public.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Tuesday, T-Boy. Tuesday, December 3rd. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-Boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. But first, a happy National Rocky Balboa Day to all those who celebrated. Rocky Fest is happening in Philadelphia right now, where all the city of brotherly love is giving thanks to their fictional native son.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
Because old music ringtones were a really efficient way to get the majority of people in your office to dislike you. Oh, it's Fireworks by Katy Perry again. Thanks, Ron, for the audience. So, besties, if you're on the subway right now and you hear this... That's the sound of an industry rebound. So, Jack... I think I'm getting a call and the call is our takeaway.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
Yetis, we just dropped the seventh episode of our weekly show, The Best Idea Yet. The untold origin stories of the products you're obsessed with. And this week's episode is the Polaroid camera. Because Polaroid packed an entire darkroom into a single handheld camera. We'll tell you in this wild episode how Edwin Land got the idea for the Polaroid camera after a conversation with his daughter.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
And that's interesting because that's the same group that had the music ringtone back when it peaked in 2007. In 2007, millennials were 17. It was probably the age they got their first phone, like when Nick and I did. That means ringtones today are being driven by the same demographic that bought them 20 years ago. Same customer, just older. Same millennial customer, just 20 years later.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
So it's not teenagers buying it for some Y2K aesthetic. It's the exact same millennials buying them a second time. The resurgence of music ringtones is a reminder that people don't buy products. They buy memories. Besties, if you want to sell the future, wrap it in the past. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for T-Boy Tuesday?
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
Moana 2 brought in nearly $400 million worldwide over Thanksgiving weekend. A record number. Moana's voyage is a media lesson. Musicals, not-in-love princesses, and marketing. For our second story, it's Aldi. Aldi is America's fastest-growing grocery chain with 2,400 locations and 800 more coming. It's all thanks to Deutsche Spatzenkeit. which is aligned with the old IKEA principle.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
To be clear, it's Deutsche Sparsamkeit. We have German listeners, Nick. Gesundheit, Jack. Gesundheit. And finally, music ringtones for your phone are having a major resurgence. Music ringtones are back, because if you want to sell the future, wrap it in the past. But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
First, the Australian government has officially banned social media for kids under 16. This happened over Thanksgiving break. You might have missed it, but it's a big deal. Australia is now the first country in the world with legislation banning Instagram, Reddit, TikTok for a specific age group.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
It's unclear how this ban will be enforced, but it was passed by an overwhelming majority in Australia's Congress. And second, Intel CEO Pat Gesslinger is shockingly resigning from the head of America's biggest chipmaker. Gesslinger joined Intel at the age of 18 with just an associate's degree. That's it, and he rose all the way up to CEO, but his five-year turnaround plan is failing.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
So he's out at Intel after just three years and two co-CEOs. are taking over in the interim. And finally, on Sunday, December 1st, we had the busiest travel day in American airport history. 3.09 million people passed through a TSA checkpoint on Sunday, which is the most ever. Now, Jack, why is that stat wild? Just three days earlier was the least busy day of the year for U.S. airports.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
That's right. On Thanksgiving Day, just 1.55 million people passed through TSA, which was the lowest number of the entire year. Although I gotta say, one and a half million people flying on Thanksgiving. Sounds like a lot. That's a lot of people. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one whipped up by Jack and me because it is officially Giving Tuesday.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
Giving Tuesday, the one shopping day, not about spending on things, about spending on causes. Now, what you didn't know is that this concept actually began only in 2012 with an idea hatched at the 92nd Street Y in New York City. In the first year, $10 million was donated. But last year, $3 billion was donated. So Giving Tuesday has grown 3%. 300X in the 12 years since it's been around.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
So Jack and I were talking about it before the show. We both do give on Giving Tuesday. We were like, we should just share things we give to because everyone could be given. My favorite cause is the Covenant House, which provides shelter to homeless youth. When I was a kid, I actually did my first donation to an organization called the Children's Aid Society up in Harlem.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
And I did the same one again this year. Love that. Covenant House, by the way, takes care of kids who pass through the foster system, but don't have anywhere to go. It's a great cause, both of them. So, Yetis, after a week of shoppy, shoppy till you droppy, droppy, it's Giving Tuesday to Gibby Gibby to Gibby Gibby. We drop links to Covenant House and Children's Aid Society in the show notes.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
Who was three years old. And how Edwin Land took the first selfie ever, like 100 years ago. With a Polaroid camera. And how no matter what OutKast says, you should never, ever, ever, ever, ever... Shake it like a Polaroid picture. So later today, after this episode, check out our new deep dive show, The Best Idea Yet.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
Yetis, you look fantastic today. Jack, you are looking fantastic for T-Boy Tuesday. Oh, wait. One second. One second. I'm getting a call. I'm getting a call. Is that Soulja Boy again? It's Soulja Boy. And Soulja Boy is saying that everyone should go and listen to The Best Idea Yet, our other weekly show. You got to listen right now. If you know, you know.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
We dropped a link in the episode description. Listen to the Polaroid story. The latest episode is on the Polaroid. Jack and I will see you there. And before we go, a happy belated birthday to Kate Brink, the queen of carrot cake, who's from straight out of Boston. Just outside Boston. Happy birthday to Abby Mayer, the hostess with, and I can attest, the mostess.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
She's living in the Presidio of San Francisco. And Lee McKenna Hollingsworth, the panther of the outer sunset in San Francisco, celebrating a birthday. Happy anniversary to Harian Anju in San Mateo, California. Congratulations, guys. And Devin McLaughlin, El Dev Meister, is celebrating a birthday up on the Upper East Side. Happy birthday to Anthony Whitlow in Albany, New York.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
And Apoorva Adepali over in Bangalore, India, may have, statistically speaking, a music ringtone on which they're celebrating the birthday. And happy 50th birthday to Punitha Aurora in Shakopee, Minnesota. An OG bestie, if you know, you know. And a shout out to Jessica Sanchez, Arnav Sharma, and Nick Goodner for correctly guessing our TBIY trivia in the Spotify comments and on Instagram.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
And the answer to that trivia, Steve Jobs' big business role model, the answer was Polaroid. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a team. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock in Intel, Disney, and Amazon. And Nick and I both own stock in Spotify.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
Jack and I dropped the link in this episode description because the Polaroid camera is the best idea yet. But Jack, today's T-boy is a fantastic show. We got three wonderful stories. How about we hit the pod, man? Adrian! Let's do it. Yeah, we got it.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
First, a quick word from our sponsor.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
For our first story, Moana 2 just broke every Thanksgiving box office record and she did it by a mile with a smile. Crazy thing though, Moana 1 is having a better year than Moana 2. That is crazy. We'll explain why. Yes, we will. Yetis, this one goes out to all the dads out there whose Spotify raft is about to be topped by a Moana soundtrack.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
A lot of Disney show tunes on that top five list, plus Baby Beluga. If you know, you know. But Moana 2, it just set a movie theater record. Jack, what kind of a prize are we talking about here? Best five-day Thanksgiving weekend ever was set by Moana 2 this past weekend. Get this, yetis. From Wednesday to Sunday, this Disney sequel brought in $225 million at the U.S. box office. Maui, wowee.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
Apparently all the schools in Rittenhouse Square have the day off, Jack. Not too shabby. If I could change, and you could change, everyone could change.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
The previous number one Thanksgiving weekend was Frozen 2 back in 2019. And overseas, Moana 2, it was the top movie in every country except for China. If you add in Wicked and Gladiator 2, then Moana Gladi-Wiki weekend was officially bigger than Barbenheimer weekend. You're welcome. You're welcome. The ocean chose me, too. I think I know why it was banned in China, Jack.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
But if I say it on the pod, I think we'll get banned in China. Now, yetis, here's what Jack and I found wild about this story. While Moana 2 is winning at the box office, Moana 1 is still winning on streaming. Get this, yetis. Moana 1, which is eight years old at this point, was the top stream movie in all of streaming. For both 2023 and 2024.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
We repeat, Moana 1, eight years old, number one in streaming. New releases? No thanks. Mommy, I want to watch Moana again. Besties, according to the Wall Street Journal, Moana 1, since it began on Disney+, has been streamed for one billion hours. That's the equivalent of one person watching the entire movie 775 million times.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
Or more realistically, it is the equivalent of every child in America under the age of 12 watching Moana 15 times. I think that's the reality of the situation. Although, Jack, I heard a rumor there's one girl in Fairfield County who has watched Moana 430 times in one day. But only 3% was watching. The other 97% was messing with her sister and taking the Legos.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
Yeti's the reason this is so shocking is that Moana 1 kind of didn't really work in theaters, did it, Jack? It unperformed at theaters when it debuted in 2016. It had a bad box office year. So it turns out Moana is kind of like a fine Merlot. Moana has improved with age. So Jack and I wafted that movie's aroma up into our noses to whip up a takeaway.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
For our first story, Moana 2 just had the biggest Thanksgiving weekend in movie history by a nautical mile. So we'll tell you how Moana strategically beat Frozen. For our second story, it's the fastest growing grocery chain in the country. It's not Trader Joe's, Costco, or Erewhon. It's Aldi. It's Aldi. Aldi became number one by using a German philosophy. And our third and final story.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Disney? The Moana voyage is a full-on media lesson. And here are four reasons why. First, Yeti's musicals are in. Both Moana and Wicked are booming right now at the box office, while Gladiator 2 is kind of busting. Second, typical princesses, they are out. Moana is a story of a Disney princess who doesn't fall in love.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
It's refreshing to see Moana sailing, not swooning. So Disney, they broke the expected plot and it worked. Another lesson here, people will pay a premium for escapism. Turns out a tropical climate beats a frozen tundra seven out of seven days. Would you rather vacation in frozen, icy Arendelle or Moana's 72 in sunny Polynesia? I'll take two of those, please.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
Finally, this story proves that marketing matters. Because back in 2016, Moana underwhelmed at the box office because it got no Disney marketing. Disney focused their spend that year on Jungle Book, Zootopia, and Finding Dory instead. But now, Moana's 2024 reboot, it thrived because Moana was treated like a star. I'm not a princess. I'm the daughter of the chief.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
And those four reasons are why the Moana voyage is a full-on media lesson. For our second story, Aldi is a grocery chain beloved by frugal Germans. But now it's the fastest growing grocery chain in America because they're using an idea from Sweden. But yet he's in order for us to tell the story of Aldi grocery stores. Jack, let's start with the Dark Knight Rises.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
In that Batman movie, Bane explains something to Batman. What does he explain? You think darkness is your ally? I was born in the dark. Yes, that is the wonderfully delivered great quote from Batman's Dark Knight Rises. And it's the same thing with Aldi. Same kind of thing, except the grocery store wasn't born in the dark. They were born in inflation.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
That's right, because Aldi was founded by the Albrecht brothers back in 1946, post-war Germany. And Jack, what was the economic situation back then in Germany? In 1946, inflation in Germany was 19,000% per month. Oh yeah, you bought an avocado for like a dollar, it was gonna be $19,000 or Deutschmarks the next month. It was hyperinflation.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
It was out of control. So the Albrecht brothers started a discount grocery chain that now has 4,000 locations in Germany and 13,000 across the world. You probably have a roommate who's an Aldi addict. You definitely have a roommate who's trying to serve you like Aldi's Wink and Owl wine. You know who you are. We know who you are. Fun fact, by the way, Aldi is actually cousins with Trader Joe's.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
Are they really? I didn't see that, Jack. One of the Albrecht brothers bought Trader Joe's in 1979. But today, Aldi is the fastest growing grocery chain in America with 2,400 stores and 800 coming. This year, foot traffic at Aldi's in the U.S. grow by 10 to 18% nationwide, according to Business Insider.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
No matter how much you resist, that Aldi addict roommate is going to drag you into one of their stores this year. And the reason for Aldi's success in America, it's a German philosophy, isn't it, Jack? Or is it a German stereotype? You speak German. It's Deutsche Sparsamkeit, which translates roughly to German frugality. Yet is in this economy, grocery prices are up 25% since the pandemic.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
But not at Aldi because of Deutsche Sparsamkeit. That's right, because Aldi has strategically engineered its stores and its whole strategy around das Frugality. You're not passing German, dude. For example, Aldi stores are typically 10,000 square feet, about a quarter of the footprint of your typical grocery store. So Aldi saves money on overhead.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
And Aldi stores carry a much smaller selection, like one or two options tops for any given product. You can have a Hellmann's mayonnaise or the off-label mayonnaise. That's it. Also, Aldi uses a wholesale style in their retail stores. You want that Hellmann's mayonnaise? Well, you're going to have to rip one out of the box that came with 20 because we didn't unpack it for you. Add it all up, Jack.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
Remember when people used to set their phone's ringtone to their favorite music? Well, that's having a major comeback right now. Ringtones, they are back because people don't buy products, people buy memories. But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories and try to get Nick to do another language accent thing. I don't know, I just do the rocky one. I like the rocky one.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
And what is the financial result when it comes to Aldi's Deutsche Sparzenkeit? According to The Motley Fool, a basket of 20 products that cost $65 at Aldi are $54 more at Whole Foods. sit down, stand up, and ring us up again. That's a serious price differential. And it begs the question, how does Aldi keep their prices nearly half as low as Amazon-owned Whole Foods?
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
Well, Deutsche Sparxengeit might go further than real estate and packaging. It goes into our takeaway. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Aldi? Aldi's success is thanks to the IKEA principle. Yeti's IKEA, the Swedish furniture company, became a huge success thanks to its one profitable innovation. Don't assemble the furniture.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
The founder of IKEA realized that he could save costs if he shipped the furniture to customers in parts that the customers themselves could assemble. Well, it's the same philosophy when it comes to Aldi. They pass the savings on to you in exchange for you basically assembling the groceries. For example, they will never bag your groceries at Aldi. In fact, you have to bring your own bags.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
And like we mentioned, you have full crates exposed at Aldi. You have to unbox the soap. Their staff doesn't do it. And if you want to use a shopping cart at Aldi's, you must put a quarter to unlock the shopping cart and you only get your quarter back if you return the shopping cart to the stall. In fact, Jack, did you see the aisle of shame at Aldi? You see what this is? I didn't.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
The middle of the Aldi stores is a special aisle that is just random and unorganized, but it's full of deals. It's probably stuff that got returned. Right. That they didn't want to use human labor to put back on the shelves. They didn't want to spend the money on the labor to put back. So you do the labor, you get the savings. It's the IKEA principle. It is. It's an exchange of labor for deals.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
Your labor to get the deals. And in this economy, that's a deal that you're taking. And that's why Aldi is now the fastest growing grocery in America. Now, a quick word from our sponsor.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
For our third and final story, music ringtones for your phone are having a resurgence. This throwback phone trend from the 2000s is driven by a shocking and unshocking age group. Oh, yetis, let's set the scene. The Sopranos had just had their controversial series finale. Rihanna's uncontroversial umbrella had hit number one on the charts.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
You did the German one too. Yeah, I tried to do both, Jack. Yetis, yesterday we asked you our weekly trivia question. Who is the number one inventor that Steve Jobs looked up to? Who was Steve Jobs' role model? What product did Steve Jobs idolize? The answer is the Polaroid camera. The Polaroid and Edwin Land, the inventor of that Polaroid camera.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
And everyone and you yourself were devouring cupcakes at an unhealthy but healthy pace. And then your pocket vibrates and you hear this noise. Yetis, it's the year 2007, the year that ringtones peaked. Literally, the year that ringtone revenues peaked. We were in college, and just about everyone picks music for their ringtone. That was the thing.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
Some ripped the music illegally on Kazaa, LimeWater, or BitTorrents. Others paid for their ringtones through a streaming company. And that was 2007. So Jack, what kind of numbers was the ringtone industry putting up? At its peak, paid musical ringtones brought in $1.6 billion in revenue, according to the Record Industry Association of America. In fact, ringtones were bigger than digital albums.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
Because you were paying $3.99 a month for access to custom Jessica Simpson ringtones. My sister's sidekick was always going off with a new Spice Girls song. We all kind of loved it. Ringtones were a major part of the music industry back then. Soldier Boy says that he made $20 million on ringtone sales. Oh, and you just mentioned Jessica Simpson.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
She had millions of dollars made by doing ringtones with different people's names for when different people called you. Her record label loved it. Nick Lachey didn't. But despite all that success, the music ringtone, it died for one key reason. Smartphone notifications. Eh, killed it. And robocalls. They mean that we all silence our phones.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
And if you're unmuted, you could use the standardized iPhone ring, which happened to come out in the year 2007 when ringtones peaked. That's why ringtone music revenue has fallen by 99% since 2007. But here's the news. You hear that? The ringtone industry is having a resurgence. And it sounds like a lot of money. Get this, besties. The ringtone app for Android, it has 50 million downloads.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
Jack, just sprinkle on some context, please. That's more downloads than SiriusXM or Tidal. And the top four ringtone apps, they together bring in $21 million a year in revenue. Wow. which has quadrupled since 2018, according to Sherwood. Side note, the country where ringtones are the most popular, it's actually India.
The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
India is 93% of the paid music ringtone market, but the United States is number two. Now, if you think about it, Jack, it makes a lot of sense. Like custom ringtones, that is a cool way to audially express yourself. And you can set your phone to be silent for everything except calls. New feature. Which solves the notification pinging issue. you could turn volume on for your ringtone again.
The Best One Yet
⚾ “Torpedo Bat” — NY Yankees’ innovation. Q2’s Stagflation risk. Drone Delivery’s burrito vs blood.
15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in a dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50%, that's a fat tip. T-Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, cause we ready to go. We can't wait no more, so just start the show.
The Best One Yet
⚾ “Torpedo Bat” — NY Yankees’ innovation. Q2’s Stagflation risk. Drone Delivery’s burrito vs blood.
Yeah, we did.
The Best One Yet
⚾ “Torpedo Bat” — NY Yankees’ innovation. Q2’s Stagflation risk. Drone Delivery’s burrito vs blood.
35.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Thursday, the new Friday, January 30th, and today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Docs, they are dipping right now. Yesterday, it was because of the Fed. Our nation's central bank is worried about inflation again. So yesterday, they announced they're keeping interest rates high.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
I get pings all the time. Your credit score has changed. I go and check. There's no explanation for the change. Well, Jack, for a whole year, Steve was stuck at one specific score, 848, two points away from a perfect score. He learned that having a $0 balance on all his credit accounts was hurting him from getting 850. Okay, so here's what he did.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
Steve started tinkering and discovered that actually having a small balance of 1% of his credit limit on his card, that actually helped his credit score. So finally, after five years, he hit 850. Congratulations, Steve. Why it took so long, it remains a mystery. Nobody really knows.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
Now, add it all up, and only 1.5% of Americans have hit a perfect credit score of 850, according to the Wall Street Journal. But Jack and I jumped in T-boy style, and we discovered there are four specific traits shared by people with perfect credit scores. First, you should have multiple credit accounts. Second, you should use a small portion of your credit card limits.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
And third, you need to pay your bills on time. It's kind of messed up, but the less you need credit, the more credit worthy you actually are to the credit card companies. The fourth thing you need is our takeaway. So Jack, what's the takeaway? Debit or credit for our buddies with credit cards. The best way to boost your credit score is to simply know what it is.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
Yeti's great quote from director Woody Allen, 90% of success in life is simply showing up. Well, 90% of getting a good credit score is simply knowing it. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, studies show that just being aware of your credit score is the best trick to boost your credit score. Knowing your score means you're more likely to be making responsible financial decisions.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
Now, this is probably more correlation than causation. But when it comes to your credit card, like ignorance of what you owe, that is not bliss, is it, Jack? Ignorance is not bliss. In fact, when we worked at Robinhood, we learned that people who don't open their mail, that's correlated with having a lower credit score.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
Because people are leaving the city, visiting family, visiting other family, and then visiting more family. Apparently, every single person in China takes an average of two trips during the Chinese New Year. Last year was the year of the dragon. This year is the year of the snake. And this weekend, again, dim sum at Dragon Boat. Remember Dragon Boat, Jack? No. It's like China Live.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
Yeah, like if you don't know how much you're spending on Qtops, you're not going to know if you got to pay down that Qtop balance. I mean, I get it. If you have money problems, bills can be stressful. So besties, knowing why you got a specific credit score, that is still a mystery. But just knowing your credit score is critical to boosting it.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for the new Friday? Tesla just announced an 8% drop in automotive revenue last quarter, but the stock remains close to record highs. A Tesla car is now a $45,000 MAGA hat. For our second story, Chili's is simply the best restaurant stock right now. It's risen 6x in 18 months by eating TGI Friday's lunch.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
When there's blood in the water, invest in the shark. And our third and final story. The perfect credit score does exist. Yeah. One guy got 850 after randomly tinkering with his credit situation. But the best secret to boosting your credit score? Simply knowing your credit score. But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
First, on Tuesday, President Trump announced a freeze to anything receiving federal grant money. On Wednesday, he rescinded it. It was his most impactful executive order, but it caused chaos. So he reversed it. In other President Trump news, he's offered 1.5 million federal workers a choice.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
They can retire and take eight months of severance or... Or prepare for a very different kind of work situation under the new administration. And second, Boom Aeronautics, great name, achieved its first ever supersonic flight for a passenger airplane. Remember those Concorde jets that could fly from New York to London in three hours? Or New York to Boston in 12 seconds?
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
Well, Boom is trying to make the next generation... So they want to basically bring back the Concorde. These planes could hold 60 to 80 passengers. This thing flew Mach 1.1. That's 750 miles per hour. And finally, something unprecedented happened. A baby was born at a Krispy Kreme donut shop. That's right.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
During last week's winter storms, a woman in Alabama was stuck because of the snow, gave birth to a healthy baby boy over at a Krispy Kreme. It's an incredible story. It was an emergency, obviously. And the staff must have helped out. And guess what? Everyone is healthy. It's history because it's the first time ever that a Krispy Kreme was listed as a place of birth on a birth certificate.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
So Krispy Kreme is reportedly giving the family free donuts for the whole family. first year. Although Jack's a shareholder. And Jack, how do you feel about all those free donuts given away by Crispy? I think that's money well spent. Well played. Well played, Crispy. They better be glazed. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one whipped up by Jack and me. On Sunday, it rained in Los Angeles.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
Finally. All but putting out the very last of the wildfires. Now, this has sadly fallen away from the front page news, but now Angelenos can actually start rebuilding. Well, the tech and venture capital community they lost a lot of homes in the high-end areas of the Palisades that burned down. And it's going to take them months or years to find a new place or rebuild.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
But Jack and I got curious. How do stocks perform during the year of the snake? Because the Chinese snake is a symbol of calculation, strategy, and thought. thought. So Jack, let's enlighten the besties. How do markets do during snake years? Really, really freaky. Let's kick it back to 2013. It was one of the best years in Wall Street history, and it was the year of the snake.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
But that same community also set up a fund to help those most in need. It's called the LA Tech Community Cares Fund, and it's raised nearly a million dollars so far to help those Angelenos most in financial need. So a lot of organizations out there, we dropped a link to this one in our episode description for you. Yetis, you look fantastic out there.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
And if you happen to be enjoying a burger with a steak knife, which is never necessary, send us a picture of that steak knife. I always cut my burger now. I do too. Controversial in some places. Well, more controversial. Jack, do you put the ketchup on the burger or do you dip the burger in the ketchup? I do both. It was a trick question. You passed. Yeah, it is.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
After this, remember to check out our weekly show, The Best Idea Yet, because we just dropped a new episode on Red Bull. We got a link in the episode description. And Nick and I will see you tomorrow. Can't wait. And before we go, congratulations to Yeti Tina Lee, who's got a new baby boy on the Upper West Side, and you better be feeding him some Lenny's sandwiches.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
Congratulations to Kelsey Black, who just got nominated for Best Small Business in Pflugerville, Texas. Congrats, Kelsey. And Ken Say in Lake Worth, Florida, is having the best time. birthday yet. Happy birthday to Bob Hastings in New Bern, North Carolina, and who's got a new baby due tomorrow. Very exciting.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
And Nicholas Cicero, legendary Yeti of Queens, New York, is celebrating down in Philadelphia, we assume, with a Geno's cheesesteak. And to anyone else who's celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Krispy Kreme and Victoria's Secret. And Nick and I both own stock of Apple, Peloton. And I think that's it, right?
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
Did you buy Krispy Kreme and Victoria's Secret on the same day? Something makes me feel like that was the same day purchase. Check the stock records. If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
The S&P 500 jumped over 30% that year. But the year 2001 was also a year of the snake, and it was one of the worst years on the stock market. The dot-com bubble burst, 9-11 happened, and stocks dropped 13%. 1977, the year Apple was founded.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
It's become the most valuable company in the world. But Jack, 1929, the Great Depression began. The stock market crashed. One of the worst years in history. So, Yadiz, we don't typically base our investments on the Zodiac calendar. Yeah, otherwise we'd be all in on Peloton stock during the year of the bull. But the year of the snake. Yeah. Which my third child's going to be born in, Nick. He is.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
It'll either bite you or it'll kiss you. If you know, you know. This isn't investment advice. No, it's not. But we're bullish on the snake. We're going to go all in. Jack, let's hit our three stars.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
Investors would prefer if interest rates fell. We'd prefer if interest rates fell. The president would prefer if interest rates fell. But the Fed's job isn't politics or popularity. It's killing inflation. So they gave us tough love and are keeping interest rates high. But in the meantime, Jack and I whipped up three fantastic anti-inflation stories for you. Jack, what do we got on today's pot?
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
For our first story, Elon Musk, the most political CEO ever, just announced a disappointing earnings over at Tesla. But the God honest reality is that Tesla isn't a car company anymore. Tesla sells $45,000 MAGA hats.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
Yetis, Jack and I have been talking about this for a while, but we think one of the dumbest things that Joe Biden ever did was host an electric vehicle summit at the White House and not invite Elon Musk. Tesla was not there, even though Tesla was like the entire electric car industry at the time.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
That Biden snub back in 2021, that was the moment we think when the world's best entrepreneur, the world's richest person changed from a Democrat to a MAGA supporter. In 2021, Elon moved Tesla's headquarters out of California to Texas. Then he bought Twitter and now he tweets literally over a hundred times a day. And last year he invested $250 million to get Donald Trump elected as president.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
Add it all up and Elon has become the most political CEO ever, and it's not just in the United States. He's embraced Germany's far right and is now active on Twitter every day, getting involved in their election. Last week, he spoke at Trump's inauguration parade, and then he did what looked just like a Nazi salute.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
Elon's passion for sustainable cars has been replaced by an obsession with right-wing politics. In the last 48 hours, he's even started tweeting jokes about Nazis. So as we're recording, Tesla just announced their fourth quarter earnings, and the analysts, they're definitely going to ask him about that salute he did. Yes, they are. But here's the strange business irony here.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
The guy he got elected as president is doing the opposite of Tesla's mission statement. Jack, could you sprinkle on more context for us over there? Governments across the developed world have moved to support electric cars in order to combat climate change, including the United States and Tesla.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
For the last 12 years, Tesla sales have benefited from a $7,500 off coupon that's a subsidy from the US government. Tesla also got direct government support in the form of a $450 million loan. At a critical time from Tesla, From the Department of Energy. And yet, and this is why it's ironic, in just Trump's very first week, he's cut all of that electric vehicle support for companies like Tesla.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
We covered it last week on The Pot. Instead of leasing federal land and waters for wind and solar projects, he is diverting them to oil and gas projects. Now, besties, Jack and I have been covering Tesla earnings for over a decade now. Like, we've covered over 40 of these earnings, haven't we, man? Yeah. This is Jack. I applied to multiple jobs at Tesla.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
And back then, what was Tesla's mission statement? I got it for you, Jack. Here it is. To accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy. That's still their mission statement today. But Trump is doing everything he can to stop the transition to sustainable energy. even though Elon is currently his best buddy. So Jack, what is the takeaway for all our buddies over at Tesla?
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
A Tesla car is now a $45,000 MAGA hat. Now, also full disclosure, Yetis, I've been driving a Tesla Model Y for the last few years. And Jack, have I told you about these stickers we've noticed in San Francisco? I've heard about them. Okay. You see these across the city now. These are bumper stickers that say, I bought this Tesla before Elon went crazy.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
For our first story, Tesla just announced earnings. But the bigger story is Tesla's new brand. Because Tesla has become a $45,000 MAGA hat. For our second story, Chili's is the hottest restaurant in the country. It's up 300% in the past year. Because Chili's is known for its baby back ribs, but its strategy is great white shark.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
Yeti's yesterday, Tesla announced 8% shrinkage in car revenue, their first car shrinkage since 2010. So we're seeing the brand affect the sales. Tesla's brand is being defined less as a cool, clean energy company, but more as a MAGA company. And the Cybertruck, the brand of that is Dark MAGA, to use Elon's language. And the numbers show it too.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
Reuters says that among EV buyers, half as many are now considering Teslas compared to a year before. Now, Tesla's car business is going to be fine. With tech in Silicon Valley shifting to the right politically, there's going to be plenty of people wanting to buy a Tesla. Also, Tesla has huge sales outside the United States, where Elon's politics won't dominate the headlines.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
Plus, Tesla is a mature company at this point. They honestly don't need electric car incentives from the government anymore. And honestly, from our experience, Tesla is simply the best made and most reliable electric car. Tesla is kind of the iPhone of EVs. Volkswagen, Ford, and GM are still figuring it out. Tesla has figured it out.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
So besties, electric vehicle buyers are disproportionately motivated by the environment. And right now, Tesla equals Elon, which equals MAGA. A Tesla car is now a $45,000 MAGA hat. For our second story, the top restaurant stock of the last year and a half, get this, it's Chili's. Chili's baby back ribs are actually shark ribs because we have a new investing strategy to share.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
It's called shark investing. Shark vesting. Can we go all shark-festing? Sure. Yeah, let's do that. Oh, by the way, Jack, I got to share with you, the greatest marketing hack of all time, it's from Chili's. You know what it is? That commercial? No, no. No, Jack, it's when they stuck a steak knife in the hamburgers. Oh, yeah. It basically implied that it was a huge burger.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
It's not actually that big a burger. Oh, it's like an optical illusion? Yeah, basically, they start serving burgers with chainsaws next. Yeti's Chili's just announced fourth quarter earnings, and Jack... I kind of want to lick them. Revenues rose by 31% compared to the year before. That's wild. The stock of Chili's is now up 15% to an all-time high. How's it in the last year and a half, man?
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
The stock has 6x'd. Hold the queso, yetis. We covered Chili's in September on this pod. Back then, the stock was up 150%. But now it's up another 150% since we last covered it. If you're a Yeti and you bought stock of Chili's because of our coverage in September, Nick and I want some kind of a fee. You're welcome. We're sending a Venmo request.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
This 50-year-old fajita chain is growing faster than an AI cloud SaaS startup. Now, we should point out, the hero dish at Chili's isn't baby back ribs anymore. No. It's the triple dipper. In fact, they mentioned the triple dipper 21 times on their last earnings call. Is that a CEO or is that a waiter? I don't know, back. The triple dipper is any three apps for just 17 bucks.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
Now I sound like a waiter. Mozzarella sticks, a fried egg roll, chicken wings, all that for 17 bucks. And what's the strategy? That deal is a Big Mac killer. Yeah. If you compare that deal to fast food, it's the same price, but much better value. More calories and you get a waiter who's serving you. And the platter is sizzling. That's a good point.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
But Jack, before you get on too much flair over there, what is the fascinating part about this story? While Chili's is living its best life, another throwback restaurant chain is choking. That's right. TGI Fridays is having a case of the Mondays. TGI Fridays is a very similar brand. It's basically Chili's, but with a floater of tequila in that margarita.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
And they hit their all-time sales high back in 2008. Tom Cruise once filmed a movie at a TGI Fridays. Cocktail was filmed there. According to the Wall Street Journal, TGI Fridays was once so cool, they had a velvet rope and a bouncer because they were too full. If you wanted to get into TGIF, you had to know a guy.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
And finally, for our third story, we all want a credit score over 750. Nice. Maybe even 800. Nice, sir. Who knows? Is an 850 possible? Not too shabby. But Jack, does a perfect credit score even exist? Yes, it does. One man got it, and we'll tell you how he did. Oh, we got the secret sauce. But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Spin. Fantastic mix of stories.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
But the 80s vibes of TGIF never grew up, and Friday happy hour, it's not as big as it used to be. Yeah, we covered it on the pod. You're not going out at 5 p.m. on Fridays. So just two months ago, after already shutting 55% of the restaurants, TGI Fridays filed for bankruptcy. Oh, their recent mistake, by the way, they started serving sushi, Jack. Too soon, man.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
Don't order nigiri from a place that has tires on the wall. Don't kick a guy who's down, dude. Come on. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Chili's? When there's blood in the water, invest in the sharks. Yetis, when one company declares bankruptcy, those customers, they find one alternative. As TGI Fridays declined, their downers didn't go to the Hall of Garden. No.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
They went to Chili's. Yeah. It's a zero plum game. It's like a shark smelling blood in the water. One business was wounded and the shark just ate it all up. Did you say a zero plum game? Maybe. I like that a lot, actually. And we've seen this effect before. When Sports Authority declared bankruptcy, Dick's Sporting Goods got a whole bunch of new business.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
Or Jack, when Victoria's Secret's brand just went out of style, Kim Kardashian's skims surged. How about right now? Yeah. There's blood in the water at Walgreens. That pharmacy chain is struggling mightily. Yeah, they've got the worst performing stock in the market. Like whose shark is going to come and eat that chump? I don't know. That's an investment opportunity if you can figure out who it is.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
Besties, let us know in the comments. In the meantime, when there is blood in the water, we know what to do. Invest in the sharks. Shark vesting. Now, a quick word from our sponsor.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
For our third and final story, one man finally achieved the perfect credit score of 850. We'll tell you the secret on how to get an 850 credit score, and it involves your mail. It's actually shockingly simple, but yet he's... Today, you can apply for and get approved for a credit card almost instantly, man. Actually, Jack, here. Boom. Here's one. Take two. Here's three.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
I've called and gotten a credit card. They're like, hold on a second. Yep, you're approved. Yeah, yeah. I'll send them four of them. But in the 1960s, getting a credit card was a lot like getting into an exclusive club. In fact, my dad had a credit card called Diner's Club, Jack. This is so old school.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
So, Yeti, 60 years ago, two guys developed a math formula to get membership into that credit card club. Their names were William Fair and Earl Isaac, the two original men of finance. And they started a company called Fair Isaac Company, the acronym of which was F-I-C-O. Fair. FICO. That's how we got the FICO number.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
It's your primary credit score that pretty much all financial institutions look at. And the FICO credit score has a secret recipe to evaluate your credit. Of course it's secret, because if it wasn't secret, we wouldn't need this company. Yeah, they look at your credit history, your payment record, the types of credit you have, and then they rate you on a scale of 300 to 850.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
Love the way things are kicking off, man. Did you hear those fireworks? Because the Chinese New Year began last night. The Lunar New Year, yes. Heard those fireworks. Largest celebration on planet Earth. Here's a wild stat. Get this. The two weeks before and after Chinese New Year, three billion trips are taken just in China. That's right.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
And your credit score is important. It can determine whether or not you can afford a house, afford a car, or get an American Express credit card. Basically, your blood pressure gives you your physical health score. Your credit score gives you your financial health score. And there's even now a dating app that will match you based on your FICO credit score.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
You know how I knew I wanted to marry Molly? I saw she was a 765 and I was like, I got to get down on one knee. Really spicy. I'll show you mine if you show me yours situation. But besties, get this. If the credit score is so critical, how do you actually get a perfect credit score? Well, one man just found out. Steve Mitchell, 52 years old, born and raised in Texas.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
He's bald, usually wears black t-shirts based on the Wall Street Journal profile we saw. Big fan of Iron Maiden. And Steve always paid his bills on time. In fact, Steve had a great credit score, Jack. He was at like 840, not too shabby. Wow. I've never even been close to that. But five years ago, Steve started on a quest, a noble quest, to get the perfect credit score of 850.
The Best One Yet
🏆 “Perfect Credit Score” — How to get one. Tesla’s new MAGA brand. Chili’s ate TGI Fridays.
And along that quest, he discovered a whole lot of nonsense about how FICO works. For example, Steve discovered that closing old credit card accounts actually hurt your credit score. And opening more credit cards, something associated with having a shopping problem, actually helped his score. So it is strange, but financially responsible moves actually made his credit score go down.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Thursday, the new Friday, May 29th, and today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Yetis, as professional podcasters here, wow, Jack and I got to tell you, huge Apple podcast glitch yesterday.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
Gen Z loves a good dip, which is why Cholula, Siete Salsa, both recently sold for billion-dollar exits. And the third reason is a broader trend toward Japanese flavors in America related to health. Matcha, yuzu, miso. To stay fit, we're swapping out Taco Bell for teriyaki beef. Jack, I know you like a good hojicha latte, don't you, my friend? Um, sure.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
But the real reason this sauce went viral, it was one decision related to location, location, location. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Bachan's Barbecue Sauce? Category can be destiny. Now, yetis, when bachans first launched, they were only carried in the international aisle at the grocery store. Bachan was placed among Latin, African, Indian, and Asian flavors.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
The taco trade is popular among both top hedge funds and retail Robinhood traders. But the taco trade has nothing to do with carnitas, guacamole, or anything you sprinkle on with that queso. Taco actually stands for taco. Trump always chickens out. T-A-C-O. Taco. It's actually a new investing strategy to make money every time Trump escalates the trade war.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
But here's the key. Strategically, Justin pushed for them to be moved to the barbecue aisle. And why is that, Jack? The market for barbecue sauce in America is way bigger than the market for international sauces. And then during the pandemic, as millions of people were reaching for Heinz ketchup, they also saw a bottle of Bichons decided to mix things up.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
That's how they were discovered, because they were placed in the aisle where everyone shopped every trip to the grocery store. As Bloomberg put it, getting placed among the domestic barbecue sauces was the tailwind to becoming a mainstream brand. Location isn't just critical in neighborhoods and real estates. It matters all the way down to the aisle in the grocery store.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
The store shelf is critical real estate. Because category can be destiny. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for the new Friday? Urban Outfitter stock is at an all-time high, driven by their subscription, Newly. Move over, Chucky Darwin. Urban has found a new species, the profitable loss leader, the centaur. business.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
For our second story, Anthropic CEO warned us that half of white-collar roles will be taken by AI agents within five years. We call them chrome-collar. And tech leaders tend to be right about the future, but wrong about the timing. And our third and final story is Bashan. It's the buzzy barbecue sauce of the moment. They're due for $100 million of sales this year. Because category is destiny.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, NVIDIA earnings. Sales of the world's trendiest chip business soared despite getting shut out of China. Sales of AI chips jumped 73% last quarter to $40 billion for NVIDIA. And that was just the last three months. Here's what investors love about it. Those profit margins on those chips are crunchy.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
61% of each chip they sell is bad. Pure profit. And second, President Trump has approved Japan's Nippon Steel to acquire U.S. Steel, but only with something called a golden share. A golden share is unprecedented. It gives the U.S. government veto power on corporate decisions of this company.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
For a free market economy, our government would be getting shockingly involved in the private business sector. And finally, Elf Beauty is buying Hailey Bieber's road cosmetics for nearly $1 billion. In three years, Hailey's brand has gone from zero to over $200 million in revenues. Wow. Time for Hailey to take Justin on a celebratory vacation.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
And before they check out from whatever hotel they stay in, they should just buy that hotel. With a billion dollars, I'm sure they can. Now time for the best fact yet. This one whipped up by Jax and my kids, basically. Well, today is May 29th, 529. So it's National 529 Day. 529, as in the education savings plan that we just think is fantastic. Because when a kid turns 18...
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
They need money for school. Yeah, college, trade school, community college, each one of those is going to cost money. If you save now, put the money in the stock market, the gains on those stocks are tax-free in a 529. Exactly.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
So like if you put 200 bucks each year into a 529 plan, assuming the market grows 8% a year, which it could or could not, but it could, that account would be worth $6,000 when the kid turns 18. Not too shabby. In fact, Jack and I wrote a rap song about 529 plans that we posted on Instagram at T-Boy Pod. It was lovely. It was after Oakley was born. Yeah, it was.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
And so far, it's worked every single time. And here's how. Whenever Trump announces a new tariff, stocks fall. But then Trump inevitably rolls back the tariffs and stocks stall. surge. And Jack and I are checking the numbers here. We've seen that same pattern repeat itself three times this year. Once is a fluke, twice is a coincidence, three times is a trend.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
Nick did a rap explaining like Lin-Manuel Miranda style how a 529 works. 529s don't pay federal or state taxes as long as the proceeds go to qualified school expenses. Nicely done. We'll leave the rest for the gram. Follow us at T-Boy Pod. In the meantime, you look fantastic, Eddies, and Jack and I will see you later.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
A happy birthday to legendary Yeti Jamuna Cola in Flower Mound, Texas, Adichie's original portfolio manager. A.K.A. Adichie's mom. And Ethan Smith over in Chicago doing logistics is doing a trip with the besties to see our live show. Ethan, we can't wait to see you there. And happy 28th birthday to Molly Rubin in West Hollywood. And Scent Langerick is turning 16 years old in Nara, Japan.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
Congratulations, Scent. A big shout out to at Arielle Sott on TikTok for making an epic video about why she loves T-Boy. You are the goat. Arielle, it's fantastic to have had you as a Yeti with us for so long. And Jack, didn't you meet Arielle like in Madison Square Park or something? Dude, I still remember. She says Washington Square Park. I'm pretty sure it was Madison Square Park.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
Well, Arielle. We love having you as a bestie. Thanks so much for supporting the show. And a shout out to Greg Cusack in Venice, California for being a Strava influencer. And to anyone else who celebrated something today, make it a teammate. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. Nick and I both own stock of Robinhood and Apple, and I own stock of Abercrombie & Fitch and Lyft.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
So hopefully when your kid graduates, this thing is worth a milli. If your kid don't get a 529, I'd probably just feel silly. If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
Jack, take us back to February, my friend. Trump announced 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico. Stocks dropped. But a couple days later, tariffs were paused and stocks popped. Jack, what happened in April this year? Trump announced tariffs for the whole world and stocks dropped big. But he cut tariffs on everyone except for China and stocks surged. Then, Jack, what happened last week?
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
Trump put 50% tariffs on the European Union and stocks dropped.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
Besties, taco isn't a political statement. It's a financial one. T-A-C-O, Trump always chickens out. And Wall Street is making big money on the taco trade. Now we should point out, Trump actually was asked about the taco trade yesterday. And what did he say, Jack? He said he's not chickening out. It's called negotiation. But honestly, Yetis, this acronym is just too good to deny.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
Yetis, this isn't financial advice. There's no guarantee the taco trade pans out a fourth time. But in the meantime, the taco trade has been pretty tasty. How's your portfolio, Greg? Spicy.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
To all our Apple listeners, if you ever can't listen to our daily show, check out Spotify, YouTube, or wherever else you get your pods. Honestly, huge bummer that some of you couldn't listen yesterday. Each episode Jack and I produce, we think of as like our Mona Lisa. Each one's a masterpiece.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
You're quite spicy. Jack, let's hit our three stories. 15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm. Jack, Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50%, that's a fat tip. T-Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, cause we ready to go.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
We can't wait no more, so just start the show.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
For our first story, Urban Outfitters, their stock surged 25% to an all-time high after announcing record earnings. Because with Newly, the subscription clothing service, Urban created a new thing, a mythical thing, a profitable loss leader. All right, Jack, throwback here. The last time we covered Urban Outfitters, November, 2023. Do you remember what the story was? Do you remember?
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
Oh my God, I'm testing you.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
I have an encyclopedic memory. I know, I know. Jack, it was the episode we did on Urban Outfitters selling iPods at their store. Oh, the 20 year old, like original iPod. Yeah, that was at Urban Outfitters. Well, Yeti's Urban Outfitters is back on the pod. Urban is like Abercrombie, but instead of cologne. They sell candles. They're Philadelphia-based. They own anthropology and free people.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
In fact, Urban Outfitters is their smallest brand by sales. And yet, across all the urban stores, you can buy vinyl records, incense, and an $120 pair of jeans with holes in it. And here's the surprise news, Jack. Urban just announced record sales. That's right. Urban announced $1.3 billion in revenue last quarter, which is up 11% from last year.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
Management thinks that tariffs will shave just 0.2 percentage points from profits this year. That was shocking. So the edgy apparel company stocks soared 25%. They're now at an all-time high. Their $7 billion valuation is nearly as high as The Gap and nearly twice as valuable as Abercrombie & Fitch. And the newest thing at Urban is pretty interesting. It's a concept called on rotation.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
And we sat there for like six hours yesterday knowing that Apple podcast listeners couldn't listen to the show. So yesterday's pod was a T-boy. Listen today. But today's pod is also a T-boy. It's actually even better. So Jack, three stars for today's show. What do we got? For our first story, Urban Outfitters is defying the trade war.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
It's basically a new store within a store concept at Urban Outfitters. Okay, so what would that look like, Jack? At some Urban Outfitters, there's going to be a little section dedicated to a different brand. And the inaugural different brand is actually Nike. Yeah, Nike is renting space inside urban stores to get Gen Z to finally care about Air Jordans.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
But the standout performer for Urban Outfitters wasn't candle, vinyl, or pre-ripped $120 jeans. No, no, no, no, no. It wasn't even a physical product. No, the standout item at Urban Outfitters was subscription revenue? We're not talking about Urban Plus. No. We're talking about Nuuly, which Urban Outfitters launched in 2019. It's a clothing rental business.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
Basically, you get six new items from Urban Outfitters every month for 98 bucks. You send the six items back at the end of the month and then pick six new items for the month ahead. Newly is Urban's clothing rental service, and Newly has doubled its user base in three straight years. They now have 380,000 active subscribers.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
But the wild part for Jack and I, Newly is now running away from the competition, literally. Rent the Runway has only one-third as many users as Newly does. I'm sorry, Jack. Pause the pod. We got to repeat this. Rent the Runway. invented the entire clothing rental concept 16 years ago. But now Newly is the unquestioned leader after just six years. And besties, here's the drama.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
Unlike Rent the Runway, Newly is solidly profitable. Wow. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Urban Outfitters? Urban invented a new rare species, the profitable loss leader. Yetis, unlike Rent the Runway, which must rent out clothing profitably because that's its only business, Nuuly could lose money and that's okay for Urban.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
Like a free sample at Costco, Nuuly is a $98 a month sample of Urban's brands. So as long as Nuuly got people to buy more Urban outfit or clothing, it didn't matter if Nuuly itself lost money on the subscriptions. But that's not what happened. Newly was able to raise prices by $12 a month last year, and yet demand only grew.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
In fact, in 2024, Newly achieved a full year of profits while also boosting sales of the other Urban Outfitters divisions. So Newly is like a lost llama in the sense that it drives the sales of the other divisions. Right, right, right, right. But it doesn't lose money. It's profitable. What you're saying, Jack, is that Urban Outfitters has invented a new species. The profitable lost llama.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
Like a centaur, it's half man, half horse. It's half profits, half losses. For our second story, the CEO of Anthropic just said AI will take half of all white-collar jobs within five years. If true, unemployment would spike to as high as 20%. So we're unpacking the truth and the timing. And we're introducing a new concept we call chrome-collar jobs.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
Urban stock just hit an all-time high on record profits because Urban turned a lost llama into a profit puppy. For our second story, the CEO of Anthropic just dropped a scare bomb. Wild. He said that AI agents will take half of white collar jobs within five years. So Jack and I will tell you how to prepare with a new term. Not blue collar. Not white collar. It's chrome color.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
Yetis, everyone talks about ChatGPT, which must be really annoying if you're Anthropic. So true. So true. Anthropic is a huge and valuable AI company also. They have Claude, which is the number two AI chatbot. Basically, Claude is the Luigi to OpenAI's Mario. The Garfunkel to its Simon. Jack the Goose to its Maverick, if you will.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
And this San Francisco-based company, Anthropic, is led by Dario Amadei. And he said something scary this week. That's right. He said Dario was blunt in his interview with Axios, saying AI will take half of all white-collar jobs. He said that the unemployment rate will rise from 4.5% today... to 10 to 20% within one to five years.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
Yeah, Jack and I heard those words, and it is dark, it is freaky, it is dire, but Amadei says it's the truth, and society needs to face it so it can plan for a transition. How would all that happen? How would this mass replacement of human workers happen, Nick? Well, it would happen, Jack, with AI agents, which are basically computer windows that do work.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
An AI agent is a white-collar worker minus the human form. It's just software. These AI agents take assignments and use various computer applications to get the work done, and they work 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And as CEOs discover AI agents, they're going to stop hiring human workers. and eventually lay human workers off.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
Because as Dario said, an agent is AI that can do the work of humans instantly, indefinitely, and exponentially cheaper. That was the scary proclamation this week from Anthropic CEO Dario Amadei. So the way Jack and I see it, agents are like a new form of worker, right Jack? They're not blue collar. They're not white collar. We call it chrome collar. Chrome collar. White collar work done by bots.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
Now, as Nick mentioned earlier, Sam Altman and OpenAI is better known than Dario Amadei and Anthropic is. Sam Altman, he's a little bit more optimistic in his public statements, isn't he, man? Although I get a sense that he's just pushing his agenda because it's best for his company.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
Yeah, Sam points to past tech breakthroughs, and in each case, he does point out that human beings found other forms of work. He gave an example of lamplighters, men who used to walk from lamppost to lamppost lighting the fire so people could see in the dark. And what happened to those lamplighters, Jack? They got replaced by electricity. But you know what?
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
They ended up finding better jobs, and society had better lighting on the streets. Now, AI could be a slightly different analogy here. After all, computers pretty much run the world already. And until now, humans have run computers, but that could change soon. And when it does, blue-collar workers will do physical work with their hands. White-collar workers will do managerial work.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
But chrome-collar workers, which are AI agents, will do the work on computers. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for everybody who just peed their pants a tiny bit? Tech leaders tend to be right about what happens, but wrong about when. Yetis, when the internet started booming in the 1990s, tech leaders predicted it would change the world. And the internet did eventually change the world. It did.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
Tech leaders were just off by like 10 or 15 years. So we got the dot-com bubble in the meantime. Another recent example of this, Elon Musk is famously right with his predictions, but he's infamously wrong with the timing of them. So when an anthropic CEO says that AI will replace half of white-collar workers within one to five years, we take that seriously.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
But we take the timing with a huge grain of salt. And if we have more time, then maybe both Dario and Sam could both be right. Right, good point, Jack. AI could replace half of white-collar jobs, but we'd have enough time that humans would find better jobs. So besties, the way Jack and I see it, tech leaders tend to be right about what happens, but wrong about when it happens.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
And our third and final store is the top-selling barbecue sauce in America right now.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
It's Japanese. It's called Bachan's Barbecue Sauce, and I have some in my pantry. Bachan's founder lost his house making this sauce, but he found his fortune. But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. What a mix of stories. Love the mix of stories, Jack. The hot new financial concept you need to know. What is it, Nick? Jack, it is the taco trade.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
For our third and final story, the biggest barbecue sauce in America is a Japanese barbecue sauce, and it's called Bichon's. Bichon's barbecue secret sauce to success? It was not getting labeled as an international food. Now, Jack, we should point out, full disclosure, you and I have explored a fair variety of barbecue spots together, have we not, my friend?
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
Because you take birthdays very seriously.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
You had a theme for like a dozen years. I don't think it's still ongoing. It's still ongoing. But every year, every year, we would go to a different barbecue joint for Nick's birthday party. Okay, we had Feta Sal in Brooklyn. We had Dinosaur Barbecue up in Harlem. I think that was your favorite. And Mighty Quinn's in the East Village. Great ones, great ones, great ones.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
But the viral barbecue sauce right now that is outselling every sauce is Bichon's. You recognize it because it's got a red flip top, a squeeze bottle, and a smiling octopus logo who's wearing a karate headband. Sriracha was the new ketchup, but Bachan's is the new sriracha. And the founding story of this sauce is heroic. Okay, we'd never heard anything like this.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
Bachan actually means granny in Japanese, and it's based on the founder's grandma's homemade barbecue recipe. That founder is Justin Gill, and he started with $250,000 that he raised from friends and family. That wasn't enough money. So he maxed out his credit cards, he turned his home into a fulfillment center to ship packages, and he took crazy high-interest loans to make the business work.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
He put all that money into Facebook ads to drive early sales of his sauce, but it wasn't enough to repay his loans. So the bank seized his house. It looked like his entrepreneurship was going to be a huge failure for everyone involved. But then, out of nowhere, sales of Bichon's barbecue sauce started rocketing. They jumped 4,000% in 2020 to $1.5 million.
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
And get this, this year, sales of Bichon's will reach $100 million, according to Bloomberg. Today, one out of 20 American households now has this $10 Japanese sauce in the pantry, the same $10 sauce that almost put Justin Gill and his whole family out of business. Jack, to quote Ted Lasso, barbecue sauce. But Jack, let's get back to the business kitchen here. What are we cooking with?
The Best One Yet
👔 “Chrome Collar Jobs” — AI Agent workforce. Bachan’s viral BBQ. Urban Outfitters’ all-time-high.
We're cooking with the secret ingredient that made Bachan go viral. Okay, so it turns out there were actually a few bigger megatrends out of Justin's control, but in a good way, they helped the business. The first was the pandemic. More people were cooking at home, and they wanted to spice up quarantine with a new flavor. Okay, the second reason is that sauce is boss right now.
The Best One Yet
🐸 “Find Your Muppet” — Sesame Street’s Cocomelon threat. Saratoga’s viral facial water. Signal’s user error.
Jack, let's hit our first stories. 15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in a dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50%, that's a fat tip. T-Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, cause we ready to go.
The Best One Yet
🐸 “Find Your Muppet” — Sesame Street’s Cocomelon threat. Saratoga’s viral facial water. Signal’s user error.
We can't wait no more, so just start the show.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
But yet here's what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. There is one shocking exception to everything that Jack and I just said. Shake Shack. Shake Shack. That's the exception. The fast food chain that began the Better Burger movement. By the way, Jack, we should point out that you and I, like, used to celebrate the wins at the original Shake Shack in Madison Square Park.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
That's where we would go. And I know that that's where you had your first date with Molly. It really is. I mean, you feel like the center of the world when you're in that Shake Shack, although you're always fighting for a chair. The Edison light bulbs are a wonderful upgrade. Well, yeah, it is.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
Whether or not you have been to the original Shake Shack, Shake Shack's earnings just dominated in a way no other food chain is doing. Revenues rose by 16%, profits doubled, and they had their highest profit margin in four years. Stick that in your shroom burger. Oh, and the top sellers last quarter, what were they, Jack?
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
Seasonal burgers, like the Carolina barbecue burger with fried pickles, which is on the menu right now. But besties, this was the shocking thing. The Shake Shack CEO said something on the earnings call that made investors drool. He said they're not dropping prices. we repeat not dropping prices. Despite peer pressure from Ronald and Wendy, Shake Shack will not put its burgers on sale.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
The CEO said that pricing is not a way to drive sales. It's the kind of thing that would make Grimace Grimace. No other food chain is doing that. It's a bold and confident thing to say right now. So Shake Shack stock surged by 20% last week. Shake Shack was up 20% like there was caffeine in the custard.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
So Nick and I got to ask, how is Shake Shack attracting more customers when every other burger chain is attracting less customers right now? And on top of that, Shake Shack has the most expensive burgers in the industry. You'd think that they're suffering the worst with people being fed up with high prices. So Jack and I came up with this takeaway. Jack.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
Value doesn't mean cheaper. Value means it's worth it. Interesting thing, Yetis. Shake Shack stock is up 30% this year. Chipotle is up 20% this year. And Sweetgreen is up 140% this year. And yet McDonald's, Wendy's, and Burger King stock are all down this year. Well, the reason we think why is perception. Because value doesn't mean cheaper. Value means worth it.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
A sweet green salad, a Chipotle burrito, and a Shake Shack burger are more expensive, but they're perceived as better value. Chipotle burrito feels like a high-end cuisine, but it's lower priced than a high-end restaurant, so that is value. On the other hand, Wendy's $5 value meal is cheaper, but it's perceived as less value right now.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
Because a Wendy's burger feels low-end, it's compared to a frozen pizza. And it's actually more expensive than a frozen pizza. So it's less value. See, someone thinking about a nice dinner, they consider Shake Shack a better value than the sit-down restaurant. But someone thinking about a cheap dinner considers McDonald's a worse value than a frozen pizza.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
Yeah, Jack. And then one bank analyst ordered 75 burrito bowls in order to test their size. And this was the year that Red Lobster sadly went belly up bank. Yeah, blame the all-you-can-eat shrimp buffet or their private equity owner. On the bright side, Sweetgreen opened up a robo-restaurant. And Sweetgreen's stock tripled. While McDonald's finally started selling their sauces separately.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
Add it all up, yetis, and value and price are just two different things, even though we often conflate the two. And perception overpowers price. Hey, Yetis, if you're a bestie, take a sec and hit that subscribe button. And like this video while you're at it. If you leave a comment, by the way, we'll read it.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
For our third and final story, across the world, stock markets just finished their worst week in years. And the reason investors are freaking out is the Titanic. You know, Yetis, we'll just cut right to it because it ain't pretty. Awkward update for your portfolio. Jack, can you wake up the numbers, please?
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
The NASDAQ stock index fell into correction territory on Friday, which means it's down 10% from its recent high. Jack and I told you last week that investors are worried about the huge investments in AI that they may not pay off. It didn't help that on Friday, one famous hedge fund called AI a bubble, saying it was overhyped.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
But then Jack and I were talking over the weekend and we're like, but wait, markets worldwide plummeted on Friday. So there's got to be something else going on here. Right, Jack? We found three things that help explain the stock market dive of last week, which are unrelated to AI. And here they are. First, Japan's stock market fell 9% on Thursday and Friday.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
It's the biggest two-day drop for Japan since that huge tsunami happened in 2011. What's going on in Japan? Well, their central bank is increasing rates, which will likely slow down their economy. The second thing that happened last week was Intel stock fell 28% on Friday. That's the worst day for Intel in 50 years.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
And the reason for that is that the once iconic chip company, Intel, is cutting 15,000 jobs because their business ain't doing well. But the biggest issue over all yetis was in the United States because recession alarms just went off. The worst recession alarms yet here in the United States.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
Because on Friday, we got the big monthly jobs report that showed a serious jump in America's unemployment rate. So far this year, the unemployment rate has increased from 3.7% back in January to 4.3% today. I know you're you're thinking, Bessie, is a 0.6% increase in the unemployment rate? That doesn't sound like a lot exactly.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
But if you apply it to a whole economy, that means a million additional people are unemployed. Now, you know that we've said that 4.3% unemployment, that is still historically low. But an increase that fast in that little bit of time, that's an increase that doesn't usually stop. That ends up being momentum. And it doesn't stop because our economy is kind of like the Titanic.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
If unemployment's rising fast, you can't just tap the brakes. Like the Titanic, it takes a while to slow down. It's a giant ship, not a go-kart. Just ask Kate and Leo. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in the U.S. economy? The Fed drives this ship, but the ship takes forever to turn.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
Now, yetis, for three years, the Federal Reserve, our central bank, has steered our economy with high interest rates. That has been the direction. The goal was to steer us away from hot inflation, to slow the economy down, to get prices down. And you know what? That worked. Inflation has been slayed, but now our economic ship has turned to a new issue. Unemployment. And it worked.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
Inflation has been slayed. It was great that the Fed turned the ship in that direction. But now our economic ship is headed towards a new issue, unemployment and a potential recession. So now the Fed has to try to avoid that and turn the ship in a new direction by cutting interest rates at their next policy meeting. So here's the underlying problem. our economy is like a huge ship.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
Although McDonald's stock fell. We discovered in this pod this year that Capri Sun invented the juice box. And we discovered that Disney World got a Michelin star. We also invented a new financial food metric. Yeah, we did. ROI, return on ingestment. And we calculated that the avocado, while delicious, is actually the least efficient fruit.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
It takes months or years to turn it into a different direction. It's like trying to boost the economy at the next policy meeting in September. That could just be too late. It would be too long. The new iceberg facing the American economy isn't inflation like the last few years. It's a recession and high unemployment.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
So hopefully the Fed, the captain of our economic ship, can turn this ship on time. Yetis, those are the three best food stories of 2024. But grab another napkin because now we got the best fact yet on food for 2024. Here it is. Nutella was created because of a shortage of chocolate. That's right. Nutella, the legendary hazelnutty Italian spread, also a good skin cream, was invented-
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
because of a shortage. That's true, Jack.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
Post-World War II, the region of Piedmont, Italy, had shortages of just about everything, including cocoa. But the one thing they were not short on was hazelnuts, which are grown locally, and they also had a whole bunch of ingenuity. So they mixed ground hazelnuts into their chocolate to make the little cocoa that they had go further. It's like the first example of shrinkflation.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
They didn't have the cocoa, so they used more of the hazelnuts. I think it's swapflation. It is swapflation. Good point, Jack. And the result... was Nutella. They didn't turn lemons into lemonade. They turned not enough cocoa into Nutella. It's like we always say, necessity is the mother of invention. And Nutella. And skin cream, apparently. And skin cream, trust us.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
But that's a story for another pod. Yetis, you've looked fantastic for our third bonus episode of the holidays. Share this with your buddy who likes to eat or likes to buy food. Or anyone who can get you that reservation you really need this Friday night. Jack and I got another bonus pod for you coming tomorrow. H-Y-H-T-B-O-Y. Have you had the best one yet? If you know, you know.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
Because the avocado has the lowest fruit to pit ratio in produce. You're tossing most of that avocado. Oh, side note, Jack had his very first Dr. Pepper. You still okay? You enjoying it? How you feeling about that? Oh, side note, Nick ate a bunch of strawberries, leaves and all. He just popped the entire thing into his mouth. It was controversial. Berry game. Never forget, berry game.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
And every food business launched a value meal this year. It was hot value summer. So besties, you're about to give a five-star Yelp review with a terribly taken photo from your iPhone of this episode. Because these are the three best food stories of 2024. We're going to need some more napkins. More napkins, please. Excuse me, sir. More napkins.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50%, that's a fat tip. T-Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, cause we ready to go. We can't wait no more, so just start the show.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
First, a quick word from our sponsor.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
Yetis, for our first story, we're going back to January 22nd, 2024. Happens to be my birthday, but also happens to be a great story. Happy birthday, dude. Thank you. I appreciate that, man. Let's jump right into the story. Okay, this one is on our favorite gummy bear. The biggest confectionery company on earth just gave us a rare inside look at the business. Haribo gummies. It's Haribo gummies.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
Or just send it to your hungriest buddy. You know what? Send it to your buddy who can get you a 7 p.m. at Carbone on a Friday night. Send it to that sommelier. That's what you got to do. It'll be a quid pro quo. You send them a great podcast, they send you a great reservation. And they're going to get promoted. Jack, three stories for today's food pod. What do we got?
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
Haribo's success may be from never, ever changing. But yetis, before Jack and I jump into this story, if you're a dentist or a dental hygienist,
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
earmuffs you're gonna hate this story here it is and let's start with a trivia question jack who invented the gummy bear well the answer is mr hans regal from the german city of bonn hans regal from bonn haribo oh my god jack we put it together we solved the case yeti 102 years ago haribo named after hans regal from bonn literally invented the gummy bear
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
And today they sell a thousand different varieties of gummy bear across 120 countries. And now this is a private, not a public company, but according to Bloomberg Research, Haribo is the biggest confectionary brand on earth. Hershey's and Mars makes more candy in the United States, but nobody sells more candy in the world than Haribo. Yeti's Haribo is the sultan of sugar.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
It is the chancellor of chew. Jack, can we say it's the king of the cavity? Haribo brags that their annual production of gummy bears could wrap the world 10 times. Yeah, it's the king of the cavity. And 102 years after birthing the very first gummy bear, Haribo is still owned and run by that same family, the Regals. But yet, here's what Jack and I found fascinating about this story.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
Haribo is the only company we have ever covered on this podcast that has said this. We will never change. We will never change. Literally, the COO of Haribo told Bloomberg last week that the company's German principles come down to this. We don't like to change. If it ain't broke after 102 years, over at Haribo, they don't fix it.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
For example, in the last century, they've only made one major change to their core product, the gummy bear. They changed its pose. Yeah, for the first 40 years, the Haribo classic gummy bear was like a dancing bear. It had its legs out. It was dancing. It was having fun. Now it's a chubby bear. It's not dancing anymore.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
They basically just made the bear's tummy bigger and they made its legs not dancing. Only change they've made in a century. Another example, their latest factory is the one they built in the United States, in Wisconsin. But that factory has the same exact layout as all 15 other Haribo factories across the world. Now, Haribo does add new gummy flavors to cater to local tastes.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
Because every country has a different taste for their gummy indulgence. Sweden likes licorice, Spain likes peach-flavored gummies, and the U.S. likes sour gummies. Otherwise, Haribo does not do change. Will you make us a gummy vodka, Haribo? Nein, danke. CBD gummies? Nicht, nicht. An AI chatbot gummy? Gesundheit! Yeah! It's not happening.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
Our first story is from January 22nd. My birthday. We got an inside look at one of the world's oldest businesses, Haribo Gummy Bears. Haribo, they became the biggest candy company on earth by staying the same. For our second story, we're going back to May 6th. That's when the new hot IPO of the year was Bubble Tea. Bubble Tea. Boba Tea Chains were IPOing for billions.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who will never change over at Haribo? When you chase fads, you run out of gas. Yetis, Jack and I have told you on this show how hard but how critical it is to innovate, to adapt, to evolve, to change. Netflix is Netflix because they disrupted themselves. They pivoted from DVDs to streaming.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
But Blockbuster went bankrupt because they didn't evolve to streaming. They did not change. So when Haribo says they don't change, what they really mean is they don't change who they are. Haribo doesn't chase fads. They don't change just because the outside world is telling them to change. For example, they didn't change their company resources to partner with the Barbie movie.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
They stayed focused on global expansion instead. Haribo, they don't alter products for trends, for publicity, or for short-term viral hits. They stay focused on doing their thing. That's why Harbo still has the energy to sell more gummies than ever after 102 years. Because besties, when you only chase fads, you're running. Yetis, for our second story, we're going back to May 6th, 2024.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
Happens to be Molly's birthday too, but also a great story. But shortly after the publication of this episode, I actually tried my first bubble tea with you. Oh yeah, it was fantastic. Those little rubbery tapioca balls are delicious.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
They're highly satisfying, especially when you suck them through the tube. It's like... They are satisfying. I feel like a vacuum sucking up tennis balls. And it is fascinating to learn about the whole bubble tea industry. For our second story, bubble tea isn't just taking over your block. Bubble tea is pouring all over Wall Street right now.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
Boba tea brands are IPOing, but now Starbucks is joining that bubble. Jack, are we saying it's a Boba tea bubble? Yes, we are. And I don't even know what a Boba tea is. Oh, and then we got to start this story like this. Educate me, Nick. Educate me. If I go on Google Maps right now in San Francisco and search for boba tea, you know what I see, Jack? A lot of boba teas?
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
That is boba saturation. Yeah. Bubble tea, aka boba, is a tea with some bubbly balls. That's what it is. You've seen it before you've tasted it. And it's the fastest growing refreshment in the United States right now. Get this. In the last five years, there's been a 60% surge in the number of boba shops bubbling up across American cities.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
Kung Fu Tea is the name of the largest boba chain here in the United States. They're making $250 million a year in revenue. Now, like me, Yetis, you might have seen one of these. It looks like a glass of milk with a bunch of marbles at the bottom of the glass. It's like drinking a juice with tadpoles. Tadpoles that are trying to jump up and surprise you through the straw.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
I'm very intimidated by what those balls are. Nick, are they squishy? Do they pop when you bite them? Jack, when I dive in T-boy style to my mango jasmine boba tea with extra bubbles, by the way, always get the extra bubbles. What are those balls, dude? The balls are tapioca balls, my friend. And what is tapioca? Tapioca is a rice-like starch from the cassava plant.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
This is Nick. This is Jack. And today's food pod is the best one yet. The top three food stories you need to know today. Now, besties, this is episode number three of our holiday bonus week. It's the best of food. Our best stories of the year on food, beverages, and restaurants. And Nutella. Send this episode to your buddy who works as a chef or in a kitchen.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
And yes, it is filled with carbs, but delicious carbs. So when you chew it, is there a liquid inside the balls? Or is it just like a solid ball? No, it just kind of hits your throat. It makes you a little uncomfortable. But Yeti's boba was invented back in 1980 on the island of Taiwan. And it took off from there.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
And since it took off so much, tapioca for the boba balls is now Taiwan's number one food export. Yeti's boba tea has become so popular that boba has its own emoji. That's when you know you've made it. And boba tea has gotten so popular that Starbucks is adding bubble tea to its summer drink menu. Starting today, you can order a boba tea at Starbucks.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
And in fact, and I'm running out of octaves here, Jack. Boba tea has gotten so, so popular that six Chinese boba tea companies are going public. I'll repeat it so that Nick doesn't have to because he might injure himself. I'm going to take a breath and drink some tea. Six different boba teas have IPO'd on the stock market this year. Boba tea brands, they're going public right now.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
But bubble tea may actually be facing a bubble tea bubble. And our third and final story is from August 5th. While all the other food chains were struggling, one was rising. Yes. Shake Shack. Shake Shack. The $10 Shack Burger is proof that perception overpowers prices. But Yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Fantastic mix of stories, Jack.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
Don't pop your champagne, pop some pearls. Boba tea is pouring onto Wall Street and investors are just discovering what the heck this is. All right, Jack, let's jump in tea boy style. Last quarter, two of the biggest Boba brands on earth IPO'd. One's named Miksu and one is named Gu Ming, both in China. Both of those companies are worth over a billion dollars based on their stock price.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
Could you pour on some context for us over there, please? There are nearly as many Mixu stores just in China as there are McDonald's and Starbucks stores globally. So Jack, I got to ask, how did all these Boba Tea IPOs do over the last few months? They've done Boba brutal. They're down big. Yetis, the new boba stocks, they have plummeted and it has not been delicious out there. One fell by 40%.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
Another is down 88%. This is a tapioca travesty. So Jack, we got to ask, you got to ask, everyone who's in line for boba tea over here has got to ask, what is going down in that thick straw? I don't know because I still haven't tried one. But I know the business behind it now. I got to get you some mango jasmine. So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies sipping on boba tea?
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
Boba is the perfect example of a bubble. This is a bubble tea bubble. But yet, Jack and I should make something clear. There is huge demand for boba. There has been for years. And this is not a fad. Boba is not going away. So the problem for boba isn't lack of demand. The problem over in Asia, where the majority of boba sales are, is too much supply. It's not demand, it's supply.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
Because usually we see bubbles in the stock market. The price of a stock outgrows the underlying value. That's a bubble. But this is an economic bubble. The number of physical boba shops simply outgrew the underlying demand for boba tea. Here's the cycle that happened. First, to chase demand, there was a surge in new boba stores that just got out of control. 36,000 mixu stores?
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
That is so many stores. And it's just in China. And then there was so much competition among those boba stores that the prices started One chain sells everything on the menu for $1. Just $1. And the result of too many boba chains selling drinks for way too cheap? What was it, man? The result was a price war and none of the Chinese boba chains are profitable right now.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
That cycle is why we're seeing so much thirst for boba, but none for boba stocks. It doesn't matter how much you love boba. We're in a bubble tea bubble. And I promise I'll try my first one soon. Now, a quick word from our sponsor.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
For our third story, we're jumping back to August 5th, 2024. Okay. The first story was Nick's birthday. The second story was Molly's birthday. The third story is where Nick and Molly had their first date. It was honestly a total, total coincidence. I think it's conspiracy. It's a total coincidence. This one's on Shake Shack. Are you trying to replace me with Molly this episode?
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
When 2024 was beginning, Starbucks was launching their first olive oil coffee. But as 2024 ends, Starbucks is canceling their olive oil coffee. Olietta. Olietta. That pretty much sums up the year, doesn't it? It does, because 2024 saw more wild food stories in business to make Gordon Ramsay bite a pan. First, remember Chipotle was accused of shrinkage with their burrito balls on TikTok?
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
Also a Shake Shack shareholder. I should point that out, Jack. Okay, definitely conspiracy. Besties are going to love this one. Let's jump into the Shake Shack story. For our second story, the surprise top stock of last week, get this, it's Shake Shack. Shake Shack shows that value doesn't mean low price. Value means it's worth it. Jack, I feel like we got to check ourselves on this.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
We've been calling this hot deal summer. And we've been saying that this summer had big deal energy, haven't we, Dan? Why are we saying that? Because in the last two months, every fast food chain has launched the same value meal. Wendy's, Burger King, McDonald's, all of them specifically launched $5 value meals, $5 each. McDonald's ordered a burger, fries, and a soda for $5. Yeah.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
Wendy's and Burger King were like, me too. Yeah. Even Kenan and Kel over at Good Burger launched a $5 value. I love a Good Burger reference. Home of the Good Burger. Can I take your order? Everything's 20% off. So why is every fast food chain launching a value meal this summer? Well, Americans have turned against fast food because of the higher prices.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤤 “The Food Pod” — Our Best Food stories from 2024
The burgers, that doesn't feel like your classic quarter pounder these days, does it, Jack? No, it feels like a quarter of my paycheck. So despite all the value meals, McDonald's just announced last week their first quarterly sales shrinkage since 2020. We repeat, McDonald's sales are down. You're not buying a Big Mac unless it's on the sale rack. Fast food is looking like TJ Maxx right now.
The Best One Yet
💪 “Peak Protein” — Kardashians’ protein popcorn. Trump’s empty-shelf warning. Trailer Parks’ Millennial moment.
I'll roll with it. I love it.
The Best One Yet
💪 “Peak Protein” — Kardashians’ protein popcorn. Trump’s empty-shelf warning. Trailer Parks’ Millennial moment.
Like, if I'm watching the dancing and I'm noticing the feet aren't touching the ground, there's something wrong with the movie.
The Best One Yet
🥯 “Shmear Me” — PopUp Bagel’s boom. Zuck’s Smart Oakleys. Stargate’s $500B Hollywood name.
15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in a dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50%, that's a fat tip. T-Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, cause we ready to go. We can't wait no more, so just start the show.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
This is Nick. This is Jack. It is Thursday, the new Friday, May 22nd. And today's pod is the best one yet, and this is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Yetis, I'm flying to France tonight, and Jack is somehow squeezing one more day of skiing in in New England. How is that possible? It's gonna snow this weekend, which is absurd.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
Unlike a pure electric car, with a hybrid, you don't even need to switch your fueling situation. Like, you still just charge up at gas stations. A hybrid simply extends your range from 31 miles per gallon to 38 miles per gallon. And with the RAV4, the hybrid actually has more horsepower than the regular.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
The only catch we should point out here is that when it comes to hybrids, you get a higher price. The RAV4 hybrid is two or three grand more than the regular. because that battery is expensive. They got some junk in the trunk, and the junk is a battery. Also, most RAV4s in America are imported from Canada or Japan, so they're going to have a 25% tariff to deal with now, too.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
But still, the RAV4 is starting a revolution with itself. The top-selling car in the U.S. is going full hybrid. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Toyota? Toyota is the tortoise, and it's winning the electric race. Yet is in 2021, Volvo said all cars would be electric or hybrid by 2025. And that same year, General Motors said it would sell a million electric cars by 2025.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
But last year, Volvo extended that deadline by 10 years and GM just said they're not even close to a million electric cars a year. And it's not just GM or Volvo, Jack. Like every car company made some really splashy announcements that they just couldn't deliver on. It created like a full year's worth of content on our podcast.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
With just wildly bold and ambitious electrification plans from car companies. Except for Toyota. Toyota did not make those announcements. Instead, they just made hybrids. They bet that hybrids were the electric training wheels that Americans wanted, and Toyota was right.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
Today, eight of Toyota's cars are only available as hybrids, and they've sold a million hybrids in the United States just last year. Toyota is the tortoise, and it's beating the electric hares in the car race. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us for the new Friday? After chronicling previous drinks of the summer, Nick and I looked at different trends. And you heard it from us.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
The trade war summer will be a margarita moment. For our second story, Google has partnered with Warby Parker to develop smart glasses with screen lenses. It's love is blind for smart glasses right now. Google, Meta, Apple, and OpenAI, it is the great race to replace the iPhone. And our third and final story is the Toyota RAV4.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
It's the number one selling car in America, and now it's going hybrid only. Toyota is the tortoise, but it's winning the electric race. But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, Bitcoin is officially trading at an all-time high. It is hot crypto summer, baby. Ben, the Bitcoin hit $109,000 yesterday for the first time ever.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
We repeat, car washes are 49% more filled starting this time tomorrow than on any typical day. And the reason? It's that this is the weekend for road trips. You're hitting the road, baby. And if you're going to sit in the Hamptons traffic for five hours, you better look sharp doing it. This Bronco hasn't moved, but baby, do I look good in it, Jack?
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
Could be because US debt got downgraded, or it could be because the dollar value dropped, or it could be... Like always with Crypto, no reason at all. And second, Canada Goose just had its best day in years. Stock in the fancy jacket brand soared 25% yesterday. Because of climate change, they're making fewer snow jackets, pivoting a little bit more to rain jackets.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
Canada Goose's new goal is to be a year-round relevant brand, not just for the winners. After all, geese fly south in the summer. Yes, like we could be seeing some Canada Goose tank tops and bikinis in summer 2026, Jack. And finally, NFL owners voted not to ban the Tush Push. Jack, can you please enlighten us on the push of the Tush? What is the Tush Push?
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
The tush bush is a special play pioneered by the Philadelphia Eagles. Yes, yes, yes. It's when the quarterback takes the ball from the center, does a QB sneak. But instead of being on their own, the running back pushes the quarterback from behind, trying to nudge him across the goal line. Many thought it should be illegal, but it will now stay legal in Philly. They call it the brotherly shove.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Big Ted Kramer from Port Washington, Long Island. This one's for my dad because when I was a kid, he took me twice to the Indy 500. We drove all the way from Vermont to Indianapolis. And they're fast, right? Like those cars for the Indy 500 go faster than the F1 racers. Indy cars are faster than F1. They have a top speed of 240 miles per hour.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
No cars go faster than that. And one reason they can go so fast is because the oval they race around is so huge. You don't have to make that many turns. But yeah, Nick, the track is two and a half miles. You can fit so much inside of that. Why don't you sprinkle on some context, Jack? You can fit the Vatican City, the Rose Bowl, Yankee Stadium, the White House, and Liberty Island.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
Yes, including the Statue of Liberty. All of it can fit inside the racetrack at Indianapolis, and you still have room to spare. I think what you mean to say, Jack, is combined. Yetis, you look fantastic today. Jack and I are actually whipping up a couple surprise episodes for you this weekend, aren't we, Jack?
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
Yeah, Nick's going to be in France, but we're going to be right here in your ears because we have a special episode tomorrow and another special episode on Monday. That's right. While you're stuck in traffic, we will keep you entertained with a couple of fantastic shows. Jack, enjoy the skiing. I don't know how you're going to do it, but I like that you're going to try.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
I prefer to be swimming, and I probably will swim regardless of how cold it is. Besties, wash that car, and Jack and I will see you right here tomorrow. And before we go, a shout out to the legendary Yetis, Corporate Natalie and Corporate Bro Ross, who hosted us on The Demoted Show. And we just had a blast. What an amazing episode with those guys.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
So if I know you like I think I do, you're going to get the signature elite wash tomorrow with undercarriage glaze and the full wax job. You do know me because this has been the little known secret for years in the car wash industry. Tomorrow is their Super Bowl.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
A couple of the cleverest, wittiest people in business. You gotta listen to their show, Demoted. You're gonna love it. We just did an episode with them this week. Congratulations to Nil Nil, who just had a baby, Maya Rose, in Cupertino, California. And a shout out to Yetter Tyler Rice on his first book launch in Minneapolis for Tactical Disconnection. Tyler, congrats on being an author.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
And a big shout out to Joe Benz from Chicago, newly divorced, but based on the fact that he's requesting a shout out for his divorce, we're guessing this is something to celebrate. Joe, enjoy the divorce cake. You're single and ready to mingle, baby. Joe, the best days are ahead of you. And John Hill just set a personal record for a half marathon in Cleveland.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
Listen in to the Google Maps episode of the best idea yet during the race. Great to be with you for it, John. And a big shout out to Lieutenant Colonel Hightower. In Alderaan, the battalion is so sad to see you go. Your leadership. We'll be missed. Thank you for your service. And Akansha just got into B-School over in Seattle, Washington. Congrats, Akansha. You'll have a blast.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
And finally, happy birthday to Jake Sparkman in Dallas, Texas, who is a goalie in lacrosse, which is one of the most brave positions in all of sports. Yeah. This guy is going to win a award. Enjoy the final four this weekend, Jake. They give you a cup, right? I think they give you two cups if you're a goalie. This is Jack.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
I own stock in Ford, and Nick and I both own stock of Apple, as well as a Bitcoin. A Bitcoin named Ben. If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
So, yetis, if your Lincoln is getting loofahed, if your Beamer is getting bedazzled, if your Kia is getting cleansed, then you're part of the Memorial Day weekend car wash rush. Hey, exhibit, you missed a spot, man. Nick, I love the places that do the hand toweling, the hand drying at the end. That's a tip-worthy service that you're paying for right there.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
Jack, that's a Michelin star car wash right there.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
For our first story, it's a T-boy tradition before Memorial Day. What will be the drink of the summer? So we analyzed the data, we tasted the trends, and we got you the one answer. But Jack, let's start by sprinkling on some context. From Cabo to Lady Bird Lake to Block Island, what were we all drinking a decade ago? 2015 was peak rosé. Yeah, it was peak rosé.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
I'm not planning to ski, but who knows? Maybe I'll stand on skis. As they say in France, Jack. Not possible. But three stories for today's show. Jack, what do we got on the pod? For our first story, just in time for Memorial Day weekend, we're predicting the drink of the summer. We use three trend spotting techniques to forecast the drink everyone's going to be drinking starting tomorrow.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
Your mother-in-law and my mother-in-law both caused a shortage of Whispering Angel, I'm pretty sure, Jack. White girl wasted, for real. Really, that's what you're cracking open? 2018, we had the rise of spiked seltzer. White Claw became a unicorn thanks to the day party at SIGAP. Okay, two years later, we entered the ready-to-drink cocktail era.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
It started with the first ever canned Jack and Cokes, and then High Noon came along. And then came low-alcohol beers, and then came no-alcohol beers. 2023 was the summer of Aperol Spritz. A record 9 million cases of Aperol were consumed that summer. And last summer, we predicted that Beatbox... would be the drink of the summer. That's right. We predicted Beatbox. Beatbox, the boxed punch wine.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
And how'd we do, Jack? Pretty good. The Wall Street Journal covered Beatbox at the end of the year. Sales rose 75%, hitting $175 million. Beatbox, strategically moved from the beach to Bonnaroo. They sold out at basically every single music fest. Smart distribution move. Now for 2025, it's prediction time. And we take prediction seriously. Yeah, we do, we do, we do.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
We do because trend forecasting has some tactics and the one we prefer is trend spotting. First, what's the most viral trend on social? Well, Jack, the most viral drink trend on TikTok right now is jalapeno wine. Instead of ice cubes, people are pouring Sauv Blanc on sliced peppers. Yeah, the New York Times actually profiled this last week.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
Bartenders are horrified when influencers come in and order jalapeno wine. Apparently, the spiciness is a contrast to the tannins, but we have not jumped into this one T-boy style. All right, so that's what's happening on social. We also look at the sales numbers. The fastest growing alcohol brand in America right now is Surfside, which does canned cocktail. That's right.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
Surfside serves a vodka iced tea, and they actually just signed a deal with Major League Baseball. Sales rose 360% already last year for Surfside, selling drunken Arnold Palmers. That's another trend variable we got to take into account. But finally, Jack and I want to analyze, well, we actually, we looked at our guts. Let's go with our guts.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
We think there's an opportunity in functional soda combining with functional alcohol. That's right. What we're saying is replace your Jack and Coke with a Jack and Poppy. Exactly. Basically, instead of a prebiotic soda, why don't you go with a prebiotic cocktail? Get wasted on something that's good for your gut.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
I'm pretty sure it cancels out, but I'm not a mathematician, nor am I a nutritionist, Jack. So there you go. We looked at what's viral on social media, what the startup sales data says, and also our own analysis on consumer trends. Which leads us to our prediction. Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies looking for the drink of the 2025 summer? Trade war summer will drive a margarita moment.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
Yetis, let's take a macro perspective here. In moments of instability, consumers crave comfort. Remember during the pandemic? Yeah. Breakfast cereals boomed like they hadn't in decades because we all wanted comfort food. Well, during this trade war economy uncertainty, we expect a similar return to a familiar beverage. And it'll be the margarita. Why? We already have data proving it's happening.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
That's right. According to new DoorDash data, tequila is still the fastest growing spirit in America. And in the past month, DoorDash has seen an increase in all the ingredients for margaritas. This is wild. Lime sales up 80%. Jalapeno orders up 90%. Agave syrup up 100%. Jack, the seasoning. The spicy salt you put on the rim. Yeah, the rim stuff up 125%. And since the beginning of the trade war-
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
For our second story, Warby Parker and Google just hooked up to create AI glasses. Okay, but Jack, OpenAI and the guy who designed the iPhone are also hooking up to create AI glasses. It's like love is blind for smart glasses. Yeah, it is, and we'll explain it all. And our third and final story.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
Earnings are showing that Americans are stocking up on Jose Cuervo. Now, maybe people are trying to get ahead of Mexico tariffs. Maybe they're just craving a comfort cocktail. But given the trade war economy that we're going to have this summer, we're predicting a margarita moment. For our second story, it's a doozy. First, Google is investing in Warby Parker for Google Glass 2.0.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
Second, OpenAI is acquiring the original designer of the iPhone for $6 billion. Third, this was the biggest week ever for smart glasses. Wow. Yes. But first, Jack, you know when you go to a party and then there's like an after party that's more fun than the first party? Yeah. Okay, that was like what happened yesterday.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
Google stock jumped 4%, gained $80 billion in value after hosting the biggest party of the year. The Google I.O. Conference in Mountain View, California had a wild number of announcements from Alphabet. Okay, first, the big news. Google is finally disrupting itself. Two and a half years after ChatGPT launched, Google is finally replacing Google Search with an AI chatbot.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
So, Bessie, starting like today, here's what you could see when you go to Google something. They're starting to roll it out right now. When you're Googling, there's always been a tab to do Google Images, Google News, Google Videos. But now you'll see a new tab called AI Mode, which will answer your query questions like a chatbot. If you search for something in AI Mode,
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
Instead of a list of links as the result, you'll just get an answer to your question. Okay, another big update going viral. Google announced real-time translation. In Google Meets, if you're speaking in English but the other person only speaks Spanish, it will live translate what you're saying with just a couple of seconds of lag.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
I mean, Jack, when I'm in France tomorrow, I could literally be saying, like, I want the bread. And we'll be saying, je voudrais le pain. And I'll be like, I don't know where that came from, but let's go with it. It's all done by AI. And apparently, it mimics your tone and your voice. But besties, pause the pod. Because the biggest announcement wasn't what Google knows. It's what's on your nose.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
Really nicely done. Here it is. Google is relaunching Google Glass. Yeah, this is Google's big bet on the future. And what was the surprise about the announcement, Jack? They're not doing it alone. They're doing it with Warby Parker. Warby Parker, the direct-to-consumer glasses company, is getting a $150 million investment from Google.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
It was the biggest day ever for Warby Parker stock, which jumped 20% on the news. Yeah, we're talking about a glasses brand that feels like a library. It actually could become the smart device of the future. Now, the context of this story... is Meta Ray-Ban glasses. That's been a stealthy hit for Mark Zuckerberg. Yeah, good point, Jack.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
There's a new best-selling car in America, and you're definitely going to see it on the roads this weekend. Jack and I will explain the RAV4 revolution because the RAV4 is going full hybrid, baby. But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. What a mix of stories. Love the mix today, Jack.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
Zuck said that sales of their smart glasses have tripled in the last year, and we've predicted it's going to be the Christmas gift of 2025. But Google's version of smart glasses appears more advanced than Meta's because the lens doubles as a screen. Yeah, Jack, why don't you walk us through the demonstration we saw on stage over at Google?
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
In Google's demo, the user asked Google's AI assistant, which is in the glasses... for directions to like the local Starbucks. Okay, and then what happened, Jack? Google Maps turn-by-turn directions was overlaid on the lens of the glasses so that the person could see the streets and see the corners, but also know exactly where they're going.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
This is a major differentiator that the lens for Google and Warby Parker is also a screen for the smart glasses. It means you don't need your phone. You can just ask your glasses to show you your text messages, show you your emails, and dictate the responses to them. Honestly, Zuck's Meta Ray-Bans can't do that yet. They have an AI assistant, but it's only audio. It's not visual.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
Now, what Meta does have is a product that's actually in the market already. Right, right. Google didn't give us a release date or say how much these Google glasses with Warby Parker will cost. Yeah, remember, if they don't tell you the price, it means it's going to be expensive. Exactly. But these warby Google Glasses do solve the key reason why Google Glass originally failed 10 years ago.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
People hated Google Glasses. Yeah. First, because of the privacy invasion. Also, because they were ugly. This solves the ugly rule. Like, you're not going to look ugly in a pair of warbies. But one more thing. Breaking news yesterday. Yeah. OpenAI has acquired the design company of Johnny Ive for $6 billion. Yeah. This is the biggest aqua hire in the history of Silicon Valley, baby.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
Johnny Ive is quite a hire, though, because he was famously one of the guys who designed the iPhone and the MacBook Pro and the iPod. But now he's going to be building hardware gadgets for OpenAI and Sam Altman. OpenAI's tech hardware gadget will be unveiled next year. It might be a phone. It might be a watch. it might be smart glasses. Or it could be a bracelet. That's our sleeper pick.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
But Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are everyone watching this insane week for smart glasses? Google, Meta, Apple, and OpenAI. It's the great race to replace the iPhone. Yeti's Iron Man has Jarvis. Someday, you, man, will have something similar. That's right. After 20 years of Android and iPhone dominating, phones are going to be replaced by smart glasses.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
Memorial Day isn't just a celebration of veterans or a three-day weekend or the artificial start of summer. No, no, no, no, no. Memorial Day is also the biggest economic moment. For one industry. The car wash. The car wash. Get this. The Friday of Memorial Day is the biggest day of the year for washing cars.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
And the computing device of the future to replace the smartphone, it has four key players right now. Meta has partnered with Ray-Ban, Google has partnered with Warby Parker, and Apple is still doing it solo at this point. Apparently, Tim Cook is reportedly obsessed with launching smart glasses. It's like the only thing he talks about at Apple.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
And the fourth player is OpenAI and the original iPhone designer, Johnny Ive. So besties, these glasses, they will all have an AI assistant built in to give you full access to the internet, all voice activated. Iron Man has Jarvis. Hugh Man will have something similar. Add it all up and we just started the great race to replace the iPhone. And the winner gets the future.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
Now, a quick word from our sponsor.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
Every big moment starts with a big dream. But what happens when that big dream turns out to be a big flop? From Wondery and At Will Media, I'm Misha Brown, and this is The Big Flop. Every week, comedians join me to chronicle the biggest flubs, fails, and blunders of all time, like Quibi. It's kind of like when you give yourself your own nickname and you try to, like, get other people to do it.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
and the 2019 movie adaptation of Cats. Like, if I'm watching the dancing and I'm noticing the feet aren't touching the ground, there's something wrong with the movie. Find out what happens when massive hype turns into major fiasco. Enjoy The Big Flop on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Big Flop early and ad-free on Wondery+.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
Get started with your free trial at wondery.com slash plus.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
Yetis, for our third and final story, the top-selling car in America is now, shockingly, the Toyota RAV4. But even though the RAV4 is officially on top, Toyota is making the biggest change to it ever. It's a RAV4 revolution. But Jack, let's talk about our buddies over at Toyota because we've been keeping track and Toyota holds a whole bunch of superlatives.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
They're the biggest and most profitable carmaker in the world. Related, they're believed to be the most reliable car company in the world. Yeah, your buddy's 2012 Tacoma still has 212,000 miles on it. And your buddy is never going to sell that Tacoma. Jack, my grandma drove a Camry in three different decades. Really? I hope that was safe of her to do, but she did it.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
Plus, the car brand starts with the word toy. which got a nice cameo in Toy Story 1. And Jack, let's add one more superlative. Toyota now produces the top-selling car in America. Now, Ford has bragged for years that the F-Series pickup truck is the top-selling car in America. For 45 years, Ford's been saying that.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
But we dove into the numbers T-Boy style, and the Ford F-Series includes three different models. Now, Toyota says that their RAV4, which is one model, sold 475,000 cars last year, which is more than the F-150. The Toyota RAV4. Basically the Subaru for your dink era. It's actually become a pretty big SUV. I know, I know. It's like the MVP of the REI parking lot, Jack. The RAV4.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
Tomorrow, more Americans will spend more money washing cars than any other day of the year. That carburetor is getting cleaned up. Your chassis is going to look classy, Nick. Hey, exhibit, don't pimp my ride. Just wash the wheels. It's all I need, man. According to the small business startup Womply, car wash sales jumped 49% on Friday before Memorial Day.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
It fits a surfboard, it fits a camping backpack, and three boxes of cliff bars that you tossed in the trunk. But besties, here's the news. Just as the RAV4 got on top, Toyota is giving it its biggest change yet. Toyota just announced the RAV4 is going hybrid only starting right now. This is wild, but the 2026 model, which arrives in dealerships like this year, has a hybrid engine only standard.
The Best One Yet
🍹 “The Drink of the Summer” — 2025’s beach booze. Warby’s Google glasses vs. OpenAI-phone. Toyota’s Rav4 Revolution.
That's what you get. If you want a purely gas powered RAV4, you can't buy that. Sorry. The only option to upgrade is the plug-in hybrid. We repeat, America's top selling car is switching to hybrid only. Half electric, half gas, the biggest change to something in number one place we've ever seen. Now, from our perspective, hybrid is a no brainer.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Diet Bros” – Diet Coke’s political rebrand. Tennis’ collusion case. BYD’s 5-minute EV.
15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in a dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm. Jack Nicholson.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Diet Bros” – Diet Coke’s political rebrand. Tennis’ collusion case. BYD’s 5-minute EV.
that's it i don't even think they need to practice 50 that's a fat tip t-boy city on your at list if you know you know because we ready to go we can't wait no more so just start the show start the show first a quick word from our sponsor
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Diet Bros” – Diet Coke’s political rebrand. Tennis’ collusion case. BYD’s 5-minute EV.
We should.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Diet Bros” – Diet Coke’s political rebrand. Tennis’ collusion case. BYD’s 5-minute EV.
They do.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Thursday, the new Friday, December 19th. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-Boy. Here's the top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Oh, well, this isn't a top thing.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
They also applied this to the off-field game financials. Databricks analyzes the weather, the hunger level of the fans, and the spending data based to optimize $1 hot dog night. That's right. For $1 hot dog night, they determined that because it was going to be cloudy and this many people would show up when the weather's like this, that's how many hot dogs they should actually order.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
Databricks also says stuff like this. They'll predict that in six days, there's going to be a rain delay because of the weather. So the pitcher won't have five days rest. They'll have six days rest.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
What's the deal with all these birds? Let's blame the avian bird flu. I think it's the avian bird flu. Overall, buying all the things included in the song, The 12 Days of Christmas, will cost you $49,000 this year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
Now, Yetis, this is correlation, not causation, but the same year they signed up with Databricks, the Texas Rangers won the World Series. We're not saying it. The CEO said it. He said they played a small part in the Rangers championship. Stay humble. Stay humble. Now, Databricks is the world's number two most valuable private AI company, and we've got a big takeaway.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in artificial intelligence? AI is like electricity. Yetis, AI, it can be hard to wrap your head around.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
But we think AI will be part of every business, every person, and every home someday. And honestly, the best analogy we've heard so far, it's Google's former CEO, Eric Schmidt, who said that AI is like electricity. Electricity was an innovation that is now part of every industry, whether that industry is digital or physical.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
I mean, Jack, like a product can't arrive to you without electricity being involved in some part of the process. Another example, the internet. It touches every product and every service somewhere along the line.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
And an early proof point, AI played a role in the Texas Rangers winning the World Series. So, Yadis, if you're trying to understand who will use AI, it's everyone and everything. AI is like electricity. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for the new Friday? Americans are tipping 15% less this year than last year, but holiday tipping is an exception.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
Holiday tipping, paying cash, putting in a card, and say thanks to the people who took care of you. For our second story, it's Honda and Nissan. They're reportedly in talks to merge, and together, they'd be the third biggest carmaker in the world. Why are they merging? Well, the world's biggest car buyer has stopped buying Western cars. And our third and final story is Databricks.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
They just raised $10 billion in the biggest fundraise ever because venture capital wants in early on the AI boom. AI is like electricity. Someday, it's going to touch every part of business. But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, yesterday, the Fed cut interest rates across the whole economy by 0.25%, courtesy of Jerry Powell.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
But the central bank forecast just two more rate cuts next year instead of four rate cuts, which Wall Street wanted. And why are they doing that, Jack? Why fewer rate cuts? The Fed didn't say why, but it's probably uncertainty about Trump's economic policies. tariffs and deportations that could reignite inflation. So the Fed is showing caution before they lower rates further.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
And it resulted in one of the worst days on Wall Street in the whole year. And second, in one of the best days of the whole year, Taco Bell just made a poultry pivot. They're adding nuggets to the Taco Bell menu. Fun fact, the founder of Taco Bell was actually a buddy with the McDonald's founders. Oh, it's a great story. We've been studying it.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
This is us right here. We got your back. So we just created a dupe list of the 12 days of Christmas. It's our first ever annual 12 dupes of Christmas. What do we got, Jack? On the 12th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me... 12 Timu towels. 11 Red Lobster shrimp deals. 10 Waymo's wandering. 9 McRibs reviving. 8 Techies trumping. 7 Layoffs looming. 6 Nikes tripping. 4... Five Goldman fees.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
And now 60 years later, they're adding nuggets just like McDonald's. Nuggets marinated in a jalapeno buttermilk flavor and coated in a mixture of breadcrumbs, tortilla chips, and calories. That sounds kind of amazing. Actually, right now, one quarter of Taco Bell dishes sold involve chicken. Is that so? Such is so, Jack. And finally, the Supreme Court has accepted TikTok's appeal.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
The Supreme Court will decide whether TikTok gets banned. On January 10th, the nine esteemed judges of the Supreme Court will start dancing on TikTok. I mean, they will hear TikTok's plea to not be banned. They're going to decide whether the law that Congress passed is lawful or not. So the fate of TikTok is in the hands of nine people who are too old to know what demure is.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
Now time for the best fact yet, and this one is the wildest one we've ever done. Because yesterday, we noticed that ChatGPT got a phone number, 1-800-CHATGPT. It basically takes the chatbot and takes it from a computer screen to a phone. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to be the first ever podcast to call in to 1-800-CHATGPT and talk to the chatbot. You ready, Jack? Go ahead.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
Okay, here we go, here we go, here we go.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
Hey, ChatGPT. It's Nick and Jack. How are you doing over there?
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
You know, we were just talking about holiday tipping on our podcast. Do you have any good rules or suggestions for tipping over the holidays?
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
Interesting. So ChatGPT doesn't like cash tips, Nick. Oh, apparently you don't like cash tips, ChatGPT.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
It'd be a federal crime. No, chat GPT, that's so helpful. You know, you should listen to our podcast tomorrow. It's called The Best One Yet. We're going to talk about this topic.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
We won't hold it against you, ChatGPT. All right, all right. Tips included. Tips included. I guess they took that chat bot and put it on a phone line. Yetis, you look fantastic over there. Jack, you're looking fantastic in those 12 days of dupe Christmas too. The 12 dupes of Christmas. Are we going to get those Timu towels? Five Goldman fees was my favorite part. Never gets old.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
Yetis, tomorrow is actually our last regular pod before the holidays, but Jack and I have been busy. We've been whipping up six bonus episodes for you to keep you company over the holidays. They're going to be wonderful. By the way, I'm going to the Bahamas on Christmas Day. Very nice. And Nick's traveling to Hawaii on Christmas Day. I am traveling to Hawaii. Both spending $12.25 in the airport.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
Oh, we got to catch up on Hamilton, by the way. And I got your gift coming in the mail. Can't wait to see it. In the meantime, Yetis, tell your buddies today. H-Y-H-T-B-O-Y. That's how we grow the show. Have you had the best one yet? Nick and I will see you tomorrow. If you know, you know. This is Jack. I own stock of Ford. Nick owns stock in Nike.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
And we both own stock of Apple and ETFs of the S&P 500.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
Four AI chatbots. Three dollar lipstick. Two O's at big doses. And one cute top bot on Shein. The 12 dupes of Christmas. You fantastic, filthy animal. Ho, ho, ho. Merry dupeness. Merry dupeness, besties. Jack, let's hit our three stories. You can't forget about the cute top, can you?
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
First, a quick word from our sponsor.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
The reason was the big Fed meeting. Classic. Our central bank cut interest rates yesterday, as expected, but signaled that next year there would be fewer cuts than we hoped for.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
So if you're thinking of tipping the people who've been good to you this year, here's how you should do it. We got a tipping algorithm. Yetis, over the last couple of years, we've all kind of reached a tipping point when it comes to tipping. The pandemic accelerated adoption of digital payment screens, which accelerated tipping.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
Yeah, because your iPhone is paying for everything these days, the result was tip creep. Every barista, every store clerk, every cashier, asks you for a tip at the end of the transaction. Just one final question before you go. 15% 20% or 45% for the pack of gum. I'm just going to turn the screen around here. It's going to ask you one simple question.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
But that tip creep led to tip fatigue, which led to a tip revolt.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
So Americans have actually reduced the amount they tip this year by 15% according to the data. And now a majority of Americans have a negative view of the tip in general. It's the tip revolt. The tip backlash. But there's one exception to all this anti-tipping sentiment. Get this. It's the holiday tip. People love the holiday tip.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
While day-to-day tipping is dipping, holiday tipping is increasing. According to a bank rate study, a higher percentage of people are tipping housekeepers, childcare providers, dog walkers, and garbage guys this year than ever before. Now, why has holiday tipping bucked the anti-tipping overall trend? Well, part of it is just the timing. It's the simple math of the matter.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
It's only once a year that you have to give someone a holiday tip, so it feels less like a financial burden you face every day. Jack has six coffees a day. That's six potential tips. 40% a tip. It can add up over there. There's also a special connection to a holiday tip. Right, because with a holiday tip, you tend to give to people who help you throughout the year.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
The kind of people who, to quote Cheers- People you know. You got to know their name. You know you're a cleaner. You don't know that random barista. Jerry, how you doing? You look fantastic, by the way. Finally, there's psychology.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
It turns out with all the Christmas movies, decorations, holiday cheer, and Hallmark specials these days, people are demonstrably and quantifiably more generous over the holidays. In fact, regular tipping rises during the holidays. Like in restaurants, coffee shops, Ubers, taxi cabs, the tips rise 4% in December compared to the rest of the year.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
What's on today's show, man? For our first story, everyone is sick of tipping. Except for one kind of tip. Holiday tips. So Jack and I will tell you who we're tipping this holiday season and how much we're tipping them. Three tipping rules. For our second story, it's Nissan and Honda. The two Japanese car rivals are reportedly in talks to merge.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
So yes, holiday tips are rising, but that still leaves two big questions. Who do you tip? And how much do you tip?
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
Hope you enjoyed your service today. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are everyone tipping? Here's what we're tipping this holiday. Now, yetis, first of all, let's sprinkle on some context. Holiday tipping is optional. If money's tight, don't stress yourself out. We should point that out.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
But if you are giving holiday tips, give to the people who've been supporting you and your family all year. Okay, so Jack, I basically have had three rules for holiday tipping going back to my 20s. You ready for these? What is that? Okay, first of all, cash is king, but checks work too. I love giving gifts. I'm a total gift guy, but when it comes to holiday tips, I'm always doing cash on
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
It's a little awkward asking your UPS guy for your Venmo handle. Yeah. Historically, I've actually done 1% of my income as the amount I give, which is in New York and San Francisco, though, you got a lot of doormen. That's highly generous. It is. It is. It is. All right. Second rule, I put the cash in an envelope because physical money feels better.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
That's a psychological study that shows physical money feels better. Do you write a card too? Yeah, we do write a little card. And then we have a spreadsheet that we track all year. So we don't forget anyone the next year. Nerd alert. Okay. All right. Can I share mine? What do you got? What do you got? What do you got? So I am not nearly as systematic as you and Molly.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
But I like where you're going with this, Jack. All right. I'm giving my house cleaner one extra cleaning as a bonus. I give my babysitters one extra babysitting payment as a bonus. I give my hairstylist one extra haircut fee as a bonus. Good way to do it. Teachers, this is a tricky one because we don't pay Wilder's teachers directly, but I appreciate them so much.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
So I get him a $100 gift card to the best restaurant in town. Well put, Jack. Now, I almost tipped my therapist. Ha ha. But I thought that might cross some kind of line. No, he's going to start messing with you after that. She charges me enough anyway, as it is. That's manipulation right there. And you bring up a good point, Jack.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
Our nanny, we're giving two weeks of pay to because she works with us on a daily basis. But Garris, our awesome trash guy, he's amazing, but we're giving him a single flat amount, just like we're giving our UPS guy, Carlo, a flat amount. So I don't have a nanny and I don't know my trash guy. Full disclosure, I'm not doing nearly 1%, but I'm impressed by your generosity.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
But either way, Yetis, we got some rules when it comes to tipping. So this holiday season, come up with your rules. This holiday season, do what feels right for you. For our second story, Honda is reportedly in talks to merge with Nissan, which would be the biggest car merger in history. Why? Because the world's biggest buyer has stopped buying.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
Now, Jack, before we were college roommates, I believe your first car was a, was it an Accord? Was it a Honda? A white 1991 Honda Accord, manual transmission.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
windows because I was a dumb teenager and aftermarket rims. It was a vibe. Can you unlock the car? Oh wait, the handle's broken. I got pulled over so many times because of those tinted windows. License and registration, who is in there? I got suspended before I met you. Jack. Because of the tinted windows. It sounds like a story for another pod. Yetis, Honda, they make a great car, but not
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
Because the biggest car buyer in the world has stopped buying cars from the world. And our third and final story is Databricks. Databricks just announced the biggest startup fundraise ever. $10 billion. $10 billion because Databricks used AI to win a World Series in baseball. True story. But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Jack, fantastic mix of stories.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
great enough, according to a new report from Reuters. Honda is in talks to merge with Nissan, a company based just 19 miles away from Honda over in Japan.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
If this merger goes through, Honda plus Nissan would trail just Toyota and Volkswagen in terms of numbers of car produced. It would be the biggest car deal in history. And that is something Nissan really needs. Nissan is struggling right now. If this went through, it'd be basically a bailout of Nissan. Because Nissan's profits fell 85% last quarter.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
Nissan is a company in crisis with their chassis. The Nissan Murano has rental car written.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
Yeah, it does. They haven't changed that thing in like 12 years. So as you can expect, Nissan stock surged 24% on the merger news, hoping this will save the company. Even though it's just a rumor. But also, Honda's been struggling too. It's true. Honda's not going through the best times. Honda stock price is lower today than it was 20 years ago when I had a Honda.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
It's like Jack and I have always told you, when the going gets tough, the tough get merging. And honestly, it looks like a desperate situation for Honda and Nissan right now. It does look desperate. And we have three facts about China that explain that desperation, and they are completely wild.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
When you hear these facts about China, you're going to sit down, stand up, and buckle up three more times again. What's fact number one, Nick? Fact number one, Jack, is that more than half of the new cars sold in China are electric. Electric is the future. We know because China is halfway there already. All right, Jack, fact number two.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
Buyers in Beijing aren't buying American Fords or German Beamers like they used to. And they're not buying Japanese Hondas either. And fact number three. Last year, China exported five times more cars than they did just three years ago. China exported four million cars last year.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
But now China makes the cars and they're a car exporter. A huge car exporter. Add it all up and Shanghai is the new Detroit, Jack. Add it all up and that's a scary situation if you're a Japanese car company. Or frankly, any car company. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in the entire car industry? The world's biggest buyer has stopped buying from the West.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
It's such a hit on Germany's national pride that the chancellor just got ousted. All right, what about in the United States? Well, Biden and Trump actually agreed to put tariffs on Chinese-made cars. They agreed. And in Japan, Nissan and Honda, historic rivals, might actually merge because competition from China is that stiff.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
From car importer to car exporter. And fascinating thing we noticed, it's not just about cars. Chinese consumers are also buying less other American brands like Nike, Starbucks, and Apple. Their sales in China are all down.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
The world's biggest buyer. has stopped buying stuff from the West. Now a quick word from our sponsor.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
It's kind of like when you give yourself your own nickname and you try to, like, get other people to do it.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
Love the pre-holiday mix. We just talked to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And we did, we did, we did. And what did we learn, Jack? The cost of the 12 days of Christmas just hit an all-time high. The price of a partridge in your pear tree? That's up 16% from last year. Geese prices are up 15% compared to last year.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
For our third and final story, Databricks, the AI startup, just announced the biggest venture capital fundraise of all time. Because Databricks won a World Series Baseball Championship using AI. True story. We discovered it. Yetis, it is a tough time right now. If you're trying to raise money and you're a plant-based meal kit direct-to-consumer brand delivery startup.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
But it's an easy time right now to raise money if you're an AI anything. If you're an AI chatbot, not even a human, you can get Mark Andreessen to write you a check. Mark, I would like $15 million. Even though business cards kind of make you look old school, if you write AI on it, someone's going to hand you a check. 100% of the time.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
Well, Databricks is the San Francisco-based company you've never heard of that just pulled off the biggest fundraise in history. We repeat, a company you've never heard of just raised more money than any private company before, thanks to AI. $10 billion. Jack, could you sprinkle on some context, please? That value is Databricks at $64 billion. That's right.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
It's one of the five most valuable startups in the world. It's worth more than DoorDash. It's like 10 lifts. And what does Databricks actually do? They do AI. But what do you actually do, Databricks? Their website says, your data, your AI, your future. Yeah, it is. That is intriguingly ambiguous enough that Venture Capitals wrote Databricks a $10 billion check. But it's not enough for this podcast.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
So we're going to explain more of what Databricks does with an awesome example. Jack and I jumped in T-boy style, and we found the best example in the history of humanity. Because Databricks used AI to help the Texas Rangers win the 2023 World Series. That's right. Databricks basically deserves a World Series ring. We're just going to put that out there.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
They're actually bragging about it in a controversial billboard looming over San Francisco right now. Yeah, on this billboard, I can see this thing. They got a shortstop for the Texas Rangers, a rival to the San Francisco Giants, and he's holding a trophy. Because last year, the Texas Rangers won the World Series, and they used Databricks Insights for every element of the game.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
Yeah, as their CEO said, this was basically Moneyball 2.0 in real life. Because his company tracks the bats of every Texas Ranger to measure the launch angle, the velocity speed, and the distance. They actually determined with Databricks the sweet spot on the Texas Ranger's bats where they should make contact with the ball. Now, you know where the sweet spot is.
The Best One Yet
✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).
It's the big part of the barrel, but they got it down to like the millimeter, which makes a difference- It's inch six away from the tip, 25% down the bat. And then they told the players, and the players actually practiced standing closer to the plate or choking up a little so that the sweet spot would have contact with the ball. Now, interestingly, it's not just the on-field player performance.
The Best One Yet
👪 “Nepo-preneurs” — Family biz boom. Twinkies’ 4/20 munchies trade. China’s rare earth embargo.
Well, that's it. Our three stories. 15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in a dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50%, that's a fat tip. T-Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, cause we ready to go.
The Best One Yet
👪 “Nepo-preneurs” — Family biz boom. Twinkies’ 4/20 munchies trade. China’s rare earth embargo.
We can't wait no more, so just start the show.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Thursday, the new Friday, January 16th, and today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Oh, yeah, and he's full disclosure, but Jack is podcasting today without a key asset, his teeth. I got my last wisdom tooth pulled this morning. Can you believe it? Taking like two decades.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Three wild stories. Love the mix today, Jack. I taste a tiny bit of blood in my mouth. I think I need some more gas. No, that's iron. I think it's good for you, Jack. You should keep rowing. Keep the tapes rolling. We're going to pivot to the most controversial question in business right now. Here it is.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
So they will pair you with an employee who will, in this case, enthusiastically refer you because you're paying a fee. Add it all up. Right now, you can buy a referral to apply to a job at Goldman, Microsoft, Nvidia, Spotify, and they're just like 25 bucks each.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
And the reason this entire referral market exists, it's because Google pays out a $4,000 referral bonus and Meta will pay a $5,000 referral bonus. There's big money in referrals, so a marketplace is building around them. Well, besties, before anyone gets fired, we should point out that these banks and tech companies say that false referrals are against their policy.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
And even if you don't break policy, you could get a bad reputation at work if people think you're handing out referrals willy-nilly. Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies in the job market? You don't need a fake friend for a referral. You just need a loose tie. A loose tie. Yetis, last year, we told you that job referrals are the greatest asset in your application arsenal.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
According to Bloomberg, the odds of getting a job are eight times better if someone at the company refers you. But you don't need a best friend and you don't need to pay for a referral in order to get a good one. What you really need is a loose tie, like a friend of a friend. A great piece by Adam Grant, a psychologist at Wharton. He said that we underestimate our networks.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
Loose ties, we got a lot of them and they can provide big value in this kind of thing. Loose ties are huge value. You just don't think of them and they're valuable for job referrals, biz development, sales, like the people you met once or occasionally or like just a friend of a buddy. Those are loose ties. That guy you spent a couple hours with during that airport delay. That's a loose tie.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
You guys exchanged numbers. You remember he works at ESPN? You can ask him for a referral at ESPN. Jack, my first two jobs were from weak ties, loose ties. Like a friend of my wife's friend helped me get the first job in finance. You have authentic, supportive referrers out there waiting for you. They're closer than you realize. Besties, remember the power of loose ties.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for the new Friday? Red 3, a petroleum-based artificial color that causes cancer in rats, is finally banned in the U.S. Red 3, it shows there's a big difference between deregulating and fixing regulation. For our second story, JPMorgan Chase is now worth $700 billion after scoring record earnings last quarter.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
And that's why it's time for Jamie Dimon to eliminate the overdraft fee. The most hated fee in banking. And finally, one guy made $30,000 last year because he referred 1,000 people to jobs at his company. Job referrals, they're now a side hustle. But instead, we think you should ask one of your loose ties. But yetis, this pod's not over yet.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
Are women Instacart shoppers better than men Instacart shoppers? Bigger question. Should you be able to choose the Instacart shopper by their gender? Yetis, this is the most viral debate raging on TikTok right now. It is. It's about Instacart shoppers. Yeah. Like, why are the male shoppers so bad at buying groceries? It's a thing.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
First, on the eve of a U.S. presidential transition, Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire deal. Both President Biden and President-elect Trump are sure to claim credit for this. Actually, after all, they both had representatives working together to negotiate this deal. The ceasefire begins Sunday and it includes prisoner exchanges as well as more aid getting into Gaza.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
And second, TikTok update because it gets banned in like three days. Competing platforms are welcoming TikTok users ahead of the Sunday ban. YouTube is expanding the time limit for YouTube shorts from 60 seconds to a more TikTok-y three minutes. And Substack is offering a $25,000 prize to whatever TikToker moves their whole audience over to Substack.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
But the big winner, it's probably going to be Meta. Because Instagram and Facebook are expected to capture 40% of all the users and ad dollars that TikTok loses. And finally, Hershey's Chocolate is about to make the biggest chocolate deal in the history of cocoa. Get this, Hershey just placed a chocolate order so big, they had to get government approval for it.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
Yeah, there is a global shortage of cocoa. So it looks like Hershey found a good deal out there and is buying as much as they possibly can. By the way, speaking of Hershey, if you haven't heard the best idea yet, our weekly show, we just did a whole episode on the Reese's peanut butter cup. Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Christy March from lovely Coryville, Texas.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
We've told you about the invention of the snooze button by General Electric. But did you know that another company invented a second clock with two snooze options? A snooze option for five minutes and a snooze option for nine minutes. That clock failed. People didn't want to wake up and then have to decide how long do I want to snooze for. When you snooze, you're pressing one button.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
You do not want to have to math the math on that stuff. And that's why those old school alarm clocks had the biggest button on the clock was the snooze button. Snooze! You could whack it. You punch that button. Yetis, you look fantastic today.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
And if you haven't yet, because it's a new year, remember to tap to follow us on whatever app you're listening to, because that way you can get T-Boy every single day. And if you got a buddy who needs a New Year's resolution, tell him to HYH T-B-O-Y every single day this year. Have you heard the best one yet? That's how you do it.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
And finally, we got to know, male or female Instacart shoppers, is this a thing? I'm just going to hire myself, man. I'm going to hire you as well, Jack. Can I just point out amazing performance considering you lost your final wisdom tooth like two hours ago? Wisdom teeth in the appendix. I don't need any of them. Yetis, forgive the blood on today's episode. Jack and I will see you tomorrow.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
It's just a slight taste of blood. It tastes kind of good. And before we go, a happy birthday to the internet, which was born on January 16th, 1986 with the first domain, symbolics.com, which still exists today. And happy 40th birthday to Steven Brody in Nashville, Tennessee, who's going cave diving in Mexico to celebrate. Take a big breath.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
And Con Lou in San Francisco, California has got the first birthday of their life in San Francisco. Celebrate fantastically. Some great restaurants for you. And a special goo-goo-ga-ga to Annie Pham of Irvine, California, who's celebrating one week on this beautiful planet. And Lisa Smith's got a 46th birthday in Pottstown, Pennsylvania.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
One female Instacart customer ordered herb butter on the Instacart app. But her male shopper delivered canola oil butter instead. Another female Instacart customer wanted to make hamburgers tonight. But her male shopper delivered beef chuck instead of ground beef. Yetis, there is a cultural stereotype that men struggle with grocery shopping. Honey, is that a white scallion or a white onion?
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
Happy birthday to Tammy Linares in Canton, Michigan, who just got promoted to engineer who's making vehicles safer. And Isabella Woods just got back from Thailand, but is celebrating a belated sweet 16. Congratulations to Mia LaRucci-Flores in TanaFly, New Jersey, who's joining the College Honor Society as a high schooler.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
And a huge thank you to Terry Lee in Miami, whose son is a firefighter who is in Los Angeles right now taking on the Blazes. We don't know this firefighter's name. But man, do we appreciate his service. Thank you, Terry Anderson. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Instacart. And Nick and I both own stock of Spotify.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
Honey, is that a shiitake mushroom or a maitake mushroom? Honey, you asked for parsley, but I got you spinach. They smell the same. Full disclosure, this is Nick, this is Jack. We don't make those kinds of mistakes. No, because Jack and I love food, we love ingredients, and thanks to running a news show, we have strong attention to detail.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
Not only do I check the labels, I check the price per ounce so that I can compare differently sized products on the shelves. Jack checks other people's labels. They don't even ask him, but he like grabs them at the grocery store when they're in line. I am this close to bringing coupons into the store.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
But besties, we were thinking about it and it brings up a comically controversial question for the gig apps. From Uber Eats to DoorDash to Instacart. Should you be able to choose the gender of your grocery shopper? Because odds are that dude doesn't know a cauliflower from a cabbage. Honey, what's a kohlrabi? If it's a male Instacart shopper, you might want to keep the ingredients list simple.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
Now, besties, we know what you're thinking. We're toeing a line on controversy right here, but we want to know what you think in the comments, so leave us one on YouTube or Spotify. We got a poll on Spotify, actually. In the meantime, three fantastic stories. Jack, let's hear it.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
It's like you get a wisdom teeth pulled every four years that I've known you. It's like they're harvesting them. What's going on over there? I know, but it was just five hours ago. I'm actually recording under the influence of Novocaine. Besties, Jack has been applying gauze all day like he's on Grey's Anatomy. It's wild to watch. It was my last wisdom tooth.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
For our first story, the FDA just banned Red 3, the most controversial food coloring in America. This is 40 years overdue. It is. So we're looking at what really caused this huge delay. But yeties, first, before we tell you this story, you should know that you eat bugs. It's true. Because we all eat red dye number four at some point. And guess what red dye number four is made out of?
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
It's made out of an ant-like insect called a cochineal bug that is typically found in South America. And we have it in most of our foods. Now, red number four is safe to eat. It is. Because the bugs that they're made from are natural. Yeah, bugs. They're all part of this balanced breakfast. But there's big news Wednesday about a different type of red dye, red dye number three.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
Because red dye number three just got banned in all American foods by the Food and Drug Administration. Lots of foods in America used red dye until last year when the state of California banned them. But still today, across America, Pez, candy corn, Betty Crocker's mashed potatoes. What's in them, Jack? They've all got red three.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
Quick warning to our buddy, Timmy, who enjoys double bubble, double twist bubble gum every day. But now the artificial coloring red three is banned in foods and drinks across America because red three is known to cause cancer in rats. Pause the pod. Yetis, when we read that Red 3, a simple food dye, causes cancer in rats, like, we assumed, yeah, that's a new finding, right?
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
We'd be wrong, though, because we've actually known that Red 3 causes cancer in rats for 40 years now. Which led to our big question we were researching all yesterday. Why did it take someone so long to ban something we've known for 40 years? Well, to answer that question, we're going to go back to 1907. That's when big oil invented Red 3. That's right.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
Red 3, also known as erythrocyne, was a byproduct of petroleum. It is an oil-based product. So when the FDA was established by Congress 20 years later, Red 3 was approved for use in foods. Yeah, it was approved for use in foods, you know, because food companies have a magically delicious history of prioritizing profits over pediatrics.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
But Nick, those maraschino cherries, they make my Shirley Temple look so delicious. Honestly, if I don't have a neon red cherry in my drink, I'm not even going to finish that thing, Jack. But then in the 1980s, scientists discovered an inconvenient truth. Yeah. That red dye that makes our Shirley Temple's look so Instagrammable. So beautiful. It gave rats thyroid cancers.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
It was already impacted, so it was a pretty easy pull. I'm not going to get you a push present because you didn't have a baby, Jack. I'm going to get you a pull present, a teeth pull present.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
So Red 3 was banned in Australia, Europe, and over in Japan. But it wasn't banned in America, which leads to one of the wildest business paradoxes we'd ever seen. In the 1990s, we did ban Red 3 in the United States for cosmetics, but we did not ban it in food. So it's not okay to put Red 3 on your body, but it is okay to put it in our body?
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
You can't put Red 3 on lipstick, but you could put it in a strawberry-flavored Peeps marshmallow? Here's an even wilder part of the story. We have to talk about the Delaney cause. Because it's little known, but it has huge implications. Jack, the Delaney Clause, that's part of the FDA Act where if something is known to cause cancer in animals, it cannot be served to humans.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
But didn't we just say that studies showed 40 years ago that Red 3 causes cancer in rats? We did, Jack. So yetis, we were even more curious. Why did the world ban red three? And the US banned it in makeup as well. But 40 years later, we finally banned it in food? Well, the answer's in our takeaway. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in the food industry?
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
This story shows the difference between deregulation and fixing regulation. So besties, why did it take so long to ban Red 3? Well, experts give two reasons, and the first is lobbying. Get this, there's a lobbying group called the International Association of Color Manufacturers. Highly paid lawyers advocating for artificial food colorings.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
That's an entire lobby, and they helped delay this entire ban. The second reason, though, is the FDA just blew it, because the FDA didn't have the resources that lobbyists have. Yeah, the FDA just doesn't have a clear process to reassess foods that have already been approved, like food dye Red 3. So right now in America, the political climate is all about deregulation.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
To cut rules and regulations. But Red 3 is an example that shows it's not that simple. It shows the need to improve rules and regulations. This story shows that deregulation and fixing regulation are very different things. For our second story, JPMorgan Chase is now a $700 billion company after setting another quarterly profit record.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
Jack and I, we did some voice warm-ups. He sounded normal, so today's pod is the best one yet. Jack, three stories for today's show. What do we got, man? Four are first stories. From Pop-Tarts to Peeps, the most controversial artificial food coloring was just banned by the FDA. Red 3's been banned in food, so we're looking at the Great American Business Paradox.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
So we think now is the perfect time to eliminate the most hated fee in banking. Yeti, fun fact for you, but Chase Bank actually started as a water company back in the 1700s. Wow, I didn't know that. Well, Jamie Dimon has been the CEO of that bank, America's biggest bank since the year 2006. And Jamie Dimon just presided over JPMorgan Chase's best quarter in its 200-year history.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
Get this, in just three months, $14 billion in profit. That's up 50% from last year. Get this, we jumped in T-boy style. We did. JP Morgan Chase holds $2 trillion of cash deposits. Not too shabby. And a trillion of those deposits are out in the economy right now as loans. Jack, when you're holding and lending that much money, you can get a whole lot of revenue on that stuff.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
Not to mention the fees. Investment banking fees nearly doubled last quarter from the year before to $2.5 billion. $2.5 billion. And it's not just JP Morgan, right, Jack? All of Wall Street's looking good. Yesterday, we got the earnings from BlackRock. The country's biggest asset manager. And we got Goldman's earnings. The country's biggest pure play investment bank.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
And both announced record profits, and both are enjoying record high stock prices. But it is JP Morgan who is more valuable than both of those banks. Combine. JPMorgan Chase is worth $700 billion according to its market cap. And that's 100 lifts. Wow. But besties, here's what we found fascinating about this story. It's got a lot of people wondering about the S word. Succession. Succession.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
Like who is going to succeed and replace Jamie Dimon? You know what? We don't think anyone's going to succeed him. Yeah. We don't think anyone's gonna. Kendall Roy, he doesn't even want the job. Yesterday, highlighting the bank's outlook, Jamie Dimon mentioned two significant risks facing our economy. First, he said inflation may persist for some time. Have you seen the price of eggs lately?
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
It's a frittata fiasco. And second, Jamie Dimon said that geopolitical conditions remain the most dangerous and complicated since World War II. Well, all that sounds a little bit scary from our Uncle Jamie, Jack. Given that, we think he's going to stick around as CEO for five years or more. After all, he's only 68.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
Yeah, it's going to be at least a few more years before he leaves that banking job to become governor of the state of Greenland. Entering this wildly uncertain period we have ahead, we think this elder statesman wants to stick around to be a force of stability. So Jamie, since you're going to be sticking around for a while and we know you're listening today, we have got an idea for you.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
And it's our takeaway. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddy Jamie over at JPMorgan Chase? JPMorgan Chase should eliminate the most hated fee in banking, the overdraft fee. Ah, the overdraft fee. Yetis, that's when banks charge about $30 each time your account dips below zero, even if it's just for an instant. Opponents of the overdraft fee call it a tax on the poor.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
It's taking excessive fees from those least able to pay them. Congress has been grilling the banks on the overdraft fee. Although we should point out that the overdraft fee is less than 1% of JP Morgan's revenue. So in this economy? Yeah. JP Morgan could turn that fraction of its revenue into a positive PR opportunity. Here's what we're thinking, Jamie. Eliminate it. Cut it.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
For our second story, JPMorgan Chase just had its best quarter in over 200 years. With record profits and a record stock price, we think it's time to kill the most hated fee in banking. And our third and final story, there's a hot new side hustle that's earning some people $30,000 a year. job referrals. Get this, referring strangers to your company is a brand new moneymaker.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
Just give customers a grace period or some other option. Basically say, we hear you. The money's tight. Don't worry about it. We're going to get rid of the overdraft fee because we care about you. We think a move like that could attract huge numbers to JP Morgan's 5,000 bank branches, the most in the country.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
It'd be a do-gooder move that pays for itself with the marketing boost they'd get from that pure PR. Pure PR. With record revenue, profits, and a record stock price, JP Morgan, they can afford to put the overdraft fee out of its misery. It's time to eliminate the most hated fee in banking. The overdraft fee.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
For our third and final story, there's a hot new side hustle for people with corporate jobs. And that side hustle is job referrals. The job referral money-making side hustle shows the power of loose ties. Yeti's over 18 months, one single tech worker recommended 1,000 job candidates to his employer. And eight of those 1,000 referrals ended up getting hired.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
So he pulled in $30,000 in referral bonuses. But Jack, what is the wildest part of this surprise story we are telling right now? Every one of those 1,000 people he referred was a complete stranger. He didn't know any of them. Now, that's all according to Bloomberg reporting. But yetis, job referrals are supposed to be a win-win-win deal.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
The candidate gets a better chance of getting a job, the referrer gets a bonus, and the company saves time and recruiting money. And the relationship you have with someone you refer, it can span a range of relationships. Yeah, it could be your best friend, or it could be your father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
As long as you've spoken to the person and met at least once, HR tends to be cool with anyone referring to anyone. Yeah, like as long as you can vouch for them or like your friend who's a friend of theirs can vouch for them, that's all that they want to know. And in this economy, applying without a referral can feel like tossing your resume into a digital black hole.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
It massively increases the chances that your application actually gets read. But here's the funny thing, Yetis. Referrals are now so in demand that a marketplace for referrals has emerged, according to Bloomberg. Blind is a free app with 12 million tech workers who anonymously share their thoughts on their employer.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
So job seekers go on Blind to connect with random people at the company they're applying to in order to get a referral. Glassdoor has something similar, but they're even more explicit. There's an entire forum for referrals. Right. Yes, you can find a stranger at your dream job and ask them to refer you. It'd be a nice favor.
The Best One Yet
🍒 “Pop-Tart Problem” — Red dye’s food ban. JPMorgan’s overdraft idea. Job Referrals as-a-Service.
So in the finance and tech industry, workers are finding referrers online despite having no previous relationship. But besties, wait, because this story gets even wilder. What do we got, Jack? A new company has formed just for referrals. It's called ReferMe, and they'll connect you with a high-quality referrer at any company you want to apply to.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Thursday, the new Friday, May 15th. And today's pod is the best one yet, and this is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Uh, yetis, we got a little surprise for you at the end of the show. Is someone gonna call in, Jack? We're gonna get our first ever live call-in. Hmm. Pretty exciting. 1-800-T-BOY-POD.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
But few realize that executives must publicly share their trades, and that makes them the ultimate influencers. Fun fact, I follow insider trades on finviz.com. There you go. So trading legally like the insiders is one of the best kept secrets in finance. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for the new Friday?
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
Airbnb is adding hotel-like services to the app, but there's no limit to the services that could be offered. Which means Airbnb has gone from travel app to the everything app, like we called three years ago. For our second story, Boeing just got its biggest order ever from Qatar Airways. 210 planes for $96 billion. Trump's deal-making with Middle East countries?
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
It's kind of like the signing of geopolitical free agents. And our third and final story. eToro went public on Wednesday. The $5 billion company has an option to copy trades of influencers. But the real influencer investing? Follow CEO's insider trading because it's publicly available information. And it's legal. But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
First, Boston and Philadelphia better get their reservations ready because you are getting Michelin guides. Dallas and Houston are too. Why? Because each of those cities paid millions for it. When the famous restaurant review Michelin guide arrives in a city, the data shows more tourists also arrive in that city.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
So Texas, Boston, and Philly paid Michelin to bring all their critics over and review the restaurants and give us some stars already. And second, streaming news of the day, Max is getting renamed to HBO Max. It's actually getting re-renamed because HBO Max is what it was called before it was called Max. Let me follow this, Jack.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
They've gone from HBO Go to HBO Now to HBO Max to Max to now back to HBO Max? Because dropping the HBO was the dumbest move ever. And finally, egg prices just fell for their biggest monthly drop since 1984. That's a 13% fall. Consumer prices for a dozen eggs fell from six bucks on average in March to five bucks on average in April.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
That's more than one out of every 100 U.S. households. has a reptile inside. According to Bloomberg Yeti's, food and supplies only for reptiles and amphibians are up 60% since 2019. That's faster growth than for cats, and your cat hates you. But what's the wildest part about this trend, Jack? The biggest reptile trend is luxury reptiles. That's right.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
Although we should point out egg prices are still up 79% from the same month last year. If you take someone out on a date and you buy them an omelet, you're sending them a message. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one sent in from, wait, wait, one second. Jack, we're getting a phone call. Yeah, we're getting a phone call here. All right, Jack, who we got? Nick, I'm checking caller ID.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
It's Jeff Rader, co-CEO of Mammoth Brands, formerly known as Harry's Inc. Jeff, Jeff, the Baron of Blades, the Razor Royalty. How you doing, man? It's been like a year since we interviewed you. Wait, here you got some big news for us and the best fact yet. What's going on, man? What's up?
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
Hey, guys. What's up? Great to see you. A fact that blows me away today, I never would have believed it, is that at Harry's we sell 25% of all men's razors in the U.S.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
One out of four razors. And when did the company get founded? Like 10 years ago?
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
12 years ago.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
Wow. Zero to 25 in 12 years. That's insane. Fantastic fact, by the way. Congratulations, Jeff. Also, big news from you guys this week.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
Totally. We just launched this new product. It's called Harry's Plus. I love it. It's the best razor I've ever shaved with. When we started Harry's 10 years ago, more than 12 years ago, we had this vision that we could make a truly world-class razor. and then went to work on this new razor that's taken us a decade to make. Wow. And to start, we had to make the best blades we could.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
We had to change the steel of the blades, figure out how to grind the right angles. We shoot the edges with ion beams and we put all of those into our original razor, which is this guy. And then we had to sort of deconstruct the entire razor. The first time I shaved with this was like five or six years ago. It was being held together by a little wire on the back. And I was like,
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
This is a revelation. Can we sell these? Let's go.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
One thing Jack and I were curious about, we were looking at this product launch and we noticed it times up with a patent expiration. We get really curious about patent expirations because you see a lot of innovation happen around that. How did that work exactly?
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
One of the dynamics in this category is that they're big razor companies and they take out countless patents and they stifle innovation, keep costs high. What happens is that patents expire. And when they do, we were then free to innovate in ways that would enable us to deliver a world-class experience. It wasn't just that.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
We had to spend years honing in these blades and the pivot and all these things to make a product that was unique and exciting. But it's nice not to be stifled. Buy Big Razor and be able to make a product that we really love.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
Yeah, we've seen this in the pharmaceutical industry. Now we're seeing this in the razor industry. Cough, cough, Gillette. Cough. But Jeff, thank you for joining us today. You know, once a Yeti, always a Yeti. It was so fun interviewing you last year, and we were really pumped for your launch. So congratulations. Great fact. One more question, Jeff. When's the Mammoth IPO coming?
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
We'll see. You know, we are just doing our thing here, building brands of people's love. You know, we make money. We're no gun to our head.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
Nick, that's the answer a CEO says when they're planning their IPO, baby. Jeff, blink twice if Q3 is the date, baby. Jeff, thanks a lot, man. We'll catch you later. Congratulations. Great to see you.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
Yetis, you look fantastic today. Jack, you are glowing over there, my friend. Thank you, Nicholas. Besties, if you haven't yet, drop down to give us five stars, especially if you own a lizard or an amphibian. And Nick and I will see you tomorrow. Can't wait. Rip it. And before we go, a congratulations and whoa, let's go to our buddy Nick Marino, who is on Jeopardy tonight. You got to watch it.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
One man in Colorado breeds geckos for special looking features like stripes and bright colors. People are paying 50 grand for a designer gecko from this guy. That toad cost more than a Birkin bag. So yetis, remember this takeaway. Jack, what's our takeaway about reptiles? Nothing scales.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
Correction. What is congratulations? I already lost the game. He will not, though. Our money's on Marino. And second, Liam and Olivia are celebrating a double birthday. Congratulations, guys. Wait, aren't Liam and Olivia the two most popular names for boys and girls for the last six years? Wow. What a family. And Nira Ibarra is turning 17 years old down in Burbank, California. Congratulations.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
And happy birthday to Roxanna Medina in Miami, Florida. And Emi Derzayic in Eagle, Idaho is a day one listener, legendary Yeti, and celebrating the best birthday yeti. Happy birthday to Don Courtney in Buffalo, New York, a dinkwad with pride. And Grace McFadden is graduating from Notre Dame in accounting. Congratulations, Grace.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
Happy anniversary to Jay Shang and Cassie Zhao, who are celebrating in Hawaii. And Mabuba actor in New Milford, Connecticut, was accepted into a master's in AI management and policy. Wow, didn't even know that degree. Okay, I want a master's in AI management and policy. Good luck, Mavs. Oh, and Claire and Emma. Jack, there are a couple of Yetis who work at Google.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
I just ran into them outside the studio by the Ferry Building. They wanted me to tell you, hey, Jack. Hey, Claire. What's up, Emma? Thanks for listening to the show. Sketchers and Adidas, these are the best account managers yet. And to anyone else who's celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
Nick and I both own stock of Airbnb, Peloton, Robinhood, and we both own some Bitcoin named Ben. If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
First, a quick word from our sponsor. For our first story, Airbnb launched a complete app redesign. Get ready for massages, hairstylists, and hibachi chefs. But here's the big question. Is Airbnb becoming the everything app or is it having a midlife crisis? Yeti is Brian Chesky, the CEO of Airbnb. He got more press on Tuesday than any non-scandal CEO in history.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
But Jack, three stories for today's T-Boy Fantastic Show. What do we got on the pod? For our first story, Airbnb has finally become an everything app. Because you can now Airbnb not just a house, you can Airbnb your hairstylist, a HIIT workout, or even a hibachi shift. For our second story, Boeing just received its biggest order ever. Qatar Airways is buying 210 Boeing jets.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
He did a product unveil in Los Angeles. The Wall Street Journal Magazine did an article on him. Wired Magazine did a deep dive on him. And he went to CNBC for a live interview. One sec, Jack. I think Brian Chesky just became the new permanent co-host of The View with Whoopi Goldberg. And why is he so active this week? Well...
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
Airbnb is tripling its ambitions, so the CEO is out there telling everybody about it. Here's the news, yetis. From booking a place to stay, Airbnb is now a platform to book everything. And the stock is up 10% this week on that ambitious news. Now, here's what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. The new challenge facing Airbnb... is actually the old challenge facing Airbnb. Hotels.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
Yeah, it's hotels. Because in this economy, hotels have been on the upswing. In fact, in the latest earnings report from Airbnb, we noticed they mentioned hotels a record 35 times. For every one booking of an Airbnb, nine hotels get booked. And why is there all this new tension with hotels, Jack? With high travel prices, travelers want to feel pampered while they're on their vacation.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
They want the services that a hotel offers. So Airbnb's goal with this total app makeover, neutralize hotels advantage by pampering you with services. Starting right now in 260 different cities, you can book from 10 different categories of services that are commonly only offered by hotels. Yeah, like we're talking room service, massage, spa treatments, private workouts.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
They come to your Airbnb or you go to their studio. You can book Pilates now through Airbnb. You could have a hibachi chef set up his cooking station in your Airbnb's backyard and flip shrimp to all your guests right into their mouths. But we should point out yet is to be a Benihana chef on Airbnb, you actually have to apply now to be one of their service providers.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
Airbnb is going to vet all these service providers to make sure they're legit. And here's what we think is the interesting key to this whole situation. You don't have to be traveling to book these services on Airbnb. You could book that Benihana chef to come to your own apartment to cook while you're not traveling.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
So what we are saying here, Jack, if you add all this up, is that by offering these services, Airbnb is no longer just a travel app, right? They're kind of an app for everything. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Airbnb? Our 2021 business wish is finally coming true. Now, Yetis, you've been with us for a while.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
So, you know, every new year, we do a predictions pod where we wish for three big business stories to happen. On January 4th, 2021, we wished that Airbnb would expand from houses to everything. Well, Brian Chesky literally just said that you can now Airbnb every service, whether you're traveling or not. They're not a travel company.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
We're surprised it took them so long to expand beyond travel and apply the Airbnb app to other stuff. I mean, Jack, now they are in a race with Uber to be the one everything app. And like how many everything apps are you really going to have on your phone? It's Airbnb versus Uber and their headquarters are right next to each other in San Francisco. So here's the value unlock.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
Airbnb built the tech to legally and safely let someone use your home. Now they're letting someone legally and safely use your services. Officially, Airbnb added services to compete with hotels. Unofficially, it just became an everything app. Our 2021 wish has come true. For our second story, Boeing just got its biggest order ever. Cotter Airways is buying $96 billion worth of Boeing's big jets.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
But what this Boeing Middle East deal really reminds us of is the NBA draft. Yetis, earlier this week, we told you about Trump's Middle East grand tour. His goal was to announce $1 trillion worth of deals during this trip. One day, Wes Anderson is going to turn this whole thing into a movie. Because on Wednesday, President Trump said that Qatar was buying $200 billion worth of Boeing airplanes.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
One way to think about the current Middle East dealapalooza, this is like the NBA draft. And our third and final story is eToro. It's the first big IPO of the year, and the stock surged 40% yesterday. Because Kim Kardashian could be a stock trading influencer. But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Whoa, what a kickoff to the show. Love the mix today, Jack.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
That number wasn't correct, actually. The White House clarified later that Qatar Airways is buying $96 billion. for 210 Boeing jets. And you know what? Boeing CEO just confirmed it on the ground in the Middle East. He said that this is the biggest order the U.S.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
jet maker has ever done, which is a massive breath of life into a struggling Boeing brand who is, you know, still trying to move past the whole door flying off the airplane thing. Side note. Cutter's widely reported plans to gift President Trump a 747 as Air Force One, that still has not finalized. But in the meantime, if it ain't Boeing, Cutter Airways ain't going.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
Now, Nick, to describe Boeing's last two months as turbulent would be a bit of an understatement. Because Boeing started off as the biggest trade war loser, but is now the biggest trade war winner. This is one of the wildest stock turnarounds we've ever seen. Yetis, the biggest buyer of Boeing airplanes in the last 20 years. Jack, who was it? China. China.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
And as the trade war was heating up, China punished Boeing. Yeah, China actually banned their local national airlines from buying Boeing planes. But now, as countries are trying to make deals with the president... Their top gift is to buy Boeings. Yeah, it's not watches. Like, it's not a Rolex. It's buying Boeing airplanes.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
In consecutive weeks, the United Kingdom and Qatar have announced flashy and political giant orders of Boeing jets. And you know why? Well, because the biggest way to buy American is literally buying a Boeing. A Boeing aircraft is the most expensive product the United States sells. If you want to swing the trade deficit one way or the other, buy a Boeing aircraft from America.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
Forget Twinkies, Harley Davidson motorcycles, Ford F-150s. No, the Boeing 747, that is the ultimate made in America product. And Boeing is also highly politically connected. Boeing strategically chose suppliers from all 50 states. It's like a supply spiderweb. to make sure that every American has a stake in their success. The result? Well, Boeing is now shockingly the trade war winner.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
To win points with Donald Trump, all you got to do is order Boeing aircraft. And now Boeing stock is up 50% in just the past six weeks. Boeing got the business class upgrade. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Boeing? Saudi Arabia is the number one pick in the economic draft. So yet, is Donald Trump's handshaking with Middle East leaders this week? It is, shocker, controversial.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
Saudi Arabia's leader approved the murder of a Washington Post journalist in 2018. Syria's new leader that Trump just met with is a former jihadi. But nonetheless, all of them are becoming buyers of U.S. products right now and getting U.S. support in return. One way to think of this, Trump is signing free agents like it was the NBA draft. Here's the interesting strategy.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
Russia, and to a lesser extent China, have huge influence on the Middle East. But these deals move these Middle Eastern free agent countries closer to us and further from Russia. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, in particular, they have huge economic power thanks to their oil riches. So these are economic deals, but they're also geopolitical free agent signings.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
And that's why this biggest deal in Boeing history reminds us of the NBA draft. Now a quick word from our sponsor.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
When it comes to pets, puppies get all the attention in this economy. Puppy. P-U-P-P-Y. People ultimately prioritize puppies. Yeah. Yeah, they do. But there's one pandemic pet whose sales are still surging. Here's a hint. It's green, it's cold, and it will take care of the fruit flies in your kitchen. Lizards. Yeah, lizards.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
For our third and final story, eToro just IPO'd and the stock popped 40% on social media influencer investing. But we know the secret way to invest like the top CEOs. And we'll tell you in The Takeaway. Boyettis, grab your coat, because we've been stuck in a corporate ice age. Businesses have been frozen as the trade war was hot. But funny thing, is it just us or this week?
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
Are things warming up a little bit? Stocks have risen as tariffs have thawed and the IPO market suddenly got super hot. Get this, Hinge Health is going public, Chime just filed for an IPO, and StubHub, ooh, they could soon be publicly traded. eToro already hit the stock market. The Israel-based stock trading app IPO'd on Wednesday and the stock jumped 40% on the first day. That's the news.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
eToro is now public. Basically, this is like a Robin Hood company plus a social media feed. Yep. They offer stocks, crypto options, and like buttons because there's social media posts in there. More on that in a minute. In the meantime, the stock began trading yesterday and hit a $5 billion valuation. That's about one lift.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
And it makes sense because they have one-tenth the number of users as Robinhood, and their valuation is one-tenth as big as Robinhood. Just like Robinhood, they are riding the retail investor renaissance going on right now. Now, Yadiz, even though eToro was actually founded eight years before Robinhood, it kind of looks like a foreign Robinhood knockoff, right?
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
Yeah, it's almost like if Robinhood is a pair of Nike sneakers, then eToro is a pair of Dockers khakis made in Europe. I'm just working with what I can on the top of my head. But there's one feature that eToro has that's wildly different than Robinhood. They have social media. and they have influencers in the app. Get this.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
eToro has this wild feature called their Popular Investor Program that they mentioned 35 times in their IPO paperwork. This program lets regular retail investors copy the trades of their financial influencers. Basically, you follow Selena Gomez on Instagram for her makeup recommendations so you could follow an eToro influencer in their app for stock recommendations.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
And automatically buy and sell when that influencer buys and sells. And from our research, it looks like 55% of eToro users are using these social media stock trading features. Some of them to copy the trades of an influencer. And what's the wildest part about this, Jack? The influencers whose trades get copied by customers on the platform earn a percentage of funds from those who are copying him.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
It's like a commission. So like if Jack and I could share our portfolios on eToro, we would get paid if you bought stock like Peloton, like we did, even though you'll lose money on it. Because you copied our Peloton trade. Now, the interesting opportunity here Jack and I mentioned is that these aren't famous investors who are the stock trading influencers.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
But yet it is during the pandemic, Americans began to appreciate the exotic power of these little dinosaurs. And since COVID-19. Sales have accelerated for reptiles like a gecko's tongue. Why? Basically TikTok and Instagram. Geckos owned the algorithm for some reason. The result today, 4 million American households own a reptile or an amphibian. That is an all-time high.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
We looked at the top followed influencer on the eToro app. We'd never heard of him. but they do have one and a half million followers on the app. So what Jack and I think the real opportunity here is like, what if Kim Kardashian shared her portfolio on eToro? You could get in on the ETFs that Kim is obsessed with. Or Mr. Beast. He runs a billion dollar media business right now, right?
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
Does he own shares of McDonald's in his 401k? Because if he does, I want shares of McDonald's in my 401k. We'd follow that. Jack, what is the takeaway for our buddies over at eToro? Insider trading is actually legal if you know where to look. Now, Yetis, there's actually a way to find out how the insider's leading top companies invest their money. In fact, it's legally required that CEOs disclose
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
when they invest in their own companies. For example, when JP Morgan's CEO, Jamie Dimon, sells stock in JP Morgan, he must disclose it publicly in advance, Jamie. When Mary Barra buys stock in GM, she must disclose that in advance publicly. Jack and I follow this because insider's actions can reveal the direction of the entire company.
The Best One Yet
💆 “Massage-bnb” — Airbnb’s everything app. eToro’s Kardashian trade. Boeing’s Trade War Win. + Surprise Guest Jeff Raider.
If all the executives at a company are selling, that's not a good sign about the company. No, no, no, no. If all the executives are buying, that's a good sign about the company. Cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching. And reminder, by the way, insider trading with your friend who works at the company and has material non-public information. That's illegal. Totally unfair. We're not supporters of it.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Thursday, the new Friday, March 13th. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Stocks rebounding like a young Steph Curry over there. I said Steph Curry, Jack, because it wasn't a big rebound. It was kind of a small rebound.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
Let's bring it back to the summer of 2020. After George Floyd's murder, A&E canceled their live police department show that was all about cops. But this January, A&E brought back the cops with a new cop show. They just replaced it. A&E also is bringing back Duck Dynasty, which was huge in the early 20-teens. Even though New Yorkers aren't shooting ducks over in Central Park.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
And Netflix just announced yesterday And it's not just Netflix, because Amazon Prime also just added The Apprentice. And Nick, what's Disney's top show right now? It actually stars Tim Allen, who plays a loving dad who causes his daughter to cringe by dropping politically incorrect one-liners about her school.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
That kind of comedy is getting 10 million viewers per episode on ABC and Hulu. Jack, could you sprinkle on a little more context to 10 million viewers, please? Not only is that more than the season finale of Succession, that's as much as Game of Thrones, HBO's best show of all time.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
Hollywood's wake-up call isn't just that they've been ignoring a big chunk of the country when it comes to programming. It's that that chunk of the country they've been ignoring is huge. Huge. They've been missing out on 150 million TV-watching Americans. And that's why they're now programming red meat for the red states. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies?
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
Ron Swansifying over in Hollywood. Rule number one of business. Don't tell potential customers that they're wrong. There's actually an interesting lesson here about how to interact with customers that we've learned from Google Maps. Google Maps. If you ignore Google Maps directions, they don't tell you you're wrong and to turn around. Yeah, you're going to notice this now.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
Apple and others turned off a feature for auto downloads of podcasts. The result is that download numbers, which determine how much we get paid, dropped for every player in podcasts. But here's the key, besties. you can help us. And it only takes five seconds. All you got to do, make sure you follow the show and turn on auto downloads. That's it.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
Google Maps just reroutes you. Instead of taking a U-turn, they just tell you to take the next turn. Google Maps does not correct its customers when they've made a mistake. And that's a broader business lesson. It's a lesson that Hollywood is taking right now. They're not going to tell their viewers to adapt to Hollywood's very own favorite content.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
They're not telling viewers this is how the White House should be by showing them West Wing. Instead, Hollywood is now adapting to its viewers' preferences. And that's a top rule in business. Don't tell potential customers that they're wrong. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for the new Friday? Guinness sales are at all-time highs as splitting the G is the latest viral drinktivity.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
One's company, two's a crowd, and three's a profit party. For our second story, Bybit lost $1.5 billion in crypto after it was hacked by North Korea's Lazarus Group. Crypto, it won't reach its full potential until it tames the Wild West. And our third and final story, the election was a wake-up call for Hollywood, who is now serving red meat to red states.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
Rule number one of business, don't tell potential customers that they're wrong. But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, we got an update on the celebrity of economic reports. Inflation slowed last month for the first time since September. Prices in February across the country were up 2.8% from the year before.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
Now, food prices were flat despite the eggflation situation. Egg prices are up 59% from last year. The real test will be March and onward as Trump's tariffs begin showing up in the numbers. Speaking of which, second, we have WTF, which stands for Whiplash Tariff Forecast of the Day, our daily update on what's happening with tariffs.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
Yesterday, Europe and Canada both retaliated to the Trump steel tariffs that were imposed also on Wednesday. Yeah, Europe's now targeting American whiskey and motorcycles with 50% tariffs. And Canada is targeting Made in USA stuff with a 25% tariff of their own. And finally, TikTok just introduced a new feature to annoy teens off the app after 10 p.m.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
After 10 p.m., if you're a teen using TikTok, your screen is going to be taken over with calming meditation music, and they're going to urge you to put your phone. And if you stay on TikTok, another musical takeover happens, which is like a lot harder to ignore. And then if you stay on TikTok again, I think the app's just going to slap you and say, go to bed. New feature, new feature.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Maria Kravici from Massapequa, Long Island. Until this year, the largest wine cellar in the world was Costco. And the most successful label of wines was Kirkland. That's right. Kirkland Cabernet was outselling the rest of the world's finest wines.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
Now we should point out this year, Total Wine & More has displaced Costco as the number one world wine cellar. Total Wine & More, which is apparently the Costco of just alcohol. But still, Kirkland-branded Costco wine is the top seller in the vast majority of wine categories. Jack, Wine Salesman of the Month over here, what would you say about this Kirkland Cabernet? Hold on.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
I need to keep wafting. I'd say it's the best idea yet. Yetis, we actually just dropped an entire episode on the untold origin story of Costco's Kirkland brand. It's all on our weekly show, The Best Idea Yet. You gotta listen to it. If you're going to Costco this weekend, you're doing a Costco run, put on this episode in your car. We got a link in the episode description.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
The show is called The Best Idea Yet. Yetis, you look fantastic today, Jack. Oh, oh, Jack, check your ankle. What am I looking at? Smearing off iced tea over there. Oh, you got to finish it now. Oh, you got to finish it before we do the credits. You got to get down on one knee, right? You do, you do. Besties, we love potting with you.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
Like these two small five second fixes, they're going to bring us back to where we were in the numbers before that tech tweak. And that would be huge. So Yetis, here's the deal. If you're on Apple, go to our show page, tap the follow button on the top right, and then tap the down arrow to auto-download. Five seconds.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
And remember, the five seconds we would love you to pull off right now. Follow the show and click auto download. It would mean the world to us. And it's the best thing you can do for our business. Nick and I. We'll be back tomorrow as usual with the best one yet. Can't wait.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
And before we go, a happy birthday to Yeti Sophie West over in Boston, just outside Boston, a marathoner and a commercial real estate agent of the stars. Happy birthday to James from San Jose, California, a first-time dad with a four-month-old baby girl. And Becky Crystal down in Cleveland, the Paris on the lake, is a puzzle queen and a J.Crew deal finder with a birthday to celebrate.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
And a big shout out to all the Detroit Yetis out there. It's 3-1-3 day. You know, you know. You know, you know. You know. And Sherry Morris is a legendary power engager on Instagram. Sherry, we just want to say thanks for being a legendary Yeti. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon, Disney, and Netflix.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
Nick and I both own stock of Apple and Spotify. And we both own some Bitcoin. Name better. If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
If you're on Spotify, go to our show page, tap the plus sign to follow, and then tap the gear button for settings and click auto-download. Five seconds. And if you're on any other platform, just tap where it says follow or subscribe. And then auto-download. And if you watch on YouTube, open up a podcast app on your phone, follow, and auto-subscribe. H-Y-H-T-B-O-Y.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
Besties, we aren't just podcast hosts. We run this entire podcast business, and there is so much more we have planned for T-Boy and you. Decades more T-Boy. It's our life's work, whipping up the takeaways for you every day. So this is all we got to ask of you. Take these five seconds right now to follow and auto-download the show. It's the best way you can support the podcast.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
And it ensures you'll never miss an episode of The Best One Yet. Again, you can do this faster than Jack can say cookie crisp. You got one in you, Jack? Cookie crisp. In fact, you can do it right now while we're playing the jingle. True. Now is the perfect time. This is the perfect time. We're going to pause the pod, Jack. Follow, auto-download. Let's hit our three stories.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
I think stocks rose on encouraging inflation data from the month of February. Inflation. That's all I got to say about that. Jack, three stories for today's show. What do we got on the tea, boy? For our first story, Guinness. The 266-year-old Irish beer is glowing as we enter St. Paddy's Day weekend. The reason Guinness sales are an all-time high?
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
For our first story, on the eve of St. Paddy's Day, Guinness sales are on their hottest streak in a century. Sorry, make that two centuries. And it's all because of a viral drinktivity known as splitting the G. But Jack, before we tell the story to the Yetis, what do we think is the greatest real estate deal ever?
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
Well, for everyone who's never been to the original Guinness factory in Dublin, when Alfred Guinness opened that brewery in Ireland, he signed a 9,000-year lease. Not nine months, 9,000 years. Yeah, Guinness, they're sitting on a 9,000-year lease. That's right, Guinness goes back to 1759. It's actually one of the three oldest beer brands on planet Earth.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
It's a dark, creamy, nitrogen-infused beer that looks like a confused coffee. Yeah, yetis, you don't drink Guinness. Guinness drinks you. Now, alcohol sales overall in this economy are dropping, and Guinness hasn't updated their logo or their branding since Queen Victoria. And yet, despite those macro chins I just mentioned, Guinness sales, they're not just at an all-time high.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
They're accelerating. Yeah, Guinness, they just had their fourth year of double-digit sales growth. Not too shabby. Last year, Guinness sales rose by 17%. And since the pandemic, they're up 85%. Demand for Guinness is so unquenchable, they're building a new $200 million brewery in Ireland, which I believe is a Guinness record, Jack.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
I don't think they're going to get a 9,000-year lease on that one, though. No, they're not. However, Guinness' surge has gotten so crazy that there were rumors on Wall Street last month that they're going to sell the business for $10 billion. Diageo, the British alcohol company that owns Guinness, denies it, though. They say they're keeping Guinness in home.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
But still, you can't deny those numbers. So we got curious. What is driving this latest Guinness surge after 200 years? It's actually a drinking game, or as we call it, a drinktivity. Ah, a drinktivity known as splitting the G. Jack, can you tell us exactly how you split the G over there? You go up to the bartender and you ask for a full pint of Guinness.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
Then in your first sip, you try to drink just the right amount of Guinness so that when you're done, the beer line under the foam perfectly strikes the middle of the G. Yeah, basically Guinness glasses say the word Guinness down the center and your goal is to drink uninterruptedly until the foam is right in the center of the G. You try to split the G.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
The most fun drinktivity since he got Smirnoff iced. For our second story, we need to talk about North Korea's elite hacking team known as the Lazarus Group. The Lazarus Group. Because that team of professional hackers just pulled off the biggest money heist in history. And our third and final story, Hollywood is making a major pivot. They forgot to make TV for Trump's America.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
So we have traced this term, in fact, back to Urban Dictionary in 2018. That's where it was first used. But it went viral on TikTok and on Instagram starting in 2022. Now, the technical term for those who have mastered splitting the G is Ginfluencers. Ginfluencers can split the G like a pro athlete. And over the holidays, they split a lot of Gs.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
Guinness actually suffered a shortage because everyone was doing this drinktivity together. They had to ration kegs across British pubs to make sure everybody got a little. But Jack, what was the biggest surprise for our buddies over at Guinness? Women are driving this trend. Yeah, they are. Sales of Guinness to women in the United Kingdom are up 24% in the last year.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
So it's not just Patrick McFinnegan and Mickey O'Sullivan splitting the Gs with the lads over there. Although there's going to be a lot of McFinnigans and O'Sullivans this weekend doing just that. Kim Kardashian, Olivia Rodrigo, the Princess of Wales. All of them have been spotted recently splitting the G with the ladies. It's Ginsanity. It is. After 266 years, Guinness, which has never changed.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
Never. Is enjoying all-time highs. So Jack, what's the lucky takeaway for our buddies over at Guinness? One's company, two is a crowd, and three is a profit party. Yetis, there's actually a long history of viral drinktivities, including before social media. Jager bombs and Smirnoff icing. Classics. Both of those drinking activities catapulted the brands and boomed sales.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
But the underlying theme shared by all these drinktivities is actually that they created a group act. You're not splitting the G on your own in your apartment. No. And you're not smearing off icing yourself. Hopefully not. And this is a reminder how groups who share a product or an experience amplify its impact. If your product simply becomes popular, that's good.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
But if the product becomes popular, especially with groups, that's great. Besties, sometimes a brand can create that. Sometimes it just happens organically. But either way, one's a company, two's a crowd, and three's a profit party. For our second story, we just saw the biggest money heist in history, and this was a Bitcoin heist.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
This story shines light on North Korea's one successful industry, professional cybercrime. Yetis, Jack and I have been looking at the numbers and also our portfolios. And like all other risky investments, Bitcoin has lost its Trump bump. The price of Bitcoin is down to $83,000 as of this recording, which is down 25% from its all-time high. Yeah, it's now in a Trump slump.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
Ben, the Bitcoin, he got pretty bruised this week. And one reason for Bitcoin's decline in particular is the biggest theft of all time. $1.5 billion of crypto was stolen last month. We're talking about the world's number two largest crypto exchange, Bybit, which was, what were they doing exactly when the whole theft went down, Jack?
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
Bybit, which is huge in the rest of the world, but actually isn't active in the United States, they were just moving money from one of their accounts to another account. Okay, but then the hackers did something pretty sneaky. They secretly changed the address that the money was being sent to. Yeah.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
Minutes later, the CFO called the CEO, said they'd been hacked, and that that $1.5 billion he just wired is gone. Jack, I believe Butch Cassidy called this the old switcheroo. Yes, that's exactly what it was. And the result was the biggest theft in the history of money. We repeat, there's never been a bank robbery or the theft of goods as big as this. $1.5 billion was stolen.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
You know, you're thinking Batman, The Dark Knight. Nope. The Joker didn't even steal this much fictional money in that movie. Exactly. Now, Bybit did manage to borrow money from banks and from peer companies to remain solvent. So they have survived this blow. And this company has put a bounty out on the thieves who stole their crypto like they were Bonnie and Clyde. But good luck finding them.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
Besties, the TV you watch is about to go through Ron Swansification. But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Fantastic mix of stories, Jack. Pause the pod. We're asking for a five-second favor. A five-second favor that benefits us and you. We'll explain. Can you make sure you're following the show and auto-downloading episodes? We repeat, following and auto-downloading.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
Because according to the FBI, all of the hackers who stole Bybit's money, they're in North Korea. North Korean hackers who are protected and probably hailed as national heroes because they are part of a secret North Korean group. First, I want to sprinkle on some context. North Korea is one of the last command economies in the world.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
And Jack, how exactly would we describe a command economy over there? China used to be one, but they're not anymore. A command economy is when the government decides all industry, not market forces. As a result of being a command economy, North Korea produces nothing the rest of the world wants. And as a result of that, North Korea is living sadly in terrible poverty.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
Without funding from China, North Korea would collapse. But North Korea does excel at one thing. And that thing... is cybercrime. In fact, cybercrime is arguably, and we're going to argue it here, North Korea's greatest industry. Here's the deal. If Canada scouts its young people for hockey talent, North Korea scouts their young people for hacking talent.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
In fact, for the last 15 years, North Korea has put its top hackers into one secret organized criminal group called... Lazarus. Lazarus is best in the world at stealing money from foreign organizations by hacking and then giving that money to the government. And the government then uses that money to fund North Korea's nuclear missile program.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
So Lazarus and their crypto that they just hacked last month That became North Korea's government revenue. Yeah, what we're saying here is that Lazarus is kind of like the external IRS for the country of North Korea. Now, China and Russia are both very good at hacking and hack the United States all the time. But North Korea, especially pound for pound, is the number one hacker in the world.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
Yeah, as a percentage of GDP, North Korea, they're beating the rest of the world at the hacking. They're already a global pariah. They don't care about the reputational hit of being a cybercrime state. They're the best of the worst. North Korea denies it, but we're going to trust the FBI's evidence on this one. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies watching the biggest heist in history?
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
Crypto cannot reach its full potential until it tames the Wild West. Yet it is telling that the biggest bank theft of all time didn't happen in a bank. It happened in crypto. Real banks have security measures in place to prevent or limit this kind of thing. Today, the crypto community is glad that the new administration is regulation light.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
But Sam Bankman freed fraud and Bybit's hacking show that regulation can be too light. Yeah, get this. On word of Bybit's record-setting hack, half of their customers withdrew all of their money. That is a awful sign for the industry and they need to fix it. On the other hand, banks have incredibly strict rules that you must follow to protect customer money. Crypto simply doesn't.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
Some rules and regulation could actually help crypto, not just hold it back. Take it from a couple guys who do own crypto. The industry needs to tame the wild west. Now, a quick word from our sponsor.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
Both of those are actually huge for our business. Jack, could you sprinkle on some context, please? The podcast industry made a technical change. Basically, the industry messed with our download numbers, which is how podcast performance is actually measured. So, we're asking you to help us. Actually, we'll share some insider info because Jack and I are deep in the podcasting industry.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
For our third and final story, the election was a wake-up call for Hollywood. They've been underserving 150 million people. So instead of programming for Emmy Awards, executives are now programming for conservatives. Yetis, in recent years, the top shows on TV, they cater to... Honestly, Coastal Elites. Because that's who makes TV shows, Coastal Elites.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
We can tell you what was on the pitch decks for each of these shows. You ready? Succession, it was for MBAs. The Crown, it was for Blue Bloods. Shogun, Jack, who was Shogun for? Shogun was for foreign language film buffs who go to Dunkin' Donuts and ask for a croissant. Yeah, not our buddy Timmy, by the way. Ted Lasso has so many inclusive plot points.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
Great show, might have a case of too many men on the field. Now, each of those shows was popular, but... with the Hollywood producers themselves. And people like the Hollywood producers. But the problem here was that there was a bigger audience out there.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
The series finale of Succession, one of the greatest shows in Emmy Awards history, got 4 million viewers from those coastal elite types we just told you about. Looks like a pretty big success right there. But Yellowstone, a show popular with middle America, got 10 million viewers per episode. More people have seen Kevin Costner pee off a horse than have watched a single episode of Severance.
The Best One Yet
☘️ “Split The G” — Guinness’ viral surge. North Korea’s Bitcoin heist. Hollywood’s conserva-pivot.
So Hollywood, by and large, is left-leaning. The election was a wake-up call for their content. Art needs to imitate life. That's what Hollywood's now thinking. According to the Wall Street Journal, Hollywood is making a Trump pivot. They're tailoring television programming for the rest of America. Or as Jack and I would describe this phenomenon, Ron Swansification.
The Best One Yet
🍺 “Local Lite”— Kelce Bros’ light beer bet. Elf Beauty’s “Dicks”. BuzzFeed’s 1st social media app.
jack let's hit our three stories 15 years before this song two boys from the northeast met in the dorm they had an idea to cause a cultural storm it's the best one yet but the best is the norm jack nick that's it i don't even think they need to practice 50 that's a fat tip t-boy city on your at list if you know you know because we're ready to go we can't wait no more so just start the show
The Best One Yet
🤤 “Everything’s $3” — Matto’s crazy coffee. The CEO killer controversy. Louis Vuitton’s train bet.
Everything.
The Best One Yet
🤤 “Everything’s $3” — Matto’s crazy coffee. The CEO killer controversy. Louis Vuitton’s train bet.
Yeah, it was.
The Best One Yet
🤤 “Everything’s $3” — Matto’s crazy coffee. The CEO killer controversy. Louis Vuitton’s train bet.
My dad would love this.
The Best One Yet
🤤 “Everything’s $3” — Matto’s crazy coffee. The CEO killer controversy. Louis Vuitton’s train bet.
We got it.
The Best One Yet
🤤 “Everything’s $3” — Matto’s crazy coffee. The CEO killer controversy. Louis Vuitton’s train bet.
Whoa.
The Best One Yet
🤤 “Everything’s $3” — Matto’s crazy coffee. The CEO killer controversy. Louis Vuitton’s train bet.
We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
🤤 “Everything’s $3” — Matto’s crazy coffee. The CEO killer controversy. Louis Vuitton’s train bet.
No yogurt yurt. If you're lactose intolerant, you may want to skip a story.
The Best One Yet
🤤 “Everything’s $3” — Matto’s crazy coffee. The CEO killer controversy. Louis Vuitton’s train bet.
First, a quick word from our sponsor.
The Best One Yet
🤤 “Everything’s $3” — Matto’s crazy coffee. The CEO killer controversy. Louis Vuitton’s train bet.
Oh, that is a lead. I like where this is going, Jack.
The Best One Yet
🤤 “Everything’s $3” — Matto’s crazy coffee. The CEO killer controversy. Louis Vuitton’s train bet.
The
The Best One Yet
🤤 “Everything’s $3” — Matto’s crazy coffee. The CEO killer controversy. Louis Vuitton’s train bet.
Seven?
The Best One Yet
🤤 “Everything’s $3” — Matto’s crazy coffee. The CEO killer controversy. Louis Vuitton’s train bet.
Now, a quick word from our sponsor.
The Best One Yet
🏰 “Donald Duck Diplomacy” — DisneyLand Abu Dhabi. Elon’s Texas city. Russell Westbrook's AI funeral app.
True. Jack, three stories. Let's hit it, baby. 15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in a dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50%, that's a fat tip. T-Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, cause we ready to go.
The Best One Yet
🏰 “Donald Duck Diplomacy” — DisneyLand Abu Dhabi. Elon’s Texas city. Russell Westbrook's AI funeral app.
We can't wait no more, so just start the show.
The Best One Yet
🏰 “Donald Duck Diplomacy” — DisneyLand Abu Dhabi. Elon’s Texas city. Russell Westbrook's AI funeral app.
It's a true story.
The Best One Yet
🧃 “Hold the caffeine” — Four Loko’s return. Europe’s military stocks. Warren Buffett’s fave biz.
15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50%, that's a fat tip. T-Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, cause we ready to go. We can't wait no more, so just start the show.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Thursday, the new Friday. February 6th, and today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-Boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. If enough Yetis leave a comment today that they want a Super Bowl podcast, Jack and I will make an entire business-themed Super Bowl podcast. I got a few stories in mind already.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
The Super Bowl ad resurrected the career of the late, great Betty White. She went on Oprah. She went on Jay Leno. She went on Ellen. She even hosted Saturday Night Live at the age of 88. All because of a 30-second commercial on TV for a candy bar. Now, why was this such a powerful commercial, Nick? Well, the first thing we noticed is that it repositioned the job of Snickers in your daily life.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
Get this, Yetis. CEOs are hiring TikTok coaches to help them sell on social media. Or to figure out how to handle a selfie at that perfect 37-degree angle. According to NBC News, one water bottle entrepreneur hired a TikTok coach. At the time, she had zero followers. But that coach trained her on how to strategically post at the optimal time three points during the day.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
Before this commercial, people thought of Snickers as a candy bar. It was a nice-to-eat treat for yourself. But after this commercial, Snickers was seen more like a protein bar. you need to eat it for critical energy. So after laughing about 88-year-old Betty White getting gang-tackled into a mud puddle, you changed your mind about that Snickers bar.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
But besties, Jack and I jumped in T-boy style, and we discovered that it wasn't just Snickers' strategic repositioning that made it such an effective ad. It was actually something deeper. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Snickers? Great advertising acts like your therapist. Lie down on our couch, yetis, because there is a Freudian depth to an effective ad.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
According to the team that did that Betty White Snickers commercial, the target for the ad was young men. So they touched on a common psychological insecurity among young men. being left off the team, like not getting to be one of the guys. So the deeper meaning of this Betty White commercial, if you're hungry, you'll be seen by the guys as weak.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
So eat a Snickers and the guys will then hug you again and you can get right back into the game. That's a psychological level of depth that would make a Carl Jung cry, wouldn't it, Nick? Yeah, would you? In fact, that insecurity was so universal among young men, they redid that ad in 80 countries for Snickers. They actually made 10 versions of this commercial.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
touching on other common psychological insecurities of both men and women. Like Snickers said, the ones targeting women touched on the insecurity of looking like a diva. This campaign ended up being Adweek's campaign of the decade and won awards at the cons line advertising festivals.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
But most importantly, it saved Snickers because Snickers thought like a therapist and capitalized on the insecurities of men. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for the new Friday? Waffle House is reacting to the egg-flation situation with a 50 cent per egg surcharge. But who's at fault? It's Bird Flu's fault. Presidents don't control prices.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
For our second story, Xi'an and Timu prices are set to rise and shipping is going to take longer because of the new made-in-China tax. Remember what Barbie taught us. Nobody wins with tariffs. In practice, everyone wins. loses a little. And our third and final story. Snickers had the best Super Bowl commercial ever 15 years ago, and it starred Betty White. The Betty White bump.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
It was so effective because the commercial strategy was therapy. But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, the deep seek scare isn't affecting AI companies in America with big spending plans. The big tech companies all announced earnings in the last week or two. Microsoft is spending $80 billion on CapEx this year.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
Google is spending $75 billion on AI splurges. And Meta is spending $65 billion. They're all still craving NVIDIA's expensive chips. And second, fewer Americans are quitting their jobs. It's the highest level of loyalty at work since pre-pandemic. In 2022, the peak year of the great resignation, 50 million workers quit their jobs in America. But what about this last year, Jack?
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
Only 39 million people quit their jobs. It's the lowest level since 2020. It's the great gonna stay at my job. And finally, Uber announced earnings, but the big surprise was actually Waymo robo taxis. If you're in Austin, Texas right now, open up your Uber app. You're going to see an option to join a wait list for robo cab rides. It's now part of a partnership with Waymo and Uber.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
And the results were insane. Now she has 80,000 followers, a deal with Target to sell her product, and an appearance on the CNBC TV show Shark Tank. Her TikTok coach turned her into a TikTok pro. Now, Coach TikTok won't make you run sprints. No, they make you record hook lines. Coach TikTok doesn't make you do push-ups. No, they make you do CTAs.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
In Tesla's last earnings call, Elon pledged that this summer, self-driving Teslas would be on the streets of Austin with no driver behind the wheel. So it's basically a self-driving race in the Lone Star State's capital. Uber... And Waymo versus Tesla. Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Catherine Y in lovely North Carolina.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
Yesterday, we did a story on Spotify and we compared their earnings to the boy band Hanson. We said that Hanson was a one-hit wonder. But Catherine pointed out that Hanson is far from a one-hit wonder.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
They're a 30 year multi-hit wonder. I think Catherine is one of the girls I went to elementary school with.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
Hanson also has their own record label, their own beer company, and they go on tour almost every year. Mbop. Those are the only lyrics I know from the song, Mbop. That's actually the only lyrics in the song, yeah. Yetis, you look fantastic today, whether you got your TikTok coach coaching you or not. The best way you can help grow the show is a couple of things.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
First, tell a buddy, H-Y-H-T-B-O-Y. Have you had the best one yet? Second, tell yourself there's no I in team, but there is an I in viral. And then drop us five stars because that TikTok coach would like you to do it. Make an I, we'll see you tomorrow. Can't wait. And before we go, a happy 42nd birthday to Sarah and sixth birthday to Camille in Ellicott City, Maryland.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
Jack, a mother and daughter of Yetis with back-to-back birthdays, baby. Nick, you know we're expecting our third kid. I know, you could be like that. The due date is February 28th. Alex's birthday is March 3rd. They could have the same birthday. And Chelsea McKnight is celebrating a birthday in Harrison, New Jersey, and a happy National School Counseling Week to all the school counselors out there.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
Congratulations to Stephen and Corey Hoffman in Chicago who just had a new baby. Nothing like logistics when it comes to a baby. And Claire Ross and the entire Mixed Eat Up team in Detroit, Michigan launched a personalized restaurant recommendations app. They're fans of Gramercy Tavern. And it is fantastic. They bootstrapped their first fundraise and got a huge congratulations from us right now.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
Can't wait to check it out. And Carl Durking in St. Louis is the MVP of his soccer team. OG Yeti turned the whole team into besties, Jack. Thank you, Carl. And our buddy Santi, whose Latin American shopping app, SamSam, is surging right now. Jack, I ran into Santi in the Ferry Building. You show me the app, it looks fantastic. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-boy.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. Nick and I both on stock in Apple and Spotify. Quiche? No capiche!
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
And Coach TikTok doesn't yell at you from the sidelines. No, Coach TikTok will yell at you from behind a ring light. The only coach we didn't expect is the most viral one. The TikTok coach. Whistle not included. Unless the algorithm wants that jacket.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
For our first story, Waffle House is taking a stand on the crazy high price of eggs by adding an egg fee with egg prices close to a record high. We'll tell you who's really to blame. Now, yetis, every morning, Jack and I wake up. We find dozens of potential stories for this podcast. We call it our headline hammer. And Jack, what was the wildest headline we discovered yesterday?
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
Oh, I got a surprise for you too. What do you got? Oh, well, yesterday we did the story about the Philadelphia Eagles offensive line. Yeah. They weigh one metric ton, those five linemen together. You know their specialty, the brotherly shove. The city of brotherly love does the brotherly shove with those five guys. It's a work in progress, Yetis. We're going to get on this.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
100,000 eggs were stolen in Pennsylvania. The thief is still at large. Who steals 100,000 eggs? First of all... Jack, I'd spill 90,000 of them on me. I'm breaking all that yolk. Also, eggs are perishable. Not a good thing to steal. I mean, is there a black market for eggs? Because egg prices are out of control again. Again.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
Two years ago, Yetis, we covered this similar story, the egg-flation situation. We called it the frittata fiasco. Oh, my omelet. Because in January of 2023, egg prices topped out at a record high $4.80 per dozen after tripling in just the last year and a half. Couple reasons for this. The main one, supply. The last two years, we've experienced the worst bird flu outbreak in American history.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
Farmers are having to kill one out of seven egg-laying hens in America. Well, that bird flu that spiked in 2022, it's spiking again right now. Supply issue. Yeah, it's tragic, Nick. Farmers are slaughtering their entire flock to limit the spread of bird flu. But it's not just supply. Meanwhile, demand for eggs just set a record high for the 23rd straight month. Americans love eggs.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
And side note, the Ozempic effect is resulting in even more egg demand. People on Ozempic love eggs. It's like a light, lean protein. Well, you add it all up and egg prices are about to tie an all-time high set in 2022 at $4.80 a dozen. But the USDA expects the price of eggs to increase another 45% this year because of bird flu. At this point, you don't put caviar on your eggs.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
You put eggs on your caviar. But Nick, all the prices we've been discussing so far, $4.80 per dozen, that's the wholesale price of eggs. Right. Like the average restaurant is paying $7.79 for a carton of eggs. Which is up from $3 last year. And at Whole Foods, they're selling eggs for 11 bucks a dozen. The farmer's market in San Francisco, they take your children if you want eggs.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
That's the trade they make. For Valentine's Day, Jack, I'm just making Molly an egg. Oh, that's your fancy display of love? Yeah. It's a candle and an egg. Yeah. and shakshuka. But yetis, here's what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. The latest news is causing cultural chaos for eggflation. We have a Waffle House warning. Here it is.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
America's most iconic all-day breakfast chain is putting a 50-cent surcharge on every egg that you order. The Waffle House is adding a frittata fee. That's what they're doing. For example, if you add an extra scrambled egg on your triple play value meal, it's another 50 cents. If you you order a two-egg omelet. Another dollar more. If you order a steak and eight eggs because you're that hungry.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
Jack, that is $4 and you're going to have to pay in cash on that thing. A $4 surcharge on top of the existing menu price that you see. If you bring a whole high school football team to a Waffle House in Alabama, they would bankrupt the place if they didn't have this egg fee. Now, we ran the numbers, Yetis. The typical Waffle House sells 143,000 eggs every year.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
And it cost them 65 cents an egg, so... Each Waffle House spends $100,000 per year just buying eggs. A hundred grand just on eggs. So with the price spikes, they had to do something. But it didn't make sense to raise all menu prices. The problem is just these eggs. What we're saying, basically, is that eggs are the new guac. eggs cost extra.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
In the meantime, three fantastic stories for today's show. Jack, what do we got on the pod? For our first story, Waffle House is now charging a 50 cent surcharge for each egg that you order. Oh, my omelet. So Jack and I are going to tell you who to blame for America's current eggflation situation.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
Waffle House, probably not the only place that's going to start doing this. Looking at you, Wendy. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in the eggflation situation? Eggs are the perfect bipartisan reminder that presidents can't control prices. Yetis, this isn't a political story. It's actually a fantastic economic reminder for all American citizens across the political spectrum.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
Because under every president, there's one price that we freak out about and we blame the whole administration for it. One price that reflects inflation. Like with President Biden, he got blamed for high gas prices, but the president doesn't control gas prices. No, they don't. The OPEC oil cartel controls the supply of oil and the world economy controls the demand for oil.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
Well, now we've got high egg prices, so many are going to smirk and blame President Trump. But just like with oil, the president can't control egg prices. It's totally beyond his control. In fact, no executive order can fix a devastating bird flu epidemic, or change our appetite for eggs, or force Waffle House to kill the frittata fee.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
There's some prices, we should say, that government policy can influence. Prescription drugs, for example. But when it comes to commodities and food, eggflation serves as a fantastic economic reminder. Presidents don't control prices. For our second story, it's the Timu tariff. Stuff you buy on Shein and Timu will arrive slower and cost more thanks to brand new tariffs.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
But the best way to explain the made-in-China tax is with Barbie. With Barbie dolls. But yetis, if you're feeling tariff fatigue these days, well, sorry, you haven't felt anything yet. You saw a lot of headlines about Colombia, Mexico, and Canada, but those were tariff threats. Tariffs didn't actually ever happen.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
Exactly, because each of those countries offered concessions, so Trump canceled those tariffs this week. But with China, China is not an ally. And they're a much bigger and stronger economy that's less likely to cave to President Trump's demands. So on Tuesday, real actual tariffs went into effect against China, and they're happening right now.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
Now, the very next day, China retaliated with tariffs of their own on made-in-America goods. In fact, Beijing even threatened to investigate Apple because they use Chinese factories for iPhone production. And what president Xi wants, Xi gets. So trade war two has begun between the US and China.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
But yetis, if you're procrastinating on your phone doing a little online shopping right now, you may already experience the China tariffs that came into effect on Tuesday. Because those tariffs already hit Shein's cute tops and Timu's coffee mugs. Shein and Timu. The real-time, super cheap shopping apps that have taken over America.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
For our second story, Chinese tariffs began Tuesday, and they're hitting Timu and Qian with a double whammy. But the best person to explain the China tariffs is actually Barbie. And our third and final story, how did Snickers become the number one candy bar in America? It's because of Betty White, a Super Bowl commercial, and Sigmund Freud, the therapist.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
One sec, Jack, while I buy this $3 tankini and $2 pineapple pool float over on Shein. If you're buying something on Shein, shoppers are actually going to experience a double whammy thanks to this tariff news. And now full disclosure, Jack buys his toilet paper on Teemu. So this has already hit him hard. It's a personal story. I really don't take good care of my butt.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
But Trump's China tariffs also happened to close a loophole related to these two startups. It's the de minimis loophole. And here's what it is. Teemu and Tian send stuff directly from Chinese factories to American doorsteps, which allows them to ship shirts and shoe racks duty-free. It's a loophole. That's the loophole. That's why Shein and Timu are so cheap.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
But now that that loophole is getting closed, in the short term, your Timu haul is going to arrive later than it usually does. Because for the first time, Timu products will have to go through American Customs. And in the long term, your Timu haul is going to get more expensive. Right. Because for the first time, you're going to have to pay duties and a new 10% tariff fee on those Timu products.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
So if you're shoppy, shoppy till you dropy, dropy, you're in for some bad news at Shein and Timu. But Jack, I gotta ask, for the sake of your Timu toilet paper, who actually pays these China tariffs? We buy a lot of stuff from China. It's not Shimu and Tian. But who actually pays the tariffs isn't always clear cut.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
So the best way Jack and I can explain who ends up paying the tariffs is through Mattel and Barbie dolls. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in America? Nobody wins with tariffs. Everyone loses a little. Nobody wins with tariffs. Yeah, it is a funny thing, but Jack and I actually first said that back in 2019 during the first trade war.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
And one of our legendary listeners actually put it on a pillow for us. Amazing. We still have the pillow. No, I'm sure we don't. We left it at Robnett. Stupid mistake by us. But now that tariffs are a thing again with trade war two, it reminds us who loses with tariffs. And the answer is Barbie. And we'll explain with Barbie.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
Mattel announced yesterday that higher prices are coming since almost half of their toys are made in China, including the Barbie doll. So Mattel's profits could shrink if they pay the 10% tax as Barbie arrives in America from China. Or more likely, the consumer is going to lose because Mattel is going to pass on that tax to us with 10% higher prices for the Barbie dolls.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
Or the owner of the factory in China could lose if they lower the price of their manufacturing of Barbie dolls to offset the tariff. In practice, it's a mix. It is. The factory lowers the price a little bit, Mattel's profits shrink a little bit, and us consumers pay a little higher price. The only winner, you could argue, is the United States, who collects that tariff tax.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
But that tax revenue gets erased because China is retaliating on our tariffs with their own tariffs. That's the end result. Less Barbies get made and less Barbies get bought. And that's how tariffs affect the economy. Because nobody wins with tariffs, everybody loses a little. Put that on a pillow. Again. Now, a quick word from our sponsor.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
Every big moment starts with a big dream. But what happens when that big dream turns out to be a big flop? From Wondery and At Will Media, I'm Misha Brown, and this is The Big Flop. Every week, comedians join me to chronicle the biggest flubs, fails, and blunders of all time, like Quibi. It's kind of like when you give yourself your own nickname and you try to, like, get other people to do it.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Fantastic mix of stories. Love today's mix, Jack. The newest job in America didn't exist two years ago. TikTok coach. TikTok coach. Not tennis coach, not executive coach, not even life coach or coach coach. A coach for TikTok. That's it. There is no I in team, but there is an I in going viral, Jack. That's what a TikTok coach tells you.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
and the 2019 movie adaptation of Cats.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
Find out what happens when massive hype turns into major fiasco. Enjoy The Big Flop on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Big Flop early and ad-free on Wondery+. Get started with your free trial at wondery.com slash plus.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
For our third and final story, as the Super Bowl approaches, Jack and I found the most successful Super Bowl commercial ever. Here's how 15 years ago, Snickers used Betty White to sell candy bars to insecure men. We call it the therapy strategy. But Jack, back in 2010, what was going on? Can you lay the economic context first, please?
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
The Great Recession was still happening in the wake of the financial crisis. Apple had just launched the iPad after the success of the iPhone. Yeah. And you and I were close to graduating college. We were still in our roommate era. It was an economic feat. Well, for Snickers, 2010 was a bad year. What is a nougat? Nobody knows. Nobody knows. But Sales of Snickers.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
They'd hit an all-time low back in 2010. This is a weird stat we found. Back then, half of Snickers buyers wouldn't buy a Snickers the following year. So basically, the candy bar was getting crushed. Well, to fix that problem, for the 2010 Super Bowl, Mars decided to throw a Hail Mary. Mars, the parent company of Snickers, spent $2.5 million on a 30-second Snickers Super Bowl commercial.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
Now, you may have heard this yet. You've definitely seen it. We'll play a little clip for you. Mike, what is your deal, man? Oh, come on, man. You've been riding me all day. Mike, you're playing like Betty White out there. That's not what your girlfriend said.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
So what happened is after eating the Snickers bar, the guy transformed back into himself. He was no longer Betty White. He was no longer Betty White, the 88-year-old golden girl comically playing a tackle football in a muddy field. And what was the tagline in that commercial, Jack? You're not you when you're hungry. And what was the result of that commercial, Jack?
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
Snickers sales surged after that commercial. Get this, after falling double digits for a decade, Snickers sales surged 16% after that ad. Suddenly, after the Saints won the Super Bowl, Snickers was selling out in aisle six. Within two years, Snickers had become the number one chocolate bar on planet Earth. So this was the year 2010, the early days of social media. Yeah, good point, Jack.
The Best One Yet
👵🏻 “Betty White Bump” — The Best Super Bowl ad ever. Waffle House’s egg fee. Shein’s tariff trauma.
Snickers commercial was so good. It got 400 million unpaid impressions. People love talking about it on Twitter and Facebook. And that unpaid media value was worth 11 times Snickers' initial investment in the commercial. Here's a wild bit about this story. It wasn't just Snickers that got a bump. Betty White's career got a bump too. Yeah, Betty White got her own Betty White bump out of this.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Thursday, the new Friday, April 3rd, and today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. But first, yetis, we got some wild new data from Spotify that we got to share with you. It turns out only 82% of you who listen to this show actually follow this show. So 18% of you owe us a follow right now.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
Yeah, this was the biggest day for Nintendo since the gorilla discovered a barrel. But here's the price tag. $450. And the games, they're even more expensive. Which led to, Jackson, my big question. Why would you upgrade if the first console was already good? First, it's social gaming. That's why.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
Switch 2 basically added a microphone and a camera so that you can chat with friends while playing the games. They turned it into a social network. Yeah, they did. The Switch 2 is going to replace the meetup that previous generations did at the mall. And when you meet up in Nintendo's social network, the game you will be playing is Mario Kart World.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
Mario Kart World is the latest edition of Mario Kart. I think it's like the 25th version of Mario Kart. Yeah. But this one is only playable on the Nintendo Switch 2. And it's basically Mario Kart meets Grand Theft Auto. Yeah, it's not really Mario Kart World. It's more like Mario Kart Metaverse. Because if you play this thing in free roam mode, Jack, what does that look like?
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
That's a national record. We did the math. That's two inches every single hour, man. Oh, my God. This year, Japan's ski resorts have two and a half times more snow than they had last year. And we should sprinkle on some context that Japan's light, deep snow is legendarily known as Japow. It's a champagne snow. It's every dude's dream to ski Japow someday.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
It means you can drive off course. Instead of racing, you can just roam across this vast digital universe. Yeah, yeah. You can just like spend three hours out of your day touring Peach's Castle with your buddy Timmy who lives 30 miles away. And that's what you're doing in this game. It reminds me of Grand Theft Auto. You can just roam and mess around.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
Take a scenic drive with a bunch of friends riding other go-karts. And take photos together in Nintendo's metaverse. It's even got its own atmosphere. So if you do a race on the Koopa Troopa beach, the time of the day and the weather conditions will change depending on what the actual time of day and weather conditions are.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
If it's raining down in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where you're playing, it's going to be raining on the Koopa Troopas and the shells and the bananas you're tossing along the course. All right, so social gaming and Mario Kart World, which is basically Metaverse. Still, highest price tag ever, 80 bucks for games, 450 bucks for new hardware.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
We're talking a hardware device that competes with the phone in your pocket. It's half the price of an iPhone. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Nintendo? Nintendo prioritizes feelings over function, and that's how it's winning. Yetis, here's the reality. We don't need video game consoles anymore.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
Sales of PlayStation 5s and Xboxes, they're actually lower than their predecessors were. Because video games are increasingly played off console for free on a basic computer or a basic smartphone. Roblox and Fortnite, they are some of the most popular games of all time with no expensive console necessary. But Nintendo is the exception to this trend. It is.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
Because the Switch 1 sold 150 million units, which is more than the Wii and the N64 combined. Oh, Jack, bigger surprise. People have bought 1.4 billion Switch games in an era that other games are free. Now, Nintendo doesn't even have the most powerful processors or the highest budget games to offer. But their characters are the most creative, the most fun, and the most outside the box, literally.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
An example of outside the box? Nintendo Wii. That was a risk other game companies were not willing to take. No way they'd do it. So Nintendo, they prioritize feelings over function, and that is why Nintendo is winning the game. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for the new Friday? Trump announced tariffs much bigger than expected yesterday.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
34% for China, 20% for the EU, 46% for Vietnam. The list goes on and on. It was tea day. And these tariffs, they could bring some manufacturing back to America, but they'll also cost the average family $3,600 a year. For our second story, Tinder launched The Game Game, a chatbot to practice flirting. The flirtbot, because AI can create a judgment-free zone.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
And our third and final story, after eight years, we finally got the Nintendo Switch 2. Yeah, the Switch. It's not as functional as an Xbox, but it's got more feelings. But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know, Dak. Okay, we're jumping in further T-boy style on the tariff news. Those tariffs, they created some major stock losers yesterday.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
Now, while all that snow is actually a huge challenge for any resort, you know, that's a lot of snow to shovel. It's a huge opportunity for any skier stateside not satisfied with our snow. Because get this, it's actually cheaper to fly 6,000 miles over to Japan than to ski most mountains here in America.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
Apple, Nike, and the Gap were all winners in the 1990s as they outsourced their factories overseas. But all those stocks sank 6% to 12% after hours yesterday as their outsourcing is coming back to bite them. Overall, by the way, the S&P 500 is down 1.6% after hours as of this recording. And second, we got an update on the who's going to buy TikTok game, which ends on April 5th.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
Who's going to buy them, Jack? Amazon put in a last minute bid according to reports, although Bezos hasn't confirmed. Oh, and Andreessen Horowitz, the venture capital firm, they want to add TikTok to their portfolio. They're putting in a bid as well. Now, the deadline is this Sunday, but honestly, that's probably not a real deadline. We can't get fooled again by this.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
Which is why Jack and I are formally announcing. Our quiet bid for TikTok. And finally, more football news. NFL players will play in the 2028 LA Olympics. Yeah, new sport coming to the 2028 games. Flag football. Tag, you're it, Jack. And ever since that was the announcement, the big question has been, will NFL players be allowed to play?
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
Well, NFL Commissioner Goodell said yesterday, yeah, it's likely to happen. Will Tom Brady come out of retirement? If there's Dogecoin on the line, Jack, yeah, he will probably come out of retirement. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Philip Buster down in lovely Washington, D.C.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
Starting on March 31st, Cory Booker spoke on the Senate floor for a record 25 hours and 5 minutes, smashing the record for the longest Phil Buster ever. Okay, whether you're Republican or Democrat, it doesn't matter. It's just like a physical feat no matter who did that. So we looked into what he did. Did he eat during those 25 hours, Nick? Yeah, he actually did.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
He had protein bars and a banana mid-speech. We should point that out. Everyone's wondering, did he go to the bathroom? He actually didn't because Senate rules say you cannot physically leave. No breaks, no sitting, no leaning if you're going to hold the podium. I assume he didn't drink much water then either because- No, he stopped drinking the day before.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
And in terms of prep, he wore compression socks, marathon hydration prior, and a binder full of quotes and stories and snacks to keep him through it. Basically, a filibuster is the political equivalent of an Ironman. Yetis, you look fantastic over there. Jack, I'm looking right now and it looks like flights to Montreal to Tokyo. That's like 900 bucks, man. I think we can pull this off.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
It's a write-off. It's a write-off. If we discuss business on the chairlift. Yetis, remember to tap to follow the show and Jack and I will see you tomorrow. And before we go, a happy birthday to Yeti Diego Aparicio over in Miami, Florida, a finance bro who loves impressing the clients with the T-boy takeaway.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
And happy 25th birthday to Zivan Patel in Atlanta, Georgia, who's spending it over at the BAPS Temple. Congratulations, Julie Rich, down in D.C., celebrating the birthday with crab legs that are taller than her, and that is how you celebrate a birthday. Congratulations to Rob from Durango, Colorado, who's retiring. Kick it back, Rob.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
We repeat, it's cheaper to go and ski Japan's Japow right now than it is to fly to one of the American resorts and ski here. It turns out Japan is now an arbitrage opportunity for skiing and snowboarding. Nick and I crunched the ski math. Yeah. Let's look at Vail, Colorado as our example. Okay, Jack.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
And Paul and Joni in Hermosa Beach, California, are celebrating the best anniversary yet. And to anyone else who's celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock in Roblox and Amazon, and Nick and I both own ETFs of the S&P 500.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
Over in Vail, that's $700 for the flights from San Francisco, $300 for the lift tickets every day, and a four-star hotel is going to cost you $1,000 a night. So a ski weekend to Vail is $3,300 a night. Now, Jack, let's do the ski math for Hokkaido, Japan. Round trip flights from San Francisco are $1,000. Lift tickets are just $50 a day. And a four-star hotel is just $500 a night.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
So a ski weekend in Japan is $2,100. What we're saying is you could spend $2,000 to ski Japan's record snow right now. Or $3,000 to be stuck in a lift line over here in Colorado. It's cheaper to hit up Mount Fuji than it is to hit Mount Hood. Jack, it is cheaper to buy a week of sushi in Hokkaido than a bowl of soup over in Aspen. Now, I'm actually skiing this weekend in Vermont.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
Not as much snow as Japan, but happy spring skiing to all who celebrate. Jack, get on a flight. Just get on a flight right now. What are you doing? I know. Japan is deep, but people are buying the dip, baby. Japan's Japal is now an arbitrage opportunity. You heard it here first. Jack, let's hit our three stores. I don't think the arbitrage works as well if you're schlepping three kids.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
I actually think it does, Jack.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
So pause the pod right now if you're listening on Spotify and tap follow. Yeah, that way you won't miss any episodes, which, by the way, today's episode happens to be the best one we've ever done. So, Jack, three stories for today's show. For everyone following T-Boy, what's on today's pod? For our first story, yesterday was tariff day.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
For our first story, yesterday was Triple T Day. Trump, tariffs, and Tesla. Politics dominated business and economic news. Just the biggest day we've seen that ever happen. So we'll tell you what Trump's tariff, Liberation Day, means for your money. All right, yetis, let's talk about the first T, Tesla, because Tesla has just been accelerating in reverse lately.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
While SpaceX and X are both benefiting from Elon's conservative politics, his biggest company, Tesla, is not. Which leads to the news. Tesla announced that deliveries of their electric cars fell 13% in the first quarter. That's the worst quarter in Tesla history. But here was the shocking part about the Tesla news. Tesla stock actually rose despite those bad numbers.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
That's because of a report from Politico that says that Trump is telling his inner circle that Elon is going to be quitting his government doge role in the coming weeks. Investors just want Elon back at the CEO desk of Tesla, not wearing a suit and tie walking around Washington, D.C. But speaking of Donald Trump, he was the second T. Yes, he was. And he announced the third T yesterday.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
Yeah, tariffs. Trump announced at the White House a huge economic announcement that he labeled Liberation Day. Liberation Day. And here's what Liberation Day brought. Frankly, some huge tariffs. Trump announced reciprocal tariffs with a 50% discount. Jack, could you do some mathematical translation for us over there?
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
Whatever other countries are tariffing the United States, we will apply half as big a tariff on them. When it comes to tariffs, a half tit for tat. Now, we should point out that Trump's calculation of what other countries are tariffing us They included alleged currency manipulation and other trade unfairness that he didn't get specific on.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
But an example of this would be with China, where Trump says they tariff us at 67% based on his calculations. So what kind of tariff will we levy on them, Jack? Half as big. A 34% new tariff on all things made in China. Or Jack, what about the EU? Over in Europe, Trump says they tariff us at 39%. So we're going to charge them a new 20% tariff on all stuff made in the European Union.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
In fact, every country in the world is getting at least a 10% tariff. And Trump basically whipped out a map to show us how it's all going down. The image yesterday was Trump holding a chart with dozens and dozens of countries and the new tariff percentage that the United States is going to start charging. Where in the world is Carmen San Diego getting tariffed? 10% at least everywhere.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
Now, all of these tariffs are effective immediately, by the way, which means, Nick and I were thinking about it, Chinese-made iPhones are going to be more expensive starting really, really soon. Unless, like all of Trump's policies, everything is subject to change at a moment's notice. In fact, as you're listening to this, it may have already changed.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
Now, in theory, Trump's reciprocal tariffs mean that countries could drop their tariffs on the United States, and then we would drop our tariffs on them as well. Trump also said, hey, if you make your products here in America, your tariffs will go to zero. Now, there is so much to unpack from this story. This is like a jumbo jet worth of economic announcements.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
It's basically going to be the economic story of the year, of the decade, maybe even of the century. And now every country is going to have to decide, do we retaliate or do we try to make a deal? But the big question we were curious about is, what does the tariff news mean for your wallet? So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are everyone in America? The numbers are in.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
This trade war will cost each American household $3,600 per year. Yeah, it is. The potential benefits to America for Trump's trade war is more U.S. manufacturing. But Yale University's Budget Lab calculated the overall impacts, and overall, it's quite negative for the average American. Yale calculated how 20% tariffs across the board would affect the average American consumer.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
And we'll explain how we got that number. For our second story, Tinder just launched an AI chatbot to let you practice spitting game to a potential date. We call this hottie the flirt bot. And it actually highlights a key use case of AI. For our third and final story, after eight years, Nintendo finally launched a new video game console yesterday. It's called the Switch 2.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
So based on 20% tariffs, which I actually think the announcement yesterday was more than that, But 20% tariffs across the board would cost Americans $3,600 each year in more expensive stuff. Because those tariffs will get passed down to the consumer, and those extra costs would then hurt low-income households the worst, based on the estimates.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
Now, Donald Trump has said for years he doesn't believe what experts like Yale University say about tariffs. And he said he's okay with prices going up because he thinks it'll lead to more factories in America, which it might. But we do believe the economists at Yale University because we understand the economics of it.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
And Trump's new taxes, they will cost the average American household nearly $4,000 a year. For our second story, Tinder just launched an AI chatbot to test your pickup lines on, and we call it the Flirtbot. The Flirtbot actually highlights one of the biggest opportunities for AI. AI is a judgment-free zone. But yeah, it is. Let's start with some industry context right now.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
The biggest drama with dating apps these days, what is it, Jack? They're stocks. Match and Bumble are both down over 80% from their all-time highs. Everywhere we look, we are seeing stories about Tinder fatigue, and that is hitting the companies. You found love on LinkedIn instead. How'd you two meet? You both ran the same route on Strava. Adorable.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
Well, Tinder thinks they found the solution to your Tinder fatigue, and that solution is improving your game. This week, they launched a product called The Game Game, as in a game to practice your game. Now, what is this thing? Well, Tinder's launching an AI persona to test your pickup lines on. So in the Tinder app, you can practice out like, is it hot in here or is it just me? Are you a stock?
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
Because I'd invest all my time with you. I think you're a long-term hold. Now, Jack and I saw this story. We dove in T-boy style, and we decided to call this a flirt bot. Because it's designed to help you practice your flirting. Yeah, you talk to it in the phone. Like, are you compound interest? Because my feelings are growing exponentially. But here's the key to the flirt bot.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
It's not just for practicing pickup lines. It's actually gamified. Are you Wi-Fi? Because I'm starting to feel a strong connection. That's solid, dude. Yeah, now here's what Jack and I mean when we say that this is gamified. You win points as you spit game to this chatbot. And the goal is for the flirtbot to agree to meet you for a first date.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
Yeah, because flirtbot grades you on a three-point scale, and they measure your success with flame emoji. And how does it go down? Basically, the AI will reenact a meet-cute scenario. It's going to test you out in a scene from a rom-com movie, like straight out of a Hallmark film. So this chatbot will set the scene like this.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
You're at the airport and your luggage gets mixed up at the baggage claim and you and a beautiful woman reach for the same suitcase. Do you ask her where she's from? Do you make a joke about Delta? Do you offer her a ride to the hotel? What do you do? Now, if you make the flirt bot laugh, yeah, you're going to get three flames. That's a win.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
But if you make the flirt bot cringe, you're going to get some feedback. Like next time, don't mention your mother in the first interaction. Seriously, Tinder is going to coach you on how to say and not say the right thing. Now, the risk here is that you flirt too much with the flirt bot. The risk is that you spend all day chatting with a flirt bot and no time chatting with actual human beings.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
Yeah, so Tinder actually set limits on this thing. They've capped your usage at five game flirts per day. Although the cap is probably just to keep their AI costs under control, if we're being honest. Because this isn't actually Tinder's technology, is it, Jack? No. The whole thing is powered by OpenAI's ChatGPT 4.0 platform. Tinder bought a whole lot of enterprise licenses. Yeah, they did.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
So, Jack, I got to ask you, are you a Chick-fil-A sandwich? Because I'd wait in line for you even on a Sunday. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I messed up. I messed up. Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Tinder? That's what I meant to ask. The most overlooked AI use case, it creates a judgment-free zone. Yetis, Jack and I have been tracking how companies are successfully using AI.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
But here's the wild part. It is not as powerful and it's not as well funded, but it just might be more fun. fun but yetis before we hit that wonderful mix of stories fantastic mix of stories today love the mix over in japan they have a bizarre and wild problem that i wish i had here in vermont right now too much snow because get this in one single day last month japan got 50 inches of snow
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
And most of the time it's insights, cost-saving, time-saving, research, all that. But one key use case that's little discussed is that AI can assuage human anxiety. We've noticed that companies that offer AI to solve human awkwardness are finding success. Here's the opportunity. If a person worries that they'll be judged by another person, replace that other person with AI instead.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
Okay, one example we've seen of this, when you're learning a new language. Duolingo found that people learning Spanish prefer practicing their Spanish with an AI chatbot instead of a real tutor who might judge them. Or Jack, we've also seen this with therapy, right? We've seen a big jump in AI therapy startups that let you talk to an AI therapist because the person feels more comfortable.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
We even think this could work with doctors. If you're like a teenager who may be uncomfortable discussing real things with a real human. Like an STD, who knows? Like maybe you'd be more comfortable sharing your actual symptoms with an AI doctor. Hey, AI doc, what is this thing on my thigh? You're not nervous about that.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
Well, Tinder is now launching an AI for you to test pickup lines without social rejection. It's an overlooked opportunity in AI, creating a judgment-free zone.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
For our third and final story, after eight long years, Nintendo finally unveiled a new console, the Switch 2, which we're calling the Super Nintendo Switch. But the bigger highlight, Mario Kart just basically merged with Grand Theft Auto. Oh, Nintendo. Honestly, one of the most fascinating tech companies in the entire world. Their innovation has been insane.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
From the OG Game Boy to the Nintendo Wii to Pokemon Go. We're talking decades here, maybe even centuries. Nintendo, they just do things differently from Xbox or PlayStation. Every 10 years, they do something that is just wild. Yeah, remember we did a whole story last year on Nintendo's Infinite Game. What is that, Jack?
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
They don't do mass layoffs because they know if you're nervous about losing your job, you can't work creatively and create the next Mario Brother. Nintendo just does things differently, which leads to the news. They just launched their flagship new gaming console, which will make or break the company's next 10 years.
The Best One Yet
💸 “$3,600 per Fam” — Tariff Day’s price tag. Tinder’s AI flirt-bot. Nintendo’s Mario Kart Metaverse.
Eight years after launching the original Switch console, Nintendo just unveiled the Switch 2. Like the Switch 1, this new device can be played on a television or on the go Game Boy style, but this new device also has a microphone and a camera. More on that in a second. Nintendo stock is up 20% this year, just in anticipation for the Switch 2.
The Best One Yet
🎟️ TBOY Live Show Chicago… Tickets On Sale NOW
Yetis, Nick and Jack here coming at you from the T-Boy studio. Our next live show is coming to the Windy City. We are coming to Chicago. Chicago, home of da bears, da bulls, and now da profit puppies. The best one yet live is going to be at the Vic Theater in Chicago on Wednesday, July 23rd. We're talking a thousand seats. Hottest event in Chi-town since Oprah dunked on Jordan.
The Best One Yet
🎟️ TBOY Live Show Chicago… Tickets On Sale NOW
Tickets are available now, so grab them while you can. So besties, if you are in Chi-town, then share them with your whole office. Bring your whole family, bring your kids too. It's going to be amazing. I mean, honestly, there's nothing hotter on a date night than talking to each other about growth hacks. This is going to be our fourth live show. We did San Francisco, New York, Seattle.
The Best One Yet
🎟️ TBOY Live Show Chicago… Tickets On Sale NOW
Each one was special for different reasons. Yeah, here's what you're going to see, besties. First, we're going to perform our three pop business stories live for you. And yes, it is a performance. Then we're going to tell stories that we've never told on the podcast before just to our intimate live audience. Plus, we're going to bring Yetis up on stage to help us whip up the takeaways together.
The Best One Yet
🎟️ TBOY Live Show Chicago… Tickets On Sale NOW
Finally, a surprise legendary CEO and founder guest who is more disrupting than deep dish pizza is. Don't tell him yet. Don't tell him yet, Jack. And we always stay after the show to say hi to anybody who wants to say hi. Honestly, that was my favorite part last time, Jack. I'm a bear hug guy. Warning, I'm a bear hug guy. So besties, we'll have an after party too, but grab your tickets now.
The Best One Yet
🎟️ TBOY Live Show Chicago… Tickets On Sale NOW
We got a link in this episode description. Snag them while you can. We'll share details on the guest as the date approaches. In the meantime, celebrate the wins. Buy your tickets. Jack and I will see you then.
The Best One Yet
💤 “Snooze Pod” — We read Warren Buffett’s Shareholder Letter (to put you to sleep) 😴
One way or another, the sensible, better yet imaginative deployment of savings by citizens is required to prevail an ever-growing societal output of desired goods and services. This system is called capitalism. It has its faults and its abuses, in certain respects more egregious now than ever, but it also can work wonders unmatched by any other economic system. America is Exhibit A.
The Best One Yet
💤 “Snooze Pod” — We read Warren Buffett’s Shareholder Letter (to put you to sleep) 😴
Our country's progress over its mere 235 years of existence could not have been imagined by even the most optimistic colonists in 1789, when the Constitution was adopted and the country's energies were unleashed. True, our country in its infancy sometimes borrowed abroad to supplement our own savings.
The Best One Yet
💤 “Snooze Pod” — We read Warren Buffett’s Shareholder Letter (to put you to sleep) 😴
But concurrently, we needed many Americans to consistently save and then needed those savers or other Americans to wisely deploy the capital thus made available. If America had consumed all that it produced, the country would have been spinning its wheels.
The Best One Yet
💤 “Snooze Pod” — We read Warren Buffett’s Shareholder Letter (to put you to sleep) 😴
In a very minor way, Berkshire shareholders have participated in the American miracle by foregoing dividends, thereby electing to reinvest rather than consume. Originally, this reinvestment was tiny, almost meaningless, but over time, it mushroomed. reflecting the mixture of a sustained culture of savings combined with the magic of long-term compounding.
The Best One Yet
💤 “Snooze Pod” — We read Warren Buffett’s Shareholder Letter (to put you to sleep) 😴
Berkshire's activities now impact all corners of our country, and we are not finished. Companies die for many reasons, but unlike the fate of humans, old age itself is not lethal. Berkshire today is far more youthful than it was in 1965.
The Best One Yet
💤 “Snooze Pod” — We read Warren Buffett’s Shareholder Letter (to put you to sleep) 😴
The annual gathering in Omaha, I hope you will join us for, is on May 3rd. We are following a somewhat changed schedule this year, but the basics remain the same. Our goal is that you get many of your questions answered, that you connect with friends, and that you leave with a good impression of Omaha. The city looks forward to your visits.
The Best One Yet
💤 “Snooze Pod” — We read Warren Buffett’s Shareholder Letter (to put you to sleep) 😴
we will have much of the same group of volunteers to offer you a wide variety of Berkshire products that will lighten your wallet and brighten your day. As usual, we will be open on Friday from noon until five o'clock with lovable squish mallows, underwear from Fruit of the Loom, Brooks running shoes, and a host of other Berkshire items to tempt you. Again, we will have only one book for sale.
The Best One Yet
💤 “Snooze Pod” — We read Warren Buffett’s Shareholder Letter (to put you to sleep) 😴
Last year, we featured Poor Charlie's Almanac and we sold out. 5,000 copies disappeared before the close of business on Saturday. This year, we will offer 60 years of Berkshire Hathaway.
The Best One Yet
💤 “Snooze Pod” — We read Warren Buffett’s Shareholder Letter (to put you to sleep) 😴
The Berkshire directors and I immensely enjoy having you come to Omaha, and I predict that you will have a good time and likely make some new friends. February 22nd, 2025, Warren E. Buffett, Chairman of the Board. That's it, Nick.
The Best One Yet
💤 “Snooze Pod” — We read Warren Buffett’s Shareholder Letter (to put you to sleep) 😴
To pop a melatonin?
The Best One Yet
💤 “Snooze Pod” — We read Warren Buffett’s Shareholder Letter (to put you to sleep) 😴
Yetis, have a good 23-hour day tomorrow. Nick and I, we'll see you Monday. If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.
The Best One Yet
💤 “Snooze Pod” — We read Warren Buffett’s Shareholder Letter (to put you to sleep) 😴
So besties, we're going to help drift you off to bed, get some great sleep with the boringest business story that we could find. Because Jack and I are about to read.
The Best One Yet
💤 “Snooze Pod” — We read Warren Buffett’s Shareholder Letter (to put you to sleep) 😴
A decent batting average in personnel decisions is all that can be hoped for. The cardinal sin is delaying the correction of mistakes or what Charlie Munger called thumb sucking. Problems, he would tell me, cannot be wished away. They require action, however uncomfortable that may be. During the 2019 to 2023 period, I've used the words mistake or error 16 times in my letters to you.
The Best One Yet
💤 “Snooze Pod” — We read Warren Buffett’s Shareholder Letter (to put you to sleep) 😴
This is Nick.
The Best One Yet
💤 “Snooze Pod” — We read Warren Buffett’s Shareholder Letter (to put you to sleep) 😴
Many other huge companies have never used either word over that span. Amazon, I should acknowledge, made some brutally candid observations in its 2021 letter. Elsewhere though, it has generally been happy talk and pictures. I have also been a director of large companies at which mistake or wrong were forbidden words at board meetings or analyst calls.
The Best One Yet
💤 “Snooze Pod” — We read Warren Buffett’s Shareholder Letter (to put you to sleep) 😴
That taboo, implying managerial perfection, always made me nervous.
The Best One Yet
💤 “Snooze Pod” — We read Warren Buffett’s Shareholder Letter (to put you to sleep) 😴
Then we arrived at the other point that needed clarity. I asked Pete what his compensation should be, adding that whatever he said, I would accept. This, I should add, is not an approach I recommend for general use. Pete paused as his wife, daughter, and I leaned forward.
The Best One Yet
💤 “Snooze Pod” — We read Warren Buffett’s Shareholder Letter (to put you to sleep) 😴
Then he surprised us by saying, well, I look at Berkshire's proxy statement and I wouldn't want to make more than my boss, so pay me $100,000 a year. After I picked myself up off the floor, Pete added, but we will earn X, he named a number, this year, and I would like an annual bonus of 10% of any earnings above what the company is now delivering.
The Best One Yet
💤 “Snooze Pod” — We read Warren Buffett’s Shareholder Letter (to put you to sleep) 😴
I replied, okay, Pete, but if Forest River makes any significant acquisitions, we will make an appropriate adjustment for the additional capital thus employed. I didn't define appropriate or significant, but those vague terms never caused a problem. The four of us then went to dinner at Omaha's Happy Hollow Club and lived happily ever after. During the next 19 years, Pete shot the lights out.
The Best One Yet
💤 “Snooze Pod” — We read Warren Buffett’s Shareholder Letter (to put you to sleep) 😴
We're about to read the latest shareholder letter written by Warren Buffett. The letter written by the greatest investor in the world. He published it last week, but we'll put you to sleep with it tonight.
The Best One Yet
💤 “Snooze Pod” — We read Warren Buffett’s Shareholder Letter (to put you to sleep) 😴
No competitor came close to his performance.
The Best One Yet
💤 “Snooze Pod” — We read Warren Buffett’s Shareholder Letter (to put you to sleep) 😴
I never looked at where a candidate has gone to school. Never. Of course, there are managers who attended the most famous schools. But there are plenty, such as Pete Legal, who may have benefited by attending a less prestigious institution or even by not bothering to finish school.
The Best One Yet
💤 “Snooze Pod” — We read Warren Buffett’s Shareholder Letter (to put you to sleep) 😴
Look at my friend Bill Gates, who decided that it was far more important to get underway in an exploding industry that would change the world than it was to stick around for a parchment that he could hang on the wall. Read his new book, Source Code. Not long ago, I met, by phone, Jessica Tunkel, whose step-grandfather, Ben Rosner, long ago ran a business for Charlie and me.
The Best One Yet
💤 “Snooze Pod” — We read Warren Buffett’s Shareholder Letter (to put you to sleep) 😴
Ben was a retailing genius, and, in preparing for this report, I checked with Jessica to confirm Ben's schooling, which I remembered as limited. Jessica's reply? Ben never went past sixth grade. I was lucky enough to get an education at three fine universities, and I avidly believe in lifelong learning. I've observed, however...
The Best One Yet
💤 “Snooze Pod” — We read Warren Buffett’s Shareholder Letter (to put you to sleep) 😴
that a very large portion of business talent is innate, with nature swamping nurture. Pete Legal was a natural.
The Best One Yet
💤 “Snooze Pod” — We read Warren Buffett’s Shareholder Letter (to put you to sleep) 😴
Or you could listen to us read 2,436 words from Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder letter.
The Best One Yet
💤 “Snooze Pod” — We read Warren Buffett’s Shareholder Letter (to put you to sleep) 😴
And today's pod is the sleepiest one yet. We're here for our second annual Stock Market Snooze Pod.
The Best One Yet
💤 “Snooze Pod” — We read Warren Buffett’s Shareholder Letter (to put you to sleep) 😴
We're turning Wall Street into Wall Sleep. So shut your eyes and open your ears, besties. Close your spreadsheets and open your bedsheets. Let's travel back to Omaha, Nebraska. As a 94-year-old Warren Buffett describes how he makes every single investment of his life.
The Best One Yet
💤 “Snooze Pod” — We read Warren Buffett’s Shareholder Letter (to put you to sleep) 😴
All told, we recorded operating incomes of $47 billion in 2024. We regularly, endlessly, some readers may groan, emphasize this measure rather than the gap-mandated earnings that are reported on page K68. Our measure excludes capital gains or losses on the stocks and bonds that we own, whether realized or unrealized. Over time, we think it highly likely that gains will prevail.
The Best One Yet
💤 “Snooze Pod” — We read Warren Buffett’s Shareholder Letter (to put you to sleep) 😴
Why else would we buy those securities? Though the year-by-year numbers will swing wildly and unpredictably. Our horizon for such commitments is almost always far longer than a single year. In many, our thinking involves decades. These long termers are the purchases that sometimes make the cash register ring like church bells.
The Best One Yet
💤 “Snooze Pod” — We read Warren Buffett’s Shareholder Letter (to put you to sleep) 😴
Huge numbers can be hard to visualize. Let me recast that $26.8 billion that we paid last year in taxes. If Berkshire had sent the Treasury a $1 million check every 20 minutes throughout all of 2024, visualize 366 days and nights because 2024 was a leap year, we would still have owed the federal government a significant sum at year end.
The Best One Yet
💤 “Snooze Pod” — We read Warren Buffett’s Shareholder Letter (to put you to sleep) 😴
Indeed, it would be well into January before the Treasury would tell us that we could take a short breather, get some sleep, and prepare for our 2025 tax payments. Where your money is. Is Berkshire's equity activity ambidextrous? In one hand, we own control of many businesses holding at least 80% of the investee's shares. Generally, we own 100%.
The Best One Yet
💤 “Snooze Pod” — We read Warren Buffett’s Shareholder Letter (to put you to sleep) 😴
These 189 subsidiaries have similarities to marketable common stocks, but are far from identical. The collection is worth many hundreds of billions of dollars and includes a few rare gems, many good but far from fabulous businesses, and some laggards that have been disappointments. We own nothing that is a major drag. but we have a number that I should not have purchased.
The Best One Yet
💤 “Snooze Pod” — We read Warren Buffett’s Shareholder Letter (to put you to sleep) 😴
One story. You're either going to be really fascinated by this letter or it'll put you right to sleep.
The Best One Yet
💤 “Snooze Pod” — We read Warren Buffett’s Shareholder Letter (to put you to sleep) 😴
Despite what some commentators currently view as an extraordinary cash position at Berkshire, the great majority of your money remains in equities. That preference won't change.
The Best One Yet
💤 “Snooze Pod” — We read Warren Buffett’s Shareholder Letter (to put you to sleep) 😴
While our ownership in marketable equities moved downward last year from $354 billion to $272 billion, the value of our non-quoted controllable equities increased somewhat and remains far greater than the value of the marketable portfolio. Berkshire shareholders can rest assured that We'll see you next time.
The Best One Yet
🥤 Frappuccino: The Billion-Dollar Brainfreeze Starbucks Nearly Killed
yetis nick and jack here coming at you from the t-boy studio on our weekly show the best idea yet we go deep on the most popular products of all time and this week we took on the most viral drink of all time the starbucks frappuccino because odds are statistically speaking you're caffeinated up right now by a latte you sip this morning never get this starbucks didn't actually invent the frappuccino starbucks
The Best One Yet
🥤 Frappuccino: The Billion-Dollar Brainfreeze Starbucks Nearly Killed
A stark contrast to the dark, more bitter roasts that were very popular at the time. George is also pioneering single origin sourcing, meaning he buys beans from specific farms rather than from entire countries. By highlighting unique flavor profiles shaped by soil, altitude, and climate, or terroir, he's mirroring the wine industry.
The Best One Yet
🥤 Frappuccino: The Billion-Dollar Brainfreeze Starbucks Nearly Killed
The beans may look and taste alike to most, and economists may call it a commodity, but George is building in layers, tiers, and levels to justify higher prices. And the response from Boston consumers, I'd say strong to quite strong, especially from the students. They're loving this. They become top customers of George's premium differentiated coffee.
The Best One Yet
🥤 Frappuccino: The Billion-Dollar Brainfreeze Starbucks Nearly Killed
That painfully long road trip and the decision to uproot the entire family, it looks like it's paying off for George. By the mid-1980s, George is doing so well, he opens a few more branches across the whole area. For George, Boston really is Beantown. But there's one cash flow problem that threatens his entire mini empire.
The Best One Yet
🥤 Frappuccino: The Billion-Dollar Brainfreeze Starbucks Nearly Killed
College students make up a huge part of George's business, and these co-eds are skipping town for summer break. That's almost three months, a quarter of the year, where George's primary customers are just leaving him hanging. And the rest of George's patrons, they're not exactly lining up for a steaming hot coffee when the weather's sweltering.
The Best One Yet
🥤 Frappuccino: The Billion-Dollar Brainfreeze Starbucks Nearly Killed
No one's ordering 12 ounces of dark roast at the Sox game. Surviving those long summer months is tough. To keep his caffeine dreams alive, George needs to find a way to keep his customers coming in, no matter what the calendar says. Chicago is America's hot dog capital. New York is its Pizza HQ. Sorry, New Haven. Kansas City is the city of ribs. But in 1989, Seattle is wearing the coffee crown.
The Best One Yet
🥤 Frappuccino: The Billion-Dollar Brainfreeze Starbucks Nearly Killed
Thanks to the Starbucks effect, an entire industry of specialist coffee roasters and makers has sprung up in the Emerald City. In coffee shops across town, young people take a load off their Birkenstocks, roll up their flannel sleeves, and kick back with steaming mugs of dark roast. maybe while listening to the debut album of a local band, Nirvana.
The Best One Yet
🥤 Frappuccino: The Billion-Dollar Brainfreeze Starbucks Nearly Killed
acquired the Frappuccino. And it was an acquisition that Howard Schultz hated at first. Turns out the Frappuccino was actually invented by a small coffee shop over in Boston run by the biggest bean guru we'd ever heard of. So we're about to give you a taste of that episode. After you're done with that sample, go chug the whole thing at the Best Idea Yet, our separate show page.
The Best One Yet
🥤 Frappuccino: The Billion-Dollar Brainfreeze Starbucks Nearly Killed
But our guy, George Howell, he isn't here right now for the music or the fashion scene. He's on the West Coast for a working holiday. He's trading stories with fellow coffee connoisseurs, researching the latest roasts and seeking inspiration.
The Best One Yet
🥤 Frappuccino: The Billion-Dollar Brainfreeze Starbucks Nearly Killed
Because even though his coffee connection has become a chain of 10 cafes in and around Boston, he is still stumped by this summer drop-off in the coffee business. George steps into one of Seattle's preeminent coffee shops, Torfalzione Italia, and something grabs his attention. A barista is making a frozen cappuccino in a granita machine. Technical term there for slushy maker, by the way.
The Best One Yet
🥤 Frappuccino: The Billion-Dollar Brainfreeze Starbucks Nearly Killed
George asks the barista to mix up one for him, and he takes a sip. Wow. Yeah, this gelato-y coffee, this is unlike any brew he's ever tasted, in a good way, like even better. It's cold, it's refreshing, it still has a rich coffee taste that shows off the quality of the beans. Jack, could this be the solution to his summertime sales slump?
The Best One Yet
🥤 Frappuccino: The Billion-Dollar Brainfreeze Starbucks Nearly Killed
George inquires about the recipe, but it's so basic, he doesn't even need to write it down. It's just strong coffee, sugar, milk, and ice. As soon as he's back in Boston, he rushes to his kitchen and tries to mix up one for himself, but it comes out a slushy mess. He soon realizes the art's not so much in the ingredients, but in how to combine them.
The Best One Yet
🥤 Frappuccino: The Billion-Dollar Brainfreeze Starbucks Nearly Killed
So George calls up his right-hand man, Andrew Frank, to get him on the case. Andrew's official title is marketing director, but he's actually a lot more to George. Jack, would you call this guy a fixer? A trusted fixer. And just as nuts about coffee as George happens to be.
The Best One Yet
🥤 Frappuccino: The Billion-Dollar Brainfreeze Starbucks Nearly Killed
So George hands Andrew the challenge of transforming this recipe he discovered in Seattle into something transcendent, something memorable, something scalable. Even though the ingredients are simple, Andrew thinks the texture just isn't right. The ice isn't blended enough. The drink is more like a coffee snow cone than a smooth, refreshing beverage.
The Best One Yet
🥤 Frappuccino: The Billion-Dollar Brainfreeze Starbucks Nearly Killed
And honestly, Jack, it reminds me of something we've talked about that Steve Jobs has mentioned before, which is the simpler something is, the harder it is to do. In fact, Andrew spends years tinkering with ingredients, trying different methods of making the ice, and brewing a whole lot of coffee until it hits him. The problem is the granita machine. It just doesn't chop up the ice finely enough.
The Best One Yet
🥤 Frappuccino: The Billion-Dollar Brainfreeze Starbucks Nearly Killed
So he reaches instead for a frozen yogurt maker, and the results are immediate. The new drink has a smoother, velvety texture. Andrew gives George a taste, and that's it. Love at first sip. But Jack, we are not out of the woods yet because this new creation, it needs a name. So Andrew draws upon his skills as a marketing guru and finds inspiration in his New England roots.
The Best One Yet
🥤 Frappuccino: The Billion-Dollar Brainfreeze Starbucks Nearly Killed
Because in New England, a milkshake is actually called... You know what, Jack? You're from New England. Why don't you take this one? What's it actually called? It's called a frappe. An important note, it's not frappe. It's frappe. Just like when you go to Dunkin' Donuts, you don't order a croissant-wich. You order a croissant-wich.
The Best One Yet
🥤 Frappuccino: The Billion-Dollar Brainfreeze Starbucks Nearly Killed
A frap is just like a milkshake, but with coffee instead of ice cream. So Andrew blends frap and cappuccino to come up with frappuccino. Ah, rule number seven of marketing, portmanteau. Because two words together are just stronger than two words apart. So they've got the drink, they've got the name, now they just have to sell it. Now, pause the pod here a second, Jack, because a quick problem.
The Best One Yet
🥤 Frappuccino: The Billion-Dollar Brainfreeze Starbucks Nearly Killed
We dropped the link in this episode description to make it easy for you. So enjoy the whipped cream on top and the double shots of caramel. because a Frappuccino is an experience. One Frappuccino episode coming up. You hear those bells? Those are the historic Lowell House bells at Harvard.
The Best One Yet
🥤 Frappuccino: The Billion-Dollar Brainfreeze Starbucks Nearly Killed
They've kind of gone backwards in the entrepreneurial textbook, haven't they? They built the product before knowing if anyone actually wants it. They're just going with their guts, or more specifically, they're going with their taste buds. Yeah, they are. That's right. We are one degree of separation from Taylor Swift. That's right. Jason Kelsey loves the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup episode.
The Best One Yet
🥤 Frappuccino: The Billion-Dollar Brainfreeze Starbucks Nearly Killed
Which is another one we did, which is also fantastic. So after you hear the Frappuccino episode, go check out our Reese's Peanut Butter Cup episode. Again, we got a link in the episode description. It's a separate show. The best idea yet. You should follow it right now. After that, we'll see you Monday with our usual Daily T-Boy right
The Best One Yet
🥤 Frappuccino: The Billion-Dollar Brainfreeze Starbucks Nearly Killed
That means we're back in Cambridge, just outside Boston, back at the Coffee Connection, George Howell's very own slice of coffee heaven, which he opens in Harvard Square in 1975. Look at the distressed wood paneling, the carefully crafted art on the walls, the cushioned benches that are just begging you to sit down and stay a while.
The Best One Yet
🥤 Frappuccino: The Billion-Dollar Brainfreeze Starbucks Nearly Killed
Jack, look, there's someone in the corner wearing a turtleneck, reading the leaves of grass, sipping a mocha, probably writing the next great American novel. George has done it! He has brought bohemian artisanal coffee culture to Boston. Wicked! George's revolutionary approach is to import high-quality beans and roast them lightly, letting their delicate, nuanced flavors shine.
The Best One Yet
🙂 “South Park me” — ChatGPT’s animation studio. CoreWeave’s Snow White IPO. SoulCycle’ Fashion Stores
let's hit our three stories 15 years before this song two boys from the northeast met in the dorm they had an idea to cause a cultural storm it's the best one yet but the best is the norm jack nick that's it i don't even think they need to practice 50 that's a fat tip t-boy city on your at list if you know you know cause we ready to go we can't wait no more so just start the show
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
This is Nick. This is Jack. Welcome back. It is Monday, April 28th, and today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. If you want to be the most interesting person in the room today, Jack and I have the three best stories for you. Don't we, Jack? Yes, we do. Oh, yes, we do. What's on today's T-Boy, man?
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
Like the restaurants, they're using these ice cubes to justify inflated cocktails. Like what do we see on the menu, Jack? There's a $218 glass of scotch on ice. Not just any ice. Yeah. Glacial ice. And there's a vodka company whose liquid content in the vodka is the melted glacial ice. The only one not happy about this. is Bobby Boucher, the water boy.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
Well, we should point out, Jack, there is a huge carbon footprint when it comes to shipping glacial ice from Greenland. Yeah, there probably were polar bears harmed in the making of this ice. Yeah, this is more emissions emitted than your family over the course of an entire year. Shipping ice from the Arctic Circle made sense in the movie Frozen, doesn't make sense in 2025 modern economy.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
And yet, despite the ethical issues and the abundance of water to turn into ice everywhere, the global ice market is expected to hit 7 billion bucks this year. Ice, it's hotter than ever. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies? Sipping on global ice. Adam Smith wrote about this 249 years ago.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
Yeti's philosopher Adam Smith is the father of capitalism, and his work is the basis of modern economics. In his famous 1776 book, The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith wrote about the diamond-water paradox. Also known as the paradox of value. The thought is this. Water is more useful to us than a diamond is, and yet we value diamonds more than we value water. We need water now.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
Every day, literally to survive. Literally. But we're willing to pay 10,000 times more for a diamond than we are for water. His conclusion? Value has two different meanings. The first is the value of utility. Which is the value we find from water. And the other is the value in what something conveys. Like a diamond. which conveys status and wealth.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
So not only is that detail from Adam Smith an interesting observation, it also ironically relates to this story. Because $17 per cube glacial ice is a rare example of both of those types of values. Yeah, it's the diamond of water we're talking about. It is both a utility and a signal. $17 ice spheres from a glacier reminds us of Adam Smith.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
Less Lenny's bagels, more leftover lasagna. Ceviche Wednesdays? Maybe every other Wednesday? Because the lunch math, it really adds up. Yes, it does, Jack. Your average sweet green salad plus a drink, that's 21 bucks, my friend. And over the course of the month, if you do it every day, that's $441 for your eating lunch out budget. Well, since making a meal at home saves about 75% of the cost.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us to kick off the week? Slate's new electric car comes in at $17,500 after tax credits, but it's BYO screen and speakers. Amish style, baby. This car, it is Spirit Airlines in the business model, but the branding is JetBlue. For our second story, California just passed Japan to become the world's fourth biggest economy.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
Cali represents American economic exceptionalism. both for good and for bad. And our third and final story. Startups are harvesting ice from Arctic glaciers and selling them for 17 bucks a cube in New York City nightclubs. Ah, it tastes like polar bear. Adam Smith foretold of this back in his 1776 economic classic, So Yetis, Tell Your Buddies, about the diamond water paradox.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, stocks actually rose consistently last week. In the five days, the S&P 500 jumped by over 6%, which leaves the S&P 500 down just 10% from its all-time highs. Now remember, stocks fell as far as 20% on Trump's Liberation Day tariff announcement. It got bad.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
So the driver of the rebound, it's that Trump said he wouldn't fire the Fed, and he said he might ease tariffs, but he hasn't yet. Yeah, the situationship improved. And second, the city of Green Bay, which is the NFL's smallest city, hosted the NFL draft this past weekend. And on the first night, 205,000 fans came, according to the NFL. Jack, can you sprinkle on some cheesy context for us, please?
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
205,000 people is more than double the population of the entire city of Green Bay, Wisconsin. The airport terminal in Green Bay has only 10 gates. We don't know how they handled all these people. There are 10 gates within one gate at JFK. just to point that out as more context.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
Sure, there's like 13 A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J. And finally, Adam Neumann, the father of WeWork, just saw his new startup's valuation double to two and a half billion bucks. It's called Flow, and it's basically his concept he used to have of WeLive. It's like a subscription that gives you housing, food, camaraderie. I don't know, benefits, other stuff. Kombucha.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
And Adam said he even wants to IPO this new company, probably because WeWorks was canceled under his reign. Andreessen Horowitz isn't turned off by the debacle that was WeWork. Yeah. They're impressed by his dedication. And they now own 25% of the company. And time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Dylan Steinfeld, legendary Yeti from lovely Atlanta, Georgia.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
Okay, so to start your week, yes, aliens exist and they are gases. But hold on, 124 light years away? Yeah, yeah, it's pretty far. That's how far light travels in 124 years. Yeah, so when we see the aliens, they're just going to be so old. It's going to be hard to talk to the aliens. Where was that? Yetis, you look fantastic today.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
No matter what ice cube you are enjoying, remember to tap to follow us so you get T-Boy every single morning. Nick and I will see you tomorrow. Can't wait. And before we go, a happy birthday to Yeti Nicholas Katuki, the king of KPMG from the island of Malta, who's celebrating a birthday on the way to work. Happy birthday to Kala Luna from Chattanooga, Tennessee. Great name.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
And for Tima Nayak, also a great name, 37 years old, is a legendary Yeti with the best birthday yet in Columbus, Ohio. Congratulations to Zach Mesher, who's a dinkwad moving to Wilmington, North Carolina for a new job. Get this. he hit his goal of making over a hundred grand a year before the age of 30. Congratulations, Zach. Celebrate the wins.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
And Anthony and Lisa Scorsese have got a two-year anniversary, a beautiful anniversary down in Allentown, Pennsylvania. And a big shout out to Kelsey Black from Pflugerville, Texas, who testified as an advocate at her state house in Austin, Texas. This bookstore owner is also a civic champion. Congratulations. Thanks, Kelsey. And to anyone else who's celebrating something today, make it a T-boy.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
300 bucks a month you could save if you bring your lunch to work. So besties, you're swapping out the sweet green for your homemade Cobb salad. The only drama is whether there's space in the office fridge. Jack, you better write your name on those noodles, man. It's the brown bag indicator. Let's hit our three stories.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
Celebrate the wins. And if you want to get a shout out or you have an audio fact for the pod, just click on one of the links in the description of today's episode. This is Jack. Nick and I both own ETFs at the S&P 500. If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
First, a quick word from our sponsor.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
For our first story, a new electric car stealthily launched last week. It's backed by Jeff Bezos, and this is the most extreme concept in all of automotive. It's under $20,000. True story. It's anti-Tesla, and it's inspired by the Amish. Yeti is few actually know this, but there is a billionaire bingo card with all the billionaires competing against each other.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
For our first story, a Jeff Bezos-backed electric car company just launched. And get this, it's priced under $20,000. But here's the twist. This electric car brand was inspired by the Amish. For our second story, California just passed Japan to become the fourth biggest economy in the world. Cali is about to pass Germany for number three.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
You must own an artificial intelligence company. You must own a space company and a media company and an electric car company. Well, ding, ding, ding, because Jeff Bezos, the billionaire now has all four on that billionaire bingo card. And the electric car company that he invested in just finally launched last week. It's called Slate. It's an electric truck and SUV that emerged out of stealth.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
mode just on Friday. This super secretive company has been based in Michigan, and they're going to start producing soon in Indiana. I'm looking at this thing, Jack, and I got to say, it kind of looks like a toy. I feel like I'm looking at a Hot Wheels for Adults right now. Now, Nick and I think this car was designed specifically for syncs. Ah, the SYNC. Single income, no kids.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
That's who we think the target market is. Because this little pickup truck has only two doors and only 150 mile range. Yeah, so basically it's small enough to fit in your New York City garage. Basically Rivian's little brother, right? And it's priced at $25,000. That's almost half the price of the lowest priced Tesla.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
And after the $7,500 federal tax credit, this electric truck from Jeff Bezos would cost you just $17,500. EVs are known for being pricey. But $17,500, you can't find any other car that's that low-priced. But yet, here's what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. We were curious, how did they create the cheapest electric truck in the world? By taking inspiration from the Amish.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
Yes, the Amish. That Amish. Because the brand Slate, it stands for Clean Slate, because they stripped away every bell and whistle you could possibly imagine. So just like the Amish culture rejects technology and electricity, this electric car is ironically the first analog electric car. It's basically an analog car. There's not a single digital screen anywhere in the sphere.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
Yeah, the first thing you're going to notice is that this car is BYO screen, no screens. Where the infotainment screen usually is in a car, there's just a big holder for either your tablet or your smartphone. In fact, we love this. At the launch event for this car, they announced that the air conditioning knobs are going to be old school plastic knobs, not like icons on a digital screen.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
And when the audience heard that, they applauded.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
Because Nick and I both drive EVs, and we'll be honest, we miss the trusty old reliable knobs. Sometimes I'm like, why am I spending five hours moving my hands around an iPad right now just to turn the temperature up? I'm driving 72 miles per hour and I need to like tap the screen to go to the home screen to find the HVAC button to turn the heat up. Come on, just give me my knob.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
Yeah, give Jack his knob. So besties, here was the interesting insight from Slate. The main reason electric vehicles are 20% pricier than your typical car is the technology. Yeah, an electric car is an iPhone on wheels. There's screens everywhere, it's self-driving capable, and it's got voice activation for all the controls. Most Americans don't need those things.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
You'd gladly save 20 grand if you could go without the voice-activated butt heater, if you could. And that's the real innovation of this car. Stripping the car of all those techie features got the price all the way down to 25 grand. Yeah, it's a horse and buggy with a battery, like we said, inspired by the Amish. And we think a bare-bones EV like that actually has a lot of market appeal.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
Okay, but then here's the shocker. I got to pause the pod, Jack. Then Slate took this radical simplicity concept even further. The car has no stereo. Get this. It has no speakers. Get this, Jack. It has no paint. Like Henry Ford's original Ford Model T. It only comes in one color. Oh, you want a different color? You're a yellow kind of gal? Well, they'll ship you something called a wrap.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
And what is wrap, Jack? It's a perfectly fitted colored sticker that you get to put very carefully on every panel of the car. So you can make it a yellow car. You just need to very carefully apply a giant sticker. You have to DIY it yourself. Now we should point out, it does have cup holders. It comes with cup holders.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
But our story itself explains why California is so polarizing. And our third and final story. The newest startup trend is the oldest thing on earth. Glacial ice. 100,000-year-old ice cubes from glaciers are now a venture-backed business, baby. But yeah, it is before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. I can only afford one cube. Great mix of stories. Great mix of stories.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
And it comes with a speaker holder because they encourage you to bring your own like JBL portable speaker to connect to the phone that you also BYO'd. Mom, you forgot the jawbone. Now, Yetis, we've said there is always opportunity in the extremes. Well, Slate is the most extreme electric vehicle yet. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies with the $20,000 Slate electric car?
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
This car is Spirit Airlines, but with JetBlue branding. Yetis, Spirit Airlines is bankrupt now. But its no-frills business model disrupted the entire airline industry. Like Slate, they sold you the most basic service. Just a seat on the airplane for the lowest possible cost. Anything else beyond that? Well, you gotta pay extra just like this car. The Slate car is modular.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
It comes as a base pickup truck model, but you can convert it to an SUV, but that costs more. Yeah, it's like a transformer. So the base model is $25,000, but then you have to choose from 100 optional add-ons if you want another feature. So while Slate's business model is Spirit Airlines... Its branding is JetBlue.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
Because the branding is young, sharp, counter-cultural, it's basically targeting your surfer dudes over in Venice Beach. Slate's $25,000 Bezos-backed, Amish-inspired, anti-tech EV is the most extreme car yet. Because it borrowed the business model from Spirit Airlines, but the branding from JetBlue.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
For our second story, Governor Newsom just announced that California is now the fourth largest economy in the world. We're going deep on California's economy because it explains why the Golden State is so polarizing. And in order for us to explain it, we're going to have to turn to the artist and poet known as Tupac. Because California Love was published 30 years ago by Mr. Tupac himself.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
But California's not getting much love these days. No, Jack, I'm looking at the corporate scorecard here. Toyota, Chevron, Schwab, and all three of Elon's companies, where have they gone? They all left California for Texas since the year 2020. But man, looking at the numbers, is the California economy strong right now, Jack? Here's the news.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
California just passed Japan to become the number four biggest economy in the world. That's right. Ten years ago, California was the number seven economy in the world. Ten years ago, California trailed the United States, China, Germany, Japan, Great Britain, and France.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
But in the last decade, Cali has jumped from number seven to number four, to quote the Beach Boys, Jack, who also inspired Tupac, California picking up good vibrations. Now, if the growth rates of the past decade continue, then the state of California will pass the country of Germany to become the number third biggest economy in the world by 2028.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
Not only is California right now bigger than Japan, it is twice as big as Russia and Canada. And it's four times as big as Saudi Arabia as measured by its GDP. Now we know what you're thinking, besties. Nick, Jack, stop making these international comparisons. What about within the United States? Well, we did those numbers too, and it turns out California is America's biggest sugar daddy. Get this.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
California makes up 14% of America's GDP, which is larger than its 11% population share. Okay, Jack, could you sprinkle on some more context to the Golden State with those numbers, please? California contributes $83 billion a year more in federal taxes than it receives from federal benefits.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
It's an interesting, nuanced data point, but therefore California is the biggest donor state in the country by far, according to the Rockefeller Institute of Government. That's why we call California a sugar daddy. California taxpayers pay more in federal taxes than they receive in federal benefits. by $83 billion a year.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
And although Texas does have a strong economy, it is the opposite situation down in Texas. Texas receives more in federal money than it pays in federal taxes. By the way, in case you're curious, the third biggest state economy is New York, and they break even on their federal tax situation. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in California?
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
Couple weeks ago, we told you about recession brunette. Oh, the recession brunette when your usually blonde buddy starts looking more brunette. It's a bad sign for the economy. But there's another recession indicator that's already red flashing. And it's flashing in your salad. Introducing the bring your lunch to work index, aka the brown bag indicator.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
California represents American exceptionalism, for better and for worse. Yetis, every major macroeconomic issue that America faces, good and bad, is amplified in California. California has both the most wealth and the most homelessness. California is both the biggest innovator and it's the most powered by immigrants. California is the biggest producer of agriculture of the 50 states.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
but it's also most susceptible to drought and climate change. Okay, Jack, California is the creative capital with Hollywood and the music industries, but it's also arguably the creative crusher because it's the home of all the artificial intelligence companies.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
And besties, we just told you, Cali's economy is up to number four in the world, and yet what if it didn't have all that red tape it's known for? The red tape it's known for is why Toyota, Schwab, and Elon's companies left the state. It could be even bigger. Could be number three. The only thing California is not number one in is energy, finance, academia, and maple syrup.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
Which go to Texas, New York, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. I mean Quebec. I mean Vermont. Sorry, respectfully. Vermont has maple syrup per capita, okay? Besties, California is polarizing for all of these economic reasons. It represents American exceptionalism, for better and for worse. Now, a quick word from our sponsor.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
Every big moment starts with a big dream. But what happens when that big dream turns out to be a big flop? From Wondery and At Will Media, I'm Misha Brown, and this is The Big Flop. Every week, comedians join me to chronicle the biggest flubs, fails, and blunders of all time, like Quibi. It's kind of like when you give yourself your own nickname and you try to get other people to do it.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
and the 2019 movie adaptation of Cats. Like, if I'm watching the dancing and I'm noticing the feet aren't touching the ground, there's something wrong with the movie. Find out what happens when massive hype turns into major fiasco. Enjoy The Big Flop on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Big Flop early and ad-free on Wondery+.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
Get started with your free trial at wondery.com slash plus.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
For our third and final story to kick off the week, startups are now harvesting ice from glaciers and selling it as luxury ice cubes for a hundred bucks a tray. Glacial ice reminds us of a little known passage from the philosopher Adam Smith. Yetis, no country's getting more attention this year than Greenland.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
President Trump wants to take Greenland for its natural resources and its strategic location. 90% of Greenland's exports are seafood, but there are untapped oil and rare earth minerals underneath this giant island. But Greenland's most untouched resource may be its most abundant resource. Ice. Because they call Greenland green, but they should call it Iceland.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
Great quote from Mighty Ducks, by the way. Just want to throw that out there. Oh, by the way, I said land is the most valuable resource in the world because it's scarce. How about glacial ice? Ice, yetis. 8% of all the Earth's fresh water is locked up in Greenland's glaciers of ice. And that ice is gold. Because here's the news. Startups are exporting Greenland's glacial ice
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
as a luxury product at 17 and selling it in American nightclubs for 17 bucks a cube. But yetis, here's what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. We have told you before about the power of story selling. Glacial ice is the ultimate example.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
The BYO lunch instead of buying at the office? Yeah, that's an early sign of an economic problem. We call it the brown bag recession indicator. And right now, it's flashing red like a half-eaten burrito. Here's the data. More people are working from the office, but fewer people are eating lunch out. Get this. Sales at fast, casual restaurants across America fell 7% nationwide in Q1.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
Because according to the Wall Street Journal, in the last year, Greenland's government has approved 13 licenses to six companies to harvest their glacial ice. And one of those companies is called Arctic Ice. Here's what they do, Nick. They capture car-sized icebergs that separate from glaciers each spring and then cut them up into tiny pieces with a chainsaw.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
Okay, but then what do they do with them? Because I still got to drink this stuff, man. Then they ship those ice containers 10,000 miles over the course of five weeks to sell them in restaurants and nightclubs in the Middle East to the United States.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
Now, your most basic marketer is going to market these as cleaner and denser because they've been compressed in a glacial fjord, and that would be effective. But here's the story selling. That glacier is 100,000 years old. Yes. So that ice cube, it's made of virgin ice. This is why they're charging so much for the ice cubes. This is untouched ice.
The Best One Yet
🧊 “$17 per cube” — Glacial Ice startups. Bezos’ $20k electric car. California = 4th Biggest Economy.
It's never passed through a human before in the state of water. It's older than mankind. Plus, they carve the cubes, not into cubes, into spheres. So they're ice spheres. And that story selling of these virgin ice cubes is how they sell six cubes for 100 bucks a tray. That's $17 a cube. They turned a commodity into a luxury. Basically.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
This is Nick. This is Jack. Welcome back. It is Monday, January 27th. And today's pod is the best one yet. This one, it's a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. But Jack, how was the hot tub? I can tell you've been... Spent a lot of time there over the last 48 hours. Sure. I told you we had a mad day on Saturday, a mortgage appreciation day.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
But as CNN tries to launch CNN Plus again, we're looking at Ted Turner again. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at the new CNN? Markets are not the Marines. They will leave a man behind. Oh yeah, they will. Yetis, when Ted Turner launched CNN 45 years ago, he had this really good quote about the industry. He said, give people news when and where they want it.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
In 1980, TV is where people wanted news, and they wanted it 24-7. So that's what CNN did. But in 2025, people want their news at a different time and in a different place. New York Times realized this two decades ago. They did. So they made the shift from print to digital and from just news to lifestyle too. And honestly, you can see it in the New York Times stock price.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
Now CNN is finally making the change. They're finally remembering their founder's quote. Give people the news when and where they want it. Because the Marines, yeah, they leave no man behind. But if you don't adapt, the markets, they will gladly leave you behind. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us to kick off the week?
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
Novo Nordisk just released early trial results of what we're calling Ozempic 2.0. But the bigger deal, what is it, Jack? It looks like their weight loss drugs don't just make you eat less, they make you sin less too. If your credit card bill is too big, your doctor may prescribe Ozempic. Yeah, your financial advisor might, actually.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
For our second story, Kidz Bop has been selling hit albums for 25 years of child-friendly pop covers. Never underestimate the re-creator economy. And our third and final story, CNN is performing surgery on itself. And it'll have what New York Times is having. Because the Marines, yeah, they leave no man behind. But markets, they'll gladly leave you behind. But yetis, this pod's not over yet.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
Here's what else you need to know today. First, Puma, the sports apparel brand, has a profit problem. Stock of Puma, it dropped 20% last week like a pulled a hammy. Blame it on the new CEO. He tried to take Puma up market and make it fancy, but Puma's customers are kind of pissed about it. Good point of comparison, Puma's rival Adidas, their stock is up 50% in the last year.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
Fun fact, Puma and Adidas were founded by brothers who became rivals, and their headquarters are in the same city, on opposite sides of the river. But that's a story for another time. Second, home sales just fell to the lowest level in nearly 30 years. Get this, only 4 million homes were sold last year. Back in 2021, 6 million were sold. It's the lowest level since 1996.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
A villa in Italia owned by a single lady. The mansion in Mallorca, unmarried woman. Jack's ski chalet just outside of Chamonix. It's owned by Charlotte. Yeah. And yeah, she's single. But here's the fascinating twist, yetis. It is single ladies on both sides of the age spectrum that are snapping up all this real estate. That's right. It's both boomers and millennials.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
Blame it on stubbornly high interest rates and stubbornly high record home prices. If you're a millennial trying to buy your first home, this sucks. And finally, would you pay $3,000 for a used iPhone just because it has TikTok? I might. Yeah. Because here's the situation. Google and Apple have both banned TikTok from their app stores.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
But if you have it on your phone already, you can still keep using it. Yeah, so Yeti's Jack deleted the app to see what would happen. And now I can't get it back because it's not available on the app store. Apparently a bunch of people did this and now they will spend 3,000 bucks for a used iPhone just because it has TikTok already. Without TikTok on my phone, my productivity has soared. Soared.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by rocket entrepreneur Ricardo Dina over in San Francisco. We recently did a story on the size of the U.S. retail return industry. Basically, how many Christmas and Hanukkah gifts did you send back? Well, get this. The total value of returned goods in America is larger than the GDP of all but 19 countries.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
America returned $890 billion worth of goods last year. Jack, could you sprinkle on a little more context on that? So we returned more dollar amount of stuff than the entire economic output of all but 19 countries. Wrap it up. Yetis, you look fantastic to kick off the week. And if you know a single lady who just bought a penthouse, tell her HYHTBOI.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
Because we just did an intro about her whole situation. She's probably doing pretty well right now. So HYHTBOI, have you heard the best one yet? That's how we grow this show every day. Nick and I will see you tomorrow. Can't wait. If you know, you know that. And before we go, a happy birthday to Mark Messier and Wayne Gretzky up in Canada who are celebrating with some Stanley mugs.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
An happy birthday to Casey Haley in Knoxville, Tennessee. And Austin Jacobs turning 31 in San Jose, California, but partying in Tahoe, not too shabby. Well played, Austin. That's where I had my honeymoon, Austin. Good choice. The water's clearer than ever. And David C. in Fremont, California just achieved their goal of 150 words per minute.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
Reading, writing, speaking, we don't know, but we like it. And congratulations to Blaine Davis Johnson, who's got a new job in Kansas City, Missouri. Oh yeah, over at Crew, new wine bar, and he's got PTO and a 401k, not too shabby. Benefits, jobs with benefits. Not too shabby. And besties, if you want a shout out on this show, or you got a buddy who deserves a shout out, fill out the form.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
We got a link in our episode description. This is Jack. I own stock in Amazon and Disney, and Nick and I both own stock in Spotify.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
Because on the one hand, older women are living longer than their husbands, so they're buying a new home. the other hand, young working women are putting off marriage and treating themselves to a brand new home instead. And this combination has driven an unprecedented pop in the housing market. We call it the single lady home surge.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
It's all proof that you don't need a man, you just need a mortgage. And again, Jack, just to quote Beyonce, I got a gloss on my lips and a man on my hips. Sorry, I don't have another Diana Ross quote. But I got a condo in Cabo. You
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
Let's hit our three stories, baby.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
For our first story, the maker of Ozempic and Wagovi just revealed a new drug that is better than both. But there's also a game-changing side effect to this drug. You ready for this? You won't just eat less, you will sin less too. Take Ozempic, scroll less TikTok will explain. Ha! Seriously. Yeah, it is Europe's most valuable company. It's not LVMH Luxury anymore. It's now Novo Nordisk.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
You're not allowed to do any house chores or any work on your house. Just enjoy the house like it's a vacation house. Well, your hands are still pruney. I can see them from here, Jack. In the meantime, three stories for today's show. What do we got on the pod, man? For our first story, the maker of Ozempic just unveiled an even more powerful weight loss drug.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
Because Novo Nordisk created the weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, which are beloved by celebrities and taken by millions and millions of Americans. Yes, they are. But the trial results for their new drug, amicretin, um, Jack, what were the numbers? Novo Nordisk just published the results on Friday, and they got near-perfect scores in their early randomized trials.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
Novo Nordisk paid 125 overweight, obese people to take one shot per week for 36 weeks. Those that took this experimental new weight loss drug lost 22% of their body weight in the 36-week trial. That's more than a fifth of your body weight, 22%. Jack, that's like a leg. And those who didn't take the drug, those who took the placebo, they actually gained a little bit of weight.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
In fact, the average person who took this new trial drug weighed 204 pounds. Which means the average person who took this new drug lost 45 pounds in just 36 weeks. Again, it's like cutting off your leg just by taking a drug. What a wildly successful weight loss trial this was. Jack and I got more curious about this.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
And basically, if Ozempic was a breakthrough analogous to the nuclear bomb, then this amicretin result we just saw might be the hydrogen bomb. Now, larger, later-stage trials are needed before amicretin can get approval and eventually come to the market. But if it does, it could accelerate the adoption of these weight-loss drugs. It could make these weight-loss drugs like the new Tylenol.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
Basically, your buddies could be popping these things. Everyone at the brunch table's taking them. Although we should point out, they're going to be way more expensive than Tylenol. Because Yeti, this new drug results potentially in more weight loss, faster weight loss, fewer side effects, and some wild side effects we'll get to in a moment. So it's potentially Ozempic 2.0.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
I kind of want to say it's Ozempic 3.0. Okay. Now, it was such a big breakthrough that Novo Nordisk stock jumped 10% on Friday, adding $35 billion of value to the company. Not too shabby. That's like seven lifts. But there's an even bigger impact from these GLP-1 drugs that's emerging that we have been waiting to share. And it's going to affect your online shopping.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Ozempic? With these weight loss drugs, you don't just eat less, you sin less too. Now, we all know that these GLP-1 drugs, they suppress the chemical in your body that makes you crave food. Everyone talks about them related to food. But it turns out they suppress more than just your appetite for food. Yeah.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
New anecdotal evidence shows that these weight loss drugs actually reduce a lot of compulsive behaviors. Like drinking and smoking cigarettes and using opioids. Not just food and drugs. These weight loss drugs may also suppress your urge to gamble or even your urge to shop online for those cute tops. There's even some signs that these GLP-1 drugs reduce your impulse to scroll social media.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
If you shop online too much or scroll Instagram too much, the new cure may be Ozempic. For our second story, it's Kidz Bop. They've been making kids' versions of adult music for 25 years. Cardi B for babies. Kidz Bop. Their real innovation? It's the re-creator economy. And our third and final story. One week into the Trump presidency, CNN is overhauling its entire business.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
Now more trials are needed to measure the impact on these other compulsive behaviors. But if it turns out that these weight loss drugs reduce all of your uncontrollable and often unwanted desires, I mean, Jack, there could be enormous economic impacts on our economy way beyond the food industry. Ozempic could affect Amazon because people might online shop less.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
Ozempic could affect Instagram because you have less of a scrolling feeling. This is a huge topic to watch in 2025. Oh, you're buying too many Qtops on Timu? Maybe you start taking Ozempic. We want to see the results. Do these weight loss drugs also make you sin less? For our second story. After 25 years, Kidz Bop is still the power business in kids' music. Maybe even more powerful.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
Because Kidz Bop is the music industry's favorite training wheels. All right, Jack. Childhood CDs. Why don't you whip out the CD tower over there? I think we're listening to the same music from New York City with you and Rule of Vermont for me. Jock Jams, volume one. I had volume one, two, three, and six. Disney show tunes, greatest hits. Four, five, and 12. Now that's what I call music.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
Volume 27. Oh, so close, so close. But yet, despite all of those CDs, Yetis, the most successful kids music business of all is Kidz Bop. Kids with a Z. Even though CDs are gone, Kidz Bop has never been bigger today. We got fascinated about that, so we jumped in T-boy style. Yetis, Kidz Bop, they've been around since 2001. Jack, how would you describe this exactly?
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
They publish sanitized, child-friendly covers of popular pop songs. They basically child-proof the Kidz songs, is what we're saying. Yeah. Yeah. Parental advisory sticker. They basically just peel it off for you. It's off. They target anyone at four to 12 years old. Basically too old for Barney, but not quite ready for Beyonce.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
They'll take Blink-182's All the Small Things and turn it into a G-rated sing-along song for the minivan. Training wheels for T-Pain. They edit away the references to sex, drugs, rock and roll, and they replace Cardi B with the nine-year-old ensemble. Hang on, they don't edit out references to rock and roll. Did you mean like violence or something like that? I'm going with violence.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
I was thinking violence. Volume one came out in 2001. Who's featured in that CD, Jack? Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and my favorite, Smash Mouth. But sung by kids. And Jack, who's in volume 50 coming out right now? Songs by Sabrina Carpenter, Chapel Roan, and Taylor Swift. But again, sung by kids. Jack, can I read you an example of this? Because like, did you listen to Kidz Bop growing up?
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
Like, did you hear any of this? I did not. I actually, this is totally new to me. Let me give you a great example I found of this. Okay. Lyric changes go like this. Lady Gaga sang in a song, out in the club, sipping on the bub. All right. You want to hear the Kidz Bop volume 10 version? Yeah. Out in the club, eating all that grub. That is dad approved. But here's the news, yetis.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
Kidz Bop just released their 50th album. Yeah, it's called Kidz Bop Volume 50. So we're jumping into the business. In 25 years, Kidz Bop has sold 25 million albums. How consistent is that? Very consistent, Jack. And according to Forbes, Kidz Bop is now 23% of the entire kid's music category. They have 24 Billboard Top 10 albums.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
which is more than Taylor Swift, almost as many as the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. Again, if you're playing a kid's song to your child, one out of four of those songs is probably a kid's bop song. Basically, what Miss Rachel is on YouTube and Bluey is on TV. I like where you're going. Kid's bop has become for music. Nailed it.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
Oh, and they've expanded their revenue streams because they now do a live tour every year and collabs with Chuck E. Cheese and Lego. The funniest part that Nick and I found is that the founders are not typical entrepreneurs and they don't even do music. How did they even figure this out exactly, Jack?
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
Two dads with law degrees basically had expertise in structuring licensing deals that wouldn't violate copyright law, but still be pop songs that everybody knows. And the business insight here is kind of that both the kids and the parents are the customers. Because if you're a parent, you're probably listening with your kids and you control the dials. You don't want something you don't like.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
We're going to tell you why CNN is having plastic problems. media surgery. But Yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. I mean, fantastic mix of stories. There's no better mix. I love the mix check. To quote Beyonce, all the single ladies, all the single ladies. Because guess who's driving the housing market right now, Yetis? That's kind of a leading question.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
Baby shark. No, you don't. So the music is stuff that parents recognize, but kids also can enjoy. No offense to Rafi, but... So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Kidz Bop? Never underestimate the re-creator economy. Yetis, that's actually a takeaway Jack and I crafted four years ago, back in 2021, when Mr. Beast published a viral video.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
Here's the video's title, $456,000 Squid Game in Real Life. That video has almost a billion views right now. It got a billion views because there's huge business in recreating something that already exists. Mr. Beast recreated the game in Squid Game in real life. And that's what Kidz Bop is doing too. And it works.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
The artists they're covering, they're not just on board, they're enthusiastically on board to be covered. Because Chapel Roan gets licensing revenue every time an album is sold, plus future fans who listen to the Kidz Bop version of her tracks as they were kids. It's a gateway product. So creating something based off an original idea, yeah, that is one way you can do things.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
It's tough, but you can definitely do that. The other way is to recreate something. Never underestimate the recreator economy.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
For our third and final story, CNN is making the biggest business makeover in its 45-year history. There's been no Trump news bump for CNN, so they're going back to their roots. But yet is, if you think that there is just way too much news noise in the world right now, we know who you can blame. Ted Turner. He's the billionaire who launched CNN in 1980. Cable News Network.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
This was the beginning of the cable industry, and this CNN was the first ever 24-hour news channel. Which is kind of strange, because at 2 a.m., What is the news to report? Well, Jack, one second. Breaking news. Man who is reported missing has been found. He was fishing. He was just fishing. Thank you, CNN, for that breaking news. Yeti, CNN, they had a good run.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
For 45 years, cable news on TV, it was a great business. It was a profit puppy. Over 100 million American households were paying $100 a month for cable, and about five bucks of that cable bill went to CNN's pockets. But you know the story about cord cutting. Cable, it's been dying. However, there is one new twist that you should know about.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
Unlike in Trump's first term, Trump's second term has not resulted in a ratings bump for the cable news channels. That's right. Despite a thousand, I think, executive orders last week, CNN is not getting more coverage as they expected they would. In fact, CNN just had its worst ratings week in two years. It's well behind MSNBC and Fox News right now.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
According to Sotheby's International, the biggest new buyers of luxury real estate are single women. Jack, to quote Diana Ross, it's my house and I live here. According to the data, women were the sole owners of 20% of American homes in 2024. That is twice the percentage from just 30 years ago. And those solo ladies that are owning homes are also the fastest growing segment of luxury real estate.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
So the new CEO of CNN, Mark Thompson, isn't doing a makeover of the channel. He's doing a full-on surgery of the channel. He just announced last week 200 layoffs to the CNN TV division, but at the same time, he's hiring 200 new people for the digital team. That's right, Yetis. He's not just putting cosmetics on CNN. He's full-on rearranging the company.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
And CNN is actually inspired by a business model we've covered many times before. Where have we seen this, Jack? The New York Times. That's right. They fund their news journalism with other stuff. Because yeti's, the New York Times has defied the rest of the newspaper industry by developing a thriving games app, a thriving cooking app.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
They even have a shopping review business, Wirecutter, that is doing its best in years. That's why me and all my friends have the same spatula. Because we all just got what Wirecutter told us to get. Well, it's working for the New York Times business. Basically, everything we just described, the lifestyle things from the New York Times, subsidize their news division.
The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
And now CNN is going to launch something similar. There's a new CNN health and lifestyle business coming soon. And funny thing, Yetis, it's actually perfect that Mark Thompson, the new CEO of CNN, is borrowing a strategy from the New York Times. Because he used to be the CEO of the New York Times. Yeah, he literally is using the same spreadsheets.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
Yetis, Nick and Jack here from the T-Boy Studio. Right now, you're probably stuck in traffic or on a tarmac just trying to get home. Memorial Day, fun three-day weekend with two days of travel. So to keep you company as you're trying to get home, we're dropping an entire episode of our other show, The Best Idea Yet.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
Jens whips open his laptop and shows off their software's smooth panning, thanks to those tiles. And then Lars shows Larry something that really grabs his attention. Lars types in the word theaters, and then a bunch of dots appear on the map. Lars then clicks on one of those dots, and boom, up pops a list of movie showtimes. There's Shrek 2, The Incredibles, Garfield, the movie.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
Hell of a triple feature. To Larry, this is the answer he's been looking for. If Google had a map just like this, people looking for directions wouldn't click away to a competitor. They could stay in the Google ecosystem. Plus, to top it off, they could charge businesses to get featured placement on the map.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
Yeah, like, you know, meet me by that tall hill by the oak tree across from the sunset pond kind of a thing. Meanwhile, I, like, grew up in a city, so, like, if I had to meet someone on 5th Avenue and 14th Street, as long as I could count numbers, I was going to be fine. Right.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
But one thing, Larry thinks for this to work, the map can't be a separate program that people download. It needs to be a web page so that people can click straight through from Google search results. So just as Jens and Lars think they've got the deal in the bag, Larry asks them a question they haven't prepared for. Can you make this run in a web browser?
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
Jens musters all his Danish matter-of-factness and replies, Yeah, no problem. Jack, I gotta ask, is this actually no problem? Actually, Nick, he has no idea whether this is even possible. Oh, boy. But honestly, that's not important right now. What is important is that Jens and Lars have the deal of a lifetime right before their eyes.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
If they can make Expedition work on a web browser, Google will buy their startup. However, if they can't, they're both going to be fighting over who has top bunk when they move back in with their mom.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
But yet is, whether you are geographically literate or not, especially, though, if you are not, you're going to need a good map. And today we are talking about the single most popular map of all time. Nick, you're talking about a product that ushered in a new era for humanity, one where you will never get lost again, unless your phone dies.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
After three weeks of all-nighters and cranking code, Jens and Lars and their small team finally have a version of Expedition that works on the web. Time to give Google a call. And Jack, what is Larry Page's reaction? Elation. Yes. This is exactly what Google needs. And the moment could not be better. Because Google happens to be in the middle of a huge media frenzy.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
Since their last meeting, Google has raised $2 billion by going public in August 2004. Silicon Valley, it's recovered from the crash. So just two months after the IPO, Google buys Expedition. Yens and Lars, they hit their payday, baby. They can finally pay off their credit cards, which they maxed out during those 18 months of development.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
To this day, Google has never said how much it paid for Expedition, this little prototype of a digital map. But we've seen estimates that it was just under $50 million. And since Google knows it needs their brains just as much as they need their software, Jens and Lars get jobs and salaries at Google, too, as part of a new team called Google Maps.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
But there is no time to celebrate yetis because Larry and his Google co-founder, Sergey Brin, they want to move fast, insanely fast. Every day, they're thinking about the 25% of users they're losing, the one out of four Google searchers who have to click away to other websites when all they want is simple directions. So Sergey and Larry set an ambitious deadline.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
Google Maps needs to launch publicly by February 2005. That's just four months after the acquisition. Four months to go from mapping one square mile of Berkeley to mapping the whole of North America. Okay, so there's a couple of problems here with that deadline. Yeah, I'm stressed just talking about this right now, Jack. The first is actually an easy problem to solve, and that's the cost.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
Because Google is flush with cash. They have no problem shelling out $100,000 for map data from one of those companies for California. Even the millions it needs to map out the rest of the United States and Canada. Okay, but Jack, the second problem is the prototype that Jens and Lars managed to build. This thing is just a proof of concept. It is slow, and it crashes a lot.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
So when tech companies have a product problem just like this, they know who to call. They need a product manager. Yeah, they need a PM, baby. The Liam Neeson of the tech industry. So Google brings in a guy named Brett Taylor. Brett has a baritone voice as deep as his confidence. He is firing off ideas for this new map like he's a young James Cook. Oh, and one more thing.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
Brett is just 24 years old. Barely has six bullets on his resume. Now, this is actually pretty typical over at Google, giving huge amounts of responsibility to relatively inexperienced people just out of college and then fueling them with free catered lunches. You get tossed in the deep end. We're talking big projects, big responsibility, sink or swim.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
And our guy Brett, the new product manager for Google Maps, is a swimmer. He single-handedly rewrites the Google Maps code in one weekend. He makes it 10 times faster with much more streamlined code. This Brett Taylor guy went into the zone. He probably had a huge headset on, was pounding Red Bulls, taking breaks only to use the bathroom. Honestly, what this guy pulls off is so impressive.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
Simply put, without this product, Google wouldn't be nearly the company it is today. And so many of the apps we rely on, like Uber, Airbnb, Strava, and others, they wouldn't even exist. This invention, it lets you zoom out and view Earth from orbit, or
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
But it is nothing compared to what he goes on to do after Google Maps. Brett Taylor eventually becomes chief technology officer of Facebook. And he's the last Twitter board chairman before it gets sold to Elon Musk. And he's the co-CEO of Salesforce. And he's the chairman of the board at OpenAI right now. That's basically the EGOT of tech.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
As for Jens and Lars, they stay with Google Maps for a while as the digital landmass expands. But eventually, both move on. Lars leaves Google in 2010 to join Facebook, while Jens later joins Apple. But Jack, let's get back to the Google Maps launch. Thanks to PM Brett, they make their February 2005 deadline just in time.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
And when Google Maps launches to the public, it is the greatest step forward in cartography since the compass rose.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
legendary. First, Google Maps is an expandable map. You can scroll and zoom effortlessly across entire cities and beyond. Second, Jack, it's a navigator. You enter an address and you get directions in seconds. You're never getting lost again. And finally, and this is where the real money is made, you can engage with businesses.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
Click on that movie theater, tap on that landmark, or finally find that one particular coffee shop just outside of Copenhagen. without having to cross-reference multiple websites or dig through clunky search results. And this all happens in the web browser, just like Google wanted. No need for clunky software or extra downloads.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
MapQuest, Yahoo Maps, and all the others, they immediately start looking and feeling like 15th century Spanish treasure maps, but without the charm of Captain Jack Sparrow. So, Jack, how do people actually react to this? And, like, how revolutionary is this new thing? I think one cultural data point captures the public's response, Nick. Okay, what are you thinking?
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
Within just a year of its launch, Google Maps gets a shout-out in an SNL sketch. Lazy Sunday.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
Now, there's no better entrepreneurial validation than a name check in an Andy Samberg song. I mean, Jack, I think getting referenced in an SNL skit is the definition of product market fit, is it not? It's better than getting a Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavor named after you.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
But as powerful as the Google Maps launch is, what really pushes it into the stratosphere is a feature that Google adds a few months after launch. It's a feature that gives people a dizzying new way of looking at their world. We're sitting in a cubicle in an office supply company. Let's call it Munder Difflin. A customer service rep named Kelly is looking up the address of a supplier.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
zoom in and find your nearest coffee shop, and then gives you step-by-step directions on how to get there, see the menu, read the customer reviews, show you the vibe with a virtual tour, and even tell you how long you're going to have to wait for that mocha cookie crumb frappuccino. We're talking about Google Maps. More than 2 billion people use Google Maps every month.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
So she opens up her browser, clicks over to the Google Maps, and spots a new icon. Satellite view? What? What is that? So she clicks on it, the map flickers, and then, oh my God. The map is replaced by a photo of the whole area from above. Kelly lands in. She starts scrolling and she starts zooming, and boom, there it is. That's her neighborhood. Wait, wait one sec. That's her street.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
That's her house. That's her yard. That's her treat. No way. Within minutes, everyone in the office is gathered around Kelly's screen. Try the Grand Canyon. Wait, can you see Area 51? Soon, everyone has Google Maps pulled up on their computer. This is the most focused the entire office has been in living memory. Productivity? Dead for the day.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
The unanswered orders for printer paper and legal pads? They're going to just have to wait. Because Munder Difflin is lost in Google Maps' new satellite view. It's just two months after Google Maps launched, and it's already got an upgrade. And it's a big one. Satellite View. But the tech that makes it possible wasn't built by Jens, Lars, or the team.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
Now, ironically, this one is about Google Maps, the very thing that says your ETA is still two and a half hours. Two and a half hours in this episode, we'll go deep on how Google Maps was created and scaled into something used by billions of people every day. And how two Danish brothers wildly changed a map from a two-dimensional piece of paper to an entire economy.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
In fact, it comes from another recent Google acquisition, a company called Keyhole. Keyhole. It becomes the secret ingredient to Google Maps virality. But if we tell you any more, we'll have to kill you. Because Keyhole was actually funded by the CIA. Yeah, that CIA. Keyhole, they actually specialize in 3D flyover maps that let you zoom over landscapes like you're piloting a drone.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
Leveraging satellite imagery from NASA with images refreshing every 30 minutes. Keyhole software. was mostly being used by real estate firms to show off properties, but they were actually an early investment from the CIA's venture capital arm. That's right, CIA VC. Our nation's spy agency has been running a venture firm since the early 2000s called In-Q-Tel.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
The CIA venture capital arm has dropped $1.2 billion into 750 startups so far. And this VC firm has a win percentage that gives even Sequoia FOMO. But again, keep it on the hush-hush. Well, once Google integrates the keyhole tech with Google Maps, they buy up all the satellite imagery they can get their hands on.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
This is massive amounts of data that, until now, has been locked away behind paywalls and inside high-priced corporate databases. And now anyone can zoom out into space and then dive down and see their own house, their street, their town, their yard. It feels like you're operating your very own CIA spy satellite. It does, yeah.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
And don't forget, Nick, for millions of people, this was the first time they'd ever seen their corner of the world from above. So they're coming to Google now for the novelty of Google Maps. But then they stay when they see just how useful Google Maps can be in their everyday lives. This is what happens when a product delivers a feature so compelling that it pulls people in, literally.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
Before Satellite View, Google Maps was a solo tool. You used it to find directions on your own. But Satellite View made Google Maps go viral because it gave people a reason to gather in groups and stare at a map. That keyhole tech also powered Google Earth, which launched a few months later. But there is one heavy, heavy catch. Keeping all this mapping data updated is costing Google millions.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
800 people use Google Maps every second. And helping all those people also helps Google. Because it's estimated that Google Maps sneakily generates $11 billion a year of additional ad sales for that tech giant. But Google Maps' impact goes beyond navigation.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
They're stitching together different sources and trying to keep up with a world that never stops changing. New roads get built. The bodega around the corner closes down. Relying on third party data just isn't sustainable. even though it's what put Google Maps on the map. Google needs a way to map the world on its own terms. And its solution, it's not just going to save Google money.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
It'll give Google Maps another feature as mind-blowing as satellite view from outer space, but from the totally opposite perspective, the view from the street. Deep into the Mojave Desert, a motley lineup of all-terrain vehicles, rally cars, and family SUVs rev up their engines at a starting line.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
They look like rigs from Mad Max built for battle, ready to take on 132 miles of brutal sun-scorched terrain. But there is one thing that each of these cars happens to be missing, a driver. That's because this is the 2005 Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, Grand Challenge.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
It's actually a Pentagon-sponsored competition where the world's brightest engineers push the limits of self-driving technology. Up for grabs today, $2 million as the prize for the first self-driving car winner.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
Each vehicle is packed with sensors, cameras, and AI-powered navigation systems to help them dodge the rocks and navigate the ditches and somehow stay the course without any help from a human. The car looks like a Fiat designed by Frankenstein. Well, the starting flag drops and they're off. But instead of racing off into the distance, these vehicles slowly inch forward.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
Yeah, the tech is exciting, but this isn't racing Formula One style. It's 2005. Self-driving cars are in their very infancy. So these babies are literally crawling as their LIDAR, radar, and camera systems scan the route ahead for obstacles. And after a six-hour and 53-minute wait, Jack, we got a winner, a blue Volkswagen named Stanley, created by a team straight out of Stanford University.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
On the sidelines, there's a familiar face. It's Larry Page. He's trying to get inside the minds of the people building the future of autonomous navigation. After the celebrations die down, he gets talking with the leader of the Stanford team, a German robotics expert named Sebastian Thrun. Sebastian's broad grin, bald head, and love of loud shirts definitely make him stand out.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
It helped transform maps and the internet itself from something you read into something you interact with, turning the map from a single-dimensional tool into a multi-dimensional economy. But few people know the true story of how Google Maps began. Its origin takes us from the quiet coffee houses of Copenhagen to a Mad Max-style road race between self-driving cars.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
But what really pulls Larry in is Sebastian's early conviction that autonomous driving is the future. Sebastian pulls Larry aside and says, hey, I'm starting a company to build a massive database of streets to train autonomous drivers. And to do this, Sebastian happens to have an absolutely, I'm trying to think how to put this, Jack, stupid, crazy idea.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
Sebastian wants to send cars across America to map every single mile of road. each equipped with special 360-degree cameras capturing pictures of everything as they drive. The cars will also have GPS trackers to accurately record the routes, allowing each picture's location to be precisely pinpointed.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
They'll also eventually have laser scanners so that they can build 3D models of the car's surroundings. Larry immediately thinks how Sebastian's image database could be extremely valuable to Google Maps. In fact, if Google had enough of these special cars taking enough pictures and data, it wouldn't need to buy so much third-party map data.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
In fact, Google could go from a buyer of map data to a seller. So Larry does what Larry does. He makes Sebastian an offer. Google will buy Sebastian's photo-taking drive-the-world company and make Sebastian the head of a new secret project division called... Google X. His first project? Street View. Its aim? To record and photograph every single street on planet Earth.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
That's more than 13 million miles of asphalt, and we're not even counting dirt roads. At a constant 60 miles per hour with no fuel, sleep, or bathroom breaks, it would take you 25 years to record those 13 million miles of road. Sounds like an SAT question. But Street View does eventually happen. And soon, it expands to parks, to pedestrian routes, and even to the inside of buildings like museums.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
Like Satellite View, it becomes a fun feature that draws more people into Google Maps. But there also is another upside here. All of those photos we just mentioned and all the other data captured by the cars, it means that Google now has its very own up-to-date map data. And since they had 200 cars to do it, it didn't take 25 years.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
And they also uploaded Street View gradually, not all at once when it was completed. But project launches, they're like Bravo shows. You always gotta prepare for a little bit of drama. Someone's gonna flip a table. And when it comes to Street View, not everyone's happy about it. Some argue that because something is visible from the street, doesn't mean it should be searchable online.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
Okay, so then Google's got to deal with that. So they roll out automatic blurring for faces and license plates. And they even allow homeowners to request their houses be blurred. Barbra Streisand, you can breathe a sigh of relief. But while Google is busy mapping every lane, driveway, and cul-de-sac in the world, another revolution is brewing. One that will create Google Maps' biggest rival.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
When the iPhone launches in 2007, it's Google Maps that's one of the biggest selling points. Apple doesn't have its own map product yet, so they strike a deal with their rival Google. And Steve Jobs actually uses Google Maps to wow the audience at the iPhone unveiling. I remember that. Steve Jobs prank called a Starbucks that he found using Google Maps in front of everyone.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
Yeah, it was kind of a beautiful moment. You had Apple and Google just hugging it out. And within 18 months, iPhones account for more Google Maps usage than all other phones and computers combined. The ability to access Google Maps when you're out and about on a phone is the true magic of this Maps technology.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
But there's another upgrade to Google Maps that was made possible by having all these new iPhone users. Before Google Maps, live traffic reports came from helicopters and radio stations. But tuning into your local AM station to catch the traffic between songs just wasn't super efficient. Google Maps changed all that with crowdsourced traffic data.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
On the way, we'll discover how Google co-founder Larry Page found inspiration for Google Street View in the middle of the desert. No, we're not talking about Burning Man. And even the CIA is going to get involved. So besties, let's hit the road. Jack, I'm calling shotgun. The destination is on your left. Here's why Google Maps is the best idea yet. From Wondery and T-Boy, I'm Nick Martell.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
Every phone was a data point that lets Google Maps track congestion in real time and then overlay it on the map and even alter your route if it sees that there's a traffic jam ahead. So add all this up and this seems like a huge win-win for Apple and for Google. But Google is about to mess with Apple's compass and turn this whole partnership from friendly to frenemy. Here's the tech tea.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
When Google announces Android, its own mobile operating system, for a rival to the iPhone, Steve Jobs calls it grand theft, and he declares thermonuclear war against Google. Those are actual quotes. You do not want to mess with Steve Jobs. And then in 2009, Google escalates things even further with a huge new feature, turn-by-turn navigation.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
This means you didn't have to memorize routes or check your phone at red lights. Now, your phone would speak to you, guiding you with real-time voice directions. And crucially, it never corrected you if you made a wrong turn. It just updated the route, recalculating. More on that feature in a minute. Okay, but Jack, that's where Apple lost it, right? Yeah.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
Because Google makes turn-by-turn navigation available only on Android. Oh, boy. They gate this awesome new feature. iPhone users, you still got to memorize the directions. It made the iPhone in some ways inferior to Android phones. Steve Jobs, not a fan of looking inferior. So that was a breaking point for Steve Jobs. And that's when he orders Apple Maps into development.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
He was determined to cut out Google entirely. He never again wants to be dependent on someone else's software. No, he does not. Now, sadly, Steve passes away in 2011. And when Apple Maps actually launches in 2012, oh, this was a disaster. Do you remember this? Misplaced towns, misplaced landmarks. Like, I think at one point they wrote interstate 280 instead of interstate.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
Now, Apple fixes the issues pretty quickly. But to this day, Google Maps is still on top. Now, neither Google nor Apple give exact user numbers, but the best estimate we could find is that Google Maps has 2 billion monthly users. On the other hand, Apple Maps has somewhere between 200 and 600 million users. Oh, and remember how Google wanted a map to support its search engine?
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
Well, the map actually became just as important as search. For many local businesses, coming out on top in Google Maps searches is essential to their profitability. And so they are willing to pay Google for the placement on the map. And by 2018, business listings on Google Maps were more than an address and a phone number.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
They were more like mini websites with reviews, photos, opening hours, and even a button to book a table or to order food. That Danish pastry-fueled vision that Jens Rasmussen had back in 2003? It actually came true. And it's not just brick-and-mortar stores, because Google Maps ends up powering a huge part of the entire app economy.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
From Uber to DoorDash to Tinder, anytime you need to find something, it's probably using Google Maps technology. No Google Maps, no Tinder weddings. All right, Magellan. So we've gone from Copenhagen with Danish Brothers to Google's IPO to the Mojave Desert to driving across every road on the planet. Jack, we are almost at the finish, baby. This has been a journey, man.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
Oh, it's been a journey with no bathroom breaks. Jack, could you please pull over this podcast for a moment, though, and tell us what's your takeaway from the Google Maps story? If you build a platform, others may do the work for you. Google Maps became way more than just directions. It became an essential discovery platform, matching customers with businesses.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
Nick, a couple summers when I was in high school, I had to intern for my dad and he wanted to make sure that he would show up if someone Googled lawyer in Vermont. Obviously, he made me set up this business account on Google Maps. That checks out. But Nick, it wasn't just my dad.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
And I'm Jack Kravici-Kramer. And this is the best idea yet. The untold origin stories of the products you're obsessed with. And the bold risk takers who made them go viral.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
Thousands of businesses quickly realized how critical Google Maps was, so they set up their own listings on the platform. Because if you don't appear on Google Maps, then you may as well not exist for thousands of customers. So this basically incentivized businesses to keep their information on Google Maps up to date.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
Combined with the customer reviews, it made for like a rich new type of content that kept people coming back to Google Maps, even if they weren't getting directions to go anywhere. And you saw how expensive it can be to update the data on your map. They had to pay those external providers. Well, if you have a platform, people will update the map for you. Yes. What's your takeaway, Nick?
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
jack my takeaway is simple don't correct the customer look one of the most surprising innovations in google maps wasn't that technical it was actually behavioral early turn by turn navigation systems remember they would insist that you turn around or backtrack if you missed a turn well The researchers at Google Maps realized people hate being told they're wrong.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
So instead of forcing users to follow a rigid route, Google Maps recalculated on the fly, seamlessly adjusting to whatever direction you wanted to go. By removing the frustration of a must-do-it-our-way approach, Google Maps made navigation smarter and more likable. So remember, whenever possible, don't correct the customer. Redirect them instead.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
All right, it's time for my absolute favorite part of the show, the best facts yet. The best facts yet, the hero stats, facts, and surprises we discovered in our research, but we just couldn't fit into the story. Jack, let them rip. What do you got for Google Maps? Google Maps once accidentally deleted an entire country. They caused a war in the year 2010.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
Google Maps accidentally erased Costa Rica's border, causing a military conflict between Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Nicaragua invaded a section of land citing Google Maps as proof that it was theirs. Google's war room got to work and they had to fix the border as soon as possible, but they had to do it manually.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
Now, Jack, remember when I was telling you about how rural folk are better at the directions than us urban folk over here? I remember that. Well, if you rely on Google Maps too much, that could create a cranial problem. Really?
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
Research has shown that reliance on GPS directions like Google Maps could reduce the functioning of your hippocampus, the part of your brain that is critical for forming memories and learning. I do feel very accomplished every time I actually read the signs on the highway instead of just using my Google Maps. Sometimes I'm like, I'm trying to prove it to myself that I can still do this.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
In the meantime, Jack's the one who could actually tell us where the oak tree is next to the small hill across from that sunrise pond.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
Well, we did make it to the end of the episode, Jack. And you know what? I feel smarter for doing so. And that, my friends, is why Google Maps is the best idea yet. Coming up on the next episode of The Best Idea Yet, quite possibly the most refreshing episode we've ever done. Because we're popping open a can. Of LaCroix Sparkling Water. Pamplemousse, please. Yetis, you look fantastic over there.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
That is a sample of our weekly show, The Best Idea Yet. We've covered over 30 other viral products already.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
From Goldfish Crackers to the Ninja Turtles to MTV. If you like tech, you would also like the story we did on the Apple iPhone. You got to hear that one. That one's great. And our most popular episode so far is Costco's Kirkland brand. Although Jack and I had a lot of fun with the Juicy Couture episode. That one's also legendary. If you love T-Boy, you're going to love the best idea yet too.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
So tap the link we put in this episode description to follow that show and listen every single week. We'll see you tomorrow. If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
Jens Rasmussen frowns at his computer screen in Denmark as he drums his figures against the desk as he waits. He's searching for directions to a tiny cafe on the outskirts of Copenhagen, one that he remembers from his childhood, tucked away on a side street whose name escapes him.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
Finally, the website he's using, MapQuest, starts slowly loading a featureless maze of streets, their names crammed along them in squashed font. Jens squints a bit, and he thinks he recognizes the area, if only he could zoom out a little to get some context, but he hesitates.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
If he clicks the zoom button, he'll have to endure another frustrating wait as MapQuest redraws and then reloads the entire map. Jens exhales sharply, then he curses in Danish. It's 2003. There has to be a better way, he thinks. Now, a lot of people would get up from their computer in frustration and just pick out a different, closer coffee shop.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
But Jens, he's the type of guy who gets fixated on things. And right now, the wheels in his mind are cranking. What if digital maps could be better? What if they weren't just static pictures? What if you could freely pan, scroll and explore them and then get more than just direction, but information like movie listings, restaurant menus, opening hours.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
So after this, make a U-turn and go subscribe to The Best Idea Yet. We put a link in the episode description. You're going to love it. But in the meantime, Jack, let's hit the show. Jack, would you say that the world breaks down into two types of people? Those who have a sense of direction and those who simply do not. Yeah, I think that's pretty accurate.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
Maps could be more than just a way to help you find your way. They could help you live your life. So Jens, he's got some momentum now, and he gets on the phone with his big brother Lars. Both these guys, they are talented coders. They actually both worked in Silicon Valley, and they both recently lost their jobs in the dot-com crash.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
Once again, nothing kicks off an entrepreneurial innovation quite like an economic downturn. the recurring supporting character of our podcast. Jens recently returned to Denmark and money is tight, so he's moved back in with his mom. But Lars stayed in California's Bay Area. He's sharing a house in Berkeley and trying to land a new tech job.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
Jens and Lars, what great Danish names for a couple of brothers, right, Jack? They sound like a couple of contestants in the world's strongest man competition. They probably grew up engineering Legos together. They look really similar. I mean, they could both fit into a police lineup of Nordic lumberjacks. but they have very different vibes. Lars is more by the book.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
He's got a PhD in computer science. While Jens, he's more of a tear up the book kind of thinker. Creative, brilliant programmer. He's a pessimist who dropped out of college, but he also channels his pessimism into finding solutions to problems.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
So when Lars in California gets a collect call from Jens, he's happy to accept the charges because he knows if Jens is making an effort to call, he's probably found a massive problem and more importantly, a brilliant idea for how to fix it. Jens just goes off on how crappy MapQuest is. I mean, he's just shredding this software. Do you remember MapQuest, by the way?
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
I just remember printing MapQuest from my printer. Yeah, we would like have a youth hockey game on Long Island and my dad would have 12 sheets of paper printed out just to get us off the LIE. But back to our two brothers here. Jens hits Lars with the solution. It's a solution that actually comes in two parts. The first part is tiles. Not the kind you have in your bathroom.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
We're talking digital tiles, each containing the image of part of a map. Jens thinks tiles are the solution to making an online map service that's way faster than MapQuest. Now, yetis, you may not remember MapQuest, even though technically it is still around. But back in the early 2000s, this was by far the biggest online map service.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
But it did share the same problem as its competitors at the time. You type in your starting point and your destination, and that request was then sent to a server, which then drew a new static map image. And then they would send this back to your computer browser, along with a long list of text-based directions. Pretty basic, but also pretty complicated. Also pretty slow. Yeah.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
It's like the Flintstones version of a Polaroid camera. Yeah, I don't see this scaling, Jack. I don't see it scaling. Drawing the map each and every time like this is slow. And when it loads onto your computer screen, you can't scroll around. If you want to see one block east, you need to wait for the entire map to get redrawn and then sent to your computer again.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
But remember, our guy Jens, he's a solutions dude, and he's got an idea. He wants to pre-draw the maps in small, manageable pieces called tiles. Think of it like a giant digital jigsaw puzzle, but only the pieces you need get sent to you. Now, you don't have to wait for the server to painstakingly draw a new one. Instead, the different pieces are sent to you in the background
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
and snap together instantly when you start scrolling. It means creating a seamless, scrollable map in real time. That's part one of the idea. And you know what? This idea, it sounds promising, but Jens isn't finished yet because now he's on to part two of his new idea for a better digital map. The Tiles idea is a leap in the technology of how to deliver digital maps.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
But Jens also has a conceptual leap that even us liberal arts majors can appreciate, an entirely new way of thinking about digital maps. In fact, his idea is an entirely new way to think about how people can use the internet to go about their daily lives. He asked Lars to imagine planning a trip to the movies.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
Although anyone who comes out of the subway in the Lower East Side of Manhattan doesn't have a sense of direction. There's no grid. There's no numbers. It's just chaos down there. It's a vortex. But in general, we all have that buddy Timmy who knows exactly where their car is parked and then the other buddy who thinks Southwest is just an airline. Yeah. Geographic literacy, if you will. Right.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
But instead of searching just for the theater's address, you search the map for the movie you want to see. And then the map would show you where you can see it, the show times you can watch it, and even let you buy the tickets with a few clicks, again, directly in the map.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
He basically wants to take the two-dimensional static map from something you just read into a multi-dimensional canvas that you can truly interact with. Like it's a digital concierge that helps you plan your business trips, plan your night out, plan the coffee shop you're going to stop at on the way to the train station. Basically plan out your entire life through the map.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
And what does Lars think, Jack? He's sold. Oh, yeah. Partly because this is a truly special idea. And partly because he's picturing a day when his idea of fine dining isn't mixing together two flavors of instant ramen. As for Jens, well, he's ready to move out of his mom's place, despite the hearty Danish home cooking.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
So Jens and Lars decide to go all in and bet their future on a whole new way of thinking about maps. They call their new project Expedition. Yens and Lars are both ace coders, but pretty quickly they hit a hurdle, a four-letter hurdle, HTML. What a buzzkill. The key reason why existing map websites are so painfully slow is what they're made out of. They run on HTML.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
The thing is, HTML wasn't designed for interactive experiences. HTML was originally built for a super simple function, text. Like a blog post. It is not what you would use to build a map of planet Earth. So using HTML to build a seamless, scrollable, dynamic map is kind of like trying to build a life-size Chrysler building out of Jenga blocks.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
It's technically possible, but the foundations will be so shaky, even Tom Cruise wouldn't dare climb it. Oh, he wouldn't go near it, Jack. And that's why the digital maps of the 2000s era feel so stiff and slow. They're really web pages first and maps second.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
So Jens and Lars, and their other buddies from this ragtag team, Noel Gordon and Stephen Ma, decide the way around the limitations of HTML and the web is ditch them all together. Instead of running Expedition in a web browser, they decide to make it a standalone program that users download and install. They've got their concept, an interactive map that's much more than just a map.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
Now, it's time to build a prototype. And they immediately hit another wall. This time, it's not a tech problem. It's a money problem. Yeah, so it turns out map data costs a fortune. Like the kind of fine detailed street level mapping data that Jens and Lars need. It's owned by just a handful of companies with names like Navtech and Tela Atlas.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
And these companies, they want a whopping 100 grand a month just for the data on California. Jens and Lars obviously don't have that kind of cash. They barely have enough kroner for meatballs and the occasional Friday night Carlsberg. But they don't give up.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
They managed to sweet-talk a contact at one of these mapping companies into giving them the data of just a few blocks of Berkeley, California. Look, it's not much, but it is just enough to build a prototype. So they spend the next 18 months working around the clock on this single square-shaped map of downtown Berkeley. Yens cashes in on his pension, they max out their credit cards, the meatballs.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
But Jack, I discovered that there is also a behavioral element here on your sense of direction based on where you grew up. Is that so? It is so, Jack. If you grew up in a urban situation versus a rural one. So if you grew up in like a farm environment, you have a better sense of direction. Kind of like your upbringing, man. Okay. Because we grabbed onto landmarks as a way to orient ourselves. Yeah.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
These things are on pause till Christmas. Eventually, they land a pitch meeting with Sequoia, which, in our opinion, is the most prolific and certainly one of the biggest venture capital firms on Earth. If venture capital were a world map, then these guys are Pangea. They were early investors in most of the big tech successes since Apple. So this is a huge opportunity. And the pitch?
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
It goes smoothly. Our Danish bros, they are vibing. But sadly, Sequoia passes on the deal. Sequoia only invests if all of its partners are in agreement together. And in this case, there is one single holdout who just doesn't see a future in Expedition. But after the meeting, something unexpected Yens and Lars are handing in their lanyards at the Sequoia front desk.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
But as they turn to leave, one of the Sequoia investors dashes out and grabs Yens by the arm. And he says, hey, I see something in your expedition idea. Now, he can't fund them individually, but this guy knows someone who just might be able to. A guy by the name of Larry. A guy who co-founded one of the fund's portfolio companies. A company that goes by the name Google. Google.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
Today, Google is a $2 trillion conglomerate, known by its corporate name, Alphabet. But let's sprinkle on some context about where Google was when it was just six years old. You're talking about the year 2004. Yes, I am, Jack. Google has gone from two guys in a garage in Menlo Park, California, to the most popular search engine on the planet.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
But at this point, Google is mainly just that, a search engine. There's no Gmail, no Google Docs, no Android. But Google has figured out what no one else has figured out before, how to make internet search into a profit puppy.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
They're actually pulling in $1.6 billion in revenue at this time thanks to Google AdWords, their innovative pay-per-click advertising system that Google launched back in 2000. It's the early 2000s, so if you search for shoes, you might see ads for Ugg boots, and every time you do, it means more advertising dollars going to Google.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
But Jack, we should point out there is one type of search that isn't making Google any money at all. This one search makes up 25% of all searches. Directions. People are Googling, how long will it take me to get from Paris to Chicago because I left my kid home alone? Well, Google doesn't have a map, and that's the fundamental problem here.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
So when someone searches, show me the way from San Jose to Santa Barbara, Google search results give them links to MapQuest or Yahoo Maps. Oh, I forgot about that one. Now, this is bad for Google because in their eyes, it turns you from a user into a loser. Once someone clicks that link away from Google's search engine, they are taking their valuable eyeballs away from Google over to a competitor.
The Best One Yet
🌎 Google Maps: The *Actual* ‘Everything App’
And on the internet, where the eyeballs go, the ad revenue flows. So Larry Page welcomes Jens and Lars to the Googleplex. Larry has been wanting to make his own map to keep that 25% of direction-seeking users in the Google ecosystem. Because 25% of his users, that's a gigantic proportion. And the pitch? It doesn't disappoint.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
This is Nick. This is Jack. Welcome back. It is Monday, March 24th, and today's pod is the best one yet. This, this is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Is your tux ready? I'm sorry, is your tux fitting over there? I think I forgot to send it to the dry cleaner. Yeah, it is. Jack and I are whipping out our tuxes in one week in Chicago.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
Fendi Cafe, Gucci Cafe, Prada, they're doing pastries right now. Each of those luxury houses has six or more coffee shops. Coach, they're even opening a whole coffee shop in Texas. Oh, it's their fifth coffee shop. That's a chain. You can order a Mugatu macchiato at these places. Yeah, Burberry's the new barista. Stella McCartney, she's the new Starbucks.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
You know that hot foamy latte makes me gassy. Cappuccino's so hot right now. But it's not just high fashion either. Nick and I discovered that Zara also opened some coffee shops over in Spain. Pretty sure their espressos cost more than the cute tops over at Zara. So why is fashion across the price spectrum side hustling with subtle coffee chains?
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
Well, basically, we think the strategy here is the introduction to the brand. These coffee chains are the corporate equivalent of a handshake or an embrace. You can't afford a $10,000 Gucci bag, but you can afford the $10 Gucci lattes. And that way, you kind of get to know Gucci. Because Gucci chooses the tiles, the tables, the napkins, the cups.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
The coffee shop is your introduction to how Gucci thinks. So now you've met Gucci. You understand Gucci's style without actually owning Gucci. It's quite a long-term marketing bet. It is, yeah. These are seeds the brands are planting, hoping that someday it blossoms into a splurge at their store. It's me. I'm Gucci. Nice to meet you. Let's talk in a few years.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
Oh yeah, it's a financial poem, all right? I can't wait. All right, here we go. Here we go. Jack, your son has arrived. He's a shining little beauty, but can we talk financial planning for this charming little cutie? Because in this economy, the price of school hit all time high is going to have to sell that Bitcoin when the college bills fly.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies in fashion with coffee chains? Never be selling. Can you say that one more time to be clear, Jack? Never be selling. Yeah, it is. The number one rule in sales is ABC, always be closing. As in, always be closing a sale. And we know how important sales is. Yeah. It's part of our role as a co-founder.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
But what fashion coffee houses prove is that maybe it's better to never be selling. That's why Gucci coffee doesn't sell Gucci bags. You experience what the Gucci brand stands for, but not what the Gucci brand literally sells. At no point are they pitching you on Gucci bags or Gucci shoes. They're just selling you Gucci coffee.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
The very fact that there is no selling involved, ironically, could sell you on the brand. It's an overlooked way to sell something. Never be selling. Never be selling. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us to kick off the week? Elon's telling Tesla employees that everything's okay, but the data, the headlines, and the stock say it's not.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
The only way to fix Tesla's brand crisis, Elon sells his stock. For our second story, the Boston Celtics sold for a record price, even though it doesn't include the arena. Because sports teams aren't businesses. Sports teams are collector's items. And our third and final story, we spotted a trend. Yeah, we did. Fashion houses are opening coffee shops. They're intros to the brands.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
It's a sales strategy that we call never be selling. But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, the IPO market is IPO. It is heating up. StubHub just filed to go public. The tickets company is profitable and they want to be publicly traded. Klarna filed the week before, the Buy Now Pay Later firm.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
And Hinge Health, the virtual physical therapy firm, they filed to go public too. New stocks are coming to the market and we're excited to cover them. And second, JPMorgan Chase is renaming its DEI programs as DOI. Diversity, Opportunity, and Inclusion. Yeah, interesting. So they subbed out a vowel here, Jack. JPMorgan said the E always meant equal opportunity for us, not equal outcomes.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
And finally, Finland is once again the happiest country in the world while the United States' happiness fell. Despite it being 12 degrees up there right now. And them having no sunlight. Somehow Finland is the number one happiest country for the eighth year in a row. Can we get a recount on those Finns, please? I think it must be the Saanas. It must be the Saanas.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
The World Happiness Survey also found that the United States fell to its lowest level ever, 24th happiness place. Politics, election year, inflation. Yeah, Americans are still figuring it out. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one whipped up by Jack and I because this is trivia. Trivia. What billion-dollar snack brand began as a gift from a man to his wife?
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
So I came up with the plan during your paternity vacation, a financial strategy. That's the ultimate solution. I spoke to three accountants and they say my plan's super fine. I'm hooking up your son with a 529. What? A 529 plan. It's an education strategy. It lets your money grow tax-free. Completely. As long as you spend it on a university or K-12 programs where tuition isn't free.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
And as an extra hint, that gift he gave her was specifically based on her horoscope. Double hint, her astrological sign was Pisces. All right, let me add it all up for you here. So which billion dollar snack food company began as a romantic gesture for a Pisces? The answer, we'll reveal it in tomorrow's pod. Because that answer is also the subject of our next episode of The Best Idea Yet.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
Which we got nominated for an Emmy Award for. Sorry, not Emmy, Ambie Award. Let's just run with Emmy. Let the fact checkers deal with that one, Jack. Yeah, it is. You look fantastic to start the week. Jack, you are glowing over there. And let me just say to you, so hopefully when he graduates, this thing is worth a milli. If your kid don't get a 529, I'd probably just feel silly.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
Are you Lin-Manuel Miranda or you're Nick Martel? Well, I spoke to three accountants. They say the plan is fine. So I'm hooking up your son with a 529. You are Hamilton. He was a treasury secretary. He got finance. It all comes full circle, Jack. Besties, the best thing you can do to help and support the show, drop down to give us five stars and a review.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
And remember to follow us so you get T-Boy every day. Nick and I will see you tomorrow. Can't wait. And before we go, a happy birthday to Yeti Camille Gibson down in Denver who's been listening to T-Boy for five years and is on a fantastic walk right now. Happy birthday to Heather Kayward from Auburn, New York. She's a clinical IT specialist who is crushing it.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
And Liliana Cervantes is turning 32 years old over in the little big town of Reno, Nevada. Happy birthday to George Goodfriend who's obsessed with his last name, but it also means a lot of pressure to be a good friend. And a Happy birthday to Matt Allen in Carson Valley, Nevada. 20 years retired Blackhawk helicopter pilot still flying. A fixed win.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
Happy birthday to Jeremy Kugel in Silver Spring, Maryland, who's hosting a clementine eating contest for his birthday. I can't even open those things, Jack. And Caitlin Schmidt in St. Pete, Florida has got a new fiance and is celebrating the birthday. And a big shout out to Khaled in Kuwait. Legendary Yeti who's launching a luxury assets exchange platform. Congratulations on the launch, Khaled.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
And Kinsio down in Seattle has got a boring business to share. They acquired a marketing agency, and they are scaling that thing. I think our goal is to make it not boring. Well put, Jack. And Jacqueline Pittinger down in Nashville has got a new job, so we are celebrating your win, Jacqueline. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
I apparently own stock of Crocs now because the 529 doesn't switch to Oakley's name until he turns 18.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
So you put your money in this fund, invest it in some stocks. For your son, I bought 10 shares of Crocs. So I won't pay capital gains if Kroc's stock price grows. That's the advantage of 529 portfolios. Wow. 529s, they don't pay federal or state taxes, as long as the proceeds go to qualified school expenses. So hopefully when he graduates, this thing is worth a milli.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
If your kid don't get a 529, I'd probably just feel silly. Oh. Mic drop. Mic drop. That was insane, dude. Channeling some Kendrick on that. This boy's future is going to be built on a foundation of financial responsibility. Congratulations on the one month birthday. You and Alex are doing amazing, Jack. Thank you, Nick. I can't wait to play this for Oakley. That was frigging awesome.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
I just dropped 10 shares of Crocs in that 529. This is Jack, my son Oakley, now owns Stock and Crocs.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
What are we going to be doing there, Jack? We're going to an award ceremony. We are. The Best Idea Yet got nominated for Best Business Podcast. It's very exciting. There's stiff competition. We don't know if we're going to win or not. No idea. We've prepared speeches either way. The speeches, by the way, I think they're like 30 seconds. That's how much time we get. More on that soon.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
For our first story, Tesla is officially the worst performing stock in the S&P 500 so far this year. So we listened to Elon's all-hands event last week, and we have one idea to save the company. Sell the company. Now, yetis, last week, Elon Musk took the stage in Austin, Texas, to address the company's employees of Tesla in a surprise all-hands meeting.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
We listened to the whole thing, and it was all rosy. Yeah, it sounded pretty good, pretty positive, pretty fun, actually. And it is true. Tesla has a lot to boast about. Nick, did you know that the Model Y is the number one selling car model on earth for the last two years? Full disclosure, we've leased a Model Y and understand it's a great car.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
Elon told the Tesla employees that they're entering an age of abundance for all. He said that AI and humanoid robots are going to be the key to that abundance. Tesla AI and Tesla humanoid robots. He then went on to say that the future is autonomous. And he said that in five years, autonomous Teslas will be everywhere.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
As Elon pointed out, there is an entire fleet of 7 million Tesla cars across the world capable of full self-driving. And he said last week, someday he's going to flick on the light switch and make them all self-driving. Elon is so bullish right now on Tesla, he even asked employees to not sell their shares. He literally said, hang on to your stock.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
It was quite a pep rally to boost the morale of employees. Here's a quick clip to give you a sense of this big Tesla event. We work together in a way that allows us to ask the hard questions. This is the product that will retire fossil fuels. Now, Yetis, Jack and I, on your behalf, listened to the entire Q&A of this meeting, and they didn't really ask many hard questions. Would you say that, Jack?
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
Here's a hard question they could have asked. Elon, if we're trying to retire fossil fuels, why is your boss in the White House doing the opposite? Well, they didn't ask tough questions because it was all rosy. It was all positive. It was, frankly, the most pep rally Tesla all hands we've ever heard. On the other hand, in the news headlines, Tesla's getting totaled right now.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
Tesla is going through the worst period in the history of the car. The stock is down 50% from its December all-time high. It's the worst performing stock in the S&P 500. Tesla sales in Europe and China are down 50% so far this year. Meanwhile, BYD, its Chinese rival, watched a superior technology last week. Yeah, their charger can charge four times faster than Tesla's chargers.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
And Cybertruck, it's become a cluster truck. Yeah, they just recalled nearly all 46,000 Cybertrucks because a panel apparently falls off if you're driving on the highway. And here's the worst part, the Tesla trade-in news. Progressives who tend to buy Teslas don't want them anymore. That's right. Tesla owners are trading in their Teslas if they own them at record rates.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
In the meantime, we're celebrating the wins. Thanks for helping us get nominated. Jack, three stories for today's show. What do we got in the tea, boy? For our first story. Tesla is officially the worst stock in the S&P 500 this year and a record number of Tesla owners are trading in their cars. But we think we found the Tesla solution and it's not changing the CEO.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
We're talking three times higher rates than before the election. And yes, they've become targets of vandalism too. Yeah. My aunt just bought a Tesla in Austin, Texas. Yeah, Jack? She's afraid it's going to get keyed or worse. Well, perfect timing because next week, Tesla is actually going to reveal its Q1 sales. And Wall Street expects the biggest shrinkage in Tesla history.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
And that's why we just had this cheerleader-style pep rally with Elon Musk. at the Tesla all hands to change the narrative. He's trying to convince his employees that the number of cars they sell don't matter anymore because the future is robotics and AI. But honestly, the much bigger narrative change that we're noticing is that Tesla bulls are going reverse on Elon Musk.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
They're getting frustrated that Tesla stock is down And the sales numbers are too. So we came up with a solution. Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Tesla? The only way to fix Tesla's brand crisis is if Elon sells all his Tesla stock. Yeti's big question right now, should Elon make someone else the CEO of Tesla?
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
Well, honestly, we don't think that would make a difference, and we got the proof. Elon made someone else the CEO of X and SpaceX, but both of those companies are still perceived by the public as Elon companies. Exactly. Yeah. Another human being runs those businesses day to day and, you know, make sure they're still kicking over at SpaceX.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
But since Elon is the biggest shareholder of both X and SpaceX, he's the boss. They're still his companies. So when you add it up, whether Elon is CEO or not doesn't really matter. matter. If Elon owns the stock, then he is part of the brand. Now, you might think to yourself, Elon would never sell his Tesla shares. Right. A lot of people would point that out, Jack. But guess what?
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
He sold his PayPal shares, another company he co-founded. True. And he used that money to start Tesla. So we think Elon could sell his Tesla shares and then use that money to do something he's more excited about, like go to Mars. That would let Tesla, a fantastic electric car company, go forward without the incredible political baggage it has today.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
Besties, the only way Tesla's brand crisis can be fixed is if Elon sells his Tesla shares. For our second story, last week, the biggest sale in North American sports history went down. The Boston Celtics sold for $7 billion. We read the fine print of the deal over the weekend. We did. And this deal defies logic. Totally. There's one giant thing missing. In the purchase.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
But that's exactly the point. All right, Jack, let's look at the roster here. Starting lineup, I got Bill Russell, Larry Bird, Paul Pierce, and some pot-bellied Irishman who's scaring kids at the games. Oh, you forgot to mention Antoine Walker. Ah, yes, I did. That is the Boston Celtics. They're one of the top franchises in all of sports.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
They've retired so many jerseys, they're running out of numbers. Yeah, now, even though that parquet court is a visual crime. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I kind of like the parquet floor. It kind of gives me vertigo. The Boston Celtics have won more championships than any other team in basketball. The Celtics have 18. The Lakers have 17. But here's the news.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
For $7.3 billion, once the sale is complete, the Boston Celtics are changing hands. And this sets a record. It beats the 2023 sale of the Washington Commanders, which sold for $6.1 billion. Yeah, at the time, that was the biggest sale paid for any North American sports team. Now, first, let's look at the seller.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
For our second story, the Boston Celtics sold for a record price for any North American sports franchise. We found one huge problem in the fine print. A flagrant problem. And our third and final story. Gucci, H&M, and Ralph Lauren. Every fashion brand is launching a coffee chain. Jack, why are clothing companies getting into coffee these days? Because of our favorite rule about sales.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
The seller bought the Celtics in 2002 for just $360 million, which looks like pennies today. I think we could put together that money tonight. Selling for $7.3 billion means he notched a 16,000% return on 23 years owning the Celtics. But Jack, who's the buyer in this situation of the new Boston Celtics? Classic, a private equity guy. He went to Dartmouth and Wharton. His MBA came with an MBA.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
Celtics superfan Bill Simmons doesn't even know how to pronounce this new owner's name. He's kind of a private equity guy who came out of nowhere after assembling a team of financial dudes from just outside Boston. But yet, here's what Jack and I found fascinating about the story. We think this private equity guy forgot to have the analysts look at the term sheet.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
Because the deal does not include one of the most important parts of this sports business. The real estate. This deal to buy the Celtics doesn't include the arena. Right, the arena. And the arena is the profit puppy. Exactly, Jack. The Boston Celtics do not, in fact, own the TD Garden where they play their games. The Boston Bruins do. Yeah.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
Yeah, so this happens to be the rare case where the ice hockey team is calling the shots on the basketball team. The Celtics have to ask the Bruins permission to use the arena. Yeah, it's like they got to call up the goalie if they want to practice. Hey, do you guys mind if we get on? You guys still playing? You still skating out there? And not owning the arena is a huge deal economically.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
Real estate is how pro sports teams make the most money. Home teams, they only play 41 of their games at home in a given regular season. So for a basketball arena, It's got 324 days a year to rent out for other events. Yeah, concerts, circuses, professional bullfighting leagues. They all come into town. They all got to pay to use that arena. The TV deal is where they make the most money.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
But after that, events is where you turn a profit. Funny thing there, Jack. Speaking of not making money, the Celtics organization is pretty good at turning pots of gold into pots of nothing. I think what you're trying to say is, They're expected to lose money this season. Get this, Yetis. The Celtics spent $250 million on their payroll and $150 million on the luxury tax to the league.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
It's the highest costs in those two departments in the whole league, and they're probably not going to profit this year. So in many respects, the Celtics are one of the least profitable teams in the entire NBA. They're winning games, but they're not winning income statements. Yeah, they're beating the Knicks, but they're losing in the spreadsheets, man.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
Oh, and to boot, this deal to buy the Celtics doesn't give the new owner front office control until 2028. So Jack, add it all up, and the Boston Celtics are not profitable, they're not gaining front office control for three more years, and they're getting no lucky charms as part of this acquisition deal. And yet... It sold for a record price. How could that be? How you like Dem apples? We don't.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
We don't like Dem apples. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at the Boston Celtics? Sports teams aren't businesses. They're collector's items. Yeah, it is. Jack and I have said before that pro sports teams are the most scarce asset in our economy. Like land, pro sports franchises are a finite resource. There are only 32 in each league.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
Plus, sports teams provide a unique form of influence, a cultural influence, and that's valuable. So most people buy things looking for a profit or a return. but sometimes people buy things just for the power it gives them. So you know what? Next time a good team in a big city comes up for sale, we bet they'll set a record price too for these exact same reasons.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
Whether the team makes money or loses money, that's irrelevant to the billionaire that's going to buy them. Because the buyers don't look at teams as businesses, they look at them as collector's items. Now, a quick word from our sponsor.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
Never be selling. But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Fantastic mix of stories for a Monday, Jack. Wait, one sec, I'm checking the calendars here. Happy one month birthday to your new baby boy, man. Thank you. Oakley was born one month and one day ago. Now, Jack, in honor of your baby's one month birthday, I happen to have prepared a poem for him. You haven't.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
For our third and final story, the hottest new trend in fashion isn't fashion at all. It's actually coffee shops. From Gucci to Zara, fashion houses are launching coffee chains because the best salesmen don't sell. No, they don't.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
But Jack, you know I'm not a coffee guy, but last time I was in the city, met up with a few friends at a classic coffee shop, 72nd and Madison, beautiful limestone building, really, really good stuff. The lattes cost you double digits. The place looks like it's been around for 50 years. But here's the thing, Jack. It actually has only been around for nine years.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
It's not classic, and it's owned by Ralph Lauren, the apparel company. That's right. Nick's boots on the ground reporting discovered Ralph's Coffee. a coffee chain with two dozen locations. Yeah, they're in New York, Hong Kong, Paris. They got the next one opening up in Bangkok soon. They've been going for years, and they roast a pretty good bean coming from a guy who doesn't drink coffee.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
It's called Ralph's because it's owned by Ralph Lauren, the clothing company. Clothing company's doing coffee. The teddy bear is basically roasting the beans. Two surprising things about Ralph's Coffee. First, most of them are not located inside bigger Ralph Lauren clothing stores. And their second strategic move the branding.
The Best One Yet
🚗 “Why Elon should sell” — The Tesla solution. Boston Celtics’ fine print. Fashion coffee chains
All the colors are green and white inside, not typical Ralph Lauren, blue and red. So Jack, if you were to walk into a Ralph's and order a Ralphicino, you might not realize that it's actually the same company as the polo shirt. But it's not just Ralph's. No. We noticed every fashion house seems to be launching a low-key coffee chain. Get this, Yetis.
The Best One Yet
👛 “The ROI on the IRS” — America’s 12x tax return. Alani Nu’s $2B hot girl drink. Alibaba’s new religion.
15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in a dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50%, that's a fat tip. T-Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, cause we ready to go. We can't wait no more, so just start the show. Start the show.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
This is Nick. This is Jack. And today's artificially intelligent pod is the best one yet. It's a T-boy. The top three AI stories you need to know today. Jack, you are glowing over there because yetis, we're on vacation right now, but we still whipped up a week of bonus episodes for you. And today, it's the best of AI. Yes, it is. Our best stories of the year on artificial intelligence.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
And we're looking at these comments and they're by people with pictures and names that look real commenting on your post. It's a wild experience.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
But it's not just all cheerleading posts. Like some of the comments will be like, interesting thought, Jack. I have a critique for you though. And if you're looking to like have a little spicy time, you can choose to have trolls and haters in your follow mix who will throw a little shade at you. They're like classic Jack posts, all cookie, no crisp.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
So you, the human being, get the experience of being a big influencer personality with all these followers, getting all these engagements and comments. But all those engagements and comments are the bots. Interesting use case for this app. If you have an idea for a tweet, but you're not sure about it, you could tweet it on this app. see how the AI bots respond.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
And if you like the response, tweet it in real life. So Social AI has created a social media app for human beings that's 99.9% bots. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Social AI? This is the ultimate social experiment. So Jack and I jumped in T-boy style and fooled around with this product a bit, and frankly, we got a pretty satisfying feeling.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
Getting a thousand comments and a million likes on a tweet, it feels powerful. Yeah, it is more viral than any of our posts have ever gone ever in history. But was that powerful, satisfied feeling kind of hollow, given that all the comments were not real human beings? Or was the satisfaction real? Because on social media, it's about the numbers. It doesn't matter about the authenticity.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
The long-term success of social AI will answer that question. Do we use social networks to connect with followers or to count followers? In answering that question, social AI may be the ultimate social experiment. Yetis, those are the best AI stories of 2024. But now it's time for the best fact yet on AI for 2024. This is an important one.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
Because the way we see it, AI can be an adversary or AI can be an asset. Although ultimately, we think AI will be like electricity. Because AI will be in everything. Like how earlier this year, Spotify launched AI Podcast to summarize your Spotify rap. We won't take it personally, even though we're podcast hosts. And McDonald's launched an AI drive-thru. AI.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
AI actually requires 10 times more electricity than regular internet use. All right, Jackety, sprinkle on some context. What's another way we could translate that? Asking an AI chatbot a question requires 10 times more computing than asking Google a question. 10 times more. Besties, that is why the AI boom is also an energy boom. It's because ChatGPT is an electricity hog.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
It's an electricity hoarder. OpenAI has a gigantic electricity bill. So a surprising side effect of AI is that it's actually made nuclear energy hot again. Because these tech companies want at least carbon-free energy if they're going to do AI. They are literally reopening the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant for AI. Microsoft is doing that, or as they call it, ThreeMileIsland.ai.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
Because Besties AI, it requires 10 times more electricity than regular internet use. Yeah, it is. You look fantastic over there for our first bonus pod of the 2024 holidays. Jack, you're looking great too. Thank you, dude. I wore my Santa hat for the occasion. So besties, here's what we'd love you to do. Send this episode to your buddy who works in AI.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
Or send it to your buddy who works in tech, but they're not that techie. Or send it to your buddy who doesn't work in tech, doesn't work in AI, and so they should hear all these stories too. It applies to everyone. Or take the link to this episode and send it to ChatGPT and see what they do. And see what does. See what happens. Tell ChatGPT, H-Y-H-T-B-L-Y. It means, have you had the best one yet?
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
In the meantime, Jack and I will see you for tomorrow's bonus pod. Oh, wait, Jack, I'm getting a call. Sam! Yeah. Jack, it's Sam. Sam Altman loved the episode. He said this was the best one he's heard. Did he? He did. It's great. One sec. He wants to do dinner. I'll tell him we're on vacation. We're back in a couple weeks. All right, we'll see you in tomorrow's bonus spot.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
We're back in a couple weeks. If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
It put extra pickles onto my patty, Jack. This summer, we even watched the first ever AI Olympics. That Al Michaels water polo commentary? Yeah, that was an AI Al. And then finally, Apple showed up to AI. Finally. The latest iOS includes what we're calling Super Siri. And the phone of the future, it isn't a smartphone. It'll be an IntelliPhone. But here's the key.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
All that AI required massive compute. Which is why in San Francisco, they turned compute from a verb into a noun. Yes, they did. And compute is why NVIDIA became the most valuable company on earth. NVIDIA. It's basically the sixth Kardashian. And it all led to the first ever ROI on AI. An R-O-A-I. Because ultimately... 2024 proved that AI can be like corporate ozempic. Corporate ozempic.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
Because AI cuts costs while boosting productivity like the ultimate weight loss drug for business. So, Yetis, this is Human Nick. And this is Human Jack. And these are our three best AI stories from 2024. Let's hit them. One sec, Jack.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
We told you we'll do the AI pod. Sam again.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
So Yetis, send this episode to your techiest of buddies. Or better yet, send it to your buddy who isn't techie. Yeah. But wants to understand what's going on with AI.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
Yetis, our first story is from July 1st, 2024. It's a positive story about Grindr. And guess what? Grindr's stock is up 42% since the day this story was published. This story still looks fantastic. So Jack, let's jump right on into it. Scarlett Johansson just lawyered up after OpenAI tried to rip off her voice for their new chatbot.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
But it turns out there was way more to the story than Scarlett Johansson, ChatGPT, and the drama that you already know. All right, Jack, is this another headline that wasn't on our 2024 bingo card or what, man? Yesterday, we mentioned an awkward situation at the end of our pod. Yeah, ScarJo versus ChatGPT. OpenAI's chatbot sounds just like her.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
Her, as in her, the 2013 movie starring Joaquin Phoenix, a physical human who falls in love with an AI girlfriend. That AI girlfriend is voiced by Scarlett Johansson. You never see her because she's an artificial intelligence bot in the movie. Well, 11 years after Jack and I scarily saw that movie in theaters, just last week, OpenAI announced a new version of their chatbot.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
And it included a new voice for their chatbot that sounded more human-like than any of the previous ones. Now, the name of this new chatbot is Sky, but it happens to sound a lot like a voice that we've heard before, right, Jack? It sounds like Scarlett Johansson's AI from the movie Her. Let's go to the videotape so you can compare yourself.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
Before they send it to us.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
Jack, we're not judging jury, but what are you thinking over there? They're eerily similar. Now, yetis, we should point out Sam Altman of OpenAI says this about their new chatbot's voice. The voice of Sky is not Scarlett Johansson's, and it was never intended to resemble her voice. But again, Scarlett Johansson says otherwise.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
In fact, on Monday, Scarlett Johansson revealed new details about ChatGPT that are worthy of the front page of TMZ Magazine. And they go back a full year. Apparently, back in September of last year, Sam Altman asked Scarlett Johansson if they could use her voice for their chatbots in the future. Allegedly, he said to ScarJo, your voice would be comforting to people just like in your movie.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
All right. He's a listener of the show. But Jack, three stories for today's bonus pod. What do we got? For our first story, we're going back to July 1st, when every dating app stock was down except for one, Grindr. Grindr. Grindr was up because Wall Street was already falling in love with Grindr's AI wingman. For our second story, we're going to May 22nd.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
But Scarlett Johansson declined. She didn't want her voice to be the voice of the chatbot that we all use in the future. Yeah, she didn't want to Siri herself, is what we're saying. But then last year, Sam Altman gave a speech, and he referenced the movie Her. He couldn't stop thinking about the voice from the movie Her.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
He said that voice from the movie Her was the inspiration for chat GPT products. And then last week, Sam Altman tweeted one word during the OpenAI demonstration that we all saw. And what was that word, Jack? Her. And now we just met Sky, the new voice of ChatGPT, who sounds just like Scarlett Johansson. Exhibit A, the defense rests their case, Jack.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
It seems like Sam Altman is obsessed with the movie Her, obsessed with the voice of the AI in the movie Her, and just launched a chatbot that sounds just like the voice in the movie Her, which belongs to Scarlett Johansson. So besties, let's just put aside the problem with always selecting female voices for voice assistants for a moment. Alexa and Siri, you know what we're talking about.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
Now ScarJo is considering suing OpenAI for an attempt to impersonate her voice without her permission. As if Hollywood needed another reason not to trust AI. Colin Joust, Weekend Update. Your turn. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at OpenAI? The AI industry is making tech's biggest mistake again. Moving fast and breaking things.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
Quick reminder here, but one year ago, Jack and I did a pod on how thousands of scientists asked AI leaders to pause AI. They asked to pause the development of AI because AI could inadvertently take over human beings. They wrote that it was an existential threat to mankind in the future.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
Well, Sam Altman is the leader of AI, and he's done the opposite of pausing. Yeah, it is. Instead of pausing AI, it appears Sam Altman has moved really fast and seems to be breaking a bunch of things along the way. One example, OpenAI was sued by the New York Times and other publishers for digesting and regurgitating their paywall journalism without their consent.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
Well, just like Zuck, Sam Altman is breaking rules and norms to stay ahead of the market. And just like Zuck a decade ago, He doesn't mind if he breaks things along the way.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
And the new details on Scarlett Johansson's voice chatbot, this just adds to the perception of OpenAI moving fast and breaking things. So besties, when it comes to AI, tech is moving fast and breaking things. The same mistake again. Yetis, our second story is from May 22nd, 2024. Remember they tried to kick Sam Altman out of OpenAI, Nick? That was wild, insane.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
The reason was not consistently candid in his communications. Well, Jack and I think this story about Scarlett Johansson, it reminds us why. Let's get into it. There's only one dating app surging right now, and that dating app is Grindr. Grindr, the gay and bisexual dating app, is the perfect case study on how we're all going to use AI. And how's that, Jack? We'll have an artificial wingman.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
You're going to have a wingman. But yeah, it is. Let's be real for a second. It's just us, Nick and Jack. I want to chat with you. 2024, it was the end of a relationship. You probably broke up with your dating app this year. It's gotten so rough out there. You've been finding love on LinkedIn. We hear you. It's happening. It's the rise of the alt dating apps.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
Scarlett Johansson was lawyering up after OpenAI tried to rip off her voice for their latest chatbot. Because in AI, it's move fast and break things all over again. And our third and final story is from September 20th. We found a social network with zero humans, but billions of bots. Billions. On social AI, you have 1 million followers. None of them are real people.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
People are finding love in the DMs of LinkedIn, Strava, even Yelp. And that's why Jack and I said this a few months ago. Dating apps, they need a long-term relationship with a new business model. The stock of Match and Bumble, they are both at all-time lows. Financially, they're giving the ick. It's not pretty. But this is why Jack and I wanted to cover this story.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
There is one dating app that is doing the opposite of every other dating app. Grindr. Grindr. They dropped the E. It's just D-R at the end there. Grindr, the hookup dating app for gay, bi, trans, and queer people. Grindr stock is up 42% this year because they just raised their revenue projections.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
Yes, it has. How is Grindr so bullish? That's the question Nick and I were asking at the beginning of this story. So we jumped in T-boy style and this is what we discovered. Grindr has found a use case for AI that's actually pretty practical. They think AI can be your wingman within their dating app. We're going full Tom Cruise on this thing.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
Yeti's the top challenge in the dating app experience isn't the swiping, it's the flirting. So Grindr is launching an AI wingman this year to support you in your DMing in the app. Not in the discovery of who to date, but really like how you engage with who to date. Here's how you're going to use it. Let's say you need a good conversation starting message.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
Grindr's wingman is going to drop a fun kickoff line. Okay, let's say you need a witty response to his response. Grindr's wingman is going to drop a non-offensive lawyer joke to really get the conversation going, Jack. Now, let's say things are going well in the DMs and you need an impressive first date location to propose.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
Then Grindr's wingman is going to suggest a trendy spot in the West Village where you can get a reservation for two this Friday. to get that relationship IRL. Grindr's AI wingman will review that cute guy's profile. They'll review the interests and the pics of that cute guy and offer thoughtful message advice throughout the whole interaction.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
And now Jack and I should point out Grindr's AI wingman hasn't launched yet. They're testing it through the end of this year. Clearly, Wall Street's already into it. Oh, they're so into it. In fact, it's not just Wall Street and it's not just Grindr. Tinder and Bumble are both working on their own wingman and wingwomen too. Artificial wingman, natural chemistry. They're real and they're fantastic.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in dating apps? Actually, for all of us. Today, AI is talking to humans. In a year, AI will be talking to AI. Yetis, the future of AI isn't humans engaging with AI. It's AI engaging with each other. First, Nick and I want to point out an issue we see with this Grindr AI wingman. It is good. This is true.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
It could result in just a bunch of fake conversations. All right, here's what we're thinking. If both sides are using their AI wingman, when they finally meet the person, It's kind of going to be disappointing, right, Jack? You're going to be like, oh, wow. Oh, yeah. This dinner conversation was super lame. Are neither of us witty? Where are the fun lawyer jokes you used to DM me?
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
Oh, it was all just the AI we were both using. But besties, in other instances, AI talking to other AI will actually be hugely efficient. Airlines are already using AI to handle their customer support phone calls. So wouldn't it be nice if your AI assistant could talk to Delta instead of you? Your AI and Delta's AI could work out the problem together. Together.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
So your personal AI will be having a conversation with United's AI. AI to AI, boom, problem solved, and no human being was involved. That's a pretty near future that we expect, and we think it'll scale across industries. Because the future of AI is AI to AI.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Fantastic mix of AI stories, Jack. Love. It's easy to say, but hard to describe. AI. Also easy to say. Also hard to describe. That's why all year long, our goal has been to find headlines, stories, examples, and analogies, plus some fantastic takeaways to help us all understand AI.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
For our third and final AI story, we're going back to September 20th, 2024. This one's a bit more philosophical. It's deep. What's more important to us, being liked by people or simply getting our posts liked? I like where you're going with this, Jack. Let's jump on into it. We just discovered the wildest social media app we have ever seen.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
Because on social AI, bots are not banned, but humans are. Yetis, let's start with some context here. Facebook has 3 billion users. Almost half of the humans on this planet use Facebook every day. TikTok has 1.5 billion users, and LinkedIn has 1 billion users. But maybe a tenth of those users that the companies report are actually bots.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
So basically, 10% of the users who like your post aren't a Robert, they're a robot. So we got curious. When a new social media app raised $3 million... but 99.9% of their users are bots. Social AI has banned human beings from using their social media app, and yet it's for humans. Because on this social media network, all the accounts are real humans, but all the followers are bots.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
It's like when you sign up for social AI, you instantly have an audience of 10 million followers, but 0% of them are people. We went through the customer experience. When you sign up, you choose what type of bot followers you want following your account. Yeah, drama queens, debaters, dreamers, doomers. You can choose nerdy followers, skeptical, funny, sarcastic cheerleaders.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 🤖 “The AI Pod” — Our Best Artificial Intelligence stories from 2024
You pick like a mix of personalities that you want replying to your posts. And then you start posting your thoughts on social AI about anything, just like you would tweet about anything. But unlike in reality, your post is racking up likes and comments in the hundreds and the thousands immediately.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
This is Nick. This is Jack. Welcome back. It is Monday, March 17th. And today's pod is the best one yet. And this is a T-boy. The three top stories at the intersection of business and pop culture. Oh, stocks are shrinking. Our portfolios are shrinking. Jack's shirt over there appears to be shrinking. What is that, a small medium? It's called athletic fit, actually.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
Hi, I'm not Bob Vance, but I'm the new owner of Vance Refrigeration. That's perfect because I'm with Vandelay Industries and we can work together, Jack. So Jack, one sec. All right, I'm using our T-boy cash to acquire a laundromat. Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in the boring business boom? Entrepreneurship isn't about ideas. It's really about taking a risk.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
Yetis, some people feel that to be an entrepreneur, you have to have an amazing idea for a new product. That's not the case though. No. Old businesses that have been around for decades, they need an entrepreneur to be at the top of the company. You might be an MBA, see the AI future, but think to yourself, I don't know if I can compete in AI.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
I don't have the skills to face artificial intelligence. You might think, I don't have an idea either that's going to get a VC excited. Well, honestly, the way Jack and I see it, that sucks. doesn't matter. You can still be an entrepreneur as long as you're willing to take a risk. You do understand how finance works.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
You know how taking a loan is a risk, but you've analyzed the numbers, you've forecasted the financials, and you're willing to bet on yourself. The way we see it, entrepreneurship is exciting no matter how sexy or unsexy the business model. Because you're taking a risk and you're motivated by the upside. And this boring business boom, it's a reminder of exactly that.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
entrepreneurship isn't about having an idea. It's about taking a risk. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us to kick off the week? Five-hour energy is being sued for how it came to control 90% of the energy shop market. When you build your own playground, you get to make your own rules.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
Paddy's Day is actually the eighth best performing day of the year in the stock market. It's the eighth best out of 252 annual trading days. In fact, over the last two decades, stocks have risen 80% of the time for St. Patrick. And seven of the last eight St. Patrick's Days have been green on Wall Street.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
For our second story, the company behind Pokemon Go is now owned by Saudi Arabia after a $3.8 billion acquisition. It's a reminder that tech is simply more valuable than content. And our third and final story is the big trend in entrepreneurship. established, mature industries. It's the boring business boom. It's the boring business boom. Because entrepreneurship isn't about ideas.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
It's really about taking risks. But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, Bill Simmons just got a new deal with Spotify after 2020's $250 million deal. With this promotion, he will become Spotify's head of talk shows. And he'll continue co-hosting about like seven or eight different shows on the Ringer Podcast Network.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
Honestly, odds are he's on a microphone right now. Second, the head of the EPA just announced a new purpose that includes making it more affordable to purchase a car. That's right. Their argument is that clean air policies from past administrations have made cars more expensive, so the EPA isn't doing many of them. But EPA is more focused on economic stimulus than environmental protection.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
And finally, Manhattan apartment rents just jumped to another record high. Get this, median rent in Manhattan, $4,500. Brooklyn is about $1,000 a month cheaper, by the way. But here's the wild stat. One out of three new leases in Manhattan is signed after a bidding war. Which means if you're going to view an apartment, you got to go with all your paperwork ready,
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
You got to have your guarantor set up. You probably need like a cashier's check to show that you have the money. Oh, and you got to be willing to fight. Like you got to bring two spotters with you and someone's got to like hold back other people, maybe try to steal some pens. It's a jungle out there. Good luck yetis in the West Village. Good luck. Now time for the best fact yet.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
This one sent in by Patrick O'Leary. The most popular beer being drank today is Guinness. Guinness is brewed in Ireland. But Ireland is not the most popular country for consuming Guinness. Guess who drinks more Guinness than Ireland? Nigeria. Yeah, Nigeria.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
The African country of Nigeria is actually the number two consumer of Guinness in the world after the United Kingdom with Ireland in third place. There was actually a Guinness ad campaign in the 1960s based on this slogan in Nigeria, black is beautiful. And you know what? Totally worked. It's delicious too.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
Yetis, you look fantastic out there, especially if you're running a boring business over there. If you are, drop that business in the comments. We want to know what it is. Yeah, we want to see it. By the way, nothing boring about running a business, even if that business happens to be in a boring industry. I know Bob Vance listens to this show. Oh, yeah.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
So I expect to see Vance refrigeration in these comments. Oh, absolutely, Jack. It has to be there. Yetis, remember to drop down and give us five stars, a rating and review. That helps grow the show. Jack and I will see you tomorrow. And before we go, a happy birthday to Yeti Ignacio Zaragoza down in Rockland, California. Happy second birthday to Harrison Beery in Des Moines, Iowa.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
Oh, we're so certain of this, we even submitted our research to the Guinness Book of World Records. Which was invented by the same Irishman that invented Guinness the beer. Yeah, you know what Jamie Dimon says about Lucky the Leprechaun, Jack. He's not after your lucky charms. No, he just bought 50 shares of a Shamrock ETF. This isn't financial advice, by the way.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
No Guinness, just chocolate milk. But honestly, I'd go with the chocolate milk too. Brown is beautiful too. And a shout out to Lisette, a legendary bestie who I just ran into in the Ferry Building, Jack. She listens with her husband. They're a couple of besties together. And if you want a shout out on the show, click the links in the episode description.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
We got a simple Google form and you can make the show. Or go to tboypod.com slash shoutouts and Jack and I will get your celebration on the pod. This is Jack. I own stock of Disney and Netflix and Nick and I both own stock of Airbnb. And Jack also owns stock of Amazon. If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
No, no, no, no, it is not financial advice. We just heard it at the pub. Can't blame us.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
For our first story, five-hour energy. The smallest energy drink on the market just got sued for being a huge monopoly. We'll tell you how five-hour energy got so big by staying so small. But yeties, Jack and I have been tracking the trends, and the energy drink market is the most exciting in the beverage industry, full stop. Alani New was recently acquired. Ghost Energy got acquired.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
I'm sure that's what they told you. Three fantastic stories for today's show. Jack, what do we got on the pod? For our first story, five-hour energy. The tiny $3 bottle of energy just got accused of being a monopoly. So Jack and I found out how the world's smallest drink got so big. For our second story, it's Niantic. The company behind Pokemon Go just got bought by Saudi Arabia for $3.5 billion.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
Celsius is rocket shipping. Red Bull is still number one. We did a whole show on it on the best idea yet, despite that insane competition coming at them from every single angle. But then there's 5-Hour Energy. Which isn't an energy drink. This two-ounce bottle is an energy shot. The way Jack and I like to think of it is five-hour energy is like the short king of the energy industry.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
They're like Kevin Hart. There's a lot of energy in that small package. Yeah, they're tiny, but they're tossing up big numbers like Muggsy Bogues. Now, the founder of five-hour energy actually spent 12 years in a monastery living as a monk. Yeah, his name's Manoj Bhargavi, and then he had a revelation as a monk that somehow led him to pure capitalism.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
His monkhood ended, and he reinvented himself as a businessman, according to the Wall Street Journal. Yeah, with a differentiated energy drink. No sugar, smaller size, same price. That was his bet. 5-Hour Energy is one of those products that has no ingredients and no calories, but somehow has a lot of taste and has a lot of effects on your body. Apparently, that sells.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
Because what kind of numbers did 5-Hour Energy do in their first eight years, Jack? They hit a billion dollars of annual sales, selling $3 bottles at 90% margins. The rare product that is used by both truck drivers and stock traders. This is not medical advice, but if you take two of them, You got 10 hours of power. Yes, you do.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
And 5-Hour Energy is still privately held, made in Indiana, and owned by that same former monk. Jack, I make a full disclosure here. On Molly's and my first date, we were having so much fun, we took a 5-Hour Energy at like 10 p.m. to keep the date going. Wild. Did you really? I don't think I could pull that off right now. That's so out of character for you. It was a good first date story.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
Good first date story. But yetis, here's the news. 5-Hour Energy was just sued for anti-competitive moves. Basically, they've been acting like a monopoly. Jack, can you whip out the paperwork for us, please, and read the details of this legal complaint? Here's the complaint. 5-Hour Energy coordinated with convenience stores to basically control the cash register.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
Yes, 5-Hour Energy apparently got exclusive placement deals with chains like Casey's to be the only energy shot at the front of the store. The lawsuit continues to allege that 5-Hour Energy got even more aggressive. They told the gas stations to put the competition way in the back.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
Like vitamin energy, one of their rival energy shots, they got buried at like the end of aisle six in the health and beauty section. The health and beauty section at a gas station is the opposite place a construction worker looks for his morning wake-up shot. If you're a forklift operator, you're not looking in the beauty section for your five-hour hit.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
Now, the lawsuit cites some numbers to back up their complaint. The lawsuit says that 5-Hour Energy controls 90% of the market. Pause the pod. Didn't we just say that Red Bull was the number one energy drink with 40% of the market? Yeah, Chuck, we did just say and we've seen that Red Bull is the number one player in the energy drink market. What's going on here, man?
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
Well, how does 5-Hour Energy have 90% if Red Bull has 40%? Well, therein lies our takeaway, yetis, because technically five-hour energy isn't in the energy drink market. It's in a different market. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Five Hour Energy? When you build your own playground, you can make your own rules. Yetis, look at that five-hour energy label.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
It actually doesn't say energy drink on it, does it? It actually says dietary supplement. Even though the name says energy and consumers think of it as an energy drink, it's actually a different category. And that reflects a strategy we've talked about before with you on this pod. Category design, creating, designing your own category. Don't play in someone else's playground.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
Build your own playground where you can make the rules. 5-Hour Energy could be fighting for fridge space in the back with Red Bull, Celsius, and Monster Energy drinks. Instead, it created a new space to sell their product. Literally. At the front, right next to the cash register. Now look, maybe 5-Hour Energy went too far recently, and maybe they should get sued for what they were doing.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
Pikachu is cute, but he's way more powerful than you realized. And our third and final story. It's the most exciting new trend in entrepreneurship. It's boring. It's boring. Boring businesses are so hot right now. So Jack and I will make the case why you should consider running, launching, or buying a brutally boring business. But yetis, before you hit that wonderful mix of stories. What?
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
But still, their initial success after all those years, it still proves this point. When you build your own playground, you get to make your own rules. Just try to make the rules legal. You want to keep it legal. For our second story, Niantic, the company behind Pokemon Go, just got bought by Saudi Arabia for $3.8 billion.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
Pokemon Go is way past its prime, but the underlying tech is just getting started. You know what, Yetis? We're just going to put it out there. Pokemon Go, greatest success of augmented reality. And we're including Apple Vision Pros in that assessment. Yes, we are. And Pokemon Go's origin story, we actually just discovered it during our research. It is wild. Get this.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
Back in 2014, Google Maps did an April Fool's joke partnering with Pokemon. It was called the Pokemon Challenge. And here's a clip from the wild trailer that they launched with on April Fool's Day.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
I think one second. Yeah, that is a jigglypuff on 14th Street, Jack. Now, that April Fool's joke was such a huge hit that Google decided to spin out the group that did it into a separate company. And that company became Niantic, a real company based in the Ferry Building in San Francisco. Two years later, Niantic shot for the moon with an even bigger version known as Pokemon Go.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
Because everyone wants to catch them all. Pokemon Go launched nine years in a partnership between Pokemon, Niantic, and Nintendo. And it's still the most successful use of augmented reality we've ever seen. The key is the augmented reality, not virtual reality. Because augmented reality is a combo of the real world and virtual reality. It's the real world with digital layers layered on top of it.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
To find, to capture, to slay digital Pokemon on your street, you have to use real world GPS. So augmented reality involved real people walking around the real world using their phones as the digital part. And guess what, Nick? People traveled 30 billion miles tracking down Pokemon on Pokemon Go. We did the back of the envelope math on that.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
That's about 4 million physical trips around the earth playing an augmented reality game on your phone. It had a huge, huge impact. 500 million people played in the very first year, bringing in $8 billion in total revenue since then. Jack, could we Pikachu into more numbers, please? $8 billion in revenue for Pokemon Go is about one-third as much as Snapchat has brought in in the same period.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
And Snapchat's considered the AR leader. But since then, we should point out, Niantic hasn't found as much success, even though 100 million humans still play this game every year. Pokemon Go is kind of their one-hit wonder. Which leads to the news. Scopely, a video game company owned by Saudi Arabia's wealth fund, known as PIF, bought Niantic last week for $3.8 billion.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
They were basically like, I choose you, Blastoise. I choose you. Now, we all know the Saudi Arabian kingdom is interested in diversifying away from just oil. But Jack, did not know the Saudi royal family was really into Pokemon collection. I didn't know there were Pokemon fans either. But the story is this. They're not buying Snorlax. They're buying the software.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Pokemon? It's a reminder that tech is more valuable than content. Yetis, by buying Niantic, Scopely and its Saudi owners are getting an impressive tech platform. They're using this Pokemon underlying tech to develop spatial computing.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
A mix of stories? Love the mix, Jack. Whip out that green top that's been buried in your top drawer of your dresser. And toss the potatoes on your Guinness oatmeal. Because it smells like St. Patrick's Day today, Yetis. Frank from finance is handing out homemade cabbage all morning. Carol from accounting is definitely wearing that green lip gloss today. We see you, Carol.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
Which is a term Apple actually created with Apple Vision Pro. Basically, they're seeing Niantic's value not as the game, but in the underlying technology that makes the Pokemon game possible. They're basically going to create some kind of a headset probably in the future with this Niantic technology. This is the same reason why Netflix is worth twice as much as Disney.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
And why Spotify is worth more than any of the three major record labels. And why Airbnb is worth more than Marriott. The tech is more valuable than the content. Saudi Arabia, they're not playing with a Snorlax over there. They're buying Pokemon Go's tech.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
For our third and final story, the most exciting new trend in entrepreneurship is the least exciting. It's the business of boring. The business of boring. When owning and running a boring business is actually a thrill. Yet is the 2010s, a golden, beautiful age of startups. There was girl bosses, boy bosses. Thank God it's Monday. Hustle culture. But first, coffee, Jack.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
Interest rates were low, venture capital money was high, and the rise of social media was fueling it all. Every day as Nick and I were coming of age post-college, there was a new direct-to-consumer mattress brand advertised in the subway. Mattress, mattress, mattress. Hey, you're starting a meat-based plant e-commerce disruptor? Here's $50 million in funding so you can take on Heinz and Amazon.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
In 2017, if you showed a VC a pitch deck for an e-scooter company, you'd have a billion-dollar check before you left the building. Jack, they'd give your mom a billion dollars because why not? It's a rounding error. It was an exciting time. Everything was cutting edge. The gig economy, Web3, exciting startups were a thrill. This was the sexy startup era. But here's an update on all of that.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
The hot new entrepreneurial trend is boring industries. Boring industries. Yeti's young people are still launching startups, but not SaaS tech companies. They're launching glass companies. Yeah, like old school window glass. You can cut yourself on it. Be careful. Because the business of boring is booming right now. The boring business boom. That's what we're experiencing.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
But it is not just a lucky day for the Irish, is it, Jack? St. Patrick's Day is also lucky for investors. Statistically speaking, March 17th is actually one of the best performing days on all of Wall Street. We've tracked it for every year we've been running this pod. We have. Green is for the portfolio. Get this. St.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
According to the New York Times, young entrepreneurs are starting plumbing businesses, garage door opener businesses, custom glass businesses. Basic but profitable businesses. Over at business schools, the most popular class we're hearing right now is entrepreneurship through acquisition. How to buy a boring business.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
Meanwhile, over on YouTube, there's a surge in influencers with viral videos promoting what theme, Jack? How to launch and run a boring business. Now, Yetis, Jack and I got fascinated with what's going on here, and we noticed there are a few macro reasons behind this trend. First is the silver tsunami.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
Baby boomers still own 25% of America's companies, but every day, more and more of them are retiring. So, millennials and Gen Z entrepreneurs are buying up those boomers booming boring businesses. Millennial Millie is buying Boomer Bob's regional pool installation company. So that Bob can spend more time by his actual pool in Boca del Vista. Now, interestingly, it's not just the age social trend.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
It's also a financial funding trend. It's easier right now to get a small business loan to buy like a plumbing company than it is to raise venture capital. The Small Business Administration, they have loans, some of which only require 5% cash down. That's pretty low. Just put together a well-thought-through business plan and you could be approved.
The Best One Yet
🥱 “Boring Biz” — The Boring Entrepreneurship Trend. 5HourEnergy’s Monopoly. Pokemon’s $3.8B Acquisition.
In fact, we discovered there is an entire website right now, a platform for selling or buying boring businesses, like a Craigslist for laundromats, basically. It's called bizbuysell.com. Pretty straightforward. It's a boring business platform. So add it all up and young entrepreneurs are pulling a Bob Vance, buying and running random refrigeration companies.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
This is Nick. This is Jack. Welcome back. It is Monday, December 16th. Today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. You know, Jack, the Dow is down again.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
I had a bad experience once, but it turned out the heater was working. On your electric down comforter. Yeah, I just didn't know how to turn it on. Story for another pod. He asked the park ranger to save him because his electric down comforter wasn't warm enough. We're not welcome down in that part of California now, Jack. I just want to point that out.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
But yet, before you had that wonderful mix of stories. Fantastic mix of stories to kick off the week, man. Nick and I are paging it open to Hoarder's Almanac Week 249.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
Either way, Yetis, Marriott, they noticed this glamping trend that started with the pandemic, and they just referenced it as being a continuing trend. Here's what they said related to the acquisition of postcard cabins. Guests are increasingly interested in nature-immersive travel. Now, it's not just postcard that they're investing in.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
Marriott also announced on Friday a new partnership with Trailborn, which is kind of similar to postcard. It's actually complementary to postcard. Good point, Jack. Because Trailborn offers glamping, but not close to cities, close to national parks. So now Marriott is offering glamping near cities and near Yosemite at the same time. Marriott stock, it's up 30% this year.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
So they're basically treating themselves to a couple of new country homes. Marriott, they're going full Grizzly Adams if Grizzly Adams wore a Montclair vest. Grizzly Adams did have a beard. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Marriott? The mountains are calling and I must invest. Yetis, over the last few years, we've seen massive increased consumer interest in the outdoors.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
It started with the pandemic. Spending on hiking, camping, glamping, it all boomed. Yeti coolers, Canada Goose jackets, stand-up paddle boards, we've covered them all on this pod at all-time highs. Funny enough, Marriott is actually behind when it comes to this trend. Yeah, as Jack and I were researching, we noticed that Hyatt and Hilton hotels already have glamping investments.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
And two years before Marriott acquired it, Walmart had already partnered with postcard cabins for an outdoorsy retail situation. So actually, Marriott's not a leading indicator on glamping. It's a late lagger on glamping. Because nature-forward urbanites like Nick is a market willing to pay and figure out how that heater works after the fact. The mountains are calling, and I must invest.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us to kick off the week? Ralph Lauren is leaning into its Americana style and showcasing their teddy bear. The stock is up and the Ralph Lauren teddy bear has got untapped IP potential. It's giving Paddington. For our second story, it's Hot Ones. The YouTube show just sold for $82 million to a group of creator-driven media companies.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
And the deal, it represents a changing of the guard in media. And our third and final story is Marriott. They just made their big bet on glamping. You can book cabins near the cities or near the national parks. The mountains are calling and I must invest. As long as it's got a 1,000 thread count. But yeties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
This week, we are running out of the corporate office holiday party. The office party. The corporate party. The end of year comp celebration. All of it. is disappearing. The one where Carol from accounting over shares inside info, she definitely shouldn't have shared. Yeah, and Frank from finance is over serving the jungle juice. Here's the news.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
First, Zuckerberg, Bezos, and Sam Altman have all now donated $1 million each to Trump's presidential inauguration. It's not just that. Apple's Tim Cook and Google's Sundar Pichai have both visited Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort this past week.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
It's also a financial bending of the knee by these CEOs to the president-elect. And second, watch your face because Samsung and Google are partnering for smart glasses and virtual reality headsets. This is the same partnership that offered the first alternative to the iPhone 15 years ago. Well, now instead of smartphones, they're going to be offering cheaper alternatives to the Apple Vision Pro.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
And finally, the government of the city of Tokyo in Japan is testing four-day work weeks, get this, to increase the birth rate. This city's 160,000 government employees may choose one day off a week to have a little fun out there. Their hope is that the added flexibility and better work-life balance will result in more baby-making.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
Japan's had 16 straight years of a shrinking birth rate, so they're hoping one more date night may change the course. Or one more day with the baby in the future. Yeah. Like one more day a week they can spend at home. Wednesday. It's the new Friday. Now time for the best fact yet. This one whipped up by Jack and me because Mondays mean trivia. Here's the question.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
What candy actually began as an alternative to smoking cigarettes? Or Jack, ask differently. What candy was started to help you quit smoking cigarettes? It's a wild question. And the answer is our next episode of The Best Idea Yet, which drops tomorrow. That's right. This candy, it tried to take your smoking habit and pivot it to sweets. What candy was it?
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
Guess in the comments and we'll tell you the answer tomorrow because we're going to go deep on it on our show, The Best Idea Yet. Yetis, you look fantastic over there. And if you're getting ready for the company holiday party, go easy on the jingle juice this year. That's a mouse pad, not mistletoe. And if you're looking to start a convo with Frank from finance, just tell him to HYHTBY.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
Haven't had the best one yet. And sure, I'll look at pictures of your kid. This pod, it's how you get a promotion. So Jack and I, we'll see you tomorrow. And before we go, a congratulations to our legendary Yeti co-worker, Rachel Hauer, who just completed an Ironman in New Zealand. She's literally on the other side of the planet right now and ripping 70 miles like nobody's business.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
Congrats from the T-Boy team, Rachel. And Aranda Smith is turning 51 years old. Happy birthday down in Spotsylvania, Virginia. I want to go to Spotsylvania, by the way. It sounds pretty cool. Coolest town name I've ever heard of. And little Moss Faye Hurwitz just turned one year old over in Brooklyn. Congratulations to the parents. Moss, it always grows on the right side of the tree.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
The recruiting firm Challenger Gray and Christmas surveys companies on whether or not they're having an office party. Wait, their name is Christmas? The name of the company is Christmas? Yeah, that's a coincidence, I think. Well, what did they discover, Jack? The number of companies that are having holiday parties is at the lowest level since they've been keeping track. Get this, yetis.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
north of Williamsburg, and Shrey Nilesh Rao. This guy is a fact factory. He's listening every day. Great to have you with us, Shrey. And a huge shout-out to Jordan Gutierrez, a Canes, Knicks, and Steelers fan on the east side who hosted Nick and me as VIP guests to the Knicks game. We loved hanging with you, Jordan. Thanks for the invite.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
Hey, and congratulations, Ashley, too, on having the best wedding yet. Coming up next year, you guys are the earls of ESPN. And reminder, if you're wondering who to blame for Nick and me having no voice Friday... It's kind of Jordan style. Yeah, it's kind of Jordan. We did a lot of talking, a lot of podcast recording.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
And last week, we asked the Yetis for alternatives to gingerbread houses, and they sent us some great options like charcuterie chalets. Also, the candy cane condo. I could bite into that. And the peppermint penthouse. We're into that too. Thank you, Add One Nike. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
I own stock of Netflix, and Nick and I both own stock of Apple. One time I ordered burgers with jalapeno. Sorry, with habanero. I was humiliated. I had to go to the bathroom several times for my face. Do you need a napkin? I need the fire department. If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
In the last 15 years, the number of firms hosting holiday galas is down 30%. In 2007, 90% of companies said they were having a company holiday party. But this year, just 64% are serving Millennial Millie a little holiday cheer. So why are companies putting the kibosh on the corporate Christmas shindig? Well, Jack, one reason is COVID. Another reason is costs. In this economy, yeah.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
You'd rather prefer a bonus check to an open bar. But the biggest reason that the holiday office party is going away is apparently Gen Z. Yeah, Gen Z, because people under 30, they aren't into drinking with Frank from Finance. They hate alcohol. Call us old-fashioned. I used to love the holiday office parties I had.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
I mean, Jack, back when we worked at banks, we could expense taxis anywhere after the office holiday party. And taking a taxi to home, that was a luxury. I'm pretty sure the whole night was a write-off. And then after a couple drinks, quiet Kathy from Compliance told us that she's actually a semi-pro surfer. I mean, Jack, I never busted a move on the dance floor, but Kathy did.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
Although we should point out the stock market index is still up 3.8% since the election. Funny you should say that. You know what else is up? Yeah. Our voices, baby. We're healthy again, Yetis. We're feeling good. We're recovering our voices for you. Thanks for your patience on Friday. Our vocal cords limped through the podcast, didn't they?
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
And honestly, impressed with Kathy. Kathy!
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
So besties, the holiday office party, it's on the decline. Pour one out for the overpaid DJ your company paid way too much money for. We got a poll going on Spotify. Are you guys having a holiday party or not this year? And if you did have a holiday party, tell us the highlights in the comments. In the meantime, Jack, three fantastic stories. Let's hit the T-Boy.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
No, Frank, there's no mistletoe in this space.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
But the reason Ralph Lauren is up is their cute, cuddly teddy bear. Yeah, goody, goody, goody, cute. Now, yeah, it is last week, Jack and I told you about the luxury lull, the fancy fallout, the Christian Dior dip. A big reason is China. For years, millions of newly minted millionaires in China have been the driver behind luxury industry sales.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
Hey, that Hermes handbag? Take it off. Not cool, man. Not cool. Used to be cool, but not cool. So luxury brands are struggling right now, but we noticed that there is one big American exception. And who is that, Jack? Ralph Lauren. Not Ralph Lauren. Okay. I don't know why I called it Ralph Lauren as a kid. I didn't want to call you out. It's just Ralph Lauren.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
But yet is we noticed that shares of Ralph Lauren are popping like a polo shirt collar these days. The stock is up 55% this year to an all-time high. And the earnings last week were hotter than Hansel. Even in China, sales of Ralph Lauren were up 10% last quarter. It looks like Ralph Lauren's red, white, and blue Americana is thriving over there.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
And the growth driver, according to the CEO, is their teddy bear. It's their iconic, cuddly, cute little Ralph Lauren teddy bear selling at all time highs. Now, we need to sprinkle on some context to the teddy bear itself. Jack, can you whip out the history books from the whiteboard over there for us, please? My little brother's name is Teddy. Great name.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
Although, Jack, I should point out, a lot of people said we sounded sultry. And one person said we were like leather chocolate and Cuban cigars in a podcast. Another said it was refreshing to hear a Friday hangover podcast. Someone thought you were Batman. And I want to point out, you and Batman have never been in the room at the same time. I've noticed that. Well, it's good to be happy again.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
So I'm highly familiar with the teddy bear origin story. And he's a great guy. So what do we got, Jack? The teddy bear is actually named after President Theodore Teddy Roosevelt, and the first teddy bear was created 124 years ago. And it's kind of an interesting reason how they came up with the teddy bear, right, man?
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
So Teddy Roosevelt was an outdoorsman and a conservationist, and he liked to hunt bears, actually. He did. There's a couple of bears that he shot at the Natural History Museum in New York City. Yeah, it's like 30 bears. Yeah, not too shabby. But one time he failed to catch a bear. And so some of his cronies like caught a bear and set it up for President Roosevelt to shoot.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
Would have been an easy shot. But Teddy Roosevelt refused to shoot the tied up bear. He's a principled guy. If he was going to shoot it, he'd shoot it in the wild. And apparently some guy took that story and said, I'm going to create a teddy bear stuffed animal and name it after Theodore Roosevelt.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
Well, decades later, a man named Jerry Loren collected dozens of those original collectible teddy bears. Jerry Loren is Ralph Lauren's brother. True story. And in 1991, he convinced his brother, Ralph, to put a teddy bear on Ralph Lauren apparel. Well, that started an annual holiday tradition. Every year, there was a line of teddy bear Ralph Lauren clothing that you could buy for holidays.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
Except this year, Ralph Lauren's teddy bear has its own permanent collection. It's a vibe. It is. And it reflects Ralph Lauren's casual luxury brand.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
It's pretty cool and cash. It looks like a guy whose holiday party you want to get invited to. That's exactly who that teddy bear looks like. Well, last week in New York, Nick and I noticed a bunch of people with Ralph Lauren teddy bear merch. On our way to lunch one day, we saw three people in Ralph Lauren teddy bear merch. A hat, a shirt, and a sweater.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
So the CEO says the teddy bear is the growth driver, and Nick and I saw it with our own two eyes in New York City last week. We did. They've even launched a polo bear shop with 500 Ralph Lauren teddy bear products. The teddy bear is replacing that iconic polo horse from the polo shirt as the theme of Ralph Lauren. Teddy bear, so hot right now.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Ralph Lauren? Don't call it Ralph Lauren. I'm just trying to make you feel comfortable. I want you to feel accepted, Jack. The Ralph Lauren teddy bear has all the ingredients for star IP potential. Yetis, in this moment of nostalgia, brands are realizing that they're actually sitting on piles of valuable IP like it's oil.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
It started with Mattel, who realized that the Barbie doll is way more than a toy. The Barbie doll turned into a movie, fashion lines, and so much more. And J.Crew, they just brought back their famous catalog because that was buried IP. And now Coca-Cola is using their polar bears for way more than just December... TV commercials.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
Well, Jack and I think that Ralph Lauren's teddy bear is the next buried IP to be drilled up and scaled out. Our prediction, the Ralph Lauren teddy bear is going to get a YouTube series, maybe his own Instagram account, a children's book, perhaps. I mean, Jack, in three years, we're probably going to see a live action teddy bear film streaming on Netflix. And we'll be saying we did a podcast on it.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
Jack, you are sounding fantastic. Pumped to pod with you, P2P. Let's hit our three stories. What do we got? For our first story, the only American luxury brand winning right now is Ralph Lauren. Because Ralph Lauren has replaced their polo logo with the teddy bear. For our second story, it's Hot Ones. The show where celebrities drown in hot sauce drenched chicken wings while trying to interview.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
All the ingredients are there. It's time to tap that teddy bear IP. Tap that IP, baby. For our second story, Hot Ones, the interview show done over spicy chicken wings, just sold for $82 million. Hot Ones' huge financial payout shows the changing of the guard in media. All right, Jack, let's open up the cupboards over there. Go to hot sauce right now. What are you putting on everything? Boon.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
Honestly, we've been experiencing and experimenting with a lot of hot sauces, but we're into Boon right now. Boon Chili Crunch really nails the spicy oil to crushed red pepper ratio. I like what you did there, Jack. But Nick, the hot sauces we like don't even register compared to those used by the show, Hot Ones.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
By the end, they're at 10,000 on the Scoville scale. Tell me how you got your first Hollywood break while chewing this jalapeno wing. Tom Holland, Shaquille O'Neal, Sidney Sweeney, each has recently been tortured with habaneros while being interviewed on Hot Ones.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
But BuzzFeed is struggling. The stock is down 90% and the company is buried in $120 million of debt. So last week, BuzzFeed sold off Hot Wings for a whopping $82 million. BuzzFeed is using that money to pay down debt. This is not a glamorous transaction for BuzzFeed. Now, interestingly, Hot Ones is being acquired by a bunch of creators, actually.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
The Soros Fund is providing the big money for this deal. But other money is coming from the host of the show, Sean Evans, as well as Rhett and Link, fellow YouTubers.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
Hot Ones, never been hotter. Yetis, ironically, to make a great media product, Hot Ones borrowed from the restaurant industry. Here's what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. Chefs in kitchens use contrast to make a dish more flavorful. Right, Jack? Like hot and cold contrast, or sweet and sour contrast, or crunchy and not crunchy contrast.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
But Jack and I have studied Hot Ones for years now, and we noticed that Hot Ones uses contrast to enhance your attention of the show. They use a pretty classic interview format for this show. Same kinds of questions you'd see on any other interview show. It's pretty basic questions. But the host asked those questions while feeding the guest increasingly spicy food.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
So by the end, it is painfully unpleasant. It's the only show we've watched with interviews where you have to take a bathroom break in the middle for the guest. Jennifer Lawrence is giving acting advice. Nice. With buffalo sauce tears coming down her face. That is nice. And that...
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
is content contrast because nothing makes you more vulnerable than when your mouth is destroyed and you've got spice tears coming out. The hot ones. They didn't reinvent the interview. They just added one new variable, heat, and it works. By the way, not pro tip. Yes. Don't order habanero if you've never had habanero. It's the most aggressive of all the peppers and it will destroy your meal.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
You know, between this and the Ralph Lauren pronunciation, you're giving great pro tips today, Jax. So what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Hot Ones? Hot Ones represents a changing of the guard in media. Now, Yetis, Jack and I see three groups of media in the industry. There's legacy media, new media, and creator media. Cable TV is legacy media. They're in long-term decline.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
They're profitable, but their business shrinks every year. New media is also kind of in trouble. Fox, Vice, BuzzFeed, all the digital new media is shrinking right now. But creator media is represented by Hot Ones, and creator media is eating the rest of the industry. Get this, Yetis. Hot Ones averages 12 million viewers per 30-minute episode.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
That show just sold for $82 million. Hot Ones, it proves that YouTube shows are as big as cable shows. And our third and final story is Marriott Hotels. They just made a huge bet on glamping. Marriott, they just bought a glamping chain because the mountains are calling and I must invest. Glamping. Nick's favorite. There was an incident. There was an incident. Story for another pod.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
Jack, could you sprinkle on some context to that viewer number, please? Late-night talk TV shows on cable, they get about 2 million viewers per episode. Reality TV, like The Bachelorette, it gets just about 3 million viewers per an episode. And scripted shows on CBS, like Law & Order, they get 5 million viewers per episode. Again, Hot Ones is getting 12 million viewers for a 30-minute episode.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
More than double those on the shows we just mentioned. Nick, Hot Ones is a YouTube show, a medium that has never gotten the cachet of television. Doesn't get the respect. But Hot Ones mops up the floor with legacy media in terms of viewership. That's why this Hot Ones deal represents a true changing of the guard in media.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
For our third and final story, Marriott just made a big bet on glamping by acquiring postcard cabins. Here's what Marriott's thinking. What are they thinking? The mountains are calling, and I must invest. All right, well, Jack, let's start with an origin story. Ten years ago, two guys dreamed of having a place in the woods where they could escape the city.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
And those two guys, they built six little cabins and plopped them in the woods north of Boston. Just north of Boston. Ha ha ha! It was glamping. It was glamping. Basically, these cabins offered the same experience as camping, but with a roof, a toilet, hot water, a shower, and probably an electric down comforter. I could get used to this.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
They called their company Postcard, and they now got 29 locations with 1,200 cabins. All 1,200 of those cabins are surrounded by trees in the forest. Ideally with a view, ideally with some nearby water you can swim in. Now, interestingly, they have a specific growth strategy for this company, Postcard Cabin. Each cabin must be within a two-hour drive of a major metropolitan area.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
So these cabins are like in the Hudson Valley outside New York. They're not in central Montana, seven hours away from another city. And now the world's largest hotel chain is heading into the great outdoors. Yes. Almost. Here's the news. Marriott just acquired postcard cabins. It's their biggest bet yet on glamping. And here's the key.
The Best One Yet
🧸 “Teddy Bear, so hot right now” — Ralph Lauren’s new logo. Hot Ones’ $82M deal. Marriott’s glamping bet.
Marriott sees glampers as having more in common with a typical hotel guest than with a camper. Yeah, because glampers are not a BYO toilet paper crowd, are they, Jack? People who book a hotel with postcard cabins are paying basically the same price as for a hotel room. The dress code is Patagonia Puffer Jacket. Full disclosure, this is Nick. And glamping's more my style on this, Jack.
The Best One Yet
👜 “Louis VuiTexas” — LVMH’s Made in America fail. Dubai Chocolate’s virality. iExports > iPhones.
Oh, let's hit our three-story jack. 15 years before this song Two boys from the Northeast met in a dorm They had an idea to cause a cultural storm It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm Jack Nick
The Best One Yet
👜 “Louis VuiTexas” — LVMH’s Made in America fail. Dubai Chocolate’s virality. iExports > iPhones.
that's it i don't even think they need to practice 50 that's a fat tip t-boy city on your at list if you know you know because we're ready to go we can't wait no more so just start the show start the show first a quick word from our sponsor
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
This is Nick. This is Jack. Welcome back. It is Monday, March 10th, and today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Stocks just had their worst week in months, but Jack and I are wearing the same outfit today. Unplanned. I wish it was planned. You look fantastic. I think I look fantastic too. Yeti's three toys for today's show.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
The more you win, the more money your team brings in, the more valued you actually are. And as Wrexham keeps getting promoted to higher and higher leagues, its revenues are growing too. Those revenues doubled last year. They're almost in the Premier League, and now they need a bigger stadium. But you might be asking, is Ryan Reynolds king Midas?
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
How has his arrival in Wales improved everything about the team so quickly? Again, a 5,000% return in four years? To that, we would say it wasn't his celebrity. It was his documentary. Which leads... to our takeaway. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddy Ryan and team Rexham? There is no better promotion tool than a video memoir. Yetis. The newest genre in film, we call it the video memoir.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
A firsthand account of something all recorded on video. Because when Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhaney were talking about buying Wrexham, they started recording everything on video. They got like all the footage. They got the Zoom calls, their visit to Wales, first time meeting the team. They pressed record and they had video of all of it. It was a massive Google Drive folder probably.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
They want to resurrect it using DNA found in fossils because life finds a way. Well, their first animal is the woolly mammoth. Good choice. But Jack, to get to the first step to reach that woolly mammoth, what do they do? They have to see if the woolly mammoth gene can survive in a mouse. Well, spoiler, it can. The woolly mouse is alive and it is well and it is woolly right now.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
It was a gigantic video diary, which eventually got professionally edited into a multi-episode documentary that they sold to Hulu. And that documentary, that is the real reason for Wrexham's rise. That documentary has been watched by millions. Wrexham AFC now has fans across the world. They have new sponsors who want to be on the jersey, and they have players who want to play on the team.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
That's what drove that 5,000% return, the documentary. Because in life, you can always cut material, but you can't get back what you didn't record in the first place. Exactly. So if you're doing something epic, document it with a video. That was the genius move by Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds, recording everything.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
Besties, there is no better way to promote yourself and boost the valuation of what you're doing than with a video memoir. For our second story, South by Southwest is now a film, music, and tech festival, probably a half a billion dollar a year business. Because conventions are surging right now. They're the third place for the workplace. And our third and final story is Wrexham AFC.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
They're now a 100 million pound company. Its valuation is up 50x in four years. But it's not because of their celeb owners. It's because of that documentary. Remember to press record. But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Wait, Nick, did we remember to push record? Oh boy, that's a podcast nightmare. Here's what else you need to know today. You scared me, man.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
First, the S&P 500 rose on Friday, but still notched its worst week since September. On the economic front, the economy added 151,000 jobs in February. Kind of surprisingly high growth given the firing of federal workers last month. But the stock market is still feeling whiplashed by all that tariff flip-flopping. And second, reports have come in that Apple is planning to build a foldable phone.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
The iPhone 17 might be a little bit thicker when it's folded close, but then it opens up into a tiny iPad for you to watch some videos. It's got to be crease-free, though. That's the key. When you open it, the screen has got to be as flat as still water. Apple's not going to launch this thing until it's crease-free. which is why it won't arrive until 2026 at the earliest. Where is the eye toilet?
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
Just make us an apple toilet. And finally, Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced former crypto king, is in jail right now, but also just got interviewed on a podcast. Sam Bankman-Fried did a podcast interview with Tucker Carlson from a prison. We didn't know that was possible. Neither did Sam's PR rep, who had no idea this was happening.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
He's actually seeking a pardon from President Trump, so SBF says he switched from Democrat to Republican. Good luck, SBF. Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Yeti Alex Hughes down in lovely Denver. It's about the business of stuffed crust pizza because last week we told you that Pizza Hut pioneered the concept 30 years ago. But here's the interesting detail.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
It actually began back in 1987 when Anthony Mongiello patented a stuffed pizza shell for putting cheese inside the crust pizza. of the pizza. And he came up with that idea years before Pizza Hut eventually launched it in 1995. So when Pizza Hut's version came out and became a $300 million success, Mangiello sued for stealing his idea. Although unfortunately, he lost in court.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
You got to see a picture of this. It looks like a regular mouse, except with a lot more hair and a lot more weight. Did we mention it's woolly? Yeah, we mentioned the hair. Now, ironically, adding DNA of an extinct animal to a non-extinct animal, that's the plot of Jurassic Park 2. Paging Dr. Grant.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
Pizza Hut got the last laugh, but Mangiello, in our book, is the true inventor. Yetis, you look fantastic today. Jack, you are looking like a pretty woolly mouth in that sweater there. A woolly mouse? Yeah, a woolly mouse. A woolly mouse. I wonder if that's giving me the Christmas gift of 2025. Hopefully, hopefully.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
And Yetis, if you're down in Austin, Texas for South By hanging with your buddies over at Franklin's Barbecue, share the show with them. And then tell them HYHTBY. Have you had the best one yet? If you know, you know. Jack and I will see you tomorrow. Before we go, a happy birthday to Yeti Alex Dressler over in lovely Oceanside, California. And happy birthday to Mustafa Hassani in Dallas, Texas.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
And Sushan Basak over in New Brunswick is celebrating the best birthday yet. Happy fourth quarter birthday to Kristen Cruz in Farmington Hills. Yeah. That's a whole birthday, right? Looking at the earnings report and it says whole birthday, Jack. Full fiscal year 2024 birthday. And Marie Greggs turning 87 years old, enjoying the show and crushing life in Winfield, Kansas.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
Happy 40th birthday to Joy Neumann in Whitehaven, Pennsylvania. Who's also got a new job in Wawa country. If you know, you know. Oh, and if you need a shout out on the show, we got links in the episode description. Fill out our easy form. We'll give you a shout out. We can't wait to get you on the pod. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Disney and Nick and I both own stock of Apple.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
But instead of a vicious genetically modified dinosaur, they made a precious genetically modified mouse. It feels like the woolly mouse should get their own Disney movie, by the way. I mean, Jack, I'm looking at this thing. It's cuter than Baby Yoda. I want one. Let's just leave it at that, Jack. Hey, Klausel, we found your new business model, Wooly Mice Pets.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
For our first story, TJ Maxx. Their stock just hit a fresh new all-time high because TJ Maxx is tariff-proof. This discount retailer is more valuable than Nike. And it's almost as big as Hermes. True story. And we'll tell you why. But before we tell you why, I got to share something. I just got to let the Yetis know about this, Jack.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
Jack, what do we got on the T-boy? For our first story, get this. The number three clothing company in the world is actually TJ Maxx. TJ Maxx. TJ is at an all-time high because their business model is tariff... For our second story, the South by Southwest Festival is this week. So we looked at the business of South by.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
You know, when we walked into our freshman year dorm room, I opened the door and I almost choked on my Fanta. Why? Because I saw you wearing a $20 bright red TJ Maxx polo shirt, Jack. Well, it was a polo polo shirt that I bought at TJ Maxx. Fair point. For only 20 bucks. But Jack, if you had bought stock in TJ Maxx instead of buying that $20 cute top, what kind of money would you have right now?
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
It'd be up 25x. True story. That's right. 20 bucks of TJ Maxx stock from 2009 is worth $500 today. Yetis, TJ Maxx, the apparel retailer is a $130 billion company. That's like 20 lifts. It's more valuable than Nike, which I find wild. In fact, TJ Maxx has only two clothing companies in the world that are worth more. And who is it, Jack?
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
Hermes and LVMH, which means Framingham, Massachusetts looks like Paris, France. Not possible. Forget Birkin bags. Get me a dirty TJ Maxx tote bag. Make it two because yet he's unlike luxury goods. Bargain clothing is not a cyclical industry. There is always a demand for cheap clothing. Case in point, after the 08 financial crisis, consumers flocked to TJ Maxx. During the pandemic, same.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
And during the recent inflation situation, TJ Maxx added more Maxxinistas than ever. That's why TJ Maxx's sales today are nearly triple what they were in 2010. You know what? Their best days could be right now. Sit down, stand up, and put us on the sale rack. Because TJ Maxx is about to become America's back-to-back trade war champion. And we will explain.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
Jack, let's open up your closet and whip out that $20 red polo shirt. Nick, the shirt sleeves, they're so tight. They make you look huge. No, you're just talking about your biceps. But yeti's, that $20 cute top that Jack bought, it was actually made in China. But unlike with Ralph Lauren or Nike or The Gap, TJ Maxx is not vulnerable to made-in-China tariffs right now.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
That's the key, and here's why. Because TJ Maxx fills its stores with extra inventory that other retailers were not able to sell. If a Ralph Lauren polo shirt is made in China, Ralph Lauren has to pay a tariff when it arrives in the United States. And then TJ Maxx buys that polo shirt from Ralph Lauren if Ralph can't sell it as his own stores.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
But they don't pay a tariff because they just bought it directly from Ralph Lauren. Ipso facto, TJ Maxx's business model is tariff-proofed. It's one of the rare companies with trade war immunity, and yet they still benefit from the low prices of made-in-China stuff. It's like they got trade war white blood cells over there, too. It is.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
And during the first trade war back in 2018, TJ Maxx was a safe haven for low-priced made-in-China clothing. Well, during trade war too right now, it's looking the same for TJ Maxx. In this economy, its discount deals look even more like deals. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in aisle six at TJ Maxx? TJ Maxx's competitive advantage isn't low prices.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
It's their army of 1,300 buyers. Yetis, even though they priced their t-shirts for five bucks, TJ Maxx made $5 billion in profit last year. You'd think someone would come in, offer t-shirts for four bucks, and make a $4 billion profit. You'd think that, but it's not that easy. Like, TJ Maxx can only offer such low prices because of their huge buyer network.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
And that business involves Johnny Cash, the Hanson Brothers, and the first ever tweet. And our third and final story, Ryan Reynolds invested in one underdog Welsh football club, and that investment has paid off. Oh, Rexham AFC just got a 4,900% return. And they're almost in the Premier League. But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Fantastic mix of stories.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
TJ Maxx's parent company, TJX, has 1,300 people across four continents in 12 countries who find the discount clothing that eventually gets into the stores. Basically, TJ employs 1,300 treasure hunters who are its secret sauce for deal discovery. These 1,300 people have decades-old relationships with apparel companies who trust them.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
They trust them to handle overstock inventory without damaging their brands. Like if Ralph Lauren bought a thousand too many polo shirts, Ralphie's first call is to his representative at TJ Maxx. That's TJ's advantage. Another chain can't just say, we'll offer a lower price than TJ Maxx, because how are you going to offer a lower price?
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
That's the real secret to TJ Maxx's discount advantage, an army of 1,300 bargain buyers. For our second story, South by Southwest, the biggest tech media entertainment event of the year is this week in Austin, Texas. We dove into the business of South by. We did. Because there's an economic explosion happening in Austin right now. Yeah.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
But first, Jack, a billionaire makes an indie film about his blockchain startup at a burrito restaurant. And he's wearing cowboy boots, right? Where did that happen, Jack? South by Southwest. Yeah, it happened at South by Southwest, the tech music entertainment event. It's basically Coachella for people who don't do Coachella. Come for the hot takes from thought leaders.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
Stay for the LinkedIn connections. Rumor has it that Satya Nadella still wears his lanyard from 2015 every day in the shower. And we just call it South By because the whole name is too long, right? If you say the whole name, Jack, you can't sit at the cool table, man. The drama at South By this year isn't self-driving cars. It is.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
Because Waymo just launched their robo-taxi business in Austin, while Rivian is sponsoring the conference, all in Tesla's new home city. But few attendees know the real history of South By Southwest or the business of South By Southwest. Because South By actually existed pre-millennial, and it used to have nothing to do with tech. Back in 1987, before Jack and I were born, it was a music festival.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
Johnny Cash actually rebooted his career with a concert at South by Southwest in Austin. And it wasn't just Johnny Cash. The three Hanson brothers, they did Mbop and debuted at South By. John Mayer signed his first record deal at South By. And all in all, there was no technology involved in the first decade of South by Southwest.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
By 2014, South By was the largest music festival in the world, with 2,000 performances happening across this music-crazed city. That's about 20 times more than Lollapalooza. But the business of South By Southwest, which is a for-profit company, by the way. Good point, Jack. Blew up in the 2000s because they embraced technology. Get this. Back in 2007, Twitter actually launched at South by.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
Pretty wild. But the Twitter origin happened at a booth in the Austin South by Southwest conference. And it wasn't just Twitter. Airbnb, where did they get their first big surge in demand, Jack? They marketed their short-term rentals in Austin because all the hotels were sold out.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
Now today, South by Southwest has become, by our estimates, a half a billion dollar business, even though they don't share that publicly. 300,000 people are expected to attend South by this year. And with an average ticket price of $1,000, that's 300 million just in ticket sales. That's just the easy money math on it. But that's not the only way that they make money, is it, Jack?
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
Last month, we covered TED Talks. And remember that half of their revenue from events was sponsorship of those events. So South by is probably doing another $200, $300 million in revenue because Porsche is sponsoring the Scott Galloway interview on stage. Or more likely Land Rover, because I'm seeing their ads all over podcasts right now. And Scott seems like a Land Rover guy, Jack.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
So South By makes about a half a billion dollars in revenue in just one week of music, tech product launches, film festivals, and barbecue. But Jack and I have a suggestion because we've noticed something interesting about the South By Southwest brand. It's a rare brand of technology that's positive. Most tech brands these days are experiencing negative sentiment, right, Jack? But not South By.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
Love the mix today, Jack. A new animal has been invented by mankind. And it's the biggest breakthrough in genetic engineering since the seedless watermelon. The new animal that is now alive and well is a woolly mouse. A woolly mouse. It is one part little mouse, one part wild. Wooly Mammoth. It's like Minnie Mouse and Dumbo the Elephant at a baby.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
Which is why we wonder, should they scale the brand to South by Copenhagen? Or a South by Breckenridge ski retreat? Or a South by cruise? If you're going to do seven days in Austin, why not do seven days in the Pacific? But South by is actually hubbed in Austin's convention center, which leads to our takeaway.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
So Jack, could you toss on some fleecy Allbirds and tell us the takeaway for our buddies over at South by? The convention is the third place of the workplace. I love how you said that. Yetis, the convention industry, it's actually living its best life these days. Attendance jumped 20% from last year. Comic-Con had another record year. Gaming-Con had a record year. South By is having a record year.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
Wherever conferences are happening, those cities are having more visitors than ever. Exactly. That's why Cincinnati is spending $300 million for a new convention center to give their city the economic boost that Austin enjoys for South By. Austin enjoys $400 million of estimated spending. on hotels and tacos from all the visitors this week.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
And we think the key reason for the surge in convention attendance is that it's the rare place of overlap between work from home and work from office. Remote workers come to conferences to attend and make connections face-to-face, while office workers attend to meet those remote workers.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
That's fascinating, because we hear so much about the divide between remote work and in-office work these days, but not at conventions. Conventions aren't work from home. They're not work from office. They're a third place we're both convened. They're a third place of the workplace. Now, a quick word from our sponsor.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
For our third and final story, Wrexham AFC over in Wales. The soccer team bought by Ryan Reynolds has grown in valuation by, get this, 5,000%. But it's not because of a celebrity. That valuation jump is because of a documentary. Yetis, you know BTD buying the dip? Like when your buddy Timmy started day trading during the pandemic when stocks fell? Buy the dip.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
Well, Ryan Reynolds actually did the same thing in 2021. He did. But he bought the dip of a soccer team. True. He bought the football dip. Yes, he did. Seats were empty. Sports valuations were falling. So Ryan and his chiseled chin brought out the checkbook to buy a team.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
He and fellow actor buddy Rob McElhaney bought Wrexham AFC, one of the most historic teams in the United Kingdom, for just two million pounds. Well, here's the news, yetis. According to Bloomberg reporting, only four years later, that club is now worth a hundred million pounds. Because Reynolds sold 15% of the club to a wealthy American family for 15 million pounds.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
Jack, could you please sprinkle on some contacts to that fantastic visual? We've told you about Colossal, which is a genetic engineering startup. We've covered it a couple times on the pod. Colossal, they're trying to bring back the Wooly Mammoth naturally. Their business model is basically the plot of Jurassic Park. Yeah, like an animal's extinct.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
And now let's look at the math here. That implied valuation of 100 million pounds, it means that orexum is worth 50 times more than when Ryan first bought it. Jack, the extra math? A 4,900% return. Not too shabby. By the way, that valuation, that's equal to five times the club's annual revenue of 20 million pounds.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
Which happens to be the same as the five times multiple that Chelsea FC got when they were sold in 2022. Remember what we shared with you last week, besties. Multiples are how Wall Street calculates what something is worth. And for European soccer clubs... They're worth five times their revenue. But Jack and I got curious about the story.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
And I got to ask Jack, what is Ryan Reynolds going to do with all the new money from his equity sale? Like, is he going to make, you know, Blake Lively the coach man? Like, what's going on over there? No, he's actually going to add 5,000 seats to that historic stadium. Because in 2023, Wrexham actually rose from the UK's fifth-tier league up to its fourth-tier league.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
And last year, they got promoted again because they keep on winning. They're actually on the cusp of being promoted to the second-tier league in England, which is known as the Championship League. Yeah, that's what happens in European sports. You actually go to a new league the better you do. Yeah, like the winner of Division III football would get promoted to Division II the following year.
The Best One Yet
🌵 “South By, Inc.” — The Biz of SXSW. TJMaxx vs Hermès. Ryan Reynolds’ $100M Wrexham.
By the way, if you watched Ted Lasso season two, like that's literally the plot, right, Jack? Yeah, the championship league that Wrexham's about to join maybe is the league from Ted Lasso season two. It's one tier below the Premier League. It's kind of a funny part of the sports industry that's straightforward, but no one talks about.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
This is Nick. This is Jack. Welcome back. It is Monday, December 9th. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. How was the restaurant? Did you guys eat something new on the menu again? Oh, at Electra's? Yeah. Did you get the whole menu? Dude, we're only like halfway through. I told you the babysitters have fallen through.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
In an era of climate change, better predictions on hurricanes, blizzards, and tornadoes could save us billions of dollars. If we had better sun and wind conditions, then we could know how much we can depend on renewables versus fossil fuels. And in an era of food scarcity, better weather predictions help farmers, which then helps grocery stores and also helps fast food.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
Like, basically every industry is somehow tied to the weather. The weather. It affects the stock market way more than you realize. And if that unknown variable becomes knowable, it could boost our entire economy. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us to kick off the week? Lululemon's focus on newness has kept its oldest product feeling young.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
Without the newness, even the best things, they can just feel old. For our second story, it's Shaboosie. He's been number one on the charts for a record-tying 19 straight weeks. A bar song! but it's actually an economic song. Just like in politics, products can build a big tent too.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
And our third and final story, Google's Gencast predicts weather 15 days out, 97% more accurately than the status quo. We call it the super roker. Because knowing that one big unknown could change the entire economy. But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, Pantone released the color of the year, and that color is mocha mousse, and I like it.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
It looks just like it tastes. It does, it does. It's like soft, creamy, brownish tan. It looks luxurious, like a nice dessert. I feel like Kendall Roy's wearing this right now. It looks like mousse, the dessert. It does. It's very Brunello Cucinelli. Now, interestingly, Pantone's color of the year is... sees a 700% sales surge. And this color of the year isn't the color of the year for 2024.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
Mocha Moose is the color of the year for 2025. Yeah, it's a trend prediction. It's a pre-trend. Basically, this is a pre-trending color. It's pre-trending is what we're saying. Second, David Sachs was named the AI and crypto czar of the new administration of Donald Trump. Sachs is the co-founder of PayPal along with Peter Thiel and Elon Musk, and now he co-hosts the All In podcast.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
Trump continues to turn to billionaire business people to reform and steer the government. And finally, Dolly Parton is getting a Broadway musical in New York City, but with one big surprise. Open casting. Yeah. Anyone can try out to win a part in the Dollywood musical. Actually, Jack, specifically the starring role of Dolly. Anyone could get that role, apparently.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
Yeah, it happens. These things happen. On January 19th, the day before the presidential inauguration, there will be no more TikTok in America. We repeat, hashtag the country's most popular app will be blocked. Pour one out for Addison Rae. The only way you're going to be going viral, besties, is in a hospital. But we actually have a big theory about the impact of the TikTok ban.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
So Timothy Chalamet does a lookalike contest. Dolly Parton does a who's going to act as me on Broadway contest. You got Jolene down my memory. Head over to dollymusical.com. Good luck, yetis. Good luck. Now time for the best fact yet. And this one, as always, a new Monday tradition is a trivia question. What is the biggest shoe sponsorship deal of all time?
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
What is the biggest shoe sponsorship deal of all time? Got a quick hint. Can we give a little hint, Jack? Go ahead. Someone's mom was involved in this deal. Give us your guess in the comments. And the answer is tomorrow's episode of The Best Idea Yet. We'll let you know tomorrow, and then you can hear a whole episode on what this product is. The biggest shoe sponsorship in history.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
Give us your guess in the comments. Yetis, you look fantastic today. Jack, the newness is looking very good on you, my friend. I can't believe writing down interesting things to talk to my wife was the best newness example I could think of. I love that you got a list going here, and I kind of am now curious how long this list is. It's only a couple bullet points every day.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
And that's why she loves you. Yetis, H-Y-H-T-B-O-Y. Have you heard the best one yet? That is how we grow the show. Tell all your buddies at work, and Jack and I will see you tomorrow. And before we go, a happy birthday to Yeti Kane and Silverstein over in New York City celebrating with a big, big fiesta. Happy birthday to Selvin Dubois, who's turning 47 in Guatemala City. Feliz cumpleaños.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
And Princess and Garber have an eight-year anniversary. They are celebrating a fantastic time together down in Houston. Huge shout out to Beckham Hurd in Milwaukee, who's listening right now on the way to school and is going to get a great hat on the way. And Tariq Laskar, listen to our weekly show, The Best Idea Yet over the weekend, the new episode on Polaroid. Loved it.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
Thank you so much, Tariq. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. And if you want to get a shout out on any T-boy podcast, we've got a form in this episode description or go to tboypod.com slash shout outs. This is Jack. Nick owns stock of Lululemon. I own stock of Netflix. And we both own stock of Spotify.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
Jack and I were talking over the weekend and we have got a big, bold, beautiful, bullish theory about the TikTok ban. Here it is. Banning TikTok may actually be the most powerful boost for our economy ever. Let us think about how much time we're all going to get back if TikTok is banned. This could be a huge productivity unlock.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
I mean, Jack, you can't drive, you can't work, you can't hammer, you can't sew. You can't even whip up a takeaway while you're scrolling on TikTok. If there's no TikTok, that's good for Netflix's business. And if there's no TikTok, that's good for your boss's business. Because you'll probably finish more TPS reports if TikTok isn't tempting you.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
So banning TikTok would be like an economic stimulus program. Hey, Jerry Powell, forget lower interest rates. This TikTok ban, it's an economic boost. So Yetis, unless the Supreme Court intervenes, TikTok will be banned on January 19th. And if stocks hit all-time highs next month, it'll be because of Nick and Jack's TikTok ban boom theory. Let us know what you think in the comments.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
But this weekend I got steak frites. It was good. Medium rare. Take it any day. Jack, three stories for today's team boy. What do we got on the pod? For our first story, Lululemon stock jumped 19% on Friday, all because of one single word. Newness. Lululemon is obsessed with newness. And so are we now. For our second story, it's Shaboosie's A Bar Song.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
We're still working on the name, so you can let us know about that too.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
Jack, let's hit our three stars. 15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in a dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50%, that's a fat tip. T-Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, cause we ready to go.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
We can't wait no more, so just start the show.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
For our first story, Lululemon stock soared 19% on Friday thanks to one single word. So we're sharing Lululemon's recipe for staying young even when you're old. Now, Yetis, earlier this fall in September, Lululemon published a report that, honestly, we kind of just had to mention this, didn't we, Jack? Here's the headline.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
Lululemon's global well-being report shows the pressure to keep up with well-being is making people feel unwell. That That was the headline of their press release. I'm unwell having heard that headline, Jack. Well, Lululemon stock is doing quite well. Good point, Jack, because Lulu shares have jumped 19% on Friday on really some fantastically in-shape earnings.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
Because those leggings are stretching across the grove as we speak. Get this. Lulu was driven by international sales, which jumped 33% last quarter. Not too shabby. Also, Lululemon is now an equal gender business. That's right. Yeah. Revenue was up 8% for women's wear and it was up 9% for men's wear.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
Although, interesting thing we noticed in their earnings, Lululemon refers to all their customers using the female pronouns. You know, Jack and I are here. Jack and I are here. I just want to point that out. We're here as well, guys. I'm actually wearing Lulu socks right now. I knew you were. I knew you would be doing that. But another funny thing Nick and I noticed about the earnings.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
On the earnings call, we noticed there was one word that they said more than any other word. And we like had never really heard this word. The word was newness. newness. We'd never seen that word. So we counted the number of times the executive used the word newness in their earnings call. Okay. So we jumped in T-boy style.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
We even went back in history to see when Lulu executives started saying the word newness. And Jack, why don't you whip up the numbers from the whiteboard for us? It'd It appears they started saying newness four quarters ago. In that earnings call, they used the word one time. Okay. The next earnings call, they used the word newness 12 times. Interesting. Then they used it 32 times.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
And last week, Lululemon executives said the word newness 44 times. It's like the CEO said newness, and then he's like, I like this word. I'm going to make it our whole corporate strategy. I haven't said the word newness four times in my entire life. So we're all asking, what is newness?
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
Lululemon explained, it's when they bring innovation into their core categories where they already have significant strength. Translation, they add a new pattern every couple quarters. Pretty much. Lululemon's core category is leggings, or the bottom business as they call it. Great name.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
So this holiday season, if you stroll into a Lulu store, yetis, you're going to notice updated colors, prints, and patterns, aka the newness. Even though you've been to a Lululemon store a dozen times, you're going to notice newness. The newness. Let's say the newness. Are you down with the newness? It sounds more like a cult if we say it that way. The newness is a floral print here.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
Urban camo print there. And she has responded well to the newness. Yes, she has. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Lulu Lemon? Without newness, even the best thing will feel old. So like now that I've heard newness so many times, Jack, the word sounds weird to me. You know what I mean? The newness. Oh yeah, the newness.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
That song is tied for the longest streak ever at number one on the music charts. But Chibuzi's greatest hit is really a business lesson on breaking genres. And our third and final story. Google just unveiled its most powerful AI product yet, a weather forecaster. Google just became the world's most powerful weather fortune teller. Hey, Roker, you're up.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
Yeti's Lululemon tracks newness actually as their most important metric. They measure new items to existing items as a ratio. And it's working. It is because the stock is up 75% since August. Besties, despite the trend toward nostalgia, newness is a factor that established brands shouldn't forget. Car companies, fashion brands, tech companies, even podcasts.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
Even you, as a friend or romantic partner, how are you bringing newness into your game right now? We're looking at you, buddy, Timmy. Well, actually, Jack, all right, so here's one. I have basically peanut butter and almond butter every single day. I have my go-to Skippies, but I like to weave in a new almond butter flavor every two weeks. So I've got the maple flavor. That's my standard.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
But then I'll bring in a coconut every now and then. Is that impressing? Everyone. Do you have a newness? I jot down the most interesting things I come across in the day. Okay. And then I save it for my after work conversation with my wife. I bring something new into the house from outside every day. You're literally bringing newness from your day into your conversations at home at night.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
Because without newness, even the best thing will feel old. I think you mean without the newness, even the best thing will feel old. For our second story, the number one song of 2024, it's Shaboosie's A Bar Song. Because Shaboosie's country rap hit isn't about drinking. It's really about the economy. Now, Jack, before we begin this story, we should apologize to a few of our loyal listeners.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
Taylor, Sabrina, Kendrick. Unfortunately, the biggest song of the year was not yours. It was Shaboosie's A Bar Song. I love that we're on a first-name basis with all of those artists. It's a good group. A Bar Song, the three-minute hip-hop and country mashup about downing whiskey at 10 a.m. over and over again.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
Now, it is not just Jax in my audio opinion here, because there is a bunch of data that supports this being the number one song of the year. A Bar Song has a billion streams on Spotify and three million video covers on TikTok. A Bar Song got five Grammy nominations, including Best New Artist and Best Song of the Year.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
19.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
Yes, this song has been on the Billboard top charts as number one for 19 straight weeks. Who's that? That's tied with Lil Nas X, Old Town Road. Someone pour me another shot of whiskey. Only if he gets to 20 weeks in a row. Then we're all getting another shot of whiskey. But yet, within those lyrics, Jack and I noticed something fascinating.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
This isn't really a song about everyone at a bar getting tipsy, is it, Jack? This song is about finances. Gen Z? Sorry, Jack Daniels. They don't even drink whiskey anymore. So the bar song, it's really about the economy. And we dove in T-boy style to the lyrics, and you can see this basically beginning with the first stanza, right, man? Here's one lyric. Gasoline and groceries.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
The list goes on and on. Well, inflation sucks. We're all feeling it, and we've been feeling it for a few years. Here's another lyric. This nine to five, it ain't working. Yeah, workers are feeling stuck. Wages haven't risen like inflation has. It's frustrating for workers. And one more lyric, my girlfriend just bought a Birkin.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
That's the interesting twist because the wealthiest Americans have seen their portfolios popping off. Stocks are at all-time highs while the nine to five ain't working. In this economy, Shaboosie's song resonates because it empathizes across the spectrum. It's really an economic song. Also, it's catchy and clean enough that parents listen with their kids in the backseat. That's true.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
Maxie loves listening to this. One, two, and the three, and the three, and the four. It's like a nursery rhyme. Basically, Shaboosie's a bar song is the new Baby Shark. Not sure what he thinks about that, but yeah, I'll take it. We'll have to ask Grandpa Shark Jack. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddy Shaboosie? Just like in politics, products can build a big tent.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Fantastic mix of stories to kick off the week. Love the mix, Jack. For four years now, we've heard rumors that TikTok might be getting banned someday. Warning, yetis, that day is January 19th. Because here's the news. On Friday, the U.S. Federal Appeals Court ruled that Congress can ban TikTok. Witches!
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
Yetis, there's also a strategic reason why a bar song is number one right now. This song transcends genres. Every musical artist is put in a genre box. It's true. You're either rap, pop, rock, country, or classic, or emo. That's what the industry does to you. It puts you in a box. But the sound of Shaboosie as a bar song transcends that. Get this.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
It reached the Billboard Top 10 charts in four different categories. Four categories. No other song has ever done that. And on top of it, no other song has been number one overall for so many weeks in a row. In politics, we sometimes get a leader who builds a big tent. They win across many different voting groups. Well, in business, there can be big tents too.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
And Shaboosie is the perfect example of it. Don't let him stick you in one genre box. Now, a quick word from our sponsor.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
For our third and final story, Google has built an AI-powered weather predictor that is the best in the world and the history of humanity. By far. By far. We can now know the weather 15 days ahead. That's not just a joy booster. It's a GDP booster. But yet he's 1996. That's the year that Al Roker became America's weatherman. That's what's going on around the country.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
Here's what's happening in your neck of the woods. Well, Google just unveiled a new weather forecasting model that they call GenCast. But we're calling it the SuperRoker. SuperRoker. Because Google's SuperRoker outperformed the world's best weather forecasting models 97.2% of the time. Sit down, stand up, and bring in a low-pressure situation over here, Jack.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
That's according to a paper published last week in the journal Nature. The European Weather Agency even called this new Google super-roker significant as a milestone in the evolution of weather forecasting. It is so good, it will expand our weather forecast that we have available from 10 days ahead to 15 days ahead. That's a 50% jump.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
Besties, if you want to know if it's going to rain on your wedding day next year, Google already knows. All right, not next year. If it's in two weeks, they can tell you. Apple, the weather app can't give you three days. And here's the fascinating thing about this Google weather predictor. The model is brand new, but it also has 39 years of weather experience. We'll explain.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
We should explain that one, Jack. Google has fed this AI model all the data that we have on the weather across the world from 1979 to 2018. Uh, April 14th, 6 p.m. It's got the weather, the humidity, and like some third variable that we don't even know about. In Wichita, Kansas, and in Bangkok, Thailand. everywhere across the world.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
huge because Congress already voted to ban TikTok and President Biden, he already signed the ban of TikTok. It's a law that was passed last year. TikTok must sell away from its Chinese ownership by January 19th or the app is banned nationwide. So now that TikTok has lost the appeal, it is final. It is official. TikTok will be banned. So unless something crazy happens, which is possible.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
On the other hand, conventional physics-based models of the weather, they only look at the present atmospheric conditions. They don't have any information on the past. So when this super roger is trying to predict the weather for two weeks from now, they might say, well, on December 3rd, 1992, we had identical atmospheric conditions as we have today.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
Oh, and here's what happened on that day back on December 3rd, 1992. So something similar will probably happen today. That's how this Google weather forecaster is 97.2% more accurate than conventional weather forecasters. The super roker. It remembers all the weather that has ever happened in the last 39 years. That's the key. And you can only do that with AI.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
Now, Jack and I should point out, from a business perspective, this is a huge win for Google, isn't it, man? Internet users across the world have been leaving Google search and instead searching for things with TikTok and ChatGPT. But Google weather, if it is this powerful and this accurate, which it is, it might become the new reason to keep Google.com as your homepage.
The Best One Yet
🥃 “A Bar Song Biz” — Shaboozy’s economic ballad. Lululemon’s “newness”. Google’s weather channel.
So Jack, there's a 75% chance you've got a takeaway right now. What is the takeaway for our buddies over at Google? Knowing one unknown could change the entire economy. Yeah, it is. The weather is about so much more than just whether you can ski or go to the beach on any given day. It has profound impacts across the entire economy without us realizing it. Okay, a few examples here.
The Best One Yet
🌎 “Pan-cession” — Global recession risk. Chipotle’s tariff-free avocado. Clocking out at 4:39pm.
15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in a dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50%, that's a fat tip. T-Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, cause we ready to go. We can't wait no more, so just start the show.
The Best One Yet
🌎 “Pan-cession” — Global recession risk. Chipotle’s tariff-free avocado. Clocking out at 4:39pm.
40%.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
This is Nick. This is Jack. Welcome back. It is Monday, May 5th, and today's pod, out of all the pods, is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Announcing our live show in 60 seconds. But first, our three stories. Which are fantastic. What do we got, Jack?
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
They announced employee pricing on cars, and their deal also lasts through July 4th. Now, Bessies, tariffs are coming. Not raising these underwear prices is going to hurt their underwear profit margins. But maybe it'll boost their sales. In fact, it already has. Mack Weldon's underwear sales actually jumped 90% in the month ending... April 15th.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
So Mack Weldon is sacrificing some profit margin to gain loyalty at a painful economic moment. And it looks like it's selling. Men are buying up their male panties over Mack Weldon. Male panties. I'm sorry. You know what?
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
Yeah, but I hate the female version of the term, too. Well, I'm not saying it's going to work, but let's just, you know, you just put stuff out there sometimes. So, Bessie's every company in this economy is weakened by tariffs, but Mack Weldon has turned that into a strength. And you probably tossed a tank top and some trousers into your cart, too, not just the underwear.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are everyone affected by tariffs? Sometimes you need to go opposite day on everybody. Yet it is last week we told you the number one theme in the economy right now. Uncertainty. Uncertainty was mentioned a record number of times in economic surveys and in corporate earnings reports.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
But the success of Mack Weldon's underwear price lock is that it did the opposite. Instead of uncertainty around prices... They gave a very certain price. Yeah. And you know what? It's a reminder that if you notice everyone around you just doing the same thing. It's easy to do that thing too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's safety in the herd.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
Nobody's going to isolate you and say, what the heck are you doing? But it is in those moments that opportunity lies in doing the opposite. Call opposite day. Call it opposite day. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us to kick off the week? Formula One just finished a race in Miami. It's the fastest growing sport in the United States. Because Formula One mainstreamified the VIP section.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
VIP, very important public. That was pretty good. For our second story, Microsoft announced last week that new accounts don't need passwords. Use a passkey instead. Password is dead, but Sam Altman thinks the future of ID in an AI world is I-D. Like eyeballs. And our third and final story, Mack Weldon announced no price hikes on underwear through July 4th.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
Because we're going to have three fantastic stories, plus a surprise guest on stage at the Vic. And we'll be whipping up takeaways like a young Ferris Bueller. T-Boy Live does Chicago. Because Chicago does logistics. Tickets are on sale this Wednesday. Follow us to get those tickets first. Hey, Midwest, you look fantastic. Da Bears. Da Bulls. Da podcast. Da three stories. Let's eat them, Jack.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
When everyone else is doing the same, raising prices because of tariffs, there's opportunity in doing the opposite. But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, on a good jobs report and trade war resolution hopes, the S&P 500 rose for a ninth straight day on Friday. 177,000 jobs were added to our economy in April despite the trade war volatility.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
China also acknowledged for the first time potential talks with America on trade. Add it all up, nine straight days of gains for the S&P 500 is the longest streak since 2004. All those losses from Liberation Day have now been erased. Second, last week Apple got eviscerated by a federal judge for failing to comply with a court order.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
Epic Games and Spotify had been on a crusade to end Apple's 30% app tax, what they charge these apps in the App Store. And it looks like it finally happened. You can now subscribe to Spotify directly from an iPhone and not pay an app tax. After Apple got ripped by a judge, Spotify now has a link in their app so you can avoid the App Store toll booth.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
And finally, ConAgra, the big food company, just sold Chef Boyardee last week for $600 million to a PE firm. The founder of the soup brand, Chef Boyardee, was a renowned chef who worked at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. He was a real Italian chef. Then he Americanized the spelling of his name to become a mass-market canned soup and pasta company.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
Now that it's owned by private equity, they're probably going to, you know, water down some of the ingredients in the soups. Yeah, they're going to cut costs. So the can of mini raviolis, it's probably going to be even minier raviolis now. Spaghetti and meatballs is going to be spaghetti and meatball.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Molly G from lovely Philadelphia. Speaking of Formula One racing, we told you about that race in Monaco with all the yachts. Well, Monaco in Europe is actually a country, one of the smallest countries on earth. Yeah, I said it was in the south of France. It's actually its own little thing. Like there's checkpoints.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
But Monaco is actually smaller than Central Park in New York City. Here's the breakdown. Monaco is less than one square mile of land. Central Park. And it's a country. A little more than one square miles of land. Monaco. It's basically the Vatican City of the non-Catholic world. Because Vatican City is like its own country. Jack, I think you stuck the landing on it.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
Yetis, you look fantastic today. Especially if you're over in the Midwest in Chicago, you look extra fantastic. We are so freaking pumped for July 23rd. It's going to be incredible. Amazing. We're going to a Cubs game the day after our performance, by the way. And maybe before as well. Yetis, we are dropping the tickets right here on Wednesday.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
And before we go, a happy birthday to the legendary Yeti, Annie Z, over in Toronto, Maple Leaf, Toronto. And happy birthday to Uramin Josel in Henderson, Nevada. This married dink is celebrating in Napa this weekend. Popping that pinot. And Matt, way charatana, is turning 36 years old over in Seattle, spent the birthday rock climbing on belay. Belay on that birthday, Matt.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
Happy birthday to Sterling Salzberg in San Francisco. His birthday was yesterday. He's on his way to Maui with a family of four right now. And Chase in Virginia just got married in Ponte Vedra, Florida. Now they are honeymooning, guys. Let's see some pics. Congratulations on the celebration. Congratulations to Lindsay Ardiff and Ainsley Fo, who had a wedding reception last weekend.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
Congratulations, guys. You look fantastic. And Anna Wintour, just as a heads up, no pressure at all. Jack and I got our tuxes ready. So just wink twice if we're good to go. Big night on the red carpet. If there's room for two T-boys, hit us up. We've been traveling. We haven't seen our mail. So yeah, thanks for the invite. This is Jack. Nick and I both own stock of Apple and Spotify.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
Oh boy, oh boy.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
I own stock of Netflix and we both own ETFs of the S&P 500. If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
For our first story, Formula One just held its hottest race event of the year down in Miami. But Formula One's stock is near an all-time high, and it's all thanks to your 28-year-old little sister.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
For our first story, Formula One is the fastest growing sport in America, and it just had its hottest race of the year down in Miami. Formula One sales are surging because of 28-year-old American women. For our second story, get this. Microsoft just declared that it's killing the password once and for all. Gone. You can log in sans password. Ding dong, the password is dead, baby.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
Now, yetis, if your buddy Timmy called in sick today, it's because the Kentucky Derby, Cinco de Mayo, Star Wars Day, May the 4th, NBA playoffs, NHL playoffs, and Berkshire Hathaway's shareholder conference all happened over the weekend. And the Met Gala's today. Yeah, but the...
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
biggest event last weekend physically was actually the newest event formula one racing formula down in miami florida as they pronounce it in daytona formula and formula one the most technical cars the most expensive tickets and a whole lot of drama this weekend down in miami jack
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
The Dutch racer Max Verstappen drives for Team Red Bull, but almost missed the Miami race because his baby was born just a couple days before. Like literally right before. Oh, and then Ferrari unveiled a blue Ferrari car? What? Ferraris are red. That's the rule. It's like an insult to Italy worse than pineapple on pizza, man. Still, 2024 was a record year for Formula One.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
They generated nearly $4 billion in revenue. Now, historically, Formula One racing has been ignored in America. This is NASCAR country. This is an indie world, baby. But today, F1 is actually the fastest growing professional sport in the United States. Depends on the timeframe, but along with pickleball and the WNBA, F1 is booming in America. And here's what Jack and I find fascinating.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
Formula One is also a publicly traded business. It was acquired eight years ago by Liberty Media, and now the stock is near an all-time high. But Jack, could you press on the pistons a bit and sprinkle on a little context to their $4 billion in Formula One revenue? That's four times the revenue of NASCAR. It's almost as much as the NHL, and it's half as much As the NBA.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
But honestly, it's even more impressive when you consider that Formula One only has 24 races a year. They're called Grand Prixs, not races. Oui, oui, oui, oui, Jack. Still, 24 Grand Prixs. Compare that to 1,230 basketball games played in the NBA every season. So what we're saying is that each Formula One racing event is really a profit puppy. It's like a mini Olympics.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
It takes over the entire city for a whole weekend. Get this, the Miami Grand Prix yesterday got 25% more in ticket revenue for Miami's Hard Rock Stadium, where they do the race around, than all the Miami Dolphin football home games combined. You better call an audible, Dan Marino, because racing is taking over Miami. One race was equal to eight football games in revenue.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
And it's the third race in the United States. There's also one in Austin, and there's also one in Las Vegas. Now, besties, it is Netflix who we can thank for growing the F1 fan base. Their reality show during the pandemic brought more fans and more sponsors to the sport. Especially in the United States. But F1 just struck a $1 billion sponsorship deal with Louis Vuitton. That's right.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
The handbag company is now sponsoring the sports cars. F1 also just got a $450 million check from America's Cadillac. Because Cadillac wants to be the 11th Formula One racing team, so they had to pay a fee in order to enter. And they join the circuit next year. But the most valuable part of the Formula One business model is TV. Yeah, it's broadcasting. Like with every sport.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
Our bet, Netflix is going to buy the rights, which expire next year. Interesting. And turn F1 into a globally streamable, like glitzy kind of show with a halftime event. Rihanna's going to be there. Yeah. And Lady Gaga singing half. There's no halftime in racing, but I'm picking up what you're putting down. I'm sure they will change the sport for that money, Jack.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
But the wildest part about F1's business model is actually who's behind it. Nick and I jumped in T-boy style to the earnings report from F1 last quarter. Female fans and fans under 30 are both up 50% for F1 in the past five years. That's right. Your 28-year-old little sister is who's driving growth at Formula One. But I'll be honest, even I'm attracted to the racers in Formula One.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
Have you seen how chiseled those chins are? Max, don't Verstappen at all. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Formula One? F1 has mainstreamified the VIP section. Yetis, here's the irony. Formula One is the only mainstream luxury sport, yeah, that's a contradiction, that we can find. Polo, sailing, those aren't mainstream.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
And our third and final story. One company has found a creative way to turn tariff problems into a strength. Mack Weldon just unveiled price-locked underwear through the 4th of July. But Yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. What a fantastic mix of stories to kick off the week, Jack. Our first live show was in San Francisco. It was amazing. Then we did New York, which was huge.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
But F1 is mainstream, even though it's the glitziest of all the sports in the whole world. Nick, most Grand Prixs have their circuits viewable by yacht. Yeah, that's a real thing. Monaco, on the south coast of France, that's the most famous F1 racetrack. And yet, luxurious F1 is watched by a billion fans. It is also the fastest growing pro sport in America.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
And most of those billion fans do not own yachts. So Formula One, it is sponsored by David Yerman Jewelry and Brunello Cuccinelli's fancy clothing. And yet it's also sponsored by Puma and Adidas. How does F1 pull it off? Such a wide, diverse spectrum of both fans and sponsors. It's strategic about what it keeps exclusive.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
So Formula One limits itself to only 24 races, only 10 teams, and only 20 drivers. But it scales the media part. 100 million followers on social media, and it's broadcast globally on TV. So besties, Formula One is at an all-time high because it pulled off a contradiction Arameas never could. It's mainstreamified the VIP section.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
For our second story, Sam Altman, Microsoft, and Tinder basically just killed the password. The future is passwordless. Yes, it is. Because we are so incredibly bad at keeping secure passwords. If I know Jack, there are a few things he loves more than a good game of trivia all the time.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
So Jack, what was the trivia question I know you asked 50 people, including your family and the waiter at a restaurant? This is such a good hero stat. What percent of login attempts in America are successful?
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
That's it. Only 32% of the time are you successful logging in. Like only one out of three times are you getting your own password right. The other two thirds of the time you push login and it says wrong username or password. Please try again. Yetis, using logged in accounts online faces amazing friction and so much wasted time from all of those failed logins.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
Plus, Jack, we haven't even discussed the insecure passwords. It's true that the number one password in America is password. Yeah, that's also a good trivia fact. So it's not a matter of if your password were good stolen, it's a question of when. Even if you included three exclamation points, two hashtags, a number sign, and six capital letters.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
Because get this, due to all the hacks that have happened to like every company ever... Right now, according to a digital risk protection company, there are 24 billion usernames and passwords available on the dark web for like 10 cents each. So criminals, they know your parents' passwords, even if your parents still don't know their own passwords.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
When your parents text you, what's my own password? It's like- I'm getting a call. It's my mom. She wants to know the password to her Wi-Fi jack. So besties, all of us, internet-using humankind, should come to welcome this shocking news that just came out. Microsoft announced on Friday they are phasing out the password altogether.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
And we repeat, anyone who sets up a new Microsoft account will not be asked to create a password. Just give us your phone number or your email instead, and then select your passkey. Yeah, Microsoft stock was up 9% last week. It wasn't because of this, but like- It was not because of this. What the heck is a passkey though, Nick? Yeah, what is a passkey? I was going to ask you.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
Then we did Seattle, which was very Pacific Northwest. But our biggest live show yet is actually our deepest live show yet. Yetis, prepare to hit the lake, feel the wind, and dig into some deep dish. Because the best one yet is coming to Chicago. We are doing a T-Boy live show in Chicago on July 23rd. It's the biggest event to hit Chi-town since Oprah. The location is the Vic Theater.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
A passkey is proof that you are you because you're already logged into something else. Here's the example we came up with. If you're already using your iPhone, then you had to use a passcode or Face ID to unlock that iPhone. So with a Microsoft account, you can say Face ID is my passkey. And as long as you're using your phone, you can log into any Microsoft account. They know that you are you.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
Other passcode options are Android's fingerprint sensor, Gmail, or using a password manager. Basically, if you're logged into your phone, your computer, or your Gmail, that's enough. You can log into anything else as well. And if all else fails in this password purged era, you can always request a login link to your phone or your email. That's the future. And it's not just Microsoft. No, no.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
Apple, Google, they're both moving in this direction too. Every big tech player wants to kill the password. They're going full Napoleon on the password, guillotining the passwords out there. There's no chance to live. Second French reference in two stories, I think. Not possible. Make it threes.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
Because yetis, virtually every person in America has an account with at least one of those three companies. So all of us are going to be able to start going password-free. The password. It's going to go the ranks of other retired tech products, Jack. Floppy disks, screen names, Clippy. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are everyone with a password?
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
The future of ID is I-D, as in E-Y-E, as in eyeballs. So yetis, there was one other big password piece of news last week we noticed. Sam Altman's eye scanning startup. It's called World. And World set up six retail locations last week to scan people's eyeballs for their registry.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
Now, Sam Altman's world also partnered with Tinder and Visa, so your eye scan will verify that you are, in fact, a human. Tinder will soon validate that that guy, who's too good to be true, is a real person, and they'll do it by checking his eyeballs. Well, why is there this surge in eye scans? It's because in an AI world, robots can solve those security checks that test if you're a robot.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
They can beat them. So instead of a CAPTCHA test to verify you're a human, What we really need is proof of human. So besties, add it all up, and right now we are entering the password-free era. But five years from now, when humanoid robots are trying to log into your Tinder account, well, then the future of ID is I-D. Eventually, it's all coming to the eyeballs.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
For our third and final story, Mack Weldon's men's underwear just put a price lock on their undies until July 4th. They've turned tariffs into a marketing opportunity, and we will explain how. Now, Yetis, you know Jack and I have been keeping track of recession indicators for you. Recession brunette, skipping Botox treatments, bringing bagged lunches to work more often.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
None of those are good indicators for the economy. No, no, no, no, no, no. But the oldest alternative economic indicator is the men's underwear index. If men are so pinched that they're not buying new briefs, That's a bad sign. Yeah, guess what? Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, he actually coined this whole underwear observation.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
He observed that nobody sees your underwear selection except the man who's wearing them and maybe their locker room neighbors. So if men aren't buying new underwear and they're wearing underwear with a bunch of holes in them, it means they're not feeling pretty good about their money right now.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
Capacity, a thousand seats. The vibe, rock concert. but with fully audited financials. Jack, we're putting up Michael Jordan numbers on this thing, baby. Tickets go on sale this Wednesday. So follow us at tboypod on Instagram so you see the ticket drop first. Bring your buddy, bring your office, loop in the whole loop while you're at it.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
So it's an interesting case study when we look at the direct-to-consumer men's brand, Mack Weldon, who sells underwear. Mack Weldon? Mack Weldon, a underwear brand that's between MeUndies and Calvin Klein on the coolness scale. It's pretty cool. Yeah, I guess I'd agree with you on that. Yeah, it's like the Lulu for dude dudes.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
And like most of your wardrobe, Mack Weldon is facing 145% tariffs on the stuff they source from China. and 10% tariffs on everywhere else. So besties, everyone right now is worried about prices. Price hikes because of tariffs. When will they happen? When will they stop? Who knows how much? Not at Mack Weldon though. Prices aren't hiking at Mack Weldon.
The Best One Yet
🤫 “End of Passwords” — Microsoft’s post-password-era. Formula 1’s sister surge. Mack Weldon’s anti-tariff undies.
And the timing of their no price change is very clear. Get this, Mack Weldon announced a price lock on all their underwear. Not a single pair will have a price increase until at least July 4th. We have not seen any other apparel company do this. Boxers or briefs. It's like a call option in finance applied to the top drawer of your dresser. We have seen Ford do something similar.
The Best One Yet
🤠 “YAHOOOO!” — Yahoo’s email revival. Trade War II Begins. Hans Zimmer’s creator hack.
15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in a dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50%, that's a fat tip. T-Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, cause we ready to go. We can't wait no more, so just start the show.
The Best One Yet
🥜 “PB & Profits” — Uncrustables’ $1B sandwich. The Mullet Stock Market. Klarna’s AI Ozempic.
15 years before this song two boys from the northeast met in the dorm they had an idea to cause a cultural storm it's the best one yet but the best is the norm jack nick that's it i don't even think they need to practice 50 that's a fat tip t-boy city on your at list if you know you know because we're ready to go we can't wait no more so just start the show
The Best One Yet
🥜 “PB & Profits” — Uncrustables’ $1B sandwich. The Mullet Stock Market. Klarna’s AI Ozempic.
Yeah.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Friday, the real Friday, May 30th. And today's pod is the best one yet, and this is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Oh, besties, Jack and I are about to make you the most interesting person at Sunday brunch, baby. Because this episode's a T-boy? It's a T-boy. It's the best one we've ever done.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
So that iPhone case with a customized lipstick holder is a $100 million product? Yes, it is, Jack. So besties, for all of Hailey Bieber's Instagram posts shimmering like a watermelon... It appears that she actually borrowed a strategy from the music industry. And it has nothing to do with Justin Bieber. No, it doesn't. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Rode Beauty?
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
Rode just sold for a billion dollars because of Elvis Presley. Yeti's some fun business history here. Elvis Presley is the first musical artist to publish a greatest hits album. It was 1958 and he published Elvis golden records. It was only his best songs. The ones that sold a million units. Well, Elvis's greatest hits album went platinum for similar reasons.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
We believe that this skincare company just sold for a billion bucks because in a world that offers more too much, frankly, There are major benefits to resisting and doing less. For consumers, offering less limits the stress of choice. And seeing so few choices on Rhodes' website implies that each product is premium.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
And for the business, offering less streamlines operations, simplifies marketing, and saves money overall. Like Elvis' greatest hits album, Hailey Bieber only offers her greatest hits. And that's how she just sold for a billion bucks in three years. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for the real Friday?
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
The New York Times stock jumped on a multi-year licensing deal with Amazon to feed their AI. Alexa Plus, she's being positioned as the first premium AI chatbot. For our second story, the Court of International Trade said Trump's tariffs are illegal, but an appeals court has already paused that ruling. So the Supreme Court will decide whether Trump gets his biggest bargaining chip.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
I didn't even know that was a word. I thought it was a name, but that could be in the spelling bee. There are actually six more S's in Mississippi that they just dropped a few years ago. Which means you can't win the spelling bee unless you're Carmen Sandiego. So Jack and I jumped in T-boy style and we whipped up the top place questions from the spelling bee. You ready for this one, Jack?
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
And our third and final story is Elf Beauty. They just bought Hailey Bieber's Road Beauty for $1 billion. Elvis pioneered the greatest hits album. Hailey Bieber made it her business model. But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, Zuck is going to open up more Meta stores to sell AI glasses and VR headsets.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
According to people familiar with the matter, Meta wants to do what Apple did with Apple stores. Yeah, it started last year in Los Angeles, and now they're planning more of them so you can try on some Meta Ray-Bans before you buy them. And yes, this does mean that once again, Zuck is zucking another tech company. Yeah, Zuck is zucking Apple.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
And second, United Airlines and JetBlue are subletting each other's runways in a kind of airline roommate deal situation. Yeah. United wants access to JFK Airport because of the whole mess going on at Newark, which happens to be its East Coast hub. And JetBlue has got plenty of JFK gates, so they're swapping a few of them with United. Yeah. It's a very highbrow, lowbrow hookup, by the way.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
Premium and discount airline. Yeah, it's like kind of a Kim Kardashian, Pete Davidson situation going on. And finally, the new Harry Potter series coming to HBO has finally cast the three main characters. Harry, Ron, and Hermoine will be played. I'm just kidding. I thought it was that as I was reading the books. For years, I always said Hermoine. For years, I said Hermoine.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
Will be played by three child actors who you've never heard of. But each of those three children... are set for life. Yeah, because there are going to be seven seasons of this Harry Potter series, so the kids are going to be employed for a decade. They're going to need a bigger bank account. We hope puberty treats all of them well. Now time for the best fact yet.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
This one's sent in by legendary Yeti Tiffany Schmidt from Ann Arbor, Michigan. In honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we're talking about the Bing cherry. Yeah, the famous Bing cherry was named after Ah Bing, a 19th century horticulturalist who emigrated from China to the U.S. And this immigrant's precise, selective breeding of only the sweetest cherries
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
set the modern standard for what we enjoy as cherries today. And are currently the most expensive cherries on the market. And the sweetest. And also, before we go, a thanks to Emmy Seals for pointing out a correction we got to make to the pod. We said this week that Nespresso has more revenue than American Airlines. That was flat out wrong. Yeah, that's right.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
Nespresso's $7 billion in annual sales is a fraction of American Airlines' $54 billion in annual sales. Our mistake on the fact check. Yetis, you looked fantastic this week. Jack, you look fantastic too. You want to celebrate some wins? Absolutely. Okay, here's a win. I'm going to spell out that word that you missed at the end of the beginning of the pod. Okay, go ahead, go ahead.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
C-H-A-R-G-O-G-G-A-G-O-G-G-M-A-N-C-H-A-U-G-G-A-G-O-G-G-C-H-A-U-B-A-N-E-G-U-N-G-A-M-A-U-G-G. You're sure this is real? Also, you need an oxygen bag right now.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
Am I the contestant? Yes, you are. And here we go. Jack, the first word is a B2B, which is a body of water in Canada. A B2B? Yes. A-B-I-T-B. A-B-I. Okay. It is A-B-I-T-I-B-E. Second question is Hoofdorp, which is a town in the Netherlands. H-O-O-F-D-O-R-P. Sorry, Jack. That's H-O-O-F-D-D-O-R-P. Two Ds? That's ridiculous.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
Enjoy our weekly show this weekend on Heinz Ketchup, The Best Idea Yet. Remember to rate and review today's pod, and Jack and I will see you Monday. And before we go, a happy birthday to Yeti Will Beef Chung, turning 40 years old down in Las Vegas. This girl dad is spending it with a girl's dad. Happy birthday to Kevin Wolf in Malvern, Pennsylvania.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
This man has a fly-fishing news show that I want to subscribe to. We're tuning in. And Joseph Semple, happy 36th birthday down in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, celebrating with a life reset. There you go. He's unplugging himself, and he's plugging himself back in. And Amaya Alvarez has got a fantastic birthday in Jacksonville, Florida, just finishing the first grade. Congrats, Amaya.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
Happy birthday to Brian Rosa, turning 40 in Gardena, California, crushing volleyballs, pounding brews. And a shout out to Anna and Thomas in Minneapolis, Minnesota, who are having a baby in 24 hours. Anna, we're so pumped for you and the whole Hauer family. Congratulations to Ben and Lexi Einstein, who have a new baby boy over in San Francisco, Archie.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
And congratulations to Legendary Yetis, Amanda and Doug Whittem, a couple of T-boy twins celebrating at Topgolf and opening an HSA outside of Boston. Dibs on being Amanda's caddy. Dibs. And Wynn is celebrating a 20th anniversary for being at Starbucks in Seattle. That It's got to be a corporate record win. Congratulations to Emily and Dan Chambers moving from Boston to Chicago.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
See you at the live show. Bring all your siblings. And Kyle Radzak from Warner Robins, Georgia is celebrating a promotion in the Air Force. Kyle, thanks for flying for your service. Congrats to Miranda Day in Detroit, Michigan, who landed a job at Simple Closure. the day after hearing our episode on it. That's right. We did a story on that company, and then Miranda shared it with the hiring team.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
Congrats on the job, Miranda. Well-earned. And finally, shout out to the New York City influencer on our Instagram, at tboypod. Check it out. They just dropped a review of NVIDIA's earnings. This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon and Krispy Kreme, and Nick and I both own stock of Apple.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
That's right.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
In the Dutch, they get you every time. And finally, the longest word ever used for a geographic name in the spelling bee. Are you ready for this, Jack? Yes. Can you repeat that word, please? Yes, Jack. That would be... This is fake, right? Not fake. Real word. Okay, what's the language of origin? It is a native name for a lake in the state of Massachusetts just outside Boston.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
Can you use it in sentence? Yes, Jack, I can. After the Sox lost to the Yankees in the series, we cried all the way back to Lake... C-H-A-R... G-O-G-O-G-O-G-O-G. Sorry, Jack Yetis. Hit us up with your favorite geographical word. Drop it in the comments.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
Jack, three stories for today's show. What do we got on the pod? For our first story, Amazon and the New York Times just hooked up for an unexpected AI deal. That's right. We're about to get the first ever premium chatbot, Alexa Plus. For our second story, after a couple shocking developments, Trump's trade war is about to go to the Supreme Court.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
For our first story, the New York Times and Amazon just hooked up in what we're calling the high school dance of AI. Because the New York Times lets Amazon create the first premium AI chatbot. Funny thing, Yetis. Jack and I have noticed there's a bit of a love triangle going on in the artificial intelligence industry, right? It started two years ago when ChatGPT got its first punch in the face.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
Slap in the face. An epic lawsuit from the New York Times. That's right. The New York Times and a group of media companies sued OpenAI for stealing their content without compensation. The New York Times paywalls its news. Then OpenAI reads that news and regurgitates it for free to anyone using OpenAI. That was the law. So the New York Times is a legal plaintiff suing OpenAI.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
Those two, not in a relationship. But now, two years later, New York Times is getting in bed with Amazon and their AI department. That's right, they're P-A-R-T-N-E-R-I-N-G. Partnering. It's a multi-year licensing deal. Amazon is going to get access to all New York Times content. The New York Times stock is up 2% on the news because it's dipping into Bezos' deep pockets.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
Yep, the Times gets a big payday, and Amazon gets access to the sports, cooking, and original reporting of the New York Times. Jack, you remember the movie She's All That? Classic. Freddie Prinze Jr.? Legendary. The jock and the nerd go to prom together? Well, that's basically what just happened on Wall Street. Now, step back for a second.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
AI and media, those two industries are like boys and girls at a middle school dance. Everyone's on the sidelines, but a few have started to go into the middle and find a dance partner. Cue the Barry Whitejack. It looks like the Wall Street Journal partnered with OpenAI, Reuters partnered with Meta, and the New York Times has now partnered with Amazon.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
For Amazon, the key reason they want the New York Times is to feed Alexa content. Specifically... Alexa Plus. Because Alexa Plus is Amazon's way delayed attempt at turning Alexa into an AI conversation partner. Because remember, 10 years ago, Alexa became the leader in voice assistants, but in the 10 years since, it's become the lagger in AI chatbots.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
We got checks and balances on the pod today and what this huge ruling means for stocks, the economy, and Barbie doll. For our third and final story, Hailey Bieber's skincare brand, R.O.A.D., was just bought by Elf Beauty for $1 billion. Because Hailey Bieber used the same strategy as Elvis Presley, a greatest hits album.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
However, with this New York Times hookup, Alexa could actually become your number one source of information. You could discuss the front page of the with your voice box assistant. Like, hey, Alexa, it's Valentine's Day. I need to cook a romantic dinner. Can you walk me through a fun idea? What do you got? It's going to find the perfect solution in the New York Times cooking section.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
Or, hey, Alexa, why are the Giants so bad this season? What's going on? It'll read reporting from The Athletic, the New York Times' new sports section. Or, hey, Alexa, what's the takeaway from the T-Boy podcast on this story? And Alexa Plus is going to know. Not because of this New York Times deal, but just because she listens to the pod. Yeah, yeah, she does. She does.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
Now, Jack, I don't want to take your job. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at the New York Times and Amazon? Alexa Plus is positioning itself as the first premium AI chatbot. Yeti is one problem no one talks about in AI. AI is basically a commodity product. JetGPT, Claude, Meta's Llama, they're all pretty similar because they all read the same internet.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
Yeah, Grok has an edgy style and an edgy voice, but frankly, they're all delivering pretty much the same information to you. But by partnering with The Times... Amazon is making a different move. That's right. Amazon is signaling that Alexa Plus is more premium, a more sophisticated product, because it's the only AI chatbot that is trained on the premium content of New York Times reporting.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
Yeah, basically, if the rest of AI are functional Volkswagens, then Amazon is building the Audi. Alexa Plus is the only one with a degree. From the New York Times. So besties, add it up. And this is the biggest step we've seen yet to create a premium brand of AI. For our second story. In a shocking ruling, an unknown, mysterious 135-year-old court just canceled the trade war.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
This is the wildest development yet because the trade war is now going to the Supreme Court. Jack, are you a fan of UNO? Yeah. Yes, you know I am. You know the reverse card? Yeah. It feels like every week we get a new reverse card in the trade war. Well, Nick, I think we just got a reverse, a skip, and a wild draw four card, and it was thrown on the table by a court you've never even heard of.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
Get this, yetis. The Court of International Trade was set up by Congress back in 1890. Like doctors, judges specialize in one particular field. And the judges on this particular court that you never heard of specialize in trade and tariff law. And those judges ruled late Wednesday that Trump's country-specific tariffs are illegal.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
Because to single-handedly impose tariffs, President Trump has relied on emergency powers law. But the court said on Wednesday, the current situation doesn't qualify as an emergency. There's no emergency that like, we got to stick a 10% tariff on Barbie dolls made in China. So without a valid economic emergency, the president cannot single-handedly tariff countries. Only Congress can do that.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
Basically, if President Trump wants baseline 10% tariffs, 145% tariffs on China, or 25% tariffs on Mexico, he must pass a law through Congress. We can tariff China, but we need Congress to do it. Now, we should point out the court said tariffs on specific products are okay. Like imported steel or imported cars. So those remain in place.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories... Oh, what an M-I-X of stories, Jack. Love the mix. V-I-C-T-O-R-Y. Ding, ding, ding. That spells victory for the Spelling Bee. Because last night was the 100th Spelling Bee tournament. The finale was last night. We were watching 243 spellers, 4,072 words, six or five vowels, and one big winner.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
But the court gave Trump 10 days to cancel all tariffs targeting entire countries. Penguins on the South Pole. are going to be okay now. You're going to make it, guys. Now, stock markets loved that news. Oh, I mean, every time tariffs go away, Jack, stocks pop. We talked about that taco trade the other day. But even wilder, Nick. Yeah, Jack?
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
Some experts say that the government may have to reimburse any company that has paid tariffs already in the trade war. since those tariffs have been deemed illegal. So I think what you're saying, Jack, is that the government may have to send Mattel a check for millions of dollars because of all those tariffed little Barbie dolls? Yeah, the Barbies were tariffed unlawfully so they can get a refund.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
Congratulations, Barbie. Remember to split some of that with Ken. Now, Bessies, just to sprinkle on a little don't get angry at us context right now. Remember, everything these days is viewed through a lens of political suspicion, so there is something we want to clarify. The three judges on this court were appointed by Ronald Reagan first, Barack Obama second, and Donald Trump third.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
And those three judges ruled unanimously against these tariffs. But this ruling has also already been appealed by the Trump administration. And this thing is definitely going to end up at the Supreme Court. court. In fact, last night, an appeals court paused everything we just said until the Supreme Court decides on the trade war. So the trade war is actually still on.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
The ruling from less than 24 hours ago has already been paused. So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies who are in the trade war? Trump could lose his biggest bargaining chip. Yetis, the president has called tariffs the most beautiful word in the English language, and he uses them as a negotiating tool. He uses the threat of tariffs to force economically weaker countries into submission.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
But now, as President Trump is trying to get wins in trade deals, that threat, that leverage, that bargaining chip, it is gone. Trump's not going to give up this power easily. prepare for an epic legal battle starting with the Supreme Court very soon. But the way we see it, all the deal negotiations Trump has with other countries are on pause.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
If you're little Vietnam and you're about to give Trump a big trade gift to prevent tariffs from happening, why would you do it now if he doesn't have the power to tariff? Add it all up and the Supreme Court is about to decide whether to take away Trump's biggest bargaining chip.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
Every big moment starts with a big dream. But what happens when that big dream turns out to be a big flop? From Wondery and At Will Media, I'm Misha Brown, and this is The Big Flop. Every week, comedians join me to chronicle the biggest flubs, fails, and blunders of all time, like Quibi. It's kind of like when you give yourself your own nickname and you try to, like, get other people to do it.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
and the 2019 movie adaptation of Cats. Like, if I'm watching the dancing and I'm noticing the feet aren't touching the ground, there's something wrong with the movie. Find out what happens when massive hype turns into major fiasco. Enjoy The Big Flop on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Big Flop early and ad-free on Wondery+.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
Get started with your free trial at wondery.com slash plus.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
For our third and final story before the weekend, Hailey Bieber just pulled off one of the biggest and fastest exits in startup history, $1 billion in just three years. Because her beauty brand, Rode, borrowed a strategy from Elvis Presley. That's right, that Elvis. But Jack, let's start with Elf Beauty, who's had a rough year. The stock looks like it was out all night. Yeah, it does.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
It got some bags under your eyes, Elf Beauty. In April, Elf Beauty stock was down 60% on the year because of the trade war. That's right, because three quarters of Elf Beauty cosmetics are made in China. And they just had to announce that everything is going up in price by $1. Yeah, on Instagram, they actually posted, not going to lie, inflations and tariffs have hit us hard at Elf Beauty.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
We appreciate the honesty from Elf Beauty. But the stock surged 25% this week. On news, they're spending a billion dollars to acquire Hailey Bieber's skin brand, Rode. Apparently, they do have some money. And Justin Bieber was so proud that his wife sold her company for a billion bucks, he cut off his bangs. What? Did he? Or maybe he already had. I'm not sure, but they're not there anymore, Jack.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
But here's the wild twist that we noticed as we watched this year's Spelling Bee. Geography. That's right. In order to win the spelling bee, you gotta know geography. Because a little known secret about spelling bees, the hardest words to spell are the places. Yeah, the places. There's no root word, no language of origin. You just gotta memorize the map, baby. Like Mississippi. Yeah.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
Now, if you're not familiar with road beauty, basically they have the same value proposition as Krispy Kremes. To glaze your skin with goodness. That's their actual tagline. They want to make your skin so dewy, and I know you hate when I say this word, Jack, but you'd lick your own face. We've almost been the second half of the pod because you're on a roll. Well, let's talk financials, Jack.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
Because this company, Rode, has done $212 million in revenue in the last year. And it's all direct-to-consumer and it's all online. Rode Beauty is not in any physical stores yet. But the key reason why Elf Beauty has fallen in love with Rode, what is it, Jack? A majority of Rode's cosmetics are made in Italy and South Korea. So the business protects Elf against both wrinkles... And tariffs.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
But here's what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. Hailey Bieber's road has accomplished all of this with just 10 products. They've got a cream, a balm, a serum. And an iPhone case that actually is customized to hold your lipstick. That's a really funny product. But seriously, there's only 10 things you can buy on the website. That's right.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
You can count all of the products that Hailey Bieber's company makes on two hands. Or as they put it, They make one of everything really good. Now, Jack, in order to really understand the story, could you please sprinkle on some context to the cosmetics industry? It's the opposite. Elf Beauty has 400 products. L'Oreal has 1,000 products.
The Best One Yet
🧴 “Rhode to Riches” — Hailey Bieber’s $1B deal. The NYT’s Alexa+. Supreme Tariff Court.
From all the ads we've seen on TV our whole lives, Maybelline has maybe a million products. But Hailey resisted the temptation to go beyond 10. It's like an invisible dewy ceiling she refuses to crack. And you know what this means, Jack? At her $1 billion valuation, each of her products is technically worth $100 million.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
This is Nick. This is Jack. It is Friday, the real Friday, March 28th. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-Boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Apparently, the only thing we got to do to get five-star reviews as a business news show is Jack to do a cookie crisp in the Cookie Monster voice. Yeah.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
Like, you know the big Chevy Suburbans are worse for the environment and they're worse for safety. You feel safer driving in that tank, but everyone around you feels less safe. Which leads to the fascinating news. These bloated cars are actually making traffic 10% worse. That's according to Bloomberg. Now, there's a lot of reasons that today's traffic on the roads is worse than 30 years ago.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
But 10% of the blame is that our cars are now taking up 10% more of the road because of this car bloat. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in the car industry? It's the Panamax principle. Americans want the biggest thing as long as it still fits. Yeti's Steve Jobs was wrong. Steve Jobs always thought people would not want a bigger phone, but that was wrong.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
The iPhone 16 is 76% larger in square inches than the original iPhone was. And the only reason we don't want a bigger iPhone is simply the limiting size of our hands and our pockets. And that reveals a truth about consumer and business preferences overall in America. The reality is we always prefer the bigger product. The only limit to size is the infrastructure.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
The perfect way to explain this is cargo ships. Yeah, it is. Cargo ships will never be longer than 1,200 feet because 1,200 feet is the maximum size you can still fit in the Panama Canal. That phenomenon is called Panamax. No cargo ships can be bigger than the width of the Panama Canal, so that's the limit. Now, some products have no limiting size factor, like houses.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
That's why you see records being set all the time. People buy as big a house as they can afford. But other products, like cars, do have limits. The Chevy Suburban, it can't have four seats across because it literally won't fit in the lanes. It's the Panamax principle, and it applies to more than just ships. Americans want the biggest thing as long as it still fits.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
Which goes for up to $32,000 per night, per suite. So how are the guests going to be getting around those Venetian canals next? Well, Jack, actually, Jeff's $500 million super yacht, the largest yacht in the world, is reportedly the Wedding Water Taxi. I think that's too big for the canals, isn't it? I think the yacht just squeezes in really tight, Jack.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for the real Friday? Frida Baby just announced breast milk ice cream. It's not an April Fool's joke. It'll be here in nine months. Because her advertisements got rejected, this is a product-tisement. For our second story, Robinhood just launched banking, wealth management, credit card perks, and cash delivery by mail.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
The way we see it, the best way to think about Robinhood, it's the Airbnb of banking. And our third and final story is car bloat. Car bloat. It's got us buying more big cars, and those bigger cars are getting bigger. It's the perfect example of the Panamax effect. The bigger, the better, as long as it still fits. But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
Okay, first, get this. OpenAI expects their revenue to triple to $12.7 billion this year. Jack, that is more revenue than Snapchat and X combined. Now, you probably use ChatGPT for free, but every person in consulting, finance, or tech, they're paying for the premium version. Because ChatGPT Plus... That's a write-off, baby.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
And second, your buddy in finance better pay for dinner tonight because Wall Street bonuses just hit a record high. The city of New York tracks financial bonus payouts, and this year it hit $47.5 billion, which is $244,000 per banker, and that's just the bonus, not the salary.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
By the way, the financial industry employs 200,000 people in New York City, so odds are you are or you are going to have dinner with someone tonight Also, fun fact, the banker bonus payouts in New York is bigger than the entire economy in Vermont. And finally, the Sundance Film Festival is moving to Boulder, Colorado.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
After 40 years in Park City, Utah, the Sundance Film Fest has outgrown that venue. Boulder offers some nice charm, legalized marijuana, and more space to smoke that legalized marijuana after you see a Sundance movie. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by our Turkish buddies, Anisa and Joanna Benedret from lovely New York City.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
When Nick announced publicly that he was 0% to 4% Turkish, according to his 23andMe, Anisa and Joanna reached out. Okay, well, Anisa and Joanna first. They said my pronunciation of Gutarmak was perfect, Jack. I just thought I should mention that. And then they said that a famous variety of baklava comes from southern Turkey, and it's made with their famous locally grown pistachios.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
Yeah, that town is actually UNESCO recognized for those pistachios, and that baklava has received UN status of protection. And the largest baklava ever baked? weighed 1,131 pounds, and it was baked by some Turks. A great Turkish accomplishment. I got to say, Jack, to Anis and Joanna, teşekkür ederim. Yedis, you look fantastic today. So many wins to celebrate this week.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
No, we haven't confirmed it, but we assume guests get free one-day luggage shipping. And if your suitcase is lost, there will, of course, be 24-7 customer wedding support. By the way, the bride is going to be wearing her $2 million engagement ring. Although Jack and I did the math on that, and what have we discovered, Jack? That's only 0.00093% of Jeff's net worth. It's like 12 bucks for him.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
Jack, I'm seeing you in Chicago in just a few days. We got the awards ceremony.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
The envies, baby. Can't wait. We're going to get the tuxes. But Yedis, before you go, Jack and I have the perfect thing for you to listen to this weekend. In the latest episode of The Best Idea Yet, I tell the wild story how I snuck into a Mets game not just to watch baseball. No, how did you sneak in and why'd you sneak in, Jack? I snuck in to find my future wife.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
And that story of how Jack found his wife is connected to Goldfish Crackers, the wild untold origin story of the Goldfish Crackers. So when you have a second, click the link in the episode description and check out the best idea yet. It's our weekly show. You're going to love it. This one's on goldfish crackers. Jack and I will see you Monday.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
And before we go, a happy birthday to legendary Middlebury Manther, Mike Panzer Esquire, from down in lovely Washington, D.C. Mike, our 15-year anniversary is this summer. I'll see you there. And Larry Nsuka, the brown bear baller, is celebrating a birthday down also in Washington, D.C. And happy birthday to Sharon Yu, a.k.a. Sharondo, from Los Angeles.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
This birthday request is one year late because her husband forgot to request one last year. But that also means it's right on time. And Nate Mesa is celebrating a birthday down in Nashville, Tennessee. Happy birthday. Happy birthday to Justin Chapman in Marblehead, Ohio. And Nick Goodner, legendary Yeti, celebrating a birthday down in Orlando.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
Happy 42nd birthday to Michael Contini in Brooklyn, New York. And Lizette Ortiz, also turning 42 with a big birthday in El Paso, Texas. Happy birthday to Jessica Carpio in Colorado Springs, Colorado. And Tomas Ramirez, happy eighth birthday. Celebrating the big one down in Costa Rica. Happy birthday to Lola Leike in Greenwich, London.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
And Sharon Yu from Rancho Palos Verdes, California is a dog hater, but we love her because she's celebrating a birthday. Wow. Wow, she's a dog hater? Yeah, it's a story for another podcast. That's an unpopular position in today's world. Well, she may be a cat person. You know, we didn't consider that. And happy ninth anniversary to Ben and Kara Enos in Franklin, Tennessee.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
And Liz DeHorn is honeymoon-ing with her hubby in Charleston, South Carolina. Have a blast, guys. And a big good luck and congratulations to Jackson Durham, who's doing bagpipes at the talent show this weekend. If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
You could have gotten bigger on those carrots, Jeff. And she'll be wearing an Oscar de la Renta dress. That's de la Renta, not rental dress. Oh, and Lauren's engagement gift? She's actually flying into outer space on Jeff Bezos' own Blue Origin rocket. The wedding will be so big, it's going to need its own fulfillment center. But here's the best part, Jack.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
If Lauren doesn't like Jeff, she can just return him in 30 days for free. Free returns if she drops him off at a UPS store or $7.99 for a front porch pickup. Here's the QR code. I don't want him anymore. One quick shopping, one knee dropping.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
I did a nice little crossover between Cookie Monster and Cookie Crest. The people like it, Jack. The people like it. We get a lot of love. But Jack, today's stories, we got three fantastic ones. What is on today's T-Boy? For our first stories, mark your calendars. Breast milk ice cream is due in nine months. Real thing, Frida Baby is launching that wild product, and it's not an April Fool's joke.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
For our first story, would you eat breast milk ice cream? Because the mother and baby brand Frida is launching exactly that. Breast milk flavored ice cream, and it represents a new thing we call a productizement. All right, Jack, no free samples here, but let's talk controversial ice cream flavors, because this is a long list, man. What do we got? What do we got?
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
Avocado ice cream, soy sauce ice cream, corn on the cob ice cream. Look, I still put extra virgin olive oil in my ice cream, and I think it's a great, it's a great, great win. Salt and straw did bone marrow ice cream. But the most attention-grabbing flavor we've ever seen is breast milk ice cream, which just got launched by Frida Baby. We're talking lactation gelato.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
No extra scoop of colostrum necessary. Now, if your family recently had a new baby, then you know the Frida brand, which like you guys had a baby like three weeks ago, Jack. So this is exactly you, man. Frida makes products to help the baby and the mom go through bodily transitions and recover postpartum. Now we know what you're thinking, besties. April Fool's joke? No.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
The Frida company confirmed this is not an early April Fool's joke. But they also confirmed it's breast milk flavored, not actually made of breast milk instead of dairy. Although the key here is that according to surveys, people might secretly be into this. Studies show that 70% of women have sampled breast milk and 29% of men are curious how it tastes themselves. Full disclosure.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
Oh, wait a second. Are you sure you want to go there right now? Let's just say it's 100% of people are curious. Yeah, maybe it's 29% who've actually acted on that curiosity. A little bit gets on the bottle and then it gets on your hands. You take a little bite. Everyone's done it, Jack. Everyone's done it. Happy.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
By the way, Yetis, this company announced the news today, but the breast milk ice cream arrives in nine months. This baby is due in late December. No. Besties, the reason we were fascinated with this story is we actually did a recent story about boring businesses that a lot of you liked. Entrepreneurial opportunities that have reliable cash flows, but are overlooked because they're not sexy.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
Like the plumbing industry. Well, similarly, we think there's entrepreneurial opportunity in gross businesses as well. Businesses that are too icky for others, which ironically is kind of plumbing actually. Well, Chelsea Hirshhorn launched the Frida company back in 2014. And in her words, here's how she describes her brand. I focus on gross. And this is her insight.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
In an Instagram world, founders often ignore what's not aesthetic, what's not beautiful to the eyes. What won't get likes on Instagram. So if you think about it, there is upside in what's gross because the competition is honestly afraid to go there. For example, Frida sells a product called the Snot Sucker. As someone with a four-week-old baby, you should explain what a snot sucker is, Jack.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
It's basically like a four-foot-long plastic tube, and this is why it's key. When my son Oakley had a stuffy nose, which he's had like three nights in a row, he can barely breathe. So we remove the snot from his nose by sucking one end of the tube and getting the snot out of there. Now, don't suck too far. You don't want it coming out the other end.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
Well, Frida has sold 4.7 million of these snot suckers in the last year, so they now control 54% of the gross nasal straw market. There's no love like sucking the snot out of a newborn's nose. This company's got a gross monopoly. Basically, they're targeting customers, new families who don't think it's gross, and so they're thrilled that this is being offered.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
For our second story, Robinhood just launched Robinhood Banking, Wealth Management, Overnight Cash Delivery, and Formula One Tickets. But we'll explain how Robinhood is actually the Airbnb of banking. And our third and final story is Car Bloat. Car Bloat. This is the trend of trucks and SUVs getting bigger, taller, and heavier than ever. And it is all part of the Panamax effect.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
But when Frida plans advertising campaigns, they're often rejected because they say the copy is too graphic. For example, Frida filmed a TV commercial for the Oscars about moms' bodies after they've had a baby. But ABC refused to air it. Or how about the time Frida designed a billboard in Times Square? But it got blocked because a postpartum body was deemed too graphic.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
Add it all up, and how does all of this lead to breast milk ice cream? Breast milk flavored ice cream. The answer is our takeaway. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Frida? It's a new form of marketing, a productizement. Yetis, the reality of advertising is that you can't fully control it. You're always going to deal with a middleman.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
Either the TV network, which must approve it, or the FCC, which can reject it. But you know what you can control? For the most part, you can control what you sell. You can control your product. So after multiple rejections... because their ads were considered not safe for TV. Well, Frida created a product that is kind of wild, but can't be blocked by others. Breast milk flavored ice cream.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
There you go. That's not a product. It's an ad for the entire brand. An ad without the risk of rejection. That, my friends, is a product-tisement. For our second story, on its 10th birthday, Robinhood, as a gift to other people, launched its biggest suite of financial products yet. The wildest part about Robinhood banking, Robinhood is still not a bank.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
Besties, 10 years ago, Robinhood was the first company to let you trade stocks with no commission fee. That free stock trading innovation was both a strength and a weakness for Robinhood. Yeah, because Jack, here's the weakness part. How do you make money if the main thing you offer, stock trading, is free? Well, this week...
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
Ten years after being created, Robinhood answered that question more robustly than ever. Ironically, with a product they're calling Checking and Savings. Now, we say ironic because Nick and I sold our first company, MarketSnacks, to Robinhood in 2018. And the first month we started at Robinhood after the acquisition, Jack, do you remember what they launched?
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
They launched Checking and Savings, a product of the same name they're launching today. But then here's the wild part. The day after they launched it, years ago, they had to cancel it immediately because that product, Checking and Savings, broke so many rules. So seven years after initially botching Checking and Savings, Robinhood has now relaunched it. Robinhood is now basically a bank.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
And here's Robinhood's new strategy by launching Checking and Savings. They're embracing midlife millennial adulthood. Robinhood Banking will give you a checking account, a high-yield savings account, just like JPMorgan Chase. But they'll also deliver cash to your mailbox on demand if you ask for it. Because Robinhood has no physical branches, they will send cash to your mailbox.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
Like, they will literally drop off five Ben Franklins in your mailbox before you go on vacation. Robinhood also launched Wealth Management this week. You can access portfolios or ETFs managed by pros and pay a 0.25% management fee. They're also giving away premium tickets like American Express perks.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
You can go to the Oscars, Coachella, the Met Gala, Formula One races with these Robinhood benefits. So why is Robinhood launching all of these big bank style products? Well, because Robinhood accounts are not banked. Big products, Jack. Robinhood is still a baby compared to all the other financial companies. That's right.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
We want things as huge as possible. But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories to end the week... It's a mix of stories. Elmo liked this mix of stories, Jack. Check your mailbox, Yetis. Because the biggest wedding invitation of the year just got sent. You may have been invited to the Jeff Bezos wedding. The Jeff Bezos wedding!
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
The average account at Fidelity is 50 times bigger than the average account at Robinhood. Because Charles Schwab, Fidelity, Morgan Stanley, they all got those boomer lifetime savings in their accounts. So they got a lot more money per account. Because that's how the finance industry makes the real money. Yes, it is. They take a small percentage of a really big dollar amount.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
Small percentage on a huge dollar amount. So Robinhood's hope is to make their accounts bigger by being a little mature, like a big bank. Well, over the last 10 years, Robinhood got 40 million people to sign up with free stock and crypto trading. Now, with a bank, they can start making some real money off those customers. And interestingly, we just got data that show that it's working.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
The median age of a Robinhood customer has risen from 31 years old to 35 in just the last four years. So for Robinhood, with free stock trading, they made memes with 20-somethings. But with a bank, Robinhood can make money on 30-somethings. things. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Robinhood embracing midlife millennials?
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
The best analogy to describe Robinhood, it's the Airbnb of banking. Yetis, for years, Robinhood liked to compare itself to Amazon. They would say, we're the Amazon of finance. Their pitch is that the $5 a month gold subscription is the financial equivalent of Amazon Prime.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
Now, some prefer to compare Robinhood to Costco because Robinhood finds a way to offer everything financial at the lowest possible price. But we think the most important part is that Robinhood is asset light. Like Airbnb. Like Airbnb. Airbnb is the biggest hotel company in the world, even though they don't own a single hotel. And that lets Airbnb enjoy profit margins twice as thick as Marriott.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
It's a profit puppy. Guess what? Robinhood's offering all those banking services, even though it's not a bank. They're partnering with FDIC insured banks instead to do all the bank stuff. So Robinhood gets bank-like products without the costs and regulations of being an actual bank. It's asset life.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
And that is why Jack and I think the best analogy to describe Robinhood and its rise is that it's the Airbnb of banking. Now, a quick word from our sponsor.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
For our third and final story before the weekend. SUVs and trucks are suffering from car bloat. Their size is now literally causing traffic. That's part of a bigger trend called the Panamax effect. Americans want the biggest thing as long as it still fits.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
You know, Yetis, Jack and I were talking before the pod, and the way we see it, the car industry is in many ways the most chaotic, uncertain, and wild industry in business right now. Will electric cars take off, or will they go away? Will automation kill driving as we know it? Automotive is also the top victim of the trade war. 25% tariffs just hit the whole industry this week.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
The world's second richest person is hosting his second ever wedding. And the fiance, Lauren Sanchez, is the Emmy-winning journalist. Yeah, invites were just sent out this week. We're very excited. We haven't RSVP'd yet. No, we haven't. But we got the details, and these nuptials are unprecedented. Okay, first, the location, Venice, Italy. At the Amman Hotel, the most expensive hotel in the city.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
But there is one thing that car companies do know, and what is that, Jack? The bigger... the better. Welcome to the concept of car bloat. Every single year for the last three decades, the length, the width, the height, the cubic feet of cars that we buy gets larger and larger and larger. I think you just said height, but let's roll with it, Jack.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
Here's a macro stat to back up the car bloat observation. 80% of new cars bought today are trucks or SUVs. That's up from just 25% in the 1970s. We also found a micro stat to explain car bloat. Today's Ford F-150, the most selling car in America, is 800 pounds heavier than the F-150 of 1999. it's gained 32% more weight, a single car.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
So not only are we buying more big cars, but the bigger cars that we're buying are bigger. Another way you could describe car blow, Jack, there is junk in the trunk. So much so that the Detroit big three car makers have stopped producing coupes, sedans, and station wagons because Americans don't want them. If you're single, you want an SUV. If you're a dink, you also want an SUV.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
If you have kids, you want a huge SUV with a third row of seats and 14 cup holders. Now, besties, car bloat has been great for car company profits, but interestingly, it's been really bad for traffic in a surprising way. If you buy a Honda Civic, you are signaling that you are cost-conscious. But if you buy a huge Denali SUV, you are signaling that you have high willingness to pay.
The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
Car companies know that and prices for SUVs are simply higher. than prices for sedans. That's why virtually all profits for Ford, General Motors, and Jeep are from their trucks and SUVs, not from the small little civics. But these huge cars have societal costs we should tell you about as well. Yeah, they do.
The Best One Yet
🏠 “The Housing Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on the Housing Market
15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in a dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50%, that's a fat tip. T-Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, cause we ready to go. We can't wait no more, so just start the show. Start the show.
The Best One Yet
BONUS 💰 “The Money Pod” — Our Best Money stories from 2024
15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in a dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50%, that's a fat tip. T-Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, cause we ready to go. We can't wait no more, so just start the show.
The Best One Yet
🕯️ “Everyone’s watching it” — Conclave’s Pope pop. Uber’s robo-VW-hippie-van taxi. The Great Capitalist Pause.
I had three stars. 15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in a dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is a norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50%, that's a fat tip. T-Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, cause we ready to go. We can't wait no more, so just start the show.
The Best One Yet
💨 “Fart-coin” — Crypto’s Silk Road pardon. Neko’s $2B body-scanner. Video Games’ Spiderman mistake.
Yeah, it was way more popular. Oh, and Conan O'Brien, he's going to host the Oscars on March 2nd in LA.
The Best One Yet
💨 “Fart-coin” — Crypto’s Silk Road pardon. Neko’s $2B body-scanner. Video Games’ Spiderman mistake.
The ones on the dock, they're doing the yoga, running across the street now.
The Best One Yet
💨 “Fart-coin” — Crypto’s Silk Road pardon. Neko’s $2B body-scanner. Video Games’ Spiderman mistake.
The only one missing was some of the dorm room ones. We could throw some of those up there and the East Village ones.
The Best One Yet
💨 “Fart-coin” — Crypto’s Silk Road pardon. Neko’s $2B body-scanner. Video Games’ Spiderman mistake.
Those photos, they're like in a dark room somewhere.
The Best One Yet
💨 “Fart-coin” — Crypto’s Silk Road pardon. Neko’s $2B body-scanner. Video Games’ Spiderman mistake.
Here's what I'm talking about, Jack. Let's hear our three stories.
The Best One Yet
💨 “Fart-coin” — Crypto’s Silk Road pardon. Neko’s $2B body-scanner. Video Games’ Spiderman mistake.
15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in a dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50%, that's a fat tip. T-Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, cause we ready to go. We can't wait no more, so just start the show.
The Best One Yet
💨 “Fart-coin” — Crypto’s Silk Road pardon. Neko’s $2B body-scanner. Video Games’ Spiderman mistake.
And determine your risk of melanoma or cancer or having to get that thing on your thigh checked out a little more.
The Best One Yet
💨 “Fart-coin” — Crypto’s Silk Road pardon. Neko’s $2B body-scanner. Video Games’ Spiderman mistake.
Yeah, it's like going to catch that obscure mole on your little toe that your doctor might have missed during that cursory overlook we all have to do every couple of years.
The Best One Yet
💨 “Fart-coin” — Crypto’s Silk Road pardon. Neko’s $2B body-scanner. Video Games’ Spiderman mistake.
You got to put on a little show for the doctor's office in fully naked, Jack. Everybody knows that.
The Best One Yet
💨 “Fart-coin” — Crypto’s Silk Road pardon. Neko’s $2B body-scanner. Video Games’ Spiderman mistake.
EA Sports.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
This is Nick. This is Jack. And today's leaders pod is the best one yet. Our top three business leader stories of the past year. Yetis, if you're listening to this pod, I am on a flight to France and Jack is swimming down in the Mad River freezing his butt off. For Memorial Day weekend, we curated three stories from last year.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
Thanks to him, at tech companies, engineers and designers are the people with power. But... In 2019, this iPhone designer left Apple at the top of his game to work on a secret project. And he hasn't talked to anybody about it in five years. No joke, that's a quote he said.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
Well, five years later, we finally found out in a New York Times interview last weekend what exactly Johnny Ive has been up to. He's been working on a company called LoveFrom. LoveFrom, a company whose name was inspired by a Steve Jobs quote in a meeting with Johnny Ive. Steve Jobs told him to create from what you love. And apparently, Johnny Ive loves one neighborhood in San Francisco, Jack.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
But you also come to us, this pod, for stories no one else is whipping up. So there are three other names in business that we think you should know. Three business icons who don't get front page news treatment. Honestly, if we could grab brunch with three people in business right now, this, Jack, this is the group. We'd order eggs Benedict. We'd get sauce on the side.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
For the last five years, he's bought up $90 million worth of real estate in one block of downtown San Francisco. It's actually a flu box from our recording studio. It's called Jackson Square. It's the one neighborhood in San Francisco that was not destroyed by the 1906 earthquake. And it's gorgeous. A lot of barrier techies left San Francisco during the pandemic for low tax, low regulation states.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
Johnny doubled down on his home city of San Francisco. And now he's got 70,000 square feet of office space in lovely Jackson Square, San Francisco. And he's not just testing out new toilets in that 70,000 square feet office space. Over the last five years, he has built up a wildly awesome list of clients.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
Get this, secretly, Johnny Ive designed the windows on the new space shuttle for his new company. He helped J.J. Ambrose design the new lightsaber for the new Star Wars films. Oh, and Jack, what about the first ever electric Ferrari that's about to come out? The interior and the screen were designed by Johnny Ive's love for him.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
And his next move might be the biggest tech move in the history of hardware. He is designing a physical hardware product for OpenAI. a virtual assistant that will physically be with you. Add it all up, Yetis, and Johnny Ive's secret company has been generating $200 million in revenue a year already on those clients.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
If you hire Love From to design your next product, you have the best designer in the world.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
It all comes down to the buttons. The buttons. Yeah, it is. Our favorite part about this Johnny Ives story was when we discovered his obsession with buttons. Johnny Ives' favorite book is a five-volume series on the history of buttons on clothing and in fashion. And Jack, why is Johnny Ives obsessed with buttons? It's the part of the clothing that you touch the most.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
And buttons are the visual highlight. He's obsessed with buttons because it's the perfect blend of fashion and function. Do you remember the first iPod you ever had? It only had one button and it had that wheel around it. Remember? That was Johnny Ive. And then the first iPhone, only one button. Like you said, in an era that the BlackBerry had a hundred buttons, the iPhone had one.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
Johnny Ive did that one button. Both of those were revolutionary for tech designs. So our big takeaway about Johnny Ive is really about his fascination with buttons. One small, seemingly insignificant detail can influence the outlook of the whole product. Now time for the best fact. Yeah, this one whipped up by Jack and me. It's a wild story about one of the great business leaders, Steve Jobs.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
Okay, Steve Jobs' most famous presentation ever. What was it, Jack? The iPhone unveil in 2007. But the iPhone that Steve unveiled on stage? Funny thing about that iPhone. It barely worked. Yeah. Steve Jobs forced the team to unveil the product before it was ready. It actually had so many bugs in that first iPhone, the engineering team had to create a golden path.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
A golden path is a tech term for creating a specific sequence that won't make the product crash. So while Steve was on stage- Pushing buttons on the iPhone- If he had done anything off script or pressed the wrong button, everything would have fallen apart on stage in front of the entire world. But Steve didn't go off script. He followed the golden path and the iPhone didn't crash.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
And that unveil goes down as the best product unveil of all time. That was a leadership move. He caused his teams to lose sleep and their hair probably to meet that deadline. Yeah. But it got us the iPhone and now Apple's worth $3 trillion. A complicated leader, but still a leadership move. Yetis, you look fantastic for the Friday before Memorial Day.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
And we would take notes the end. entire meal. So grab a pen, grab a paper, and take a seat at the table. Besties, these are our three top business leader stories from last year.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
And if you've got a friend who'd be inspired by one of these business legends, send it to them. We'll be inspired if you do. Our buddy Timmy, he's definitely getting this episode, Jack. So enjoy this long weekend. Happy Memorial Day. And Nick and I will see you Monday. Can't wait.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
And before we go, congratulations to legendary Yeti Ryan Morrow, who's got a new job and is moving to New York City from Naperville, Illinois. Congratulations to Tack and Kate Yamamoto, who are getting married in San Francisco. These are Nick's neighbors. I think I can see them from here. You look fantastic, guys. Have fun at the wedding. Can't wait to see some pics.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
Congratulations to Lucas from Madrid, who is a fantastic boyfriend. And Zachary Schaefer and Gigi Kinney are getting married in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Congratulations. Enjoy some cheese. Congrats to Grace Billingsley. for getting a PR in the half marathon from Grace Valley, California. Haley Rock, happy third birthday over there in Boston. Just outside Boston. Haley, this is your big day.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
And John Osborne is retiring in Grass Valley, California. Congratulations, John. And happy birthday to Ria Chandra in South Brunswick, New Jersey. And Z-Hung Yu is celebrating the best birthday yet over in lovely Los Angeles. Happy birthday to Travis A in the great state of Maine. And Emmalou Stein-Beldring has got a wonderful birthday up in Viesten, Norway. And happy Memorial Day, everybody.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
And thank you to all the servicemen and women and to their families for keeping Nick and me safe. We got so many besties and yetis in the service out there. Thank you to all. Celebrate the wins. If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
For our first story, we're going back to January 26th, 2024. Dolly Parton actually has turned one year older, so she's 79 now, but still, this story is fantastic. Dolly Parton dropped a brand new album, launched a new food brand, and celebrated her 78th birthday with a concert. So we jumped into the business of Dolly Parton's Dollywood. Yeti's Dolly Parton.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
on epic business leader profiles because these people changed how we think. Yeah, they really did. So after you finish this episode, send it to a buddy who'd be inspired by one of these business legends and then go enjoy a margarita moment by the grill. You earned it. Friday's the real Friday. Jack, what's on today's show? For our first story, we're going back to January 26th, 2024.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
She's got the biggest hair east of the Mississippi. Actually, and the biggest hair west of the Mississippi, now that I think about it. You've heard her songs, 9 to 5, Jolene, Here You Come Again. There's literally thousands of others. Born in a logwood cabin on the Little Pigeon River in lovely Tennessee. She's like Will Hunting. Dolly Parton has 11 siblings.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
Her first public performance was actually at a church where she was singing by age six. But by 13, she was belting out notes at the famous Grand Old Opry. Now, Yetis, Jack and I told you we jumped in T-boy style to Dolly Parton, the legendary country singer, and we found some legendary numbers. She's written 3,000 songs. She's sold 100 million albums. Those are country music records.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
And that song catalog from Dolly Parton is worth $150 million. Because all of our listening on Spotify and Apple Music and on the radio, it generates $8 million in annual royalties. Those $8 million are like one big, loud, symphonic dividend check to Dolly Parton. Now, remember that famous song by Whitney Houston from the movie The Bodyguard, I Will Always Love You?
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
Classic Whitney Houston song, Jack. Originally, that was Dolly Parton, and she's made $10 million by letting Whitney Houston cover it. In fact, Yetis, Elvis Presley and Dolly Parton sang a duet, and Elvis asked Dolly if he could have her rights, her half of the song, and what did she say, Jack? No, thank you, Mr. King. Dolly Parton, love is like a butterfly, but in business, she's like a hornet.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
Yeah, she is. But what separates Dolly from the rest of the musical moguls out there is her business range. This is what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. Dolly Parton has built a more diversified entertainment conglomerate than Disney. Dolly co-founded a TV production company called Sand Dollar Productions, which brought us Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Father of the Bride.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
If you like those movies, yeah. You can thank Dolly Parton for those two movies. She also built a famous theme park called Dollywood, which gets visited by 3 million people every year. It turns out Dollywood is the most visited attraction in the entire state of Tennessee. Like the GDP of Tennessee. Dolly Parton. And Dollywood's worth $400 million.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
If you're a cracker barrel, you can eat a Dolly Parton meal because she partnered with that food chain. Or you can eat on Dolly Parton plates made by William Sonoma. And just this week, Dolly Parton expanded her partnership with the $15 billion food giant, ConAgra. She already had Dolly Parton buttermilk pancake mix. Soon, you can have Dolly Parton frozen fried chicken.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
Do I have to wear a bolo if I do a check? A bolo? Sorry. Somebody hasn't been to the Grand Ole Opry. No, I haven't. It's on my list. Oh, Dolly Parton didn't just write a memoir. She also has a line of fiction books. This is amazing. She wrote a thriller series along with James Patterson based on the stories from one of her albums. Dolly Parton even runs a dog apparel company called Doggy Parton.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
Because every beagle needs a blonde wig. But yet he's add all this up and this business empire is worth over half a billion dollars. And we're not even talking about the charity part, Jack. Dolly Parton is like the Princess Diana of our time. She is philanthropic and loved by everyone for it. Her charity just got $100 million in funding from Jeff Bezos of Amazon.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
Country singer Dolly Parton just celebrated a new birthday, a new food brand, and a new album. Not too shabby. So we're looking at the billion-dollar business of Dolly Parton's Dollywood. For our second story, we're going back to July 8th. Bill Gates, for a long time, was the richest person in the world. But his former assistant at Microsoft is now richer than Bill Gates.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
In November of 2020, early pandemic, when we invented the mRNA COVID vaccine, the New England Journal of Medicine thanked Dolly Parton's COVID-19 research fund, which she established at Vanderbilt University. Oh, and by the way, she's also the godmother of Miley Cyrus. Party that in the USA. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddy Dolly Parton, Inc.? Humor transcends all.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
Yeti's the biggest business takeaway that Jack and I have gotten from Dolly Parton. It's how she reaches such a wide audience. Dolly Parton manages to reach a range of fans who are culturally quite opposites. Because Dolly Parton, she's a red state, patriotic, deep south, working class icon. But she's also a top ally of the LGBTQ community.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
And a key reason why she's so relatable to everyone, it's because she's funny. She uses humor. Oftentimes, Dolly sounds more like a comedian than a singer or a businesswoman. Yeah, like she makes fun of her own plastic surgery. Like she once told Oprah, it takes a lot of money to look this cheap. She once said, I'm the first woman to burn my bra.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
It took the fire department four days to put it out.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
One thing we've learned in life is that humor can transcend cultural lines like politics, race, and income. And Dolly Parton's billion dollar Dollywood empire proves it. For our second story, we're going back to July 8th, 2024. Wild story about Bill Gates and his assistant. Bill Gates is no longer the richest person at Microsoft. His former assistant is.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
The way that Steve Ballmer surpassed Bill Gates is a lesson on risk and reward. Yes, it is. But in order for us to tell this story, Jack, can we travel back to 1980, please? A startup of techie nerds in Seattle put out a job posting. Assistant founder. Assistant to the founder. Ah, good point, Jack. Getty's Bill Gates, the future richest man on earth. He needed a personal assistant ASAP.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
And one man answered the call. His name was Steve Ballmer. Steve Ballmer, bald man, big personality. This was actually a Harvard classmate who lived down the hall from Bill Gates back in the day. He didn't have much hair, but he had a whole lot of energy back then. Steve was at Stanford Business School a few years after Harvard when Bill convinced him to drop out of grad school.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
Bill was like, come join my software startup. I can't code without my coffee. That software startup was called Microsoft, by the way. Yes, it was. And he needed a personal assistant. So Jack, what was the first contract like for Steve when he joined Microsoft? He got $50,000 as a salary and 10% of the profit growth that he could generate. They basically treated Steve like a sales guy.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
He was Microsoft's first non-technical employee. So he was paid a salary plus a commission. Sounds simple, straightforward, a nice standard job. But Steve moved on from a nice, standard job because of this news. Here's the news! 44 years later, Steve Ballmer is now worth more than Bill Gates. As of last week, Steve Ballmer is now worth $157 billion. The assistant has become the master.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
And it's a lesson for all of us in risk, reward, and money. And our third and final story is from September 24th. Johnny Ive is the greatest industrial designer of our time. He designed the iPhone. And after five years in secrecy, Johnny Ive just unveiled his next. Next big thing. But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Fantastic mix of stories, Jack.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
Steve Ballmer is now the sixth richest person in the world. He's even wealthier than Clippy. Nick, I'm actually looking at the Forbes list of the 10 richest people in the world. I like it. What are you seeing, Jack? Steve Ballmer's on that list. Okay. And he's the only one who did not found his company. Whoa.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
So like all 10 of the 10 richest people on earth, they founded a company except for this one guy. How did Steve Ballmer go from assistant CEO, assistant to the CEO, good point, to richer than anyone at Microsoft with one strategic salary decision? And here it is. When Microsoft turned six years old, the company decided to restructure and Steve Ballmer spoke up.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
Microsoft revenue had recently doubled, so Steve led the company in a reorganization and a restructuring. And Jack, what was Steve's one request as part of this? That he get equity. Equity. Specifically, Steve asked for 8% of the stock in the company. In exchange, he was willing to give up that nice 10% commission.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
What Jack and I are saying is that Steve gave up the cold, hard, nearly certain cash in exchange for uncertain stock in Microsoft. In fact, six years later, Steve made another huge bet, wanting to get even more deep with Microsoft stock. In 1987, Microsoft stock dips, employees get worried, investors get worried, manage. gets worried. But Steve didn't.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
He took the little cash he had on the side to buy even more stock in Microsoft. Fast forward and Steve Ballmer eventually becomes the CEO of Microsoft for 14 years, retiring in 2014. And today, with Microsoft worth $3 trillion, the value of that stock that he bought back in 1987 has gained... by $1,500x. So each $1 of stock he bought in 1987 is worth $1,500 today. Not too shabby.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
Yet he's Bill Gates, sold most of his Microsoft stock, and he's given a lot of it away to charity. So Steve Ballmer is now the biggest shareholder at Microsoft, owning 4% of the company. That's a lot of equity. And as of last week, it's richer. than his old boss, Bill. So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies in the U.S. economy?
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
Taking equity instead of cash is risky, but it's how people get rich. Now, Yetis, Jack and I know not everyone is in a position to get equity in a company or in a startup. But Steve Ballmer's money story is a valuable lesson on wealth generation. And here's why. Because each step of his career is a reminder that reward comes with risk. And equity was his risk.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
His ownership in Microsoft could have tanked like so many tech companies during the dot-com bubble. His wealth could have gone to zero. But... It didn't tank. In fact, his risk paid off and he ended up as the sixth richest man on earth. Major leaps in wealth typically don't come through a salary. They come through equity.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
Could be huge amounts of stock that you accept as pay, like Steve Ballmer did. Or it could be a little bit put in the stock market year over year, compounded over 30 years. Stocks are risky, cash isn't. Savings can grow, but stock can grow faster. Owning things like stocks and equity, that's how people get wealthy.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
Elon Musk, Warren Buffett, Sam Altman. Okay, we looked at the data. Those are the three most common business names in news. Last year, the Wall Street Journal wrote an article about Elon every single day. We covered Warren Buffett six different times. And Sam Altman is in so many places, he's probably sitting next to you right now.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
This story is from September 24th, 2024. Wow, Yeti's breaking news happened this week. Johnny Ive's new company, which you're about to learn about in this story, is now part of OpenAI. Sam Altman and Johnny Ive are building the AI hardware product that could replace the iPhone.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
Now, before we share our profile on Johnny, here's what he said, his words this week about his design firm's merger with OpenAI. Push and play.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
Okay, now to quote Jack Nicholson, here's Johnny. Johnny Ive is the most important designer of our lives. He's the guy behind the iPod, the iPhone, and the iPad, just to name a few. And Johnny Ive finally just unveiled his secret project of the last five years. It's called Love From. Now, Jack, you and I don't have full access to the Apple org chart.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
But if there was one person at Apple who's the most like Steve Jobs, who would you say it was? It was Johnny Ive, hands down. Johnny Ive, he was British. He was knighted by the Queen of England. And odds are he designed something that you are holding or touching or using right now. Apple is known for its revolutionary tech design. We're talking about the iPhone, the iPad, the Apple Watch.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
And Johnny Ive, this man, he did all of them. He even architected Apple's spaceship-like headquarters building in Cupertino, California. Like Steve Jobs, Johnny Ive believed in simplicity, in minimalism, in doing less to do more. This was during a time that people were doing more to do more. Like picture a 2005 German luxury car. It was a hundred buttons around you. So many buttons.
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
Yeah, you remember the Blackberries. That was a whole lot of tapping. Johnny Ive did the opposite at Apple. He had no tolerance for an extra button. And if he saw one, he was not going to be happy about it. Fun side note, though. When he was a student in university, do you know what Johnny Ive's senior dissertation was about? The first thing Johnny Ive designed before the iPhone?
The Best One Yet
✊ “The Leaders Pod” — Our 3 Best Stories on Legendary Business Leaders
What was it, Jack? He reimagined the loo. Yeah, it was a toilet. He actually redesigned the toilet. Ironically, toilets only have one button, the flush. Did he eliminate that one button? That's a story for another pod. But yet, there are celebrity chefs. There are star architects, star architects. But Johnny is the first ever celebrity industrial designer.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Friday, the real Friday. February 21st, and today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. The top three stories at the intersection of pop culture and business that you need to know today. Jack, I'm checking the calendars. It is almost IBO day. We are one week from the initial baby offering, aren't we? I know. February 28th is the due date.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
Oh, you want a dinner reservation at Dorsia after they got their second Michelin star? You're going to have to go to Rezzy for that. And that's why Rezzy's valuation surged and they sold to Amex in 2019. So for the last 10 years, Rezzy has been eating up market share from OpenTable. In fact, just last year, Eater published a whole article called How Rezzy Won. But here's the news.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
After 20 years, top restaurants are now switching back to OpenTable. According to New York Mag, all the cool tables are now on OpenTable again. Chez Fifi, the coolest hotspot in New York right now, you book through OpenTable. I didn't even tell you this, but Jack, I got a dinner tonight with some business school guys over at a place called Angler in San Francisco. I called them.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
They used to be with Rezzy, and now they're with OpenTable. Exhibit A. Actually, Exhibit Angler. So besties, OpenTable. They ended their diner fee, and they now make revenue through ads, but that doesn't explain how they are winning back tables from Rezzy. No, it doesn't, but our takeaway does. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies in the restaurant reservation wars?
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
Open tables stop treating tables like a commodity. They started treating them like real estate. Yetis, after Resi was acquired by Amex, their innovation slowed. Some say it got too corporate, but OpenTable also made some strategic moves. Instead of treating restaurant tables all the same, OpenTable started differentiating them.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
Yeah, OpenTable just created the Icons program, where they put their trendy restaurants in a separate section, a featured section to find them. And for diners, your restaurant app is overflowing with choices. There's value in that curation of the Icons section. Yes, there is. And restaurants can actually pay to get into that section, which became a different revenue source for OpenTable.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
OpenTable also created a program with Visa. They pre-bought tables that were reserved for Visa's premium credit card holders. And restaurants get paid a quote-unquote substantial amount to set aside those tables for OpenTable's VIPs. Yes, Resi does a similar thing for Amex card holders. But OpenTable apparently is paying a lot more for the best tables.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
So how did OpenTable reclaim the restaurant or reservation throne? They realized that restaurant reservations are like real estate. They stopped treating them like a commodity. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for the real Friday? James Bond is now an Amazon employee. Bezos is in charge of who will be the next Bond.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
The secret strategy to Bond's 60 years of movie success is infinite scarcity. For our second story, Microsoft achieved a breakthrough in quantum computing while Apple launched a budget iPhone. Microsoft is shooting for the moon while Apple is shooting for the shelf. And our third and final story is OpenTable. They're winning back turf that they had ceded to Rezzy.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
The cool spots are listing on OpenTable. Because OpenTable stopped treating tables like commodities and started treating them like real estate. But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, President Trump called Ukraine's president a dictator this week, something that he's never called Russia's president.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
While over that same period, 48 million people were hurt in cars. So you are way more likely to be injured in the taxi on the ground than you are in the airplane. Now, Jack and I got more curious, so we dove in further T-boy style. You're 68 times more likely to die on a roller coaster. You are 20 times more likely to be killed by your own furniture.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
The Trump administration is negotiating an end of the war in Ukraine with Russia directly and without Ukraine. As Secretary of State Rubio says, there is huge potential for the United States businesses to reenter Russia. It would be a shocking policy change to embrace Russia while punishing allies with tariffs.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
And second, that Delta flight that just turned upside down in Toronto, we got some wild new details on it. Well, it's a miracle that none of the 80 passengers on that flight were killed. But they're also emotionally scarred, so Delta is offering them $30,000 each having been on the flight. We assume that includes a deal to not sue them.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
And finally, Coca-Cola just launched its own prebiotic soda, and they're calling it Simply Pop. Remember this week we told you about the prebiotic soda wars between Poppy and Olipop? Well, their mutual enemy is Big Soda, and Coke just jumped into the category to take both of them on. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one's sent in by Shobik Don down the street in San Francisco.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
There we go. Yeah. Who knew that Da Vinci, Leonardo Da Vinci, was proficient in Microsoft Word? I had no idea. The only problem with Da Vinci's resume is under personal interest, he probably put like dissecting 40 different types of animals. Probably not the right tone to set with your future boss, Jack. It's a beige flag. It's a beige flag. Yetis, you look fantastic out there.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
Jack, you look so calm, collected, and incredible one week before the IBO. Or the baby could come before the end of the credits on this show today. I know. Now you don't sound so sound. Now you sound a little nervous. I have my go bag right next to me. Okay. I know. I'm ready for it. You know what I packed in the go bag? What's in there? What's in there? A deck of Uno cards.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
Because we're going to be in the hospital for a couple days after the baby's born.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
I'd love to play some Unos with Alex too. I'm sure that's going to be Alex's priority. I think that's a nice idea. She loves Zuno. I did it for her. Yetis, you looked fantastic all week. If you haven't yet, three things we'd love for you to do. First, drop down, rate, and review the show. Five stars. Second, tell a buddy, H-Y-H-T-B-O-Y. And Jack, third, have a fantastic weekend.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
Enjoy our Best Idea Yet episode on the Patagonia Fleece. You're going to love it. And Jack and I will celebrate the wins. And before we go, a happy birthday to Yeti George Zellifro doing logistics with Chicago Trucks and Donuts, baby. And happy seventh birthday to Daisy in Galena, Kansas, who's a good girl. Yeah, she's a dog, by the way. And John Rich, happy birthday down in beautiful D.C.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
Happy 43rd birthday to James Roddy in Long Beach. And Jen Wynn's got a birthday in Lancaster, California. Happy birthday, Jen. Happy birthday to Waverly Bell in Kalamazoo, Michigan. And Digna Pinal over in Roseville, California had the best birthday yet. Congratulations to Caleb J and Jesse Calzo who are getting married in Fort Worth. Let's see some pics. Enjoy, guys. Have a blast.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
And Steve Hamilton is running a burgeoning distillery in Saratoga County, New York, looking for a business partner. We got some T-boy matchmaking to do, Jack. Let's get this guy hooked up. Anybody in upstate, actually, Steve should let us know if he's accepting remote work. We'll update it on the next pod. And Danny Goal saw a fire truck with a surfboard on it, sent us a picture.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
In fact, you're more likely to be cast in a superhero movie and then die in a fake plane in CGI on set. than die on a real airplane. Oh, you want more? You're more likely to be crushed by a vending machine. Four times more likely. You're more likely to be eaten by an alligator. Three times more likely. You're more likely to be struck by lightning. Twice!
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
Danny, thanks for enjoying the show. And a big shout out to James Holodnik from New York City who sent us some legendary IPO-etry. Publicly traded poetry. And Kelsey Black speaking at a conference in Denver. We assume on books because no one knows books better than Kelsey. And happy anniversary to Evie and Walter in Juneau, Alaska.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
And to anyone else who's celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon and Nick and I both own stock in Apple. If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
And of course, our favorite statistical comparison here. I love this one, Jack. You're more likely to be bitten by a New Yorker on the subway. then die on an airplane. We've seen that happen twice. So yetis, even if things in the sky are twice as unsafe as they were before, you're still incredibly safe up there. Compared to down here.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
So wherever you're walking right now is way more dangerous than seat 17A is. Whether you're flying or driving right now, stay safe and Jack will tell you.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in a dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50%, that's a fat tip. T-Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, cause we ready to go. We can't wait no more, so just start the show.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
It could come before. Jack, if you hit a takeaway too hard, I may go into labor. Jack's baby isn't here yet, but we got three fantastic stories for today's show. What do we got, Jack? For our first story, Amazon has acquired the creative rights to James Bond. Bond. 007 is an Amazon employee now. So we've got advice for Bezos on how to not ruin the James Bond franchise.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
For our first story, James Bond just sold creative control of the entire franchise to Amazon? Amazon can now literally write the James Bond scripts. They can. But there's one magic formula they shouldn't touch. Yetis, Jack and I were preparing for the pod yesterday when we saw a surprising tweet from Amazon's founder, Jeffrey Bezos.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
It was a picture of Daniel Craig and a caption that said, who should be the next Bond? Big question. I mean, a lot of options of who could be the next James Bond, Jack. Who we got? Tom Hardy, Idris Elba. Speculation runs rampant. If Timothée Chalamet puts on 60 pounds on that torso, it could be a Bond. By the way, all the comments on his post said it should be Henry Cavill.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
Like, all of the comments. But that's besides the point, because the bigger question here for the entire business community was, why is Jeff Bezos asking about James Bond? Because he's going to decide who the next Bond is. Here's the news, yetis. Amazon and James Bond's owner have announced a new joint venture for the franchise.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
And in this new James Bond company, Amazon has final creative control. The name's Bezos, Jeff Bezos. Yes, Amazon already had distribution rights to James Bond because Amazon acquired MGM Studios in 2022. But the children of the James Bond movie mogul retained the rights to the IP until yesterday. Now, if Andy Jassy wants James Bond's suit to arrive in a prime cardboard box, he can do it.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
If Amazon wants Q to use Amazon Web Services to design the weapons, they can do it. Nick, they could change Q's name to Alexa now. And then James could ask Alexa where he could find a good local martini in Monaco. It'd be dumb if it happened, but legally, Amazon could do all that.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
Now, to sprinkle on a little more context here, I've read most of the James Bond books, and actually, I collect first editions of the books, Jack. That's a pretty awesome collection, though. Honestly, they're beautiful. It's like artwork. But what few people know is that the business of James Bond is actually as private as the spy himself.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
James Bond is a character created by Ian Fleming, who was a British stockbroker turned journalist who also was a spy during World War II. And during World War II, this spy in Fleming went on a secret mission to Jamaica called Goldeneye and ended up retiring in Jamaica after the war.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
He named his Jamaica estate Goldeneye and ended up writing one James Bond book pretty much every year, pretty much until he died. And now these James Bond books, as they came out, they were a minor success. They sold about 500,000 copies each, which is not bad, not great. It's okay. But here's the key moment. that made it so that everyone knows James Bond, not just Nick with his book collection.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond, sold the exclusive film rights for a one-time fee of $2,500. He gave away all the film rights to James Bond for just $2,500 to a Hollywood producer named Cubby Broccoli.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
Now, in the year since, the Broccoli family handed down the James Bond ownership to the kids, who then signed with MGM for distribution, and then Amazon acquired MGM for $8 billion a couple years ago. So James Bond movies have generated $8 billion in revenue at the box office, but the Ian Fleming estate saw zero of that.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
Honestly, it's a shame that Ian Fleming just didn't realize how hot and how perfect for the big screen 007 would be. But the bigger question now is, will Amazon be a good caretaker of Hollywood's longest running franchise? And the answer is shaken, not stirred. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Amazon? James Bond's secret sauce is actually an oxymoron.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
We call it infinite scarcity. Yetis, let's look at the numbers here. James Bond movies have grossed $8 billion. So that's like less than Harry Potter, less than Batman, less than Star Wars, and less than Marvel. But Bond wins in longevity. At 60 years, it's the longest running major film franchise ever.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
So we've got to ask, how has James Bond lasted so long that its 25th movie still made a billion dollars? It's something that we call infinite scarcity. Infinite scarcity. Here's the scarcity part. The Marvel Cinematic Universe was 22 movies over 11 years, but James Bond only did four movies in that span. Way less frequent than the other movie franchises.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
For our second story, Microsoft just defied physics.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
The average Bond comes out every three years. That's scarce. But on the other hand, James Bond is also pretty infinite because with 25 films, James Bond has the most of any major franchise. The series starts fresh with the new actor playing James Bond. Like Daniel Craig is done, but we're just going to move on to a new younger James Bond and do like five more movies.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
They created something that's not a solid, liquid, or gas. They found a fourth form of matter. And Microsoft's quantum leap is awkward for Apple. And our third and final story, OpenTable has overtaken Resi as the home to America's coolest restaurants. Because OpenTable ordered up one bold move. But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories... Fantastic mix of stories.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
Chalamet is going to get jacked and he's going to get six movies in the next 15 years, Jack. Yes, exactly. Amazon, as the new owner, is going to start feeling franchise FOMO. Pressure to do spinoffs, pressure to do a prequel about one of the villains. But the risk is franchise fatigue, overdoing it, stretching the brand too far, too fast, like Disney did with Marvel superheroes.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
Instead of that, we think Amazon should respect what has made James Bond the longest-lasting franchise in Hollywood. And that strategy is infinite scarcity. Which also... Kind of sounds like the name of a James Bond movie. For our second story, Microsoft says it just created an entirely new form of matter.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
The biggest thing though about Microsoft's quantum technology breakthrough is what it says about Apple. Shots fired. Well, yetis, after 17 years of blood, sweat, and chips, Microsoft has officially done it. They've achieved a breakthrough in quantum computing. Here's the news. On Wednesday, Microsoft unveiled the Majorana One processor.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
If you're a Marvel fan, think of this Majorana One processor as like the Infinity Stone. It holds power beyond your imagination. In fact, this Microsoft invention is so powerful that it created a fourth state of matter. This is not embellishment. No, it's not. Not exaggeration. It's true. Here's the deal. We have solids, liquids, and gas. Then we have this. A Majorana particle.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
Microsoft has defied physics, essentially, with a fourth form of matter. This isn't even on the periodic table, man. Actually, Nick, Majorana is a physicist from the 1930s who originally theorized that this fourth type of matter was possible, and now Microsoft has done it.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
Microsoft's new processor will make a functioning quantum computer possible by the end of the decade, way faster than anyone expected. Microsoft can potentially fit a million quibbets onto this single chip. We know what you're thinking. What's a quibbet? Doesn't even matter. Like, it's just a huge number. Just huge. Just sit with that.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
Seriously, Nick, I do want to know, what can quantum computing actually do? It's a fair question, Jack. So let's whip up our buddies over at Microsoft and play the clip.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
Okay, solve unsolvable challenges? Like, absolute zero? Like, is that what they're going for? I think they're going to determine the final digit of pi, Nick. Jack, can this quantum computer, like, tell us what really happened in the final scene of The Sopranos? Oh. Maybe. Yeah, the practical use cases of quantum computing are really hard to describe, but apparently really powerful.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
But there is no question that Microsoft's news represents something really ambitious. Google, IBM, Microsoft, they've each worked on this for decades, and now Microsoft says they have the lead. So if true, huge. This gives the United States technological advantage in the next era of computing, quantum computing. So that's what Microsoft's working on. Okay. What is Apple working on?
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
Oh, time to hand in the homework. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Apple and Microsoft? Microsoft is shooting for the moon. Apple is shooting for the shelf. Yet he's the same day as Microsoft's quantum breakthrough. Apple announced the iPhone 16E. Apple is using its own chip in this iPhone for the first time, so it's cheaper.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
And they're hoping it works, but they're not sure it will. Okay, but pause the pod. There's just like a bigger issue here we have to talk about. The difference in ambition between the number one and number two tech companies. It was so palpable this week. I mean, look, Zuckerberg recently dissed Apple saying they haven't invented anything great in a while. Okay.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
Apple tried and failed to make a car. They tried and failed to do a headset. And they haven't even done our smart toilet, which we proposed like six weeks ago. The one thing Apple has, which is incredibly valuable. is the iPhone, which makes half the company's revenue, but it was invented 18 years ago. In the meantime, Microsoft is leading in AI, in quantum computing.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
Love podding with you, Jack. Great mix today. The number one thing being searched on Google right now is, is it safe to fly? That's right. The number of people Googling, is it safe to fly, has soared to an all-time high. Because there've been four flying incidents in just the last four weeks. But Jack and I got curious, and so we dove into the data on how safe really is flying.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
They just invented a new form of matter. What is Apple working on? Microsoft's like the nerd doing lab work at 8 p.m., and Apple is like in the lunchroom slapping butts before lacrosse practice. Wednesday's competing announcements were a microcosm of the diverging ambition between Microsoft and Apple. One's shooting for the moon, the other's shooting for the shelf.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
Now a quick word from our sponsor.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
For our third and final story, the battle for restaurant reservations just flipped. Open Table is now beating Resi. Because Open Table is treating their tables like real estate. Yetis, it is Friday night, and odds are, statistically speaking, numerically thinking, if you are going out tonight... Your reservation is with one of two apps. OpenTable and Resi.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
Those are quite the pros there, by the way, Nick. Yeti's OpenTable and Resi. They got a duopoly on restaurant reservations. Together, they control nearly 90% of the online reservation market. If a restaurant's not using OpenTable or Resi, they're probably writing down reservations with a pen and paper. Well, actually, OpenTable is kind of ancient in tech years, isn't it, Jack?
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
They were founded in 1998. The first generation of websites, pre-Y2K. This is early internet company. Now, when OpenTable first launched 27 years ago, their only competition was like the yellow pages in the phone book. You read Zagat and then you went to OpenTable.com on your gateway computer to book a reservation.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
In fact, OpenTable is so old, they actually IPO'd in the early 2000s and became the first publicly traded reservation stock. Until they were acquired by Booking Holdings in 2015 for two and a half billion dollars. But the key here is how OpenTable made money. And Jack, what was the OpenTable business model? They charged $1 per diner.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
So if someone booked a reservation on OpenTable for a party of four, the restaurant paid OpenTable $4 for that reservation. We did the math on that. Assume your typical restaurant has 200 diners a night. That's $200 the restaurant pays to OpenTable. Extrapolate that to a full year, that's $60,000 a typical restaurant was paying OpenTable for their reservation.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
It's good to remind yourself every once in a while, how safe is it actually to fly? Well, we have got the numbers and we've got the context. According to the USAFacts.org, you are 7,000 times more likely to be injured driving in a car compared to flying. That's right. Because from 2002 to 2022, a total of 689 people were seriously injured flying in airplanes.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
Diners, they didn't mind because they're not paying it. But restaurants got sick of that $1 diner fee costing them tens of thousands of bucks a year. Now, yetis, every platform has two sides. And in 2014, entrepreneur Gary Vee and the founder of Eater noticed that restaurants hated the OpenTable monopoly. So this duo founded Resi, a platform focused on restaurant needs.
The Best One Yet
🍸“The Spy Who Primed Me” — James Bond’s Amazon deal. Microsoft’s quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
And what was their key differentiator, Jack? They didn't charge the diner fee that restaurants hated so much. And the result, what did we see? Trendy spots moved away from OpenTable to do their bookings on Resi. And New York, ABC, Terezi, Carbone, they all went to Resi and then the diners followed them to the Resi app.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Friday, the real Friday, December 20th. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Jack, it's our last regular pod of 2024. It happens to be our best pod of 2024.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
For our third and final story, with the holidays coming up, Jack and I are looking at the business of Santa Claus, or as he calls it, Claus Industries. When your competitive advantage is magic, you have a monopoly. Yeti's was two weeks before Christmas and all through the condo. All the T-Boys were stirring, even the Ford Bronco.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
Santa, he bought a lot of NVIDIA early on, Jack.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
So Jack and I are jumping in T-Boy style to the big man in red's business model. We're jumping in T-Boy style to Santa Inc., Or as it's registered legally in Wilmington, Delaware, Claus Industries. Right, Jack? What did we learn about Claus Industries? It's a highly seasonal business. All their sales happen on one day every year. Santa's business is like Spirit Halloween or the turkey industry.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
Right, Jack? But its sales are even more concentrated. on December 25th only. That's the only day they're open for business. Now, Yetis, Jack and I, by complete chance, fortunately got the annual report from Claws Industries. Sticker symbol NICE. It's traded on the North Pole Stock Exchange. And here is the key competitive advantage to Santa Claus's very own international business.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
It's the supply chain. Santa's supply chain is more important than any other company we've ever covered. And this supply chain happens to also be highly concentrated. It's based exactly at the North Pole. Yeah, they have a massive workforce of elves who build toys in one giant, wonderful factory.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
Now, we should point out that Father Christmas has never shared sales figures publicly, but Jack and I whipped out the whiteboard for this one. Yeah, we calculated the sales, the annual revenues of Claus Industries. It turns out yet is that 36 countries do not observe Christmas as a public holiday. But Santa doesn't check passports. So we're going to assume he delivers to all children worldwide.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
I mean, what a fantastic mix for today's show. No better show out there. Best mix we ever done. Today is the final day of our fiscal Q4 2024. You know what that means, Nick. Yes, I do, Jack. Our annual T-Boy shareholder meeting. Yetis, we filed our 10K annual report with the SEC. It's official. So for all our audio investors out there, which means you, we want to share our T-Boy annual report.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
So Jack, if that's the case, then what's the market size for Santa's business? Well, 25% of the world's population is under 14 years old. That would be 2 billion customers. And we'll assume that Santa delivers one gift to each child worldwide. But Jack, we do have to adjust for the naughty factor, don't we? But the data shows that those numbers are negligible.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
Yeah, it turns out the naughty factor is actually very negligible. So, Yetis, if each gift costs $10 for 2 billion children worldwide, then that would be $20 billion in sales for Claus Industries all in one day. Now, we should point out, Santa waves the price with a 100% discount, bringing down revenue substantially for Claus Industries. It's basically a buy one, get that same one free policy.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
See, Jack? Yeah, and there's also a labor risk this company faces. Right, like, Jack, what if the elves go on strike? Like, that's kind of a problem, right? I think they're relatively content, though. Besties, Jack and I checked with the elf union spokesperson, and apparently they're paid a living wage of gumdrops and candy canes. And all the syrup they want. And they get 360 days of vacation.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
Oh, by the way, this year, don't leave cookies for Santa. Yeah, Santa's on Ozempic, so he's only drinking skim milk this year. Maybe some mule milk. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies who own stock in Claus Industries? If Santa could scale his magic, he'd be 11 times bigger than Walmart. All right, yetis, follow us on the numbers here. $20 billion of sales in one day.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
Jack, can we extrapolate Santa's revenues for the entire year? If Christmas were every day, which was my dream every night as a child... it was my dream. I'll take it. Let's run with it, Jack. Then Claws Industries would generate $7 trillion of revenue each year. $7 trillion in revenue, Jack. Could you sprinkle on some context for us, please, over there? That's 11 times Walmart's annual revenue.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
Yet he's assuming Claws, the toy company, makes the same profit margins as Hasbro, the toy company. Then they'd make $511 billion in profits every year. Sit down, stand up, and sit on our lap again, yetis. That is five times as much profit as Apple. There you have it. If Santa could scale magic, Claus Industries would be 11 Walmarts in size. And Santa would be five times as profitable as Apple.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
Now, at the very least, Santa, can you launch a second Christmas in July? I mean, if Amazon Prime can do it, so can Claus Industries. Not even good King Wenceslas could complain about that. And that is the annual report. on Claws Industries. St. Nick LLC, a registered certified B Corporation. Gifts limited to nice children.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
Gift policy does not apply to children naughty for more than 183 days a year. No reindeer were harmed in the making of this podcast. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for the real Friday? 2024 has been a mullet market. Stock and crypto have been up all year, but they're both falling leading into the holidays. Because Trump can have either tariffs or a record stock market. He can't have both.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
For our second story, it's Bud Light. They've fallen to number three in the beer category. Ironically, though, boycotters are buying Michelob Ultra instead. It's Budweiser's sibling strategy, but not even the biggest merger in the world can save beer. And our third and final story, Santa Claus has a monopoly on Christmas gifting, and he sets his prices to zero. Jack and I crunched the numbers.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
If Santa charged normal toy prices, that'd be an $11 trillion business, or actually $12 trillion this year if we include inflation. But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, the federal government may shut down tonight. Shocking news, a lot of drama. What do we got, Jack?
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
On Wednesday, Congress was poised to pass a bipartisan spending bill, but get this, Elon Musk killed the bill. Yeah, Elon actually tweeted that the bill was a crime, and then Trump agreed with it, and that actually killed the bill. So Republicans scrambled, put together another bill, but that got voted down yesterday evening. So what does all this drama mean?
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
Because, yeah, I'm looking at the numbers right now, and this was the best year yet. Jack, I got the whiteboard up right here. And that is all thanks to you, the besties and the yetis out there. So, Jack, why don't we whip open this PowerPoint? All right. This year, we had our first ever live show in New York City. We did. It made business news feel like a concert, the live shows.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
Well, the House has until midnight Friday night tonight to figure something out, or else the government shuts down. Second, KFC is launching a new store concept that looks nothing like KFC. Nothing like it. The whole restaurant is about sauce. In fact, they called it sauce. The name of the place is Saucy. New store opens on Monday in Orlando and their specialty, it's sauces.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
There's only one entree, chicken tenders. Tendies. But there's 11 sauces you can choose and 11 drinks you can choose. They also got like their first ever desserts. Actually, besties, this is the third fast food chain we've seen this year launch a spinoff concept. McDonald's had Cosmic. Taco Bell had Live Moss Cafe, which we called a bar. And now KFC has saucy.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
And finally, it is streaming's biggest quarter of the year. We got a whole bunch of streaming updates for you. Mr. Beast's Beast Games premiered on Amazon Prime Video yesterday. Yeah, it's crazy competitions for contestants to win money inspired by Squid Game. Oh, speaking of Squid Game, season two premieres the day after Christmas on Netflix.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
Oh, speaking of Christmas, Jack, Hallmark is launching their first ever reality dating show on the Hallmark channel.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
Big city girl meets small city boy on a medium-sized streaming channel. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one whipped up by Jack and I, because we got some numbers for you. All right, so Christmas is always on December 25th. Hanukkah, the date varies a little bit. It does. This year, Hanukkah and Christmas are actually on the same day, the 25th, for the first time in 20 years.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
Now, Mariah Carey is the queen of Christmas, thanks to All I Want for Christmas is You. But we think Adam Sandler is the hunk of Hanukkah. Because Mariah's song is barely number one in Christmas. But to quote Adam Sandler, there's not too many Hanukkah songs out there. Yeah, and the numbers back that up. He's pretty much got a monopoly on the menorah playlist.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
Since 1995, when Adam Sandler's Hanukkah song dropped, it's been viewed 40 million times on YouTube, making it the biggest Hanukkah song in history. Yeah, the next closest Hanukkah song we found was not in the millions. Yeah.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
Jack, could you sprinkle on some Hanukkah context for us over there? That's one Hanukkah song single for every Jewish person in Florida. In the whole state of Florida. So have a happy, happy, happy, happy Hanukkah. Yetis, you look fantastic right now. Jack, can I just reemphasize how amazing that Hamilton Christmas gift was right now? Oh, man. It was amazing.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
I mean, it was all my favorite things in one night. Nick gave me a full half hour rundown of the Christmas gift I got him. What a show.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
Thousands of people. history, New York City, founding fathers, everything I love, business, politics, rap, song, dance. I feel very satisfied being the gift giver of this Hamilton ticket to you. Jack, your gift for me arrives on Christmas Eve and I'll give you a hint. You ready? It's a riddle. Okay. It's something you need to go skiing, but only if you're a time traveler.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
hot tub time machine that's the gift i got you you'll find out in a few days it's framed it's framed oh my god very excited to see this yetis we've got five things we got to share with you before you go first if you have not yet the best way you can grow the show follow us by clicking follow so you get us as soon as we're back with our bonus episodes what are the four other things okay four other ones rate the show five stars that helps us grow the show too well
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
This year, we won our first major award, the Webby Award for Best Business Podcast. Because you voted for us with a record turnout. And this year we launched a second show. Oh, yes. The best idea yet. The best idea yet. This new weekly show, it already hit number two in the business podcast charts. And don't forget, we pulled off the first ever podcast recorded from the backseat of a robo taxi.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
What else? Okay, leave a review because we love reading your reviews over the holidays. That's a lot of fun for us.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
Okay, last one. You got to listen to our new show, The Best Idea Yet. It's weekly. It drops two of them. We got one on Lego coming out in a few days. Okay, what's the last wish? Celebrate the wins.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
Thank you, Yetis. If you know, you know. And before we go, a happy birthday to Yeti Eddie Armis celebrating 34 years down in Boca Raton, Florida. Happy 34th birthday to Bobby Bullock, the top pilot in the entire Air Force. Wow, this guy goes Mach 6. And he's turning 34. And Grace Montgomery, enjoy that birthday of 29 down in Kingston, Jamaica.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
Happy birthday to Monica Chi from Guayaquil, Ecuador, who's living in Shanghai. And John Luke Moraldes turning 30 years old down in lovely Los Angeles. Happy birthday to Benjamin Quek in Sydney, Australia. And Layla Senor is stopping at Texas Roadhouse on her way to Texas, the real Texas, for her birthday.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
Congratulations to Caleb Peterson, who has a new baby boy stone, and congrats on the new job down in Nashville. And Madeline Torres from Oregon. Jack, we gave her a birthday shout out this year. She's amazing. She just got into her dream college, Middlebury. What? Yes. She's a panther. We're fellow alums. There we go, Madeline. Amazing.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
And Alex Nikoloff and his brother KTG are on their way to rowing practice in Oakland, and Alex just got into Columbia University. Is it admissions season? Congratulations to everybody. And Ben, Annie, and their puppy Rocky the puppy are road tripping from Nashville to Knoxville in a T-boy hoodie. Happy anniversary to legendary Yetis who've been listening since the snack days, Avner and Katie.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
One year Annie in Tel Aviv, Israel. And a big shout out to Kelvin and Anna Wimbera, who are traveling to Finland for a white Christmas up in the Arctic. This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon, Disney, and Netflix. Nick owns stock of Nike, and we both own stock of Apple, ETFs with the S&P 500, and a Bitcoin. Bitcoin named Ben.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
We did that this year, Jack. And then Waymo became like the innovation of the year after that episode. That's not just correlation. That's causation, babe. Confirmed. But Nick, our investors want to know the numbers. Yes, they do. Besties, our revenue grew 20%. Our ads were sold out in every quarter. And this show, the best one yet, was consistently in the top 200 charts on Spotify.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
Besties, do not worry. We would not leave you solo for the holidays. Don't worry about that. So we whipped up six bonus shows that we're going to sprinkle onto our feed over the next two weeks. It means you're going to still get our razzle dazzle and our sprinkle dinkle over all that eggnog and dreidels over the holidays. They're awesome episodes. We got four next week and two the week after that.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
And we passed 300,000 followers just on Spotify. But the biggest thing that we're most proud of... What is it, Jack? Kind of a secret, not really. really, sort of. Are you thinking about our corporate structure over there? This is a Nick and Jack best friend 50-50 company. How cool is that? Nick and Jack, that's it. 50-50 shareholders, Jack and me, equal co-CEOs.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
We each printed out an ornamental stock certificate to show that we have one share each in this company. I got one framed in my home studio, Jack.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
Besties, thank you to everyone who wrote us a comment, a DM, or a review this year. If you listened to even one episode, thank you. If you sent our show to somebody. Oh, amazing. Thank you. We get to be on these mics every day because of you. So this is our last regular pod for two weeks. Nick and I are both taking some time off to relax with the families.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
And we hope you get to celebrate the wins as well. Anything else, Nick? Should we check with the operator? I think that's everything we got in the report, Jack. Hear ye, hear ye. Annual shareholder meeting hath been adjourned. Knock, knock, knock. I second that motion.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
Closure. Jack, let's hit our three stories.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in a dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm. Jack, Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50%, that's a fat tip. T-Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, cause we ready to go. We can't wait no more, so just start the show. Start the show.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
For our first story, stocks just had their worst day of the year. The Dow fell for 10 straight days. But we'll explain why the Dow is actually dumb. Don't worry about the Dow. And we'll explain what you should worry about instead. The sexy S&P 500. But yet is, Jack and I have been looking at the numbers and stocks are not enjoying a Santa rally before the holidays like they usually do.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
There is no holiday cheer on Wall Street. No, no. It is a Santa slump. It's a Hanukkah hiccup. Wall Street is getting Kwanzaa crushed right now, Jack. Because the Dow is down 4% in just the last week. Yesterday, the Dow barely broke a 10-day losing streak. It's the longest losing streak since back in 1974, Carter. But here's what you need to know about the Dow, okay?
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
The Dow is dumb. Ever since Jack and I worked at banks, we've always said this. We've never said it publicly. But we kind of think the Dow is dumb. I'm so sick and tired of our obsession with the Dow because it is dumb. Yeah, it's dumb. The DJIA, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, a mathematical index of 30 stocks that the Dow committee chooses and updates regularly. But why 30 stocks?
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
And then we're back after the new year. But in the meantime, Jack, like we said, this is the best show we've ever done. So three stories for today's pod. What do we got on the T-Boy, man? For our first story, stocks just had their worst week since the election. And guess what? It was because of the election. So as we enter 2025, we're going to tell you why the Dow is dumb.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
Because there's 8,000 stocks on the US stock market. So 30 stocks in the Dow, that's not enough to represent the whole stock market in the first place. The Dow has Nike, but Nike doesn't represent all of apparel. Jack, the Dow has McDonald's, but McDonald's doesn't reflect the entire food industry. But poor representation isn't even the main reason the Dow is dumb.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
The main reason the 139-year-old Dow Jones Industrial Average is dumb is math. Math. Yeah, it's dumb math. Because the Dow isn't weighted based on how big the companies are. The Dow is weighted based on the company's stock price. And Jack, why is that mathematically a problem? Because stock prices are totally arbitrary.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
Stock prices just reflect how many times the company has split their stocks in their history. So instead of Apple, the number one biggest company on earth having the most weight in the Dow, UnitedHealthcare randomly has the most weight in the Dow. We repeat, the stock that has the most influence on the Dow is randomly UnitedHealthcare because their stock is randomly $500, which is randomly high.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
Oh, and by the way, UnitedHealthcare has fallen 20% in the last couple weeks because its CEO was murdered. So why has the Dow had a 10-day losing streak? Because UnitedHealthcare stock has taken a slide. The Dow's not down because stocks are down. The Dow is down because the math it uses is dumb. It's inexplicable that the Dow has not changed their formula. It's honestly stubbornness.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
Have we made our point yet, Yannis? So the way, Jack, and I see it, if you want to understand how the stock market actually did this year, you should check out the S&P 500. The S&P 500. It's got better representation and it uses better math. The S&P 500 has been enjoying what we call a mullet market. A mullet market. Business on the front, party in the back.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
Business on the front, party in the back. Jack, why is the stock market in the front business looking good? Because profits are at record highs and a Trump tax cut would boost profits even further. In the back, the party is looking pretty good too. Crypto is at all-time high prices with a crypto-friendly administration coming to the White House. But here's another situation, yetis.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
On Wednesday, even the 500 companies in the S&P 500 index sank for their worst day since August. The S&P 500 fell 3% on Wednesday. They're now barely up just 1.5% since Trump won the election on November 5th. Even the party side of the stock market mullet, it got buzz killed this week. Get this, Bitcoin fell 10% in a 24-hour period. Ben, the Bitcoin, not having fun. Fell from $108,000 to $96,000.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
So it's not just the dumb Dow that tanked last week. Stocks overall had a bad day too. And the reason why is our takeaway. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are everyone in the stock market? Does Trump want tariffs or record stock market? Because he can't have both. Yeti's on Wednesday.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
The Federal Reserve, our nation's central bank, changed their interest rate plans and spooked the markets. Before Trump was elected, the Fed expected four interest rate cuts for next year. But now, they expect just two interest rate cuts. The reason for this big change, Jack, what is it? It's Donald Trump's election.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
The Fed is now waiting to see if Trump's economic policies undo progress on inflation. Their main focus is on tariffs. Tariffs, by their definition, raise prices so tariffs could restart inflation. So Trump has a big decision to make next year. On the one hand, he could do the tariffs and suffer the potential consequences of higher interest rates, higher inflation, and lower stock markets.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
For our second story, it's Bud Light. Bud Light was the number one beer. Then it fell to number two. Now it's number three. Wow. Michelob Ultra is now bigger than Bud. But Bud Light's pain is its sister's gain. And our third and final story, we're covering Santa and his elves. Yes, we are. They're working mightily hard right now up on the North Pole. Jack and I dove in T-boy style to Santa Inc.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
Or he could not do the tariffs and abandon his favorite economic policy. Besties, that is the big economic question that we're going to see in 2025. Does Trump want tariffs or record stock markets? Because investors, they think you can't have both. For our second story, Bud Light has fallen shockingly to number three in beer. Bud Light now trails Modelo and Michelob Ultra.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
Bud has a solution for Bud Light. Yes, they do. But it doesn't have a solution for beer. No, they don't. Jack, I got three words for you and they're basically syllables. You ready? Bud-wise-er.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
It's an amphibian. We'll discuss it later. Growing up, Bud Light was synonymous with the word beer.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
You can actually enjoy all three of those at the same time, Jack. Oh, Kleenex, Band-Aid, Jacuzzi, and Bud Light? It's a fun kind of an evening. But after the Bud Light boycott of last year, Modelo Especial became the shocking number one beer in the American grocery aisles. You hit up aisle six, you leave with a six pack of Modelo. But here's the news.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
Bud Light has lost its number one status in bar taps as well. If you want a beer on draft, chances are you're ordering a Michelob Ultra. We got the data on this stuff. Get this. So in cans and bottles, Modelo is winning. In pint glasses, Michelob Ultra is winning. Add it all up, and you got to pour one out for our buddies over at Bud Light.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
Overall, Modelo takes 10% of America's beer dollars, Michelob Ultra takes 7%, and Bud Light takes just 6.5%. Budweiser isn't the king of beers anymore. It's like the intern of beers. It's the jester of beers. It's the jester. But besties, this is what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. There's something highly ironic going on with this fall in Bud Light to number three.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
According to the data, a lot of the people boycotting Bud Light are buying Bud Light's sister brands instead. We'll explain. AB InBev is the biggest beer company in the world by far. $100 billion, they own Bud Light. They just announced their earnings. And get this, two of the three fastest growing beers in the world are Michelob Ultra and Bush Light. And why do we find that so interesting, Jack?
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
Those two beers are Bud Light's sister brands. Yes, they are. So Bush Light, Michelob Ultra, and Bud Light are all owned by the same company, AB InBev. Michelob Ultra is the same as Bud Light, it's just with aspirational branding. And Bush Light is also the same as Bud Light, just with low brow banding. Yeah, we've noticed this is all part of Budweiser's sibling strategy, isn't it, Jack?
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
A range of beers that pretty much taste the same. But very different in how they're branded. Just like how you and your sister are related, but you dress differently. The inside's pretty much similar, but the outside could be totally different, guys.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
Especially if you're in a hot tub. So to add it all up, it appears that to protest Bud Light, some drinkers are simply putting their money in AB InBev's other pockets instead.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
And we're seeing AB InBev respond to this. AB InBev has actually elevated Michelob Ultra to flagship status. They're giving Michelob more marketing budget. The beer sponsor of the Team USA Olympics and the beer sponsor of the World Cup. It's not Bud Light anymore. It's Michelob Ultra. But yeties, something much bigger than Bud Light boycotts and sister squabblings is happening to beer right now.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Budweiser? Not even the biggest merger in beer could stop beer's decline. Yetis, nine years ago, we covered the biggest merger we'd ever seen. The number one in the world merging with the number two in the world. AB InBev acquired SAB Miller for $107 billion. It's crazy.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
Klaus Industries. St. Nick LLC, a registered B corporation. Because get this, Santa is an $11 trillion a year business. Actually, Jack, adjusted for inflation, it's a $12 trillion a year business.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
Regulators allowed the world's number one to merge with the world's number two. It was a beeropoly. AB InBev, SAB Miller together have 400 different beer brands. 400! At the time, they were worth more than Starbucks, Nike, or Disney. But here's the shocker. Stock of that mega brewery has fallen every single year since the merger. And the two big reasons we've noticed why?
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
First, Americans have shifted to spirits. Beer is losing to liquor, so Bud Light's never been sick. And second, Gen Z, they're not switching away from beer. They never drank in the first place. Now, some are predicting a return to alcohol in the Trump second era. Yeah, part of a backlash against wokeism. But we think the two anti-beer megatrends we just mentioned, we think they'll continue.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
Millennials want whiskey and Gen Z wants sobriety. So in 2025, beer brands will have to fight for their sips of a shrinking pint. Not even the biggest merger in beer could stop beer's decline.
The Best One Yet
🎅 “Claus Industries'' — Santa’s $12 Trillion biz. The Dow is dumb. Budweiser’s sister strategy.
All right, yetis, for our third and final story today, we're actually going to do something special, a little tradition, if you will. Last year, we did a deep dive on Santa's business, and you guys loved it so much, we were like, we got to do this again.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Friday, the real Friday, January 17th. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is a tea boy. By the way, my mouth feels so roomy. I was going to say. Like the wisdom tooth's out. I got all this room for my tongue and my teeth. You didn't need that tooth. I feel fantastic. By the way, Jack, celebrate the wins.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
That's a utility vehicle, not that different than the Jeep, but it looks like it's a transformer. Jack, what about this thing they make called the Fury? Fury is a fighter jet, like an F-35, but without a pilot. And it's designed to terrify the enemies of the United States. It sounds terrifying. Even think about like the name of this new factory. It's called The Arsenal.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
The Arsenal, a 5 million square foot factory in Ohio that's going to build the Barracuda, the Menace, and the Fury. Besties, pause the pod for a second. These are products meant to kill people, but their names sound like they're straight out of a video game. Enderil's product names make Lockheed Martin's fighter jets sound cute. Yes, they do. Also, side note we should mention about the company.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
And you couldn't leave your shift until you do that 50 times. Sounds like a torturous Jenga. But over at Chick-fil-A, Jack, what is the most hated part of the job? Squeezing lemons. That's right. Lemonade. Yetis, at Chick-fil-A, the thing employees hate the most is the lemonade. Because squeezing lemons gets citrus all over you.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
The founder's brother-in-law is Matt Gates, and he's full-on MAGA. Which leads, actually, to our takeaway. Yes, it does. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in American business? Over the next four years, the language of business will change. Yetis, last week, Jack and I told you how Zuckerberg ended fact-checking because Trump won the election.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
And then he said on Joe Rogan's podcast that there's space for more masculinity in corporate America. Now, all of this is a sign that the business world is adapting to a more Trumpy style of speaking. We're starting to see it already. CEOs are going to be more unapologetic, more macho, and more wrapped in USA flags with the way they talk.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
We think you're actually going to start noticing this in how companies write, speak, communicate. Like, tell it to you straight, as Zuck said. Some CEOs are going to start telling it to you straight because that's how they genuinely feel. Other CEOs will do it to signal to the Trump administration that they're on their side.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
But get ready for a different kind of business speak, a new kind of business lingo, and a fresh style from CEOs. You're going to start feeling and sensing and hearing a lot more macho lingo. Because over the next four years, the language of American business will change. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us heading into the weekend?
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
TikTok is scheduled to shut down on Sunday morning, but there are still three potential outcomes. Zuck wants outcome number one, TikTok wants outcome number two, and Elon wants outcome number three. For our second story, for a bunch of reasons, whiskey sales have fallen for two straight years in America. To end the bourbon bust, they got to do what Ferrari did. open whiskey world.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
And our third and final story, Anduril is building a 5 million square foot factory in Ohio to build next generation weapons of war. Yetis, keep your ears open because for the next four years, the language of business is going to change. But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
First, Jeff Bezos' space company, Blue Origin, successfully launched a giant rocket into space. It's a big deal. Blue Origin's New Glenn is a huge rocket. It's the height of the Statue of Liberty. It puts a lot of pressure on other billionaires to get more rockets up into space. But unlike Elon's SpaceX rockets, they failed to land it back on Earth safely.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
And second, State Farm just canceled their Super Bowl ad one month before the big game. Why'd they do it? Because State Farm is an insurance company, and the commercial they took was filmed in Los Angeles. So given the Los Angeles wildfires and the existential challenge of home insurance there, not the best look to pull off a Super Bowl ad.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
And finally, Severance, which just launched season two on Apple TV, just pulled off a wild stunt in Grand Central Terminal. Okay, the TV show is directed by Ben Stiller. And Ben Stiller and like the whole cast took over Grand Central Station. They built a fake office. In the middle of the terminal. Yeah. And had the actors in the show, one of whom is Adam Scott, a really famous actor.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
You burn your hands, you sting your eyes, you smell like lemon pledge. And if there's a crack in your finger or if you have a cut, if lemon gets in there, Don't even start, but get this, Yetis. Chick-fil-A has an elegant new solution. Robots that will squeeze the lemons for you. That's right.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
They had them act like they were working in an office. Bessie, before you jumped on the six train, if you saw this while you were commuting and took a picture of it, we'd love to see it. Wild scene. Every passerby must have been like, what's going on? Oh my God, those are famous actors. And I'm already watching the show. Now, time for the best fact yet.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
This one whipped up by Jack and me for our Yetis in lovely Los Angeles. The Hollywood sign is still standing strong in the Hollywood Hills. And it's fantastic because it's actually turning 102 years old this year. Now, the sign originally said Hollywood Land. Yes, it did. And it was a sign to promote a brand new real estate development. It was a real estate ad, basically.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
Each letter is also larger than you realize. That L, that W, 50 feet long. Now, it fell into disrepair in the 1970s, but it got saved by, get this, Hugh Hefner. Well, now the Hollywood sign is maintained by a trust, and it's safe from the fire and hopefully becomes a wonderful sign of the city's great resilience. Yetis, you look fantastic for the three-day MLK Junior weekend.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
Whether you're making lemons out of lemonade or lemonade over a Chick-fil-A. And remember to drop a comment. Tell us the worst part of your job that you wish AI or bots could do for you. By the way, Yetis, Jack and I are whipping up a special surprise for you tomorrow morning on Saturday. We're dropping a teaser to our new series. You've got to check it out. All right.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
Now, Jack, it feels like it's celebrate the wins time. Should I pour a little whiskey for you? Apparently we're the only ones still doing it, man. That's true. Yeti, celebrate the wins, and Jack and I will see you tomorrow morning. And before we go, a happy birthday to Yeti, Amy Klein, and Sputendevil, the greatest neighborhood in the Boogie Down Bronx.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
It's actually just outside Manhattan, Jack, and it used to be part of Manhattan. Wild story there. Just outside Manhattan. And Kubri Yaradilmis in Istanbul, Turkey, is celebrating the best birthday. Happy 36th birthday. Great year, by the way. To Devin Young, an 88er living down in Atlanta, Georgia.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
And Andrew Blazer in Woodinville, Washington is celebrating a birthday on two poles, two skis, and three black diamonds. And Cassie Parco down in Phoenix is growing veggies and eating a Romanesco for the birthday. And good luck to Ivy Ayers in Minneapolis, who's got a skating competition in Duluth. And get this, Ivy says that T-Boy is her Taylor Swift.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
We've never been compared to Taylor, and we are so proud and thankful for that comparison. Honestly, Ivy, thank you so much for enjoying the show with your whole family. Fantastic to have all the Ayers with us. And finally, a big shout out to Ryan Eberhardt, who wants us to do a live T-Boy show outside of Dallas. An outdoor show.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
Good walkthrough. Pretty good. Pretty interesting. And to anyone else who's celebrating something today, pour yourself whiskey. I mean, make it a T-Boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. Nick and I both own stock of Apple and we both own a Bitcoin. Say hello to my little friend.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
Chick-fil-A just built a 200,000 square foot factory that is full of one thing and one thing only, lemon squeezing robots. That's four football fields full of lemon squeezers. None of them are humans. This Chick-fil-A robo-lemonade factory, it's actually processing 50,000 lemons a day. That's 13,000 glasses of lemonade squeezed by these robots.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
Which is apparently enough juice to supply every Chick-fil-A in the continental United States. The reason this factory is so productive, the robots smash citrus 24-7. Robots don't need pee break. No, they do not. And honestly, Jack and I were looking at this epic Chick-fil-A factory. We're all for it.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
Or are we seeing all these headlines about AI that will do poetry or AI that will make a movie for us? Hey, yetis, we don't need robots hosting podcasts. We need robots making lemonade. That's the best use. Let's stop creating robots and AI that will do the things that are essentially human things. So Chick-fil-A, they turned laborious lemons into lemonade. Literally.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
But Yetis, we want to hear from you. What's the worst part of your job that you wish bots or AI could do for you? Drop an answer in the comments and we'll pass your request on to Big Tech. In the meantime, Jack, let's squeeze our three stars.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
Our new show was just named New and Noteworthy on Apple. There you go.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
For our first story, TikTok will shut down this Sunday. So Jack and I are going to tell you exactly what to expect. We'll also tell you the two most likely ways that TikTok could be rescued in the final hours. But before we do tell you all that, a strange thing happened this week in the language learning app called Duolingo. And what was that, Jack? Out of nowhere.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
If you go to Apple Podcasts, right on the front page, you're going to see the best idea yet. Oh, so cool to see that promotion. Celebrate the wins. Jack, three stories for today's T-boy, though. What do we got on the pod? For our first story, TikTok is scheduled to shut down on Sunday. Yeah. We repeat, TikTok is going dark in two days.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
Americans learning Chinese on the Duolingo app tripled. Why did Mandarin suddenly surge in America? What's going on exactly? Because we're about to lose TikTok. So people are trying to find a TikTok replacement app, such as Red Note. Red Note happens to be a Chinese app, so Americans are learning Chinese. They're calling themselves TikTok refugees, and they're downloading Chinese apps.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
This is all part of the dramatic final 48 hours of TikTok. Yes, it is. Because a law passed by Congress requires that Apple and Google remove TikTok from their app stores this Sunday, January 19th. So we know what you're wondering because everyone's wondering it. What is going to happen? Well... ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, said it plans to just shut the thing down.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
On Sunday, ByteDance plans to show Americans what life is like without TikTok. And that's the most likely outcome. That is outcome number one. On Sunday morning, TikTok will not open on your phone. Yeah, very, very demure. It will be a no bones day in America, Jack. Nick, two other things could still happen between now and Sunday morning. And that's a good point, Jack.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
You must be talking about outcome number two and outcome number three. Outcome number two is that the Supreme Court intervenes at the last second. Yetis, the Supreme Court actually heard arguments from TikTok just last week, but they still haven't ruled on whether the law will be canceled and TikTok could be saved.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
Yeah, the justice has probably just downloaded it for the first time and they're like trying to figure out what to do. I don't know who this corn kid is, but he's pretty funny. It's a good video. So the justices could rule last second, like Saturday night, they could rule that the TikTok bill is unconstitutional. So TikTok would live on. Yeah.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
Chief Justice John Roberts just found out who Addison Rae is. And apparently he's a big fan now. But Nick, there's also a third potential outcome. Yes, there is. Yeti's ByteDance could sell TikTok in the next 48 hours as the bill demanded in the first place. That would allow TikTok to live on under non-Chinese ownership.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
And that option, that's getting pretty interesting because of the latest news. Well, TikTok CEO, a man named Xu Zhi, is attending Donald Trump's inauguration on Monday. Yeah. In fact, he even got VIP tickets from Donald Trump. Which suggests that some kind of deal between TikTok, the Trump administration, and some buyer in America could be in the works. And that would prevent a TikTok ban.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
We could get a TikTok ban blocked. Nicely done. Also very demure, Jack. So Jack, we got to get these while we can. What's the takeaway for our buddies over at TikTok? Zuckerberg wants outcome number one. TikTok wants outcome number two. And Elon Musk wants outcome number three. Yetis, follow us on this one. If outcome number one happens, then TikTok will shut down on Sunday.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
So Jack and I will tell you what to expect on Sunday morning when you instinctively try to open that app. For our second story, for the first time in a generation, whiskey sales are falling in America. The great bourbon booms become the great bourbon bubble bust. But Nick and I have a solution for Jack Daniels. We do, we do, we do. We call it Whiskey World.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
As expected, the app will just go dark. That would be fantastic news for Mark Zuckerberg. Yeah, it would. Because Instagram and Facebook are expected to take 40% of TikTok's spoils. Yeah, Meta's stock's already up on this. But TikTok's parent company prefers outcome number two, that the Supreme Court saves TikTok. Because ByteDance and TikTok... They want to just not be banned.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
Yeah, because TikTok is China's tech gold medal. It's beloved in the West, even though it is banned in China. And they love that. TikTok is China's middle finger to Western democracies in the entire tech industry. But Jack, those are the first two outcomes. Who would love option number three, a sale? Elon Musk would love that option.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
Yeah, in fact, besties, there are reports that ByteDance would only sell TikTok to one American and one American only, Elon Musk. And Elon would love outcome number three. Oh, totally. Because if he could acquire TikTok, then he could merge it with X and become the supreme overlord of American media. And here's the interesting twist.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
China might be okay with it because Tesla's huge business in China makes Elon surprisingly pro-Chinese. So Yetis. We are 48 hours away from January 19th, TikTok's D-Day. We still don't know what will happen with TikTok. But we know that Zuck wants outcome number one, a ban. TikTok wants outcome number two, a save. And Elon Musk wants outcome number three, a sale.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
For our second story, the great bourbon bubble has officially burst. Whiskey sales are falling for the first time in a generation because of five fiascos. All right, well, Jack, it is Friday. We got to share a Friday tradition. Can I share this with the Yetis? You cool with it? Okay, we celebrate the wins on Fridays.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
I pour a glass of Hill Rock whiskey every Friday afternoon after the show, straight up, and then I send a picture to Jack, a little toast. The picture implies he's about to drink the whole glass. I know you're just having like one sip and then putting the glass down. You know how I roll. For the last decade, there has been a bourbon boom. It's been a lot of fun, honestly.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
Sipping whiskey is a luxury flex. Every time I order a bourbon or a whiskey at the bar, I feel way more sophisticated. You grow more hair too. Bourbon. Right, Scotch. Revenues for the whole sector were growing 10% a year. They hit an all-time high in 2022. Old-fashioned. Felt young. In fact, whiskey got so big and so expensive, it became an investment vehicle. Get this.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
A rare bottle of Macallan Scotch sold for $4 million at an auction in 2023. Yeah. Forget the 401k. Bourbon was the new Bitcoin, baby. But here's the news. Whiskey sales have fallen in America for two straight years. Yes, they have. It's the first declines for this alcohol category in a generation. Yeah, we've been charting it. The bourbon boom has become a bourbon bubble bust.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
And here's the latest news. Brown Foreman, the owner of Jack Daniels, cut 700 jobs this week. Oh, and Jack, what was the quote from his CEO when he made the news? He said, to be honest, it's not really getting a lot better. Maker's mark? Gonna need to make some more marks. So, Yetis, why is the bourbon bust happening right now? It's not just dry January. No, it is not.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
For our third and final story, language is changing across America, and you can see it in business. In fact, you can see it specifically in Andoril, a drone startup that just made a huge announcement. But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. No one else is doing that mix. Love the mix of stories, Jack.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
In fact, there are so many reasons for the bourbon bust. You're going to want to fix yourself a drink when you hear this story. The first reason, Gen Z is simply the soberest generation in American history. Gen Z drinks 20% less than millennials did, and we drink like 20% less than our parents do. The second reason is Ozempic.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
Yeah, Ozempic's got you craving fewer caloric beverages, and that includes that Kraft rye cocktail with a whole bunch of maple syrup. The third reason we're experiencing a bourbon bust is cannabis competition. With the legalization of weed, people are trading drinks for doobies. And finally... Cancer. Yeah. Last week, we told you exactly about this.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
The Surgeon General said that alcohol causes cancer and he wants to add warning labels to that bottle of Jack. But the final challenge for the bourbon category is the biggest surprise of all. It's actually Donald Trump. Because American whiskey is going to be a victim of his trade war. And we've seen this before back in 2018. What happened then, Jack?
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
Donald Trump put tariffs on European goods and the EU retaliated by tariffing American whiskey. Which wasn't good for the entire whiskey industry. Jim Beam just can't catch a break. No, he cannot. But Jack and I, we've got a solution to save the whiskey industry. We're going to help Johnny Walker start running again. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in Bourbon?
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
Whiskey should borrow an idea from Ferrari. Whiskey world. Yetis, there is an interesting arbitrage opportunity that we see here. Sales of bourbon are down, but the bourbon brand is at its highest recognition ever. People are drinking less whiskey, yes, but whiskey recognizably stands for something. Yes, it does. That's the brand.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
So whiskey companies should expand that brand into the products that you do actually buy that are an alcohol. We're expecting a Jack Daniels branded leather chair that you can handsomely sit on next to your fireplace. Whether you drink whiskey or not, you'd probably enjoy that. Or a Jeep Wrangler with Jack Daniel branded interior.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
Whether you drink whiskey or not, you understand what that version of the car stands for. Nick, when I was studying abroad in Berlin, Germans loved wearing Jack Daniel's t-shirts, Jack Daniel's hats. It was wild. It represented something Americana that people just wanted to be a part of. That's it, Jack. And we've seen this before with Ferrari.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
Ferrari expanded their brand to clothing, furniture, and even a theme park to reach an audience that didn't buy their cars. Because Ferrari stands for made in Italian excellence and precision. So one way to pivot from the bourbon bust is to double down on the brand, which stands for rugged, made in America, historic. Borrow an idea from Ferrari and open up Whiskey World. Even Gen Z would go. Maybe.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
Now, a quick word from our sponsor.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
Nick, as a former Olive Garden waiter, can I share the worst part of working at a restaurant? Jack, you were the wine salesman of the month. I would love to hear the worst part of your olive garden job. Rolling silverware. Oh, that doesn't sound fun. You needed to stack up a knife, a spoon, and a fork, and then wrap it up in a napkin so it looks elegant.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
For our third and final story, a $14 billion drone startup just announced a huge factory for the U.S. military. But what the startup Anduril really shows us right now is how American business language is about to change. The lingo changes. is about to change, and we'll tell you how. But yet, in 2014, Mark Zuckerberg started his journey into the metaverse by acquiring a startup called Oculus.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
And by acquiring Oculus, it made Palmer Luckey, the founder of Oculus, a billionaire at the age of 22. Palmer Luckey happens to look like Tony Stark with a goatee, doesn't he, Jack? Well, Tony Stark has a goatee. I think it looks like half Tony Stark, half Hank Hill from King of the Hill. Either way, he's got a good barber.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
And after selling his virtual reality headset company to Zuck, Palmer Lucky, he started a US defense company. It's called Anduril. And yesterday, they announced a new factory they were going to build in Ohio to build next generation military weapons. Besties, this is a private company valued at $14 billion. They already have factories in Rhode Island. Focused on submarines. In Mississippi.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
Focused on rocket motors. And already in Texas. To test their autonomous drones. But none of those existing facilities compare to what Anduril is building next. And that is... Arsenal One. Arsenal One. It's going to create 4,000 new jobs and hyperscale America's weapons manufacturing. Arsenal One. It sounds like a Jerry Bruckheimer movie.
The Best One Yet
🫡 “TikTok Refugee” — TikTok’s final countdown. Jack Daniels’ bourbon bust. Anduril’s new language of business.
And that's the striking detail that we noticed about Andrew Earl's products. Yeah, that's what we found fascinating here. All of this company's products are named after violence. For example, the Barracuda. It's a cruise missile that can shoot 100 pounds of explosive payload, 500 miles. Or Jack, what about the Menace?
The Best One Yet
💦 “The Fitness Pod” — Our 3 Best Fitness & Apparel Stories
Jack, let's hit it. 15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in a dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50%, that's a fat tip. T-Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, cause we ready to go. We can't wait no more, so just start the show.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Friday, the real Friday. February 14th, Valentine's Day. And today's pod is the best one yet.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
This is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
Nothing says love on Valentine's Day like a bouquet of flowers, a box of chocolates, and spending three hours assembling a pinewood sofa together. Because the newest dating platform is actually being launched by Ikea. Ikea is the new Cupid. Get this. In England, Ikea stores are offering first date services this Valentine's Day.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
That's a financial trick shot. And why has Netflix done 350 stand-up comedy specials on their channel? It's just one person at one location with no writers. It's a financial trick shot. And it's the same with podcasting. A one-hour episode costs thousands of dollars to produce, not millions of dollars. Now, Jack and I put huge mental work to prepare this podcast every day, beginning at 5 a.m.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
But each episode of Squid Game cost $2.5 million, and that's a deal. Yeah. You know, Squid Game, they used 3,000 gallons of paint on that tug-of-war set. Jack and I, we have one backdrop. We have a simple backdrop, just like every other podcast. We have a microphone that's never broken. And that's our only equipment.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
So with higher production costs since the writer's strike, Hollywood is looking for content deals and podcasts are the financial trick shot. Plus, podcasts have one other major advantage on other types of media. They develop habits. Habits. The podcast is a daily habit like brushing your teeth. And Netflix doesn't have that. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Netflix?
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
Netflix versus YouTube is Ollie versus Frazier. The media fight of the century. Yetis, the TV used to be dominated by Disney, CBS, NBC, Fox, and now it's dominated by YouTube and Netflix. Did you hear the wild stat this week? The most popular way that people watch YouTube isn't on a phone or on a computer. It's on a television. It's on a television.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
YouTube put out a whole PR release that Netflix must have freaking hated. YouTube is the new television. So just as YouTube has encroached on Netflix's territory, viewing on TVs, now Netflix is encroaching on YouTube's territory with video podcasts. Who's winning? It's neck and neck. YouTube does $32 billion a year in revenue. Netflix, they do $34 billion a year in revenue.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
Netflix is worth more than all the legacy media networks combined. And YouTube is the fastest growing piece of $2 trillion alphabet. Netflix versus YouTube. It's the media fight of the century. Ding, ding, ding. Smash that subscribe button to learn more. No, that's not necessary. No, that's good.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for the real Friday? Poppy's free vending machine for influencers came off as tone deaf to some. But the controversy drove the campaign success because the comments are the content. For our second story, the New York Stock Exchange is opening a second shop in Dallas, Texas. Because the two poles of corporate America have lost their magnetism.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
And our third and final story. Netflix is reportedly looking for video podcasts because it's low-cost content and forms a habit. Netflix versus YouTube is Ali versus Frasier. The media fight, bing, ding, ding of the century. Actually, the media fight of the century is Podflix versus Netbods. Vote today on Spotify, ironically. But yet is, this pod's not over yet.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
Here's what else you need to know today. First, RFK Jr. was confirmed by the Senate to lead the Health and Human Services. That means he's in charge of the FDA, the CDC, Medicare, Medicaid, the NIH, and a bunch of other organizations. And this also could have huge impacts on vaccine policy, food, and public health.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
Second, White Lotus season three debuts this Sunday on HBO and also launches a dozen collabs this Sunday. In case you missed it, check out our episode from two weeks ago on the White Lotus effect. It's amazing. Basically, whatever location the HBO show is filmed at enjoys a 20% jump in tourism the following year. Hawaii got a 20% jump. Sicily got a 20% jump.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
That's right, IKEA partnered with a dating company to pair up singles at IKEA stores. Now, why would IKEA do dating? Here's the reason. People buy mattresses at IKEA. And the person you date is also your bedmate. So IKEA dating isn't matching you based on your personality, your occupation, or your horoscope. No, no, no, no, no. IKEA is matching you based on your mattress preferences.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
And already in Thailand, they're seeing a tourist surge. And finally, the Duolingo mascot, a cute app-shaped cartoon owl is dead. It's gone after 14 years. Why would the company kill its very own mascot? Well, their caption went viral too. Here's their caption. Authorities are currently investigating this cause of death and we are cooperating fully. Yes.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
To be honest, he probably died waiting for you to do your lesson. But what do we know?
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
Coincidence? There are no coincidences. Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Jack's middle school math teacher, Mr. Becker. So President's Day is this Monday. Yes, it is. It's all about George Washington and Abe Lincoln, isn't it? Their birthdays are 10 days apart in February, so President's Day splits the difference. You get a day off.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
So Mr. George Washington's birth year is the square root of the number three. 1.732 is the square root of three, and 1732 is George Washington's birth year. I've known that ever since middle school, thanks to Mr. Becker. Mr. Becker, you're getting an A. Yetis, you look fantastic over there for Valentine's Day. Seriously, you look your best.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
And remember, if you really want to impress her tonight, make her some scrambled eggs. Yeah, that's like a $30 investment. I mean, Jack, eggs are the new oysters. I actually think they're more expensive than oysters these days. Yetis, have a fantastic long weekend. We're dropping a special episode on Monday, and then Nick and I will see you back here Tuesday.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
So enjoy Monday's special show, and Jack and I will see you after. And before we go, a happy birthday to legendary Yeti, Naila Mohammadi, turning one year old down in Tracy, California. Get this, on June 2nd, 2023, Naila's mother surprised her husband that she was pregnant via a T-Boy podcast shout out.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
And now, not only has that pregnancy resulted in a child, but that child, Naila, is one year old. Congrats, Nyla. And Carmen S., happy 30th birthday over in Tysons, Virginia. Happy birthday to David Wong in North Augusta, South Carolina. And Jolene Pucci's turning four years old, celebrating in Canton, Ohio. And Vlad, happy birthday down in Menlo Park.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
Celebrate the wins. What a week. But can we talk about that meal last night, man?
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
Happy birthday to Bichuan Lo in Nanning, China, who's an entrepreneur with a sleep device called Lumos.tech. And Max John down in Crowley, Louisiana, is celebrating with some crawfish. Happy birthday to Carrie Patterson in Chicago, who's got a new small business. And Don Gugliano in Billings, Montana is celebrating best birthday yet. Happy four-year anniversary to Joy Lewis in Bethlehem, Georgia.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
And Rick Ramirez was named Realtor to Watch of 2025. He doesn't miss a single one of his daughter's activities and he's selling houses. And happy five-year anniversary of their first date to Shannon Cosgrove in San Rafael, California. This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon and Netflix, and Nick and I both own stock of Spotify and Airbnb.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
Is a hard mattress gal compatible with a soft mattress guy? Jack and a cool bed dude love a warm bed, babe. If you sleep with your socks on, your mate better sleep with their socks on too. It's a red flag, Jack. That's a red flag. Honestly, this does make economic sense, doesn't it, man? Every couple spends a third of their lives in bed together.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
So perhaps the key to a long-lasting relationship is actually mattress compatibility. But we haven't even told you the wildest part yet about IKEA dating. Get this. One lucky couple who matches through IKEA mattresses gets a romantic meatball meal in bed. No joke. Yeah, true.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
If you walk into a British IKEA tonight, you may find your future husband or future wife on a mattress dining over meatballs. And then the store makes you a Swedish meatball with gravy that they serve you on the bed in an IKEA showroom. It's a wild first date experience. So yetis, this Valentine's Day, remember the number one rule of love. Round up to king size. Because everyone needs their space.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
At Hand of the Wood? Oh, that was so good. I want two. I wanted three of everything. I got the Tagliatelle, which you should have ordered. I had huge regrets after that. Huge regrets. Anytime the restaurant says we have homemade pasta, order the pasta. Honestly, we should have worked on our menu strategy. In all seriousness, Nick, thank you for coming to Vermont. I feel incredibly loved.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
Even if you're a love. And if you're a cuddler, but your partner's not a cuddler. I prefer a full jack. I like to be close. I need the love. Let's hit our three stories.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50%, that's a fat tip. T-Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, cause we ready to go. We can't wait no more, so just start the show.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
For our first story, the biggest drama in business right now, it's between two soda startups, Poppy and Olipop. And this wild soda beef that's happening right now, it reveals the top rule of social media marketing. Ah, Jack, we have been covering the functional beverage trend for a while, but what's going on with prebiotic sodas? Like, what are they exactly?
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
I still find it hard to believe that some bacteria is good for your gut. Yeah, they're very positive bacteria. But this is soda filled with gut health bacteria. It's basically a Dr. Pepper inspired by yogurt. And like Uber and Lyft, Airbnb and Vrbo, and Hinge and Tinder, startups that are disrupting industries launch in pairs.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
So the soda industry is being disrupted by Olipop and Poppy, two prebiotic sodas. The smaller of the two is Poppy. They sell colorful pink cans looking like Skittles and have $100 million of annual sales. Yeah, maybe you noticed that Poppy had a Super Bowl ad this year starring three top influencers. But they did more than just a Super Bowl ad.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
As part of their Super Bowl promotion, they sent 32 influencers a vending machine. Yeah. A custom poppy soda vending machine.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
It's common for brands to send influencers gifts. They basically hope that the influencer likes the brand sweatshirt, puts it on, posts it on social, and drives the likes. And we call it the Alex Earl effect. Basically, anything she uses becomes so popular that you shoppy, shoppy till you droppy, droppy, and then it sells out.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
So Alex Earl receives everything for free at her doorstep, including a poppy seven foot, 900 pound custom vending machine in her apartment. So if Alex Earl craves soda in the middle of the night, she'll go downstairs to her private poppy vending machine, pound a can of poppy, and post to her 4 million Instagram followers. Not too shabby. Nick, that's what happened. Oh, yeah. Like it worked.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
She did it. She was thirsty. Yeah. And we got the numerical results. Poppy vending machine videos got 100 million views across social media last week. Poppy was popping off pretty good. But that's when the controversy began. Because Yeti's those videos got a lot of angry comments about the extravagance of those Poppy vending machines. 20% of the comments were negative.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
You were my three-day doula. You gave me a great dose of friendship before my third baby's coming. I'm your doula dude, Jack. I got your back. I'm there. I was ready in case I had to cut an umbilical cord. Nick woke up at 3 a.m. Eastern time to catch a 5 a.m. flight to fly to San Francisco, and now he's recording the podcast. Anything... For the show, Jack. Anything for you, man.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
People said that these vending machines were obnoxious. It's out of touch that they sent them in the first place. In this economy, free vending machines? Why do rich people get free stuff? There was pushback of people peeved at Poppy, which led to the Poppy plot twist. Poppy's rival, Olipop, they opened a can of schadenfreude watching all these negative comments.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
Honestly, we've never seen something like this before. But some of the meanest comments about Poppy were posted by their rival, Olipop. It's another diss track situation in corporate advertising. Basically, they would comment and say things like, did you know these vending machines cost $25,000, which got people even angrier. They were fanning the anger.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
One Olipop executive even ripped on Poppy in the comments from their personal handle. Which is awkward too because Olipop just hit a $1.8 billion valuation and no one's even talking about that. Everyone's just talking about Poppy. This is the kind of drama you usually see on Bravo. Real housewives of functional beverages. But in the meantime, apparently all is fair in love, war, and Instagram.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
And we were trying to figure out what's the issue with both these brands. Well, Poppy probably chose the wrong moment. Like everyone's crushed by inflation. Don't flaunt these free vending machines for these famous influencers. It's possible the culture has shifted and this was the peak. But Olipop also looks insecure, like ripping on Poppy in the middle of their PR crisis in a kind of petty way.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
They looked a little thirsty. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Poppy? The comments are the content. So besties, was it worth it for Poppy to do this campaign? Well, we looked at the numbers, and 100 million views had overwhelming positive comments, and they only spent a million dollars. A million dollars spent to get 100 million views? That is a good return.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
A Super Bowl ad costs eight times as much for the same number of views. Great comparison, Jack. But this campaign also got hundreds of million more views because of the drama in the comments. Successful politicians know that attention is all that matters. Oh, they know it right now. And prebiotic soda had all our attention last week because of the controversy. Because of the comments.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
It's a reminder about a great rule for social media strategy. The comments are the content. The impact of the post is, sure, what you post matters. What people comment on it arguably matters more. In fact, we bet the first place most followers are going right now, it's not to see what you posted, it's to read the comment section.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
For our second story, the New York Stock Exchange is opening a second shop down in Texas. The bigger story here is the Southeast Quadrant of the United States, which is taking both population and corporations from the two big blue states. Now, Yeti, America's financial capital, it's always been New York City. But did you know the New York Stock Exchange has a little offshoot over in Chicago?
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
Not anymore, they don't. No, they don't. The company that owns the New York Stock Exchange is taking their talent south, moving their Chicago outpost down to Texas. Yeah, they're still going to have the classic New York one. That's not going anywhere. But the offshoot in Chicago, that's down in Dallas now. I mean, if you're going to have two stock exchanges...
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
Three stories for today's show. What do we got on the pod? For our first story, the biggest drama in business right now is Olipop versus Poppy. It's a prebiotic soda scuffle and it all comes down to a $25,000 vending machine. For our second story, guess who's about to get their second new stock exchange in the last year? Who is it? Texas is.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
It makes sense to have one in a blue state, one in a red state. Yeah, that's the way things are these days. Now, the New York Stock Exchange says they're doing this because Texas is home to more publicly listed companies than any other state in America. And the NYSE also shouted out Texas's pro-business atmosphere. But Jack, funny timing considering a story we did last year.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
What do you think the real reason is for the new New York Stock Exchange South by Southwest? Last year, a startup called the Texas Stock Exchange raised $120 million to open a stock exchange in Dallas. That's right. It's not based on Wall Street. It's based on y'all street. And if stock trading is going to happen in Texas, the New York Stock Exchange wants in on it.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
So besties, add it all up and the two new Lone Star Stock Exchanges in less than one year, that's big. They're going to be less Brooks Brothers, more Bolo Ties. Less Sweetgreen, more Sweet Brisket. Less Gordon Gekko, more Matthew McConaughey.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
You did?
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
I didn't. I didn't, so I'm glad you did. Now, Yetis, the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ are our two big stock exchanges. They basically control the markets with a duopoly. It's a duopoly. We've been to both of those exchanges dozens of times. And the only big difference between the two, besides one being in Midtown and one being downtown, is one has a stock exchange floor. Like a literal floor.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
The New York Stock Exchange's famous ceremonial floor. Back in the day, guys who used to play football in college would take jobs as stock traders because it was a physical sport where they would like box out the other guys to get their order in first. It's pretty cool to watch in person, but it is also a relic in an age of digital trading.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
It's completely not necessary that they have this giant floor today. And that's why NASDAQ launched in 1971 with a fully electronic exchange, stock trading as a non-contact sport. But down in Texas, both of the new exchanges, both in Dallas, are going to be fully electronic. The only physical section of these stock exchanges... What do you think it's going to be?
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
Is like the party room, basically. Yeah, the party room. What goes down in the party room, Jack? It's a ceremonial room used by CEOs and employees of companies that are having their big IPO day. Yeah, like instead of ringing the bell at the Texas Stock Exchange, maybe the CEO will ride like a mechanical bull, Jack. That'd actually be pretty awesome.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
But yet he's the real driving reason why a company might choose Texas instead of New York to list their stock. It ain't the salt lick pulled pork, is it, Jack? It's the Texas trio. Lower taxes, business-friendly courts, and less rules and regulations. So Jack, what's our takeaway for our buddies down in Texas with the Texas Stock Exchanges?
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
The two poles of corporate America have lost their magnetism. Yetis, if America were a geological map, then New York City is the financial pole and California is the innovation pole, our East and West poles. But since the pandemic, those two poles have both started showing cracks in their respective dominance. And where is that polarity moving? Well, it's moving to the Southeast.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
The Southeast of the United States grew by 3.5 million people during the pandemic. Virtually all net US population growth happened in the Southeast. And that is why the new Texas Stock Exchange brags it's in the Southeast Quadrant of America, Texas to Florida to North Carolina. It's a big triangle, and it's where all the business magnetism is going.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
Texas, the New York Stock Exchange is about to go south by southwest. And our third and final story. The next big podcast platform is reportedly going to be Netflix. Netflix is looking into podcasts because there is nothing hotter than a hat. But yet is before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Fantastic mix of stories. Love the mix, Jack.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
But either way, finance firms moved from New York City to Miami, and tech oil and car companies have moved from California to Texas. Why is this happening? Well, a big reason is New York and California's high housing costs and high taxes. Yeah. California's more expensive than New York, and I thought New York was expensive, man. But Nick, this isn't just a culture war or political thing.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
True, true, true. This is a serious business reshuffling of the United States. Yeti's the two poles of corporate America are shifting. And if the big blue states want to attract businesses again, they gotta make some changes.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
For our third and final story, Netflix's next big thing, get this, it's podcasts. Video podcasts are a financial trick shot for Netflix, which wants to punch YouTube in the screen. Now, Yetis, you have been hanging out with us for a while. And you may remember that back in 2023, we said this about Netflix. This was the year that Netflix stopped being Netflix.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
Yeah, 2023, Netflix's co-founder had said they would never do advertising or live sports. But now, Netflix has both. They also cracked down on password sharing. They launched video games and they broadcast Love is Blind live. Yes. With a bunch of technical issues. Yeah. So Netflix, they've been experimenting like a young Wes Anderson, and the stock is up 400% in the last two years.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
Now, Netflix is reportedly courting podcasters to bring podcasts onto Netflix. Podcasts on Netflix. I call it Podflix. Yeah. Nick calls it NetPod. I think Podflix is a better description. We'll throw a poll on Spotify right now.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
According to people familiar with the matter, PFWTMs, last year, Netflix chatted with Alex Cooper of Call Her Daddy, although she ended up doing a deal with SiriusXM instead. Still, it's signed. They want to get into podcasting. So first, it was Spotify. Then it was Amazon. But the next big tech company to get in on podcasts could be Netflix. But
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
This is what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. Jack, why would Netflix, a completely visual-focused TV long-form company, want in on a version of radio? First of all, they're video podcasts. Second of all, video podcasts represent a financial trick shot. Because they're more content, but at a cheaper cost than other forms of video.
The Best One Yet
🥤 “Vending Machine-Gate” — Poppi vs Olipop. NY’s Texas Stock Exchange. Netflix’s podcast move.
What we're saying is that podcasts are high-yield media. Every form of content, Yetis, has a different business model with different associated costs and a different payoff. And we've calculated them and we've studied them. Like, why did MTV go all in on reality TV today? 30 years ago? Because reality TV requires one set, no script writers, and a cheap cast of non-actors.
The Best One Yet
♟️ “Pawn Stars — Chess’ “random” disruption. Netflix’s unlimited parental leave. Time’s CEO of the Year.
Let's get our three stories. 15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in a dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm. Jack Nick.
The Best One Yet
♟️ “Pawn Stars — Chess’ “random” disruption. Netflix’s unlimited parental leave. Time’s CEO of the Year.
that's it i don't even think they need to practice 50 that's a fat tip t-boy city on your at list if you know you know because we're ready to go we can't wait no more so just start the show start the show first a quick word from our sponsor
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Friday, the real Friday, April 11th, and today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-Boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Yetis, remember when stocks rebounded and the S&P surged 10% on Wednesday? Well, scratch all that, because stocks reversed course yesterday. The S&P 500 fell 4%.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
But I had a family history of polyps in their colon, so I begged my insurance company. I actually called them multiple times and demanded it. And they finally approved it? Yeah, they did. Which leads to these numbers. You're supposed to get a screening in your 40s, but only one out of seven Americans actually get a colonoscopy in their 40s.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
We repeat, only one out of seven people in their 40s right now have done a colonoscopy. Maybe one of them is you, and you should probably get one. Because tens of thousands of new cancer cases could have been caught so early if more people had gotten colonoscopies. And Jack and I were talking, and we think there's actually an economic principle we know and we love. that can fix that problem.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
And to be clear, this isn't an ad for the colonoscopy industry. No. I'm just grateful that Nick told this story on the pod. Yeah, I've actually got a picture. You want to see it? No. Okay, okay. I drew a picture. So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies curious about economics? You don't have to make people do something. You just have to nudge them. It's the nudge rule.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
Yeti's Chicago economics professors, Richard Taller and Cass Sunstein, wrote an econ theory on how to get people to make better decisions without restricting their freedom of choice. Their economic secret was the nudge. The nudge. The nudge is when you give people the same options, but tweak the context so they reach a different decision.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
Google will pay talented AI engineers their $300,000 salary just to not work for the competition. Basically, they will pay you handsomely to do nothing for Google, as long as you do nothing for OpenAI. Basically, this is a non-compete clause that lasts a whole year in a big way. But here's the problem. One year in AI, that's like a lifetime. Totally.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
We actually mentioned the nudge last year in a story on 401ks, the retirement savings account. If you make opting into a retirement program the default for employees, more employees end up doing it. That's an economic nudge. Instead of giving people two choices and being indifferent, use the default choice to nudge people to the better option. And the same could be applied to a colonoscopy.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
Totally. Which the vast majority of Americans don't get. And now, besties, we are not saying everyone should default to having a colonoscopy, but we're saying there should be a discussion with your doctor that definitely happens at 40. That should be the default.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
Instead of waiting for symptoms for you to opt in and get a colonoscopy, a call from your doctor on your 40th birthday should be the default. And that is why the colonoscopy reminds us of our favorite economic principle, the nudge. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for the real Friday? It wasn't the populists or the techies who got Trump to pause his trade war.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
It was the Wall Street guys. Because the stock market represents America's wealth, but the bond market represents America's power. For our second story, Prada is acquiring Versace for $1.4 billion, probably a disappointing price for the Versace family. Because time kills deals. And our third and final story. Nick's colonoscopy went well. Nothing to be concerned about. We're happy and proud of him.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
It reminds us of an economic trick. The nudge. Give people a choice, but nudge them to the best choice. But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, trade war almanac day nine. Jack and I've been keeping track for you. Here's an update from the tariff trenches. On Thursday, Trump escalated his tariffs on China to 145%.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
Every other country in the world, they're getting a 10% tariff during this 90-day pause. But the higher 25% tariffs remain in place. for cars and steel. And the EU paused their retaliatory tariffs on the United States for 90 days as well. Second, yesterday we got the inflation report for the month of March. The inflation report, the celebrity of econ reports.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
Prices actually fell across the economy in March compared to February. And core inflation was the lowest in four years. Even egg prices have come way down. Now, economists don't expect tariffs to show up in prices until June because companies bought in bulk to beat the tariffs. And finally, Universal Studios is building its first European theme park in England.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
Two years ago, rumors were swirling around the kingdom of Universal buying 600 acres 60 minutes north of London. It was pretty obvious why a theme park company wanted 600 acres. Yeah. But now it's official. Yeah, England's newest theme park, I think its biggest theme park, will open in 2031 and expects 9 million visitors a year. The Hogwarts rides are going to have natural British accents.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
Now, time for the best fact yet. This one whipped up by my gastroenterologist this morning, Dr. Chetty. I love the colon takeover of today's episode. Yeah, right before they knocked me out, I asked them for the best fact yet, and here's what they told me. They told me about the Katie Couric effect. Katie Couric, the famous TV journalist, her husband sadly died of colon cancer in 1999.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
Well, what did Katie Couric do? She did a colonoscopy live streamed on TV of her colon. On the Today Show, you could watch the camera colonoscopying Katie Couric. And what was the Katie Couric effect of all that, Jack? That year, there was a 20% increase in elective colonoscopies nationwide. The Katie Couric effect. Yetis, you look fantastic over there.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
That is how fast the pace of AI is accelerating. And that's how scared Google is that some other company is going to get the advantage. Yeah, I could just sprinkle on some context. What's a good analogy here? This would be like if Aaron Judge went into Hal Steinbrenner's office and said... I'm thinking about playing for the Mets. Okay, so Jack, what would the Yankees do?
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
Jack, I'm sure you feel fantastic over there. I got to get four liters of water right now. I feel... You know, I'll show you some pictures. Just hold on a second. I'll show you some pictures. Yetis, drop down, give us five stars, rate and review the show, and check out The Best Idea Yet, our weekly show. This one is all about peeps. Nick, congrats. Let's celebrate the wins.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
And Yetis, we'll see you Monday. All right, throwing the pics up on YouTube. Here we go, Jack. And before we go, a happy birthday to legendary Yeti Ben Einstein, born in Los Angeles but celebrating in San Francisco, pumped for dinner. And happy birthday to William Guillermo Warren. In San Francisco, this little boy is turning two.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
And Ruchika Shah in New York City has been listening for three years and celebrating the best birthday yet. And Ruchita, we know we owe you two more birthday shout-outs, and we got your back. Happy birthday to Amy Betros in Buffalo, New York, who's the best grandma yet. And Gwen Ryan in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, studying poli-sci at West Chester University.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
And there she's celebrating the best birthday yet. Happy birthday to Kate Hartnett in Brooklyn, New York, who's celebrating with a pint of Haagen-Dazs. And a congratu-gagement anniversary Eve to Jack and Alex, my co-hosts. No, no, not Eve. Seven years ago, I dropped down on one knee in Ann Arbor's Arboretum. propose to Alex. I was very nervous.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
The ring was basically the most expensive thing I'd ever purchased. And so far, happily ever after. And Jack is recreating it all tonight in the same outfit. Unreal. Amazing. Alex, so pumped for you. Congratulations. Strike my so far. Let's just go with happily ever after.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
And congratulations to Eddie's Drew and Vanessa Glapa down in Austin getting married and Evan is officiating the best wedding yet. Happy birthday to Elizabeth Carlson in Plymouth, Minnesota, who's celebrating with some sushi grade sushi. Nagiri for Elizabeth. And Miranda Fairbanks is running a half marathon this weekend. You got this, Miranda. fueled by goldfish.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
And congratulations to Adam Katzenbeck, who's getting married in Chicago. Adam, we're pumped for both you guys. Celebrate the wins. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. Nick and I both own ETFs of the S&P 500. If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
They'd say, yeah, don't play for the Mets. We'll actually give you your full salary just to not play for the Mets. We'll pay you $40 million to do nothing for the Yankees. Just don't pay for the Mets. So Nick, can we add it all up? Yes, we can, Jack. Google is paying these employees something to do nothing. or anything with a competitor's thing.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
And if you violate that, Google will sue you for everything. And we've never seen anything like this thing.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
Happy Friday, Yetis. Let's get to the three stars.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
I mean, Jack, we haven't seen back and forth swings like that since we, like, first got into finance after the Great Recession, right? What? Whiplash, Nick. Not since Hands Across America. Jack, three stories for today's show. What do we got on the pod? For our first story, yesterday we told you all about the 90-day trade war pause. It was a huge policy reversal.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
For our first story today, we'll share with you the behind the scenes details of who got Trump to stand down on the trade war. Spoiler, he listened to the Wall Streeters, not the populace. Because the stock market represents America's wealth, but the bond market represents America's power. Yetis, we'll let that sink in for a minute.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
But first, President Trump is the final decider on what executive orders get his huge Sharpie-penned signature. But he's influenced by his cabinet, by media personalities, and by CEOs. So, Jack and I are now looking at the different factions within Trump's orbit that got him to stand down this week. We're looking at the people who got him to blink on the trade war. So Jack, let's kick it off.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
Can you begin by sprinkling on some context, please? Trump's gut has been telling him for 10 years that America is getting screwed when it comes to trade. And he loves tariffs because they give him the ultimate unilateral power to change things in the economy without congressional approval. Those instincts were backed up intellectually by two populist advisors. Yes, they were.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon. Navarro and Bannon, two guys who are both so loyal to Trump, they actually served prison time rather than cooperate with congressional investigations. And both of those men believe that trade is inherently a zero-sum game. A zero-sum game. Jack, can you explain that one for a second?
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
They believe, for example, if a Chinese person is making an iPhone, then that Chinese person took an American's job. That is zero-sum. As one gets something, the other loses something. Economists, on the other hand, think trade is a positive-sum game. We all win. So Trump's Liberation Day tariffs that hit earlier this week, they had these two guys' fingerprints all over them.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
But on the other side of the Oval Office was the techies. Specifically, Elon Musk, vocally opposed to everything those two guys were saying about the trade war. Now, there's a couple of reasons why Elon is pro-trade. First, China holds huge sway on his business, as China could shut down Tesla's biggest, most productive factory...
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
Also, Jack, I thought this was an interesting point we were discussing. Elon's a workaholic, and he kind of admires that Chinese factory workers are workaholics, too. I don't think he kind of admires it. He loves the work ethic of his Chinese factory workers. So, add it all up, and Elon opposed all those tariffs that Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro were pushing.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
He even publicly insulted Peter Navarro in a back-and-forth Twitter spat all week. We jumped in T-boy style. The insults were flying like the real housewives of the White House. We thought someone was going to flip the resolute desk. But it wasn't Elon's opposition who got Trump to stand down and pause most of his tariffs. And no, no, no, no, no. This is what we found fascinating.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
It was actually two fellow New York-born financial billionaires, Bill Ackman and Jamie Dimon. It was the two six-foot men in finance who got Trump to stand down. Who also have blue eyes and also have trust funds. Of all of those who spoke out against the trade war, Ackman and Diamond caused Trump to blink.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
Because Ackman and Diamond, these two New York financiers, they gave Trump some critical Wall Street perspective. And Jack, what did they tell him specifically? They told him what was happening in the bond market. The bond market. So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies following the trade war drama?
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
The stock market represents America's wealth, but the bond market represents America's power. Yetis, for 80 years, the United States dollar has been the world's reserve currency. Everyone wants it. It's in high demand. And our U.S. government debt has been the world's financial safe haven. Everyone wants to invest in it across the world.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
So today, we'll reveal all the drama that went down behind the scenes over at the White House. For our second story, it's Versace. Or is it pronounced Versace? Either way, Versace just sold their dramatic Italian fashion brand to their cousin, Prada. But Versace, not Versace, sold at half the price because time kills deals. And our third and final story. This very morning, Nick got a colonoscopy.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
So those two things, Jack and I call that our financial soft power. But here's the key. Last week, investors sold more U.S. bonds than any week in 24 years. In other words, last week was the worst week for our financial soft power in 24 years. Yeah, listen to these examples. First, financial firms sold bonds to cover their stock losses happening all week.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
Even worse, though, international investors across the world sold bonds to divest from the United States. Deutsche Bank saw all of that and said this wild line. The market has lost faith in U.S. assets. Bill Ackman and Jamie Dimon pointed to the falling bond market, and they told Trump, that's what you should fear.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
Because the stock market represents America's wealth, but the bond market represents America's power. For our second story. Yesterday, we saw the biggest deal in Italian fashion since Zoolander. Prada is buying Versace for $1.4 billion. But inside this deal is the most important rule for negotiation.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
Now, Yetis, in order for us to tell the tale of this deal, we're going to go back in history 165 years, when Giuseppe Garibaldi united Sicily, Naples, Milan, Rome, Venice, and all those Italian kingdoms into one country. He's basically the founding father of Italia. Yes, he is. Italy was unified and a nation was born. Oh, 165 years later, Italy's greatest assets are unified once again.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
Prada is acquiring Versace for $1.4 billion. They thought they were ridiculously, ridiculously good looking. Now, stock in America's Michael Kors fell 10% on the news.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
Because they're selling Versace, and they're selling Versace at half the price they bought it seven years ago. But this news shocked even Mugatu. And why is that, Jack? Prada and Versace are aesthetically opposite of each other. Versace, you know, their style is more bold, loud, energetic, Jack. Ornate, Baroque designs.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
The kind of thing that gets you in the New York Times after you flash it on the red carpet. Prada, on the other hand, they're more of like a simple, quiet style. Stealth wealth. Like a logo-free suit that Kendall Roy might wear in succession. If you know, you know. But there was some drama here, wasn't there, Jack? And the drama came directly from Versace's family. Yeah, literally.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
Donatella Versace, she quit her very own namesake company just last month. She said she was sick of working for American Michael Kors. But also, there was a strategic mistake here made by the whole Versace company. They stopped caring about one overlooked customer. Versace basically shut down their entry-level products. they ignored their entry-level customers.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
Luxury companies let aspirational customers reach the first rung of the luxury ladder with some lower-priced goods. Zach, let's walk into a Versace store. Metaphorically here, what would this look like, an entry-level customer? One of those red carpet sculpture dresses I was telling you about. They sounded lovely. They start at like 2,000 bucks. But Versace keeps one dress available everywhere.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
at a $500 price point. Maybe has a few fewer features on it. It's a dress, it's not a gown situation. Here's the idea. If you can get a piece of Versace at the age of 25 with that $500 dress, you'll start splurging on Versace by the time you have more money when you're 35. But here's the problem. Three years ago, Versace got rid of its entry-level lines.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
And they lost more than they realized with that decision. Because the result? Without a new generation of young customers buying entry-level Versace, Versace sales have been falling. That's why Prada was able to scoop up Versace for half of its price tag from just seven years ago. Like it was on the sale rack and made well. So Jack, what is this? A takeaway for ants?
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
What is the takeaway for our buddies over at Versace? Time kills deals. Time kills deals. Yeah, it is the greatest risk to a deal's price or a deal not getting done. It's one word, time. Talks for this deal probably started a year ago, and we've watched the prospects for the deal getting done go worse and worse and worse as time went on.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
True story. It's a 36-hour butt procedure, and he passed it with flying colors. So Jack and I did what we do best. We found an economic lesson in that colonoscopy. Yes, we did. We kept digging, and we found it, baby. But that is before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Whoa! Whoa, what a mix of stories to go into the weekend with.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
First, we had the luxury slowdown last year, and then we got the trade war this year, and the value of Versace, it's been falling ever since. Five years ago, Versace was worth $2.2 billion, but now it's worth just $1.4 billion. Just this week, Prada reportedly negotiated a $200 million discount on the deal because of the trade war flare-up.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
We bet Versace would have sold for a much higher price if they could have got the deal closed one year ago. Yeah, and Jack and I know that because we've actually had a huge deal almost canceled for the same kind of reason. One week after we signed the acquisition papers to sell our first company to Robinhood, Robinhood had a big PR crisis.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
Yeah, and like if our deal had closed one month later, it wouldn't have closed. Like this would have prevented the deal from happening because too much time would have passed. Robinhood would not have closed the deal with us in the middle of that PR crisis. It's the first thing we thought of with this Versace stories.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
Sebastian Versace, yeah, they weren't killed by the delay, but they were definitely injured by it. Because the biggest risk to a deal getting done, not just a corporate acquisition deal, but any deal you find yourself in, the biggest risk is time. Time kills deals.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
For our third and final story to send you into the weekend. Earlier this morning, I actually had my first ever colonoscopy. And we realized this colon cancer detecting procedure is actually connected to our favorite economic principle. That's right. We're going to connect the colonoscopy to our favorite rule of economics.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
But Bessies, earlier this morning, I was actually one of the most unique days of my life. And why is that, Jack? You got what you keep calling your first colonoscopy. Well, it was my best colonoscopy, Jack. It was my best one. Yeah, this is the procedure where a doctor goes up in there to check the signs to make sure you don't have colon cancer. It's awkward. It's uncomfortable.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
It is comically like the concept in a South Park script. You kind of just got to roll with it and laugh with it because it's really wild. Nick, it happened like eight hours ago. So why don't you walk us through how it went down? So Jack, I could not consume any solid food for an entire day, just clear liquid yesterday. And then I had to drink a special prescribed concoction at 5 p.m.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
We just saw a headline on Business Insider, and it was so wild, we promoted the story to the top of the pod. This is how competitive the battle for tech talent is over in Silicon Valley these days. Here was the headline. Google is allegedly paying AI staffers to do nothing for a year. rather than join their rivals. Let me repeat that.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
to flush me out. They want your colon to be clean, right?
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
So I actually also had to wake up at two in the morning to drink more of that secret liquid, which flushed me out again for the next few hours. So you didn't get great sleep. Oh no, no. And then at 5am I walked to the hospital. It was a couple of blocks away. 6.30am I was out cold on the table. Yep. By 8am I was finished. Molly picked me up.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
By 9am I was on the phone with you preparing for this podcast. I can't believe the hospital was open so early. I know, it was really wild. Well, like, despite the 36-hour fast, the whole night in the bathroom, camera in my butt, I honestly, I could not be happier right now, Jack. To be clear, it wasn't a painful procedure, right?
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
No, no, you know, I was put under for the 30-minute procedure, and the scope that they put in you is soft, slippery, you know what I mean? Basically glides right in. Yeah, actually, the doctor asked me right before she put me out what food I was going to celebrate with after, and I was like, the burger at Spruce, and then boom, I woke up and the procedure was over. That was it.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
It's like you woke up from a dream. Yeah, that was it. And the doctor said they didn't see any growths or polyps to be worried about, right? Yeah, clean bill of colorectal health. But we will tie this back to economics, we promise. Because the first thought I had on the table was a moment of clarity. I was like, oh my God, the stock market basically had a colonoscopy this week too.
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
I had tension, fear, and a lot of buildup prior to the procedure. So did investors on Monday. Wall Street was nervous. And then I got flushed out. So did stocks. They fell 20% from their all-time highs. I liquidated my intestines, literally. Investors liquidated their portfolios. And then markets bounced back a bit, felt better. And so did
The Best One Yet
🍑 “Colonoscopy Stock Market” — BTS trade war drama. Versace’s Prada acquisition. A Colon econ lesson.
lie, after the 20-minute procedure, I'm recording the podcast. Okay, great work. Again, we do have to tie this even further to economics, and Jack and I have an idea. Basically, Eddies, I was actually really young to get a colonoscopy. Nixon is 30s, but doctors pretty much make you wait until you're in your 40s to get one. Yeah. Especially if you want it to be insured by health insurance.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Friday, the real Friday, March 7th. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. Three stories at the intersection of business and pop culture. But yeah, remember those tariffs we mentioned to you about Canada and Mexico? What happened, Jack? Well, Trump paused some more of them yesterday. He delayed them until April 2nd.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
Yeah, the last three years, Domino's pulled off the Manhattan project, the Parmesan. They trained 7,000 stores over the last 12 weeks and just launched off crust. Despite the choking hazard. I'm going to try it. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in the pizza industry? Brand beefs are now mutually beneficial.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
So yeah, these Jack and I were curious, how did Pizza Hut respond now that Domino's finally copied their stuffed crust? Well, they called him out. Pizza Hut just launched a 30% off their stuffed crust pizza because Domino's was 30 years late to the game. But interestingly, that actually fits with a theme we've been seeing in every industry.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
Brands are calling out their rivals in public for the first time. Last month, it was Poppy versus Olipop. That was the big brand beef for that big vending machine drama. Last year, Chili's saw a surge in traffic after calling out McDonald's expensive Big Macs. And the wild part? Oftentimes, both brands in a beef enjoy a sales surge based on the publicity.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
We have a dream to help you dream this weekend. And it's the exact opposite of a typical T-boy episode. It's not going to wake you up like our daily show. It's going to make you... It's a T-Boy bonus episode this Saturday, specifically designed to help you fall asleep. This is a financial lullaby, if you will. It's our second ever snooze pod. And it will be the sleepiest one yet.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
Brands are basically pulling a Kendrick and they're dropping diss deals on each other. But there's no Drake in this analogy. Both sides have been winning out when it comes to sales. Honestly, it almost makes you wonder if it's staged because a good brand beef benefits both. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for the real Friday?
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
Mattel is launching a lower-priced Lego dupe that hits shelves this May. We call them Megos. It's a stage five zucking, and the biggest test for a brand is a dupe. For our second story, Utah is the first state that requires age verifications in the App Store. It's a digital bouncer, and it means the bouncer is jumping from the physical world to the digital.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
And our third and final story is Domino's. They finally launched stuffed crust pizza after 30 years, and now Pizza Hut is trolling them for it. But today, both sides benefit from a brand beef. But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, South by Southwest begins tonight in Austin, and there is some serious drama over at Tesla.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
Because Rivian is sponsoring the entire festival. Rivian being Tesla's top electric car rival. Oh, and Waymo, Tesla's top autonomy rival, just launched electric robo-taxis in Austin with Uber. So the two most innovative autonomous and electric car brands are partying on Tesla's turf this week. On the front doorstep. We'll see if Elon launches anything to try to compete with them.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
And second, illegal border crossings hit a 25-year low in February, Trump's first full month in office. In February, the U.S. border control caught 8,300 migrants who were crossing illegally into the United States. That's the lowest monthly total since we've been keeping track 25 years ago. That's actually down almost 95% compared to the last two Februaries.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
The president's loudly publicized crackdown on immigration has had the deterrence effect that he was hoping for. And finally, Taco Bell sales surged 8% because tacos are the second best value meal in America after pizza. Perfect timing because we just did an entire episode on the Doritos Locos taco. The DLT, it's the best selling taco in history.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
And it was invented in this crazy Taco Bell lab that we talk about in the entire episode. You got to hear about this thing. It's the first branded product to go viral on Twitter. Yeah, it was the first collab too, really. So, besties, check out The Best Idea Yet. That's our weekly show. Listen this weekend. You're going to love it. It is all about the wild DLT.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
The link is in the episode description. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Mikey Welch up in Glens Falls, New York, upstate. Push and play.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
So basically, home security systems, security systems invented by a black woman in the 60s. Marie Van Britten Brown. What an inventor. Yetis, Mikey actually sent that one in for Black History Month, but tomorrow is International Women's Day, and it kind of works perfectly with both. Yes, it does. Yetis, you looked fantastic this week. And Jack, can I please celebrate the wins for you over there?
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
Okay. Pause your pod. Pause your pod. Okay, Yetis. Jack is celebrating his birthday, his wife's birthday, his second son's birthday, the birth of a new son. He actually got spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, which he's been wanting for 364 days. Remember, I got to go to confession on Sunday because I ate it during Ash Wednesday. And I still have my gift for you arriving in 24 hours, Jack. Really?
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
Yes. Do I have to sign? It's not pizza. It's not stuffed crust, but you may have to sign for this thing. Besties, share the pod this weekend. Tap to follow us so you get us every day. Enjoy the best idea yet as well. And Jack and I will see you Monday. Okay, that was the most perfect run through of Jack celebratory things and pod CTAs I've ever heard. Practice in front of a mirror for 12 hours.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
Nick and I will see you Monday. Can't wait.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
Now, Brooks is basically a meatball, which is funny because I had spaghetti meatballs on my birthday. Congratulations, Brooks. And Axel and Axel turning seven and eight years old, two buddies in San Mateo, California, listening on the way to school. Happy birthday. Happy birthday to Graham Goose Lewis in North Vancouver, British Columbia. This is a smooth skating defenseman, Nick.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
We're talking melatonin for your mind. We're talking Ambien for your ears. We're turning Wall Street into Wall Sleep. So Yetis, tune in this Saturday where we will read the entire shareholder letter of one surprise company. Word by word. Line by line. by line. Number by number. Your bed sheets are going to sound like spreadsheets. But in the meantime, don't drift off quite yet.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
You guys better face off. Sure. Watch out for those hip checks. And Robert Prager is turning 61 years old down in Richmond, Virginia. Happy 25th birthday to Zellen Heath in Mountain View, California. And Marion Trey is turning 39 down in lovely San Diego, California. And happy birthday to Ken Whalen in Manhattan Beach, California, who's headed to South by Southwest this weekend.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
Call us from a robo-taxi, Ken. Let's hear some good facts from South by. And a big shout out to Curb Ball in Adena, Minnesota, who's actually... Edina. Jackie pointed out to us that I mispronounced Edina. It's Edina, not Edina. So now we both mispronounced it. Now we've both done so. Thank you, Curb.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
And a special shout out to Mike and Kayvon over at the Half Day Beverage Company for their fantastic brand refresh. Congrats on the huge wins of getting into Erewhon and getting into Whole Foods. Two incredible distribution milestones. I've seen Half Day in so many places, the can already looked incredible. I can't wait to see what they whipped up.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
And to anyone else who's celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. Nick and I both own stock of Apple, and I own stock of Roblox. Were you sealed? That's a great line. If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
No, stick with us right now. We still got a show for you yetis because we got three fantastic stories. Let's hit them, Nick. Jack, let's wake them up.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
First, a quick word from our sponsor.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
Despite the move intended to appease markets, stock sank another two full percentage points. More tariff whiplash, more market negativity all week long. My neck, Jack. My left neck. It's starting to hurt me. But Jack, three stories for today's tea boy. What do we got on the pot? For our first story, Mattel is brazenly knocking off Legos.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
For our first story, Mattel is brazenly knocking off Legos with a brand new plastic brick. It's a Lego dupe. This is Toy Wars. Will the winner be the best brand or the lowest price? But yet he is to sprinkle on a little context, the Lego. It was patented back in 1958 by the Danish Christensen family. Great-grandpapa Christensen invented the Lego. Grandpapa.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
Now, we covered that entire Lego story on our weekly show, The Best Idea Yet. Fantastic episode, right, Jack? We got a link in the episode description if you want to listen to that whole thing. One key detail of that history is that Lego was an early pioneer of plastic. So they patented their Lego brick design. And the world honors patents because we want to reward the inventor of a creation.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
But funny side note here, Lego's patent expired 20 years later, back in 1978. And despite all the work of Lego's lawyers... Their brick is now in the public domain. That's why there are so many stupid Lego knockoffs. There's a brand called Best Lock. There's a brand called Dimple. There's another on Amazon simply called Plastic Building Bricks Compatible with All Brands.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
Like we said, despite that stupid competition, Lego has thrived as a brand. It's the biggest toy company in the world, even though their one core product is no longer patent-protected. Okay, Jack, pause the pod and don't step on that brick because Lego is about to face its most formidable competition ever. We're talking about Mattel. Yeah, Mattel.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
The number two toy company in the world and the $7 billion toy glomerate. Mattel, the company behind Barbie and Hot Wheels, they just announced a brand new, our words here, Lego dupe. Their words are the Mattel Brick Shop, which is an entirely new brand that launches its first product in May, but Mattel already teased a picture of this thing. What are we seeing in the picture? It's a Lego.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
Yeah, it's a Lego. It's a clone. They showed a two by four Lego brick and a two by two Lego brick. But instead of the word Lego on it, like most Legos, the word Mattel is there. Basically, Mattel is throwing bricks at Lego on this thing. Mattel calls this new product bricks. We call them Megos. Yeah, we call them Megos or Fegos. They're fake Legos, but we're going to roll with Megos on this one.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
This is the most blatant stage five zucking we've seen of any physical product. I mean, Jack, this is the biggest zucking in the toy industry since Fomagachi. Remember Fomagachi? No, I don't. You didn't have a sister. You didn't have a sister. But here's the surprise. Nick and I, we actually approve of this copy. Yeah, this is the rare time we've approved of a copycat.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
Because Nick and I are parents now, Legos are shockingly expensive, considering the plastic bricks that they are. So from a business perspective, we think it is healthy for Lego to face some serious competition, especially 67 years after their invention down in Copenhagen. After all, those Danes have been making expensive Legos and profiting off them for literally three generations.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
Like we said, great grandpapa. Yeah. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Lego? The ultimate test of a brand is facing a dupe. Yetis, what is a brand? Well, a brand is a feeling that you will pay extra for. And right now, Lego has a great brand. They charge over four times more per brick than those knockoffs we just mentioned on Amazon. And people still buy them.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
And Jack, why do we pay four times more for a Lego-branded brick? Because of nostalgia. Our parents used to play with them, and that's kind of cool. And because of built-up trust, and also maybe because it's not some cheap, unknown material like Best Lock dimples. My kid's putting Legos in his mouth. I trust Lego plastic more than that random Amazon plastic.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
Mattel's Legos look exactly like Legos Legos. Mattel just dropped a Lego dupe. We call it Megos, and we know who's going to win. For our second story, Utah is the first state in the nation to require age verification with an ID before you can download an app. Utah is the first ever social media bouncer. And our third and final story.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
But we got to point out, Mattel, consumers trust and know Mattel's brand just as much as they know and trust Lego. Mattel said that their Megos are designed to disrupt the status quo, and they signaled that they will be priced at something lower than Legos. And in this economy, you're going to be tempted by Mattel's lower-priced Legos. Megos.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
Mattel's Legos is the truest test yet of the Lego brand. For our second story, Utah just became the first state in the country to require users show ID before downloading apps. This is a digital bouncer. It's a win for parents, a loss for the tech lobby, and there's a bunch of details we're excited to tell you. But yeah, it is. Okay, wait, Jack, it's like you had a kid 10 days ago.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
I keep forgetting it was less than two weeks ago. You had a new baby. Dude, I have three under four. Oh, wow. But here's the big question, Jack. Have you gotten Oakley a Gmail address yet? Did you get him a Gmail yet? I got Wilder and Brooke's Gmail accounts, but I haven't gotten Oakley one yet. Okay, that's the first, you know, pro tip everyone shares with you.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
But Jack, what is the other parenting advice that we found really useful related to business? We protect our kids way too much in the real world these days, but not nearly enough online. Like, let's stop worrying about recess. Start worrying about Roblox. Let the kid go out and play in the woods. But let's be careful when they're on like the World Wide Web.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
Well, the state of Utah seems to agree because they just passed the App Store Accountability Act. It requires users verify their ID before being able to download apps like Instagram. Now, besties, if you are 18 years or older, you're good. You're going to see this once, but just once. It's a one-time age verification to prove you're an adult, and then you can download whatever you want.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
On the other hand, if you're a minor... Then for every app you try to download, you're going to need your parents' consent. That's why Jack and I call this the McLovin rule. How old are you? Old enough to party. I'm going to need to see that ID. And then you can download Instagram.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
Now, yetis, what Jack and I found fascinating about this story is that Meta, X, Snapchat, all the social media companies, they're actually celebrating this news. Because this news in Utah means they don't have to do anything. Yeah. You know, there's actually huge pressure on Zuckerberg to protect minors who use his social media apps. There's a lot of creeps DMing minors on Instagram.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
It's a huge problem. And the other problem is that kids love it. Why? Teens love to say that they're older than they really are so that they get the adult version of the app. So this new law in Utah shifts the burden of age verification from those apps to the app stores. And it makes sense, actually. Yeah, it does.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
It makes sense that Apple would verify a driver's license once rather than every app on the app store having to do it themselves. Yeah, it's like basically they're giving you a digital wristband that says you're 18 plus, you can now get into the party and you can order whatever you like. Apple gives you the digital wristband and then you can use the whole web however you please.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
Still the one lobby representing all of the tech industry. vehemently opposes this. They say that requiring everybody to provide an ID is a privacy invasion. But we think the potential benefits of protecting kids from online predators, it outweighs the cost.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
With age gating like this, Roblox, Instagram, dating apps, and porn sites, it's easy to control who gets in and who can't get in, at least in the state of Utah. And Apple and Google, the platforms, they are the ones perfectly equipped to figure this out while minimizing friction for consumers.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
After 30 years, Domino's finally made their first stuffed crust pizza. And the way that Pizza Hut responded to that pizza is priceless. Literally. But Yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. I mean, no one else is doing that mix. Love the mix of stories, Jack. This weekend is the twice annual Daylight Savings Time. We are springing forward, so you are losing an hour of sleep.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
They're probably going to make you scan your ID once, and then the app store knows your age for the rest of your life. Honestly, to everyone skiing down the slopes of Park City right now, well done, Utah. Nicely done. We think this is a great precedent for the rest of the 50 states. But we also think there's an interesting next step.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are everyone using the internet? The bouncer is about to jump universes from the physical world to the digital. Yetis, in the physical world, alcohol, cigarettes, R-rated movies, they all require your physical ID. But in our opinion, the digital world has far more dangerous threats these days.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
Get this, 19 American states have actually passed laws requiring age verification to watch pornography websites. Rather than comply, adult websites went black in those 19 states. because they don't want to handle the responsibility of checking IDs. And that's why internet browsers like Chrome and Firefox could become the next digital bouncers.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
Because the most effective way to agegate is through the platforms that provide the broad access, rather than the apps and the websites. Exactly. So, besties, this new law, it isn't just going to be in Utah. We think it's going everywhere. And it's not just going to be on your phone. We think it's going to be on every online device.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
Just like there's a bouncer at the bar, digital bouncers will be at the door of the adult-only web checking IDs. If anyone can pull off McLovin, it's Vogel. Now, a quick word from our sponsor.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
For our third and final story to send you into the weekend. After 30 years of stubborn resistance, Domino's finally launched stuffed crust pizza. But how Pizza Hut responded is a lesson for all businesses. Yetis! Just two years ago, we told you about the pizza pullback, the pepperoni pause. You're ordering so much pizza during the pandemic. You had something we called pizza fatigue.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
But in this economy, pizza is back. It is. Because pizza is the ultimate family value meal. Financially speaking, we did the math. And the most efficient way to feed a family of four is two pies for 28 bucks. Hold the pineapple. You simply cannot feed a mass amount of people more efficiently. than with humongous pizzas. Just ask Carol from accounting.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
But the 20-year king of pizza in America, Domino's, they're actually down the last four years. Domino's ain't dominating anymore. They're still number one by revenue in America, but they've lost market share and their sales have been slowing down. So here's the news. Domino's is launching stuffed crust pizza for the first time in their history. That's right.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
They're taking a pound of mozzarella and spreading it around that circle. Spoken like a true German over there, Jack. If you are lactose intolerant, besties, do not touch that crust. But here's the surprise. Stuffed crust pizza is actually a phenomenon in the pizza industry. Yeah. It is a super sticky product. And you know what Jack and I always tell you, besties?
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
The good news is that sunset's going to happen an hour later. The bad news is you're not going to have an hour of sleep on Saturday night. Yeah, we're losing an hour. It's gone. And you're going to need a deep slumber Saturday night to compensate for that. But besties Jack and I, we got your back. We have a plan to help your circadian slumber this Saturday night.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
Nothing feels better in business than sticky. Stuffed crust pizza was actually invented 30 years ago by the carbohydrate engineers over at Pizza Hut. Pro tip, you order the dish of marinara on the side to dip the stuffed crust into. Actually, the only time I've ever choked, by the way, pizza had stuffed crust pizza. The cheese was so stretchy, it was stretching down my throat.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
And then like I was in some kind of a comedy show, I was like pulling it out of my mouth, but it was just stretching and stretching. Like we said, nothing stickier than stuffed crust, Jack. But besties, Jack and I jumped in T-boy style. It turns out Pizza Hut did 300 million bucks in sales during their first stuffed crust year 30 years ago.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
So Pizza Hut naturally tried to patent their stuffed crust pizza. But no dice. They couldn't patent it, which is why Papa John's and Little Caesars followed suit with their own stuffed crust. But Domino's always refused to stuff their crust. And why is that, Jack? The CEO called it a gimmick. He thought it was tacky. He thought stuffed crust pizza was a cheap party trick.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
Also, understandably, Domino's was worried about stuffed crust logistics. True. Because you stuff that crust by hand. And pizza, it's in the shape of a circle. There's like no efficient way to do that. I didn't know where you were going with that geometrically, Jack, but I like it. So three years ago, Yetis, Domino's did some research for some stuffed crust data.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
And they determined that stuffed crust sticks on customers like yeast. According to Domino's research, stuffed crust pizza buyers order more pizza, they order more often, and they spend more on every single pizza order. They're the best customers there are. They actually found that 13 million Americans will only order stuffed crust pizza.
The Best One Yet
🧱 “MEGOs” — Mattel’s LEGO dupe. Utah’s online bouncer. Pizza’s stuffed crust strategy.
So for 30 years, Domino's has been pushing away 13 million of the best pizza customers in the country. Because Domino's arrogantly thought their pizza was too high-end to stuff that crust. It's so obvious after looking at the data that Domino's has been missing out. So they finally swallowed their pride and have reversed their position. on stuffing the crust.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
This is Nick. This is Jack. It is Friday, the real Friday, December 6th, and today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. All right, so I'm recording from home today because we got a tsunami warning in San Francisco. I know. Nick called me yesterday and he said, Jack, a 7.0 earthquake happened off the coast of California.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
But just as painful is financial infidelity. Not being honest with your partner about your money situation. Misleading, hiding, creating false expectations, all that, it's a form of monetary cheating. That's why we find the Chick-fil-A data so powerful. It is powerful, Jack, you're right. Because it's not about what you can afford, it's about honesty on what you can afford.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
The budget number wasn't the issue. It was honesty about the budget. Sebasties, it's not the size of the budget that matters. It's how honest we are about it. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for the real Friday? Bitcoin hit $100,000 for the first time. And as Bitcoin booms, MicroStrategy booms even more. And our Fed chairman said for the first time that Bitcoin is like digital gold.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
Our second story was Uber. They just launched a bunch of holiday-specific services to differentiate from robo-taxis. Because the antidote to automation is human touch. And our third and final story. According to a survey, Chick-fil-A is the top fast food restaurant for first dates. And women? They're totally fine with it. It's not the size of our budgets that matters.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
It's how honest we are about them. But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, yesterday we told you about the cold-blooded murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO. Well, here's an update. He didn't have a bodyguard, and police have shared two pictures of the likely killer who is still at large as of this recording.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
Also, interestingly, they found three words written on the bullet cases that the killer used. Deny, defend, and depose. Those could be a reference to the health insurance industry's habits of denying coverage to bolster their profits. Either way, this could lead to a lot of conversation on America's healthcare system, which is the most expensive in the world.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
It's half the calories of my life. Well, here's the news. Guinness is cutting off pubs in the United Kingdom. Apparently, they have reached their Guinness limit. Because too many Brits are drinking too much Guinness right now. Bestie's Guinness is limiting its supply on their home island during the holidays in order to make sure there's enough Guinness for the rest of us. So here's the question.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
Second, Kim Kardashian's Skims is expanding from the sun to the snow. Yes, they are. Skims partnered with the North Face to launch a line of women's ski gear. They're getting into ski wear. Skims, they started with shapewear onesies. Now they're doing downhill onesies. Valued at over $4 billion, Skims is considered a candidate for an IPO in 2025.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
And finally, Taylor Swift's Errors Tour book was, unshockingly, a chart topper, but we just got the numbers. It dropped on Black Friday, and it was only available at Target. Only sold at Target, interestingly. And over 800,000 copies of that concert tour book were sold in the first two days. Second most ever for nonfiction, right behind Barack Obama's most recent memoir.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
Although many are pointing out typos and grammatical mistakes in that book. Yeah, the Errors Tour, this is the Errors Tour. Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Tyler Marwood down in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Push and play. Here we go.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
We see what you did there, Tyler, by the way. I feel like I'm back in kindergarten.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
Mixing my three primary colors. Well, you know, we should share our hexagonal colors for Slammin' Salmon because we have our own special hexagonal. You don't remember what it is off the top of your head, do you? It's hashtag FB4C8E. That is the special Slammin' Salmon color pink we use. We'll drop it in the episode description. Yetis, you've looked fantastic all week.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
Jack, so many wins to celebrate. Thank you to everyone who dropped a rap. That was unreal. We actually got a special gift for you at the end of the pod if you gave us a rap. We were in the top five of 50,000 Spotify users. Not bad.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
And besties, before you go, we have the perfect thing for you to listen to to take you into the weekend, and that's our new weekly show. The best idea yet. This week, it's the Polaroid camera. This was a tech company before the tech industry even existed. Oh, the Polaroid camera was such an innovative product that Steve Jobs said it was his inspiration.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
It is a wild story, and we cover that on The Best Idea Yet. So head over there right now. You're going to love this weekly show. We dropped a link in the show notes. In the meantime, celebrate the wins, H-Y-H-T-B-O-Y, and Jack and I will see you Monday. And before we go, a happy birthday to Bowen Way eating chocolate for his birthday in California. Happy birthday to Ms.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
Kat Stringham, who's turning 30 in Scottsdale with some tiramisu. And Jack, you'll love this. Sarah is celebrating a New York birthday in Chicago doing logistics with an Eli Manning-themed party. Eli Manning. He really was elite. And Ariyash is turning nine years old in Andover, Massachusetts.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
Get this, Ariyash, the legendary birthday boy, has listened to every episode of The Best Idea Yet every week. This kid is the best one yet. Thank you, Ariyash. And Ashley and Jordan just got engaged on Black Friday in New York City. Let's see some ring picks, guys. What a holiday. And a quick shout out to a handful of the 19,000 of you who had us as number one podcast of the year on Spotify.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
Why is Guinness suddenly so popular in the UK? Well, get this, Jack. The latest trend among Gen Z is taking pics with a pint of Guinness. They're called Ginfluencers. Ginfluencers, real term. And the goal when you drink as a Ginfluencer is to split the G, which is to drink just enough Guinness, like two gulps or so from your pint. So that the beer line splits the G when you put the pint down.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
Oh, you ready for this, Jack? Thank you. Chris Shaw, Mary Montiel, Marley Moreno, Rachel Ralph, Ralph Gustav, Pilly Kushner, Ember Leib, Danica, Dak Shepard, allegedly, Daniel Cohen, Caitlin Crowsdale, Gillian Henderson.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
Victoria Chang, Daniel Stokes, Lost in Travel, Lindsay McMahon, Mike Gillard, Ali Uraib, Ralph Gustav, Billy Kushner, Emberley, Leo, Sherry Morris, Amanda Whitten, Barron Tuiz, and Brendan Hall. Wow, you are way better than me at whipping off names quickly. I mean, you whip up the takeaways, I whip up the shadows. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
This is Jack. Nick and I both own a Bitcoin and we both own stock in Robinhood. Come on! I made my family disappear. No, you're supposed to arrive three minutes ago in an Acura. If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
Because it's not just Liam and leprechauns who are drinking Guinness these days. No, this is wild, but sales to women of Guinness are up 24% this year. Kim Kardashian, Olivia Rodrigo, the Princess of Wales, they've all recently posted pics sipping the brown stuff. So Diageo, the go-owner of Guinness, is reportedly limiting sales in the United Kingdom, where ginsanity is particularly strong.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
Nick, we may have to add Guinness to the hoarder's almanac. Jack, we may have to add ginfluencers to our word of the year. How about ginsanity? That's the guinning choice.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
influencers now you know and if you know you know jack let's have three stories 15 years before this song two boys from the northeast met in the dorm they had an idea to cause a cultural storm it's the best one yet but the best is the norm jack nick that's it i don't even think they need to practice 50 that's a fat tip t-boy city on your at list if you know you know because we're ready to go we can't wait no more so just start the show
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
Start the show.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
First, a quick word from our sponsor.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
For our first story. For the first time, Bitcoin just reached $100,000. So we have to tell you about Bitcoin's biggest lover by far, MicroStrategy. But first, Jack, mazel tov to Ben the Bitcoin. Ben just had another bit mitzvah, not too shabby. We're going to get him a gift. After 15 years, Bitcoin has reached the six-digit price of $100,000. It's a nice round number.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
I had to head to higher ground. I'm recording from a podcast studio at like 900 feet above sea level right now. I'll be honest, I was very worried. I really appreciated how worried you were, Jack. Thanks so much. I texted Nick right away when I saw that the tsunami warning got canceled. But in the meantime, Yetis, the pod must go on, and we have got three fantastic stories before the weekend.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
The rally for Bitcoin is so far up 45% since election day. And it's up 136% since the beginning of the year. But Jack, the key reason that tipped the cryptocurrency into the six digit club yesterday, what was it, man? It was probably Trump's pick earlier in the week of a crypto friendly dude to lead the SEC.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
And for that reason, stock and crypto trading apps like Coinbase and Robinhood, they have now doubled and tripled so far this year. But the one stock that's most married to crypto prices. Who is it, Jack? MicroStrategy. MicroStrategy. And yet he's the way Jack and I see it. MicroStrategy is Bitcoin's biggest lover. First of all, MicroStrategy is way older than Bitcoin. It was founded in 1989.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
It's a publicly traded company. And for most of its history, it was a software company. But then in 2020, MicroStrategy, you know, it kind of became a cougar. It decided to convert all the company's cash into Bitcoin. The reason? Their cash was generating zero interest. And the CEO was worried that the US dollar that they were holding their cash in could lose value if inflation came.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
So he converted it to Bitcoin. And since then, MicroStrategy has gone from crypto curious to like a full on crypto kisser. MicroStrategy has completely transformed from a software company that they were for 30 years to a company that simply buys and holds tons and tons of Bitcoin. Oh, yeah. MicroStrategy is deep in bed with Bitcoin. Get this, Yetis.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
MicroStrategy has bought and now holds around $38 billion of Bitcoin. Jack, could you sprinkle on a little context to that number, please? This random publicly traded software company actually holds 2% of all the Bitcoin in the world. We repeat, one out of every 50 Bitcoin on planet Earth is owned by MicroStrategy. But that's not even the wildest part. No, it's not.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
This company plans to sell $11 billion worth of stock in itself and then take out $21 billion in debt in order to buy more Bitcoin. They're raising more money to buy more of the Bitcoin in the world. Now, the CEO of this 35-year-old tech company says that MicroStrategy is becoming a Bitcoin treasury.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
But it's also the same strategy as your Bitcoin buddy who mortgaged his house in order to buy more Bitcoin. So MicroStrategy's MicroStrategy is to sell software to their clients. But Jack, MicroStrategy's MacroStrategy is to be a publicly traded proxy for Bitcoin. But back to Bitcoin's rise to $100,000. Good point, Jack. It just hit 100K. That is a nice round number right there.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
We can explain that rise from one quote from earlier in the week. And that quote is our takeaway. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in crypto? Bitcoin doesn't compete with the US dollar. It competes with gold. Yetis, those are the words of Jerome Jerry Powell, who spoke at the deal book conference on Wednesday of this week.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
Jack, what's on today's T-Boy? For our first story, Ben the Bitcoin just hit $100,000 for the first time ever. So Jack and I are looking at the one company that owns more Bitcoin than any other. MicroStrategy. For our second story, it's Uber's newest product. What is it, Jack? Uber caroling. Caroling. Uber will now deliver a Christmas tree and Christmas carolers to your door.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
Our Federal Reserve Chairman clarified that Bitcoin is not really a currency, even though it's called a cryptocurrency. It's really more like a commodity. Here's how he's thinking about it. Just like gold, Bitcoin is a popular alternative asset for investors to park their money in. And also just like gold, Bitcoin is scarce.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
There's only so much gold in the world and there's only so many Bitcoin in the world. And also just like gold, investors have decided that Bitcoin is valuable. Very valuable, it turns out. $100,000 valuable. Now we should point out, he is biased. Our Fed chairman's job is to protect the strength of the US dollar.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
But it was validating for Bitcoin to be put on the same pedestal as gold in the words of our top central banker. Bitcoin, it doesn't compete with the US dollar. It competes with gold. And that's why it just hit 100K. For our second story, Uber just launched an entire suite of holiday services. This year, you can Uber Christmas carolers to someone's door. But this isn't about Christmas cheer.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
This is about Uber's greatest threat. Yes, it is. Now, yet it is. Jack and I have been covering Uber in the markets for a while. And over the years, Uber has tested out a lot of new Uber options you weren't aware of, Jack. How would you describe them? Uber, Uber. Yeah, they're Uber, Uber, these options. In Bangkok, for example, you can book an Uber Moto.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
You can jump on the back of a motorcycle because the city is so crowded. Uber Moto. Your Uber driver is the guy whose arms you're wrapping around right now. You're going to get to know each other. You're going to give them five stars. In Ibiza, you can book an Uber yacht. Yeah, you and seven other people can sail around the island for 1,600 euros a minute. I mean hour.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
I think it's the day, actually. It may be a minute over in Ibiza. In Australia, you can hail a scuba. Scuba, like a scuba Uber. This is a submarine experience, so you can sail through the Great Barrier Reef. in an Uber sub, a self-contained underwater Uber apparatus. Now, Yeti's Uber stock, it has tripled in the last two years. Probably not because of the scuba. No, no.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
But still, it's now worth $140 billion, which is 20 lifts. So the way we see it, Uber, it's got some mojo right now. So Uber, they can A-B-L-E, able. They can always be launching new things. And Jack, what is the latest launch from Uber? Christmas carols. Christmas carols, besties. Uber just launched a suite of holiday services that they even got Macaulay Culkin on board to promote.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
It's like, you're a driver. Kevin! Kevin is arriving in four minutes in a Honda Civic. Kevin! Would you like to give Kevin five stars? Here's what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. Uber basically realized that they weren't getting a piece of all of the holiday shopping season. All the money you're spending right now, that's going to retailers. It isn't going to Uber.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
So they just launched nationwide Christmas tree delivery to get in on that Christmas cheer. Yeah, they want in on that holiday spending. So now you can get a Douglas fir on top of a Prius arriving on your door because you ordered it via Uber. Seriously, from Boston to Santa Barbara, you can now get your tree delivered.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
So you don't herniate a disc cutting it down and putting it onto your Rivian yourself. Sounds like your back hurts, Jack. I told you I got two trees, Nick. Lift with your legs, now with your back. Uber is also expanding Uber Courier, which is for last-minute tasks that you just really don't want to do, so the driver will do them for you.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
You can tell Uber to pick up the eggnog that you left by accident at Edna's house. You already had a convo with Ann Edna and you can't have more conversation with her. It's a long convo. The wildest launch, though, is Uber Christmas Carol through Uber Eats. That's right. Uber Christmas Carols. Like, yetis, let's say you couldn't get a physical gift for your buddy Timmy in time.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
What are you going to do, Jack? You can send him the sweet sound of Silent Night. Through four carolers who arrive in an Uber. It's a partnership with Diageo, so you actually have to order alcohol, too. Like, you have to have a bottle of peppermint schnapps show up with the carolers. Along with the four carolers. But either way, Eddie, this holiday season, it means holy spending.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
But why is Uber really spreading Christmas cheer for all to hear? It's because of Waymo. And our third and final story. A new survey says that the top restaurant men will take their first date to is Chick-fil-A. Chick-fil-A! But the wildest part? Women love Chick-fil-A as a first date, but on one big financial condition. But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories...
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
And Uber has finally found a way for a logistics company to get in on that retail spending. But there's actually... An existential reason that Uber's doing this. And that reason. Kind of represents the Grinch. Is our takeaway for all to hear. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Uber? The antidote to automation is a human touch. Human touch.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
Yet is, for the last decade, the greatest threat to Uber was Lyft. But for the next decade, the greatest threat to Uber is robo-taxis. Waymo, Cruise, Tesla CyberCab, all of those are new Uber competitors who just didn't even exist five years ago. In fact, Waymo announced yesterday that they're expanding their robo-cab service to Miami. Good point, it was a new update yesterday.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
Which caused Uber stock to fall by 8%. It's a serious threat. But here's how we see it, besties. Uber has always seen the human drivers as the expensive part of their business model. But now Uber's realizing that those human drivers are their advantage against the real competition. And here's why.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
Only with a human driver can Uber deliver carolers and Christmas trees and Aunt Edna's eggnog right off her porch. Those human-powered perks are advantages that Waymo can't offer right now. And that is the power of this Uber Christmas caroling. Uber. They just realized that the antidote to AI is human touch. Now, a quick word from our sponsor.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
For our third and final story to send you into the weekend, Chick-fil-A. It is now the top destination for men to take a first date to. And that reveals one of the top thing women look for in a relationship.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
But Jack, in order to properly set the scene for this story, you know, Friday night, it's date night, we're all going out, but you have a tradition for date night that you got to share with the Yetis. It's more a challenge, actually. Alex and I, we go to Electra's on Friday night, and our goal was to eat everything on the menu by the end of the year.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
Even if they changed that, you're like, you got to bring that, bring back the squash. We got to have more of that. We didn't try it yet. We're not on pace to do it. Because a lot of babysitters fell through. It gives you a goal for every date, which is kind of the goal of the date. But in 31 American states, the first date night happens at Chick-fil-A. Here's the news, yetis.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
Dating News surveyed 3,000 singles across the country and asked the men, what is the top restaurant that you like to take women to on a first date? Now, in Maine and Vermont, the top answer was Subway. But overwhelmingly, in 31 American states, the answer for the number one first date destination was Chick-fil-A. What do you do for work? Yeah. Where'd you grow up? Interesting.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
Do you want waffle fries or regular fries? Tell me more about your ketchup preferences. I feel like we're on the same vibe right now. Now, there is more data here. Overall, 54% of men said that a fast food restaurant was just fine for a first date. Okay, but even more interesting... The rate was 66% for women. 66% of women think a fast food restaurant is fine for a first date.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
No one is doing this mix. I mean, this is an unprecedented. I love this mix, Jack. Great mix. Guinness. Guinness. The dark, creamy beer that tastes like a confused cold coffee. Guinness. You don't drink the Guinness. The Guinness drinks you. We've all got one buddy who's like training for a marathon and the only thing he'll drink is half a Guinness. I can only drink Guinness.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
He didn't go to Jared's. He went to Wendy's. And that was a turn on. It's hot, baby. Romeo would have taken Juliet to a fine sit down French or Italian restaurant. But right now, Pookie is cool with hanging out at the Waffle House as she gets to know her guy on the first time. Because in this economy, Chick-fil-A can be a sign of financial responsibility. That's right, Jack.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
Besties, the reason two out of three women in this survey were fine with fast food for a first date? It was the money. It was the money, yeah. Women are much more likely to say yay to Chick-fil-A if the man asking them is honest that they're going there because of their budget. Now, I'm sure she would prefer a nice filet mignon or maybe a sushi dinner out instead of the Chick-fil-A sandwich.
The Best One Yet
👨❤️💋👨 “He took me to Chick” — Chick-fil-A’s dating lesson. Bitcoin’s $100K moment. Uber’s Christmas carols.
But more important than the cuisine is the guy's financial character. Yes, it is. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are everyone going out on date night? It's not the size of the budget that matters. It's how honest you are about it. Yetis, the number one issue in American breakups, it's money. The number one cause of divorce in America, it's money.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
This is Nick. This is Jack. It is Friday, the real Friday, May the 2nd. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Mark your calendars for Monday, baby. And why is that, Jack? We are announcing our next T-boy live show on Monday. The city, the state, the location, we'll reveal it all on Monday, the next T-boy live.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
Plus, we should point out, $160 billion in savings doesn't tell the full picture here of costs. Because Doge's firings were actually expensive. That's right. According to the Partnership for Public Service, they estimate that rehiring of workers who were fired by mistake, plus lost productivity, plus paid leave, it actually cost the government $135 billion.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
So add it all up, net-net, Doge saved about $25 billion this year. which is a drop in the pail considering the expectations and the size of the federal spending. Also still, 200,000 people were fired and some entire agencies were all but eliminated. So Yetis, we've said the spirit of Doge's mission, efficiency, made sense. But in practice, the small savings and the huge chaos outweighed it.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
And to explain everything we just said, we whipped up this takeaway. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Doge? The U.S. government is basically an insurance company with a military. Now, Yetis, close your eyes for a sec. When you picture public services, you're probably imagining teachers, police, the DMV, the court system.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
No, it is the longest running sports event in America, the Kentucky Horse Race Derby. Since 1875... The Kentucky Derby has happened each and every single year. Including during World Wars and the Great Depression. So we were curious, after 151 years, is there a trend in terms of what horse rins the waste? I think you mean what horse wins the race, but I love what you said, Jack. We were curious.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
For the most part, though, everything Nick just said happens at the state and local level. Right. The U.S. government at a federal level is one whose debt is $36 trillion. A lot of money. That's the one that Doge was targeting, reining in the spending that resulted in $36 trillion of debt. Now, 61% of what the U.S. federal government spends money on, it's Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
In other words, 61% of the federal government is retirement insurance? and health insurance. Okay, the next biggest, the military. 26% of our government spending at a federal level is the military. Now, those huge chunks of spending, both of them could be reduced. There are efficiencies to be found. But they can't be reduced by Doge. They would require an act of Congress.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
And besties, that's why we told you in December there was no chance Doge could make serious dents in spending. Only Congress can. Because the US government is basically an insurance company. with the military. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for the real Friday? Apple just said that half of US-bound iPhones are already made in India. The Mission Impossible moment.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
That was the first quarter, but the second quarter is the hoarder's quarter. For our second story, the latest in luxury cars is in-car health and wellness, turning the front seat into a spa. Will people use their rejuvenate button? Maybe not, but that doesn't mean it's not valuable. And our third and final story is that Elon's Doge era is over.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
So far, it's saved $25 billion net, which is 1.5% of the $2 trillion goal. Doge just couldn't really touch spending because the U.S. government is actually an insurance company with a military. But Yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, ba-da-ba-ba-boa. McDonald's just announced its worst quarter since COVID. Sales at U.S.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
McDonald's fell by 3.6%, the third shrinkage in the last four quarters. The reason? Economic worries. Guy, you're freaking out about that McFreak. The CEO said that consumer sentiment is down, and that's translating to fewer visits. to McD's. And second, Sam Altman apparently heavily considered a presidential run back in 2016.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
And by heavily considered, he probably asked the chatbot, should I run for president? And it was so sycophantic. It's like, yeah, you should definitely run for president. It's actually a detail from a new book called The Optimist about Sam Altman, which full disclosure, my mom was the literary agent on and she's amazing at her job.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
And I guess when it was Trump versus Hillary, Sam thought he could run and win. And finally, if you're down in Texas right now, look out for millions of dimes that are all over the road. Because a huge truck left the Federal Reserve mint and was hit by a car and a whole bunch of dimes spilled out. Texas actually shut down the highway and used a sewer-grade vacuum to suck up all the coins.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
The latest report is that the rain has wiped many of them away, but, you know, if you still got a dime, hit us up. Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by legendary Yeti Savannah Westwood from down in Orlando. Did you know that the Snickers bar was named after a horse? Didn't know it, Jack. Tell me more, buddy.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
Well, the Mars family, who created the Snickers bar in 1930, named it after one of their favorite horses. Yeah, the horse was named Snickers, and after it passed away, the family chose to honor it in the best way possible. With a chocolate-covered, nougaty, caramel candy bar. And Jack, what's the first letter? Of that horse? S. Yes. Wow.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
We're not saying you should bet on S. We're not even saying you should bet. But we have said it like six times in the show.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
Yetis, you looked fantastic all week. Remember, stay tuned on Monday. Live show reveal coming then. Also, tomorrow's Friday, so we're going to answer some of your questions at tboypod on Instagram. So follow us on Instagram there. And finally, Jack and I didn't want to leave you empty hanging, so we whipped up the special surprise for Saturday morning.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
Tune in here for an episode on the Frappuccino. And before we go, a happy birthday to Yeti Christian Licktee down in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, celebrating with some fantastic dairy. And happy birthday to a mormor of 11 grandbabies, Andrea Hansen from Harriman, Utah. And Stephen Kearney is turning 34 years old down in Austin, Texas, the sabbatical to Japan and Bali.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
Can we predict the Derby victor just based on the horse's name? The answer? Yes. Because get this, 13% of Kentucky Derby winners were horses whose names began with S. That's right. Secretariat, Smarty Jones, Sea Hero, SSS. And we're not double counting for the four horses who had double S names. Seattle Slew, Super Saver, Street Sense. How about Sunday Silence?
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
Oh, that's going to be fantastic. Enjoy, Stephen. Can I be the plus one? Plus two. Let's make it happen, Stephen. And happy birthday to Monica and Shiva Taramani, who are both turning 30, twin birthdays in Atlanta, Georgia. And Neil Desai over in Chicago. Logistics wants a cookie crisp for that birthday, Jack.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
And Dan and Han Tillman down in San Diego are moving to Virginia, and we wish you luck on the beautiful move. Shout out to Michael and Adam in Des Moines, Iowa, besties who are headed to the Berkshire Hathaway meeting. Woodstock for capitalists. You got to paint your faces, guys. That's how you celebrate there. And Adam Katzenbach's got a new dream job in Venice, California. Congratulations, Adam.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
Fantastic to have that win. And a big shout out to Emily and Rebecca Esquino, two twins graduating from the University of Central Florida. And Christina Cuevas and Harrison Pollock are getting married tomorrow in Oceanside, California. Congratulations, guys. Send us some pics. We can't wait to see them. And finally, congratulations to Anthony and Danielle.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
Plus, they're groomsmen, Evan, Dan, and Sam. There is no better way to wake these guys up in the morning with a little old T-Boy Daily. Congrats to Anthony and Danielle for getting married. Congrats to Evan, Dan, and Sam for being groomsmen. Up next, by the way, 10-10 wins. Celebrate the wins, and after party for the wedding, we're getting drinks of the loopy-doopy.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
You give us 22 minutes, we'll give you the T-Boy. If you know. This is Jack. I own stock in Berkshire Hathaway and Amazon, and Nick and I both own stock in Apple. If you like The Best One Yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. We want to get to know you.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
All of them are Kentucky Derby winners. And statistically speaking, S names win four times more than their share of the alphabet. And this year, Nick, the two horses with the best odds to win? Well, that would be Sandman and Sovereignty.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
Therefore, the secret to who's going to win the Kentucky Derby may simply begin with the letter S. But besties, to borrow a line from Warren Buffett, this is not financial advice. the letter S may just be correlation, not causation. So yetis, if you're watching the Kentucky Derby, first of all, it's a six hour event, but it only is the last two minutes of the six hours.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
But second of all, it looks like the alphabet is going to be the leading indicator.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
Wait, did you say it's May 2nd? I said it was May 2nd. Happy birthday, mom. Top of the show shout out. Why not? Jennifer, congratulations over there. Always remember to call your mother. Jack, three stories for today's team boy. What do we got in the pot? For our first story, Apple just pulled off what we're calling the Tom Cruise quarter.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
For our first story, every big tech company reported earnings this week, but all eyes were on Apple. So we want to tell you about the hoarder's quarters and Apple's mission impossible. But first, yetis, Jack and I would like to talk about Tom Cruise. Because Tommy Cruise is 62 years old, but he looks like he's 26. I just grew a 12th ab on his stomach, too.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
I think you drew a 13th ab on his fourth bicep, Jack. And Tom Cruise just filmed his seventh Mission Impossible movie, Not Too Shabby. And apparently, it was inspired by Apple. Because one month ago, Apple Computer pulled off a move that would make a secret agent blush. They airlifted 600 tons of iPhones out of India overnight. We're talking $2 billion of devices evacuated out of India.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
Six cargo jets left Chennai, India, headed for six different U.S. cities. It was Operation Airdrop. Literally. In fact, Apple even sent a representative to the Indian government to change the customs approval process from a 30-hour wait to a six-hour wait just for this night. And then, in the darkness of the night, when the airports were least busy...
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
They evacuated those iPhones as the clock was counting down.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
Apple ended up rescuing 2 million phones before Trump's initial 26% tariffs hit India. This was Apple's Mission Impossible moment. That drama deserves an Academy Award. Yes, it does, Jack. Best pivot in a leading role. Yeah, like how often do you see a logistics team at a tech company act like actors in an action movie, man?
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
And that performance is also what set the stage for Apple's earnings report, which dropped yesterday. Perfect timing, because this week, Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon all reported earnings, and they all beat the earnings expectations. But Apple is the one big tech company whose profit puppy is the sale of physical products.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
Now, no one has slapped a digital tariff on cloud computing yet, so Microsoft, they're not that worried about the trade war. But 90% of iPhones are made in China. And the rare earth metals in those iPhone batteries, 100% of those are mined in China. Which is why, amid the trade war insanity of the past two months, Apple's been working on a plan. Get this.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
According to the Financial Times, all US-bound iPhones will be made in India by 2026. To avoid Trump's China tariffs, they're going to make all US iPhones in India and keep making in China the iPhones for the rest of the world. And now, besties, Jack and I have been fascinating by this epic logistic shift. And Jack, what did we just learn in Apple's learnings yesterday?
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
Actually, we're calling it the hoarder's quarter, but it does involve Tom Cruise. For our second story, the hot new trend in luxury cars is mindfulness. Meditations, massages, scented hibiscus smells. Yeti's every car brand now thinks it's a spa. And our third and final story, it's unofficially the end of Doge. Elon Musk just left his Doge task force.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
Apple confirmed that they're actually halfway done with that massive operation. We repeat, half of US-bound iPhones are now made in India. Most others made in Vietnam to avoid those China tariffs. Yetis, if you recently bought an iPhone, show us what country it's made in on the back. Flip it on the back. Because I've never seen one that's not made in China. Nope. It is now an Indian-made iPhone.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
Overall, Apple beat earnings with a surprising surge in iPhone sales. Because of our takeaway. So, Jack, what's the Mission Impossible takeaway for our buddies over at Apple? Prepare for the hoarder's quarters. The hoarder's quarters. Yet is this round of earnings going on right now. Covers Q1, the first three months of the year, right before the trade war got really hot.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
Because remember, Trump's liberation day was on April 2nd. So the first quarter earnings results were mostly irrelevant. Investors, they're looking for hints about what's happening in the second quarter. The second quarter, which is April, May, and June, is what we're calling the hoarder's quarter. The hoarder's quarter.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
Consumers are loading up on cars, electronics, and big-ticket made-in-China items before those tariffs hit. Like an early splurge on an iPhone 16 or a Dodge Durango before the price pops because of tariffs. Because China? They've shown no sign of backing down to Trump's trade war. It's probably going to keep on going.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
And as of right now, tariffs between the United States and China sit at 145% and 120%. So, interestingly, Apple mentioned yesterday they're already seeing early signs of hoarding. Because the theme of Q2, it's the hoarder's quarter. The hoarder's quarter. For our second story, breathe in, breathe out. The hottest new trend in the car industry is wellness. Yeah, the health and wellness industry.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
Health and wellness has come for the car industry. But is anyone willing to pay for a car that's also a spa? That's the big question, and we'll answer it here. Yetis, let's look at the new Lincoln Nautilus. Jack, what am I staring at right now? The same grille, wheels, and taillights as Lincoln's other SUVs. But Jack, pause the pod for a second.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
There is one difference on the inside, and what is it? On the screen, there's a button called Rejuvenate. And if you push it... Panoramic ambient light displays will start to soothe your entire soul. Air filtration turns on, the seat reclines, and relaxing nature sounds from the mystic Amazonian forest waft into your ears.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
Rejuvenate is Lincoln's new quote-unquote multi-sensory stress reduction initiative. And we're not talking like two or three or four senses here. All five human senses, including smell, will now be triggered by this new Lincoln car. Because there's an in-car diffuser spraying relaxing hibiscus in the whole front seat area. If you're stressed out after your workday, you need more than ASMR.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
You can experience 10 minutes of shavasana before entering your house in your car. I think when you push the button, it lays the front seat flat, so you're laying down. I think it even goes further than flat, Jack. Lincoln even partnered with a sleep app, Calm, so that the car will narrate a 10-minute meditation to you. I thought my adaptive high beams were luxurious.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
You know, the ones that automatically dim when there's a car coming in the opposite direction. Lincoln is turning their car into the White Lotus. One sec, what's that on the chassis, Jack? One of your 42 skin creams. They don't have skin creams built in, do they? Not yet. Yeah, this is what we found fascinating. It's not just Lincoln. This is a new trend.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
The car industry is turning the car cabin into the wellness retreat. Now, you might be thinking to yourself, my dad's Mercedes 20 years ago had massages in the chairs. And it did. That was a nice independent feature in your dad's car. But what we're talking about is a coordinated symphony of multiple features into one spa-like experience. Exactly.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
Bloomberg reported that this trend is actually happening across all the luxury car brands. And we mean all of them. Lincoln calls it rejuvenate. Mercedes calls it energizing comfort. BMW, they call it caring car and they're all promoting it right now. And Genesis calls it the mood curator. Okay. We dove in T-boy style. There is one Mercedes that actually offers four different perfume mists.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
He talked about Buddha, and so we ran the numbers for you. But Yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. What? A mix of stories to go into the weekend with. Love it, Jack. Happy Cinco de Burke Derby playoffs to all those who celebrate. That's right, because Yetis, this weekend we got Cinco de Mayo parties. We got the Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
That's right. They have four reservoirs somewhere in that car to hold four different perfumes. Yeah. You can get mystic, violet, cashmere, or you're ready for the fourth one, Jack? Azure. I don't know what that is. Azure. So yeah, if you're waiting for your kids at the pickup, you can take a five-minute treat yourself with Azure in your own little mojo dojo casa house sanctuary.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
Now, the strategy here is actually pretty simple. Auto brands are chasing growth, and they know where they think they can find it. In the health and wellness industry, which is growing 10% per year, according to McKinsey. Now, from a profit perspective, these bells and whistles, they justify the $8,000 higher price on that trim model car.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
And those upgrades, those are how the car companies make their profits. They're hoping it's a profit puppy, which leads to the big question, though. Are consumers actually buying it? In this economy? Who's paying eight grand for four different perfumes in your Mercedes? Breathe out. Breathe in. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in the meditation mindfulness car industry?
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
Just because it's not used doesn't mean it's not useful. Now, Yadiz, one car analyst called this a mistake, a delusion, said there is no evidence that any person in America actually wants this. Nobody's going to use this. But using it isn't the only source of its value.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
Because you may never turn on the scented massage meditation light show in your car, but you may value knowing that it's there or telling people that it's there. Jimmy, you got to take a spin in my Lincoln. Yeah. The whole front seat, it's like a spa. Yeah, Jack, it reminds me of something my mom says about living in a city with a ballet.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
Like, she doesn't go to the ballet a lot, but she just appreciates that the ballet is available to her. When her friends visit New York, she can say, maybe you can pop into the ballet. Right, exactly. Well, you know, sometimes consumers buy things simply to know it's there, and that makes them feel good that they have it.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
So yeah, data may show that no one asked for it or that no one's going to use it. But besties not being used doesn't mean it's not useful.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
Plus NBA playoffs, NHL playoffs. And the 151st running of the Kentucky Derby. It is by far the biggest weekend of the year for social sports shareholder actions. If you chose this weekend for your wedding, which our buddy Emmy did, you may get some no-shows. But Nick and I want to focus on one of those events in particular, and it's not Emmy's wedding.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
For our third and final story before the weekend, Elon Musk's Doge era is over. He just had his exit interview over at the White House. But Elon says Doge is like Buddhism. And he's Buddha. So we ran the numbers on Doge to see if it was all worth it. Yetis, on Wednesday night, the two biggest stories of the day were Elon Musk and Elon Musk.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
The first story was a report from the Wall Street Journal that Tesla's board had reached out to executive search firms. And Jack, what would be the goal of them doing that? To set up a process to replace Elon as the CEO. This is straight out of succession, a total Kendall Roy move right there. Now, the board denies the Wall Street Journal's report, but we believe it.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
Because the board has a legal responsibility to look after the company, and Elon's been focused on politics. Which leads to the second Elon in the news, which was Elon at the White House holding a press conference. He said on Wednesday night that he will be spending less time at Doge and a lot more time at Tesla. Axios says that this had the feel of like a de facto exit interview.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
It basically ends the Doge era. Although Donald Trump is letting Elon keep his West Wing office, and said that he can sleep over in the White House anytime. But yet, here's what we found fascinating about this story. Elon said that Doge will continue without him by comparing it to Buddhism. Buddhism continues, even without the leader of the religion, right?
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
Buddha's not here anymore, but Buddhism's still around, and he's saying the same thing will happen to Doge, so we decided to jump in T-boy style to the numbers. Elon set the expectations for Doge back in October at a rally at Madison Square Garden. Exactly. That's when he said he could save, as a quote, at least $2 trillion a year through Doge.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
So we looked at the receipts that are posted on Doge's website. And Jack, the financial tally, what kind of numbers have we seen? $160 billion. That's how much Doge has saved. Although we should point out those are Doge's calculations, and experts contest how accurate they are. Now, $160 billion is a lot of money. That is 32 lifts right there.
The Best One Yet
🚁 “Mission: iMpossible” — Apple’s Hoarder’s Quarter. The Cars-becoming-Spas trend. Elon’s DOGE exit.
But it's 8% of the goal, Elon stated, and just 2% of all federal spending. So that is shocking. But if you've been listening to this show for a while like a good yeti or bestie, that's also not shocking. Yeah, we said in December that 88% of the federal budget is off-limits. without congressional legislation.
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Jonathan Haidt on How Social Media Is Changing Childhood
Um, that's not really an issue right now, I wouldn't say.
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Jonathan Haidt on How Social Media Is Changing Childhood
I feel like I can go an hour or two. I would say it's more of like the longer hours without it.
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Jonathan Haidt on How Social Media Is Changing Childhood
Um, like, I just want to sit there and just, like, watch a video. I don't necessarily, like, I want something to entertain me.
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Jonathan Haidt on How Social Media Is Changing Childhood
Yeah. They've banned it by law, but it's really like a school-to-school basis. Every school is different. So for the majority of the schools, I believe, it's our electronics that we get, ThinkPad services. Some schools even get MacBooks. They just start to break down because they're so old and they're so overused.
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Jonathan Haidt on How Social Media Is Changing Childhood
I can read a book. I wouldn't say I can read the whole book, but I can read a majority of it.
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Jonathan Haidt on How Social Media Is Changing Childhood
I wouldn't say it's impossible. I feel like it would take a lot out of me. It would take everything out of me to do it.
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Jonathan Haidt on How Social Media Is Changing Childhood
Yeah, no, they don't want that.
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Jonathan Haidt on How Social Media Is Changing Childhood
Like, when he's saying, like, everything is on our phones. Like, our whole lives. Like, my job is on my phone. How I see when I work. How I communicate with my coaches. How I communicate with, like, other students. It's all on our phones. How we, like, how we hang out with each other is online. That's right. Because...
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Jonathan Haidt on How Social Media Is Changing Childhood
Yeah, it's turned into, like, an issue whenever, like, I go to take a shower, I end up with the phone in the shower, so...
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Jonathan Haidt on How Social Media Is Changing Childhood
I guess I can. I just like the attention span. Not my, I like to watch the videos. They're interesting to me.
The Peter Attia Drive
#332 - AMA #67: Microplastics, PFAS, and phthalates: understanding health risks and a framework for minimizing exposure and mitigating risk
How do those numbers compare to the credit card worth of plastic that was all over the news? I think you couldn't go anywhere without seeing that we're eating or consuming a credit card worth of plastic a week. So the numbers that we're seeing in those studies compared to what that would be, how do those compare?
The Peter Attia Drive
#332 - AMA #67: Microplastics, PFAS, and phthalates: understanding health risks and a framework for minimizing exposure and mitigating risk
Peter, thanks for coming back for another AMA. How are you doing? Good. Thank you for having me. Before we get started today, quick question. Do you have a beverage in front of you? I do. What type of glass is that in? Is it a plastic? Is it glass? It is plastic. Huh. Okay. Interesting then.
The Peter Attia Drive
#332 - AMA #67: Microplastics, PFAS, and phthalates: understanding health risks and a framework for minimizing exposure and mitigating risk
Based on what we consume, what do we know about how they're eliminated from our body?
The Peter Attia Drive
#332 - AMA #67: Microplastics, PFAS, and phthalates: understanding health risks and a framework for minimizing exposure and mitigating risk
That will be interesting for this AMA, which is going to cover one topic, which is something that seems to be growing in interest. We've been getting a ton of questions on, ton of conversation online. That's microplastics and other chemicals such as BPAs, PFAS, and phthalates.
The Peter Attia Drive
#332 - AMA #67: Microplastics, PFAS, and phthalates: understanding health risks and a framework for minimizing exposure and mitigating risk
For the things that are not eliminated, where do they end up and why are there growing concerns about that?
The Peter Attia Drive
#332 - AMA #67: Microplastics, PFAS, and phthalates: understanding health risks and a framework for minimizing exposure and mitigating risk
So what we did, gathered all these questions that have come through, pulled them together, and are ultimately going to try and help people understand, should they be worried? What should they be worried about? What's dangerous? Based on all that, what can they do about it? Before we get started, anything you want to add?
The Peter Attia Drive
#332 - AMA #67: Microplastics, PFAS, and phthalates: understanding health risks and a framework for minimizing exposure and mitigating risk
Definitely. And it kind of reminds me of what Bob Kaplan always used to say, right, which is further from the shore, the deeper the water. So as we've kind of like gone deeper and deeper on this, it seems more complicated, more complicated.
The Peter Attia Drive
#332 - AMA #67: Microplastics, PFAS, and phthalates: understanding health risks and a framework for minimizing exposure and mitigating risk
The last question I'll ask before we get started, that coffee you drank this morning, was that in a glass mug or like a Starbucks paper mug with the plastic lid on top?
The Peter Attia Drive
#332 - AMA #67: Microplastics, PFAS, and phthalates: understanding health risks and a framework for minimizing exposure and mitigating risk
All right. So you redeemed yourself a little bit there, which is good. Starting off, I think it'd be helpful as we kind of typically do definitions. What are microplastics? What's BPA? What are these chemicals we're talking about? Let's just define them now. So as we say them going forward, people understand what we're talking about.
The Peter Attia Drive
#332 - AMA #67: Microplastics, PFAS, and phthalates: understanding health risks and a framework for minimizing exposure and mitigating risk
Do we have any idea why it seems like we're now hearing about microplastics being everywhere? It doesn't seem like that was always the case. So do we know why there's been this huge uptick in this?
The Peter Attia Drive
#332 - AMA #67: Microplastics, PFAS, and phthalates: understanding health risks and a framework for minimizing exposure and mitigating risk
You touched on it a teeny bit when you were kind of going over the definitions, but I think it'd be helpful to just dive into it a little deeper, which is how are humans being exposed to microplastics currently?
The Peter Attia Drive
#332 - AMA #67: Microplastics, PFAS, and phthalates: understanding health risks and a framework for minimizing exposure and mitigating risk
Do we know how much plastic humans actually consume? And is it even knowable? You often hear numbers thrown around a lot. Curious what we know on that.
The Peter Attia Drive
#349 - AMA #71: Building strength and muscle mass: how to optimize training, nutrition, and more for longevity
Peter, welcome to another Ask Me Anything episode with Dr. Peter Attia, Stanford educated physician. How are you doing? Hi.
The Peter Attia Drive
#349 - AMA #71: Building strength and muscle mass: how to optimize training, nutrition, and more for longevity
I just wanted to make sure you knew it was your show, so I thought more of an introduction would make it feel more like home. Before we start today's topic, how's your day going? Learn anything new today? Have you been educated in any way?
The Peter Attia Drive
#349 - AMA #71: Building strength and muscle mass: how to optimize training, nutrition, and more for longevity
I do love it, especially because you've openly talked about how when you go to parties and events where there are adults there, you usually don't explain what you do because you don't want to have those conversations. And I love the fact you went to the local elementary school and they roped you into that. Yeah.
The Peter Attia Drive
#349 - AMA #71: Building strength and muscle mass: how to optimize training, nutrition, and more for longevity
We were talking briefly before this, and I think Jessica on our team had a good idea, and people in the audience can let us know if they think this is good, which is maybe we do get a panel of these seven-year-olds together and do a roundtable on what elementary kids think about health, nutrition, exercise, protein, microplastics, seed oils, you name it.
The Peter Attia Drive
#349 - AMA #71: Building strength and muscle mass: how to optimize training, nutrition, and more for longevity
Sounds like your local elementary school has a lot of insights on these topics.
The Peter Attia Drive
#349 - AMA #71: Building strength and muscle mass: how to optimize training, nutrition, and more for longevity
Yeah, it is. Let us know if we should do it, and we will make it happen. But for today's AMA, we are not talking about that. We're actually going to talk about one topic, and that is all things related to muscle mass and muscle strength. So it's something that we've talked about on a lot of different podcasts. You openly talk about the importance of it.
The Peter Attia Drive
#349 - AMA #71: Building strength and muscle mass: how to optimize training, nutrition, and more for longevity
And we've gathered a lot of questions that have come in. And these questions are going to deal with why is muscle mass and strength important? The difference between muscle mass and strength, which one matters more? How can you start to increase your muscle mass and strength, whether you're old, young, male, female, the role of nutrition and protein, one of your favorite topics in this?
The Peter Attia Drive
#349 - AMA #71: Building strength and muscle mass: how to optimize training, nutrition, and more for longevity
And then we'll end with some different programming options for different types of people if they want to start applying this to their life or if they want to start going further than their current exercise programming. So with all that said, some people may say you have a lot of information on this already in episodes with Lane Norton, Andy Galpin, Mike Isratel, and many more.
The Peter Attia Drive
#349 - AMA #71: Building strength and muscle mass: how to optimize training, nutrition, and more for longevity
So what would you say to someone who asks, why are we now dedicating an AMA to this?
The Peter Attia Drive
#340 - AMA #69: Scrutinizing supplements: creatine, fish oil, vitamin D, and more—a framework for understanding effectiveness, quality, and individual need
Rounding out everything we talked about with creatine, what is the balance of risk reward to how you see it? Seems like a lot of stuff we talked about was a lot of reward. But how do you think about this to summarize it?
The Peter Attia Drive
#340 - AMA #69: Scrutinizing supplements: creatine, fish oil, vitamin D, and more—a framework for understanding effectiveness, quality, and individual need
Peter, welcome to another AMA. How are you doing? Great. Thank you for having me again. Always, always welcome. I know sometimes it's tough to get you to clear your schedule, but we're always happy you show up. Haven't missed one yet, so that's always a good thing. So today we're hitting a topic, which is one we get asked about a lot, which is supplements.
The Peter Attia Drive
#340 - AMA #69: Scrutinizing supplements: creatine, fish oil, vitamin D, and more—a framework for understanding effectiveness, quality, and individual need
Anything else you want to say on creatine before we move to the next one, which is fish oil? Nope. Perfect. Fish oil. Another supplement that we get asked about a ton. We've done some podcasts on it. A lot of questions on it. Seems like a lot of people take it.
The Peter Attia Drive
#340 - AMA #69: Scrutinizing supplements: creatine, fish oil, vitamin D, and more—a framework for understanding effectiveness, quality, and individual need
And so going through the questions with fish oil, first one is, are you correcting for deficiency or are you trying to achieve super maximal levels when it comes to fish oil?
The Peter Attia Drive
#340 - AMA #69: Scrutinizing supplements: creatine, fish oil, vitamin D, and more—a framework for understanding effectiveness, quality, and individual need
And this can vary greatly depending on the person, depending on the supplements. And the hard part with supplements is that while everyone is interested in it, it's so variable person to person. And not even all your patients are taking the same supplements or the same amount and all of that.
The Peter Attia Drive
#340 - AMA #69: Scrutinizing supplements: creatine, fish oil, vitamin D, and more—a framework for understanding effectiveness, quality, and individual need
And so it's really hard to talk about it in a way that makes it applicable to everyone without being like, take this, don't take this, which is something that you've never really done because of how you look at this topic. What we decided to do today was instead look at a framework for how you think about supplements and then go through case studies to
The Peter Attia Drive
#340 - AMA #69: Scrutinizing supplements: creatine, fish oil, vitamin D, and more—a framework for understanding effectiveness, quality, and individual need
of a variety of supplements to talk through it to hopefully allow the person listening or watching to then be able to apply it in their own life so they can just get a better understanding, be smarter when it comes to this topic. So we tried to pick ones that we get asked about a lot for the case studies, which is creatine, fish oil, vitamin D, B vitamins, and ashwagandha.
The Peter Attia Drive
#340 - AMA #69: Scrutinizing supplements: creatine, fish oil, vitamin D, and more—a framework for understanding effectiveness, quality, and individual need
So the hope is after this, not only will people understand those specific supplements better that we're going to do the case studies on, but also how they can apply this framework. to their own life. With all that said, when patients come into the practice, what percent of the supplements are they taking that you recommend they continue to take?
The Peter Attia Drive
#340 - AMA #69: Scrutinizing supplements: creatine, fish oil, vitamin D, and more—a framework for understanding effectiveness, quality, and individual need
I think with that said, do you just want to run over real quick the questions you asked to determine whether or not a supplement is worthwhile? And I think just giving this overview will be helpful because as we said in the beginning, when we go through the case studies, we'll stick to these questions and answer them along the way.
The Peter Attia Drive
#340 - AMA #69: Scrutinizing supplements: creatine, fish oil, vitamin D, and more—a framework for understanding effectiveness, quality, and individual need
And so to kick it off, do you just want to run through what those questions are?
The Peter Attia Drive
#340 - AMA #69: Scrutinizing supplements: creatine, fish oil, vitamin D, and more—a framework for understanding effectiveness, quality, and individual need
Perfect. So I think let's get started with the first one, creatine. Going through the questions in the framework, are you using creatine to correct for deficiency or trying to achieve super maximal levels?
The Peter Attia Drive
#340 - AMA #69: Scrutinizing supplements: creatine, fish oil, vitamin D, and more—a framework for understanding effectiveness, quality, and individual need
As far as taking it for lifespan, healthspan, which one are people usually taking it for?
The Peter Attia Drive
#340 - AMA #69: Scrutinizing supplements: creatine, fish oil, vitamin D, and more—a framework for understanding effectiveness, quality, and individual need
And you kind of talked about this earlier on, but is there a specific biomarker that people can use to track to see if the supplements quote unquote working or not?
The Peter Attia Drive
#340 - AMA #69: Scrutinizing supplements: creatine, fish oil, vitamin D, and more—a framework for understanding effectiveness, quality, and individual need
On the mechanism of action, do we have any understanding of the mechanism of action for creatine, whether it relates to the physical or the cognitive side?
The Peter Attia Drive
#340 - AMA #69: Scrutinizing supplements: creatine, fish oil, vitamin D, and more—a framework for understanding effectiveness, quality, and individual need
You mentioned earlier that we'll put a lot of more detailed information on the data in the show notes, but looking at a high level, what does the data around creatine say about efficacy of it?
The Peter Attia Drive
#336 - AMA #68: Fasting, well-balanced diets, alcohol, exercise for busy people, wearables, emotional health, assessing cardiovascular health, and more
Peter, welcome to another AMA. How are you doing? Good. Thanks for having me. Always welcome on your own show. So today, what we're going to do is we actually have gathered all the questions over the past three or so years that people have submitted on the AMA portal. For people who don't know, we have an AMA portal on our website where you can submit a question.
The Peter Attia Drive
#336 - AMA #68: Fasting, well-balanced diets, alcohol, exercise for busy people, wearables, emotional health, assessing cardiovascular health, and more
So if anyone hasn't done it, we'll link to it in the show notes. And that way there's questions you have that you want follow up on, whether it's something related to something that happened to you, questions on podcasts, newsletters, whatever it may be. And so that's kind of what today's AMA is going to be. And we'll hit different diseases. We'll hit nutrition. We'll hit exercise.
The Peter Attia Drive
#336 - AMA #68: Fasting, well-balanced diets, alcohol, exercise for busy people, wearables, emotional health, assessing cardiovascular health, and more
How would you respond to a patient who says something in the following, which is what you kind of see a lot, which is, I understand that alcohol may not be good for me, but I do get a lot of enjoyment having a drink with some friends every other week or once in a while.
The Peter Attia Drive
#336 - AMA #68: Fasting, well-balanced diets, alcohol, exercise for busy people, wearables, emotional health, assessing cardiovascular health, and more
Do you think that the danger of having a little bit of alcohol outweighs the potential enjoyment of being with friends in that environment?
The Peter Attia Drive
#336 - AMA #68: Fasting, well-balanced diets, alcohol, exercise for busy people, wearables, emotional health, assessing cardiovascular health, and more
Moving on to the next set of questions, kind of nutrition related. The first one is, what do you think are the key principles for a quote unquote, well-balanced, healthy diet?
The Peter Attia Drive
#336 - AMA #68: Fasting, well-balanced diets, alcohol, exercise for busy people, wearables, emotional health, assessing cardiovascular health, and more
We'll kind of hit a little bit of everything because as people can imagine, questions came through, included a little bit of everything. So I think we'll just jump into it. But with that being said, anything you want to add before we start with the first question?
The Peter Attia Drive
#336 - AMA #68: Fasting, well-balanced diets, alcohol, exercise for busy people, wearables, emotional health, assessing cardiovascular health, and more
Yeah, perfect. First question, how does someone assess their cardiovascular health? It's obviously a topic that we've covered in such a variety of podcasts, very important. You've often talked about number one cause of death, not only in the US, but in the world.
The Peter Attia Drive
#336 - AMA #68: Fasting, well-balanced diets, alcohol, exercise for busy people, wearables, emotional health, assessing cardiovascular health, and more
And so kind of in general terms of someone sitting there thinking, okay, I'm curious about where I'm at cardiovascular and as it relates to cardiovascular disease, how would you talk to them about how they can assess where they're at?
The Peter Attia Drive
#336 - AMA #68: Fasting, well-balanced diets, alcohol, exercise for busy people, wearables, emotional health, assessing cardiovascular health, and more
If anyone wants to go deeper on any of that, as we said, we have tons of different materials, podcasts, newsletters. We'll link them in the show notes for people who want to dive deeper on any specific piece of that. But next question that gets asked a lot is, how can I use fasting or intermittent fasting to improve my overall metabolic health? And I think
The Peter Attia Drive
#336 - AMA #68: Fasting, well-balanced diets, alcohol, exercise for busy people, wearables, emotional health, assessing cardiovascular health, and more
A lot of times people use those two terms, fasting, intermittent fasting, interchangeably. And I know to you, you kind of think of them a little separately. So it might be helpful to start with how you define those two terms before then getting into how each of them can impact metabolic health.
The Peter Attia Drive
#336 - AMA #68: Fasting, well-balanced diets, alcohol, exercise for busy people, wearables, emotional health, assessing cardiovascular health, and more
Next question on the list relates to alcohol. And it seems like anytime we've done anything around alcohol, it seems very polarizing, let's say. There's a lot of opinions, strong opinions on each side. And so I think the general question is, how does alcohol affect someone's health or longevity? And how do you think about it?
The Peter Attia Drive
#329 ‒ Special AMA: Peter on exercise, important labs, building good habits, promising longevity research, and more
100%.
The Peter Attia Drive
#329 ‒ Special AMA: Peter on exercise, important labs, building good habits, promising longevity research, and more
Another question that comes through often is sex specific. So if you have female patients who prefer cardio compared to weightlifting, why do you think women should pay special attention to strength training?
The Peter Attia Drive
#329 ‒ Special AMA: Peter on exercise, important labs, building good habits, promising longevity research, and more
Last exercise question is kind of a conversation that you had internally with a few people that we thought was interesting on how you think about exercise as a strategy for weight loss. Do you kind of want to talk a little bit about that?
The Peter Attia Drive
#329 ‒ Special AMA: Peter on exercise, important labs, building good habits, promising longevity research, and more
Peter, welcome to a special bonus AMA. How are you doing? I'm doing well. Thank you for having me back. Anything new going on in your life?
The Peter Attia Drive
#329 ‒ Special AMA: Peter on exercise, important labs, building good habits, promising longevity research, and more
I say that with not knowing anything, but just anything that jumps out to you.
The Peter Attia Drive
#329 ‒ Special AMA: Peter on exercise, important labs, building good habits, promising longevity research, and more
Awesome. Any other things on exercise at top of mind that you want to share with the people before we move on? I like exercise.
The Peter Attia Drive
#329 ‒ Special AMA: Peter on exercise, important labs, building good habits, promising longevity research, and more
You could have saved a lot of time and a lot of words by just having that have been outlive. It probably would have come out a lot earlier if it was just one page, one sentence. Okay, moving on to labs. So this question I know is a tough one for you to answer. The reason I know that is it's been on other AMAs and it always gets scrapped because you're like, I can't answer this.
The Peter Attia Drive
#329 ‒ Special AMA: Peter on exercise, important labs, building good habits, promising longevity research, and more
It's too simple, too hard to do it. But we keep sneaking it on and now you kind of have to answer it.
The Peter Attia Drive
#329 ‒ Special AMA: Peter on exercise, important labs, building good habits, promising longevity research, and more
Which is, if you had to pick, gun to your head, the quote-unquote top five most important biomarkers that everyone should know for themselves, and or if you were going to meet with a new patient and you could kind of only see five biomarkers to figure out their risks, to figure out where they're at, what would those be?
The Peter Attia Drive
#329 ‒ Special AMA: Peter on exercise, important labs, building good habits, promising longevity research, and more
That's amazing. Back in the day, the younger days, did you ever put one of those big subwoofers in your car ever? No, I did not.
The Peter Attia Drive
#329 ‒ Special AMA: Peter on exercise, important labs, building good habits, promising longevity research, and more
Well, that's fair. Maybe we'll get to it. You told the story, I think in the book too, and I think it's come up on another podcast, but whenever I think of you, med school and driving, I think of you falling asleep in the park in Baltimore.
The Peter Attia Drive
#329 ‒ Special AMA: Peter on exercise, important labs, building good habits, promising longevity research, and more
Oh, residency.
The Peter Attia Drive
#329 ‒ Special AMA: Peter on exercise, important labs, building good habits, promising longevity research, and more
Med school is not that exhausting. I love it. So for today's AMA, it's going to be kind of a little different style, just more conversational, a little bit covering questions that come through that we haven't covered before. Some of it will be conversations that we've had internally that we were like, ah, it'd be great to record this and kind of put it out there.
The Peter Attia Drive
#329 ‒ Special AMA: Peter on exercise, important labs, building good habits, promising longevity research, and more
So it's going to be a mix of specific questions, more framework, organizing principle questions. We'll cover things like labs. prioritization as it relates to actions, what you're excited about in the field of longevity, books you've maybe read recently, and a bunch of other random stuff. So with all that said, we'll get going. First topic, your favorite exercise.
The Peter Attia Drive
#329 ‒ Special AMA: Peter on exercise, important labs, building good habits, promising longevity research, and more
And within it, we're going to cover grip strength. So It's something you've talked about before, the importance of, but I don't think we've ever really covered a little bit in depth on like how you train for it and how you think about it in the weight room. So before we get to that, do you just kind of want to remind people why you think grip strength is important?
The Peter Attia Drive
#329 ‒ Special AMA: Peter on exercise, important labs, building good habits, promising longevity research, and more
And maybe let's isolate two of the things you mentioned that I think are easiest for people to potentially test on themselves at a gym, you know, with the least amount of equipment. Like you said, if you haven't deadlifted before, you probably shouldn't just start deadlifting without understanding the form. So I think looking at farmer's carry and dead hang, let's say farmer's carry.
The Peter Attia Drive
#329 ‒ Special AMA: Peter on exercise, important labs, building good habits, promising longevity research, and more
What do you think is like the ideal goal for someone to be able to do a farmer's carry with in terms of time and weight?
The Peter Attia Drive
#329 ‒ Special AMA: Peter on exercise, important labs, building good habits, promising longevity research, and more
And do you have a preference on like hands the same way, hands that are switched? Do you even think about that? Or is it just a matter of
The Peter Attia Drive
#329 ‒ Special AMA: Peter on exercise, important labs, building good habits, promising longevity research, and more
Yeah, she's a machine. Yeah. And she probably trains it a little less than you were training for your record.
The Peter Attia Drive
#329 ‒ Special AMA: Peter on exercise, important labs, building good habits, promising longevity research, and more
Yeah. Just to show you, it's not that hard. You're spending too much time on it.
The Peter Attia Drive
#329 ‒ Special AMA: Peter on exercise, important labs, building good habits, promising longevity research, and more
You mentioned wall sits. So I got to ask what's ideal for wall sits. Again, it's another one anyone can kind of do and test a little bit. Do you think about like, what is an ideal time that you should be able to do that for?
The Peter Attia Drive
#329 ‒ Special AMA: Peter on exercise, important labs, building good habits, promising longevity research, and more
Anything else on grip strength before we move on? No, I think that's good. Perfect. Another question that comes through a lot is on exercises, people who are traveling. So whether it's for work, whether it's family, you're not at your traditional location, gym, whatever it may be.
The Peter Attia Drive
#329 ‒ Special AMA: Peter on exercise, important labs, building good habits, promising longevity research, and more
So if you're traveling, any advice you would give patients on easy exercises they can do, ways they can continue to stay active even when they're not in an ideal setting?
The Peter Attia Drive
#344 - AMA #70: Nicotine: impact on cognitive function, performance, and mood, health risks, delivery modalities, and smoking cessation strategies
What do we know about potential side effects of nicotine?
The Peter Attia Drive
#344 - AMA #70: Nicotine: impact on cognitive function, performance, and mood, health risks, delivery modalities, and smoking cessation strategies
Peter, welcome to another AMA. How are you doing? I'm doing really well. Thank you for having me back. I mean, we're always happy to have you whenever you would like. And again, it'd be very awkward if you weren't here. I think we do need to follow up based on one of our recent AMAs is, do you still have a liquid of some form in front of you? I do. What kind of cup is that in?
The Peter Attia Drive
#344 - AMA #70: Nicotine: impact on cognitive function, performance, and mood, health risks, delivery modalities, and smoking cessation strategies
Did you listen to our micro plastics AMA? And that's why you made that change?
The Peter Attia Drive
#344 - AMA #70: Nicotine: impact on cognitive function, performance, and mood, health risks, delivery modalities, and smoking cessation strategies
That's great to hear. Two things. First is, by the time this comes out, we'll most likely have a short video on what those changes were, so we'll link to that. If we don't have that video, something terribly went wrong, so we should have it. The second is, are you just so happy that you continue to join us for these AMAs? Otherwise, you would still be living so foolishly in your microplastic life.
The Peter Attia Drive
#344 - AMA #70: Nicotine: impact on cognitive function, performance, and mood, health risks, delivery modalities, and smoking cessation strategies
Maybe an avatar. That would be awesome. We could just have AI Peter and it's just an ongoing AMA that never ends. Well, today's AMA is not going to be that. It will be you live. And it is on a single topic. We get asked a lot about, there's so much more use of it. We initially did an AMA on it, I think like four years ago. And at the time, you didn't see as much use as you do now.
The Peter Attia Drive
#344 - AMA #70: Nicotine: impact on cognitive function, performance, and mood, health risks, delivery modalities, and smoking cessation strategies
And that's nicotine. So we are going to talk all things nicotine today. This is going to look at benefits, short-term, long-term, around everything from cognition, exercise, whatever it may be, risks of nicotine and things that people need to be aware of. We're going to look at different ways and vehicles that people can use nicotine and what are the pros and cons.
The Peter Attia Drive
#344 - AMA #70: Nicotine: impact on cognitive function, performance, and mood, health risks, delivery modalities, and smoking cessation strategies
And then we're also going to end this with something that we get asked a lot about every now and then when it comes to smoking cessation. And I think we often say a lot of people in our audience most likely are not smoking because if you are, you're probably not opting into this deep content, but some people are.
The Peter Attia Drive
#344 - AMA #70: Nicotine: impact on cognitive function, performance, and mood, health risks, delivery modalities, and smoking cessation strategies
But also we hear from people where it's, hey, my parents, significant other, children, friends, whatever it may be, are still doing this. How can I talk to them about quitting? So we'll cover that as well. So all that said, anything you want to say, before we get rolling. Nope. This is a great insight that you added right there. So thank you for that. All right, start out.
The Peter Attia Drive
#344 - AMA #70: Nicotine: impact on cognitive function, performance, and mood, health risks, delivery modalities, and smoking cessation strategies
Can you explain just where the field of nicotine research currently stands and what's new and distinct from when we talked about this four years ago?
The Peter Attia Drive
#344 - AMA #70: Nicotine: impact on cognitive function, performance, and mood, health risks, delivery modalities, and smoking cessation strategies
It'd be really helpful for people double-clicking on kind of one thing you hinted at there, which is for a lot of people when they hear nicotine, there's just a negative connotation. And usually it's because they associate it with tobacco, cigarettes, and so their mind initially goes to nicotine as maybe a negative, harmful thing.
The Peter Attia Drive
#344 - AMA #70: Nicotine: impact on cognitive function, performance, and mood, health risks, delivery modalities, and smoking cessation strategies
So do you want to maybe quickly disentangle for people the health risks of tobacco from the effects of nicotine specifically?
The Peter Attia Drive
#344 - AMA #70: Nicotine: impact on cognitive function, performance, and mood, health risks, delivery modalities, and smoking cessation strategies
Before we move on, we should just address something, because I forget sometimes people get confused by it. And even earlier this week, we got an email to the website, which is, Peter, for someone who cares so much about their health, Why did I see an Instagram or YouTube video of you where on your hat or your t-shirt there was the Marlboro logo? Do you support cigarette smoking?
The Peter Attia Drive
#344 - AMA #70: Nicotine: impact on cognitive function, performance, and mood, health risks, delivery modalities, and smoking cessation strategies
So while we have people, do you just want to explain why sometimes your clothing has that and how you're not sponsored by Big Tobacco and that is not a, you should be going and smoking Marlboro Reds on the regular?
The Peter Attia Drive
#344 - AMA #70: Nicotine: impact on cognitive function, performance, and mood, health risks, delivery modalities, and smoking cessation strategies
Back to the regularly scheduled program. Nicotine. Are there any harms associated with nicotine itself based on what we just talked about then?
The Peter Attia Drive
#328 - AMA #66: Optimizing nutrition for health and longevity: myth of a “best” diet, complexities of nutrition science, and practical steps for building a sustainable diet
Peter, welcome to another AMA. How are you doing? Doing very well. Thank you for having me back. I haven't talked to you yet today. So what kind of mood would you say you're in today?
The Peter Attia Drive
#328 - AMA #66: Optimizing nutrition for health and longevity: myth of a “best” diet, complexities of nutrition science, and practical steps for building a sustainable diet
That's good. I was curious if we were going to get diplomatic Peter or spicy Peter on this episode. I don't know, actually. To be determined. Yes, TBD. Perfect. So for today, we are covering a topic that as you hinted at is not one of your favorite, but we probably get asked the most amount of questions on in some form or another. It's a massive topic. It's nutrition.
The Peter Attia Drive
#328 - AMA #66: Optimizing nutrition for health and longevity: myth of a “best” diet, complexities of nutrition science, and practical steps for building a sustainable diet
And we've done a ton of podcasts on this, ton of newsletters on this. And so we're not going to be able to cover everything as it relates to nutrition. But what we did
The Peter Attia Drive
#328 - AMA #66: Optimizing nutrition for health and longevity: myth of a “best” diet, complexities of nutrition science, and practical steps for building a sustainable diet
is we pulled the most common questions themes that we get asked and we pulled them together for this episode so we are going to talk about nutrition its relationship and weight loss and weight management how you think about it compared to exercise the complexities of nutrition research which is why often when we send emails tearing apart studies, they are typically on nutrition.
The Peter Attia Drive
#328 - AMA #66: Optimizing nutrition for health and longevity: myth of a “best” diet, complexities of nutrition science, and practical steps for building a sustainable diet
What you think of as quote-unquote the best diet, if we can even answer that, how that's different from a healthy person to someone who's trying to manage chronic disease, how people can think about choosing the best diet for themselves. Obviously, we can't do nutrition without protein, which is one thing you do.
The Peter Attia Drive
#328 - AMA #66: Optimizing nutrition for health and longevity: myth of a “best” diet, complexities of nutrition science, and practical steps for building a sustainable diet
genuinely like to talk about, and we'll also hit some other hot button issues such as processed food. So with all that said, anything you want to add before we get rolling? No, let's jump into it. Perfect. Starting off, nutrition. Why do you hate talking about it?
The Peter Attia Drive
#328 - AMA #66: Optimizing nutrition for health and longevity: myth of a “best” diet, complexities of nutrition science, and practical steps for building a sustainable diet
What do you think caused you to make a switch on nutrition? So you cut your teeth on this subject. When we met 12 or so years ago, you were deep in this subject. Was it a slow progression or do you think it was like more of a quick switch?
The Peter Attia Drive
#328 - AMA #66: Optimizing nutrition for health and longevity: myth of a “best” diet, complexities of nutrition science, and practical steps for building a sustainable diet
And so I think the next follow-up question would be what measures of health, if any, that relate to nutrition can an individual monitor on their own to kind of understand where they're at health-wise?
The Peter Attia Drive
#328 - AMA #66: Optimizing nutrition for health and longevity: myth of a “best” diet, complexities of nutrition science, and practical steps for building a sustainable diet
One of the questions we see come through a lot is kind of the relationship or the difference between nutrition and exercise as it relates to weight loss, weight maintenance, or gaining weight. What do we know about kind of those two things, nutrition and exercise, as it relates to weight?
The Ramsey Show
Don’t Let Toxic Money Situations Keep You Trapped
Hey, how you doing? Doing good. Thanks for having me on your show.
The Ramsey Show
Don’t Let Toxic Money Situations Keep You Trapped
My wife is a longtime listener and I just became a, started to listen to you guys. And I wanted to ask a couple of questions in regards to I co-signed on a loan for my friend seven years ago now with a verbal agreement that in a few years he's going to refinance and get me off.
The Ramsey Show
Don’t Let Toxic Money Situations Keep You Trapped
And, you know, COVID hit and he had a COVID assist program where they stopped paying on the loan, but obviously the interest rates were continuing to add up. And then life happened. So he had surgery. So he went through a couple of rough times. I mean, the good thing is he's still paying on the loan. The only bad thing was the original loan was for 367.
The Ramsey Show
Don’t Let Toxic Money Situations Keep You Trapped
And now because of the COVID program, it went up to 376. So after I just got married with my wife and we want to start our life and buy our first home. And I reached out to him in regards to options of getting off the loan. Excuse me. And we tried to do a loan assumption, but his debt ratio was not where it needed to be because of the surgeries and everything.
The Ramsey Show
Don’t Let Toxic Money Situations Keep You Trapped
And then I approached him in regards to, hey, let's refinance. Even though it's going to be at a higher rate, it's going to be on you only. It's not on me anymore. I did my part as a friend of helping you get this house. And what did he say?
The Ramsey Show
Don’t Let Toxic Money Situations Keep You Trapped
um no obviously he said no because of the rates not being low enough and um he so my question for you would be uh obviously we've been going back and forth with him about it um and i want to know what would should be my next step i mean the relationship can't be too good after all this is it So no, so the relationship has definitely suffered.
The Ramsey Show
Wealth Magnifies Who You Already Are
What's up? So I just recently purchased an engagement ring for my long-term girlfriend. Hey! Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Yeah, very excited and just looking forward to this next chapter. Yeah, so basically how I did it was... I had an introductory credit card offer from the good people of Bank of America. Boo! Exactly. Yeah, there's some good people, I guess.
The Ramsey Show
Wealth Magnifies Who You Already Are
But anyway, I received a promotional offer from Bank of America where qualifying purchase through this new credit card would warrant a 0%. interest on any debt that's paid within the first 60 days of purchasing and opening the credit card.
The Ramsey Show
Wealth Magnifies Who You Already Are
I have no intentions of putting anything else on the credit card and essentially it's been purchased through the card and it's just a cash outflow question as far as managing my monthly payment. How much is on the card? So I currently owe $11,000 for the rate.
The Ramsey Show
Wealth Magnifies Who You Already Are
So I have about $25,000 in a high-yield savings account.
The Ramsey Show
Wealth Magnifies Who You Already Are
Yeah. I think the point I was thinking about it was if you get below the $25,000 deposit, it goes down to I'm making about 4% yield on that savings account. It goes down to less than 1%.
The Ramsey Show
Wealth Magnifies Who You Already Are
Well, I'm salaried, but I make probably about $3,500 paycheck. Yeah, okay.
The Ramsey Show
Focused People Build Wealth—Distracted People Stay Broke
So here's my situation and my question. I want to know if I should buy a house in Williamson County, Tennessee. The background is I currently own a home that's worth about $500,000. I owe $90,000 still on it. I have $60,000 in the bank that I could put towards that if I wanted to. My salary is $292,000 a year, and that's all the debt that I have. So I'm currently on baby step number six.
The Ramsey Show
Focused People Build Wealth—Distracted People Stay Broke
However, I'm wanting to get out of Illinois and move to a better state, and I'm considering Williamson County, where I've had a job offer as a physician. But in my wife and I's research, we found that these houses are extremely expensive, many of them $950,000 to $1.1 million, and I don't know what to do.
The Ramsey Show
Focused People Build Wealth—Distracted People Stay Broke
Would that be a silly idea to take out a mortgage for $450,000 or $500,000 to move to a better location?
The Ramsey Show
Focused People Build Wealth—Distracted People Stay Broke
After taxes right now, I bring home $14,000 a month.
The Ramsey Show
Focused People Build Wealth—Distracted People Stay Broke
It would stay about the same. I would make less. But with you guys having a better tax situation, it would be about a break even.
The Ramsey Show
Focused People Build Wealth—Distracted People Stay Broke
That is after all of that. After 401k, after insurance, everything, I get $14,000 a month.
The Ramsey Show
Focused People Build Wealth—Distracted People Stay Broke
Well, it has to be done pretty soon. I've got four kids, which we're funding their college. And I want them to, if we move, I want to do it by school year. So August-ish.
The Ramsey Show
Focused People Build Wealth—Distracted People Stay Broke
Just to clarify, guys, if my mortgage was around $4,000 or so, you guys think that that's financially responsible still?
The Ramsey Show
Delayed Gratification Is a Key Ingredient to Building Wealth
Hey Dave, I'm doing good. How are you guys doing?
The Ramsey Show
Delayed Gratification Is a Key Ingredient to Building Wealth
So I'm in a little predicament here. Uh, I've been running my business. I started about eight years ago. Um, it's a party and event rental company. We're located in South Florida. And I have just recently, probably within the last six months, kind of been listening to a lot of your videos and watching you guys consistently starting the baby steps.
The Ramsey Show
Delayed Gratification Is a Key Ingredient to Building Wealth
I've had about a little over $70,000 in debt between a vehicle or two, as well as just mainly credit card debt. Within the last six months, I've paid off over half of that. I have about $30,000 in debt remaining with $22,000 of that being one of my vehicles and then about $8,000 left in credit cards.
The Ramsey Show
Delayed Gratification Is a Key Ingredient to Building Wealth
And now with it being December, I've got Christmas bonuses that need to be going out that I'm normally paying every year and that I've got about 10 employees total and Uh, I'd say four or five of them have been with me for a few years now and are used to, you know, that Christmas bonus.
The Ramsey Show
Delayed Gratification Is a Key Ingredient to Building Wealth
Um, this year I've just been, you know, I've been tightening everything up and I'm just in a predicament right now and wondering, you know, if, if I should pay those Christmas bonuses or if I should have a, you know, a conversation with my employees about, you know, I've got the money. Yeah. I, you know, I've, I definitely have the money to pay them for sure right now.
The Ramsey Show
Delayed Gratification Is a Key Ingredient to Building Wealth
Not a lot. I would say over the 10 employees, they're all going to be small bonuses, maybe totaling up to $3,000. Okay.
The Ramsey Show
Delayed Gratification Is a Key Ingredient to Building Wealth
I mean, right now, just liquid in the bank between my personal accounts and my business accounts, I'd say approximately maybe $35,000.
The Ramsey Show
Delayed Gratification Is a Key Ingredient to Building Wealth
Right. That's my why. How do you think they're going to react to that?
The Ramsey Show
Delayed Gratification Is a Key Ingredient to Building Wealth
Definitely some disappointment for sure. I'm sure they're kind of counting on it. It's later in the month than I would have normally paid it to them because I'm just, you know what I mean?
The Ramsey Show
Delayed Gratification Is a Key Ingredient to Building Wealth
I haven't, unfortunately, no.
The Ramsey Show
Your Debt Should Make You Uncomfortable
Yeah. So you would just instead of investing it because I'm able to, you'd say just save it in a high yield and then just put it to the next.
The Ramsey Show
Your Debt Should Make You Uncomfortable
I only have one more. So three more semesters total next semester and then senior year.
The Ramsey Show
Your Debt Should Make You Uncomfortable
The way to go. And then would you also recommend me taking that out of that investment and then putting it back or just leave it there and from here on out just save the money?
The Ramsey Show
Your Debt Should Make You Uncomfortable
Okay. Thank you so much. That provides a lot of clarity.
The Ramsey Show
Your Debt Should Make You Uncomfortable
My question is, I'm 21. I'm in college. I paid for my education with my dad and I've got baby steps one done and I have no debt. I need to pay $3,000 per semester so that I don't go out of college with student loan debt. And would it be more beneficial for me to any additional money that I don't make? So putting into step three, I don't feel like I can be gazelle intense with that.
The Ramsey Show
Your Debt Should Make You Uncomfortable
Or would it be more beneficial to take 15% of my income and put it into mutual funds for something further down the line?
The Ramsey Show
Your Debt Should Make You Uncomfortable
Mainly to, I won't, me and my dad have got it covered. I just need $3,000. Should I put it towards the three to six month emergency fund, which is baby step three? Or should I just put it to a mutual fund and be able to
The Russell Brunson Show
Introducing The Side Hustle Show
Whether you're looking for ways to make extra money in your spare time or build a side hustle to replace your income, The Side Hustle Show is helping thousands of listeners just like you reach their goals. Make about $1,000 a day. We have a net profit of three grand.
The Russell Brunson Show
Introducing The Side Hustle Show
It was doubling my income from my nine to five job. And I said, I got to quit. Since 2013, I've been studying the best legit side hustle ideas and learning what works and what doesn't from real side hustle entrepreneurs, not the high ticket gurus. Success leaves clues. At some point, they all made the decision to start something, something that changed their lives for the better.
The Russell Brunson Show
Introducing The Side Hustle Show
Even if you have no idea what side hustle you should start, The Side Hustle Show shares tons of different options so you can find the ones that work for you. Here are three recommendations. A great episode to start with is number 603 that shares 17 side hustles you can start even if you have, quote unquote, no skills. Would an extra $100 a day change your life?
The Russell Brunson Show
Introducing The Side Hustle Show
Check out the $100 a day challenge in episode 594. And if you can't be bothered with low paying side hustles, check out our top 10 most profitable side hustles in episode 624. We've collected more than 1200 five star reviews and would love to earn one from you as well. So follow the side hustle show and your favorite podcast app today, or get your own free personalized playlist at hustle.show.
The Telepathy Tapes
Ep 10: In Their Words: Messages from the Non-Speakers
People don't understand that they can do this. They don't even have to be in the same room, the same zip code.
The Telepathy Tapes
Ep 10: In Their Words: Messages from the Non-Speakers
When asked about what he wants for the future, this is what Nick said.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E561 Ari Shaffir
Yeah, wake up in the morning and just piss myself off by reading all the comments.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E561 Ari Shaffir
But even this headline is like, oh, they decided to boost their contribution to the lawsuit even though they killed hundreds of thousands of people.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
E561 Ari Shaffir
We had a female long-haul trucker, a mortician, lunch lady.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
BEST OF: This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von 2024
They didn't know. But we could hear him. So we walked up.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
BEST OF: This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von 2024
Probably five to seven minutes of Trump speaking. I'm estimating here. I have no idea.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
BEST OF: This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von 2024
We noticed the guy crawling around. bear crawling up the roof of the building beside us, 50 feet away from us. So we're standing there and we're pointing at the guy crawling up the roof.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
BEST OF: This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von 2024
You can look at a jewelry box, a jewelry box of this nature, maybe a simple jewelry box, but if you look through it closely, you don't know what your child may be hiding. For instance, a gun. That's from the state of New York. The fucking government was like, make it scary as fuck. Hold on, hold on, hold on.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
BEST OF: This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von 2024
Well, I almost had something happen yesterday. No. Yep. It was during the Super Bowl. A friend of mine invited me.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
BEST OF: This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von 2024
And he was like trying to get off work to just come down and just say hi.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
BEST OF: This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von 2024
And we were hanging out and everything was great. And this other guy shows up.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
BEST OF: This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von 2024
No, yeah, we were just at a bar. Okay, you're at a bar. And a dude showed up? Yeah.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
BEST OF: This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von 2024
And he, he was like, what is it? What is it?
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
BEST OF: This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von 2024
And what was he wearing? Was he dressed pretty well? He just had slacks on and a nice jacket. Fuck him.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
BEST OF: This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von 2024
Wow. A mixed guy? Yeah, more darker. Okay.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
BEST OF: This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von 2024
you're asking me what I've been up to. I, I've been visiting schools. I mean, I, now I have to like look at real schools. Cause my, my, you know, my, my oldest daughter's like going to turn five. So that's like kindergarten. So yes, she has to get to like the real school system. And we were looking at this one place and they have plain clothes, just like guards now with guns.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
BEST OF: This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von 2024
So it's kind of sick. I was like, dude, I really want to retire and become plainclothes. Just walk around a school, just grow like a ponytail and become a teacher. That's all you do all day. You carry a gun. You just wait for like some nerd to pop off and you just blast him. That would be honorable, man.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
BEST OF: This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von 2024
Like I'm like the true detective. I'm Russ Cole of school, school security. I'd have to wait until they'd have to pull out first.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
BEST OF: This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von 2024
you think you would set a kid up is that no i'm sorry you're saying like get like all tripped out like damn is this kid paranoid like i know these motherfuckers damien's up to some i know he's packing no i would just wait i would chill i'd do my thing in the moment one of those motherfuckers pulled out the steel i would just be there ready to die and just walk them down oh That's your job.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
BEST OF: This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von 2024
So Beast Games, that's the show.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
BEST OF: This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von 2024
Sometimes you talk to a black guy. He's like, I got hit when I was 10. You're like, what? Like, for real? Sorry, dude. It's okay. This place just went out of business. We're good.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
BEST OF: This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von 2024
What happened? Well, back in March, I had a little incident with a girl. You had an incident? I met her at a bar and then went home with her that night.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
BEST OF: This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von 2024
You can look at a jewelry box, a jewelry box of this nature.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
BEST OF: This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von 2024
Look through his knapsack.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
BEST OF: This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von 2024
Now they're trying to figure out who killed Kennedy right here. And some guy's like, I don't know the difference between a cucumber and a pickle. And you want me to decide on this jury? This is a Fuddruckers manager.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
BEST OF: This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von 2024
In addition to a book. Something simple as a crack pipe. Something simple as a baby doll. What grade is a kid? But also it could be a place where you could secrete or hide drugs. Secrete. You could secrete. Bro, this is the mayor. Like a pillow like this with a button is a perfect invitation to hide something. I felt something bumpy. I would reach in, see what it is.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
BEST OF: This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von 2024
I think it does. I think when you smoke meth, just everything dries up. Yeah.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
BEST OF: This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von 2024
Oh, fuck yeah. No way, dude.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
BEST OF: This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von 2024
Dude, you know, my buddy figured I was tweaking, and they showed me how to... They're like, you got a light bulb? And I'm like, yeah. And so they showed me how to... take the little silver thing off the bulb, and you can take it out, and then you put some warm salt water in there and swish it around. You get all that white shit off the bulb. Then you got a nice clear bulb.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
BEST OF: This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von 2024
So then you kind of just tap some shit down in there, and you can burn it and smoke it. So whatever. I hit the shit. Woo! All of a sudden, where's my guitar? I want to play guitar so bad. So for two days, I sat there playing. Two fucking days. I didn't eat. I don't even think I pissed. It was insane. And then... Two days later, somebody finally snaps me out of it by knocking on my door.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
BEST OF: This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von 2024
It was my friend Brendan, Brendan Lauer. And I hear the knock on the slider door, and I'm like, oh, fuck, and I put my guitar down on that. I'll be right back. I hate to leave you. I wanted that guitar so bad still after two days straight of playing it. And I go open the door, and my friend Brendan's there. He's like, what the fuck's all over your face? And I'm like, what?
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
BEST OF: This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von 2024
And I go in the bathroom and I look in the mirror and my face is all green. And I'm like, oh, fuck. Like, I thought it was like from the meth or something. It was like, oh, no, my skin's turning green. And it was from like, I was playing my guitar for so long that the bronze on my strings had like gone to my fingers and I had touched my face.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
BEST OF: This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von 2024
And so I had green shit on my face from my guitar strings. And I was so twacked out, you know, I didn't know what the fuck was going on.