The Best One Yet - 🤡 “Brain RotTok” — Sora’s AI Hollywood app. Heinz’s sauce maxxing. Best Buddy Stock Accounts. +Nick’s Waymo ticket

Episode Date: October 6, 2025

OpenAI’s Sora hit #1 in the app store with AI-only vids… Artificial intelligence is going the way of Artificial Ingredients.The financial “trend du jour” is opening a joint bank account with your bestie… But we want bestie stock trading accounts.Sauce sales are up 50% in 5 years… Because protein maxxing is maxxing sauce sales.Plus, Nick’s Waymo got a traffic ticket… but who’s paying it?Vote for The Best Idea Yet to win “Best Business Podcast”: ​​https://vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting#/2025/shows/genre/business$KHC $JPM $MSFTNEWSLETTER:https://tboypod.com/newsletter OUR 2ND SHOW:Want more business storytelling from us? Check our weekly deepdive show, The Best Idea Yet: The untold origin story of the products you're obsessed with. Listen for free to The Best Idea Yet: https://wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/NEW LISTENERSFill out our 2 minute survey: https://qualtricsxm88y5r986q.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dp1FDYiJgt6lHy6GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Linkedin (Nick): https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/Linkedin (Jack): https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ About Us: The daily pop-biz news show making today’s top stories your business. Formerly known as Robinhood Snacks, The Best One Yet is hosted by Jack Crivici-Kramer & Nick Martell. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. Welcome back. It is Monday, October 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, yeties, Jack and I have been keeping track. Stocks, gold, and Bitcoin are all shockingly at record highs right now. All of that, despite a fifth day of the government shutdown.

Jack and I call this the Treasury trifecta. We've never seen all three up at the same time. Stocks, rocks. blocks. The besties, Jack and I, we got a fantastic show for you today. Jack, what do we got on the T-boy? For our first story, the number one app on your phone all weekend was SORA. Sora is basically TikTok, but AI videos only. So Jack and I jumped in and we will compare artificial intelligence to artificial ingredients. For our second story, the grocery that has grown 50% in the last five years, it's sauces. We have become a condiment country. Fancy,

Petsheps, barbecues, mustards, and hot chili sauces are booming right now, and it's because of maxing. And our third and final story is the financial trend, du jour. Opening up joint bank accounts with your best friend to save for a trip together. That's a good idea, Jack. But better idea, turn your friendship into an investing fund. But Yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Oh, what a mix of stories to start the week. Love the mix, Jack.

Funny thing happened to Nick last weekend, and it leads to an existential question. question. Okay, so here's the deal, besties. I got in a Waymo Robo taxi. It was in the wrong space in front of the ferry building by our studio. And so a cop stood in front of the Waymo and started writing a ticket. And last week, the same thing made national news, didn't it, Nick? Jack, a Waymo Robotaxe made an illegal left turn and got pulled over by a policeman. Here's the problem. Yep. The cop in both scenarios could not fill out the ticket. Because the ticket required the driver's name and there's no option that drivers are robot. So what do we do here? Should Waymo's CEO get the ticket? Or Jack, should the engineering team at Google be responsible for this mishap? Or in a future of self-driving

cars, should tickets not even exist? Jack, maybe the robotaxie flirts with the police officer try to get out of it, you know what I mean? Like maybe open up the hood for the guy, there you go. Well, actually, Eddie's, the answer to robot crimes may lie in philosophy, which Jack and I have studied. For example, René Descartes once said, I think therefore, I am. So he'd say the taxi should get the ticket because it self- thinks. But then Jack Voltaire once said, common sense is not common. So he'd say Google should get the ticket because they own the car and the car can't be held accountable. But then of course, Jack Confucius one said, knowledge is knowing the extent of one's ignorance. So he'd say the answer is to not know the answer. Yendies, we will leave it up to

you because let us know in the comments what you're thinking. If a robot makes a traffic violation, who should be held responsible. If Waymo runs a red light, who's getting that ticket, man? What seems to be the problem officer? License and registration. My, you look good today. Jack, let's in our three stories. Fifteen 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 a norm. This 50% that's a fat tip. Tea 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. First, a quick word from our sponsor.

For our first story, the number one app in the app store right now, it's SORA by OpenAI, even though it's invite only. Sora is a social media feed with deep fake videos only. It is addictively fun, but it's also dangerous and lawbreaking and simply bizarre. It is a freaky world. But Yeti's first, let's tell a little history here, Open AI launched a text-based artificial intelligent product first. That was called ChachyPT. Then they launched an image artificial intelligence. That was called Dolly. And then video artificial intelligence. That's called SORA. All of those launched in the last three years, each of them, mind-blowing and novel. Because you can generate artificial content almost instantly. But here's the thing, yetties. As Jack and I know for being in this industry, we live in a video world, hence all of our work on YouTube lately. So the launch of a standalone SORA app last week

by OpenAI was mind-blowing squared. Because here's why. Sora 2 lets you turn yourself into the main character of your own blockbuster fantasy. And it's a wildly simple process to make that happen. Here's how it works.

You must say into the camera three numbers, any three numbers, then take a selfie and a picture of your side profile too, and then look up. That's all OpenAI needs. That's it. It took us like four seconds. And with that, you can create a video

of you doing anything you want, permitting you follow, the very few rules. that Sam Altman has imposed. So one guy created a sports center style highlight video of himself scoring the game-winning goal for Arsenal Football Club. Or Jack, what kind of other stuff are you going to see on Sora right now? One woman did herself as Uma Thurman in her favorite movie, Kill Bill,

Kung Fu Fighting the Bad Guys, but it was her, not Uma. Nick, you can finally live out your Batman fantasy. The only question is, are you Robin or are you Alfred? Where is he, Jack? Where is he? But here's the most wild part of it all, Yeties. This app hit number one in the app store, even though most people aren't allowed to use it. Because get this, OpenAI has limited the number of users who can sign up, and it's still number one. The reason why they're limiting the users is that despite the insane number of data centers they've been building,

they don't have the computing power to handle unlimited, make a blockbuster movie but of me as the star videos. If we all signed up for Sora right now, like the ice caps would melt in Antarctica. Dude, these are the most, like, energy-consuming queries you can do. Like, a tree dies every time you push that dirt. But remember, you can't get on unless you get the invite. So people are selling their Sauru invites to the app, like on eBay right now. As Nick said, it's a wild world we're living in. Yeah, oh, spoiler, by the way, I got an invite and I whipped up a surprise video for you, Jack.

I'm just going to post it on Instagram for all the Yetis, and you'll see it then. But here's why this is a huge, fascinating deal, besties. This is the first AI that's all sort of. social media. It's the first AI that lets you not just make artificial content, but watch and scroll other people's artificial content. Because the app is a vertical video feed, TikTok style, but only Sora generated AI videos. It's like a gated community. We only allow AI in this feed. Yeah, so psychologically, you don't have to worry about misinformation because it's all misinformation. Yeah, everything in here is a deep fake. Now, we should point out, Zuckerberg launched the same thing

the week before Open AI. It's called meta vibes, but it's not considered as good. Yeah, it's just not considered as good right now. However, most of the videos in the new SOAR app are ridiculous, obviously not real, and that's what people say is addicting and fun. But yet is there's also a cameo feature in the SOAR app that allows you to include yourself and other users in the video, like Leo DiCaprio, if Leo sets his profile to public. And that's where the deep fakes can start to get dangerous. Because like you can imagine a fake video of a public figure, passing is real doing something provocative if that got posted outside of Sora. Like if I did a video of Nick stealing Levi's jeans from a Levi's store and I published it on Instagram, that wouldn't be too good for Nick, would it? I would never. I mean, I'm a khaki guy, Jack. I'm a macaque guy.

But people wouldn't be able to tell the difference. The videos are that real life looking. No, it would ruin my rap. It would ruin the pod, Jack. I mean, you know what this kind of reminds me of, man? Is this is YouTube 15 years ago, the same challenge, too. True. You're talking about the IP theft? Right, because there is a lot of IP theft going down, and OpenAI is kind of currently just letting it slide. We saw this video of like some guy battling Pikachu. There's no way Nintendo gave OpenAI the rights to use Pikachu.

Basically, Sam Altman's saying, we're going to move fast and break a things. Hey, Pikachu, Sue me now. We'll deal with it later. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are out there testing the SORA AI video app? Could artificial intelligence end up like a? artificial ingredients. Here's what Jack and I are thinking, besties. Artificial ingredients were invented to make food last longer.

Stay fresher, taste better, to scale food. And it's the same with AI-generated content. But you see, the backlash came to artificial ingredients, and we expect the same kind of backlash to come to artificial content, too. You think 10 minutes of TikTok scrolling makes you feel disoriented? Jack, try the 10 minutes I just spent on Sora. It's honestly, it's like I just chugged a Mountain Dew and binged on some Pringles.

That's what it feels like. You need to read like a very boring physical paper book to offset the experience you just had in Sora. Exactly. Using Sora is the digital equivalent of pounding Doritos. Yeties, we use artificial intelligence for productivity to do like the admin and the research that AI can do way faster than we can.

But Jack and I don't use AI to generate the content for this pod because that could feel brain-roddy. AI generated content. It's going through the same trajectory as artificial ingredients. An empty calorie treat, but not necessarily your whole diet. For our second story, Americans are buying 50% more sauce than before the pandemic. Sauce is your new fridge flux.

We've become a condiment country, and Heinz is cashing in on it. Now, a couple weeks ago, Jack, I did say that the countertop was the most valuable real estate in your home. True. You and your spouse will get in a major fight over what appliances go on that Buy that space. Yeah, been there, done that. But the most valuable real estate in your home actually is the fridge. And the most valuable real estate in your fridge is the shelf.

Because besties, Jack and I've noticed increasingly, our fridge shelves are filled with crowded circular jars and bottles of sauce. And the data backs it up. According to market researcher Mintel, spending by Americans on sauce rose from $8 billion in 2019 to $12 billion last year. That's a 50% jump. On this pod, Jack and I have covered Bichon. troughs, syraccia, pink sauce, chili crunch, all of them hundreds of millions of dollars in sales.

But Heinz is not just the biggest sauce company in America. It's the OG inventor of bottled sauces, and it is surging too. And Heinz made a major insight recently that's particularly driving their sales. Well, they discovered that micro-tweaks to the ingredients can drive major growth. For example, ketchup with cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup. What do they see, Jack? Sales rose 17%. Manay's with avocado oil. Oh, sales for that, up 24% in the last year. The result is an entire hierarchy of sauces.

You are willing to pay for 12 different types of premium mustard. The new flex is extra, extra, extra, extra virgin olive oil. If you say the new flex again, I'm going to take a spoonful of honey. By the way, Jack, we have five different chilies in our fridge. Molly thinks I smell different depending on which chili oil I use. Wait, like you secrete the sauce? She's like, oh, it's a boonday or there was a mama fukum dinner. I think a big reason is these things don't expire.

Like, that's why I have so many sauces. But besties, here's what Jack and I find fascinating about this story. The sauce Renaissance has attracted a surprising new entrant. Restaurants. Yeah. Chains are taking a bite of the sauce, too. Because the margins for running a restaurant, besties, they're as thin as prosciutto.

They're so thin, I can't even see it. Rent, staffing, fresh produce, overtime. You got to roll feet. 50 napkins with silverware inside every shift. But, Jack, licensing your restaurant brand into a sauce bottle, producing at one factory with economies of scale? That is a profit puppy. And that is why Arby's, Chick-fil-A, Taco Bell, Panda Express, they have all launched bottled sauces in the last three years for grocery stores.

And the biggest investor in this bottled sauce trend is KFC. They launched an entire new restaurant concept this summer called saucy. All that saucy sells are chicken tenders and a dozen different sauces. Because as KFC says, everyone is obsessed with sauce. Yeah. Now, Kraft Heinz, interestingly, to go full circle, they're going even further. They're putting their money where their mouth is. They're breaking the company up into two and putting all the sauces on one of the companies. Hines, Grey Poupon, barbecue, all their other sauces are now going to be part of a publicly traded pure play sauce business doing 15 billion in sales. If the two,

ticker symbol isn't dip? Oh yeah, Jack. And I'm quitting this industry. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in fancy sauce? Where there's maxing, even the min grows. You see, Eddies, there are a few reasons for this sauce search. In this economy, people are saving money by cooking at home, and you need your own bottles of sauce. And if you're going to save money by cooking at home, you can afford a mini splurge of a fancy bottle of barbecue.

But the main draw, of the sauce surge appears to be protein maxing. Sources are piggybacking on the protein trend. Just look at red meat. Steak sales are up nationwide, despite the high price of steak. Therefore, steak sauce sales are up to. A1 sales up 5%. So Besty's this protein maxing moment,

it is driving a separate sauce renaissance. Because where you have chicken, you need some dip. Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story. The new financial trend, get this, joint savings accounts with your lifelong bestie. Friends building financial intimacy and saving for a trip is a great idea. Great idea. A greater idea? Turn your friendship into a fund, a stock fund. Nick, yes, Jack. An early sign that I've decided you're a friend of mine is when I stop keeping tabs.

I'll buy your Mountain Dew today. Don't worry about it. I know you'll get me a slice of pizza tomorrow. It's all going to even out in the long run. Oh, totally totally. It's so awkward when like the Venmos are just going back and forth. And at a certain point it's just like, it cancels out the Venmos, right? Yeah. Exactly. So I cut that all out. Yeties today, Gen Z's keeping tabs by taking a leap of financial faith with their best friends. The new trend among friends is to open a joint bank account to save for a group trip with each other. Basically, each one has to contribute $100 at the end of every month.

And after two years, you've got $4,000 for that Vegas trip, Friendiversary. situation. And that trip to Vegas is a lot more fun when you all paid for it in the same fund. Now, we think financial intimacy can very much improve friendships for several reasons. Jack, and let's whip out the whiteboard here. There are few reasons why this intimacy has a high ROI. First, it can break the taboo of talking about money, which is a healthy thing to do. Second, it is more enjoyable. Like, if I miss this shot, I'm going to put $5 into our Acapulco account. Also, a joint bank account with somebody with a savings goal keeps you accountable. Yeah, like when you have a New Year's resolution to run every day and you commit to it with a friend of yours.

It's hard to skip out on a savings goal when your roommate is in the same bank account and sees the balance. And finally, communal experiences are simply the best experiences. Sometimes when I experience something epic and I'm alone, I get upset. I wish somebody was here to experience it with me. But Jack, we earned this trip together. That's a different type of feeling that you get. Now, we should sprinkle on a warning here. Only do this with a friend whom you trust.

Because a joint savings account means any one person can withdraw all the money. So if you doubt Debbie's trustworthiness at all, do not open a joint savings account with her. Yeah, because Debbie could withdraw that cash and dash. But if you do trust your buddy, Timmy, it's a cool idea. But we have an even better one. Oh, Jack and I got a way better one. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies doing the financial. Intimacy, Joint Bank account. How about a shared brokerage account? Turn your friendship into a fund.

Yeah, turn your friendship into a stock fund. You see, Eddie's jack and I are big believers in investing money. If you can risk it, instead of saving money. Because $1,000 invested today tends to double every seven years. But $1,000 saved pretty much stays $1,000 forever. And over the course of a lifetime, saving all that money, instead of investing all that money, it has a giant difference in your wealth. But if you're new to investing, picking stocks with a friend in a joint brokerage account, that might help you because you're not doing it alone. Plus, Jack, you have a monthly rebalancing party if you do this. Like where you each bring five companies and products you like that happen to have publicly traded stocks you can invest in.

And you chat about it at the bar at a restaurant. Yeah, how would this go down, Jack? What are you thinking? Can I tell you about Build a Bear? Yeah. The stock is plushier than the teddy's you grew up hugging. Oh, Jack, when we were roommates, oh, we just bought a shark ninja air friar. maybe it's time we buy Shark Ninja's stock. Now you should establish some rules because you both have skin in the game.

A written agreement that you sign over a drink is our recommendation. Besties add it all up and this is not financial advice or relationship advice. It's financial relationship advice. With a shared brokerage account, you can turn friendship into a fund. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us to kick off the week? OpenAI launched a standalone app for creating and viewing AI-generated video. and it hit number one in the app store. And we're already seeing it yeties.

Could artificial intelligence end up like artificial ingredients? For our second story, we have become a condiment country. Sauce sales are up 50% in the last five years. It is piggybacking on the protein maxing trend because where there's meat, there is money to go around. And our third and final story is the financial trend on TikTok. Joint bank accounts with your bestie to save for a trip. But our idea?

Joint stock brokerage accounts. turn your friendship into a fund. But besties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, we just hit that treasury trifecta. The S&P 500, Bitcoin, and gold all just hit all-time highs on Friday. It's very rare for stocks, rocks, and blocks all to be at record highs. And all of this is happening despite the government shutdown.

You know, Bessies, we expected crypto and gold to go up during a moment of uncertainty like this, but it typically wouldn't see stocks be going up as well. We'll cover the trend as it continues. And second, coffee is the new eggs. Coffee prices are up 22% this year to also an all-time high. Blame bad weather causing a bad harvest and tariffs as the double whammy causing double-digit latte prices. The only winner here, Nispresso. At-home coffee is getting a boost right now.

And finally, the big potential winner of Taylor Swift's The Life of a Showgirl launch? Targe. Target! They were the exclusive retailer of Taylor's Ares Tour book. Christmas and they got in on the new album too. Yeah, they're the exclusive seller of the vinyl records of the album. Oh, also, Taylor released her album in theaters, music videos as a feature film,

and that's expected to have brought in 40 million bucks last weekend. 89 minutes comprised of all 12 tracks, each with their own music video, plus behind the scenes. Now, time for the best fact yet, which, because it's Monday means tea boy trivia. Jack, what do we got on the pod? We are in the heat of MLB baseball playoffs right now.

Well, did you know that 143 years ago was the first ever World Series game? Jack, I believe it was the Cincinnati Red Stockings versus the Chicago white stockings, real names. That's right. Chicago would change their name to the White Sox, and Cincinnati would change their name to simply the Reds. But then Boston changed their name to the Red Sox, interestingly. Which leads to our trivia. Why were so many teams back in the day, names? after their socks colors.

Besties comment with your answers and we'll reveal the right one in tomorrow's pod. Yeties, you'll look fantastic today. And remember, Jack and I told you last week, season one of our weekly show, The Best Idea Yet, just wrapped up after 50 episodes. And we got nominated for Best Business Podcast,

a very competitive category for the Signal Awards. We're thrilled about it. We've been surge and we're up to number two, so we need your help, your vote, to help us win and become number one. All you got to do is click the link in the episode description, sign in with your Gmail or whatever if you want to username and password, and then vote. We love for you to vote, and we love to win the award, and we just love having you with us. I think you can sign in with

Facebook if you want. What the heck, whatever it takes, vote as many times as you want. Jack and I will see you there. Celebrate the wins. And before we go, a happy birthday, a legendary Yetty, Alan Rosenfeld turned in 73 in Charleston, South Carolina. He's in his sketch or slip-ons right now, eating a Western omit with some Heinz ketchup. And Dan Lejean from lovely Los Angeles just got married and is headed to Italy. And Nick and I are sending warm and cozy and loving thoughts to Haley and Ryder Carrey in Aberdeen, South Dakota, because they're having baby number two sometime this week. You got this guys. And Lisa and John Dory and Fort Collins, Colorado are starting their 26th year running a pumpkin patch, the biggest and the best pumpkins out there. And a shout out to

Sebastian Bosma for launching Bobby, the Chief of Staff AI, for your life. And Clark Qualls is celebrating five years old down in San Antonio, Texas. Congrats Clark. And happy birthday to Ali Aguirre in Atlanta, Georgia. And Dina Goodman, any Dinah, Minnesota has got a new fantastic job. And happy birthday on that 41st. And Kevin Dwyer in Jacksonville, Florida is celebrating the birthday by taking the GRE, baby. And happy birthday to Bella Picone in Truckee.

California. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a tea boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. Nick and I both own some Bitcoin and ETFs of the S&P 500.