The Best One Yet - 🏈 “Coach Buffett” — NFL’s investing strategy. Disgusting Deli AI. America vs. Canada. +PhermoneMaxxers

Episode Date: September 9, 2026

The LA Rams are Super Bowl favorites… because the GM learned from Warren Buffett.Deli menus are populated with gross AI-gen images… because of AI inbreeding.America is at war (economically) with Canada… and we can see it all in one private jet brand.Plus, young men aren’t showering… they’re “Pheromone-maxxing.”$SPY $NKE $BBDGrab your Tickets to the IPO Tour: Our In-Person OfferingSan Francisco 9/23: https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/1C0064AFB5F688BDBoston 10/14: https://tickets.citywinery.com/event/tboy-the-ipo-tour-in-person-offering-8cdhupSeattle 11/4 (21+): https://www.axs.com/events/1446394/the-best-one-yet-ticketsNEWSLETTER: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. It's Wednesday, so Viche Wednesday, September 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. Yeah, and he's full disclosure. It is 103 degrees outside, and I am schvitzin right now.

Why is that, Jack? Because we're recording this episode from the middle of Texas. Just outside Austin. We flew the hill country for a surprise interview at a nuclear reactor. This is a life milestone. I'm so excited to publish this nuclear episode. We can't say. Anymore. We can't say anymore right now. More to come next week. In the meantime, we got three

fantastic stories for the best shown business. What do we got on the T-Boy's? By the huge spoiler is the background in the YouTube version of this episode. Yeah, we love the cookie cross. For our first story, the NFL kicks off tonight. The L.A. Rams are the favorites to win the Super Bowl this year, more than twice as likely as the number two team. But the Rams' secret football strategy is actually a Warren Buffett investing strategy. For our second story, the U.S. and Canada are officially in an economic trade war. Shots fired, eh? It's personal.

Here's the tits and the tats that you need to know. It's an economic war. And our third and final story is the craziest trend in AI right now. Menus. Menus. Strange, creepy, unappetitizing deli menus. Besties, we'll tell you how ugly food AI menus reveal the biggest risk in tech. But besties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. What a mix.

Oh, is it hot out there. Welcome back from your extended Labor Day holiday. And we know the first thing that you're going to notice at work today. The smell. The smell. Jack, why do all the guys at work suddenly smell? Not just you. Men smell more than ever.

Because men are showering less than ever. The trend is called pheromone, maxim. Oh, boy. Men are optimizing their body scent. Well, they're trying to, at least, to naturally attract women. Some say body scent, others call it body odor. Young male singers are ditching their deodorant. They're saying cyanide to their showers.

And they're doing it to hook up with your hormones. The science on this, Jack, what does it look like? It's not going to work. No, no, no. This will not produce more pheromones. Pretty clear. pheromones, by the way, the natural chemical signals that trigger social response in a species. But the science is clear that if you don't clean yourself, you'll smell.

Bad. Now, we did notice that Procter and Gamble stock is down 8% in the last six months. They own herbal essences, old spice, and pantine. So the investors, they should have smelled this one coming. Faramone maxing. Red flag or green flag? Let us know in the comments. I don't know, Jack.

But either way, it's a sell signal for CPG stocks. Nick, let's run away from our three stories because this day. before this song two boys from the northeast met in the dorm they had an idea that caused 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'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 For our first story, the NFL kicks off tonight with the Super Bowl rematch, but the Rams are already being anointed. Because the architect of the L.A. Rams powerhouse football team studied Warren Buffett.

The Warren Buffett. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa. Oh, you know what that means, Jack. Oh, that is exciting. You know what that feels like. Yeah, the pads play the Seahawks tonight. Kickoff is at 820 Easter. Yep, the Seahawks.

They won the Super Bowl last year. I forgot the Seahawks. won the Super Bowl last year. I forgot who run it every year, Jeff. Now, the TV executives are required to watch tonight's NFL kickoff because they mortgage their networks to buy the rights. A reminder, the NFL is the top watch entertainment in America. 46 of the top 50 live events last year were NFL games, which is why the package for the TV rights goes for over $11 billion. Oh, and by the way, tomorrow's game, the second game of the NFL season's going to be down in Melbourne, Australia. It's the first time ever the NFL will visit that football-friendly country.

they speak English, they love steak, and they're used to contact sports while they put another shrimp on the Barbie down under. But the day that we're circling on our calendar is Sunday, February 14. Not only for Valentine's Day, but also this year for Super Bowl Sunday. Hang on Nick. Officials are reviewing the play on the field. Can they review the calendar please? This year, the Super Bowl is on a three-day weekend. Wow. For the first time ever. Super Bowl is on President's Day weekend. We're talking Valentine's Day. And no school and no work the day after the Super Bowl. So, Basties, your guac-induced food coma can last 48 hours and you won't get fired.

But yet, yes, the best thing that could happen to the NFL's business this year is if the giants, the jets, and the bears all play well. Because New York and Chicago, we care about football. Where will I be Sunday? Parked on my couch, said everybody in the tri-state area. But the Angelinos of Los Angeles are distracted by the gorgeous weather. The Ashpaganda Pilates. And the lip filler.

Oh, the lip filler. back waxing, which is apparently huge in L. You know, I think they sold you on that at that one spa, but you may have just been that guy, Jack. But Vessies, this is what Jack and I find fascinating. Those same Angelinos would tell you that their Los Angeles Rams football team has already won the Super Bowl. Because their team has borrowed a development strategy from the world's most famous investor. Get this, the Rams, they've already got a 17% chance to win this year's Super Bowl. Jack, want to you sprinkle on the context as a former second string back like quarterback from the college case.

Okay. According to prediction markets, the Rams are more than twice as likely as the Bills, the Ravens, and the Seahawks to win the Super Bowl. Now, the Rams won the Super Bowl not long ago because their general manager bet everything in 2021. In 2021, the L.A. Rams traded away Jared Goff, their former first round draft pick and former franchise quarterback, plus future first round draft picks to bet the whole team on their new franchise quarterback, Matthew Stafford. And Jack, how do they do when they bet it all? Well, Nick, quite well. They won the Super Bowl in 2021, but they had no first-round draft picks for seven years after that. Well, this off-season, the Rams splurged again to make another Super Bowl run.

By acquiring the best defensive player in the league, Miles Garrett. And their Rams roster is so stacked right now, they coaked Aaron Donald, a previous best defensive player out of retirement to play for them. Which is why the Rams have a 17% chance to win it all this year. But besties, here's the problem with the Rams strategy of splurgeon for Super Bowl runs. It leaves big gaps in the roster that they can't fill with first round draft picks. Jack, it's like when our buddy Timmy burned the budget on a hundred-inch TV back into East Village, then we had to go to Goodwill to furnish the rest of the man cave. There were gaps in the budget.

But the Rams think it's okay to have gaps in the budget, because what they lack in first and second round draft picks, they make up for with savvy third, fourth, and fifth round draft picks. And the Rams are masters at value investing. They find the overlooked players that turns out can play. The third round, according to the Rams general manager, is our first round. That football strategy is actually an investing strategy from the top fund on earth. Hut, Hut, Buffett. So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies over watching the NFL kickoff? You don't win by investing in the best company.

You win by buying the missed priced one. Yeties, according to the journal, Rams general manager, Les Sneed, has read multiple books about Warren Buffett's investing strategy. Warren Buffett liked to say that price is what you pay. value is what you get. Prices what you pay, values what you get. The first round of the draft in the NFL, it's like the S&P 5-Hall. Yeah, like every player is highly scrutinized

and they are priced correctly. Everyone knows who the best company is. That's Nvidia. Right. And the price to buy Nvidia is very high. But the rounds 3, 4, and 5 in the draft, those are the small cap stocks that no analyst covers.

It's not clear who the valuable picks are, the third, fourth, and fifth rounds. Now, GM Less Neat did buy the equivalent of Nvidia for the Rams. That was his splurged get Miles Garrett this offseason. But he fills the rest of his roster, interestingly, like Warren Buffett used to fill the rest of his portfolio.

He finds value. We're not talking about the sexy companies. We're talking about the unknown stocks that he thinks are bound to rise in the market. You see, Les knows his roster. He knows his coach, and he finds the players that can then be role players in between. Just like Warren Buffett knew that some random RV company,

CEOed by this guy I've researched, would play a role in his investment portfolio. Now, what does that mean for you, besties? you don't win by investing in the best company. That's expensive. You'll win by buying the mispriced one. That's where you find the deals. For our second story,

we are now in an official trade war with Canada. It's an economic war. And it can all be explained by one private jet company. But yet he's this summer, President Trump rekindled his trade war. He found new tariffs that the Supreme Court could not block. And the big target this summer? It was Canada.

Surprisingly, it was Canada. Yeah. Americans have to pay 50% taxes on Canadian hockey sticks, alcohol, cheese, and wine. Yeah, Bauer got blocked, if you know, you know. And since trade talks with Canada failed in August, yesterday Canada retaliated dollar for dollar. We're talking equivalent tit-for-tatiffs on U.S. products, but replace the Canadian hockey sticks for American tractors. And this is big news, because until now, only China has retaliated to Trump's tariffs. That's right. Escalating tariffs hit 145% until the U.S. stood down.

That happened last year, remember? Covered it on the show. But now Canada, a totalist. country known for its politeness is standing up for itself like a young Maple Leafs Enforcer. Now, the result of these tip for tax tariffs, if you listen to this pod, you already know. Higher prices and less trade for both sides. Yeah, we're going to pay the guac is going to be extra. As any economist will tell you, nobody wins with tariffs. And it's not good for the stock market or inflation situation either. But there is one company that fascinatingly is the focus of our civil economic war.

Bombardier. Bombardier, based in the province of Quebec. Quebec, our neighbor in Vermont to the north, where people buy law, must say the French bonjour before they say the English high. Hi, bonjour, not the possible. If you walk into a store in Quebec, the salespeople must say

bonjour high. Someone's going to drop the gloves. But you see, Bombardier once made trains, planes, and snowmobiles, but today, they just do private corporate jets. And the business of private jets is booming. In this case-shaped economy? Yeah. Bombardier's stock has doubled

in the past 12 months. CEOs, influencers, there is nothing hotter right now than a TikTok video from inside of PJ. Wheels up, guys, by the way. Wheels up in five. And since 50% of Bombardier sales are to the United States, Donald Trump is funneling his frustration at Bombardier. You see, President Trump tweeted on Monday that Bombardier cannot sell in the United States

unless they build in America, too. Now, that's not an announcement of policy. We should be clear. It's just a vague threat so far. But Bombardier does already build in the United States. They have 1,000 employees in Kansas, plus 2,000 more American employees across 9 U.S. states. They also do business with 2,800 U.S. suppliers across 47 states, because planes require like, you know, a million parts per chassis.

So it seems unlikely this threat will materialize into actual policy, but still, Bombardia stock fell 6% on news that's now political football. Now, we should sprinkle on some more context yet. He said so far, this trade war 2.0 with Canada is limited. Only 5% of what we trade together is being tariffs so far. As we saw with China, things can escalate pretty quickly, eh? Tariffs on cars or oil or fertilizer or timber. So far they've been exempted, we would all notice if they'd,

They get tariffed. What's next? The lacrosse sticks, Jack? No one's talking about the lacrosse sticks, Nick. Now I've told everyone where the lacrosse sticks are, Jack. What's the takeaway for all our buddies watching? In North America? Yeah, the economic war. This isn't politics. This isn't policy. This is personal. Yet these politically, U.S. tariffs on China are very popular because we Americans see their gains as our pains. Policy-wise, Trump already signed a trade deal with Canada in his first term. So there is no political or policy. reason to start a new trade war with Canada. This one is strictly personal. The president has insulted and disrespected the Canadians with name-calling, name-changing, and trolling.

The 51st state, when asked if he'd take Canada by force, President Trump said he'd use economic force. So Canada's taking this personally, and 73% of the country supports the Prime Minister's retaliation. So President Trump's ego doesn't want to appear to cave. But Canada's sense of sovereignty, they don't want to cave either. Figuring out what happens next, it's a question of who's going to apologize, who's going to concede, or who's going to compromise. Don't hold your breath because this isn't politics and this isn't policy on both sides. It's personal. Now a quick word from our sponsor.

For our third and final story, the craziest trend in AI right now is food menus, strange, creepy, unappetizing, disgusting deli pictures. Because AI is training on itself. It's resulting in visual inbreeding. And it looks gross. But besties, know it's not gross. there is no greater art form than the bodega visual menu, right, Jack? The bacon, egg, and chatter-cassanwich.

I mean, that is a thing of beauty. Actually, the photography on local cafes, restaurants, trotterias, it is an uvra worthy of the Smithsonian. But there's a strange phenomenon, Nick Notes, checking out the Upper East Side this summer. Instead of getting some outdoor menu icks, you know what I'm talking about, Jack? You're walking along the sidewalk, and they tried to tempt you in with a visual representation of their menu.

Yeah, and I was kind of tempted. But, like, on closer analysis, each of these illustrations, This time, they looked eerily perfect. The pickle was so precise. The flan was flawless. But other times, Jack, I noticed that, like, each image of the food was awkwardly off. The burrito's cheese looks radioactively bubbling. And that water bottle, that is too wet, man.

And yet other times the images looked flat out wrong. Are we going to talk about the infinite shrimp? You know what I'm talking about? Why is the tail of that shrimp going around eating its own head to create just a circle of shrimp? It should not be a circular shrimp. You don't want it to be like an Oreo situation. Well, one chief technology officer called, this phenomenon, like an alien tried to make a pizza image without understanding the pizza's core

principle. And there's a reason we mentioned a chief technology officer, more on that in a sec, but it's not just you if you've noticed these infinite shrimp as well. A top trending meme in Silicon Valley right now is Lovecraftian food horrors. That's right, trend alert. Delis are lazily generating AI images of their menu items instead of the real pictures. And the hallucinations that result look disgusting. Oh, and that botched burrito pick you saw in the corner, it actually reveals a big trend in AI. And it also reveals that restaurants are proofreading their AI generated images. It looks horrible. Okay, but first, Jack, why don't you sprinkle on some context? It makes sense that mom and pop restaurants are power users of AI to generate their images.

That's right. Your local bodega doesn't have an in-house art team like ShakeShack and they're less brand focused than Chipotle would be. So they outsource their menu images to chat GPT. It's an effective use case of AI. It's easier, cheaper, faster for Claude to make your brunch menu than the studio of Bob Ross. Or to just have no images, which is the other option. Okay, but plot twist, because what do we discover over at the University of Duesdorf and Germany, Jack? Almost realistic AI-generated images? We hate them. That's right. A study shows that images that look almost real trigger more disgust from consumers than pictures that were obviously fake.

So the irony is that local bodegas use AI to try to make pictures looking realistic. But it would be more appealing if that cheese steak pick was clearly cartoonified. But delis are learning the hard way. They are. They are. trying to use AI-generated menu picks to be as realistic as possible, and it's not working. But here's what we find fascinating. All this Delhi AI drama, it actually reveals something huge in AI, a huge AI issue.

AI collapse. Oh, boy. So Jack, what's the takeaway for... You know what, cancel the shrimp order, guys. What's the takeaway for all our buddies over in the disgusting deli AI? You are what you eat, and you shouldn't eat what you are. These AI outputs are only as good as the information input that is consumed. That's why Anthropic bought millions of physical books, sliced off the spines of the

books, and fed the pages into a scanner to train their AI model. That's a true story. And it's why Google and OpenAI pay Reddit to feed their model with real content, because they want to stay fresh with that quality input. But a problem arises when the AI begins training on AI generated content. Exactly. You get model collapse. Ah, model collapse. It's like inbreeding for AI, and it results in some bad outcomes. We see those bad outcomes in the ubiquitous food monstrosity on food menus. And you see, the large language models of two years ago, they all studied off the same limited images of food from chilies, apple bees, and olive garden publicly available online menus at the time. That's why the buns, the ribs, and the soda all look the same when you

ask AI to generate them. But today it's even worse. The large language models are training on AI generated menu images from two years ago that we just described. It's like incest. and it's ruining the genetics of the images. Oh, besties, AI has a time machine problem, and it keeps reiterating that problem by training itself on that same material. Unless us humans feed the internet with human-created content,

not AI-created content, this will get worse. Or is Picasso when you need them. Yeties, that's AI collapse, when AI eats too much of its own cooking. Because you are what you eat, and you shouldn't eat what you are. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for Saviche Wednesday? The NFL kicks off tonight, but the LA Rams are the biggest favorite to win in recent history.

The Rams splurged on Nvidia, but they win because they find the value stocks, just like Warren. For our second story, Canada became the second country to stand up to tariffs and retaliated tip for tat. So what happens next? No one can say, because it's not political and it's not policy, it's personal. And our third and final story, pictures of gross AI-generated menu items are going viral. It's a sign of model collapse, model outputs decay without real human content to train. But besties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, Nike is officially on the bench. It is out of the S&P 100, the index that tracks the 100

largest companies in America. Nike has just done it for years and years and years, but its stock is at a 12-year low. So now they're getting stomped on by the competition. Mike O'N, Brooks, Hoka. We've covered it on the pod before. Lula Lemon and Nike sitting in a tree. S-I-N-K-I-N-G. Our suggestion for Nike is a shareholder? The Pod Shoe, a shoe made for podcast. listening, give us a call. For our second story, Brent Oil rose to 99 bucks a barrel after Iran and the U.S. exchanged fire again. You see, Iran fired on two of our Navy vessels after targeting our aircraft carrier with ballistic missiles over the weekend. And yesterday, the U.S. retaliated with attacks on Iranian tankers. Diesel fuel, it's at an all-time high, and gas has never been this

high on the week of Labor Day. And finally, the wildest documentary in America, it's a shock mockumentary? I'm not really sure, but it's produced by Nathan for you. Ah, the comedian Nathan Fielder revealed a surprise three-hour documentary with Elizabeth Holmes about her three days before she went to jail. Nathan Fielder actually lived in the home of Elizabeth Holmes for three days. He did. She's the Stanford dropout who committed the fraud of Theranos. Now, we don't have any more info about the movie because the few people who were allowed to view it at the Telluride Film Fest, they were sworn to secrecy and had their phones taken away for the viewing.

But apparently it's wild. Yeah. And now Elizabeth Holmes is serving 11 years in prison. Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by your parents. They want you to know about a new travel concept, fall cations. That's why they're not going to answer your calls for the next couple months. Salkations are the time of year when older and wealthier people go on vacation.

In the fall. It's not during the summer when everyone else goes on vacation. Older folks go in September and October when it's cheaper and there's fewer crowds and they don't have to worry about getting their kids to school. You see, it's 90 degrees in Paris in August, which is nice. 70 degrees in Paris in September with way few. Your tourists is nicer. So luxury vacations booked for the fall are up 59% from last year, according to CNBC.

Fall Cations, the new luxury travel flax. Yeties, you look fantastic today. Jack, you are glowing despite the 147 degree heat right now. We're both wearing linen, which was a smart... It was a smart move. Linn boxers, too. I can't speak for that either. But we did have a little trivia game we wanted to drop onto before we went.

Guess where we are. Yeah, guess where we are. And again, the hint is the background we have on YouTube. If you know, you know, drop it in the comments, and Jack and I, we'll see you mania. And before we go, a happy birthday to legendary Yeti, Jordan Marsh, the field hockey king of South Africa has got a B-Day in Cape Town. Happy birthday to Cassandra Canavaggio, turning 12 years old, their third birthday shout-out

in a row on this podcast down in Panama City. Panama, Panama City. And Dexter Wendell, happy 10th birthday in Holly Springs, North Carolina. Thank you for listening with your legendary mom. You guys are a fantastic combo. Happy birthday to Jamie Yarber in Mount Vernon, Indiana. And President Russell Nelson, happy birthday over in Utah. And happy two-year anniversary to Christina Spelowski's legendary vacation to Japan.

And Priyanka Juniker and her fiance are running a boutique accounting firm in New York City. But right now, Priyanka's at her bachelorette on the Jersey Shore. Congratulations, guys. Congratulations to Caleb and Laurel who got engaged in Hawaii over the weekend. Let's see some ring picks. Congrats, guys. And to MG and her crew, congratulations on winning the paddle championship of San Francisco. Jack, I saw him after the victory.

obvious winners, clear winners here. And to anyone else, celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Berkshire Hathaway and Reddit. Nick own stock of Nike and Lulu Lemon. We both own stock of Tripoli,

and we both own ETFs of the S&P 500.