The Best One Yet - 👁️ “How we’ll pay ourselves when bots take over” —WorldCoin’s eye-scanner. Spotify’s loser user. UPS’ year of the strike.

Episode Date: July 26, 2023

Spotify’s just announced its best user growth ever, but the stock fall 14% — Because sometimes a user can be a loser. UPS just reached an agreement with the workers’ union, it won’t go on strike — But 2023 is still the “Year of the Strike.” And Sam Altman’s WorldCoin just launched the craziest crypto we’ve seen — Scan your eyeballs into a crypto orb to save the world from AI robots. $SPOT $UPS $BTC $WDC Want merch, a shoutout, or got TheBestFactYet? Go to: www.tboypod.com Follow The Best One Yet on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypod And now watch us on Youtube Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Wednesday, Cevice Wednesday. July 26th. And today's pod is the best one yet. It's a T-Boy Jack. The Dow just had its 12th straight day of positive gains. The Dow just had its longest winning streak in six years.

Your boss has been on vacation the last 12 days. The stock market hasn't been. Hey, Wall Street, what do we got to do to make a 13? Hey, boss, extend your vacation. We want to keep this going. We're doing fine here. First story, what are we got to do? on the show, Jack. The UPS strike was going to be the first strike that you really felt. Because

2023 is the year of the strike. For our second story, Spotify, just announced its best user growth ever for a quarter, and then the stock fell by 14%. Yet it's because sometimes users are really losers. And our third and final story, if you thought cryptocurrencies were crazy, get ready for this story. This is crazy. What do we got, Jack? World coin is the newest crypto. It requires You visit an orb and scan your eyeballs. Must visit orb. And this isn't just some joke. It's like a venture-backed business.

And Jack and I are doing it tomorrow. But more than that later. More than that later. But yet is, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. A wild mix of stories, Jack. Love this mix. In 1947, in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California, something happened. Two brothers were camping and cutting wood.

They were having a great time together. One of the brothers was messing around a little bit too much. and brought the axe down hard. Boom, he looks down and what does he see? He cut off his brother's finger. Middle finger, pf, gone. If you grow up without a finger, that is a tough circumstance. That is pretty tough.

And Jack, what would be kind of a hard thing to do if you're missing a finger? Maybe the hardest thing to do if you're missing a finger would be to play guitar. Probably right off being a guitarist as a career choice if you're missing a finger at an early age. Yeah, it's hard to play a guitar if you have 10 fingers. Can't imagine playing a guitar if you only got a guitar. only got nine fingers. Can't do it. And yet, Nick, that boy grew up to play the guitar.

Not just play the guitar, he changed music. Because that boy was Jerry Garcia. One of the best guitarists of all time. Jerry Garcia, the founder of the Grateful Dead. One of the greatest jam bands of all time. Jerry Garcia, with his guitar, went on to perform 2,000 packed concerts. Went on to sell $400 million a ticket. And he did it all.

all with nine fingers. Now, Yeties, Sawyer Forrest is a bestie in Illinois who listens to this podcast every single day. And Sawyer Forrest lost more than just a finger. Yes, he did. Sawyer Forrest recently lost his leg from a serious strep infection. Sawyer is only nine years old. And just like Jerry Garcia, Sawyer lost a limb as a young boy. But Jack, just like Jerry, Sawyer has got a bigger heart because of it. Nick, just like Jerry, I'm pretty sure Sawyer can do anything he wants to do. And Jack, just like Jerry, Sawyer can become the best at whatever he chooses to do. We actually know, we are convinced, we are certain that Sawyer can become the best one yet. The best one yet. Sawyer, today's pod, it's for you.

Sawyer Forest from Evanston, Illinois. Let's make the show a T-boy. Sawyer, let's hit our three stories. 15 years before this song Two boys from the Northeast met in the dawn 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 For our first story UPS executives just shook hands With the UPS Workers Union The biggest potential strike in America Has been averted But why are labor strikes All the rage right now?

It feels like we're seeing a lot of these laborers. Number strikes, Jack. Because workers have the leverage. Workers have the leverage like Karloff, our UPS delivery guy. He was probably cruising down Pacific Avenue right now. He's amazing. He taught me how to lift with my legs. Our UPS guy, he's got great brown shorts.

He's very kind. He puts the package wherever I need it. He never complains. He's always got a smile on his face. I have Carlos phone number and we text. I asked our guy to stop bringing the doorbell because it wakes the baby. He apologized emphatically. Sounds like I got competition to be the podfather, Jack.

Yeties, let's get. Get right to it, the UPS strike, you may have heard about it, but guess what? It probably isn't happening. Because yesterday, UPS executives reached a tentative agreement with the UPS Workers Union. Assuming the union members approve the contract, there won't be a UPS delivery strike. And that is a huge relief. Because UPS delivers one out of four American packages. That's a lot of packages. So if there's no UPS operating, there's no cute top getting delivered on your doorstaff. That flannel romper, it's not going to arrive for at least another week.

A UPS strike would have meant delayed packages and a potential delivery disaster. Jack, two-day shipping is about to become two-week shipping. But the strike's not happening. So let's look at the scoreboard and see what the two-sides got. Well, Jack and I added up the numbers, and it looks like the UPS guy in the brown suit just snagged some very solid wins. The first win that UPS workers snagged is air conditioning. How is this not table stakes? UPS is committing that every new truck will include an air conditioner.

It's not table sticks because the old trucks don't have AC. At least UPS promise to add fans and new ventilation to the old trucks too. Now our deodorant story from yesterday makes a lot more sense, Jack. UPS also promised to stop doing unscheduled sixth days. Sixth days, not sick days, sixth days. What's that, Jack? Because that worker you love at UPS, he's happy to wear the brown socks from Monday through Friday. But he's not going to do any more surprise Saturday shifts.

No one wants to get called in by Lumberg on a Saturday, Jack. With the key to this negotiation, it all came down to the money. It always comes down to money. What are we seeing, Jack? UPS's union leader said this about the money in his blue-collar Boston accent yesterday. We got $30 billion of new money as a direct result of these negotiations. $30 billion more money compared to the first offer that UPS made to its workers. Okay, first of all, Ben Affleck is absolutely buying the rights to this for his next movie, Jack. Absolutely.

We also think this $30 billion for the workers is well earned. It is because workers have been delivering our Amazon packages as we sheltered in place for a while. Yeah, UPS delivery people and all delivery people, they were frontline workers during the pandemic. And Jack, can we jump into the financials here? Because UPS, it looks like they can afford it. annual profits for UPS have nearly doubled in the post-pandemic era as we've bought more and more stuff online. Those packages have become a profit puppy. UPS can afford it.

But Jack, it feels like we've seen a lot of these strikes lately. So what's the takeaway for our buddies who are everyone in the economy? 2023 is the year of the strike. Yeties, first we saw the first ever unions form at Starbucks, Apple, and Trader Joe's. Then we saw railroad workers threatened to strike. and shut down all trains. And now we're seeing Hollywood actors and writers actually on strike right now. And the UPS strike that we barely averted, it would have been the biggest of them all.

340,000 unionized workers saying I'm not working unless I get a better contract. Now, besties, we know what you're thinking. What has driven workers to band together and show strength and numbers in a huge way right now? It's leverage because the ridiculously low unemployment rate gives workers so much leverage. Throughout the 2000s and the 2010s, bosses had the leverage. Yes, bosses always had the leverage. They could call the shots, set the rules, set the pay, and replace any worker who had a problem with it. But now workers know that they have the leverage.

Because workers are hard to replace. They can demand more and they know the bosses are probably going to accept. Add it all up. And that is why 2023 is the year of the strike. For our second story, Spotify, just. enjoyed its best quarter ever and then what happened to the stock jack the stock tanked afterwards yeah it dropped so we're going to reveal why the undisputed champion of music streaming can't turn a profit but jack before we jump into the story we kind of talk about the story of media right now the story of media right now

is losing subscribers disney plus netflix they're all struggling to add new subscribers right now but not for spotify no what is going to over in Sweden, Jack, Sweden. Daniel Eck just announced that Spotify gained 36 million new subscribers in just the last three months. Not too shabby. Can we sprinkle on a little more context of that meatball, my friend? That is the greatest jump ever for Spotify in a single quarter. Sit down, stand up, and hit the high notes. Yeti. Spotify is truly the global leader in music right now. They have 551 million subscribers. That is almost two United States that's double-neted.

Netflix, double Disney Plus. It's huge. I'm Miley Cyrus singing in the USA. Two of them. Spotify. Now, the number two in music streaming is Apple Music. And they stopped reporting in 2019 how many they had. That is never a good sign when you just stop sharing the numbers, Jack.

They're believed to have way fewer subscribers than Spotify. So, Yeties, Jack and I are looking at the situation here. Spotify just had its best quarter for user growth ever. They got two USAs worth of listeners. They are the only company beating Apple at anything right now. Must be nice Spotify. Wall Street must be loving Spotify stock right now. And do they, Jack?

No. No. Hell no. To quote Shania Twain, that don't impress a me much. The stock fell by 14% the moment after Daniel Eck announced these record numbers. So Jack and I were curious. We want to tell the story of what's going on in the financials of Spotify and what are we noticing, Jack? Advertising is just not working at Spotify.

Yaddies, remember when Jack and I just said that Spotify had a huge, number of subscribers, 551 million of them? Well, only 40% actually pay for Spotify. Only 40% actually pay. The other 60% are listening for free and they listen to ads. So Nick and I are going to compare the subscribers who actually pay to the subscribers who just listen to ads. All right, first, let's look at the premium paying subscribers, the ones that don't see ads because they pay Spotify for a subscription. In the U.S., Spotify charges them 10 bucks a month. I've been paying since 2015. Now, Jack, let's look at the non-paying Spotify. subscribers the ones who have to listen to ads. Well, Spotify's making 10 bucks a month on premium customers.

They're only making 39 cents a month in ad sales. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Spotify? For Spotify, every new user is actually a new loser. Yeti Spotify is enjoying record revenues right now. And yet, they're also experiencing record losses. For every dollar that Spotify brings in, they lose 10 cents. So Jack and I got to to ask, where is that money going? Why are they also seeing record losses? They're getting so many $10 a month from so many people. Where is the money going? Well, the answer is it's going to the musicians. That's right. We crunch the numbers. 76 cents of every dollar that Spotify makes goes directly to the music labels and eventually to the musicians. Now, Spotify just said they're

raising the subscription price by one buck a month, but you know what? Doesn't really matter month. No, because they have to give most of that $1 a month to the musicians. Even if Spotify raised their subscription price, which they just did by a dollar, it's not going to matter much because they got to give most of it to musicians. Spotify's red flag for investors has always been this. It's the business model. The three powerful music labels take most of the money that Spotify makes. Spotify is number one by far in a huge business that happens to not be profitable. For our third and final story, the biggest cryptocurrency story of the year is all. also the craziest cryptocurrency story of the year. And that cryptocurrency is WorldCoin. It just launched

and it's going to scan your eyeballs for your money. But yet is before Jack and I get into the deep plot on this one, we got to talk about Sam Altman because Sam Altman is the king of artificial intelligence and he's connected to this. He got the world's attention in November when he launched ChatGPT because he is the CEO of Open Air. And he's the creator of artificial intelligence that will either fix or break the world our future. It's in Sam Oatman's hands. That's pretty wild. But his other creation, his other project, is actually wilder.

Get this. It's called WorldCoin, and it's a cryptocurrency with a unique twist. To use this cryptocurrency, you must confirm your identity. Actually, you must confirm you're a human being by getting your eyeballs scanned. Yeah, you got to scan your eyeballs. And the goal is to become the world's largest human identity. and financial network by physically scanning your eyeballs. The bigger goal is to save humanity from the very AI that Sam Altman unleashed on the world.

Curious, well, you're not the only ones because WorldCoin has raised $250 million from venture capitalists, and it just launched on Monday. Now, this sounds like the plot of a Tom Cruise Mission Impossible 13. Pretty sure this is Mission Impossible for... $1,000. Because to access this cryptocurrency, you must let an orb... scan your eyeballs. We're going to put a picture on the screen because WorldCoyne has manufactured 1,500 physical

orbs, and he's distributed them across the world so humans can use them. It's collecting eyeball data. That's what this is doing. These orbs are 8-inch spherical bowling balls that you put up on a pedestal, and they stare at you scanning your retina. Jack, it kind of looks like a Pokemon ball that was designed by Microsoft. It actually looks like the IFSA. It's like if Clear at the airport was designed by George Lucas.

That's what this is. You make an appointment at an orb like you're having a date or something. And then you go there, get your eyeball scanned, and you can use the World Coin cryptocurrency. They actually have two of them in San Francisco. In full disclosure, we're going tomorrow. You visit the passport office to get a passport. You visit an orb to get a world coin token. I'm actually scared, Jack.

I'm purely doing this for the shake of the podcast. There's no turning back from this, Nick. Now, yet he's the key to this retina scanning technology is proof of personhood. Yes. They want to tie the cryptocurrency to a unique. human being identity. Which leads to the question, why do we need to tie a cryptocurrency to a unique human being identity?

Glad you asked. In the future, with artificial intelligence, we won't be able to tell the difference between humans and robots. Robots will be able to pass that CAPTCHA, I'm not a robot test. Here's where things turn dark yetties. If the robots take all our jobs, then we humans won't have jobs, but we'll still need money, so what are we humans going to do then, Jack? This project is so speculative that the final plan of WorldCoin is to pay humans a universal basic income with WorldCoin because none of us have jobs.

The robots have all the jobs. Like we said, Yeti, Sam Altman is profiting by solving a problem that he basically helped create. Huge problem, but at least he has a huge solution for it. And he's getting paid on both sides, ironically in dollars. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at WorldCoin? The more digital crypto gets, the more physical it needs to be. Yeti's everyone talks about digital currency. But the way we see it, crypto is actually very much a physical currency.

We said this a couple of years ago when we were covering Bitcoin. Bitcoin is physical fundamentally. It's an inconvenient truth about Bitcoin, but it has a huge carbon footprint that requires a lot of physical things. To keep the Bitcoin blockchain going, it requires computing. It requires computers, huge computers, and huge amounts of electricity. But WorldCoin is the first crypto that's proudly physical. In fact, it embraces its physical nature. WorldCoin is based on the idea.

that it must be physical in order to be trusted. It's actually the great irony of cryptocurrency. The more digital it is, the more physical it needs to be. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us with a little bit of Covec? The UPS strike is not happening, as UPS up their offer by $30 billion for the workers. Why are we seeing so many strikes, Yetis? Because workers have the leverage.

For our second story, Spotify just announced record revenue, record number of new users, but also record losses. Sometimes for some companies, a new user can be a loser. And our third and final story is WorldCoin. It went live on Monday. Step right up and get your eyeball scanned by Sam Altman, Scary Like a Machine. The more digital crypto gets, the more physical it needs to be, which is why tomorrow I'm going to get my eyeball scan.

Jack, I'm going to do it. It's right out here outside the studio. Yeah, yet he's Nick has volunteered to be a tribute. So he's going to go to the orb that's right down the line. block from him in San Francisco. We'll toss it on Instagram at T-BoyPy. You're going to see the orb scan Nick's eyes at T-BoyPod. You're going to want to see this.

But yeties, this pod's not done yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, the Federal Reserve, our nation central bank, has a huge meeting today. The Fed is going to announce whether they're raising interest rates again or continuing the great pause. Second, General Motors is great at gas guzzlers, but they're struggling with EVs. GM has only built three. 50,000 EVs so far this year, and they're blaming a supplier for that slowdown.

And finally, Alphabet and Microsoft both reported earnings, and both just could not stop talking about AI. Because if you're not talking about AI, investors and tech are not interested. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Sawyer Forest from Evanston, Illinois. Hi, Nick and Jack. My name is Sawyer Forest. I live in Evanston, Illinois. always, did you know that about 91% of disabilities are caused by illnesses? Wow! Actually, we had no idea about that, Sawyer. Thank you for letting us know. We really had no idea. I did not know that, but did you know that today is the National Disability Independence Day?

Yes. 33 years ago, the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed into law by Congress. Celebrating the passage of the ADA. Sawyer, thanks for that fact and thanks for making today a T-Boy with us. The best one yet. Jack and I will see you tomorrow. And before we go, a happy birthday to Yeti Joanna Carvalo from lovely Nottingham, England. And happy birthday to Sam O'Shaughnessy in Hong Kong.

And Rachel Garungan's turn in 30 over in Santa Clara, California. And happy 48th birthday to Brian Steinfeld in Atlanta, Georgia. And Veronica Gether is happy birthday down in D.C. Happy seventh birthday to Derek Bester in Harrison, New York. And Matt Richelsohn, is a very birthday. In Austin, Texas, has a birthday, and he's an accountant who deserves a huge hug. And a happy birthday to Tyler, who's also an accountant, and just crunch the numbers, this man turns 30 today. Get that guy a hug.

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, Disney, and Netflix, and Nick and I both own stock of Apple and Spotify, and we both own one Bitcoin each. A Bitcoin named Ben. They're actually twins.