The Best One Yet - 🏡 “Kirkland Condos” — Costco’s LA apt building. Exxon’s plastic faux-cycling. Jony Ive’s iPhone sequel.

Episode Date: September 24, 2024

Costco is launching its 1st apartment building… Kirkland is California’s solution to housing.Exxon was sued for making us think plastic is recyclable... because just 5% of plastic is actually is.Jony Ive designed the iPhone… and he just unveiled his next big (secret) thing.Plus, NYC is experiencing the country’s slowest traffic day of the entire year… 4 MPH.$COST $ANF $AAPL—-----------------------------------------------------GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts FOR MORE NICK & JACK: Newsletter: https://tboypod.com/newsletter Connect with Nick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/ Connect with Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/ SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Anything else: https://tboypod.com/  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Tuesday, T-Boy, Tuesday, September 24. 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, do you remember what we said Nescax stands for again? Do you remember that? Something about like epic parties. I don't remember what the abbreviation was. Notorious for epic social celebrations and chaos. Yeah, it was a good one. It was all the tuffs and boating yeties out there had a good weekend. Welcome back. If you party to Princeton, you're going to need an IV. Jack, three. stories for today's show. What have we got on the pod, man? For our first story, Costco is launching the first ever Costco apartment building. This solution to your high rent may actually be the Kirkland condo. For our second story, ExxonMobil was just accused of faux cycle. A campaign for fake recycling. Because only 5% of plastics get recycled, and this may be why. And our third and final story is Johnny Ive. Johnny Ive is the greatest industrial designer of our time, he designed the iPhone. And after five years of secrecy, Johnny Ive just unveiled his next big thing. But Yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories, it's buttons, by the way. That's a spoiler alert, spoiler alert. Yeah, but fantastic mix of stories. Great mix of stories, Jack.

You're probably listening to this podcast episode on your commute. But do you know your average speed on that commute? Nick and I looked it up. In Milwaukee, the average commuter drives at 23 miles per hour. In Columbus, Ohio, it's 24 miles per hour. In San Diego, it's 27 miles per hour. But today, in New York City, the average commuter is going four miles per hour. Four miles per hour. You could speed well, actually, you could walk. You could just walk faster than that, Jack. The slowest traffic day of the year in New York is today. Right now, because this week in New York City is the United Nations General Assembly. Which means every world leader is in New York and every world leader brought their security personnel.

Hey, taxi, I gotta fit six secret service guys in here. Open the trunk. So the average car, truck, and taxi cab in Manhattan right now is going four miles per hour. If you are listening to this pod, you have not moved in that traffic while we're doing this pod. No, we should sprinkle on some context. Please, Jack. New York City, 20 blocks equals about one So going from 96th Street down to Union Square, it's going to take you. One hour, or three episodes of this podcast. But then Jack and I got more curious, so we looked it up in National Geographic. How slow is four miles per hour commuting compared to animals?

It turns out an elephant walks faster than that. Five miles per hour. House cats move faster. Five miles per hour. Even the giant, great tortoise of the Galapagos Islands walks faster than four miles per hour. Four miles per hour is so slow. You're getting beaten by a 500-pound turtle. It was probably 500 years old.

Yeah, take that, Darwin. So to all our Yetis in the city this week, don't get stressed about the traffic. Just pretend you're a tortoise for a day. Jack, I'll see you on the subway. Taxi! Never mind. No taxi.

Let's in our three stories. Fifteen 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 an norm. Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 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. Start the show. First, a quick word from our sponsor. Our first story. Costco fans are rejoicing over the construction of the first ever Costco

apartment. But if you think you're getting bulk-sized living space for Costco-sized price, Which is what we thought. Think again. Jack, can we just kick things off talking about the financial stats over at our buddies Costco? Based in Washington State, this 41-year-old company is worth $400 billion. It's the 20th biggest company in America, and yet the stock is up 40% this year like a young buck. What year is Costco not up 40%?

I know, I know. What is going on over there? But did you know, Yetis, that Costco members can even book vacations through Costco? I'm a Costco member. But I didn't know this one until we learned about it randomly in a business call last week. We were chatting with someone on like a biz dev call, and they mentioned that you can get five nights with airfare to Tahiti in French Polynesia for like $3,600 a Costco member. Five nights with airfare on one of those gorgeous huts that just sits above the water and you can like open a door and land in the ocean. So, Yiddies, you're probably thinking right now, if Costco got into the housing market, I'd rent a Costco apartment.

I'd trust Costco. I'll buy anything. they put their brand on. Well, here's the news. It's happening. A new Costco in Los Angeles is under construction right now. And it includes 800 Costco apartments right above it. Now, Jack, could you describe our vision when we heard about this first Costco apartment? The unit must come with like a 12-pound tub of peanut butter.

Unlimited Costco Kirkland toilet paper and a fridge that just keeps refilling with those $1.50 cent hot dog and soda combos. Oh, what's in the freezer? A double-chong chocolate chip cookie. And you can't get into the building unless you flash your Costco card. And that was our vision for the Kirkland condo, as we call it. But these apartments are the least Costcoy apartments ever. Yeah, plot twist slash spoiler.

But the Costco is not getting into apartments right now, are they, Jack? No, this is a one-off that they're doing just for their LO location for a very particular reason. But it is a very interesting reason why Costco is doing their first ever. apartment. Here's the deal. Local approval of a big construction, like for a big box store in Los Angeles, that would take years and it might never get approved. But interestingly, California state law AB 2011, allows a fast track approval if affordable housing is included in the plan. So instead of a purely commercial construction, like for most Costco's, Costco is doing mixed use for this particular LA location. So it's both a commercial space and a residential space. It's a Costco. It's a Costco,

Superstore on the first floor with 800 apartments on top, 184 of which are affordable apartments. It sounds like the kind of thing Adam Newman came up with while he was high at a target, Jack. The apartments, though? Yeah. They're 600 square feet and smaller. Yeah, that's the one problem here. The size of these Costco apartments are basically like your sophomore year dorm room, right, Jack? Instead of like a bulk Costco size thing, it's like a sample size. It's really tiny. Some people on Twitter actually calling these Costco apartments Costco. prisons. Not something a Costco member would want to move into. Still, any new housing is good housing for a city with crazy high rent like Los Angeles. And lovely Los Angeles has rent. That's three

times the national average. Plus, there is a Costco literally down the elevator. Yeah, so like, if you jump up and down in your bathroom, they will hear you in aisle six by the toiletries. They might even send you toilet paper to shut you up up there. We're going to need another pound of peanut butter buddies. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over? at Costco Apartments. Fixing housing requires 50 different solutions. Yeties, unaffordable housing is a problem for all 50 states. It's the biggest driver of inflation, of poverty, and of unhappiness. But each state has their own laws that controls real estate development. So each state needs their own solution to unaffordable housing. Well, in California, that state law we mentioned says to developers, hey, if you build affordable housing,

we'll wave a bunch of the red tape so you can get going. California also has a new law. focused on ADUs, accessory dwelling units. Basically, if you got a backyard or like a garage with enough space to build an apartment in California, the state will now give you funding to start building that additional dwelling unit. Today, we're talking about California solutions. Tomorrow, in tomorrow's episode, we're talking about New York's. Because we found a wild one there that the Costco apartment folks are going to love. Because making housing affordable in America requires 50 different solutions.

And the Costco Kirkland condo is just one of them. For our second story, ExxonMobil was just sued for a plastic conspiracy going back decades. Here's the story of ExxonMobil, recycling, foe cycling, and the tricks that plastic have played on us all. Jack, let's kick things off with a little time travel. Post-war America, 1950s, 1960s, what is the most booming industry in America? Plastics. Ladies, Plastics was the miracle material. It made possible all the things you're basically using today.

It made possible Tupperware, Legos, and that Bachelorette Party inflatable unicorn float that you posted on the ground this summer. But the dirty secret to the plastic industry is this. Plastic is made of petroleum. Which means plastic is part of big oil. In fact, 16% of ExxonMobil's profits actually come from their chemicals division, which includes plastics. And here's the news. The state of California just sued as. ExxonMobil for deceiving the public about plastic for years.

This allegation against plastics, it sounds like the stuff of big tobacco from decades before. To drive plastic sales, ExxonMobil spent decades allegedly convincing us that plastic was recyclable even though it's not. Here's a quote from California's Attorney General yesterday. The myth of recycling and the leader in perpetuating that myth is ExxonMobil. Recycling as a myth? Jack and I got curious, we had to jump in T-boy style to this. But first, it sounds like ExxonMobil is the fifth mean girl.

It does sound like the fifth mean girl, like Regina's sister. Plastics. Yeah, literally. Now, this lawsuit was filed the same day as World Climate Week in New York City, but it goes back 50 years. According to the lawsuit, ExxonMobil research showed that recycling plastic is only possible in very limited cases. Apparently, there's only like certain types of plastic you can recycle.

But most plastics, you cannot actually recycle. But to the public, ExxonMobil was telling us the opposite. ExxonMobil was telling us, hey, plastics aren't bad because we can recycle all of it, toss it in the bin and go enjoy the rest of Botherty Timmy's Bachelor Party. Exxon Mobil lobbyists were even behind the creation of that Chasing Arrow's logo, which we recognize as a sign that this thing is recyclable. I think a lot of people have that as like a tattoo on their arms. The recycle logo is like a big deal. It's not just a cute logo. It was the cure for all of our plastic woes.

according to ExxonMobil. But Jack, could you share the wild stat about the reality about plastic recycling? Today, just 5 to 9% of plastic in America actually gets recycled. Part of that is because you accidentally put a non-recyclable pizza box in the recycling bin. But for the most part, it's that most plastics we thought could be recycled actually can't be recycled. Getting loser, we're going recycling. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies at ExxonMobil? Why is recycling failing? Because two of the most hated words of business, expensive and inconsistent.

Jack and I weren't shocked to hear that ExxonMobil was sued for misleading the public. They've already been sued for misleading us on climate change science. It's no surprise the plastic scientists did the same thing. We've been covering business news for years. We've seen that story before. But what's more surprising is that just 5 to 10% of plastic is what gets recycled in the U.S. That was a surprise to me. Now, one of the reasons California filed this lawsuit was to raise awareness on the limitations of recycling. Pretty much the only plastic that can be recycled is plastic bottles. The rest is too variable, although you should still try to recycle your plastic.

Look up like your local trash collector and see what is recyclable. But when recycling is possible, it's often more expensive than new virgin plastic is to create. So the real solution to plastic, it's buying fewer single-use plastics and reusing it when you That's why California is suing ExxonMobil for making us think that recycling is the solution to plastic. Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, 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 Orchchard. But if there was one person at Apple who's the most like Steve Jobs, who'd you say it was? It was Johnny Ive, hands down. Johnny I, 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. And Johnny I, 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. Yeah. Like, picture a 2005 German luxury car. Yeah.

It was a hundred buttons around you. So many buttons. 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 you 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 Ives' senior dissertation was about? The first thing Johnny Ive designed before the iPhone? 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 pot. But yeties, there are celebrity chefs. There are star architects, star architects. But John, is the first ever celebrity industrial designer. 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. 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

Love from. Love from. 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. 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. 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 off his space. Over the last five years, he has built up a wildly awesome list of clients. Get this secretly. Johnny I've designed the windows on the new space shuttle for his new company. He helped J.J. Ambrubs designed 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 Ives' love from. And his next move might be the biggest tech move in the history of hardware. He is designing a physical hardware product for Open AI, a virtual assistant that will physically be with you. Add it all up, Yeties, and Johnny Ives' secret company has been generated. rating $200 million in revenue a year already on those clients. If you hire Love From to design your next product, you have the best designer in the world. Minimalist design, maximalist price.

But what's the takeaway for our buddy Johnny Ive and the Love From team? It all comes down to the buttons. The buttons. Yeties, our favorite part about this Johnny Ive 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 Ive obsessed with buttons? It's the part of the clothing that you touch the most. 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 100 buttons, the iPhone had one. Johnny Ive did that one button. Both of those were revolutionary for tech design.

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. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for T-Boy Tuesday? Costco is building 800 apartments to take care of a new California law in incentivizing new housing. Fixing housing is a problem that requires 50 different solutions. Today, we looked at the Kirkland condo. Tomorrow, we'll look at New York City. For our second story, ExxonMobil, they were sued Monday for allegedly misleading the public for decades when it comes to plastic. Fockeling, most plastic can't be recycled because containers are too inconsistent and too

expensive. And our third and final story is Johnny Ive. He finally shared details about his top-tier design agency, Love From. He's obsessed. with buttons because the smallest details can affect the entire thing. But yeties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, stocks rose on Monday to another fresh record high. Wall Street is up since the Fed cut interest rates last week. And if this pace continues, this September would be the first positive September for the stock market in five years. Second, the U.S. just proposed a ban on Chinese smart car technology, which is effectively a ban on Chinese cars.

Yeah, the Commerce Department thinks there are national security concerns to Chinese-made tech in our cars. An extreme situation would be that foreign country taking control of your dashboard. Yeah, it's all part of the Trojan horse technology concerns that began with TikTok. And finally, Levi's just announced a partnership with, wait for it, I'm waiting, baby, Beyonce. Beyonce! Remember, Beyonce's latest album had a song called Levi- jeans and Levi's slid right into her DMs right after that. No, it's just a tease that was posted on Instagram.

It shows a horse, a cowgirl, and a silhouette that is clearly Beyonce. Although I'm checking now, Jack, and Beyonce is tagged in the picture. So I think on our fact check, we can confirm. Yeah. Yeah. Beyonce. It's Beyonce. And Levi are now a thing.

It's an item. It's beautiful. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one whipped up by Jack and me because we were shocked by these numbers. Wait to hear this. The WNBA just finished the regular. season. Attendance exploded this season. Let's look at the Indiana fever. The average game had 17,000 fans in the seats, which is up from 4,000 last year, more than quadrupling. And what about the TV audiences

for the WNBA? Overall, TV viewership rose by 170% compared to last year. And it wasn't just Caitlin Clark. Attendance for every WNBA team grew by double digits compared to last year. We have never seen year-over-year growth for something like this before. That's hockey stick growth. The WMBA is going Gretzky. Yes. Yetis, you'll look fantastic today. But if you are sitting in four mile per hour traffic on your commute, Jack and I want to help you out for T-Boy Tuesday. We want to hear from the Yetis. What should you do with a really slow commute? Roll down the window, talk to the car next to you, strike up a small talk like never before. Yeah, at the point you're not moving, It's actually a good networking opportunity to really like share a resume between cars.

That's what that is at four miles per hour. Pay it for while you're not moving forward. Yeah, these drop a comment on YouTube or Spotify. We want to hear your best four mile per hour traffic commute life hack. Jack and I will see you tomorrow. And before we go, a happy 101st birthday to Grandpa Miller down in Tucson, gotta be the King of Arizona right now. He says that the secret to age is minding your own business.

Okay. All right. Well, we'll leave it at that, Grandpa. We won't even ask any more questions. And congratulations to Parker Shell and the entire casting crew at Great Fine High Schools, The Play That Goes Wrong. Our best one yet was actually a line in his opening monologue. I'm honored.

We're honored. Two thumbs up. Two thumbs up. And to Derek and Katie down in Denver, congratulations on that. beautiful new baby, Nolan, is the best one yet. And thanks to Chase McRoy. We're actually sending a fact check about our best fact yet on fax machines. Yeah, apparently fax machines can get hacked.

But they're probably harder to get hacked. Chase, don't send us a fact check to this fact check. And Romanoino Pannell in Roseville, California, is celebrating a birthday on a lovely cruise to Europe. Happy 27th birthday to Ibrahim Aziz in Toronto, Canada. And a happy 40th birthday to Michelle Jones down in Samanak, Illinois, where Michelle, Michelle is not just doing logistics. She is teaching business and she's being fantastic. Sprinkling our T-boy takeaways into class.

Happy birthday to Jasmine Speta in Norderstadt, which is just outside Hamburg, Germany. Celebrating with her sons Felix and Jonas and husband Max for the best birthday yet. And to anyone else, celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. And if you want a shout out on this pod, just fill out the form in our episode description. This is Jack. I own stock of Levi's and Nick and I both own stock of Apple. and we both own ETFs of the S&P 500.