The Best One Yet - “Madonna, but for podcasts” — Spotify’s $100M Joe Rogan exclusive. Walmart’s essentiality cape. Moderna’s vaccine bet.

Episode Date: May 20, 2020

The biggest podcast in the world just went exclusive with Spotify, making it the biggest punch yet in the battle for your ears (Joe's now an orchid in Spotify's gated garden). Walmart’s earnings reveal what happens when one business is made “essential” and its competition is deemed “non-essential.” Someone’s going to win the COVID-19 vaccine race — Moderna is the $30B biotech company whose good trial results just excited markets.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. And this is Snacks. Daily, it is Wednesday, May 20th. This pod is so packed, I think we're just got to get right into it. Do we think this is better than yesterday's pod, Jack? This is the best one yet. T-B-O-Y, Jack, first story?

Any idea of the biggest podcast in the world? I'm going to go with H-Man Howard Stern on this one. No. No. It's actually the Joe Rogan Experience, aka podcasting's version of Howard Stern. And this guy just signed the most important deal in podcasting. We're going to repeat this.

history, that's right, podcasting history. Exclusivity with Spotify. We have a feeling everyone listening may be interested in a podcasting story. For our second story, if you didn't shop at Walmart before COVID-19, you probably do now. You're a Walmart and East,

a small business holdouts, you had no choice, couldn't escape the big box. Now, some companies were labeled essential and others were labeled non-essential for COVID-19. This is like getting volunteered as tribute by someone else.

But that essential versus non-essential, that might be the most important determination of business this century. Walmart's earnings, they prove it. Our third and final story, Moderna, the biotech company behind the vaccine that popped markets on Monday. This is a company worth, get this, $30 billion, aka five lifts. Even though it sells nothing. It sells no products so far. Snackers, this is a biotech company about nothing. We're looking at the vaccine and what's up with Moderna. And why did they throw an A on Modern? But before we get to that story, some of you are WFH. That's right, you're working from home.

Half of Americans about are working from home. Which means you probably got to take a break from this podcast to book out the conference call closet and unplug your neighbor's Wi-Fi. Everybody disconnect. Derek, what are you doing? Did you get my password? Others of you are WFW. Right, working from work.

We're talking the essential workers, and can I say this for Nick and me and for everyone. Thank you for working during this time. On the bright side, we know you probably got some minimal traffic on that commutes, which you deserve. Congratulations. You can swerve between lanes, wide lanes. I heard the 101's wide open and 280 is like a desert. They're renaming it just zero, Jack, one zero.

We should also say some of you probably aren't working at all right now. Right, and that happens some people, but you know what? We know you're going to be working soon. We got your back on snacks. We're rooting for an economic comeback and we're covering it on snacksdale. And you will be a part of it, which brings us to the fourth and final category here, WFC. Working from cars. New trend.

You can't get self-service in the house. You can't get privacy in the house. and you're constantly whispering in the house on those conference calls. Hey, everybody, this is Jack. Great to connect with you on Zoom. Couldn't hear who was on the call. Was that you, Jack? Yeah, I know.

The weather's beautiful this weekend. I can't wait. What was that about your sweater, Jack? I did a barbecue yesterday. It was awesome. Beyond me. Are you talking about your sweater still, Jack? Since you don't want to whisper on your Zoom anymore,

lay out the backseat of your Tursel or relax in the cockpit of your suburban. You're working from your car. You can drive out to get reception. You can choose a real nature background for your Zoom call, and you can use the car audio feature surround sound. I think it's referred to as Bluetooth. Yeah, you can use the car Bluetooth hands-free. It's wonderful.

Snackers, if you're WFC working from a car right now, please send us a pick. We got to see what your setup looks like. We might shout out the best pick we receive at Robin & Snacks on the pod, maybe even retweeted in our social. At Robin & Snacks, at Nick of New York, at T-Boy Jack.

Let's get to our stories. You're tuned in the snacks daily. We spoke to the lawyers and we got to get something illegal out the way. The snacks are about to hear rain. food is air candy. They don't reflect the views of the robberhood family. It's all informational just so. You know, we're not recommending any securities. It's not a research report or investment advice. Not an offer or sale of a security. Right. Snacks is digestible. Business news for you.

Robberhood Financial, LLC, member FINRA slash SIPC. For our first story, Spotify just signed the biggest podcast in the world to an exclusive. Joe Rogan Experience is now one. 100% Spotify. Snackers, we're talking about the biggest podcast punch ever. LeBron goes to the heat. The Obamas go to Netflix. Joe Rogan goes to Spotify. Snackers, the most searched for a podcast on Spotify, hasn't even been on Spotify until now. Every Spotify press release about podcasts has to have a footnote. Sorry, we don't have Joe Rogan podcast. And that's why they issued a new press release, which was basically like a sonnet love letter to Joe Rogan. Since 2009, Joe is built a following, a loyal following by being dynamic, curious, and a force of nature.

That's adorable. And if you're not familiar with Joe Rogan's podcast, it basically goes on a few times a week and last between, you know, one hour and six hours per an episode. Some podcasts take like 38 minutes. Other ones take like three days. Most days have 24 hours in them. Joe Rogans has 36. It's like Mars. It's all interviews, though. And he interviews people ranging from like the left of the political spectrum to right of the crazy spectrum. He's doing anyone from scientists to politicians. You got Bernie Sanders, Neil de Gras, Tyson, and Roseanne Barr. You got Alex Jones, the conspiracy theorist, Danica Patrick, the indie car driver, and Edward Snowden live via Zoom from Russia because he's not

allowed back in the U.S. And you just don't, you don't just like go on Joe Rogan show. If you're Elon Musk, you go on the show and then you smoke pot and Tesla stock drops afterwards, real thing. We actually covered this on Snacks Daily like a couple years ago. That was the only time we've mentioned Joe Rogan's podcast until today. Add up those 12-hour-long interviews and a bunch of those big names, you end up with a podcast that's getting, get this, 190 million downloads a month. We did the simple math. 10 million downloads per episode. Trust us, Snackers. Yeah. We kind of understand this industry. That's a really good number. It's a really, really nice number. And it's not only the biggest podcast in the world. If it were a TV show, it would be one of the biggest TV shows in the world.

It would be two times the size of Fox News's biggest show. Now, this is not an acquisition that Spotify just Inc. No. It's actually a licensing deal that Joe Rogan is probably loving, and all of Joe Rogan's errors in his will are loving. Snackers, this is what fascinated Jack and I about this. Joe Rogan gets to double dip on this licensing deal. He's getting an exclusive payday from Spotify,

reportedly worth $100 million to go exclusive. And he gets to continue to get ad money on the podcast, reportedly a lot of money. So he gets a profit present up front and then his ad sales are continued profit puppies being breeded every single episode. This guy's running a kennel of profit puppies, Jack. So here's the details if you're a Joe Rogan fan.

His podcast will finally be on Spotify starting September 1st and at some point before the end of the year, it will be exclusive to Spotify and Spotify only. Also a fascinating detail here. This will include his YouTube podcast videos, which will now be videos you can watch in the Spotify app. Because Spotify is dabbling with videos now, and I guess they're launching with

this guy, pretty big deal. If you're curious about the win here for Spotify, it's that Joe Rogan becomes another lovely orchid in Spotify's gated garden strategy. The old gated garden strategy, they're spending a lot of money on fancy flowers that you want to come in and sniff. Every time Jack says sniff, he always says it like that. I love it. It's a creepiest thing I do. But then here's the funny thing. if you want to enjoy those flowers, you need the Spotify key to get in that gated garden. So Spotify is populating that garden with Gimlet podcast and Parcast Podcast. It spent $400 million on those two. It just recently spent $200 million on The Ringer, which is like the ESPN of audio. And Spotify has a free version. So all you have to do to listen to Joe Rogan is download Spotify's free version or pay $10 a month for the premium.

A very small barrier to entry. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Spotify? This is the biggest podcast punch ever to both Apple and Google. That's because 65% of you are listening on Apple right now. And 20% of you are listening on Spotify. The rest of you are split between like a bunch of fragmented smaller startup apps. But then there's also like video podcasts, which are kind of a big deal these days. We don't do them yet. Maybe we should.

Gen Z loves them? Yeah, the people in our research department are telling us Gen Z loves videos. And they're watching them on YouTube, which means snackers. If we add all this up, the biggest pod platform on Earth, Apple, doesn't have the biggest podcast on Earth. And the biggest video platform on Earth, YouTube won't have the biggest video podcast on Earth and all of its 9 million subscribers. Like we said, biggest podcast punch ever. Before we hit our second story, this is not a snack's turnaround announcement. It's a reminder you should turn around in about a minute because we're almost halfway through it. You're almost

halfway down your run. Which brings us to our second story, Walmart's 4,700 U.S. superstores faced zero competition over the last two months. So, yeah, Walmart's doing incredibly well in the coronavirus economy. Perfect timing because Walmart just announced earnings for the past quarter, which was interestingly from February to March to April. Yeah, they do quarters and calendars different in Benton, in Arkansas, but we noticed February, March, and April, half pre-COVID-19, half post-COVID 19.

Really nice cocktail for us to sip on here. Interesting thing, people made 5.6% fewer visits to Walmart because of the coronavirus. But the average order was 16.5% higher than a normal time like last year. That means people are visiting Walmarts less, but they're balking up on Walmart stuff more. It's like a bizarre diet where you only have one meal a day, but it's a huge meal. It's a single snack. It's a 4,700 calorie steak. I saw Jack Dorsey doing it. Now add that up, fewer visits, but bigger orders, 10% higher sales overall at every one of Walmart's 4,700 U.S. locations. And that was only when like half of the quarter was affected by the coronavirus,

which means if the whole quarter had been, sales could have potentially been 20% higher. And guess what? We're in the middle of the second quarter, which is a whole quarter affected by COVID-19. Because once again, people just do things a little differently in Arkansas. Now, we got an interesting comparison of the uniqueness of this quarter for business. We're looking at Walmart versus Coles. And how one of them got to wear the cape of essentiality. So Walmart was granted right from the start of this crisis, is central. powers with an essential cape because it sells essential things. Right, it sells groceries, hardware, medications. Those are essential, you get to wear the essential cape. Coles, on the other hand,

was frowned upon and kicked to the curb because it was deemed non-essential. It doesn't sell those crucial life-saving things, apparently. Basically got the muggle treatment, nothing magical about what they got to wear. So Coles has been shut this entire time since March 19th. Walmart has been open this entire time since March 19. Coal's sales fell by 41%? because they've been closed this whole time. And once again, Walmart sales rose 10%. Because they were open this whole time. Ipso facto, dipsodacto, Walmart stocks at a record high. Coal stocks at its lowest level since 1998. The cape of essentiality. It's been great for Walmart. It's been awful for Coles. I was back when the internet was called a worldwide web.

So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Walmart? Were you essential or were you non-essential? That question decided your stock in Snackers, Walmart and Amazon are both trading at record highs right now. That's because they both have been wearing essential business capes. So they didn't lose a few months of sales like all the non-essential companies did. And they stole would-be sales from the competitors that they normally have to compete against who have been closed. Hey, Joe Rogan, guess what, Walmart's copying you and double dipping. COVID-19 eliminated competition for the giants of American business, at least during these past few months. And that means next year's Fortune 500 is probably going to show Walmart and Amazon

even more number one and number two. For our third and final story, Snackers, which horse will win the COVID-19 vaccine derby? Moderna Therapeutics is the latest biotech company that Wall Street is putting its money on. Just take a random word and toss a random vowel at the end of it. That's how you come out with a biotech name. Moderna Therapeutic.

This is the company behind the successful trial. It's Moderna. It's based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, just across the river from Boston, basically neighbors with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. And if you're a biotech company, you want Cambridge as your mailing address. That's what you want in biotech. If you're an agent, you want Hollywood on your business card.

If you're in biotech, it better be Cambridge Mass. What's your name? It's Kendall Square. Oh, I'm sorry, it's Moderna. Moderna specializes in this thing called MRNA, which stands for messenger RNA, which stands for messenger ribonucleic acid. They're like DNA. Forget DNA.

This company is literally trying to re-engineer your RNA, your genetic structure, but for good. And get this, this is wild. They are so passionate about MRNA that they've made it the company's stock ticker symbol. It's incredible. I really appreciate that because our ticker symbol is going to be TBOI. Meanwhile, Casper Mattress just did CSPR. Again, they could have done slack. Pathetic.

Could have done time. Snooze. So many options there. Now, this website, Nick and I jumped in snack style, Moderna's website is not designed for lay people. No, you got to be in your fourth year of a PhD to get through this thing. Scientific language everywhere, we couldn't understand a word of. We had to, like, triple Google what MRNA was to really understand what was going on with this company. Yeah, they didn't even, like, in the first sentence of MNRA, they didn't even spell it out for us.

They just mentioned it like we'd know what it means. Here's what you got to love about Wall Street, though. Investors didn't care. They're going crazy about Moderna right now. Because of Monday's news, it had a successful phase one trial of their COVID-19 vaccine. Yeah, experts say it's like the leading cancer. candidate for a vaccine out of the 100 that are currently in development. The first trial showed signs on eight healthy human beings that they could become immune to COVID-19 thanks to their vaccine.

So the stock rose 20% Monday and it's now tripled since February. It basically won the Churchill downs and investors think it could win the Belmont. But snackers, you got to keep a lot of context in mind here. Next comes the phase two trial, which will be on 600 people, not like just eight. And then you have the phase three trial, which I assume is on like thousands of people. And then they actually got to start producing the drug, which is not an easy process either. And then they're going to have to ask Bill Gates if they can use one of their seven factories to, to mass produce this thing for the whole world. So we have got a long way to go when it comes to Moderna.

This is not a short-term thing. It's not next week. It's not next month. It's probably next year. And that's only if everything goes right. Everything has to go right. Now, hilariously, this is like a side note. Moderna issued $1.3 billion of its new stock yesterday immediately.

after the news. They're like, yeah, we know the trial was great. Do you want to buy some Moderna stock because this product won't be available for a long time? It's like a kid getting straight-A report card and then immediately asking his parents for a raise for his allowance. Hey, Mom, what's the deal with the car for like the next three months? Am I going to, you said I could use it any time now, right? You guys are gone for the weekend, right? I was going to have like a few friends over. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Medina. Madonna sells zero products currently, and it's still worth $30 billion. We rip on Uber for being pre-profit adjusted. We ripped on Sleeper Fantasy Football for being pre-revenue.

Moderna is pre-product. They don't have anything they're selling customers. And yet investors are treating Madeira like a tech company with some groundbreaking tech right now. That's because MRNA, that special fancy thing that's also the ticker symbol, there has never been a vaccine created through that technology. So this is groundbreaking. Investors are basically impressed with the science, the labs, and that Cambridge, Massachusetts, P.O. Box. That's why when it IPOed five years ago, also making no products, it was already worth $3 billion. And it's why investors have quadrupled the stock this year, making it worth $30 billion about six lifts. Even though it's never had a product for sale. Jack, can you whip up the

takeaways for us? And please say the word sniffs again. Sniff. Spotify just signed Madonna, but for podcasts. We're talking Joe Rogan. He gets gets to double dip this deal to the distance. Second story, Walmart's competition, it's been closed by government order. So, yeah, being an essential business has been good for Walmart. They got to wear the cloak. Third and final story, Madonna Therapeutics thinks DNA is so last year. It's worth $30 billion in hopes it can modify your RNA to make it immune to COVID-19.

Pretty straightforward. M-R-N-A, great ticker symbol. So time for our snack fact. This one sent in by Maria Romulo in Guelph, Ontario. Guelph, Ontario, great town. Make it right past Toronto and go north like a thousand miles. Go way up town. You're going to be one to be up there.

Now, it turns out there is a prison for polar bears. Yeah, there's only one in the world, and shocker, it's in Canada. When the polar bears wander a little too close to Churchill, Manitoba, they got to protect the children, so they round up that polar bear and they throw them in prison. Jack and I were talking about this before the podcast. We got a lot of takeaways here. For example, hey, Churchill, you may just be in the wrong place. Also, don't call this thing a prison.

Call it like a play pen. It'd be better PR. You got to rebrand this thing. Also, can we talk about the Coca-Cola commercials? Yeah, the bears, they're not really fuzzy and cuddly like that. In reality, they're pretty vicious. Honestly, they probably put up posters about what the bears could be doing and being a lot nicer. Finally, does this prison follow due process?

Sorry, process. No, good. Cut it. No, keep it. Snackers. You all look fantastic, by the way, today. We've got to say that. We'd love if you could share with your buddies this podcast and ask them,

HY, HYSD. Have you had your snacks daily? We'll see you tomorrow. I can't wait. If you know, you know. This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon and Spotify. The Robin Hood Snacks podcast you just heard reflects the opinions of only the hosts

who are associated persons of Robin Hood Financial LLC and does not reflect the views of Robin Hood Markets, Inc, or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates. The podcast is for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as a recommendation to buy or sell any security and is not an offer or sale of a security. The podcast is also not a research report and is not intended to serve as the basis of any investment decision. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member FINRA, SIPC.