The Best One Yet - 🎮 “Mario Hits Puberty” — Nintendo’s Switch 2 sellout. Our 401K password trick. AI Traffic Lights.

Episode Date: June 6, 2025

Nintendo’s Switch 2 release caused chaos worldwide… because of Paul Rudd.Retirement accounts have surged, so we share our top savings rule… Forget your password.The new target of tech disruption? Traffic Lights… Stop signs haven’t changed in 100 years.Plus, the Oklahoma City Thunder are in the NBA Finals.... Thanks to an investing strategy.$NTDOY $SCHW $BRK.BWant more business storytelling from us? Check out the latest episode of our new weekly deepdive show: The untold origin story of… Subscribe to The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinks to listen.TBOY Live Show Tickets to Chicago on sale NOW: https://www.axs.com/events/949346/the-best-one-yet-podcast-ticketsAbout Us: The daily pop-biz news show making today’s top stories your business. Formerly known as Robinhood Snacks, TBOY Lite is hosted by Jack Crivici-Kramer & Nick Martell.GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts NEWSLETTER:https://tboypod.com/newsletter SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ Our 2nd show… The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinksEpisodes drop weekly. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Friday the real Friday, June 6th. And today's pod is the best one you add to this is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. All right, we're celebrating the wins over here. Are you keeping track over there, Jack? I have a list of accomplishments for this week. Can I read some off? Hey, are. You got a list. What do you got? Our social media channels at T-boy Potter buzzing. Our show hit top 50 overall podcasts on Apple. I like it. We're interviewing two CEOs in the next two weeks. Check, check, check. Soft launched something this week that's going very well.

It's in stealth mode. And every show we've dropped on the feed has been a T-boy. Plus, you're coming to San Francisco next week, and your flight just got upgraded. Dip? I don't know about that last part. Are you manifesting right now? I was manifesting the last one, Jack. In the meantime, Vesties, hope you're celebrating some wins.

Jack, three stories for today's T-Boy. What do we got in the pot? For our first story, Nintendo's Switch 2 went on sale yesterday. is Nintendo's first new console in eight years. But Jack and I are jumping into the video game industry because gamers ain't who you think they are. For our second story, Americans are prudent polly when it comes to retirement plan.

Yes, we are. We're putting a record percentage of our income into our 401ks. So our savings advice, forget your account password on purpose. And our third and final story. Each and every one of us spends 43 hours a year, on average, not moving, just stuck in traffic. But now AI is reinventing the traffic light. And we are thrilled about it.

But yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Disrupting the traffic light. Never thought we'd do that story. Wonderful mix, Jack. The NBA finals tipped off last night. We got the Oklahoma City Thunder versus the Indiana Pacers. The besties, Jack and I ran the numbers. And we already have a winner, ding, ding, Oklahoma City Thunder.

Because OKC's general manager, Sam Presti, uses a strategy from investing for his basketball team. Buy low, sell high. It's a stock market play call on the basketball court. Here's the context. Oklahoma City, it's a small market team. And by our calculations, Oklahoma City is the most wins per a local citizen of any team in the league. But even OKC gets draft draft picks, and the draft is the cheapest place to find talent. And Jack, in three consecutive years, Sam Presti drafted future MVP's. He drafted Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden in consecutive years, each became an MVP. All drafted by this man, besties, that's the buy-low part, the NBA draft.

But Sam Presti also sold high. Get this, he traded each of those players when they were all-stars, when they're at the peak of their game. Fans were so shocked, they spat out their barbecue. But the way he sees it, he sells talents when they're at the top. Like Warren Buffett sold Apple's stock last year. So that he could buy low. Like snagging Bitcoin at 100 bucks, which none of us did.

Case in point, his best trade ever. In 2017, OKC traded their first team all-pro, Paul George. And got seven young no-nameers in return. One of those randoms, though, was Shea Gilgius Alexander. SGA, also known as this year's MVP. He sold Paul George high so he could buy SGA low. And now he and Oklahoma City are back in the NBA finals. That is some basketball arbitrage.

Oklahoma City. That would make Blackstone blush. Jack, what's our three stories? 15 years 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 an norm. Jack 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. For our first story, Nintendo Switch went on sale yesterday, and it's already sold out worldwide.

Who are the people who waited in line for hours at Best Buy to buy the Nintendo Switch, too? They're not kids, that's for sure. They're actually you. We'll explain we got the data. But first, Yeti's Apple, they launch a new iPhone every single year on the dot-like clockwork. On the other hand, Nintendo launches a new product every eight years. Apple's like the Super Bowl. Nintendo's like the Olympics. Back when Greece ran it in ancient Greece. So yesterday was the biggest deal for Nintendo since like Donkey Kong.

Now, remember, the first Nintendo Switch portable gaming device sold 150 million consoles over the last eight years. And finally yesterday, you could buy the Switch 2, Nintendo's first gaming device since 2017. Or if you're like me, you couldn't buy it. Jack, I tried and someone threw a banana at me. It was sold out on all four websites it was supposed to be available. We're talking Best Buy, Walmart, GameStop, Target. All of them sold out within a day. Now, Nintendo actually knew demand was going to be insane.

So they actually limited pre-orders to just super fans in a really clever way. Okay, like Luigi couldn't even get one. Only people who owned a Switch one and had logged 50 hours playing on that device could pre-order the new Switch to. And guess what? 2.2 million people did that. It's like if Aramei said you can't buy anything from us unless you already owned the Birkenbag.

Isn't that actually kind of what I mentioned us? Yeah, that is what it is like, Jack. Now, a reminder economically why this is so crazy, Nintendo didn't reveal a launch date or a final price because of Trump's trade war. They actually unveiled the Switch 2 on Trump's Liberation Day, which is a big problem because the Switch 2 was made in Japan. But ultimately, they launched the device at the time.

The same price as originally advertised, $499 with no tariff tax. And it comes with Mario Kart included. Nintendo stock is up 31% this year so far, like Cooper Trooper. They're at an all-time high on the Switch 2 height. Now, unfortunately, Jack has been crying in my arms about not having a chance of getting a Switch on launch day. Only the people who shopped in person did, and I was too busy prepping this podcast, okay? So Jack and I were curious, like, who exactly are these people who are able to get these devices? who are video game players in general.

Perfect timing. The New York Times just did a deep dive on the history of Nintendo's customers. And the journey here isn't what you'd expect. It begins in the early 1980s, when the original Nintendo focused only on targeting young boys. Picture the kids from Stranger Things. That was who was buying a Nintendo.

Youths. They adopted video games first with the spare quarters from the arcade. By the 1990s, teens were the target. And then in the 2000s, Nintendo introduced Wii, which entire families could play together. So it's been interesting tracking Nintendo's strategy here. Like Nintendo grew its advertising as you grew up. The marketing matured with us.

But this latest Nintendo device, who does this one target, Jack? Everyone. That's right. Everyone with the internet. Because the whole idea is that you can play together alone. In the commercial for the new Nintendo Switch 2, Paul Rudd, the oldest young man ever, by the way, is playing the device with a whole bunch of friends and his little niece. They're all playing together, even though they're all alone in their own separate living rooms.

So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Nintendo? The typical video gamer in America looks like the typical American. And that's not what you'd expect. Yet he's, the median video gamer is actually 36 years old, and the ratio is 53% male to 47% female. That's very close to the general population, whose median age is 39 and a 50-50 gender split. And that median video gamer, they're playing an... hour and a half per day. Now, you might have had an outdated picture of a stereotype in your head when you thought of a video gamer. Yeah, like a 25-year-old dude who still lives in his parents'

basement, he's the one who's playing video games. That's not right. It's actually everyone who's playing video games. And Nintendo's evolution and marketing over the last 30, 40 years shows it. The original Nintendo was for kids, Super Nintendo was for teens, and Wii was for entire families. But the new Switch, it's for everyone. Because when you look at the data, everyone plays video games. And they play those games a lot. For our second story, the hottest new trend on TikTok, it's retirement accounts. 401Ks have gone viral. So we have to share with you our favorite savings advice. Here it is. Forget your account password. Just forget your password. On purpose. But that is Nick and Jack here with you. Go ahead.

Head this weekend, order another avocado toast and double-digit latte. You've earned it. Yep. Because your retirement account is living its best life right now. Here's the wild update. More Americans than ever are saving what they're supposed to be saving for retirement. According to Fidelity wealth management experts, 401k savings rates should be 15% of your income. And right now, boomers are saving 17% of their income,

and millennials are impressively saving 13.5% of their income. In fact, Americans are saving a record high percent for their IRAs and their HSA accounts, too. Basically, when it comes to retirement accounts, you are saving like Nana down in Sarasota. All right. Nick, I just noticed we've done like five highly jargony things. Like we said 401K, HSA, IRA. Oh, yeah. Can we sprinkle on some context, please? FYI, I was going to say we should sprinkle on some contacts, Jack.

A 401K lets you save up to $23,000 of your paycheck, pre-tax, and invest it in the stock. market for your retirement. And then you can withdraw that money from the stock market when you're 59 and only pay taxes on the gains. A lot of times the company matches 401k contributions, which is like free money. Now, if a company doesn't offer 401k, you could set up an IRA account. With an IRA, you can save up to $7,000 a year and withdraw it when you turn 59. Now, there's also a Roth IRA in which you pay the taxes first as the income from your paycheck, but then you don't pay taxes when withdraw that money from the stock market. Unlike a regular IRA where you don't pay taxes at the beginning, but you do pay taxes when you withdraw. So add up all those acronyms besties, and the reason

we like retirement accounts is they let you skip a tax payment. And that's huge. If you just take your paycheck and invest it in a regular brokerage account, you pay taxes twice. First, you pay taxes with your paycheck, and then you pay taxes on any gains when you withdraw. And that's like one of the reasons why retirement accounts are suddenly going viral like Frappuccino's out there. Everyone's figuring out on TikTok that they can pay less taxes if they use a retirement account. Hashtag Roth IRA has 800 million views on TikTok. Yeah, but it's not TikTok that has Americans putting a record 14.3% of their paycheck into a 401k. No, it's the default that made them do it, Jack.

We'll explain. Yet he's in 2006, Congress passed a bill encouraging companies to auto-enroll their employees in 401Ks. Basically, instead of requiring workers to opt in... to a retirement account, they required them to opt out of a retirement account. And that change in the default boosted enrollment just as millennials were entering the job market. Another interesting change, the default contribution. The percentage of your paycheck that was defaulted into a retirement account was 3%, but now it's 5%. So basically, they nudged you to save a little bit more money. And those nudges resulted in more millennials on pace to become 401k millionaires. Honestly, we are just blown away by the average American savings right now when you see these numbers.

When I had a 401k, I started with just 3% because I felt like I needed every dollar. Eventually I got to 5%. I finished with 10%. I never contributed 15% of my income to savings. No, but these psychological tweaks have changed the game, Jack. I mean, now if you start saving 15% of your income, your future shuffleboard court is going to be paved in gold. Boko del Vista, baby.

So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies saving for retirement? The best saving strategy is to forget your password. Yeah, he's a funny thing, but I had an IRA account that began when I worked at a bank. I carried it through three different jobs. But a confession, I haven't signed into that account in three years. Because you purposely forgot your password. Yeah, I really did, Jack. You didn't want to think about your retirement account because you're still decades from retirement.

Yeah, I mean, I should point out, Jack, I check my other money daily. You know, I check my checking, my savings, my brokerage, my crypto, my A, and we do the monthly brunch with Molly. But retirement account, I don't want to touch it, so I don't want to look at it. it, so I forgot the password. Now, I check my retirement accounts monthly, like all my other accounts, but I respect this for Get Your Password. Okay, Jack, ahead of this episode, I did check the account for the first time in three years. It's got $200,000 of it after a decade of contributions. I haven't been paying attention. Congrats. And the power of compounding gains after a long period of time is wild. Okay, so Jack, if the stock market continues to gain on average 8% a year like it has,

And I don't touch that $200,000, it'll be worth $2 million in 30 years when I retire. That's right. Gaining 8% per year, your money will 10x in 30 years. So yes, besties, check your finances frequently. But your retirement account, maybe you forget that password. When you finally do check it, might have an extra zero at the end of it. Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story before the week.

weekend, traffic lights. They are the dumbest technology with the biggest impact on our lives. The number one thing we hope AI replaces, it's the traffic light. Totally. And it's happening right now. But Yeties, in order to tell this story, let's travel back in time to New York City 1914. Union Square is a mix of cars, pedestrians, horses, bikes, trolleys, and one sec, Jack. I think I see a cow. A police officer had to stand on a podium. trying to maintain some semblance of order. Besties, with the rise of the car, intersections in cities became chaos. So police had to manually conduct traffic like maestroes in an orchestra.

Until 1914, when a police officer in Cleveland got tired of all the chaos, quit his job and invented the first electric traffic signal. Pretty simple. Just green, green for gun. In 1920, a police officer in Detroit invented the three color system that we know today. Red, green, and yellow for slow. And then in the 1950s, traffic signs became automated. They were controlled by the municipal circuit board. But honestly, we've done the research, and that's it.

No change in traffic light technology for the last 70 years. Which is why odds are you're listening to this podcast while waiting out a red light right now. Yeah, and a trucker just blasted his horn at you at the 18th time. I know, I'm trying to get out of the way. You're worried about gridlock. It's stressful. And that's why we're excited for the rise in startups who are reinventing the traffic signal. Yeah, the new trend is the disruption of the traffic light. Get this. Obvio just raised $22 million for solar-powered AI traffic cameras. Their goal is to catch the non-stoppers.

Yeah, also, if you're making an illegal turn, a rolling stop, AI will identify all the types of traffic violations. And then send an email with a photo of the evidence to the police so that you get a ticket. Yeah, interesting business. model here, they actually give this technology to the city for free, but then they take a portion of the citation as their revenue. A more interesting startup is one called no traffic, which raised $50 million last year to make there be no traffic. Yeah, I'm trying to think about it and explain that, Jack, but basically it's hardware and software to sync up traffic lights with the reality of the traffic on the ground. Because right now, the lights are just programmed to be

red for however long and then green for however long. Regardless of the actual traffic on the road. Yeah, you look for those, you know, synchronized light avenues that speed you along, but otherwise, you're stopping every eight blocks in Manhattan. Although, Jack, we should point out there is an existential risk to the traffic light disrupting startups out there, right? Ah, self-driving cars. Right. If 100% of cars are robot cars, then do we even need traffic lights at all? A robot car is going to tell another robot car. You go ahead. I'll wait for you. You don't need traffic lights. Think about that one, besties. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in traffic light disruption industry. Traffic lights may be the dumbest tech with the biggest impact on

our lives. Yeah, he's paused the pod for a sec. Let's just take a moment to realize how years without innovation in traffic lights has affected us. Look, we appreciate the order and safety that traffic lights bring. We respect you. But the inefficiency of modern traffic lights have a major cost on society and the economy. Okay, Jack, one is environmental. Idling actually contributes It's 5 to 10% of carbon emissions of cars. Plus, the unnecessary wearing down of brake pads and the unnecessary fuel from stopping and going. But the biggest issue may be time because the average American weighs 43 hours a year sitting in traffic. Better traffic lights could reduce that.

So Basties added up and the traffic light is a funny example of a lack of innovation in an obscure product with some major upside. It's the dumbest tech with the biggest impact. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for the real? You'll Friday. Nintendo launched the Switch 2. It totally sold out yesterday, and the stock is at an all-time high. Because the typical video gamer in America looks like the typical American. For our second story, Americans are contributing a record 14.3% of their paycheck to 401ks. Forget your password on purpose. When you finally do log in, you are going to be thrilled with the number, you see. And our third and final story, we found two companies that raised VC money to use AI to disrupt the

traffic light. Because traffic lights are the dumbest technology with the hugest impact on our lives. But Yeties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, stock in circle, the Stable Coin company we covered on Monday jumped 168% on its first day of trading. The stock priced at $31 on its IPO day, but finished the day at $83 per share. Now, what do they actually do? Well, they digitized the United States dollar with the blockchain. But Wall Street thinks Coinbase might acquire Circle someday. Second, Tesla shares fell 14% yesterday as Elon's divorce with President Trump got really dirty and nasty. Elon pivoted from trolling the big beautiful bill to trolling the president on X yesterday.

So then the president went public and began insulting Elon and threatened to end government contracts with Elon's companies. Tesla's brand has already soured with progressives. Now it could lose maggot. And finally, the original cast of Hamilton is reuniting to perform one song at the Tony Awards this Sunday. Lynn Manuel Miranda will be there. Leslie Odom Jr. will be there. And that baritone who played George Washington, that big guy, he'll be there too. There's the whole OG cast. Hamilton, by the way, just surpassed $1 billion in revenue from the show tickets, the merch, and the Disney Plus streaming deal. And they're celebrating 10 years since the first show at the Tonys this Sunday. Now time for the best fact yet.

This one sent in by legendary Yeti, Khalid from Kuwait. This week, Muslims around the world are observing Eid al-Ada, which also marks the time of the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia that's known as Hodge. And the numbers are huge. 1.8 million Muslims made the pilgrimage last year, which you only have to do once in your life, ending at the Great Mosque. And the Great Mosque goes back to 638 AD. it's huge. It has a capacity to hold 2 million observers at once. All the numbers we're talking about here are just huge numbers. So to all the Yetis making the pilgrimage right now, Haj Mubarak. And to those observing Eid al-Ada, Ed al-Ada Mubarak.

Yetis, you look fantastic over there. You look fantastic all week. Jack, I can't wait to see in just a few days. Thank you for coming out. We're going to have blast it. Yeah, I'm going to give Maxie's early birthday present. Oh, very excited about that. Very excited about it. So Yetis, if you haven't yet, drop downs to give us five stars and a five-star review. We love reading them every week. If you do, we'll add it to our wins list for the week. And after that, check out our weekly show the best idea yet because we did a whole episode on Tommy Bahama. Specifically, their beach chair.

And Nick and I will see you Monday. Can't wait. And before we go, a happy birthday and happy middle school graduation to Yeti, Alessandro Montoya, down in Charlotte, North Carolina. Happy 36th birthday to Andrew Zamski in Waltham Mass. Just outside Boston. in Phoenix, Arizona is a Gonzaga grad with the best birthday yet. Happy year and a half birthday to Amelia in Orlando.

She's 18 months old and she's beauty. And a congratulations to Seth and Felicia on the birth of their daughter, Sloan Giaa, down into Barry Florida. Happy 40th birthday to Ryan Seward in Las Vegas, who's doing a gender reveal of baby number one over in Maui. And Mugo Jaguna,

the Little League Baseball coach is celebrating the best birthday yet in Brookline, Mass, getting dunked at the games. Just that side bust. And a big shout out to Manish, Aporva, Alana, Genevieve, Constance, Zelda, and Atticus,

who all attended the Salt and Strave event that Nick was the host for? Is host right to work? I got the host of Jack. I mean, amazing to meet all these Yetis. And Atticus, you've got fantastic parents. Big shout out to Christine Buccino from Floresa, who's got a promotion and is a run club junkie.

And congratulations to Andrea and Tom Klauski in Gulfport, Florida, for celebrating 10 years together with another fantastic wristband. A big shout out to Andrew Cazzo. In San Mateo, California, graduating eighth grade headed to high school. And Anthony Tran and Henderson, Nevada, congrats on the new job at Clark County Aviation and closing on that home, baby. And congrats to Anglis for getting a Berkeley executive MBA.

That's a huge accomplishment. And to anyone else, celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Disney. Nick and I both own stock of Apple, and we both own some Bitcoin. A Bitcoin named Ben.