The Best One Yet - 😶‍🌫️ “Merlot vs Marijuana” — Cannabis’ Dry January surge. SmartLess’ $100M podcast deal. Big Tech’s dollar saved.

Episode Date: January 31, 2024

Dry January is drier than ever, but the real winner is the Cannabis industry — Marijuana sales surged this month because it’s actually “Canuary.”Google and Microsoft just announced record profits, but they also announced more and more layoffs — Because a dollar saved is easier than a dollar earned.And the comedy podcast SmartLess just landed a $100M deal with SiriusXM — Because Content is King, but Distribution is The Duchess.$TLRY $CGC $SIRI $GOOG $MSFTSubscribe to our newsletter: tboypod.com/newsletterWant merch, a shoutout, or got TheBestFactYet? Go to: www.tboypod.comFollow The Best One Yet on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypodAnd now watch us on Youtube Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Wednesday, Saviche Wednesday, January 31st. And today's pod, it is the best one yet, Jack. It is a T-boy, man. Nick and I are serving up the top three pop business news stories you need to know today. I'm sorry, I'm co-hosting with the professor over here, aren't I, Jack? I had the privilege and the honor to speak to Middlebury College's mid-core class yesterday.

Whole bunch of go-getters. I'm raising my hand. Jack, did you visit our dorm room? the dorm room where we met? I did. I visited our favorite dining halls, our favorite libraries, all the good stuff. Hadley Room 203 never gets old. Classic institution. I knocked on the door and ran away. Now, Lee tell me you got a Purpose Pleasure sandwich.

I got two of them. You can't go wrong. Best deli in central Vermont. Jack, so happy you got to speak to the students. Yeties, we've got a fantastic show for you. Jack, three stories. What do we get? For our first story, dry January ends today. But the winner of Dry January is cannabis. Because dry January is really canuary. For our second story, Microsoft and Alphabet just announced record annual profits.

But they're also announcing more layoffs. Because a dollar earned is harder than a dollar saved. And our third and final story is Smartless. Smartless, the comedy podcast, just signed a $100 million deal with Sirius XM radio. Because content is king, but distribution is the Duke. Or the Duchess. Probably the Duchess. Let's go with Duchess Jack.

But yet, ladies, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Fantastic mix of stories for today's show. Love the mix. Nick and I want to tell you the number one most stream TV show in any year in history. It wasn't Ted Lassau. It wasn't Love is Blind and it wasn't anything produced by Kendall Roy. It was suits. Suits.

Soots was the most stream thing in 2023, which was the most stream show in any single year ever. We're talking suits. Suits, the cable TV legal drama. Suits, we covered it earlier in the year, the decade-old, low-budget lawyer show that's having a renaissance. Suits, the show that turned actress Megan Markle into Princess Megan Markle. According to Nielsen Data, Suits was streamed for 57.7.7 billion minutes of Harvey Spector approaching the bench. That's almost 60 billion minutes of Lewis Litt's litism. But Jack, could you sprinkle on some context for us over there?

Suits' record setting 2023 beats 2022's winner Stranger Things. And suits beat the office, which won a couple years before. Suits even beat out cocoa melon and bluey. The two kids shows just running on repeat for Little Riley over in the playroom. Add it all up. And suits his 2023 season was the best in streaming history. Objection, Your Honor. Overruled.

But Jack, the key reason for this suit surge. What is it, man? It was actually the Hollywood writer strike. Because Netflix couldn't make new content last year, so instead they whipped up the old stuff. was more prepared than a third year law student with the LSATs. And the defense arrest. But one quick detail we should point out before we hit the rest of the show. Why is suits called suits?

It's not because they're wearing suits. It's because of the lawsuits. It's the lawsuits. Lawyer up, baby. May I approach the bench, Your Honor? You can approach our three stories, Judge. Fifteen years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dawn.

They had an idea that caused a cultural storm. It's 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.

For our first story, the big winner of Dry January, it's the marijuana industry. People not drinking alcohol have been turning to cannabis. That's why we're calling it, Canuary. Jack, you know I appreciate it good Nogroney. I'm like, you know, I prefer it with Mezcal. I know that about you. I'm glad you'd do. Well, last week, Molly and I, we went for.

a drink in the marina. We went to this place, great mescal degronies, and you know what? You typically need a reservation. But you didn't this past weekend, did you? No, we didn't, Jack, and you know why? Why? The bartender said it was empty because of dry January. According to the data, this dry January was the driest ever in America by far. Yaddies, Google searches

for dry January doubled this year from last year to an all-time high. More and more people are so be curious to kick off the year. Get these numbers. Half of Americans' 18th 25 said they're doing dry January right now and it shows in the revenue numbers. The first week of January this year, alcohol sales fell by 55% from the week before. 55%. That's got to be the biggest drop for alcohol since prohibition, Jack. It's the biggest week over week drop since they've been keeping track.

Yeties, this was what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. That impact of dry January was wild. But this was the shocker. Dry January is boosting cannabis sales. Jack and I jumped in T-boy style to the numbers. And the month of January, it should be called Canuary. Because Americans have been pulling the old switcheroo. For the last 10 years, Americans 18 to 25 have replaced their alcohol consumption with cannabis consumption. According to government data, only 50% of young people drank alcohol in the past month.

That's an all-time low for people 18 to 25. According to the same survey, nearly one third of young people have used weed in the last month. That's an all-time high for people 18 to 25. And Jack, what is the wildest part about this whole wacky wild situation, man? The increase in weed consumption from young people is about the same size as the decrease in alcohol consumption. Sit down, stand up, and just sit down because you're moving around too much. The room is moving around. Again, it's the old switcheroo.

Detox and drinkers are trading whiskey for weed. Beer for blunts. They're trading pino for pot. Does that work, Jack? Yeah. How about marijuana for a while? I think we're getting excessive here. But yeah, that works too.

Let's roll with it, Jack. Yeti's recreational cannabis is legal in 24 states now. But January is the top growth month year after year after year. Which is why we expect cannabis companies to go full-on marketing next year for cannabis January. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in the cannabis industry? People don't pause habits. They pivot them. It's kind of like the first law of physics, Yeties.

Like a habit, it can't be created or destroyed. A habit, like energy, can only be transferred. There's an interesting human behavior about habits that is relevant for business. Here's the secret yetis. We don't stop consumption. We just shift it. For example, coffee drinkers trying to kick caffeine might do it by switching to herbal tea. And dieters successfully avoid cake by switching to cantalough.

This helps explain why Dry January's alcohol drop is resulting in Canuaries, cannabis pop. They're switching out one vice for another. People don't pause habits. They pivot them. It's like the first law of physics. A habit cannot be created or destroyed. It can only be transferred. For our second story, we are in the middle of big tech's big earnings week, huge earnings week. If tech stocks like Google and Microsoft are at all-time highs, why are they also laying people off?

That's the big question this week. And Nick and I are going to explain. But Jack, first, let's whip out the whiteboard over here. Microsoft and Google are now working. how much money exactly? They're worth a combined $5 trillion, according to their market caps. Combined. Jack, can you sprinkle on some geographical context for us over that? That is more value in these two companies than the entire stock market of France. That's impressive. Can you give us another geographical example, please?

These two big tech companies are worth more than double as much as all of Germany's publicly traded companies. You're like Carmen San Diego with these numbers. Can you translate that into lifts for us over there. Oh, that's about a thousand lifts? Google and Microsoft are worth a thousand lifts. And they just kicked off a big week of tech earnings. The theme of that week appears to be records.

Because Alphabet and Microsoft achieved record revenue in the fourth quarter. Google announced record profits too and Microsoft was just shy of a record profit. That's why both are enjoying record high stock prices. Again, valuing them at $5 trillion.

Which, as a reminder, is a thousand lifts. What a funny thing Nick and I had to notice about these big tech earnings reports. When you look at the numbers at Google and Microsoft, the profits are growing twice as fast as the revenues. That's right. Google's fourth quarter profits rose by 51%. But revenues only rose by 13%. Similar thing at Microsoft.

Profits jump by 33%, but revenue was just up 18%. And that's a surprise because big tech has always been known for the rocket chip growth. Big Tech, it's about move fast, break things, rocket ship emoji, drop it in the slack. Oh, wait, it already is in the slack because that's how fast they move. But this last quarter wasn't about rocket ship growth. What's driving the record stock price is something else. It's cost cutting and it's layoffs and it's our takeaway. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in big tech?

A dollar saved is easier than a dollar earned. Yeties, check the calendars on this. One year ago, Mark Zuckerberg announced at the beginning of 2023, it would be the year of efficiency. The translation, we covered it on this pod. It would be the year of layoffs. And that year of layoffs for tech companies has continued into 2024. For example, just last week, Microsoft announced 1900 layoffs in just its gaming division.

And also last week, Alphabet laid off 1,000 workers. On top of the 12,000 workers they laid off last year. And each painfully laid off worker, it saves about $150,000 in salary and benefits for these companies. Now, the companies are justifying these layoffs as recalibrations as they enter the artificial intelligence era. But best is Zuck's year of efficiency, it was actually pretty critical for big tech because it gave the whole industry cover to cut jobs. And those layoffs have turned each of the big tech companies into even leaner, even

meaner profit machines. And that has turned each of those big tech companies into record high stock prices. This earning season, we're all realizing that saving a dollar is easier than earner. earning a dollar. Dollar saved is easier than a dollar earned. For our third and final story, SmartList just signed the second biggest deal in podcasting history. A hundred million dollars with serious XM radio. SmartList is switching teams from podcasting to radio. Four years ago, during the pandemic, three guys did what a lot of guys did.

This started a podcast. Hey, our convoes are pretty funny. Let's turn it to do show. Why not? Now, for most of those podcasters, the podcast didn't work out. But if you're three hilarious actors like Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, and Sean Hayes, it works, baby, it works. These three guys are the funniest trio in media.

Yeah, they're like the Jonas Brothers of Podcasting, Jack. Their interview with Peyton Manning was really quite hilarious. I was going to say, that was amazing. The Ryan Reynolds one, that may be my favorite Smartless episode. Their weekly interview show Smartless has become so big that they snagged not one, but two of the biggest deals in podcasting history. In 2021, Smartless signed a $60 to $80 million deal with Wondery, which is the production company owned by Amazon.

But now here's the news. Smartless is switching teams and kind of switching mediums too. Smartless is going from a podcast network to SiriusXM's radio and podcast network. It's reportedly a three-year deal, and SiriusXM confirmed yesterday, it's for $100 million. I guess, Jack, there is money in the banana state. There's always money in the banana stand. A funny thing, Yetis, Jack and I are uniquely prepared to cover this story because we've signed podcast deals like these. Full disclosure, we signed a deal with Wondery in the fall, the company that Smartless is leaving now.

Jack and I have been following these podcast trends and we can tell you what they typically look like. They typically look like something called minimum guarantees. SiriusXM isn't buying the Smartless podcast. They're buying the rights to distribute the podcast and sell. ads on the podcast. Sean, Jason, and Will are still going to own the show and they're still going to control the editorial material that you hear on the show. But Sirius XM is buying special privileges, like the right to publish new episodes first on Sirius XM. But the most important privilege of all, what is it, Jack? The right to sell ads on that smartless show to Smartless's huge audience.

The idea is, if you had to sum up the latest podcast deals, here's what it is. Series XM has basically bought all the ad space on the show and is now going to sell it. SiriusXM has a team of ad salespeople who are talking to big brands and saying, do you want to have an ad in the smartless show? And for that right, SiriusXM is paying smartless a minimum of $100 million over three years. But Sirius hopes to sell more than $100 million in ads because that will be their profit. Add it all up. And this serious smartless deal is the biggest deal in podcasting since Joe Rogan and Spotify. It's the biggest deal since Bob Loblaw's Fla block.

So Jack, what's the takeaway for our trio of buddies over at Smartless? Content is king, but distribution is the duchess. Yet is without good content, you can't create a media company. Content is the hardest part of media. But growth of that content depends on distribution. That's how you reach new listeners. And that's the real reason Smartless is switching from Amazon to SiriusXM. SiriusXM has 34 million users who are mainly

listening in the car with their satellite radio. Now, Sirius XM will introduce SmartList to all those new XM listeners. There are a radio audience, which could be new listeners who've never listened to the SmartList podcast. So for the SmartLess co-hosts, the $100 million is really nice. But the 34 million Sirius XM listeners, that's pretty nice too. Content is king, but distribution is the Duchess. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for Saviche Wednesday?

People doing dry January are switching out alcohol with cannabis. Call it Canuary. Because people don't pause habits. They pivot them. For our second story, it's Alphabet and Microsoft. They both announced record results thanks not to growth, but to cost cutting. Big Tech's realizing that it's easier to save a dollar than to earn a dollar. And our third and final story is Sirius XM.

They snagged the Smartless podcast for $100 million in what was likely a minimum guarantee deal. Because content is king. But distribution is. is the Duchess. But Yeties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, and it's a prize move. A judge just declared Tesla's unusual compensation package for Elon to be improper.

The decision by the Delaware court nullifies a $55 billion stock bonus that Elon was awarded in 2018. Hey, the big question. What happens next, Jack? We're not sure yet, but it's not good news for Elon and it's not good news for Tesla. Second, Walmart has a new perk for Walmart managers. Walmart stock shares of Walmart. Managers at Walmart can now earn up to $30 a year in stock bonuses. And finally, Tom Brady is merging his lifestyle brand, TB12, with apparel company No Bull. Tom Brady will become the number two shareholder of this health, nutrition and apparel company.

No Bull. Jack, are you saying that Tom Brady's becoming a backup quarterback in his own company? As a former Division III backup quarterback, Nick, he's got good company. I think it's impressive. I think it's impressive. Backup quarterback, by the way, best job in sports. Ideal position. The jersey only gets dirty if you wanted to. Now, time for the best fact yet.

This one's sent in by Lisa Coyview from lovely Geneva, Illinois. This is a great one. We all love a good onesie. Onsies, like a onesy, a one-piece outfit. You wear it if you're a baby. You'll wear it if you're a skier. You wear it if you're like a buddy at Coachella. But did you know the term onesie is actually trademarked?

And the term onesie is trademarked and owned by Gerber, the baby food company. They have the trademark on the term onesie. And they're really nice, but they don't give that onezy out easily, check. Go-goo Gaga, cease and desist. Yeah, it is, you're looking fantastic today. And if you're watching suits right now, odds are you're watching suits right now. It turned the actress Megan Markle into Princess Megan Markle. If you haven't shared the show yet, tell your buddies,

H-Y-H-T-B-O-I. That's how we grow the best one yet. Drop a link to this episode in your family text chain. If you know, you know. Nick and I, we'll see you tomorrow. Mr. Jack Kramer, you may now approach the bench. And before we go, a shout-out to Yeti Keener Mung, who's going to be traveling to Japan next week on Saturday, February 10th.

And you know what he's going to do, Jack? He's going to document whether T. Swift can make it from her concert in Tokyo to the Super Bowl in Vegas. All right. Keep us updated, Keener. We're paying attention. And next, happy birthday to Yeti Elizabeth M. over in New York City. And happy birthday to Kelly Hale, the most supportive partner ever who's celebrating in Jacksonville, Florida. And Dan Cohen's got a birthday and a new job over at Amazon.

Happy birthday. Congratulations, Dan. And a huge shout out to Kelsey Black, who owns a wonderful bookstore in Austin, Texas. Get this, Nick. She's getting flown into Washington, D.C., to speak to lawmakers about small businesses. Absolutely unreal. congratulations Kelsey and Pookie is looking absolutely amazing tonight. Enjoy the Waffle House. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-bye. Celebrate the wins.

This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon and Nick and I both on stock of Spotify.