The Best One Yet - 🌹 “META goes MAGA”— Zuck’s fact-check switcheroo. Tiger’s viral golf league. Alcohol’s 1st warning label.

Episode Date: January 8, 2025

Mark Zuckerberg is ending fact-checking on Instagram & Facebook… because Trump won the election.The Surgeon General said alcohol causes cancer… Will a liquor warning label work?Tiger and Rory���s new golf league just launched… But it’s designed for screens, not greens.Plus, the hot new beauty trend of 2025 is egg whites… Frittata Facials are up 1,500,000%.$BUD $BF $META—-----------------------------------------------------Subscribe to our new (2nd) show… The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinksEpisodes drop weekly. It’s The Best Idea Yet.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/ Subscribe to our new (2nd) show… The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinksEpisodes drop weekly. It’s The Best Idea Yet. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Wednesday, pokey Wednesday. I'm sorry, Cevice Wednesday, January 8th. 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. The stock market just had its first bad day of 2025. The S&P fell 1.3%. The NASDAQ fell 2%. No, no clear reason why, but apparently it's not going to be a perfect year, Jack. We're not going to get that wind streak we were hoping for. No, this streak is over. But still, we got three fantastic stories for today's show. Jack, what do we got? For our first story, Zuck just announced the biggest policy change in years. Instagram and Facebook are done fact-checking. Because meta has gone maga. We'll explain. For our second story, alcohol stocks. They're down big after the surgeon general said the alcohol causes cancer. Besties, your next bottle of Jack Daniels could come with a warning label. Big one. And our third and final story. Tiger Woods and Rory McElroy's brand new indoor golf league, debuted last night on ESPN. But this golf league is not designed for greens.

This golf league is designed for screens. Four! Shooter again. But Yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Fantastic mix of stories. Love the mix today, Jack. We have some great news if your news resolution was to look hotter this year. Yeah, because the first big beauty trend in 2025 is egg whites.

Bad news if you're a vegan. Just to be clear. Spoiler alert. Because egg white face masks are back, baby. Actually, the egg white face mask dates back to the early Italian Renaissance. Women used to paint their faces with egg white liquid in order to achieve a paler look on their face. Well, thanks to TikTok, the egg white facial is back, baby, and it's the fastest growing beauty trend in the market. That's right. Gen Z is trading out Sarajevoi for chicken eggs. Yeties, here's the news. Videos mentioning egg white skin care have searched 1.5 million percent in just the last quarter. What we're saying is that we're wearing

egg whites for 15 minutes to look 15 years younger. Jack, you want a 43-step skin care routine? Did you add this to this thing yet? This is 44. Alex and I tried out the egg white omelet. Sorry, the egg white face mask. Dude, you paint it on your face. It eventually gets crusty and you sort of peel it off. And along with the egg that you're peeling off, you're peeling away imperfection and impurities. So, Jack, you got a frittata face. No, I got a fried egg face mask. Hey, waiter, just put the eggs Benedict on my brow, and that's it. You can walk away. But here's the best part. In this economy, egg whites are both a facial cleanser and a dinner. Because first you do the facial and then you eat the eggs. Exfoliate, activate, scramble. So, Jack, it's kind of like Dr. Seuss always taught us, isn't it, man? I like egg whites on my chin. I like egg whites on my grin. Sam, I am. I feel hotter wherever eggs have been.

besties. Let's sit on 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, Mark Zuckerberg just made meta go maga. Zuck is ending fact-checking on Instagram and Facebook. So we're covering the history and the end of fact-checking. Oh, yeah, it is your Uncle Andy's Facebook post, the one about aliens abducting his neighbor's cow.

It's going to face a big change. It actually just got the blessing of Instagram and Facebook. Yeah, it's about to go viral. Congrats to your Uncle Andy. Because Mark Zuckerberg just announced there is no more. fact-checking at his social media apps. Nata, none-donzo. Instead, he's replacing human fact-checking with community notes. Community notes. Jack, what exactly are these new community notes that we're all going to start seeing over on Instagram? Community notes is something that Elon Musk invented when he acquired

Twitter. Here's how this goes down yeties. On X, when someone posts lies or misleading content, users can jump in and add context. It's kind of like the way Wikipedia does it. And if a critical mass of people say that this tweet is wrong, then a little note is going to be attached to the bottom of the tweet saying, this is wrong. Although those community notes, they usually come too late because, you know, people saw the misinformation already. They didn't see the community note. The misinformation goes viral. The community note does not. But this led to the big question Jack and I were curious about. Since 2016, META has invested a hundred million dollars in fact-checking with real-life human beings. So why the big switcheroo? Well, Zuck said,

yesterday that fact checkers had been making too many errors and it had become political. Plus, he said meta has got to get back to its roots of free expression. But what is Zuckerberg really saying, Nick? Jack, can we get a little translation on that quote, please? It's pretty clear here that Zuck is trying to warm up to the Trump administration. Yes. He says that social media has been censoring conservative views for years. In fact, this fact check switchroo by Zuck is actually part of his big, let's make up hug that he's been trying to pull off of Donald Trump. Get this. Yesterday, Zuck also said that he's moving the company's trust in safety teams from California to Texas. And the day before that, Zuck appointed Dana White, Trump's buddy and the CEO of the Ultimate

Fighting Championships to join Medda's board of directors. And of course, like every other tech CEO, Zuck bent the knee by donating a million dollars to Trump's inauguration. Jack, Zuck even got a maga tattoo on his left calf over New Year's. He didn't do that, did he? You're going to have to fact check me on it, Jack. Oh, wait, I can't. Community note! Zuck said yesterday, it feels like we're in a new era after the election. So he actually is explicitly saying this is because of the election. So after years of Instagram and Facebook pushing puppy content above political content, they're pulling a switcheroo and reversing. This is the last policy update.

Political posts are going to be welcomed on Instagram and Facebook again. Jack, can we get another translation on that? Trump's post will be more visible than ever on Instagram and Facebook. And maybe your uncle really did see an alien. Take his neighbor's cows. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Meta? Do your own research is now your only option. Yet is, for more than two centuries, we relied on journalists and experts to be the arbiters of the truth.

But the internet disrupted news and information, and our trust for institutions have gone away. In fact, Elon Musk said last month, you are the media. And honestly, we think he's right on that. What he means is it's up to you to decide what's true and what's false. even though the average person isn't qualified to do that when it comes to complex matters. As Axios put it, trustworthy information will now commingle with garbage and misinformation.

So on X, Instagram and Facebook, each person is going to have to decide what's fact and what's fiction. And now, quick side note from us, you know, we fact check everything we do on our show every single day. If we get a fact wrong, we correct it in the next podcast. It's really important to us. And we hope you continue to trust us because we do fact check. But on social media, we are now in the do your own research era. Do your own research is now the default. Do your own research is now your only option.

For our second story, the worst performing stocks so far this year, it's alcohol. Alcohol stocks are dropping. Because the U.S. Surgeon General says that alcohol causes cancer. And alcohol deserves a warning label. You know, Jack, if we're going to start off this story, we may as well share a few hangover cures. Anything good? What do you got these days? I always did a bacon, egg and cheese. I don't know if it works, but it makes me feel good. Some people do ginger tea. Some people do element. You know, I would like a deep tissue massage if that's possible. I feel like that's extremely effective.

Well, unfortunately, the entire alcohol industry is still suffering in New Year's Eve hangover, and that Advil ain't working. No, it ain't because the stock in the parent companies of Budweiser, Jack Daniels, and Smyranoff all fell 2 to 5% since New Year's Day. Why? Because a report was published by the U.S. Surgeon General. our top medical scientist. And Vivek Murthy came out swinging. He said that alcohol causes cancer and that there is, get this, no safe level of alcohol to drink.

He went on to say that the more alcohol consumed, the greater the risk of cancer. In fact, that is why the Surgeon General also just asked Congress for warning labels on alcohol bottles, just like they do with cigarettes. A warning label. The next time you buy a bottle of fireball,

there might be a big cancer sticker next to that dancing devil logo bag. If you get smearing off iced by your buddy Timmy, I think you can sue him now, Jack. Honestly, though, Nick, I was shocked by this. Yeah, because everyone knows, asbestos, cigarettes, and radiation, that can lead to cancer.

But according to the report, less than half of us knew that alcohol could. Well, perfect timing for dry January, isn't it, Jack? So we put down the pinot, and we jumped into the numbers, T-boy style. Hey, bartender, close out our tabs. Now, the current guidelines on, like, healthy amounts of alcohol? What is Nick? You're not to have more than two drinks a day. In fact,

growing up, they told us that a bottle of red wine was actually good for your heart. Either way, the Surgeon General says all those guidelines have been wrong. Yeah. He points out that alcohol causes 100,000 cases of cancer every year among Americans. Oh, and Jack, what was that one particularly wild cancer stat? Overall, one-sixth of breast cancer cases in America are caused by alcohol. Now, the reason alcohol is able to do this is because as your body metabolizes alcohol, it damages the DNA, and the damage cells divide, and that leads to cancer. Plus, alcohol depletes the vitamins we have that help us fight cancer naturally. So alcohol's a double whammy.

But besties, Jack and I got curious. So we dove further into the numbers, and what did we discover, Jack? Like a bottle of Brunello, it's even more complex than we've said so far. Yeah, so yes, the risk of cancer increases with each drink you drink every week, but how much does that risk of cancer actually increase? The surgeon general says that the average American man has a 10% chance of getting cancer in their lifetimes if they have no alcohol consumption. Okay, but Jack, what if that average American man has seven drinks per week instead of zero drinks per week? Your chance of getting cancer rises to 11%. So besties, add it all up and one drink per day increases your risk of cancer by about.

10% for both men and for women. Two drinks per day? They didn't say how much that increases your risk of cancer, but I don't know, 20%. It was more than I expected, honestly. It's not a huge year number, but it's not a huge number, but it's not a huge number, but it's not going to make me never get a Nogroni again. Friday nights, I'm still going to do my Celebrate the Wins routine and pour that Nicarony, Jack. But maybe only on Friday nights. And not six of them on Friday nights, although I wasn't doing six of them before, for the record. I think you've said enough. I think we made ourselves clear. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in the liquor industry. Never underestimate the nudge. Yeties, the surgeon general is not recommending a ban of alcohol.

That would infringe on freedom and get some people pretty freaked out. Instead, he's recommending a nudge. That warning label is a nudge to nudge you not to drink. Now, Jack and I jumped in tea boy style, and we discovered that three countries already have alcohol label warnings. South Korea already has it. Ireland is about to get it. And the third one was Canada. Canada tested out warning labels for alcohol in the Yukon territories. And the result? Sales of labeled alcohol fell by 7%. Seven percent drop all because they put a cancer warning on the Jack Daniels labels. Now, not all labels are equal. Larger labels are more effective. And labels with fewer words, but more visuals are also more effective. But still, that simple nudge of the label, it is a powerful

economic force. Never underestimate the nudge. The nudge. Now, a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, the world's two best-known golfers launched a brand new indoor golf league that just debuted last night. It's called TGL. And it's the first sports league

not designed for competition, but designed for dopamine. You know, yet he's Jack and I didn't grow up with country clubs. So like everything about golf we learned from Rodney Dangerfield and a whole bunch of gophers in Caddyshack. You know, the hole is the ball's

natural habitat. He's got his bags ready. He's got his tickets. Send him to the airport. Bring him home. Bring him home. But the two better golfers than Jack, me, Rodney Dangerfield, those gophers are Tiger Woods and Rory McElroy, because they're also golf entrepreneurs. Tiger Woods and Rory McElrault raised $500 million to create a brand new golf league called TGL, which stands for Tomorrow Golf League. And they use that half a billion dollars to build an indoor golf facility because this golf league is entirely indoors. Three-on-three golf, it premiered last night on ESPN. The golfers drive the ball into a gigantic screen, but then chipping and putting happens on an indoor course in the arena. This is a tech-enabled futuristic golf

league experience. If Andreessen Horowitz wore pleaded khakis, that's this. It's like video games, top golf, and happy Gilmore had a beautiful, beautiful baby. The SPN had the first game last night. in their brand new indoor golf arena in Florida. Now, Jack and I got curious, we jumped in T-boy style, and the business model of this new golf league, it's the same as all the other pro sports leagues out there. They make revenue through ticket sales, merchandise sales, and media deals.

But we did notice that everything else about this new golf league is unprecedented. Yes, it is. Yeties, we said last year that the sports industry overall is being disrupted right now. Well, TGL golf is the most visual example we've ever seen of exactly that statement. Let's go back to the venue. It is purpose built just for this game. It's in Florida and 1500 fans can look down at the golfers as they compete in real life.

Players are teeing off into a giant virtual simulator screen and then they're chipping and putting in real life all in front of you. And since it's a virtual screen, the holes, they can use their imagination. Like one hole is a volcano. It's a volcano. Like you don't slice the ball into a cute little pond of water, you slice it into a pit of lava. Each event is 15 holes of golf, and each hole, they change the green within the arena so that the slope is different for each hole. Because there are 567 hydraulic jacks under all the grass, so they can literally turn like a par four into a par five with hills and a hurricane. They can turn an easy put into a really steep uphill put. The besties, this isn't your typical golf, because it's got

three PGA players on each team, and there are six teams that represent America's biggest cities. New York City's got a team, Atlanta, Boston, San Francisco, L.A. and Florida. L.A., by the way, best logo on the team, cool jerseys. By the way, the golfers, they can continue to compete in PGA tour tournaments while they play TGL on the side. And each of those players happens to be miced up for the game. You can hear Tiger talk trash to Rory about a short game. But you don't just hear those players, you also feel the players. They're tracking the players. They're heart rates. So if Rory misses a gimmee put, you'll see his heart rate hit like

200. Plus, the players own 10% of the league, so incentives are aligned, and that's something Tom Brady never got in the NFL. And finally, TGL owns a strategic night of the week. The competitions are on Tuesdays. No competition with PGA tour, and no competition with the NFL.

The only thing missing from this league, Shooter McGavin and a one-eyed alligator, Jack. Pour one out for Chubs. Took him down in his primes. Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddy is over at TGL golf. This is the first sports league designed for dopamine. Yet is, every other pro sports

league was created pre-TV a hundred years ago. You'd watch one sport or another, probably in person, that was it. But in the attention economy, TGL isn't competing against a baseball game. They're competing against TikTok, Netflix, and Instagram. So TGL is actually the

first sport that was designed to compete with social media. The golfers have a 40-second shot clock to keep things going fast. Each competition it can only last two hours. And with all the camera angles, you can see every player for every shot. Oh, and that volcanic lava hole we mentioned,

it's made to go viral. And the course, it physically changes, so that goes viral too. And we expect sports betting to be injected into every shot of the game. Did you hear what McElroy said? I don't know, but I put 50 bucks on it. I put 100 bucks on Tiger wearing red.

So besties, new sports leagues, they're emerging all the time, like pro pickleball. But this is the first league designed for dopamine. Because pickleball is designed for daquare. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for Saviche Wednesday? Mark Zuckerberg is ending fact-checking on his apps and basically putting a maga hat on meta. On social media, do your own research is now the only option.

For our second story, our surgeon general says that alcohol causes cancer, so he's recommending a warning label be placed on liquor. What he's recommending is a nudge, but never underestimate the power of the nudge. And our third and final story is TGL. It premiered last night. It's a brand-new indoor virtual-ish team golf tournament. And this is the first ever sports league designed for dopamine. But Yeties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, you may not realize it, but stock markets are actually closed tomorrow in honor of former president, Jimmy Carter. President Biden declared it a national day of morning on Thursday,

January 9th, so parts of the government are closed too. Jimmy Carter died at the age of 100 while we were on break last week, and his first funeral is on Thursday at Arlington National Cemetery. We're still going to produce a pod, though, so we'll have an episode for you a Thursday morning. And second, while we were on vacation, Party City went into bankruptcy and actually shut down all of their stores right before New Year's. It's a huge bummer. It is.

I'm a big fan of parties. Yeah, it's a lot of fun. It's a really good time. But there's actually been a lot of bankruptcies recently because interest rates are still very high. Struggling retail chains are running out of money. Also, they interviewed the CFO of Party City, and he said, The helium got really, really costly. So costly. Too soon, dude. Really funny, but too soon.

He said it, Jack. He said it. And finally, Walter White's house from the TV show Breaking Bad is on the market in Arizona for $4 million. $4 million, which is double the price of any other house in the neighborhood. Honestly, it's a very Walter White thing to do. I think it's $4 million on the off chance that there's like $100 million of cash buried under the bed. Don't ask any questions. Just don't ask any questions. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Savannah Westwood from lovely Orlando, Florida. This one's wild.

In Finland, when you get your doctorate, you get a sword. Not too shabby. A sword on your graduation day. It's actually meant to symbolize standing up for truth and freedom of research. In America, if you get a PhD, you get a diploma. Yeah, yeah. In Finland, you get Valerian steel. Yeah.

It's like a nighting, but you're a doctor, not a sir. I think that's how they're going with it, Jack. Great, great thing that Finland's doing. Yeties, you look fantastic today. And if you've got the best fact yet, or if you just want a birthday, anniversary, bar mitz of a shout-out on this show, we've got a link in this episode description.

Or just go to t-boypod.com slash shout-outs to fill out a simple form. We want to get your voice on the pod. Hit us up, and we'll get you here. All right, dude. I think it's time to wrap up the show. I cracked the eggs, the egg whites are ready for you. One second, do you put the cucumbers on your eyes if you're doing the egg white for Tata

face mask, Jack? Funny enough, you cook the cucumbers, you don't cook the eggs. If you know, you know. Before we go, a happy birthday to Yeti Madalina Ramana celebrating over in Portugal. And happy birthday to Ruby Chavez in Garden Grove, California. And Jackie Marino's got the best birthday yet over in New York City. Happy birthday to J.B. Blank Fine, over in New York City. Fuller from Hobbesound, Florida is on a trip to Iceland next week to celebrate the best birthday yet.

And happy 22nd birthday to Sophia PetraBos in Newport, Rhode Island. Good luck on those GMATs. You got this, Sophia. And a happy birthday to Jesus Andrade over in Oklahoma City. That's a shout-out from his old boss, who was introduced to T-boy by him four years ago. Not too shabby. Enjoy the New York City celebration, Jesus. And a quick shout-out to Tony from Brooklyn, who let us know that there's a fake T-boy account on Instagram trying to pull off some kind of crypto schemes. Yeah, it's not us. We are at T-Boy Pot on Instagram, and that's from us. Jack and I will never ask you for your money or a random crypto scheme. Although we're kind of impressed and feeling flattered that someone tried to impersonate us.

It was very nice of them. And Jane Smith and Noah Nietzai are going to have some very tall babies because they just not engaged over in Boston. Just outside Boston. To anyone else, celebrate something today. Make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. I have to tell you, that Molly texted me that she bought the dip, and she bet on NASDAQ in her Robin Hood account and bought some. What dip? It was like a slight dip.

But then I was also like, I don't know, down like last couple days. And then I was like, also, it's an investment, not a bet, right? Oh, God. She wrote back, he, he.