The Best One Yet - 📺 “Nobody Wants This… Product placement” — Netflix's ad drama. Earnings Season’s exception. Neo’s home robot. +DoorDash’s cuffing szn

Episode Date: November 3, 2025

Netflix’s #1 show is full of conspicuous Dunkin logos… Enshittification or ingenious?Earnings season is 60% over, it’s the best in 4 years… But twenty somethings aren’t celebrating.Neo’s home robot is for sale for $20k… but you’re helping it as much as it’s helping you.Doordash data confirms you’re trying to lock down a guy/girl… because toothbrush.$AAPL $CROX $NFLXNEWSLETTER:https://tboypod.com/newsletter OUR 2ND SHOW:Want more business storytelling from us? Check our weekly deepdive show, The Best Idea Yet: The untold origin story of the products you're obsessed with. Listen for free to The Best Idea Yet: https://wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/NEW LISTENERSFill out our 2 minute survey: https://qualtricsxm88y5r986q.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dp1FDYiJgt6lHy6GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Linkedin (Nick): https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/Linkedin (Jack): https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ About Us: The daily pop-biz news show making today’s top stories your business. Formerly known as Robinhood Snacks, The Best One Yet is hosted by Jack Crivici-Kramer & Nick Martell. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. Welcome back. It is Monday, November 3rd. 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, the big Halloween winner, gibbets.

Apparently give the kids gibbets from Crocs this year. They want it more than candy. Is that what they're doing in San Francisco for trick-or-treating? Handfuls of them. Let me tell you, that's an expensive treat. Those are like $5 each. Yeah, we had to close the trick-or-treat shop about two hours earlier than everyone expected. Unless you got a Timu-style gibbet's dupe, then they're like 50 cents each.

If you know, you know, Jack. But besties, three stories for today's pot. This one is fantastic. Jack, what do we got in the show? For our first story, we're in the middle of the best earning season in four years. From Apple to Levi's to Pizza Hut, they're all beating expectations. But there's one group that's not feeling the economic love right now, and that group is 25-year-olds. For our second story, if you were watching Nobody Wants This on Netflix over the weekend,

Did something feel off about this season? Yeah, but it's not just you. Netflix's top TV show is full of paid product placements, but that might actually be working. And our third and final store, it's the wildest new tech company getting all the attention right now, Neo. Neo, because Neo is selling the first humanoid robot for your home.

And yeah, they will do your dishes. It's $20,000, and it will try to do your dishes. You need help? Oh, one sec. Neon needs help, Jack. One second. I need to go help my home robot. But yet, these, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. I mean, what a mix of stories to kick off the month.

Love the mix, Jack. It's November. You know what that means? Yep. It's officially cuffing season. Ah, cuffing season, the time of year you cuddle up with a cutty and groom them to visit your parents for Thanksgiving. And according to DoorDash, when people couple up in the fall, orders for specific items

jump. But not candles or flowers. No, no, no, no. The orders that jump are for the toothbrush. Starting in October, on Friday and Saturday nights, DoorDash orders for toothbrushes jump by 30%. That's right, your date night became an unexpected overnight, so you need an emergency sleepover stuff. In fact, those DoorDash toothbrush orders jump an extra 10% after midnight on the weekends. Because morning bad breath is a red flag deal breaker, baby.

You can't settle down if you still got spinach in your teeth neck. So nothing makes it official quite like ordering a bottle of crest to a girl's house, Jack. And nothing says he's into you, like a 2 a.m. mouthwash delivery with the extra money to get it there quick. I mean, Jack, this is the kind of date of that economist would just drool over. But, Nick, what's the real sign he's the one on somebody's DoorDash history? Jacks, that's when he door-dashes a son-acare to your front door. That's a keeper. Wow.

Yeah, that's a keeper right there. That's a statement right there. Yeah, extra bonus points if he gets two heads for that toothbrush, man. Besties, the emergency toothbrush order. Yeah, that's our love language. Jack, let's hear you story. 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 the 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. Our first story. We are in the middle of the best earning season in four years. Not just tech companies, it's not tech companies too. Not just Apple. It's also Adidas. But every company's earnings are showing the same thing. The kids are not all right.

We'll explain. But first, a happy earning season to all those who celebrate. Jack, what are the big numbers, my friend? 60% of the S&P 500 companies have reported their third quarter earnings so far. And how are we looking, man? 70 to 80% of those companies have beaten their expectations. Not too shabby. Bloomberg is calling this the best earning season in four years, baby. Apple's quarterly revenues jumped 8% and they expect to sell a zillion iPhone 17s this holiday season.

Amazon is winning on cloud computing. Their stock jumped 10% for its best day in the market since 2022. And get this, Alphabet, their stock hit an all-time high because Google's chatbot has 650 million monthly active users, which is catching up to chat GPT. Now, meta's stock fell because they're just spending so much money on AI investors are getting a little freaked out. But meta's family of apps still made record revenue for Zuckerberg. Invidia, they don't report earnings for another two weeks, and yet they just became the first $5 trillion company on planet Earth. Invidia's market value is bigger than Germany's economy. So, Jack, pause the pod for a second. Sprinkle on some financial context for us, please.

Huge gains from the Mag 7 companies are why the S&P 500 has had six. six straight months of games. Sit down, stand up, and... Yeah. But here is what we find fascinating, besties. It's not just big tech that's thriving this earning season. Pizza Hut? They're the opposite of big tech.

But their sales are up. Levi's also the opposite of big tech, and their profits are up. Chewy, Adidas, their sales jumped by double digits, Visa and MasterCard. Their revenue both rose by nearly 10%, as Americans just keep swiping their cards. We covered Starbucks last week. They ended their sales looting streak.

They had a billion dollars in just delivery coffee sales. Who would have expected so many wins a half year into this intense trade war? You couldn't have seen it coming. And yet, besties, there is one dark spot to this earning season, and we think you should know about it. We see it in the burritos and in the burgers. Yes, we do. Because Chipotle told us last week that 25 to 35-year-olds

make up a whopping one quarter of their burrito customer base. But those young people aren't buying $12 carnitas. like they used to. No, that customer is trading down to fast food or just eating at home to save money instead. Shake Shack reported a similar story. Young diners making under $100 grand a year are not doing date night at Shake Shack like they used to. And don't worry, we got curious. It's not just food. Crocs also had a similar tale about this same demographic. Crocs reported last week that their sales and profits fell last quarter, as Gen Z isn't splurging on a third pair of clogs like they used to. Besties add it all up, and every industry is having its best earnings in year.

except those catering to the people in their 20s. Which leads to our takeaway. Exactly. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies in this economy? The kids are not all right. Yeties, one segment of our economy is particularly feeling the pain right now. 20-somethings Americans. According to the Federal Reserve, 9.2% of Americans age 20 to 24 are unemployed.

Okay, what was it two years ago, Jack? 5.5%. So the unemployment rate for people between 20 and 24 has almost doubled in just two years. Plus, Jack, the wage gains for those age 25 to 29 has slowed to its slowest pace since the Great Recession. We feel bad. Yeah, we do. COVID disrupted their college experience and their post-college party years, and now artificial intelligence is threatening the beginning of their careers. They're struggling to get entry-level jobs. Bessie's last week, Jack and I told you about the great hiring freeze. It's affecting people in their 20s by far the most. And last month's

earnings reports show the same phenomenon is happening. This is the outlier of the this earning season. Awesome for everyone except the 25-year-olds. It's an important demographic that's getting passed over in this economy. The kids are not all right. For our second story, two pieces of Netflix content, both of them fiction, have caused non-fictional serious drama. And one of two things must be true. Either Netflix is facing in shittification or Netflix is ingenious. But first, Jack, Yetis, everyone listening to that now. Have you, have you, you seen House of Dynamite? Because the head of comms at the Pentagon definitely has. Yeah, Netflix hired Catherine Bigelow, the Oscar-winning director, to make a military movie

a House of Dynamite. She has experience. She already did Hurt Locker and Zero Dark 30. Zero Dark 30 is one of your favorites, Nick. But this one is about a nuclear bomb coming to the United States. But spoiler, earmuffs. This movie shows an intercontinental ballistic missile getting past U.S. missile defense systems and attacking America. Pretty scary. But here's real-life plot twist. The United States Department of Defense wrote a memo about this movie, describing it as inaccurate. Jack, the U.S. military was basically like, oh, what the hell Netflix? You're scaring people here. We're going to be prepared. We're going to have to answer questions from the press now about your scaremongering movie

and whether our national defenses are up to snuff. But Netflix's response, relax, guys, this is just fiction. It's not a documentary about a nuclear attack. And the director did defend herself. She said that they had technical experts on the set for each scene, and they did their research. Wow. So a Netflix action drama, making waves among the West Point crowd, didn't see it coming. But we guarantee our military leaders didn't watch the next Netflix show that also caused drama. Ah, nobody wants this, Jack, starring Adam Brody, Kristen Bell, and Jonah Ryan from Veep. Self-described by Nick as a hot rabbi show.

I mean, I'm just saying people say I look like Adam Brody, like a young version of them. I'm just putting that out there. We know, Nick, we know. But the co-stars of this show are actually Buick, Duncan Donuts, and Este Lodder. Yeah, because America's corporate top brands are basically in the show's cast. The New York Times had a hilarious headline. Nobody wants this product placement. Because the episodes of this show had an unnatural mix of brand mentions and logo displays that you couldn't help but notice.

Oh, I'm so hungry for a snack. Can you hand me my favorite snack? Those flaming hot Cheetos? Oh, Joanne, I'm so excited for pasta making class, which I booked as an Airbnb experience. It's a story about cool young people in Los Angeles, and yet episode four revolves around Dunkin' Donuts. I mean, Jack, even Darlene from Duncan was shocked that these LA yuppies were eating Dunkin' Donuts, Boston cream style on the show. And the cups? They were everywhere. So besties, he's added all up, and this is the big question facing Hollywood right now.

Did Netflix push limits of product placement? a little too far. In the meantime, Mazel Toff to the CFO of Netflix definitely broadened a little more ad money this quarter. Yeah, they took in 20 bucks from me, and that Duncan order I just made is actually an assist to Adam Brody. Mazel. So, Jaggle, what's the takeaway for our buddies

over at Netflix? Is this in shittification, or is it ingenious? Ah, in shittification. Yeties, that is a term for a product that gets gradually worse as companies seek more and more ways to make money off of it. At first, the abundant product placement, and nobody wants this, felt like in shittification. I mean, Jack, last night was watching the scene where she conspicuously applies Estee Lauder's

advanced night repair, even though she's already wearing makeup and it's the middle of the day in the episode? It was like in the Truman Show. Remember the Truman Show had all those product placements? And Jim Carrey's like, what the hell is going on? Well, besties, this does make Netflix's best show feel like an ad, and reviews of season two are down from season one. But Nick, nobody wants this.

the number one stream show on Netflix as of this recording. And I'm still watching. Oh, and a house of dynamite? That is now the number one movie on Netflix as of this recording. And as I mentioned, I just bought a Dunkin' Donuts from Dahlia. Now, Basties, in this attention economy, Netflix is winning, even if the attention of their two number ones has a negative skill. Is this in shittification or is this ingenious?

Let us know what you think in the comments. Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, the first humanoid robot for your home is here, it's for sale, and it's just 20,000 bucks. But if you buy it, you're entering a social contract. You're going to help the robot as much as it helps you. We'll explain. Now, Yeties, to start this story, Jack and I jumped in T-boy style and watched a video from Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal, trying out the first Neo home robot. It's five foot six inches. It weighs 66 pounds and it's named Neo. And to quote Morpheus, Neo might be the one. Yeah, because Neo has two button-shaped eyes, no mouth or nose,

and its face is covered with fabric kind of like a speaker. And this robot is covered head to toe in sweater material. Because it's marketed as sensitive, delicate, and having dexterity, so it looks like cashmere, basically. It looks like a techie, high-end, expensive mannequin, wearing an outfit designed by Jenny Kane. Yeah, it's like a giant Laurel Piana turtleneck on this thing. And it's marketed as being able to fetch things from the refrigerator to load, transfer, and fold your laundry, to vacuum, and a whole bunch of other things.

I'm sorry, Jack, pause the pot. I'm going to have to issue a correction here. It tries to do those things. Because we watched for 25 seconds of painfully awkward attempting. This robot struggled so hard to close the dishwasher door. I wanted to, like, jump into my screen and help it. It was like an elderly person who really needed help from somebody. It did, and yet it was the robot that's supposed to be helping you. Right. Now, Yetis, what Jack and I find fascinating about this story is that consumer robots, they've been with us for a while, like the classic I-Robot vacuum you probably have in your home. The Roomba.

But a new industry is emerging. Human-shaped, human-sized robots for humans. Yeah, it started basically this year. The most famous human-shaped robot is Tesla's Optimus Robot. Elon mentioned Optimus 43 times in Tesla's latest. latest earnings call. Yeah, he's really into it. In fact, Tesla's humanoid robot Optimus is already serving burgers at the new Tesla drive-thru down in lovely Los Angeles. But unlike Optimus, Neo is actually for sale to customers right now. It's made by a company called

1X, founded in Norway, now in Palo Alto, California, they're raising money at a $10 billion valuation. And at $20,000 for this first home robot to buy it, it's basically priced at the same as a used Honda. You can also lease it for $500 a month, but you've got to commit to at least six months. Yeah, this is a financial advice, but we suggest you do the latter option if you do it. Yeah, do the lease, because it might not work out. But besties, here's the huge asterisk on the new Neo home robot. It very often needs to be taken over by a human. Ah, we're talking about teleoperation. Because like a puppet, a human can remotely control Neo to get it out of a jam or two. And that seems to happen all the time, according to this video we watched. For example, this summer when Tesla had their

robots tending the bar at their big cyber cab event, Jack, was it really the robots doing the serving of the drinks? No, they were being teleoperated by people behind the scenes as well. Aha, and that highlights where we really are in the giant human-shaped robot adoption phase. The robots are still learning. They're learning. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Neo? If you buy the Neo robot right now, the helping goes in the opposite direction than you'd expect. You see, Eddie's, a reason to buy a robot is to help you around the house so that you don't have to do any of that stuff yourself.

But the founder admits it. Early adopters who buy Neo right now, they're going to do the helping, not just be helped. He actually calls this the social contract that everyone buying one of these home robots right now should probably know. This $20,000 robot, it's not going to fold your laundry right. It's going to be like a botched job, basically. Yeah.

But practice makes perfect. It's learning. You see the eyes of the robot. robot, those little dots, they're actually cameras so that the human tell operator can jump in to help it learn. And when the human does override the robot's AI, that's when the AI learns how to do it right. You see, besties, at this early stage in the robotics revolution, there is one big ironic twist you got to keep in mind. You're going to help it as much as it helps you. They're learning. They're learning. Jack, fantastic show. Could you whip up the takeaways for us to kick off the week?

For our first story, it's been the best earning season in four years. Most companies reported strong profit growth except those who rely on spending from young people. The important asterisk to our record high stock markets right now, the kids are not all right. For our second story, Netflix's number one movie and number one show have caused drama. Because as the New York Times put it, nobody wants this product promotion. It feels like in shittification, but the number one ranking show might be ingenious. And our third and final story is Neo. They sell a home robot for 20 grand,

but at this stage, you're tolerating its many mistakes. The home robot, it's not working for you as much as it's learning at your house. But besties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, Open AI is reportedly planning

an initial public offering as early as next year. According to people familiar with the matter, they're targeting a $1 trillion IPO, which would be the biggest ever. Nick and I have reported on a lot of IPOs. This would be insane. Okay, now why go public? Well, Open AI isn't profitable. They need money to build all those data centers and easier to do when you're a public company. Second, a wild health update on the state of the United States. Obesity rates in America have fallen for a third straight year, thanks to OZemPEC.

Get this, according to this Gallup poll, more people are on weightless drugs than you realize a lot more. 16% of Americans, between the ages of 40 and 64, are on GLP1 drugs right now. In fact, 15.2% of all American women are on GLP1s. That is one out of seven American women on a weight loss drug right now. For men, it's 9%. And finally, remember we did that story on the U.S. Mint no longer making pennies anymore? They're going to stop it this year? Because it costs more money to make a penny than a penny is worth.

But they've encountered a bit of a snag. Yeah, you see banks and retailers, convenience stores, they're now complaining that they just can't make exact change. They don't have enough pennies now. The government didn't issue guidance on how businesses should handle the situation of making change. Are we going to round up to the nearest nickel on this one? What do you think, man? We're going to round down to the nearest nickel. Apparently some drugstores will give you free food if you bring them pennies. Pennies. They're now worth more than a penny.

Now, time for the best fact yet. And this one is T-boy trivia because it's Monday. I'm going to surprise you on this one. You ready for it? I'm very excited. Okay, Doug and T. Boy stouts at that DoorDash delivery data. And we mentioned at the top of the pod that the big item jump in the fall when people are coupling up is late night orders of toothbrushes. Right. That's what we said earlier?

Okay. The second biggest item to see a delivery jump in November is what product? I need a hint. Okay, here we go. It's something you're on. Wait, is it sheets? It's bed sheets. It's pillowcases.

It's blankets. as well. So it seems like people are just, you know, it's cold out there in the fall. Although it seems like it's getting hot in there under the blankets. Well, that's up to the sadisticians to figure out, Jack. That one is for the data nerds. Yeties, you look fantastic to start the week. We got a big week, right, Jack? You're flying into San Francisco. We got a lot of exciting stuff going on this week. We're interviewing a big CEO the morning after their big earnings report. We're very excited. We'll tell you more tomorrow. But in the meantime, drop down to give us five stars.

That helps us grow the show, and Jack and I will see you in a mania. Before we go, a happy 44th birthday to legendary Yeti, Teresa Gustafson, hanging out in Aurora, Illinois. And congratulations to Logan Carroll in Effingham, Illinois, who's got a new job in the healthcare tech space. And Jack, just a shout out to Nina, a legendary Yeti. I just ran into her in San Francisco at the Ferry Building while she was listening to the show. She's been an incredible supporter. Love seeing you, Nina. Great to connect again.

And a big shout out to the Kellogg Investment Banking Club for the executive team helping the first year students in recruiting. You got this, guys. And to Daniel Paul and his wife, Trisha, in Denver, Colorado, we want to send out a huge congrats on a win to celebrate. These two launched a research program in memory of their son, Jack Paul. And here's the update. They just won an award from the Children's Health Care of Atlanta to investigate how to prevent GVHD, especially in children. Huge, huge, epic win for the Paul family. And to anyone else who's celebrating something today, make it a T-Boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Netflix and Croc, Nicoll in stock of Shakeshack, and we both own stock of Apple and ETFs of the S&P 500.