The Best One Yet - 🤏 “Ozempic iPhone” — Apple’s iPhone “Air”. Ben & Jerry’s revolt. Sphere’s 4D Wizard of Oz. +Anti-Shoe-Startups.

Episode Date: September 10, 2025

Apple just unveiled the iPhone Air… for Apple, it’s survival by a thousand features.Wizard of Oz at the Sphere is basically the metaverse… and the blockbuster of 2025.Ben & Jerry are calling for their namesake brand to be freed from Unilever.Plus, the hot new startup trend… is no shoes allowed in the office.$UL $AAPL $SPHRWant more business storytelling from us? Check out the latest episode of our new weekly deepdive show: The untold origin story of… The New York Yankees ⚾Subscribe to The Best Idea Yet: https://wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/ to listen.NEWSLETTER: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. It's Wednesday, Sep, J. Wednesday, September 10th. 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. Oh, what happened to the memo? I thought on Wednesdays we wear pink slamming salmon over here. What are we doing? I don't know, but I love that lock going down your forehead. Thank you, thank you. You got like a reverse alfalfa man. The product ain't producting right now in my hair, Jack. Three stories for today's T-boy Jack. Well, what have we got on? the show. For our first story, Apple just introduced the iPhone 17 and the very first iPhone air. Or as we call it, the first Ozempic iPhone. It's so thin, you can barely see it. For our second story, Wall Street just experienced the biggest ice cream split in history. And no, it wasn't banana. Ben and Jerry, the Vermont ice cream founders are demanding their freedom

from big ice cream. Ben and Jerry's are starting a rum raisin revolution. It's a revolt. And our third and final story is the surprise blockbuster movie of 2025. It's the Wizard of Oz at the sphere. The besties, this ain't a movie. It's a four-dimensional experience. Just watch out for the flying drone monkeys. Flying drone monkeys are in the arena with you. It's right behind you, Jack. But yet it is before we had that wonderful mix of stories. Fantastic mix of stories for the T-boy, Jack. Labor Day is over so you can't wear white anymore. But Jack, Jack, the big fashion quest, This year is this. Can you wear shoes after Labor Day? Because the hot new trend at startups

is no shoes allowed in the office. Anti-Adidas, literally some startups are banning you from wearing shoes inside the office. I hope you don't have athletes' foot because this is going to be awkward. No kicks in the conference room, people. Leave the Birkenstocks back at home. Phila's at your one-on-one? Forget about it. For example, Cursor is a $10 billion AI startup in San Francisco where no shoes are allowed in the office. Apparently the founder grew up in a no shoes household. Why should it be any different at work? Yeah, the sidewalks are gross.

You don't want to bring in the sidewalks into the office. Beacon of gross, Jack, kick your feet up for your next one-on-one meeting and just let your toes do the talking. I really hope human resources doesn't have an issue with my hairy hobbit feet, man. Instead, each employee gets a set of slippers when you walk into work. Dude, we have a no-shoes policy at my house, and it's a life goal to have like a full, set of all the sizes of slippers to let our guests wear in the house. But Jack, it's always awkward when like a plumber comes and you're like,

would you mind just taking off your shoes? Sometimes they have those like hairnets that they put over the shoes. I actually just bought some of those hair nets the other day for just such a purpose. Besties, the anti-shoe policy. It ain't about fashion. It's about respect. They're turning the office into a clean, sacred temple of innovation. However, Yeties, Jack and I dove in T-boy style to the no-shoes rule.

and we made a wild discovery. We actually found a correlation between footwear and financial results. Between bare feet and billionaires. And we'll reveal that correlation at the end of this pod. At the foot end of this pod. Okay. Jack, let's hit our three stories. Fifteen years before this song,

two boys from the northeast met in the dawn that had an idea to cause 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, Apple just unveiled the first ever iPhone air, or as Jack and I call it, the first ever, O-Zempec iPhone. Apple's suite of products have a thousand cool features at this point. And that is Apple's new recipe.

for survival. Jack, I'm checking the calendar here. Back to school. NFL kickoff and it looks like yesterday, Apple's annual event. They all happened in September. Remember, we saw the iPhone 4, the 4S, the 5S, the 5C?

Oh, Jack, who could forget the iPhone X? I remember where we were that. Yeah, the X. One Roman numeral. I remember the iPhone 14? It's a story for another pod. Besties used to be epic every time. But more recently, as innovations have slowed,

the iPhone updates have been marginal. Every September, we learn that the iPhone is a little thinner, a little faster, a little longer battery, and a slightly newer chip. As Shakespeare, the analyst once asked, how will Apple squeeze one to two percent more incremental revenue out of the iPhone? That's been the question in recent years. But this year, we got something new, didn't we check? On Tuesday, we got the iPhone Air. Yes. So impossibly thin and light, as Apple calls it, it will disappear in your hand.

5 millimeters thick, that is equal to just three nickels. And yet, this phone is more powerful, has a longer battery life, and a bigger screen than the regular iPhone. It's a paradox you have to hold to believe, as Apple put it, or as Jack, and I think it looks. What do you think, Jack? An iPhone that took Ozepic. Yeah, it looks like an iPhone that's on Oz Epic. It does. We double-checked the numbers. It's only 3% lighter, but it's 30% thinner and has a 22% longer battery life than a regular iPhone. Except for that camera bump, Jack? we've got to mention the camera bump. True. The camera's got to be good on an iPhone,

but with such a slender frame, the camera bump, it's more like a plateau than a bump. Yeah, yeah, it's like the new iPhone looks like the old iPhone took Ozempic and then got a pimple where the camera is. Still, it's the biggest physical change to the iPhone in a decade. And it's such a big deal. They didn't even put a number on this iPhone. Just iPhone air, it's cleaner.

That all sounds pretty impressive. Well, Jack, Wall Street was not impressed because Wall Street wanted one of two things. Wall Street wanted to hear a big price increase for all the new iPhones or new AI features in all the iPhones. Mo money or Mo AI, but Wall Street didn't get either. So as the event was happening yesterday, Apple stock trickled down by 2%. The iPhone 17 Pro is the only device whose base price rose by 100 bucks. That was it. There was no update to Siri who still doesn't speak artificial intelligence. And there were no updates on the AI features, which Apple is still way behind on. iPhone did get a new color though. Cosmic orange. Oh, looks like a Syracuse

alum might have replaced Johnny Ive over on the design team over there. So Apple's new smartphone is marginally better, not super smart, but definitely smart enough for iPhone users. And it's been injected with a little bit of Ozempic. So Jagal, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Apple? For Apple, it's not death by a thousand cuts. It's survival by a thousand features. Yet he's The shocking star of the show yesterday, in our opinion, was actually the AirPods. AirPods Pro 3, because it now has live language translation. If both you and the person you're talking to are wearing AirPods Pro 3s, then you can speak different languages to each other, but instantly hear the translation with no delay.

Jack, you could walk into a cafe in Cuba and understand the cassava from the croquettas mid-conversation with one of the Castro brothers. Doesn't matter you're not a communist. You still understand what they're saying. Now, live language translation was one of just hundreds of other features announced yesterday, innovations, if you will. Each one of which could be mocked as marginal, but together, they've added up. And the result? Every Apple user is now a power user who uses a bunch of different Apple accessories and Apple services.

Okay, get this, besties. In the last nine months, 41% of Apple profits came from services. And another 19% of profits came from non-Iphone hardware accessories. So yes, the iPhone has plateaued, but it's good enough to keep you parked in the Apple ecosystem. And as long as that's the case, for Apple, it's not death by a thousand cuts, it's survival by a thousand features. For our second story, Ben and Jerry just published an open letter saying they are business prisoners who need to be freed from capitalist prison. Because the biggest drama in finance right now is an ice cream drama. The hottest drama is in the frozen food section.

Oh, Yeti's for decades. Unilever has been the biggest ice cream company on earth, hasn't it, Jack? Get this. Unilever owns four of the five biggest ice cream brands in the world. Ben and Jerry's, Klondike, Breyer's, Magnum. The only brand in the top five Unilever doesn't own is Hogandahs. That's right. Oh, they also own Talentie, which you know why Talentie has a screw top jack? No, why? Because that way it feels like a snack when you dig into it at like two.

p.m. Oh, interesting. Unilever. They took 21% of all ice cream sales on Earth. Jack, that is one out of five scoops, or I know you don't want to hear this, but one out of five licks. No, we don't say lick on this podcast. But last year, Unilever announced a split. Banana split. They're going to spin off the ice cream business into a separate new publicly traded company. It's actually called Magnum Ice Cream Company, and that new stock begins trading this November. And now, Basties, we know what you're thinking. Why is an ice cream company the biggest on Earth that owns Ben and Jerry's, which everyone knows, being named Magnum Ice Cream? It was a surprise to us, but the Magnum brand actually has twice the sales that Ben and Jerry's does. I guess that's why. Here's the news. It looks like Ben and Jerry may have taken that name snubbing a little bit personally. Because yesterday, Unilever was having a party to celebrate the ice cream company's independence from the rest of Unilever. And then Ben and Jerry's crashed the party. Get this. Ben and Jerry published an open letter demanding that the brand to be

released from Unilever Magnum's ice cream corporate ownership. They launched free Ben &Jerrys.com to plead their case and collect signatures demanding the split. We're talking about the OG Ben and Jerry here asking and filing for a chocolate chip cookie dough divorce. Because as they said in the open letter, activism is at the heart of everything Ben and Jerry's does. And Unilever knew that 25 years ago when they acquired the company, Ben and Jerry.

When Unilever acquired Ben and Jerry in 2000, for $326 million, Ben and Jerry's demanded an independent board governed Ben and Jerry, one that protected the brand's free speech on all the issues. However, lately, Ben and Jerry feel like they've been getting, well, grounded by their corporate parent company. Ben and Jerry say that Ben and Jerry's voice has been stifled on all the progressive causes that the brand cares about. And that is why Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield are asking to split off Ben and Jerry

from this newly split-off giant ice cream company. There's been no response from Unilever yet, but we bet Ben and Jerry's are going to start trolling in defense of their position with like some mean fake flavors. Ben and Jerry's going to come out with like Liberation Lickoryish, Jack. Fine print preline. Legal clarity cookie dough.

I got one more for you. Hands off my halva. How about that for a flavor? What's halva? It's a delicious story for another pod. Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies? Over at Ben and Jerry. I scream, you scream, we all scream to let brands scream.

Yeties, Unilever, they're in a tricky position here. Honestly, it tastes like a catch-22. Unilever could let Ben and Jerry's be Ben and Jerry. Unmuzzle the brand, allow their vocal advocacy for progressive and sometimes divisive causes. But then risk hurting overall Unilever sales because the other side would get upset. Or Unilever could continue the status quo, which is muzzling Beninjerkis. Jerry's when it comes to their activist positions. But then that risks hurting Ben and Jerry's brand as their fans fell in love with them because of

the activism. Well, now, Ben and Jerry, the founders, are proposing a third option. Yes, they are. Just split off the Ben and Jerry's brand from the rest of the ice cream so that nobody deals with each other's drama. You see, besties, more broadly, some brands are just built on the opinionated positions and causes that they stand for. Like Ben and Jerry's, we think the third option is the only one that doesn't result in

brand destruction. Because when it comes to corporate censorship, I scream, you scream, we all scream to let brand scream. Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, the blockbuster movie of the fall is The Wizard of Oz at The Sphere. But it's actually a movie, a concert, and a theme park ride all in one. Nick, everything the metaverse isn't, the sphere is. But Yetis, let's kick off this story with a little bit of a T-boy trivia. Jack, you're the trivia guy. You got the honors here. What's the most watched movie of all time? I kind of wanted to say space balls just because I'm rooting for space balls,

but I'm not going to say space balls. The answer is the Wizard of Oz, according to the Library of Congress. Sorry, DiCaprio. Dorothy is going to win this one. Yeah, Martin Scorsese. Actually, the Munchkins are number one. The Schwartz is not with us. Yeti's Wizard of Oz. published as a book in 1900, a movie in 1939, plus a bunch of other spinoffs like Wicked and the Whiz. But on August 28th, just two weeks ago, the Wizard of Oz was resurrected once again at the sphere in Las Vegas. All thanks to Jim Dolan, the owner of the New York Knicks, the New York Rangers, and the Las Vegas sphere.

Jim Dolan invested $100 million to turn the classic 1939 movie into a wild, four-dimensional, modern viewing experience. More on 4D in a second, but in the meantime, Jack, can you please sprinkle on the co-conspirators to this huge production? It's Warner Brothers, which owns the OG movie, and Google, which transformed the OG movie into a modern digital Marvel thanks to their AI. The result, this new 4D Wizard of Oz is generating $2 million a day for the sphere. You're definitely not in Kansas anymore. Yeah, those ruby slippers or profit puppies. Nick, can I crunch some movie math for you? Movie math. What do we have, Jeff?

Since the debut two weeks ago, the Sphere has sold out two to three shows per day, 4,500 tickets per show at 200 bucks per ticket. Okay, Jack, I'm doing the movie math with you, and when will we hit break-even profitability? Maybe by Christmas. But wait, wait a minute, Jack, pause the pot. Did you say $200 a ticket for a movie? Yes, because this is a four-dimensional wild experience. Yeties, the OG Wizard of Oz movie was filmed to fit a rectangular screen.

The sphere is not a rectangle, is it? So they used Google's AI to extrapolate the 1939 film to fill up the entire sphere massive screen. That means, Yetis, when Dorothy, the lion, the tin man, the scarecrow, when they are skipping the yellow brick road, you see an AI-generated magnificent background that is as grand as Yosemite. And it's four-dimensional. So the tornado scene, when the house gets spun from Kansas to Oz, viewers, get hit by 750 horsepower giant fans. So it feels like a real-life tornado in the arena.

Wind and debris will absolutely ruin your date and night air. Yes, they will. Hold on tight to Toto. Oh, and then, Jack, watch out for the drones during the flying monkey scene because there are drone monkeys. It's terrifying. There's actual flying drones flying around in the sphere. Besties, it is as much a theme park ride as it is a movie,

according to the critics. And it could make a billion bucks before the run ends. When you think of the sphere, you probably think of concerts, like YouTube, Fish, or the Eagles. When they have concerts, Nick, the sphere will still show two viewings of the Wizard of Oz before the concert and bring in $2 million in ticket sales. It turns out this sphere actually makes twice as much revenue from movies as it does concerts. And Stock and Sphere, the publicly traded company, is at an all-time high, up 34% in the past month. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Sphere? The sphere is the closest we'll get to the Metaverse.

Yeties, the Wizard of Oz at the sphere, it is a category-busting product. It is a movie, a concert, and a theme park ride all in one. People will pay $200 for the 70-minute show. It's the premium price of Broadway, but scalable infinitely. And 70% gross profit margins on this thing, because unlike the movies, the sphere doesn't have to share half the box office revenue with the theater.

And now they're in talks with Disney to spherify Star Wars, and with Warner Brothers to sphereify Harry Potter. Besties added all up, and Mark Zuckerberg spent billions on servers. The sphere spent billions on giant screens. Mark Zuckerberg built headsets. The sphere built an indoor tornado. Zuck created for a solitary experience, but the sphere built a shared experience.

We think the sphere is the closest we'll ever get to the metaverse. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for Saviche Wednesday? Apple unveiled the iPhone air yesterday. They also unveiled live language translating AirPods and like a hundred other new features too. It's the first ever Ozepic iPhone. For Apple, it's not death by a thousand cuts. It's survival by a thousand features. For our second story, Ben and Jerry want their namesake brand to be set free from their corporate owner so they can be vocal on issues again. The way Jack and I see it, I scream, you scream, we all scream to let brands scream. And our third and final story, Wizard of Oz at the Sphere is the blockbuster of the fall.

It could bring in a billion dollars just in one theater. And it looks like the sphere is the closest we'll ever get to the Metaverse. But besties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, shocker, U.S. mail just had its biggest drop in history and 80% plummet in U.S.PS packages from abroad. It's all because the United States closed the de minimis rule, aka the Sheean loophole.

Before packages entering the U.S. under $800 didn't have, have to pay a tariff. But now, they got to pay that duty. So cute tops and other made in China tiny items, they're just not worth shipping to America anymore. And second, the jobs data was just revised again. Employers added nearly a million fewer jobs this year than previously believed. Now, it's common for the Bureau of Labor Statistics to revise job numbers. Last year, Biden had a similar huge revision downward at this moment. But still, this one is concerning. The trade war and AI are both spooky forces messing with the labor market right now. The number one concern of the economy has quickly pivoted from inflation to jobs.

And finally, the Girl Scouts are making their biggest product launch in years. It's a brand new cookie called ExploreMores. It's not a cookie. It's an experience. Chocolate, almond, marshmallow, ganache. Do I need to say more? The Girl Scouts, they do nearly a billion dollars in cookie sales each year. This could catapult them to full-on unicorn status. Correction, the Girl Scouts' fathers

peer pressure their employees to do a billion dollars of Cookie Scouts. Hey, the Sphere, can we please get a Girl Scout Explore Moore's experience so we can eat the cookie. Now, time for the best fact, yet this one whipped up by Jack and I

to complete our no-shoes policy intro. As we mentioned earlier, employees can't wear shoes at the office in some businesses. It's the new startup trend. But we dove in and discovered a high proportion of some of the most successful entrepreneurs and leaders of all time were anti-shoe. Steve Jobs? Yeah, he took off his shoes when he got to work. And they were barely shoes. They were Birkenstock sandals. Mark Zuckerberg walks around his office without shoes on. And he also famously wore Adidas slip-on sandals.

Yeah, I think he zucked the idea from Steve Jobs, Jack. Oh, and Mark Andreessen, Richard Branson, both known to show their toes. Even Socrates, a leader who came out before the sneaker. So Bessie's added up And there is a high correlation Between bare feet and billionaires Yetis, you look fantastic today And if you are not wearing shoes today Then that's all the more reason

Toes on today's podcast Helps us grow the show Five toes, five stars There you go, Jack. Oh, and drop a comment too Because Jack and I love reading every one of them After we take our shoes off And again, if you have athletes' foot,

I had it too when I was a kid, I'm still kind of self-conscious. Not the place for that, Jack. Not the place for that disclosure. Jack and I, we'll see you tomorrow. And before we go, a happy birthday to Yeti Daniel Vernese from lovely St. Louis, and congrats on your first ever publication as an author.

Happy fifth birthday to Big Aspen Frye over in Orange, California. The Mighty Aspen. And Katoo Gutobu over in Bowie, Maryland, has got a new apartment and a new job just crushing it right now. And congratulations to Darrell Williams of San Jose, California, who's got a new job as a controller. And if you want a shout out on this show or you've got the best fact yet,

just click on the links we got in this episode description. We'd love to get them on the pod. And to anyone else who celebrated something today, making a T-boy. Celebrate the Wits. This is Jack. I own stock of Disney, and Nick and I both on Stock and Apple.

I'm like, thank you so much, Xfinity service personnel, but can we talk about your feet? I just blame Molly. I say, you know, my wife really cares about this. like she really doesn't want people coming in wearing shoes in the house you know it's not me but for molly and they're like oh yeah no problem no problem