The Best One Yet - ☄️ “Party in my Space Suite” — Hilton’s outer-space hotel. Uber’s hack job. The mall’s bicep hero.

Episode Date: September 20, 2022

The #1 way to save your sinking local shopping mall? The gym (Barry’s Bootcamp is the new Bloomingdale’s). The newest company to jump into the space race is… Hilton Hotels. And first Uber was hacked, then the Grand Theft Auto video game got hacked, and it’s all because of a teenager and a text message.$HLT $SPCE $UBER $TTWO $PLNTFollow The Best One Yet on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypodAnd now watch us on YoutubeWant a Shoutout on the pod? Fill out this formGot the Best Fact Yet? We got a form for that tooLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Tuesday. T-Boy, Tuesday, September 20th, and today's pod is the best one yet. Best pod we've ever done. It is. It's the best one yet. It's just the best one yet.

Jack, what's our first story for the T-Boy? The newest company to jump into space, the commercial space race, is Hilton Hotels. Hilton hotels. He got SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, and Paris Hilton. And our second story is about the shopping mall. It's sinking, but one thing can save the American shopping mall. It's the gym. The gym.

Barry's boot camp is the new blooming dance. And our third and final story, first, Uber got hacked, and then Grand Theft Auto got hacked. And it's all because of a teenager and a text message. Is this a serial hacker? It feels like we got a serial hacker. Did we alert someone? Control alt delete? The department of whatever.

Yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix. Just amazing mix. I love the mix, man. There was an 8-kilometer line yesterday in London for the Queen's funeral. Pay in their respects to the late Queen, her coffin, and her two. 2868 diamond crown. But Nick, many don't realize it's not just a royal family. True. It's a royal business. And Jack, it's not just a business. It's basically a royal investment bank. The New York Times crunched the numbers for us on the Queen's portfolio. They whipped them up. It is worth a whopping

$28 billion. $28 billion. It's known as the Duchy of Cornwall. It's worth more than five lifts. That Royal Dutchy Fund, it goes back to 1337 because everything in the UK is very ancient. Yeah, they've been pumping out dividends for the royal family since the Magna Carta. Yeah, those polo clubs, they don't pay for themselves. That's why the prince's first word was allowance. Yeties, the Royal Fund has a CEO today and a staff of 150. Again, it's a business. Yeah, Jack, because when your face is on the money, you got to make the money. And in the last decade, the Crown's portfolio has grown by 50% in value.

Queen wasn't really that into crypto. But they are royally into real estate. Yeah, we're talking castles, farms, fields, all of it. Wind farms, charities, cricket stadiums, all owned by the royal family. They got rental properties bringing in millions of pounds, baby. Yeah, that anonymous VRBO account? It was Prince Charles. Add up all that royal real estate. How much land are we talking about, Jack? They own 130,000 acres of land. That's as big as the city of Chicago, do those legit. And all this value passes down to now King Charles tax-free. It's good to be the king. The new king.

He's got to earn political capital with his British subjects. Yeah, but he has plenty of capital capital to fall back. It's good to be the king. 15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dawn. They had an idea that cost a cultural 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. Our first story. NASA is working on four new space stations. One of them, though, is going to be designed by Hilton hotels. Because sometimes you don't work for pay. You pay for work. Can you repeat that again one more time? Not we'll work for pay. We'll pay for work. It sounds like a village people song. Can you do it one more time for a check? I told you about my court jester issue. I know. I know. I hear you. I hear you. But it is a sad situation. But we should tell you what's happened. to the International Space Station.

It's retiring at the end of 2031. It is. That what happens, Jack? NASA is going to bring it down from space in a controlled crash in the middle of the ocean. Big part of the Pacific Ocean really far away from everything. From people. Except for this unlucky tuna. All right.

Now, here's the good news about the space station. The ISS's retirement party can be celebrated in a brand new space station. NASA is funding four separate replacements for the, international space station and all of them will be built by private companies. Instead of building a space station itself, the government is going to auction off this job to private companies because it's more efficient. But that led to some shocking news yesterday. One of those space stations is going to be designed by Hilton hotels. We repeat Hilton hotels. Hilton's not going to be in charge of like the propulsion or aerodynamics, you know? They better not be. They're doing the robes in the room service.

That's what Hilton does. That's right. Now this is a three- company joint venture on the space station. Because you got Hilton working with the Voyager Space Company, which is a private company. And then you got Lockheed Martin working on this project too. Which is a public company. And again, this is just one of the four space stations being developed right now. And Jack, how are they working on this space station? All three of them together.

Okay, Voyager understands space. Lockheed is experts in rockets. Fantastic. But who knows Fung Shui? Yeah. Who's going to know how to stick the mini fridge in the closet so delicately, you know what? Enter Hilton. Who's going to put the chocolate on the pillows but make sure gravity like keeps it on the pillow when there's no gravity.

You know what I mean? Yeah, he's space was once a place for just flawless astronauts to enter. 1600 SAT, 0% body fat, no fear of anything. Apollo 13 kind of situation. But we're entering the second phase of the space industry and that phase is focused on the consumer. Yes, this is about tourism. We are beginning a big new market of space tourism. When a new market opens up like this, it starts upmarket.

Like, Jack, what's the average price again of a Virgin Galactic ticket to suborbital space? To get into space, you have to pay 450 grand right now. So people are going to expect five-star amenities. Well, this Hilton Space Station, also known as the Star Lab, is scheduled to arrive in 2027 with some pretty good amenities. I assume, like, filtered, triple-filtered, bottled air included. Oh, Jack, we should share that detail we noticed from our research, right? Okay, the founder of Hilton, back in 1967, actually drew up plans to have a hotel on the moon. So there we go.

60 years later, his Hilton company is going to build a hotel up in space. Houston, we have a garden view king size. It's good to be the king. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Hilton hotels? Typically, you work for pay, but sometimes you must pay for work. Yeah, not we'll work for pay, we'll pay for work. Yeties, imagine the brand implications. if Hilton could say they designed the very first ever space hotel.

Imagine in 2035 the U.S. President spends a night in space, it'll be on Hilton bed sheets. The marketing value of being first in a new industry like space, that is priceless. We don't know the business terms between Hilton and Voyager for this interior design work on the Starlab. But we bet that Hilton isn't getting paid a dime for this design work. In fact, we think Hilton is probably paying Voyager for the honor of doing this work. like when brands pay to be the official sponsor of blank apparel when it comes to the United States in the Olympics. When a job brings so much prestige, that is a job worth paying to do. We'll pay for work, not we'll work for pay. For our second story, only one thing can rescue

your local shopping mall right now. And that thing is Barry's boot camp. Because Amazon destroyed malls, but it can't destroy your glutes like a hit workout camp. We're like priests preaching this stuff, like revenge experience. We've been saying revenge experiencing every week. Revenge experiencing is our gospel right now. It's a theme that is defining trends in a bunch of industries. Americans are using gyms more than ever. In person visits to gyms are up 13% from before the pandemic. Are you still riding on a solo Peloton experience alone in the basement?

Are you talking to yourself right now? What are you doing right now? Thank you for two years of service, Cody Rigsby. But I have a new cure for my loneliness. Oh, yeah, we deal. Revenge experiencing. It means commune. sweating. People are getting back out there into Pilates Studios, bar, spin, yoga, in person, in studio. But funny thing, Jack and I have noticed about sweat. It's not just a workout, no. It's an economic flex. Because when you've burned a thousand calories, Yetis, you deserve to treat yourself. A workout is like an economic hall pass. It's like a post-workout cooldown that leads to the post-workout

go-to-town. Go to town with your credit card. Which has led to a new trend where no noticing in the greater shopping industry at malls. Shopping malls are capitalizing on this sweaty spending we're talking about. If so facto, sweating leads to splurging. Get this, the number one tenant that malls want right now is not the food court, it's not a grocery store, it's not a department store either. Oh, no, it's gyms. That's who malls want. Unlike a movie watcher, a gym goer is more likely to stay at the mall afterwards to shop and to socialize.

Yeah, you do the push-ups? I don't know, you want to meet a chomba juice, or do you want to get some dipping dots? After that core finisher, you grab a $14 boot a bowl with friends and then maybe a cute top at Everland on your way out. Bed bath and beyond. I don't know if we'll have enough time. And the data backs this up. It does. Retail stores that are in the same shopping plaza as a gym, get two and a half percent more visitors all else equal. I can almost smell the Avicromby Cologne. Jack, that is according to the Wall Street Journal and that's not the only data. The sales boost is even higher if that gym is a boutique fitness studio. Bar, Pilates, Yoga Studios.

Those boutique classes leave you especially hungry to spend that sweaty money on a cute top on your way out. You keep saying cute top. What kind of cute top are you working with these days? I'm trying the halter life. I think it looks great. Let me know if it's working. You're pulling it off. It's fantastic.

Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies? Apparently pumping iron in the mall industry. To save the mall from sinking, the mall needs a new anchor. Fasties, the entire business model of the mall depends on one thing, the anchor tenant. Anchor Tenant, one major retailer to consistently draw in shoppers who will then spend everywhere else. Now, for a century, that mall anchor tenant was consistently a department store. Picture, Macy's. But Macy's, J.C. Penny, Lord and Taylor, Sears the Sports Authority. Forever 21, they've all declared bankruptcy in recent years. Department store has been hurt more by Amazon and online shopping than any

other industry. But what hasn't Amazon destroyed? Interesting. It hasn't destroyed your 50-minute squat rack routine. And that's why your local mall wants Planet Fitness, Orange Theory, and Equinox to all become the new anchor tenant. Bloomingdale's kept your local mall afloat for decades. But now Barry's boot camp, we'll save it. Now a word about our sponsor, Robin Hood. A lot of Yetis don't realize how much prep work goes into this pot. We spend hours every morning jumping in T-boy style to earnings reports, CEO tweets, breaking news, heaven.

Yeah, Jack and I are toggling tabs like you toggled IM Convo's in 2004. Having eight tabs open can be stressful. You don't need that, especially when invested. Robin Hood offers it all in one app. Whether you want to trade options, ETF for stocks through Robin Hood Financial, or you want to buy some Bitcoin on Robin Hood Crypto. You can do it all on the Robin Hood app. If you're not investing in Robin Hood yet, to get started, go to robin hood.com slash

T-Boy and choose your free stock. That's robinood.com slash T-B-O-Y. Limitations apply. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member SIPC, all investments involve risk. By the way, this podcast is not owned or part of Robbenhood. We are not employees of Rabinood. For our third and final story, first Uber got hacked. Then Grand Theft Auto got hacked.

Both allegedly by a teenager. How is Uber responding, Jack? With a job post. With a job post. Yeties, Friday afternoon, if you worked at Uber, you were clearing out emails, trying to get to inbox zero, you got to get the drinks in the marina, you want to get that espresso martini at Balboa Cafe. You're really excited.

And then you saw this message on Slack. I am a hacker. hacker, I have hacked Uber, Uber has suffered a data breach. Kind of awkward, maybe thought it was a joke. It was not and how did the hack happen? The hacker says that he texted an Uber employee pretending to be the IT manager and got that employee to text him the employee's password. It was that simple and the hacker was only 18 years old. According to the New York Times employees literally thought it was a joke. The stock market didn't. No, it did not. The stock for Uber, how much did it fall, Jack? It fell 5% because experts say that this was a total compromise of company security.

Experts say that this 18-year-old hacker got access to all of Uber's systems. It's like the hacker had keys to Uber's car. It's Ferris Bueller's Day off is what this is, Jack. It's Ferris Bueller's day off. The hacker threatened to dump all of Uber's source code, which sounds important. Yes. On to the web, but hasn't done that yet. He's kind of done nothing. Neither one of us would know what to do if we got that source code, would we, Jack? No, yet he's Jack and I were talking on Friday and we said, you know what, let's not do a story on this. You know, let's see if more develops over the weekend. And it did.

It did because then Jack and I woke up on Monday morning and we saw this. Grand Theft Auto had been hacked the same exact way. Grand Theft Auto, the classic video game, high school, you're stealing cars in the video game. Your mom's not happy that you're playing this all the time, right? Grand Theft Auto is owned by Take 2. No, she wasn't happy I was playing it. It was a very violent game. Take two, a publicly traded company whose video game Grand Theft Auto just got hacked.

People have waited nine years for a new Grand Theft Auto. It's been nine years. Nine years. That's why this hack is such a big deal. And get this, the new one, Grand Theft Auto 6, isn't coming out for two more years. But the hacker just spoiled Grand Theft Auto's debut by posting videos of it two years early. Yes, he posted 90 videos of in-game action. It was an incomplete game.

You can see like code that's not even done. But that's not even the wildest part. It turns out the same hacker is claiming responsibility for both the Uber hack and the Grand Theft Auto hack. Yeah, one hacker is claiming he pulled off two major hacks in just 72 hours. The hacker says he did both hacks through social engineering. Social engineering. Pretending to be the IT person on a text message and getting a password. And he says he did it for fun and that Uber security was.

And I quote, let me just make sure I got this. Correct. Awful. He said it was awful, Jack. Not a good day for Uber. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Uber and Grant Theft Auto? If you want to see a company's priorities, check out their job board. Yeties, you can't see a CEO's internal business plan or secret budget or private office notes. Well, you can get pretty close to those things by simply looking at the company's career page. You had job listings. Job listings reveal where a company is putting its money and what direction it's going in. So after that hack, we looked at LinkedIn and checked out Uber's available jobs.

Well, in the last three days, Jack and I noticed a dozen new positions for security engineers popping up on Uber's job page. App security, enterprise security, ID detection expert, senior threat detection analyst. Vesties, it's a case study. If you want to see a company's priorities, just look at their job openings. Uber's priority is defeating this 18-year-old hacker and anybody else like them. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us for T-Boy Tuesday? Hilton Hotels is doing the interior design for one of the new space station. Instead of we'll work for pay for pay, sometimes you got to pay for work. For a second story, shopping malls are looking for gyms to fill the empty department store space.

To save the mall from sinking, it needs a new anchor. And our third and final story is Uber and Grand Theft Auto. They both suffered very similar hacks. Yeties, if you want to see what a company is strategizing about, check their job board. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Lashon Mu from lovely Atlanta, Georgia. Oh boy, last week I enlightened all the Yeties and besties and all of us that a pack of flamingos isn't called a pack at all.

Yeah, a group of flamingos is called a flamboyant. That was a great fact. I love that fact. But flamingos, according to Lashon, are not the only bird with a cool name to describe the crew. No, no, no, no, no. The owl is a solitary animal. But, Jack, if you see a bunch of owls in the wild, what should you call that group? of owls. Don't call it a bunch. No. Call it a parliament. Yeties. It's not a flock. It's not a school and it is

not a Congress of Owls. A group of owls is called a parliament. Bringing it British again, full circle. Vesties and Yetis, you look fantastic to start the week. Jack, that is a cute top, if I might say so myself. You think I'm pulling it off? I think you pull off the halter. But if you know someone who you think should be enjoying this pod, turn to them and say, hey, H-YH-T-O-I. Have you had the best one yet? This is how we grow the show. If you know, you know.

And before we go, congrats to legendary Yeti, Daniel from Colorado, who is on a 500-day step streak with his Fitbit. 500 days, 10,000 K's all the ways. And Alexia Moniz just got a new job over at Bain.

And congrats to Holly Brinkman for getting a new job at Deloitte. We're on a consulting tear because Meg Patel just got a new job as an analyst, too. And big congrats to Ebony and Chuck Camillo, who just bought their first home together in Brooklyn, New York. And a happy birthday to Bestie Eva, the investment banker over in New York City. And happy birthday to Christian Manty in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Just outside Virginia. This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon, and Nick and I both own stock of Peloton and Robin Hood. Now a word about our sponsor, Robin Hood. A lot of you listen to our show while you're driving. Two hands on the wheel. at 10 and 2. You might be cruising, Chris, no rush, stay in the right lane. Or you might be doll lane from Duncan, dotting from lane to lane. And there are different drivers on the road.

They're different investors too. Maybe you're cruising down the long-term lane with stock investing, or maybe you're a more advanced full-speed trader. Well, the Robin Hood app helps put you in the driver seat wherever you're at in your investing journey. If you're not investing on Robin Hood yet, to get started, go to robinood.com slash T-boy and choose your free stock. That's Robinhood.com slash T-B-O-Y. Limitations apply. Robin to Financial LLC, member SIPC, all investments involve risk. By the way, this podcast is not owned by or part of Robin Hood, and we are not employees of Robinhood.