The Best One Yet - 🌭 “Peak Weiner” — Hot Dogs’ summer. Hollywood’s actor strike. Delta’s international vacay.

Episode Date: July 14, 2023

Hot Dogs have been named the “it” food of the summer — because hot dogs are a platform.The Hollywood strike is a lot bigger now that actors joined the writers — but we’ve seen this movie before.When new viewing tech arrives, we need new rules on who gets paid.And Delta Airlines’ quarterly earnings confirm our hypothesis from earlier in the week — Americans are choosing Mykonos over the Magic Kingdom.Take The Best Quiz Yet: go.tboypod.com$DIS $DAL $AMZN $WBDWant merch, a shoutout, or got TheBestFactYet? Go to: www.tboypod.comFollow The Best One Yet on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypodAnd now watch us on YoutubeLearn 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 Friday, the real Friday, July 14th. And today's pod is the best one yet. Yes, it is. Jack, can we talk about how jacked Mark Zuckerberg has gotten, by the way? Are you hearing what they're calling this summer? What are they calling it?

What are they calling it, man? They're calling it hot Zuck Summer. It's like he zucked Brad Pitt's body, man. I know. I think he copied and pasted it somehow. What's he eating these days? Twitter. He's eating Twitter.

First story, what do we got on the show, Jack? For our first story, the most trending food of the summer is the hot dog. Sales are smoking. Because Yetis, the hot dog is really a tech platform. For our second story, the strike in Hollywood just got a whole lot bigger. Yeties, the Hollywood strike is now seven studios versus 170,000 people. And our third and final story, Delta's earnings report confirms our hypothesis from earlier in the week. Yetis, the Amalfi Coast is beaten Epcot.

Mekinos is beaten the Magic Kingdom. And it is a small world after all. The South of France is beaten South Dakota. But Yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix. Now, this is a mix of stories to go into a weekend with you. Drones. Drones aren't that novel anymore. By this point, everyone has seen a drone. Drones are a dime a dozen these days.

Drones used to be just for military operations. But now we're doing drones for skiing videos. And at most weddings, you're seeing a drone taking pictures up high. And you got drones doing real estate photos for websites. But the latest use of drones is the wildest use of drones by far. And what is that, Jack? Shark Patrol. Shark Patrol.

Yet these drones are the new lifeguards. Get this. Kind of a scary fact. Across New York State's beaches, shark bites are up this year. All right, we jumped into the data. Until last year, there were only 20 shark bites ever in New York State, but what are we looking at now, Jay? Last year, there were eight shark bites.

And last week alone, five people were bitten by sharks just on Long Island. Forget about it. Yet these warmer waters, they're drawing the apex predator closer to shore. So Long Island's beaches are like a deli for sharks right now. Your body is basically shark baloney, gabagool. So the New York Parks Department is stepping up big time. The New York Parks Department just unveiled a shark-finding drone force. You know the NYPD, right? This is the NYSD. Yeah, we got ourselves the New York shark drones.

New York shark drones. 42 drones will spot sharks from the... air and send messages down to the lifeguards for an orderly evacuation. They're monitoring sharks off a Montauk. They're finding sharks off fire ice. And the coolest thing in the Hamptons this summer? What is it, Jack? It's not Sunrise Soul Cycle. And it's not Michael Rubin's white party.

It's a shark fighting fleet of freaking drones. Behold the NYSD. The NYSD. The New York shark drones. To protect and to serve. And to bite. Jack, let's hit our three stories. 15 years before this song.

Two boys from the Northeast met in the dawn. They had an idea that caused a cultural storm. It's the best one yet. 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. For our first story, the newest fine dining food trend is not what you think.

It's the hot dog. The hot dog. Hot dogs are hot right now because they're a financially perfect food. But first, Jack, the hot dog. Is the hot dog a sandwich? Let's get this out of the way. I think a hot dog's its own category. Interesting. Okay, but that which is between two pieces of bread, if not a sandwich, is it not? I don't speak old English. It's not me. It's Shakespeare. But Yeties, the Wall Street Journal, they say the hot dog has become the it food of summer 2023. And the national hot dog and sausage council confirms it. There is a sales surge going on with these

sausages from the beaches in Malibu to the bar over at Nobu. Hot dog, their sales are hot. And the best source for numbers is Nathan's, the classic Coney Island hot dog company. It's actually a publicly traded company that issues data. Jack and I jumped in T-boy style. Jack, what's going on with the hot dog sales over at Nathan's hot dogs? They jumped 11% last quarter. Not too shabby. But yet he's Jack and I, we should sprinkle on more context here.

The key is that it's not grocery store hot dogs that you're tossing on the grill. We're talking about restaurant hot dog sales. Hot dogs are all over fine dining menus right. now. They've been promoted from the backyard to the bistra. We're not talking papaya king hot dogs. We're talking like Gramercy Tavern hot dogs. Michelin-starred puppies. That's right. A promotion from the paper plate to the matri dish. Not the stuff of your buddy Timmy's barbecue. For example, over in Los Angeles, there is a Pakistani hot dog with chickpea masala that's going to cost you like 25 bucks. In New York, they're charging

$29 for a hot dog with kimchi and edible flowers decorating the top. At a certain point, the hot dog's going to have enough money to eat you. These are some fancy Frankfurters we're talking about. But yeties, here's what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. It's kind of ironic, but the weiner is a profit puppy. The hot dog costs less than a burger, but restaurants are pricing it like it's a steak. It has something to do with this funny combination of nostalgia because like you had hot dogs in your childhood, but novelty because you never see them at restaurants.

Yeah, we're willing to pay premium for a hot dog at a restaurant. And if you're a restaurant owner, you're a lot. Loving the economics of these hot dogs. Because that high-priced hot dog, it costs less than just about any other meat for the restaurant to prepare. And we don't want to offend anyone here, do we, Jack? We do not want to offend anyone here. Sorry, but it's true. It's a bottom-tier cut of meat.

Add it up yet, he's high-price, low-cost. That is a fat profit margin for the low-margin restaurant industry. Hot dogs have always been a seasonal favorite in the summertime. July happens to be the biggest month for hot dog sales. Hot dogs more and more are finding a permanent place on the mediation. of nice restaurants. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are everyone eating hot dogs? Never underestimate the power of a platform.

All right, yetis, here's what Jack and I are thinking. A key reason hot dogs are taken off? It's the same reason that tech companies did. There's an analogy here between media and tech and hot dogs. Here's what we're thinking. The hamburger. The hamburger is like traditional media. Its content is limited.

It's got meat and toppings, but they're both hidden from sight by the bun. There's not much flexibility when it comes to the hamburger as a form of content. But the hot dog, it's a foundation for infinite content. Yeah, the hot dog is like a tech platform. You can put anything on a hot dog and everyone's going to see it. You put a shaved beef on a hot dog, but have no bun at all. You can wrap that dog in a tortilla. The Wall Street Journal put it nicely.

The hot dog is a vehicle for endless interpretation in a way that a burger never can be. Like the iPhone, a hot dog is truly a platform. You can build just about anything on a hot dog. For our second story, Hollywood just stopped. The actors are joining the writers and are going on strike today. No new television shows or new movies are going to get made in Hollywood until a deal gets reached. Yeties today, day number one of the actors strike. Which means both actors and writers, like the entire creative part of a movie and production, is on strike.

And they're striking overpay and they're striking. over artificial intelligence. The pay part's obvious. The AI part, here it is. They want the studios to commit to not replace actors with AI-generated versions of actors. They want to have DeCaprio, not AI Caprio. Seems like a fair request.

We'd prefer the actual Caprio. But this is an epic matchup worthy of a Hollywood movie. Yes, it is, Jack. But the Hollywood movie can't happen because everyone's on strike. Great point, Jack. Hollywood shut down as of Today. Now, Yetis will jump into the details here. On the one side of the table, you got the seven big production companies. First, you got the old school studios like Disney, Universal, Sony, and

Paramount. And then you got the new tech giants like Netflix, Amazon, and Apple. On the other side of the table, you have 170,000 actors and writers. Yeah, you got the writers who write the scripts and the actors who actually read the scripts. And last night, there was a dramatic moment. Oh, this was big. This, you couldn't have scripted, Jack. The cast of Oppenheimer. which I'm very excited to watch next weekend. The cast walked out. They walked right off the red carpet of the UK premiere of that movie in solidarity with the other actors.

It actually felt like we were watching a Spielberg movie when we saw that happen. So the strike is on, but we have to tell you about the wild headline we saw two days ago about this strike. Because one side of this debate is willing to make the other one starve, literally. According to deadline,

studio executives are going to break the writers. Okay, here's the studio strategy. they're just going to wait it out until the writers go broke. They have a lot of money and they know that the writers don't have as much money. So when the holiday season is approaching, they know the writers are going to be short on cash and desperately crawl back to the table to negotiate. Because yeties, remember, the actors just went on strike yesterday. But the writers have been on strike for 71 days.

And the writers aren't household names either. 71 days without pay. So the studios plan to starve them out. Exactly. In fact, what did one studio executive say, Jack? Because this was wild. They called this a cruel but necessary evil. Which is kind of like admitting you're willing to do evil.

It does sound both cruel and evil. So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies over in Hollywood? We've seen this movie before. New tech requires new rules. Yet he's the last time the actors went on strike was 1980. Back then, they were scared at this new thing called the movie rental. Yeah, writers and actors were worried. that they wouldn't get a cut of money made from movie rentals, of money made at Blockbuster.

Yeah, they were actually scared of the Blockbuster situation. This time, the new contentious technology, where money is being fought over, is streaming. Streaming! Because right now, actors and writers get paid once. And any money the movie makes on streaming just goes to the studios. So actors and writers want a piece of that streaming upside. They want a piece of what's called The Residuals. So in a way, we've seen this Hollywood strike before.

It's like a rerun of what happened in 1980. New viewing tech requires new rules for who gets paid what. For our third and final story before the weekend, Delta just reported record revenues and record profits, Delta. Wondering why it's international travel. Americans are stamping their passports this year. Stamping those passports. Yeties, Delta, they just kicked off the second quarter earning season and they did it

with an upgrade. How's your portfolio, Greg? I say strong to quite strong, Jack. Yet, he's, Delta's profits rose by 73% to an all-time record last quarter. Jack, you want to whip up another number for us over that? The stock is up nearly 50% so far in 2023. Yeties, we all knew that this was the summer of travel because you're probably stuck somewhere right now. But we did not know what kind of travel it was.

But Delta's earnings report is a treasure trove of information about how we are traveling this summer. Jack, can you sit down? stand up and take us over to Terminal 4 over there. Delta's revenues for domestic flights increased by 8% last quarter. Congratulations, Florida. But revenue for transatlantic flights jumped by 65%.

Congratioretti Florence. Give this, Nick. Revenue for Trans-Pacific flights? Talk to me, Jack. What do we got? It jumped by 175% last quarter. Congratulations Fukushima. CEO Ed Bastion summed it up best with this quote.

Anywhere you go in Europe these days, you're seeing an awful lot of Americans. There's an epidemic of Americans in the French Riviera right now. Can someone put butter on my olive oil on my pasta? Ed Bastion went on to say, we haven't been able to get there in like four years, so there's a lot of pent-up a man to travel abroad, and that demand's going to stay for some time.

Jack, can we say it's a little less St. Louis, a little more St. Bartz? A little less Des Moines, a little more Deutsche Lauch. Jack, forget New York. We're doing old York. So what's the table? Makeaway for our buddies in the travel industry. Have a hypothesis. Yeties, Jack and I, we had a hypothesis about international travel.

And you know what? It was right. This week, we noticed that Disney World was empty, that Cape Cod has a bunch of vacancy, and that national parks had lower attendance than previous years. So Jack and I built up a hypothesis that Americans were traveling abroad instead of domestic. We said it earlier this week. 2023 is the year Americans stamped their passports. Boom.

later this week, Delta's data just proved it. Their new news confirms that hypothesis. The scientific experiment is complete. And the financial experiment would have been investing in that trend, wouldn't it, Jack? Yeah, we could have made a well-informed bet and bet on stocks that would have benefited from international travel. And honestly, Jack, we really should have done that. Why didn't we do that? Yeah, we could have put money on Delta. Why didn't we do that? Still not sure why we didn't do that, man. We'll save that for next time. In the meantime, it is gratifying to have a hypothesis, especially when the data clearly confirms it. Or refutes it.

Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for the real Friday? Hot dogs are the it food of summer 2023. Like a tech platform, you can build just about anything. You can scale just about anything off of a hot dog. For our second story, actors and writers are both on strike now. Nothing new is going to happen in Hollywood. Yet his new technology requires new rules for who gets paid what. And our third and final.

story is Delta. Their second quarter earnings show Americans are traveling, especially abroad. So, Jack, we had a hypothesis and we probably should have invested in it. Yeah, we should have. Yeah, we should have done that. It would have been a nice return. It would have been pretty fun. These next two stories weren't in the pod, but we think you need to know today. First, the FDA just to prove the first ever over-the-counter birth control pill. The U.S. joins 100 countries that will allow the sale of the pill without a doctor's prescription. And finally, the World Health Organization says that Aspartame, which you can find in a Diet Coke

and a lot of other sodas, can cause cancer. But if you're drinking normal amounts of soda, you should be fine. Now, time for the best fact yet, but this one is actually a correction that Jack and I got to make about the pot. Yeah, I'm opening up an envelope here. It's from Waystar Royco.

It's a cease and desist. Interesting. Let's go on. Because yesterday, we said that cousin Greg got zero Emmy nominations. And we have got to apologize to the entire Roy family on this one. Cousin Greg got nominated for an Emmy. Not too shabby.

In fact, just about every cast member on Succession, including Jerry, got an Emmy nomination. Even if you got wasabi in your eye, you got an Emmy nomination if you worked on Succession. Is that La Croy? Don't poor LaCroix. Cousin Greg, we apologize. Yeties, you looked fantastic all week,

especially Professor Silvera's business class over at the University of Panama, City. And why is that, Jack? We publish a pop-biz pop quiz. Five questions on this week's pod. We publish it every week. And Professor Silvara's class takes our quiz every single week. And you can too. Go to go to t-boypod.com. Go.tttieboy.com to play our weekly pop-biz, pop quiz, and Jack and I will see you Monday. Can't wait. This weekend, celebrate some wins. And before we go, a congratulations to all of our French yetis out there. Enjoy your Bastille Day. And happy schnappsal birthday to Oran Aronson, who's turning 55.

5.5, that is one heck of a schnappesaw. And happy birthday and happy anniversary to Stephen Cavanese in Syracuse, New York. And Henry Parko is turning three with the pool party down in Phoenix. Happy 26th birthday to Joseph Malasa in Virginia Beach, Virginia. And Anika Galani is turning 12 over in Waldwick, New Jersey. Happy birthday to René Bueno in Glendale, Arizona. And Amanda Gamino, enjoy that birthday down in Dallas. And happy birthday to Vitaly Pachican, the master of Microsoft over in San Jose.

And Umesh Manetti is celebrating that birthday on a very nice lawn over in Pennsylvania. Congratulations to Megan Rupnik, who's finishing three weeks of her waitressing gig. And Brooks and Bevan Young have a new baby girl born on June 27th over in Boston just outside Boston. And congratulations to Jason Smithson and Chloe Frederick, getting married after 1,356 days of dating. But who's counting? But who's counting? Chloe definitely is counting. This is Jack.

I own stock of Amazon, Disney, and Netflix, and Nick and I both own stock of Apple.