The Best One Yet - 🔫 “Super Soaker World” — Nerf’s theme park. Writers’ strike finale. Spotify’s podcast translator.

Episode Date: September 26, 2023

Hasbro’s Nerf brand was essential to our childhood, so it’s opening its 1st ever Nerf theme park — Because great brands are like a rubberband… they can strettttch.The writers have reached a tentative deal with Hollywood (spoiler: Sources say it’s fantastic for the writers) — Now the other strikers will pull a Meg Ryan and ask “I’ll have what she’s having.”And Spotify just launched a feature that translates podcast hosts into different languages — It can translate words, but can it translate chemistry?$HAS $SPOT $DIS $NFLXSubscribe to our newsletter: tboypod.com/newsletterWant 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 Youtube Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Tuesday, T-Boy Tuesday, September 26th. And today's pod, it is the best one yet. It is a T-Boy, Jack. On T-Boy Tuesdays, what do we do, Nick? Jack, I think you know what we wear. What do we wear, man?

We wear a T-Boy T-Boy T-Boy T-Boy. Yes, we do. Jack's got the hat. I've got the shirt together. We're like Milan Fashion Week, Jack. I don't know about that, but the hats are available at T-boypod.com slash shop. Check it out. It's slamming salmon, and it just looks chef's kiss.

First story, what do we got for the pod, man? After six months. the Hollywood Rider Strike is finally coming to an end. The writer has got an exceptional deal so you can stop pretending you like suits. For our second story, the newest theme park is Nerf. Like the Nerf football and the Super Soaker, they just got a roller coaster. Because a great brand is like a rubber band. And our third and final story is Spotify.

Spotify's newest product makes your favorite podcast host fluent in your native language. Here's the question, yetis. You can scale words, but can you scale? chemistry. Or Jack, puidos escalar Palabras, but puidos escalar quimica?

All right, we'll save that for the story, Nick. But Yadis, before we hit that fantastic mix, a fantastic mix of stories, Jack. The biggest news of the weekend by far. It's Taylor Swift has a boyfriend. It's official.

Pro footballer Travis Kelsey is T. Swift's new boyfriend. Karma's not her boyfriend. Travis is literally her boyfriend. And that boyfriend is the tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs. Jack, let's go into the bios here. Travis Kelsey, what do we got, man? Looking at the roster,

6'5, 250 pounds. Guess what? He side hustles as a podcast host. Perfect. He knows his way around a microphone. Taylor Swift, what kind of roster we see in there. Five foot 11, the rest tells itself. And yet he's hears the situation. Taylor happens to be on a month-long break from her famous ERIS tour.

So, on Sunday night, she went to Travis's ball game. Yes, she did, and she sat in the booth with Travis's mother, true story. And nothing has brought men and women of this country together like this Sunday crush, we all just said. Yeah, it was the biggest thing to happen to Sunday since the Bible. Because he wears dark jeans and Nike's. She's cheer captain and she's on the bleachers. Literally. And after the game, they drove away and Travis's convertible. It was like a high school prom, even though you got kicked out of your high school prom, Jack. Senior year, but I was prom king junior just for the record. Disclosure, full disclosure.

But yeties, let's look at the numbers of this couple. Because the numbers of this couple tell quite a story, Jack. Both Travis and Taylor were born in 1989. Same year, same album, not too shabby. This couple has the most Super Bowls and Grammys combined of any couple ever. 14 and counting. His jersey number is 87. Her favorite number is 13.

If you add those up, you get 100, which feels important. But the best number of what Nick and I are calling, double T. Swift? The best number of the double T Swift couple. What is it, Jack? Travis has played in three stadiums so far this year. But Taylor, she's played in 57. Hey, Travis, yeah, shake it off. No one's calling you the anti-hero man.

Nobody is. Hut, hut, Jack. Let's hit our three stories. Call it a two-point conversion. Taylor's version. Let's hit those three stories. Fifteen years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dawn.

They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. best one yet, but the best is an norm. 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. For our first story, after six months, it is official. The writers have won. They got Hollywood to pay them more, so they're ending the strike soon. So here's what Jack and I are going to do. We're going to tell you what the tentative writer strike deal means for writers, and what it means for you.

But most importantly, it sounds like the year of the rerun is soon coming to an end. Oh, man, it was getting rough out there, man. I know. Instead of re-watching suits, episode two, season three from 2012. I almost called up Katzenberg and asked them to bring back Quibi Jack. Netflix will soon have new shows

to put on the homepage again. Suits, it was good, but it was getting old. Because late Sunday night, negotiators announced a tentative deal. Now, yet, as we should point out, This deal is not done yet, right, Jack? The deal still has to be voted on by the 11,000 members of the writers union. And it's just the writers, not the actors, who have a deal.

Right. But the writers have ceased their picketing, and they're going to return to work once the deal is official. And Jack, who are the first shows that we're going to see come back on TV now that strikes over? The first shows we'll see to come back are the ones that don't need actors. And we're talking late night, talk shows, 12 p.m. Colbert kind of stuff. You know, you know, what's the deal with airline peanuts? Like that kind of a thing, yeah. Right. But movies, dramas, and like 10 episode series, those need actors and the actors are still on strike.

Now, yeties, here's what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. We don't have the actual text of the agreement yet, but we do have leaks and what do we think, Jack? The leak suggests that the writers won. The leak sound like the writers won, and when we check the numbers, it looks like the writers won. Here's how we know. The stocks of the TV and movie studios who are paying the writers, they're stocks fell yesterday. Warner, Comcast, and Disney, their stocks didn't pop on enthusiasm. They dropped on some awkwardness. Because union leadership calls the three-year deal that they negotiated an exceptional deal. What we're saying here, yetis, is that the writers got a fairy tale ending on this thing.

Here's the main thing the writers want. Residual compensation for money made on streaming. And when you're watching Game of Thrones and you see a dragon, they're actually going to get a dollar if they wrote the script for that show. Didn't happen before. The second thing the writers won is a minimum requirement for new TV shows. HBO, you can't just work a small number of writers to death in some back room. Six-episode series, you need 12 writers. I don't know if that's the ratio, but there's a minimum ratio. And finally, the writer's got a guarantee that artificial intelligence won't hurt their pain.

AI will not write their script, and chat GPT will not show up in the end credits. Literally. Now, yeties, while writers are celebrating this deal on social media, studios are basically no comments. Jack, remember that studio executive who said, uh, we're going to starve the writers out until Christmas? That was dark. One studio executive said that writers were going to be demoralized by this and crawl back to the negotiating table begging to return to work. Man, well, spoiler alert, looks like those studio executives were dead wrong.

Because the strikes have already cost the studios an estimated $1.6 billion in delayed box office releases. I'm sorry, Jack, can you repeat that number again? $1.6 billion. Looks like the studios caved. the writers didn't. Sit down, stand up, and start riding again. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in the entertainment industry? To quote Meg Ryan, I'll have what she's having. Yet is this deal, it was so big, it actually has an influence on all the other strikes out there, you know, like hot strike summer. If the deal the writers got really is exceptional, that's going to emboldened the other strikers. It's going to give them

more leverage. Because besties, if the actors see that writers got a great deal, then the actors are more likely to demand a great deal too. And if auto workers see that writers got a great deal, they're going to say to their union membership, see, their strike worked, so will ours. Now that the writers got a great deal, actors and auto workers are going to shout even louder. Just like when Harry met Sally, Nick, what will they be shouting? Waiter, I'll have what she's having. And they're not talking about a pastrami sandwich. For our second story, Hasbro is opening their first ever theme park for no. Nerf. Like the Nerf football. That Nerf. It's called Nerf mania and it's testing the limits of this brand.

Yetis, you did not grow up in the 90s unless you raised the Tomogachi, drank Capri Sun and nursed a Beanie baby back to health in the same day. And fought with your brothers over a Nerf football during recess. It happens. And yes, sorry, Katie. I did call that Nerf Blaster. Nerf. It's known for water guns, dark guns, and foam footballs. Nerf, the brand is doing $400 million in annual sales. aren't they, Jack? It's owned by Hasbro, the second biggest toy company in the world. And the reason for Nerf sales growth is that they're doing more R&D than like Lockheed Martin these days.

For instance, the Super Soaker, that's a Nerf subbrand, and it is a sophisticated water weapon. Yeah, it's become the most powerful water gun since the ancient Roman water cannon. And the Nerf football, it's guaranteed to spiral, which is frustrating as a quarterback who can actually throw a spiral. We all know the sound of that screaming vortex football. You've heard it. And heck, the Nerf gun, Cousy. huge drama in the Kramer family when I was a kid. What was the drama? My buddy shot my dad in the head.

My dad sent him home. He walked all the way down the street with his tail between his legs. It's not that great story, actually. Unless you know the guy. Yeah. Hopefully he's listening. Nerf, the phone was the best thing to happen to your parents' living room. John, thank you for defending me.

My dad deserved that. Now, yet he's Nerf was the 2022 Toy Hall of Fame finalist, but unfortunately they didn't actually make it in. And Hasbro is still salty about not getting into the hall, so they're going big this year as a revenge move. Get this, 55-year-old Nerf's newest product. Isn't a toy? It's an experience. It's called Nerf mania, exclamation point.

Yeah, it's a theme park. Yet he's Hasbro just unveiled the first ever Nerf themed amusement park. It's a real thing, and it's happening in Brazil. 50,000 square fee of family-friendly rides, restaurants, and roller coasters all under those Nerf brands. Basically the Six Flags of Squirt Guns. It's like Disney, but instead of goofy walking around, it's a seven-foot foam football as a mascot.

We're going to want that signature. Yetis, you're going to go ride on the Nerf Blaster coaster. Or the Super Soaker Splash Water Slide. It's also the most dog unfriendly amusement park ever. Correct, because your dog is going to eat up the whole amusement park. Fido is going to destroy that Nerf ball pit every day of the week. And Yeti's Nerf's first theme park isn't just a theme park. This reflects something bigger.

It reflects our takeaway. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Nerve? A great brand is a rubber band. It can be stretched. Yet he's funny theme, Jack and I are noticing. Brands are testing the limits of their relevance, especially in the toy aisle. Because the greatest test of a brand

is its ability to enter an unrelated product in industry. For example, Lego had success over the last decade by turning toy Legos into a series of movies. And Barbie's having success this decade, turning their toy into a box office sensation. Now, Hasbro is applying the same idea to a different industry. And you know what? They're not just doing it in Brazil. They're doing another Nerf theme park in Tennessee.

It opens next year. And they already opened a Peppa Pig theme park down in Florida. Now, Nerf shouldn't be launching a dating ethnic. Yeah. That'd be stretching their brand a little too far. It might snap on you. Remember rubber bands, they can snap. But the toy industry is testing the limits of their ideas.

Because a great brand is a rubber band. It can handle a stretch. For our third and final story, this one's wild. Spotify just announced the biggest change to podcasting of the year. Spotify is using AI to translate podcasts into different languages, but still with the host's native voice. Okay, Jack, I already know this story's coming because we've prepared this together, but pretty sure this is a Harry Potter technology.

That's like what this sounds like, man. This sounds like dark magic, man. Yeah, it does. And now Spotify has it. Yes, it does. Yet is Spotify is literally translating select podcasts into other languages using artificial intelligence. Jack Shepard and Monica Padman's armchair expert podcast, it's listenable now in Spanish. And Jack, how do you can listen to an entire episode of Lex Friedman's podcast in Lex's voice, but translated into German thanks to AI.

Yeah, but Yetis, we should sprinkle on a little more. context here, right, Jack? Because this is not technically Spotify's technology. No, Spotify is partnering with OpenAI. The company everyone's talking about, that's behind ChatGPT. But still, Yetis, if you're a Boston sports fan living in Provence, then you can listen to Bill Simmons en Francais. The pods are translated first into Spanish, but eventually this feature will expand to French and German too. Now, Yetis, this is a potentially huge impact for podcasters because of a pretty simple equation. More languages equal way bigger market. Instead of your audience being limited to only those who speak your language,

the whole world could listen to your podcast. Thanks to this feature. With this new feature, once it works in all languages, technically the total addressable market size is all 7 billion humans on the planet. But a funny thing we should point out about this feature. This is a little thing about podcasting that like, it's a little podcasting secret check and I like to share with each other. It's not just about the words you say.

It's about the tone you deliver them. Exactly. Like Jack, should we jump into a little Spanish here? Let's do it. Okay. I'm Nick. And Minober is Jack. And this is the mayor,

Una, Aura. Okay, let's try some German now. Indeza via Chaff? In Disa Viechcraft. All right, take it home with Italian. Signore Jack. What is the takeaway for our Amici of Spotify?

I'm resting out of time, but that's my cue for the takeaway, right? Yes. You can translate a voice, But can you translate chemistry? Now, yet he's Jack and I? We would love to test this new feature out because we're fans of innovation.

We're going to ask Spotify. We're actually, we would love to try this thing out. But we're not sure it would work for our show at all. Because our show is about communicating information clearly and understandably. But it's also storyteller and tone and chemistry between you and Maynack. Fifteen years of chemistry between us, Jack. So Spotify's technology, it can translate the literal words spoken by the podcast host. But here's the big question.

Can it capture the tone? needed for good storytelling. And can it capture the chemistry and juicy moments between two co-hosts? And will the cultural references, the inside jokes, or the turns of phrase make any sense when they're translated verbatim to another language using AI? Or will our reference to mattress, mattress, mattress, and slamming salmon confuse the listener. Because Yetis, you don't just listen for the words we say. You listen for the feelings that those words give you.

And we're not sure AI can translate that into tie. If you know, you know. Here's the question. You can translate the voice, but can translate the voice. to translate the chemistry. Giacomo, can you whip up the takeaways for us over there? The writer's strike is ending, and it looks like the writers got pretty much everything they wanted. Now the other strikers are going to say, I'll have what she's having.

For our second story, Hasbro is opening a Nerf-branded theme park with footballs, super-soakers, and darts. Because a great brand is like a rubber band. It can stretch. And our third and final story is Spotify's newest AI feature. It lets podcasters translate into different languages, but still in their own natural voice. Here's the key question. They can translate the words, but can they translate the chemistry?

But yeties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, Amazon is splurgeon up to $4 billion to invest in an AI startup called Anthropic. That's right. Amazon's answer to chat cheap T will bring AI to AWS. That's a lot of abbreviations. That is a whole lot of acronyms. And second, Lego, the toy company,

was supposed to stop using petroleum in their plastic bricks, but they just canceled the plan. Lego says that using recycled plastic bottles instead actually has an even bigger carbon footprint. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Figerald Garcia living in St. Louis, but born in the Dominican Republic. Hispanic Heritage Month started a week ago on September 15th. Now, here's the interesting thing. This is actually the only cultural month that spans two months over 30 days. It goes from mid-September to May October. And what's the reason for that, Jack?

Many Latin American countries celebrate their independence days on September 15th. Okay, let's whip out the whiteboard here, Yetis. We got El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua, September 15th, Independence Days. All five of those countries declare their independence from Spain on September 15th. Now, Jack, let's travel a little north and then a little south. What else we got? Mexico and Chile? They celebrate their independence days, not on September 15th.

but September 16th and September 18th. This is an October fest. This is Independence Fest, Jack. I don't want a vice beer. I want a Cervaisea. Yetis, you look fantastic for T-Boy Tuesday. Jack, if you can master Cookie Crisp in Korean, oh my God, there is no stopping us, man.

We're just scaling everywhere. In German, it's cooking crisp. That actually sounds more offensive than it sounds delicious. Yetis, if you speak another language, leave us a review in another language. Nick and I'll read it in your language. on this pod. Say lo say.

Lo say. Then my advice. Monvice. And before we go, a shout out and thank you to Alex and Molly, Jackson, my wives, who both,

we just both had kids a few months ago. While we were in L.A. all week, they were doing amazing job holding things down. They were solo parenting, and Nick and I were swiping picks

of those babies the whole time. Thanks so much, guys. And a happy birthday to Yeti, Sarah Turfin, in Seattle, who's listening to this pod with her two cats and a nice bowl of o'em.

Happy birthday to Jason Kistler from Raleigh, North Carolina. And a happy birthday to Jorge Mooney's over in Highland, Michigan. Happy birthday to Lindsay Hart and a rescue pup in Martinez, California. Okay, and Jack, Avista Ortiz Bari, her startup, Glist, was just featured on TV. Not too shabby. Not too shabby! And congratulations to Spencer and Kaylin Ong, who just opened their first Airbnb on James Island in Charleston. Unlike Nerf World, it's dog-friendly and by the beach.

And to anyone else who's celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon and Disney. Nick and I both own stock of Apple, Spotify, and Airbnb. Your double response of just C. I should have actually said, uh, no comprenda.