The Best One Yet - 👯‍♂️ “T-Pain & Mark Zuckerberg” — Zuck’s rap strategy. Amazon’s Temu dupe. NYC’s rent fee revolution.

Episode Date: November 15, 2024

The TBOY Holiday Merch Drop: Go to www.tboypod.com/shop to order the best fashion yet (hoodies, sweats, totes, hats, and a surprise...) 🛍️. Pre-order closes Wed, Nov 20th.Zuck dropped a rap track with T-Pain… Zuck’s new makeover is Meta’s new strategy.Amazon just launched “Haul” to compete with Temu and Shein… It’s a “plug-your-nose product.”NYC is reversing the broker fee: making landlords pay it… it’s a huge gift for renters.$META $AMZN $SPYWant more business storytelling from us? Check out the latest episode of our new weekly deepdive show: The untold origin story of Sriracha… From Refugee to Billionaire 🌶️. Subscribe to The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinks to listen.FYI: Here’s the link to that T-Pain/Zuck song: https://open.spotify.com/album/4rjOpEV2WHrFU877MeGM42—-----------------------------------------------------Subscribe to our new (2nd) show… The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinksEpisodes drop weekly. It’s The Best Idea Yet.GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts FOR MORE NICK & JACK: Newsletter: https://tboypod.com/newsletter Connect with Nick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/ Connect with Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/ SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ Subscribe to our new (2nd) show… The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinksEpisodes drop weekly. It’s The Best Idea Yet. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Friday the Real Friday, November 15th, 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. Yetty's stocks, they've slowed down. Jack and I, we don't slow down. Three stories for today's show. What do we got on the pod, Jack? For our first story, Mark Zuckerberg just dropped his first rap song. True story. A cover of Get Low with T-Pain. But besties, this isn't Zuck's midlife makeover. This is Meta's entire corporate strategy. For our second story, Amazon just launched the cheapest thing they've ever launched. Amazon Hall. That's right, Amazon just Zuck Timo with a Sheean dupe. And our third and final story, get this.

New York City renters spend $13,000 on an apartment before they even move into it. Wild numbers. But the country's most hated renter rule is getting reversed. The broker fee. We're talking about the broker fee. The fee fee on the broker fee. But Yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories, fantastic way to go into a weekend,

because I love this mix, Jack. Nick, I'm looking at the calendar. Black Friday is in two weeks. Well, you know what besties? Jack and I got a better idea. Pink Friday. Because today, we are dropping our T-Boy holiday merch line. It ain't Black Friday.

It is Pink Friday, baby. It's slamming salmon Friday, Nick. I like what you did there. Jack, yet is this year, Jack and I whipped up a fashion lineup that is so sweet it would make Jerry Powell blush. Our merch is so fantastic, it's going to start a trade war. Yeah, it's our T-Boy holiday collection, and it features our first ever sweatsuit. But hey, Anna Wintour, can you describe the whole collection for us, please? I would love to, Heidi Kloom. First, we've got the first ever best hoodie yet. This super soft hoodie has puff print lettering that

looks fantastic. And Jack, that hoodie pairs well with our new best sweatpants yet. Also super soft with the T-boy logo right on the butt. Just kidding. The T-Boy logo's on the front. It was a joke. I like what you did there too. Plus, we've got a brand new white hat, which I mean, we're both wearing it, right? Yeah. If you're watching on YouTube, you can check this hat right now. It's fantastic. It looks fantastic. And we've got our first ever T-boy sticker packet. Our five favorite T-Boy catchphrases to razzle-dazzle your laptop. We haven't trademarked these yet. And you can toss it all into our brand new T-Boy tote bag.

Because to hold all that merch, you're going to need a bigger bag. Oh, yeah. But Besties, quick disclaimer jacket to sprinkle on some context. This special T-Boy Holiday Fashion Collection is only available to purchase for one week. That's right. This is literally a drop. The shop, it closes this coming Wednesday at midnight. And once the window is closed, we're not dropping these items or styles again.

It's a pre-order model, so shipping will have your swag, arrive at your house, about a month from now, just before Christmas. So don't buy another double-digit latte. Instead, treat yourself to a T-boy sweatsuit. Get yourself the best gift yet this holiday season. Oh, and if you got a buddy that refuses to wear pink, don't worry. The sweatsuit is Gen Z-approved bone color. That is going to be the talk of the season. Everyone's talking about it.

So go right now to T-boypod.com slash shop and order your claim. That's T-boypod.com slash shop. We put the link in the episode description. The pre-order window is open until Wednesday night, but make your moves right now. And then check out our Instagram over the weekend because we're doing some modeling shots. Aren't you doing a photo shoot tonight? Jack, we can't start a trade war unless we do this photo shoot. Blue steel.

Yeah, blue steel. If you know, you know, happy shopping yeties, Jack. Let's get our three stories. Fifteen years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet. 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, Mark Zuckerberg just released a rap song with T. Pain. It's the culmination of Zuck's personal makeover. but it's actually meta's corporate strategy, too. Now, Yeti's, sometimes Jack and I lead a story with a hero stat, or sometimes we lead with a big number, or sometimes we put on a math keeney and just dive into the data. Instead, we're going to play you today a clip from a new song that just dropped.

Three, six, nine, damn, you're fine, hoping you can sock it to me, baby, one more time. Get low, get low, get low, get to sweat drops down mud. I know that song, but I don't know that version. What is it, Jack? Well, that version was actually a collab between the legendary 2000s-era rapper T-Pain and Mark Zuckerberg. That's right, Yeti. Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, CEO of Meta, just dropped Get Low as a cover with the Grammy winner T-Pain.

It's a track by T-Pain and Z-Pain, which is Z-Pain, which is Z-Rapper name. Apparently. And Zuck says that he actually met his wife grinding to that song at Harvard 20 years ago. So he produced the song as a gift to his wife. We repeat, the artist behind Bayou drank, Shoddy get loose, and who could forget, booty work, just rock a duet with Mark Zuckerberg, the multi-billionaire. That's exactly correct, Nick. But before you judge whether this is cool or cringe, yeah, Jack. Zuck's first rap song is actually a part of something much bigger. Yet he is this is what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. Mark Zuckerberg turned 40 years old this year.

Happy birthday. But instead of a midlife crisis, he got a midlife PR makeover. Think about it. Last year, Mark Zuckerberg was the dweeby villain of Social Network. He had short hair, mild acne, and that cliche hoodie and slip-on slippers. Hey, he pictured Mark and Mark Zuckerberg. He was schfitz and threw a bad suit while robotically answering questions from an angry congressman. But this year, Zuck went viral for.

good reasons. He went viral like all the DiMelio sisters. First, it was his mixed martial arts like Black Belt. Then it was that video of him wakeboarding while chugging a beer and holding an American flag. And then Jack, it wasn't just his activities. It was also his personal style too. Now he rocks a gold chain and he's got that curly hair fro situation. And he also bought a stretch limousine minivan for his family, which looked awesome. It's like Zucks live in the sequel to Clueless. He Heidi clumed himself, Jack. He Heidi clumed himself. For his 40th birthday, he also rocked a mob chic aesthetic, or as we call it, Zuck core. So add it all up, and Zuck is going through the world's most expensive glow-up.

Now, Mark claims that there's a theme to all this. He says that he loves ancient Rome, so he's channeling the Roman Stoics in this new makeover. The other things he's done, he just had a Roman statue designed and built for his wife. He named his kids after Roman emperors, and he's been wearing t-shirts with Marcus Aurelius quotes. So he says this is all just who he is. Idiot. But from covering Zuck for 10 years, we know that everything he does is strategic. And this is what we found fascinating about this story. We think Zuck's fashion isn't just a distraction. We think it reflects his entire company's new philosophy.

So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Meta? Zuck's new fashion is meta's new strategy. More vibes, less involvement. Follow us in this one, Yeties. After the 2016 election, Meta became public enemy number one. Liberals accused Zuck's news feeds of actually being fake newsfeeds. And then after the 2020 election, META became an enemy of conservatives. The right accused Zuck of censorship of conservative ideas on his platforms. And throughout all of this, META has faced antitrust legal threats from the whole U.S. government. And almost a year ago, Zuck even publicly apologized to the victims of online child abuse during a congressional testimony.

So last year, META's stock, after all of that, fell to its lowest level in six years. But that's when something changed. Something changed. That's when Zuck stopped trying to fix Meta's image. Yeah, Zuck stopped focusing on politics, policy, or apologies, and instead just focused on good vibes. Zuck's basically like, I'm done with this policy stuff.

I don't care anymore. But interesting, we noticed that meta did the same thing. Meta changed Facebook and Instagram's algorithm to have less political content and more personal content. And meta launched threads, which meta says isn't for news or politics, it's supposed to be a happy place. And what's happened to meta stock in the meantime? What happened, Jack? It's rocketed to new all-time highs.

So Basties, meta traded involvement for vibes, responsibility for reverie, and we can see all of it in Zuck's fashion. Zuck's midlife rapper glow-up isn't just a personal makeover, it's a corporate makeover. For our second story, Amazon just launched its cheapest thing ever. Amazon Hall. Amazon just zucked Timu and Sheehan, and they know it, and they're embarrassed about it. Shame, shame, shame. Yeah, it is, funny thing Jack and I have noticed over the years.

Price is not a competitive advantage. And why is that, Jack? There will always be someone who can go lower than you on price. And that's why Amazon just launched its newest feature, Hall. Amazon, H-A-U-L-L-H-A-L-L. up the Amazon app on your phone. Doing it right now. Got it, Jack. You're going to see the word haul on top. And if you click that button, everything in that section is under $20. Everything. We repeat, everything is under $20. Oh, you thought Amazon was low priced? Apparently they could

have gotten lower. This is basically the digital dollar store, and it's called Amazon Hall. Now, interesting detail here. This is a mobile-only experience. You can only do it on your phone. You can't do it on your computer. More on why in a minute. But the majority of the products in Amazon Hall are under $10. It's wild. Could you read off some of the legends we're seeing on Amazon Hall right now? They have an iPhone 16 case for $1.79. Okay, I'm seeing a tablecloth for $4.

They have a two pack of memory foam slippers for $9. I was going to get you those for Christmas. Now you know the price. Oh my God, I got to return them. I got to return them. And what's this all about? This is Amazon's version of Timu and Sheehan, the super fast shopping apps of China. What we're saying here is that Amazon just,

Just Zuck Timu with a she and dupe. Exactly. But Yetis, guac is always extra. Jack and I always say it, guac is always extra. If you're going to get a perk, that perk is going to come at a price. So even though the prices are lower on Amazon Hall, the shipping is not. Because besties, we should warn you on Amazon Hall. It is only free shipping if you spend more than $25.

And you can't get a return on anything that's under $3. Oh, and you only have 15 days to return that item, not 30 days to return. And shipping, it takes one to two weeks, not one to two days. So add it all up, and for all the benefits we described at the beginning, there are a lot of asterisks at the end. The price of Amazon Hall is better, but everything else is worse compared to the Amazon that you know. Even in this economy?

Yeah. Yeah, even in this economy. But in this economy, we're all suffering from inflation. So a lot of people would be happy to wait two weeks if it can save them two bucks. You're willing to put your patience ahead of the prices. And that's why they launched Amazon. Hall. So, Jack, do you like memory foam slippers, by the way? Not these ones. You're going to love, never mind. In the meantime, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Amazon Hall? Amazon Hall is the

perfect example of a plug-your-nose product. A plug-your-nose product. Yeties, Amazon, they're not excited about this. Like, trust us about this. Amazon, they just launched something and like they wish they did not have to do this. Amazon Hall is going to cannibalize Amazon's own sales. And it's probably not going to be profitable. That's a problem. But Amazon would rather keep you buying anything from Amazon than shopping at one of their new upstart app rivals. So they hate it, but they got to do it. This is a plug your nose product, and we've seen it before. We've seen it before. For example, when financial firms like Charles Schwab and Fidelity had to eliminate trading fees because Robin Hood eliminated trading fees. Zero commission trading was a

plug your nose product. Or Jack, when Polaroid had to launch a cheaper new camera, because Kodak undercut them on price with their new camera? That was a plug-your-nose product, too. And now Amazon is launching a cheap-feeling shopping app called Hall because Sheehan and Timo, their competition made them do it. That is a plug-your-nose product. They didn't want to do it, but they got to plug their nose and do it. They just have to do it.

You gotta do it. Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story before the weekend, New York City just delivered a gift. to renters. New York just eliminated the broker fee. Actually, they didn't eliminate it. They just changed who has to pay it from renters to landlords. But Jack, if we're going to talk about New York City rent, I would be remiss if I did not discuss our four-bedroom palacially small loft on 14th street off second avenue, man. We lived there for three years. Three of the bedrooms had windows.

Yeah. The fourth one didn't. And I lived in that fourth one to save a couple hundred bucks. It was brutal. I'll never forget the coil-toped kitchen stove, which made sure everything was lukewarm at its hottest. But yet, he's Central Park. It is lovely this time of year. Renting is not. For several reasons, Nick and I can attest to, renting in New York City is brutal. Yeah, reason number one, two, and three is the rent is too damn high. The median asking price for a one-bedroom apartment in New York City is $3,400. In Manhattan Jack, it's $5,000 for your average apartment. Oh, a cozy, converted two-bedroom apartment? Yeah.

It's a studio with temporary walls every six feet, slicing and dicing this tiny space into a bunch of rooms. Hey, where's the bathroom? Where is it the bathroom? East Greenwich Village? Yeah. This is Alphabet City. No, no, they're doing a little rounding on the map, Jerry.

But yet he's the worst part about renting in New York. It isn't the railroad floor plan. It's the broker fee. In New York City, the renter has to pay a two-month broker fee to the agent that showed you the apartment before. you can move into the place. Even if you never meet the agent and just do this all online, you still got to pay two months rent to the broker. Some context. New York is the only major U.S. city where the renter pays this fee, not the landlord. But the result in New York City,

it's pretty financially intense, isn't it, Jack? Moving into a new place requires at least $10,000 of upfront cash. Sit down, stand up and write the checks, because if you're moving into a new apartment in New York City, you got to pay one month's rent, one month's security deposit, and two more months of rent just to pay the broker. Four months rent in a city where rent is $5,000, you see how that adds up. But not anymore. Here's the news. The New York City Council just voted 42 to 8 to shift the broker fee from the renters to the landlords. Hallelujah. That's right. Our first reaction, we were shocked. We were actually shocked. It

was that easy. We thought this was never going to change. hasn't the city council done this before? Well, apparently there are two reasons why the city has not changed this painful rule before. The first is lack of urgency. The city council said they passed this bill in the wake of the 2024 election to show New Yorkers that Democrats care about housing affordability. And the second reason is the huge, powerful New York City real estate lobby. The big landlord lobby of New York argued strenuously against the passage of this bill. Yeah, the landlords, they did not want to pay a broker fee. And they said, if we do have to pay a broker fee, we're just going to pass it on to the renters in the form of higher rent. So, no matter what, you're going to pay more money, renters.

But if renters are going to bear the cost no matter what, then what does the lobby care? Why did they fight the bill so much if they're not paying it either way? Well, we think that this bill will reduce the cost to renters, shifting those costs to the landlords. And why do we think that, Jack? We think this is a huge victory for renters. So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies is who are renting. Who bears the burden, bears the cost. Yet is switching the burden from one side of a financial transaction to the other, that actually has huge economic consequences.

There's big money in the burden. But who bears the burden is often simply a relic of tradition. True. Or relic of lobbying. That is why switching the burden, in this case, of paying the broker fee, often requires a big policy change. It's like the story we did last month, about automatic refunds, a new rule from the FIAA?

It's the same burden, Jack, same type of burden. Shifting the burden of who has to request a refund had $5 billion of benefits come to passengers. So Basties, it is an overlooked area of public policy with huge economic consequences because the burden is a barrier. Who bears the burden? Bears the cost.

Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for the real Friday? Mark Zuckerberg's personal makeover is complete after dropping a cover of Get Low with T-Pain. Zuck's fashion reflects meta's corporate makeover. More vibes, less involvement. For our second story, Amazon Hall is live. Just like Timo, you can buy things for two bucks, but shipping takes two weeks. Yeah, to Timu dupe, Amazon, they didn't want to launch this, but they had to launch this.

This is a plug-your-nose product. And our third and final story, the New York City Council passed a new law, shifting the broker fee from renters to landlords. And who bears the burden bears the cost. Which is finally landlords, like the rest of the country. I think we still want them, Jack. But Yeties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today.

First, Disney stock jumped 10% after investors gave their movie finances two thumbs up. This summer, Disney had two $1 billion box office wins with Deadpool and Wolverine and Inside Out 2. And for the current quarter, Disney's on pace for a couple more epic box office wins. Mawanna 2 and a Lion King sequel, Mufasa, are both coming out this holiday season. Not too shabby. And second, stocks of vaccine companies fell on news of Trump's latest appointment. RFK Jr., the vaccine skeptic, will be in charge of health and human services. So Pfizer, Moderna, and Glaxo Smith-Kline, all makers of vaccines fell after the latest news.

And finally, General Mills just acquired its fifth pet food brand, this one for $1.4 billion. I mean, Jack, at this point, General Mills isn't a serial company. It's a pet chow company. They also own blue buffalo. Don't you use that stuff? I don't. Oh. But they now own White Bridge pet foods.

General Mills. They're making Cheerios. They're making lucky charms. And they're making cookie crisp for your cockapoo. Can I get a cookie crisp jack? Maybe for the outtakes. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Jack and me, because we have got an update for you.

Earlier this week, we did a story on work wives. Work wives, work spouses, work, husband, someone at work who you share everything with like a life partner. Because Nick and I are the most monogamous work husbands of all time. Exactly. So we asked you the Yetis, do you have a workwife or a work husband? And we put a poll on Spotify. 38% of you said, yes, I have a work spouse. 34% of you said, no, I don't have a work spouse. And 28% of you hate this whole millennial concept of workspouses. It was pretty close. It was pretty close. Most of you have a work spouse. Some of you don't, and a lot of you apparently don't even like this concept, but we're into it.

The plurality are locked up. Yeah, they're locked down at work. Jack, you'll look fantastic over there. Yeties, you do too, but Jack, you do look fantastic because you are wearing our new T-boy merchdrop hat. I like it. We're pretty pumped about this holiday merch drop. It's only open for about six or seven days.

So check out the link in the episode of description to buy your collection now. That's www. tboypod.com slash shop. Oh, and when you have some time over this weekend, check out our latest episode of the best idea yet, our untold origin story on Saracha. And if you don't do either of those things,

celebrate the wins either way. Celebrate the wins. If you know, you know. And before we go, a happy birthday to legendary Yeti and our creative director, Rachel Hower, celebrating with a 5,000 mile run.

How are you doing? She's doing fantastic. And Joshua Bentley is turning 34 years old in Grodden, Connecticut, celebrate that win. Happy 26th birthday to James Robinheimer in Westchester, Pennsylvania. And Hala Alasemail is turning 18 years old in Katie, Texas, learned French, but believes nothing is not possible. Happy 14 years together to Alma Madrigal and Jonathan Campos in Montclair, California. And Jack, Mara Ann Stett is getting married after a legendary meet cute at the University of Michigan,

celebrating in Nashville, Tennessee. And congratulations to John Evans, aka Smeevins in Potsdown, Pennsylvania, who just got a fantastic promotion. And a happy 27th birthday to Daniel Modin down in lovely Davenport, Florida. Happy birthday to the best boyfriend, Colin Fagan, who's turned 28 in Westbrook, Maine. And Jack, get this.

Alex Darcy, Tilly Banks, and Vasco Santos are meeting up over in Liverpool. They haven't seen each other since they were seven, but this weekend, they're bringing the band back together. Tilly and Vasco celebrate that incredible win. This is Jack Island Stock of Amazon, Moderna, and Disney.