The Best One Yet - ⚡ “The 3 Flavors” — Saudi’s nuclear menu. Chris Nolan’s Zeus law. Instant Ramen’s cold breakthru. +Miami’s Tan Tax

Episode Date: July 23, 2026

Odyssey Director Chris Nolan got $20M, star Matt Damon got $15M… Filmmakers are the new Franchise.Saudi Arabia is joining the nuclear club… and 1 American biz from 1886 is serving it up.Instant Ramen’s new innovation: It can now be booked cold… Seasonality is just an excuse.Plus, Miami is now more expensive than NYC… because of gator removal, iguana insurance, & the tan tax.$WAB $NFPDF $SPYGrab your Tickets to the IPO Tour: Our In-Person OfferingSan Francisco 9/23: https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/1C0064AFB5F688BDBoston 10/14: https://tickets.citywinery.com/event/tboy-the-ipo-tour-in-person-offering-8cdhupSeattle 11/4 (21+): https://www.axs.com/events/1446394/the-best-one-yet-ticketsNEWSLETTER: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 Thursday, the new Friday, July 23rd. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is the T-Boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Barely survived, walked in at midnight last night. You're talking about the movie theater we went to?

Yeah, we got through the whole journey that is watching The Odyssey. It's its own Odyssey. It was epic. Agamemnon? He's got Oral like Batman and Darth Vader had a baby raised by Achilles Jack. How about that Cyclops? I know. I felt so bad for it.

I felt seen by him. Ironically, Jack, oh, Matt Damon's abs, he had like a 14 pack on them? That was impressive. But, Nick, six of the last 10 movies I've seen in theaters

were Christopher Nolan movies. Besties, we were so inspired. We turned into a story for today. But Jack, three fantastic stories for today's team boy. What do we got on the pie? For our first story, Saudi Arabia,

just got the keys to launch its very own nuclear program. And one American company from 1886 is building the reactor form. For our second story, it's Christopher Nolan. He out-earned Matt Damon to do The Odyssey because directors are the new franchises. Not new trend in Hollywood, it was foreshadowed by sports and restaurants.

And our third and final story is instant ramen. They just invented... And patented... The first noodles that cook in cold water. Because Bestie's seasonality is just an excuse. But Bestie is, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Oh, what a mix! I love that cyclone.

Since the pandemic, you probably had a couple buddies leave New York City to go down to floor. Buddy, Timmy was almost one of them. They say it's for the weather, really is for the taxes. They took their talents to South Beach like the Bronx. To quote Will Smith, Bienvenidos to Miami. But here's the wild update. For the first time ever, Miami is now a more expensive place to live than New York City.

We repeat, Miami costs more than Manhattan, baby. Here's the numbers. The cost of living in Miami has popped 39% since the pandemic. Result, private school tuition is now 7,000 more in Miami than it is New York. The average home, it's now $180 more per cent. square foot in Miami, then New York. Average dinner, according to open table, $79.79 in New York City, $94

down in Miami. Plus, in Miami, you need a car. Probably a convertible, actually, and car insurance, and a parking spot. Meanwhile, in Manhattan, are you going to need as that metro car? So Nick and I actually expanded this study to include some hidden costs of living in Miami too. Not just the regular cost, the economists

do, the hidden costs, like alligator removal. Oh, there's an alligator on your Lanai. That's going to cost 50 bucks for the gaming patrol to come in there. Jack, what about the swimsuit budget of Miami? You need at least two grand a year. Hurricane windows? $8,000. Okay, but most ironic of all, it's the tanning tax. Because despite the sunny weather, Miami has more tanning salons than it has McDonald's. As besties, you got a spray on to fit in. No income tax. Yes, to bronzing tax. Now we know what you're thinking. New York

has its own hitting costs as well. The broker fee. The Canada Goose Parker and the bean boots you need for the one blizzard that comes every couple of winter. But yet, he's Once you add in the cost of Miami's iguana insurance. Real thing. Because the iguanas fall out of trees when it gets cold. Then it's even cheaper to live in Tribeca. Than tax-free, tanful Miami. Which is why pit bulls moving to the Upper West Side.

Do you hear that? For New York's sake, I hope that's not true. Nolly. Jack, let's do that three storms. 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, 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, Saudi Arabia will become a nuclear state. And one 140-year-old American company out of Pittsburgh is going to build it for him. Nuclear power is back. with a whole new menu of investment opportunities. Ah, Yetis, in Game of Thrones, Jack, could you sprinkle on some context to what those dragons stand for?

Really amazing and expensive CGI. They're also a metaphor for nuclear weapons. Whoever has the most dragons is probably going to win the war. But in the real world, nine countries possess real nuclear weapons. And Iran is threatened to become the 10th. So 31 countries have nuclear power, with Iran hoping to become the 32nd as part of any peace deal.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia, an American ally, is sick of having neither while Iran is pursuing both. So here's the news. Saudis will become a nuclear power as part of a 30-year deal announced by the USA. Now, Congress could block this Trump-negotiated deal with a two-thirds majority. They're worried about, you know, nuclear proliferation across the Middle East. They also want proof that the Saudis can't use this civilian nuclear deal to build a nuclear weapon. But if Congress does not block this deal, then Saudi Arabia will become the 30-second nuclear country. But besties, here's what Jack and I find fascinating. When the U.S. and Saudis signed this agreement,

one company pressed the cha-ching button. Because one product with a $10 billion price tag is central to the deal. What do we got, Jack? The Westinghouse AP 1000 nuclear reactor. Rolls out the tongue, it's a working title. We're working on the branding on that one. Westinghouse is an OG American business type.

Founded in Pittsburgh 1886 before the pirates were a thing. 140 years ago, George Westinghouse was an erasing. with Thomas Edison to invent electricity. Now, Edison won the fame, but Westinghouse's company was in the Dow Jones Industrial average for 81 straight years. And 60% of America's 90 or so nuclear power plants, their Westinghouse made. Including all four that were built in the last 40 years. Basically, Westinghouse has a monopoly of fission.

But Jack, can you sprinkle on some more context using, I don't know, the Simpsons? Well, nuclear technology is obviously sensitive. So we don't want the Saudis hiring Homer Simpson to run this nuclear plant. Okay, but we also don't want the Saudis hiring Mr. Burns to run the plant. Because Mr. Burns might turn this uranium we're giving them into a nuclear weapon. So that's why the U.S. is only supporting Saudi having nuclear if we build it. And by we, we mean Westinghouse. Basically, Westinghouse has become a home cooking stock.

The U.S. wants Saudi Arabia only eating its home nuclear cooking. Our home cooking. So Westinghouse is going to build the reactor, which will produce enough juice to power one city with nukes. Or one data center. Oh, and it will be black box to keep all the technology in United States control. Not Saudi control. But the concern here, it remains uranium enrichment. In two years, according to this deal, the Saudis could begin doing that themselves.

And that's the security risk that Congress is focusing on in their review. Because enriched uranium, it could be used to power a city or destroy a city. But what Jack and I are focused on is the investment opportunities of the boomingest part of the power boom. And as a guy who grew up 11 miles from a nuclear power plant, Nick, I think I can hit this takeaway for us. I always wonder if I had that third arm. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in nuclear? The nuclear stock market is here again, but now with the menu of options. Yeties, after a 40-year pause of no nuclear power, the U.S. is going straight up ham again for two specific reasons.

First, nuclear is carbon-free, so it's critical for the planet. Second, it's AI. The chatbots are power-hungry, so big tech is literally paying. to build its own nukes. So here's the stock market menu of these new nuclear options. Okay, first you got the conventional nuclears, of which there's only one company. Westinghouse. The rest of the industry went out of business after a three-mile island when we had a nuclear drought in this country. In Westinghouse, their own 51% by Brookfield asset management, and 49% by Camaco. And you can invest in both of those in the stock market. Then there's modular nuclear, which is the booming sector. You got new scale,

Aklo, X energy. All those companies went public in the last four years. The goal with modular is to make power plants 10 times faster, but at one-tenth of the cost. And the final item on our menu, it is fusion nuclear. General Fusion just became the first fusion company to go public with a SPAC earlier this month. Although the joke, Jack, fusion is the energy of the future, and it always will be. Yeah, who knows if we'll ever have a fusion power plant. But besties, with climate change and AI, nuclear is back, baby and safer than ever. This time, the nuclear stock market has a whole menu to pick from.

We'll take three fisions and two modulars, hold the fries, extra Coke. For our second story. The top reason people are seeing The Odyssey, it's not the stars, it's the director. Because filmmakers are the new franchises. And that demand for directors, it's connected to sports and restaurants. Oh, yeties, like we told you, Jack and I've been growing out beards because we just returned from the Odyssey. It was such a long journey. It was truly epic.

Well, we had to take two bathroom breaks in the middle of the movie. Or was that just me? No, it's just you. Yeah, I wasn't leaving. Either way, Zeus's law, if you know, you know. One week ago, besties, we covered the business of The Odyssey. And the big winner was IMAX because IMAX did 20% of the Odyssey's opening weekend gross, despite being just 1% of all the movie theaters.

But, Jack, who's the new second winner of The Odyssey? The book. Yeah. Sales of the epic poem are up 76% since the movie came out. Even Homer is getting a check. And the newest new winner of the Odyssey? It's Universal Studios. They spent 250 mil to make the movie

and they're on track to make a billion bucks at the box office. But one stat stood out to us more than those sirens singing on that scary rock over there that I know I'm not supposed to look at and listen to. Stop listening. The top reason that 53% of Odyssey viewers cited for going into the theater and watching... Wasn't Agamemnon's helmet? It wasn't Matt Damon's beard and it wasn't Tom Holland's non beer. The number one draw of the Odyssey was the director, Christopher Nolan.

Besties, this is what Jack and I find fascinating about this movie. In the 2000s, the film industry was dominated by the franchise. Sequels, prequels, spin-offs, offshoots. You got three Lord of the Rings, three hobbits, five toy stories, eight Harry Partisan, 35 Marvel superhero movies. Plus enough Star Wars direct to Disney Plus spin-offs to fill the galaxy. Fast and the Furies. What are we doing?

47 now, what's going on being? But Nick, to quote, Spider-Man 16, with great power comes great responsibility. And the studios have that power. They don't have the responsibility, though. So franchise fatigue has set in, which is ushered in a new era. The Don of the Director. Yeah, we're calling it the Don of the Director, because the directors who also write their screenplays

are the new franchises. The filmmaker is the franchise. Oh, you want the receipts? Here's the data. Matt Damon got paid $15 million to be the lead star in The Odyssey. But director Christopher Nolan got paid $20 million. Obsession? The breakout horror film that got Gen Z's butts back in the movie theater?

They didn't come for the no-name actors in the movie. They came for the YouTube trained director, Curry Barker. And sinners, that epic vampire, movie that Ryan Cougler directed, he got the craziest deal in recent Hollywood history to do it. That director got the final creative cut, a percent of every ticket sale, and he gets to own the film after 25 years. We're not done. Greta Gerwig of Barbie fame, she said she'd do chronicles of Narnia for Netflix, but only

if Netflix agreed to put it in theaters. And they caved because they want the director to be happy. And finally, Universal Studios, they gave Christopher Nolan near total autonomy in exchange for leaving Warner Brothers. Chris, you want to build a real 35-foot-tall Trojan horse instead of using computer graphics? Whatever you want, Chris. Whatever keeps you happy.

Here's a blank check. Zeus is lost. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies? I don't think that Zeus is lost. I think you may even on one of your bathroom breaks when they were saying Zeus is lost. Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in Hollywood? People follow pulses.

Yet he's 20 years ago. An interesting trend emerged in the restaurant industry, the celebrity chef. Bobby Flee, Dave Chang, Ina Garten, Barefoot Contessa. Oh, wait, those last two are the same. We started following celebrity chefs, not famous restaurant brands. Ten years ago, we saw the same trend emerging sports, the rise of the star over the team. My son Wilder, he loves Messi. He doesn't care that he even plays on Inter- Miami. Kids aren't fans of teams anymore if they're fans of the players. And now we're seeing the same trend in the movie industry. Filmmakers over franchises. More than the

franchiser of the actors, it's the director who's the star. Like I said, six of the last 10 movies I saw in theaters, they were Christopher Nolan. And we saw those together, Jack. Well, social media helps here, you know, for the first time, it broke the kitchen wall and the locker room wall. And the wall of the trailer that the director gets to sit in on that Hollywood lot. Did you know Christopher Nolan actually loves Fast and the Furious? He's an artist, and Vin Diesel is an artist, Jack.

It just makes me want to see the next one even more. Besties, you're choosing the chef over the restaurant, the player over the team, and the director over the franchise. The director is the franchise. Because people follow pulses. Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, Nissan Foods invented hot instant ramen, but they just invented cold instant ramen. Because seasonality is just an excuse. Just a mindset, brough. But besties, in order for us to tell the story, let's travel back to post-World War II Japan, devastated by Allied bombings. The people in Japan needed food both for their belly and for their soul. And Jack, what ended up being the answer? Instant ramen noodles. And Momofuku Ando

was its creator. After 10 years of tinkering in his shed, he invented the flash-frying technique that makes ramen noodles cookable in just three minutes with hot water. Basically, this dude was the Edison of Eden. Instant hot ramen was the food and beverage industry's man-on-the-moon moment. Ah, the instant ramen. That convenience breakthrough, it led to 100 billion bowls served every single year today. We repeat, 100 billion servings of instant ramen noodles are had every year. That's enough to fill every human tummy on earth 12 times a year. It was the first thing I learned to cook. I'm home from school, nobody's there. I cook chicken top rom. 10 pack, one buck, and that price is why it's the

unofficial food of every startup ever. For Viv, forget venture capital. Instant ramen fuels silicon which is why we did a whole episode on it for the best idea yet. This is. This went viral. And the company that created it, Nissan Foods, still exists. Publicly traded, based in Osaka, Japan worth $5 billion. It's about one left. But here's the news. They just had their second noodle epiphany. Get this, instant cold ramen. That's right, cup of noodles cooked cold? No boiling water needed. No ice cube after cooking to cool it down. Just chilled ramen noodles. Bessies like frozen hot chocolate or jumbo shrimp. This is a paradox of a profit puppy. Now, what Nick and I find fascinating is that to develop cold noodles,

Nissan Foods launched a secret project five years ago. And the fascinating part is that it was perfect timing for reasons totally out of their control. In those five years that they've been working on this, Japan suffered record numbers of heat storms. Jack, can you share that wild stat you just found about Japan's meteorological agency? They had to create a new word this week to describe days in Japan where the temperature is over 104 degrees. The translation of the new word koku Shobi. A cruelly hot day.

Bessie's it's so record-setting hot in Japan that the top app there right now just shows you where to find shade. So Nissen Foods just patented the cold rehydrate method where you just pour cold water into a cup of top ramen and those noodles are al dente in five minutes. And they're charging 15% more for those cold noodles that quench your hot and angry summer. Nisen is only selling this in Japan right now, but we expect it'll scale to the rest of the world over time. Current flavors, Jack, when we see it out there. Spicy kimchi and chicken salt lemon. When the broth is cold, you don't want beef broth. So, Jack, what's a takeaway for our buddies over a cup of noodles?

Seasonality only exists in the mind of the inept. It's a seasonal business. Yeties, that is an easy excuse to explain away while your sales been dropping for a half of the year. But Nick and I have covered countless stories on this pod of entrepreneurs who found a way to innovate away seasonality. Jack, coffee, that sells best in cold weather, right? No, actually. That's what they used to think. Today, ice drinks make a majority of Starbucks's sales.

Oh, and last year we covered Apparel. The bright orange Apparitivo made famous for the summer. But now, Apparel is marketing to ski resorts in the winter as an Apre drink for ski bunnies. Basti's sometimes defying seasonality requires technology change like Nissen's cold ramen patent. Other times, it requires just a marketing change, like with Aparall's Apre Ski Shepras. That either way, seasonality, just a mindset. It only exists in the mind of the inept. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways force for the new Friday?

Saudi Arabia is joining the Nuclear Club of Nations, with Westinghouse due to build that reactor. Nuclear's back, baby, with a whole new menu of investment opportunities. For our second story, The Odyssey, is going to hit a billion dollars at the box office because of the director, Christopher Nolan. The filmmakers are the franchises because people follow pulses. And our third and final story is Nissan Foods. They just developed instant cold ramen. It's cold. Which will sell well during Japan's heat waves.

It defies seasonality, which only exists in the minds of the inept. But besties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, two companies worth $5 trillion announced earnings after hours. You got Tesla, you got Google. Tesla stock fell 5% on disappointing earnings in a delayed cyber cab timeline. While Google announced $99 billion in profit just in the gains on their Anthropic and SpaceX shares. Happy earnings season.

We'll dive into both and potentially cover them on tomorrow's pod. And second, Jack, what would happen if Chipotle and Peloton launched a new restaurant? They kind of are, Nick. Yeah, because the founder of Chipotle and the founder of Peloton are no longer with either of those companies. But they just co-founded a new restaurant concept called Counter-Service. Yeah, a fast casual sandwich chain. New chain, it's selling only five sandwich options, first location in New York City. And finally, Jack Dorsey, the co-founder and former CEO of Twitter,

but current CEO of Block, just launched something completely unrelated to both. It's called Buzz. It's insane. It's like Slack for your office, but it's for humans and robots to work together. It's something nobody asked for, and it's technically part of Block, the FinTech Company. And finally, it's just proof that Jack Dorsey can't focus. I mean, he like runs a dozen companies and eats one meal a day. You know, he bought, what's it called? That's music streaming company. Yeah, well, I bet they would be doing even better if he ate a pancake.

Title is part of a fintech company. The only thing I'm worried about it is, do the robots have emojis? Because if they drop emojis, that's like half of what humans do. Now time for the best fact yet. This one's sent in by Giuliana, but we can't say her hometown because that would reveal the answer. One year ago, we covered the rise of Mahjong,

the 200-year-old Chinese tile game that's going viral today. Nantucket, apparently huge Mahjong Island. We've seen it everywhere. They have Nantucket Mujah Mujah. You got moms playing Mahjong in the streets, Jack. But what is the most popular

Mahjong city in America? It's not Nantucka. And it's not a Brooklyn loft and it's not a Chinatown hangout down in lovely Los Angeles. It's Lafayette. Louisiana. That's right. The highest density and growth of mahjong players in America, it's in Lafayette, Louisiana. Mahjong is big in the American South, Raleigh, North Carolina,

Charleston, South Carolina, Lexington, Kentucky, all Mahjong hotspots. Top four cities with the highest concentration of Mahjong players in America, all in the south. If you know why, leave a comment, because I'm really curious as to the why here. Chicago does logistics. Memphis does Mahjong. Yeties, you look fantastic today. Jack, you are glowing. And besties, if you've got a buddy who has burned their tongue on hot instant ramen, what do they got to do, Jack? Drop a link to this episode in the group chat.

Yeah. So they know cold instant ramen exists. We've all like, ah, hot. Well, it's funny, at Momofuku, the restaurant in the East Village, I used to get their chilled noodles and they were spicy. So they were hot in a different way. Oh, so they were hot and cold, but not hot hot hot. Right.

Spicy hot. Right, drop a link to today's episode in your group chat. That's how you grow the show. If you know, you know, and Jack and I, we'll see you. Manana. And before we go, a happy birthday to Chris Costello, the OG Market Snacker from Glasgow, Scotland. He and his wife back are going to Nantucket for vacation. I hope we cross paths.

And Harrison McCarrie, happy 30th birthday living the New Way Van Life down in Sunny San Diego. Happy 23rd birthday to Nick Telma over in Chicago. And the mad dog of Ithaca, New York celebrating the birthday at a black-owned business. Happy 52nd birthday to Massoud McCar in Plano, Texas. And Sai Pavon, we see your birthday celebrating in Pennsylvania. And happy 11th birthday to Steve Hamilton of Yankee Distillers in New York. And Colin and Ashley Baker, congrats on the two-year anniversary over Chicago doing logistics. Happy 15th wedding anniversary to Sean and Bree Thompson in Bozeman, Montana, celebrating by relaxing and listening to the best one yet.

And a shout to Ryan from Nantuckin originally. We saw him on the way to seeing The Odyssey last night. Thanks for saying hi. Hope you enjoyed the epic ship. Remember we did a story on women acquiring companies? We mentioned Anika John buying a printing business from a story that we read in Fast Company. Well, it turns out Anika is a Yeti. Wait a second. She heard us talking about her on the pod.

So she was listening to the show and unbeknownst to her, we covered a story about her. Anika, what a cool story on women just buying up companies. Congratulations of what you done. And finally, Matt Pollan and Joseph Mendoza of Chicago, they created a T-Boy takeaway library. We've got to like open source this. This is a... national resource. This is Jack. I own stock in Netflix and Lyft. Nick and I both own stock of Chipotle and

Palton and Nick own stock and block.