The Best One Yet - 🌐 “The Las Vegas Sphere?” — Sphere’s real reality. China’s tit-for-tatting. Rivian’s 80% surge.

Episode Date: July 10, 2023

Las Vegas just unveiled the largest sphere on earth — “Sphere” is actually a publicly-traded stock too, and it previews the future of live entertainment. China just weaponized geology (because the US weaponized chips) — Because nobody wins in a trade war. And Rivian’s stock has surged 80% in just two weeks — Because Rivian isn’t just selling to people, it’s selling to Amazon.$RIVN $SPHR Want merch, a shoutout, or got TheBestFactYet? Go to: www.tboypod.com Follow The Best One Yet on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypod And now watch us on Youtube Learn 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. Welcome back. It is Monday, July 10th. And today's pod is just the best one yet. It is a team boy, Jack. We have a really cool mix of stories today. Oh, we have a fantastic mix of stories for you.

Jack, you want to just kick this thing off, my friend? Biggest new thing on Earth is that huge sphere on the Las Vegas Strip. Yet he's the biggest sphere in the world is the future of the concert industry. For our second story, we're looking at China. China is restricting exports to the United States. States of two of the most important and rare minerals on Earth. Yeti's China just weaponized geology. And our third and final story is Rivian. Rivian.

Stock of the electric pickup truck company has surged 80% in the past two weeks. Because Rivian isn't selling to people, Rivian is selling to Amazon. Which is selling to us. Which is we are people. But Yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. I mean, I think we should reiterate, Jack, this is a wonderful mix. Okay. 997. Interesting. 998. Where's it going with this? 999.

1,000 episodes of the best one yet. That's right, Yetis. We are about to hit a thousand episodes of this podcast. We're not rounding up on this thing. One week from today, we are going to hit our 1,000th episode. We're actually rounding down. Yeah, we did. But this is a win that we are going to celebrate. So we're going to wait and we're going to celebrate next week. In the meantime, though, Jack and I were talking over the weekend.

We had some ideas. Want to know how we hit 1,000 episodes of this show? How do we do it, Jack? We built a daily habit. We focused on daily habits. We committed to doing this pod every single day. Because short daily habits add up to big life wins. Sure, we take a couple vacations every year.

You got to do that for your head. And we got paternity leave every now and that. You got to do that for the sake of a child. But this is an accomplishment we're proud of. Because Jack and I never want to turn down a branding opportunity, we've decided to brand this event. haven't we, Jack? We are celebrating with what we're calling the 1,000 for 1,000 challenge.

The 1,000 for 1,000 challenge. We want to know, Yetis, what are the things that you have done 1,000 times? Maybe you've sweated a thousand times. Maybe it's 1,000 morning meditations. Or maybe it's 1,000 calls to your nana every morning. To brag about your 1,000 morning meditations. Yeties, what is your daily habit that you've turned into a daily ritual? For us, it's 1,000 podcasts.

For us, it's 1,000 cookie, Chris. I know you wanted to go off the rails on that one, Jack. Yetis, we want to know what is that thing you have done daily probably a thousand times. To make it your best one yet. So send us a video or send us a picture of your thousand for thousand challenge by next Monday. We want to share your results on T-BoyPod. For more details, check out our Instagram. At T-Boy Pot.

Or our threads. At T-boy Pot. Meantime, let's go hit episode 996. Because episode 996, it happens to be the best one yet. Let's hit our three stories. 15 years before this song Two boys from the Northeast met in the dawn They had an idea to cause a cultural storm

It's the best one yet But the best yet 50% That's a fat tip T-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 Sphere It is a publicly traded company Behind the huge sphere That is bulging out of Las Vegas right now Because virtual reality is losing to real reality. I mean, Jack, we just got to crown it when we see it,

and we are seeing it right now, aren't we, man? This is the year of Las Vegas. It's the year of Las Vegas. It used to be a gambling sin city, and now it is a championship-winning family sports town. Vegas just won the Stanley Cup. Vegas is getting a new baseball team. Vegas just set a Guinness Book of World Records

architectural record. We are talking about sphere. Sphere. Sphere. It's the largest physical sphere. besides planet Earth on Earth. Basically, the sphere, it is like the pyramids of Egypt, but there are no hard edges. You've seen videos of this on social media over the past week because it blew the world

away last week. This sphere costs $2.3 billion to build. That's half a lift. It's huge. It's wider than a football stadium and taller than the Statue of Liberty. And again, it's a perfect sphere that's half buried in the earth and half coming out of the ground. You can see this thing from space. But Jack, let's go inside the sphere. Let's jump in T-boy style, talk about what's on the interior. I didn't even know there was an inside.

Apparently there is an inside. This is wild. There are 18,000 seats inside the sphere so that you can watch a live concert, a movie, a boxing match. Could you do a live podcast? Maybe. Okay, we'll run with it. Jack, I would watch a Yo-Yo Ma quintet in this thing. Bring the cellos out.

Glad you mentioned Yo-Yo Ma. Because the sphere will host concerts. There's a stage for the performers, but there's also a spherical IMAX screen, enveloping the entire audience. Yeties, this sphere, it has as many seats as Madison Square Garden. But if you see Taylor Swift perform there, it's going to feel like you're on Jupiter. The opening act is in September, and you too is going to be on stage. But in this sphere, Bono, is probably going to get Vertico.

Hello, hello. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But Yeties, here's the key about this sphere. Here's what Jack and I found fascinating about this project. This is the first live events venue where the outside is more impressive than the inside. Because the world's biggest sphere on the inside has the world's biggest TV screen on the outside. That's right. The interior is an entertainment venue, but the exterior is also an entertainment venue.

Yeah, we learned that this past week when they turned the screen on on July 4th with an LED light show on the exterior of the sphere. Yeah, this sphere doesn't have a roof. It has a full hemispherical HD screen. And it literally stopped traffic in Las Vegas when it got turned on. This thing is wild. During Christmas time, it's going to be the world's largest snow glow. During Halloween, it's going to be the world's largest jackalantor. It's quite a visual spectacle that's hard for us to translate on this audio process.

But it's not just for fun and games. There's actually a business point here because this screen is a profit puppy. Yes, this is the world's largest billboard. They're going to charge brands enormous sums of money to run the most magnificent ads you've ever seen. This is going to be the first billboard that people actually want to take videos of. They're going to be entertained by the ads. If there was a Pepsi ad on the sphere, I would pay it to see it. You know what I mean?

Jack and I would drop $5 to watch a giant Pepsi ad on this giant sphere. Now, who's behind this sphere? It's actually owned by Madison Square Garden, the company that owns the Rangers, the NICs, and the MSG TV network. In fact, MSG Networks likes their sphere so much, they renamed their company, Sphere. If I had a Sphere, I would call myself Sphere too. Until we get sued. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Sphere? Virtual reality keeps on losing to real reality.

Yet is Facebook? They changed their name to META, and they're spending a billion dollars every single month on the Metaverse. Apple fast followed, unveiling AR goggles that you need a mortgage to buy. But META's Metaverse business, it is an in a universe. And Apple's goggles are a huge question mark. In the meantime, Americans, we're spending record amounts of money on real world travel and restaurant entertainment. Yes, this sphere features screens and technology, but you have to be there physically in

real life to experience it. Because despite all the hype, virtual reality keeps losing to real reality. For our second story, China, just weaponized geology. Because America weaponized technology. And this reminds us all that. nobody wins in a trade war. In a trade war, there ain't no winners. Put that on a pillow. Jack and I, we wanted to visualize how much stuff we buy from China. Well, we looked it up. America buys more stuff from China than the entire GDPs of Israel or of Austria.

Yadies, we got more stuff stamped with made in China than the entire economies of entire countries. Our number two trading partner is Mexico, but we buy half as much for Mexico as we do from number one China. China, they got that number one spot. They're really our bestie, our favorite, our friend when it comes to trading. That is the big reason that Janet Yellen, America's Treasury Secretary, visited Beijing last week. She's trying to make sure we don't break up economically from our number one favorite trade partner. Well, here's the scary news that you should also know about. China, they got a monopoly on the rarest metals on Earth, and they just decided to weaponize them.

Specifically, these two rare minerals. Jack, can you whip out the periodic table for us over there? I think it's a periodic table. Yeah, germanium and gallium. Germanium and gallium. They're located on like the right side of the table. They're like right near aluminum, but like to the left of zinc. You don't find these on a charm bracelet.

You find them in computer chips, in solar panels, and in electric cars. These are not only rare metals, these are valuable metals. They're critical. And China happens to control 90% of the world's rare minerals. All right, Jack, let's not let that one slide. Can you repeat that stat for us again? 90% of rare earth minerals are controlled by China. Yetis, we're talking about the gold of the 21st century and 90% of it is over in China.

So China's got some leverage and they announced last week that they're going to restrict sales of those two crucial rare minerals to the United States. But yeties, before you get too frustrated at China, Jack, can we back up and talk about why China is doing this? China is doing this because the United States has restricted sales of our high-end computer chips to China. So China's restricting sales of their rare earth metals because the United States restricted sales of our rare high-end computer chips. It's tit for tat. We're the one country that happens to make these chips, so our move happened to hurt China. So now China is tatting our tit. Or they may be titing our tat.

You say tomato, I say tat. So Jack, what's the takeaway? You say tomato, I say tariff. Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in China? Nobody wins in a trade war. Yetis, we said this in 2019, when the trade war with China began, and we're saying it again, nobody wins in a trade war. Yetis, by limiting exports of these high-end chips to China, we are depriving China of high-end

technology. And by limiting rare metals to us, China is depriving us of making the chips we need. Add it all up, our trade war with China, it's lose-lose economically. Yeah, this trade war, there are no winners. In fact, there are only losers. And if we're both losing money, then we're both getting mad, and that could escalate the conflict even further. Just because we're enemies politically doesn't mean we have to be enemies economically. We could stay enemies politically, but still cooperate economically. Both things can happen

at the same time, and that is why our Treasury Secretary is in China right now. Because nobody wins in a trade war. For our third and final story, in the last two weeks, one stock has dominated all the other stocks. And what is that stock, Jack? It's Rivian. Rivian stock is up 80% in the past 10 trading days. Because Yetis, this electric truck company is a binary stock. It's either going to zero or it's going to 100. But in order to properly tell the story of Rivian right now, Yetis, Jack and I, we got to tell you about our buddy Timmy.

Not that Timmy, the other buddy Timmy. We actually have two buddy Timmy and this is the other buddy Timmy. This is our West Coast buddy Timmy, not the East Coast buddy Timmy. This is the first time this buddy Timmy has been mentioned on the show, I think. And this buddy Timmy happened to pre-order a Rivian SUV exactly three. years ago. He's the first person we knew who was on the wait list at Rivian. Yeah, but here's the problem. For the last three years, Timmy never got that SUV. He's been on the wait list for three years. He saw all these Rivians driving around his neighborhood. It was cruel and unusual punishment.

Until last week, he finally got the call. The call. It's not just Timmy, by the way. A bunch of other Rivian customers also got the call that they're finally going to get their Rivian electric truck. And the data backs it up. Last week, Rivian announced, they produced 14,000 vehicles in the second quarter, which is way up from last year. That's up 65% from the quarter before, and it's up more than triple than the year before. The supply chain issues that kept our buddy Timmy without a car for three years, looks like they've cleared up. But yet he's here's what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. You know what else is actually driving Rivian stock right now? It's not our buddy Timmy. No, it's that Rivian is a

B-to-B-SUV-EV. It's a business-to-bus, electric vehicle. business. Yeties, Rivian, they're not just selling electric pickup trucks to your buddy so he can go off-roading in Yosemite over the weekend with a camp. Looking at you, Timmy. Rivian's also selling electric delivery vans to businesses. Specifically, Amazon. Get this. Amazon still owns 17% of Rivian stock. It's the biggest shareholder in the entire company. And Amazon has committed to buying 100,000 Rivian electric delivery vans. Well, it's already happening. We just learned last week that 5,000 Rivian electric vans are already roaming our streets, shipping packages, and dropping them off at your front door. Yeah, if you're in Phoenix, St. Louis, just outside Boston, you may be seeing electric delivery vans that are owned by Amazon, but made by Rivian.

Oh, and there's more good news. Rivian stamped their passport for their first time. Yeah, because Amazon is bringing its first 300 Rivian electric vans over to Europe to deliver packages. To deliver to Deutsche Laund. So add it all up. And Rivian is selling electric SUVs to consumers. and electric commercial vans to businesses on two different continents. Now we see why the stock is up 80%. That's why the stock is up 80%. There's actually another reason, though, and it's our takeaway.

So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Rivian? Rivian is a binary stock. It's either headed for boom or headed for bankruptcy. There's no in between. Yeties, the last time we talked about Rivian, we calculated that they only had two years left of cash left. If they kept losing money like they had in the past, Rivian was headed for bankruptcy in two years.

So the stock fell 90% from its IPO because people were worried it could go bust. It could go bankrupt. But now Rivian is bubbling with good news on both the consumer and the commercial side. So on the one side of Rivian was the risk of bankruptcy and the stock going to zero. On the other side is the potential that Rivian becomes the next Tesla and the stock continues to soar. Because Rivian is a binary stock. The downs are way down, but the ups are way up. Because they're going one of two ways.

boom or bust. There's no in between. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us to kick off the week? The Sphere in Las Vegas is actually a publicly traded company that includes Madison Square Garden. And it's proof that real reality keeps beating virtual reality. For our second story, Treasury Secretary Yellen was in China last week, trying to assuage the trade war we have with China. Because nobody wins in a trade war. And our third and final story is Rivian stock. It's up 80% in two weeks because our buddy Timmy, delivery vans, and Deutsche Lines.

It's a binary stock. It's either going bust, or it's going boom. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by legendary Yeti, Jason Raymond Werner from lovely Portland, Oregon. Here's the question. What was the first whiskey to be served on a commercial airline? It wasn't High West. It wasn't Jack Daniels and it wasn't your buddy, Pappy Van Winkle.

Apparently, it was Maker's Mark. Because apparently the CEO of Maker's Mark befriended the CEO of American Airlines back in 1961. See? Connections. They get you places. They recognize there was an opportunity to sell stuff not just on the ground, but in the air. Maker's Mark, making your friendly skies, sometimes a little too friendly. Easy on the makers mark. It's got the sky off at one shooter. 16B, yeah, he's done. Yeah, it is, you look fantastic to kick off the week. And remember, we want to see your thousand for a thousand. Thousand for thousand. What do you do every day that you've done a thousand times? You're proud of.

you've done just like a thousand times. We want to see it. For us, it's a podcast for you. We don't know. We want to hear from it. For you, maybe it's making cottage cheese. Either way, we want to see at T-BoyPod. Unless it's cottage cheese. Yeah, then we don't want to see it. Nick and I, we'll see you tomorrow. Can't wait. And before we go, a happy birthday to Nick the neurosurgeon Musgrave having a birthday celebration down in St. Louis. Happy birthday to Napoleon Atienza in Chesapeake, Florida. And Billy Ritz, happy birthday over in lovely San Diego. And happy 50th to Tony's heir in San Clemente, California. And then Jack, we got Taylor Wilson over here, who not only has an anniversary, but is celebrating a new baby girl named Rosie. And happy birthday to Kira Shakira,

who's celebrating with a two-week trip to Columbia with Zach. Not too shabby. Celebrating something today, make it a tee boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack on stock of Amazon. and Nick and I both on stock of Apple.