The Best One Yet - “This rocket self-drive to space or what?” — SpaceX’s capitalist milestone. Alexa wants podcasts. The COVID-19 umbrella challenge.

Episode Date: May 27, 2020

Small step for man, giant step for Elon Musk’s SpaceX, as it takes its first human customers to space. Amazon is making moves to invest in local news and sports podcasts because it wants to make “The Audio Wars” a thing. And stocks are up as the economy reopens, but this kinda feels like an “umbrella” situation.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. And this is Snacks Daily. It is Wednesday, May 27. Man, oh man, I can't believe the week's already halfway over. Is it just us or does it kind of feel like a Tuesday out here? It feels like a Friday. Nick, we got three fantastic stories. This Snackers happens to be the best one yet we have ever done. For our first story, Elon Musk built a Tesla that's only in ludicrous mode. Jack, how do you get this rocket and self-driving? Today, Elon Musk's SpaceX takes a job. giant leap for capitalism kind. We found ourselves a startup sending humans into space today. And we highlight how astronauts are customers for SpaceX. The old B to A business to astronaut business model. For our second story, we're going to call Amazon's voice assistant Flexa so we don't mess with your smart home situation. Ironically, this is about Falexa's interest in podcasts. Amazon is reportedly interested in its own local news and sports podcasts. The reports about Folexia's

are not confirmed, but Spotify shareholders kind of pee their pants on this one. For our third and final story, the New York Stock Exchange just reopened. The Dow is up above 25,000 points. Your hairstylist is spamming your inbox with, you can finally get a haircut email. You don't look great, you probably should see somebody. But what about the COVID-19 economic umbrella, aka social distancing? Do you toss away your umbrella just because you're not getting wet? That's the philosophical question we dive into snack style. Rihanna's listening. She's a snack. We're going to ask her after this.

But before we get to those great stories, we've talked about Robin Hood's core feature commission-free investing a few times. Even if you're not paying a $10 commission fee to buy and sell a stock, some stocks can kind of still feel pretty expensive. Now, you knew I was going to mention Amazon in this podcast. Might as well get it done early. One share of Amazon is $2,400. And one share of Netflix is $414.

That is expensive, Nick. To buy one share of Amazon, Jack, you're going to have to keep. Cancel your Netflix subscription. Spoiler, it's your mom's subscription. Good thing Robin Hood now offers fractional shares. That's right, Snackers, you are no longer limited to investing in one entire gargantuan share. Having to buy one giant stock and only buy things by the stock is like being forced to watch entire seasons of Netflix in one sitting because that's how they come. Buying stock by the stock. If you're going to watch The Crown, you want to pick off one episode a week to pace yourself out. You don't binge the whole season two on Tuesday night.

unnecessary and it's excessive. It's aggressive and it's intense. Now, with Robin Hood's fractional shares feature, you can purchase a fraction of a share, whatever fraction you want. A hundredth, a fifth, a third, a half. It's like name your own denominator like they do with like that TV show. Or you can buy your favorite stock based on the dollar amount that you're comfortable with, like one buck, 50 bucks, 100 bucks, 20 bucks. We found ourselves a name your numerator situation. For the snackers out there, we're offering a free stock if you set up an account, with Robin Hood, your first free stock is right there on us. Snackers, you know Jack and I love you, sign up at Snackspodcast.robinhood.com, and once your account set up, boom, a free stop is there

waiting for you for you to binge. Snackspodcast.com to get free stock without the queen's permission. By the way, to all the snackers who already have a Robin Hood account, you can still get a free stock if you refer a friend. Check out your app. You'll figure it out. In the meantime, Jack and I are going to hit 100% of our three-stop. stories next. You're tuned in the snacks daily. We spoke to the lawyers and we got to get something legal out the way. The snacks about to hear ain't food. It's air candy. They don't reflect the views of the robberhood family. It's all informational just so. We're not recommending any securities. It's not a research report or investment advice. Not an offer or sale of a security.

Snacks is digestible. Business news for you. Robberhood Financial, LLC, member FINRA slash For our first story, 50 states have started reopening their economies. And so far, markets absolutely love it. Love it. Nick and I are reading those economic data reports, and we're thinking to ourselves, some parts of the economy look normal. It's like saying the new normal is actually now the oldish normal? The new normal is the old normal.

Are we no longer saying new normal? This isn't just in our feelings. It's in the numbers. Our buddies over at the New York Times grabbed some data from Apple Maps, actually. Apple Maps. I guess Google Maps data wasn't available. We haven't said the word Apple and Maps since I'd check. I think it was 2013. Get this. The New York Times figured out how many people were asking Apple Maps for directions to go to places. And guess what? It's back to normal.

And then they saw data that people were like, Apple Maps. I said Greenwich Village, not Greenwich, Connecticut. kit. But this data means people are going places again. They're not just sheltering at home, which is a sign of a return to normalcy. But a critical detail about these Apple Maps, that was for walking and driving data. Yes, on Apple Maps, directions for public transit and directions for taking a flight somewhere. Yep. Those were both still way down. Yeah, you may have noticed some data out there that more people are occupying planes or more hotels have a few more guests in them. But that's going from like 2% occupancy to like 8% occupancy. Flights are still way down. Flights are down 90% since the old normal now than a normal.

Now hopefully as people are going out again, they're still behaving responsibly with some social distancing and wearing masks. Also, Jack and I read a very frustrating study over the weekend that apparently talking loudly is not good in public right now with germs. This is literally what we do for a living. Nick and I have basically a megaphone like spouting germs out of our mouth. This is Jack. Jack, we're going to have to start wearing two of the face masks and covering ourselves with a human bandana. My microphone is quite vulnerable. Jack is whispering right now.

Snackers, it's not just travelers who are shown a little bit of confidence, enough confidence to run out their front door. Investors and consumers are both showing confidence, too. Jack and I woke up Tuesday morning to a fresh bash of econ data all about confidence cockiness. Yesterday, the University of Michigan released their monthly consumer confidence report. Guess what? Yeah. People are more confident. in May than they were in April. There's nothing Jack and I love more than the Consumer Confidence

Report. You go up to people and ask them how they're feeling. A little bit better than last month. A little bit better. Another report. Mortgage applications. The number of people filing for a mortgage is down just one and a half percent from the same time last year. What is going on here? Are people buying like tutor houses on eBay? What's happening? My little brother Teddy is a real estate agent. He's showing off some houses. You want to feel comfortable? You go with Ted. Take a turn away from Teddy's locality in southern Vermont and go to Wall Street. Stock markets are looking good. S&P 500 above 3,000 points for the first time since March.

And stocks overall are down just 11% from COVID-19, from like before any of this was a thing. And then another critical indicator. The NBA is in talks to restart the season. Get this at Disney World. That just sounds like a better version of the NBA. Can we make that the new normal, please? It actually makes sense. Epcot.

and the Magic Kingdom, they're both empty. Might as well quarantine the Knicks in there. If the worst of the pandemic is over, maybe the government rescue package did its job. That'd be amazing. And we could walk away from this with just an 11% bruise to stock prices. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies

over in the confidence economy? Was the economic lockdown, our umbrella, Ella, and are we about to get soaking wet again? Ella, Ella, A, A, A. Snackers, we flatten the curve. It's a national success story. Daily infections and daily deaths aren't increasing anymore. They've been decreasing for quite a while now.

But the World Health Organization just warned Monday of a, get this, immediate second outbreak, a.k.a. a sequel that's way worse than the first movie. The WHO's argument, infections and deaths are down because of the aggressive social distancing, which we're now kind of undoing. Now we're ending the economic lockdown because infections are down. Is that like throwing away your umbrella during a rainstorm because you're currently not wet? Are we all about to get soaked because our production is suddenly gone? Should we not throw away that umbrella because the umbrella is what's protecting us from the COVID rain?

A, A, A, A. So far, we are not suddenly wet because of the reopening of state economies. A.K.A. there is an infection spike because of the reopening. But we all know, testing rates lag a little bit, so we're keeping our fingers crossed. And there's a reason you still have an umbrella in your closet. For our second story, this one's wild. Snackers, we're about to hit a new milestone. for capitalism. Sending human beings into space. SpaceX is scheduled to do that today. Space X, short for

space exploration. Based in lovely Los Angeles, it's the fifth love child of Elon Musk. After PayPal, Tesla, Solar City, and the boring company. Then come SpaceX, then come his actual children. Elon loves companies with outrageous mission statements. Uh-huh. Right on the website, basically in all caps. Literally in all caps, Nick. I copied that and pasted no emphasis at it. Make you a hundred-multiplanitary. A little bit more ambitious than enterprises will pick you up. Again, that kind of creeps us out enterprise. Now the key innovation for SpaceX, reusable rockets. This isn't your mom and dad's rocket company. They don't let the rockets like burn up in the atmosphere or become space junk like NASA does. Instead, they land them on pedestals, which are waiting for them in the desert or sitting in the ocean so that, you know, if something goes wrong, nobody gets hurt.

This is the kind of thing that could be a sport, incredible to walk. it's a beautiful experience. They send rockets into outer space and then catch them like Jerry Rice catches a football. Meanwhile, I just tripped on like a curb. Now, unfortunately, this is a private company, so Major Brummer, you can't buy shares of the stock. Becoming a shareholder of SpaceX is by invitation only like getting an invite to download the clubhouse app. Cough, cough, not everyone's invited. But Snackers, the other reason this is a big deal what's going down today, it's the first time people have been launched to space from the United States soil in 10 years. Get this. Since 2011, we've been using Russia's rockets. The most unlikely couple other to be like latched together

for the life of you going up to space. That's right. If we want to send Americans to the International Space Station, we have been using Russia paying the money. This is basically Russia's economic profit puppy. Mr. Jack, to take front seat charge you 80 million dollars. They're like, Okay, am I getting a vegetarian or a chicken meal? Mr. Jack, on the Russian rocket, you have no choice. It is chicken or it is chicken. Oh, so the two Americans being sent up today, their names are Bob Bankin and Doug Hurley.

They're heading to the International Space Station. And SpaceX has sent an empty pod up to the International Space Station before, and it's done like emergency ejections. So SpaceX has been preparing for six years for today's launch, but let's be honest, putting humans in rockets and spending them into space, incredibly dangerous endeavor. Anything that costs $80 million is probably going to threaten your life. Now, if the weather cooperates and they actually do it today,

you can watch on NASA Live, which is a great YouTube channel. And take off his schedule for 433 p.m. Eastern Standard, Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaver, Florida. Houston is jealous. Remember to get rid of your liquids or gels. You do not want to be caught up in TSA before this thing. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Elon Musk's SpaceX? There are three customers for space today. Tomorrow, though, there could be millions.

Snackers, we got to look at SpaceX's business model. Governments, they're who's paying SpaceX to ship the cargo, human or otherwise, to space for science. For this deal, NASA has paid SpaceX $3.1 billion to develop this rocket and send it up today. That's billion with a beat. The other core customer for SpaceX, telecom companies, who've been paying the company to ship satellites up for the GPS, powering your phone. We couldn't figure out how much money SpaceX has received for this. we also couldn't find the satellites, even though SpaceX says they're visible from planet Earth.

Does it matter how hard you squint? We don't see them out there. But the third key customer is you, the sea, the consumer, tourists who are hoping to pay SpaceX to go to space for the ultimate insta pic. Look, I took a selfie. We're all in it. All of planet Earth.

You're in it, two snackers, and you had no choice of the matter. Epic selfie photo bomb, planet Earth. And SpaceX isn't the only one. You got Virgin Galactic, publicly traded, Boeing and Blue Origin also involved. But here's the kicker that SpaceX has. On its website, there is a tab called Mars.

Yes, Mars, kind of ambiguous, but extremely specific. Snackers, if we can travel to other planets, there could be mining of like Mars gold. There could be timeshares for vacations. We could put our trash up there that we just don't want bothering planet Earth. Jack could have just said minerals there, but I kind of love how we went with Mars gold because that is definitely got to become a thing. Jared's is all over this, sponsoring the next mission. The jewelry industry is barking for Mars gold.

all of the above, so SpaceX isn't limiting its business model. When it comes to outer space and if we can get to other planets, the possibilities are endless. For our third and final story, Amazon's newest venture investment is local sports and local news podcasts. This is Todd McDuff from WNBC Channel 5 at Greenboro High School. Tough night for Cougar Volleyball. Now back to Wendy with an update on Act 24, mulch limitations in April. way, Wendy, how's the traffic and weather? And did they find that kitten? You are kidding me. The kitten was on top of the stop sign the whole time. Local news, good clean family fun for everyone. Local news podcasts, even cleaner and funner. Amazon noticed last week that podcasting is kind of a big

deal, so it's looking to whip out its checkbook. Yeah, it's whipping out a big checkbook. According to an Axios report, Amazon plans to invest in localized podcast content like news and sports. They're going to pay for this with a venture arm with up to $200 million dedicated to voice innovations. We're talking the Alexa fund. It's Falexa, Nick. The Flexa fund. We apologize. It's Falexa. We checked out the list of investments made by the Falexa fund so far. 50 companies we'd never heard of. This is like a portfolio of a menu at a restaurant where you don't recognize any of the foods. But apparently Todd McDuff's local news could be the next thing in investment. And a key underlying all this is that Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon loves news. He is the 100% owner of the Washington Post. He's got a saw spot for journalism.

And the reason why Amazon could be the right player, Flexa, millions of people have Falexas in their houses and can listen to the morning news every day. Another key here is that local news is suffering, which could be an opportunity for Amazon to take over, you know, another industry and make it profit. Which brings us to this big problem that Amazon's in a really nice position. You hate to hear this, but Amazon actually has so much data. on you, stackers, it doesn't know what to do with it. Just like Google, Amazon has a huge online ad sales business. Oh, interested in a milk frother so you can DIY yourself a latte, the first result on Amazon is Mike's milk frothers and Mike paid for that ad. Get this, Amazon made $4 billion in ad revenues, just like what

Nick just described, getting at the top of an Amazon search result. But get this, Jack and I to sit down when we heard this. That's almost 10 times as much ad revenues as Snapchat makes, in total, the company. Okay, so you're looking at local news and local sports. That could include hyper-personalized ads delivered every morning through your Falexa device. It can use the data that Amazon has to sell more ads this time during your morning news fix and this time knowing exactly what street corner you live on. Todd McDuff's like, but first, a word from our sponsors, stump down coffee is finally in the East Village. We're just, We know you're into fancy caffeine because of that milk frother you ordered.

Come see how latte is supposed to taste at a 3rd Avenue location. Or maybe it just bought a Casper mattress on Amazon. They're not going to pay you a Casper ad because they know you own one. With Amazon's trove of spending data, Amazon can run hyper-targeted ads, something radio and podcasts haven't been able to do yet. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Falexa? What we see today in video streaming wars, we're starting to see in the audio wars as well.

Snackers, let's look at the landscape here. Spotify. They've spurged over half a billion dollars on original content and just spend $100 million to get exclusive rights to Joe Rogan's podcast. Bloomberg News just reported that Apple is hiring a leader to invest in podcasts with the potential that those podcasts spin off into a TV show on Apple TV Plus. And then there's Amazon that's been kind of MIA. Even though it has the most advanced voice tech of it all, Flexa,

they've been MIA. Just like Netflix fights with HBO to get the best video content, we're going to see some Spotify, Amazon, and Apple fighting over the best audio. Hey, Falexa, share this podcast with everyone on my contact list. Just kidding. Kind of not kidding. Jack and you'll whip up the takeaways for us over there. Consumers, investors, and local travelers are excited.

All 50 states have started to reopen. Social distancing was our umbrella that protected us from COVID rain. It's still an umbrella. It's still an umbrella. It's still an umbrella. Second story. SpaceX is sending Americans into space today at 4.33 p.m. Eastern Time from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Astronauts are brave. Enough said SpaceX. Third and final story, Amazon is reportedly planning its own podcast binge following in Spotify's footsteps. You're going to get Todd McDuff's local sports and news sponsored by someone in your neighborhood, brought to you by Alexa.

Now time for our snack fact of the day. This one's sent in by, unfortunately, a flyers fan, Tyler from Mechanicsville Pense. Mechanicsville, Pennsylvania. Sounds like a made-up town. It's perfect. Real town, not from the Truman Show. Full disclosure, I'm from the state of Vermont, but I've never played hockey. I hold Jack up when we're skating. I take them. I just throw them in the air snackers. It's wonderful. I actually use one of those like walkers that old people use. I use that on the ice. It's true. We put them on like kind of a leash situation. Now, apparently in hockey, a point is either a goal or an exist. It can be both. And Wayne Gretzky is the leader by far. Now, if you erase, all of Wayne Gretzky's goals from his record,

he would still be the all-time points leader. That's right, he had more assists than anyone else had goals plus assists. That's wild. It's like Babe Ruth is the home run leader and the hot dog eating winner at the same time. I think he actually was Jack. Actually, I think he was out now.

Now, we want to give a belated birthday shout-out to a grade A snacker, Alex Mall, based in Jacksonville, Florida. No prom, no graduation, no. Miami Music Festival this year. Bummer to all of the high school graduates this year, but you know what, Alex, you have a T-boy T-shirt, yep. UCF announced they're opening up in the fall and you're a grade A snack.

Not too shabby. If you're listening to Today's Snacks Daily on Spotify, you know you can share this as an Instagram store. Absolutely. You take a screenshot. It looks beautiful. That Spotify interface is beautiful. It's like Mars Gold.

Look for the button with three dots. Go to share. Click Instagram Stories. Enough said. Boom. Snacks are shared if you know, you know. We'll see you tomorrow. This is Jack. I own stock of Spotify and Amazon.

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