The Best One Yet - ⚾ “Torpedo Bat” — NY Yankees’ innovation. Q2’s Stagflation risk. Drone Delivery’s burrito vs blood.

Episode Date: April 1, 2025

The New York Yankees set a home run record… Thanks to a new data-optimized torpedo bat.The #1 term you gotta know for Q2? “Stagflation”… when unemployment and inflation both rise.One drone delivery startup is beating Amazon in the sky… but should serve houses or hospitals?Plus, Kim Kardashian’s Skims is launching a Wall Street Shapeware line… $SPY $AMZN $GOOGWant more business storytelling from us? Check out the latest episode of our new weekly deepdive show: The untold origin story of 📱iPhone: The Device Steve Jobs Didn’t Want to Build. Subscribe to The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinks to listen.“The Best Idea Yet”: The untold origin stories of the products you’re obsessed with — From the McDonald’s Happy Meal to Birkenstock’s sandal to Nintendo’s Susper Mario Brothers to Sriracha. New 45-minute episodes drop weekly.—-----------------------------------------------------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 Tuesday, T-Boy, Tuesday, April 1st. 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. Yaddies, Jack and I are coming at you live from the south side of Chicago and we ain't doing logistics today, are we, Jack? We are here for the 2025 and the awards, best business podcast, fingers crossed, here we go. Okay, that dry cleaning better be a write-off. Jack, three stories for today's show. What do we got on the pod, man? Our first story, the New York Yankees just set a home run record, but it's all thanks to their new baseball bat. So we're covering the torpedo bat and the NASA-trained AI analyst PhD team behind it. For our second story, the first quarter of 2025 ended yesterday. The second quarter begins today. And the one word that could define the economy for the next three months is stagflation. And our third and final story.

One drone delivery startup. Zipline is beating Amazon and Google in the sky. But Jack and I will tell you why drone delivery isn't really about the burritos. But Yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Fantastic mix of stories for a T-Boy Tuesday, Jack. The biggest product launch of this year, it changes the look of business forever. Literally. Because Skims just launched Financial Fashion.

We repeat, Kim Kardashian is launching Skims Wall Street. That's right. Skims, the shapewear brand, is making something for banking bros and financial females. Jack, could you sprinkle on some context for us over there, please? Kim Kardashian founded Skims as a women's shapewear brand six years ago. Today, it's worth $4 billion, and it's rumored to be prepping for an IPO. But recently, Skims has expanded from Undies to everything. They've partnered with Nike, the North Face, with Dolce and Gabana. But now Kim Kardashian wants to disrupt the office dress code.

So Skim's latest shapewear line is designed specifically for Wall Street work. Jack, you're going to have to start out on the runway and give us an example of this stuff. The ex-finance bro and me is thrilled for the sweat-wicking spreadsheet shirt. Because you're spending all day in Excel, that's a workout. These aren't for me, but I'm thrilled for the liquidity leggings. Yes, you don't have to feel that liquidity squeeze. My personal favorite, the insider trade. A fresh pair of underwear to change into after your sweaty commute to work.

I mean, Jack, I like that Skims already did thong underwear, but now they're doing a thong briefcase. I'll take two. And of course, thanks to this new line, you can replace your Patagonia vest with a Skim spandex one. It's not a big short, it's a big scort. Because besties, according to a Wall Street Oasis poll, 91% of bank analysts complain of sock chafing during the work. So Skim's new silk sock is wrinkle-free for that 85-hour work week. Apparently, Jamie Diamond wears them when he's never working from home.

Yeties, Kim Skims. It's the new Brooks brothers. Because the biggest product launch of the year is Skims Wall Street. And if you want to see this new lineup, Jack and I are actually modeling it right now. I'm wearing a silk tie, but I'm wearing not a thread of cotton. Jack, the spandex is so soft, the SEC is going to investigate me. If you want to see our blue steel, check us out on Instagram at T-BoyPod.

We're reppping this new line. Jack, you are looking fantastic over there, Yeties. Let's hit out three stories. years before this song. Two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea that caused a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is a 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, the New York Yankees are underst. defeated, but they have twice as many home runs per game than the next best team, and everyone is curious why. They're the Bronx bombers. Yeah, they are. And the reason is their new bat, the torpedo bat, which represents a force changing the game. Yeah, it is, as we mentioned, Jack and I are in Chicago right now. We can see actually a few stadiums from here, right? I see Soldier Field for my 30th floor hotel room. But we're also right near the White Sox Stadium, and perfect timing because the baseball season just began. I watched the Yankees game on Saturday. they hit nine home runs, which is the most in franchise history.

Okay, we repeat Yetis. Already, just three games into the season, the New York Yankees have set a record beating the Brewers 20 to 9. The record was nine home runs in a single game. That's the most in Yankees history. We're talking the team of Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio. They have literally never hit so many home runs as they did this past weekend. Aaron Judge hit three dingers, and he and two other Yankees actually hit three straight home runs

on three straight pitches from the same pitcher. It was so beautiful. Yogi Bearer would have written a poem about it, Jack. The Yankees, win. But the real star of the game wasn't any of those New York Yankees. No. It was the new New York Yankees bat. Behold the torpedo bat.

This thing looks like a bowling pin married a wine bottle. Yeah, and what is the exact science behind this new torpedo bat? This new wooden bat shifted the mass of the wood a little towards the handle. They basically pulled the sweet spot closer to the handle because, according to the data, that's where the Yankees were making contact with the bat most of the time. Now, the result is a bat that does look like a torpedo, so I got to ask Jack, is this new torpedo bat street legal? We checked the rules.

Yeah, we did. The MLB rule 3.02. A baseball bat must be solid and made of one piece of wood. The maximum diameter is 2.4.2. 6.1 inches, and a maximum length is 42 inches. So yes, it's legal. We're not lawyers, but we're clearing this bat and so is Major League Baseball.

But that was not the fascinating part of the story for us. The fascinating part is that there's a team behind the team when it comes to the Yankees. An AI data and analytics team that was behind this torpedo bat. Get this. The average Major League

baseball team has a 20 person analytics team. Yeah. According to the Huddle Up Newslet. Okay, the New York Matt, you know how many they have, Jack? 35. Yeah, Steve Cohen just spending a whole lot of money on those data crunch. Now, the Yankees head scientist is a guy named Lenny Leanhard. And his resume sounds like a scientific madlibs.

Lenny recently left the Yankees, but he's responsible for this back. Oh, totally. He has a PhD from MIT. He has a Nobel Prize, and he previously worked for NASA. Those are all on the science bingo card right there. You win the game. You win the game, Lenny. And under Lenny's leadership, this data is.

and science team for the Yankees has simply taken the data even further. Because the Yankees are measuring exit velocity of pitches, the launch angles of bats, and 20 other metrics to predict what's going to happen on each pitch. Including where the ball actually hits the bat, which led to their genius move of nudging the sweet spot. Now, Jack, when we were kids, I mean, the stats we were tracking were like home runs, doubles, triples, and homers? Like, that's it?

Like, we three or four things? With today's technology, baseball teams are measuring hundreds of additional. additional statistics. And they don't just measure. They have now data optimized the game of baseball. Get this. The whole defense will shift their alignment based on the pitch that the pitcher is about to throw. They will literally move like the left fielder five feet over to the right if the Yankees pitcher is doing a curveball instead of a fastball. So to sum it all up, the Yankees have a new home run hitting bat. They have five home runs per game, which is twice as many as the number two Dodgers have. But yeties, Jack and I were tracking this story. And that viral tournament,

Repetobat, it actually brings up a bigger question. You know how we have artificial general intelligence, which is when AI is even smarter than human beings? Yeah, Jack and I mean. What if we have artificial general baseball where the models are smarter than us? What if AI solves sports? So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies playing baseball? Okay, Bob Zucker. The beautiful game is becoming the optimized game.

Yeti's Brazilian soccer great Pele famously called soccer the beautiful game. Fans of every sport probably fell in love with their game because they found it beautiful in some way. But what happens when the play on the field gets dictated by AI algorithms and data science? Earlier this year, we did a story just like that. We did. On the NBA, how basketball has a three-pointer problem. Yeah, Jack, why don't you remind the Yeties about that specific story? Scientifically speaking, shooting threes makes you more likely to win the game.

but shooting so many threes is making the game more boring and it's resulting in fans not tuning in. Well, similarly, every baseball team is probably about to buy these New York Yankee torpedo bats. This is probably going to be the season with the most home runs ever. And the result? Well, a game with more home runs is fun until each home run has less value and therefore is less fun.

It was really exciting seeing Judge hit 60 home runs the other year, but now he's going to hit 80? Like, that's kind of messing with the fans. Now, one solution we've proposed before is the league step in. They fix this market failure and create rules to stop the science. Because the alternative is every team following the same algorithmically optimized formula. The game is going to lose its art. In a way, imperfection of the game may have been the perfection of the game.

Because the beautiful game is becoming the optimized game. For our second story, as we finish the first quarter, Jack and I are predicting that the theme of the second quarter will be one word. Stagflation. If we get stagflation, it's like a house that's flooded and on fire at the same time. We'll explain. Yeah, it is Q1, 2025. Let's recap it now that it's over. Economic chaos. We got whiplashed worse than a professional bull rider. First, things looked rosy. In January, stocks jumped 6% on hopes of deregulation and tax cuts. But since then, stocks have fallen 10% on Trade War II tariffs on and off.

again, like whiplash. So as we enter Q2 and we look at the data, how are things looking? Well, Jack, it kind of, uh, isn't that exactly a warm spring weather situation? Nick and I jumped into the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Survey. Okay. The first thing that the survey shows is that two-thirds of us think the unemployment rate will rise next year. That's the highest level since 2009. Not since the 2009 great recession have so many of us thought unemployment was going to increase. Now, at the same time, Americans also think that prices will jump up to 5% higher next year. Higher unemployment rate and higher inflation at the same time,

that would be an economist's nightmare. And funny thing, because that nightmare happens to have a very particular name. And what is that, Jack? Stagflation. Ah, stagflation, the S word of economics. The last time we had stagflation was in the 1970s. Okay, but before we go back to the 70s, Jack, let's just talk about today for a moment.

because the period of inflation we've all been living under for the last few years, it wasn't fun. It's felt like 10% of our paycheck disappeared because grocery prices are so damn high. Okay, but at least we had a paycheck during this period. Right. Unemployment has been historically low throughout the recent inflation situation. But besties, what Jack and I are talking about now is entering a world that could be the worst of both worlds, a world with high inflation and high unemployment.

And the last time that happened was the 19th. 70s. Right. It was during the Carter administration, and it was caused by an oil crisis. Your parents probably remember. This was when the Middle East embargoed oil exports to America, so gas stations literally ran out of gas. There were massive lines of people waiting in cars to get to a gas station. Well, when the price of oil quadrupled, prices overall rose, and people lost their jobs, and that was stagflation. Stagflation is rare. But if it happens again, this time, it will be caused by the trade war. Because tariffs, by definition, raise the prices of goods.

That's the inflation part. And as we toss tariffs on other countries, they retaliate, and that affects our companies. And that could raise the unemployment rate. Now, add it all up, and Trump calls this a transition period economically. But Jack and I have a visual to help you with stagflation. And that visual is our takeaway. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are our... everyone in the American economy.

Stagflation is when your house is flooded and on fire at the same time. Yeties, the reason stagflation is such a rare beast is that high unemployment rates and high inflation, they just mathematically don't go together. There's an inverse relationship. Right. High unemployment rates result in low inflation and vice versa. It's just like how water and fire have an inverse relationship. Right.

Yeah. Basically what we're saying is economic self-crues. But stagflation defies that inverse relationship. And as students of economics, Jack and I know that stagflation is caused by something external, something like politics. In the 1970s, the political external event was the Middle East oil crisis. Okay, but today, the political external event causing stagflation would be the global trade war. So stagflation defies economics and is very rare.

And the result is high inflation and high unemployment. We're already seeing stackflation mentioned in the headlines. So here's what to think when you see the term in Q2. It's rare. It's caused by politics, not economics, and it's like a house is flooded and on fire at the same time. It's like a bottle of water bursting into flames. Now a quick word from our sponsor.

For our third and final story. One privately held startup is beating Amazon and Google in drone delivery, and that company is Zipline. Ziplines drone logistics is delivering burritos fast, but it's also saving lives. All right, we'll get to that in a second. But at first, Jack, could you please remind us what is the dream of any new tech company? To become a verb. Yeah, you Google it, you Uber, it, your Airbnb, you Venmo it, you don't we work it.

All the others became verbs. Ziplining is already a verb, according to the Webster's dictionary. Yes, it is. But now ziplining is being redefined. Because over in Pea Ridge, Arkansas and Mesquite, Texas, ziplining is a verb for delivering burritos via drone. Because zipline is a private startup whose autonomous drones fly to a delivery site and then lower a package slowly, 300 feet, to place it gently on your front lawn.

It's actually a wild miracle to watch. You basically get your pad tie from the sky. They've raised $500 million. They've done $1.4 million drone drops. They're operating in seven different countries. And Zipline has also partnered with Walmart. That's right. In this Arkansas or Texas town,

drone is a delivery option when you go to Walmart.com. We're not getting over here. Locals are actually sitting in the Walmart parking lot to watch this armada of Zipline drones like exiting the warehouse and going to find somewhere to drop off. But yet is, here's the shocking part of the story.

Zipline is working and it's winning. The shocking part of the story is that Zipline is beating Amazon and Google when it comes to drone delivery. They've raised $500 million. Meanwhile, Amazon and Google have roughly unlimited money to throw at this problem.

But yet is Nick and I have been covering the news for a while? And we're interested in tech innovation like this. And the funny thing we noticed is that the article on drone delivery from the Wall Street Journal mentioned the word burrito three times.

Why are we so obsessed with quicker burrito delivery? Jack and I realized we've actually been hearing about this burrito. drone delivery for years now. We looked back and we found an article from nine years ago about burrito drone delivery. All right, Jack, can you share with the Yetis what was the headline of the Bloomberg article

on drone delivery from back in September 2016? Alphabet and Chipotle are bringing burrito delivery drones to campus. Now, Jack, could you read the equivalent headline from the Wall Street Journal today? Soon, your burrito bowl could arrive from the sky. So, besties, nine years later, has there been like any progress? with burrito drone delivery? Is the real news here that drone delivery has made no progress in nine years? And yet we have this obsessive appetite for burritos being delivered by drones in the air?

That's not the story, actually. No, there's actually a totally different story to tell about drone delivered burritos. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are everyone wanting drone delivery? You can only choose one story. Yet he's, for nine years, Zipline has been saving lives. That's right. They deliver medications, drugs, vaccines to save children's and mothers through drones over in Africa. It's pretty wild. In Africa, Zipline doesn't deliver to houses. They deliver to hospitals. Right. They deliver blood packs to hospital patients who need their lives saved.

Yeah, not burritos. And yet, all the press and all the venture capitalists seem interested in one storyline about drone delivery. We're obsessed with burritos over here. Speedy burrito delivery. So there's two wildly different stories when it comes to this company. One is serving a stoned teen in Westchester who wants their burrito delivered slightly faster. Yeah, the other is a mom in a remote hospital that needs medical supplies ASAP. So when it comes to drone delivery,

the story in the press is about quenching your hunger. Okay, but the story on Zipline's own website is about saving lives. So drone delivery. It has two wildly different stories to tell, but it can only choose one. And your company, you might have two wildly different stories to tell too, but at the end,

you got to choose one. story. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for T-Boy Tuesday? The Yankees are hitting five home runs per game thanks to a sweet spot optimized torpedo bat. It's the new AI era of sports. The beautiful game is becoming the optimized game. For our second story, stagflation is the word that you will see in Q2. The S word. When inflation and unemployment rise at the same time. Stagflation, it's like the economic house is flooded and on fire at the same time. And our third and final story is Zipline. They're getting attention right

now for quick burrito delivery, but their drones also are saving lives. Besties, when you have two stories, you gotta tell one. But Yeties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, tomorrow is Liberation Day, according to President

Trump. He's been drumming up the hype for these reciprocal tariffs coming tomorrow on all our trading partners globally. Now, it's not clear how big these new tariffs will be, but the President's basically keeping the world on the edge of its seat waiting to hear what'll happen. It would be a huge escalation of Trade War II. We'll cover what happens if it actually does.

And second, Elon Musk is merging X with his AI company XAI. Which basically means Elon is merging his left pocket with his right pocket. Yeah, the company formerly known as Twitter is now being mixed in together with Elon's AI project. The bigger story here, social media companies are now more valuable for feeding their content to AI? Yeah. Then they are for anything else. Yeah, your pox are a profit puppy. And finally, speaking of pox,

Mark Zuckerberg, just spent $5,000 to buy his own t-shirt. He bought the t-shirt worn by Jesse Eisenberg, playing Mark Zuckerberg in the movie, The Social Network. So Zuck saw the shirt at an auction and then anonymously bid on it and bought the shirt. That was his shirt, but not really his shirt. It says Ardsley Athletics,

which is the town in high school where he grew up in Westchester. Now time for the best fact yet. This one whipped up by NAC and Jick from a podcast studio, not far away. Jack, what is today's facts, man? On April 1st, 1996, Taco Bell took out a full page ad in the newspaper, seeing that they had bought the Liberty Bell. And of course, everyone freaked out and believed this, but it was April Fool's. The National Park Service had to issue a real statement to confirm

Taco Bell's was a fake statement. And that was the best April Fool's joke we've ever seen. Yiddies! You look fantastic today. I should point out, Jack, you look fantastic in those liquidity leggings from the Skims Wall Street collection.

I like my insider trades. Besties, Jack and I got to go. We're literally recording from like the hotel lobby room. We actually got to get dressed. We're hitting the red carpet in like 30 minutes. I'm very excited. Have we prepared an acceptance speech? We've prepared and we could give it. We could not give it. It's in the back pocket.

I'm going to write it down on my hand. Ties or no ties, head over to Instagram. Go to at T-Boy Pot, and you can watch the whole thing. We're actually going to share some clothes behind the seats. We're going to buzz some red carpet content. I'm going to do Jack's tie. I'll do my makeup. Don't over-promise.

You're over-promising. Yeah, and he's Jack and I. We'll see you tomorrow. We should like it. And before we go, a happy birthday from our Levan, Bacon, Buddy, Griffin Shwed from the Upper West Side. Happy birthday to Tatiana over in Houston, Texas, who owns stock in Marriott.

Good disclosure. And Chris, Lindauer over in New Athens, Illinois, is listening to T-boy every day and is going to celebrate the best birthday yet. Happy birthday to Bjorn Carlson in Plymouth, Minnesota, who's having dinner at Bar LaGrasse. To Shabby and sharing you is celebrating that birthday in Rancho Palos Verde's California. And a big shout-out to Erica and Rosemary from Ohio and Atlanta, who both bumped into us in Shytown. Yeah. It gave us a quick H-Y-H-T-B-O-I.

Jack and I were prepping the pod and Jack was talking really loudly, shocker. And so I was like, I think I recognize that voice. There you go. Thanks for listening, Eric and Rosemary. And congrats to Lee's Keeney, who launched a dating app called Goblins. She heard our story last week talking about Tinder fatigue, and it turns out she's found a solution. She matches people through video games.

So if you loved Crash Bandicoot. And swipe right on Super Mario Guy. This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon, and Nick and I both own stock of Airbnb and Chipotle. And I'm a lifelong Yankees fan. Thank you.