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- [00:01]
Andy Beshear
This is a paid Advertisement with over.
- [00:04]
Mark Cuban
$25 billion recovered for over 500,000 clients. Morgan. And Morgan has a proven track record of fighting to get you full and fair compensation.
- [00:16]
Will Bashir
Cool.
- [00:16]
Andy Beshear
Moore America, often referred to as the home of champions, is home to some of the best young sires in the United States. The stallion roster is led by Triple Crown winners Justify and American Pharaoh. And with a fantastic combination of proven sires and exceptional young sire prospects standing alongside the illustrious duo, it's safe to say Ashford's iconic stallion barns will continue to house influential breed shapers for many years to come.
- [00:53]
John Rabinowitz
Welcome to episode eight of the Andy Bashir Podcast. We're available to download on all major platforms or you can subscribe to our YouTube channel at. Andy Bashir Podcast. Today's episode takes it to another level. We have Mark Cuban on. He's going to talk about business, he's going to talk about politics, and he's going to talk about sports. He's going to convey a whole lot of wisdom in, in his very unique style. Then we'll talk about the issues of the week with the Johns. And my son Will is joining us in his return to the podcast. Then with him coming back, he's going to teach us a little more Gen Z lingo. So get ready for your vibe check and as always, this is going to be a real conversation where we're going to follow our podcast or cast rules. Number one, be authentic. Number two, talk like a human being. Number three, no debating reality. Number four, tell your why. And number five, have fun. Which we do in this episode. And by the end of this podcast, I hope that you'll have had a little bit of fun and you'll feel just a little bit lighter in this chaotic world. This knowing that we can have a conversation between friends where we process the tough news of the week and we get ready for the week ahead. Let's get to it. You're listening to the Andy Beshear Podcast. On the podcast, we've had a lot of great guests. We've had US Senators, we've had Attorneys general, we've had Senators, self made billionaires. Today we have a businessman, a TV personality and an NBA championship winning owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban. Mark, welcome to the podcast.
- [02:55]
Will Bashir
Thanks for having me on.
- [02:56]
John Rabinowitz
Oh, I'm, I'm excited about today. I'd like to start a little bit with your background which I find so fascinating. You know, it seems like business called to you at a really young age, from distributing newspapers to starting businesses in college. When was it that you Knew that this is just what you were going to do with your life?
- [03:17]
Will Bashir
That's a great question. Probably when I was 9 or 10 years old, literally, I would buy baseball cards at the local hardware store, go down to the park in my neighborhood, and repackage them so that I grew up in Pittsburgh. And so, you know, for a dollar, you were guaranteed to get at least one Pirates player, even though the packages only cost me a dime or a quarter. So I was hustling as long as I can remember, I sold garbage bags door to door. I went. My dad and his buddies were playing poker one day, and I went in there to pick up a donut or something. And, you know, and I'd known all I know all his friends. I was like, dad, I need some new basketball shoes. He looks at my feet, he goes, those shoes look like they work really well. When you have a job, you can buy whatever shoes you want. I'm like, dad, I'm 12. I'm not. Can't get a job. And one of his buddies, who had to be drunk, you know, spoke. Spoke up and said, hey, I've got a job for you. I've got all these boxes of garbage bags, and you can sell them in the neighborhood. I was like, cool. And so I went door to door in my neighborhood, and I was like, hi, my name is Mark. Do you use garbage bags? And from that moment on, I knew I could sell. All you had to do was find value for people. And I think that's what gave me all my confidence, too, because if you can be a kid selling door to door, you can sell anything.
- [04:34]
John Rabinowitz
Did you ever sit on the Shark Tank set and think, I can see myself in these folks coming and trying to sell to me, just like I sold those garbage bags all the time.
- [04:46]
Will Bashir
I mean, there were so many entrepreneurs that would come and stand on that carpet that I was like, oh, my God. It's the same experience that I've had. There are a couple investments I made where there was like, all right, this guy's a little mini me. I don't know if that's good or bad, but he was like a young version of me. But, yeah, all the time. Because, you know, the thing about the American dream, it takes work and it takes a healthy dose of fear. And it's not something that just happens automatically. We all. You know, every entrepreneur goes through a phase where it's, I don't know if I'm going to make it. I don't know if I made the right choice. I don't Know if I can do this. And when they come on the show in Shark Tank, you know, you can see it in their eyes, you could hear it in their pitches. And so I can always relate to them.
- [05:29]
John Rabinowitz
Now you go to college and you transfer to Indiana and you got a lot of businesses going on then. I think you owned a bar, but I think you also had a company that taught disco lessons.
- [05:41]
Will Bashir
My favorite, right?
- [05:44]
John Rabinowitz
Were you giving the disco lessons?
- [05:46]
Will Bashir
Oh yeah, for sure, for sure. And so the bar that I ended up buying, before I bought it was a place that had dancing and I would go and give lessons there. But then my best, the best job that I got out of that was I got hired by Sororities to teach them how to line dance and do dances, which was like $25 an hour. The best job I, I've ever had. And I think if I got offered that job today, I'd quit everything else and take that job.
- [06:14]
John Rabinowitz
So you not only got paid through the job, but you got invited to the parties.
- [06:19]
Will Bashir
Unreal. It was like a dream come true for a 20 year old kid.
- [06:23]
John Rabinowitz
You know one thing that I think as I watch your career that's, that's different from a lot of other self made billionaires is a lot of them have, you know, that one company that they hit it big with, that they're still with. You think about the Microsofts, the apples, the Nikes, the. But your career has been about starting a company, building a company, selling the company or buying the company, bettering it and selling it. Talk to us about that.
- [06:50]
Will Bashir
Yeah, you know, it's an interesting question. I've never really been asked that before. For me, my goal always was to retire by the age of 35. You know, my dad did upholstery on cars, my mom did odd jobs and they just had to grind it out, you know, gone at 7am, back at 6pm, eat dinner, watch some TV, go to sleep every single day. And my dad would take me where he worked and you know, he'd have me sweeping and shoveling and doing whatever, not because he wanted prepare me for that job, but because he wanted me to see that this was not a job that he wanted me to have. And so, you know, I was always motivated by trying to, you know, own my own time and control my own destiny. And so in starting these companies, I never looked at them and thought, okay, this is the company I'm going to run for life. It was the exact opposite. It was like, okay, I'm going to build this, I'm going to Try to do something special. I'm going to try to make my customers happy, have an impact, be innovative, hopefully disruptive. And then if I get the chance, if I can sell it, I'm going to sell it. And that's what I did with my first real company, Microsolutions. And then from then on, Broadcast.com, a hedge fund that I own and started, you know, et cetera, et cetera.
- [08:03]
John Rabinowitz
You're listening to the Andy Beshear Podcast. Our guest this week is Mark Cuban, and we are talking about first, his business ventures. And so, Mark, as I look at your litany of companies, I also see a focus on the future, on what is next and whether that was some of the first live streaming on the Internet to.
- [08:26]
Will Bashir
Not some of the very first.
- [08:28]
John Rabinowitz
I didn't want to take that away from you. Then the very first live streaming to. To now. I know a focus on AI. How do you balance having, having investments that can sell right now versus trying to, to be in the lead for what's going to sell in the future?
- [08:45]
Will Bashir
You know, I just try to be pragmatic. You know, Steve Jobs said it best and it's always stuck with me that technology is a remix or every. They said everything is a remix. And basically what he meant was, if you can create a base of understanding of technology and just continuously be learning, you'll see ideas that pop up that may be disruptive, but really are just an extension of taking new technologies and adding them to what's already in place. And that's what I always tried to do with my first company, Microsolutions. You know, we were one of the first local area network networking integrators. You know, one of the first to write software, et cetera, et cetera. And so, you know, flat fast forward. I found out that I love this stuff, you know, you know, even my kids, I've, my kids are 15, 18 and 21. They're like, dad, you're such a geek. And I'm like, I'm so proud of that. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And I just love learning it. And now with AI, this is easily the most disruptive technology we've ever seen. And it's not even close. Close. And I've been around for almost all of them. You know, AI is going to change how we live our lives. It's going to change how we communicate, it's going to change how we learn. I mean, there's, there's not a whole lot of things that AI won't touch. And because of that to me, it's exciting and, you know, every day it's something new and that keeps me really engaged with it. And, you know, by spending the time and just building on the base I have, I think know I get a good feel for where I can use it in my companies, where I can invest in it in companies, just wherever that path takes me. And, you know, in some cases I'll start new companies. In other cases, I'll invest in others.
- [10:25]
John Rabinowitz
When looking at, at your foundation, I saw that you've got a group that is teaching folks about AI and how to use AI. I thought it was this, this great intersection of giving back and where your companies are going and creating the future.
- [10:41]
Will Bashir
Mark Cuban Foundation AI Bootcamp is one of the projects. And then we have the Global Teaching Project. With the bootcamp, we go to kids or, you know, high schools and underprivileged schools around the country and introduce them to AI and teach them more about it, use the tools that are available. Because if we can get some kids excited about it now, when they're 16, 17, 18, they're going to be the ones that teach us how to, to use it when they're 28, 29, 30. And then the Global Teaching Project goes into underprivileged schools and hires, you know, leading professors to come into these, these high schools that really, you know, really didn't have AP programs before. And we'll teach them AP physics, AP Computer science to try to propel them as well. So, you know, I've been really blessed and I just think the more I can support teaching kids and getting them further along, the better off the country is going to be.
- [11:39]
John Rabinowitz
So your most recent company and disruption is where we met. We met with you talking about your company, Cost Plus Drugs, in Washington. I was there speaking out about a lack of transparency and pharmaceutical pricing. Why don't you tell our listeners a little bit about Cost plus Drugs?
- [11:59]
Will Bashir
Well, first, kudos to you for being one of the first with the state of Kentucky to really take on the PBMs and show that, you know, a state can be proactive in changing an industry and saving its citizens of the commonwealth money. So congrats on that. But along Those same lines, Dr. Alex Oshmiansky and I created a company called CostPlusDrugs.com and what makes us different is that when you go to our website, costplusdrugs.com, and, and you put in the name of the medication that you want, we'll bring up information about it, but we'll also show you our actual cost. If it cost us $2, we'll show you a cost is $2. If it costs us 20, whatever it may be, then we'll show you our actual markup. And those two things really make us different. We only mark up the price of the medications only 15%. And so I'm a big believer that the missing component in health care, whether it's pharmacy or medical, is trust. And to engender trust, to me it's kind of a two part equation on the top, you know, trust equals transparency divided by self interest. And with cost plus drugs, we publish our price list. We publish, you know, as I said, when you go each page as the cost of each drug and then you divide that by or personal interest. Our markup's only 15%, which, you know, pretty much everybody believes to be fair. And because of that, people trust us. And because of that, we've grown to help, you know, millions of people in the short period since January of 22 when we launched.
- [13:35]
John Rabinowitz
Most people probably don't know how different and revolutionary that is. Most people don't know that they're pharmaceutical when it's originally sold, is sold with like an automotive sticker price on it. And then we come up with all these different names like AWP or others, and there's this giant negotiation between all these different levels and no one but the actual maker of the pharmaceuticals knows what it actually costs.
- [14:08]
Will Bashir
Yeah, it's insane because, you know, the pharmacy business should be really, really easy. You go to the doctor and if you needed some, some help, the doctor prescribes a medication and the only question is how much does it cost and how do you pay for it? In reality though, what's happened is it's such a big industry, all these middlemen have stepped into to the industry and kind of created hundreds of arbitrages to squeeze money from patients. They're called pharmacy benefit managers. And I don't know who they benefit other than themselves. But to your point, they take drugs and it's not the manufacturers that determine what the price of those drugs will be. It is these middlemen, the pharmacy benefit managers who set the list price and then they negotiate rebates based off of these list price that nobody knows. In fact, almost every single brand drug delivered to patients in the United States, other than through Medicaid, I believe, has got a rebate associated with it. And only three companies negotiate all those rebates in the commercial market. That's just insane. And it creates all kinds of price distortions. And that's why we've been able to have such a big impact. I'll give you another example that you're familiar with. There's something called specialty medications and they're on anybody who looks at their own insurance plan and they look, look to see that there is a specialty tier of medications. Well, the crazy part is there's nothing special about those medications. The only reason there's a specialty tier is that it gives them an excuse to charge more money for it. And so part of what we're doing at costplusdrugs.com is to separate formularies from the PBMs and to make sure that all that leverage goes from the PBM back to the patient. We've got a long way to go, but there's a direct path there and we think we'll continue to be able to disrupt the pharmacy side of the business.
- [16:07]
Andy Beshear
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- [16:44]
John Rabinowitz
The Andy Beshear podcast. We're on with Mark Cuban. We've talked about business and now we're gonna have to turn to just a little politics in, in maybe a connection with what we're talking about with these middlemen I know you've talked about, especially the last election and the Democratic Party having relied on bloated consultants and not focusing on everyday challenges to people like prices and inflation.
- [17:14]
Will Bashir
Yeah, I can't argue with you at all. I mean, you know, there are a whole lot of consultants in the room. Anytime I went there to talk to anybody, but they never let Kamala Harris just be Kamala Harris. And they never, you know, they always over tested everything. It was like, why are you talking about price gouging instead of price inflation? Well, it tested well. Why are you talking about that? Well, it tested well. I'm just not a big believer in that. I think, you know, like you've done, you've got to go out and talk to people and listen to them and let them. They're the customer, the voters are the customers and the customers are never on, you know, most of the time. But you know I don't think the Democratic Party did that at all. I think now, going forward, you know, there's a dearth of leadership and people who are just, you know, people talking to big crowds is great, but I don't think there are people that are going to people in, you know, small town Kentucky asking what the impact of the Doge cuts are.
- [18:10]
John Rabinowitz
Right.
- [18:10]
Will Bashir
Or Parkersburg, West Virginia, where there's a Treasury building that has 2,000 employees and already 150 have been cut. If those cuts get much bigger, what happens to Parkersburg, West Virginia? You know, and I think that's where Democrats need to be. And you can't mention the T word. And I'm not talking tariffs because the Democrats want to make everything about Donald Trump. It's not. It's about their constituents. It's about going in and listening to them and say, how can I reduce your stress? How can I make your life better? What can we do with healthcare? What, what can we do with jobs? What can we do with all the things that make your life more difficult? Let's let you tell us, and then we can come up with the policies that enable that. Instead, it's just like, you know, we, so many Democratic politicians stand in front of a lectern and just, you know, they talk, they lecture about whatever they think everybody should believe. And to me, that's the big difference between Democrats and, and Republicans, as I see it, you know, and I'm an independent. Democrats look at something and they extrapolate it out and say, this is the way it's going to be. You better be careful. And we're here to warn you and we're here to protect you. Republicans say this is the way it is and this is the pain you're feeling. During the last campaign, it was, you know, inflation primarily as part of that gas crisis. And we hear you loud and clear and we feel, feel you, we feel the pain that you're feeling. Here is exactly what we're going to do. And I think the Democrats need to get a better handle on doing that because with tariffs, we're probably going to see a lot of inflation, a lot of pain. With, with Doge cuts and other cuts, you are going to see a lot of small rural areas that are predominantly who are most impacted by cuts in federal budgets. You're going to see those cities start to hurt. You're going to see their tax revenues cut. That's where you should be. And not just even holding a town hall. Those are great. But just talking to people, because when the Only the only person who can convince a Trump voter not to vote for Trump is Donald Trump. And the only way to make, to, you know, understand how and when that's going to happen is by talking to those people about their current experiences and, and what they're going through today. Don't try to extrapolate from data. Well, we know economists tell us this. You know, the economists tell us that. No, it's like, Andy, right. You're living in, you know, I can't even think of a small town, Kentucky, a town outside of Lexington. You're 50 miles outside of Lexington.
- [20:55]
John Rabinowitz
You're in sales.
- [20:56]
Will Bashir
Yeah.
- [20:57]
John Rabinowitz
You're in Versailles, because that's how we.
- [20:59]
Will Bashir
Pronounce it instead of Versailles. Right. Versailles, Kentucky. And you're there and you have the Social Security office that closed. That building now is half empty.
- [21:10]
John Rabinowitz
They're doing that in Hazard, Kentucky, in eastern Kentucky.
- [21:14]
Will Bashir
Yeah. I mean, and then on top of that, there's the funding for grants. You had the one, Clint, you had the one clinic that was funded by money from COVID that's now being pulled back. And not only is that 12 people who don't have jobs, that's a whole slew of people that aren't going to get the help that they need. You had. I was reading a small town newspaper. My habit now these days is going from different small towns to small towns and reading their local newspaper, if they still have one, to find out what these cuts are doing to impact and impact them. And that's why I brought up Parkersburg. They cut funding to West Virginia Arts and Culture or whatever they call it. And now there's a museum that's closing in Parkersburg. There's another organization that can't get funded funding for, you know, the educational programs that they had in place. All these things that seem like little things, they're adding up. And I think, you know, the Democrats, they complained about Elon, but it wasn't about Elon. It was the fact that all of these Doge cuts are happening at once. And because the these small rural towns are so disproportionately impacted by those cuts, nobody is there asking them, what do you need? What can we do? And then with Medicaid, who knows how you guys are going to have to compensate for what happened there. And look, it could happen.
- [22:29]
John Rabinowitz
Devastating.
- [22:30]
Will Bashir
Oh, my God. And if it happens that it passes, okay, where is somebody saying, okay, for those of you who don't have jobs and can't get jobs in order to qualify, we are going to help you get jobs. Where Are those programs being introduced? At least the Democrats can say that. Right. Hey, if this passes, we're going to make sure all those people have jobs so that they not only have a job that they need, but they qualify.
- [22:53]
John Rabinowitz
As well as not get kicked off their coverage because they didn't check a box, I think, right?
- [22:57]
Will Bashir
Oh, yeah, yeah. For disenrollment. Because they did something wrong. That's insane.
- [23:01]
John Rabinowitz
And I think that's at the heart of what the Republicans are trying to do. It's that idea either with Social Security that you've got to go to an office two hours away and they shut down the call in line so you don't know what to bring and then you don't have the right documents and so you lose two, three, four payments. I'm concerned. It's the same thing with Medicaid and you get kicked off for six months.
- [23:24]
Will Bashir
Yeah. I mean, and that six months, Six months can be life or death. But the question, you know, we see what the bills are, we'll see what happens in the Senate, we see what the Doge cuts are as best we can, but we see it when it hits the impacted parties and the impacted talents. What you're not doing that the Democrats need to do, you need to be going to those tax successors and you need to be going to the mayors and saying, tell us what's going to happen. Tell us what you think we can do. Because what you do at that point, all of a sudden that local representative has to choose between fielding to the president or their constituents. Who, what are you, who are you going to support? You're going to support the folks that need the help that voted for you and go to Washington and you know, obviously the House already voted, so you know where they stand there. But you know, but take a stand against there. Or is that an open door for the Democrats to walk through by being supportive? And it's not just about diminishing. He'll do that on his own. It's about helping the people that need the help in the way they ask to be helped.
- [24:30]
John Rabinowitz
There's so many things that you mentioned that, that I want to unpack, but just a couple that I think are so critical is you talked about Democrats lecturing and I think it's really important for not just Democrats, but anyone in government service or in politics, not to talk at people, but to actually talk to them. And then you mentioned listening. I was thinking how just watching my son play baseball. There are three federal employees. One has gone ahead and taken the buyout because they were fired and brought back the other. She checks her email every three innings to see if she still has a job. And it's just awful how these people are being treated. But, but that's actually the listening and the understanding. But the last part is you talked about the open door. You know, everything that Trump got elected on, his, his claiming he was focused on you, that he would help you pay the bills, that he'd bring down prices. He's doing everything but that.
- [25:31]
Will Bashir
But you know what, Governor? You've got to also ask yourself, you know, put yourself in the shoes of a hardcore Trump supporter why, you know, 40%, give or take, of people are still supporting him. And the question is why? And when you think about it, he said that he was going to close the border, and he did. He said that he was going to deport people that maybe were taking jobs. He's done a horrific job in his approach. But if you're a hardcore Trump supporter, he's done that job. He said he was going to get rid of dei, and I'm a huge supporter of dei, but he said he was going to get rid of dei. And if you're somebody who feels like you didn't get a promotion because you're white and somebody else got it ahead of you because of dei, well, he's gotten rid of DEI in every way, shape and form to an excess. So those are three things that he said he would do, and he's doing so. When it comes to tariff and inflation, well, he's batting.750. Shouldn't I give him the benefit of the doubt on tariffs and inflation? And you can understand why they believe that's the case. But to your point, if you truly believe, like we do, that the tariffs are going to have a horrific effect on inflation, but let's just say a bad inflation. The impact of Doge, like we just discussed, the impact of people looking over their shoulder or checking their email to see if they still have a job the next day. Day. Those are the people we need to be talking to. Those are the people the Democrats need to be talking to. Because at that point in time where the prices start to go up, we won't have to tell them. They'll tell us. If you have a high deductible plan and you know, you're playing baseball and you know, your, your son or daughter breaks their, their ankle running to first base and you can't afford that deductible, you want, you know, who is there to talk to them and show them a better approach or why Medicaid is important to them, why Medicare is important, why the cost of health care is important, why, you know, rural hospitals are closing and the Democrats haven't done anything about it. Listening to them, because they'll tell you again what they want. But more importantly, you'll be the team, the Democrats that are listening. You'll be. You have to be there when it hits the fan. And in order for people to think that you're going to be the solution.
- [27:50]
John Rabinowitz
I think one other piece that you talked about in a, in a story that's out there is small business. Not speaking to small business in 2024. And I recognize in Kentucky, most of our jobs are created by small business. If, oh, yeah, if we're healthy, we are supporting them in ways that help them grow. They're the first to hire, they're the last to fire. But I'll tell you, we're already seeing tariffs hit our small business in ways to where they're laying off people that they go to church with.
- [28:21]
Will Bashir
No, it's horrific. Like all my Shark Tank companies, you know, we're doing newsletters and emails out asking about the impact of tariffs, giving them suggestions whether or not should they keep stuff in the home country and wait to see what happens. The layoffs are here. The people are, you know, eating their margins, you know, losing profits now losing money. And the one thing you've never heard the President say anything about is small business. And the one time he, I remember he got asked, because I listened for it all the time, does he bring up the term small business or the word entrepreneur? He never does. But the one time he was asked about it, he basically said, big companies are more important. They deal in the billions and trillions without realizing that the American dream is built by small business entrepreneurs. There are 33 million companies in this country. 30 million of them are small business or solo entrepreneurs. There are only 21,000 companies that have more than 500 employees in the entire country. And most of those people, particularly the sole entrepreneurs, make $400,000 or less. And so they are not in a position to absorb tariffs like he may believe. They don't have an option to take, you know, money they have in the bank and try to find somebody to build another mold to manufacture their product. They don't have the ability to pay, you know, increased shipping amounts because, you know, whenever he changes his mind, in two days, everybody rushes to ship things from the, the home country. They don't have the money to go to Vietnam and compare prices or Indonesia to compare Prices to China. He doesn't give about them. And that is the other opportunity. And I'm so glad you brought that up, Governor, because going out there and talking to businesses, going out there, start a Kentucky Small Business Council, start a national Small Business Council where you can't have more than 50 employees. And let them speak about the impact of tariffs, let them talk about it. And then there's other areas, right? I mean, Amazon gives every advantage to Chinese companies over American companies, and he won't do anything about that at all. So the list is long in the. The impact and the innovation that small businesses create, the jobs they create, and they're the ones that are taking the hit right now and just with complete uncertainty. And it's brutal.
- [30:53]
John Rabinowitz
This is the Andy Beshear Podcast. We're talking with Mark Cuban. We've now talked about business. I've gotten a lot of free political advice, and for better or worse, and now I want to end by talking about a passion that you and I both have. It's for sports. You bought the Dallas Mavericks in many ways. Like, I think you acquire companies at a time when things weren't going great and you put in the effort, the systems, and you eventually win an NBA championship. The trophy is right behind you. Tell me what that moment feels after. After putting in so much effort to build a championship franchise.
- [31:33]
Will Bashir
I'll tell you, I remember it vividly. We were playing the Miami Heat with LeBron and no one expected us to win. And we were up three games to two going for the six game in Miami. And they go up and then we go up and they go up and then with about 30 seconds to go, we go up 10. And I still get goosebumps thinking about it. Literally, we go up 10, and I think I let out the biggest scream. There's a picture of me like my head back screaming just because of the stress release. You know, people don't realize in sports that, you know, professional sports in particular, every single game has an impact one way or the other. And when you get to the very top, the stress levels just build. Every round of the playoffs, like with the NBA playoffs now, Indiana thought they had New York beat last night. New York came back and all this stuff, the stress levels just build. And for me, that moment was the biggest stress relief ever in my life. And that. That's a big part of what made it special. And then the second part of that, you know, there's no business cost plus drugs, you know, whoever that. When you have a great year, they throw a parade. When Professional sports teams, and even some cases college teams. When we win a championship, there were more than a half a million people in the streets of Dallas, and It was over 90 degrees, and we're all, you know, on the floats and everything and just, you know, enjoying the moment, people screaming. That is just what makes sports so special. You can go to the games and the bottom balls in the air and there's, you know, if it goes in, you win it the lose, you lose the playoff round. And if it goes in, you're hugging people and high fiving people you've never seen before in your life. You know, it's just, that's what makes sports so special.
- [33:26]
John Rabinowitz
So Dallas Mavericks just got the number one pick in the NBA draft. Close us out by talking a little bit about the future for the Mavs.
- [33:35]
Will Bashir
Yeah, I'm really excited. You know, we. We had the 11th worst record in the NBA and we had a 1.8% chance of getting the number one pick. And historically, in 44 years of the Mavericks existence, we've never moved up in the draft, let alone got the number one pick. And so when it happened, my son and I, I was like, there's nothing that's going to happen, Jake. We were screaming and yelling, but, yep, we have the number one pick. We're going to draft Cooper Flag from Duke. You know, all of our scouts, all of our analytics people say he's, he's the next big thing. Hopefully he is, knock on wood. But I'm really excited about the future for the Mavs. We got, you know, Anthony Davis, UK grad who's just a phenomenal player. He's had some injury issues, but I. I think he's going to come back with a vengeance. It's. It's an exciting year going forward for the Mavs.
- [34:26]
John Rabinowitz
This has been the Andy Beshear Podcast with Mark Cuban. Mark, thank you for your time.
- [34:32]
Will Bashir
That was a lot of fun. Governor, thank you so much for having me.
- [34:40]
John Rabinowitz
This is the Andy Beshear Podcast, and this is our segment called In My Kentucky Accent. It's where I talk about things that are personal to me. Oftentimes things that burn me up, get me agitated that have happened in recent news or recent days. But today we're filming this on Memorial Day, and I want to talk about the sacrifice that so many have made giving their lives for this great country. We are home of the free because of the brave. And so many Americans have gone before us to preserve our democracy and our way of life. And I think it's really important that we pay it forward that we recognize that each of those individuals didn't give their life so we could fight with each other, so that we could have a divided country. They did it so that we could be free and so that we could build better lives for every single American. Each of those individuals lost, fought for the entire United States of America. And I think it's important that we come together to recognize them, but to also take a breath and realize what's good for us is also good for our neighbor. And there is so much we can do together. So let's commit to a more perfect union, to not yelling at our neighbors and trying to figure out how to find common ground, apply common sense and get things done for all Americans. It's the least that those that have gone before us and sacrificed deserve as part of their legacy.
- [36:14]
Andy Beshear
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- [36:55]
John Rabinowitz
We'Re back on the Andy Beshear podcast. And now the segment we do every week where I talk about issues of the week past and the week to come with the Johns, John Rabinowitz and John McConnell. And this week we're throwing in the return of Will Bashir to help us out. John, why don't you get us started?
- [37:16]
John McConnell
Kick us off this week with another exciting adventure in tariffs now between the eu. So Andy, going to pull it over to you to see what your thoughts are about the up and down and this or that.
- [37:27]
John Rabinowitz
It is another chaotic week where President Trump has changed his mind yet again and thrown something else out that's put the markets into disarray and made it harder for the American people to get by. First it was a 50% tariff on the EU. That appears to be his frustration with not getting certain deals done that hit the market pretty hard but was later suspended for a couple weeks. And so again it's bad tariff policy and then it's the chaos of on again, off again. But it was more than just that. You know, we've had across the board tariffs, we've had reciprocal tariffs, we've had industry specific tariffs. And now the President threw out a company specific tariff which I've never heard of claiming that he was going to tariff Apple if they don't make the iPhone in the United States.
- [38:23]
Mark Cuban
Listen, Andy, I am not buying my daughters a $3,500 iPhone. That is just not going to happen. But you're right, you know, again, we see big numbers and we don't know if it's going to work. Is it going to work? Is it not going to work? Is this just symbolic? But you're right, like targeting a company. That's a unique event that's happened. And I don't know that it's going to drive manufacturing back. I don't think it is. I don't think we can.
- [38:52]
John Rabinowitz
Well, manufacturing was coming back. What we saw were the different bills passed in the last administration were more like the carrot instead of the steel.
- [39:02]
Andy Beshear
Sick.
- [39:02]
John Rabinowitz
They provided certain tax incentives. If you were going to build a chips factory, which we need if we want to have everything for iPhones and everything else in the United States, we were bringing different types of other manufacturing certainly back to Kentucky. But the switch here has been to turn off the help, the carrot, the incentives, and instead to try to use that stick and tariff your way, increase costs on companies so much they'd have to move back. The problem with that is with the incentives. You can plan for the future. You can know it's worth building a factory that's going to take three years. But inflicting pain on you right now, when your factory is going to take parts from overseas that are going to increase the tariffs, your materials are still going to come in part from overseas. Just isn't working.
- [39:50]
Mark Cuban
And it's so chaotic. I think today the president said, yes, I want to bring back manufacturing, but it's going to be focused on technology and AI, not tennis shoes and apparel. And so, like, every day, every week, it's something different. And it's just so chaotic.
- [40:06]
John Rabinowitz
You're right. That's the exact opposite of what he was saying initially about shoes. And then just this, this ultimate dismissal of the impact that it's having on families, saying, well, maybe your kids have too many toys. That doesn't just hurt people to hear from their president. It's not going to help him politically.
- [40:24]
Mark Cuban
And it was fascinating to hear. Your conversation with Mark Cuban was dead on when he talked about how it affects small businesses and how he doesn't want to talk about it and how his focus is on the large companies and not the small companies. Because as a small business owner, it is absolutely affecting us. It's affecting our ability to employ people it's affecting our ability to keep the lights on. Every month we have to plan different. And it's, again, unbelievably chaotic.
- [40:50]
John McConnell
And for you, John, I mean, you've talked in the past about trying to order and timing some of those orders. Looking at the tariffs are. And if it's 50%, that's going to go in effect June 1, and suddenly it's pushed back out there.
- [41:01]
Mark Cuban
You can't. And again, there are certain things, especially in one of our businesses that we have to import and we are focused on, you know, the timing of how we do that. Does it make sense? You know, will it be cheaper next month? And so it is like, it's very disruptive in terms of trying to budget every month. And by the way, Will, you are on the small couch. Congratulations.
- [41:28]
John Rabinowitz
Thank you.
- [41:29]
Mark Cuban
Listen, actually a little bit more room with you than me, obviously, but we're glad you're joining us here to have during this conversation.
- [41:37]
Unknown
It's an honor to be here, but more honored to be sitting on the small couch.
- [41:41]
John Rabinowitz
So, Will, yesterday we had some time. We were eating lunch and we turned on the TV and Caitlin Clark was playing with the Fever. We started talking a little bit about just the huge impact she's had on the WNBA.
- [41:57]
Unknown
Yeah, I'm going to throw it over to John McConnell.
- [42:00]
John Rabinowitz
All right.
- [42:00]
John McConnell
Caitlin Clark with the WNBA, almost a billion dollars economic impact, if you think about that on a sport. I mean, I can't think of another athlete who's come in and had that type of impact. I mean, I could think back to, you know, when I started watching the NHL and I heard Wayne Gretzky's name, all of a sudden I could see what the NHL was. And when you start to look outside of that, I mean, a 23 to a 26% increase of the overall entire.
- [42:29]
Mark Cuban
Market share, it is transformative, right? And what she's done, she's kind of elevated all of women's sports. And like, with these TV deals, I think there's a new TV deal that the WNBA is going to get. We talked about it earlier. The franchise value of the Fever before her versus after, I think it's like 90 to 340. It's kind of incredible what she's done and done it with class, right. Like on the court and done it the right way. And it's a great role model for young women.
- [43:00]
Unknown
It's only good for women's sports in the wnba and they really needed somebody like this to come in, step in and, you know, be the face of their League.
- [43:09]
John Rabinowitz
The other thing we saw this week was the South African president coming to the White House and wasn't quite the reception that we're used to seeing in the White House. It actually ended up looking like a bit of another ambush as President Trump played a video that he claimed was showing what he called genocide of white African landowners.
- [43:38]
Mark Cuban
I finally got to see the whole video. Quite frankly, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. But I did think that the South African president handled it with, you know, his demeanor was incredible, handled it with grace, and tried to, you know, keep turning the conversation to focus on the facts, but I. I couldn't believe what I was watching.
- [43:59]
John Rabinowitz
I'm just. It's crazy to think that. That almost all refugees have been stopped resettlements, except for white African, South African landowners. We're not. Apparently, the Trump administration has cut off the Afghans who helped the US Soldiers while we were there. Yet this group somehow got to the front of the line. It's not a good look for the United States.
- [44:29]
Andy Beshear
No.
- [44:29]
John Rabinowitz
And he.
- [44:30]
John McConnell
He did handle it with grace, and he led with, we don't have a plane to give you. So he did bring that out there and did present a book.
- [44:36]
John Rabinowitz
I think the. The big concern that I have is that foreign dignitaries may stop coming to the White House.
- [44:43]
Will Bashir
Yep.
- [44:43]
John Rabinowitz
When you look at what happened with Zelensky, you look at what happened with the South African president, you look at what happened with Gretchen Whitmer, who is a governor but went in thinking she was going to have a meeting, and he was signing executive orders that he knew that she wouldn't like. A lot of people are going to start thinking, do I turn down that invitation?
- [45:02]
Mark Cuban
You cannot go. If you get invited to the Oval Office to talk about our commonwealth because there's little doubt you're going to be ambushed.
- [45:12]
John Rabinowitz
Well, we'll see. I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid to walk out of a place if I need to.
- [45:16]
Mark Cuban
I love it.
- [45:16]
John Rabinowitz
I've walked out others.
- [45:17]
John McConnell
Today being Memorial Day. Just wanted to talk a little bit about that, Andy, to see where you've been today and the state.
- [45:25]
John Rabinowitz
I was at the National Guard memorial that has the names of all of our guardsmen and women that we've lost in service to the country. 300 plus names. But we're also going back through history to make sure we can find others. Certainly, we've lost a lot more Kentuckians that served in the active military, but making sure that everyone on this day is accounted for and that we make sure we're thanking their families, no matter how many generations there have been for their service. We are home of the free because of the brave. And regardless of how we feel about any policy or. Or position that's being thrown out there in the United States, we're blessed to live here. And we've got to thank especially those who paid the ultimate sacrifice, without question.
- [46:16]
Mark Cuban
I remember I had a law professor that would always ask us, why are you the luckiest people in the world? It's because we're blessed to live in America and for all the people that sacrifice for us to be here today to have this podcast. You know, it's a blessing to have this opportunity and to be an American.
- [46:40]
John Rabinowitz
You've been listening to the Andy Beshear Podcast. This was the return of Will Bashir, who's gotten through a very long baseball season and joins us once again. So it's only right that we do another segment on Gen Z lingo where he tries to make his dad and the Johns look a thousand years old. Will, welcome back to the podcast.
- [47:03]
Unknown
Thank you so much. It's great to be here again. All right, so the phrase for today we're going to be talking about is a vibe check.
- [47:11]
John Rabinowitz
A vibe check.
- [47:12]
Unknown
A vibe check. So a vibe is like the overall mood or feeling of someone or something. And so a vibe check would be to ask, like, John would be like, how you doing? Like, what's your vibe, John? So, like, are. Are you having, like, a good vibe? Is it a bad vibe? You know, like, I. I dig this.
- [47:30]
Mark Cuban
Like, I thought maybe it was if somebody was being aggressive, it'd be like, hey, you know, check this vibe.
- [47:37]
John Rabinowitz
I. I do. Like, in response to Gen Z Lingo, he used a 70s term of I dig it.
- [47:42]
Mark Cuban
Yeah, so, good point.
- [47:44]
John Rabinowitz
So, so, Will, I mean, when we're talking about vibes, are we talking about vibrations? Because we could get into a little marky mark here.
- [47:51]
Will Bashir
No, let.
- [47:52]
Unknown
Let's.
- [47:52]
Will Bashir
Let's not. It's a little old.
- [47:54]
John Rabinowitz
Wanna avoid that?
- [47:54]
Unknown
Yeah, let's avoid that. So it's mainly just like, how you're feeling. So, dad, are you feeling good today?
- [48:01]
John Rabinowitz
I'm feeling great today. I've got great vibes.
- [48:05]
Unknown
There you go. So that's a successful vibe check right there.
- [48:08]
John Rabinowitz
Now, how do vibes impact? Aura.
- [48:13]
Unknown
Okay, so aura is something you just carry with yourself, right? In a vibe, it changes periodically. And, you know, like, you can still have aura even if you're at a bad vibe. And so they don't really correlate at all.
- [48:27]
John Rabinowitz
Well, if you have a lot of Days of great vibes. Does it increase your aura?
- [48:32]
Unknown
It all depends.
- [48:34]
John Rabinowitz
So it could increase your aura?
- [48:35]
Unknown
It could, yes, theoretically.
- [48:37]
John Rabinowitz
Now, could you ever describe having good vibes as fire?
- [48:45]
Unknown
Yeah, it could be fire. Like filming the Andy Beshear podcast here in this great studio. It's a fire vibe.
- [48:51]
John Rabinowitz
You know, they're fire jealous because they're.
- [48:53]
John McConnell
Not on a little couch.
- [48:54]
Unknown
Yeah, right.
- [48:55]
John Rabinowitz
This elevates. So if I knew John was having a great day and you said, vibe check, John. And he said, I've got great vibes, and I knew it. Could I look at him and say facts?
- [49:06]
Unknown
Yes, that would be an appropriate use of the term.
- [49:08]
Mark Cuban
How often are we supposed to check others vibes?
- [49:10]
Unknown
Well, I mean, you know, what is the appropriate amount?
- [49:13]
John Rabinowitz
It's like your vitals, right?
- [49:15]
Mark Cuban
Yes.
- [49:16]
Unknown
Well, I would think like three or four times a day just to make sure that everybody's doing okay, you know, just to be safe.
- [49:22]
John Rabinowitz
Right, Like. Like every so many hours.
- [49:24]
Unknown
Yeah, maybe like every two or three.
- [49:27]
John Rabinowitz
So should we like set our watches or our. Or our iPhone?
- [49:30]
Unknown
Everybody at home needs to set a timer on their phone and it pops up today.
- [49:35]
John Rabinowitz
The Andy Bashir podcast. Vibe check.
- [49:38]
Unknown
Yep, exactly what we should do.
- [49:40]
John Rabinowitz
All right, everybody, vibe check. How's your day? I hope it's a little bit better from watching the Andy Beshear Podcast. That is a wrap on episode 8 of the Andy Beshear Podcast. This podcast was one of our best. We had Mark Cuban, another conversation with the Johns, and the return of Will Bashir for Gen Z lingo. I hope that you've processed a lot of the craziness of this world and you are ready to face the week ahead. Remember, you can download the podcast on all major platforms, but also go on YouTube and subscribe at Andy Beshear Podcast. Everybody, have a great week. We've got a lot of great guests coming up in future episodes. Thanks for tuning in. Be sure to subscribe at Andy Beshear Podcast on all major social media platforms.
- [50:33]
Andy Beshear
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- [51:06]
Mark Cuban
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