Google Closes Historic $32B Deal & Nvidia Drops Hot New AI Chip

Summary

Morning Brew Daily: Google Closes Historic $32B Deal & Nvidia Drops Hot New AI Chip
Release Date: March 19, 2025
Hosts: Neal Freyman & Toby Howell

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1. NASA Astronauts' Historic Splashdown

Neal Freyman opened the episode with the triumphant return of NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore after their extended 286-day mission aboard the International Space Station. Originally slated for eight days, their mission extended due to technical issues with the Boeing Starliner spacecraft.

• Key Achievements:
  • Orbited Earth 4,576 times
  • Traveled 121 million miles
  • Played 142,000 rounds of "Never Have I Ever"

Toby Howell highlighted the serene end to their journey, mentioning, “After 280 days up in space, I hope Suni and Butch just kick back, watch some NCAA tournament games and just do nothing for the next days. They've been working a long time.” (00:51 – 01:32)

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2. Google Acquires Whiz in a $32 Billion Deal

In a groundbreaking move, Google has acquired cybersecurity startup Whiz for a staggering $32 billion, marking Google's largest acquisition ever and the biggest in the cybersecurity sector.

• Background:
  • Whiz had previously declined a $23 billion offer from Google last summer.
  • The startup, founded by Assaf Rappaport, is on track to double its annual recurring revenue to $1 billion.
  • Whiz's clientele includes over 45% of Fortune 100 companies.

Neal Freyman emphasized the deal's significance: “It's Google's biggest acquisition in history, far outstripping number two, a $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility in 2012.” (03:08 – 05:59)

Toby Howell discussed the strategic advantages, stating, “Google can come to you and say, hey, we're going to provide the most secure cloud, that is a huge leg up in this race for supremacy in cloud computing.” (05:31 – 06:49)

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3. HR Tech Rivalry: Rippling vs. Deal

The episode delved into the escalating feud between HR tech giants Rippling and Deal, culminating in Rippling's lawsuit accusing Deal of corporate espionage.

• Allegations:
  • Deal allegedly installed a mole within Rippling to steal trade secrets.
  • Rippling set up a "honeypot" Slack channel to trap the suspected spy.

Toby Howell remarked on the intensity of the rivalry: “This is like knock down, drag out battle, because you are right. The HR space is so competitive...” (09:25 – 11:27)

Neal Freyman added context on the competitive landscape: “The HR tech space has been extremely competitive. You have these legacy players like ADP, Workday, SAP and then newer players like Rippling and Deal...” (07:33 – 09:25)

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4. Nvidia's GTC Conference and AI Chip Launch

Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, captivated 25,000 attendees at the annual GTC conference, unveiling new AI chips and strategic partnerships.

• Key Announcements:
  • Blackwell Ultra AI Chip: An upgrade from the existing Blackwell chip.
  • Rubin AI Chip: Offers 3.3 times the computing performance of Blackwell Ultra.
  • Partnerships with GM for self-driving cars and collaborations with Disney on AI-integrated robotics.

Neal Freyman summarized the event: “Jensen defended his company's role in the AI revolution and hyped up new families of chips...” (11:27 – 15:07)

Toby Howell highlighted the chip advancements: “The Rubin chip will sport 3.3 times the computing performance of Blackwell Ultra chip.” (12:41 – 15:07)

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5. Responding to Competitive AI Models

Following the emergence of the Chinese AI startup Deep Seek, which posed a significant competitive threat to Nvidia by requiring less computing power, Jensen Huang remained optimistic.

• Huang's Response:
  • Emphasized the increasing computational demands of advanced AI models.
  • Asserted that future AI developments would continue to drive the need for high-performance GPUs.

Neal Freyman captured Huang's stance: “I think Deep Seek is actually good for us because the type of inference and reasoning that powers the Deep Seek model... requires more computation than we ever thought possible.” (15:07 – 15:46)

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6. Professional Tennis Players' Legal Battle

The Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) has filed a lawsuit against the men's and women's tours, alleging antitrust violations and collusion to suppress player earnings.

• PTPA's Demands:
  • Reduced number of tournaments.
  • Consistency in equipment across tours.
  • Improved scheduling to prevent late-night matches.

Neal Freyman discussed the financial disparities: “Novak Djokovic... his career prize money in tennis is $186 million last year alone.” (19:03 – 20:04)

Toby Howell compared tennis to North American sports leagues: “Those North American sports leagues have very powerful players unions... but tennis is very splintered across many different tours.” (20:04 – 21:04)

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7. UK's Inflation Basket Updates

The UK's Office of National Statistics (ONS) has updated its inflation basket, reflecting current consumer trends by adding items like yoga mats and virtual reality headsets while removing outdated goods.

• Added Items:

  • Yoga mats
  • Virtual reality headsets
  • Men’s pool flip-flops
  • Mango and pulled pork

• Removed Items:

  • Newspaper advertisements
  • Oven-ready gammon

Toby Howell humorously commented: “The stuff they cut is from a bygone era such as newspaper advertisements... They added yoga mats, pool sliders, virtual reality headsets...” (22:46 – 23:52)

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8. Innovations in Mount Everest Logistics

Sherpas in Nepal are adopting drone technology to assist in transporting goods up Mount Everest, enhancing safety and efficiency during the climbing season.

• Drone Capabilities:
  • Carry loads up to 35 pounds
  • Transport emergency supplies swiftly
  • Assist in waste disposal and ladder placement

Neal Freyman explained the financial barriers: “A drone from DJI can cost more than $70,000. That is just a lot of money in a lower-income country like Nepal.” (23:52 – 24:38)

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9. NCAA Tournament Selection Controversy

West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrissey criticized the NCAA for West Virginia University's exclusion from the March Madness bracket, alleging biased selection processes favoring the University of North Carolina (UNC).

• Governor’s Claims:
  • UNC was overrepresented in the selection brackets.
  • UNC's Athletic Director serves on the selection committee, posing a conflict of interest.

Neal Freyman outlined the financial implications: “Each unit is worth approximately $2 million that gets paid out. So it's depriving West Virginia of a game...” (25:21 – 27:02)

Toby Howell added context on governance: “UNC's AD is the chair of the selection committee... there's potentially a conflict of interest there.” (26:01 – 26:53)

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Conclusion

Neal and Toby wrapped up the episode by encouraging listeners to share the podcast, especially with West Virginia fans disappointed by the NCAA decisions. They highlighted the day's major stories, from monumental tech acquisitions and AI advancements to significant legal battles in sports and HR tech.

Neal Freyman signaled the end with a warm farewell: “Let’s wrap it up there. Thanks so much for starting your morning with us and have a wonderful Wednesday.” (27:02 – 27:32)

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Notable Quotes

• Neal Freyman:
  “It's Google's biggest acquisition in history, far outstripping number two, a $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility in 2012.” (03:08)

• Toby Howell:
  “Rippling is trying to shift the narrative with these sensationalized claims.” (09:25)
  “The Rubin chip will sport 3.3 times the computing performance of Blackwell Ultra chip.” (12:41)
  “This is like knock down, drag out battle...” (09:25)

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Key Takeaways

• Tech Acquisitions: Google's acquisition of Whiz signifies a major leap in the cybersecurity and cloud computing landscape.
• AI Advancements: Nvidia continues to lead in AI hardware, despite emerging competitors like Deep Seek.
• Corporate Feuds: The intense rivalry between Rippling and Deal underscores the competitive nature of the HR tech industry.
• Sports Economics: Professional tennis players are challenging established tours to secure better earnings and working conditions.
• Economic Indicators: The UK's updated inflation basket reflects evolving consumer preferences and technological advancements.
• Innovation in Logistics: The integration of drones in Everest expeditions showcases the intersection of technology and traditional roles.
• Academic Sports Governance: The NCAA's selection processes are under scrutiny, highlighting issues of fairness and potential conflicts of interest.

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Transcript

[Sponsor]

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[Neal Freyman]

Good morning Brew Daily Show. I'm Neal Freyman.

[Toby Howell]

And I'm Toby Howell.

[Neal Freyman]

Today Google eased on down the road with a record breaking acquisition of Wiz.

[Toby Howell]

Then pro tennis players are not happy with their working conditions and are suing to do something about it. It's Wednesday, March 19th. Let's ride.

[Neal Freyman]

Home at last. Yesterday evening, NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore splashed down off the coast of Florid, ending a space saga that captivated the world. Originally intended to be an eight day mission, their stay on the International space station lasted 286 days due to technical problems with the Boeing Starliner spacecraft that carried them up to the iss. During their nine month journey, Wilmore and Williams covered some distance. They orbited the Earth 4,576 times, traveled 121 million miles, and played over 142,000 rounds of Never have I ever. Toby. Gravity has never felt so good.

[Toby Howell]

Gravity is undefeated. One of the coolest parts of a splashdown off the Gulf coast of Florida is civilians generally know where it will happen. So some boaters kind of get out there and try to watch it. But Space X and the Coast Guard, they work to keep them away so they can do the retrieval safely. But you can't control what happens under the water. Which was why it was very funny that this huge pod of dolphins swam up while the retrieval was happening. They're curious animals. They just wanted to see what was going on. But not a bad unplanned welcome crew. After 280 days up in space, I hope Suny and Butch just kick back, watch some NCAA tournament games and just do nothing for the next days. They've been working a long time. Now a word from our sponsor, Sophos. Neal. The NCAA tournament is kicking off in earnest tomorrow and I for one know exactly who I am picking.

[Neal Freyman]

Florida, Duke or Cinderella?

[Toby Howell]

No, I am simply picking the team with the best offense and the best defense.

[Neal Freyman]

That is not how it works, Toby. You can't just have the worlds.

[Toby Howell]

Well, you can in cybersecurity. With Sophos, your business gets both elite defense and expert offense.

[Neal Freyman]

With 500 plus cybersecurity analysts. Sophos provides managed detection and response that proactively guards your network 24, 7 stopping threats before they can even cross mid court.

[Toby Howell]

Plus, their AI driven tech is kind of like a point guard in the way it is constantly adapting and learning how to respond to threats before they become threats.

[Neal Freyman]

More like a 32 zone defense if you ask me. Also, by the way, you said you're picking the NCAA team with the best offense and defense. That's Duke. Toby.

[Toby Howell]

Let's go Blue Devils. And let's go to sophos.com to learn more. That's s o p h o s.

[Neal Freyman]

Dot com Kenny Rogers may have coined know when to hold them, know when to fold them. But cybersecurity startup Whiz just perfected the strategy. After rejecting an acquisition offer From Google for $23 billion last summer, Whiz now says you've got a deal. Google will buy it for $32 billion, a big bump from the previous bid. That's not all that' it's Google's biggest acquisition in history, far outstripping number two, a $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility in 2012. It's also the biggest acquisition announced this year, a hopeful sign for dealmaking activity that's as frozen as Lake Erie in the winter. And finally, it's the biggest deal ever in the fast consolidating cybersecurity industry. In Whiz, Google is acquiring one of the fastest growing startups of all time. Founded just five years ago by CEO Assaf Rappaport and several colleagues, it is on track to double last year's annual recurring revenue to $1 billion. And its sale would mark the largest exit for any tech startup since Rivian $77 billion IPO all the way back in November 2021. Toby Google just revealed its Philly cheesesteak order, Whiz Whit and it's a landmark deal.

[Toby Howell]

It is a landmark deal. It does show a potential sign of hope for the merger and acquisition market because this new Lena Conlist FTC might be exactly why this deal got done and why it didn't get done at that $23 billion valuation last year, this is its biggest deal ever. So it's definitely going to test the appetite of, you know, Trump's administration's antitrust efforts because they when Trump originally joined office, they thought it was going to be a boon for M and A deals. That has been maybe not the case so far early in early in the year. So far. So putting one of the biggest tech deals of all time up for antitrust scrutiny. That will really show what the kind of purview of this new administration will be. So that's one big reason why this was a big deal. And the other is, is that Whiz offers a lot in the terms of the cloud computing race that's going on between big tech right now. Obviously, Amazon and Microsoft dominate the space right now, but Google Cloud is trying to claw back some, Michael, some market share. So this acquisition is definitely going to help boost its efforts in cloud computing, which is obviously a huge growth sector for a lot of these big tech companies.

[Neal Freyman]

And Whiz brings with it not just growth potential, but an already existing massive list of business. Its client base includes over 45% of Fortune 100 companies. It's going to do $1 billion in revenue this year. It is just such a massive player in the space that they built in just the past five years. So in its race to compete against Microsoft and Amazon, Google thinks that tacking on Whiz will be a huge tailwind to compete in this cloud computing race.

[Toby Howell]

Right. And if you are a business that needs cloud computing, one of the things that you're looking at, one, obviously there's price. And so you look at us, you look at Microsoft's Azure cloud, you look at Google Cloud. But now if Google can come to you and say, hey, we're going to provide the most secure cloud, that is a huge leg up in this, you know, race for supremacy in cloud computing. And it's also actually one of Wiz's big factors is that they work with a bunch of different cloud providers. And so the flexibility that Wiz allows is something that enterprise customers like to see. And so even though Google is buying this, they're still allowing Wiz to work with Azure, they're still allowing Wiz to work with us because that flexibility is a selling point. So they're not just hoarding Wiz for themselves, they're still letting it work with other customers. But I think that's a smart way to get a bigger piece of this much, you know, this very lucrative pie.

[Neal Freyman]

And meanwhile, so many people are going to get so rich from this deal. Obviously a Safraport, the CEO and these co founders are going to be billionaires, if they weren't already, because guess what, they already sold a company to Microsoft in 2015 for 320 million. So they've done this rodeo before. Obviously, $32 billion is way more than 320 million. And it's also a huge exit for VC firms that plowed money into whiz when they were a much smaller company. Some of the biggest VC names in Silicon Valley were involved in Wiz, Andreessen, Horowitz, Sequoia, Lightspeed. All of these venture firms are, you know, their offices are probably a very fun place to be this week.

[Toby Howell]

Somehow Bernard Arnault, the founder or the the patriarch of lvmh, also got on the cap table. So people were kind of ironically saying oh thank goodness like Bernard got on this one. But you're right, it is finally this liquidity moment for an industry that's been very stuck up and very clogged for the last few months and years or so. There is a crisis developing in hr, but don't worry, it has nothing to do with what happened at your holiday Christmas party. Rippling, an HR startup, is suing Deal, also an HR startup, over a bout of corporate espionage. Rippling is accusing Deal of installing a mole inside its company and sending him digging around for trade secrets. The so called spy is an Ireland based employee who is snooping through snack slack channels way outside his job description, according to the suit. One of the more egregious examples was the frequency in which he was searching for Deal in internal channels as many as 23 times a day. In addition to downloading strategy decks and allegedly passing that info over to Deal, when Rippling and notice the abnormal Slack activity, they set up what's known as a honeypot to attract and ensnare the alleged spy execs created a fake Slack channel pretending it was a secret space where employees could trash talk Deal. Then they baited the potential mole with an email hinting at this juicy channel. Just hours later their suspect went looking for it, proving at least to Ripling that Deal was up to something dodgy. Deal, for its part, fired back against the allegations, saying weeks after Rippling is accused of violating sanctions law in Russia, inciting falsehoods about Deal. Rippling is trying to to shift the narrative with these sensationalized claims. Yes, there are Russian sanction violation involved too. Somehow. This isn't two minnows duking it out either. Rippling is worth $13 billion while deal sits at $12 billion valuation. Neil with a spy on the loose too apparently.

[Neal Freyman]

Yeah, this is a heated rivalry that just escalated in a big way this this week the HR tech space has been is extremely competitive. You have these legacy players like adp, Workday, SAP and then newer players like Rippling and Deal which are raising rounds of funding each one after the other in order to gain Customers and they're also competing over the same number of customers. A lot of their employees also switch back and forth. So they've had a lot of beef with each other for years. That has spilled into the public eye. And this is just the climax of that, with accusations of, of, you know, Deal implanting a spy into Rippling. And, you know, corporate warfare doesn't get more juicy than this, right?

[Toby Howell]

It really doesn't. I mean, this honeypot operation is crazy. Imagine the rush that these Rippling execs must have gone through. You set up this fake Slack channel and you see them immediately kind of lurking around that you can see the activity of this employee within Slack. And so they made a literal honeypot to ensnare and basically just catch the person in the act. And I do think that this tensions between Deal and Rippling, they've been playing out publicly. Way before this lawsuit. Last year, Rippling launched this marketing campaign that was a direct shot at Deal. It was a full custom built Snake game where it portrays Deal as this greedy snake and it accuses them of charging higher fees. They also saw a Deal sales director visited the site to check out the game. And then later the CEO of Rippling posted that he had visited the site. Everyone kind of said, you're kind of doxing this guy now. So this is like knock down, drag out battle, because you are right. The HR space is so competitive because of all these legacy players. When times are good, there's enough HR to go around. But when times start to, you know, get a little tighter, you start to see some of these more aggressive tactics because people just don't splurge on HR tech like they might when times are better. So I do think that there's so many layers to this feud and the fact that, you know, there's a spy involved now is just one of the juiciest corporate espionage cases that we've, we've ever talked about.

[Neal Freyman]

Yesterday, 25,000 people crammed into the San Jose Sharks arena and cheered wildly as a superstar put on a show. No, it wasn't because Connor McDavid was in town. It was because Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, was giving the keynote speech of the Tech Giants annual GTC conference. What was essentially a science fair for computer geeks in 2009 has blossomed to become what has been called the super bowl for AI, a week long extravaganza whose growth mirrors the meteoric rise of Nvidia to the top of the tech food chain. Clad in his signature leather jacket, Huang defended his company's role in the AI revolution and hyped up new families of chips that Nvidia would roll out in the coming years. Nvidia dominates the market for these chips known as GPUs or graphics processing units, which have become a hotter commodity than a Trader Joe's tote as tech companies hoover them up to train ever powerful large language models. He also announced a partnership with GM for self driving cars and touted personal AI supercomputers that will allow developers and scientists to build AI models on desktop. But Toby, we need to start with the biggest announcement of them all. A partnership with Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut to roll out AI order taking.

[Toby Howell]

I don't know if that was the biggest announcement as much as a cheesy Gordita crunch sounds delicious right now. Probably the biggest takeaways from yesterday's meandering two hour speech for one, the next generation of chips are are here. Jensen unveiled the Blackwell Ultra AI chip which is just a step up from its existing Blackwell chip. He then unveiled the next generation of AI chips called Rubin that's actually named after the astronomer who discovered dark matter, which is pretty cool. That Ruben chip will sport 3.3 times the computing performance of Blackwell Ultra chip. So it's just a continual wave of, you know, upping performance, upping the capacity of these AI chips. And then yeah, also a big theme was what the physical arena that Nvidia is stepping into. We talked about GM partnership for to develop self driving cars. But also Jensen says that the age of robotics is here and they brought robots on stage. There's a partnership with Disney involved as well. So he's trying to lay out a vision of a future of, of AI interacting with the physical world. And yesterday was a big, you know, unveiling of that, of that vision.

[Neal Freyman]

We do need to talk about the Deep Seek in the room though. Remember this Chinese AI startup revealed this model Deep Seek which could do which could compete with the ChatGPT of the world at the highest level of AI models with just a fraction amount of the computing powder required. That knocked off $600 billion of Nvidia's market cap, sent it into a big slump because you had investors thinking o well maybe AI companies don't need to spend so much money on Nvidia's chips which they had been, which had propelled Nvidia to become the most valuable company in the world. What was Jensen's response to this? He said hey, I think Deep Seek is actually good for us because the type of inference and Reasoning that that powers the deep SEQ model and all of these models going forward actually requires more computation than we ever thought possible. He said the amount of computation we need as a result of agentic AI, which is this AI that powers agents which we've talked about in the show, it's like they can do all these things autonomously for you is easily 100 times more than we thought we needed this time last year. So he's bullish obviously because he is the CEO of Nvidia that companies will continue to spend an up there and even up their spending on Nvidia chips to power this new type of AI model.

[Toby Howell]

Yeah, if we had to break down that speech into two things. One, he was reassuring people that I will deliver on its potential stuff like how AI systems are providing value to people right now. But then also he dwelled on some of those futuristic uses of AI too, which is stuff like the human sized robots that can walk, pick up things and the self driving car. So yeah, part of it was like therapy session for the whole industry saying we're fine, we're still going to need these chips are still very much necessary to train models even if they are cheaper, like Deep Sea kind of revealed. But then also look at the future, like a lot of cool stuff coming down the pipeline. Up next, why tennis players are not happy with the current state of the tour.

[Neal Freyman]

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[Toby Howell]

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[Neal Freyman]

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[Toby Howell]

Which is why we love Brooklyn and shop award winners and fan faves in store or [e-mail] that's B R O O K L I N E N.com get 15% off your first order today. If you were to guess what the most common complaint of professional tennis players was, you might think it would be bogus line calls or how challengers portrayed the sport. But more than likely you'll hear something along the lines of we play way too dang much. The tennis schedule runs 11 months of the year and has been a huge source of headaches for top players for years, among other working condition complaints. Enter professional tennis's live golf moment. Remember Live, the Saudi backed breakaway golf tour that lured top players with the promise of bigger prize pools and smaller schedules, while a group of pro tennis players led by Novak Djokovic is escalating the fight against the existing men's and women's professional tours, advocating for similar demands. Yesterday, the Professional Tennis Players Association PTPA brought legal action against the men's and women's tours along with the International Tennis Federation, alleging that they were colluding to restrict players earnings and we're engaging in anti competitive behavior. The PTPA is chasing player empowerment initiatives like reducing the grueling number of tournaments played, bringing consistency to tennis balls across tours, and fixing the insane scheduling that often leaves them playing well into the middle of the night. To add insult to injury, tennis also gets minuscule prize payouts compared to other big sports like golf. Phenom Carlos Alcaraz recently joked, they are going to kill us in some way. And this suit from the PTPA is a step towards a future where top players don't need to make jokes like that.

[Neal Freyman]

Neal yeah, let's break down the money earned by tennis players. At the top of the line you can make a lot of money, but in the middle and near the bottom of the order you are just not making that much money at all. Let's Go back to the top. The $10 million earned by number one tennis player at the time. In 2022, Carlos Alcaraz was equal to the 202nd player in the NFL and the 146th highest played player in the National Basketball League. Novak Djokovic, who is probably the goat of men's tennis. He's won 24 Grand Slam titles. His career prize money in tennis is $186 million last year alone. Last year alone, the number one golf player, Scottie Scheffler, earned more than $62 million playing golf. That's about a third of Novak Djokovic, the best of all times, career winning. So these are just a few of the data points that these players are bringing to the table when they're accusing the ATP and the WTA suppress wages at the highest level of tennis.

[Toby Howell]

And I do think a difference between tennis and a lot of other North American sports league is that there, those North American sports leagues have very powerful players unions in tennis, it's very splintered across many different tours. International tennis federations involved as well. The Grand Slam tournaments are another thing altogether. So prize money isn't very standardized and players kind of operate as these independent contractors and as such they, they get pretty bad working conditions. And again, I mean, take it all with a grain of salt, these are still professional athletes at the top of their field. But one of the co founders of the PTPA was this Canadian tennis pro and he said early on in my career, I've been very fortunate in my career, but I still had to sleep in my car while traveling to matches early on. And he goes, imagine, you saw that in challengers, right? Imagine the NFL player at the top of their league sleeping in their car at an away game. It would just ever happened. So they're trying to draw these parallels to other sports and saying like, hey, our working conditions are not nearly what they should be given the demands put on our bodies and our, you know, travel schedule.

[Neal Freyman]

And one of the accusations lobbed against these tours is that they suppress the prize money. And one example that the players cited was that in 2012, billion billionaire Larry Ellison, who owns the BNP Paribus Open, which more people know as Indian Wells, which ducked, which just took place, he tried to increase the total prize money on that tournament that he owns by $1.6 million. He said the ATP and WTA rejected that proposal saying it would put pressure on other tour sponsored tournaments to boost payouts. So that is just one glaring example of, of these tours, you know, setting a price ceiling which the players say violates antitrust action. You talked about a lot of the other North American leagues having more rights and more strength with, with collective bargaining and free agency and things like that. Well, many of those things happened as a result of antitrust action, which is exactly what the what the players in tennis are trying to do should say that. The ATP and WTA came out with a few statements. They said they would vigorously defend the case. They talked about measures they had taken to increase payments to players, and they called the allegations baseless. Let's sprint to the finish with a few headlines. The UK has updated its basket of goods that are used to measure inflation. And yoga mats are in and newspaper advertisements are out. Every year. The UK's Office of National Statistics makes tweaks to the 752 items it uses to calculate inflation, which provides a snapshot into changing consumer trends. For example, Wild Rabbit was on the first list in 1947, but no one really buys that anymore, so that's gone. So what are people buying now? This year the ONS added yoga mats, virtual reality headsets, men's pool, flip flops, mango and pulled pork to the cost of living basket. The stuff they cut is from a bygone era such as newspaper advertisements or oven ready gammon, which is a type of cured ham that has dwindled in popularity. Toby, did they get it right?

[Toby Howell]

I think so. Although now I want to try an oven ready gammon joint because we had never heard of that before this. But it looks delicious. I do think it, it kind of presents a snapshot of where the nation is heading and right now it seems like very time pressed nation, a very tech forward nation. The reason why they got rid of oven ready gammon joints is because they take a lot longer to prepare. Pulled pork is something that is quicker. By the way, all the things they added sound like a heck of a party. I mean we're talking yoga mats, pool sliders, Virgil reality, virtual reality, headsets of pulled pork. Toss a mango in there too. That sounds like a good time to me. So yes, this isn't a big deal. Like only 3% of the total basket of goods was actually affected by this. But every time these very niche, very specific goods come and go, like it's fun to talk.

[Neal Freyman]

It's a time capsule.

[Toby Howell]

It is a time capsule. Up next, Sherpas in Nepal are getting some Sherpas of their own as they lug goods up Mount Everest ahead of the main climbing season that begins in April. Some expedition companies have been testing out drones that can carry loads of up to 35 pounds. Even in the thin air of Everest, the use cases are attractive, including bringing back ladders used on climbing routes and waste disposal, which has become a huge issue as Everest has grown more popular. Being a Sherpa is a dangerous job as is, so having drones step up to help shoulder the load makes a lot of sense, especially for things like emergency supplies that can be Transported from base camp one in 15 minutes rather than seven hours on foot. Seems smart, especially if they can make Sherpa's jobs safer.

[Neal Freyman]

It seems like a no brainer and you might be wondering why weren't they doing this before? Well, a drone from dji, which is this Chinese company, the world leader in drones, it can cost more than $70,000. That is just a lot of money in a lower income country like Nepal. So they're trying to work out deals to make these things cheaper for Sherpas. But overall this seems like a great solution in part to make this, this mountain safer as the as the climbing season gets underway next month. On Monday, West Virginia governor Patrick Morrissey held a press conference to make a statement about one of the biggest injustices in recent memory. Take a listen.

[D]

Of the 111 brackets that were projected pertaining to North Carolina, UNC was only in 27 of them. This stinks at the highest level.

[Neal Freyman]

Yes, that's right. The West Virginia governor used a press conference to make the case that his Mountaineers deserved an NCAA tournament bid over the University of North Carolina, who controversially received a bid to March Madness while WVU was snubbed calling the NCAA the National Corrupt Athletic Association. Morrissey said he's asked his attorney general to investigate the organization to ensure the selection process is transparent and fair. Toby, does he have a point?

[Toby Howell]

I think he does. First of all, it was a little shocking to hear a governor talking ball like this. He was going through Quad One wins just running down the resumes of both teams. But he has a point because there's real monetary stakes on the line. Teams earn units for each game they play in in the NCAA Tournament, and each unit is worth approximately $2 million that gets paid out. So it's depriving West Virginia of a game. You're depriving them of revenue as well. So yes, I would be very mad as well. And then, yeah, unc's AD is the chair of the selection committee. And even though the selection committee came out and said, hey, he was not in the room during any deliberations involving unc, a lot of people are saying, well, he was in the room for deliberations involving wvu, so there's potentially a conflict of interest there. So yeah, to add insult to injury to Indiana just poached West Virginia's coach as well. So the hits keep coming for the Mountaineers.

[Neal Freyman]

Well, one thing we should mention is UNC played last season night and you know, the round of four to get into the actual bracket of 64 and they crushed.

[Toby Howell]

They dominated.

[Neal Freyman]

Okay, let's wrap it up there. Thanks so much for starting your morning with us and have a wonderful Wednesday. For any questions, comments or feedback, send an email to Morning Brew daily at Morning Broadcom. And if you're enjoying the show, share it with a friend, family member or co worker or anyone else. Toby who should everyone listening share it with Today?

[Toby Howell]

I want you to share the pod with a West Virginia fan. I am on your side, guys. You may have missed out on the NCAA tournament, but you got this pod instead. Seems like a fair consolation prize.

[Neal Freyman]

Let's roll the credits. Emily Milian is our executive producer. Raymond Lu is our producer. Olivia Graham and Olivia Lake are our associate producers. Eugenia Ogu is our technical director. Scoop Star Daris is on audio is hair and makeup A spy from the Daily. Devin Emery is our chief content officer and our show is a production of Morning Brewing.

[Toby Howell]

Great show today, Neil. Let's run it back tomorrow.