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- [00:00]
Host 1
We gotta kick it off with this video from NASA administrator and more importantly, former TVPN guest Jared Isaacman. He says tomorrow we launch at sunset. Tonight, Artemis 2 waits on the pad ready to carry astronauts potentially farther than any humans have traveled in more than half a century. The next era of exploration.
- [00:21]
Host 2
We have the countdown here right next to John.
- [00:23]
Host 1
So it is about 4 hours and 20 something minutes until the launch starts. They might delay by a few minutes, who knows, they might scratch entirely. But if things go to plan, the official NASA stream, it's up now, but stay with us. And then once we wrap in about three hours, head over there and watch NASA take you through the final stage of the Artemis II launch. But let's play NASA administrator Jared Isaacsman's video because it's very exciting. This is what I lived for as a young child and what I live for to today. Kennedy Space Center. First human moon mission in more than 50 years. 50 years. Very. You know, a lot of people have been going back and forth. SpaceX versus SLS. I think it's more rockets, the better. More space launch capacity, the better. I want 10 of these companies, I want them all to be successful. Apostruca says you can hate SLS for being obsolete, massively late and over budget. I certainly do. But you gotta concede, it looks incredible. And I couldn't agree. More importantly, some people were joking around saying the space shuttle is launching today. They're not using the space shuttle because they're going farther than they normally go with the space shuttle. And the space shuttle was decommissioned. So then the astronauts will be in pod on top capsule mode. Exactly.
- [01:48]
Host 2
Blake Scholl shares. I'm genuinely excited to see America headed back to the moon, Back around the moon. But Artemis is a moondog.
- [01:55]
Host 1
That's a good wombo. That's a really good wombo. Wombos are the new meta. We'll be breaking it down soon.
- [02:01]
Host 2
You don't even need to Lorraine it.
- [02:03]
Host 1
You don't.
- [02:04]
Host 2
It's just plainly. Yeah, Lorraine is lore. And explain.
- [02:07]
Host 1
Lore plus explain. Yeah, yeah.
- [02:09]
Host 2
Remember that Apollo did not result in durable progress in space. It marked a literal high point for more than half a century. The cost of space access remained prohibitively high until we had a rebirth of space entrepreneurship. Thank you for showing the way. SpaceX. Apollo was history's greatest tech demo at the moon landing. This is inspiring. It shows the triumph of ingenuity, science and reason. But also Apollo led to half a century of stasis and regression.
- [02:33]
Host 1
Yeah, complacent.
- [02:34]
Host 2
It was fundamentally uneconomic contributed to creation of cost insensitive of a cost insensitive space agency and supply base. All more concerned with perpetuating their own existence. More concerned with make work jobs than accelerating human progress. Now we're going back to the mood essentially the same way we did in 1969. Again uneconomically, again with central planning, a disposable rocket. No answer to how we create a self sustaining lunar economy. Again, we're taking communist approaches in competition with the communists. Communism didn't work for the Russians and it won't work for America either. The sooner we can get done with this Moondoggle, the better. But there's also reason to be optimistic. This time around, there's a nascent commercially led vision for the moon. Lunar hotels, mass drivers, data centers in space, Helium 3. The commercial programs that gave SpaceX an early assist show a different and better path forward. This is where the better future lies and this is where America should be focused. America should take the moon and we should take it the same way we took the American west and protect lunar value creation. How about a homestead act for the moon? Most important, let's stop dumping money. And more importantly, the time of our engineers and scientists on glory project that will never lead to a better future. It is indeed time for another space race. Last time we fought communism with communism. This time let's remember what made America great. This time let's fight communism with capitalism.
- [03:51]
Host 1
There's some good points in here. I think the flip side of this is that we are in a wildly different position than 1969 in terms of the maturity of this lunar economy, the space ecosystem. We have SpaceX filed for IPO today. You're looking at a trillion dollar company. It will instantly be one of the largest companies in the world. It already is. But in the public markets when it goes out. And so you have a lot of companies and startups and venture capitalists that are fully ready to commercialize any findings that come out of this and see this as an inspirational moment. And overall it just feels like 1969. The capital markets, the entrepreneurship, the capitalism was not quite ready for. Okay, let's take this to the next step. Let's privatize this, let's build businesses around this. It was much more of a science experiment that went off into its corner and then was not immediately capitalized on. But I think this time could be different at the same time. I do understand what he's saying.
- [04:54]
Host 2
Yeah, Ryan. Ryan and Hunter over at Pirate Wires shared this mission in Pirate Wires today and they Shared a quote from Jared last week saying, this time he said, the goal is not flags and footprints. This time, the goal is to stay. America will never again give up the moon. So generally aligned with what Blake is saying.
- [05:15]
Host 1
Tyler, what's your take on this?
- [05:16]
Guest
Yeah, I was just gonna say I think Blake is kind of underestimating the value of just, like, vibes. People have been pretty blackpilled on the moon.
- [05:23]
Host 1
Totally.
- [05:24]
Guest
I think basically, since everything kind of stopp.
- [05:27]
Host 1
Yeah.
- [05:27]
Guest
So if you can just have, like, a white pill, everyone's like, sure. Like, maybe it's not a good idea to continually launch these to the moon. They're not economical.
- [05:33]
Host 1
Yeah.
- [05:34]
Guest
But if you can just get one and say, like, yeah, we actually. We can still do this.
- [05:37]
Host 1
Yeah.
- [05:37]
Guest
It's also possible.
- [05:38]
Host 1
I mean, it's. It's over budget, but as a percentage of gdp, it has to be a fraction of what we spent in 1969. So on a relative basis, it's a. It's a. Maybe a better investment. Yeah. I do think that there's something that's just inspiring about being able to do something like this and prove that we still got it.
- [05:53]
Guest
I also, like from Hunter and Ryan's post, you know they're dropping the article. It's just moon, right? It's not the moon.
- [05:59]
Host 1
Yes. Yes.
- [06:00]
Guest
I like this idea.
- [06:01]
Host 1
Yes. We only got one, so we can just say moon. It has its own name, you know, you don't say the California, the Texas, the Florida. You just say moon. You say Texas. Florida. Let's watch this video of Neil Armstrong injecting just seconds before his lunar trailing training vehicle crashed.
- [06:17]
Host 2
Space cowboy.
- [06:18]
Host 1
Space cowboy. True heroism here. This is such a crazy video. I had no idea this happened. Good music too. What is this? Interstellar? Yeah.
- [06:28]
Host 2
Oh, yeah.
- [06:31]
Host 1
Like, how did he know it was not gonna go? Oh, it's tipping. Okay. I would definitely know. That would be very obvious that you would want to get out of there at that point. Wow. And he gets out of the parachute. I wonder. I wonder how much of that was, like, planned to be. Okay, we're testing the ejector seat. Or he just knew. Okay, I got a. It was called nicknamed Flying Bedstead for good reason. It looked like a bed frame and it flew like one too. Yeah. Flying that on Earth. It's not exactly the most aerodynamic, aerodynamic vehicle, but Kalshi has a market on when will Artemis 2 launch? It is soaring. We are now at 89% before April 2nd. So. 89% chance it launches today. Basically, 92% chance that it launches. Launches before April 4th. So Jamie Dimon's been on an absolute tear. He is hiring people. He's restating his vision for America. There's an article in the Wall Street Journal here. He has a plan for JP Morgan to rescue the American Dream. That's a very exciting, exciting idea. Let's run through Jamie Dimon's plan for America. He's running. I think he should. Jamie Dimon thinks the American Dream is on life support and he is planning for JP Morgan Chase to step in. The nation's largest bank announced the American Dream initiative on a commitment from JP Morgan to support small businesses, homeownership, access to health care and other economic priorities that Dimon believes are crucial for the well being of Americans. The bank already finances all of the above and says it's ready to put more resources into the effort. Dimon, 70 years old and CEO of JP Morgan since 2006, has long worried about the future of the American economy and wealth inequality. More recently, he has warned that the country is sleepwalking into economic stasis thanks to bad policies and rules that make it hard to invest in new ventures and run companies. I am deeply frightened, frustrated by our own policies in America, he said last week at the Hill and Valley Forum. We've become like Europe. We're unable to move and change. That's strong words. J.P. morgan hasn't been slowed, bringing in more profit than any bank in the U.S. history, in U.S. history. But it reaches across Main street and Wall street and does better when the whole economy is chugging along. Dimon has a habit of making big commitments a little bit. It's a big commitment having that on. Diamond has a habit of making big commitments in tune with the zeitgeist. JP Morgan announced a $1.5 trillion investment platform focused on national security and supply chains last year, just as the federal government started to invest in critical suppliers. It made a $30 billion racial equity commitment after the murder of George Floyd and a $2.5 trillion climate change plan in 2021. Now the bank is committing to adding 3 million new small business customers on top of 7 million today. They want to get to 10 and it wants to lend them up to 80 billion over the next 10 years through loans and support for community oriented banks and investment funds. The bank reported 33 billion of loans to small businesses and other customers at the end of 2025. So they want to expand significantly. It's just a 30% bump in total number of small businesses, but they want to basically triple the amount of the loan book Broadly, the American Dream means you can buy a home, start a business, you can build wealth and you can afford health care for your family, JP Morgan's head of corporate responsibility, Tim Berry said in an interview. We want to bring our capabilities and make that more real to families and customers. They're helming the new American Dream initiative and acknowledge that a lot of it isn't really new. JPMorgan has been looking to grow deeper roots in the cities and towns where it does business, rolling out specialty branches focused on community education. For years, it has invested big in cities where it has found business friendly leadership, including Detroit and San Francisco. The initiative and ambitious goals are supposed to jumpstart JP Morgan bankers and business employees to do more. When we think about the impact that we've had locally in a place like Detroit, we know that success can be replicated in other places. So they are opening up the pocketbook to spur small business. Very exciting. In other Jamie Dimon news, he just hired or recently hired Warren Buffett's protege. There's a profile in Barron's by Andy Serwer JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon doesn't usually make high profile outside hires for his senior executive team, preferring instead the homegrown variety that makes Todd Combs, formerly a top investment manager Berkshire Hathaway poached and brought in to head up JP Morgan's Chase New 10 billion strategic investment group. An exception. Except that Holmes is hardly a bolt from the blue. I like that. That's, that's a good turn of phrase, having served on JP Morgan's board since 2016. Okay, so he's a board member, so he clearly knows everyone already, he says. I know the company well, combs tells Barrons in his first interview as a bank employee. I know everyone from Jamie to the operating committee and the next layer of management. I'm well aware of the balance sheet, the excess capital and how Jamie and the team think and operate. Like the bank's other top executives, Combs, who's been CEO of Berkshire Geico Insurance unit, is still settling into his new office on the 47th floor of JP Morgan's new Manhattan head quarters. I hope you don't mind the warm office, says Combs, a tennis playing Florida native. I don't like the cold, he says. Combs mapped out his new gig, which began in January, on a two column chart he sketched on a notepad. Interesting. He's old school. Old school.
- [11:54]
Host 2
Powerful.
- [11:55]
Host 1
He's not, he's not creating a second brain. He's just ripping it on a notepad on the left are five rows of industries such as Defense Supply Chain Reindustrialization. On the right are their future manifestations such as defense tech, US Semiconductors, respectively. The plan is to invest in everything our country has outsourced and abdicated over recent decades. We want to invest in places where the puck is going so that America can control its own future. That means deploying the group's 10 billion into middle market and large companies in US defense, aerospace, healthcare and energy sectors to help them grow. Recent investments include mining company Perpetual Resources and defense tech startup Shield AI Combs, who to diamond will also act as a special advisor to the CEO. Combs endeavor is part of the Security and Resiliency initiative JP Morgan announced in October in which the bank will commit to facilitating 1.5 trillion in investments for companies deemed critical to the national economic security and resiliency. We want to be a good partner to the government regardless of who's in charge. It's the GOP now. It can be someone else in the future. We're trying to let capitalism send the right signal. We'll look at every opportunity on its own merit. We want an impact and a return. Highly regarded as an investor, Combs is a boyish looking 55. He helped return Geico, which was burdened with outdated technology and bloated cost to profitability. Berkshire watchers thought he might play a role in the company's post Warren Buffett era, either overseeing its multi billion dollar investment portfolio or its massive insurance operations. Or he could have been up for other high profile jobs. But why this one? It's a unique opportunity with both Jamie and the institution and the mission of the job. Combs says this is critical to the future of the country. You want to find things in life that are big and important that are worth doing and doable. Combs has an anti bucket list for his new role. I had about 10 or 12 things that I didn't want. The anti bucket list is sort of sort of underrated. Your anti bucket list is just never go skydiving. I don't want that to happen. Never buy never buy a Sundar never visit 30 countries become supercar less dumbest
- [14:00]
Host 2
thing why is no one talking about Snapchat? Explain ironic capital came out see snap now with a well executed activist campaign.
- [14:14]
Host 1
It does feel like there's a big opportunity with AI better targeting like I'm receptive to this pitch but I want to hear it from Irenek. I know that this is an activist, activist, activist shareholder. This could be very very confrontational.
- [14:29]
Host 2
Yes, they Come out with a website, savesnapnow.com you land on the website, they hit you with Snap. Back to reality.
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Guest
Yep.
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Host 2
So taking a fun approach here. They say Snap has the potential to be a great company and a double AI winner through meaningfully improved operating efficiency and monetization. Irene has outlined six steps to 7x Snap share price to $26 per per share. They put together a presentation as well as a letter. I'll kind of read through some of the highlights. They say at Snap's crucible moment, AI creates a dual pronged opportunity for significant cost cuts and accelerated product development. So they go into cost improvements, monetization, governance. On the cost side, they want to spin or shut down specs. I'm sure Evan is like already happening right there. The spin, the spin is seemingly in the works. There were some leaks over the last six months around that, so I would expect that to happen. They want to rationalize cost. AI can and should replace many existing roles. Now remember the constant criticism of Snap has been the stock based comp. If you actually look at it from the kind of rough math we were doing, like every 10 years they're basically giving the entire company to, to the team. And so investors, long term investors have been very frustrated by that and it
- [15:51]
Host 1
always has been weird because I understand that like back in the day when they were competing directly with Twitter and Meta and Instagram and Reddit and all these different upstart high growth social networking companies, I believe the talent war thesis, it makes sense that they would have to probably pay top dollar. But you have to imagine that as the business has stabilized, there are people that would come into the organization that would be happy to just have a salary and just do the work because it's better than working at another company. It's not necessarily like the AI talent war or the social media talent war that I'm sure happened back 10 years ago. It's a different time, so maybe different structure.
- [16:35]
Host 2
Sagenap now is recommending a thousand person rift to get fit and competitive and to empower your highest performers. If you're Evan reading empower your highest performers, you're probably thinking like oh geez, I never, I never thought of it.
- [16:50]
Host 1
But again, they do have 5261 employees as of late 2025. So this would represent roughly a 20% riff. Not block level cuts, but more in line with what we're seeing at Oracle, Meta, some other tech companies that are
- [17:05]
Host 2
going through a transformation on monetization. The recommendation is to improve monetization, which I think is a good idea for any business. But they say I will massively accelerate product development and enhance advertising monetization tools. Again, you know, everyone by this point should be well aware that Meta has done a fantastic job in leveraging AI ML to just make a better and better and better ads product.
- [17:31]
Host 1
Yep.
- [17:32]
Host 2
And they say product led improvements across users, advertisers and subscriptions to break out of Snaps monetization system ceiling. Then they say deploy AI properly monetize Snap's proprietary AI data sets and then concentrate AI partnerships on clear winners like Gemini, OpenAI and Anthropic. Again, Snap partnered with Perplexity. It seemed like Snap got a fantastic deal out of that. It was something like a $400 million deal, if I remember correctly. Some of it was stock and Perplexity. Yeah. But there was a huge cash component and unclear if the other Companies mentioned Gemini, OpenAI or Anthropic would have been able to match that how aggressive Perplexity was getting. And so it's possible Snap's logic was, hey, we can, we can do this deal with Perplexity. And then it's, it's native in our app. It's easy enough to swap it out at a later date. Let's like basically take the cash while we can get it.
- [18:28]
Host 1
Yeah. I saw this post from Sean Frank that somewhat relates. He, he, he was talking about one of our sponsors, Applovin, which I will tell you about in a second. But he said, in less than 12 months, I've spent 2,872,000 of my own money profitably on Applovin. I don't own the stock, I don't trade the stock. This is the net amount that left my bank account. And he shares a couple other points and he says he's spending 17,000, so 2.8 million on AppLovin, clearly like a scalable large platform. Spent 17,000 on Pinterest, 266,000 on Reddit. You have to imagine that Meta ads are up there. But the question is like, for a lot of advertisers, Snap has not become this like, oh, sure, maybe you don't get, maybe it's not gonna be your number one platform. But it's like in the marketing mix very regularly. And I think a lot of that should start working. Even if the pool isn't super deep, even if you don't have 99% of your customers there, maybe only 20% of your customers are there. But even if they're there, you should be able to find them and AI can help that and so I would expect that if this works, you'd see like really solid data from Ridge saying like, oh yeah, we're spending on Snap.
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Guest
Yeah.
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Host 2
And they've been experimenting with Snap as far back as 2018 when I was hanging out with Sean and Connor. Back then they were getting results on Snap, but there was a ceiling.
- [19:47]
Host 1
Yeah.
- [19:48]
Host 2
So then finally they want to, on the governance side, commit to investing in safety and capital return, use newfound cash and profitability to further invest in privacy, safety and parental controls and allocate new cash flow generation to capital return and demonstrate conviction in Snap's creation. Yeah, it's interesting. On the parental control and safety side, I think Snap has been able to stay out of the at least Lanier's target. Oh, they ended up.
- [20:14]
Host 1
Yeah, they settled before it went to trial.
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Host 2
Oh, okay.
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Host 1
Meta and Google fought it.
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Host 2
Interesting.
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Host 1
And so, yeah, I'm not exactly sure what that means, but I think that they've been trying to sort of like step back from all of that.
- [20:25]
Host 2
Yeah. And then on the corporate government side, giving shareholders a vote can unlock a multiple re rate through broader index illusion.
- [20:32]
Host 1
Yeah.
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Host 2
And enabling one vote per class A share still preserves Snap as a founder controlled company.
- [20:38]
Host 1
Yeah, I think it probably is like 10x voting power or something like that. Well, the market's reacting really positively to this and I think Evan Spiegel has shared some statements that sort of mirror this. Actually, it seems like there's maybe a little bit more reception than you might expect. The stock's up 14% one day after publishing this piece, says Bose Weinstein. Adam is a rock star in the making. So smart. Definitely worth a follow. And that's Ireneic.
- [21:04]
Host 2
Cap carried no interest, gave some feedback on Irene. He said a few critiques. Feedback Daily opens are not equal to time spent on app. Applovin and Meta clearly have higher time spent on app it. Therefore parity on monetization is flawed. Arguing that Snapchat can hit targeting levels of Meta is farciful. The amount of data that Meta has on me versus Snapchat is astronomically different. I guess I'm open to being proven wrong since you compare it to Applovin who IMO has always used other targeting sources. 3 Proprietary data slide is a one time flash in a pan moment. Sure some companies are selling deranged amount of data, but that's not lasting. Mrr ARR monetization. Although it is fair to call them out on it. I like the monetization per user slide. I think my feedback around Snap's ability to monetize relative to those peers stands literally. Screen time is much lower and you don't have data for targeting the way peers do. Calling out the founders net worth growth was either God tier petty or brilliant or some combination fun presentation.
- [22:02]
Host 1
I think a TBPN slide or quote made it into one of these presentations.
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Host 2
It was on the slide. AI should be an accelerant for Snap's core ads business. So Zuck had said. He said we're also working on merging LLMs with the recommendation systems that power Facebook Instagram threads in our ad system. Our world class recommendation systems are already driving meaningful growth across our apps and ads business. But we think that the current systems are primitive compared to what will be possible soon. Evan said our Smart campaign solution suite, including Smart Targeting and Smart Budget uses AI to identify incremental high value audiences and dynamically allocate spend across objectives, reducing the need for manual setup and ongoing optimization. In our interview they highlighted Evan saying as you look at glasses in the near term I wouldn't expect AI to be a major accelerant closing this out. Irene clearly thinks that he says specifically Snap is a special asset. He thinks it's, it has a ton of potential. He's overall positive. He just thinks like, you know, he really wants them to get in the game. And I think that honestly a lot of people have felt the same way over the years but have just ultimately been frustrated because some of these things that seem somewhat straightforward just haven't been done.
- [23:10]
Host 1
Okay, I gotta go back to the moon. We're going back to the moon. I'm going back to the moon because Artemis 2 is launching in 3 hours and 52 minutes and 4, 3, 2, 1 seconds. Brandon Gorell wrote the op ed today in the TVPN newsletter about some of the technology that they're using to document the trip. And it's a very different take, very livestreamer coded of us. We only care about the camera equipment that's on board. Obviously there's a lot more that goes into it, but it's a fascinating deep dive. So today The NASA Artemis 2 mission will launch sending the Orion spacecraft carrying a four astronaut crew on a high energy free return trajectory to get to the moon and back in about 10 days. It's longer than the Artemis 1 mission which was six days.
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Host 2
Can you imagine the stress when you're just like being sent straight out into space and you know there's a big turn coming up and it's pretty important
- [24:00]
Host 1
that you don't miss the off. Yeah, you can't be like texting and like missing the off, the off ramp. If you miss the off ramp, you're going to Saturn. It's over for you. Orion will enter a 24 hour highly elliptical orbit with an apogee 44,000 miles above the surface of the Earth. For context, the ISS orbits at 200, 200 to 280 miles in altitude. So way, way higher. 100 times higher. 200 times higher. During the first day, the crew will test critical life support communication systems. After reaching its apogee, Orion will essentially fall backward towards our planet. This will cause the craft to start picking up massive speed. You'll see that the path is a little fishy. And I think a lot of the tinfoil hat crowd are going to be suspicious about the path that the rocket will be taking because it's fishy. It's fishy if you scroll down. Don't you think that's fishy? That's a fishy orbit. That's just a fishy orbit. I don't know, I don't want to be too conspiratorial about this stuff, but
- [24:54]
Host 2
like, it does look like a fish.
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Host 1
It's a fishy orbit as it approaches its perigee. For those who are just listening on audio, it literally looks like a fish. As it approaches its perigee, or the lowest point in its Earth orbit, the crew will conduct a systems review, wake up the main engine system, organize the cabin to make sure radiation shielding bags and water supplies are positioned to access shelter in case of a solar flare. Put on their survival suits and strap in. They're locking in. After the burn, the crew will take more than four days to reach the moon. The craft just coast there, the lunar flyby, where it will orbit the moon at a maximum altitude of 6,000 miles. A minimum altitude of 60 to 70 miles from the surface of the moon is expected to happen Monday, April 6th. It will probably end up being the farthest humans have ever traveled from Earth due to the high altitude at which they'll orbit the moon.
- [25:39]
Host 2
And remember, we still don't know if this is like Apple, another elaborate April Fool's joke. We could get to the countdown here and Jared Isaacman could say April Fools.
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Host 1
NASA is essentially aiming for a Netflix quality live stream on the flyby. And this is what the video creators, the content creators, the live streamers, this is what we care about. It will feature 4K UHD video streams that beam back to Earth with a 3 second latency and some additional latency from encoding and terrestrial distribution using a Frontier laser communication terminal that can transmit data at 260megs a second. The stream will probably be compressed to 1080p for live video, but it will be saved in 4K. The craft has 28 dedicated cameras on board, externally mounted, an astronaut handheld. Externally mounted cameras will be on the tip of each of Orion's 4x shaped solar arrays. And they can rotate, which will allow them to take selfies of Orion with the Earth or the moon in the background.
- [26:32]
Host 2
We got selfie sticks in space.
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Host 1
Selfie sticks in space. This is sci fi now.
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Host 2
It's still almost unfathomable. Unfathomable, the amount of risk that these astronauts are taking on.
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Host 1
Yeah,
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Host 2
my thoughts are with them for sure.
- [26:47]
Host 1
For sure. The Kit Kat heist. This is the story you all have been waiting for. Kit Kats, the candy bars were stolen and in massive quantity. The Wall Street Journal has a story of how the company reacted, how they turned a massive Kit Kat heist into crisis PR gold. We've seen this before. People were talking about Tucker Carlson having his nicotine pouch shipment stolen and how it sounded like the plot of a new 4th fast and furious or Zoomer Fast and Furious movie. Well, something similar happened to Kit Kat and they took advantage of it and made the best out of it. So KitKat, of course, is owned by Nestle, but let's dig into what the Wall Street Journal had to say. Just how much are 12 metric tons of stolen KitKat bars worth? A lot of promotional gold, it turns out, says the Wall Street Journal. It was the brazen chocolate heist heard around the social media world. Oddly, this is the first time I'm hearing this. I don't know why. I don't know how I missed this. Had you heard of this before?
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Guest
Yes.
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Host 1
You had? Okay.
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Guest
Yeah, I've seen this.
- [27:47]
Host 1
I literally found out about this in the Wall Street Journal. I don't know why. Over the weekend, Nestle confirmed that thieves had swiped 413,000 units of kit Kats somewhere along their way from a factory in central Italy to Poland. Both chocolate bars and the truck carrying them remain missing, though no one was hurt in the theft, it said. With the Swiss company Lost in Chocolate, though, it gained back in a public relations coup, as did multiple other companies quick to hop on the meme bag bandwagon. We've always encouraged people to have a break with KitKat, but it seems thieves have taken the message too literally and made a break with more than 12 metric tons of our chocolate, the company said in a statement.
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Host 2
I don't get it. You have to. They would have had to steal the truck for it too.
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Host 1
Yeah, they stole the truck. I mean, it sounds like Fast and the Furious. It sounds like they stuck. Stuck it up. And you said, get out of the truck. You gotta call a cab.
- [28:42]
Guest
The truck is missing.
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Host 1
The truck is missing.
- [28:43]
Guest
They took the truck.
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Host 2
They took the truck. Wow.
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Host 1
They took everything. Taking their cue from Nestle, other companies soon joined in with some social media spoofing. We would like to share our thoughts and condolences with KitKat. Following their sad news. The account for Domino's Pizza in the UK posted Monday morning. Then it added. On a completely unrelated note, we're pleased to announce that we'll be selling a new Kit Kat pizza. It's very silly. Charlotte fc, the Major League Soccer club in North Carolina, jumped on the same riff a couple of hours later. On an unrelated note, we are happy to share that we will be offering roughly 413,000.
- [29:16]
Host 2
I don't know about you, John, but I love when large corporations can just jump in on the fun.
- [29:21]
Host 1
It's extremely millennial. This is like, this is my culture is not your costume. If you're not a millennial and you're the one posting this, stop. Only a millennial has the right to post jokingly as a corporate account. The discount airline Ryanair, meanwhile, simply posted a cartoon of photo of one of its planes with a face in the jet's mouth. Are five bitten off KitKat bars. Not long ago, most companies would have said little, leaving it to law enforcement authorities to disclose such a potentially embarrassing revelation. Now, any bad news is good news. As long as a corporate brand can turn it into a viral meme. What do you think about this take? It's a masterclass in public relations. Like, I agree with your intuition that, oh, this is not that funny. Like, this is sort of just like corporate cringe. It's a little rough. I'm not getting belly laughs out of this. But just in terms of corporate comm strategy, this feels like the best of all possible worlds.
- [30:16]
Host 2
Yeah, I agree with that.
- [30:17]
Host 1
I think it's like a reasonable thing.
- [30:18]
Host 2
Am I entertained? No. Do I think that it was worth doing? Yes. Does it make me want a Kit Kat? No.
- [30:27]
Host 1
Also no.
- [30:28]
Guest
Yeah, but like, I was not thinking about Kit Kats and now.
- [30:31]
Host 2
And now I'm thinking, I just think. I think I've never really. I've never really had a Kit Kat and thought, oh, that. That was. That was so good.
- [30:41]
Host 1
Yeah.
- [30:41]
Host 2
And so now I'm just remembering why. I don't care.
- [30:43]
Host 1
Okay. Okay.
- [30:44]
Host 2
Elon filed for an IPO on April Fool's Day. And apparently they, they filed last night. So off by just a little bit according to Blood Low. But but yeah, on the news did go on pace for the kind of June listing.
- [31:02]
Host 1
June listing. Okay, leave us five stars on Apple Podcasts, Spotify. Sign up for our newsletter tvpn.com and we will see you tomorrow at 11am can't wait. Pacific. Goodbye.