💳 “America’s Fave Gift” — Gift Cards’ surge. White House’s Tech Force. Zillow’s Name-Yo-Price. +Uber Eats Wrapped.

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Best One Yet

Episode Title: 💳 “America’s Fave Gift” — Gift Cards’ surge. White House’s Tech Force. Zillow’s Name-Yo-Price. +Uber Eats Wrapped.
Hosts: Jack Crivici-Kramer & Nick Martell
Date: December 17, 2025

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Overview

In this episode, Jack and Nick serve up the "three business stories you need" with their signature wit:

1. The explosion of gift cards as America's go-to holiday present—and how companies profit big.
2. Zillow faces serious competition from Google, and an idea to “renovate” its business.
3. The White House’s newly launched Tech Force recruiting techies to government service.

Sprinkled throughout are their trademark humorous asides, a riff on Uber Eats Wrapped, and a lightning round of quirky business headlines.

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Key Stories & Insights

1. Gift Cards: America’s Favorite—and Most Profitable—Gift

Timestamps: 05:07–09:56

• Context & Popularity:

  • "The most popular gift in America this year. The same gift as every year. That's right. It's the gift card." (Nick, 05:07)
  • "$500 billion of gift cards are purchased annually in the US, which is 1.6% of GDP." (Jack, 06:57)
  • Starbucks is the #2 gift card in the country (behind Visa), booking $3.5B in revenue just from gift cards last Christmas. (06:04)

• Why Companies Love Gift Cards:

  • Unused Balances: "Starbucks booked $1.8 billion of pure 100% profit just from unused gift cards last year." (Jack, 07:50)
  • Americans lose or forget to redeem 10–20% of gift cards. (07:34)
  • Many companies count unused balances as profit after 12 months, even if cards don’t expire.

• Triple Profit ‘Puppy’:

  • Three Profit Streams:

    1. Cash up front.
    2. Unused balances become pure profit.
    3. Shoppers overspend ("top off tension")—average card users spend 30–40% more than the card’s value just to redeem it all (09:19).

    "You buy sandals for 80 bucks. To redeem the extra 20 you gotta buy another $80 thing. So suddenly you're 160 bucks in the hole." (Jack, 09:28)

• Legislative Efforts:

  • Some states now have "demand the change" laws: if a card is down to its last 10%, you can ask for the rest in cash (08:11).

• Takeaway:

  • "It's not romantic and it can feel cold, but cash is always king." (Jack, 09:50)
  • "The gift card is the rare triple profit puppy for the company that issued it." (Nick, 08:59)

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2. Zillow Under Threat: Google's Real Estate Ambitions & "Name Your Price"

Timestamps: 09:56–14:26

• Zillow’s Dominance Threatened:

  • Zillow has 50% market share, with Redfin at a distant 15%. But Google is now testing its own real estate features in search results (10:47–11:07).
  • "Zillow's got a Zillopoly." (Nick, 10:36)

• Google’s Potential Move:

  • With Google’s scale, it could overlay home prices on Google Maps. This would be “brutal for Zillow” (Jack, 11:16).

• Innovative Solution — “Name Your Price”:

  • Inspired by "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase ("everyone has a price"). (11:42)

  • Allow homeowners to input the price they'd accept for their home, even if it's not on the market—a transparent way for would-be buyers to see potential offers and for owners to test the waters without hassle. (12:03–12:25)

  • Real-life example: Jack left a letter in a homeowner's mailbox to solicit interest in selling—a mainstream “Name Your Price” feature could modernize this (12:50–13:09).

    "Transparency about more willingness to… maybe move if the right price is offered could heat up this frozen housing market we're in." (Jack, 13:15)

• Why Competition Matters:

  • "The secret ingredient to getting better is a competitor." (Jack, 13:25)
  • Stagnant giants (like Google Search for years) need competitors to drive improvements.

    "Without competition, [products] get worse." (Nick, 14:24)

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3. The White House “Tech Force”: Coding for Country

Timestamps: 16:33–20:21

• The Launch:

  • "The White House just announced the Tech Force. It's like the Peace Corps, but for programmers." (Nick, 16:33)
  • 1,000 techies can join Tech Force for two years at $150k–$200k/year plus benefits, tackling government IT and UX messes (17:35).

• Why This Matters:

  • "Government apps can have infuriating design… The DMV is full of friction." (Nick, 17:08)

  • 29 major companies (Zoom among them) pledged to let employees take a sabbatical to join and then return (18:52–19:06).

  • Tech Force is positioned as public service, like military or Teach for America, not just another job—should be a résumé flex for future tech careers (18:21–18:34).

    "Just like military service looks good on a resume, so should the Tech Force service on a resume." (Jack, 18:27)

• Lesson from Healthcare.gov Failure:

  • In 2013, the Obamacare website failed on launch because the government prioritized "fairness"—letting everyone on at once, rather than "effectiveness"—a techie-recommended phased rollout (19:27–20:07).
  • "If the thing you built, it doesn't matter how fair it is if it doesn't even work." (Jack, 20:14)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Gift Cards’ True Beneficiary:

  "Gift cards are really? Gifts for the company that issued them." (Nick, 20:29)

• On Overspending:

  "We call it top off tension." (Jack, 09:28)

• On Market Disruption:

  "Zillow's CEO felt something this week he hasn't felt in 11 years. What he felt was urgency." (Nick, 13:28)

• On Tech Force Branding:

  "A job at Techforce should not be compared to a job at Meta. In our opinion, it should be compared to military service or the Peace Corps…" (Nick, 18:12)

• On Public Service & Effectiveness:

  "The laws should be fair. The implementation of the laws must actually work." (Nick, 20:53)

---

Bonus Segments

Uber Eats Wrapped, “Year-in-Review” Gags

Timestamps: 01:28–02:41

• Inspired by SNL, Uber Eats launched a Spotify-style year-in-review—Nick ate 13 banh mi sandwiches in 2025.
• Jack and Nick riff on imagined yearly recaps for Gmail ("You forgot to attach 26 attachments"), Tinder ("Three quarters of your dates are holding a trout…"), and more.

Rapid-fire Business Updates

Timestamps: 21:02–22:19

• Jobs Report: Unemployment at a four-year high (4.6%), but mostly due to voluntary buyouts in government jobs.
• Tesla: Stock doubled, Elon Musk’s net worth at $600B+.
• Duolingo: Oddly taking over old Hooters restaurant sites with their owl mascot.

Best Fact Yet

Timestamps: 22:27–23:30

• Mariah Carey's involvement in another Christmas hit, "Where Are You, Christmas?" sung by Faith Hill—plus, Mariah breaks chart records with "All I Want For Christmas Is You."

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Conclusion & Takeaways

• Gift cards are convenient for givers, highly profitable for companies, and not always a great deal for recipients—consider cash instead.
• Zillow faces its first real challenge in a decade from Google; innovation is urgently needed. Adding transparency via a "Name Your Price" feature could transform real estate.
• The White House’s Tech Force aims to attract top tech talent to government as a prestigious, resume-boosting public service, hoping to avoid mistakes of the past by emphasizing effectiveness over fairness.

Seasonal humor, sharp takes, and energetic banter make this episode a classic TBOY listen—serving up both laughs and the latest in pop business news.

Transcript

[A]

This is Nick, this is Jack.

[B]

It's Wednesday. Ceviche Wednesday, December 17th. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T, boy.

[A]

The top three pop business news stories you need to know today.

[B]

Whoa, Jack, the dreidel rally not looking good. We're halfway through Hanukkah. Stocks are down, man.

[A]

Yeah, I think we jinxed it. I think we shouldn't have mentioned the dreidel rally at all.

[B]

Yeah, stocks been down for two straight days while you've been lighting those candles. But we are still close to an all time stock market high market tough.

[A]

See what I. I do.

[B]

See what you did there, Jack? Three stories for today's show. What do we got on the tea boy?

[A]

For our first story, the most popular gift in America for the holidays. A gift card.

[B]

Gift cards. Even though 20% of that gift card is going straight to Starbucks profits.

[A]

For our second story, Zillow is being zucked by Google. So the stock dropped by 10% on Monday.

[B]

But Jack and I have a wild idea to renovate Zillow's business inspired by a pro wrestler. Name your price.

[A]

What pro wrestler is that?

[B]

You're gonna hear about the pro WRESTLER.

[A]

And our third and story, the White House just launched the U.S. tech Force.

[B]

One thousand techies will get paid up to 200 grand a year to work for the government.

[A]

And we think this tech force is the new resume flex.

[B]

Yes, we do.

[A]

But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories.

[B]

What a mix of stories for ceviche Wednesday. Jack, no one else is doing this mix.

[A]

To quote the legendary British yeti Oscar Wilde, life imitates art.

[B]

Like how Saturday Night Live did a skit about Uber Eats wrapped over the weekend.

[A]

And then Uber actually launched Uber Eats Eats wrapped this week.

[B]

No joke. The comedy show joked that Uber should give a year in review on food delivery. Spotify style.

[A]

Like you're in the top 99% of chicken nugget eaters worldwide.

[B]

Like your culinary taste is like a 50 year old couch potato.

[A]

Or even worse, you spent 24 grand this year on Uber Eats.

[B]

But 48 hours after that SNL skit, Uber launched that joke.

[A]

But for real, it's called Uber Uber. And according to Nick's Uber wrapped, he ate 13 banh mi sandwiches this year. I'm more of a doordash guy.

[B]

I'm a Banh Mi guy. What can I say? So Jack and I decided to whip up some other surprise companies that we think should do a year in review. Jack, kick us off.

[A]

I'd love to see A Gmail wrapped?

[B]

Yeah, like you Forgot to attach 26 attachments. Jack.

[A]

Or Tinder wrapped?

[B]

Three quarters of your dates are holding a trout in their profile pic.

[A]

That's a huge fish. How about therapy wrapped?

[B]

Nick, you brought up your mother 463 times this year, my friend.

[A]

That's some little T trauma right there.

[B]

But, Jack, what about a Microsoft Teams wrapped?

[A]

90% of your pings were passive aggressive.

[B]

No, you don't have to do it.

[C]

It's fine.

[A]

Yeah, could you do the thing you promised me you'd do?

[B]

I will just circle back next year.

[A]

Besties.

[B]

Happy rap season to all those who celebrate.

[A]

Let's hit our three stories.

[D]

Fifteen years before this song, two boys from the northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm. Jack.

[C]

Nick.

[D]

That's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50%. That's a fat tip. T boy city on your at Liz. If you know, you know. Cause we read to go. We can't wait no more so just.

[B]

Start the show.

[D]

Start the show, start the show.

[B]

First, a quick word from our sponsor.

[A]

Now a quick break. Switching topics to one of our favorite sponsors, Vital proteins yeties.

[B]

One of the three T boy team goals next year is to grow huge on YouTube.

[A]

YouTube means video. Video means people looking at us. That means we gotta look good, Nick.

[B]

Look at this skin glowing. Jack. Look at that hair shining over there. It's thanks to vital proteins, which we add to our morning drinks every day for healthy ha.

[A]

Skin, nails, bones, and joint health. If you're watching right now, check out these dimples. It's vital proteins.

[B]

So go to vitalproteins.com to learn more and where to buy.

[A]

Get 20% off your next order by entering promo code T boy at checkout. Audible yetis.

[B]

I just listened to a wild audiobook on my flight back to New York. Here's what it's called. Gods of New York.

[A]

It's about four men. The four men who ruled New York City the year that you were born. Nick.

[B]

I got to give my parents credit, Jack. New York in 1988 was insane. It was like mob bosses, gang fights, and all these subway cars covered in graffiti. It's like seeing how the city was run when my mom was, like, pregnant with me. I'm blown away by this whole new imagination.

[A]

Now I listen to audible all the time. Whenever I need a break from news podcasts, I escape to an audiobook and simply push play. Wherever I left Off.

[B]

Because Audible has an incredible selection of over a million audiobooks, podcasts, and audio originals all in one easy app.

[A]

Explore bestsellers, new releases, or find a wild story that takes you back to the year that your mom gave birth to you.

[B]

Last night, while I was doing the dishes, Jack, I listened to a story about the abysmal late 1980s New York Yankees.

[A]

Yeah, I feel bad for your dad. At least the Giants were winning back then.

[B]

Besties. There is more to imagine when you listen.

[A]

Sign up for a free 30 day audible trial. And your first audiobook is free. So visit audible.comt boy.

[B]

For our first story. The most popular gift in America this year. The same gift as every year. That's right. It's the gift card.

[A]

The gift card is thriving in this economy, but the biggest winner is not the person who gets it.

[B]

All right, Jack, we got a whole white elephant strategy going on here. What are you gonna do? You gonna give socks chocolate cash? What are you thinking, man?

[A]

Odds are you're giving somebody a $20 Starbucks gift card because the Starbucks gift.

[B]

Card may be the most popular gift in America. And we got the data.

[A]

Get Schultz, the former CEO of Starbucks, said in 2015 that that year one out of seven Americans received a Starbucks gift card for the holidays.

[B]

25 bucks for two double digit lattes.

[A]

Last year, Starbucks said they were the number two gift card in the country behind the Visa gift card.

[B]

In fact, just last Christmas, the revenue booked by Starbucks for gift cards was 3.5 billion bucks. Jack, can you sprinkle on some context?

[A]

That Christmas gift card revenue from Starbucks is bigger than the entire annual revenues of Instac Card, sofi, or Burberry.

[B]

Not combined, but still impressive. And in this economy, inflation has made the gift card the socially acceptable gift.

[A]

Pretty much every brand sells a gift card or gift certificate these days.

[B]

It is wild.

[A]

Including TSA Precheck.

[B]

Yeah, that TSA Precheck. While we were preparing this podcast, I got an email from Waymo Jack offering me a robo taxi gift card.

[A]

Really?

[B]

Yeah. Even they're doing it now. Besties, we should point out we would not suggest a gift card for like a five year anniversary present. Right.

[A]

Unless it's a Gucci gift card. Nick and I just found out that Gucci does gift cards up to €50,000.

[B]

Yeah. Sit down, stand up and we'll take two, please. But Yetis, here is the problem. Consumers are held captive by gift cards.

[A]

This is wild. Capital One research found that Americans buy $500 billion of gift cards each year. Yeah, which is a shocking. 1.6% of our nation's GDP.

[B]

I'm sorry our economy is held captive by gift cards.

[A]

But, Nick, that half a trillion dollars we spend is not well spent for two big reasons.

[B]

First, gift cards are like cash, but they're not cash. An unused gift card is like cash without benefits.

[A]

You don't collect interest. Also, unlike cash, we lose gift cards. We forget we had them, or we let them expire by accident.

[B]

Forever 21. You owe me like, 200 bucks at this point, bro.

[A]

Now, estimates vary, but somewhere between 10 and 20% of gift cards are never redeemed.

[B]

But Jack, back to those Starbucks gift cards. They never expire, and yet Starbucks books the cards not used within 12 months as profit because the chances they actually get used are basically nil.

[A]

Starbucks booked $1.8 billion of pure 100% profit just from unused gift cards last year.

[B]

Now really frustrated. Forever 21.

[A]

Now, 12 states have introduced laws to help US consumers capture the gift card value that we're entitled to.

[B]

It's a new. They're called the demand, the change laws. And Jack, how do these things work?

[A]

If a gift card is down to its last 10% of value, you can ask for the rest in cash. You can demand change, basically.

[B]

But in the meantime, besties, we all have a gift card library of plastic sitting somewhere in a drawer in our homes.

[A]

And since they're unlabeled, you have no idea if there's only 3 cents left on that card or like 30 bucks or 300 bucks.

[B]

You show up to the cash register at Sephora and you're like, can I afford this? We're playing gift card roulette today, aren't we, baby?

[A]

But still, despite all the issues we just said about gift cards, there's a lot of issues. I bet you bought your Buddy Timmy a $50 Starbucks gift card for Kwanzaa this year.

[B]

Guilty. Which leads to our big question. Should you buy a gift card in the first place as a gift? Is this the right financial decision?

[A]

Spoiler, no.

[B]

So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies buying gift cards? In this economy, the gift card is.

[A]

The rare triple profit puppy for the company that issued it.

[B]

And here's why. Yetis. First, the company gets cash up front, and second, the unused balance becomes pure profit.

[A]

But the wildest profit source for gift cards is the third. Because when you do spend a gift card as a consumer, you tend to overspend on that gift card by a lot.

[B]

Actually, that's right. In order to use up all of the card, you typically have to pay more than the actual gift card is.

[A]

Worth by 30 to 40% on average.

[B]

That's the average.

[A]

We call it top off tension. Let's say you get a hundred dollar Birkenstock gift card. You buy sandals for 80 bucks. To redeem the extra 20 you gotta buy another $80 thing. So suddenly you're 160 bucks in the hole.

[B]

Next thing you know, Jack's bought his whole family Birkenstock shoes.

[A]

That's why for companies, gift cards are Christmas, Kwanzaa and Hanukkah all in one.

[B]

It's the rare triple profit puppy Yetis.

[A]

It's not romantic and it can feel cold, but cash is always king. You're better off giving 100 bucks in cash.

[B]

Let us know what you think in the comments for our second story. Zillow is getting zucked with new Competition from the 1100 pound Internet Gorilla named Google.

[A]

This is the perfect excuse for Zillow to take a risk and launch something new.

[B]

Come on, Zillow.

[A]

And we have a great idea.

[B]

Oh, Jack, one sec. Sorry, I'm just sexting with Molly about a five bedroom beachside condo we have no intention of ever buying.

[A]

Yetis. Turns out Zillow isn't just Zillow. In 2013 it acquired Street Easy and in 2014 it acquired Trulia.

[B]

And Jack, what was the result of Those acquisitions?

[A]

A 50% market share of the huge real estate listing industry.

[B]

Zillow's got a Zillopoly Redfin. They're a distant number two, which is 15% of the industry.

[A]

So for a decade, Zillow has enjoyed dominant market share and can charge real estate agents whatever fees they like.

[B]

But here's the news. On Monday, Zillow stock fell 10% on Word. Google is dipping its toes into real estate. Google getting a real estate license now?

[A]

Just a test, but screenshots show that if you search homes for sale in Denver, you might get a Google real estate listing at the top of the Google results. That's a new thing, right?

[B]

Google is Zuck and Zillow. Imagine this. Google could add a layer on Google Maps showing price and values of each home on any street in the world.

[A]

That would be brutal for Zillow.

[B]

Boom.

[A]

Zillow would lose market share to Google. It would have to drop its fees.

[B]

Basically, the new kid on the real estate block is a big kid.

[A]

Again, this is just a test, but it would be bad for Zillow.

[B]

But besties Jack and I got a couple ideas to renovate Zillow to help them Stay ahead of whatever Google launches or doesn't launch.

[A]

One that we'll share today is inspired by the marketing guru Rory Sutherland, and it's called Name youe Price.

[B]

Yeah, we call it Name youe Price because to quote the wrestler Ted DiBiase, aka the Million Dollar man, everyone has a price.

[A]

Right now, Zillow only shows the prices of houses that are on the market.

[B]

Right?

[A]

AKA the seller wants to sell this house, so they've listed it.

[B]

Okay, but, Jack, what if Zillow also showed the prices of the houses not on the market?

[A]

We're not talking about Zestimates, but an actual price the owner could list that they would be willing to sell for, you'd move for, even though they're not actively trying to sell the house right now.

[B]

Yeah, you're not moving right now. But if I got, say, I don't know, a million buck offer, you would move. No one knows it, but that's your price.

[A]

We call this the name your price price. And Zillow should let homeowners toss it on their home's page.

[B]

Basically, I'm happy here living on West End Avenue, but, yeah, I would move out for a million dollars deal right now.

[A]

As a homeowner to test the market, you face the friction of listing, staging.

[B]

Prepping, getting an agent, dropping 15,000 bucks on FIG trees to decorate the house.

[A]

But if Zillow let homeowners name your price, that would solve that. It'd be transparency about the market beyond just the listed houses, and that could drive more transactions.

[B]

Jack, I got a real life example here. Over the summer, Molly and I wrote a letter about a house we loved and left it in their mailbox and said, if you guys are ever going to move, hit us up, let us know. We would do a deal.

[A]

And based on your letter, they said, yeah, maybe we are open to moving. And you had a conversation?

[B]

Yeah, they were, like, on the fence about moving, and this, like, got them off the fence.

[A]

You almost sealed the deal. Didn't work out. It didn't work out. But it shows that transparency about more willingness to. To maybe move if the right price is offered could heat up this frozen housing market we're in.

[B]

That's what we're thinking. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Zillow?

[A]

The secret ingredient to getting better is a competitor.

[B]

Yetis, Zillow's CEO, felt something this week he hasn't felt in 11 years. What he felt was urgency.

[A]

Zillow probably declared code red. All hands on deck. Google is attacking us. We gotta get better.

[B]

It's a wood panel deck, by the way, Jack. Like, how do we make Zillow better? What can we do that Google can't? I need ideas, people.

[A]

That mentality of what can we do better? That should be the default for any company in the market. But it's not the default if your company has no competition.

[B]

And exhibit A of that is Google. Google search didn't change for 10 years. It just got jacked up with more links jammed into it and made it a worse experience.

[A]

But with new competition, finally from OpenAI, Google is adding all sorts of new features to Chrome and search that are really useful. Finally.

[B]

Well, besties, now that Zillow faces competition, ironically from Google, it's finally facing pressure.

[A]

To improve, to renovate itself if there's competition. Products get better. Without competition, they get worse.

[B]

Now, a quick word from our sponsor.

[A]

For the holidays, I'm hosting people every single weekend, and I don't know any of them.

[B]

What is wrong with you, Nick?

[A]

They're actually paid customers. I'm hosting them at my chalet using Airbnb. I actually have two bookings lined up while I'm away, bringing in really good money for the holidays.

[B]

Oh, okay, I got it. Yeti Jack's been an Airbnb host for the last couple years. He's got a better rating than Santa.

[A]

I'll be at home for Christmas under the Christmas tree, but the day after, I'm heading south to visit the family. And while I'm gone, I'm hosting guests on Airbnb.

[B]

And with the revenue generated on Airbnb, Jack, you're probably booking massages for you and Alex.

[A]

It's an entire little side business. I have an income statement, Nick. It offsets my cost of travel and ensures I'm getting the most of the assets I own.

[B]

It's a write off.

[A]

All of my guests have been super respectful. Not only do I have a five star rating, I've given my guests five stars, too.

[B]

So, besties, treat yourself with the trip and treat someone else with a stay.

[A]

Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how [e-mail] host this show is brought to you by BetterHelp.

[B]

You know, Yeti's in my family. We go around the table and we vent about which stock we all wished we'd bought last year.

[A]

Nick and my family, we play flag football. And the losing team has to wear a suit to dinner.

[B]

Okay, one more tradition we have over the holidays, Jack. A therapy session. I do the week between Christmas and New Year's.

[A]

The holidays can be great or they can be stressful. Yeah, you're looking forward to next year. Again, that can be great. Or they can cause anxiety.

[B]

So incorporating therapy into the holidays can make them a lot more joyful.

[A]

BetterHelp is a network of 30,000 therapists, the world's largest online therapy platform.

[B]

And those therapists have an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 with 1.7 million reviews.

[A]

Tell your therapist what you're anxious about heading into these holidays. Getting it out there will be a huge weight lifted off your shoulders.

[B]

So if you start therapy this holiday, you can support the show by starting it with BetterHelp and using the code below.

[A]

This December, start a new tradition by taking care of you.

[B]

Our listeners get 10% [e-mail] tboy that's.

[A]

Betterhelp.Com tboy.

[B]

For our third and final story, the White House just announced the Tech Force. It's like the Peace Corps, but for programmers.

[A]

For two years and for pretty good pay, you can leave your private sector job in the tech industry to serve your country.

[B]

Really good pay.

[A]

We think it's a great idea and we hope it works.

[B]

Yetis Uncle Sam famously told civilians, I want you for the US Army. But here's our question. What about US Apps?

[A]

It's no secret that government websites and government online workflows, they don't always work, do they?

[B]

Yeah, Silicon Valley apps have ingenious design. Government apps can have infuriating design.

[A]

I'm refreshing the page, Representative. Oh wait, there is no representative.

[B]

Yeah, the DMV is full of friction. So to alleviate this national problem, the White House just announced and just launched the US Tech Force.

[A]

A two year service opportunity for American tech workers to leave the private sector and come to Washington D.C. to fix systems across the federal government.

[B]

And Jack, jumping into the numbers here, the pay pretty, pretty, pretty good.

[A]

150 to $200,000 salary plus benefits and a possible bonus for a government worker.

[B]

And unlike Doge, which had partisan motivation, the tech force will do non political work.

[A]

As the White House said yesterday, if you want to help your country lead in the age of rapid technological advancement, we need you.

[B]

Or if Jack and I were running things, we would have said, make the DMV run like Airbnb.

[A]

But the key to the mission of this tech force is branding.

[B]

Because Techforce is being positioned not as a job, but as a service to your country.

[A]

Up to $200,000. That is a high income, but relative to what tech companies pay, it's actually not.

[B]

However, a job at Techforce should not be compared to a job at Meta. In our opinion. It should be compared to military service or the Peace Corps or Teach for America.

[A]

It should be compared to a service, something you're proud that you're doing as a duty and that company should be impressed by too.

[B]

And here's the value add. Just like military service looks good on a resume, so should the Tech Force service on a resume.

[A]

And yetis, unlike the $2,000 tariff, dividend checks and other Trump announcements that have gone nowhere, this Tech Force appears on track. And like it will actually happen.

[B]

Yeah, this was not just at Truth Social Post. There is a website, an app page, commitments from 29 companies. We dove in T Boy style to double check all of this.

[A]

29 A list tech companies have pledged to support their employees to leave the company and join the Tech Force.

[B]

Basically like a sabbatical, right man? Yeah.

[A]

Take two years off from your job here at Zoom. Do your duty at the Tech Force. You've got a job here at Zoom.

[B]

Whenever you're coming back and there'll probably be cupcakes waiting for you. Yetis, the government's open for techies to enlist in the Techforce who will take government systems from dial up to the AI era. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Techforce?

[A]

One reason our government websites are terrible is fairness. Instead, let's measure effectiveness.

[B]

Yetis, there's an interesting case study on how not to launch a government initiative. Healthcare.gov, the Obamacare health insurance marketplace in 2013.

[A]

Healthcare.gov's launch was a disaster, but ironically, it was doomed by good intentions.

[B]

You see, back then, the Obama administration's priority was fairness. Let everyone access the website at the same time. Make sense?

[A]

Techies knew though that that was a bad idea. Engineers wanted a phased rollout of healthcare.gov so the website wouldn't be overwhelmed with traffic all at once on the day that it launched.

[B]

But unfortunately those tech oriented people got overruled. And the result? A broken site that didn't work for anyone for weeks.

[A]

Nick, I'm an enneagram1 fairness is a cardinal principle that I care about.

[B]

I know it is yours Jack, but.

[A]

If the thing you built, it doesn't matter how fair it is. If it doesn't even work.

[B]

Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for Ceviche Wednesday?

[A]

Gift cards are the most popular holiday gift every year and it's not even close.

[B]

They're the rare triple profit puppy because gift cards are really? Gifts for the company that issued them.

[A]

For our second story, Zillow is under pressure as Google is dipping its toes in the real estate listing market.

[B]

This ain't just new competition. It's an opportunity to make Zillow better. Zillow launch. Name your price.

[A]

And finally, the Trump White House just launched a US tech force. 1000 techies can leave their private businesses and fix government systems.

[B]

The laws should be fair. The implementation of the laws must actually work.

[A]

But besties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today.

[B]

First, welcome back to the jobs report. We just got our first jobs report in two months and Jack, it's a slowdown. Why don't you whip up the numbers for us?

[A]

The unemployment rate rose to 4.6% in November, which is a four year high. We've lost jobs actually net net since September.

[B]

But it is not as bad as it looks because 130,000 lost jobs were voluntary buyouts of government workers.

[A]

So all in all, it's a continued cooldown of the labor market that's been going on for a year or two.

[B]

And second, Tesla stock has rallied, more than doubling this year and just closed at an all high.

[A]

Elon Musk's net worth has ballooned to over 600 billion, which is 77 lifts.

[B]

Not too shabby.

[A]

And more than Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos combined.

[B]

That's just huge. Tesla is betting on humanoid robots and robo taxis, not car sales anymore.

[A]

And so are its investors.

[B]

And finally, remember, Jack and I did that story on the bankruptcy of Hooters restaurant. And like the Hooters founders were trying to buy back the brand.

[A]

Well, pretty randomly, four shut down Hooters locations have been taken over by Duolingo, the language learning app whose mascot is an owl.

[B]

Yeah, this week Duo put his logo across four shuttered Hooters locations. But no word on why he's doing it.

[A]

I don't know what Duo the owl is up to. I think he's just doing this for the clicks.

[B]

Spanish language restaurant. Migustas. Tres tacos, Jack. Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Brent Hendricks from lovely New York City.

[A]

Push and play.

[C]

So you know All I Want for Christmas Is yous by Mariah Carey. But did you know that Mariah's talent is also behind the holiday hit Where Are you, Christmas? That's sung by Faith Hill. It was originally written for the 2000 film how the Grinch Stole Christmas, but Mariah added additional lyrics to turn it into an uplifting holiday power ballad. However, the recording took place during her separation from Sony CEO Tommy Mottola, so the song was given to Faith Hill to record. Not to fear, if you're a Mariah fan, the artist has two entire Christmas albums to get you through this year's holiday season. Uh oh.

[A]

Oh.

[B]

Trigger warning for all the Buble fans out there. Jack, I am. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry we had to bring Buble back into the pot again. Have you recovered from yesterday's show?

[A]

You just mentioned him twice. Dude.

[B]

No, dude, I agree. I agree with you. His tie is too thin.

[A]

I don't know what he's hiding there.

[B]

In the meantime, though, congratulations to Mariah Carey, who just set a record of longest streak of one song as number one in the singles charts.

[A]

All I want for Christmas.

[B]

You look fantastic out there. And if you also bought 13 banh mi sandwiches and dropped 24 grand on Uber Eats over the last year. We want to hear from you about what company should launch a wrapped.

[A]

I know there's a lot of Costco fans out there that want their Costco wrapped.

[B]

You were wrapped in Kirkland toilet paper wrapped courtesy of Kirkland.

[A]

Drop your pick in the comments and Nick and I will see you tomorrow.

[B]

Hyh tvoi if you know, you know. And before we go, a shout out to YETI Fernando R. Marea, a yeti on Spotify, who is at our Chicago show and just bought tickets to our live show in Washington, dc. Can't wait to see you there, Fernando.

[A]

And a big shout out to Ajay Hira, who's listening all year over in Hong Kong.

[B]

And Carrie, the newest YETI bestie out there. Welcome. We saw you on Spotify. Thanks for joining the pod.

[A]

A shout out to Ryan, who's sent us a cool story on Flock, the license plate scanner company. Nick and I are interested.

[B]

And a congrats to Emily Joy Ashmead, who ran the Phoenix marathon and made it a T Boy two with the best sign in the race.

[A]

And a big shout out to Christian Gonzalez, who ran the Dallas Half Marathon and his wife Kimber had the best sign yet.

[B]

And Tushar Gupta, congrats on launching your fitness app, Fitness wrapped. Perfect timing.

[A]

Happy 33rd birthday to Prasanthi in Frisco, Texas.

[B]

And happy birthday to Sofia Aguirre, turning 45 years old down in Hotlanta, Georgia.

[A]

And happy 18th birthday to Maddy Sussman in Woodbridge, Connecticut, who just got into her dream school, Tulane.

[B]

Ride that green wave to the birthday party. And Joaquin Valenzuela is turning 14 years old over in Des Moines, Iowa. Happy birthday, Joaquin.

[A]

Happy birthday to Evan Thomas in Austin, Texas.

[B]

We'll see you at the live show. And Maureen Sanchez has the best birthday yet in New York City, calling the show the Teddy instead of the T boy.

[A]

Okay, I'll take that. I have a brother named Teddy. We'll take it.

[B]

We'll take it.

[A]

This is Jack. I own stock of Lyft. Nick owns stock in Zillow. And we both own stock in Airbnb and Spotify. If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad free right now by joining Wondery and the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.

[B]

Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon Music. And before you go, tell us a.

[A]

Little bit about yourself by filling out a short [e-mail] survey.

[B]

We want to get to know you.