📅 “Year in Review 2025” — Maxxing, Robots, & Kale Collar Workers

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Year in Review 2025 — Maxxing, Robots, & Kale Collar Workers"

Podcast: The Best One Yet
Hosts: Nick Martell & Jack Crivici-Kramer
Date: December 22, 2025
Episode Theme: A brisk, humorous, and insight-rich recap of the three biggest consumer and business trends of 2025, with their signature blend of pop-culture references and playful banter.

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Episode Overview

Nick and Jack deliver a fast-paced, punchy "pop biz" year in review—skipping the obvious Trump, AI, and affordability headlines to highlight three unique 2025 trends: maxxing (across everything, not just protein), the robot workforce shift, and the rise (and squeeze) of kale-collar workers. Through quick-witted analysis, they connect the dots between gold-plated protein bars, humanoid laundry bots, and the thrift-driven survival instincts of young urban professionals.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

[05:52] 1. Everything "Maxxing"—From Protein to Policies to Predictions

• Protein Maxxing: In 2025, adding protein to everything became a lifestyle, not just a flex.
  • Nick: “If you didn’t eat a dozen grams of protein two times a dozen days daily, then your muscles might spontaneously liquefy.” [06:07]
  • Notable: David Bar, a startup, hit $750M valuation with gold-plated protein bars; protein fish fillets and “protein popcorn” by Khloe Kardashian.
  • “Starbucks said the word protein 19 times in their earnings call.” [07:01]
• Maxxing Goes Macro: The “maxxing” trend spread throughout the economy—work, policy, investing.
  • Office Maxxing, Valuation Maxxing (SpaceX, OpenAI), and Tariff Maxxing.
  • “Trump’s Liberation Day Tariffs eventually hit 145% for China... Maximalist trade policies, maximalist communication strategies, maximalist starting points with every negotiation.” [07:43]
• The Casino Economy: All this “maxxing” funneled into a new cultural and business reality.
  • Legalization of “prediction markets” everywhere—platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket hitting $10B+ valuations.
  • “Investing, betting and predicting all got mixed up together to the max.” [09:18]
  • Robinhood launches prediction markets; betting on earnings call word mentions.

Key Quote

• Jack: “In this economy, the result of everything maxing is the casino economy.” [08:37]

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[09:38] 2. Robots Got Promoted—But Still Can’t Fold Laundry

• Robot Uprising (by Promotion): In 2025, autonomous technology goes mainstream—Robo-taxis, warehouse bots, and humanoid home robots.
  • Robo-taxis now operate in multiple cities (Waymo in 5, Tesla in 2, Zoox in 2).
  • “Waymos are involved in 90% fewer accidents than human-driven cars. We just got the data last month.” [10:42]
• Robots at Work: Amazon’s upcoming plan to replace 600,000 warehouse jobs by 2033; Tesla rollouts humanoid kitchen bots; Palantir’s robotics for defense.
  • “Amazon already has 1 million robots rolling around their warehouses…” [11:28]
• Home Robots—Not There Yet: Household humanoids (Figure AI, 1X Tech, Tesla) still can’t do laundry, and aren’t dexterous enough for everyday chores.
  • “Home robots still can’t pass the laundry test.” [12:30]
  • The potential for liberating time for “kale collar” workers is huge—once robots finally become usable at home.

Key Quote

• Nick: “Homebots could unlock precious hours of the day for all of us who are time poor.” [13:06]
• Jack: “From our research this year, home robots just don’t have the dexterity to pass the laundry test quite yet.” [13:32]

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[15:40] 3. Slop Bowls, Kale Collar Workers & Thriftonomics

• The Rise & Retreat of the Kale Collar Worker: Young urban professionals (“kale collar”—lunch-bowl devotees) got squeezed by stagnant wages and rising costs.
  • Chipotle, Sweetgreen, Cava—all stopped growing, their stocks falling 37–78%.
  • “White collar workers don’t need to pay 18 bucks for your daily lunch.” [16:45]
• Trading Down: “Zillennials” cutting costs across the board—ditching pricey lunches, trading down cars, cutting subscriptions, favoring leftovers.
  • Affordability as a major political talking point; “kale-collar” = working at a desktop, living in a city, eating efficient salads.
• Embracing Thriftonomics & “Dupes”: Massive upswing in secondhand shopping, discount stores, and off-brand alternatives.
  • Thredup’s stock up 500%, TJ Maxx massively outperforming Lululemon.
  • “Now time for the best fact yet... And it’s the term of the year: flooding the zone.” [19:44]

Key Quotes

• Nick: “In 2025, Americans fully embraced duponomics and the thrift economy.” [18:55]
• Jack: “Makes a lot of sense. Nick and I are doing it too.” [18:07]

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[19:44] Term of the Year: Flooding the Zone

• Originally a White House phrase, "flooding the zone" went mainstream to describe overwhelming the market or discussion with volume—AI products, AI-generated content, and more.
  • Sam Altman “flooded the zone with a whole bunch of product launches this year.” [20:00]
  • “Each of those new products flooded the Zone with AI slop.” [20:04]
  • “Technically, the floodgates for sloppification are open now.” [20:27]

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Notable Moments & Quotes

• Pop Culture Rapid-fire Recap: [02:11–03:33]
  • Lightning round: “Chipotle became a Louis Vuitton luxury… Bitcoin up to $125k and then fell 30%… Tom Brady cloned his dog… The penny became extinct…”
• Personal News—Initial Baby Offerings (IBOs): [03:12]
  • Nick: “We both had kids. Jack had a son named Oakley. I had a daughter named Selena.”
• Sponsor Banter: [04:12; 13:36; 14:40]
  (skipped from detailed summary)
• Audience Engagement & Spirit: [21:02]
  • “The way we grow is when you tell your friends. And so if you got a buddy looking for a new podcast, morning routine, New Year’s resolution kind of thing, this show should be sent to them.” — Jack

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Segment Timestamps

• [00:36] Show Start & Main Themes
• [02:11] 2025 Rapid-Fire Year-in-Review
• [05:52] Story #1: Everything Maxxing & Casino Economy
• [09:38] Story #2: Robots (at Work, not Home)
• [15:40] Story #3: Kale Collar Workers & Thrift Economy
• [19:44] Best Fact Yet: Flooding the Zone
• [21:02] Community Appreciation & Closing

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Summary Takeaways

• Protein maxxing became the 2025 archetype... but the mentality of “MAX EVERYTHING” spilled into every part of the economy, leading to a new “casino economy,” where betting, investing, and predicting merged.
• Robots got promoted: 2025 saw blue-collar bots and robo-taxis go mainstream, but home robots still don’t make our lives easier (yet).
• Kale collar workers: Urban, professional, millennial/Gen Z “knowledge workers” were squeezed by high prices, retrenchment, and laid the groundwork for a thrift-driven, “dupe” embracing economy.
• "Flooding the Zone": The year’s catch-all phrase—AI, business, and government all shifted to overwhelming their platforms/audiences with choice (and sometimes slop), for better or worse.

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Memorable Quotes

“In this economy, the result of everything maxing is the casino economy.”
— Jack [08:37]

“Waymos are involved in 90% fewer accidents than human-driven cars. We just got the data last month.”
— Nick [10:42]

"Homebots could unlock precious hours of the day for all of us who are time poor."
— Nick [13:06]

“White collar workers don’t need to pay 18 bucks for your daily lunch.”
— Nick [16:45]

"Flooding the Zone was the term of the year… the floodgates for sloppification are open now."
— Nick [19:54, 20:27]

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Final Notes & Tone

• Breezy, witty, inside-joke-laden banter (and a few gentle self-roasts).
• The hosts punctuate major points with humor but don’t shy from the actual business details and trends.
• Listener community celebrated: shoutouts and encouragement to share the pod for 2026.

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If you want a smart, funny, and lightning-paced take on 2025’s big business and consumer shifts—plus some fun predictions for next year—this episode’s a must-listen.

Transcript

[Nick]

Yetis, Nick and Jack here from the T Boy Studio. Before our year in review episode, we've.

[Jack]

Only been on sale for our live show for less than two weeks. That's it. And the Yetis have already snapped up over half of the tickets.

[Nick]

54% of the tickets sold.

[Jack]

Austin is pretty much sold out.

[Nick]

New York, now or never. Grab those tickets, baby.

[Jack]

So this would be a great holiday gift for somebody. We got links in the episode description to our first four cities of the IPO tour, our in person offering.

[Nick]

So besties in 2026. We can't wait to see you live. Grab your tickets, Jack. Let's hit the show. All right, Jack, here we go. Three, two.

[Jack]

This is Nick. This is Jack.

[Nick]

Welcome back. It is Monday, December 22, and today's year in review episode is the best one yet. It's a T, boy.

[Jack]

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

[Nick]

Yetis, let's be real. The three biggest forces in business this year. Trump, AI and affordability.

[Jack]

For more on that, look at every single newsletter, podcast and social media post from every single day of this entire year.

[Nick]

Breaking news, Trump and Sam Altman dominate the inflation headlines.

[Jack]

We're not going to cover Trump's takeover of the term sheet, AI's takeover of the markets or the K shaped economy.

[Nick]

No besties. Instead, Jack and I found the three biggest pop biz themes of 2025.

[Jack]

The ones that made business news your business this year.

[Nick]

So Jack, the three stories for today's show. What do we got on the tea boy?

[Jack]

For our first story, the consumer trend of the year was protein maxing.

[Nick]

Protein maxing. But Jack and I noticed that in this economy everything is maxing.

[Jack]

For our second 2025 is the year that robots got promoted.

[Nick]

From Waymo highway cars to Amazon warehouse bots to the human sized robots that are doing your laundry. Robots got promoted.

[Jack]

And our third and final story, the final theme of the year is Kale collared workers.

[Nick]

Kale collared workers. We all practice duponomics and learn to thrive in the thrift economy.

[Jack]

But Yetis, before we hit that wonderful.

[Nick]

Mix, I mean, what a mix to end the year on. Love the mix. Jack.

[Jack]

You can't remember everything that happened this year?

[Nick]

No, I can't. Jack, what do you think?

[Jack]

Let's whip up the entire business year in 62nd.

[Nick]

I like what you're thinking. And let's start now.

[Jack]

Stocks hit all time highs, an all.

[Nick]

Time high number of times.

[Jack]

You survived the great Matcha shortage, but.

[Nick]

Your AMX fee hit 895 bucks.

[Jack]

Chipotle became a Louis Vuitton luxury, and.

[Nick]

Coldplay became a kiss cam.

[Jack]

We saw the Sydney Sweeney stock surge.

[Nick]

While electric cars got unplugged.

[Jack]

Bitcoin had momentum, hitting 125k.

[Nick]

But then Bitcoin had momentum and fell 30%.

[Jack]

OpenAI started the year looking green, but.

[Nick]

Ended the year with a code red.

[Jack]

We had Harvard major grade inflation.

[Nick]

And your email had exclamation inflation.

[Jack]

Mini soap operas became a big business while Warner Bros.

[Nick]

Became someone's little brothers.

[Jack]

We got the rise of mugs.

[Nick]

Uggs for men and ath Skeezerware ski gear for women.

[Jack]

Warren Buffett announced his retirement, Jeff Bezos announced his UN retirement.

[Nick]

And Tom Brady cloned his dog.

[Jack]

This year, we brought back the dire wolf from extinction.

[Nick]

Yeah, but the penny became extinct.

[Jack]

This year we got tariffs from Wakanda to Westeros.

[Nick]

And Elon's favorite child, SpaceX, announced plans to IP to the moon.

[Jack]

Plus, this year, this pod had two IBOs. We did initial baby offerings.

[Nick]

We both had kids. Jack had a son named Oakley. I had a daughter named Selena. But Jack, in all this business craziness this year, there was only one certainty. You know what it was?

[Jack]

Cha Ching button.

[Nick]

No, Jack. It's that Nothing beat a Jet2 Holiday.

[Jack]

Darling, hold my hand.

[Nick]

Let's hit our three themes of the year. Jack.

[Liz]

Fifteen years before this song, two boys from the northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. But the best is the norm. Jack. Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice.

[Jack]

50%.

[Liz]

That's a fat tip. T boy city on your at.

[Jack]

Liz.

[Liz]

If you know, you know. Cause we read to go. We can't wait no more. So just start the show. Start the show.

[Jack]

Start the show.

[Nick]

First, a quick word from our sponsor.

[Jack]

Now a quick break, switching topics to one of our favorite sponsors, Vital Proteins Yeties.

[Nick]

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

[Jack]

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[Nick]

Look at this skin glowing.

[Jack]

Jack.

[Nick]

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[Jack]

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[Nick]

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[Jack]

Get 20% off your next order by entering promo code T boy at checkout. This show is brought to you by BetterHelp.

[Nick]

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

[Jack]

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

[Nick]

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

[Jack]

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.

[Nick]

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

[Jack]

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

[Nick]

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

[Jack]

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.

[Nick]

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

[Jack]

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

[Nick]

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

[Jack]

H E L p.com tboy for our.

[Nick]

First pop biz theme of 2025, it's a consumer trend protein maxing businesses sprinkled protein on anything.

[Jack]

But we noticed that maxing actually applies to everything this year.

[Nick]

If you didn't eat a dozen grams of protein two times a dozen days daily, then your muscles might spontaneously liquefy.

[Jack]

Yeah, I just saw Jim Bro say that on TikTok, so it must be tr.

[Nick]

And no company captured that protein max and trend more than David Barr.

[Jack]

David Barr, the protein bar startup hit a $750 million valuation this year, less than two years after it launched besties.

[Nick]

In the age of ozempic and fitness. This gold plated protein bar, David, will give you more abs than a renaissance sculpture.

[Jack]

David Barr is so into protein, they started selling individually wrapped cod fish filets just to prove their devotion to the cause.

[Nick]

Yeah, post Pilates, you whip up a David Barr protein fish.

[Jack]

But we also the Kardashian clan involved. Khloe cloud protein popcorn.

[Nick]

That's right. And Jack Costco started selling 12 packs of canned protein water too.

[Jack]

And Starbucks said the word protein 19 times in their earnings call.

[Nick]

Starbucks Broistas Real trying to make foam protein cream a thing.

[Jack]

But zooming out, it wasn't just protein that got maxed in 2025.

[Nick]

Now, Jack and I noticed that the term maxing actually captures the entire 2025 macro situation.

[Jack]

Early in the year we had office maxing, bankers and tech workers were at their desk around the clock, working on weekends, trying to get to the next.

[Nick]

Fundraise996 and you had valuation maxing. SpaceX and OpenAI became the most valuable private companies in the history of business.

[Jack]

And crucially, this whole maxing trend actually started at the top in the White House with the trade war.

[Nick]

You see besties, Trump's Liberation Day. Tariffs eventually hit 145% for China. What would you call that, Jack?

[Jack]

Financial maxing?

[Nick]

Yeah, policy maxing.

[Jack]

I like it. Everyone got tariffs. Even a remote uninhabited island with just penguins on it got tariffs.

[Nick]

We're talking maximalist trade policies, maximalist communication strategies, maximalist starting points with every negotiation.

[Jack]

That strategy trickled down to the whole economy this year.

[Nick]

And yetis that tariff maxing actually brought in maximum tariff revenue as well.

[Jack]

And we're apparently about to see maximum tax returns too.

[Nick]

So Jack, let me go minimalist on this and add up all the maximalists we got here. So we started the year with protein maxing codfish.

[Jack]

We continued the year with trade war maxing penguins.

[Nick]

And we're ending the year with everything maxing. Our takeaway.

[Jack]

Hey, don't you want to point out the conflict of interest? Your son's name is Max.

[Nick]

Yeah, I was going to say that for the disclosures at the end of the pod. Jack. Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are Max in everything? In this economy, the result of everything.

[Jack]

Maxing is the casino economy.

[Nick]

Yetis the most maxed industry we saw this year. Gambling.

[Jack]

Ten years ago, gambling was legal in just Vegas. Then sports betting became legal in half the states. But today prediction markets are legal everywhere.

[Nick]

Kalshi and Polymarket, the top two prediction startups, each passed $10 billion valuations this year.

[Jack]

And Robinhood stock hit an all time high this year. After launching prediction markets in their app.

[Nick]

Earnings calls, they now have prediction markets on whether a CEO will mention specific words.

[Jack]

When Michigan's head football coach got fired immediately a prediction market got created about who would replace him.

[Nick]

We even saw multiple pro athletes get in trouble for insider trading sports style.

[Jack]

In 2025, investing, betting and predicting all got mixed up together to the max.

[Nick]

So the result betsies was the casino economy and we'll see how it plays out next year. For our second pop business theme of 2025, robots got promoted.

[Jack]

Robo taxis, robo factories and humanoid robots went from thing of the future to think of right now.

[Nick]

Now Jack, if we're going to tell this story you want to sprinkle on a little bit of personal context for us over there?

[Jack]

So I went to business and public policy school in 2016. Yeah. And one of the reasons I chose Michigan is because I was pumped about self driving cars.

[Nick]

Yeah, this sounds like a good LinkedIn post. Why don't you continue, Jack?

[Jack]

Ann Arbor. It was right in Detroit's backyard. It seemed then that our autonomous robo taxi future was right around the corner. Exciting times.

[Nick]

But besties. Just like every Uber and Lyft ride that you hail, the industry's ETA for self driving was way off. Yeah, the estimate was way off on.

[Jack]

That by about nine years.

[Nick]

Yeah, well, nine years after Jack first arrived at the University of Michigan in 2025, self driving cars finally went mainstream.

[Jack]

Waymo is in five US cities, with 20 more cities announced for next year.

[Nick]

Tesla is in two cities with robo taxis. And Zoox also in two cities right now.

[Jack]

And according to Google, their waymos are way more safer, aren't they, Nick?

[Nick]

Yeah, it turns out waymos are involved in 90% fewer accidents than human driven cars. We just got the data last month.

[Jack]

Now, Nick and I have a legendary prediction about self driving that is in next week's CNN interview, which is publishing on Christmas Eve, by the way, on cnn.

[Nick]

Okay, but Jack.

[Jack]

And it comes to our pod next week.

[Nick]

Okay, but Jack. In the meantime, kind of ironic that the most recent robot story that we did was the bankruptcy of iRobot.

[Jack]

I know it's a booming industry, but the OG Robot company went bank.

[Nick]

Yeah, so rip to the Roomba. But besties for every other business. Robots are booming right now, especially the Blue Collarbots.

[Jack]

In October, Nick and I covered the bombshell report in the New York Times about Amazon's master plan.

[Nick]

Amazon going all in on robotics.

[Jack]

Now, Amazon already has 1 million robots rolling around their warehouses and dishing packages in their distribution network.

[Nick]

Okay, Jack, but Amazon is reportedly planning to replace 600,000 human warehouse workers by 2033 with robots.

[Jack]

That's the New York Times scoop. That was pretty freaky sounding.

[Nick]

But it ain't just Amazon, Jack. Remember Tesla's drive in diner in lovely Los Angeles we covered over the summer?

[Jack]

It's got a kitchen operated by humanoid robots that are serving French fries and burgers.

[Nick]

And Jack, why Has Palantir stock 10x'd in the last two years?

[Jack]

In part because of robotics.

[Nick]

Palantir's tech helps defense companies replace human operated fighter jets and submarines with autonomous ones.

[Jack]

So there are enterprise robots, there are B2B bots. Every day we hustle in bots doing.

[Nick]

The work for corporations or government agencies. They're all doing that already.

[Jack]

But Nick, what about robots we can use you talking butler robots.

[Nick]

Jack here. I gotcha. Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in the robot economy?

[Jack]

Home robots still can't pass the laundry test.

[Nick]

Yetis, Jack and I actually covered two non Tesla humanoid robot companies just this year. Figure AI and 1X Technologies.

[Jack]

But it's funny, those two companies plus Tesla, they all make humanoid robots that look exactly the same. They look just like the robots from the movie I Robot. Yeah, but with blank faces instead of like a face that's looking at you.

[Nick]

We see Will Smith. Well, each of these companies promises to do work around the house with the robots that we don't want to do the dishes, the cleaning, the laundry.

[Jack]

And if they could, Nick, that'd be a huge quality of life booster for people who can afford one. Yeah, but unfortunately, they can't.

[Nick]

Yeah, Homebots could unlock precious hours of the day for all of us who are time poor.

[Jack]

The hours you spend cleaning those dishes and drying those dryer racks could be spent playing with your kids, learning a new instrument, launching a new side hustle.

[Nick]

Jack prefers the sacks. But besties? We're just not there yet. From our research this year, home robots just don't have the dexterity to pass the laundry test quite yet.

[Jack]

That's a theme we'll have to save for 20, 26 or beyond.

[Nick]

Now, a quick word from our sponsor.

[Jack]

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

[Nick]

What is wrong with you, Nick?

[Jack]

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.

[Nick]

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.

[Jack]

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.

[Nick]

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

[Jack]

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.

[Nick]

It's a write off.

[Jack]

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

[Nick]

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

[Jack]

Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how [e-mail] host monarch.

[Nick]

Yeah, it is. I just dropped 1800 bucks on plane tickets and then another $500 on a car service to get from the airport to the city. Man.

[Jack]

Yeah. One thing they don't tell you when you become parents, you can't use Uber and Lyft anymore. You gotta bring your own car seats.

[Nick]

Jack, there's a reason they call Christmas debt miss. Or at least your teacher did growing up. But yetis, Jack and I use Monarch to not lose track of our money.

[Jack]

Monarch is an incredible all in one dashboard that calculates your net worth, your spending and budgets instantly.

[Nick]

I actually have all my bank accounts, brokerage accounts, credit cards, even the value of home linked in Monarch. So I have a clear picture of it all.

[Jack]

If you have a 401k, a crypto account brokerage account, Monarch gives you a clear picture of all three on one screen in a way nobody else can.

[Nick]

Jack and I are taking time off for the holidays and we're going to set aside an hour to review our finances with a budget brunch. And we're doing it on Monarch.

[Jack]

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[Nick]

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[Jack]

That's 50% off your first [e-mail] with code tboy.

[Nick]

For our third and final pop biz theme of the year. It's slop bowls and kale collar workers.

[Jack]

What did career anxious and budget pinched the lineals do this year? We traded down so that we could live it up.

[Nick]

Yetis full disclosure. This is Nick, that is Jack and we both own shares of Chipotle.

[Jack]

We're long term investors. Actually we are. We loved the build your own bull innovation of fast casual.

[Nick]

So basically we put our money where our mouth is on that one. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Totally.

[Jack]

Now we later interviewed the co founder of Sweetgreen and I, Jack used to own stock of Kava for at least a while this year.

[Nick]

Big hummus craving. But those three fast casual chains have all stopped growing. In fact, they started shrinking in 2025.

[Jack]

Stocks in Chipotle, Kava and Sweetgreen fell by 37, 50 and 78% this year. Like broiled broccoli, like spinach in a saute pan, it all just shrank.

[Nick]

And why did this happen? Well, not because they're slop balls, which Jack and I consider to be a derogatory term, by the way.

[Jack]

I don' that term. I don't agree with that term. I'm still a fan of eating fast casual.

[Nick]

Jack's actually offended by that term. The reason is because these bowls are expensive and anxious White collar workers don't need to pay 18 bucks for your daily lunch.

[Jack]

That's why we call the customers of these fast casual restaurants kale collar workers.

[Nick]

And fascinatingly, according to our T boy data, many of you are in fact kale collar workers.

[Jack]

Kale collar workers, you're 20 to 40 somethings, living in cities, working in office buildings at your computer most of the day.

[Nick]

You order an efficient salad, most days for lunch. You might even have named your daughter Kale, perhaps.

[Jack]

Or you will now. Unfortunately, if you're a kale caller worker, you're also anxious about the future and your job because of AI.

[Nick]

That's right, you're afraid your company has taken corporate Ozempic and is about to trim the headcount by 10%.

[Jack]

Plus. Your taxes, your rent, your babysitter prices. They're all higher than ever.

[Nick]

There's a reason affordability is now a section on every politician's campaign website.

[Jack]

And for the same reason reason you're probably finding lower priced choices for various things in your life Right now.

[Nick]

We're talking micro changes. Like cutting some streaming subscriptions or bumming your buddy's Netflix password again.

[Jack]

Or driving to the local ski resort instead of flying to Colorado like you used to.

[Nick]

Or buying a used car instead of.

[Jack]

A new car and brown bagging leftovers to work instead of buying chipotle, sweetgreen or cava balls.

[Nick]

Besties. Add it all up in zillennials in this knowledge economy, AKA the kale collar workers are trading down on everything.

[Jack]

Makes a lot of sense. Nick and I are doing it too.

[Nick]

But we're trading up on other things. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies listening to this pod?

[Jack]

It wasn't just lunch choices. Kale caller workers turned to the thrift economy.

[Nick]

Yetis in this economy, prices are still way up, even if inflation has remained calm.

[Jack]

We've adapted to the inflation era by looking at what we have and asking what do we really need?

[Nick]

Like buying and selling clothes on Thredup, whose secondhand clothing stock is up 500% this year.

[Jack]

And we've also done it by embracing dupes more often. Lower priced versions of high end things have totally gone mainstream.

[Nick]

Plus, Jack, you got the white label phenomenon Trader Joe's Kirkland branded products, they are the rage because they're lower priced.

[Jack]

And TJ Maxx, yeah, its stock's at an all time high again. It's now worth seven times more than Lululemon.

[Nick]

Vast ease. In 2025, Americans fully embraced duponomics and the thrift economy. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for the end of 2025?

[Jack]

Protein maxing was a trend that became everything maxing across the whole economy.

[Nick]

And the result of everything maxing, it's the casino economy.

[Jack]

For our second story, robots got promoted in 2025. This was the year robo taxis and business robotics finally arrived.

[Nick]

But home robots still can't pass the laundry test.

[Jack]

And our third and final story. Slop bowls got spiked in the stock market because kale collar workers are feeling the squeeze.

[Nick]

The winners of this trend, it's the dupes and the Thriftonomics. Now time for the best fact yet. This one whipped up by Jack and me. And it's the term of the year. What is it, Jack?

[Jack]

We're not Webster's Dictionary. We're not Merriam or Oxford either. And we're definitely not Dictionary.com, but flooding the zone is what 2025 was all about.

[Nick]

Yeah, flooding the Zone was the term of the year again.

[Jack]

This one started in the White House, but trickled down to Silicon Valley and the rest of business.

[Nick]

Remember, Sam Altman flooded the Zone with a whole bunch of product launches this year.

[Jack]

And each of those new products flooded the Zone with AI slop.

[Nick]

AI music flooded Spotify with a bunch of AI country music.

[Jack]

And one audio startup flooded the zone with 5,000 AI podcasts per week.

[Nick]

Now, Jack, we should also point out some positive context here.

[Jack]

I don't feel like I'm drowning in slop quite yet. My music, the things I watch on tv, my feeds, it's all human made from what I can tell.

[Nick]

But technically, the floodgates for sloppification are open now.

[Jack]

And we promise this pod will be slop free in 2026 and 27. Yeah. And beyond.

[Nick]

No slopping on the pod.

[Jack]

Yetis.

[Nick]

You have looked fantastic this year, Jack. I know you just got a haircut. You were glowing over there too, man.

[Jack]

I don't know, dude. I was not too happy with this haircut.

[Nick]

I know you don't like this one.

[Jack]

But don't look at me on YouTube.

[Nick]

But, besties, we love being with you all year. And we would also love if you could hyh tboy over the holidays while.

[Jack]

You'Re with your family. The way we grow is when you tell your friends. And so if you got a buddy looking for a new podcast, morning routine, New Year's resolution kind of thing, this show should be sent to them.

[Nick]

Nothing pairs better with a bowl of morning oatmeal than the best one yet.

[Jack]

So Yetis, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays. Anything else I'm missing, Nick and good.

[Nick]

Luck with that Jet two Holiday Jack and I will see you in the new year. And before we go, a Happy birthday to Yeti Daisy Gonzalez down in lovely Jefferson, Georgia.

[Jack]

And happy birthday to Elle Sheffrin who's turning 21 in Boca Raton, Florida.

[Nick]

Have a blast. And roee d' all down in Louisiana is celebrating the best birthday yet.

[Jack]

Happy 12th birthday to Dario in beautiful Dearborn, Michigan.

[Nick]

And Samantha Arteaga is turning 34 years old and ever Washington. Happy birthday Samantha.

[Jack]

Happy birthday to Nick Copperud who's turning 29 in Chicago.

[Nick]

And Atlas Samuel. Happy third birthday partying down in Miami.

[Jack]

T Boy City on your Atlas.

[Nick]

Welcome to Miami.

[Jack]

And a big shout out to our buddy Vinny Sabatino in Naples, Florida who just finished his eighth race. From half marathons to Spartans, I think.

[Nick]

That'S like four marathons, Jack. And Yuli Ruiz just graduated from FIU with a full time offer from ubs. Congrats, Yuli.

[Jack]

Great math on that marathon calculation, by the way.

[Nick]

And Monty Den, happy 60th birthday over in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. Make it a T boy.

[Jack]

And a happy New Year birthday to Ubishake in Boston, Massachusetts.

[Nick]

Just as that Boston. And if you want to get a shout out on this pod in the new year, just tap the link in our episode description and we'll get you on the show.

[Jack]

Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Netflix, Nick owns stock of Lululemon and we both own stock of Chipotle and Robinhood as well as some Bitcoin.

[Nick]

Bitcoin then ban.

[Jack]

If you like the best one yet. You can listen ad free right now by joining Wondery plus and the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.

[Nick]

Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon Music.

[Jack]

And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short [e-mail] survey.

[Nick]

We want to get to know you.