Transcript 0:00 When you're running a growing business, the right systems can unlock your full sales potential and make fulfilling every order effortless. 0:05 Switch to ShipStation before peak season so you're prepped and ready before the rush hits. ShipStation connects Shopify, Amazon, TikTok Shop, and over 200 more marketplaces with one platform that does it all. 0:15 You can manage orders, sync inventory, track returns, all automatically. Everything your operation needs, all in one place. 0:21 Upgrade your shipping operations to stress-proof your biggest sales days and capture every bit of potential revenue. Go to shipstation.com and use code AUDIO and get 30 days free. [gentle uplifting music] Wheelhouse DNA. 0:36 [upbeat music] Hi, everyone. My name is Boye Kholodey, and welcome to the Future Forecast, a podcast where we explore the intersection between business, technology, and entertainment. 0:46 Today, we are joined by a very special guest host. He's one of the co-founders of The Future Party and a dear friend. Please welcome Paul Urick. [applause] Hey, Boye. Thanks for having me. Big fan of the show. 0:59 I'm honored to be taking Chris's place- Yeah... uh, and excited to talk with you. We've never actually done this before, uh, in our long history of friendship, so that's cool. [laughs] Welcome. 1:10 Today, we're looking ahead. We're gonna talk about how every celebrity now has an alcohol brand, the downfall of Vice, and whether or not the DC Universe reboot is going to revitalize Warner Brothers Discovery. 1:23 But first, let's catch up. All right. So Chris, Chris is off getting married, which is wild. Yeah. It feels like, uh, just yesterday we were talking about when he was gonna get married, and now he's getting married. 1:35 Yeah, that snuck up. I'm gonna have to- [laughs]... dive in the next time he's on the show. But while Chris is getting married, we're gonna be off at Coachella. What do you think? I'm excited. 1:45 I think we were talking right before this, uh, I love alternative music, you know, like indie rock and things. 1:52 I feel like that was something that was missing last year for me, and so, uh, great undercards, uh, underwhelming headliners, but it'll be fun. I think the lineup... 2:03 I'm gonna choose my words wisely since we work in the industry, but it could be better. Mm-hmm. And, um, I feel like the state of the lineup is affecting sort of the Coachella economy. 2:17 Don't get me wrong, people are going, but I'm, I'm noticing a lot less quality, like, events surrounding the festival. I don't know. It just, it feels like there's not a lot of impact, bravado, excitement. Yeah. 2:31 The, the hype is one thing that will probably drive brand engagement, and because there's less hype, there's probably less brand, um, engagement and participation, and so sometimes that's what happens. 2:44 I'm interested to see, uh, internally how they move forward, um, and what that means for festivals in general because I think we've seen a trend overall that festivals are just having a hard time right now. 2:56 [static] Let's go into our first topic. So we're talking about celebrity alcohol brands. People have been noticing in the past few years the sheer amount of celebrity-owned alcohol beverages that are on the market. 3:11 A few of the names that have their own companies are Kylie Jenner, who just launched a vodka soda called Sprinter, uh, alongside Kylie, her sister Kendall, with 818 Tequila. 3:22 We've got Kate Upton, J.Lo, Jason Momoa, Dan Aykroyd, George Clooney, obviously, with Casamigos. Honestly, this list goes on. Dwayne Johnson, Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston, blah, blah, blah. We, we get it. 3:39 We know it's there. Question before we dive in, do you have a favorite celebrity booze? Yes, I do. I like The Rock or Dwayne Johnson's Teremana, um- Really? Yeah, I do. I think it's, uh, it's nice. I've never had it. 3:55 Um, I like the Reposado. I like it on the rocks, and it's nice to drink straight. I mean, I love Casamigos. Obviously, you go to a restaurant and you're like, "Do you have Casamigos?" Yeah. Because it's quality. 4:08 But if you're thinking, "Hey, I don't wanna spend 50-plus dollars, 60-plus dollars on a bottle of tequila for yourself," you're, you know, Teremana's, like, really nicely priced, and you can almost find it everywhere. 4:20 I do have a question for you, though. Okay. Out of all the people you listed, can you name these brands outside of the obvious, you know, 818 and Casamigos and...? So, uh, that's a great question. 4:34 I'm gonna start by telling, answering the question I asked you, and then I'll, I'll, I'll try to name these brands. But- Okay... uh, 818, I actually like 818. It's a little sweeter, 4:46 which is interesting 'cause Casamigos is a little sweeter. Um, that might be one of my, my favorites. And Casamigos, I agree with you, is really good. It... 4:57 Well, the interesting thing with Casamigos, in my opinion, is it's, it's almost like the upper middle-class brand, right? Like, it's, 5:05 it's definitely up there, but it's, it's, the pricing is not out of reach, which I appreciate from a, a really good tequila. Anyways, all right, naming the brands. We've got Kylie with Spriter. Kate Upton, no idea. 5:20 J.Lo, no clue. Jason Momoa, it's at the tip of my mind. Uh, Dan Aykroyd, I think, is Crystal Vodka or something. Oh, interesting. Okay. Blake Lively, uh, 5:32 also at the tip of my brain, but she had a lot of flack, though, because she doesn't drink. Blake Lively? Yeah. Oh. When she launched hers. But I know her, her husband- Mm-hmm... uh, Ryan Reynolds, Aviation Gin. Yes. 5:49 Kevin Hart's, I don't remember. Yeah, I don't know a lot of these. That's actually a great question because really, at the end of the day, a lot of these celebrities are creating- Vodkas, tequilas, whiskeys, et cetera. 6:05 One, in my opinion, because at a certain point, once you have reached the pinnacle of your specific talent, you wanna become a business. Two, these individuals are, are distribution, right? 6:17 They are the promise of sales by way of their marketing. Mm-hmm. But we couldn't even name half the brands on this list- [laughs]... so I don't know how well it's working. Right. Yeah. I- it, it's interesting 6:31 because I think e- every celebrity has their niche and their audience, and so I think people are gonna gravitate to those they follow, right? That is true, but here's another nuance, you know, 'cause we have 6:47 learned, there's been recent data suggesting that Gen Z is actually drinking way less alcohol than previous generations, but the amount of, of celebrity brands has increased. 6:58 I'm asking myself, does Gen Z actually care what Kate Upton brand, you know, she has, or Dan Aykroyd, Can You Believe It? You know what I mean? [laughs] Yeah. I, eh, I think it's nuanced, right? Because again, 7:16 Gen Z not drinking feels like a trend to me, and I know we'll, we'll get into this a little bit deeper, but 7:26 it, it's almost like alcohol has been a part of our culture for so long, um, just like, I mean, smoking cigarettes has been as well. Um, and I was thinking about this actually this morning, it's like trends come and go, 7:43 but [laughs] do v- do vices, do h- human vices come, you know, come and go? And it's something that we love as human beings- Yeah... is to have the vice, right? 7:54 Even if you don't drink, people are like, "Oh, I don't drink, but I have this vice," right? That's true, right? Like California sober. 8:01 So maybe all these, these celebrities should be getting into the weed game or the mushroom game. [laughs] Yeah, maybe. Maybe they're a little behind. 8:07 And I, I do wonder often, because, like, mocktails are really big, and I know, like, personally, you love mocktails, and you order them a lot. 8:17 And I, I'm, I'm thinking to myself, "Well, if d- Gen Z is drinking a lot less alcohol, why aren't they investing in those types of things?" 8:26 Um, and the reason maybe that comes up in my brain is, again, it's a trend and less of a consistency. 8:34 And alcohol brands are, some of these are really old, and they've been around for years, and a lotta, a lot of it is staying power, and how do you capitalize off of your audience specifically, right? 8:46 I agree trends come and go 100%, and it feels like we are heading towards maybe a bubble. Uh, maybe, maybe not, right? By, by one count, there's, there were 40 celebrity-affiliated brands, alcohol brands, in 2018. 9:03 And just a couple years ago, in 2022, there were 350. Wow. That is crazy. Also, there were some big exits, right? So George Clooney, with Casamigos, sold to Diageo for $1 billion. 9:20 Ryan Reynolds sold Aviation Gin also to Diageo for $610 million in 2020. I think Diddy was one of the first, with Cîroc, to sell. So I, I feel like 9:32 people are also seeing the success of some of these celebrities who've had big exits, who are exiting bigger than their paydays on their films, you know- Right... that, that, that they work on. 9:44 Yet, at the same time, you're right. Like, w- is this the only field? I would actually argue to say this idea of celebrity being affiliated with a CPG-type product is not necessarily new. 9:57 There's a lot of celebrities doing, or influencers doing this for different verticals. I think Logan Paul, uh, is, is a big one with, with Prime. 10:07 Prime is essentially Red Bull, in my opinion, and it's interesting because I feel like they kinda went backwards, right? Red Bull is a media brand. It's not just a product. It's not just an energy drink. 10:20 Whereas Logan Paul and KSI, they started with their media, with their influence, and then are now going toe-to-toe with Red Bull with their energy drink. You know, MrBeast with Feastables. Those are chocolates. 10:31 So there is something to be said about the idea of celebrity period, alcohol or not. Right. 10:40 And it, if you think about celebrities and, you know, actors and talent, right, they, they have their audience, and they, it, they show up at the box office or wherever it may be, right? 10:55 You know, if they're, um, the face of a watch brand or a cologne, right? That's where you see a lot of endorsements take place. Those celebrities don't necessarily own those products. They're just the face of them. 11:07 And so I think, you know, alcohol is an easy foray into building a business off of your brand and capitalizing off of your audience. I wanna circle back to the idea of distribution- Yeah... 11:19 because ultimately, I see a world where you walk into a liquor store and o- and 80% of the beverages you see have a personality- Mm-hmm... tied to them. Because unless 11:31 what you're doing is unique, it's really marketing at the end of the day, and I get it, you know? And, and I've always had this theory that, 11:42 you know, brands are becoming media companies, so we'll see more Red Bulls of the world, and media companies are becoming brands. Mm-hmm. 11:51 And so I think we're just gonna see this amalgamation of everything kinda being everything, and it, it, it makes sense at the end of the day. All right. The downfall of Vice. 12:05 So much has been written about the downfall of Vice Media in places like The New York Times and The Hollywood Reporter, and there was a recent article that just came out, uh, from Elizabeth Lopatto at The Verge, and it goes into a lot more detail about it, what exactly caused this s- once super mega popular media company to declare bankruptcy. 12:28 It's a big story with lots of in and outs, and it's worth a discussion. [laughs] Yeah. So some background info. 12:36 The company Vice was launched in Montreal in the '90s by Shane Smith, Suroosh Alvi, and Gavin McInnes before gaining funding and relocating to New York. 12:47 I actually remember this when filmmaker Spike Jones was named as creative director. That's actually, I think, when I heard about Vice. Mm-hmm. 12:55 And that's around the time they encouraged the company to, like, move from magazine into digital video along with news, music, tech, and sports, and then the rest is history. Vice became huge. 13:08 It was centered on its, you know, this idea of counterculture, very edgy, against the grain, and for all intents and purposes was going to be this next huge successful media company, and then it was not. 13:24 So what went wrong? I think what's interesting is, um, we kinda grew up on Vice. You know what I mean? Yeah. It was my- one of my first big jobs- Yeah... in entertainment. That's true. You were at Pulse. 13:37 I actually also remember my very first Vice party in LA, and I thought it was so cool. Mm-hmm. And it's, 13:46 it's tough to, to sort of see this news and to kinda see where they are now because I actually think Vice was very formative, you know, to pushing a lot of people to get into media and journalism and, and entertainment. 14:03 And, you know, it, it begs the question, what were the issues? How did it get to, to this point? Yeah. I mean, I, I, I can speak to what you said earlier as well. 14:17 Like, I feel like Vice early on was almost like the gold standard of what media could be, right? We would have these conversations and be like, "Well, if Vice can have their logo next to X brand, why can't we?" Right? 14:31 And it kinda positioned us in a way to, like, think that we could play with the big brands on the same kinda playing field, and that was really inspiring to us really, you know, early on, um, in building The Future Party. 14:44 And so, yeah, what did go wrong? So many things [laughs]. Um, well, I mean, first of all, I'm sure everybody who has been following this or knows anything about Vice knows a little bit of the story, right? 15:01 Um, uh, I would say shady business practices, not paying people on time, giving money to the wrong people, um, inflating pockets. 15:12 I mean, w- when you're getting money, you have a huge valuation and you're spending it poorly, it's gonna eventually catch up to you, right? Well, it, it also begs the question, this idea of cool, right? Mm-hmm. 15:23 Is, is cool enough? Because everything comes down to execution and, and what this piece, what many pieces have essentially been talking about, what they're blaming this on is really all the way to the top. Mm-hmm. 15:39 That the executives at the top from Shane Smith to even Nancy who took over for Shane didn't manage the business aspect well. In fact, they go as far as to say they ran the business into the ground, 15:57 you know, while paying themselves a lot of money. 16:00 And y- I've heard the stories of people not being compensated a lot and, you know, there's a lot of ins and outs, but I, I remember Vice coming up around the same time as BuzzFeed, and BuzzFeed is, has a lot of issues right now too. 16:15 I think both of these companies are similar. 16:17 They raised a lot of money and sold the dream, but they didn't back it up with the execution of the revenue and the profits and a healthy margin, which they're paying for right now. 16:33 I also think about this idea of selling the dream. Mm-hmm. You know, and at what point is selling the dream and the vision just a lie? 16:42 These individuals who sold their visions, but to the point of it being nefarious, Vice is similar in that it sold a vision, they said they were gonna make a lot of money, and then they didn't. Right. 16:57 Well, a- and a few things happened along the way, right? So the overvaluation is a great point because when you're not making money, then people, people have a hard time seeing the value. 17:08 Let's not forget they were winning awards. They had amazing brand clients that were paying a lot of money, right? I think a lot of shady behavior is taking place. 17:18 You know, like, there's drug smuggling happening in your office. There is, um, supposed, like, sexual harassment. 17:26 I mean, I w- I know a lot of people who have worked there and I've talked to them over some time, like, tracking this, right? 17:33 And, you know, they, they had a huge valuation and then if you're paying attention to, like, the articles that came out from 2017 on, they were just very bad. 17:46 And if that was to take place and people were gonna come and try and tear you down, you know, bigger, um, companies, it's not very hard if you're engaging in shady activity, right? And so that's, like, the start of it. 18:00 You have bad behavior, and as we've seen over the last several years, brands aren't gonna put up with that. They don't wanna be associated with-... this kind of activity, so they're gonna pull out. 18:11 So all of a sudden you're not making money, your revenue's being pulled back, your valuation is really high, and it comes crumbling down because the foundation is not strong. And there's a lot of ego at play, right? 18:24 Like, we know that Shane Smith turned down Bob Iger, probably good in the, better in the long run, but that probably came from a place that was very ego-driven. $3.4 billion is not a small amount of money. Yeah. Right? 18:38 And you think you're valued at five, like, what's the difference at that point, right? Yeah. So- Not everyone's Evan Spiegel. Not everyone- [laughs]... can turn down $3 billion and- Right... turn that into $25 billion. 18:49 Exactly. So i-i- it, it is sad. I think this will go down as a, a cautionary tale, um, for many years to come, and, um, uh, we'll see how it shakes out, but from everything that I see, 19:05 the business is on its last legs, and I think we'll see something closer to how Playboy is shaking out right now, right? Like, Playboy is basically just a brand at this point. 19:17 They- it's licensed, the logo's just out there, and people interact with it out of nostalgia, right? But they're not really making much. Yeah. 19:27 And I think that's how we're gonna see Vice, um, for years to come, and the content's just gonna be licensed. Because at the end of the day, they were doing it. They were making good journalism. 19:35 They were making compelling content. They have awards to show for it, and, um, it's unfortunate for people who actually cared. 100%. All right, well, we're gonna see what happens with Vice over the next coming years. 19:48 [gentle music] Business is booming. Is your fulfillment ready for peak season? Switch to ShipStation now and handle more volume with confidence when it counts. 19:59 ShipStation connects Shopify, Amazon, TikTok Shop, and over 200 more integrations with one platform that does it all. You can manage orders, sync inventory, track returns, all automatically. 20:09 Everything your operation needs all in one place. Right now, qualified shippers get a real dedicated person to get you set up and switched over for free, so when peak season hits, you're ready to go. 20:19 Switch today at shipstation.com, code audio. [gentle music] [laughs] Speaking of licensing. Speaking of licensings. [laughs] Time to talk about the DCU. Our favorite topic. One of our favorite topics. Yes. 20:35 [laughs] And Warner Brothers Discovery. Mm. So Warner Brothers Discovery, 20:41 man, it- they've had a wild ride over the last couple of years, uh, since the whole acquisition, and they're going through, uh, a bit of a transition period since their, their merger in 2022. 20:58 Their streaming service Max, which was relaunched from HBO Max in May last year, has had, you know, minimal gains in the past year, no surprise in my opinion. And here's some stats. 21:13 Max made up just 1.3% of connected TV viewing in February, which is lower than all its major rivals, and just above its 1.2% mark before its rebrand according to Nielsen. 21:27 One of the things people are saying is that maybe the DC Universe, now spearheaded by filmmaker James Gunn, could reboot 21:38 Warner Brothers Discovery, and at the same time, create a flywheel of revenue due to the DC IP for Warner Brothers at large. What do you think? Oh, so much pressure on the DCU. Again, right? 21:54 Like, if we couldn't escape the, the comparison with the Marvel Universe for the first time, you know, now it's just even more pressure. Yeah. Uh, would I bet against James Gunn? N- no, right? 22:09 Like, he's a good filmmaker. We love Guardians. Um, we know how big of a mistake it probably was for Disney to let him go [laughs] and kinda open him up for other places. 22:20 And he's a genuine comic book fan who loves this through and through. Personally, I think Zack Snyder was a little bit misguided. I think the old regime might have had other agendas. 22:33 And also, I believe during that original DC Universe, we went through several executive changes, and when that happens, everybody has a new agenda. They're trying to prove something, right? 22:43 So hopefully they can kinda just keep it in line and build something that feels linear- Yeah... and authentic. 22:52 You talking about James Gunn made me think about something that for, for this, there's two things at hand, right? There's the DCU and there's Warner Brothers Discovery's bottom line- Right... a la through Max. 23:06 There, there needs to be two things to hit very well for this to be successful. One, the content has to be out of this world. Mm-hmm. Right? 23:15 And DCU gen- generally has struggled against Marvel in creating exceptional content. There are some fringe cases, right? Chris Nolan's Batman, phenomenal, right? 23:27 Like, Won- the first Wonder Woman was really good, but James Gunn needs to hit at a level to make the IP so revered, it can push the rest of the business in the licensing arena to do well. 23:42 Then, then there's the other element, which is now David Zaslav has to do his job and monetize all of it. And we know he's been, uh, doing a great job at that. 23:53 [laughs] Um, I would say, you know, public opinion, he's probably one of the most disliked people in Hollywood currently, and that just means he's probably doing his job, right? 24:03 The company has so much debt, he's trying to crawl out of it. It's bottom line for him, right, at the end of the day, and the people who are feeling the effect of it-... 24:12 are below the line people, are the workers probably that don't get to interact in those decisions very much. Also, you named a bunch of, uh, good DC films. 24:21 Just wanna shout out Matt Reeves' The Batman because I personally love it. It made a ton of money, and I, I just want more of that. I mean, the other thing you mention is licensing, right? Like, we've seen HBO 24:35 license all their content to places like Netflix, right? Where you're seeing sh- Well, I wanna correct you on that. Max. Oh, Max. Right. Yes. 24:46 But it's funny you still call it HBO because I actually think that might have been one of the biggest mistakes Zaslav has made, but keep going. 24:53 Well, they've kind of, like f- taken all these brands and put it under Max, right? So you still have like HBO, you still have Discovery because you go to Insecure and you're like, "That's an HBO show," right? 25:03 Because that's the production company running it, right? Like Last of Us, would that be considered a Max show or an HBO? I think Warner Brothers Discovery has had a lot of identity issues, right? 25:15 They, they folded two companies into one. They took HBO that was named, had like four different names before HBO Max. True. 25:24 Spent a ton of money rebranding to Max just to have a year later turnaround and rebrand again to just Max. It's very problematic. You mentioned something about Zaslav. 25:36 You know, I would agree that in Hollywood he's, he's one of the most disliked. But then you mentioned that he's probably doing a good job, 25:46 and it's tough because I think from a financial perspective, I think you are right, right? He's be- he's been shrewd. 25:52 And a lot of his, uh, his package, his bonus packages have to do with how much margin he can make for the company. 26:01 And yes, Warner Brothers, you know, itself has been putting a lot of investment in individual stars like Margot Robbie and Timothee Chalamet and, and Tom Cruise. But 26:12 I struggle because HBO for so long was the cream of the crop of premium television. I haven't gone on the now Max in maybe a year. 26:23 I think since, I think since House of the Dragon was the last time, or, or Last of Us- Last of Us, yeah... was the last time I actually went on the platform to watch a show. 26:34 I think Apple is eating HBO/Max's lunch right now, and I think if they can get that right, that is what's going to make it successful. I don't know that it's necessarily DC all of a sudden doing well. 26:49 They have an issue with, with user experience and branding that they really need to fix. The other piece is just circling back to our original, um, thoughts around the DC Universe, a few things need to change. 27:06 One of them, budgets need to come down. Like down, down, down, right? We're looking at some of these B- Blue Beetle, 120 million before marketing. The Flash, 200 million before marketing, and it brings in 266 million. 27:24 That is nothing. The budgets are so inflated, they need them to hit a billion dollars before it makes sense. How can films live up to that standard these days? It needs quality. Look at Godzilla Minus One. 27:37 That movie was made for not a lot of money, and it made a lot, and it won Academy Awards, and people are talking about it because it's a good film that focuses on character. 27:48 So I think that is one thing if they can get right and bring these budgets down, they'll have a chance at success, right? Uh, I'm excited to see where it goes. All right. James Gunn, you're up. Let's see where you go. 28:00 [laughs] All right, it's about that time, Paul. You're gonna have to step in now- Oh, no... with the hot take time. You want me to? Yeah, you have to. Oh. [laughs] It's, it's like a ritual. Okay. Are you ready? Yeah. 28:14 What time is it? Hot take time. Hot take time. [air horn] All right, so hot take time each week we make a prediction about something in culture for the next week. 28:25 We like to grill each other on what was successful, what was not, and we're about to dive in. And this is my first hot take. And, um, you know, feel the pressure. [laughs] You know? I understand how you feel. Yeah. 28:40 All right, Paul. What's your hot take? L- I'll, I'll just preface by saying I'm not sure if this i- is, like the hottest of takes, but I will say it's a take. 28:50 Um- We'll have to measure, get out the thermometer afterwards and- I think Warner Brothers Discovery, as much as everyone thinks they're gonna like flounder, I actually think it's gonna stand the test of time. 29:00 I think it's gonna be a brand that people are going to interact with for a long time to come. 29:06 You know, as much as I don't like hearing that they're canning entirely finished good films for tax write-offs, there's probably a bottom line that we're not seeing, and that's gonna keep the company afloat. 29:19 And I think that's, I, I think we're gonna be interacting with these brands much longer than we think, and it won't have to do with the DC Universe. Okay. I like that. That's a decent take. 29:30 That's about, like, 98 degrees. [laughs] Not quite sizzling, but you know, it's, we're sweating a little bit. Yeah. [laughs] WBD doesn't have Survivor, so you know. They don't have Survivor. 29:42 [laughs] Shout out, Survivor, our favorite TV show. Yeah. Uh, okay, so here's, here's my hot take, and I, I have a habit of doing, like, hot takes that might not come true for like 20 years. 29:54 So this is gonna be- Futurist. That is fine... [laughs] This is, this is one of them that I actually think will be accelerated. So, so walk with me on this journey of my hot take. 30:05 I'll start with what the take actually is, and then we're going to back into how I got there. So my hot take is that after the election, going into next year and the year after 30:20 Universal basic income is going to be one of the biggest issues that politicians debate. 30:28 It's going to draw party lines, it's going to be one of the things that everyone cares about, and it's going to be a really big issue for the next hundred years. And this is why. 30:43 AI is so effervescent right now. It's disrupting industries in front of our very eyes. We, we-- Like the writers' strike, we can't forget, ninety percent of it had to do with AI. The, the upcoming IATSE strike, 31:01 AI, right? So we have AI... I'm gonna divide AI disrupting economies in two different formats. One, white collar. Two, blue collar. White collar is already happening. Law, entertainment, design. 31:18 That, that's being disrupted. People are getting laid off now. And what I read-- I recently read an article, a lot of people getting laid off, they're actually just becoming content creators, right? 31:30 They're, it's hard to get jobs. Blue collar. We're not going to see the blue collar disruption until we really get robotics. Mm-hmm. 31:38 But the first version of that is going to be autonomous driving cars, and I spoke about Waymo, and I've ridden in one, thanks to you, and that's gonna be one of the first things that's going to disrupt. 31:51 And that, that is what's coming in the next year, is Lyft drivers and Uber drivers losing their jobs and not knowing what to do next, which is going to push the conversation for universal basic income out of this world. 32:07 And that's what I got. Wow. Yeah. Uh, I'm not mad at that take, and I, I think there's validity to it. And, um, I, I hope that gets resolved, right? 32:20 And it's gonna be up to the people out there to be creative and to be thinking, like if, if you're in that blue collar job or that white collar job, like how are you taking it to the next level? 32:32 How are you making sure that you're irreplaceable, right? You're not just driving a car. You're, you're much more than that, right? So encouragement to everybody who is scared by that notion of losing their job. 32:44 Just think about how you can be irreplaceable by adding your own unique value, right? What a great way to end. Uh, thank you, Paul, for joining us today. Thank you. Thanks, Chris, for letting me fill in. Yeah. 32:57 And congrats in advance, Chris, uh, to you and Max. And we'll catch you next week, listeners. It's gonna be great. Find us wherever you, uh, listen to podcasts. Over and out. 33:09 [upbeat music] The Future Forecast is produced by Wheelhouse DNA for Acast. Our executive producers are me, Boye Kolade, along with Fanny Baudry, Cassie Berman, and Leah Sutherland. Our audio producer is Chiara Noni. 33:25 Our audio engineer is Matthew Bloca. Our editor is Nick Kursumi. The podcast is hosted by yours truly, Boye Kolade, and Chris Sawtelle. Thanks for listening, and see you next time. 33:36 [upbeat jingle] Cash now, more later from Opendoor gives you cash up front for your home, plus all the profit later. That's no chaos now, no cash left behind later. Skip the showings now, pocket extra profit later. 33:54 This is so simple now. This is so awesome later. Or sell fast now and pop the champagne later. Cash now, more later. Now available nationwide. Start your offer at opendoor.com/acast. 34:07 Profits calculated after fees and costs. Eligibility and offer price may vary. This show is brought to you by The Future Party and Crosstalk Studios. Produced by Chris Sawtelle, Boye Kolade, and Paul York. 34:20 Special shout-out to our production team, Araceli Rubalcava, Max Goolen, Shannon Kline, and Eli Difior.
