Transcript 0:00 Hey, we're Nick and Jack, hosts of The Best One Yet. Behind every episode, there's research, emails, spreadsheets, and our shared Google Doc, the Headline Hammer. 0:07 With Google Workspace with Gemini, Google's AI is built right into the premium versions of tools we already use, like Gmail, Docs, and Sheets. No new tools or extra logins, just personalized AI for the way we work. 0:18 That means less time on the work around the work, and more time finding the stories worth talking about. Get AI tools for work. Upgrade to Google Workspace with Gemini at goo.gle/workspacewithgemini. 0:30 That's goo.gle/workspacewithgemini. [upbeat jingle] Wheelhouse DNA. [upbeat music] Hi, everyone, my name is Bolade Kolade. And I'm Chris Sottile. 0:45 And welcome to the Future Forecast, a podcast where we explore the intersection between business, technology, and entertainment. Today we're looking ahead. 0:53 We're gonna talk about a new Comic-Con-type event for sports, how Tesla is prioritizing robotaxis, and how brands are wanting a bigger piece of the action when it comes to TV and movies. But first, let's catch up. 1:06 Let's do it. Who missed me last week is the real question. [laughs] Who missed me? [laughs] Who missed me? We missed you. Oh, man, I appreciate that. 1:18 [laughs] I thought the view-- I thought the listeners, the viewers may have missed me, but you know what? It means so much more to know that you did. Yeah. You were missed. You know what's really gonna be missed? What? 1:27 This guy off the market. Oh, yeah. That's right, ladies. You heard it here first. Chris Sottile is married. You're now a trophy husband, so says your shirt. That's right. That's right. 1:40 A colleague of mine got this for me. I'm living my best life. I'm, I'm more than happy to wear it. Did you write your own vows? 1:46 No, we kept it-- Well, but we've been doing marriage counseling all the way up to, so I very much feel-- I did my own personally for myself. Mm. I didn't necessarily share them with Max. Yeah. 1:59 There's parts of it that feel a little performative. Mm. 2:02 And so I think that the work that we've been doing, uh, with our, with our counselor very much has been, like, was very much the depth of, like, being the vow, if that makes sense. Interesting. 2:12 And- Don't write the vow, be the vow. Yeah. [laughs] Be the vow. Live the vow. That's really fucking funny. [laughs] Uh, and then we just kept it to, like, a quick 15-minute ceremony. Okay. 2:25 And we really-- It was let's, let's just be in the moment, have a very-- No judgment to anyone else. I'm just very-- We get-- Max and I are very ner-- Like, the performance- Yeah... of a marriage is very hard. 2:38 No, it's small and intimate. Yeah. It's cool. And then you can save a lot of money. Well, just the speeches. I don't need everyone getting up to give a speech. Yeah. 2:44 We don't need everyone to compete with who is the best friend of Chris and Max. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Mm-hmm. 'Cause that becomes a thing at a wedding. Yeah. It can be. It can be. It can be. 2:55 It doesn't always, but it, eh... Yeah. As someone that's been in, on the, on the opposite side as a friend, I'm like, "Fuck you-" [laughs] "... doing your speech, blah, blah, blah." 3:04 I don't need to give a speech 'cause I'm just friends with them. You know what I mean? It's like- Yeah. Yeah. You got, you got a new glow about you. [laughs] All right. You know what? It's because I'm with you. Nice. 3:15 I'll take it. I'll take it. Reunited, and it feels so good. [slurping] So we're talking about Fanatics Fest. Ooh. 3:27 So the company Fanatics, led by Michael Rubin, announced that they are putting on a convention called Fanatics Fest for sports fans. 3:36 The event will be August 16 through 18 this year at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City, with tickets starting at $50 each. What's the event basically? 3:48 Well, there's gonna be a number of professional athletes recruited to do panels and presentations, including Tom Brady, Eli and Peyton Manning, Derek Jeter, Kevin Durant, Sabrina Ionescu from the WNBA, and none other than Hulk Hogan. 4:02 Oh, wow. Uh, there will be activations from virtually every major sports league, uh, NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, UFC, WWE, and the WNBA. 4:14 Programming will include live podcast tapings, product drops, major announcements, collector-focused booths, memorabilia, art, and interactive exhibitions. It's a lot. Are you going is the question. You know, 4:30 it's very intriguing. It's- Why, though? Why? Why? L- l- let's talk that through then. Right? Because I immediately think Fanatics, Michael Rubin. 4:40 On one side of the coin, I go, "Wow, it's Michael Rubin, the guy that does the White Party." Yeah. "He knows everyone. He's making money, doing business, and building media," right? Yeah. 4:52 But on the flip side, it's like, oh, collectibles, hats, cards, trading cards. You know what I mean? Like- Yeah. 5:01 I mean, I think-- So the Fanatics CEO, Lance Fensterman, he was essentially talking about how there is no thing like this. There isn't, like, a Comic-Con for sports or a ComplexCon for sports. 5:19 And when I really think about it, you know, I don't come from the sports world, so if you, if you've seen it, let me know. But I'm like, yeah. 5:27 So something like this might be a cool opportunity to get on the ground floor of something that is very likely to push culture forward in a big way, and that's what's intriguing. 5:38 It's in New York, so I, like, I don't, I don't know if I wanna go fly just to go, but it's-- I think it's gonna make waves. Yeah, it's interesting to say that-- 5:48 It, it's interesting to realize that athletes, you don't realize that they don't do a lot of meet and greets. 5:53 Like, like, it's not, it's not like Michael Jordan back in the day wasn't going around doing a meet and greet at a Comic-Con, right? Yeah. It's- The press conference, like- Yeah, or, or the occasional charity function. 6:06 Yes. Or, or doing the q- one of the camps. Yeah. 6:09 And we're talking predominantly basketball now, but you re- you know, I, I guess I'm just realizing as we talk it out, there are so many moments where athletes do engage with audiences or with active fans, but really when they're doing it is when the fan is going to the court, or when the fan is going to the stadium 6:29 or the arena- Yeah... for that matter, right? Like, during pre-season, you can watch the pre-season game, or you can watch them work out. Training camp is what it's called. Yeah. 6:37 You're watching them during the summer doing training camp. You want to be like, "Oh, man, let me get their autograph. Let me watch them. They're so cool." Like, that happens quite a bit. Yeah. 6:45 I think the thing to remember too is sports right now, the desire, the passion, the media, the gambling, it's at an all-time high. Mm-hmm. You know? 6:55 And so you have this sort of right moment, in my opinion, in the life cycle of media and the history of our nation where, dang, like, I think, A, there's nothing like this, but it feels like this is something that will sell out because people are so passionate about these, these athletes, about the memorabilia, about the content that they're likely to, to show up. 7:20 You know, another thing too, this is actually really unique, I mentioned the Fanatics CEO, Lance Fensterman, earlier. He used to work at Reed Exhibitions, and Reed Exhibitions did Comic-Con, and they did ComplexCon. 7:37 And so he's taking the same school of thought to Fanatics Fest, and that also makes me feel like, okay, this could very well be successful. 7:47 You know, he comes from a school of people who have crushed the idea of making culture real, right? Niches real. 7:58 With Comic-Con, it was comic books and anime and toys, and with ComplexCon, sneakers, et cetera. And so here it makes sense. What Ruben and them are doing is allowing 8:13 athletes that are now transitioning to be media enterprises or media businesses to promote his own con, debatably for free, because they themselves are looking for their- Yeah... own elevation. That's a good point. 8:28 There's a value exchange there. In fact, Fanatics also wants the event to become a yearly go-to, like a launching pad- Yeah... for sports related shows and, and podcasts. 8:38 'Cause exa- 'cause then ima- like, look at what Wave is doing. I, I'm not sur- Like, Fanatics has been wanting to do media, and we've talked to them about it in the past. 8:47 The biggest thing with them is the way in which they're focused on their business, the culture is very B2B. Like, we sell, we, we are, we, we're built on e-commerce. We were built on selling product. 8:58 We only sell product. They don't really spend on media. They don't invest on that side. And that, you know, any of them will say it. 9:07 Saj, the whole core group will say they're now looking at it with they're launching their Fanatics bets. 9:12 I think there's a lot to be said about this, and you mentioned that Fanatics has been into media, and what I'm gonna be interested to see is these podcasts, the content that's gonna come from the convention, is it going to be 9:28 just owned by the personalities that are popping up and the media companies that are popping up, or will Fanatics use it as a launching pad to create their own media content like a Complex? Yeah. 9:40 That would make it, in my opinion, a phenomenal investment. 9:44 I mean, it'll probably already fuel, you know, more shopping on their website, but if they can turn this into a media play, could be, it could be huge long term for them. Speaking of cons and festivals, 9:56 what we haven't talked about, maybe this is part of our transition. I mean, like, you gotta look at these nails. Mm-hmm. 10:00 [laughs] Don't look at mine, but if you look at these man, this, this man here- [laughs] Guys, you're not... I mean, we're talking white, green, and yellow. Is that, is that an Easter yellow? 10:09 I don't know what I was doing. How was Coachella? I've seen, I saw plenty of content. Coachella was good. I didn't go to the actual fest. I did the events around it. 10:18 And, um, I heard it was a little sparse on the field a little bit, like, at the actual festival. Definitely, it felt like there were less events, you know, and I would attribute that to- Less events? Yeah. 10:32 I would attribute that- Wow... to probably not as many people going. Like, Soho House didn't activate. Um, but it was good. I mean, people are still... Coachella, I think, is a thing. You know what I mean? 10:41 And, and it's interesting. I'm gonna tie it back to Fanatics. You know, Coachella is able to capture culture. It's palpable because people meet in real life, and I think Fanatics can do the same thing. 10:58 Tesla's robotaxis. Elon Musk and Tesla appear to be pivoting away from their initial business plan and are instead prioritizing and committing themselves to producing self-driving robotaxis. 11:11 And the pivoting away, I think that's relative because they've always had robotaxis in their vision. 11:18 However, the thing that they really wanted to do was create a cheaper, more inexpensive vehicle, and that is what they're saying, "Hey, we're gonna put that on pause, and we just want as many robotaxis out in the world as possible." 11:33 There's a lot to unpack. One thing I'll say is it's been interesting because Waymo just launched in LA, uh, and we talked about it the other day. It was really transformative. 11:46 And recently, I think it was, like, Thursday or Friday, Elon released a software update for all Teslas for anyone who doesn't have full autonomous self-driving to be able to update their Tesla and do it. 12:01 So I actually did, uh, the autonomous driving on the way up to Coachella and all, like, in the desert all weekend. And I like it more now that I did that. 12:13 And it's definitely got me in, in my feels of what I was talking about last week, my hot take coming true. Oh, let's hear it. [laughs] Oh, here we go. Here we go. Ooh. What's the hot take? 12:29 Well, I just talked about how- Oh, sorry, sorry, I don't mean to admit that I didn't listen to this podcast. [laughs] That's not true at all. I listened to it. It was more so about how in a couple of years that, um, 12:41 actually probably right after this election, universal basic income would be a huge conversation topic because autonomous driving cars are gonna take away Lyft and Uber driver jobs. 12:56 And I think it's gonna happen a lot quicker than we think, and this announcement with Tesla just literally last week makes me feel even more confident about that. Wow. I mean, that's a lot to unpack. 13:08 Here's my first question for you. Okay. Have you tried it, the full autonomous? I actually, I just got the update on it. Nice. So I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do it on the way home. Great. 13:17 I thought that their automatic driving was pretty solid in the first place, so I'm curious to see what this is like. Have you enjoyed it, without swaying me too much? Yeah, I've, I've enjoyed it. 13:26 So the technical term for it is level two. So, it, you s- a driver still needs to be- Yeah... there. Present. Waymo you don't have to be. Like, I was in the passenger seat. But I liken it to cruise control on steroids. 13:45 Like, I can, like, chill a little bit. It stops at stop signs for me. It signals, it turns, it changes lanes. Um, but I'm just kinda there to, like, monitor and make sure it's cool. 13:56 I'm surprised that there hasn't been a car hack. I think you've seen in TV shows and movies cars getting hacked and- Yeah... the, you know, it's like bank heist. 14:06 Put the rich guy w- who has the electric car or the car- Yeah... you know, hack into it and move the car and auto drive it somewhere where you can then steal all of his jewels. Yeah. 14:16 'Cause in my reality, rich people have jewels. [laughs] Yeah. [laughs] Dude, you're so right. I haven't seen anything like that as well and, you know, as you like to say, history is cyclical. Uh, 14:31 and the idea here that people, 'cause I, I haven't heard a lot of people stealing, like, from Teslas period. Yeah. And I think it's because the technology's sophisticated. Eventually, it's probably gonna be more common. 14:45 And I've always wondered, our push towards, like, an electric vehicle future actually kinda puts us in vulnerability a little bit. Oh, yeah. You know? 14:55 Like, w- another thing we've talked about before, like, in the future people might not need licenses. They might not be allowed to get licenses. 15:03 So imagine now if someone hacks, if an e- if there's an EMP blast, everyone is stranded- Oh, yeah... and can't do anything with their lives. 15:11 So it's bittersweet, I feel like, this evolution to full autonomy, to electric, because it leaves us as a nation kind of vulnerable and stupid in ways. I mean, 100%. I will be that guy in I, Robot. 15:25 Also, we haven't talked, Tesla's stock is down s- what- Oh, so low... the lowest it's ever been. So low. So anyone invested, don't take our suggestion of their pivot as investment advice. 15:34 Just take it as a, they need to make some money. Well, so several years ago, Elon, and I wanna piggyback again off of the software thing we were just talking about. 15:44 Elon said he wants a, a world where you can own a Tesla, and you can drive somewhere, go do something, an event, a dinner, and your Tesla's out driving making money for you. And- That's very cool. It is cool. 15:58 That is cool. And, and in a way, owning a car becomes like owning a home. You know? And there's actually value in that asset. And you can, you know, you can r- rent out your car almost like the Turo app, right? Oh, yeah. 16:14 You know? And you become Hertz. You become Avis or Enterprise. I mean, look at what they've done. I mean, they've been so smart. 16:20 Uh, for, for many people that leased their vehicles, they're gonna get all of those Teslas back. I know that I can't imagine Elon's worried about the money, but, like, shame on him and shame on Tesla. 16:32 They're way too smart. If you don't lease, most, most car companies give you the ability to have a buyback program after the lease. 16:40 And what's crazy is that Tesla did not give their lessees the ability to have that buyback. You either had to make the definitive decision that you were going to lease the vehicle or you were gonna buy it. 16:52 And if you leased it, you only have it for the period of time that, that you have that lease- Yeah... and they're taking it back. 16:58 And it's really just because, I mean, it's so brilliantly they did it because they got everyone that leased a Tesla to basically pay for the cost of making the vehicle- Yeah... 17:10 and park it for a while, and now they're gonna, now they have all these, all this inventory. Dude, I'd never put that together. That is so true. Oh, yeah. Wow. 17:20 So if you lease a Tesla, you can't even take part in, in this sort of economy- Mm-hmm... even though any other car you can lease and you can buy it if you want. Like, you can make that decision. That's wild. Yeah. 17:32 That's wild. It's gonna be interesting to see how it goes. Apparently, this feature's gonna be launched August 8th, I believe. But Elon's known for saying one thing and it not coming true. He's been talking about- Oh. 17:47 [laughs] Well, he's been talking about autonomous driving for a while, and he knows it. But, um, I'm, I'm patiently awaiting and seeing if this becomes reality. Hey, we're Nick and Jack, hosts of The Best One Yet. 18:04 Behind every episode, there's research, emails, spreadsheets, and our shared Google Doc, the Headline Hammer. 18:10 With Google Workspace with Gemini, Google's AI is built right into the premium versions of tools we already use, like Gmail, Docs, and Sheets. No new tools or extra logins, just personalized AI for the way we work. 18:21 That means less time on the work around the work, and more time finding the stories worth talking about. Get AI tools for work. Upgrade to Google Workspace with Gemini at goo.gle/workspacewithgemini. 18:32 That's goo.gle/workspacewithgemini. [gentle music] Last but not least, upfronts, but with a twist. We're gonna make it film-oriented and TV-oriented. Wait, what? So the upfronts, I'm sure you're familiar with upfronts. 18:50 Yeah, I'm familiar with upfronts. Traditionally, when these big media companies will come together around the spring and try to get a bunch of advertisers to prepay for ads. Right. 19:05 And it's been going on for years and years and years, but this one guy who we are familiar with, you know, Michael Sugar, who's a longtime manager and producer in H. Wood, 19:18 is launching a new type of upfront for brands to mingle with the entertainment industry. 19:24 And the idea is, instead of product placement and saying, "Hey, these are the shows that I'm doing," it's for investment, actual investment in the TV and movies. 19:35 So these, these advertisers, these brands essentially become producers of the content. Yeah. It's really... I, I love Michael. 19:44 I think the marketing of what he's doing is brilliant because it's not something that's not new to the space. When Michael and I were both at Anonymous Content, that's very much how Steve Golin built the house. 19:57 They, you know, the Anonymous was built on making premium commercials and music videos. And flash forward, as they continued to do so and built bigger relationships with brands, Steve was able to produce 20:11 movies like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. He moved on to then also produce True Detective, Mr. Robot. I love Eternal Sunshine. I mean, he's... 20:20 Steve Golin, God rest his soul, ha- one of the, one of the, he was one of the titans of movie and TV- Yeah... history. One of the greats. 20:29 And during that time there was a relationship that was forged with BMW, and BMW did a thing called BMW Films. Yeah. 20:38 And I think s- what, what, what Michael's doing so smartly is r- taking that same thing and re- and not reinventing the wheel, bringing it back, but just the way in which the present is wrapped is a little different. 20:51 Yeah. Doing it as an upfront is a very cool... A, associating it with people like Soderbergh and Tom Brady and Scarlett Johansson is so smart. Yeah. Well, let's dive into that. 21:03 So the, the, it's a virtual event, and it's called The Way Upfronts, and producers and celebrities will pitch projects in early development to brand executives with the goal of investment. 21:14 And this is taking place May 7th and 8th. And you kind of alluded to it, a ton of celebrities are, have actually already bought in, Scarlett Johansson, John Legend, Tom Brady, Elizabeth Banks, Steven Soderbergh. 21:28 And I think it's gonna be interesting. I actually w- really wanna closely watch this to see if any brands bite, because to your point, we've kind of seen this. 21:39 I also remember Pepsi did this with Kyrie Irving's film when he was that old basketball player. Oh, yeah. Yeah, and that was, like, built- That's right... built off of, like, a, like- That was based off of a commercial. 21:52 Yeah. They built that- Or, like, a viral video. Yeah. Yeah, they built it off of their viral campaigns where Kyrie would dress up as old Kyrie- Exactly... and- Punk people, pretend that- Punk people... yeah. 22:03 So there's that. Spike Jones did one with, uh, like, a short with Absolut Vodka called I'm Here a while ago. The new White Men Can't Jump has New Balance written all over it. Mm-hmm. 22:14 I don't know if they produced it or if it was just product placement, but brands certainly are deeply embedded. I mean, Barbie, right? Yeah. 22:22 That's, that's really, when you think about it, Mattel and Hasbro have been doing this, [laughs] you know what I mean? Um- I'm curious what the sales for Barbie were coming off the back of it. That's a great question. 22:37 Kiara's letting us know, guys, Barbie sales grew 16%. That's huge. That's a good point, because at the end of the day, the question is, is this move going to help the bottom line of these advertisers? Yeah. 22:49 Because the whole thesis is people aren't buying into commercials right now. They're skipping commercials- Mm-hmm... right? 22:56 So okay, does me spending more money to create a feature length, a TV show, actually help the bottom line? Because at the end of the day, marketing isn't marketing for marketing's sake, it's to increase the sales. 23:10 And I'm gonna project even more, that's why I feel Apple and Amazon will ultimately win the streaming wars, because they're product companies. Their content is marketing. 23:26 Amazon Prime Video is not the end product. No. Amazon Prime is. I still think it's anybody's game, if I'm being really candid. I think that for the longest time, media owners have gotten fat, 23:42 and they're having to trim the fat more and more and more and more. And the reality is Apple became Apple because the marketing made you feel something. It was a call to action. I mean, the, the moment where they... 23:58 And then the, the big 1984 commercial that everyone talks about, where you have the black and white, the guy's literally throwing his computer into the ca- uh, uh, a- a- as a revolutionary moment. Yeah. 24:13 A- almost as, like, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore." Shout out, Network. That's what Apple stood for. And now Apple really is the man. And I don't mean that as, like, the man in terms of being cool. 24:28 I mean it as, like- Yeah... they are corporate overlord. But where I'm, where I'm looking at is that at the end of the day, the product for Netflix is different than the product for Apple, so it's a marketing expense. 24:44 Content is a marketing expense. But when Netflix came out, when Netflix first came out, it made you feel something. It really pushed the boundary of m- feeling something new. 24:54 The point I'm just trying to push forward is I think that we've gotten fat with our marketing- Mm-hmm... 25:00 in terms of how we innovate, how we think about breaking through, because it's become so much like a, "Just come up with an idea. Push it out. 25:08 Be so salacious and different," and we're, we're literally in a moment now where influencers are literally doing the most bravose, crazy, Trumpian, Kanye West things in order to be noticed. 25:21 Well, I think, I think that's why Michael Sugar is sort of saying, "Why not tell a story? Why not, you know, get people to pay attention for a long amount of time?" Which I think is unique. I think what I'm more so 25:39 seeing is he's approaching them kind of as producers, mini-financiers, but I think he's opening Pandora's box in a likely future where, y- we talked about this, this was your hot take, where Target goes, "Wow, instead of financing a couple movies, I'm just gonna be the studio and the distributor." 26:00 Same with Walmart. I mean, Walmart's already doing it. I think Target might have announced it, too. And so, you know, like, imagine Sour Patch Kids is now the new Nickelodeon. Yeah. You know what I mean? You're spot on. 26:13 And the beauty and the benefit of that is that you then are able to then, every asset you create can be exploited across everywhere and anywhere, but you're starting with, with the creation of the product first. Yeah. 26:26 Yeah. And I think one more thing to add, the only reason why I mention the Prime Videos and the Apples, 26:33 it- it's more of just, like, a budgetary thing, is, like, as long as these billion-dollar companies keep making money from a valuable product, they can outspend their competition- Yeah... 26:47 whose product is the actual content. You know, like a studio like Universal or Warner Brothers, their success is so contingent on spending 200 million and hoping that- Yeah... 27:00 it makes 300 million, whereas if Apple wanted to play the theater game, I mean, they're the most valuable company in the world. And they can do it specifically for the marketing moment. Exactly. 27:10 Also- As long as you buy an iPhone- Did you just-... we don't care... bury the lede on my hot take coming true? 'Cause one, I think thank you, but also, like- I mentioned it. You buried your own lede... 27:19 you could've, you could've, you could've- [laughs]... you could've celebrated a little bit more. [laughs] It is Hot Take time. [air horn] [imitates air horn] Hot Take time. 27:29 [imitates air horn] And, uh, let's talk hot takes. Chris. Here's my hot take. My hot take is, uh, Caitlin Clark, what the fuck? Making, what, $340,000 over the course of four years? 27:45 Something, like, like, roughly I'm, I'm estimating here. Yeah. Insane. $70,000 or $75,000 in her first year- Yeah... after being so prolific. Wow, WNBA, really, really backing your athletes there. 27:57 Anyway, i- it's really me more just saying a reckoning's gonna have to happen across sponsorship or how people are getting paid. I think it highlights how athletes are paid. 28:07 My hot take is more people are gonna, instead of going into the leagues, we're gonna see more players going to the Ice Cube's league. Mm. We're gonna see... I mean, Ice Cube offered her $5 million. Yeah. 28:20 We're gonna see more athletes leaving the establishment to be paid outside- Yeah... and be paid what they're worth for the, the, their ability to garner notoriety and attention. 28:35 I wanna add to your hot take and say I wouldn't be surprised if off the backs of this there will be huge endorsement deals announced for not only Caitlin, but other big WNBA- Yeah... stars. 28:49 Like, I'm talking, like, tens of millions. I'll be very curious to see if that comes true. Yeah. Well, I think if she keeps dropping buckets, she'll be fine. Um, my hot take, uh, is gonna start with a question. 29:01 Have you tried AirChat yet? I've... You are the fourth person to bring up AirChat. Yeah. I'm very curious. I'm, I've been toying with the idea of doing it. Yeah. And now you bringing it up makes me go- [laughs]... 29:12 "Argh, do I do it?" So literally it was, like, Friday, I think. I just got a bunch of people texting me to download an app called AirChat, and I was like, "What's happening? I'm at Coachella. Leave me alone." 29:25 And so a- after Coachella I finally just started responding and I checked it out, and it's basically if Clubhouse and Twitter had a baby you would get AirChat. 29:35 And it's kind of phenomenal to see and look at and play with, but I played with it for a couple seconds and then I hopped off. Maybe I'll go back. But my hot take is that this'll be a flash in the pan. 29:49 It'll be successful for maybe even a year. We'll see. And then it's either just gonna disappear into obscurity or get acquired by Twitter. Elaborate on that. Why? I don't disagree with you. 30:00 I just think it's really hard to build a big social media network right now in a day and age where people are actually moving away from the big and looking for more fragmented. 30:10 And I just think it's every, every single social media network at this point copies features that become popular. 30:18 Is it also fair to say that it's similar to that, of like Clubhouse proved a moment in the utility- Clubhouse and all these, like, all the voice actions were viable and interesting and necessary during a time where people weren't able to congregate IRL. 30:34 Yeah. And now it's like- But, but this works because it's like a feed. You're, it's like a voice note, but it, it can be read and transcribed. 30:40 So I'm, I'm saying a tweet, and then I look at your Air Chat thing and it's read to me. So it feels like it could work because there's, there's history to it. Yeah. But- Interface? Yeah, there's a- We like the interface? 30:54 Well, it seems a little meek on that one. I think it's, they're figuring it out. You know what I mean? But- This is why it's a flash in the pan. [laughs] I guess so. That's why your hot take's a flash in the pan. Yeah. 31:04 So- This pod wasn't a flash in the pan, I'll tell you that one, guys. No siree, Bob. And thank you for tuning in. We will catch you next week. Find us wherever you get podcasts. Congrats, Chris. 31:16 We'll ch- catch you next week. Peace. Peace. The Future Forecast is produced by Wheelhouse DNA for Acast. Our executive producers are me, Gbade Kolade, along with Fanny Baudry, Cassie Berman, and Leah Sutherland. 31:32 Our audio producer is Chiara Noni. Our audio engineer is Matthew Blocka. Our editor is Nick Kurs semi. The podcast is hosted by yours truly, Gbade Kolade, and Chris Sawtelle. Thanks for listening, and see you next time. 31:50 Hey, we're Nick and Jack, hosts of The Best One Yet. Behind every episode, there's research, emails, spreadsheets, and our shared Google Doc, the headline hammer. 31:58 With Google Workspace with Gemini, Google's AI is built right into the premium versions of tools we already use, like Gmail, Docs, and Sheets. No new tools or extra logins, just personalized AI for the way we work. 32:09 That means less time on the work around the work, and more time finding the stories worth talking about. Get AI tools for work. Upgrade to Google Workspace with Gemini at goo.gle/workspacewithgemini. 32:20 That's goo.gle/workspacewithgemini. This show is brought to you by The Future Party and Crosstalk Studios. Produced by Chris Sawtelle, Gbade Kolade, and Paul York. 32:33 Special shout-out to our production team, Araceli Rubalcava, Max Goolen, Shannon Klein, and Eli Tafur
