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hey everybody welcome back besties
are back for the all-in podcast
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the queen of quinoa freeburg is here the dictator
chamoth and of course rain man david sachs
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and it's been a big week here in silicon valley
with airbnb and wish both going public for over
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a hundred billion dollars combined anybody
get their beak wet on that one oh hey guys
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oh what how are you david yeah i might i might
have gotten my be quiet on on a couple of those
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so oh a little bit well uh you know what in
celebration of your recent victory with airbnb
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wish i will oh no i can't zoom in on my merch
but i've got my unofficial wet your beak
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mug so for those of you wondering we have to
uh get a little bit of housekeeping out of the
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way at first here uh the merch has gone crazy
have you guys been watching merch on twitter
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of course anybody anybody my favorite market i
got some of those mugs i think they arrived today
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they look great it's amazing and you know the
best decision we made was was not to let you
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sell t-shirts jason because you would have you
would have you would have uh milked this for
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every every nickel you could and said and instead
we we open source it to the fans and they've just
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gone crazy with it i mean they're literally i know
that hurt you i know that hurt you a little bit
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i mean the the problem i'm having here no
advertising i'm picking up all the production
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cost here i'm sending you guys equipment you
maniacs lose the equipment every time you go from
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one of your estates to another estate i'm
sending equipment to four different places anyway
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we've got a special very special episode for you
today we are doing drum roll please we're gonna
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add some sound effects to this afterwards we're
gonna do the bestie awards today so we're gonna
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go through the biggest winners in politics and
business and cultures and of course the losers
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the flashes in the pan the best business moves
the stupidest business we got a lot to get through
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um but just in terms of housekeeping again the
all-in syndicate is up and running i think there's
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four thousand people have applied in 10 days
let's just talk about the market cap of airbnb
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wish for that matter what round did you invest
in airbnb uh seriously was that the founders
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fund around yeah yeah congrats thanks oh that's
so yummy but to be honest that was already over
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a billion dollar evaluation correct yeah it was it
was i mean it's still like 80 or 100 x it's like
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a 40x right 48 it's like a 40 it's like a 40x or
something like that so thank you thank you thank
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you brian chesky thank you peter thiel peter led
that round and um brian was looking to include
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founders in the round uh and in addition to it
being led by founders fund and so peter introduced
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me and that's how it happened wow fantastic i
did not get my big wet on that but i did mention
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airbnb on my podcast and that you know i've
been trying to get brian on the podcast for
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i don't know a decade and i said you know i
know you guys want to have him on the pod i've
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asked him like literally every year for 10 years
but i don't think he likes me and then he emailed
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me said i listened to the podcast i like you and
i was like oh okay great will you come on he's
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like i'll come on so he's going to come on this
year i think which will be great right for this
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week and certainly well i think i think uh brian
and the whole team really did a masterful job
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of uh navigating through the whole kovic crisis i
mean everybody forgets how negative the publicity
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was people were talking about airbnb as covid
roadkill back in april i i tweeted a cnbc headline
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from back in april wondering whether
airbnb was even going to survive
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and they navigated the crisis they did have
to cut head count but they made the company
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much more profitable uh but they also did
um great things for uh both the renters and
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the hosts um at the company's expense they
refunded something like 250 million dollars
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to the to to to users who had cancer
reservations but they gave the money
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to the host to keep them afloat so they really
did a great job navigating this whole crisis
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it's a pretty great company he obviously cares
deeply um it was very uh hard i think for him to
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cut all that staff at that time right it was kind
of a tough decision but they were very generous in
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how they did it yeah so congratulations on getting
the beak wet sacks and uh chamath i got a bunch of
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inbound uh you had file to sell some shares of
virgin galactic i saw you tweeted about it and
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you wanted to be transparent people asked for you
to address it on upfront on the show so go ahead
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yeah i have a lot of uh projects that i um intend
to fund in 2021 i'm probably going to put another
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i don't know i think the forecast
was almost 2 billion dollars to work
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and uh i needed to manage my liquidity
for this year and make sure that you know
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i could continue to make all
those investments and fund my
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fund all of the other things that i
need to do and that's why i did it
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and you're still a significant shareholder
i assume and you believe in the company
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yeah i mean uh i remain completely committed
to that business um you know i i it would have
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been better if i could have sold something
else but it's not quite possible and when
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we're entering it when we when you leave the tax
year you just have to make these decisions to
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lock in some gains against other losses and um
would have loved to have uh i've not had to do it
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but i needed to manage my liquidity and so i sold
you know it's a small portion of what i own so
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yeah that was sort of my point this is the state
small portion of what you own and i mean this is
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something that you know in poker and in
business you got to manage your chip stack
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and you got to manage your bankroll so today
we're gonna do the besties uh this is our first
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uh attempt at talking about uh uh it's our award
show for 2020. let's leave it at that let's start
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out with the biggest before before we hold on
hold on a second um how much weight did you lose
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because it's either that you're still fat and you
have it wait wait it's either you're still fat and
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you have an incredible camera or you've actually
lost weight and this reminds me by the way
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oh and i'd like to tell a story no no no no four
years ago oh my god here we go jason jason and i
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make a weight bet okay just don't say the dollar
amount it was like you know it was like i think
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it was like uh ten thousand dollars a pound
whatever and uh jason jason he would get ten
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he was about to do and this is incredible jason
comes to us five years ago and says guys you
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won't believe it i'm doing a show on nbc uh a
reality tv show that's true pilot and with not
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please beat that out okay beep that
up don't get canceled oh my god that
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guy that guy seems like a train wreck but okay
that's fine you're going to do this pilot with
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people don't nbc an nbc and don't you need to
you know be in fighting shape and he said yes i
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need motivation so i said here's motivation let's
make a weight but you need to be under 190 pounds
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and i'll pay you ten thousand ten thousand dollars
a pound that you're underneath you pay whatever
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thousand pound over yeah it was like six months
later and we're hosting i'm hosting a poker game
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and i realized oh my god this is the last this
is the last day of the bet the day before well
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we started the day before and then the last day
of the bet is midnight yeah i wait till midnight
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and i jump up and i'm like wait ben and so i say
jason you gotta be under 190 190 2.5 or 193 pounds
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yeah he literally goes ash and white and he says
more white than i am now okay because i just ate
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and i was maintaining my weight he says he says
okay okay that's fine he had been eating pizzas
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and then he says he says freeburg you won't
believe this he goes guys i just need five
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minutes before the weigh-in and then he goes to
our guest bedroom and crosstalk that's not true
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what is that there was no 13 in this story
fabricating now he tried he tried to leave
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after eating all that pizza and
cheese and nachos and everything
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anyways he loses the weight bet and he
says jamal this is completely unfair
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i'm not gonna pay you he was like 196 pounds i'm
not paying you this money like one pound over
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and he said uh this bet is not over until
midnight the f obviously yes obviously yes
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24 hours in fair enough so i said all
right fine jake i'll find he goes home
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he literally takes every diuretic
known to man come on and then he loses
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two pairs of sweatpants and sweated it out
i checked in with this guy 10 times this day
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he walked like 12 miles he took four shits you
know i sweated it out steam room he lot bath
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he did a colonoscopy he did a colonoscopy to his
credit he lost five pounds by midnight and he
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did drop it but then i said then i said you know
what because there were two different weigh-ins
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uh we were gonna go play in a poker
tournament so we went and played in
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the poker tournament i said chamath
buy me into the poker tournament
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whatever we win we'll chop it up if it happens
so we just made it into a friendly thing
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um and obviously but great now that story is out
there and now i'm going to everybody's going to
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be on twitter with the code t-shirt and i hope
somebody in the all-in-army does the t-shirt
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that just says 192.5 and we'll all know what it
means which is the way that the one idea was 193.
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192. which is crazy that i'm one it was 193 anyway
here we go getting into the categories our first
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category is the biggest winner in politics biggest
winner in politics i'm going to ask you gentlemen
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to raise your hand if you have a strong feeling
on this i'll call on one of you who's got a a
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big winner in politics go ahead chamoth joe
biden toe body okay going down the limb there
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i mean let's be honest there's nobody bigger
and actually if you wanted to abstract it what
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i would say is centrism was the big winner and
uh and it kind of feeds the losers which is sort
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of the extreme left and the extreme right but i
would say that centrism and joe biden were the
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huge huge huge winners well i'll give a i'll give
a um an orthodox pick which is uh xi jinping the
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chairman of the chinese communist party you would
have thought he would have had a bad year starting
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off with you know kovid uh starting in
his country at the beginning of the year
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but he wasn't evil they you know that a global
plague came from china but they were able to kind
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of uh they were able to use a a very gullible wh
o to launder uh responsibility for the catastrophe
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and they took advantage of the crisis to build
more client states and asia and africa with
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promises of vaccines and and money and
finally his uh biggest global nemesis
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uh trump and then you know pompeo lost in the
election so you have to say he came out on top
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at the end of this year free yeah i i um i put
i have the exact same answer as saks i put the
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chinese communist party as a whole actually
and i feel like um on the world stage they're
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uh they're strengthened uh in in the post-covered
world so i had yeah because she went from
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the famous quote in the debates there was a little
girl in california who was bust to school that
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little girl was me where she took on joe biden
and then she winds up getting the vp slot and
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i think she winds up actually becoming president
and will be the first female president of the year
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of the of the history of the united states and
that could happen in the first term or if joe
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biden doesn't run for a second term and they do a
halfway decent job kamala plus pete bootage edge
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is a pretty great ticket as well who's the
biggest loser who's your biggest loser chamath
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impossible uh donald j trump okay the obvious
answer stream left the extreme left and the
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extreme right got it i'll i'll i'll i'll i'll
agree with that but i'd also add uh nancy pelosi
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the speaker of the house uh her impeachment of
trump at the beginning of the year went absolutely
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nowhere wasn't even an issue in the election and
her majority in the house has almost completely
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disappeared she lost a dozen seats i think the um
the the i think she's down to about four or five
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seats as a razor thin majority in the house and
she's set to lose more in the midterm elections
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i predict that she is set to not be speaker
anymore in two years and headed for retirement
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okay freeberg you got one biggest loser i have i
have the uh institution of american democracy is
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the biggest loser of 2020. i feel like we're
coming out of this year with like no belief
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that our election was valid for a vast majority
for for a sizable minority this country that um
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some democrats believe that the election was
fraudulent now too i mean if you say something
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enough times everyone believes it so um you know
here we are coming out of this year where with a
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crippling um lack of faith in our electoral system
and uh it's scary that american democracy is being
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fundamentally questioned by its own constituents
so um so i think that's the biggest loser i i had
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i had uh two choices here one of them was already
said i said the hysterical left as my runner-up
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bernie and warren just dismissed by biden
and kamala they they are not even part of
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the discussion anymore and they didn't even get
cabinet positions so the hysterical left and the
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socialist communist party is out of the democratic
party thank the lord but my biggest loser
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i have to say that this is the worst run of any
politician i've ever seen in a year which is rudy
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giuliani under investigation for les pardes and
eager fruhman then the bogus lawsuit elections
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then farting during a hearing then doing the
barat shirt tuck i don't know if we have feelings
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on if that was a tuck or if he was trying to
wake up the genie and then he bleeds hair dye
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then he starts bleeding hair dye wake up the genie
and he got covered no then he got covered and he's
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do you think you had a shitty
year i think there's gonna be
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the fans of the show are now registering
domain names of things we say
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the upside for him is that donald trump's campaign
is paying him twenty thousand dollars a day in
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legal fees no i think it was two hundred no it's
20 grand a day oh it's only 20. that's his going
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rate for making a a fool of himself i have a i've
ever feeling that rate was adjusted when uh rudy
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couldn't get uh the case to the supreme court well
we all know that trump pays his bills on time so
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it shouldn't be a problem right all right uh now
we're gonna have some more fun biggest winner in
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business biggest winner in business freeburg you
want to lead us off you haven't let us off yet
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i'll take this one i think that the biggest winner
in business this year is a company that started
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a few years ago called moderna this company had a
ipo in december of 18 at seven and a half billion
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dollar market cap it traded between four and five
billion throughout 2019 and all of a sudden covet
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hits and this becomes a vaccine candidate uh
driver for moderna and the stock shoots up it's
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worth 60 billion today this company has not had
a product that's gone to market prior to covid
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and they struggled uh getting this business um i
wouldn't say struggle but they they never really
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had a an application for their mrna technology
they looked at it for years iterating and
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pivoting this business and covid un like a lot of
other businesses really gave them an unbelievable
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uh kick and i might even say i shot on the
arm i shot in the arm and tonight they got
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approval from the fda and they're going to be
shipping starting to on monday i think saks who
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you got for the biggest winner in business we're
moving on a good pace here elon musk uh our friend
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rose to become the six second richest man in the
world ahead of bill gates uh and you know right
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on the heels of jeff bezos uh his company
tesla had something like a 8 or 10x gains
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over a 500 billion dollar company of course the
products are awesome it joined the s p 500 and
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spacex is doing amazing as well uh we saw
the launch of starship the other day and
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i have just been mesmerized by all these
unboxing videos for starlink which you can
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see on youtube and it is just magic that you can
unbox this little satellite dish plug it in and
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you have broadband internet from space so um i
think you know elon seems to be on track to be
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uh not only the world's richest man but the
world's first trillionaire wow big uh big uh
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big ups there to e uh chamath what do you got
for the biggest winner in business of 2020 yeah
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i have to agree with saxypoo uh elon is the elon
basically has had over the last 10 or 15 years
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an incredible amount of challenges that he's
overcome he's had an incredible amount of haters
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he's had probably had to deal with stuff
that most of us would have broken under
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and uh he just fought through it and the guy just
basically bended all the haters until he crushed
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their souls and i just think that that's
incredible absolutely so elon musk is the
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hands down the biggest biggest most obvious winner
of 2020. that's the obvious winner um i'll give a
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couple of runner-ups here um i thought also on the
runner-ups uh after elon zoom beating skype slack
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video google hangouts and fixing all their china
issues and getting to a hundred billion dollar
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valuation is notable obviously amazon did a great
job um because of the pandemic uh and then just as
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an oddball out there i just thought adam silver in
the nba bubble was an incredibly bold project that
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was executed so well and was such a delightful
business moment and also a cultural moment
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that you know you had the nba shutting down
during the pandemic remember that dramatic night
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on a thursday night and they cancel the games and
then they do the bubble and it works and that gave
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me hope that we could get through the virus so
those were some of my other runners-up all right
00:19:47
the biggest loser in business in 2020 go ahead
chamath facebook and google exiting the year with
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umpteen anti-trust lawsuits um i think morale must
be pretty brutal over there there's no amount of
00:20:04
money at some point that people are willing
to get paid to walk in the door every day and
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just have to do have to deal with
those kinds of accusations and so
00:20:12
um for all the good in the world that they do
um which so it just must be really tough that
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they have to deal with it but uh those guys
are i think are the biggest losers in business
00:20:21
what do you got sex the small business person
um you know whether it's restaurants retail
00:20:27
hospitality what have you small business
people really took it on the chin this year
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i agree with dramath about you know companies
like google and facebook losing esteem in
00:20:37
the eyes of the public for good reason censorship
and so on but tech still our you know stocks are
00:20:43
at all-time highs the politicians got to keep
eating at french laundry but it was a small
00:20:48
business people who got absolutely decimated
by these lockdowns which don't even work
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and so they are the big loser
of twenty twenty free berkeley
00:20:58
i'm a little more vanilla than the rest of you
guys i went with amc entertainment holdings talk
00:21:03
about a [ __ ] business in covid restaurants
at least you can do takeout you can't take out
00:21:07
a movie from amc they're they're shut down all
over the country their creditors are telling them
00:21:12
to declare bankruptcy it's a total [ __ ] show
no one's gonna go back to the movie movies you
00:21:16
don't think they come back i don't think they go i
don't know what the hell like amc's gonna do what
00:21:20
do you do with all those theaters they're awesome
i love going in the movies but i'm not going to
00:21:24
the movies for at least another year so and it's
sad because honestly like movies are a big part of
00:21:29
my life always have been and it's sad to see movie
theaters you know they're gonna come back strong
00:21:34
they're gonna come back stronger i think amazon
will buy one chain i think netflix buys the other
00:21:38
and then with your membership you get to go and
see all the range of stuff and maybe even see like
00:21:43
queen's gambit in the theater it's such a great
experience right yeah yeah i would have loved to
00:21:49
see queen's gambit in the theater totally there's
so much you could do with theaters and i think
00:21:53
there's an opportunity but man did those guys
get screwed this year well i always thought
00:21:56
they should do an extended edition so imagine
if when hbo or one of those did you know game of
00:22:01
thrones if they had it out the day before in movie
theaters or the week before uh or two days before
00:22:07
and they did an extra 10 minutes people would love
that my biggest loser was of course same as david
00:22:13
uh real world businesses absolutely demolished
and the government after that first stimulus
00:22:18
which was incredible trump did an amazing job
of just dropping buckets of money whether it was
00:22:23
that pp loans and ppe loans whatever the ppp loans
ppp loans all this stuff was incredible and then
00:22:31
what complete utter [ __ ] and incompetence from
our government that they couldn't get the second
00:22:36
one done it's absolutely [ __ ] infuriating that
the democrats and the republicans these selfish
00:22:44
[ __ ] couldn't get another billion dollars
dropped who was that and here we are in december
00:22:49
that [ __ ] needed to drop in august or september
not december it's just absolutely disgraceful
00:22:55
it's they're i'm just disgusted that
they couldn't even get some more money
00:23:01
to people who are suffering unemployment and these
restaurants a hundred thousand restaurant closures
00:23:07
by the end of 2020 it's just unconscionable that
the the stock market is ripping and we can't get
00:23:14
just some money in people's
pockets just drop the money
00:23:18
to infuriate and we're sitting here at the taping
of this that it might actually happen um okay
00:23:23
biggest winner in culture who's got a big winner
in culture anybody got one i got the um the black
00:23:30
lives matter movement and i think it um i think
it was such a like meaningful um and impactful uh
00:23:39
um kind of shift in how people were thinking
fundamentally about behavior in society it's
00:23:45
still persisting you know there's corporate action
there's state action there's regulatory action
00:23:50
um and i think it's uh it's a meaningful movement
that's going to persist i think it came at a time
00:23:55
when we all felt like you know a lot of people
felt locked up in their homes people were angry
00:24:00
people were frustrated with the system and um
just uh it just was a very poignant moment uh
00:24:06
especially occurring during covid that it
really took hold um and i think it's gonna
00:24:11
last and i think that the uh the movement
itself is gonna spawn a lot of change
00:24:16
yeah i think it's well said david
who do you got uh in culture
00:24:20
uh baby yoda uh star so you went pop culture
on that one yeah star star of the mandalorian
00:24:28
show uh that his his ascent uh icon status
uh helped disney get 86 million subscribers
00:24:36
for for disney plus uh which just blew away
expectations and uh has established disney plus
00:24:42
as the main rival to netflix do you think netflix
uh you think disney will pass netflix correct
00:24:49
i don't know if they'll pass them but
they're now certainly going to be a major
00:24:52
rival to them i think that i think they
passed them okay chamath who do you got
00:24:56
i would pick a combination of fortnite roblox
and among me which i think has for at least um
00:25:08
a lot of high school and middle school uh kids
but i may be a lot of adults the only form of
00:25:15
social interaction that we've had for an entire
year what a great what a great selection and
00:25:21
and i think it's important to understand how much
lonelier we all would have been and how much more
00:25:26
mental illness and depression we all would have
dealt with if we couldn't have even just talked
00:25:30
to our friends and i think that there's something
really beautiful that those games did for people
00:25:35
that's a good one that's a good one i i went
with podcasting i think on a cultural basis
00:25:39
joe rogan and what's happening in podcasting
these long-form discussions even this podcast
00:25:44
um has become just an amazing amazing movement
and people are having better discussions and i
00:25:50
consider it the antidote to what's happening on
social media when people hear us discussing stuff
00:25:57
on this podcast they feel like they ate something
nutritious they had a great salad they had some
00:26:03
healthy food and then when they're on social media
and they consume the same tweets that we're doing
00:26:08
they feel like it's junk food right and
so i think that podcasting long form
00:26:12
discussions listening to each other maybe you know
republicans and democrats left right everybody
00:26:18
listening to each other and podcasting is just
such a great meeting medium for discussion who is
00:26:25
the biggest loser on a cultural basis in 2020 mr
david sacks the media starting with the new york
00:26:32
times and other sort of elite media they rip
the umpire jersey off their backs to go after
00:26:38
trump well they got him but at what cost half the
country will never trust them again this makes
00:26:43
conspiracy theories more likely it makes cultural
divides deeper and they've been revealed to be
00:26:49
corporate journalists journalists who subscribe
to and serve an agenda of their corporate masters
00:26:56
they've lost the public's trust freedberg
what do you got on the biggest cultural loser
00:27:03
uh climate change it took a back seat
this year um it you know it had momentum
00:27:11
as a as a cultural meme it's uh it's lost its
uh its luster and it's been shadowed a little
00:27:17
bit this year with blm and uh and covid and lack
of faith and institutions and all the other stuff
00:27:23
that's been going on do you think that people now
when they see the collective response to kovid
00:27:29
and the pen uh the the vaccines and us our ability
with science and technology to solve the pandemic
00:27:36
we will have a newfound appreciation for
coordinated global action on global warming david
00:27:41
preber i think are you asking
me i think um i think the uh
00:27:45
i think the faith in institutions has eroded
tremendously this year the who telling people
00:27:51
not to wear masks and then telling them hey
masks are good uh the efficiency that hits the um
00:27:58
i think just a global warming movement as well
yeah i think the lack of faith in institutions as
00:28:03
well as in the media makes it really difficult for
things that require a coordinated effort uh and a
00:28:09
coordinated cultural shift uh to take hold um you
know are really challenged in this new kind of
00:28:16
model where where you don't know what to believe
and you don't believe institutions and you don't
00:28:19
believe old school and you don't believe states
and you don't believe you know anything structural
00:28:24
anymore so it's it's a scary it's a scary kind
of moment i don't know i think climate change is
00:28:29
going to have momentum with the new administration
at least coming into office in the u.s but um
00:28:34
but generally like institutional guidance is
is lost at celester traboth what do you got
00:28:41
business culture wokeness i think when you now
look at the realization of what we've gone through
00:28:49
um people have realized that you know you can
you can be extremely anti-racist and think
00:28:57
latinx is just a stupid label you know you can
be an entirely complete 100 000 million percent
00:29:04
supporter of lgbtq but think that you know all
these complicated pronouns aren't really necessary
00:29:11
and i think that people are coming to
a point where you can have um nuance
00:29:18
and i think that that's really important i think
that this whole cancer culture and wokeness was
00:29:23
um incredibly corrosive um and i think that that
they lost i i think it's actually a great um
00:29:31
i think it's i think it's a great point you're
making chamath because on the last episode
00:29:36
i fumbled the word mx which none of us had ever
seen we all laughed about it and then i just had
00:29:44
this little thing i was like okay i guess this is
when i get canceled because i laughed at the fact
00:29:49
that or i mispronounced it right and the fact that
i thought even for a second that mispronouncing
00:29:55
this term mx which i then did research on and
i said does anybody know how to pronounce word
00:29:59
mx on twitter so i figured i would preempt
the dropping of the um podcast by bringing
00:30:05
it up on my twitter and people are like
are you trolling i'm like no i'm asking
00:30:09
and i found videos and it turns out there is an
actual controversy in the trans community where mx
00:30:17
some people believe means mixed am i xed other
people think it's um mx as x the variable as
00:30:25
in the variable x and so they're having their
own debate they're figuring it out that's great
00:30:29
everybody loves them everybody supports them
but the fact that i mispronounce it you know
00:30:37
yeah well jason can i tell you can i tell
those people that are struggling with whether
00:30:41
x equals anything or x equals mixed hum
just to touch upon friedberg's point um
00:30:48
the human race has caused eight percent of
all the species in the world to go extinct
00:30:54
and we have put another 22 percent of every single
other species at the at the brink of extinction at
00:31:01
the same time we have now expanded our footprint
to touch 75 of the earth's land surface so until
00:31:09
somebody fixes those problems i don't actually
want to know what the x stands for yeah i mean we
00:31:15
we're this idea that we're going to count until we
put until we put it until we put stimulus checks
00:31:21
put the [ __ ] stimulus checks into people's
hands get these small businesses back to work
00:31:25
then you can tell me what the x stands
for yeah okay my biggest loser on culture
00:31:30
was the same exact as you david we're thinking
similar i have taken the red pill you gave me
00:31:35
i crushed it up i've been snorting these the
red pill like crazy people think i'm turning
00:31:39
into a republican but i thought mainstream
media and late stage journalism sacrificed
00:31:45
objectivity specifically to get subscriptions
and they used the anti-trump feelings and they
00:31:50
worked them and got the the ratings from them and
they literally used that new york times as the
00:31:57
is the the best example i think the work
you guys use for best example is canonical
00:32:02
of like using their anti-trump feelings to get
people to take out their wallets and subscribe
00:32:07
everybody realizes it they drove out barry weiss
they drove out their editor of the page from
00:32:13
making people feel unsafe with their words and
then new york magazine drove out andrew sullivan
00:32:19
and then glenn greenwald gets leaves his
publication i mean anybody who descends inside
00:32:24
of one of these publications they canceled
them inside of a publication for an opinion
00:32:29
on an opinion page it's crazy okay let's keep
everything moving here biggest turnaround in
00:32:35
i guess this is biggest turnaround anything but
i did business i'll lead off with mine my best
00:32:41
turnaround was airbnb they laid off 25 of the
company in july 1900 of 7 500 employees they
00:32:48
cut their marketing budget by 800 million and then
the ipo five months later uh and they had raised a
00:32:55
billion dollars at an 18 billion dollar evaluation
according to pitchbook and now worth 88 billion
00:33:02
a week after the ipo that is a turnaround
of all turnarounds david who did you have
00:33:08
this is where i had joe biden he finished
fourth in iowa fifth in new hampshire no
00:33:13
candidate has ever bombed that badly in the first
two contests and gone on to win the nomination
00:33:18
biden roared back in south carolina
and then won big on super tuesday
00:33:22
and wrapped up the party nomination by
march uh biggest political comeback ever
00:33:28
who do you got freeberg i got airbnb as well
i mean from yeah and here's the here's one of
00:33:36
the craziest stats they're sitting there in
q1 with a great business revenue dropped 67
00:33:41
in q2 can you just imagine the experience of
67 of your revenue going away in one quarter
00:33:47
uh cash burn skyrockets and just having
to respond quickly and still maintain
00:33:53
integrity with your customers and
your employees as a leadership team
00:33:56
i mean it was an incredible leadership
um uh demonstration it's a five alarm
00:34:01
fire right i mean it's literally you got to
get everybody out of the building here we go
00:34:18
sensor censorship censorship existed in in
draconian and the dark ages of our of our journey
00:34:25
as a country and in the world and it came roaring
back this year the amount of people that have been
00:34:31
muzzled stifled the amount of fact and science
that literally just gets judged willy-nilly by
00:34:38
our distribution points like facebook and twitter
and medium it's really scary so censorship made a
00:34:45
roaring comeback in 2020 i i like it i like
it a lot okay now we go on to the biggest
00:34:51
flash in the pan you can interpret this
any way you like what do you got sexy poo
00:34:59
the w-h-o the w-h-o nobody knew who the dub the
world health organization nobody knew what the
00:35:09
who was before this year then they have become
you know somehow this global authority on covid
00:35:15
despite getting everything wrong they initially
said that we didn't need to wear mass they didn't
00:35:19
update that until june 5th this was about 10 weeks
after my blog saying that you know mass were a
00:35:24
good idea they got the method of transmission
wrong they were saying that transmission mainly
00:35:29
occurred through fomites which is contagious
surfaces instead of respiratory particles
00:35:34
they initially said that lockdowns worked then
they modified their policy on that because of its
00:35:40
impact to marginal groups and so the who has just
gotten everything wrong this year and despite that
00:35:47
fact you now have to chamas point google youtube
and even sites like linkedin or nextdoor are now
00:35:54
censoring people's statements if they contradict
the who apparently without irony because nobody
00:36:01
has contradicted the who more than the who itself
i look forward to next year when nobody cares
00:36:08
about the who anymore great freedberg
what do you got flash in the pan
00:36:16
uh i put hydroxychloroquine you guys remember that
was good it was gonna it was gonna save the world
00:36:24
for a minute or two and then you know here we
are and uh so i'm just gonna leave it at that
00:36:30
yeah here we okay yeah everybody knows you may
have heard of hi joe quinn okay miracle some
00:36:38
people say it's america i took it it's great what
do you got it's a flashlight it's actually quite
00:36:44
related to this and i thought that she was
marvelous but i do think she will disappear
00:36:48
off the scene which is sarah cooper which uh you
know basically in the last month of the campaign
00:36:55
um kind of just disappeared and now is uh i don't
think uh anybody knows who sarah cooper is and
00:37:02
probably in a year from now won't but for for the
pure for the for those dark months of the pandemic
00:37:08
her mockery of trump was some of the funniest
stuff on twitter that i know oh sorry cooper's
00:37:13
amazing yeah she she got a netflix and i don't
think she'll be a flash in the pen i think
00:37:18
she'll come back um i would have loved to pick
um who was the press secretary for um with the
00:37:26
southern accent for for trump sex sarah huckabee
sanders yeah huckabee she but i think she was gone
00:37:35
in 20 by 2020 so i can't pick her but she was
amazing at defending trump she's like you all are
00:37:44
dumb and trump is smart and he has a 150 iq and
he owns mar-a-lago and he has a jet and his jedi
00:37:53
and you are the fake news media and i don't care
what you say america public know what you say
00:37:59
and trump is amazing in bed he was banging porn
stars when y'all were jerk i mean he's just she
00:38:05
would defend him i that's who i want as my pr
person she defended him for all time my biggest
00:38:11
flash in the plan though i think you need a pr
person yeah i don't need a person i got this we
00:38:16
got this podcast now we don't need the press or
pr we just go right to the audience um nicola
00:38:23
trading at 34 billion dollars they took your
precious spax chamoth and they perverted it with
00:38:32
a [ __ ] milton who was on my podcast and couldn't
answer basic questions it's now worth 6 billion i
00:38:39
predicted it will be worth 60 cents i kid you not
this company will go to zero is my prediction if
00:38:45
you are buying companies and i made jason jacobs
you were gonna scare all founder all founders ceos
00:38:52
are gonna avoid coming on your podcast now no
no no no i i'm delightful but for this kid um
00:39:05
no he's under investigation the thing's a disaster
they're obviously riding on elon's coattails he
00:39:10
couldn't make a decision it was hydrogen powered
cars or electric trucks or whatever and uh the
00:39:17
companies in chaos and i i made a rule which is if
a company has not released their product and it's
00:39:24
worth over a billion dollars be careful because
it could be a fraud um or it could be a disaster
00:39:29
that's my biggest flashlight nichola um biggest
breakthrough freeberg you want to start us off on
00:39:34
this one i have an idea i think i know what you're
going to say i'm going to say alpha fold you know
00:39:39
that we talked about in the last podcast i think
um alpha fold feels to me like what arpanet was
00:39:44
which was the origins of the internet you know uh
back when it was first installed and no one really
00:39:50
kind of grappled with the ramifications of what
would emerge and i think you know once we have the
00:39:55
ability to design proteins to do things um a lot's
going to change in the world of medicine and human
00:40:01
health and longevity and the kind of environment
and it's going to be pretty powerful so i'm
00:40:05
excited about alpha fold creating a foundation
for for humanity's ability to do those things
00:40:11
what do you got a hundred percent alpha fold by uh
there's not a close second to be honest okay saks
00:40:20
well as a as a close second i guess i would
i would mention the mrna vaccines which we
00:40:26
talked about on the show the ability to basically
print a vaccine in two days and hopefully they'll
00:40:33
follow our advice about challenge vaccines so
the next time we have one of these pandemics
00:40:37
challenge trials challenge trials we can uh we can
respond much more quickly and then just quickly
00:40:42
in politics i thought the biggest breakthrough
was uh pete butterjudge he made the unlikely
00:40:49
leap from mayor of south bend indiana to being the
first credible openly gay candidate for president
00:40:55
he won iowa sort of uh along with bernie sanders
and was a very close second in new hampshire
00:41:02
uh he's going to be uh the the um he's going to
be director of the transportation department in
00:41:08
the binding administration i i want to just
point something out on your sorry jkl but
00:41:15
um you know the mrna vaccine technology
has been around for like 15 years and
00:41:20
regulatory barriers and regulatory constraints
have largely kept this stuff from coming to
00:41:24
market and it's interesting how you know in a year
where we have this pandemic emergency we can take
00:41:29
this technology that has been around and has been
available to us for so long and suddenly you know
00:41:34
all the regulatory barriers get dropped and things
come to market to change the world i think it's a
00:41:38
great highlight of like what's possible when some
regulatory constraints are diminished a little bit
00:41:44
and technology is really allowed to flourish and
see the light of day um and you know we all act so
00:41:49
surprised that this technology works but it's been
here for a while it's pretty uh pretty astounding
00:41:54
that it hasn't worked or hasn't been allowed to
work in the past in a previous just an observation
00:41:59
i think it's worth yeah i think it's a really
valid one because it wasn't a breakthrough that
00:42:02
occurred this year the breakthrough was they broke
through the regulations you said you wanted to
00:42:07
wait and see some people get the vaccines first um
and then that led to some accounts on the twitter
00:42:15
saying are you still anti-vaccination and i i
had to correct them you've never said you were
00:42:21
anti-vaccination to be clear i'm not antibiotics
not at all no no no you said you wanted to yes no
00:42:29
no i think my point is um i think a lot of people
are going to latch on sorry let me just be really
00:42:34
clear i think a lot of people are going to latch
on to the small number of cases that are going to
00:42:39
be amplified of people having adverse reactions to
this you know new technology vaccine in alaska the
00:42:44
other day like two days ago there was a nurse
who got the vaccine and she had a really bad
00:42:49
anaphylactic reaction to it she had to be given
epinephrine twice to survive and she came out
00:42:53
and she was fine but it's that storytelling that's
like you know they they assume it should be some
00:42:59
small percentage of people will have some reaction
to this thing but that is the storytelling that
00:43:03
will keep people from doing this and i think that
is the the biggest kind of concern and that's why
00:43:07
you've got guys like mike pence doing the the
vaccine tomorrow you know he's going to do it
00:43:11
on live tv and uh celebrities like ian mckellen
doing it they're they're trying to kind of create
00:43:17
wait are we going to see mike pence's
naked shoulder and bicep on television
00:43:24
because mom
00:43:32
actually mother's going to give it to him because
if if a woman doctor gave it to him it would be
00:43:36
kind of like cheating because she stuck something
in him you know and it's just not right um uh okay
00:43:44
uh i can't wait to take it if anybody doesn't
want their vaccine i will take it because i'm
00:43:48
losing my mind and quarantine i mean for
the love of god uh smartest business move
00:43:54
chamath i think uh 2020 was
uh the year of this back
00:44:03
i think that it is uh it is it's an incredibly
it's done it's it's done something really really
00:44:10
really important in the capital market so that
uh can you give child his bestie award now jkl
00:44:16
yes accepting his best award give it to him by
himself himself would you like an accepted speech
00:44:24
the smartest business move i would like
to thank the smartest business move me
00:44:31
saks what was your smartest business move or
the smartest business move in business well i
00:44:36
i'd like to thank chamoth for the smack thing
too because i was in open door and uh i was in
00:44:41
porch and both of them are spacking this year so
oh i think i'm in desktop metal i'm going to go
00:44:46
with we have to agree thank you for the best in
business you've wet you've wet all of our beaks
00:44:51
so yeah i mean i mean actually if you think
about it i i've done uh six deals this year
00:44:58
are we still talking about me are okay
00:45:02
we have to
00:45:13
he's been nominated three times
but this is the only besties won
00:45:16
i really wanted to be in that
reality show with you and
00:45:23
i mean talk about dodging a bullet
we went with this trailer to
00:45:29
the top five studios they all wanted it in
the room nbc says we'll take it in the room
00:45:38
the the head of nbc says we'll take it we taped
the pilot and then beeps whole career life blows
00:45:44
up and thanked the lord that show didn't get on tv
because i it would have been executive produced by
00:45:52
beep uh and yeah that would have been bad
so uh no reality tv for me uh i had i had
00:45:58
another smart business move i just wanted to
point out which was salesforce buying slack
00:46:02
i think it's brilliant for them i think
they're going to look back on the 10
00:46:05
they paid of their capital for slack and
i think slack will be more important than
00:46:11
salesforce ultimately in business it's a huge
the most important brand there what a crown jewel
00:46:16
what a great what a great move by benioff and
and brett taylor and i just think what a great
00:46:21
asset would be better for them than youtube is
for google or instagram is for i think i think
00:46:27
it's on that level actually i think it's of that
order of magnitude where the importance of those
00:46:32
assets to those companies slack will be the sales
force cost cost 20 times 30 times as much though
00:46:39
so less upside but less upside but but in terms
of like lock-in and value and you know the
00:46:45
prevention of churn uh over time i think it's
gonna be huge i mean it could be at some point
00:46:50
the company is slack sales force like slack will
be the preeminent brand there dave did you go
00:46:57
for this for smartest business move i i agree
i agree with both the ones you've already done
00:47:02
okay i'm gonna i'm gonna i'm gonna i'm gonna
rattle one off real quick i got i think people
00:47:08
missed this but at the bottom of the market
silverlake did this massive debt deal into airbnb
00:47:13
which if you'll remember is reminiscent
to me of warren buffett you know giving
00:47:16
five billion dollars to swisserie
and goldman sachs and he earned a 12
00:47:20
coupon and got warrants in both those companies
and it just paid a tremendous return for him
00:47:25
silverlake swooped into airbnb in april gave
him a 12 debt deal for a billion dollars and
00:47:30
they got warrants that the warrants today
are worth um about 1.4 billion dollars
00:47:36
and this debt is probably worth three times
what they put in so in like five months six
00:47:41
months these guys have basically turned a billion
dollars of debt into four billion dollars of value
00:47:46
uh it was an incredible deal incredibly gutsy
if you think about what we were all feeling in
00:47:50
early april about the market and where the world
was headed we had no [ __ ] clue for these guys
00:47:54
to swoop in and do that i thought it was super
impressive the other one i i i had a couple on
00:47:59
this because i just i want to rattle these off
bill ackman bought a [ __ ] s p put sorry bought
00:48:04
an s p put for 27 million dollars that he sold
for 2.6 billion dollars he bought he bought credit
00:48:10
default insurance on a whole strip of default
insurance yeah but he turned a 27 million dollar
00:48:17
insurance instrument into 2.6 billion of
returns for his fund and he still didn't sell
00:48:21
his portfolio in fact he bought at the bottom
and i mean the the the foresight this guy had
00:48:26
going into the down market ahead of march he saw
that the market was going to tank because of kovid
00:48:31
um he made a bet on it it was a tiny bet for
him but man to turn 27 million at a 2.6 billion
00:48:37
in like 60 days or 90 days unbelievable and then
he bought stock and his companies at the bottom um
00:48:43
what a gutsy investor and then i was like anything
was there anything fugazi on that with where he
00:48:49
had gone on cnbc and talked and he did this whole
big you know longer yeah he did it afterwards but
00:48:56
i think he's i think he's great i think he's great
yeah i think it was it was incredible and my third
00:49:00
one which we don't talk about a lot is larry
ellison bought a billion dollars of tesla stock
00:49:05
less than two years ago that is now worth over 10
billion dollars and he did it he joined the board
00:49:11
and um you know you put your money where your
mouth is and you take ownership and um you know i
00:49:16
don't know much about larry but uh there was a lot
of naysayers about tesla saying they were bubbly
00:49:21
and overvalued at that time and it was really cute
he did it in the middle of the tesla q shorting
00:49:27
movement and now he can buy not just lanai but he
could probably get kauai to go with it he could
00:49:33
buy another island anyway those were three gutsy
bets that i thought were worth highlighting that
00:49:37
that just really impressed me and and you know
it's when the markets are down when you're facing
00:49:41
the abyss when everyone else is telling you you're
wrong and you make a big bet like that um and it
00:49:46
pays off that's the kind of stuff that i think
returns are made from and characters built and
00:49:50
those are those are just really impressive moves
for me that there's a lot of impressive moves this
00:49:55
year the tide went out and came back in real quick
so there were some dumb business moves as well
00:50:02
sax you got a dumb business move
that was a highlight for 2020
00:50:06
the city of san francisco biting the hand that
feeds it for years these politicians have been
00:50:14
[ __ ] on the tech community acting like the tech
community was somehow a parasite on san francisco
00:50:20
well you know now because of covid
congratulations the tech community has the
00:50:26
option to leave you have a lot of people leaving
and there are gigantic budget deficits for the
00:50:30
city the schools have giant budget deficits it's
not clear how they're going to close these things
00:50:36
and it's looking that more and more like it
wasn't tech that was a parasite it was the
00:50:42
politicians who are the parasites and nobody uh
knows how to fix the city of san francisco anymore
00:50:50
yeah okay uh dumbest business move chamath
00:50:57
um i think it was one i think it was probably
for me um the governor of california's handling
00:51:06
of um well i guess that's more political than
business but um well no i mean it did impact
00:51:12
businesses so i think you're you're i think that
i'll allow it i'll allow it i think that i think
00:51:17
that what he showed was how naked partisanship was
in decision making that had that should have been
00:51:24
based on science in fact and the quality of the
decision making just eroded every single decision
00:51:31
that he made and then now you know as david said
it's kind of like you have this just just you know
00:51:37
um you have this moment where it's like
you know the justi cake moment where he's
00:51:43
eating at french laundry and the day after he's
basically shutting the whole world down again it's
00:51:48
it's very frustrating so so i think he also was
shutting down beaches right and then you know the
00:51:53
stay-at-home orders and not letting people leave
their house and go to a beach or eat outdoors
00:51:59
all that is send them inside they're gonna have
a party inside their house well there's a great
00:52:04
tweet stupid there's a great tweet that said
um you know i'm not allowed to go to the store
00:52:09
i'm not allowed to go to the shopping center
but i'm gonna take my child on a walk and if
00:52:13
anybody stops me i'm just gonna tell them i'm
taking her to the nail salon and the reason is
00:52:18
because you couldn't walk to the park but you
could you could go to the nail salon and so
00:52:23
you know this tweet was just reminiscent of just
how arbitrary and random this stuff was and it had
00:52:28
just so many downstream ink packs so i think that
was a huge fail nobody loves hypocrisy i picked
00:52:33
my smartest business move with salesforce buying
slack conversely i'm picking my dumbest business
00:52:38
move with slack's board selling slack this is the
stupidest thing i've ever seen i understand they
00:52:43
felt like maybe uh it was a great deal but i would
have much rather them see seeing them do what
00:52:49
i can honestly to be honest with you i mean
i left the board and i just don't know why
00:52:54
i wish i could have gotten the call because i
would have bought it yeah i i agree with you
00:52:59
i think network effects are incredibly unique
assets they're very very rare i think we've all
00:53:05
been around them we've worked in them david has
david the other david has i have jason you have
00:53:10
it is the single most incredible moment momentum
driver and you know sort of tailwind and when it
00:53:17
exists you just never give it up and so i agree
with you i would have bought slack if i could
00:53:20
have if they would have given me a shot we ride
our winners and you appreciate network effects
00:53:26
if you look at what jeff lawson did at twilio
he started with much less i think uh he started
00:53:33
with nothing started with twilio jefferson grid
and segment their market cap has gone 12 it was
00:53:44
it's 12x market cap they went from 29 a share to
365 a year in three years they're at 60 billion
00:53:51
slack should have been buying other companies
with their equity and they sh and they should
00:53:57
have built and rolled up all of the other
hub spots or whatever else is out there
00:54:03
by zendesk whatever i'm not sure that the m a
strategy was the hard part i just think that
00:54:09
it's when you're in the bowels of these companies
as we all know it's super hard right so i mean
00:54:13
i don't think you can fail stuart uh and the
team but i think that somewhere along the way
00:54:21
just the realization of how special and unique
that network effect was um didn't happen because
00:54:28
it would have given a different team a level of
energy or comfort to kind of really go for the
00:54:34
brass ring as you said and but you know hopefully
they'll be able to execute it at salesforce
00:54:39
okay did i get everybody's dumbest business move
my dumbest business move was myself um so i will
00:54:46
take uh i will take pictures of the award for
being a schmuck is me and anyone else that
00:54:53
[ __ ] hedged or shorted the market or sold during
the dip in march uh i learned the most valuable
00:55:00
lesson i've learned in my investing career to
date you just want to invest in whole chairs
00:55:06
and great businesses and not try and time markets
because that's always a loser's game and a fool's
00:55:10
errand um and i think you know worrying about the
market going down or up as long as you hold shares
00:55:15
and great businesses it doesn't matter trading is
not for me it was stupid um and i just feel like
00:55:22
a lot of people learned that lesson this year i've
heard a lot of people that kind of freaked out and
00:55:26
got out of the market and then they regretted
it and tried to get back in it was too late and
00:55:30
yada yada i um i read a document um that
someone wrote um for me um and she wrote
00:55:38
this incredible quote that i had never heard
from buffett and i'll give it to you friedberg
00:55:41
because it's right it's very uh apropos of this
buffett had this statement which is that you know
00:55:47
it's not about timing the market it is about time
in market and i just think that's so that's so
00:55:55
beautiful because it's so simple but it basically
summarizes exactly what you said which is get in
00:56:01
close your eyes and if you if again unless
for liquidity you just don't ever sell yeah
00:56:10
it's a fool's errand to try to time the
market sit on your hands ride your winners
00:56:14
uh and and he always said listen if a business
is on if i own this business and i love it
00:56:19
and it's at a discount i should want to own more
of it i believe that was another buffet i don't
00:56:23
know the exact quote uh let's go to smart's
political move and we'll go to our token
00:56:28
uh republican david sacks for that well uh well
it's it's it's yeah it's funny you identify me
00:56:36
that way because uh my my smart the smartest
political move goes to congressman jim clyborn
00:56:41
uh democrat of south carolina for endorsing joe
biden just before the south carolina primary uh
00:56:47
a number of people on the buying campaign
were panicking they wanted him to do it
00:56:51
early because biden had bombed in iowa and new
hampshire and uh clybourne kept his powder dry
00:56:58
and endorsed biden at the absolute perfect
time it caused by him to win south carolina
00:57:04
and that led him to sweep on super tuesday jim
clybourn was the king maker of 2020 without him
00:57:10
joe biden would not be president wow okay who
you got freeburg smartest political move of
00:57:16
2020 was joe biden staying quiet hanging out in
his bunker and letting trump do his own damage
00:57:22
end of story i feel like i feel like if
you know that biden knew that it wasn't
00:57:27
his election to win it was trump's election to
lose and i think he let him go out and lose it
00:57:31
and um and that to me was uh smart advice and and
smart action yes so he just checked and he's just
00:57:37
he just he just slow played aces he hit his set
he just checked and he watched him fire uh who do
00:57:44
you got chamoth smartest political move smartest
political move which you will not see until 2022
00:57:51
or 23 but laid the groundwork this year and i
thought it was brilliantly done was nikki haley
00:57:57
who i think will be the republican nominee
for president in 2024 and she did an
00:58:04
unbelievable job of tricking trump to believe that
he was her supporter then getting distribution and
00:58:11
then basically subtly telling everybody that she
thought that he was an idiot and i thought that
00:58:17
she was brilliant in so she didn't look like a
rat leaving the ship she looked like you know a
00:58:24
rebel or something getting off i think i think
if you want to find um somebody to consolidate
00:58:30
center-right politics in 2024 uh my money would be
on nikki hilly all right i went with the smartest
00:58:37
political move i also went for the long game
pete buttigieg going on fox recently i think
00:58:42
he did obviously a masterful job you had that sax
earlier but he started going on fox and basically
00:58:49
being really spicy with them and supporting the
hell out of um biden and then he gets himself this
00:58:57
secretary of transportation and i think he's
set up to either be the vp or the presidential
00:59:02
candidate uh in the future and he's i think he's
going to be one of the bright stars i also would
00:59:08
uh i think andrew yang it did nothing happened
for him this year really i don't know but i felt
00:59:13
like he also is my understanding is he's going
to run for mayor of new york that was another
00:59:19
amazing political winner in all of this i don't
know if anybody has feelings on either of those
00:59:25
i love i love andrew yang i think he's
uh fabulous uh he's coming on the podcast
00:59:32
pragmatic centrist smart capable
competent um good listener he attracts it
00:59:39
he attracts a plurality of people yeah and i and
i think he's spoken out against uh cancel culture
00:59:46
and so you know whenever i see somebody in the
left speaking out against cancer culture and
00:59:51
censorship like the way chamoth has that
definitely to me elevates them in my book
00:59:58
are you saying chamoth is someone from the left
well it's amazing how much we agree on you know
01:00:03
well i mean i think that there's you have this
left and right definitions which have become
01:00:07
very hard to understand and i think what we
have to get back to is the american principled
01:00:11
idea of freedoms and opportunity right and and
and i don't think either of the parties actually
01:00:17
were representing that properly dumbest political
move of the year i think i know where everybody's
01:00:22
going to go with this but i would like rudy
giuliani rudy giuliani's press conference
01:00:28
at the sex shop i mean just i mean how amateurish
is that group of people the four seasons gardening
01:00:37
we're gonna be at the fourth was they were
they trolling us and trying to get press for
01:00:41
it i don't understand that one unbelievable
rudy truliani for the dumbest political move
01:00:45
saks what do you got i have a feeling i know
what sac's got well i got i got a tie here
01:00:50
uh between uh one was uh defund the police you
know as a political slogan the whole country
01:00:57
you know the blm movement had the whole country
on its side uh after the you know the george floyd
01:01:03
video came out everybody was in favor of sensible
reforms to control the use of force by the police
01:01:10
and then they they introduced the slogan of defund
the police and it scared voters across the country
01:01:16
into voting for uh republicans in congress and
it probably cost joe biden not the presidency but
01:01:23
uh congress and the my my tie the other half of
that was uh donald trump refusing to wear a mask
01:01:32
or to endorse mass uh he finally did it
but it was two or three months too late
01:01:37
if he had just gotten on board with mass
it would have been a very easy thing to do
01:01:41
uh politically personally uh that could have
made the the margin of difference he might
01:01:46
still be president if he had gotten on
board with mass about three months earlier
01:01:51
freeberg what was your dumbest place i actually
yeah i put making masks political more broadly
01:01:56
um both the left and the right pointing fingers
about masks i mean this is like a human life issue
01:02:02
and um you know uh kind of shaming the republicans
for not wearing masks and making it about we're
01:02:09
the right guys you're the wrong guys everyone
should have avoided pointing fingers and avoided
01:02:15
um not doing it because the other side was doing
it and it should have never ever been allowed to
01:02:19
become political it was pure science it was
about saving lives and i think both sides are
01:02:24
to blame um for you know the democrats tried to
make the republicans look bad because they were
01:02:29
advocating for masks and they shouldn't have
done that and the republicans should not have
01:02:33
tried to avoid wearing masks because the democrats
were telling them to wear masks and it was just
01:02:37
a total cluster um really sad and you know could
have made a big difference for thousands of lives
01:02:43
i too put trump not advocating for masks
as my dumbest political move i believe he
01:02:49
nailed the stimulus that first stimulus where
he just dropped the 1200 checks and the ppp and
01:02:54
everything he obviously nailed uh you know the
operation lightspeed and the vaccines he didn't
01:02:59
get credit for it um i don't know if that was
political or not that they dropped them the week
01:03:04
the weeks after the election i think it was i'm
i'm i'm a little bit cynical about that but my god
01:03:11
is there nobody that this man would listen to um
and they must have all been telling him in unison
01:03:17
hey [ __ ] put the mask on we'll win the election
the in july and august the numbers started to go
01:03:24
down precipitously and everybody fauci everybody
with half a brain was saying second wave is
01:03:30
coming wear masks and he refused to take that
stance and not only to that he doubled down
01:03:36
like the [ __ ] he is and started doing rallies
this person is such a complete idiot grifter and
01:03:44
just imbecile that he couldn't see the clear path
to victory and he was tempting fate and of course
01:03:53
he winds up getting coveted i mean the idiocracy
of the moment is just so profound he absolutely
01:04:02
would have sailed into that second term we were
sitting here on this very podcast and we all
01:04:06
believed he was going to sail into the second term
when the market started ripping back and the coven
01:04:10
numbers went down and because of the stupidity of
not wearing masks thank god we got him out but to
01:04:17
the families who lost loved ones he's a murderer
period we're moving on best political theater
01:04:28
into his body and then taking the
polyclonal antibodies to heal himself
01:04:33
and show the american population that it's just
not that bad it was the best stunt the best act
01:04:40
the best theater i've seen and um uh you know i i
don't know what what the hell else uh could have
01:04:46
beaten it this year i mean the guy literally
literally it could be he buckled himself in
01:04:53
you know buttoned up his jacket he stared
out the lights in his face he was glowing
01:04:57
he had the antibodies rushing through his body he
was healing his body he was on speed man i thought
01:05:03
i thought the best i thought the best political
theater was when the democratic leadership
01:05:09
did like the colin kaepernick one knee in
kinte klotz at the in the rotunda congress
01:05:19
can somebody nick you just throw
the picture of that up there
01:05:25
i mean i mean half of them or some of them
are so old they couldn't get down on them
01:05:29
we picked them back up they all hit
their life alert they got the life
01:05:32
alert i've fallen i can't get up like 20 life
alerts i've never got off in the same room
01:05:42
but the kinte cloths were just so over
the top like you didn't need the kitten
01:05:46
they really weren't kidding
01:05:57
my best political theater is um i i
don't know who this congresswoman is
01:06:05
but i am falling in love with her um her name is
katie porter oh my god she takes out a whiteboard
01:06:14
she just she's fabulous no she's so great
she she owns people with that white board
01:06:20
it's the greatest she basically does math
and people are just i mean she's done
01:06:26
this now two or three times where she just
takes people down and she did it to mnuchin
01:06:31
like she was like is today tuesday and he's like
you know today's tuesday she's like can you tell
01:06:37
me if today's student she just destroys people
um like i i just never seen anything like it um
01:06:44
and uh she's awesome so best political theater
for me i don't know uh david did we get yours well
01:06:51
um yeah i mean so i thought the the the french
laundry photos you know the all these politicians
01:06:58
uh violating their own lockdown policies uh was
some with some pretty good uh theater yeah the
01:07:05
actor theater yeah you had you know you had you
had uh gavin newsom and uh london uh bri dining at
01:07:12
french laundry you had nancy pelosi going to that
hair salon any republicans do something like that
01:07:19
well um i i would i would tell you if i knew of
anybody trump rallies the republicans but yeah but
01:07:25
the republicans haven't been supporting lockdowns
so um you know look if there was a republican who
01:07:30
was how about the rose garden uh supreme court
where they had a super spreader event at the
01:07:34
white house but they weren't but but that wasn't
political theater because they weren't violating
01:07:38
their own policies oh they were saying that
people could take the risk um got it okay i i i'm
01:07:44
i'm picking these um politicians because because
they're happy yeah it's the hypocrisy uh the one
01:07:50
i loved the best out of all the hypocritical
politicians was the one who was like please
01:07:55
stay it was the governor of some place colorado or
something and he's like please stay home with your
01:08:00
family do not travel for thanksgiving it's gonna
be too dangerous and then they find out he did
01:08:06
that tweet while at a southwest gate going with
this family to thanksgiving and they literally
01:08:13
have pictures of him on his phone and the picture
was timed at the time stamp of the tweet if i have
01:08:19
my understanding correct i forgot the guy's
name but there were so many of these yeah
01:08:24
well let me give you another one there was uh
la uh the la county supervisor uh sheila cool
01:08:29
cast the deciding vote to shut down outdoor dining
in los angeles only to be photographed eating at
01:08:35
uh for nayo in santa monica two hours later so
it's just completely hypocritical and um you know
01:08:42
this is why there could be a big recall next year
in california i think we have to put political
01:08:47
theater as one category of just loathsome
political theater because we're going on to worst
01:08:52
political theater and the stuff we've seen has
been pretty horrific i'm going to lead us off with
01:08:58
my worst political theater which was the banning
of tick tock was absolutely the right thing to
01:09:03
do and then they just handed it off as like a
gift to oracle to make money and maybe be their
01:09:09
server farm i don't understand we were supposed
to ban it and get the [ __ ] out of the app store
01:09:14
and that was just terrible political theater
anybody else got more political theater that we'll
01:09:18
put in our loathsome political theaters well you
uh jason just so you uh understand that i'm being
01:09:25
uh politically even-handed this is where i had
rudy giuliani and his uh tour of self-immolation
01:09:37
right from from the press conference
in front of the crematorium
01:09:42
to the the the hair dye meltdown to the
is a foreign video all right we need to
01:09:49
hold on hold on i'm gonna make i'm gonna
call an audible i'm calling an audio here
01:09:53
we're gonna have a new category to get it covered
worst rudy giuliani moment can we have a giant
01:10:08
what is the worst thing the worst giuliani moment
oh i think i think the saddest moment was the uh
01:10:15
in the borap thing that was sad because you just
felt you just felt like this is an old broken man
01:10:22
yeah um it was creepy and it was just sad
he was like desperate and he was creepy
01:10:26
and it was but giuliani's the worst though was
was actually if you listen to the testimony when
01:10:34
he farted uh it was really terrible it was really
terrible actually if you listen to the testimony
01:10:40
you're just like what is this guy saying it's out
of control well the also i think we have to cut
01:10:45
into here the poor woman sitting next to him who's
clearly in range i mean she's in the blast zone
01:10:55
he rips it he rips it and she looks him she
gives him side eye but she is so like scared to
01:11:07
react to such an obvious carpet bombing that she
just keeps a straight face but her eyes go poop
01:11:19
that was unforgivable must have been a
stinker i mean it was loud it had resonance
01:11:26
if it was yeah um can i can i give one can i give
one other example and i don't know whether this
01:11:32
is best or worse theater um but um but the the
the the congressional uh hearings with the tech
01:11:40
ceos where the senators grilled all the tech ceos
and it was definitely it was definitely political
01:11:47
theater but on the other hand they all deserved it
and there's going to be more of it next year okay
01:11:56
political theater because i thought what
was so depressing about it was how little
01:12:00
the congressional um the congress people actually
understood of these businesses and they went off
01:12:07
on rants and and tirades about you know you're
blocking republican voice on twitter and you're
01:12:12
doing this and none of it actually focused on
you know the the monopolistic practices that was
01:12:16
the intention of the hearing in the first place
when they actually got into those points when
01:12:20
they tried to talk about how the ad networks work
and how targeting works they didn't have any clue
01:12:24
i mean it was really inside these companies don't
even know how it worked and they built it i mean
01:12:28
these things no i'll tell you like i just i
just think it's really sad that um that that
01:12:32
folks in congress um honestly are so disconnected
from understanding technology and understanding
01:12:38
you know modern business practices um and they
can't actually you know tackle the real issues
01:12:44
um and it neither does the squad i mean aoc
didn't understand what a tax break was i mean
01:12:50
so yeah even the young ones don't understand
stuff i mean we just we're getting the worst
01:12:54
possible representation okay now we're gonna go
to lightning round with our final two categories
01:12:58
uh best meme uh for me it was the funeral
dancers uh followed up by michael jordan i
01:13:03
took that personally and i of course loved
chamat's mix-up that one of you maniac all
01:13:09
in army members made uh who do you got for
who got best memes and he got a best meme
01:13:15
tuban
01:13:20
forever a cautionary tale about what not to
do on a zoom call yes yes that would be okay
01:13:28
arguably in political theater let's say no
uh anybody else got a meme best or worst
01:13:36
i like the funeral dancers but uh the answers
are pretty great yeah david anything for you
01:13:43
i just want to say to everybody that's listening
i really hope that you guys have an incredible
01:13:48
holiday and um we can put this year behind us and
i hope for all of you guys that have gone through
01:13:55
hard times just know that um you know hopefully
you got some friends to talk to and family to see
01:14:01
and talk to and we love you and we really
appreciate that you take the time to listen
01:14:06
and guys i just want to say to you guys i
love you guys with all my heart thank you for
01:14:09
helping me get through a very difficult year
uh back at you and uh i was very touched by the
01:14:16
uh birthday present you sent me last week that
was just oh you want to tell them what what you
01:14:20
got you want to tell them what you got big
boy i mean listen i don't want to chamoth
01:14:26
i i get a big crate at the house it was i was born
in 1970 and he got some of the best ones from 1970
01:14:34
and put them in a box and you know i i literally
had to put them on a shelf and say do not drink
01:14:40
these these things cost as much as the tesla's
in the driveways i mean some of these bottles are
01:14:45
ridiculous and uh i hope to crack them all open
with you guys at the house in happy honestly happy
01:14:51
happy 50th birthday big boy it's a big big muscle
well you know i was it was a little bittersweet
01:14:57
obviously you know i was gonna have some kind of
party or anything like that and then what made it
01:15:01
particularly hard and challenging was my birthday
was on saturday and my friend tony shea died on
01:15:06
friday uh on that day and i had been dealing with
tony shea being in a coma for the fives for the no
01:15:14
for ten days before that and then i found out that
that afternoon that they uh tragically had to pull
01:15:20
the plug um or i assume that's what happened i
shouldn't say that i don't speak out of a turn
01:15:25
but uh this has been a shitty year and i really
hope uh that anybody out there who is suffering
01:15:32
from mental illness uh or struggling in any way
call a friend and i think the reason this podcast
01:15:40
uh has resonated with so many people and i hear
this from people when they listen to the pod
01:15:44
is our friendship and they and they they
they hear us talk and they hear us laugh
01:15:48
and they hear us joke and the value
of friendship and the love and the joy
01:15:53
and people just can't believe uh when chamat
says and and men say to each other they love
01:15:58
each other and they can't believe that
sax almost is able to say it and they and
01:16:04
people think by episode 25 stacks will be
able to say back to us but we'll try right
01:16:10
now we'll see if we can close 20 20 21. we're
all going to say i love you david sacks and then
01:16:17
let's just see if this can work i love you david
sacks and i love you david sacks back at you
01:16:26
we'll take it we'll take it i love you guys love
you guys happy holidays love you guys see you guys
01:16:33
the new year bye bye besties
