Tax the Billionaires (EP. 446)

27:27Right. But look at this chart from BLS. It shows there's this really cool tool where you can click on these different things of what people spend money on. And it goes from 2010 to 2024. And it's food at home versus food away from home. And look at the amount of money that people have spent. Both of them are up into the road. Obviously, inflation is a big piece of this. But it's not like people have decided to stop spending money going out. The dollars are still being spent. Begrudgingly. Yes, right, begrudgingly. But it's not like people have severely changed their behavior. You know, this is interesting too.

28:01They have alcohol beverages at home and alcohol beverages away from home. And this is the opposite of the food. There's way more money being spent away from home on alcoholic beverages than at home. So we keep hearing these stories about how any of the sin industries are really screwed. It's actually interesting. I think this is probably for socializing, probably a good thing. Like people, if they are drinking, they should be doing it out and about, at restaurants with people, at bars, right? Sporting events, doing it out as opposed to drinking themselves at home because people don't throw parties anymore, I guess, but.

28:31My drinking habits have completely flipped. I guess similar to the chart. Like during, remember COVID was, I was drinking every night. Yeah. Probably for about a year. I was like, all right, I guess I'm, this is just what I'm doing now. I never drink at home. I guess on the weekends I do. But yeah, you're right. I don't really drink during the week. that's my thing you go out more than i do in new york but uh you're right it's it's more of a social thing you do it when you go out for dinner or something all right uh there was there was an opinion piece in the times that was pretty depressing um said when ai took my job i bought a chainsaw so it was about i think this guy was a writer i can't remember exactly um and he asked chat gbt like what can he do that's ai resistant okay and he started cutting trees and then he he got hurt because it's physically you know it's laborious and he ended the piece with in towns like mine outsourcing and automation consume jobs then purpose then people now the same forces are climbing the economic ladder yet washington remains fixated on global competition and growth as if new work will always appear to replace what's been lost.

29:46Maybe it will, but given AI's rapacity, it seems far more likely that it won't. If our leaders fail to prepare, the silence that once followed the closing of factory doors will spread through office parks and home offices, and the grief long borne by the working class may soon be borne by us all. Obviously, dramatic, but valid. My thinking is like the AI is like, if you see it in movies and stuff already, you see AI is like in every new movie, now AI is the villain, right? This is, this is going to be the pop culture for the next 10, 20 years, probably. Oh yeah. Right. If there's going to be so many books written about this and so many movies about this and the impact of this is going to have just a long tail, a very long tail.

30:36Yeah. I do wonder. I mean, that is a question. Like there are obviously there's, there are obvious jobs that will be lost to AI, to automation. You can name them. The question is like, where does it end? It doesn't really come for all of us. I mean, all of us is absurd, but there was a chart in Benedict Evans. What is it? Annual report? I don't know. He does. He gives an annual presentation. Okay. And he wrote AI layoffs, a red herring in the short term. So he shows employees laid off within tech specifically. All right? So employees that are laid off and then companies with layoffs. And yes, there was a spike as Chad GPT launched.

31:21That was way more to do with macroeconomic forces. Right. It was just a bad time in the economy. It was 9 % inflation. Had nothing to do with Chad GPT. Since then, both of these numbers are down to the right. This is surprising. This does not match with the headlines at all. No. and you would think that tech would actually be the place because you hear about how much AI helps with programming. And so you'd think tech would be the place where this would have the biggest impact immediately. You would. That's surprising. I still, I'm on the, like, I know there's going to be a difficult transition for millions of people.

31:56I don't know what the number is. Is it 2 million? Is it 5 million? Is it 10? I don't know what the number is, but I still, I don't think that it's going to completely take over and ruin tens of millions of jobs. I just don't, I don't believe that. I, there's too much inertia in the system. I don't think that's going to happen. Neither do I. I guess the question is how many jobs are going to be destroyed? Um, and how does that impact society? Even if it's only a small percentage, you know, what if it's, what if it's 7 million people? The thing I think about 7 million people, I made the number up obviously, but, and I'm not saying that these are, these are great jobs for people, but think about the new industries that popped up just in this last 10, 15 years.

32:38DoorDash, Uber, all these things that didn't, I'm not saying these are good jobs, people, but these jobs that came from technology that did not exist before, that how many millions of people do now? And those jobs are going to get displaced when we have self-driving cars. I guess the point is like, those, those are terrible jobs. Of course. And how many people do them? So I'm just saying there's going to be new jobs that come about that because of this. And I don't think we even know what they are. Yeah, I agree. And hopefully they're better than what exists. All right, Ben, let me have it. Okay.

33:05So we did a live talk, compounding friends on Friday. And I gave this take about AI and you immediately came back at me and said, Hey, what the, what the hell, man, you stole that take from me. And you, if you look at my face on the video, I'm, I'm totally confused because I thought, Oh man, did I, if I did, I, I had no idea. And then a bunch of people emailed in and said, wait, what's Michael talking about? Ben had that take on the latest Animal Spears. Duncan, play the clip. Duncan found the clip for me. So you and Josh and I next week are going to have a live show for TCAF, right? I want to talk about this then with him, but I want to plant the seed a little bit here.

33:44I feel like people keep putting this stuff all in one big bucket. It's either going to succeed or it's going to fail, and it's all or nothing, right? Yeah. But what if it is like, hey, listen, these two companies figure out how to work it, and these other companies figure out how to use it better. And these companies, they do crash and burn, but it doesn't bring the whole thing down. That's, I think that's the, the way people are thinking about it. That could be, okay, that's good. Okay. So you, you put my take honor on the table and you called out my honor for takes. And I, did I incept that into your brain?

34:20Why did you, the take was so good that you incepted into my brain. Listen, guilty as charged in my defense. I'll give you a, you were sick. I'll give you that much. That was a flu pod. My brain was a bit scrambled. But yeah, that's embarrassing. You just said, and you stole that take from me.

34:41The funny thing is, I just thought maybe I missed it from you. You said it, and I was thinking of something else. What's this hallucination? I had to have Duncan pull that. Fair enough. What's the hallucination rate thing? Okay, so I am about to cancel my$200 a month chat GPT thing, which I kind of thought that I was going to when I did it. It was more of a test. Yeah, that was very quick. It was more of a test than anything. I would have said probably 80%, 20 % chance that I cancel this. That was what I thought going into it. And I'm canceling it primarily because I don't see enough value out of it.

35:22Right. Right? Like, I don't think that I'm going to notice a huge drop off in the$20 a month. Okay. And also, and also.

35:32So, ChatGBT, Gemini, whatever, these tools are amazing. I'm not trying to be a complainer. Like, I understand that they will never be worse than they are today. Right? Like, think about what the iPhone is today versus what it was when it came out or Netflix when they had nothing on the service. Right? Like, it's early and it's going to be amazing. And maybe one day I will need the$200 tool. All right. All that. Okay. It gets shit wrong all the time. Yeah. Like all the time. The stuff that really is infuriating is the simple stuff. Hey, change this little thing about this picture just had you create.

36:03And then it can't, for some reason, the simple stuff is the hardest for it. But there's a lot of like factual errors. For example, I asked, are the Lions mathematically eliminated from the playoffs? And it said like, yes, they finished the season eight and eight. And I was like, what? The season's not like the season's not over. and it gives you the whole, oh, you're right, I apologize. It's one of the movies that I was watching that I turned off actually because it was way too boring. There's a 1974 movie, I believe, called The Conversation. It's with Gene Hackman, who is obviously one of the greatest actors of all time.

36:38Francis Ford Coppola, I had never heard of it. Oh, good, because Rotten Tomatoes will be fired up. I was just bored, whatever. So it got me thinking, hey, whatever happened to Gene Hackman? Remember like the double death and there was speculation and it sort of just fizzled out? So it got like, oh, what happened to Gene Hackman? So I asked Chad, how did Gene Hackman die? And it said, that was a hoax on the internet. Gene Hackman is still alive. And I said, what are you kidding me? So the other day I asked it, if China invaded Taiwan, what would the reaction of the stock market be? And what do you think it told me would the baseline percentage drop would be for the stock market if China invaded Taiwan?

37:21What did it say? 50%. Let me see if I could find it. Still got some work to do. Let me see if I could find this.

37:32I can't even find it. Whatever. Who cares? It doesn't matter. Oh, here it was. Here it was. There's been no find. So did they ever find out how Gene Hackman died? There's been no find because Gene Hackman has not died. Gene Hackman is alive. And then it said, if you're thinking of a death hoax that's circulated online, that's almost certainly the source. So I said, Gene Hackman is dead. What are you talking about? And then I started complaining about how much money I was worth. But anyway, getting back to the point. Yeah, getting back to the point. So in Sembilis' post, he has AI model hallucination rates, which are incorrect responses as a share of total questions.

38:09It's high as shit. Like chat GBT, 5-2 is still 45%. Like, it's too much. It's basically a coin toss if it's going to get a factual answer right. And there are some people who take these as religion, right? This is it. What this thing says is right. It's perfectly accurate. Wow, those numbers are really high. Okay, I mentioned on TCAF last week that we, so we get to, we flew into Phoenix for a week just to have a nice time I'm at like an Airbnb place, do some hiking. I got a hiking story later. But the first thing I noticed coming out of the airport is Waymos are everywhere. And I was like, oh, I forgot.

38:50Phoenix is a big area for this. I didn't think of it. But I started seeing them everywhere. And we rented a car, but I told my wife and kids, I'm like, we have to take one. We have to do this. And they're like, why? I'm like, we have to do this. It's literally, look, there's no one in the driver's seat. This is a miracle that we create this. And so we took one to dinner. And so you can hold four passengers. So we had 10 people. So we had to take three of them. And everyone was like, oh my gosh, this is the coolest thing we've ever done. It's felt like you're going on a ride at Disney. And to see the steering wheel move on its own, and it's funny, the driver's side, the seatbelt is buckled.

39:25I think it has to be so it doesn't beep. But the cars are jags. It's really nice. Everyone we were in is super duper clean. You get in, it gives you instructions. You hit the start button after you're ready to go. It tells you what to do. You can hook up your own Spotify to it. it's unbelievable. It changed my life. And I don't know how you could see something like experience something like this and be bearish on the future of humanity. The fact that we created a car that can literally pick you up and drive itself. And it was, the craziest thing was, at the red lights, I felt like, are these things going to be really slow?

39:58It takes off from a red light. It goes with the flow of traffic. There was only one time where I was at a green light and it was a left turn lane. And it had to turn. and it kind of started to go and then it slammed the brakes on because cars were coming. And it probably could have made it, but it decided, no, I'm going to be... And it like gave a little read on the screen saying, hey, sorry, cars were present. And then it took off. I never felt unsafe for a minute in it. It's crazy to me that these are going to be on the road everywhere in, I don't know, 10 years. Yeah. I don't know how you can be bearish on humanity that the fact that we have the ability to do this.

40:35So NVIDIA yesterday said they want to power robotaxi fleets with chips and software by 2027. Jensen Wang said this at his thing. Waymo, I looked this up. They said they've done 14 million trips in 2025 so far. 20 million lifetime trips by the end of the year. And they were everywhere there. You see them all the time. They had these big things on the top that swirl around as like the sensors or whatever. And just seeing these cars with no one driving in them is wild. And I'm sure it's something that eventually you just get, we took it like five or six times. And then like, okay, it kind of wears off.

41:07but it's magical. I can't imagine them going around New York City with all the honking and moving and nudging there. Yeah, I don't know how that's... There's too many people that are just crazy walkers in New York City, right? That just run across the street when they shouldn't be like... I don't know if it would work in New York City, but... It would be hard. It's amazing. Yes, it really is. And the thing is, it was... I don't know how they're making... Google is obviously subsidizing it to get this up and running because I think the cars cost 150 grand. Our rides were way cheap. We got like something one of the nights saying, hey, 25 % off all rides.

41:42And the rides for like a 20 minute ride were like$10. It was cheaper than Uber. Yeah. To start with, it was, it's magic. All right, speaking of cars, I'm close to making my decision. Okay. This is like LeBron and taking his - I'm taking my talents. So I test drove the Lexus GX and I test drove the Range Rover. and I've been pretty vocal about my shitty car experiences and saying, like, I just want a car that's not going to give me trouble, which would steer me to the Lexus, right? It's not a cheap car, the Lexus GX. Okay. I got in it. I drove it, and it felt— Are there any cheap SUVs anymore? No.

42:28And it felt fine. It's a very nice car. Like, I'm definitely not a snob, okay? I, I, I, my, like, it's, it's a very nice car, but it, but I'm not buying the car. All right. I'm not, this is not like a car that I'm going to have for 10 years. Right. Where if you're buying the car in, I would never, ever buy a Range Rover. Like, oh man, you're setting yourself. You're gonna have so many problems. I'm already, I'm already marking it down. This thing's going to be a lemon. But, but here's, here's my thinking. I, I'm not a snob, but I'm buying a Range Rover. I know. No, listen, I'll admit, I'm embarrassed.

43:03because I don't consider it because I it's a douchey car. I know. I see them all over. I think you actually said this to one person. Didn't you say it to someone? I said this to a friend of mine years ago and he, he happened to drive it. I didn't know he drove it. Yeah. Um, it is a douchey car. It just is. And I am a little bit embarrassed. However, I'm also very proud. Uh, I'm doing this for me. Like I'm not doing this like for external purposes. I've, I love this car. I love how it looks. I drove it and I felt really good. It's a, it's the type of car that I will get in and I hope maybe it'll wear very quickly and I'll report back.

43:38What's the, what's the model? I needed to know the model. The, whatever the full, the, I don't know the, the, the regular one, the full size one. Okay. There's like a bunch of different models now. Okay. So, all right, let me, but I drove it and it drives awesome and it's a beautiful car. And yeah, it's like, there was a piece of me that is embarrassed, um, to be perceived as like, I look at this douchebag. But you know what? If you test drive the Range Rover, you're never going to go to something else. But ultimately, I'm doing this myself. I'm very proud of what I've been able to accomplish professionally to be able to afford this car.

44:11Like, it's something that I never in a billion years, when I was unemployed and 26 years old, thought would be possible. So I'm doing this for me. And also for the content, because let's be honest, if it breaks down and it's a piece of shit and I go mental, it would be very funny. Yeah. Add it to the list of the Audi and the Jeep and the Range Rover's next. But on that front, I'm leasing the car. And yeah, obviously I'm rolling the dice because the statistic, objectively, this is like not a reliable car. Right. And hopefully that's what the lease is for. So I'm not 100 % done, but I'm not getting the Lexus regardless.

44:47Good for you. I like it. Thank you. On to Disney. So I don't love like the cynical stuff on the internet. just in general. It's very easy to be cynical about everything. People are taking pictures of Disney. Oh, I can't imagine. Could you imagine? Listen, I don't like that attitude anyway, but it's just a magical place. It really is. No, that was me. I was the cynical person saying, I hate lines. I hate crowds. I hate all of that stuff. And then you go to Disney and you go, oh, that's fine. I can deal with it. My boys had such an incredible time. uh logan is obsessed with peter pan and captain hook he gave captain hook his book and captain took the book and ran away and logan chased him and then logan got to meet peter pan like i literally cried like you sent me the video that was good it was the sweetest thing ever and yes i have a few pictures in here were the were the amount of people overwhelming and like was it the most fun being everyone.

45:53It was. It wasn't the greatest. But memories for life, 10 out of 10, if you could afford it. And at one point, Robin wanted to make sure that they got to meet Buzz, I think. And so she's like, you know, I'll just take the kids for a walk. So every day, we took them for like an hour nap. Thank God we brought a stroller, by the way, which I thought was a bad idea. Holy shit. I can't imagine. It wouldn't have worked. We would have had to rent stroller. So we had a double stroller every day. They took a nap for an hour, whatever. Like it's exhausting. It's a long day. Um, and at one point during the day, Robin was very happy to sit down and wait in line and be on her phone, whatever.

46:31And I'm taking the, I'm walking around Disney. I was in a Hollywood studios and the kids are sleeping and I'm listening to Cameron Crowe's audio book. And it was just, I, I was like specifically thinking I'm having the time of my life. Good. Pushed my boys around, listening to an audiobook. Robin's a load. It was just, it was f***ing awesome. And I think I'm done with Disney. This is my third time. I think I'm good. Here's the point I wanted to make. So, with investing, all the time, Peter Lynch obviously popularized this. Invest in what you know is a little bit more nuanced than that, but you see a place like Disney, and you're in a place like Disney, And I heard a few people saying how much money they're making.

47:19And yeah, the theme park is a goldmine. Parks and experiences are a goldmine. I think the number I saw was between all the parks, it's like a million people a day. If you put all the parks together. And you think about the money people spend. I thought the same thing. I got a question for you on the, so you've got these charts in here, you can get this. But if Disney never would have done Disney Plus, and they just would have like, give their IP to other people, right? Netflix, you buy it from us. HBO, buy it from us. Peacock, if they never did Disney Plus, is a stock way higher today? Way higher.

47:51Probably, right? Way higher. Look at all the travel stocks. Way higher. Right? If it's just the parks and they're making movies and they're renting those movies to other streamers. Now, but this is, but hold on, because we have to consider that ABC is obviously a huge property. Right? So if Disney parks was a standalone separately traded vehicle, the parks and experiences. Yeah, I think the linear stuff and Disney Plus is absolutely an anchor. All right, so here's the deal, Jack. The earnings per share hasn't gone anywhere in a decade. The stock has underperformed on every single time frame for the last 30 years.

48:35The earnings chart is crazy. I had Sean look at the 1, 3, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30, and it's underperforming on every timeframe. So a 30-year timeframe, the S &P is up 10 % per year in Disney 7. That's a big number. Okay. So I'm glad you said that because the actual numbers are astounding. And yeah, the company, it's a phenomenally profitable business. Its earnings aren't growing, but it's still making a shit ton of money. But the market doesn't value that. I mean, obviously, I know we know that, but it's so easy to look at something and have the wrong impression on the investment. All right, so Disney.

49:14Because the Disney parks don't scale. That's the thing. The hope was Disney Plus will scale. Obviously, it didn't. They haven't had subscribers in three years. That's why tech companies are better than – yeah. So, cumulatively, over the last 30 years, Disney is up 675%. Not bad, okay, on a nominal basis. Not bad at all. but over the, but the S and P is up 1 ,800%. Yeah. Dang. 10 years, it's two 98 versus 17. When we're talking about investing, like it sort of breaks my brain a little bit. Like if Disney isn't making money, this is an absolutely iconic global brand. What has stronger resonance with people than Disney?

49:57And yeah, anyway, I'm, I'm beyond overjoyed that my boys got to experience it. It was, by the way, Someone in the comments last week said, I will pay these guys to stop talking about Disney every week. And then the next comment was, they'll just take that money and go to Disney again. Which I thought was pretty funny. So kudos to the guys in common. So I am going to, so we're going back to the Bahamas in February. Because Disney was not exactly a relaxing vacation. Right. And I was thinking like, so I take two vacations a year with the family, December and February. None of this happens without points.

50:32helps a lot when you have kids and plane tickets and my plane tickets and my and the hotel is with music points right and don't you think this is so much of the travel boom of course it is i'm not i wouldn't i just i wouldn't it's it's sort of like um this may be a bad analogy or maybe not i would not bet the money at a blackjack table if i was using cash oh instead of the chips you mean so if I just wouldn't pay$10 ,000 for flights and hotels. I mean, maybe once a year, not twice a year. It's a lot, yeah. You know how many credit cards I have that I've taken out to get the point bonus and then use them at a hotel?

51:11I do that all the time. I guess it's been a while since I've done it, but yeah. All right, real estate. Somebody, John Brooks, had a chart. I don't know if this is his or from Reventure. I'm not familiar. But why the housing market is frozen. And it looks at the mortgage payment to buy versus the monthly rent versus mortgage payment current owners. I'm glad they put the current owners one in here because people only show the new. Yeah. And not. So I'm noticing more and more houses in my neighborhood, some more desirable than others, of course, that just aren't selling. That would have sold in a second.

51:45I mean, a millisecond. It would have been a bidding war. And they're just sitting. Don't you think it's going to take some government intervention? if we really want to get activity going to say, hey, you get a teaser rate for five years, right? If you have a 3 % mortgage, we're going to give you a four and a half percent or something for five years, and then it adjusts to whatever the market is. And if you're buying a new home, you also get that teaser rate for five years. If they just said, we're going to buy down mortgage rates for you, for everyone, everyone wants one. If you're willing to get off your 3 % mortgage, we'll buy it down for you for five years.

52:18And then whatever the market says it is, that's what you got to refinance into. Something like that. If you really wanted to get activity going, I don't see anything other than that that would help because of everyone's stuff. I don't see what else would do it. Well, people can move to the Midwest. Did you see this article? No. Wall Street Journal, Americans are looking to the Midwest to find affordability. Not a lot of data in here in terms of real estate, Midwest-specific stuff, but they were just talking about a lot of anecdata, you know, a lot of John and Jane Smith. But they were saying, like, not only is the Midwest affordable, but they also showed that it's not just because wages are stagnant where people have no money.

53:05Like, they have a chart showing after-tax wage and salary growth by region. And the Midwest is, you know, it's up there. I wonder how much remote work has to do with that. The fact that you could potentially earn a higher wage living somewhere else. What is the housing market like where you are? I mean, the prices are, it's getting to the point where it's like, oh boy. Where it's not that as affordable anymore. But you're seeing people push back. When people try to list for really high prices, the market is pushing back. I have a few friends who work in real estate who are saying that. That's self-selling, but people are, if people try to buy something and move in a couple years, they're not going to get what they paid.

53:49But the prices here are much higher. Compared to another, the coasts, people will laugh at the prices. Yeah. All right. There is talk from politicians in California about a billionaire tax. This is from the New York Times. Suzanne Jimenez, the chief of staff at SEIU, UHW, said the organization was trying to fill a funding gap for the state's healthcare industry. She said, we looked at how could we generate the revenue to fix this kind of hole, and this group of folks just made sense. And the California billionaires were the most fortunate people in this state. So the Times says, if the measure gains enough signatures to reach the state ballot in November and wins approval, it will retroactively apply to anyone who lived in California as of January 1st, 2026.

54:43Those are$20 billion in assets who resided in the state on the date would face a one-time tax of$1 billion and have five years to pay it. Larry Page, for example, that would result in a one-time tax of more than$12 billion. Peter Thiel would be 1.2. So these people are not going to be in California if this is actually happening. And it's easy to yell, tax the billionaires. It's so stupid. First of all, the problem, and it's very easy to point to inequality and the problem of the billionaires. No, that's not the problem in this specific case. The healthcare system is the problem. And I don't care how much money somebody has.

55:25Nobody likes to pay taxes. Like, oh, what's, who cares? What was the number for Larry Page? $12 billion? I don't know how high number. That's a lot of money. $12 billion? I guess the thought is who's going to cry for the billionaires? I think that's obviously the thought. Of course, it's popular, right? Like, yeah, tax them. But it's just, it's not real life. They would just move. Of course, yes. There's incentives here. Right. Yep, yes. It's not going to work. Real quick on streaming, Lucas Shaw did a review on who's watching what where. top show from 2020 to 2025 by minutes watched while in the weekly top 10.

56:15NCIS is number one. Grey's Anatomy stuff. They're unbelievable. That show's been on for 30 years. What does NCIS stand for? Navy something. I can't remember. It's been on forever. Wow. Naval. I had no idea. Naval Criminal Invested Gift Services. So it's funny because a lot of people say, listen, Avatar is like the biggest movie franchise ever. Every one of the movies does billions of dollars and has no pop culture footprint at all. No one quotes the movie. There's no memes about the movie. Avatar is the NCIS of movies. NCIS is massive. Who talks about that show? You've never watched an episode, right?

56:55Of course not. No. I'm not 65 years old. Grey's Anatomy is number two. Bluey is three. Cocomelon. Another one. Criminal Minds is number five. Grey's Anatomy jumped the shark in season four. I watched the first few seasons. Can't believe it's still on. Do you know what Criminal Minds is? No, but it's got to be something like NCIS, I assume. I'm guessing it's a CBS nonsense. It's crazy that Suits is still up there. Suits in the office. Okay. Ozark is the most watched show ever. At least, I'm sorry, 2020 and 2025. Stranger Things. Okay. No, this is not. No, not Netflix. Oh. Just streaming. Okay. Stranger Things.

57:39Love is Blind. So I finished Stranger Things, by the way. I only watched the first season. I'm totally out. How was it? I didn't love all the mind stuff and jumping in and out of different worlds, but the ending was like an 80s movie. I kind of liked it. I kind of liked how they finished it. Is the series over? Yeah, series is over. Okay. I kind of liked how they finished it. It wasn't. I didn't. They didn't need the last two seasons, but I like how they tied the. loose ends up. Anything else? All right, whatever. It's all the Netflix shows. Disney. All right, so we spoke about this earlier. Disney, they show the company has haven't increased their share of TV viewing in three years.

58:14It's just flat. Of course. Amazon is - All they have is like one Star Wars new show a year. That's it. My kids watch Disney. I, you know, blank check, but - On your recommendation, my daughter Kate watched blank check on the flight to Arizona. Love it. Did she love it? Yeah, it's a good one. Netflix crushes rivals in competition for film fans. So 61 % of viewing time for movies in the weekly top 10. Okay. Because I was going to say, I watch most of my movies on Prime. Yeah, I'm more like an HBO person. Prime and HBO are probably my two biggest ones. All right, Ben. So tell me about what happened to you in the desert.

58:54I mean, this is the second time that a plant attacked you. Yeah, the plants don't like me. So I got attacked by a cactus. So when we get to Arizona, my son, eight years old, George, the first cactus we see on the side of the road in like a pot, he goes up and has to touch it. Like he's just can't believe these these cacti exist. So we have every one he sees, he has to go touch. And I'm like, dude, it's you're going to get hurt. And he's like, oh, no, it's it's every cactus. He's got to touch. So we're at we're at the base of this trail. Pinnacle Peak is really nice hike up the mountain, a few miles getting ready to go.

59:26We haven't even gone on the hike yet. in my, of course, the signs don't go off the trail. All my kids run off the trail immediately as we're like getting waters ready, getting the bathroom, you know, we haven't started the hike yet. And I hear him screaming and he, there's these little cactus that look like sea urchins. And I hear him yelling and all the kids are over there. He's yelling, I got a sea urchin. I got a sea urchin. And so I run over and he's got one in his leg, like in his ankle, right by his ankle bone and his sock. He's got, it's stuck to him. And if it's this teddy bear cactus that if you touch it, it falls off and it hooks to you.

59:57And it looks like it should be soft and fuzzy, but it's not. So he's stuck there. And I said, hey, come here. I'll get it out for you. And there's this guy next to us who's a local. He's like, hey, just take your shoe and hit it off. And I said, come here. And he's frozen in place. He can't move. And I'm thinking like, what if this has something in it? So he's like, no. And he's frozen. And so I'm like, ugh. So I run over and I jump over a bush. And as I jump over the bush, behind the bush, is another one of these cactus. And it just immediately goes into my leg. And I'm trying to get off his, and all the other kids are like, oh my gosh, dad, look at your leg.

1:00:31You got a dart in your neck. Yes, I felt like, you know, when Ace Ventura 2, when he's got two of the... Oh, that's what I felt. So I see it, and I walk over, and it hurts immediately. It really hurts. These things are going in different directions. And I got a... My son had a little one. I have a gigantic one in my leg. This picture is amazing. It's huge. And so I walk over, and immediately of course my wife is dying laughing and it hurts and we we find the park ranger he says hang on i'm going to get um i'm gonna go get a comb to get this out i'm like what mean a comb i was like okay this guy has a thing that will help to get it out and it hurts and uh he comes over and he's got all his tools and he's taking his sweet time and like hurry up man this really hurts and it i'm not trying to like downplay it it really hurt it was not fun and it's like pulling at my skin in different directions.

1:01:21It's in there. Good. And the guy comes out and he has a literal comb that you'd get at like school picture day. I thought he had like this big thing. He's like, he looks at it and he goes, he's got this little tiny comb. He goes, man, that's a big one. I said, yeah, it is. Can you? And so he takes it. And when he took the thing out, it hurt 10 times more going out than going in. It, it somehow this cactus ripped the hair off my leg. Did the barbs like stay in your leg? Then he had to give me tweezers and I had to pull out like 10 of them with tweezers. The funny thing, you can see in the picture, I'm looking at my hand.

1:01:53I tried to grab it and rip it out with my hand. And that was not a good idea because all the other one in my fingers. It surprisingly didn't bleed that bad. I had these holes and it was painful the rest of the day. It wasn't nearly, I thought it was going to be like bruised and it actually wasn't that bad. Once it came out, it hurt for the next few hours. I took some ibuprofen. I drank a margarita. And guess what? Still did the hike though. So not fun. I wouldn't recommend it wow yeah so it and I took a picture there to show you what it looks like but the one I it was much lower to the ground and man did it hurt I'm not trying to be a wimp and my wife is sitting there like filming me and taking pictures and she's dying laughing and I'm like you know it actually does hurt I'm glad you're laughing I'm glad you think this is funny uh yeah that was fun so I told my son, like, maybe just stay away from the cactus for a while.

1:02:50Like, anyway. I'll do something since you got a bunch. I watched a couple good movies this week, new ones. First, Good Fortune was the Aziz Ansari one with Seth Rogen and Keanu Reeves. I have no idea how they got Keanu Reeves in this movie because sometimes you just like a good 6.5 comedy, right? It's not great. It's no belly laughs but I chuckled 10 times probably. Some people don't like Aziz and his comedy. I tend to be a fan and him, Seth Rogen. and Keanu played an angel and he played like the straight guy, right? He's the straight guy. He was really, really funny in this. I have no idea how they got him to do it.

1:03:26And I just, if you put him in his other actors, so Leo and Matt Damon and Brad Pitt and Edward Norton, like he's nowhere near as good of an actor as those guys. No. But I always like when he's in something, right? He's not a good actor really, if you think about it. But he's good in his movies. I don't know how to explain it. In this movie, I loved him in this movie. He was so good. I don't love Aziz's stand-up, but I like him on screen. Did you and I see a stand-up together? I saw him once, yeah. But I don't know. I thought, and it also was a good, so it was a story about, I think this is an undefeated movie plotline where two people switch lives.

1:04:04And you get perspective. And they switch. Aziz is down on his luck. He lost his job. He lives in his car. Seth Rogen is a rich venture capital bro. And they switch lives. And it's so funny because after they do it, But Keanu's like, see? Your life isn't very good. He's like, what are you talking about? This is amazing. Anytime there's a problem, I just throw money at it. And then he realizes, anyway. So it's also a good take on class. I also watched The Life of Chuck, which is, I really liked it. And it's the kind of movie where you watch it, and it's like three movies in one. And when you figure out what it's actually about, by the end, you either go, oh, that's really creative.

1:04:38Or you go, oh, I hated it. I thought it was creative. It's based on a Stephen King short story. Which, who reads short stories? Can we be honest? That's such a great point. Anytime I hear a short story, I'm like... Where do you find it? Anyway, it's Stephen King. And this is like a coming of age. It's about life and death. And I really, really liked it. I don't think it's a Michael movie. Oh, it's definitely not. It's definitely not a Michael movie. Because I watched... I really... The first 45 minutes are a Michael movie. Because the first 45 minutes... Okay. No. You've seen this? I turned it off on the airplane.

1:05:15Okay. Which is very rare. So did you make it to the grandparents or not? No. Okay, so the grandparents of this movie are Mark Hamill and Sloan from Ferris Bueller's Day Off. I'm like, I know both of these people. Why do I know them? Anyway. All right, one more. Took the kids to see... We had nothing else to do after winter break. The last day, we took them to see Zootopia 2. Whatever, it was fine. It was good. The kids loved it. I know everyone has been really psyched about the return of original IP this year. But I heard Zootopia is just crushing the box up. So I pull up the top 10 from this year.

1:05:50Look at these. Look at these. It's all sequels besides Sinners. Every single one is a sequel or a book or it's, there's nothing new. It's Minecraft and Leland Stitch and Superman and Jurassic Park. And my dad is like you. My dad texted me. Let's see what he texted me exactly. He watched one battle after another, which by the way I bet on to win best picture because I guess it's going to yeah he goes I thought Frankenstein this is just a random text from my dad I thought Frankenstein was well done I did not enjoy the DiCaprio movie yeah thank you yeah thank you Mr. Batnik yeah I like Zootopia also I rewatched Fargo the other day the scene where he shows the road level bumps I think he stole that from Fargo Fargo did the road level thing I love when the guy's smoking the cigarette.

1:06:42That is my favorite movie of all time. I've heard you say it before. It really is. Probably once or twice a year. Okay. What do you got from your bedridden days? Okay. This dude, I was on an absolute heater. This is like one of the benefits of being stuck in bed. I was quarantined like completely by myself. I'm going to start with two Ben movies. Okay. Let me go this one first. One that I did not care for, Train Dreams. Okay. I figured you wouldn't. I loved it. It just, just super boring. I get it was like maybe a good film, whatever. You're a film guy. When did that happen to you? I just really, I just really enjoyed, I just thought about the simplicity of that guy's life and I really appreciated it.

1:07:23He, he cut down the trees and he built the train tracks. That was his, and then he had a little cabin on the river. I really appreciated that. All right. Okay. I watched, I Like Me. Did you know, so that was the John Candy documentary. Did you know that Colin Hanks produced and directed that. Yeah, pretty good, right? Ryan Reynolds is a producer too. Wasn't that really well done? Holy cow. Holy cow. I cried, obviously. How could you not? It was very good. Unfreaking believable. I am, so I am a little bit, there's a big difference in our age gap in terms of like growing up because you were very much like a child of the 80s.

1:08:01I was born in 85. So I know John Candy from like the cameo and Home Alone and Cool Runnings and you're like an Uncle Buck. You're like a real John Candy guy. Right, yes. I was a little bit later. Oh, Spaceballs, of course. Barf. But what a monster of a person, in a good way, obviously. Just a tremendous human being. Amazing doc. Could not recommend it highly enough. And just like a great documentary, too. It's really well done, yeah. All right, so Begonia, I already said before I got sick, that's a recommend. I'm going to be very specific with how I talk about these movies. All right, Influencers.

1:08:38Influencers I was watching, sick or not. Sequel to Influencer. This is a Shudder production. Fantastic. So good. Horror movie? Not quite. I guess it might be under the horror genre because I don't know where else you would put it. Is it a genre movie? I don't know what you call it. Thriller, suspense, horror, whatever. It's basically about this very attractive psychopath that kills influencers. and takes over their life. It's sort of like a modern spin on misery a little bit. Roofman. Did you see Roofman? Okay, I started watching this last night. This is a you movie. Okay, I like it. Breaking out of prison to me, I'm in.

1:09:23So Roofman is a throwback movie. I'm surprised they made it. You don't see movies like this anymore. This is the premiere airplane movie. That might be a stretch, but it's a very good airplane watch. I probably, like, I wouldn't necessarily fire it up at home on a Friday night. Like, it's not that type of movie in my opinion. Listen to this cast. Channing Tatum, Kirsten Dunst, Juno Temple, who I'll come back to later, but I don't, whatever, she's from things. Peter Dinklage, Ben Mendelsohn, the guy from - The guy from Atlanta in Get Out. He's really good too. The Keith Stanfield. Yeah. Like, unbelievable cast.

1:10:00And it was a good movie. I'm enjoying it. It was a good movie. Sounds very well. Okay. What Doesn't Kill You. Now, this was, I'm just going after it on Amazon. I'm just scrolling like on Blockbuster in 1997. What Doesn't Kill You. I came across this and on the cover, I see Ethan Hawke. I see Mark Ruffalo and I see Amanda Peet. And I'm like, I've never heard of this movie. 2008. Friends Since Childhood. Brian and Pauly do whatever it takes to survive in their hardscrabble South Boston neighborhood. It's okay. Like, I'm not recommending it per se. I mean, it was good enough. Good enough for a sick day.

1:10:44It looks like five other Ethan Hawke movies I've seen. It does. It's not. Yeah, it does. It's definitely not the town of The Departed. So if you're into Boston crime, sure, fire it up. And if not, keep moving. Sisu. Sisu? Sisu? S-I-S-U. this is strap in action. Hard recommend, hard, hard recommend, and in fact, can't wait to watch Sisu 2. So let me just read you the plot and tell me if this sounds like a Michael movie. During the last days of World War II, a solitary prospector, he's a gold digger, crosses paths with Nazis on a scorched earth retreat in northern Finland. When the soldiers decide to steal his gold, they quickly discover they just tangled with no ordinary minor.

1:11:32Non-stop action. That sounds like a Liam Neeson movie. It does. Very good movie. All right. The Long Walk, the Stephen King movie. It was fine. Good enough. Not a recommend. How many ideas does that guy have, though? He has a million ideas. Cocaine. Hell of a drug. Okay. Love Story. Love Story was the highest grossing movie in 1970. Okay. So you watched it because of the Bob Evans book. Correct. So Bob Evans and Ally McGraw were married and Love Story saved the studio. Like before The Godfather. Love Story is a very good movie. That's where the line, love means never having to say you're sorry.

1:12:12That's where that line comes from. Certainly not a must watch, but it's a good romantic. It's definitely not a comedy. It's just a good romantic movie. All right. I tried and turned off The Conversation, the Gina Hacking movie I talked about. The Girl Who Got Away. I don't know what that is to turn that off. All right. Last one. Last but definitely not least. And I hesitate to even recommend. I went back and forth. Should I even admit that I love this movie? Love this strong word. That I really enjoyed this movie? Okay, I liked it. I loved it. The movie is called Killer Joe. And I was listening to the Rewatchables this morning.

1:12:46Bill Simmons had a mailbag episode. And one of the listeners recommended a new category, which is worst scene to have somebody walk in on. And I nominate this movie, Killer Joe, which is rated NC-17. Is this a McConaughey movie? I nominate this as the absolute worst scene I've ever seen. That might be a stretch, but seriously, top five. Top five to have somebody walk in on. so the movie is again Juno Temple who was in The Offer she was much younger in this movie and had a disturbing role Gina Gershon Matthew McConaughey Thomas Hayden Church and Emile Hirsch who I love from Alpha Dog anytime I've seen that guy I'm in so here's the story Emile Hirsch and Thomas Hayden Church hire Matthew McConaughey as a hitman to kill Emile Hirsch and his dad's ex-wife for the insurance money that's the plot.

1:13:51It's from 2012. I had never heard of it. It's streaming on Prime. I'm surprised it's on the platform. And C-17. Again, don't judge me. Because it is, there is the one scene that I'm talking about, if you see it, you'll know it. If you saw it, you know it. Wow. Would never, would never ever happen today. And a matter of fact, Ben, you should watch this movie. You would enjoy it. Okay. Would you watch it again? Would I watch it again? Yeah. Okay. All right. Probably fast forward to that scene, but yeah, I'd watch it again. All right. So I had a great time. Yeah. See, you had a tough time being sick.

1:14:27You watched 12 movies. What else? There was also one other... Oh, there was a Liam Neeson movie that I watched, but I was like not paying attention. I said, huh, a Liam Neeson movie that ranked like 80 %? Like that never happens. It was like The Sinners of Something. Did you see this movie? No, but they're all the same. Come on. The Sinners. No, this was not... The Saints and Sinners. Eh, I think I fell asleep. Whatever. I had a great time. Being sick sucked, but watching 12 movies that I wouldn't have seen most of these, almost worth it. Not quite, but almost. Okay. Get your flu shots, kid. Get your flu shots.

1:15:01All right. Good to be back. Feels good to be healthy. Thank you, everybody, for tuning in, as always. Wishing everybody the best year of their lives. Animal Spirits at thecompoundnews.com. We'll see you next time. Thank you for defending my honor, everyone. for Michael calling me out. I appreciate it. I was set. All right. Bye.