ONE THING CAN CHANGE EVERYTHING

0:00just firing at a high level today. you are we are you just feel recharged after a restful holiday unbelievably recharged dude we had two weeks off i know i could have used another two you know what i'm saying fine you know what you got it dude you need two more take it look at this orange on orange carhartt beanie that's an is that new one is that a holiday gift yeah it's a little gift from uh arden's parents wow they nailed it that's a sweet beanie yeah it's pretty good i'm trying to wear less plastic though and I'm pretty sure these are all plastic. What's plastic? The tech? No, just the hat.

0:38The hat's made of plastic? Pretty sure, yeah. Everything is made of plastic. Like acrylic, which is, you know, plastic. What are you trying to do, save the planet? No, I'm trying to save me. Oh, because the plastic's leaking into your head, you think? I mean, probably, yeah. I don't know. I'm not a scientist. I mean, there's enough plastic leaking into your body. You know, wearing a beanie isn't going to change anything, I don't think. One thing can change everything, right? Why are we coming into 2026 on... I'm coming off of three hours of sleep. I think this podcast is going to be truly amazing.

1:15No, it'll be great. I think we'll rally. I'm like that meme that's like, yo, I already fucked up 2026. Next year is my year for sure. 27. I'm punting. Next year. I mean, this is probably the worst day of the year. This is the scariest of all the Sundays. Yeah. For sure. It's the worst. Yeah. No. And no one is sitting in work today feeling rested. Yeah, I know. And I just got some freaking bad feedback from, you know, just got raked over the coals in that last meeting. Jesus. I know. Nah, I don't care. Damn clients. What are we going to do, man? I know. Shit. Can't live with them. Can't live without them.

1:47Classic Monday. Case of the Mondays. Womp womp. This is the biggest case of the Mondays day ever. First Monday of the year. That's why we should have had it off. You know what? We fucked up.

2:02three two one kevin that's how we do the show now it's an official show all right what uh if we didn't do that i mean what would we be even doing what a good monday the the this is probably the worst this is probably the worst document i've ever put together for a show i mean i i've looked too it wasn't i tried you know really that's good it's not like i sat over there and you know didn't look for stuff you tried i was scrolling i was going to my usual sites i was i was on pr newswire I looked up dry January. I looked up New Year's resolution. Oh, shit, yeah. No stories. Yeah, a little quiet. Dry January is a little dry this year.

2:37We're over it. I haven't seen that much. Yeah, it's canceled. Yeah. It's out. You know how people make those in and out lists? Those are out. Yeah, I've already had three beers this year. I've had definitely at least four or five for sure. Well, that's good. I was on vacation. Me too. I did have a moment on like January 1st where I was like, maybe I'll do dry January this year. Maybe I'll just cool it down. And you know what? Didn't happen. Live your life. Fucked up. Next year, my year for sure. I mean, I don't know. I'm not into this whole like putting labels on certain periods of time to withhold myself from something, you know, because once you totally reject something and make that, you know, your thing, you can never detach from it, you know?

3:18You're always defined by that one thing. You know, if I'm not drinking alcohol in January, your January is inherently defined by the alcohol. Damn, dude. You know what I'm saying? I'm fucking with some big brain thinking right now. Absolutely. If you are defined by what you're not, then you are just putting labels on what you are. I am not drinking. That's true. I'm just Alex. Yeah. And I'm going to be doing Alex shit. That's what I'm saying. Speaking of holiday gifts, you got that from your partner's parents. Yeah. My partner's aunt once got me a shirt that said, I'm just Alex doing Alex things.

3:53That's a great gift. That's a great gift. You still have the shirt? I do. Yeah. It's a little tight on me. It's like a, you know, she, she did the thing where I don't think she wanted to offend me by getting like an XL. So you got a shirt that doesn't fit. That's like a, it's a large, but she probably got off. It feels like a Facebook ad, you know, feels like one of those things that you got fed. Yeah. And it's, it's, it's a large, but it fits more like a medium. So I'm going to have to, certainly not a January shirt for your boy here. Yeah. Yeah. But great. That's okay. Yeah. Again, I'm, I'm only up 10 pounds.

4:25That was the number this morning, which I think is, to be honest, I think it's a win. Yeah. I'm going to take it as a win. That's good. I haven't looked. I did hit the gym pretty hard of a break just out of pure necessity. I was in Buffalo. Started in Buffalo. Oh, wow. The night before we left, I did have wings. You know I'm only curious about the wings. I housed 11 Wignuts wings, which they're XL. They're very meaty. We were eating good in Buffalo for a couple of days, and then I was like, holy shit. I feel like garbage. And then found a gym, really sick gym in Cincinnati. Okay. Shout out RTS Barbell.

5:01Oh, you found him out, yeah. So I got some good workouts in, like Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Wow, wow. Working out on the road is, that's interesting for sure. Yeah. I mean, it was solid. I still like a crazy person. Hand up. Haven't been in a gym or on a run in 20 plus days. Damn. I know. That's crazy. It is wild. I mean, I was sick, and then I was on vacation, and it's just been hard out there. But, you know, back. Back. 2026, we're back. That's, I mean, that's, it just, it happens. Holiday season is tough. It does happen. I actually listened to the backies while I was on the beach just yesterday.

5:39Wow. Just yesterday? And I think I said, like, holiday seasons are tough on the old diet front. We just talked about this. So it's, but, you know, that's what January is here for. Yeah. Back on the horse. I honestly, I feel like I did pretty good. That's good. There was actually a really funny moment where, so I went to a Bengals game when I was back in town. My friend had tickets. He invited me. So I, you know, I had to go and it was a beautiful day, you know, like 70 degrees. So of course, you know, I had a couple of beers down there. Sure. You know, I had a handful, say, and then that night we had Christmas at my dad's house.

6:14And so I had to go basically straight from the game to the Christmas party and Arden picked me up downtown and you know we're uh driving in the car and i'm like getting ready because i put my like a change of nice ish clothes in there okay and uh i had the sweater i wore to the center holiday party a great sweater was yeah a fire it was a tight merino wool sweater designed to make me look ripped and it did do the job it was you know it was a small yeah you know I got into it. It fit me really. It was a nice fit. Wow. So, you know, I'm going to run it back at my at Christmas this year. So I washed it, you know, because at the holiday party, it was a bit of a debaucherous night.

6:57It got, you know, crazy. OK. Out to like, you know, center out to like 4 a.m. Whoa. Dancing. Wow. Dancing. Dancing. Pete Freeman involved. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yep. Classic. Dancing in Bushwick. Great, great music. Great times. Great people. Yeah. anyway i had to wash it of course because i was had to get the stank off it uh so i'm uh putting the shirt on as we're like you know almost at my dad's house and it is just shrunk completely in the wash yeah it like isn't even hitting my wrists and to make it worse like it's not covering my hips either and i was wearing i was wearing some higher rise pants um i was like this is not gonna work and you know i'd already had a couple beers i had a couple more my dad's wow and the whole situation not due to the bloating or like me getting out of shape more due to the laundry yeah yeah yeah but it's just a classic you know for sure it's just a classic like bigger guy type uh situation where like you're like holy shit this does not fit me and then i got i got super sensitive and like yeah yeah i started lashing out and you know it's yeah it's funny that you say that i had to go i had to go home and get another uh change shirt so no i know i listen i get it i feel you i actually uh tried to wear the pants I wore it to the holiday party.

8:09Oh, no. Yeah, just on New Year's. So just a mere few weeks later. You didn't? No, they fit, but it was not the same. Oh, dang. Yeah, no, it's... All right. I get it. I get it out here. It's tough. Question, were you at the end of the center party? Were you there towards the end, like when we actually shut it down and left? Yeah, I think so. Because Jackie told me the story that at the very end, people were like, speech, speech, speech to me. and I vaguely I remember this like I never really like blackout but she told me that I basically was like fuck you fuck you like trying to just be like you know sort of do the like you know half-baked like you're cool I'm out kind of thing but it really just seemed like I was just cursing everyone out and laughing at the party so I apologize to anyone I didn't see I don't I don't believe them out or leaving the party in in haste I do not recall okay well there you go well you weren't offended um i don't think anyone yeah i think you know it's a party you can do what you want to i guess so but i did she did seem and i believe this to be true that i did i was trying to be funny or trying to like trying to like you know say no to the speech thing but i wound up just cursing it and instead of saying thank you for coming to our party and uh appreciating them which is really what i probably wanted to do you know i said it came out as a fuck you middle fingers up i'm out of here steve austin's yeah i can't really confirm or deny that that may or may not have happened.

9:33Yeah, for sure. That's it. Lots of it. I'm sure it was fine either way. Yeah, I agree. I don't think it was a major problem. Yeah, you were just doing your thing. I'm not stressed about it. But yeah, Kevin, the holidays are over. 2026 is here. We're back. Oh, yeah. And the podcast, one of my New Year's resolutions is to get better at podcasting. All right. That's cool. Why start now? I mean, clearly this is not the start. I mean, start next episode. No, this is good, though. We're getting reps in. I think so. We could have easily just skipped today. We could have. And I think this podcast, I listened to a lot of podcasts.

10:05I didn't. So I, my trip got a little weird. I was in North Carolina and then this crazy snowstorm happened. So I just kind of hit, hit the down button, just kept going down, went to Orlando and then dropped the car off the rental car and just hit it to Puerto Rico. So I didn't have like anything. I didn't bring a book. I didn't bring a bathing suit. Like I had nothing. Wow. And so I wound up just kind of buying a couple of things real quick and then just listening to podcasts. And so, yeah, when I listen to podcasts, obviously, I enjoy the interviews, but I also think about how I can get better.

10:42That's the kind of guy I am. So it's part of my resolutions is to be a better interviewer. Yeah, sharpen the sword. I think maybe starting with more preparation. I've been saying that, but yeah. Let's get more research potentially. So that I could seem like, or we could seem like we're not doing research, but we secretly have been doing research, which is what I think Amy Poehler is doing. She's doing a good job. I just started listening to her podcast. We got the second part figured out to make it seem. Yeah, yeah. We're making it seem like we're not doing research. We got to work on the first part.

11:18Yeah, doing the really good. I mean, we do research. I will say that. No, Kevin, that's true. I think we're just - I'm giving you credit for the work that you do. No, no, no. I think the effort here is to be more thorough. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it seems more natural. Be more thorough. Be more like - Yeah, be on the lookout for that this year. Maybe not the first few, but more middle June, July interviews for sure. We got some good ones coming up. The ones we're sitting on right now are very good. I'm excited to get into those ones. to him teasing the people yeah so so do you have any resolutions this year kevin yeah make more money wow i gotta talk to my boss about that one awkward uh all right any other any other resolutions uh oh that's good this is that's good podcasting right there people love that yeah no that's true put me on the spot all right all right fine deal deal deal how much you want kevin what do you want we'll talk about this all right cool um but do that and also just you know continue you being sick continue uh continue to be sick yeah but and by sick i mean like very healthy and like you know yeah get in better shape and i want to get more air when i ski air okay yeah yeah that's about it though i mean you know everything else i'm like whatever kevin i uh i texted you over the break and i didn't get one of your very long happy new year we never respond i i know to be honest listen i was circulating them like a madman on christmas even christmas eve but i didn't get one i'm off the list kevin can i can i make a formal across yeah pull me What do you call those things?

12:49Just chain texts. Chain texts. Yeah. I didn't know you appreciated them. I do appreciate them. I should. I didn't know you liked them or laughed to them. You never even hit an emote. Wow. The Thanksgiving one. Happy Thanksgiving. Yeah. You never even give it a thumbs up. Damn. I'm sorry about that. Or emphasize it. Hand up on me. That's me. I'll do a better job. They are fantastic. All right. You can get back on the list. When I sent you my Happy New Year's text, I noticed that the last text was the thoughts giving Jane's X you sent me, which was incredible and fantastic. And I was like, man, I didn't get one on New Year's.

13:21So, you know, we got to we got to work on it. But it's all right. No, I'm back on the list. The Backies is a really fun show. I think that like listening to it, I was like, man, this is this is a fun podcast and I'm really proud of it. And so we're going to we're going to do more podcasting today. And also today right now, we're doing it right now. We're literally doing the thing. Yeah. And we're going to double down on video. That's that's something. Oh, wait. we're doubling down on video content okay yeah okay yeah we talked about this earlier but i didn't yeah we're making it sound bigger than yeah well the doubling down part yeah i guess we're just going to make more content yeah part of that is because i don't know if you saw this but i think you did netflix is now bringing podcast video podcast yeah we gotta we gotta get on there i mean they got bill simmons then they got part of my take i mean we're the natural third hey that could be my that could be a very crucial key to my new year's resolution that's That's right.

14:13Which is what again? Get my money up. Oh, get your money up. It's Netflix. Yeah, I think it's a good thing that Netflix is bringing video podcasting to their platforms. I mean, they need a design podcast. I love Netflix. I've always said that I love Netflix. Are there other video design podcasts? I can't think of any. So we got to be, you know, again, once they get past sports, which seems to be the first thing they're doing. Because, right, they only announced Bill Simmons and part of my take. Are there other podcasts? I have no idea. I don't know. We got to get them. I really don't know. Well, we got video.

14:42Netflix. I live under a rock, Alex. Well, this is bad news. This is a podcast about brands and culture. Netflix being one of the biggest brands. Well, that's some of the stuff I have under my rock. Are you watching Netflix or are you back on Netflix now that they pulled the plug on you? Am I back on Netflix? No, I'm watching Mad Men right now. Ooh, have you ever watched it? No, no. This is the first time? Yeah. Oh, classic. I can't. I mean, I guess I'll still keep making my classic joke. I'm calling myself a regular Diane Draper. But it's good. It's good. I love Dan Draper. What's he's going to go on?

15:18Just one. Okay. All right. I literally just started it. It's a top 10 TV show of all time. Yeah, it's cool. I don't know where it fits. Smokes large cigarettes. Where it stands. Maybe I should rewatch it. I don't know when I watched it. I'm literally him. I'm going to be him. You are. You totally are him. Did you see Marty Supreme? I did not see Marty Supreme. Wow, Kevin. You're wearing all orange. You're wearing Marty Supreme orange. I know. You haven't even seen it. I didn't realize it. It just incepted me. Yeah. I do want to see it. I just, you know, I was busy. I had a busy break. This guy fucking busy.

15:49Too busy to see a movie. Dude, I have family time, skiing. That's true. Football. Football. How was I supposed to get in? Yeah. No, I hear you. I did see Marty Supreme, and my official review is it's fine. All right. It's a fun time at the theater. I don't go to the movies enough. Yeah. It's something. I went in North Carolina to an AMC theater with the lounge chairs. You get the big-ass popcorn. You get some peanut M &Ms. You mix them up. You get some soda. Damn, I want some popcorn. It's hard to have a bad time when you're doing that, right, with the butter and the salt. But, yeah, I mean, the marketing was so good that it was really tough.

16:28Expectations like that for me are tough. Creative Team 2 good. Creative Team 2 fantastic. It oversold the movie. It literally did. And, like, of course, Timmy's great. Josh Safdie. it's a great movie it's fun to watch but Uncut Gems is better, Good Time is way better it's the same movie it's the same movie I haven't seen it it's the same fucking movie no but it's just Timmy running through a stressful thing I know what you mean and the marketing it just was so so good spoiler alert Like, orange ping pong balls don't really play a role in the movie. What? Did you get one? No. I didn't get one, but also - You should get one.

17:18It's not a theme. It's not even a thing in the movie, which is like, what? Like, I don't know. Like, maybe I'm too literal, but I was expecting - You sold me on some orange ping pong balls. Yeah. And I did not receive orange ping pong balls. You should have bought one. Yeah. They were selling them at theaters. I'm not going to. You want to know why? I thought the movie was kind of mid. All right. Fair enough. The movie's mid. I mean, the merch, the marketing, everything incredible. Timmy's great in it, of course. It's fun to look at. Mr. Wonderful, Tyler, the Creator, Gwen Paltrow. It's well-added.

17:47That one guy from Side Talk? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Luke Box, Lunchbox. Luke? Yeah. Crushes. What a come up. I love it. I love that for him. A Side Talk to Safdie Brothers Christmas Day film. Movie star. Movie star. Fuck yeah. Iconic. Good for him. That guy rocks too. Yeah, no. Very funny. No, Side Talk. More Side Talk in cinema. Yeah. But the movie's fine. It's fine. It's good. It's not great. I'll just say it. It's too long, too, which is a problem I have with every movie. Yeah. Don't these guys know how to edit? This movie needed a 30-minute edit. Oh, my gosh. I would have cut that thing down. That drives me crazy.

18:21I cut that thing down, man. It just – lots of unnecessary fluff. Lots of fluff. Lots of fluff. And it's – Damn movie critic over there. Yeah, I don't know. Did he watch a Jake Paul fight? No, but I saw he got cracked. He did get knocked out, but I did watch this live. I you watched it live. I don't know why. I think it was one of those things where I just was. I don't know. I was I was in the right place right time. Right place right. Yeah. Looking for content. It was like the fights coming on in like 10 minutes. I was like oh I got it. I'll watch you know. Yeah. And I was kind of confused because I guess I didn't watch any of the hype or didn't see too much promo for this.

18:58Why the hell was he fighting a guy so much bigger and stronger than him. Like yeah probably so he could get his jaw broken. Do you think it was. I mean it did kind of feel set up because it makes no sense. It's like he's been fighting all these non fighters, like these washed up guys and people that don't even box. And then he went goes out and fights like a legitimate champion fighter. That was six to 10 inches bigger than him and much, much stronger. It looked like a guy fighting a way bigger guy. Yeah, so I don't understand. Like, it just didn't make any sense. Like, no boxer fights guys much bigger than him because it's just it's a total advantage.

19:32Yeah. I mean, shout out to Jake Paul. He did get messed up. So, yeah. And also, I'll say this. He also hung in there for a minute. Yeah. Yeah, you know. Yeah. I mean, he's not a bad boxer. He's just not a great boxer. Yeah, he's just not. Yeah. He's not a championship boxer. He's just good enough to fight. Definitely. So he hung in there for a couple rounds. I may have put some money on him just to see if he could. You know, just to see if he could. Get good odds on that? Yeah, but I mean, he got knocked out. I mean. Oh, he got knocked out. By the fourth or fifth round, I was like, oh, dude, he's going down.

20:05I just know when. You see his face after? Wow. Yeah. Part of me thinks, again, it's all for the content, which I think is what it is. Speaking of Jake Paul, he was in Puerto Rico. Have you seen that crib? Did you go? I didn't go to his house, but I did look it up online because I was curious. He called it the Taj Mahal. Oh, wow. That's good branding. Yeah. Speaking of branding. Yeah. He has like a$17 million crib in Puerto Rico, which - I hear the locals love him. I'm sure they do. Yeah. They have a nickname for him. I don't know what it was, but it's something that's bad. Oh, I bet. I bet it's hilarious.

20:37Yeah, the guy that gives us money. Does he give them the money? He's not Mr. Beast. No, he's not Mr. Beast. I will say Puerto Rico rocks. It's my second time going there. I will also say bucket list, 26th resolution, buy a mansion in Puerto Rico because that seems ideal. It's four hours from here, no passport required. it's just great vibes great food sunshine nice water sounds nice yeah like I Puerto Rico fucking rocks bad money is right that's I'm here to report that bad bunny is correct about Puerto Rico it is hell yeah it's fucking sick hell yeah so yeah that and I was thinking about his house that he has there I was like makes sense right if you're a fucking super rich guy you know you can buy a mansion in LA it's like I don't want to live in LA you buy you buy a place in Florida.

21:29I don't want to live in Florida. I guess. Puerto Rico. That's a good place to evade taxes. Can you do that there? Yeah. Oh, sweet. That's the place if you're trying to hide from. I mean, that could also solve my news resolution. Well, it's getting rich. Yeah. We got to go to Puerto Rico, man. I ate at a Cracker Barrel for the first time. I saw that. Yeah. How was it? It was fine. What'd you get? Fried chicken. Okay. Yeah. Not bad fried chicken. Not particularly good fried chicken. Nice. They were out of like mac and cheese and like a bunch of stuff. But I also got the dumplings, which I don't I don't know what made me want to do that.

22:06But then someone slid into my DM saying, did you get the dumplings? So I felt good about it. I think that was probably my favorite part. Were they good? Yeah. Dumplings better than chicken. Yeah. Yeah. Chicken, chicken. Yeah. Kind of kind of dry. I mean, I have very fond memories of having their pancakes. Yeah. And syrup. One thing I did was remarkable was. Did you play the tea game? We played the tea game. Jackie and I. We both got meals and the total was$27. Hell yeah. Which$27 for dinner coming from Brooklyn. Two entrees and an app? Two entrees and yeah, maybe an app or soda or something like a soup or something.

22:42Yeah. Well, you got the dumplings. It came with the fried chicken. You got to pick up the side. Gotcha. Yeah. Yeah. And it's like a chunky dumpling soup, but like without the soup kind of thing. Yeah. So now do you see why everyone was mad that they changed it? Yeah. I mean, yeah, I get it. It's an old store. It looks like it's fucking dated and old as hell. Yeah. I mean, they do have some of the new branding in the menu. I mean, the main key is they went back to the old low. But they're keeping some of the new typefaces. Good. But I still stand by that they should have kept and stayed with the old or the new rebrand.

23:16They should have stayed. Well, you know, should have stayed the course. But that's me. Kevin, are you upset about the end of Stranger Things? I know. No, absolutely not. I don't care. End of an era. I do not care. Did you watch any single episode of San Francisco? No, it's not my thing. I was going to say. It's not my genre. I'm not a big fan of that genre. I believe I watched - But respect, you know, if you are. The franchise. Yeah. Respect the franchise. Salute to those kids that are now adults. Yeah. Good for them. Good for them. I watched maybe season one, I would say. Maybe season two. Maybe, possibly.

23:50Wait, you're not even watching it? No. Oh, okay. I don't have the attention span for that. Oh, why are we talking about it? Well, there's things going on in the world of design, branding, and culture. Stranger Things is over. End of an era. Okay, RIP. Yeah, RIP. Did you see Timmy's fit at the Critics' Choice Awards? Yeah, it was solid. It was good. I liked it. I liked it. He's been going so hard with the fits. I feel like this was a nice move to kind of play a little bit. Yeah, I thought it was very classy. I loved the double-breasted pinstripe. Yeah, no, very much. Looked like some shit I'd wear.

24:18A Marty Supreme type fit. Definitely something I could see you wearing, Kevin, for sure. gotta get the gotta get that double-breasted pinstripe john yeah sap yeah i actually tried on a double-breasted suit for the center fest party actually yeah and it looked pretty fucking cool i'll be honest but i don't i yeah i don't know kevin you watch critics choice awards is that why you know i bring it up well i saw that it happened on online yeah i saw online i was kind of just kind of crazy i didn't know they were getting into it so soon this is kevin's uh saw it online sort of things that happened that kevin saw online yeah i saw meg salter yes yeah that was a good that was a great fit i love her yeah she's awesome she rocks did you watch that show the show that no no i saw her do a comedy like six years ago in brooklyn yeah fire she's so good she's like you know stands out as one of the best people i've seen really yeah very unique wow i watched a little bit of chapelle uh the new chapelle special didn't didn't finish it yeah didn't i I didn't even know.

25:17I didn't watch that much content over the break. Wow. Yeah. No, I know. I know. I was hammering reels. I can't lie. I did watch all eight episodes of the Taylor Swift documentary. So that's. Okay. Well, there you go. Yeah. I mean, behind the eras tour, end of an era. Damn. She's a psychopath. In a great way. Well, yeah, of course. You need to be. Yeah. If you ascend that high, you're. Yeah. You're very. She works too hard. She does way too much. But she's. Yeah. Living legend. truthfully legend of the game. And I will say, truly, if you are not or are not a fan of Taylor Swift, I think you watch a documentary and be entertained.

25:56Yeah. Game respect game. Exactly. That's me just like, you know, taking notes. Yeah. Like, wow. Look what she does. I'm no player hater for her people. Kevin, should we get into some stories? Yeah, we get into the juiciest stories I could find on the internet. The juiciest stories of the week. Stranger Things ended. You know what also ended, Kevin? What? The MetroCard. The subway. Oh, yeah. I knew that because I wrote this doc. Yeah. RIP. 30 years. Kevin, the one thing I brought to the doc was this story. So you and I, we had - What, this? Yeah. I put this in. No, I know. But while you were putting together the doc, I put together my doc, and it had RIP to the MetroCard.