2025 Laws Take on Social Media and Minimum Wage & Tesla Suffers First Sales Slip

0:26Race the rudders! Good morning Brew Daily Show. I'm Neil Freiman. And I'm Toby Howell. Today, Tesla's traditional car business is losing steam. Only self-driving can save it now. That Netflix just had its biggest TV debut of all time, and it had nothing to do with the NFL. It's Friday, January 3rd. Let's ride.

0:54it's that time of the year the very beginning when everyone is posting what's in and what's out for 2025 toby you consider yourself a tastemaker you even have a segment called toby's trends after all so what's going to be in this year and what's going to be passe all right in this year is earnestness out is aloofness we are trying hard and taking things seriously in 2025. In, long distance running. Out, long distance relationships. Just move already. It's good for the soul. In, pronouncing words incorrectly, oddly enough. So we're giving ourselves some grace. Out is saying it. Chipotle or NVIDIA.

1:34Those two are crossing the line. And then finally, in, business news podcast. Absolutely. Out, being uninformed. I feel like that one speaks for itself. Neil, you don't have a Toby's Trend segment, but do you have an in and out? I have a few. My first one has to do with running as well. I think running clubs are out. Oh. Yeah. Too many. Swimming is in. Connections is out. Crosswords are in. I think TikTok is out, whether there's a ban or not. And it's going to be a big year for LinkedIn. So LinkedIn is in. And then my last one is the concept of vibes are out. There's been too much talk of vibes over the past few years.

2:12No one really knows what it means. What's in is going to be data-based decision making. Okay, here's what I want to hear from you guys. Tell us if Toby's in and out are in or out, and then tell us if Neil's in and out are in and out. That might be a little confusing, but give us some feedback here. All right. Like all of you, U.S. states make their own resolutions on New Year's, but those come in the form of new laws. Tens of thousands of new laws went into effect on January 1st across the country, impacting everything from social media use to minimum wages to Taylor Swift tickets. Toby and I are going to give you a quick tour of the most important and bizarre laws that are now active so you can learn something and also avoid jail time.

2:52First, let's talk Internet. Florida's first of its kind controversial law that bans children under 14 from having social media accounts is technically in effect now. Enforcement is being delayed due to legal challenges filed by industry groups. Remember, under this law, social media platforms will be responsible for terminating and blocking any accounts belonging to people suspected of being under 14 with the goal of protecting kids from online harms. And then in terms of the minimum wage, workers in 21 states will get a pay bump as of the first of the year. The highest will be in three states, Washington, California and Connecticut, all of which now have wage floors of more than$16 per hour.

3:32The federal minimum wage has not budged from$7.25 an hour since 2009. So many states and cities have taken it upon themselves to raise their minimum wages to help workers keep up with greater cost of living expenses. Toby, any of these laws you want to dive into? Yeah, let's dive into that social media law from Florida because it also extends to something beyond social media, and that is adult content websites. The law also requires adult content websites to age verify for access with the goal of protecting kids from certain websites on the internet. And it's not just Florida either. We are seeing this really across the South and across the country.

4:10Tennessee, South Carolina, and a growing list of 14 other states now have residents who can no longer access those popular adult content websites, those popular pornography websites because of age verification laws. So ALO Networks, which owns some of the biggest adult content websites out there, they decided to just block users because they don't think that they can actually comply and perform these reasonable age verification requests. and there's been some pushback, obviously. Some free speech advocates say that it's just going to push people to even darker and more dangerous parts of the internet and they're not doing much to protect the actual people that they are trying to protect here.

4:50So there's definitely going to be some Supreme Court arguments that do come down related to these cases. But I do think that's a theme of some of the laws that you described here is just protecting child protections when it comes to online activity. Right. I just want to put a point on it. 17 states across the U.S. South and other parts of the United States can no longer access Pornhub and other adult content websites because they are deciding to not comply with these age verification rules over privacy concerns. They say we don't want to be collecting this information, so we're just going to block you.

5:23And that has been a huge trend over the past few years, started with Louisiana two years ago. And what you see after all of these bans come into effect is a massive spike in VPN news so people can skirt these blocks. So when this happened in Florida on January 1st, two days ago, there was a VPN search spike of 1 ,150 % within hours of it going into effect. So people will have their point of whether it's blocked or not. And that's very similar to what we saw in other states, like Utah saw a 967 percent spike in VPN use in 2023 when their law went into effect. And Texas had a similar spike when that law went into effect as well.

6:10But you're right. This is going to the Supreme Court likely because free speech advocates have taken the side of these adult content websites and have challenged this Texas law specifically. So we'll probably hear arguments on that. Well, I won't. But the Supreme Court will on January 15th. And so that could have widespread impacts for all of these states that have put up these barriers. So what else is going on other than these child protection laws, other than the minimum wage increases, some other laws that are going into effect? Illinois gyms must allow memberships to be canceled by email or on their websites.

6:40I know a lot of people have had that really tough experience with the gym trying to actually cancel the membership. You may sign up for around the New Year's time. California gave child influencers similar protections that child actors have. You have to, you know, if you are dancing on social media with your mom or dad, there are now new laws that do allow you to, you know, recoup some of the financial gain that they are receiving. Also, Minnesota adopted those ticketing transparency laws. Five states adopted pay transparency laws as well. But then there's some weird laws that are going in effect as of 2025.

7:19California now allows marijuana dispensaries and venues to offer live entertainment. So think maybe similar to just like a club where you're drinking alcohol. Now they're having these clubs that can bring a band in where people are allowed to smoke marijuana. Things like cannabis cafes in Amsterdam. Yeah, Amsterdam is definitely going to be the kind of blueprint there. Washington, D.C. actually has a cashless retail prohibition law coming down that mandates retailers must accept cash payments. If you've ever seen those signs that say, we prefer charge, we do not accept cash here, that is now against the law in Washington, D.C.

7:56And then New York passed a car wash promotion disclosure law, which requires car washes to clearly inform customers about promotion expiration dates. You know what? That's very important. It's very important. I can't believe people are driving in New York, let alone washing their cars. So again, Neil said this could potentially help you not run afoul of some of these laws. Hopefully none of these you're running into and you're not facing down any legal issues in 2025. But those are some of the laws that you should keep an eye on. Moving on to the next story. The FBI has found no definitive link between the devastating New Orleans attack that killed 14 people on New Year's Day and the cyber truck that was blowing up in Las Vegas hours later.

8:35but there is one commonality between the two. Both the Cybertruck in Vegas and the Ford F-150 Lightning truck used in New Orleans were rented through the same car sharing app, Turo. It's put the once high-flying startup, which had plans to go public last year, squarely in the national crosshairs and raised questions about its security and vetting process. As of last year, Turo had 360 ,000 cars listed on its platform where users could rent them out in a peer-to-peer system similar to Airbnb. But the company said that neither driver had anything in their backgrounds that would have raised alarms during the app's screening process.

9:14Still, the owner of the truck used in the New Orleans attack told the New York Times that he plans to stop using Turo going forward to make extra money. Neil, Turo was worth$1.5 billion back in 2020, according to PitchBook. But the IPO it registered back in 2021 has yet to materialize. And now it's found itself at the center of two tragedies as we enter into 2025. Yeah, Turo put out a statement saying we acknowledge that both of these incidents were used Turo rental cars, but said that no red flags were raised and they didn't mention the details of their screening process. I've rented on Turo before.

9:52Like you have to put up your driver's license and put in some other information. They say they reserve the right to do a background check on you and learn more about you before they grant you permission to use their platform. But they said that those people met these rigorous safety requirements. So they're looking into it. And yes, you're right. The spotlight has been on Turo. But investigators do say that the fact that they both happen to be within hours of each other and use Turo was a coincidence. But when you do certain attacks like ramming cars through people, which has seen an uptick recently, then, you know, there is a decent chunk that use rental cars.

10:34Five percent of 184 vehicle ramming incidents between 1970 and 2018 used a rented car. And that's according to a study done by San Jose State University. And that shows intent and planning because you have to go rent the car. So this is not, you know, necessarily super rare. It's not super rare. And also Turo is a company that I called it a high flying startup. and it is a very large company. It reported$880 million in revenue in 2023. That was up 18 % year over year. It did saw its profits fall from$154 million to$14 million, which may have clouded that IPO picture. This was a pretty buzzy company at one time.

11:15Celebrities like 2 Chainz, NBA, NFL players have invested in Turo. It's got almost 1 ,000 employees, so it is a relatively robust company as well. Let's also just zoom out a little bit to some of the aftermath from these attacks. We did see the Sugar Bowl happen after it was delayed in New Orleans. Notre Dame won that game. Some other updates from the two cases as well. Bourbon Street in New Orleans is back open to the public as of yesterday, obviously with an increased police presence. The FBI also clarified some earlier reports that said that the Army veteran involved in New Orleans had help.

11:52Instead, they claimed he did act alone. surveillance footage kind of caught him placing coolers down with explosives that have since been disarmed. Also, investigators reiterated that there wasn't a clear link between the two. Again, we've talked about the fact that they both used Turo. Both men did serve portions of their U.S. Army careers in what was formerly Fort Bragg. It is now Fort Liberty in North Carolina. They also spent time in Afghanistan during similar times, though at different locations. And of course, They both use Turo. But so that's kind of just a rundown of what we know now on the two attacks.

12:27And they did identify the driver of the Cybertruck, who was an active duty Green Beret. He died by suicide in the car, authorities believe, before the explosion went off. So as investigators try to untangle that Cybertruck mystery, Tesla reported its delivery numbers for the 2024 year, which is the most closely tracked metric for how its electric cars are selling. And it was historic and not in a good way. Tesla's annual vehicle sales declined for the first time ever. It sold 1.79 million vehicles last year, a 2 % decline from the year before. That missed its own estimates of modest growth and sent its stock tumbling more than 6 % on the day.

13:07It wasn't too long ago that Tesla was notching gains of 50 % year over year, but that growth has gone into reverse. Tesla's struggles are well documented by this point by us and by others. It's facing increased competition from legacy automakers and Chinese upstarts. Demand for electric vehicles has slowed across the board, and it's got an aging vehicle lineup that consumers appear to be pretty bored of. CEO Elon Musk has tried to shift investor focus away from its traditional EV business and toward an autonomous and AI-fueled future, a marketing pitch that has mostly succeeded. Tesla's stock jumped nearly 70 % last year, with most of that coming after Trump's election.

13:46Still, these numbers are a stark reminder that what Tesla makes money on now, not five years from now, has hit a wall, and that could be a problem. The last time Tesla suffered an annual sales dip was in 2011, which if you look at it on the chart of Tesla's vehicle sales, it's just a mere blimp. That was before it released the Model 3, the Model Y, which accounts for 95 % of its deliveries at this point. Tesla leaned on promotions and price cuts. That was a big theme of last year where they were just slashing prices. They had the margin to do so in order to try to spur demand. But there's only so much you can do in the face of very tepid, very minimal consumer demand for electric vehicles.

14:28Meanwhile, you mentioned competition from legacy automakers, but definitely the biggest competition is coming out of China. BYD actually outsold Tesla in electric vehicles for the second quarter in a row. Tesla still nabbed it over all on the year. So it still can claim it's the largest EV seller in the world. But yeah, the competition mixed with the tepid demand is definitely why we saw electric vehicle deliveries falter for the first time. So why did Tesla's stock jump nearly 70 % last year? Because investors know everything we know and possibly more. They know Tesla has a vehicle lineup that hasn't had a refresh in many, many years besides the Cybertruck, which is new, but that didn't really impact sales according to these latest figures.

15:15They're just hoping that Musk's pie-in-the-sky pitch that Tesla will transform the auto industry yet again into a self-driving thing will come to fruition. Tesla unveiled its CyberCab, which is a self-driving robo-taxi that will hopefully come into being in 2027. It's spent$10 billion on AI last year alone. It has this Optimus humanoid robot. So it's really branching out into these very moonshot bets that remind you of Google. The thing about Google is it has an ad business that makes it tons of money that's growing double digits per year. Meanwhile, Tesla's pot of money that it can draw into to put on these futuristic bets is declining.

16:03So investors are really putting their faith in Elon Musk that he can deliver on these very ambitious promises to pivot Tesla from a traditional car company into a more, you know, AI self-driving company. So its market cap completely rests on this. And if Musk can't deliver, then Tesla, you know, you have to feel like its stock will take a big hit. Up next, it is Stock of the Week, Dog of the Week time. Eczema isn't always obvious, but it's real. And so is the relief from EBCLIS. After an initial dosing phase, about 4 in 10 people taking EBCLIS achieved itch relief and clear or almost clear skin at 16 weeks.

16:44And most of those people maintain skin that's still more clear at one year with monthly dosing. EBCLIS, LibriKizumab, LBKZ, a 250 milligram per two milliliter injection, is a prescription medicine used to treat adults and children 12 years of age and older who weigh at least 88 pounds or 40 kilograms with moderate to severe eczema. Also called atopic dermatitis that is not well controlled with prescription therapies used on the skin or topicals or who cannot use topical therapies. EPCLIS can be used with or without topical corticosteroids. Don't use if you're allergic to EPCLIS. Allergic reactions can occur that can be severe.

17:13Eye problems can occur. Tell your doctor if you have new or worsening eye problems. You should not receive a live vaccine when treated with EPCLIS. Before starting EPCLIS, tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. Searching for real relief? Ask your doctor about EPCLIS and visit ePCLIS.Lily.com or call 1-800-LILY-RX or 1-800-545-5979. Tuesday on NBC, Jimmy Fallon and Bozema St. John host the highly anticipated new competition show. I hired 10 creatives from all walks of life. They will be battling it out to see who can impress the world's biggest brands. This is a huge opportunity. This is the battle for the next big idea.

17:49This is not Play Play. We're spending millions of dollars. I'm so excited to embark on this adventure with all of you. Made the best idea win! On brand with Jimmy Fallon. Series premiere Tuesday on NBC. It is Stock of the Week, Dog of the Week time, where we pick one stock who is still in holiday break mode and one stock that has locked back in. But since it was a shortened trading week, we bent the rules a little bit and chose two non-stocks that still fit the spirit of the segment. I won the pre-show 45-minute power interval Peloton session, so I am up first. And my stock of the week is Squid Games 2 because it has been a smashing success.

18:30Season 2 debuted to 68 million views in its first four days available, which officially makes it Netflix's biggest premiere ever. It's also already climbed the ranks to land at number 7 on Netflix's most popular non-English shows, a metric that takes into account a show's first 91 days of viewership, so it's still got more room to run. Still, it's got a long way to go before it can dethrone Netflix's all-time biggest show, which is the first season of Squid Games that is sitting pretty at 265 million views. Neil, there was fear that the three-year delay between seasons might dole this series' appeal, which pits contestants against each other in childish games with life-or-death implications, but clearly that has not been the case here.

19:15And Netflix is putting their foot on the gas with Squid Game. It's not just a show anymore. It is a franchise. There's in-person experiences. They created a reality show based on Squid Game. They greenlit a third season. We had to wait three years between the first season and the second season. Well, good news for anybody who likes the show, which apparently is a ton of people, because the third season is coming out this summer. So they are leaning into Squid Game as a franchise. that can be monetized in many different ways, very similar to what they did with Stranger Things. But just what a surprise hit that no one saw coming.

19:54And I think, you know, I'd love to hear your opinion. Why do you think it's resonated? Many, you know, some have speculated that it's the survival type show that does really well, touches on interesting themes like economic inequality. And also it just catches fire on social media because it's so memeable. That's dull. I know it is. I see it everywhere. It's very memeable. But also you have to remember the first Squid Games came out of nowhere, like you described, during the pandemic where it did feel like everything was up to the max. There was a lot of economic hardship at the time. So it just really resonated then.

20:27I think there is a lot of those same feelings even three years later. One thing I thought was interesting is that the show's creator actually created the show because he was feeling similar things. He was down to his last dollar. He created the show about people down to the last dollar who will do desperate things. And Netflix pretty much entirely footed the bill of the first season because they were taking a big risk on this basically no-name writer. So because Netflix paid for the season up front, a lot of the actors weren't actually immediately compensated in, you know, kind of accordance to how big the show got.

21:01So the writer did want to create more seasons. He left season one on a cliffhanger in order to give some of the actors, some of the people involved in the show, a bigger chance to participate in windfall, financial windfall going forward. So I thought that was interested that the writer felt motivated to write more episodes. And so these people who made the show what it is could, you know, reap the benefits financially. And I'm just happy that he is going to be able to put up his legs because he said he lost seven to eight teeth while writing the first season. And yeah, he's like, I get so stressed.

21:32I get gum problems when I write. So this is going to be my last series ever. This is too much of a mental challenge for me. But man, you did good. My dog of the week is Norovirus. So I hope you had breakfast already because by the end of this, you probably will have lost your appetite. Norovirus cases are on a major upswing this year with outbreaks on cruises, unsurprisingly, generating the most headlines. So far this year, there have been 16 outbreaks of gastrointestinal disease on cruises, the CDC said, the most in 12 years. The majority of those are norovirus, a highly contagious virus that gives you, let's just say, the stomach bug of all stomach bugs.

22:11what enters your body leaves it quickly at both ends. And the spread really picks up in winter. Five of those cruise outbreaks occurred in December alone. And there's a ship that's docking today in New York, the Queen Mary 2, where almost 13 percent of passengers and more than 5 percent of the crew have been infected. In response, the affected cruise companies say they've ramped up their cleaning and sanitizing efforts and are pushing back against claims that cruise ships are a particular hotbed for norovirus, which they do have a point on. Norovirus outbreaks on cruises comprise only 1 % of all those reported.

22:46Toby, this sounds horrible. Anyone you know get norovirus recently? Neil, I've had it recently. I don't wish it on my worst enemy. I had it over the winter break. My girlfriend did as well. It was tough. Also, you factor in, you know, the questionable fae on a cruise ship, the choppy seas as well, the fact that you're just locked on the same ship with a ton of other passengers who also might have it. I think that is just the worst thing on Earth. One of the reasons why most of these outbreaks do occur in the winter months is that norovirus is passed through close contact, direct contact with food or water that's been contaminated with tiny particulates of infected feces, infected vomit.

23:33I know, sorry, this is a morning show. But you see these nationwide surges when we're all a little bit closer to each other indoors and not a lot of people are outside as well. Well, norovirus outbreaks actually declined during that 2020-2021 pandemic season because of the fact that there weren't very many social activities as well. So that was maybe we're coming back from a little bit of a depressed time for norovirus into a much more active time for norovirus. But yeah, Neil, you have a twinkle in your eye, but I do not because it is just the worst thing on Earth. And I hope none of you guys listening are struggling with it right now.

24:08Now, let's sprint to the finish of the shortened week with some headlines. If you ever thought your phone was a little too good at picking up on hints as to what you wanted for Christmas, you could be entitled to some cash. Apple has agreed to a$95 million settlement in a class action lawsuit alleging that Siri recorded private conversations without user consent. The lawsuit claims Siri unintentionally activated and recorded snippets of confidential conversations, which were then shared with third parties like human reviewers or advertisers. If approved by the court, eligible Apple owners in the U.S.

24:44could receive up to$20 per Siri-enabled device. Neil, big validation for all the moms out there who think their phones are listening to them. Well, apparently, this all started with a report from The Guardian in 2019 when a whistleblower came forward and said that Siri would be inadvertently activated sometimes when an Apple watch was raised and a speech was detected. So you didn't know that Siri was activated. People said that they suspected something when they got specifically, like unusually targeted ads for things like Air Jordan sneakers when they were talking about it and they attributed that to Siri.

25:21Now, Apple has denied that they use this data for advertising subsequently or selling that, but it just goes to show you maybe, you know, this is just more worse PR for Siri. So yes, if you bought a Siri-enabled device through 2024 from 2014, then Apple, if this settlement is approved, Apple will send you a message and maybe you can claim your$20. If you were feeling deja vu when going to the movies last year, there's a good reason for that. The box office numbers for 2024 are in, and nine of the ten highest grossing movies were sequels. And the other one was Wicked, which is an adaptation of a musical.