Airports Ask for Donations for TSA Agents & Google Maps Gets AI Makeover

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0:38Toby:Good morning, Brew Daily Show. I'm Neil Freiman. And I'm Toby Howell. Today, why airports are asking passengers to tip TSA agents.

0:46Neal:Then Google Maps got an AI makeover that lets you get chatty with it. It's Friday, March 13th. Let's ride.

0:58Toby:Good morning and happy Friday the 13th. New rankings were just released of the happiest cities in the United States. So if you're waking up in one of the following places, send some positive energy our way. Without further ado, the 10 happiest cities in the country are Fremont, California, which is a city in the Bay Area. Bismarck, North Dakota. Scottsdale, Arizona. South Burlington, Vermont. Fargo, North Dakota. That's two North Dakotas if you're keeping track. Overland Park, Kansas. this, Charleston, South Carolina, Irvine, California, Gilbert, Arizona, and San Jose, California. You're probably curious about the methodology.

1:32Toby:Wallet Hub evaluated cities across 29 indicators of happiness, including depression rates, income growth, and average daily leisure time.

1:39Neal:I was so shocked by those lists, as were a lot of people. This went very viral online. The methodology was a little bit more robust than I was prepared for from a Wallet Hub survey. Fremont did very well because they dominated in terms of physical well-being and community involvement. Bismarck did well in those categories as well. One thing I noticed, not a single city in either Massachusetts or Florida where we both grew up, or New York where we currently live. What are we doing wrong, Neil? And now a word from our sponsor, Tax Act. Finally did my taxes, Neil. For you or your business.

2:14Toby:What? You got to do both, Toby. But fortunately for you, there's Tax Act. They help small business owners get their taxes done. Tax Act makes filing easy for small businesses by providing the only online DIY filing software for small businesses. Plus, you can bundle your business and personal tax returns.

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2:44Toby:Just head to taxact.com slash business dash returns to get started. That's taxact.com slash business dash returns. I got to do my taxes this weekend. Good reminder. OK, TSA security lines are getting even more grim than usual. Major U.S. airports have been asking passengers to drop off food or donate gift cards to security employees who are set to miss their first full paycheck today due to the partial government shutdown. On Wednesday, Denver International Airport posted on X in all caps donations needed, encouraging travelers to, quote, support the dedicated TSA employees working without pay.

3:18Toby:by donating$10 and$20 store and gas gift cards. Also on Wednesday, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport notified travelers that it had opened a food pantry to support TSA workers. While most of the government is currently open, the Department of Homeland Security has not been funded for weeks over an impasse on Capitol Hill over ICE tactics. With no agreement in sight, TSA workers have increasingly been not showing up to work without pay, leading to chaotic security lines of up to five hours long at airports in Houston, Atlanta, and New Orleans last weekend. One viral photo showed the queue in New Orleans stretching into the parking lot.

3:52Toby:Most U.S. airports have not been affected like this yet, but experts warn that staffing shortages could ramp up in a big way after the first missed paycheck today. TSA agents start with a salary in the low$40 ,000, and they simply can't afford to be working without getting paid. Not to mention, this is the second time they've been asked to forego paychecks in the last few months, including last year's 43-day shutdown. Toby, this could be the calm before the storm.

4:15Neal:And the issue with trying to support these TSA agents, which a lot of people do want to do. I mean, they are an essential worker. They are not getting paid right now. They've gone through a lot lately. But you can't donate to TSA workers. That comes from federal ethics rules as well as the TSA's Employees and Responsibilities Code of Conduct Handbook. You are not allowed to solicit or accept gifts from travelers full stop. It doesn't necessarily matter where the donations are accepting because Denver tried to insulate their workers by moving the donation bin a little bit away from where the actual security checkpoint was.

4:51Neal:So that's problem number one. Problem number two is not just the legal side of things. It just creates some sociological issues when you look at it because it could create perverse incentives. officers might be rewarding people for tips by, you know, giving them expedited security clearances. There's a pay to play perception that is happening. And then, yeah, there is just a security risk, too, if you involve money at any point in this screening process. So even though people's hearts are probably in the right place saying, hey, we're trying to help you out in a tough time, legally speaking, it's not kosher.

5:27Toby:But what so these airports are just trying to get around these legal rules and we'll see what what happens to these particular donation bins. What's interesting also is that some airports may be spared some chaos from TSA agents calling out sick because they actually employ private contractors under a federal program that allows airports to outsource security screenings under TSA oversight. So if you fly out of SFO, San Francisco, San Francisco International, Kansas City International, Atlantic City International, I don't know who's flying out of there, or Orlando International Airport. Those are some of a couple dozen U.S.

6:02Toby:airports that have this model going on where they actually, you know, are staffed security lines by private contractors. It's been a long-running debate about whether more airports should adopt this, and it's probably growing in interest, or at least airports are looking at this after all the chaos of the past few months.

6:19Neal:One good thing about this partial government shutdown is that it's not affecting air traffic controllers this time around. Remember, during the last sort of shutdowns over the years, that has affected air traffic, and that has been a huge strain on airports. This time, because Congress has already funded their employer, the Department of Transportation, they are still working. So that is just one hint of relief when it comes to airports. But you're right. You mentioned it could be the calm before the storm because staffing shortages are only going to accelerate as you start missing paychecks. A lot of these people are not calling in sick per se.

6:55Neal:They're just going to work second jobs because they need to make a living here. So you got to pay your bills and that could lead to longer lines at the airport.

7:02Toby:Right. I mean, there's one quote from a TSA agent who said, last time I checked, Kroger doesn't take an IOU. Just go to find another comparable job that pays you about the same or even more that doesn't have these shutdowns rolling every few months where you just miss a paycheck. And it truly gets dire during the last shutdown. A TSA's acting administrator told the House committee that certain TSA employees were sleeping in their cars at airports because they didn't want to pay for gas traveling to their workplace, or they sold blood plasma just to feed their families. The timing of this couldn't be worse as well.

7:38Toby:We're coming up on the busiest spring break travel season on record. You hear grumblings on Capitol Hill, not just to get this compromise worked out, but also to create funding mechanisms for TSA agents so they and the traveling public doesn't have to go through this every time the government shuts down, which seems to be happening a lot lately.

7:55Neal:All right, moving on. Google Maps got an AI facelift and map heads everywhere are pumped. Gemini is powering a new feature called Ask Maps, where you can ask contextual real world questions and get answers back without ever leaving the app. For instance, my phone is dying. Where are some nearby coffee shops that have outlets? Or is there a public pickleball court with lights on that I can play at tonight? Road trippers are going to have a field day with this too. If you were driving from California to the Grand Canyon, you could ask for recommended stops along the way, according to an example given by Google.

8:27Neal:Whereas before you might have opened TikTok to find those wrecks, Maps will now give you tips from real people on how to find a real hidden trail entrance, for instance, in addition to your standard directions and ETAs. The other exciting update is personalization. Over time, Maps gets to know you based on locations you've searched for or preferences you've saved. So if you're vegan and are looking for a date night in the West Village, it might highlight plant-based spots instead of something like 4Charles. Neil, there are some other navigation updates built in as well, but being able to chat with Maps feels like one of the better attempts by Google to AI-ify all its software, as Wired put it.

9:05Neal:But as a noted Google Maps lover, I am curious to hear your thoughts on this.

9:09Toby:Yeah, this is super exciting. I know there is a lot more. I would ask Google Maps if I had the option with just a lot more granularity. And now we're being given it. And others seem to agree. The response has been very enthusiastic, which is kind of atypical of certain AI rollouts by Google, Microsoft, and others who are trying to infuse Copilot or Gemini into their various products. A lot of times that's been met with pushback. You go into your Gmail and you see Gemini or you go into Google Docs, you see Gemini and you're like, get this, get me out of here. Like, this is not actually helping me.

9:40Toby:When it comes to Google Maps, it seems like this is a really good use case for AI. We haven't seen it in action. I haven't used it because it's rolling out slowly. But I guess the there is a wave of optimism that this would be really helpful for people to use Google Maps.

9:55Neal:Yeah, just logically, it makes sense to have a better ability to figure out the world around you. The Coffee Shots example is a great example because before it was just kind of like this awkward hybrid of search or maybe you actually have to go to another app entirely to figure out, does this place have an outlet that I can plug my phone into? Maybe now you can just do it using natural language. This is a big deal too. Google Maps has over 2 billion users worldwide. Google doesn't actually break out its revenue that it gets from Maps, but it's obviously like a big business line for them that they want to increasingly monetize.

10:29Neal:monetize. One loser I was thinking about when it comes to these is it's not Apple Maps, actually. It's actually going to be things like Yelp and TripAdvisor that already have been under siege from Google Maps. But now, why would you ever need to go get reviews from a different part of the internet when Google bakes all of those into you with these very natural language responses? So tough look for them as they're trying to go up against a behemoth.

10:53Toby:I mean, Google's been squeeze in help for years. That wasn't the only update coming to Google Maps, the AI infusion. They also released something called immersive navigation, which will just make your navigation map look a lot more real life. It's a 3D view. It'll have overpasses, crosswalks, landmarks, signage. And what I think is really important for a lot of people is it will tell you what to do after the turn. So oftentimes when you're navigating using Google Maps, they'll say turn right and then 200 uh 200 feet later you actually have to turn left so this uh immersive navigation will kind of zoom out a little bit and show you that once you turn right you might want to get in the left lane because you have to make a quick left turn which by the way is something apple

11:34Neal:maps has had for a little bit they've had a much more robust immersive navigation environment i'm an apple maps head over here neil's a google maps head so we'll see how these go toe-to-toe now all right it's stock of the week dog of the week time where we pick one stock that shows up to the podcast every day and one stock that has mysterious weddings every single week. I won the pre-show game of who can take more PTO, so I'm up first. And my stock of the week is Nintendo because it struck gold with its new Pokemon game. Pocopia is not your typical Pokemon game. There's no sending your pocket monsters into battle, but it's selling like hotcakes precisely because it's so different.

12:14Neal:Described as an Animal Crossing Minecraft hybrid, it sits squarely in the category known as cozy gaming. Your main task in the game is to construct habitats that increase the comfort level of your Pokemon. Onyx is stuck in a cave? It's your job to make it rain to soften the rock so it can break out. Oh, but now Charmander doesn't like the rain. Build him a little hut to cover his flaming tail. One TechCrunch reviewer recounts her experience playing. In the midst of explaining to her boyfriend how it works, she realized that A, it had been well over two hours, and B, he had fallen asleep without her noticing.

12:47Neal:That's how engrossed she was. The hype has pushed up Nintendo stock 17 % this week as a surprise hit sparked hope that it will drive sales of its new Switch 2 console. Neil, this game wasn't supposed to be the juggernaut that it turned out to be.

13:00Toby:It may not be a coincidence that this game is popping off now, too. It's been compared to Animal Crossing, and it's been almost exactly six years that Animal Crossing was released on the OG Nintendo Switch, March 20, 2020. Do you remember what happened during those times? Yes, we're in the middle of a pandemic. Geopolitical things are getting hairy again. Now people perhaps are looking for an escape. And once again, Nintendo releases a soothing game that people can kind of escape the world a little bit. So the ties between Pocopia and Animal Crossing are quite strong.

13:35Neal:One reviewer, again, this is actually the same TechCrunch reviewer said that Animal Crossing represents pure escapism. Like you weren't really doing much. You were selling your turnips and your beats and whatnot, but it was really just a way to get away from the world, but Pocopio gives you the sensation of rehabilitating the world. So she really liked that aspect as well. You are building, you are like contributing to your Pokemon community. Again, it's a video game. So like this isn't, you know, world peace that we're talking about here, but it absolutely does represent another moment in time right now, which is why it's resonating so heavily.

14:09Neal:For Nintendo, it couldn't have come at a better time because this stock has not done well throughout the year. It's down 28 % over the last six months despite its recent rally. A lot of it is tied to just normal business things like the surge of memory prices because AI is gobbling up all the memory. That hurts Nintendo's business. So their Switch 2 is off to a good start. But this is really the first game that is exclusively on the Switch 2 that is getting investors pumped because it should juice sales for that console. So good win for Nintendo. Not one that they necessarily saw coming.

14:44Toby:And I think a non-insignificant contributor to the stock rise as well was they released the final trailer for the Super Mario Galaxy movie, which is coming out in just a few weeks on April 1st. The first one, remember, made so much money,$1.4 billion globally at the box office. So they're expecting another huge hit here.

15:03Neal:All right, we're going to take a quick break and come back with Neil's Dog of the Week.

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