🪨 “Michelangelo Millionaire” — Italian Marble’s resurgence. Apple’s Pixar Lamp. 8 Sleep’s $1B not-mattress.

0:28This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Wednesday, Referral? No, dude, we should do a mystery box and open it live on the pod. I'm sold. I've never bought a Labuva doll. But Jack, three fantastic stories for today's pod. What do we got on the T-Boy? For our first story, from 2006 to 2016, Apple launched the iPhone, the iPad, the Apple Watch, and AirPods. In the 10 years since, ah, well, Apple's next big thing, it's codenamed Bubbles. And it tells us everything we need to know about how Apple has changed. Bubbles. For our second story, Italian Marvel is experiencing its biggest business moment since the Roman Coliseum.

1:07Because the Italian Marvel industry doesn't waste the dust. Literally. And our third and final story, Eight Sleep helps Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg lull to sleep every night. Now, we don't know what lullabies they sleep to, but we do know the business model. And Eight Sleep just got a$100 million fat check fundraise to do it. But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Oh, no one else is doing that mix. Feels great. Love the mix, Jack. Ladies and gentlemen, please remove your hats and caps for the singing of the national anthem. Of robots. Because the first ever world humanoid robot games just wrapped up in China.

1:46And the winner wasn't R2-D2, was it, Jack? Here's what happened. 280 teams from 16 countries competed in a three-day robotics competition. Oh, and don't forget the 18 ,000 computer chips, right? True, because the athletes were human-shaped robots, but they competed in real Olympic sports. I was talking the 100-meter dash, the 400-meter dash, the 1 ,500-meter robot dash. They did the long jump. They did the high jump. They even did five-on-five robot soccer. I mean, the only thing missing here, man, a Jamaican bobsled team of bots. But Nick and I watched the highlight videos, and the athletics, they were pretty unathletic.

2:22Like the boxing match was two robots who failed to actually make contact with each other. The referee had to end it, so he randomly chose one robot and said, you're the winner. One robot actually hit a top speed of 10 miles per hour, which apparently is a new world record. But that's a third as fast as Usain Bolt runs. Now we should point out, Jack, the U.S. was represented, but the most golds went to China. A Beijing startup called Unitree brought home four gold medals out of the 21 competitions. But here's what we found fascinating, Yetis. The Robot Olympics wasn't just athletics, was it, man?

2:56There was also a housekeeping challenge and a garbage sorting challenge. Basically test to see how well the robots do things that we actually want the robots to do. One event was robots making a bed. And the robots couldn't even do that. Although, honestly, I can't either, Jack. So congratulations to all those participating athletes in the humanoid Robot Olympics. Just don't use any of those performance-enhancing chips next time. Our IT team is testing. We see you, Russian robots. We see you. Hey, Bob Costas bot. Let him play. Jack, let's hit our three stories. I think North Korea's robot just exploded.

3:34Fifteen years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50%, that's a fat tip. T-Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, cause we ready to go. We can't wait no more. So just start the show.

3:59Start the show. Start the show. Start the show. First, a quick word from our sponsor.

4:10Monarch. Yetis, you know my first money lesson? It was where to put our lemonade stand. I was wondering, it was on the Upper East Side. Do we do it on Lexington Avenue or Park Avenue? New York City has lemonade stands on the sidewalk? They didn't. We were pioneers, Jack. Lexington Avenue is more commercial. Park is more residential. So what did we learn, Jack? Families are willing to pay more for lemonade. So you set it up on Park. Yeah, we did it on Park. Besties, no one gives you financial lessons in life. You end up figuring most of it out as you grow up. But we love Monarch because it's like a financial advisor in your pocket.

4:39Because every minute, it's tracking your savings, spending, investments, and more. For instance, Monarch's goal tracking feature shows if you're on track for that summer trip to Santa Fe. And it tells you what percent of your income is going somewhere that's a surprise. I open Monarch all the time because it takes the mental load off tracking my finances. And whether you're single, you're in a family, or you're dinking it up, Monarch's the way. Our personal fave, the AI Weekly Recap, a once-per-week gut check on what you did with your money. Hey, Nick, you've spent 96 bucks at kids' lemonade stands since July.

5:04Because we pioneered it for him, Jack. Resties, write your own story with Monarch. Use code TBOY at Monarch.com to get your first year of Monarch Core half off at just 50 bucks. It's 50 % off your first year at Monarch.com with code TBOY. Zip Recruiter. All right, Yedis, you got to hear this. Jack, can you share that story about your wet bathing suit in Italy? So my hotel was so amazing. They came in to clean up my room one day and they saw I had a wet bathing suit hanging from the shower head. And they were like, that's not kosher, Jack. We don't do it like that at this hotel. So they hung it very elegantly on a clothes hanger.

5:35And I was so impressed when I arrived back in the hotel room. It was like a pastry besties that works for the best hotel in Italy and for the best job candidates anywhere. So if you're hiring great candidates, go the extra step too. and they tell you why they're interested in your job on ZipRecruiter. It's how they stand out from the others. And right now, you can try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash tboy. ZipRecruiter's powerful matching technology finds qualified candidates quickly. And the candidates tell you in their own words why they want your job. That's why ZipRecruiter is the number one rated hiring site based on G2.

6:05And if they fold your bathing suit like origami, give them a signing bonus as well. Try ZipRecruiter and meet great candidates who will go the extra step for your job. Four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day. So try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash tboy. That's ZipRecruiter.com slash tboy. Meet your match on ZipRecruiter. For our first story, Apple is building the lamp from Pixar as an actual smart robot product. That's their next big thing at Apple. But we're focused on a change in Apple's strategy from delivering to promising. But first, Yetis, before we jump into the story, a breaking news update from Ben Stiller and Apple.

6:47You want to share it with the Yetis, Jack? Apple has acquired the rights to Ben Stiller's next movie, which is about pickleball, and it's called The Dink. I don't know if that's Double Income, No Kids, or like some pickleball reference. Now, besties, other than that Ben Stiller movie news with Apple, being on the Apple PR team has been incredibly unfun lately. They're constantly on the defense. First, CEO Tim Cook had to give President Trump a fake gold trophy to avoid tariffs. Meanwhile, every country is suing the App Store, calling it a monopoly, and trying to kill Apple's app tax. Siri still hasn't learned how to speak AI yet.

7:23The Apple Vision Pro is a complete dud. Now look, Apple is still the number three most valuable company in the world. The stock is just 9 % off their all-time high. But Apple needs some mojo, Jack. So last week, Apple strategically leaked to their favorite Bloomberg reporter something exciting they're working on. Here's the big news. Apple is working on Project Bubbles. Project Bubbles is three next-generation AI-powered robot companions. Okay, so Jack, how about we go full QVC on this thing and talk about the product lineup here? Okay, first is a tabletop robot from Apple, right? It's basically got a body that's a smart speaker with an arm coming out of it that holds a movable and turnable iPad at the top.

8:07Okay, so like the iPad is like the head of this robot. And then the arms turn the head to face and follow the speaker as you move about your life. So what does this look like though? The Pixar lamp. You know, this one.

8:22That's right, Yeti's Apple's newest product. We'll be inspired by a character in a Toy Story preview. Now, you'll be able to use this thing for FaceTime or watching a YouTube video or to be like your kitchen assistant. It would wake up, the screen would face you, and then it would turn on the video you need. They're also building a smart home with security cameras. If your whole house is Apple, you're less likely to switch to OpenAI. Plus, they're rolling out a rolling house robot for your home as well. Kind of like Amazon's Astro. It'll stalk you from room to room being ready for taking orders.

8:54Now, Jack, let's whip out the whiteboard and add this up for a sec. Jack, what did CEO Tim Cook of Apple say about these Project Bubbles robots? According to Bloomberg reporting, he said, I can't talk about them, but they're amazing, guys. They're amazing. All right, I'm sorry. Pause the pod for a sec, Jack. The Apple CEO can't show it to us, but he promises it'll be amazing. Which leads to our takeaway. I've been promised amazing before. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Apple? Apple used to deliver. Now, they just promise. Yetis, Jack and I, obviously Apple power users, also Apple shareholders, and we've noticed a major change in the way Apple launches products.

9:33How about we go back in time, Jack? Let's go back from 2006 to 2016, the golden era for Apple. Ah, yes. In that 10-year span, they launched the iPhone, the iPad, the Apple Watch, and AirPods. Now, in each of those cases, Apple kept the development super top secret. They only announced the product when they were ready to sell it. Then, as Apple began to struggle to innovate, they began announcing before they were ready to sell a product. For example, like remember the Apple Vision Pro headset? That was unveiled eight months before they actually began taking orders. And then Apple just began over-promising.

10:10Yeah. They launched AI features on the iPhone that didn't exist yet. And still don't exist, Jack. And we don't know when they will. I mean, now Apple is basically leaking products that are years away or may never come to fruition at all. So why is Apple pre-promising these days? They're trying to convince investors that they still innovate. So besties, the way we see it, the decline in Apple's innovation can be seen through the evolution of how they launch things. From delivering, to promising, to over-promising, to empty promises.

10:44For our second story, the hottest commodity right now, Italian marble. Not since the Romans has marble thrived at these prices. So Nick and I are breaking down this super interesting 2 ,000-year-old ancient and yet booming industry. But yet is King Arthur flour. They have been making flour in America since 1790. The Hartford Courant. They've been making newspapers in America since 1765. But Jack, could you enlighten us about Carrara, Italy, marble? There's a marble quarry there that's been in continuous operation since 30 BC. We're talking 2055 years in business. Same mountain. The only time the business was paused was when the barbarians invaded in the 7th century.

11:35No joke, their top customer was Julius Caesar. This guy wouldn't walk on anything but Carrara, baby. Now, in the early medieval era, they pivoted to ornamental marble use cases. In 1501, Michelangelo visited and bought a 12 ,000-pound slab on credit that ended up becoming the Statue of David. But more than two millennia after being founded, Carrera marble has never been more valuable. Get this. The Italian natural stone is now selling for$1 ,200 a ton. Jack, according to Women's Wear Daily, that is actually the highest level since the Roman Republic. Now, by the way, a ton? That's more than you're going to need for a kitchen countertop.

12:14but the retail price you'll have to pay is going to be double that$1 ,200, if not quadruple. Marble, it's like gold, but you're willing to eat off of it. However, Yetis, this is what Jack and I find fascinating about this story. Marble as an industry has barely changed in 20 centuries, and yet it's adapting like a nimble little startup right now. First, I'm pulling out the globe. Most marble today is mined from just four countries, Italy, Turkey, China, or India. Can you share that wild stat we discovered about the businesses who are doing the mining in these countries? One family-owned company in Italy owns Italy's biggest marble quarry and America's two biggest marble quarries, which are located in Colorado and Vermont.

12:56We're talking about the institution known as R.E.D. Graniti. You haven't seen their logo, but they probably made the countertop. And I visited that marble quarry in Colorado. Marble is just basically cut out with a giant saw straight out of the mountainside into giant blocks or giant slabs. Yeah, the blocks for monuments and statues, the slabs for the countertops and the bath fixtures. But unlike other commodity businesses like oil or corn, not all marble is the same. That's the wild difference. It is mined like a resource, but it is marketed like a fashion. And why is that, Jack? Marble is differentiated.

13:32Based on their colors, their veins, their styles, you charge a different price. Most marble is white, but some is colored, like your Palisandro Bottuccini and Pordo varieties. You know, that's going on the shelf right there. But the two most popular varieties of marble are Carrara and Calicotta, which are also the top sellers right now. The housing market may be cold, but the renovation and travel markets are hot. Yeah, and for bathrooms and spas, you want Carrara or Calicotta marble. And that's why Italy's marble exports are up 14 % in the last year. Oh, and when the existing quarries in Italy and Vermont and Colorado run out?

14:08The next stop is East Africa and Brazil, which leads to a wild stat I'd love to share, Jack. You got this? Oh, is this an extra stat I don't know about? You know New York's legendary original Penn Station that was all pink marble? The one they tore down in the 60s? It exhausted an entire Italian marble quarry just to be made. Wow, that's amazing. I wonder what happened to all that marble. That's a story for another pod, Jack. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies making the Rolls Royce of Rocks Italian Calicotta marble? Don't throw out the dust. Yetis, the marble industry has evolved. Early on, the customer was royalty and then sculptures and then interior design.

14:46Now they're actually using the physical quarries as destinations. It's a moneymaker. You can have a wedding at a marble quarry. Or other recent use cases, hosting fashion events, music videos. They're doing entire runway shows by booking out marble quarries. Premium stone, it's a premium venue too. But here's the twist. Marble's surprising profit puppy is actually marble dust. After you cut those giant blocks of marble, marble dust is processed and purified to be used in toothpaste, cosmetics, paint, farming ingredients, and magazine paper. That byproduct is called calcium carbonate, and it's what you get when you cut the marble.

15:24And Jack, what's it like on a per pound basis. It's actually more pricier, more valuable than the original block of marble. By the way, Tums Jack, that's also calcium carbonate. So besties, a lot of businesses have byproducts that you may think of as waste. Stuff just on the cutting room floor. But the marble industry is a reminder to not blow away that dust. Sorry to use another rock analogy, but there's diamonds in that dust. Now a quick word from our sponsor. Built. Yeah, it is. Full disclosure. I used to own an apartment, but then my wife and I sold it, and now we're back to renting, baby.

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16:31And one unexpected benefit of Built is that every member gets access to its agentic neighborhood concierge in the Built app. First, you download the Built app. Second, you link your credit or debit card. And then you ask the Built neighborhood concierge to basically be your AI butler. Makes you feel fancy. So download the Built app and join the membership for where you live at joinbuilt.com slash tboy. That's J-O-I-N-B-I-L-T dot com slash T-B-O-Y. Use our link joinbuilt.com slash tboy so they know Nick and Jack sent ya.

17:02This is Hannah Burner, the co-host of Giggly Squad. We could all just stay in bed scrolling through other people's vacations forever, but where is the fun in that? The best memories come from stepping outside of your little bubble and being open to the unexpected. and what better way to be open to the unexpected than finally booking that trip to Europe. You guys know I'm a Delta girly. Every time I go, I get my Delta headphones and when I fly to Europe, Delta treats me like a queen and they'll treat you too. I was always a little nervous about navigating a foreign country, but then I realized it's so important to grow and see different cultures and to put yourself in different situations and Delta held my hand the whole time.

17:44Being away just helps you put life into perspective and your little worries are not so bad. Travel really is the best way to discover something new about yourself and grow from the experience. Step outside your comfort zone this summer, get some Delta headphones and fly with Delta Airlines. They truly are the best way to get to Europe and they just make the whole journey feel so comfortable and seamless. Go book your next chapter right now at delta.com.

18:14For our third and final story, Elon and Zuck both go to sleep at night on the same thing, an eight-sleeve mattress cover, which just raised$100 million. Eight sleep's surge brings up a big life equation. The benefits of rest and sleep are huge, but are they worth$3 ,000? But Jack, how about we kick things off here with some name-storming, some brainstorming for brand names. All right, what do you want to call this sleep company? I want to call it eight hours of sleep. Okay, so that's too many words. We're not going to do that. How about Eight Sleep? Eight Sleep, that works better. And yet that is probably how Eight Sleep's name came to be.

18:55Eight Sleep, the tech sleep company that was named in 2014. It's a mattress cover and smart blanket in one. It tracks your heartbeat, your body movements, and your snoring, and promises that AI will improve all of that for you. They were founded by Italian entrepreneurs in New York City. And 8 Sleep is beloved by people who own entire social media companies. Yes, apparently. Because Zuck recently posted on threads, I've really dialed in my seven to eight hours a night with 8 Sleep. And not to lose attention, Elon posted on X, it's good in reply to an 8 Sleep tweet. They've done$500 million in sales since 2019, and they're riding that momentum to a$100 million fundraise.

19:37Their valuation is just short of a billion dollars. Apparently the only thing everyone in tech agrees on is what they sleep on. No content moderation policies to worry about when it comes to your mattress. Yeah, got the same bed. But besties, here's the big question Jack and I were wondering. Eight Sleep versus Casper Mattress. Why is one mattress brand a dream business while the other was a nightmare? Well, explain. You see, Casper Mattress, Mattress, Mattress, pioneered the millennial direct-to-consumer mattress-in-a-box business. It was the first ever Sleep Unicorn. But Casper's stock fell 90 % after their IPO, and they ended up getting bought for a fraction of their peak valuation.

20:17Eight Sleep didn't want any of that, so they don't even make a mattress, actually. Instead, they make a intelligent bed cooling system. So it's a mattress cover, not a mattress, with a built-in blanket and cooling heating system. Unlike Casper, Eight Sleep has a subscription, too. So they collect recurring revenue if the customer wants the best features in the sleep data. The other difference here is the price. Eight Sleep costs$3 ,000 for just the mattress cover. You still got to buy a mattress. That's three times more than Casper's mattress used to cost. And it's$20 more a month then if you want the auto temperature adjustments or the auto anti-snoring or the vibration alarm or the sleep data and all of that stuff.

20:56Yeah. The auto anti-snoir. Apparently, instead of your wife elbowing you when you start snoring, it'll tilt you up, which gets you to stop snoring. Yeah. So no black eye while you're snoring. That's another benefit, fewer black eyes. But that huge price tag, yeah, it's not an issue for Zucker, Elon, but how is 8sleep going to get non-billionaires to splurge on the mattress covers? Well, 8sleep promises you'll sleep up to 25 % more with their system. And strategically, they're trying to tie quality of sleep to your paycheck. Because when you fall asleep quicker and sleep deeper, you are better rested and perform better.

21:31The pitch, that's the difference between a B student and an A student, an all-star and an alternate. A promotion and a demotion. Sleep changes everything. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at 8sleep? How do you make those benefits believable? Yetis, you've seen studies. Eight hours of sleep will turn you into a superhuman, a superior version of your former self. We try to get as much sleep as we can too. That all sounds amazing, but 8sleep has to get people to believe that their system will help them achieve that. So we noticed that 8 Sleep is basically throwing the whole playbook at people to get them to believe.

22:11The whole kitchen sink. First, they got celebrity endorsements. There's a bunch of testimonials from famous people that 8 Sleep is the best. But then they got non-celebrity endorsements. Their Refer a Friend program gives$100 off to both of you. And they're actually using this$100 million fundraise to build showrooms in big cities to let you actually lay down in their system. Our prediction on the next step, they're going to up the 30-day return to a 90-day trial or something like that. It's expensive and it's risky, but it could be worth it to convert to beliefs. And that's what the$100 million fundraise is for, to help them expand beyond early adopters and techie types.

22:45Because if your brand promises benefits, you got to transform that into belief.

22:55Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for Ceviche Wednesday? People at Apple leaked to reporters about the exciting new tabletop robot they're working on. Codename? Project Bubbles. Apple, they used to deliver innovation. Now they promise it. For our second story, the Italian marble industry is more valuable than ever. 1 ,200 bucks a ton. And this 2 ,000-year-old business is still evolving. The lesson we can all learn from Italian marble? Don't waste the dust. And finally, 8Sleep just raised$100 million as Elon and Zuckerberg are power users. Sleep, it brings a lot of benefits, but you got to convert those benefits to belief.

23:36But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, Intel is becoming the hottest stock on Wall Street right now and the White House. SoftBank invested$2 billion into Intel yesterday, giving them a 2 % stake in the OG chip company. And apparently President Trump wants to own 10 % of the company as well. He wants the government to invest. Why is Intel so important? Well, the United States needs a chip champion. NVIDIA only designs the chips. Intel actually makes them. And second, a wild new concept from Robinhood. CEO Vlad Tenev says that his business has an apocalypse squad.

24:17Jack, what is that exactly? For Robinhood, it's 150 top employees to save the company in the event of a disaster. And finally, Louis Vuitton is 171 years old, but they just launched their first ever beauty product. Louis Vuitton is a$20 billion luggage and handbag business within the LVMH luxury empire. But they just launched an$160 lipstick. Now,$160 for lipstick, yeah, that sounds expensive. But it's a lot cheaper than a$1 ,000 Louis Vuitton scarf. That doesn't mean it's less expensive, Dave. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Masiya Chen from lovely Zurich, Switzerland. Push and play.

24:58Here we go. Hey, besties and yetis. Do you know that emoji is actually a Japanese word where E stands for pictures and emoji stands for characters? This came to my attention when I was searching for emoji today and there's a map of Japan in the emoji list, not other country. So I googled and find out actually it's because emoji originates from Japan. That's why we're using the Japanese word emoji rather than English word emoticon to refer to it. I mean, Masiya, thank you for sharing this. I kind of wish Jack and I could react right now with emoji, but audio product here would be tough for the listeners.

25:37Yetis, you look fantastic today. And if there's a marble quarry near you where you think Jack and I should do our next live show, just tag us and we will put our microphones on that marble, baby. Dude, that would be sick. I don't think the acoustics are going to be sick. Oh, the acoustics would be great because there's that giant cavern in the quarry jack. We'd be really, really loud. Besties, remember to tap to follow us, leave a five-star rating, and write us a review. We love reading them, and most importantly, it helps us grow the show. Tap, tap, tap, a row. And Nick and I, if you know, you know.

26:15And before we go, a congratulations to Yeti Thasia, who's starting Columbia Law School, originally from Houston, baby. Congratulations to Zach Berenson from Moorpark, California, who just got promoted to his dream job. And Jerry Pinto in Camarillo, California, has got a new job as VP at S-E-E. And a big shout out to Zanana Scrub, a new Yeti, now everyday listener from Brooklyn, New York. Great to have you with us. It's Samantha Hirsch from Oceanside, New York. Congratulations on landing that new job. And we got some belated birthday shout outs from Nick's absence. Rupa in Cranberry, New Jersey is turning 25 years old and moving to the UK.

26:53Congratulations on Cambridge, Rupa. Happy birthday to Lisa Koivu in Geneva, Illinois. And Marina Markovich down in DC is having a Capri themed birthday. Yes, we'll have a pack. Happy birthday to Girish in St. Thomas. And Jamie Gaston, 35 years old in Forest Hill, Maryland. And happy fourth birthday, belated birthday, but still an epic one, to Jude Yang in Pecatonica, Illinois. And a ciao happy birthday to Chow in Canton, Michigan. Hey, chow. Chow.

27:26This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon. Nick and I both own stock of Apple and Robin Hood.

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