👨 “Performative Male” — Pinterest’s pin dudes. Alo’s ath-luxury bag. Stagflation’s fire flood.

0:28This is Nick. $3 ,600. But Jack, Aldi, the grocery store, also just launched a handbag, but this one is free. It's a tale of two handbags and it explains the whole economy. Yes, it does, baby. For our second story, the number one topic on Wall Street this week, all week, yes, is going to be the Fed. And what will the Fed decide this Wednesday? It's all about stagflation. When the economy is on fire and is flooding at the same time. And our third and final story is Pinterest. Their stock is up this year thanks to 179 million men. Harney, check out that Cadillac I just pinned on my page. It's the return of the pin dude.

1:12Creatine, pin it, baby. But yet is before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Oh, I love the mix of stories today, Jack. Over the weekend, Nick and I read some of your DMs. We both felt a weight and we wanted to share that weight with you. You know, personally, besties, my hands have been full. You know, it's our first week back at work with my second baby at home. So I feel like I've been in turbo mode, like 110 % at home helping out Molly and Selena and Maxie. And then 110 % when I'm in the studio with Jack working on the pod. So I just, I haven't really had much time to reflect. But over the weekend, I did have some time to reflect.

1:48And seeing Charlie Kirk get assassinated, that was horrifying last week. He's a young dad. He's a man who put himself out there in hard conversations. And in doing that, he got murdered in broad daylight. Regardless of what you think of his politics. And in the spirit of openness, we didn't agree with his politics. But no one deserves that. And as a couple of guys who speak to microphones for a living, we can tell you, that's not what this country is about either. Now besties jack and I when we make decisions on what we're going to cover on the show and how we're going to do it And how we're going to say it there is an element of a lot of people thinking hey stay in your guys lane But we hope we're not just talking heads to you guys We hope that we can also be vulnerable with you that we can share what we're feeling show emotions with you Because we don't always know what the right thing to say is in the right moment.

2:45We do our best though to say it In Thursday's pod, we briefly addressed Charlie Kirk at the top of the show because it was a high-profile killing. And the fallout, it was happening in real time while we were recording the show. Now, I went to public policy school in Michigan, and I respect politicians and public officials maybe more than anyone I know. That's one of the things I love about you, Jack. And the violence against politicians and public figures right now on both sides is so discouraging to me. These are people who usually take a pay cut. They're doing it to try to make the country a better place in their view, which is a noble task.

3:22But Minnesota's Speaker of the House, Melissa Hortman, she and her husband were killed this June in a horrific crime in their home. Nancy Pelosi, a madman, entered her house with a hammer. Governor Shapiro in Pennsylvania, his house was set on fire recently. And Donald Trump had two attempts made on his life. This is our country's problem on both sides. For every Gabby Giffords, there's a Steve Scalise. We're talking about civil servants who are trying to help the greater good, but then they have to worry about their lives while they're doing it. Now, our goal on this show every day is to make your day the best one yet.

4:00Brighter in every sense of the word. Nick and I are very optimistic people. You can tell by the way we deliver the pod every day. Nick is vibrating in the intro of this show. We are bullish on all of this, but Charlie has a one and a three-year-old kid who are now going to grow up without a father. And that, we think, is worth pausing this pod for. So thank you to those who wrote us messages. We always appreciate and like to engage with civil conversation. And thank you for listening to us every day and for being on this pop biz journey with us that we want to do for the rest of our lives. We took a little detour today from our normal pod content, but sometimes we just want to talk to you, Nick and Jack, before we hit our three stories.

4:42All right. Nick and Jack signing off. Nick and Jack about to sign back on. Let's hit our three stories.

5:05you're at list. If you know, you know, cause we ready to go. We can't wait no more. So just start the show.

5:14Start the show. First, a quick word from our sponsor.

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7:48For our first story, an athleisure brand is launching a$4 ,000 handbag, and a grocery store is launching a free handbag, and both bags went viral last week? Yetis, if you want to understand this economy, then look at Aloe Yoga and Aldi. Okay, Jack, we're going to tell this story. Full disclosure, I just completed my first Pilates class. I knew this was coming. I went full mermaid on the reformer, and my glutes are still feeling it over here. In the meantime, Yetis, the top-selling fancy athleisure brand for Pilates is Aloe Yoga. We covered Aloe last year because they turned their athleisure retail stores into quote-unquote sanctuaries.

8:32That's right, Aloe. They added spas and even podcast studios to their athleisure stores. There are 130 of these athleisure stores, but this company's still private and hasn't publicly stated revenue yet. Although Aloe Yoga is believed to be one-fifth the size of Lululemon already. But they have a new plan, to upward dog themselves over their rival. Get this, Aloe Yoga just launched a line of handbags, but it'll cost you, checking notes, $3 ,600? $3 ,600 for a gym bag. That's not athleisure, it's athluxury. That's the new industry here, besties. Yetis, each of these leather duffel bags actually comes with a, quote-unquote, intention crystal individually selected to carry the resonance of your intentions throughout your day.

9:23That's an exact quote about a quartz crystal in a$4 ,000 handbag. The receipt doesn't say the price. It says, Namaste. Honestly, Jack, it is like Aloe Yoga wants to strategically re-benchmark itself, right, man? They don't want their pier to be considered Lululemon. They want their pier to be considered Hermes. In fact, as Jack and I jumped in T-boy style, we noticed Aloe Yoga is even borrowing the business model of Hermes to launch this handbag. When we were fact-checking it to make sure it was actually$3 ,600, the website didn't say the price. They said, you can only see this bag if you come to one of two Aloe Yoga flagship stores.

10:00You gotta go to Soho location in New York or Beverly Hills in LA. There is literally no option to purchase this bag online. Which is just like Hermes. And also, just like the Hermes Birkin bag, there's no guarantee you'll get one when you show up. Waitlist! But we should point out, this isn't going to be easy for Aloe, is it, Jack? It's a challenge. This new bag is 40 times more expensive than their standard yoga apparel. Besties, remember, Jack and I have told you before, the hardest hill to climb as a retail brand is going upmarket. And this bag takes Aloe way upmarket. But in the meantime, the star of New York Fashion Week was a$4 ,000 yoga bag that you can't even fit your yoga mat in.

10:41My glutes really are killing me, Jack. So what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Aloe? We are in a K-shaped economy, and you see it in these two handbags. Yetis, funny thing. We noticed there was one other handbag that went viral last week, and it happens to be the exact opposite of Aloe. It's made by Aldi, the infamously frugal German grocery chain. They launched a gigantic bag that is Aldi branded. The new Aldi bag is three feet long, five square feet in volume, and holds 20 gallons of stuff. It's a reusable grocery bag as big as a small boat. Bigger than those famous Ikea bags. And Aldi is giving away a thousand of them for free tomorrow, this Tuesday, to 1 ,000 lucky frugal shoppers.

11:26So besties, add it up, and everyone right now is talking about a$4 ,000 yoga pants handbag and a free grocery store handbag? They illustrate the K-shaped economy. Those at the top are going up. Those at the bottom are going down. You see, the stock market and home prices, they're at record highs. And tax cuts are coming for the wealthy, so the rich are feeling richer than ever. But with continued inflation, continued high interest rates, new tariffs, the poor are sadly feeling poorer than ever. That is the K-shaped economy. Aloe's the upper limb, Aldi's the lower limb, and the middle gets squeezed.

12:01This economy is a tale of two handbags. For our second story, six months ago, we feared it could be coming, but now it is here. Stagflation has arrived. To understand the economic principle of stagflation, Picture a house that's both flooding and on fire at the same time. At the same time. Yetis, back in the spring, Jack and I were bracing ourselves for Trump's tariffs, which eventually came on April 2nd. Because tariffs could do two bad things to the economy. First, raise prices because tariffs are a tax. And second, increase unemployment because taxes slow the economy. me. And what happens when unemployment and inflation are rising at the same time, Nick?

12:49Ah, stagflation, Jack. Looks like stagflation. Stagflation has only happened once in modern American history, back in the 1970s. Stagflation is kind of like a bizarro rare econ concept. It's like two pages in your standard econ textbook, right? It barely ever happens. It's chapter 2.3. So six months ago, when it was feared that it could come, we used an analogy on this pod to describe what stagflation is like. Stagflation is when your house is flooded and on fire at the same time. It's why it's so bizarre. Because where there's fire, there shouldn't be water. And where there's water, there shouldn't be fire.

13:25It only happens with an external shock comes to the economy. In the 1970s, it was the Middle East oil embargo. Today, it's the trade war. And looking at the data from last week, stagflation has unfortunately arrived. It's here. Inflation and unemployment both rose meaningfully. Inflation winter is coming. You see, last week, we learned that prices in this economy are up 2.9 % in August from last year, which is up from 2.3 % in April. And last week, we also learned that the unemployment rate hit 4.3 % in August, up from 4.0 % in January. Also, Jack, remember the Labor Department downgraded the number of jobs added to our economy by 1 million.

14:06They said it was 1 million less than they really thought. Yeah, so the vibe session people, they actually had it right. The situation for jobs in this economy was worse than what the data was telling us. Add it all up, besties, and all this means that stagflation is here. But if Nick and I put on our economic doctor caps for a second, we will diagnose this as a mild case of stagflation. Ah, yes, this is a mild stagflation case. Why is that? Because 4.3 % unemployment rate, that's still pretty low. And 2.9 % inflation, it's not good, but it could be way worse. But still, it is stagflation. So here is the prescription for how stagflation can go away.

14:47Take two of these besties and call us in the morning. Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are curious about stagflation? The big question for the Fed on Wednesday, put out the fire or fix the flood? And he's back to our house analogy for a second. The fire is the worsening job situation, and the flood is inflation. Everyone thinks the Fed will decide to put out the fire. Right. The Fed will cut interest rates on Wednesday to spur economic growth and hopefully create new jobs. But that decision would come at the expense of the flood. Economic growth could make inflation way worse. And therein lies the dilemma.

15:24Our central bank has two crises, but he can only fix one at a time, and fixing one could make the other one worse. And now there is another wild card here we should point out. tariffs. You know, Trump could cancel the tariffs or the Supreme Court could rule them illegal, and that would mess with the whole stagflation situation. But this Wednesday is D-Day for the Fed. The big Fed meeting. Put out the fire or fix the flood. Now, a quick word from our sponsor.

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16:26Visit Michael's in-store or shop online now. Your team just added its 67th AI tool and also your 67th security blind spot. The good news? The Vanta agent works like a GRC engineer in the background, finding every app your team uses, scoring the risk, and drafting fixes for you. Vanta is the platform used by over 16 ,000 fast-moving companies like Ramp, Cursor, and Harvey, who are shaping the future with AI and staying ahead of AI risk. Get started at Vanta.com.

17:00For our third and final story to start the week, Pinterest is proud of the pin dude. The surge in men using Pinterest, not just women. Pinterest is becoming more manly. But in the tech industry, nice guys finish last. Now, Yeti's Jack and I have told you before about Botox, you know, the new trend of men getting Botox. But the bigger trend is Mintrist, men using Pinterest. You see, two years ago, just 20 % of Pinterest users were actually men. It was pretty much an entirely female platform. The user base felt more like a sorority. Yeah, the top use case actually was haircuts, floral arrangements, cute tops.

17:40It was the go-to site for a bride planning their dream wedding. But right around the time Nick and I were getting married, not to each other to be clear, not that there's anything wrong with that, we started using Pinterest to find inspiration for our groomsmen's outfits. Jack was tagging me in Mumford & Sons pics to make sure I got the right blazer for the whole thing. Well, here's the update. Today, there's been more men using Pinterest than ever before. Get this, there are now 192 million monthly active male users of Pinterest. That is a third of Pinterest user base. And this is something Jack and I call the rise of the pin dude.

18:16They're pinning gym routines. They're pinning wellness hacks. They're pinning their favorite cars for their next car when their lease comes up. Hey, buddy, Timmy, you see the chassis on that thing? Jack, you know what they say over at Barstool Sports? Saturdays are for the pins. Now, Pinterest just reported their quarterly earnings. Revenues rose by 17%. Nice. And profits quadrupled. Really nice. But Nick, those profits for Pinterest were two-tenths of one percent of what Meta made in profits last quarter. So they looked good, but they were actually really tiny. Really tiny. More on that in a second.

18:51In the meantime, Yetis, this story isn't just about pin dudes. You see, Pinterest is actually trying to become the good guy in social media. Pinterest's CEO published an op-ed last year, and he said this, Big tech must reject big tobacco's business model and address social media's harms. Now, Jack, I got to ask you to sprinkle on some context. How is social media like big tobacco? Well, like cigarettes, social media is designed to be addictive. And like cigarettes, it's also harmful. It sends you down an extreme rabbit hole of whatever you're into. Nick, whatever you're into, you'll be an extremist after a night of scrolling.

19:27So you see, Pinterest is trying to be the opposite, to be the good guy of social media here. Instead of big tobacco style, Pinterest is trying to be big cocoa. Warm, safe, wholesome. For example, Pinterest made all teen accounts private by default. Zuckerberg didn't know you could do that. He spat out his creatine when he heard you could do that. Pinterest also retrained its algorithm to focus on conscious choice instead of mindless, never-ending scrolling. Pinterest encourages students not to use the app during school. Yeah. To focus on homework, not home decor. You see, add it all up, and these are all very good guy moves, right, Jack?

20:02But Nick, since publishing that op-ed 18 months ago, Pinterest stock is up just 2%. On the other hand, what are Meta and Google stocks doing over the same period, Jack? Big tobacco of social media, they're up 42 % and 56%. And TikTok, they're more powerful than ever. Sorry, one sec, Jack. I'm just pinning the new New York Rangers winter classic jersey. The boys are going to love this thing. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our pin dude buddies over at Pinterest? In social media and tech, nice guys, unfortunately, finish last. Now, Yetis, we all agree with Pinterest's moral moves here. Stop addictive tactics and protect teens online.

20:42But Pinterest's business performance shows the perils of unilateral disarmament. You see, all those dark tactics are used by social media because they're good for business. They maximize time spent on the app, maximizing revenues, maximizing profits. So Pinterest's nice guy moves. They won over concerned citizens and parents, but Instagram and YouTube's bad guy moves? That wins over Wall Street. Yeah. Now, this actually tells us that to make social media safer, one company cannot act alone. We probably need laws and regulations, like we did with Big Tobacco, to fix the underlying laws of social media.

21:16Because unfortunately, in social media and in tech, right now, nice guys finish last. If we want better behavior, we need to make all of them do it. You okay with that? I think so. A little luxury, but... Yeah, it's a little luxury. Tell us in the comments if you like that lecture.

21:35Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us to kick off the week? Aloe Yoga's new bag is tiny and$3 ,600. Aldi's new bag is huge and it's free. It's the K-shaped economy and it's illustrated by these two viral handbags, a tale of two bags. For our second story, a mild case of stagflation has arrived in our economy with rising unemployment and rising inflation. The Fed's big question for this Wednesday, do they put out the fire or do they fix the flood? And our third and final story is Pinterest. They're celebrating the rise of the pin dude. Men now make up one third of the users. But unfortunately, in tech and social media right now, nice guys, eh, they finish last.

22:16But besties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, remember the new richest man in the world, Larry Ellison? He got$100 billion richer last week after Oracle stock popped 42%. Well, according to the Wall Street Journal, he's giving some of that cash to his son to buy another media company. Yeah, get this, Warner Brothers. Their stock jumped 50 % last week. On the chance, Daddy buys it for David Ellison. Up next, we think Larry Ellison might get cocky and try to buy TikTok. And second, McDonald's Happy Meal is getting so popular, it's got a wild problem. Happy Meal Scalpers.

22:52Because in Japan, Happy Meals include Pokemon cards as the toy right now. So apparently adults are buying dozens of Happy Meals just for the cards and then reselling them online so the kids can't afford them. So McDonald's in Japan is limiting it to three Happy Meals per family and trying to ban the resale of Happy Meal Pokemon cards on eBay. Ronald sees you. Ronald sees what you're doing. He sees you. And finally, besties, you may have seen your last pharmaceutical commercial on TV. Because President Trump wants to ban ads for prescription drugs, which we think makes a ton of sense. Yeah, he actually signed a memo that directs the FDA to enforce stricter guidelines for pharmaceutical commercials.

23:33Your doctor should tell you if you need that drug. Not like this, you know, great jingle and those gorgeous actors. If Thytastrosol lasts longer than four hours, consult your doctor. Thytastrosol is not intended for all users. Side effects include achy thighs, runny nose, and angry bloating, as well as a thing on your thigh. Yeah, it is for the record. That was not sped up. That was Nick actually just talking that quickly. Now, time for the best fact yet, which, because it's Monday, means T-Boy trivia. Jack, what do we got? There is one product that completely changed the music industry, and it wasn't the iPod.

24:03And the original name of this product was actually the Soundabout. It was such a big deal. Steve Jobs was so obsessed with it. He bought one to dissect it and figure out how it worked inside. And you know what? It worked. This product inspired the iPod. But what was the final name of this innovative, disrupting, game-changing product in music? Again, it was originally called the Soundabout, but today it is known as... Leave your guess, besties, in the comments, and we'll reveal the answer at the top of tomorrow's show. Yetis, you look fantastic today. Jack, did you put me on the list for one of these aloe handbags, by the way?

24:41Because I put you on the Birkin bag list. Yeah, yeah. That was so kind of you. Although when I get to the top of the list, do I have to spend like 12 grand? It's up to you, Jack. It's up to you how much I mean to you. Besties, you do look fantastic today. And by the way, if you haven't yet, tap to follow us wherever you're listening. And that way you get T-Boy every single day. Nick and I, we'll see you tomorrow. We can't wait.

25:06And before we go, a happy birthday to Yeti Gabby down in Hotlanta. She is a big time Notre Dame fan. And Orly Edelman over in New Jersey just found out she's actually a Leo, celebrating the best birthday yet. An happy birthday to Tommy C down in New York City. And Derek Fun over in Brooklyn has got an IBO, an initial baby offering. congratulations on the new son, Theo. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the win. This is Jack, Nick on stock of Lululemon.

25:43Your team just added its 67th AI tool and also your 67th security blind spot. The good news? The Vanta agent works like a GRC engineer in the background, finding every app your team uses, scoring the risk and drafting fixes for you. Vanta is the platform used by over 16 ,000 fast-moving companies like Ramp, Cursor, and Harvey, who are shaping the future with AI and staying ahead of AI risk. Get started at Vanta.com.