The Best Newsletter Yet

Happy Saturday Besties,

It’s lit.

Today is 4/20. Maybe you’re enjoying Snoop Dogg’s Do It Fluid, maybe you’re rolling up… pizza rolls (Nick’s pick), or maybe you trying out a new strand …of hot chili rub (Jack’s choice).

However you hang, celebrate the wins.

🚕 NYC Besties & Yetis 🚕 We can’t wait to see you at our sold-out Live Show — Don’t forget. Ceviche Wednesday, 7:30pm, At City Winery in Meatpacking. See ya there.

This week’s newsletter is 25% of the best of the pod and 75% things we had to share off the record. 

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🔺 Adidas’ stock is up 25% in the past year while Nike’s has fallen 26%. The tri-striped brand had a better-than-expected quarter. They’re still unloading Yeezy sneaks, making $159M of controversial revenue on their latest drop. But also…

• What’s in…the retro look of Adidas sneakers are hitting with Gen Z. T-Swift is even known to rock the Superstar sneaker-style. There were rumors of an Eras collab deal, but nothing’s confirmed.

• Leading the turnaround is new-ish CEO, Bjørn Gulden, who’s made wild headlines, like when he gave his cellphone number to 60,000 employees back in January. His best quote: “I'd rather be Manuel (star soccer player) than CEO of Adidas."

• Next up, the Paris Olympics. We’re T-97 days from the Games. So Adidas just unveiled its “Athlete Pack”, spanning 41 sports from running to breakdancing.

This chart👇 shows the level of economic damage that Climate Change will cause by 2050.

A new study published in Nature found that climate change reduce the world’s GDP by 19% by 2050:

• Warmer climate and more extreme weather will erase $38 trillion of the world’s income, equal to two European Unions.

• Earth Day is next week: We’re all worried about the cost of clean energy… but the cost of the status quo appears much worse.

*Best doesn’t necessarily mean positive, but rather that the chart is the Best at telling us a greater story that is relevant right now.

Taylor Swift just dropped a 2am surprise double album titled “The Tortured Poet’s Department: The Anthology” — the surprise being the extra 15 songs. It became the most-streamed album in a single day on Spotify less than 12 hours after release. Here’s what else:

• Good news: her music is back on TikTok. Earlier this year, T-Swift, Drake, and other artists represented by Universal Music got muted on TikTok because of an expired licensing agreement. But Taylor broke from label before this new album. She even collabed with the platform to make custom challenges letting users unlock TTPD frames. #Marketing

• Behind-the-scenes: T-Swift’s Publicist has fans too. Tree Paine is the powerful PR agent who protects Taylor’s reputation (mega). Paine is a pro at making sure no info that Swift has not chosen to go public with, gets out. Her best quote: “No journalist is going to catch Swift in her sweatpants backstage and write about it.” 😶

Last week we asked: Have you filed your taxes yet? And you said…

• 😅 “extension every year…”

• 🙌 “my partner did all of ours”

• 🤓 “Filing is a thrill, and the return is the cherry on top!”

This week’s poll question: Do you own any Bitcoin?

The “Cloud” Under The Sea — the fragile infrastructure that allows you to FaceTime, buy stocks… and Candy Crush for 12 minutes in the bathroom. The article was a top story on The Verge this week.r⚓biological

• You should know there are 1,000s of miles of internet cables laying at the bottom of the ocean. Without them corporations couldn’t coordinate overseas, governments couldn’t communicate, and Gen Z couldn’t vlog their morning routine. If all these cables broke simultaneously, civilization would cease to function. Buuuut they break…a lot.

• The beautiful part: There’s a secret network of ships that roam the deep sea to fix the breaks. 🚢 Few even know the job exists. The seamen spend their whole lives on the water with a sense of purpose in holding the world together….and for the sweet whale sightings.

Ben the Bitcoin has a heavy carbon footprint. New ‘coins are minted through a computer process called “mining”, and mining requires tons of energy. Which emit tons of carbon, literally. The Digital always come back to the Physical.

• This is huge: Cambridge University estimates that the Bitcoin network has carbon footprint almost equal to that of Morocco. The second-most valuable crypto platform, Ethereum, switched to a less energy-intensive processing mechanism — cutting its carbon footprint by 99%. Bitcoin could go green too, but we’re still waiting on that…

“The Segway Effect”: When technology works in theory but fails in practice.

• The Segway, the 2-wheeled scooter, was supposed to disrupt walking, but instead it went bankrupt. The tech was advanced, but the use-case wasn’t.

• Another example of The Segway Effect? QR Code restaurant menus: Functional? Yes. Loved by consumers? No.

• The newest example? Ghost Kitchens — online-only, delivery-only restaurants with virtual brands. You should listen to our full podcast story about how Ghost Kitchens getting ghosted. 👻

• Holiday: 🌎 Earth Day (Monday)

• Events: 🎶 Stagecoach Music Festival starts (Friday)

• Sports:♟️Chess World Champs (Monday), 🏈 NFL Draft (Thursday)

👂 Monday: The best thing in your kids’ lunch…might get cut knocked out of schools

👂 Tuesday: The best financial advice…may not be from David Ramsey

👂 Wednesday: The best kind of insurance…is for your ketchup-stained shirt

👂 Thursday: The best pineapples… are designer pineapples

👂 Friday: The best way to understand what’s going on with Bitcoin (and it’s “halvening” event).

 👀 Next Monday’s pod: The best way to spy on competition…was created by Amazon.

And one more thing. Since we’re heading to NYC for our Live show next week, there will be a ton of behind-the-scenes moments. Reply BTS, if ya want us to send you some bits from the fun straight to ya.

IYKYK 🙌🙌

—Nick & Jack