Kind: captions Language: en The stock market is up but remains unsteady. China's economy might be in more danger than they're letting on. AI coding gets a big upgrade. Google warns regulators that antitrust breakup will weaken their ability to compete against China in the AI arms race. Supreme Court rules today on LGBTQ plus and the first amendment. Tesla earnings report also drops today and people are mad. An RFK knocks food dye out of the US food supply. Drew, BTC, gold, and the Dow are up, but the Dow's also on track for its worst April since the Great Depression. So, I hope that you're not checking your portfolio very often on that. No, no, I am. I'm a holder. I'm a holder. At least when it comes to the major indexes. Um, okay. Dow up about 3%. NASDAQ, S&P at the time of this recording, all average about 3%. To your point though, we're getting a lot of news that they've been the lowest since the Great Depression, biggest swing since a recession, a lot of these different attributes for inday movement. So, in one day, they dropped 5%, in one day they're up 5%. But in the grand scheme of things, we're about flat from year-over-year. So, yes, but I have to say that my favorite stat about the stock market right now is that it has 11 times had a drop of more than a thousand points in a single day. And four of them have been in April or or have been since Trump came into office. I forget which is true, but definitely I think since uh his freedom day, liberation day, whatever it was. Uh so it's had an effect, Drew, when you've got a 100 plus years where you don't see those kind of movements and all of a sudden in uh a 30-day period, you get four of your most volatile days ever. So, you can certainly speak to the volatility. Now, traders will have you believe that volatility is a some traders, I should be very clear, uh will have you believe that volatility is a good thing. You certainly see a lot of love for the volatility in BTC from our man Michael Sailor who has been trending a lot recently as he just continues to gobble up BTC. Uh speaking of which, BTC broke 90 again and is up 4% today. So that's a welcome sign to a lot of investors. BTC went as low as 60 a couple weeks ago. So it being 90 is a healthy indicator. But to me, is this like a recession hedge? Cuz gold is also hitting a new high. So are people just taking it out of the stock market and kind of parking it? What's your read of like the sentiment or where this money is moving? Well, the sentiment is definitely people are uncertain. There is so much uncertainty going on right now and to overlook that I think would be a mistake. I think the uncertainty is rightfully um being read from Trump's what certainly to the outside world is erratic behavior. Whether you believe in 40 chess or tessrack chess or whatever you want to call it, it is functionally erratic uh in that people are unable to predict what he's going to do next. Uh also I think it would be unwise to think that we understand how the USChina dynamic is going to play out. I think that there is a wild amount of uncertainty in that. Uh and so we're all going to have to go through the ups and downs here. I think that we'll um start to see some of this level out a little bit as people a grow used to the hokeyp pokey tariffs and as they see other countries either uh actually get on board or this starts dragging out to the point where people like yeah I don't buy it I don't think anything's going to happen uh you'll at least even if we go down you'll at least see some uh sense of I can predict the outcome return back to the market and predictable we're actually going to look at this as we look closer at China's economy One of the notes that they make in the video that we're going to show is that it's okay to be down. You just want predictable. You want to know like where are we going from here? And when people are wildly uncertain, they pull back. And the pulling back can be more problematic than a steady state like okay, at least we know where we're at. Now, that has its limits. You can drop so far that it's just all bad all the time. Um, but I think that we will see a little bit of that stability return, but you're not going to get the big stability until we find out what is actually going on with China. I think that is a gigantic question mark that we're going to feature a lot today. I think it's um it's important to remember how much spin is out there, and I'll be sure to push on that even more when we talk about it. But, um, it this is not a guaranteed US victory, but it certainly isn't a guaranteed China victory either. And uh when you've got two the the two biggest economies playing a game of chicken, it's going to make people feel um a lot of question marks. So we've got to get to the other side of that. Now the fact that gold is going up, I think is that is the thing that makes the most sense to me when you look at this that gold is where you go in times of uncertainty. And so maximum uncertainty, we see gold going up. there for a while it was unclear as to whether Bitcoin was also going to go up and I heard somebody put a thesis that's pretty interesting that uh Bitcoin will lag gold but go bigger so we'll see if that ends up being true gold is having a moment right now uh and right now as of the time that we're recording this Bitcoin is really on a tear but will it remain on that tear I don't know so we're a long way from all-time highs and I believe that gold is at an all-time high yeah gold is at an all-time high peak for sure yeah So, uh, I don't, while optimistic people will tell you that BTC is going to do the exact same thing, I don't know that we have reason to believe that. Uh, so we'll see. But I've been surprised at how correlated Bitcoin had been until today's move with the stock market. As the stock market goes down, Bitcoin goes down. Uh, as the stock market goes up, Bitcoin goes up. So, that to me says that what people are leaning on is the volatility of it. They they're treating it as a risk asset. They're not treating it as the inflation hedge that I'm personally treating it as. But that's also why you hear me wanting for the day when Bitcoin will be a boring asset like gold where you're not seeing these huge volatile moves. I get that that's not popular, but for me, I want a place that I can go to protect myself from inflation. I don't need another risk-on asset. Um, so I we'll see. I I get that that has to do with my unique financial position and does not represent why I'm sure a lot of people love Bitcoin, but nonetheless is true for me. You brought it up earlier about us doing a deep dive in the Chinese economy. This is a video from the China Observer, which gives us the other side of this tariff war on the backs of news we heard that China is telling other countries not to do trade deals with the US. This kind of uncovers what China is trying to block and how these long-term tariffs can impact their economy. Before you hit play, it is very important that everybody understand one that every word out of anybody's mouth, mine included, is framed. Now, it may be framed as accurately as the person is able to get it, but everybody has a frame of reference and they're going to show you the world through that frame of reference. So, please understand that intentionally or not, this is spin. Uh, and also because this fits my narrative so well, I'm skeptical, but I will admit this does a very good job of outlining the risks on China's side of being in a protracted trade war with the US. Now, this is very much this feels like it's coming from a um US lens more than this is how people in China would see this moment. So, with all of that on the table, take a look. Every day I wake up to an empty assembly line, an empty workshop, and rusty machines. By the end of the day, we barely managed to make a few pairs of shoes. Even the quality checks are finishing early. We can't even cut a few pieces of fabric with the mold every day. and there's a mountain of unsold stock piling up. So, we've talked about this before, but it's incredibly important for people to understand that the US economy, uh, not only are we either first or second in GDP, depending on who you ask and how they count it, but it's us in China. We're at the tippy top. And the fact that some people can credibly say that China's bigger, and some people credibly say the US is bigger, tells you that we're peers roughly. Mhm. Uh the important thing though is that the way that we account for our GDP is that we buy a lot of stuff. The way that China accounts for their GDP is they sell a lot of stuff. So you can imagine in a trade war the people that are buying things if they say yeah we're not going to buy uh these call them luxury goods or non-essentials you're theoretically in a much stronger position. meaning your GDP can lower and it not feel as much like it's going down. You don't get to buy as many cool things. Uh but as long as you're still able to get your groceries, you're still able to get energy at a reasonable cost, able to keep a roof over your head, etc., etc., uh your life isn't going to be impacted as much as the people who are selling. And that's basically what they're demonstrating here is you've got factories now just sitting on their hands because the tariffs are so high that American companies are like, uh, we need to see how this plays out before we put in too many more orders. Yeah. At the Shanghai port, routes to the US are nearly shut down with capacity dropping by 40% and bookings plummeting by 63.5%. At Wuh's Hang Tan anchorage, there are ships everywhere with no place to go. Meanwhile, the UN is depreciating quickly, falling nearly 10% against the euro in just one month, and the financial market is unstable. The Economist Intelligence Unit predicts that if US President Trump raises tariffs by 60%, China's GDP growth will lose 2.5 percentage points between 2025 and 2027. If your growth rate, I think China is somewhere around the 5% mark right now, which is amazing, and everybody in America would kill for that. uh dropping by two and a half points would basically cut their economy in half. Jeez. So, uh take that with a grain of salt. Maybe it doesn't drop that much. Maybe China's GDP is a little bit higher. people uh I watched a whole breakdown on how China has found themselves in a situation where it's impossible even for them to get an accurate assessment of what their GDP actually is because the um Chinese communist system creates an incentive to lie. And so once you start lying it's like impossible to stop because you can't be like oh let's say you faked we're up a percentage point uh three years ago. Well, what are you gonna do next year? So, they if they're if they know they've got to be up by a percentage point to impress somebody, um then each year, how far does it drift? Now, it's not going to go up by that much every year. Just be too obvious too quickly. Uh but the incentive anyway is to upward. There's upward pressure. China's admitted this themselves. They understand that this is something that's difficult to um take at the word of the the different people that are in charge of their region. Um, but there are ways to get relatively close. So 5% is probably not ridiculously far off. Let's break it down with Lululemon yoga pants. They sell in the US for $118, but the Chinese factory only gets $6. Even if the yen depreciates by half from 7.5 yen to 15 yen per dollar, the facto's cost would only drop to $3. A negligible amount in the eyes of the brand. Worse still, currency fluctuations cause raw material costs to soar, leading to unstable quotes from Chinese factories. This instability is scarier than high prices. Brands would rather place orders in places with stable currencies like Vietnam or India. The real reason brands are shifting orders is the threat of higher tariffs and geopolitical risks. That is a really interesting point that when you recognize that most of the companies that are buying in any sort of significant quantity are public companies. Uh so there is a lot of pressure on them to be able to communicate to Wall Street this is what we think our earnings are going to be. And so they'll take a hit if they say listen the prices have changed. This is now what they are if it's worse. Um because people are going to say okay you're not going to be as profitable next quarter. However, the thing that becomes hard for them is when they don't know what their prices are going to be. And so, they're fluctuating wildly because they're not going to be able to communicate clearly to the street. Wall Street uh Wall Street isn't going to know exactly how to rate them, how to um express in dollar terms the level of risk. And so, it's always risk and return. Mhm. And given that companies would rather pivot and reposition themselves somewhere else away from China that's more stable because at least then they can communicate and then once things stabilize they can decide if they want to go back. But the lack of stability is in and of itself a problem. Uh so temporary or otherwise obviously temporary is better but temporary or otherwise when you have that kind of uncertainty this is why you see the volatility in the markets so it's better for a company to go to Vietnam or India to a place that's not getting increased in tariffs every 5 days they're not getting a change in tariffs so um and this is part of the problem this is one of the big complaints about the way that Trump is doing this is he's doing it everywhere and so even if Vietnam uh doesn't have the kind of predictable um rate that they can say, "Hey, cool. It's up, but this is what it is." Now, they're less likely to be as volatile as China, which is why I think they're about to talk about this. Uh why different companies are pivoting to different countries. Um better that than the place that you know is going to be peak uncertainty for the longest period of time, which is China. The trend of decoupling from China isn't something that depreciating the UN can stop. Lululemon has already moved 15% of its production to Vietnam. Nike has reduced its procurement from China from 35% to 18%. Apple's production capacity in India has doubled. Major retailers are setting a cap on single country sourcing at no more than 30%. And require a six-month stockpile in the US Mexico region. The large orders that Chinese factories relied on for survival are being slashed. Amazon has directly asked suppliers for non-China supply chain certification in 2024 and the rejection rate for Chinese sellers has surged by 80%. Walmart and Costco are building new warehouses in Mexico and their procurement from China has dropped by over 20% in the first quarter. The trend of depreciation has already started. Since October 2024, the offshore UN exchange rate has repeatedly broken the 7.3 mark, reaching a low of 7.36. It's important to understand the the US for sure and I'm sure inter international markets care as well about when a country manipulates their currency by devaluing it through typically the printing of money. And so what China is being credibly accused of in my opinion is manipulating their currency to make sure that their exports are cheap. So you want to devalue the yuan if you want to have um strong uh exports. So that way people like oh my god this stuff from China is really cheap uh because my dollar is strong compared to the yuan but we've sort of come to this agreement between the US and China that they're going to hold their currency at 7 to1. Now obviously there's going to be fluctuation but the US starts to complain voseiferously once you hit 7.2 two to give people a little bit of uh historicals uh August 2019 the yuan fell past the 7 to1 mark and it just went to 7.03 03 to1 US and the US Treasury offici at that point going to 0.03 the US Treasury officially labeled China as a currency manipulator for the first time since 1994. Now Trump was president then so take it with a grain of salt he's aggressive towards China. Uh but in 2022 and through 2024 the yuan went to 7.3 and right now we're like 7.31 I think. Uh and so you're hearing more and more criticism, my understanding is from both the Biden administration and the Trump administration uh towards China for being a currency manipulator. And so if we're if we were originally complaining at 7.03 and we're now at 7.3, uh you can imagine that's going to be the next play. And so China uh has that tool in their toolkit. They can depreciate their currency and it's not like anybody can stop them. Uh but I think if I'm not mistaken it what it would do is give Trump the ability to use like there is an act I'm forgetting what it is but there's an act that would let him go ah these guys are currency manipulators and so we can apply secondary sanctions on them meaning we punish people who do business with them. Uh and so that's where you get into potentially doing some pretty wicked damage to the Chinese economy. Now, the way that they're presenting this is very one-sided in that you're not hearing how is China going to punch back. Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face. And so, China is going to counter all of this every step of the way. And uh there was a clip from Elon yesterday that I thought was really insightful. And he said, "China is full of brilliant uh motivated engineers, so expect them to make incredible things." And I'll say that holds true for monetary policy as well. China is full of brilliant people just as the US is and they have a lot more people. So if the percentage of brilliance holds from one country to the next, they're just raw number going to have more brilliant people than we are and don't expect them to not have an answer. Yeah, the this is the trade war. It goes tip for tat. The depreciation of the UN is ineffective. And the real issue China faces is not just a US tariff war, but a global blockade network formed by over 70 countries. This is no longer a trade war. It's a declaration of the new cold war. In the semiconductor field, the Netherlands will expand its ban on selling lithography machines to China, including DUV machines, effectively halting China's production of chips below 28 nanometers. Japan is following suit by banning ASML's exports to China. And the US is offering 5.4 billion US dollars in subsidies, creating a three-way partnership that aims to decouple Beijing from the global semiconductor supply chain. Without chips, China can't compete globally. So that might be the most egregious one where they're not presenting the the Chinese side of this. So, China, it's my understanding that they plan to bring on like ultra sophisticated, I think on par with what um is happening in Taiwan with the really sophisticated chips. They're bringing on their own manufacturing in mainland China. Uh so again, that's a counter punch that they've been working on for a while. Uh so that is not somewhere that I would bet against China. If you remove all this stuff, you might slow them down and maybe that is advantageous. uh because honestly at this point the cat's out of the bag. They have developed the ability to manufacture these chips and so now about all you can do is continue to delay them until they're able to bring that online and get up to production capacity that'll let them meet their own needs. Um but again they they have counter punches under the US IRA policy. Its battery companies still rely heavily on China for critical materials like graphite with over 80% dependence. Companies like LG Energy Solutions must establish non-China supply chains by 2027, pushing Chinese companies into becoming mere technology contractors. The European Union has also raised carbon tariffs to 15%, imposing an additional 945 per ton tariff on Chinese steel, effectively excluding China from the market. In Iran, pro-American factions are rising. Iranian President Masud Peskin's faction advocates for restarting nuclear negotiations, creating a behind-the-scenes struggle with Ayatollah Kame's hardline policies. China's 400 billion dollar investment in in Iran might be at risk of going to waste. North Korea, despite claiming a 3.1% growth, has a GDP of only $30 billion, which is less than the GDP of a single Chinese county. As a strategic buffer zone, its economic support is limited. According to IMF data, since the Russia Ukraine conflict started, trade between geopolitical blocks has dropped by 12%. And investment has decreased by 20%. This multi-layered decoupling has surpassed a trade war and formed a cold war style parallel system. China's adversary is not only the United States, but the entire Western block. Washington think tanks and policy circles generally believe that keeping China trapped in the middle income trap is the ideal outcome for the United States. With a per capita income stagnating at $15,000, China lacks the ability to challenge America's global leadership while avoiding complete collapse that would cause global turmoil if they can pull it off. But that's going to be tough, man. Like coraling uh China with the kind of momentum that they have now is not a foregone conclusion in my mind. This is uh there are dangers to our own economy obviously as we see with the stock market. Uh there are dangers to inflation what people will call inflation the rising prices of all the things that we get from a high tariff country. Um I've drawn the distinction many times. People can go look up what I mean by that. Um so we still have to play this game very very carefully. I do not want I don't want even in my own mind to take on board everything that's being said in this as if like oh this is how it's going to play out. Yay we're fine. Uh this is still something that has to be done with a ton of diplomacy. Uh we'll see man we'll see. What do you think is some of those counter punches that that China might be throwing out? Cuz you know according to this video to your right their currency is being manipulated the warehouses are empty. They're finding external pressures with their trade partners. But to our point, China has said it time and time again, we'll fight you to the very end. So I think there is some things in their back pocket that they are sitting on. What are some things that might have been left out of this video in your opinion? The Well, so the biggest one is the fact that they're going to be able technology I think is the single most important point of contact in all of this. Uh that the battle for AI is the battle in the cold war between the US and China. uh that will be able to keep them from getting access to those ships when they're already building their own manufacturing capabilities. When you look at the fact that there's I don't think anybody better in the world um at showing how rapidly they can increase the efficiencies of manufacturing. So I won't say that they beat everybody on high-end manufacturing. Obviously the semiconductor industry is not in mainland China. Uh but I have a feeling given how often they'll look at what other countries are doing and then do it better at scale uh they're not the people to bet against being able to bring up their own chip manufacturing capabilities. So that's one. Uh two, I have a feeling I don't know what their exact uh debt to GDP ratio is, but I think it's better than the US's which means that they have a lot of money printing they can do uh before they get in the situation that we're in. Um, and the reality is, yes, they're not the world's reserve currency, but um, they are a very powerful economy that people don't want to lose access to. Uh, so I think that they're going to be able to um, build some allies. I don't know how many they're going to get. Obviously, if the US uh if all of North America, so Canada, the US, Mexico, and Europe all come together, okay, then then it's game over for China. I think that they're really going to struggle to um grow in the way that they could grow if they had reach beyond just Asia. Um I just don't know how lock step we're going to move in given how adversarial Trump has been to his allies. So, we'll see. Um, I think there are realities to be faced, which is I I'm going to place a bet that Europe is far more likely to side with the US and therefore will, grumbling or not, that Canada is far more likely to um partner with the US, grumbling or not, Mexico, same thing. um that I like to think that western countries have their eyes open enough to understand that um if you have to be partners with somebody being partners with the US when you disagree with them is a better place to be than being partners with China when they disagree with you. Um we'll see that's all going to play out. But that is definitely my western sensibilities coming into play. Just like you said, we'll see. This is the longest game of chicken on a public stage that we have seen played out. So now it's just gonna see who taps first. The thing we we don't want to lose sight of is we've hardly been at this for like a month. Uh so it's just the living day-to-day life with uncertainties. It feels like it's going on forever. And this is why people buy high and sell low against the only piece of advice you need in investing. Buy low and sell high. The reason that people can't do it is a day feels interminably long when you're worried that you may have lost everything or that you may end up looking like a fool. And so people panic and a month can seem interminable. And that's why something you said at the top of the show is important for people to remember. Uh you're going to hear a lot of noise about the Dow Jones average, but it's where it was almost exactly a year ago. And so yeah, we've had these huge swings, but when you zoom out, it's like we're flat. Yeah. We'll get back to the show in a moment, but first let's talk about a major source of stress in relationships, financial disagreements. They consistently rank among the top causes of divorce in America. Most couples avoid money conversations until they escalate into heated arguments. The issue isn't how much you earn, it's about creating transparency in working as a team. That's exactly how Monarch Money can help. Whether you're single or in a relationship, Monarch is a complete financial command center designed to transform how you manage your finances. The Wall Street Journal named it the best budgeting app of 2025, and over 1 million households trust it daily. You can even share access with your financial adviser or tax professional at no extra cost. Stop letting financial stress damage your relationship. Use code theory at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. That's half off at monarchmoney.com with code theory. This is a paid advertisement. And now, let's get back to the show. Well, in Supreme Court news, they have a simple question to debate on Tuesday. Do parents of public school children have a constitutional right to opt out their kids from classroom lessons involving story books that feature LGBTQ themes or characters? The Supreme Court will tackle the question today in a closely watched First Amendment case. What say you about this decision from the Supreme Court. Where do you think it it falls? I'll be very interested to see what they say. Obviously, their read on the Constitution is far better than mine, but I have a very strong feeling on this one, which is that the state does not own your children. Uh, parents own, it's a terrible word, but I don't have a better one. Uh, children belong to their parents, not to the state. And if a parent says, "I do not want my child involved in that book," then they shouldn't be involved in that book. Flip it. If there was a book that was all about um that the only moral way to live your life is a man and a woman to be married and to raise kids. If your uh parents, gay parents that have come together and you're raising a child, I would get why you'd be like hard pass. Absolutely not. Uh so yeah, parents should absolutely have the right to say my child's going to step out of the classroom for that period. Um which is my understanding of what's happening. It isn't banning books or anything like that. It's just should parents have the right to opt their child out of being presented with that book. And to me, the punch line is absolutely. Yeah. A group of parents from Montgomery County, Maryland, claim constitutional protections for religious exercise means that they have opportunity to exempt them their kids from that instruction on gender or sexuality that may counter their teachings of faith. I can't believe this got rejected and rejected and rejected so that it made it all the way to the Supreme Court. That is insane to me. That's just like, yeah, obviously they're your kids, dude. As a non-parent, I feel like I'm more inflamed about this stuff. When California passed a law that they could hide from you that your child wanted to be called a different name in school, I was like, dude, if I had kids, hard pass, I'd be gone. It out of the school system for sure, possibly out of California. That that is there's something in that that bothers me very deeply. So yeah, children do not belong to the state. And one of the um parents who called up the two, he has now homeschooled his kid to stop quote unquote uh indoctrination. Um I mean when you flipped it, it makes a lot of sense to me like gay parents shouldn't be subject to their child being forced on hetero is the way to go. This is how you live your life. I think they would have the same reaction that these religious parents are having to LGBTQ uh ideals being put on kids. So, I understand maybe we just don't talk about sexuality to kids. Maybe we just when I was growing up it was sexed in 11th grade, maybe 8th grade depending on where you went. But like that's a pretty big swing. Yeah. But I mean like maybe that is what it is should be. It should be a home thing. But back in the day, parents could certainly opt their kids out of sex ed in my school. uh which seems completely appropriate. If parents don't want you on that, then that they should be able to do that. I I am almost as shocked as I was today during the live that 60% of the community would rather die than run ads. Long story chat, you'd have to go back and check mirror season. Oh my god, I can't believe that this is controversial. Yeah. I can you channel it as a parent? Like Yeah. Cuz I'm not going to lie. I at first I was like, "Well, that's exclusion." I thought it was a book banning thing, too. But as soon as you flipped it and kind of posed that question, I'm like, "Well, yeah, if you don't agree, tell your kid, your kid should be able to opt out. Have them go sit in the cafeteria. Have them go sit in the library. Like, whatever they need to do to get out of that, you should have that ability to. I'm not opposed that for any idea, anything." Um, but I also talk to my kid a lot and I put values on them. So I may have a different view than you know the school is always right and the state should tell their kids. Maybe there are people that feel that way but it's not me. We we are all indoctrinating everybody all the time like 100% the dad is indoctrinating his child. So the question becomes not should kids be indoctrinated. They're going to be a culture parents they're they are agents of indoctrination. That's what they do. And so the question becomes who should have the right to indoctrinate your children? the parents or the government. I just can't even believe that this is a question. So anyway, like I said, uh I am perfectly willing to abide by what the Supreme Court decides. That's the whole point. Uh but this one I would be I I would be um I'll be very vocal. Yeah. If they say that you don't have the right, I would obviously read the whole document, the whole report, make sure that I'm not getting something wrong here. But oh buddy, that's nuts. Yeah. Um, in business news, Google says the DOJ's proposal to break up break them up will be harmful in the global race with China. So, for some context, Google's ad business, including Chrome and their Android units were labeled a monopoly and they were then effectively ordered to be broken up by a DOJ representative. However, their counter claim is the DOJ's proposal would hamstring how we develop AI and have a governmentappointed committee regulate the design and development of our products. Um, that would be hold back American innovation at a critical juncture. We're in a fiercely competitive global race with China for the next generation of technology leadership and Google's at the forefront of American companies making scientific and technological breakthroughs. Now, I've I've heard you ring that drum about how we need to beat China in the AI race. Should there be exceptions for monopoly hearing certain things until that AI space is materialized? Should there be some type of Manhattan project exception for Google, open AI, Microsoft until we win the AI war? Should I I would certainly want Google to be able to make its best case there. There is no doubt about that because depending on what parts of their business they are going to force them to lop off. I could see them not having access to enough data to train the models well enough to make the advances that we as a nation want to make. Uh so that I get there that could be a very real argument. Now at the same time these guys have a financial incentive to also convince them of that whether it's true about the AI side of things or not. Uh so I would caution the uh regulatory bodies to remember you're not as close to this problem as they are. Uh and then I would also remind the companies that when you get into monopolies that ends up being bad for the consumer. And so uh we have antitrust laws for a reason. Those antitrust laws tend to work out better for the consumer. Um but it's not a free pass. And so this has to be done well. This has to be done with a scalpel. You've got to make sure that you're looking at the downstream consequences. And we are at a moment for better or worse when we are in a cold war with a rival power uh at a time where the technology the implications of winning the technological race couldn't be bigger. And so yeah, I would be very thoughtful. Now the good news is I don't think anybody has a monopoly on AI. So, um, OpenAI is doing a bang-up job without the kind of access to data that Google has. Uh, you've got Elon Musk who's done a phenomenal job of putting himself in a position to collect ungodly amounts of data, uh, between what's going on in X and the self-driving cars. That's a part I don't think people think about is how much data they're drinking in about behaviors, movements, uh, location data, uh, mapping the world. Like, it's crazy. So, it's probably not the end of the world if the regulators make a bad decision on Google and block something that slows them down a little bit. Um, but honestly, if I could peer inside of it and see, this really would help us win the AI race, it's worth it. Like, you want to win the AI race. Uh, but I don't say that lightly because consumer protections from monopolies is a good thing. You want competition. Uh, it has all kinds of knock-on effects, including oftentimes you'll see, at least if the companies when they split them up are wellrun, uh, you'll see an increase in share price. uh you see more competitiveness with the individualized products because now they can't just be a part of a portfolio like they've really got to stand on their own and so people really start trying to make that thing sing. Uh so it it's it's tough. AI matters tremendously. There's enough other players in the game that I'm not going to lose sleep over this. Nice. In other AI news, Lovable dropped an app that claims all you have to do is type and build an app. um idea to app in seconds is taking vibe coding to a whole new level. Um you use lovable you're talking about this weekend, right? Like Yeah. So this one for anybody that's uh been at the headline level of AI, this is going to be like yeah obviously we've been able to do this for a long time. Uh so I won't say so I'm not a coder. Let me be very clear. We have a coder in house uh who is endlessly frustrated by vibe coding apps and web pages. uh he's endlessly frustrated that you just run into these problems that he's like h is it really speeding me up? I don't know. Uh but as somebody that has on the periphery been trying all of these things, this was the first time where I was gobsmacked where I was like man I've hit deadends before uh very early in the process to the point where I was like me like if you're not a coder like this just it doesn't do anything interesting. You're far better off spending your time going and finding an app that already exists that does that thing rather than trying to do it yourself. Uh, and then, uh, I was trying to do my anime and manga tracking, and uh, there's an anime that I like a lot called Devil May Cry by, um, Audi Shankar, which by the way, this guy's unbelievable. And he's American. And so, ironically, I think the most of his animation is done out of South Korea, but there are purists about anime has to be from Japan. And so, the app that I use to track doesn't include Devil May Cry. Anyway, I found that so offensive that I'm like, I'm going to make my own. And so I went and started using Firebase, which is Google's. It got frustrated very fast. I was like, let me try Lovable. I've been hearing about it. Dropped into Lovable and I was like, "Holy Lord, it was I got so much farther." Now, I still ended up in a death loop of like I was trying to make a change. It just could not make the change. It would every time it would make the change, it would break something. It It kept breaking like you can either have A or B. You can't have A and B. Like as soon as I would fix A, B would break. As soon as I would fix B, A would break again. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. So I was like, okay, if I were a coder at this point, I would just go in see the exact problem because it could tell me what the problem was, but I'm not going to go into the code and try and fix it. Uh, so anyway, this felt like a huge leap forward. People will forgive me if they are far more familiar and um, but I've tried uh, Claude 3.7. I've tried Firebase. I've tried Lovable. Uh, I think I tried one other one and all of them I just will deadend really early. Like Firebase I deadended so early. Uh, and Lovable was able to recommend an API, integrate the API, start pulling the information. Uh, it didn't make me prompt it for like, hey, populate this with dummy data. It just did all of that. So, I literally gave it the exact same a copy and paste prompt from what I had done in Firebase, moved it over to Lovable, and the results were night and day different. It was very impressive. So, look, the these things are all going to go back and forth. They're all going to be leaprogging each other. But that one felt exciting. That was the first time where I, as a complete non-coder, was like, "Oh, this isn't just hype. Like, there's really something here." And the anthropic CEO said by the end of this year, he believes that basically 99% of all coding will be done with AI. That was the first time where I was like, I don't know about the next seven months, but bro, the next 12 like definitely. Yeah. Yo, it's it's moving fast. It almost reminded me of how you described it with writing. Like writing with chat GPT is like having like the most efficient writer room possible. Oh my god. I feel like it that's probably what coders feel like with like chat GPT or some of these AI apps of like I know how to build it. Do the minutia. Let me get into my creative. Do the minutia. Let you know what I mean? Like you you have just nailed it. Because I'm not a coder. That very self-evident statement of truth you just made did not occur to me. Uh that's exactly right. This is where writing is where I cannot believe how much faster I write now. It's lease and I were running the math. It's at least twice as fast. It might be four times as fast. Wow. Where it's just unbelievable because I spent 18 months, something like that as a professional screenwriter. I was just paid to write. Uh, and it would take me about eight months to get a first draft of a wellthoughtout screenplay from like I need an idea to here is the draft. Uh, I'm convinced now that I could do that for sure in four months. And that's probably with rewriting. So, it's dramatic, but there is a handoff where if I just say, "Write me this scene," it will be super cheesy. And so, I do all the brainstorming, all the problem solving with AI, which it is unbelievably good at. Uh, and then you still have to go in and like script. But then if you're like, "Ah, there's something not right. What's not right?" You can feed it to the AI. It's very insightful. It's just not good at execution. Uh, and in Lovable's defense, it did keep telling me, "The problem's right here. The problem's right here." And I was just like, "Bro, I'm not going to go fix that. You need to fix it." Uh, and it just couldn't. No. So, we'll look forward to see that. Um, HHS Secretary RFK is today announcing a plan to remove artificial food dyes from the American food supply with the FDA. I know RFK is controversial in a lot of areas. To me, this seems like a slam dunk win. I don't know if you got anything on this one, but I mean, look, at a high level, I'm always tense when the government thinks that they know better. Uh because when we started Quest, they were like, "You shouldn't have fat in your food." We're like, "Uh, what?" So, that was absurd. But we were all in a loop of uh fat's the problem. And that ended up not being true. However, when you look at our food supply, something is going wrong. there's either environmental toxins or something that we're putting in our body. Given that the vast majority of the things you put in your body are food, uh the food matters. And given that other countries that don't have quite our obesity epidemic and quite our chronic health burden, they don't allow some of those things in food. I'm here for taking a more conservative stance. Now, if he were trying to ban a macronutrient, then I would be like, hold the the phone here. like you're getting way out over your skis on this. But saying we're not going to do color dye. Yeah, let's run the experiment. Let's see what happens. I think there are probably more things like that that are like, yeah, they're not really doing anything additive. It's worth at least checking to see like how does this play out if we take this out of the food supply. Uh so I'm I'm going to give him latitude. I think he's very sincere. Um I believe history may prove this wrong, but I believe that he really wants to help. he really wants to do good and he's really willing to look at what the data says. Uh given that he's starting conservative with something like food diet, which is not a nutritional value thing. It just makes it look more appealing. Um yeah, let's give it a shot. Yeah, we'll see what happens. And then last but not least, summer's right around the corner. So, uh fellas, next time your girlfriend wife tells you she's going to a girl night out without you, um I have a list of questions for you to ask her. Just say, "This doesn't work for me. This doesn't work for me because I don't want my girlfriend slashfuture wife half naked out with a bunch of other women getting hit on by men all night. And I would also ask you doll, if you're with me and happy, why do you feel the need to go out and get all these attention from other men? Why? Because that's why she's doing it. No, she's doing it for herself and her girl. Really? Then why aren't they sitting in the house? Why didn't they get all dressed up in the miniskirts and the sequins and all that stuff and buy some alcohol if they want to be tipsy and go sit in somebody's house and dance with a big disco ball in the ceiling? because there's no other guys there because they're lying to you because the whole point is to go out and to get hit on by other men because you're not enough. She's not that into you. You are like, "Okay, but she also wants all the attention from everyone else." Bottom line is girls night out is a disaster. It's a hot mess. It's not well-intentioned. It's all bad things. Is a girl's night out all bad things? Definitely not. Listen, for some people, sure, it's uh it's an excuse to go not only get male attention, but to cash in on some of that male attention, for sure. Um, I'm going to I'm going to take this conversation to an evolutionary place. And let's see where we get because I think that she's asking very surface level questions and the real questions to ask are, and I promise this is all going to come back around. Um, why is, and if you have kids, now is the time to eject them out of the car or wherever you are. Uh, why is the penis shaped the way that it's shaped? Um, why is the clitoris on the outside? Why do, if men have been away from the woman, why do they um deposit more semen upon having sex? Uh, why is it that women are vocal during sex? Um, when you really look at the shape of the penis, it should terrify you for what our ancestry uh was like because it I don't know how hard to go in the pain here, but give it to them. Uh, it's shaped like a shovel to scoop things out and you can imagine what it's trying to get rid of. Which means that on an evolutionary time scale, there was so much what's known as sperm competition, meaning the woman had viable sperm in her at the same time before the egg was fertilized. So often that the penis most likely to scoop out what was there before it won. Like it actually changed the shape. Now, I'm not saying at the human level. I'm saying this is how you come up through the animal kingdom. Now, it ends with that final bit of uh fine-tuning at the human level. Um that men ejaculate more volume when they've been away uh and fear that their woman has been around other men. Uh the assumption is that you've had sex with other men and I've got to out compete that sperm. And so that means that that was an evolutionary strategy that was rewarded. So meaning it it actually mattered. The guys that did that had the guys with the most shovely shape and that were depositing the most sperm when they've been away from their woman. They won, dude. They won. And it echoed back. And then why is the And remember, I am going to make all this add up to girls night. Uh, and why is the ctorus on the outside? If you look at our closest genetic relative, it's the bonobo. and the bonobo live in societies where they use touching of the genitals as ways to um like overcome friction in society. So if you got in a fight, if two women get in a fight or whatever, then they'll go up and they'll touch each other on on the genitals as an apology, as a way to just be like, "Girl, I'm with you." Uh literally. And I think the only thing that makes sense because that thing should be a button on the inside. Can we agree? So it's like the only thing from an evolutionary standpoint if it was just about pregnancy, that [ __ ] would be on the inside and uh your goal as a man would be to [ __ ] [ __ ] [ __ ] and just like do the things that maximize your likelihood of getting them pregnant. Yeah. So, uh, but it's not it's on the outside and I think that's because it works at a minimum dual duty and, uh, yeah, I find that utterly fascinating. Now, for people that know the anatomy of a clitoris, it's actually not just on the outside, it's also on the inside. It wraps around, uh, the vaginal canal, but anybody that's been with a woman uh, can tell you right now that the bit on the outside is the best bit, Drew, and it is the easiest. Yeah. Uh, so I think that evolution has made women want to be the center of sexual attention. That women are designed to attract the highest quality mate that they can attract. That they just like men, women run a dual strategy. And uh, when they're pregnant, they prefer when you're on the pill or pregnant, women will show a preference for men with softer features. when they are ovulating, they show a pref or not on the pill. They show a preference for men with more traditionally masculine features. So that tells you I'm looking for the highest quality genetic stock that I can get at one part of my cycle and then I'm looking for a man that can help me take care of this child at another point in my cycle. And I think it wise for people to embrace the reality uh so that you don't have a deranged relationship. My wife is gonna drive herself crazy if she doesn't think I'm gonna find other women attractive. Men are meant to seek sexual variety. Now, to honor my marriage and my desire to bond with one woman, I'm not going to actually pursue other women. But I don't want her driving herself crazy thinking that I only have eyes for you. I never look at other women. Like, if she looks over and I'm looking at somebody's ass, she shouldn't be like, "Oh my god, he doesn't love me." Like, she even said, "Uh, you're not enough." That's not why a woman wants to not why all women Yeah. uh want to go to the girls night out. It is that evolution has said, "Hey, being the center of sexual attention uh is a great trade-off. So men want to focus on you. You want to be focused on and I'm well aware they only want to be focused on men that they find desirable. I get that. But nonetheless, they have to have that impulse in order to do the dance of um I want to be attractive to you so that you will pursue me, so that I can put you through your paces so I can figure out if you're going to be the right person to mate with, either from a physiological standpoint or from long-term access to uh resources, which is why women both often will have a type. I want a guy who's tall and strong. I don't think anybody's going to trip out hearing that. Uh but also, I want a guy that makes me laugh. the laughter, humor is a sign of intelligence. Intelligence is a proxy for you'll be able to get access to resources. So, you've got this intricate dance and evolution has given women a positive feedback loop when they put themselves at the center of that sexual attention. They are picky. They are choosy. Obviously, women are the sexual gatekeepers, but that is part of what's going on in the desire to go out and to have that male attention. There's just an algorithm running in their brain that makes that feel really wonderful. Now, they're humans. They have a prefrontal cortex, which means they do not have to give in to whatever impulses they have. My wife has gone gone on plenty of girls nights. I don't get weird about it because I have so much trust with my wife. And yes, people should have rules. Uh, yes, people should articulate very clearly what they consider acceptable and not acceptable. Yes, people should work in their relationship to make sure that the other person feels not intellectually understands but feels in their bones the level of commitment that you have to them and to the relationship and I use that word very intentionally. Mh. And I think when you put all of that together along with Yeah. some women uh they feel neglected. Some women probably don't. Um, they're leaning more towards promiscuity and they really are going behind your back and they really are doing things that you would be mortified. Of course, there's all of that just as there are guys that are unfaithful and they cheat and all that. Uh, what I would want for people is to understand that we have these evolutionary impulses. There is a reason we are the way that we are, but we have a prefrontal cortex for a reason. Engage that. Um, focus on pair bonding. like you were giving me a jokingly hard time that after the long weekend I said, "Hey, did you deepen your romance uh to people that I knew were in relationships and I really meant that." Like I take time on long weekends like that to make sure that I'm investing heavily in my marriage. Nothing has reaped greater returns for me. Uh but that stuff doesn't happen by accident. So you have to do things to make sure that you guys are pair bonding and all of that. uh and that will reap tremendous rewards despite the fact that the cltorus is on the outside, despite the fact that the penis is shaped like a shovel. Uh all of that at the end of the day, we can overcome that. But to blind yourself to the complexities of the human experience, I think is a mistake. And while that clip is fun and funny, uh I don't think it is accurate across all women that could conceivably be going out on a girl's night. Well said. Well said. Ipto facto. That's all I got. All right, everybody. If you're not already watching us live, make sure you do. It is Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday at 6:00 a.m. Pacific time, and here are some highlights from today's live. It's interesting to tell my own story because I'll say, uh, nobody uh thought that I would be successful. And my wife is always like, "Motherfucker." She was like, "I have always known that you were going to do something and nobody has put their lot more with you than me." And she was like, "But whenever you tell the story, it's always that nobody believes in you." And I'm like, "That's actually fair because as I have oft repeated to my wife, I don't want to know who I would have become if I didn't meet her." [Music] And that one is like when I just step back and go from the trust that I have in her, from knowing that if I fall that she'll pick me up. Have you seen Oh god, I'm going to get emotional. Let's go. Emotions. Emotions. Emotions. Highly emotions. Okay, let's go. Do it. Let's do it. Do it. Do it. I see it. I see it. Let it happen. Let it happen, man. It's You're around family on the internet, Drew. Oh, [ __ ] Man, this is a beautiful moment. This is a beautiful moment. Oh, chat loves it. Thank you, Chad. Thank you for showing support and showing up the hugs in the chat. This is a tough moment. It's a human It's a human emotion. It's a human moment. Yeah, human moment. Man, man, some some things are better left unset. Um Uhhuh. Okay, take two. Hearts in the chat. Hearts in the chat all around. Everybody got your back. You seen Michael J. Fox with his wife? There she is. Hey, baby. You're going to make this worse. I was thinking about my head. I was like, maybe we need this at least situation. A We're going to shake that off. Uh, so hi everyone. There's footage of Michael J. Fox with his wife and on the red carpet he's shaken to [ __ ] obviously because of um Parkinson's. She's still with him god knows how many years later in sickness and in health man. and that you want to talk about what I want for everybody. That belief we romanticize love and all the joys and oh my god butterflies and yeah um but it is really real when 10 years ago my gut just fell apart. I couldn't stand up. I could barely breathe. He was ready to rush me to the hospital every time I would eat something. I mean it was bad. And in those moments how do you respond? Now sometimes I think initially it's kind of easy. I'll show up for you. Let me do things. A year in, two years in, it's a very different picture. And he showed up for me every step. That's what real love in sickness and health actually looks like. Um and he never once complained. In fact, I want to say it was at least two years, but I don't want to exaggerate, but it feels true. For two years, he didn't eat sugar because I couldn't. Now imagine guys, it's his birthday and I'm like, "Let's get you a cake." Cuz I couldn't eat anything. He's like, "No, I don't want a cake on my birthday. I want to be able to eat what you can eat and we're in it together." That's what freaking true and sickness and health looks like. Okay, I'm coming back. I'm sorry. All right, we got to shake it out. I love So I love seeing that kind of stuff. Yeah, I'm into it. Unice, you were right to love love. It It is tasty. Valentine's Day is my second favorite holiday. Bird [ __ ] and potatoes. These are facts, dude. What a meal. Doesn't quite work like that. But you uh soil gets rapidly depleted. Plants need nitrogen. They cannot pull it out of the air. They have to pull it out of the soil. And the most efficient way to get it into the soil is through dung. Doesn't go away. So, it just stacks and stacks and stacks. So, you get these islands that like are uninhabitable. You can't even go on them. The smell of the nitrogen is so or the ammonia I guess is so strong that people can't bear to go near it. But you can hire people or back in the day enslave them. Hey, always a good time. And you force them onto the island. You mine this stuff. And there were literal wars is probably an exaggeration, but people were conquering these islands, taking them away from each other because once you had that, you could ship it to other countries and allow them to grow better crops. And what they found was in terms of a complete item that's easy to grow, potatoes were like the jam. If you had potatoes and milk, you were good. Who would have guessed? So like around the world, potatoes start in like some small place. I don't remember if it was South America, but I think it was potatoes start in like the Andes and then they just find their way to everywhere around the world because they could transport the poo and they could transport the seeds for the potatoes and we could literally feed more people. And so suddenly nations that had been stagnant from a population standpoint for god knows how long. All of a sudden we get this huge population explosion. Poop and potatoes man. Thank you poo. Poop and potatoes. Like it's crazy. Unsung heroes of today and earthworms. Who would have guessed? Why is the clitoris on the outside? The only answer that makes any sense is that it can be touched with a hand. And at that point, it's like, well then, who's that access for? And it soothes all the concerns and they're able to get to the other side of it. And so, as a guy, the number of times where I've been like, what is that doing on the outside? Like, that is the craziest [ __ ] I've ever seen in my [ __ ] life. But that makes me absurd. Worried about the other way because male pleasure zones are inside of their anus. So, bro, have you ever touched your penis? That thing's pretty amazing. And it's designed to go inside. So from a I want to get this person pregnant standpoint. No, but I mean chef's kiss the male the male G-spot is inside the anus. I sure but I mean here's the thing. I've never found myself going, you know what would make this finally fun? I'm just talking about the clitters on the outside evolution. And so they're now on this side. I get how much context matters. I really do. But as somebody who's had a prostate exam, let me tell you, I wasn't like, well, this is fun. Context matters. Yeah. I wasn't like, well, I've got a new context I'd like to introduce this to. Uh, so yeah, I'm going to say that if we're going to talk about where the pleasure zones are, but the head of the penis pretty pleasury zone. So that one doesn't seem weird to me. But yeah, I don't I don't get it. Uh, that Well, so I have a hypothesis, but if it isn't that, then I'm like, what's happening? I I am not telling people to go inside the booty hole. Brock Johnson, I am You're just saying it would be better if you did. I'm not saying that either. He was just he you was just out. I hope you where the pleasure are duct tape closed if they're anywhere near the what you're listening to right now. All right, the chat. Yep. All right, everybody. If you haven't already, be sure to subscribe. And until next time, my friends, be legendary. Take care. Peace. Here is the brutal truth about scaling. Most entrepreneurs don't outright fail, they plateau. And if you're stuck right now, you know how true that is. It could be that your revenue flatlines every time you step away. Or maybe you're trapped in a commodity market that's racing to the bottom. Or maybe you're one of the lucky people who is navigating a very complex partner dynamic that turns every decision into a battle. These problems and a whole lot more can seem impossible until you break them all down into first principles. My partners and I used this thinking to grow Quest Nutrition by 57,000% in our first three years alone and scaled to a billion dollar exit. And now I'm teaching this framework to a select group of entrepreneurs who are ready to scale. Now, I want to be clear, this is not for everybody because I'm looking to work with serious entrepreneurs that already have an established business and a proven track record of execution. If that's you and you want to learn how to break through your biggest business bottlenecks using first principles thinking, be sure to apply now. Just go to impact theory.com/scale or click the link in the show notes. Again, that's impact theory.com/scale. If you like this conversation, check out this episode to learn more. Pope Francis dies. Claus Schwab resigns from the WF. China warns people not to sign trade deals with the US. The Supreme Court drops a midnight injunction. Alto and Thomas descent. Brett Weinstein has a banger take on the dumb voter problem. Future Tech brings