January 24, 2025 • 43 mins
What a weird week it has been online. TikTok was banned.. And then it wasn’t. Meta got rid of fact-checking (we dive into that) and things heat up in the football world. Let’s dive in.
More from us:
- Mitzi Payne @mmmitzi
- Mike Payne @mmmiiike
Timestamps:
- 01:00 – TikTok was banned in the US… and then it wasn’t.
- 09:00 – While it was going down with TikTok, Meta launched a ton of updates (including a new grid, editing app, and more).
- 18:00 – Meanwhile, Meta is getting rid of fact-checking. Why it isn’t as bad as you might think.
- 24:20 – Drama from recent football games.
- 39:00 – Updates from the WAGs of the NFL.
- 42:00 – Check out our 2025 Trend Report! Linked in the show notes below.
Show notes:
- The SCAN 👀 CLUB 2025 Trend Report: https://scanclub.substack.com/p/what-digital-audiences-want-in-2025
Big Things with Mitzi (@mmmitzi) and Mike (@mmmiiike).
For more from Arcade, follow us on Instagram and TikTok @helloarcade. https://www.arcadearcade.ca/
Production by Morgan Berna, editing by Oliver Banyard.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Welcome to Big Things .
I'm Mitzi.
This is Mike.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
And this is our show where we talk about the big
things we're watching inmarketing, social media, pop
culture and sports.
We'll also talk through thesignals that we're seeing that
could influence the future ofdigital marketing.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
You can catch the show every week on YouTube or
wherever you get your podcastsand, of course, be sure to
follow us on Instagram andTikTok for updates on every
episode.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Got a quick summary of what we're going to cover
today.
First, of course, we've got totalk about TikTok and the ban in
the US, what Meta's up to andthe NFL playoffs and WAGs
updates.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
I love hearing you talk about WAGs updates.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Can't miss the WAGs.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
I know it's an important piece of it, to be
honest.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
It's true.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Okay, should we start with the first one, the big
news of the weekend.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yeah, let's do it.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Okay, tiktok was banned.
For what was it?
14 hours?
Or at least it went down for USusers.
So late on January 18th, usersin the US started getting a
notification that TikTok was nolonger available, in compliance
with the US law banning TikTokin the US.
14 hours later it was back.
The statement from TikTok aboutit coming back were available
(01:19):
for US users.
It said, in agreement with ourservice providers, tiktok is in
the process of restoring service.
We thank President Trump forproviding the necessary clarity
and assurance to our serviceproviders that they will face no
penalties, providing TikTok toover 170 million Americans and
allowing over 7 million smallbusinesses to thrive.
(01:41):
It's a strong stand for thefirst amendment and against
arbitrary censorship.
We will work with presidenttrump on a long-term solution
that keeps tiktok in the unitedstates yeah, it's a high drama
weekend man, we've been talkingabout tiktok getting banned for
like a year or more.
It isn't, it is yeah it's beensuch a roller coaster so to see
(02:02):
it actually like get, I mean, itwasn't it's hard to say banned,
because it wasn't actuallybanned for us.
We were in Canada so we got toactually still be on TikTok, but
it was crazy to watch peopleshare the screenshots.
That's like TikTok is no longeravailable because the US has
banned it longer availablebecause the US has banned it.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
I know, and just to see all the reactions and the
alarm, the how alarmed peoplewere that it was no longer
available.
Totally Like we saw a lot oflead up to it with like creators
who make a living from TikTokbeing concerned, and we even saw
a TV commercial about TikTokand it was like a testimonial of
a small business that had goneviral on tiktok and like grew
astronomically because of it.
(02:49):
I was surprised to see a tvcommercial I know they're really
like leaning in and trying toplay the offense yeah, but it
seemed like two like parts ofamerica were were surprised when
it happened, like it's almostlike some people just don't
track with the news enough toeven have been privy to the fact
that this was looming.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Yeah, so I haven't been on TikTok for like a week
and I downloaded it back on myphone on Saturday just to kind
of see, like what's going on,what's the vibe, and it was so
interesting the mix of TikToksthat I saw.
There were some peopleliterally bawling, crying, like
being so sad, because they hadposted every day, several times
a day, for the last six years orsomething.
(03:32):
Then there were some people whowere like using this
opportunity to like confess likesomething about themselves that
nobody knew.
And then there were some peoplewho were just like thanking
their community and doingmashups of like where they were
in 2020 when they started theirTikTok and where they were now,
and so it was super likeinteresting to see all that,
like the the various levels ofpeople accepting that it was
(03:56):
going to go away.
But then it was really confusingbecause the next day I didn't
realize it was going to be back,or I don't know if anyone knew
it would be back, because thenext day I like watch all that
that night.
The next morning I went on toTikTok and people were it was
just like full of people like intheir beds, like turning on
their camera, being like can yousee me, can you see me?
And then I'm like huh, and so Iwas going through and it was so
(04:18):
many people like being likewe're back, we're back, like
just so back, like just so happy.
It was such an odd experience.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Like it feels like.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
It's like a weird episode of like.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
And in that short period of time, also like tons
of TikTok creators, decided tojoin that other Chinese social
platform, red Note.
I was reading up on it a littlebit and it seemed like there's
a lot of kind of like what seemsto be heartwarming interactions
between the like Chinese baseof users on the platform and
these new Americans that calledthemselves TikTok refugees.
(04:53):
Apparently a lot of them weresaying that they had to pay a
cat tax to join the platform,which was that they had to post
videos of like cats and dogs,like heartwarming videos.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Is that real?
Speaker 2 (05:05):
of, like cats and dogs, like heartwarming videos
is that real.
No that they didn't.
They didn't actually have to,but that was kind of like a
trend that happened, where it'slike I'm a tiktok refugee.
Here's a heartwarming cat video.
Can I hang, you know?
Speaker 1 (05:14):
imagine the legislators who've been telling
americans for over a year thatthis is a national security
threat, learning chinese andgoing over to this like random
chinese app where they've signedoff to like terms that are in
chinese.
They don't even know what theysay and they're like take all my
data.
Here we are like, obviously thelike we got to get tiktok back
(05:36):
because seeing people go to rednote, like there are worse
things that could happen right,yeah, it's interesting and
they're all like trying to learnChinese too, didn't?
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yeah, there's a crazy spike on Duolingo, like
millions of people suddenly liketrying to learn Chinese, and
I'm sure it's just because ofRed Note.
But a bit of a hot take andthis isn't a political show.
But I feel like, as it's kindof unraveled, I think that
TikTok didn't have to go dark.
I think it was something theydid on purpose for this short
(06:08):
period of time, to just likemake Americans feel the pain of
the absence of TikTok.
And I don't know if it wasstrategic by TikTok, because I
know ByteDance would obviouslylose a decent amount of money
from the outage, from losing allthose users, but I kind of feel
like it was strategic on thepart of the Trump administration
.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
To show.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
I feel like there's been backroom dealings between
the Trump administration andByteDance to get an extension,
and even just based on thenotices that were on people's
apps when they tried to log on.
It wasn't just a simple likeboilerplate business notice like
TikTok's, no longer availablein your area it was like.
We thank president Trump forbeing willing to work with us
(06:52):
and we're confident we'll beback online soon, you know.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
So I think there's.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
I don't know who is pulling the strings.
It's probably, if we're honest,it's probably the Trump
administration, but I thinkthey're going to end up getting
the credit for an extension andthen, I think, bigger than that
for the Trump administration.
I feel like there's going to besome sort of divestiture that
does happen in the next 90 daysthat ends up really benefiting
the US.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Beyond just a private US buyer.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
I kind of wonder if there's going to be some level
of, like government ownership orsomething like that.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
For sure of like government ownership or
something like that for sure.
And also all all the tech likeheads of tech are at are like
really coming to trump's side.
So I feel like it's they're allin cahoots and like if they
were to sell, like I'm sure thatwould just further support all
the like tech monopolymonopolies that exist too.
So like yeah, it's superinteresting, I if I like it's
(07:44):
actually pretty smart for trump,because gen z, the way they
were crying like as if someonewas dying because tiktok was
being banned, like they were onlive until the very last second.
And then there's like all thesescreen recordings of like
canadians screen recording,these like influencers like
crying.
They're on live, they're like Ithink it's gone, no one can see
(08:05):
me, and they're just like notokay and the Instagram algorithm
is trash no, but the otherthing I liked about those 14
hours where people like couldn'taccess TikTok is on Instagram
people were posting the mostunhinged content.
They like needed an outlet forthis.
Like, like other personalitythat like lives on TikTok and
they brought it to Instagram.
(08:26):
And Instagram was sointeresting that night because
people were starting to postreels as if they were TikToks.
So I don't know, it's aninteresting few days, I think.
Also, I'm sure it wasintentional, like to be out for
a little bit, because in thisweek where TikTok was going to
be banned and people knew it wasgoing to be banned and the the
(08:49):
amount of people that went tored note I'm sure was also a bit
of a move.
Like if I were part of thosenegotiations, you'd want to see
like look what could happen,like the alternative is worse
than people being on TikTok, youknow.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Yeah, there's layers to it, for sure.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
For sure.
Okay, not to be outdone.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Take us there.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
While all this was happening, on TikTok, meta
launched a new editing app plusa few other new Instagram
features, so it's been a busyweek.
We're going to walk you throughall the changes and also some
background to them.
So first, you might havenoticed that instagram rolled
out a new grid format.
So instead of a one by onesquare, they rolled out a four
(09:33):
by three portrait of the grid,which is really throwing people
for a loop.
People are not driving me nuts,really.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Yeah, just because, like all the real covers and
stuff that people did like, oreven just the way that like a
photo was cropped square nowlike someone's half their face
is cut off, or like half theheadline is cropped out.
You know, it's just.
And 4-3, isn't that likevisually appealing of a shape?
You know?
Speaker 1 (09:57):
like.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
I think the square made sense, or the 9-16
orientation of reels makes sense, like the 916 one is more of
like the golden triangle orwhatever, like the that rule,
that visual rule that's likemost appealing to the eye,
that's like what the shape ofthe iphone is I lost you, okay?
Speaker 1 (10:15):
yeah, anyways, all right so I don't know.
Four three is just this, likeawkward in between right, yeah,
I mean I feel bad for peoplewho've like made you know those
like grids that you can makewith your one by one square that
like all come into like abigger picture yeah, like those
people are not okay.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
All those brands that were like we're gonna do this
amazing nine grid to launch yeah, it just looks crazy I know it
looks insane um.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Instagram's also announcing that they'll be
simplifying the Instagramprofile.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
And they'll be simplifying the instagram
profile and they'll be groupinginstagram story highlights into
the grid somehow that one I sawin our notes before we got on
this show and I was like how isthat gonna work?
I don't know?
That one is confusing, I don'tlike that one.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
That one I'm I'm not okay with.
I love my instagram highlightsand I like going to people's
instagram highlights, so we'llsee.
Um, they also announced thatyou'll be able to rearrange your
grid, which is nice.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
I like that yeah, so you can like you can semi do
that right now just by pinningcertain ones, but the ability to
like fully customize what'slike at the top, like nine or
whatever it ends up being, isinteresting yeah, I'm into it.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
And they also announced you can post reels up
to three minutes long ratherthan two minutes long, which is
the TikTokification of Instagram, because on TikTok you can post
a video up to 10 minutes long,so they're not going that far
out, but most videos are threeminutes or under, so I think
(11:42):
this was like a no brainer.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
I wonder what the data is.
I wish I knew, like, thedifference, the potential
difference in viewership betweena two minute video and a three
minute video.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Or is it just?
Speaker 2 (11:52):
kind of like a perceived freedom and
flexibility for the user thatdoesn't really make a difference
.
No idea you know like veryrarely do you watch a full two
minute reel I feel like I do twominutes 120 seconds how long.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
The last long video I watched was mark zuckerberg's
announcement, which we're goingto talk about.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
That was five minutes wow I know you watched mark
zuckerberg for five minutes.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
I watched him for five minutes and the whole time
I was thinking about his hair.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
His hair is better now.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
You think?
Speaker 2 (12:29):
You think you were watching it in like a bad way.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Yeah, I didn't like it.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Do you remember what he looked like before?
Speaker 1 (12:36):
I need to see what he did to his hair for the
inauguration, because I hope.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
It's curly, is it yeah?
Speaker 1 (12:41):
I mean, I like curly hair, I just don't like how he
styled it.
Anyways, moving on, also,instagram introduced a Reels tab
where you can see the Reelsthat your friends like, and I
know people hate this because,like, it's like kind of
embarrassing if, like, someoneis watching a Reel that you
liked, like it's just, even ifit's like a funny Reel or like
an insightful reel, it's likethey're getting in your head a
(13:03):
little bit and you're like, oh,this person likes this reel.
Like I know it's weird, but Ipersonally love watching that
tab.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Can you see your own likes, like.
Is it kind of like TikTok,where you can like, like
something and then revisit itlater?
It's a way to kind of you cando that.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
But you have to like go through like layers of like
screens.
But this if you're in the reelstab and you're watching a reel
at the top right hand corner,it's like has your friends like
profile pics and like reels yourfriends have liked, so you can
click that and then watch justthe reels that your friends
liked and see who's liked themdo you like posts very often, or
(13:39):
reels like I feel like I don't.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
If I'm watching reels , I'll save something that I
want to go back to or.
I'll send it to a friend if Ithink it's funny and then
they'll like it.
But I feel like I pretty muchonly use the like feature now
when I it's like one of myfriends or someone or a brand I
like and I just want to likeboost it a little in the
algorithm.
It's not so much like I'mreacting to it.
Yeah, I like this.
(14:02):
It's more just like a sign ofsupport.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
No, I like it because I think it's just a habit and I
also know that if I likesomething I'll get more of that
stuff.
So all my likes are Bad Bunnyvideos.
It's like Bad Bunny in PuertoRico, bad Bunny people reacting
to Bad Bunny's album, bad Bunnysurprising someone at their door
with a band it's all Bad Bunnystuff.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
But then I love seeing other people reacting to
Bad Bunny stuff.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
But do you think the like actually makes that much of
a difference for what you getmore of in your algorithm, or is
it just what you spend timewatching?
Speaker 1 (14:34):
I think it's both the like I don't know if a like is
more than time spent but theyalso apparently look at what
accounts you follow.
The accounts you follow also.
But then I guess there's inthis new tab where you're just
watching reels your friends haveliked.
None of that matters, you knowright but I think it's really
(14:55):
fun to watch.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
I don't mind all this new stuff.
Like I.
I find sometimes you know thethe new feature rollout,
especially when it has to dowith the algorithm.
And then monseri has this likeheartwarming video where he's
just trying to be reallyauthentic and like let you know
that he sees you.
Like that stuff is annoying.
But I feel like lately they'vejust been like rocking with new
ideas and like putting stuff outthere and trying it and some of
(15:19):
it will stick and some of itwon't.
But I kind of like thatapproach.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Yeah, I mean, that's all you can do like it's not
that deep.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Yeah, exactly, give us new features and we'll tell
you.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
I think the thing that's it's funny.
This is my position.
It's like I kind of get annoyedwhen TikTok and Instagram like
they try to make it so deep,like we are supporting thousands
of small businesses, which isnot untrue, like I do believe,
and this is our business like weliterally do this for other
businesses, but all the changesthat they're doing isn't really
(15:51):
to support those businesses.
It's like now you can see whatyour friends like like is that
supporting a small business?
Speaker 2 (15:56):
I don't think so, you know yeah, but I feel like a
feature like that is probablymore like along the the lines of
what we know about how more ishappening in the dms, and it's
more about, like, sharingcontent with your like, becoming
like a more social platform,right, so it's probably leaning
into that, but I see what you'resaying the other thing.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Oh, speaking of adamassari before I move on,
according to the rumors onthreads, people think that he's
gonna resign.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Adam Aseri, because of all the the vibe changes at
meta yeah, and that he justlooks tired.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
You know, it's been a .
It's been a long year, eventhough the year just started
yeah, interesting.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Yeah, I feel like there's more of a widening
dissonance between his vibe andZuckerberg's vibe.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
For sure, zuckerberg is really, really transformed.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
He seems like he's.
He's on a journey.
Yeah for sure.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Okay, so the last Instagram update we wanted to
share is that they announced anew editing app called Edits,
which will allow for betterediting tools and likely a
response to ByteDance's CapCut,and the app will be available on
March 13th, but you canpre-download it now, whatever
that means.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Yeah, always, they're always good at the strategic
timely moves.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Yeah, this makes sense to me, like actually when,
when all the TikTok talk waslike going on about it being
banned and not available andlike people won't be able to
post and stuff.
I actually was really concernedabout CapCut because I use it
quite often for editing and Ijust I know it's owned by
ByteDance so I was like, how amI gonna edit?
(17:34):
And I don't like the otherediting platforms as much.
So I'm excited about what thisnew editing app will be like and
I hope it's good.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
I've always kind of wondered too if if there's like
algorithmic implications onInstagram if it's a video edited
in CapCut probably, you knowlike.
I wouldn't put it past meta torecognize metadata from a CapCut
video and like deprioritize itjust because it's from a
competitor.
Yeah, they're so silly okay,not anymore with the edits app
(18:03):
let's get into somethingcontroversial.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
You ready?
Speaker 2 (18:06):
I guess we are a political podcast.
Now let's go.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
No, this is not a political podcast.
Everyone calm down.
So the most controversialupdate it just wouldn't be right
to not talk about this.
You know, mark Zuckerbergannounced they will be shifting
away from third-partyfact-checkers and will be
relying on community notes formoderation.
So, just to give you somecontext, meta first introduced
fact-checking in 2016 as aneffort to curb misinformation.
(18:31):
If you remember, misinformationwas like the word of the year,
like it was really hard to knowwhat was true, what wasn't, and
it was a lot of political newsjust being shared at wherever on
Facebook, instagram, and it wasa really confusing time.
The initiative was launched inresponse to criticism over
Facebook's role in spreadingfalse claims during the 2016 US
(18:54):
presidential election, and a2023 statement from Meta said
that fact-checking program hasexpanded to nearly 100
organizations working in morethan 60 languages globally.
So this was a huge effort.
Fast forward to two weeks ago,zuckerberg, in a video that was
five minutes long, he cited thatthey were going to be changing
(19:16):
their fact checkers, and hecited a cultural tipping point
that the fact checkers have mademistakes and too many mistakes,
and so they're going to changethe program in general.
So, instead of fact checking,they're moving to community
notes system, which is the samesystem adopted by x, and one
thing that he said in his videothat I wanted to quote.
(19:38):
He said the recent election hassignaled a tipping point for
allowing more free expression onthe platform.
He also cited that factcheckers have been too
politically biased and destroyedmore trust than they created,
and so they're getting rid oftheir program entirely.
So this is a big deal yeah, itis to be honest.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
I think it makes sense yeah um, I think it makes
sense for meta from a in abusiness decision, but I also
think it makes sense in more oflike a social context as well.
And this is why, first thebusiness side of things, I think
if they have that manyorganizations 100 organizations
across 60 languages globallythink about how much that costs
(20:20):
meta.
To pay these organizations todo that so proactively and then
to go to more of a crowdsourcedcommunity approach is like
cutting massive costs for them.
So obviously, from a businessstandpoint, there's logic there.
From a social standpoint, Ithink it actually is better to
even just for like people andlike mental health and like
(20:40):
relationships, but also justlike rights and freedoms, cause
I think the fact-checkingapproach feels a little more
dystopian in the sense of likeif you say the wrong thing
according to an anonymous factchecker, you get shut down, you
know your content disappears oryou get suspended or whatever
might happen.
But with the community approachthere's real people still, but
(21:03):
it's like more public facing youknow, someone can add a
community note with a referenceto like an article or whatever
that that negates whatever thefalse claim was, and it's public
.
So the content remains up, buteveryone can see that there's
facts or evidence that say thatthis is untrue.
It just adds more like socialpressure to say the truth you
(21:25):
know and to own if you don't.
And rather than the contentjust disappearing, it's still
there for everyone to see.
And then not only is itcorrected through community
notes, but then peopleunderstand if something that has
been kind of perpetuated isuntrue.
So I kind of like it and Ithink it's worked well on X.
So there's precedent for it.
So I'm interested to see how itrolls out.
(21:47):
But all that to say, I thinkI'm in favor.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Yeah, I think it's super interesting because in the
video he also talked about likeso many mistakes happening.
So people are getting flaggedfor like being by a fact checker
and a nominous fact checker andthen it taking months for their
profile to get manuallyreviewed and approved and then
getting their account back upand it's just like too many of
(22:12):
those mistakes have beenhappening.
So I feel like this is just likea correction of something that
they they were so fast and loosewith this decision to employ
fact checkers.
I just feel like even at thetime although it was like a
confusing time, it didn't itfelt too fast and too like
(22:32):
intense to go that far to say,like anyone who posts anything
that could be in the realm ofpolitics which is like life, you
know, challenges, whatever likeeven even people, people who
were talking about theirexperiences as like someone with
a disability or someone withlike a different lifestyle, like
they were getting their contentwas getting banned because it
(22:56):
didn't meet the necessaryrequirements.
So I I'm in favor of some ofthese changes happening because
their fact checkers were toobiased, because I think if
everything on Meta and Instagramhas to be approved by these
biased fact checkers, likewhat's the point of being on
that platform?
So I feel like they'reovercorrecting something that
(23:17):
they went too far in.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Right, yeah.
And I don't think it's to saythat all the fact checkers were
biased.
No, yeah.
And I don't think it's to saythat all the fact checkers were
biased.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
But he said even if 1% were, if there was a 1%
margin of error or somethingthat's millions of posts.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
For sure which is true, and there's no
accountability.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
There was no accountability Because the
content is just removed.
Yeah, and it depends on whatyou think should be removed or
not as a fact checker.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
But the community notes approach allows for like
public discourse around what'strue or what isn't, and like
evidence based sharing and stufflike that and to be fair.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
he did say that there are some things and subjects
that will be like banned ormoderated, which is just the
stuff you would imagine shouldbe, so that's good.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Yeah, being a content moderator on a social platform
like that would be really hard,like mentally.
You'd see a lot of crazy stuff.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
I know yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Should we get to thing three?
Speaker 1 (24:14):
Yeah, on a lighter note.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
It's the playoffs for the NFL.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Woo.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Our favorite sport.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Our favorite sport, our favorite league.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Yeah, this is the best time to watch football
because it's do or die.
You win or you go home.
So far we've seen Kansas Cityadvance.
They beat the Houston Texans.
Unfortunately.
I think everyone truthfullywanted to see the Texans win
because we're all just tired.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
We're tired of Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas
City Chiefs.
He walks funny.
He does, yeah, he does.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
He does walk funny.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Yeah, and there naturally was high drama from
that game around somecontroversial calls, and I think
now it's just evident toeverybody except Kansas City
fans that Patrick Mahomes islike kind of taking advantage of
the system and doing everythinghe can to draw calls from the
refs and it's influencing theoutcome of the game instead of
(25:09):
just leaving it to goodold-fashioned competition
between two teams.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
So you think the refs are in his favor?
Speaker 2 (25:16):
I'm sure that the refs aren't incentivized to be
in their favor, but thingshappen fast and they're doing
their best, but they're from theobserver standpoint.
You can tell that it's beingmanipulated.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
I think he's playing football like a soccer player,
like he's being so dramatic andmaking it seem like like that
one play where he was like goingout of bounds.
He just like fell into like thegrass and like he didn't need
to do that.
He would have just like walkedoff.
But I feel like he's trying toget more of a reaction and like
call attention to things so thatthere's gets.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
They get penalties yeah, and it's hard because the
NFL wants to protect their mostvaluable assets and so like a
quarterback is some of thehighest paid and most like
notable players on the teams andmahomes isn't like a big
physical quarterback either.
So when he gets hit they likesnap to attention and want to
(26:14):
want to like call a penalty toprotect them right but then you
got other quarterbacks like joshallen and lamar jackson, who
are they run a lot, they're morephysical and they take hits.
That would get called everysingle time if it was on my
homes.
But they don't get the calls,so it's hard to.
(26:36):
It feels pretty clear as a fanto see that there's a lack of
consistency in the way thatpenalties are called on
quarterback hits.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
But yeah, it's tough Well hopefully, like I've even
seen a lot of talk about thatstuff and I haven't paid
attention to any of that.
So it's like I'm sure, with allthat pressure, the next game
the refs will have to be a bitmore even.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Yeah, and then some of the Houston players were
pretty even the coach werepretty clear about what they
thought about the game in thepress conference afterwards it
was us against everybody andthey're like do you mean the
refs?
Speaker 1 (27:10):
and he's like I mean everybody.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Yeah and then even one of the chiefs players
tweeted afterwards that hemisses the old days when players
would just own their losseslike a man and then everyone
kind of like got after that guytoo.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
He said that about the coach.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
And some of the players that had made similar
comments.
But it's funny because earlierin the season I think the Chiefs
only lost this year.
The whole Chiefs team,especially Patrick Mahomes, were
so upset about the refs in thatgame when they lost to the
Bills and felt that it was sucha ridiculous call.
And even when Patrick Mahomesat the end of the game went to
(27:47):
shake Josh Allen's hand hedidn't even say good game, he
was just like that was thecraziest call I've ever seen and
he was just obviously so upsetit's just I'm sportsman, like
yeah, so that just makes itworse, like not only are you
typically getting what feels tobe favoritism from officiating,
but when you suddenly lose onegame on what you think is a bad
(28:08):
call, now you're a victim, it'sjust yeah I can see why fans are
just up in arms against we'reover him.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
Yeah, okay, I was trying to figure out like I've
been watching games with you andI've been paying.
I've've been a good studentthis season.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
For sure.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
One thing I can't figure out is like who, like I
need like a graph of like wherewe're at with the teams that are
left and like who's going tothe Super Bowl.
Yeah, you just Google NFLplayoff bracket I looked, I did,
and they just have like AFCNorth, and what's that one?
Speaker 2 (28:41):
NFC.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
NFC.
And then I had like one, two,three, four.
It was like two columns, butthe but the bill or detroit was
in there.
Still, I'm like didn't they losewell, because it kind of
cascades, like it starts on theoutside with all the teams that
made the playoffs right and itcomes in towards that's what I,
I can visually see it's like abracket right, but like what the
(29:02):
nflcom site is showing, it'slike two columns and it's like a
bracket Right, but like whatthe NFLcom site is showing, it's
like two columns and it's likeI understand.
The winner of each divisionwill go to the Super Bowl, to
the playoffs, to the playoffsand then the Super Bowl.
The winner of the AFC Northgoes to the Super Bowl.
The AFC oh, sorry.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
AFC North is a division in the A afc, but the
afc is the conference and thenthe nfc is a conference.
They're all split in, so that'sthe two columns, and then
within the afc there's multipledivisions and with it in the nfc
there's multiple divisions yeahbut that only matters up to the
point when playoffs begin, andthen from there the teams in
(29:42):
this column and the teams inthat column compete, and then
the ones that win move on.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Yeah, I'm just trying to see, like, who do the Bills
play next to go to the SuperBowl?
Speaker 2 (29:51):
The Bills play the Kansas City Chiefs.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
To go to the Super Bowl, yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
They play in their conference championship, and
then the commanders play theEagles in their conference
championship.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
So it's Haley Steinfeld versus Taylor Swift.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Yeah, and Brittany Mahomes Right, and apparently
Kaitlyn Clark, she was in thebooth in the suite with Taylor.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
You know that's the one thing about watching a
Kansas City game.
I agree, I'm so over PatrickMahomes.
I don't want them to go to theSuper Bowl, but I do like seeing
all the hype around Taylorbeing there.
I feel like she's such a goodwag.
She's so good for the game.
And then she was in her littlelike suite with Caitlin Clark
next to her, which was so cool.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
It all plays a factor .
I was thinking about thisbecause obviously the NFL is an
entertainment business.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
So you got to think there's.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
I don't think it's fully scripted, but I think
there's influences and there'sstrings that can be pulled to
like try to favor a storyline ifwe're honest.
And so I was trying to think of, like, what are the, what are
the storylines that we can kindof extract here that could be on
the NFL's radar and what's leftto tell of this playoff story?
(31:04):
And I think there's three.
One is the Kansas City Chiefs.
This if they win this year,that would be the a three-peat.
They would win three in a row,which is the first time in NFL
history wow and obviously alongthat storyline used you have
kind of some of the star powerlike Taylor Swift and her
relationship with Travis andTravis is probably close to
retiring and even some of theseother fans and wags that kind of
(31:27):
revolve around Kansas City.
Obviously, Andy Reid is reallyone of the best coaches of all
time, so that would add to hisaccolades.
So that's one storyline.
Another storyline is more ofthe underdog story, which is the
Buffalo Bills and Josh Allen,who have been one of the few
teams that felt like a contenderagainst Kansas City over the
(31:48):
last three or four years.
They've come close to beatingthem in the playoffs.
They've beaten them in theregular season.
He's another talented youngquarterback.
It's a really solid program withwith great fans and a great wag
yes, right, and so the more ofthe underdog story of the
buffalo bills, stopping thethree pete and stopping the
(32:09):
kansas city dynasty.
That could be another corestoryline.
The third one, which I'mgetting increasingly invested in
, is the idea of a rookiequarterback in his first year
with a team that had a losingrecord last year coming in and
winning a Superbowl in his firstseason.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Who's?
Speaker 2 (32:25):
that that would be the commanders with Jaden
Daniels.
So Washington's had a hard time.
They went through a wholerebrand.
They used to be the WashingtonRedskins.
Now they're the Washingtoncommanders.
For a whole season they werejust the nameless Washington
football team.
They just got rid of a reallytoxic, um unethical owner and
(32:45):
now have a new ownership group.
So they're kind of rebuildingthe whole organization.
They had gone through somelawsuits with that previous
owner around like like sexualmisconduct and like even just
harassment in general in theworkplace okay and then they
draft.
They get a new ownership group,they draft a new rookie
quarterback in the this mostrecent draft and suddenly he
(33:08):
comes in and just turns theorganization around.
So I really like that story andthey just, I know you're a
Lions fan and they just beat theLions, so it's hard to get on
that bandwagon.
But um yeah, if it's going tobe anyone, it may as well be
them.
Yeah, okay, I like it, so it'dbe the first time in history, to
my knowledge, that a rookiequarterback wins the Superbowl.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
That's crazy.
So he was just drafted.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
That means he's like 20 yeah, he's young, he's really
young.
Yeah, early 20s, I want to saywell, actually I think he's 24
that's still so young yeah,because he played a full four
years of college.
Wow, yeah okay.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
Well, I don't mind that story, although I'm really
sad about, um, detroit losingthe Detroit Lions.
Um, if you, if you like, whyare you sad about Detroit losing
?
It's because Detroit Lions hasthe most wholesome, precious
head coach named Dan Campbelland he's just like good dad,
(34:07):
energy, sweet man, who likereally cares with his whole
heart about his team and he doesthe most amazing post-game
locker speeches and he likewears his heart on his sleeve.
And he's also a former player,so you can tell like he's got,
like he's got the like that dogin him.
He's like ready to go out onthe field with the boys, like he
(34:28):
doesn't expect them to doanything that he wouldn't do.
He just seems like an honorable, good guy definitely I'm with
you and I wanted him to win andthey hit.
They have a really good teamthis year, but they just really
did not do a good job on Sundayand they lost to the commanders
even though they were the numberone seed and and had a great
season, they came into thisround of the playoffs with a ton
(34:50):
of injuries.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
I'm pretty sure I think it was around like 22
players on injured reserve, wow,and most of them were on
defense, so their defense wasdecimated.
So we we saw like it was ashootout.
They obviously still had theability to put up a lot of
points, but because of the lackof health on their defensive
side, they couldn't stop yeah,their defense from scoring
(35:11):
points, yeah, okay, so youtalked about three storylines
like who would you?
Speaker 1 (35:14):
would you like you have to pick one?
Who do you want to win theSuper Bowl?
Well, I guess, go to the SuperBowl and win.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
Yeah Well, I want it to be Buffalo against Washington
in the Super Bowl and I thinkif that was the case I would
probably cheer for the rookiequarterback with Washington.
But I mean, I'd be happy witheither outcome.
I just don't.
I don't want it to be theEagles or the chiefs Chiefs.
I've already said why theEagles.
I just don't like them.
(35:42):
I've had a couple of theirplayers on my fantasy teams and
they're great.
They've got some stars.
But their coach, nick Sirianni,is such a baby.
He's got a huge ego.
You can see him often likeyelling at fans during the game.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Like that's not like you should be focused on the
game.
Yeah, coach behavior.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
And he just is similar to Patrick Mahomes in
his attitude where, like, he'svery quickly the victim if
everything isn't in his favor,and you can see him just like
sometimes his assistant coachesare holding him back from like
altercations with the refs andstuff like that it just he just
lacks judgment from what I cansee, and I also just don't think
(36:22):
, jalen Hurts, their quarterbackis as good as people think he
is.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
Really.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
I feel like he's Justin Fields with a better,
with better wide receivers.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
The girlies on TikTok love him.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
He's a handsome man, but yeah, I'm just not about it
okay, so say um the bills tobuffalo.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
Yeah, buffalo bills go to the super bowl playing
against the washingtoncommanders.
That'll be tricky, because Iwant the bills to win, and
here's why okay, tell me.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
I know you know this, but I'll tell the audience.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
Okay, so I the Bills, because they play in crazy
weather, like huge snowstorms,like full on blizzard.
They still play and they playwith like short sleeves.
It's like almost like a rite ofpassage to be a Buffalo Bills
player, to like play in the snowand like it.
They're like playing with thesmell on their face and I feel
(37:20):
like it.
They're like playing with thesmell on their face and I feel
like it's an intimidation moveagainst the other team because
sometimes they'll play likemiami or like la, and like
obviously weather is a factor inthose, in those games, right.
But I just love the like, thestance of being like this has
like a backyard brawler kind ofyeah I'm a bills player, like I
can handle this, so I love that.
But then the other layer to thatis the Buffalo Bills fans.
So their stadium is outdoorsand when they get those crazy
snow storms they have to shoveltheir the seats like all the
(37:43):
stands out like and it's likefour feet of snow, like I've
seen videos of people going totheir seat and it's like this
huge stadium and they're likeplowing through, wearing snow
pants, plowing through threefeet of snow to sit in their
seat and they're like sitting insnow for the whole game and
they're happy about it, likethey're stoked Like a snow day
(38:05):
game.
The whole city is like excitedand they also ask their fans to
come to the stadium to shovelthe snow out for the games and
there's like hundreds of fansthat show up for like $20 an
hour and like free food toshovel the stand.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
Yeah, it's like a brand decision, like they could
easily just hire a snow removalcompany, but instead they choose
every time to put out a call tofans, and fans can volunteer to
do a shift and they'll pay them$20 an hour.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
Yeah, I feel like and I saw at the game that they
played this weekend.
It was snowing, it was aclassic Bills game and they were
happy about it, they werestoked about it and their fans
in the stands like with skigoggles on and no shirt and
they're just like pumped to bethere, like their team was in
the playoffs and they won, likeI just love that energy, like
(38:52):
with a town like that, like youcan't, you can't lose it's true,
it's true, I'm with you and Ithink if it was the commanders
against the Bills in the SuperBowl and you were cheering for
the Bills, I'd happily cheer forthe Bills with you yeah, the
other thing I do like is JoshAllen.
Their quarterback just gotengaged to Haley Steinfeld,
who's so like beautiful andgorgeous and a great support to
(39:16):
the team, and there's beeninterviews with other teammates
on the team about the engagementand they're all talking about
how like he's just a happy man,who's like in the prime of his
life, and I just think that's sosweet.
It's like.
This is why, you know, for someplayers, some people think it's
like really frivolous andunimportant to think about or
(39:36):
talk about the wags, but I feellike it matters, because if you
have a good home life and you'rehappy and you're like romantic
life, like it makes a differenceon the field.
And Josh Allen is a perfectexample of that.
So is Travis Kelsey.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
So we'd love to see it.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
Yeah, if the Chiefs win, I'll be happy for Travis
Kelsey.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
Yeah, I'll be happy for Travis Kelsey too.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
And he might retire.
Speaker 1 (39:59):
He said that Taylor's encouraging him to keep playing
.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
Okay, according to New Heights, which we listened
to the other day.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
That's why I don't like the Eagles is because Jason
Kelsey is there?
Speaker 1 (40:11):
No, I love Jason Kelsey, I know.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
I like him too, but he was like the bright spot of
the eagles yeah, yeah, true, um,okay.
Speaker 1 (40:19):
But speaking of wags, before we move on to that, I
want to give an update.
Kristen uschek, one of myfavorite wags in the whole
league.
She launched a sports apparelbrand called off season and she
launched it with emma greedwho's the ceo of skims, ceo of
good american.
She's basically like thebusiness person behind all the
(40:39):
successful kardashian brands.
I'm so excited for her because,if you, if you don't know,
kristen uschak is married tokyle uschak kyle uschak of the
san francisco 49ers and all lastseason she would make she's
like a self-taught designer andshe would take old jerseys and
merch and create like reallycool outfits and jackets and
(41:00):
vests and stuff like that.
And she had a bunch ofcelebrities start wearing her
stuff and the fact that she'slike formalized this like
passion and self-taught skilland partnered with like the most
amazing business brain in thegame, I'm just so excited for
her.
It's such a cool brand.
I feel like it's going to bereally successful.
Speaker 2 (41:20):
And they have an official partnership with the
NFL right.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
Yeah, so I love to see it.
Speaker 2 (41:26):
It's about to pop off .
Speaker 1 (41:27):
Yes, and then the other thing we haven't talked
about was Beyonce Bowl, whichfeels like it was forever ago,
but Like her performing at thehalftime show yeah at the
christmas game.
Yeah, yeah, that was cool itwas amazing, it is unparalleled
it sounds like they're going tobe doing that now.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
Every year at christmas they're they're going
to have like big halftimeperformers like that.
Speaker 1 (41:50):
So it's like the second super bowl the second
super bowl, which I'd love tosee.
Beyonce bowl was so good I Irewatched it so many times.
It's the first time sheperformed any of the Cowboy
Carter tracks, first time sheever performed Texas Hold'em.
Speaker 2 (42:02):
Has she made her announcement yet?
Speaker 1 (42:04):
No.
So after the performance, sheposted something on her
Instagram saying that there wasan announcement coming out on
January 15th.
Lots of people think it's goingto be a tour which we're going
to go.
Do, let's go um, but then shedelayed the announcement because
of the fires.
Speaker 2 (42:20):
Got it okay, so coming soon, so yeah, who knows?
Speaker 1 (42:22):
so save your pennies save your little pennies.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
Well, that's all we have for today, am I right?
It's true, okay?
Well, thanks for watching.
One important thing we need tonote is that yesterday we
dropped our 2025 trend reportsvia ScanClub, so head to
scanclubsubstackcom.
We'll drop the link in the shownotes if that's easier for you.
And yesterday we also droppedan episode with Alyssa, our
(42:46):
creative director and residentfuturist.
So if you haven't watched thatyet, make sure you check it out,
because we break down all thetrends in the trend report and
also what the process looks like, to kind of group the signals
that we're tracking throughoutthe year and articulate what
these trends are.
So it pulls up, pulls back thecurtain a little bit more on the
process and how we think aboutthese things and why they might
matter to you.
So check it out, let us knowwhat you think.
(43:09):
Um, find us on Instagram or TikTOK, cause it's banned.
And, yeah, send us a message.
Is that all?
Speaker 1 (43:17):
That's it.
Thanks for being here.
We'll see you next week.
Speaker 2 (43:20):
Time to smack the gong.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
Make it a good one.
Speaker 2 (43:26):
See you next week.
That was beautiful, thank you.
Welcome to Big Things .
I'm Mitzi.
This is Mike.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
And this is our show where we talk about the big
things we're watching inmarketing, social media, pop
culture and sports.
We'll also talk through thesignals that we're seeing that
could influence the future ofdigital marketing.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
You can catch the show every week on YouTube or
wherever you get your podcastsand, of course, be sure to
follow us on Instagram andTikTok for updates on every
episode.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Got a quick summary of what we're going to cover
today.
First, of course, we've got totalk about TikTok and the ban in
the US, what Meta's up to andthe NFL playoffs and WAGs
updates.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
I love hearing you talk about WAGs updates.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Can't miss the WAGs.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
I know it's an important piece of it, to be
honest.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
It's true.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Okay, should we start with the first one, the big
news of the weekend.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yeah, let's do it.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Okay, tiktok was banned.
For what was it?
14 hours?
Or at least it went down for USusers.
So late on January 18th, usersin the US started getting a
notification that TikTok was nolonger available, in compliance
with the US law banning TikTokin the US.
14 hours later it was back.
The statement from TikTok aboutit coming back were available
(01:19):
for US users.
It said, in agreement with ourservice providers, tiktok is in
the process of restoring service.
We thank President Trump forproviding the necessary clarity
and assurance to our serviceproviders that they will face no
penalties, providing TikTok toover 170 million Americans and
allowing over 7 million smallbusinesses to thrive.
(01:41):
It's a strong stand for thefirst amendment and against
arbitrary censorship.
We will work with presidenttrump on a long-term solution
that keeps tiktok in the unitedstates yeah, it's a high drama
weekend man, we've been talkingabout tiktok getting banned for
like a year or more.
It isn't, it is yeah it's beensuch a roller coaster so to see
(02:02):
it actually like get, I mean, itwasn't it's hard to say banned,
because it wasn't actuallybanned for us.
We were in Canada so we got toactually still be on TikTok, but
it was crazy to watch peopleshare the screenshots.
That's like TikTok is no longeravailable because the US has
banned it longer availablebecause the US has banned it.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
I know, and just to see all the reactions and the
alarm, the how alarmed peoplewere that it was no longer
available.
Totally Like we saw a lot oflead up to it with like creators
who make a living from TikTokbeing concerned, and we even saw
a TV commercial about TikTokand it was like a testimonial of
a small business that had goneviral on tiktok and like grew
astronomically because of it.
(02:49):
I was surprised to see a tvcommercial I know they're really
like leaning in and trying toplay the offense yeah, but it
seemed like two like parts ofamerica were were surprised when
it happened, like it's almostlike some people just don't
track with the news enough toeven have been privy to the fact
that this was looming.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Yeah, so I haven't been on TikTok for like a week
and I downloaded it back on myphone on Saturday just to kind
of see, like what's going on,what's the vibe, and it was so
interesting the mix of TikToksthat I saw.
There were some peopleliterally bawling, crying, like
being so sad, because they hadposted every day, several times
a day, for the last six years orsomething.
(03:32):
Then there were some people whowere like using this
opportunity to like confess likesomething about themselves that
nobody knew.
And then there were some peoplewho were just like thanking
their community and doingmashups of like where they were
in 2020 when they started theirTikTok and where they were now,
and so it was super likeinteresting to see all that,
like the the various levels ofpeople accepting that it was
(03:56):
going to go away.
But then it was really confusingbecause the next day I didn't
realize it was going to be back,or I don't know if anyone knew
it would be back, because thenext day I like watch all that
that night.
The next morning I went on toTikTok and people were it was
just like full of people like intheir beds, like turning on
their camera, being like can yousee me, can you see me?
And then I'm like huh, and so Iwas going through and it was so
(04:18):
many people like being likewe're back, we're back, like
just so back, like just so happy.
It was such an odd experience.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Like it feels like.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
It's like a weird episode of like.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
And in that short period of time, also like tons
of TikTok creators, decided tojoin that other Chinese social
platform, red Note.
I was reading up on it a littlebit and it seemed like there's
a lot of kind of like what seemsto be heartwarming interactions
between the like Chinese baseof users on the platform and
these new Americans that calledthemselves TikTok refugees.
(04:53):
Apparently a lot of them weresaying that they had to pay a
cat tax to join the platform,which was that they had to post
videos of like cats and dogs,like heartwarming videos.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Is that real?
Speaker 2 (05:05):
of, like cats and dogs, like heartwarming videos
is that real.
No that they didn't.
They didn't actually have to,but that was kind of like a
trend that happened, where it'slike I'm a tiktok refugee.
Here's a heartwarming cat video.
Can I hang, you know?
Speaker 1 (05:14):
imagine the legislators who've been telling
americans for over a year thatthis is a national security
threat, learning chinese andgoing over to this like random
chinese app where they've signedoff to like terms that are in
chinese.
They don't even know what theysay and they're like take all my
data.
Here we are like, obviously thelike we got to get tiktok back
(05:36):
because seeing people go to rednote, like there are worse
things that could happen right,yeah, it's interesting and
they're all like trying to learnChinese too, didn't?
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yeah, there's a crazy spike on Duolingo, like
millions of people suddenly liketrying to learn Chinese, and
I'm sure it's just because ofRed Note.
But a bit of a hot take andthis isn't a political show.
But I feel like, as it's kindof unraveled, I think that
TikTok didn't have to go dark.
I think it was something theydid on purpose for this short
(06:08):
period of time, to just likemake Americans feel the pain of
the absence of TikTok.
And I don't know if it wasstrategic by TikTok, because I
know ByteDance would obviouslylose a decent amount of money
from the outage, from losing allthose users, but I kind of feel
like it was strategic on thepart of the Trump administration
.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
To show.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
I feel like there's been backroom dealings between
the Trump administration andByteDance to get an extension,
and even just based on thenotices that were on people's
apps when they tried to log on.
It wasn't just a simple likeboilerplate business notice like
TikTok's, no longer availablein your area it was like.
We thank president Trump forbeing willing to work with us
(06:52):
and we're confident we'll beback online soon, you know.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
So I think there's.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
I don't know who is pulling the strings.
It's probably, if we're honest,it's probably the Trump
administration, but I thinkthey're going to end up getting
the credit for an extension andthen, I think, bigger than that
for the Trump administration.
I feel like there's going to besome sort of divestiture that
does happen in the next 90 daysthat ends up really benefiting
the US.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Beyond just a private US buyer.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
I kind of wonder if there's going to be some level
of, like government ownership orsomething like that.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
For sure of like government ownership or
something like that for sure.
And also all all the tech likeheads of tech are at are like
really coming to trump's side.
So I feel like it's they're allin cahoots and like if they
were to sell, like I'm sure thatwould just further support all
the like tech monopolymonopolies that exist too.
So like yeah, it's superinteresting, I if I like it's
(07:44):
actually pretty smart for trump,because gen z, the way they
were crying like as if someonewas dying because tiktok was
being banned, like they were onlive until the very last second.
And then there's like all thesescreen recordings of like
canadians screen recording,these like influencers like
crying.
They're on live, they're like Ithink it's gone, no one can see
(08:05):
me, and they're just like notokay and the Instagram algorithm
is trash no, but the otherthing I liked about those 14
hours where people like couldn'taccess TikTok is on Instagram
people were posting the mostunhinged content.
They like needed an outlet forthis.
Like, like other personalitythat like lives on TikTok and
they brought it to Instagram.
(08:26):
And Instagram was sointeresting that night because
people were starting to postreels as if they were TikToks.
So I don't know, it's aninteresting few days, I think.
Also, I'm sure it wasintentional, like to be out for
a little bit, because in thisweek where TikTok was going to
be banned and people knew it wasgoing to be banned and the the
(08:49):
amount of people that went tored note I'm sure was also a bit
of a move.
Like if I were part of thosenegotiations, you'd want to see
like look what could happen,like the alternative is worse
than people being on TikTok, youknow.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Yeah, there's layers to it, for sure.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
For sure.
Okay, not to be outdone.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Take us there.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
While all this was happening, on TikTok, meta
launched a new editing app plusa few other new Instagram
features, so it's been a busyweek.
We're going to walk you throughall the changes and also some
background to them.
So first, you might havenoticed that instagram rolled
out a new grid format.
So instead of a one by onesquare, they rolled out a four
(09:33):
by three portrait of the grid,which is really throwing people
for a loop.
People are not driving me nuts,really.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Yeah, just because, like all the real covers and
stuff that people did like, oreven just the way that like a
photo was cropped square nowlike someone's half their face
is cut off, or like half theheadline is cropped out.
You know, it's just.
And 4-3, isn't that likevisually appealing of a shape?
You know?
Speaker 1 (09:57):
like.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
I think the square made sense, or the 9-16
orientation of reels makes sense, like the 916 one is more of
like the golden triangle orwhatever, like the that rule,
that visual rule that's likemost appealing to the eye,
that's like what the shape ofthe iphone is I lost you, okay?
Speaker 1 (10:15):
yeah, anyways, all right so I don't know.
Four three is just this, likeawkward in between right, yeah,
I mean I feel bad for peoplewho've like made you know those
like grids that you can makewith your one by one square that
like all come into like abigger picture yeah, like those
people are not okay.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
All those brands that were like we're gonna do this
amazing nine grid to launch yeah, it just looks crazy I know it
looks insane um.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Instagram's also announcing that they'll be
simplifying the Instagramprofile.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
And they'll be simplifying the instagram
profile and they'll be groupinginstagram story highlights into
the grid somehow that one I sawin our notes before we got on
this show and I was like how isthat gonna work?
I don't know?
That one is confusing, I don'tlike that one.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
That one I'm I'm not okay with.
I love my instagram highlightsand I like going to people's
instagram highlights, so we'llsee.
Um, they also announced thatyou'll be able to rearrange your
grid, which is nice.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
I like that yeah, so you can like you can semi do
that right now just by pinningcertain ones, but the ability to
like fully customize what'slike at the top, like nine or
whatever it ends up being, isinteresting yeah, I'm into it.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
And they also announced you can post reels up
to three minutes long ratherthan two minutes long, which is
the TikTokification of Instagram, because on TikTok you can post
a video up to 10 minutes long,so they're not going that far
out, but most videos are threeminutes or under, so I think
(11:42):
this was like a no brainer.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
I wonder what the data is.
I wish I knew, like, thedifference, the potential
difference in viewership betweena two minute video and a three
minute video.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Or is it just?
Speaker 2 (11:52):
kind of like a perceived freedom and
flexibility for the user thatdoesn't really make a difference
.
No idea you know like veryrarely do you watch a full two
minute reel I feel like I do twominutes 120 seconds how long.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
The last long video I watched was mark zuckerberg's
announcement, which we're goingto talk about.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
That was five minutes wow I know you watched mark
zuckerberg for five minutes.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
I watched him for five minutes and the whole time
I was thinking about his hair.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
His hair is better now.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
You think?
Speaker 2 (12:29):
You think you were watching it in like a bad way.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Yeah, I didn't like it.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Do you remember what he looked like before?
Speaker 1 (12:36):
I need to see what he did to his hair for the
inauguration, because I hope.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
It's curly, is it yeah?
Speaker 1 (12:41):
I mean, I like curly hair, I just don't like how he
styled it.
Anyways, moving on, also,instagram introduced a Reels tab
where you can see the Reelsthat your friends like, and I
know people hate this because,like, it's like kind of
embarrassing if, like, someoneis watching a Reel that you
liked, like it's just, even ifit's like a funny Reel or like
an insightful reel, it's likethey're getting in your head a
(13:03):
little bit and you're like, oh,this person likes this reel.
Like I know it's weird, but Ipersonally love watching that
tab.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Can you see your own likes, like.
Is it kind of like TikTok,where you can like, like
something and then revisit itlater?
It's a way to kind of you cando that.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
But you have to like go through like layers of like
screens.
But this if you're in the reelstab and you're watching a reel
at the top right hand corner,it's like has your friends like
profile pics and like reels yourfriends have liked, so you can
click that and then watch justthe reels that your friends
liked and see who's liked themdo you like posts very often, or
(13:39):
reels like I feel like I don't.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
If I'm watching reels , I'll save something that I
want to go back to or.
I'll send it to a friend if Ithink it's funny and then
they'll like it.
But I feel like I pretty muchonly use the like feature now
when I it's like one of myfriends or someone or a brand I
like and I just want to likeboost it a little in the
algorithm.
It's not so much like I'mreacting to it.
Yeah, I like this.
(14:02):
It's more just like a sign ofsupport.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
No, I like it because I think it's just a habit and I
also know that if I likesomething I'll get more of that
stuff.
So all my likes are Bad Bunnyvideos.
It's like Bad Bunny in PuertoRico, bad Bunny people reacting
to Bad Bunny's album, bad Bunnysurprising someone at their door
with a band it's all Bad Bunnystuff.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
But then I love seeing other people reacting to
Bad Bunny stuff.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
But do you think the like actually makes that much of
a difference for what you getmore of in your algorithm, or is
it just what you spend timewatching?
Speaker 1 (14:34):
I think it's both the like I don't know if a like is
more than time spent but theyalso apparently look at what
accounts you follow.
The accounts you follow also.
But then I guess there's inthis new tab where you're just
watching reels your friends haveliked.
None of that matters, you knowright but I think it's really
(14:55):
fun to watch.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
I don't mind all this new stuff.
Like I.
I find sometimes you know thethe new feature rollout,
especially when it has to dowith the algorithm.
And then monseri has this likeheartwarming video where he's
just trying to be reallyauthentic and like let you know
that he sees you.
Like that stuff is annoying.
But I feel like lately they'vejust been like rocking with new
ideas and like putting stuff outthere and trying it and some of
(15:19):
it will stick and some of itwon't.
But I kind of like thatapproach.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Yeah, I mean, that's all you can do like it's not
that deep.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Yeah, exactly, give us new features and we'll tell
you.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
I think the thing that's it's funny.
This is my position.
It's like I kind of get annoyedwhen TikTok and Instagram like
they try to make it so deep,like we are supporting thousands
of small businesses, which isnot untrue, like I do believe,
and this is our business like weliterally do this for other
businesses, but all the changesthat they're doing isn't really
(15:51):
to support those businesses.
It's like now you can see whatyour friends like like is that
supporting a small business?
Speaker 2 (15:56):
I don't think so, you know yeah, but I feel like a
feature like that is probablymore like along the the lines of
what we know about how more ishappening in the dms, and it's
more about, like, sharingcontent with your like, becoming
like a more social platform,right, so it's probably leaning
into that, but I see what you'resaying the other thing.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Oh, speaking of adamassari before I move on,
according to the rumors onthreads, people think that he's
gonna resign.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Adam Aseri, because of all the the vibe changes at
meta yeah, and that he justlooks tired.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
You know, it's been a .
It's been a long year, eventhough the year just started
yeah, interesting.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Yeah, I feel like there's more of a widening
dissonance between his vibe andZuckerberg's vibe.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
For sure, zuckerberg is really, really transformed.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
He seems like he's.
He's on a journey.
Yeah for sure.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Okay, so the last Instagram update we wanted to
share is that they announced anew editing app called Edits,
which will allow for betterediting tools and likely a
response to ByteDance's CapCut,and the app will be available on
March 13th, but you canpre-download it now, whatever
that means.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Yeah, always, they're always good at the strategic
timely moves.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Yeah, this makes sense to me, like actually when,
when all the TikTok talk waslike going on about it being
banned and not available andlike people won't be able to
post and stuff.
I actually was really concernedabout CapCut because I use it
quite often for editing and Ijust I know it's owned by
ByteDance so I was like, how amI gonna edit?
(17:34):
And I don't like the otherediting platforms as much.
So I'm excited about what thisnew editing app will be like and
I hope it's good.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
I've always kind of wondered too if if there's like
algorithmic implications onInstagram if it's a video edited
in CapCut probably, you knowlike.
I wouldn't put it past meta torecognize metadata from a CapCut
video and like deprioritize itjust because it's from a
competitor.
Yeah, they're so silly okay,not anymore with the edits app
(18:03):
let's get into somethingcontroversial.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
You ready?
Speaker 2 (18:06):
I guess we are a political podcast.
Now let's go.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
No, this is not a political podcast.
Everyone calm down.
So the most controversialupdate it just wouldn't be right
to not talk about this.
You know, mark Zuckerbergannounced they will be shifting
away from third-partyfact-checkers and will be
relying on community notes formoderation.
So, just to give you somecontext, meta first introduced
fact-checking in 2016 as aneffort to curb misinformation.
(18:31):
If you remember, misinformationwas like the word of the year,
like it was really hard to knowwhat was true, what wasn't, and
it was a lot of political newsjust being shared at wherever on
Facebook, instagram, and it wasa really confusing time.
The initiative was launched inresponse to criticism over
Facebook's role in spreadingfalse claims during the 2016 US
(18:54):
presidential election, and a2023 statement from Meta said
that fact-checking program hasexpanded to nearly 100
organizations working in morethan 60 languages globally.
So this was a huge effort.
Fast forward to two weeks ago,zuckerberg, in a video that was
five minutes long, he cited thatthey were going to be changing
(19:16):
their fact checkers, and hecited a cultural tipping point
that the fact checkers have mademistakes and too many mistakes,
and so they're going to changethe program in general.
So, instead of fact checking,they're moving to community
notes system, which is the samesystem adopted by x, and one
thing that he said in his videothat I wanted to quote.
(19:38):
He said the recent election hassignaled a tipping point for
allowing more free expression onthe platform.
He also cited that factcheckers have been too
politically biased and destroyedmore trust than they created,
and so they're getting rid oftheir program entirely.
So this is a big deal yeah, itis to be honest.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
I think it makes sense yeah um, I think it makes
sense for meta from a in abusiness decision, but I also
think it makes sense in more oflike a social context as well.
And this is why, first thebusiness side of things, I think
if they have that manyorganizations 100 organizations
across 60 languages globallythink about how much that costs
(20:20):
meta.
To pay these organizations todo that so proactively and then
to go to more of a crowdsourcedcommunity approach is like
cutting massive costs for them.
So obviously, from a businessstandpoint, there's logic there.
From a social standpoint, Ithink it actually is better to
even just for like people andlike mental health and like
(20:40):
relationships, but also justlike rights and freedoms, cause
I think the fact-checkingapproach feels a little more
dystopian in the sense of likeif you say the wrong thing
according to an anonymous factchecker, you get shut down, you
know your content disappears oryou get suspended or whatever
might happen.
But with the community approachthere's real people still, but
(21:03):
it's like more public facing youknow, someone can add a
community note with a referenceto like an article or whatever
that that negates whatever thefalse claim was, and it's public
.
So the content remains up, buteveryone can see that there's
facts or evidence that say thatthis is untrue.
It just adds more like socialpressure to say the truth you
(21:25):
know and to own if you don't.
And rather than the contentjust disappearing, it's still
there for everyone to see.
And then not only is itcorrected through community
notes, but then peopleunderstand if something that has
been kind of perpetuated isuntrue.
So I kind of like it and Ithink it's worked well on X.
So there's precedent for it.
So I'm interested to see how itrolls out.
(21:47):
But all that to say, I thinkI'm in favor.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Yeah, I think it's super interesting because in the
video he also talked about likeso many mistakes happening.
So people are getting flaggedfor like being by a fact checker
and a nominous fact checker andthen it taking months for their
profile to get manuallyreviewed and approved and then
getting their account back upand it's just like too many of
(22:12):
those mistakes have beenhappening.
So I feel like this is just likea correction of something that
they they were so fast and loosewith this decision to employ
fact checkers.
I just feel like even at thetime although it was like a
confusing time, it didn't itfelt too fast and too like
(22:32):
intense to go that far to say,like anyone who posts anything
that could be in the realm ofpolitics which is like life, you
know, challenges, whatever likeeven even people, people who
were talking about theirexperiences as like someone with
a disability or someone withlike a different lifestyle, like
they were getting their contentwas getting banned because it
(22:56):
didn't meet the necessaryrequirements.
So I I'm in favor of some ofthese changes happening because
their fact checkers were toobiased, because I think if
everything on Meta and Instagramhas to be approved by these
biased fact checkers, likewhat's the point of being on
that platform?
So I feel like they'reovercorrecting something that
(23:17):
they went too far in.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Right, yeah.
And I don't think it's to saythat all the fact checkers were
biased.
No, yeah.
And I don't think it's to saythat all the fact checkers were
biased.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
But he said even if 1% were, if there was a 1%
margin of error or somethingthat's millions of posts.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
For sure which is true, and there's no
accountability.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
There was no accountability Because the
content is just removed.
Yeah, and it depends on whatyou think should be removed or
not as a fact checker.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
But the community notes approach allows for like
public discourse around what'strue or what isn't, and like
evidence based sharing and stufflike that and to be fair.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
he did say that there are some things and subjects
that will be like banned ormoderated, which is just the
stuff you would imagine shouldbe, so that's good.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Yeah, being a content moderator on a social platform
like that would be really hard,like mentally.
You'd see a lot of crazy stuff.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
I know yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Should we get to thing three?
Speaker 1 (24:14):
Yeah, on a lighter note.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
It's the playoffs for the NFL.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Woo.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Our favorite sport.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Our favorite sport, our favorite league.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Yeah, this is the best time to watch football
because it's do or die.
You win or you go home.
So far we've seen Kansas Cityadvance.
They beat the Houston Texans.
Unfortunately.
I think everyone truthfullywanted to see the Texans win
because we're all just tired.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
We're tired of Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas
City Chiefs.
He walks funny.
He does, yeah, he does.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
He does walk funny.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Yeah, and there naturally was high drama from
that game around somecontroversial calls, and I think
now it's just evident toeverybody except Kansas City
fans that Patrick Mahomes islike kind of taking advantage of
the system and doing everythinghe can to draw calls from the
refs and it's influencing theoutcome of the game instead of
(25:09):
just leaving it to goodold-fashioned competition
between two teams.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
So you think the refs are in his favor?
Speaker 2 (25:16):
I'm sure that the refs aren't incentivized to be
in their favor, but thingshappen fast and they're doing
their best, but they're from theobserver standpoint.
You can tell that it's beingmanipulated.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
I think he's playing football like a soccer player,
like he's being so dramatic andmaking it seem like like that
one play where he was like goingout of bounds.
He just like fell into like thegrass and like he didn't need
to do that.
He would have just like walkedoff.
But I feel like he's trying toget more of a reaction and like
call attention to things so thatthere's gets.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
They get penalties yeah, and it's hard because the
NFL wants to protect their mostvaluable assets and so like a
quarterback is some of thehighest paid and most like
notable players on the teams andmahomes isn't like a big
physical quarterback either.
So when he gets hit they likesnap to attention and want to
(26:14):
want to like call a penalty toprotect them right but then you
got other quarterbacks like joshallen and lamar jackson, who
are they run a lot, they're morephysical and they take hits.
That would get called everysingle time if it was on my
homes.
But they don't get the calls,so it's hard to.
(26:36):
It feels pretty clear as a fanto see that there's a lack of
consistency in the way thatpenalties are called on
quarterback hits.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
But yeah, it's tough Well hopefully, like I've even
seen a lot of talk about thatstuff and I haven't paid
attention to any of that.
So it's like I'm sure, with allthat pressure, the next game
the refs will have to be a bitmore even.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Yeah, and then some of the Houston players were
pretty even the coach werepretty clear about what they
thought about the game in thepress conference afterwards it
was us against everybody andthey're like do you mean the
refs?
Speaker 1 (27:10):
and he's like I mean everybody.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Yeah and then even one of the chiefs players
tweeted afterwards that hemisses the old days when players
would just own their losseslike a man and then everyone
kind of like got after that guytoo.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
He said that about the coach.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
And some of the players that had made similar
comments.
But it's funny because earlierin the season I think the Chiefs
only lost this year.
The whole Chiefs team,especially Patrick Mahomes, were
so upset about the refs in thatgame when they lost to the
Bills and felt that it was sucha ridiculous call.
And even when Patrick Mahomesat the end of the game went to
(27:47):
shake Josh Allen's hand hedidn't even say good game, he
was just like that was thecraziest call I've ever seen and
he was just obviously so upsetit's just I'm sportsman, like
yeah, so that just makes itworse, like not only are you
typically getting what feels tobe favoritism from officiating,
but when you suddenly lose onegame on what you think is a bad
(28:08):
call, now you're a victim, it'sjust yeah I can see why fans are
just up in arms against we'reover him.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
Yeah, okay, I was trying to figure out like I've
been watching games with you andI've been paying.
I've've been a good studentthis season.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
For sure.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
One thing I can't figure out is like who, like I
need like a graph of like wherewe're at with the teams that are
left and like who's going tothe Super Bowl.
Yeah, you just Google NFLplayoff bracket I looked, I did,
and they just have like AFCNorth, and what's that one?
Speaker 2 (28:41):
NFC.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
NFC.
And then I had like one, two,three, four.
It was like two columns, butthe but the bill or detroit was
in there.
Still, I'm like didn't they losewell, because it kind of
cascades, like it starts on theoutside with all the teams that
made the playoffs right and itcomes in towards that's what I,
I can visually see it's like abracket right, but like what the
(29:02):
nflcom site is showing, it'slike two columns and it's like a
bracket Right, but like whatthe NFLcom site is showing, it's
like two columns and it's likeI understand.
The winner of each divisionwill go to the Super Bowl, to
the playoffs, to the playoffsand then the Super Bowl.
The winner of the AFC Northgoes to the Super Bowl.
The AFC oh, sorry.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
AFC North is a division in the A afc, but the
afc is the conference and thenthe nfc is a conference.
They're all split in, so that'sthe two columns, and then
within the afc there's multipledivisions and with it in the nfc
there's multiple divisions yeahbut that only matters up to the
point when playoffs begin, andthen from there the teams in
(29:42):
this column and the teams inthat column compete, and then
the ones that win move on.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Yeah, I'm just trying to see, like, who do the Bills
play next to go to the SuperBowl?
Speaker 2 (29:51):
The Bills play the Kansas City Chiefs.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
To go to the Super Bowl, yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
They play in their conference championship, and
then the commanders play theEagles in their conference
championship.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
So it's Haley Steinfeld versus Taylor Swift.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Yeah, and Brittany Mahomes Right, and apparently
Kaitlyn Clark, she was in thebooth in the suite with Taylor.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
You know that's the one thing about watching a
Kansas City game.
I agree, I'm so over PatrickMahomes.
I don't want them to go to theSuper Bowl, but I do like seeing
all the hype around Taylorbeing there.
I feel like she's such a goodwag.
She's so good for the game.
And then she was in her littlelike suite with Caitlin Clark
next to her, which was so cool.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
It all plays a factor .
I was thinking about thisbecause obviously the NFL is an
entertainment business.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
So you got to think there's.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
I don't think it's fully scripted, but I think
there's influences and there'sstrings that can be pulled to
like try to favor a storyline ifwe're honest.
And so I was trying to think of, like, what are the, what are
the storylines that we can kindof extract here that could be on
the NFL's radar and what's leftto tell of this playoff story?
(31:04):
And I think there's three.
One is the Kansas City Chiefs.
This if they win this year,that would be the a three-peat.
They would win three in a row,which is the first time in NFL
history wow and obviously alongthat storyline used you have
kind of some of the star powerlike Taylor Swift and her
relationship with Travis andTravis is probably close to
retiring and even some of theseother fans and wags that kind of
(31:27):
revolve around Kansas City.
Obviously, Andy Reid is reallyone of the best coaches of all
time, so that would add to hisaccolades.
So that's one storyline.
Another storyline is more ofthe underdog story, which is the
Buffalo Bills and Josh Allen,who have been one of the few
teams that felt like a contenderagainst Kansas City over the
(31:48):
last three or four years.
They've come close to beatingthem in the playoffs.
They've beaten them in theregular season.
He's another talented youngquarterback.
It's a really solid program withwith great fans and a great wag
yes, right, and so the more ofthe underdog story of the
buffalo bills, stopping thethree pete and stopping the
(32:09):
kansas city dynasty.
That could be another corestoryline.
The third one, which I'mgetting increasingly invested in
, is the idea of a rookiequarterback in his first year
with a team that had a losingrecord last year coming in and
winning a Superbowl in his firstseason.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Who's?
Speaker 2 (32:25):
that that would be the commanders with Jaden
Daniels.
So Washington's had a hard time.
They went through a wholerebrand.
They used to be the WashingtonRedskins.
Now they're the Washingtoncommanders.
For a whole season they werejust the nameless Washington
football team.
They just got rid of a reallytoxic, um unethical owner and
(32:45):
now have a new ownership group.
So they're kind of rebuildingthe whole organization.
They had gone through somelawsuits with that previous
owner around like like sexualmisconduct and like even just
harassment in general in theworkplace okay and then they
draft.
They get a new ownership group,they draft a new rookie
quarterback in the this mostrecent draft and suddenly he
(33:08):
comes in and just turns theorganization around.
So I really like that story andthey just, I know you're a
Lions fan and they just beat theLions, so it's hard to get on
that bandwagon.
But um yeah, if it's going tobe anyone, it may as well be
them.
Yeah, okay, I like it, so it'dbe the first time in history, to
my knowledge, that a rookiequarterback wins the Superbowl.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
That's crazy.
So he was just drafted.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
That means he's like 20 yeah, he's young, he's really
young.
Yeah, early 20s, I want to saywell, actually I think he's 24
that's still so young yeah,because he played a full four
years of college.
Wow, yeah okay.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
Well, I don't mind that story, although I'm really
sad about, um, detroit losingthe Detroit Lions.
Um, if you, if you like, whyare you sad about Detroit losing
?
It's because Detroit Lions hasthe most wholesome, precious
head coach named Dan Campbelland he's just like good dad,
(34:07):
energy, sweet man, who likereally cares with his whole
heart about his team and he doesthe most amazing post-game
locker speeches and he likewears his heart on his sleeve.
And he's also a former player,so you can tell like he's got,
like he's got the like that dogin him.
He's like ready to go out onthe field with the boys, like he
(34:28):
doesn't expect them to doanything that he wouldn't do.
He just seems like an honorable, good guy definitely I'm with
you and I wanted him to win andthey hit.
They have a really good teamthis year, but they just really
did not do a good job on Sundayand they lost to the commanders
even though they were the numberone seed and and had a great
season, they came into thisround of the playoffs with a ton
(34:50):
of injuries.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
I'm pretty sure I think it was around like 22
players on injured reserve, wow,and most of them were on
defense, so their defense wasdecimated.
So we we saw like it was ashootout.
They obviously still had theability to put up a lot of
points, but because of the lackof health on their defensive
side, they couldn't stop yeah,their defense from scoring
(35:11):
points, yeah, okay, so youtalked about three storylines
like who would you?
Speaker 1 (35:14):
would you like you have to pick one?
Who do you want to win theSuper Bowl?
Well, I guess, go to the SuperBowl and win.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
Yeah Well, I want it to be Buffalo against Washington
in the Super Bowl and I thinkif that was the case I would
probably cheer for the rookiequarterback with Washington.
But I mean, I'd be happy witheither outcome.
I just don't.
I don't want it to be theEagles or the chiefs Chiefs.
I've already said why theEagles.
I just don't like them.
(35:42):
I've had a couple of theirplayers on my fantasy teams and
they're great.
They've got some stars.
But their coach, nick Sirianni,is such a baby.
He's got a huge ego.
You can see him often likeyelling at fans during the game.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Like that's not like you should be focused on the
game.
Yeah, coach behavior.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
And he just is similar to Patrick Mahomes in
his attitude where, like, he'svery quickly the victim if
everything isn't in his favor,and you can see him just like
sometimes his assistant coachesare holding him back from like
altercations with the refs andstuff like that it just he just
lacks judgment from what I cansee, and I also just don't think
(36:22):
, jalen Hurts, their quarterbackis as good as people think he
is.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
Really.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
I feel like he's Justin Fields with a better,
with better wide receivers.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
The girlies on TikTok love him.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
He's a handsome man, but yeah, I'm just not about it
okay, so say um the bills tobuffalo.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
Yeah, buffalo bills go to the super bowl playing
against the washingtoncommanders.
That'll be tricky, because Iwant the bills to win, and
here's why okay, tell me.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
I know you know this, but I'll tell the audience.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
Okay, so I the Bills, because they play in crazy
weather, like huge snowstorms,like full on blizzard.
They still play and they playwith like short sleeves.
It's like almost like a rite ofpassage to be a Buffalo Bills
player, to like play in the snowand like it.
They're like playing with thesmell on their face and I feel
(37:20):
like it.
They're like playing with thesmell on their face and I feel
like it's an intimidation moveagainst the other team because
sometimes they'll play likemiami or like la, and like
obviously weather is a factor inthose, in those games, right.
But I just love the like, thestance of being like this has
like a backyard brawler kind ofyeah I'm a bills player, like I
can handle this, so I love that.
But then the other layer to thatis the Buffalo Bills fans.
So their stadium is outdoorsand when they get those crazy
snow storms they have to shoveltheir the seats like all the
(37:43):
stands out like and it's likefour feet of snow, like I've
seen videos of people going totheir seat and it's like this
huge stadium and they're likeplowing through, wearing snow
pants, plowing through threefeet of snow to sit in their
seat and they're like sitting insnow for the whole game and
they're happy about it, likethey're stoked Like a snow day
(38:05):
game.
The whole city is like excitedand they also ask their fans to
come to the stadium to shovelthe snow out for the games and
there's like hundreds of fansthat show up for like $20 an
hour and like free food toshovel the stand.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
Yeah, it's like a brand decision, like they could
easily just hire a snow removalcompany, but instead they choose
every time to put out a call tofans, and fans can volunteer to
do a shift and they'll pay them$20 an hour.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
Yeah, I feel like and I saw at the game that they
played this weekend.
It was snowing, it was aclassic Bills game and they were
happy about it, they werestoked about it and their fans
in the stands like with skigoggles on and no shirt and
they're just like pumped to bethere, like their team was in
the playoffs and they won, likeI just love that energy, like
(38:52):
with a town like that, like youcan't, you can't lose it's true,
it's true, I'm with you and Ithink if it was the commanders
against the Bills in the SuperBowl and you were cheering for
the Bills, I'd happily cheer forthe Bills with you yeah, the
other thing I do like is JoshAllen.
Their quarterback just gotengaged to Haley Steinfeld,
who's so like beautiful andgorgeous and a great support to
(39:16):
the team, and there's beeninterviews with other teammates
on the team about the engagementand they're all talking about
how like he's just a happy man,who's like in the prime of his
life, and I just think that's sosweet.
It's like.
This is why, you know, for someplayers, some people think it's
like really frivolous andunimportant to think about or
(39:36):
talk about the wags, but I feellike it matters, because if you
have a good home life and you'rehappy and you're like romantic
life, like it makes a differenceon the field.
And Josh Allen is a perfectexample of that.
So is Travis Kelsey.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
So we'd love to see it.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
Yeah, if the Chiefs win, I'll be happy for Travis
Kelsey.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
Yeah, I'll be happy for Travis Kelsey too.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
And he might retire.
Speaker 1 (39:59):
He said that Taylor's encouraging him to keep playing
.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
Okay, according to New Heights, which we listened
to the other day.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
That's why I don't like the Eagles is because Jason
Kelsey is there?
Speaker 1 (40:11):
No, I love Jason Kelsey, I know.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
I like him too, but he was like the bright spot of
the eagles yeah, yeah, true, um,okay.
Speaker 1 (40:19):
But speaking of wags, before we move on to that, I
want to give an update.
Kristen uschek, one of myfavorite wags in the whole
league.
She launched a sports apparelbrand called off season and she
launched it with emma greedwho's the ceo of skims, ceo of
good american.
She's basically like thebusiness person behind all the
(40:39):
successful kardashian brands.
I'm so excited for her because,if you, if you don't know,
kristen uschak is married tokyle uschak kyle uschak of the
san francisco 49ers and all lastseason she would make she's
like a self-taught designer andshe would take old jerseys and
merch and create like reallycool outfits and jackets and
(41:00):
vests and stuff like that.
And she had a bunch ofcelebrities start wearing her
stuff and the fact that she'slike formalized this like
passion and self-taught skilland partnered with like the most
amazing business brain in thegame, I'm just so excited for
her.
It's such a cool brand.
I feel like it's going to bereally successful.
Speaker 2 (41:20):
And they have an official partnership with the
NFL right.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
Yeah, so I love to see it.
Speaker 2 (41:26):
It's about to pop off .
Speaker 1 (41:27):
Yes, and then the other thing we haven't talked
about was Beyonce Bowl, whichfeels like it was forever ago,
but Like her performing at thehalftime show yeah at the
christmas game.
Yeah, yeah, that was cool itwas amazing, it is unparalleled
it sounds like they're going tobe doing that now.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
Every year at christmas they're they're going
to have like big halftimeperformers like that.
Speaker 1 (41:50):
So it's like the second super bowl the second
super bowl, which I'd love tosee.
Beyonce bowl was so good I Irewatched it so many times.
It's the first time sheperformed any of the Cowboy
Carter tracks, first time sheever performed Texas Hold'em.
Speaker 2 (42:02):
Has she made her announcement yet?
Speaker 1 (42:04):
No.
So after the performance, sheposted something on her
Instagram saying that there wasan announcement coming out on
January 15th.
Lots of people think it's goingto be a tour which we're going
to go.
Do, let's go um, but then shedelayed the announcement because
of the fires.
Speaker 2 (42:20):
Got it okay, so coming soon, so yeah, who knows?
Speaker 1 (42:22):
so save your pennies save your little pennies.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
Well, that's all we have for today, am I right?
It's true, okay?
Well, thanks for watching.
One important thing we need tonote is that yesterday we
dropped our 2025 trend reportsvia ScanClub, so head to
scanclubsubstackcom.
We'll drop the link in the shownotes if that's easier for you.
And yesterday we also droppedan episode with Alyssa, our
(42:46):
creative director and residentfuturist.
So if you haven't watched thatyet, make sure you check it out,
because we break down all thetrends in the trend report and
also what the process looks like, to kind of group the signals
that we're tracking throughoutthe year and articulate what
these trends are.
So it pulls up, pulls back thecurtain a little bit more on the
process and how we think aboutthese things and why they might
matter to you.
So check it out, let us knowwhat you think.
(43:09):
Um, find us on Instagram or TikTOK, cause it's banned.
And, yeah, send us a message.
Is that all?
Speaker 1 (43:17):
That's it.
Thanks for being here.
We'll see you next week.
Speaker 2 (43:20):
Time to smack the gong.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
Make it a good one.
Speaker 2 (43:26):
See you next week.
That was beautiful, thank you.
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