November 18, 2025 • 39 mins
Are algorithms controlling our lives? To find the answer, we tell the story of how Netflix survived the pressure of perhaps the most powerful company in the world...using just a comedian and an algorithm. Along the way, we hear from Gina Keating, author of Netflixed: The Epic Battle for America's Eyeballs. You may think Big Tech holds all of the cards in our brave new world...but you hold more power than you realize.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
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Speaker 1 (00:51):
This episode was originally broadcast on November fourth, twenty twenty two.
Something new is now lurking amongst us at all times.
They're called algorithms, artificial intelligence, chatbots, search rankings, online recommendations.
Regardless of their branding, algorithms appear to have a growing
(01:13):
influence on American lives.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Algorithms are taking over the world.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
You're being subtly manipulated by algorithms that are watching everything
you do constantly.
Speaker 5 (01:22):
There's a lot of argument that algorithms cause arguments and
cause strife.
Speaker 6 (01:28):
TikTok's algorithm can influence the thinking and the minds of
US youth.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
With algorithms popping up in nearly every avenue of modern society,
it begs the question, our algorithms controlling American lives.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
I'm Patrick Curlci and I'm Adriana Cortez.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
And this is Red Pilled America a storytelling show.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
This is not another talk show covering the day's news.
We are all about telling stories.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Stories. Hollywood doesn't want you to hear stories.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
The media marks stories about everyday Americans at the Globalist Ignore.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
You could think of Red Pilled America as audio documentaries,
and we've promised only one thing, the truth.
Speaker 7 (02:18):
Welcome to Red Pilled America.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
In technical terms, an algorithm is a step by step
action to be followed in calculations or other problem solving operations.
They've been around at least as long as mathematics. In
eighteen hundred BC, ancient Babylonian clay tablets displayed algorithms to
explain algebraic procedures, and they've been used by human problem
(02:50):
solvers and troublemakers ever since. The word algorithm began entering
the American lexicon with the introduction of the personal computer,
but it wasn't until the arrival of the Internet the
algorithm started to noticeably impact our daily lives. Today, they
seem to be in every crevice of modern existence. Search
(03:11):
online for fitness tips, and an algorithm will deliver an
endless stream of nutritional supplement ads in your social media feeds.
Watch some Joe Rogan interview clips on YouTube, and Google's
algorithm will recommend that you watch videos of the many
guests he's had on the show. Chat with an online
retail support staff, and chances are you're actually communicating with
(03:32):
an algorithm. All of these applications may appear benign, even helpful,
but some believe that algorithms are playing a much more
nefarious role in our daily lives.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
We are creating intelligent systems that are part of our
everyday life, and very few people are getting to make
the decisions about how they work.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
With these bits of code being nearly ubiquitous, it begs
the question our algorithms controlling our lives. To find the answer,
we tell this story of how Netflix survived a battle
with perhaps the most powerful company in the world using
just a comedian and an algorithm. You may think big
tech holds all the cards in our brave new world.
(04:15):
But you hold more power than you realize.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
It was early October twenty twenty one when a legendary
funny man launched his new special.
Speaker 8 (04:37):
I personally am not afraid of other people's freedom of expression.
I don't use it as a weapon. It just makes
me feel better. And I'm sorry if I heard anybody,
et cetera, YadA YadA, Yeah, everything I'm sposed to say.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Five years earlier, Dave Chappelle signed a deal to produce
comedy specials for streaming giant Netflix. He was reportedly getting
paid a whopping twenty million dollars per episode. By early
October twenty twenty one, he'd already produced five, and his
fans were eagerly awaiting the final installment in his series.
The building anticipation was understandable. Dave Chappelle was and is
(05:10):
considered one of the greatest comedians of all time, an
honor bestowed on him by his fellow comics.
Speaker 5 (05:16):
Look, he's clearly the most popular comedian on planet Earth.
He's number one. He's clearly one of the greatest comedians
that's ever left.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Clearly, Dave, in my opinion, you're the goat. In my opinion, your.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Last special has allowed you to surpass the Richard Pryor.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
In my opinion, his peers hold him in such high
regard because Dave Chappelle is willing to venture into topics
that most mainstream comics won't. Dare tread.
Speaker 8 (05:47):
I had read in a paper that Caitlyn Jenna was
contemplating posing nude and an upcoming issue of Sports Illustrated.
And I know it's not politically correct to say these things,
so I just figured Cat, I'll say it for everybody else.
Speaker 9 (06:03):
Yuck.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Now, in delivering jokes like that, it's clear to see
that Dave Chappelle does benefit from a bit of a privilege.
As a black comedian, he has the flexibility to address
controversial topics in a way that a white male comic
cannot so. In his final Netflix special, entitled The Closer,
debuted on October fifth, twenty twenty one, no one imagined
(06:27):
there was a joke that could seriously put Dave Chappelle
in jeopardy of being canceled. That is, no one except
Dave himself. Starting from the first installment of his Netflix
(06:48):
series The Funny Man, had taken comic jabs at the
LGBTQ movement.
Speaker 10 (06:53):
Store educates me about this movement.
Speaker 11 (06:55):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 8 (06:55):
I didn't even know about it.
Speaker 9 (06:56):
He told me it's.
Speaker 10 (06:57):
Called l b GQ Q. I was like, what the
is the Q? Does that he make sense? Q? Turns
out Q was like the vows That is sometimes why
for gay dudes that don't really know that.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Gay jokes like these weren't mean spirited. They were just funny,
And each special seemed to come back to this same topic.
Speaker 8 (07:27):
Everybody's mad about something recently. I got attacked online by
some gay bloggers and it hurt my feelings.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
By the end of his second special, he'd already sparked
the ire of one particular letter in this alphabet movement,
and he expressed it in his next show.
Speaker 8 (07:43):
You know who hates me the most? The transgender community.
Y oh yeah, these, I mean, I didn't realize how
bad it was these. I was really mad about that
last Netflix special.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
As this series progressed, Dave Chappelle dug a deeper hole
for himself. By his fifth installment, he acknowledged that transgenders
had just about had enough of his brand of comedy.
Speaker 8 (08:06):
He will be surprised. I have friends all kinds of letters.
Everybody loves me, and I love everybody. I got friends
with L I got friends with b's, and I got
friends with g's. But the keys hate my guts. I
don't know, and I don't blame them. It's not their fault,
it's mine. I can't stop telling jokes about these I
(08:30):
don't want to write these jokes, but I just can't stop.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Apparently a certain segment within the Alphabet movement didn't appreciate
Dave's jokes, but the comedian didn't care. By his final
Netflix special Discloser, he made them the central theme of
his show.
Speaker 8 (08:48):
I like to start by addressing the lbgt Q community correctly.
I want to remember that community to know that I
come the other.
Speaker 9 (08:58):
Night in peace.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
He then proceeded to deliver one lgbt Q joke after another,
including one that wove in a story about a rapper
named the Baby that had recently been canceled for disparaging gays.
Speaker 8 (09:11):
The Baby was the number one streamy artist until about
a couple of weeks ago. So the Nasty spill on
stage and said said some wild stuff about the lbgt
Q community during a concert in Florida. Now you know,
I go hard in the paint. But even I saw
that it was like the baby, Ooh, he pushed the button,
(09:34):
didn't he? He pushed the button punched the LBGTQ community
right in aids can't do that. But I do believe,
and I'll made this point later that the kid made
a very egregious mistake. I will acknowledge that. But you know,
(09:56):
a lot of the LBGTQ community doesn't know the baby's history.
He's a wild guy. He once shot and killed him
in Walmart. Nothing bad happened to his career. Do you
(10:16):
see where I'm going with this? In our country, you
can shoot and kill him, but you better not hurt
a gay person's feelings.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
The point was clear, according to Dave Chappelle. In modern culture,
you can't upset the Alphabet crew. But it was all
said and fun. The comedian was doing what he does,
making people laugh with no boundaries. Dave's approach is why
(10:48):
he's the most popular comic on the planet.
Speaker 7 (10:52):
Well.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
When his final special hit Netflix, the media took Dave
Chappelle to task, claiming that the Alphabet movement was livid.
Speaker 12 (10:59):
Chappelle's comments about the transgender and LGBTQ plus communities have
outraged many who are now calling for the Special to
be removed.
Speaker 13 (11:07):
Words have consequences, and people with platforms like mister Chappelle's
have a higher responsibility to be aware of that and
to recognize that what they say leads to actions by others.
Speaker 14 (11:20):
Is there a potential harm that comes from this? Absolutely
is Dave contributing to the national conversation that would otherise
trans people and lead to situations where they cannot walk
down the street without being threatened and or killed, which
happens all the time.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Absolutely, he's contributing to that, and the National Black Justice
Coalition is calling on Netflix to remove the special from
the streaming service.
Speaker 12 (11:47):
Glad weighing in tweeting Dave Chappelle's brand has become synonymous
with ridiculing trans people and other marginalized communities, and Jacqueline Moore,
the executive producer of Dear White People, streaming on Netflix,
says she won't work with the streaming giant as law
long as they continue to put out and profit from
blatantly and dangerously transphobic content. No comments so far from
(12:10):
Chappelle or Netflix.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
As the controversy began to get traction, the media started
to hone in on one person, The co head of
Netflix Ted Sarandos, attempting to pressure him into taking down
Dave Special. Mister Sarandos was forced to respond.
Speaker 15 (12:26):
In an internal memo first obtained by The Verge, the
company's co CEO writing, we don't allow titles on Netflix
that are designed to incite hate or violence, and we
don't believe The Closer crosses that line.
Speaker 16 (12:36):
Netflix as they stand by day, they will not be
removing his content.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
In response, the media spun up the drama, inviting transactivists
on their platform to amplify their outreach.
Speaker 17 (12:48):
As a white person, you don't get to tell us
what is racist what is not racist.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
With the co CEO of Netflix backing Chappelle, the conflict
got raised up a knot.
Speaker 15 (13:03):
Today a group of transgender employees at Netflix announcing plans
to stage a walkout next week.
Speaker 18 (13:09):
October twentieth is the date when trans employees of Netflix
are planning a walkout in protest of statements made by
their company's co CEO in support of Dave Chappelle's latest
comedy special, The Closer. Organizers of the Netflix walkout have
accused the streaming giant of quote repeatedly releasing content that
harms the trans community and continually failing to create content
(13:32):
that represents and uplifts trans content.
Speaker 15 (13:36):
One of the employees, trans software developer Terra Field, had
openly questioned Netflix's decision to air the special, tweeting promoting
turf ideology, which is what we did by giving it
a platform yesterday, directly harms trans.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
People, with the media hyping the employee walkout. Another Netflix
comic came out in Dave's defense, And.
Speaker 5 (13:55):
If you get down to Dave Chappelle's real feelings, he's
a lovely person. He's one of the nicest people I've
ever met in my life. He loves everybody. He's not
a hateful soul. He's beyond jealous. He's just a guy
who loves this art form called stand up comedy, and
(14:15):
he tries to do his best navigating through this world
of talking about things and saying outrageous things that get
huge laughs or placating really sensitive groups that feel like
they're in a protected class. And they equate any jokes
with hate, and this is where they're wrong. Like I'm
(14:37):
telling you that Dave Chappelle does not hate anyone or anything.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
But even with the cover, the co CEO of Netflix
started to feel the heat, and signs of a backpedal
began to surface.
Speaker 19 (14:50):
Having initially defended Dave Chappelle and the show's popularity, the
streaming beam off has since softened its stance in the
face of a swathe of public criticism.
Speaker 20 (15:01):
Netflix coach chief executive Officer Ted Sarandos said he screwed
up his efforts to communicate with employees who were upset
over the Closer or recent comedy special by Dave Chappelle.
What I should have led with in those emails was humanity,
mister Sarandos said in an.
Speaker 9 (15:18):
Interview Tuesday evening.
Speaker 20 (15:23):
I should have recognized the fact that a group of
our employees was really hurting. Mister Sarandos said his remarks
on content not causing real world harm was also an
oversimplification and lacking in humanity.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
The next day, the upset Netflix employees delivered on their promise.
Speaker 6 (15:41):
The blowback to Dave Chappelle's latest comedy special produced by
Netflix has reached a boiling point.
Speaker 21 (15:48):
Tonight, Netflix employees walking out of the company's Hollywood office
after weeks of internal backlash.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
If your satire is punching down, you are being a bully.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Only a few dozen out of thousands of Netflix employees
actually walked down, but to increase the optics, they were
met by outside alphabet comrades and the media hype the protest.
Speaker 22 (16:10):
Around one hundred people have protests to outside Netflix headquarters
in California over the broadcast of a comedy special by
Dave Chappelle.
Speaker 11 (16:17):
Not here because Chicelle, he's harming our kids.
Speaker 7 (16:23):
He doesn't realize that the speech that he's putting out
there is harmful. It's harmful to children, it's harmful to
trans people everywhere.
Speaker 16 (16:35):
So Netflix employees staged this walk out at about ten
thirty this morning over the new now controversial The Closer
on the streaming service. Those protesting netflix decision to release
let's say it, ridicules transgender people. They say this is
part of harmful content that negatively impacts vulnerable communities and
is unethical entertainment.
Speaker 8 (16:56):
We don't care what day sow we're doing until you
gofer our community.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
A small counter test offending Chappelle arrived as well.
Speaker 7 (17:05):
We're out here.
Speaker 14 (17:06):
It is your support for jokes, comedy, and everything that's
great about America. Free speech, and I love all these
people at Free Speech as well.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
I'm glad we.
Speaker 7 (17:15):
Can have a discussion.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
The angry Netflix employees, who've been arguing for weeks that
their lives were in danger because of Dave's jokes, proceeded
to physically accost one of the counter protesters.
Speaker 18 (17:26):
I've been breaking my side, breaking my side.
Speaker 9 (17:31):
Don't have.
Speaker 12 (17:34):
To call you.
Speaker 21 (17:39):
Protest organizers have released a list of demands, but it's
unclear what the company's next steps will be.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
I think that next necklace is going to have to
put its money where it's mouth.
Speaker 5 (17:47):
There is the specific block of employees are galvanized to
continue to hold them accountable.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
A controversy unfolding within the media giant forced to listen
to its workers.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
But in the end, Netflix co CEO Ted Sorandos did
what few and his position have mustered the strength to accomplish.
He's stuck by Dave Chappelle and kept his special on
the streaming service, and if you listened carefully enough, a
hint of the reason why seeped out into the media.
Speaker 21 (18:23):
In internal communications with employees, Netflix CEO Ted Sorandos argued
that the special was popular with subscribers.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
To most observers, the entire affair appeared to be just
another battle in the ongoing culture war, but it was
much more than that. What the public had just witnessed
was a new type of conflict. It was not your
standard cultural skirmish. It was actually a battle between two algorithms,
(18:53):
one created by Netflix and the other crafted by perhaps
the most powerful corporation on the planet. This dramatic affair
brought to the surface a common that's invisibly underway all
around us, a conflict where algorithms battle for control of
American culture, and the only promise is that it will
(19:14):
escalate in the coming years. To fully understand the significance
of the struggle, we have to explore the creation of
these two algorithms, one created by the likes and desires
of the people, and the other crafted by a social
architect looking to manipulate American culture. Life is short. It's
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Speaker 2 (20:47):
Welcome back to Red Pilled America. I'm Adriana Cortez.
Speaker 6 (20:50):
We knew from day one that eventually you'd be downloading
movies or streaming movies, and the trick was, how do
you build a business that will keep you sustained until
that moment?
Speaker 9 (21:01):
Comes.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
That's Mark Randolph, co founder of Netflix. Mark helped give
birth to an idea that would eventually become one of
the most dominant players in Hollywood, and it was no
small feat. Tinseltown is notorious for its barrier to tantry.
When Netflix first started its streaming service, the major film
studios were the same outfits that practically stretched back to
(21:24):
the silent film era. Nearly every attempt by an independent
studio to break the Hollywood oligopoly had failed, But Netflix
was able to breach this seemingly insurmountable wall, and they
did it with an algorithm. Mark Randolph's road into Hollywood
was a typical.
Speaker 23 (21:43):
The guy who really assembled the concept for Netflix was
this guy named Mark Randolph, and he's a marketing genius.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
That's Gina Keating, author of Netflixed, the epic Battle for
America's Eyeballs.
Speaker 23 (21:56):
He'd never done any kind of entertainment except when he
was a kid. His first job he was working at
this place called Cherry Hill Music and trying to figure
out like how to sell song sheet music to people.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
After Cherry Lane Music, Mark continued working in the direct
mail marketing industry, selling online catalogs for computer parts things
of that nature.
Speaker 23 (22:16):
He'd send it out and then you know, he would
try to get them to buy more.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
He started to become fascinated with the process of using
computer software to track the buying behavior of his customers.
Mark would eventually co found a small tech company.
Speaker 9 (22:30):
It was a really geeky little startup.
Speaker 6 (22:32):
I was doing with two friends of mine. I was
told Nantegrity QA, and we ended up selling the company
and we ended up going to work for this much,
much bigger company.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
That company was Puatria, another software outfit. It was headed
by a man named Reed Hastings, a mathematician. At the
time of the acquisition, Read happened to live in Santa Cruz,
the same town as Mark. The two began carpooling to work.
In the summer of nineteen ninety seven, Read Hasting's come
(23:03):
and he was acquired by an even bigger software company.
Red and Mark were quickly informed that after a brief
six month transition period, they'd be out of jobs. The
two carried no hard feelings. Mark received a golden parachute
and Reid came into a lot of money. His company
was bought for a reported eight hundred and forty nine
(23:24):
million in stocks, making Reed Hastings a very rich man.
Reid was ready to hang up his entrepreneurial coat, but
Mark still had the bug again.
Speaker 9 (23:34):
Mark Randolph now Reed Hastings. He did not want to
start another company.
Speaker 6 (23:39):
He instead decided he wanted to change the world of education,
so he was going to go back to school and
get a higher degree.
Speaker 9 (23:45):
But he wanted to keep a hand in the startup game.
Speaker 6 (23:48):
And so we decided that we would do it this way,
that we'd come up with an idea together, that he
be my angel investor, he'd put the money in, that
I would start the company, I'd hire the people, I'd
run the company, and off we go.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
But they weren't going anywhere without an idea.
Speaker 9 (24:08):
And so the way we look for an idea was this.
Speaker 6 (24:12):
On these commutes that we had that was about maybe
an hour each way to and from Sunny Vale, where
the office was, we would brainstorm ideas.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
They had no preconceived criteria for what kind of product
they wanted to sell, but they did know one thing.
It had to be an e commerce business. And that
was clear because at the time one man was making
some noise in that arena.
Speaker 8 (24:35):
We the who are you I'm Jeff Bezos and what
is your claim to fame?
Speaker 11 (24:40):
And the founder of Amazon dot Com.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
By the summer of nineteen ninety seven, all eyes were
on Jeff Bezos and his e commerce startup, Amazon dot Com.
Speaker 11 (24:50):
The company was conceived in the spring of nineteen ninety four.
I came across a startling fact and the spring ninety
four web usage was growing at twenty three hundred percent
a year. I have to keep in mind human beings
aren't good at understanding exponential growth. It's just not something
we see in our everyday life. But things don't grow
(25:11):
this fast outside of Petrie Dishes. It just doesn't happen.
And when I saw this, I said, Okay, what's a
business plan that might make sense in the context of
that growth. I made a list of twenty different products
that you might be able to sell online. I was
looking for the first best product, and I chose books
for lots of different reasons, but one primary reason, and
(25:33):
that is that there are more items in the book
space than there are items in any other category by far.
There are over three million different books worldwide in all languages.
And when you have this huge catalog of products, you
can build something online that you just can't build any
other way.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
To entrepreneurs that we're paying attention, Jeff Bezos was uncovering
an extraordinary business opportunity.
Speaker 11 (25:58):
What really is the case is that we know two
percent about all this stuff, will know ten years from now.
This is absolutely the kitty Hawk era of e commerce
and e merchandising.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Again, Mark Randolph.
Speaker 6 (26:17):
All I wanted to do was sell something on the Internet.
And the Internet was pretty new, it was probably five
years old.
Speaker 9 (26:27):
E commerce had just started.
Speaker 6 (26:29):
Jeff Bezos's Amazon was only selling books, if you can
imagine a time like that.
Speaker 9 (26:34):
But my career earlier on.
Speaker 6 (26:35):
As a direct marketing guy and a catalog guy and
a mail order guy, and so I immediately saw how
powerful the Internet could be for selling something. So I
wanted to sell something on the Internet. And the other
criteria I had is I wanted it to involve personalization,
because I saw the Internet as being this amazing tool
for delivering a custom experience to each individual user.
Speaker 9 (26:55):
So that was where it started.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
Mark and Reid bounced around a bunch of ideas. How
about personalized shampoo for a customer's specific hair type. They
thought that one got thrown out. Custom formulated dog food
for your furry buddy. They tossed that one out as well.
Speaker 6 (27:21):
And then one of the equally crazy ideas was renting
video by mail. And that came because we looked at
Amazon and went, wow, these guys are doing books.
Speaker 9 (27:35):
What other huge categories are there that we could bring
onto the Internet.
Speaker 6 (27:39):
And we said maybe we could just sell movies and went, nah,
you know, commodity, but video rental is interesting.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
At the time, movie rentals were distributed using VHS cassette tapes,
which were about the size of a regular hardcover book,
and it was a massive industry.
Speaker 6 (27:57):
This was an eight billion dollar category, but locked up
by Blockbusters one on corn.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
Regardless, Read Hastings liked the idea. He'd once gotten a
forty dollars late fee when returning a movie to Blockbuster,
the VHS movie rental chain at the time. The experience
left a bad taste in his mouth. He was excited
about the idea and decided to do a little market research.
Speaker 24 (28:22):
And I ran to one of my favorite venture capitalists
and told him how we were going to rent VHS
cassettes by mail. And it was a ten dollars round
trip because it's four dollars to mail of vhs.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
That's Netflix co founder Read Hastings.
Speaker 24 (28:34):
It looked happen me, and he said, you know, you're
a good engineer, but you have no idea what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
If the cost of shipping the videos round trip wasn't
enough to kill the idea, VHS cassette tapes were fragile
and cost about one hundred dollars a pop. Shipping breakage
alone would likely erase all of their profit margin, so
they abandoned the idea. The two continued to brainstorm. Nothing
else was rising to the top. But then, about a
(29:12):
month or two after they'd abandoned the movie rental by
mail idea, Read Hastings caught wind of a new technology.
Speaker 24 (29:19):
And then someone told me about DVD which had not
yet then launched, and how it was a CD.
Speaker 6 (29:26):
When we heard about this thing called the DVD, and
it was brand new, it was in test market, and
it was going to be a thin disk but the
size of a music CD. And that gave us this
idea that maybe this could be the key to unlocking
an idea we'd already thought of and rejected, that we
could mail DVDs to people in the US. Mail and
(29:47):
so rather than thinking about it, rather than going to
work and writing a business plan, or rather than going
home and working on a pitch deck or something stupid
like that, we go, let's just figure out right now
whether the basic tenet of this idea is viable. And
we turned the car around mid commute and drove back
down to Santa Cruz and went and looked for a DVD.
(30:09):
But of course there's no DVDs available, it said, test market,
and only a few cities. So he decided to settle
on buying a used music CD from record store right
down the street down there in Santa Cruz. And then
we went two doors down and bought a little envelope
like a little pink gift envelope.
Speaker 9 (30:23):
He'd put a greeting card in.
Speaker 24 (30:24):
And I waited, and it weighs you zero point six
of them out, so you could nail it for one stamp.
And so I stuffed a bunch of CDs and the
mailed them to myself, and then I had to wait
for twenty four hours to see him come home, to
see how they're gonna be all shattered in a bits,
along with my idea. And then you know, the next day,
at three o'clock postman arrived. I rip open the envelopes, said,
(30:45):
the first one's in good shape, and the second one
is a good shape, and the third one's a good shape.
And all I'm like, the socker is gonna work.
Speaker 6 (30:57):
And the next day, when Reid stocked to pick me
up to ride to work, all he had to do
was hold up this little envelope with an unbroken seed
in it that had got into his house in less
than twenty four hours for the price of a stamp.
And that's kind of the moment we said, Wow, this
idea might work, and Reid wrote a check for one
(31:19):
point nine million dollars.
Speaker 9 (31:22):
I went out.
Speaker 6 (31:23):
Fundraising for an additional one hundred thousand dollars to try
and get other people to buy in to at least
give us some sense whether the idea was a valid
one or not, and we raised two million dollars in all.
I rented a small office an old bank building up
in Scott's Valley just north of here, dirty green carpeting.
Speaker 9 (31:43):
It had a vault in the corner.
Speaker 6 (31:46):
I hired about a dozen people, and then we spent
six months building this simple.
Speaker 9 (31:51):
E commerce website.
Speaker 6 (31:52):
I mean the type of website that you or anybody
could probably build in about six hours.
Speaker 9 (31:59):
So six months later I was April fourteenth, nineteen ninety eight.
We turned the switch. She boom, We're live.
Speaker 24 (32:05):
And that was the beginning of Netflix, as I thought
we could mail DVDs, you know, around the planet.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
The two were about to take on the goliaths of
the storytelling industry. They knew close to nothing about the
entertainment business, and that was a stroke of luck, because
ignorance is a necessary ingredient when taking on the near impossible.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
This episode was originally broadcast on November fourth, twenty twenty two.
Welcome back to Red Pilled America. I'm Patrick carelchi.
Speaker 17 (32:38):
So.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
On April fourteenth, nineteen ninety eight, Mark Randolphin read Hastings
launched Netflix, a DVD movie rental by mail e commerce business.
At the time, no one believed their company could survive.
Less than one percent of households owned a DVD player,
and they cost a mini fortune nearly six hundred dollars,
(32:59):
and perhaps even worse, Blockbuster and Hollywood Video dominated the
movie rental industry, so they had to come up with
a plan to overcome these mammoth obstacles. Again Gina Keating,
author of netflixed, the epic Battle for America's eyeballs.
Speaker 23 (33:14):
Their idea was, we're going to recreate a video store online,
and we're not just gonna put up pictures and get
you to order it. We want to make it like
the experience that you have at a video store.
Speaker 6 (33:28):
We launched, we had maybe one hundred thousand dollars that
first month. Okay, so it's a million dollar run rate,
and we're going, oh my gosh, a million dollar run rate.
Speaker 9 (33:37):
We have made it.
Speaker 6 (33:39):
And then you go, how big is Blockbuster? A single
store does about a million dollars, but there's nine thousand stores.
I mean, this company's doing six billion dollars a year.
It's just the idea that ever you're ever going to
take that on is just like absurd. It took us
a year and a half to kind of find the
(33:59):
business model that actually finally would unlock this. And the
business model that finally unlocked it was a combination of
two things. It was a snow do date, snow late fees,
keep the disk as long as you want model and subscription.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
Mark believed that people would be willing to pay a
monthly subscription to get access to their library of movies,
and customers could keep the movies as long as they
wanted with no late fees, the thing that people hated
most about Blockbuster rentals. Now in the beginning, Netflix co
founder Read Hastings played more of an investor's role. He
went off to make a difference in the world of
(34:36):
education and left Netflix CEO Mark Randolph to deal with
the day to day of this new venture. And Mark
was about to put his fascination with direct marketing to
work again Gina Keating.
Speaker 23 (34:48):
So they literally went into the video stores and looked
around and tried to figure out, like, how do we
do the wall, How do we recreate the wall with
the new arrivals, how do we do the guy that
will tell you at the desk what you should watch.
If you like this, you will like this. Try this.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
Mark wanted to create a user interface that basically doubled
as a market research.
Speaker 23 (35:16):
Tool, and they made sure that that user interface was
loaded with ways to watch the people who went on
that site. So every single thing that you did, they
were testing, and not everybody saw the same interface. It
was different interfaces for different places.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
And this notion wasn't just a random shot in the dark.
Amazon dot Com was having extraordinary results with their own
recommendation algorithm, and the media was taking notice.
Speaker 25 (35:46):
A while ago, I bought a few books from Amazon.
This time, after I logged on, the computer greeted me back,
welcoming me by name is Huan okay. The computer also
remembered my past orders, and after comparing me with other
customers who bought the same books, it calculated which new
books I might like to buy.
Speaker 11 (36:07):
The Untouchable, The Comfort of Strangers, Death in Summer, Breakfast
on Pluto, Are Married a Communists.
Speaker 9 (36:12):
That's alfully good.
Speaker 25 (36:13):
I mean, Franklins, that's a very good Exciteflel already bought
two of those books, and bookstores.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
It was becoming clear that an e commerce outfit could
have unprecedented access to the likes and desires of its customers,
and in the case of Netflix, they even had an
advantage over Amazon in this area.
Speaker 22 (36:29):
Again, Gina keating, Netflix has a really specialized platform and
they cracked their customers really closely, and with Amazon they don't.
Speaker 23 (36:41):
I mean, even though yes they have that recommendation algorithm
as well. It's for a lot of stuff, you know,
and you go to Amazon for a lot of different
youth occasions. Right, You're not always buying for yourself, whereas
with Netflix you always pretty much are. It's like, I'm
picking a movie for me, and this behavior is me,
but with Amazon it can be, Oh, I'm buying a
(37:02):
one time present for my friend's two year old or
something like that.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
The recommendation algorithm that Netflix was building was even superior
to Amazon's, and they would need it to be because
Netflix was about to be attacked from every angle imaginable.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
Coming up on red pilled America.
Speaker 23 (37:29):
At every juncture where they had to make a decision
about where the entertainment industry was going, they were right
and the studios were wrong.
Speaker 17 (37:38):
Well, Blackrock has been the leader and in some ways
the ring leader of all of Wall Street in pushing
something called ESG investing. But really what ESG is is
an excuse for Wall Street to push politics into corporate America.
They can push in their own environmental policies, they can
push in social and governance policies that could never be
achieved at the ballot box.
Speaker 8 (37:58):
I want everyone in this audience to know that even
though the media James is that it's me versus that community,
it's not what it is. Do not blame the LBGTQ
community for any of this. This has nothing to do
with them. It's about corporate interests and what I can
say and what I cannot say.
Speaker 14 (38:20):
So this ESG stuff is really being utilized to control society.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Red Pilled America is an iHeartRadio original podcast. It's produced
by me Adrianna Cortez and Patrick Carrelci for Inform Ventures. Now.
You can get access to our entire back catalog of
episodes and are behind the scenes podcast by becoming a
backstage subscriber. To subscribe, just visit Redpilled America dot com
and click join in the topmenu. That's red Pilled America
(38:49):
dot com and click join in the top menu. Thanks
for listening.
This is Red Pilled America. What stories do you want
to hear from Red Pilled America. We want to hear
from you. Send us an email at info at Redpilled
America dot com and let us know what stories you
want to hear. That's info at Redpilled America dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
And if you want access to our entire back catalog
of episodes, add free become a fanband member. Just go
to Redpilled America dot com and click join in the topmenu.
That's Red Pilled America dot com and click join in
the topmenu. Support what you love or it goes away.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
This episode was originally broadcast on November fourth, twenty twenty two.
Something new is now lurking amongst us at all times.
They're called algorithms, artificial intelligence, chatbots, search rankings, online recommendations.
Regardless of their branding, algorithms appear to have a growing
(01:13):
influence on American lives.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Algorithms are taking over the world.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
You're being subtly manipulated by algorithms that are watching everything
you do constantly.
Speaker 5 (01:22):
There's a lot of argument that algorithms cause arguments and
cause strife.
Speaker 6 (01:28):
TikTok's algorithm can influence the thinking and the minds of
US youth.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
With algorithms popping up in nearly every avenue of modern society,
it begs the question, our algorithms controlling American lives.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
I'm Patrick Curlci and I'm Adriana Cortez.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
And this is Red Pilled America a storytelling show.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
This is not another talk show covering the day's news.
We are all about telling stories.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Stories. Hollywood doesn't want you to hear stories.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
The media marks stories about everyday Americans at the Globalist Ignore.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
You could think of Red Pilled America as audio documentaries,
and we've promised only one thing, the truth.
Speaker 7 (02:18):
Welcome to Red Pilled America.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
In technical terms, an algorithm is a step by step
action to be followed in calculations or other problem solving operations.
They've been around at least as long as mathematics. In
eighteen hundred BC, ancient Babylonian clay tablets displayed algorithms to
explain algebraic procedures, and they've been used by human problem
(02:50):
solvers and troublemakers ever since. The word algorithm began entering
the American lexicon with the introduction of the personal computer,
but it wasn't until the arrival of the Internet the
algorithm started to noticeably impact our daily lives. Today, they
seem to be in every crevice of modern existence. Search
(03:11):
online for fitness tips, and an algorithm will deliver an
endless stream of nutritional supplement ads in your social media feeds.
Watch some Joe Rogan interview clips on YouTube, and Google's
algorithm will recommend that you watch videos of the many
guests he's had on the show. Chat with an online
retail support staff, and chances are you're actually communicating with
(03:32):
an algorithm. All of these applications may appear benign, even helpful,
but some believe that algorithms are playing a much more
nefarious role in our daily lives.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
We are creating intelligent systems that are part of our
everyday life, and very few people are getting to make
the decisions about how they work.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
With these bits of code being nearly ubiquitous, it begs
the question our algorithms controlling our lives. To find the answer,
we tell this story of how Netflix survived a battle
with perhaps the most powerful company in the world using
just a comedian and an algorithm. You may think big
tech holds all the cards in our brave new world.
(04:15):
But you hold more power than you realize.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
It was early October twenty twenty one when a legendary
funny man launched his new special.
Speaker 8 (04:37):
I personally am not afraid of other people's freedom of expression.
I don't use it as a weapon. It just makes
me feel better. And I'm sorry if I heard anybody,
et cetera, YadA YadA, Yeah, everything I'm sposed to say.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Five years earlier, Dave Chappelle signed a deal to produce
comedy specials for streaming giant Netflix. He was reportedly getting
paid a whopping twenty million dollars per episode. By early
October twenty twenty one, he'd already produced five, and his
fans were eagerly awaiting the final installment in his series.
The building anticipation was understandable. Dave Chappelle was and is
(05:10):
considered one of the greatest comedians of all time, an
honor bestowed on him by his fellow comics.
Speaker 5 (05:16):
Look, he's clearly the most popular comedian on planet Earth.
He's number one. He's clearly one of the greatest comedians
that's ever left.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Clearly, Dave, in my opinion, you're the goat. In my opinion, your.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Last special has allowed you to surpass the Richard Pryor.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
In my opinion, his peers hold him in such high
regard because Dave Chappelle is willing to venture into topics
that most mainstream comics won't. Dare tread.
Speaker 8 (05:47):
I had read in a paper that Caitlyn Jenna was
contemplating posing nude and an upcoming issue of Sports Illustrated.
And I know it's not politically correct to say these things,
so I just figured Cat, I'll say it for everybody else.
Speaker 9 (06:03):
Yuck.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Now, in delivering jokes like that, it's clear to see
that Dave Chappelle does benefit from a bit of a privilege.
As a black comedian, he has the flexibility to address
controversial topics in a way that a white male comic
cannot so. In his final Netflix special, entitled The Closer,
debuted on October fifth, twenty twenty one, no one imagined
(06:27):
there was a joke that could seriously put Dave Chappelle
in jeopardy of being canceled. That is, no one except
Dave himself. Starting from the first installment of his Netflix
(06:48):
series The Funny Man, had taken comic jabs at the
LGBTQ movement.
Speaker 10 (06:53):
Store educates me about this movement.
Speaker 11 (06:55):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 8 (06:55):
I didn't even know about it.
Speaker 9 (06:56):
He told me it's.
Speaker 10 (06:57):
Called l b GQ Q. I was like, what the
is the Q? Does that he make sense? Q? Turns
out Q was like the vows That is sometimes why
for gay dudes that don't really know that.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Gay jokes like these weren't mean spirited. They were just funny,
And each special seemed to come back to this same topic.
Speaker 8 (07:27):
Everybody's mad about something recently. I got attacked online by
some gay bloggers and it hurt my feelings.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
By the end of his second special, he'd already sparked
the ire of one particular letter in this alphabet movement,
and he expressed it in his next show.
Speaker 8 (07:43):
You know who hates me the most? The transgender community.
Y oh yeah, these, I mean, I didn't realize how
bad it was these. I was really mad about that
last Netflix special.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
As this series progressed, Dave Chappelle dug a deeper hole
for himself. By his fifth installment, he acknowledged that transgenders
had just about had enough of his brand of comedy.
Speaker 8 (08:06):
He will be surprised. I have friends all kinds of letters.
Everybody loves me, and I love everybody. I got friends
with L I got friends with b's, and I got
friends with g's. But the keys hate my guts. I
don't know, and I don't blame them. It's not their fault,
it's mine. I can't stop telling jokes about these I
(08:30):
don't want to write these jokes, but I just can't stop.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Apparently a certain segment within the Alphabet movement didn't appreciate
Dave's jokes, but the comedian didn't care. By his final
Netflix special Discloser, he made them the central theme of
his show.
Speaker 8 (08:48):
I like to start by addressing the lbgt Q community correctly.
I want to remember that community to know that I
come the other.
Speaker 9 (08:58):
Night in peace.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
He then proceeded to deliver one lgbt Q joke after another,
including one that wove in a story about a rapper
named the Baby that had recently been canceled for disparaging gays.
Speaker 8 (09:11):
The Baby was the number one streamy artist until about
a couple of weeks ago. So the Nasty spill on
stage and said said some wild stuff about the lbgt
Q community during a concert in Florida. Now you know,
I go hard in the paint. But even I saw
that it was like the baby, Ooh, he pushed the button,
(09:34):
didn't he? He pushed the button punched the LBGTQ community
right in aids can't do that. But I do believe,
and I'll made this point later that the kid made
a very egregious mistake. I will acknowledge that. But you know,
(09:56):
a lot of the LBGTQ community doesn't know the baby's history.
He's a wild guy. He once shot and killed him
in Walmart. Nothing bad happened to his career. Do you
(10:16):
see where I'm going with this? In our country, you
can shoot and kill him, but you better not hurt
a gay person's feelings.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
The point was clear, according to Dave Chappelle. In modern culture,
you can't upset the Alphabet crew. But it was all
said and fun. The comedian was doing what he does,
making people laugh with no boundaries. Dave's approach is why
(10:48):
he's the most popular comic on the planet.
Speaker 7 (10:52):
Well.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
When his final special hit Netflix, the media took Dave
Chappelle to task, claiming that the Alphabet movement was livid.
Speaker 12 (10:59):
Chappelle's comments about the transgender and LGBTQ plus communities have
outraged many who are now calling for the Special to
be removed.
Speaker 13 (11:07):
Words have consequences, and people with platforms like mister Chappelle's
have a higher responsibility to be aware of that and
to recognize that what they say leads to actions by others.
Speaker 14 (11:20):
Is there a potential harm that comes from this? Absolutely
is Dave contributing to the national conversation that would otherise
trans people and lead to situations where they cannot walk
down the street without being threatened and or killed, which
happens all the time.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Absolutely, he's contributing to that, and the National Black Justice
Coalition is calling on Netflix to remove the special from
the streaming service.
Speaker 12 (11:47):
Glad weighing in tweeting Dave Chappelle's brand has become synonymous
with ridiculing trans people and other marginalized communities, and Jacqueline Moore,
the executive producer of Dear White People, streaming on Netflix,
says she won't work with the streaming giant as law
long as they continue to put out and profit from
blatantly and dangerously transphobic content. No comments so far from
(12:10):
Chappelle or Netflix.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
As the controversy began to get traction, the media started
to hone in on one person, The co head of
Netflix Ted Sarandos, attempting to pressure him into taking down
Dave Special. Mister Sarandos was forced to respond.
Speaker 15 (12:26):
In an internal memo first obtained by The Verge, the
company's co CEO writing, we don't allow titles on Netflix
that are designed to incite hate or violence, and we
don't believe The Closer crosses that line.
Speaker 16 (12:36):
Netflix as they stand by day, they will not be
removing his content.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
In response, the media spun up the drama, inviting transactivists
on their platform to amplify their outreach.
Speaker 17 (12:48):
As a white person, you don't get to tell us
what is racist what is not racist.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
With the co CEO of Netflix backing Chappelle, the conflict
got raised up a knot.
Speaker 15 (13:03):
Today a group of transgender employees at Netflix announcing plans
to stage a walkout next week.
Speaker 18 (13:09):
October twentieth is the date when trans employees of Netflix
are planning a walkout in protest of statements made by
their company's co CEO in support of Dave Chappelle's latest
comedy special, The Closer. Organizers of the Netflix walkout have
accused the streaming giant of quote repeatedly releasing content that
harms the trans community and continually failing to create content
(13:32):
that represents and uplifts trans content.
Speaker 15 (13:36):
One of the employees, trans software developer Terra Field, had
openly questioned Netflix's decision to air the special, tweeting promoting
turf ideology, which is what we did by giving it
a platform yesterday, directly harms trans.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
People, with the media hyping the employee walkout. Another Netflix
comic came out in Dave's defense, And.
Speaker 5 (13:55):
If you get down to Dave Chappelle's real feelings, he's
a lovely person. He's one of the nicest people I've
ever met in my life. He loves everybody. He's not
a hateful soul. He's beyond jealous. He's just a guy
who loves this art form called stand up comedy, and
(14:15):
he tries to do his best navigating through this world
of talking about things and saying outrageous things that get
huge laughs or placating really sensitive groups that feel like
they're in a protected class. And they equate any jokes
with hate, and this is where they're wrong. Like I'm
(14:37):
telling you that Dave Chappelle does not hate anyone or anything.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
But even with the cover, the co CEO of Netflix
started to feel the heat, and signs of a backpedal
began to surface.
Speaker 19 (14:50):
Having initially defended Dave Chappelle and the show's popularity, the
streaming beam off has since softened its stance in the
face of a swathe of public criticism.
Speaker 20 (15:01):
Netflix coach chief executive Officer Ted Sarandos said he screwed
up his efforts to communicate with employees who were upset
over the Closer or recent comedy special by Dave Chappelle.
What I should have led with in those emails was humanity,
mister Sarandos said in an.
Speaker 9 (15:18):
Interview Tuesday evening.
Speaker 20 (15:23):
I should have recognized the fact that a group of
our employees was really hurting. Mister Sarandos said his remarks
on content not causing real world harm was also an
oversimplification and lacking in humanity.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
The next day, the upset Netflix employees delivered on their promise.
Speaker 6 (15:41):
The blowback to Dave Chappelle's latest comedy special produced by
Netflix has reached a boiling point.
Speaker 21 (15:48):
Tonight, Netflix employees walking out of the company's Hollywood office
after weeks of internal backlash.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
If your satire is punching down, you are being a bully.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Only a few dozen out of thousands of Netflix employees
actually walked down, but to increase the optics, they were
met by outside alphabet comrades and the media hype the protest.
Speaker 22 (16:10):
Around one hundred people have protests to outside Netflix headquarters
in California over the broadcast of a comedy special by
Dave Chappelle.
Speaker 11 (16:17):
Not here because Chicelle, he's harming our kids.
Speaker 7 (16:23):
He doesn't realize that the speech that he's putting out
there is harmful. It's harmful to children, it's harmful to
trans people everywhere.
Speaker 16 (16:35):
So Netflix employees staged this walk out at about ten
thirty this morning over the new now controversial The Closer
on the streaming service. Those protesting netflix decision to release
let's say it, ridicules transgender people. They say this is
part of harmful content that negatively impacts vulnerable communities and
is unethical entertainment.
Speaker 8 (16:56):
We don't care what day sow we're doing until you
gofer our community.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
A small counter test offending Chappelle arrived as well.
Speaker 7 (17:05):
We're out here.
Speaker 14 (17:06):
It is your support for jokes, comedy, and everything that's
great about America. Free speech, and I love all these
people at Free Speech as well.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
I'm glad we.
Speaker 7 (17:15):
Can have a discussion.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
The angry Netflix employees, who've been arguing for weeks that
their lives were in danger because of Dave's jokes, proceeded
to physically accost one of the counter protesters.
Speaker 18 (17:26):
I've been breaking my side, breaking my side.
Speaker 9 (17:31):
Don't have.
Speaker 12 (17:34):
To call you.
Speaker 21 (17:39):
Protest organizers have released a list of demands, but it's
unclear what the company's next steps will be.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
I think that next necklace is going to have to
put its money where it's mouth.
Speaker 5 (17:47):
There is the specific block of employees are galvanized to
continue to hold them accountable.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
A controversy unfolding within the media giant forced to listen
to its workers.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
But in the end, Netflix co CEO Ted Sorandos did
what few and his position have mustered the strength to accomplish.
He's stuck by Dave Chappelle and kept his special on
the streaming service, and if you listened carefully enough, a
hint of the reason why seeped out into the media.
Speaker 21 (18:23):
In internal communications with employees, Netflix CEO Ted Sorandos argued
that the special was popular with subscribers.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
To most observers, the entire affair appeared to be just
another battle in the ongoing culture war, but it was
much more than that. What the public had just witnessed
was a new type of conflict. It was not your
standard cultural skirmish. It was actually a battle between two algorithms,
(18:53):
one created by Netflix and the other crafted by perhaps
the most powerful corporation on the planet. This dramatic affair
brought to the surface a common that's invisibly underway all
around us, a conflict where algorithms battle for control of
American culture, and the only promise is that it will
(19:14):
escalate in the coming years. To fully understand the significance
of the struggle, we have to explore the creation of
these two algorithms, one created by the likes and desires
of the people, and the other crafted by a social
architect looking to manipulate American culture. Life is short. It's
(19:43):
important to surround yourself with people you love, do the
things that make you feel happy, and if you're me,
eat delicious licorice. I've got the latter covered thanks to
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(20:05):
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name a few. The freshness of their licorice is unlike
anything you've ever tasted in licorice before. If you haven't
tried the Licorice Guy yet, then you're living a life unfulfilled.
Trust me, you will not regret it. What I also
love about the Licorice Guy is that it's an American
(20:25):
family owned business. We are big proponents of buying American
and supporting American workers. Right now, Red Pilled America listeners
get fifteen percent off when you enter RPA fifteen at checkout.
Visit Licoriceguy dot com and enter RPA fifteen at checkout.
That's Licoriceguy dot com.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Welcome back to Red Pilled America. I'm Adriana Cortez.
Speaker 6 (20:50):
We knew from day one that eventually you'd be downloading
movies or streaming movies, and the trick was, how do
you build a business that will keep you sustained until
that moment?
Speaker 9 (21:01):
Comes.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
That's Mark Randolph, co founder of Netflix. Mark helped give
birth to an idea that would eventually become one of
the most dominant players in Hollywood, and it was no
small feat. Tinseltown is notorious for its barrier to tantry.
When Netflix first started its streaming service, the major film
studios were the same outfits that practically stretched back to
(21:24):
the silent film era. Nearly every attempt by an independent
studio to break the Hollywood oligopoly had failed, But Netflix
was able to breach this seemingly insurmountable wall, and they
did it with an algorithm. Mark Randolph's road into Hollywood
was a typical.
Speaker 23 (21:43):
The guy who really assembled the concept for Netflix was
this guy named Mark Randolph, and he's a marketing genius.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
That's Gina Keating, author of Netflixed, the epic Battle for
America's Eyeballs.
Speaker 23 (21:56):
He'd never done any kind of entertainment except when he
was a kid. His first job he was working at
this place called Cherry Hill Music and trying to figure
out like how to sell song sheet music to people.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
After Cherry Lane Music, Mark continued working in the direct
mail marketing industry, selling online catalogs for computer parts things
of that nature.
Speaker 23 (22:16):
He'd send it out and then you know, he would
try to get them to buy more.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
He started to become fascinated with the process of using
computer software to track the buying behavior of his customers.
Mark would eventually co found a small tech company.
Speaker 9 (22:30):
It was a really geeky little startup.
Speaker 6 (22:32):
I was doing with two friends of mine. I was
told Nantegrity QA, and we ended up selling the company
and we ended up going to work for this much,
much bigger company.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
That company was Puatria, another software outfit. It was headed
by a man named Reed Hastings, a mathematician. At the
time of the acquisition, Read happened to live in Santa Cruz,
the same town as Mark. The two began carpooling to work.
In the summer of nineteen ninety seven, Read Hasting's come
(23:03):
and he was acquired by an even bigger software company.
Red and Mark were quickly informed that after a brief
six month transition period, they'd be out of jobs. The
two carried no hard feelings. Mark received a golden parachute
and Reid came into a lot of money. His company
was bought for a reported eight hundred and forty nine
(23:24):
million in stocks, making Reed Hastings a very rich man.
Reid was ready to hang up his entrepreneurial coat, but
Mark still had the bug again.
Speaker 9 (23:34):
Mark Randolph now Reed Hastings. He did not want to
start another company.
Speaker 6 (23:39):
He instead decided he wanted to change the world of education,
so he was going to go back to school and
get a higher degree.
Speaker 9 (23:45):
But he wanted to keep a hand in the startup game.
Speaker 6 (23:48):
And so we decided that we would do it this way,
that we'd come up with an idea together, that he
be my angel investor, he'd put the money in, that
I would start the company, I'd hire the people, I'd
run the company, and off we go.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
But they weren't going anywhere without an idea.
Speaker 9 (24:08):
And so the way we look for an idea was this.
Speaker 6 (24:12):
On these commutes that we had that was about maybe
an hour each way to and from Sunny Vale, where
the office was, we would brainstorm ideas.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
They had no preconceived criteria for what kind of product
they wanted to sell, but they did know one thing.
It had to be an e commerce business. And that
was clear because at the time one man was making
some noise in that arena.
Speaker 8 (24:35):
We the who are you I'm Jeff Bezos and what
is your claim to fame?
Speaker 11 (24:40):
And the founder of Amazon dot Com.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
By the summer of nineteen ninety seven, all eyes were
on Jeff Bezos and his e commerce startup, Amazon dot Com.
Speaker 11 (24:50):
The company was conceived in the spring of nineteen ninety four.
I came across a startling fact and the spring ninety
four web usage was growing at twenty three hundred percent
a year. I have to keep in mind human beings
aren't good at understanding exponential growth. It's just not something
we see in our everyday life. But things don't grow
(25:11):
this fast outside of Petrie Dishes. It just doesn't happen.
And when I saw this, I said, Okay, what's a
business plan that might make sense in the context of
that growth. I made a list of twenty different products
that you might be able to sell online. I was
looking for the first best product, and I chose books
for lots of different reasons, but one primary reason, and
(25:33):
that is that there are more items in the book
space than there are items in any other category by far.
There are over three million different books worldwide in all languages.
And when you have this huge catalog of products, you
can build something online that you just can't build any
other way.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
To entrepreneurs that we're paying attention, Jeff Bezos was uncovering
an extraordinary business opportunity.
Speaker 11 (25:58):
What really is the case is that we know two
percent about all this stuff, will know ten years from now.
This is absolutely the kitty Hawk era of e commerce
and e merchandising.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Again, Mark Randolph.
Speaker 6 (26:17):
All I wanted to do was sell something on the Internet.
And the Internet was pretty new, it was probably five
years old.
Speaker 9 (26:27):
E commerce had just started.
Speaker 6 (26:29):
Jeff Bezos's Amazon was only selling books, if you can
imagine a time like that.
Speaker 9 (26:34):
But my career earlier on.
Speaker 6 (26:35):
As a direct marketing guy and a catalog guy and
a mail order guy, and so I immediately saw how
powerful the Internet could be for selling something. So I
wanted to sell something on the Internet. And the other
criteria I had is I wanted it to involve personalization,
because I saw the Internet as being this amazing tool
for delivering a custom experience to each individual user.
Speaker 9 (26:55):
So that was where it started.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
Mark and Reid bounced around a bunch of ideas. How
about personalized shampoo for a customer's specific hair type. They
thought that one got thrown out. Custom formulated dog food
for your furry buddy. They tossed that one out as well.
Speaker 6 (27:21):
And then one of the equally crazy ideas was renting
video by mail. And that came because we looked at
Amazon and went, wow, these guys are doing books.
Speaker 9 (27:35):
What other huge categories are there that we could bring
onto the Internet.
Speaker 6 (27:39):
And we said maybe we could just sell movies and went, nah,
you know, commodity, but video rental is interesting.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
At the time, movie rentals were distributed using VHS cassette tapes,
which were about the size of a regular hardcover book,
and it was a massive industry.
Speaker 6 (27:57):
This was an eight billion dollar category, but locked up
by Blockbusters one on corn.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
Regardless, Read Hastings liked the idea. He'd once gotten a
forty dollars late fee when returning a movie to Blockbuster,
the VHS movie rental chain at the time. The experience
left a bad taste in his mouth. He was excited
about the idea and decided to do a little market research.
Speaker 24 (28:22):
And I ran to one of my favorite venture capitalists
and told him how we were going to rent VHS
cassettes by mail. And it was a ten dollars round
trip because it's four dollars to mail of vhs.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
That's Netflix co founder Read Hastings.
Speaker 24 (28:34):
It looked happen me, and he said, you know, you're
a good engineer, but you have no idea what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
If the cost of shipping the videos round trip wasn't
enough to kill the idea, VHS cassette tapes were fragile
and cost about one hundred dollars a pop. Shipping breakage
alone would likely erase all of their profit margin, so
they abandoned the idea. The two continued to brainstorm. Nothing
else was rising to the top. But then, about a
(29:12):
month or two after they'd abandoned the movie rental by
mail idea, Read Hastings caught wind of a new technology.
Speaker 24 (29:19):
And then someone told me about DVD which had not
yet then launched, and how it was a CD.
Speaker 6 (29:26):
When we heard about this thing called the DVD, and
it was brand new, it was in test market, and
it was going to be a thin disk but the
size of a music CD. And that gave us this
idea that maybe this could be the key to unlocking
an idea we'd already thought of and rejected, that we
could mail DVDs to people in the US. Mail and
(29:47):
so rather than thinking about it, rather than going to
work and writing a business plan, or rather than going
home and working on a pitch deck or something stupid
like that, we go, let's just figure out right now
whether the basic tenet of this idea is viable. And
we turned the car around mid commute and drove back
down to Santa Cruz and went and looked for a DVD.
(30:09):
But of course there's no DVDs available, it said, test market,
and only a few cities. So he decided to settle
on buying a used music CD from record store right
down the street down there in Santa Cruz. And then
we went two doors down and bought a little envelope
like a little pink gift envelope.
Speaker 9 (30:23):
He'd put a greeting card in.
Speaker 24 (30:24):
And I waited, and it weighs you zero point six
of them out, so you could nail it for one stamp.
And so I stuffed a bunch of CDs and the
mailed them to myself, and then I had to wait
for twenty four hours to see him come home, to
see how they're gonna be all shattered in a bits,
along with my idea. And then you know, the next day,
at three o'clock postman arrived. I rip open the envelopes, said,
(30:45):
the first one's in good shape, and the second one
is a good shape, and the third one's a good shape.
And all I'm like, the socker is gonna work.
Speaker 6 (30:57):
And the next day, when Reid stocked to pick me
up to ride to work, all he had to do
was hold up this little envelope with an unbroken seed
in it that had got into his house in less
than twenty four hours for the price of a stamp.
And that's kind of the moment we said, Wow, this
idea might work, and Reid wrote a check for one
(31:19):
point nine million dollars.
Speaker 9 (31:22):
I went out.
Speaker 6 (31:23):
Fundraising for an additional one hundred thousand dollars to try
and get other people to buy in to at least
give us some sense whether the idea was a valid
one or not, and we raised two million dollars in all.
I rented a small office an old bank building up
in Scott's Valley just north of here, dirty green carpeting.
Speaker 9 (31:43):
It had a vault in the corner.
Speaker 6 (31:46):
I hired about a dozen people, and then we spent
six months building this simple.
Speaker 9 (31:51):
E commerce website.
Speaker 6 (31:52):
I mean the type of website that you or anybody
could probably build in about six hours.
Speaker 9 (31:59):
So six months later I was April fourteenth, nineteen ninety eight.
We turned the switch. She boom, We're live.
Speaker 24 (32:05):
And that was the beginning of Netflix, as I thought
we could mail DVDs, you know, around the planet.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
The two were about to take on the goliaths of
the storytelling industry. They knew close to nothing about the
entertainment business, and that was a stroke of luck, because
ignorance is a necessary ingredient when taking on the near impossible.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
This episode was originally broadcast on November fourth, twenty twenty two.
Welcome back to Red Pilled America. I'm Patrick carelchi.
Speaker 17 (32:38):
So.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
On April fourteenth, nineteen ninety eight, Mark Randolphin read Hastings
launched Netflix, a DVD movie rental by mail e commerce business.
At the time, no one believed their company could survive.
Less than one percent of households owned a DVD player,
and they cost a mini fortune nearly six hundred dollars,
(32:59):
and perhaps even worse, Blockbuster and Hollywood Video dominated the
movie rental industry, so they had to come up with
a plan to overcome these mammoth obstacles. Again Gina Keating,
author of netflixed, the epic Battle for America's eyeballs.
Speaker 23 (33:14):
Their idea was, we're going to recreate a video store online,
and we're not just gonna put up pictures and get
you to order it. We want to make it like
the experience that you have at a video store.
Speaker 6 (33:28):
We launched, we had maybe one hundred thousand dollars that
first month. Okay, so it's a million dollar run rate,
and we're going, oh my gosh, a million dollar run rate.
Speaker 9 (33:37):
We have made it.
Speaker 6 (33:39):
And then you go, how big is Blockbuster? A single
store does about a million dollars, but there's nine thousand stores.
I mean, this company's doing six billion dollars a year.
It's just the idea that ever you're ever going to
take that on is just like absurd. It took us
a year and a half to kind of find the
(33:59):
business model that actually finally would unlock this. And the
business model that finally unlocked it was a combination of
two things. It was a snow do date, snow late fees,
keep the disk as long as you want model and subscription.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
Mark believed that people would be willing to pay a
monthly subscription to get access to their library of movies,
and customers could keep the movies as long as they
wanted with no late fees, the thing that people hated
most about Blockbuster rentals. Now in the beginning, Netflix co
founder Read Hastings played more of an investor's role. He
went off to make a difference in the world of
(34:36):
education and left Netflix CEO Mark Randolph to deal with
the day to day of this new venture. And Mark
was about to put his fascination with direct marketing to
work again Gina Keating.
Speaker 23 (34:48):
So they literally went into the video stores and looked
around and tried to figure out, like, how do we
do the wall, How do we recreate the wall with
the new arrivals, how do we do the guy that
will tell you at the desk what you should watch.
If you like this, you will like this. Try this.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
Mark wanted to create a user interface that basically doubled
as a market research.
Speaker 23 (35:16):
Tool, and they made sure that that user interface was
loaded with ways to watch the people who went on
that site. So every single thing that you did, they
were testing, and not everybody saw the same interface. It
was different interfaces for different places.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
And this notion wasn't just a random shot in the dark.
Amazon dot Com was having extraordinary results with their own
recommendation algorithm, and the media was taking notice.
Speaker 25 (35:46):
A while ago, I bought a few books from Amazon.
This time, after I logged on, the computer greeted me back,
welcoming me by name is Huan okay. The computer also
remembered my past orders, and after comparing me with other
customers who bought the same books, it calculated which new
books I might like to buy.
Speaker 11 (36:07):
The Untouchable, The Comfort of Strangers, Death in Summer, Breakfast
on Pluto, Are Married a Communists.
Speaker 9 (36:12):
That's alfully good.
Speaker 25 (36:13):
I mean, Franklins, that's a very good Exciteflel already bought
two of those books, and bookstores.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
It was becoming clear that an e commerce outfit could
have unprecedented access to the likes and desires of its customers,
and in the case of Netflix, they even had an
advantage over Amazon in this area.
Speaker 22 (36:29):
Again, Gina keating, Netflix has a really specialized platform and
they cracked their customers really closely, and with Amazon they don't.
Speaker 23 (36:41):
I mean, even though yes they have that recommendation algorithm
as well. It's for a lot of stuff, you know,
and you go to Amazon for a lot of different
youth occasions. Right, You're not always buying for yourself, whereas
with Netflix you always pretty much are. It's like, I'm
picking a movie for me, and this behavior is me,
but with Amazon it can be, Oh, I'm buying a
(37:02):
one time present for my friend's two year old or
something like that.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
The recommendation algorithm that Netflix was building was even superior
to Amazon's, and they would need it to be because
Netflix was about to be attacked from every angle imaginable.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
Coming up on red pilled America.
Speaker 23 (37:29):
At every juncture where they had to make a decision
about where the entertainment industry was going, they were right
and the studios were wrong.
Speaker 17 (37:38):
Well, Blackrock has been the leader and in some ways
the ring leader of all of Wall Street in pushing
something called ESG investing. But really what ESG is is
an excuse for Wall Street to push politics into corporate America.
They can push in their own environmental policies, they can
push in social and governance policies that could never be
achieved at the ballot box.
Speaker 8 (37:58):
I want everyone in this audience to know that even
though the media James is that it's me versus that community,
it's not what it is. Do not blame the LBGTQ
community for any of this. This has nothing to do
with them. It's about corporate interests and what I can
say and what I cannot say.
Speaker 14 (38:20):
So this ESG stuff is really being utilized to control society.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Red Pilled America is an iHeartRadio original podcast. It's produced
by me Adrianna Cortez and Patrick Carrelci for Inform Ventures. Now.
You can get access to our entire back catalog of
episodes and are behind the scenes podcast by becoming a
backstage subscriber. To subscribe, just visit Redpilled America dot com
and click join in the topmenu. That's red Pilled America
(38:49):
dot com and click join in the top menu. Thanks
for listening.
Hosts And Creators
Adryana Cortez
Patrick Courrielche
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