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. Special Note: Some adult language.
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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 3 (01:23):
There's a lot of argument that algorithms cause arguments and
cause strife.
Speaker 5 (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 Currelci 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 (01:58):
Stories Hollywood doesn't want you to hear stories.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
The media mocks about everyday Americans. If the globalist ignore, you.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Could think of Red Pilled America as audio documentaries. And
we've promised only one thing, the truth.
Speaker 6 (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
algorithms 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,
tell the 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. But
(04:15):
you hold more power than you realize.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
It was early October twenty twenty one when a legendary
funny man launched his new special.
Speaker 7 (04:37):
I personally am not afraid of other people's freedom and 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. Yaha, yeah, yeah, everything on spoils to say.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
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 awaiting the final installment in this series. The
building anticipation was understandable. Dave Chappelle was and is considered
(05:11):
one of the greatest comedians of all time, an honor
bestowed on him by his fellow comics.
Speaker 3 (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 8 (05:25):
Clearly Day, in my opinion, you're the goat. In my opinion,
your 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 7 (05:47):
I had read in the paper that Caitlyn Jenna was
contemplating posing nude in an upcoming issue of Sports Illustrated.
And I know it's not politically correct to say these things.
It's not just figured fuck it. I'll say it for
everybody else.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Luck 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
(06:27):
one imagined 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
(06:47):
his Netflix series The Funny Man, had taken comic jabs
at the LGBTQ movement.
Speaker 7 (06:53):
Stuart educates me about this movement, you know what I mean.
I didn't even know shit about it. He told me
it's called l B GQ Q. I was like, what
the fuck is the que is that he make sense? Q?
Turns out Q was like the viows that shit is sometimes?
(07:13):
Why for gay dudes that don't really know that gay
You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Jokes like these weren't mean spirited, they were just funny,
and each special seemed to come back to this same topic.
Speaker 7 (07:27):
Everybody's mad about something recently. I got attacked online by
some gay bloggers and it hurt my feelings.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
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 7 (07:43):
You know who hates me the most? The transgender community.
Yoh yeah, these motherfucker I mean, I didn't realize how
bad it was, these motherfuckers. 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 transgender
had just about had enough of his brand of comedy.
Speaker 7 (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 GE's. But the ts hate my fucking guts,
and I don't blame them. It's not their fault, it's mine.
I can't stop telling jokes about these niggas. I don't
(08:31):
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 7 (08:48):
I like to start by addressing the lbgt Q community, correct.
I want to remember that community to know that I
come the other night in peace.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
He then proceeded to deliver one LGBQ joke after another,
including one that wove in a story about a rapper
named The Baby that had recently been canceled for disparaging gaze.
Speaker 7 (09:11):
The Baby was the number one streaming artist until about
a couple weeks ago. So the Nasty spill on stage
and said some 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.
Shit was like, God, damn the baby. Ooh, he pushed
(09:34):
the button, 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.
(09:55):
But you know, a lot of the LBGTQ community doesn't
know the baby's history. He's a wild guy. He once
shot a nigga and killed him in Walmart. Nothing bad
happened to his career. Do you see where I'm going
(10:17):
with this? In our country, you can shoot and kill
a nigga, but you better not hurt a gay person's feelings.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
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 9 (10:52):
Well.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
When his final special hit Netflix, the media took Dave
Chappelle to task, claiming that the alphabet movement was livid.
Speaker 10 (11:00):
Chappelle's comments about the transgender and LGBTQ plus communities have
outraged many, who are now calling for the Special to
be removed.
Speaker 11 (11:08):
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 12 (11:21):
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 10 (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 long
as they continue to put out and profit from blatantly
and dangerously transphobic content. No comments so far from Chappelle
(12:11):
or Netflix.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
As the controversy began to get traction, the media started
to hone in on one person. The cohead of Netflix
ted Sarandos, attempting to pressure him into taking down Dave Special.
Mister Sarandos was forced to respond.
Speaker 13 (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 14 (12:37):
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 15 (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 an.
Speaker 13 (13:03):
Today, a group of transgender employees at Netflix announcing plans
to stage a walkout next week.
Speaker 16 (13:09):
October twentieth is the date when trans employees of Netflix
are planning a walkout in protests 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
(13:33):
that represents and uplifts trans content.
Speaker 13 (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 people.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
With the media hyping the employee walkout. Another Netflix comic
came out in Dave's defense.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
And if you get down to Dave Chappelle's real feelings,
he's a lovely person. He's one of the nice 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,
(14:16):
and he tries to do his best navigating through this
world of talking shit 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.
(14:37):
Like I'm 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 9 (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 17 (15:01):
Netflix co 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 interview Tuesday evening. I should
(15:24):
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 (15:37):
The next day, the upset Netflix employees delivered on their promise.
Speaker 7 (15:41):
The blowback to Dave Chappelle's latest comedy special produced by
Netflix has reached a boiling point.
Speaker 5 (15:48):
Tonight, Netflix employees walking out of the company's Hollywood office
after weeks of internal backlash.
Speaker 8 (15:55):
If your satire is puching down, you are being a pullie.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Only a few dozen out of thousands of Netflix employees
actually walked, doubt, but to increase the optics. They were
met by outside alphabet comrades and the media hype the protest.
Speaker 12 (16:10):
Around one hundred people have protests to outside Netflix headquarters
in California over the broadcast of a comedy special by
Dave Chappellell here.
Speaker 11 (16:18):
Because of the Chapelle he is calming our kids. He
doesn't realize that the speech that he's putting out there
is harmful.
Speaker 6 (16:30):
It's harmful to children, it's harmful to trans people everywhere.
Speaker 18 (16:36):
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
I'd say it ridicules transgender people. They say this is
part of harmful content that negatively impacts vulnerable communities and
is unethical entertainment.
Speaker 6 (16:56):
We don't care what, Dame Chabelle, we're doing until you
papa our community.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
A small count your protests defending Chappelle arrived as well.
Speaker 6 (17:05):
We're out here it.
Speaker 12 (17:06):
Is your support for jokes, comedy and everything that's great
about America free speech, and I love all.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
These people at Free Speech as well.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
I'm glad we canna have a discussion.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
The angry Netflix employees, who'd 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 12 (17:27):
I've been breaking my side, right king my side.
Speaker 16 (17:31):
You don't have schee.
Speaker 11 (17:35):
Follow you.
Speaker 19 (17:37):
Look.
Speaker 5 (17:40):
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 its mouth is. The specific block
of employees are galvanized to continue to hold them accountable.
Speaker 5 (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 Sarandos 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 5 (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 of conflict 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 Cortes.
Speaker 20 (20:51):
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 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 tantry. When
Netflix first started its streaming service, the major film studios
were the same outfits that practically stretched back to the
(21:24):
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 The guy.
Speaker 15 (21:44):
Who really assembled the concept for Netflix was this guy
named Mark Randolph, and he's a marketing genius.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
That's Gina Keating, author of Netflixed, The epic Battle for
America's Eyeballs.
Speaker 15 (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 Cherryhill, me much 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 15 (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 20 (22:30):
It was a really geeky little startup I was doing
with two friends of mine. I was told n Integrity 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. Reid 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 Hastings. This
(23:03):
company was acquired by an even bigger software company. Read
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 million
(23:24):
in stocks, making read Hastings a very rich man. Reid
was ready to hang up his entrepreneurial coat, but Mark
still had the bug again.
Speaker 20 (23:34):
Mark Randolph now reed Hastings he did not want to
start another company. 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 21 (23:46):
But he wanted to keep a hand in the startup game.
Speaker 20 (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 21 (24:08):
And so the way we look for an idea was this.
Speaker 20 (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 other who are you?
Speaker 22 (24:36):
I'm Jeff Bezos and what is your claim to fame
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 22 (24:51):
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 22 (25:58):
What really is the case is that we know two
percent about all this stuff that we will know ten
years from now. This is absolutely the kitty Hawk era
of e commerce and e merchandising.
Speaker 20 (26:15):
Again, Mark Randolf, All I wanted to do was sell
something on the Internet. And the Internet was pretty new,
it was probably five years old. E commerce had just started.
Jeff Bezos's Amazon was only selling books, if you can
imagine a time like that.
Speaker 21 (26:34):
But my career earlier on as.
Speaker 20 (26:35):
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.
Speaker 21 (26:43):
So I wanted to sell something on the Internet.
Speaker 20 (26:45):
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 21 (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 20 (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 21 (27:35):
What other huge categories are there that we could bring
onto the Internet.
Speaker 20 (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 20 (27:57):
This was an eight billion dollar category, but locked up
by blockbusters on every corner.
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 and.
Speaker 19 (28:22):
I ran to one of my favorite vature 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 the VHS.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
That's Netflix co founder Read Hastings.
Speaker 19 (28:34):
It looked happening, 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 19 (29:19):
And then someone told me about DVD which had not
yet then launched, and how it was a CD.
Speaker 20 (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 with the
size of a music CD.
Speaker 21 (29:35):
And that gave us this idea that maybe this could
be the key to unlocking an.
Speaker 20 (29:41):
Idea we'd already thought of and rejected, that we could
mail DVDs to people in the US mail. And 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 biable. So we turned
(30:03):
the car around mid commute and drove back down to
Santa Cruz and went and looked for a DVD, but
of course there's no DVDs available.
Speaker 21 (30:11):
It's a test market and only a few cities.
Speaker 20 (30:13):
So he decided to settle in 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 you'd put a greeting card in.
Speaker 19 (30:24):
And I waited, and it weighs you zero point six
of them out, so you could mail it for one stamp.
And so I stuffed a bunch of CDs and they
bought them mailed up 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 post would arrived and.
Speaker 21 (30:44):
That rip open the envelopes.
Speaker 19 (30:45):
Said the first one's in good shape, and the second
one is in good shape, and the third one's a
good shape.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
But all I'm like, this socker is gonna work.
Speaker 20 (30:58):
And the next day when Reid stocked 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 point
(31:20):
nine million dollars.
Speaker 21 (31:22):
I went out.
Speaker 20 (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 at old Bank building up
in Scott's Valley just north of here, dirty Green carpeting.
(31:44):
It had a vault in the corner. I hired about
a dozen people and then we spent six months building
this simple e commerce website. I mean the type of
website that you or anybody could probably build in about
six hours. So six months later I was April fourteenth,
nineteen ninety eight. We turned the switch and boom, we're live.
Speaker 19 (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.
Do you want to hear Red Pilled America stories ad free?
Then become a backstage subscriber. Just log onto Redpilled America
(32:34):
dot com and click join in the top menu. Join
today and help us save America one story at a time.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
Welcome back to Red Pilled America. I'm Patrick carelci.
Speaker 10 (32:47):
So.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
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 house holds owned a DVD player,
and they cost a mini fortune nearly six hundred dollars.
(33:09):
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 Netflix, The Epic Battle for America's Eyeballs.
Speaker 15 (33:24):
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 20 (33:38):
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.
We have made it.
Speaker 21 (33:48):
And then you go, how big is Blockbuster?
Speaker 20 (33:51):
A single store does about a million dollars, but there's
nine thousand stores. I mean, this company's doing.
Speaker 21 (33:58):
Six billion dollars a year.
Speaker 20 (34:01):
It's just the idea of 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 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,
(34:23):
and subscription.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
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
(34:46):
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 15 (34:58):
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 (35:20):
Mark wanted to create a user interface that basically doubled
as a market research tool, and they.
Speaker 15 (35:27):
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 (35:44):
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 23 (35:56):
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 Hugh 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 22 (36:17):
The Untouchable, The Comfort of Strangers, Death in Summer, Breakfast
on Pluto, I married a Communists.
Speaker 21 (36:22):
That's awfully good.
Speaker 16 (36:23):
I mean, Franklins, that's a very good example.
Speaker 23 (36:24):
Already bought two of those books, and bookstores.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
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 again, Gina Keating.
Speaker 15 (36:40):
Netflix has a really specialized platform and they cracked their
customers really closely, and with Amazon they don't. 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 net like
(37:03):
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 one time
present for my friend's two year old or something like that.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
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 (37:37):
Coming up on red pilled America.
Speaker 15 (37:39):
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 14 (37:48):
Well, black Rock 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 policy,
they can push in social and governance policies that could
never be achieved at the ballot box.
Speaker 7 (38:08):
I want everyone in this audience to know that even
though the media frames is that it's me versus that community,
it's not what it is. Do not blame the LBGTQ
community for any of this shit. This has nothing to
do with them. It's about corporate interests and what I
can say and what I cannot say.
Speaker 12 (38:29):
So this ESG stuff is really being utilized to control society.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Red Pilled America is an iHeartRadio original podcast. It's produced
by me Adrianna Cortez and Patrick Carrelci for Inform Ventures.
Speaker 21 (38:44):
Now.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
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
dot com and click join in the top menu. Thanks
for listening.
Speaker 8 (39:04):
The had Beer Building
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 3 (01:23):
There's a lot of argument that algorithms cause arguments and
cause strife.
Speaker 5 (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 Currelci 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 (01:58):
Stories Hollywood doesn't want you to hear stories.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
The media mocks about everyday Americans. If the globalist ignore, you.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Could think of Red Pilled America as audio documentaries. And
we've promised only one thing, the truth.
Speaker 6 (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
algorithms 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,
tell the 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. But
(04:15):
you hold more power than you realize.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
It was early October twenty twenty one when a legendary
funny man launched his new special.
Speaker 7 (04:37):
I personally am not afraid of other people's freedom and 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. Yaha, yeah, yeah, everything on spoils to say.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
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 awaiting the final installment in this series. The
building anticipation was understandable. Dave Chappelle was and is considered
(05:11):
one of the greatest comedians of all time, an honor
bestowed on him by his fellow comics.
Speaker 3 (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 8 (05:25):
Clearly Day, in my opinion, you're the goat. In my opinion,
your 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 7 (05:47):
I had read in the paper that Caitlyn Jenna was
contemplating posing nude in an upcoming issue of Sports Illustrated.
And I know it's not politically correct to say these things.
It's not just figured fuck it. I'll say it for
everybody else.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Luck 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
(06:27):
one imagined 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
(06:47):
his Netflix series The Funny Man, had taken comic jabs
at the LGBTQ movement.
Speaker 7 (06:53):
Stuart educates me about this movement, you know what I mean.
I didn't even know shit about it. He told me
it's called l B GQ Q. I was like, what
the fuck is the que is that he make sense? Q?
Turns out Q was like the viows that shit is sometimes?
(07:13):
Why for gay dudes that don't really know that gay
You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Jokes like these weren't mean spirited, they were just funny,
and each special seemed to come back to this same topic.
Speaker 7 (07:27):
Everybody's mad about something recently. I got attacked online by
some gay bloggers and it hurt my feelings.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
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 7 (07:43):
You know who hates me the most? The transgender community.
Yoh yeah, these motherfucker I mean, I didn't realize how
bad it was, these motherfuckers. 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 transgender
had just about had enough of his brand of comedy.
Speaker 7 (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 GE's. But the ts hate my fucking guts,
and I don't blame them. It's not their fault, it's mine.
I can't stop telling jokes about these niggas. I don't
(08:31):
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 7 (08:48):
I like to start by addressing the lbgt Q community, correct.
I want to remember that community to know that I
come the other night in peace.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
He then proceeded to deliver one LGBQ joke after another,
including one that wove in a story about a rapper
named The Baby that had recently been canceled for disparaging gaze.
Speaker 7 (09:11):
The Baby was the number one streaming artist until about
a couple weeks ago. So the Nasty spill on stage
and said some 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.
Shit was like, God, damn the baby. Ooh, he pushed
(09:34):
the button, 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.
(09:55):
But you know, a lot of the LBGTQ community doesn't
know the baby's history. He's a wild guy. He once
shot a nigga and killed him in Walmart. Nothing bad
happened to his career. Do you see where I'm going
(10:17):
with this? In our country, you can shoot and kill
a nigga, but you better not hurt a gay person's feelings.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
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 9 (10:52):
Well.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
When his final special hit Netflix, the media took Dave
Chappelle to task, claiming that the alphabet movement was livid.
Speaker 10 (11:00):
Chappelle's comments about the transgender and LGBTQ plus communities have
outraged many, who are now calling for the Special to
be removed.
Speaker 11 (11:08):
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 12 (11:21):
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 10 (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 long
as they continue to put out and profit from blatantly
and dangerously transphobic content. No comments so far from Chappelle
(12:11):
or Netflix.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
As the controversy began to get traction, the media started
to hone in on one person. The cohead of Netflix
ted Sarandos, attempting to pressure him into taking down Dave Special.
Mister Sarandos was forced to respond.
Speaker 13 (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 14 (12:37):
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 15 (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 an.
Speaker 13 (13:03):
Today, a group of transgender employees at Netflix announcing plans
to stage a walkout next week.
Speaker 16 (13:09):
October twentieth is the date when trans employees of Netflix
are planning a walkout in protests 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
(13:33):
that represents and uplifts trans content.
Speaker 13 (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 people.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
With the media hyping the employee walkout. Another Netflix comic
came out in Dave's defense.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
And if you get down to Dave Chappelle's real feelings,
he's a lovely person. He's one of the nice 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,
(14:16):
and he tries to do his best navigating through this
world of talking shit 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.
(14:37):
Like I'm 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 9 (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 17 (15:01):
Netflix co 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 interview Tuesday evening. I should
(15:24):
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 (15:37):
The next day, the upset Netflix employees delivered on their promise.
Speaker 7 (15:41):
The blowback to Dave Chappelle's latest comedy special produced by
Netflix has reached a boiling point.
Speaker 5 (15:48):
Tonight, Netflix employees walking out of the company's Hollywood office
after weeks of internal backlash.
Speaker 8 (15:55):
If your satire is puching down, you are being a pullie.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Only a few dozen out of thousands of Netflix employees
actually walked, doubt, but to increase the optics. They were
met by outside alphabet comrades and the media hype the protest.
Speaker 12 (16:10):
Around one hundred people have protests to outside Netflix headquarters
in California over the broadcast of a comedy special by
Dave Chappellell here.
Speaker 11 (16:18):
Because of the Chapelle he is calming our kids. He
doesn't realize that the speech that he's putting out there
is harmful.
Speaker 6 (16:30):
It's harmful to children, it's harmful to trans people everywhere.
Speaker 18 (16:36):
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
I'd say it ridicules transgender people. They say this is
part of harmful content that negatively impacts vulnerable communities and
is unethical entertainment.
Speaker 6 (16:56):
We don't care what, Dame Chabelle, we're doing until you
papa our community.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
A small count your protests defending Chappelle arrived as well.
Speaker 6 (17:05):
We're out here it.
Speaker 12 (17:06):
Is your support for jokes, comedy and everything that's great
about America free speech, and I love all.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
These people at Free Speech as well.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
I'm glad we canna have a discussion.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
The angry Netflix employees, who'd 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 12 (17:27):
I've been breaking my side, right king my side.
Speaker 16 (17:31):
You don't have schee.
Speaker 11 (17:35):
Follow you.
Speaker 19 (17:37):
Look.
Speaker 5 (17:40):
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 its mouth is. The specific block
of employees are galvanized to continue to hold them accountable.
Speaker 5 (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 Sarandos 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 5 (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 of conflict 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):
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RPA fifteen at checkout. That's Licoriceguy dot com.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Welcome back to Red Pilled America. I'm Adriana Cortes.
Speaker 20 (20:51):
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 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 tantry. When
Netflix first started its streaming service, the major film studios
were the same outfits that practically stretched back to the
(21:24):
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 The guy.
Speaker 15 (21:44):
Who really assembled the concept for Netflix was this guy
named Mark Randolph, and he's a marketing genius.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
That's Gina Keating, author of Netflixed, The epic Battle for
America's Eyeballs.
Speaker 15 (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 Cherryhill, me much 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 15 (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 20 (22:30):
It was a really geeky little startup I was doing
with two friends of mine. I was told n Integrity 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. Reid 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 Hastings. This
(23:03):
company was acquired by an even bigger software company. Read
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 million
(23:24):
in stocks, making read Hastings a very rich man. Reid
was ready to hang up his entrepreneurial coat, but Mark
still had the bug again.
Speaker 20 (23:34):
Mark Randolph now reed Hastings he did not want to
start another company. 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 21 (23:46):
But he wanted to keep a hand in the startup game.
Speaker 20 (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 21 (24:08):
And so the way we look for an idea was this.
Speaker 20 (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 other who are you?
Speaker 22 (24:36):
I'm Jeff Bezos and what is your claim to fame
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 22 (24:51):
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 22 (25:58):
What really is the case is that we know two
percent about all this stuff that we will know ten
years from now. This is absolutely the kitty Hawk era
of e commerce and e merchandising.
Speaker 20 (26:15):
Again, Mark Randolf, All I wanted to do was sell
something on the Internet. And the Internet was pretty new,
it was probably five years old. E commerce had just started.
Jeff Bezos's Amazon was only selling books, if you can
imagine a time like that.
Speaker 21 (26:34):
But my career earlier on as.
Speaker 20 (26:35):
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.
Speaker 21 (26:43):
So I wanted to sell something on the Internet.
Speaker 20 (26:45):
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 21 (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 20 (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 21 (27:35):
What other huge categories are there that we could bring
onto the Internet.
Speaker 20 (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 20 (27:57):
This was an eight billion dollar category, but locked up
by blockbusters on every corner.
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 and.
Speaker 19 (28:22):
I ran to one of my favorite vature 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 the VHS.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
That's Netflix co founder Read Hastings.
Speaker 19 (28:34):
It looked happening, 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 19 (29:19):
And then someone told me about DVD which had not
yet then launched, and how it was a CD.
Speaker 20 (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 with the
size of a music CD.
Speaker 21 (29:35):
And that gave us this idea that maybe this could
be the key to unlocking an.
Speaker 20 (29:41):
Idea we'd already thought of and rejected, that we could
mail DVDs to people in the US mail. And 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 biable. So we turned
(30:03):
the car around mid commute and drove back down to
Santa Cruz and went and looked for a DVD, but
of course there's no DVDs available.
Speaker 21 (30:11):
It's a test market and only a few cities.
Speaker 20 (30:13):
So he decided to settle in 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 you'd put a greeting card in.
Speaker 19 (30:24):
And I waited, and it weighs you zero point six
of them out, so you could mail it for one stamp.
And so I stuffed a bunch of CDs and they
bought them mailed up 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 post would arrived and.
Speaker 21 (30:44):
That rip open the envelopes.
Speaker 19 (30:45):
Said the first one's in good shape, and the second
one is in good shape, and the third one's a
good shape.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
But all I'm like, this socker is gonna work.
Speaker 20 (30:58):
And the next day when Reid stocked 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 point
(31:20):
nine million dollars.
Speaker 21 (31:22):
I went out.
Speaker 20 (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 at old Bank building up
in Scott's Valley just north of here, dirty Green carpeting.
(31:44):
It had a vault in the corner. I hired about
a dozen people and then we spent six months building
this simple e commerce website. I mean the type of
website that you or anybody could probably build in about
six hours. So six months later I was April fourteenth,
nineteen ninety eight. We turned the switch and boom, we're live.
Speaker 19 (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.
Do you want to hear Red Pilled America stories ad free?
Then become a backstage subscriber. Just log onto Redpilled America
(32:34):
dot com and click join in the top menu. Join
today and help us save America one story at a time.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
Welcome back to Red Pilled America. I'm Patrick carelci.
Speaker 10 (32:47):
So.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
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 house holds owned a DVD player,
and they cost a mini fortune nearly six hundred dollars.
(33:09):
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 Netflix, The Epic Battle for America's Eyeballs.
Speaker 15 (33:24):
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 20 (33:38):
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.
We have made it.
Speaker 21 (33:48):
And then you go, how big is Blockbuster?
Speaker 20 (33:51):
A single store does about a million dollars, but there's
nine thousand stores. I mean, this company's doing.
Speaker 21 (33:58):
Six billion dollars a year.
Speaker 20 (34:01):
It's just the idea of 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 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,
(34:23):
and subscription.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
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
(34:46):
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 15 (34:58):
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 (35:20):
Mark wanted to create a user interface that basically doubled
as a market research tool, and they.
Speaker 15 (35:27):
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 (35:44):
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 23 (35:56):
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 Hugh 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 22 (36:17):
The Untouchable, The Comfort of Strangers, Death in Summer, Breakfast
on Pluto, I married a Communists.
Speaker 21 (36:22):
That's awfully good.
Speaker 16 (36:23):
I mean, Franklins, that's a very good example.
Speaker 23 (36:24):
Already bought two of those books, and bookstores.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
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 again, Gina Keating.
Speaker 15 (36:40):
Netflix has a really specialized platform and they cracked their
customers really closely, and with Amazon they don't. 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 net like
(37:03):
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 one time
present for my friend's two year old or something like that.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
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 (37:37):
Coming up on red pilled America.
Speaker 15 (37:39):
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 14 (37:48):
Well, black Rock 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 policy,
they can push in social and governance policies that could
never be achieved at the ballot box.
Speaker 7 (38:08):
I want everyone in this audience to know that even
though the media frames is that it's me versus that community,
it's not what it is. Do not blame the LBGTQ
community for any of this shit. This has nothing to
do with them. It's about corporate interests and what I
can say and what I cannot say.
Speaker 12 (38:29):
So this ESG stuff is really being utilized to control society.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Red Pilled America is an iHeartRadio original podcast. It's produced
by me Adrianna Cortez and Patrick Carrelci for Inform Ventures.
Speaker 21 (38:44):
Now.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
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
dot com and click join in the top menu. Thanks
for listening.
Speaker 8 (39:04):
The had Beer Building
Hosts And Creators
Adryana Cortez
Patrick Courrielche
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