💉 “Corporate Botox” — Block’s 40% layoff. Netflix’s wedding crashed. Coach Handbags’ anthropologist. +Burger King’s AI

Before we hit our usual show, we wanted to acknowledge the news from over the weekend and Iran. The U.S. and Israeli military attacked over 2,000 targets in Iran with missile strikes. Iran confirmed that their supreme leader was killed in the attacks and the Islamic nation of 92 million people has not yet named a new leader.

As of this update Sunday evening, three American troops are sadly been confirmed killed. Wall Street is already bracing for the conflict. Airplane stocks are already down, oil prices are already up and so are defense stocks. It's a scary moment though for the country and the world. The mass shooting happened in Austin yesterday.

Not far from where we were last week, with three dead and 14 wounded. And that is being investigated by the FBI as a potential act of terrorism linked to what's happening in Iran. Now as he is Jack and I recorded the rest of this show before the attacks happened on Saturday, but we will be following the situation all week long and cover how to fix the world of business

and economics and finance in our own unique way, just like we always do.

So let's hit the show. This is Nick, this is Jack. Welcome back. It is Monday and March 2nd, and in today's party the best one yet this is a devoid.

“The top three pop business news stories you need to know today.”

Oh boy, and one too many tacos last week, Jack. It's a nick of my aunt and girl who are at the live show in Austin. Yeah, they said Jack, your fans adore you. It was amazing. True.

And I love that. But the real truth, I adore them. Oh my god, Jack, I ran into a guy in the flight home. I didn't even tell you. We were hugging in the aisle of the plane both wearing the merch.

People didn't know I was going to. I haven't given out so many hugs since college.

Oh, I was absolutely amazing.

Interpret that I received them. You were looking fantastic. What a show. We can't wait for the next one. But Jack, we got three fantastic stories to catch up on today, my friend.

For our first story, Jack Dorsey of Block announced he's letting go nearly half the company.

“So here's the question, is AI corporate ozempick corporate liposuction or corporate”

botox? For our second story, it's the hottest brand in fashion right now. Coach, they're $350 tabby bag is Gen Z's fire and coach knows because it put an anthropologist in charge of marketing. And our third and final story, the Netflix Paramount Warner Brothers Love Triangle is

over. And Netflix lost and is alone. But we think Netflix's lost is really a win and we're going to break down the impact on Wall Street Hollywood society, even on TMZ. But yet he's before we hit that wonderful mix of stories.

Oh, what a mix to come back to Jack. I love the mix, man. If you don't say, please and thank you. Watch out. Yeah, because Burger King's line manager is going to come and spank you.

Get this, yeah. These Burger King's newest product isn't a nugget, a burger or a wiper. No, no, no, no, no. It is a surveillance technology to ensure that workers mind their peas and their queues. That's right.

In collaboration with Open AI on a new chatbot that they call Patty. Patty's got one job, one job, only, and what is that, Jack? Ensure friendlyness from the staff, and then it's like, I think it's an insure friendlyness

“because you have to say it while you're smiling, it also doesn't count.”

Now Burger King calls this an AI coach. We call it an AI snitch because it's basically a manor's micro manager. Here's the story. Patty lives in the Burger Flipers headsets and listens for specific polite words from the staff.

It's an AI, it's in force and you're welcome. If you don't say pardon, you don't get promotion.

Oh, and if you forget that the customer is always right, then Burger King's AI will

rat you out. Besties, this is just like Emily Post fame, it's 1922 book, The Rules of Adicates. Except it's 2026. Yeah. So it's not from tea parties.

It's for our dystopian, fast feud, not future present apparel. Yeah, we should point out, 75% of American companies do some sort of employee monitoring these days. The first time they're using AI to make please a KPI. So yeah, these, if you are at a Burger King drive through right now, you know, we're

thinking, say really loudly, thank you for being so wonderfully friendly Tiffany. So that Tiffany's AI tells Tiffany's boss to make Tiffany the new boss to give Tiffany a promotion. Tiffany, you nailed it. That's Burger I've ever had.

Jack, what's it? What's it? I've seen years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dark, they had an idea, cause the cultural storm is the best one yet, but the best is in the dark, Jack, Nick, that's Nick.

I don't even do anything to practice, 50% that's a fat tip, Team Boy City on your act. Liz, if you let you know 'cause we're rich ago, we can't wait no more, so just start to show you. First, a quit word for my response. Indeed, that's out of rhythm.

In my cancelling, it's time to write, "Ouch, that's recruiting." There's no falseness, it's up-gulled. Fenty by the right, with the work, and you can see the 5070, "Ouch, that's good.com/good.com/good. It's Geld in the AGB." For our first story, Jack Dorsey became the grim reaper of A.I. last week, laying off 4,000

But the doomsday narrative on AI could be wrong, so here's a more optimistic case, and it involves plastic surgery.

“Yeti's five years ago, Jack Dorsey, not best friend Koho's Jack over here, was one of the”

three most powerful people in the technology industry.

First of all, he had the username Jack on Twitter. He was also, though, the CEO and co-founder of both Twitter and Square. Yeah, it's right under Jack Dorsey, Twitter was a boom and king of culture, and Square was the FinTech queen. Five years ago, Square Stock, five X, and hit a 100 billion dollar valuation.

But today, this is a different story for Jack Dorsey's companies. Twitter is basically Elon's AI toy, and Square got renamed to Block. It's now worth one quarter as much as it was five years ago. And since selling Twitter to Elon, Jack Dorsey's beard has only gotten longer while his silence has only gotten longer as well.

Until last week, he broke his silence. In one tweet, Jack Dorsey fired 4,000 people. Wow, that's 40% of Block's workforce. And this tweet, it didn't even have any capital letters in it. He fired 4,000 people all in lower case.

It was like the Avengers Infinity Wars. Snap. Half of the workforce of Block was gone. This is like a freaky superhero plot twist, but it wasn't saying us, though. Jack Dorsey explicitly said that he's replacing these 4,000 workers with one very specific

employee. AI. And yet, he's, you know what this is about? It's the same thing that that Doomsday essay was about last week from Satrini Research. So it is easy to reach the conclusion that this is the start of a trend in AI job, apocalypse.

But there's a couple of reasons to believe. Maybe this isn't a trend. Maybe what Jack Dorsey did at Block is just a one off. Yeah, maybe this is Mojo and Ego, Mojo Nico, Jack, take it away. Block stock has lost odds, Mojo is down 75% from its all-time high.

Again, just like Jack Dorsey's beer. So maybe this mass layoff is because Block's lost its business, Mojo. But maybe instead, it's because of Jack Dorsey's ego. The founder of Block, Jack Dorsey, he has super shares of the company. So he can't be fired by the board.

So instead, Jack just fired 4,000 workers. Maybe this is an attention seeking move to become relevant again as one of the big three dudes of tech. After all, his 4,000 fire tweet, it got a lot of attention on Twitter. His favorite platform.

But besties, whether or not it's Mojo or Ego, this works. It worked really well for Block's shareholders. Block stock had its best day in years. It searched 25% on Friday. So clearly Wall Street approves of CEOs who place in humans with way cheaper AI instead.

And many are speculating that Jack's block layoffs give cover for other CEOs to make similar moves. We're talking mass layoffs here.

“But besties, Jack and I think there is a way that AI can play out in completely different”

in fact, completely opposite way of that job apocalypse scenario.

The answer is a takeaway.

So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies? Worried about AI. Here's a theory. AI is like corporate Botox. It doesn't cut workers.

It enhances them. Now, yet, he's, remember last year we talked about that theory that AI is like corporate Ozenbick, it cuts size, but increases the output of a company. Well, what Jack Dorsey just did last week is much more extreme than Ozenbick. It's like corporate liposuction or corporate amputation.

It's like cut novel limb, but also last week, Citadel Securities suggested something different that AI, as Jack and I would put it, it's more like corporate Botox. Last week, Citadel wanted to change the narrative, because that Wall Street firm doesn't think that AI will eliminate jobs. And no, they've got three ideas, why? First, adoption of AI will be slow, and the slower

the adoption, the easier it is for workers to adjust. Second, they think AI will boost entrepreneurship, and it already is. New company formation hit records in 2024 and 2025. And finally, they think the government will act if AI booms profits and crushes workers and AI tax will weed distribute the cash.

So instead of a doomsday scenario, Citadel thinks AI will simply boost each worker's productivity. A lot like Microsoft Office did 20 years ago.

“As to last week, all that talk was that AI will eviscerate white collar jobs, but honestly,”

no one really knows what it's going to do. So Citadel has a more optimistic take that we wanted to share with you. Or as Jack and I would put it, maybe AI will be like corporate Botox, not cutting workers, but enhancing them. Four-hour second story.

Thanks to Coach's handbag sales, it's stock has quadrupled since 2024. Coach is the only company that can sell handbags to Gen Z. Because they hired an anthropologist. They hired an anthropologist. But besties before you dive in the story, Jack, can I do a little OOT deal a little off

of the day for you over here? Let's do it. Okay, so I've got a Kate Spade wallet. I'm wearing the Stuart Weightsman boots, and I've got a Coach handbag. What do you think?

Okay, good for you. That's an entire company. Yeah, it is. I'm not wearing that. Because tapestry owns all three of those brands.

It's a $30 billion luxury giant.

The stock is up 22% so far this year. It's up 85% in the last 12 months, and it's quadrupled since 2024. Coach, there's stock, is that Antoin tour highs right now all time highs. Now you might think luxury brands cater just to the wealthy few. But get this.

Coach alone sold to 3 million new customers last quarter, a record high for the brand.

Even Tyra banks would be impressed by that, and the reason is Val Luxury. It's Luxury brand, but focused on a value price. For instance, the top selling Coach bag, it's called the Tabby, and it's just $350. Yeah, they flex the name at 110th the cost of Chanel. But besties, the real reason Coach is crushing it right now.

What is it, Jack? An anthropologist is the head of Coach's marketing. This is what Jack and I find fascinating, Eddies. The Wall Street Journal interviewed the chief marketing officer of Coach, June Silverstein. Jack and I naturally soft stocked her on LinkedIn.

And before Harvard Business School, she was at Columbia University. Her major was Anthropology, the scientific study of humans. In fact, June went on to a full bright scholarship studying second generation North African women over in France. Yeah, she's hardcore anthro.

Just like National Geographic, Analyze's Floor and Fauna, Anthropologists like June analyze us humans, which has led to a unique approach over Coach.

“That customer service and customer focus groups, what is it, Jack?”

Jones Silverstein goes into people's homes and studies our lives. That's right, every quarter, June visits the homes of women 18 to 30 years old, the target customer of Coach Handbags. I assume she's been invited, but she will literally pop into somebody's apartment. Hang out in their closet, look around, and then chat at their kitchen table about how

they spend their day. For example, June noticed that Gen Z likes to express themselves in multiple identities, like, you know, how young people put gibbets on their crops when they go out wearing them. So Coach launched charms for their handbags, cute little carrots, fun little bows, even

miniaturized novels that you can clip to the handle of your handbag. Which she observed was that the desire to personalize was so deep that consumers would

even accessorize an accessory, like a handbag, basically handbag charms.

I think you're going to say handbag inception, well, either way, Coach sales are crushing it right now because they're cheap marketing officer spends afternoons opening up 23 year old's dressers. Not creepy. No, it's marketing.

“So, Jack, what's the take away for our buddies over at Coach to understand the customer?”

Act like Jane Goodall. Ah, Jane Goodall. Yeti's, she's the late great anthropologist who studied chimpanzees and people. She's been her life in the force of Africa observing primates. She was the first to document chimpanzees using tools, which made us realize, wow, they're

not as different from humans as we thought. Well, June took Jane science into marketing, and ethnographic approach as the scientists would call it, proving more effective than traditional marketing. June realized that brands mistake data for insight. Such a good quote.

Basically, you can learn something about customers from the data, just like you can learn something about Apes by reading zoo books. But observing customers reveals insights that they don't even know themselves, or can't yet articulate about themselves. You learn who they really are besties, what they really want by opening up the socturne

and watching their daily routines. So, you don't need more data. You need more Jane Goodall. Now, a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, with paramount increasing its bid to buy Warner Bros.

Netflix is walking away and we'll explain all the drama through wedding crashes. We'll also assess the impact on Wall Street, Hollywood, and on our American society. But also, Vince Vaughan and wedding crashes. Besties, the biggest love triangle in Hollywood isn't a movie that's Hollywood itself these days.

December 8th was the last time that we covered Warner Bros. discovery, Netflix, and Paramount's awkward throplest situation.

Now back then, Netflix had offered 83 billion bucks to buy Warner Bros. and until last week

was presumed to be the winner of the bidding war for the famous Hollywood studio in HBO Max. But since then, the corporate M&A drama has played out like wedding crashes. Now, follow us on this one. Here's the cast.

Warner Bros. is playing the bride. Netflix is playing the steady fiancée, and Jack, who would you say is playing Paramount in this case? Oh, he's the rich ex, who's constantly DMing the bride telling her to reconsider, and even showing up at the rehearsal dinner.

Well, that makes you love me, Jack. Well, we're not even exaggerating, Messies. Wait to hear this. The CEOs of Netflix and Warner Bros. did a real photo shoot, basically the equivalent of engagement picks.

I think there was a hug.

“I think there was a hug, I saw in there, Jack, which leads to the news.”

You already know it. After Paramount up their offer to buy Warner Bros. last week, Netflix decided to walk away. Paramount is the winner. Or in wedding crashes, terms, Netflix was at the altar, but then Paramount burst

Yeah, it might have been the stiff mattress, or the gay nude on a chair, or maybe the midnight break. Either way, Netflix is single again.

“But Besties, before you cry for Netflix, Netflix's loss is actually an already big”

win for Netflix. Get this.

In the two and a half months after Netflix bid $83 billion to buy Warner Bros, Netflix stock

felt 31%. Investors, very much disapproved of the acquisition. Investors disapprove like an angry father-in-law. If anyone believed Netflix and Warner Bros should not be wed, Wall Street Board stood up.

Yeah, because Warner Bros, simply isn't worth anything close to what Netflix was offering to buy it for. Or what it's now selling for. Paramount is paying $31 a share. For Warner Bros, a company whose stock was just 8 bucks before this bidding war began.

But David Allison, the owner of Paramount, the new NEPO mogul of Hollywood, was willing to pay anything for the power of Warner Bros assets, which we'll get to in the takeaway. And get this. Netflix still receives a $2.8 billion break-up fee as part of this deal. Not too shabby.

It's just if Paramount bought Netflix's huge diamond as well. Oh, and I'm top of it. Netflix's stock rocking enough 20% of the last week since it got left at the altar.

That's 70 billion bucks in value.

So it's not just better for Netflix financially. Not to buy Warner Bros. It's better strategically, too. You're right, Jack, because Netflix's top competition is now basically broke. Paramount took out a $60 billion loan to beat Netflix and buy Warner Bros.

Yeah, they put that big ring on the old credit card. And Larry Allison even had to sell his $45 million San Francisco mansion to pay for his son's new toy. True story. Most expensive home-sounds San Francisco in the last year.

And it's not just the money. For the next 12 months, Paramount and Warner Bros will have to stay in the good graces of the Trump administration to actually get this deal approved. I'm sorry, Jack, but that is just not have to lay ever after for those, too. That's the worst, like, engagement to wedding 12 months.

You could have said it. So what is that enough for you, every here, Jack? Netflix lost the bride, but Netflix still gets paid. It's investor buddies in the bridal party are pumped, and it's rival just overspent on a ring.

Basically, Netflix is like, yeah, we're Uncle Ned's kids.

So, Jack, number three of party graduates, never leave a fellow crash or behind.

“What the take away for our buddies over at Netflix?”

No family has ever had a tighter grip on American media than the Ellison's now do. Yet, he's Jack and I've mentioned the power of the assets of Warner Bros before. And we are not just talking about the superheroes. All those Superman's ever snake and succession are very powerful. Yes, they are, Jack.

What we were talking about right now, though, is the TV networks. You see, Paramount already owns CBS, and now they're getting CNN at the Ellison's. Long time Trump's super donors, also now own two of the biggest movie studios, and don't forget a huge chunk of TikTok. Now, the mainstream media has been perceived to have a liberal bias, but it is now controlled

by conservative mega donors. This acquisition doesn't just transform Hollywood. It has the potential to transform culture and politics, because Besties, the Ellison family, now controls an unbelievable amount of American media, which means the mainstream media, is undergoing a complete and utter 180.

Jack could go whip up the takeaways for us to kick off the week. Jack Dorsey laid out 4,000 workers in a tweet because of AI, but maybe that's a one-off driven by his ego and his lack of mojo. Maybe AI is really like Botox. It doesn't replace workers, it enhances the four-hour second story, coach sold to three

million new customers last quarter. A lot of them were Genzi women buying $350 handbags, because coaches marketing is led by an anthropologist. They got a Jane Goodall, and finally, wedding crashes but in real life. They're about winning Warner Bros. is a blessing for Netflix, financially and strategically.

And it caps off the Ellison's swift and expensive takeover of American media. But Besties, this pot's not over yet.

“Here's what else you need to know today.”

Okay, first I've been saving the Chiching Bud for this Jack. FedEx just announced they planned to refund customers who paid tariffs. When the Supreme Court ruled that Trump's tariffs were legal, the question of refunds was not answered. More than 900 companies have now sued the United States for their tariff refunds.

A lot of companies passed on those tariffs to consumers, and they should pass on the refunds, too. And now FedEx puts pressure on everybody to do that. Jack and I will be waiting, we can give you our addresses. And second, Warby Parker had a 2020 earnings, it was that good. Their first ever annual net profit, they announced AI initiatives, and they're tripling

the number of eyeglass stores. The stock jumped 26% on Friday the best day in years. Yeah, Warby Parker thinks it can use AI to sell more glasses so they're adding three times as many stores. And don't forget, Warby was invested in by Google last year.

Our AI Google Glass is coming, we think so.

Everyone's favorite, bald dude, and a tight white t-shirt.

Mr. Clean was either your nightmare or your fantasy. (laughs) And he's retired. Kinda like the Quaker out to do. The household cleaning brand, Mr. Clean, though, they created the character 68 years ago.

He's losing his job not because of AI, just 'cause the brand thinks he's outdated. Okay, but Jackson, my bet, we think he's gonna be back in five years, because every brand

“always brings back the old mascot's eventually, right?”

Jack, when the marketing teams run out of ideas, just bring back the old ideas. Now time for the best fact, yet, this one is T-boy trivia to kick off the week. Now, yet, he's Netflix started as a DVD company, and they mailed their final DVD only three years ago.

Right, but the question is this, what was Netflix's most popular DVD of all time?

I think I might actually know this one. What movie was ordered more than any other in DVD form from Netflix, Jack? What do you think, okay, before we get about, give me a hint of what you think it is. I think when was peak DVD? I think that helps. I like your strategy.

And I'm pretty sure peak DVD was like the year 2004, 2005, like right before streaming. I didn't know it was podcasting with Sherlock Holmes. Yeah, okay, so peak DVD, 2014, 2005. Yeah, you know, I have three sons under five right now. Okay, talk to me.

Which means we like Disney's Pixar.

I see where you're going.

“And so I'm pretty sure the top selling DVD of all time was finding Nemo.”

Oh, so it goes, logic goes to say, it would also be the top rented DVD of all time. I may have given you the Sherlock Holmes compliment a little too early. It's not finding Nemo, but draw it to the comments and check it out. I'm gonna be on until tomorrow's thought. Yeah, these are looking fantastic to kick off the week and Jack and I.

We want to see a look fantastic in person. So snag some tickets to our Washington D.C. or New York Show. They're on March 11th in April 8th. We got links in the episode description. It's like a rock show of business news, we call it the IPO tour.

It's our in-person offering and we're gonna ring a bell for it. And you might walk home with that bell if you're lucky. Oh, spoiler. Jack and I will see you at tomorrow's thought. If you know, yeah, now.

And before we go, happy birthday to legendary Eddie. Emmanuel Kwame from Abbie John Kotivar running a 5k on her birthday. And happy birthday to our shot Kishan from Palo Alto who get this was one of the live living human being bushes from the bad buddy Super Bowl. Stop.

Amazing. Oh, you did great, buddy. And a hair is an enjoy that birthday in Lakewood, Colorado. Happy birthday to Bernardo Salas in San Antonio, who's listening with his two lovely daughters.

Johnny Wind, have the best birthday yet doing logistics in Illinois. Happy birthday to Benny Lopez from Lamont, Illinois. Just a touch of Gaga. And Hannah Thorneberg has got the golden birthday turn in 28 on the 28th over in Kansas. Happy birthday to Dario and Dearborn Michigan, a leap here, baby.

“We'll never forget your Dario and Ted Stoops, congratulations on retiring from the Army”

after 26 years. Thank you for over two decades of service. Congratulations on the IBO to Jesse and Megan in Atlanta. They're turning the keyboard jingle into a nursery song as they welcome that baby into the world.

And Miles Kaines is fresh out of college, but it's got a new job and an AI start up down and chat a new get Tennessee. Big shout out to Laura Adams Hoppy from Eldorado Hills, California. She's a hockey player turned oral surgeon who shared that great fact about the 1980s Olympic team getting into dentistry.

And L.J. Eve is an operations manager for the Navy race organization and over the weekend launch the Navy 10miler in San Diego. Congrats on the big win for the Armed Forces L.J. This is Jack Eilnstock of Netflix, Croc and Disney, Nick O'nstock and Block. [BLANK_AUDIO]