Latest / Black Box Theory Podcast / BBT #13 | Stock Market Signals, Allbirds AI, and the Family Priorities Debate

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BBT #13 | Stock Market Signals, Allbirds AI, and the Family Priorities Debate · Black Box Theory Podcast

• Thomas: Hello, hello. Malcolm: What's going on, chat? We back with another one, Episode 13, Thomas: episode 13 ⁓ snap, we hear this, this what? 13 episodes that's officially crossing the three month, if we were doing weekly release three months into the game. How we feeling? Malcolm: I'm feeling like we got a lot more gems to share, lot more information to run through, a lot more topics to discuss. know, excited of the progress thus far. We still got a lot of work to do, but that's part of the game, man. Can't complain, man. ⁓ You know, blessed as always. You know, I'm alive, heart beating, airing my lungs, roof over my head, clothes on my back. So I can't complain, man. Ain't nothing to it. Thomas: It's real sound like when you when you tell a kid to pray for the first time or like, know Ask them what they thankful for Thanksgiving. They say I'm thankful God woke me up this morning It's kind of you know, but you gotta be grateful for the necessities bro the Daily a lot of people don't have that right now a lot of a lot of jobs not even given health insurance You know, you waking up with uncertainty every day. So Blessed for sure, you know, and we're blessed to even be able to do this So yeah, thank you again Everybody who's been supporting we say this every time Malcolm: Yeah. Thomas: Box Theory is worldwide. We see the stats, ⁓ see the locations. ⁓ out to everybody in the US. Shout out to everybody overseas. If you're listening, feel free to drop a rate ⁓ Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, whatever you listen to. ⁓ a rating, it helps boost us up on the charts. ⁓ We get a lot of people that try to reach out ⁓ business dealings, if that's what you want to call it. I'm not even gonna say it like that, we're all adults here. People reach out for scams. Please stop doing that, if you're doing that. Stop trying to scam us. ⁓ Malcolm: Yeah, man. We don't want your bodied videos, bodied streams, We're not looking for monetization, SEO, optimization. We're not looking for none of that, bro. So we just trying to pod and keep it going, man. Keep it pushing, bro. So that's all it is, man. Thomas: All the real people, man, if you're real, if you're a real human, I don't care where you're from, interact with us. know, there's translations for a reason. If you don't speak our language for whatever reason, and you still listen to the podcast, or it's being translated somewhere that we don't know about, interact with us or comment, whatever you know, let us know you're real. Our message is global, and we're trying to keep growing, and we need more input, more insight, and all that. And speaking of insight before I forget because last time I kind of forgot for people who watched episode 12 and if you didn't go check that out. Good episode. ⁓ Disclaimer. So we are not financial advisors, investment professionals or career counselors. Everything on this show is for informational and educational purposes only. Do your own research, talk to a licensed professional before making any financial decisions and always consult with people who have certification degrees. and are legally allowed to give you advice even outside of financial. Especially in today's world, we're seeing a crazy market moving up and down. ⁓ All these things, just talk to pros, man. Malcolm: Yeah, man, let's jump into it, bro. What we got cooking today, Thomas: Man, I think I kind of want to start with the family thing. However, I think we should start with the stock market. be honest, stocks have crazy lately. Malcolm: Ooh. Yeah, man. For all my folks that's tapped into the investing side, I'm sure if you had any type of holdings this week, bro, I'm almost positive you've seen some grain in your portfolio. This is like one of the best four or five day stretches we've seen in some time. mean, the S &P 500 crossed the 7,100 point threshold for the first time ever, bro. So we are moving. ⁓ We are moving. Everything's up right now. ⁓ Everything's rallying, whether it's for good or bad reasons. ⁓ But yeah, if you have any type of saying that, if you was in the stock market, like when stuff was dipping down earlier in April, ⁓ basically year to date, if you got in there anytime below a lot of these rolling 52 week, ⁓ 100 day averages and whatnot. You should probably have gotten some type of decent return or gain. ⁓ But yeah, man, I would just like, like I say, everything is kind of good and dainty right now, but I hope everyone doesn't think that this is like sustainable. Like, ⁓ we not some greens for the rest of the year is going to be a surfer green as well too. ⁓ it's for sure going back down. No questions asked. Cause there's of course a lot of just uncertainty, like even still as we see in like these new ceasefires and- Thomas: Yeah. Malcolm: Ten-point agreements getting signed. ⁓ They don't always actually hold up, contrary to what our president says. ⁓ Yeah, like I said, anyone that is investing right now, I'm sure, just be kind and don't ⁓ be over-leveraged. If you haven't gotten in yet, please do not chase all-time highs. That is the worst thing you can do. ⁓ Yeah, like... Thomas: Yeah, it's not the time. Malcolm: price does matter. Like a good asset is a good asset, but the price that you get in at it or the price that you get in said asset at makes all the difference, right? Like just because it's a good investment doesn't mean that the price is good to buy it right now. So if you have not invested, would, I would highly, even if stuff does keep going up, way for, way for pullback, ⁓ investing at anything at its all time highs or recipe for losing bread, losing money. ⁓ Thomas: Yeah. bankruptcy. Malcolm: Yeah, so like I said, at the end of the day, everyone's strategy is different. said, me personally, I'm holding, I'm a long-term, I'm holding for long-term a lot of my investments. Like I said, yeah, holding long-term, some people do J-Trade, some people do swing trades, calls, options, futures, whatever you're into, everyone has a different strategy. So a lot of this kind of like news is different for everyone. Like for some people, it being an all-time high, it doesn't matter because they're scalping and they still want to get their money anyway. But for my long-term people who just want to put their stuff into a HCF, into an asset or security, close it up and not look at it again. This is, I'm not saying you have to be a, like I said, a finance buffer or market guru. You do just kind of need to be aware of what's going on in the news, why stuff is going up and just be aware of like when a number, when an asset is hitting its all-time high. Because like I said before, man, getting in at the absolute peak, probably not a good idea, but yeah. Thomas: not. Yeah, you don't start a roller coaster at the top, You... Malcolm: telling you bro, price matters man, price matters. Thomas: It doesn't. We always say time in the market is better than market timing. However, you do have to be intelligent with your entries. If you look at everything, it's all time high. That means, yeah, Malcolm explained it, bro. It's gonna have to go down for it, go back up. like from, ⁓ you know, also keep in mind like everything with what the White House is doing, everything going on with the Middle East, these things are factors. I know I'm seeing some people saying that Trump is the reason the stock market went up. I don't... By that personally, I think it more so has to do, I was speaking with some people, I think it more so has to do with the ceasefire between ⁓ Israel and, why am I drawing a blank right now? Who do they have a ceasefire with? ⁓ ⁓ Israel and Lebanon. ⁓ think that was kind of the key that drove it up, ⁓ ⁓ granted, I don't follow everything he does, but last thing I saw, he's posting a picture of him as Jesus Christ, ⁓ but ⁓ don't really know what's going on there. ⁓ Malcolm: Mm-hmm. And did you see his excuse for that? ⁓ I was actually down to be a doctor. I personally, ⁓ and someone can correct me if they've seen otherwise, but I personally have never seen a doctor with glowing light beams coming out of his hands, draped in white cloths. I personally had never seen that. I would love to know if anyone, ⁓ especially any of his, you know, so devoted supporters could show me. Thomas: doctor. Malcolm: doctor they're aware of that has light beams ⁓ coming from his pores. I'd love to know, ⁓ in and get a prescription or two from Bro, ⁓ clearly he has some type of powers that the rest of us just don't know about, so yeah. Thomas: it. And it's funny because a lot of people that support that side are also claiming to be super heavy Christians, but I'm like, that's blasphemous. Personally, I feel like any form of Christian, that's gotta be blasphemous. ⁓ That's kind of ridiculous. Post the Obamas as monkeys, jets dropping feces all over the American citizens, post himself as Jesus, says he's gonna evaporate, or... Malcolm: Mm-hmm. Thomas: kill an entire race of people and people keep saying, ⁓ he's not running the account. Whatever, you figure that out. That's not up to me. I just know what everyone else sees. ⁓ But for my people who've watched The Boys, the last episode, I'm not spoiling anything, but... ⁓ Malcolm: Yeah. I actually haven't watched it. I need to get tapped in, I'm behind on it. I haven't touched the boys or the invincible yet, bro. I already told you, bro. I'm trying to finish Better Call Saul, bro. know I'm like 10 years late, but I'm on the last season now, bro. Got like six more episodes, No, it's crazy. I just got past the episode of Howard got killed. I was like, I ain't gonna lie, bro. I seen Howard get killed. Thomas: You haven't seen it? you Great show, by the way. That's it. Great show. Yeah. that's a spoiler for people who ain't seen it. know what I'm Spoiler alert. It's awesome. Malcolm: Yeah, I mean, it's been 10 years, bro. I would hope nobody else is just wise and just like me, but nah, I've been meaning to get around to it. I was breaking bad years ago, so for me just now getting through this, but yeah, I Haragard killed, and I seen my boy Gus kill Lalo. It's been crazy, right? It's a rollercoaster. I'm sure there's still some more. episodes, but great show, Thomas: So far, where you think is, would you put above Breaking Bad right now, so far from what you've seen or how you rank? Malcolm: It's hard, bro. It's hard to know. mean, I think they're really neck and neck, but I got to give the edge to Breaking Bad. Just because Breaking Bad has episodes that are immortalized. ⁓ I feel like Better Call Saul doesn't have... Maybe it's also, it may be because I haven't seen it yet. ⁓ But Breaking Bad, it has a couple episodes, bro, where it's just like, is never going to be a better... ⁓ Like what's the season five episode? Like the near perfect... What's it called? Thomas: ⁓ they had the new. Malcolm: forgot the name of the episode, Ozzy. ⁓ Thomas: Was it the last or second to last episode or something? ⁓ Malcolm: Bro, it's the... It's something like that. It's like the one with... Basically like... Huh. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a couple. It's Felina, Face Off. I don't know how say this. Is it Ozzy, my ideas? I don't know. Something like that. yeah, Breaking Bad just has some episodes where it's just like peak. I just don't know a TV show that gets better than that. It's been some years since I watched Breaking Bad, but it was... Thomas: Is it when Walt came back? Okay. Malcolm: It's up there in my like probably top, it's up there bro, like my top five shows I've ever watched. Thomas: It's consensus. Well, I've seen some lists that say otherwise, but yeah, no, that's up there. It's always that, the Sopranos, ⁓ the wire. Malcolm: Yeah, think it's consensus top, top five TV show ever though, like top three maybe. The wire, yeah, the wire's always up there. see, what's on the TV show I always hear about? Thomas: People put the office up there, I can't. That's not the same type of TV. Malcolm: I don't know, all of this is a freaking classic, bro. But everyone doesn't get the humor. Everyone doesn't have that sense of humor, bro. Some people think it's corny or it's not funny, it's like, for... People that get the joke, it's like a lot of dry humor. And Steve Carell is a genius, bro. The characters in the office are just legendary. The office, that was my comfort zone at one point. ⁓ Yeah. I'm trying to see what else would be up there. Thomas: time shows. ⁓ Malcolm: Sopranos is always up there. The wire is always up there. I hear people get put Narcos up pretty high. Walking Dead is up for a lot of people pretty high. Thomas: Narcos. No, no, I've watched all of The Walking Dead, like the main show, all 11 seasons. I love the show, but I cannot comfortably, unless you cut it off at like season four five, whenever that shift happened. Up to then, sure, you could say it's a top show, but like season six through 11, there were some good seasons. It's not like it's all trash, but like that show ran too long, unfortunately. Malcolm: Yeah. Thomas: just because it's hard to put it as a top show all the time because it went to. Malcolm: Honestly, I think they both up there though, as one of the best TV shows of all time. Like, Call Saul and Breaking Bad. Game of Thrones has to be up there for people that have watched it. Thomas: I mean, bro, Better Call Saul, some people say it's better than Breaking Bad, which it story wise, is better. I'm not going to lie. The story is more. Malcolm: Yeah, I can understand it. No, no, no. I think the story, I'm not gonna lie. I think that Jimmy's character development and some of the parallels in the story, one of the parallels I realized after Howard got killed, bro, I don't know how long it's been since you watched, but I'm thinking when Lalo was like, ⁓ he only sleeps for an hour at night, but then Howard was like, have you ever had insomnia? I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. That was like a parallel I had noticed when they got buried together too. It's like the man who couldn't sleep versus the man who would never wish insomnia. I was like, stuff like that, bro. It's just like, you can't make that up. That's just like, bravo, well done by the producer. It's just, yeah, they're both elite shows though, I'm not going to lie. Yeah, my bad for anybody that's listening to us going to tent and about Breaking Bad and Bitter Call Saul. But those are both legendary shows and I think that everyone should do themselves a favor and indulge. Thomas: 100%. Malcolm: They're both just like, and it's like, you don't even have to like really like a specific genre of TV show to even get into them. If you like good TV, bro, you're going to get hooked, bro. Like just watch it, bro. It's just so much. It's just cinema, bro. Just cinema. Yeah, I got to watch that next too. But I got to get around to the Invincible, to Invincible, the boys, all of that. I'm seeing TikTok edits, bro. I got to, I got to, I got to lock in. Thomas: Good, good TV. I still need to watch Player B, bro, which is, you know. But now the spoilers with them with those shows are crazy. Like I don't see too many comic spoilers with the boys, but with Invincible, absolutely. But that's what I was going to say. Like going back to the beginning with the whole Trump thing, this last episode of the boys, people need to remember they filmed all this before Trump became president. And this stuff was like there's a scene that's very similar to some stuff to the doctor thing that Trump did. It's very, very similar. Like it looks like it's almost a one to one. But for people who've seen that episode, know it's just, it's predictable to an extent. They predicted this stuff. But not. The Boys, absolute cinema, even though I've been seeing some controversy coming up around some of the people in the show and what their past might have been. ⁓ I'm not here to cast judgment. I don't know what people, I wasn't there. I've seen the reports. I don't agree with the stuff. If things are true, I'm not gonna say names. I don't know what people were forced to do. Malcolm: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Thomas: if they enjoyed doing what they did or if it was kind of like you're in that system. So you have to carry out a certain way because that's the way it is. And if you don't, then you'll get some sort of punishment. I don't know. There's a lot of things. But the boys, objectively, I think the boys could, not a top 10 show, but I think it's one of the best shows of like the 21st century for sure. Malcolm: Yeah. I don't think people realize how much of a parody it is on our actual government and literally the country. People don't realize a lot of this stuff, it's just jokes hidden in plain sight, bro. Some people will think watching the boys is an exaggeration of what Americans see on the day to day, but if superheroes were a real thing, that is exactly how it would play out. Very much so. ⁓ I do credit that show for being one to go against the grain and actually put the spotlight on some of the authoritative dictatorship-esque situation we have going on this way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thomas: 100 % like that show like Honestly that that shows like to me is like a one-to-one with America everything that is in that show is literally what has happened in this country like literally if you go back to when they made a super villain that like suicide bombed and he survived and then they had to like kill him off because I don't know either way I don't know if they made him but like he got the stuff to make him a superhero either way everything in the show is like Malcolm: Exit, yeah. Thomas: literally factual and I think now a lot of people see it because like it's happening in real time like it's not even just based off historical stuff anymore it's like literally real time happening so great ⁓ political satire ⁓ mean it is a little you know gross but like those things happen too Malcolm: It's ⁓ Thomas: ⁓ I wouldn't even think about it, just the gore. It's graphic, yeah, 100%. Don't watch it with your kids, 1,000%. Malcolm: Probably a thousand. Yeah, 100 man. But yeah. Thomas: But nah, yeah, definitely good topics, good topics with the cinema. Let us know what y'all favorite shows are for people listening, man. Comment. If you're watching this on YouTube, let me know. Let us know. But speaking of which, I feel like before we get into some other stuff, I gotta ask, Family, structure, layers of importance. Think about... Malcolm: Okay, man. Thomas: religion, think about what your parents want, think about what people want. I'm not gonna sit here and try to use the Bible as like a tool for this. But I've seen a lot of arguments, a lot of disagreement about the order of priority between your spouse, your parents, and your children. Which order are they priorities in your life? Or what you think? Obviously we can't tell other people how to live, but like for you, what do you? What were you? You were married, had kids, your parents. Malcolm: Yeah, man, that's tough. think conversations like this always get kind of taken out of context and just put on this magnifying glass to make situations like a do or die really extreme type of deal. like I said, think a lot of this kind of just underpinning people's responses to this is just how people were brought up and what type of values. Because there are some people... that would just never put their parents under anybody, no matter the circumstances. There are people who would put their parents at the bottom of the list without hesitation. There are people who could care less about their kids. Like I said, it's so many, like, routes and ways you can approach this. But me personally, man, I think that obviously this is like two of these are hypothetical because I'm not married and I do not have children yet. But like I said, in ⁓ relationships I'll just use that as my kind of like base point. think that for a situation like this, and like I said, knowing my parents and just the way that they raised me, like to even get to the point where I have my own spouse and children and family, I know the way that they raised me, would always, they themselves wouldn't want me to put my family at the top of my totem pole ⁓ just because like... That's kind of like the whole point of this, right? to, obviously when you, like your parents raise you up so you can go out and accomplish things and create your own family, create your own legacy, there's always going to be like ⁓ a responsibility and kind of like obligation I have to my parents for everything they've done for me and like the way that they raised me, the principles they've instilled in me and just kind of like giving me all the tools I needed to succeed. So that obligation, that's never going to go away. But I think when you're talking about creating your own family, it's different, Because it's like... I think ⁓ for me honestly, it's going to be ⁓ a one or two between like that. It's hard for me to say right now, because I don't have kids, I don't have that type of connection with something that I've really made and built. I'm trying to think of how I would be as a father. think that for me would be like, it's definitely one or two between my wife or my kids. And it's just like I'm thinking because your wife is a person that you choose. Thomas: a choice. Malcolm: or your spouse, let me not just say wife, anybody. Your partner is the person that you choose to do life with, right? That's the person that you choose to do life with, to go through the ups and downs and trials and tribulations with. That's your person. That's your ride or die, like through thick and thin. And that's the only person out of everyone on this list that loves you for you and not for a relation to you. Cause like I was telling you earlier, right? Like your parents love you because you're their child and your children love you because you're their parent, right? It goes both ways. Your spouse is the only person. that will love you for you, your partner. You guys pick each other. You guys are not bounded by blood, by family relations or by ties or anything like that. So for me, I think it'd have to be like spouse and the kids. Even though kids are bounded by blood, like, that's my legacy. So it's hard for me to put them under chooses. I'm like knowing, like I said, knowing my girl, I think that she also want that as well. Like to put like, you know, our children first to make sure that they, cause that's like, it's crazy to... Thomas: hopefully. Malcolm: I don't know, it's tough, right? But like I said, they're 1A, 1B for me, honestly. Like, spouse and kids are probably 1A, 1B for me. then I have my parents in that. I said, a lot of people kind of like stress over this. think everyone's situation is different. There are people who are unmarried, who would easily put their parents at top. There are people who are... I'm doing all this from hypothetical. I'm thinking like 10 years from now, married, kids, family, all of that. Still got my parents in my life, all that good stuff. That's my thing, hypothetically, like I said. And that's also because that's specific to me and my family situation. And I think like... Thomas: It is future. Malcolm: just the most reflective of me. it's also isn't like a, I hate when people do it as like a rank and order of importance because it's not importance. It's just like, when it comes down to who said and done, who's there, right? And so I feel like with parents, the whole point is to raise you up, that you can have your own experiences and have your own family. And then it becomes like, you know, so I don't like I said, I think everyone's gonna have a different answer to that. And I don't think there's any wrong answer. ⁓ Thomas: Yeah. Paris would do that. Malcolm: But like I said, I just think it's important to have that context and understand that everyone on that list, are two, like I between parents and children, they love you because of your blood ties to them. And then there's your partner who you have to pick. And I feel like that's the only person that's like, I feel like it's kind of hard to go against that, you know? So yeah, man, that's what I'm thinking about you. Thomas: Man, first off, if you're in an arranged marriage, your kids are probably number one because your parents sold you off and your spouse is somebody you didn't choose to be with, so I feel for you guys. Well, we're speaking from a stance of freedom to choose who you are married to and who you have children with and all those things. That's the assumption here. I just want to put that out there because he did say earlier that you're not related and blah, blah. For some people, unfortunately, they are related to, they're getting married to. That is also an exclusion here. That sounds crazy. That sounds crazy. But it happens way more than people think and realize, like, the cultural reasonings or location where you are. Malcolm: It's really park Thomas: Yeah. ⁓ That's an example. That's an example. Obviously, you know, some people in the trailer party, you know, know, know, cousins, whatever, right? My personal, my personal order, I'm gonna be honest, bro. I think you'd have to be just off the top of my head. Obviously, it's not like a level of priority. Like if it's like, if I can only save one person and it's between, or one set of people, it's between my kids, my wife and my family. hopefully never in that situation, but it's not like I'm doing that. It's I like once you become married, right, you, that's a commitment. like traditionally in my mind, your spouse, assuming, let's say you're marrying a woman, you're getting married to your wife, their parents are now handing her over to you. So you are now the responsible party there. It's not like you own her. It's not like you are her dad now. It's just literally like you're committing to one another. So you're saying like, hey, I got you, you got me. you know, we're doing this thing together, we're doing life together. So it's like, have to keep each other accountable. We have to keep each other healthy. We have to keep each other happy to our best ability while maintaining our own peace. And that's just, that's just what it is. Otherwise, what's the point of getting married? ⁓ If you're not making some sort of spiritual or deeper commitment than to just say, ⁓ we're together now. We're going to be together forever. You know, blah, blah. ⁓ So it's not, it's not a control thing. It's just kind of like, it's a handover. Same thing with the God's parents. It's like, okay, you're like, you're going to be his wife or his partner, whatever the case is, it's y'all now. And you're starting a new family branch, so you want to have a strong foundation. Parents, obviously, always there for you. And I have seen the argument where it's like, some guy on Facebook, he was like, man, I never put my girl over my parents or anybody over my parents because they'll leave you before your parents do. That's not true. Malcolm: Yeah. Thomas: Y'all listen to this, some people, their parents would throw you to the side like you a wastebasket, bro. Malcolm: And that's why I say it's very specific to your upbringing and your family situation. Everybody's parents are not the same. Everyone's kids are not the same. Everyone's spouse is the same. It's a very broad question and you want to get a lot of different approaches and responses to it. It's very specific to you. My answers stem from the way I know that my parents would go about it and I know they would want me to put my family and my legacy first because everything they have done for me... Like I said, my younger sister has been like, it's been like a sacrifice. said, this is like, bro, if I've seen my parents my entire life make sacrifices to make sure that we had more opportunities and a better, know, like basically like have all the tools to equip ourselves for success, why would they, when it actually is time for me to start my family, want them to put themselves at the top when they've, their entire life for as long as I've been around, everything I've seen from them has been a sacrifice to make sure that I can get to the next level. It's like, it just goes against everything they've done. their entire life so it doesn't even make sense but like I said, no go ahead bro, go ahead. Thomas: And you ⁓ I was going to say, like, you can still support and help your parents while having your family prioritize. Malcolm: That's what saying. That's why I said it's not a rank and order of importance. Just because you have your kids or your wife at the top does not mean that you neglect your parents. That's not what I'm saying at all. that it's not a rank of order of importance, but it's just like everything in life has like a rank for like, you can call it maybe priority or like for like, what's like, you know, however you want to frame it, but it's not like one ... Only person I care about two, I somewhat care about three. I don't care about it at all. It's not that, it's more so like ⁓ a sense of urgency, kind of priority list, if you want to call it that. yeah, it's your responsibility. right, like obligation to like whatever you hire. Yeah, all of that. So ⁓ yeah, man, it's always, it's one of them questions I think that gets over complicated a lot because people just argue about what's right, what's wrong. that's the thing people have, there's no right or wrong answer for this. Thomas: responsibility. Some people have trauma too, not gonna lie. They have trauma that they need to address. And I've heard the argument of also like ⁓ people say like if you're one, it was a stance somebody had where they said, if you're one of those people that say, I didn't choose to be here, I don't owe you anything. Like they think that about their parents. They say they can never talk to you. I know that might sound confused, but basically this person would say like, if you think your parents brought you in so you don't owe them anything, then you're crazy. That's the sense they had, ⁓ I'm gonna be honest, bro. Malcolm: Mm-hmm. Thomas: do think that's wrong. I don't think you should just say like screw your parents because you know, maybe they didn't give you everything you wanted and they did bare minimum. They still gave you like they didn't have to put clothes on your back and feet. They could have gave you up. You know what I'm saying? Obviously if you if your parents did that and they're still bad parents is different ⁓ because there are a lot of abusive parents and bad parents who like do the bare minimum and then try to hold it off your head. That's not what I'm saying. This cool, but yeah, it's all situational bro. Malcolm: Mm-hmm. Thomas: This is all situational and really the family structure in America has fallen apart anyway. People go in no contact with their families and you know, I'm not here to judge that. I mean everyone has their own reasons but it's just like the family structure just for every race in America. Okay, specifically I want to say for black and white Americans is deteriorating ⁓ pretty badly. I don't know about other cultures in America because I know like Malcolm: Mm-hmm. Thomas: A lot of times it's a little bit stronger. Like I know a lot of people who are like first generation, second generation Americans. ⁓ So that culture from where like they're, I guess people are from like it's stronger. So they actually have ties versus Americans. It's like, I'm not gonna say versus Americans, they're American too, but people who like their history as far back as they know is only America, it's a lot weaker of a family system or it's like business based. So it's a lot to consider there. ⁓ Malcolm: Hmm. Thomas: But now we can, family structure, go to therapy, y'all. But next, let's talk about, man, Allbirds, bro. We're moving into AI. The shoes, for people who don't know, Allbirds is a shoe brand. Malcolm: Crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy, This is honestly one of the craziest things I've ever seen. ⁓ Yeah, like for, okay, so I'm a, oh wow, you know what's crazy? Bro, their stock, okay, so it started to, yeah, so now it's actually going right back down to so, right? it went, right, right, you feel me? It's down to $2, right? I mean, it started, it was trading at what, 250, 250 share, jumped up 800%, 21.95, now it's back to $10. Thomas: It's going back down. Mike, can we get a visual? Malcolm: It's coming right back down and like I told you, like everybody that pumped this joint up was just out of their mind. to level set for all my people that may not be familiar with Allbirds or what it is that we're talking about, right. So we are talking about Allbirds, stock ticker bird, B-I-R-D. Allbirds is a, bro, their stock on Wednesday. It soared nearly 600 % on news of the AI pivot. Allbirds is a Sioux company. Allbirds, I repeat, is a Sioux company that made a huge pivot to AI. So they're putting footwear in its rear view. ⁓ as their tech founders are taking a longer term view on the technology landscape. So what they're doing to make this kind of pivot, and when I say this is like literally all chips in, all bets on the table, the sneaker brand, selling their intellectual property and all of its footwear assets to American Exchange Group, which is a brand management firm, for $39 million. So in exchange for $39 million, AllBirds is now changing its course. They said on Wednesday that it linked a definitive agreement with an unnamed institutional investor for a 50 million convertible financing facility to enable it to pivot its business, get this, from shoes to AI compute infrastructure. This company just sold all of its assets, all of its IP, all of its intellectual property, shoes, everything for $39 million, signed a definitive agreement for $50 million, and said, yeah, you know what? Now we're doing AI compute infrastructure. have never, and this should tell everyone that doesn't think like the AI, the like bro, AI, this is like, you can slap any, you can slap any, you can slap AI on anything and your stock will soar. This has been, this is crazy to me, bro. Like I have never seen a stock get inflated this quickly from a pivot this sudden ever in my life. For one, I've never seen a company do this. To go from, this is like Apple. Thomas: Bubble, man. Malcolm: stop, if Apple stops selling Macs, iPhones, HomePods, Apple, all their product, all their entire product line, they started selling crocheted hats. That's like what, like what type of, so their aim long-term is to become, they want to become a cloud-based service provider. They want to integrate GPUs as a service. So GPU AAS as an AI native cloud solutions, right? Basically all, right. Anyone that knows about what it would like when it comes to GPU integration and data source build out or Thomas: $39 million. Okay. Malcolm: data center build out, we're talking in the tens of billions, not millions, right? So they're also changing their name to New Bird AI. So All Birds to New Birds AI. Their stock gets surged to, it went from 2, it closed on Tuesday at 2.49. It surged to 1,945 in midday trading. That's a nearly 600 % gain, right? So they renamed to Newbred AI. They expect to use capital from this convertible financing facility to acquire high performance GPU assets that, ⁓ and over time as it grows, this NeoCloud platform, it will evaluate strategic ⁓ &A, is merging acquisition opportunities. So they want to buy these GPU assets, these high performance GPU assets, start building up their cloud infrastructure. GPU as a service to different clients and customers and to their own workflows and their own ⁓ cloud system. ⁓ And as they grow that those these assets, they're going to start evaluating opportunities to merge to sign partnerships and deals, same with OpenAI is doing. ⁓ So yeah, they are. ⁓ it's ⁓ it's crazy, bro, because it's like. Thomas: Cook, man. Malcolm: It's- it is- it is, ⁓ Thomas: dot com all over again. Malcolm: Yeah, it's crazy. It says the document. So they're going to have a meeting with the Security Exchange Commission, the SEC. ⁓ And so the conversion of the convertible facility is subject to shareholder approval at an upcoming virtual meeting ⁓ for special meeting for stockholders on May 18th, 2026. So a month from when we're recording this, right? So this meeting is also going to serve as the venue for shareholder approval of the IP asset sales to American exchange representing all Thomas: You Malcolm: all of Berg's assets, all the sues, all the intellectual property, all that good stuff under Delaware law. So this asset sale, if it's approved, all the shareholders on board, will result in the issuance in the third quarter of 2026, a special dividend to stock quarters of record as of May 20th, 2026. Thomas: but are they gonna like stop selling shoes altogether? Like that's done? Malcolm: Bro, yes. Thomas: Okay, I was just asking because like we've seen this happen before like Facebook when they became meta they went all in on metaverse. Malcolm: Yeah, but it's like, at that point, they had a whole lot more capital and kind of like, I think flexibility. it also wasn't as much, it was also wasn't as crazy as Pivot. They're going from an already kind of digital social network to a meta VR kind of, at least that's in the same playing field whatsoever. But you're going from running shoes to... Thomas: still need to watch that movie. Malcolm: GPU infrastructure? Thomas: Hey. ⁓ Malcolm: That's an entirely new company. You need machine, you need data center technicians, machine learning engineers, software engineers. Like, you need hardware engineers, like you need people to understand microprocessors and tokenization. Like bro, this is a complete overall bro. Thomas: Nike take notes. They were better off creating smart shoes, like trying to integrate AI with fitness, where some area they already have. Malcolm: It is crazy, bro. ⁓ This is just one of them things. mean, it's just gonna... Dude, this is just crazy to me, bro. ⁓ Yeah. I don't know. And I feel like they're coming in at a very ultra competitive time, bro, where it's like lead times for everything are excessively long, whether that's memory, that's GPU, chips, that's compute, that's storage, that's data center power requirements. was like, they're going from a... mean, the Soospace is competitive too, but it's nothing. You are not dealing with no type of... The same type of beast. in the swoop space as you are when you come over to the GPU side, bro, now you're up against the year, the videos, your Microsoft's, your Metas, your oracles, right? Your Amazon's like you're going to go, you're going against like real demons out on the field now, bro. So it's just like, I personally will not be investing in new bird AI, but it will, I will be extremely curious to see how this kind of unfolds and plays out because this I have a pivot. this time ⁓ unprecedented, bro. ⁓ But what I do have a feeling of though, I think this is going to be like the start of a butterfly effect. And I think we're going to start seeing companies that feel like they're in a dead end space of innovation and creativity just start slapping AI on everything, bro. Thomas: I hope it's the beginning of the end for the sake of everyone who is in the workforce or trying to get in the workforce or actually wants to do something they enjoy with their life. I hope this is the beginning of a great reset. ⁓ I hope it all just comes crashing down. like I will say, I keep going back to the dot-com bubble because I've seen comparisons to that. Obviously I wasn't there. ⁓ I know some of you might think that I was there. People tell me I look old. ⁓ Thank you. Question mark. But. Malcolm: I do too. It is crazy. Thomas: Yeah, no.com bubble. Basically, that's what companies were doing. They would slap.com to their business name or say, ⁓ we have a website. We're dot com, blah, Stock will shoot up. Now we're seeing that with AI. ⁓ And like Malcolm said, this is a completely competitive space. Very competitive, it's constantly changing. You can talk a little bit more about the Claude models and things, but it's like right now, getting into that as a, you're trying to build. I hope they're really trying to figure out a way to support or do kind of like what companies like Microsoft does where you. Malcolm: Mm-hmm. Thomas: try to work with these AI companies to create offerings running on their models because if you're trying to create a model, you're... Malcolm: 39 million ain't going to cut it, Thomas: Yeah, it's over with. mean, we saw what was the thing, ⁓ not lobster, what was the thing that, open claw, yeah, stuff gets pot and popping for a week or two max, and then somebody come out with something better. Malcolm: Open, open quote. Yeah. ⁓ yeah. Yeah. I don't think people realize brother, like it's like training LLMs, like frontier LLM models, bro. These can range from 60 to a hundred million dollars, bro. Like GPT-4 is like in that range, but it's a massive power. It's a lot like across like for training costs. Like, so you have your compute infrastructure, the GPUs themselves call something crazy. The large expense with... like rental rates, they can charge anything on an hourly basis. You have your model size and data, the more parameters and with large models with more parameters and large data sets require more training time and higher cost. You have your energy consumption, which everyone knows about the four, five, six, seven. gigawatts of power that are needed, data creation, like all this stuff, bro, kind of goes into these high training calls. But I would, like I said, I'd just be curious to see how well, one, how well positioned this company is to deal with this crazy pivot, how they will rebrand themselves, how they will change, like adjust the hiring of their current kind of like talent. I'm like, bro, I just don't understand how you, like, what do you tell the guys that are in there? making the shoes now. If I'm a guy that designs our next shoes and you're me, yeah, we doing all GPU stuff now, brother. You can go ahead, pack your stuff up, bro. All of that. Thomas: Hmm. Malcolm: I don't know man. Thomas: show designers in 2026. It's not looking good. Not looking good. Malcolm: Woo! Yeah man, but yeah, it's crazy times we living in bro. SMP on a run, all time high, shoe companies trying to make LLMs bro. It's a cut. Thomas: It's very cooked and you know what's even crazier with all this is the fact that returning to office is still mandatory for a lot of people, but I think it also, it applies differently, right? I mean, this kind of connects. like I know people that they have to go in five days a week. ⁓ However, it's like, it's not work where you're working across time zones. ⁓ For example, like you can go in at 6 a.m. be done with your day by two o'clock. it's just a matter of you doing your job and going home, which I think that's great. If I could go in five days a week or had to go in five days or work at 980 where I work five days one week and then, or no, five days one week, four days the next week, but you're doing nine hours a day, ⁓ if it's a situation where they're not like clocking you being physically in office, but it's just you have to go into office and then you have to have worked for nine hours. Man, people like, I'm not going to say you shouldn't complain because obviously everyone's job is different, but that sure beats having to go in office. and then having meetings at umpteen o'clock in the morning and umpteen o'clock at night because you're working across time zones where there is no cutoff time. ⁓ But yeah, no, RTO, man, meetings, hours. I can say I had a meeting recently where everybody, when I say everyone in the meeting, literally everyone in the meeting, in my building, on my floor, were all in office that day or in office at some point, right? And know, RTO, everyone's saying, ⁓ go back in, go back in, go back in. It's gonna be so good for productivity. Still, I want somebody to attach some data. Please somebody send us an email with some data supporting that. ⁓ And also, because I've actually heard of studies where it's the opposite. It's not good, the way the offices are laid, these open office spaces. But I'm not a psychologist. And I think other people should realize they're not as well. ⁓ And in that meeting, out of ⁓ I'm not going to sit here and count. I want to say it was like seven or eight people in the meeting. ⁓ Everyone was there. Only two of us actually met in person, right? And I talked to somebody else about this. They're like, well, I can't scroll my phone or I can't do other work while I'm in there. And I'm like, are we not supposed to like be in the meeting actually present? And the meeting was useless too. Like it somebody was like holding it up, actually not trying to get things done. It was a very focused meeting, but one person didn't pre-read. People don't pre-read. People don't. Prepare for meetings. If you send a message longer than one sentence, it's too much reading. So it's like, what are we doing? Obviously, I don't know. It's different everywhere. people don't even want to meet in person because they want to do other things and not pay attention. And when they get called on in the meeting, they're like, hon, can you repeat that? It's like, what are we doing? And it's in person. Everyone's in office. Malcolm: you Crazy times, man. Thomas: I know these are like luxury complaints, right? Like I'm sure somebody working at the 7-Eleven will say, hey, I would love to have this problem, right? There's pros and cons about everything, man. There's pros and cons about everything. Malcolm: I mean, I don't say that. There are people that would be blessed to be in a position. I don't think that takes away your right to have your fair share of complaints and reservations about a situation. I hate when people say that. like, you shouldn't complain because so-and-so would rep. No matter what situation you're in, there's always going be a worse situation. I feel like that shouldn't take away... Obviously, as long as you're grateful and you're appreciative of being in the situation. Thomas: Yeah, for sure. Malcolm: I can't have my own reservations about it. It's my life at the end of the day, right? it's like, hey, you know what saying? So, nah, man, I definitely empathize with you, bro, because I hear it over and over again, bro, just how kind of pointless it is just going in to do the exact same thing I do at home, which is join meetings virtually and listen in meetings virtually and work independently. So, yeah. Thomas: virtual meetings, be in the same room. I've literally been in the same room with someone having a virtual one-on-one. You get what I'm saying? So for all my people who are like, I need to be in office because I struggle at home and I can't focus and I need in-person interaction, go pick up a hobby, man. Go find something, because I guarantee you, even if you are in office, and yes, this is a, I'm not discrediting your concern here, it's a valuable concern. You might thrive better with people-to-people interaction. Malcolm: That's nasty. Thomas: I promise you, depending on who you work for, who you work with, you being in office is going to make it even worse because you feel isolated at home. Imagine how it feels being around other people who don't talk to each other. It's like isolation on top of being ignored, unless like just having people coughing or loudly laughing or spitting or doing whatever they're doing, stinking it up. You know what mean? Like, if those things help you, sure, fine, go do that. But I think people like we need to realize like life is short. Bro, when we spend so much time working and at work, you blink and then your time is gone. Like, I don't know, maybe my generation is the first to realize the scam of all of this work. Because everything, there's more possible now than ever before. But that just means that the big dogs are able to just take advantage of you more because they're gonna be the first to get to it. And they're actively killing off everyone's passions. You wanna be a designer? AI. ⁓ make music AI, you wanna do art AI. Like this stuff is being stripped from you in real time. So yes, more is possible, but like not for you. So then it's kinda like, what am I doing any of this for? Like what's the difference between being a garbage man and being a software engineer actively building your replacement? I keep seeing reports from these top execs talking about in 18 months, ⁓ corporate workers are gonna be useless. And for people who don't believe that, Malcolm: Yeah Actually, the CEO of Anthropic just said that the dude that Lilly is building, and it's so... ⁓ What do you call it? He said, let me find out specifically. My man said, yeah, he said he's predicted that AI could eliminate approximately 50 % of entry-level white collar jobs in the next one to five years. And that repetitive knowledge-based task and feels like law, finance, and consulting are at a high risk, potentially raising unemployment to 10 to 20%. And it's just like. It's so interesting to me because of like this kind of parrot. It's like you are making these comments and you are literally accelerating us towards that future. So it's like, it's so weird to me because I'll see these AI people, the people that are really creating our replacements like complain or like be like, you should fear AI as you are actively accelerating us towards that point. And it's just like... Like how are you gonna complain and then keep building on the, like, and release the most capable model the next day? I'm like, can't be on both sides of the argument. You're either all in on AI replacing everybody and you're safe because you're at the top and you're the rich exec that created. I'm like, bro, but it's like. Thomas: Somebody gotta do it. If he don't do it, somebody else will. It's the same reason why the US dropped the nuke back in World War II. Somebody was going do it. I'm not, that doesn't make it right. And for people who are listening, he's making a face at me. He's making judgmental faces for all my audio listeners. I'm not saying it's right. And I don't think using a nuke was ever correct, but I also don't think an AI is ever correct in the way that they're trying to use this stuff. Like I think we should have cut off the AI at helping with the medical field, assisting with different things. I see people, don't even use search anymore. I search up more, I don't go ⁓ ask AI basic questions or definitions. I use Google and people tell me they don't use that. And I know people that are so embedded in all this AI stuff and it's like, ⁓ it's changing your life. I changed my life. I do everything with it. I don't even store my own files anymore. It's altered my existence on this earth. Malcolm: I still use Google, Thomas: fam, what do you think is gonna happen in the future? You're not gonna have anything to store in the AI. You're not gonna have any documents, any money. Malcolm: Yeah, I just don't get it, bro. Thomas: Like, I do think AI could be helpful and it is helpful in a lot of ways, but people don't know when to stop, Like, continuous growth, when are we gonna maintain all this constant improvement, constant releases, constant, we need to do more. When are we gonna actually stop and fix what we have? It's like having a car. You can't just keep putting upgrades on the car. Malcolm: Mm-hmm. Thomas: You're gonna have to repair it at some point. You're have to stop and put air in the tires. You're gonna have to stop and put gas in the tank. You know, it's like humans, you gotta eat. You're not gonna be the best athlete just by training 24-7. You're gonna die. So, either way, man, you have any more thoughts on that? Malcolm: Yeah. Yeah. Nah man, I think you hit it on the... Yeah, I you got it bro. Thomas: Yeah, I love my life, man. And these aren't complaints. These are just real things. And for people who want to think we don't know what we're talking about, I encourage you to read, pick up a book. And this isn't a situation where, ⁓ I wasn't wrong. I'm just early. It's not that. The stuff is happening at right time. But what do I know? ⁓ But in good news, man, we have more. Well, there's a lot of actually of ⁓ HBCU excellence going around. Shout out. Malcolm: Mm-hmm. Thomas: North Carolina Agricultural Technical State University, ⁓ 1891, Greensboro, North Carolina. And shout out Mike Epson, his daughter, family. Malcolm: Hey man, the one and only man. ⁓ I'm always happy to see, especially in our community, black celebrities and people who have made a real impact, sending their kids to institutions that are built for them, by them. A lot of these people can pay their ways into these elite schools, but I'm really glad that they're just, like I said, nothing against them, against going to PWI, there's nothing wrong with that at all, but I'm just glad to see that they are still leaving HBCUs options. That's why I just got dark. ⁓ Leaving HCC just options like for their kids to kind of go and explore and just kind of like go out and build that community around people that look like them, right? So always great to see ⁓ people having their kids, just being in the next generations of Aggies, of Bison, of Morehouse men and so on. So yeah, man, always happy to see. Thomas: Yeah. And for people who, I guess, didn't pick up on the context, Mike Epps, I don't know how many children he has, but this one of his daughters is going to A &T, I believe, this fall. So she committed, posted a picture. He was like, ⁓ my girl going to A &T, blah, And man, shout out Mike Epps, man. I just rewatched All About the Benjamins. I told you all last week to watch that podcast or watch that movie because we talked about gambling and different things like that. So watch the movie, watch the podcast. Por favor. Malcolm: Hmm. Nope. Thomas: ⁓ And ⁓ Mike Epps is a treasure. And yeah, I don't know, do people also, you also saw that, what was it, Ice Cube and Chris Tucker's son did the ad or the Friday skit for the Rams? Bro, you gotta watch it, man. My boy, what's it, O'Shea and I don't know Chris Tucker's son name, but his son sound just like him, bro. Like they got the same voice. They redid like a piece from Friday. It's just crazy seeing like. Malcolm: I see. so. Thomas: They look so much like their parents, like the dads. Malcolm: Yeah, no, it'd uh, it'd be, resumably uncanny, bro. It's just crazy, man. But yeah, we gotta, we gotta get back into the air of good movies coming up. Thomas: Yeah, no, we need it. I'm really hoping that some good movies, I mean, we haven't had a good like black movie in a minute. Like we've had Get Out, we've had the stuff Jordan Peele works on, but in terms of like those black movies from like similar to comedy, yeah, like Friday and all those, like from 1985 to like 2005, that run of like black movies. Malcolm: And I'm comedies, yeah. The Golden Era. Thomas: Man, well not even just black movies, movies in general bro, movies were fire. Now every movie costs so much to make that they don't even make their money back. Malcolm: Mm-hmm. crazy, I'm praying we get back to it soon, man. I can't lie to you. Thomas: And we need that, man. I'm tired of just sequels and prequels and spin-offs and rewrites and blah, Man, I want good film. And speaking of which, ⁓ shout out, if you haven't already, man, everybody tap in with, ⁓ look up Xavier Odom. Xavier with a Z. ⁓ Fellow Aggie, fellow, you know, ⁓ just a good dude. Just look him up, doing some great things. I'm not gonna say. what all he's doing, you look his name up and you'll figure out what he's making some things happen. Malcolm: Sharp God, man, salute to him, man, doing his thing for sure. Thomas: Absolutely. Crazy, crazy, crazy resume too. Just put that out there. Anybody in the tech area, blah, blah, engineering, blah, blah, Good guy. ⁓ But yeah, I think it covers all our topics we have. You have any announcements, anything you want to share? Malcolm: Nah man, we blessed. Just be on the lookout, man. We still putting out clips, reels, all that good stuff. Like I always say, let us know what you want to see, you don't want to see, any feedback you got. We all ears, and we will catch y'all next week, Thomas: Absolutely, man. Appreciate y'all. Malcolm: Stay blessed y'all. Have a good one, man. It's out the mind. Thomas: it is.