Latest / Black Box Theory Podcast / BBT #20 | AI's Hidden Debt, China's Rise, and Who Gets Erased

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BBT #20 | AI's Hidden Debt, China's Rise, and Who Gets Erased · Black Box Theory Podcast

• Thomas: Episode twenty. Malcolm: Hi, my name is Momo. Thomas: Hey man, we're here. We're here. How's how's it going? How's it going? Malcolm: well man, happy Sunday to folks. A little late in the evening for my East Coast people. Yeah, we're back with another episode, 20th of the year. blessed to be here, blessed to be able to, you know, have something to talk about. but yeah, man, I'm feeling good. You know, just trying to make sure we c we cover we cover some important stuff before we get our our week started, man. yeah, no no complaints on my end. Thomas: Yes, sir. Yes, sir. It's it's a lot going on, man. It's a lot going on. We we're we're in a very interesting time. one of many inflection points in society. people 40 years ago thought we'd have flying cars, but instead we have people arguing that the earth is flat. But you know, we're here. And before we get any further, disclaimer time. The views expressed on this podcast are strictly our own and do not represent our employers or any affiliated organizations. We are not financial advisors, tax professionals, or legal experts. We're sharing our personal perspectives in deconstructing these industries in real time. But none of this is professional advice, even though we were right about the SpaceX thing, which didn't take a brainiac to figure out. always do your own due diligence and consult with qualified professionals before making major moves. We're learning out loud. Join us, but the plays you make are your own. Malcolm: Mm-hmm. Yeah, also, you know what I the SpaceX thing was one thing, but like to be fair, I also did tell everybody go buy memory stocks in like January. I literally told everybody, Lily go buy Micron, Western Digital, and Sandisc and I don't know. I feel like if you if you if you listen to me when I actually said that bro, you should for sure be up like some you put in a a decent amount of capital in there when it was trading at what it was trading at and you held, you should be doing like okay. But I mean, I've also had a lot of misses, so I'm not gonna say act like I'm a guru, but yeah, that you know, I think more times than not we've been we've been pretty accurate, on this platform so far. So yeah, just hoping to hoping to keep that keep that good luck streak going, man. Thomas: Yeah, absolutely. That's the plan. And honestly, somebody giving the crystal ball emoji. but first first things first for today. We're on the topic of stocks, money moving. So let's talk about the AI money machine and let's talk about how compute actually gets financed. let's see I I I've been seeing everything that everyone else has been seeing, man. you know, it's all questions about where this money's coming from. it's a lot of big bets for the future. But yeah, I don't know. Maybe maybe you could shed some light on on what's going on. Malcolm: Yeah. Nah yeah. So we're gonna talk about just like giving some background to like how compute and when we say compute in a sense, we're talking about the infrastructure, the GPUs and CPUs that all these large companies are contracting and buying from companies like NVIDIA, to essentially train their large language learning models to power our favorite chat bot and AI applications that we use day to day. So, you know, open AI, anthropic. squad, Gemini, whatever, whatever, right? So kind of like this level said in here, right? So the five largest tech companies which we refer to, and we say this a lot on the show, we refer to them as hyperscalers, right? So we're talking about the Amazons, the Googles, the Meta's, the Microsoft, the Oracles of the world. These are companies that are large enough where it's like they make enough money and enough revenue where they can essentially eat into their own cash flow and and finance their own data centers. They can they can make their own data centers, build their own data centers, and not essentially go out of business while doing it, right? So that's why like that's that's kinda like why you know, we see like when all these when these companies are are reporting you know when they're reporting earnings and and and they're talking about like, hey, like we had this much growth year over year, quarter over quarter, but we still have this much CapEx spend. It doesn't always, you know, kinda work out like that. Like like we still see the stock prices getting affected. so yeah, that's one thing, right? So we're gonna talk about like I said, so these five the five larger tech companies, Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Oral, Oracle, they all plan to spend around $660 to $690 billion in infrastructure on infrastructure in 2026. the vast majority of that is directed at AI compute. So we're talking about AI compute data centers networking. So all the fiber optic cabling that goes into the data centers that connects the GPUs To each other and allows them to communicate, right? So that's up, that's near doubling their spending in a single year. Amazon alone is projecting $200 billion in CapEx, up from $131 billion in CapEx. And for anyone that may be listening for the first time, just gonna give like a quick like explanation of what CapEx means. So CapEx stands for capital expenditure. This refers to large upfront investments. So like physical long term assets that benefit a business for more than one year compared to operating expenses, which people call opex, these are like the day to day recurring costs to keep the business, to keep the businesses running, right? So it's like you can think of CapEx as like buying it a data center or software infrastructure, computer hardware, or vehicles, or building land and property. These are long term investments versus an operational expense exp expenditure. So like insurance or rent. or travel costs or a property tax or like I don't know like you know like that that's that's like a that's that's kinda like like the walk down like our office rent, employee salary, like stuff like that are our are operational expenditures, right? so yeah. Regardless, from the explanation you know like everybody's spending more and more and more money. The revenue is going up too, but the CapEx is going way beyond any type of Wall Street estimate. So where's this money actually coming from? Thomas: Yeah. Malcolm: This cash is not actually on hand, just sitting around. Like I know I said that they have a lot more flexibility than other way smaller companies that don't have as much money. but AI-related companies, they tap debt markets, right? For at least 200 billion the AR-related companies tap debt markets for at least 200 billion dollars in 2025. And Morgan Stanley, they're projecting 250 to 300 billion in hyperscalar debt issuance for 2026 alone, plus an additional 800 billion in private. credit for data center financing through twenty twenty eight. Not gonna lie, it's looking good, dude. So the new thing that we have here, we have these things called GPU backed loans. So that's is this is like a a con if you're familiar with Core Weave, which is like they literally just like lease hella GPUs and just like like sit on them. Core Weave, they secured the first eight point five billion dollar investment grade GPU back financing deal. So this means that the actual chips, the GPU chips, they serve as loan collateral. similar to like if you think about a real estate property or an investment property. How a property secures a real estate like loan, right? Like it's it's it's collateral. so rating agencies they accepted rapidly depreciating GPU collateral and move AI infrastructure debt into a formal credit category for the first time. So JP Morgan, another leading financial institution, they project annual data center securitization and issuance of a 30 to billion, $30 to $40 billion increase in 2026 and 2027. So AI debt. Is now a meaningful slice of the same structured c credit markets that blew up in two thousand eight. And in a more simple terms, it means like people are adding debt on debt on debt on debt and and and and and private credit, formal credit, all for the same bet that everybody's hoping, right? AI. And I'm not gonna lie, bro, I think people are starting to come to the realization, bruh, bruh, AI is cooked, bruh. Like it it's lucky not. Like w like bro, like yes, it helps us, bro. But I'm not gonna lie, if we're actually talking about genuine return on investment for the hundreds of billions of dollars that these guys are spending, are we really getting a return on our investment right now? Like are we really seeing mean of meaningful gains in productivity and now I think there are some specific examples where it's like AI has a direct, like quantifiable increase on efficiency or like productivity. So like coding, right? Co I don't think coding is a professional like I like c like AI has significantly increased the speed in which software engineers or technical devs or whatever can like produce code and merge PRs and like like like put out like you know new code stuff like that. obviously the the like the models have become like increasingly like like much much better at writing code and and they're like I think even like within claw like almost everything is written internally with claw like no one actually codes anymore, right? That's that's one very specific sector. We're talking about everywhere else, bro. Are we really seeing like the gains that essentially like does the does the the money that these hyperscalers and all these companies are kinda putting into AI, does it like are the returns that we're seeing are they justified? Like does it make sense? Like I feel like and it's kind of like it's really kind of scary because it's like I like, you know, f folks across several sectors are kind of having this realization at the same time. And AI is low key the only reason that the stock market is not like free falling like to red right now. And it's kind of like it's it's kinda scary to think about that, bro. I'm not gonna lie. Like we don't like we're not saying the returns that we thought we were gonna see. But like, is anybody actually gonna stop spending money on it and stop buying data centers? I don't think I don't think so, Matt. Thomas: I mean. That's that's facts and and I think honestly, when it comes to all this this AI stuff, bro, I think that there's a problem, like even just personally, I I'm like contemplating, you know, like what do I what am I paying for Claude for? You know, and it's like I'm sick of seeing these AI websites that people are just throwing stuff at AI, hoping that AI does every little thing. and also in terms of what AI is doing. it's not it's it's not what we need, like thought. And I I think they're they're pushing the envelope a little too far, right? Like for example, we the compute costs keep going higher, the token price goes higher. But like you said, for scoding and some stuff, and if you're doing like simple, not simple, but things with Excel sheets and different things like that, you might not need the most premium, whatchamacallit, the the most premium like platform. So I really think that it's important to think, okay, can we have tiers that are more affordable or that don't charge by the token? Because if you're simply just if you're if you're literally just doing Excel sheets in in different sh like sheets, you don't need the most powerful AI. You need an AI that can parse through data, that can make guesstimations and and do quantitative analysis. You don't need the most powerful fable or whatever the case is. So I think that they should consider offering tiers so that the return on investment is useful. Like if the claw price goes up for the stuff that I'm personally using claw for, I I wouldn't need that. And it's like that's pushing people away. but that's just my take on it. Malcolm: No. Yeah. Yeah. Nah. Nah that makes sense. I think that's kinda gonna like lead us right into our second model. so one thing that I will that I think is important for folks to know about is is understanding what and we're gonna talk about this a lot, right? Actually a lot in our second topic, right? So we're gonna talk about token cost. So token cost in within AI. A token cost is the consumption-based pricing model used by most AI providers. So everyone major that we kind of already mentioned. So we're talking about OpenAI, Anthropica, Google, where you pay a specific price for every block of data or text that is processed by the model. So a token or token like like AI, like AI does not like when we well, obviously we enter requests and prompts with like natural language. It doesn't actually receive the like if you guys are interested in like understanding how AI works. Just look up like the paper, like Attention is all you need, by like the Google Deep Mind researchers that kind of like pioneered a lot of this stuff. But just look up like videos on tokenization or like how AI like understands props and how it kind of like like essentially how it like kind like the same way that a computer like reads stuff in binary code. AI models they they look it's up in in in in tokens, right? So tokens is the fundamental unit of data processed by a language model. and so a thousand tokens, a thousand tokens are Roughly equivalent to seven hundred fifty English words. So it's split into two categories when it comes to cost. So the input tokens are the text and documents that you send to the AI. So that's the question that you ask it, the files that you attach, the photos that you attach to a question. The output token, right, are the text that the AI generates in response to your input. And so general rule of thumb is that output tokens are generally three to five times more expensive than input tokens because generating new text requires more computational processing. than simply reading your input. Right. So you can just think about it like that, right? Like just from a like a a work perspective, right? It's a lot easier for me to read the instructions of a question, for me to read a question, understand what it's asking. Right? You can think about a math problem, right? It's super easy for me to read, hey, solve this derivative, do this, do this, figure this out, and then write this. yeah, I read it. I understand it now. Now I have to actually go back and work it through, solve it, figure it out. Right. So that's kind of like the same kind of, I guess, thought process or or kind of like fundamental logic when it comes to AI. and so there are different factors that affect your build. I know like if you've used tools like like Claude, right, it'll tell you, hey, this model consumes more high like more like usage limits at a faster rate than this model. So that's why it's like they'll they'll prompt you like when you do when you're going through and you're selecting like either you know you're selecting from one of the different models. You're selecting from from Opus, from Fable, from Sonic, from from Haiku. and then you can you can also change like The max, right? And it's like there's always these prompts on there that says, Hey, like as an example, like Claude recently added this thing where it's like you can adjust the effort of your of your input, right? So it's like higher effort means more thorough responses, but takes longer and uses your limits faster, which essentially means that AI is thinking harder and using more computational computing or more computational like power to think through your input and to give you a reasonable or informative kind of response, right? So that's that was a little bit of a nerd rant, but that's kind of like on a Settle out of the context for what to get into next, right? And so next thing that we're going to talk about are Chinese AI models. They are cheaper, they're good enough, and that is the threat. In CNBC, they actually put out an a piece pretty recently that kind of speaks on on how like Chinese AI models are gaining ground with US companies as OpenAI and Anthropic, their costs are surging, right? So it's like The cost over here, cost of tokens are are just going up, right? But Chinese built AI models are they're gaining traction among US companies. and they're also narrowing the performance gap, with leading American rivals are remaining significantly, I mean significantly cheaper to use. so as an example, recent model releases from Chinese companies, including Deep Seek and Z AI, they're seen as highly competitive compared to leading frontier systems from the likes of Anthropic and Open AI. their advances in in model capability, they come from token prices for the most advanced models like I'm sorry the the most the token prices for the most advanced models models they're continuing to rise in US AI labs. So companies they have no choice, they're like, all right, like we got insane costs. We have insane computer if they keep buying. That's why you keep saying like all these adjustments and it's a token why why why you feel like you're getting less usage out of your your prompts when you're using whatever model or platform that you want to use, right? So yeah, nah it's bad, right? And so there's like a There's a a I guess you could say like a rising adoption from like like like like Chinese models and so like they're getting really good really fast and so China's dominance in open way AI, it's partially a strategic response to US export controls when advanced GPU hardware. I'm sure if you follow the news, you see kind of like how we have all these different restrictions about where Nvidia can send chips to, specifically within China. so facing restrictions on NVIDIA's H100 and A one hundred ships since October 2022, Chinese labs they had no choice but to innovate on software efficiency, right? So that constraint produced breakthroughs that now benefit the entire industry. The US tried to win by cutting off their hardware access, and so China responded essentially by by doing more with less. They got better models, better performance with less, and they're significantly cheaper. so yeah, that's kind of like the it's kind of cooked now. So like just the current state right now. Deep Seek V4 Pro, it leaves the Chinese LLM rankings at 87 on bench LM's composite score, ahead of GLM 5.1 and Kimmy K.2, both at 83 and 81, respectively. So the best Chinese models are now six points behind the top proprietary Western Frontier while remaining open weight, which means way less token usage. And so a year ago, the gap was much larger. and in quarter two, Kimmy K2.6 became the first open weight model to beat GPT 5.4. On a software engineering bench pro, which is a coding benchmark test that they use to evaluate the performance of each. so yeah, it's coming down now to essentially like people like evaluating the actual trade off of like like essentially like who's gonna give me the most bang for my buck, bro. And it's like, I mean, like we can cut off their hardware, we can cut off what they get access to. I don't know, man. The performance of Chinese AI models, they're just they're just getting they're just getting better and better and better and better and better. And so there's going to be a real risk that users get stuck having to choose between performant but expensive US models, whose price and accessibility can quickly fluctuate if we as we've kind of seen with the last few weeks with like how Claude keeps like like giving us a little bit of fable and then takes it takes it away and then gives us a little bit of fable and takes it away. Or using Chinese model that are as the only feasible alternative. whenever they want to control cost on or own their own AI stack, right? So it's like that's quickly becoming kind of like the like our only two options here. Like it's either like, all right, do your own thing or you know, keep getting cooked by American models, bro. So that's another quick like rundown about like the current state of like Chinese models and and the gap being closed and where we are as a country. And I mean like, hey, as much as I love my Claude, you know, my quick Chat C P T image generation. I mean, if Deep Seeker somebody got like a a five dollar a month subscription, and it's just as good, I'm over there, bro. I'm not gonna lie. It's Thomas: That that's just how that's how stuff is, bro. Like they I'm trying to how I don't say this it that we can have that option as long as they allow us to. I wouldn't be surprised if when this whole AI thing is figured out, if they like try to find a way to ban using these Chinese models or make it illegal. same way we can't buy Chinese cars. Like, it's the same can't buy Chinese phones. Yeah. Malcolm: Yeah. Bro, that's actually it, bro. We we l we literally we literally just talked about this, bro. we literally just talked about this. Like like all like the cre I forgot the brand the name of the brand, bro. It's yes. my bro. I be watching like the the re like the car review videos of like the Chinese EVs, bro. It's like for one, they look better. They're the performance is three times better. It's you're talking about we're talking about five, six hundred horsepower. And it's like they're talking about like like twenty thousand dollars MSRP. I'm like, bro, like we're like we're getting ripped off out here. Thomas: BYD. Yeah, BYD. Mm-hmm. Bro, we are. Not even just cars, bro, Y Wave phones. like Malcolm: We're getting ripped off. Yeah, l literally all of them they're they like it's a reason that they don't want them over here 'cause they know they're going to k they're going to literally destroy the market if they can if they were to come over here. Thomas: That's why they make it impossible. Like I guess it's not illegal to have these things, but it's like you can't buy them. If you get one of those cars over here or one of those phones over here, like I s when people here are here, I can actually I can't even just say people who are visiting, like people who have family in China, they all use like Huawei phone. The one people that I interact with, for the most part, use Huawei phones. Like they don't use iPhones. They ask what phone I have, and I tell them iPhone, they're like, my iPhone. Malcolm: Mm-hmm. Bro. No, yeah, I'm I'm and I'm I don't blame him, bro. I might I'm not gonna lie, like it's gotten to a point now where it's like people in America like Americans like we buy for just for brand value, bro. Not for actual performance or it's like for me, like like like no like you feel me, disrespecting nobody that has like a Tesla, but it's me personally. I'm not saying that people that do own it don't have share may share the same sentiment. I I get it. Teslas are still like great cars, you know, they're top EV on the market, whatever. Me personally Thomas: Yeah. Malcolm: I just I think like my principles and my kind of like view on Elon Musk and like the way that he carries himself and just like the like the the things that he kind of like supports. I I personally I cannot support his brand and like like you know in good faith like go out and buy me a Tesla. Like I said, no dispensary anybody that has a Tesla, bro, enjoy your car. I'm not trying to make this into one of those type conversations. But me, I'm like, if I had the choice, bro, I'm either going like lucid a pole star or I'm I'm making some type of trip to Canada good to go go get me a BYD bro like like that's like and that that's if that was ever to make the switch to like having an EV by the way like just letting that be clear. But it's like like but it's like I'm I'm saying that but also in the same breath I know that I never like realistically like I think like if I actually had the choice bro I still think like I'm so attached to like the Apple ecosystem. That like it's easier said than done that to say that I would just go and swap and get another phone brand. Cause it's like, bro, I'm looking so immersed in like the Apple, like in the iPhones, the Macs, and the iPads, and that the entire ecosystem of like Apple's products. That it's like like that's how like brands in America they win you over, bro. Like they just lure you in with like the narrative and like the the the kind of like allure that comes with their brand that it's not even so much about the performance anymore, bro. Like to be honest. iPhone no no iPhone has really wowed me in like some years like since the first time I think they like took away the home button like the home button but honestly the 2B feel like it's pretty much the same thing it's a bigger screen better camera more battery larger phone and then the rest just be iOS updates for real but like like I don't know bro it's it's it's tough forever like yeah when it comes to like the Tesla stuff though like I I I can't do it real. I have to give me a PYD. I I have to give me like one of those type of like nice EV spray. Like and and they're way cheaper, like half the price of a test. Thomas: Yeah. I don't blame you. I don't blame you. And I'm I'm just looking at the the Huawei website for the phones, bro. They have like the note the it's called the Mat Pad or MatePad Pro Max. They got it's basically just like they got the watch. It's literally Apple but Chinese and the stuff is better like Malcolm: Yeah, bro. They got it, bro. Yeah. Like they they bro, they they literally know they know what they're doing, bro. And it's like they know, like folks over here know if they was coming over here, bro. It's cooked, bro. It's cooked for everybody. It's cooked for Apple. It's cook Samsung. It's cook for what Samsung's not here, but it it it's literally fries. It's for everybody's fries, bro. I'm not gonna lie, it's fries. Thomas: They have they have a watch that you can lift the face of the watch and pull out headphones. Malcolm: Yeah, I'm not gonna lie, you might gotta like like share your screen so like people can see like the 'cause I I don't think everyone knows like Yeah. Thomas: Okay. Yeah. I'm I'm gonna show y'all what Huawei is and mind you, I hope this shouldn't I get in trouble. This is just a Google search. Malcolm: Yeah. And and for my first time listeners, they are a leading Chinese multinational technology company headquartered in in in Shenzhen, Guangdong, founded in nineteen eighty seven. It's the world's largest manufacturer of telecommunications equipment and a major global provider of consumer electronics, including smartphones, wearables and computing devices. So Snow just just kinda remember that, you know, for for future reference, however you wanna. play with it. But yeah, like, bro, they are literally like the Chinese Apple, bro. Like, like, like, like look at look at these products and tell me I that watch might like is that copyright? That might have to be I'm not gonna lie. That's that's crazy. I ain't gonna lie. But like Thomas: It's this is ridiculous. This is Malcolm: Bro, they are it's an incident. I'm not gonna lie, like their design is incredible. Like that was Thomas: And they this is my favorite part about this, right? I believe it's actually a exactly to put a sister on here. And mind you, I mean she I I her I you know, she's probably she could be in China. She might be China Chinese citizen. China's just like every other, not just like every other country, but like people migrate and live all over the place. So there are black Chinese people. Don't don't get that miscontreal. this actually a topic. Black people, Malcolm: yeah. Put a sister on put a sister on there. Okay. Yeah. Thomas: are w especially if you're a black American, one of the only people on this earth that that did not have a home, country, or place to go back to. There's nowhere you can feel safe. So that's why you have a lot of black people in other places between col colonization and different things. A lot of people just didn't have homes. But that's just a separate thing. But I I like this right here, this marketing because and then you scroll through, right? Malcolm: Wait, so are are are you able to so are you able to you aren't able to buy these in America or like have them ship to America at all, right? Thomas: No, I I'm not seeing anywhere I can purchase on the website. No, usually websites like these, they have like a a USA website, Canadian website, like they have websites based on your location. So if I put on a VPN and said I was in China, I could probably buy it. Malcolm: Let me actually okay, yeah. It says okay, yeah. So you can buy is it is it Huawei? Yeah, you can buy and use Huawei phones in the US, but they are not okay, yeah. So they are not sold officially by US carriers. You have to buy unlocked imported international models through third party online retailers like Amazon or specialized tech importers. Okay, gotcha. Thomas: Yeah, wow. Let me see. I'm gonna Amazon. Malcolm: Fair enough. Yeah. Okay, yeah. I I kinda respected this. So newer models they don't have Google mobile services and they yeah. Thomas: yeah, no. Google's illegal in China. Like there's no Google in China. Malcolm: That's crazy. I'm not gonna lie. That's crazy. Thomas: Now it it's pretty wild. Like when I talk to people, like when they go, they're like, Yeah, you have to download a different maps like different messaging app. Like everything is different. You cannot use Gmail, Google's band. Malcolm: So do they use Bing? Thomas: I don't think they use Bing. Let me see. I've I forgot what the Chinese search engine is. Chinese search engine, Baidu. You have to use Baidu. Malcolm: That's crazy. I get it though now. Thomas: That's I mean, that's how they boost up the economy. I mean, cause you gotta think, if they just used everything the US used, they're just dumping money into the US. They're doing the opposite of what the US did. The US sent everything overseas and just, you know, does it that way. China's basically got their own everything. Like they don't need another country's stuff. Malcolm: Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense, man. Yeah, no, that I that kinda checks out. fair enough. Okay. Okay, okay, okay. but yeah, nah, speaking of Like my man said, you know, sister on on the marketing. shout out to Huawei for, you know, saying putting on putting on, putting on for the for the for the people. But then also, you know, we're gonna talk about like why we're on the topic, like Thomas did, bring up a good point about like that the whole thing about like how a lot of people that do look like us, we don't really have a place that we can call home. like yes, like we do, but African Americans at least, we don't. you know, and some people may say, Hey, but you have America. If you think that black Americans have a like a true root and home, like I'm talking about home as in a place that where you can feel safe, you can feel appreciated, you can feel celebrated, and there is just no judgment, discrimination, or like no marginalized community. Like like this is like a place where you can like you can go back to like like literally the World Cup, and I think it's showing this like how much community like like Norwegians, they have Norway. Argentinans, they have Argentina, Brazilians, they have Brazil. Like I know that black America isn't its own country. but it's like when we're talking about like a a space that we have or a safe haven, like a place where we just like we can go back to and retreat and like we know it's always there for us, that doesn't exist. Like there there there there is no there is no safe haven, right? And think like we're one of the few people where it's like with a few ethnicities or or or you know, communities on earth where where that kind of exists. But when talk about like Thomas: You Malcolm: A bit about about the World Cup and I'll be I'm not gonna be you know like I'm not gonna LARP here or pretend like I'm like some type of like you know lifelong soccer or or football fan. like not not gonna be pretentious here, but I I'd like I said, I usually only tune in to like soccer and stuff around the World Cup because it's just like super intense and I personally like like I've gotten super fond with like some of the top players in this tournament. So like Jew Bellingham. Mbappe, Messi, obviously. Ronaldo stinging it up, Yamal, you know, Vinny. Like I I I've like I've gotten like like ha like Holland from from Norway, like I've gotten like really lucky, like tapped in, like been following like the lore with these guys. It's just like it's been fun watching it, bro. It's just like this lucky one of the I think those like the one of the highest scoring, like as far as like individuals, like top performers, like goals this World Cup. So it's it's been fun to watch, bro. I usually don't watch soccer because it's like maybe it's 'cause I I didn't play the game growing up. I didn't I don't understand the importance or like I don't like I'm not able to follow the game for long. It's probably the same reason I don't like baseball 'cause like I think too much time in between like action might just because I just need too much dopamine, like when I'm watching sports. But that's probably a personal reason. But you know, we do want to talk about like this upcoming quarterfinal, like Argentina, England and why the World Cup is complicated for black American fans. right. So just want to talk a bit about a piece, right? So it's like The World Cup is the most watched sporting event on earth. And if you know how to read it, it's almost the most comprehensive map of where slavery and colonialism actually went. so a TikTok creator, Adiv, he he went through this and he talked about like all the different teams and the composition of them, right? So 21 of France's twenty-six players are of African descent, England fifteen, Netherlands fourteen, Belgium and Germany, nine apiece, twelve of the United States, twenty-six are black, Argentina Zilt, right? And so in eighteen hundred. Black people more than a third of Argentina's population. By 1875, the government has stopped counting African descendants in the National Consensus census together. the president's President Sarmiento's era has been described as a covert genocide. In eighteen fifty three, the Constitution was engineered to draw European immigrants, Italian, and Spanish arrivals reshaped the country between eighteen eighty and nineteen fifty. and so former Argent Argentine president Carlos Menem once declared plainly, like I'm talking about like no No switch up on a quote in Argentina, blacks do not exist. That is a Brazilian problem. Right? Even the culture was taken. Tango grew directly out of Afro Argentinian communities. Tango is a word from Kikango meaning time. The erasure was complete, it was the people, and then the cultural origins. In England, in a sense, the same a more complicated version of the same exact problem. England also has 15 black or mixed race players in the World Cup. including Bellingham, Saka and Rashford. They're carrying the team. They're cooking. You know, Harry Kane's doing this thing too. But England still hasn't figured out how to root for them without certain conditions or societal like context or pretext. Like it's all these things, right? So It's nasty. So, like as an example, like when Jude Bellingham, he saw frustration frustration that being substituted in the World Cup qualifier caused a national outrage. and so you know, Ian Wright's defense of him was like if you get a pogo or a Bellingham and you get that kind of energy, it doesn't sit well with people meaning, you know, they get the angry black man energy. you know, for so for someone like Jude, for some reason that frightens people because of his capability and this inspiration that he can give. so yeah, it's it's a little nasty. He's been called two American or an ego driven showman, despite having no cultural or fanf you know, family link to the United States. they have criticism at Sterling and Rashford for their behavior on and off the the pits. And so it's like when non white English players step outside the cultural norms about how players in that space conduct themselves, their behavior is no longer seen as an individual personality. It becomes a sign of some broader cultural difference tied to skin color. So yeah, nasty, right? So it's like there have only been eleven black managers in the top tier of English soccer. and in an interview, John Barnes said that black Englishness is policed. black people are allowed running, singing, and dancing, but there is a perception in society and specifically in soccer that acts the questions, can we think? Can we do more than just be athletes, then dance, then sing, then just be sources of entertainment, right? Can we think? Can we be our own people? Can we be individuals? Can we be creatives, right? And then can black people players also be trusted with leadership and authority? And so in practice, and what we've seen through events like these, the leader, the answer has unfortunately been no. And I I'm like really I think this World Cup is kind of like putting a really bright light on like some of the people that are from African descent or like you colored people who are like kind of carrying their teams. It's really good. It's putting on like this the most the largest, you know, display, exporting display in the world. and essentially Argentina and England, they represent two different versions of the exact same dynamic. Argentina, they erased their entire black population and England built a national team with black people and still trying to decide whether they actually want to support black people or let black people lead it. so yeah, it's it's really tough. in the World Cup, like I said, it's not just football, it's a geopolitical map of where black people were enslaved, displaced, and built things that got claimed by somebody else. So this is like one of those kind of like you gotta it's like the lesser of two evils when it comes to like what team you're rooting for. there's just been a ton of discourse about this online on Twitter, on Instagram, like really on all social media platforms about like like should you be rooting for either of these teams? Like, you know, I don't know. And I ain't gonna lie, RBC also be has has been like cheating, like nasty. Like I know I they got the GOAT on their team, bro. Bro, they get away with everything, any and everything, dog. I'm not gonna lie, it's nasty. Thomas: It's Hey, shout out my I know my boy's listening to this. He's an Argentina fan. He he doesn't like the discourse. He he says everyone who's a casual should just not not even have an opinion on the sport. but I mean just to add, bro, like I looked it up. I don't know if I'm saying his name right. but Yamal, Lamin, Lamine, or Lamin Lamon. It's Lamin, that's how you say the first name. Lamin. Malcolm: It's crazy. Lamin, yeah. Lamar. Mm. Thomas: Okay, yeah, Lamine Lamar, he's actually mixed with Moroccan in Equatorial Guinea, which for pe people who don't know, I actually had not an encounter, but I was on public transport and I it was some African people that came on, right? I mean, I know that's an assumption that they're African, right? But I mean they they I could tell the continent that they were from, you know, and they were speaking Spanish, like fluently. And that's ignorance on my side, right? Because I had never seen Malcolm: Mm. Thomas: African people speak Spanish like as a n like a first language ever in my life. Up to that point, I've never met or interacted with anyone from there. So then I I asked somebody, like I asked one of my friends, he was like, they're probably from Equatorial Guinea. And I looked it up. That was actually a place colonized by Spain. And so that's how your mall ended up playing for Spain. He was born in Spain. His mother's from Equatorial Guinea. His father's Moroccan. So they prop they went somewhere where they knew the language and You know, you have ties. So that's the colonization aspect. People wonder why. Hey, why do these guys not just play for their home country? You know, even though their home country's dude's home country is Spain. He was born there. And I s I say if you're colonized by a country, you should have citizenship anyway. Honestly. Like if they if they came over to your land and said, Hey, we own this, we're gonna force you to learn our language, force you to learn our ways, and then tell you can't come back, that's crazy. Malcolm: Mm. Yeah. I'm gonna indoctrinate somebody and then try to ban It's crazy. Thomas: It exact and that's what it is, bro. They they go and they destroy these countries' economies, they destroy everything. And then when people this is actually a conversation that and on another podcast, you can't blame the people when they leave to go back to whatever country that colonized them after being told for their whole lives that that country is better, and then the country that they actually their parents are from has been decimated and resources taken and the country is all screwed up because colonization ruined it. Like I think people don't realize. Malcolm: Yeah. Thomas: A lot of Africa that has the parts that have conflict, it is a direct implication of colonization. Yes, there's always been internal conflict in every nation historically. Malcolm: Mm-hmm. yeah. It's also like a ton of like corruption politically and in in in the government for for short. Just just wanna call that out before people come in this joint. Like that the the real you know, my friends that are actually African, I they're g they're gonna like, you know, yeah. Thomas: yeah, no no like you is corruption f you you know the meme where he said corruption is bad unless I'm a part of it Malcolm: Yeah, yeah. d it's it's only bad. It's only bad if I'm not included in it. Yeah. Like it's like a whole like you know like the pause core TikToks where it's like like it'll just have a pause moment and this is like the noise, like mm, and then it's like the next clip. It l they it'll be have like that same type of highlight reel for like African officials, like government officials like like like speaking on corruption and like being like blatantly honest, like, Hey, yeah, I am corrupt and you you will not like you will not stop me, bro. So yeah, no I'm I'm I'm I've seen it bro. Thomas: Exactly. That's facts too. I'm not gonna lie. That that's what I'm saying. That's definitely an issue for sure. but I feel like a lot of it also has to do with like granted, this is all scenari like hypotheticals, right? If there was never colonization in Africa at all, period. Like if no European countries came in and made people do anything or took people, what would happen? Would the corruption still be there? Possibly. But would it be as bad as it is? Probably not. Everywhere there's corruption everywhere. Every country has corruption. Malcolm: A hundred percent. A hundred percent. Mm-hmm. Yeah. No? Thomas: But it's I feel like colonization makes it worse. And unfortunately the people who do the colonizing, like people who might think we're talking crazy, as far as I know, Europe has never been colonized. I might be ignorant on this, but Europe has never been colonized by an outside continent. They call they might have colonized each other, conquered each other, but it was all still the similar people and similar resources. The what they did to the world, like America, if we're being honest, shouldn't exist. Argentina shouldn't be what Argentina is now. Brazil, South America as a whole was those people were brown like a few hundred years ago. Those those people were brown. You gotta think about where it is relating to the to the sun too. Everyone down there was brown. And now that's not the case. Malcolm: Yeah. I mean I think yeah, I know I mean, it's weird. Like Europe it's like I think they haven't caught it's just been like a lot like of internally. 'cause I know like the Roman Empire's one, I just checked. but it's I mean it's kinda it's far back. But like I know Rome commonized a lot of like Western, Central and Southern Europe. and then a lot of that after was just kind of like empire building like over time. Like like in Thomas: Me. Yeah. That's what they did it to each other to themselves. Like you look at China, like China, like Asia, like, bro, like they it was all like local, which which is fine. Like that's one thing, right? Like Europeans caught like conquered Europeans and like people look back, like even the whole Odyssey situation going on. A lot of people are upset about the cast election for that. They're saying, who thinks Lupita's the most beautiful woman on blah blah blah? Malcolm: Yeah, it was it's just like dog fooding. There's yeah, yeah. Mm-hmm. I'm not even gonna lie. I'm I'm not mad at that. I'm not gonna lie. Like like like I saw like a a com like a thing about the movie say that like like Travis like like Fiend was like Fiend like Fiend was gonna be getting played in the movie, like his song. I'm like, why is Fiend getting played in Odyssey? The Odyssey. Like they got the most high budget cast of all time. I'm telling you, if it's a stinker, he's cooked. Christopher Nolan's cooked, bro. Thomas: Yeah, I don't know Travis Scott is in there. Yeah. That yeah, that Well, I mean, Christopher Nolan's made so many bangers. Yeah. Malcolm: I mean, I ain't gonna lie, he he he he he solidified like I'm his legacy is solidified, but this will be a stinger. Thomas: Bro, but here's my thing though, right? I'm s I'm seeing less criticism about Travis Scott, which okay, I get it. Putting Travis Scott in a movie of this size is kind of crazy. But my my thing is the the racism, the homophobia, the transphobia, like all of this stuff. Like I get it, right? I I do understand these people historically were not black. These people historically were not trans transgender. I'm pretty sure back then like they didn't even have terms for this stuff. It was just like like if you if you look actually look up like Greek mythology, I don't know if that's what Odyssey is. I don't know what mythology it is, but it was pretty like fluid society back then. but the the black thing, like people it's just racism, bro. And Malcolm: Yeah. He had his own Greek, That was you kinda. I mean, the Greek king Odysse Odysseus. Thomas: this okay. Yeah, I I that's what I'm saying. I don't know much about any of that. Like I'm I'm not a big Troy guy. I watched three hundred. that was it. Like Malcolm: That's why every every every do watch three hundred. Thomas: That's what bro, this is Sparta, bro. It's it's like a rite of passage. Malcolm: Yeah. Yeah, nah, literally like I'm sure it's like it's like three hundred Planet of the Apes and Transformers are like the like the the guy movies you you have to watch as a as a kid, bro, but nah. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Scarface is a classic thing. I've I've rewatched it a couple of times. Thomas: I ain't gonna lie, throw Scarface in there too. Scarface a all time classic. yeah, no. You gotta re watch it every now and then. I hope they don't remake it. I think there's talks about a remake. That movie, you don't need to remake it, bro. Malcolm: Nah. So some things you just need to it's just just better left untouched, bro. Thomas: Yeah. I think Christopher Nolan though, like I I I think it's not my type of movie. But I guess like the point point I'm saying is with something like this, I understand why people want historical accuracy. and is there times for having a cast that is all one demographic? Sure. Would I be upset if someone put a white man as Martin Luther King Jr.? Yeah, I'd be pretty upset about that. Or, you know, Malcolm X. You know what I'm saying? I'd I'd be upset about that. That's not accurate. So I get it. But The way in which you do it. Like I have seen some people say that like they're not racist, which, you know, if you're sa starting a sentence with you're racist, I don't know. But some people are saying, like, it's just they're stuck between a rock and a horror place. Like a dissonance because you want historical accuracy, but you also want to be with the times. So I don't know. Malcolm: Yeah. No. It makes sense. Yeah, nah. But next next next topic we wanna talk about it's a before we wrap up, we wanna talk about touch touch a bit on some some MBA stuff. And so this first one we wanted to have we wanted to talk about, but we didn't have an episode last week, I believe. So we didn't it's not as like I think as recent or as like relevant. I mean a lot of it's kinda like already kinda like died down now. But there was one particular I think incidents are kind of like the aftermath of an incident during this this super hectic NBA offseason, probably the most exciting or like just loaded I've seen in in quite some time. but we wanted to talk about like the kind of like the the the the Jalen Brown smear campaign we've been seeing, bro, like since he's been traded to the Sixers for Paul George. it has been nasty, bro. It has been nasty. Like some of the like Some of the quotes I've seen from anonymous NBA GMs, from anonymous NBA coaches, apparently, and like the Celtics front locker. I I've seen so many disrespectful comments, right? So, like, you know, for folks that don't know, Jalen Brown was traded to the seventy sixers for Paul George, two first round picks and two second round picks to their rival, essentially, right? They got no young pieces in return, and he's coming off his best season ever. Twenty eight, twenty nine points a game. Seven rebounds, five assists, all NBA second team, six in MVP voting, and carried a depleted Celtics team to number two seed without Tatum. right, so we have like I've seen like I've seen a couple comments, bro, that just blew my mind. One of them, I believe I've seen something about the Celtics front office saying, Yeah, we didn't view him as having the best season, or essentially being like having the best seat play like having the best season. Like this past season, like on our on our roster, they they said they view Derek White as having the best season, on our roster. They threw him into all Giannis trade conversations without any hesitation. He never requested a trade. I I think another non NBA GM says that they don't see him on any on any team, mind you, on any team in the NBA, they said they don't see on any team in the NBA Jalen Brown as being a top seven player on any team in the NBA. Mind you, this guy was six in V P voting. But you don't view him as a top seven player on a rotation in a team. Jalen Brown is no lower than than the second best guy on all 30 NBA teams, bro. They are not they're like, what are we talking? Another NBA GM said they don't view him as a top 50 player in the NBA. I'm seeing other ones about like how part another reason or another part of the reason why he why he got traded was because of his kind of like his antics, his quote unquote antics on Twitch. And how he thinks that he's like the smartest person in the room. And that comment was probably like the most like that one right there, like like all all these comments are ridiculous to me. Like 'cause a lot of them are just like this stupid, like analytics, st dumb, like I'm like, bro, you don't average thirty points a game and get six V P voting, like with like like bro, like it it's it's just like, but no, this this what do you call it, right? So it's like Yeah, right. So it's it's it's this this anonymous NBA reporter, right? So it's like there's some l right, so yeah, this is Colin Cowherd on an episode of his pot volume podcast. He said, I had two NBA sources, two people in the league, one an executive, one a scout, say that Jalen Brown has it's a disease. He suddenly thinks he's the smartest guy in every room he's in. You make a lot of money, suddenly you're absolutely sure you don't want to listen to your bosses, you don't want to listen to consultants, you don't want to listen to teammates. And like a lot of people don't want to make it into this. But I I I I I I find it hard to believe that this is anything outside of the fact that and it it's only ironically enough, it's the city of Boston, of course, of all cities to for this to kind of be rooted in. But it's like we see, mind you, let's not act like like like not to like like Mind you, like like this is before he even got drafted, right? Jalen Brown had like concerns about getting drafted because he was so smart. They thought like he didn't he wasn't gonna love basketball enough because he was so smart. Let's also remember, right? He graduated top of his class. He told he went to UC Berkeley. His freshman year, he took graduate level courses and played on the varsity chess team. He's the youngest person to ever deliver a lecture at Harvard University. He served as a fellow for the MIT Media Lab. He is interned, he had an internship offer. Because of his deep interest in physics and space and internship with NASA in 2021. He knows multiple languages, Spanish, Arabic. He's skilled at playing both the piano and guitar. And he became one of the youngest vice presidents of the National Basketball Players Association and established a bridge program in partnership with MIT to support high school students of color in pursuing STEM careers. This guy, his credentials are there. He's a smart guy. And I I've seen all these different analyses and And reasons as to why people think this, bro. I have no other, nothing else crosses my mind but the fact that the people in positions of power who are these anonymous, these people who are hiding behind, like this anonymous GM title or whatever, you are like an intelligent African-American, dark-skinned man makes you scared, bro. Jalen Brown's intelligence makes people scared because people don't want. someone like him in his position, as skilled as he is at basketball, to also have a brain and be able to think for himself and express himself. That's why they don't like him having a twitch. They don't like the fact that he's he doesn't need basketball to define his legacy and define his career. Because he's going to be like he's an educated black man with or without a basketball in his hand. He's someone who's going to speak his mind with or without a basketball in his hand. And it's like that to a lot of people is the scariest thing in the world. A highly educated black man Is the scariest thing to s in in in some folks' eyes, especially people in positions of power who are trying like make a team like mold to their will and bend to their will, bro. That this is like I've never seen a player ever get like just outright disrespected like this after having the best season of his life. Like, and I I I I hate to say this, but I'm like, bro, hate to play the hypothetical game. But you cannot convince me if the roles were reversed and Jason Tatum just had this type of season. That he be and and he got he's the one that got traded, that folks would be coming up with these type of comments, bro. They've been disrespecting that man for too many years, bro. I ain't gonna lie. I I hope he I hope he fries them all next year, bro. I'm not gonna lie. I hope he fries them. Thomas: Jalen Brown is the dog. And my respect for him just goes through the roof for all he's dealing with. Like this is it's I'm not gonna even gonna say it's on unprecedented because they they did the same thing to Kyrie. It was a little different with Kyrie though, but they did the same thing to Kyrie. they did the same thing. Malcolm: Tell me. It it it was it was really the s but Kyrie's been getting that type of treatment though, I'm not gonna lie. Thomas: Yeah, but I mean, but shoot they did it with what's it I his name is Mahmood Abdul Roof, I believe his name was. I believe that's his name. Apologies if that's incorrect, but the it was a player of the same situation. He said some things and got blackballed. and I guess you can't just outright blackball Jalen Brown for what he's doing. Like he hasn't said anything crazy. He's not targeting any groups, he has not Malcolm: Yeah, I don't eat I was yeah. Mm-hmm. Thomas: criticized any nations or anything as far as I've heard. but I mean it it's just it's crazy, man. It's crazy how they they do people. Jalen Brown, I hope he I hope he kills in Philly. I hope if if they let LeBron hey f Philly honestly even without LeBron, the f the way Philly's set up right now, I think they're favorites to win Malcolm: Mm-hmm. Thomas: championship so far. Not favorites, favorite like number one, but they're their top three. If they land LeBron, I think they're a lot. I'm not gonna if they stay healthy. Malcolm: Especially if they land LeBron. Yeah. I'm not e even if Embiid is is is you know he even if he play like half of the games of the season I might break even without Embiid though, that four, that's the best born NBA game. Vijay, T Maxi, Brown, Braun, Embiid, if even Embiid is somewhat healthy, bro. I I I I'm not gonna push my I'm not gonna get super excited here and say he'll be healthy for full season. I know it's gonna happen. But if he can at least r stay rested until come playoff time, he can get through a full like Thomas: Yeah. Right. Malcolm: p like playoffs, I don't see anybody beating that team, bro. Thomas: Philly. Philly might just do it. Like I if they that's what I'm saying. Everyone stay healthy. Vijay, Tyrese, Jalen, they all stay healthy. I mean, even bro, the narrative in in Boston, we all knew that the Celtics team wasn't gonna last. There was a bunch of conversation around that. Malcolm: They've been trying to split up split them up for years though, bro. Like even after the championship. Thomas: Yeah, no, they've been trying. I think that they were cool with each other, but like people kept making them stories like, egos and who's the real star. Bro, Jalen, I don't think Jalen had any issue with Jason being the seen as the man. Like I don't think he had any problem with that. Malcolm: Mm-hmm. Yeah. He did. That's the thing. I really, I really, I mean, they really won A1B, bro. And it's like I think people I th I think what people have more so of a problem with is yes, they blew a 3 1 lead. But I think it's the fact that he was so like excited about like like he was like adamant about this being like his favorite season of his career. But it's like have any of you have have any have any like of you people criticized him ever played a sport? You're telling me you wouldn't be excited if you had your chance to get like to kill all season. You carried a team from like that had not ex not no playoff expectations to the second seed. And you got to kill all season to show everybody that like you're just as good and you're the guy too. Like w how how are you feeling like how are you gonna get mad at someone for being excited that they have that they played the best ball of their career, bro? Thomas: Like let's put this into perspective for all the office workers and desk desk jockeys out there. this is like if your your teammate that you work, your coworker, who's the master coder, master salesman, whatever the case is, let's just say salesman for this, apply it to whatever you want. The one who sells to everybody or or who takes credit for your sales is out on maternity, paternity leave for nine months or not nine months, I don't know, let's say 16 weeks. Malcolm: as me. Thomas: And you and you're balling, you're selling everything so good that they decide to come back early, off leave early, because they're trying to get back in and and just get a piece of that, you know, rather than do the smart thing and take the rest of the leave. That's the same. Would you not be happy? Would you not be excited that you you finally get a chance? I mean, if anyone's played a sport, we've all been in that position. Unless you've just been the the the main person on your team your whole life, we've all been in that position where it's you kind of like not hoping. that somebody get hurt or somebody can't play, but you you know that spot. Yeah, you just want a chance. Like you just hope like they screw up so that you get put in the game so you can do your thing. Sometimes somebody gotta fall off for you to shine a little bit. Malcolm: You're hoping for your chance, bro. That's it. You hoping for your chance. Mm hmm. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. I'm like, folks, folks ain't like that, bro. And like I said, he's outspoken, he's educated, he's politically aware. and the thing I like about him, bro, he's not someone that's gonna like that's gonna bend his knee to institutions or to ownership just because they are what they are. Right. Like he knows that he still has leverage and he has like a voice. And it's like a lot of people do it because they aren't educated enough to like know what they're dealing with. Jalen Brown is like extremely aware of like his circumstances and like where he stands as a player, as a and it's like I think he it's like I like him a lot, bro, because he knows that he represents so much more than just Jalen Brown, bro. Like he's not like like he's not like I hope people don't think this is like a facade. He's just doing this for like attention or to seem smart. But I genuinely think that that's someone who like he knows like he represents so much more. He represents everyone that looks like him, bro. He speaks for all, you know, educated black men who may be kind of like prejudiced or or scrutinized or or or not taken seriously because they're trying to do more than, you know, the the basic assignment. Like like I think he's like he's like he's kind of essentially like setting like the groundwork for what it looks like to be a highly educated black man and to be more than just an athlete, bro. And that's like why I respect him a lot. I respect all athletes. I also respect Kyrie a lot, bro, because it's like Thomas: Mm-hmm. Malcolm: I don't you know, obviously your day job is basketball, bro, but it's like I feel like the greatest basketball players are the ones that are known for more than just basketball, bro. Like it's the ones that leave a legacy behind on and off the court. and it's like I feel like they they do both of them do that like very well. And it's like, yes, it's sometimes it's controversial, sometimes it doesn't bow with all the public. Like he's gonna speak his mind. he's not gonna like just shut up and dribble when he says something that that that folks don't like. So yeah, nah, it was a lot of those comments, I just kept saying bro, it's just like like the timing in which like the all these different articles and all these anonymous people were coming out, it was just like the day after he got traded, just back to back to back to back to back. It was like people really had it out for him, like this crazy vendetta. And I'm like, bro, like, for what? You know? So yeah, nah, I'm I'm really excited for this upcoming NBA season. The summer league has been crazy. This draft class is crazy. These trades have been crazy. I will be tuned in. Football's about to come back. Cowboys are about to be back. Spurs about to be back. It's cinema, bro. We're back, bro. We're back. We are like we're just back in all in all dimensions. We're just back everywhere. I'm ready, Doug. Thomas: Yeah. Shout out Sea Will. Looking good. Looking good for the for the for my tip for the Bulls, man. Malcolm: Kayla Wilson looking Kayla Wilson looking crazy, man. AJ looking crazy. Darren Peterson is killing right now as we speak. Cam Booza looking crazy. my boy on the Sixers looking crazy. A cuff looking looking nice, bro. Like it's it's some it's some some dogs out here, man. I I'm this this might be the best draft class in in some time, bro. So yeah. Thomas: Yeah. If and if Braun go to DC, shout out D C. Malcolm: You know, that's not Thomas: His boy over there though. A D. Think about that. A D, AJ, to Trey Young. Malcolm: I hope I W Wizards Slick got do got a got a little they got a roster, man. I I I I I do apologize. If you've been a ro a ri a real Wizards fan this whole time and you stay down, I gonna lie, DC sports as a whole is on the come up. Thomas: It is, it is. I mean it's way better than Chicago sports, as a Chicago f b Bulls fan. Malcolm: I ain't gonna lie, I mean the the ba I mean Chicago is all you talk about Chicago as a whole or just Chicago Bulls? 'Cause the Bears, I mean the Bear the Bears are are are are back. Thomas: Well I mean, okay, okay. Outside the Bears, I don't know what's going on with the baseball team, but Chicago Malcolm: Cubs. I I I don't even follow baseball enough to know like if the Cubs are good or like relevant. Thomas: I know the the basketball teams are cut. The the women's team's having a lot of drama right now with Skylar Diggins. or no. What what is her la is this Digging 'cause I know she she got divorced. She changed her name. Malcolm: Yeah. Thomas: Yeah, Skylar Diggins, okay. The Smith was the the husband's name, I assume. But yeah, Skyler, there there's some issues there. WNBA as a whole, I mean, we got too much going on in the world for what they're doing with this whole Caitlin Clark situation with the government, talking about looking into civil rights violations. that's crazy. And if anyone actually watches hoops, the whole narrative with Caitlin being the number one player is is insane. Malcolm: Mm-hmm. Thomas: Shout out Caitlin. She's a great player. But I'm just concerned that most of her supporters and fans don't actually watch basketball and don't actually think she's a good basketball player. I think there's another reason that they support her. she's also a dirty player. Like if you watch her play, she g she gets a handful of jersey a good amount of the time and forces things. So I just think for all my hoop fans, great hoops. for everyone else, you're literally hindering. women's sports with your racism and bigotry, and homophobia and yeah, just just archaic mindsets that are poisoning your brain. get off I'm not gonna say the app name, but it's a it's a app that starts with a G, that a lot of people like to get on, certain type of people that fit the the bigoted mindset. get off of there and Yeah, just have enjoy life, just be happy. Malcolm: Post the other day, man. We like I said we haven't it's crazy 'cause like we don't even like track it like as closely as we once did, but to still see people like like to see like the analytics of our platform and to see like the views just kinda like still be there consistent even when we aren't as consistent as we'd like to be. I think like for like relative to the whole year, we've this is our twentieth episode. It's been twenty eight weeks in a year. We just a couple weeks we missed, like either for scheduling or for work, just like things we had going on. But like r I think we've been pretty consistent. We can definitely do better job of like like posting on Instagram, staying more consistent on there, which I I I I've I validated that we're gonna make sure that we put now stuff way more often. yeah, like we appreciate everybody that listens to us, bro. We've crossed, I think the threshold of like three thirty six hundred streams now. So, that's kind of just crazy to think about, like across YouTube, Spotify, Apple the podcast. For that many people to like just be hearing our voices and to hearing our takes on different topics and and and concepts and just kind of like how we interpret things and even see like the direct impact of like people taking some of the advice that we may give or some of the kind of like suggestions or or things that we think about certain stocks or or assets or whatever, and see them take that advice and it reward them is like a crazy feeling. so yeah, we appreciate everybody that listens to us and supports us, engages with us. it means a lot. It means a ton and we are we're looking forward to continuing, you know, just try to try to put something out there for folks and and hopefully, you know, somebody somebody gets something from us and consider that a job well done that somebody was able to learn from us. yeah. There you man. Happy Sunday, folks. Y'all have a great work week. Great week. Period. Yeah. Stay blessed. Stay prayed up. stay safe out here. And yeah, we will catch y'all on the next episode. Appreciate everybody listening. And yeah, have a good one. Thomas: Appreciate y'all. Peace.