The Best One Yet
🍼 “Breast Milk Ice Cream” — Frida’s lactation gelato. Robinhood’s mail-order-cash. America’s “Car Bloat.”
Fri, 28 Mar 2025
Frida’s breast milk-flavored ice cream is due in 9 months… It’s not April Fool’s, it’s a “product-tizement.”Robinhood launched big bank products this week… but we think it’s the Airbnb of Finance.American cars are now so big it’s affecting traffic… So we’ll explain “Car Bloat” and “The Panamax Effect."Plus, Jeff Bezos just sent out invites to his wedding (we got the financial deets)...Want more business storytelling from us? Check out the latest episode of our new weekly deepdive show: The untold origin story of… Goldfish Crackers 🧀Subscribe to The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinks to listen.“The Best Idea Yet”: The untold origin stories of the products you’re obsessed with — From the McDonald’s Happy Meal to Birkenstock’s sandal to Nintendo’s Susper Mario Brothers to Sriracha. New 45-minute episodes drop weekly.—-----------------------------------------------------Subscribe to our new (2nd) show… The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinksEpisodes drop weekly. It’s The Best Idea Yet.GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts FOR MORE NICK & JACK: Newsletter: https://tboypod.com/newsletter Connect with Nick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/ Connect with Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/ SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ Subscribe to our new (2nd) show… The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinksEpisodes drop weekly. It’s The Best Idea Yet.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: What is the story behind breast milk ice cream?
Either the TV network, which must approve it, or the FCC, which can reject it. But you know what you can control? For the most part, you can control what you sell. You can control your product. So after multiple rejections... because their ads were considered not safe for TV. Well, Frida created a product that is kind of wild, but can't be blocked by others. Breast milk flavored ice cream.
There you go. That's not a product. It's an ad for the entire brand. An ad without the risk of rejection. That, my friends, is a product-tisement. For our second story, on its 10th birthday, Robinhood, as a gift to other people, launched its biggest suite of financial products yet. The wildest part about Robinhood banking, Robinhood is still not a bank.
Besties, 10 years ago, Robinhood was the first company to let you trade stocks with no commission fee. That free stock trading innovation was both a strength and a weakness for Robinhood. Yeah, because Jack, here's the weakness part. How do you make money if the main thing you offer, stock trading, is free? Well, this week...
Ten years after being created, Robinhood answered that question more robustly than ever. Ironically, with a product they're calling Checking and Savings. Now, we say ironic because Nick and I sold our first company, MarketSnacks, to Robinhood in 2018. And the first month we started at Robinhood after the acquisition, Jack, do you remember what they launched?
They launched Checking and Savings, a product of the same name they're launching today. But then here's the wild part. The day after they launched it, years ago, they had to cancel it immediately because that product, Checking and Savings, broke so many rules. So seven years after initially botching Checking and Savings, Robinhood has now relaunched it. Robinhood is now basically a bank.
And here's Robinhood's new strategy by launching Checking and Savings. They're embracing midlife millennial adulthood. Robinhood Banking will give you a checking account, a high-yield savings account, just like JPMorgan Chase. But they'll also deliver cash to your mailbox on demand if you ask for it. Because Robinhood has no physical branches, they will send cash to your mailbox.
Like, they will literally drop off five Ben Franklins in your mailbox before you go on vacation. Robinhood also launched Wealth Management this week. You can access portfolios or ETFs managed by pros and pay a 0.25% management fee. They're also giving away premium tickets like American Express perks.
You can go to the Oscars, Coachella, the Met Gala, Formula One races with these Robinhood benefits. So why is Robinhood launching all of these big bank style products? Well, because Robinhood accounts are not banked. Big products, Jack. Robinhood is still a baby compared to all the other financial companies. That's right.
The average account at Fidelity is 50 times bigger than the average account at Robinhood. Because Charles Schwab, Fidelity, Morgan Stanley, they all got those boomer lifetime savings in their accounts. So they got a lot more money per account. Because that's how the finance industry makes the real money. Yes, it is. They take a small percentage of a really big dollar amount.
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Chapter 2: How does Robinhood's new banking service work?
Chapter 3: What is 'Car Bloat' and why is it a concern?
Find out what happens when massive hype turns into major fiasco. Enjoy The Big Flop on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Big Flop early and ad-free on Wondery+. Get started with your free trial at wondery.com slash plus.
For our third and final story before the weekend. SUVs and trucks are suffering from car bloat. Their size is now literally causing traffic. That's part of a bigger trend called the Panamax effect. Americans want the biggest thing as long as it still fits.
You know, Yetis, Jack and I were talking before the pod, and the way we see it, the car industry is in many ways the most chaotic, uncertain, and wild industry in business right now. Will electric cars take off, or will they go away? Will automation kill driving as we know it? Automotive is also the top victim of the trade war. 25% tariffs just hit the whole industry this week.
But there is one thing that car companies do know, and what is that, Jack? The bigger... the better. Welcome to the concept of car bloat. Every single year for the last three decades, the length, the width, the height, the cubic feet of cars that we buy gets larger and larger and larger. I think you just said height, but let's roll with it, Jack.
Here's a macro stat to back up the car bloat observation. 80% of new cars bought today are trucks or SUVs. That's up from just 25% in the 1970s. We also found a micro stat to explain car bloat. Today's Ford F-150, the most selling car in America, is 800 pounds heavier than the F-150 of 1999. it's gained 32% more weight, a single car.
So not only are we buying more big cars, but the bigger cars that we're buying are bigger. Another way you could describe car blow, Jack, there is junk in the trunk. So much so that the Detroit big three car makers have stopped producing coupes, sedans, and station wagons because Americans don't want them. If you're single, you want an SUV. If you're a dink, you also want an SUV.
If you have kids, you want a huge SUV with a third row of seats and 14 cup holders. Now, besties, car bloat has been great for car company profits, but interestingly, it's been really bad for traffic in a surprising way. If you buy a Honda Civic, you are signaling that you are cost-conscious. But if you buy a huge Denali SUV, you are signaling that you have high willingness to pay.
Car companies know that and prices for SUVs are simply higher. than prices for sedans. That's why virtually all profits for Ford, General Motors, and Jeep are from their trucks and SUVs, not from the small little civics. But these huge cars have societal costs we should tell you about as well. Yeah, they do.
Like, you know the big Chevy Suburbans are worse for the environment and they're worse for safety. You feel safer driving in that tank, but everyone around you feels less safe. Which leads to the fascinating news. These bloated cars are actually making traffic 10% worse. That's according to Bloomberg. Now, there's a lot of reasons that today's traffic on the roads is worse than 30 years ago.
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Chapter 4: What are the details of Jeff Bezos' wedding?
Very excited. We're going to the awards ceremony.
The envies, baby. Can't wait. We're going to get the tuxes. But Yedis, before you go, Jack and I have the perfect thing for you to listen to this weekend. In the latest episode of The Best Idea Yet, I tell the wild story how I snuck into a Mets game not just to watch baseball. No, how did you sneak in and why'd you sneak in, Jack? I snuck in to find my future wife.
And that story of how Jack found his wife is connected to Goldfish Crackers, the wild untold origin story of the Goldfish Crackers. So when you have a second, click the link in the episode description and check out the best idea yet. It's our weekly show. You're going to love it. This one's on goldfish crackers. Jack and I will see you Monday.
And before we go, a happy birthday to legendary Middlebury Manther, Mike Panzer Esquire, from down in lovely Washington, D.C. Mike, our 15-year anniversary is this summer. I'll see you there. And Larry Nsuka, the brown bear baller, is celebrating a birthday down also in Washington, D.C. And happy birthday to Sharon Yu, a.k.a. Sharondo, from Los Angeles.
This birthday request is one year late because her husband forgot to request one last year. But that also means it's right on time. And Nate Mesa is celebrating a birthday down in Nashville, Tennessee. Happy birthday. Happy birthday to Justin Chapman in Marblehead, Ohio. And Nick Goodner, legendary Yeti, celebrating a birthday down in Orlando.
Happy 42nd birthday to Michael Contini in Brooklyn, New York. And Lizette Ortiz, also turning 42 with a big birthday in El Paso, Texas. Happy birthday to Jessica Carpio in Colorado Springs, Colorado. And Tomas Ramirez, happy eighth birthday. Celebrating the big one down in Costa Rica. Happy birthday to Lola Leike in Greenwich, London.
And Sharon Yu from Rancho Palos Verdes, California is a dog hater, but we love her because she's celebrating a birthday. Wow. Wow, she's a dog hater? Yeah, it's a story for another podcast. That's an unpopular position in today's world. Well, she may be a cat person. You know, we didn't consider that. And happy ninth anniversary to Ben and Kara Enos in Franklin, Tennessee.
And Liz DeHorn is honeymoon-ing with her hubby in Charleston, South Carolina. Have a blast, guys. And a big good luck and congratulations to Jackson Durham, who's doing bagpipes at the talent show this weekend. If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.
And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. We want to get to know you.
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