The Best One Yet
🦺 “How Vests Won Wall St” — Vest Szn. Duolingo’s unhinged mistake. Air Travel’s Expedia moment. +AI Dog Pawdcasters
10 Nov 2025
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is Nick. This is Jack. Welcome back to The Beacon of Business. It is Monday, November 10th, and today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. The Beacon of Business. Yeah, it is. We're trying something new on today. But Jack, congratulations on the weekend. How'd it go down there, man?
So we did our first family trip to New York City, and we all flew down there on Friday for just two nights in the city. Okay, you just do two days Central Park. Honestly, that's an entire trip, man. Here's the itinerary. Saturday morning, we were at the Natural History Museum- as it opened at 10 o'clock. Gotta be there. Amazing time. Perfect.
Then we went into the Central Park Boathouse for lunch. That was a scene. It's a boozy scene, yeah. Couple cocktails later and like six portions of macaroni and cheese. We just walked around Central Park while the boys fell asleep in the stroller. We hit up three different playgrounds by the end of the day. Wonderful, wonderful day in the city.
Central Park's got to have the highest concentration of playgrounds in the country. I mean, there's nothing like skinning your knee on one of those bricks and concrete structures, Jack. And we closed it all down with a cash-only Italian restaurant on the Upper West Side. If it's cash-only, you know it must be good. Oh, and the black and white cookies, Jack.
Well, I'm so glad you had a fantastic time, man. It's just an amazing place for kids and everyone forgets that. Yetis, get this. At the hotel, Nick had a gift waiting for me. It was three different children's books all set in New York City. The kids were in the park. They may as well see it in the books too. I'm going to read them Eloise Goes to New York tonight. Eloise and Lyle Crocodile.
Jack, they know we got three fantastic stories for today's show. What do we got on the pod, man? For our first story... We just experienced the worst travel day of the year. 1,100 flights were canceled this weekend. Luckily, neither of mine. But besties, if you really want to understand the travel industry right now, you got to look at Expedia. For our second story, it's finally here.
It's officially vest season because vests are the unofficial uniform of finance and tech. So Jack and I did the research and discovered how the vest has taken over every industry. And our third and final story is Duolingo. Duolingo had its worst day on the stock market ever, plummeting 29% for one wild reason. Duolingo's crazy owl mascot was not unhinged enough.
But before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Fantastic mix of stories, Jack. Love the mix today. There's some new competition, Nick, I think you should know about. Yeah, besties. It's not another podcast. Jack and I are facing a pod-
podcast pod p-a-w oh it's a podcast it's a podcast with dogs as the co-hosts get this the fastest growing podcast show right now it's hosted by dogs a podcast the co-hosts are a couple of ai dog podcasters and apparently they're hilarious the context to sprinkle on the name of this podcast is the dog pack Dog Pack is actually an app that lets dog owners connect with each other.
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Chapter 2: What historical significance do vests hold in corporate America?
I don't even think they need to practice. 50%, that's a fat tip. T-Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, cause we ready to go. We can't wait no more, so just start the show. Start the show.
First, a quick word from our sponsor. For our first story, Expedia's booking boom is defying the economic doom. Nick, the entire travel industry is still seeing record high demands because one trip you did looks like five trips to Wall Street. Well explained.
But besties, in the meantime, while you're listening to our show, Google the word travel and you're going to see headlines about the FAA cutting flights because of the government shutdown. New York to Nashville, never departing. Yeah, delayed forever. But if you do look up travel instead in the Google Finance tab, you're going to see a lot of...
Because Expedia stocks soared by 17% on Friday to an all-time high on news of their best quarterly earnings ever. Now Yeti's this shocked us. And why is that, Jack? We've covered the weak jobs market in America. We've covered the young people's recession happening in America. Gen Z's basically not even buying Chipotle anymore. Yeah, because the guac and the meat is extra.
But the miles are calling and I must go, apparently. Yeah. And besties, we can see your wild Key West party weekend in the numbers from Expedia. Expedia's operating profit was the best on record, sending the stock to an all-time high. I'd press that cha-ching button again, Jack. But besties, here's what we find fascinating. Just the sheer scale of this, like $31 billion worth of travel?
That was booked across Expedia's three travel brands in just the last three months. It's like five lifts, Expedia, Hotels.com, Vrbo, best growth in the US travel demand in three years for all three of them. The CEO said on the earnings call that Americans are staying longer and working further in advance than they usually do.
So basically, you spent a couple extra days in the Dolomites and you planned that epic trip a year ago. Which is strange. More travel? It's not what you'd expect from an anxious consumer who's cutting back on Chipotle burritos. And yet these earnings are a data point of consumer confidence, at least in the entire travel industry.
And Expedia is not just seeing travel growth from medallion travelers, platinum upgrading their everything. Yeah, this isn't Amex money we're talking right now, is it, Jack? No, they're seeing it across income levels. Yeah, people hate Disney World's price hikes, but you're still hanging out with Goofy and having fun while you're there. You're still going.
In fact, the CEO of Expedia is so confident right now, she forecasts 6% to 8% revenue growth for the fourth quarter that we're already in. Let's just hope the government shutdown ends so that those bookings can actually happen. So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies looking at the travel industry? You don't just travel from A to B. You travel from A to B to C to D, then back to A.
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Chapter 3: What is the emerging trend of AI dog podcasters?
They announced record bookings last quarter. And Jack, you probably booked a Lyft to get from the airport to that Airbnb, and Lyft also just announced record earnings last quarter. But why were you in Miami in the first place? Probably to see Lady Gaga's Mayhem Tour. Perfect timing, Jack, because Live Nation, which sold you those tickets, said the word record nine times in their latest earnings.
All of these travel earnings bonanzas tell us two things. First, the post-pandemic demand for travel and IRL experiences is still very strong. And second, that the money multiplier effect is happening in travel. Because you don't just travel from A to B. You travel from A to B to C to D, back to A. Taxi!
For our second story, Duolingo just had its worst stock market day ever, plummeting 23% in just hours. The reason? Their owl isn't unhinged enough. We repeat, the owl should have been more unhinged. It proves that the most important thing at this tech company is its social media team.
Now, you had these funny situations Jack and I have with the co-founder and CEO, Luis Fanon, of Duolingo, the language learning app. Well, we interviewed him in April. He came on our show, announced a new product, Chess. Yeah. And the stock rose 60% in the three weeks after he came on T-Boy. Not too shabby. Jack and I have been telling people, come on the pod.
We basically end up boosting your stock. Not too bad. But apparently, that was the peak because Duolingo's stock has erased all of those gains and more since. Investors... Apparently, they've been lost in translation. And we know the date and the place where that stock downfall began. April 28th on LinkedIn.
Now, besties, Jack and I have never seen someone get canceled on LinkedIn before, but Luis Von Ahn, CEO of Duolingo, basically did. Yeah, well, he posted his internal memo on artificial intelligence. It said that Duolingo would not hire anybody unless the managers could prove that AI can't do the job instead. Ah, the infamous AI memo.
It made their workers anxious, made other workers anxious, and made a whole lot of people mad, really on LinkedIn. Kind of looked heartless. Yeah, Jack, what's the Spanish word for uh-oh? I don't know. But for the first time, Duolingo was in the cultural doghouse. So they made a big decision. What was it? They told their social media team to stand down. They stood down.
Jack, you're going to have to sprinkle on some more TikTok context for us, please. It's a big deal that Duolingo's social media team went dark because even though it's a language tech company, they're famous for their social media mascot. Yeah. The owl. The naughty green owl. Yeah, I was going to say on a hint, but I like how you went with naughty on that one, Jack.
What the owl does has nothing to do with conjugating French verbs. It's just a freaky owl that makes you feel kind of weird that you haven't opened the app yet today. That uncomfortable Duolingo owl has amassed a very real 17 million TikTok followers. No other brand's social media is even close to as big as Duolingo's. McDonald's, they're sitting at like 5 million TikTok followers.
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Chapter 4: What are the implications of AI in social media for businesses?
$342,000 to manage a fake owl. Sit down, stand up, and cash that check again. That is the same salary for social media as for top engineering tech jobs. Best is this combination of that job posting and this earnings report have made a very powerful statement. And here it is. It's time to value the social media role with the value it creates and deserves.
You see, for apps that depend on you opening them, like Duolingo, social media is a powerful opening tool. So Duolingo's social media manager is getting paid the same as Meta's engineers are. Yetis, your top team may actually be your TikTok team.
Now a quick word from our sponsor.
For our third and final story, besties, it's that special time of year, vest season. From Wall Street to Silicon Valley. We unzipped the story on how the vest took over corporate America's wardrobe. We did. And it goes back 359 years. And yes, I put on a vest. for this story. Honestly, Jack, it looks like that vest put on you. That thing's huge. You know what it's like out there.
The leaves are changing. The football's playing. It is officially vest-vember, baby. Only two more weeks before you got to add sleeves. So enjoy it. The vest, it's part of the uniform of corporate America during shoulder season. What else we got, Jack?
Beige slacks, brown leather, uncomfortable shoes, a button-up white, blue, or pink shirt, and it's all wrapped together in a gray vest with an ambiguous bank logo. Yeah, since Patagonia put the kibosh on the finance-branded vest back in 2021, white-collar workers have had to adapt, and they have.
I've seen some out there wearing quilted insulated vests like Barbors and others wear huge puffy vests like me. Jack, the vest is kind of a career flex, a little bit of a status symbol, right? Like, you know, you got the Arc'teryx if you made VP or the Zara if you're, you know, entry-level insurance.
Or the Cotopaxi if you want everyone to think that you're, I don't know, a sustainability-minded guy. But Vesties add it all up and they all scream, I'm investing, literally. But you can't mock the Vest's performance. It's the only fashion to defy cyclicality. That's right. Because in the 2010s, the vest expanded beyond finance bros to tech and commercial real estate.
Any sector adjacent to cash flow, you're going to see guys wearing vests. And that is why in addition to cuffing season, it's officially vesting season. But Nick, the origin of the vest. Who invented the vest? You did some research on this. Oh yeah, we jumped to T-boy style. The inventor of the vest was King Charles II of England back in 1666. Here was his vision.
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Chapter 5: How did Expedia achieve record high stock prices?
But the vest can become a tiny billboard of industry and achievement. Fashion's business card signaling that you belong. Creatives have their branded moleskin notebooks. Startup workers have their branded hoodies. But finance has the vest because in every industry, there's a craving to signal you're part of the tribe. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us to kick off the week?
Expedia stock hit an all-time high on record U.S. travel bookings last quarter. Because one trip you do looks like five trips to Wall Street. And that is the money multiplier effect in travel. For our second story. Duolingo's daily active users slowed big time after they put their unhinged social media owl in the cage. The owl needs to be more unhinged.
The most important team at a tech company can be its social media team. And finally, it's officially vest season. Not just for finance bros, for all of corporate America. The vest, it's your subtle wearable business card because people want to belong. But besties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, Waymo won't stop, baby.
Detroit, San Diego, Las Vegas, apparently they are all getting Waymo starting next year. This time, Waymo didn't announce Uber or Lyft as a partner for those three cities. And second, the Trump administration is eager to respond to last week's elections, so they floated a new idea to address affordability. The 50-year mortgage.
Trump's housing director said he's working on it after Trump tweeted about it. In the tweet, President Trump compared himself to FDR, who is the president who brought us the 30-year mortgage. If the 50-year mortgage becomes real, we'll cover it. But right now, it's just a tweet. And finally, Sweetgreen is selling off its robot salad-making business.
That's right, the Infinite Kitchen is no longer a Sweetgreen salad product. We interviewed the Sweetgreen co-founder last year and talked about this. We did. It's core to the strategy to use robots to scale salads more efficiently. Interestingly, Sweetgreen bought this infinite kitchen technology for 50 million bucks a few years ago, and now they're selling it to Wonder for 186 million bucks.
Ironically, we interviewed the CEO of Wonder as well. It seems like every time we interview someone, something good happens, but then something not so great happens, Jack. Now, we should clarify, Sweet Green will continue using the Infinite Kitchen, but not as the owner, just as a client. She could still get you robo-salads.
Now, time for the best fact yet, which, because it's Monday, means T-Boy Trivia. Jack, what do we got? Last week, we asked you about the origin of the name Oreo, and there's no answer. It's actually a corporate mystery. Here's a question about Oreos we do have an answer for. Who is more likely to twist open an Oreo before eating it, men or women? That's right.
Who is more likely to scrape off the cream filling with their front teeth like it's a snowplow, men or women, guys or gals? The answer to this Oreo conundrum comes in tomorrow's pod. Yetis, you look fantastic to kick off the week. Jack, you look fantastic considering all the travel you've done lately. But by the way, we got to share. You got to tell the Yetis your cake story.
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