Andrew Yang, thanks for doing this, man. I am so proud to be your friend and proud of you. Like you're the most dynamic person I know.
Are you kidding me? Man. I mean, you'd run my ass into the ground five ways on Sunday. So, right back at you. Congratulations on the book. I know a lot of people have been waiting to read it.
Thank you, brother. And about the running, if I had your money, I wouldn't have to run so much.
Tell my wife that that's why I'm slowing down. I'm sluggish.
You are the furthest thing from sluggish. You're all in on Noble Mobile, which we'll come back to, but I really want to start with the presidential campaign, which is what most people know you about outside of like the tech world. And I'm just curious like what the hell convinced you that you could run for president? Like I, this is what I love about you. It's so audacious. You're like, 'Yeah, I'm going to run for president.' Like you won't maybe start with like local mayor, senator, state rep. Nope, I want to be the president.
Yes, and that's why this is from the White House and I'm president today. Now, um, part of it, Ken, was I met a couple of the former presidents, uh George W. Bush, Barack Obama. Have you met any of these characters?
Cuz... But I have huge admiration for the office and like I just think it's what's happening the last several cycles of like people publicly dumping on the president is it's sad to me cuz I'm like, 'Dude, they're our leader, whether you like it or not.' It's like being on the Olympic hockey team and you don't like the captain. So, you're like, 'I hate this team.' Then get off of it.
I'm with you that um the diminution of respect for the office is not a good thing. Um but I met Barack Obama multiple times when he was president. Um met George W. Bush, met Bill Clinton. And when I met them, I did not come away thinking, 'Wow, these guys are some otherworldly uh like you know, superhumans.' Uh was like, oh, these guys are just like you and me and...
For better or worse. So, when you ask what got me to run for president, one was a meeting governors, senators, presidents, et cetera, and just being, okay, like, you know, and you've had this experience, I know, where you've met people, soldiers, athletes, fighters, you know, different people, and they have like a vibe or an energy to them. CEOs,
Yeah. Entrepreneurs very often.
These political types do, too, and it did not make me think, oh, they're somehow better than me in various respects. This was particularly true. I remember watching the 2016 presidential debates, where I was watching Trump stomp on everyone, honestly, and...
God. What a drubbing. I mean, he trounced them.
What are some of the weaknesses?
Yes. And I looked up and saw that field and was like, oh, man, like, I I felt like I was better than the vast majority of them. Part of it, too, and this is a distinction between you and me, maybe, but I also went to fancy schools with some of these characters, and so I definitely did not think, oh, they're somehow better, smarter than you or me. They're really not.
I don't know if that message is welcome.
I think that a lot of times people will be like ask me, how did you connect with these people? I said, the first thing that I wasn't not doing was trying to connect with people. Like, like meeting you. It's an honor for me to meet you. I never thought like, I'm going to meet Andrew Yang. I'm like doing the best that I can to in my life, and we can and we cross paths, and I'm like, I love this guy. He's got great energy, even if we don't agree on everything politically, I still love and respect everything about what you're doing. It's like I have huge respect, and like you said, you went to fancy schools. I think sometimes that's like almost frowned upon. He had everything handed to him. Like, no, I wish that I could be so successful that my kids could go to fancy schools. That's the American dream. But then when we see someone experiencing the American dream, we're like, 'F them. They didn't have They had it easy.' Like, your parents did a good job and created that life for you. Like, you something to be proud of, but a lot of times it's in comes with a negative connotation.
Well, I am Asian, so definitely my my parents were like, 'You better get into good schools.'
I appreciate that perspective, Ken, but I will say that I think the reverse is true, too, where I grew up in a town in Upstate New York with um Italian-American kids uh whose dads were contractors and police officers and and the rest of it. And maybe it's cuz I was born in the, you know, '70s and like that there were um fewer TV networks or or whatnot. Um but it felt like we're all in it together. You know what I mean? And And when I was like a skinny Chinese-American kid, I just wanted to be picked for the teams and like that. You know what I mean? So like I when I was growing up, it was like, 'Oh, like I'm trying to fit in.' And um and so that spirit never left me. Like, you know, it's like I think one of the problems in this country is that people who maybe attend certain schools or do certain jobs think that they're better than other people. And like I just never had that sense.
Yeah, but I think that that personality type doesn't necessarily happen at elite schools or bad schools. Like that If you take a cross-section of all the schools, you'll get the same personality types. You'll get overachievers, you'll get idiots.
You get those irritating guys no matter what it yeah, it's the...
And the point I was going to make about about meeting all these people and having these different relationships. Like with The Rock left me a voice memo once on Instagram. It's like to your point I I say this to people all the time. Every We're all the same.
Some I had said to someone, 'I'll talk to anyone who buys my book.' I've got like 500 people like, 'When can we talk?' And I'm like, 'I'm shocked people want to talk to me.' And I asked one guy, 'Out of curiosity, what do you want to talk about?' He's like, 'You're an inspiration for me.' And blah blah. And I was like, 'Man, I'm oblivious. I don't see myself the way maybe other people see me.' So, I don't know if you experience that where you're like, people, especially after running for president, people come up to you like, Andrew, let me get a picture. And it's a little bit like, you know who I am? Do you ever experience that of like, whoa.
Uh dude, my my um book is called uh Hey Yang, where is my thousand bucks? Uh trying to relate that experience cuz I've gotten that. The alternate title was, hey, am I racist or are you Andrew Yang?
That would have been a good one.
Which I've also gotten. Um so, people come up to me on the street all the time. Um mainly with uh like excitement and uh happiness. And I what's funny is that even though it's happened to me now thousands and thousands of times, uh to your point, each time I'm surprised. I'm like, oh, you recognized me? Like, dope. Yeah, sure, happy to.
It's flattering, but it's also sometimes like overwhelming where I'm like, yeah, yeah, I can't believe like someone will be like, hey, you were on my flight. I didn't want to interrupt you. I'm like, why didn't you should have said hello?
That's a little bit of a thing when like you realize that people noticed you without doing anything and you thought you were unnoticed.
Yeah. Oh, for sure. A lot.
The other thing I want to say is you you mentioned about growing up in the 70s. I I was born in '71 growing up in inner-city Boston. And like we were in a segregated neighborhood. Like we were in like white Irish Catholic and Italian. But I mean, I had a couple black kids that like were in our circles, but it was like wouldn't be uncommon for like people to be throwing around N-word. It was like segregated. And it was like when I was really young is when they had that um desegregation and the bus forced the bussing, which was insane. They were forcing black kids into white neighborhoods to just to go to school and vice versa. And it was just like even as a little kid, I'm like, why do I care if a black kid comes to school here? It was crazy, but I always have great I don't know if empathy is the right word, but respect for anyone that grew up in those times cuz like kids that are growing up now that might be Chinese, Indian, black, Hispanic, they don't know the struggles of a Chinese kid in the 70s in a white neighborhood. Like that did the bullying was real. This was real racism, right? So when I see meet people like you that have gone through that and come out like so successful, I'm like kudos to that the kids today will never appreciate the level of bullying and and horrible behavior from some people back in the 70s and even earlier.
Um I have a chapter on that in in the book about um all sorts of things that happened to me in grade school and I just see it as part of the culture at that time and uh you know, it does toughen you up. You know, honestly I I look at my kids today and I'm just like shaking my head. And by the way, I'm like trying to get a read around what their experience is like in terms of being Asian today and it's a totally different world.
It's like it's like we're on a different planet. If you made a disparaging comment about someone's race now, like you might be kicked out of school. Back then it was like I wouldn't be surprised if the teachers were doing it. It was crazy.
This is one thing I'm actually curious about again because if you we just parachuted into a random school in Iowa or Montana or Nebraska, is it like when you and I grew up still or are they I just don't know. I like I...
Not a chance. There was like I I thought it was much more hostile and aggressive when I was a kid. Now it's like look at someone sideways, like here's an example. So we moved from I lived in New York I grew up in Boston, lived in New York 20 years, then lived in LA for 5 years and I had four kids and they were really like kind of little kids in LA and then we moved to Nashville. And my daughter is adopted. She's Ethiopian. And for a long time she really struggled with not being adopted, just being different. She She didn't like being different and I you can understand. But never ever a hint of any kind of racism. But when we when the kids are little, I'm like, 'Listen.' Talk Tell them my boys like, 'Hey, if someone's not being nice to you' You know, issues would come up. I'm like, 'If someone's not being nice to you, in this house, we're going to ask them nicely three times. Hey, I Please stop doing that. Please stop doing this.' And I'm like, 'After the third time, crack them if you have to.' My wife is like looking at me like I'm crazy. And And my my oldest son was like, 'Well, what if someone puts their hands on you?' I said, 'Oh, after that, there's no talking. As soon as someone puts their hands on you, you're They're trying to hurt you. You're not having a fight. It's not a um a a a contest like a fair sports thing. They're trying to hurt you. Like, you need to be aggressive.' And of course, my wife pulls me aside and is like, 'You realize we live in Brentwood, Tennessee. There hasn't been a fight here since the '70s. No one's having fights in school.' And I was like, 'In my school, it would wouldn't be uncommon to see a fight every single day.'
And so, that's a huge difference right there. The The level of oversight I mean, obviously, you see all the on the internet where kids are getting picked on and bullied. And those Those incidents get highlighted. But, most part, I feel like this is like we are in the Fabergé egg era where everyone's a Fabergé egg, including their feelings. And I always tell my kids, 'If someone hurt your feelings, you're responsible for your feelings. I don't owe you anything.' Like, is it If If If someone's just hurting your feelings to be rude, okay, then that's a different thing. But, if you get offended or your feelings are hurt from someone else's opinions or way of life, like, deal with it. They're not responsible. You're responsible for your own feelings. And that's a big difference that I've seen now is like the school wants to be responsible for everyone's feelings.
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Yeah, I'm I'm with you where if kids learn to take responsibility for how they react, then that that's the best kind of training they can get. And I one of the problems in American life, in my opinion, now is that we hold administrators or teachers responsible for things that, in my opinion, are out of their control.
And then we wonder you know, you get pissed off, you get frustrated. It's like oh, they they didn't do this or that. Maybe part of it's I've run businesses and you kind of know what a business can and can't do. You kind of know what a teacher can and can't do or like you know, a principal. I mean, we often By the way, this is true in politics, too. I know it's like we're joking cuz you know, we're doing this in New York City and whenever there's like a giant pile of snow, you can like make a joke, be like oh, Zoran, mayor, what's with this snow? You know, it's it's like oh, like he's got like magic powers to whisk away snow. Um so it it it's like you know, we we do that in politics all the time. Like the new team takes power and then all of a sudden things are their fault. And part of me is like, dude, they're still trying to find like the the office equipment. You know, they just like moved into this freaking place and then you're like oh, like the...
And he has no political experience. So he's going to have team around him that he he basically has no choice in a lot of cases. He he can pick who it is, but like he's being advised by people that have to have experience. And the truth is, anyone that's worked in the system, like nothing seems to work efficiently. Like the subways run and stuff, but it seems like if you ran your business the way some of these municipalities run there you you would be the municipality would be bankrupt in 12 months.
Well, so um some numbers for you that I think your audience will enjoy in particular and this will be fun. Um what is the approval rating of US Congress do you think right now percentage wise?
Zero, I would be shocked because the the childishness and the lockdowns and the in fighting is embarrassing. They should not be allowed to leave that freaking chamber until things are sorted to a certain extent. The fact that they like take these recesses and on huge outstanding issues, president can't get people nominated for either party.
It's close to zero. It's 15% 15. Very, very low. What do you think the re-election rate is for incumbent members of Congress?
It's got to be astronomical 99%.
It's like 94%. So you have 15% approval, 94% re-election. And that's why everyone's so ticked off. You're looking at being like, okay, why won't things change? Um but what they've done is they've created a system where our happiness, what what we want, um is more or less irrelevant in 90% of these races.
Not only that, they're basically committing essentially crimes right in front of us with insider trading. There's no shame in it at all. It's like how how can you can just look at their trades and you're like, how is are we above this?
People have made killings on just following their trades, you know, they're like entire...
Buddy, I'm in one of them.
I'm in one of them, the Pelosi tracker on unusual whales. I have some small money tied to these trackers. And I don't even need to know what the stock is. I'm like, listen,
Shout out to unusual whales. They do good work.
These people these some of these, to your point, when you meet them, you're like, there's nothing dynamic going on here. And I and I to be if I'm being honest, I view them as puppets to the lobbyists. So they're like owned by, you know, these people have joked like they should wear a NASCAR shirt with all their sponsors on it because it's the truth. And you see them voting for things that clearly go against the people's interest, but they're in a but the without the lobby, they don't get reelected. It's all money, right? I mean, you know from running for president. Did you run up against that of like, how am I ever going to raise enough money to make a dent? And part two, when you were running, did you in your mind think, 'Okay, I'm not going to win, but I could get an important cabinet job if I build enough momentum that the my voters would carry weight and maybe I could be some big secretary and then work my way up?'
Yeah, um if you remember the centerpiece of my campaign, it was that AI was going to come and take the jobs and we should just start distributing buying power quickly and broadly, which by the way is aging phenomenally well. Give me the I don't know if you've seen what's going on with um AI and...
I don't live under a rock, Andrew. I know what's going on.
Um so, I I wanted to be the Paul Revere of AI and automation saying, you know, the robots are coming, essentially. Um the magic words are from the future. Oh, yeah, they're here now. Uh and so, that was the mission. I didn't think I was going to wind up president on the first try. Uh I wanted to mainstream solutions, um what I call the freedom dividend, which was giving everyone money, which excuse me, uh in my mind is more and more common sense and and inevitable because AI is going to shred millions and millions of white-collar jobs. It's going to make a college degree useless in a lot of contexts.
They almost are now. I mean, unless you're studying engineering, medicine, law, something very specific. If you're studying like me, sociology, like save the money.
Dude, it gets even worse where I'm friends with uh partners of law firms and they're having AI write their legal briefs and said, 'If I gave uh junior associate this task, would have taken them days, they would have done a worse job. I give it to the models. I actually they give it to three models.'
Yeah. They have them each take a crack. They're done in 15 minutes and then they just take the best pieces of each, conform. The whole process takes them 90 minutes. And so then they're thinking, why do I need to hire some law school grad and pay them six figures to learn on my dime? So it's it's rough and it's just going to get much much rougher.
Yeah, and the other thing that's crazy is like who's writing the code for these AI models? Like I said, the the I think because of the disapproval rating or the low approval rating of our elected officials, we're getting this whipsaw effect where you're getting an extreme like I don't care what your political sway leanings are. You get an extreme like what people they would describe Trump as an extreme right-wing like maniac. I don't agree with that, but then you could also get this like Gavin Newsom is like a candidate like if you if he was running on his record in California, you'd be like, I wouldn't hire this guy to like answer the phones. Nothing is going seems to be going right there. It's mass exodus. Everything seems to be not working. And because of this you get okay, we got to get Trump out. We're going to vote for an extreme like left-wing. Okay, he's not good. Let us who's the next one we can get that that is extreme on the other side. We're not getting any centrist that have like common sense solutions that can bring anyone together. And then the whole agenda of the opposing party, whoever loses is to just not focus on policy and and and and topics, but to tear the other guy down. All the effort is in tearing the other candidate down.
Yeah, what what I say is we're playing you lose or the parties are playing you lose I lose you lose I lose while we're all collectively doing the losing. We're all looking up being like, what the hell's going on? What are you guys doing?
Do you think this is a scenario where someone could run like yourself who just comes in as like, listen, I'm an independent. This whole the whole idea of two parties is crazy. What if I'm like, listen, I agree with some of the some of the the policies here and I agree with some of these policies, but at the end of the day, we have to run this like a business to a certain extent. We can't lose money. And if we just keep printing money, we're only hurting ourselves, and that's the part that most people don't realize.
Well, Ken, uh I 100% think that there's a wide-open lane for someone, uh particularly as about half of Americans now say we're independent. Uh the approval rating of both parties is record low. The Democrats are down to I'm a numbers guy, so you can tell but the Democratic approval rating's under 29%, lowest generations. Republicans not much better, it's 32%. So, uh you have this freaking wellspring of tens of millions of Americans who are fed up. 2/3 don't think uh either party represents them. Um so, I think someone is going to take that opportunity, uh and I probably know them, uh or maybe even like look at them in the mirror.
Because I guess that's what I'm getting at is like I hope that you look at this and realize like someone with common sense who can get up and be like listen, don't don't ask me to badmouth anyone else. I'm only focusing on what I can do. But the but with the advent of Trump, you have this this environment where the more you can zing and burn and dump on the other person, it's like a win, whereas like you remember was was it Barack Obama? Who was he debating where it was like super civil? Was it Romney? And they were just completely like super kind to each other, but getting their points across. I was like I don't care what you think about the politicians or about the parties, but can't we get back to a time or can we get back to a time where people like listen, agree to disagree respectfully. Here's what I think we should be doing.
Yeah, and I I think that's one reason why you have to get beyond the blue versus red um dichotomy, because if you look at the Democratic base, uh they want to exact revenge essentially on Trump and and his and his folks. And look, uh in my case, I mean, I have always thought that Trump was kind of a an accelerant to the uh like dysfunction of various institutions. I don't blame people who voted for him though, because if if you look at the choices at that point, I mean, you had Joe Biden who royally screwed up on the border and was not having a fun four years or something.
Oh, yeah, sure. Like mismanaged.
Um the the border and then Kamala And so if you have this two-sided choice, like I don't blame anyone for choosing really either side. What we need is more than two choices and then you'd have And by the way, I mean, everyone listening to this um like no one would have put those two as like the top two choices you know, to run a business or the country. Uh there are all sorts of very very patriotic, remarkable folks that you and I know that by the way, I when I talk to business leaders, I joke it's like, 'Hey, I don't even know you guys that well. I would choose you to run this...
I always think, 'Why don't we hire a president like where we have to actually recruit someone like a really successful business leader. The guy at Microsoft is impressive. I mean, take the political leanings out of it. Like I don't care which party, but someone who's like run something super successful or someone who's built something. Someone like yourself that's built something and and has experience managing people and being responsible for a budget, not a politician whose only job has been in politics. What do you know about the world? And they talk about what their constituents wants. These people live in like a bubble. They're like they're literally trading stocks on inside information and think it's the norm. It it they're so detached from real life.'
You know, one of my top draft picks for this is Mark Cuban who I'm friends with.
I love Mark Cuban. I don't agree with everything he says, but I appreciate his hustle and his like hey, he believes what he believes and I can get behind that.
Yeah, he's a builder. He started a company called Cost Plus Drugs.
One of the greatest companies ever. I love it.
How everyone doesn't use it is like the greatest mystery in the world.
Yes. If if you want your drugs, go to Cost Plus Drugs. Um but Mark saw that Americans were getting screwed and gouged on prescription drugs and then thought, 'You know what? I can build a business that improves that.' Um his business was actually an inspiration for Noble Mobile um because I thought, 'Well, shoot. Uh what Mark's doing is genius. And is there anything all Americans spend money on that we can get them a better value on?' Um because when you look at Americans today, and you know, I came to fame in 2020 saying robots are coming, but also saying like we have to make the economy work better for people. You look at our our costs, uh they all keep creeping up and up in a way that maybe our paychecks aren't, and it's making us more and more frustrated and angry. So, what Mark's doing is trying to get the cost down. And uh with Noble Mobile, um and people I I'd love to unpack the math because people will be like, 'Oh, wireless is not that big a deal.' Um the average American is spending 83 a month on their wireless bill. I was spending twice that. I was spending like 150 on Verizon.
Yeah, same, right? And you know, everyone listening to this again is like, 'Oh, that's just what it costs, and it's not that big a deal.' The average European is spending 35 a month um for the same stuff, by the way. And so, if you have a difference of even $50 uh a month * 12 is $600 * the whatever 40 years you're going to be a customer, that'd be 24,000, then you put an interest rate on that and compound that, you're looking at 40 to 50,000. You're essentially giving Verizon a car, a nice one, too, or a down payment on a house uh over your time as their customer. Um so, when I I looked at this math, the total spend, by the way, the extra wireless spend um is 100 billion a year is what Americans are spending on our wireless uh versus you you Europeans or some other uh developed country. And of that 100 billion, 11 billion's going to Verizon in shareholder dividends, 7 billion's going to AT&T in shareholder dividends. Talk about the the, you know, like the stock trading and the rest of it. So, you have these mega corps extracting billions of dollars from the American population, giving it to shareholders. It's better to be a shareholder than a customer of these outfits.
And so, then I looked at this picture and said, 'Okay, can I do what Mark did and get Americans a better deal?' And so, I went to Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile and said, 'Hey guys, I'm trying to get Americans a better deal. Like, you know, um do you guys want want to work something out?' And the carrier that wanted to work something out was T-Mobile. Um I was actually just in Seattle last week meeting with um the executive team there. Uh and so, we licensed T-Mobile's network for Noble Mobile, and we can cut the average Americans wireless bill in half um to about 41, 42 dollars a month for truly unlimited. Uh you know, you can go hog wild. And Ken, let me say that I'm a heavy phone user. I use my phone up the wazoo.
The most I can pay is 50, so I'm already saving 100 bucks a month um relative to Verizon uh individually. Um but if I don't use all of the data in a given month, then Noble will send me the cash back um as a reward. So, not only can we save the average American money, we also give you a reward for using less screen time. And I don't know if if you and I have gotten into this, but um most Americans now realize that our phones are making us uh a little crazy. Uh you know, they make us feel more angry.
I've I've got a whole rant on this when you're done.
So, Noble reduces the average user screen time by 17%, um which is, you know, like something. Um and it lowers your phone bill by on average, um, you know, uh, 40 or 50 bucks a month. Um, so we've been growing like mad and, uh, it's fun to be able to solve a problem that every American feels, even if most of us haven't woken up to it yet, the same way we've woken up to, for example, cable companies. Like we all turned on cable and like cut the cord.
Cut them. I got rid of them. Actually, because of you, I got rid of AT&T and everything and went what and like full disclosure, I met you, you told me about Noble Mobile, what we're talking about right now and I was like, I want to invest. So I'm an investor in Noble Mobile purely because I love the I love the mission. I transferred my phone number just so I don't want this to sound like an ad, but it's the truth, which is why I want to talk to you about it. It's like same with Cuban, like such a great idea. I can't believe it took this long for someone to do this. I had AT&T. I was paying $100 a month for unlimited data. If I went to Europe, it was $10 a day, but I didn't get refunded for the domestic data data I wasn't using. I just got an extra $10 in Europe or wherever I was in the world, which at the time I was like, what a great deal. I'm here for a week. Okay, extra 70. So now my bill's 170 a month. I didn't think anything of it. To your point, I use my phone a ton. I travel a lot. Never really think to connect it to Wi-Fi cuz I'm on unlimited data. When I switched to Noble Mobile, first of all, it took me like, I would say honestly 7 minutes and my bill went to fixed bill at 50 and the first month I got $19 back and I'm a power user of my phone. Like I don't even look at the screen time because I I don't want I don't want to get stressed. I was like looking at my Whoop sleep data. When I know I didn't sleep good, I'm like, I'm not going to look. It's going to make me feel even worse.
So not only did I have my phone, I have six people in my house. I have a wife, and four kids, and while to your point about the phones making you crazy, we have just recently told the kids, you're not using the phone for anything other than like you can sign it out during They take it to school so that we can reach them, but we brick the phone with this device called Brick and it shuts off everything except the phone and the text and I'm telling you it makes a difference in their personality, their demeanor. If my kids are allowed to use this on the weekend, let's say 30 minutes, I tell my uh 12-year-old son like, all right, buddy, time's up on the iPad. This is a mild-mannered, nice kid. Couple times he just gets up and throws the iPad on the ground. I'm like, I will throw you out the effing window. Don't you ever Yeah, you're not using for But the point is that he gets so triggered. It's literally like taking crack from a crack addict.
If he doesn't get on it, we This doesn't happen. If I tell him no, he doesn't act crazy. If I give it to him and then take it back even if we have a predetermined time limit, it's it's it's seriously a psychological issue. So, I've cut everyone in the house, so six people. My wife had like some family plan for like $300, $350 on AT&T all you can use for all the phones. Now, everyone in the house has Noble Mobile. It's $300 fixed and I told the kids, whatever you save on your phone, you get That's your allowance. So, if you save 20 bucks, and I said, you know, you can also save by being on Wi-Fi and not using data. So, when you're in the house, it automatically connects. So, what are the chances that they're streaming when they're out? They'll They're 10 to Yeah, 10 to 15 years old. So, they're all getting 20 or 30 bucks a month in dividends from Noble Mobile and it's I'm telling you it's been a game-changer. And again, I don't want this to sound like a giant ad, but it is. Like, this is like a real game-changer and it like the most common sense thing. And what I think and what I hope happens is eventually Starlink provides cell to satellite service, acquires Noble Mobile and all their subscribers and we're the first people on the Starlink network cuz that's what's next. Like, these wireless companies I think are in a real jam. No one's going to get satellites up there like Starlink.
Yeah, that These wireless companies you know, I I now study the business pretty closely and um they're having a hard time growing because everyone has a connection. And by the way, so if you were a company, let's say you you're a publicly traded company and you have to show growth, what are you going to do? You're going to raise prices.
So there there was like this Verizon promo recently where there where they were like, 'Hey, join now and we'll fix your price for 2 years.' Which is like, 'Wait a minute. That means if I don't join now, you're going to raise my prices?'
God forbid they look at cost cutting or creating efficiencies internally. They just like, 'How do we gouge the That's what everyone's doing.' There was some study recently came out and it was like DoorDash. I don't want to say DoorDash, but one of those delivery services and I don't remember which...
Dude, my Uber bill just freaking shot up. It like it used to be like getting in a car and be like, 'Yeah, no big deal. 12 bucks.' Whatever. And all of a sudden I'm like, 'Wait, what's going on?'
But those But this is true. So one of the companies they got internal documents were leaked where they're like, 'Yeah, add the five like for $5 extra we'll expedite.' And it didn't do anything. It was just like a psychological...
But are you like, 'These are the people that we're trusting?' It felt like a political thing where I'm like, 'This is what they think of us. They think we're nitwits.' They're like the These food delivery systems are just like charge them extra, tell them we're hustling, and then be like, 'Yeah, that was the hustle price.' You You know what I mean? It was the same exact thing.
Yeah, I'm important. I'm special. Hustle, hustle. Five bucks, five bucks.
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I want to dig into something you said cuz the same thing happened to me. You go abroad on Verizon or AT&T they charge you 10 or 12 bucks a day. Um it cost them only $2 to put you on a foreign carrier's network for that day. So why they charging you 10 or 12? Nobody knows.
Cuz they have dividends to pay and shareholders to impress so they can keep their $50 million CEO role.
Yes, and cuz so we're kind of chumps so we're like oh 10 bucks a day, whatever.
It doesn't sound that bad but then it adds up um and then like you said your home bill stays the same. Um so you know when I did that my phone bill was literally don't judge me everyone but it was like you know almost $400 and I I've talked to families that had multiple lines where it was even higher. Um and so uh we're just trying to apply common sense business practices where it's like wait, why would I charge like 12 bucks if I'm paying two? Things like that. Um and uh we can rationalize an industry that we all use every day. It's a little bit like oxygen I joke because um you know but we have these we're just overpaying for a commodity.
Well, think about it. Name another product that every single person that you know I I would I've never met someone who doesn't have a phone. That means every single person. So you were using cost plus drugs. What if I'm healthy and I don't use prescription drugs? Doesn't matter who you are. You use a phone. I promise you. So this is something we all have and it's just become the norm. It's It's kind of funny, right? Like when I started working I didn't have a cell phone. I had a calling card like I could use from the company that I could use from a payphone. And now that's happened so quickly. So, when people think about AI and the robots, to your earlier point, oh, that sounds like science fiction. If someone told you and I when we were in high school, you're going to have this little tiny, like, note card-sized thing that's going to do everything. It's going to be your Walkman. It's going to be your navigation tool. It's going to replace the Remember when you had the maps in the car with a highlighter?
People My kids can't even comprehend that you had to, like, know where you were going. It's just wild.
I tell my kids about um cassette uh players and CDs, and they're just like, what? That sounds Stone Age ridiculous. And I was like, when CDs came out, it was the biggest deal ever. My car got a CD player. I was like, I was in the Space Age.
Dude, I remember having an eight-track player in my uh first Cadillac uh coupe uh Sedan DeVille. It was like a '79. It had eight-track in eight-track. When's the last time you even saw an eight-track tape?
It's been a minute, but we definitely had a collection of eight-tracks uh in the living room. My my parents would get whatever the heck they were getting. Um you know, my parents were so cute, man. They they tried to make my brother and I more American, so they would like bring back random cassette tapes being like, listen to this. Like, this'll help you. So, you know, they'd like might bring back Michael Jackson Thriller, which is great. Like, I thought that, you know, that that was dope. Um they'd bring back stuff like that, just being, this'll help you guys understand uh America.
To I have so much respect for your parents without even knowing them. I want to I want to just go back for a minute and talk about like, did they move from China to the US?
Um so, they came over as students from Taiwan.
Which, you know, is a lovely place. Um I I visited there last year. I'm a bit of a folk hero there, too. It's nice.
Yeah, yeah. My nickname there was Pride of Taiwan. It was like, sweet.
Dude, that's awesome. But, the point I want to get to is like, people don't like think about moving your Even if they came as students, but moving as like a married couple or an adult to a foreign country where you're like, very foreign. And now you're going to raise your kids in not necessarily a place that's like, 'Oh my god.' Like if an American goes to like Taiwan or...
different parts of Europe and South America, they're like, "Oh, Americans are here." Especially if... And there's an international school, and you can chill, yeah. But coming into a hostile place where people are kind of like they don't like you, you can feel like they don't respect.
Very good, like, you know, I mean, my dad's English not so great. My mom's English actually came along a lot because she was more industrious than my dad on that front. But yeah, man, I appreciate and love my parents a great deal for taking the plunge, moving here, becoming immigrants. And the American dream worked out for my brother and me. And really the question is whether it's going to work out for your kids and mine.
And, you know, that's like a very open question, unfortunately. You know, I mean, we're right now confidence in that is slipping.
No, but you know what I say? I have confidence in like I would never describe myself as arrogant, but I have confidence in I'm like, "Guys, we're going to figure it out." Like someone's going to win, and someone's going to lose. And that's the American way. It's like it's available for you. That's what I love about this country, and that's what pisses me off about the current climate. It's like, "This is the best country in the world." You don't have to agree with all the policies, but you can essentially do anything here. I mean...
I mean, you don't want to become a political activist and get targeted by the opposite party, but a person who isn't the average person, like, you can do anything. You can become anything. And if you have the resourcefulness and the intuition to apply to Ivy League schools, and you don't have the money, it's funny those Ivy League schools, you either have not enough money and they pay for everything, or you have a little too much money, and now you're on the hook for the 100 grand a year. So, it's like feast or famine, but if you show up at any of those schools and get accepted, they'll pay everything. Their endowment will cover everything.
Yeah, I mean, your story is incredibly inspirational, Ken. Certainly for me, running for president as an anonymous dude, and then, you know, making seven presidential debates and raising tens of millions of dollars. I think you asked before, it's like, "Hey, how did you tackle the system?" You know who I owe a great debt is independent voices like yourself. I mean, one of the single biggest activators for my presidential campaign was sitting with Joe Rogan in 2019.
Yeah, I mean, you know, like it was like a before Rogan and after Rogan in terms of the campaign. So, you know, and by the way, that independent media landscape is 10 times stronger now than it even was in 2019. It's one reason why I think an independent campaign would do really well now.
This is what I love about the current times with social media gets a bad rap, but I'm like, to the person that was struggling to be an actor and having to deal with casting couch and this and that. Now, you have an idea, you think you're creative, put it on YouTube. I promise you if it's good, they'll find you. Meaning the public. You don't need the system anymore. You don't need to go to a Hollywood studio and pander to a director. Make your own. The girl Issa Rae who did the show Insecure on HBO is the best example. She had a YouTube channel like I think it was called Insecure Black Girls. So, she was just a creative, interesting girl, created enough content, enough buzz. Now she got a show on HBO, she's won acting awards, but it's like...
You know there's another example of that. I have a chapter on him in my book because he and I are friendly is Shane Gillis.
Yeah, ends up just going out there, making a lot of internet content, too. But then just shines on his own, and it becomes so successful that SNL brings him back to host, much less be one of the random cast members. So, to your point about, you know, America still being a place where you can make it happen. I mean...
