In our final PayPal episode, we talk about the delicious ways you can enact revenge on people if you are a billionaire. Whether it's totally shutting down a media company (even if that media company is gross and VERY early 2000s) or short-selling Tesla stock whilst you are looking Musk in the face and asking him to donate to charity. If you are rich, revenge can be piping hot.
In our final PayPal episode, we talk about the delicious ways you can enact revenge on people if you are a billionaire. Whether it's totally shutting down a media company (even if that media company is gross and VERY early 2000s) or short-selling Tesla stock whilst you are looking Musk in the face and asking him to donate to charity. If you are rich, revenge can be piping hot.
Hi Friends! Our transcripts aren't perfect, but I wanted to make sure you had something - if you'd like an edited transcript, I'd be happy to prioritize one for you - please email doomedtofailpod@gmail.com - Thanks! - Taylor
Taylor: I'm kind of exhausted being here right now
>> Taylor: In the matter of the people of state of California v. Orenthal James Simpson, case number ba zero nine six.
>> Farz: And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country. And we are here live. Taylor, how are you?
>> Taylor: I'm good. How are you?
>> Farz: I'm okay. I'm kind of exhausted being here. I'm in Dallas right now, and, it is worn me out of. It's funny. Somebody listened to the podcast, like, a few weeks ago and was like, bar sounds like depressed or not really himself. I was like, I don't know, I was feeling pretty good. And, like, this time, I think I kind of am depressed enough, like myself. So, So this time, if you interpret it, it is. It is accurate.
>> Taylor: I'm sorry to hear that.
>> Farz: Yeah.
>> Taylor: Hope you feel better soon.
>> Farz: Yeah, me too. yeah, I'll head home tomorrow and all things will be. Be on the bright side, I think.
Welcome to doomed to fail, the podcast that does history's most notorious disasters
so anyways, you guys doing good? I saw that you took in some snake time.
>> Taylor: I did. We went to a party. wait, let me introduce us first.
>> Farz: No. Jesus. Yeah.
>> Taylor: Hello, friends. Welcome to doomed to fail, where the podcast that does history's most notorious disasters, epic failures. Twice a week, every week. I'm Taylor, joined by Fars, who's in Dallas.
>> Farz: I'm in fars. Wait, I'm fars in Dallas. In Dallas.
>> Taylor: And I'm Taylor in the high desert. And yes, we went to a birthday party that was snake themed, and it was a delight. And the local snake lady, high desert Danny, brought some snakes, and the kids got to play with them. And a tortoise that she rescued from, like, a bad. A bad, tortoise rescue place that used to be here. And, it was very cute and fun.
>> Farz: She sounds kind of awesome.
>> Taylor: She's so cool, it's insane.
>> Farz: Does she have a snake tattoo on the side of her head?
>> Taylor: Yeah, she has snake tattoos everywhere. and then. Yeah, and she is a person that you can call, and she'll come to your house within, like, 20 minutes and get rid of a rattlesnake for you.
>> Farz: So cool.
>> Taylor: And she's done, that for us several times. And she's very nice. And Florence got a t shirt with her picture on it. It's really cute. So you.
>> Farz: You gotta maintain that relationship so that when she gets her own show on the animal channel, you can be, like, a guest.
>> Taylor: She was on Daniel Tasha's podcast recently.
>> Farz: No way. M that's very cool.
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Farz: sweet.
Taylor: We're going to continue our saga on the Paypal mafia
So I think today I go first.
>> Taylor: Yes, I think so.
>> Farz: And I kind of whiffed one episode, I guess that was two weeks ago. and so we're going to continue our little saga on the Paypal mafia. And this is going to be the final episode. And it's kind of a fun one, actually. And actually left quite a bit of time for banter around this because I think that, Taylor, you're gonna have some opinions.
>> Taylor: Great.
>> Farz: So part three is gonna go into some of the stuff that the folks in the Paypal mafia have, have gotten themselves involved in, given their billions of dollars, and how that's kind of fun and interesting and, well, fun is subjective, but definitely interesting. and so, yeah, we're going to go ahead and continue on that side of things.
If I were a billionaire, what would I do if I had money
And so we're going to start with probably the number one most unusual and interesting thing that somebody from the Paypal mafia did, which also is the number one thing I would focus on, too, and why I'd want to be incredibly rich is to exact revenge, which is a driving motivator for me in life. So, I know what I would.
>> Taylor: Do if I had a lot of money.
>> Farz: Buy snakes or create a snake sanctuary?
>> Taylor: No, I would do two things. I would build a library in every fucking town in America, and it'd be called Taylor Pinier library. And two, I would adopt every single goddamn highway in America.
>> Farz: Every. What does adopting a highway even mean?
>> Taylor: I used to think that it meant you actually had to clean it, but it just means that you donate money to the highway to get cleaned. I, you know, and people go and, like, pick up trash.
>> Farz: That's what you do. You adopt the highway?
>> Taylor: All, of the highways? Yeah.
>> Farz: All right, well, m you're. You're better than I am. I would use my billions for exacting revenge.
>> Taylor: I guess also you have to have someone. If you on that path, you're going to find someone who you want revenge against. Because I can't think of anyone that I really want to revenge right now. But, like, if I were a billionaire, there's a chance that, like, that would have happened, you know?
>> Farz: Yeah, if you're self made. Yeah. If you're a self made billionaire, there's going to be a lot of people you want exact revenge on. so we're going to start with the most well known, I would say, case, that involves Peter Thiele and his incredible decade long play to exact revenge on a media outlet that was known as Gawker. You know the story?
>> Taylor: No, but I remember Gawker. I mean, I must know part of the story because I remember Gawker.
>> Farz: Okay, it's gonna. I think it's gonna.
>> Taylor: Bob. Hulk Hogan.
>> Farz: Damn it, Taylor, you're ruining the story.
>> Taylor: Well, you asked if I remembered.
>> Farz: It's true. It's true. It's my fault.
>> Taylor: Continue.
>> Farz: You're on my revenge list.
>> Taylor: Okay, so that's how I get at it. I'm going to adopt all the highways, all the libraries, and revenge on you. That's it. Three things.
>> Farz: so Gawker was founded in 2002 by a journalist named Nick Denton. It started out in New York City and mostly just published salacious content that was very industry specific around media and the journalism industry. As it expanded onto the Internet, its content engine also expanded to include celebrity news. and they also cover political scandals. And basically, anything salacious about any one of notes is what they would basically do is basically like a gossip rag. That's basically how. Describe it. So this obviously helped it grow from the, with the public at large because, it just became like a very. Yeah, people just want to know about the inside details of famous and rich people. But it also became like, a huge source of, like, consternation for some people that they covered. They were not considered ethical journalists and were, like, almost eager to divulge private details of public figures lives. So this, and I'm sorry, you could.
>> Taylor: Like, call them and be like, I'm at the restaurant and the rock is here. And they'd come.
>> Farz: Totally. Yeah, yeah, yeah. TMZ ish is their style. Yeah. so their downfall really began in 2007. In 2007, they aimed their focus at Peter Thiel, who at this point was already an established VC through his founders fund. He's already a multi billionaire. And they published an article, and the name of this article was, quote, peter Thiel is totally gay people, end quote. So I read the article. It's accessible on the Gawker media archives. And I'll just say that I thought it was very, very stupid. I actually had originally asked ChatGbT to summarize what the article was about before I read it. And Chatgbt said, it's like, it's a generic commentary on Silicon Valley funding efforts with, a statement about Peter Thiel being gay. So I was like, that seems a little bit, like a misinterpretation. It seems too light on the gay thing and too heavy on Silicon Valley thing, given the title. So I actually went and found the article itself and read it. It's actually really, really short. And I don't agree with Chad GPT's interpretation of it, they literally just wanted to out Peter Thiel is gay. And, then they wanted to kind of add the wrapper around it by saying vc only. VC Capital, venture capital only funds straight founders because they're homophobic, which is why Peter Thiel is in the closet and he should come out of the closet so that everybody knows that it's okay to fund gay founders. That was kind of like the gist of it. So my take on that was, first off, even if it's true, why out him like that? Especially given the fact that the sources were, like, some guy who is anonymous and some, you know what I mean? It was a, shitty way to do it, first and foremost. Secondly, this is San Francisco they're talking about, the most famously gay friendly city in the world. I don't know how much prejudice there was against gay founders. It seems that for the most part, like, these people just worried about making money. Like, I don't know if that was, like, their primary issue.
>> Taylor: I think. I'm sorry. I think it's a little bit of. A little bit of. Yes, I agree with you that, like, they just want to make money, so who cares? But also, like, the amount of VC capital that goes to, like, women founded companies is like 2%, you know?
Gawker went out of their way to publicly out other people
So, like, this was like, straight jews helping straight dudes, just like, by association.
>> Farz: Yeah, yeah. I mean, that could be a discussion around, like, sexism, but, like.
>> Taylor: Yeah, but that's what I mean by, like, you know, probably the reason that they just, like, didn't have a lot of gay people is that, like, there just weren't a lot of gay people around. They are like, yes, they were in San Francisco, but not in their, like, in their circles. You mean in their circles. Yeah.
>> Farz: So I can see your perspective on that. But they also went out of their way to publicly out other people. They actually outed the married CFO of Conde nast around the same time.
>> Taylor: Oh, Gawker was doing this. Yeah, that's. Yeah, you're totally right again.
>> Farz: Like, sure, make your point around, like, misogyny or whatever. Yeah, but the article wasn't about that. The article just wanted to out someone very publicly because they knew they would get clicks.
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Farz: and their behavior kind of showed that because, again, they outed a lot of other people besides just Peter Thiel. They just happen to do it against the one guy who has insane amounts of money and has m a very long tail view of, like, vendettas.
In 2006, Hulk Hogan was filmed having sex with Heather Clem
that was, like, the only distinction but let's move real quick to, hulk Hogan, which is a weird hardship, but you kind of set this up.
>> Taylor: What a fall from grace, dude.
>> Farz: I used to love Hulk Hogan.
>> Taylor: Everyone did. Oh, my God. I know.
>> Farz: When he. When he came out as, like, bad during the nwo years, I was just like, hulk, don't do this. Go back. He had part of his beard was, like, black or something, and the mustache was yellow. but anyways, so on the Hulk hogan front. So it's going to also provide some background context on how Peter Thiel's revenge kind of dovetails into Hulk Hogan's life. So in 2006, Hulk Hogan was filmed having. He was filmed on a sex tape with a woman named Heather Clem. Heather was married to a guy whose legal name literally is Bubba the love sponge.
>> Taylor: No, I'm just kidding.
>> Farz: He was a radio personality. I forgot what his name was. I think it was like, todd clarke them or something. And then you change it to this. so apparently, again, this is all happening in Florida, so that helps the context. All three were friends. And, this was around the time that Hogan's marriage to Linda Bolia, of 24 years, was coming to an end. So it was like, from what I read from, like, his accounts of it, he was in, like, a really fucked up headspace. His kid had literally just killed his, like, best friend in, like, a car accident.
>> Taylor: Drunk driving thing.
>> Farz: Yeah. Yeah. He was going through apparently, like, a lot of this point, which I also remember hearing that was like. Like, can you imagine? Like, you literally kind of invented, like, an industry around, like, wrestling is like, an art form, and you worked so hard to made all this money, and then you just had this dipshit kid.
>> Taylor: And fucking literally always, it's. There's always some, like, idiot kid. That's the thing. That's the thing with dynasties. You can't have one because kids are stupid. You're gonna have a dumb one in there. And you can't do things based on, like, your, family lines because people be stupid.
>> Farz: Yeah. Goes to show that, like, just always try to make people create their own world and don't give them a world because I'll fuck it up somehow or, yeah.
Hogan says he didn't know he was being recorded
Anyway, so anyway, he's going through his divorce with Linda again, his wife, for 24 years, and she apparently already moved out. They were already in the middle of, like, basically getting a divorce, but she hadn't actually filed yet. She wouldn't file until 2007. So what we're talking about here happened in 2006. Heather. So this was like, before Peter till was even outed. So, like, just for context, time wise. So, I wrote down that Heather and Bubba were typical for Florida single swingers because it just fit. You just look at the pictures, you're like, yep, exactly what a swinger in Florida looks like. That is it. And they had proposed, that Hogan and Heather, the wife, have sex with, bubba sort of recording. But nobody really knew that. So according to Hogan, again, he didn't know that he was being recorded. But either way, our recording came into the possession of Bubba, of Heather and Hogan having sex. it's worth noting that the recording was made in Bubba and Heather's house. And so it looks like he had, like, cameras planted around his bedroom, like, to record. And so it's feasible that Hogan actually didn't know he was being recorded. But that's how. That's how we ended up with recording. So ultimately, Bubba ended up burning a cd that he literally titled Hogan on it. it was a dvd and he kind of tucked it away some way, somehow this recording came into the possession of a gawker editor and writer named AJ Dollarillo, who on October 4 of 2012, six years after this event happened, published the tape on Gawker's site. So Hogan was obvious. Yeah. Ah, yeah. So Hogan was obviously very, very upset about this, and he sent Gawker a cease and desist order to remove the video, which were refused by Nickden, the founder, in a later tape deficit. This is so bad. This actually came out in court. This is really, really gross. So in a later tape deposition of, the journalist that AJ guy mentioned earlier, who had published a video and written the article around it, he was recorded during his deposition saying that he would only find a celebrity sex tape not newsworthy if the subject was a child under four years old. Yeah.
>> Taylor: Pieces of shit.
>> Farz: Yeah. So we're going to get a little into, like, legal nuances here, but it's kind of simple and kind of basic. So we'll just hang with. Hang with me on this. The starting point is the distinction between federal and state court jurisdictions. So the federal court system was, has kind of here in the side cases that have to do with federal law, state courts have to do with state law. That's basically the gist of it.
Hogan sued Gawker under copyright infringement; jury awarded him millions
So here's the thing. Hulk Hogan isn't a real person. It's a character.
>> Taylor: Right?
>> Farz: So the man who plays Hulk Hogan, whose Persona is Hulk Hogan, is a man named Terry Bolia. Originally, Hogan filed suit in federal court under copyright infringement. This is federal case because they heavily advertise the video as being of Hulk Hogan. Because we're like, really? Like, if you're gawker and you're like doing this for SEO forces, who's looking up Terry Bolia? Nobody is. Hulk Hogan is a draw. Right. So the question of how successfully this can be turned on, the fact, basically, how successful his cease, and assist in the suit could have been, was basically turning on the fact of whether Hogan himself, had basically created this Persona and held this Persona out there as being his true self, in which case would be considered a fair play. If you recall, he had a show called Hogan knows best.
>> Taylor: Mm His like a reality show. This family.
>> Farz: Yeah. Like, anything you've ever seen of Terry Bolia, I think is just Hulk Hogan. Right? Like he's just flexing his muscles, ripping his shirt off. And like the Persona and the character, despite the fact that they're like copyrighted and IP protected items, like, it's still, it's just like, that's who you are. Yeah, you are. Like, nobody knows who Terry is. We all know him. So my comparison, my analogy to this is basically, if you look at what is acceptable with an IP law to do, with somebody that's a public individual, is look at any presidential election we've ever had in this country where you have just random people hawking merchandise that has a candidate's name and image and likeness or whatever on there. Those people aren't asking for permission for those things because they don't have to. It's considered a fair use. You're too public of a person to own the right to. Your name, basically, is what it essentially amounts to. So basically, that suit in federal court went nowhere because the court was like, hey, you're too public. This is not a copyright infringement. Like whatever, we're not going to, we're not holding in your favor. So he ends up deciding to file suit against Gawker in his home state, and, that would be Florida. And the first course of action was an injunction by the judge, to immediately remove the video article and comments that Gawker had published. And to their credit, they did remove the video. They left a comment in the article up, and they also redirected site visitors to another website that also contained that video. And their argument was that this was their first amendment right and they don't have to go any further than that. So eventually the case goes to trial and the question of whether this infringement into someone's private life for public consumption arose to whether it was newsworthy or not. And in this case, the actual question was whether seeing Hulk Hogan naked was of any news value or not. And the jury ruled in favor of Hogan and awarded him a ton of money. He ended up getting 115 million in compensatory damages, $60 million in emotional distress, and 25 million impunity damages. So in total is $200 million. Wow. For context, in the preceding years before this judgment, Gawker's parent company earned revenues in the $30 to $40 million range.
>> Taylor: Right?
>> Farz: Total revenues, not profit. Like, just total revenues.
>> Farz: So they didn't have $200 million kind of sitting around. So Gawker obviously appealed the verdict and the judgment, and both of those were thrown out of court. Hogan would actually sue Gawker immediately after this, again after this, because, what ended up happening was that as part of the discovery efforts for this sex tape trial, there was also recordings of him saying the n word repeatedly. And, like, I remember that. Yeah, about, like, someone that his daughter was dating. And that ended up getting leaked through the National Enquirer. But again, during the discovery phase of the original trial, it was found that Gawker had obtained the tapes and sold them or something to national. Like, they were still involved in this in some way. So, long story short, as far as that part is concerned, that resulted him getting fired from the WWE. It did what it did to his reputation. All the stuff that kind of comes along with that. Shortly after the judgment was affirmed, Gawker filed for bankruptcy, and so did Nick Denton, the founder. it was actually sold for pennies on the dollar to Univision because Gawker was part of Gawker Media and they held Jezebel. And, they have a ton of different digital properties. ultimately, the Gawker brand, through their bankruptcy proceedings, would settle with Hogan for $31 million on the original, original judgment. So where does that leave us? With Peter Thiel and the Paypal mafia. He financed the whole thing. He spent $10 million of his own money just to pay the lawyers to facilitate the bankruptcy of Gawker because they added him, ten years earlier. he actually stated, this is a, quote, that his financial support in this case is, quote, one of my greater philanthropic things that I've ever done, end quote. And the general feedback on the outcome of this case is a bit split, with some saying, well, fuck aker. There were scumbags and what they were doing was shitty. In other saying, it's kind of like a free speech. We've kind of debated this before, between the two of us, that, like, I kind of tend to be more about, like, free speech than anything else.
>> Taylor: well, I think it's freedom of speech, not freedom of consequence from consequences.
>> Farz: Totally. Well, also, like, freedom of speech doesn't also mean freedom to do anything. Right? Like, you can't defend people. You can't publish, like. Like, sexual content without consent. You know? Like.
>> Taylor: Well, yeah, you can, but then there's going to be consequences.
>> Farz: Right, right.
>> Taylor: You know, you can't claim, like, that is my free speech. You have. You. You know, like, that doesn't mean that you can't. That you aren't liable for something because you can't do. They shouldn't do that. You know, there's consequences.
>> Farz: So what are we. Are we pro gawker going bankrupt?
>> Taylor: yeah, I think they're doing a bunch of shitty things. And that was a real.
It was a weird time. I mean, the Internet was, like, new to gossip
It was a weird time. And celebrity gossip, like, all those celebrity. I mean, the Internet was, like, new to that as a thing, and it's obviously such a huge thing.
>> Farz: So you remember Perez Hilton?
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Farz: I mean, he was similar in this similar vein.
>> Taylor: absolutely.
>> Farz: But. But I. But I just love the idea of this guy just sitting there brooding for ten years, waiting for the moment.
>> Taylor: I know. I love it.
>> Farz: but that's, like, a more serious story about that involves a paypal mafia and kind of the consequences of, like, kind of being in their orbiter in a negative way. This one's kind of, like, a sillier, funnier one, and I'm going to end on this.
Bill Gates reportedly took a short position against Tesla around 2022
So this one also reminded me of, like, the incredibly vast difference between people like us in the multi billionaire class. I'm going to. I was. I wrote this DOWn that I'm going to think of this example the next time taylor gets pissed about billionaires not using their money to buy school lunches from poor kids, because it's just like. It just shows, like, how different they are. So in 2022, TEsla shares were worth around $400 a piece, as we've discussed before, and everybody in the world knows ElON MUsk was the founder, or not the founder, but he was BAsiCAllY the guy who got TESLA where it's at. so you got Tesla shares of dollar 400 a piece. You have Elon Musk, who had already crested the $200 billion range. He'd become the richest man in the world at that point. Then you have BILL Gates, who was formerly the richest man in the world, whose net worth in 2022 was 129 billion. So you have, like, a lot of money being kind of flung around. Bill Gates, obviously, is very famously involved in climate change initiatives. And this is really interesting. It goes to the psychology so much because electric cars are, like, obviously not dependent on fossil fuels and they don't emit carbon emissions. And Tesla is the biggest manufacturer of them and kind of created the industry as a whole. And so you would think, like, in any other situation, these two would be pretty friendly about things, and, you'd be wrong about that. So around 2022, in an interview, Bill Gates mentioned that he took a short position against Tesla.
>> Taylor: Yeah, you mentioned this. Yeah.
>> Farz: A short position means borrowing shares that you then sell, anticipating the price to go down so you can buy them back and give the shares to the original owner and net the difference. So, for example, if I just borrowed $100 share off of you, I sold it, then the price of that share dropped to dollar 80. I'd buy that share again. I give you your share back, then I pocket the dollar 20. That's what it is.
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Farz: But these are billionaires and they do things a little bit differently. So gates actually ended up shorting, 1.2 million shares of Tesla, worth half a billion dollars.
>> Taylor: Wow.
>> Farz: He spent $500 million just to short Tesla, which is a really bad look, right? Because someone like Gates does this. Like, it makes everybody thinks that think that he knows something. Like people like this can move the stock individually, which is crazy. M so this is where, again, I have a super hard time kind of understanding how billionaires think, because, despite having taken a hugely disadvantaged position against Tesla, there's a series of text messages that were screenshotted and uploaded to Twitter by someone. Musk and Gates both said that they weren't the ones that did it, but essentially it amounts to Gates texting, that he had just landed in Austin because he was going to be touring. so what happened was that his son is a huge fan of, like, SpaceX, and so he was going to tour their production facility. And then it starts with, I landed, then it's like a day later. And, you see that the follow up to this meeting that they had in person was Musk messaging Gates, saying, do you still have a half billion dollar short position against Tesla? And then Gates replies, sorry to say I haven't closed it out. I would like to discuss philanthropy possibilities. Musk replies with, sorry, but I cannot take your philanthropy on climate change seriously when you have a massive short position against Tesla, the company doing the most to solve climate change. Walter Isaacson was in the middle of this because he's interviewing. He's doing, like, pieces, on both of them. And so he is quoted as having so incredible. He asked Gates, he goes, why did you short Tesla? And then Gates goes, because I thought that the EV supply would outweigh the demand. And then Isaacson asked him again. He's like, yeah, I get that. So why did you short Tesla? He just couldn't understand. Like, yes. So I'm super into the climate, like, preceding the climate, but I'm also doing this thing. In the end of it, I'm going.
>> Taylor: To do it in, like, my way, and I'm going to make money also.
>> Farz: And I. Yeah, that's what I was like, dude, he wasn't thinking. He's not thinking about fucking climate change. He's got $100 million he's going to make when his short position pays. But, like, you're worth 129 billion. Do you really need to make 100? I still don't understand this. And then there's another comment that he published. Isaacson would say around, musk, saying that he would. He'd really hope that Gates wouldn't be an asshole and was disappointed and that he thinks he's, like, a phony about this, about all his climate change initiatives because of how he kind of positioned his short against Tesla. And I think, I mean, it's funny because it's so petty, because on the one hand, you have Elon, who's, you know, Elon in Tesla, are doing fine despite the short position. And you have Bill Gates, and it's like, dude, people are constantly criticizing your intentions and, like, saying all this negative shit about your. Your philanthropic efforts. And, like, you do that stuff like this. Like, it's just like, a really simple but stupid example of, like, billionaire pissing matches? Which I found.
>> Taylor: Yes, exactly what it is. Yeah.
>> Farz: So. So that's it.
There's chatter about Bill Gates being foolish about philanthropy
I mean, they. They basically, from what I understand, have no interaction socially whatsoever. Like, I mean, like, must never donated. There was one time, there was one commentary from Isaacson about must be must talking to gates and saying, out of every dollar donated to, like, nonprofit or philanthropy, only $0.20 actually goes to the cause, which I don't know where you get that number, but, I mean, I. That doesn't sound.
>> Taylor: There. It depends. There's, like, there's a lot of watchdogs for nonprofits, so a lot of them are really, really bad. Like the suze, the Susan G. Komen one, the one that does breast cancer that makes everything pink.
>> Farz: Was it, like, $0.04?
>> Taylor: Goes, yeah, it's like, four cents to the dollar. It's so bad. Like, there's. Some of them are so bad. So there are people who. For before, to whatever, end or check. But.
>> Farz: Very shady. Very shady. Which, again, I don't know what the hell Bill Gates does. I'm just, like, amazed at, like, he's so pro climate or anti climate change, and then he does that. And, like, Walter Isaacson story around this, when he was talking to Bill Gates, he mentioned how Bill was just, like, perplexed that he doesn't understand why he would short the stock. He's like, I'm gonna make, like, $100 million. Like, why wouldn't I? He just never connected the dots, which further indicates. I don't know. I don't know. I'm not. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I did find it interesting that, like, there's so much chatter about him being foolish about philanthropy. So I don't know. I don't know where to put that. But, Yeah, that's it. That's my story. That's kind of how mention, I am.
>> Taylor: Googling Bill Gates. He has donated to other electric vehicle things. Maybe he just hates Elon Musk.
>> Farz: You also reached out to him.
>> Taylor: Maybe after he met him, he was like, meh.
>> Farz: So. So what the chronology of events was that, he went to Austin for son to. To visit the SpaceX factory.
>> Farz: They did the tour, they did all this. That's when he hit him up for money. And that's when Elon was like, hey, I'll donate, but I'm not going to do some generic charity that's going to take $0.80 out of every dollar that's taken or given. And what happened was Gates apparently said, I have five funds I'm running right now of 100 million apiece. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to send you a prospectus on how every dollar is spent for these five funds.
>> Farz: And what happened was Elon messaged him, was like, are you shorting Tesla for half a billion dollars? You're like, yes.
>> Taylor: Like, someone told him after he had, like, talked to him about the thing, and he was like, fuck you.
>> Farz: Yeah. He's like, fuck you. Yeah, yeah, dude, I wish. I wish I had. Oh, man. To have to do a $500 million fuck you to someone, for the sake of it. How nice would that be? Because he could actually lose all of it. Like, he could, in theory, lose all of it. Right? Like, if he's totally wrong and he sells the stock, and the stock fucking doubles, which it actually did. So what Walter Isaacson said is that in total, Gates lost about $3 billion of his own money on shorting Tesla.
>> Taylor: Wow.
>> Farz: Yeah. So anyways, wild. What did you learn? Googling. Googling. Bill.
>> Taylor: He did. He does. He invested in another, small company called Mangrove lithium for different batteries. And, he owns a Porsche Taycan, which is apparently a Porsche electric car, not a.
>> Farz: He's a huge Porsche guy. From what I understand. He and, like, a few other billionaires, were the reason why this one Porsche, called the 959, was legally allowed to be imported to the United States, because he just wanted one to drive on the road. And he, like, spent God knows how many. How many tens of millions of dollars to get that run through. They just do so many things. It's just incredible.
>> Taylor: Wild. Like, there's a barriers. You know?
>> Farz: No barriers.
>> Taylor: Like, I always say, something that's like a fine for something, like littering or drinking on the street is just like. It's just like a. Well, it could be, like, prohibitive to a poor person. For a rich person, it's just like, what costs to do that? You know what I mean?
The cost of parking your car in a place you're not supposed to
Like, if the. The cost of, like, parking your car in a place you're not supposed to park it is, you know, $1,000 fine. A poor person will not do it, but a rich person will be like, oh, I'm going to park here. It costs $1,000.
>> Farz: You know, it's worth my time to spend $1,000 on this than to be ten minutes late to my meeting.
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Farz: Yeah. There was one story I remember m of Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle, about how he ended up paying. He ended up. He bought, like, some crazy jet. He bought some meg or something, like, something that he probably shouldn't own, and he wanted to land it somewhere that he shouldn't have that was illegal to land in. And he was like. It was like. The fine was like a quarter million dollars. He's like, whatever, just fucking land the plane. Like, you just. He's like, I'll take the m. Fine. Just so he can go. Like, it's just, like, just different magnitudes.
>> Taylor: Yeah, exactly.
>> Farz: What's good for them. I mean, I would do it, too.
>> Taylor: I'm gonna. I'm gonna name the highway outside of your house the Taylor Pinero highway.
>> Farz: I prefer if you name it the vengeance highway, but that works, too. anyways, that's. That's my story. yeah, I found it kind of interesting, fun.
Tom Hanks has a spoiled, spoiled, bratty son
The gawker thing was really interesting.
>> Taylor: I forgot about that.
>> Farz: What happened to Hulk?
>> Taylor: I mean, did he spend all that money? Is that what happened?
>> Farz: From what I understand, his divorce from Linda was, like, stupid expensive. Also, he has, like, a complete, useless, spoiled, bratty son who, like, he has to take care of, his daughter Brooke actually ended up getting married to, like, some professional NHL players. Like, I'm sure that, like, she's fine and not like a tall rat, but, like, the son raised the way he was raised. And having done things that he's done, sounds like a. Like he just has to be supported by his dad forever.
>> Taylor: Yeah, like, Chet Hanks. Tom Hanks is the idiot son.
>> Farz: Does he do anything?
>> Taylor: No. He, like, kind of raps sometimes, and it's, like, really weird and awkward and he's terrible.
>> Farz: Have you heard any of them?
>> Taylor: M. I feel like. No, but I've seen a couple of, like, the Instagram stories, and he talks in like a. He talks in like, a jamaican accent farce. It's terrible.
>> Farz: You can't pass it off when your dad's Tom Hanks.
>> Taylor: It's real bad.
>> Farz: Colin's great. I like Colin.
>> Taylor: We do.
>> Farz: Yeah, we're pro Colin, anti chet. Every family has a chat.
>> Taylor: That's true, too.
>> Farz: sweet.
Do you have any listener mail for us? I do not. Not this week
Do you have any listener mail for us?
>> Taylor: I do not. no, I don't. Not this week. wait. Oh, we send out our newsletter, and that, was fun. So thanks, everybody. Who wants to get that, like, a recap of our, episodes for the month, you can sign up on substack. And the link is in our profile in our. On our link tree.
>> Farz: Sign up, please. Again, we need. I'm living in my childhood room. We need the money.
>> Taylor: You're visiting your parents for like, two days. You're not living in your childhood room.
>> Farz: But I'm alive in here, aren't I?
>> Taylor: But I see that. I see that you're. You're traumatized by your. Your weekend. So you can have it.
>> Farz: Anyways, if anybody has any tips and advice for how to mentally recharge your batteries after spending a ton of family time, please write it. Write to us. Thank you, Taylor. that'll be it.
>> Taylor: All right, cool.
>> Farz: I'm gonna go cut off.