Indeed’s Midlife Crisis
- Chad Sowash
- 3 minutes ago
- 41 min read
This week’s episode has more plot twists than a Netflix docuseries, and it all starts with a CEO on the run…
Deel’s New Drama: Forget corporate espionage—now Deel’s CEO is literally dodging subpoenas.
Indeed’s Midlife Crisis: Indeed woke up, saw LinkedIn’s reflection in the mirror, and said, “Yeah, I’ll have what he’s having.”
LinkedIn’s Throwback Vibes
Made in America (By Someone Else): Everyone says they want manufacturing back in the U.S.—but only 1 in 4 would actually take the job. Bring on the patriotic posturing, just hold the overalls.
🎧 Buckle up as Chad and Cheese unpack the corporate cosplay, legal dodges, and workplace nostalgia no one asked for.
PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION
Joel (00:36.782)
Yeah, if you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. Hey, boys and girls, it's the Chad and Cheese Podcast. I'm your co-host, Joel "No Deel" Cheesman.
Chad (00:48.12)
This is Chad "A1" Sowash.
Emi B (00:50.665)
And this is Emi, why didn't I give up wine for Lance Beredugo?
Joel (00:55.266)
And on this episode, the deal drama don't stop. The boxes are back and OnlyFans says a recession is on the way. Let's do this.
Chad (00:58.574)
Yeah.
Chad (01:08.878)
So, before you came on, I was telling Joel that last weekend I went with a bunch of guys and we went paintballing. And I think, and I don't want get your feedback there, do you think that we should have like a Chad and Cheese tournament where people can actually sign up and they can prospectively shoot Chad and Cheese?
Joel (01:28.366)
Dude, you can get hurt in paintball, man. What are you talking about? Dude, I'm tender. I'm sensitive to paintballs.
Emi B (01:28.868)
yeah.
Chad (01:31.15)
Would you do that? Would you do that, Emmy? Yeah? yeah. yeah. yeah. No, people will pay. Really, Emmy? I thought you were supposed to be a friend. Is this how we're doing things? Jesus.
Emi B (01:34.964)
you? No, no, honestly, is this a serious thing? Are we going to do this? Because people are going to pay for this. I'm not going to lie. They will. Yeah. 100%. Can I go first,
Emi B (01:50.184)
We are friends, but you know, I'm not gonna pass out the opportunity to kind of kind of shoot paintballs at both of you. Amazing.
Joel (02:00.802)
We can do it like, remember, remember the predator movie, Chad, where they released the convicts in the jungle and then predators would hunt them. Like you could drop us in a field or something of woods, wooded area, maybe in, maybe in Nebworth at rec fest. can like drop us and pay for all the, for all the companies we've destroyed. they can pay to like come shoot us with paint balls.
Chad (02:10.594)
I just want, I need to be able to shoot back. Yeah.
Emi B (02:14.27)
Can you imagine that?
can you imagine who's going to come after you? I mean, I won't be...
Chad (02:23.768)
fucking perfect. Jesus. Indeed'll have like six teams. Thing is they have to be employees. They have to be. So you're not sending like fucking black ops motherfuckers.
Joel (02:28.301)
it
Indeed.
Emi B (02:31.696)
You
Joel (02:37.986)
Yeah, the CEO has to put on some fatigues if they're going to do it the right way.
Emi B (02:40.348)
Chad (02:42.109)
yeah, I could see Hines doing that. sure. Sure.
Emi B (02:44.99)
That'd be hilarious.
Joel (02:47.0)
So Chad, I see you've got your Buckeyes jersey on. I'm assuming you saw the JD Vance fumble of the trophy on TV. What'd you think of that?
Chad (02:51.417)
yeah.
Emi B (02:53.086)
thing.
Chad (02:56.819)
That frickin douchebag. Well first and foremost, mean, okay. Come on man. I mean, Jesus Christ. You get a trophy handed to you, right? You don't just grab the base, you grab the base. I mean, the guy, first off, the guy's a fucking loser in the first place. He's never held a trophy in his life and that's probably one of the reasons why he did this. Ugh, fuck.
Joel (03:25.026)
he dropped it. Like of all of all the the visits of teams throughout the years to the White House, I've never remembered any president or vice president dropping the trophy and he's an Ohio Senator. So that was very apropos to everyone.
Chad (03:26.498)
I know!
Emi B (03:42.804)
think it's hilarious.
Chad (03:43.168)
Thanks for reminding me about that. Jesus. God.
Joel (03:45.578)
It is, it is quite funny. so you two are hung over. Let's set the stage here. You two are hung over and I'm, I'm, I'm, nursing like day three of a cold. I went to Canada on, on spring break and I think I got the, the Toronto flu or something. Yeah. I don't know what that was. yeah, by the, by the way, Canada, Canada is on full anti-America alert, by the way. there's a, there's a place there called Boston pizza.
Emi B (03:50.514)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Chad (03:56.232)
my head hurts.
Emi B (04:00.51)
Got the laggies. We are on form today.
Chad (04:15.138)
Okay.
Joel (04:15.712)
And it's like huge sign like Canada owns since 1972 or something, even though it's called Boston pizza. Yeah. I, I will tell you though, for all the, the boycotting that's going on in, Canada, they are not boycotting Chipotle. They are not boycotting Chipotle. Chipotle is above all. Yeah.
Chad (04:21.834)
Oh, yeah. Uh huh. I had to make sure. I had to make sure.
Chad (04:35.799)
Yeah.
Emi B (04:35.828)
Exempt. Yeah. Yeah.
Chad (04:41.506)
All else. All else.
Joel (04:43.182)
They're exempt from all hate, Chipotle. Of course, yes, that's right.
Chad (04:46.862)
It's kind of like Apple gets the exception for tariffs and Chipotle gets it from Canada.
Joel (04:55.042)
The one thing that could bring us all together is Chipotle. Like, let's be honest. Let's be honest here.
Chad (04:58.51)
That's a very good point. That's a very good point. Oh, don't get him started. Don't get him started. Don't get him started.
Emi B (04:59.346)
You say that, I've never had it before. So I'm just hearing about it through you two. no, we don't have that in London.
Joel (05:03.495)
What? What?
Chad (05:08.78)
Yeah.
Emi B (05:09.812)
Have I broken your heart now? No.
Joel (05:11.468)
Wow. Do they not have it in Britain? I thought there was one next to the Five Guys.
Chad (05:18.798)
Jeez.
Emi B (05:19.438)
Not that I've heard of, maybe, well I'm gonna, I'll Google it later and see and I'll let you know, but I swear to God, no, never. do you know what? Yeah, yeah. I'd still do like a chicken drumstick, yeah.
Chad (05:26.776)
KFC man, they're big on the KFC and the McDonald's. Yeah. Yeah. Big on that. Yeah.
Joel (05:26.894)
every night, Paul.
Alright, 10 is to cover this week so what do say we...
Emi B (05:39.796)
You
Chad (05:39.874)
Yes.
Joel (05:40.43)
Shout out sponsored by our friends at a Kiara speaking of the great white North text recruiting made simple by Kiara. I'll go ahead and lead off with with shout out. So my shout out goes out to the fine institution of Harvard. Harvard, you've probably heard of it. America's oldest college, widely known as maybe the best college in the country. So Stella and I.
Chad (05:43.662)
Mmm.
Chad (05:50.292)
Eora. Hair free.
Chad (05:58.996)
Ooh. Yeah.
Emi B (06:01.885)
Yeah.
Joel (06:09.016)
chat again, go back to our stage. Stella, Stella has Michigan as one of her schools, that she wants to visit, which is fine with me. It's arguably top, top five public school in the country. So from London, Ontario, we drove to Ann Arbor and it was just, it was just so great to see like American institution, like the buildings, the students, the learning, just all of that. It really made me appreciate the American system of education and any, depending on the list you look at America's institutions are like,
Chad (06:15.608)
Good school. Let's go to school. Yeah, let's go. Yeah.
Chad (06:34.23)
Uh-huh.
Joel (06:38.574)
Seven 65 to 75 % of the top colleges in the world are in America. It's one of the foundations. I think of the pillars of what makes America America, it's, education, it's rule of law. It's sort of the flow of capital and it's free speech and freedom of the press. And to see, I assume people know the news. The Trump administration is going after Harvard. went after Columbia. Um, Harvard thankfully has like a $50 billion, uh,
Emi B (06:44.852)
Mmm.
Chad (06:59.126)
Whoo!
Joel (07:09.24)
trust like, or like, bucket of money, they can they can fight this. And they probably have a few lawyers that would like jump at the chance to like take on the Trump administration. So shout out to Harvard for fighting the good fight. And you've probably seen this chat as a Big Ten fan as I am. The Big Ten is creating like sort of a university NATO. Like the Big Ten schools are getting together. Yeah, like Indiana, Michigan State's on board, I think Iowa.
Chad (07:10.368)
Endowment. Endowment. Yeah. Yeah.
Chad (07:23.992)
Mm-hmm.
Chad (07:30.294)
Really? Nice! Yeah!
Joel (07:36.302)
Michigan on house day, which I think has to be the two main ones that have to join. Like I think they're voting on it this week, but the big 10 is joining forces, basically saying if, if the administration goes after one of us, they go after all of us and we pull our resources to fight that. So I, I believe Americans institutions can, can hold. think they're going to be tested like they have never been. and it's good to see Harvard not roll over. I think we should all be rooting for Harvard.
to take on the administration. mean, from their tax status getting taken away to no international students, mean, Trump and the administration is pulling out every stop to basically put a hurt on education. And that is one of the American pillars that I would hate to see crumble in the wake of the Trump administration. So go Harvard, go Crimson.
Emi B (08:27.208)
Guy hop.
Chad (08:27.224)
Well, and it's very fitting Joel that you're talking about education in the U S of a, because my shout out goes out to the secretary of education kids, pro wrestling tycoon. Yes. You heard me right. Pro wrestling tycoon is in charge of the U S education system. And during an interview, she talked about, hell screw it. I'm just going to play this stupid thing.
Joel (08:37.739)
no.
Joel (08:47.724)
Linda Mc-
Chad (08:56.694)
This hurts. Okay. We talk about American education.
Joel (08:57.646)
You're gonna make me hungry. You're gonna make me hungry at lunchtime, aren't you? You're gonna make me.
Chad (09:36.246)
Okay. She didn't meet, she was talking about AI kids. She, this is our secretary of fucking education. Okay, okay, okay. So listen, listen, this is a cautionary tale for all the HR and TA people listening out there. Don't try and bullshit your way through AI. Okay. Do your research. Lucky for you, we've already made it easy with the sessions.ai where you can actually go see season two. We just dropped it.
Joel (09:41.719)
Yeah
Chad (10:04.396)
where we have HR and TA practitioners talking about how they're actually using automation and AI, their fails, their successes and tons more. So don't be the one who says A1 in your next fucking board meeting kids, okay? Go educate yourself, go to thesessions.ai.
Joel (10:21.71)
New York strips and rib-eyes for all the first graders in America, I say. I can get behind that.
Chad (10:28.238)
A1 baby. So bad.
Emi B (10:29.214)
Seriously. Yeah, that's so embarrassing. my God.
Chad (10:35.278)
Yeah, yeah, American education. All right, all you, Emmy.
Emi B (10:39.71)
Joyce, well, my shout out is gonna go to a Democratic representative and by the name of Lauren Ashley Simmons. So to be honest, I never heard of her until actually late last night. I was actually in bed watching TikTok and then I came across this and I was like, ooh, this woman is fire. So basically for anyone who doesn't know, she actually absolutely schooled this Republican Andy Hopper, is his name? Yeah, yeah, yeah, actually go ahead and play it, yeah.
Joel (10:40.086)
Emmy, what you got?
Chad (10:49.038)
Okay.
Chad (11:04.316)
You want me to play it?
Alright, let's do it kids.
Joel (11:09.247)
that beautiful bean footage.
Emi B (11:25.524)
Hmm?
Chad (11:39.117)
Mm-hmm.
Chad (12:16.914)
My. Fucking. God.
Emi B (12:19.868)
Oh, oh, this is your American education system. This is your government. These are the people. The guy doesn't know what intersex means. And you know.
Chad (12:24.814)
This is all
with
Joel (12:30.05)
Hold on, Texas is a little bit of a side show for the US. And the right would say California is a little bit of a left turn from the rest of America.
Emi B (12:34.278)
Is it? Okay, okay. So, I mean, just to give a bit of a back...
Emi B (12:41.824)
okay. I mean, so just to give a bit of a background, but people haven't seen the full clip. mean, definitely go into TikTok and find it. But this Andy Hopper, so this Republican Andy Hopper, he's trying to pull funding from the University of Texas. So why? Because they are offering LGBTQ plus studies and DEI programs. So Lauren Ashley Simpson is like, know, as you see there challenging him. Do you, what about people who are intersex? And
Chad (12:56.279)
Mm-hmm.
Joel (13:00.494)
Mm-hmm.
Emi B (13:10.356)
Like he said, he heard that he cannot explain, he doesn't even know what intersex is. I think it is confusing with being transgender. And then he then goes on, I don't think we played it, to say that, you know, there's still XX or XY chromosome. And then his Republican colleagues said, Andy, that's not true, publicly. And it's like, you were dumb as fuck. Honestly, I learned this when I was 11 or something. I'm like, how?
Chad (13:27.639)
Mm-hmm.
Chad (13:37.934)
Yeah.
Emi B (13:39.792)
Again, shout out, Lauren Ashley Simpson, you know?
Joel (13:41.966)
You know, the sad part to me is that people will focus on saying, you know, well, the intersex population is less than 1 % probably. The battle here is for the control of the educational system of America. And I would argue that what Germany put as Jews is now woke and woke has become the parallel enemy.
Emi B (14:01.246)
Mm-hmm.
Joel (14:11.956)
me like that's something everyone or at least the right can get behind. So when I hear stuff like this, I think the knee jerk is to say like, it's such a small group. What's the big deal? It's a much bigger deal because if the government, they are people for sure, but the government control, like the Reich took over the educational system when Hitler took over and they put in jail any teachers that went against anti-Jew education, pro-Germany. So
Chad (14:22.99)
They're people.
Emi B (14:33.022)
Mm-hmm.
Joel (14:40.982)
It's not that it can't happen here. there. It's trying. What scares me is that the road that we're on is incredibly scary. It's much bigger than just a 1 % of the population. We're talking about a major shift. There's a reason why Albert Einstein came to America from Germany because he saw what was happening in Germany. And if we start losing our brightest minds because of this kind of trend, like it's really, really, really bad.
Emi B (14:43.934)
They're trying to, yeah.
Emi B (14:49.363)
Yeah.
Chad (14:49.422)
Yes.
Chad (15:01.24)
Mm-hmm.
Emi B (15:04.67)
Do I go?
Joel (15:08.18)
So I would invite everyone to think of this in a bigger context than just an LBGTQ issue because I think it is.
Emi B (15:11.645)
Mm-hmm.
Chad (15:15.958)
It is. And no matter what kind of sex you are, you can get free stuff at the Chad and Cheese. You know why? Because we love y'all. So remember, remember, always free at chadcheese.com slash free t-shirts from our friends over at Aaron App, you know those slothy guys over there, t-shirts by Aaron App. Bourbon barrel aged syrup from Canada, the good stuff from Canada, it's barrel aged, bourbon barrel aged.
Emi B (15:16.18)
100%. Yeah.
Joel (15:24.462)
I love the segue. This show, man. This podcast.
Emi B (15:24.852)
No.
Joel (15:36.462)
Mm-hmm.
Chad (15:45.518)
from Kiura. Craft beer from the job data geeks over at Aspen Tech Labs. Gotta love those guys. Two bottles of whiskey from Van Hack. And if it's your birthday, oh, wait a minute, Emmy, you might win some rum from plum. That's right. But you gotta go to ChadCheese.com slash free.
Joel (15:54.126)
Mm-hmm.
Chad (16:07.732)
yeah!
Joel (16:10.26)
All right guys, celebrating another trip around the sun, our listeners, Barry Doctor. I like that Barry Doctor Detroit, Rick Cosmo Kramer, Jason Crowell, Jonathan Chen, Andreas Iriarte, Mike Kleber Lang, Brian Moore, Dave Lowry, Jonathan Zilla, and our own, Emi Berradugo is celebrating.
Chad (16:31.532)
Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, Mrs. President. My best Maryland.
Joel (16:36.142)
How's it feel to be 29 again?
Emi B (16:40.468)
I love it. Happy birthday to me. I love that. Thank you so much. And it feels wonderful to be 29 again. I think I've been 29 for about, you know, 10 times and it's like, I'm just going to stay this year, stay this age. I love it. Absolutely love it. And Joel, are you not going to sing to me either? I mean, I can't just have Chad singing to me.
Joel (16:55.918)
you
Joel (17:04.504)
I have a little special prize coming, coming to you now.
Chad (17:05.525)
It's never good enough. It's never good enough with this one. First, she wants to shoot us. Then we don't give her enough love. mean, my God, that's it. We're going straight to events. That's that. am, am calm down back there. Calm down back there. Don't make me pull this podcast over. Unleash is coming. Kids. Unleash is coming May 6th through the 8th. What are we going to be doing at Unleash and Vegas?
Emi B (17:06.452)
Bravo!
Emi B (17:12.744)
The shooting was your idea, not mine. You put it in my head. I'm like, well. Whoa,
Joel (17:32.716)
Vince baby
Chad (17:33.87)
Joel, what are we gonna be doing? That's right. On Wednesday the 7th, we're gonna be spending the morning in a suite at the Cosmo filming a new sessions season with the team over at Smart Recruiters. That night we're going to have a film VIP wrap-up party, more deets to come for the VIP party. But there ain't no party like a sessions wrap-up party, hear me? Then we're going to...
Joel (17:46.99)
Love it.
Joel (18:00.216)
feel you. I'm picking up what you're dropping.
Chad (18:02.574)
We're also going to be hosting two talks. That's right. Not one, but two, with our friends over at gem and the gem booth on Wednesday, the seventh at 3 30 PM, probably just in time to get some beer. And then Thursday morning at 10 30 Vegas time. That's right. So if you're coming to unleash, look us up. we're going to be having a blast. And if this is the fun part, if you're wanting to go on to unleash and you don't have passage yet, guess what?
Joel (18:14.862)
Mm-hmm.
Chad (18:31.886)
I've got something for you. me a second here while I do all this fun clicking around stuff. And here we go.
Chad (19:02.772)
And just to be clear, when she says hit me up, she doesn't mean for a date guys. That's my daughter. It's my fucking daughter. Don't be, don't even think about it. I will have your ass. Okay. Well, yeah, you can get, you can get obviously, Kennedy cook on LinkedIn message, message her very professionally and ask her for passes. Okay. we're going to fucking hear about it. yeah.
Emi B (19:07.316)
No.
You
Emi B (19:16.756)
You
Joel (19:24.454)
We're gonna hear about it if it's not. And we're calling you out on the show if it's not. I want a free pass to wherever she is. Like beachside, ocean, where was that? okay, nevermind. English beaches, sorry.
Emi B (19:25.734)
Hey.
Chad (19:31.342)
That's Brighton. He's in Brighton. That's Brighton. Yeah. Right by Emmy.
Emi B (19:31.42)
Yeah
Brighton UK is beautiful. What do you mean? It's a pebble dash beach. It's beautiful. You don't need sand when you've got pebbles, you know?
Chad (19:40.814)
You
Chad (19:45.518)
Oh, I have to say.
Joel (19:46.926)
Brits get so mad when you diss anything Britain. like blood sausage sucks. What are you talking about? Blood sausage is amazing.
Emi B (19:49.908)
Yeah, yes, because this is the best country in the world.
Chad (19:50.094)
you
Chad (19:57.134)
If that's the case, then why do you come down to the Algarve every goddamn summer, Britain? The entire country comes there. Stop it. Just stop it. No, don't stop it. It's good for business. It's good for business.
Emi B (20:10.462)
But no, it's, yeah, I'm saying nothing. I'm like.
Chad (20:14.616)
Ha ha ha!
Joel (20:15.48)
Let's get to topics, shall we?
Chad (20:17.293)
Yes!
Good stuff.
Joel (20:21.708)
Alright, well the clown show continues.
Emi B (20:24.02)
You
Chad (20:25.164)
Bozo.
Joel (20:26.606)
All right. Where's Bozo? Earlier this week, Deal CEO Alex Bozo Boazis was apparently on the lam as bailiffs couldn't find him to serve up a nice hot lawsuit, but he's turned up in Dubai, apparently along with his father, the CFO and Deals general counsel. Dubai is a country known for its extradition challenges. So the cat and mouse game continues. Chad, your thoughts on the ongoing drama at Deal.
Chad (20:49.742)
Mm-hmm.
Chad (20:55.576)
So remember when I said the only way this company deal survives if, if an entirely new C-suite comes in, takes over and demonstrates that deal now has adults in the room. It would have been bad if the C-suite stayed in place and then fought this case right in place, right? That would have been bad. This is a hundred times worse. These guys are on the fucking run from the law. I mean, what?
Emi B (21:05.799)
Mm-hmm.
Emi B (21:19.7)
.
Joel (21:22.478)
You
Chad (21:24.024)
prospective customer or current client is going to choose to stay with Deal Now. I mean, seriously, why would you, a vendor whose CEO, CFO, and head of legal are on the run from from Johnny Law? I mean, it's just crazy. one thing, this came in a little bit later. Did you see that Rippling is now pressing Revolut to find out who paid money to Deal's alleged spy, O'Brien?
yeah, so apparently apparently DLC Dan West Garth's wife, Alba Basha, West Garth was a crypto compliance lead at Robin Hood. Yes. When all of this went down last year in November, right? So Rippling is now suing Revolut to get the full name and address of the Alba Basha. That's right. Those are air quotes listed on the sender.
for that $6,000 payment to O'Brien. TechCrunch reports she's no longer at Robinhood and her LinkedIn profile has been deleted. This is fucking crazy.
All hands meeting in Dubai, everyone.
Joel (22:37.998)
Do we know where, do we know where Revolut is headquartered? They've got to be like some Caribbean, Caribbean country company. Are they UK? Even better, even better. Yeah.
Emi B (22:38.249)
Wow.
Chad (22:42.218)
UK, right? I think they're UK.
I think they're UK company.
Emi B (22:49.812)
I'm like, yeah, we'll hunt him down. But can I just say something though? Because do you remember a couple of weeks ago when this story broke, I said that this is gonna turn into a Netflix movie and you weren't too sure because you said it was like, know, HR. Now look at it. It is juicy. It is juicy. And what's gonna happen now, I'm actually gonna insert myself into this story because I'm going to Dubai next month. I'm gonna hunt this person down. Literally, I've got the picture. I'll be there going, hey, where are you? You're gonna see me involved in this. I love this.
Chad (22:53.55)
Okay.
Joel (23:09.102)
Mm-hmm.
Emi B (23:19.078)
I absolutely love this. I'm like, where is my popcorn? You know, I should have had my popcorn today, but I'll definitely have my popcorn in Dubai hunting this person down.
Joel (23:26.446)
Should we start the GoFundMe to make this into some sort of a movie? Because it's pretty juicy. got to.
Emi B (23:30.086)
Yes! Yes!
Chad (23:31.128)
That would be freaking awesome. That'd be awesome. Revolut is in London, by the way. They're at HQ.
Emi B (23:35.718)
Yeah, get them involved as well. It'll be fantastic. Yeah. Yeah, I'm going. I'm going. International spy, spy hunter. That's what I am.
Joel (23:39.064)
Nice.
Chad (23:40.048)
yeah, that's what we got you around. Go get them, Emmy. Revolut, DePy, come on. On them down.
Joel (23:46.968)
So, so I knew, I knew, when this broke, the head of communications was the first to like parachute out of the company and her name is Elizabeth Diana. And she was, when I was like all on the deal train, she reached out, sent me this shirt, which I have customized for the show. Hopefully you're watching that on, on YouTube, but she, she jumped ship and her background is
Chad (23:55.972)
she bounced. yeah. Yeah.
Emi B (23:56.82)
Run
Chad (24:08.398)
No deal.
Joel (24:16.224)
Instagram, Facebook, Google, like she's worked at some real serious companies. So I knew when she jumped ship and I bet she had a ton of equity, a ton of like incentives to stick around. She wanted no, she wanted no part of this clown show that that is unfolding right now. And it's looking a little bit to me, like a house of cards, because if you start digging into reviews online,
Chad (24:18.669)
Yeah.
Emi B (24:30.289)
No part of it.
Chad (24:32.218)
No way. No way.
Joel (24:43.554)
They're very, very telling. So here's just a quick glimpse of some of the glass door comments that I found quote, we were forced to email clients to tell us which companies they're using for HRI, HRI, S coms, et cetera, under the false pretense of setting up integration pathways. So even like the mate, like the frontline workers were in charge of like getting information. And another one that I saw was that they, apparently they ask you.
Chad (24:48.237)
Mm-hmm.
Joel (25:11.406)
at deal to give them a five star review on Glassdoor as soon as you join. And apparently the company really pays attention to their ratings to make sure that they're high. Cause so the company has like a 4.6 out of five and, and Bozo Bozo has a very high, uh, positive, uh, favorable rating as well. So I'm sure not only it was it give us a five star rating on Glassdoor, was give our CEO a very high rating as well. So this is starting to look at a little bit like house of cards.
Chad (25:19.992)
That's a trick. Yeah.
Emi B (25:24.552)
Fake reviews.
Chad (25:33.038)
Mm
Emi B (25:33.342)
Give this a go.
Joel (25:39.832)
They need to clean house ASAP, get the ship right. Cause they've taken too much money, have too much like a footprint in this business to like fall apart like this. Somebody needs to act quickly and fix this really, really quickly or else it's going to be a total, total sideshow, but I'm enjoying the clown show while it's still, while it's still going.
Chad (25:45.801)
dude. Yeah.
Emi B (25:57.778)
Me too.
Chad (26:03.2)
More please.
Emi B (26:04.688)
Hehehe
Joel (26:05.086)
Alright, indeed, from one clown show to another, if you will.
Emi B (26:07.994)
Hehehehehe
Joel (26:11.724)
Listeners might remember us torching Indeed for getting rid of their search boxes from the home page. Well, the boxes are back, everybody. But wait, there's more. According to our Reddit string on an accompanying screenshot, Indeed Premium, very creative name, premium is on its way. And for $9.99 a month, users can get a bunch of bullshit in return. Chad, your take on all the news out of Indeed this week.
Chad (26:17.038)
Hmm.
Chad (26:37.922)
Yeah, the boxes going away that more than likely was just kind of a pilot to tell them what we already knew. It was fucking stupid. Yeah, I mean, so that was easy. On the Reddit users, one of the Reddit users commented they had performed the search and it looked like it was Canadian only, right? So I'm like, first the tariffs and now this. I mean, can we stop pissing off the fucking Canucks for God's sakes? Please, please, let's stop.
Joel (26:44.782)
dumb.
Chad (27:07.31)
Let's go ahead. I'm going to go ahead and pop this up, but the Indeed Premium, I'm going to go ahead and share my screen so everybody can enjoy, think. there it is.
Chad (27:23.47)
You gotta be able to see it first.
Joel (27:26.766)
Thanks Riverside.
Chad (27:28.11)
There we go. Yeah, you guys suck. Indeed Premium, here you go guys. So if you're watching on video, let's go through these, all of us point by point, okay? Stand out to employers. So job seekers can mark their jobs that they're most interested in because that's a signal to employers that they mean business. What do you think about that, Emmy? You think that's bullshit or what?
Emi B (27:30.493)
Aha!
Emi B (27:50.548)
I think it's the most stupidest thing ever, honestly. It's like, what does that even mean? It's pointless. Who did they consult to see whether or this is actually necessary? It's like, yeah.
Chad (27:56.46)
Hahaha!
Chad (28:05.246)
Yeah. It's almost like Oliver, right? Can more, more, please, more, more.
Joel (28:11.384)
No, it's going to be like a dude on Tinder. He's going to swipe right on everything. Every job I see is the most interesting job in the world. Yeah. Everyone's going to mark jobs as interested. So yeah, keep, keep going on these, on these features.
Emi B (28:15.22)
Yeah, it's me. Love this job. I mean, yeah.
Chad (28:19.182)
crazy.
Chad (28:23.604)
Okay, so apply with confidence. You can see jobs where you might be a top applicant. You might be a top applicant. Yeah, I mean, can you imagine going into search and not being the fucking top applicant for anything? I mean, seriously, or being the top applicant for everything. Yeah, just, it's, again, this doesn't make any sense to me, other than it's literally signaling to the
Joel (28:27.342)
Because that doesn't happen now. You can't apply with confidence.
Emi B (28:30.76)
Might, yeah, not definitely might.
Emi B (28:43.572)
It'll be demoralising, yeah.
Chad (28:52.598)
Job seeker, you need to lie on your resume.
Emi B (28:55.197)
Yeah.
Joel (28:56.654)
You can be a top applicant if you pay us $9.99 a month. That's how you become the top applicant. No money, no top applicant.
Chad (28:59.822)
Hahaha!
Okay. They stole, they stole this next one. mean, this whole thing is really stolen from LinkedIn. Let's just go ahead and let's, let's be real, but this one, see who has viewed your profile, much like on LinkedIn, anybody who gives a shit about who's looking at their profile. I don't. yeah, this is, this is going to be important to them. and then last but not least compare your skills. See how your experience compares to other applicants. Yeah.
Emi B (29:08.884)
100%, yeah, yeah.
Emi B (29:14.068)
Ooh.
Emi B (29:28.742)
Just to make you feel shitty again. It's like.
Chad (29:33.27)
I don't see the relevance behind any and or most of this. And here's some comments from the Reddit thread. Here's a quote out here broke just browsing for jobs and now they're charging subscriptions for premium. Another user said, this is gross and greedy. We should get paid to apply for jobs on this site. I don't know. Do you think this is going to go the way of the Dodo like most of the other shit that they've been doing lately? Because indeed throwing a lot of shit.
Emi B (29:52.926)
Mm-hmm.
Chad (30:03.262)
at a lot of not spaghetti, but shit at the wall. And it's just not going anywhere. So thoughts.
Emi B (30:08.998)
No, they're running out of ideas. I mean, they're obviously trying to claw back money from somewhere. And it's like, I almost want to go into this. Okay, call it a day. Give up. Give up my day. You know, it's not it's not working. And yeah.
Chad (30:13.454)
You
Joel (30:19.416)
Yeah. I want to, I want to be in the customer service department when they start getting calls from people that aren't getting jobs, even though they are a top candidate on the, the indeed algorithm, and then have indeed explain why they're not getting a job because of that. look to Amy's point when, when, the money starts drying up on one end, job boards are like, have employers, we have job seekers when the, when the employer money starts drying up.
Chad (30:31.214)
$10 a month.
Emi B (30:35.735)
Because you're a bit shit. Sorry.
Emi B (30:45.32)
Mm-hmm.
Joel (30:48.834)
They get, there's desperation and how do we make money? How do we squeeze a little bit more out of this turnip? And that goes to job seekers. And I have no doubt that people will pay for this. They have a ton of users. If they just get one, one to 5 % of people use this, they're going to make a lot of money. But the question is how valuable is it? And it's a total move to be like, like, or be like LinkedIn. Unfortunately, LinkedIn has some actual good information about companies and people who work there.
Chad (30:58.254)
Mm.
Chad (31:16.578)
Yeah.
Joel (31:18.318)
I pay for LinkedIn premium and it's partly because I'm a podcaster and the information is beneficial for the listeners, but it's actually beneficial. I don't, I'm not sure indeed has the data to make this thing valuable. And it's, it's almost like you remember on when you, when you put something on eBay back in the day and you pay an extra $4 for it to be highlighted. So that would stand out. That's what this feels like. And the old, the old headhunter.net, which no one will remember it, but chat, but with us is like, you would pay.
Emi B (31:37.78)
Mm.
Chad (31:40.763)
yeah.
Chad (31:44.728)
Yes, yes.
Joel (31:48.024)
per whatever and it would move your resume up the list because you paid money for that.
Chad (31:55.692)
Not because it was relevant.
Emi B (31:57.684)
Yeah, see, yeah, yeah, I think it's awful because I'm thinking about that, you know, the comment that someone saying that, you know, indeed is greedy. I think they are. And I'm sure if you speak to indeed or whatever press release they'll, you know, they send out, they'll say, oh, yeah, it's there to help the people. But my challenge is that is it really because it's not built for the unemployed. This service is not for the unemployed. It's not for the underemployed. The only people who
Joel (31:57.772)
Because you paid, yeah, because you paid.
Emi B (32:24.756)
actually have the disposable income to pay for this are those who are already working, you know, they've got extra money to go, hey, okay, I can spend that 9.99 a month. But for everybody else, it's just making them feel shit. And it's just, I honestly, I think this is really bad. This one pisses me off. Yeah.
Joel (32:40.382)
And it's going to reveal things to job seekers that they don't even know is going on. For example, imagine the sourcing tools that automate looking through the database. Well, a job seeker is going to see that and think, they looked at my resume. No, they didn't. A bot went through the system and looked at it as a bot, not a human being. So then they're going to be like, well, Acme, looked at my resume. They must be interested. What's going on? So there are so many
Emi B (32:52.276)
Mm.
Chad (32:52.546)
Mm-hmm.
Joel (33:10.904)
consequences to this that they job seekers are going to like freak out and what is going on. This, the, the unintended consequences of this are going to be a disaster to their credit. They launched it in Canada only apparently. So Canuck, sorry, but yeah, get, get, get, get your, get your Tim Hortons, get a double double, and, stick it to indeed for, for doing this to you. they need to be held accountable.
Chad (33:37.486)
The performance was supposed to level the playing field with regard to high markets, low markets, because obviously, you know, in a market where there's a lot of clicks, the CPC is going to be lower. When it's not, they're going to be higher. I mean, you can like flow with it, right? For some reason, indeed, in their modeling is for shit.
not to mention they haven't gone down funnel to the qualified applicant. If anybody should have this right, they have all the data. They're forcing the job seeker to actually get their information on the data. They could actually field that to make it easier to match on, to contextualize, do a lot of stuff, but they've got shit matching. It's shit matching. And it's just like, why are you focusing on things new?
Emi B (34:21.95)
They don't.
Chad (34:29.622)
things when you got shit that you need to fix where you could actually make more money. It doesn't make any sense. It really does.
Joel (34:30.414)
Mm-hmm.
Joel (34:36.386)
Yeah, they're trying to appeal to, I guess, a higher level job seeker. And, and this, don't, I don't see this offering being something that's appealing to the people that are willing to pull out their wallet and pay for it. In some ways they might be turning off the very audience that they're trying to appeal to.
Chad (34:42.414)
Good luck.
Emi B (34:43.474)
Not gonna work.
Emi B (34:49.918)
Yeah.
Chad (34:55.851)
Exactly.
Joel (34:58.094)
Let's take a quick break and talk about LinkedIn.
Emi B (34:58.356)
Bye indeed.
Chad (34:59.822)
You
Joel (35:10.638)
All right, guys, LinkedIn is coming in hot this week with the headlines. Here's a sampling. Number one, quote, come back for big tech. LinkedIn shells out $75 million for Silicon Valley office, end quote. Number two headline, LinkedIn study finds adding links boosts engagement by 13 % on posts. And number three, LinkedIn launches new mini site for posting tips.
Chad, what are your thoughts on all things LinkedIn and the headlines we saw this week?
Chad (35:44.364)
I looked at a lot of these and they look like they were all pre COVID. Right? I mean, it was like, you know, we're buying, we're buying real estate and we're showing you how to do these, you know, tips on it's like, what this is, you, this is kind of old. It seems like back to the future kind of shit. So again, mean, LinkedIn and I appreciate they're trying to give tips to influencers because they want to get more people posting videos and those types of things.
Joel (36:01.336)
Yeah.
Chad (36:12.052)
But the landing page that they created, straight out of 2010, for goodness sakes. So just really weird. mean, it's odd. You see these high, high profile companies who are churning out a shit ton of cash, indeed, LinkedIn, and they put out just shit like this. just, to me, they're not at the level they should be. And it blows my mind. I don't know how it happens.
Joel (36:21.71)
Mm-hmm.
Chad (36:42.306)
other than leadership. Yeah.
Emi B (36:42.354)
rested on their laurels. I think so, yeah, maybe rest on laurels. I I won't comment on all of them. The one that kind of struck a chord with me really is the posting. Because I tell you what, I was looking at it and it's like, right, okay, this is how to boost your kind of, you know, your LinkedIn posts. I'm like, great, I need to know because sometimes I will post and everyone likes it. And then next week, it's like, no one likes it. You're like, fuck. It's like, what did I do wrong? Or did I just do the same thing? And...
Chad (37:05.026)
Yeah. Yeah.
Emi B (37:10.236)
This time around is telling me, links get 13 % more interactions. Carousels with almost like that PowerPoint slide, that gets about 45 % engagement. Polls, I mean, hardly anyone uses polls, that, okay. Maybe I need to try it. But apparently that smashes your reach. So you've got all these kinds of things and videos, know, it's a new thing, everyone's into it. The problem is when I looked at it, I on a second, a couple of years ago, didn't you just tell me something different?
Joel (37:16.504)
Mm-hmm.
Chad (37:17.314)
Mm-hmm.
Chad (37:22.776)
Joel loves a pole.
Emi B (37:39.668)
Didn't you say links, don't put links in your post because that actually decreases interactions and decreases views and engagement. So they're changing their minds in a couple of years. So which one is it? And they can't make up their minds as which, how are we going to know how to use the platform properly? Yeah.
Chad (37:54.368)
I think it changes day by day to be quite frank because I think it depends on the amount of content flow that's going in. And I know that there are specific days that I post that I know I will get better interaction, engagement, reaction off of than I do other days. So I mean, a lot of it I think has to do with what content is already in the flow and what you're competing with.
Emi B (38:03.134)
Yeah.
Emi B (38:11.444)
Okay.
Emi B (38:19.251)
Yeah.
Chad (38:19.47)
I think that's the hard part. You just got to try to make it sexy for the most part. It's marketing. It's trying to get information out there.
Emi B (38:28.296)
So get sexy as in videos, pictures, is that what you, no.
Chad (38:31.968)
Videos, pictures, I mean, even some of the, literally just some of the, we're going to be talking a little bit about Cato Institute information a little bit. I mean, that thing just blew up, but it was around manufacturing and I literally just put some statistics and people are drawn to statistics really, really quick and they engage with it. So yeah, I mean, even if it is something boring like Cato Institute research or something like that, if you can pull out some really good nuggets, people will engage.
Emi B (38:39.796)
Mm-hmm.
Emi B (38:48.884)
Mmm.
Emi B (38:58.504)
But it's resonating. Yeah.
Joel (39:02.018)
You just need a good poll, everybody. That's what you need. So since I'm a complete whore for LinkedIn, I'll sound off on this stuff. the first one's a little bit interesting for the fact that LinkedIn knows the trends on remote jobs. And they would not spend that kind of coin on real estate if they didn't feel really sure that the remote job thing is on the downside. And we've talked about it on the show quite a bit.
Emi B (39:04.084)
Man.
Emi B (39:29.918)
Mm-hmm.
Joel (39:30.892)
Back to work is in remote is out. So I think it's very telling that a company that's very, very knowledgeable about what kind of jobs are being posted and what kind of things are in demand would spend 75 million on a piece of commercial real estate. So that's, that's my first takeaway. Number two, you're right. Like for over a decade, the popular sentiment has been do not get people off of the platform. The minute you send someone off LinkedIn or Facebook or Twitter or any of them.
Chad (39:56.226)
Mm-hmm.
Joel (39:59.26)
the algo is going to ding you because they want people to stay on LinkedIn. So I, I'm, I'm still a little bit, cynical about this. I, I still think it makes sense to keep people on, on the platform. maybe this one little test says differently, but everything I do on LinkedIn, I almost never post a link. I would even say that they even ding the ones are like Lincoln comments. And then you put a link in the comment to try to go try to get around it. So I'm, I'm.
Emi B (40:00.692)
Mm-hmm.
Emi B (40:24.403)
Yeah.
Joel (40:26.998)
I'm not as, as sold on that idea as, as I, as I, as others might be. And then the third one, I think, I think it's largely SEO driven. If you go to, if you go to Google or any search engine and look like how to on LinkedIn, there's a ton of stuff and they're losing, they're losing real estate to people on YouTube and Tik TOK and people like educating folks on how to use LinkedIn. So this was to me was an SEO play to try to get ahead of that traffic, get people actually into LinkedIn and doing the things that we want them to do as opposed to what, you know,
Chad (40:37.774)
Mm.
Joel (40:56.738)
the masses are telling people what to do. think this was an SEO play in a way to kind of control the narrative with their users.
Chad (41:05.491)
Amen.
Joel (41:07.298)
All right, going back to Britain. Adzuna, a job search engine that Brits know very well, has launched Apply IQ, some Americans do, an AI job search agent that automatically applies to relevant jobs. The company says, Apply IQ uses large language models to match users with jobs based on skills, experience, and career goals, ensuring only the most relevant applications reach recruiters. Chad, you have some insight on this. What's up?
Chad (41:36.694)
Yeah, I want to thank Doug for being so responsive, CEO of Adzuna for being so responsive to my questions earlier this week about ApplyIQ. I feel like this is Adzuna's glide path toward charging for qualified slates. They're not quite there yet.
But, and I believe every job site, every vendor should be moving in that direction. It's around qualified slates as opposed to clicks and spamming with as many job securities as you possibly can. The big problem that I see that might happen here is Adzuna's adding auto-apply. And that could get sketchy around candidate intent coming with some employers. Because some employers are really big on candidate intent.
If a machine does it, the candidate, actual human didn't intend to apply, the machine's just doing it for you, right? So I've actually heard stories from many employers in talking about this over the years that I've called candidates, this is a recruiter, I've called candidates and they had no clue they applied for a job, right? Which means the candidates hasn't researched it, they don't know about it, it's just one of those things where it's like,
possibly we're going a little too far, although I do think we will be moving in this direction. I think it's just really early. So think Doug and team, I do like moving toward qualified slates. The auto apply might be a little soon.
Emi B (43:04.252)
Yeah, see, I just want to pick up on the comment that you said, Chad, because you said that, you know, candidates sometimes are called by recruiters and they don't know that they've applied for a job. But that might not just be the case of because of automation. That might be because it's a shitty market. They've just tried their luck. And yeah. And so, you know, it's a case of like, okay, who the fuck did I apply to? Who's calling me? Yeah. And then, so I, I'm, I'm not so kind of hung up from that point of view.
Chad (43:20.096)
applied for everything.
Chad (43:24.942)
Yeah.
Emi B (43:30.48)
My only thing about it is that, it sounds great. Yes, it's actually helping, apparently helping candidates because it just speeds up that process. People can get application fatigue if they're just constantly applying for jobs. So this one, while you're sleeping, while you're watching Netflix, cool, it applies for relevant jobs. But the key word is actually relevant. That's what I want to know over time. Are you actually producing relevant candidates? Because otherwise, recruiters are just going to get pissed off. It's like...
Chad (43:42.381)
Mm-hmm.
Chad (43:51.426)
Yes.
Emi B (43:58.526)
They're already inundated with CVs. They're already trying to find ways that you go through all the applications, still maintain a good candidate experience by getting back to other candidates, which is hard when you've got that many. But then if this tool is actually just going to increase the number of applicants, everyone's going to lose out. know, experience is not great. Candidates are going to get pissed off. Recruiters are going to get pissed off. So I hope it does what we know what they're trying to do.
Chad (44:04.258)
Right.
Joel (44:24.558)
Yeah, I think the intent is great. But I think whenever you build a technology, have to realize people are going to use this and people suck. And people are going to do things that you don't think they'll do with it. So if I'm unemployed, am I happy trusting your algorithm that you're only applying to relevant jobs? Am I willing to trust you that you are? Well, maybe not. I'm going to apply to everything. I'm going to lazy apply.
Chad (44:37.09)
Humans are stupid, okay? Humans are stupid.
Joel (44:54.446)
where they just shotgun the whole system. Um, and, and if I'm an employer, do you trust that you're only going to get relevant candidates? Like, are you willing to trust the algorithm that, that you're going to get good people when in my opinion, employers are moving toward, we're going to set up our own filters. We're going to set up our own sort of gatekeepers, whether it's pre-screening track, whatever it is, right. Uh, blockchain, I mean, all the stuff that's coming down the pike. So, so I applaud the, the intent. I just think when.
Emi B (45:02.996)
Mm.
Chad (45:14.19)
and are applicant tracking systems and CRMs.
Joel (45:24.172)
when you're dealing with people on both sides of the aisle on this one, like a lot of things can go wrong. So I would say, let's see how this plays out. But people are likely to take a, take a Louisville slugger and just beat this thing, beat this thing to hell. But we'll see what happens. See what happens.
Emi B (45:29.94)
Mm-hmm.
Emi B (45:38.356)
Let's see.
Joel (45:42.624)
Alright guys, a story entitled, Manufacturing Jobs Are Never Coming Back, Dylan Matthews of Vox argues that the decline in US manufacturing jobs stems from structural economic shifts and automation, not just trade policies. Tariffs have failed to revive these jobs, instead causing losses elsewhere. as a proud son of the Rust Belt, what are your thoughts on manufacturing jobs coming back?
Chad (45:49.165)
Ouch.
Chad (46:09.656)
Yeah, the structural economic shifts was, I think, the most important in this discussion, which is what people need to understand. And what that means is the decline in manufacturing jobs is attributed more to structural change in the economy rather than our trade policies. So as countries like the US become wealthier, there is a natural transition from agriculture, which we were a big farming country.
still kind of art to some extent, but we were a huge farming company country, and then we went to manufacturing. And then we transitioned to a service based economy. This shift is driven by increased productivity and changing consumer demand. So we don't make cheap shit anymore, right? That's not what we do. We provide valuable services that are higher margin, which means the dollars made per hour in services positions drives more revenue.
And we should actually drive more pro should drive more prosperity. But even if we did bring manufacturing back, what the hell would we do? because tighter immigration has driven immigrants out of the country. And last November, the Cato Institute commissioned a poll. Joel loves a poll, especially if it's paid for. anyways, this poll was commissioned, was commissioned to understand how the American people felt about bringing.
Joel (47:20.174)
I love a good pole. I do. I love it.
Emi B (47:20.98)
You
Chad (47:31.022)
manufacturing back to America. And the report found that 80%, very big number of Americans say boosting manufacturing jobs is great for the country. Yet only 25 % said that they would actually do the jobs. So here's something that's even more interesting than having 600,000 jobs open. Blue collar workers make up 27 % of America's workforce. And that's from the AFL-CIO, right? Here's a math breakdown.
Emi B (47:45.117)
Okay.
Chad (48:01.262)
If only 25 % of the US population want to work in manufacturing jobs, and currently 27 % of them are already in blue collar positions, what does that mean? It means 2 % of the people want to get the fuck out of blue collar jobs. Right? So we need more people and we're actually retracting. So this is, we're not training the next generation. People want to get out of manufacturing.
And yet, and we don't have the supply chains that are actually set up here to make it more efficient and smarter and cheaper. We don't have any of that. So this is where we're at kids.
Chad (48:47.17)
I do.
Emi B (48:48.146)
Yes, I agree. There's lots of crazy pills taking place. OK, so this is my question to you. You both put put up really logical arguments and I 100 % agree with it. But I also think that in this kind of day and age, it's really important to see, try and understand the other side, you know, to because we can't you can't change someone's opinion until you actually almost step in their shoes. OK. And obviously, the Trump administration is saying this is going to work. This is going to work.
I can't figure out why it's going to work, why they think it's going to work. So, I mean, can you help me out? Why do you think that they truly believe, even though you both put up very good arguments as to why it's not going to work, why do you think that they believe that it is going to work?
Joel (49:33.452)
They being.
Emi B (49:35.272)
the people who voted for Trump. Yeah, Trump himself, the Trump administration.
Joel (49:37.275)
okay.
Joel (49:42.446)
I mean, it sounds good. It sounds good. We're going to bring the jobs that China's taken and the rest of world's taken. We're going to bring them back home. it's, guess it sounds good. And when I go into a of voting booth, to certain number of people, it sounds great. And I do see the side of like, if we stop making stuff in this country, we put ourselves at a disadvantage. If there's ever a conflict, right? If we can't make boats, planes, bullets, like that's a bad, that's a bad thing. And more so like pharmaceuticals, if that's all outsourced somewhere.
Chad (49:42.67)
80 % of people said they wanted.
Emi B (50:03.72)
Mm-hmm.
Chad (50:10.69)
We make those.
Joel (50:11.886)
Like that, that, but, we're talking about like 1940 style manufacturing. And part of me thinks like Donald Trump is still mentally in the fifties and the sixties and seventies. and to Chad's point, uh, I think it was a Frank Lutz poll that like 80 % of Americans want manufacturing jobs to come back, but only 25 % will actually do those jobs, uh, if they do come back. So imagine if we go through this whole process of tariffs and moving factories back and Nike says, okay, we'll make
Chad (50:18.19)
Mm-hmm.
Emi B (50:22.268)
in the dark ages. Yeah.
Chad (50:23.939)
Yes.
Joel (50:41.87)
We'll make Nikes and Albuquerque and these factories get put up and nobody wants these jobs. And we've shut the border down. So there are no immigrants that want to come over. Like we could go through this whole thing and shoot ourselves in the foot because we find out nobody wants these jobs. not, although they're called peasants, China over the last 30, 40 years, they've advanced like we did. Right. So they don't want these jobs either. And
Chad (50:48.184)
No. Yeah.
Emi B (51:03.284)
Mm-hmm.
Joel (51:11.522)
The studies I've seen are like 70 % of Chinese manufacturing is all automated. And it's in the high nineties in some of these, these places. So as China gets richer, these people don't want to do those jobs either. So they're outsourcing to like Vietnam and Cambodia and other countries. so it's really hard to wrap your head around what's going on. And I know that the narrative that Trump is playing 4D chess and we're all too dumb to figure out what's going on is popular, but
Chad (51:16.835)
dark.
Emi B (51:17.427)
Yeah.
Chad (51:26.339)
Mm-hmm.
Emi B (51:26.356)
Mm-hmm.
Emi B (51:38.228)
Yeah
Joel (51:40.174)
It's, really hard for me to understand. We're taking this risk and no one wants to do the jobs. Right. And, and in the meantime, we're going to pay more for everything, which is a regressive tax, which means poor people are going to pay more. Like none of this stuff makes sense. Which makes me goes back, makes, me go back to this whole geopolitical struggle and China and America. Like I'm still going with that. And you can look at the past episodes where I've talked about that, but it's hard to wrap your head around why this makes sense because it just doesn't.
Emi B (51:43.38)
it hard yeah
Chad (51:49.422)
Yes.
Emi B (51:54.142)
Mm-mm.
Joel (52:09.441)
It just does it.
Emi B (52:09.564)
No, but somehow they believe it. Yeah, it's really hard. I can't find anything that makes sense.
Chad (52:11.751)
I wish we could make some sense out of it, just some.
And here's the thing, and we talked about this on past podcasts, usually when you fight a war, and this is an economic war, okay, you try to do it on as few fronts as you possibly can. Then you win those fronts, and then you start, open up new fronts, right? What these guys did was open up every fucking front available. They tariffed everybody. Everybody, and it was everybody on everything.
Emi B (52:25.172)
Mm-hmm.
Emi B (52:46.782)
Mm-hmm.
Chad (52:46.796)
Right now things are starting to get pulled back here and there, but this is the fucking penguins for God's sakes. Anyway, it's just when anybody says this is any 4D, somebody actually said 5D chess. like, what the fucking dimension is five? the fuck it, what are you talking about? Anyway, to me again, none of it makes sense. People want manufacturing back, but they don't want to do the job.
Joel (52:49.071)
Don't forget the penguins. The penguins were hit too. The penguins were hit. Yeah.
Emi B (52:52.596)
Go!
Emi B (53:00.916)
5D chess? Of course! Yes!
Joel (53:00.92)
Why not? 5D, sure.
Emi B (53:09.012)
No.
Emi B (53:14.408)
that they don't want to do it themselves. Yeah, exactly. Just a little bit problem.
Joel (53:20.462)
All right, let's take a quick break. Guys, if you like what you're hearing, hit us up on your podcast platform of choice. Subscribe to YouTube, leave us a review, subscribe. Tell your friends and family we'd really, really appreciate it.
Chad (53:32.354)
yeah.
Joel (53:38.274)
What better way to end this show than OnlyFans? All right, guys, an OnlyFans creator, Ellen Hancock, I don't know if that's her real name or not, I doubt it is, claims that her client's spending habits indicate a potential recession is on the way. She notes a decrease in spending and concerns about the cost of living among her clients, suggesting a tightening of budgets. Hancock compares this to the economic impact
Chad (53:41.279)
Only fans.
Chad (53:47.564)
I doubt it is.
Joel (54:08.0)
of the COVID-19 pandemic indicating a similar trend. must be an economist. She's going back to COVID. Chad, who needs the federal government and Toby Dayton's numbers? We have only fans to tell us a recession is coming. Your thoughts.
Emi B (54:20.532)
100%.
Chad (54:25.198)
Well, I mean, these are the people. Let's just say these are creators, these are entrepreneurs, right? And they are going to feel it first. There's no question because what happens is when prices go up and wages do not go up, you look at things that you don't need and you don't spend money on them, right? This is a need versus it's a must have versus a nice to have, right? Only fans for these people is a nice to have, right?
not a must have. yeah, I mean, this is these, these are early indicators. And if you take a look at a lot of small businesses who are, are already getting hit by these Chinese tariffs, many small businesses are going to go under very quickly. And this, these guys don't have to worry about getting shipments from China, but what they do have to worry about is higher prices, right? Their people have less spending power.
Emi B (55:13.716)
Mm-hmm.
Chad (55:17.238)
and they don't spend with them because they're not a need to have.
Emi B (55:21.308)
No, 100%. I totally agree with you, but I do love these little kind of soundbites, honestly. They make me laugh. Yeah, I'm going to comment, I just want to say something first of all, because I'm assuming you both watch Sopranos. Yeah.
Chad (55:25.134)
Hahaha
Joel (55:28.75)
I do too.
Chad (55:39.086)
I have not. Go ahead.
Joel (55:39.17)
Yeah, Sopranos. Sopranos. Sopranos.
Emi B (55:40.38)
Okay, now, okay, so Chad, you're like me. So that, how do I say sopranos? Sopranos. Sopranos or sopranos? So I've been watching the sopranos and only in the last, to be honest, in the last couple of months or so. And there's a quote that Tony Soprano said, which actually stuck with me. And he actually said, there were only two businesses that are recession proof.
Joel (55:45.752)
Sopranos. The Queen's English. Sopranos. Sopranos.
Chad (55:55.094)
huh.
Emi B (56:08.884)
one of those businesses is the adult entertainment industry. And I think what this article or what Ellen Hancock is actually proving is that Tony Soprano is actually wrong. Even the adult entertainment industry isn't actually recession proof. So there was a reason why I brought up Sopranos.
Chad (56:24.13)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Emi B (56:30.958)
I think like you said, like you said, Chad, she's got her pulse, if you like, on the consumer wallet. You know, this is someone who used to make between three to seven K a month, you know, just having a chat and I'm supposed to do a little bit more, but you know, people willing to pay three to seven K, but when times are hard, people are saying to her, I can't afford it now. You know, they, they've got to say no to the kind of the spicy videos and the, you know, the one-to-ones, they got paid for eggs, they got paid ring, they got paid gas, you know, those are actual necessities. So.
Chad (56:36.056)
Mm.
Joel (56:39.427)
Mm-hmm.
Chad (56:44.814)
Yeah.
Chad (56:53.166)
Mm-hmm.
Chad (56:59.266)
Yeah.
Emi B (57:00.212)
I agree with Ellen, do, and I agree with you, Joel. I think she is actually an economist and I know it's a tough market out there, but you know, if she does end up losing her job in OnlyFans, I think she should knock on JP Morgan's door. You know, she's got a transferable skillset. She is predicting the job market. She's predicting the economic market. So I think it's a good one. Yeah.
Joel (57:22.072)
Nostradamus.
By the way, if more unemployment means more people on OnlyFans means there's more supply and if demand is going down, there's a bad squeeze in there somewhere. New trend that led me through this, at this, there's a new, influencers now teaching fans how not to spend money. That is apparently a new trend on social media, how to save your money, how not to spend, how to do. There's this whole thing about
Emi B (57:32.468)
Pay for it.
Chad (57:35.724)
Yes, we need a balance. It's balance.
Chad (57:49.751)
Uh-uh.
Emi B (57:50.246)
Is it? yeah.
Chad (57:53.048)
Don't go to Starbucks. Easy.
Joel (57:54.434)
buy directly from China. So your Hermes bag is 30 bucks instead of 3000. Like this is a trend that we're seeing, but that is a trend, not nearly as, as awesome as my trend of awesome dad jokes, which leads me to this week's joke and honor of deal spy and Irishman Keith O'Brien. Guys, what do you call an Irish lesbian? What do you call an Irish lesbian?
Chad (58:07.778)
Bad jokes.
awesome.
Emi B (58:25.204)
Can we get a clue? I want a clue.
Chad (58:25.368)
I'm not even gonna try. Not even gonna try. yeah.
Joel (58:29.26)
No clues.
Chad (58:32.706)
Go.
Joel (58:34.081)
A Gaelic.
Emi B (58:36.532)
my lord.
Joel (58:47.502)
That's right. That's right.
Emi B (58:55.796)
That's hilarious.
Joel (58:58.114)
I'll take it. Guys, that's another one in the can. We out.
Chad (59:01.9)
We out.
Emi B (59:02.036)
God. yeah. I'm going to tell my friend that Yeah.