Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Measure from Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: Hier Carol Matts, and welcome to the weekend edition of
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week, Week thirty four. Working from home still
Speaker 1: for so many nothing going on this week, I'm of
Speaker 1: course kidding. It was a huge week. We had the
Speaker 1: U s election of FED meeting, a US jobs report,
Speaker 1: in COVID nineteen cases and hospitalizations rising around the globe.
Speaker 1: If there was a theme, it's that it's all connected.
Speaker 1: In our conversations this week, we're about that connectivity, touching
Speaker 1: on the vote, the virus, and the visibility and virility
Speaker 1: of our economy. With that in mind, coming up this hour,
Speaker 1: thanks just times here as we see those case counts
Speaker 1: go up in the hospitalizations go up as well on
Speaker 1: the coronavirus. Dr Penny Wheeler, President CEO at a Line
Speaker 1: of Health, on the Midwest surge and staying with Health,
Speaker 1: the CEO of November on their mission when it comes
Speaker 1: to men's physical and mental well being. We begin though
Speaker 1: this week with the biggest story, and that is the
Speaker 1: presidential election. It's the cover story of this week's magazine
Speaker 1: and a election that had us all on edge and
Speaker 1: as Bloomberg Business National correspondent Josh Green reports, despite all
Speaker 1: the election on certainty that we saw this week, one
Speaker 1: thing is for sure, and that is Trump is m
Speaker 1: is here to stay. Here's our conversation with Josh un
Speaker 1: Joel Webber, Bloomberg Business Week editor. As we were working
Speaker 1: on this issue, we knew that there were it was
Speaker 1: very likely that we have multiple outcomes, and we sort
Speaker 1: of prepped for every one of those outcomes, and Josh
Speaker 1: was the secret weapon for for one of them, which
Speaker 1: was sort of you know, we might go to press
Speaker 1: and not knowing who the eventual winner is. Josh and like,
Speaker 1: what the story should we consider for that moment? And
Speaker 1: he was like it was genius. He was like, by
Speaker 1: the way, and no matter what outcome, Trump is um
Speaker 1: is here to stay. And actually, as we've seen the
Speaker 1: results UM come come out, you know, hour after hour
Speaker 1: and day after day, since it actually has only become
Speaker 1: more and more true. Um. So, Josh, what what did
Speaker 1: you see that led you to that thesis? Initially? Well,
Speaker 1: if you look at what binds Republican voters today, it's
Speaker 1: one thing, and really one thing only if that is
Speaker 1: their enthusiasm for Donald Trump. I mean, he has higher
Speaker 1: than an approval rating consistently in polls. Uh. You know,
Speaker 1: all of the never Trumper Conservatives and moderate Democrats have
Speaker 1: either left the party lost reelection, you know, and what's
Speaker 1: left is really loyal to Trump. Trump likes being in
Speaker 1: the limelight, wants to stay around, and there isn't any
Speaker 1: obvious Republican to shove him off the stage and reform
Speaker 1: the party and taking a different direction. Uh. And I
Speaker 1: think that leads to the conclusion that Trump isn't and
Speaker 1: maybe even Trump himself are going to be the focal
Speaker 1: point of Republican politics going forward. What's also interesting in
Speaker 1: your stories, you really get into the suburban voter and
Speaker 1: the shifts that we continue to see among suburban voters.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is something the Republican Party, Josh has
Speaker 1: to be thinking about. Yeah, it is. I mean the
Speaker 1: story of you politics over the last four years, in
Speaker 1: a lot of ways, has been the shift of American
Speaker 1: suburbs across the country from being white collar Republican voters
Speaker 1: to being white collar Democratic voters. We saw inklings event
Speaker 1: in even as Hillary lost UM, she narrowed Democratic margins
Speaker 1: in Arizona in Texas. UM to to you know, formerly
Speaker 1: deeply read states. In eighteen, in the mid term elections,
Speaker 1: we saw this huge blue wave that swept out Republican
Speaker 1: incumbents UH in districts around uh, you know, Denver, Philadelphia,
Speaker 1: Northern Virginia and northern New Jersey, Minneapolis, even down in
Speaker 1: Dallas and Fort Worth. UH. And what we've seen suburbs
Speaker 1: by and large have stuck with Democrats, UM and and
Speaker 1: are happy to vote for Joe Biden. And I think
Speaker 1: going forward that that's that's a potentially existential problem for
Speaker 1: the Republican Party because you you ultimately need to win
Speaker 1: suburbs to hold onto the White House. And if you've
Speaker 1: driven away those voters in a way that that Trump's
Speaker 1: Republican Party have, UM, You've got to figure out a
Speaker 1: way to get them back. Josh. You know, one of
Speaker 1: the other things that you have in your story is
Speaker 1: sort of the twenty twelve moment in the Republican Party
Speaker 1: where they did do an autopsy uh and ultimately led
Speaker 1: to a moment where it created an environment for Trump. UM.
Speaker 1: What would be the likelihood of an autopsy this time?
Speaker 1: You know, I think it to be about zero. You know,
Speaker 1: the optops that you're talking about twelve, Mitt Romney lost
Speaker 1: and the party leaders got together and did a big
Speaker 1: deep dive study and what they needed to do, um
Speaker 1: to make the party competitive again. And their conclusions where
Speaker 1: we need to embrace immigration reform, uh, present a softer
Speaker 1: image to attract young people, LGBT minorities. And of course,
Speaker 1: as we now know, the party went in exactly the
Speaker 1: opposite direction and nominated Donald Trump. That was back when
Speaker 1: there really wasn't a galvanizing singular personality, um, you know,
Speaker 1: exerting influence over the party. Well now there is so
Speaker 1: uh you know. The fact that you know, Trump has
Speaker 1: spent the last few days talking about voter fraud and
Speaker 1: the election being stolen from him, and that so many
Speaker 1: Republican elected officials have been willing to echo those charges, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, says to me that there doesn't even seem
Speaker 1: to be a willingness of Republican leaders who do understand
Speaker 1: what Trump has cost them to try and embark on
Speaker 1: that kind of shift. What's happened to the traditional conservative
Speaker 1: Republicans at the party has been known for for so
Speaker 1: many laws, you know, for so many years, the Lincoln
Speaker 1: Project Republicans. Are they just gone? Do they come back?
Speaker 1: What happens, Well, you know, many of them have left
Speaker 1: the party. UM, many of them have have have sort
Speaker 1: of broken off and and become public dissidents like the
Speaker 1: Lincoln Project folks. But it's a kind of like normal human,
Speaker 1: regular Joe level. A lot of those people have just
Speaker 1: become Biden votes. I mean, we can see that in
Speaker 1: the fact that it's already clear that Biden is gonna
Speaker 1: winn an enormous popular vote victory, and a lot of
Speaker 1: these these conservatives voted for moderate Democratic House candidates in
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen. UM. The problem in the Lincoln Project has
Speaker 1: is that they don't really represent any big base of
Speaker 1: report of voters left in the Republican Party, so they're
Speaker 1: not really speaking for anyone and probably aren't really going
Speaker 1: to have a lot of power to reshape the party
Speaker 1: going forward. That's Josh Green, Bloomberg business Week National correspondent.
Speaker 1: He is also author of Devil's Bargain, Steve Bannon, Donald Trump,
Speaker 1: and the Nationalist Uprising. That book you should definitely check out,
Speaker 1: joining also, of course, Bloomberg Business Week editor Joel Weber.
Speaker 1: Check out that full cover story in this week's issue
Speaker 1: of Bloomberg Business Week magazine. It is online, on newsstands
Speaker 1: and always on the Bloomberg Coming up. The election occupied
Speaker 1: a lot of our headspace this week. This is COVID
Speaker 1: nineteen continue to reoccupy our world. An update on the
Speaker 1: pandemics is coming up next. This is Bloomberg. This is
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week with Garrol Mazier from Bloomberg Radio. We're
Speaker 1: bringing you some of the highlights from our daily radio
Speaker 1: broadcast and podcasts. That included an update on COVID nineteen,
Speaker 1: which saw record increases in some parts of the globe,
Speaker 1: and as America's COVID nineteen hotspots stuck with President Trump
Speaker 1: in the election. We got an update on the virus
Speaker 1: this week from Dr Penny Wheeler. She's president CEO at
Speaker 1: a Line of Health. They've got twelve hospitals in the
Speaker 1: Minnesota area. We talked with her about the rise in
Speaker 1: the Midwest. Thanks just times here as we see those
Speaker 1: case counts go up in the hospitalizations go up as well,
Speaker 1: So so uh, there's some anxiety about that for certain
Speaker 1: I am wondering what's the what are the conversations Dr
Speaker 1: Wheeler that you're having. You know, I mentioned the number
Speaker 1: over in France. We're watching Europe. I think everybody in
Speaker 1: the US is wondering, Okay, is this where we are headed?
Speaker 1: France reporting a record fifty two thousand, five eighteen new
Speaker 1: coronavirus cases. That's a big number. Uh, And I wonder
Speaker 1: are you guys setting up are the facilities within your
Speaker 1: system and that you are involved with? Are you guys
Speaker 1: and anticipating another big surge or seeing it all? Yeah?
Speaker 1: We are, We are certain to see it already. I
Speaker 1: would say that you know, in our you know, in
Speaker 1: in Minnesa, you know you just mentioned Carol, the surrounding
Speaker 1: states to Minnesota, all the Wisconsin and Iowa, we've all
Speaker 1: had about a higher than positivity rate. We've been creeping
Speaker 1: up and we've been seeing it around our border towns too.
Speaker 1: But we're in about eight percent produce, you know, positivity rate.
Speaker 1: And I can tell you our hospital takes care about
Speaker 1: a quarter to a third of all um those in
Speaker 1: Minnesota affected by the virus. And we have doubled our
Speaker 1: census in COVID cases over the last two weeks. So
Speaker 1: it's coming quickly here. But what's what's you know? I'm curious,
Speaker 1: you know, certainly in some of the conversations we've had
Speaker 1: with within the medical community is that we did have
Speaker 1: the playbook back in March, right, we were just scrambling
Speaker 1: to figure it all out. Get the equipment, get every
Speaker 1: you know, the places you know, get the systems, the
Speaker 1: necessary systems in place, or the equipment in place. I
Speaker 1: do feel like we are smarter now, and I hope so,
Speaker 1: but I do wonder what are you seeing or what
Speaker 1: have we learned from the past six to seven months,
Speaker 1: whether it's equipment, but also treating patients. Yeah, totally smarter,
Speaker 1: Totally smarter, and how we're treating patients and supporting other
Speaker 1: organ systems and knowing how to treat them. So fewer
Speaker 1: people who are in our intensive care units are actually
Speaker 1: coming to the disease and dying so bad is good
Speaker 1: good news because we've learned more and we have more
Speaker 1: more treatments and more um support available. You know, we
Speaker 1: do have the right now, the stuff available. We increasing
Speaker 1: testing significantly. I'll tell you. The biggest challenge for us
Speaker 1: is staffing. Staffing this appropriately for the search because of
Speaker 1: course some of our healthcare workers are also people who
Speaker 1: are getting ill or having family members that are ill.
Speaker 1: So the plea would be boy, please do the distancing
Speaker 1: and masking. I know it's getting old and hard, but
Speaker 1: you're also protecting our healthcare workers significantly by doing so.
Speaker 1: You know, I think it's really interesting that you're saying that,
Speaker 1: because um I had a conversation actually with the CEO
Speaker 1: of Chipotle last week and I said, you know, same thing.
Speaker 1: You know what has changed in your world, you know,
Speaker 1: since March and April in terms of the virus, And
Speaker 1: he said, one of the most recent challenges is that
Speaker 1: our own employees are getting sick and it makes it
Speaker 1: harder to run the restaurant. And I do think this
Speaker 1: is going to be maybe the story for the second
Speaker 1: third waves is you know, making sure that whether it's
Speaker 1: in healthcare, whatever industry, that we've got the necessary workers.
Speaker 1: And I know in healthcare it's critical, yeah, critical to
Speaker 1: just really the health of the community and our ability
Speaker 1: to treat people. So I worry that our capacity limitation
Speaker 1: will be healthy available staff, so be who limits. It
Speaker 1: won't be on the it won't be on the PPE
Speaker 1: right now, it looks like it won't probably be on
Speaker 1: the testing. It will be on that. So what are
Speaker 1: you do? Can you reach out to or what do
Speaker 1: you do do you reach out to your surrounding community,
Speaker 1: but they're also facing the same thing. Is there is
Speaker 1: there federal assistance that can help in this kind of situation.
Speaker 1: Not you know, we're not looking to federal assistance, but
Speaker 1: we can are collaborating wonderfully well among you know, the
Speaker 1: systems here, so that we're trying to just balance things out.
Speaker 1: If somebody doesn't have I feew availability, who does, so
Speaker 1: we're not you know, this is the time again for collaboration,
Speaker 1: not competitiveness. And then we're we're continually working with each other.
Speaker 1: Like two of us are involved, for example, in vaccine
Speaker 1: trials that are going on, so we're trying to be
Speaker 1: proactive about you know, enrolling people in in in those
Speaker 1: trials as well. Yeah, I do wonder you know that,
Speaker 1: Like I said that this is going to be one
Speaker 1: of the main stories at this point. Um. I do
Speaker 1: wonder too that one of the things that we saw,
Speaker 1: certainly when we were in the midst of it here
Speaker 1: in the New York metro area, that there was really
Speaker 1: this great kind of sharing of equipment, sharing of knowledge.
Speaker 1: And you know, what are you seeing, you know, as
Speaker 1: you deal with the entire healthcare community or are you
Speaker 1: seeing that continued cooperation and assistance around the country. We're
Speaker 1: seeing we're seeing the collaboration and cooperation here in spades.
Speaker 1: And well, we can get you can manufacture equipment. What
Speaker 1: you can't do is manufactured talented, compassionate UM staff. And
Speaker 1: so again that's the that's the area that I think
Speaker 1: all of us are most concerned about. Dr UM well
Speaker 1: are One thing I wanted to know is in terms
Speaker 1: of those getting the virus, are the demographics changing? Is
Speaker 1: it older, younger? Is it a mixture. I'm just curious
Speaker 1: what you guys are seeing. Yeah, the demographics aren't changing
Speaker 1: in terms of those UM disproportedly affected who are black,
Speaker 1: indigenous people of color, so that's not changing. We are
Speaker 1: seeing a slight shift to younger UM people getting getting
Speaker 1: the virus uh UM. But otherwise profile and obviously the
Speaker 1: most of the very severe illness isn't. Sadly, the deaths
Speaker 1: occur in those who are in the older age groups
Speaker 1: or those who have chronic illnesses, So that's staying the same. YEA,
Speaker 1: so very very similar. Listen, you know better than most
Speaker 1: it's all about you know, a vaccine. Although when you
Speaker 1: I'm curious how you feel about this. I feel like
Speaker 1: we continue to have conversations where more and more members
Speaker 1: of the medical community say, yep, a vaccine is very important,
Speaker 1: but also really important is wearing your masks, social distancing,
Speaker 1: doing all all those simple things that can really make
Speaker 1: a difference in terms of our fight against this virus. Well,
Speaker 1: no question over emphasizing those over and over again. I
Speaker 1: heard one of your wonderful masks UH public service announcements
Speaker 1: while I was waiting. That's so important. The vaccine is important.
Speaker 1: It's it's not and all be all. Though we're involved
Speaker 1: in a Johnson and Johnson ensemble vaccine trial with enrollment
Speaker 1: of people, and we're actually participating, you know, especially focused
Speaker 1: on pope relations of color, Black, Indigenous, and people of
Speaker 1: color as participants targeting specific zip codes. Sometimes these these
Speaker 1: studies are done too much on a moor of you know,
Speaker 1: a white population, and this is disproportionately affecting people of
Speaker 1: colors that we're actually targeting and asked to target our
Speaker 1: our vaccine trial accordingly. And then I think, Carol, you
Speaker 1: said it just right on the other side of things.
Speaker 1: We want a vaccine that can be trusted for sure,
Speaker 1: and that has safety, and that trust is important to
Speaker 1: people being able to actually get the vaccine. But remember
Speaker 1: even the even great flu vaccines are you know, successful,
Speaker 1: and then there's a proportion that doesn't take them. So,
Speaker 1: you know, I also don't want people to think that
Speaker 1: it's you know, we're flipping a switching. It's all over
Speaker 1: at that point. That's Dr Penny wheel or President CEO
Speaker 1: at a line of health. Well still to come. November
Speaker 1: it's the month used to raise awareness of men's health
Speaker 1: issues such as prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and men's suicide.
Speaker 1: We'll get more when we check in with Michelle Terry,
Speaker 1: CEO of November, about their growing mission. This is Bloomberg
Speaker 1: is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Mazer from Bloomberg Radio. November.
Speaker 1: You know what it is. It's an annual event involving
Speaker 1: the growing of mustaches during the month of November to
Speaker 1: raise awareness of men's health issues. We're talking about prostate cancer,
Speaker 1: testicular cancer, and also men's suicide. Rejected with Michelle Terry,
Speaker 1: she's the CEO of November, to hear about their mission
Speaker 1: to make an impact more broadly when it comes to
Speaker 1: men's health. I caught up with her while she was
Speaker 1: in Melbourne, Australia. It's one thing to kind of understand
Speaker 1: deeply the sort of health crisis that's happened with COVID nineteen,
Speaker 1: and certainly that's the first thing to understand, but then
Speaker 1: when you take into account the economic crisis and and
Speaker 1: then actually, you know, you layer onto that just sort
Speaker 1: of the sort of racial justice reckoning that happened in
Speaker 1: the summer that the world, our country, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: the globe is is sort of dealing with these three
Speaker 1: factors and when they have caused it immeasurable domino effects
Speaker 1: against the support structures the and just like the way
Speaker 1: people are are, what lifelines they have for all things,
Speaker 1: whether it's the health, whether it's safety, whether it's their
Speaker 1: educational framework, whether it's food and the ability to kind
Speaker 1: of find food resources, you know, from whether how much
Speaker 1: food they have in their house to even the kind
Speaker 1: of quality of food. And that's just it's happening across
Speaker 1: the globe. And I think it's just that is the
Speaker 1: thing about COVID nineteen, that it's, you know, we call
Speaker 1: it one thing, but it has so many tentacles into
Speaker 1: so many other effects. Well, I do wonder to you know, Allison,
Speaker 1: These are these are problems, whether it's education, whether it's safety,
Speaker 1: whether it's health, you know, or inequities and healthcare, or
Speaker 1: whether it's you know, access to having a safety net
Speaker 1: so that if there you can't work for a couple.
Speaker 1: And you know, the rainy day fund we found, you know,
Speaker 1: people don't many Americans just don't have it. And now
Speaker 1: we're struggling, you know, to even just put food on
Speaker 1: the table or keep a roof over their heads. I
Speaker 1: do wonder you guys have drawn, you know, put a
Speaker 1: lot of money towards this, and you've also drawn a
Speaker 1: lot of attention to us what changes What are the
Speaker 1: policies that we can think about that actually make a different,
Speaker 1: you know, the change the trajectory of these people's lives.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, from our from our standpoint, it's
Speaker 1: you know, there there is a conversation to we have
Speaker 1: with policies, but there's also a conversation to be had
Speaker 1: about programs and the kind of programs that actually move
Speaker 1: the needle to not only support from an infrastructure perspective.
Speaker 1: So in the in the in the opportunity for frold
Speaker 1: Play project, you know, we're talking about trying to raise
Speaker 1: dollars to support the fourteen million children in the US
Speaker 1: that are currently not getting enough to eat, and that is,
Speaker 1: you know, and over two d and sixty five million
Speaker 1: people globally who are facing severe threats of hunger in
Speaker 1: for all the reasons that we've already discussed. And so
Speaker 1: in some ways, you know, there is a as I mentioned,
Speaker 1: there is a policy conversation, but there is also like
Speaker 1: a very straight up you know, we need to get
Speaker 1: dollars to the right organizations who are on the ground
Speaker 1: that can actually sort of fulfill some of these basic
Speaker 1: needs are happening today. And I think that first and foremost,
Speaker 1: and if you look at it from from the health
Speaker 1: you know, getting getting access to healthcare, preventative healthcare, getting
Speaker 1: responses to what's obviously COVID nineteen, or even the myriad
Speaker 1: of other things that are out there. You know, flu
Speaker 1: season is coming up. That's even something that we need
Speaker 1: to be cognitant of. UM. And so the kind of
Speaker 1: services that fite that I think on on food scarcity
Speaker 1: and food insecurity, you know, you can think of the
Speaker 1: ties into education and the and the structure that a
Speaker 1: lot of kids get some of their best meals within
Speaker 1: the school complex. If the school is not open and
Speaker 1: you have distributed learning, not only is there a learning
Speaker 1: loss happening, but there is also kind of access to
Speaker 1: food is cut off. And so you know, I think
Speaker 1: from our standpoint, you know, we are this season. You know,
Speaker 1: we took a look at you know, Red Nose Days.
Speaker 1: Mission is to keep children safe, healthy, educated, and empowered.
Speaker 1: And we do that through a variety of programs. Because
Speaker 1: Grand Tea Partners, some of whom are the one thing
Speaker 1: you're familiar with Feeding America Boys and Girls, Cup of America.
Speaker 1: We raise public funds too, then uh make sure that
Speaker 1: those dollars go to these organizations that have these deeply
Speaker 1: rooted programs. This season, in November and December is the
Speaker 1: holiday season, and I know what's going to happen around
Speaker 1: mind holiday table. I'm sure some folks your listeners are
Speaker 1: going to think about that too. There are going to
Speaker 1: be folks who are not going to have such security
Speaker 1: around that table. And in fact, it's not just around
Speaker 1: the holiday dinner. It's it's this whole every day. And
Speaker 1: I know we've been talking about it, but officially you
Speaker 1: guys launched the Full Plate Project program and just tell
Speaker 1: US little bit more about I know you've been hitting
Speaker 1: on it, um Allison, but just what it I mean,
Speaker 1: it encompasses a lot. Yeah, yeah, so thank you. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, I think everyone knows the Red nos as
Speaker 1: a campaign that activates in the spring um supporting children.
Speaker 1: But honestly, with the unprecedented need everything we've been talking
Speaker 1: about with COVID and that we're seeing around the country
Speaker 1: and around the world, we we thought it was the
Speaker 1: right time to utilize Red Nose Day. It's really powerful
Speaker 1: region and our network where our core partners of Walgreens
Speaker 1: and NBC to activate the Full Plate project and to
Speaker 1: raise awareness for food scarcity and hunger right now around
Speaker 1: the holiday time. Couldn't be It couldn't be kind of
Speaker 1: more oppresident time to sort of understand, like, um, the
Speaker 1: real problem with hunger in in the US and around
Speaker 1: the world. That's Michelle Terry, CEO of November, catching up
Speaker 1: with her from Melbourne, Australia. You are listening to Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week coming up conversational commerce. It's coming to a
Speaker 1: virtual store near you. We'll hear more when we check
Speaker 1: in with the CEO of Live Person, Rob Laicasio. This
Speaker 1: is Bloomberg is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer from
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Radio. Well, many retailers and brands pivoted to digital
Speaker 1: if they weren't already there because of the coronavirus. We
Speaker 1: talked about that with Rob Licasio. He's founder, chairman and
Speaker 1: CEO of Live Person. It's an a powered conversational platform
Speaker 1: for consumers to engage with companies. Rob reminded us it's
Speaker 1: not just about heading to a website, it's about virtual
Speaker 1: face to face shopping. Check it out. The retailers we're
Speaker 1: working with now on on two things. One is obviously
Speaker 1: that they're moving. Some people are moving more heavy to digital.
Speaker 1: Where they were in the past they were just relying
Speaker 1: on stores. So we're powering like we we have one
Speaker 1: of them. We just signed one of the world's largest jewels.
Speaker 1: We've got thousands of stores, some are open, some are not,
Speaker 1: but they want to sell jewelry and people want to
Speaker 1: ask questions and they want to have these conversations with experts.
Speaker 1: So we're we've powered AI experts to um you know,
Speaker 1: to drive conversations consumers to sell in diamond rings and
Speaker 1: things like that. And then now also in the store
Speaker 1: is that people are coming in the stores where they're open,
Speaker 1: but they want to be socially distanced and they want
Speaker 1: to look at things, but they don't want a salesperson
Speaker 1: in their face. So we now have created that. Next
Speaker 1: to the products is a little QR code. You take
Speaker 1: your phone out, you hovered over the QR code, and
Speaker 1: then you start messaging an automation or a virtual agent
Speaker 1: who someone who's not there, who someplace else, who will ask,
Speaker 1: who will answer questions about jewelry and things like that,
Speaker 1: and then stay connected you after you buy to make
Speaker 1: sure everything's okay. So it's opened up a different way
Speaker 1: to sell for the holiday season. Seeing a lot of
Speaker 1: demand right now because I think most people are gonna
Speaker 1: be buying online, and but the retailers want to create
Speaker 1: the special connection that they would in a store with
Speaker 1: a human. They want to create those those moments, those conversations,
Speaker 1: but do it digitally, and that's what we're powering over
Speaker 1: messaging with AI. You know, this certainly concurs with We
Speaker 1: caught up with Brian Duffy, CEO of Watches of Switzerland
Speaker 1: group a few weeks ago and he said, you know,
Speaker 1: they already had a pretty significant digital presence. But you know,
Speaker 1: it went from beyond just checking out the website to
Speaker 1: actually doing Zoom or you know some other you know
Speaker 1: call virtual call on a platform with a customer, you know,
Speaker 1: where they could have some face to face interaction. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, we we actually launched the platform called Hey Experts.
Speaker 1: It just launched about two months ago, and it's for
Speaker 1: experts like pilates, instructors and teachers and all that to
Speaker 1: get online and use UM video like Zoom and stuff
Speaker 1: like this. But it enables them to sort of manage
Speaker 1: their customers. So it handles scheduling and payments and all
Speaker 1: of that and UM and we're having great successes with
Speaker 1: that right now because all of that got moved. Remember
Speaker 1: I just saw like the plots instructor in his rostructor
Speaker 1: shut her studio down. She joined the platform. She brought
Speaker 1: seven other instructors with her and now they're giving of
Speaker 1: their lessons online and we're powering that. So so we
Speaker 1: we talked about conversational commerce. It's about you know, these
Speaker 1: live interactions. There's these scenarios where it's not good enough
Speaker 1: to just show up at a website and you know,
Speaker 1: put something in a shopping card and never ask a question.
Speaker 1: Most high valued products and services, people want to ask questions,
Speaker 1: and we power those and we power it with AI
Speaker 1: part of those automating those conversations. Yeah, it's you know,
Speaker 1: and I always feel like we've had chats with certain things.
Speaker 1: But you're right, like, especially when it comes to high
Speaker 1: end and the ability to really, you know, potentially get
Speaker 1: somebody a face, right, you're more inclined to maybe make
Speaker 1: that purchase as a result. Yeah, And I think what
Speaker 1: happened was, and we've seen this, that a lot of
Speaker 1: people had websites, even small businesses have websites, but there's
Speaker 1: scores were shut down. They had no way to connect
Speaker 1: with those consumers who normally come into stores, Like they
Speaker 1: didn't have a mailing list, they didn't have their phone numbers,
Speaker 1: you know, like they may have some So what we
Speaker 1: found is that they started to think about I should
Speaker 1: have been messaging with them. I should have had that
Speaker 1: the same way I'm messaging my friends and family. I
Speaker 1: should be doing that my customers, and I need a
Speaker 1: system to do it. And I would have stayed connected,
Speaker 1: Like in New York, you know, that's where I live,
Speaker 1: we'd see these pictures dial this phone number. I'm not
Speaker 1: in the store, but you can come here and I'll
Speaker 1: come over and run and sell you something. I heard
Speaker 1: one of our customers, Loads. You know, we're doing a
Speaker 1: lot of great things with them. Uh you know, they're
Speaker 1: they're they're doing awesome right now and we're powering a
Speaker 1: lot of that commerce uh too, conversational commerce, one of
Speaker 1: our largest customers. So you know their success, you can
Speaker 1: see it. They've had just a tremendous amount of obviously
Speaker 1: shift to digital, and we're doing a lot of selling
Speaker 1: on that website with them, which is driving our growth. Right.
Speaker 1: We had an amazing quarter. A lot of this, you
Speaker 1: driven by what's happened with covid and the shift from retail,
Speaker 1: and so they just came out my mind because I
Speaker 1: heard the commercial aboubum that's okay, No, you know what's
Speaker 1: interesting that you say that Loads, because I was actually
Speaker 1: looking at um like buying some paint on line and
Speaker 1: just there's a bunch of different companies and it's amazing.
Speaker 1: And I'm assuming when you talk AI too, it's some
Speaker 1: of those chats that just you know, they're like answer
Speaker 1: these questions and you kind of started going back and
Speaker 1: forth and you and you feel like, you know, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm I feel like I'm in the store almost you know,
Speaker 1: talking with someone to figure out what I want and
Speaker 1: what I need. I mean, we are increasingly moving towards
Speaker 1: that as a consumer. Yeah, and I mean there's actually
Speaker 1: a really good story there. We have the one automation
Speaker 1: called Grill Master and uh, this this AI has a
Speaker 1: personality and uh he basically sells you grills and answers
Speaker 1: questions about grills and I'll say things like do you
Speaker 1: want to cook? Stakes on it? Do you want to?
Speaker 1: Do you want to do? Things more like fish? Do
Speaker 1: you like to? And and it's really interesting. And that
Speaker 1: was created by by agents who were taking chats. So
Speaker 1: these are contact center agents who were taking chats and
Speaker 1: they've now elevated and they've become conversational designers for AI.
Speaker 1: They like double their salary. So there's a whole group
Speaker 1: of people out there that are handling voice calls and
Speaker 1: doing this very old job and and they can get
Speaker 1: into the game. And once again at Lows we have
Speaker 1: these we have as you saw, we have many automations
Speaker 1: running on their on their website and and they're but
Speaker 1: but they're created by humans. They're created by people who
Speaker 1: normally we're selling on the website by chat. Right, it
Speaker 1: feels pretty normal or almost natural, if you will. Hey,
Speaker 1: I kind of ask you just to take a step
Speaker 1: away for a second. Earnings. I mean, you guys are
Speaker 1: at this year. What has business been like? How busy
Speaker 1: have you guys been because amid the pandemic. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: we we grew this quarter, we grew last quarter. Um,
Speaker 1: we hit the rule of forty. I mean, it's been
Speaker 1: pretty great year for us. And the pandemic what it
Speaker 1: did first was shut down physical contact centers and and
Speaker 1: the agents were sent home and you know, it's just
Speaker 1: very hard to like route a voice calls as someone's
Speaker 1: home and and and you know, so what happened was
Speaker 1: our customers, these the biggest brands of the world, telcos
Speaker 1: and retailers, they said, look, we want to automate that.
Speaker 1: We should have done it a long time ago, and
Speaker 1: now we have to do it. And that's what's been
Speaker 1: driving the tremendous growth in our business. Then then we
Speaker 1: add that the retail things we talked about, insurances coming
Speaker 1: on big, and even you know, we we signed last
Speaker 1: year a bunch of airlines like Delta Airlines and hotels.
Speaker 1: We were very focused on hospitality and and they doubled down.
Speaker 1: Now they're like, even though their businesses and is majorly
Speaker 1: impacted and they're in a lull, they're now retooling their
Speaker 1: businesses using our technology because when they come through this,
Speaker 1: they don't want to do it the same way they
Speaker 1: did it. They wanted that when you're on your way
Speaker 1: to an airport, UH and your flights delay, do you
Speaker 1: get a message? But not only to get a message,
Speaker 1: you can then UH communicate with nation to rebook when
Speaker 1: you arrive in the airport. They can give you information
Speaker 1: when you're on the plane, they can stay connected with
Speaker 1: maybe you want to book a vacation a month later.
Speaker 1: They want to be connected to you. So they envisioned
Speaker 1: this connected experience that doesn't exist today, and they're and
Speaker 1: they're going they're doubling down on using technology like ours
Speaker 1: to do that. We you know, there's the shift from
Speaker 1: voice to messaging to AI. That's the stuff we talked about,
Speaker 1: But the bigger shift is the shift from e commerce
Speaker 1: UH to conversational commerce. And if you can envision a
Speaker 1: world where you're just you're communicating with the machine, not
Speaker 1: going to a search, searching on Google, hitting a landing
Speaker 1: page of a website, scrambling around looking around. Maybe you
Speaker 1: have to then pick up the phone and call a
Speaker 1: contact center because it's something that you've happened on the website,
Speaker 1: or you need more information. Imagine just saying, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm looking for to buy a car with the machine. Okay, great?
Speaker 1: What what? What do you want? A family? For your family?
Speaker 1: Is it for your single I want this type of car? Great?
Speaker 1: And it just helps you through it without going from
Speaker 1: search to landing page to phone call to email outbound
Speaker 1: email marketing. You keep it in a single conversation all
Speaker 1: the way through. And that's going to happen. Like what
Speaker 1: we're trying to build. Have you ever seen the movie Her.
Speaker 1: We're trying to build that type of AI for all
Speaker 1: of our customers, like that loving caring AI. And we're
Speaker 1: going to get there and and we're and and it
Speaker 1: will replace e commerce. We will not be going to websites,
Speaker 1: like my kids won't be going to a website and
Speaker 1: scrounging around and putting something in a shopping cart. They'll
Speaker 1: just talk to a machine and get things done. It's
Speaker 1: really kind of wild, right, it's just it's really the
Speaker 1: next step. If you will, hey, listen while we have you. UM,
Speaker 1: I did want to ask you about You run an
Speaker 1: organization called Feeding New York City and you deliver thousands
Speaker 1: of Thanksgiving meals to families and needed each year. I
Speaker 1: know we talked about um your work here in that
Speaker 1: area last time you were on. What do you guys
Speaker 1: seeing in terms of demand among the families in New
Speaker 1: York You know, we're we have major, major problems. I mean,
Speaker 1: we've been delivering turkeys, uh since after nine eleven, and
Speaker 1: we're gonna feed five families this year, so we're we're
Speaker 1: touching in the metro area. You know, all the families
Speaker 1: about eight thousand lower eight thousand families in the shelters
Speaker 1: of New York City. There are so many people who
Speaker 1: are hurting, you know, who have lost their jobs, and
Speaker 1: it's the demand for even what we're doing with turkeys
Speaker 1: is beyond what I've ever seen in the twenty years
Speaker 1: of us doing this. Well. Making sure people have food
Speaker 1: on the table so important of course this holiday season.
Speaker 1: That's Rob Lacasio, founder, chairman and CEO of Live Person.
Speaker 1: He's really impacting our world in so many ways. We're
Speaker 1: going to talk more about food and security. That's going
Speaker 1: to happen later on in our broadcast. And that wraps
Speaker 1: up the first hour of the weekend edition of Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. I'm Carol Masser. Coming up
Speaker 1: in our next hour, the biggest legal battle of the
Speaker 1: pandemic will decide if insurance pays. That story in the
Speaker 1: magazine heading to the Hampton's will have a real estate check.
Speaker 1: Also Comic Reliefs mission to food and Security in our
Speaker 1: World and comic Paul Riser on the talk show host
Speaker 1: that inspired him and his streaming series that's coming up
Speaker 1: on Bloomberg Business Week. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week with Garrol Masser from Bloomberg Radio. Hi, I'm
Speaker 1: Carol Masser. Coming up in our second hour of the
Speaker 1: weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week. Highlights from our daily
Speaker 1: radio show, including stories in the magazine and some of
Speaker 1: our favorite interviews, and that included one with Comic Relief
Speaker 1: u US CEO Allison Moore tackling the really important issue
Speaker 1: of food and security. We also check in with comedian, actor,
Speaker 1: writer and author Paul Riser. He was back on bringing
Speaker 1: his series. Here's Johnny first up a story in the magazine.
Speaker 1: We've talked about this with several business owners, many of
Speaker 1: the restaurant space, but it really affects all kinds of
Speaker 1: and all sizes of businesses. It's about how the big
Speaker 1: insurance companies have by and large refused to pay business
Speaker 1: inter uption claims and the lawyer that's leading the charge
Speaker 1: against them. Bloomberg News legal reporter David Yaffee Beleni talked
Speaker 1: to Bloomberg business Week editor Joe Webber and me about it.
Speaker 1: When David came to us with this pitch, I think
Speaker 1: he really just immediately got our attention because we're about
Speaker 1: to see a case brought to a court by an
Speaker 1: attorney in New Orleans, and it is basically the shot
Speaker 1: across the Bow, and I think all eyes are going
Speaker 1: to be on it because it will be sort of
Speaker 1: it's basically business versus insurance, and there's probably billions of
Speaker 1: dollars in the sway in terms of how this one
Speaker 1: UM sways effectively. UM and he happens to be an
Speaker 1: incredibly colorful character as well, so that made the story
Speaker 1: that much more enjoyable to read. It's a movie in
Speaker 1: the making. I have to say, exactly, David, who is
Speaker 1: this lawyer that we're talking about. He's a plaintiff lawyer
Speaker 1: in New Orleans named John hotailing Um who's basically been
Speaker 1: suing insurance companies after major disasters since Hurricane Katrina. So
Speaker 1: he has a track record of representing businesses and coverage disputes,
Speaker 1: and this dispute over business interruption insurance is sort of
Speaker 1: the latest iteration of that. And how much money could
Speaker 1: we potentially be looking at here, like what what what's
Speaker 1: involved in this particular case and then what cases to come.
Speaker 1: So the amount of money in this particular case in
Speaker 1: New Orleans isn't entirely clear yet because the restaurant that
Speaker 1: he's representing hasn't actually filed a claim. Um, they're preemptively
Speaker 1: suing to kind of establish the legal precedent that insurers
Speaker 1: should be on the hook for damage caused by the
Speaker 1: pandemic um. But if you, you know, broaden this out
Speaker 1: to all the businesses across the country that have business
Speaker 1: interruption insurance and are suing to force their insurers to
Speaker 1: pay up. One industry estimate puts it in between fifty
Speaker 1: two billion dollars and two and twenty three billion dollars
Speaker 1: a month that insurers would have to pay to cover
Speaker 1: the damage caused by the pandemic. And the argument that
Speaker 1: the insurance industry is making is that this would essentially
Speaker 1: wipe out their reserves. It's just not feasible for them
Speaker 1: to cover this many claims. I have to say. I mean,
Speaker 1: this kind of gets to like, why do you have insurance,
Speaker 1: right and this whole idea of unprecedented when it comes
Speaker 1: to acts of either natural disasters or you know, just
Speaker 1: unexplained events. And I feel like that's going to be
Speaker 1: talked about a lot, David, when it comes to these cases. Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: I mean, the the other argument that that the insurers
Speaker 1: keep making it that it's totally unprecedented because we've had
Speaker 1: catastrophes in the past, but they're they're isolated to a
Speaker 1: certain geographic region. There's a there's a hurricane in New
Speaker 1: Orleans which destroys businesses there, but at least it only affects,
Speaker 1: you know, one city or or a few cities, um,
Speaker 1: Whereas the pandemic is like a hurricane happening in every
Speaker 1: city in the country at the same time, and every
Speaker 1: business in the country is disrupted in a major way,
Speaker 1: and it's just not possible for the insurers to respond. Um.
Speaker 1: The interesting thing is, you know, the pandemic took most
Speaker 1: parts of American society by surprise, but actually the insurance
Speaker 1: companies have been had anticipated at this moment for a
Speaker 1: couple of decades. After after stars UM, a few of
Speaker 1: the insurance companies were forced to make big payouts to
Speaker 1: companies in China that had to shut down UM during
Speaker 1: during what well, you know, stars was sort of reading
Speaker 1: through Asia in the early two thousand's UM. And after that,
Speaker 1: insurance companies inserted language and some of these policies that
Speaker 1: seems to exclude damage caused by a virus from coverage,
Speaker 1: and part of the legal battle is whether that language
Speaker 1: should actually apply to the pandemic. UM. There are also
Speaker 1: policies that don't include that sort of language. So the
Speaker 1: insurance companies have been have been thinking about this for
Speaker 1: a while, so they're not they're not entirely you know,
Speaker 1: up paired as this kind of legal battle ramps up. Okay, David,
Speaker 1: can we talk about the Lambas? Yes? I said this
Speaker 1: guy was colorful and and literally he has colorful cars. Um,
Speaker 1: What what is with the Lamborghinis. So John Hoteiling is
Speaker 1: a is A is a big luxury car enthusiasts. He
Speaker 1: has an extensive collection of Ferraris and Lamborghinis. He he
Speaker 1: told me that that as a child growing up in
Speaker 1: New Orleans, he had a catalog, a kind of Lamborghini
Speaker 1: catalog or buyer's guy that he would flip through as
Speaker 1: a kid, sort of fantasizing about cars that he might
Speaker 1: be able to afford one day. And he kept this catalog.
Speaker 1: And when he actually became really wealthy, um, after you know,
Speaker 1: winning tons of big cases in the early two thousand's,
Speaker 1: you know, he went through this catalog and decided that
Speaker 1: he would buy every single model of Lamborghini advertised in it.
Speaker 1: And that was seventeen Lamborghinis. And so he's got those
Speaker 1: parked at a garage near his mansion in New Orleans,
Speaker 1: right right near this famous garden district. Um. And you
Speaker 1: know he's added to it over the years. He races
Speaker 1: luxury cars. He racism in a in a sort of
Speaker 1: in a big race in Italy every year. Um. So
Speaker 1: it's a it's a pretty it's a pretty vast and
Speaker 1: impressive collection of luxury vehicles. He's he's a he's a
Speaker 1: real person, and he's really passionate about about this cause.
Speaker 1: I mean he's he's not somebody who just showed up
Speaker 1: on the scene and started suing insurance companies because he
Speaker 1: thought that this was, you know, this was like the biggest,
Speaker 1: biggest chance to make money off the pandemic or something
Speaker 1: like that. Um, he's he's been kind of an advocate
Speaker 1: on behalf of insurance policy holders since Katrina, which happened
Speaker 1: in his in his hometown. UM, he's really knowledgeable about
Speaker 1: these issues that plaintiffs slury behind it all. An interesting individual.
Speaker 1: Read more about him in Bloomberg News legal reporter David
Speaker 1: Yaffee Belany's story. It's in the magazine. That was David
Speaker 1: with Bloomberg Business Week editor Jill Webber. You're listening to
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week. While many businesses are struggling during the pandemic,
Speaker 1: a lot of real estate is doing well. We check
Speaker 1: in with the president of Bespoke Real Estate. That's next.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Garrol
Speaker 1: Masser from Bloomberg Radio. One real estate story cut our
Speaker 1: attention this week. It was on the Bloomberg it's about
Speaker 1: how his workers stay home and office building sit vacant.
Speaker 1: Some see a new role for New York City's Business
Speaker 1: District as a site for affordable housing. Now on the
Speaker 1: other end of the spectrum, we continue to hear about
Speaker 1: the flight from New York City yup to the suburbs,
Speaker 1: but also to upscale secondary markets. We got some insight
Speaker 1: on that from Kody Vatchinsky, founding partner and president of
Speaker 1: Bespoke real Estate. Simply put, it's pretty busy in the Hampton's.
Speaker 1: My world has been for Neddick uh filled with good blessing,
Speaker 1: filled with a lot of interesting conversation. Uh. So, we
Speaker 1: are based primarily in the Hamptons, and we work in
Speaker 1: markets such as New York City and South Florida, and
Speaker 1: we are advisors to a lot of these what I
Speaker 1: would call sub market secondary markets all over the country.
Speaker 1: So as we're alluding to, many of them have benefited
Speaker 1: and seen an exodus out of urban areas like they've
Speaker 1: never seen before. So for several people in the industry,
Speaker 1: the residential industry, it's been a gang busters year. Um.
Speaker 1: So we are on the tail end of summer season
Speaker 1: heading into more of a primary season. Well, talk to
Speaker 1: me about those secondary markets. It's interesting that you say that.
Speaker 1: I I hosted a panel from Milk in this year,
Speaker 1: virtual panel obviously, but it was global real estate, so
Speaker 1: it was someone in the UK, folks in the US,
Speaker 1: someone in China, um and just what was going on,
Speaker 1: and we talked a lot about the secondary and tertiary
Speaker 1: markets and that how we're continuing to see a trend
Speaker 1: that was already happening, but we saw pick up a
Speaker 1: lot of momentum because of COVID nineteen. What are you
Speaker 1: seeing on that front? Completely right? I think, Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: the Hampton's is a prime example. Palm Beach, Miami's an
Speaker 1: odd duck because it's primary for a lot of people,
Speaker 1: but secondary, tertiary for many. I think as people take
Speaker 1: a hard look at their lives and start to reprogram
Speaker 1: how they live, where they want to raise their children,
Speaker 1: where the best portfolio allocation and the potential for upside
Speaker 1: will be. You know, there's a lot of balls up
Speaker 1: in the air. So with safety I think as the
Speaker 1: primary driver of where to place the liquidity, Uh, it's
Speaker 1: in the capital. So for me, I think that a
Speaker 1: lot of these markets are really on the upward trend
Speaker 1: of the curve. I think the larger question will be
Speaker 1: is what does two to three years look like as
Speaker 1: inventory is absorbed and as the dust sort of settles
Speaker 1: on new data points and a new level of pricing,
Speaker 1: and what that's going to mean and the overarching evolution
Speaker 1: of these micro markets. Yeah, I think that's a really
Speaker 1: important part of this, right. I think we're all just
Speaker 1: trying to figure out. Okay, nobody wants to be not nobody,
Speaker 1: but a lot of people don't want to be in
Speaker 1: New York City right now, or any major city where
Speaker 1: they're worried about the virus or where cases are starting
Speaker 1: to rise again. Right so they've just either rented a
Speaker 1: house bought a house. But I do wonder if you
Speaker 1: buy a house, you know, that's not something you necessarily
Speaker 1: buy a house in Greenwich and then come back in
Speaker 1: three years, or do you. I think it depends on
Speaker 1: who you're speaking with. I think now it's an opportunity
Speaker 1: for a lot of people. You know, they're foreshattering where
Speaker 1: they're going to be and how they're going to live.
Speaker 1: I think if you're specifically speaking about the ultra high
Speaker 1: network individual or the high networed individual, you know, they
Speaker 1: have more flexibility in terms of where they want to
Speaker 1: be and how they want to live, and in good
Speaker 1: markets and bad markets. I think they buy based on
Speaker 1: a necessity. Um. Even though ultra luxury real estate doesn't
Speaker 1: operate on necessity, it operates purely and desire and function,
Speaker 1: but be opportunity, you know. So I think that they
Speaker 1: can always come back to the city, or they can
Speaker 1: always sell their expensive Greenwich home to the right person,
Speaker 1: because the microcosm is relatively finite, you know, There's only
Speaker 1: so many people who play in that segment of the market.
Speaker 1: So it's really an acute conversation. It's hard to paint
Speaker 1: with the broad brush other than what we're seeing in
Speaker 1: terms of the exodus, so to speak, and people looking
Speaker 1: at other markets where they have not typically been operating
Speaker 1: in or living in, really taking it on to learn
Speaker 1: more about the market, invest into that market, and see
Speaker 1: if it's a place that they can call home for
Speaker 1: an extended prity time. UM. I do want to ask
Speaker 1: you what are they happening to like right now, I'm
Speaker 1: I'm looking at my office window and we use a
Speaker 1: barometer of traffic and it is back to back and
Speaker 1: it has been it's been a particularly busy off season.
Speaker 1: I don't think that term is the being diluted as
Speaker 1: we as we see it in full in front of
Speaker 1: our eyes. People are living here full time and you
Speaker 1: reverse communing back to the city and other places. So
Speaker 1: it's busy. And you know, we have offices down to
Speaker 1: South Florida seeing concept a lot of our folks who
Speaker 1: are in sort of the Golden Triangle of the northeast
Speaker 1: South Florida and somewhere in the midwest Colorado. All those
Speaker 1: markets are seeing people spend more time you know there
Speaker 1: in quote unquote the off seasons. Yeah, it is interesting.
Speaker 1: We talked with someone, I think it was up in
Speaker 1: Aspen and the same thing that they said, you know,
Speaker 1: and they're in the hospitality industry, and they said, we
Speaker 1: were doing actually well because this is where people were going, um,
Speaker 1: certainly over the summer months before, you know, some concerns
Speaker 1: about some some newer spikes here. So you know, what
Speaker 1: do you think. I mean, you understand the property market,
Speaker 1: and I do wonder. You know, we just did a story,
Speaker 1: uh in the break a little bit about what's happening
Speaker 1: in maybe some of the midtown Manhattan offices, and I
Speaker 1: know you're in residential UM, but I do wonder what
Speaker 1: are the longer term trends that you think we'll maybe
Speaker 1: stay with us or a longer term maybe maybe it's
Speaker 1: only longer term for three to five years and then
Speaker 1: it changes again. I just do wonder when you look
Speaker 1: at what's been going on, what stays with us UM.
Speaker 1: It's a great question. I don't think anyone has a
Speaker 1: crystal ball UM spoke. We are specialists. Are our model
Speaker 1: is we only list properties of the tame million and above.
Speaker 1: We don't have any in the page in the independent
Speaker 1: agents we operate more is a private equity firm specialist.
Speaker 1: So we have the unique perspective of talking with people
Speaker 1: who are of a of a certain strata in terms
Speaker 1: of the real estate and what their intentions are. And
Speaker 1: I think people are ultimately looking at time a little
Speaker 1: bit more critically UM. And those that have the luxury
Speaker 1: to you know, reprogram where they work from, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: how how much they can spend at home versus going
Speaker 1: to an office. I think COVID gave everybody a little
Speaker 1: bit of a gut check as to the reality of
Speaker 1: what they can and cannot do, and it sort of
Speaker 1: dissipated these false pretenses that you had to run and
Speaker 1: rush to an office. Um. You know, it forced people
Speaker 1: to work from home and spend more time with their
Speaker 1: family and just think about time and a more critical fashion.
Speaker 1: So um, I think from my vantage point, you're going
Speaker 1: to get a shift in people's desire to be home
Speaker 1: and be with their family. Uh. And also at the
Speaker 1: same time of yearning to get back towards socialization and
Speaker 1: being in a restaurant and being with friends somewhere that
Speaker 1: you didn't feel like there was a potential risk. So
Speaker 1: I think you have two ships in the night kind
Speaker 1: of passing in different directions, both of equal importance. That's
Speaker 1: Kody Vachinsky, founding partner in president of Bespoke real Estate,
Speaker 1: really talking about the changing and constantly shifting priorities of
Speaker 1: our world, and of course all of it impacted by
Speaker 1: the pandemic, really making all of us rethink everything in
Speaker 1: our world. Well, something the pandemic has also impacted big time,
Speaker 1: and that is the ability of Americans to put food
Speaker 1: on their tables. We'll hear from Comic Relief US CEO
Speaker 1: Allison Moore on the growing hunger crisis in America. This
Speaker 1: is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Gerrol Mazer
Speaker 1: from Bloomberg Radio. Our final half, our common threat of comedy,
Speaker 1: but perhaps not what you might be thinking. Shortly, we're
Speaker 1: gonna check in with comic actor, author writer Paul Riser,
Speaker 1: who pays homage to the comedian who inspired so many
Speaker 1: we're talking about Johnny Carson. First up, though, to the
Speaker 1: organization behind Red Nose Day. They've raised two million dollars
Speaker 1: to help over million children globally. It's all about ending
Speaker 1: child poverty. Comic Relief is the organization behind it all.
Speaker 1: Ellison Moore is a former chief revenue officer at SoundCloud.
Speaker 1: She's currently CEO of Comic Relief US. She reminds us
Speaker 1: that the multiple crises of our times has exacerbated the
Speaker 1: problem of food and security. It's one thing to kind
Speaker 1: of understand deeply the sort of health crisis that's happened
Speaker 1: with COVID nineteen, and certainly that's the first thing to understand,
Speaker 1: but then when you take into account the economic crisis
Speaker 1: and and then actually you know, you layer onto that
Speaker 1: just sort of the sort of racial justice reckoning that
Speaker 1: happened in this summer, that the the world, our country, Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, the globe is sort of dealing with these
Speaker 1: three factors and when they have caused it immeasurable domino
Speaker 1: effect against the support structures the and just like the
Speaker 1: way people are are what lifelines they have for all things,
Speaker 1: whether it's the health, whether it's safety, whether it's their
Speaker 1: educational framework, whether it's food and the ability to kind
Speaker 1: of find uh food resources, you know, from whether how
Speaker 1: much food they have in their house to even the
Speaker 1: kind of quality of food. And that's just it's happening
Speaker 1: across the globe. And I think it's just that is
Speaker 1: the thing of COVID nineteen that it's you know, we
Speaker 1: call it one thing, but it has so many tentacles
Speaker 1: into so many other effects. Well, I do wonder to
Speaker 1: you know, Allison, these are these are problems, whether it's education,
Speaker 1: whether it's safety, whether it's health, you know, or inequities
Speaker 1: and healthcare, or whether it's you know, access to having
Speaker 1: a safety net so that if there you can't work
Speaker 1: for a couple of months, you know, the Rainy Day
Speaker 1: Fund we found, you know, people don't many Americans just
Speaker 1: don't have it. And now we're struggling, you know, to
Speaker 1: even just put food on the table or keep a
Speaker 1: roof over their heads. I do wonder you guys have drawn,
Speaker 1: you know, put a lot of money towards this, and
Speaker 1: you've also drawn a lot of attention to us what
Speaker 1: changes What are the policies that we can think about
Speaker 1: that actually make it different, you know, that change the
Speaker 1: trajectory of these people's lives. I think, you know, from
Speaker 1: our from our standpoint, it's you know, there there is
Speaker 1: a conversation to we have with policies, but there's also
Speaker 1: a conversation to be had about programs and the kind
Speaker 1: of programs that actually move the needle to not only
Speaker 1: support from an infrastructure perspective. So in the in the
Speaker 1: in the Opportunity for frold Plate project, you know, we're
Speaker 1: talking about trying to raise dollars to support the fourteen
Speaker 1: million children in the US that are currently not getting
Speaker 1: enough to eat, and that is you know, and over
Speaker 1: two d sixty five million people globally who are facing
Speaker 1: severe threats of hunger in for all the reasons that
Speaker 1: we've already discussed. And so in some ways, you know,
Speaker 1: there is a as I mentioned, there is a policy conversation,
Speaker 1: but there is also like a very straight up you know,
Speaker 1: we need to get dollars to the right organizations who
Speaker 1: are on the ground that can actually sort of fulfill
Speaker 1: some of these basic needs are happening today, and I
Speaker 1: think that first and foremost, and if you look at
Speaker 1: it from from the health you know, getting getting access
Speaker 1: to healthcare, preventative healthcare, getting responses to what's obviously COVID nineteen,
Speaker 1: or even the myriad of other things that are out there.
Speaker 1: You know, flu season is coming up. That's even something
Speaker 1: that we need to be cognitive of um. And so
Speaker 1: the kind of services that fite that I think on
Speaker 1: on food scarcity and food insecurity. You know, you can
Speaker 1: think of the ties into education and the and the
Speaker 1: structure that a lot of kids get some of their
Speaker 1: best meals within the school complex. If the school is
Speaker 1: not open and you have distributed learning, not only is
Speaker 1: there a learning loss happening, but there is also kind
Speaker 1: of access to food is cut off. And so you know,
Speaker 1: I think from our standpoint, you know, we are this season.
Speaker 1: You know, we took a look at you know, Red
Speaker 1: Noose Days mission is to keep children safe, healthy, educated,
Speaker 1: and empowered, and we do that through a variety of
Speaker 1: programs because over twenty five Grand Tea partners, some of
Speaker 1: whom are the ones that you're familiar with, Feeding America
Speaker 1: Boys and Growth Cup of America. We raise public funds too,
Speaker 1: then uh make sure that those dollars go to these
Speaker 1: organizations that have these deeply rooted programs. This season in
Speaker 1: November and December is a holiday season, and I know
Speaker 1: what's going to happen around mine holiday table. I'm sure
Speaker 1: some folks your listeners are going to think about that too.
Speaker 1: There are going to be folks who are not going
Speaker 1: to have such security around that table. And in fact,
Speaker 1: it's not just around the holiday dinner. It's it's this
Speaker 1: whole every day. And I know we've been talking about it,
Speaker 1: but officially you guys launched the Full Plate Project program
Speaker 1: and just tell us a little bit more about it.
Speaker 1: I know you've been hitting on it, um, Alison, but
Speaker 1: just what it I mean, it encompasses a lot. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: so thank you. Um. You know, I think everyone knows
Speaker 1: the lad news day of a campaign that activates in
Speaker 1: the spring um supporting children. But honestly, with the unprecedented
Speaker 1: need everything we've been talking about with COVID and that
Speaker 1: we're seeing around the country and around the world, we
Speaker 1: we thought it was the right time. That's Allison More,
Speaker 1: CEO of Comic Relief US, and again reminding us about
Speaker 1: existing problems that were out there before COVID nineteen, but
Speaker 1: again exacerbated because of the coronavirus, and also that important
Speaker 1: concept of a layering of problems, whether it's a health crisis,
Speaker 1: whether it's racial injustices, the inequities that are out there,
Speaker 1: and really what Comic Relief is doing to really improve
Speaker 1: them and make them better for so many Americans in
Speaker 1: our country. Well, straight ahead on Bloomberg Business Week, comedian, actor,
Speaker 1: writer and author Paul Riiser is back with us, marketing
Speaker 1: back to another time with his series Here's Johnny. That's
Speaker 1: coming up on business Week. This is Bloomberg. This is
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week with Gerrol Masser from Bloomberg Radio. We're
Speaker 1: gonna wrap up this week with some lighter fair I
Speaker 1: feel like you could all use it. It's been a
Speaker 1: jam packed news week, that's for sure. What we did
Speaker 1: is we checked in once again with comedian, actor, writer
Speaker 1: and author Paul Riser. He created a series it's now
Speaker 1: streaming on Peacock and it really taps into the childhoods
Speaker 1: of so many. It takes us back to a time when,
Speaker 1: if you can remember this, three networks dominated television network television,
Speaker 1: and it's also a time when some fifty million viewers
Speaker 1: tuned in to watch one late night talk show host
Speaker 1: and comedian check it out. This is an interesting little journey. UH.
Speaker 1: I created with a buddy of mine, my friend David Timon.
Speaker 1: We create of the show called There's Johnny, which is
Speaker 1: UH debuting on on Sunday on Peacock. And it's a
Speaker 1: weird thing. Well I'll talk about the show, but it's
Speaker 1: weird because it's it's not quite debuting. It was on
Speaker 1: another platform. We we did it two years ago and
Speaker 1: it was on very quietly, so to not disturb anybody.
Speaker 1: Was not particularly promoted a hint, don't do that. You
Speaker 1: want to disturb people. You want to make sure that
Speaker 1: you know, you know. That wasn't my decision. They decided
Speaker 1: they didn't want to bother anybody. But um, you know,
Speaker 1: I had always thought that once the show was on streaming,
Speaker 1: well let's just be there and people will get to
Speaker 1: it whenever. It's always there. And then I found out
Speaker 1: a few months ago I go, hey, there's Johnny is
Speaker 1: no longer up. I want it, just because they had
Speaker 1: apparently a two year contract, don't uh deal. So anyway,
Speaker 1: so it sort of fell into the ether. It was nowhere,
Speaker 1: and it was this summer Peacock was launching, and I said, well,
Speaker 1: this is a show that if any show belongs on Peacock,
Speaker 1: this is it. It takes place, There's Johnny, takes place
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy two behind the scenes of the Tonight
Speaker 1: Show with Johnny Carson. So literally, the Peacock is in
Speaker 1: our opening credit. It takes place, that's it's in NB
Speaker 1: shot in NBC hall, NBC hallways and stuff, and uh
Speaker 1: extra icing on the cake that since we shot this
Speaker 1: two years ago, uh, one of our wonderful, wonderful stars,
Speaker 1: Jane Levy, has gone on to become a big star
Speaker 1: for an NBC show called Zoe's Extraordinary Playlist. So we
Speaker 1: called the people of Peacock. We said, you know, you
Speaker 1: have this wonderful star and Jane Levy, she's also in
Speaker 1: this show. I'll bet you people would like to see it,
Speaker 1: and luckily they went, yes, they would, So they're putting
Speaker 1: on which you know, it's one of these sometimes when
Speaker 1: the shows die, they just die. But this was so
Speaker 1: good that it felt it was worth the extra effort
Speaker 1: to fight for it. I have to say in our
Speaker 1: planning meeting when we're talking about and that you were
Speaker 1: going to come on and talk about it, and we
Speaker 1: all watched the trailer and caught some clips of it,
Speaker 1: and we all were like, this is really good. I mean,
Speaker 1: first of all, it takes us back to the seventies,
Speaker 1: which was such a kind of iconic era. There was
Speaker 1: so much going on. But it's also you must have
Speaker 1: loved working on it as a comedian. I mean, Johnny
Speaker 1: Carson is, you know, kind of the gold standard in
Speaker 1: terms of, you know, what we thought about when it
Speaker 1: came to comedy or really created the world that we
Speaker 1: live in today. Yeah, very very much. And I'm all,
Speaker 1: you know, in my class of comedians, my generation, we
Speaker 1: that was the goal to get on Johnny, and for
Speaker 1: all of us getting on that first time was like
Speaker 1: the huge reward, and it was also the currency that
Speaker 1: everybody else could understand. So you know, your parents went,
Speaker 1: I guess my son's not a total loser, because we
Speaker 1: just thought he was staying up late and making no money.
Speaker 1: But he was on The Tonight Show, and Johnny liked him,
Speaker 1: so he must be okay. But what we did is
Speaker 1: very You're right, it's a very interesting time. Seventy two was,
Speaker 1: first of all, just when Johnny Carson moved the show
Speaker 1: from New York out to Burbank and it took on.
Speaker 1: It's almost like it became in color. Then you know,
Speaker 1: it suddenly tore on a new life. And it also
Speaker 1: coincided with the beginning of the comedy scene in the
Speaker 1: comedy clubs, the Comedy Comedy Store and the West Coast,
Speaker 1: and what we did in uh, you know, it's really
Speaker 1: kind of unique. And we have we partnered with Carson
Speaker 1: Entertainment Company UM for the rights to use the clips
Speaker 1: we have some way little clips of episodes of his,
Speaker 1: of actual broadcasts that are in our show as part
Speaker 1: of our show, because if we're behind the scenes and
Speaker 1: they're putting us and when you see we need to
Speaker 1: get George Colin, and there's George Colin and there's Johnny
Speaker 1: and so for me, you're it was absolutely a treat
Speaker 1: to go into the vault. We had this wonderful exclusive
Speaker 1: access to the vaults, and I would said, well, let's
Speaker 1: just pick out my favorite. So let's go get George
Speaker 1: Colin Boom, Albert Brooks, and Steve Martin. And it's an
Speaker 1: interesting thing because for people of a certain age who
Speaker 1: remember Johnny fondly, it's a lovely way to revisit and
Speaker 1: see pieces of the show. But it really ultimately has
Speaker 1: nothing to do with the show, because it's really about
Speaker 1: this eighteen year old kid Lands, you know, through some
Speaker 1: silly accident, ends up working there and he meets this
Speaker 1: twenty five year old one of well, Jane Levy, who
Speaker 1: just makes his head explode because she's unlike anybody he's
Speaker 1: ever met. I have to say, Paul, it's also kind
Speaker 1: of neat is you do dig back into the seventies. Uh,
Speaker 1: the fashion, the sexism, you know, women not pay the
Speaker 1: same as men like you have some you really get
Speaker 1: into it. Yeah, you know, it was. It's hard. So
Speaker 1: many things were so different. I mean it's forty or
Speaker 1: fifty years ago, but almost fifty years ago. And uh,
Speaker 1: you know, there's a great scene where Jane Levy goes
Speaker 1: into her boss with Tony. Tony Danza is the only
Speaker 1: guy who plays an actual person. He plays Johnny Carson's producer,
Speaker 1: Freddie Dakordova and he's brilliant at it. But there's a
Speaker 1: scene where she goes in and she complains that she
Speaker 1: just found out that her her colleague, who's a male,
Speaker 1: gets the has the exact same job. It makes twice
Speaker 1: as much and it doesn't seem fair. And you see
Speaker 1: Tony goes it's not what fair? What do you mean?
Speaker 1: And something's never change, Paul, I'm just gonna changes. But
Speaker 1: it was at that moment it was so foreign. That's
Speaker 1: like I don't even understand the question why would it
Speaker 1: be fair? Like let's start there, um, you know, and
Speaker 1: uh so yeah, And it was Vietnam and our lead
Speaker 1: character is his young eighteen year old whose brother is
Speaker 1: this all American kid who goes to Vietnam and uh
Speaker 1: it doesn't go well so that it impact everything. And
Speaker 1: the part of the fun of the show was taking
Speaker 1: this really sweet innocent kid played by Ian Nelson. He's
Speaker 1: his eighteen year old kid, fresh off a farm and
Speaker 1: through a sort of knuckle headed misunderstanding, ends up working
Speaker 1: at the Tonight Show. So for him to see suddenly
Speaker 1: Hollywood and sex, drugs, rock and roll, and women who
Speaker 1: women who see therapists and and women who are just
Speaker 1: you know, you know, chew chew up men for for fun. Um,
Speaker 1: it's a whole new world. So we get to enter
Speaker 1: this beautiful, complex world through his uh innocent eyes, which
Speaker 1: was a lot of fun to write. Listen, what were
Speaker 1: your memories of your first time on Johnny Carson? I,
Speaker 1: you know, I did it. I did it many times,
Speaker 1: but the first time I did it was. Um. It
Speaker 1: was a moment that we had all planned for, you know,
Speaker 1: or dreamed of. It didn't planned for it, but we
Speaker 1: worked towards it. So it was an interesting, weird, uh
Speaker 1: feeling because he got there suddenly. He didn't feel surprising.
Speaker 1: It felt like, oh okay, I have and I have
Speaker 1: envisioned this so many times. Um, but it was it was.
Speaker 1: It was certainly a turning point for every comic. Your
Speaker 1: first time on Johnny is such an accomplishment and and
Speaker 1: for me, I don't remember ever thinking of anything beyond that,
Speaker 1: Like that was as far as I could picture down
Speaker 1: the road of whatever success might look like, get on
Speaker 1: the Carson Show and then I don't know, um, but
Speaker 1: you know, Johnny was such a big part of our
Speaker 1: lives as comics, but as America, just for America. He
Speaker 1: was in our living rooms, you know, and in our
Speaker 1: bedrooms at eleven thirty at night for thirty years. In
Speaker 1: a way that as great as Jimmy and Jimmy and
Speaker 1: and and Steve and Colan are um, it wasn't the
Speaker 1: same he Johnny was singing her. He sat on that
Speaker 1: throne by himself and uh and we also it was
Speaker 1: when in the very beginning, when you couldn't record it,
Speaker 1: you had to stay up right, so it became it
Speaker 1: became part of your life and and like and you
Speaker 1: remembered it. So when we were doing this show, there's
Speaker 1: Johnny and I was pulling up clips of George Carlin
Speaker 1: and Albert Brooks. I remembered them even though I hadn't
Speaker 1: seen them in forty fifty years. Whatever I was gonna,
Speaker 1: I remember this because I stayed up late and it
Speaker 1: was important to me. So it was really a different
Speaker 1: time in culture just and how people watched television and
Speaker 1: how we related to the people in the stars. And
Speaker 1: there was a reason Johnny was on top of thirty years.
Speaker 1: He was singularly talented. Well, it's interesting that you say
Speaker 1: that to you, like, I mean, it's an error where
Speaker 1: there were three networks essentially, right, three major networks, and
Speaker 1: you were you know, you watched one or the other.
Speaker 1: I was just quick googling. And I think they said
Speaker 1: at that at the peaky it's something like fifty million viewers.
Speaker 1: Like to get your head around that. And everybody the
Speaker 1: next morning would talk about what Johnny talked about. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and he also, you know, he had so many skills
Speaker 1: and attributes, and he was a host, a really a
Speaker 1: genuine host in a way that it seems almost antiquated now.
Speaker 1: And he also he he avoided politics. You know, he
Speaker 1: was very comfortable. He straddled, straddled the world in a
Speaker 1: great way. I mean he was hip, the you know,
Speaker 1: hip people liked him and very conventional rural you know
Speaker 1: he was he was Nebraska and he was also New York.
Speaker 1: He was um and you never knew his politics. We
Speaker 1: even have an episode where somebody does you know, slips
Speaker 1: in an anti Nixon joke and the producer gets incensed
Speaker 1: and said, how dare you you know you don't know Johnny? Johnny,
Speaker 1: do you have any idea what Johnny Carson actually thinks. No,
Speaker 1: that's right, because he doesn't tell you, and it's none
Speaker 1: of but nobody's business. And he that was part of
Speaker 1: his appeal that everybody came to the tent um. He
Speaker 1: would poke fund and you know, a Democratic Republicans, but
Speaker 1: gently it was never really um pointed, and he kind
Speaker 1: of did you know, he kind of did put you
Speaker 1: to bed every night you took you know, whether you
Speaker 1: were watching or just had it on the background. John
Speaker 1: was how you round it off your day and the
Speaker 1: world seemed a little better and you had a couple
Speaker 1: of jokes to start your morning. Remember Johnny joke last
Speaker 1: night and exactly it was a big deal. It was
Speaker 1: a big deal. So I'm thrilled the show is getting
Speaker 1: in a second life. Yeah, great to have another shot, right,
Speaker 1: especially at a time when all of us are looking
Speaker 1: for things to watch. We need content. That, of course
Speaker 1: was comedian, actor, writer and author Paul Riser on his
Speaker 1: series There's Johnny Now streaming on Peacock. Check out to
Speaker 1: our full conversation. It's on our podcast feed. And that
Speaker 1: wraps up the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week from
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Radio. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Carol Masser.
Speaker 1: Be sure to tude in daily to Bloomberg Business Week.
Speaker 1: Monday through Friday, starting at two pm Wall Street Time
Speaker 1: on Bloomberg Radio. You can also hear more of our
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Speaker 1: CEO of November. They are on a widespread mission to
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Speaker 1: so check out her efforts there Bloomberg business Week. It's
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Speaker 1: Have a safe weekend everyone, This is Bloomberg