WEBVTT - Amazon Part 7: The Final Frontier 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:03.480 How do you conclude a legendary business story, the story 0:00:03.520 --> 0:00:06.040 of a company that started in a garage more than 0:00:06.080 --> 0:00:09.840 twenty seven years ago and every single day expands further 0:00:09.920 --> 0:00:13.920 into our neighborhoods, onto our screens, and throughout our lives. 0:00:15.160 --> 0:00:16.960 How do you wrap up the story of an iconic 0:00:17.079 --> 0:00:21.520 entrepreneur like Jeff Bezos who continues to dominate news headlines 0:00:21.840 --> 0:00:26.159 and stir controversy. As I was pondering this question, a 0:00:26.200 --> 0:00:30.160 funny thing happened. Jeff Bezos gave us an ending before 0:00:30.240 --> 0:00:34.040 most people expected, and some bombshell news this evening from Amazon. 0:00:34.120 --> 0:00:36.440 Jeff Bezos says he's stepping down as CEO. And this 0:00:36.479 --> 0:00:38.680 is one of those announcements that when it came through today, 0:00:38.720 --> 0:00:41.279 everyone went, oh, my gosh, what's happening. He's leading, He's 0:00:41.360 --> 0:00:43.240 leaving the company. As far as day to day operation, 0:00:43.320 --> 0:00:47.520 Jeff Bezos has announced that the quarter it was February second, 0:00:47.600 --> 0:00:51.639 two thousand twenty one, and an earnings press release, Amazon 0:00:51.720 --> 0:00:55.000 shocked the world it announced that its iconic founder was 0:00:55.080 --> 0:00:59.160 leaving the CEO role. That summer, he would become executive 0:00:59.240 --> 0:01:03.560 chairman and as protege. A guy named Andy Jassey who 0:01:03.640 --> 0:01:07.040 ran Amazon Web Services would step into the top spot. 0:01:07.920 --> 0:01:11.200 Beazo said he would remain actively involved in new projects 0:01:11.240 --> 0:01:14.720 at the company, but he also spoke of other priorities. 0:01:15.200 --> 0:01:18.360 He sent a memo to all Amazon employees. I asked 0:01:18.360 --> 0:01:21.160 my colleague to read a selection from it. Being a 0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:25.360 CEO of Amazon is a deep responsibility, and it is consuming. 0:01:26.160 --> 0:01:28.880 When you have a responsibility like that, it is hard 0:01:28.920 --> 0:01:32.200 to put attention on anything else. As executive chair, I 0:01:32.240 --> 0:01:35.880 will stay engaged in important Amazon initiatives, but also have 0:01:35.959 --> 0:01:37.920 the time and energy I need to focus on the 0:01:38.000 --> 0:01:41.920 Day One Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, the 0:01:42.000 --> 0:01:46.920 Washington Post, and my other passions. At the time, Basos 0:01:47.040 --> 0:01:49.800 seemingly at a high point. He was the richest person 0:01:49.840 --> 0:01:53.080 in the world. Amazon had surpassed to one trillion dollar 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:56.480 market cap, he had moved past the infamous pr battles 0:01:56.520 --> 0:01:59.320 with the National Enquirer, and he even seemed to have 0:01:59.360 --> 0:02:03.160 gotten over any public embarrassment over his divorce. But now 0:02:03.400 --> 0:02:06.440 Bazos was talking about his interests in philanthropy and its 0:02:06.520 --> 0:02:10.639 pursuit of space exploration with this private company, Blue Origin. 0:02:11.560 --> 0:02:13.720 Things that Amazon were getting to be a lot less 0:02:13.720 --> 0:02:18.000 fun for Bazos, as we covered in previous episodes, Sellers 0:02:18.000 --> 0:02:22.120 in Amazon's marketplace were complaining bitterly about fraud and unfair 0:02:22.160 --> 0:02:27.600 competition from overseas companies. Delivery service providers which employed Amazon 0:02:27.720 --> 0:02:31.000 drivers were grumbling about how the company pressured them to 0:02:31.080 --> 0:02:36.160 work at unsafe speeds. Amazon had so many vocal critics 0:02:36.160 --> 0:02:39.560 in organized labor and on Capitol Hill, and they were 0:02:39.600 --> 0:02:43.840 weaponizing the exorbitant wealth of the tech giants against them. 0:02:43.880 --> 0:02:48.960 Here's Rhode Island Congressman David Cicillini concluding the Congressional hearings 0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:52.640 on big Tech and antitrust. When these laws were written 0:02:52.639 --> 0:02:56.240 in monopolists were men named Rockefeller and Carnegie. The names 0:02:56.240 --> 0:02:59.400 have changed, but the story is the same today that 0:02:59.440 --> 0:03:02.840 the men are named Zuckerberg, Cook, Chai, and Bezos. Their 0:03:02.880 --> 0:03:05.640 controls and marketplace allowed them to do whatever it took 0:03:05.919 --> 0:03:10.079 to crush independent businesses and expand their own power. This 0:03:10.400 --> 0:03:14.960 must end. Bezos had become an object of ire, even scorn, 0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:19.200 for his wealth, his power, and his life of extraordinary leisure. 0:03:19.960 --> 0:03:23.680 His successor, Andy Jassey, would at the very least present 0:03:23.760 --> 0:03:27.920 a humbler target for Amazon's critics. A handover made sense. 0:03:28.880 --> 0:03:31.880 So what was next for Amazon without its iconic leader, 0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:35.000 and what was next for Jeff Bezos now that he 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:39.040 was free from the daily responsibility of running the company. 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:41.320 He seemed to be in the midst of a profound 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:46.480 midlife crisis. It involved space travel, a mega yacht, and 0:03:46.560 --> 0:03:48.800 going head to head with his ex wife in the 0:03:48.840 --> 0:03:53.880 realm of philanthropic giving. You're listening to Foundering, I'm your host, 0:03:53.960 --> 0:03:57.400 brad Stone. To begin the final act of our story. 0:03:57.880 --> 0:04:02.880 We started early with the COVID nineteen pandemic, with stores 0:04:03.000 --> 0:04:08.680 closing and people quarantining at home. Amazon sales sword. Many 0:04:08.720 --> 0:04:11.640 people depended on Amazon at this time when they were 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:15.040 afraid to leave their homes, which put a terrible strain 0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:19.320 on its warehouses, endangered the lives of its workers, and 0:04:19.480 --> 0:04:24.000 kicked off a fresh and critical examination of Amazon's labor practices. 0:04:24.760 --> 0:04:38.400 We'll tell you that story after the break. Okay, Well, 0:04:38.600 --> 0:04:41.280 we hardly need to relive the early days of COVID. 0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:44.400 It's still burned into most of our memories. Out of 0:04:44.440 --> 0:04:48.599 growing concerns about the deadly coronavirus, a Washington State resident 0:04:48.640 --> 0:04:52.719 fell ill after returning from Huhan, China, where the outbreak began. 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:55.960 Officials now the first confirmed COVID case in the US 0:04:56.080 --> 0:05:01.359 was actually in Seattle, Amazon's backyard. In early March, the 0:05:01.440 --> 0:05:04.560 majority of the workforce headed home for what would be 0:05:04.600 --> 0:05:09.040 a brutal extended quarantine. The human told during this period 0:05:09.120 --> 0:05:12.400 was horrific, of course, but so was the financial one. 0:05:12.880 --> 0:05:16.840 The International Monetary Fund estimated that COVID will cost the 0:05:16.880 --> 0:05:21.400 global economy over twelve point five trillion dollars. That's a 0:05:21.440 --> 0:05:25.240 staggering number, comparable to the impact of the Great Depression. 0:05:25.960 --> 0:05:30.720 But at Amazon, exactly the opposite happened. While engineers and 0:05:30.720 --> 0:05:34.640 other white color employees went home, workers in the fulfillment 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:38.159 centers had to stay at their posts. Here's Derrick Palmer, 0:05:38.400 --> 0:05:41.839 a packer at a warehouse in Staten Island. You go home, 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:47.359 all you see is coronavirus dis coronavirus that stay safe. 0:05:48.000 --> 0:05:52.640 When I get to Amazon, there was no talk about 0:05:52.800 --> 0:05:56.400 coronavirus at all. It was almost as like Amazon didn't 0:05:56.440 --> 0:05:59.280 know what to do, so they didn't address it at all, 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:03.040 you know, which was very alarming, because when I'm working 0:06:03.120 --> 0:06:06.000 a lot of people will come to me and say, 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:08.279 what are we gonna do about this virus? Like they 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:11.440 already coming to me looking for a solution because they 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:16.239 didn't have any trust in Amazon, and I myself was lost. 0:06:16.279 --> 0:06:19.799 I didn't I didn't know soon COVID wasn't only something 0:06:19.800 --> 0:06:23.120 that Derek saw on the news. His colleagues at Staten 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:26.040 Island called out sick, and others showed up to work 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:30.200 with symptoms. Derek worked with a guy named Chris Smalls, 0:06:30.560 --> 0:06:34.440 who would soon become the face of worker dissatisfaction with Amazon. 0:06:34.920 --> 0:06:38.240 Here's Chris, the colleague that I work hand in hand 0:06:38.279 --> 0:06:41.599 with um. She was sick, her eyes were bloodshot, read, 0:06:42.240 --> 0:06:46.080 she was walking around sluggish. She already been there for 0:06:46.120 --> 0:06:48.640 a number of days, for ten hours shifts, so I 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:52.120 know she's been around hundreds of people already. That was 0:06:52.160 --> 0:06:53.760 the red flag. I said, you need to go home 0:06:53.760 --> 0:06:57.520 immediately until your results come back. So Chris tells his 0:06:57.600 --> 0:07:00.960 bosses that he thinks COVID is in the building, and 0:07:01.040 --> 0:07:04.400 he was surprised when management told him someone had already 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:08.440 tested positive two weeks prior. They told me not to 0:07:08.480 --> 0:07:11.640 tell anybody that somebody was already positive. They didn't want 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:14.040 to cause a panic. It didn't make any sense to me. 0:07:14.800 --> 0:07:17.280 You're telling me that somebody has been positive in the 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:20.800 building two weeks prior. We had no idea. We don't 0:07:20.800 --> 0:07:22.480 know where they got it from, where it came from, 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:25.200 how long it's been in the building. Chris comes out 0:07:25.200 --> 0:07:28.480 of the meeting and tells Derek what just happened. Derek 0:07:28.560 --> 0:07:31.840 said he was surprised. I just I got I was shocked. 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:34.160 I was like, wait, they don't want workers they know, like, 0:07:34.240 --> 0:07:37.200 why wouldn't they want us to know about the first 0:07:37.360 --> 0:07:41.920 coronavirus case? And he was just like, look, man, I 0:07:41.960 --> 0:07:45.760 don't know. This is this is scary. Amazon was initially 0:07:45.840 --> 0:07:49.120 secretive about the cases in their warehouses because they wanted 0:07:49.160 --> 0:07:53.360 to avoid employee panic. A lot of big employers of 0:07:53.480 --> 0:07:56.640 frontline workers were in the same position, but this would 0:07:56.640 --> 0:08:00.400 blow back on Amazon in a big way. Late that March, 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:04.240 Chris and Derek organized an employee walk out. So then 0:08:04.280 --> 0:08:07.360 the company told Chris to stay at home because he 0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:11.080 had possibly been in contact with an infected colleague, but 0:08:11.200 --> 0:08:14.120 he returned to the building anyway and he got fired. 0:08:14.960 --> 0:08:18.440 What happened next would turned Staten Island into the epicenter 0:08:18.480 --> 0:08:23.280 of controversy over Amazon's COVID response, and it would give 0:08:23.320 --> 0:08:27.560 hope to organize labor, which had been trying unsuccessfully to 0:08:27.680 --> 0:08:31.920 organize Amazon workers for years. While all this is happening, 0:08:32.240 --> 0:08:35.400 Jeff Bezos' leadership group had a meeting about the situation, 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:38.920 and a transcript was leaked to Vice News. In it, 0:08:39.360 --> 0:08:43.640 Amazon's chief council David Zapolski, suggested that the company should 0:08:43.640 --> 0:08:48.200 focus attention on Chris Small's because he wasn't quote smart 0:08:48.559 --> 0:08:52.480 or articulate. I should note that Chris is black, and 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:56.880 many critics saw the comment as racially charged. Here's Chris again. 0:08:57.480 --> 0:09:00.320 I'd never forget that moment. Now. Of course, the definitely 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:03.600 upset me saying these racist remarks. You know, call it 0:09:03.640 --> 0:09:06.840 what it is. It's definitely a stigment of black community 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:11.080 calling us not smart, articulate. The leaked transcript was a 0:09:11.160 --> 0:09:15.160 huge story. It gave people a rare look inside Amazon's 0:09:15.240 --> 0:09:18.360 leadership team, where the focus appeared to be on stopping 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:21.840 a fledgling union movement rather than listening to the safety 0:09:21.880 --> 0:09:27.520 concerns of workers. Later, sapul Sky, the chief attorney, apologized 0:09:27.520 --> 0:09:30.880 for his comments. He said he hadn't known Chris was black. 0:09:31.440 --> 0:09:35.000 He told me, quote, I shouldn't have used that characterization 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:40.560 for any Amazon employee. It was incredibly regrettable. As for Chris, 0:09:40.600 --> 0:09:45.680 he threw himself into union organizing. Ironically, Uh, they said 0:09:45.720 --> 0:09:47.880 to make me the face of the whole unionizing efforts 0:09:47.880 --> 0:09:52.080 against Amazon, And from that moment forward, that's when I 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:55.640 really started to get involved in organizing on a larger 0:09:55.720 --> 0:09:59.200 scale nationwide. And now I'm trying to make them eat 0:09:59.240 --> 0:10:04.000 those words. As of this recording. In April, Chris and 0:10:04.080 --> 0:10:07.679 Derek led Amazon employees to victory in the union election 0:10:07.720 --> 0:10:11.920 in New York City. It marks organized labor's first ever 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:15.760 foothold in Amazon in the US, historic wind that will 0:10:15.800 --> 0:10:19.600 now lead to an epic challenge negotiating a contract with 0:10:19.640 --> 0:10:23.360 the company to improve the lives of its workers. Almost 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:26.360 two years to the day after he was fired by Amazon, 0:10:26.760 --> 0:10:29.080 Chris stood in front of a group of supporters and 0:10:29.160 --> 0:10:39.320 pop champagne history. Do you have a method for Jeff Beziness. Oh, 0:10:39.520 --> 0:10:41.280 we want to thank that basis were going to space 0:10:41.320 --> 0:10:47.080 because when he was up there Amazon. He's thanking Bezos 0:10:47.080 --> 0:10:50.960 for going to space because while the former CEO was distracted, 0:10:51.240 --> 0:10:54.920 Chris was building a union. This could mean big changes 0:10:54.960 --> 0:10:58.559 for Amazon unless they somehow get it overturned in court. 0:10:59.040 --> 0:11:02.880 The implication are huge unions can make it harder for 0:11:02.920 --> 0:11:05.920 Amazon to dictate things like the length of breaks and 0:11:05.960 --> 0:11:09.480 when employees are compelled to work extra time. This is 0:11:09.480 --> 0:11:12.800 the kind of flexibility that Amazon depends on to meet 0:11:12.840 --> 0:11:17.040 those unexpected surges and lulls and online shopping. It's a 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:22.760 significant challenge to their business model. But back in Chris 0:11:22.760 --> 0:11:26.079 Small's also succeeded in drawing lots of attention to Amazon's 0:11:26.080 --> 0:11:30.560 pandemic response. Sixty minutes dispatched a crew to check it out, 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:34.559 which is never a good sign. The journalist Leslie Stall 0:11:34.640 --> 0:11:38.560 interviewed Chris as well as Dave Clark, the executive who 0:11:38.600 --> 0:11:42.400 built the Amazon transportation network and now ran the entire 0:11:42.480 --> 0:11:46.960 retail part of the company. So, how many positive cases 0:11:47.000 --> 0:11:51.079 have you discovered at Amazon? The actual sort of total 0:11:51.160 --> 0:11:54.160 number case isn't particularly useful because it's relative to the 0:11:54.160 --> 0:11:58.520 size of the building and then the overall community infection rates. 0:11:58.559 --> 0:12:00.880 So you you don't know, or you're just not going 0:12:00.920 --> 0:12:04.120 to tell us how many cases have been discovered. I 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:06.520 don't have I mean, we know, I don't have the 0:12:06.600 --> 0:12:10.680 number right on me at this moment because it's not 0:12:10.720 --> 0:12:14.440 a particularly useful number. It wasn't a good look people 0:12:14.480 --> 0:12:19.200 wanted to know what was going on inside Amazon's warehouses. Finally, 0:12:19.520 --> 0:12:22.680 the company did reveal its COVID numbers later that year. 0:12:23.360 --> 0:12:26.640 About twenty of its one point four million workers had 0:12:26.679 --> 0:12:30.960 gotten sick by the fall, and that number didn't include 0:12:30.960 --> 0:12:35.920 the drivers, who are contractors not employees. Amazon argued this 0:12:36.000 --> 0:12:39.200 was lower than the infection right and surrounding communities, and 0:12:39.240 --> 0:12:41.520 that many of these employees could have gotten ill at 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:47.600 home instead of work. In August, and Amazon spokesperson gave 0:12:47.679 --> 0:12:51.760 us this statement, quote, we are monitoring the situation closely, 0:12:51.880 --> 0:12:55.160 and we'll continue to follow local government guidance and work 0:12:55.200 --> 0:13:00.080 closely with leading medical healthcare professionals. Now, I spent a 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:03.480 lot of time reporting on Amazon's pandemic response from my book, 0:13:04.080 --> 0:13:06.560 and I think the problem was they had to competing 0:13:06.640 --> 0:13:12.559 interests serving customers and protecting workers. They did institute safety 0:13:12.559 --> 0:13:16.679 precautions in the warehouses, like social distancing and COVID testing, 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:20.680 but it was really impossible to do both, particularly in 0:13:20.720 --> 0:13:25.280 the early days of the pandemic, and because serving customers 0:13:25.280 --> 0:13:29.800 has always been Amazon's guiding principle. Again, it came first. 0:13:30.920 --> 0:13:34.480 I remember feeling surprised by how engaged Jeff Bezos was 0:13:35.240 --> 0:13:38.360 from his ranch in West Texas. He led weekly meetings 0:13:38.400 --> 0:13:44.000 devoted to COVID and employee safety. Amazon hired epidemiologists to 0:13:44.080 --> 0:13:47.440 guide them through the crisis. Bezos wanted to convey the 0:13:47.480 --> 0:13:50.880 image of a CEO in control and sympathetic to the 0:13:50.920 --> 0:13:55.520 plight of employees. In April, he visited an Amazon warehouse 0:13:55.720 --> 0:13:59.240 and a Whole Foods market in Dallas, his first public 0:13:59.360 --> 0:14:05.880 visit to the online in years. Nice to be decided out, 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:12.400 thank you, But this was a pre battle that Amazon 0:14:12.600 --> 0:14:18.400 really couldn't win. Amazon sales jumped during the crisis. Amazon's 0:14:18.440 --> 0:14:24.280 market capitalization increased by about seven hundred billion dollars, and 0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:28.680 Jeff bezos personal net worth rose by about seventy five billion. 0:14:29.720 --> 0:14:32.680 So at a time when people in businesses were suffering 0:14:33.040 --> 0:14:38.160 and employees were panicking, Amazon and Bezos were thriving, it 0:14:38.280 --> 0:14:41.200 felt unsettling that the very thing that was shutting down 0:14:41.240 --> 0:14:45.800 the world was filling the company's coffers. Navigating this pr 0:14:45.920 --> 0:14:49.440 maelstrom was one of the biggest challenges Bezos had ever faced, 0:14:49.960 --> 0:14:53.000 and just eight months later he decided to step down 0:14:53.040 --> 0:14:56.680 from the CEO job. I don't think the pandemic is 0:14:56.760 --> 0:15:00.600 necessarily the reason he left, but certainly it was another 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:03.560 illustration that running the company was getting to be a 0:15:03.640 --> 0:15:07.520 lot less fun, and Bezos did want to have fun. 0:15:08.240 --> 0:15:11.720 He wanted to have adventures. He wanted to embrace the 0:15:11.800 --> 0:15:15.040 kind of risk that might scare the shareholders of a big, 0:15:15.080 --> 0:15:20.040 publicly traded company like Amazon. He wanted to go to space. 0:15:21.360 --> 0:15:25.200 Will visit Van Horn, Texas for Jeff Bezos is highly 0:15:25.280 --> 0:15:42.240 controversial trip to space Next. In July, my colleague Spencer Soper, 0:15:42.280 --> 0:15:46.560 and I traveled to Van Horn, Texas. It's a small 0:15:46.600 --> 0:15:49.840 town of about two thousand people. When you drive around, 0:15:50.120 --> 0:15:54.240 you see trailer parks and roadside motels. Bezos owns a 0:15:54.280 --> 0:15:59.280 massive ranch about forty minutes away. It's one thousand acres 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:03.000 of mountains and brush that resembles his grandfather's Texas ranch 0:16:03.280 --> 0:16:07.240 where he spent idyllic summers as a child. He secretly 0:16:07.280 --> 0:16:09.880 scouted this land back in two thousand three, and then 0:16:10.000 --> 0:16:13.640 later announced his plan to a local newspaper. He wanted 0:16:13.680 --> 0:16:15.720 to build a launch site on the property for his 0:16:15.840 --> 0:16:20.800 private space company, Blue Origin. Spencer and I were in 0:16:20.920 --> 0:16:24.680 Van Horn to witness something pretty wild yep. Just a 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:28.240 few weeks after he formally departed the CEO job at Amazon. 0:16:28.680 --> 0:16:32.880 Bezos was leaving Earth. Here's Spencer, who brought along a 0:16:32.920 --> 0:16:36.880 microphone to document this unusual event. Just getting checked into 0:16:36.960 --> 0:16:40.520 Van Horn, Texas. And uh, folks in town, you know, 0:16:40.560 --> 0:16:44.080 some are pretty stoked about it, and some, you know, 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:47.640 man not so much. You know, so say they'd rather 0:16:47.680 --> 0:16:50.240 have have rain than a than than a spaceship because 0:16:50.280 --> 0:16:52.440 they've been dealing with some drought for a while. Many 0:16:52.480 --> 0:16:56.720 of the townspeople seemed completely unaware of this billionaire space project. 0:16:57.120 --> 0:17:00.960 Spencer met Barbara while he was pumping gas. Bezos people 0:17:00.960 --> 0:17:03.960 know much about him down here. Um, I'm not really 0:17:04.000 --> 0:17:06.000 in not that I'm aware of. Do you do you 0:17:06.040 --> 0:17:09.440 shop on Amazon? Yes? I do? So he runs that company, 0:17:10.359 --> 0:17:13.240 he founded it. Yeah, really, Yeah, that's that's the guy 0:17:13.280 --> 0:17:14.920 going to space. He's the guy who found it, that 0:17:15.000 --> 0:17:18.840 clown and okay, well sharing how much I know that's 0:17:18.840 --> 0:17:22.199 how he made his money. Wow. Spencer also caught up 0:17:22.200 --> 0:17:25.000 with local sheriff Arvin West the night before the launch 0:17:25.080 --> 0:17:28.520 at a small canteena outside Van Horn. The sheriff, who 0:17:28.560 --> 0:17:32.200 had other things on his mind, was not impressed. Yeah, 0:17:32.440 --> 0:17:34.399 I don't know, it did never blew my scard up. 0:17:34.440 --> 0:17:37.600 So one never no big deal to me. Well, the 0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:42.600 billionaires are going to space, maybe they'll stay there. There's 0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:45.160 actually a petition say don't let him back one thing 0:17:45.160 --> 0:17:46.840 about it. We don't have to worry about him checking 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:48.600 their green card coming in. They only even do that 0:17:48.640 --> 0:17:53.360 for the border. Well that's one guy's opinion. Anyway, we 0:17:53.359 --> 0:17:56.600 were not alone in van Horn that week. Reporters and 0:17:56.640 --> 0:18:00.280 satellite TV trucks descended on the scene rocket to make 0:18:00.320 --> 0:18:04.080 for pretty compelling television. And there was always the possibility 0:18:04.280 --> 0:18:08.040 that Bezos sent his colleagues might die in a fiery crash. 0:18:08.280 --> 0:18:11.520 Here's a pretty dark confession. I actually had to pre 0:18:11.640 --> 0:18:16.600 write his obituary just in case. Here's Spencer again. So 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:21.240 Jeff Bezos will be fulfilling his boyhood drained today. Uh, 0:18:21.240 --> 0:18:23.680 he's fifty seven now. He said he's been dreaming about 0:18:23.800 --> 0:18:27.840 space travel since he was five years old, and this 0:18:27.920 --> 0:18:30.560 is basically an expedition he can take due to his 0:18:30.640 --> 0:18:34.080 wealth created from founding Amazon dot Com, which is now 0:18:34.160 --> 0:18:37.399 the world's largest retailer. Today's rocket won't go into orbit. 0:18:37.880 --> 0:18:42.600 It will it will go into a suborbital space, letting 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:47.480 the astronauts experience a few minutes of weightlessness. At two 0:18:47.560 --> 0:18:49.800 in the morning, Spencer and I met up with the 0:18:49.840 --> 0:18:53.920 other journalists at the local community center. Rental car headlights 0:18:53.960 --> 0:18:57.560 glowed in the parking lot. Blue Origin had been working 0:18:57.560 --> 0:19:00.800 on the New Shepherd rocket for about fifteen years and 0:19:00.840 --> 0:19:04.800 conducted fifteen unmanned flights. This was the first one with 0:19:04.880 --> 0:19:08.560 people on board. Bezos was a guinea pig of sorts, 0:19:08.600 --> 0:19:12.560 along with three others, his younger brother Mark, an astronaut 0:19:12.560 --> 0:19:16.520 trainee in her eighties, and an eighteen year old July 0:19:16.720 --> 0:19:19.240 actually turned out to be a frenzied month for the 0:19:19.280 --> 0:19:23.840 space tourism industry. Bezos's launch was nine days after Richard 0:19:23.880 --> 0:19:28.200 Branson had his launch with Virgin Galactic. A key goal 0:19:28.240 --> 0:19:32.000 of space pioneers like Bezos, Brandson, and Elon Musk is 0:19:32.040 --> 0:19:36.160 creating spaceships that can be reused like airplanes. Rather than 0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:39.760 plunging into the ocean, the rocket booster lands upright and 0:19:39.880 --> 0:19:43.399 can be flown over and over again. This lowers the 0:19:43.440 --> 0:19:47.840 cost of space travel and makes the commercialization and exploration 0:19:47.880 --> 0:19:51.080 of space more feasible. New Shepherd took off in a 0:19:51.080 --> 0:19:55.240 little after eight am, Texas time. Watching it watching any 0:19:55.320 --> 0:19:58.879 rocket launch is a pretty profound experience. You think of 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:03.720 human potential, incredible scientific achievement, and of course the safety 0:20:03.760 --> 0:20:06.520 of the people on board. I just have to add 0:20:07.040 --> 0:20:12.679 the new Shepherd is extraordinarily phallic looking. Five four command 0:20:12.680 --> 0:20:27.480 engines start to one. Of course, Basos and his crew 0:20:27.600 --> 0:20:31.320 landed safely. After the launch, we got on busses again 0:20:31.320 --> 0:20:34.359 to go to another facility for the post trip press conference. 0:20:35.000 --> 0:20:38.359 A Country Western soundtrack was playing on a loop, and 0:20:38.400 --> 0:20:42.439 I remember thinking how choreographed the entire day was, Like 0:20:42.600 --> 0:20:48.359 Bezos wanted to conjure images of Clint Eastward and John Wayne. 0:20:49.400 --> 0:20:52.960 Bezos showed up in a cowboy hat. Reporters crammed onto 0:20:52.960 --> 0:20:55.359 folded chairs on one side of the root and the 0:20:55.400 --> 0:20:58.879 astronauts family sat on the other side, and how it felt. 0:20:59.280 --> 0:21:05.080 Oh my god, My expectations were high and they were 0:21:05.200 --> 0:21:08.920 dramatically exceeded. But when you get up above the atmosphere, 0:21:09.280 --> 0:21:13.240 what you see is it's actually incredibly thin. It's this tiny, little, 0:21:13.280 --> 0:21:16.000 tragile thing, and as we move about the planet, we're 0:21:16.080 --> 0:21:18.639 damaging it. That's a very profound It's one thing to 0:21:18.720 --> 0:21:22.000 recognize that intellectually, it's another thing to actually see with 0:21:22.040 --> 0:21:25.040 your own eyes. This was the most excited I've ever 0:21:25.080 --> 0:21:28.320 seen Bass. He was almost like a kid. But he 0:21:28.400 --> 0:21:31.920 made one comment that ruffled some feathers. He was trying 0:21:31.960 --> 0:21:35.160 to make a joke while conveying gratitude toward the people 0:21:35.160 --> 0:21:40.159 who facilitated Amazon's rise, which created his fortune. I also, 0:21:40.320 --> 0:21:45.680 I want to thank every Amazon employee and every Amazon customer, 0:21:45.920 --> 0:21:49.800 because you guys paid for all this. This is what 0:21:49.920 --> 0:21:53.320 Christmas was talking about after his union win. We played 0:21:53.320 --> 0:21:57.160 this tape in a previous episode. Remember an Amazon delivery 0:21:57.200 --> 0:22:00.359 person said he quit when he heard it because Azos 0:22:00.400 --> 0:22:03.920 said this just months after the controversies around Amazon's pandemic 0:22:04.000 --> 0:22:07.480 response and the dangerous to warehouse workers. It went over 0:22:07.600 --> 0:22:11.080 very poorly. Afterwards, we had a chance to go to 0:22:11.119 --> 0:22:14.880 the launch site and snap more photos. Then Bezos made 0:22:14.880 --> 0:22:18.040 a surprise appearance. He was on a convoy of electric 0:22:18.040 --> 0:22:21.840 trucks made by Ribban, a startup that Amazon invested in 0:22:22.160 --> 0:22:25.840 and ordered one hundred thousand electric delivery trucks from. This 0:22:25.920 --> 0:22:29.240 was a victory lap and he was clearly relishing the attention. 0:22:29.800 --> 0:22:38.080 Reporters shouted questions at Bezos, so Bezos just showed up 0:22:38.320 --> 0:22:40.720 with the other three astronauts and they're walking onto the 0:22:40.800 --> 0:22:45.360 landing pad. How soon do you want to go back? 0:22:45.400 --> 0:22:56.399 It looks like it's I'm just gonna cost me. In 0:22:56.440 --> 0:23:00.560 the middle of the scrum, Spencer blessed him, took his shot. 0:23:00.480 --> 0:23:03.520 See little guys, thank you. What a great day. Hey, 0:23:03.560 --> 0:23:05.560 give us an update on the billion in stock you 0:23:05.600 --> 0:23:07.879 got itself to bankroll it. We heard that one the 0:23:07.960 --> 0:23:12.880 last four years ago. He looked at me, got into 0:23:12.920 --> 0:23:16.040 the car, shut the door, and drove off. You know, 0:23:16.080 --> 0:23:18.800 I think there was a slim pickens on questions today. 0:23:19.119 --> 0:23:22.160 Bezos was driving away from the press, but he wasn't 0:23:22.240 --> 0:23:26.560 leaving the public stage. This was his future, not conducting 0:23:26.600 --> 0:23:31.120 company meetings in Seattle conference rooms. In fact, I thought 0:23:31.160 --> 0:23:33.480 the most revealing thing he said at the press conference 0:23:33.760 --> 0:23:35.960 was when he was asked how he was now going 0:23:36.000 --> 0:23:38.919 to focus as time. Yes, so I'm gonna split my 0:23:39.000 --> 0:23:42.760 time between Blue Origin and the Bezos Earth Fund, those 0:23:42.800 --> 0:23:45.280 two things, and there's gonna be a third thing, um 0:23:45.320 --> 0:23:46.679 and maybe a fourth thing, but I don't know what 0:23:46.720 --> 0:23:49.080 those are yet. I'm not very good at doing one thing. 0:23:49.760 --> 0:23:53.280 Did you notice he didn't mention Amazon? I think to 0:23:53.400 --> 0:23:57.240 surprise some people back in Seattle. Bezos's feet were leaving 0:23:57.280 --> 0:24:01.520 the earth literally and kind of figuratively too. He now 0:24:01.600 --> 0:24:06.400 belonged to a different orbit of space dreams, celebrity global 0:24:06.480 --> 0:24:10.119 travel with his girlfriend and their life of extraordinary wealth. 0:24:11.000 --> 0:24:15.000 As for Amazon, well, it was now Andy Jassy's company. 0:24:15.400 --> 0:24:18.359 The deputy would have to find his own way. We'll 0:24:18.359 --> 0:24:36.639 tell that story next. So Jeff Bezos announced he was 0:24:36.640 --> 0:24:39.960 stepping down from the CEO role, and I remember a 0:24:40.000 --> 0:24:43.760 lot of commentators assuming he's going to stay involved. Of course, 0:24:44.720 --> 0:24:49.080 Bezos was a famous micromanager. It just seemed impossible that 0:24:49.119 --> 0:24:51.760 he would change a style and be hands off at 0:24:51.800 --> 0:24:55.560 the company he nurtured for two decades. But after the 0:24:55.600 --> 0:24:59.920 space launch, Bezos devoted himself to his charity. He also 0:25:00.040 --> 0:25:04.960 went on vacation and popped up in places like Hawaii, Greece, Bora, Bora, 0:25:05.119 --> 0:25:09.720 and Mexico. It became pretty clear, for the first time ever, 0:25:10.320 --> 0:25:12.800 Amazon was going to have to make its way without 0:25:12.920 --> 0:25:16.520 its founder. Andy Jassey was the new guy in charge. 0:25:17.600 --> 0:25:20.880 I've known Jasse for years and followed his career. He's 0:25:20.880 --> 0:25:24.360 an impressive executive. He built a WS into the most 0:25:24.400 --> 0:25:28.520 profitable and fastest growing part of Amazon, and he learned 0:25:28.560 --> 0:25:32.360 directly from Bezos, in part by following him around everywhere 0:25:32.640 --> 0:25:36.399 during Amazon's early days as his chief of staff. But 0:25:36.480 --> 0:25:39.399 as Amazon made its way through the COVID crisis, it 0:25:39.520 --> 0:25:43.400 became apparent that the company needed something more, someone who 0:25:43.400 --> 0:25:47.240 could mend its relationship with employees and fix its reputation 0:25:47.280 --> 0:25:52.000 among regulators, the press, and customers. Jesse has tried to 0:25:52.040 --> 0:25:55.640 thread this needle. A few days before he took over Amazon, 0:25:56.040 --> 0:25:58.919 the company added two new entries to its list of 0:25:59.000 --> 0:26:03.520 leadership principles. These are the codes that govern all decisions 0:26:03.560 --> 0:26:07.640 like who gets hired and promoted. The new principles were 0:26:08.400 --> 0:26:12.480 strive to be Earth's best employer, and success and scale, 0:26:12.520 --> 0:26:17.680 bring broad responsibility. These are some pretty lofty goals. In 0:26:17.680 --> 0:26:22.200 other words, Amazon was finally acknowledging its critics for its 0:26:22.280 --> 0:26:26.320 first twenty seven years. Satisfying the almighty customer had been 0:26:26.359 --> 0:26:30.520 the company's first and only north star. Now it was 0:26:30.560 --> 0:26:35.600