WEBVTT - Part Two: The Idiot Who Made, And Destroyed, WeWork 0:00:01.400 --> 0:00:05.840 What still in Chicago met me. This is the part 0:00:05.840 --> 0:00:08.119 two of our episode on Adam Annointment and We Work. 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:11.880 I'm Robert Evans, hosted Behind the Bastards podcast Bad People 0:00:12.560 --> 0:00:15.960 Talk About Them Introduced poorly. My guests in part two, 0:00:16.000 --> 0:00:20.120 as with part one, are Dan Jordan's. I pointed at 0:00:20.120 --> 0:00:22.320 the wrong ones of you don't worry about it, but 0:00:22.600 --> 0:00:24.720 I know which ones you are? Should I do the bit? 0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:30.200 Robert what? Robert what? I don't understand the bit. It's 0:00:30.200 --> 0:00:33.080 the beginning, it's the opening bit. Never mind, okay, Jordan? 0:00:33.600 --> 0:00:35.879 Right where you asking? Where you ask a question you 0:00:35.920 --> 0:00:40.840 can ask would be interesting a question in their podcast. 0:00:41.120 --> 0:00:46.720 I have planned several questions in the podcast Robert, do 0:00:46.760 --> 0:00:50.360 you like music? Yeah? In the podcast that these two 0:00:50.400 --> 0:00:53.160 do where they talk a little bit about Alex Jones. Uh. 0:00:53.240 --> 0:00:56.480 Jordan's who normally is the person who comes in cold, 0:00:56.920 --> 0:00:59.480 asks Dan a question at the start, and I guess yeah, 0:00:59.600 --> 0:01:03.840 because you hit me hit me up with a question. Oh, 0:01:04.520 --> 0:01:13.840 let's see, Robert, have any experience with roller coasters? What's um? 0:01:13.880 --> 0:01:16.000 I've only ever loved one roller coaster, Jordan's and it 0:01:16.040 --> 0:01:19.800 wasn't a roller coaster, Um, it was a It was 0:01:19.840 --> 0:01:23.360 a it was a virtual reality sort of experience, and 0:01:23.440 --> 0:01:28.880 six Flags over Texas US a little bit, a little bit, 0:01:28.920 --> 0:01:32.399 you were like a like an F sixteen pilot breaking 0:01:32.400 --> 0:01:36.120 the sound barrier. It was very cool. Not really a 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:38.760 roller coaster. I don't really like roller coasters. I've been 0:01:38.760 --> 0:01:41.000 on a number of them. It's fine, it's just not 0:01:41.040 --> 0:01:44.280 my thing. Um but but I liked that ride and 0:01:44.319 --> 0:01:48.600 then six Flags took it away from you. Specific one day, 0:01:49.640 --> 0:01:54.320 One day I will take vengeance. Okay, that is that 0:01:54.440 --> 0:01:57.120 is I want to clarify that is absolutely a terroristic 0:01:59.440 --> 0:02:01.120 One day they're gonna wake up and it's only gonna 0:02:01.120 --> 0:02:04.200 be five flat not damn it. Yeah, I'm gonna take 0:02:04.720 --> 0:02:07.800 at least I'm gonna take at least eight of those flags. 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:12.880 I don't know how to do that percentage. It's hard 0:02:13.840 --> 0:02:16.560 with the ballpark. And my answer is I liked that one. 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:19.400 Mr Toad's Wild Ride thing that wind in the willows, 0:02:20.440 --> 0:02:25.520 that is that gets drunk and the bar Rabbit one run. 0:02:25.600 --> 0:02:28.720 I love that one before and then in a different 0:02:28.760 --> 0:02:32.960 way after I realized how racist there was. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:02:33.280 --> 0:02:35.640 it was a real Before it was just like, this 0:02:35.720 --> 0:02:40.760 is a fun ride. I'm seven and after it was like, really, really, 0:02:41.520 --> 0:02:46.120 still it is two thousand and four. That's that's Splash Mountain, right, 0:02:46.520 --> 0:02:48.200 isn't it that that's the one that has the bray 0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:50.760 rabbit and because I think at the end of it 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:53.800 you go over the waterfall and it killed that guy. Yeah, 0:02:53.840 --> 0:02:56.560 I think so, and that there's so much to unpack 0:02:56.600 --> 0:02:58.960 about Splash Mountain. I mean it has that Song of 0:02:59.000 --> 0:03:01.880 the South can action to it. There's also like a 0:03:01.919 --> 0:03:05.320 tradition of people flashing on the way down, like for kids, 0:03:05.360 --> 0:03:07.079 there's a lot. There's a lot going on with a 0:03:07.960 --> 0:03:13.480 very complicated Disney parks in general. My favorite was You 0:03:13.520 --> 0:03:18.519 Go Up, and my favorite the velveteen dream Wrestler Fantasty. 0:03:18.639 --> 0:03:22.600 They should have a velveteen Rabbit ride where they just 0:03:22.840 --> 0:03:26.079 take something the children love individually and destroy it in 0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:29.080 front of less of a ride and more of child abuse. 0:03:29.880 --> 0:03:34.920 But yeah, if it were Adam, it would be a 0:03:34.920 --> 0:03:38.200 bottle of tequila. Yes, thank you for bringing it back 0:03:38.200 --> 0:03:42.880 to Adam Noyman. Great transition, very smooth. So we ended 0:03:42.880 --> 0:03:45.680 the last episode with with we work nearing its height 0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:48.320 until seventeen with a lot of money just gets this 0:03:48.400 --> 0:03:52.760 in flush four point four billion dollars fucking cash, which 0:03:52.800 --> 0:03:57.240 they used to make Adam's dumbest dreams come true. Dizzy 0:03:57.320 --> 0:04:02.080 double back to the baby clothes in a way. Now 0:04:05.640 --> 0:04:11.600 to the KKK crawlers, it did advocate. Now, before we 0:04:11.640 --> 0:04:13.080 get into all that what he did with all this 0:04:13.160 --> 0:04:15.760 VC money, I want to start this episode. I'm talking 0:04:15.760 --> 0:04:18.240 a little bit about cults some more. Now. We Work 0:04:18.279 --> 0:04:20.840 has been described by a number of former employees as 0:04:20.920 --> 0:04:23.440 quote like Annoyment has been described as a cult leader. 0:04:23.520 --> 0:04:27.920 Former employees often call his personal charisma almost intoxicating. One 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:30.120 former executive said, if you had to go to war, 0:04:30.320 --> 0:04:33.000 you wanted him to be your general. Another recalled his 0:04:33.080 --> 0:04:35.440 sense of himself is beyond human. When you're in a 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:38.000 room with Adam, he can almost convince you of anything. 0:04:38.720 --> 0:04:41.560 There are certainly Colt like tactics at use and we Work. 0:04:41.680 --> 0:04:43.919 Colts endeavored to separate their members from the wider world 0:04:44.000 --> 0:04:45.800 and the friends and family they have outside the cult, 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:47.640 and you could argue that things like thank God it's 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:50.880 Monday and mandatory after ours fun events fulfill that role. 0:04:51.160 --> 0:04:53.760 They also rely unconsciousness alteration directs. This is all stuff 0:04:53.760 --> 0:04:57.440 we've talked about keeping people tired exhausted, fucked up, And 0:04:57.480 --> 0:05:00.840 of course the fact that I I will note in 0:05:00.880 --> 0:05:02.640 a point of fairness that the fact that Ada himself 0:05:02.640 --> 0:05:04.760 was often one of the drunkest people in the company 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:07.760 makes this a little bit less manipulative. It's sort of 0:05:07.760 --> 0:05:09.760 like he kind of just digs that stuff. Yeah, it 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:12.080 would be a much clearer red flag if he was 0:05:12.160 --> 0:05:15.919 not drinking and handing out alcohol. Yeah yeah, that that 0:05:15.920 --> 0:05:21.760 would be that would be deliberately drugging his employees. Yeah. Yeah, 0:05:21.880 --> 0:05:25.040 So it's more complicated than just he's a cult leader, 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:27.920 but he uses a lot of those tactics um clearly, 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:30.560 maybe just sort of you get the feeling with him 0:05:30.560 --> 0:05:33.000 that it's a lot of it's not as much intentional 0:05:33.080 --> 0:05:36.160 as it is like instinctive um, which I guess is 0:05:36.160 --> 0:05:38.640 how we get our first cult. Some people just know 0:05:38.680 --> 0:05:41.120 how to do that. Know, my family was in a 0:05:41.200 --> 0:05:45.120 cult whenever I was born, so I know all of 0:05:45.160 --> 0:05:48.440 the tricks and all of the ways that you get 0:05:48.520 --> 0:05:50.800 kind of accidentally swept up in all of that ship 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:53.240 and then next thing you know, everybody's wearing the same 0:05:53.320 --> 0:05:59.719 clothes dancing around a fire to journey. Yeah, tragic, that's 0:05:59.760 --> 0:06:03.560 the just the drain everybody's circles. Although people should consider 0:06:03.680 --> 0:06:07.000 joining the cult that I'm gonna start where you go 0:06:08.440 --> 0:06:11.839 give me the elevator pitch. We're people to talk in elevator. 0:06:11.920 --> 0:06:18.040 I mean it's it's a mix of people gifting me 0:06:18.200 --> 0:06:23.599 with large amounts of machetes, getting really high and shoving 0:06:23.600 --> 0:06:32.880 Adam Noyman off of buildings. It's gonna be a good Colt. Oh, 0:06:33.520 --> 0:06:35.760 I was just I was just cont there's a there's 0:06:35.760 --> 0:06:37.880 a shelf life to this thing. Is there's one Adam 0:06:38.000 --> 0:06:42.880 Noyman there is? There is the great thing about shoving 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:45.120 people off of building says there's always more people in 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:48.000 more buildings. That's true. Or if you can just keep shoving, 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:50.920 which is our motto, just keep you, just keep shoving. 0:06:51.080 --> 0:06:56.279 They're going to this Adam we work situation. Maybe we haven't, 0:06:57.440 --> 0:07:00.280 like actual time hasn't really hit that point at so 0:07:00.320 --> 0:07:03.000 I can't say now if we're going to compare it, 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:04.720 now him into a cult leader and we worked to 0:07:04.760 --> 0:07:08.240 a cult Keith renieris Nexium. Colt might be the best 0:07:08.279 --> 0:07:10.960 one to reference Listeners to Part three of our series 0:07:11.000 --> 0:07:13.520 on Keith Ranieri and Nexium. What recalled that he hosted 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:16.600 a yearly event called Vanguard Week, where followers from all 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:19.800 over the globe would fly in to celebrate Keith's birthday. 0:07:19.920 --> 0:07:23.320 In the same vein, we Work had Summer Camp, an 0:07:23.320 --> 0:07:27.200 annual event where employees would gather, celebrate, and network. Here's 0:07:27.200 --> 0:07:32.000 The New York Times talking about this fun Setadays. All 0:07:32.080 --> 0:07:35.080 kinds of activities were offered, yoga acts, throwing leaf printing, 0:07:35.120 --> 0:07:38.040 a drum circle, along with entertainment by an expensive array 0:07:38.080 --> 0:07:41.320 of visiting performers. The chain Smokers once played and received 0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:43.440 we Work stock as part of their fee, while the 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:46.880 weekend was flown in from Toronto by helicopter. Tenacious We 0:07:47.120 --> 0:07:50.880 an employee band, has also performed sounds insufferable. That's terrible. 0:07:50.880 --> 0:07:53.040 I don't even want to see the real version. It 0:07:53.160 --> 0:07:57.040 was just so much everything. One former executive said, alcohol, drugs. 0:07:57.080 --> 0:07:59.320 There was not a lot of food. That was the 0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:03.280 only thing. There wasn't a lot of anything that would 0:08:03.320 --> 0:08:06.520 bulwark you against against the alcohol day drugs. Yeah, I'm 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:09.560 super high already, but I'm very hungry. I'm gonna eat 0:08:09.600 --> 0:08:12.600 all of these mushrooms. Yeah, just for some that has 0:08:12.640 --> 0:08:18.240 happened to me once and I It's not a great food. No, 0:08:18.280 --> 0:08:21.480 nor is it a great idea? As you were describing 0:08:21.520 --> 0:08:24.840 that festival, I did point at you very aggressively because 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:27.720 they kind of almost swung you with the ex throwing, 0:08:27.760 --> 0:08:31.720 didn't they look my My cult would indeed center around 0:08:31.760 --> 0:08:36.160 lots of drugs, throwing axes, dancing around fires the weekend. 0:08:38.720 --> 0:08:42.760 Well that song often actually I do, I do, but 0:08:43.040 --> 0:08:48.160 like but that's all sounds suspiciously like the great outdoor games. No, no, no, no, 0:08:48.160 --> 0:08:52.600 there's no I feel like I feel like adding an 0:08:52.600 --> 0:08:56.880 element of competition to throwing sharp objects at inert things 0:08:57.600 --> 0:09:01.160 cheapens it. You just you just throwing axes and knives 0:09:01.160 --> 0:09:04.040 for the joy of throwing sharp things at wooden thing, 0:09:05.240 --> 0:09:11.400 the purity of the exact exactly now. Summer camp included 0:09:11.520 --> 0:09:15.719 educational interludes like speeches from quantum physicist Michael Brooks, alongside 0:09:15.720 --> 0:09:18.720 beer pong and dancing to electronic music. And in the 0:09:18.760 --> 0:09:22.040 midst of these days long buccan oals two employees plagued 0:09:22.040 --> 0:09:24.520 with drugs, limitless alcohol, little food, and less sleep. Adam 0:09:24.600 --> 0:09:26.960 no Himan would preach his gospel. In a two thou 0:09:27.160 --> 0:09:29.440 thirteen summer camp. He took to the stage to say, 0:09:29.840 --> 0:09:31.320 I think the thing that all of us know is 0:09:31.360 --> 0:09:32.920 that if you want to succeed in this world, you 0:09:32.960 --> 0:09:35.440 have to build something that has intention. Every one of 0:09:35.520 --> 0:09:37.800 us is here because it has meaning, because we want 0:09:37.800 --> 0:09:39.960 to do something that actually makes the world a better place, 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:43.160 and we want to make money doing it. The crowd 0:09:43.200 --> 0:09:46.400 reportedly broke into wild cheers at this. One former senior 0:09:46.440 --> 0:09:48.839 executive who was there later recalled, so many of the 0:09:48.840 --> 0:09:51.079 people were young and had never worked in a real company. 0:09:51.120 --> 0:09:53.360 They bought all of it. I realized after I got 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:56.560 there it was a cult now. Summer Camp started as 0:09:56.559 --> 0:09:58.800 an event on the land of some of no Himan's friends, 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:01.240 but in two thousand seven teen moved to the English 0:10:01.240 --> 0:10:04.040 country side. Using some of the billions of new money 0:10:04.040 --> 0:10:07.120 pumped into via soft banks four point four billion dollar infusion, 0:10:07.120 --> 0:10:10.200 they flew employees in from all around the world. Attendees 0:10:10.240 --> 0:10:12.000 reported that they were allowed to walk up to the 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:14.839 bar and ask for multiple entire bottles of wine at once. 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:18.320 People played Edward forty hands with fancy bottles of rose, 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:22.280 which is what I would do. Yeah, that part sounds great. Yeah, 0:10:22.600 --> 0:10:27.359 that's when you realize the liquor is free and expensive 0:10:27.400 --> 0:10:29.520 and they'll just hand you bottles that's what you do. 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:33.959 Have you ever done that? Hands? Yeah? The worst thing 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:37.880 I've done in fucking Lubyana Slavinia was you can buy 0:10:38.040 --> 0:10:40.920 two liters of wine in a gigantic juice box for 0:10:40.920 --> 0:10:43.720 about a dollar and a half um, and you mix 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:49.200 it with equal parts pepsi, and it is the worst idea. 0:10:48.000 --> 0:10:53.920 Do you duct tape those to your hands? I know, 0:10:54.040 --> 0:10:57.560 we just drank um. I blacked out, throwing an empty 0:10:57.559 --> 0:11:00.640 bottle on top of the stranger's roof, and I came 0:11:00.679 --> 0:11:04.199 to alone without any of my friends near me, receiving 0:11:04.520 --> 0:11:09.000 a falafel from somebody having already paid with my phone, 0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:11.600 gone nine in the morning, like eight hours later, just 0:11:11.960 --> 0:11:14.199 the first time, only time that's ever happened. We're just like, 0:11:14.480 --> 0:11:16.400 I black out and I come back in the middle 0:11:16.400 --> 0:11:21.720 of a transaction. Yeah, I had no I was alone, 0:11:21.800 --> 0:11:29.280 but I had lost the friendship content I I did 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:34.880 that once. I taped duct tape forties to my hands wine. Yeah, 0:11:34.920 --> 0:11:38.640 it's terrible. It's terrible because you eventually have to bee. Yeah, 0:11:38.679 --> 0:11:42.200 it's steel reserve. Isn't something anyone should drink two of? Yeah, 0:11:42.360 --> 0:11:44.880 that's definitely true. Yeah, me and my buddy has also 0:11:44.920 --> 0:11:47.760 had a thing we did called freedom forties. That was 0:11:47.800 --> 0:11:49.920 you have to chugle forty and nine minutes and eleven 0:11:49.960 --> 0:11:54.680 seconds for else the terrorists win. It's just shockingly hard 0:11:54.760 --> 0:11:58.440 to do because forties are ghastly. Yeah, it's really the 0:11:58.480 --> 0:12:03.640 best way to forget now. One employee later told The 0:12:03.679 --> 0:12:05.760 New York Times that she realized it was time to 0:12:05.840 --> 0:12:07.559 quit we work when she woke up in a t 0:12:07.720 --> 0:12:10.160 p at summer camp to find one of her colleagues 0:12:10.200 --> 0:12:13.600 outside pissing on her tent. That employee later told New 0:12:13.679 --> 0:12:16.760 York Magazine talked to any community manager unto twenty four 0:12:16.840 --> 0:12:18.720 and it's the greatest weekend of your life. But I 0:12:18.760 --> 0:12:21.840 am not here to get paid on now. I'm gonna 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:24.080 quote one more time from that New York Magazine article 0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:27.880 discussing the two thousand eighteen Summer Camp, which spoilers would 0:12:27.880 --> 0:12:30.760 prove to be the last one At last year's event, 0:12:30.760 --> 0:12:34.480 According to Report and Property magazine, a British real estate publication, 0:12:34.840 --> 0:12:37.240 Norman sat on stage next to his wife and McKelvey 0:12:37.280 --> 0:12:40.000 as the crowd, saying O leo, leo, le we were 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:43.080 employee from India started chanting let's go, we work, Let's 0:12:43.080 --> 0:12:46.560 go while another from California screamed, you're changing the world, Adam. 0:12:46.640 --> 0:12:50.439 We love you. Augusto Contreras, we were employee from Mexico City, 0:12:50.480 --> 0:12:53.680 proposed to his girlfriend next to a dodgeball tournament. I 0:12:53.720 --> 0:12:56.200 felt like I was surrounded by my extended family. He 0:12:56.240 --> 0:12:58.560 told the company blog. He had been at we work 0:12:58.640 --> 0:13:03.360 for seven months, so they find the people who are 0:13:03.440 --> 0:13:07.600 vulnerable to this, and they're very vulnerable to When you 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:09.640 said that it was the last one. I expected that 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:13.280 story to be something like really tragic or like fire festivally, 0:13:13.480 --> 0:13:17.400 but just it was just like performed there. Though you're 0:13:17.440 --> 0:13:21.680 sucking in people who need what this pretends to provide, 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:24.760 it doesn't really provide it. But that's coming later now. 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:27.720 That Fast Company article I've quoted from a couple of 0:13:27.720 --> 0:13:30.680 times in this episode was released in two thousand sixteen, 0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:33.000 and it provides even more detail on the profoundly culti 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:36.560 way that Adam presented himself at company events. Quote. A 0:13:36.600 --> 0:13:39.600 beatles course bounces off the bear concrete walls of what 0:13:39.640 --> 0:13:43.400 was once JP Morgan's headquarters come together right now, the 0:13:43.520 --> 0:13:46.880 nearly thousand chattering. We were employees who filled the event space, 0:13:46.960 --> 0:13:49.960 look towards the stage expecting CEO Adam Neuman to appear 0:13:50.000 --> 0:13:52.720 from the wings at any second. Instead, he sprints down 0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:55.640 the center aisle and giddy conversations evolve into a cheer. 0:13:56.000 --> 0:14:00.000 When John Lennon trills over me, Norman leaps onto the stage, 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:02.520 sticking the landing. This is the way this guy is 0:14:02.559 --> 0:14:05.319 presenting himself to his employees, and it kind of seems 0:14:05.320 --> 0:14:07.559 like a lot of made it up. Yeah, well has 0:14:07.600 --> 0:14:10.960 already come out. Yeah yeah, they should know better, they 0:14:11.000 --> 0:14:15.640 should know, but people never learned about this. I mean, 0:14:16.120 --> 0:14:18.080 World War two came out and we all know what 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:24.440 happened in two thousand sixteen. So have you have you 0:14:24.480 --> 0:14:28.080 ever watched like the presentations that like MLM is like 0:14:28.080 --> 0:14:32.160 the multiple market, Yeah, this is exactly similar. I've watched 0:14:32.160 --> 0:14:35.760 a number of those, like those seminars and the gatherings 0:14:35.800 --> 0:14:38.920 that they do, and that has all of those those 0:14:39.280 --> 0:14:43.080 signs I I wanna know. I try to repeat frequently 0:14:43.640 --> 0:14:46.040 that I think everybody has a kind of grift that 0:14:46.080 --> 0:14:48.480 they're vulnerable to, no matter how smart, because there has 0:14:48.480 --> 0:14:50.760 nothing to do with intelligence. It's it has everything to 0:14:50.760 --> 0:14:53.760 do with the fact that everybody has needs, and particularly 0:14:53.760 --> 0:14:55.960 secret needs that even they don't know how to voice 0:14:55.960 --> 0:14:58.240 a lot of the time. And if someone other than you, 0:14:59.200 --> 0:15:02.640 particularly predators, what they're good at is seeing things and 0:15:02.720 --> 0:15:05.640 others that they don't see in themselves but that are present. 0:15:06.200 --> 0:15:09.920 If they're able to pick that out, they'll get you. Um. 0:15:09.960 --> 0:15:12.200 It doesn't matter how smart and well read you are, 0:15:12.280 --> 0:15:14.840 they'll get you. Um. We all have a thing. And 0:15:15.000 --> 0:15:18.440 Adam found a group of people who I think we're 0:15:18.520 --> 0:15:21.400 raised on stories like Apples. You know the history of 0:15:21.440 --> 0:15:24.240 the Apple core, Google, these companies that like change the 0:15:24.280 --> 0:15:27.960 world and had these like grand visions and like these 0:15:28.000 --> 0:15:33.120 in the legendary leaders. Um, and everybody got super fucking 0:15:33.200 --> 0:15:36.720 rich too. And Adam knew how to create the feeling 0:15:36.720 --> 0:15:39.360 that that's what was going on here. It wasn't it's 0:15:39.440 --> 0:15:43.560 just leasing office space. It wasn't literally like Google that 0:15:43.560 --> 0:15:46.359 that is like a revolution. We organized the world's information 0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:50.280 Apple We changed the fundamentally the way that daily life 0:15:50.280 --> 0:15:53.760 exists for billions of people. Those are companies where you 0:15:53.800 --> 0:15:56.360 really can't oversell, at least the impact of what's happening. 0:15:56.560 --> 0:15:59.160 These people are leasing office space. But he may not 0:15:59.360 --> 0:16:02.200 feel like that. Yeah, but there's kids that that's part 0:16:02.240 --> 0:16:04.960 of why it is. It is like He watched that 0:16:05.800 --> 0:16:10.600 Apple commercial where the hammer is thrown into the giant 0:16:10.800 --> 0:16:13.320 screen and all the all the drones are there, and 0:16:13.360 --> 0:16:15.720 he was like, what if I made all those drones. 0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:19.000 Those guys were super cool. Yeah, that seems like that's 0:16:19.040 --> 0:16:20.520 the thing I want to do. I want to throw 0:16:20.560 --> 0:16:23.120 a hammer and ship that'll whether there. Everything will fall. 0:16:23.240 --> 0:16:25.600 Then it's really terrible. It's hard for me not to 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:28.320 think that, like, none of this would be possible without booze. 0:16:28.520 --> 0:16:32.320 Like it's like, there's it's not for nothing that alcohol 0:16:32.400 --> 0:16:34.480 is in every story you made about we were It 0:16:34.600 --> 0:16:37.400 really seems very be inflated. The only way to have 0:16:37.480 --> 0:16:41.120 achieved the inflated sense of self confidence that was clearly 0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:43.200 a major aspect of this would have been to give 0:16:43.240 --> 0:16:45.840 everyone free guns, which is how my cult's gonna work. 0:16:46.600 --> 0:16:49.840 I thought it was machetes and don't do it enough. Man, 0:16:50.160 --> 0:16:52.440 It's really it's got to be an a K forty seven. 0:16:52.520 --> 0:16:54.720 I understand now. That makes you feel like a revolutionary, 0:16:54.800 --> 0:16:57.040 like holding a calash. That's what I hear. And then 0:16:57.040 --> 0:16:59.080 we're going to shove people off the buildings. I don't 0:16:59.080 --> 0:17:02.640 know him in at first, but to the bullets. They 0:17:02.680 --> 0:17:05.440 have to each according to the bullets they deserve. That 0:17:06.960 --> 0:17:11.640 really good, Like I should also abstain from this bit. 0:17:14.160 --> 0:17:21.159 And here's our special third guest, FBI agent Chicago is 0:17:21.400 --> 0:17:24.199 actually a lot more than one of you. Okay, right now. 0:17:24.280 --> 0:17:29.520 The entire Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms m not 0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:34.560 fans now. And they have deep dish pizza. I refuse 0:17:34.680 --> 0:17:38.000 to try it. That's fine, Yeah, don't worry about it. 0:17:38.119 --> 0:17:41.160 Every everyone I know from Chicago has said that it's 0:17:41.200 --> 0:17:47.240 fine from Chicago, like, oh, you gotta try to do yeah, yeah, yeah. 0:17:47.240 --> 0:17:50.760 Now it's like Cali Max as good as Tech Max. 0:17:51.359 --> 0:17:54.000 Let's say it lived in both fair enough, not nearly 0:17:54.000 --> 0:17:59.919 as good. Pizza fight, you know, speaking of dog fight, 0:18:00.040 --> 0:18:06.840 it's not speaking of dog fights. Um, speaking of dog fights, 0:18:07.119 --> 0:18:10.160 you know who would never train dogs to fight that 0:18:11.800 --> 0:18:13.960 at one point, at one point you probably would assume 0:18:13.960 --> 0:18:18.080 he wouldn't when he was five, And like a five 0:18:18.160 --> 0:18:24.280 year old Michael Vick, someone who is incapable of hosting 0:18:24.359 --> 0:18:32.600 dog fights is the sponsors of this show, Silky, one 0:18:32.640 --> 0:18:35.760 of the better a transitions on this series. Off we go, 0:18:41.960 --> 0:18:45.320 We're back. Ah. What I loved about those products and 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:47.679 services was that none of them were for dog fights. 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:52.159 That's true. That's true. Sometimes you just can't abandon the 0:18:52.200 --> 0:18:55.240 dogfight when you should. It's no, it's hard to it's 0:18:55.240 --> 0:18:57.680 hard to abandon the dog. But it's also rare these 0:18:57.720 --> 0:18:59.600 days for me to guess on a podcast that isn't 0:18:59.640 --> 0:19:02.960 sponsor a via dog fighting. It is. Well, and you know, 0:19:03.000 --> 0:19:06.280 I just should say, if you use the promo code bastards, 0:19:08.080 --> 0:19:12.280 you get access to the twenty four hour streaming dog fights, 0:19:12.400 --> 0:19:15.720 all the best dog fights we got chihuahuas, and all 0:19:15.760 --> 0:19:26.800 the saber metrics about the fighting. Yeah. Absolutely, Okay. So 0:19:27.280 --> 0:19:29.640 uh Now, shortly after Adam no Uhman founded We Work, 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:31.239 he'd made what seemed to be at the time an 0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:34.040 impossible promise that his company would one day beat out 0:19:34.119 --> 0:19:37.280 JP Morgan and become the largest private office tenant in 0:19:37.320 --> 0:19:39.720 the city of New York. Given that New York is 0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:43.920 New York, that's a pretty huge deal. Like, so, JP 0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:48.440 Morgan was prior the most office, the gigantic bank worth 0:19:48.560 --> 0:19:51.160 all of the money in the world. Is so saying 0:19:51.200 --> 0:19:53.960 I'm going to beat them, that's a big that's a 0:19:54.000 --> 0:19:57.560 big thing to to hit. But in two thousand eighteen, 0:19:57.640 --> 0:20:00.600 this dream became a reality. We Work now lee five 0:20:00.720 --> 0:20:04.200 million square feet over fifty locations across the city. So 0:20:04.440 --> 0:20:07.560 all of it still not making money, correct, not a profit. 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:14.800 They're making money, but not net not net. Yeah. Now, 0:20:15.280 --> 0:20:18.120 those locations, as we got into a little bit released 0:20:18.119 --> 0:20:21.040 with venture capital money, not actual profits made by the company. 0:20:21.320 --> 0:20:23.520 And those offices were kept full due to free rent 0:20:23.560 --> 0:20:26.879 offers in lease buyouts, which is not a strategy that 0:20:26.920 --> 0:20:31.520 can continue forever. You could just you could give people 0:20:31.520 --> 0:20:34.520 homes for less. It does make more sense. It does 0:20:34.600 --> 0:20:37.240 feel like people talk about like we can't afford universal healthcare, 0:20:37.280 --> 0:20:39.240 and then it's like how much money did we work 0:20:39.320 --> 0:20:41.760 blow through, which just like even outside of how much 0:20:41.800 --> 0:20:43.360 money did we spent on the F thirty five, which 0:20:43.400 --> 0:20:47.879 is actually vastly higher like but still and if he 0:20:48.160 --> 0:20:50.840 like housed people instead of all these offices, those people 0:20:50.880 --> 0:20:54.800 would get tons of booze. Yeah, yep, they be drunk 0:20:54.800 --> 0:20:59.640 as ship. Now. SoftBank's massive investments seem to confirm Adam's 0:20:59.640 --> 0:21:01.879 grand post about the importance of his company, and his 0:21:01.960 --> 0:21:05.520 ego swelled. Consequently, he started talking to colleagues about his 0:21:05.560 --> 0:21:09.800 desire for eternal life. This is like moon base all 0:21:09.840 --> 0:21:14.680 over here. Nope, nope, no, this is where Dan's ears. 0:21:15.800 --> 0:21:19.160 He invested in Life Bio Sciences, a Life Extensions start 0:21:19.240 --> 0:21:21.359 up to further this end. The company mission is to 0:21:21.440 --> 0:21:23.879 create a future where age related decline is not a 0:21:23.960 --> 0:21:27.720 fact of life, and I'm increasingly throughout wild ideas for 0:21:27.760 --> 0:21:30.280 ways we Were could expand to areas well outside of 0:21:30.280 --> 0:21:34.160 its wheelhouse. Sometime after seventeen two seventeen, he started talking 0:21:34.160 --> 0:21:38.840 about starting an airline called We Fly. This is some 0:21:38.960 --> 0:21:41.520 ship where you're like, you look in history and you're like, 0:21:41.560 --> 0:21:44.199 how is it The people got sold on alchemy and 0:21:44.240 --> 0:21:46.800 the philosopher's stone and internal life, and then you look 0:21:46.840 --> 0:21:49.520 at that guy in your life. Yeah, they're still there. 0:21:49.560 --> 0:21:53.280 They're still doing it. In fairness, we Fly kind of 0:21:53.320 --> 0:21:57.680 like it's it's to find enough name for an airline. 0:21:57.920 --> 0:22:01.680 It's just like, what's your experience renting buildings to companies? 0:22:02.160 --> 0:22:06.119 What do you want to do? Run an airline? What 0:22:06.359 --> 0:22:10.000 is an airplane? But in office sky office exactly. That 0:22:10.200 --> 0:22:17.159 is actually where these episodes were written, so exactly airlines 0:22:17.320 --> 0:22:19.960 in Iceland that used to the world of warcraft airlines 0:22:20.640 --> 0:22:23.600 and there was whizz Air, which is the worst airlines started. 0:22:23.640 --> 0:22:26.000 It's like a bike share company and their next move 0:22:26.119 --> 0:22:29.760 is like we'll run an airline. Turns out those skills 0:22:29.960 --> 0:22:37.760 do not translate. Not weird now, Adam increasingly throughout wild 0:22:37.840 --> 0:22:40.240 ideas for ways we were it could expand into areas 0:22:40.440 --> 0:22:42.679 well outside. Oh right, I read that a little bit. 0:22:42.760 --> 0:22:45.320 Oh yeah, so we fly his one. There was also 0:22:45.400 --> 0:22:48.800 talk of we sail and something called we sleep, which 0:22:48.880 --> 0:22:54.200 I have no idea what that was supposed to be. Yeah, astresses, 0:22:54.280 --> 0:22:57.480 maybe like a sleep lab. He briefly discussed his ambition 0:22:57.520 --> 0:23:00.679 to become Israel's Prime minister, before amending to say that 0:23:00.720 --> 0:23:02.960 if he ran for any office, it would be for 0:23:03.040 --> 0:23:07.320 president of the world. Little part of how you know 0:23:07.440 --> 0:23:10.560 this was a little bit CULTI is that if my 0:23:10.600 --> 0:23:13.960 boss this podcast, Jack O'Brien, somebody have great respect for 0:23:14.000 --> 0:23:16.440 I've worked with him eleven twelve years now, the vast 0:23:16.520 --> 0:23:19.920 majority basically all of my working life. If he told 0:23:19.920 --> 0:23:22.800 me seriously that if he ever ran for office, it 0:23:22.800 --> 0:23:24.760 would be for president of the world, and it wasn't 0:23:24.760 --> 0:23:27.639 like a bad joke, I would just start punching. And 0:23:27.680 --> 0:23:30.359 I love Jack, but that's what you do when you 0:23:30.480 --> 0:23:33.359 care about someone and they say you just start hitting them. 0:23:33.359 --> 0:23:35.640