Chapek's Book, D'Amaro's Bots, and More! | The EarzUp! Disney News Show

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_00] Hooray!

[00:00:04] [SPEAKER_03] It's time for the show that brings the magic right to your speakers. EarzUp! Well, a happy belated Bob Chapek book release day to you all. That's right, behind the castle walls, My 30 Years at the Happiest Place on Earth was released yesterday. Oh boy!

[00:00:26] [SPEAKER_03] Yes, and I have it. I went and got it today, and I have not read it yet because I've had actually, I was just telling Eric this, I've actually had things to do this week.

[00:00:39] [SPEAKER_01] Excellent.

[00:00:39] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah, but I plan on digging into it tomorrow. I have a goal with Jeremy. He and I are going to read this book. Oh really? And anybody else, Eric, you're more than welcome to chime in. We're going to have a show about it. We're going to talk about it. Sounds good to me. It might not be like a normal show. I don't know if I'll release it. It depends if it's any good. It might just be chopping it up on Twitch or something like that, but I'm, you know me, dude. I love a Bob Chapek, anything. Of course.

[00:01:04] [SPEAKER_03] Because the guy was just so, anyway, here's the back of the book. Okay, the like little blurb on the back. Okay. Okay. Chasing Pixie Dust. This, hold on a second, let me turn this off because this is the story of how I fought and scraped and bled and worked my way into the top position of the Magic Kingdom. The places I shaped and the forces I encountered along the journey.

[00:01:28] [SPEAKER_03] There's no doubt that the ending isn't what I wanted it to be. For reasons beyond my control, I didn't get a chance to finish what I started. I have never spoken about the way my fairy tale ended until now. While there are major elements of my story I wish were different, I'm still grateful my journey in the Magic Kingdom ended at the very top, especially considering where my story began. Right.

[00:01:53] [SPEAKER_03] So, just like your first taste of what this book could be about, he's already like, I got screwed over and I'm going to tell you all about it.

[00:02:03] [SPEAKER_01] I love that for him. And I'm here for everything. Of course you are. You're his biggest fan. I am. I wonder if he even knows. I mean, I'm sure he doesn't, but like, I wish he did know that he has a biggest fan.

[00:02:15] [SPEAKER_03] I can't find out. If anybody out there in Radioland can figure out how to have me contact this man, I want him on my show. I can't figure out where his publicist is. I don't know. I can't find any information. I would love to at least pitch him. I might, honestly, just reach out to him on LinkedIn or something like that. I'm like, bro, listen, dude, I have been on your page since the day one. I know what you've been going through.

[00:02:41] [SPEAKER_03] And it's funny because I, Chapek was getting just absolutely wrecked in, uh, in the, you know, the press and online or whatever from kind of the jump. Tomorrow has done way worse than everything Bob Chapek has ever thought about doing. But tomorrow has done way more. That's been demonstrably like bad for the, you know, the company for the long-term growth of the company. Nobody is talking about it. Nobody's mentioning it all. Nobody's talking shit about him. Nobody's doing anything.

[00:03:10] [SPEAKER_03] And it's, I just find it very funny how like looks can be, you know, he's the hot chick, right? And he's like, oh, well, it's fine. He needs to, he knows what he's doing. But Chapek isn't what you would call like classically handsome.

[00:03:22] [SPEAKER_01] I don't think it's that. I think it's the other Bobby. The other Bobby is not in the picture right now. And so he doesn't, there's no, there's no competition.

[00:03:32] [SPEAKER_00] And, and Josh is the chosen one. Everybody's been waiting for this for years. Well, so was Chapek though.

[00:03:39] [SPEAKER_01] He was hand selected. Yeah, but nobody had ever heard of Chapek.

[00:03:43] [SPEAKER_03] He was the head of the things or whatever. People knew. I'm just saying, I think, I think tomorrow is getting a pass because he is objectively better looking than Chapek, but he has done far worse to the company than Chapek has. I mean, because anytime anybody were, we were, we had arguments on this show about it. What did Chapek do that was so bad? He raised the prices. Tomorrow's raised the prices twice, fired people, cut people off of health insurance and introduced AI into the mix.

[00:04:12] [SPEAKER_03] All objectively terrible things. But he doesn't get any sort of credit. He doesn't get any sort of like malignment, mistreatment online for it at all. And I find that very funny.

[00:04:22] [SPEAKER_01] I mean, I hate to be the boomer of the group, but also like things are different than when Chapek took over. Things are different now. Things are worse off than they were. I don't, it doesn't matter. So layoffs may have been necessary from a business standpoint.

[00:04:40] [SPEAKER_03] Chapek was going to lay off a certain amount of people even before it happened. People were on his ass about it. Like, how dare he do that? But then Iger comes in, saves the day, quote unquote, and fires more people than Chapek said he was going to. And everyone's like, oh, finally a sturdy hand on the rudder of this company.

[00:05:00] [SPEAKER_01] What are you talking about? Yeah.

[00:05:02] [SPEAKER_03] So anyway, I can't wait to read this book and, you know, pay tribute to my man, my bald man, my bald brother. You know what I mean?

[00:05:11] [SPEAKER_01] I do.

[00:05:12] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah. That's it, man.

[00:05:14] [SPEAKER_00] I don't know. About the baldness.

[00:05:15] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah. Before we get too far afield, if you guys want to support this network, please go to patreon.com slash ears up. It's five bucks a month to help support us, pay our bills, you know, all that kind of stuff that we do. Buy the books that we do and buy all the stuff that we do so we can do these shows that we do. And then, you know, of course, if we have equipment needs and whatever, you know, it goes to fund that too. So please, on behalf of all the shows that we have, we have, you know, Puny Pod and Bantha Milk and Supreme Resort and this show,

[00:05:45] [SPEAKER_03] and Buena Vista Boys and Fantasyland Draft League and maybe one or two. I don't even know about it anymore. They all count on your support over on the Patreon. And more importantly, if you're tired of commercials, because, you know, we have to pay, we have to do the commercials, which kind of helps offset, but not much. You would not, you would be surprised. Maybe you wouldn't. That's how little that actually does. But it's important. We need to. Anyway, to, what was I saying? I lost my train of thought to support the, oh yeah.

[00:06:13] [SPEAKER_03] When you sign up to be a Patreon supporter, you get a commercial free feed. So you can get a, you can get a podcast player, an ad free link. So you can get all the shows with no commercials at all. That's cool. Our gift to you. Oh. Yeah. And you get discount on Etsy merchandise, which by the way, you can go to Etsy, the Etsy shop and get this beautiful Chapek shirt that I got on. A whole bunch of stuff. Anyway, those are the plugs.

[00:06:43] [SPEAKER_01] Curious. Listen to the other shows. I saw your, I saw your post on Instagram today with the, with the, with the book and the photo, you know, on the, the t-shirt. Do you think that if Bob Chapek saw that shirt that he would think that's a fan?

[00:07:02] [SPEAKER_03] No.

[00:07:03] Okay.

[00:07:04] [SPEAKER_01] Just checking.

[00:07:05] [SPEAKER_03] What you're, what you're basically saying is that's not a very flattering image of him. Because it's not.

[00:07:10] [SPEAKER_01] No, it's not even that. It's just like, I, like I understand the joke because I know you, but like, does anyone else?

[00:07:17] [SPEAKER_03] I don't know. I'll tell you what, based on the sales? No. Nobody understands a single thing about me or my humor or anything beyond you. And maybe even then you go like, I don't even know.

[00:07:30] [SPEAKER_01] Yeah. I mean, that's true.

[00:07:31] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah. So it's just me. I tell you, I wear my own clothes. I, these are my ideas for clothes and I go, you know what? I want to wear something like that. And a month later it shows up in the mail and I go, maybe someone else will buy it. Nobody. Yeah. Buys anything. I sell except the true shirt, which is still surprisingly, you know, eight years, 10 years later, still ripping.

[00:07:51] [SPEAKER_01] Should we show Eric what we did last Friday? Oh, we can.

[00:07:56] [SPEAKER_03] And you want to talk about the tattoos? Yeah. Eric, we got matching tattoos for our anniversary.

[00:08:01] [SPEAKER_01] I convinced Jason to get matching tattoos. Can you believe that?

[00:08:04] [SPEAKER_03] So for our wedding way back 11 years ago, we were, we were going to the parks a lot. You know, it was, I think it was after EO got pulled or I don't know, maybe it was while we were going there a lot to watch EO. We're like, oh, I don't know. We should have a logo for our wedding. I don't know. We got to have something, right? Not just our initials or names. And I think it was probably, probably Taryn was like, oh, we should use the Captain EO glasses. I'm like, perfect. So we did that.

[00:08:32] [SPEAKER_03] And then like our first dance was another part of me. And it was a whole thing. We did this whole EO thing. Right. So then on our anniversary, Taryn sees the, one of the glasses that we had. She goes, you know what? This would be a cool matching tattoo. I'm like, yeah, sure. Let's get it. And she's like, what? I'm like, yeah. All right. I'll, I'll, I'll text my guy. And I text him and he goes, yeah. How about Friday? And she's like, what? What's going on? So we went and, uh, and we got them done.

[00:08:57] [SPEAKER_01] Got them done.

[00:08:58] [SPEAKER_03] You can kind of see, you know, little glasses there. They're still healing. So they're, they're peeling. Yeah. Make as much noise as possible, Taryn. Yeah. It looks good. It looks good. Taryn doesn't like hers. I think it looks good on her because it doesn't match her other tattoo. You know? And so it's just, you know, it is what it is.

[00:09:15] [SPEAKER_01] It's a really different style than my other tattoo. My other one's very kind of dainty, very thin lines. And this one is thicker line. It's just, it's a different, it's a different thing. If, if I could go back in time, I might do things a little differently, but I can't. And so it's here and it's done.

[00:09:32] [SPEAKER_03] And it's going to be a very good exercise for you in acceptance, living in the now.

[00:09:38] [SPEAKER_01] Living in the now.

[00:09:39] [SPEAKER_03] And appreciation for what you have been given by your husband.

[00:09:43] [SPEAKER_01] And trusting my husband because, because I did, I did voice concerns during, the, the, the consultation. And I was like, it feels a little big. It feels a little big. And they were like, no, it's not big. Okay. Okay. And Jason's like, it looks great.

[00:09:59] [SPEAKER_03] I think it looks great. I think it's cool.

[00:10:00] [SPEAKER_01] And he still thinks it looks great. And I think I will think it looks great eventually.

[00:10:04] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah. But I like it.

[00:10:05] [SPEAKER_01] I like the idea behind it. It's great.

[00:10:07] [SPEAKER_03] That's what you kind of do with tattoos. You kind of have buyer's remorse. At least I did like my first one, my big one on my forearm. I was like, I don't know. And like, you know, it took me like a week and a half to be like, oh, okay. Yeah. I'm sitting with it. Cause all I'm doing is like examining. Oh, well that line is a little, yeah. Wonk. And that might be, you know, and I'm trying to go. You can't do that with tattoos. It's not, it's not a painting. Yeah. It certainly isn't going to help anything. It's not going to help anything. No. It's just going to make you feel like ass.

[00:10:34] [SPEAKER_01] Yeah. You cannot change it. So.

[00:10:36] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah. Okay. Well, that's enough about me. Let's do some news. Huh? A little Disney news. You guys. Why not? All right. Let's do it.

[00:10:44] March in the past.

[00:10:46] [SPEAKER_02] Present and future with all the news that's fit to cover. It's the years of Disney news.

[00:10:54] [SPEAKER_03] All right. So normally, you know, I have like a bunch of things written out or whatever, but it's been a week, man. And, uh, it's been, uh, it's been tough. Also, it's not a whole lot going on in Disney news stuff, but we managed to scrape some together. Uh, Eric, do you want to, you want to start it out? And you want me to rip out a fast one?

[00:11:15] [SPEAKER_00] No, I can, I can start out. All right. Go for it. We're already on the topic of, uh, Bob Chapik. Hey, my boy. Uh, well, yeah. As, um, as Jason mentioned, uh, Bob Chapek's memoir is finally out. And of course, along with that, everybody who is anybody in Disney news is cutting out chunks of it and talking about the things they want to talk about. Yeah.

[00:11:42] [SPEAKER_03] Er, of course. Yeah. We call that pushing a narrative. And, you know, I would never do that to Bob. I would, uh, the whole narrative would be out.

[00:11:50] [SPEAKER_00] Okay. Well, we'll, we'll figure out what the narrative's going to be when, when this thing happens with Jeremy.

[00:11:56] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah, dude.

[00:11:57] [SPEAKER_00] Um, I'm definitely going to read the book, but I, you know, I don't know if I want to spectate or, or participate in, in this knowing now that it's you and Jeremy, like this, this could be a lot of fun. Um, as opposed to it being just you and me, horrible and miserable. Yeah, exactly. Nobody wants that. No. Uh, well, as something, something that variety pointed out, this is an interesting little fact just to kick us off here.

[00:12:24] [SPEAKER_00] How many times do you think Bob Iger was mentioned in the 272 page memoir written by Bob J.

[00:12:30] [SPEAKER_03] Oh my gosh. Um, do you know what? A part of me wants to say under 50 times, but the other part of me feels like JPEC is kind of on like a Donald Trump thing where he's just going to be, you know, he's mentioning Iger as much as Trump mentions Biden. So I would say over a hundred times. That's what I think.

[00:12:54] [SPEAKER_00] Okay. Taryn, any, any thoughts? Taryn has no thoughts right now. Oh, okay.

[00:12:59] [SPEAKER_03] She's doing something.

[00:13:01] [SPEAKER_00] She's gone. Yeah. Okay. We'll keep trudging on. Yeah. You are, you are correct. It is over 100 mentions of Bob Iger. It is according to Variety's count. It is 121 mentions. Yeah. That's almost a, a, a mention every other page. Yeah.

[00:13:21] [SPEAKER_01] What is Bob Iger? What is he, what does he do? What is his play now? Because this is a book against him. Clearly.

[00:13:30] [SPEAKER_03] I feel Iger is not going to say a word. He doesn't give a care. He's floating down in his golden parachute. He doesn't give a care.

[00:13:38] [SPEAKER_01] I don't know. I do. I feel like. He's moved on. I feel like the whole thing that happened between them was just ego anyway. So like he has a big ego. Like he's not going to just let this lie.

[00:13:50] [SPEAKER_03] I don't know. Sometimes. I mean, this is the revenge tour for JPEG. I kind of wonder what's in it for JPEG to do this.

[00:13:56] [SPEAKER_01] Well, yeah. Nothing.

[00:13:57] [SPEAKER_03] It feels like his NDA expired two days ago.

[00:14:01] [SPEAKER_01] Right. Which also is weird. That's a short NDA. Like that was only what? Five years maybe.

[00:14:07] [SPEAKER_03] Well, I think NDA's five years is probably borderline. Not borderline, but kind of average when you'd expect. That's my guess. It feels right. Five year NDA, you know, on some high level nonsense like that. It feels like it's more ego for JPEG. It almost feels like Iger kind of won the PR war by not saying anything.

[00:14:26] [SPEAKER_01] And maybe.

[00:14:26] [SPEAKER_03] You know what I mean?

[00:14:29] [SPEAKER_00] Well, speaking of that NDA and whatever stipulations might be associated with it, we'll move on. We'll move away from the Iger portion of discussion and hold on to that until we've had a chance to digest what Bobby C has been chewing on for the last few years. Yeah.

[00:14:51] [SPEAKER_01] Absolutely.

[00:14:53] [SPEAKER_00] Let's take a look at some facts that were brought up in Variety and the LA Times, which were very, as I mentioned, very excited to post info from the book. If you want super truncated versions, look at any blog that's out there, including the Orange County Register, which is not a blog, but a news site that posted a very short bit that I read this afternoon and went, oh, okay. There we go. That's my hook.

[00:15:23] [SPEAKER_00] The number that stood out was pretty interesting to me. Let's play the numbers game again. Okay. Unless you've already seen the number. I have not. Okay. How many annual pass holders does Bob Chapek say Disneyland Resort had at one point in time in 2015?

[00:15:47] [SPEAKER_03] Oh, my God. In 2015, how many annual passes? We were two of them.

[00:15:55] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah. This is back in the day. It's over 10 years ago. But Disney does not publish this number. But this has been part of Chapek's entire thing for years was, hey, we've got that unfavorable mix that he brought up years later when he was CEO, when he stepped in it and called everyone with an annual pass a jerk for showing up at the parks for free. Yeah, dude. Yeah.

[00:16:24] [SPEAKER_03] I mean, look. I'm going to go with 50,000. 50,000. 50,000. Wow. I would go. Okay. Across all of them. I would push a hundred thousand. Oh. Yeah. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I mean, considering the park gets, you know, what? 30,000 to 50,000 visitors a day over, you know, they get millions and millions and millions a year. I think they get like 14 million a year or something like that for that resort.

[00:16:53] [SPEAKER_03] So I would think 800,000.

[00:16:56] [SPEAKER_01] You're probably more right than not. But I'm going to I'm going to keep mine for the the wheel or the price is right. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Plan.

[00:17:04] [SPEAKER_00] All right. Well, prices, right rules and all Jason wins 1.1 million annual pass holders. That's a lot in 2015. I'm sorry.

[00:17:17] [SPEAKER_01] I have to do that math really fast because 1.1 times it was like $1,500 at the time.

[00:17:22] [SPEAKER_00] Well, that's not for like a normal. Yeah. That was the middle of the road. 779 for a premium annual passport at the time.

[00:17:31] [SPEAKER_01] 779 for a premium.

[00:17:33] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah.

[00:17:33] [SPEAKER_03] So it's hard to figure out. But I mean, how dare you say again? He definitely stepped in it when he said unfavorable mix. Like that was that was some clown show, you know, stuff. But he he didn't have the charisma to do the job, which, again, goes to my point of he was set up by Bob Auger to fail. You can't be a good CEO and think that Bob Chapek is going to be the face of the company.

[00:18:01] [SPEAKER_01] You can't. You guys, that's 856,900 million. Wait, no, no, no, no.

[00:18:09] [SPEAKER_03] You're smart, though.

[00:18:10] [SPEAKER_01] I love you. 856,900,000. Yeah, that's the number. Almost a billion. Dollars.

[00:18:20] [SPEAKER_00] There you go. Justin.

[00:18:21] [SPEAKER_03] For one for the top. Right.

[00:18:23] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah. Well, he just said pass holders in the book and he didn't he wasn't quite specific as to where exactly in 2015 this was or when in 2015 this was. And the reason that's important is because he says that after prices were raised, that number fell to about one million. So that means 100,000 customers, guests did not renew or buy annual passes after the price was raised.

[00:18:52] [SPEAKER_00] So let's look at the timeline here on February 22nd, 2015. The annual premium annual passport was raised from $699 to $779 per person. So that's an increase of 11 percent. Deluxe went from $519 to $549. Southern California Select went from $289 to $299.

[00:19:16] [SPEAKER_00] One day after February 22nd, on February 23rd, Bob Chapek was announced as the chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. So the first price hike in 2015 happened before he was named chairman.

[00:19:36] [SPEAKER_02] Okay.

[00:19:38] [SPEAKER_00] Before this, he was president of Disney Consumer Products. So potentially, he was not involved with the decision to raise that price because he was in charge of something completely different before then.

[00:19:53] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah.

[00:19:53] [SPEAKER_00] Now, the price was raised a second time in October of 2015. So is Bob talking about his initial lesson in price raising or the one that he was more directly responsible for? We're not sure in the book, but whatever the case, he says that around that time, pass holders, he says, were visiting 200 times per year.

[00:20:18] [SPEAKER_00] That amounts to basically like $4 per visit for some of the people that were visiting the most. That's got to be the SoCal Pass.

[00:20:26] [SPEAKER_01] Right. Which is a lot less money than that deluxe one that you were talking about. Yeah.

[00:20:31] [SPEAKER_03] Right. And I think that's what he was talking about. Wasn't he the unfavorable mix of like mostly locals going? Exactly. Yeah.

[00:20:37] [SPEAKER_01] Which makes sense. I mean, honestly, like when I went to school down there, we would drop in and get like clam chowder for dinner and then leave. So like I do, I get what he's saying, but that's not all the pass holders because we were pass holders then and we weren't going every day. No.

[00:20:55] [SPEAKER_03] But in fact, we were trying to go to get in for free.

[00:20:59] [SPEAKER_01] Well, that is true.

[00:21:00] [SPEAKER_03] Because you do the math and you go, well, if I go five times, that's paid for, then I can go more. But we ended up going to the parks more often. That's true.

[00:21:09] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah. And I mean, Taryn, you're absolutely right. The people who live the closest are going to be there the most often. They're the ones who are stopping by after work.

[00:21:19] [SPEAKER_01] Right. And they're not buying souvenirs every time they go. They're not buying food every time they go. They're popping in to go on a couple rides after work and then going home.

[00:21:28] [SPEAKER_03] We're going to stream my walk around. We're testing all the napkins in the Disneyland Resort and we're going to rank them.

[00:21:36] [SPEAKER_01] But also, what is the problem with that? They're also not taking up that much room. They're there for like maybe a two-hour period at the end of the night or after work, like in the 7 o'clock to 8 o'clock hours.

[00:21:50] [SPEAKER_03] Here's what people always tell me. They go, well, if they can figure out how to make more money, they have a fiduciary responsibility to do so. Which I think is the biggest load of horse crap because you don't have – a fiduciary responsibility is not to make as much money as possible. It's to not lose money. It's to make the stock retain a value.

[00:22:14] [SPEAKER_03] But if you're pricing people out and people are mad they're not going to go to the parks, that is the opposite. You're doing a disservice. And in fact, if you look at the stock, it's still – I mean when DeMauro took over, it was like 101 or something like that. It's still 105. It's like nothing. It has not changed. It hasn't moved in any matter. I think when Iger took over, it was like 99 bucks. It's not doing anything.

[00:22:40] [SPEAKER_03] All these moves aren't doing anything to provide value to up the stock, which was the point of all this crap. So I think at some point the fiduciary responsibility goes the other way too where it's like you guys are doing all these things. You're bringing AI. You're firing people. You're announcing programs to expand the parks, but it's not moving the needle at all because nobody cares about all that kind of crap. The only thing they care about is the price to get into the park. That's it. That's all we care about is the price because we've stuck on that because social media determines that that's the most important thing.

[00:23:10] [SPEAKER_03] And it's not. That's the most important thing to complain about perhaps. Yes. Right. Well, it's the easiest, right? Because you can't – everything else is depending upon your day. Well, I don't eat food. I don't even eat there because it's so – but we all have to pay to get in. So that's – yeah. I'm not yelling at you. I'm saying yeah.

[00:23:31] [SPEAKER_00] I know. I know. Well, the reason I say it's not particularly important is because within the next few months, the amount of annual pass holders had increased back up to 1.1 million.

[00:23:42] [SPEAKER_01] Oh, okay. Okay.

[00:23:43] [SPEAKER_00] People will pay.

[00:23:45] [SPEAKER_03] It does not matter. People will pay. No, they don't. People will pay. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. People think, oh, we're never going to – you're going to go.

[00:23:52] [SPEAKER_01] It's true.

[00:23:53] [SPEAKER_03] Or someone else will go for you.

[00:23:54] [SPEAKER_01] We have changed the way that we pay for it, but we're still paying for it.

[00:24:26] [SPEAKER_00] Right. Paying guests and then gaining them back, Disney was now earning more than 30% more per annual pass while maintaining the same amount of pass holders. That's just in annual pass sales. Geez. He raised the price and we all bought them.

[00:24:46] [SPEAKER_02] What?

[00:24:47] [SPEAKER_03] A jerk. I don't know, man. I'm not going to go too hard on it, but this is what bothers me about late-stage capitalism because, number one, we'll complain about it, but we'll go. But also the unmitigated gall that this man has to be like, you know what we can do? We could probably make 30% more by just raising the prices on the most dedicated fans. Yeah. That sucks, man. But that's his job. And so you can't really get mad at him because he's doing his job.

[00:25:17] [SPEAKER_03] So, yeah.

[00:25:19] [SPEAKER_01] That 30% brings it up to $1.1 billion.

[00:25:23] [SPEAKER_00] There you go. We were under a billion.

[00:25:25] [SPEAKER_01] Now we're over.

[00:25:28] [SPEAKER_00] So do you know what the Inspire key, I suppose I should have asked, do you know what the top key is now? But it's the Inspire key. The current price for the highest level of key, which still has park reservations as a part of it, does not have nearly the same benefits as the deluxe pass back then. Do you know how much that's running right now? Couldn't tell you. $1,800?

[00:25:57] [SPEAKER_01] Isn't it like $2,000?

[00:25:59] [SPEAKER_00] Jason almost got it. It's $1,900.

[00:26:02] [SPEAKER_03] Man, I'm on a roll today. Call me Butter, baby, because I'm on a roll.

[00:26:06] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah. So it's more expensive now.

[00:26:10] [SPEAKER_01] And we imagine it's probably about the same amount of people that have it, maybe less, a little bit.

[00:26:15] [SPEAKER_03] I think it's probably got to be less because they capped a lot of it too, didn't they?

[00:26:19] [SPEAKER_00] Right. They have been capping it. They have more levels of the past now. Now there are four different magic keys that have their own restrictions, their own benefits. It's all confusing. You don't even know what the names are because there's no natural hierarchy to them. Premium seems like it's better. Inspire? Great. That's the best. Yep. We've talked about all of that before.

[00:26:43] [SPEAKER_00] I guess really the idea here is Chapek admits freely in this memoir, assuming he is telling the truth, which I assume he is.

[00:26:53] [SPEAKER_03] I'd say, you know what, honestly, 70-30.

[00:26:56] [SPEAKER_00] I'm sure some of it's embellished a little bit, you know? Yeah, but at least the point of the message here is I raised prices and you people went online, complained. You raised bloody hell while typing in your credit card number. Right.

[00:27:12] [SPEAKER_03] It is the meme of the guy riding the bike, shoving a stick in the spokes, falling over and saying, look at what you did to me. Yeah. Why would you do this to me? But, uh, I mean, I don't know. That's right. Yeah. Whatever. Anyway, um, you know, uh, Ryan is at the, uh, Craftsman bar at the Grand California. Oh, how fun.

[00:27:33] [SPEAKER_01] That's a good place to be.

[00:27:35] [SPEAKER_03] Speaking of, uh, spending too much money.

[00:27:37] [SPEAKER_01] I love it. I wish I was spending that money.

[00:27:39] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah, me too.

[00:27:40] [SPEAKER_00] Hey, it's, it's fairly affordable at Craftsman. It's not like he's at the cafe or something.

[00:27:44] [SPEAKER_01] Where is, where is Craftsman?

[00:27:46] [SPEAKER_00] Where is that?

[00:27:46] [SPEAKER_03] In the Grand Californian.

[00:27:48] [SPEAKER_01] Oh, that's where we got those terrible Bloody Marys. Yes, dude. Terrible Bloody Marys. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Awful. Okay.

[00:27:54] [SPEAKER_00] Awful.

[00:27:55] [SPEAKER_01] It was a long time ago. I'm sure they fixed things.

[00:27:57] [SPEAKER_00] Oh, sure. Yeah. Of course.

[00:27:59] [SPEAKER_01] But those were terrible. That was the worst drink I've ever ordered in my entire life.

[00:28:03] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah, it was bad. Really? Wow. Yeah, it's like they hired someone from the Gap and immediately just put them in behind the bar. Like, I don't understand what's a jigger. Just, you'll be fine.

[00:28:13] [SPEAKER_01] It was, it was like, it looked like bloody water. It was not good. Like, it was just not good.

[00:28:18] [SPEAKER_03] It was Bloody Mary pre-mixed as they do in the bars. And both of ours were different colors. So right off the bat, you know something is wrong.

[00:28:27] [SPEAKER_01] Yeah.

[00:28:28] [SPEAKER_03] It was not good.

[00:28:29] No.

[00:28:30] [SPEAKER_01] But, but I'm sure that it's gotten better because it can't get worse. Right.

[00:28:35] [SPEAKER_03] What's up, David? Hey, hey, David and Brian. Let me give you a Bob Iger thumbs up, you guys. I updated the emotes a little bit today. Okay.

[00:28:47] [SPEAKER_00] Sorry, Eric. Go ahead. No, that's, that's it for this one. We hit, that was, that was a nice discussion. Thank you. That was, that was fun.

[00:28:53] [SPEAKER_03] That was fun. Well, here's something to be mad about. You guys want to be mad about something?

[00:28:58] [SPEAKER_01] I love being mad.

[00:28:59] [SPEAKER_03] You know that I love AI. That's my favorite thing to talk about is AI. AI things. You know what I mean? Well, apparently the Disney PhotoPass magic shot, you know, where they can put little Tinkerbell in your hands or whatever, right? They're now using generative AI to modify your photos into some of the graveyard busts in front of the magic or in front of the haunted mansion. Maybe.

[00:29:26] [SPEAKER_03] And this, this article goes, um, the magic shot appears to use generative AI, but we don't know for sure. Well, it's clearly gender. It's clearly generative AI. Like I'm having a hard time saying it for some reason. Generative. Generative. I feel like George Bush now. Um, the magic shot appears to use generative AI to put it. It just sounds not like I'm, it sounds like not the right word, but it is.

[00:29:56] [SPEAKER_01] Um, in my classes, they call it a genic.

[00:29:59] [SPEAKER_03] I, I hate your classes, uh, to put guests face on stone busts, similar to the dread family busts in the attractions queue. The photos have drawn a backlash on Facebook and Twitter for appearing to use generative AI, generative AI. Although Disney hasn't confirmed the exact technical details. Trust me, dog. It's AI. It sure looks like it.

[00:30:22] [SPEAKER_01] Yeah.

[00:30:23] [SPEAKER_03] Uh, the test ran late last week and may have continued through the weekend. We do not know whether it's still running in the magic shot guests pose in front of the mansions, iron fence. This is a Disney world for clarification. And the finished photo turns them into carved stone busts on Ivy covered pedestals with a blue lit nighttime haunted mansion behind the fence. Each bust keeps the guests face, hair glasses, facial hair, shirt, and expressions. The fully delivered images have a vertical strip along one edge that says limited edition, 2026.

[00:30:52] [SPEAKER_03] And, um, yeah, it's, it's, it's the worst kind of AI slop. And, uh, many guests on Facebook and Twitter say they are unhappy that Disney appears to be using gen AI in their photos. While guests seem to be okay with characters superimposed into photos. I don't. I think it looks cheesy. The imperative use of generative AI is here, uh, is a step too far for many, but I don't know, but I can't, this kind of goes to what we were saying in the last segment where this is not a, this has not been a secret.

[00:31:21] [SPEAKER_03] This is tomorrow's big push is to, is to deliver more AI to people. And then now we're doing it and people are like, well, I don't like this, but at what point is it too much for people? And I think we, we mentioned this every time there's a price raise. What point is too much for people to go to the parks? We, we, we never say we're never going to go again. We say we can't go as much. We can't go. Not that I don't want to, because I don't appreciate what they're doing or whatever. I'm not going to write a letter.

[00:31:51] [SPEAKER_03] I'm not going to do it. I'm going to complain on Facebook and then I'm going to make a reservation the next day. Um, that's all basically people are just mad and you'll look them up, look up this. It's, it's clearly bad. It's not good at all. Yeah. It can only bad happen. It can't good happen.

[00:32:11] [SPEAKER_01] Only bad.

[00:32:13] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah. It, I mean, it, it looks like what it aims to be, which also bad.

[00:32:19] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah. Which I bet you could go, you don't need to go to the park to do that. You can literally do that at home. You know, you burn some compute tokens and figure that out. Um, okay.

[00:32:31] [SPEAKER_01] So here's a couple. Sometimes I feel like I don't know enough about AI. Like truly. Like I, I'm, I'm like against it. And I talk about being against it when I'm in class and like, and like, oh, I'm morally against it. Uh, but then like you say something like that and I'm like, what are you talking about? Like, what is a coin?

[00:32:52] [SPEAKER_03] Oh, it's so when you have one of these dumb chat bots, cause you can't think for yourself, you have to buy coins. It's currency. So you have to get kids credits. You have to burn credits to use the service.

[00:33:03] [SPEAKER_01] It's not just like a subscription. Yeah. Like a monthly subscription.

[00:33:06] [SPEAKER_03] It is, but there's also coins that come with it to a certain point. I don't know. I don't know about all of the chat bots, but I know like mid journey and I think chat GPT or whatever. I've never even heard of the image one. Um, you have to, you have a subscription and you get a certain amount of coins. And if you burn your coins, you can buy more. Oh, but coins are how they break the compute down.

[00:33:29] [SPEAKER_01] That's actually a pretty smart.

[00:33:31] [SPEAKER_03] Well, to be honest, it's a pretty smart way to absolutely rake your customers over.

[00:33:35] [SPEAKER_01] It's the same as like those, those farm, those farm apps. Remember those farm apps that I used to do?

[00:33:41] [SPEAKER_03] Will you please watch my farm while I'm on vacation, please? I won't have internet access and I need to harvest my carrots to take them to market. So I get a hundred gold coins.

[00:33:49] [SPEAKER_01] Well, and like, but, but you would have to like purchase like a special tool so that you could do the right thing and do it in the right amount of time. And like, oh yeah, it's, that's actually a pretty smart, I guess.

[00:34:00] [SPEAKER_03] Uh, Disney legal chief warns of quote, hard choices and quote, much smaller organization coming as company layoffs loom. And this, uh, piece was in deadline. And then like, I think the next day or the day after, uh, the hammer dropped, but I think it's worth, uh, I think it's worth reading both. Uh, an end of week memo from Disney's chief legal and global affairs officer has given a blunt warning that layoffs are coming in mid a quote transformation process that includes

[00:34:29] [SPEAKER_03] automating certain workflows by leveraging the latest technologies. What do you think that means? Do you think that means, uh, we have this new spreadsheet form that you can fill out? Does that mean we have a new portal that gives you better access to something? Or does that mean AI? What do you think? Leave your, leave your comments down below. Without actually saying that AI is taking over or that job losses are on the horizon. The memo by Horatio Gutierrez strongly implies that sent out at noon on September 18th to

[00:34:58] [SPEAKER_03] the LGA department, which counts just under a thousand members globally. The missive has taken on a life of its own, getting circulated among the Disney rank and file with many fearing the unsentimental message to LGA staffers applies to them too, as they are bracing for rounds of layoffs expected to begin as early as next week. The memo has also been shared throughout the entertainment law community in Los Angeles, New York, and DC, noting that Disney's quote, legal government regulations,

[00:35:27] [SPEAKER_03] wow, government relations, operations, and others are going through their own reinvention as technology reshapes how work gets done and the operating models that underpin those professions, unquote. Gutierrez says that he's taking a dispassionate look at every aspect of how we do our work so we can do it in a more efficient and cost effective manner. Who does that sound like? That sounds a lot like Elon Musk and Doge or Pete Hegseth.

[00:35:54] [SPEAKER_01] They're all the same. But like, this is not, okay, I want to preface this with this is not me defending AI or defending any of these companies, but it, from a high-level executive standpoint, AI is amazing. That is the perfect thing for your bottom line. If it can do what 20,000 people in your company can do, but it can do it for basically free, that's amazing.

[00:36:23] [SPEAKER_01] It is. It is no wonder.

[00:36:25] [SPEAKER_03] In theory. Right. But it never works out that way. There are so many articles about companies rehiring employees, like Meta just went through this. They fired a crap ton of people because their jobs were being replaced by AI. They had to rehire these people back because the AI couldn't do what they thought that it could.

[00:36:44] [SPEAKER_01] Which is great.

[00:36:45] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah.

[00:36:46] [SPEAKER_01] That is fantastic.

[00:36:46] [SPEAKER_03] But that's the writing on the wall. And these companies don't care because, oh, it'll get better. We'll use AI to make AI better. Like, literally, that's what they think.

[00:36:53] [SPEAKER_01] Well, yeah. And that's the thing is, like, according to these CEOs of, like, Claude OpenAI that have quit, you know, and they're going like, this is, like, I'm literally not having kids because, like, we're not going to have a society in 10 years because of AI. Yeah. Like, we're not listening to them anymore, which we should be, probably. They probably know best. But these companies, all they care about is the bottom line.

[00:37:22] [SPEAKER_01] And all they care about is the next five years. So they don't care about 10 years from now. They don't care about any of that. And, like, it's really scary that they are going to be completely okay with just destroying people's lives by laying them off, by doing all of this stuff. And to be honest, like, we don't know if it's going to work out or not. It might work out great for them. And it's just, it sucks that, like, it's really this hierarchy of society of, like,

[00:37:52] [SPEAKER_01] if you're in the higher end, then you don't have to worry about it. It's not a big deal for you. But if you're anywhere in the middle or lower end, like, it is very scary for people. I don't know what my point was, but that's the point.

[00:38:04] [SPEAKER_03] You did seem to sort of change positions, but yeah, that's all right.

[00:38:07] [SPEAKER_01] I didn't change positions, but I just, you know, I just wanted to make a point that I don't know what it was.

[00:38:11] [SPEAKER_03] You like to argue both sides, and I appreciate that.

[00:38:12] [SPEAKER_01] Yeah.

[00:38:13] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah, I mean, I agree with what you're saying. And that's maybe the fundamental issue I have. I mean, the morality aside of, like, using the internet. Someone made a point where, like, we spent the last 25 years building up the internet to be a useful tool, where we have how-to videos and all these manuals and blogs and historical information and all this kind of crap. And then AI comes and scrapes it all, takes all of that work, transfers it to a paid model.

[00:38:41] [SPEAKER_03] And then now you can pay to have access to it in a different way just to prevent you from doing maybe 15 or 20 minutes extra work. That's it. That's all it is. It's kind of insane the way that they've made it. But the other side of that is nobody in AI is actually making money. Right. They are all burning so much cash that it is a weird-ass balance of financial burn.

[00:39:07] [SPEAKER_01] No, the only people making money are the companies outside of AI using AI and finding ways to get rid of humans.

[00:39:17] [SPEAKER_03] I don't even think they're making money either. I think the only people making money are the people building the data centers. They got NVIDIA. You know what I mean? Like, that's it. Like, these people-

[00:39:24] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah, the billionaires, the corporations.

[00:39:26] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah, they're not making money. Like, the amount of cash burn that OpenAI is going through is historic. It's crazy. But people just keep giving him more money. And it's like, he goes, we may never make money. Well, what are you doing? Yeah, what business plan is this? Anyway, my problem, again, it's not the morality aside, environmental impact aside.

[00:39:51] [SPEAKER_03] It is the fact that we are adopting this technology, giving it every aspect of our human bodies. Giving every aspect of our personalities. And teaching it and training it to do this thing. And then these companies are just adopting it and firing everybody without making sure that it works. With also, without understanding that it doesn't work a lot of the time. There are, you know, we talk about that they use it in legal cases all the time.

[00:40:18] [SPEAKER_03] The Trump administration has had cases thrown out because they have used AI to generate their legal briefs. And the AI has hallucinated cases. And made them up. And made up quotes to the case. And presented it as fact. And nobody checks it. And it's just, anyway. It doesn't work the way we want it to. But we want to. I think it also exposes this kind of like underlying, I don't know, resentment that rich people have against the working class.

[00:40:45] [SPEAKER_03] Where it's like, we don't really want the pours around anyway. So let's take more from them. And because we need more. And let's just separate them. I don't care what happens to them. I don't know what's going to happen to them. They're just going to go somewhere else. It's fine. But we're going to be fine. Anyways. Whatever. To that, Gutierrez's email also came as the deadline was looming for qualifying longtime Disney executives. To take the company's voluntary early retirement offer. First unveiled in August.

[00:41:13] [SPEAKER_03] Cutting to the chase in his September 18th memo and invoking the name of DeMauro. Gutierrez goes on to tell his staff that, quote, when teams work smarter, Disney can serve more fans at lower costs. Freeing up that capital to reinvest in the content, guest experiences, and technology infrastructure that keeps the company out front. Again, here's the problem I have with this. They do stock buybacks.

[00:41:41] [SPEAKER_03] They raise the prices to fund all this stuff. And that's kind of some of the explanation about why the prices keep going up. Oh, because they're doing Disney Ford or whatever. So what's all the money? Why do you need to cut the serving more fans at lower costs? Why does everything need to be streamlined? I understand that you don't want to pay for people for jobs that you weren't doing. But if you're replacing people's jobs at a family company to serve, quote, fans at a lower cost.

[00:42:09] [SPEAKER_03] But yet you're using that justification for raising the prices also. It doesn't. The math doesn't math somehow. You know, it all just seems fan service. Not even fan service. It just seems like bullcrap. I don't know. Seems like bullcrap to me.

[00:42:25] [SPEAKER_01] Yeah.

[00:42:26] [SPEAKER_03] But then the Hollywood Reporter, when was this? Yesterday, Disney cuts hundreds more jobs. A new round of layoff as corporate streamlining casualties mount. That's a very dire headline. For months, employees at the Walt Disney Company have been on edge. The entertainment giant has cut hundreds of jobs this year as it continues streamlining corporate operations. More have been expected. On Tuesday, the axe fell. A few hundred employees, mostly in human resources and tech, which is just where you want that to be. Human resources.

[00:42:56] [SPEAKER_03] Well, you can't bring a lawsuit against a department that doesn't really have any people in it. You know what I mean? True. The cuts are the fourth round of layoffs this year, folks. A month into the job, CEO Josh Diamaro in April eliminated around 1,000 jobs, mostly in the company's unified marketing organization, studios, and TV businesses.

[00:43:17] [SPEAKER_03] That was followed in July with reductions to some corporate functions, Disney Entertainment Television and Film Studios, with Pixar and Nat Geo seeing the most cuts. The moves are unfolding against Amaro's broader efforts to make Disney a leaner operation while increasing investment in areas the company considers strategic. In an August shareholder letter, Di Amaro and CFO Hugh Johnston said Disney was, quote, midstream in its cost reduction efforts and indicated that further updates would come.

[00:43:45] [SPEAKER_03] He says, quote, we're highly focused on operating with speed and agility and improving productivity and efficiency across the company so we can invest in accelerating growth. Which I will say, you know, that is kind of one of the inside baseball things that you hear about internally at the Disney company where when Walt was around, it was like you go one person to Walt and you go, this is what I want to do. And he'll go, yeah, or piss off. Give me a smoke.

[00:44:12] [SPEAKER_00] Right.

[00:44:12] [SPEAKER_03] He's bumming. He'll be Ricky. But smokes. Come on. But as the company grew, you have to get permission from your boss and they have to take it up the ladder and they have to go here and they have to fill out this paperwork and then it has to get pre-approved and it's six months down the road before anything can happen. I will say that that's probably better for everybody involved on a creative aspect, but I kind of feel like, call me naive, it's not going to play out that way.

[00:44:43] [SPEAKER_03] Okay. Okay. Anyway, whatever. Oh, at the end of fiscal 2025, Disney employed roughly 231,000 people worldwide. That's all I got to say. Okay. So Disney cuts. They're here, dude. They're here. And then, oh, here's another one.

[00:44:58] [SPEAKER_01] But it's not just Disney. It's like everybody's cutting people.

[00:45:01] [SPEAKER_03] I know, but it's a Disney show. I don't really care what happens in any other company. I know.

[00:45:05] [SPEAKER_01] Just to put things in perspective, like I don't think that he's like a terrible person because he's doing this. He's just, he's doing what the board is telling him to do. Like, I don't, I don't put it all on him. Just like I didn't put it all on Chapek. Just saying.

[00:45:21] [SPEAKER_03] Okay. All right. Great. She said it. Eric, do you have another story or no? I'm just going. So. I have, I do have other stories. Okay. Let me take a break because I need to realize that this is not just an anti-AI show. Uh, we're going to hear a couple of commercials. Sorry. Tee hee hee. And then, uh, we'll come back. Eric will talk and then I'll talk. And then, uh, Taryn will give me a non sequitur again. So hang on everyone.

[00:45:50] [SPEAKER_03] Don't glare at me. It's EarzUp!. We'll be right back. Love you, Taryn.

[00:45:58] [SPEAKER_01] Uh-huh.

[00:45:58] [SPEAKER_03] And now, back to the show that ignites your dream wish of imaginations and magical color wonderment of forever. Ears up.

[00:46:08] [SPEAKER_00] All right, Eric. Okay. Give it to us, buddy. All right. Well, here's, here's a quick but pleasant one. Uh, the, uh, the 55th anniversary of Walt Disney World is nigh. That is, uh, as we're recording tomorrow on October 1st. Uh, it's only been, um, I, I'm not very good at math.

[00:46:34] [SPEAKER_00] It's, it's been an indeterminate amount of years since the, uh, 50th anniversary, which may or may not have happened in 2021. Uh, I say may or may not have happened because there was a little bit of hullabaloo and a lot of, uh, just hemming and hawing around the parks around that, that particular time. Um, I know they actually did some stuff, but considering it was the 50th and considering

[00:47:03] [SPEAKER_00] it was still during the, uh, the throes of the COVID pandemic, there, there wasn't a whole lot of, of stuff going on. They, you know, Disney at the time did put out a lot of, uh, merchandise, a lot of retro looking stuff, but they really didn't have a whole lot opening up in the parks. They weren't doing anything super noteworthy. And a lot of that, uh, is still kind of up in the air and still happening.

[00:47:30] [SPEAKER_00] So, uh, for here on the 55th, not, not usually a notable year. If I'm remembering when you, when you two went on your honeymoon, you were, you were there during, during the anniversary, right?

[00:47:44] [SPEAKER_01] Of Disney World.

[00:47:46] [SPEAKER_00] Of some anniversary at Disney World.

[00:47:47] [SPEAKER_01] It was, yeah, it was, yes, yes. I don't know which one, but yes.

[00:47:51] [SPEAKER_00] And, and it was probably a completely off year because I remember you saying on the show.

[00:47:56] [SPEAKER_01] They didn't do anything.

[00:47:57] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah. No.

[00:47:58] [SPEAKER_01] Well, I think I knew it because I Googled it.

[00:48:01] Okay.

[00:48:02] [SPEAKER_01] Yeah. No, there was no celebration at all.

[00:48:05] [SPEAKER_00] Okay. Well, they're, they're Walt Disney World is trying this year to, uh, do basically the same thing, but with a little bit of effort. Okay. This year.

[00:48:16] [SPEAKER_01] Well, that's good.

[00:48:17] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah. Yeah. So not, not a whole lot happening. Nothing huge. Uh, the new animation, um, courtyard opened up. So the magic of Disney animation at Hollywood studios opened just recently, uh, earlier this month, I guess, as we're recording on September 14th. Um, that is kind of a redo of the old, uh, animation building tour that we talked about

[00:48:45] [SPEAKER_00] a couple of years ago, uh, with that, uh, great documentary on YouTube. Um, which I'm blanking on the name of now that I wasn't planning on talking about it, but Hey, there we go. Yes. We're making this episode up as we go. You can tell everybody.

[00:49:02] [SPEAKER_03] Don't tell them. They don't know. That's fine. You already said it.

[00:49:06] [SPEAKER_00] Fine. Anyway, uh, that's already open and we've got plenty of other stuff that is on the way that Jason talked about, I believe on our last news show a few weeks ago. So there's not a huge reason to go through all of that. Again, all of that is still happening. There's tons of, tons of work happening around the park. None of it was really intended to open right now. So that's going to keep going, but it's, it's nice to see that there actually is real construction happening in all of the parks right now.

[00:49:36] [SPEAKER_00] And, um, maybe a little less and there's still some kind of happening in Epcot, but they just did a ton over there anyway. Uh, so not a whole lot to talk about when it comes to new attractions. Uh, when regarding merch, it's kind of fun. The Disney parks blog found two of the original cast members who have been with the park since its opening day and had them model some of the merch. So first up is Frank.

[00:50:06] [SPEAKER_02] Ooh.

[00:50:07] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah. Go to Disney parks blog. You can see Frank and Earlene.

[00:50:12] [SPEAKER_02] Love that.

[00:50:13] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah. Frank is showing off, uh, 55 magical years, a hoodie and a backpack. Frank is the entertainment. I have to look at this cause it's kind of a mouthful entertainment readiness manager with Disney live entertainment. entertainment.

[00:50:31] [SPEAKER_01] Okay.

[00:50:33] [SPEAKER_03] Okay. I'm looking at this right now. Uh, it's quite a title. He doesn't look, I mean, he doesn't look no offense to Frank. He seems like a nice man. He's pretty old to be the entertainment readiness manager. What does that even mean? He's just, he has, he has, is he ripped torn and he just has like a, he just has confetti in his pocket for any moment at any time. I'm here. Frank's here, everybody.

[00:51:02] [SPEAKER_00] No, not ripped torn.

[00:51:03] [SPEAKER_03] Rip Taylor. Taylor.

[00:51:05] [SPEAKER_00] Who's ripped torn? Something's wrong with. Oh man. Ripped torn. Ripped torn's cool, but he doesn't throw confetti. Oh, well. I'm sure he does more than bring the, the enter, the live entertainment, uh, a Coca-Cola.

[00:51:19] [SPEAKER_03] His, his quote here is ironic. Cause he goes, uh, Walt Disney world is a place where someone can find a first job, fall in love with the company and work there for most of their life. You can't find that just anywhere. So it means a lot to a lot of people. Yeah. Except the people that got fired Frank. Cause the robots took their job. You nerd.

[00:51:41] [SPEAKER_00] Well, sorry. Frank's going to celebrate. And to celebrate, he says, I'm going to go to work every day and have a good time. I'm, I have an amazing team and couldn't ask for anything better. There you go. It's wonderful.

[00:51:57] [SPEAKER_03] Love that. Do you think, uh, you think they let him keep all this stuff? Like the hat and the cup and whatever.

[00:52:03] [SPEAKER_00] If he was drinking out of that cup, I hope he like, no, no, no, wipe it off. Wipe it off.

[00:52:08] [SPEAKER_03] Put it on the shelf to celebrate the 55th anniversary. I'm going to go to work and I'm going to be a good little worker. I don't want to get fired by the robot. He knows how to keep his job. Yeah.

[00:52:18] [SPEAKER_00] The Roomba is going to steal my job. I can't do that. He hits 60 years at, at Walt Disney world and he gets an, uh, you know, an additional week of vacation every year.

[00:52:28] [SPEAKER_03] Sure. Yeah. So he gets a total of two weeks.

[00:52:31] [SPEAKER_00] There you go. Uh, next up is Earlene. Um, Earlene makes magic at Disney's contemporary resort as a merchandise hostess.

[00:52:42] [SPEAKER_03] Okay.

[00:52:43] [SPEAKER_00] I don't know what that means, but that's cool. But she has been working at the contemporary resort since opening day, which is pretty rad that she's still at this, this hotel. That was one of the, the only two on, on property during that opening year. And, uh, yeah, she's still hanging out there, having a good time. She says on opening day, she was so thrilled. Uh, she had no idea she would remain at Disney this long. She loves her Disney world.

[00:53:13] [SPEAKER_00] Well, that's, that's nice. They both look like very pleasant people. They have a nice picture where they're, they're both looking at a plush Mickey who's holding a 55 flag. So it's nice. They're, they're, they're highlighting two people that have been with the company for such a long time. I wonder, I didn't have a chance to look, but I'm, I'm curious how many people have made it to the 55 club. People that have been with the company for a long time wonder how many are still working there.

[00:53:38] [SPEAKER_00] Um, Disney parks blog does not say, but it does highlight these two people and they're having a wonderful time. They use the word wonderful a lot. Of course.

[00:53:47] [SPEAKER_03] Well, it's wonderful.

[00:53:48] [SPEAKER_00] It's wonderful.

[00:53:50] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah.

[00:53:50] [SPEAKER_00] The other thing is even shorter. I'm just looking at this article in the Orlando Sentinel on the last news show. I mentioned Hurley Burley was coming in to take over for jelly rolls. That's right. And now it has pictures look cool. Look them up.

[00:54:05] [SPEAKER_03] What's the internet say about it? Are we happy? Are we mad? Are we protesting or are we loving it?

[00:54:12] [SPEAKER_00] It's, it's pretty, pretty. Darn new. This article was published today.

[00:54:18] [SPEAKER_02] Okay.

[00:54:19] [SPEAKER_00] So, um, and this is in the Sentinel. So it really, it's just kind of press photos. The room's empty. They've got a few PR people standing around, um, pictures of food look nice. They're pictures of the Disney knows how to take pictures of food. Let me tell you.

[00:54:35] [SPEAKER_03] That is true.

[00:54:36] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah.

[00:54:37] [SPEAKER_03] They should, they should teach a class on the internet for that. Cause most people do not.

[00:54:43] [SPEAKER_00] Uh, yeah. And we talked about what the menu was going to look like on the last one. So that's pretty much what it was going to be. And, uh, yeah, we'll see what the, what the internet has to say about it as people come in and try out all the new stuff. But otherwise, I mean, it's a quick flip. It looks happier, brighter than jelly rolls did before.

[00:55:09] [SPEAKER_00] Cause that place was always kind of dank once he got inside, but that was part of its charm.

[00:55:14] [SPEAKER_03] That's true.

[00:55:15] [SPEAKER_00] What else do you want out of a dueling piano bar?

[00:55:18] [SPEAKER_03] Nothing except pianos, I guess.

[00:55:20] [SPEAKER_00] I guess. Yeah. Dank and pianos.

[00:55:22] [SPEAKER_01] Um, yes, I'm going to get going.

[00:55:25] [SPEAKER_00] Okay. Bye.

[00:55:26] [SPEAKER_01] Um, I, it was lovely hanging out with you guys. Um, but I'm going to go put, um, child, child to bed. Goodbye.

[00:55:32] [SPEAKER_00] Goodbye. Beat it. Sounds wonderful.

[00:55:34] [SPEAKER_03] Scram beat it. Um, all right. Now that Taryn's gone, we can finally let our hairs out. You know what I mean? Now I got one more story and, uh, you know, again, it's AI because that's what's in the news. It's not because I have a weird fixation on it. Disney's AI push has a new target. Annual reviews.

[00:55:56] [SPEAKER_03] Disney encouraged employees to use AI ahead of their annual reviews, including, or including by suggesting that they ask chat bots to generate their goals in ways they can improve in the year ahead. This is the language. I don't know. Again, if you need to use AI to ask it, how you can be better at your job that you do, the AI doesn't know. It's telling you what you want to hear and what generic business crap. It's not going to give you specifics.

[00:56:25] [SPEAKER_03] It can't, it doesn't think it can't produce things.

[00:56:30] [SPEAKER_00] Anyway, I'm going to totally use it tomorrow because we're working on goals. Me and my boss.

[00:56:34] [SPEAKER_03] Oh, please do. I would love to see what it says. This is the latest instance of Disney's internal AI push and is an example of how big corporations, including tech giants like Meta and Amazon, are using the AI tools they've invested in to shake up performance reviews or rethink how to evaluate employees. Which, to me, it sounds dangerous if you're a mid-level manager. That's your job. They're just going to replace you with AI at some point, too. It's like, Taryn was like, oh, the middle people and up aren't going to care.

[00:57:03] [SPEAKER_03] No, I think the middle people are going to get just as impacted, you know? Yeah. AI.

[00:57:10] [SPEAKER_00] Everybody. Everybody.

[00:57:11] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah. AI-generated writing has, you know what? I think it was open. Oh, God, where did I hear this from? I forget. But a lot of the AI dorks, the CEOs who are inflicting all this on us, like Palantir and OpenAI, they all have a group chat. Of course they do, where they just like bounce ideas. And someone, they have a bet going, which of them will have the first company valued at a billion dollars with one employee. Oh, good. Because AI is going to do that. Right.

[00:57:40] [SPEAKER_03] This is what they talk about. This is what they want. They want us to not have a job and to not, we don't even need to exist.

[00:57:48] [SPEAKER_00] And they're just chuckling away, knowing that after they get to that point and they've won, a couple years from now, that company will be worth 12 cents. And they'll be making billions off of something else.

[00:58:01] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah. Or we'll all be dead. AI-generated writing has popped up everywhere from the workplace to social media and the dating world. Business Insider's Aki Ito reported, companies are trying desperately to find value from the AI that they've paid a lot of money for. Here are some examples of Disney's suggested AI prompts for annual reviews according to an internal document viewed by Business Insider. This should be good.

[00:58:26] [SPEAKER_03] Given my role, and it says insert your role or title, help me create three ambitious, specific, and measurable goals that are in alignment with my team's overall business objectives. Insert team FY26 objectives. Now, I feel like if you can't do this, you don't deserve to be in a high functioning role in any company. If you have to, you know what I mean? This is the problem with stuff like this for me.

[00:58:58] [SPEAKER_03] It outsources critical thinking to a computer that doesn't think. You see what I mean? So, like, instead of, like, making the mistake and going, like, hey, these are my goals and having your manager go, like, well, I would really like to see this because this would work better. Oh, yeah. Okay, great. I'll revise that. It just, well, this is what the computer told me. It offloads the, I don't know, responsibility, I think, onto an inanimate object. And we go, it's what it said. I don't know. You want me to use the thing?

[00:59:27] [SPEAKER_03] Now I can't use the thing.

[00:59:29] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah, but, I mean, if you are, so Mr. P is saying goals are always hyper-specific. And I guess it depends on what type of work you're doing and where you are in the company. Because based on what you said there, you're building your goals off of the objectives for the company and for, so essentially someone is handing you their goals from above.

[00:59:57] [SPEAKER_00] And then you're building your goals off of that and your specific role. So the system has to understand who you are and what you do and what, you know, you've got to feed it something. Because like you're saying, it needs something to work with. You can't just say, here are goals. I am the entertainment readiness manager with Disney Live Entertainment. And it's like, hello, Frank, here are your goals.

[01:00:26] [SPEAKER_03] Right. Well, and I guess the problem I have would, I'd be interesting to find out because I clearly don't know. But like, what if the goals that it spits out to you, you've already done, right? Or like they're not applicable. Then you have to sit there and work on it more. I don't know. Whatever. It's hard to say. I just, I fear for, case in point, we were at the zoo yesterday, Oakland Zoo, which is rad. I got to see a gibbon, a monkey, a gibbon, you know, a gibbon, hanging on a rope, pooping and peeing.

[01:00:53] [SPEAKER_03] And it was the best thing I've ever seen in my entire life.

[01:00:56] [SPEAKER_00] Okay.

[01:00:57] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah. Better than the birth of my child.

[01:01:01] [SPEAKER_00] Who was there and got to also see a gibbon poop and pee at the same time.

[01:01:04] [SPEAKER_03] No, she was in the truck.

[01:01:05] [SPEAKER_00] I don't let her out. Oh, okay. Yeah.

[01:01:06] [SPEAKER_03] She used one for you. Yeah. Yeah. No, we were there with her friend and I was like, look, it's peeing. Oh my God, it's pooping. And they were like, all the monkeys going, oh, oh. And it's just hanging on there, pooping. And I was just, what a life, dude. I love that. But we were in the gift shop and these two ladies, late 20s, early 30s, talking about AI and whatever. And one of them was like, I need to, you know, what would chat GPT have me respond to this man? And the other girl's like, you use chat GPT to like talk to dates?

[01:01:36] [SPEAKER_03] She goes, yeah, I can't talk the way you can. And so I have to use, I have to, I'm like, you can't, you can't use, you can't use your brain for a conversation with somebody you don't even know. You have to ask a computer to make up words for you. You can't do that on your own. We're, Taryn talks about it in her classes all the time. It's like the younger kids, they don't have these, they're already AI pill. They don't have these like, these like low level functions of communicating with people.

[01:02:04] [SPEAKER_03] They don't care because they don't need to do it unless the computer tells them to. It's very weird.

[01:02:10] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah. I mean, that is interesting. And I wonder how much curiosity really is out there these days are these days, but you know, we're just sounding older and older by the second. But what's, what's really driving people? Because I think back on when I was learning to use a computer and it's like, I don't know how to do any of this stuff. Let's look at, we barely hadn't had that internet back then. So it was asking friends.

[01:02:39] [SPEAKER_00] It was asking, you know, you knew a few like friends of your parents who were like, oh yeah, I do computers at work and they can, you know, teach you things about how to use MS-DOS and all of this. Oh, here's how you use a command prompt. And, you know, it was trying things and hoping you didn't completely screw up your entire computer. And now people are like, well, what's a computer? What's, how does email work?

[01:03:08] [SPEAKER_00] You know, but what, something's got to drive people forward. My wife is fond of, she saw something recently that this current generation is by some accounts, not as knowledgeable as previous generations for the first time in many, many generations. But what we've been growing so exponentially, does that, is it natural that things are going to level off?

[01:03:37] [SPEAKER_00] Or is this, is this laziness? Like some people would have you believe what's really going on. What's going to, you know, kick us forward as a, as a people.

[01:03:49] [SPEAKER_03] I find it interesting. And then I'll finish with the article, but I find it interesting that like a lot of these guys are like longevity people or they are, you know, population increasers like Musk. Elon Musk is, is famously like people like the birth, the birth rate is lower. We need to get it higher. Everybody have kids. That's why I have a football team. You know what I mean? And it's like, but if you're making a product to take the jobs away or to not even have the jobs, right?

[01:04:17] [SPEAKER_03] Let's say just there's all this is going to be done by computer. It's all computer. What are these kids going to do? And this is, this is my point of like, we're, we have, we have one kid. We're only having one kid because houses are already so expensive. Jobs are already so hard to get. Resources are already so low. Climate change has already messed everybody up. What are these kids going to be doing? Where are they going to live? Like if you have five kids or four kids, they, they each need a house.

[01:04:44] [SPEAKER_03] What job are they going to get to be able to afford that house? When people who have better jobs than they can ever get at the young age can't afford a house because things are so out of control. It's like, what do you think is going to happen? So they're just overpopulating the world, but then they're also, you know, pushing AI. It just doesn't, it doesn't make any sense. I don't know where it's going to, it's going to come to a head somehow. I don't, I don't really fully know, but hopefully the meteor will wipe them all out. Um, here's another prompt.

[01:05:11] [SPEAKER_03] Given my development areas from last year list development areas from a fiscal year, 2025 end of year summary, write me one goal for this year that would support my development.

[01:05:24] Okay.

[01:05:25] [SPEAKER_03] A third one generate a goal that would help me improve how I display insert one of the Disney people leadership expectations or Disney values. Give me a goal that would help me improve. Like what? Okay. This is what I'm going to do. I'm going to cut some of the stupid shit out, but I'm going to say, I'm going to Google what the Disney people leadership expectations are. Cause I would love to see how hard this is.

[01:05:47] [SPEAKER_03] The Disney inspired leadership, five principles for business success, priorities, people platform. So platform, the stage delivery of service occurs on this platform. Walt was a movie director and thought of his theme parks as 3d experiences for guests. It would destroy the Disney theme park environment was like a platform. So if you're in whatever, I don't know what office you'd be in. What's a goal that would help me improve how I display platform.

[01:06:16] [SPEAKER_03] You can't think of that on your own. You don't deserve to be an executive at this company.

[01:06:22] [SPEAKER_00] Hey, well, they don't all have to be executives. What if they're managers? Manager's not an executive.

[01:06:28] [SPEAKER_03] I mean, you're probably right. The document told staffers they can use Disney sanctioned AI tools such as co-pilot as a brainstorming partner while preparing for their annual reviews. Chatbots can inspire and support while refining the tone and wording of responses. The document said though, it discouraged workers from outsourcing their thinking for self-assessments entirely. Once you put, once you take the toothpaste out of the tube, buddy, you don't need, what are you going to do? It'd be easy to, anyway.

[01:06:54] [SPEAKER_03] While AI acts as an accelerator for idea generation, you may, or you remain responsible and accountable for ensuring you and your leader are aligned on the right priorities. So anyway, that's what's going to be going on. AI is most effective during annual reviews when it helps employees summarize individual and team achievements from the past year, says Greg Summers, the CEO of recruiting firm Orion Talent. Instead of trying to remember what you did and how to frame that, it can give you more time

[01:07:22] [SPEAKER_03] to spend on the goals going forward. That is such a bullcrap statement. Instead of spending time remembering, it can give you more time to move forward. What is, doing what? Walking off a cliff? You idiot.

[01:07:36] [SPEAKER_00] Well, you've got to have it tell you what to do. Let the computer tell you what to do and you'll have more time to do it.

[01:07:42] [SPEAKER_03] That fits in with some of Disney's messaging. A Disney software engineer said that their manager encouraged them to use AI to, quote, go through all our work from the past year so they could get their reviews done on time. Normally, it's a very manual process that can take a lot of time. Although AI can knock hours off the annual review process for both employees and managers, it also carries risks. Quote, when everyone's review is written by AI, everyone sounds great and it gets harder to tell real excellence from generic praise, said a Boston University professor.

[01:08:13] [SPEAKER_03] If you have AI prompt generate goals, you're going to have a very similar goal across the team and that's going to be a challenge for the manager, which is, you know, great. Yeah, that's kind of what I'm saying. Anyway, I think that's really weird. I don't like it, but that's what it is coming to. Last but not least, this is going to piss you off and then we're going to go. Maybe it won't piss you off. I don't care. Maybe it'll piss me off. Find out. Idaho Falls toddler sets Guinness world record as youngest to visit all Disney parks across the globe.

[01:08:42] [SPEAKER_03] I think this should not be a thing. I think she should not be given this accolade because she is a frigging toddler. She didn't do anything except be boring.

[01:08:53] [SPEAKER_00] Maybe she paid for it all out of her own pocket.

[01:08:56] [SPEAKER_03] Her nickname is Bootsy. Bootsy Darrington is three. She has been to all 12 Disney theme parks. It's been really fun. We just happened to go to a lot of locations where there were Disney parks present, said Jessica Darrington, Bootsy's mother. Bootsy traveled with her five-year-old brother Briggs and her parents, Jessica and Steve. They are known for their travel social media content. Okay, so that's what they did. There we go. Yeah.

[01:09:24] [SPEAKER_03] They're influencers who decided to do this so they can generate. Oh, God. It's pathetic.

[01:09:29] [SPEAKER_00] I bet they gained several followers after this came out because people really, I mean, what's more influential than Guinness?

[01:09:37] [SPEAKER_03] EastIdahoNews.com had previously reported on Briggs when he was one. He had already taken 45 flights and was earning a monthly paycheck as a social media influencer. I thought that wasn't allowed. It's Idaho, man. You do whatever you want, I guess. Jessica has been a travel content creator for about 10 years. We've just been traveling for the last couple of years just because of my job and we always happen to be in locations that have a Disney. A Disney? One Disney?

[01:10:09] [SPEAKER_00] What happened? It always happened to be in. What if they're in West? Utah. Iowa.

[01:10:14] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah, right.

[01:10:17] [SPEAKER_03] I reached out to the Guinness team and they're like, no, we've actually never had this record. Let's get one started. So it was a really fun process, she said. We found out that we were missing the last park, which was in Paris. Last week, we were like, you know what? Let's go visit our 12th and final park. Okay. And they did? She had a really fun time. She's a typical toddler, right? She loves going to Disney and doing all the little kid rides. She loved meeting the Disney princesses, Jessica.

[01:10:48] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah, dude. It was honestly really special to have a first time experience for the entire family. Oh. She may not remember every single park that she visited. She's three. She doesn't remember a single thing. I don't know, man. I don't like it. I think it sucks. I think that's child abuse. I hate it because I hate it. I don't like it.

[01:11:12] [SPEAKER_03] And that kid, by the time he was one, he was making a grand a month on his social media content that his parents were generating for him. I think that's terrible. Yeah.

[01:11:24] [SPEAKER_00] I want to be more upset, but I think just quietly resigning myself to whatever.

[01:11:31] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah. I don't know, man. I guess I'm on a roll tonight. I'm bitching about a lot of stuff and I apologize, but.

[01:11:37] [SPEAKER_00] Hey, whatever.

[01:11:38] [SPEAKER_03] I don't like a lot of stuff and I'm okay with that. I'm all right. If therapy has taught me anything, folks, there's nothing wrong with me not liking these things. And hopefully it's entertaining because it's a Guinness world record for a three-year-old for not doing a single thing. Come on now. You didn't do anything. You sat there.

[01:12:00] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah, this is true. And Jason, just be your own authentic self.

[01:12:04] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah, well, that's probably why our listener numbers suck. Hey, all right, everybody. Thanks a lot for tuning in. I really do appreciate it. Hey, next week, I'm hoping to get a really cool show going for you guys. The last stages of booking an interview and it should be a lot of fun. So stay tuned for that. And I think that does it for us. Thanks for joining, everybody. Appreciate it. And until next time, we'll see you in the parks.