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good Monday morning on Monday October 23rd it is time for the 359 podcast I'm BVG and it is episodes 303 here are your hosts Joanie's soles Minh and Roger Chang heyo happy Monday happy Monday morning how's everyone's weekend it's almost Halloween yeah I know buddy not mine but my kids alright Sam you know actually we spent the weekend trying to find the costume in Elmo nobies obsessed with them so speaking of Halloween and spooky themes we're gonna be talking about stranger things a story on how Netflix gets you to click play on let's just strange things but all shows but because the stranger things is premiering Friday what can we talk about that I will also talk about t-mobile and Sprint potentially merging in the next few weeks what that's gonna look like and lastly we'll talk about a story that Ben wrote about this retailer that uses robotics automation but didn't fire people so happy ending story as always if you have any questions in the comment section Brian will pick out the best and we will get to them in 3 minutes and 59 seconds hang out for the headlines we'll be back to see you in 3 2 welcome to the 359 I'm ready Jane I'm Joni Saltzman stranger things is coming back and have its premiere on Friday Netflix revealed some of the tricks it gets to it gets to hook you into the show Jon you actually talked to them what did you find out about sort of the little games they play when promoting their shows well we all know that Netflix uses algorithms to surface shows that it specifically thinks that you the individual are going to be attracted to but they go deeper than that for example with stranger things they and with all shows they cater the image that you see with the suggested title in those carousels of suggestions that you see so with stranger things if you were a fan of documentaries you might see a picture of cheap hopper or if you're a fan dramas you might see a picture of eleven pending because what they would do is they would a be test different images for different users and find out they would be able to home in pretty quickly on well this kind of user that really likes teen dramas would click more so with this picture than with the other yeah Amy because I just assume it's the standard boilerplate photo they surface it's interesting that they put that much thought into what image correlates like what genre yeah and for a while they would have image specific images specific to a title by country they would have like a different image for US versus Japan right but they found that that didn't really work because you can have somebody who has the exact same taste of you as you in Japan and your next-door neighbor could be somebody that like your their taste in movies like makes your skin crawl so they found that the best thing to do is to cater the image to the taste that you have rather than the place that you are and strange things are surprisingly like topped a bunch of these charts it's one of the it's one of the most popular shows on Netflix and so it's the number one show and a lot of these what they call taste communities where people have similar kinds of tastes so you could be a fan of teen dramas or you could be a fan of sci-fi or you could be a fan of horror and stranger things could be the top thing that you that is watched in that group for a lot of different yeah the teen dramas to course of course and so stranger things is a surprisingly like I love that show it's pretty good pretty excited next up t-mobile posted third quarter earnings results this morning unsurprisingly results were strong they added new customers blah blah blah all we actually care about is that Sprint and t-mobile are supposed to get together in the coming weeks as evidenced by the fact that t-mobile didn't hold a conference call they basically just put out the release and John ledger had a quick video Q&A like a seven minute video because they didn't really want to take questions on the only thing we want to ask when are you gonna buy sprint so we'll see that's that that's we're hearing early next month but that could potentially shake up industry and for a lot of people change up the service that they have and your gut reaction is bad idea it's gonna be messy I would say it's one of those things where like theoretic if they can actually get it all to work together like this would be a non paid service would be great if technology works but companies have a lot of trouble integrating businesses and these are two very different or these companies have very different assets that will take a lot of work to put together so lastly I want to give a shout out to Ben's story about this retailer boxed that managed to invest in robots and automation but still managed to keep all of their employees jobs I'm a happy ending story not sort of goes against the idea that robots are just gonna take over so definitely check it out from these stories check us out on CNN I'm Roger che I'm Joanie Saltzman thanks for listening alright so I'm gonna go ahead and start delving through the comments and questions but who is everyone's favorite stranger things character right now right now oh my god I love them all I like Jon Ralphie Oh son I'm just gonna put that out there I like all the character what's the kid's name been some I forgotten something no look at their names I forget the actors names they big hug they become their characters so much that I don't even think about they're the actors named it's a Finn wolf heart which is the most amazing real name yeah yeah remember being at Comic Con where forget who was talking about how as a moderator is the comedian he kept joking about how the kid had like a porn star name but this was a kid he was talking about so fellow weird guy probably kids probably heard it I mean I guess it's cliche to say 11 but cool yeah that mainly Bobby Brown really kind of stole the show oh yeah like out of nowhere just like stole everyone's hearts right and you know I love that goes to so I could we've got a common thread there what about you Brian oh like I said I really like the kid who looks like John Ralphie Oh from Parks and Recreation right a great character to love to hate yeah well he's got a Redemption yeah yeah I don't know I like you said it's truly an ensemble yeah read somewhere he's funny first read somewhere that they initially planned it for him to either be knocked off or be like really but like they liked him so much that they like I know barb the martyr I mean wasn't Mark stranger things originally going to be an ensemble or not an ensemble an anthology show like like American Horror Story where every season was supposed to be a refreshed kind of concept like don't you dare get rid of these kids yeah and now I mean all their careers are doing really well after this - I'm again I'm terrible with the actors names but the guy who played the sheriff he's the new Hellboy yeah that's awesome I see the you know the new him everywhere those files is killing it he's killin a so hilarious all right let's go ahead and jump into some questions from the chat norm field says have you seen the stranger things countdown banner that started on Friday I think Netflix is expecting season 2 to be a pretty huge event yeah yeah hope it doesn't break they're surfers like the other big releases well you know about not having those kind of service issues other HBO and you know what's funny is HBO Go is the one that struggles HBO now has it completely different back end and so and you subscribe directly to HBO online via HBO now you're less likely to have those problems than if you get it through your cable subscription by watching it in their HBO Go app um which in a way makes sense cuz like if you're actually paying for the app like better friggin work right um but it better friggin work no matter how you're paying Netflix though has a really good track record usually when you guys have trouble with streaming something you know not a blanket scenario but usually it's because of something on like your ISP or Internet service providers and or fighters and I always I always question that like whenever it starts to choke out I'm like I said verizon fios or is it Netflix like I and ya really know for sure but there's no way to really know unless you want to waste a lot of time figuring out why you're not getting watch but like babe we gotta run some speed tests right now I don't know what's going on but Netflix has a pretty good track record in that regard all right the rest assured you'll be able to get your stranger things and well maybe hopefully who else binging it here this weekend because Michael Hickey says I'm going to marathon it after I catch up with haters and I know like it's going to be every ounce of strength I have to not sit down and the whole thing in one one-shot I don't I'm pretty sure I won't pinch it I like I probably be able to grab two or three extra hours to watch it that's that's it I just can't turn it off I sacrifice sleep unwillingly like when when I was started watching I think I watched eight episodes all in one night yeah I think when I went the first time around I did I bitch like I think half the season the next day yeah it was hard to stop watching it's really here's an interesting response Pele says stranger things is just a series it's been hyped up and blown out of proportion six out of ten for now Wow and that is an uncommon response to that I'm speechless and that's coming from somebody who doesn't care about a lot of TV shows but stranger things really kind of whisk me away to a place that kind of hit all the right notes Pele I'm just kind of curious what what did you find kind of myth about stranger things I know you're not calling it out calling it crap but you're just like I don't know so much I just want to know your perspective I want Pele also to open up his Netflix splash page it's home page and see like what I want to know what his carousels are like the first carousels like come on yeah that's what probably it's probably just something that's not right for him he's not in a taste cluster no I mean everybody's entitled stranger things as Stillman's cross so I have to get to creepy but I'd like to know his age cuz there I mean it does sort of hit a certain nostalgia factor depending on how old's that's very true me like it like hit that sweet spot the 80s right on for folks who didn't grow up with that it doesn't resonate strongly definitely wouldn't I totally see what you're coming from there oh wow I just don't even know how to respond to that okay yeah you're absolutely yeah no I mean there's a lot of thing I don't like Game of Thrones yeah I'm super indifferent to Game of Thrones and I've lost interest in walking dead yeah yeah all right more questions Noren says the Netflix Marvel shows are pretty amazing too I can't wait for Punisher next month I too am excited for Punisher I'm really excited to see Jessica Jones come back because that to date is my favorite of the Marvel I enjoyed parts of Jessica Jones and daredevil but like I find them to be kind of boring oh man and Jessica Jones kept me going the whole time I was in the middle the season I was like so what are what else is coming down the pipe we got stranger things this week do we know what are the other big temples coming down through fro there's that bright movie it's got a supernatural vibe to it too that's in December I can you know what I will answer this question I will do a little research right now here's an easy one for you Josh is asking are the Marvel TV shows leaving Netflix when Disney starts their own service no so that's a really good question my understanding is that what your top thinking of is the deal that Netflix has with Disney that's for Disney things like the Marvel movies and like Pixar movies that deal is the one that Disney's like but this is a part but the Marvel TV shows or like a Co partnership between Netflix and Marvel / Disney so that deal is different from the Disney deal where Disney's like we're pulling out of Netflix so you don't need to worry about the shows are safe yeah those are safe for as long as they've been agreed to make and I think they've been successful for both companies but I would wonder if Disney is going to actually start developing their own to somehow compete with their own but they haven't had a lot more hasn't had a lot of success on TV listen yeah thanks Leia what was it the agents of shield yes still going on but it's not all that hasn't been very popular okay I would argue it's actually gotten better but people stopped watching yeah there was agent Carter agent Carter right and then like right now there's the and that is flopping I don't it's not getting good reviews no I mean that I mean and then the next thing is gonna be cloak and dagger I think oh yeah freeform yeah yeah they had a lot of that a comic-con I mean I don't think we have to worry about Marvel Disney pulling Marvel out of everything and going completely exclusive they're wiser to spread their tendrils across like Hydra across all of the different platforms and hopes to you know pull in different audiences they might not been aware of I mean yeah if they really wanted to just play it close to the chest everything would have been on ABC and we know that's obviously not the case right oh well I mean true you're right I forgot about that but Netflix is not right right yeah other things coming that question David Fincher like Netflix is second original 15 serious from David Fincher called minehunters gonna be in the neck before the end of the year Saburo which is an Italian show in a time like original in Italian that's getting a lot of buzz right now something called dark which is also their first German original series and the crown the second season oh yeah which was something that they spent a lot of money on like it was a critical I thought it was kind of sneezy but I watched the whole thing over Thanksgiving last year well it's a period piece right yeah one of those big set gorgeous set design yeah it's like God all right let's switch gears over to t-mobile Matthew dad your dad's in the chat with so much haven't had or haven't t-mobile and Sprint been talking about the merger for several years which one is recurrent of acquiring which what's going to happen to the deal offered by mobile all right so I'll try to take them all on a time they have been in some at some level talking to each other for years you know soft Bank which is Sprint's parent company famously tried to buy t-mobile a few years ago the government stepped and said no that's you know we want for national carriers we've got a different ministration now so the thinking is they have a better shot with a trump presidency versus Obama presidency so what I'm hearing a deal is likely to be announced sometime in early November t-mobile would be the acquirer it's almost like a merger of equals it's gonna be a stock deal but in the NT Mobile's parent company Deutsche Telekom will be the majority shareholder and will have control over it and and John ledger and his team will run the combined company gotcha yeah because that was gonna be the next question from Josh to say who was really gonna be in charge after all this time I mean look it's hard to discount the effect that John Ledger's had on the wireless industry and and how well t-mobile has done he's basically we've taken it from 0 to 60 and you know few short quarters so it makes sense for him to keep going with that and I mean Marcelo Claure as the CEO of Sprint has done some stuff in terms of turning sprint around but they're still kind of in trouble just kind of mess so I imagine if I'm Marcelo I'm like I'm gonna take my payout and just walk away yep with lots and lots of money and let's try to help out Blair now it's too early to say with how like the state that this acquisition is in yeah but Blair asks if I oh one of the services money and they merge am I going to have to pay up or keep using my phone so either way the deal gets announced it'll be like a year maybe even longer until the deal gets sealed so it really depends on what your terms the contracts are and like whether or not you're willing to switch even after the deal closes I don't imagine that they're gonna be booting people off right away t-mobile bought MetroPCS a few years back and they were fairly ooh they're they gradually phased out the phones because they were using different technology and sort of replaced phones for users as needed but it was a gradual process no one's getting booted out in terms of paying up I'm assuming paying for your phone that I think it's all gonna be dependent upon after contract yeah it's dependent upon your okay so if you're like what's sprint you're still gonna be paying up the surface as is for a while just cuz it's gonna take a while for this thing to close and for them to even start integrating the services right and even like as things might shift and change and as far as service goes it's gonna be a while before it really takes gear it's really just about John ledger getting more money for his pink sock collection pretty much makes everything sneaker collection yeah yeah yeah I think airplane I mean like that I think the ultimate goal what consumers would want to see is that t-mobile and Sprint would combine their spectrum assets although the wireless airwaves that they have that could theoretically provide a much much better service both indoors outdoors throughout the country but it's gonna take I would say years until that actually happens in any kind of meaningful way for consumers one more from the - before we close it out I thought derecha Telecom was trying to get out of the US market was I wrong or did that change no no that you're not wrong they wanted to get out and then John ledger took over and t-mobile stock started soaring and now don't you telecom is that in that rare position of power they actually now they don't want to give it up because it's become it's gone from one of the laggards to one of its growth engines that's why they're in such a great position to Steve Jobs he did a good job the business it did but that's the main Steve Jobs did a lot more I think I don't have a better analogy all right I mean yeah in terms of the the baseline principle it's all the same but yeah it that's why don't you telecom now can basically argue for terms for better terms to Softbank right have now before we closed out have we ever seen anything like this before as far as an acquisition big to big players yeah yeah yeah well spread in the cell phone market yes Nextel Sprint itself is a product of a merger between sprint and Nextel and back then both were two very strong companies and they merged and they became a one terrible crappy company with terrible crappy servers for years at the point where almost wrecked that business that's why there's like that did anybody go get caught down that that that whirlwind no I was a sprint customer before the merger but I remember the service getting progressively worse and worse for customers and they were running two networks for a while because they were not compatible and both networks were like getting crap and crappier so you know so we have that to look forward to yeah all right everybody that's it for today Roger you want to bring us home yes you liked anything you saw or heard here check us out see net our podcast is also available on iTunes tune in stitcher SoundCloud feedburner and Google Play Music we'll see y'all tomorrow thanks everyone see you tomorrow bye