Is Bob Iger and Josh Kushner buying the Lakers the death of the American Dream?

testing testing if you are audio only for this episode you might just want to take a peek at the YouTube Yeah, I really strongly recommend you check out our YouTube channel, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah, let's see all that sound it. Okay Hi, Charlotte. Hello, Madeline. We're back with another episode of the sports gossip Woo-hoo. I gotta tell you so okay, we're in Maine. Yes. This is the sports Sports gossip shows main residency summer 2026. Yeah, we should probably make merch. We should make some merch. Me thinks We may have to do that. Maybe LL being if you're listening finally Want to collab? I don't know. Listen to the interesting. If there is a main brand out there, Rennie's if you know you know My god, I can't even really begin to think about that because I would combust. Yeah, but like Rennie's if you're listening LB and if you're listening we we literally couldn't be more main right now coming to you from an undisclosed location in the mid-coast Yes, with fog rolling behind us as you can see behind there are boats out there But the fog has just been rolling in and out. So you'll just have to roll with us as the fog rolls with us as well And if anyone's watched widow's Bay, which is an unbelievable television show You know, I've been here my whole life my parents might appear most of my family's up here This is the place of my heart Manel and you got up here and you were like, well, this is this is widow's no it is widow's Bay I'm like a sea hagg is coming Charlotte walked us back to our Airbnb We're staying on our first night and the fog was rolling in and there were street lights illuminating the fog And I was like, so this is an episode of widow's Bay Yeah, I think growing up in New England main specifically. I don't know that I realize how haunted it is until you see it through someone else's eyes Oh, yeah, and haunted, you know parentheses complimentary. Yes, complimentary. It's haunted, but but Interestingly haunted. Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's depth to the There is depth to the ha you know, main slogan It's like the way life should be it should really be there's depth to the haunt. Yeah How do you what do you think so far? I love it. First of all, it's beautiful No, no notes on the scenery stunning We've done some daily dips, which I've loved just a dip in in the water and in the evening hours that pre-dendered ocean Oh, oh, so great. I said to try I go. I just love to float in the water Just give me a body of water and I'm floating in it. Yeah, I love it. Love a tread water. Gonna teach you how to sail this week Yes, there will be some content from that. Don't worry. Yep Just a real real joy to have you here. I mean look. This is just a glimpse into our future really is Well, speaking of haunting Also just so great to be back. Oh, it's so great. We have been remote We have been off poor Charlotte has been sick for what has felt like an eternity Yeah, I've been sick for two months right after this. I'm going to the ENT here in Maine real quick not sponsored Shout out to the doctor who's seeing me. You know who you are And then yeah, it's we two weeks off to get well and Figure some stuff out which will make a little more sense when you hear Thursday's episode. Yeah, and Yeah, just very happy to be doing this in person There's nothing like it back in the saddle back in the saddle It's Chris back in the boat. It's like, you know, I told Charlotte when we were driving up from New York My husband cut her and I stopped at a rest stop. I need a little snack. So I got a fresh batch of McDonald's french fries and a crisp Fountain Dr. Pepper and that's how I feel being in person. It's Chris just the perfect. There is a perfect amount of carbonation happening right now between us It is an unbelievable just Chris just through that little plastic straw Sorry, note with the little turtles, but They can hear you what right behind you My family. Yeah, please my family big time. Anyway, today we're gonna talk about the Lakers. Yes because Over the course of our little brief hiatus The Lakers were sold Malin interesting thing about this is that Mark Walter the guy who was selling them Bought them in 2025, which yeah, if you do a few calculations was a year one one exact year ago one year ago October 2025, I believe that's a quick little flip you got quick flip look some people flip houses Some people flip the Lakers. Oh, yes, depends on your tax bracket. We can't even flip houses. No, no, no I can flip maybe a pair of Jeans I thought Yeah, we have perhaps yeah, I flipped a couple things for a bit of a profit. Did you on posh mark? And you know not for much of a profit, but a little bit posh mark if you're listening posh mark if you're Yeah, yes the Lakers were sold to Joshua Kushner and Bob Eiger for 12.5 billion dollars. So Mark Walter in one year made two and a half billion dollars in profit by selling one of the most Beloved revered important franchises in American sports. Yes, and it is the largest sale for professional sports team in US history And the interesting thing too is that the deal came together in three days because We just you know we were like There's too much meat on the bone here. We're just going to tell you who these people are and how this happened because It was so shocking and even though it's a few weeks out, we've got some details that I think are are extremely relevant. Yeah, um, especially because the sale isn't officially won't officially go through until the NBA's next board of governors, meaning which is in September, right? But the deal came together in three days and there wasn't a bidding war because mark Walter, I mean perhaps allegedly Maybe Reportedly reportedly suggested maybe There was no bidding war because mark Walter is being investigated by the SEC and the feds which will that's a little bit of an oopsie What's going on there? Yeah, just a little bit of a oops and we'll get into it We sure will so let's start with um Who the cushion who who's Josh Kushner Josh Kushner. Thank you so much He is the brother of Jared Kushner and if Jared Kushner same rings a bell which I would imagine for a lot of people It does he is marrying to Ivanka trump yeah, and he is the son of Charles Kushner who was currently the ambassador to France Which I did not know he's currently in the ambassador to France. He he was also pardoned by trump in 2020 because Charles in 2005 pleaded guilty to I just find this stuff interesting. Yeah, I just say it's like that's yeah pleaded going on in this well because this is one of those things when we're in our little research holes You come across something and you go what yeah, and I this was I haven't even told you this one I think I haven't looked at it. This was this was like midnight. I was in a Charles Kushner rabbit hole, which is dark, but In 2005 Charles pleaded guilty to about 18 counts of legal campaign contributions tax evasion and witness tampering and the witness tampering was that Kushner retaliated against William shoulder who is the His sister's husband so his brother-in-law. Okay, Kushner hired a prostitute to seduce him What a ranging to record this is Wikipedia, which I trust and some other sources Record a sexual encounter between the two and send the tape to his sister And then he was sentenced to tears in prison and he served 14 months at a federal prison federal prison camp in Alabama before he went to Place in Newark and he was released in 2006 from prison. Oh my god. So look Well, we all make mistakes among us. Oh, yes Among us hasn't done a little bit of witness tampering who has brother-in-law tried to set your brother-in-law up to cheat on your sister I want to know what those family reunions are like Because is Charles still close with his sister? You know, you know, did she appreciate this was she like my brother's got my back Time heals all wounds unclear who's to say who's to say do you think maybe now that Charles is the ambassador to France his sister was like Well, we can come stay with you. So we'll we'll get over well right because you can get that vat refund on some luxury purchases Oh, wait, what is that the vat refund? What's a vat review? You get the VAT the It's just like the sales tax refund it. Oh my luxury goods. You know in France and you come back to the US Vat was a big plot point in the PBS series the goal Oh, yeah, I didn't know what it was the whole time. Is that what it was? It was the sales I think it's I could be wrong But I'm pretty sure that's one of this. Yeah, it's a sales stat or fun fast no accountant, but fascinating Wow, that's crazy. I had no idea. I didn't either. Oh my god. Well, you know It's interesting because you're coming from a line of Corruption really and weird things going on and listen Joshua Kusher hasn't been to prison. No, no, never been trying to say that everything above board. However, I do imagine it's interesting if your father Has done those things What how that trickles down to you just in terms of how you operate how you run a business How you think about family, you know, I don't know. It's feel like you got some daddy issues going on there How you see the world I see the world. I don't know. Yeah No, I think it's never been the prison, but You know what? Neither is my. We all look at that. Would you look at that? Anyways, so Josh, what else has Josh been up to? Well, he, so he's dabbled his little toes in sports world before. He is a minority owner of the Miami Cheat, which he does dabbling your toes. Talk about haunted, you know, okay. He, he, he was a minority owner in the, he, his home base, I believe, is in Miami, where he lives with his wife, Carly Clause, which we will get into. They live in Miami? Yes, and I believe, at least for a period of time, could be wrong, that Jared and Ivanka also lived in Miami. I think that's correct. I believe that's, you know, her else lives in Miami? Ooh, Tom Brady. Oh, Tom Brady. And you know why I know that they live there is because Carly Clause posted recently that she donated money to a maternity ward where she gave birth to her three children that is in Miami. Okay, that's, they named him maternity. I saw that and I was like, why did she give, why was this in Florida? Well, it's interesting healthcare, which, oh, we'll get into that. But yes, so he was a minority owner of the heat, but he does have to sell that to buy the lakers. And then he also used to have a stake in the Memphis Grizzlies. Yes, I also want to talk about Joshua Kushner's ex account. Yes, he hasn't changed his profile picture in what seems like a decade, because I think he's got a Valencia filter on that, that boy. I think that is from maybe one of his earliest, if I'm a sicko and correct. I believe it's one of his earliest Instagram posts, because also, didn't he invest in Instagram back in the day? Did he? I made sure. Let's check that. Yeah, maybe he did. He's invested in a lot of things. He also, his main job is that he's. Yes, he did. We did. They participated in an Instagram series B funding round in 2012. So you know what I will say about Josh Kushner? What? He's really been on it. He's been on, no, he has. In terms of investing in things that have, have worked. Yes, he also, so he founded his company Thrive Capital in, in 2011. Launched the first institutional fund. And one of the main investors was Peter Teal, who Google him to a quick Google. One of the founders of Palantir, the guy behind the Hulk Hogan gocker lawsuit that killed gocker. But, you know, JD Vance's mentor, lock on on there, and Peter Teal has been very good at picking things. So maybe he was helping Josh out and being like, you should do maybe. That's true. I'm bouncing around here. Sorry. Because the other thing I have to talk about in terms of his Twitter. Yeah, this man doesn't use capitals. Ever? I, that drives me crazy. Just use some capital letters. Punctuation cap, well, he uses punctuation. Well, sort of. Kind of not really. No, not really. He, he tweets like someone who writes lower case urban outfiters poetry on Tumblr. It's kind of how his tweets present themselves to me. And I guess it's so deeply the whole, his whole online presence is so deeply millennial. Yes. That part of me is like, you know, this is the man who didn't back down when Gen Z said get with it. He said, no, I will not. No, I don't necessarily trust a man who doesn't use capital letters. No, I trust a woman more. Still a little skeptical, but, you know, if you're a friend of mine and you do it, I love you still. A man, you got to use it, you have to be using capital letters. You're so right, though. It is so deeply millennial because you also think about the companies that he's invested in, which are so deeply millennial. Instagram, Instacart, Spotify, Stripe, A24, OpenAI, that's not really millennial, but the other ones are. Yeah. And among a laundry list of these millennial lower case font, to ask smooth, smooth letter, smooth, you know, what is it called? Logo, smooth logo thoughts. Pastel background companies. Yes. Yes. muted, call it matte, matte companies. Just smooth a's just kind of like they look like little blobs, little just floating and you feel insane. You know what those, those logos make me feel like now. They make me feel like I'm in a padded room. Yes. Yes. I can't explain it. Yes. There's too much space, nothing else on the walls. Well, you know what's funny. Now that I'm thinking about it, I did say, well, OpenAI is not that millennial. However, all the new ads I've seen on the subway for these weird, like AI companies have a therapist, AI, like whatever, dystopian thing. Do you need a friend? Here's an AI necklace. But they all do still model that kind of outdated millennial typography. They do a choice. Big time. Which is interesting because you would think they would pivot in a different direction. I don't even know what direction. Times New Roman. You got, I mean, go back to Carl's MT. But virus. But virus, not the first time we've mentioned that on the podcast. Comic Sans. This always just ends up being a podcast about fonts, infrastructure of brand, infrastructure, yeah, seriously. Something that I think is interesting is when the sale of the Lakers went through on August 12th, Josh didn't tweet about it. He tweeted about Thrive Holdings, which is a permanent capital holding company founded by his venture firm Thrive Capital. And what this does, and this ties into the Lakers, I promise. It, quote, "acquires traditional human-centered service businesses such as accounting and IT services and upgrades their internal operations using artificial intelligence. Open AI is an investor." So this means that he's buying up companies that have historically been, you know, accounting IT takes people. You got to do some math. Got to fix a couple chords here and there. And rather than, you know, individually sending these companies off to, quote, fix things, he is bringing them all into this holding company and then infusing them with AI. And he is saying that this is to do things in a more human way, give people back their time that was taken away by doing these things. Which by doing what? Doing jobs? Yeah. So they're saying, well, the computer will do your job. You can go watch some Askable. Essentially, which is interesting, though, it's hard to watch Askable if you don't have any money from a job. Well, right. That chicken or the egg. That old, that old thing. That old thing. And so also there is the laker, buying the lakers is such a, like, the most human thing. I've seen some people online. This isn't an original thought. I can't take credit for it. Talking about how perhaps that is a hedge against AI. Yeah. So he's all in on AI and then he's going all in on the lakers. Which is you can't do with a computer. Yeah. No, no, no, you can't. I don't feel like those connections quite make sense. It feels like to me a way of justifying your investment into AI by saying, no, this is actually going to help humans. You guys, we got you. Yeah, yeah. And also we're going to invest in these properties where you have to experience the event we're investing in live, like Askable. To me, it just feels like word salad and moving things around to justify probably bad PR choices in terms of your investments. Yeah, yeah. I don't know. No, I think that's just how I feel. Yeah. The interesting thing here, Josh Kushner is doing this with Bob Eiger. Bob Eiger. Does that name ring a bell to you, Charlene? Yeah, it does. Mostly because of Bo Burnham's Netflix special inside. When he sings, he is a song that goes. Robert Eiger's face. Every time I see Bob Eiger, I just think of Robert Eiger's face. I forgot about that. Well, Bob Eiger was a CEO of Disney from 2005 to 2020. He then left, then came back and became a CEO from 2022 to 2026. Yes. So he was in the Disney universe for quite some time. And who else is in the Disney universe? Well, that's funny. ESPN. Yeah. And Madeline, who broadcasts the NBA finals? ESPN. Boom, boom, boom. And in it, and in it. What is the, if only we could remember the new NBA music. Oh, oh, the necklace pretends great, it's good. I'll come back. Yeah, we'll, we'll circle back. So if you hear a Seagulls, because there is one. Because again, we're outside in Maine. We're here in undisclosed locations. Yes, sir. Yes, yes, we sure. Yeah, he was a Disney man for quite some time. Yeah, he's from New York City. I did not know that. Yeah, Bob Eiger is from New York City. He's Born in New York City. And there was an old interview on the old man in the three podcast, which is, was hosted by the current Lakers head coach, JJ Reddick. The degrees of like just everything is just connected. It's like, you know, here, I'm going to do a sailing metaphor. Okay. It's like if you get on a boat and someone hasn't put the boat to bed correctly, like the last time they use it, they didn't tile the things up and coil everything and make it look nice. You gotta do that. You pull on a rope and it just like, there are three ropes that are in a knot. Yeah, that's what this whole episode is. Oh, yeah, it is. You just keep unraveling knots, but then there are more knots to unravel. And you're like, how are these? How do these people know each other? There's a web of knots connected. But at the time, Bob Eiger said that he's a Clippers fan. And he also said rooting for the Lakers is not in his DNA because he considered them rivals of the Knicks, where I'm pretty sure he's had season tickets for like four decades. Oh, interesting. And then all of a sudden, he and Josh Kushner, who also is from New York and Miami, by this LA team, right? And you know what's funny? Speaking of the NBA. Well, we're talking about the NBA. But more specifically with the NBA finals. When Charlotte and I were in San Antonio doing podcast row with the NBA, thank you, NBA for inviting us. Hope you invite us back. Please. We were in the arena and we noticed we'd see from afar. - No, it was a MSG. - Was it? - Yeah. - No, it was San Antonio. - Really? - Yes. I have the photo with Bob Eiger and Kushner and Adam Silver in the seat. - That was San Antonio. - Yes, that makes this even weirder. - I have the seat. - I have the photo. - I can pull it up. - No, no, no, I believe you. - If I'm wrong, no, no, no, no, it was, I mean, they might have been seen there too, but no, no, no, the first, we saw them at game one. I believe, I think so, - Oh my god. - No, I'm losing my mind, so it's been a long summer. - It's been a long summer. - You talk about something. - Okay, okay, stop real quick. - 'Cause I have a point. - So part of this, also Bob Eiger in 2024, along with his wife Willow Bay, not Widow's Bay, Willow Bay, who we will get to, they became the controlling owners of the NWSL team, Angel City FC. And I think something about this that it used to be, this just marks a massive shift that has been happening in sports ownership, more broadly. - Yes. - Which is, it used to be that these leagues would vet, it was all owned by families, it was family ownership. These leagues would vet people. They'd be like, we want you to be a steward of this team for many decades, you know, it wasn't something that rich people put their money into flip. It was more of like a status symbol. - Right. - Okay, you own this thing and they're only 30 or 32 or 20, depending what league you're talking about, that you can have and you are rich enough and cool enough that you have one of them. Now, because the valuation of these teams have gotten so insane, they need to take money from private equity or venture companies and these leagues, which previously didn't allow what they call institutional money. So now you can have the MBA allows 20% institutional money and the NFL in 2024 said they'll allow 10%. 'Cause evaluations of these teams are going up so much that there are only so many rich people who can afford this. Like Jared Kushner and Bob Iger are doing this through Thrive Capital as the, they don't each have, they don't each have six and a half billion dollars. - They don't have that cash, you know? And so it's become this, it marks a shift, which is definitely not good for sports fans 'cause you want your team to belong to someone who wants to win, not just wants to flip a profit. - Right, and you wanna, I feel like there has been obviously such a strong history, especially with the Lakers if it's like your own buyer, family. The bus family owned the Lakers for such a long time. It's like you want the family to be back in and not like a vague entity called Thrive Capital slash internal. - Right. - It's just, it's not the same, doesn't hit the same. It's like, it's like when private equity comes in to buy up mom and pop shops or coffee shops and they turn them, or the dentists, all the dentists. - All the dentists. - All the dentists. - They all got the curved letters in those spots. - Oh my god, 10th, 10th, yes. Little curved letters. - Yeah, sorry, 10th if you're listening. - 10th if you're maybe not. - Yes, and also just to go back to the important point. - Yeah, it was game one. - So they were with Bob Iger. Here's the photo if you remember. - So Bob Iger and Jared Kushner were with Adam Silver who's the commissioner of the NBA. - Yeah. - So at the time I guess they were thinking they were gonna do the Las Vegas expansion team. - Exactly. - And then they called Mark Walter to just be like, "K, is there a chance?" And he said, "Please take it, please." - Got to offload this accent. - Yes, so should we talk about how Bob Iger and Joshua Kushner met? - Yes, real quick, Thrive Eternal you mentioned. We forgot to talk about. - That is, we've talked about this on a preview show. The arm of Thrive Capital that is the investing in sports and culture. - Yes. - And they were gonna be the ones who bought a piece of FIFA when that was floated. - Well, and that didn't happen. - And that didn't happen. - Yeah, so how did they meet? - They met in 2018 through their wives. Well, it was then Carly Kloss who was his Joshua Kushner's then girlfriend. But Carly Kloss reportedly met Willow Bay who was Bob Iger's wife, unbelievable name considering the circumstances we're in right now. - Willow Bay, Willow Bay, Willow Bay. - Well, hopefully. Just, I mean, the name, I mean, just feels. - Also, she was born Christine. - Oh, what? - I looked like, yeah, she changed her name. - To Willow. - Willow Bay. - Okay, interesting. - Sounds like a resort in Willow Bay. - Willow Bay would be a resort in where, like, maybe Southern California? - Yes. - Or Savannah. - Go on. - I don't know. - I don't know, Willow Bay. - For a long weekend. - My family's been going to Willow Bay for generations. - For generations, sipping that iced tea on the porch. - Mm-hmm. - And you don't want to ask too many questions. - No, no, no, no. - You don't ask too many questions. - Yeah, so Carly Kloss met Willow Bay after Kloss reportedly reached out to Willow who was a former model and she is currently the Dean of USC's Annemberg School for Communications and Journalism in 2018 because she wanted some advice because Carly Kloss had just recently signed on to become the face of Estee Lauder. And Willow was once a model for Estee Lauder. - Wow. - I want to know who connected them. Like, was it Estee Lauder? Do you know what I'm saying? - Yeah, yeah. - That's kind of also what I would like to know. We don't have information about how they met. - Right. - 'Cause kind of a random pairing. - Passing of the torch, maybe someone was like, "Hey, let me introduce." Also, yeah, I guess. I mean, Willow Bay is a very interesting person. She was a ABC correspondent. And it's also interesting that she is the Dean of the University's School of Communications and Bob Igerk, Rand Disney, which is ESPN. - Right. - And then the minute he's not with the many more, he buys a team. It's, and I'm not saying there's anything wrong there. Like, there's not. It's just a, it's interesting. - Yeah. And Carly apparently asked Willow if she could connect her boyfriend at the time, Joshua Kushner with Willow's husband, Bob Igerk. - Huh. - She thought, "Oh, maybe they'll get along." - And apparently they did. - They did. My favorite thing is Bob Igerk had said in an interview way later. He said, "I think she thought he would benefit "from some of my wisdom," he said with a chuckle. - Oh. - So they had a little meeting of the mind. So they've known each other since 2018. - At least according to reports. - Intergenerational friendship. - Yes, it is. - Wow. - Yeah, we love to see it. - Yeah, so in September 2022, Bob Iger stopped working with Disney and was announced as a new venture partner in Thrive Capital. And then he was only there for two months. - Which I'm like, "That's not even enough time "to get onboarded in the portal." - Do you think he was in there slack? - No. - I don't think Bob Igerk had never, never once. - He's never had to download an app for work on his phone in his life. - Never, except maybe email. That's it. And he probably sends those one word emails, you know? - Yeah, yeah. - Send from my iPhone. - Yes, from my iPhone. - Yeah, and that helps with the phone. So you don't even have to download that. That's pre-loaded. - Yeah, he was only there for two months and then he went back to be the CEO of Disney for a few more years. - Yeah, Bob Chappec was the guy who took over for him and really quickly, everyone was like, "This guy doesn't have it." And they brought Bob back. He came back so he was then CEO again, from 2022 to earlier this year, between '26. - Yeah, and then when he stepped down from Disney again, he went back to thrive to work on, thrive eternal. Yes, that sports arm. And their first investment through thrive eternal. One of their first investments was investing in the San Francisco Giants. So a sports investment. In between that time though, so while Bob Igerk was the CEO of Disney again, in 2023, he joined a group of investors to buy a piece of thrive alongside Harry Kravis, whose name will come back later. - Okay. - They paid $175 million for a 3.3% stake in thrive. So he was always throughout this time, after being introduced by Carly Klaus to Joshua Kushner. They were always kind of, he was around. - You know how I imagine Bob? - You know how I imagine this going? - What? - Bob Igerk's like talking to his wife there, in bed reading at night before they turn the lights off and he says to Willow, he's like, he's just a young, hungry, driven young man. I, you know, I see myself in him. I think he's really onto something. And I also think we can make a boat boat. - Yes, yes. - But it's one of those intergenerational boys club friendships. - Right. - Where you're just like you just gotta know a guy and then the guys and all the guys are. But interesting, often the women behind these men often are the reason that they, yes. So maybe he had Carly Klaus not been proactive enough to ask her new mentor Willow Bay to connect her boyfriend with Bob Igerk, they would have never owned the Lakers. Perhaps. - And where would we be if that? - And where would we be? We wouldn't be here right now. - We wouldn't be doing this episode. - No, we would not. So there was a 40th birthday party. - Yes. So here's the thing about Joshua Kushner. Because he's married into Carly Klaus. If you don't know who Carly Klaus is, she's a fashion model. She is the founder of a nonprofit called Code with Closy to get more young women and girls into STEM. She's invested in a lot of companies herself, which seem to have lined up with when she started dating Joshua Kushner. I would imagine through his connections that helped. I'm gonna assume. But there's always this overlap between kind of fashion, pop culture, sports and tech. - Yes. - And there's in their friend and music. and media, and media, which we'll come back to, right? Um, so Joshua Kushner had a 40th birthday party at Katz's delicate test in last year. If you know what that is in New York, very famous deli, um, Bob Iger attended the birthday party. Okay. Which not that surprising. No, no. Um, but some other attendees were your work friend. Yeah. Some work friend. David Geffen. See the music. The big music guy. Rich guy. Rich guy. Yeah. Thank you. Sold universal music. Yeah. Think something like that. I think he's a yacht. Yes. There who's always a kind of common figure in the Carly cloth cinematic universe. She's always around. She makes those, um, rap dresses. Also, yeah, he is a yacht named rising sun. Yeah. Massica. Yeah. It's too big. Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner attended. Hmm. I get, you know, they are brothers, they are brothers. So they were there. Some other random ones, but makes sense for the fashion connection. Kaya Gerber and her mom, Cindy Crawford, both models, attended, also Diplo attended. Well, you know what? So maybe he DJed what is a party without Diplo, right? If you're a rich person and you throw a birthday party and Diplo, the DJ, isn't there? You know, when I think of these guys, like the Diplos of the world, I'm like, how do they function in society? It's crazy. Do you know what I mean? It's crazy. When I think of them, I think of someone with a big helmet on or like a mousehead or one of the, like they're, they're all, I'm like, how Diplo is not a real person. He's not a real person. No, it's crazy. And then he's there. He's always at. And he's there. He's always around. They're always there. They're the DJs. And they somehow always make it. And I'm like, can DJs even have a conversation? That's a great question. I don't know. I guess they can. It's just, if your name's Diplo, what do they call them, Diplo? I think it's Diplo. I don't know what it's probably like Mark. Let's look it up. Who is Diplo? His real name is Thomas. Yeah. Thomas, so. Tommy. Tommy. Let's continue on this kind of weird intersection of fashion sports media crossover. So as I mentioned, David Geffen attended David Geffen has been friends with Joshua Kushner for a long time. In fact, in 2017, he posted a selfie with Joshua Kushner at lunch. I don't know if he saw this. Look at that. And David Geffen just, but the caption says, with Josh Kushner at Avra for lunch and a nice Mediterranean place. Yeah. Probably. Sounds like it. Sounds like it. I hope it was good. David Geffen is he has a yacht that is reportedly worth $200 million. And he likes to invite this crossover of people on the yacht. So there was an article that came out and I shouldn't even remember this because I do remember when this happened and I shouldn't, but I do. Where not only was David Geffen on his own yacht, Paul McCartney was there. Okay. Misha, no, no. I think is how you pronounce her last name. She is married to one of Joshua Kushner's best friends, Mikey, what's his last name? Oh, the guy Mikey, he's Mikey, Mikey, if you've seen, if you've been on their Instagram, you've seen him. And Misha is friends with Meghan Markle. Yep. So there's that connection. Also, we didn't mention Carly Klaus, famously Taylor Swift's ex-best friend, maybe friend again, unclear, but who else was on that yacht? But Harry Kravis. Who's Harry Kravis? Harry Kravis was one of the investors that I mentioned earlier that I said, put a pin in that, that invested it in Thrive Capital in 2023 alongside Bob Eiger. And Joshua Kushner was on the boat and Carly Klaus. So again, it's just another example, I think, of all of these people with huge amounts of capital and power, like just being in the same circle. And they're kind of just moving money around and via their friendships that they've had for a long time. Yeah. Actually, I think, you know, we talk about how the US has become an oligarchy in many ways. And then you see people who have access to other people who have access to money, who can then, or who have always kind of had money, and they can all work together to make themselves more money. And then I think what it is about it, like, this is all above board, you know? Right. And nothing's, it's not sketchy, it's, you know, Josh Kushner made smart investments and Bob Eiger did too and smart investments. But when you start then looking at these people, it's very let them eat cake moment where they're on these yachts together. And then starting these companies that are going to erase people's jobs with AI and try to tell us that it's actually a human thing. Yeah. And then they can buy the sports team that so many people love so much. Even though they are not fans of the team or they don't have a connection to it, it all starts to feel a little disconnected and dystopian. Yeah. Totally. Yes. No, I agree. Josh also founded Oscar Health, which if you lived in New York in the 2010s, you saw those ads on the subway. And they were again, it was the floating millennial padded room for us, padded room font. Yes. He founded Oscar Health in 2012 and Oscar Health, listen, I feel like most health insurance is don't have a great reputation. Health care industry is a whole, not the best right now in America at least. No. Health care premiums have just skyrocketed, claimed denials, which we will get to also have skyrocketed. Nothing's cover covered. They'll say it's covered. It's an Everest. It's not. So I have a text from main health because I'd go to the ER when I, when I was sick, I haven't clicked it. It's like, it's like year, and then I, so I got a text from main health being like, your bills ready. And then I got an email from my health insurance being like, none of this is covered. And I, so, so I just haven't clicked it. No, no, no, try not to. Well, I met my deductible. So they were like, good luck. No. So don't click that one. That's for another day. Just financial avoidance. Try not to worry. Nothing. But what's interesting. So Oscar Health, as Charlotte mentioned, positioned itself as this kind of like cool millennial health care, but they don't have the best reputation. And something that I found, I dug into data on, that is available. You can go look it up yourself on healthcare.gov. That is from the transparency and coverage data that's basically it pulls all of the national insurers, their claim denial rates, a bunch of other metrics. But what I was interested in was the claim denial rate. And I'm no mathematician, but I did do a lot of digging and I think this number is correct. But according to the latest data, which is from 2024, I could not find newer data. But this came out in 2026. So it seems like this is the most available data that we have. Oscar Health had a 24.9% claim denial rate in 2024 according to this data. And so, so 24% of the time that you said, will you please cover my claim that I had to pay for it so that I stayed alive or was not sick? They said, no. They said, so like one out of four times they said, no. Yeah. And you know, there can be an argument that can be made that Oscar Health's membership database grew so that there are more people submitting claims. But I still think, again, no mathematician, but I think it's not right that you're the highest. They are the highest denial rate among all the providers, which included companies like Molina, Signe and United Health. Ooh. They were number one. And those are the, so those are the big guys. Which isn't great. Well, it's also not great. It's like, there's something honest to me about a United Health where you look at that logo and you think you're not covering my bills. They are not united and covered anything. Oscar had the audacity to say, look at us where your millennial friend and then not give you the health care that you needed. And I don't like that. No. I don't like denying health care. No. Anyway, it's like all the providers at least don't try to fool me that this is like the wing. Right. No, it's, it's girl boss health care. Yeah. It's kind of what it is. Yeah. And it's not to say, of course, that other health care providers do not deny high amounts of claims that they should do. They do. They do. Right. But it was just interesting that they had the highest. And you're like, oh, the like millennial, cool one. We'll give you like a, a branded water bottle, if you sign up, oh, there's probably so many like a Marzoco discount Oscar for a home shopping machine. God. There are like quarter zips and landfills. Yeah. So there's that. There's that. Okay. And the last thing I do want to talk about about Kushner is if we go back a bit and rewind to his college years, he went to Harvard and he was involved in this magazine. The short-lived project slash magazine called scene magazine at Harvard. And according to their mission statement, which is still available on the Crimson's website, student publication, they said it was to quote portray the events, the people, the passions that we are all a part of. What is that? What is that? Today, I write that in 2005. Unclear. But what is interesting is reportedly Anna Windtour, the former editor-in-chief of Vogue, now chief content officer, she has some new title at Kone Nast, I can't remember exactly what it is. She consulted on the magazine before they published it. Hmm. Which I find interesting. So that, again, is access, access. That is access. All of these transactions, all of this money, all of this capital, it is from access from these institutions. And look, I, both of us have benefited from a minor amount of access in the sense that, you know, we went to higher education and you know people, but this is on a level that is so just like, in some ways it's like Kushner. The kindest way to put it is new the assignment. Yes. You know the assignment. It's almost like he, he the nepo baby thing where he was like, okay, clearly he had connections to people. I've also heard that he's just like a very charming guy. Yeah. And he and Carly Claus gave a lot of money to democratic candidates in 2024. Yep. You know, she has talked about how you can have quote different politics from your family. I would argue that if you are connected to Trump in any way right now and try to justify it, it is profoundly unjustifiable. And so it's almost like they are trying to be quote good people as they move through the world with an amount of money and power and decisions that impact other people's lives and livelihood and health care and health, physical health that aren't it's not like oh well you're a liberal so you're so everything you do is fine. Right. You know what I mean? They sort of dress up these cultural ambitions in more traditionally liberal leaning institutions and now we all know are kind of it doesn't really matter because it's all about money and power and access. Exactly. Another example of washing your image that we've talked about time and time again on this show via investing in things that people like the Lakers donating to democratic candidates that's good. Carly Claus does a lot of work with reproductive rights in her home state of Missouri I think. They've also done things like they launch Bedford media which was a media company to revive life magazine and ID magazine kind of like saving the public a like this institutional publications that people cared so much about. So there is definitely a large element of this to your point that feels like PR washing of her image but then also there's still this kind of undercurrent of well ultimately this is still all about a power grab and working with your other billionaire friends to consolidate more of the power because it's not to say that people aren't complicated or contain different modes or ways of being like they've definitely done things that are good. Right. But if you've made some of your money on denying 24% of healthcare claims, of really going all in on AI which we all know is what you know saying it's going to give you time back is what billionaires say to justify making money on it for replacing people. You don't have to pay healthcare to computers. Nope. So it yeah, I think that that's why this was like really? I know. You know, and Mark Walter to sort of put a bow on this. First of all, the bus family, that's a whole other episode. But Jeannie Bus was the Lakers owner for a long time. She took over for her dad Jerry and after Walter agreed to sell the Lakers to Kushner and Iger, five of the six bus siblings who all inherited the ownership from Jerry when he died in 2013 voted to sell the remaining stake in the Lakers, which was 17.8% of the team. But Jeannie, who is the team's governor and the last family member who actually works for the Lakers, argued through her lawyers that her siblings actually can't sell and reference some court order requiring co-trusties to quote take all action reasonably available to them to ensure Jeannie remains the controlling owner of the Lakers. And I think that there are a bunch of different things here that are at odds with each other legally. I'm not a doctor. Not a doctor. But, you know, basically it feels like Jeannie is trying to hold on to this team or saying like, who knows if it's, if it's she just wants the power still. Maybe there is a sentimental aspect to this where she's like, wait a second, I actually cared about this has been my whole life. Oh, no, we're just giving it over. We're flipping this twice. Yeah. It's unclear what the motive is, but Mark Walter is being looked into the feds in New York and the SEC are investigating him to see whether his insurance firms hid billions of dollars in loans that they received or made to companies he had ties to. So basically he, the probe is to see if they, if the company deliberately obfuscated, what is that? Head made. I'm not going to know it. Don't ask me. Basically, the point of my life, the probe is to see if Mark Walter misled regulators as to whether he was both the lender and the borrower. It's not illegal to be the lender and the borrower. But he did all of this again using insurance companies that Delaware allegedly could have maybe done this. There are no, but there are no charges against me. Delaware life insurance company and clear spring life and annuity company. They had internal reviews after they got subpoenas from a grand jury and said that transactions between, quote, related parties or life insurance money that, that Mark Walter company Guggenheim was essentially then routing basically you pay as a customer, a life insurance premium. It used to be that the investment arm of an insurance company will put that into bonds or something that's really not risky. It's only going to accrue money so that if you need to pay out, they can pay it out. It's become more recent for these companies and private equity to buy up insurance companies take that money and invest it in riskier things or unless sure things and basically it's like did Mark Walter use people's insurance premiums to buy, I mean, he owns all these sports teams. He's the Dodgers, partial owner of the L.A. Sparks of Chelsea FC, which he is reportedly thinking of shopping now. He tried to buy the clippers with David Geffen in 2014. He owns the whole PWHL, the championship cup is named after him and his wife, Kimbera. He owns a Formula One Cadillac team like so basically all of this, they're looking into whether he did all of these things above board and it involved buying up life insurance companies. That is just so messy and so dirty and so not surprising. And who's to say, you know, none of this is automatically illegal, but the fact he sold the Lakers and as we said in the beginning, there wasn't a bidding more, which you'd think there could be for the Bill Lakers, $12.5 billion, you probably could have jacked that up. Yeah. You know, what is what when you get to numbers that big, it's like, what's another billion right? But it's like, well, he's gone through some stuff. Yeah. Yeah. And the timing of then being able to just flip a sports team feels so gross. Well, and again, to your point, like the mention of David Geffen, them looking into buying the clippers in 2014. Again, it's just another example of just how all of these men are all so interconnected for years. Yeah. And all of this money is just kind of being moved around between their pals. Mm hmm. And they're all in bed with each other in a lot of ways. It feels like. Yeah. Yeah. Whether it's sure or not. And even if there's nothing illegal about it, you start to just be like, well, this feels a little gross. Right. And I think where we are as a society, not to say, not to say it, not to do this, but to do it. We are at a point where people are so sick and tired of being lied to or told that something is one thing. And it's really another. And people are craving something that's real and sports still feel so real because they are. And they're these athletes who work so hard and who are doing unbelievable things with their bodies. And yes, they become very wealthy. But it's, it's nowhere near the level of wealth of the people who own the teams. And so to see a team get flipped to see all of this just once again be cut. You're like, no, like sports too. Like, of course, it's always been sports. Yeah. But until recently, there did feel like there was a little, at least people were pretending more to care. And who's to say, maybe Bob Iger and Josh Kushner are going to do great things for the lake. Yeah. And they might, they might, but it does feel like in some ways like the American dream, you can have your health insurance claim denied by the same man who owns your favorite sports team who could potentially lead your team to a championship while you're fighting your insurance company over a bill that you thought was going to be covered. I mean, is that not the most American story you've ever heard? Yeah. That's, that's where we are. That's where we are. So all of that to say, you know, we just, it's the kind of thing where we want to take you guys down the rabbit holes that we find ourselves in where it's like Bob Iger and Josh Kushner. And so yes, that question. And this is where you end up. This is where you end up. So wow, I think that's our show folks. I think that's our show. Well, as always, please rate, review, like and subscribe. It makes a huge difference. We say this every week on every episode, but hitting subscribe on YouTube following the show on Apple or Spotify really, really makes a huge difference. huge difference. So please do that. You can follow us on Instagram @sportsgossiptiktok @sportsgossipshow and you can subscribe to our subsac @sportsgossipshow.subsec.com. Wow. And I think that's it. Thank you all for coming to this al fresco sports gossip show main residency. We hope you enjoy. We'll see you on Thursday. Okay. Bye.