But you can still get Nick & Jack every day! Follow The Best One Yet, our daily news show delivering 3 stories in 20 minutes. Where business meets pop-culture. 

Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-best-one-yet/id1386234384

Listen on Spotify: 

https://open.spotify.com/show/5RllMBgvDnTau8nnsCUdse

Listen on Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/25e48622-4069-47e9-baaf-1d97586f9fc2/the-best-one-yet

Watch on YouTube: 

https://www.youtube.com/tboypod

Thank you, Yetis & Besties! And we’ll update ya on Season 2. 

Vote for The Best Idea Yet to win “Best Business Podcast”: ​​https://vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting#/2025/shows/genre/business

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When Johnny Carson, 1970s late-night king, declared he wanted another day off, it left NBC with a hole in their weekend lineup. 11:30pm Saturday night wasn’t exactly the hot time slot… so the network recruited a quiet Canadian comedy writer named Lorne Michaels to produce a live variety show on the cheap. NBC figured, this thing might not get ratings, but it should be affordable and easy to produce. What could go wrong?

Turns out, a LOT. Cost overruns. Clashing egos. A studio that hadn’t been used since the 50s. And yeah, some drugs along the way. The show that eventually became Saturday Night Live has actually never been cheap OR easy to make. But it also made TV history. SNL is kingmaker, cash cow, and comedy accelerator program. (Without SNL, there’s no Shrek, no Mean Girls, and definitely no 30 Rock.) Find out how this 50+ year old network program became an unofficial cofounder of Youtube; why Lorne defines success as a Snickers bar, and why Saturday Night Live is the best idea yet.

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In postwar Tokyo, two engineers were tinkering with rice cookers and busted home radios when they stumbled across a new kind of audio technology: magnetic tape. It inspired them to create a range of ahead-of-their-time tape recorders — and the success took Sony from small repair shop to global electronics powerhouse.

Then, in 1979, after decades of bringing cutting-edge tech to homes across the world, they released their most surprising hit: a little cassette player you could clip to your belt.

Their invention made music portable and personal. For the first time, you could jog along to Bon Jovi, ride the bus with Blondie, and moonwalk to work with Michael Jackson. It turned headphones into a fashion statement, launched the mixtape era, and kicked off a global obsession with portable tech — paving the way for the iPod and the iPhone.

So slip in your party mixtape and press play as we take a moonshot with Barbra Streisand (seriously), unpack how Sony could’ve (should’ve?) won the digital music wars, find out why Steve Jobs smashed his Walkman to pieces, and why the Sony Walkman is the best idea yet.

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When Jane Birkin's boyfriend ran over her beloved wicker basket, she was stuck lugging a messy tote onto a flight to London. As her Hermès planner exploded across the first-class cabin, her mortified seatmate suggested she needed a bag with pockets. ""Hermès doesn't make one with pockets,"" Jane sighed. He replied: ""But I am Hermès."" Jean-Louis Dumas, head of the luxury empire, watched Jane sketch her dream bag on an airplane vomit bag. Three years later, the first-ever Birkin arrived as a gift… kicking off what would become the most expensive, hard-to-get handbag design in the world. But this hand-stitched masterpiece wasn’t always the ultimate status symbol. The Birkin didn’t fit in the logo-obsessed 1980s, and didn’t truly pop off until it landed a starring role on Sex and the City. Today, Birkins start at $12,000 with impossible waitlists, while the rarest sell for $450,000—more than some houses—and have spawned multi-million-dollar counterfeit rings. 

Discover how Hermès weaponized scarcity to invent the Holy Grail of handbags; how a luxury product can outperform the stock market; and why the Birkin Bag is the best idea yet.

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Follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting www.wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/ now.

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In the spring of 1903, the NYC subway wasn’t yet open… the Wright Brothers hadn’t yet taken their epic flight… and the New York Yankees were not yet the Yankees. They were the Highlanders: a group of unremarkable transplants from Baltimore, their future not guaranteed. But through determination—and some old-style political maneuvering— the Highlanders clung on as the Big Apple’s third-best baseball team. Then, with a single trade, the fate of the Yanks and Major League Baseball changed forever: the Red Sox dealt Babe Ruth to New York. The Babe helped elevate the Yanks from worst to first, putting them on a path to win 27 World Series rings and becoming the winningest team in American pro sports. But along the way, a big-mouthed big spender named George Steinbrenner remade the Yankees in the free agency era… and happened to transform the way we broadcast sports in the process. Start spreading the news… here’s why the New York Yankees is the best idea yet.

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Follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting www.wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/ now.

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It started with a souped-up bicycle inspired by a vaudeville show, and the need for speed. The dream – shared by four Harley brothers and one Davidson – came true, and became one of America’s most iconic companies. But their real innovation? Myth-building.

These machines roared through death-defying races and two world wars to start an entire subculture built around the open road…and became a symbol of freedom, defiance, and American grit.

Along the way, the bikes became machines of contradiction: beloved by outlaws and police, favored by rebels and retirees. And from the silver screen of Easy Rider to the suburban streets of weekend warriors, Harley became not just a way to ride, but a way to belong. 

And under the tattoos and leather chaps was a brand constantly reinventing itself — surviving quality scandals, foreign competitors, and a botched corporate buy-out.

Find out how a thirsty pig in a murderdrome gave the company its nickname (HOG), why greybeard marketing can be more magical than Gandalf, and why Harley-Davidson is the best idea yet.

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Who wouldn’t want to visit the happiest place on Earth? Well — at the start of the 1950s, it seemed like no one did, at least not when Walt Disney pitched the idea. Sure, Walt had revolutionized animation with Steamboat Willie. And he'd had critical successes with classics like Snow White and Bambi. But his studio was nearly bibbidi-bobbidi-bankrupt,. Even so, Walt just wouldn't Let It Go. 

Then, after Cinderella (another of Walt’s “crazy” ideas) hit the bigtime at the box office, Walt had the creative capital to strike a groundbreaking TV deal to fund his park’s construction.

Thanks to Walt's epic vision, relentless eye for detail, and a build-it-in-no-time sprint, Disneyland rose from orange grove backwater to a live-televised opening day spectacle (90 million viewers) — and straight into one of the most chaotic debuts in history. From plumbing problems to gas leaks, this is the story of how the theme park went from Goofy idea to the lynchpin in the Disney empire — and why Disneyland is the best idea yet.

Walt’s brilliant flywheel strategy diagram: 

https://www.businessinsider.com/1957-drawing-walt-disney-brilliant-strategy-2015-7

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It’s postwar Japan, and entrepreneur Momofuku Ando has lost everything—his business, his home, and his savings. In fact, the whole country has been ravaged by air raids, and people are hungry. But when he stops at a black-market noodle stall and watches desperate people line up for a simple bowl of ramen, something clicks. What if they didn't have to wait? What if comfort could come from a packet? This moment of inspiration would spark a global empire worth over $8 billion, and change how the world eats forever. (Not to mention powering more startups than the microchip.) Follow Momofuku's journey from a backyard shed breakthrough, to a hostage crisis that accidentally introduced his product to the world. Learn the true story of why Cup Noodles lost its ""s”, how economies of scale turned ten-dollar noodles into a ten-cent treat, and why instant ramen is the best idea yet.

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A wounded Irish soldier crawls from a blood-soaked battlefield in the French countryside. He survives, but his fighting days are over. So he settles in the Cognac region, and in 1765, starts a modest brandy business. Richard Hennessy could never dream that 260 years later, his name would ring out—not just in the world of fine spirits, but in the universe of hip-hop. No liquor brand in existence has more musical name-drops than Hennessy (mentioned in over 2,500 songs!). But the brand’s accomplishments go far beyond rhyming with “Tennessee”: Hennessy is the top-selling cognac in the world. The brand played a major role in supporting civil rights, as the first-ever corporate sponsor of the NAACP. And when Black soldiers fought bravely to liberate Europe in WWII, grateful French farmers handed them bottles of Hennessy as thanks. Find out how a Prohibition loophole helped Hennessy get a foothold in the US; how an Olympic medalist unlocked Hennessy’s sophisticated appeal; and why Hennessy cognac is the best idea yet.

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Imagine yourself on a sandy SoCal beach, surfboard in hand. But the ocean’s too calm: not a single wave in sight. What do you do? Well, if you’re a kid in the early 60s, you throw some wheels on a plank of wood and go “sidewalk surfing.” This one simple innovation can’t be traced back to a single inventor; it evolved more like a language than a product. Even so, the skateboard caused a revolution in sports, fashion, and culture: launching multiple billion-dollar brands and viral products. Follow the skateboard’s wild ride from the parking lots of Santa Monica to the cover of LIFE Magazine to, eventually, the Olympics. Along the way, you’ll meet incredible larger-than-life characters: from original ‘skate Betty’ Patti McGee to the King of the Kickflip, Rodney Mullen, to the Birdman himself, Tony Hawk. Learn why the best thing to happen to skateboards was getting banned… and why the skateboard is the best idea yet.

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What do you get when you mix a passion for collecting bugs with an obsession for video games? For Satoshi Tajiri, the answer is the world's largest media franchise (over $92 billion revenue — more than Star Wars and Harry Potter combined). Tajiri dreamed up a new kind of video game: one built not just on battling monsters, but trading them. What followed was a full-blown cultural takeover with TV shows, trading cards (global market value $6 billion), more video games, and so much merch. Find out how Pikachu got his spark, why there was fierce debate over America’s cuteness threshold, how Pokémon Go took over your smartphone — and why Pokémon (our MOST requested episode to date) is the best idea yet.

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Follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting www.wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/ now.

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