My First MillionThe next Ozempic might fix marriages
My First Million
Setting up the idea 0:00
The hosts frame this episode as a return to pure brainstorming, noting they have a track record of spotting health trends early, including GLP1 weight loss drugs, testosterone replacement therapy businesses, and sperm freezing, years before they became mainstream. They set up a new idea they found while scrolling Instagram, which came from watching Palmer Luckey, the founder of Oculus and Anduril, answer a question about what he would build if he had to start from zero.
Palmer Luckey's divorce pitch 2:00
Luckey answered that he would try to end the tragedy of divorce using oxytocin doping for marriage counseling, arguing that most couples who want to split up should actually stay together, especially for their kids. He compared it to SSRIs being accepted even though they are imperfect, and pointed out that oxytocin is well understood, considered safe, and completely unregulated, meaning you can currently buy a kilogram of it from a chemical supplier like Sigma Aldrich. The hosts praised how quickly he moved from a huge problem, divorce affecting roughly half of people, to a specific, oddly compelling solution.
What oxytocin actually does 5:31
Oxytocin is a naturally occurring hormone often called the bonding chemical, released when mothers give birth and breastfeed, when people cuddle or have sex, and even when you make eye contact with a dog. Prairie voles, a rare monogamous species, have unusually high oxytocin levels and stay paired for life, attacking other potential mates. Small human studies found that people given oxytocin who were already bonded to a partner sat farther from an attractive stranger and looked at them less, though the sample sizes were tiny. The hosts also describe finding an active subreddit where autistic people and those with PTSD have been self-administering oxytocin for years and journaling about its effects. Oxytocin is described as a highlighter rather than a love potion, meaning it amplifies whatever social feeling is already present, deepening distance after abuse or deepening warmth where it already exists, and it is already quietly showing up as a nasal spray on niche pharmaceutical websites that sell it without requiring a prescription.
Oxytocin for teams and relationships 14:30
The conversation turns to oxytocin, a hormone some doctors are already testing in small doses with teams, whether coworkers or sports groups, and reportedly finding that people collaborate better afterward. The evidence is thin so far, neither proven nor disproven, but the idea intrigues both speakers, who picture something as strange as everyone taking a dose before a team retreat. One of them mentions a subreddit where a man with Asperger's documents his daily doses, noting how a first dose felt overwhelming while a second dose made eye contact with his children much easier and conversations noticeably better. They joke that within a year, ads may be promising this could cure divorce.
From fringe to mainstream 17:02
One speaker admits a cautious, almost fearful instinct toward anything chemically unfamiliar, having avoided drugs and even Burning Man, but notes that fringe things keep becoming normal surprisingly fast. He points to peptides, once dismissed as a gimmick like the so called Wolverine stack for healing an Achilles, now common, and to psychedelics, once associated only with recreational tripping and now valued by smart friends as a serious treatment for PTSD, compressing years of therapy into a short session. He cites the recent 2.8 billion dollar acquisition of a psychedelics company by Eli Lilly as evidence of how far the acceptance has shifted, and wonders if oxytocin for teams could follow the same path.
Knights of Columbus and community insurance 20:01
The discussion shifts to the Knights of Columbus, founded in 1882 by a priest in New Haven named McGivney after a parishioner died and left his family without income, originally a mutual benefit society where members pooled money to support each other's families. Today it has two to three million members, thirty billion dollars in assets, and up to ten billion a year in revenue, largely by selling life insurance to dues paying members who gather to organize charity work, and it is currently growing fastest among men in their thirties. Similar models include Good Sam for RV owners, which bundles insurance with campground discounts, and the USCCA, which pairs concealed carry training with legal defense insurance and earns about 400 million a year. AARP is described as a related case, licensing its trusted name and partnering with United for health insurance rather than underwriting it directly. The broader point is that a shared identity community, religious or not, can monetize loneliness and belonging by attaching financial products like insurance to membership, a durable business model worth watching.
A faith-based streaming service's origin 29:31
The conversation turns to a streaming company doing over 400 million dollars a year in annual recurring revenue, started by a viral marketer tied to products like PooPourri and Squatty Potty, part of a known cluster of savvy marketers based in Salt Lake City. He was a Latter Day Saint frustrated that kids could stumble into inappropriate content online, so he began by stripping cursing, sex, and drug scenes out of existing movies, starting with a film like Cinderella Man. That earned him a lawsuit and a ten million dollar settlement, but it also attracted a hundred thousand people wanting the service, leading him to exploit a DVD-rental loophole before eventually deciding to just produce original, cleaned-up movies and shows.
How the filtered-content business runs 32:01
The company now serves two or three million paying members at thirteen to twenty dollars a month, a scale similar to a smaller streaming tier like Peacock. Members vote on which finished films or trailers get picked up, and anything earning less than seventy percent approval is dropped regardless of studio interest. This voting system gives the company a higher average Rotten Tomatoes score and hit rate than many major studios, and the founder went from zero movie industry experience to running what is described as a values based version of A24.
A24 as a reaction to risk-averse studios 34:30
One business theory offered is that popular trends create the need for their opposite, the way Facebook's permanent public photos helped spur Snapchat's disappearing ones. Major studios became extremely risk averse, favoring predictable four-quadrant films, sequels, and superhero franchises because they appeal to men and women both under and over thirty, the way Harry Potter spans generations. That caution left genuinely interesting, low-budget independent films ignored, and studios like A24 stepped in to pick them up cheaply and build a differentiated, edgy brand.
Marketing stunts and real movie economics 38:00
A24 style marketing relies on unconventional stunts, like Timothy Chalamet leaking a fake Zoom recording as a trailer, or Kevin James quietly running an anonymous painter's Instagram before sitting alone in a tuxedo with empty Super Bowl seats around him to spark public curiosity. On the production side, a film described as the company's biggest hit cost fourteen million dollars to make but forty million to market, and shooting itself typically takes only about thirty to ninety days even though development and funding can take years. Despite earning 250 million dollars in box office revenue, the studio only keeps roughly half after the theater or distributor's cut, showing how heavily both movies and video games lean on marketing spending relative to production cost.
Hit-driven economics of publishing 42:32
The conversation returns to how hits-driven creative businesses actually pay out. Using Mark Manson's book, which reportedly sold around 20 million copies for Penguin and was credited with making the whole company profitable that year, the hosts note that even a massive bestseller might only return something like two and a half times its cost, far less than the 50x, 100x, or even 1000x returns common in startup investing when something hits big.
Why most movies never get made 45:01
They discuss the film industry's brutal odds, noting that of roughly a thousand films made in a year, far fewer ever get distributed, and many projects never even make it past the screenplay stage. They also touch on movie tax write-offs, clarifying that production must actually begin to qualify, so investors can still lose their entire principal even while saving a bit on taxes.
Grinder merch sign-off 45:30
The episode closes on a lighter note as they get sent merchandise from Grindr, following an earlier episode with the app's former owners about its turnaround, joking that the arcteric vest they received is far too plain and not gay enough, before wrapping up the podcast.
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