Voxcali

Voxcali

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Voxcali episodes

  • Erika Kullberg Built a Media Empire by Reading the Fine Print

    By sharing actionable money advice and decoding everyday consumer contracts, Erika Kullberg has grown a massive following across social media and digital publishing.

    Erika Kullberg has expanded her personal finance and legal knowledge into a media and education platform reaching more than 21 million followers across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn.  Her branding is built around a recognizable “lawyer who reads the fine print” persona, often using the line “I’m a lawyer, so I read the fine print” to introduce tips about overlooked benefits, fees and clauses in everyday financial products and services.  Her content has generated more than 1.5 billion social media views, while her podcast, Erika Taught Me, and Erika.com have extended her reach into financial education, travel and entrepreneurship.

    Kullberg’s rise began with her own experience with debt.  After graduating from law school with more than $225,000 in student loans, she developed a plan to eliminate the balance and paid it off in less than two years.  She subsequently turned lessons from that experience into videos about debt, investing, credit cards, travel rewards and the fine print behind consumer offers.  Her lawyer-focused content helped her gain more than one million TikTok followers in 48 hours, while Erika Taught Me debuted at No. 1 in business and No. 2 overall in the U.S.

    Before becoming a full-time creator, Kullberg worked as a corporate attorney at Morrison Foerster, including a stint in Tokyo, and previously held legal roles with Foley & Lardner, the Federal Communications Commission and Verizon.  She also founded the legal technology company Plug and Law. Kullberg earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology and Japanese from the University of Notre Dame in 2012 before receiving her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center in 2016.

    Kullberg, 36, is Japanese American and grew up in a military family, moving frequently during her childhood and spending part of her early years in Japan.  Her experience navigating significant student debt ultimately became a foundation for the financial education platform she continues to expand across social media, publishing and podcasting.

    3 min
  • American Omnipotence vs. American Exceptionalism

    The delusion of American omnipotence turns the US into just another banana republic and undermines American exceptionalism which underpins global stability and prosperity while giving American a big dollar premium.

    Tom Kagy (00:01.102)

    Hello, this is Tom Kagy with Unconventional Wisdom. The notion of America the omnipotent is, of course, a delusion, typically subscribed to by leaders who are desperate for the ultimate distraction from whatever their troubles of the moment happen to be. On the other hand, American exceptionalism is a central reality.

    that helps to sustain a global order on an upward trajectory, both politically and economically. Let's start with a delusion. What brought about the delusion of American omnipotence? Probably a combination of poor history books and a slew of bad Hollywood movies. You can't blame Hollywood for selling feel good nonsense. I used to enjoy those myself as a kid.

    But the history books are inexcusable since they were presumably written to educate, not to delude. Probably the main omnipotence lie is that we single handedly defeated Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. We certainly did our share, maybe more than our share. Bold American military strategies and heroic GIs, including tens of thousands of Japanese, Chinese

    Filipino and Korean Americans fought bravely. But the reality is that if it had been just the US versus Germany and Japan, the issue would have been in serious doubt.

    Soviet Russia crushed the Nazis to the east, while China, along with Korean freedom fighters, held down most of Japan's ground troops on the Asian mainland. And of course the Pacific War was brought to a final end by the A bomb, something humanity knows must never again be used in war.

    Tom Kagy (02:13.599)

    But even without the A bomb, the Japanese were losing ground to the Chinese, Koreans, and Russians on the Asian mainland, as well as to American troops in the archipelagos of Southeast Asia. The A-bomb did accelerate Japan's defeat by perhaps a month at best, but it has contributed mightily to the nonsense of American omnipotence. It's as silly and dangerous as saying Rambo.

    won the Vietnam War. Essentially it took nearly four years of blood, sweat, and sacrifice by one hundred and fifty million Americans to help put down the imperialist delusions of Hitler and Hirohito, or rather, the militarists who took control of Hirohito's government. It was a once in a generation effort.

    One that no American wants to repeat again. But somehow this delusion of American omnipotence practically became military doctrine, especially among the less educated

    They came to believe that the US had the option of going anywhere and crushing any enemy, save maybe Russia and Japan or China.

    This is the kind of thinking that victimized Trump, as well as his base, in deciding he was going to crush Iran in a week or two while also taking the focus off the deepening Epstein scandal, and burying him in glory for having saved the world from the spectre of an Iranian nuke.

    Tom Kagy (04:07.411)

    The fact that the President of the United States was so ignorant about the realities of war goes to show you the power of Hollywood fantasy and the weakness of American education. So of course, Donald was never much of a student of anything but the kind of arrogance that comes of having received lots of money, but little love and attention from his parents. Now hopefully the

    Thanks to Trump's Trump, all of America has learned yet again that American omnipotence is an absurd and dangerous delusion that should be put down and buried once and for all, before it results in many American deaths, as happened in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, a long list of terrible, unnecessary wars.

    A tyrant led nation that labors under the delusion of any degree of omnipotence isn't exceptional. It's just another of dozens of banana republics, albeit a large one, in the case of the US. But does that mean that we should give up our belief in American exceptionalism? American exceptionalism

    Would be in serious jeopardy if Trump were allowed to remain a functioning leader of US policy for the remaining two years of his term.

    He has shown America to be a peevish, small minded and racist provincial power. When a nation is led by a functionally illiterate man with a pathological dependence on sycophants heaping praise and admiration, the nation veers sharply toward banana Republicanhood, I'll bite a large one again capable of inflicting a lot of damage to the entire world, which the US has been doing for the past three years.

    Tom Kagy (06:14.797)

    Six or eight months.

    Trump's craving for centrality and approval from a blindly loyal base was behind the migrant deportations, punitive t tariffs, and into green energy programs and environmental protections, wasteful efforts to revive dead industries, drastic cuts to foreign aid, and a spiteful effort at intimidating universities.

    into submitting to rapidly racist views on student diversity in admissions. Not to mention his most braindead initiative, blocking visas for the foreign talent absolutely critical to the maintenance of our tech industries. Only a man is out of touch with reality would not know that without massive numbers of the world's most talented students and young workers, the US would

    Lose its place at the cutting edge of AI and other future technologies in well less than a decade. Trump's spite and pettiness have made our closest neighbors in Canada hostile toward America. The rest of the world thinks the US has gone off the rails, a rampaging elephant, though their official policy has been to.

    abide their time and hope that we Americans come to our senses.

    Tom Kagy (07:49.398)

    America's image as a stable, fair minded place that rewards talent and hard work, while badly tattered, remains fundamentally intact. We still have bright foreign students and workers wanting in, though the numbers have started to shrink as they look into opportunities in more hospitable societies, like Canada, the UK, Australia, Germany, even South Korea and Japan.

    Which have never been known as particularly hospitable to immigrants. What makes us exceptional? Precisely the qualities that Trump has been doing his leveled best to destroy. Deeply institutionalized legal frameworks that ensure personal freedom, racial equality, and a society full of tolerant people.

    Open minded enough to welcome and even embrace people of other cultures. Hollywood has played its role with its happy fantasies of young people enjoying a degree of personal freedom, material comfort, and social stability unimaginable in most of the world, especially the parts of the world that produce the biggest numbers of talented students and workers lacking good opportunities at home.

    India and China, as well as Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. This exceptional attraction to talent and energy over a dozen generations is what built the US in the first place. If we want to remain the shining hope of humanity, not to mention the world's most prosperous and forward-looking society.

    We must do what we can to rid ourselves of a Pluto populist leader exploiting working class discontent to power and justify policies that benefit himself and a small number of industrialists in sectors like oil, coal, crypto, defence, and right wing media.

    Tom Kagy (10:11.124)

    Preserving our exceptional status as the world's Mecca also happens to be in our own financial best interest. It's what keeps the dollar so mighty, greatly overvalued in fact. The strong, trusted dollar draws so many trillions of dollars of foreign production at bargain prices and foreign investments of wealth.

    That the dollar is kept pushed up by about 35% over its actual value based solely on US productivity. Yes, we Americans are enjoying a fabulous 35% premium in our purchasing power. Of course, that's what keeps the American lifestyle so materially rich and appealing to the rest of the world. It's also what keeps our

    deeply ingrained values of fairness, freedom, and human dignity radiating out as beacons for the rest of the world, giving it a model on which to build and aspire.

    As the world embraces these values, it becomes more prosperous, stable, and peace loving. That means we don't have to deal with the problems of being the one rich house in a poor and dangerous neighborhood. And future generations will thank our wisdom, our far sightedness, in keeping our exceptionalists burning brightly by burying the dangerous notion of omnipotence.

    and removing from power those who seek to exploit that dangerous delusion for their selfish ends.

    12 min
  • Falguni Nayar Built India’s Beauty Empire at 49

    After nearly two decades in investment banking, Falguni Nayar left her career at 49 and built Nykaa into one of India’s largest beauty retailers.

    Falguni Nayar spent nearly two decades helping other companies enter the stock market before finally deciding to build one of her own with the hopes of transforming India’s complicated beauty market.

    She was born in 1963 and raised in a Gujarati family in Mumbai, India. Her father operated a small bearings company with help from her mother, allowing Nayar to grow up around business conversations and develop an interest in entrepreneurship. She studied commerce at Mumbai’s Sydenham College before earning her postgraduate management degree from the prestigious Indian Institute of Management in 1985.

    After graduating, Nayar began working in consulting at A.F. Ferguson & Co. She later joined Kotak Mahindra in 1993 where she spent the next 18 years building an impressive career across Mumbai, London and New York. She eventually became the company’s managing director where she advised companies on mergers, acquisitions and public offerings.

    Despite her success, Nayar had always dreamt of becoming an entrepreneur and frequently noticed that India’s beauty industry was growing, but shoppers still lacked a reliable destination offering variety and trusted products. So in 2012, at 49 years old, Nayar left banking and launched Nykaa as an online beauty retailer.

    Rather than simply just trying to sell products, Nykaa focused on beauty and encouraged customers to learn before purchasing. Its website combined shopping with tutorials and product information which helped introduce Indian consumers to unfamiliar skincare ingredients and international brands. Nykaa opened its first physical store in August 2014 at the Delhi International Airport where customers could test products in person.

    The company made prestige beauty more accessible across India and now offers thousands of brands online and operates approximately 250 stores throughout the country. Because of her banking experience, Nayar was able to take Nykaa public in November 2021 with an approximated value of $13 billion, making her India’s richest self-made female entrepreneur at the time. Her work has also earned some of India’s highest business honors including EY India’s Start-up Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2019 and its overall Entrepreneur of the Year award for 2021 and Nykaa was also included on TIME’s 100 Most Influential Companies list in 2022.

    She entered an entirely new industry at 49, building a business that made her one of Asia’s most successful self-made women and now Forbes has estimated Falguni Nayar’s fortune at approximately $5.3 billion in October 2026, fully proving that entrepreneurship does not have an expiration date.

    4 min
  • Getting fit by First Principles – Part 15 – Supplements

    Victor discusses supplements and pharmaceutical assistance.

    Victor (00:00)

    So today I wanted to talk about supplements. If you've been on any social media platform for the past six months or so, there's been a drastic uptick in the discourse regarding supplements, quote unquote. Particularly of the pharmaceutical varieties such as testosterone replacement therapy or TRT, GLP1s, and a whole host of

    Other things.

    Victor (00:33)

    So full disclosure, I am personally a natural, which means I'm not on any sort of extraneous supplementation. No steroids, peptides, etc, etc.

    Victor (00:50)

    Even when it comes to the non-pharmaceutical variety of supplements, in the past few years I've slowly moved away from a lot of supplements. I mean, when I was powerlifting, I was really big into protein powder and all that. But nowadays I just find myself just taking about five grams of creatine on the daily.

    Victor (01:17)

    If I just talked about the over-the-counter supplements like creatine, protein, powder, etc., etc., this would be a very short episode. Because I personally only take creatine. Everything else I just try to source from whole foods because I just like to eat.

    Victor (01:40)

    Yes, it can be fun to ingest something like a pink starburst flavored pre-workout or whatever. I get by just fine on drinking water, black coffee, and eating whole foods.

    Victor (01:59)

    There is nothing inherently wrong with using supplements. They are very useful tools. I just personally don't want to dedicate any more brain power into this pursuit because I already track calories and get my steps in anyway. I don't want to worry about whether or not I have my pre-workout in stock or whatever.

    Victor (02:23)

    Also, I am pretty cheap and I like to eat food.

    Victor (02:29)

    Now, if you want me to summarize my s my quote-unquote supplement stack, it's going to be a very short episode. The only supplement I take is, again, the five grams of creatine and magnesium glycinate for my sleep. Aside from that, my diet is what I would consider my supplementation. It's going to be mainly whole foods.

    Victor (02:59)

    The backbone of my personal diet is multiple varieties of potato, lean meat such as ninety-three or ninety-six four percent ground beef, homemade Greek yogurt, frozen fruit, oats, chia seeds, and some other things like honey.

    Victor (03:22)

    Now, if I only wanted to talk about supplements, I could probably cut the podcast right there and just say take your creatine, eat your potatoes and honey, and that's the secret to getting jacked or whatever. But I think the more interesting thing to talk about are supplements of the pharmaceutical variety.

    Victor (03:47)

    So the current trendy drug right now are GLP1s.

    Victor (03:55)

    I don't really want to get too into the science behind GLP ones and all that because I'm frankly not qualified enough to do so. Really, on a conceptual level from where I'm standing, I just think they go against my personal beliefs about fitness.

    Victor (04:19)

    On principle, I view one's body as the seat of their own self-determination. And barring any sort of chronic ailment, I do not believe that you should outsource your own health, fitness, and longevity to pharmaceuticals.

    Victor (04:41)

    There is nothing wrong with taking a medication to cure an illness, but a lot of times I find that people are immediately jumping onto GLP1s and other drugs without first doing the necessary work of attaining their fitness.

    Victor (05:05)

    I totally understand the amount of frustration that goes into fitness. Tracking calories, designing workouts, and then having to go to the gym and watch what you eat. It's almost like a job. And I do see the temptation in taking a shortcut and just taking the GLP ones. You see all the time on social media, people make drastic transformations as soon as they get on them.

    Victor (05:35)

    Yeah.

    I find is that there tends to be a Faustian contract associated with any sort of chemical assistance, whether it be SARMs, steroids, or GLP1s. Currently, GLP1s are new on the market and there isn't that much research on them. Even the most thorough studies only observe a limited population in a short amount of time.

    We do not know the long term effects.

    Victor (06:09)

    We have seen a lot of top level bodybuilders pass away due to the damage.

    That steroids have caused to their bodies, and with GLP1s and whatnot, we are also starting to see some adverse effects. People are reporting again. I might need a citation for this, but people are reporting early stages of sarcopenia or muscle loss, and there are those three movie stars in Wicked, I believe Michelle Yo and Ariana Grande.

    Victor (06:53)

    And yes, GLP1s like any other substance can be abused. There's no denying that sometimes people misuse their tools, and maybe you won't misuse your tools. But I do find that almost no matter what path you take, there will be some form of suffering associated with it.

    Victor (07:19)

    And on that I believe in making choices. I believe in self-determination and creating a vessel, a body that lines up with my own personal principles. And I find that resorting to chemical assistance outside of chronic health issues is

    throwing away that agency.

    Victor (07:51)

    Understand that there are a lot of things about ourselves that we do not get to choose. Right? We all have our own set of health issues and our own set of genetics, but outside of debilitating and chronic issues, I find that most people have simply not done the work. They haven't really truly and honestly put in.

    The work and embrace the uncertainty that comes with pursuing their own fitness goals.

    Victor (08:28)

    If you think about it, resorting to steroids and GLP ones is a lot like paying for a subscription service for your own health and your own fitness. I understand you could probably say the same thing about seeing a doctor or whatever, but like I said, those should be reserved for chronic ailments and serious medical conditions. But

    In the case of your own personal physical fitness, which is easily solvable without such interventions, GLP1s and peptides and steroids is akin to paying a subscription service, similar to Netflix.

    Victor (09:18)

    And chances are, without really doing the labor of sculpting yourself, you have never changed fundamentally as a person. And as such, when those GLP ones run out or when your subscription ends, you will find that you never owned the physique. You were simply renting it.

    And oftentimes like I mentioned with the Faustian bargain you end up having to pay interest on the thing that you rented.

    Victor (09:57)

    In contrast, when you look at the bodies of people who were lifelong athletes, and I mean people that have started athletics when they were young and kept it going into their 30s, 40s, 50s, and beyond, they look different. They are much, much healthier. It's almost like an investment, really.

    When you invest early and you invest a lot, when you get older you begin to see com a compounding effect on those physical gains that these people have made when they're younger. These physical

    Victor (10:41)

    And going off of my investment analogy, you can look at your own personal fitness as a form of investment rather than renting. If renting is something where you burn your money for something that you don't even own, investing rather is

    putting in money for something that will serve you for literally your entire lifetime.

    Victor (11:45)

    Personally, this is why I do not bother with things like GLP1s, peptides, steroids, etc., etc. Because I view my own body as the seat of my own self-determination. And taking pharmaceuticals is surrendering my own agency to these chemicals.

    Victor (12:10)

    Now there is a desire for certainty with these fitness outcomes. How do I know this workout plan will get me a six-pack? How do I know this dieting will help me lose weight? How do I know if this workout plan is going to get me jacked? You actually don't know these things for certain. Some people just don't respond to working out. But you never really know.

    How you will respond to a stressor until you put yourself through that stress.

    Victor (12:47)

    And this level of uncertainty is something a lot of people can't handle, which is why they are quick to throw away their own self-determination and their own agency into these extraneous things, such as chemicals and even cult leaders.

    Victor (13:11)

    This influencer is promising to take is promising to take me to the land of milk and honey where I will have a credit score of over 800 and rippling six pack abs if I just simply give him ten payments of five hundred dollars.

    Victor (13:30)

    And similarly, you see people pushing GLP ones. Just take this injection of Reddit True Tide and you too will receive the blessing of six pack abs.

    Victor (13:44)

    And yes, unfortunately, if we want certainty in life that oftentimes comes at the cost of our own agency.

    Victor (13:56)

    A while back someone asked me the best way to burn belly fat and well I had to clarify things for him that one, spot reduction isn't real, and two, I just gave him the step by step process that I've outlined in previous episodes, such as weighing yourself, tracking your food, and then seeing how your weight fluctuates day by day, week by week.

    and

    then cutting your calories down in order to induce a calorie deficit.

    Victor (14:33)

    And when I told him to purchase a food scale, he balked at the idea and asked, Will the scale tell me exactly how much I'm supposed to eat? And I said, No. The scale just tells you how much you're eating, and then it's up to you to start cutting that amount until you start losing weight. And then he went, but I don't want to waste my time.

    I want to know exactly how much I would need to eat in order to start losing weight. And of course, the tragedy here was he ended up wasting that time anyway because he never started. And then he never lost the weight and he was unsatisfied with how he looked in the mirror.

    Victor (15:20)

    But this goes to show how uncomfortable people are with dealing with uncertainty. This person would have rather had the certainty of living the way he did and not undergoing any bit of discomfort if it meant he had certainty. Whereas I presented him an uncertain path which was reduce your calories and maybe your weight will go down. He

    would rather sit still in his ways, watch TV, watch sports, and live his life how he had always lived it, and stay certain that his physique and body would stay the same.

    Victor (16:03)

    Similarly, people are afraid of uncertainty. They are afraid of the unknown. And these GLP ones, these chemicals, provide that level of certainty, at least in the short term. You take your GLP ones and you lose weight and maybe you get a six-pack.

    Victor (16:25)

    But as I've mentioned in previous episodes, I believe that the one's fitness journey is a journey of self-exploration. And taking these chemicals denies you the experience of truly learning about yourself and about the body that you've been gifted with.

    And I think most people have not done the work to r truly explore that side of them.

    Victor (17:00)

    Now we all have free will. I am not going to sit here and tell you to not take GLP ones. If it is something that interests you, go right ahead. Read about the risk factors. I won't say to do them or not to do them really. You honestly should not listen to me. I'm just a random person on the internet. This is not medical advice. I repeat.

    This is not medical advice. But

    Victor (17:33)

    But I will leave you with one question. Do you want to be the type of person that can assess themselves, look at their own strengths and their own weaknesses and work towards making themselves better? Or do you want to be the type of person that resorts to chemical assistance?

    19 min
  • Ty Okada’s SNF Pick, World Series and WNBA Finals Updates, and Dylan Harper’s Explosive Start

    Ty Okada’s clutch interception leads a dominant week in sports, featuring major World Series momentum, WNBA Finals arena drama, and Dylan Harper’s fast start in San Antonio.

    In primetime on Sunday Night Football Seattle Seahawks safety of Japanese descent Ty Okada intercepted Patrick Mahomes, helping Seattle hand the Kansas City Chiefs their first loss of the season in a 20-to-3 victory.  Okada capitalized on pressure from teammate Nick Emmanwori in the second quarter to capture his second career interception and first of the season.  Kansas City managed just three points, while Seattle’s defense disrupted the Chiefs throughout the night.

    Puka Nacua overcame a calf injury scare to lead the Los Angeles Rams in a 35-21 win over the Las Vegas Raiders.  After missing Friday’s practice, Nacua caught eight passes for 68 yards, including an 11-yard touchdown reception from Matthew Stafford late in the second quarter.

    The NFL played its first regular-season game in Paris on Sunday, with Jaylen Warren helping the Pittsburgh Steelers defeat the New Orleans Saints 16-to-10 at Stade de France.  The running back of Polynesian descent rushed for 101 yards on 18 carries and added three receptions for 36 yards.  His production helped Pittsburgh control the ground game, while the Steelers defense limited New Orleans to just 18 rushing yards.  Pittsburgh improved to 5-2 with its third consecutive victory, giving Warren another 100-yard rushing performance during the team’s winning streak.

    Christian Yelich, who is of Japanese descent, helped the Milwaukee Brewers take a 2-0 lead in the World Series against the Tampa Bay Rays, driving in a run with an RBI triple in Game 1.  Yelich’s hit helped Milwaukee establish an early advantage in a 3-2 victory Friday, and the Brewers followed with a 5-4 win in Game 2 to move within two victories of the franchise’s first World Series championship.

    The WNBA Finals are tied 2-2 between the Atlanta Dream and Golden State Valkyries, but scheduling problems continue to overshadow Natalie Nakase’s moment.  The league is scrambling to find a venue for a potential Game 6 in Atlanta because the Hawks are scheduled to play at State Farm Arena the same night.  The conflict compounds an already troubled Finals schedule, which has largely been overshadowed by a big college football Saturday, Monday Night Football, and the start of the NBA season.

    Filipino American Dylan Harper looks in mid-season form already during the first week of the season as he scored 22 points as the San Antonio Spurs defeated Dallas 122-106 for their first win.  The victory offers an early glimpse of the Spurs’ potential as their young core looks to build on last season’s NBA Finals run and establish itself as a championship contender.

    3 min
  • When Did Everything Become Resellable?

    The concept of reselling has transformed the way we shop and in this episode we explore the multi-billion dollar industry and whether resellers are savvy entrepreneurs or making shopping more expensive for everyone else.

    Kelli (00:00)

    Hi everyone and welcome to the Goldsea Podcast. My name is Kelli and today I wanted to talk about something that I feel has gotten completely out of control. Reselling.

    Because since when did buying something become less about actually wanting it and more about how much money you can make selling it to somebody else?

    I'm talking about everything, clothes from the thrift store, designer handbags, limited edition sneakers, Pokemon cards, concert tickets, even things like discounted beauty products and limited edition Starbucks cups.

    It feels like every time something becomes popular, there's an entire group of people trying to buy as much of it as possible before everybody else can get their hands on it. And then suddenly something that originally cost $30 is being listed online for $150.

    It's amazing if you think about it because these were supposed to be cute little collectibles, fun sneakers to buy for your kid because they've been really wanting them. How did this turn into a complete business opportunity? Now, don't get me wrong, because I actually think reselling is a smart way to make money, have a little side hustle. If you have clothes sitting in your closet that you don't wear anymore, why not sell them?

    If you can find a vintage designer bag at a thrift store for an amazing price, good for you. But there's a huge difference between giving something a second life and intentionally buying out products so that other people have no choice but to pay you more.

    Reselling has gone from something people did occasionally to an entire economy. So in this episode, we're going to talk about how massive the resale industry has become and why everyone seems to have a side hustle selling things online and how reselling has just completely changed the way we shop.

    So to start, I don't think people realize just how much money is involved in resale.

    According to ThreadUp's 2026 retail report, the global secondhand apparel market is projected to reach $393 billion by 2030. And that's just secondhand clothing. We're not even talking about concert tickets, Pokemon cards, sneakers, electronics, watches, or other collectibles.

    That same report found that the US secondhand clothing market grew nearly four times faster than the broader retail clothing market in 2025, and Gen Z and millennials are expected to account for 71% of the market's growth through 2030.

    So this isn't just something our parents and grandparents did to save money. Younger generations are driving this industry. And I can totally understand why. Everything is expensive nowadays. Clothing, rent is expensive, groceries are expensive. So if you can buy some cute clothes secondhand for half the price, why wouldn't you?

    if you can make an extra few hundred dollars selling clothes that you no longer wear, that's really appealing too. But here's what I think has changed. Secondhand shopping used to be associated primarily with saving money, but now in some cases, secondhand items are actually becoming more expensive than buying them new. And this is the interesting shift.

    So going into thrift stores, I feel like thrifting has gone through a full transformation because there was a time where going to Goodwill or a local thrift store was mainly about finding something affordable, clothing, furniture, or even some other household items. Obviously, plenty of people still thrift because they need affordable options, but now thrifting is a full on aesthetic. It's trendy. People want vintage things,

    Juicy tracksuits, vintage Levi's, leather jackets, old graphic tees, pieces that look like they came straight out of the early two thousands.

    I love fashion and I think finding something unique that nobody else has is one of the best parts about secondhand shopping. Except now you have people going into thrift stores specifically to find items that they can resell for profit. People will spend hours digging through racks, digging through the goodwill bins, knowing which brands are valuable, they know which vintage tags to look at, and they know what styles are trending on TikTok.

    So they'll buy something for eight dollars or less and then list it on Dpop for sixty dollars.

    Now here's the question. Is that wrong? Because on one hand, they did find the item, they put in the time to find it, and they recognized its value, they photographed it, listed it, and found someone to purchase it. In my opinion, that is work. But on the other hand, thrift stores are also an important source of affordable clothing.

    And when people start to treat them like inventory warehouses for their business, it raises questions about who really is getting access to these bargains. And that's where the whole resale conversation gets complicated within secondhand clothing and thrift stores because the same activity can look like entrepreneurship to one person and taking advantage of affordability to another.

    Now, sneakers are a huge part of the resale culture. Sneaker reselling has been a huge business for years. Limited edition Jordans, Nike collaborations, Travis Scott sneakers, and Yeezy releases. For a lot of sneaker collections, getting a rare pair is about more than having shoes to wear. It's about owning something exclusive, something not everybody has and something that not everyone can get. And brands understand that this creates demand.

    If everybody can walk into a store and buy the same exact sneaker whenever they want, there's much less urgency. But when a brand releases a limited edition shoe with a limited quantity, suddenly everybody wants them. And that's where resellers come in. People are entering raffles, people are using multiple devices, coordinating their purchases with their friends,

    And some people have even developed these purchasing tools that we call bots to compete for limited releases. So now you don't have to just sit there on your computer and wait for the drop. You can have a bot wait for you and buy it as soon as it releases.

    Now imagine if you're just a regular customer who wants a pair of shoes, you wake up early, you get on the website and you wait for the release and you click the button and they're sold out immediately. Then you go to the resale marketplace and you see the same shoes except they're listed for hundreds of dollars more. And now you're thinking to yourself, why am I paying somebody else a premium just because they managed to check out before me?

    And then there's the other side to this, because reselling sneakers is not guaranteed money. Trends are changing constantly. Brands release more inventory every week. And a shoe that was worth $500 last year might be selling for significantly less today. And sometimes people forget that. Just because something is limited right now doesn't automatically mean it's a good investment. Sometimes you are not just buying an asset, you're buying an expensive pair of shoes hoping that somebody else wants them more than you do.

    Now, Pokemon cards and sports trading cards is where it gets the most interesting to me because personally I would never pay more than a dollar for a piece of paper with one of my favorite Pokemon characters on it.

    but I can kind of see the other side because Pokemon is something that so many of us grew up with. People would buy the packs of cards, trade them with their friends, and get excited when you pulled a super rare card. But now people treat these Pokemon cards like

    Investments. They buy the sealed boxes and send cards to professional grading companies. People are following market prices and tracking the sales history of certain cards. And people are holding on to products for years, hoping they'll become more valuable later on.

    Now here's a statistic that really surprised me. According to StockX's November 2025 market report, Pokemon trading card sales on its platform increased by 339% year over year.

    That's insane.

    Now those are stock X specific figures, not growth rates from the entire trading card industry, but it shows how much activity was happening on just one single marketplace.

    Pokemon cards are the perfect example of how collecting has changed because there's still a huge community of people who just genuinely love the cards.

    They love the artwork and the nostalgia, but there's also a market of people who are primarily just interested in the resale value. And when those two groups are competing for the same limited inventory, things can get frustrating. For parents who just want to buy a Pokemon card for their child, if you go to the store and the shelves are empty and you find that people are selling these for more online.

    You're pretty much competing with people who don't really even care about Pokemon at all. They just are looking at it as an opportunity, again, to make money. So, what happens when people who love a product are competing against people who only love the resale value? That question right there is one of the biggest tensions in the entire resale industry.

    Moving on to something that I'm a little bit more familiar with is designer fashion, because this is another part of resale culture I truly find fascinating.

    I've worked in retail and luxury fashion and I think it's really interesting how people think of the value of designer goods. Let's say you buy a designer handbag. Traditionally you're buying it because you like the design, the craftsmanship, the brand, or how it just makes you feel.

    But now people are asking before purchasing, will this hold value? Can I resell it later? Is it a good investment? And that's such a different way of approaching shopping. There are entire businesses built around authenticating and reselling designer clothing.

    Platforms like theRealReal, Fashionphile they have made luxury resale much more accessible. And I think that there are some great benefits to this because you can find discounted designs and purchase luxury items at lower prices. And then you can wear it for as long as you want. And when you feel like you no longer need it or you no longer want to use it anymore, instead of letting it sit in your closet, you can resell it again if it's in good condition.

    One thing about buying brand new designer is that people treat these brand new luxury goods like guaranteed investments, but sometimes not every designer item appreciates. Many lose value, and a handbag's resale price depends solely on its condition, availability, demand, brand, and even sometimes the color.

    The handbag market changes dramatically. Bags that everybody wanted two years ago are not nearly as desirable as today.

    So while certain pieces can retain their value very well, I wouldn't automatically assume that spending thousands of dollars on a brand new handbag is a good financial investment. But then on the other hand, sometimes it is just shopping and that's totally okay because you can buy something if you love it. It doesn't always have to become a part of your financial portfolio.

    Another thing I've seen getting completely out of hand is the ticket resale industry. Concert tickets. Because unlike clothing or collectibles, a concert is an experience.

    You can't just wait until next year and buy the same exact event. If your favorite artist is performing in your city on a specific date, that is your opportunity to go. I feel like buying concert tickets has become an Olympic sport. You have to register for presale. You have to get a code, join a queue, and wait for thousands of people ahead of you. And then when it's finally your turn, there's a chance that all the tickets are sold out.

    But then when you look at the resale websites, you can see tickets listed for ridiculous amounts of money.

    So it's actually crazy because in September 2025, the Federal Trade Commission and seven states sued Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation. The FTC alleged that Ticketmaster allowed brokers to bypass ticket limits and then resell them at higher prices.

    One of the most shocking details about this story is that just five brokers controlled 6,345 Ticketmaster accounts and held more than 246,000 tickets across thousands of events. Five brokers only with over 6,000 accounts selling over 200,000 tickets. That's absolutely insane.

    The FTC also brought a separate case against a ticket reselling operation that was accused of using thousands of accounts, payment cards, and other tools like the bots to get around purchasing limits. And in that case, regulators alleged that the operation purchased nearly 380,000 tickets in just over a year.

    For one Taylor Swift concert, the defendants allegedly used forty-nine accounts to buy two hundred and seventy-three tickets, despite a six-ticket purchase limit.

    These are the allegations in the legal complaints, but just think about what that means for regular fans. You're sitting at home with your laptop and your phone, hoping to get two tickets but meanwhile, you're potentially competing against operators with thousands of accounts and very high-end purchasing systems. How is the average person supposed to compete with that?

    I think this is where resale becomes much harder to defend because you're not really adding value to the product. You're buying access to something that people already wanted and then just charging them more for it.

    Now, You might buy tickets months in advance and realize you just can't go anymore, and you should have to resell those tickets.

    But that's very different from intentionally acquiring hundreds of tickets for the purpose of selling them at a markup.

    This really just shows how reselling has become a full-time job for some people. There are people who wake up every morning and research upcoming product releases, which concerts are coming into town, they monitor the restocks,

    They join online communities where people share information about what products might become valuable. They go grab the inventory, they photograph it, list it, ship it, they manage customer questions. And for some people, this is a full-time job. and I think there is a side of reselling that people underestimate because successful reselling can involve real work. You really need to understand demand.

    margins and you need to factor in platform fees, shipping, returns, and taxes. And if you purchase $5,000 worth of products that don't sell, you might be stuck with them. So I don't think reselling is necessarily easy money, but what I find interesting is how social media makes it look. Because you'll see somebody post, I made $2,000 reselling sneakers this weekend. And that sounds awesome. But did they make $2,000 in revenue or $2,000 in profit? Because those are very different things.

    How much time did they spend waiting in line for the shoes?

    What about the shipping costs? I think that's something people really need to remember when they see someone promoting a resales side hustle. Because big sales numbers doesn't automatically mean someone is making a big profit.

    So I think the biggest thing I've realized while researching in this episode is that the way we think about shopping has really just fundamentally changed.

    We don't just ask whether we like something anymore. We ask if it's rare. We ask if it's limited, if it's gonna sell out, and whether it's gonna hold its value or not. We're becoming more aware that the things we own can have value beyond the original purchase. But I think there's something a little exhausting about it because not everything needs to be a business opportunity. Sometimes you just want to buy a pair of shoes and wear them.

    Or sometimes you just want to get a pack of Pokemon cards and open them up with your friends because you guys love Pokemon.

    Sometimes you just want to find a cute jacket without worrying that somebody else is going to buy it first and list it for five times the price. Genuinely, I think the resale industry is going to keep evolving because there are real benefits to buying and reselling secondhand goods. But I do think we're going to have to figure out where the line is between entrepreneurship and exploitation.

    Ultimately, I think the biggest question is when did everything we buy become something we're supposed to make money from? Is that making us a smarter consumer? Or is it just making everything harder to buy? Because sometimes I just want to shop without feeling like I'm competing against everybody else's side hustle. And with that, I will leave you guys with one question. Do you think resellers are smart entrepreneurs who recognize opportunities, or are they ruining shopping for everyone else?

    And that's all for today's episode. I will see you guys in the next one.

    16 min
  • Mia Tharia Steps Into the Spotlight with Klara and the Sun

    Rising talent Mia Tharia is set to star opposite Jenna Ortega in Taika Waititi's Klara and the Sun and is rapidly becoming one of film’s most exciting young talents.

    Mia Tharia is a British Indian actor and writer whose next major screen appearance comes in Sony Pictures’ Klara and the Sun, opening October 23rd.  Directed by Taika Waititi and adapted from Kazuo Ishiguro’s bestselling novel, the film stars Jenna Ortega as Klara, an Artificial Friend purchased to keep teenage Josie company.  Tharia plays Josie, whose complicated relationship with her mother, Chrissie, is shaped by illness and loss.

    Tharia’s recent work has taken her across television and film.  This year, she starred in the period drama film The Education of Jane Cumming, based on a real 19th-century scandal.  In 2024, she made her feature-film debut in Ariane Labed’s September Says, playing July, a teenager whose intense relationship with her older sister September forms the center of the story.  The film, based on Daisy Johnson’s novel Sisters, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.  That same year, Tharia appeared in 4 episodes of the BBC thriller The Listeners as Ashley, the daughter of Rebecca Hall’s character, who watches as her mother becomes consumed by an unexplained sound and the community forming around it.  From 2023 to 2024, she was part of the BBC Three teen drama Phoenix Rise, playing Polly Shah.

    The 21-year-old was raised in Balham, South London and developed her interest in acting through Brixton Youth Theatre and the Burnt Orange Theatre Company.  Her professional breakthrough came when a casting director discovered her at Brixton Youth Theatre.  She was subsequently named a Screen International Star of Tomorrow in 2024 and a Variety Brit to Watch in 2025.

    With Klara and the Sun, Tharia takes on her most prominent film role yet, joining Ortega, Amy Adams, Natasha Lyonne and Steve Buscemi in Waititi’s adaptation.  The film marks another step in a career that has quickly moved from youth theatre to major international productions.

    2 min
  • Saj Thakkar Embraces the Challenge of Rebuilding Davidson Football

    Trailblazing college football coach Saj Thakkar is using his background, recruiting vision, and transparency to reshape the Davidson Wildcats.

    Saj Thakkar made history when he took over at Davidson College at the end of 2024, becoming the first head coach of Indian descent in NCAA Division I football.

    Though the Wildcats endured a difficult debut campaign under his watch with few bright spots, the team did secure a signature upset victory over #25 ranked Presbyterian.

    The initial struggle came as little surprise given the natural player turnover and immediate transfers that accompany most coaching changes.  Now Thakkar has the opportunity to turn the roster around and actively rebuild Davidson football by assembling players who embody the culture he wants to imprint.

    This season, Thakkar has been providing fans with a behind-the-scenes look into reviewing game tape, with “Inside the Film Room” posted weekly on Davidson Athletics’ YouTube channel.

    Before arriving in North Carolina, Thakkar served as head coach at NCAA Division II Bentley University from 2023 to 2024, compiling a 14-6 overall record and securing back-to-back second-place finishes in the Northeast-10 Conference.

    The 35-year-old’s professional background includes stints as an NFL Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellow with the Atlanta Falcons in 2022 and the Tennessee Titans in 2023.  Prior to those professional fellowships, he spent five seasons guiding running backs at Harvard from 2018 to 2022.  Earlier in his coaching path, he worked on the staff at SUNY Maritime from 2015 to 2017 after getting his start at Fitchburg State from 2013 to 2014.

    Originally from Wakefield, Massachusetts, Thakkar played his collegiate football as a quarterback and wide receiver at Western New England before finishing at Fitchburg State, where he earned academic all-conference honors three times and earned both his undergraduate degree and an MBA.

    3 min
  • Vox Momenti: Canned Dida

    Canned dida is better than no dida, but boy, do we miss that fresh dida before Mr Dodo's walls, taxes and wars.

    I don't mind canned dida

    It's better than no dida
    But boy I loved fresh dida

    Before walls by Mr Dodo

    And taxes by Mr Dodo
    And the wars by Mr Dodo

    So now we just sing deedee

    As we just wait for deedee
    To trash this busted deedee

    [Chorus]

    Oh why can't some people just be happy
    With working hard to make the world happy
    With free exchanges that make us happy?

    I don't mind stale dodi

    It's better than no dodi
    But boy I loved fresh dodi

    Before walls by Mr Dingding

    And taxes by Mr Dingding
    And the wars by Mr Dingding

    Let's all just sing didi

    As we just wait for didi
    To trash this broken didi

    [Chorus]

    Oh why do some people lock out fresh
    And lock in hate and so much less
    When what the world needs is more fresh?

    I don't mind canned dida

    It's better than no dida
    But boy I loved fresh dida

    Before walls by Mr Dumdum

    And taxes by Mr Dumdum
    And the wars by Mr Dumdum

    So now we just sing doodoo

    As we just wait for doodoo
    To flush this busted doodoo

    2 min
  • Vietnam Went From Manufacturing Fashion to Defining It

    Vietnamese designers are reaching red carpets, music videos and major stages while giving the world a new understanding of the country’s fashion identity.

    For decades, Vietnam has been one of the most important countries in the global fashion industry, but you were more likely to see “Made in Vietnam” hidden inside on a garment tag, rather than a Vietnamese designer’s name displayed across the label. But that is quickly changing because Vietnamese designers are becoming much more visible throughout Western pop culture, proving that the country does not just manufacture fashion. 

    Vietnam has a long fashion identity of its own, most famously represented by the áo dài, a fitted tunic worn over flowing trousers that incorporates influences from Vietnamese court clothing, Chinese garments and French colonial fashion. However, Vietnam’s modern fashion industry spent years being known primarily for production. According to The Business of Fashion, Vietnam ranked as the second-largest exporter of textiles and apparel to the United States between 2018 and 2022, behind only China. Despite making clothing for some of the world’s biggest companies, its own designers rarely received the same international recognition.

    Now, a younger generation of Vietnamese labels is finding success worldwide. Based in Ho Chi Minh City, Fancì Club, founded by Duy Trần, became popular for its sheer fabrics, corsets, bows and feminine Y2K designs. Olivia Rodrigo wore a black-and-pink Fancì Club outfit to a 2022 movie premiere while Bella Hadid has been seen wearing two of the brand’s looks during a weekend in the Hamptons. Instead of waiting for acceptance from a traditional European fashion house, Fancì Club used social media, celebrity stylists and recognizable designs to enter global pop culture.

    Vietnamese fashion received even more spotlight in 2025 after American pop star, Ariana Grande, wore a pink gown by Trần Hùng in a 2025 R.E.M. Beauty campaign and more recently, KATSEYE appeared at Coachella in 2026 wearing theatrical custom outfits by Ho Chi Minh City label La Lune. 

    For years, Vietnam’s contribution to global fashion was hidden behind the brands printed on the tag. Today, celebrities are proudly naming the Vietnamese designers behind their biggest fashion moments. The world already trusted Vietnam to make its clothing and now it is finally beginning to recognize the creativity coming from the country as well.

    3 min

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