Podcasts about Staples Center

On this episode of "House of Hockey," Breezy and Rae discuss round 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs with friend and fellow hockey fan, Alma Serrano. The ladies discuss which series they are watching, their first round predictions and more. Alma is an LA Kings fan and Timo Meier fan who travels across the country watching both, she even has a marked location at Staples Center for pre-game warmups.  Hear why the ladies believe Vegas Golden Knights's Mark Stone is fueled by dad energy, why the LA Kings are different this season, and how unfair ticket prices are for Round 1 in both Toronto and NYC.  The ladies nominate their respective Hunks of the Week and discuss other NHL headlines. Follow Alma on Instagram @Alma_182  Download the DraftKings app  Promo code: THPN  https://tinyurl.com/DKAMAZE  Disclaimer: Call (800) 327-5050 or visit gamblinghelplinema.org (MA), Gambling Problem? Call 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY), If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537) (CO/IL/IN/LA/MD/MI/NJ/OH/PA/TN/WV/WY), 1-800-NEXT STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700(KS/NH), 888-789-7777/visit ccpg.org (CT), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), visit OPGR.org (OR), or1-888-532-3500 (VA).21+ (18+ NH/WY). Physically present in AZ/CO/CT/IL/IN/IA/KS/LA(select parishes)/MA/MD/MI /NH /NJ/ NY/OH/OR/PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. VOID IN ONT. Eligibility restrictions apply. Bonus bets (void in MA/NH/OR) : Valid 1 per new customer. Min. $5 deposit. Min $5 pre-game moneyline bet. Bet must win. $150 issued as six (6) $25 bonus bets. Bonus Bets are non-cashable and cannot be withdrawn. Bonus bets must be wagered 1x and stake is not included in any returns or winnings. Bonus Bets expire 7 days (168 hours) after being awarded. Promotional offer period ends 5/28/23 at 11:59PM ET. See terms at sportsbook.draftkings.com/basketballterms. Shop at Pure Hockey with our special link: https://www.avantlink.com/click.php?tt=ml&ti=730573&pw=242313  Try Rogue Energy  https://rogueenergy.com/7q1gKjoWEkxI9s Use Promo Code: STADIUMSCENE to save 10% Follow us on social media: https://www.facebook.com/houseofhockeypodcast/ https://www.instagram.com/houseofhockeypodcast/  https://twitter.com/houseofhockey_   Want us to answer your questions on the podcast? Or discuss a topic? www.HouseofHockeyPod.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode of "House of Hockey," Breezy and Rae discuss round 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs with friend and fellow hockey fan, Alma Serrano. The ladies discuss which series they are watching, their first round predictions and more. Alma is an LA Kings fan and Timo Meier fan who travels across the country watching both, she even has a marked location at Staples Center for pre-game warmups.  Hear why the ladies believe Vegas Golden Knights's Mark Stone is fueled by dad energy, why the LA Kings are different this season, and how unfair ticket prices are for Round 1 in both Toronto and NYC.  The ladies nominate their respective Hunks of the Week and discuss other NHL headlines. Follow Alma on Instagram @Alma_182  Download the DraftKings app  Promo code: THPN  https://tinyurl.com/DKAMAZE  Disclaimer: Call (800) 327-5050 or visit gamblinghelplinema.org (MA), Gambling Problem? Call 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY), If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537) (CO/IL/IN/LA/MD/MI/NJ/OH/PA/TN/WV/WY), 1-800-NEXT STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700(KS/NH), 888-789-7777/visit ccpg.org (CT), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), visit OPGR.org (OR), or1-888-532-3500 (VA).21+ (18+ NH/WY). Physically present in AZ/CO/CT/IL/IN/IA/KS/LA(select parishes)/MA/MD/MI /NH /NJ/ NY/OH/OR/PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. VOID IN ONT. Eligibility restrictions apply. Bonus bets (void in MA/NH/OR) : Valid 1 per new customer. Min. $5 deposit. Min $5 pre-game moneyline bet. Bet must win. $150 issued as six (6) $25 bonus bets. Bonus Bets are non-cashable and cannot be withdrawn. Bonus bets must be wagered 1x and stake is not included in any returns or winnings. Bonus Bets expire 7 days (168 hours) after being awarded. Promotional offer period ends 5/28/23 at 11:59PM ET. See terms at sportsbook.draftkings.com/basketballterms. Shop at Pure Hockey with our special link: https://www.avantlink.com/click.php?tt=ml&ti=730573&pw=242313  Try Rogue Energy  https://rogueenergy.com/7q1gKjoWEkxI9s Use Promo Code: STADIUMSCENE to save 10% Follow us on social media: https://www.facebook.com/houseofhockeypodcast/ https://www.instagram.com/houseofhockeypodcast/  https://twitter.com/houseofhockey_   Want us to answer your questions on the podcast? Or discuss a topic? www.HouseofHockeyPod.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dan reacts to the emotional ceremony at Staples Center last night as the Los Angeles Lakers hoisted Pau Gasol's jersey to the rafters. And he reacts to Lamar Jackson and the rest of the action at the NFL franchise tag deadline yesterday.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Pau Gasol vivirá mañana uno de los mayores homenajes de la historia del deporte. Los Angeles Lakers retirarán su camiseta en el Staples Center para homenajear la carrera del español en el conjunto argelino. Con él, ya son 11 los jugadores que han protagonizado este gesto. ¿Cómo de grande ha sido Pau para el conjunto angelino? ¿Volveremos a ver un español tan importante en la NBA? Antoni Daimiel, Francisco José Delgado y Javier Machicado lo analizan. 

In his 22 years covering the Los Angeles Lakers as a sideline reporter and play-by-play announcer riffing off color commentator Mychal Thompson, John Ireland has seen the team win five NBA titles, pull off a rare threepeat, and make it to the Finals eight times. He has witnessed a lifetime of highlights from the likes of Shaq, LeBron, Paul Gasol, and other All-Stars, but it's the legacy of Kobe Bryant that has left an indelible mark.John started covering the Lakers in Kobe's rookie year, and saw him grow from an unnaturally confident teenager into a perennial All-Star, two-time Finals MVP, and five-time champion. As a broadcaster, John called all of Kobe's biggest victories and most painful losses, but it was the moments when nobody else was watching that revealed his true character. From brief courtside encounters at Staples Center to hotel conversations on the road to after-hours practice sessions in empty arenas, John had unique insights into a singular talent who will never be forgotten.In this memorable episode marking Kobe's tragic passing, John shares:·       What Kobe working out with an assistant coach's son at 4 AM showed·       How his comment about Kobe not playing with a sprained ankle led to a 39-point outburst·       Why Kobe once had 18 full beer bottles by his feet in a Houston bar·       What parenting advice he gave Kobe after his daughter Natalia was born·       Which Michael Jordan move Kobe perfected even though he knew it was traveling·       Why Kobe's 60-point farewell is the one game he'd go back and re-liveListen to John as he calls Lakers games and hosts the Mason & Ireland show for ESPN LA, and follow him on Twitter @LAIreland.

Flash back to the weekend that started this podcast! Both interviews took place during the 2018 NBA All-Star Weekend at Staples Center in Los Angeles! Andy chats with George "The Iceman" Gervin, & "The Glove" Gary Payton! George talks about the genesis of his nickname "The Iceman", memories from his playing days, growing up in the Motown era, the 1983 All Star Game, playing with a young Michael Jordan in his final year, why he doesn't consider MJ the GOAT, how Magic Johnson changed the game, the George Gervin Youth Center, and more! NEXT, Andy is joined by "The Glove" Gary Payton! Gary describes his path from Oakland to Oregon State to the NBA, the influence of his father on him & other NBA'ers from Oakland, the heartbreak from the Supersonics leaving Seattle, the bombing that occurred during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, his world famous trash talking, going "full neck", the Gary Payton-Shawn Kemp duo "The Rainman & The Glove", the genesis of "The Glove" nickname, his sons, and much more!

Last week I celebrated my birthday, and this week I got to enjoy one of my birthday gifts – Warriors tickets (NBA basketball). My in-laws sweetened this gift by also volunteering to watch our kids, so my wife and I could go together. The drive from home to the arena is modest in miles and daunting in drive time – LA traffic. I laugh in hindsight, but I was fumbling to find directions, as I kept asking Siri to pull up directions based on the old name of the arena. I'd ask to be navigated to “Staples Center” and Siri kept trying to direct me to the local Staples office supply store. I had forgotten that the name was changed at the end of 2021 to the “Crypto.com” arena (no comment). Eventually, I remembered the name change, was able to map out directions to our destination, and we enjoyed an evening of basketball – even though the Warriors lost

In this episode we talk with LA artist Chris Springer about her journey from a traumatic family life to shutting down a dangerous childcare facility and running a hair salon, working in creative arts and design, rescuing children in need, advocating for tenants' rights, and also... vampires under the Staples Center. This conversation really contains multitudes.

The last three games have been a bit confusing for your Philadelphia 76ers. They started by getting beaten by 19 at the crib in South Philadelphia at the hands of the Oklahoma City Thunder. After that embarrassment, they traveled to Salt Lake City to face the Utah Jazz, where they almost lost due to Jordan Clarkson going off for 38 points. Amazingly, they won the game, so it looked good heading to California. That's when the Los Angeles Lakers (with no Anthony Davis, just LeBron James) almost won THAT game since LeBron threw down 35 points at Staples Center. These are not the performances you'd like to see from your Sixers, given that the Brooklyn Nets (sans Kevin Durant) and the Milwaukee Bucks (what's up with Giannis) are catchable in the standings. The Sixers have upcoming games against the Los Angeles Clippers (Kawhi Leonard, Paul George), Portland Trailblazers (Damian Lillard), and Sacramento Kings (De'Aaron Fox, Kevin Huerter, Malik Monk), who all have guards capable of torching this Sixers defense similar to Shai-Gilgeous Alexander and Jordan Clarkson. Adio Royster and David Early talk about the possibilities of Doc Rivers tinkering with his starting lineup (finally) and look ahead to those games along with the two big ones: at home versus the Brooklyn Nets and Denver Nuggets. After the break, Adio and Dave expand more on Doc Rivers's alleged proposals to change the starting lineup and look ahead to the NBA Trade Deadline with a name you may not have been contemplating before David's column last week. (That's the tease. To discover the name, you'll have to listen.) Peace. Love. And Go Sixers! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From the South Bay to the Valley, from the West Side to the East Side – we head to Los Angeles for this episode to chat with Kishore Ramlagan, the Manager, Marketing & Promotions at Hollywood Park, SoFi Stadium & YouTube Theater. Kishore takes us along for the ride through his unconventional career path – from playing soccer and being a fan to joining the industry through an internship with the LA Galaxy, to time with Staples Center (now Crypto.com Arena) leading to his current role. We discuss the advent of more stadium tours and how what was once a rare concert play has turned into a more common touring strategy for artists. We discuss the demand for Taylor Swift tickets, of which their stadium is hosting five shows, and the evolution of ticket sales and how marketers adapt. Kishore shares pivotal career moments that shaped his path and challenged him as well as his advice for people entering the industry. From leveraging networking to a drive to add and build his knowledge, he has been able to parlay one opportunity to the next while continuing to challenge and prove himself. Enjoy this wonderful episode which includes some excellent career advice, some fun stories, and plenty of talk about WWE fandom. As The Rock might say… Do you smell what Kishore is cooking?

We talked and walked through Kevin's childhood, early days of steel drums, french horn, to guitar… architecture, bands, playing parties, selling flowers, Papa John Creach, sessions, his first deal and album as Kevin Moore at 41, to two years later being nominated for a Grammy as Keb' Mo'… four more Grammy victories, currently awaiting his night at The Staples Center… do I hear six? We talked about his songwriting––lots of honesty, humility, self-knowing… where his philanthropy and activism began, a ready-to-go draft dodger, his one ask - to meet Taj Mahal, and boy, did he meet him. Working with Darius Rucker and his awe for Hootie & The Blowfish, telling their truth. Kevin sharing that he likes to be uncomfortable with his lyrics-brilliance that is his. We talked his spiritual path, and if he prays- “everything out of my mouth is a prayer.” Wow. He gracefully credits Depak. I smiled so big and so much for so long… for the entire 1:35:29 broadcast, my face hurts. In the good way. The very best way. I loved this. I love Keb' Mo'. I reckon I'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who doesn't. Live on Game Changers With Vicki Abelson Wednesday, 12/28/22, 5 pm PT, 8 pm ET Streamed Live on my Facebook Replay here: https://bit.ly/3YUmTYo

Not even Lukas Dostal could save the Anaheim Ducks in their first meeting against the Los Angeles Kings at "I Can't Believe It's Not Staples Center." The Ducks reverted back to their usual ways by allowing some high danger chances, giving up too many shots, and being bad on the penalty kill. JD Hernandez breaks down the game, including the atrocious defense and which players should be "eaten by Lukas Dostal." BetOnline BetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On the Raw Post-show from five years ago (12-4-2017), PWTorch editor Wade Keller was joined by Rich Fann to review WWE Monday Night Raw including the return of Broken (Woken) Matt Hardy, the Roman Reigns-Jason Jordan-Samoa Joe dynamic, Paige, Asuka, and more with an on-site correspondent from Staples Center sharing some off-TV happenings and mailbag including different viewpoints on Roman Reigns and Jason Jordan this week.

Determined to help others in the community avoid the pain and loss he felt, Josiah Citrin speaks candidly about what the loss of his son Augie about the painful loss of his son, Augie as a result of fentanyl poisoning. Like so many who believe they are using a familiar substance, Augie died tragically when he was poisoned by the counterfeit narcotic.  Josiah Citin Background:  Josiah Citrin is a culinary expert and veteran of Los Angeles's gourmet dining scene, with more than 25 years of experience. He is a two-star Michelin chef and owner of Santa Monica's highly-acclaimed Mélisse, Charcoal Venice, and Dave's Doghouse at the Staples Center in Downtown Los Angeles and Indian Wells Tennis Garden. His culinary philosophy, “In Pursuit of Excellence” sets the standard for all of his concepts, whether fine-dining or casual.Citrin discovered his passion for food through his family at an early age, growing up in Santa Monica and Venice with a mother who was a caterer, and a French grandmother who cooked family meals. Their knowledge, combined with his excitement for cooking and business, led him to pursue a culinary career. Citrin moved to Paris to explore his French heritage after graduating from Santa Monica High School, and worked for three years at fine Parisian restaurants Vivarois and La Poste, gaining an understanding of and respect for the rules of traditional French cooking.This invaluable experience taught him both the art and discipline of cooking and fine dining, and formed the definitive basis of his training.  He returned to the United States in 1990 and began applying his skills at Los Angeles' finest restaurants—notably Wolfgang Puck's celebrated Chinois on Main and then at Granita.  After two years, Josiah moved on to join Patina and Pinot Bistro and cooked alongside famed chef and savvy restaurateur Joachim Splichal. Citrin subsequently became chef at Capri restaurant in Venice and Jackson's in West Hollywood. With a heightened interest in French gastronomy and a spirit for entrepreneurship, Citrin launched JiRaffe in 1996 alongside childhood friend and fellow chef Raphael Lunetta. Selling his interest to JiRaffe to Lunetta in 1999, Citrin pursued his lifelong dream of opening his own fine dining establishment by debuting Mélisse which opened to critical acclaim and has been impressing the culinary world ever since.  Citrin's honors include: Two Stars from Michelin Guide (2007, 2008, 2021), #1 for Top Food in Los Angeles and #1 American-French Restaurant for Food in Los Angeles by Zagat (2013, 2014), “Best Wine List” by LA Weekly (2015), “Top 100 Restaurants in the World” by Elite Traveler (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018), Five Stars by Forbes Travel Guide (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018), “Top Ten New Chefs” by Food & Wine magazine (1997), and “Best Chefs of the Year” by Los Angeles magazine (2012).

In this week's episode of Living in the Sprawl: Southern California's Most Adventurous Podcast, host Jon Steinberg shares his list of 10 places you can visit in Southern California to celebrate the life and times of Kobe Bryant. His list includes: the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, Javier's in Newport Beach, the mural at 1147 South Hope in Downtown Los Angeles, the Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks, the Long Beach Pyramid in Long Beach, LA Live in Downtown Los Angeles, El Camino Real Restaurant in Fullerton, the helicopter crash site in Calabasas, Pacific View Cemetery in Newport Beach and Staples Center in Downtown Los Angeles.Instagram: @livinginthesprawlpodcastEmail: livinginthesprawlpodcast@gmail.comWebsite: www.livinginthesprawlpodcast.comCheck out our favorite CBD gummy company...it helps us get better sleep and stay chill. Use code "SPRAWL" for 20% off.  https://www.justcbdstore.com?aff=645Check out Goldbelly for all your favorite US foods to satisfy those cravings or bring back some nostalgia. Our favorites include Junior's Chessecakes from New York, Lou Malnati's deep dish pizza from Chicago and a philly cheesesteak from Pat's. Use the link https://goldbelly.pxf.io/c/2974077/1032087/13451 to check out all of the options and let them know we sent you.Use code "SPRAWL" for (2) free meals and free delivery on your first Everytable subscription.Support the podcast and future exploration adventures. We are working on unique perks and will give you a shout out on the podcast to thank you for your contribution!Living in the Sprawl: Southern California's Most Adventurous Podcast is on Podfanhttps://www.buymeacoffee.com/sprawlSupport the show

Welcome back for another episode of Unleashed, brought to you by BetMGM. On this episode Olivia Harlan Dekker and Jerry Ferrara are joined by a very special guest, NBA Champion, MVP, 15-time All Star, and Hall of Famer, Kevin Garnett. That's right, Olivia and Jerry are speaking with The Big Ticket himself, KG. Together with our hosts, Kevin shares some stories from his days on the court including what Kobe Bryant had to say about his signing with The Celtics, whether or not Doc Rivers hid money in The Staples Center, and lays out the importance of trash talk to the game, as well as discusses the start of the NBA season! And then later, Peter gives us his picks when it comes to some week 7 NFL wagering. So join us for another exciting episode of Unleashed, presented by BetMGM! For more insights, you can follow KG on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Don't forget you can also follow Olivia on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, or TikTok and you can follow Jerry on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or TikTok.       Follow Us Twitter @BetMGM  Facebook @BetMGM Instagram @BetMGM Presented by BetMGMwww.BetMGM.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dazy Lyn joins The Justin Credible Podcast! She talks about growing up in different parts of Los Angeles, her high school years, and meeting Kobe Bryant while working security at Staples Center. She also speaks on how she started freestyling and explains how she connected with Sway. 

Randy Cruz and Denny Blanco are joined by Producer, Content Creator and the man behind #NBATwitter Josiah Johnson as they chop it up about today's social media era, becoming a Twitter phenomenon, the upcoming Lakers season, The Forum vs Staples Center and much more! twitter.com/randyjcruz (@randyjcruz) twitter.com/sirdennyblanco (@sirdennyblanco) twitter.com/kingjosiah54 (@kingjosiah54) VIDEO: youtube.com/ballislifepodcastnetwork

Cruise down South Figueroa in the City of Angels and you'll find Crypto.com Arena, Microsoft Theater, and L.A. LIVE – a mecca of entertainment in Los Angeles. Join us as we catch up with Cara Vanderhook, Vice President of Marketing and Communications, and learn all about the happenings of a district that houses four professional teams, the largest stage in California, and some of the biggest awards shows. Cara walks us through what makes the venues so iconic, and how they continue to compete and innovate in a dense entertainment market – where competition is not only other venues, but the beach and beautiful weather. She tells us about her path to her current role, some of the best career advice she's received, and her approach to advancing her own career while supporting the employees under her. This is an excellent episode for people looking to take the leap and chase that amazing dream job. Cara is a perfect example of a music and sports fan that is now working with the teams and properties she grew up infatuated with.Cara Vanderhook: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | LinkedInCrypto.com Arena: Facebook | Twitter | InstagramMicrosoft Theater: Facebook | Twitter | InstagramL.A. LIVE: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Diane Strand is a true inspiration! She wears so many hats with the common thread of true passion for all that she does.   Love this quote, " No one loves your business like you do".    Diane Strand is an award-winning Executive Producer at JDS Studios and the TV show Spirit of Innovation, the first Riverside County local news and information program. She is the majority owner of JDS Video & Media Productions, Inc / JDS Actors Studio and the founder of nonprofit JDS Creative Academy, she is also a speaker and bestselling author on entrepreneurship and Breaking into the Industry as an Actor.   Diane provides pathways for career opportunities in the visual, performing and digital arts. Her passion for Workforce Development in the arts, led her to write two approved curriculums for video production. One is a Title 17 program designed for adults with developmental disabilities. The other is a California State approved apprenticeship program for college graduates. These programs provide Hands-On training along with paid supported internship opportunities, designed to break down barriers to gainful employment in video production, post production and acting.   Diane's prior career life holds credits from A-List shows like; General Hospital, Friends, Veronica's Closet and building the high-def control room at Staples Center, for the last 17 years Diane has been a successful entrepreneur of her own, a multi-award-winning production company, working with clients like Abbott Vascular, City of Temecula, Cal State San Marcos and United Healthcare Services to name a few.   Diane has launched over 100 video and acting careers into the mainstream entertainment and video production industry. She sets out to provide H.O.P.E. which Diane defines as; Helping One Person Everyday!   To connect with Diane:  https://spiritofinnovation.org/ https://jdsstudio.live/ https://digifesttemecula.org/ https://jdsactorsstudio.com/ https://jds-productions.com/ https://jdscreativeacademy.org/   This podcast is all about inspiring , connecting and sharing stories   Like, follow and share so we can hear each other and expand the definition of creativity to make it all inclusive!   There are a bunch of exciting things going on at I Am Creative & Express Yourself Publishing to check out: https://www.iamcreativephilly.com/   If you have always wanted to write a book or be in one then check this out... You will gain community and expand yourself more than you can imagine! https://www.iamcreativephilly.com/express-yourself-publishing-house   We are now gathering contributors for the next multi author book: Creativity Is.... Being You  To check it out go to: https://ytcz2qvw8xc.typeform.com/to/YyTyzAnA   Also I Am Creative is now streaming on RVN TV platform. Check out the weekly interviews with incredible guests as we are expanding the definition of creativity and they are teaching me something... so fun! Check it out: https://rvntelevision.com/tv-show/i-am-creative/     Creatively Yours,  Hollis

Rhonda Malkin started ballet when she was 4, tap when she was 6 and then joined in the jazz class at 8. By ten she was in the performing troupes at her studio. While attending UCLA as a sociology major, Rhonda performed as a Los Angeles Laker Girl for three years and received a championship ring for the 2000 inaugural season at Staples Center with the Lakers. She was a Radio City Music Hall Rockette for 12 years and a Rockette Swing (memorizing all 36 Rockette dance tracks) for seven of those years.Some of Rhonda's other credits include: "The Producers: The Movie Musical", “The Academy Awards, The “MTV VMA's”, “MTV Movie Awards, the film "Beautiful" with Minnie Driver; national commercials for Sears, Macy's, CBS, “Radio City Christmas Spectacular” and Westfield Shopping Towns; multiple live stage shows for Disney's El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood and Hyperion Theatre at Disney's California Adventure Park and a special performance in the East Wing at the White House for President Obama and the First Lady.After 25 years of dancing professionally Rhonda made the move into personal training and dance coaching. Since then she has had 59 dancers become Rockettes (most of any dance coach in history), and many others who are currently working on Broadway, national tours, music videos, TV shows, cruise ships, NBA and NFL professional dance teams, regional theater/summer stock productions, Disney, theme parks, and Cirque du Soleil, to name a few.You can find out more about Rhonda's dance coaching at https://www.fusionexercise.com/Crystalized Costumes Adrenaline Dance Competition

It's time for another monster show at this weekend's MONSTER JAM Friday, Saturday and Sunday, August 26-28, up in LA at Crypto.com Arena (the former Staples Center downtown). Listen as we talk with the driver of the legendary GRAVE DIGGER truck on how he got into this crazy world and what he loves the most about it.  And what to expect as the drivers go all out and push these legendary "monster trucks" to the limit (and beyond) on the latest stop on this tour. On this week's OC SPOTLIGHT, on Orange County's only community radio station, OC TALK RADIO. 

We are back after taking a week off on IR. On this episode, Erick would like to know why the world hates his happiness and why the world has a problem with Dustin Brown getting a statue outside of Staples Center. The Crew also finally look back at huge Matthew Tkachuk trade that went down last week. Pacific Revision youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV_4ydu-ltZ1w3afeGjIRtgWE HAVE MERCH NOW!!https://www.bonfire.com/store/pacificrevision/Social Media:Miguel: @MiguelkicksErick: @_ErickorellanaCollector's Lobby:Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CollectorsLobbyMiguel's Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/miguelkicks 

Hosted by Kyle Knopp and Matthew Zator, The Hockey Writers Podcast is where your favourite THW contributors discuss the hottest topics around the NHL and hockey world, every Monday, Wednesday & Friday. In today's episode, Kyle is joined by Matt Grazel and Scott Blair to talk about David Quinn being hired by the San Jose Sharks as their next head coach, and Dustin Brown's jersey retirement and a statue outside Staples Center. They also give their picks on who they would erect a statue of from their respective teams and discuss which team will ultimately sign free agent Nazem Kadri. Articles of the Day Devils' 2022 Offseason: What's Been Done & What's Left to Do - https://thehockeywriters.com/new-jersey-devils-2022-offseason-checklist/ Flames Have Options to Land Nazem Kadri - https://thehockeywriters.com/flames-have-options-land-nazem-kadri/ Removing the Maple Leafs From the Cup - Some Personal Thoughts - https://thehockeywriters.com/toronto-maple-leafs-stanley-cup-removal/ ==================================== Follow The Hockey Writers: Twitter - Instagram - Facebook Join us in the Hockey Lounge on Discord to talk all things hockey Subscribe to the Morning Skate Newsletter Graphics by Vince Richard

We submerge into the Labyrinth with the Hall of Fame National Hockey League sports broadcaster, Bob Miller. Bob was the play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Kings hockey team for 44 years, calling a total of 3,351 games in his career. He has been honored with a statue outside of Staples Center in Los Angeles, as well as a banner with his name hanging from the rafters to pay respect to his legendary career.    Bob discusses how he began his sports broadcasting career by working for free, he takes us through the his story of triumphs and losses he endured during his professional career and teaches us the importance of treating people with kindness and respect. Bob emphasizes the critical components of preparation, as always being prepared has yielded his long term success in his 44 year career.    Bob Miller has helped create the identity of the Los Angeles Kings franchise, he has been known for his friendly personality and his iconic voice. Fortunately for Bob, he realized his dream come true by seeing the LA Kings win the Stanley Cup twice in 2012 and 2014, where he was calling the games along with his partner Jim Fox. Bob Miller has been recognized by the NHL Hockey Hall of Fame, the LA Kings Hall of Fame, the Southern California Sports Broadcasters Hall of Fame, the Wisconsin Hockey Hall of Fame and his name on the Hollywood Walk of Stars being honored as one of the greatest sports announcers of all time.  Bob's Book Recommendation: 'The Boys in the Boat' by Daniel James Brown

Part 2 rounds out the Justin/Selena/Hailey segment of the podcast.  I cover everything between Justin's family vacations with Hailey in tow, a date he had set up for Selena to watch the Titanic for a closed down Staples Center, Selena's canceling of her Revival world tour mid-way, Justin's canceling of his Purpose world tour mid-way, Justin's mother's struggles with mental health, Selena and Justin's reconciliation in late 2017 and his proposal to Hailey a mere four months after. I also discuss why I think Hailey is actually suitable choice for Justin and why I don't think a reconciliation with Selena and Justin will ever be a good idea. I end the episode with some rapid fire questions asked by listeners: which celebrities would I invite to a dinner dead or alive; what do I do for work; what is my worst dating story?If you like this episode, please rate it five stars and review in Apple Podcasts (select “Write a Review” at the bottom of the show) to make me FAMOUS.  Also give me a follow on X Knows All Instagram!  Slide into my DM's to let me know what you think about the show, I love connecting with you all.Source Material referenced in this episode:Reddit Deep Dive Part 3Reddit Deep Dive Part 4Justin's 2016 GQ Interview 

This podcast covers New Girl Season 3, Episode 9, Longest Night Ever, which originally aired on November 19, 2013 and was written by Ryan Koh and directed by Nicholas Jasenovec. Here's a quick recap of the episode:Coach asks Cece on a date and Jess works to distract Schmidt. Nick lost Winston's cat Ferguson and they found themselves at Bertie house.We discuss Pop Culture References such as:Grey's Anatomy - Bertie mentions that she'd rather watch Grey's [Anatomy] than try to impress someone at a bar.Drake - When Coach doesn't know how to act with Cece he said, “I just wanna put on some Drake and get up on you.” Additional Pop Culture References such as:Tiger Woods - Schmidt says he's fine with Coach and Cece dating because “we might get another Tiger Woods out of [it].” Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods is an American professional golfer who is tied for first in PGA Tour wins, ranks second in men's major championships, and holds numerous golf records. He is also widely considered one of the greatest golfers of all time and is one of the most famous athletes in modern history.Hank Aaron - After returning back to the loft after trying to meet a “human” woman, Winston says it's ok that he's alone and references how Hank Aaron was alone for every home run he hit. Henry Louis Aaron, nicknamed "Hammer" or "Hammerin' Hank", was an American professional baseball right fielder who played 23 seasons in the MLB. Hank Aaron is widely considered as one of the greatest baseball players in history.Homeland - Jess and Nick were trying to think of what to do on their date night and Nick suggested dinner and Homeland. Homeland is a TV show about a bipolar CIA operative who becomes convinced a prisoner of war has been turned by al-Qaeda and is planning to carry out a terrorist attack on American soil. We talked about the protagonist, Abu Nazir, on our podcast for S2E15 (Cooler). When trying to distract Schmidt from stopping Coach and Cece's date, Jess sings or says the following references: “Cracklin' Rosie” by Neil Diamond - "Cracklin' Rosie" is a song written and recorded by Neil Diamond in 1970. The song became Diamond's first American  #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. The lyrics of the song suggest devotion to a “woman of the night”. Camyrn Manheim - Debra Frances "Camryn" Manheim is an American actress known for her role as attorney, Ellenor Frutt, on the legal drama series The Practice for which she won an Emmy Award. She is also known for her roles as Delia Banks on Ghost Whisperer, Gladys Presley in the 2005 miniseries Elvis, and "Control" on Person of Interest.Dylan McDermott - Dylan McDermott is an American actor known for his role as lawyer, Bobby Donnell, on the legal drama series The Practice, which earned him a Golden Globe Award and a nomination for an Emmy Award. LA Sparks - Coach and Cece go to a LA Sparks basketball game on their date. The Los Angeles Sparks is an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles, California. The Sparks compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. As of 2020, the Sparks are the most recent franchise to win back-to-back titles.We also cover when Jess hits Schmidt with her car as our “Schmidtism” this episode. For our “Not in the 2020s” we discuss the way Coach talks about Cece and for our “Yes in the 2020s” we discuss Coach being vulnerable. We also give a brief look into Jessica Chaffin (Bertie), the guest star we feature in this episode.Also in this episode were the following guest stars who we do not discuss in the podcast: Nakia Burrise (Beaming Woman), Joel Gelman (Officer Bill), and Carlie Casey (Kate). Unfortunately, we did not catch the bear this episode. While not discussed in the podcast, we noted other references in this episode including:Staples Center - This episode Cece and Coach go on a date at the Staples Center to watch an LA Sparks game. This stadium, now known as Crypto.com Arena, is a multi-purpose arena in Downtown Los Angeles and is actually the home stadium of the LA Sparks alongside the LA Kings (NHL), the LA Lakers (NBA), and the LA Clippers (NBA).This episode got a 7/10 rating from both Kritika and Kelly; Kritika's favorite character was Schmidt and Kelly's favorite was Jess.Thanks for listening and stay tuned for Episode 10!Music: "Hotshot” by scottholmesmusic.comFollow us on Twitter, Instagram or email us at whosthatgirlpod@gmail.com!Website: https://smallscreenchatter.com/

Vince Staples is celebrating the release of his fifth studio album ‘Romona Park Broke My Heart' and the Cali native stopped through to the Power Mornings show co-hosts Letty and Teddy Mora to discuss his journey in music and how much of his LA upbringing inspired his take on life, the music industry, and much more. While Staples admits that he only initially got into music as a way of earning $500 and had no clear goal for the craft, the rapper details that although his background in music isn't strong, his creativity in music led to his maturity and gave him access to think about life differently. No stranger to the iconic musical legends to come out of Los Angeles, Vince speaks on the legendary Snoop Dogg whom he believes has transcended rap music and has become more so known as an entity and not so much as a rap star. Comparing Snoop's status to that of the late icon Marilyn Monroe, Staples discusses how Snoop's name might not be brought up during G.O.A.T. conversations, but that is only because Snoop has become bigger than his music. Speaking on his new album, the “When Sparks Fly” rapper admits that he doesn't try to take things too seriously or for granted, when hip-hop fixtures such as Jay-Z praise his work, as he believes he's only doing the best he can do and that not everyone will always like his work. Vince Staples goes on to speak about the rumors that recently went around about him starring in the next ‘Friday' film, why he believes the Staples Center should have been renamed after the late Kobe Bryant, and much more.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Become a patron of Hesitation Cuts here: https://www.patreon.com/getsetgoEPISODE TIMELINE:Episode Intro: 0:00Cold Open: 0:29 seconds[song] My Neighbor's Dog:  3:07Hesitation Cuts Main Title: 6:16MCA Lead-In: 6:48[song] MCA:  9:56Your Boy Lead-In: 13:33[song] Your Boy:   16:08Here Be Dragons Lead-In:  19:17[song] Here Be Dragons:  22:52Ladies & Gentlemen, We Are On Fire! Lead-In:  27:25[song] Ladies & Gentlemen, We Are On Fire! :  29:10Episode Summation: 32:24Patreon Plug: 32:42 END: 33:54 For all press inquiries please contact Meijin Bruttomesso: meijin@gramophone.mediaListen to Get Set Go https://open.spotify.com/artist/65YTOUMjNZIL69vH1O3qqxFollow Mike TV on Instagram:   https://www.instagram.com/miketvofgsg/Twitter: https://twitter.com/MikeTVofGSGFollow Get Set Go on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/getsetgomusicCatch Mike TV live on Twitch, Monday through Friday:  https://www.twitch.tv/miketvlive

What do Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, and the Grammys have in common? Tehillah Alphonso. I discovered Tehillah while reading my high school alumni magazine.  Tehillah and I both went to an all-girls Catholic school in Omaha, Nebraska. Marian High School was a place that encouraged young women to live a life of pride in themselves, their grades, their faith, and how they walk in the world.  And Tehillah has done this in spades.New-Jersey-born and Nebraska-raised, Tehillah Alphonso is a Nigerian-American musician based in Los Angeles, California.Though Tehillah was introduced to music at an early age, her musical endeavors truly began in 2014 when she was accepted into an elite teen summer intensive called A Cappella Academy.A proud Summa Cum Laude graduate of the University of Southern California, Tehillah received her B.M. in Popular Music Performance from the Thornton School of Music and was named the 2020 Outstanding Graduate. While a full-time student at USC, she served as Business Manager and Music Director of USC's premiere a cappella group, and five-time ICCA champions, the SoCal VoCals. Her time with the VoCals created opportunities to perform in legendary venues such as the Staples Center, the Rose Bowl, and Carnegie Hall.Shortly after graduating, Tehillah quickly made a name for herself as a session singer and vocal arranger. She has sung in a number of films and television series, including Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Affair, The Late Late Show with James Corden, Space Jam 2 (2021), Encanto (2021), and Sing 2 (2021). She has also shared the stage with notable artists, including NIKI, Björk, Billie Eilish, and Olivia Rodrigo. In November 2021, she was nominated for her first GRAMMY® Award in the category of “Best Arrangement, Instruments, and Vocals” for her arrangement of “A Change is Gonna Come” by Sam Cooke, performed by LA-based choir Tonality and conducted by Alexander Lloyd Blake,Tehillah shares her journey of growing up in the Midwest, and how it was her parents' work ethic that installed in her the motivation and drive to succeed in Los Angeles' music industry. She talks about how being a backup singer is exactly where she wants to be on the stage and blesses us with her strong and memorable voice by singing a capella live in this episode. What do a belief in yourself, hard work, and following your dreams have in common? It will feel very clear to you after listening to this week's episode of Cracking Open. Learn more about Tehillah Alphonso hereFind Tehillah on Social:InstagramFacebookListen to her Grammy-Nominated Song, "A Change Is Gonna Come" Learn more about Molly Carroll hereGet your free Body Emotion MapFind me on Social:InstagramFacebook

This isn't your normal double game week episode, because this week Ryan and Sarah embark on a journey to find the mysterious and elusive triple game week. Join them as they try to uncover whether this is just an urban legend, or an exercise in patience expertly crafted by the fantasy MLS gods. Plus, they preview the old geezers joining MLS this summer, Ryan bids the Staples Center farewell, and Sarah expresses her love for musical theatre. Twitter: @undesignatedmls

In today's Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Post-show flashback, we jump back five years to the June 26, 2017 episode where PWTorch editor Wade Keller and PWTorch columnist Pat McNeill discuss Raw including Jax-Banks, Lesnar-Joe, Cass-Enzo, Braun-Roman, on-site reports from Staples Center, and more with callers & emails.

We had a great conversation with country artist Presley Tennant on The Chris & Sandy Show. We talked about so many things from family, music, sacrifices, what's new, she told some great stories to a whole lot more! It was great having her back on the show!Some artists perform, but Presley Tennant shines whether it be on stage, in the writing room or on your radio. Radiant and fearless, Presley is a quintessential vocal powerhouse – captivating with a golden persona and unequivocal talent. Rooted in the classics, it's no surprise the Horsetown, USA (aka Norco, CA) native immersed herself in Country Music. Presley astonished the country with her velvety, soul-filled vocals and ‘it girl' image as a member of Team Kelly on Season 16 of The Voice at 16 years old; an experience resulting in adoration from viewers who became loyal fans and a direct path to her dream. Determined to make her own way in the industry, she teamed up with esteemed producers, including Kent Wells and Buddy Hyatt, to create her own version of California-Country, melding together western lifestyle, traditional roots and a modern energy. A born entertainer, Presley has not only performed at multiple Staples Center halftime shows in front of 15,000, but has shared the stage with musical heroes like Tim Mcgraw, Kelly Clarkson, Cody Johnson, Tyler Rich, John Michael Montgomery and more. Making 2022 the best yet, Presley Tennant will not only be opening for artists like Carly Pearce, Blake Shelton and Brett Young, but is slated to release her newest single “Gamble On You” this Spring. TikTok over 7.1M likes & 361k followers // IG: 63k Opened for Tim Mcgraw, Cody Johnson, Kelly Clarkson, Blake Shelton, Carly Pearce and Brett Young Notable appearance: The Voice, Season 16 (2019) at 16 yrs old Vocals compared to Whitney Houston and Carrie Underwood Current single: Gamble on You // Father's Day Single: Half That Strong

Lalaland returns as we collect another guest from the City Of Angels with Samantha Marker, Social Media Manager at SoFi Stadium, YouTube Theater, and Hollywood Park. This episode rounds out our Adventures In Venueland team, as Samantha tells us about her involvement with the podcast as well as the Event & Arena Marketing Conference. She walks us through her career so far, from red carpet hopping as a kid to working at the Greek Theatre and Staples Center, to where she is now. We talk about what makes a good social platform and when is a good time to invest in one as part of your marketing mix. Samantha talks about how to cover major events such as awards shows and great ways to build your venue's brand and personality. This episode is a wonderful mix of social media tips, fun conversation, and great perspective of growing in the industry while early in your career.Samantha Marker: Instagram | LinkedInSoFi Stadium: Facebook | Twitter | InstagramYouTube Theater: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Brett Harrison is the President of FTX US, a US-regulated cryptocurrency exchange. Prior to joining FTX US, Brett was Head of Semi-Systematic Technology at Citadel Securities, where he managed technology for the firm's Options, ETF, OTC, and ADR trading globally. He began and spent the majority of his career at Jane Street, where he led the firm's algorithmic trading system development. 00:34 - The role of FTX.US' president01:24 - About FTX02:55 - Nontraditional brand marketing08:05 -  Educating people about Crypto10:46 - Being at the forefront of regulation14:52 - Collaborating with other players in crypto19:03 - FTX's policy in exchange and crypto23:19 - FTX and NFTs26:44 - CeFi / DeFi exchange and Cross-chains31:36 - Building interconnectivity between centralized crypto exchanges34:59 - Market hours in crypto?36:33 - Process of evaluating a token38:44 - Things he is hopeful for DISCLAIMERThe information on this podcast is provided for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only, without any express or implied warranty of any kind, including warranties of accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose.The information contained in or provided from or through this podcast is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, investment advice, trading advice, or any other advice.The information on this podcast is general in nature and is not specific to you, the user or anyone else. You should not make any decision, financial, investment, trading or otherwise, based on any of the information presented on this podcast without undertaking independent due diligence and consultation with a professional broker or financial advisor. Austin (00:10):I'm Austin Federa. Welcome to the Solana podcast. Today, we have Brett Harrison joining us, who's the president of FTX.US. We got a bunch to talk about today, including the role of FTX in the markets, his sort of path there, and a bunch of what's been going on recently in crypto. So, Brett, thanks for joining us.Brett (00:27):Yeah. Thanks for having me on, Austin.Austin (00:29):I wanted to kick it off. What does the president of FTX.US actually do on a daily basis?Brett (00:34):Yeah, for sure. A good question. So yeah, I joined FTX.US exactly one year ago. Little bit of background first. So FTX is obviously the global cryptocurrency derivatives exchange. It's the second or third largest in the world. Around a year and a half ago, FTX.US, a separate company affiliated with FTX, was started for the purpose of creating a US regulated set of businesses to be able to do things like offer a spot cryptocurrency in the US, but also to satisfy some of our broader ambitions to enable other kinds of investment products for US customers such as US crypto derivatives, stocks, and things like that. My role is to sort of help run the ship over here, hire the team, and put people in the right offices, but also like do everything from think about regulatory strategy and policy to some actual software development in architecture and on some of our products. So it's sort of a little bit of everything.Austin (01:25):Yeah. It's kind of an interesting role. How big is the FTX.US operations at this point?Brett (01:30):We're around 80 people right now.Austin (01:33):That's pretty sizable for one year.Brett (01:35):Yeah, for us at least.Austin (01:36):Yes.Brett (01:37):For sure.Austin (01:38):You're at the top of a pretty interesting organization nowadays. When you joined, the pace of excitement and interest in crypto from a mainstream audience was far lower. The presence of FTX was far lower than it is now. There's many people who are familiar with crypto, who have been for both FTX for a very long time, as both the FTX international and FTX.US as two different entities that play an important role in pushing the concept of a centralized exchange further. Before you guys came on the scene, the role of a centralized exchange was maybe not quite as professionalized as it is now. There's sort of more of a lot of respect in the market for the speed that FTX is able to execute on and both sort of the pace of innovation that's come out of that.Austin (02:23):But at the same time, in the United States specifically, which is where we're talking about today, you guys have done a huge amount of what I would call very traditional marketing usually reserved for banks, and telecommunication companies, and these sort of like old Titans of industry in the United States. But this is a very new operation. Walk me through a little bit about that process of saying not only do we see a target opportunity here, but we're not going to take the path of most other companies, and run a ton of digital ads, and put up select billboards. But we're going to put our name on AAA, IP, and media.Brett (02:55):It's incredible to see where we are now compared to a year ago, two years ago, and FTX.US were fairly obscure in the United States. Not so much overseas where FTX had already really gained a name for itself as this leading cryptocurrency derivatives exchange. And it was really competing with the other top exchanges around the world that have been trading these derivatives products traditionally. But in the US, we had just started. We're up against 10 year incumbents in the space and very few people ever heard of FTX. And now we're on Super Bowl commercials. We are the subject of congressional hearings. It's like quite amazing to sort of see the way that we've sort of infiltrated the crypto ecosystem in the United States, in a way that's really established our presence as a brand that people trust, as one that feels innovative and fast moving.Brett (03:47):So I think just taking it back a bit. So we wanted to be able to get into the US market, and the US has one of the largest retail user bases in the world, maybe the largest retail user base in the world. So the number of people who are traditionally using their phone to trade stocks, for example, for themselves, is just much higher percentage in the United States than almost anywhere else. And so you have this broad class of people now getting interested in crypto, who want to be able to have access to that as a means of investment. But if you think about where crypto has been for the last decade, there's been a lot of ups and downs and noise. You have exchanges that lose customer funds, or they go down, or they get hacked, or they like suddenly become slow.Brett (04:31):And if people are going to invest in this still fairly risky, volatile, asset class, where there's a lot to learn for people, it's a very high learning curve. They're going to want some brand that they feel they're comfortable taking that leap, and putting their money in, and investing with. And so in the beginning, it was very difficult to acquire customers for us. And then Sam had this idea of, what's the largest thing that we could do, as fast as possible, and reach tens of millions of people. And it's not go out and buy Facebook ads. And the conventional wisdom here for us was, "Okay, when's the last time you saw an ad on Facebook for like Citibank or JP Morgan, and you are like a Bank of America customer? And then you said, you know what, I love this Facebook ad. It's time to move all my money from my checking account to this other one." I think it doesn't usually happen. I think it's a pretty high activation cost for doing something like that. It's not like giving some new website a try.Brett (05:28):Just plain and simply this is like a serious investment decision. And so we really needed to build that trust for people, and do it quickly, and in a way that really established ourselves as a unique player. And so the biggest thing someone could think of was, well, what if we put our name on a stadium. And it seemed crazy at the time, but then we did it and we put our name on the Miami Heat stadium, the FTX Arena. It was an amazing deal, the right place at the right time, because we got to also work with Miami Dade County on many of their anti-gun violence initiatives. So it was a really good fit. And short time after that, we did two other big deals. One was with Tom Brady and the other one was with the Major League Baseball.Brett (06:04):And for those, first of all, Tom Brady being this universally loved and respected individual for just his incredible talent and drive. And then for Major League Baseball for being this time modern institution. I think it, the signal to people was imagine what it took, what kind of due diligence was required for an institution like Major League Baseball to come trust FTX, crypto exchange no one's ever heard of. And let alone do anything in crypto. That's how I think we were able to sort of catapult ourselves into the US market very quickly was through this somewhat non-traditional way of doing this brand marketing. And since then, it's been amazing. I mean, we went from 10,000 customers at the beginning of 2021 to like 1.2 million customers at the end of 2021. So a huge growth in a very short period of time, on the eve of some of our new product offerings that we're launching. So pretty excited about the growth so far.Austin (06:56):What's very interesting for me on this, apart from just the growth of FTX.US in general, is this is against the grain for, I would say, the last 20 years of marketing. Which is that you really want to focus on identifying your core demographic, activating that core demographic, using them as voices and ambassadors. And this is the way that most crypto exchanges, and honestly, most cryptocurrencies have gone about growth as well. They've said let's put a bunch of resources into the very narrow domain things that are working, and then it will be an organic growth kind of coming out of that.Austin (07:32):And you normally see something like branding rights for an arena or a major partnership with MLB or some, or any sports team, something along those lines as being something that a company that isn't trying to educate customers, but is just looking for general awareness, goes through. Right? Staples Center, UBS, all the big banks have their names on these places. Not because they're trying to differentiate Bank of America's products versus Chase's products, but because they want general awareness. What was that process like to say, "Okay, we've got a stadium, but no one knows what crypto is still." What's that part two of that strategy?Brett (08:09):Yeah. I think we had to rewrite the playbook there. Because we don't yet know what the right demographic is for crypto, but also we don't want to pre-select a demographic. I mean, the whole spirit of crypto is to enable people to have access to investment opportunities, wealth creation, control over your personal finances in ways that have typically been difficult for many parts of the country. And if we just sort of start by saying, okay, well, who is the most obvious demographic to target for this? And let's just run Facebook ads that target them. I think it sort of misses the point. We're here to educate people, as you said, about not just the investment class, but also the promises of the technology itself. The fact that this will represent a new way of building internet based applications, in ways that allow people to share in the upside of those applications. It's going to enable for greater robustness and stability by using decentralized technology.Brett (09:11):I think these are all things that it's going to be difficult to teach people over time, but we have to start somewhere. And that starts with a general awareness. And it starts with trust, right? People have to understand that we are a very legitimate company. We are highly regulated, contrary to popular belief. We have, between FTX and FTX.US, we have something like a hundred different regulators. We have 50 different licenses. We need to be able to break through the noise and convey that to people. And that's why we started more on this general awareness. And now we're doing some of the other stuff. Like we're starting now to run some Google ads. We're starting to go for iOS App Store placements and traditional SEO. And we're doing that now that we have the product that we like and we're happy with where it is, although we're always trying to improve it. And we've built that general awareness and trust.Austin (09:58):Yeah. So, so you mentioned that you are both in a highly regulated industry and yourselves, highly regulated, by various regulators who look at the industry. FTX has, over the last year, put itself at the forefront of regulation in crypto in the US. You and Chainalysis are right up there together, testifying in front of Congress, and also putting out this FTX policy proposal that came out, was that six months ago or so, as well. What was the decision making process like internally to say, this is something that not only do we want to engage with, but to actually make a decision to be a face of. There are many exchanges that operate in the US. None of them have necessarily taken that as the mantle, as proactively, we are going to put ourself in this position. I'm sure that was both risky, and you saw a lot of opportunity in that process.Brett (10:50):Yeah, absolutely. So there's the part that's specific to FTX and the part that's general. Starting with the part that's specific, we would like to be able to offer an array of different products and services in the US. Some of those has to do with spot cryptocurrencies. Regulation in the US for spot cryptocurrencies are not well defined. And that is because of the two market regulators that exist in the US, and the US is one of the few countries in the world that actually has two separate market regulators not one, the SEC and the CFTC, the lines of jurisdiction over digital spot assets are not very well drawn. That's not true for traditional securities like Apple and Tesla and US government bonds, which is regulated by the SEC. And it's not true for the CFTC, which regulates commodity futures, and other sort of broad based index futures, and sometimes security futures as well in conjunction with the SEC. But for actual things like Bitcoin to USD spot markets, it's not clear.Brett (11:47):And what we want to do is help shape that regulation, such that we can safely innovate and offer products that also protect consumers. And in terms of how we influence regulation, do so in a way that doesn't push all of the intellectual property and all that innovation overseas. I mean, you guys know this too, that so much of the intellectual property, the founders, the CEOs, the developers come from the United States. And then ultimately move themselves to somewhere outside the United States because they don't feel like they have a safe place to be able to build their business and to be an entrepreneur. We really want to help that. So I think that kind of actually combines both sort of specific and general of what I wanted to say.Brett (12:26):Which is that on the specific front, we want to be able to offer all the spot tokens that we think are appropriate. We want to be able to list CFTC regulated margin derivative products in the US for US customers. We want to maybe eventually do more innovative, ambitious things like create tokenized stocks or tokenized treasuries. But then, at the same time, we want to make sure the playing field is great for all crypto participants in the US. And they really want to stay here and work here and build here, because we just think that's going to be good for the country. Now what's been interesting for us in this journey of being this sort of public face of regulation and policy, is that what we found is the most effective thing that we can do as a company is just showing up in person. You'd be surprised how many companies, and this is not just crypto, send these large teams of lobbyists and lawyers to Washington hoping to sort of engage in policy discussions.Brett (13:17):And I'm not in the room for those, but I imagine some of those come off as disingenuous. Or there are cases where you can't really get in the weeds of a conversation because the right stakeholders aren't in the room. The fact that Sam and Zach and Ryan and Mark and I just sort of like go to Washington, and email the Fed or the Treasury or members of the House or the Senate or the executive branch, and just show up and talk to them. And say like, "We don't have an agenda. We're just here to answer questions. We know we're in the education phase." Same thing with regulators. We talk with the CFTC, SEC, FINRA. It is just great to show up in person and show that we are open honest people who really want to engage in dialogue. It's been so useful for everyone involved. And I think that's really helped shift the narrative of crypto being like anti-regulatory or anti-government in some way. And that's been really helpful.Austin (14:09):Do you see this as something that you're primarily, obviously there's a lot of upside for FTX in getting greater clarity around regulations and having a legal framework that it can operate in with more definition around it. At the same time you look across at other industries, the credit card industry, the banking industry, agriculture, et cetera. They have very well defined and powerful industry groups at this point. And you often see like a lot of the big banks in the US moving in lockstep with one another. How closely does FTX work with other large exchanges in the United States or other people in the crypto space? And if that's not really as mature as it is in other industries, why do you think that is right now?Brett (14:54):Yeah. Great question. We do to some extent. We do more now than we did before. It's almost certainly not enough. And partly it's because this industry is very new, and it's not super well defined exactly what we need, and there's differing opinions of how we get there. I also think that crypto has done itself a bit of a disservice in the past by being somewhat hostile to regulatory involvement. And you see this a lot on Twitter. And I think it's not super productive. We want to be able to create a market environment that allows for all participants to participate in a way that it safeguards them. And to just completely throw away a hundred years of regulatory development to think that we can just sort of do the whole thing better from scratch, with no protections, is almost certainly not right.Brett (15:44):At the same time, I'm very sympathetic to the idea that you could, through the act of regulatory requirements, end up excluding individuals for not good reasons. For example, there's a lot of people who criticize KYC by saying there might be disenfranchised people who don't have good drivers licenses. And so therefore they can't KYC with an exchange. And so you're actually excluding a certain segment of the population by doing so. And I think we are receptive to those arguments. And so we would like to be able to push the envelope forward with crypto and allow the greatest number of people to participate without prejudice. But we have to engage collaboratively and cooperatively with regulators to do so.Brett (16:27):And so we are now starting to talk a lot more with the other competitors in the space about what are our shared goals for regulation? What do we think about who should be regulating us? What do we think policies would look like in the areas of spot tokens, of stable coins, of listing procedures, of licensing for exchanges. And I think that we're making progress there. Because the thing we've heard all the time in Washington is, okay this proposal of yours sounds great, but it can't be just the FTX proposal. Washington's not in the business of picking winners and losers in industry. We want to see you guys come together as an industry. And so that's, it's going to be critical for us going forward. And it's not just the exchanges. I mean, it's the protocol tokens, it's the stable coin providers, the infrastructure providers, miners. Sort of all across the board, I think we just need to come together more as an industry.Austin (17:19):Yeah. It's one of those things where you look at the Web 2.0 industry, and I think it's probably pretty obvious that they say at this point that their unwillingness to come together around issues of establishing common frameworks for content moderation, common frameworks for when a user should be banned from a platform, those sorts of things have really opened them up to a lot of attacks from Washington about... You see these hearings in the Senate all the time when they're talking one company, why your policy different from another company? And then there's a void there, where the regulators and Congress aren't really sure how to write a law, but they have a lot of ideas about what could be changed. Given the decentralized nature of crypto, there's one level where it's like, there are these centralized companies like FTX, like Coinbase, like Kraken, like Chainalysis that are on one side of things.Austin (18:10):But then there's organizations like Solana Labs or the Solana Foundation, which have a very different role and place in the market. And don't always necessarily have the same incentive alignment in those sort of areas. One of the beautiful things about FTX is, or any exchange, is that it's a entity which makes money on the aggregate state of cryptocurrency. And so the specific whims of one network is not necessarily of huge concern to it. For example, the shutting out of a certain type of user, based on a KYC requirement, is much less of a burden in the United States or for something like an exchange, then it might be for... Like if you have to KYC every user, that's not a problem. If Audius has to KYC every user, that actually puts them at a significant disadvantage compared to a competitor like a Spotify. How do you think about both the role of the policy work FTX does within the exchange industry and the wider crypto industry in general?Brett (19:07):It's interesting to think about where we need to head as an industry together. I think a lot about the role of CeFi and DeFi and how they interplay. I think there's a lot of people online who sort of draw this very bright line between them. And it's like, if you're on the left side, you're a centralized player and you are completely antithetical to the whole point of crypto. And if you're on the right side, you're part of the golden club and true decentralization means there can never be anyone who touches anything involving like regulation or identification or safeguards and things like this. And I think, again, these are the kinds of counterproductive discussions I was talking about earlier. I think that we need each other to grow.Brett (19:47):The more DeFi grows, the more equitable access to financial markets will continue to grow around the world. And the more the need for centralized regulated players, like FTX, who kind of bridge the gap between the traditional financial system and DeFi, will play that role as well. As far as regulation goes, you're right. It's not clear where you go with a project like Audius. And you like it to be such that it's the same as Spotify, but then you get into these tricky issues of like, well, what is the Audius token? And how does that interplay with who can actually buy and sell that token and interact with the system in some way? You have more ambitious projects, on the topic of music, like can we create tokens for songs where people can receive token distributions for the number of plays that occur? And does that make it sort of like a dividend and a securities offering? Well, I don't know. And this sort of is very difficult to understand.Brett (20:39):But there are two strategies when it comes to regulation for a company like Audius. And so one strategy is to sort of move as fast as possible and try to always stay like a step ahead of regulation. And eventually, maybe the feeling and the ecosystem around DeFi regulation catches up to an Audius and everything is okay. It allows us to do what it does, and it was worth the risk because they got to innovate very quickly and become a profitable business. But that comes with its risks, that maybe regulation catches up to it in a bad way, and says, "You shouldn't have been doing this all along. And please give me all your profits back from the last couple years."Brett (21:16):There's another way, which is sort to walk in the front door, and be sort of transparent and obvious about what you're trying to do, and to try to operate within the regulatory envelope of some jurisdiction, and try to get this properly vetted and allowed to occur. And that has the benefit of sort of establishing clear rules and allowing for other companies to tread similar paths. On the other hand that could slow you down. And if you have one of these competitors, that's going to run as fast as possible, you might lose to them, even though you're doing the right thing.Brett (21:46):So there's not really a right answer here. And this is sort of a tricky space for DeFi. I will say in either case, I do think it's worth it for these DeFi projects for Solana Labs, for the founders and companies involved, and this kind of entrepreneurship, people in the United States should really start going to Washington more and just explaining what this stuff is. I mean, people kind of get what Bitcoin is, but people do not understand what Solana is and why it's different. And that should change. People should understand what Solana is, what all these other layer 1s are, these layer 2s are. What these different token projects are. Why they're interesting. Why they're useful. Why they represent a departure from Web 2.0. Why that's important. Why that needs to be fostered and why that needs to be grown. I think that would be something that we could continue to work together on, as industry participants, is the education piece.Austin (22:33):So changing topics a little, we've seen FTX.US try and enter a few different, I would say different markets than are necessarily like the original core. So one of those was the NFT marketplace. I think there's been it probably mixed success in that. One of the things that I found fascinating is how different NFT culture is from crypto culture. Obviously it's a subset, but a lot of the applications and the platforms that have been very strong from a crypto trading perspective, in terms of fungible digital assets have not had much success in the non fungible space. And the non fungible marketplaces have either had no interest or no success in moving into the fungible asset space. Talk a little bit about some of the learnings that you guys had in that process and how that's informing the decisions of where FTX expands into in the future.Brett (23:25):Yeah, it's fascinating. So I personally worked on the NFT marketplace a lot for us. And when we entered this space, we thought there's not enough competition for Solana NFT marketplaces. There was really only one at the time. And we thought, this is definitely an area that's ripe for disruption. We were not wrong. But at the same time we did it, six other players did it. And they were able to move a lot faster for a number of reasons. First of all, they were able to really focus all of their energy on the user experience, which was super important. The second is that they were just sort of deeply in that culture and they were able to create, continue creating that NFT culture, in a way that like you have to spend 150% of your time on that to be able to actually really keep up with it and get what's going on.Brett (24:11):And the third was the decentralized nature of it. Whereas most of the trading in fungible assets is occurring on centralized exchanges in a custodial fashion. Just about all the NFTs are trading in a non-custodial fashion. Hook up MetaMask to OpenSea, you list your asset, you're done. And so I think we were disadvantaged by trying to, although I don't regret it at all, walk the sort of regulatory path of requiring people to custodian their NFTs with FTX in order to list them. And then we do proper KYC, and we make sure you're not like transferring an NFT from North Korea or something. So this is what we chose to do. And I think we ultimately lost out a little bit on that, but we're still very happy to have done it for a number of reasons.Brett (24:59):So first is that NFTs have been an important part of our various partnerships, like getting to do this really cool NFT drop with Coachella or for Formula 1. And having that as a platform has been very beneficial to us, even if we're not competing on Bored Ape Yacht Club. The second is that we have this longer term vision that majority of NFTs will not be in these like art or PFP collections. It will be in things like games. And to do that, you have to really build a platform and your average Tier One AAA game studio is not going to partner with a non-custodial solution. If they think it's going to hurt their regulatory standing at all. And so we're kind of building things out from the B2B platform side. With a hope that's actually going to be where this technology actually takes us. And so it's been definitely a learning experience for us and humbling in a lot of ways.Austin (25:53):So let's kind of talk about that a little bit. In a future where US regulations relax, and that there's a framework that allows for a little bit more flexibility and a little more certainty throughout it. We've seen over the last few months a rise in cross-chain DEX swaps. Whether that's enabled through something like Wormhole or whether it's these organizations that are sort of rolling a bit of their own solution. How do you see the competitive world, between what a centralized exchange offers and what a decentralized exchange, can offer evolving over time? I think in the early days of decentralized exchanges, a lot of people were like, oh, these are totally going to kill centralized exchanges. And we obviously have not seen that to be the case. But for a long time, the moat was described as being like, well, I can't swap my SOL into Eth on anything other than a centralized exchange, but we're seeing that change. So I'm sure this is a strategy that you've mapped out internally. What does that look like for you guys?Brett (26:50):I think you probably give us a little bit too much credit. I'm not sure we've like completely mapped out the strategy. I mean, between FTX, FTX.US, FTX Ventures, I think we have various either monetary or intellectual capital investments in a bunch of these spaces. Like FTX Ventures invests in a lot of DeFi and different bridging solutions. FTX itself is benefits and more people trading on our centralized exchange. And so we want to kind of to be able to benefit from the growth of both. I mean, again, we sort of see that, no matter what, FTX is going to be one of the major places to link up with traditional financial system. Like if you want to get Mexican Peso onto a blockchain, you're going to have to do this going through someone who can actually hook up to a Mexican bank.Brett (27:37):It's just going to be required.Austin (27:39):Yeah.Brett (27:39):But in terms of like you want to swap Eth for SOL then, yeah, I think there's going to be a couple different ways to do that. And I can sort of see the benefits and drawbacks of each one. One thing I think is sort of obvious, and I think people understand it but they don't talk about it enough, is the fact that DeFi still has a long way to go. Primarily because the entirety of the code is sort of laid bare for all to see at all times. Usually if you have a financial application and it has a bug, you're sort of protected by the network. And by network, I don't mean network of people who use it, I mean like the actual switches and routers that prevent certain kinds of traffic from getting in. And you have your moat around your application. And if there's a bug, you patch it and you're done.Brett (28:23):With DeFi, if there's the slightest bug, your whole smart contract gets exploited, and the funds are drained, and you're sort of back at square one. And again, I think that the discourse around Defi or CeFi as being kind of incompatible, has probably done DeFi a disservice in terms of its growth. Where probably some slight hybrid approach of building out smart contracts, iterating on them for like a long time, but doing so in a way that's sort of safe and secure, and doesn't mean that the first side of a bug means you are going to be drained, until it gets to the point where it's highly stable. And then you start to relax some of the centralized aspects. You follow the goal of making it completely decentralized, completely open, no intermediaries, and kind of get there over time. But I think the people who do that now would be criticized as being like too centralized. Everyone thinks everyone else is too centralized.Brett (29:17):So I think we have a lot that we can do together is what I'm trying to say. Whether it's us helping with KYC, or it's providing sort of the regulated entry points into DeFi. Whether it's helping create sort of these hybrid solutions between DeFi and CeFi, that will, I think, help DeFi grow over time. So we're trying to foster that innovation in a bunch of different ways.Austin (29:38):I would also say that if we are in a place where CeFi versus DeFi is a zero sum game, we've all astronomically succeeded as an industry.Brett (29:47):Right.Austin (29:48):That's still probably a five to 10 year away, before there are no new users left to onboard and instead a battle for who actually has those users' attention.Brett (29:57):Even CeFi versus CeFi is not a zero sum game.Austin (30:00):Yes.Brett (30:00):At all.Austin (30:01):That's true.Brett (30:02):There's a story that when ICE listed certain versions of energy contracts, that were being traded on the CME, the day they did that, CME volume went through the roof and the largest trading volume times per day were the times where the two overlapped with each other. And this is obviously because arbitrageurs came into the space and were interested and started trading the two off of each other. I think we cannot just have one centralized exchange. We need a bunch. And we will grow the pie together. And so, yeah, we're very, very far away from a zero sum nature of crypto, which is why I like crypto so much.Austin (30:39):So actually to that extent, I think there's a built in assumption there, which is that we need multiple centralized exchanges. And that is a, I think, a very valid assumption, but in some ways that comes from a world that predates computerized global interoperable connectivity. And that the idea that arbitrage opportunities should exist between comparable, centralized financial exchanges feels a little outdated, honestly. That the thesis of Solana as one global state machine to settle all of the world's trades and information, that's a very compelling, decentralized narrative story, but you can also see the exact same thing where you would have interoperable order books between something like FTX and Coinbase. Is that anything that, are there conversations anywhere about building some of those interconnectivities that you see in the traditional equities world still, within like centralized crypto exchanges? Because there is no NYSE for centralized crypto exchanges yet.Brett (31:42):I have actually the complete opposite take to what you're describing here, which is US equity markets have to abide by this rule called reg, or regulation, NMS, or National Market System, where you have to fill a customer quote at the best price seen on any exchange, any one of the lit exchanges, of which they're like 15 now. So that means like, let's say you want to go send an order to NASDAQ and NASDAQ thinks that they are one penny behind the price on BATS. Well then NYSE either has to reject your order or route your order to bats and get filled. There's a big problem with this. Actually, there are multiple big problems with this, in my opinion.Brett (32:24):One is that light is not infinitely fast. And so what is the kind of prevailing quote is going to depend on where you are. Because of those 15 exchanges, some of them are in Secaucus, New Jersey. Some of them are in Carteret, New Jersey. Some of them are in Mahwah, New Jersey. Some of them are in Chicago, Illinois. And so there's no one place where you can have the absolute truth of what the best quote is. And even above that, the second big problem here is you have to pay a lot of money just to get the market data required to make that determination. And then third, if you're going to do that, some HFT with slightly faster hardware and market data is going to detect that routing and probably beat you there. And they're going to profit off that opportunity.Brett (33:10):While I think that NMS was well intentioned at the time that it was created, which was somewhat before the real advent of electronic markets, now that we have electronic markets, I actually think that NMS has added a lot of complication, and fixed cost, and deadweight loss to the system of equities, and made things like very difficult to sort of spin up as a new exchange. Compared to, in crypto where there was never like an NMS routing between exchanges, but there doesn't really need to be because there's someone whose job it is to arbitrage between the exchanges and keep them in line. And they're paid naturally for the job of doing that. And so the market forces keep the exchanges in line and that works extremely well, and makes crypto very low cost and low barrier to entry for new participants.Brett (33:56):You don't have to hook up to every single exchange. You don't need to send your market data to some central thing, which has to display the quotes everywhere. And you can't accept orders, if it doesn't look like it's on the top of the book of that far away aggregator. It means that exchanges can exist sort of more globally instead of all being centralized mostly in New Jersey or something like that.Austin (34:14):Yeah.Brett (34:14):So there's been so many benefits to that. And then the other thing I want to say about this is, look, there's never going to be just one of anything. The only real way to kind of get rid of an arbitrage opportunity is to only have literally one order book. And even on Solana, you have different order books for SOL, USDC. And some of them might be kind of built off of similar primitives, but there's still going to end up being kind of arbitrage things between this swapping tool and this DEX order book and this centralized exchange, it's always going to exist.And so I think we should just thank the arbitrageurs for their service and just be happy with the fact that we can have multiple marketplaces. I think that's the ultimately right thing for competition.Austin (35:00):Do you think crypto needs market hours?Brett (35:02):No.Austin (35:03):We'll never get them, but I'm curious if you think it would help or hurt the industry?Brett (35:06):No, I don't. One thing I've kicked around in my head at some points is, something like whether one time per day, there should be an auction. Basically like a five second freeze or something, where people can submit bids and offers. And there's like a single kind of auction type clearing event that establishes an official mark for the day in that crypto. And there's a lot of different market structure theory between whether an auction type mechanism or a continuous trading mechanism is ultimately better and fair for our participants. And there's just lots of research in both directions. But that could be interesting to me to have some sort of discontinuous event, maybe once per day. It would help for things like ETFs that want to sort of mark their basket to sort of a day over day performance and they need sort of an official closing mark, and it would be nice to have sort of a single auction event for that. But I don't feel strongly about that at all. And in general, I think that 24/7 markets are the way that every other market has to go.Austin (36:05):Yeah. I agree with you on that. So I put out a call on Twitter that was like, oh, what are people most interested in learning about from FTX, apart from a rundown of all of your cats, which we don't have time for today. One of the ones is what is the process of evaluating the listing of a token looks like. Obviously replies are full of people shilling their specific coin. But there are also some real genuine questions in there about like, you see Coinbase having taken a very, very sharp turn in what the criteria they use for listing a token is over the course of the last 12 months. How do you and FTX.US think about that?Brett (36:40):So we have taken the position, as a company, that we would like to be very conservative on token listings in the US. And that is because a lot of the issues we talked about earlier in the podcast about the regulatory uncertainty around what US based crypto companies are allowed and not allowed to list. And I think there might become a point at which listing criteria becomes clearly well defined by regulators, at which point we will basically take as much risk as it allowed to us. But for now we think about what is our comparative advantage as a company? Is it to list the long tail of 500 tokens? Or is it some of these other things that we're doing that maybe some of our competitors are not going to be able to do in the short term? So the biggest one for us is listing Bitcoin and Ether futures for US customers.Brett (37:32):And we think that has such a greater potential to improve the health of the market. Give people opportunities for hedging risk, and being able to get capital efficient exposure, and to be able to trade the spot versus the future and capture the basis. This is much more important to us than listing that 200th asset on CoinMarketCap. And we're concerned that some of our actions in the latter might jeopardize our success in the former.Austin (38:00):Interesting.Brett (38:00):So we're just sort of, we have different risk profiles in the different aspects of what we want to do. And that's part of the decision there as well. We're also moving very much into some non crypto things. Like we're a student launching a stocks trading platform that's going to be vanilla US stocks through a broker dealer, all trading through like an exchange that's not ours. So we have just sort of different ways of thinking about diversifying our product set. And for now, I think as long as the regulatory environment remains this unclear, we're going to stay on the conservative side of that.Austin (38:33):One kind of last question before we wrap up here. With the amount of market volatility we have seen in the last few weeks here, the sort of precipitous drop in the first half of May, what are you excited for and hopeful for about the future of this industry in the United States?Brett (38:52):Yeah, it's natural for these times of great volatility and certain assets dropping a lot in value, for people to sort of turn inward and maybe lose sight of the broader mission. And we have to remember that we are building a generational opportunity for technology and for wealth creation. And many have already benefited from this, but we have much more to go on all the promises that we have. I mean, just think about how one of the main things people have talked about for crypto is creating this kind of global payments network for people to sort of cheaply or freely send money for remittances and things like this. I think we have yet to really fulfill that promise. So regardless of where asset prices go, we have to, as everyone says, keep building.Brett (39:39):And we're just excited for people to continue to push forward and continue to sort of responsibly innovate, and hopefully show people in the United States, especially policy makers, that even though assets can be volatile... I mean, equities have lost more money in value in the last month than crypto has, and people sort of forget that sometimes. But in spite of downward cycles in markets, there's a real intrinsic value to what we're all doing here. It's not just pure speculation. And we need to do everything we can to keep that going, and keep building, and keep investing.Austin (40:13):Well, Brett, thank you so much for joining us today on the Solana podcast.Brett (40:17):Yeah. Thanks for having me on.

Part 2 When Thriller was released in November 1982, it didn't seem to have a single direction. Instead, it arguably sounded like many singles. But it became apparent that this was precisely what Michael intended Thriller to be: a brilliant collection of songs meant as hits, each designed for a particular audience in mind. Michael put out "Billie Jean" for the dancers and "Beat It" for the rockers and then followed each jam with amazing videos to enhance his allure and his inaccessibility. These songs had a life of their own. Thriller was almost called “Star Light”. The lyric "thriller" in the track of the same name was originally "star light". The decision to change it was down to marketing appeal.    This wonderful article from Rolling Stone says: "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" had the sense of a vitalizing nightmare in its best lines ("You're stuck in the middle/And the pain is thunder. … Still they hate you, you're a vegetable. … They eat off you, you're a vegetable"). "Billie Jean," in the meantime, exposed how the interaction between the artist's fame and the outside world might invoke soul-killing dishonor ("People always told me, be careful of what you do. … 'Cause the lie becomes the truth," Jackson sings, possibly thinking of a paternity charge from a while back). And "Beat It" was pure anger – a rousing depiction of violence as a male stance, a social inheritance that might be overcome. It also almost caught the studio on fire. When Eddie Van Halen recorded his solo, the sound of his guitar caused one of the studio speakers to catch fire. The video for “Beat It” was set in Los Angeles' Skid Row and featured up to 80 real-life gang members from the notorious street gangs the Crips and the Bloods. It cost $100,000 to make.   Thriller's parts added up to the most improbable kind of art – a work of personal revelation that was also a mass-market masterpiece. It's an achievement that will likely never be topped. It was the best-selling album worldwide in 1983 and became the best-selling album of all time in the U.S. and the best-selling album of all time worldwide, selling an estimated 70 million copies. It topped the Billboard 200 chart for 37 weeks and was in the top 10 of the 200 for 80 consecutive weeks. It was the first album to produce seven Billboard Hot 100 top-10 singles. Thriller is still the highest-selling album of all time. Want to know what the top 25 are? Subscribe to our Patreon for our video bonus on the top-selling albums ever! Billie Jean was the first video by an African-American artist to air on MTV. The video revealed Jackson's new look of a leather suit, pink shirt, red bow tie and his signature single white glove. It was a style copied by kids throughout the United States. It caused one school, New Jersey's Bound Brook High, to ban students from coming to class wearing white gloves.   Toto members Keyboardist Steve Porcaro co-wrote Human Nature, and Steve Lukather contributed rhythm guitar on Beat It.   On March 25, 1983, Jackson reunited with his brothers for Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever, an NBC television special. The show aired on May 16 to an estimated audience of 47 million and featured the Jacksons and other Motown stars. Jackson had just performed a medley of greatest hits with his brothers. It was exciting stuff, but for Michael, it wasn't enough. As his brothers said their goodbyes and left the stage, Michael remained. He seemed shy for a moment, trying to find words to say. "Yeah," he almost whispered, "those were good old days. … I like those songs a lot. But especially—" and then he placed the microphone into the stand with a commanding look and said, "I like the new songs."  Then, wearing a white glove decorated with rhinestones, he swooped down, picked up a fedora, put it on his head with confidence, and vaulted into "Billie Jean." He also debuted his moonwalk dance (which became his signature dance). This was one of Michael's first public acts as a star outside and beyond the Jacksons, and it was startlingly clear that he was not only one of the most breathtaking live performers in pop music but that he could mesmerize the audience, something not seen since the likes of Elvis Presley. Michael had initially turned down the invitation to the show, believing he had been doing too much television. But at the request of Motown founder and Icon Berry Gordy, he performed in exchange for an opportunity to do a solo performance. And he killed it.    "Almost 50 million people saw that show," Michael wrote in his book Moonwalk. "After that, many things changed." At this time, Michael Jackson was obviously an immensely talented young man – he seemed shy but ambitious and undoubtedly enigmatic. Nobody knew much about his beliefs or sex life; he rarely gave interviews, but he also didn't land himself in scandals. He did, however, describe himself as a lonely person – especially around the time he made Off the Wall. Former Los Angeles Times music critic Robert Hilburn recently wrote of meeting Jackson in 1981, when the singer was 23, that Jackson struck him as "one of the most fragile and lonely people I've ever met … almost abandoned. When I asked why he didn't live on his own like his brothers, instead of remaining at his parents' house, he said, 'Oh, no, I think I'd die on my own. I'd be so lonely. Even at home, I'm lonely. I sit in my room and sometimes cry. It is so hard to make friends, and there are some things you can't talk to your parents or family about. I sometimes walk around the neighborhood at night, just hoping to find someone to talk to. But I just end up coming home.'"   Jackson's social uneasiness was probably formed by the wounds in his history; the children were insulated from others their age, and Jackson's status as a lifelong star may have left him feeling not just cut off from most people but also alienated from them – as if his experience or his vocation made him extraordinary. "I hate to admit it," he once said, "but I feel strange around everyday people." Not exactly an unusual sentiment for some highly celebrated celebrities, especially former child stars. At the same time, it's a statement full of signals: Michael didn't enjoy the sort of company that might guide him in positive ways. He probably never did throughout his life. Maybe the most troubling passage in his autobiography Moonwalk is when he talks about children in the entertainment world who eventually fell prey to drugs: "I can understand … considering the enormous stresses put upon them at a young age. It's a difficult life."   Thriller placed seven singles in Billboard's Top 10 (presently around 50 million copies). At the 1984 Grammy Awards, Michael finally claimed his due, capturing eight awards, a record he holds with the band Santana, including Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, Best Rock Vocal Performance for "Beat It," Best R&B Song, and Best R&B Vocal Performance for "Billie Jean," and he won an award for the E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial storybook. In addition, the album won Producer of the year (Quincy Jones).    At the 11th Annual American Music Awards, Michael won another eight awards and became the youngest artist to win the Award of Merit. He also won Favorite Male Artist, Favorite Soul/R&B Artist, and Favorite Pop/Rock Artist. "Beat It" won Favorite Soul/R&B Video, Favorite Pop/Rock Video, and Favorite Pop/Rock Single. In addition, the album won Favorite Soul/R&B Album and Favorite Pop/Rock Album. Thriller's sales doubled after releasing an extended music video, Michael Jackson's Thriller, seeing Michael dancing with a group of incredibly designed zombies and was directed by John Landis.   Michael had the highest royalty rate in the music industry at that point, with about $2 for every album sold (equivalent to $5 in 2021). The same year, The Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller, a documentary about the music video, won a Grammy for Best Music Video (Longform). At this time, The New York Times wrote, "in the world of pop music, there is Michael Jackson, and there is everybody else."   Oddly enough, On May 14, 1984, then-President Ronald Reagan gave Michael an award recognizing his support of alcohol and drug abuse charities.   In November 1983, Michael and his brothers partnered with PepsiCo in a $5 million promotional deal that broke records for a celebrity endorsement (equivalent to $13,603,408 in 2021).  On January 27, 1984, Michael and other members of the Jacksons filmed a Pepsi commercial. Pyrotechnics accidentally set Jackson's hair on fire during a simulated concert before a whole house of fans, causing second-degree burns to his scalp. Michael underwent treatment to hide the scars and had his third rhinoplasty shortly after. Pepsi settled out of court, and Jackson donated the $1.5 million settlement to the Brotman Medical Center in Culver City, California; its now-closed Michael Jackson Burn Center was named in his honor. Michael signed a second agreement with Pepsi in the late 1980s for $10 million. The second campaign covered 20 countries and provided financial support for Jackson's Bad album and the 1987–88 world tour.  He was making SO much money and was the most significant music star globally.   Then, months later, it was announced that Michael would be setting out on a nationwide tour with the Jacksons. He didn't want to do it but felt obligated. Clearly, Michael was bigger, better, and "badder" than his family's limitations on him. He should have been taking the stage alone at this point in his career.   Jackson's aversion to the Victory Tour was apparent when he sat looking miserable at press conferences.   The Victory Tour of 1984 headlined the Jacksons and showcased Michael's new solo material to more than two million Americans. Following the controversy over the concert's ticket sales, Jackson donated his share of the proceeds, an estimated $3 to 5 million, to charity. What controversy, you ask?    Don King (yeah, boxing promoter Don King), Chuck Sullivan, and Papa Joe Jackson came up with a way to generate extra money from ticket sales. Those wanting to attend would have to send a postal money order for $120 ($310 in current dollars) along with a particular form to a lottery to buy blocks of four tickets at $30 apiece (US$78 in 2021 dollars), allegedly to stop scalpers. Upon receipt, the money was to be deposited into a standard money market account earning 7% annual interest; it would take six to eight weeks for the lottery to be held and money to be refunded to those that didn't win. Since only one in ten purchasers would win the lottery and receive tickets, there would be more money in the bank for that period than there were tickets to sell, and they expected to earn $10–12 million in interest. Obviously, the Jacksons were all for the idea, but Michael wasn't, and he warned them that it would be a public relations disaster. The $30 ticket price was already higher than most touring acts (like Prince and Bruce Springsteen) were charging at the time and was even worse by the requirement to buy four. This put tickets out of reach of many of Michael's African-American fans who were not financially secure. At this time, Michael was already being blasted about his physical look and music separating him from his race.  That community was joined by many commentators in the media in criticizing the Jackson's over the plan. Nevertheless, it worked, and people were lining up to get their newspapers to sign up for the lottery. On July 5, 1984, after receiving a letter from eleven-year-old fan Ladonna Jones, who accused the Jacksons and their promoters of being "selfish and just out for money," Michael held a press conference to announce changes in the tour's organization and also to announce that his share of the proceeds from the tour would be donated to charity. Jones later received VIP treatment at the Dallas concert. The following is Michael's speech at the press conference: "A lot of people are having trouble getting tickets. The other day I got a letter from a fan in Texas named Ladonna Jones. She'd been saving her money from odd jobs to buy a ticket, but with the turned tour system, she'd have to buy four tickets and she couldn't afford that. So, we asked our promoter to work out a new way of distributing tickets, a way that no longer requires a money order. There has also been a lot of talk about the promoter holding money for tickets that didn't sell. I've asked our promoter to end the mail order ticket system as soon as possible so that no one will pay money unless they get a ticket. Finally, and most importantly, there's something else I am going to announce today. I want you to know that I decided to donate all my money I make from our performance to charity. There will be further press statements released in the next two weeks."   Some procedures were modified; however, the ticket price remained unchanged, and at a press conference, Don King justified the $30 fee as appropriate and that he did not blame the promoters for charging that price, adding that "you must understand, you get what you pay for." During the last concert of the Victory Tour at the Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Jackson announced his split from The Jacksons during "Shake Your Body".   His charitable work continued with the release of "We Are the World" (1985), co-written with future Icon Lionel Richie, which raised money for the poor in the U.S. and Africa. It earned $63 million (equivalent to $158,728,032 in 2021) and became one of the best-selling singles, with 20 million copies sold. It won four Grammy Awards in 1985, including Song of the Year for Michael and Lionel as its writers.    Michael collaborated with Sir Paul McCartney in the early 1980s and learned that Paul was making $40 million a year from owning the rights to other artists' songs. By 1983, Michael had begun buying publishing rights to others' songs, but he was careful with his purchases, only bidding on a few of the dozens offered to him. Michael's early buys included Sly and the Family Stone's "Everyday People" (1968), Len Barry's "1–2–3" (1965), Dion DiMucci's "The Wanderer" (1961), and "Runaround Sue" (1961).   In 1984, it was announced that the publishing rights to nearly 4000 songs from ATV Music, including most of the Beatles' material, were coming up for sale. In 1981, Paul McCartney was offered the catalog for £20 million ($40 million). Michael submitted a bid of $46 million on November 20, 1984. When Michael and Paul were unable to make a joint purchase, McCartney did not want to be the sole owner of the Beatles' songs, and did not pursue an offer on his own. At first, Michael's team couldn't figure it out and walked away, but then they heard someone else was looking to buy them. Michael's increased bid of $47.5 million (equivalent to $119,675,897 in 2021) was accepted because he could close the deal faster. His purchase of ATV Music was finalized on August 10, 1985.   So, at this time, why was Michael being questioned about his look and his music? As a child, Michael had a sweet, dark-skinned appearance; many early Jackson 5 fans regarded him as the cutest of the brothers. J. Randy Taraborrelli, author of Michael Jackson: The Magic and the Madness, has written, "[Michael] believed his skin… 'messed up my whole personality.' He no longer looked at people as he talked to them. His playful personality changed, and he became quieter and more serious. He thought he was ugly – his skin was too dark, he decided, and his nose too wide. It was no help that his insensitive father and brothers called him 'Big Nose.'" Also, as Jackson became an adolescent, he was horribly self-conscious about acne. Hilburn recalled going through a stack of photos with Jackson one night and coming across a picture of him as a teenager: "'Ohh, that's horrible,' [Jackson] said, recoiling from the picture."   The face Jackson displayed on the cover of Thriller had changed; the skin tone seemed lighter and his nose thinner and straighter. In his book, Moonwalk, Michael claimed that much of the physical overhaul was due to a change in his diet; he admitted to altering his nose and chin, but he denied he'd done anything to his skin. Still, the changes didn't end there. Over the years, Michael's skin grew lighter and lighter, his nose tapered more and more, and his cheekbones became more defined. This all became fair game for mockery to some; to others, it seemed like mutilation – not just because it might have been an act of conceit, aimed to keep him looking child-like, but worse because some believed Michael wanted to transform himself into a white person. Or an androgyne – somebody with both male and female traits.  Michael's art was still his best way of making a case for himself at that time. Then, in 1987, he released Bad, his highly-anticipated successor to Thriller. It may not have been as eventful and ingenious as Off the Wall and Thriller, but Bad was awesome.    It became the first album to produce five U.S. number-one singles: "I Just Can't Stop Loving You," "Bad," "The Way You Make Me Feel," "Man in the Mirror," and "Dirty Diana.", which you can hear our version at the end of this episode. Another song, "Smooth Criminal," peaked at number seven. Bad won the 1988 Grammy for Best Engineered Recording – Non-Classical and the 1990 Grammy Award for Best Music Video, Short Form for "Leave Me Alone". Michael won an Award of Achievement at the American Music Awards in 1989 after Bad generated five number-one singles, became the first album to top the charts in 25 countries, and the best-selling album worldwide in 1987 and 1988. By 2012, it had sold between 30 and 45 million copies worldwide. Oh, and it was considered a "flop." Oh, and The title track for the Bad album was supposed to be a duet with Prince. But the latter walked away from it due to the opening line "Your butt is mine". "Now, who is going to sing that to whom? Cause [he] sure ain't singing that to me, and I sure ain't singing it to [him]," Prince said in a TV interview with American comedian Chris Rock.   Later that year, Michael staged his first solo tour, The Bad World Tour. It ran from September 12, 1987, to January 14, 1989. The tour had 14 sellouts in Japan and drew 570,000 people, nearly tripling the previous record for a single tour. In addition, the 504,000 people who attended seven sold-out shows at Wembley Stadium set a new Guinness World Record.   In 1988, Michael released the autobiography, as mentioned earlier, Moonwalk. It sold 200,000 copies and reached the top of the New York Times bestsellers list. In October, Michael released a film, Moonwalker, which featured live footage and short films starring himself and Goodfella star Joe Pesci. In the U.S., it was released direct-to-video and became the best-selling videocassette. The RIAA certified it as eight-time platinum. In March 1988, Jackson purchased 2,700 acres (11 km2) of land near Santa Ynez, California, to build a new home, Neverland Ranch, at $17 million (equivalent to $38,950,760 in 2021).   In 1991, Michael renewed his contract with Sony for $65 million (equivalent to $129,317,127 in 2021), a record-breaking deal. Also, in 1991, he released his eighth album, Dangerous, co-produced with Mr. Rumpshaker himself, Teddy Riley. It was certified eight times platinum in the U.S., and by 2018 had sold 32 million copies worldwide. In the U.S., the first single, "Black or White," was the album's highest-charting song; it was number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks and achieved similar chart performances worldwide, and the video featured a very young Macauley Culkin.  The second single, "Remember the Time," peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, and that video featured Eddie Murphy. At the end of 1992, Dangerous was the best-selling album worldwide and "Black or White" the best-selling single of the year worldwide at the BillboardMusic Awards.   Obviously, Michael wanted to tour in promotion of his latest album, and The Dangerous World Tour ran between June 1992 and November 1993 and grossed $100 million (equivalent to $187,583,506 in 2021); Jackson performed for 3.5 million people in 70 concerts, all of which were outside the U.S. A part of the proceeds went to the Heal the World Foundation. In addition, Michael sold the broadcast rights of the tour to HBO for $20 million, a record-breaking deal that still hasn't been broken.   Also, in 1993, Michael performed at the Super Bowl 27 halftime show in Pasadena, California. The NFL wanted a prominent musical artist to keep ratings high during halftime. It was the first Super Bowl where the halftime performance drew higher audience figures than the game. Jackson played "Jam," "Billie Jean," "Black or White," and "Heal the World." Dangerous rose 90 places in the album chart after the performance   In January 1993, Michael won three American Music Awards for Favorite Pop/Rock Album (Dangerous), Favorite Soul/R&B Single ("Remember the Time"), and he was the first to win the International Artist Award of Excellence. In addition, he won the "Living Legend Award" at the 35th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles in February. He attended the award ceremony with Brooke Shields. In addition, "Dangerous" was nominated for Best Vocal Performance (for "Black or White"), Best R&B Vocal Performance for "Jam," and Best R&B Song for "Jam."   In June 1995, Michael released the double album HIStory: Past, Present, and Future, Book I. The album debuted at number one on the charts and certified for eight million sold in the U.S. It is the best-selling multi-disc album of all time, with 20 million copies (40 million units) sold worldwide. In addition, HIStory received a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year. The first single from HIStory was "Scream/Childhood." "Scream" was a duet with Michael's youngest sister Janet, or "Miss Jackson if you're nasty." The single reached number five on the Billboard Hot 100 and received a Grammy nomination for "Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals." Also, at the time, in 1995, it was the most expensive music video ever produced. It had a budget of 7 million dollars. FOR ONE VIDEO!!  His second single, "You Are Not Alone," holds the Guinness world record for the first song to debut at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In addition, it received a Grammy nomination for "Best Pop Vocal Performance" in 1995.   In November of the same year, Michael merged his ATV Music catalog with Sony's music publishing division, creating Sony/ATV Music Publishing. He kept ownership of half the company, earning $95 million upfront (equivalent to $168,941,909 in 2021) and the rights to a ton more songs.   Michael promoted HIStory with the obviously named HIStory World Tour, from September 7, 1996, to October 15, 1997. He performed 82 concerts in five continents, 35 countries, and 58 cities to over 4.5 million fans, making it his most attended tour. It grossed $165 million, or $302,346,462 today.   In 1997, Michael released Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix, which contained remixes of singles from HIStory and five new songs. Worldwide sales stand at 6 million copies, making it the best-selling remix album ever. It reached number one in the U.K., as did the title track. In the U.S., the album reached number 24 and was certified platinum. Yeah, a remix album going platinum.   From October 1997 to September 2001, Michael worked on his tenth solo album, Invincible, which cost $30 million to record! Invincible was released on October 30, 2001. It was his first full-length album in six years and the last album of original material he would release in his lifetime. It debuted at number one in 13 countries, sold eight million copies worldwide, and went double platinum.   In September 2001, Michael performed in two "30th Anniversary concerts" with his brothers for the first time since 1984. The show also featured Mýa, Usher, Whitney Houston, Destiny's Child, Monica, Liza Minnelli, and Slash.    On January 9, 2002, Michael won his 22nd American Music Award for Artist of the Century.   On November 18, 2003, Sony released Number Ones, a greatest hits compilation. It was certified five-times platinum by the RIAA, and nine times platinum in the UK, for shipments of at least 2.7 million units.   During this time, allegations of child sexual abuse, and the trials that followed, were all over the news. If you're unfamiliar, you can research it for yourself.  Unfortunately, Michael's finances were also coming undone; he had been spending ludicrous sums, and he'd mismanaged his money – which took some doing since he had made such a vast fortune. As a result, the biggest star in the world had fallen from the tallest height. He left the country and moved to Bahrain, where it was announced that Jackson had signed a contract with a Bahrain-based startup, Two Seas Records; nothing came of the deal, and Two Seas CEO Guy Holmes, later said it was never finalized. That October, Fox News reported that Michael had been recording at a studio in County Westmeath, Ireland. It was unknown what he was working on or who had paid for the sessions; his publicist stated that he had left Two Seas by then. After that, Michael was only occasionally seen or heard from. Nobody knew whether he could recover his name or preserve his undeniable music legacy until he announced an incredibly ambitious series of 50 concerts – which he described as the "final curtain call."    The "This Is It" shows were his first significant concerts since the HIStory World Tour in 1997. Michael suggested he would retire after the shows. The initial plan was for 10 concerts in London, followed by shows in Paris, New York City, and Mumbai. Randy Phillips, president, and chief executive of AEG Live, predicted the first 10 dates would earn Jackson £50 million, or close to 63 Million US dollars. After record-breaking ticket sales, the London shows were increased to 50 dates; over one million tickets were sold in less than two hours. The concerts were to run from July 13, 2009, to March 6, 2010. Michael moved back to Los Angeles, where he rehearsed in the weeks leading up to the tour under the direction of choreographer Kenny Ortega, whom he had worked with during his previous tours. Most rehearsals took place at the Staples Center, which was owned by AEG.   It's hard to believe that Jackson, who was so proud of his public performances and so peerless at delivering them, would have committed himself to a project he might fail so tremendously. At the same time, it is not inconceivable that Michael Jackson could have been a man half-hungry and broken in the past few years. All that is certain is that on June 25, in Los Angeles, Michael Jackson met the only sure redemption he might know in the most famous unexpected, and mysterious death in current history. That redemption didn't come because he died, but because his death forced us to reconsider what his life added up to. Less than three weeks before the first This Is It show was due to kick off in London, with all concerts sold out, I repeat; sold out, Michael Jackson died from cardiac arrest caused by a propofol and benzodiazepine overdose. Conrad Murray, his personal physician, had given Michael different medications to help him sleep at his rented mansion in Holmby Hills, Los Angeles. Paramedics received a 911 call at 12:22 pm Pacific time and arrived three minutes later. He wasn't breathing, and the medics performed CPR. Resuscitation efforts continued en route to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and for more than an hour after Michael's arrival, but were unsuccessful, and Michael Jackson, the king of pop, was pronounced dead at 2:26 pm.   News of his death spread quickly online, causing websites to slow down, crash from user overload, and put unprecedented strain on services and websites, including Google, AOL Instant Messenger, Twitter, and Wikipedia. Overall, web traffic rose by between 11% and 20%. MTV and BET aired marathons of Michael's music videos, and specials aired on television stations worldwide. MTV briefly returned to its original music video format, which is messed up that it took an Icon to die for MTV to actually be MUSIC TELEVISION, and they aired hours of Michael's music videos, with live news specials featuring reactions and interviews from MTV personalities and other celebrities.   His memorial was held on July 7, 2009, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, preceded by a private family service at Forest Lawn Memorial Park's Hall of Liberty. Over 1.6 million fans applied for tickets to the memorial; the 8,750 recipients were drawn at random, and each received two tickets. The memorial service was one of the most-watched events in streaming history, with an estimated US audience of 31.1 million and an estimated 2.5 to 3 billion worldwide. Mariah Carey, Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie, Jennifer Hudson, and others performed at the memorial, and Smokey Robinson and Queen Latifah gave eulogies. Reverend Al Sharpton received a standing ovation with cheers when he told Michael's children: "Wasn't nothing strange about your daddy. It was strange what your daddy had to deal with. But he dealt with it anyway." Michael's 11-year-old daughter Paris Katherine, wept as she addressed the crowd. Michael's body was entombed on September 3, 2009, at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.   Oh, but wait. There's more. But of course there is. It's Michael Jackson!   His doctor was initially charged with involuntary manslaughter and was found guilty. So he was sentenced to four years. Yep... four friggin years.    After his death, Michael was still winning awards. He won 4 awards at 2009's AMA's, bringing his total AMA wins to 26, something no one else has touched.    The documentary "Michael Jackson's This Is It" came out shortly after, and I have seen it and loved it, as sad as it was knowing that he'd never get to perform those concerts. Despite a limited two-week engagement, the film became the highest-grossing documentary or concert film ever, with more than $260 million worldwide earnings.