Will Jensen Stay As Nvidia’s CEO? & Italians Outraged Over KFC’s Push Into Ski Resorts

Skims customers criticized the $150 advent calendar after finding inexpensive items such as loose hair ties, scrunchies, and pink bobby pins. One complaint TikTok reached 65 million views in three days, with commenters comparing the contents to objects collected by a cat or items emptied from Kim Kardashian’s bedside table. On Sunday, Skims offered customers either a full refund or store credit. Neil and Toby joked that an MBD calendar might contain Neil’s mullet hairs and miniature eyeglasses, though they acknowledged possible legal problems.

The hosts said Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang apologized after reports that he had a secret relationship with Alice Huang, described in the show as a Chinese spy, prompting an independent board investigation. Nvidia said the news would not slow the company and that Huang would continue as CEO without interruption, but the stock fell more than 4% even as broader markets rose. The hosts argued that Huang is unusually difficult to replace: he co-founded Nvidia in 1993, has centralized power, has 50–60 direct reports, and has groomed no obvious successor.

Semafor editor Liz Hoffman said most CEOs would probably be fired for such a lapse in judgment, especially if company information had been compromised, but Nvidia has no president or COO and seemingly no clear second-in-command. She said Huang transformed Nvidia from a largely routine video-game-chip maker into the central financial and technological support of the AI boom by recognizing the value of its computing assets and building relationships across AI and Wall Street. Hoffman said the industry’s guarantees, leases, and ecosystem could suffer without him, though prediction markets put the chance of his departure at roughly 15% by year-end and 38% by the end of the following year.

Hoffman said corporate espionage and so-called honeypotting are increasingly relevant because AI companies hold extremely valuable secrets; she cited corporate training and a Justice Department case involving alleged spying on OpenAI. She expects congressional hearings into what government officials knew about Huang’s relationship and Megaspeed, Alice Huang’s company, including a Commerce Department investigation that was reportedly dropped after Nvidia intervened. Hoffman also expects securities-fraud litigation because Nvidia executives allegedly made statements minimizing the relationship before the stock fell, creating roughly $200 billion in losses. She compared the case with AMC CEO Adam Aron, who kept his job after being catfished because the board considered him valuable.

The College Football Playoff and ESPN announced that the field will expand from 12 to 24 teams next season under a $1.7 billion agreement keeping ESPN as exclusive rights holder through 2031–32. Executive director Rich Clark acknowledged that many fans oppose expansion but said the priority was making a “spectacular playoff.” Toby said ESPN is gambling that a larger postseason will not reduce the importance of regular-season games; he imagined Ohio State resting starters before Michigan if its playoff place were already secure. Conference championship games are being eliminated, and the 35 non-playoff bowl games could become marginal.

Toby said the biggest beneficiaries may be the middle class of major-conference programs. Coaches such as Purdue’s Barry Odom can make a stronger case for spending millions on NIL-era rosters if 24 places create a realistic path to the postseason rather than requiring a team to become Alabama or Georgia. The Big Ten commissioner reportedly originated the proposal, which gained support from other major conferences. The first two playoff rounds will be played on campuses in December, potentially bringing large crowds and unusual off-season revenue to local restaurants, bars, and businesses. The hosts noted that college basketball is also considering a 76-team tournament.

The hosts said RFK Jr. and the MAHA movement have labeled canola, soybean, sunflower, and grapeseed oils the “hateful eight,” helping drive more than $1 billion in sales of products advertised as seed-oil-free, up 72% year over year. Seed-oil-free salty snacks rose 87%, compared with 2.9% growth for snacks without that label. Food companies are substituting costlier beef tallow, avocado oil, or butter, despite nutritional experts saying seed oils’ unsaturated fats can lower cardiovascular risk. Harvest Snaps moved from canola to avocado oil after research found 71% of consumers cared about the oil type; Pepsi bought Siete Foods for $1.2 billion and added avocado- and olive-oil chip varieties.

KFC plans to open its first high-altitude Italian restaurants this December at Cortina d’Ampezzo and Madonna di Campiglio. Local critics called the move disgraceful and threatened legal action, while Eataly founder Oscar Farinetti said Italians should instead eat regional food such as salami, polenta with mushrooms, venison stew, luganega sausage, apple strudel, and red wine. Neil sided with the locals because those Alpine traditions are worth protecting; Toby welcomed the prospect of affordable fried chicken after skiing and suggested adding caviar to make it a more sophisticated concept. The region recorded 20 million overnight stays last year, up 3%.

The FAA announced it is retiring floppy disks as part of a modernization of air-traffic-control systems, although some agency operations still rely on an operating system from the 1980s. Controllers currently have to search manually for weather alerts, airport hazards, and restricted airspace; the new digital system will consolidate those updates for immediate access. The upgrade is expected to finish by the end of 2028. Neil noted that even a high-capacity floppy disk stores only about one megabyte, less than many modern phone photographs, while Toby said the challenge is modernizing government infrastructure without disrupting essential services.

A Royal Caribbean pianist reportedly went overboard from Ovation of the Seas at 2:30 a.m. off Southern California and was found by fishermen near Catalina Island roughly 20 miles offshore. If the timeline is accurate, he spent nine hours treading water before being taken aboard and transferred to Newport Beach lifeguards. Toby connected the survival story to a 1957 Johns Hopkins experiment in which wild rats lasted only 1–15 minutes in water without hope, but 60–80 hours after being repeatedly rescued and returned. He also said unusually warm, 76-degree El Niño water may have helped the pianist survive.