TRASHFUTURE - *PREVIEW* Go Hoke, Go Broke

Episode Date: January 11, 2025

We check in on old friend Volocopter, a company we assume is going from strength to strength as the official air taxi partner of Neom! Where a later reading indicates that eight year olds are driving trucks. Also, the UK is in economic crisis again, and we don’t even have the fun of a bathrobe soiling-prime minister. Get the whole episode on Patreon! *MILO ALERT* Check out Milo’s UK Tour here: https://miloedwards.co.uk/live-shows Trashfuture are: Riley (@raaleh), Milo (@Milo_Edwards), Hussein (@HKesvani), Nate (@inthesedeserts), and November (@postoctobrist)

I want to start by revisiting an old friend, Volocopter. Just to remind everybody, Volocopter was a German air taxi company that was one of Neom's strategic partners. They were going to do all of the flying taxis that were going to make Neom work and were pretty much, I would say, completely essential to all of the big sports plans that Neom had. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember Volocopter. Sure. Volocopter. Let me say, I let me see, I haven't read this.

The articles come up. I assume it's going to be Volocopter, the German air taxi developer backed by Saudi Arabia's Neom Giga project has gone from strength to strength. Yeah, it's going to be, things continue to be good because we hope that things are well. Well, nothing to do with Neom would go bust. Oh, oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm reading the rest of the article here.

I can't believe I misled you like this. Volocopter, the German air taxi developer backed by Saudi Arabia's Neom Giga project, has filed for insolvency. Oh no. I am sorry to have misled you all. You were telling me that running the sort of like, mooted flying taxis between like, you know, 2034 World Cup stadia on a line wasn't a profitable business model. On second examination, it appears that no. No, it was not. Lashed out to a branch of Samsonite in Hamburg that have just sold a lot of suitcases.

Yeah, the entire Volocopter staff have all driven to the same airport, getting out of one big Mercedes like S600, like a clown car, trying to flee the country. Yeah, well they wouldn't want to go in one of their own craft. Have they even, did they, this is my question, right? Did they make a single aircraft? They, so they were forced to scale back plans to ferry athletes and officials around Paris during the Olympics this summer, as it was- Did they have to scale them back to zero? plans to ferry athletes and officials around Paris during the Olympics this summer, as it was-

Did they have to scale them back to zero? So I'm getting here, they have piloted prototypes, but they have never done a commercial flight. Okay, so they have made like one or two that exist and like fly around. Okay, sure. We scale back our plans from plans to not plans. So it's like one time plan. I'm looking at this thing now and it looks like biblically accurate helicopter. It's by some margin one of the dumbest things I've ever seen.

And you're telling me that again, that this did not work. Yes. I need you to, if you can just suspend your disbelief. Now also, I know that we're all big fans of Volocopter CEO Dirk. Hoke on this podcast, right? Yeah We're all hoaxes, you know, you've got you've got no hope Bob. Hope and duck That's right. We're we're all absolutely Hoke pilled were dirt maxing Yeah, we actually the thing is you think the proto into European stuff is bad

We actually did like a solid hour of hoax stuff that just didn't go in. We cut the pros to the European stuff was the transition from hoax into TF. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But you know, I think that was a little bit hokey. Thank you. Go hoax, go broke. Dirk Hoke is stepping down as CEO. Oh no. No, no. I know we're all sad that that means Dirk Hoke won't be in charge of Volocopter anymore one of our favorite companies, but it does mean he's available. That's true. We could get him. We as a CEO of our podcast, we want to work for Dirk Hoke.

Oh yeah. We can look, we are owned by us, right? We are owned by the people who work here. So we need a CEO because you know, we don't, we don't have management above us. Yeah. You know, so we need, we need Hoke. We need a CEO because, you know, we don't. Yeah, we don't have management above us. Yeah. You know, so we need we need hope. We need hope. Hashtag draft. Hope. Yeah, we we need that bloke. Hope that's how I know you're British.

You're thinking of a football chant already. Do you like a clog heads like recruitment song to try and get this guy on site? Just like, OK, I understand that you maybe don't want to work for us, but maybe if you give this CD a little listen, might just change your mind. We're going to give Dirk Hoak a demo tape. Just like, hey, come on. We have an opportunity because a lot of the business podcasts that you often see at the top of the Apple charts or whatever, including one diary of the CEO, just they don't interview CEOs anymore. He's too busy interviewing fucking masturbation experts these days.

He hasn't had a CEO on his show for a while. Masturbation experts? Wait, sorry, sorry, sorry. Does Stephen Bartlett interviewing people who are really good at not masturbating or people who are really good at not masturbating? I come in half a second. His podcast is too high brow for me, so I'm not entirely sure. You're gonna have to check that out yourself.

He's interviewing that Chinese guy who can masturbate without touching himself. You remember this? Yeah, it's the same Brian Rose thing that all these guys seem to get into, right? Of like channeling your dick energy by either jerking it or not jerking it, accordingly. Yeah. Dick energy is Dirk Hoek's American cousin. We could be the only business podcast in the UK, but actually interview CEOs. That's true. Because the thing is, Diary of a CEO, their thing originally was trying to interview CEOs while they were still up. We would be the first one to interview CEOs on

the way down, you know? Yeah. You play trashure twice in your career. We just re-rounded to like, recently disgraced, and then if you've experienced a kind of a Lydia Tarr moment, then you come on Trash-Uture, and instead, it's not like Trigonometry or whatever, you don't let you talk about getting cancelled or whatever, but we do like, secrets of business failure, where we're like- And guitar for the CEO. Yeah! It could be like, it could be, how about this, of business failure. Where we're like... And it's half of a CEO. Yeah.

Yeah. It could be like... Yeah. It could be, how about this, check it out. It would be, you have to explain what happened, and if you minimize it or justify it, then you get gunned like a game show. Yeah. A podcast called, So You're Trying Not To End up in an oil barrel. Just we've, we, the journey that this has taken us on to threatening to gunge, Dirk, you have to explain what happened in one minute without repetition, hesitation,

and without any self justification while sitting on a plank over a big thing of gunge. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. The CEO version of Just a Minute, Just the Minutes. Yeah, that's right. OK, all right, that's copyrighted by us. No one else is allowed to make a show where we ritually humiliate failed CEOs.

Are we going to have to dunk Dirk? Or is there hope for Hoke? Find out on this week's epitaph of a CEO. The only podcast that uses live ammunition on its guests. Anyway, so Volocopter, I can't believe it. It's over. Yeah. Well, it's filing for insolvency, so it could just get bought. It could just get bought. Okay. I mean, are there any buyers out there? Are the Saudis gonna come in and like auto-rotate this failed startup? Is that like... Because like, Neon,

like the line doesn't work without the stupid helicopter bullshit or the stupid train bullshit. You need that stuff to shuffle people between Louis Vuitton stores. So... But the Saudis are worried about their own money situation at the moment. So the Saudis are not coming to the pub tonight. They're actually they've overspent a bit this month. Yeah, the Saudis are waiting till payday until they're like, the Saudis are like the Googling Klarna. Yeah, Klarna on the line. Yeah, easy installments, three easy installments of 15 trillion dollars.

Three easy installments of about 80 kilometers. To be real with you, quite difficult installments of 15 trillion dollars. Three easy installments of about 80 kilometers. Three, to be real with you, quite difficult installments. These are going to be some really challenging. Klaat are just straight up leveling with you based on your like actual finances. Three pretty challenging installments. Installments that are really going to test like the laws of physics, my great three patterns of birds, thingsments that are really going to test the laws of physics, the migratory patterns of birds, things of that nature.

We have some, we have some more Neom content for the end of this one, actually. Okay. Whoever it is who works at Neom that just routinely leaks their documents to the Wall Street Journal has done that again. Yeah. Yeah. Someone who's impervious to being bone-sword, I presume. Yeah, like Wolverine.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, like Wolverine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was like... Yeah, someone in a kind of like Darth Vader type situation. They've cut off like one arm already and then just like more and more, but he keeps leaking documents. Yeah, like a sort of bionic man. Yeah, I may leak a lot of blood from the bone saws, but I will never stop leaking documents to the Wall Street Journal.

In many ways, the Wall Street Journal kind of the war thunder forums of Saudi Arabia. I also want to talk about another thing. Another government that, like Saudi Arabia, is out of ideas, is gripped by a sort of sclerotic ruling class that's unable to let go of power or reform itself really, where there was quite an unexpected transformation of the country's politics in 2015 as well. Interesting.

Of course I'm talking about Britain, because Keir Starmer, your government. Well after this segment you might want to be like, oh no, Britain. I want Keir in the full Arab garb. I want Mohammed bin star Yeah, we all be great Just kiss. I'll just cut turning up with that much drip one day and just never addressing it I mean, sure does it right like he does the whole soul dance thing every time you go to Saudi Arabia Yeah, so yeah, why not care? Why not care and Charles both doing a joint press conference, both dressed like that, both not addressing it.

You could convince about 20% of the British population minimum that that has already happened. Yeah. That the country has gone Muslim. We won't elaborate further. Because of the Silk Road. Because of those Silk Road mosques in Preston. So your government is practically brimming with ideas, Keir Starmer.

How do you decide on the best one? And this is? Your momentum, your campaign as a momentum runaway freight trainer. Indeed. In an environment where I believe the last three quarters of the British economy were recorded as having basically no or negligible

growth. For a second, I thought you meant we were down to the last three quarters of the British economy. We've lost a whole quarter! I mean, last three courses in an American sense. Three small coins.