The Bestie Awards! Recapping the best and worst of 2023

The hosts open their fourth annual Bestie Awards by previewing categories that run from political winners and business losers to the best science breakthrough. The first minutes are banter about drinks: Calacanis pours champagne, Sacks drinks tequila and draws a border joke from Calacanis, and Friedberg says he is drinking Victoria beer.

hopefully, we find a CEO, and we can keep this thing going for another 150 or so episodes.

Calacanis calls working with the group delightful and miserable at once. His toast to 2024 contains the only forward-looking commitment here: finding a CEO and continuing for roughly 150 more episodes.

Chamath names Donald Trump the biggest winner. He argues the documents case strengthened Trump's hold on the Republican nomination and that the Colorado Supreme Court's move sealed it, leaving him a better chance at the White House barring a catastrophic meltdown.

dems in this weird way actually want Trump back in office more than the Republicans do

Friedberg picks Saudi Arabia, citing relations with the US, China, Iran, Israel and Russia, leverage from capital, geography and energy, and a plan to reinvest and modernize. He says he has no business ties there, and Calacanis agrees the country has made progress.

Sacks chooses abortion rights, pointing to referendums in Kansas, Kentucky, Montana and Ohio and to shifts in legislatures and court races. He cites Ruth Bader Ginsburg's view and defends Dobbs as returning the issue to the democratic process. Calacanis objects that Trump took away the right to choose; Sacks replies that Trump took nothing away. Calacanis's own pick is nontraditional candidates, naming Vivek, RFK and Dean Phillips.

Friedberg names the DEI movement. He ties the damage to reactions after October 7 and to university leaders' testimony to Congress, saying liberal, influential acquaintances began to see links to antisemitism through an oppressor ideology.