Behind The Scenes: Acquired Live at Chase Center, Presented by J.P. Morgan Payments (2024)

Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal recount Acquired’s Chase Center live show, headlined by Mark Zuckerberg calling Meta’s content-moderation stance a 20-year mistake.

• Zuckerberg said on stage that Meta’s political content moderation was a 20-year mistake, already 8 years in — hosts called it a historic public-company CEO admission.
• A Wall Street Journal feature in May 2024 drove 250,000 new Acquired subscribers in a single month, roughly overnight.
• Acquired has surpassed 5 million hours listened and tripled in the last year.
• Mike Taylor, the Acquired theme song artist, has hundreds of millions of Spotify streams — not a hobbyist; performed live at Chase Center.
• J.P. Morgan Payments proposed the Chase Center venue; the hosts had assumed only a small side event was on offer.
• Gilbert and Rosenthal met at Greg Gottesman’s Passover seder in 2014; David immediately committed to co-hosting once Ben pitched the concept.
• Hosts ran with 100+ listeners before the show as a pre-event tradition turned large-scale fan experience.

2025-05-19 · Watch on YouTube