
Staycation in full effect & strait of hormuz for a fee
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There's more to investing than stocks and bonds. With Ibid, you can broaden your investment mix and get bitcoin exposure. Learn more about ibid with iShares by BlackRock. The market is yours.
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Good morning, Brew Daily Show. I'm Neal Freyman.
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And I'm Toby Howell.
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Today, Iran set up a toll booth at the Strait of Hormuz.
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Then the US Summer travel season is getting ruined by high jet fuel prices. It's Friday, April 3rd. Let's ride.
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Good Friday morning. Literally, it's Good Friday, the markets are closed and Easter awaits in just a couple of days. Did anyone have a crazier week than Jonathan the Tortoise? Probably not. If you're unfamiliar, Jonathan is the world's oldest known land animal at 193 years old. On Wednesday, famously April Fools, an account on X purporting to be his veterinarian, Joe Hollins wrote that Jonathan had died.
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Kate.
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An announcement that was taken at face value by outlets like the BBC and USA Today, which published stories eulogizing Jonathan. But it all turned out to be fake news. The real Joe Hollins called up newspapers and said he believes someone was impersonating him on X in order to solicit crypto donations. Jonathan is very much alive. As alive as he has been since 1832.
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Shout out Jonathan persevering one more year. But I do want to. You know, I have a bone to pick with BBC because they they got caught in the crossfire of Jonathan's death. They were one of the first real news outlets to report his death. Erroneously, of course. But then the next day they posted an article titled what Jonathan the Tortoise can teach us about fake News. The fake news was you, BBC. You were the issue. But I'm not going to lie. Neal wrote a whole obituary for Jonathan before the hoax was revealed. I hope you have to sit on it for another 100 years as Jonathan remains in the pinnacle of health. And now a word from our sponsor company retreat. Neal, can we do a trust fall?
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Sure, Toby, you fall and I'll trust that our insurance covers your injuries.
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Very funny. Anyway, the creators of Jury Duty are back with a new season featuring an all new cast. This installment of the groundbreaking documentary style comedy takes place on an annual company retreat where all the employees are actors except one. Anthony, the new temp.
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Featuring bigger laughs, higher stakes in the same heart that made the series a cultural phenomenon. You'll be rooting for Anthony and his hilarious fake coworkers as you laugh cry through the finale.
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Jury Duty presents Company Retreat is streaming now on Prime Video. Clock in and grab your popcorn. It's time to root for the underdog. One big impact of the war in the Middle east is on summer travel. Americans are increasingly saying adios to international travel as rising fuel costs make trips more unaffordable. Under 17% of respondents to a conference board survey said they intend to travel internationally over the next six months, the lowest share since the tail end of the pandemic in 2022. Airfares are a big reason why on Monday, JetBlue said it was raising baggage fees to offset operating costs. United Airlines warned last week that they might have to hike prices by 20% or more if jet fuel remains this expensive. And just yesterday they bumped up baggage fees as well. Jet fuel is very expensive right now. Prices have surged 85% in the US since the day before the war began in February. Even if you're willing to eat the costs flat, flights are getting harder to find with United announcing they are dropping 5% of their planned flights in the second and third quarters. On an economy wide level, that means US GDP might come in lower because the decrease in consumer spending. On a you and me level, it means trading down when it comes to your vacation. Maybe for going a week in St. Barts for a road trip to St. Louis. That's been the historical norm. Neal. When fuel prices tick up, consumers don't necessarily cancel trips altogether, but they do trade down US Ever seen the Arch in person?
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I have not. I would love to, but did you know it's the tallest monument in the United states? You got 630ft tall. It it also required almost 900 tons of stainless steel. That's more than any other project in history. But maybe I'm not going to go this summer at all because road trips are not that fun right now either. US gas prices have jumped to over $4 a gallon on average for the first time since 2022. That's up from under $3 before the war started on February 28th. This is the largest monthly jump that has seen on record. So whether it's flying or driving, Americans are facing higher expenses as they look to the summer travel season.
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Yeah, the economic ripple effect that I like to call it, it just ticks all the way down when gas prices go up because even if you don't cancel your trip, you do see maybe your hotel and meal spending change. You'll see traveling to distances that are closer. You see the drops in the number of days you actually spend away and all of those, you know, decisions on A familial level that maybe we're not going to opt for, like the trip across the seas to Europe. That makes a big difference for economic activity in 2026. So Wall street has downgraded GDP forecasts this year to account for both the higher inflation and the hit to consumer spending that the gas price hikes are going to have on just the broader economy.
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And let's talk about aviation. For so many years since coming out of the pandemic, Americans have been flocking to Europe. And, you know, people, places like Barcelona haven't been so happy about that. But it looks like that could be stymied a bit by higher jet fuel, which have nearly doubled since before the war. What we're seeing right now is basically a toilet paper panic on, on aviation, on people booking flights. Transatlantic airfares for flights 21 days in advance are up about $200 on average compared to a month ago. So there's increased demand to buy ahead of time and airlines are hiking prices as a result. And prices are going up. The average airfare in the past week reached $465. That's the highest price point around this period since at least 2019. So maybe Barcelona and Fountain over in Roma are saying, oh, wow, maybe we'll have one summer where we don't have a lot of over tourism by Americans.
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Yeah. Bookings from US hubs to major European cities this summer are down 11% year over year. Europeans coming to the US the US so the other way, that's down even more sharply. So the pullback is happening in both directions. I will say, though, 2026 is a good year to stay domestic or as best a year in recent memory because we have the World cup. The world is coming to the United States. So if you wanted to stay home and make a road trip, you know, save the money on airfare and spend it on World cup tickets, you have a pretty good year to, you know, stay within the good old US of A.
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That's contingent on, you know, these airports having jet fuel. Because Heathrow, if you're trying to come from England to watch the boys bring it home, Heathrow, if it. If things continue the way they are with the war in Iran, they're going to run out of kerosene at Heathrow, they import about 50% of their jet fuel from the Gulf. And you hear about airports across Europe saying, we're actually well supplied right now. But as we get into the summer months, May, June and July, our stocks of kerosene could be depleted because we're just not getting any from the Middle east and we can't really buy any on the open market because prices are sky high. So we'll see what happens. I think the actual physical jet fuel at airports will be something to watch should this continue.
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If that is the case and the England fans can't make it over to the US for the World cup, they're going to go in and open the Strait of Hormuz themselves. Football is coming home.
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Moving on. It's been about a month since Iran has effectively sealed off the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's most critical energy checkpoints. Now it wants to make money off of it. Iran's irgc, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, has imposed a de facto tollbooth regime in the Strait of Hormuz, said maritime research firm Lloyd's List Intelligence, noting that at least in one case, a ship made a reported $2 million payment to secure safe passage. If you look at a chart of ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, you're going to see a massive drop off when the war began to basically zero. But in the past week, the number has been ticking up ever so slightly. And that's because Iran has been allowing ships from countries it considers ish to cross the waterway through a safe shipping corridor as long as they pay a fee. So who is getting an easy pass? Not the US or its Western allies, of course. Mostly, according to cnbc, the transits have involved Iranian, Greek or Chinese linked ships. But Pakistan and India have also secured safe passage and more are getting on the phone with Tehran to bring desperately needed fuel to their shores, including Iraq, Malaysia and Thailand. And don't think you're paying in USD for this bribe. Iran is reportedly taking Chinese yuan or stablecoins, cryptocurrencies pegged to a hard currency. Toby, we've seen it in the business world, we're seeing in geopolitics. Once you secure strategic dominance, the next step is to monetize.
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Yeah, this toll system is quite complex. It's not just, you know, pay a toll, raise the arm, go through the Strait of Hormuz. Step one is you have to contact an intermediary that is usually a company that is linked to the irgc. You submit detailed documentation, your ship's ownership, the flag you fly under, the nationalities of the crew. Then the IRGC runs a background check. Make sure you have no links to Israel, the US or any other states that Iran is considering an enemy right now. Then comes a total negotiation process. Right now you mentioned that, you know, $2 million number. That is usually the starting point because they charge $1 per barrel of oil that is contained on these very large crude tankers. They also have a ranking system, 1 to 5 for nations in terms of how friendly they rate them. So you better hope you come in at the right end of that scale. Then once everything checks out, they provide you clearance, they provide you an escort, they issue you a permit code. So you literally have a secret code that you have to broadcast over the radio to say, like, hey, we've done our negotiations here. We are a safe, we deserve safe passage. And then the route itself, you go through this very narrow corridor that all 57 transits of the Strait of Hormuz have gone through. So there clearly is, like a safe passage way that you have to navigate. So that's generally how the negotiation process starts. You've called it a bribe. It is a bribe. There's a lot of legal issues around, you know, doing this that we will get into.
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Yeah, let's talk about that. So I'm sure you're listening to this thinking. Is this legal? And according to the United Nations Law of the Sea Treaty, not likely. States can charge reasonable nondiscriminatory fees for specific services that they render in the waterways around them. Things like pollution mitigation and just maintenance. They can service your ship and then charge it for it, but they actually have to provide a service without that particular service. And this service in this case is just letting you go through a waterway. It seems to be not legal. And if you're thinking, okay, what about the Suez Canal or the Panama Canal? Panama charges ships to go through. Well, actually, those are constructed and operated by sovereign states. So they are allowed to because they have constructed, maintained, and operated these waterways rather than the Strait of Hormuz, which to my knowledge, has been formed naturally.
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It is natural. The one thing that a lot of people were pointing out, too, is that this toll system only works if there is still an imminent threat of attack. So Iran still has an incentive to keep things very dangerous because they want to keep continuing to charge these tolls. So it is a thing that is pointing to maybe the war continuing because Iran has everything in their interest to not open up the Strait of Hormuz. They kind of like this new normal of charging ships $2 million or more to go through the Strait of Hormuz. That means we might see attacks on ships continue for the foreseeable future. Moving on. Starbucks is one year into new CEO Brian Nichols turnaround effort, and it's reached the what if we just gave all our baristas a bunch of cash. Stage of the process. Under a new bonus program, Starbucks will award baristas and supervisors a quarterly bonus of 300 bucks if their stores meet certain targets. The company announced yesterday. A good year means twelve hundred dollars in extra pay. The company is also adding the option for customers to tip while using their mobile apps to order and bumping up the frequency of barista paychecks to every week instead of every other. The idea is by putting more cold hard cash into barista's green apron pockets, it will lead to more inviting cafes with faster orders and warmer exchanges with customers. In general, it seems like cash has regained its spot as king of the hill when it comes to compensating employees. In the completely opposite domain of AI startups, companies are offering much higher cash compensation than before, with median base salaries not including equity rising 25% to $200,000 since 2022. Neal, whether you're a barista or a deep learning expert, things like culture or perks are paling in comparison to the allure of cash. Right now, companies aren't overthinking it and are giving more money to their employees to try and drive results.
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Okay, let's talk about Starbucks because I think I understand coffee a little more than AI. This is part of Brian Nichols plan to turn around. Starbucks is investing in employees investing in the service of these locations. They've already spent about $500 million since launching their his big return back to Starbucks plan on employees and adding more of them essentially during the busiest time. There's a coach position that is that has been include to Starbucks that that will help out the store manager to keep locations moving smoothly. And Starbucks says that this new tipping system and this new quarterly bonus system will increase compensation by 5 to 8% on top of current pay. Niccolo has been around for a year and a half now and things have been okay. Starbucks stock really hasn't moved much. It's actually down since he came in and he's considered retail's messy. He joined Chipotle when it was in a downtime and improved things a lot there. I think going into Starbucks has been a lot more difficult, but he thinks that just investing in people is the way forward.
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Yeah, the idea is even though you are seeing that pay raise of 5 to 8%, Starbucks expects better earnings results to offset the cost of those bonuses. It sounds like business one to one. It is business one on one on a certain point that if you compensate your employees more efficiently and more effectively, they will be more effective in the workplace. So raising pay, putting more money in the people who, you know, interact with customers on a daily basis seems like the right move. But I do see like the rise of cash payments in in general filtering through multiple different industries. Business Insider said it's giving out new quarterly AI awards to the best use of AI at the company. Winner gets $400. So again, like everyone probably rolling their eyes saying, wow, it's revolutionary that if you give cash to people, they will do things that you want them to do. But at a certain level, companies got away from that for a while now, especially during these economically more difficult times. Having that extra $400 in your pocket, having extra $300 per quarter, that goes a long way and probably does, you know, boost performance in the workplace. All right, we're going to take a quick break and come back with our Stock of the Week Dog of the Week right after this.
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For me, it was right as my sister started to get recruited to play soccer in college, I was given the very important task of making her a highlight tape. And Imovie was my best friend. She ended up playing at Georgetown, so I'd say it was all worth it.
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Toby, what do you think of these new tax laws?
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Why are they making new ones? I don't even know the old ones.
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Learn more at turbotax.com/business that's turbotax.com/business welcome to Stock of the Week, Dog of the Week, the segment where Toby and I pick one stock that kept its head and another that got April fooled. I won the pre show game of Dominion, so I get to go first. And my Stock of the week is Eli Lilly because it just entered the fray in what looks to be the next arena in the weight loss battles. A pill On Wednesday, the pharma giant said that the FDA approved its weight loss pill that will be sold under the brand name found Dao. Shares popped 6% as investors smelled another drug coming onto the market with blockbuster sales potential. Foundao isn't as powerful as its injectable cousin. Zepbound, which has been shown to consistently help people lose more than 20% of their body weight in clinical trials Found out caused an average weight loss of about 12% for people with obesity after 72 weeks on the highest dose. But what it lacks for in potency, it makes up for inconvenience you can take. Found Dale at any time of day, with food or without food. It's that ease of use factor that has analysts projecting the pill could bring in $14.8 billion per year by 2030. But Foundao isn't the only GLP1 pill in town. Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly's Danish rival, already has a weight loss pill on the market, the Wegovy pill, and it's selling like hotcakes. Toby, welcome to the pill battles.
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Yeah, we've already had the injectable battles. Now we're having the pill battles. A lot of people say that the convenience factor is probably the tipping point for a lot of people, but also price is a big deal at this point. Most of the pills work. You know you're going to lose weight on any of these GLP1 class of drugs, whether it's 12% of your weight, whether it's 16% of your weight, the efficacy is not probably going to be the thing that tilts you one way or the other. It is going to be like, hey, can I just eat this, take this pill with my normal food. Do I have to, you know, not drink for the first 30 minutes of the day? Also, is it cheaper than the other thing. So we are seeing a knock on drag out war now that every pill kind of does the job that you want it to. And people are saying Foundao has an edge in that ease of use. They have an edge maybe on the pricing front as well. So it could be an absolute monster.
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Well, the prices are the exact same. The lowest doses of both drugs are going to cost 149 for cash paying customers. And that's thanks to an agreement that both companies, Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, struck with the Trump administration last fall. What is Novo? How's Novo going to counter this? Because if the price parity is the same, Eli Lilly's an American company and they have a little more, they have a little more mojo in this weight loss race right now. Well, Novo is going to say their pill is more effective. According to a study, the Wegovy pill showed about 16.6% weight loss on average in a late stage trial, compared to about 12% on average for Eli Lilly's pill. And then Lilly's going to push back and say, hey, we're more convenient because this pill can, as I mentioned, can be taken at any time of day without any restrictions on food and water. Meanwhile, the Wegovy pill has to be taken first thing in the morning on an empty stomach with only a few ounces of water.
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I also think it's less prone to shortages too, given that it is a pill, not an injectable, that reduces all the supply chain complexities around trying to source plastic, trying to source cold storage, like the shots had to be saved at a certain temperature. So it is just when we talk about, like mass appeal, appeal is obviously easier than an injectable, especially because some people don't really like needles that much. Speaking from my own experience here. So the fact that it is something that you can just take that easily is going to mean that we're entering a new wave of how many people are going to be taking these GLP1 class of drugs. My dog of the week is Tesla, because just when you thought things couldn't get any worse for the EV company, they did. Tesla delivered just 358,000 EVs globally in the first quarter of the year, missing analysts expectations by about 14,000 and lagging production by a hefty margin. The automaker produced a record 50,000 extra vehicles in the first quarter that are now gathering dust on lots. As any inventory heavy business knows, you want to closely match supply and demand, but that 50,000 number is the largest gap between production and sales in Tesla's entire history. We know EV demand is falling, as it has been for multiple quarters now. But what should make Tesla execs quake in their cybertrucks is that the push for more affordable models hasn't moved the needle. Stripped down versions of the popular Model y and Model 3 finally arrived back in October, but the sub $40,000 price point hasn't convinced buyers to show up. Neil, the US is entering a new era for EV demand now that federal incentives have dried up. And even though Elon mostly ignores car sales these days to focus on robo taxis, AI and robotics, it's still shocking to see Tesla sales nosedive like this.
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Yeah, he can ignore them, but the fact is that vehicle sales still account for about 3/4 of Tesla's revenue as of 2025. So as he gets into robo taxis, as he gets to humanoid robots like Optimus, he needs to fund all of those projects, which are extremely expensive, with money that that's coming in from vehicle sales and car sales are down across the board. It is, we should just zoom out. It is not a good time to be selling electric vehicles right now. Well, maybe in the past month it has been, but since that $7500 tax credit got rolled back, US electric vehicle sales were down 28% in the first three months of 2026. Whether you're Tesla or your legacy automaker sells EVs, it's just not a good time right now. But Tesla does seem to be like backing itself into its own corner because it only is going to have three models moving forward. It's going to have the Model 3, the Model Y and the Cybertruck, which sells basically, you know, nothing compared to those other two models because it's going to sunset its Model S and Model X which are its luxury brands. And it's soon it's going to be bringing a new one into the fold perhaps which is the Cybercap that's not even going to have a steering wheel that's supposed to go into mass production this month and be a part of this big robotaxi fleet that Elon's getting after. So we'll see what happens with Tesla's. Investors don't seem to mind so much. I mean Tesla, Tesla stock just hit a all time high as recently as December and the stock was down a little bit on this news. But you know, again, it's just like I believe in you, Elon.
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And if you're a Tesla, Stan, you might be thinking, oh, there's a new shiny IPO coming in town apparently, as a report, Elon is eyeing a valuation over of over $2 trillion for the Space X Mega IPO, which we already talked about earlier this week when it was looking like it was going to debut at 1.75 trillion. $2 trillion is by far the biggest IPO of all time.
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And I think it's maybe just a matter of time until SpaceX, once it goes public, buys Tesla. Yeah.
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All right, let's go to the finish with some final headlines. OpenAI just bought another company, but this one has nothing to do with AI, but everything to do with how AI is perceived. The chat CBT maker scooped up tvpn, the Silicon Valley talk show hosted by Jordy Hayes and John Coogan that's become required viewing for tech bros. Since launching in late 2024. OpenAI paid in the low hundreds of millions of dollars for the 11 person company that is pulling in about 70,000 viewers a day and it's on pace for around $30 million in revenue this year. Hayes and Coogan have carved out a nice sitting down with Zuckerberg, Altman and seemingly every founder who's announced a round recently. They've built this aura around the show in tech circles, which OpenAI no doubt wants to capitalize on given the bad vibes around AI. Recently, Altman posted on saying he doesn't expect TVPN to go easy on OpenAI, promising the show will maintain its editorial independence. But clearly he wants to figure out how to better present his company to the world and just bought tvp.
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And to help, I was less popular than only two things in a recent poll, the Democratic Party and Iran. So Sam Altman hit the nail on the head. In an interview with Axios after this deal, he said if I were a political candidate, it would be the least popular one in history. So many commentators view this deal as essentially a marketing line item, a marketing spends for OpenAI. But Toby, I just want to get your thoughts on this. I mean this obviously hits close to home. These are two guys doing a podcast about the business world they just sold to to OpenAI, which is a, a company that they cover. And the thing is, people were talking about the editorial independence angle of this because imagine if we were owned by Tesla, say, and we just did that past segment kind of saying they weren't doing so well. Would we be allowed to do that? So I think there is some skepticism around whether these guys at TVPN can cover the tech world objectively being owned by one of the biggest tech companies.
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Yeah, I don't think that you can get philosophical into that aspect of it. I really do think that you said it is a they bottom for their marketing brains. Like they are going to be brought in to say how can we help portray ourselves to the world in a better light? Because again this is not going to be a major moneymaker for OpenAI. It really is their instincts. They, they have a finger on the pulse of the zeitgeist. Like every single person in the tech world knows tvpn, even though maybe people outside of the tech world don't know tvpn. So I think they really just wanted some two guys that are very well liked to say, like how do we make AI more well liked? They're not necessarily, you know, the bastions of journalism ethics. Like that's not what the show is even about. It really is more just a show about, you know, the tech world.
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They're positive about it. Many mainstream media outlets seem to be negative about tech, and that has bristled a lot of tech CEOs over the past few years. Just how negative the coverage has been around AI. Up next, Google is here to unshackle you from the regrettable decisions of your youth. The company announced an update that'll let you swap out your immature Gmail address from the 2000 to a more refined one now without losing access to your inbox. Announcing the move, Google CEO Sundar Pichai wrote, gmail users could quote, say goodbye to V0T 3F 0RP I'm not going to read it all. Or Mr. Brightside 4 16@gmail.com or whatever you were into at the time. That certainly was the vibe back in 2004, when Gmail first came onto the scene, many people thought of it as another I am choosing usernames featuring inside jokes with their friends, pop cultural references, or their sports heroes. But Gmail turned into something far more pervasive. And as the New York Times notes, it's your username for signing into streaming services, paying bills, and sending important messages to important people. It's your portal to the Internet. And like donning accuse it, shedding your cringy email address could be a way to grow up and look the part.
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Do you remember your first Gmail?
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It's the one I have now. It's very professional. And fryman3@gmail.com oh my. Well, I don't know if I just said that everyone you were.
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You were way ahead of the curve. Mine was my Runescape nickname. It was do my 34. And at one point I had it all the way up until I was applying for jobs after college. And one guy that I emailed, he literally goes, dude, you got to change this. Like, you can't be doing that. And it is embarrassing. Like you want to present a good foot forward. But then also some news outlets talk to people reminiscing about their first Gmail usernames. And a lot of them came to the conclusion that I don't want to change it. Like, it's a portal to another time for me. Like, I know my brother has had like a nickname, head and bug 711 for a long time. His Gmail address, he doesn't want to change that. So I think there's a nostalgia layer to this, even though now that you have the option to do it, most people aren't going to give up their end. Fryman 3 or whatever you said.
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Well, no, they're. They have weirder ones. Mine was maybe I just was like a very mature. You are a very, very mature 12 year old.
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Come on.
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Okay. Finally, Easter weekend is treating us to a feast of final four college basketball games with a national title on the line. On the men's side, Illinois and UConn tip things off in Indianapolis on Saturday at 6pm Eastern, followed by Michigan and Arizona around nine. The winners will square off in the championship game on Monday. For the women, UConn again faces South Carolina tonight at 7pm Eastern, followed by Texas and UCLA. That title game is on Sunday. Toby, how are you feeling?
C
I'm feeling good. My champ, Michigan, is still alive in the men's, and my champ, Texas, is still alive in the women's. But I do want to shout out someone who will be nervously watching both the men's and women's, specifically UConn games. And that is Jordan's Furniture. The New England furniture chain launched a promotion that if both the UConn men's and women's programs reach the national championship game, it will refund all purchases made between June 20 and March 1. That is $50 million worth of sales revenue. And a lot of commenters are like, wait, doesn't this mean you aren't rooting for UConn then? Because you'll lose a lot of money. But the chain bought insurance, and they want it to be clear that they are indeed rooting for the Huskies. Imagine, I mean, like I watch with, you know, $200 on the line from a March Madness pool. What if you had $50 million on both the men's and women's games? That is stressful.
B
Jordan's Furniture, a New England institution sure there's some insurance involved here.
C
Yes.
B
Okay. That is all the time we have. Thanks so much for starting your morning with us. Have a wonderful Friday and an even better Easter weekend. If you'd like to reach us, send an email to Morning Brew daily at Morning Broadcom or DM us on Instagram @me Daily Show. Let's roll the credits. Emily Milian is our supervising producer. Raymond Lu is our senior producer. Our producer is Olivia Graham, and our associate producer is Olivia Lake. Hair makeup is staying home this summer. Devin Emery is our president, and our show is a production of Morning Brew.
C
Great show today, Neil. I wish you all well.
Hosts: Neal Freyman & Toby Howell
Theme: The episode dives into impacts of rising jet fuel and gas prices on American travel plans, Iran’s unprecedented move to monetize passage through the Strait of Hormuz, and headline business news from Starbucks’ employee bonuses to new weight-loss pill wars and Tesla’s recent slump.
(Starts ~02:28)
Summer travel outlook: Only 17% of Americans plan to travel internationally over the next six months—the lowest since the tail-end of the pandemic.
Driving airfare and baggage fees: JetBlue and United Airlines have bumped up baggage fees to offset costs; United may hike prices by 20%+ if jet fuel remains pricey.
Declining flight availability: Airlines are cutting flights (United dropping 5% from their summer schedule), making international travel less accessible.
Ripple effects:
Booking panic:
World Cup silver lining: With the 2026 World Cup coming to the US, it may be a great year to enjoy events stateside rather than heading abroad.
(Transitions around 07:23)
Jet fuel shortages loom—Heathrow Airport imports half its jet fuel from the Gulf; European airports warn of depleting reserves by summer if Middle Eastern supplies remain cut off.
Quote, Toby (10:52): “This toll system only works if there is still an imminent threat of attack. So Iran still has an incentive to keep things very dangerous...they like this new normal.”
(Begins around 12:00)
(16:31 - 18:38)
(18:38 - 22:58)
Issue: Tesla missed Q1 delivery expectations by 14,000 vehicles; produced 50,000 more cars than sold, the company’s largest production-sales gap ever.
Reasons:
Sector-wide slump: US EV sales down 28% in first three months of 2026 across all manufacturers.
Model reduction: Tesla to phase out luxury models (S, X); will focus on Model 3, Y, Cybertruck, and hints at a forthcoming “Cybercab” (no steering wheel, aimed at robotaxi fleet).
Stock reaction: Despite delivery woes, Tesla’s stock only dipped slightly and is near all-time highs.
(~23:03)
(~25:37)
(~27:40)
The episode is witty and conversational, with plenty of banter and tongue-in-cheek commentary. The hosts balance serious economic and geopolitical concerns with pop-culture references and personal anecdotes—making the business news both digestible and engaging.
For listeners who missed the show, this episode delivered sharp takes on how global conflict ripples through American plans (and wallets) this summer, shined a light on some surprising business strategies, and kept things fun with headline news you won’t find on the front page.