Delta Pricing Tickets with AI & WNBA All-Stars Get Loud Over Pay Disparity

Summary

Morning Brew Daily – July 21, 2025

Hosts: Neal Freyman and Toby Howell

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Introduction and New Riddle Game

In this episode, Neal Freyman and Toby Howell kick off the day by introducing an exciting new feature for their listeners: the Password riddle game. Created by Morning Brew’s puzzle enthusiast, Jack Murtaugh, who holds a PhD in theoretical computer science from Harvard, Password promises to engage fans with accessible and fun puzzles throughout the week.

Notable Quote:

• Neal Freyman [00:25]: “We are extremely excited to announce a Morning Brew Daily riddle game called Password... it's very accessible and fun.”

Toby outlines the game mechanics, explaining that each week, a new password—an anagram of a major city—will be presented. Listeners have one guess per day, with the value of each entry decreasing as the week progresses. Early correct guesses have higher chances of winning exclusive Morning Brew Daily swag.

First Clue:

• Toby Howell [00:58]: “The password anagrams to a major city.”

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Delta Airlines’ AI-Powered Personalized Pricing

One of the episode's main discussions centers on Delta Airlines' innovative approach to ticket pricing. Delta is partnering with AI company Fetcher to implement a "super analyst" system that personalizes ticket prices based on real-time data, including past purchases and browsing behavior. The goal is to optimize revenue by tailoring prices to what each passenger is likely willing to pay.

Key Points:

• Personalized pricing has been utilized in various industries, but Delta's approach is more individualized.
• Delta aims to apply AI-driven pricing to 20% of its tickets by year-end.
• Concerns revolve around the opacity of pricing algorithms and the potential for customers to feel unfairly charged.

Notable Quotes:

• Neal Freyman [05:06]: “It feels like you are going into a market in a foreign country and the vendor is sizing you up to see how much you're willing to pay.”
• Toby Howell [05:42]: “A senator from Arizona, Ruben Gallego, has called the practice predatory.”

The hosts explore the balance between revenue optimization and customer trust, highlighting potential risks such as perceived unfairness and algorithmic bias. Delta defends its strategy as a revolutionary step forward, while critics warn of unintended negative impacts on consumer relations.

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WNBA All-Stars Protest Over Pay Disparity

The episode delves into the WNBA All-Star Game, where players made a powerful statement by wearing shirts that read "Pay us what you owe us." This protest underscores the growing labor unrest as the league experiences unprecedented popularity and revenue growth.

Key Points:

• WNBA players are negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement, with a deadline set for October.
• The current compensation structure is disproportionate, with players earning only 9.3% of the league's revenue compared to the NBA's 50%.
• The latest media deal worth $2.2 billion is prompting players to demand a fairer share of the newfound profits.

Notable Quotes:

• Toby Howell [09:18]: “The players are receiving only 9.3% of the league's revenue. They want to boost that up because the league has grown so much now.”
• Neal Freyman [10:10]: “The WNBA signed a new $2.2 billion media deal... players want a piece of the pie from all that money.”

The hosts discuss the players' leverage in light of the league’s expansion and increasing profitability, noting that a potential walkout remains a looming possibility if negotiations stall. Comparisons are made to the U.S. women’s soccer team’s struggle for equal pay, suggesting a broader movement towards fair compensation in women’s sports.

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Record High Beef Prices: Causes and Impact

Neal and Toby shift gears to address the record-high beef prices impacting consumers nationwide. Ground beef has surpassed $6.12 per pound, an unprecedented rate since the 1980s, driven by a confluence of factors affecting supply and demand.

Key Points:

• Supply Constraints:
  • A prolonged drought has significantly reduced cattle herds.
  • The US cattle inventory is at its lowest in over 70 years.
  • Temporary bans on beef imports from Mexico due to parasitic infestations have tightened supply further.
• Demand Factors:
  • The average American beef consumption is projected to reach nearly 69 pounds this year.
  • Grilling season has intensified demand, exacerbating price hikes.

Notable Quotes:

• Neal Freyman [12:53]: “Beef is experiencing the most challenging market conditions we've ever seen. There is a huge supply crunch right now.”
• Toby Howell [14:40]: “Ranchers are sitting down saying, 'Cattle prices are super high right now. Let's get the money in our pockets now.' But that might lead to thinning herds down the line.”

The discussion highlights how higher costs are a result of fewer cattle farms, increased expenses for ranchers (with cattle prices soaring above $1,000 per animal), and potential future impacts from proposed tariffs on Brazilian beef imports. The hosts underscore the complexity of the situation, noting both immediate consumer impacts and long-term industry challenges.

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Winners of the Weekend

1. Astronomer’s PR Crisis:

The podcast recounts a significant PR incident involving Astronomer, a data company that became the center of controversy after its CEO was caught on a Coldplay concert’s Kiss Cam, sparking online backlash. Following the incident, Astronomer swiftly announced the CEO's resignation, aiming to mitigate damage and refocus on their core business.

Key Points:

• The scandal generated over 22,000 news articles and 15 million readers within 24 hours.
• Despite the negative publicity, some experts view the increased brand awareness as an unintended positive outcome.
• Astronomer emphasized commitment to their products and customer base in their public statements.

Notable Quotes:

• Neal Freyman [18:36]: “They ran a pretty solid PR crisis playbook... announcing the resignation of the CEO.”
• Toby Howell [19:34]: “They were founded in 2018, raised $375 million from investors... Now it is a household name for most people in ways they could never have expected.”

2. Coldplay's Continued Success:

Coldplay is recognized as a secondary "winner" amidst the Astronomer scandal. Their ongoing Music of the Spheres World Tour has grossed $1.3 billion, making it the second-highest-grossing tour of all time. The hosts speculate that despite the Kiss Cam incident, Coldplay’s popularity remains robust, further boosting their brand.

Notable Quotes:

• Toby Howell [20:28]: “Their tour has made $1.3 billion... that is good for the second highest grossing tour of all time.”
• Neal Freyman [21:05]: “There is also a new chess movie directed by Nathan Fielder, highlighting the dynamic nature of the chess revival.”

3. Chess’s Renaissance:

Chess is hailed as a "winner" thanks to its resurging popularity, partly fueled by the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour. This revamped approach to chess emphasizes entertainment, accessibility, and engagement, attracting a broader audience beyond traditional enthusiasts.

Key Points:

• The Grand Slam Tour offers innovative presentations, including large-scale displays and real-time heart rate tracking.
• Streaming platforms like Twitch and YouTube have facilitated a vibrant online community.
• Chess.com’s user base has skyrocketed, reaching 200 million sign-ups and hosting over 35 million games daily.

Notable Quotes:

• Neal Freyman [22:32]: “Chess has never been more popular, exciting, and dynamic as it is right now.”
• Toby Howell [23:55]: “They have made a lot of savvy moves to make it more accessible to people who aren't super chess nerds.”

The hosts also mention an upcoming movie, "Checkmate," directed by Nathan Fielder and produced by Emma Stone, which delves into the infamous rivalry and cheating scandal between Magnus Carlsen and Hans Niemann, further cementing chess’s cultural relevance.

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Upcoming Major Events for the Week

Neal and Toby provide a rundown of key events to watch in the coming days:

• Earnings Reports:

  • Over one-fifth of the S&P 500 companies are set to release Q2 financials.
  • Notable companies like Alphabet and Tesla will be among the first to report.
  • Keep an eye on Coca-Cola's earnings on Tuesday, especially regarding potential changes from corn syrup to sugar.

• Entertainment Highlights:

  • Happy Gilmore sequel starring a hockey-stick-putter golfer debuts on Netflix Friday.
  • South Park returns on Wednesday with a new season amidst behind-the-scenes drama over the Comedy Central-Paramount and Skydance Media merger.
  • Comic-Con takes place in San Diego on Thursday, featuring panels and announcements.
  • Fantastic Four hits theaters on Friday.
  • Shark Week continues on Discovery throughout the week.

Notable Quotes:

• Neal Freyman [25:14]: “We're watching Coke's earnings to see if they're switching from corn syrup to sugar.”
• Toby Howell [26:16]: “I wish Shark Week was still a big deal, but maybe there's still kids out there who love it.”

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Conclusion

Neal and Toby wrap up the episode by reiterating the Password game’s first clue and encouraging listeners to participate. They invite feedback and interactions via email, maintaining Morning Brew Daily’s commitment to engaging with their audience.

Final Quote:

• Neal Freyman [26:58]: “The hint is the password anagrams to a major city. Good luck.”

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Stay tuned to Morning Brew Daily for your essential start to the day, packed with insightful discussions, latest news, and engaging features like the Password riddle game.

Transcript

[Neal Freyman]

Good Morning Brew Daily Show. I'm Neal Freyman.

[Toby Howell]

And I'm Toby Howell.

[Neal Freyman]

Today, WNBA players made a bold statement during the All Star game. Pay us what you owe us then.

[Toby Howell]

It's grilling season, but beef prices just hit record highs, so I hope you like grilled veggies. It's Monday, July 21st. Let's ride.

[Neal Freyman]

Good morning. Hope you all had an awesome weekend. So we know how much you love puzzles, games, trivia, anything that gives your brain a workout. Which is why we are extremely excited to announce a morning Brew Daily riddle game called Password that will run throughout this week. Password is an MBD original created by the Brew's puzzle creator, Jack Murtaugh, who literally has a PhD in theoretical computer science from Harvard. Don't get intimidated. The game is very accessible and fun, and Toby is going to explain how. How it works and how you can win.

[Toby Howell]

Yes, I am. Each week, Jack changes his password because he is a security focused king. Your task is to try and crack it. At the end of each podcast this week, we'll give you a hint to help you out. If you guess it right, you'll get a chance to win Morning Brew Daily Swag. But here's the kicker. You only get one guess that you can submit at any time. The earlier you submit a correct answer, the more likely your name will be selected for the prize. So if you're feeling especially clairvoyant on a Monday after the show and you nail it, your entry is worth five submissions. On Tuesday, we will give you another clue, but entries are only worth four submissions. By Friday, you should have enough info to pinpoint the password, but your entry is only worth one submission. My advice is open up your notes app and record each hint to the password throughout the week so you have them all in one place. Now, where to submit? We have a Google form linked in the show description, and we will also post the hint and the link on our Instagram story each day so you can head there as well. Neal, I think that about covers the logistics. I think it's time to hit him with the first clue.

[Neal Freyman]

The first clue. Here we go. The password. Anagrams to a major city. Ooh, the password. Anagrams to a major city.

[Toby Howell]

Good luck, everyone. Now, a word from our sponsor, Amazon Ads. Neil, would you say you work hard?

[Neal Freyman]

Do you really think I'm going to say no into recording equipment at our literal job?

[Toby Howell]

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[Neal Freyman]

Do you think I don't work hard?

[Toby Howell]

Charming antidote. There Neil, the point is, Amazon ads makes it easier for advertisers to plan, activate and measure their streaming TV campaigns. You don't even need to sell on Amazon to be a part of it.

[Neal Freyman]

Okay? To prove how hard I work, I learned about Amazon ads too. And it can be better than traditional media alone because trillions of buying, browsing and streaming signals help you reach your ideal audience.

[Toby Howell]

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[Neal Freyman]

Gain the edge with Amazon ads head to advertising.Amazon.com/start now that's advertising.Amazon.com/start now.

[Toby Howell]

Delta is taking personalizing the customer experience to a whole new level. No, they're not giving you custom snack options or seat specifications. They are using AI to set prices for individual customers. The concept of personalized pricing has been around for a long time now. Companies from supermarkets to ticket sellers have been hoovering up every piece of data possible to try and set prices on the fly. Airfares too, have been subject to wild price swings calculated using a mix of timing, demand and seat supply, making for a chaotic and sometimes annoying flight booking experience. But now Delta is shifting towards a new pricing approach powered by what it calls a super analyst, a system built alongside AI company Fetcher. This. The tool uses all the real time data mentioned above, but also consider things like past purchases and browsing behavior to tailor prices based on what the system believes each individual passenger is likely willing to pay. For Delta, it's an opportunity to milk even more revenue out of its customers. And indeed, it hopes to price 20% of its tickets individually using AI by the end of the year. But the passenger experience is also a concern. If two people booking the same flight at the same time get different prices due to some opaque algorithm, it could undermine trust in the whole pricing process and offset any revenue gains you were set to get from the model. Anyways, Neal, a bold new approach to pricing.

[Neal Freyman]

I mean, it kind of feels like you are going into a market in a foreign country and the vendor there is sizing you up, kind of seeing how much you're willing to pay for a particular good. And it's the. The word is opaque. You have no idea how much this particular souvenir or airfare is going to cost. And that is why there is a huge risk here that Delta is doing. Perhaps they will be maximizing profits and revenues by personalizing the Air Force for an individual, but the risk they're taking is that passenger feels cheated. Because why would a company do this if not to make you pay more in the long run?

[Toby Howell]

Yeah, a senator from Arizona Ruben Gallego has called the practice predatory. He said that an airline using AI to find your pain point and charge the highest fare it thinks you will accept. That's the key here. What do we think? We could push it up right to the limit of what you're willing to pay and not any further. And then there's also the idea of maybe some bias could creep into these models too, because federal law already bars pricing based off stuff like race, gender or other demographic info. What is getting fed into this model are those factors being included? We don't necessarily know right now. So the two concerns are it could be biased and it could be predatory.

[Neal Freyman]

Now, Delta says this is a complete revolution in how they price. I know, it does feel kind of murky about what? When you log on to Google flights or Delta and you're booking a flight and you see a price, you're like, how the heck did they calculate that? Well, airlines have priced their flights the same way for actually decades. Every time you look for a flight, airline puts you in one of the over 20 pricing buckets, each with its own rules and price. And then throughout the day, things do fluctuate based on how many seats are left or when you actually booking this flight. So that is kind of the formula, how it's worked for the past few decades. Delta says that this new AI super agent is completely ripping up that process and going to a super personalized model that will look at things like your browsing history, your purchase history, maybe what zip code you're coming from, really trying to pinpoint, and critics call it hacking your brain. But maybe that's perhaps the best way to put it, trying to pinpoint exactly the maximum amount you are willing to pay.

[Toby Howell]

And it could work in your favor. You could get offered more discounts if you're a new customer. Or maybe Delta needs to stimulate demand, it needs to fill more seats more quickly. So in a more fine tuned system, hypothetically, you could get a better price that traditional models could not come up with because the goal of any pricing tweak is to grow net revenue. And, and if they raise prices too high, that just means people will stop flying Delta, they'll go fly somewhere else, or maybe they'll browse using a VPN or use incognito mode or something like that. So this is not necessarily to say that it's going to automatically jack up prices. You could actually find yourself on the end of a discount if it does mean that that's what the algorithm said was the best price for you.

[Neal Freyman]

If you are, you know, more of a classic bargain hunter. But as you alluded to in your introduction, this is not going to stay in the airline industry. If it is successful. We could see algorithmic hyper personalized pricing spread to every industry from ticketing to food, and we'll see what the pushback is like. Wendy's tried this last year and it completely failed on its face. They said they were going to algorithmic surge pricing during particular parts of the day that lasted all of a few weeks. So there has been pushback in certain sectors. We'll see whether it's more successful in the airline sector where prices are more opaque than they are in the food sector. Okay, moving on. The WNBA's All Star Game was never going to be about the game itself and it was the players that made sure of it. As all the league's top ballers came out for warm ups ahead of Saturday night's game in Indianapolis, they wore black shirts that read pay us what you owe us. The sold out crowd took their cue from the players chanting pay them as WNBA commissioner Kathy Engelbert awarded Nafiza Collier the MVP trophy after the game. The protest highlights growing labor unrest between the players and the WNBA as the league explodes in popularity and rakes in more revenue than it ever has before. Nine months ago, players opted out of their existing contract and are negotiating with the league on a new collective bargaining agreement before a deadline in October. Face to face talks were held for the first time in months on the Thursday before the All Star Game, but players said it was frustratingly unproductive. So they huddled up at breakfast on Saturday and and decided to make the shirts to put more pressure on the league to boost their salaries. Toby WNBA pay has become a headline issue after Caitlin Clark's rookie salary was made public. The superstar made just over $78,000 in her first season with the Indiana Fever. And the highest paid player in the league, Jackie Young, makes a little over $250,000. The players say that doesn't square with the booming business of the wnba.

[Toby Howell]

Yeah, and it is booming. So the players do have a ton of leverage on their side. I mean, the new WNBA expansion teams from the rust belt in Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia, not really rust belt. Paid $250 million in expansion fees to join the league. Stadiums are being sold out. Tickets are getting more expensive. Some WNBA games are outdrawing NBA games. Merch sales are up. All this while players are earning less than NBA mascots, which is just insane to think about. And then also to clear one thing up to the WNBA players are not lobbying for the same salaries as NBA players. They just want a fairer percentage of the league's shared revenue. Right now over in the NBA, players get around 50% of the revenue basketball related income. Right now, WNBA players are receiving only 9.3% of the league's revenue. So they want to boost that up because the league has grown so much now.

[Neal Freyman]

There's a lot of reaction to this statement slash protest online. Certain people noted that The WNBA lost $40 million in 2024. So their protest of pay us more when you belong to an organization that lost $40 million doesn't necessarily square. They did. The WNBA did lose $40 million last year. It is going to be much more profitable next year because this new media deal is about to kick in. We talked about the exploding popularity of the league. The WNBA signed a new $2.2 billion media deal with new broadcasting partners, $200 million each year. So they are going to be much more profitable beginning next year because of that, that new media agreement that they reached. And I think that's what the players are trying to get a piece of the pie from because there's going to be so much more money sloshing around. You have these expansion teams with $250 million fees. There's going to be a flood of money coming in. The players say we have a lot of leverage right now. We don't want. Our existing contract was horrible for us. We were being paid 9% of league revenues. This is the time to strike. While maybe popular opinion is on our side, maybe they're taking their cue from the U.S. women's soccer team that sued the parent organization for more equal pay. So this is not going to go away. And you might see over the second half of the season, these protests pick up. As you know, the deadline, the October deadline for the new CBA nears.

[Toby Howell]

Yeah, one thing to look out for is some players have mentioned a walkout, which if you don't reach a CBA by October, that is very much on the table. All you meal preppers out there dutifully assembling your beef burritos to last you a week. I feel sorry for you. Beef prices have hit record highs that don't look like they're going away anytime soon. Ground beef averaged $6.12 a pound last month, up about 12% from a year ago in the first time. Beef has been above the $6 threshold since CPI data started getting collected back in the 80s. For those who enjoy the finer things in life, the steak Prices are also up about 8% year over year. There's a multi headed monster driving up prices. Cattle farmers have been navigating a years long drought that has reduced the size of their herds. US cattle inventory is actually at its lowest level in more than 70 years currently. The temporary banning of cattle imports from Mexico due to a parasitic flesh eating maggot has also hurt supply. And despite the lower supply, demand remains higher than ever. With the average American expected to eat nearly 69 pounds of beef this year. Plus we are smack dab in the middle of grilling season. Neil, the stakes have never been higher.

[Neal Freyman]

That was a good one. Tyson Foods CEO they're the largest. US meat packer said beef is experiencing the most challenging market conditions we've ever seen. There is a huge supply crunch right now. You mentioned cattle inventory is lowest in 75 years. The number of farms in the US including cattle ranches declined by 7%. There are 141,000 fewer of them between 2017 and 2024. 2022. The economics of the cattle business is getting a lot tougher. The price for particular cattle themselves are soaring. You have to pay a over $1,000 for a single animal. And that is, that is just too much of an outlay for these ranchers to take on. There's just a perfect 3, 4, 5 headed storm hitting the cattle. 4 ground beef above $6 for the first time since data collection began in the 1980s.

[Toby Howell]

There are some nuance to that herd shrinking number because the industry has gotten better at breeding bigger cows. So they actually can satisfy the same amount of meat production with fewer cattle. Which is just a pretty cool thing that you can do. You don't have to slaughter as many cattle as usual because you have bigger cows. And then also that calculus of, you know, cattle prices becoming more and more expensive, that has been a very difficult thing for cattle's or for ranchers to navigate because you have more incentive to sell cows now to capture that profit. But if you sell maybe a female cow, basically what you're doing is hedging your future earnings because you just sold that cow, it can no longer produce more offspring for them. So these ranchers are sitting down saying hey it's cattle prices are super high right now. Let's get the money in our pockets now. But then that might lead to thinning herds down the line. So just a tough time. In a business where margins are already very slim.

[Neal Freyman]

They might need to borrow Delta's aggregate algorithm to figure out that math problem. We haven't talked about one word that we've talked about so many times on the show. But that is the word tariff. You mentioned that prices are probably not going to go down anytime soon. One contributing factor to that is on August 1, Trump has floated a 50% tariff on Brazilian imports. Now, what does Brazil import to us? A lot of beef. Brazil accounts for around 23% of all U.S. beef imports and much of that is those lean beef trimmings that goes into ground beef. So, you know, if you're thinking about making burgers over the next few months, which we all are, like, definitely focus on these tariffs and they might have a big impact if there's a 50% tariff on a quarter of all beef imports that are coming into the United States. So cattle industry in a lot of flux right now.

[Toby Howell]

Up next, we have our winners of the weekend.

[Neal Freyman]

Toby, what makes you feel your best?

[Toby Howell]

A nice bubble bath, some smooth jazz.

[Neal Freyman]

And when modern performance wear meets classic style.

[Toby Howell]

I was going to say chocolate covered pretzels, but that too sounds like you're talking about Mizzen and Maine.

[Neal Freyman]

That's because I am, Toby. Their leeward dress shirt is the original performance fabric dress shirt. With those moisture wicking, wrinkle resistant, four way stretch and machine washable shirts, it's easier than ever to feel your best while looking tres chic.

[Toby Howell]

I'm partial to the Helzman pant. It's just like a classic tailored pant with all the benefits of the shirt and an elastic waistband and stretch pockets.

[Neal Freyman]

Head to mizzenmayne.com and get 20% off your first purchase with code brew20. That's mizzen and me.com and code brew20. You know what's even harder than waking up at 4 in the morning trying to start up a new business?

[Toby Howell]

Don't I know it. I've been cooking on this pickleball shoe idea for two years now. It ain't for the faint of heart.

[Neal Freyman]

That's why finding the right tools to help you build and simplify every process along the way can be a huge, huge game changer for millions of businesses.

[Toby Howell]

That tool is Shopify.

[Neal Freyman]

From ready to use templates to AI assistants, Get the word out like you have a full marketing team behind you. Shopify helps accelerate your content creation and leverage seamless workflows to get everything completed on time.

[Toby Howell]

And when it comes to commerce, Shopify's expertise ranges from managing inventory to international shipping to processing returns. If you're ready to sell, you're ready to shopify.

[Neal Freyman]

Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com com/morning brew. That's shopify.com/morning brew shopify.com/morning brew.

[Toby Howell]

It'S time for our Winners of the Weekend, the segment where Neil and I picked two stories who had a better weekend than Scottie Scheffler's Butter? I won the pre show dinosaur naming contest, so I'm up first. And my winner of the Weekend is Astronomer, because the company enmeshed in the Coldplay Kiss Cam fiasco has moved on from the CEO at the heart of the scandal. Before that fateful concert near Boston on Wednesday, Astronomer was a little known data company. But after a camera operator found then CEO Andy Byron embracing the company's head of HR on their Kiss Cam before guiltily ducking away, suddenly the whole Internet knew its name. It set off a firestorm of debate, both about the perils of crucifying people online after seeing a quick clip of them, but also about the publicity Astronomer was now receiving. Ryan McCormick, the founder of a PR firm in New York, told Business Insider it could be a blessing in disguise. The real silver lining, he said, is that if this company is doing something truly innovative, the likelihood of someone finding them has increased substantially. Indeed, Google searches for Astronomer have spiked far beyond any level the company has previously seen. Neil this was the story of the last few days, but the company is doing its best to put it in the rearview mirror and probably keep Coldplay off any break room playlist going forward.

[Neal Freyman]

They ran a pretty solid PR crisis playbook here. Faced with something that they probably did not expect, I thought this was a pretty savvy statement that they put out on Saturday and announcing the resignation of the CEO. Before this week, we were known as a pioneer in the data ops space. While awareness of our company may have changed overnight, our product and our work for our customers have not changed. Keep the focus on the work, move on from this fiasco, but perhaps now become more of a household name than they had been because they work in a very nitty gritty B2B space where they're doing data AI stuff and no one would have ever heard of them if they weren't in this particular industry. But they were founded in 2018, raised $375 million from investors including Bain Capital Ventures, Insight Partners, Salesforce Ventures, these big vc. So it's a pretty well known company in this particular space. Now it is a household name for most people in ways they could never have expected.

[Toby Howell]

This story just got so, so big. In the 24 hour period before the weekend, more than 22,000 news articles were written about astronomer. Roughly 9,000 were written about Byron, per Muckrach data. More than 15 million people read about the scandal, this analytics firm Memo found that puts the readership on par with things like the Diddy trial, Musk Trump feud and Pope Francis's. So we're talking about the biggest news stories in the world. And this was a Coldplay Kiss Cam concert that kind of erupted into this thing. We also saw it in popular culture. I mean, the Phillies did a reenactment with their Philly fanatic mascots and it just became like a larger than life a meme. So when you are kind of ensnared in a scandal of this magnitude, your crisis comms, you have to be in order. And some people said that Astronomer was a little late to the party. They probably could have come out a little earlier with a statement, but it did look like they threaded the needle.

[Neal Freyman]

Now there is a secondary winner here and there's not that many winners from this story, but another one is Coldplay. They're on this Music of the Spheres world tour, which they were at at Gillette Stadium when this whole thing happened. This Tour has made $1.3 billion over the past two and a half years. That is good for the second highest grossing tour of all time, compared only second to the ERAS tour by Taylor Swift. Coldplay just puts on an epic live show and I think a lot of fans who were be keeping that quiet over the past few years use this opportunity to say, yeah, I love Coldplay and now I'm going to go to this particular tour.

[Toby Howell]

They are viva ing that for sure. Deal?

[Neal Freyman]

All right, let's move on. My winner of the weekend is chess. Because though it's been around for millennia, the sport has never been more popular, exciting and dynamic as it is right now. Yesterday on International Chess Day, the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour wrapped up its tournament at the Wynn Las Vegas, doling out $750,000 to top grandmasters, including Magnus Carlsen and Hans Niemann. A brainchild of Carlson and co founder and a co founder entrepreneur, the Grand Slam Tour offers an innovative spin on the ancient game that hopes to bring it more into the mainstream. The games are shown on large screens suspended from the ceiling, complemented by displays tracking each competitor's heart rate. When they're done the match, the players enter a confession booth to spill the tea directly with the audience. And the matches are splashed across the Internet, where a thriving livestream community lives on Twitch and YouTube. When the chess drama queen's Gambit arrived on Netflix in the fall of 2020, chess enjoyed a growth spurt, just like so many other Covid activities. But unlike so many of those pandemic fads, the world's love affair with chess hasn't flamed out. In fact, it's only growing. Chess.com, the dominant player in the industry, recently reported its 200 millionth sign up and does more than $100 million in annual revenue. Said it hosted 35 million games per day in 2024, including not a few from your Morning Brew Daily hosts. Toby this makes you want to go out to Washington Square park and lose some money to some hustlers, which, by.

[Toby Howell]

The way, I have done. And you do lose every time. They just play weird. Okay, they're not better. Well, they are better than me, but they just play a little funky. But yes, chess has done a complete 180. At the time when Gary Kasparov faced off against IBM's Deep Blue and he lost to this new computer, people thought like chess was just solved because computers won. They are. They are smarter than humans. And then also as Magnus Carlsen has risen in, you know, the ranks, a lot of people said that with the brute force of calculation, solving chess and then Magnus just dominating everyone. Where was the mystery in classical chess? But then in comes kind of this streaming environment where players just play blitz chess a lot or you have chess 360 freestyle chess where you rearrange the back rank pieces and suddenly it's just introduced a new wrinkle to, you know, the world's oldest game. It shows more of the true skill of players rather than just these long classical chess slogs. I think they're doing a great job of making it more accessible to people who aren't super chess nerds. This last tournament had multiple broadcasts. One for hardcore chess fans and one for just the casual fans. So they are trying to just open it up to a broader audience here. So they have made a lot of savvy. I'm saying they. But this doesn't happen without like the people involved in chess, mainly Magnus Carlsen pushing the game forward. But it has been remarkable how they've reinvented the game and brought it to a bigger audience.

[Neal Freyman]

And I mean, I can't wait for. There's a movie coming out is going to be directed by Nathan Fielder and produced by Emma Stone. It's called Checkmate, produced made by A24, the movie studio. It's going to explore that huge cheating scandal between Magnus Carlsen and and his rival Hans Niemann. It is going to be. It's going to be adapted from a forthcoming book by Ben Mezrich, who the author behind the Social Network and Dumb Money. So we have a Nathan Fielder directed chess movie coming. How exciting is that?

[Toby Howell]

And by the way, Hans Niemann outlasted Magnus Carlsen at this latest tournament. So the rivalry has chapters that are continuing to be written.

[Neal Freyman]

All right, it's Monday, so here are the major events you need to know about for the week ahead. The earnings gauntlet is upon us. With more than one fifth of the S&P 500 set to drop Q2 financials this week. Alphabet and Tesla have volunteered as tribute to be the first Magnificent Seven companies to report, while aerospace and defense majors such as rtx, Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics are also on deck. This group of companies is on an absolute tear this year, up 30% compared to the S&P, 7% gain. And finally, everyone will be watching Coke earnings on Tuesday to learn whether they're actually switching from corn syrup to sugar.

[Toby Howell]

I'm pumped for Coke. I say we have a watch party. Neil, bust out some Mexican Cokes in the office, do a little blind taste test. Maybe that's how Coke CEO should break the news. Do a blind test those taste test between high fructose corn syrup and sugar on the earnings call and say whichever one wins, that's the one they orient their supply chains around. That would be good content.

[Neal Freyman]

And then on the small screen, everyone's favorite hockey stick putting golfer returns with Happy Gilmore to the follow up to the 1996 classic that remains one of the most quotable movies ever. The cameo packed movie hits Netflix on Friday. Also the new season of south park arrives on Wednesday following a weeks long delay and lots of drama. Like pretty much everyone else, the south park creators are bashing the pending merger of Comedy Central parent company Paramount and Skydance Media Media calling it a bleep show that's effing up South Park. Finally in the entertainment world, there's Comic Con happening on Thursday in San Diego, Fantastic Four hitting theaters on Friday and Shark Week on Discovery running all week.

[Toby Howell]

Man, I wish Shark Week was still a big deal. Maybe it's because I am just not little anymore. I was terrified of sharks growing up because you know I saw Jaws and I was seeded for Shark Week. But now maybe I'm just older. Maybe that's there's still kids out there who love it. As for Happy, Gilmer Calloway is actually selling a mini hockey stick putter that I am tempted to buy. Neil the only problem is it's you.

[Neal Freyman]

Need a new putter.

[Toby Howell]

500. Hey, 500 bucks. That could be an issue, but could be worth it.

[Neal Freyman]

That is all the time we have. Thanks so much for starting your morning with us and have a wonderful start to the week. If you have any thoughts on today's episode, send an email with questions, comments or feedback to Morning Brew Daily at Morning Brew Daily. And Toby, what is today's hint for password?

[Toby Howell]

The hint is the password anagrams to a major city. Good luck.

[Neal Freyman]

All right, let's roll the credits. Emily Milian is our executive producer. Raymond Lu is our producer. Our associate producers are Olivia Graham and Olivia Lake. Hair Makeup knows the password already. Devin Emery is our president and our show is a production of Morning Brew.

[Toby Howell]

Great show, Danielle. Let's run it back tomorrow.

[Neal Freyman]

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[Neal Freyman]

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[Toby Howell]

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