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First Half of 2025: Biggest Story, Biggest Flop, Best Meme and More
00:35:40
The guys recap the first half of 2025 in news
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- [00:02]
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- [00:56]
Neal Freyman
Good Morning Brew Daily Show. I'm Neal Freyman.
- [00:59]
Toby Howell
And I'm Toby Howell.
- [01:00]
Neal Freyman
Today we reminisce about the first half of the year in business news.
- [01:04]
Toby Howell
And then we speculate irresponsibly about what the second half of the year may bring. It's Thursday, July 3rd. Let's ride.
- [01:16]
Neal Freyman
Good morning and welcome to a special episode of Morning Brew Daily. Hope we're catching you just before you've switched off your brain for July 4th. Today, a look back and a look forward. 2025 just crossed the midway point. So we're handing out halftime game balls. What's been the biggest story of the year so far? What about the biggest flop? The best meme? Then we'll gaze into our crystal balls and offer up some extremely informed predictions about what could happen in the second half of the year. I'll share one right off the bat. The Mets aren't making the playoffs. Toby, I am pumped to go through these with you.
- [01:49]
Toby Howell
So am I, Neil. I'm also going to be quizzing Neal on some of the events that went down in either 20, 24 or 20 to see how closely he and you guys have been paying attention. I hope you all are listening to this in the car on your way to some body of water ahead of the fourth. Or if you live in a place where fireworks are banned, I hope you're legally crossing state lines to make things go boom. Either way, thanks for taking the time to listen.
- [02:14]
Neal Freyman
And now a quick word from our sponsor, Taco Bell. Toby, it is hot out here.
- [02:19]
Toby Howell
Yeah, Neil, but I am staying cool with this Refresca Freeze from Taco Bell.
- [02:24]
Neal Freyman
You can't see it, but Toby is wearing sunglasses.
- [02:26]
Toby Howell
It's like out of office office in a cup. Even when you got to be in office.
- [02:30]
Neal Freyman
Taco Bell has a full line of new refresco's including the Freeze along with the Agua Refresca Taco Bell twist on the beloved Mexican beverage mixed with real freeze dried fruit pieces and green tea.
- [02:42]
Toby Howell
There's also the Rock Star Energy Refresco with a delicious boost of energy.
- [02:46]
Neal Freyman
Head to taco bell.commorning-brew to learn more. That's taco bell.commorning-brew legal disclaimer at participating Taco Bell locations for a limited time only while supplies last. Agua Refresco's are made with artificial colors and natural fruit flavoring and contain less than 1% juice. Rockstar Energy Refrescos contain 200 milligrams of caffeine and are not recommended for children, pregnant or nursing women or persons sensitive to caffeine.
- [03:12]
Toby Howell
All right, to kick off our H1 superlatives, we are starting big with the biggest business news story of the year so far. Now, I should preface this by saying Neil and I have not told each other what we are picking. So so if we choose the same awardees, that is purely by coincidence and evidence that we spend way too much time together. I hope we don't, Neal, but kick us off so we can find out.
- [03:33]
Neal Freyman
My biggest business story of the year is Tariffs. President Trump's on again, off again Tariff threats in order to remake the global economy have upended business plans around the world and sent markets on a wild, historic ride. Stocks plummeted more than 12% when Trump announced Liberation Day tariffs against every other country in the world, including a tiny island that's only home to penguins. There biggest plunge since COVID and the Great Recession. But when he rolled back those tariffs one week later, the S&P 500 surged 9.5% in a single day, the best daily performance in 17 years. Despite rollbacks, tariffs are still much higher now than when Trump entered office. The US effective tariff rate is currently 18.8%, the highest in 90 years, versus 2.4% in 2024. Many companies have scrapped their guidance for the year due to all the policy uncertainty and higher inflation looms. So far, tarif have not been passed on to the consumer in the form of higher prices in any significant way. But Fed Chair Jerome Powell says he knows of no economist that doesn't expect that to happen later this year, and that's the main reason he's been holding off on rate cuts. So Toby, for all those reasons, it is clear to me that tariffs are the biggest business story of the year so far.
- [04:46]
Toby Howell
I mean, it is hard to debate that the main reason being that if you did a word cloud of the first half of the year on this show, we probably have said the word tariffs you innumerable amount of times. I mean in the hundreds, into the thousands amount. Because for a while every single top story that we were talking about had to do with tariffs. We had to try to figure out what's a different angle we could possibly talk about just because it did dominate so much of the headlines. So Neil, I had a sneaking suspicion that you were going to feel you were going to pick tariffs. That being said, I did not pick tariffs. What? Mainly for that reason, I think the biggest business news story of the first half of the year is the Sell America trade. For the past decades America has really been the only game in town. Post pandemic, 41% of all the money in the world that gets invested across national borders flowed into the United States. The Magnificent Seven alone are bigger than all European stocks combined. But in the first half of the year that vibe totally shifted. The US Dollar is at a three year low compared to the Euro. European stocks have been actually outperforming American stocks until a recent US rally. And demand for US treasury notes as a global safe haven asset has been shaky at best. So yes, tariffs and trade wars were the big story, probably were the biggest business news story. But downstream of those uncertainty inducing economic policies is capital flowing outside the US which has massive long term implications for the economic world order.
- [06:14]
Neal Freyman
Yeah, the dollar had its worst start to a year since 1973. 3 so I appreciate your your attempt to be creative, but I would say that Sell America trade is part and parcel of the tariffs story. Overall, I think we are on the same page here. This was the biggest story moving markets, moving business decisions for the first half of the year. No question. Okay, let's head to our Flop of the Year award sponsored by we work where we choose something that wished H1 of 2025 was just a nightmare they'll wake up from. Toby, who is your flop of the year so far?
- [06:47]
Toby Howell
My flop of the year is Doge. Think about the amount of oxygen and ink and airtime that we devoted to Doge's activity in the first few months of the year. Elon was omnipresent in these cabinet meetings. We all learned way too much about his teenage acolytes, including big balls who got access to sensitive government data. Programs are being cut left and right. People are getting laid off in the emails. The list five things they did in the past week. Email will go down in infamy but now that the dust is settled and Elon and Trump are on the outs, what is there to show for it? The most optimistic of Trackers coming from Doge itself, put the savings at $180 billion. Most news outlets could only verify around $70 billion of that, which seems like a lot of money. But the government spent nearly $600 billion in April alone. In the Congressional Budget Office estimates that Trump's big, beautiful bill alone would add nearly 3.3 trillion in budget deficits over the next 10 years. So Elon's goal was $1 trillion in cuts. He could barely manage a tenth of that.
- [07:46]
Neal Freyman
And I mean, Tesla's stock price was plummeting as he was doing his business in Washington, D.C. it does give a lot of credence to critics ahead of this initiative, saying many administrations on both sides of the aisle for the past few decades have tried something similar to doge. The bureaucracy, the red tape, the amount of disorder, organization or organization in Washington, D.C. is just so complex, it's so impenetrable that we've had initiatives like DOGE before. They've failed for the most part. And it looks like this one is just in a longer a long list of, you know, failed attempts to streamline the government.
- [08:23]
Toby Howell
We probably did mention the word dose, second most to tariffs in the first half of the year. What's your flop?
- [08:28]
Neal Freyman
My flop of the year is Apple. It sure seems like this iconic company has lost its mojo. It's far behind rival tech companies in terms of AI capabilities. With the much typed Siri update delayed indefinitely, the features that it has rolled out as part of its Apple intelligence suite have been underwhelming. And don't get me started about the disappointing Vision Pro virtual reality headset. Meanwhile, it's losing smartphone market share in China due to local competition, its app store walled garden has been broken open by regulators, and it's losing over $1 billion a year on its perplexing investment on Apple TV Plus. So it's no surprise that Apple stock is down more than 17%. So this year, compare that to Microsoft up 18%, Metta up 22% and Nvidia, which replaced Apple as the world's most valuable company, up 17%.
- [09:16]
Toby Howell
It is hard to argue with that. The vibes around Apple are not good right now. I remember early on in the show I was constantly being accused as being like, way too pro Apple, mainly because I was pretty excited for the Vision Pro to come out and, you know, the cool technological advancements that it would bring. But it really hasn't lived up to any of the promises of the updated Siri of the Vision Pro itself. I am totally on board with you and I think emblematic of that was at its last worldwide developer conference, which used to be this big thing where a lot of new, exciting updates were introduced. All they did was just change their operating system's visual esthetic look and everyone's like, kind of emblematic of what Apple is right now. They just paper over it with glossy esthetics, but nothing really of substance underneath. So I think it's absolutely deserving of the flop of the year award.
- [10:05]
Neal Freyman
Meanwhile, the chief designer of the iPhone and so many more of its, you know, iconic historic products has jumped ship. He left Apple in 2019, but instead of going back to Apple to design hardware for the company he worked with for decades, he is now linking up with Sam Altman. Joni, I've got paid. His firm got paid $6.5 billion to link up with OpenAI to develop a potential competitor to the iPhone. So things are not looking good for Apple. I don't know if you have an Apple prediction for the second half of the year, but hopefully they can turn this ship around. But the, you know, the walls are closing in just a bit. Okay, it's time for our science category. We're picking one advancement or breakthrough that happened in the first half of 2025 that would absolutely dominate a middle school science fair. Toby, what blew your mind scientifically so far this year? And you can't say your new lava lamp.
- [10:56]
Toby Howell
My biggest scientific breakthrough is the dude to let himself get bitten by hundreds of venomous snakes to create a sort of universal antivenom. The guy, Tim Fried, is just a normal fella from Wisconsin who started letting snakes bite him back in 2001 with the aim of building up his own immunity. At first it was just a hobby because who amongst us hasn't dabbled in some king cobra rights? But as he became more committed, he wanted to help the over 140,000 people who die of snake bites every year and the more than 450,000 who are injured. The actual scientific breakthrough here was a paper published back in May where researchers say they were able to create an antivenom that offers unparalleled protection against 13 lethal snakes and partial protection from six others with the help of Freed's blood. So it is the biggest dudes rock story of the year, while also potentially saving hundreds of thousand lives in the process.
- [11:49]
Neal Freyman
Well, if your guy is a dude's rock story, mine is maybe the second version of That a very similar story. Mine is the man with the golden arm. He didn't have to get himself bitten by all of these snakes, but he was a hero. An Australian man named James Harrison died in February after having protected an estimated 2.4 million babies from possible diseases or death. That's because his plasma contained a rare antibody that scientists could use to make a key medication. And Harrison donated blood every two weeks from age 18 to 81 to give them a constant supply. By the time he died at age 88, Harrison was one of the most prolific blood donors in history, having been pricked 1173 times. Too bad these two guys never got to meet each other.
- [12:35]
Toby Howell
That's what I was saying. If you combine their blood, you would have the most power, powerful blood in history. I think I'm going to give you, not that this is a fully a competition, but I'm going to give the edge to you there one, because the nickname the golden arm is just so sick. And then to just the scale that Harrison was able to help, you know, puts it over Freed's less, you know, large scale helping of people who are affected by snakebites. But two dudes rock. Two awesome scientific breakthroughs in general. All right, up next, you've heard us talk about a lot of news stories this year, but inevitably some slip through the cracks, which is why we're giving out the news story you forgot about award to the news story you probably forgot about. Neal, what did that big brain of yours end up remembering that most people forgot?
- [13:17]
Neal Freyman
My news story you forgot about is Red Note. Remember, this was the Chinese app that surged to the top of the App Store in January as TikTok users worried about an impending ban known as Tik Tok. Refugees came over in droves. What happened next was a remarkable moment of cultural exchange between Americans and Chinese people who don't often interact due to the Internet firewall that's been set up by the Chinese government. China based users offered Americans tutorials for using the app and they asked for help with their English homework. However, the camaraderie did not last. Tik Tok never went away because Trump pushed off the ban. And now RedNote is only talked about in lists of things you forgot about.
- [13:56]
Toby Howell
Neil, I'm not going to lie. Our big brains finally collided on this one. That was also my news story that you probably forgot about because it was just such a flash in the pan. It did reach number one in the app store, so it was a big deal for a very short amount of time. It was very funny seeing the interactions as well. But I mean this. The signup instructions for this app were in Mandarin. Like it was never going to be a long term thing. But it was funny for just a second to just see this, these two cultures colliding. So great.
- [14:27]
Neal Freyman
I never would expect that this is the one that we know because that's.
- [14:31]
Toby Howell
Maybe it was just. Yeah, we both forgot about it. We're like, oh, wait a second, so we're too smart. Let's just put it at that. All right, finally, let's give out our Meme of the Year award to the meme we think captured the essence of the first six months of 2025. Who was H1's hawk to a girl?
- [14:48]
Neal Freyman
Neil My Meme of the year is Benson Boone doing a flip off a piano at the Grammys. No one can quite get a handle on this mustachioed pop star. Despite getting ridiculed by critics, he had the most streamed song of all of 2024 with beautiful things, and he followed that up with a new album, American Heart, that debuted at number two on the charts. Pitchfork gave that album a 3.6 out of 10, saying that Benson Boone's flair can make up for the fact that his songs aren't very good and that he lacks a unique point of view. Still, you got to admit the guy does have flair, and that's made him a perfect vessel for virality in the TikTok age.
- [15:25]
Toby Howell
I mean, I am not a Benson Boone guy. You are more of a Benson Boone guy. But I will say if I could do a flip, I too would be flipping off every single panel I came across. So I'm not going to fault the dude for flipping. That is an underrated meme for sure though, because a lot of people kind of introduced to him for the first time at the Grammys, like, who is this dude? Why is he constantly flipping so Pretty astute memory right there. My Meme of the year is the 100 men versus one gorilla meme. This meme has floated around the Internet for a while now, but it caught fire again in the first half of this year. One guy on X renewed the debate by setting up the concept of a hypothetical battle between 100 unarmed men versus one silverback gorilla. Mr. Beast joked about asking for 100 male volunteers to make it a reality. Robert Irwin, Steve Irwin's son, weighed in on it, and Jake Paul boasted a video of himself with a grill in the background saying it's time to end the debate. So for me, definitely Meme of the Year material. Because one it was Pretty harmless. Two, it was easy to grasp and three, everyone had an opinion on it. So Neil, I won't even ask if you agree or disagree with my choice, but I will ask you to weigh in. Who do you think would win?
- [16:34]
Neal Freyman
Well, I'm curious. There were so many threads of zoologists and people who study gorillas weighing in on this. What did they end up saying?
- [16:43]
Toby Howell
Well a lot of them said that humans ability to coordinate and cooperate was obviously it's what makes humans, you know, rise to the top of the food chain. All already because we could plan an attack and take turns attacking the gorilla before the gorilla just would run out of energy. But a lot of you all just did say if humans were to attack one by one, 100 in a row, we would absolutely get demolished because the gorilla could, you know, swipe you away and do all just did say hey, we probably have overestimated and over exaggerated guerrillas strength. They are extremely strong but they're not enough to withstand just like the force of 100 men. So it was a fun debate because you could get really scientific about it or you could just imagine someone running at it with, with a lot of confidence but not a, not a whole lot of plan. Okay, we are going to take a quick break and come back with a business in Memoriam segment.
- [17:36]
Neal Freyman
We talk a lot about emerging technology here. But with how rapidly technology evolves, it's easy to fall behind the curve.
- [17:43]
Toby Howell
If only there were a team of AI engineers, data scientists and architects who could help us understand and align this new technology with our go.
- [17:51]
Neal Freyman
Well, wouldn't you know it Toby, there is. Deloitte can simplify the seemingly impossible and help brands achieve real business outcomes.
- [17:58]
Toby Howell
Their engineers leverage AI powered platforms to design scalable secure solutions. From cloud computing to cybersecurity, tailored to your needs.
- [18:06]
Neal Freyman
And through R and D innovation labs, engineering studios and their strong relationships with other leading technology providers, they can push boundaries and help clients bring groundbreaking solutions to market.
- [18:17]
Toby Howell
Start building toward the future at deloitte.com/us/technology-innovation that's deloitte.com/us /technology-innovation running small and medium.
- [18:29]
Neal Freyman
Sized businesses comes with a long to do list. And on that list is making sure your ads reach the right audience.
- [18:35]
Toby Howell
Amazon streaming TV ads help put small and medium businesses on premium content like prime video that people are already watching.
- [18:42]
Neal Freyman
With Amazon ads, you don't have to sacrifice relevance for reaching. Trillions of browsing, shopping and streaming signals help you reach relevant audiences and measurement.
- [18:51]
Toby Howell
Tools help show you what's working the hardest.
- [18:54]
Neal Freyman
Gain an Edge with Amazon ads, visit advertising.Amazon.com/start now that's advertising.Amazon.com/start now Cue the melancholy music because it's time for our first half in memoriam. No, we're not talking about the people who died, just remembering the products, features and moments that marked the end of an era. I will give Go first RIP to Skype, which owner Microsoft sunsetted in May. Founded in Estonia 22 years ago, Skype was one of the first services to offer free long distance voice and video calls, which allowed you to chat at no cost with your friends who you met on study abroad. Alas, Skype failed to seize its golden opportunity when the pandemic sent everyone working from home. And due to falling user numbers, Microsoft decided it wanted everyone to migrate to teams.
- [19:45]
Toby Howell
Oh, is right. It also is just so iconic with the sounds and everything. Like we all kind of have a conception of Skype. Growing up on the Internet was one of the first big Internet success stories, but you have to say they fumble just a 31 lead, whatever sports metaphor you want to lead. Because Skype was the way to connect over video. And what happened during the pandemic, video conferencing became absolutely massive. Zoom capitalized on the way, you know, Google Meets capitalized on the wave. But Skype couldn't muster up any momentum. So yeah, it's kind of sad and I wonder if, you know, in generations from now, people will even know what like Skype was or if it will always be, you know, zoom and Google Meets going forward. Our next in memoriam is dedicated to free bags on Southwest. As of late May, the iconic Bags Fly Free plan officially died. Southwest began charging you $35 for your first check mag, marking the end of an era. Though Southwest execs have held firm on the iconic perk for years, even trademarking the phrase. As recently as 2023, activist investors in a tough airline industry forced the company to adopt some of the nickel and diming methods of its rivals. The company claimed at an investor day in September that if it started charging for bags, it would only make $1.5 billion a year, compared with an expected loss of $1.8 billion in market share. And yet it did it anyway.
- [21:05]
Neal Freyman
Well, big changes are coming to Southwest. In addition to getting rid of bags free, just a couple of weeks ago, the CEO floated the possibility of creating airport lounges and also flying internationally. They just fly to Caribbean and met some Mexican destinations now. Now they've actually filed an application to fly to Europe. So this is part of a broader wholesale change that wants to move Southwest from what it had been for so many decades into just broader norms of the airline industry, which is how you make money. And that's what this activist investor wanted management types to do.
- [21:43]
Toby Howell
So lame. I just, I just fly Southwest and having to go to the kiosk and seeing that pop up was literally an out of body experience because that used to be what Southwest is. So maybe it will make them more money, but you know, it feel like it lost a little bit of its soul.
- [21:57]
Neal Freyman
For our next In Memoriam. He hasn't left us, thank goodness, but Warren Buffett is leaving his role as Berkshire Hathaway CEO after one of the most epic runs in business history. At the end of Berkshire's annual shareholder meeting In May, the 94 year old Buffett stunned the packed crowd in Omaha by revealing he would hand over the role he'd been in for 60 years to his handbook successor, Greg Abel. Talk about big shoes to fill. Berkshire stock could fall 99% and it would still outperform the S&P 500 since Buffett came on board in 1965.
- [22:28]
Toby Howell
That was the best part of admittedly a pretty sad retirement announcement is just going through all the insane stats that Berkshire Hathaway has has racked up. I mean, falling 99%, still outperforming the stock market, that is insane to say. Just goes to show, you know, the power of compounding. And also I'm a little bit nervous as to the future of the Berkshire Hathaway annual investor conference because this is like business celebrity heaven for a lot of people who follow the stock market. I don't know if it's going to carry the same weight without Warren Buffett. They are kind of, you know, dispensing his words of wisdom. Our final In Memoriam segment is dedicated to Microsoft's blue screen of death for 40 years computer running for 40 years, computers running Windows have displayed the same iconic screen when they run into issues that cause a restart. But the company announced last week that the blue screen of deaths will become the black screen of death by the end of the summer. The image has entered pop culture as the go to mean for everything that goes sideways. But the reason it's meeting its own demise is to improve readability and and align better with Windows 11 design principles. Again, the end of an era.
- [23:37]
Neal Freyman
Neil at least it went out with a bang. Remember last year's CrowdStrike cybersecurity outage where screens across the world at airports and train stations and computer desktops from Hong Kong to The United States all flash the blue screen of death. So it went out, you know, with a huge display that everyone in the world saw what it just what it meant by the blue screen of death. It was an introduction to many and it was a farewell for others.
- [24:05]
Toby Howell
All right, let's move on. And now we're going to look ahead to the second half of the year and offer up our own predictions for how things are going to shake out. Neil and I again have not told each other these yet, so I'm excited to see how hot your takes can get. Neal, I'm thinking you're more of a Tabasco sauce level guy rather than a Carolina reaper take artist, but maybe you'll prove me wrong. Give me your first prediction, Neal.
- [24:28]
Neal Freyman
This one is going to break the Scoville scale. I predict that a judge will force a breakup of Google. Remember last year Google was found to have an illegal monopoly in search. And later this summer, the same judge who made that decision will be announcing Google's punishment. The DoJ which brought the case has asked the judge to split Chrome and Android from Google and bar it from receiving $20 billion a year from Apple For Google to be the default search engine on Apple devices. I think there is a good chance that happens.
- [24:56]
Toby Howell
Wait, this is so perfect, Neil, because my first prediction is Google ends the year as the most valuable company in the world. And let me tell you why. Right now, Google is worth $2.2 trillion. Nvidia is worth $3.8 trillion. But Google is trading at a P E of only 18. If it were to be valued the same way as Microsoft and Apple right now, it would be a $4 trillion company. And I think it will eventually catch the market. Will eventually catch on to that because right now, AI is a money burning enterprise, a leader in the space. OpenAI is a private company with access to a lot of money. But Google is literally the most profitable company in the world with $111 billion in annual net income. So who do you want to back in the most capital intensive arms race the tech world has ever seen? OpenAI who needs to call up Daddy Masayoshi son from SoftBank for a couple billion dollars every other week? Or Google, whose core business spits off $110 billion in profit? I know who I am taking.
- [25:55]
Neal Freyman
Well, you're ignoring all of the threats Google is facing from these regulatory pressures to the fact that Open AI and Anthropic and Perplexity have all of these search tools that are supposedly eating away at Google market share. Just from My own experience, I'm using Google a lot less and turning to AI. But you don't seem to think that's a big deal.
- [26:14]
Toby Howell
I think it's going to win the eventual AI arms race because it has enough money and it has the research talent to, you know, compete with OpenAI at the top end of the models in, you know, the, the LLM arena, which is where people anonymously grade chat bots against each other. Google is winning right now. Gemini 2.5. I think flash is right now the top model in that arena. So already I think it has caught up and even surpassed Open Air. So I'm just taking the company with a lot of cash flow, a lot of cash to burn because you can't beat Google in a money burning enterprise.
- [26:50]
Neal Freyman
Okay, let's move on to our next prediction. I'll go. I think we are going to see at least one big shocking mass layoff that a company attributes to AI. If you listen, CEOs are already laying the groundwork for this, so it won't come off as such a huge shock. Last month, Amazon's Andy Jassy said that the company will need fewer people going forward because of AI's efficiency gains. Marc Benioff just said that AI is already doing up to 50% of the workload at Salesforce. That doesn't add up. If automation is now doing 50% of the work, why would you need all the human employees you had before? It doesn't make financial sense. So I think very soon we may reach a tipping point where a big tech firm like Meta or Google cuts like 10% of its engineering workforce. Because I can do it.
- [27:35]
Toby Howell
So you think it will come from engineers? That specific part of the works are.
- [27:39]
Neal Freyman
That seems to be what. From what I'm hearing from CEOs, it seems to be that is the aspect of their business rather than marketing or sales or any other department. Engineering is the one where they're deploying AI the most and where they're seeing the most efficiency gains.
- [27:52]
Toby Howell
And what is a big job cut to? You said 10, 10%. But I feel like we've already seen those announcements happening from, you know, Microsoft and we've.
- [28:00]
Neal Freyman
When?
- [28:01]
Toby Howell
Over the past couple of years or so.
- [28:03]
Neal Freyman
Like three years ago. Okay, so yeah, that was due to like pandemic over hiring. And then they cut 10 to 14% of their workforces. I'm saying they're going to cut at least 10% of their workforces and say this is because of AI.
- [28:14]
Toby Howell
Okay, so it's the. Because of AI. Yeah, that's the big action here.
- [28:17]
Neal Freyman
And I think that's going to set the world on fire.
- [28:19]
Toby Howell
Okay, probably a Tabasco skilled take right there, but I like it. I like it. All right, my next prediction is I think one of either the Olympics or the World cup gets postponed, delayed or moved. With the US Standing amongst global peers deteriorating, I could see boycotts, events coming down the pipeline, toss in the administration's aggressive immigration policies, and I think there's a real possibility that one of the two mega events, either the World cup, which is next summer, or the 2028 L. A Olympics, is shifted around.
- [28:48]
Neal Freyman
Yeah, that's not going to happen. There's. There's way too much money already been invested into these. These events up, you know, 10 to $20 billion. Companies from all over the world are, you know, sponsoring these things. They're making new arenas and events and construction projects are going. This is just not the kind of thing that could not take place. There's just too much money, Olympics going into it.
- [29:11]
Toby Howell
Olympics have been boycotted before, though. So I do think that there is a possibility that if the US Becomes increasingly unpopular on the global stage, that maybe a critical amount of companies could boycott it. So that's where that prediction is coming from.
- [29:24]
Neal Freyman
All right, my. I like where your thought process is, but I just think these things are almost inevitable at this point.
- [29:31]
Toby Howell
Point.
- [29:32]
Neal Freyman
My last prediction is that Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift are going to get engaged and Kelsey will announce his retirement.
- [29:38]
Toby Howell
Oh, are those connected? So it will be engagement, then retirement or I think.
- [29:43]
Neal Freyman
I don't know if the announcements will be in conjunction, but they will be connected to each other as Travis Kelsey just wants to stop playing football and keep his head about him as he, you know, goes and marries this pop star.
- [29:54]
Toby Howell
You think that they're meant to be?
- [29:56]
Neal Freyman
Sure. I've never talked to either of them. I only know grainy photos of them entering like random restaurants in New York.
- [30:03]
Toby Howell
I'm rooting, but sure, I'm rooting for that deal. All right. My final prediction is very similar to your final one, Neil. We. We find aliens between the James Webb telescope making its first discovery in exoplanet outside our solar system to the Vera C. Rubin Observatory creating that insane high resolution image of the cosmos. We have enough eyes looking at the skies that we're going to stumble upon something. We just haven't had the tech to find aliens yet, but now we do, and so we're going to find them. And then secondary prediction. I think they're going to be nice.
- [30:36]
Neal Freyman
You're so Naive. You don't think we've already found aliens or and they're just hiding it from us? Come on, Toby.
- [30:42]
Toby Howell
I like that. All right, we are going to find aliens or see a marriage between Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift. All right. Since we are halfway through the year already and time is a construct that blurs together, we're going to Finish off this H1 episode with the segment I'm calling Neal. Did this happen in 2024 or 2025? Are you ready?
- [31:01]
Neal Freyman
Let's do it.
- [31:02]
Toby Howell
Up first, New York City enacts a congestion charge for vehicles entering lower Manhattan and becoming the first city in the US to do so.
- [31:10]
Neal Freyman
That was in January.
- [31:11]
Toby Howell
January 5, 2025. All right, up next, Warner Brothers Discovery rebrands its streaming service.
- [31:18]
Neal Freyman
Oh, that could be 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025.
- [31:23]
Toby Howell
I wasn't finished. HBO Max.
- [31:27]
Neal Freyman
I think that happened a few months ago, but that certainly has been a long running saga where it's gone back and forth multiple times, much to the delight of Internet users.
- [31:38]
Toby Howell
Yeah, I left that open ended on purpose. All right. The Notre Dame Cathedral reopens to the public after previously being damaged by a fire in 2019.
- [31:47]
Neal Freyman
Well, I was there last year and it had a ton of scaffolding around it. So I think they were still working on it. I'm going to say that it was reopened this spring.
- [31:57]
Toby Howell
It was December 7, 2024. We covered it. It was, it was a big deal because, you know, so much money had flown in. So, yeah, it was right on that cusp.
- [32:05]
Neal Freyman
I was there in the summer. I guess they were just tidying things up.
- [32:08]
Toby Howell
Yeah. All right. American Airlines rolls out a new boarding process tech which sounds an alarm if someone tries to board a flight before their group is called.
- [32:17]
Neal Freyman
Oh, I have no idea. Let's go with last year.
- [32:21]
Toby Howell
That was last year in October. Actually, that felt kind of recent to me because I have been looking at airports to see if there are line cutters. It's still kind of a smaller test, but I hope they roll that out to the wider public because getting buzz. I said bring shame back to society. And I think that is a great reason in a great method for doing it. All right. Pantone names Mocha Moose as the color of the year.
- [32:46]
Neal Freyman
Okay, so when they announced the color of the year, is that the year before? Is it 2025 color of the year or 2024 color of the year or 2026? Let's go. I don't think Mocha Moose was this year. I'm going to say 2024, the fall.
- [33:00]
Toby Howell
Technically, it was named in December 5, 2024, but it is 2025, color of the Year.
- [33:06]
Neal Freyman
Are you seeing a lot of Mocha Moose around?
- [33:07]
Toby Howell
No, I haven't seen any of it, but I just picked it because it is right on that borderline. Technically, I would have accepted both answers. Okay, one more question before a Rapid Fire segment. The Florida Panthers win the Stanley cup finals, beating the Edmonton Oilers.
- [33:21]
Neal Freyman
Also, another trick question. That was both years, Toby.
- [33:24]
Toby Howell
That was both years. Okay, here is my final rapid fire 23 and me files for bankruptcy this year. Party City files for bankruptcy this year. That was last year, December 2024. And Joanne Fabrics files for bankruptcy this year. That was January of 2025.
- [33:39]
Neal Freyman
All right, Neil, you Thank you, Toby. Good job.
- [33:41]
Toby Howell
Well, thank you so much. Thank you all for listening to this episode. I hope you enjoyed our hot takes. If you want to weigh in, make sure you send us an email as well. Neil, hit us with our credits.
- [33:51]
Neal Freyman
Yes. If you have any thoughts on today's episodes and an email with questions, comments or feedback to Morning Brew daily@morning brew.com 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 and makeup. Thanks. Toby's predictions couldn't be more wrong. Devin Emery is our president and our show is a production of Morning Brew.
- [34:11]
Toby Howell
Great show, Danielle. Let's run it back tomorrow. Oh man, I am fading. I either need an iced coffee or vacation or both.
- [34:28]
Neal Freyman
Toby, what if I said you could get the benefits of both in one cup?
- [34:32]
Toby Howell
What?
- [34:33]
Neal Freyman
That got all over the studio. But yes, Taco Bell's new lineup of refresco drinks are like a little out of office this in a cup.
- [34:40]
Toby Howell
So I am to believe that Agua Refrescas with Green Tea and Freeze, dried fruit, Rockstar Energy Refresca with Extra Energy and the new Refresca Freeze are all handmade to order.
- [34:50]
Neal Freyman
That is correct. He left. Anyway. Head to taco bell.commorning-brew to learn more. That's taco bell.commorning-brew at participating taco Bell locations for a limited time only while supplies last class. Agua Refrescas are made with artificial colors and natural fruit flavoring and contain less than 1% juice. Rockstar Energy Refrescas contain 200 milligrams of caffeine and are not recommended for children, pregnant or nursing women or persons sensitive to caffeine.