Hollywood’s Elite Protest Paramount-WBD Merger & Zuck Makes AI Clone of Himself?

Summary

Morning Brew Daily - Episode Summary

Episode Title: Hollywood’s Elite Protest Paramount-WBD Merger & Zuck Makes AI Clone of Himself?
Release Date: April 14, 2026
Hosts: Neal Freyman & Toby Howell

---

Episode Overview

Neal and Toby kick off the week covering two standout stories:

• Intense backlash from Hollywood’s elite over the $110 billion Paramount-Warner Brothers Discovery (WBD) merger, raising alarms about job losses and creative stagnation.
• News that Mark Zuckerberg is testing a photorealistic AI-powered clone of himself to interact with Meta employees—a bold step into the future of AI-powered leadership.

The episode also explores America’s “annoyance economy,” the booming industry of colorful cold drinks called “refreshers,” an unprecedented spat between the Pope and US President, violence targeting AI leaders, and a record-setting WNBA draft.

---

Paramount-Warner Brothers Discovery Merger: Hollywood Protests

[02:41–06:16]

• Story: Over 1,000 Hollywood stars—including Ben Stiller, Kristen Stewart, Bryan Cranston, and J.J. Abrams—published a public letter warning of apocalyptic job losses and creative decline if Paramount’s $110B takeover of WBD goes through.
• Details:
  • The merger would combine two leading studios, two major news networks (CNN, CBS), and two large streaming platforms (HBO Max, Paramount+).
  • Stars warn it will “further consolidate an already concentrated media landscape... [leading] to fewer opportunities for creators, fewer jobs across the production ecosystem, higher costs and less choice for audiences” (Neal, quoting the letter, [03:15]).
  • Actors are not just worried for themselves:
    • “They say in their letter that they're looking out actually for the little guy... the blue collar workers who work on these sets...” (Neal, [04:37]).
  • Job losses are real: 30% drop in employment for roles like actors, carpenters, and costumers since 2022 according to Labor Department data.
  • Productions are increasingly filmed overseas for tax breaks.
• Industry context:
  • TV and movie output is shrinking; Netflix’s Q1 2026 23 original movies is its lowest output since 2017.
  • Paramount (via David Ellison) pledges 30 annual theatrical releases, but the industry is generally cutting back.
• Notable Quote:
  • Damon Lindelof (creator of Watchmen) speaks up: “I'm looking out for the quote, thousands, thousands of grips and gaffers, drivers and decorators.” (paraphrased by Neal, [04:37]).

---

The “Annoyance Economy” & Consumer Frustration

[06:16–10:19]

• Story: Companies are tacking on new fees and surcharges, citing reasons like the war in Iran, but passing extra costs to already stretched consumers.
• Stats & Trends:
  • 34% of small businesses add credit card surcharges; 1/5 restaurants now add fees ([07:05]).
  • Annoyance economy estimated to cost American families $165B yearly in time/money.
  • Customer service phone times are up 60% over 20 years; companies strategize to exhaust customers into giving up on cancellations—resulting in a revenue uptick of 14–200% ([08:40]).
  • “Cash App... fine last year for providing literally a fake customer service line that just directed customers to a prerecorded message. This is how the companies are treating you right now.” (Toby, [08:30]).
• Politics:
  • Unifying issue: 87% of people strongly support restricting robocalls (YouGov 2024), and 2/3 say Congress should act on these issues.
  • “If you want the one issue in politics today that unifies America, it is the annoyance economy. It’s universally disliked.” (Toby, [09:44]).
• Humor:
  • Neal: “I want to know the minority in those who are just like, you know what? No, no problem.” ([10:15]).

---

Zuck Gets Cloned: The Rise of the AI CEO

[10:19–14:05]

• Story: Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly training Meta’s AI to create a photorealistic “virtual Zuck” that employees can interact with using chat and video.
• Details:
  • The model is being trained on Zuck’s voice, looks, mannerisms, and thoughts on strategy.
  • Purpose: make Zuck more accessible to tens of thousands of employees; let him answer questions and lay groundwork for other AI-powered avatars.
  • Sam Altman (OpenAI) recently called the CEO job “one of the more automatable jobs out there... because AI can have 10x the context any one executive can carry” ([11:14]).
• Speculation:
  • Might Zuck’s AI do unpleasant CEO tasks? “…when he has to make a difficult announcement... layoffs. Who’s going to do that? The real Zuckerberg or the avatar Zuckerberg?” (Neal, [11:36]).
  • This initiative could lay the groundwork for photorealistic AI influencer avatars across Meta’s platforms.
  • “Meta, more than any other AI company, is really interested in photorealistic embodiments of AI characters…” (Neal, [13:14]).
• Memorable Quotes & Moments:
  • Toby: “Everyone's just waiting to see if this version of Zuck has legs because the Metaverse version did not.” ([13:55])
  • Neal (on digital clones): “He loves digitally cloning himself...” ([11:36])
  • Zuck isn’t just automating for others: “He is designing a CEO agent that helps him do his job as a CEO.” (Toby, [12:25])

---

Toby’s Trend: The Big Business of “Refreshers”

[16:00–19:39]

• Story: The rise of the “refresher”—vibrant, cold, Instagrammable drinks—has become a multi-billion-dollar business.
• Key Points:
  • Refreshers = cold, colorful, and not quite coffee or tea. Starbucks claims it invented the category in 2012; now a $2B business for them.
  • McDonald’s entering the space with its own line of bright fruit drinks this summer (e.g. Red Bull Dragonberry Energizer, Mango Pineapple Refresher).
  • “Ice beverages surpassed hot beverage sales at Dunkin two years ago and no one's looked back since.” (Toby, [18:04])
  • Inspire Brands and Dutch Bros cite “refreshers” as top sales growth drivers.
• Stats:
  • Inspire Brands: refreshers are their single largest contributor to incremental sales.
  • Dutch Bros energy drinks helped it become the #3 US coffee chain.
• Humor/Memorable Moments:
  • Toby: “I think I invented refreshers because you know what I was doing when I walk into a soda fountain, it's lemonade, Sprite and Powerade...” ([19:27])
  • Neal: “I've never seen anyone order one, but I guess Gen Z, Gen Alpha and others absolutely love them.” ([18:48])

---

Headlines Roundup

[19:39–24:10]

• Vatican v. White House:
  • Pope Leo embarks on an African tour as President Trump launches an unprecedented tirade, calling him “weak on crime, weak on nuclear weapons, and catering to the radical left” ([19:39]).
  • Pope Leo: “I speak of the gospel and I will continue to speak loudly against war. I have no intention of entering into a debate with him.” ([20:19])
  • Neal & Toby: Vatican watchers compare the feud to medieval king-pope conflicts.
  • Political Impact: 41% of US Catholics approve of Trump—down from 48% last year.
• Violent AI Backlash:
  • Attack on Sam Altman: 20-year-old Daniel Moreno Gamma throws a Molotov cocktail at Altman’s house, later smashes into OpenAI HQ and leaves a violent anti-AI manifesto ([20:19–21:55]).
  • Altman responds, posting a family photo, and says “it was important to de-escalate the rhetoric and tactics, try to have fewer explosions in fewer homes, figuratively and literally.” (Neal, [21:55])
• WNBA Draft Milestone:
  • Dallas Wings select shooting guard Azzi Fudd (UConn) as #1 pick—now making $500K, up from $78K last year under the new collective bargaining agreement ([23:09]).
  • Fudd joins teammate/girlfriend Paige Beckers, stirring up “WNBA Twitter” controversy.
  • “She’s basically Steph Curry with defensive chops. Seems like a good player to have on your roster...” (Toby, [23:09])

---

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On the Paramount-WBD Merger:
  • “The result will be fewer opportunities for creators, fewer jobs across the production ecosystem, higher costs and less choice for audiences in the United States and around the world.” (Hollywood letter, Neal quoting, [03:15])
  • “I'm looking out for the quote, thousands, thousands of grips and gaffers, drivers and decorators.” (Damon Lindelof, via Neal, [04:37])
• On the Annoyance Economy:
  • “This is how the companies are treating you right now. And that's why everyone feels so annoyed.” (Toby, [08:56])
• On Zuckerberg’s AI Clone:
  • “Maybe you have to tell everyone that they need to come back to the office. Maybe you do mass layoffs. Who's going to do that? The real Zuckerberg or the avatar Zuckerberg?” (Neal, [11:36])
  • “Everyone's just waiting to see if this version of Zuck has legs because the Metaverse version did not.” (Toby, [13:55])
• On Refreshers Trend:
  • “Ice beverages surpassed hot beverage sales at Dunkin two years ago and no one's looked back since.” (Toby, [18:04])
  • Toby: “I think I invented refreshers because... lemonade, Sprite and Powerade in there. That feels a little refresher.” ([19:27])
• On Trump vs. the Pope:
  • “You have to jump back to the Middle Ages when kings and emperors were shouting against the Pope in Rome, calling him false... there is just no other recent example like this.” (Marco Politti, Vatican watcher, via Toby, [20:19])
• On WNBA's progress:
  • “The rookie salary for last year’s number one WNBA pick was Paige Beckers. She made $78,000 a year. The rookie salary for Fudd is $500,000... night and day between last year and this year.” (Toby, [23:09])

---

Timestamps for Major Segments

• Paramount-WBD Merger & Hollywood Backlash: [02:41–06:16]
• The Annoyance Economy: [06:16–10:19]
• Zuckerberg’s AI Clone: [10:19–14:05]
• Toby’s Trend – Refreshers: [16:00–19:39]
• Headlines (Pope v Trump, AI Attack, WNBA Draft): [19:39–24:10]

---

Tone and Style

The episode is witty, fast-paced, and deeply informed, blending serious business news with pop culture and sharp, playful banter. Neal and Toby maintain a conversational and humorous style even as they address topics with serious social, economic, or industry impact.

---

Transcript

[A]

Marketers tell us if this sounds familiar. You invest in something that seems incredible, like millions of views, but then don't see any revenue. Instead, invest in what looks good to your CFO. LinkedIn Ads generates the highest roas of all major ad networks. Spend $250 on your first campaign on LinkedIn ads and get a $250 credit. Just go to LinkedIn.com mbd that's LinkedIn.com mbd Terms and Conditions apply.

[B]

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

[A]

And I'm Toby Howell.

[B]

Today, Hollywood stars warn of a job's apocalypse in an anti Paramount merger plea.

[A]

Then Zuck is making an AI clone of himself. It's Tuesday, April 14th. Let's ride.

[B]

So I was at the gym the other day and a listener came up to me and told me, hey, I are you Neil? I love the show, which was very cool, but it was the next thing he said that will probably stick in my mind forever. You have my vote for the Webbies. Morning Brew Daily has been nominated for a Webby Award for the best business podcast and winning would be pretty fantastic for me. Visibility and highlight the amazing community of listeners this show has. It's all decided by a fan vote, so we'd be so grateful if you took one minute out of your day to show your support.

[A]

That happened to me too, Neil. A guy came up to me at the gym and said you can bench 315. I was like yes for for reps. But yes. Last time we did a Webby shout out, you all helped us eat into a 20 percentage point deficit. We were losing to Pivot Pod, which is hosted by Kara Swisher, Scott Galloway. This time we finished the deal. This is an all hands on deck situation. If you listen, listen to MBD for years now. Take out your phone, head to the link in the show description and vote. And if this is your first episode, phone out and vote. If this is the 17th episode you've listened to, you don't have to vote actually, but only if you're 17 episodes in exactly everyone else. You guys have to vote.

[B]

And the deadline for voting is April 16, which is Thursday. So make sure you do it today. This episode is brought to you by On Investing, an original podcast from Charles Schwab. Each week, host Liz Ann Saunders, Schwab's chief investment strategist and and Colin Martin, head of fixed income research and strategy for the Schwab center for Financial Research, bring you fresh insight into what's happening in the markets and why and what the implications might be for your portfolio.

[A]

Join Colin and Liz and as they explore questions like how do you evaluate corporate bonds that look interesting? And what sectors are on the move right now? You can download the latest episode of On Investing and subscribe so you never miss an [e-mail] on investing or wherever you get your podcasts.

[B]

The people who normally walk the red carpet are raising red flags around Paramount's acquisition of Warner Brothers. More than 1,000 Hollywood stars, including Ben Stiller, Kristen Stewart, Bryan Cranston, Glenn Close and J.J. abrams, published a letter warning that the proposed $110 billion mega merger would raise prices for consumers and cost Los Angeles already shaky film and TV industry to enter a free fall. The letter claims this transaction would further consolidate an already concentrated media landscape rather than reducing competition at a moment when our industries and the audiences we serve can least afford it. The result will be fewer opportunities for creators, fewer jobs across the production ecosystem, higher costs and less choice for audiences in the United States and around the world. Back in February, Paramount Skydance prevailed in a grueling battle against Netflix to take over Warner Brothers in a deal that will combine two storied Hollywood giants. If it closes, the unified company will control two movie studios and two major news networks, CNN and cbs, and two of the biggest streaming services, hbo, Max and Paramount. Plus the actors and directors who penned the letter see only danger and consolidation. But ultimately it's not up to them. Antitrust regulators in the U.S. uK and elsewhere are scrutinizing the deal and are expected to approve it.

[A]

The actors have a point. Hollywood studios are making fewer movies, are making fewer TV shows than they did even a few years ago. There's been a third 30% drop in employment to since 2022 for actors, carpenters, costumers, all the professionals that make up the movie industry. That is, according to Labor Department data. And most big budget movies, if they even are happening, are no longer happening in Hollywood anymore. A lot of them are shooting overseas. They want to take advantage of tax credits. So when you talk about the industry anxiety right now, yes, they're centering it on this particular merger between Paramount and Warner Brothers. But just in general, the movie industry and Hollywood in general is not in a very stable place right now.

[B]

And these stars are probably going to be fine because they make millions of dollars for each movies. But they say in their letter that they're looking out actually for the little guy. Just that the regular average blue collar workers who work on these sets and who work in the industry, I thought Damon Lindelof had an interesting comment. He's the creator of Watchmen and other shows. He said that I actually know David Ellison who's the CEO of Paramount, it might be the new CEO of Paramount, Warner Brothers. And said he's yeah, he's a great guy, bright, ambitious and passionate executive who loved movies and trust the people he made them with. So I think David Ellison has been maybe a boogeyman a little bit in this industry as someone who's going to come in and try to cut jobs. But Damon Lindelof said, look, I think David Ellison loves movies. Just I'm looking out for the quote, thousands, thousands of grips and gaffers, drivers and decorators. And so it's those blue collar workers that these stars are using their platform to look out for.

[A]

And Ellison has said, listen, we hear you creative community. We want to maintain the theatrical releases that Warner Brothers has done in the past. They've pledged to Release at least 30 movies in theaters annually. But that is kind of going against the grain of where the industry is moving right now. Netflix used to crank out tons of movies, tons of Netflix originals. And in Q1 of 2026 they released 23 original movies. It sounds like a lot of movies, I mean 23 1/4. Ellison is pledging 30 over the entirety of the year. But that's actually Netflix's lowest output since 2017. They've been pulling back on films. This feeds into their strategy of making better content, not more content. But if you are an actor or your grip or you're anyone who works in the industry and you see Netflix saying, hey, we want to make less movies, of course you're a little bit anxious.

[B]

Well, this deal, as I said, is expected to close later this year. It's undergoing reviews in the uk, the United States, but they're not expected to sort of raise any antitrust concerns as actors and some politicians have worried about, okay, the American consumer is getting pinched and squeezed like a cute baby being introduced to the friend group. New fees, surcharges and add on costs are increasingly getting tacked on to the end of bills as companies dip into customers wallets to pay for their own growing expenses. Some of these add ons are new as a result of the war in Iran. Think fuel surcharges for flights. But fee proliferation has been going on for months, even years. The Wall Street Journal reports per a 2025 J.D. power survey, the 34% of small businesses were adding credit card surcharges and 1/5 of restaurants are currently adding surcharges or fees. To checks, up from 16% four years ago, according to the National Restaurant Association. A dollar here, $2 there may not break the bank, but it sure is annoying. Which is exactly how researchers have described this nickel and diming. A report released earlier this year explored the so called annoyance economy, the extra fees, the mountains of paperwork, the difficult cancellation processes Americans deal with on a daily basis, and concluded annoyance economy costs up to $165 billion a year in time and wasted money for American families. And it's taking a serious toll. On Friday, the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment reading fell to its lowest level ever, worse than in the 2008 recession or the pandemic.

[A]

What's even worse is that as we're being nickeled and dimed, the customer service experience has gotten ever worse. Customer service phone time has gone up 60% over the last 20 years because companies are basically betting on the fact that you are going to lose steam, you're going to lose enthusiasm for whatever issue you brought in and just give up. And that actually ends up driving revenue for those companies. Because if you go into a call with the intention of canceling a service and you end up giving up, that's still revenue going into the pockets of the service that you were trying to cancel. A consumer raid survey found that 74% of customers reported a problem last year. That's up double the rate that that was recorded in 1976. So people are not happy with their products or services they're receiving, and yet when they go to customer service lines, they don't get good service there either. And then a separate study found that company's revenue does tick up 14 to 200% simply by making it harder to cancel subscriptions to their product. I'm thinking back to Cash App, which was fine last year for providing literally a fake customer service line that just directed customers to a prerecorded message. This is how the companies are treating you right now. And that's why everyone feels so annoyed.

[B]

And one of the reasons maybe why we're so beaten down, why we acquiesce to this, is that what companies are doing is they're shifting the blame with these surcharges. So Delta, United, all these airlines are raising fees and bag fees and they're saying, look, this is out of our control. We didn't start the war in Iran. We didn't block the Strait of Hormuz. This is just an external variable that was foisted upon us. And now we have to, you know, our expenses are growing. Jet fuel is our second largest expense. So we have to raise money to cover our expenses. We need to make a profit. And so they're shifting the blame. And there are other reasons for this too. Maybe last year there was a E Commerce retailer that added a tariff fee and so they're just externalizing the blame. And maybe that's one reason that research are that consumers are saying, you know, like, I get it from their perspective, I don't like it, but I'm still going to pay up.

[A]

By the way, as midterm elections approach, if you want the one issue in politics today that unifies America, it is the annoyance economy. It's universally disliked. A YouGov poll from 2024 found that 87% of respondents strongly support restrictions on telemarketers use of robo calling. Another poll found that 2/3 of likely voters said they wanted Congress to make addressing these issues a priority. So it really is. I mean we're talking 87%, 2/3 of voters, like this is a very unified issue.

[B]

I want to know the minority in those who are just like, you know what? No, no problem.

[A]

Some, some people just want to chat with a telemarketer from time to time. All right, moving on. In 1996, Dolly the sheep became the first animal to be successfully cloned. In 2026, Mark Zuckerberg has become the first CEO to be successfully cloned. Now, there's not going to be two Zucks walking around doing Murphs and showing up to UFC fights, but Metta is building a photorealistic AI powered virtual version of its CEO that employees will be able to interact with. According to the Financial Times, the model has been trained on his voice and look and also his mannerism, tone and recent thinking on company strategy. The idea is for the AI doppelganger to be where Zuck isn't answering questions from employees and laying the foundation for what could be other AI powered characters that are reportedly in development. Automating a CEO has become a very trendy industry conversation lately. Sam Altman told Axios last week that the CEO job is, quote, one of the more automatable jobs out there. His thinking is that since I can have 10x the context that any one executive can carry the A CEO bot can be very helpful in bringing everyone in an organization up to speed on what the head honcho is thinking. Neil, all of us have at one time or another been in a meeting and thought, dang, I wish I could clone myself so I wouldn't have to sit here. Zuck actually is going out and Doing it.

[B]

Genius move by Zuck. I mean, think down the line when he has to make a difficult announcement. Maybe you have to tell everyone that they need to come back to the office. Maybe you do mass layoffs. Who's going to do that? The real Zuckerberg or the avatar Zuckerberg? Obviously you're going to have your A avatar do it. But I am interested in how this might look like in practice. You're a Meta employee, go into work, you open up your laptop, and there's just a face of Mark Zuckerberg face there, like Clippy, that you can ask questions to. I mean, maybe that's not so ridiculous. But Zuckerberg himself, he has a history of doing this. He loves digitally cloning himself. Go back to 2022 when they introduced the Metaverse. The first thing that they showed was a very cartoonish looking Mark Zuckerberg in Horizon Worlds, which was their metaverse space. So he seems very okay with just someone taking his likeness and just putting it anywhere.

[A]

The idea is to make employees feel more connected to him. Because if you work at Metta, there's hundreds, there's tens of thousands of employees there. You're not getting a lot of FaceTime with Mark Zuckerberg. You probably go your entire career without ever talking to him. So by having the Mark Zuckerberg Clippy version there, you can ask him questions, you can bounce ideas off of him. And just to be clear too, this is separate from another CEO project that Zuck is cooking up. He is designing a CEO agent that helps him do his job as a CEO, where maybe he wants to retrieve information quickly about the organization better. Instead of having to go through multiple lieutenants, he can just prompt his CEO bot. So clearly he's trying to walk the walk here. As he's telling his organization to adopt AI, he's cloning himself and using a AI agent to help him do his job as CEO.

[B]

He might be the guinea pig. Also, for larger ambitions Meta might have in creating AI avatars of influencers and creators, which are so integral to their social media ecosystem. I would say Metta, more than any other AI company, is really interested in photo photorealistic embodiments of AI characters in a way that certainly like anthropic OpenAI and Microsoft are not, or Google. So maybe, maybe they're using Zuck as as a test case to see whether people like interacting with AI photorealistic versions of real people, because then they can take it to influence influencers and creators on Instagram. And if that drives better engagement then you know, that could be great business for them down the line.

[A]

Everyone's just waiting to see if this version of Zuck has legs because the Metaverse version did not. So as as long as it got legs to stand on, I think it's an improvement.

[B]

I thought you could say either less or more robotic than the original version.

[A]

Yeah, that too. All right, we're going to take a quick break and come back with Toby's Trend right after this. I hear we're talking about acting today.

[B]

No, we're talking about Tax Act.

[A]

And why did I bring a skull?

[B]

I have no idea. But the reason we're talking about Tax act is they help small business owners get their taxes done. They make it easy by providing the only online DIY filing software for small businesses.

[A]

With Tax act, you can file your business taxes any way you'd like, whether that's by yourself or an expert can prepare and file for you.

[B]

Just head to taxact.com/business-returns to get started. That's taxact.com business-returns

[A]

Neal it feels like everyone's trying to get more protein these days.

[B]

Yeah, I've seen protein popcorn, protein cookies and even a protein martini recently.

[A]

I think I'll stick to Flav Cities all in one protein smoothies. They've got delicious flavors like mint chocolate, banana bread, brownie batter and more that are as good as any dessert. No martini flavor yet.

[B]

They're made with real whole food ingredients, 25 grams of protein, 10 grams of collagen and functional mushrooms.

[A]

Head to shopflavecity.com to get your protein fix. That's shopflav city.com marketing your brand these days probably feels harder than finding a good avocado at the grocery store at

[B]

5pm Lucky for you, Instacart built a one stop shop for grocery retail media across more than 2200 retail banners to help you reach all sorts of high intent consumers.

[A]

Instacart's ad platform covers the entire shopping journey and it's all backed by real time optimization and closed loop reporting.

[B]

Keep your brand top of mind and top of the grocery list with Instacart. Hit the checkout with [e-mail] that's ads.instacart.com

[A]

do you ever find yourself craving some caffeine but don't want to commit to a full coffee? Matza tastes too much like grass. Water is boring. Too early for a beer? Perhaps a refresher is the beverage that you're looking for and it's the rise of the refresher category that I want to talk about on today's edition of Toby's Trends. A quick refresher on what a refresher is. It's sort of whatever you want it to be. There are two essential components according to Alyssa But Cofer, who leads marketing at McDonald's. One, they are cold and two, they come in vibrant colors. They are very Instagram able. The base of a refresher can be anything from a lemonade to a green tea. Sometimes they have carbonation in them, other time there's caffeine involved. It's almost easier to say what a refresher is not, says Claire Conahan, a trendologist at Data Central. It is not a coffee or a tea. But restaurants are suddenly very interested in this not easy to define drink. McDonald's is diving into the crowded category this May with the launch of unnaturally bright flute fruit flavored drinks following a successful pilot program across 500 stores. Taco Bell, Dunkin and Sonic have all been in the refresher game for a while now. Starbucks credits itself with inventing the category all the way back in 2012, and it's since become a $2 billion a year business for them. Neil can't say I've ordered a refresher before, but clearly lots of other people have.

[B]

Yeah. McDonald's coming into the space is a sign that refreshers have arrived on the big stage. McDonald's has actually been testing overhaul of its beverage program for years now and it's finally launching this this summer. What do you think of these? Red Bull, dragonberry, energizer, dirty Dr. Pepper and mango Pineapple Refresher is just some of the new drinks that McDonald's is is releasing this summer. And you know what? We're all going to be seeing a lot of refresher content because McDonald's maybe has the biggest marketing engine of any company in the world, maybe outside of Coca Cola. So when they turn that on, we're all going to be seeing a lot of refreshers because they've been spent a lot of time in the lab figuring out their cold beverage situation. They think this is the way to move forward.

[A]

Yeah, I mean they want to get younger customers in. Younger customers. Gen Z, Gen Alpha love these fancy drinks. There's also more money to be made in drinks as well. There's more margin in, you know, putting a little bit of Red Bull and berries in a cup rather than serving a burger. So definitely they have their eyes set on that. Also just iced beverages in General are the de facto way that people consume liquids at this point. Remember, iced coffee used to be a seasonal thing. It used to be summer rolled around, you start drinking iced coffee. When winter comes back, it's back to hot. But ice beverages surpass hot beverage sales at Dunkin two years ago and no one's looked back since. So right now, just some crunchy ice in a cup. That is what young people want to drink.

[B]

I mean, this is maybe a Toby's trend that has had the biggest business impact because it's not just a trend. But if you look, look at what these companies are saying, it's like this is the biggest growth driver that we've had as a business in the last decade. I mean, Inspire Brands, which owns Duncan and Sonic, said refreshers have been the single largest contributor to our incremental sales growth over the past couple of years. It's growing by double digits. And then Dutch Bros shout out, Dutch bros. Their energy drinks have helped it become the third biggest US Coffee chain. So, I mean, these, this is the Refreshers is huge business. I still have never seen anyone order one, but I guess Gen Z, Gen Alpha and others absolutely love them.

[A]

Okay, so Starbucks says that they invented refreshers in 2012. I think I invented refreshers because you know what I was doing when I walk into a soda fountain, it's lemonade, Sprite and Powerade in there. That feels a little refresher.

[B]

It does feel very refreshing, Toby. Okay, let's bring to the finish with some final headlines. Pope Leo arrived in Africa for an 11 day tour of the continent, a trip that is being overshadowed by an unprecedented spat with the President of the United States States. Over the weekend, Trump unleashed a tirade against Leo, calling the first American pope weak on crime, weak on nuclear weapons, and catering to the radical left. In a post that was widely criticized by people across the political spectrum. The subtext is that Pope Leo has been a vocal critic of the war in Iran, which was launched by Trump at the end of February. In response, Leo said, quote, I'm not afraid of the Trump administration. I speak of the gospel and I will continue to speak loudly against war. I have no intention of entering into a debate with him.

[A]

A lot of people are like, this is an unprecedented clash between a sitting US Leader and a sitting pope. Vatican watchers say there is no modern parallel. Marco Pollitti, who is a Vatican watcher and author, said, you have to jump back to the Middle Ages when kings and emperors were shouting against the Pope in Rome, calling him false There is just no other recent example like this. And it does have big implication for Trump's base as well. 41% of US Catholics approved of what Trump is doing in office right now. That's down from 48% a year earlier. So as we head into midterm elections, you know a spy with the Pope can swing things in one direction or another. Moving on. The fight over. I got dangerously real this weekend. Early Friday morning, a 20 year old named Daniel Moreno Gamma drove from Texas to San Francisco and threw a Molotov cocktail at Sam Altman's house. No one was injured. Then about 90 minutes later, the Fed said he showed up to Open Air's headquarters, grabbed a chair and started smashing the glass doors, telling security he was there to quote, burn it down and kill anyone inside. When police arrested him, they found kerosene, a lighter in a three part anti AI manifesto. Part one was titled your last warning and listed the names and addresses of other AI CEOs and investors. Part two was about humanity's impending extinction. And part three was a letter to Altman that opened with the words if you make it. Altman responded by posting a photo of his husband and son on his blog, explaining to future would be attackers that he's a person with a family. Though he also acknowledged that the fearing and anxiety around AI is quote justified.

[B]

Yeah, this is actually the first of two attacks over the weekend that has really shocked the tech community. There was another one according to San Francisco police where two people drove up in a car and one passenger put their hand out the window and appeared to fire around on Sam Altman's house. So Sam Altman what did publish this blog with a picture of his family and said, you know, I understand the concerns around AI, but it was important to quote de escalate the rhetoric and tactics, try to have fewer explosions in fewer homes, figuratively and literally. But I would say this has definitely caused a lot of shock and self reflection among the tech community who are pro AI and they're like what is going on here? I know that there are a lot of people who hate AI, but the level of violence that we've seen is pretty remarkable. You know, reminds me of what happened with the UnitedHealth CEO and Luigi Mangione. A lot of advocacy groups who are anti I have come out and said we I don't think is good, but obviously we deplore violence of all kinds. Finally, the WNBA draft was last night and with the number one overall pick, the Dallas Wings selected Easy Fudd, a shooting guard out of UConn. The intrigue is that by going to Dallas, Fudd joins her former teammate and current girlfriend Paige Beckers, with whom she won a national championship in 2025, to be kind of a controversial pick.

[A]

Yeah, there was definitely some chatter online on WNBA Twitter that Fudd was only going there because the Wings wanted to make Beckers happy. But Fudd is also a 50, 40, 90 shooter in college, which means she shoots over 50% on twos, 40% on threes, 90% on free throws. Plus she can play defense. So she's basically Steph Curry with defensive chops. Seems like a good player to have on your roster, but big year for the W. I do just want to highlight that this is the first time that these rookies are coming in under a new collective bargaining agreement. And just to show how far the league has come, the rookie salary for Last year's number one WNBA pick was Paige Becker's. She made $78,000 a year. The rookie salary salary for FUD is $500,000. So just shows you how much you know. This deal goes to change these these players lives. It's just night and day between last year and this year.

[B]

I wonder if money, money things will come up. I know Becker's an easy fight.

[A]

I think FUD's picking up the bill when they go out for date night.

[B]

All right, that is all the time we have. Thanks for starting your morning with us. Wonderful Tuesday. It's that time again. MBD Trivia. Next Tuesday in New York City, we're hosting our monthly trivia night, which is always a fantastic time. So round up your friends and sign up at the link in the show description.

[A]

Dang. Everyone's got a long to do list right now. One you got to vote for us in the Webbies and then to sign up for trivia in the show description.

[B]

As always, if you'd like to reach us, shoot off an email to Morning Brew daily at Morning Broadcom or DM us on Instagram. Instagram @MB 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 has hair and makeup in an AI clone this whole time. Devin Emery is our president and our show is a production of Morning Brew.

[A]

Great show today, Neil. Let's run it back tomorrow.