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Investors Lose Patience with Iran War & TSA Workers Finally Get Paid
00:29:20
Stock market rout & air travel chaos ending soon?
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- [00:00]
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- [00:32]
Neal Freyman
Good morning, Brew Daily Show. I'm Neal Freyman.
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Toby Howell
And I'm Toby Howell.
- [00:35]
Neal Freyman
Today, the stock market is on pace for its worst month in years.
- [00:39]
Toby Howell
Then TSA airport chaos might soon be coming to an end. It's Monday, March 30th. Let's ride.
- [00:51]
Neal Freyman
It's being dubbed the crime of the century. Over the weekend, KitKat said that 12 tons of its special Formula One chocolate bars were stolen while traveling on a highway from the factory in Italy to Poland. That's 413,793 individual units. The heist sparked worries of a global chocolate shortage right ahead of Easter. But miraculously, Kit Kat assured the public that supply would not be affected. Toby, it's an impressive heist, but how do you go about laundering 12 tons of kit Kats?
- [01:21]
Toby Howell
All right, I was looking into this too, because according to the New York Times, the stolen product is able to be traced via a unique batch code tied to individual KitKat bars. So it's very difficult to resell them. Which leaves one of two options. Melt it down like stolen gold and resell, you know, the chocolatey or. Or you eat them all. Either way, Kit Kat is coming out of this looking good. They put out a statement in response to this theft saying, we always encourage people to have a break with KitKat, but it seems like thieves have taken to that message too literally and made a break with 12 tons of our chocolate. Whilst we appreciate the criminal's. Except the fact remains that cargo theft is an escalating issue for businesses of all sides. So well done at KitKat. I hope you get your bars back.
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Neal Freyman
And now a word from our sponsor company retreat. Toby, what do you know about jury
- [02:10]
Toby Howell
duty that it's super easy to get out of if you tell them you're a hologram?
- [02:14]
Neal Freyman
Not actual jury duty. I mean, the documentary style comedy series, it's back for a second season. Jury Duty Presents Company Retreat it all takes place during an annual company retreat.
- [02:25]
Toby Howell
At the center of it all is Anthony, a hardworking, kind and very patient temp employee who has no idea that the company is fake and that the entire retreat is staged around him.
- [02:36]
Neal Freyman
It's bigger laughs, higher stakes in the same heart that made the first season a cultural phenomenon.
- [02:40]
Toby Howell
Oh, and Amazon is actually selling four flavors of a rock and Grandma's hot sauce.
- [02:44]
Neal Freyman
Jury Duty presents Company Retreat is now streaming on Prime Video. For about a month, the stock market had mostly brushed off the war in Iran in the hopes that, like most other geopolitical conflicts, it would be short lived and have a negligible impact on the economy. But in the last few trading days, that confidence has been badly shaken and stocks are getting routed like a 16 seed. The Dow fell nearly 800 points on Friday to close in correction territory, joining the NASDAQ at a level more than 10% below their recent highs. The S&P 500 isn't quite there yet, but it just suffered its biggest two day decline since the tariff chaos last year, and its five consecutive weekly losses equal its longest losing streak since 2022. It seems Wall street is waking up to the fact that the war will inflict considerable economic damage for months. Even if it were day, which is not likely, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, alongside attacks on key energy infrastructure in the region, has resulted in the largest energy supply disruption in history. Almost 20% of oil and natural gas has been taken off the market, which means the world will have to dramatically lower its fuel consumption. Meanwhile, shortages of key inputs for global industry helium, sulfur, plastics, aluminum, fertilizers threaten to upend everything from chip production to farming. And the most concerning part for Wall street is Trump can't taco his way out of this one. When markets have gotten spooked in the past from Trump's policies, the president would roll them back and stocks would surge the infamous taco trade. But when it comes to the Strait of Hormuz, Trump can't flip a switch and open it. Iran also holds a hand of cards, and even as Trump extended a negotiation deadline and signaled de escalation last week, stocks barely reacted. As we've been accustomed to, Toby, we're a long way from Dow 50,000 and nothing is working.
- [04:24]
Toby Howell
There is no safe haven. Assets at four asset classes included in the traditional core diversified portfolio have fallen in unison for the past four weeks. So stocks have fallen, bonds have fallen. Cash or cash equivalents have, like gold have fallen. Alternative investments have fallen as well that's the longest stretch dating back to Liberation Day back in May of 2022. The issue is, is that oil affects everything in the economy. That's why there is no safe havens. Brent crude is, you know, at above $112 a barrel. And what happens is that affects how the market moves. Benchmark global oil futures in The S&P 500 have moved in the opposite directions in 12 of the past 13 trading sessions. So if oil goes higher, the market goes lower, lower. And it's very difficult to uncouple that price movement.
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Neal Freyman
Let's call it a few names here. I don't want to, but there are some stocks that are doing particularly bad. Many of them are in tech. The Nasdaq, which is focused on TEC tech companies, dropped 3.2% last week. That's its worst week since last April. Metta is down bad. Metamora lost 11% last week. It's down 34% from its all time highs last year. Maybe that has to do with the war, maybe impacting ad spending, but also it had those two horrible court defeats last week, which put a target on its back. And another company that's not doing really well at all is Microsoft, which used to be the AI leader. It's now down 35% from its October high. So within tech, within the Magnificent Seven, Metta and Microsoft have been absolutely plunging. And then another company that's on a long losing streak is Berkshire Hathaway. Luckily, Warren Buffett's not really, you know, involved anymore. I don't know if that's related, but it's lost ground for eight consecutive days. That's its longest losing streak since 2018. And if you're looking for more correlation with what's going on in the Middle East, Berkshire Hathaway is very invested in the insurance business, in the energy business, in the freight business. And so that might be a direct correlation there.
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Toby Howell
And what is going to be the economic fallout from this? Now traders are piling into bets that the Fed's next move is going to be to raise interest rates because inflation is just starting to get out of control if oil prices remain this high. That is a big switcheroony from cuts having been telegraphed over the past few months. So now there's a 40% chance that the Fed's policy rate will be higher at year end than it is right now, which going into this year felt, you know, absolutely unthinkable. But given everything that is unfolded from here on, of course, a rate hike could be in the cards. Meanwhile, Mortgage rates, speaking of rates are not getting any prettier. The average 30 year fixed mortgage rate was 5.99% at the end of February. As of last week on Thursday, it was up to 6.62%. Remember, that kind of follows closely the 10 year yield. With yields going up, you see mortgage rates going up as well. So it is just absolutely affecting everything from your home prices to your stock market portfolio. And no one is happy, right?
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Neal Freyman
No one is happy because this is hitting actually both pretty a wide swath of Americans from lower end consumers to maybe the upper echelon on the lower end. They're getting hit by higher gas prices. Gas prices right now are on average $3.99. It's up about a dollar since before the war. That's going to hurt disproportionately low income people and the businesses that they flock to, whether it's fast food, restaurants or dollar stores we start, it will be very interesting to hear their earnings because when gas prices spike like this, you it just lowers demand across the board. And then on the other hand, you know, we saw the top 1% really drive a lot of the economy over the past few years in what everyone's calling a K shaped economy. But almost 40% of household wealth in the United States is tied up in stocks. Compare that to just 10% during the 1990 oil price shock. So as oil prices rise and stocks fall, as you demonstrated with that very tight correlation, then maybe the upper echelon, the more upper income people in the United States will also pull back on their spending. So maybe this is more of the economic worries are coming into view and that's why the stock market is responding like this.
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Toby Howell
The only entity that seems to be doing all right right now is Iran. Iran's exports are estimated to have remained very close to Pre war levels, 1.6 million barrels of oil a day. But Brent crude price is now $112 a barrel. So based on a Bloomberg estimate, Iran is earning about $139 million a day from oil sales in March, up from 115 million in February. So that's around 30% more revenue. It seems like the only person benefiting, at least economically in terms of, you know, selling their oil on the global markets is Iran, which the US Is targeting. Moving on, the long national nightmare of long national lines might soon be over. Trump directed Homeland Security to start paying TSA workers just before the weekend, even though Congress failed to agree on a path to end the partial government shutdown. That means agents could start seeing paychecks as soon as today, but don't expect the lines that TSA to snap back to normal immediately. Almost 500 TSA agents have fully quit since the funding lapse in mid February. That is in addition to the thousand agents that quit during the 43 day government shutdown last year. Those roles won't be easy to replace. It takes four to six months to complete training. Plus, it's not like people are applying in droves for a job that increasingly gets caught up in political skirmishes leading to lost paychecks. Adam Stahl, TSA's chief of staff, said last week that the situation will get worse before it gets better. Despite Trump's executive order. Folks that are possibly in the pipeline or considering going enjoying the workforce will be dissuaded because of the lack of job security, he warned. Certain airports are and will be worse off than others to George Bush Airport in Houston has been dealing with a call out rate of around 40%, far above the national average of 11%. Atlanta, the busiest airport hub in the world, is facing a similar level of absenteeism. Meanwhile, in Baltimore, travelers waited more than five hours in security lines that stretched the outside the concourse after as many as 94 TSA agents called out over the weekend. Neal a lot of these workers are just digging themselves out of the financial hole created by the previous government shutdown. It's no surprise that fewer are showing up for work and recruiting is getting tougher.
- [10:38]
Neal Freyman
It's pretty fascinating to look at the gap in the worst affected airports and the airports that are doing just fine because as many of these horror videos have come out of people getting to the airport five hours early and still missing their flight, there have been an equal number of videos of people saying I got to the airport, it was literally 10 minutes. Because if you flew out of Minneapolis St. Paul or Denver or Seattle Tacoma, like it's been fine. Those wait times have been under 30 minutes consistently. But then over the weekend you had Atlanta saying our TSA wait times are four hours, Houston also saying our TSA wait times are four hours. 40% of our TSA agents are calling out from both those airports and they've been consistently some of the worst for this entire month. So it's very interesting to see the discrepancy between these two. And there might, we might have an answer here for Atlanta and Houston. First of all, these are very sprawling metropolises. A lot of the workers who go there and also at jfk, which has been bad people live, people who are TSA agents live about an hour away or even more so there's a long commute time. And so they're more likely to call out when they live in these big, sprawling metropolitan areas rather than maybe a Minneapolis St. Paul, especially as gas prices have gone up. So maybe that's one reason why. Another is we have spring break right now. Atlanta is the busiest international airport in the entire world. So people, there's an increased demand, fewer TSA agents. So that's why maybe we're seeing longer wait time at those hotspots.
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Toby Howell
Specifically, just in general, can we commiserate how miserable flying has gotten recently? Because it is getting more expensive, too, because as fuel costs go up, airlines are charging more to passengers. They're passing on a lot of those costs to consumers. So if you looked at flights now for, you know, your summer vacation, that is, you're in a lot worse spot than if you had booked them a few months ago. Also, consumer confidence in just the airline industry in general is taking. Almost half of respondents to an IPSO survey conducted in February said they're losing confidence in the safety of air travel. Less than 30% said that they felt confident in the safety of air travel. So it's basically, you enter an airport, it takes a long time to get to your gate. You're nervous about getting on the plane. Your ticket that you booked is more expensive than ever. You're probably crammed back in economy class. All the first class seats are taking up more and more space in the planes. It's just not fun flying at all.
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Neal Freyman
And miraculously, this has been the longest stretch that I haven't flown from the beginning of the year until now. So maybe I'm, you know, I, maybe I looked at my crystal ball and said air traffic was going to get absolutely insane. And, you know, I've been here in New York for a long time, which is getting a little claustrophobic. But maybe it's not a good time to fly.
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Toby Howell
One bright spot is that some airlines are, you know, saying, I will throw you a bone, passengers. Delta says that they're waiving fees for certain flights out of Atlanta if you wanted to change or if you missed your flight. United said they're offering waivers for flights in and out of Houston. Southwest says we will rebook customers who miss your flight at no additional charge. So basically, airlines are saying, hey, we hear you. We know that it's absolutely chaotic right now. Again, hopefully with TSA workers getting their paychecks again, things start to mellow out a little bit. But in that has to happen ahead of the busy summer travel period where even Neil might leave his roost in New York City. All right, we're going to take a quick break and come back with our Winners of the Weekend right after this. This episode is brought to you by Apple Neil, there's nothing like your first Mac. I remember my first Mac like it was yesterday. I got mine right as my sister started to get recruited to play soccer in college, I was given the very important task of making her a highlight tape and Imovie was my best friend. She ended up playing at Georgetown, so I'd say it was all worth it.
- [14:12]
Neal Freyman
When I got my first Mac, I was heading into freshman year at the University of Maryland. A lot was uncertain that fall, but I knew I had a dependable sidekick for homework, connecting with other students and devouring blogs about our basketball recruiting class.
- [14:24]
Toby Howell
That's how we felt with our first Max. How will you check out the all new MacBook Neo, an amazing Mac at a surprising price?
- [14:32]
Neal Freyman
Learn more at apple.com/Mac that's apple.com Mac Toby how do you wake up in the morning?
- [14:39]
Toby Howell
Well, I asked our producer to slap me across the face as hard as they can or drink coffee.
- [14:44]
Neal Freyman
Have you considered Ultra Pouches? They're completely nicotine free and caffeine free but help you feel human in the morning with clinically proven nootropics and adaptogens to deliver immediate focus and smooth energy that lasts one to two hours.
- [14:57]
Toby Howell
In fact, 90% of users saw significant improvements in their overall focus levels with zero cheek pain. Way better than my slap method.
- [15:05]
Neal Freyman
Get some for yourself@take ultra.com that's take ultra.com Toby, what do you think of these new tax laws?
- [15:13]
Toby Howell
Why are they making new ones? I don't even know the old ones.
- [15:17]
Neal Freyman
And that's why there's TurboTax because being tax compliant is among small business owners top concerns. But it's often time consuming and research intensive to figure out taxes on your own.
- [15:26]
Toby Howell
Turbo Tax Experts for Business can match you with a tax expert with expertise and knowledge for your specific industry to ensure you have confidence, you're maximizing deductions and your taxes are filed correctly.
- [15:37]
Neal Freyman
Learn more at turbotax.com/business that's turbotax.com/business welcome to Winners of the Weekend, the segment where Toby and I picked two things that won all of their ABS challenges. I won the pre show pole vault so I get to go first. And my winner is the hope that politics could get a lot less polarized. And it's all thanks to AI in the Financial Times John Byrne Murdoch published a viral essay over the weekend that argues artificial intelligence intelligence will become a moderating force on political discourse, reversing the vitriol and sensationalism that define the social media era. He backed it up with his own data analysis showing that the major AI platforms, even Elon Musk's Grok, push people away from the most extreme stances and toward more normie centrist positions in line with expert consensus. It's a provocative claim that others have made too, drawing on hundreds of years of human history. Every time the dominant form of media changes, it profoundly transforms public opinion. Six hundred years ago, the printing press democratized the consumption and distribution of written text, resulting in the elites losing their hold on shaping the information space. After World War II, the experts were back in control. TV news networks came along and given the high barrier to entry, once again concentrated the flow of information with a handful of gatekeepers like say CBS or ABC. In the early 2000, social media toppled that dynasty, allowing anyone with an Internet connection to share their opinion and in turn elevated anti establishment, anti elite voices. Now, with the era of AI upon us, some argue that the moderate gatekeepers are back in power. Toby, is I actually going to bring back the age of Walter Cronkite?
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Toby Howell
Maybe. And it comes down to their business models and how it differs from social media. How do social media companies make money? They make money from attention. What gets attention? It's sensationalism. It's inflammatory content that doesn't necessarily have to reflect the truth. They just want to get eyeballs and they want time spent on platforms so you look at more ads and advertisers buy more ad spots. AI companies business model is they want to serve up objective, they want to serve up accurate and intelligent tools that deliver factual information. So they do not want to dive deep into the sensationalist aspect of social media. They want to be a neutral platform, which is why maybe they will be converging in the viewpoints that they share rather than diverging and democratizing like social media.
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Neal Freyman
Yeah. The British philosopher Dan Williams, who has wrote a lot on this subject and argues again for this moderating force of. I said a good thought experiment is pretend that you went to Twitter, Instagram and search for the term climate change vaccines, Epstein files immigration crime, tariffs, inequality. What will you see is a whole host of diverging opinions, perhaps a lot of conspiracy theories, mostly people dunking on each other and getting extremely mad. Now what if you put immigration crime, Epstein files climate change vaccines into an LLM like Claude or chat cbt or grok, you're more likely to get an answer that that is aligned with expert opinion and you can argue whether one is better than the other or not. But that is essentially what the thought experiment will lead to, is that, yeah, I'm putting this question to an LLM. I'm getting a pretty normie answer that experts have written this field, you know, and academics in this field have written on.
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Toby Howell
And what was fascinating to me is that this held true despite the chat bot knowing your political tendencies. Because in conducting this experiment, they had one where they did not let the bots know that, hey, this person is right leaning or left leaning and it nudged them towards the center. But then even when they did tell the chatbot like, hey, this is the political affiliations of the person that you're talking to, I thought that the sycophantic tendencies of a chat bot would take over and start just confirming the worldview of whatever you say. That has been a real problem for a lot of these AI chat bots is the fact that they just kind of agree with anything that you're saying if you nudge it in that direction. But when it came to politics or some of these more extreme issues, it did seem like they were more center leaning. Now, there are some caveats of this study. I was reading a little bit on social media, the reaction to this, which is ironic in and of itself, and people were mad that the users that these chat bots were talking to were simulated users. So they weren't necessarily real people. That could probably confound the data a little bit because it was almost AI chat bots talking to other AI chat bots. That's not necessarily reflective of how humans interact with them. So that was one caveat, but just a fascinating study that, you know, of course got people talking on the very thing that is talking about, which was social media. My winner of the weekend is knowing where the edge pieces are. Because US Jigsaw Nationals just wrapped up its biggest event ever in Atlanta on Sunday. Hundreds of puzzlers and spectators from around the world descended upon the Peach State to test their mettle in speed puzzling racing to compete 5001000 piece puzzles. The competition has blown up recently. The first nationals was held in 2022 in San Diego and featured 33 teams of four, 93 pairs and 99 individuals. This past weekend in Atlanta, 200 teams of four, 400 pairs and 800 individuals competed, with registration quadrupling across every category. Outside of nationals, there were 151% more puzzling competitions last year. Compared to the year prior to according to data from Eventbrite. One explanation for the puzzling rise of puzzles is the broader rise of grandma hobbies that don't involve a phone. The peaceful snap of a piece fitting into place while chatting with friends is a perfect avenue for a low pressure hang. A lot of competitors describe using puzzling as an escape from more difficult issues like divorce or burnout at work. It's minted social media stars too, like Karen puzzles. More than 550,000 followers come to her to hear about the nuances of puzzling techniques. Do you follow the classic build a border first and work inward strategy or do you just dive right into whatever sections speak to you? Neal, as someone who is soon to go to the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, you're sort of also participating in this hobby turned sport trend.
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Neal Freyman
Well, now we know why the Atlanta airport was so chaotic. Everyone was in town for the puzzle tournament. I want to give a shout out to the winners here. So in the solo category, Alice Rowe won. They have to complete a 500 piece puzzle. How long do you think it took them? 40 minutes, 37 minutes and 19 seconds to complete a 500 piece puzzle puzzle. The pairs who won took 25 minutes and 11 seconds to complete a 500 piece puzzle. And then the group in the group category, these are groups of four. It took them one hour and five minutes to complete a 2,000 piece puzzle. This is seems like the most stressful thing ever. I've watched videos and it takes something that should be peaceful and it's supposed to be relaxing and takes you away from all the problems in the world and turns it into a very competitive event. So it's a little bewildering to me because I my sweat would be dripping down my face.
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Toby Howell
I still think that in terms of all the competition that you could do, you're with friends, you're wearing matching outfits like it's a very fun and festive environment. But you are right, like it does add a layer of stress to something that is supposed to be not stressful. I do have some puzzling tips that I got from Karen Puzzles. I went down a bit of a rabbit hole. Tip number one. She says flip all the pieces over first feels, you know, very logical. But she says, practice doing this. Which again before the show I was like, how do I practice learning how to puzzles do I just need longer nails to, you know, wedge under it more? She says, wear tight fitting clothes or your sleeves aren't always drooping in the way. Same thing goes for your hair. If you have long hair, put that back. I could see that kind of when every second counts, you know, you don't want your sleeves in the way. She says, usually start out with the edge, but edges sometimes look mostly the same. If that is true, just go wherever else you know your eye is drawn to and start there. A good goal is to try to get under an hour for a 500 a piece puzzle. So I am absolutely going out after this show and buying a puzzle and seeing if I can go, you know, sub. 1 hour, 37 minutes. Seems a little out of reach as of now, but it is just fascinating that every time you see something out there, there is a group of people who have just absolutely practiced more than you'd ever imagine are better at it than you've ever imagined. Same thing goes with puzzle.
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Neal Freyman
I think the best, the most important thing to get better at is color recognition, because if you don't have that, then you're not going to be good at puzzle. But you're right, it's one of a number of hobbies that are maturing into formal competitive structures. And I am going to the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, which has actually been going on for decades. Last year, it had its record year. 889 people came to Stanford. And actually this is the last time they're having it in Stamford, Connecticut, because it's gotten too big and they're moving it to Philadelphia. So this is one of those other hobbies, the grandma hobby, call it. That's absolutely blown up.
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Toby Howell
How do you think you're going to do?
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Neal Freyman
I'm going to do pretty well. You have been studying. Actually, I'm not going to do pretty well because the people are amazing there and I'm extremely mediocre. But I'll do better than last time.
- [24:29]
Toby Howell
I'm hoping upper half for you because you have been grinding.
- [24:31]
Neal Freyman
Well, if you, if you are going to be there, let me know. I'd love to meet up. Okay. It's Monday, so here's what you need to know to stay ahead in the week ahead. On Wall street, it's jobs week. The employment report for March will be released on Friday, and it's supposed to be better than the last one. In February, payrolls plunged by 92,000, setting off alarms about the labor market. But in March, we're expecting a rebound of 60,000 jobs, in part thanks to better weather and the end of a big health care strike. The jobless rate is expected to hold steady at a pretty low 4.4%. Of course, we'll also be looking for clues on how the Iran war is impacting hiring.
- [25:04]
Toby Howell
I'm looking at the S word right now. Stagflation inflation is for sure inching upwards due to the Iran war. If the job market remains frozen, then fears of stagflation are well and truly here when you have stalling economic growth and rising inflation. But seeing that we've had two negative jobs reports in the last two out of the past three months, literally negative job growth, any positive here is a big win, right?
- [25:28]
Neal Freyman
If all goes according to plan, on Wednesday NASA will make a giant leap toward putting humans back on the moon. It's scheduled to send four astronauts, three Americans and one Canadian on a 10 day mission around the moon and back. It's the first crew journey to the moon in over five decades and would send people further from the earth than any spaceflight before. And even more history will be made. Victor Glover will be the first black astronaut to travel to the moon's neighborhood and Christina Koch will be the first woman to do so. But a lot has to go right before then.
- [25:55]
Toby Howell
After watching Project Hail Mary, I am all the way back in on space. Let's go find aliens as long as they are funny and made of rocks. But yes, hope this mission takes off and goes very smoothly.
- [26:07]
Neal Freyman
Speaking of movies, the first billion dollar movie of the year could be on the way. Mario is jumping back to the big screen with the Super Mario Galaxy movie, The sequel to 2023, the Super Mario Brothers movie. That first one was a surprise blockbuster making nearly $1.4 billion at the global box office.
- [26:24]
Toby Howell
Jack Black is turning into the goat of video game movie adaptations. He has two $1 billion movies under his belt with the previous Mario movie and then where he voiced Bowser. And he also has the Minecraft movie to his name. If he goes three for three, that is a pretty dang good resume. Apparently he wants to wants Sega to give him a call for a Yakuza adaptation. I think they'd be wise to do so. He's got the magic touch.
- [26:47]
Neal Freyman
In sports, the men's Final Four for March Madness is set this coming Saturday. Arizona will face Michigan in a battle of juggernauts, while Illinois will face UConn, who took down Duke in an improbable comeback last night with one of the craziest final plays you will ever see. On the women's side, UCLA and also UConn punch their ticket to the Final Four and the other two semifinalists will be determined today.
- [27:09]
Toby Howell
I'm so depressed Neil. I had a chance. I was going to win every bracket pool I was entered in. If only Duke just did not choke. I have Michigan winning overall, but I need to do because they're making it to the finals.
- [27:20]
Neal Freyman
But put yourself in a position to root for Duke.
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Toby Howell
I know one mistake. That's my lesson. I don't like Duke and so I hate having to root for them. I'm still alive on the women's side, though. I got my whole Final Four available, so my focus is to turning to that.
- [27:33]
Neal Freyman
I have a few more fun facts is the sixth time both UConn men and women made it to the Final Four in the same season. They won it all both twice, most recently in 2014. And this is from reporter John Fanta. This year marks the first men's final four since 2014 with all four schools as the names of states. So this year it's Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois and Michigan. And that hasn't happened in 12 years. But fun fact, okay, finally, spring holidays are coming fast and furious. Passover begins Wednesday night, while Good Friday and Easter Sunday round out the week. Looks like there'll be plenty of chocolate available. Plus, there's the most important spring tradition of them all, April Fools on Wednesday. Toby, you got any pranks planned?
- [28:15]
Toby Howell
What did you like to know? Neil Yes, I have pranks planned, but you won't see them coming until it's too late.
- [28:22]
Neal Freyman
That is all the time we have. Thanks so much for starting your morning with us. Have a wonderful, wonderful start to the week. If you'd like to reach us, send an email to Morning Brew Daily at Morning Broadcom or DM us on Instagram @MB Daily show let's roll the credits. Emily Milligan is our supervising producer. Raymond Liu is our senior producer. Our producer is Olivia Graham and our associate producer is Olivia Lake. Hair makeup is on peace flipping duty. Devin Emery is our president and our show is a production of Morning Brew.
- [28:47]
Toby Howell
Great show, Danielle. Let's run it back tomorrow.
- [28:52]
Neal Freyman
Sam.