SpaceX Becomes More Valuable Than Amazon & Pizza Hut Sold For $2.7B

Summary

Morning Brew Daily: SpaceX Becomes More Valuable Than Amazon & Pizza Hut Sold For $2.7B

Date: June 17, 2026
Hosts: Neal Freyman & Kyle Hagee (filling in for Toby Howell)

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Neal and guest co-host Kyle cover a range of buzzy business headlines:

• SpaceX’s meteoric rise past Amazon in valuation
• The private equity acquisition of Pizza Hut
• Kansas City’s bold soccer investments during the World Cup
• America’s renewed frozen yogurt craze
• Notable product and business news—from Snap’s costly AR glasses to retro McDonald’s apple pies

The show’s signature witty, conversational tone is present throughout, providing both sharp insights and comic relief.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. SpaceX Overtakes Amazon in Market Value

[03:00–06:20]

• Historic IPO & Soaring Stock:
  SpaceX, following its record-breaking IPO, surged another 5%, becoming the world's fifth-largest company (market cap: $2.65 trillion), surpassing Amazon.
  • “Elon Musk’s rocket and AI giant has blasted off on the stock market, climbing another 5% yesterday to topple Amazon as the fifth biggest company in the world.” – Neal [03:00]
• Aggressive AI Expansion:
  • SpaceX moves quickly to acquire AI coding startup Cursor for $60B—only four days after IPO.
  • Cursor, founded by four 25-year-old MIT grads, is seen as a future “commercially successful use case for AI—code generation tools.”
  • “This stock, at least for now, is going to the moon.” – Neal [04:09]
• Valuation Debate:
  • SpaceX’s revenue ($18.7 billion) is dwarfed by Microsoft ($281.7B) and Amazon ($717B).
  • The sky-high valuation is viewed as a bet on Elon Musk’s “numbers go up” reputation and his ability to dominate both space and AI.
  • “There might not be a better person on the planet to make numbers go up and to the right than Elon.” – Kyle [04:39]
• Retail Investor Mania:
  • Retail stock buying for SpaceX is “533% above” any other stock, with retail investors pouring unprecedented amounts of cash in.
  • “There’s the stock market that people are buying into, and then there’s SpaceX. And those levels are equivalent in terms of retail investors.” – Neal [05:43]
• AI Strategy Context:
  • Cursor gains access to immense compute resources via SpaceX/X.AI, focusing on the infrastructure/tools layer rather than AI models alone.

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2. Pizza Hut Sold for $2.7 Billion: A Brand in Decline

[07:11–11:15]

• Blockbuster Deal:
  • Yum Brands sells Pizza Hut to Long Range Capital (US and world, ex-China) for $1.5B; Yum China buys mainland China operations for $1.2B.
• A Once-Mighty Brand Fades:
  • US pizza sales are shrinking; Pizza Hut’s domestic sales fell; closing ~250 stores in 2026.
  • "This is the ugly duckling in the Yum portfolio… it had an 18% share of Yum Brands revenue, now down to 12%.” – Neal [09:19]
  • Domino’s dominance in delivery pivots, while Pizza Hut struggles amid a changing delivery landscape (UberEats, DoorDash, etc.).
• Private Equity’s Tough Road:
  • Long Range Capital has a quirky portfolio (gyms, caskets), leading to ribbing: “A cradle to grave situation—eat pizza, go to the gym, eventually… we all die.” – Kyle [10:32]
  • Skepticism about private equity’s ability to revive fast food brands: “Will PE be able to return Pizza Hut to its former glory, or do we think this gets dumped to another firm in seven years?” – Kyle [09:08]
  • Recent PE investments in fast food (Subway, Dunkin, Jersey Mike’s, Panera) haven’t always panned out, with organic growth proving elusive.

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3. Kansas City Bets on Soccer & the World Cup

[11:14–16:08]

• Major Investment:
  • Despite being America’s 31st largest metro, KC invested nearly $200M on tournament hosting, facilities, and stadium upgrades—$650M over 15 years.
• Soccer's Strategic Bet:
  • Hosting camps for Argentina, England, Netherlands, and Algeria.
  • Aiming for 650,000 visitors and $653M in economic impact.
• Is It Worth It?
  • Some cities (e.g., Chicago) refused to host; KC’s Chiefs president says, “If you look at this just on paper, this doesn’t make sense… But if you look at the impact it has on the community…the exponential benefits in the future… it made perfect sense.” – Neal [13:36]
  • Mark Donovan’s quote highlights the struggle between direct financial ROI vs. intangible civic pride and long-term benefits.
  • “Dominating soccer, which is kind of up for grabs in the US, could be a really smart forward looking move for Kansas City.” – Kyle [14:58]
  • Fun anecdote: Lawrence, KS has fully adopted Algeria’s team, painting the flag and integrating cultures—“We’re all regular people who want to take care of our families. I think now more than ever, cultures coming together and celebrating is exactly what we need.” – Rick Renfro, Johnny Taverns owner (quoted by Kyle) [15:53]

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4. Froyo Renaissance: Gen Z Drives a Comeback

[18:07–21:41]

• Froyo is Cool Again:
  • Frozen yogurt shops are booming—sales up 26% in a year, 129 new stores opened (50% jump), with viral lines and Instagrammable shops (Mimi’s, Birdies, Mika, Mythos).
  • "Every 10–15 years the froyonaissance happens, like clockwork. What's interesting this time is it's being driven by Gen Z.” – Kyle [19:36]
• Social Media & Health Trends:
  • Design for “the Gram,” perception as healthier, and shift away from alcohol/bars fuel the trend.
• Is Froyo Actually Healthy?
  • Slightly fewer calories and saturated fat than ice cream, but more added sugars (except plain yogurt has more probiotics).
  • “If you want the probiotic gut health benefits… nutritionists say just have yogurt, not frozen yogurt.” – Neal [20:53]
• Humor:
  • “Whoever came up with frozen yogurt dropping to Froyo, it’s like the Justin Timberlake meme from the Social Network… It’s cooler. What a rebrand.” – Kyle [19:19]
  • “Everyone knows toppings don’t count for calories.” – Kyle [21:41]
  • Prices can reach $14 (or even $30!) for designer Froyo with toppings.

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5. Lunch Rush Headlines

[21:41–24:23]

• Snap’s $2,195 AR Glasses:
  • Called “Specs,” these thick, goggle-like smart glasses are Snap’s highest-profile hardware move yet, but are priced way above competitors.
  • “At more than $2,000, who would buy these?” – Neal [22:30]
  • “Snapchat is just trying to find their next thing… I applaud the innovation. I personally will not be buying them.” – Kyle [23:02]
• McDonald’s Brings Back Fried Apple Pie:
  • For America’s 250th birthday (“semiquincentennial”), McDonald’s offers deep-fried apple pies for a limited time. Last seen in US in 1992.
  • “I want more semiquincentennial treats. Pizza Hut should go full retro too.” – Kyle [24:04]

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6. Suggestion Box (Show Closer)

[24:23–27:00]

• Neal’s Rec:
  • Apple’s "Vehicle Motion Cues" ("Magic Dots") helps with motion sickness—moving dots on your device sync to car motion.
  • “The magic dots allow people to read or work without getting nauseous on the road… If that doesn’t work, try motion sickness glasses on Amazon.” – Neal [25:19]
• Kyle’s Rec:
  • Widows Bay on Apple TV—“One of the most original shows I’ve seen… like Stephen King meets Parks & Rec. Super original… a breath of fresh air.” – Kyle [26:09]
• Lighthearted Outro:
  • Plug for Kyle’s own Morning Brew career-advice podcast; banter about "lukewarm Midwestern takes."

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On SpaceX’s Valuation:
  • "There might not be a better person on the planet to make numbers go up and to the right than Elon." — Kyle [04:39]
• On Private Equity and Pizza Hut:
  • "A cradle to grave situation—eat pizza, need the gym, eventually we all die. They kind of have your whole life." — Kyle [10:32]
• On the Froyo Comeback:
  • "It’s like the Justin Timberlake meme—frozen yogurt, drop the ‘zen’ and the ‘gurt.’ Just go with 'Froyo.' It’s cooler. What a rebrand." — Kyle [19:19]
  • "Everyone knows toppings don’t count for calories." — Kyle [21:41]
• On Kansas City’s World Cup Play:
  • "If you look at this just on paper, this doesn’t make sense… But… the exponential benefits in the future… it made perfect sense." — Mark Donovan (quoted by Neal) [13:36]
  • "Rock chalk, Algeria. I never thought I’d hear that!” — Kyle [15:22]
• On Snap’s Glasses:
  • "They are thick framed… like the professorial look… but times 10 in terms of width and bulkiness." — Neal [23:23]
• On Fried Apple Pie’s Return:
  • "I want more semiquincentennial treats. We were talking about Pizza Hut earlier, I want to see them go full retro as well." — Kyle [24:04]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• SpaceX valuation & Cursor acquisition: 03:00–06:20
• Pizza Hut private equity deal & industry analysis: 07:11–11:15
• Kansas City, World Cup, city investments: 11:14–16:08
• Frozen Yogurt Renaissance: 18:07–21:41
• Snap AR glasses; McDonald’s fried apple pie: 21:41–24:23
• Motion sickness hacks; show recommendations: 24:23–27:00

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Tone & Style

• Conversational, relatable, and peppered with humor and personal anecdotes.
• Insightful but lighthearted, blending news with cultural context.
• Not shy about poking fun at business trends or brands (“cradle to grave”, “thick framed”, “froyonaissance”).

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Summary Takeaway

This episode captures the unpredictable energy of today’s business landscape—from the speculative froth around SpaceX and AI, to nostalgia-driven and PE-powered bets on aging brands, to Gen Z’s embrace of retro snacks and digital-first hangouts. As always, Neal and Kyle keep the news lively, combine sharp numbers with pop culture, and make even headlines about frozen yogurt fun and relevant.

Transcript

[Narrator]

AI is unchartered territory and many leaders are trying to navigate through without a guide to help them. That's why Morning Brew created the Intelligence Shift, a new podcast with PwC. It's all about how AI is fundamentally changing different industries. Host Dan Priest is joined by a top tier roster of industry leaders who share real stories and real lessons learned. Get guidance from industry experts. Listen to the Intelligence Shift wherever you get your podcasts.

[Neal Freyman]

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

[Kyle Hagee]

And I'm Kyle Hagee.

[Neal Freyman]

Today, SpaceX is now worth more than

[Kyle Hagee]

Amazon and is Froyo back. It's Wednesday, June 17th. Let's ride.

[Neal Freyman]

We lost Kobe, y', all, but gained a Kyle. Toby is in Europe at a wedding for the remainder of the week, but I'm overjoyed to be joined by by six man of the year Kyle Haggie, who's filling in. And Kyle, did you see this? Boston is running out of beer. All because of Scottish soccer fans known as the Tartan Army. Thousands of Scots have descended on Boston to cheer on their team in the World cup, but not before they toss back a few pints around the city's pubs. Well, more than a few. Sam Adams said its Boston taproom ran out of Boston Lager over the weekend thanks to the Scots, adding that the Tartan army drank more than four times as much as it normally sells During a typical holiday weekend like July 4th over at Hennessy's Bar downtown, they tripled their St. Patrick's Day sales and sold out of beer. Meanwhile, Federal Wine and Spirits told the Boston Globe that they got cleaned out of Bud and Corona and the door to one of their refrigerators broke because they were opening and closing it so many times. Kyle, it do be like they say, no Scotland, no party.

[Kyle Hagee]

That is true. I mean, look, I'm a massive fan of the Tartan Army. Now, Scotland, I wasn't familiar with your game. Incredible work and they kind of came out of the Irish home turf and out drank them of Boston. I will say very fun story. The World cup content of Europeans coming to America and just enjoying the heck out of it has been so fun to watch. I think it's the content everyone wants to see. Shout out to Scotland. And now a word from our sponsor service. Now, Neil, I am so sick of having homework.

[Neal Freyman]

You haven't been in school for years.

[Kyle Hagee]

Yeah, well, it feels like I have homework. Dealing with AI that was supposed to handle the parts of work I hate, but just describes the problems back to me.

[Neal Freyman]

Lucky for you, ServiceNow's AI specialists are different. They aren't a tool. Think of them as digital teammates who can actually do the work. They can resolve cases, process requests, close loops without generating extra work for you.

[Kyle Hagee]

When you can truly delegate to AI, you can get back to the work. Only you can do the work. That requires a person with ideas and judgment and, you know, a Pulse.

[Neal Freyman]

To put AI to work for people, visit ServiceNow.com that's ServiceNow.com Last Friday, space X pulled off the biggest IPO in history. Since then, it's only gotten bigger. Much bigger. Elon, Musk rocket and AI giant has blasted off on the stock market, climbing another 5% yesterday to topple Amazon as the fifth biggest company in the world. SpaceX is now worth $2.65 trillion, surging 49% since its public listing and staring down Microsoft at number four on the list. In a career that's left people's jaws on the floor for good and bad, this might be Elon's most gravity defying accomplish establishment. Yet at the same time, it's climbing up the charts, Space X is making aggressive moves to ensure it's bringing in the money to justify its questionably gigantic valuation. Yesterday it agreed to take over Cursor, an AI coding startup, in a deal valued at $60 billion before Space X's IPO. In April, it signed an unusual arrangement with Cursor that gave it the right to buy the startup later in the year. All it took was four days after the IPO for Elon to pounce. Cursor is a big get for SpaceX's AI ambitions because remember, not only does this company send rockets to, but it also aims to become the dominant force in artificial intelligence. Cursor, founded by four MIT grads all 25 years old, is one of the fastest growing startups in history and sits at the heart of perhaps the most commercially successful use case for AI vibe coding. Kyle, this stock, at least for now, is going to the moon.

[Kyle Hagee]

Yes it is. And shout out to the cursor people. Being 25 with $60 billion, I'm 33, but I'm co hosting a podcast so we're pretty close. Like there's been so much hype about Space X, in particular how it could have the valuation it has. You said fifth largest company by market cap in the United States and just a level set, it does bring in a lot less revenue than these mega cap peers around it. The company brought in 18.7 billion in revenue in 2025. If you look at Microsoft's revenue 281.7Amazon's revenue billions. Yes, sorry, 281.7 billion and Amazon 717 billion. And so this tends to get people very worked up who say how can it justify this valuation? But if you look at Elon's track record of delivering stock market growth, there might not be a better person on the planet to make numbers go up and to the right than Elon. I think this is a bet on Elon's ability to drive the stock even higher. And also the future of Space X and Space becoming even more important. They kind of dominate that market. I think that's why you're seeing the price be as high as it is right now.

[Neal Freyman]

There's also just insane enthusiasm from individual investors. Some of these numbers are just truly mind blowing about how individual investors are retail investors like you and me and just regular non professional people are spending money on this stock. So Public, which is Financial Platform, said that Space X stock buying was 533% above the second most traded stock. We're seeing that retail investors have bought almost as much Space X over the last two trading sessions as they bought across the entire US stock market last week. So they're buying basically there's the stock market that people are buying into and then there's Space X. And those levels are equivalent in terms of retail investors. They're just putting their faith in Elon and he's making moves like buying Cursor that could eventually bring in more revenue to eventually maybe justify this valuation.

[Kyle Hagee]

That's right. I mean I was, I was at a wedding over the weekend and I had a New Jersey uncle telling talking about the Space X ipo like he gets everyone excited about his stock. And with the democratization of investing, we're seeing retail investors pile in and drive this stock to, you know, incredibly high numbers compared to the revenue of its peers. I think the Cursor deal is also a really great move for Space X. Basically leveraging this pop in the IPO to acquire a company that helps them continue to or start to dominate more in the AI space. If you look at Cursor going back, they said one of their issues was or their bottleneck for the company was access to compute. With XAI and SpaceX, they Elon has a ton of compute to give to Cursor and I think it allows them not to go after necessarily the model layer of where anthropic and open air are dominating, but compute encoding tools which maybe are where the actual money is in AI. So using the IPO to get this company I think was a really good move. It also is probably promising for future IPOs. I bet OpenAI and Anthropic were watching this very closely. They're expected to IPO later this year and you know, based on the SpaceX IPO, they're probably feeling pretty good. Neil the year is 2001. Your Little League baseball team just won the town championship. You're surrounded by your teammates, the largest slice of pepperoni pizza you've ever seen, and that red and white checkered tablecloth with a cool lamp above your head. It feels like heaven. But you know this place by another name, Pizza Hut. Now Fast forward to 2026. Well, things have changed for the Hut. Its US sales have fallen for roughly the past two years. It's expected to close around 250 underperforming US units this year. And with the ultimate sign of a beat up brand in need of rejuvenation, it's now being sold to private equity. That's right. On Tuesday, Yum Brands, whose portfolio also includes the likes of KFC and Taco Bell, said it had to agree to sell Pizza Hut to two companies in a combined deal valued at 2.7 billion. The restaurants in the United States and around the world, excluding mainland China, will be acquired by private equity firm Long range capital for 1.5 billion. Yum China, a separate entity, will acquire Pizza Hut's restaurants in mainland China for 1.2 billion. In the U.S. pizza Hut is the second largest pizza restaurant operator behind Domino's, with about 6,300 stores and 5.1 billion in domestic sales last year. However, this is amidst a backdrop of stalled growth among U.S. pizza chains, where sales fell 0.3% last year compared with 2024 levels, making pizza the only food category to register a decline during the period among the 10 tracked, according to market research firm Tech Nomic. Neil, will PE be able to return Pizza Hut to its former glory or do we think this gets dumped to another firm in seven years?

[Neal Freyman]

It's going to be an uphill climb for sure. I mean, you said people, people are eating less pizza in general. And so the pie is, no pun intended, and the and for Pizza Hut's share of that pie, it's also shrinking. Just this is the ugly duckling in the Yum portfolio, or was before they dumped it six years ago. They had an 18% share of the revenue of all of Yum brands. But then Fast forward to 2025. That was down to 12%. Yum Brands when it spun out of Pepsi. With these fast food Companies changed pizza strategy from a place that you mostly dine in to carry out and takeout, which is in delivery, which is what where the pizza was doing. But it's been completely dominated in that space since from Domino's, which took over the role of number one pizza chain in 2017 and has just zoomed by Pizza Hut in the year since.

[Kyle Hagee]

That's right. And I think if you think about delivery in general, it used to be like, oh yeah, you would get pizza delivered. That felt very natural. But now you can get everything delivered with the rise of UberEats, DoorDash, GrubHub. And so the competition for delivery is just massive. And I think Pizza Hut is feeling those, those headwinds. Let's also talk about Long Range Capital, the acquirer of Pizza Hut in the US and around the world, excluding mainland China. Their portfolio is a bit diverse. Let's say they includes gym chain 24 Hour Fitness, Batesville, a company that makes caskets and cremation urns as well. And so I think they're trying to do a cradle to grave situation here where you eat a lot of pizza, you need the gym and eventually we all die. I mean they kind of have your whole life. Neal.

[Neal Freyman]

I'm at the, I'm at the combination Pizza Hut funeral home. I mean the synergies are, are very clear to me. We'll see what they do with pizza. We've talked on the show about how Pizza Hut is doing some retro stuff. Some of the franchisees have really reverted some of the design in, in some of their locations to those, to the, the Pizza Huts of yore that you were talking about. But I'm not sure that's going to be enough to face these more broader challenges that the pizza industry is facing in general.

[Kyle Hagee]

That's right. And also private equity in fast food in general definitely facing some challenges as well. It's been kind of a boom in this area. Private equity firms in recent years have acquired Subway, Dunkin, Jersey, Mike's, other chains, trying to help them grow globally, but also trying to combine back end operations as private equity normally does. Panera was acquired by a private equity firm, JAB Holdings. They wanted to IPO it. It didn't get to that point. And so now they're going back and saying, okay, how do we actually grow this brand organically? So it is a really tough space. We'll see if Long Range Capital can pull it off. Let's move on. Lionel Messi began his final campaign for Argentina in the World cup last night. And if you still had any doubt that Messi is the goat? Well, he dropped a hat trick to remind everyone he still has it. With Argentina defeating Algeria 3, 2, 0 now, Messi and being good at soccer is not surprising at all. However, it's where Messi took the pitch that has some people scratching their heads. And that's Kansas City. That's right. Kansas city, only the 31st largest metro in the United States, is positioning itself as the Mecca of soccer in the U.S. investing nearly $200 million in public spending required to stage the tournament, including $40 million to renovate the Chief's home of Arrowhead stadium to meet FIFA's pitch requirements. And it's not just this year. Zooming out over the past 15 years, the region has invested approximately $650 million into soccer facilities, building on efforts of the Kansas City Chiefs late owner Lamar Hunt, who is a massive advocate of U.S. professional soccer. Now, these efforts have paid off from a talent perspective, attracting four national teams, Argentina, England, the Netherlands and Algeria to establish World cup training camps in the area. But the financial ROI still needs to be proved out. Kansas City is hoping to host 650,000 visitors and generate an estimated $653 million in economic impact from this World Cup. Neal, normally I have to shoehorn a Midwest reference into the show, but now with Kansas City, the Midwest is the headline.

[Neal Freyman]

It just fell in your laugh. Funny how that works for everyone who's just meeting Kyle for the first time. He's a proud Minnesota boy, right? It's a fascinating strategy because if you go about 500 miles to the northeast and look at a city like Chicago, Chicago said it did not want to host any World cup games. The former mayor, Rahm Emanuel took Chicago's name out of the running for being a host city because he said there's too much taxpayer risk. I'm looking at the bottom line, my balance sheet here, and I'm just not seeing an ROI from pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into infrastructure and getting our city ready. I don't see that this is going to pay off. Then you go to Kansas City where they are just completely taking the opposite tack. The Chief's president, Mark Donovan, said he acknowledged this financially, quote, if you do a Harvard Business School case study, if you look at this just on paper, this doesn't make sense. But if you look at the impact it has on the community, the footing that it puts on, and the exponential benefits in the future of doing this successfully, it made perfect sense. And there's been a lot of discussion about whether cities and Locations should be spending taxpayer money on new arenas and sports and things like that. You know, I think we saw maybe an endorsement of that strategy. Maybe it doesn't pay off from, from a financial ROI perspective that at least in New York over the past couple of days and weeks, we've seen how a city can maybe come together and raise its profile on a national and global stage because of a sports team doing good. Not that New York actually needed that, but perhaps Kansas City might, because when you have Messi in there scoring three goals, people are like, wow, Kansas City, maybe that's a place I want to visit. That's what they're banking on.

[Kyle Hagee]

Yeah, I mean, I think they're banking on those 650,000 visitors checking out, obviously driving a lot of economic impact for the area and then hopeful telling their friends coming back, driving a lot of buzz for Kansas City. But also I think focusing on a particular niche is an effective strategy too. Dominating soccer, which is kind of up for grabs in the US could be a really smart forward looking move for Kansas City. The Mark Donovan who you quoted earlier said, like, if you look at this impact it has on the community, it's also really positive roi. People get very excited about it. So we'll see if that roi, you know, becomes a little more tangible in the future from a financial perspective. I also want to call out the city of Lawrence, Kansas, who is hosting Algeria. I have heard the quote rock chalk Algeria, which I never thought I would hear. They have fully embraced this team and I think that is also what makes the World cup so special. The Algerian flag is painted on the ground in the training facility, a sports bar. Owner of Johnny Johnny Taverns, Rick Renfro said, quote, when I meet people from other countries, we talk about the exact same things. What kind of beer do you like to drink? How many kids do you have? What does your youngest do? We're all regular people who want to take care of our families. I think now more than ever, cultures coming together and celebrating is exactly what we need. And shout out to Kansas City for doing that.

[Neal Freyman]

All right, coming up, we unpack the Froyo Renaissance.

[Toby]

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[Neal Freyman]

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[Toby]

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[Neal Freyman]

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[Toby]

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[Neal Freyman]

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[Toby]

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[Neal Freyman]

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[Toby]

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[Neal Freyman]

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[Neal Freyman]

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[Toby]

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[Neal Freyman]

Walk around Manhattan, Los Angeles or Miami any summer evening and it won't be unusual to see young people waiting in outrageously long lines for frozen yogurt. Yep, the creamy maybe better for you sweet treat is so back after years of dormancy, fueled by a new cohort of stores, social media and a rabid Gen Z fan base. Mimi's, Birdies, Mika and Mythos are a few of the insurgent froyo shops that have been slammed by customers demanding a colorful concoction they can post on Instagram. On one recent sweltering Saturday, a New York times writer counted 74 people waiting in line ahead of her at Mika in the West Village at noon. It's not just anecdotal sales for frozen yogurt really are Booming in the U.S. servings of frozen yogurt spiked in 26% in the year through March, according to Circana, and last year, 129 new frozen yogurt shops opened up in the country, a 50% bump from the prior year. A number of factors are driving Froyo's renaissance, including the perceived health benefits of the dessert, greater interest in so called affordable indulgences in this era of high inflation, and of course, fomo. After seeing a viral video Kai waiting in line for frozen yogurt in 2026.

[Kyle Hagee]

I haven't yet, but this story kind of makes me want to go try it. I have to say, whoever came up with frozen yogurt dropping to Froyo, like, I feel like it's like the Justin Timberlake meme from the Social Network where he's like, frozen yogurt, drop the Zen and Gert just go with Froyo. It's cooler. Like, what a rebrand. I'll say. Every 10 to 15 years the froyonaissance happens. Neil. Like, everyone gets so excited about Froyo like clockwork. What's interesting this time around is it's being driven by Gen Z and I think partly because of healthier lifestyles or the perception of healthier lifestyles, but also people are drinking less alcohol. It feels like they're going out to bars less and this becomes maybe a third space which meets the demands of Gen Z to be a healthier option. Also, I think the design of these places is very intentional. The owner of one of the Froyo places was saying, like, it's ideal for taking photos. That's exactly what we want. We want people to spread it on Instagram. That's how you get lines down the West Village in soho. And so a really good strategy. Howard Schultz is actually advising this company as well. And he said it's just like Starbucks and coffee. They're in the commodity business. This is something that anyone can make. And so you have to have this extra IT factor to drive people to their stores. And I think they're really focusing on that and clearly they're pulling it off quite well.

[Neal Freyman]

Is Froyo healthier than ice cream?

[Kyle Hagee]

I want to believe. Don't tell us.

[Neal Freyman]

One should probably ask and find out the answer too. So typically it does have fewer calories and less saturated fat than ice cream. However, it does have more added sugars to balance out the tartness. But if you do the topping, it's

[Kyle Hagee]

all about the toppings, then you have

[Neal Freyman]

more calories potentially than ice cream. So yes, if you want the probiotic gut health benefits of yogurt, nutritionists say just, just have yogurt, not, not frozen yogurt, which is essentially, you know, a lot, a lot of Sugar. So that's just, I'm just laying out the information there. You can take it with you want. If you want to still wait in line for, for frozen yogurt. I know there's still long lines for ice cream, personally. I mean, I think frozen yogurt's okay, but there's a bunch of, bunch of places that aren't necessarily the fancy ones. I mean, people are playing up to $30 for frozen yogurt here. I mean, with three toppings, it costs $14. So the more toppings you get, the higher the price tag, more calories. I'm not trying to yuck anyone's yum. That all sounds extremely delicious. But I have to go to bat for ice cream to hear.

[Kyle Hagee]

Well, I mean, I'm a fan of ice cream, but Neil, I'm not a nutritionist. But everyone knows toppings don't count for calories.

[Neal Freyman]

Let's sprint to the finish with some final headlines. Snap, the company behind Snapchat, unveiled its long awaited augmented reality glasses yesterday called Specs, hoping to become a significant hardware player in a post smartphone world. Snap releasing glasses may not shock you, but the price tag, well, specs will cost $2,195 and that's way above Meta's Ray Bans which go for as little as 350 and more than 15 times the Spectacles glasses snap released in 2016. These of course have a little more firepower than the first generation. Snap describes Specs as a quote, wearable computer built into see through augmented reality glasses that allow you to do things like play games or ask an AI to identify what the heck you're looking at. Kyle, everyone is asking the same question and more than $2,000. Who would buy these?

[Kyle Hagee]

I'm not quite sure. And you said it in your intro, you can get metal Ray bans for nearly 110 of the cost. This is a space that's getting increasingly, increasingly competitive. Apple is rumored to be launching glasses or spectacles of their own in the coming years and so this space is probably only going to heat up a little more. I think the price tag for these compared to the competitors, way too high. And it feels like Snapchat is just trying to find their next thing, which they might have to do. So I applaud the innovation. I personally will not be buying them

[Neal Freyman]

and we didn't even mention the design. So they're very thick framed. They look like glasses, like semi normal glasses, but they're very thick frames, like almost goggles, like, like. How would you describe this?

[Kyle Hagee]

Yeah, it's like they are thick framed. Maybe they're going for like the. The professorial look that that's their target ICP.

[Neal Freyman]

It's that, but like just times 10 in terms of the width and the bulkiness. Definitely check out pictures of CEO Evan Spiegel wearing them, because I don't know if it's necessarily an endorsement of it. Okay, up next, there's nothing more American than taking a perfectly good dish than frying it to make it better. To celebrate the United States 250th birthday, McDonald's is bringing back fried apple pies for the first time in over 30 years. The limited time run begins on June 23rd and will be available at most US restaurants. Fried Apple pie has been a staple of the McDonald's menu beginning in the 1960s, but in 1992, the chain swapped it out for a baked crust when everyone started caring about their health and all that. Kyle, I just hope they use the same fryer as the french fries.

[Kyle Hagee]

Oh, I hope so too. And also, I want to bring back the word or emphasize the word semi quincentennial, which means the 250th birthday. I want more semi quincentennial treats. We were talking about Pizza Hut earlier. I want to see them go full retro as well. I love this idea of bringing it back and celebrating America's birthday.

[Neal Freyman]

Finally, we close out every Wednesday show with suggestion box where Kyle and I recommend something fun or healthy, helpful to help get you over the hump of the week. I'll go first. And my wreck is for all the people who get motion sickness in cars. I know there are a lot of you. Did you know that Apple has a feature that can help? Let me introduce you to the Magic dots, or as they're officially known, Vehicle Motion Cues. Introduced two years ago, Vehicle Motion Cues puts a bunch of dots on the screen of your Apple device that moves in conjunction with the car. So when the car moves left, the dots go to the right. When the car speeds up, the dots move forward down. Without getting into the whole science of it all, a bunch of people I know swear that the magic dots allows them to read or do work without getting nauseous on the road. So if you want to try this out, just hit your settings button, then search for Vehicle Motion cues and you should be good to go from there.

[Kyle Hagee]

Neil, Solving motion sickness. Incredible.

[Neal Freyman]

I was with somebody in an Uber once and they. I was like showing them something on my phone. They're like, I got really carsick. Can you put on Vehicle Motion cues like let me show you how to do this and then these like a ton, dozens of these dots pop up and it does move along with the car. You see it go up and down and obviously that stabilizes stuff within your eardrum because that seems to be where we we get our balance so that people that get car sickness highly recommend it. Then again, we had one of our Morning Brew editors, we're talking about this on Slack yesterday, said actually this doesn't work for me. So he recommended glasses, motion sickness glasses which you can find on Amazon for 10 bucks. The brand is high on H I O and so first try magic dots. If that doesn't work, you can get the glasses. I will say maybe look worse than than snaps glasses, but it doesn't matter because car sickness sucks and we don't want you to have it.

[Kyle Hagee]

So maybe, maybe Stamp needs to pivot to motion sickness as well for their spectacles. Okay, my wreck. This is not sponsored by Apple, but I'm going to go to Apple as well. Just like Neil is Widows Bay on Apple tv. I got this rack from our colleague at Morning Brew, Andre. So shout out to Andre. This is one of the most original shows I've seen in a minute. Kind of a mix of like Stephen King horror vibes with like Parks and Rec City administration. Super original, really, really good and feels like a breath of fresh air in the TV landscape. So if you haven't seen Widows Bay on Apple tv, go check it out and if you like it, say thank you to Andre.

[Neal Freyman]

Cool. I mean I've heard things about it. I'm where is it scary?

[Kyle Hagee]

It's a little scary and I don't particularly like horror as a genre. It's not like jump scare scary, it's just a little eerie and I've been able to handle it. I'm confident you can handle it, Neil.

[Neal Freyman]

Than Kyle. Yeah, I've heard great things. Okay, that is all the time we have. Thanks for starting your morning with us and have a wonderful Wednesday. Thanks for hopping on Kyle. And if people want to hear more of your lukewarm Midwestern takes, where can they find you?

[Kyle Hagee]

That is my brand, Lukewarm Midwestern Takes. I co host another podcast here at Morning Brewing called per my last email, it is work and career advice for early to mid career professionals. Go check that out. And as always Neil, thanks for having me. This was super fun to share your

[Neal Freyman]

thoughts on the episode or anything, anything else, send an email to Morning Brew daily at Morning Broadcom or DM us on Instagram @me Daily Show. Let's roll the credits. Emily Milian is our supervising producer. Raymond Lu is our senior producer. Our producer is Olivia Graham, and our associate producer is Olivia Lake. Technical direction by Nina Miller. Hair and makeup is in a froyo coma. Too many toppings. Devin Emery is our president, and our shows are production of Morning Brew.

[Kyle Hagee]

Thanks, everyone. Let's run it back tomorrow.