Morning Brew Daily - Phase or Forever? Toby’s Trends 2025 Mega Recap

Episode Date: December 30, 2025

Episode 746: Neal and Toby revisit some of the biggest trends of the year! A big theme? What we’re putting into our bodies with the rise of creatine, caviar, dubai chocolate, and spicy foods. Then, why Gen Z is averse to opening bar tabs but all-in on communal dining. Then, we’re tapping into our inner elder-selves with an uptick of grandma hobbies and reading fiction books, but there’s a disparity between men and women. Also, a callback of days-old traditions, anybody? Metal braces are back for teens and cigarettes on the silver screen are back. Finally, Neal shares his favorite trends on 6-7, interest in history, and fast walking.  Check out https://www.public.com/morningbrew for more Subscribe to Morning Brew Daily for more of the news you need to start your day. Share the show with a friend, and leave us a review on your favorite podcast app. Listen to Morning Brew Daily Here:⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.swap.fm/l/mbd-note⁠⁠⁠  Watch Morning Brew Daily Here:⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@MorningBrewDailyShow⁠ Paid endorsement. Brokerage services provided by Open to the Public Investing Inc, member FINRA & SIPC. Investing involves risk. Not investment advice. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool by Public Advisors. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. See disclosures at public.com/disclosures/ga. Past performance does not guarantee future results, and investment values may rise or fall. See terms of match program at https://public.com/disclosures/matchprogram. Matched funds must remain in your account for at least 5 years. Match rate and other terms are subject to change at any time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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pwc.com slash US slash brew AI. That's pwc.com slash us slash brewAI. Good morning brew daily show. I'm Neil Fryman. And I'm Toby Howell. Today, what were the kids up to this year? I'll tell you, in a supersized version of Toby's Trends. It's Tuesday, December 30th.

Let's ride. Now, everyone's second favorite segment on the podcast behind Neil's numbers is Toby's Trends. It's where I take a deep dive in the business world and emerge with the trend that will have your grandparents going. Now, how did you? get so smart. For this special holiday week episode, the team and I went back and comb through every trend we talked about this year. Some of them are random, six, seven. Some of them fit into a

broader theme, but all of them will make you feel smart if you bring them up in front of your friends. So, Neil, are you ready to have your mind blowing? Let's do it. But first, a word from our sponsor, Public. Neil, I have to talk to you about something. Toby, for the last time, I do not want to hear about your golf trip last weekend. No, no, no, no. It's public. Before on public, you could build a multi-asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, and crypto. But now, in addition to that, they have generated assets, which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. You can type in any prompt like AI powered supply chain companies with positive free cash flow or defense tech companies growing revenue 25% year over year.

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full disclosures in podcast description. Hey, mama, thanks for making all my favorite recipes. Hi, Ma, thanks for your unfiltered advice. Hi, Mom. Thanks for always being by the phone. Hey, Mom, happy Mother's Day. When you ship UPS Air at the UPS store, your items arrive on time or your money back. Guaranteed at no extra cost, exclusively at the UPS store UPS store UPSS.

retail locations. Visit the UPS store.com slash air shipping for full details. Terms and conditions apply. Send your Mother's Day gifts at the UPS store and we'll get your gratitude there on time. You know, I tell you what, I must have been hungry picking some of these trends because a lot of them are food related. And when it comes to your guts, maybe the definitive trend of the year was creatine coming back with a force. The powder has had a glow up since your meathead friends were ripping it in between classes in high school.

It's now one of the most popular and widely studied supplements in the world with links to improved cognition and memory benefits. In addition to giving you the energy and strength to train harder and recover faster, sales of the supplement at vitamin shop surged 320% from 2019 to today. I don't know who is running PR for creatine this year, but suddenly it felt like it was everywhere. And the customer base has expanded beyond the gym bros that it's typically big. associated with at GNC, women now account for 30% of all creatine purchases up from 18% in 2020. There's a whole lot of research going into the mental health benefits of this supplement, as well as specific uses for women with dealing with menopause and things like that. So the customer base has widened, and there doesn't seem to be anything truly wrong with

creatine that we've read up a lot of it. There's been an increase in study 7% year over year for the last five years. So this is one of the most widely studied supplements on the market. And, you know, everyone I know is taking creatine. I started taking it. I had a little tub on my desk this whole year. I actually ran out. And then my fiance started taking it.

So you're right. It is completely, can you imagine going back to high school and remembering which kids kind of gravitated towards security team now? And then now seeing like who is taking it in this day and age. It has been a glow up. It's just the word that I like to use because also the form factor has changed. It's not just a dubious white powder sitting in a tub. There's little gummies now.

You can put it in drink. So I definitely think that it's had a good PR rebrand, which is why it's come back into the mainstream. Okay. So phase or forever for creatine. Are we going to see this trend continue into the next few years? I mean, as you said, most studied supplement, I think there's nothing that is going to slow its role now. I think we're only going to see more form factors going forward and more, you know, maybe yosified brands of creatine.

So I think it's a forever thing phase or forever. for you. Yeah, I'm with you. I think it does come down to also these influencers, whether they continue to promote it. It has been heavily promoted by huge podcasters, Andrew Huberman, Joe Rogan, Tim Ferriss, people that seem to know like what they're talking about when it comes to health, at least in terms of Andrew Huberman on that particular list. So yes, I see this as something that's more of a permanent trend than just a one trick, Sally. Our next trend moves us up in the world of dining. We're talking about slimy, briny, caviar. Caviar is having a bit of a moment, finding itself on dishes far beyond the scope of crem fresh and crackers, mostly because it got a lot more

affordable. Up to date, data is a little bit hard to come by, but the price for a kilogram of imported caviar was around $240 in 2020, down from about $440 in 2014. The big reason for this, it's China. Today, most of the little fish balls that cross your lips come to the U.S. from farms in China, where government support, plentiful waterways, and cheap labor have pushed down for prices. But thanks to this. flood of cheaper eggs. Restaurants have started doing some crazy things with the ingredient. Koka Dak, a Korean fried chicken restaurant in New York City, puts a dollop on top of a McDonald-style chicken nugget while you can get a $68 sour cream and onion dip in Nashville adorned with the fancy

orbs. Neil, this used to be an unattainable symbol of luxury, but now it's entered the mainstream dining experience. I think the foundation for the caviar boom was laid down back in 2020 and 2021 during lockdowns when these caviar companies as well as fine dining restaurants, they were closed and they needed a way to reach consumers. What they did was go direct to consumer and sell it to you directly online. So people were bringing caviar into their homes and then doing quote unquote caviar bumps. And that was a huge thing on social media. It spread widely on the internet.

And people were seeing caviar as a way to have a little fun and be a little indulgent at a time when you are at home. And then all these restaurants, once they open back up, on the trend and they can because because caviar got a lot cheaper because of the flood in from China. I think that restaurants are treating it as a loss leader in a lot of ways where people will post them doing bumps on social media, you know, having caviar on social media because it's a very, you know, luxury item that people like to document. So some restaurant tours literally said it's more like our Costco rotisserie chicken, which is, you know, the famous chicken to get

people in the doors. It doesn't necessarily make money off it, but it gets you in the restaurant. It gets you sitting down in the seat because, you know, everyone wants to try a little caviar on a chicken nugget. Okay, Neil, phase or forever? Phase. I think caviar is a phase. It's going to be too expensive for most people to try it. So even at these places, they are $60, $70 these caviar dishes. I don't see this lasting.

Either do I. I'm totally with you. Our next food trend is more of a crunchy, creamy variety. It's Dubai chocolate. I'm not sure how you could have missed it, but if you've been living under a rock, Dubai chocolate is a sweet treat that consists of a milk chocolate bar stuff with a creamy green pistachio filling and a shredded pastry known as katoffi. First made by an Emirati chocolate tier.

It initially debuted to modest success back in 2021, but that totally changed after the smashing success of one TikTok. A video posted in December of 2023 that features a girl just eating Dubai chocolate in her car. The ASMR vibes combined with the clearly delicious looking treat racked up 120 million views and put it on the map. Also, it puts some strain on one key ingredient. One nut trader told the financial times that the pistachial world is basically tapped out at the moment with the craze pushing prices to over $10 a pound,

a 34% rise in just a year. Neil, after doing this story back in April, you literally could not escape Dubai chocolate. It felt like the lobooboo of the confectionary world. You could not escape a trader. Joe sells a Dubai chocolate bar. I hopped at a limited time Dubai pancakes. stack, which sounds absolutely incredible. Baskin. Robbins had an ice cream flavor for Dubai,

chocolate, Costco, Walmart, KVC, Lint. You go down the, you go down the line and every single brand that sells anything remotely connected to chocolate or confections or candy or even pancakes was hopping on this trend. And even Hershey's earlier this month came out with its own Dubai-inspired chocolate bar. And when Hershey's buys into this, I think there's the idea that this is not just a flash in the pan, but something that's a little more elastic. here. So I already gave you my answer. I think Dubai chocolate is going to be lasting. It has the right texture and it has that creamy filling that I think

will make it a popular confection for years to come. Spoken like someone who has tried it, which we did try it. We did a little video about it. And we were both pretty presently surprised. It's got the crunch. The crunch is what makes it. It is probably a little too sweet, especially if you're not someone who's into sweet tooth. But

I do think that the textual aspect of it is something that will keep it around for a long time. Finally, we'll give your gut arrest, but not before we destroy with one last trend, which is restaurants going all in on spicy foods. Restaurant trains triple down on hot foods that younger consumers love this year. Chipotle rolled out a spicy adobe ranch. In May, Taco Bell debuted its Mike's Hot Honey Diablo sauce,

and not to be left behind, Wendy's release a Taki's Fuego meal, while the usually mild Mediterranean chain, Kava, launched hot Horissa pita chips in April. In total, U.S. restaurant chains launched 76 new spicy menu items from March to June, bringing the total number of restaurants that offer at least one spicy item on their menu to 95% according to analysis by Data Essential. So, Neil, if you wanted to create buzz both online and in customer's mouth this year, the best way to make a new hot food item was to make that food item hot. One of the TikTok challenges that sparked the spicy food craze was people eating bulldog ramen is called the Fire Nutle Challenge. Now, this has various grades of spiciness from not spicy at all. to like 4x spice.

I tried 2x spice once. I can tolerate spice. I can have a lot of spicy things. I'm just stating a fact. I tried this. It was so spicy. I couldn't stomach it, but people were filming themselves

eating this type of ramen, spicy ramen, as well as a bunch of other spicy foods. And people just love the reactions. And I think that is one of the inspirations for why people are so obsessed with spicy food right now. There are obviously different grades of spice.

I think people are, you know, who knows what spice tolerance most people have. It's probably not 2x, 3x, 4x for this ramen, but it does seem to be like a huge wave. No, you're right. Muckbang, which are just live stream broadcast of people eating spicy foods, is an enduring trend of the internet. As long as the internet is around, I think we'll still have muckbangs because it is just compelling content. But also the business case, Dave's hot chicken was started just a few years ago. A P.E. steak, which he bought a part in that company, valuing it at. a billion dollars. So clearly this is just the thing that's resonating in the restaurant industry

right now. If you want to go viral on social media, you have to have a little spice in it because young people just love this stuff. I could not be more opposed to this trend. I can do... The most vanilla. Literally, I mean, you said one X spice. I'm like half an X spice. So I'm a little bit of more... I've been getting better, though. You know, I can do Syracia at this point. I think people just want to feel things. Yeah, that is true. The youths want to feel some. I do think it's enduring though because, you know, spice is a, it's a great, it's a great trend. Okay, we've talked about what food you were all eating, but now it's time for a little night out on the town. What were the trends that dominated going out with friends this year?

Perhaps nothing was more divisive than this trend about bar tabs. There is a growing cohort of Gen Z bar goers who simply refused to open a tab. The reversion was the subject of a New York Times article that chronicled how many 20-somethings we're opting to close out after every single overpriced algas white, rather than keep their bar tab running. One explanation for their tab trepidation is that younger drinkers consume less alcohol, so they're fine with one and done transactions. Manly, though, they just don't like carrying the mental weight.

It increases anxiety in me when I leave a tab open, a 26-year-old beer sales rep told the times. Neil, what the heck is going on here? What do you think about this shift in bar etiquette? Maybe it's the 34-year-old in me, but I hate this trend. I think you should leave a tab open because one of life's great satisfactions is you're at a table with all your friends and someone goes, hey, can I have another round or like, I'm going to go up to the bar. Does anyone want anything? And then you just say, yeah, I got a tab open.

Just put it on my tab. Like that is the best feeling in the world. And this could not be more annoying for bartenders or people who own bars. Because one of the hidden major costs of bars other than labor and rent is credit card swipe. fees. Those are substantial. So every time you're swiping a card that you don't have to because someone didn't leave a tab open, that is more money coming out of your bank account, let alone all the time it takes to do that every single time while you're trying to serve others who are lined up at the bar two, three, four deep. So I'm totally against this trend. I completely understand why

they're doing it. But I think you should just try it, try it once, leave a bar tab open and see how good it feels when you can say put it on my tab. The other business angle of this is that Genzi is drinking less than previous generations. A Gallup poll in 2023 found a 10 point decline over the past two decades in the share of 18 to 34 year olds who report consuming alcohol. This has been something that we've talked about a lot over the past year is that people are drinking less. And one way to monitor your drinking is to not have a tab open is to say every time I go up to get a drink, I have to do the motion of tapping my card. It makes you just more perceptive of what's going on. So I think you're totally right, though. This was one of the defining trends. This was one of the defining

of the year, though, probably we got hundreds of comments, hundreds of emails on both sides of the equation, honestly. It truly seems to be a generational divide. Some bartenders are like, just buck up people. Like, I don't want to see you every five minutes. Just open the tab, exactly what you're describing right now. Some people said that literally respectfully, someone has to bully these people. These are bartenders saying this.

And I think that probably you're right. I do think it's enduring, though. Like people are in the tap to pay era right now. The other weird thing young people are doing when they go out is sitting next to each other. Communal tables have alternated between popularity and dining room pariah, but they are so back right now. New data from Resi shows that 90% of Gen Z diners say they enjoy communal seating compared to just 60% of boomers. A lot of people report meeting friends or dates at these long banquet setups. They see it as a low pressure way to share plates, save little money, join conversations, and feel plugged into something going around, around them.

Neil, I think this is still polarizing, though. Would you want to break bread with strangers at the table? All I'll say is that whenever communal dining makes a comeback, and it's very cyclical, it's not good news for the rest of the world. So if you talk to restaurateurs or people in the hospitality industry, they point to certain years and times when communal dining was big. One of those was after 9-11 in 2001 in New York. People wanted to be together, and so, you know, nothing great was going on.

And then same thing happened in 2008. After the financial crisis, people were down on their luck. They wanted to be together communal dining rose. And then if you go all the way back to the Second World War, there were a huge amount of communal dining in the UK. This was promoted by Winston Churchill as a way of promoting togetherness during tough times. So the bottom line is I think it's maybe a recession indicator when you see communal dining on the rise. And for that reason, I'm going to say this is a total phase and it's not something that's more permanent. The only time I think communal dining is fun is on the ski mountain.

Like everyone comes in. There's no space for everyone. You just got to sit down and say, hey, how was it out there? That's the only time I can remember consciously saying, oh, yeah, it's totally fine. It's the next to strangers. But I don't know what other scenario I would do it in, like a beer hall or something like that. Yeah, I guess it goes back to the other trend. Gen Z's drinking less.

So maybe they're not showing up in beer hall. So some conflicting data points there because, yeah, people want to hang out. And yet they're trepidious about, you know, drinking and going out. So I think you are right. It shifts. You know, sometimes it's bowling alone. Sometimes it's dining out with friends. It just ebbs and flows as society changes.

So we all know you guys were eating with each other and not starting tabs. What were you up to when you were on your own time? What hobbies were in vogue this year? And I hate to break it to you, but y'all some grandmas. A growing portion of young Americans are taking up grandma hobbies, skipping middle age entirely, as the Wall Street Journal put it, in embracing main character in a cozy British miniseries vibes. Grandma hobbies or Granny Corps includes doing things like joining a knitting circle,

junk journaling, or really anything low-tech that requires less scrolling and more slip stitches. In a survey of 2,000 U.S. adults, the research firm Mintel found that 86% of Gen Z identifies as crafters. The market is catching on to Shopify reported in May alone that sales of cross-stitch patterns jumped 89% year over year. while embroidered canvas sales climbed 88%. You know, I think for a lot of people,

it's just nice to make something that isn't made up of pixels. So many of your trends, I think we need to talk about in the context of we just had a global pandemic, right? Like just four or five years ago, everyone was inside their homes. There was no socialization. There was a lot of isolation. I think a lot of the trends that we've been talking about

are born straight from the pandemic, specifically among Gen Z who had their college careers cut short and they had to do Zoom classes. And they're just looking for a way to be with each other at a time of, you know, screens are everywhere and they weren't able to socialize with each other during extremely formative years. So I think this is one way, this granny core, granny skills and crafting is one way for people to be together at a time when they were, they had all these things cut short for them.

I also noticed that people say this with a bunch of pride, like low-key pride. They're like, yeah, I have a lot of granny hobbies. and you're supposed, you know, they say it in a way that seems to be self-demeaning, but you can tell inner, you know, inside, they are actually really proud of it because you're learning a skill, you're making something. I totally love this trend. It's cool to know how to make something. I don't know how to do any of those things.

I recently just started painting watercolor again, though. I don't know if that constitutes as a granny hobby. We're just kind of applying the label to anything that isn't on your phones at this point. But it's fun, yeah, analog stuff is so in. You're right. If we had to put a overarching trend on a lot of these things, it is just ditching digital, getting back to in person, doing more analog stuff. So I think you're right. It is a forever trend. All right. We're going to take a quick break and come back with more trends right after this. All right. So you guys weren't sitting scrolling on your phones. Good for you. But something else you may not

have been doing is reading, specifically if you're a dude. If you're a guy and read a fiction book in the last year, you're a rare unicorn in today's literary landscape. The New York Times published a big piece this year titled, Why Did the Novel Reading Man Disappear? In it, they noted that the book industry skews heavily female with a 2023 study from Lee and Lowe, finding that 71% of publishing's workforce are women. There is also the famous stat cited in many an op-ed that men account for only 20% of the fiction market compared to 80% for women. But it turns out that that stat is basically made up, according to Vox, and the gap is not nearly as yawning as you might think. The closest thing they could find was a 2017 survey from the UK that found women bought 63% of fiction,

while men bought 37%. So women probably do read a little bit more than men and probably read more fiction, but nothing crazy. Neil, this was one of my murkier trends, the great case of the mysterious novel reading men, and I can't wait to talk to a novel reading man about it. Well, it seems like we do need more performative males out there, at least carrying a book around to make it look like you are. I'm going to defend my fellow men here and just say that nobody is reading anymore, male or female. Reading for pleasure in the United States has fallen by more than 40% over the past two decades. That's according to an analysis of the U.S. government's American time use survey, which tracks how people spend their time.

The proportion of people in America who read for pleasure on an average day fell from 28% in 2003 to just 16% in 2020. So whether you're a guy or a girl, it seems like no one is reading much at all anymore. I'm glad you mentioned performative males and performative reading, though. That is something that the New York Times article talked about, about why people may not be reading as much anymore, because they're afraid of looking like a performative person in public, as it's been dubbed on social media. So there are some accounts fully dedicated to this where it's pictures of performative males. is usually reading a book that is conspicuously something that might appeal to the opposite sex in a very public setting. So there are truly some performative people out there, but sometimes you just want to grow up and read actual good book.

So you are right, though. This is a trend that is not confined to a single gender. It is just something that is happening in our very social media-obsessed world. It's hard to find time to read anymore. I've been in a little bit of a reading drought recently. What was the last book you read? I read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but I don't even know if that counts necessarily, because that's like a classic.

I'm kind of making my way through there, but nothing modern these days. You are a big reader. I can see something is in your eye right now. You can drop whatever book you want to drop. I try to have a book on my nightstand. The one I am reading right now I'm almost done with is called The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny. And it's just considered one of the best books of the year. So whenever I see books like that, it's like this big family saga about immigrants from India and a love story,

I'm like, that, that's for me. So I am reading it right now. It's quite excellent. I remember the first time we talked about this trend, we spoke about the idea of a Morning Brew Daily book club. So I'm going to ask people to weigh in one more time. Should we start a book club going forward in 2026? It seems like a good idea to me.

It's at least a performative idea. Exactly. All right, trends by nature are cyclical, which means something is either dying or on the comeback trail. So this section is dedicated to revivals, those trends that things were so over for, but are now so back. And let's start with braces.

Suddenly, jaw hardware became the hottest new status symbol amongst the use and adults alike. Orthodontists have reported a rise in interest in the once uncool OG metal braces as wearers embrace their imperfections to flash metallic smiles with pride. Part of the appeal is undeniably tied to price tag. Braces can range from $3,000 to $10,000

and are often not covered by insurance. So rocking 10 bands on your, your face is just the latest way to flex. Neil, as a former brace face myself, I am happy to see this narrative shifting, but it's a little bit baffling at the same time. It is baffling. I'm not so. I'm not so.

I guess I don't really care one way or the other. I don't think it's going to last, though. I'm an Invisaline user. Well, actually, I, okay, I had braces and then I didn't wear my retainer. And then a couple of years ago, I did Envisaline during the pandemic. So I guess I can speak from both sides of the equation. Let's just hear from the people themselves who are getting these braces and why they say they're doing it. One of them said, I get that Invisaline is for individuals who are

shy about showing others. They're working on themselves. But I'm bold, loud, and proud about my journey of improvement and individuality. Another one said, no shade to Invisaline, but it's kind of boring to me. So I think of this as an accessory along the lines of Labu. I think we're comparing a lot of trends to Labuobu. But it's something that you dangle on your purse or you put in your mouth as a sign of status or self-improvement or any other way to showcase individuality in these times. And it's easy to customize. I mean, the OG metal braces, you can change whatever color is on there. You can change the rubber band color.

Some people are literally having accessories attached to their braces. And it's just very conspicuous in pop culture right now. Little Uzi Vert proudly flaunts his orthodontics. He wears braces, and it's just one of those things where it starts trickling down through popular culture to everyday people. It goes back, too. I mean, Marisha Brady and the Brady bunch, she had braces, then America Ferreira in Ugly Betty.

These are very famous brace faces. So they've kind of just never really left culture. Now it's coming into what the youths are listening to with Lily Uzbert as well. Other than braces, cigarettes are also sew back. Half of all movies released last year featured tobacco imagery, a 10% year-over-year increase. Despite smoking rates for the overall population hovering around historic lows, celebrities off-screen seem to be lighting up left and right.

Addison Ray sings. about it in a new song. Lord also reminisces about the best cigarette of her life on her recent album. And then Charlie X-E-X is basically the person who founded this whole aesthetic, which is the main reason for this whole revival, I should add, aesthetics. Vaping is not cool, but smoking a cigarette is for a lot of young people, the mood and the ritual are more alluring than the nicotine itself. Neil, just because sakes are cool again doesn't mean the health consequences suddenly disappeared. Smoking is still responsible for one in three cancer deaths. in the US, but the reality of their harm right now is being outweighed by a cultural wind that

is saying they are very much in right now. Very curious to see whether this will be measurable in the data, whether images of people smoking or tobacco imagery in pop culture does filter down to actual people smoking more besides anecdotes. In recent years, cigarette smoking in the U.S. has plunged to decades low, especially among young people. It was just 6% of adults under 30 reported recently smoking compared to 35% of. in surveys dating from 2001 to 2003.

So we might need to wait a few years to see whether Sabrina Carpenter, Charlie X, CX, Addison Ray, talking about smoking where we're seeing it more in the movies, actually does filter down to measurable statistics. But if you go back to studies, it does show explicitly that depictions in movies and TV that normalize smoking does actually increase smoking rates, especially among those impressionable youth. It was fascinating. And this is just a small cross-section of people, but we posted a video on Instagram

about this trend. And first of all, it was DMed over 5,000 times. So clearly someone was sending it to someone. But the majority, I'd say 90% of the comments were like, ew, no, smoking is still not cool. So maybe that's just a cross-section of who our Instagram followers are. But maybe it's not quite as widespread yet. There still is this connotation around smoking.

Like, no, like, of course we're not smoking, even though the celebrities are doing it. So you are right. Is it going to filter down? Are we going to see it percolate into normal everyday usage more? maybe people are just too educated at this point. They know obviously it's bad for you. But that was just another data point that came out after we initially reported on this trend,

that Instagram was not down with it. Okay, Toby, so you had a bunch of trends this year. You didn't mention all of them in this show, but I wanted to pick some of my favorites to share with you all. The first one, I don't know how you didn't mention it, but I understand why you didn't mention it. It's two numbers, the number six and the number seven. And the youth, Gen Z, no, it's not even Gen Z.

It was Gen Alpha just fell in love with these two numbers, six, seven, back to back. And we're just cracking jokes about it. It doesn't really mean anything. The point of it was just to baffle adults. And it just got everywhere this year. You even saw basketball games, college basketball games, that got up to the score of 67. And then the crowd just goes absolutely wild. The announcers get in on the joke as well.

So what did you think of six, seven? I'll tell you what I think. I think it's hilarious. Like, if I was a kid right now, I would be all in on 6-7. It just seems like a hilarious, absurdist joke that would be totally up my alley. And whenever I see it happen in life or on TV or on social media, I crack up. I love 6-7. It's great because the fact that you like it means it's on a slow death spiral because if Neil thinks it's funny and cool,

there's no way the middle schoolers are going to keep thinking it's cool. This was probably the trend of, I've said that probably four times, but trend of the year in terms of the actual use, I was out at Halloween after we reported on this trend, and the streets of New York were filled with kids. One kid says 6-7, and it really is like a mind virus. It spreads from one group to the other. The entire street all of a sudden is doing the hand motions saying 6-7. I hope our episode on this educated some very confused adults about it

because it is a nonsense trend inherently. It's meant to make you feel like you have no idea what's going on. So if you understand that aspect of it, you understand the trend. There's a whole lore behind it as well. Look it up on Instagram. There's some deep, deep internet archives of it as well. But yes, I don't know how I forgot to mention it. Six, seven, not going to survive.

I hope it doesn't survive. Here's another trend that I really loved, and that's the business of history is booming. Maybe people aren't reading that much anymore. Overall book market was flat in the United States. But history books were up 6% in the past year. And then over in the UK and Ireland in 2023, They spent more on history books that at any point since records began in 1998.

One of the most popular podcasts now is The Rest in History was downloaded 12.5 million times per month. That's more popular than this American life. It's just two guys talking about history. And then, of course, hardcore history is one of the most popular history podcasts in the world. For some reason, it seems like people are seeking out history. Maybe the people were right that men are thinking about the Roman Empire every single day of their lives. of the things that usually corresponds with people getting interested in the past is periods of profound technological technological or sociological change. Abania for the past arises when

everything is moving so quickly around you. We're in an age of rapid technological change with AI adoption. So people tend to look backwards a little bit to figure out why we are the way that we are. Like history is always going to be popular, but especially in these flash plan moments. And as you just get older, there's... the past becomes more meaningful for you just in general. So as podcasting matures as an industry, as, you know, people listen online, obviously these things are going to become more popular. So I remember when we reported on this trend, we were saying, so we started a little

history podcast? Like, clearly this is, you know, the booming side of the industry. And it also comes at a time, or maybe it's a result of enrollment in history classes going way down in the United States spring enrollment for history by, undergrads on four-year courses was down 15% since 2019. So maybe people are still looking for that history fix that they're not getting in their classes because they're just not taking history classes anymore, which I guess I completely understand.

They're not reading. They're not taking history classes. What are you doing these days? Okay, I'll tell you what they're doing. They're walking fast, and that is the final trend of this episode that I want to talk about. There was this study that looked at certain areas of major U.S. cities, Philadelphia's Chestnut Street, Boston's downtown. crossing in New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art and Bryant Park. So these researchers,

I don't think it was the same ones, but they looked at how fast people were walking or they were just looking at what interactions on the streets were like from 1980 to 30 years later, 2010. And what they found was that pedestrians walked faster by 15% in 2010 than they had in 1980. There were less interactions. There was less grouping. So people are just on the move these days. What do you think about this? I mean, it's all traces back to cell phones. It always feels like people blame everything on social media and cell phones, but the fact that your head is down looking out of phone means you are stopping less to talk to those people around you. So that definitely contributes to it. Also, people in the observed areas had their incomes rise over that time. And so

the cost of strolling around started to rise. So the opportunity of cost of not, you know, being in front of a computer and making money starts to rise as you make more money. So Maybe as these areas became wealthier, people started realizing that their time had a value to it as well, which is why they're not strolling as much. Anecdotally, obviously, it makes sense, too. I mean, I hate slow walkers. I'm not a stroller by any sense of the word. Are you a stroller?

No, I walk fast. But I do agree that we could all use a little more stoop chilling these days and just a little more pondering on the streets instead of going from point A to B, even though I don't actually do that in practice. I know. It speaks to the lack of third places too. You could put an overarching trend on all of these trends where it's, we're just not hanging out quite as much anymore. So maybe you need to stop walking as fast, do your grandma activities,

eat some spicy food, drink some creatine, just combine it all into one mega Toby's trend. All right. I think that's a great place to end. That is all the time we have. Thanks so much for starting your morning with us. Have a great rest of your day. If you want to get in touch,

send a note to Morningbrewdaily at morningbrew.com or DM us on Instagram at MBDaily Show. Let's roll the credits. Emily Milliron is our executive producer. Raymond Lue is our producer. Our associate producers are Olivia Graham and Olivia Lake. Hair and makeup is looking forward to another great year of Toby's friends.

Devin Emery is our president and our show is a production of Morning Brew. Great show today, Neil. Let's run it back tomorrow.