The Best One Yet - 🛻 “Hot Girl Trucks” — Single Ladies buy Broncos. Midyear Stock Scoreboard. Starbucks’ Barista Influencers. +Celeb Wedding Planners

Starting point is 00:00:00 This is Nick. This is Jack. Welcome back. It is Monday, July 6th, and today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Basties, you are glowing and glazing from that long weekend. Jack, should we jump right back into this T-boy? For our first story, hot girls on Instagram are all driving vintage trucks, and it reveals a big economic trend.

Starting point is 00:00:23 From the Ford Bronco to the retro Range Rover, it's the single ladies' economy. For our second story, we're halfway through the year. We got your stock. market scoreboard. Nasdaq's up, South Korea's up more, and bend the Bitcoin, he disappeared on us. And our third and final story, Starbucks has a new moonshop plan to save the business. Pay their baristas to influence you on TikTok. But yet, he's before we hit that wonderful mix of stars. What a mix to come back to. Cool a show in capitalism. Love it, Jack. The greatest secret location is not the city of Atlantis, the Holy Grail, or Area 51.

Starting point is 00:00:56 No, no, no, no, no. Besties, the best kept secret was where Taylor Swift was getting married. And last weekend, it all finally went down at Madison Square Garden. But here's the wild part. How did no one know where the wedding would actually be until the day of? Here's how. Celebrity weddings use the same tactics as the U.S. military does to protect those VIPs. True story. Celebrity wedding planners. They study American Special Forces and the Secret Service.

Starting point is 00:01:23 Anti-dron drones, Taylor's wedding had them. Radio frequency jammers, Taylor's wedding had them. Decoy brides? That was an epic. actual thing. There was a Taylor Swift decoy bride. Used both to capture Saddam Hussein and to protect Dua Lepa's wedding. Phones were checked at the door, pictures were forbidden, and gas had to sign NDAs just like the Delta forces do. Get this, when Jennifer Anderson got married, she sent fake invitations to throw off the paparazzi. And then she leaked a fake location just like the CIA would

Starting point is 00:01:53 have done. By the way, the best way to reduce the risk, according to one celebrity wedding planner, is to not do the wedding in Italy. right, because Italians, they're known to talk. George Clooney's Lake Como wedding almost got busted by a bus boy. He's a leak in any information, Jack. So celebrity wedding planners, they now hire former Navy SEALs to their staff.

Starting point is 00:02:14 It's not a glam team, Jack. It's a SWAT team. And yes, just like the military, there's a code word for everything. Yeah, this wasn't Taylor Swift's wedding, was it, Jack? It was Operation Blank Space. If you know, you know. If you tell anyone, I'll have to kill you.

Starting point is 00:02:27 Yeah, Travis Kelsey will strangle you. Jack, let's hit our three stories. 15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea that caused a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is an norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50% that's a fat tip.

Starting point is 00:02:46 Tea Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, because we're ready to go. We can't wait no more, so just start the show. Start the show. First, a quick word from our sponsor. Our first story. Every hot girl on Instagram is driving an old, loud, rickety SUV. Gen Zennial women buying vintage Broncos reveals the single ladies economy. Yeties this past Fourth of July weekend, I was on Nantucket. And Jack, I got to tell you,

Starting point is 00:03:25 I saw about 20 of your dream car. I saw him. A first edition, 1967 Ford Bronco, which was for its first SUV, but was also a convertible? Is that the car you're talking about? That's what I'm talking about, I know you want it. I'm working on it for the birthday, man. But plot twist. The throwback Broncos that Nick saw, they were not driven by an Antucket version of me. No, when I got up close to potentially steal the car and bring it to Jack, I noticed it wasn't driven by Chad Tuckett. It was driven by Charlotte. According to the Wall Street Journal, sales of $100,000 vintage trucks are now being driven by young women. That's right, besties, the hot new fashion accessory. It ain't a burkin bag. It's a 94 Jeep Wrangler-Sahara edition with the bikini. top. Yeah, somehow I accidentally became basic by wanting my Bronco. Every 26-year-old girl in L.A. wants the same dream car as me. You said it. I didn't, Jack. Apparently it's the rich, hot girl move these days. Talk to me about the numbers, man. Yeah, because even though they're old, these are not cheap. These are collectors edition vehicles. We're talking Kendall Jenner. She just bought an 89 Toyota land cruiser

Starting point is 00:04:32 for six digits. Sydney Sweeney famously has a red 69 Ford Bronco. Oh, and Alex Earl just painted her Bronco Barbie. And according to your Instagram feed, thousands of other women are following these celebrity moves. Because Bessies, this is what Jack and I find fascinating. It's not just the A-list influencers trading up and buying very, very, very used

Starting point is 00:04:52 loud of classic cars. The data shows that the big demand for throwback vehicles is from women under 40. But that's the tension point here that makes it so interesting. Because historically, the average buyer of these types of cars was a retired boomer dude. But Banyan Retro Motors in Houston, Texas,

Starting point is 00:05:07 they say their roster of female clients is up 60%. Hagerty, the classic car insurance company, they say the number of women under 50 buy and first edition Ford Broncos up 82% in the last three years. On Nantucket, one business rents out just vintage Land Rover defenders

Starting point is 00:05:21 for 500 bucks a day. Oh, and Jack, who is driving those vintage Land Rover defenders? 80% of them are women between 20 and 40, and 50% of them are probably bachelets. We got the receipts. It's the same numbers down on Long Island, too.

Starting point is 00:05:34 80% of vintage truck rentals and Montau are to Gen Z women. Who just got a table at Surf Lodge and my sister's probably riding shotgun. No, a key detail we want to clarify. We're not talking about buying a fancy new, like Mercedes G-Wagon SUV. No, no, no, no. As one woman told the journal, G-Wagons, therefore the rich girls go into Pilates in Malibu.

Starting point is 00:05:52 Girls with Edge drive loud gas guzzlers with a stick shift. Or as one 25-year-old in the fashion industry put it, I'm driving junk on wheels. Until now, 72% of Jeep buyers have been middle-aged men, but now their daughters are buying throwback wrangling. Which I gotta say, Jack, has led to an unfortunate new epidemic. Mansplaining mechanics. Yeah, what does that sound like exactly?

Starting point is 00:06:14 You know, you're gonna want to put in 5W40 every 3,000 miles with that thing, honey. You're gonna have to check the chassis. Jack, full disclosure, as someone who still doesn't know how to drive stick, even though you taught me how to drive stick, you're actually open to unsolicited mansplaining mechanics. I would love someone to mansplain me how to drive one of these things. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies buying $100,000 ancient Ford Broncos? It's the Beyonce economy.

Starting point is 00:06:37 All the single ladies are spending. Yeties, last year, Jack and I did a wild story on who's really driving home sales right now. It's young, single women. Single women made up 25% of all home purchases between June of 2024 and June of 2025, while single men accounted for just 11%. 20 million single women now own homes in the United States. That is an all-time high. And Jack and I are seeing a connection with this car story.

Starting point is 00:07:03 30-year-old women spending huge money to buy a vintage Land Rover defender and a first edition Bronco? That is the sort of declaration of financial independence for single women these days. With marriage rates down, young women are treating themselves to something different. But it's not a handbag. The hot new accessory is the 67 Bronco and a one-bedroom condo. For our second story, we got your stock market scoreboard for the first half of the year. We got oil. We got tariffs. We got Bitcoin. We got AI. We even have Peloton. But the best stock market streak in 35 years has a hero turned villain. Oh, Anakin Skywalker style. But Jack, let's go back six years ago. Stocks had just had their best quarter in decades. We covered it on the pod. Yes, by June of 2020, the stock market had completely rebounded from the COVID scare of just a couple months before. Okay, now let's fast forward six years. June 2026, markets just rebounded even harder. But this time, they rebounded from the scare that was the war in Iran. Now, Bessie's in Q1 of this year,

Starting point is 00:08:08 Stocks actually fell 4.3% because oil prices spiked in March and gasoline prices jumped as well. But oil never hit 200 bucks a barrel as some feared. Mainly, mainly because China usually cut back on their oil consumption. And the rest of the world used up all their oil reserves to avoid the short-term supply crunch of oil. But it ain't just oil tariffs. Most of that got canceled by the Supreme Court a few months ago. Inflation? Yeah, it was real in Q2, but AI was even realer. Add it all up and what was the result for the first half of the year, Jack? Just about every kind of stock rose in the second quarter, from all birds to alphabet. So Bessie's added all up and the S&P 500, which tracks the stock market overall,

Starting point is 00:08:49 was up 15% last quarter to an A.T.H. all-time high. But the biggest gains actually came from the smallest companies. I'm sorry, could you sprinkle on some context, please, Zach? Small stocks rose the most last quarter. Yes, they did. The index of 2,000 companies with the smallest market caps, companies worth less than a lift actually jumped by its highest amount in 35 years. Even Peloton popped 40% last quarter.

Starting point is 00:09:13 Sit down, stand up, and get back on that ride. Peloton is almost kind of backed, baby. And of course, the techie NASDAQ stock index rose 21%, but not because of the companies you would think of. So, Jack, let's unpack that one. Because last week we told the Yetis that the stock market has a new master, right? Memory chips. Memory chips, which replaces the...

Starting point is 00:09:34 the old master of the stock market, GPU chips. Although both memory chips and GPUs are critical for computing AI and data centers. Both of those chips are included in the Philadelphia's semiconductor index, which jumped 89% in the second quarter. Gotta repeat that. 89% index jump in just one quarter for a huge index of semiconductor stocks. Chips, we're talking Intel, Micron, Sandus. They are the new Nvidia, AMD, and Oracle. The data center buildout means huge demand for these computer chips. And with supply super tight, these chip companies are literally quadrupling prices.

Starting point is 00:10:09 There's like a hunger level for these chips bigger than a Tostitos bag at the Super Bowl. And despite these crazy surge prices from the memory chip companies, Zuck and the other AI giants are still buying them. They want to dip into that chip. So, Besties, when you dive into the details, T-boy style here,

Starting point is 00:10:24 you notice three shocking elements to this particular stock market run. Three details we haven't mentioned yet. First, 20% of the details, the S&P 500 is now chip stocks. Second, Bitcoin and gold are cold plunging lately. Investors are selling them in order to get in on chip stocks instead. And third, South Korea, their entire economy is basically one chip factory now. Okay, Korea is a chip. Jack, what's going on here exactly? Well, South Korea's stock market rose by 68% in just the last three months. And we noticed it's

Starting point is 00:10:56 because of two companies, Samsung and Heinz, which make up over half the Korean stock market. And you Guess it, those two companies, they make chips for AI. One chip and end it. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies staring at the stock market? The Magnificent Seven has gone from stock market shaman to stock market schmuck. Yeties, like Anakin Skywalker and Star Wars, techs once heroic stocks have now turned into villains. Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Tesla, Nvidia, Microsoft, and meta, those are the MagSever, and they're the biggest gainers in stock market history. Since the pandemic, each of those magnificent seven stocks has added trillions of value of wealth to Americans' 401k.

Starting point is 00:11:36 But last quarter, the memory company's gains were the mag seven's pains. Interesting, you see, the Magnificent 7 fell 6% last quarter because they're buying the memory chips despite those huge prices we just mentioned. Each of those companies has run out of cash flow to buy these chips. They're starting to issue debt and print new stock to pay for their AI buildout. That's why once heroic names like Microsoft fell 18%. sent last month. Their worst performance since the dot-com crash. If you make memory chips, you're crushing it. If you buy memory chips, you're in trouble right now. Now, Basties, there's plenty of time for tides of the AI race to change. But right now,

Starting point is 00:12:11 Magnificent Seven is getting bullied by memory. The Magh Seven has gone from stock market shaman to stock market schmuck. Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, Starbucks just launched a first of its kind program to turn its baristas into paid influencers. The future of work could be your boss paying you if you go viral. Oh, besties, funny thing Jack, I noticed. Your next orange mocha frapuccino order, it could get 10 million likes. But those aren't your likes.

Starting point is 00:12:47 No, they're not for you, are they, Jack? Because the barista who made that frappuccino filmed its creation and posted it to TikTok 12 seconds after serving it to you. Buddy Timmy, hold on one sec. I just need to keep your drink for another moment. Well, that was a great moment for Starbucks online. And Starbucks wants to institutionalize that kind of thing by incentivizing it financially. Here's the news, bestie.

Starting point is 00:13:08 Starbucks is the first to partner with TikTok on a new creator program that does exactly that. Starbucks management will share creative briefs with their employees. They'll say something like, hey, we're pushing s'mores frappuccino's this season. So if the employee creates content aligned with that s'mores forapuccino brief, Starbucks pays to boost it. Most of that payment's going to go to TikTok. boosts are their ad revenue. That's how they make money.

Starting point is 00:13:31 But part of that boost is going to go to the employee. So what are we saying here exactly, Jack? This is a new career path for hourly workers at Starbucks. Don't try to become a store manager. Try to become the Ka Be Lame of lattes and get paid for it. And now, Jack, you know why your double-digit latte order was nine minutes late last time we were at Starbucks? Yeah, every barista has their own ringlight behind the espresso machine.

Starting point is 00:13:53 You know, in a second. Just busy taking a selfie with the Lamarzocco espresso machine for this. one. But yet he's paused the pot, because what Starbucks is doing is actually inspired by Staples. Good point. Because back in March, a Staples employee in upstate New York became an overnight celebrity. Caden Rowland was her name. She's 22, and her TikTok handle is Blivix. But Bessies, you better know her as the Staples Batty. Because during slow parts of her shift, this tattooed and pierced in-store Staples associate would post videos of the office supplies. 30 seconds long, highlighting Staples, paper products in a very clear ASMR of voice.

Starting point is 00:14:28 A few weeks later, she had 600,000 followers. People loved it. The video had 1 million views. Staples management was confused, but they're like, okay, let's see what happens. Well, a few more deadpaned videos of Staples mug, staple Sharpies, and Staples paginating, all of them went viral for the Staples Batty. I'm sorry, what's paginating? You clearly are not. You're not spending time with the Batty, man. Is that related to pages? You need a trapper keeper over there, or what, Jack?

Starting point is 00:14:53 So, the way Nick and I see it, the Staples Batty needs a talent agent from UTA and a film bill. from Netflix. Totally, Jack, she's the Alex Errol of Erasers right now. Her content is doing a better job than anything Staples corporate could put out. But Besties, here's what Jack and I find fascinating. Historically, most companies would have just shut that down. Get off social media. I'm paying you to work. Now post on TikTok. Now, Staples didn't shut the Staples batty down, but they did miss an opportunity to capitalize on their homegrown influencer. While Starbucks baristas, they're actually three times more active on social media than workers at similar retail companies. Starbucks is seizing on the opportunity by paying them to cappuccino post.

Starting point is 00:15:34 By the way, Jack, you think anyone's going to post my decaf order? Your half-calf? That is so embarrassing. And you only drink half of it. Yeah, it's a quarter-calf. But Jack, you can't order a quarter-calf. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Starbucks? This isn't UGC marketing.

Starting point is 00:15:50 It's EGC marketing. That is UGC. It means user-generated content. Your customers share videos of. your product. That's UGC. Instead of telling people why to buy your product, let your satisfied customers show others on social media. But we noticed that this Starbucks creator program kicks off a new era. EGC, employee generated content. And employee generated content is a rare win-win-win. Totally. It's a hat trick. Starbucks is making employees happy or better paid

Starting point is 00:16:17 and more invested in the company, so they'll keep them longer. Employees gain a following, which is a valuable asset in this attention economy. Oh, and young consumers, they actually prefer brand content that is raw, behind the scenes. through that employee lens you otherwise never got. It's simply more authentic and believable than the polished marketing that corporate puts out. So, Basties, from the Staples Batty to the Starbucks TikTok program,

Starting point is 00:16:39 this is the era of EGC. Employee generated content. Dahlene, you gotta get yourself a deal. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us to kick off the week? Every Instagram model posted a pick of their vintage topless SUV this past weekend, Wranglers, Range Rovers, Broncos,

Starting point is 00:16:58 Besties, it's the Beyonce economy. All the single ladies, all the single ladies, all the single ladies, be spending. For a second story, the stock market scoreboard for the first half, pretty much everything's up driven by AI. Except the Magnificent Seven. They went from stock market shaman to stock market schmuck. And our third and final story was Starbucks. They're looking for employee posts to boost with paid marketing. And then TikTok will give a percentage of the revenue to the employee.

Starting point is 00:17:24 Basically, borista influencers. We call it EGC. employee generated content. But besties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. FERS, Zuck does not want to just sell you smart glasses. He wants to charge you monthly for those smart glasses. Last week, Zuck announced that META is charging $20 a month for the AI features on meta

Starting point is 00:17:44 glasses. So it looks like these glasses won't be free and ad-supported like Instagram after all, Jack. This is going to hurt sales with glasses, but Zuck simply can't give AI away for free anymore. It's too expensive to compute. Subscripturation. Subscribe to everything. Second, on Saturday, the Trump accounts went live. $1,000 given to each kid born during Trump's second term.

Starting point is 00:18:05 It's a provision of the one big, beautiful bill act that passed Congress last year. And it gets baby's brokerage accounts right away to get him in the stock market. Full disclosure, Jack and I actually already set ours up. All five pod children have these accounts, although only two of them get the $1,000 Trump's second term bonus. Awkward! And finally, the Premier LaCross League. It just raised $100 million from venture capitalists and celebrities. And, you know, lacrosse is looking for some attention.

Starting point is 00:18:32 So they actually tapped into Glenn Powell to try to promote this fundraise. He participated in this round. He's a talented lacrosse player in high school, Jack. And he did invest in this round. So besties, this is the league that has been disrupting the game of lacrosse with two-point goals and a touring model. Yeah, they set up a two-point line, right? Like a three-point line in basketball, but for lacrosse. Totally.

Starting point is 00:18:52 So now the sport is going to get its ultimate billboard in just two years. because the 2008 LA Olympics is going to feature lacrosse. And some are thinking it could surpass football and relevance by 2030 as a result. How many teams are in professional lacrosse league? Enough, Jack. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one whipped up by Jack and me for some T-boy trivia to kick off the week. This World Cup has seen the most goals scored per game since 1958.

Starting point is 00:19:21 And one key reason, the ball. The World Cup soccer ball was redesigned so it would be faster. And it's actually a smart ball. There's a censorship in there delivering real-time data about the ball speed and more. But what country actually makes all these highly technology-driven balls being used in this World Cup? There's one country that hand-stitches every ball used in the World Cup. Our T-Boy trivia question, Bessie's, what country has the most advanced soccer ball technology in the world, and it's been making those balls for the last four tournaments?

Starting point is 00:19:51 Hint, the ball is manufactured by Adidas, but not in Germany. are in the comments, and Jack and I will reveal it in tomorrow's show. Nick, my guess, Bali. Daddy's, you're looking fantastic today. Jack, you are glowing after the fourth, and we'd love to see all of you glowing at our live show. Next one, San Francisco. Palace of Fine Arts, built for the 19-something World Fair.

Starting point is 00:20:15 I forget the exact year. But now being restructured for the best one yet, Pop Business News Podcast, we're going big, baby. So grab the link in the episode description to buy your tickets today. Or go to tiboypod.com to get your tickets. It's ASAP. Now, Jack's got to go teach me how to drive stick shift again. So if you hear a clutch, it's a work in progress.

Starting point is 00:20:35 Actually, if you hear the clutch, that means you're not doing it right now. We'll see you for tomorrow's show, besties. And before we go, a happy birthday to legendary Yetty. Addie Gilbert turning 15 all the way over in Fallbrook, California. She came to our live show in Los Angeles and gave us a print that she made of the best one yet live. We got it in the studio. Thank you, Addy. And Rebecca Hernandez, enjoy that 26th birthday down in Dallas.

Starting point is 00:21:01 birthday to Chloe Robinson in Chicago, Illinois. And Darya Chikovskya in Santa Clara, California's got the best birthday yet. Congratulations to Isha Junija, who got a new job in Washington, D.C. And Lizzie and Zach down in Raleigh, North Carolina, just celebrated the anniversary of their interdependence day. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-Boid. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon, Ford, Lyft, and Netflix. Nick and I both own stock of Apple and Peloton, and we both own ETFs of the S&P 500. as well as some Bitcoin. Bitcoin named Ben.

The Best One Yet - 🛻 “Hot Girl Trucks” — Single Ladies buy Broncos. Midyear Stock Scoreboard. Starbucks’ Barista Influencers. +Celeb Wedding Planners

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