The Best One Yet - 😇 “Inbox Zero Nirvana” — Gmail’s mass unsubscription. Matcha’s shortage drama. X’s Yaccarino exit. And Birkin Bag #1.

Episode Date: July 10, 2025

Gmail launched a Weapon of Mass Unsubscription… to fix your inbox stress. The matcha industry is suffering an unprecedented shortage… blame Japan’s senior citizens.X’s CEO Linda Yaccarino is officially out… so what’s really up at the Everything App?Plus, the 1st ever Hermes Birkin Bag is going to auction today… Expected price? $500K.$GOOG $META $HESAYWant more business storytelling from us? Check out the latest episode of our new weekly deepdive show: The untold origin story of… The Frisbee 🥏Subscribe to The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinks to listen.TBOY Live Show Tickets to Chicago on sale NOW: https://www.axs.com/events/949346/the-best-one-yet-podcast-ticketsAbout Us: The daily pop-biz news show making today’s top stories your business. Formerly known as Robinhood Snacks, TBOY Lite is hosted by Jack Crivici-Kramer & Nick Martell.GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts NEWSLETTER:https://tboypod.com/newsletter SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ Our 2nd show… The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinksEpisodes drop weekly. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Thursday, the new Friday. July 10th at today's pod. It's the best one yet. This is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. You know what, Yettys?

Ask us anything. Jump onto Instagram at T-boy Pod and ask us anything. We will answer on Instagram. Where do we think the stock market will end this week? What have we got in our 401Ks? And what is in Jack's secret honey-based eczema solution? No fragrance. Oh, I just gave it away.

I gave it away. I just can't know. It's honey. It's honey. He lathers his face and honey. Jack, three stories for today's. Tea Boy, what do we got on the pod? For our first story, what if you could unsubscribe from every email you don't want in one click? Well, Gmail just invented a weapon of mass unsubscription. Because inbox zero is the ultimate millennial nirvana. Namaste, Jack.

For our second story, X's CEO, Linda Yakorino, is officially out after two years. She just tweeted that she's stepping down. So Jack and I will tell you why Elon's Everything app is really an everywhere app. And our third and final story is Macha. Macha is facing such an unprecedented shortage right now. It's causing coffee shop chaos. So if you can't get a Macha today, you need to thank a senior citizen in Japan. I think you blame a senior citizen in Japan.

It's awkward, yeah, you're going to have to blame up. But yet is, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Fantastic mix of stories. Wonderful job, Jack. The most expensive handbag in history, what is it, Nick? Jack, that would be the Arameez a Birkenbag. And the first Birkenbag ever made is being sold at auction today. Today, but besties don't whip out your wallet's quite yet, right, Jack?

If you have to ask, you can't afford it, but we'll ask, how expensive are these things, Nick? Jack, let's sprinkle on some context. The cheapest burken bag on the market, that is $10,000. But if you want it made of Gator Skin, that's $40,000. I'm sorry, Jack, Croxkin, that'll be $50,000. There's actually a diamond-encrusted Himalayan Birken bag that sells for $400,000. True story, we found it. Jack, that's the average price of a new home. That's six Mercedes, Nick.

For an 11-inch bag that can barely fit a MacBook Pro. What about an iPad? Now, the Birken bag was invented because it was designed by the actress Jane Birken, who actually sketched the original design on a vomit bag while flying on an airplane. And now, right now, today, the original Hermes prototype. of the Birken bag is on sale. We're talking the most expensive version of the most expensive bag. Now, there is no estimate for how high the bidding may go.

Do I have $100,000? But whoever bids should also buy the first Game Boy and the first Raybans too. Do I have $500,000? And then stick them both inside the first Birken bag. Do I have $1 million? Because that kind of thing is my bag, baby. Sold to the man with two yachts and three houses on the yacht. Jack, let's hit our three stories.

15 years before this song Two boys from the Northeast met in the dawn 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 T-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 For our first story Gmail just announced a WMU, a weapon of mass unsubscription. It's the most useful thing Google has ever launched because inbox zero is millennial nirvana. Oh, bold hot take there. I love it.

Yeties, remember when Google launched their promotions tab in Gmail in 2013? Oh, it was incredible. It put all the junk email into one place that you never need to go into. Out of sight out of mind. That promotions tab, it basically became a closet where you could store your unwanted emails. And it gave millennials temporarily psychological relief. We could open our laptops in peace. No more spring sale emails from Madewell just because he got a pair of jeans three years ago.

But 12 years later, marketers have learned to outsmart the promotions tab and find their way into your primary inbox. Now you're reminded every morning that you bought a pair of all birds. in 2018. We've got the perfect sneakers for your summer. Thanks, Allbirds. I didn't need that to be the first thing I read this morning. But Jack, we should also point out everything we just described is costly for Google.

Just like physical things, emails need to be stored somewhere. And that's Google's cloud and it's costly. Yes, it is. But best easy, here's the news. Twelve years later, Google has finally added a new button to Gmail. It's called the subscription manager.

This is news you can use. Because if you click it, it will show you all the emails that you're subscribed to, ranked in order by who sends you the most emails. So what we're saying is that with one click, you could unsubscribe as you go down the list. Boom. In 30 minutes, you have purged your email of 300 recurring marketing emails that you never ever open and don't want. And never did want. I don't even think I bought anything from you made well. Until now, you had to unsubscribe from emails one at a time.

time. Now you can do it all at once. And the key is you do all this within Gmail. So like there's no hidden unsubscribe button with the confusing landing page with the like input your email to unsubscribe. You know what I'm talking about? I know. It's like, did I already unsubscribe? Or do I now have to push the unsubscribe button? I can't tell. Is it clicked on or clicked off? Is it green or is it red? I don't know which is good. It's so tricky and devious, Nick. I can't stand it. I mean, Jack, to use an extermination analogy here, we've now gone from killing ants one at a time. wiping them out with one vicious spray of ant poison. And Google's doing it thanks to AI.

Actually, no, this is not an AI. This was like an easy move by Google. Which reveals something big, right, Jack? Because on the one hand, this is a hugely powerful tool that saves both Google money and users' time. On the other hand, it reveals how little Google has done with one of its greatest powerful tools, Gmail. Like 12 years, Google?

It took you 12 years to longs this? By the way, it might take it two more weeks. still rolling out to iOS and Android in the web. In the meantime, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Google? Email is where business still lives. And our anxiety does too. Yeah, it is. According to a Harvard Business Review study,

you spend on average 2.6 hours a day just on work email. And email is also where our personal life gets organized. That's why we all carry multiple email accounts. And you're keeping them at bay. That's a borderline full-time job. Think about email inbox anxiety from a physical context. Okay, Jack, spell this out for us, draw it out. If you got home and saw 50 packages at your door, you would feel sick knowing all the time

you're going to have to spend cutting through that cardboard, breaking down the boxes, and sorting the stuff out. That's the perfect analogy, Jack, because it's like that for our digital inboxes too, every moment of the day. The inability for the majority of Americans to lower their inbox and keep that thing under control, that's the digital equivalent. Right. It's a subtle life stress that's constantly lurking in our minds.

Basties, that's why Jack and I believe Millennium Nirvana is getting to inbox zero. And this Gmail feature, it's a step to attain that. Because email is still where business lives, along with our anxiety. For our second story, Linda Yakorino, the CEO of X, is now the X. CEO of X. But if we're being honest, she was never the real CEO. It was always Elon. So, Yetis, we are looking at X because X isn't an everything app right now,

but it is the Everywhere app. Linda Yakorino. Straight out of Long Island, baby. Twitter's first full-time CEO after Elon acquired it. She's out just over two years into the job. I apologize, Jack. I said Long Island. I meant Strong Island.

We don't want to get corrections. She might send her people after you. Can't make that mistake twice for a long island. Community note. Sorry, community know. Yeties, Linda announced it on X, saying that she was great. to Elon and proud of her accomplishments as CEO. And then Elon replied curtly with a five-worded tweet. Thank you for your contributions.

No exclamation point. No emoji. That's it. Now, Linda did have a tough job at X, right, Jack? Like two new competitors sprung out of nowhere on her tenure. I think on her first day at the job, Blue Sky was launched. And on her second day at the job, Threads was launched by Zuckerberg. But besties, this news gives us a moment to reflect on Linda's tenure.

will assess X on three key criteria. Free speech, advertising, and is it an everything app? Now, Yeti's, in hindsight, it is clear that on those three criteria, Linda tried but ultimately came up short. Let's kick it off with free speech. Let's hit it, Jack. While X hasn't banned accounts like Twitter used to, it certainly does shadow ban accounts. For example, Yeti's tweets with the word Ukraine in them get suppressed, along with tweets that have anti-elon sentiments. So it's free speech on X as long as that speech aligns with Elon's worldview. All right, Jack, let's look at criteria. Number two, did Linda bring back advertising? Honestly, we can't say it because X doesn't share financials anymore.

A reminder, but X got acquired by Elon's AI company, XAI, so its financials are pretty much irrelevant. Twitter's just like a drop in the AI pale now. Although we will say that it is tough to get advertisers on X when their chatbot is, you know, praising Hitler. Yeah, here's the latest update. On Friday, Elon announcement, that he'd made some improvements to Grock, X's AI chatbot. But the same day, Grock started tweeting anti-Semitic tropes and praising Hitler. It's no coincidence that just a couple days later, Linda resigned as CEO. Now, Jack, can we just go back in time for a second, share that takeaway we did when Elon first

hired Linda just two years ago? In May 2023, this was our takeaway on the news that Elon hired Linda. The question isn't whether she can do her job. It's whether Elon will let her. Well, when X got acquired by X AI earlier this year, Linda wasn't even mentioned in Elon's post about it. Just Elon was. And that kind of says it all. Hot take? Elon's going to promote Grock to be the next CEO of X.

Jack, that's not just a hot take. That's going to burn your ears kind of a hot take. That's right, yet he's recalling it now. X will be the first company to deliver an earnings report from an AI CEO. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at X? X is not an everything app, but it is the Everywhere app. Now, yadies, we forgot to assess Linda's progress with that final criteria, turning X into an everything app. X did announce a payment partnership in January with Visa, but six months later, that has not launched.

And Jack, X did launch a jobs platform, but honestly, we'd never heard of it, Basties, until we started researching this story for today's show. If you think about it, X is still what Twitter used to be, but with paid checkmarks and more right-leaning content. However, besties, regardless of what you think of X personally, it still is the place where news breaks. Every brand, every politician, every personality still shares their updates on X first. So add it all up and the status of the old Twitter today, how would you put a check? X is not an everything app, but X is still everywhere. Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, the great matcha shortage.

The big drama is going on right now, and it is green. Macha green tea drinks are so popular right now? So popular. They're becoming a victim of their own success. Yeties, our story really begins 900 years ago. When Buddhist monks first brought the macha leaf to Japan, and the samurai used it for focus. Because matcha tea only has half the caffeine of coffee,

which is why I'm willing to drink a quarter cup of one. But today, Yetis, TikTok, Tina adds oat milk to take a picture of her macha that matches are cute green top. Yeah, the Macha green, it is such a distinctive color. It's a hot green. Now, in the 2000s, Mata entered the United States. Whole Foods was the first big buyer. It was the free sample effect.

In the 2010s, Mata got its guppification. Gwyneth was preaching the health gospel of the Macha. But in the recent 2020s, matcha has blown up thanks to social media. Social media acceleration. That unique shade of green that Jack described, it has caused a demand spike. square payment data. Orders of

macha teas are up 114% in the last 12 months. We noticed that Starbucks name dropped macha in its last earnings. Jack, Dahlene over at Duncan, she's now whipping up macha culottas. And this last bit is wild. Blank Street coffee, a New York City coffee chain, we've covered on this pod before. Half of their business is now matcha drinks. Jack,

when I was on the Upper East Side the other week, I saw 12 girls at Sacred Heart School sipping strawberry shortcake machas. Counted all 12. It was a lot of great check. But Bestie's Macha now appears to be a victim of its own success. According to the Wall Street Journal, we are in the middle of a mega-Macha shortage, and it's worldwide. It's causing some bad blood because people are accusing other people of Macha hoarding out there.

It's true. There are people who are traveling to Japan, smuggling back hordes of their own Macha, which they plan to sell here stateside at a premium, like ticket scalpers. Like loading up your own luggage with the green stuff. But Jack, could you play? Let's sprinkle on some context for us. The match market in the United States is $5 billion a year. The market for coffee in the United States is $140 billion.

That is 30 times more. So like for every matcha we drink, we drink 30 coffees. So, matcha is still tiny overall. But while coffee consumption is a ritual at coffee shops, matcha production is literally a ritual in the farms of Japan. Get this, it takes 10 times longer to produce a match leaf than a coffee bean. We're talking seven years from seed to sip. It takes four years just for the tea leaf of matcha to mature.

Yeah. And then they cover the plant in the fields, like with cloth, to slow down the photosynthesis. Growing the leaves in shade, Nick, magnifies the caffeine content. And then you got to pick the leaves, and they can be ground-only ground in stone mills, where they're then stored for six months to get the umami flavor. And this leaf is super delicate. They must be picked and ground by hand. and the final fine powder.

That's super green. That's what you end up drinking. Although macha is technically a tea, you don't steep the macha. You mix the macha in, which also takes longer than making a double-digit latte. So it's not just a spike in demand for macha. It's the extremely slow process

that prevents the supply from catching up. Plus, we got record heat in Japan right now that's heard in macha leaves over in Kyoto. So supply is currently down 25%. Add it all up, and your coffee shop. shop may not have matcha for you right now. But besties, before you freak out at that barista, we have one more surprise reason for the matcha shortage you didn't expect. Old people in Japan.

Yeah, Japanese senior citizens. Get this. Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies sipping macha? Macha tea is only grown by Japanese farmers and they're all retiring. Now, yeties, you could blame Instagram for driving up matcha demand, or you could blame Starbucks and Duncan for buying up maca supply. You could blame climate change for the low supply, and you could blame global tourism for too much demand too. But the core bottleneck causing this matcha shortage? It's Japanese senior citizens. The average age of the Japanese farmer that grows matcha is 60, and the younger generations are not taking over the farms. The result, commercial green tea farming in Japan is down 78% in the last 25 years because the farmers are retiring. That's right. The main limit on matcha supply right

now is that the tea farmers in Japan are too old. I mean, Jack, as we say this, this matcha shortage is like the perfect example of how globalized our world really is. Japan's birth crisis is now affecting a green tea-loving TikToker on the Santa Monica Pier. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for the new Friday? Google's subscription manager is a weapon of mass unsubscription, and it's widely useful. Because business still happens on email, and so does our... anxiety. So we need inbox Nirvana. For our second story, X's CEO, Linda Yaccarino, is done at X. She's the

ex-CEO of X. X. It has not become an everything app yet, but it still is the everywhere app. And finally, the Macha shortage. Just as Tick-Tac is falling in love with Macha, the world is suddenly running out of Macha. Because Macha tea is only grown by Japanese farmers, and all of them seem to be retiring. But Yeties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, NVIDIA just became the first company to hit a $4 trillion market cap. Market cap. If you add up the value of all the stock of NVIDIA, it's worth $4 trillion.

Sprinkle on some historical context here. Apple was the first hit $1 trillion back in 2018, but the tech AI-fueled rally has now exploded in the last couple years. Nvidia has added the stock market value equivalent of Germany's entire stock market in just two years. And second, what is the latest deal with tariffs? Well, trade war whiplash is back, baby. Just this week, Trump extended the deadline for his reciprocal tariffs to August 1st, and he swears he won't delay them again.

In the meantime, the president is tariffing copper by 50% and pharmaceuticals by 200%, but pharmaceutical tariffs are not effective until next year. And he just announced a 50% tariff on Brazil in retaliation for Bolsonaro being on on trial right now. So what's happening with tariffs? Hard to keep track. And finally, Kellogg's cereal stock jumped 50% in one day. Why? A potential acquisition by Ferreiro for $3 billion. As in Ferreiro, the owner of Nutella. Jack, who says millennials killed the frosted flick? If this merger goes through, we could finally be getting a rice-chrispy Nutella raisin brand. Yeah, the one we always wanted. Now time for the best fact yet, this one sent in by LJ. Eve over in lovely San Diego.

Yesterday, we covered a restaurant in London that uses a roll of dice at the end of the meal to potentially give you a free meal. But here's the question, is it die or is it dice if it's one versus if it's many? While responding to our question about the plural, die versus dice dilemma, technically dice is the plural of die, which refers to a single cube used in games. But there are other plural curveballs you should fully be aware of, like one criterion, but two criteria. One phenomenon, many phenomena. One datum, many data. One die, many dice. One alumnus, plural alumni, which Jack hates, but I felt like I just got to say it, Jack.

Wait, I think, no, no, no, alumnus is either, is genderized. So you're kind of incomplete on that one. No, no, alumnus is singular. and alumna is plural women. Oh, shoot, now I'm thinking... People are keeping it, this is in the show, so you better wrap up. Like we said, Latin is a dead language

that doesn't even really matter after all. True, that's a great call. Nobody can correct your pronunciation on Latin because no one's alive who knows how it was pronounced. Yeah, come at us, Homer, come at us. Yates, you look fantastic today. And if you want to bid and go, like, you know,

split it three ways on this Birken bag, you know, Jack and I are down. We could, you know, get a pot going. What do you think? Actually, I'm not down. I'm not spending on my answer. Okay, okay. Just send me that routing number and your social security jet. Yets, grab some tickets to our live show in Chicago. If you haven't yet, we got a link in the episode description and tell a buddy today, H-Y-H-T-B-O-Y. And finally, hit us up at T-Boy Pot on Instagram and ask us anything. Have you heard the best one yet? That is how we grow the show. Nick and I, we'll see it tomorrow. Can't wait. And before we go, a happy 27th birthday to Yeti, Patrick French, over in lovely and Sanitas, California. And happy birthday to Anne Witch Caganti on a buddy's trip over in Denver.

Have fun guys. And Lucas and Olivia Hernandez are a couple of twins turn in 10. Congratulations celebrating down in Miami. You two are the best ones yet. And Carmen and Robert, happy seven year anniversary. You're both looking fantastic. Congratulations to H. and their partner on getting hitched. Congrats H. and Jack.

The best dressed dude on Nantucket. Jack, I ran into him yesterday. His name is Jack as well. And he says hi over a couple of love. Mr. Ross. Wait, didn't he walk up to you and say, are you Nick or Jack? Yeah, and then he was Jack. It was great. And happy anniversary to Cole and Leah in the Bay Area of California. And Lou's Garcia in Guadalajara, Mexico has got a new job at Oracle. Congratulations to Luz.

And a shout-out to Brittany York, who wants to give a shout-out to us. She wrote us a super nice note about how much she loves the shout-outs. We appreciate you, Brittany. Brittany, thank you for the shout-out. Enjoy your shout-out. And to all the 60-year-old Yetty's out there, who are canceling us right now for calling them senior citizens, thank you for your patience. And to anyone else, celebrating something today. Make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins.

Yeah, if you're paying for it or if you're not. In the cloud. Which is their cloud, unless it's your cloud. Dude, you were, like, hanging on, like, hoping I was going to land. Yeah. You know, like, you barely stuck the landing? Yeah. I was like, uh-uh.

The physical equivalent. Oh man Like it was like Sully in the Hudson Like technically you landed But it wasn't on the runway