The Best One Yet - 📚 “Vandanova” — 2 winning colleges. Bond Market’s unsubscribe. Baseball’s craziest hire. +Non-Alc Lawsuit

Episode Date: September 3, 2026

The Bond Market is selling the USA… we'll explain it using brunch with your buds.Vanderbilt & Villanova University are both expanding right now… thanks to the Pope, the Knicks, and our takeaway.The MLB hired a guy who knocked off their baseball app… It’s a lesson on how to get promoted.Plus, non-alcohol beer is not necessarily non-alcoholic… so Heineken got sued.$SPYGrab your Tickets to the IPO Tour: Our In-Person OfferingSan Francisco 9/23: https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/1C0064AFB5F688BDBoston 10/14: https://tickets.citywinery.com/event/tboy-the-ipo-tour-in-person-offering-8cdhupSeattle 11/4 (21+): https://www.axs.com/events/1446394/the-best-one-yet-ticketsNEWSLETTER:https://tboypod.com/newsletter OUR 2ND SHOW:Want more business storytelling from us? Check our weekly deepdive show, The Best Idea Yet: The untold origin story of the products you're obsessed with. Listen for free to The Best Idea Yet: https://wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/NEW LISTENERSFill out our 2 minute survey: https://qualtricsxm88y5r986q.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dp1FDYiJgt6lHy6GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Linkedin (Nick): https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/Linkedin (Jack): https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ About Us: The daily pop-biz news show making today’s top stories your business. Formerly known as Robinhood Snacks, The Best One Yet is hosted by Jack Crivici-Kramer & Nick Martell. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Thursday, the new Friday, September 3rd. 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. Full disclosure, Jack's recording from his chalet because of an emergency golf tournament. My father-in-law texted me last night.

He said, Jack, I'm in the finals of my men's league. My partner can't make it. I need you. It's just so last minute, Jack doesn't even have a nine iron on him right now. I'm about to put on a generic golf hat and a polo shirt, Meg, after this pot. Tap it in. Jack, three fantastic stories for the coolest show in capitalism. What do we got for the T-Boy? For our first story, the government bond market is tanking right now,

and it's all anybody can talk about on Wall Street. So Jack and I will explain the 30-year treasury yield like it's brunch with your buddies because it is. For our second story, two colleges are crushing it in particular right now. We call them Vandenova. Yeah, Vandenova. Vanderbilt and Villanova. They're winning, and it's not just thanks to the Pope and the Knicks. And our third and final story, Major League Baseball,

hired a guy who knocked off their app better than them. Besties, if you want to get promoted, you need to hear this story. By the way, comment four if you want to hear an outplay today. Spoiler, you could have done better. But besties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Love the mix of stories for the new Friday, Jack. Best mix. If you listen to this podcast, you know that the best selling alcohol right now is non-alcohol. That's right. Sales of Alk-free Alk have risen 14% in the last 12 months.

But pause the pot. because non-alcohol does not mean no alcohol. Get this, turns out zero does not mean literally zero. And we know because of a wild lawsuit against Heikin. Hey, bartender, we're going to need another round for this one, please. Let me pop open some context, Nick. There are three labels in this bubbly new regulated non-alcoholic industry. I got you, Jack.

The first is non-alc. The second is alcohol-free, and the third is zero proof. They all mean the same thing, right? Wrong. Alcohol-free means there must be no trace of alcohol. But non-alcohol permits up to 0.5% alcohol. And zero proof? Yeah.

Kind of an unregulated wishy-washy term. It's like shambord or terroir. No one really knows what that means, Jack. No, Nick and I are not chemists, but it turns out it's really, really hard to hit absolute zero when it comes to alcohol. But Jack and I are consumers, and it turns out consumers, it all sounds the same to us. And if you feel confused, you could sue these alcohol companies. Which someone did. Get this, Yeties. Heineken's non-alcoholic beer, it's called 0.0.0.

Like, 0.0 is the literal name of that specific beer label. But that specific beer actually has 0.03% alcohol content. So, Jack, shouldn't they really be naming this thing? 0.03? Hence the lawsuit, Nick. Now, Heineken's based in the Netherlands. Let's blame this on a translation issue. You know, these Americans, we can be very litigious, can we?

And we're much more conservative in the States when it comes to alcohol than the Dutch. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies over at Heineken? You should hire an American lawyer. Yeah, you should. The takeaway for you, though, besties? Chugging eight non-alcs gives you the elk of one bloodlight. Sit on that for a second, Jack. Let's hear a jingle.

Fifteen 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. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50% that's a fat tip. 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. For our first story, bond investors are unsubscribing from governments across the globe, and it's raising your interest rate. Because America keeps breaking its own outrageous record. And it's all I got to do with brunch with our buddy Timmy. But besties, the name's bond, government bond.

What is a bond, by the way? It's a tradable loan. It's an IOU that you can buy or sell on the market. And if you own that bond yeti, someone owes you money and they pay you interest for it. But right now, across the globe, investors aren't buying government bonds. They're selling them. And that is freaking out the stock market right now. It's why the S&P 500 is down 1% in the last week. Because when nobody wants to buy government bonds, oh boy. The government has to offer higher interest to make their bonds more attractive. So, our 30-year government bond yields right now, are the highest in the United States in 20 years.

Japan's bond yields? They're the highest in 30 years. France, Germany, the United Kingdom, same thing with them too. The cost for their governments to borrow are soaring. Okay, but pause the pot jack, perfect timing here, right man? Yeah, yeah. In North Carolina, the United States just hosted the G20 summit of finance ministers. It's like the Olympics of economists.

So these finance ministers can get together, have a nice dinner, maybe play some golf, and address this global debt problem with some rational. policy changes. Uh, nope. Because at the start of the G20 summit, our Treasury Secretary said that our economy just has to grow faster. That'll solve the problem. Okay, but that's not credible because our economy is growing 2% while our deficit is

growing 6%. It's kind of embarrassing. But the hottest meme going viral in China right now, what is it? It's an animated AI video of an American bald eagle who has a vaguely Alec Baldwin accent. Nick sent it to me. The bald eagle is trying to buy stuff at the grocery store. But, you know, the bald eagle, which is America, his credit card is being denied and the cashier's laughing at him. Yeah, that's what's going viral in China.

So, Yeti's that tanking in the bond market we just described, it's actually a wake-up call for the whole globe. The wake-up call is that government debt across the world and inflation are both out of control. Now, geopolitics, both the trade wars and the actual wars, those are making the situation worse. But to sprinkle on some insane context, Yeti's. Please, Jack. When Nick and I were on vacation, the United States government debt hit $40 trillion. That's $117,000 per an American citizen in debt that we owe. Now, to sprinkle on some more context, during Trump's first term in 2017, we crossed $20 trillion.

So in just nine years, we've actually doubled our debt load in the United States. And now the interest rates on our debt are 5%, not 3%, interest, is our second biggest expense as a country. Get this. We actually spend more on interest than we, do on our own military right now. Interest is second only to social security. So, Yeti's, the fear worldwide right now is a debt spiral, a deathly debt spiral. Because high interest rates slow down economies, which cause deficits to rise even more. Oh, no. Which could cause interest rates to rise even further, which could slow the economy even more around and around you go, down to a death spiral. It's a death spiral. So the bond market right now, what it's really doing

is sending a warning. It's sending a signal. It is sending a freak out flare. And it's Bad news in the short term for mortgages, student loans, car loans, because they all move with the interest rates of government bonds. But that freak out flare is good news for sanity, and the reason is our takeaway. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies in this freaking out bond market? When your friends start ghosting you at brunch, you ask yourself a question. What's wrong with me? You ask yourself a few.

Besties, this bond market sell-off, it could be the wake-up call to force the government to spend more sensibly. To cut spending, raise more taxes, or a combination of the two. And we've seen this before. Back in 2011, bond markets forced Greece to do exactly this. And now Greece has better finances than France or Italy. In 2022, bond markets tanked so much after the UK's new budget proposal that the PM lost her job and the new PM proposed something a little more sane. And back in April last year, President Trump canceled Liberation Day tariffs not because of what stocks did, but because the bond market tanked. So Nick and I are actually glad this bond market freak out. is happening. Because we care about the future of this country and the country we're going to hand

our kids. Now, Basties, governments can issue more debt than businesses can. But spending two trillion dollars more than you actually make every year, that's not sustainable. And yet we've been doing it for a decade now. Maybe this bond market freak out could actually cause some change to happen. Maybe this bond market freak out is like the equivalent of a mass unfollowing on your Instagram page. Yeah, what bond investors are doing, it's like swaths of customers ending their subscriptions to your business. Or Jack, maybe it's like friends can't. canceling brunch on you, right? You start to ask yourself, is it me?

Like, why aren't people going to brunch with me anymore? Vestey's the bond market. It's the only message governments actually listen to. For our second story, universities are in trouble, but Villanova and Vanderbilt are bucking the trend. Partially thanks to the Pope and the New York Knicks. True story. Partially thanks to our takeaway.

Oh, Yeties, it's the most wonderful time of the year for Bed Bath and Beyond. Because it's back to school season. My eldest had his first day of kindergarten last week. Nick's eldest had his first day of preschool this week. Jack, this is an outdoor preschool in San Francisco, by the way. We pay more even though there is no roof. I don't understand that.

I don't understand the tuition is more, but there's no overhead, literally. The outdoors is a luxury product. But besties, there are two college headlines that just got published and caught our pop biz attention. The first article, Syracuse University. The Cues, the Orange, the Home of the Dome. Home of the Dome. 22,000 students, number one journalism school, three basketball national championships, 10 lacrosse national championships.

Mike Tarrico went there. Who's the NBC guy who always does the Olympics? I think you're thinking of the Powell brothers, Jack. All the Powell brothers. But despite that national fandom and a $2 billion endowment, they've got their first time ever facing a budget shortfall. Jim Brown went to Syracuse, Nick, lacrosse and football players. They need cash over at Q's.

Here was the Wall Street Journal headline Nick and I read. why Syracuse can't attract the students it needs to pay the bills. In fact, Syracuse just issued an emergency financial aid package in order to lure freshmen to start this fall. There's a couple of reasons for Syracuse's struggles. First is a federal policy of crackdowns on immigrations because international students, they're down 50% at Syracuse, and those are really lucrative pupils. Also, CUS basketball team, they missed the NCAA tournament five years in a row, and that's bad for the marketing game.

That matters, so orange fans are feeling blue. But besties, this is what Jack and I find fascinating. While the Syracuse Orange are in the red, two of their rivals are thriving. Call them Van de Nova, and starts with Villanova University. Just outside Philadelphia. Villanova is the big man on campus, thanks to both the Knicks and the Pope. You see, last week, students arrived to Villanova's brand new $70 million campus, but it's not exactly new, is it?

Because that new campus is actually the old campus of Cabrini College, which sadly shut down in 2024, Villanova acquired it. So Villanova can now enroll a thousand, more students paying all-time high tuition of 73,000 bucks. This new campus is a profit puppy. And it's just two miles from the main campus. Not too shabby. Perfect timing, by the way, Jack, because how are applications to Villanova doing? They're up 10% in the last year and up 70% from a decade ago. Now, part of that popularity, the Pope went there. Pope Leo. He was undergrad at Villanova. Jesuits, baby. Another reason for the popularity? Three starters on the New York

Knicks played at Villanova. And won a national championship there. And now there's a smoothie for each of those Nick's Nova alums in the cafeteria. Okay, but Jack, pause the pot, because there's another V-University thriving right now, right? Vanderbilt. Yeah. The 154-year-old Tennessee University with a Dolly Partn-approved campus.

New York Magazine just ran a whole article called How Vandy Bested the Ivies. And my sister, a Kappa Kappa Gamma alum, she keeps sending it to me, Jack. As she should, Nick. Now, the number of applications to Vanderbilt University has quadrupled in the last 20 years. Vandy's now jumped up to the top 15

in the college rankings. Which I'm sure your sister has also sent you a million times. Yeah, I know, I know, I know the text chain. Now, there's a few reasons for Vanderbilt's rise. First, their president. He embraced institutional neutrality, which helped him avoid politics and the campus protests of the last few years. And interestingly, Vanderbilt strategically recruited Northeastern Jewish students because, as their president told the Wall Street Journal, Jewish students make universities more habitable places for intellectual life. And now Vanderbilt is opening a $100 million new New York City campus where the Vanderbilt family got rich in the first place 200 years ago. It all comes for a circle. Add it all up, besties in Vandenova and Syracuse

reveal a reshuffling of higher education. Nick, you better tee up this takeaway for our buddies at Sigap. T! Give me and A! Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies going to college? It's the K-shaped economy of academics. Yeties, we've talked about the K-shaped economy before, the growing gap between the rich and the poor. seeing it play out in academia. In general, trust and excitement for higher ed is at its lowest level ever. Both sides of the political aisle, they're not happy with their local provost. Add in the fact that America has fewer high school aged kids. Right. Tuitions are unaffordable. 100K. There's spiking health care costs for the faculty. Oh boy. And AI, it's freaking out both grads looking

for a job and teachers looking to give their kids tests. And that is why on the low end of the spectrum, you have trade schools thriving right now. It's cheap to enroll at trade schools that will train you for AI-proof jobs that you use your hands. And on the high end of the spectrum, college has become a luxury product. The ivies and Van Donova are thriving, graduating people who are going to manage an army of AI agents someday. But the middle is a tough place to be. That's where Syracuse is right now. Although we've seen the Orange Stain some epic comebacks, haven't we, Jack? Bob Costas, that's the NBC guy I was thinking of earlier. Legendary Cuse alum. Besties, this is the K-shaped economy.

of academics. Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, a baseball fan built his own version of Major League Baseball streaming app, and MLB just hired him. It's proof that to get someone's attention, do a freebie. Yeties, our story begins with Jason Weingard, a lifelong Orioles fan. The Orioles never won a World Series in this man's lifetime, unfortunately. No, they haven't. But this man, he has just finished a Cow Ripkin streak of attention getting. Jason worked at postmates in a real estate tech firm, but neither of those were his passion. So on April 22nd, he'd launched his side hustle, a better version of the Major League Baseball TV app.

And using the hashtag build-in public, he posted updates on threads as he built this new homemade TV app. And he kind of dragged the MLB. He said they were the pioneer of TV streaming, but they had lost the plot on technology. So Jason's version of MLB's TV streaming app included a half-dozen new feature. that he knew baseball fans would love, but that Major League Baseball hadn't shipped themselves. More on those in a sec. But first, he did things the right way, Jack. This wasn't move fast and break things. This was move slow and make things. He used MLB's publicly available API and required that users have a Major League Baseball subscription to log in and use his app. And since he didn't have the, quote, express written consent of Major League Baseball, he limited the users to 100 people and used test flight Apple space for beta apps. But still, Nick, Jason's unauthorized app got the attention of Major League Baseball.

And over in the dugout, the executive vice president at Major League Baseball, Kenny Gersh, got this slack message when someone showed him his app. Hey, Kenny, should we alert legal and send a cease and desist letter? Now, 99 times out of 100, Kenny would have replied yes. Jason Weingard's going to get a scary letter that kills his app before it's even taken off. But according to reporting from Sports Business Journal, this baseball executive said something else in response. Yeah, he said, quote, not ideal, but not a huge problem. Maybe we'll hire this guy. Major League Baseball was intrigued by Jason's app and probably a little embarrassed because of what he was able to build himself.

Awkward because this new app, it introduced brand new features like Mobile MultiView. You could watch the Red Sox game and the Yankees game at the same time because they're locked in a playoff race. You also added an enhanced lock screen for live activities. So you can track the game without having to open your phone every five minutes. He even included an eye-tracking technology from the iPad so that the audio plays on the split-screen game that you're actually looking at. And it mutes the other three split-screen games you're not looking at at this moment. Didn't even know the iPad can know your eye movements for doing that, Jack. Now, Major League Baseball's official TV app, it had no tie-in for your fantasy baseball team, but Jason's version did.

Well, Besties, after four months of iterating his app, sharing his updates on threats, and responding to people's feedback, Jason finally did get that letter. from Major League Baseball. But it wasn't from MLB's lawyers, it was from MLB's HR department. Because this was a job offer. That same executive vice president, he said that Jason's app was, and I quote, exceptional. Major League Baseball hired Jason Weingard full-time as principal product manager. This guy came out of nowhere to make the big leagues. Get this man an agent.

And if MLB's app improves next year, you know it's because of Jason. And his signing bonus. So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies looking to get hired or promoted? Your first project for a dream job should be unpaid. Yet he's in the great gospel of Batman. The Joker once said, if you're good at something, don't do it for free. We'd modify that, though. If you're good at something, do it for free, but only once.

And what we're saying is, instead of telling them you deserve this job or that promotion, show them by doing it unpaid. And unprovoked. Now, to be clear, Nick and I are all four paid internships. Yeah, like, it's not fair to only employ kids who can work unpaid thanks to their parents. But to get someone's attention, there's no better way than to simply do the work even though you're not being paid to. Jack, that's like how we got our new social media video editor here at T-Boy, right?

He emailed us out of the blue with some awesome videos attached to the email and said, let me work for you. They were good. Besties, we believe that people get credit for good work, and good work gets rewarded. That's what happened here with this homemade baseball app and Major League Baseball. So Bestie's your first project for a dream job? It should be unpaid. Jack, could you whip up the takeaway's voice for the new Friday?

Government bond markets are tanking due to high debt and high inflation across the globe. Investors selling your bonds is like friends canceling brunch with you. That's a wake-up call. For our second story, while Syracuse applications are down, Vanderbilt and Villanova are soaring. Vandenova, it's the K-shaped economy of academia. And our third and final story is Major League Baseball. They hired the guy who publicly built a better but unauthorized version of their streaming app. To get the attention needed to get your dream job,

do the job unpaid. But only once. Yeah, only once. Don't do more than once. But Bessie's, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, Timmy Cook is officially out as CEO of Apple this week, but that doesn't mean he's not getting paid, Jack. In fact, Apple just announced Tim Cook will get paid $47 million this year. Yeah, because Tim is staying on as chairman of the board, so he'll be handling the politics behind the scenes for Apple. Yeah, his new real role is Trump Whisperer. Apple is paying Tim. to be their liaison to the president so that the CEO can focus on the actual business. And second, the Sam Altman Biopic movie is about to premiere, and it's called Artificial.

Biopic. Nobody knows, Jack. It's like Terroir. Well, this film will debut on October 5th at the New York Film Fest. It's basically like the social network, but about Open AI. And guess who the star of the film is? Andrew Garfield, who is in the social network. That's right.

Andrew Garfield is playing Sam Altman in this movie, and yes, we're going to watch it. And finally, the Chicago Cubs aren't just winning on the baseball field. Actually, I haven't checked the standings. Are they winning on the baseball field? Barely, they're doing better than usual, Jack. But they are definitely winning in Hollywood. Because the Cubs just became the first team to launch a rom-com. That's right, a Chicago Cubs microdrama.

It's a multi-part series with like one-minute episodes on TikTok called nine innings of love. But they're not the first overall because Crocs launched a microdrama this year. Built launched one as well, and now the Cubs are in on the trend. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Meredith Johnson from lovely South Lake, Texas. The Minnesota State Fair packs nearly as many people into just 12 days as the Texas State Fair does in 24. Texas gets all the attention with the highest total attendance in the country running twice as long, though. Minnesota welcomes nearly 2 million visitors, but in half the time.

That makes Minnesota the largest state fair in the U.S. by average attendance. And those visitors, by the way, buy around 500,000 buckets of Sweet Martha's cookies each year at the Minnesota State Fair. And at roughly 100 cookies per bucket, that's 50 million cookies, baked and enjoyed in just 12 days. I mean, Jack, those are Magnolia Cupcake numbers right there. Yeties, you look fantastic for the new Friday, Jack, H-Y-H-T-B-O-I over there. Have you had the best one yet? Now, I'm going to go play some golf. Oh, yeah, you got to go play some golf.

Give me out of you. Besties, while Jack is taking a molligan on his fourth attempt on the fifth hall, you should grab tickets to our live tour. The episode is in our link description. Here's the generic golf hat I was telling you about that. Am I looking good? Or go to tiboy pie.com. Grab tickets. Our first next off is San Francisco in September 23rd.

Nick and I, we'll see you tomorrow. Four! And before we go, a happy birthday to legendary Eddie, Louis Garcia from lovely Guadalajara, Mexico. And happy birthday to Kelsey Ford in Austin, Texas. And Peter McCall, aka P. Money from San Francisco, living in San Francisco, happy birthday man. And happy birthday to Marcus, the man's man of Manhattan.

And Noroff Patel down in Cooper Tien. know maybe the next Apple CEO? Happy birthday. And happy birthday to Veronica Lynn, a five-year Yetty living in San Francisco. And Cole Thompson's turning 26 in the Bay Area. Cole hoped to see you at our live show in just a few weeks. Happy four-year anniversary to Rima and Sean in Atlanta. And Emily Osborne and Robert Norris also got an anniversary celebrating in California.

And a shout-out to Henry Ware, who told us about the 94 concerts of fish. If you know, you know. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack Nick and I both on stock of Apple and ETFs of the S&P 500.