The Best One Yet - 🌹 “Zuck-dashian” — Kylie Jenner’s smartglasses. Kraft Ranch’s meme-dressing. Cadillac’s Iran Pivot. +Back To School?

Episode Date: June 24, 2026

World Cup tourists discovered Ranch dressing… so Kraft declared an internal “code meme.”Kylie Jenner launched designer smartglasses made by Meta… it could make Zuck a trillionaire.The War in Iran has changed General Motors… because that Cadillac factory pivoted to drones.Plus, the Back-To-School Season just began this week… the earliest Calendar Creep ever.$KHC $GM $METAGrab 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.

Well, this is Nick. This is Jack. It's Wednesday, Wednesday, June 24th. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. Here's the top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Ah, Eddie stocks fell yesterday. The NASDAQ dropped 2% on us. Yeah, it's another one of those random AI scary stock drops that we seem to get every couple weeks. It is, Jack. It's like Wall Street's got a sensitive stomach. They need some stock market tums. Is that what you're getting? I'm guessing everyone buys the dip tomorrow morning. Sometimes you just can't explain this. the stock market. In the meantime, we got three fantastic stories for today's Tea Boy, Jack. What do we got with the most interesting show and business? For our first story, Kylie Jenner just launched smart glasses made by meta. And they could make Zuck the world's second trillionaire. For our second story, World Cup fans visiting the U.S. just discovered

rants dressing for the first time. So Kraft created a TSA-approved ranch in one week. That is moving at the speed of meme. And our third and final story. As the Iran War winds down, The biggest change has been to one car company. General Motors, GM is pivoting from Corvettes to cruise missiles. But Yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. I mean, what a mix. Love the mix. No one else doing that mix.

On Sunday, that was the first day of the summer. School's out, baby. I'm sorry, Jack, pause, pot. I think you mean school is in. Because back-to-school season is already here, according to the Wall Street Journal. Get this. The first back-to-school ads have already hit TVs this week. And Amazon Prime Week is promoting back-to-school supply deals.

Okay, besties, the average school year in America, it ends on the first Friday of June. But back-to-school just began on the third Friday in June. Okay, to kids, the summer break is supposed to be three months long. But to marketers, summer break is two weeks long. Class dismissed, I'm sorry, I mean welcome back sophomores. Though, why is this happening? Well, it's the same reason that Christmas sales are starting in September. And this economy, back-to-school buyers want an early bird discount on that Jan Sport back.

We're always looking for deals. But besties, Jack and I have seen this before, and we call it calendar creep. When businesses expand the holiday season to sell more stuff. Think about it. Christmas now starts in August. Halloween now starts in July. New Year started last year's. And for the first time ever, back to school season begins in June, apparently.

The same month's school ends. So if you're headed to the beach this weekend, don't forget a towel, some sunscreen. And that Ti-83 calculator. Jack, happy Thanksgiving. Let's sit on three stories. Fifteen years before this song. Two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm.

It's the best one yet, but the best is a norm. 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, Raybans are out. Kylie Jenner is in. Zuck asked a Kardashian to design his latest meta sunglasses, and it could make him the world's second trillionaire. Oh, didn't see that headline coming, did you, Eddie? You see, meta, they just dropped their biggest glasses lineup of the year.

But one brand was missing. The Raybans. The Raybans were gone. meta-ray bands, the collab that made smart glasses cool, it was missing the raybans. At least 9 million pairs of meta-raybans have been sold so far. I saw them all over Italy, by the way. But yesterday, Zuck launched meta-glasses, no rayban included. No rayban, no Oakley, none of the traditional sunglasses brands that they've been

collabing with so far. Now, we should point out the owner of Raybans, Luxottica, is still involved behind the scenes in making these new meta-smart glasses. Yes, they're designing manufacturing and distributing the meta-glasses. But their brands are nowhere to be seen. Instead, these new meta-glasses say Kylie Jenner? To sprinkle on some context. Please, Jack.

Kylie is the youngest of the Kardashian-Gener clan. Now, these new Kylie-Gener smart glasses, Jack, what kind of a shape are they reminding us of exactly? The ones that my wife is wearing currently. I noticed that in your Italy picks. The CBK glasses that were inspired by that new show on JFK Jr. Yes. Meta did unveil two other new smart glasses frames.

They're called The Fury and the Adventurer. but it's the Kylie's that have that distinctive spitfire frame shape. As Zuck put it, he wants to be fashion first, tech second when it comes to smart glasses these days. Zuck so badly wants his smart glasses to look cool that he actually called up Chris Jenner and seated to all of her contract demands, I'm sure. That's right. Chris Jenner now owns like one-third of Facebook. But Zuck is doing a little bit of taste washing here, isn't he, Jack?

He's paying a tastemaker, Kylie Jenner, to wash away his tech ick. But besties, this is what Jack and he. and I find even more fascinating about this story. Zuck is treating smart glasses like a car company. He has a different option for every price point. Because remember last week, we covered Snapchat's new computer-on-your-face smart glasses. Yeah, they're called Specks,

and they're priced at an insane $2,100 each. Basically the price of a Honda Civic. Well, classic Zuck, he's now trolling Snapchat's Evan Spiegel by offering something more scalable and probably more profitable. Because these three new frames announced yesterday, They come in eight colors each, and all of them are just $299 a pair. Because by dropping the RayBans brand from the branding, it let Zuck cut the price of the smart

glasses. By 80 bucks. Not too shabby. And according to reports, Zuck wants to drop prices even lower with the next version by removing the cameras from the frames. What we are saying is that the simplest, cheapest meta smart glasses will be audio-only smart classes. But there's a lot you can do with audio-only smart classes.

You can play music, listen to podcasts, talk to somebody on the phone, and talk to Meta's AI assistant. Which sound less like smart glasses, more like AirPods, Jack? By dropping cameras and the potential for video to show up on the lens, it's a much simpler product, like AirPods that could be priced at like $100 bucks. So best is $100 smart glasses or $100 AirPods. Which ones would you actually end up buying? I'm guessing iPhone users buy the AirPods and everyone else buys meta smart glasses. But Jack, what about this? Maybe like Instagram itself, Zuck can make these smart glasses ad-supported and then they would be free.

He makes like 40 bucks a quarter on every Instagram user through ads. Yeah. I'm sure he'd love to put those ads right in front of your eyeballs with smart glasses. Ad-supported smart glasses, we're predicting it. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies, Kylie Jenner, and Zuck? The world's second trillionaire after Elon Musk, it's probably going to be Zuck. Now, Besty, Zuck is a capitalist. chameleon. He will transform completely to maximize a profit puppy. And these frames reveal in three

distinctive ways that his ambition is to replace the iPhone. First, Zuck wants meta-glasses to be global. They'll be available in 15 languages, the majority of the world's population. Second, he's pricing them to be global. Like Instagram and Facebook, the goal is that they'll eventually be free and ad-supported. And third, Zuck's reportedly even adding facial recognition so these smart glasses could tell you who you're actually staring at. That's a privacy nightmare, by the way, but a profit dream, so you know Zuck is going to pursue it. Is that our buddy Timmy or is that just a regular old Timmy? So an iPhone replacing AI-powered free wearable that all global human beings wear 18 hours a day?

Best, he's added all up, and if Zuck's glasses succeed, then META could be a $10 trillion company easily. And that's why, according to Kalshi prediction markets, as of Monday, Zuck is the most likely human to become the world's second trillionaire. For our second story, the MVP of this World Cup, it's either Lienel Messi, Erland Holland, or Kraft Heinz's Ranch dressing? TSA-approved souvenir-sized ranch is the power of moving at meme speed. Oh, besties, the never-ending free breadsticks. Ice served in every drink you order at a restaurant.

A gas station bathroom at Buckees with 127 euro. The European mind cannot comprehend the America they're experiencing at this World Cup. I mean, who would have thought that first time visitors from France and fallen in love with our bass pro shops, Jack? But one surprise thing that's actually not a thing abroad? Yeah, Jack? Ranch dressing. Uh, not possible. This is a mass conversion moment for ranch.

America's World Cup has foreigners that are hot for Hidden Dallas. Senegalese, Argentine, Scotsman visiting for the very first time. Their enemies on the field, but they're united in their newfound love for ranch dressing. But, Jack, could you sprinkle on, I'm sorry, could you take the cap off and pour on some context for us on ranch dressing? It's more American. Yes. According to one study we found, nearly 100% of Americans aged 18 to 40, have dipped a pizza slice into ranch dressing before. I personally prefer Italian dressing for dipping my pizza slices. I personally prefer a Russian dressing for dipping my pizza slices.

But apparently were the outliers here, Jack. But $1.3 billion of sales happened for ranch dressing in 2023, which was a ranch record. Yeah, it's the first time it passed ketchup and barbecue in sales. And Jack, who is the biggest profit puppy in that ranch industry? Hidden Valley. They do 51% of the ranch market because Hidden Valley invented the ranch market. Let's go back to 1954. Stephen Gail Henson moved to Santa Barbara,

start selling sour cream, buttermilk, garlic, mayo, and herbs that they've mixed together. And they called it Ranch because they made it on their ranch, which was called Hidden Valley Ranch. And they sold that Hidden Valley Ranch in 1972 to Clorox for $8 million. And since Ranch isn't a thing abroad, apparently Clorox decided not to take this product international, which shocks us. To quote Julia Roberts, huge mistake. Because in today's World Cup, Kraft Hines is beating Hidden Valley Ranch. One week into the games, Kraft Hines announced they're launching a TSA 311 compliant package of ranch dresser. Kraft announced it on Instagram. It should arrive by the end of the tournament. Here's the idea. A regular ranch bottle is going to get confiscated at the airport as all these travelers go home.

You need something less than 3.4 ounces. So with this new Kraft product and whose Bekistani soccer fan could fly back to Tashkent with a carryout of ranch, fill the whole bag. So that's a nice marketing stunt by Kraft Hines. But here's what's bigger. After they announced. their TSA-approved ranch packages, TSA put out an official warning. But a warning in a good way for Kraft Hines. They say, if you forget to check your ranch bottle, avoid chugging it before airport security.

TSA is saying, we're going to check your ranch for you because we don't want you to chug it. You'll choke or get sick. It's a bottle of dressing, not a bottle of Desani. But now it sounds like a lifestyle. Besties, the stock market, it fell yesterday. But Kraft Hines' stock, it was up 2%. Sounds like investors were buying the dip. The ranch dip.

Is that okay? Not really, but we're going to roll with it, Jack. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our Kraft Hines buddies making ranch? This is meme speed, moving at mock meme. Yeties, in one week, a $27 billion food giant noticed an internet trend and then turned it into a real-life product. That'd be impressive for a startup. It's shocking for a huge consumer package goods company like Craft Hines. It's almost like Kraft Hines called a code red, but like not to mitigate a crisis.

to capitalize on an opportunity. Code meme. They didn't need all hands on deck. They just needed a few enough to launch this little product. Because besties, to be relevant today, brands need to move at the speed of culture. You can't set up a meeting with legal for next week or wait till the chief operating officer returns from vacation. Can I get a sign off by end of quarter on that? Okay, I'll wait until next quarter. Kraft Heinz operated at meme speed.

Call it mock meme. They cut bureaucracy, put a few hands on deck, and will always be launching everything. A-B-L-E. Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, one business has been forever changed by the war in Iran. It's GM.

Cadillac is no defense company. Because the biggest upside for the car industry is not cars. Here's the deal. Look, MOUs plans to discuss a plan and ceasefires that are still in place until the Love Island premiere. That's the situation with America's War.

Iran. Kind of like Marco and Hannah, it's kind of an ongoing situation. The U.S. says that Iran has agreed to nuclear inspections. Iran says they have not agreed to that. But one thing both sides have agreed on is opening up the straight of Hormuz, the oil bottleneck of the world. In exchange for Iran opening the straight back up, America is unsanctioning Iran's oil industry. Now, Bessies is going to take time and there's plenty of risk of a re-escalation, but markets right now, they're thinking the oil crisis is over, baby. The price of oil is now $73 a barrel, down $34,000. percent from the high set back in April. And Jack, the price of gasoline is now down under $4 a gallon again. You know what that means? Fourth of July road trip is back on again? Yeah, you're going down to

Cape Cod, and you ain't going to have to bust the Birkenstocks on that trip. But one industry is not back to normal. That's the car industry. Ah, the car industry. Because Besties last week, General Motors announced a collab with Lockheed Martin to build missiles. To sprinkle on some context, Nick. Remember Iran's Shahad drones that we covered back in March Couldn't forget them. What a story? They cost just 35 grand for the Iranians to build, and then they can autonomously fly them into military targets where they explode. In the meantime, we Americans were using Patriot Interceptor missiles

to shoot those Shahad missiles down. Here's the problem. We were spending $4 million for each Patriot missile to shoot down a $35,000 drone. The technical term for all this, asymmetric warfare. It's the reason that Iran and Ukraine have been so resilient against the much bigger military powers the U.S. and Russia.

Now, besties Lockheed Martin, the National Defense Company, they make those Patriot missiles, but we're running out of those Patriot missiles. So they planned a triple annual production of Patriot missiles from 650 a year today to 2000 by 2030. Okay, but pause the pod jack, because I got to ask, how are you going to do that? You can't hire a task rabbit to build a couple more missiles for it.

Instead, they're going to hire General Motors' car factories, which are available. That's right, Chevy Tahoe. It's got a chassis, So does a drone. So Buick is now in the weapons business. That's right. They're switching it up from pistons to weapons, basically.

At a Tuesday press conference, General Motors and Lockheed Martin's CEOs, they provided few details. Ironically, they've only signed an MOU so far. Okay, but can you paint the scene for us of what this could look like, Jack? Let's say GM builds a new factory for a particular model of car that ends up not selling well. Well, then they could convert that car production line from SUVs to RPGs. GM stock is up 65% in the last 12 months, and Ford is up 31%. The reason, well, it's our takeaway.

So, Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies up in Detroit? The biggest upside for the car industry is not cars. Yeties, in the last 12 months, military engagement is up globally, and car companies, they're starting to think back to World War II. The Arsenal of Democracy, that was America's car factories that got repurposed to supply the war. That was World War II, but it's how to. happening again right now. VW is in talks to build components for Israel's Iron Dome System.

Mercedes is another German car company considering military applications again, given Germany and NATO's geopolitical situation. And now GM will help rebuild missile inventory and Ford is probably going to do the same thing pretty soon. Ford, by the way, their stock has soared this spring on news they're selling batteries to the AI industry. Sebasties, car factories, they're quite fungible to different applications, and we've known that since World War II. That's why the biggest upside for the car industry? It's not cars. Not cars. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways force for Saviche Wednesday? Meta Smart Glasses dropped the Rayban to get cheaper. We bet he launches ad-supported smart glasses someday. Kylie Jenner's smart glasses, they could make Zuck the world's second

trillionaire, according to prediction markets. For our second story, Kraft Hines launched travel-sized TSA-compliant ranch for the World Cup visitors, because they moved at the speed of meme. And our third and final story, GM signed an MOU with Lockheed Martin to help make more missiles. Because the biggest upside for the car industry, not cars. But besties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, Bed Bath and Beyond's got a wild turnaround plan. Here it is.

Really old coupons. Bedbath and Beyond basically invented the coupon. They're famous for those blue 20% giant coupons that never expire. But now Bed Bath & Beyond is offering $100,000 to the person who, who brings in the oldest bed, bath, and beyond coupon in history to a store. In this economy, a coupon-based game show could save this ancient chain. So they can live well beyond. And second, Alex Cooper of Call Her Daddy has launched a microdrama,

but it co-stars Google's AI. We're in a microdrama moment. 90-second addictive mini-soap opera episodes. For the cousin has an affair with a werewolf who's also a billionaire on the side, right? but the unwelled microdrama is also an ad for AI. Because in the episode, Alex solves relationship problems by asking Google's Gemini for some love advice. Alex, she's in her commercialization era. And finally, if you miss Red Lobster's endless shrimp deal, well, the White House has a solution.

The White House's chair of Arctic research said this week that taking Greenland would boost America's seafood supply. But we should point out, the Red Lobster did not comment on the prospect of invading a sovereign country to support their marketing. gimmick. And we won't either. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one is a correction sent in by Jack all the way down in Georgia. A couple of weeks ago, we did a story on trending water startups, and we mentioned Mountain Valley water from West Virginia. Like the big green glass bottles, you see them in your yoga class, like five dollars each. The correction is that Mountain Valley is actually Hot Springs, Arkansas, not West Virginia. It's not. But interestingly, that location is critical because they accidentally supported the mobster Al Capone by being in

Hot Springs, Arkansas. Al Capone loved visiting Mountain Valley's hot springs to relax. But then Al Capone would ship back his illegal moonshine hidden in Mountain Valley bottles. Mountain Valley, hot springs, hot product. How is Mountain Valley not launched a moonshine, by the way? Like, what a moment. What an opportunity, Jack. Yeah, I do think illegal water is a marketing opportunity.

There's something there, guys. There's something there. There's something there. Move at the speed of me. Yetis, you look fantastic for Cevice Wednesday. Jack, you're getting on another flight. You're flying down to New York. We got an interview tomorrow.

We're going to record our 4th of July episode together in NYC. Oh, you guys are going to like this besties. But in the meantime, if you haven't yet, grab your tickets to see T-Boy Live. We just announced our next three shows. San Francisco, Boston, and Seattle. By the way, I'm giving a hint right now who we're interviewing. Do you see what I'm doing? I see what you're doing.

What am I doing? Is that collar going up? I just popped my collar. Oh, that collar's going up. That's the hint for who we're interviewing. for a 4th of July episode. If you know, you know. Now I'm going to put my collar down.

And before we go, a happy birthday to legendary Eddie Daniela from Rutherford, New Jersey. She's expecting a little girl baby number two in August and celebrating the birthday. Happy birthday to G. Rogiero, turning 39 in San Francisco, the same birthday as Lionel Messi. Well, funny timing, Jack,

because a happy birthday to Leonel Messi from Argentina. And happy 30th birthday to Rabab in Orange County. And Tom Lonkey, we see your birthday up in Naples, New York, just outside the fingerlikes. And happy birthday to David Tripp in Scottsdale, Arizona. And Isabella Navarra from Panama City, Panama, is celebrating at Orange Siri for the fantastic birthday. Splat points, baby.

And Daniel Hoff went to U.Mish Ross and is now living in lovely Los Angeles, was at our live show with Sister Kylie. Fantastic to see you guys there. Go Blue. And congratulations to Ashley Vaux, graduating from nursing school over in California. And happy two-year anniversary to Kendra and Jumaria in Pensacola, Florida. Celebrate with some oysters. And to anyone else, celebrating something today,

make it a team one. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon and Ford.