Trading Secrets - 311. Thirty Minute Thursday: Europe Recap, Taylor Swift Wedding Rumors, World Cup Buzz & The White Party

Episode Date: July 2, 2026

The boys are back! Jason Tartick and the Curious Canadian reunite for another Thirty Minute Thursday packed with pop culture, travel stories, and trending headlines. Jason recaps his recent trip through Europe, the guys break down the latest Taylor Swift wedding rumors, chat about the growing excitement surrounding the World Cup, and share their thoughts on the buzz coming out of the White Party. Tune in for another fast-paced episode of Trading Secrets! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Thursdays. David, it is bet a minute, my man, but it is so good to be back on the ones and twos. This is coming out right about noonish or a little earlier on Thursday. We actually wanted to wait for a couple things. There's a lot on the table here.

We just had Shackmore on this episode. So we're talking USA Men's World Cup. They just played last night. We wanted to see what the result is. We know that there was Michael Rubin's White Party last night. And we actually had some thoughts. We're like, let's see who attends the White Party. because maybe that'll give us some indicator of what is going to happen and when Taylor Swift's quote-unquote wedding might be.

So we waited until Thursday morning. And my God, David, I don't know how we're going to do in 30 minutes because we had two weeks off with me being in Europe. We had 20 days of me being in Europe. Many episodes in between like the etiquette master class and Janet from the Valley and of course, Shaq Moore from USA World's Men team. There is so much to talk about, so little time. The clock is running. We got 30 minutes. David, how are you?

I am great. 30 minute Thursdays back. It took us 30 days in between to get 30 minute Thursdays back, but all for good reasons. We're going to get into a lot of the things you mentioned. Also, I need to hear about the Europe trip. There are so many things that I was vicariously following along. In your trip, it looked absolutely stunning, beautiful, all of the above. I want to hear details.

I also am curious about some things. I want to know about a lot of the travel, a lot of the food, a lot of the expenses, a lot of the experiences, a lot of would you do it again? Would you go back? Where would you go? Da, da, da, da, da. So we're going to get to some of that stuff. But, Jay, there's just a lot of going on. And you mentioned some big news topics that, one, is just dominating all the headlines right now, which is Taylor Swift's wedding, not wedding, not wedding, maybe happening, maybe not happening.

And one that normally dominates our headlines right now, which is the white party, which is not dominating the headlines. So we're going to get to that in a little bit. But I think we got to just kick it in normal style here. Got to get back to our roots. We got Shaq Moran. US men's national team player. World Cups going on right now. I thought it was a really good episode.

Again, someone who's in the seat, who's never been asked those types of questions before. And you can tell when those people really genuinely appreciate talking about their path and the struggles and the successes that they've had. you were a college soccer player to be able to talk professional soccer, national soccer, World Cup. This must be a really exciting time for you. It was really cool.

I mean, this is an exciting time as far as World Cup goes. What's really cool is how exciting it is for the whole world. It doesn't matter where you were born or where you're from. To see, you know, a fan of Mexico, born and raised in Mexico, living in Mexico, and he's 70 years old crying because it's the first time that Mexico has made the 16 and 40 years is just beautiful, right? To be seeing in Belgium, their celebration with the massive comeback from Senegal last night is just so cool. I think one of the most unique things about it is the way the world is coming together in celebration. I think I saw a post yesterday go

live like, hey guys, maybe the politicians are just lying to us because like all these people from all different countries are having the best time of their lives, you know? And so to me, that's one of the most beautiful things. It's arguably the best tournament in the world of any sports. And it's a really cool time. And to actually be able to interview someone who's on the team and thought he even might be on the team this year and just got released literally weeks before we did this. It was really cool to get his perspective. And I'll just say one thing that's not connected to the World Cup. But these days, the speed and the talent of any sport, you just can't be a multi-sport player anymore. You just can't. Like in our days growing up, hockey, soccer, lacrosse, anything I could touch, I would play it.

I play it on all the team. You can't do it anymore. It's way too competitive, way too hard. Obviously, you see it in your world all the time. But talking to Shaq, that was probably one of the bigger things. I'm like, there's no way. Even if you're competing and you got the skill set and you got the talent, like, you just won't be able to compete if you're not one dimensional in sports anymore.

And it's too bad because we grew up that way and it's what we knew. But no, but it just is the reality now. And things are expensive. I mean, obviously, I run a hockey academy. It is expensive. To hear that USA Soccer fully funded his education and experience at IMG Academy was really, really cool. I didn't know that. I think that's a really awesome initiative by USA Soccer at the time.

And USA Soccer is really invested in their program over the years, and they haven't quite had the breakthrough success. But I feel like momentum is building every year. To go back to what you're saying, huge dub for the USA hosting this World Cup. Dare I say they needed this, given some of the head. headlines, some of the political landscape and temperature in this country. Huge dub for USA. And man, talk about social media. And we always talk about me spending a lot of time on social media to see the

positive outlook and press that USA is getting from social media. You have people from all these countries coming over, trying the food, seeing the sites. Like, they are blown away. And they're like, wow, I have been lied to my whole life. America is the best. It's the safest. It's got great culture. people are friendly, the buildings are massive.

It's been a great, a great World Cup for that. And it's funny, you're seeing like fans that are blowing up on social media because there's the one guy from Japan. I forget what his name is. Oh, my guy, he's the funniest. He's reviewing like Texas barbecue and all these things. So he's just blowing up. Blowing up.

Or the goldkeeper that gained 15 million followers from being a 40-year-old goldkeeper that was like the underdog story. I mean, you see how much attention to it is. and it's crazy. It's crazy and it's been so good. And I was a hater of the format originally with expanding the field from 48 teams. But I don't know why because it's brought some great games. It's gotten some more countries around the world involved and invested into what's going on.

USA, again, is a perfect host, not just USA. Canada and Mexico and USA together, the first three country host has been such a good host because when you look back to Qatar and you look back to when Russia hosted, they had to build these massive stadiums that take years and years and cost money and money and Qatar was brutal with human rights and the temperatures and people lost their lives and it was really, really ugly

and USA Canada and Mexico had these stadiums. It's plug and play for them. They could host these events. They have sold to date more than double the amount of tickets for a World Cup than any World Cup in the history of the World Cup so far and we're not even through the round of 16. It's unbelievable.

And I remember, David, just weeks before this, I'm speaking on the Bloomberg panel, I have a dinner after I'm meeting to the head of PR for all the World Cup. And he's like, I literally have a countdown on my phone until that ball is kicked and we could start this thing because we are just getting crushed internationally and nationally about how bad it's going to be, how bad it's going to be, to see the success to your point. It's beautiful. And you mentioned USA making the round of 16. Very great for the program, great for youth sports in America when it comes to soccer. solving great for the MLS. The other thing I like financially, man, like the reason it's one of the most popular sports in the world is because the affordability of it. You see it in hockey. It's nausea. How much you guys pay for ice time and skates and sticks. It's unachievable. It's almost priced out a lot of lot of families.

And to think that you could buy a ball, find yard and lawn anywhere and play, it's really cool that sports growing up. But for U.S., 2020, two FIFA World Cup in Qatar, they were in the round of six. 2014 in Brazil round of 16, 2010, South Africa, round of 16, 2002, South Korea. They made it to the, it looks like the quarterfinals. And they've never made it to the semifinal. Excuse me, they've made it once, but it was in 1930. That's the last time that USA made it to the semifinal.

So a really good showing for Team USA. Obviously, we talk money on this podcast, so let's talk ticket prices. If I'm looking at the worst tickets you can get for the, this round of 16 game against Belgium, which will be Monday, July 16, at 5 p.m. Yep. It's going to be over 3 grand. It's exactly 3 grand.

$2,980. And 95 cents. If I go down to like the hot tickets, right, like get down to the good areas, you're talking 6 to 10 grand. And to me, it's just the price of these things have just gotten. I mean, it's just, it's laughable at this point. Who gets that money?

Does the FIFA Federation get it? Does the host venue get it? Do they split it amongst the competing teams for their national programs? Do you have any idea what a revenue split is for? I mean, we're talking 6 million tickets sold to date, Jay. So if you take the round of 16 games and you're going to be at 10 million tickets sold. We're talking about that's for this game. I have a kid on my team who lives in Houston who's gone to all four games.

And he said that it's like he spent 2 to 3,000 per ticket per game. So these prices are across the board. I know friends in Vancouver have gone. Where is this? How does this money get split? So actually, majority of it does go to FIFA. They capture the ticket revenue. You wouldn't think like the,

you would think the host cities or maybe even some of the countries get kicked back. But FIFA controls the big revenue streams, which is ticketing, hospitality, media rights, sponsoring, licensing and merchandise. FIFA reported in Qatar is roughly around $6 million from World Cup tickets. Host cities usually do not get a cut. And for 2026, host cities don't receive game day revenue either from ticket sales, concessions, merchandise, or parking.

Stadiums and local operators may get some operating related money and taxes may be reduced or waived. Some host jurisdictions gave FIFA tax exemptions. But FIFA says the money is being reinvested. They say that the revenue comes from TV, marketing, licensing, hospitality rights, and that it's reinvested to the game. into the beauty of what they're showcasing. So a lot of money there, a lot of World Cup talk. We're 10 minutes into a 30-minute Thursday. Anything else you want to talk about World Cup-wise?

I got to give a shout-out to all of our Canadian listeners up in Canada. We're still alive. We're still in it. We are in the round of 16. Big match against Morocco. Canada has been a great host. All my friends and family up in Vancouver just say the city is alive. It's well.

It's buzzing. So listen, we're all into it. And what's better in the low sporting months of June and July to have high class soccer or football, whatever you call it on TV all day? It's been a nice little touch to summer. That's for damn sure. That's a beautiful thing. Go team Canada. Go team USA.

Where else do you want to go? David, you're the curious Canadian. You lead these 30-minute Thursdays and we have so much to talk about. Well, we were going to record last night like we normally do on Wednesday, but we were locked into the U.S. game. But we also were locked into something that's usually, this is, we're just going to be very honest about this, usually all over our timelines. We wanted to be the first to get some buzz.

We're recording Thursday morning. The White Party, Michael Rubin's famous White Party in the Hamptons, date was moved from typically the July 4th date, and we'll talk about why it's moved, to July 1st, Canada Day. And I got to tell you, Jay, pretty underwhelmed. The only video that I got on any platform on social media is Alex Earls, get ready with me for the White Party. And I've seen nothing.

I've seen nothing other than what people on our team have sent because we were purposely trying to talk about this. And dare I say the White Party has lost its fastball, Jay? What's your take on that? I mean, I looked at an article from people. Michael Rubin said that we were debating the dates, but we certainly were aware of that potential Taylor Swift date. but we didn't change it because of that. Lies. Here's my take on that.

I think in today's world, it looks like I'm on TMZ right now as we're talking through this, David, to see who actually attended it. And it looks like DJ Khalid, Alicia Keys, Jake Paul, Logan Paul was there. Jay-Z was there. Mike Tyson, Shibuzzi,

okay, Jay-Z was there. I know Rob G and Camille were supposed to go, Alex Rodriguez was there. Hey Rod was there. Snoop Dog. Snoop Dog and Little Wayne I saw performed. Alex Earle's there with Tate McCray.

So you're still getting some generations, scopes of generations. You're still getting different industries. I'm sure there's a lot of athletes there. I just, maybe it was the hype build. Do you remember last year, Jay, the invitations were like these one of 350 paintings

from this like famous artist that was like that was the invite in the year before. I think they did like offweights from Nike's, like, custom sneakers that were like your invites. And that flooded social media that gained all this traction for the white party. Now it's just like a date that even if you search it, it's still coming up. Like if you search white party right now, it's coming up Taylor Swift.

It's not coming up the big Michael Rubin white party. And I don't know, everything, pictures that I see, you see like camera crews there. You see the security crew. Just sometimes these things get, dare I say, like been there, done that, a little overplayed. it's, but then I saw an interview with Michael Rubin, he said it is more of a networking event than an actual party. So it probably still serves as purpose. Yeah, I have heard, I've talked to people that have gone before and I've heard from some

people that have gone. It's absolutely incredible. It's the best experience ever. And I've heard from others. It's very, it's very like clicky and stuffy. And I think in probably any situation, you're always going to have those opinions. Yeah. I think, I think to your point, though,

the analysis, psychoanalyzing, like, why maybe the white party is not popping as much right now. Well, there's so much going on. You got the Taylor Swift thing. You got people getting engaged on the Empire State Building, which just watching that. My stomach was quezing. Then you got, and I'm not afraid of heights, but I was like, oh, my God, my God, I got. Then you got a hotter day for that either. I'm like, that pole, you're touching that antenna?

That thing's hottest shit. I mean, the slightest gust of win. Like, what are we doing? But then you got, on top of that. that you got World Cup, all that stuff. But I just think like, I don't know, man. I think like it had it. It's a lure. And then the idea of just like a lot of celebrities being in one room, I don't think that's like very special anymore. I think that's like with social media, you get to see that all. You get to see everything. You know, it's funny. My mom and I were talking about a recent, like,

let's just call it a social media tea that came up recently. And she was like, what's your opinion on this. And I gave my opinion. And my mom was like, this generation, it's just like, it's just, like, why is there so much trash? And I stopped my mom. I said, listen, I think, and maybe this connects to a deeper conversation about a lot of things, I really don't think much has changed. I think that two things have changed. All these things happen. Like in every single world, thousands of years ago, backstabbing, cheating, lying, bullying, harassing, like the nasty things that humans do. And happen. And I think they've always happened. I just think now people are in twofold. One, they have, everyone has a stage. No one in the world. You could have one follower and tell a story today and tomorrow

have 10,000. And it could be a headline. So everyone has a stage. And I think the other thing is because everyone has a stage and everyone has so much transparency about how much money there is behind the whole creator economy, I think that everyone is kind of fighting for the attention. And then they're getting rewarded for showcasing some of that attention that before was closed behind doors. I 100% agree. The consumers have the access to the information at a rate that they've never had before. I take the same take when you're saying everyone's been backstabbing, lying, cheating. I always look at that like whenever you see a natural disaster, it's like, oh my God,

the world's going to end. There's a flood here. There's a storm here. There's a earth. It's like these have been happening for thousands of years. We just hear about the flood in Mississippi now where before. unless I'm opening the newspaper and going to the bottom section, it's not even, it's not relevant.

It's just, I'll never see it. So I tied both of those together. Well, I got to take, I got to jump on this right now. Okay. I'm working by end of day to find out if this episode will be released. And Reagan, you're on here now. Maybe you can text me to let me know if Chloe's team has responded. We actually have someone that specializes in disaster relief coming on the show.

But what the trading secrets tie in is how that's actually impacting you at home and your home insurance premiums and what you can do about it. And she'll break down what's happened with the billions of dollars of disaster relief and what it means to all of us about owning a home and line-aiding a minute and negotiating it. So more to come. I'll wait for Reagan to let me know if that's going live. But I'll just say this. We are, okay, if we can get assets to her to her by end of day, we should be good to go.

So it's a possibility. If not, it'll be coming soon. But I think back to you. There's a lot of money in disaster relief. I've just played Oakmont Country Club, which is where the U.S. Open was hosted last year. One of the hardest country clubs to get in. I asked the guy what he does who hosted us. And he's like, I started as a laborer in a disaster relief company.

Now he owns it. Yeah. Well, I mean, here's the deal. There's a lot of labor in disaster relief because we're not proactively planning to prevent it and prepare for it and then who pays for those costs all of us for our home insurance premiums. That's the really cool thing about that conversation. But going back to the stage, I don't want to lose that. Let's bring it back to the white party all the way.

I think it's just like we see. I think people are kind of getting numb to, oh, cool celebrities are in one place having a party. Like it's everywhere now. Well, it's like why award shows have lost or luster. It's like how many award shows, how many me met gals, how many these, how many those? It's like it's all kind of lost is luster. And listen, obviously, I'm sure there's great networking. I'm sure if you got an invite, you would go.

Yeah, of course. So it's not like we're putting ourselves above it. It's just really interesting to see the impact that it's having on our screens, on our socials, and maybe on our lives. But I think the reason that they moved it is Taylor Swift's wedding. If you have your magic ball, Jason, you're a fairly new Swifty in the last couple of years here. Are they getting married? Is it happening at MSG? and if so, what's your take on NSG, Taylor Swift, Travis Kelsey Wedding?

Love it, hate it? What's your take? Oh, man, I got a million takes. I think they moved it because of the wedding for sure. That makes sense. We're seeing a lot of articles are coming out with what looks like perspective, actual timelines of what it's going to look like. Page 6 came out saying that it will be on Friday.

There's a rehearsal dinner on Thursday. TMZ is saying that a thousand people are expected to show up. There's other areas of online saying that. that all employees of MSG have not been allowed in in the last year. I'm sorry, whoa, whoa, whoa, in the last week. For me, here's, you have two takes. Take one, here's why it makes sense. It makes sense because you are at one of the most memorable, notable locations

in the middle of the biggest city in the world with some of the most prominent humans with a pulse living today that will be attending. And when you have that type of city and that type of venue who has hosted the most important people in the world before, they have systems, security, and operation to support that in a way that could make sense for Taylor Swift. They have tunnels that you can go down. They have, like think about how many times the president of United States, whoever is serving at that time, has been there for big events. They have ways to protect, to secure, to make sure that they can keep only the media that they want in there, the media, you know, that's, that's, oh my God, that's so weird. I just had the weirdest deja vu of my dream

last night where there's all this paparazzi at her wedding and those two were kissing and people like, oh my God. Anyway, that was so weird. I dreamed of that last night. Anyway, but that's why I think the MSG, it works is because they can support it and they can make sure that it goes smoothly, safely, and it's as secured as they want it to be as far as what gets out. The second thing is it doesn't feel like a, it doesn't feel like a Taylor Swift thing. It doesn't feel like Taylor Swift would be walking, like getting married at that I meant. I think that's like what? Like what do you want?

In the concrete jungle with like sand beams in the background. And it's like that. But then when she went on when she got engaged, right, she goes into the podcast and the area that we see the photos from, that was a hold. She walked in. It didn't look like that. While she was in the podcast, the entire team set that entire scene. So I am sure it won't look like MSG assuming this is all going down the way it's going down. It's going to look, if it happens, it's going to look unbelievable.

It's going to blow everybody's minds. When I first heard it, listen, I'm not a diehard Swifty. I'm not a hater. I'm the most neutral Taylor Swift person on the planet. I think that doing an MSG when I first heard it, I was like, that is kind of cringy. But then I was like, for a lot of the things that you talked about, makes sense. I think she's arguably the biggest pop culture celebrity in the world. to have a place where if helicopters and people and cameras are trying to take pictures,

there's no windows in MSG, there's no access points. Like you brought up a very good point with security. They can have that thing as closed off as possible to have the most private ceremony that they can have. And when you're that big and famous, that's maybe what you need to be able to have that and secure that. I'd love to know how many employees or people who are working there or have worked there. Is there someone in the ceiling tiles that's been there since Tuesday or Monday that, like, is rationing foods that they can pop out and, like, be at the wedding and, like, take pictures? Like, you've got to think if, if nothing is leaked, then whoever's organizing that needs to be in charge of a lot of other events in our country. Catherine just walked in real quick.

Catherine, can we get a take on what you think's going down with Taylor Swift's wedding? Is it happening? Is it not? Reagan just jumped in here and Reagan's new to the team. that it's a popular theory that Taylor is setting all these red herrings to make people think that it's going to be an MSG but a distraction. Karen, Karen, that was crazy. Let's hope she's on a Karen.

I just went for a, this is what I do. I take names and I blend them. I was researching dyslexia recently. I think I might have like a minor form of dyslexia. Anyway, Catherine, give us a hot take. You got 60 seconds. Give us everything. She's already married.

It's happening at MSG, but it's just a party. She's not like walking down the aisle at a basketball arena. But there's a party going on. She will be there. I like that take. That's still very confusing. And I don't know that I'll ever get over it, but something's happening at MSG.

You won't get over what? That Taylor Swift is doing anything in MSG. But it's fine. It's just, I think it's going to be like a big party. What's your hate against MSG? It's not against MSG. It's Taylor Swift is like should be in a castle. in Ireland, not at MSG.

Okay, that's fair. She just wants to, like, throw a bash. A bash. You think it's a big party? Okay. Good take here from Karen slash Catherine. All right. Listen, it's hard not, it's hard not to agree with that. It's like 98 degrees right now in New York City. It's sweaty. It's gross. It's smelly. It's like, that's people's queen.

Like, that's people's, like, unicorn. They want her riding a magic carpet into the castle and, like, the offset location where they filmed Game of Thrones. Like, it's like, that's what they want. And they're getting concrete jungle. But I can see the party. I could see being electric. It's going to be fun.

They're going to do them. Oh, it's going to, dude, it's going to be whatever it is. Yeah. It's going to, wait until you see the pictures. And I can't wait for her interview to be like, hey, this is what we did. And this is why we did it. Also, I just want to make sure I want to put on the record here. 30 minute Thursdays.

I feel like our diehards are here, like our true community. I just want to say that she's gone. As a guy, you know, there's, there's a lot of, there's only so much wiggle room. with screwing on names. I've never once called her any other name by Catherine, other than right there, which was Karen. That was the first right here.

It's because you were just talking about Reagan. Reagan and R-Dade. So we're going to end this. We got about five, six minutes left. Any July 4th plan. And then let's quickly recap year up if we can in freaking five minutes. Okay. So July 4th, then I'm back in Asheville.

I'm just trying to get my head on straight. There's some parties and stuff here, but we'll see. As far as Europe, oh my gosh. I mean, let's kick it to you. Do you have any July 4th plans? July 4th plans. No, I actually have nothing. I'm hoping to golf tomorrow morning,

but we have no plans, and I'm kind of loving it. We're going to have Ashley's family over and forth, these hot dogs and hams, pool day, kick it. Nothing, Jay, nothing. I love it. That's how it should be. Just enjoy it.

Just relax. Europe. Let's get into it. What questions you got? Okay. My questions are favorite moment, and then maybe a moment that didn't make socials that was like stressful, frustrating.

Give me those two first of all, first and foremost. Okay, so favorite moment. I'm just going to summarize because we're tight on time. Yeah. Lake Como. It was most spectacular place I will ever go. I ever have gone. It's magical.

It's like silent. You can't hear anything but like the nature. There's every tree you can imagine. The paint on every home is just spectacular. The lake is a, unbelievable. There's no place in the world, I don't think, anywhere, like Lake Como. And the financial side of it is, of course, I think Lake Como is now known as like, since George Clooney has brought it on the map, it's like the area of luxury, if you will. But I will tell you, there's a lot of

ways that you can do Lake Como in a very affordable way. Are there the areas and places that you can go, they can literally spend an arm and a leg? 100%. Are there places that you can spend it in a very, very affordable way and have a great time at a great price point? Yes. So, that's what I would say about Lake Como. Some of the behind-the-scenes stuff that you don't see is the last time I went to Europe, it was on a cruise with Virgin Cruises. And when you go on a cruise, all your stuff is in the cruise, right? You stop at the island and then you have the option, sorry, you stop at the country or location, and then you have the option to get off and either like stay over for a day or two. And you can do a little bag and go or you can come back

on the boat. That is so much easier than flying. Like fly, I don't, I remember there's this like myth in Europe that like flying so. easy. I find flying in Europe to be the biggest pain in the ass. The airports to me are far from efficient. I don't like, I just, I don't, flying in Europe is not fun. I don't enjoy it at all. So the flight system and process just sucked. Then there was, the best thing we did was rent a car. Renting a car was just a game changer because you can control everything in the last hot take, and I'm going to kick it back to you because I know you got questions. Travel planners, for my travel planners listening, don't take offense to this.

this, I almost went with a couple. I am so glad I did it. I got to move where I wanted to go, how I wanted to go. I didn't have to like set up things that like, I have to be there at this day for this type of tour or something. We could adjust it. It all worked. I didn't plan things until last minute and it worked perfectly. That's incredible. And in renting a car in Europe, there's also something about driving around Europe and a car. I did it when the last time I went to Italy. It was amazing. What's one thing that you wish that you could bring from America to Europe. And what's one thing that you wish you could bring from Europe back to America? Could be anything. Not even a tangible thing. Could be anything. This is so easy. Ice, air conditioning,

and elevators to Europe, things don't exist. And that from Europe to America would be the food. I mean, I mean, I ate pasta pizza and wine every single day. Every single day, I had pasta pizza and wine in some capacity. I had a glass of wine every single day. I was never hung over. The only time I was hung over was at Blake and G's wedding when we were just crushing champagne at the rehearsal. dinner. That was the only day I was hung over. I never, I lost weight, did not gain weight. I was not, my face is 10 times more inflamed right now than it was over there. And I just, you just don't like my, I never have stomach aches. I've never had stomach problems ever. I have like, I have a stomach of steel. It's always been a thing. Being over there for three weeks and coming back right now,

my stomach has been a mess coming back here to it. Like it's readjusting. I don't, I don't take thumbs. I had to go buy tums because my stomach is adjusting. That those are going to be the most relatable answers for everyone who's ever been. It's like if you know, you know, air conditioning, elevators and ice that is, and the food is just incredible. If you had to go back to Europe next year in June, would you go back to any of the places or would you choose a new place of a new place? Where would you go? I just only want to go to Italy ever. I want to go to southern. It's the, there's nothing. I like to consider myself pretty well traveled, have been to many of countries. And I will tell you, there's no place in the world like Italy. My God, it's beautiful.

I will give a quick little travel hack if that's okay. No, that's what the people who are waiting this long deserve one. If you haven't listened to the Points Guy episode, you should listen to it. If you have, what I would tell you helped me out significantly was proactively planning by knowing that when I bought the house, I was going to have all these furniture purchases. So I very, very actively looked for the best credit card deal I could get. Right before my old MX platinum renewed, I canceled it. So I avoided that fee while having all those.

benefits. I then got a new card. With this new card, I got 350,000 Amex points, which is insane. And then I was able to use the transfer system through Amex where they'll transfer to certain hotel groups or airline groups that are multiplier. And I got 2.4 times every point I transferred over. So in Lake Como, we were able to stay at the Grand Hotel Victoria, the GHV in a room that was originally it was $1,700. And then because I was Hilton Diamond through my credit card, we got upgraded. We got upgrade into a room that was $2,500. Here's how much I spent for that room.

I spent 85,000 Amex points because, or no, less than that. It was like 65,000 Amex points or something because of the 2.4 multiplier got me to 170,000 Amex points, which is how much it was a night. I got two nights there. So it was roughly around almost. six grand in hotel rooms at the most beautiful hotel I've ever stayed at in my entire life. And I got it for a total of like 120,000 max MX points, which all came from a bonus that I got knowing that I had expenses coming that I had to spend anyway.

When that happens, the coffee tastes better, the wine tastes better. The weather just as crispy as can be. It's like you feel you crack the code. And the busyness and the hustle and bustle of life, when you get that break, when you do that, I just cracked the code. I'm just going to enjoy this for 24 hours. And that is a great hack, Jason. And that's the other thing, too, is that all the, you're moving so much in Europe that all the hotels have free breakfast in the morning. And I'm going to show you, David, and I want you to, I want you to narrate this. You're going to be the host here. I'm going to show you this breakfast

at Grand Hotel Victoria. It was the best breakfast I ever had in my life. I'm going to show you pictures. And I want you to literally just narrate this. Here, here is. This is all included. Those are all the meats. You got some beautiful meats there. You got, we got nice little bit. Oh, look at that spread.

You got everything. You got all the baguettes. You got eggs. You got all the toppings that you want. You could probably make your own little omelet there. What else? We got here juices are those fresh grease pressed juices? Oh, my goodness gracious.

All of them. Oh, this is just, I mean, there's, I mean, I'll tell you, every day. I'm looking right now, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, there's nine different buckets for the granola. There's roughly,

around 75,000 pastries of every single kind. You imagine the best pastry store. I mean, look at these pastries that are on this. I mean, there's nothing. Pastries with those brownies. Oh my God. Struddles. We got fresh fruits.

Dude, here's the thing. You are well-traveled, okay? We both have been fortunate to stay some really nice places. I was able to say the four seasons in Florence. And even when you are 40 years old, or sorry, you're not quite, we're not quite there, but we always put that in the universe. And you can whip out your phone and take pictures of a breakfast spread.

You know it's the best. Like you just know in that moment, it's like, this is, this is living. This is blowing my mind. All time. All time. Love it. All right. Well, there's so much more to talk about.

We'll be back. 30 minute Thursdays are here to stay. We are fourth and inches from inking a massive podcast deal. we will let you know about all in an episode, what goes on with that deal and who other offers we got and why we decided to pursue the deal that we did. So more to come on that. But on that note, David, I actually have to go interview TJ Palma from Love Island. So I got to get going. But brother, it was great to be back on 30 minute Thursdays. It was great to be back. We will recap Monday's episode and recap all the things that we talked about. We'll see if the wedding happens. And if you did,

I'm sure we're going to talk a lot about it. More to come. Thank you for tuning into another episode of Trading Secrets, one you couldn't afford to miss.