Psychedelics Treating PTSD? & Why So Many Musicians are Canceling Concerts

0:00Tonight on NBC, Jimmy Fallon and Bozma St John host the highly anticipated new competition show. I hired 10 creatives from all walks of life. They will be battling it out to see who can impress the world's biggest brands. This is a huge opportunity. This is the battle for the next big idea. This is not play play. We're spending millions of dollars. I'm so excited to embark on this adventure with all of you. Make the best I do win! On Brand with Jimmy Fallon. Series premiere tonight on NBC. Good morning, Brew Daily Show. I'm Neil Freiman. And I'm Toby Howell. Today, controversy is swelling over a potentially groundbreaking MDMA drug.

0:40Then big acts are canceling their tours left and right this summer. Are people tired of going to concerts? It's Monday, June 3rd. Let's ride.

0:53All right, everyone. It's a very special day here at MBD because it's Neil's seventh anniversary at The Brew. Yes, seven years of bringing business news to the masses, sending billions of emails and hosting hundreds of podcast episodes. I did the math, Neil. Barring a few holidays here and there, you have sent in excess of 2 ,500 newsletters and recorded 335 podcast episodes. Any reflections from spending almost a quarter of your life at The Brew? Well, you know what makes me feel old is that there are all these retrospective movies or documentaries about stories that I covered in the early days.

1:30and usually it's because something as terribly bad has happened to them. So there's now been documentaries or movies about MoviePass, HQ Trivia, WeWork, Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes, FireFest. So all that stuff happened and we would write newsletters about it or talk it like you and I are now. Are any of those topics ones you wish you were here to talk about? I mean, so many of them have continued seven years later and we're still talking about them today. Listen, before I worked at The Brew, I was a fan of The Brew, So I felt like I lived those alongside you just as a consumer as well. But I know I speak from a lot of people and I say the brew would not be what it is today without you showing up each and every day.

2:08So everyone at home, join in in celebrating Neal's year number seven at the brew. Now let's hear a word from our new sponsor, Yahoo Finance. Yes, you heard that correctly. Our Purple Prince is back. OG listeners of the podcast will remember what it's like to have the global leader in financial data and news, riding shotgun to MBD every morning. And newer listeners, you are in for an absolute treat. With Yahoo, you get a one-stop solution with trusted news, market data, innovative tools. It's the perfect side dish to complement your MBD entree every morning. We're gonna be telling you all about the brand that's behind every great investor over the next few weeks.

2:46So lock in, bask in that purple glow, and get ready to dominate the market with the tools and insights Yahoo brings to the table. If you wanna get in on the fun, download the Yahoo Finance app on the Play and App Store for real-time alerts on news and insights tailored to your portfolio and stock watch lists. I'm Christian McCaffrey, Pro Running Back, and Abercrombie is an official fashion partner of the NFL. I'm not kidding when I say NFL by Abercrombie broke the internet last year, and I think this season's lineup is even cooler. And so does my wife, who keeps stealing all my hoodies. Stay fit for the season and Abercrombie's newest arrivals.

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3:30There have been signs that the psychedelic drug MDMA has been rolling toward FDA approval to treat PTSD, but a new study has raised some questions and put some bumps in the road ahead of a big regulatory meeting with drug experts tomorrow. A company called Lycos Therapeutics tested 195 adults with moderate to severe PTSD and claimed that those who received the drug combined with talk therapy were more likely to be in remission at the end of the trial than those who didn't. It's a good sign, right? Well, while the FDA agreed with Lycos' results, the problem is that MDMA is a mind-altering drug, to put it lightly.

4:07So placebos in the study were pretty easily recognized by a control group. That can throw off results, so the agency is left questioning the evidence, potentially setting back a decades-long effort by advocates to move psychedelic drugs from concert crowds to the medical mainstream. Neil, how would you say this study tips the scales ahead of tomorrow's non-binding vote? Well, I just want to take a step back, first of all, and talk about how path-breaking and landmark this is. I mean, MDMA is an illegal drug. It's up there in the classification with cannabis and other drugs where it's illegal and it's ripe for abuse.

4:43And so the fact that we would use this as a treatment for anything is just a remarkable thing to have happened in history after what happened in the 60s and 70s when they basically outlawed this drug and shut down all of the research. So this is just a big deal. There's a lot of controversy around it. As you mentioned, this double blind situation is really bad from a scientific method point of view. This double blind thing is a gold standard where you don't want to have any of the patients or any of the people administering the experiment knowing who's getting the placebo and who's not getting the placebo.

5:17And it appears that with something like MDMA, it's tricky anyway to give someone a placebo because it's pretty clear whether you're getting it or not. It feels like this has completely failed in this experiment. Of course, the experimenters, the company behind this says, yeah, we worked with the FDA. Everything is completely kosher here, but there is a lot of controversy around it as both the FDA and this independent body of experts has come out and saying these results are just not completely effective or ethical, ethical. Yeah. Right now, antidepressants are the only FDA method approved drugs to treat PTSD right now.

5:55So this would be a major shift if you introduce MDMA, if you reclassify it as a prescription medicine and yeah, take it away from that ultra restrictive categorization as a drug on the same level as like as heroin right now. There is definitely a little bit of precedent for this too. A lot of clinics in the U.S. are now offering ketamine, which is another kind of psychoactive drug that can cause pretty intense psychological experiences. It's also been used as a party drug. So there is some signs that the climate around these psycho drugs are being, it's softening a little bit and the medical community is more open to embracing them.

6:33Let's talk about this company a little bit who's putting out this MDMA drug. They are called Lycos, and there's a nonprofit behind them called the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies. That is called MAPS, and it has a lot of high-profile people behind it, including hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen, who is the owner of the Mets, and Republican political mega-donor Rebecca Mercer. They put a lot of money behind developing MDMA drugs. But there's also pushback on MAPS as well, because there's criticism that they have led to this quasi-religious insular culture where it's not acceptable to speak out or say anything negative about what's happening.

7:17That is also another major criticism of what's going on here with these experiments, these trials. So what's the timeline looking like? FDA is, or this panel this panel of advisors is voting on the study tomorrow. The FDA is expected to actually make a decision by August 11th. And even if it is approved, there will be some potential concerns, side effects, obviously the drug's accessibility. And then also there's a lot of state regulations that would have to overcome as well. So even if they do, the FDA does sign off by August 11th, there is still a little bit of a bumpy road ahead for MDMA. But experts say that this train has already left the station.

7:55Even if the FDA doesn't approve this particular drug, it does appear like the research and the investment into psychedelic drugs is going ahead, is going forward, despite whatever happens with this particular one. Elon Musk and his opponents are engaging a full court press to win the hearts and minds ahead of a landmark vote on his$46 billion pay package. The vote, which aims to reinstate the pay package that was voided by a Delaware judge earlier this year is set for next Thursday, June 13th. But a dizzying get out the vote drive has already begun. Musk has been posting about the vote on his platform X, teaching Tesla investors how to cast their vote and even raffling off a personal tour of Tesla's factory in Austin for some shareholders who vote in favor of his pay package.

8:42Let's take a step back here to highlight the huge stakes of this vote. Remember, in 2018, Musk was awarded the biggest pay package in corporate American history if Tesla were to hit certain financial targets. And he met those targets. But a few months ago, a Delaware judge canceled the awards, saying Elon had too much influence over the board when this package was being drawn up. After that decision, a frustrated Tesla said, OK, let's put Elon's pay up for another vote and see what shareholders say this time. Toby, whatever happens next Thursday will have huge ramifications for Elon's increasingly cloudy future with Tesla.

9:18Yeah, this is a very interesting scenario because Tesla actually has a very outsized proportion of retail shareholders that hold stock in the company. They own around 30 % of the company. And so that's why you're seeing him put such a big push that you called it a get out and vote push. But that's really what is happening because there are a number of high hurdles that Tesla has to pass in order for them to vote in favor of some of the referendums on the table. Another one is that Elon's trying to get Tesla to reincorporate in Texas. That requires a majority of all shares outstanding. So even people who don't vote count as no's in that regard.

9:56So that's why you're seeing this all out push. There's a lot of questions on if this is legal or not, because it feels a little legally dubious to tell people on the social media platform that you own to come and vote for this big pay package. But as long as you're not kind of deliberately misleading shareholders with misinformation or anything like that, it does seem to be legal, but just kind of an unprecedented and unique scenario that only Elon can find himself in the middle of. Right, because individual investors, I'm sure a lot of people listening to this, get those proxy notes in the mail saying, you're a shareholder of Disney or Tesla or whatever, vote in our annual meeting.

10:33And does anyone actually vote in that? And the answer is no. Have you voted? No, but I do have those letters that just pile up. And they just pile up. And the fact that Tesla has so many retail investors is a sign that it needs to get these people who typically don't vote in shareholder corporate shenanigans like this. Like, why would anybody ever vote on anything in a corporate matter that's not a major, major shareholder? So that's why they're doing this big get out the vote campaign. Typically, whatever happens in these corporate annual meetings comes down to whoever the big guns do, the big institutional shareholders like the Black Rocks of the world.

11:07And they pay attention to these two proxy advisory groups that do analysis on various shareholder proposals and tell them to vote one way or another. They are called Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis. And in this respect, in this vote, both of them came out against Elon's pay package and said, look, the whole point of the pay package is for Elon to focus on Tesla and to put investment in time in that. So he hits these particular targets. well he's saying they he has six other companies going on at the same time i don't think this pay package is doing its job of getting him to focus on tesla so that has been one of their main criticisms of telling people why they shouldn't vote for his payback if you had to guess right now do you think it gets approved or not they're saying it's going to be a tight vote i think it comes down to whether the average joes the average tesla investors in the world are swayed by elon and vote on his pay package i mean if you look at his track record it's been up and down at tesla but mostly way up.

12:03When this was awarded in 2018, Tesla was not nowhere near big as it is now. And he built it into the biggest, most valuable auto company in the world. And so that's why he, the board chair, Robin Delholm, who's his biggest supporter are saying, look, it worked. Like you guys all made money. You're owning Tesla. And now it's worth a lot more because of what Elon did. That was a very diplomatic answer. I'm saying that as a soft maybe that you think will get approved that? I have no idea. I will say it will. Okay, there we go. It's on record. If you are a super fan of Jennifer Lopez or the Black Keys, then I have some bad news for the 10s to 20s of you.

12:41Your favorite artist has canceled their tour. JLo announced she was calling off her 2024 tour last Friday while the Black Keys are downsizing from a stadium tour in favor of smaller venues. It's put a spotlight on the post-pandemic live music boom as higher prices and consumer fatigue has impacted everyone not named Taylor Swift. Some of the evidence is anecdotal. You've probably seen screenshots of glaringly empty venues on ticketing websites going viral. But Seek Geek has also said that resale ticket prices to attend a summer concert are down to$213 from$257 a year ago. So there's some data to back up this summer's concert slowdown.

13:20Whatever the explanation, be it rising prices, too many people touring at once, or the fact that maybe people just don't want to see J-Lo and the black keys that badly, there is certainly a trend forming here. Yeah, I think we are a long way away from the Beyonce Renaissance tour and the Ares tour of last summer. And this is just natural. I think it's the live music business just coming back down to earth from the heights that it reached last year. Another factor here, I think, is oversupply. I think so many bands are touring more than they used to. And in bigger venues, there's been this concentration in the music industry and the live events industry that the DOJ is targeting with Live Nation, where all these bands are playing maybe in bigger venues than they should be.

14:00Not every band should be playing in these big arenas or can or have enough fans, and that's fine, but there are smaller venues for them. But due to this concentration in the industry, they are not, and they get pushed up to these bigger arenas, and they just can't fill them, and it's really cringy to look at these seat maps on ticketing websites and just see all of those blue in the stadium, and you're like, damn, I really have my choice of seats here. It's like an Oakland A's game. It's a very tough look. I think maybe it's just a skill issue, though. It's just a popularity issue for these artists because for those artists that still are riding a very peak wave of popularity right now, you look at Olivia Rodrigo, her Guts Tour, the average resale price on that is$571.

14:42Morgan Wallen's Tour is$409. So there are still, if you look at the absolute apex, not, I mean, maybe not the apex, which is Taylor Swift and Beyonce, but just a step below that. Olivia Rodrigo's not. I don't think she's at that level yet, though, but it is true that part of this and a lot of this, it comes down to the actual artists themselves that are touring because the ones that are still very popular are selling out their shows. Up next, it's Monday, which means it's Winners of the Weekend time.

15:12This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Checking off the boxes on your to-do list is a great feeling. And when it comes to checking off coverage, a State Farm agent can help you choose an option that's right for you. Whether you prefer talking in person, on the phone, or using the award-winning app, it's nice knowing you have help finding coverage that best fits your needs. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

15:38This episode is brought to you by Jack Daniels. Jack Daniels and music are made for each other. They share a rhythm in the craft of making something timeless. while being a part of legendary nights. From backyard jams to sold-out arenas, there's a song in every toast. Please drink responsibly. Responsibility.org. Jack Daniels and Old Number 7 are registered trademarks. Tennessee Whiskey, 40 % alcohol by volume. Jack Daniel Distillery, Lynchburg, Tennessee.

16:05Welcome to Winners of the Weekend, where Toby and I share two things from this weekend that are taking a well-deserved day off from the gym this morning. I won the pre-show Home Run Derby, So I get to go first. And my winner is Claudia Scheinbaum, who was just elected the first female president of Mexico in its 200 year history as a republic. In fact, she's the first woman to ever win a general election in the U.S., Mexico or Canada. And it wasn't just any victory. She crushed in a landslide, earning up to 60.7 percent of the vote. She received the highest vote percentage in Mexico's Democratic history.

16:41So, yes, a landmark election in many ways. But who is Scheinbaum? Well, she's a climate scientist and the former mayor of Mexico City. She's also a protege of outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, or AMLO for short. As president, she'll likely expand on AMLO's policies that boosted social welfare for the poor. But she's also going to have to tackle this surging problem of organized crime. Thirty-eight candidates were murdered during this election cycle, making it the most violent in Mexico's modern history. Yeah, she is a trailblazer in every sense of the world. First woman president, but also first Jewish person to be elected president of Mexico as well, especially for one of the world's predominantly Catholic countries.

17:22And she has quite a resume, PhD in energy engineering. She won a Nobel Peace Prize as part of a panel of UN climate scientists. And then she was governor of Mexico City as well. She has been battling this perception that she is maybe a pawn to her mentor, which is Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. But she's kind of gone on the campaign trail saying like, no, I am very much my own person here. Yes, he is a mentor of mine, but like I have my own agenda. And so that's been something that she has been battling against as she's won this election. Yeah, I mean, AMLO was popular. And a lot of that has to do with these.

18:00He's pouring money into these pension programs for the elderly and the poor. And his party has said that they've lifted millions of people out of poverty. over the course of his term. And in Mexico, you actually just get one six-year term and that's it. So, you know, he is pointing to those wins. Plus, as we talked about on the show, Mexico is in a really interesting position as the shifts of global trade, the winds of global trade are shifting. You have China wanting to get access to the American market, but both Biden and former President Trump, whoever gets elected, look like they're going to raise tariffs on particular products from China, which means that China might set up shop in Mexico, which could be a huge boom for Mexico to get entry into the U.S.

18:43market. So they're in a really interesting position where they have a lot of opportunity in global trade. And they are now the U.S.'s largest trading partner having eclipsed China last year. Yeah, the currency is also super strong right now. People are calling it the super peso. So the only thing that she'll have to contend with, though, is a U.S. presidential election. She has said that I'm going to have good relationships with whoever ends up in office, but that's just another thing that she'll immediately have to confront in her first term as Mexican president. My winner of the weekend is none other than Dr.

19:11Pepper. DP has moved into a tie with Pepsi, according to sales value data from Beverage Digest, as the number two soda in America. Coke is still far and away number one, but the second place spot on the pecking order that Pepsi has held for nearly four decades straight is under serious threat after a steady climb by Dr. Pepper over the last 20 years. You can point to heavy marketing efforts or new flavors, but it's an interesting distribution hack that has helped the doctor slowly make up ground. Usually soda fountains have either Pepsi or Coke products, the red and blue great houses of the$97 billion US soft drink market.

19:47But Dr. Pepper has allegiances on both sides of the aisle, so it appears on both Coke and Pepsi-controlled soda fountains or restaurants. That ubiquity has helped introduce the brand to a wide swath of America and has led to its tracking down of Pepsi, like prime Jonas Vingegaard. 23 flavors now in second place. Neil, what are you making? I don't know who's Jonas Vingegaard now. He won the Tour de France last year. All right, so just so we're all clear about that. Yeah, Dr. Pepper has an incredible history. I mean, it's one of the oldest soda brands. It predates Coca-Cola or Pepsi. This pharmacist in 1885 wanted to build a drink that evoked the aroma of a drugstore, So he made this Dr.

20:27Pepper that infused 23 different flavors, cherry and vanilla. And I don't know, do you feel like you taste a drugstore when you're drinking it? I don't know what he did, what magic he was cooking up, but I love it. I do love that Dr. Pepper, they were pulling consumers and say, what's your relationship like with Dr. Pepper? And a lot of them said that they treat it as almost a sweet indulgence, more so than like an everyday drink. So they've kind of leaned into that marketing and that positioning as this sweet treat. So I love it. It is delicious. They've had a little social media groundswell, too.

20:58There's been versions of the dirty Dr. Pepper going viral where you mix in some lime juice, some coconut creamer, and some liqueur in there. So it just feels like it's having its moment right now, and I couldn't be happier. I love Dr. Pepper. You said you think it might dethrone Coke, but there's no way. No, not dethrone Coke, but dethrone Pepsi. Yeah, so I brought up this news item when we were traveling back yesterday, and I was like, Pepsi is just such a weird brand. It's kind of stuck in the messy middle, as we say, because, yeah, back in the day, it used to be like a younger, hipper version of Coke, but now it's also old.

21:34So I do think that it's going to lose its grip because, yeah, what is the brand at this point? It's hard to really pin down. If you are listening to this podcast right now and you did Legos growing up, will you please raise your hand? And if you're listening to this podcast right now and you are still doing Legos to this days, will you please raise your hand as well? These are my kind of people, Neil. There are more of you out there than you might think, and Lego is more than happy to help you satisfy your brick-building urges. It is rolling out a 4 ,383-piece set of the Cathedral of Notre Dame five years after the iconic structure nearly burnt to the ground.

22:09It's part of a broader collection of architectural masterpieces Lego is rolling out, specifically designed for adults, including Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water and the Guggenheim Museum. Legos for adults are so hot right now. Since the company started making toys specifically marketed to people 18 and over back in 2020, it has doubled its sales in the adult category. And the new A-full segment of their business, Adult Fans of Lego, now accounts for 20 % of the company's sets for sale. Neil, I think we have enough space on our desk here for the Notre Dame. What do you think? It's going to be so cool.

22:44I mean, the coolest thing about this particular build is that the guy who designed it did it designed it in a way that you have to build it in the same stages as they built Notre Dame over the course of 900 years. Because with these cathedrals, it takes a long time to build. But so as you're building it, that's the same stages that they did when they were building it originally. I don't know if the fire comes in at any point, but maybe when your kid comes over and knocks everything out. But that I thought that was a really cool aspect of this. Yeah, absolutely. And I do think that adult Lego fans are being more seen over the years right now.

23:19The head of the product group said that especially adults with high-pressure jobs, they are now seeing Legos as a way to unwind. Alex Lieberman, our friend and the chairman of Morning Brew, said he does Legos for exactly that reason. I do think it is just people are looking at it more as not a toy to play with but a legit hobby. Like say you're into making ceramics or making something else. Legos can be on that category of construction as well. So like it's just killing it, too. Like even compared to the wider slowdown, the toy market, their sales were up four percent last year. And it plans to open 100 more stores in the next 10 months.