Snacks Are Out, Ozempic is in & Wearable AI

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 idea 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. On today's pod, throw on that hoodie and crack open a LaCroix because we are going to showcase some startups trying to become the next big thing.

0:42Then the ripple effects of the recent Ozempic craze are spreading far and wide. We'll take you through some surprising industries impacted by the weight loss drug. It's Thursday, October 5th. Let's ride.

0:57To kick off the show, I want to quickly mention a new podcast that's coming to Morning Brew Nation. Long-time listeners of MBD might remember we did a special episode with Personal Finance with Money with Katie a few months back. It was hugely successful. We all learned a ton. Well, Katie is teaming up with fellow Dynamo Tara Reid, the CEO of Apps Without Code, on a new podcast called Bossy. It's focused on women and entrepreneurship. It's going to be epic. The first episode is out this morning, and we definitely encourage you all to check it out. Yeah, Katie and Tara are the best. They know more about personal finance and business building than we could ever hope to.

1:36Funny story, too, they were in the office recently recording some episodes. And here's the crazy part. They actually had a hair and makeup team, so we were jealous. But honestly, please go check out Bossy. The first episode just dropped today. We love Katie and Tara, and we know you will, too. Before we jump into the news, though, we have a quick word from our sponsor, Yahoo Finance. Now, Neil, one thing we know as not financial advisors is that investing is hard. not just because it's hard to stay in the green, but because things like complicated jargon and information overload make it downright difficult to make smart choices.

2:10That's where Yahoo Finance comes in. They are your purple guiding light in a sea of darkness. That's right, Toby. And you can use that purple light to achieve financial prosperity, however you define it, one informed decision at a time. So even though the market might not be cooperating right now, and dang, it is not cooperating, at least Yahoo Finance gives you the tools you need to get ahead of the next bull wave whenever it may come. So after this pod, head to finance.yahoo.com. That's finance.yahoo.com. Does it ever feel like you're a marketing professional just speaking into the void? But with LinkedIn ads, you can know you're reaching the right decision makers, a network of 130 million of them.

2:49In fact, you can even target buyers by job title, industry, company, seniority, skills, and did I say job title? See how you can avoid the void and reach the right buyers with LinkedIn ads. Spend$250 on your first campaign and get a free$250 credit for the next one. Get started at linkedin.com slash campaign. Terms and conditions apply. Let's jump into our top story of the day where we're checking in on an old friend, Ozempic. The diabetes drug turned miracle weight loss drug has frequently made headlines for the surprising alternative benefits it potentially offers like curbing addiction and improving cardiovascular health.

3:24So today we're gonna dive in even further and look at some of the ripple effects this drug is having across industries that you wouldn't expect. First up is the airline industry. Now, obviously weight is extremely important to the fuel efficiency of planes. The lighter a plane, the less fuel it consumes. So what might happen if passengers on the whole started to weigh less? Well, using United Airlines as an example, one Jeffries analyst found that it could save$80 million a year on fuel costs if every passenger lost 10 pounds. Neil, makes a lot of sense now that I think about it, but seeing that$80 million number on paper is still mind-boggling.

4:01Yeah, airlines have done everything possible to make their planes lighter because fuel is among their top two costs. I don't know if you've noticed, but there's no magazines anymore. The trays that the attendants bring down the aisles are lighter. So if everyone on the plane is just a little bit lighter, it could save them a lot of fuel costs. There's been a wave of analyst reports, I would just say in the past few days and past few weeks, talking about the quote-unquote non-medical side effects of Ozempic and Wagovi because these things, if adoption is as expected, these things are going to be so profound.

4:36Some analysts say that it could have as big an impact as AI. And when we talk about AI, you're like, okay, well, AI is going to be in the hardware business. It's going to affect literally everything. Everyone needs to talk about, everyone needs to infuse AI into their corporate strategies. And And if you believe some of these analysts, people who are watching this industry, then the same thing is going to happen with Wagovi, Ozempic, and nearly every other weight loss drug that is coming onto the market. Yeah, the implications of a so-called slimmer society go far and wide. And let's just jump into the next industry.

5:08I want to talk about the showdown between big pharma and big food. So food companies have doubled down on snack foods recently. Remember, we just saw Smuckers buy Hostess for$5.6 billion last month as it moves further into kind of the unhealthy food aisle. But if Ozempic and other weight loss drugs are as effective at making people eat less as they appear to be, the snack food industry is in for a world of hurt. Morgan Stanley found that nearly 7 % of the U.S. population could be taking one form of these weight loss drugs by 2035. And if that were to be the case, consumption of baked goods and other salty snacks could fall 3 % or more.

5:44So big farmer versus big food, Neil. It's going to be a crazy one to watch. Yeah, and what was interesting, what happened this week on Monday was that Kellogg spun off its cereal business, which everyone knows it for, and created a new company called Kela Nova that's literally just focused on snacks. This company has Cheez-Its, Pringles, and Rice Krispies treats. And people are looking at this new company and saying, are you sure you really want to dive into these particular snack foods during this time of Ozempic and Wengovee curbing everyone's appetite? height. And the CEO gave an interview saying, we're by no means complacent.

6:17We're totally watching this. This is something we definitely have an eye on and we feel like we'll be able to adjust just as the food and snacking industry has adjusted to other regulations and other changes in consumer trends. And just yesterday, too, Walmart is already saying they're seeing an impact from Ozempic. This is a quote from John Furr, their chief executive of Walmart's U.S. operations. We definitely do see a slight change compared to the total population. We do see a slight pullback in the overall basket, just less units, slightly less calories. So again, this is something that might not be happening super all at once, but slowly but surely, you see these caloric intake go down and the basket size go down.

6:57And that has large effects across Walmart, who has a massive grocery business. Right. And so they are the largest grocer in the United States. There are some, you know, this is very hypothetical. This is all, this could happen that there are these are estimates so this is not destined to happen and what what might not why might not this happen well cost is a factor because these these uh drugs are not yet insured and they may never be and they can run ten thousand dollars per year so that seven percent stat you cited at the top that's on the you know bullish estimates but if people can't really afford uh these drugs then then this mass adoption this mass disruption may never take place.

7:38I think they need to be insured for that to happen. Right. Especially in the snack food industry, where typically on the lower income spectrum is the people who consume snacks. So it might be two different audiences, people who snack and the people who actually use Wagovi's in Ozempic. So that's another thing to look forward to. Really widespread implications for this. We'll definitely be keeping an eye on it. For this next story, I want to talk about multiple news stories that we've discussed on previous episodes and want to give you an update on. We're naming this segment after everyone's favorite phrase to see in work emails, just circling back.

8:11The first story we're circling back on is the Kaiser Permanente health care strike we mentioned could happen on Monday's show. Well, it did happen. Yesterday morning, more than 75 ,000 workers at Kaiser Permanente walked off the job in five states and Washington, D.C. to pressure their employer to address issues like higher pay and staffing shortages. It is the largest healthcare strike in U.S. history and shows that this historic labor action that occurred during the summer is continuing its momentum into the fall, no matter the sector. This being a healthcare strike, it hits a lot closer to home for regular people.

8:45Kaiser Permanente patients might have non-emergency and elective services rescheduled, but the company says it's brought on thousands of temporary employees to keep critical operations running. Hospitals and emergency departments will stay open during the strike, which is expected to last three days. Toby, it seems like every week there's a biggest blank strike ever going on. What a year it's been for organized labor, and they have a lot to show for it. Yeah, I mean, more than 445 ,000 workers across all sectors have walked off the job at some point this year, which is not an insignificant amount by any means.

9:17Also, striking in health care is always, as you said, it does hit very close to home for a lot of people. It's also sometimes a controversial thing. There's been papers written on both sides. One argument is that the workers' obligations to their patients or society should make it so that this is one industry that shouldn't strike. But then the other side of the coin is these obligations are not absolute and they have just as much a right to better working conditions as any other industry. So, again, there is always a debate whenever health care workers do walk out. Super interesting ethical argument there.

9:47But it's not just happening in the United States. Earlier this year in Britain, there was the largest ever national strike by health care workers. So this is an industry that, you know, employees really need more help on because there's a mass exodus due to people being burnt out. Another story I want to circle back on is Maui's recovery from the wildfires that devastated the western part of the island almost exactly two months ago, if you can believe it. There's a great deal of conflict brewing right now over the governor's plan to open up sections of West Maui to tourism again, beginning on Sunday.

10:21The governor, Josh Green, said it's critical for the island's economic recovery to get tourists back after the number of visitors plunged 70 percent after the fire. And we know how reliant Maui is on tourism for jobs and its overall economy. But many Maui locals say they're not in a place yet to put on a smiling face for outsiders when they haven't had enough time to grieve the 97 people who were killed in the fires and left many others without shelter. More than 14 ,000 people have signed a petition asking the state to delay its phased reopening in West Maui, saying they're not emotionally ready.

10:52So once again, we're seeing this tricky balancing act for officials as they try to kick the economic engine back into gear and be respectful of locals who lost everything and are already frustrated with the government's response to the disaster. Yeah, there's also a ton of housing tension there right now because there's still 8 ,000 people living in temporary shelters. So should we open up tourism when these hotel properties are being used to house people who lost everything in those fires? But then there's also some people, I was reading some local Hawaii kind of tourism publications saying that there's been some bad messaging around this and even predating the fires and that tourism was down in Maui even before the fires happened.

11:30And so now that a lot of people think that all of Hawaii is kind of burned down just based off the coverage that we saw globally. And so now everyone is saying we need better messaging. Like we still are open for tourism, even though like we want to be respectful for everyone. These are just long, festering problems that have, you know, comes that manifested right now because the locals in Maui for many years have have chafed at the amount of tourism coming in and destroying local ecosystems. But, you know, they rely on tourism for four out of five of every dollar. So the for the economy to rebuild, public officials are saying we got to get people back.

12:09They want Maui locals want this to be a new time to revisit this dependence on tourism. Okay, to switch gears completely in our final circling backstory. Remember that wave of lawsuits accusing fast food restaurants of false advertising, of making their burgers seem bigger and juicier in marketing materials than they are in real life? Two companies just defeated that challenge. A judge in Brooklyn dismissed a suit brought by a customer against Wendy's and McDonald's about burger size exaggeration, saying he didn't see a problem with the chains using appetizing images to foster positive association with their products.

12:43The judge also said it wasn't clear that the plaintiff even saw the ads he was referring to. Other fast food chains are still fighting their own false advertising legal battles, but this is a win for critics who called these lawsuits kind of a waste of everyone's time. Yeah, the judge literally said that the McDonald's and Wendy's food images, which were the case in this particular case, are no different than other companies' use of visually appealing images. It was interesting that the legal argument was like, oh, everyone else does it, so these people are fine doing it too. And then they also said they provided more objective information about it, like weight and caloric content of those things.

13:16We kind of knew that this was never going to actually be a lawsuit, but it is a growing area of law. Fast food litigation is the fastest growing area of law, some people say. So it is interesting to see this kind of rush, kind of a goldmine. People think that maybe we can get them on this advertising angle, and it's kind of a gold rush in terms of litigation. There is a similar lawsuit against Burger King that was allowed to proceed. So it's not all dead yet. Yeah, there we go. All right, Neil, let's take a quick break, but don't go anywhere because we've got three more stories, including Neil's numbers, coming up right after this.

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14:37See a Lowe's Red Vest Associate or visit lowes.com slash holiday install to get started. Lowe's. We help. You save. Basic install only. Date restrictions apply. Subject to availability. Install by independent contractors. See associate for details. Contiguous U.S. only. Neil, our next story is another little roundup segment. This time we're bringing you some cool new startups that we've come across recently that we think you all might enjoy. Up first, we've got a good old-fashioned arms race to see which AI company can figure out wearable AI first. Let's meet the players. One company called Rewind.ai just released its Rewind pendant, which is a$59 necklace you wear around your neck that records conversations so you can create a sort of searchable database of all the stuff you've listened to or said during the day.

15:25Another company is called Tab, which also created a wearable device that, quote, in just the context of your daily life by listening to your conversations. These two devices were launched within days and hours of each other, actually, and so that clearly founders think the future of AI is something that can interface with the outside world. Do these just make turn your life into a podcast episode? It's, I do not like it. I mean, a lot of the Rewind company has really, really pushing the safety and the security aspect of it. Like your data won't be leaked anywhere, but it is so eerie to imagine people recording every single minute of their days and then saving those recordings for later.

16:03There's got to be ethical implications of it, too. Of course. Rewind said on its website that you could not record someone without their consent. But I was doing some snooping. I didn't quite understand how that would happen. They did pitch it as a device that you could use as an executive or another member of a team who was recording a meeting. And instead of taking notes, you could just have your meeting and then revisit it later and it'll transcribe everything for you. So that's one of the use cases. It also mentioned people, one of its target audiences was people with ADHD who are constantly moving from one task to the next.

16:38So that's who they're pitching it to. But you're right, this is an arms race for creating the next smartphone, really, the next piece of hardware that could unlock this AI software boom. And everyone from these startups to big players like Meta and Apple are trying to unlock it. Yeah, the big fist in the pond is also Humane, which is led by a former Apple employee that has an AI pin, which comes with a projector that you can use to interface. It appears on your hands. So that's a big company with a lot of funding. And the other big fish is obviously OpenAI, who are reportedly in talks with the former Apple designer, Johnny Ive, to create a wearable device.

17:13So again, I call it an arms race. I do think we're going to see more and more of these new interfacing AI objects. But okay, that's enough AI. Let's move on to our next startup, which is a company called Habit, spelled with a Y. Of course. Of course. very startup v which is an airbnb-esque platform that aims to connect people interested in longer stays than the typical airbnb duration longer stays meaning in that six to nine months range neil we're a bit chained to this podcast desk but in the age of remote work i can see this being super appealing to a certain subset of people this is a big round 42 million dollars and it's valued it last raised money at 200 million dollars and now it's going to be worth a lot more than that So this is a fairly large startup and they're trying to weasel into that middle space between Airbnb with its short term stays and actually just renting a house or an apartment.

18:07And it cites the fact that people can't really afford housing right now is one reason why this might be attractive and it's targeting digital nomads. So if you believe that the future of work is flexible and hybrid and remote, then this might be a company you might be bullish on. Yeah, and then also they get to avoid that short-term rental controversy that Airbnb and VRBO, we saw it in New York City that there's this big crackdown on short-term rentals. So they are kind of threading the needle between actually long-term rentals and short-term. So have it with a Y, a name to watch. And finally, for our last startup, we have Blackbird, which is a restaurant reward platform founded by the co-founder of Rezzy and Eater.

18:48Essentially, Blackbird incentivizes eating out by having patrons tap their phone when they dine at a restaurant, kind of like how you sign in at the gym, in order to keep track of regulars and reward people who frequent a spot. Neil, I love this idea because I absolutely eat at the same restaurants a lot, and I'd love to build up some rewards points or get access to off-menu items like Blackbird offers. Right. The founder, his name is Leventhal. And I mean, he has a first name, too. His first name is Ben. He is saying that he wants to build something for independent restaurants, something along the lines of the loyalty programs that you see at chains like Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks and Sweetgreen and things like that.

19:25but they just don't have the bandwidth to connect with customers in the way that these massive chains do. So if you go to these restaurants multiple times, you get a free cocktail and then you get a free appetizer and you can build up rewards points over time at particular restaurants. I personally wouldn't use it because you know that I like to go to a lot of different restaurants. I don't like to go to the same one because we live in New York City. There's so many different ones, but you find a place, you love it, and it would be great for you to be able to build some sort of loyalty with these restaurants and get some sort of rewards.

19:56Yeah, I love it. And you can get so creative with it too. Some restaurants were giving away bomber jackets. It's not just food items. Like you can create a rewards program however you want in your own, using your own creativity. So I do like that aspect. All right, I'm gonna put you on the spot. Which of these three startups that we profiled, say you're an investor, you're Andreessen Horowitz, which one do you plug? I go, first of all, not financial advice. That's our disclaimer. But I would actually go with Blackbird just because very experienced founder, knows the space extremely well. And it's something personally that I identify with.

20:28So those are enough boxes checked in my opinion. And for that reason, Toby is in. Okay, let's move on. Welcome back to Neil's Numbers, the segment where I share three stats from the week's news that will help you liven up any dinner party conversation. For the first number, let's head to Singapore, where buying a car is laughably expensive. Just the price of the certificate that gives you the right to own a car has surged to an all-time high of$106 ,000, equivalent to four Toyota Camry hybrids in the U.S. The reason you need to buy a certificate to buy a car is because Singapore, a small city-state that can be driven across in less than an hour, has limited the number of vehicles on the road to less than a million.

21:06This quota and rising demand for vehicles coming out of the pandemic has put owning a car out of reach for most middle-income people. Government subsidized flat in Singapore costs$125 ,000. So it literally costs more to own a car than it does to own a place to live. It is truly crazy to see these numbers out there. And it's not just cars that are expensive in Singapore. The city ranks number one in the most expensive cities in the world, according to the annual report from the Julius Bayer Lifestyle Index. So it is very pricey to live there. And anecdotally, Abby, who's an editor at Morning Brew, used to live in Hong Kong, has heard a lot of people moving back from Singapore to Hong Kong because it's just not affordable at all.

21:43So my second number is 104. That's how old a Chicago woman named Dorothy Hoffner is. And what makes her newsworthy is that she skydived from a plane last weekend, likely setting the Guinness world record for oldest person to skydive. How does a 104 year old even get into skydiving? Well, Dorothy says she's not a thrill seeker, but she is adventurous. Her interest in skydiving began when she developed a friendship with a nurse named Joe at her senior living center in Chicago. Joe mentioned he was going skydiving. And of course, as we all would at 104 years old, Dorothy said, can I come along? Anyway, on Sunday, Hoffner stuck the landing and the company that took her skydiving is talking with Guinness about getting it certified as a world record jump.

22:25Toby, this woman was born in 1918, right after World War I, and she's been around for two global pandemics, the Spanish flu and COVID. That is insane. We talked about blue zones on this show before, Neil, which is places where a disproportionate amount of people live to be an advanced age, maybe skydiving is one of those things that just help you live longer because clearly it's working for Dorothy. When we are 104, the only place we're going to be skydiving is in the metaverse. I am not. Are you into skydiving? No, absolutely not. Yeah, me neither. I'm never doing that. Okay, for my final number, let's talk about the Nobel Prizes that are being announced this week and their relationship with immigration.

23:02Economist Adam Ozmek pointed out that the U.S. has won 75 percent of the Nobel Prizes so far this year in the fields of chemistry, physics and medicine. But that's mainly thanks to immigrants. Without immigrants, the U.S. would have won just 25 percent of those Nobel Prizes. On Tuesday, we talked about Katalin Kariko, who shared the Nobel Prize for pioneering MNRA vaccine research. She immigrated to Philadelphia from Hungary. And yesterday, more immigrants to the United States won Nobel Prizes in chemistry. Three scientists, two of whom moved to the U.S. from France and the Soviet Union, won the prize for discovering what are known as quantum dots, semiconductors so small that the difference between them and a soccer ball is about the same as the difference between a soccer ball and Earth.

23:47Quantum dots have lots of commercial applications, from increasing the resolution of your TV to biomedicine and solar cells. But really the point of this stat is to highlight how effective attracting smart people to your country is as a policy tool. Yeah, it's always one of those things we talk about brain drain from other countries, and we end up benefiting it from the most where the smartest people from around the world often end up in the U.S. And the fact that without the immigrants, we would have only won 25 % of the prizes that we won, truly, truly, it is crazy to see it put that way. All right, Neil, for our last story of the day, let's move on to something near and dear to my heart, and that is the Men's World Cup.