🔧“Blue Collar U”— Zuck’s free college. Starbucks’ afternoon delight. College Football’s QB gambler. +Sleep Divorce

0:28This is Nick. in the name. We convinced them to drop their 21 plus requirement. Same with San Francisco in September. All ages welcome. Grab your tickets. We got them in the episode description. Seattle is our final show in November. That one is 21 plus. They wouldn't budge on that, but we'll find a way to meet the underage yetis in a way before or after. We'll see you at the after party. In the meantime, though, we got three fantastic stories for today's T-Boy. Most interesting show in business, Jack, what have we got in the pod? For our first story, Starbucks turnaround plan depends on winning one hour of the day, and it's 4 p.m.

1:00in the afternoon. 4 p.m. And to win that hour, Starbucks is going Dutch. For our second story, Zuckerberg is donating$115 million to build a blue-collar university. I'm sorry, Jack. Is Zuck entering his philanthropy era? No, he's not, Nick. No, he's not. We'll explain why plumbers are getting a free tuition from Meta. And finally, Texas Tech's quarterback gambled on his own college football games, but was just told by a judge, that's okay. So could the latest college football scandal pop the casino economy? We think it could. But yet is before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Oh, what a mix of stories.

1:37I love the mix. Such a good mix. Millennial couples are staying married more than previous generations, but they're still getting divorced. That's sleep divorced. Sleep divorced. When couples split up to get a good night's sleep. More specifically, choosing to sleep in different bedrooms. Two beds, one couple. Make your honey move to another mattress. Get this, Yetis. 31 % of couples are now sleep divorced. Because sleeping alone in a king-size bed? Oh, you just woke up to an all-time high. Mattress brands love this trend. They saw an 18 % jump in couples buying two beds last year. Jack Architects love this trend.

2:13They're being commissioned to draw another room for significant others. Not the master bedroom. Not the primary bedroom. The snore bedroom. sleep divorce. It's influencing real estate now. Because Jack, nothing ruins a good night's sleep quite like the person you love. Apparently. 3 a.m. bathroom break again. Are you thinking Goodwill Hunting? I'm thinking Goodwill Hunting. I mean, Robin Williams finds it adorable that his wife farted next to him and woke him up and woke the dog up too. Full disclosure, Jack, I am not sleep divorced, but I did almost get served sleep divorce papers. Yeah. You wake up at 5 a.m., which is before Molly, right?

2:49Yeah, so Molly told me I had to get a Fitbit watch to, like, vibrate to wake me up. No more alarm clock. Anybody who's seen The Crown knows that Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip famously kissed each other goodnight in the hallway. Because besties, eight hours of solo sleep, that is royal. So we got a poll going on Spotify right now. That's right, sleep divorce. Are you filing those papers? And are you doing it with a lawyer or doing it solo? Jack, let's hit our three. 15 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 the norm Jack Nick, that's it I don't even think they need to practice 50%, that's a fat tip T-Boy City on your at list If you know, you know, cause we ready to go We can't wait no more, so just start the show

3:42Start the show Start the show First, a quick word from our sponsor.

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6:03For our first story, Starbucks is obsessed with one hour out of the day, and that hour is 4 p.m. The blended refresher is Starbucks' shot at Dutch Bros. Oh, it's the afternoon delight strategy. But besties, before we get into this story, if you're listening to us in the gym right now, look over to your left at the treadmills. What are you going to see, Jack? That gym rat's not holding a water bottle. They're sporting a Starbucks on that elliptical. Get this. Last week, Starbucks launched a weighted vest. True story. It holds five pounds of iron weights and has a built-in pouch for, what do you put in there, Nick?

6:38Jack, that would be the Starbucks new ready-to-drink protein coffee can. Okay. What's next, Starbucks? A shake weight? Jack, why is Starbucks so thirsty to look swole these days? Well, that's because of seven straight quarters of falling sales. That's why. That's right. Sales shrank for Starbucks each quarter since 2024. But last month, Starbucks returned to their caffeinated era. by announcing that sales rose 9 % in the first quarter, sending the stock up 16 % so far this year. Because newish CEO Brian Nichol has transformed Starbucks into, as we see it, an energy drink chain. That's because Starbucks' top rival isn't Darlene at Dunkin' anymore, it's Dutch Bros, where one quarter of the drinks are energy.

7:20Sorry, Darlene, hold the munchkins. So Starbucks is doubling down on the one drink keeping this chain young, the refresher. It's the refresher since 2012. The refresher has been Starbucks' fastest growing drink. The refresher. It's LaCroix and Jamba Juice had a baby, but nobody's 100 % sure who the father is. Yeah, you're like checking the paternity test. It's not iced tea. It's not juice. Uh, okay. But it's not soda, energy drink, or seltzer either. What is a refresher? Refresher is like an emotion, you know? It's just hard to describe, man. Pro tip, don't get the zero sugar refresher because that's even more unknown what's in there.

7:56But sales of the Refresher have been surging Thanks to 16 to 35-year-old women Looking for their afternoon pick-me-up The afternoon sweet treat So the Refresher It is now the second best-selling beverage Behind espresso drinks at Starbucks Sorry, Matcha The Refresher is the new fetch It's also the new profit puppy Because it's doing 2 billion bucks in sales this year Jack, could you sprinkle on some context, please? The Refresher at Starbucks Does more annual sales than TripAdvisor Yes Than Wendy's Wow And then Papa John's Pizza And for that reason This summer, Starbucks is shifting the spotlight from the Frappuccino to the refresher.

8:29Like the film studios changing their lead actor that they're betting the studio on. For example, Starbucks is turning their top-selling refresher flavor into a grocery store bottle. Ready to drink 40-ounce strawberry acai lemonade refreshers. And then on July 17th, they're launching frozen refreshers. They're pouring that thing into a blender and adding some ice. Yes way, frozen. Hey, Jack, are you seeing the Hollywood analogy here now? Nicole Kidman is the ice latte of this analogy. Right. Sidney Sweeney is the blended mango dragon fruit lemonade energy refresher of this analogy. Caffeine free for Jack's order, please.

9:02Because as a Starbucks executive told Business Insider, if it's not visually compelling and physically stimulating, Starbucks won't sell it. Because as Dutch Bro shows us, drinks are actually just social media accessories. The more radioactive it looks in there, the better. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Starbucks? The afternoon delight strategy is working. E-86 months ago on this podcast, at the very beginning of the year, we went to Starbucks' Investor Day. We got a special invite. It was really cool. The CEO told us his New Year's resolution, that by the end of the year, you would regularly visit Starbucks at four o 'clock, 4 p.m.

9:38He wants your hangry happy hour. And the reason? Well, because of a problem. Starbucks only makes$11 billion in revenue after 11 a.m. That's just a third of their revenue, but it's half of the open hours. So Starbucks' New Year's intention was to change from an AM company to an AM and PM company. Yeah, we noticed they said the word afternoon 13 times on their earnings call. And it's working, because 4 PM is now the fastest growing hour of sales at Starbucks. And it's all thanks to their fastest growing beverage, the refresher. So now they're doubling down with their new non-coffee energy drink, the blended refresher.

10:13Besties had it all up, and there are only three main meals in a day, but Starbucks is turning a sweet treat urge into a$7 splurge. Six months into the year, the data is showing it's working. Starbucks stock is up on Afternoon Delight.

10:29For our second story, Zuck is splurging$115 million to launch Blue Collar University. Plumbers and electricians educated for free. Zuck's building you a school, so you'll let him build the data center. All right, Jack. Iconic lyrics here that your son who's about to graduate from preschool probably knows. I've been working on the railroad all the live long day. You know, Yeti, it's funny. Nick and I have a rule. We're not allowed to sing on the pod because it's always cringe when we do. Never works. No podcaster can pull it off. So that railroad song Nick just read, it was first written in 1894.

11:081894. And the way we see it, every generation has built the physical backbone of its economic era, beginning with those railroads. Loosely speaking, the Gilded Age built the railroads, the Best Generation built the highways, the Boomers built Telecom, and Gen X built Fiber. Congratulations, got a shout out, Gen X. Oh, millennials, by the way. Yeah, we're the workforce building the data centers, but we're short of the workers we need to do it. Get this, there are nearly 3 ,000 data centers under construction or in development across America right now. What do we need, man? But whip open the hoarder's almanac because we are short 350 ,000 to 500 ,000 blue-collar workers to build those data centers.

11:45We're talking electricians, fiber optic technicians, welders, plumbers, Larry the Cable Guy. We had a shortage of those trades before AI, Jack. But now with AI, billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg are financially motivated to fix that shortage. So here's what we find fascinating. Facebook's founder is now going full Horace Mann mode. Mark Zuckerberg announced on Monday he's launching a free academy with a$115 million founding endowment. America's Workforce Academy. They accept just about anyone and it's all for free. There's no prior experience required and META will fly you to the campus and provide housing and paid tuition for the five weeks of training.

12:25SAT, Schmess, SAT. They even give you a stipend to pay for your meals if you're at this school. It's an all expenses paid, not vacation, train-cation. Yeah, like if you didn't get into your top choice on the Common App this year, this could be your gap year, Jack. Although you're not going to get Greek life, you're going to get Grok life. Because the whole point is to train people to build the physical data centers that power our AI. Now, Jack and I jumped in T-boy style, and the website of Zuck's New School does not show kids playing Frisbee or diverse students reading books together. No, it shows very diverse men and women wearing hard hats and safety goggles because they're building stuff.

13:03That's right. Graduates of this school will have a credential that Meta says is highly marketable in this jobs market. And a guaranteed job building one of Zuck's data centers. By the way, no requirement to work for Meta, interestingly. Yeah, it's not like they're going to rescind your certificate or your scholarship money or anything if you work for somebody else. This ain't McKinsey who pays for you to go to business school and then like makes it come back for 42 years. No, it seems pretty generous from Zuckerberg. And the message he's trying to land here is that the future of AI is for everybody.

13:30That AI isn't just good for the venture capitalists. It's not just going to turn millionaires into billionaires. And honestly, Yetis, the best ROI in terms of degrees right now might not be a computer science degree. It's probably a trade license. Yeah, for a lot of high school grads with training in the trades, they can get AI-proof jobs or build data centers for meta. So Zuckerberg, he's providing seed funding for a free university out of the goodness of his heart. Oh, Jack, what's the athletic department going to be called, by the way? I don't know. The Swipers. Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Instagram building data center schools.

14:05This is the start of AI's hearts and minds campaign. Yeti's Zuck is not UNICEF. No, he is not. He doesn't see the world as populated by people, but populated by customers. This is the same guy who mandated that all employees train AI that will soon replace them. Awkward. So Zuck is launching America's Workforce Academy to gain political support. That's what this is all about. Think of the$115 million university endowment as a$115 million lobbying commercial. And Jack, how do we know all of this? Because America's workforce academy is launching in the same states that he needs local approval to build his next data centers.

14:46The campuses are in Indiana, Louisiana, Ohio, and Texas. And in each of those states, as well as the other 46 states for that matter, data center hate is real. Yeah, the hate wave. Seven out of 10 Americans are opposed to data centers, not in my backyard. They see AI as the reason for job losses, for electricity price pops, and for water resources becoming depleted. So besties, when Zuck says the future is for everybody, he means it. He just needs everybody's local zoning board to agree. Yeah, can you just sign here, here, here, and here? And initial here, yeah, you can date right there. This is the start of AI's Hearts and Minds campaign.

15:20And sign right here. Now, a quick word from our sponsor.

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17:37Netsuite.com slash tboy. For our third and final story, it is not even college football season, and yeah, we got college football drama. Two schools are refusing to play against Texas Tech in any sport. Because their$5 million quarterback committed the worst sin in sports. Not a good look. And this whole thing could bust the casino economy. But Jack, as a quarterback in a backup position right now, looking at this story, could you please share the hero stat with our audience? Let me just open with Vegas left, East Canes on two, on two, ready break. And hot, hot, hike. College football is the second most popular sport in America behind only the NFL.

18:19That's right. College football has passed college lacrosse as the second biggest sport in America. I'm going to let that go without a fact check. I appreciate that, Jack. Yetis, but to understand the complete transformation of college football in recent years, look at the quarterback, Brendan Soresby. Brendan Soresby, the transfer portal nomad. This season, quarterback Brendan Soresby will suit up for his third college football team. First, he was on Indiana. Then he was on Cincinnati. Now he's on Texas Tech. And get this. When he transferred from the University of Cincinnati to join Texas Tech, Cincinnati sued him.

18:55Why is that, Jack? Because he didn't pay the$1 million exit fee that is now a part of college sports. But he can afford it because Texas Tech paid Brendan a record$5 million NIL deal to become a Red Raider. Okay, so this guy has had five seasons at three different schools. He's paid$5 million this year as a college athlete, and he's being sued because he didn't pay exit fees. All of these elements are unheard of in like what used to be amateur college football. Rudy right now, not a fan of the situation. But this story reveals another sign of the changing times in athletics. It reveals the sport eruption.

19:32Because when this man was 18 years old as a freshman in Indiana, he wagered$90 ,000 on legal sports betting apps. And he just completed rehab to treat his diagnosed gambling addiction. It's a wild, dramatic storyline. And the star is a quarterback who's on the preseason list to win the Heisman Trophy this year. And now there have been more twists and turns that'll break your ankle. But here's another one. We just learned that he gambled on his own games while a freshman at Indiana. Jack, to sprinkle on some context, gambling on your own game is the greatest sin of sports. The first commandment of athletics is thou shalt never bet on thyself.

20:10It's number one. The baseball player Pete Rose did it, and he got banned from his sport forever. Pete Rose is not in the Hall of Fame. He wasn't even allowed to attend a baseball game as a fan after he got in trouble for betting. So now the NCAA has banned quarterback Brandon for life. He could go to the NFL draft, but his prospects will be hurt. Is it cliche, Nick, to say that this story actually gets even wilder? On Monday, a judge in Texas ruled that the NCAA actually can't ban him from playing college football. That's right. A temporary injunction. The NCAA will appeal. But this was shocking news, like a legal concussion.

20:45Yet his players have been indicted and banned by multiple sports in recent years for rampant insider sports betting. We've talked about it on the pod. Yeah, Jack, but this is the first time a known violator will be allowed to keep playing. He just gets suspended for a couple games. Pete Rose died in 2024, still banned, still not in the Hall of Fame of baseball. Meanwhile, QB Brendan Soresby will be back on the field sipping Gatorade before Labor Day. So Jack, Blue 42, Blue 42, hut, hut, what's the takeaway for all our buddies looking at the biggest scandal in college football? This could not be the straw, but the dollar that breaks the camel's back.

21:22Yeti, Jack and I have called this the casino economy. It's understandable to feel a little bit jaded because every rule and every sport kind of looks like it's getting broken right now. Even when corruption does get caught, too often it's not being punished anyway. But, Jack, we got two huge schools here that have taken a stand. The University of Georgia and Nebraska, they're refusing to play Texas Tech in the future. Those two universities are calling what happened this week a disgrace. And they say that if this betting quarterback gets to play, the integrity of the game is at risk. See, college football, it is a huge profit puppy, but everyone, except maybe the Texas Tech fans, they hate the precedent that's getting set here.

21:58That players can bet against their own team and then get away with it with just a two-game suspension. Oh, and the NCAA, they're now powerless to enforce the rules in college football, so maybe, just maybe, the market can regulate itself. If more schools turn against Texas Tech, or if enough fans turn against college football, the sport could clean itself up. Schools, conferences, or Congress, they could create and actually enforce the rules if, for no other reason, than we're talking about a$65 billion industry at stake. This quarterback could have bet the dollar that breaks the camel's back.

22:30Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for some VJ Wednesday? Starbucks stock is up 16 % as the refresher becomes their franchise player. The goal, get you in Starbucks at 4 p.m., the old afternoon delight strategy. For our second story, Meta is launching America's Workforce Academy. Basically, it's blue-collar you. The AI industry and Zuck are launching a hearts and minds campaign. And our third and final story is Georgia and Nebraska. They're refusing to play Texas Tech because of a gambling scandal. But this could mark the top of the casino economy trend. But besties, this pod's not over yet.

23:03Here's what else you need to know today. First, stocks dropped Tuesday after Iran shot down an American military helicopter. In response, yesterday evening, the U.S. launch strikes against Iran. U.S. pilots are safe and uninjured, but the ceasefire, it is not. Although oil and gas prices have been pretty chill recently. We're still down like 25 % from the May highs. And second, Vail Resorts just gave us the update on your spring break. Worst party in spring break history, Jack. Because of the lack of snow out west this year, revenue in the second quarter for Vail fell by$90 million. Your spring break mashed potatoes melted a little early.

23:38Oh, especially in Colorado, right, Jack? Tougher in Colorado. The bad season last year has put a freeze on season pass buying for next year. Okay, so the play for 2026, it was spring break in Cabo, not Colorado. And finally, Alamo Drafthouse's controversial phone policy at movie theaters. It's actually paying off. Now, sprinkling on some context, besties, movie theaters are the one place where phones are completely taboo. Can't pull them out. But at this Sony-owned movie theater chain, Alamo Drafthouse, you can order food on your phone and they will bring it to your seat. They're now encouraging it, which people were worried about, but it's paying off, right, Jack?

24:12Well, it's paying off in terms of revenue. Although the guy sitting behind you is still pretty irked about it. Yeah, hey, hey, buddy, hey, buddy, hey, buddy, look, just turn it down, bro. Not only is the box office up this year, so are food and beverage sales for Alamo Draft House. Now time for the best fact yet. This one is a correction sent in by Brian Woolert from lovely Virginia. Yesterday, we said that Prada was going to be the first official brand up on the moon. But, Shaq, we got to change that to first official fashion brand on the moon. Because the first brand was Omega, the watch company.

24:44Yeah, you see, in 1965, NASA noticed all its astronauts were using that same watch made by Omega in the training. So they struck a deal for the Apollo 11 astronauts to have Omega watches on their wrists. The Omega Speedmaster. It became the first NASA-certified watch for moon voyages, causing a boost in watch sales over the next few years. It's a perfect example of the takeaway we had from yesterday. It's frontier marketing. It's Frontier Marketing. If it works up there, it'll sell down here. Jack, you look fantastic over there. Yetis, you are glowing too, especially if you're coming to one of our final live shows.

25:17We got a link in the episode description to buy our tickets for Boston, San Francisco, or Seattle. Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, snag your tickets now before they go. We're almost sold out in Boston already. Our shows are Wednesday nights. They start at 7.30. Perfect after dinner date night. Plus the after party. Oh, by the way, the San Francisco show is at the Palace of Fine Arts. Even if you don't know what that is, just listen to the title of that venue. Hope to see you IRL, but if not, we'll see you tomorrow for the best one yet. So good night, sleep tight, and please sleep in your own bed tonight.

25:51And before we go, a happy birthday to legendary Eddie Julian Smith of lovely Los Angeles, turning 23, celebrating on a boat in the Pacific. Happy birthday to Sherry Scott in Brooklyn, celebrating with the New York Knicks. And Keegan Richardson, the commercial insurance wizard of Washington, has the best beard yet and a birthday. Happy 10th birthday to Matthew Conway in Excelsior, Minnesota. And Chris Merchandani is celebrating the birthday on the bench press in London, England. And Ruina Zhang and Richard Hugh, happy three-year wedding anniversary in New York. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-boy.

26:25Celebrate the wins.

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27:32How do you get the protein in the colostrum?