🍫 “Regina George’d” — David calorie controversy. AI’s Brain Fry. Dick’s Sporting madness. +St. Paddy’s Stock Luck

0:28This is Nick. down. Buy or sell, honey. We're making money. Jack, three fantastic stories for today's pod. What do we got on this profit puppy? For our first story, David Barr is accused of having two times more calories and six times more fat than it shows on the label. David. So Jack and I jumped in T-boy style to the rules of nutrition labels, and you are going to be shocked by the details. For our second story, it's AI brain fry. When using AI at work flips from helping to hurting. Turns out there's an exact number of AI tools you should use. Use one too many and you might get dumber. And our third and final story.

1:03Major League Baseball changed one rule about cleats seven years ago. And the result? Little League costs$1 ,100 to play now. And that has tripled one specific stock. And that stock is Dick's Sporting Goods. But Yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Yetis! It smells and tastes like St. Patrick's Day out there. Frank from finance is definitely calling in sick today. K.R. from accounting, turns out her last name is O 'Hennigan. Which means she's probably out of O 'Hennigan's right now. Yeah, with our buddy Timmy. Besties, it is a T-boy tradition that we track your portfolio every St.

1:36Paddy's Day. Because St. Patrick's Day isn't just for the luck of the Irish. It's for the luck of all investors. In fact, March 17th is actually one of the top performing days on the Wall Street calendar. Statistically speaking, St. Paddy's Day is a golden day in the stock market rainbow. Get this. St. Patrick's Day is actually the eighth best performing day of the year for the S &P 500. Out of 252 trading days of the year, St. Patrick's Day is number eight. And over the last 20 years, stocks have risen over 80 % of the time for St. Patrick. And eight of the last nine days, including just last year.

2:08Hey, Liam Neeson, can you add that to your particular set of skills? This St. Patrick's Day stock record, it's got to be in the Guinness Book of World Records thing. Which was also invented over in Ireland. Do you remember what Jim Cramer told us when we interviewed him about the luck of the leprechaun. Oh yeah. Lucky the leprechaun. What was that he told us about? Lucky? He bought Costco stock because of the gold bars. Classic lucky the leprechaun. Besties, this is not financial advice. We just heard Bono say it once. Bono is a yeti. Jack, let's enter his choice. 15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm.

2:39They 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 because we ready to go we can't wait no more so just start the show start the show first a quick word from our sponsor

3:10Top hats, baseball hats, Von Dutch hats. We wear so many hats on this podcast. Honestly, we're not great at all of them. No, we've been avoiding hiring someone to wear those hats instead of us, especially the Von Dutch one, because hiring and training can take forever. Well, proud to say that we are hiring right now at T-Boy, and this is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. Because sponsored jobs posted directly on Indeed are 95 % more likely to report a hire than non-sponsored jobs. So besties spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes, less stress, less time, more results.

3:40When you need the right person to cut through the chaos, this is a job for Indeed-sponsored jobs. And listeners of the show will get a$75 sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves at Indeed.com slash podcast. So just go to Indeed.com slash podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. That's Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. So yet he's Jack's instituted a new business model for his Airbnb hosting. And Jack, what is it? Here it is. Host equals guest.

4:15Yes. I funnel all my revenue from being a host on Airbnb into one bank account and use that same bank account to book travel for myself. And basically it's Jack's host guest bank account for when he hosts and when he's a guest somewhere else. When I lived in the city neck, every time my apartment was available on Airbnb, it would get booked like that. I mean, think about how often are you away from home? You got the bridesmaid, you got the shower, you got the bachelorette, you got the wedding. That's three weekends away just for one wedding right there. Plus, you got to visit your mother. Naturally.

4:44Well, that's a lot of potential hosting that you could be doing on Airbnb. Let someone else stay at your place while you're away. Take that host money and spend it when you're a guest somewhere else. Have a business model like me. If you want to travel more, hosting more is a great way to make it happen financially. Your home might be worth more than you think. You can find out how much at airbnb.com slash host.

5:06For our first story, David Barr is being sued for what we're calling Regina George Gate, having twice the number of calories as advertised on the label. We'll explain the issue with David Barr's nutrition label and why David has come out swinging. Oh, yeah, it is Michelangelo's most famous artwork. It took nearly 500 years to go viral, Jack. In the form of a protein bar. Yeah, David Barr. Basically, you eat this protein and you get perfect abs like a tastefully nude renaissance sculpture. This gold-packaged protein bar is growing extremely fast, like faster than any protein bar has before. Borderline steroid level.

5:42We're talking$100 million in revenue, $725 million valuation, all in less than a year. Because Pilates mamas and crypto bros alike are protein maxing and willing to spend$4 per bar, which is like five times more than if you buy in bulk from Costco, Nick. So naturally, Jack and I interviewed the founder, Peter Rahal, earlier this year. He even sent us a top secret prototype David Bar. And Nick, that prototype bar didn't have a label. I know. Now we know why. Because of the news, a new class action lawsuit that David Bar actually has twice as many calories and six times as much fat. This class action lawsuit alleges that the David Bar doesn't have 150 calories per bar.

6:22It has 270 calories. And And Jack, not two grams of fat, 12 grams of fat. Is the blueberry pie-flavored David bar you and I tried actually just a blueberry pie? One second, Jack. You hear that? It's people crying at the Equinox locker room right now. No, there is a Seinfeld episode about this. The zero-fat frozen yogurt that Jerry and Elena are really into? Yeah, it's really high in sugar, so they gain a bunch of weight. It's also a core plot of the movie Mean Girls, is it not, Jack? Katie gives the alpha plastic Regina George a calteen bar? Yeah, some European protein bar with a nutrition label written in Swedish.

6:58She's duping them to add the pounds. First you bloat, Jack. Then you lose like 10 pounds. Which begs the question, have we all been Regina George-ed over here? We know what you're wondering, Yetis. Is it 150 calories in a bar or 270 calories in the bar? And will Nick and Jack jump in T-boy style for us, please? Well, we did. And the answer is both. It depends what method you use. Follow us on this one. It's fascinating. You see, David Barr explains in a public response to the lawsuit why there is some confusion here. David says that the lawsuit used the BOM calorimeter method, which measures the total heat released from food to get to the calories.

7:32Jack, I was a history major, but could you please whip up the chemistry class takeaway for us over here? One calorie is the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius. So if you use the BOM calorimeter method, yes, you do get 270 calories in a David protein bar. But here's the kicker. The FDA actually allows six different ways to measure the number of calories. And this is where David Barr's secret unpronounceable ingredient, EPG, would come into the formula. I'm going to take a shot at pronouncing EPG. Give it a shot. Esterified, propyloxylated, glycerol.

8:05Sounds like a chemistry econ major over there, Jack. Double major. You see, it's called EPG. It's a proprietary new fat substitute that's actually in the David Bars. And David Barr liked this new ingredient so much, they acquired the company that makes it. That's right. We covered the story last year. The CEO, Peter, actually said, we're taking all the supply of the EPG. And now we understand why. Because like fiber, your body doesn't absorb most of what's in EPG. That's why David Barr wanted a monopoly on EPG. So besties, when David Barr tests calories by a method appropriate for EPG that's approved by the FDA, they get the number 150 calories.

8:42calories. Nick, it's kind of like the breathalyzer test versus the blood test to measure the alcohol on the body. I see where you're going with this, Jack. They both try to get to the same result, but if you just used mouthwash, then the breathalyzer test isn't accurate. And that's kind of like what David's arguing here. But Jack and I noticed from our research that this drama also reveals how food regulations are not as black and white as you thought. Did you know the FDA has a acceptable margin of error that's surprisingly big? Can you tell us about the margin of error, jack 20 yeah you can have 20 more or less calories or fat or whatever it is you're measuring and that's okay so that black and white nutrition label on the back of all our foods it's actually a little bit more colorful than you realize possibly a little bit more caloric so jack what's the you're looking great over there by the way what's the takeaway for our buddies over at david bar this lawsuit is actually an advertisement yeah these we talked about the four A's of crisis management before.

9:36You acknowledge, apologize, act, and then overact. But David has done the opposite. They didn't go on the defense in response to this lawsuit. They went on the offense. Yeah, instead of apologizing, David said they're innocent. The lawsuit is misleading us by using a wrong calculation method. And within 24 hours, they whipped up a commercial mocking all of the rumors about David Barr that are clearly not true. The strategy here, they're trying to reposition the lawsuit as a rumor and undermine the plaintiff's credibility. Now, whether David is found guilty or not in court, to consumers, perception is often reality.

10:07So this could be bad. But Jack, if what David says is true, and even if not totally what they say is true, this is still a net positive for them, we think. This could be a David Barr boost. It could be fantastic marketing as people read about this story, and the public gets educated about this miracle ingredient, EPG, that's only available in the David Barr. It's basically an EPG ad. And you know what? We've seen something similar before with Tesla. The lawsuits about their self-driving issues, they marketed Tesla's self-driving technology. So yet is if what David said about this lawsuit is true, and even if it's not totally true, we actually think it's an advertisement.

10:40It's not a lawsuit. It's an ad, but let us know what you think in the comments. For our second story, AI is a powerful tool, but using too much AI, that'll actually hurt your productivity. Introducing AI Brain Fry. It's the number of projects you can have AI do before AI starts to make you dumber. It's gonna fry that cerebellum. Yeti's AI, you know, think of it like your digital intern, but potentially smarter than you. Not cooler, just smarter. As long as AI doesn't actually take your job, having AI at work sounds pretty awesome. It'll do your boring work you don't wanna do. But Jack, what happens when you got two AIs working for you at the same time?

11:19That's the question that Boston Consulting Group tried to answer with a new study published last week in Harvard Business Review. That's right. They interviewed 1 ,488 full-timers at American companies. Here was their key finding. They found the break-even number of AI assistants that a human worker can oversee before having all those assistants starts to backfire. All right, let's start from the beginning. BCG found that using one AI assistant makes you more productive at work. But yet, if you're like me, you may shuffle between Gemini that's built into your browser and Anthropic, which is right over there, ready to work too.

11:53Well, BCG found that having two AI agents like we do, it makes you even more productive, right, Jack? Although the returns diminished with the addition of the second agent compared to the first. But here's where things get interesting. Adding a third AI agent, like two clods plus a Gemini, makes you even more productive. I mean, three agents, Jack. You're like a maestro at work overseeing the New York Philharmonic whipping up symphonies there. It is pure AI harmony. Except the orchestra members are all AI agents just doing so much work for you while you maestro as the only human. Your numbers are up, your vibes are higher, and Carol from Accounting is calling you in for that promotion, maybe.

12:31But pause the pod. Oh, boy. Because according to this study, adding a fourth AI to your workforce, it's going to backfire. According to this survey, it will actually reduce your productivity adding that fourth AI assistant. And besties, if you've ever managed human beings, you know exactly what we're talking about. Getting stretched. too thin. Think about it. If your day is 100 % assigning and reviewing the work done by your direct reports, you don't have any time to think as a manager. And that's basically what BCG says happens when you hit four AI assistants working for you. Exactly. Basically, the mental effort of babysitting the AI, fact-checking, tweaking the prompts, jumping between windows, it actually makes you less productive.

13:11You're better off having three AIs working for you than four. Otherwise, you're not an AI manager anymore. You're an AI nanny with your hands full. and Claude is crying for your attention. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies curious about brain fry? We each must find our own AI ratio. If not, you'll get AI brain fry. Now, Yetis, we know most of you work at a computer and that means there is an expectation you will be using AI. And as you progress through using your first AI, maybe your second at the same time or several AI agents all working for you, you need to be mindful that there is this limit.

13:46There is a tipping point. It's shocking, but more AI can become counterproductive. And given that AI is already kind of soul-sucking, it would be a shame if you use too much of it. And BCG calls the feeling that you'll get AI brain fry. Yeah, any symptoms we should disclose there, Jack? Yeah, mental fog, headaches, worse decision-making, just a feeling of overwhelming anxiety, too. So the magic number, it's actually different for each person. It depends on how you use AI and for what products you're actually using it for. Across these 1 ,400 workers, it happened to be going from three to four, but it might be a different situation for you.

14:15But as my therapist said, and I've shared with Jack, if you can name it, you can tame it. And this is called AI Brain Fry. Because overseeing too many software agents means you'll lose the connection to your actual work, which will make your work worse, not better. Besties, we each must find our own AI ratio. And if not, you're going to get a bad case of AI Brain Fry. Now, a quick word from our sponsor. NetSuite by Oracle. Yetis, on our show, you know, we love to sprinkle on some content. Because news doesn't mean anything if you don't have a sense of history, the competitive situation, etc. Yada, yada, yada.

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15:21This isn't another bolted on tool. It's AI built into the system that runs your business. So whether your company earns millions or even hundreds of millions, NetSuite helps you stay ahead. If your revenues are at least in the seven figures, get your free business guide, Demystifying AI at netsuite.com slash tboy. The guide is free to use at netsuite.com slash tboy. NetSuite.com slash TBOI. Monarch. When I had student debt, I tracked my progress on an Excel spreadsheet I manually updated each month. Oh, I was Jack a spreadsheet jockey because when he was paying off his student debt, Monarch didn't exist yet.

15:55Well, one year ago, I proudly killed that spreadsheet I'd been building for 12 years. RIP spreadsheet. Because Monarch is a way better solution. All your financial accounts are linked to Monarch. every credit card, checking account, brokerage account, even our mortgages, live balances updated in real time. I'm still paying down my mortgage and Monarch gives me the visibility and tools to do it. You can use it too. Create savings buckets and financial goals in Monarch. Set yourself up for financial success this year. Are you familiar with the Sankey diagram? I had no idea what it was, Jack. Well, once you see it, you can't unsee it.

16:27It's brilliant. And Monarch visually shows you what you're spending. And we did not make up that term. Your investment portfolio, Monarch compares it to the S &P 500 for you. Set yourself up for financial success in 2026 with Monarch, the all-in-one tool that makes proactive money management simple all year long. Use code T-Boy at Monarch.com for half off your first year. That's 50 % off your first year at Monarch.com with code T-Boy. For our third and final story, parents are sporting a thousand bucks a season on their kids' baseball. This, Yetis, this is the Little League Industrial Complex.

17:00Dix loves it, But it all traces back to one rule change made by Major League Baseball seven years ago. Hey, Eddies, you may not know this, but before Jack was a second string backup, high school quarterback, varsity for the second string quarterback, he also happened to play baseball. So what did you treat yourself to this spring, Jack? Well, Wilder, he turns five next month. Sounds like a long story, Jack. What did you treat yourself to? I'm going to be his T-ball coach, dude. So I had to get a baseball glove because I can't find my old one. And statistically speaking, Eddies, if you bought a baseball glove as well, you bought it at Dick's.

17:33Because get this, among the big publicly traded sporting goods companies, Dick's now has 68 % market share. Sit down, stand up, and step up to the plate again. Two out of three mitts, pucks, or cups in America is sold at Dick's Sporting Goods. That's why Dick's has so much cash in their bullpen. They do. They were able to acquire their biggest competitor last year, Foot Locker. They did. Foot Locker. They now make Dick's 50 % bigger revenue-wise, but we should point out, they actually make Dix smaller profit-wise. So this year, Dix is cleaning up all the Foot Locker locations, trying to make them as profitable as the Dix locations are.

18:08Yeah, expect to see some 50 % off Air Jordan sales coming pretty soon. But we should point out, Dix actually faces a bigger demographic problem, don't they, Jack? There's not enough kids. Yeah. And that's a problem for Dix. The whole millennial baby delay, it's messing with Dix bottom line. Get this, the number of American kids under 18 is down from 10 years ago. And you're not buying shin guards when you go to work, it's kids who buy sports equipment. So how has Dix doubled their revenue in the last 10 years, despite Amazon and there being fewer kids to buy sporting goods? I mean, Jack, it's not inventory management, it's gotta be something more exciting than that.

18:44Here it is, Yetis. According to new data from the Aspen Institute, there's a Little League industrial complex that Dix is benefiting from. That's right. Get this. Back in 2019, the average parent dropped$660 on their kid to play baseball each season. But today, the price is up to$1 ,100 to put your kid through baseball. That's nearly twice the cost in just seven years. People are tapping into their 401k to pay for T-ball. That doesn't even include the custom stringing for the lacrosse sticks you're doing on the side, Jack. Well, we're only talking about baseball. I bet lacrosse is way more expensive than that.

19:18No, no. You start with baseball, and then you switch over and start playing lacrosse. I think that's how it works. But yet, where is this huge price hike from baseball coming from? This is crazy. Well, it all started with a rule change passed by Major League Baseball in 2019. You see, seven years ago, pro baseball loosened the rules on cleats that players could wear. They let them add colors. The Major League Baseball Players Association wanted their players to be able to express themselves through their footwear choices, just like basketball players do. And guess what? That rule change that the pros trickled down to the youths.

19:50Today, peewee baseball players look like they're on a catwalk at Paris Fashion Week. Yeah, totally. And when we were kids, Jack, do you want to sprinkle on some context as a former retired baseball player? I had two pieces of baseball equipment, black cleats and a glove. And the glove could only be black or brown. And Nick, I borrowed a bat. Not every player needs to have their own bat. Jack's like, we used to cut down the trees and make the bat out of the wood there we cut down. But today, I went to Dick's last week. Nick, the cleats on the wall looked like a pack of Skittles had spilled everywhere.

20:22There's an ice cream baseball glove. Most of the glove looks like the cone. And then there's like pink ice cream dripping down the glove. And each of these pieces of equipment is actually a fashion accessory that the kids are flexing their personality with. For those not watching on YouTube, Jack's using air quotes. So Jack wants to take away for our baseball buddies over at Dick's. Just like Kevin Costner's classic flick, if you build it, they will come. Or they will spend. You see, Yetis, Dix is actually one of our favorite companies because they're in the business of big, bold bets. We love that.

20:54It's easy to be a hater in the corporate boardroom and not believe that a big investment will pay off in big profits down the road. But for Dix, this started in the 1940s when the OG Dick convinced local businesses to sponsor Little League teams. The OG Dick believed that that would boost participation in baseball and boost sales for the company. And they did. It did. And then in 2016, Dix got techie. they bought an app for live streaming local sports and keeping stats and scores of players. They believed players and families would shop at Dick's more. And they did. Then in 2018, after the Parkland shooting in Florida, Dick's stopped selling firearms.

21:27It was a brave move. They believed leadership in guns would boost the Dick's brand. And it did. Then in 2021, Dick's opened its first house of sport, a huge sports complex store. 150 ,000 square feet. Three times larger than a regular big box store. Rock climbing walls, driving ranges, batting cages. Because Dick's believed becoming a true sports destination would boost sales. And the extra investment paid for itself in less than two years in more sales at those huge locations. Oh, sorry, besties. You want more receipts? You want more proof it all worked? Well, Dick's stock is up 300 % in the last five years, which is three times better than the S &P 500.

22:01Dick's is in the business of big, bold bets. To quote Kevin Costner, if you build it, they will come. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for T-Boy Tuesday? death. David Barr allegedly has twice the calories and six times the fat as on the label, but it might just be a measuring mix-up. Yeah, even though the entire steam room at my Equinox is still crying, Jack, we think that this lawsuit could just end up being an ad. For our second story, it's AI brain fry. Having three AIs makes you feel like a maestro. Having four makes you feel like a nanny. But the break-even ratio is different for every person, so you need to find it to avoid AI brain fry.

22:38And our third and final story, American spending on youth baseball has nearly doubled in seven years. And Dick's is loving it. Dick's biggest strength, making big smart bets and believing they'll pay off. If you build it, they will spend. But besties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. And the Oscar goes to Warner Bros. Bad at making profitable movies, but great at making unprofitable films, Jack. Warner Brothers, the lame duck movie studio, just had its best Academy Awards ever, taking home 11 golden statues. And And second, NVIDIA just held its huge annual computer chip event.

23:13Basically, it's the Coachella for chips. And the CEO, Jensen Wong, said what you'd expect yesterday at their big annual gala of a conference. These numbers are just huge. NVIDIA is expecting$1 trillion in sales of their flagship Blackwell chip and its successor, the Rubin chip. Because their chips aren't just powering AI, they're also powering video games, self-driving cars, probably your laundry machine. And finally, Britta, the pioneer of kitchen water filters, just invested in a bathroom water filter. Showers with built-in filters. Not so that you can drink the water that's coming down out of the shower head, although everyone does that, right?

23:48Yeah, it's to soften the water that hits your skin, which apparently plays a role in eczema and psoriasis. Investors love the filter business, by the way, Yetis, because refills are required forever. Subscripturation. If you know, you know. Now time for the best fact yet, which, because it's T-Boy Tuesday, means an answer to yesterday's trivia question. Yesterday we asked you where the name Brent came from, as in Brent Crude, the international benchmark for oil. So where does the term Brent Crude come from? Is it a person, a place, a bird, or a food? That's what we asked you. Here's the answer.

24:22Brent is named for an oil field in the ocean just off the coast of England. So kind of a place. But back in the 1970s, the custom was to name oil fields, in alphabetical order, after water birds. So the first oil field was called the auk, which is a type of bird. The second oil field found was called the brent, which is a type of goose. And the third oil field found was called a cormorant, also a water-bound bird. So brent oil is named after a water bird. Yetis, you're looking fantastic over there. Jack, you're looking pretty good over there. Are you talking about my old-fashioned baseball skills?

24:58You know, in my day, we didn't wash our face. Face washed us, Jack. Yetis, if you haven't yet, tap to follow us so you get this pod every single day. Plus, following us, subscribing, it helps us grow in the rankings. And Nick and I, we'll see you tomorrow for the best one yet. Getting losers, we're going shopping.

25:19And before we go, a happy ninth birthday to legendary Yeti, Kaya Lee, down in Paso Robles, California. She listens on the way to school with her dad, Corey, and together, they're running the coolest winery south of San Francisco, the Dresser Winery. And happy birthday to Daksa Chowzi in Poon, India. And Taylor Searcy in Windsor, Ontario is dominating the renewable energy industry. Happy 11th birthday to Unhud Singh in Sewanee, Georgia, who just asked his dad for an iPhone so he can listen to T-Boy. And Angel Gonzalez is in Traveler's Rest, South Carolina. He and Kendra were just in our live show in Austin.

25:50Guys, you'll look fantastic. Happy birthday. And happy 11th birthday to Unhud Singh in Sewanee, Georgia. Dad, if you're listening, get this kid an iPhone so he can listen to T-Boy. And Angel Gonzalez in Travelers Rest, South Carolina has got the best birthday yet. He and Kendra were just at our live show in Austin. And guys, you were looking fantastic. Happy birthday to Peter Yasula in Brooklyn, who's also opening two new restaurants in that borough this year. Peter, we can't wait to check him out. And Ted Bell is skiing from Switzerland to Italy for his birthday. Enjoy, Ted, and don't forget the passport.

26:19Happy birthday to Jennifer Yee, who's got a new job and taking a road trip to celebrate. Down the PCH, sorry, up from LA to SF. And Karin Soyan in Palo Alto, California's got the best birthday yet. Happy birthday to Amanda Webb in Raleigh, North Carolina. And Tommy Munsell, we see that first birthday. Enjoy the celebration with the parents in St. Louis. Happy birthday to Super Macaroni, the golden retriever turning four in San Diego. And Jack, shout out to Hunter, legendary Yeti. Ran into him at the farmer's market. He's got his family visiting from Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and Austin. Having the best weekend yet.

26:53This is Jack. I own stock of Netflix, and Nick and I both own ETFs of the S &P 500. over 90 of the top 100 u.s accounting firms trust bill to simplify and secure bill pay that's proven financial infrastructure built on over a trillion dollars of secure payments visit bill.com proven for a special offer