👙 “SummerHouse VC” — Paige DeSorbo’s exit. US/China trade dud. Heinz’s breakfast ketchup.

0:00This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Thursday, the new Friday, June 12th. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Well, well, well, well, well, have we got a surprise tonight? Jack, we are going to the oldest restaurant in San Francisco history. We could write a whole travel guidebook for San Francisco just based on the restaurants you've brought me to. All right, so this one, Jack, this one is older than the Gold Rush. It goes back to 1849. Seriously? Yeah, it does. What's it called? They've been aging steaks since before California was a state.

0:37What's it called? It's so old, they don't even have a name. That's not true. Okay, it's called Tadich Grill. It's called Tadich Grill. Jack, we got three stories to hit first, though, for today's pod. What's on the show? For our first story, the U.S. and China just announced the biggest trade deal of the year. But stocks actually fell yesterday, and that tells us everything. Spoiler, it's not a trade deal. Yeah. It's a trade dud. For our second story, Heinz just declared that ketchup is for breakfast. They're even selling ketchup out of a maple syrup jug. Because over the last 100 years, when Heinz changes their bottle, people buy more.

1:12And our third and final story is Paige DeSorbo. The reality TV star is leaving Summer House after seven years to start her own company. Because Bravo TV is the new Y Combinator. Send this episode to a giggler. Yeah, if you know, you know. But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories Oh, what a mix of stories for the real Friday, the new Friday, Jack It's Thursday, the new Friday Ask your buddy where they're going for the weekend Hiking, biking, maybe a little bit of R &R with a 60-minute massage on the side How about a darkness retreat? Ah, darkness retreats, a 24-hour immersion in total darkness Get this, the trendy new thing techies are doing are darkness retreats Because to seek enlightenment, you must eliminate the light According to the techies.

1:58Yetis, darkness retreats create cabins that are totally cut off from any form of light. I guess, Jack, it's kind of like an extreme blackout curtain if you have a kid. Yeah, but instead of a noise machine like with your two-year-old, darkness retreats are silent. We're talking several days, alone in a room, complete darkness and silence. Sounds horrifying. It does count for you. I mean, I don't know if I could spend that much time with just my thoughts. Well, Jack, we should point out they do still feed you three meals a day through a latch door. But you can't see what you're eating. No. Like, is that a carrot or is that a sausage?

2:30Good luck. Now, shocker, the latest promoter of darkness retreats is actually a crypto exec. We can't stop talking about it on Twitter. He was supposed to actually spend four days in a darkness cabin. What happened? He quit after the first day. Yeah. Here's how he put it. What did he say, Jack? Here's how he describes it, Nick. Terrifying shadows gnawing at my soul, sleep paralysis demons, and an inability to breathe. Excuse me, waitress. Cancel my darkness retreat order. Based on that review, I think the darkness retreat trend may end as quickly as it began. The night, it really is darkest just before the dawn.

3:04Literally. If you know what's in our three stories. Fifteen years before this song, two boys from the northeast met in a 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. Fifty percent, 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.

3:33Start the show. Start the show. Start the show. First, a quick word from our sponsor.

3:43Monarch. Yetis, did you guys get that grandma check for your birthdays growing up? A white letter envelope stuffed inside a wonderful handwritten card. Great penmanship. Great penmanship. Oh, I just wish I'd had a way to add all those checks up or track them or store them in a piggy bank. If I had Monarch as a kid, I would have known my account balances and watched them grow in probably a savings account before splurging on something awesome to treat myself. Because Monarch is the money app that we'd always wish we'd had. And when I say something awesome, I mean like a bunch of free spots probably.

4:10Using Monarch today, we know how much our money was going to taxis or it could have gone to scooters and subways instead. With all your accounts securely linked to Monarch, it's like having a financial advisor in your pocket and on your computer. with weekly AI recaps to update you on your spending spikes that you definitely ignored. And while most apps tell you only what you've already spent, Monarch helps you set future spending goals. It's the kind of money app that your grandma would have loved with all her heart. Write your own money story with Monarch. Use code tboy at monarch.com to get your first year of Monarch or half off at just 50 bucks.

4:39That's 50 % off your first year at monarch.com with code TBOI. Him's hair. Yetis, you're looking at a photo of yourself from five years ago and you quote George Costanza. I think it moved. We're not talking about that though. You're talking about your hairline. Because millions of guys deal with hair loss, including most of the males in Jack's family. No offense taken. But HIMSS makes doing something about it simple. Prescription treatment to regrow thicker, fuller hair all online with no waiting rooms. Getting started is simple. You answer a few questions online and connect with a licensed provider who determines if treatment is right for you.

5:10If prescribed, HIMSS hair regrowth products ship right to your door. No pharmacy trips, no insurance necessary. If this product existed during the summer of George, there'd probably be a tenth season of Seinfeld. Ready to regrow your hair? Start your free online visit today at HIMSS.com slash tboy for personalized care. From hair to ED to weight loss and more. That's HIMSS.com slash tboy. HIMSS.com slash tboy. Individual results may vary. Feature products include compounded drug products, which the FDA does not approve or verify for safety, effectiveness, or quality. Prescription required. Prices vary based on product and subscription plan.

5:42See website for full details, restrictions, and important safety information. For our first story The US and China have reached a trade deal But it looks more like a trade dud Because here's the inconvenient truth China's rare earth metals are now calling the shots They're infinity stones Now Yeti's Jack and I were getting breakfast yesterday We were preparing for today's show, our headline hammer And we noticed this confusing sentence from the Wall Street Journal It was the first sentence they used to describe President Trump's announced trade deal on Wednesday. Jack, may I read it for you, please?

6:19Okay, here we go. The U.S. deal with China to revive their trade truce is done. Sorry, a deal to revive a trade truce? Is that a trade deal? Can you please whip up a translation for us over there, Jack? That is not a trade deal. No, it's not. Basically, what Trump announced yesterday is a return to the de-escalated status quo they reached last month with China. Oh, yeah, it is. If the U.S. and China did have a trade deal, that would be like Christmas in June, a kumbaya moment. Stocks would have surged. Instead, the three-day stock rally reversed on Wednesday. The S &P 500 ended up down. Basically, Wall Street was unimpressed.

6:55The trade deal looked more like a trade dud. So, Nick, what are the details of this, and I quote, handshake for a framework to revive the trade truce? Doesn't sound like a trade deal. Well, most importantly, we should point out, tariffs are going to remain quite high on China. Trump announced on his social media platform, 55 % tariffs on everything we import from China. Now, at least we do get some certainty as part of this negotiation. Right. The Commerce Secretary pledged that tariffs on China will not change from this 55 % level. So even though U.S. consumers will have to pay more for made-in-China stuff, Trump is calling this truce a win.

7:33Because China gets 55 % tariffs, we only get 10 % tariffs. There's another reciprocal about that. And besties, we should also let you know that there are other provisions included on the truce worth caring about. Chinese students are going to get visas again to attend U.S. universities. And American companies are going to get rare earth metals from China again to start making fancy stuff. And that part's key. Yes, it is. Because rare earth metals are critical to every electronic product. Okay, we're talking iPhones to MRIs, EVs to fighter jets. they all have pounds, in some cases, of rare earth metals.

8:06The VIP of the periodic table of elements is rare earth metals. Yes, they are. And China has a rare earth metal monopoly. They control up to 90 % of the market for rare earth metals and rare earth magnets. Scandium, a rare earth metal? It's like the George Clooney of minerals. That thing is rare and that thing is hot. And you can only find it in China. Unlike George Clooney, though. Now, last month, China actually cut off access to American companies for rare earth metals. And what happened exactly, Jack? Just one example. Ford had to shut down a factory that was making Ford Explorers because they couldn't make them without rare earth metals.

8:41We repeat, you couldn't drive a Ford Explorer brand new off a lot because of the rare earth metal ban from China. So this trade truce at least gives us back the rare earth metals. Well, funny thing about that, Jack. What's the takeaway for our buddies looking at the U.S.-China trade deal? China has the infinity stones of this battle, the rare earth metals. Yetis, this truce that Trump just announced is actually subject to President Xi of China's approval before it happens. And six months after Trump announced that truce, President Xi added one huge condition. Get this, the export of rare earth metals from China to America will expire after six months.

9:25That one detail is going to leave the U.S. on edge. It's freaky. And it also reminds us that China has huge leverage in this trade war. Right, because, Jack, our trump card was high-end AI chips made by NVIDIA. But actually, China started to develop their own high-end AI chips. Meanwhile, their trump card is rare earth metals we use in our electronic stuff. And we can't develop those, at least not for five or ten years. That's why we think of rare earth metals like infinity stones, those magnificent, powerful objects from all the Marvel superhero movies. And the Thanos in this analogy is China.

10:01So besties, America just announced a return to a trade truce with China. But China retains the infinity stones in this battle, the rare earth metals. For our second story, Heinz just officially announced that ketchup is for breakfast. and they put ketchup in a maple syrup bottle. There's a lot of strategy behind it, but if you put ketchup on your scrambled eggs, you're gonna feel liberated. We got your back. But yet it is, Jack and I actually did this wild 45-minute deep dive episode on Heinz ketchup on the best idea yet. 57 varieties, the 57 numbers made up. Yeah, yeah, it's just like the founder's lucky number.

10:43How wild is that? Well, Henry Heinz was actually a pioneer of food safety because his work with bottled ketchup actually led to the creation of the FDA. But get this, besties. 150 years after ketchup conquered your corn dog, hot sauce is eating up its market share. Chalula, sriracha, the YouTube show Hot Ones, they're all booming, and it's making Heinz shrink. We jumped into the earnings over here. Kraft Heinz suffered six straight quarters of sales shrinkage because of this hot sauce attack on your ulcers. So Heinz has a solution to revive ketchup sales. They're not changing the product. They're changing the perception.

11:20Here's the news. Heinz has created breakfast ketchup. Actually, it's the same ketchup, but it now comes in a glass maple syrup bottle. And it says breakfast ketchup on the label. And they're doing this because you are more likely to use hot sauce than ketchup on your eggs. So Heinz is trying to change the narrative. Ketchup wants to eat back tummy share from hot sauce, and they're doing so on your omelet. Although, side note here, Jack, I gotta put this out there. Ketchup is a PM product. You don't eat in the morning. You got to eat at p.m. afternoon. Of course I agree with you. But there's actually a bigger story here on Heinz selling ketchup in a glass maple syrup jug.

11:57Yeah, it is. Jack and I found some wild numbers here. The Heinz ketchup bottle, it is iconic, right, Jack? That classic one you see at restaurants, it's so iconic that Andy Warhol painted it. But we discovered that in the last 25 years, each time Heinz has changed the bottle, it's led to a sales surge. Sit down, stand up, and sit back down. Or again, Yetis. In 2001, Heinz introduced the Upside Down Squeeze Bottle. It was inspired by shampoo, and it was an obvious move for ketchup. The result? A 25 % pop in Heinz sales. Because you don't have to pound the glass bottle like an ape anymore to get some ketchup to fall out.

12:35You can pop it out like it's conditioner. Boom. Then in 2015, Heinz introduced the bigger bottle. They replaced the 24-ounce bottle of ketchup with a 32-ounce. Yeah, here's their discovery. People consumed more ketchup if they were using a bigger bottle. The big bottle symbolizes abundance, and the consumer subconsciously just puts more on their burger. You're like indulging by drinking your burger instead. So the two times Heinz has changed their ketchup bottle, it has meaningfully boosted ketchup sales. Now they're going for a hat trick with this maple syrup glass ketchup jug. This time, they're shooting for ketchup and pancakes.

13:10No, I'm putting it on pancakes. Yeah, you're right, you're right. That is actually a intestinal food crunch. I apologize. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Heinz? Sometimes demand just needs permission. Permission granted. Now, yeah, hot sauce on eggs is socially acceptable, but many consider ketchup on eggs to be a social sin. Anthony Bourdain once asked President Obama about putting ketchup on eggs. Here was his response. Trey, let's roll the tape. Is ketchup on a hot dog ever acceptable? No. No, I mean that. That's one of those things like, well, let me put it this way. It's not acceptable past the age of eight.

13:48But actually, a solid 25 % Americans do just that. They put ketchup on their eggs. And they are a silent but large demographic. Maybe there are even more closeted ketchup and eggs lovers who are afraid to reveal themselves. I think what you're saying, Jack, is Heinz is now giving latent lovers of ketchup on eggs permission to dump ketchup on that frittata. That's what I'm saying. That's right. Heinz's maple syrup jug, yeah, it won't increase sales because new bottles increase sales. It'll increase sales because it flips the narrative on ketchup at breakfast. From shame to pride. Ketchup? It's a breakfast food.

14:23Permission granted. Now, a quick word from our sponsor.

14:32Hi, it's me, your gutters. I want to start by saying I'm fine. Everything is totally fine. And there's just, there's a lot of debris up here. And I've been managing it mostly on my own for about eight months now. And I just thought maybe you could find someone on Angie to clean me up. You don't have to make it a whole thing. It doesn't need to be a whole thing. I just, I could really use your help. Your gutters have waited long enough. Find a pro at Angie.com. Therapy's biggest impact doesn't show up in some dramatic breakthrough. It shows up in the smallest moments. You bite your tongue instead of escalating.

15:11You put your phone down instead of firing off that text. You say what you actually mean instead of what would hurt someone else the most. Nobody applauds those moments, but they quietly change your life. That's what growing feels like. And that's exactly what Grow Therapy is here for. Grow is therapy that works, covered by insurance. Sessions average$21 with insurance and some pay as little as$0 depending on their plan. There are no subscriptions, no long-term commitments. You just pay per session. Grow connects you with thousands of high-quality licensed therapists across the U.S. offering both virtual and in-person sessions nights and weekends.

15:51You can search by what matters, like insurance, specialty, identity, or availability. And you can book a therapy session in minutes and begin in as little as two days, not the national 48-day average. See if you could pay as little as$0 for therapy in seconds at growtherapy.com slash ACAST. That's growtherapy.com slash ACAST. growtherapy.com slash ACAST. Availability and coverage vary by state and insurance plan.

16:25For our third and final story, Bravo's top program right now is Summer House, but its star, Paige DeSorbo, is leaving the show. She's leaving to launch a company because Bravo is the new Y Combinator. All right, Jack, what is the biggest word if you're 26 years old and you're living in New York City right now? Share, as in share house. As in, whose Hamptons share are you doing this weekend? Are you going out east this weekend? The share house in the Hamptons. It is the right of a young professional's passage to pay for one ninth of a three-bedroom house in the Hamptons from June to mid-August.

17:03This is Jack. I once got a half share for one weekend, one summer at a share house. Yeah, can you translate what a half share is? It means you sleep on the couch. Yeah. And you still pay like 12 grand for it. Well, yet is that is the plot of Bravo Show Summer House. Ten hot people work in New York City from Monday through Friday and then come out to the Hamptons to a share house each weekend. Yes, Jack. You could say this is like a premium version of the Jersey Shore, right? Except more rosé and you get to cut the line at the surf lodge. And the same cast members return each year. So you get to know them and you see them evolve over almost a decade now.

17:35And this is a hit show. Season nine, which is what we're currently in, is getting 2.2 million viewers per episode. Jack, can you sprinkle in some context? That's the same ballpark as the most popular shows on HBO. She wore shoulder pads to the beach. Of course she knew she was getting engaged. And the best part for Bravo, Game of Thrones cost$20 million to produce each episode. But reality TV stars basically work for free. Yeah, the biggest cost to Bravo is the summer house itself. Yeah. Which they're not booking a half share of like me. It probably doesn't even have Wi-Fi. But here's the news.

18:10Yeah, it is. The star of the show, Paige DeSorbo, is leaving after seven years. She's pivoting to profits. Paige has the most followers of any current cast member. The only Summer House alum with more followers is Hannah Berner. And Hannah and Paige happen to be besties and co-hosts of a hit podcast as well called The Giggly Squad. The Gigglers just sold out Radio City two nights in a row. Giggly Squad's book just came out and is a New York Times bestseller. And now, this week, Paige DeSorbo launched a sleepwear line called Daphne. But basically, it looks like Paige is following in Kim Kardashian's reality TV to fashion footsteps.

18:47Because we support a woman in the arts. Interestingly, Paige has focused in on the pajama vertical. And that strategy stood out to Jack and I because it's actually rooted in seven years of strategic authenticity. Paige embraced being a bed bug on the show. She has brunch at two o 'clock and she's still wearing her pajamas. Yeah, she's been doing it for seven seasons. Oh, and then she expanded her brand a couple years ago into pajama-themed parties, which she calls Snooze Fest. She used 85 episodes of The Summer House Show to cultivate her bed bug lifestyle. It's truly who she is, and so is this new brand, Daphne.

19:21So she launched Daphne today for this lifestyle, but it really goes back to like 2018. Daphne is a pajama and sleepwear company, and Daphne is also the name of her cat. Who also sleeps in bed with her. It's her cuddle buddy. It's all part of the brand. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over on Summer House? Bravo is the new Y Combinator. Yeti's Bethany Frankel from Real Housewives of New York, she launched Skinny Girl Margarita and then sold it for$100 million. She started a trend. Kyle Cook, another Summer House castmate, launched Loverboy Spike T, which is now doing$40 million in sales.

19:58In fact, according to Variety, 14 Real Housewives have now launched consumer packaged goods brands from the show. That's insane. That's a huge number. It's like Bravo is a startup incubator. Yeah. But instead of dollars, they're fueled by drama. A soft launch or boyfriend on the show, but then you hard launch a new branded product the next day. Bravo gave them the audience. They launched companies. More broadly, the way Jack and I see this, media has become the ultimate startup accelerator. Viewers are built-in customers. Andy Cohen is the new Peter Thiel, and Bravo is the new Y Combinator.

20:34Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for the new Friday? Stocks fell yesterday as the details of the trade truce with China came out. Because this truce reminds us of China's huge leverage. Rare earth metals are their infinity stones. For our second story, Heinz has declared ketchup a breakfast food. Delicious. Let us know in the comments if you agree. Because sometimes demand needs permission. And Heinz just granted permission. And our third and final story is Paige DeSorbo from the summer house. She's quitting reality TV to launch a sleepwear line, Daphne. Because from all we've seen, Bravo is the new Y Combinator.

21:11But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know. First, Tesla has delayed the launch of their robo-taxi service down in Austin to June 22nd. Separately, Elon tweeted yesterday that he regrets some of his posts about Trump saying he went too far. Yeah, he actually deleted that post saying Trump was in the Epstein files. It's gone now. The bro-verse is back together. Seems they've made up. It's kind of like a Friends episode. And second, Starbucks is getting in on the protein trend with a new creamer. Protein creamer. It's a cold, banana-flavored foam apparently mixed with muscle milk.

21:47Yeah, it's on trial at five locations. It adds 15 grams of protein to your latte's 100 ,000 calories. Next up, creatine frappuccino. By the way, Jack and I just added protein to this podcast. So if you have us twice a day, you actually, after you work out, it fits perfectly. And finally, FYI, you cannot use your Costco card to get on an airplane. So many people think you can use a Costco card as an acceptable ID that the TSA had to issue a bulletin. Yeah, here's what they said. We love hot dogs and rotisserie chickens as much as the next person, but please stop telling people their Costco card counts as a real ID because it absolutely does not.

22:24Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Tyler Hale from lovely Midland, Michigan. Early in the week, we did a story on Hot Wheels. And Hot Wheels are die-cast. I got over 500 in my collection, actually, and we did not know what die-casting was. Well, first of all, die-casting, you melt metal until it is lava hot. And then you squirt that liquid metal into a super strong mold shaped, in this case, like a tiny car. That's it. Die-casting. Once you release the metal, it dries or, like, cools in the shape of the form. It's like making a waffle, but with metal instead of batter. Same process that you use in iPhone casings, door handles, even satellites and Mars rovers.

23:03Pretty much, if you want to shape metal into a particular form, you diecast it. Diecast it, baby. Yetis, you look fantastic for the new Friday. And if you're on a darkness retreat right now, even if you can't see us, we're telling you you look fantastic. Even if you can't see yourself, you look fantastic. Well, they can't hear us because darkness retreats are silent. What was that, Chad? Yetis, if you haven't yet, drop down to those five stars in a review. Jack and I love reading everyone. If you do a company retreat to a doctor's retreat, I'm quitting this company. What was that, Jack? And then tell a buddy, HYH-TV-L-Y.

23:37That's how we grow the show, and Jack and I will see you tomorrow.

23:44And before we go, a happy 70th birthday to Paul Lenhart down in Temperance, Michigan. Congratulations, Paul Always round up And happy birthday to Levi Gerard In Framingham, Mass Who sprints around the backyard like Sonic the Hedgehog And George and Lucy Zellifro Have their last day of school over in Chicago Not just doing logistics Getting A's, baby Hey, guys We got a live show in Chicago in July I know school's out for the summer We expect to see you there And to anyone else who's celebrating something today Make it a T-boy Celebrate the win

24:21This is Jack. I own stock of Ford and Netflix. Nick and I both own ETFs of the S &P 500. This intelligence podcast is sponsored by Business Travel on Hotels.com. Does booking business travel feel like another job? Hotels.com makes booking work trips easy and rewarding. It's easy because you can set your preferences once and get results tailored to your business travel needs every time. It's rewarding because with Hotels.com's free rewards program, You can save instantly on your next work trip and earn rewards for future travel. Book faster with confidence at Hotels.com. Loyalty members 18 plus.