🙅 “Cancel Your Internship” — Top-Paid Internships. Momofuku’s Chef-to-Shelf Strategy. Why Stocks hit ATHs.
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This is Nick. This is Jack. Welcome back. It is Monday, June 30th, and today's pod is the best one yet, and this is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Jack, check in the calendar. We got a three-day weekend, four-day workweek situation. Yeah. Friday is the 4th of July. Everybody's off. We're dropping something on the feed. It's a surprise. We are. I know you love a Friday, 4th of July, by the way. I mean, you cook burgers on Friday. You have ice cream on Saturday. Yeah.

You nursed your hangover on Sunday. Wednesday's a new Thursday. Thursday's a new Friday. Friday's still a real Friday. Jack, three stories for today's T-Boy because it's Monday. What do we got on the pod? For our first story, despite trade wars, real wars, credit downgrades, and the Sabrina Carpenter album controversy. Who could forget? Stocks hit an all-time high on Friday. Jack and I will tell you how that is possible and why you shouldn't bet again.

For our second story, Momofuku, the Michelin-starred noodle chain, is expanding big into grocery stores. The new trend is chef to shelf. And our third and final story, it's intern season, and intern pay has never been higher. But Jack, intern roles have never been scarcer. So here's our internship advice. What is it, Jack? Cancel your internship. Cancel your internship. But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories... Ha-tay, coming in three! Ha-ha!

Wonderful mix of stories. Love the mix, Jack. Hey, MJ, are you busy next month? Yeah, Michael Jordan. We're less than four weeks until our live show in Chicago. What you got going on, man? Yeah, people haven't gotten back to our people yet, actually. No, they have not. But on July 23rd at Chicago's Vic Theater, we are on stage for our fourth T-Boy live show. Tickets are on sale right now, and you have never seen a show like this before.

Here's how it's going to go down. Nick and I are going to wear our T-boy finest, and we're going to step on stage and perform our three classic news stories in front of you all. Yeah, so you get to hear them the night before anyone else does. Yeah, you do. And it's a full-on physical performance we're talking about. Totally. I mean, we are standing. We are sweating. We might have accidentally spit on the people in the front row. That's what happens when you whip up the takeaways, Jack. For us, podcasting, it is a physical sport.

So our daily show that you listen to is 20 minutes. Our live show is 90 minutes. It's like a marathon meets Lollapalooza, baby. Because we're also going to share stories about our journey that we've never told before. And bring up a special Pop Biz guest for a 20-minute powwow.

Plus, this time, Nick and I are putting ourselves on the hot seat. All right, Jack, you're talking about the T-Boy earnings report? This is really exciting. Our first annual T-Boy quarterly earnings report. We're going to answer your questions on what the T-Boy biz is up to like a publicly traded company. It's going to be a once quarterly catch up with just you, the audience, and you can ask us anything. So besties, this show, this live show, it is the ultimate expression of what Jack and I have always deeply believed.

Let's hit the three-story jacket.

15 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. 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. Start the show. Start the show. First, a quick word from our sponsor.

Now, quick break, switching topics to one of our favorite sponsors, Vital Proteins. All right, Eddie. So Jack has become an extreme collagen user. This guy's adding Vital Proteins collagen to each morning coffee. And Jack drinks a lot of morning coffee, I should point out. Yeah, I have three cups a day. I have a tub of mocha and a tub of chocolate. Both make my coffee taste chocolatey.

And there's a bunch of protein in each scoop too. So Vital Proteins Collagen Peptides is a supplement that has four benefits all in one helping support healthy hair, skin, nails, bones, and joints. That is how my face got do-ier than a donut. Mix it into your coffee, to your smoothie, or just go straight to your face. By taking Collagen Peptides daily, you can support your hair, skin, nail,

bone, and joint health. Get 20% off by going to vitalproteins.com and entering promo code T-boy at checkout. That's vitalproteins.com, promo code T-boy for 20% off. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Hi, I'm Misha Brown, and I'm the host of Wondery's podcast, The Big Flop. Each episode, comedians join me to chronicle one of the biggest pop culture fails of all time and try to answer the age-old question, who thought this was a good idea? Follow The Big Flop wherever you get your podcasts.

For our first story, the U.S. stock market touched an all-time high on Friday, just 79 days after crashing in April. Trade wars, actual wars, credit downgrades, none of it can stop the U.S. stock market.

Yetis, a happy ATH day, that's all-time high day, to all those who celebrate. Because on Friday, the S&P 500, an index of the top 500 American stocks, set a record, beating the previous record set in February. And now, Jack, pause the calendar for a sec. Can you please bring on some context as to what happened after?

After February? After February, stocks tanked, starting with the trade war that was declared on April 2nd, a.k.a. Liberation Day. We also got a war in Iran on top of the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, which haven't ended yet. And the U.S. credit rating got downgraded.

on the passage in the House of a budget bill that would have ballooned our already huge deficits. But Jack, let's not stop there. The US dollar is now down 10% this year to a three-year low. And interest rates remain as high as they've been in 40 years. So nobody is buying a house right now.

McDonald's canceled its deal with Krispy Kreme. You can't even get a glazed donut at McD's anymore, man. Despite all of that, Yetis, stocks are at a record high. Stocks are up 24% since the April trough. Add it all up and Jack and I call this situation not a stock market,

It's a shrug market. As in, investors are shrugging off all of these huge concerns. So we know what you're thinking. We were wondering it too. Why are investors ignoring all of those headwinds we just mentioned? Nick and I have four explanations for it. Why don't you kick them off, Jack, starting with tacos.

Paco. Trump always chickens out. Basically, the whole trade war is just a bluff. China is really the only place where we have meaningful tariffs right now. And next week, Trump is going to extend the 90-day tariff delay that he gave to the rest of the world. Okay, now here's where the second reason comes in. If there's no trade war, then that clears the path of the Fed to finally cut interest rates. And lower interest rates are like lubrication for the stock market and

and Wall Street is ready for it. Okay, the third reason why stocks are at record highs right now is that the stock market isn't the economy. Basically, half of our stock market is tech companies who are all riding AI hype. So while the economy shrank in Q1, corporate profits actually rose 13% in Q1. The fourth and final potential explanation for stocks being at an all-time high is TINA. TINA.

Tina, as in there is no alternative to U.S. stocks. T-I-N-A, there is no alternative. Even if you think the trade war is bad for the economy, it could be least bad for the U.S. compared to the rest of the world. So besties, why are stocks still at an all-time high? Well, it's some combo of taco, which means the trade war is not real, and interest rate cuts persist.

are coming. Also, the stock market is not the economy and there is no alternative to US stocks. Tina, those are the four reasons, which leads to our takeaway. Jack, what's the takeaway for everybody staring at this shrug stock market? Don't bet against the US stock market. You'll probably be wrong.

Yetis, Jack and I have been watching the markets closely for 15 years. We started our careers in finance at banks. So our millennial perspective is that every time we thought the market was in trouble, it miraculously rebounded. Yeah, like when the Brexit vote happened, what was the result, Jack? Just eight days later, stocks had returned to all-time highs. When the pandemic happened, what happened in the markets, Jack? Four months later, stocks were back to record highs. Just last week, the United States attacked

Iran. And guess what happened after the U.S. entered a new war in the Middle East? Stocks went on a five-day winning streak, and the price of oil fell. The opposite of what you'd think would happen. Yeah, we humans, we tend to over-index on fear. It is a natural reaction. So one reason Nick and I don't try to time the markets

is that stock movements can just defy logic. Like, even if you are right about what you think will happen, you could be wrong about how the stocks react. We know we're supposed to say there's always the risk that stocks fall and don't recover. We know we're supposed to say that. But when we look at history, even the financial crisis, the Great Recession, the worst in our lifetimes, stocks recovered within five years. That's why we're invested for the long term. And long term, don't bet against the U.S. stock market.

For our second story, how did a Michelin-starred fancy restaurant turn into a grocery store brand? Momofuku did it on purpose and just raised another $27 million of venture capital to make it happen.

Now, Jack, second year out of college, you and I got our first sponsorship deal with our Market Snacks newsletter, the predecessor to this show. How exactly did we celebrate? You want to share with the Yetis? We went to Momofuku, an epic restaurant about three blocks away from us in the East Village. Great spot in the East Village. And we ordered the bosam. Oh.

Ah, the bosam. For the uninitiated, that is a $250 eight-pound Korean barbecue hunk of pork shoulder. We feasted on it with all of our roommates, our girlfriends, and my brother, Presley. Momofuku, the restaurant brand run by Michelin-starred chef Dave Chang. This man was a ramen revolutionary and a pork bun icon. We're talking the Jay-Z of umami, the David Bowie,

Of the bimba bowl, baby. Momofuku is a noodle bar that transformed the rest of the industry. It did. Because of Dave Chang, noodles now get the same recognition as pasta. And today, as a result, Dave is a chef-lebrity. Is he not, Jack? He has a best-selling book, two Michelin stars, three Netflix shows, and six restaurants. Also, he sells in 18 different stadiums with his signature spicy chicken sandwich. Did we mention the Momofuku milk bar?

by the way? We did not, but with my sweet tooth, I appreciate it, Jack. Milk Bar, the dessert chain of nine awesome bakeries, it was spun out of Momofuku's restaurant. That's how that cookie began. Yetis, this private company, the revenue is not known, but they last reported a hundred million bucks in sales in 2019. But hold the chili crunch. Please, Jack. Momofuku just raised $27 million to get into the grocery business? We know what you're thinking, besties. Why? It's one of the most expensive

Okay, so he made a bold decision. To keep his restaurant empire alive, he pulled off a pivot in the United States.

Literally. Literally. Because in 2020, Momofuku started bottling all of his famous kitchen sauces. We're talking soy, tamari, chili crunch sauce. They started bottling and selling what they were actually making and using in the kitchen. Not just sauces, actually. They also bagged dry noodles so you could boil the ramen at home. So a few years ago, it was wild, but you'd walk into Wegmans and you could get an entire packaged recipe for Momofuku's most famous dishes. Although I don't think the Bosal, I don't think they like packaged the eight pound pork shoulder. Yet. Yeah.

The whole thing is called Momofuku Goods. It's consumer packaged goods, and it did $68 million of sales last year. With huge growth potential because it's still only in a fraction of grocery stores out there. The way we see it, Dave Chang created a new industry, chef to shelf. Star chefs from the Michelin stars to the Food Network, they're now going into grocery. Because as David talks about in his book, restaurants are not scalable, but products are.

Nick, I once ordered the chilled noodle bowl from Momofuku. I had to cancel the date midday. It was that spicy. I won't get into any further details. From a landlocked state, Jack just can't handle the scallion ginger, baby. Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Momofuku? A good chef knows that you can mix aspiration and access.

Yetis, there is a lie that we tell ourselves about the luxury industry. And that lie is exclusivity. The myth that aspirational brands must also be hard to get. Well, Dave Chang took a risk, but he proved that you can remain high-end, fancy, and aspirational, but still reach a massive number of people with a lower-priced product.

Yeah, like let's compare this to fashion. Hermes famously keeps a wait list for its $10,000 handbags. They are uber exclusive. You can only get them in the stores. But Dave Chang stuck his restaurant logo on a bag of noodles so you can buy them next to the instant ramen shelf at Costco. Now, besties, there was a risk that mass presence would dilute his Michelin-starred brand. But instead, it doubled his business. Because aspiration can actually pair well with accessibility.

Now, a quick word from our sponsor. Every big moment starts with a big dream. But what happens when that big dream turns out to be a big flop?

From Wondery and At Will Media, I'm Misha Brown, and this is The Big Flop. Every week, comedians join me to chronicle the biggest flubs, fails, and blunders of all time, like Quibi. It's kind of like when you give yourself your own nickname and you try to, like, get other people to do it. And the 2019 movie adaptation of...

Like, if I'm watching the dancing and I'm noticing the feet aren't touching the ground, there's something wrong with the movie. Find out what happens when massive hype turns into major fiasco. Enjoy The Big Flop on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Big Flop early and ad-free on Wondery+. Get started with your free trial at wondery.com slash plus.

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and learn how you can too. In these tales, you'll hear about the grit, willpower, and know-how needed to endure shipwrecks, alligator attacks, earthquakes, and more. You'll learn from experts, including top doctors, about what happens to your body and mind in life-threatening situations. Plus, important tips on what to do, and equally important, what not to do when faced with a situation that is truly against the odds.

Go to www.survivalguidebook.com to get your copy of How to Survive Against the Odds today, or visit your favorite bookstore. For our third and final story, internships. They've never had higher pay, and yet they've never been harder to get. So we've got some internship advice to all the high school and college yetis out there. Hit us with a jack. Cancel your internship. Cancel your internship.

All right, Jack, you know what time of year it is. Every bar in Manhattan is filled with boat shoes and coach bags. It's intern season, baby. Can I get six SoCo limes and put it on my Phoebe's tab? I think it's just pronounced Phoebes. That was a test, Jack. And you passed. Best

He's the reason all the interns are opening up unlimited bar tabs these days. What is it, Jack? They're getting paid C-suite level cash. That's right. J.P. Morgan pays $7.2 thousand a month for their interns. Which would be 86 grand for the whole year. Nvidia is paying $8.2 thousand a month. Which would be a $98 thousand salary. Get this. Stripe is dropping $9 thousand a month per intern. That's like a $100 thousand salary.

salary. But pause the pod, because if you're a PhD student off for the summer, then hedge funds will pay you that much per week. Citadel pays future PhDs 25 grand a month to come and crunch numbers and help them make more money for the summer. That's equal to a salary of $300,000 a year. So why are all these finance and tech companies paying so much for interns? Well, we're trying to recruit the top talent as early as possible and make full-time offers to the

best performers. So if you're a top performing intern at a financial company, you could get an offer and a signing bonus before you leave to go back to school. Eat your heart out, NFL draft. These are like round two draft numbers right here, Jack. Like the people at Middlebury who got full-time offers before coming back for senior year. Oh yeah. They spent their final year of school ridiculously loaded without a worry in the world. I mean, just

Stick your feet up and let ChatGPT write your term papers for you at that point. The only thing you need to do is just not get kicked out of school and you're golden. But here is the intern paradox that got Jack and I so curious. Despite intern pay being at an all-time high, the amount of internship opportunities are not. Get this, besties. It is literally 10 times harder to get into Goldman Sachs

than into Harvard University. Goldman has a 0.7% acceptance rate for their intern program. You are more likely to get into all the Ivy League schools than be a Goldman Sachs sales and trading intern. And a key reason for that is that there's simply fewer internship positions than there used to

From the data we've seen, this is the third straight year where the number of job postings with the word intern have fallen. And it's not a coincidence that this is the third summer that AI has been a thing. That's right. We're not just seeing this on Wall Street. We're also seeing it in Silicon Valley too. Tech companies eliminated 14% of all their internships this summer. Artificial intelligence, it's doing entry-level work even if it can't do a coffee run yet. So AI is kind of creating an internship opportunity.

recession. Yeah, Jack, like we've got intern unemployment, if you think about it. So yeah, if you can get a blue chip internship for the summer, it's going to offer higher pay than ever before. But it's going to be harder than ever to actually get that blue chip internship. And as a couple of guys who've done the intern grind. Yep. And have 15 years of wisdom since doing those coffee runs. Did you say dog? Did you say decaf or caramel?

Nick and I have some advice. I think he's a decaf, but I don't want to get fired. Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are everyone pursuing an internship? Cancel your internship.

cancel it. Yetis, the biggest professional regret of Jack's and my careers is doing too many corporate internships. We over-interned ourselves. Starting our final years of high school, we were constantly trying to start and build our resumes. Yeah, we were. Basically, we grabbed the career ladder too early. 15 years later, we can tell you, while some was really helpful, it wasn't all necessary. We were better off doing a

crazy thing or two for a couple of the summers. Because there's a good chance you'll be working at a desk for the rest of your life. True, Jack. So when you're young, take a couple summers and work with your hands. Do something where you work outside. Do something where you interact with people face-to-face on a regular basis. All right, Jack, your most valuable summer experience that you wish you'd done more of, what would it be? I waited tables in Burlington one summer. It was the best summer. I was in great shape. I got

free food. I met a bunch of people. I did construction in New York one summer and it was insane. I met this incredible mix of people and we did some wild stuff, but I learned a lot. Look, it helped our careers that we got good internships. So we understand if you pursue them and congrats if you get them. But if you do something untraditional, that can make for a fantastic story too in your next job interview. What we're also saying is that if you don't get an internship, that could be an amazing opportunity to do something awesome instead. You

that. Besties, what we're saying is that in a world obsessed with getting internships, cancel your internship. Try one summer doing something else. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us to kick off the week? Stocks hit an all-time high on Friday as investors have shrugged off every big risk. It's basically a shrug market. So don't bet against the US stock market because you'll probably be wrong. For our second story, Momofuku, the Asian restaurant chain, raised venture capital money to expand big

into the grocery store. Because a good chef knows you can mix aspiration with access. And our third and final story is internships. Interns. They offer higher pay than ever, but they're harder than ever to get. So our advice, don't grab the corporate ladder earlier than you need to. Cancel your internship.

But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, this week is the deadline for Trump's big, beautiful bill. This is the bill that Elon was real housewife ripping into until he went quiet. The bill's got huge tax cuts, huge border control, and more military spending, along with huge deficits.

The 4th of July isn't a real deadline, but Trump has told his Republicans they can't leave for vacation until they pass the bill. And second, IKEA has a surprising strategy in the face of the trade war. You ready for this? Free stuff.

stuff. IKEA announced half price food for adults and free food for kids at stores on weekdays. Basically all you can eat meatballs, Nike, Walmart, Costco, they're all raising prices because tariffs are still on China. But IKEA sees an advantage in doing the opposite. Yeah, that's right. Oh, and they've also started selling falafel. That's the new thing. I think that's free too. I love falafel. It's like the first vegetarian thing I ever ate. Vegan meat

And finally, last week we covered Nike. They announced earnings and everyone was excited about the Snowfurs. Snowfurs are sneaker loafers. Yeah, that's right. Not snow loafers like I initially thought. But get this, Nike stock jumped 17% because they also announced something else. Jekers. Jekers. Jeans, sneakers. In a collab with Levi's. This sounds like something Jack and I would make up. Jack and I did not make this up. No, we did not. It's just more turducken fashion.

Now, time for the best fact yet, and today, because it's Monday, is T-Boy Trivia. Jack, what do we got for the trivia? What Broadway musical has the most words spoken in the show? Like, if you take the manuscript for a play and do a word count, what musical has the most words? Here's a hint. The winner has nearly three times more words than the average musical. So we want to know what Broadway musical has the most words by far.

Drop your guess in the comments. The answer is coming in tomorrow's show. Because the answer is the next episode of The Best Idea Yet.

Yetis, you'll look fantastic over there. And if you're going to be in Chicago in three and a half weeks, we want to definitely see you looking fantastic in person at our live show. It's going to be an incredible show. Tickets are available on the link in the episode description. Bring your family, bring your coworkers, bring your brother, Timmy. Like our average age listener is probably 30, Jack, but they also bring like kids and grandparents to this thing. First date? Oh, I think it'd be a great event for a first date. Second date, you're definitely getting the third date. Yeah.

We'll leave it at that. The ticket link is in this episode description and Jack and I will see you tomorrow.

And before we go, a happy 10th birthday to Yeti Isaac Lindemann in Springdale, Arkansas, who's playing in the Little League World Series. Wow. Yeah. Williamsport. This is huge. Draft this kid. And Adriana Brea went to Din Tai Fong and counted 18 wrinkles on every single dumpling she ate, Jack. It's confirmed. In other words, she fact-checked our pot.

And congratulations to Devin and Ellie in Baltimore, Maryland, who got engaged. Whoa, their buddy Evan is pumped for you. We are pumped for you. Let's see the ring picks. Congratulations, guys. And a big shout out to Brian Okiki from Dallas, Texas. Brian, we got to come to Texas for a live show someday to give you the live experience. And Cole Thompson got into his Dream Masters program in the Bay Area. Congratulations, Cole. Congrats to Max and Dimitri Slabiak of Bass Monkeys, who just launched a new book.

future bestseller. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Levi. Nick owns stock of Nike. And we both own ETFs for the S&P 500. If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. We want to get to know you.